Occultist talents and spells (3pp)

Occultist Talents and Spells

Adventurer Tier Talents

Air of Exuberance

You can replace Intelligence with Charisma when casting your occultist spells. You also gain Charm Person as a bonus spell at your class level.

Adventurer Feat Whenever you retain focus with an Occultist spell, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier (x2 at 5th level; x3 at 8th).

Champion Feat When you hit an enemy with Karmic Rebuke, deal psychic damage equal to your level to a different nearby enemy.

Epic Feat Once per battle, when you are missed by an attack, the attacker takes the miss effect, and you take no damage.

Blade of Castigation

You gain the Martial Rebuke power, which you can use instead of Karmic Rebuke to expend your focus on your turn.

Martial Rebuke

Close-quarters spell; At-will; Quick action; expends focus

Effect: Make a basic melee attack.

Adventurer Feat On a natural 5, 10, 15, or 20 on the attack roll, you can teleport to a nearby location after making the attack.

Champion Feat Increase the WEAPON damage dice of the attack by one step (1d4 to 1d6 for a dagger, or 1d8 to 1d10 for a longsword).

Epic Feat If the target is staggered, increase your critical threat range with this attack by your Intelligence modifier.

Child of Prophecy

Gain a bonus occultist spell.

Choose a damage type, such as physical weapons or fire. You are vulnerable to this damage type.

Adventurer Feat Gain a 3-point background related to the prophecy.

Champion Feat Gain the adventurer feats of all occultist spells you know.

Epic Feat Gain the champion feats of all occultist spells you know.

Iconoclast

Special: You cannot take this talent if you have the Icon Channeler or Icon Envoy talents.

You don’t have icon relationships of your own. Instead, whenever the party rolls icon relationships, you hand out 4 bonus icon relationship dice, split in any way you like between your allies. You choose the icon they roll for, but including these dice, no ally can roll more than 3 dice for a single icon.

At 5th level, hand out 5 dice, and at 8th level, six.

Adventurer Feat If any ally rolls a 1 on their icon relationship dice, you gain that 1. At any time during the session, you can spend two 1s with two different icons to learn something about the relationship between those two icons.

Champion Feat If any ally rolls a 2 on their icon relationship dice, you gain that 2. At any time during the session, you can spend one 2 to gain a +2 bonus to defense against an attack by an enemy connected to that icon.

Epic Feat If any ally rolls a 3 on their icon relationship dice, you gain that 3. At any time during the session, you can spend one 3 to gain a +3 bonus to a skill check related to that icon.

Karmic Cure

You gain the Karmic Cure power, which you can use instead of Karmic Rebuke to expend your focus on your turn.

Karmic Cure

Close-quarters spell; At-will; Quick action; Expends focus

Effect: You or a nearby ally can use a recovery to heal.

Adventurer Feat Add your Wisdom modifier to the amount healed (x2 at 5th level; x3 at 8th).

Champion Feat The recoveries granted by this ability use exploding dice (roll an extra die for each that comes up as maximum).

Epic Feat If the escalation die is odd, the target can spend a second recovery. If it is even, a second target can spend a recovery.

Knight of the Purple Gate

You can wear heavy armor and use a shield at no attack penalty.

Adventurer Feat Gaining focus no longer provokes an opportunity attack.

Champion Feat Increase your recovery dice to d8.

Epic Feat While you have focus, you have a +1 bonus to all defenses.

Planar Chaos

Whenever you roll a natural 1, 7, 13 or 19 on a d20 roll for an occultist spell, you can roll on the chaos mage High Weirdness table and gain an at-will chaos mage spell of up to your level, which you can cast once that battle. Roll 1d6 to see whether you get an attack (1-2), defense (3-4), or iconic spell (5-6). You can choose iconic spells from any icon that you have a relationship with.

Adventurer Feat Once per battle, gain a once-per-battle chaos mage spell instead. In addition, you can use this talent without rolling for High Weirdness.

Champion Feat Once per day, gain a daily chaos mage spell instead.

Epic Feat When you gain a chaos mage spell with this talent, also roll 1d6 on the warp talent for that spell type.

Plot Twist

You exude an aura of not-being-special that’s almost supernatural on its own. You could be the wallflower in the quiet corner of a party, or the loud reveler in the middle of it, but there’s just something really mundane about you. You could tell people to their face that you’re chosen for a great destiny and they’ll laugh it off.

In battle, enemies will ignore you until you actively participate. Gaining focus doesn’t end the effect, but casting a spell or making an attack does.

Adventurer Feat You lose the Delayed Magical Healing class “feature.”

Champion Feat Once per day, when you use a 5 on an icon relationship die, you can decide that the backlash happens to someone else, not you.

Epic Feat When you have focus, you can only be attacked by enemies engaged with you — other enemies simply overlook you, as long as there are other targets to attack. Enemies with a personal enmity towards you can save against the effect, and on a success ignore it until the end of the battle.

Reeds of Rectitude

You can use a ranged weapon without attack penalty. You can use Intelligence instead of Strength for your attack rolls with that weapon, and Wisdom instead of Strength for your damage rolls.

You can also target far away enemies with your occultist spells that only target nearby enemies, at a -2 penalty to the attack roll.

Adventurer Feat If you also have the Blade of Castigation talent, you can make a basic ranged attack with Martial Rebuke, instead of a melee attack.

Champion Feat Once per battle, when you miss with a ranged weapon attack, deal half damage.

Epic Feat While you have focus, you ignore the resistances of any enemy you attack with a ranged weapon attack.

Vengeful Mind Shard

Choose a flexible attack from the fighter class, of up to your level. However, instead of basic attacks, you trigger this maneuver with the attack roll of your Karmic Rebuke class feature.

If you have the Blade of Castigation talent, you can trigger the maneuver with Martial Rebuke.

Adventurer Feat Choose a fighter talent that can be used once per battle. You can use this talent once per day, but you must expend your focus to do so.

Champion Feat Gain a second fighter maneuver, two levels lower than your class level.

Epic Feat The first time you use Karmic Rebuke (or Martial Rebuke) in a battle, you have advantage on the attack roll.

Watch the World Burn

Change all psychic damage you deal to fire damage, and the damage dice are exploding dice (roll any die that shows up as the maximum again and add the reroll).

Adventurer Feat When you target an enemy with an occultist spell, and you would retain focus, you can expend your focus instead and deal 1d6 per level (exploding dice) fire damage to the target. You can do this even on a miss.

Champion Feat Whenever you roll extra damage dice from exploding dice, also deal the extra damage to a second nearby enemy.

Epic Feat Once per day, attack one nearby enemy per Intelligence modifier with an occultist spell that only has one target.

Weaver of Fates

Gain an adventurer-tier meditation from the fateweaver list. You can use the focus gained from the meditation like you use your occultist focus. Starting at 3rd level, you can switch out an occultist spell for a fateweaver spell two levels lower.

Adventurer Feat You can use the fateweaver’s Follow the Thread class feature once per day.

Champion Feat Upgrade your meditation to champion tier, OR choose a second adventurer tier meditation.

Epic Feat Upgrade your meditation from champion to epic tier, OR choose a third adventurer tier meditation.

Champion Tier Talents

You must be 5th level to take these talents.

Fangs of the Horned Serpent

You gain the Fangs of the Horned Serpent power, which you can use to expend focus on your turn instead of Karmic Rebuke.

Fangs of the Horned Serpent

Close-quarters spell; Once per battle; Quick action; Expends focus

Target: One nearby enemy
Attack: Intelligence + Level vs. PD

Hit: 10 + Wisdom modifier ongoing poison damage

7th level spell: 20 ongoing damage

9th level spell: 30 ongoing damage

Miss: Poison damage equal to your level + Wisdom modifier

Champion Feat Hit or miss, deal lightning damage equal to your Wisdom modifier (x2; x3 at 8th level) to 1d4 nearby enemies.

Epic Feat On a natural even hit, an ethereal snake wraps itself around the target, causing it to be hampered until the end of your next turn.

Spatial Warp

Once per battle, when you retain focus while casting an occultist spell, you can teleport to a nearby location you can see as a free action.

Champion Feat On a natural even roll, you can teleport the target instead. If you do, deal your level in psychic damage to it.

Temporal Slip

Once per battle, you can use a second interrupt action between two of your turns.

Champion Feat You can now use this talent twice per battle.

Epic Feat You can use interrupt actions as long as you have focus.

Epic Tier Talents

You must be 8th level to take these talents.

Event Horizon

You gain the Event Horizon power, which you can use to expend focus on your turn in place of Karmic Rebuke.

Event Horizon

Close-quarters spell; Daily; Quick action; Expends focus

Target: One nearby enemy

Attack: Intelligence + Level vs. MD

Hit: 2d4 x 10 + Wisdom psychic damage and the target is stunned until the end of your next turn.

Miss: The target can choose to either take half damage, or let a different nearby enemy suffer full damage (but no stun).

9th level spell: 3d4 x 10 damage

Epic Feat On a natural 18+, the stun effect is “save ends.”

Karma Houdini

Once per battle, you can reroll an attack roll for an occultist spell. You can use the higher of the two rolls for the attack, and the lower to see whether you retain focus.

Epic Feat If the lower roll is a natural 1, you can use this talent again in this battle.

Transcendence

You gain 5 points toward a Transcendence background. This background represents your connection to a shared universal conscience. If you close your eyes for a few seconds, you can merge with the font of all knowledge and dig up even the most remote and obscure insight that is beyond mere mortal comprehension.

You also gain a bonus occultist spell.

Epic Feat Increase the background to 7.

Occultist Spells

1st Level Spells

Auramancy

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 6+ after scene

Target: A nearby person or object

Effect: You detect any unusual, supernatural connection on the target, such as arcane powers, an icon relation, strong devotion to a god or a pact with a devil. You sense the general nature of the aura, and you can discern details with a successful skill check. A completely mundane object or person gives off no information.

Adventurer Feat When you have this spell, you have a hunch when you are in the presence of avery strong aura, although you still have to cast the spell to locate it.

Deja Vu

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 16+ after the battle / scene; Interrupt action; expend focus

Special: You can cast this spell out of combat. In that case, it doesn’t require, expend, or retain focus.

Trigger: You fail a skill check.

Effect: Reroll the check and add your Wisdom modifier to the roll.

Retain Focus: 1–5

Adventurer Feat The spell is now Recharge 6+.

Mirific Miss

Close-quarters spell; At-will; Interrupt action to cast; Expend focus

Trigger: One of your allies misses a nearby enemy with an attack.

Target: The enemy missed by the attack

Attack: Intelligence + Level vs. MD

Natural Even Hit: Deal psychic damage to the target equal to 1d8 + Wisdom plus the amount of miss damage dealt by your ally.

Natural Odd Hit: Deal 1d4 + Wisdom psychic damage to the target, and your ally gains temporary hit points equal to the miss damage they dealt to the target.

Miss: You gain temporary hit points equal to the miss damage dealt by your ally.

Retain Focus: 1–5

3rd level spell: 3d8/3d4 damage

5th level spell: 5d8/5d4 damage

7th level spell: 7d8/7d4 damage

9th level spell: 9d8/9d4 damage

Adventurer Feat On a natural 5, 10, 15, or 20 on your attack roll, your ally can reroll the attack. (This can turn the triggering attack into a hit, meaning zero miss damage for the purpose of this spell)

Momentous Distraction

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 6+ after battle; Interrupt action; Expend focus

Trigger: You or a nearby ally fails a disengage check.

Target: The enemy you or the ally is trying to disengage from.

Attack: Intelligence + Level vs. MD

Hit: 1d8 + Wisdom psychic damage, and the ally can reroll the disengage check.

Miss: Damage equal your level

3rd level spell: 3d8 damage

5th level spell: 5d8 damage

7th level spell: 7d8 damage

9th level spell: 10d8 damage

Retain Focus: 1–10

Adventurer Feat If the disengage check is successful, the target is unable to see the person who disengaged until the end of their next turn.

Champion Feat Reroll the disengage checks on an even miss with the attack.

Parallax Aegis

Close-quarters spell; At-will; Interrupt action; Expend focus

Trigger: A nearby ally takes damage from an enemy attack.

Target: The attacker

Attack: Intelligence + Level vs. PD

Hit: 1d4 + Wisdom force damage, and you reduce the damage taken by the ally by that amount.

Miss: Damage equal your level

3rd level spell: 3d4 damage

5th level spell: 5d4 damage

7th level spell: 7d4 damage

9th level spell: 9d4 damage

Retain Focus: 1–5

Adventurer Feat On a natural even hit, the ally can pop free from the enemy.

Champion Feat Retain focus on 1-10.

Rampant Reverberation

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 16+ after battle; Interrupt action; Expend focus

Trigger: A nearby ally deals damage to an enemy.

Target: Two enemies other than the ally’s target

Attack: Intelligence + Level vs. PD

Hit: Psychic damage equal to half the damage of the ally’s attack + your Wisdom modifier.

Miss: You take psychic damage equal to the target’s level.

Retain Focus: 1–5

Adventurer Feat You no longer take damage on a miss.

Sanguine Echo

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 6+ after battle; Interrupt action; Expend focus

Trigger: A nearby ally uses a recovery to heal.

Effect: The 1d3 nearby allies with the lowest hit point total (including you, but triggering ally) heal hit points equal to half the recovery roll.

Retain Focus: 1–5

3rd level spell: 1d4 allies

7th level spell: 1d6 allies

Adventurer Feat Nearby allies that you didn’t target with the effect can heal hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier (x2 at 5th level; x3 at 8th).

Secrets Revealed

Close-quarters spell; Daily

Target: A piece of writing or code

Effect: You can read the piece of writing or code as if it was written plainly in a language you know.

Adventurer Feat The spell can now make faded or erased writing visible.

3rd Level Spells

Cromulent Embiggening

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 6+ after battle; Interrupt action; Expend focus

Trigger: A nearby ally scores an odd hit with a melee attack.

Effect: For this attack, and until the end of the battle, the ally increases their melee WEAPON damage dice by one step.

Retain Focus: 1–5

Adventurer Feat You now retain focus on 1-10.

Karmic Flip

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 6+ after battle; Interrupt action to cast; expend focus

Trigger: A nearby ally makes an attack roll against an enemy.

Target: The enemy targeted by your ally

Attack: Intelligence + Level vs. MD

Hit: 3d8 + Wisdom psychic damage. If the ally’s natural attack roll was even, it is now treated as odd, and vice versa. 

Miss: Half damage

Retain Focus: 1–5

5th level spell: 5d8 damage

7th level spell: 7d8 damage

9th level spell: 9d8 damage

Adventurer Feat You can now target any nearby enemy of your choice with this spell.

Primordial Acidification

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 16+ after battle; Interrupt action; Expend focus

Trigger: A nearby ally scores an odd hit with a melee or ranged weapon attack.

Target: The target of the attack

Attack: Intelligence + Level vs. PD

Hit: 10 ongoing acid damage. If the target is staggered, it is also hampered.

Miss: Acid damage equal to your level + 1d6

5th level spell: 15 ongoing damage

7th level spell: 25 ongoing damage

9th level spell: 40 ongoing damage

Retain Focus: 1–5

Adventurer Feat If the target is killed before it saves against the effect, the ooze moves onto the next enemy. Repeat the attack as a free action.

Champion Feat If you cast this spell while the escalation die is 5+, deal 3d6 extra ongoing damage.

Surging Escutcheon

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 6+ after battle; Interrupt action; Expend focus

Trigger: A nearby ally uses a recovery.

Effect: The triggering ally gains a +4 bonus to all defenses until they are missed by an attack, or until the end of the battle.

Retain Focus: 1–10

Adventurer Feat While the halo is active, the ally also heals damage equal to the spell level whenever they are hit by an enemy attack.

The Unknown Unknowns

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 11+ after battle; Interrupt action; Expend focus

Special: You can cast this spell out of combat. In that case, it doesn’t require, expend, or retain focus. Make the recharge roll at the end of the scene.

Trigger: You or a nearby ally is hit by a surprise attack, such as by a trap or a hidden enemy.

Effect: Reroll the attack and take the second result.

Adventurer Feat If the reroll is an odd miss, add an unexpected beneficial effect. Maybe the trap is now jammed and unable to trigger, or the enemy falls out of the tree they were hiding in.

5th Level Spells

Astral Projection

Ranged spell; Daily

Effect: Your conscious self leaves your body, and you project an image of yourself and your voice in a distant location. You perceive the surroundings of the target location, and the projected image mimics your movements, but you can’t interact with the environment.

To project yourself to a specific location, you must have some connection to it. It could be that you spent a long time there, or a person you know is present. The spell lasts as long as you concentrate on it.

Attack of the Clone

Close-quarters spell; Cyclic (once per battle OR at-will when the escalation die is even); Interrupt action; Expend focus

Trigger: A nearby ally makes an at-will attack against one target.

Effect: Summon a ghostly copy of the ally that repeats the attack against a different enemy as if the ally would make the attack. The copy vanishes after making the attack.

Retain Focus: 1–5 (based on the clone‘s attack roll)

Authorized Override

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 16+ after battle; Interrupt action to cast; Expend focus

Trigger: A nearby ally misses with an attack roll.

Always: The ally rerolls the attack, then makesmake the attack below. If the ally’s reroll was a miss, you have advantage on your attack roll.

Target: The enemy targeted by your ally

Attack: Intelligence + Level vs. MD

Hit: 7d10 + Wisdom psychic damage

Miss: You take damage equal to your level.

Retain Focus: 1–5

7th level spell: 1d12 x 10 damage

9th level spell: 2d8 x 10 damage

Champion Feat If you fail to retain focus with this spell, you can pop free from all enemies as a free action.

Awe-Inspiring Presence

Close-quarters power; Recharge 16+ after the scene

Effect: You make the full extent of your occult powers visible to everyone. You project an aura of such immense power that onlookers might mistake you for an angelic being or a terrible nightmare. Whichever image you choose to show, anyone with an MD of 10 + your level or less will be struck with awe and unable to approach you. Targets with a higher MD are able to shake off the effect with a successful save. If you try to use this awe to give commands or get a tribe of kobolds to worship you as a god, a skill check is in order.

This spell is best used out of combat. An aura of invincibility is quickly dispelled if everyone can see that you still bleed if shot with an arrow.

Champion Feat When casting the spell, gain a temporary 5-point background that you can use to leave an impression with people.

Shooting Fireworks

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 16+ after battle; Interrupt action; Expend focus

Trigger: A nearby ally misses with a ranged weapon attack.

Effect: Make three attacks, each against a different nearby enemy. Determine the energy type of each attack with a d4 roll: (1) lightning (2) fire (3) poison (4) psychic.

Attack: Intelligence + Level vs. MD

Hit: 6d10 + Wisdom damage

Miss: 2d10 damage

Retain Focus: 1–5 (first attack roll only)

7th level spell: 10d10 damage

9th level spell: 2d8 x 10 damage

Champion Feat Make four attacks.

Temporal Splice

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 6+ after battle; Quick action

Effect: This battle, you can take a second interrupt action between your turns. When you do, you lose the standard action on your next turn.

Waking Ward

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 16+ after battle; Quick action

Target: A nearby ally

Effect: The ally gains 50 temporary hit points until the end of the battle or scene. Whenever the ally takes damage that reduces these temporary hit points, you regain focus if you don’t currently have it.

7th level spell: 80 temporary hit points

9th level spell: 140 temporary hit points

Champion Feat Also target a second nearby ally, for half the amount of temporary hit points.

7th Level Spells

Arcane Cataclysm

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 11+ after battle; Interrupt action; Expend focus

Trigger: A nearby ally scores a natural even hit with a spell.

Target: A nearby enemy that was not targeted by the spell.

Attack: Intelligence + Level vs. PD

Hit: Force damage equal to the spell’s damage

Miss: Force damage equal to half the spell’s damage

Retain Focus: 1–5

Champion Feat Retain focus on any roll if the triggering spell was a critical hit.

Army of Me

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 16+ after battle

Effect: Spend up to three recoveries. Instead of healing, summon a copy of yourself in a nearby location for each recovery you spend. Each copy‘s hit points are equal to the recovery roll. These copies are dimension-shifted copies of yourself. They can take a move and standard action, and they can make weapon attacks, but all damage they do is halved. Only you can gain focus and cast spells. Clones are destroyed if they are reduced to zero hit points or below. If you are killed, you can transfer yourself into one of your clones. At the end of the battle, you merge with your clones. Add up all hit points and discard any above your maximum.

Champion Feat Each living clone increases the retain focus range of your spells by 1.

Ascendant Reincarnation

Close-quarters spell; Once per life; No action

Trigger: You fail a death save.

Special: You can cast this spell while unconscious and at zero hit points.

Effect: You die, and your conscience is transferred to the next occultist, as it always would be. However, this spell guarantees that you, as one incarnation of the occultist, have been strong enough to imprint some essence of itself on the shared memory of all occultists, and will be remembered. Usually, the occultist is reincarnated into a newborn child in the next age, but in times of desperation, when an age comes to a close, there have been occultists in quick succession, even awakening their power well into adulthood.

Create a new occultist character of a randomly determined race and gender, with a randomly determined multiclass based on its pre-incarnation life. This character gains a free 5-point background that represents your memories and experiences.

Pocket Labyrinth Dimension

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 16+ after battle; Interrupt action; Expend focus

Trigger: A nearby enemy moves to engage you or a nearby ally.

Attack: Intelligence + Level vs. MD

Hit: The target is caught in a pocket labyrinth dimension and has to find the exit to escape. Smart enemies (MD higher than PD) need an easy save (6+) to escape. Brutish foes (PD higher than MD) need a hard save (16+). If both are equal, the save is 11+.

Miss: —

Natural even miss: Teleport the engaged ally to a nearby location.

Retain Focus: 1–5 

Epic Feat Attack the lower defense of PD or MD with this spell.

9th Level Spells

Age-Traversing Gateway

Close-quarters spell; Daily

Effect: You open a gate to a different age, long enough for a small group of people to pass through. These gates can only be opened at certain locations, where influential historical events have left their mark all the way to the present, and only during certain stellar constellations. For example, to travel back to a famous battle, you would first have to determine its location, then open a gate at the spot. A successful skill check is required to pinpoint the exact point in time you wish to travel to. It’s easy to end up days or even years off the mark if you traverse the centuries. Be careful with changing the past, as the present you return to may end up very different from the place you (and only you) remember.

Butterfly Effect

Close-quarters spell; Daily

Effect: You summon a colorful butterfly that flaps its wings once. This sets a chain of connected events in motion. You determine the general outcome of each event (“Snow is falling on Dragon Peak”), but not the details. The connection does not have to be obvious, as your magic works in mysterious ways. Each step in the chain takes up to a full day to resolve. After each event, roll a d20. If the roll is equal to the number of events caused by the spell, or lower, the spell ends. You cannot end the spell voluntarily — a high enough roll always causes the next event.

However, the spell does not end on a roll of natural 1. On a natural 1, the spell spins out of control, and you reroll the die. From that point on, you still describe the event, but there is some catastrophic twist, and each subsequent 1 only makes it worse. These unforeseen consequences are described by other players, starting with the person on your left.

Temporal Anomaly

Close-quarters spell; Recharge 16+ after battle; Interrupt action; Expend focus

Trigger: A nearby enemy rolls a natural 1–5 on an attack.

Target: The triggering enemy

Attack: Intelligence + Level vs. MD

Hit: 7d10 + Wisdom psychic damage, and a nearby ally can make a free standard action attack against the target.

Miss: Half damage, and allies engaged with the target can pop free.

Retain Focus: 1–5 (first attack roll only)

Epic Feat A second nearby ally can also make an attack against the target.

Transcendent Ascendance

Close-quarters spell; Once per life; No action

Trigger: You fail your last death save.

Special: You can cast this spell while unconscious.

Effect: You unshackle yourself from your decaying physical body. Not dead, not undead, you continue to exist on a different plane of existence. You can still manifest as a ghost-like apparition, but your attention is now elsewhere, beyond the trifles of mortals. Other PCs can now choose you as an icon relation or worship you as a god.