Lone Knight

And here, for ease of grabbing, is the non-psionic parts of Lindwyrm Liberty over on the Lindwyrm Itch page--

( more kiths, more classes, more equipment kits, more shinies ~ )

Lindwyrm Liberty: more additions and fancies by E. A. Bisson is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Sometimes dungeons get … weird.

Different.

Adventurers hie themselves down twisting stairs, or follow a winding passage, or wrench open a door to a pillared chamber, and find themselves in ( a very different place. )

Way about the beginning of the year when WotC was up to their bullshit, the Merry Mushmen released CRACK!, which is a fun little ruleset that can be fairly readily adapted back and forward to other similar basic-type games. And I was quite taken by it, and posted some jobs here on the blog, and hatched a plan to rewrite/adapt the Blue Lotus Hack to it for funsies —

And then the year kicked my arse. Again.

Although I do have a decent chunk of work done on Blue Lotus! I need to convert the critters and magic items, though. And the critters are going to taaaaaake tiiiiiime and also energy and I have been lacking therein *le sigh*


Somewhere along the way (by which I mean around early June) I wrote up a different other little pile of jobs and then — didn’t do anything with them, because the brain weasels ate me alive, because I didn’t have the Lotus adaptation done, but these jobs might work better with the tiny tweaks and decisions I made with the rules as applied to Lotus, but these aren’t for Lotus (technically; sure, go ahead and toss them in, lol), but. But but but.

I hate my brain weasel infestation. -_-


So, here’s another half-dozen-and-change jobs for CRACK! — and, the gods be willing, I’ll get back to Blue Lotus at some point and finish things out. These can also be applied to B/X style classes, or expanded out, without too much fuss and bother I’d imagine


Paladin
Literally or metaphorically, the light has called on you to be a beacon and a shelter for all those in need, and on your honour you will do all that you can.
Health Peak: d8
Get Better: 125 xp
Save: 12, -2 at rank 4, 7, 10 etc
– Soothing Touch: You may heal others with a touch, 2 points of HP healed per rank every day. You may expend all your available healing to cure a disease or poison.
– Bulwark: Designate a subject; each turn, you may take on an attack or treacherous spellcasting intended for one of your allies, suffering it in their stead.
– Shining Sword: Your weapon may always harm creatures of corruption, unlife and darkness.
– Add your rank to tests for defusing social situations, identifying foul works, and resisting disease or mental control.


Scourge
You have reached deep into your heart — or someone did it for you — and in your pain and bleak revelation you have tapped into the darkness that gnaws like a worm in a rosebud. Like that worm, it eats you, but that doesn’t matter.
Health Peak: d8
Get Better: 125 xp
Save: 12, -2 at rank 4, 7, 10, etc
– Crawling Darkness: You can wreath your attacks in clinging black miasma; you have 4 HP/rank of extra damage you can tap into each day. Or you can devour your own HP for extra damage at any time. Yes, this can kill you.
– Despair: You can force a target to make a Motivation check, a number of times a day equal to 1 + your rank.
– Soaked In Blood: When you drop a foe, you have a 2-in-6 chance to regain 1d6 HP. – Add your rank to tests involving enduring pain, tracking a target you wounded or otherwise marked, or identifying creatures of darkness or corruption.


Vampire Hunter
Other creatures may be dangerous — and sure, you’ll deal with that if necessary — but whether by bloodline, creed or personal vendetta it is the vampires that you’ve sworn to cleanse from the earth.
Health Peak: d6
Get Better: 80 xp
Save: 10, -2 at rank 5, 8, 11, etc
– Add your rank to tests involving vampiric lore, identifying the works or activities of vampires and their servants, stealthy maneuvers, and resisting mental or emotional control.
– Add your rank to attack rolls and damage when fighting vampires or vampiric minions.
– You may roll to break malignant magic or control (or transformation, etc) a number of times a day equal to your rank.


Sage
A font of knowledge, you are; and you are endlessly eager to expand that knowledge and put it to highly effective use.
Health Peak: d4
Get Better: 80 xp
Save: 12, -2 at rank 3, 6, 9, etc
– Choose a subject, which may be relatively broad (botany), painfully esoteric (the biomagical generation and function of breath weapons), or anything in between. Add your rank+1 to any tests involving that subject. Add another subject every third rank.
– You can add your rank to research attempts and similar scholarly pursuits.
– Choose spells or miracles; at rank 3, you gain one slot, and additional slots every second rank after that.
– You cannot wear armour above leather or use a shield.


Courtier/Socialite/”Face”
You duel with words and favours, and the tides of society and its whims are your battleground and your garden of plenty.
Health Peak: d6
Get Better: 60 xp
Save: 14, -2 at rank 4, 7, 10, etc
– You have a decent chance (2-in-6) of correctly identifying the general temperament and important issues circulating through a social gathering within minutes of your arrival.
– Add your rank to social engineering attempts such as circulating (or manufacturing) gossip, making an impression, undertaking negotiations or diplomacy, etc.
– You begin play with an aide, understudy or similar hireling who may become more personally loyal with time and good treatment. Motivation checks for loyalty towards you received a +2 bonus, +1 every three ranks.
– Once a day per rank, you may discern what a subject truly desires.
– Once a day per rank, you may stir your allies’ morale, granting +2 to their next actions.
– You cannot wear armour above leather or use a shield.


Shifter
Two legs bad, four legs good. Or wings are good. Or fins, even. Whatever the form of your birth, you can take the shape of some other beast, be it through legacy, curse, or hard-learned gift.
Health Peak: d6
Get Better: 65 xp
Save: 13, -2 at rank 4, 7, 10, etc
– You may change your shape, at will, to that of a specific type of creature, gaining its stats (except for Health Peak; you keep your own HP score). In your beast shape, your attacks count as enchanted. You cannot speak in this shape unless it may mimic speech (like a parrot or crow), and all of your gear disappears when you change shape until you revert back, except for 1 item per rank which you specify as adapting to your form.
– Choose a substance (silver, rowan-wood, holy water …). You take double damage from attacks made from this substance, 1d6 if its not a weapon. Contact with your bane substance is painful and you take a -4 penalty to tests while exposed to it.
– Add your rank to attempts to emulate your beast shape (literally or symbolically), track or avoid leaving a trail; you have a 2-in-6 chance to sense hidden doors or other strange features.

01. wolf
02. raven
03. deer
04. dog
05. cat
06. falcon
07. viper
08. lynx
09. leopard
10. swan
11. gator
12. fox


Blooded
You bathed in, or at least were doused in, a dragon’s blood – more than that, you drank it down; willingly or no, deliberate or no. Now you find yourself becoming something different.
Health Peak: d8
Get Better: 150 xp
Save: 10, -2 at rank 4, 7, 10, etc
– Increase the amount of field healing you can gain by one die type. You additionally will regenerate one HP daily regardless of your activity, so long as you haven’t been killed outright.
– Add your rank to damage rolls with melee weapons or your unarmed attacks.
– Once a day per rank you can call on dragon’s fury, adding +2 to tests for (rank) turns — but you must Save, or go berserk, attacking indiscriminately for rank x 2 turns.
– You are affected by all magics, enchanted items, banes, etc that target dragonkind.

Some seek power through acts of physical strength, some through erudition. Some petition so-called higher powers instead, seeking to channel that power through themselves.

You have chosen another way, a far more pointed way. You have been inducted into — or have woven together for yourself, from bits of lore and subtle hints from prodigies and other, odder things — a path to cultivating your own, inner power, one that is of you and only you.

Along that path you will clash with beasts, spirits, monsters, and fellow cultivators jealous of your power, following a rival philosophy, or simply seeking to thwart you personally.

But if you reach the end of that path?

Immortality.


Cultivator

Prime Requisites: WIS and CHA
Attack: as Cleric
Saves: as Magic-User
Hit Dice: 1d4
Armour Allowed: None
Weapons Allowed: Staff, dagger, and one chosen weapon or object to use as weapon
Languages: Common, Alignment

* Spiritual Weapon: Choose a specific type of weapon (shortsword, spear, dagger, etc). By bonding with a specific example of that weapon, you may treat it as a +1 magical weapon with 1d6 base damage; this bonus increases by +1 at 5th and 10th level. You may select a non-weapon object; in your hands, it now causes 1d6 damage.

At 3rd level, you may use your spiritual weapon to cast a bolt of damaging energy. This bolt has a range of 50′ and does 1d4 damage, increasing to 2d4 at 7th level.

Losing your spiritual weapon requires hunting out a replacement and spending one day and 100gp/level x2 to bond to the new weapon.

There are known tales of cultivators enchanting their spiritual weapons to great effect.


* Sect: All cultivators belong to a sect, whether formally — trained as a member of the sect — or informally, having absorbed the lessons of cultivation from a manual or pieced their path together independently via snips of wisdom and lore. This sect determines an ideal to follow, a ban or taboo, and often a theme or type of thematics for its particular stripe of cultivation philosophy.

Much like knightly orders, cultivation sects can become elaborate and byzantine in their codes, rules and symbols — and clash with rival sects at the drop of a pin, especially over resources and promising new students.


* Spirit Sense: A cultivator has a 2-in-6 chance to sense the presence of a spirit, ghost, otherworldly entity, or similar unearthly being within 40′. This chance increases as the cultivator progresses in level: 3-in-6 at 4th level, 4-in-6 at 8th level, and 5-in-6 at 12th level. From 2nd level, they have a 2-in-6 chance to recognize enchantments, specific otherworldly entities and subjects pertaining to their sect’s specialties.


* Turn Undead: As the Cleric, including the possibility of commanding undead (a specialty of some sects, even). In addition to undead, a cultivator’s sect teaches how to affect a second category of entities, such as fae, nature spirits, heavenly or demonic entities, or magical constructs. This second category must be chosen at character creation.

At discretion, with a suitably prepared location or object at hand, a result of destruction can instead be a sealing away of the turned creature.


* Purity of Body: A cultivator sheds more and more mortal weakness as they gain in the refinement of their inner energies (aka rise in level); these changes progress as follows:

1st Level: +1 AC bonus, +2 to saves vs poison and disease
3rd Level: +2 AC bonus, +4 to saves vs poison and disease
5th Level: +3 AC bonus, immune to mundane disease, +4 saves vs poison and magical disease, age at half rate
8th Level: +4 AC bonus, immune to mundane disease, half-effect from poison, +4 saves vs magical poison and disease, age at quarter-rate
12th Level: +6 AC bonus, immune to mundane disease and poison, +6 saves vs magical disease and poison
14th Level: +8 AC bonus, immune to all but the most potent supernatural afflictions, Unaging Immortality


* Magic Item Creation: At 1st level a cultivator may enchant spell scrolls and potions, as per the standard enchanting rules. At 4th level they may enchant protection scrolls. At 8th level, a cultivator may enchant all forms of magic items.


* Flying Sword: Beginning at 6th level, a cultivator may step onto their spiritual weapon and ride it into the skies, flying at a rate of FL 24 (eagle or equivalent). This flight lasts two hours/level. At 8th level, they may bring one passenger along. At 13th level their range doubles and their speed triples.


* Spellcasting: A cultivator has a certain number of spell slots per day with which to cast magic. Spells are memorized from the spell levels accessible (as per cleric spell memorization), selecting daily spells from all those available on the cultivator spell list which are a level which the character can cast. A cultivator may cast a reversed spell without penalty.

Many sects also possess unique, “secret” spells. A character must be taught this spell or otherwise awarded access to it (perhaps on a scroll); these spells are not automatically added to the cultivator spell list.

– Assimilation: A cultivator has a chance of learning a spell not normally on their spell list, treating it as if it was always available. By studying a spellbook or scroll or holy text, there is a 1-in-6 chance of so assimilating the knowledge of the spell. The source is destroyed regardless of success or failure.


* Magic Item Use: A cultivator may freely make use of magic items, save for enchanted armour. This includes spell scrolls intended for other classes.


* Foundation: At 10th level, a cultivator may found a school, attracting 2d6 1st level cultivators. Or, the character may strike out on their own and found their own sect as well, attracting 1d4 would-be student cultivators and 1d8 fighters or thieves — needed extra muscle as rivals will appear and their home sect may be displeased. There is a 50% chance, in either case, of also attracting 1d3 “unusual” petitioners, actually concealed spirits or demons or the like.


A Few Thumbnail Sect Ideas

Forest In Winter
“Be at peace. Be still and measured. Conserve yourself for the moment that you, or others, require your strength.”
– turn elementals
– ban: inciting violence or thoughtless action; flame magic

Whispers
“There is nothing without knowledge. Hoard it like the perfect pearl it is.”
– choose one turning or command category
– ban: destroying texts or allowing them to be destroyed; passing up a chance to educate — or learn a secret

Black Wind
“Do not suffer your enemies to live. Keep them close in death.”
– command undead
– ban: allowing a deliberate slight to go unchallenged

Golden Chain
“Be vigilant, because so few others seem capable of doing so.”
– turn demonic entities
– ban: tolerating undead or demonic forces; excessive wealth or indulgence

	XP Progression		Spell Slots
1st	0	1
2nd	2500	2
3rd	5000	2
4th	10,000	2	1
5th	20,000	3	2
6th	41,000	3	3
7th	82,000	3	3
8th	182,000	3	3
9th	282,000	3	3
10th	382,000	3	3	1
11th	482,000	3	3	2
12th	582,000	3	3	2	1
13th	682,000	4	4	3	2
14th	782,000	4	4	3	2

	First Level Spells	Second Level Spells	Third Level Spells	Fourth Level Spells
01.	Detect Magic	Purify Food And Water	Silence 15′ Radius	Remove Curse/Curse
02.	Protection From Evil	False Aura	Invisibility	Confusion
03.	Light (Darkness)	Know Alignment	Protection From Evil 15′ Radius	Temperature Control
04.	Read Magic	Produce Flame	Suggestion	Hallucinatory Terrain
05.	Shield	Levitate	Clairvoyance	Wizard Eye
06.	Detect Danger	Blindness/Deafness	Dispel Magic	Fear
07.	Spook	Hold Person
08.	Hypnotism	Cure Light Wounds

Some Thoughts


This is kind of …

Dramatically lower-powered than in cultivation fantasy/xianxia fantasy? Damn right it is, those fuckers can practically explode planets by the end of the road in some of those novels. I wanted something that had as many of the highlights and nifty powers I like in those stories, but could also work in a B/X-Basic D&D game.


Not a lot of offensive magic capabilities, though?

Let’s be real here, in the fantasy stories cultivators come from, they’re the stars of the show and they do everything; if I piled a bunch of attack spells and the like in here, they’d beat the magic-user at its own game if not beat the pants off the class in the process. (Basic D&D, remember!)

And there’s a lot of stuff to squeeze in here, which is why I (regretfully) also left off a specific warding-type class feature. (I may change my mind on that at some point.)

That said, if you want to add spells to the class list, there’s space? Or make combat spells various sect secrets!


Actually, Let’s Talk About Sects

If we legit talked about sects my fingers would fall off typing; more importantly, those are a lot more setting-specific even in the source novels (are your sects initiatory, like in the I Shall Seal The Heavens series of novels, or are they also extended families like in Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, or …).

Honestly, they’re left as wide open as they are for a reason. Make them as simple or as baroque rules- and roleplay-wise as you want.

You could even borrow some of the many tables of esoteric weirdos under my “factions” tag and change them around to suit, lol.


Did you have to mix in druid and illusionist spells?

I wanted to.

If that really sticks in your craw, or you don’t have any version of those you can crib from, here’s some alternate lists:

	First Level Spells	Second Level Spells	Third Level Spells	Fourth Level Spells
01.	Detect Magic	Purify Food And Water	Silence 15′ Radius	Remove Curse/Curse
02.	Protection From Evil	ESP	Invisibility	Confusion
03.	Light (Darkness)	Know Alignment	Protection From Evil 15′ Radius	Continual Light
04.	Read Magic	Bless (Blight)	Protection From Normal Missiles	Hallucinatory Terrain
05.	Shield	Levitate	Clairvoyance	Wizard Eye
06.	Detect Danger	Blindness/Deafness	Dispel Magic	Locate Object
07.	Hold Portal	Hold Person
08.	Remove Fear (Cause Fear)	Cure Light Wounds

It took some doing, preparing yourself for your next metamorphosis, not so physically dramatic as you previous change perhaps but one yet ripe with meaning. Striding gracefully, you wield sword and secrets in the service of all, even those put off by your translucently dappled skin and bulbous golden eyes.

And if they doubt your heart, well, it’s there for all to see.

Possessions

* vine-and-glass sword
* pearly tea set
* letters of vows and secrets
* pistolet
* fancy ever-wet satin blouse (treat as light armour)

Advanced Skills

* 3 Acrobatics
* 1 Sword Fighting
* 2 Climb
* 2 Etiquette
* 2 Spell – Life Line
* 1 Spell – random