Scholar (GLOG Class, Arise Ye Wretched)

 Wandering investigator and instigator of the Black Coil, the great helical library that penetrates Heaven and Hex, tasked with the quixotic task of making the universe comprehensible. Your order possesses great esteem and influence in the downbelow regions of the Hex. 

Source: Kyoung Hwan Kim

 

Scholar 

Gains rage as a Barbarian. You gain +1 Language at every level, +1 Hit on odd levels, and +1 Save on even levels.

Skills: Analytic Philosophy and 1) Socioalchemy, 2) Numerology, 3) Applied Gematria, 4) Ergology, 5) Alienism, 6) Kismetics 

Starting Equipment: Tweed greatcoat, embroidered thobe, skullcap, light stiletto, canned coffee, 3 doses of methylphenidate, granite cylinder-seal of office 

A: Analysis, Great Purpose

B: Refutation, Tireless Obsessive

C: Synthesis or Antithesis, +2 MD

D: Prima Vedex 

 

A: Analysis

In addition to the normal functions, you can spend 1 point of rage at any time to:

• Take 20 on an intelligence-related check. 
• Speed-read a book in 10 minutes—you will instantly obtain a broad synopsis and answers to specific queries, and will fully absorb the contents in your sleep.
• Determine [Templates] values in a creature's statline.
• Scan an enemy or object for weak points—your critical range against them increases by 2. 
• Gain access to a full description of any spell, martial technique, class ability, or other special move used in your presence. You gain +4 to Saves against it. 

You can photographically recall anything that occurred under your Analysis. Anything that would be considered common knowledge, anywhere, is known to you. You have a [Templates]-in-6 chance minimum of understanding a reference, no matter how obscure.

A: Great Purpose 

The order of the Scholars has but one mandate: the elimination of incoherence. This is the central axis around which all else rotates. 

Incoherence is, simply put, the phenomenon of things not working as they're supposed to; a failure of past theory to account for the present conditions, or the universe's failure to make itself appropriately orderly. Either way, you have been taught since you first entered the academy to scorn and despise it. 

Whenever you encounter an incoherent phenomenon, you gain 1 point of rage. If you are at full rage, you must Save to leave a source of incoherence behind without fully studying and eliminating it.

The nature of your mission is widely known. Scholars occupy a social role somewhere between paid consultants, itinerant judges, and wandering exorcists. They are often the de-facto first line of defense against witches and monsters in underdeveloped regions. You will be offered hospitality in most "civilized" places, people will trip over themselves to give you free fry-bread and chimaek, rectors of local school parishes will try to get you to speak on the dangers of the occult at awkward assemblies for their charges. Often you will be called on to arbitrate disputes, and your judgements will usually be taken seriously. You will probably get roped into a lot of impromptu detective work. 

 

B: Refutation

Once you have Analyzed an instance of incoherence, spend 1 point of rage to refute it. Spells will cease to function, impossible martial techniques will remain impossible, and so forth. If the incoherence originated from a source that's capable of making Saves, then it does so—a success means the effect is only naturalized, and will revert to its normal state in 1d[Templates] minutes, whereas a failure means the effect is permanently dispelled.

B: Tireless Obsessive

While you have at least 1 point of rage you are immune to the negative effects of stimulants. If you would crash on stimulants, you can instead enter a rage, allowing yourself to continue working on a project but rendering yourself unable to think, work on, or converse about anything but your current obsession.

Sidebar: Stimulants work as follows: a dose of stimulants substitutes for N hours of sleep (coffee 1, pepsis-leaf extract 2, meth 4, so on so forth) and gives a +N to Initiative, but requires you to Save or take a cumulative -N to INT and WIS. If you hit 0 in either score you enter stimulant psychosis. At the end of every dose's effective period, count up your total sleep debt (number of hours you've gone without sleep on stims) and roll 1d20—if you roll equal to or under your sleep debt, you immediately crash, knocking out on the spot.

On the flipside, you are capable of sleeping anywhere, in any position, standing, sitting, kneeling, upside down, you name it. Anything short of a shotgun blast won't wake you or interrupt your sleep if you don't wish it to. 

 

C: Synthesis

You gain the ability to cast as a Magician and a Crown of 20m. Roll or choose two of the following Words:

1. Concrete
2. Ink
3. Vine
4. Insect
5. Ceramic
6. Number

 Your Implements are:

1. Quill - Strike an agreement to be enforced by the power of [Word], or encode a secret message within [Word]. 
2. Lantern - Cause hidden [Word] to reveal itself.

C: Antithesis 

You gain an Anticrown of 20m, which negates the Crowns of other spellcasters and makes magical workings impossible without your permission. You can spend your own MD to abjure spells, reducing [Sum] by the [Sum] you rolled and causing it to backfire on a negative result.

 

D: Prima Vedex

Prima Vedex is a title of honor, the mark of a scholar who has mastered the inquiring arts to the highest possible degree.

Whenever you Analyze a person, or a work of art or text created by a sentience, you can spend 1 point of rage to create a perfect mental construct of them. You are able to converse with the construct at-will. It knows everything that could be extrapolated from the original text by a Sherlock Holmes-type mind; you could trick a construct into revealing that the passcode for their private safe is a loved one's birthday, but if they arrived on it via a random number generator you're out of luck. 

If you ever have more constructs than you have points of rage, you take a penalty to all d20 rolls equal to the difference as the mental cacophony breaks your focus. You can kill your constructs at will to make space—they will generally try to convince you not to do this.