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As sorcerers grow in power, they come closer to the mythical beings their supernatural nature is tied to. This can in many cases be expressed physically, in odd traits that provide no additional abilities but can be intriguing and unusual. These are optional and for fun; some sorcerers may never show any outward signs of their arcane heritage. Some may be express these features normally but be able to suppress them if they wish. When determining manifestations, you may roll on the charts for your bloodline or come up with a feature of your own that is appropriate to the bloodline’s aesthetic.
Roll on the appropriate chart when you gain the indicated bloodline power.
d6 Acidic Ray Manifestation (Level 1)
1 - A stinging acid drips from your fingers. This can cause discomfort but no damage.
2 - Your skin turns pale and appears slightly translucent when you use a spell or bloodline power.
3 - Your fingers can bend backwards with full dexterity.
4 - Your eyes become milky and unfocused. This doesn’t impair your vision but looks weird.
5 - You can eat and drink acidic substances without discomfort so long as they cause no damage.
6 - Your saliva becomes thick and glows faintly in the dark – you spit your acidic ray.
d6 Long Limbs Manifestation (Level 3)
1 - You have a pair of lengthy tentacles. They are too weak to hold things but you use them to deliver your touch attacks.
2 - Your arms become lanky and jointed strangely. You can bend them as if your elbow is at any point along their length.
3 - You have strange pores on your fingertips. You extend thin, fibrous filaments from them to deliver your touch attacks.
4 - Your arms become incredibly stretchy and rubbery.
5 - Your forearms have extra joints and fold up like a mantis’ arms. You can hide this with long sleeves.
6 - Your hand can shoot out from your arm on a long, fleshy cord that you can retract rapidly.
d6 Unusual Anatomy Manifestation (Level 9)
1 - Your heartbeat sounds very unusual – in fact, you can alter its rhythm at will.
2 - You can make impossible expressions. Not only is your face rubbery, you can move your features in horrible ways.
3 - Examination of your torso finds that your ribs are vertical instead of horizontal.
4 - You have three eyes, and all of them are a different size and colour.
5 - You find you can regrow lost teeth within a few days but they never regrow the same shape.
6 - You have a different number of digits on each hand and foot.
d6 Alien Resistance Manifestation (Level 15)
1 - You become totally hairless and your skin is weirdly slick.
2 - When casting a spell or using a bloodline power, strange shapes can be seen writhing under your skin.
3 - When at rest your body seems to seep slightly into whatever surfaces you are resting on.
4 - When in motion it appears as if you have no bones at all.
5 - You can suck your entire face inside your skull and often do so briefly when resisting hostile magic. This is disgusting but merely cosmetic.
6 - You have numerous eyes over your body. You cannot see out of them but they do appear to focus and look at things around you.
d6 Aberrant Form Manifestation (Level 20)
1 - When casting a spell or using a bloodline power, your mortal form melts away to reveal the image of an unearthly horror. This glimpse is enough to unnerve but causes no actual penalties.
2 - Your body becomes putty-like and featureless when you are sleeping or bored. Your features quickly return like pustules forming when you are paying attention.
3 - You can shift the features on your face to anywhere on your head. They slowly return to their normal positions over time.
4 - You can extend your tongue long enough to make your touch attacks with it.
5 - Your eyes become hollow pits and those that stare into them can see an unfathomable void that goes on forever. A few glints of light appear in the depths occasionally.
6 - You can rotate your head, arms and legs 360 degrees without any discomfort.
I started at the beginning of the list and happened to get the weirdest one; most shouldn't be as visibly inhuman as the aberrant sorcerer. Grab a bloodline and give it some charts! The features don't have to exactly correspond to the power but must relate to the bloodline's heritage. A fey sorcerer might have iridescent eyes when they gain laughing touch, for example.
Important: I know some of you will ignore this anyway, but here it is. None of the features can add any extra powers beyond cosmetic things. These are not useful abilities. They are visual expressions of the bloodline.
d6 Laughing Touch (Level 1)
1 - Your irises become iridescent like a beetle's shell.
2 - A faint sound of laughter echoes with your spellcasting.
3 - You always have perfect nails and do not need to maintain them.
4 - Your canines are slightly more pointed than normal.
5 - You sleep with your eyes open.
6 - You do not tan or suffer sunburn.
d6 Woodland Stride (Level 3)
1 - Tiny flowers spring up from the soil where you step. They vanish after about an hour.
2 - You can go barefoot without discomfort and develop no calluses.
3 - A burst of butterflies or moths appears when you cast a spell with obvious effects.
4 - Leaves and flowers grow in your hair. Pulling them out causes no harm.
5 - You grow small thorns in a few places on your skin, such as shoulders and spine.
6 - Your hair colour changes with the seasons, turning verdant green in Spring and Summer, golden or coppery in Autumn and snowy white in Winter.
d6 Fleeting Glance (Level 9)
1 - Your ears are dramatically pointed, moreso than an elf's.
2 - Your proportions become slightly exaggerated, enough to make people look twice.
3 - When you cast a spell or use a bloodline power, you leave a few fading afterimages of yourself.
4 - You have a faintly visible gossamer aura that flows like silk around you.
5 - Reflections are very easily seen in your eyes. What's odd is that the reflections are upside-down.
6 - Your hair wafts and flows even when there is no wind.
d6 Fey Magic (Level 15)
1 - You grow twisted antlers that appear made of wood.
2 - Your legs become shaggy-furred and goatlike.
3 - Your shadow is restless and fidgets and dances when you aren't looking at it.
4 - When you cast a spell or bloodline power, gossamer wings appear on your back for a second. They are merely illusory and do not grant any ability to fly.
5 -
6 -
d6 Soul of the Fey (Level 20)
1 - Mundane animals in your vicinity speak using your voice, albeit saying simple and inane things.
2 - Shadows bend toward you, warping and distorting by your presence.
3 -
4 -
5 -
6 -
It's almost 4am and I've run out of ideas. Post things to fill in the missing slots here or post another bloodline!
I really like what you are doing here, I don't really have much to add right now but I have some ideas for the celestial bloodline. I don't really have enough ideas to take up as much space using your format though, so here are my disorganized thoughts.
Your irises turn silver or gold. a faint halo of prayers spelled out in celestial appears around your head. your feet barely touch the ground, it almost seems as if you are gliding across the ground.
I love this! I'm on my lunch break now, I'll see what I can come up with later.
Good work! it's a nice read. Are you going to do more? Or finish the fey bloodline?
This bloodline is my favorite simply because of raw power. I am not one to min-max characters and I usually play a character that fits into games but this particular bloodline really appeals to the inner power hungry side of me.
Anyway, I took the above idea and did a bit differently. Each number (on the d6) refers to a particular ‘manifestation tree,’ which if you were lucky to roll the same number more than once, will have a relatively same manifestation. So to reiterate, all 1s are the same manifestation just intensified. They do not replace each-other, just help build off one another. The reason is simple. As this bloodline levels up it just increases in power so it made sense to base the manifestations off of level and not the particular bloodline ability.
**As a note. The term *light* is used a lot in these manifestations. Let me be clear. It is in any way reflective of a photon particle. These power lights do not emit light. In fact, in daylight, they appear bright but in darkness, they appear as black voids. Whatever color of light is prevalent in the current setting reflects on the Arcane light. Darkvision cannot see this manifestation nor should these manifestations make perception check vs the Arcane bloodline easier.
Arcane
D6 Arcane Bond Manifestation
1 - Small streaks of light appear around you at all times, blinking into existence, zipping around your body, and then winking out.
2 - While casting a spell, tiny glyphs appear on your body, especially within your irises. Furthermore, you see these glyphs at all times, even if they are not there. This is reflective of your knowledge of spells (in my games I have an ancient Magic language that is written in glyphs and such).
3 - Periodically throughout the day, your veins glow with light as arcane power races throughout your body. It happens very quickly, and usually travels away from your center (shoulder to elbow to hand).
4 - While casting a spell, gravity ceases to function normally, as you lift slowly off the ground. Upon completion of the spell, you instantly drop back down, as do your possessions, hair, and anything else that could have drifted away from you (including familiar if chosen). Anything attached to you lifts; therefore there is no need to worry about something not attached to your drifting away (except familiar).
5 - When a successful knowledge check is made, you speak in the language of magic, as if the arcane itself has delivered the knowledge to you. If you do not speak the knowledge check out loud, then you simply know in your mind which language the information was stored in.
6 - Periodically throughout the day, you become slightly attractive (not in the physical, opposite sex sense). Objects drift over to you for only the briefest of seconds, never more than an inch or two.
D6 Metamagic Adept
1 - Crackles on light, similar to an erupting fire burst, blink in an out of existence around your body.
2 - When casting spells, shimmering glyphs of unknown languages appear hovering around your body. These glyphs appear in perfect horizontal bands and slowly rotate around you.
3 - Periodically throughout the day, your entire body pulsates with light as arcane power charges within you. It happens very quickly, and usually manifests brightly before fading.
4 - While casting a spell, you are surrounded by a torrent of light. These specks of light begin on the ground and race upwards, never in any other direction.
5 - While casting a spell that uses Visual and Somatic components: Your hand movements leave a trail of light and your voice deepens and echoes. Your voice does not go up nor down any decibels, just simply deepens and echoes.
6 - Periodically throughout the day, you repel objects. Any small object in close proximity to you slides away as if pushed/pulled slightly. This distance is no more than one or two inches.
D6 New Arcana
1 - Larger streaks of light orbit your person, staying in existence much longer than previous versions. Before these streaks of light wink out of existence, they erupt in a brilliant burst, traveling a distance as if on fire, and then vanish
2 - When casting spells, A large shimmering glyph of unknown languages appears a foot in front of you. This glyph slowly rotates during the casting of the spell and usually appears with a circular intricate border.
3 - You gain an Arcane fingerprint, which essentially leaves any area you touch aglow for a few seconds after releasing. When you walk, arcane footprints are left behind. When you touch objects, arcane points of light remain behind. This light slowly dissipates and vanishes after a period of time.
4 - While casting a spell, large globes of light rapidly twirl around you. These orbs are not light similar to previous manifestations, but in fact translucent balls with light inside of them. If one were to peer into these balls, they would see a torrent of movement, as if a miniature vortex were contained inside.
5 - While you cast spells with Visual components, your hand becomes entombed in a disk of light. This light sits at the wrist and expands out for several inches. Depending on the hand movements, this disk of light can tilt and turn to appear in various ways.
6 - Arcane energy manifests itself in an awkward field that emanates from you. This field often irritates most animals and humanoids. The energy irks the skin, makes hairs stand up on end and pushes slightly on that person. It’s an awkward indescribable force that tickles the nervous system. For all game related purposes, this field should not do anything to shift starting attitudes, but rather, reflect the pure power of the fielded person.
D6 School Power
1 - Your body has numerous points of light that ‘jump’ from place to place. These lights are numerous and small but they bounce along your skin as if you were rubber. Occasionally, larger portions of light manifest, bouncing down an arm, or a leg.
2 - When casting spells, A large shimmering glyph of unknown languages appears on the ground underneath you. This glyph slowly rotates during the casting of the spell and usually appears around a circular intricate border.
3 – Your skin appears translucent to better reflect the pulsing power within you, and your eyes glow. Furthermore, all pigment drained from your skin has bleached your hair as well, leaving it white despite age.
4 – While casting a spell, your vision is filled with visions of the past, present, and future, as the arcane energy warps the space-time fabric. These visions do not aid in knowledge checks, but help to illustrate the divination side of the arcane.
5 - While casting a spell, bands of light appear around your body. These bands of light are perfect circles, appear at varying distances from origin, and usually spearing solidified. If your person also has the glyph manifestation, these bands of light appear between the rotating glyphs.
6 – A noticeable field warps light when looking at you. You are surrounded by a faint buffer of arcane energy that causes you to shimmer in light. Paired up with other manifestations, this field interacts interesting with everything.
D4 Arcane Apotheosis Pick a single level 3 or lower manifestation in addition.
1 - You gain erratic arcane manifestations. It manifests in three ways; large super-fast floating orbs, erratically jumping points of power and large flare bursts. The first manifestation, large orbs of light, zip behind you when you walk as well as launch away from you as you stand still. They travel around you at intense speeds. The balls of power manifest as a bouncing point of light, which follows you as you walk, as well as erratically hopping around you as you stand still. The final manifestation is like a miniature explosion. These flare bursts of moderate size explode around you and trail you as you walk (think of a walking firework).
2 - The arcane energy in your body is hard to contain. This manifestation is extremely erratic and often times your body remains aglow. Sometimes tendrils of power illuminate your body similar to lightning. Other times your body strobes. Furthermore, it’s as if the Prestidigitation spell is continuously at work, cleaning your body, stirring movement in your clothing and hair, lifting objects around you to hover.
3 - While casting a spell, a torrent of arcane particles creates a singularity, sort of a vacuum in and around you (it does not rip space and time, simply creates a bubble in it). This void alters space and time, warping visible light and sound. While casting, observers looking into your ‘bubble’ view you has if looking through a warped mirror. When casting is complete, the void dissipates and rapidly refocuses existence around you.
4 - Arcane energy manifests in a ‘sound’ which rattles anything around you, glass, metals, tables. You sound like a walking tornado/earthquake/train. This extremely low frequency makes the very air itself ‘hum’ and intensifies when spells are used. In a physics sense, the arcanum does not interact with air molecules. The humming can be felt not heard, and the sorcerer has control over its output, which is important for in game mechanics
This is a fantastically creative thread! I've enjoyed reading everything and I'll definitely be consulting this thread if I ever get the chance to play a sorcerer. Keep up the good work everyone!
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