The Quintessential Chaos Mage
The Quintessential Chaos Mage front cover
| Author | Patrick Younts |
| Series | Quintessential Series |
| Publisher | Mongoose Publishing |
| Publish date | 2003 |
| Pages | 128 |
| ISBN | 1-904577-54-7 |
| OGL Section 15 | qcmg |
Note: Material in this section may be "mature" in nature.
The material below is designated as Open Game Content
The Sculptor
Chaos is the ultimate expression of change; it is transformative and transcendent, with the power to fundamentally alter the nature of living and nonliving matter. At a whim, chaos can cause reality to flow like liquid, it can transform air to stone and back again, it can give the blind sight, or cause sunlight to drip from the sky like rain.
The sculptor is a chaos mage with the skill and understanding to control this, the most potentially powerful of chaos’ myriad attributes. His abilities allow him to change the shape of living beings and to alter the molecular structure of living and nonliving matter alike.
Roleplaying: Sculptors see the world with an artist’s eye and they are kindred spirits to makers. The typical sculptor believes wholeheartedly in every mortal’s ability to transcend the limits of the form they are born with, to change, to evolve. Many take it upon themselves to guide their fellows upon this path to evolution; good-hearted sculptors act as teachers, the more morally dubious as surgeons and literal sculptors of flesh.
Since they can so easily change the nature of reality, sculptors rarely put faith in the immutability of anything. They are adaptive and easy going, able to anticipate change, compensate for it and direct it to serve their ends. As a result, they are rarely surprised by anything and may indeed be rather blasé about life.
Why Play a Sculptor?: Sculptors are excellent characters for players who prefer the image of spellcasters as alchemists, as their powers allow them to accomplish many of the miracles historical alchemists were famed for. They are also excellent choices for those players who want to turn their enemies into toads, or bits of brick, or into sunlight and songbirds, for that matter.
Like the maker, the sculptor is also a great class for those who think unconventionally. Since it is difficult for them to rely on Direct Damage effects to escape trouble, they must be prepared and able to think outside the box.
Adventuring: Sculptors rarely, if ever, adventure for wealth. Though the transformative effect of their spells only lasts a few hours at most, they still have no problem creating what wealth they need. Since
they do not pursue wealth for its own sake, they will rarely ally themselves with mercenary bands, or with
typically greedy adventurers.
Most sculptors adventure in pursuit of a higher ideal, usually the idea of self-perfection. Since challenge and combat is the best way to push the limits of a mage’s capabilities, that is what they seek out. Other, more civically-minded sculptors seek out and challenge those who would force stagnation on others, since they see the inability to change, to evolve, as the worst hell imaginable. These sculptors are usually good aligned, though they need not be, as evil sculptors are equally offended by stagnation. In the party, the sculptor will most often take the supporting role, altering his allies forms to better allow them to take advantage of local terrain, or protect them from local environments. Alternately, he might choose a more proactive course, turning enemy weapons into butter or transforming opponents into harmless statuary.
Benefits: The sculptor has a knack for using chaos magic to alter the fundamental structure of both objects and living beings. He gains useful bonuses when casting spells which include Transformation effects, as listed below.
First, sculptors gain a +2 bonus to all final casting DC checks when casting spells which are solely Transformation-based effects, or which have Transformation as their primary effect (see the Chaos Sorcery chapter for full details).
Second, should a sculptor fail a final casting DC check when attempting to cast a spell which is solely a Transformation-based effect, or which has Transformation as its primary effect, he suffers nonlethal, rather than lethal damage. The exception to this is when a ‘1’ is rolled, in which case backlash and lethal damage occur normally.
Penalties: The sculptor’s magic is intended to change, to sculpt and to recreate, not to destroy. Due to this, the sculptor finds it difficult to cast spells which include Direct Damage effects. He is not prevented from using them, he simply finds it more difficult and taxing to do so.
A chaos mage sculptor suffers a -2 penalty to all final casting DC checks when casting a spell which is solely a Direct Damage-based effect, or which has Direct Damage as its primary effect. Further, they suffer lethal, rather than nonlethal, damage when casting Direct Damage effects, even with a successful caster check.
In the case of spells which combine Transformation and Direct Damage effects, the bonuses and penalties to caster checks cancel one another, meaning the sculptor makes caster checks with no bonus and no penalty. Damage is applied normally, namely nonlethal for successful caster checks and lethal for failures.
