Riftcaller

Adventures. Riftcallers adventure for power, for knowledge of the drowned reality, and because no city will let them stay long. Some hunt fibrolite and old runekar sites near the Fiend's Chasm, where the seam runs thinnest. Some sell their summoned servants as guards, laborers and soldiers to anyone who pays and asks no questions. Ethon quietly hires them. Every other nation hangs them.

Characteristics. The riftcaller is Eldriloch's summoner. They work the aether along the seam the Sunder left, and weave bodies of ash and aether for the exspiratis that drift beside the world: skitz at first, then lesser exspiratis, and at the height of their power, the full exspiratis that command armies. Their other patterns pull the drowned world's cold and ash through the seam, bind what comes through, and cut the exspiratis loose from their hosts. Every pattern pulls against the seam, and the harder a riftcaller pulls, the more likely it is to tear. A riftcaller can reach past what they can safely hold, and call something far greater than they should, at a risk that grows terrible very quickly.

Outlook. Riftcallers believe the seam is the most important fact in the world and that everyone else is too frightened to look at it. Most are ambitious, secretive and certain they are in control. The ones who aren't careful don't stay riftcallers for long.

Religion. None that would have them. To the Celestial Covenant, riftcalling is aetheric manipulation, trafficking with the exspiratis and the Sunder's own sin in one, and the Wardens count a riftcaller among the abominations. Riftcallers return the contempt.

Background. The malumtene found the seam first. Generations of destructive practice had already taught them to cut the aether's threads, and after the Sunder some of them found that the cut threads led somewhere. They learned to reach through without letting anything reach back, and they have never let an exspiratis ride them. Humans learned the art from the malumtene during the War of Souls, when Ethon wanted soldiers that didn't need bargains. Most riftcallers are taught in secret circles of three to seven, called choirs, which meet near the Chasm and in the ruined halls of Ethon's lost south. A few are self-taught, and most of those die learning.

Races. Only malumtene and humans can become riftcallers. Malumtene are the natural riftcallers, and the exspiratis can't ride them. Humans can learn the art, but every human riftcaller knows that an exspiratis on the far side of a bad binding is looking at a body it could take. Runekar hate everything the exspiratis touch and won't learn it. Ashen already have an exspiratis inside, and it won't share the seam. Souldriven can't touch the aether this way.

Other Classes. Riftcallers get on best with entertainers, runners and other people the law already wants. Aetherians consider them reckless. Wardens consider them abominations. Ashen consider them thieves: the exspiratis inside an ashen hates the leash a riftcaller puts on its kin.

Role. A summoner who fights through called servants and battlefield control, with high reward and real risk. At their safe levels they are a reliable caster. When they overreach, they can swing a fight or lose it, and sometimes lose themselves.

Abilities. Charisma determines how powerful a pattern a riftcaller can cast, how many they can cast per day and how hard they are to resist. Constitution keeps them alive through backlash. Wisdom helps them hold their own mind against the voices on the far side.

Race: Human or malumtene.

Hit Die: d6.

Starting Wealth: 3d4 × 10 gl (75 gl).

Class Skills

The riftcaller's class skills (and the key ability for each) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (the rift) (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis) and Spellcraft (Int). Knowledge (the rift) covers the exspiratis, the drowned reality, the Fiend's Chasm and the seam.

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) × 4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier.

All of the following are class features of the riftcaller.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Riftcallers are proficient with all simple weapons. They aren't proficient with any armor or shields, and armor interferes with their gestures like any arcane casting (arcane spell failure).

Patterns: A riftcaller casts arcane spells, called rift patterns, drawn from the riftcaller pattern list. They cast spontaneously, like a sorcerer, from a fixed number of patterns known, and use the sorcerer's spells per day and spells known. To learn or cast a pattern, a riftcaller must have a Charisma score of at least 10 + the pattern's level. The save DC is 10 + the pattern's level + the riftcaller's Charisma modifier. Rift patterns are aether, and they carry the aether current. They use verbal and somatic components and need no fibrolite. Every rift pattern is subject to a breach.

Rift Calling: A riftcaller knows every rift call pattern, I through IX, from 1st level. They don't count against patterns known. A riftcaller can cast a rift call within their reach using a spell slot of its level, or overreach to cast one beyond it. Only one rift call can be active at a time (two from 13th level). Casting a new one ends the old one, and the bodies of its servants crumble to ash.

Rift Sight (Su): A riftcaller can see creatures of the exspiratis current within 60 feet, including an exspiratis drifting unseen beside the world, an ashen's passenger, and a creature using flicker. They know an ashen by sight.

Breach: Every rift pattern pulls against the seam, and the seam can tear. See Breach, below.

Steady the Breach (Ex): At 2nd level, when a breach occurs, the riftcaller can make a Concentration check (DC 15 + twice the pattern's level) as a free action. On a success, they subtract 20 from the d100 roll on the breach table. A riftcaller who rolls a natural 1 on the check adds 10 instead.

Kept Skitz (Ex): At 3rd level, the riftcaller binds one skitz permanently, a lesser exspiratis in an animal's body that serves them as a familiar does. It uses the skitz statistics below, gains the familiar's bonus hit points, natural armor and Intelligence by the riftcaller's level, and can share the riftcaller's rift sight. The riftcaller can talk with it, and it reports everything it hears. If it dies, the riftcaller can bind another after a week, and takes 1d4 points of Wisdom damage from the severed thread.

Binder's Will (Su): At 5th level, every creature the riftcaller summons gains +2 hit points per Hit Die and a +2 bonus on attack rolls.

Veilward (Su): At 7th level, the riftcaller is immune to exspiratis dream manipulation and gains a +4 bonus on saves against the abilities of exspiratis, ashen and skitz, and against any attempt to possess or ride them.

Long Leash (Su): At 9th level, the riftcaller's rift calls last 1 minute per level instead of 1 round per level.

Thin the Seam (Su): At 11th level, the riftcaller's breach rating for every rift call is reduced by 1 (minimum 0).

Twin Binding (Su): At 13th level, the riftcaller can keep two rift calls active at once.

Hold the Seam (Su): At 15th level, once per day, after rolling on a breach table, the riftcaller can roll again and take the better result.

Seam Ward (Su): At 17th level, the riftcaller gains spell resistance equal to 15 + their riftcaller level against creatures and effects of the exspiratis current.

Master of the Wound (Su): At 20th level, once per day, the riftcaller can cast rift call IX as if its breach rating were 1, and the greater exspiratis it calls has maximum hit points.

Lost Riftcallers: A riftcaller who is ridden by an exspiratis on a breach and doesn't throw it off can, at the Game Master's discretion, lose their class features until they spend a month in a choir rebuilding their bindings. A human who is claimed (see the tables) may become ashen.

Every time a riftcaller casts a rift pattern, the seam pulls back. The breach rating of a casting is the pattern's level minus the riftcaller's reach, plus 1. A rating of 0 or less is safe. Patterns below a riftcaller's reach carry no risk at all. A pattern at their reach carries a small one. Patterns beyond it are where the danger lives.

After casting, the riftcaller rolls d100. If the result is equal to or lower than the breach chance for the rating, a breach occurs: roll on Table: Rift Surge for any pattern, or on Table: Loosened Binding for a rift call. Add +10 to that roll for every point of breach rating above 1. The breach happens as the pattern resolves, and the pattern still takes effect unless the table says otherwise.

The offset. As a riftcaller gains levels, their reach rises, and the same pattern becomes safer. A 1st-level riftcaller calling a lesser exspiratis (rift call III, rating 3) is gambling everything. At 6th level, the same call is their highest reach (rating 1), and at 8th level it's safe.

A riftcaller can cast a rift call of any level, even one far beyond their reach. They spend their highest-level spell slot available, the casting takes a full-round action, and they take 1d6 points of damage per level of the overreach as the seam fights them. Then they roll for a breach at the overreached rating. Only rift calls can be overreached. Other rift patterns must be known and within reach.

Overreaching is how a desperate 3rd-level riftcaller calls a full exspiratis into a fight it has no business being in. With a breach rating of 5, it will almost certainly breach, and the roll on Loosened Binding starts at +40. The exspiratis may serve. It may also turn, bring friends, or try to ride its caller home.

Live Below Your Reach. Most of the time, cast patterns a level below your reach. They carry no risk at all, and that's the riftcaller's quiet strength.

Know When to Gamble. Overreaching is for when losing the fight is worse than losing control. A 25% breach at rating 2 is a real chance. A 95% breach at rating 5 is a coin flip between a miracle and a catastrophe, and the table is weighted toward catastrophe.

Humans and Malumtene. A malumtene riftcaller rolls 10 lower on both tables and can't be ridden. A human riftcaller can, and the worst results can make them ashen. Choose with that in mind.

Everyone Is Watching. A riftcaller with a skitz on their shoulder is an abomination to every Warden and a monster to most of the public. The Veil and the Sons of the Throneless may shelter one. Ethon may hire one. Nobody will thank one.