Thursday, August 18, 2016

Remembrancers

The doors of the Remembrancer Guidehall opened with a crash.  With a start, Master Sideon looked up from the volume of Naffish lore he had been studying.  He peered at the disheveled figure that limped through the doors.  It was only when the figure was closer that Sideon realized it was a woman.  Not just any woman, either, but Mistress Iffite.  She looked as if she had been pulled, backwards, through a thorn hedge and then rolled around in a pig’s wallow.
Mistress Iffite marched up to the desk and threw a heavy tome onto it. The book struck the table with a fragrant squelch.
“There!” snarled Mistress Iffite. “The Book of Vile Dankness! Fresh from the Cellars of Tenmok!  Just where I said it would be!”
The master poked delicately at the tome. It was wrapped in oilskin, leaking something horrible and producing a cloud of stink that was somehow even worse.
“I see,” said Master Sideon. “Well. Congratulations, Mistress Iffite. I should have never doubted you.”
He never even saw the punch she threw that laid him out on the cold stone floor.
“No,” she growled. “You bloody well shouldn’t!”

Remembrancers are an unusual lot. They are not fighters, by any means, but often employ such people to assist them in their work.  Remembrancers remember. They remember everything they’ve seen in the recent past and, over time, can read the memories of objects and even access their own genetic memories.
Although some are born into their order, most remembrancers are actively recruited by scouts. They look for children with unusual memories and linguistic abilities. Such children are usually bought from their parents and taken to a Guidehall, where they are tested and observed. Those who lack the potential to become remembrancers are usually kept around as servants.   After all someone’s got to make the beds and dust the shelves.
However, those children who do have the potential undergo rigorous mental training. Many don’t make it, burning out and either consigned to asylums or living on the streets as hollow-eyed vagrants with a deep-seated terror and/or hatred of books.
Those who do make it through the training, go on to become human libraries. Their heads are stuffed full of all sorts of useful information. Information that some people are willing to pay lots and lots of money to access.
Remembrancers advise kings and captains of industry. They tutor the children of the uber-rich. They hire adventurers to break into dangerous places and bring them interesting books and scrolls. Some go with the adventurers and develop a disturbing taste for fresh air, exercise and shooting people with light crossbows.
Most stay home, content to sit by a nice fire with a cup of tea (or bottle of wine), reading and memorizing the sundry and amorous exploits of Culn the Despoiler.
Remembrancers are usually pale and sickly looking because they spend all their time indoors. They never forget a slight, a good deed done them, or who owes them money.  Some of them are barking mad. Generally, they prefer sherbert to ice cream.

Class Features
As a remembrancer you gain the following class features.

Hit Points:
Hit Dice: d6
Hit Points at 1st Level: 6 + Con Modifer
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d6 (or 4) + Con Modifier per level.

Proficiencies:
Armor: Light
Weapons: Daggers, Hand crossbows, Scimitars, Shortswords, Sickles
Tools: None
Saves: Intelligence, Wisdom
Skills: Choose two from Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Perception.


Cunning Linguist 
At 1st level, you learn two additional languages of your choice.

Keen Memory
You can accurately recall everything that you have seen or heard within the past month.

Warded 
At 2nd level, you can cast the blade ward cantrip.

Expertise 
When you reach 3rd level, and again at 10th level, thanks to a combination of your memory and training, your proficiency with certain skills is increased.  Choose two of your skill proficiencies. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses either of the chosen proficiencies.

Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or two ability scores of your choice by 1.  As usual, you cannot increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Expanded Proficiencies
Starting at 5th level, and again at 15th level, you gain proficiency with a tool set of your choice.

Arcane Linguist
At 6th level, you gain the ability to cast the comprehend language spell. You may cast this spell a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of once).  Once you have expended these uses, you cannot use this feat again until you have finished a short or long rest.

Evasion
Beginning at 7th level, you can dodge out of the way of certain area effects, such as a dragon’s fiery breath or an ice storm spell.  When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail.

Advantageous Intelligence
Starting at 9th level, you have advantage on all Intelligence checks.

Reliable Talent
By 11th level, you have refined your chosen skills until they approach perfection.  Whenever you make an ability check that lets you add your proficiency bonus, you can treat a d20 roll of 9 or lower as a 10.

Arcane Translator
At 13th level, you gain the ability to cast the tongues spell.  You can cast this spell a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of once). After expending these uses, you cannot use this feat again until you finish a long rest.

True Proficiency
When you reach 14th level, you can add your proficiency bonus to all of your saving throws.

Psychometry
Starting at 17th level, you can read the past of an object you hold.  After meditating for one minute, you learn how the owner acquired and lost the object, as well as the most recent significant event involving the object and that owner.  If the object was owned by another creature in the recent past (within a number of days equal to your Intelligence score), you can spend one additional minute for each owner, to learn the same information about that creature.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier. When you have expended all uses, you cannot use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

Genetic Remembrance
At 18th level, you can tap into your own genetic memories.  As an action, you choose one skill or tool. For ten minutes, you have proficiency with the chosen skill or tool. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier. When you have expended all uses, you cannot use this feature again until you have finished a long rest.

Legendary Loremaster
At 20th level, you gain the ability to cast the legend lore spell an unlimited number of times.

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