User:Paleomancer/Cosmythos

Cosmythos

Pulling together my disparate ideas for a proper, complete setting, before I publish the infernal thing XD!

Mechanics

Abilities

As this is intended to be a cosmic horror lite setting, mortal characters will not necessarily be the unstoppable juggernauts of conventional D&D, although not hopefully as squishy as in full cosmic horror. Mortal characters will use the elite ability array (which never seemed all that elite): 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. Mortal characters will be unable to permanently raise any ability score above 20. Non-mortal characters may or may not be so limited.

Class Levels

Possibly use a form of Epic 6, Epic 8, or Epic 10. Use Feats to advance thereafter.

5e/pathfinder mechanics

Cantrips as main caster ability; more powerful effects require Invocations (limited use, power points?) and Rituals (long term, require specific ingredients, multiple individuals). Tome of battle inspiration for fighters and rogues?

Races

Playable species, which are also the majority of NPC characters that are not also cosmic or gothic horrors, or simple beasts. Encourage diversity of cultures and forms to avoid "Planet of Hats" situations as best as possible. NO inherently good/evil races. Some variant of the simplified races might be effective.

Common Races

Human: Obligatory default choice. Possible focus on actual human strengths: Endurance? No elite form for maturity, due to status as bio-artificed servitors.

Ghoul: Vaguely humanoid scavengers with an esoteric life cycle and a propensity for changeling-style substitutions with certain peoples. Mature form resembles massive Dali-esque eye thing.

Deep One: Ancient aquatic people, fish-frog people of various forms, who rule most of the oceans. Master bio-artificers who occasionally send modified agents to observe humans. Mature forms resemble Harryhousen Kraken.

Mole Person: Vaguely mole-like humanoids created by a long-dead civilization, possibly of human stock, and really hate enslavement. Burrowers.

Rat: Rat sophants, have it about as well as humans do. Ruled by the sorcerous collectives known as Rat Kings. Tiny or small size?

Whale/Cachalot: Not playable, but some whales are sapient. Many humans hunt these whales without realizing this, and these whales, being more like cachalots/orcas, also prey on humans without realizing they are sapient.

Ophidian: Snake creatures with three heads. Culture tends to be scholarly and indigenous to the dreamlands. Eventually become hydras either through age or study. Followers of the Serpent GOO of knowledge, magic, and technology. Even their blue collar equivalent tend to be educated and cultured. Very dangerous, but uncommon and despise Luddite sentiments with a passion. Prone to collective mentality (with a lot of debate) and rules-lawyering (snakes as lawyers XD Never heard that before). Approximate elf-equivalent, though more indifferent than arrogant.

Cthonnian: Burrowing worm-squid things, comparable to Mongolian Deathworms. Younger specimens are human sized. Adults outsize tankers. Infamous for city-sinking exploits. Live in magma. Warlike and expansionist.

Ichorite: Tentacle creatures in roughly (gingerbread) humanoid shape. Player-appropriate starspawn.

Puppeteer: Collective term for a several unrelated parasites, anyone of which may or may not be suitable. The Nudibranch type are dreamlands visitors who possess mortal hosts for shelter and experiences, and may or may not be reasonable about it. The Mi-Go type are immature Mi-Go spores that infect mortal brains, and can swiftly mature to form adult Mi-Go, consuming the host. The Polyp form is a sophant cancer similar to the Mi-Go, only it tears its way out. The Hellwasps are a collective hive that infiltrates and possesses a host's body, turning it into a living hive. The last are the Great Race, a partially aetheric species of great age that possess mortal hosts to study and learn about the period, usually leaving their hosts (physically) unharmed, if unnerved.

Selenite: Indigenous moon people, both insectoid and reptilian. Resilient, and prone to distrust outsiders. Actually from a neighboring planet, but survived on the world's moon when their own incursion happened. Elements of Mi-Go plus Moon People from Melies film.

First Ones: Ancient beings that forged a civilization on the world. Bioartificers without peer, but unfortunately the Faceless Messenger made their creations destroy them. Master scientists, scholars, and inventors, inspired by the Elder Things.

Doppelganger: Shapeshifters from the dreamlands, born of mortal trauma in conjunction with the Dreanlands. Have initial affinity to specific mortal, and can either choose to mimic them, replace them, destroy them, or choose own separate path away from them.

Homunculus: Frankenstein's monster. Generally intelligent and cultured, as in the original novel. Not prone to evil, but face considerable prejudice. As an artificial people, have no innate culture of their own as yet.

Nightgaunt: Strange, shadowy gargoyle-like beings with no face. Somewhat unfriendly to other peoples.

Classes

The desired standard of difficulty is Rogue, so modify casters and bolster fighters?

Setting is quasi-victorian/medieval/post-apocalyptic. Classes should reflect this. Division between classes of free peoples versus those in thrall to various great Powers.

Fighter class: Soldiers, Gladiators, Paramilitary, Slayer, Thug, etc. Rogue class: Drifter, Spy, Performer, Conman, etc. Monk class: Might fold into Fighter class or make prestige class. Investigator: Might be Rogue variant? Adept/Cultist: Basic magic user (adjusted to high difficulty; reduced spell access and frequency, more skills). Divisions based on traditions: Intelligence (Occultism), Wisdom (Animism), Charisma (Deism).

See Ghostwheel's Thaumaturge for ideas and implementation. Might define separate cultist class (i.e. Arcane is mortal will, so weak but subject only to own ethics and limitations; divine is patron gift, so subject to faith, obedience, and patron's agenda - I like the idea of reversing the usual divine magic is "better" theme in D&D).

Variant class: Deviser/Gadgeteer/Etc. Mad scientist and scholar into lost or experimental technology, i.e. ancient sorcery.

Options

Reduced or simplified spell lists, reduced emphasis on magical items, means to defeat opponents through strategy and planning over rough combat.

Monsters often too hard to defeat directly, need research, strategy, and planning to win. Don't want Elder Gods rising, automatic loss.

Examine feats, prestige classes, etc.

Look to Tome of Prowess for skill ideas. Even if go back to normal skills, some modification is necessary.

Equipment

Reduced dependency on magic equipment, rarer magic equipment, scaling items? Also, minor items.

Examples

1) Firearms: As world was once advanced, firearms are present, but considered to be a form of sorcery.

2) Icon/Staff: Cultist Focus for wielding powers.

3) Tome/Scroll: Adept device used to store exercises and rituals, helping to prepare spells. Scrolls might grant a bonus/be required for certain spells as focus.

4) Alchemy: Ancient alchemy + modern chemistry.

5) Devices: Like firearms, not exactly magic, but close to it.

World/History

Earth-like world, limited subset of playable races, limited subset of races in setting. Other realities: The Dreamlands, the Aethereal Void, Carcosa, R'lyeh, Kadath.

World divided into smaller states, fiefdoms, and theocracies. Much xenophobia. Magic and technology feared, but tricks of combat and stealth useless against other beings.

Most powerful factions for humans are Elder Cults.

Deities: The King in Yellow, the Faceless Herald, the Gatekeeper, the Devouring Night/Winter, the Heart of Flame, the Worms of Conquest, the Triumvirate of Worms, The Pallid Mask, The Ebon Mask, The Crimson Mask.

Creatures: Wendigo, Fungi from Yuggoth (parasite/manifest), Great Race of Yith, Cthonnians, Deep Ones, Humans, Ghouls, Nightgaunts.

Cosmology

Cosmic Powers

Various powerful beings play games with the lives of mortals. None have a true character alignment, being unspeakable and unknowable horrors that warp space and time to their ends.

The King in Yellow: A patron of despair, decline, and decadence, but also creativity, compassion, and curiosity. It rules over the perpetually lost city of Carcosa, a gateway into the known afterlife, which it also rules, to which all mortals travel after death.

The Starry Messenger: A dread trickster, fully versed in mortal virtues and foibles, and also quite possibly the cruelest being in the entire cosmos. Known for its Esca Stones, glowing crystals that lure mortals into sadistic sport.

The Heart of Darkness: A dread being contained at the core of the world, believed to be the progenitor of monsters and mortals alike. All life stems from its blood, and will, according to myth, one day be returned to it. Similar beings are believed to dwell within other life-bearing worlds.

The Fateweaver: Mysterious entities that order and manipulate the cosmos according to some grand design.

The Howling Maw: A terrible extradimensional predator that feeds on the very essence of time and space, eventually bring an end to whatever world it invades. Contained for now, it sends aspects of itself (the Wendigo-like Husks) to establish footholds for future feedings. Brilliant in spite of its deranged predatory mindset.

Gothic Powers

The Worms of Conquest: Ogdru Jahad-like worm/wyrm beasts, and the nearest equivalent to dragons possessed by this world.

Echidna: The Mother of Monsters, a result of First One experimentation that wiped out their civilization. Feared by its victims and children alike, and corrupted by the Heart of Darkness.

"The Red Death": An insidious escapee from the Fateweavers, who seeks to conceal itself from their everpresent judgment. To this end, it has corrupted every civilization it encountered, seeking to hide within the darkness of mortal evil.

Monsters

Normal animals (vermin become animals), aberrations (native servants or extraterrestial beings), outsiders (extradimensional beings), humanoids (basically animals with sapiance), some magical beasts, constructs (includes robots and golems), undead, plants

Probably not monstrous humanoids, dragons, giants, fey.

Flying Polyp/Teratomid: Per the laundry files, a living cancerous cnidarian infection. In sufficient numbers, is deadly even to advanced beings. Can use the Aetheric Currents to travel between worlds.

Wendigo: Bloodthirsty ice spirits in thrall to the Devouring Winter. Alternate between friendly and psychotic. Wendigo possess sufficiently starved mortals, and take over if the mortal commits cannibalism and has a cultural taboo against such an act. In this way, they are never truly killed.

Migothian Fungi/Myco: Powerful species of superintelligent fungi people. They exist in several forms, including as semi-parasitic/semi-symbiotic hyphae growing within the nervous system of animals (including humans), as vaguely humanoid beings seemingly covered in fur, and as alien space-lobster/bee things with glowing heads and multiple wings. The Myco rule over many worlds, and are interested in the world for its significance to the GOO. They are among the few beings who actually have a decent ratio of wins:losses against the GOO, but are definitely not friends of mortals, who they see as test subjects, pets, and potential hosts.

Ghoul: Mysterious beings that feed on carrion and rot, but pay heed the great creator entity, the Nuclear Chaos and Butterfly of Change. Elder ghouls resemble city-sized floating head eyes as from Dali's work the persistence of memory, and sing their eldritch song for all eternity. They often replace mortal children with their own offspring, raising the taken child to act as their representative while their own child gains experience in the ways of mortals.

Ophidian: Dreamlands serpent creatures, resemble a snake with three heads, whose prehensile bodies and mouths are used in lieu of hands. Gifted psychically, and may eventually grow new heads, becoming a mighty Hydra in time.

Travelers: Fill in name for time-traveling archivists and scientists from an ancient mortal civilization. The Travelers may journey across time and space, temporarily or permanently replacing the minds of others to sate their curiosity. Not good or evil, they regard most races as real humans often regard insects: interesting, amusing, and sometimes scary little beasts, but not something one needs to accommodate in all but a general sense. Generally take a dim view to those who would needlessly slaughter mortals for sport or entertainment. Are terrified of the Flying Polyps, who destroyed their original homeworld.