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Thaumaturge is getting Esoteric Antithesis simplified a bit, with a likely name of Forge Connection. It's charisma-based, no longer reliant on Recall Knowledge, and will be able to create a new weakness, trigger an existing weakness, or provide some other benefit, like a debuff.
So, what are some fun in-character explanations for how your Thaumaturge is doing it?
1) Using occult magic to draw on folklore, both inaccurate and true, to make popular beliefs about certain vulnerabilities real.
2) Using divine magic to draw upon the ire of whatever divine or supernatural forces oppose the target.
3) Using divine magic to strengthen the pull of their awaited afterlife on their soul.
4) Interfering in the world's connection with the Akashic Record, altering the properties of either the target or your weapon by supplying false information about how they should interact.
5) Using primal magic to expose weakness, much like nature as a whole does.
6) Using arcane magic to assess the flaws in the target's material expression and exploit them.
7) A fey bargain has given the Thaumaturge glimpses of creatures as they ought-to-have-been, their First World selves, allowing something more real than themselves to be injured.
8) The blessings of Zon Kuthon allow the Thaumaturge to strike not only at the body, but at the shadow as well.
9) Sympathetic magic, mediated through metaphor and pataphor.
10) Leveraging an understanding of the musica mundana and the musica humana to create a painful disharmony with each strike.
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11) Create an obtuse and obfuscated sentence which, while syntactically correct, logically sound, and meaningful is incredibly difficult to parse.
It causes the stupefied 1 condition on the target it is spoken to.
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12) Belief in a childs made up facts about stories, creatures and monsters( Bonus if your character is a poppet)
2) Using divine magic to draw upon the ire of whatever divine or supernatural forces oppose the target.
Didn’t respond directly to this in the other thread, but I really liked this one and wanted to say so. I could see this being used in a shamanistic, animist character type, but also (drawing once again on Discworld) “I invoke the power of the Small God of ‘Werewolves can kick rocks’!”
Edit: to continue the thread
14) Occult: using harrow or any other kind of playing cards to link to their archetype. Or to oppose them. “Your card is the Waxwork, so I will call on the Empty Throne”.
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15) Know that bartender that always knows what patron will like, sometimes even better than they do? Apply some primal magic to that, and you have the makings of someone that can literally pick your poison.
16) using alchemy, you apply compounds antithetical to the target's essence (for example, using pot residue from crafting an alchemist fire to hurt a creature associated with cold)
17) Creating existential dread by seeing/pretending to see an unseen even more deadly and fearful being thats hiding just beyond the veil. Causing mental damage and the frightened condition from the anticipation of its attack
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I had to look up "pataphor," and I was not Disappointed. Unlike me, Disappointed doesn't look up to things, but instead looks down on others, causing them to suffer the penalties of Forge Connection.
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18) A charlatan that sells snake oil for all that ails you; sometimes what ails you is a monster, and in those cases a dab will f8x the issue like itndoes anything else
19) You aspired to be a bard, but magic never came to you like most bards. Still, your lyrics and songs hold a sliver of power, and let you place small curses ypon your foes
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20) breaking the 4th wall, you take their character sheet and hastily scribble on the weakness or debuff. You ARE a wonder worker, after all!
21) a shrine maiden who collects the prayers hung from her shrines trees every month. She taps the power from the intent of an applicable prayer and uses it to defeat her foes (so, for example, a prayer for safe travels could be used to harm a bandit, a prayer for bountiful harvests could kill a creature tied to blight and famine, etc)
22) a warrior who calls upon the oral tradition of their ancestors, and taps the might of their legends to defeat similar foes and obstacles fought in past. Against new threats, this warrior calls their ancestor's audience to bear witness to an expansion of their lineage's story, and is empowered by their presence
23) an inventor who dabbles with both science and the supernatural, and always has a strange bauble lying around in a seemingly bottomless utility pouch of countless gizmos. They are always oddly hyper specific to the circumstance ("a bullette? Ha! Good thing I brought my patented Land Shark Repellant!")
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This class is just super evocative to my imagination, and I kinda hate that I have to choose between it, alchemist, and inventor :p
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The prayer idea is pretty great. Something else along those lines could be using coins from a wishing well. You don't know exactly what was wished for, but these coins are charged with desire that you can harness. Different effects could cost different amounts of coins. You may end up just looking like a bum stealing coins out of a public fountain though.
I was getting Paula from earthbound vibes
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This class is just super evocative to my imagination, and I kinda hate that I have to choose between it, alchemist, and inventor :p
Your inventor/Thaum combination is interesting though. So many ways to build on the idea of “You failed to account for…THIS!”
Including that exact feat, of course.
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This class is just super evocative to my imagination, and I kinda hate that I have to choose between it, alchemist, and inventor :pYour inventor/Thaum combination is interesting though. So many ways to build on the idea of “You failed to account for…THIS!”
Including that exact feat, of course.
I might play an inventor/thaum depending on how the thaum mcd works for one of my table's free archetype games. I'm a huge sucker for blending the boundry between the esoteric and scientific in fantasy games
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(Some random ideas that may not be particularly 1:1 to the concept, but sound like good explinations)
20) Synchronicity [inspired partly by the real phenomenon & John Constantine's power]
- Through some measure of circumstance, coincidence, or sheer, dumb luck; you manage to create connections within reality that somehow works in your favor. Perhaps the alignment of a celestial body temporarily empowered an item? Maybe a series of seemingly unrelated events turned into something more intertwined? Or maybe through some twist of fate, fortune simply smiled upon you. Whatever the cause, reality seems to bend around you and allows you to otherwise make nonexistent links to the world around you.
21) Alternate Reality/Time Tapping [inspired partly by Starfinder's Witchwarper] - Time and reality is as varied and mutable as the creatures that live within it, and you are privy to this very truth. In one reality, Vampires may be weak to moonlight, while Werecreatures transform in sunlight. In an another timeline, the God's have ceased to exist, disrupting the connections of those divine beings and magic that served them. By opening temporary tears into these realities and timelines, you are able to alter your own, forging fleeting truths that collapse as quickly as they are made.
22) Thaumaturgical Links [inspired partly by Dresden Files] - All things are connected through a series of imperceptible metaphysical threads, which you've learned to tailor to your needs. You cut, tug, and weave these threads on a whim, warping the very fabric of reality to you will, often to fantastical and destructive effect. You create and manipulate the ties between all things, linking them in ways others cannot.
23) Self-imposed Reality [inspired partly by Marvel's Legion] - The mind is an incredibly powerful thing, capable of learning, reasoning, and persuading that which is around it. Sometimes though, the mind is so profound or broken, that the realities our minds impose upon itself becomes more real than anything. Whether your psyche is broken or you truly belief the falsehoods it creates, those thoughts become your very reality. Your mind believes in particular concepts so soundly, those thoughts spill into the world around you, distorting the reality you reside within. Who says tyere isn't power in insanity?
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26) You are a geniekin, and your bloodline lets you grant wishes. When you set up espteric antithesis, you make a wish, or grant one to an ally, to cause the defenses of the target to fail. Additionally, your predictive purchase, wonder worker, etc abilities are also reflavored as wishes ("I wish I had a healing potion to spare my friend")
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26) You are a geniekin, and your bloodline lets you grant wishes. When you set up espteric antithesis, you make a wish, or grant one to an ally, to cause the defenses of the target to fail. Additionally, your predictive purchase, wonder worker, etc abilities are also reflavored as wishes ("I wish I had a healing potion to spare my friend")
ohhh this is my favorite and I might steal it.
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26) You are a geniekin, and your bloodline lets you grant wishes. When you set up espteric antithesis, you make a wish, or grant one to an ally, to cause the defenses of the target to fail. Additionally, your predictive purchase, wonder worker, etc abilities are also reflavored as wishes ("I wish I had a healing potion to spare my friend")ohhh this is my favorite and I might steal it.
You cannot steal was is freely given :p
Ngl, I also wanna run that one so bad
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20) breaking the 4th wall, you take their character sheet and hastily scribble on the weakness or debuff. You ARE a wonder worker, after all!
Red Mage, is that you? STOP REWRITING YOUR CHARACTER SHEET! I TOLD YOU TO STOP IT!
27) TEH LITTLE GROTS FINK THAT RED GOES FAST! SO WE PUT A RED CAR AN A BLUE CAR IN A RACE, AND TEH RED ONE WONE! THE GROTS BE RITE!
28) "The whole world is a product of cognition... ...not just the Metaverse. It can be freely re-made... The same goes for you, and everyone else. Soon a new world will come. One where mankind isn't held captive. The world will shine brightly as long as you hold hope in your hearts. Remember... There's no such thing as the "real" world. What each person sees and feels— Those are what shape reality. This is what gives the world infinite potential. Even if you feel that only darkness lies ahead... As long as you hold hands together... See it through as one... ...the world will never end! The world exists within all of you...!" ~Some stupid cat
29) you are witch... not in a fantasy sense, but more close to real life pracitioners, in that your practices have subtle effects rather than cast big flashy spells. By profession, you are healer of body and soul, though your knowledge of hexes and curses can be turned to a weapon when people try to harm you. Using the laws of similarly and contagion, you place a malediction upon your foes. This character probably takes familiar feats, scroll esoterica feats, binding circle, ritual support, and possibly pacts to compliment the mytical feel.
30) you are a sprite or gnome, and you collect eclectic odds and ends, seeing a power, draw, and uniqueness to them that others don't. Whether you are aware of it ot not, these items of interest carry embers from the spark of creation thar became the universe. Like calls to like, and when you imbue your weapons with an essence that matches your opponent on some level, your weapons are drawn to them, causing them to inflict more grievous wounds, or your foes body is drawn so much to your esoterica that is distorts them in subtle ways that hampers their abilities
31) This is all a dream.
The matrix has you, gorgon.