After that big treasure table post, I've elected to do a sprucing-up of Vulnavia's Anti-Wizard. I found that a lot of the things they referenced weren't reference-able due to seemingly being an IRL invention, and that some parts of the class were confusing at the table (given we were up at like 2 am with a goofy one-shot but shhh), so this post will include references for my version of the other stuff's equivalents as well. Without any further ado...
The Anti-Wizard
You aren't against the existence of wizards. You are one. You're an Anti-Wizard, a being that bends reality to your whim through use of spells. And with any luck, one day, you will be able to make it snap. You are not evil, nor good, only true neutral. You wish to return to the primeval nothingness.
 |
| They've succeeded before. Aspire to be as great as your off-world kin. Original by Golubovy |
Perks
Your spirit seeps outwards in an attempt to combine reality to itself so that one day it may truly be destroyed. Your dreams are real things happening in the ethereal plane/equivalent.
Drawback
You must absorb new sectors of reality into yourself such that it might be added to the list of things to purge each day. This can be as simple as reading about a new subject, hearing a new rumor around town, or even looking at something from a new perspective. If you fail to do so, however, you regain no magic dice for sleeping.
Cantrips
- If you aren't using one of your senses, you can turn it off entirely until desired. Turning off touch is risky, lest you fall dead when you claim to be fine.
- Cosmetic damage can be corrected, imbuing the ruined portion with primeval nothing which corrects its shape autonomously.
- If you ask boldly and loudly, you can learn if you're being watched. Stronger preventative magics can defy this.
Spells
- Mask of Dreams
- Gemstone Edge
- Master's Eye
- World of Thorns
- Twist Rationale
- Devour Sensation
- Grasp Ethereal
- De-scription
- Anchor Soul
- Dollhouse Windows
- Combine to Absolute
- Annihilation’s Pearl
- Obliterated some old and forgotten unique memory. Magic dice only return on a 1-2.
- An accidental deactivation of your senses boggles you. Unable to act for 1d6 rounds.
- The ethereal plane overlaps your person. Save vs Mutation. On a success, mutation only lasts for 24 hours.
- The ethereal plane overlaps your spells. Save vs Spell Mutation. On a success, mutation only occurs for this casting.
- Your eyes perceive the ethereal. Everything is shuffled. Random target for spell, if not self.
- An Authority (see below) arrives to investigate.
Dooms
- The ethereal plane overlaps your existence for a day. Your appearance is subject to the perception of others. 1d6 Authorities will arrive in an equal number of minutes.
- The ethereal plane overlaps your existence for a week. As above, but your physical traits (strength, dexterity, biological abilities) are subject to perception as well.
- The ethereal plane eclipses your existence. You compress into an Annihilation Pearl, as per the spell.
You can survive your doom by anchoring your spiritual form into something that could rebound from being removed from existence.
Spell Descriptions
Mask of Dreams
R 0' / T self / D [sum] minutes
Your face fades away in favor of one you've dreamt up. This cannot change anything you could not imitate with a masquerade mask or good makeup. If you do not end this spell before the duration is up, your new face is permanent until you cast this again. You cannot dream up an identical face multiple times; memory and imitation is imperfect.
Gemstone Edge
R touch or sound / T an edge / D [sum] rounds
By touching upon an edge, you sharpen it to the likes of a razor. If you successfully touch on a metaphorical edge through use of words, this spell applies as well. Those who touch that same edge, willingly or unwillingly, take 1d6 damage. Damage dice size increases with additional [dice] invested, such that 2 deals 1d8, 3 deals 1d10, and so on.
Master's Eye
R touch / T [dice] creatures / D [sum] rounds
Amplify the sensitivity and refinement of a particular physical sense. The degree of amplification depends on the number of dice invested.
1 [dice]: as discerning as a critic, as sensitive as a child. 2 [dice]: as discerning as a wine-taster, as sensitive as a newborn. 3 [dice]: as discerning as a sphinx, as sensitive as an orchid. 4 [dice]: as discerning as an angel, as sensitive as blank canvas.
World of Thorns
R 30' / T creature / D [sum] minutes
A creature you can see must save or be suddenly overcome by a creeping paranoia. Everything is sharp, bristling with pale marble thorns. They’re tucked under the petals of flowers, in the mouths of lovers, everywhere but their own clothes and skin. Every time they touch something, they must save again or take [dice] damage. This damage can’t kill them, and if they survive long enough for the enchantment to wear off, it’s all undone. At 4 [dice], the effect is passed on to listeners when they describe it.
Twist Rationale
R 50' / T up to [dice] creatures / D [dice] nights
Your voice shifts the perspective of up to [dice] creatures of [sum] total HD who hear it. Unless they save against magic, they accept the premises and values of your words (though not necessarily the words themselves). They have +2 morale while acting on their newfound ideals. Whenever their new ideals drive them to a course of action in direct opposition to their old ones, they get another save.
Devour Sensation
R 20' radius centered on caster / T sensation you're feeling / D [sum] nights
Devour a specific sensation you're feeling and store it deep inside your heart. Everyone around you experiencing the same sensation immediately ceases to do so for [dice] hours. You relive the experience of this sensation every night (don't forget your perk). This recollection is like memory- a reconstruction that emerges in context, and might appear rather different depending on the circumstances you create for yourself.
Grasp Ethereal
R 0' / T self / D [dice] hours
You can only cast this spell during or directly after sleep. In [sum] seconds, sketch the shape of a monster, and have a player say the first [dice] words that come to mind when they look at it. Roll for its stats including [dice] HD and ask another player to grant it an ability appropriate to its new name, appearance, and stats. GM has final say on how things work. When you awaken, you’ll find it sitting by your place of rest. It is newborn, taken from its layer of reality into this one. How your party treats it, and what they tell it, will define its sense of reality. It holds onto this layer of reality until the end of the spell duration (even if slain), at which point it fades back into the layer from which it came.
De-scription
R 10' / T creature or object / D [sum] hours
Your hand phases into the target, flooding and warping the perception of such a thing. Neither the base target nor its metaphorical purpose/idea change, but rather the metaphor behind the target gets closer to a separate metaphor. The more [dice] you invest, the stronger this effect can be. 1 [dice] can change quality or style. 2 [dice] makes it a hybrid between the real and ideal version. 3 [dice] makes it an uncanny imitation– something else in disguise. 4 [dice] makes it unrecognizable, the connection so vague nobody could understand it. Unwilling creatures receive a save to resist having their purpose scrambled.
This is rather confusing, so I have made an example.
The target is a troll guarding a bridge. The idea at play is a toll bridge and the toll collector. Targeting the troll and investing one magic die might be able to give the troll the outfit of a bank robber, this being highway robbery. Two magic dice could have the troll learn the proper toll laws and codes for bridges in this area and apply them appropriately. Three may allow for the troll to gain some low level thief abilities, this troll literally being a robber who has elected to collect a toll. Four is where you can make the metaphor into something almost entirely different, the troll being an overworked underpaid minion for a local vampire some weird metaphor for capitalism.
Of course all this doesn't change too much, but it can change the social situation drastically, allowing for new forms of parley, bartering, and the likes.
And then the Troll succeeds its save and murders you instantly cuz you're a wizard in close range.
Anchor Soul
R kiss / T ensouled creature / D [dice] nights
Places a pleasant haze over someone’s soul. This separates the target from the influence of other layers of reality, including afterlives or other planes. The target and other layers cannot observe or interact with one another, and any persistent influence on one by the other is suspended for the duration of the effect. Psychopomps won’t be able to tell when the target dies, and won’t be able to find them if they’re already dead. Dreams won’t find their way into their sleeping mind, etc. Unwilling creatures receive a save to resist.
Dollhouse Windows
R kiss / T creature D [dice] nights
A single specific conviction, obsession, or delusion in your target becomes contagious for the duration. Anyone who they tell about it must save or be affected by it themselves. This is not an immediate effect. Rather, it roots its way into the victim’s subconscious and proliferates there, emerging from the context of their own life and experiences. When the duration expires, the contagion ends, but the delusions remain until the idea is disproven or countered. If the idea cannot be disproven, perhaps this person was bound to believe in it already...
Combine to Absolute
R sight / T everything real / D [dice] rounds
All layers of reality crash into each other like a wave upon a sandcastle. Select a word. Everything real within your line of sight (including yourself) must save or be that thing, in addition to what they are. If that thing directly contradicts what they are, it ceases to exist for the duration. 1d6 Authorities will come to investigate within the hour.
Annihilation’s Pearl
R 0 T self D special
A hair’s breadth from the tip of your nose, the world begins to end. Over the next ten seconds, the apocalypse blooms from that single point, dragging reality in on itself like a rain-soaked evening gown. This annihilates everything within a foot radius, gradually expanding by another 1d6 feet every minute, exploding on a 6, exploding in the reverse direction on a 1, and finding equilibrium on a 3. Once equilibrium has been found, the unmade zone becomes incredibly sensitive to imagination and perception, and a new reality flourishes from the dreams of those nearby. All other players draw what replaces the space left behind in [dice] minutes, which is then interpreted by the GM. The Authorities will be there within rounds.
The Authorities
This term is actually just a reference to whatever governs or investigates your setting's space-time continuum and its disruptions. Angels of a god? Federal bureau of anomaly investigation? That's up to you to have it fit. If nothing else, an ethereal being which doesn't like you messing up its turf. I highly recommend you put some thought into what the appropriate repercussions of this is in your game (note how the authorities aren't necessarily immediately hostile), but if you're just throwing more monsters in give them like 8HD and immunity to Anti-Wizard spells.
Closing Thoughts
This was really fun to do! That said, a lot of it was taken straight from the original Anti-Wizard post, with some personal tweaks. This class can get up to all sorts of wacky shenanigans if you're not too scared of its consequences. In the game I tested the OG class in, my character edited the language barrier such that all languages were dubbed over badly in common like a shoddy translation job, created an antlion-esc creature named occipital bone cribiform (thanks doc) who had the special ability CURSE OF THE NILE, and got reduced to dust by that same creature in the end when he tried to abandon it.
I hope you'll be removed from reality all the same. Have fun!
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