The School of Higher Perception
The Wizard of the School of Higher Perception (or “the Humble”, as they call themselves) are one of the weirdest and less accessible schools of magic out there. They refuse to recruit acolytes, instead warning others not to follow their path, and never make grand shows of magical or political power. Despite their warnings, every so often a brazen student or an unlucky academic end up uncovering their secrets, much to their dismay, and adopt a similar stance, refusing to share their burden with others.
Boon: You gain [template] bonus on saves against emotional effects. Fear is an emotion.
Bane: When a Humble casts a spell they get… weird, like start talking about concepts the layman doesn’t understand with wild eyes weird, and that’s one of the tamer examples. They get a -X to Charisma rolls and Reaction rolls, where X is the highest [Dice] spell they have cast this scene. Spirits aren’t affected (to them the Humble makes more sense than other mortals) and the penalty caps at -1 for other wizards (they seem to understand what the Humble mean but it puts them in a foul mood).
Cantrips:
-Suddenly Day: Illuminate a room. The light doesn’t seem to have a clear origin.
-Hide from the Gaze of God: hide in a space a contortionist could physically fit so quickly it’s hard to follow with the eye.
-Empathy: you gain insight on why an animal or non-intelligent creature is behaving in a certain way.
Spells:
1.-Walk the glass wall.
Duration: [sum] rounds.
The caster creates an infinite indestructible plane, within an axis of their choosing, that only has an effect on those who can perceive it. By default, the plane can only be perceived by the Humble, spirits and anyone who knows this spell (even temporarily), but certain powers or spells might allow others to perceive it temporarily. Casting this spell horizontally on a gap would let the caster use it as a bridge, while making a vertical wall would prevent spirits from getting any closer.
2.-Crumbs.
You mark an area. At some point in the next hour [Dice] rations of food will appear. The food looks extremely bizarre, but it tastes like regular food.
3.-Hot spot.
A spot on the ground gets pleasantly warm. If the group rests here they heal by [sum] and the warmth helps counter cold extreme environments. Has no effect in hot extreme environments (in fact, it might make it worse).
4.-Squash.
The target gets smashed against the floor by an invisible telekinetic force. Deal [Dice]+[sum] damage to the target; if the target is in the air (like, if it’s flying) they get lowered [Dice]*5 feet and, unless they make contact with the floor, only receive half damage.
5.-Someone left the door open.
A door, window or hatch gets opened violently as something invisible and humongous uses it-and leaves marks behind it. The door must be within [Dice]*5 feet of the caster and all creatures between the caster and the door must save or be moved by the mysterious entity, clearing the way between. At 4 [Dice], this can target all openings in a room.
6.-Revealing light.
Until the end of the casters next turn, anyone who moves within [Dice]*5 feet (including the Humble himself) gets swatted by an invisible telekinetic force for [sum] damage (Save halves). Creatures immune to clairvoyance aren’t affected.
7.-Denying mark.
Designate an object or area not bigger than [Dice]*5. For the duration, creatures other than the Humble are unwilling to approach or interact with it. Sentient creatures get a save.
8.-Through the cracks.
The humble creates (but they insist that they find) a crack, an opening in a wall that connects to another one within [sum]*10 feet, even if such a connection is logically impossible. The humble must know where they are positioning the second opening, but doesn’t need to have been there before; pointing it on a map would be enough. The tunnel itself is dark, damp and tight enough that humans have to move sideways through it.
9.-Something moved.
The movement of something beyond perception causes its shadow to very briefly enter reality. All creatures in a line of [Dice]*5 feet must save or end up prone and deaf. At 4 [Dice], they must also test Morale or run away, completely incoherent.
10.-¿What are you doing there?
The caster and everyone within [Dice]*5 feet are “teleported” to a safer place within [sum]*100 feet. The Humble doesn't choose their destination; note that “safer” doesn't mean “safe”. All that are “teleported” by this effect feel like they have forgotten something.
11.-Parasite. Duration: [Highest] hours. While this spell is active you read as a demon and an undead to supernatural detection. For each [Dice], you may do one of the following:
-Destroy inanimate matter you are touching. A cube with a 5 foot side consumes a Die.
-Destroy a magic object you’re touching. You gain a benefit crafted by the master; if the object wasn’t a consumable, it might be permanent. If the master isn’t inspired it counts as a week of rations or something idk.
Once you have no [Dice] left the spell ends.
12.-Sandpiper Duration: [Highest] hours. You can always tell when a creature is “an outsider” and you can detect them at a range of [sum]*10 feet. “An outsider” is someone who doesn’t fit their surroundings, like:
-A goblin band who has occupied dwarven ruins as a dungeon.
-A monster that isn’t part of an ecosystem.
-People of other countries and cultures aren’t outsiders: immigrants are a natural part of cities. But a vampire who is in the city to feed on its citizens or the members of another country's intelligentsia would be outsiders.
Demons, the Undead and Fake Math Wizards are always outsiders.
Your touch deals 1d6 acid damage to outsiders, which scales with [Dice] (2= 1d8, 3= 1d10, 4=1d12).
Mishaps:
1.- MD only return to your pool on a 1-2 for 24 hours
2.-Take 1d6 damage
3.-You lose all spells but gain a random spell from a random school. After a long rest your spells go back to normal.
4.-Choose a random stat with a positive modifier: change its modifier to 0 for the rest of the day.
5.-The next 1d6 spells that you cast can only target you. Long rest resets.
6.-You learn the Insignificant polymorph spell if you didn’t know it already. You immediately cast insignificant polymorph on yourself with the [Dice] as the spell that triggered this Mishap; ignore further Mishaps and Dooms, all MD are always spent.
Insignificant Polymorph
Randomly determine [Dice] random animals smaller than your original size and choose one to transform into for [sum rounds]. You may not cast spells in this form. Example creatures smaller than a human include: dogs, cats, badgers, crows, moths, goblins, gremlins, sprites, blink dogs and the tyrant tick.
Dooms:
-For the rest of the day any effect you have on the world is halved; you deal half damage, a success on a strength roll moves an object half the feet, etc; this includes the effect of your spells, unless they only target you. You are the same size but you seem smaller.
-For the rest of the day any effect you have on the world seems doubled: if you fail at a physical task there’s always a random secondary effect to your clumsiness.If you succeed you may double the result at the expense of a random secondary effect. For attacks and spells, you may maximize damage or [sum] before rolling in exchange for a random secondary effect (which means all die invested in the spell are spent). You are the same size but seem bigger.
-If at any point the sky has line of sight on you you are immediately smushed in a horrific fashion, which kills you instantly. This can happen the very moment this Doom triggers. Talk with the DM about what is sufficient cover to hide from what’s beyond the sky.
You can’t do anything significant enough to evade this Doom.
Comments from the author: in case it wasn't obvious, the inspiration for this class is bugs, or rather how bugs might see humanity: as this beings so big and so "above" them they cannot understand them, perhaps they even perceive them more as a force of nature than as an individual creature.
I had a lot of fun designing the spells, at least until I got to the legendary ones. Since the whole flavor of the class is meant to be "insignificant" making spells "grander" than the usual was a challenge. I hope these work, although I thik they don't, but if anyone has any alternative ideas please tell me about it!
Oh, also I should say that I have no idea if this is balanced or even plyable, I just had fun playing with the theme lol.
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