Thursday, December 14, 2023

I HAVE LASER BEAMS COMING OUT OF MY HEAD - (GLOG Psychic Paths)

The common man has infinite options available to them, and like the diffuse rays of the sun their will presses itself only lightly upon the World. The true master prunes his will, aligns and collimates it, as a lens focuses light into a narrow point - and the World burns beneath it.

These being possible advancement paths for Locheil's psychic. Go read it first or little of this will make much sense.

MY FOCUS IS EXCHANGE

A: My Paradigm is... I will never go back on my word.
From it I gain the Power... Dis For Dat
I can trade anything for anything. The exchange doesn't have to be balanced, because value is subjective, but everyone involved has to agree it's worth their while. A rich man could buy a year of a bum's lifespan for a million bucks. A soldier could sell his marksmanship skills in exchange for a would-be terrorist's previously peaceful life. More prosaically, people within my Crown can swap places with eachother freely.

B: My Paradigm is...  I will never steal.
From it I gain the Power...  Here For There
I can trade the places of anything inanimate or consenting within my Crown, including myself. If I exchange the places of things that are of radically different mass they both create sonic booms, which can stun and deafen anybody nearby - including myself.

C: My Paradigm is...  I will never work for free.
From it I gain the Power...  Fuck You, Pay Me
Anyone who wishes to attack me or force me to do something I do not wish to must pay me for the privilege. The minimum payment is one gold piece, but each seperate act requires an individual payment - if the gnoll who wants to gut me throws a platium piece they get one attack, not ten. Payment can be in goods as well as legal tender, but the one-for-one rule still applies.

D: My Paradigm is...  I will never accept charity.
From it I gain the Power...  Equivalent Exchange
I can transform objects I own into other things. If exchanging goods for goods, some bastard cosmic exchequer taxes the transaction, meaning I can only transform it into something of half its market value or less. If exchanging legal tender (including gold and gems) for goods though, the transformation occurs at the market price. I can also combine the value of things with identical characteristics, like merging two 50' ropes into one 100' rope or a pile of small diamonds into one big diamond with the combined value of them all (this particular ability makes me incredibly popular with wizards). All coins are considered to have 'identical characteristics' for this purpose, so that giant mound of copper coins I found at the bottom of the last dungeon can be quite easily squidged down into a more manageable pocketful of platinum.


MY FOCUS IS ORDER

A: My Paradigm is... I will never enter a home unwelcomed.
From it I gain the Power... Inviolable Domain
I can exclude a broad or narrow category of things from the area of my Crown, one at a time. They simply cease to exist within it. Whatever I choose applies to me as well, but I can game it through specificity - if I choose projectiles then any bullets in my gun will dissappear, but if I narrow it down to bullets and use a crossbow, I'm good. The excluded things go back to existing once they leave the area of my Crown or I change it to exclude something else.

B: My Paradigm is...  I will never vandalise a work of art.
From it I gain the Power...  Crystalise
I can convert dead or inorganic matter within my Crown into a changeless crystalline form that is immune to the passage of time and back again. Living organic matter can be encapsulated within it but not converted. Beings that have been so encysted (they should probably get a Save to avoid it) remain alive, not aging and requiring no nourishment nor air and could be chipped out but outside my Crown crystalised material returns to its normal state in about 10 minutes in any case. Crystalised air has equivalent physical resilience to ice, but feels warm like polystyrene to the touch. Anything I Crystalise is vulnerable to a Shatter spell.

C: My Paradigm is...  I will never break a written contract.
From it I gain the Power... Indivisible
No part of my body can be separated from the whole, nor can my effects be removed from me against my will. I can still be poked full of holes and have my organs lacerated and bones broken, but I will never die of blood loss or being beheaded. Likewise I cannot be disarmed or pickpocketed, any attempt to do so finds the item held as firm as an immovable rod.

D: My Paradigm is...  I will never damage a work of artifice.
From it I gain the Power...  Pyramid Power
Things that spend time within my Crown subtly get better over time, slowly moving toward their ideal form. Entropy itself flees before my Crown; rust returns to healthy iron, cracks meld together, dirt sloughs like water from waxpaper, dull blades become sharp. The effect extends to living things; diseases halt in their progression and in time reverse their course, wounds never fester and heal at thrice the normal pace and never leave scars, people even age backwards or forwards at an accelerated pace until they reach the age where they are at their physical peak, though it is rare for someone other than myself to be within my Crown long enough to see such an impact. Given enough time, objects and even people might even become better than they were at their best; blades cut atomic-thin, silk ropes become as tough as carbon fibre, skin and muscle as clean and defined as marble statuary.


MY FOCUS IS IDOLATRY

A: My Paradigm is...  I will never take up arms.
From it I gain the Power... Stone Shadow
I can transform my body into a statue carved from solid stone of my choice. I can then step outside of the statue, leaving it behind - it is real and permanent, even if it leaves my Crown. If I grapple someone and leave them trapped in a stony headlock they're probably not getting out without help or a hammer and chisel. Given enough time I can create relatively stable walls or other structures out of interlocking statues of myself, mortared together with naught but handholds and embraces.

B: My Paradigm is...  I will never refuse an offering of food, drink or incense.
From it I gain the Power...  White Jade Shintai
By my will, as many statues created through Stone Shadow as I have levels can be declared Idols. Each Idol has its own Crown, I can see and hear through all my Idols and count as standing in their place for purposes of Telekinesis, Telepathy and Manifestation. At will I can dissappear from where I stand to step out of them. When I do so I cannot leave the area of the Idol's Crown, but I really have moved places and can take back anything I find there with me when I return. If I wish to declare a new Idol once I have reached my limit, one of my previously created Idols of my choosing crumbles to dust.

C: My Paradigm is...  I will never mistreat social outcasts or show unearned respect to the mighty.
From it I gain the Power...  Army of God
I can animate the statues created through Stone Shadow and control them as if they were my own body while they are within my Crown. All the animated statues are as subject to my Paradigms as I am, and so may not bear weapons, but their fists are still made of stone.

D: My Paradigm is...  I will never desecrate a sacred place.
From it I gain the Power...  Smoke of Sacrifice
I gain power from people who worship at my Idols. Any item left within my Idol's Crown as a sacrifice transforms into smoke and is inhaled by the Idol. I can summon to hand anything they sacrifice, and gain one point I can apply to any number on my character sheet for every magnitude of worshippers I have (10, 100, 1000, etc.). Finally, if someone prays before my Idol for a blessing I can bestow them a Power that fulfils their wish, along with a Paradigm of my choosing - as many such blessings as I have Templates can exist at any one time.

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