Tuesday, September 3rd

The Daily Report

Man, it has been a weird couple of weeks.

Right now we're in a break in the heatwave, and I've taken the opportunity to retreat back to the attic so I can get some actual progress on the moving stuff before the heat returns--really hopefully for the last time in full force--this weekend. Today's Tuesday, which would normally be my "light writing/other stuff day", but from here on out, "other stuff" means packing and packing-related activities, as long as the weather allows.

The weather very much does allow this morning. The first thing I'm doing is taking the largest storage tubs that are already packed and organized and moving them to the space at the foot of my attic stairs. This gives me a handy little jolt of psychological progress (very important when one has a monumentally large task to undertake) and also gives me room to work in up here and a more realistic idea of how much work there is.

Some of the largest tubs are things that became catch-alls during the frantic final days of fleeing from the apartment, but others are well-packed and well-organized. Since I don't have to do anything else with them except moving them, it makes sense to just get them out of the way now.

Right now, I'm thinking that as long as the worst of the heat is actually behind us (or will be, after next Monday) then I can stay completely on top of the moving stuff just by doing it every Tuesday and Thursday of this month, which means Monday, Wednesday, and Friday can be given over to writing. I have the weekend to give me wiggle room in both categories.

The State of the Me

My first night back sleeping in my own place in weeks and of course the sleep ended up being pretty terrible... fragmented and shallow. But it's a sign of how well I've been sleeping in general and how accustomed my body is to me being up at eight or so in the morning that I woke up at eight or so this morning.

Plans For Today

See above. This afternoon is going to definitely get too hot for attic-related activity (or attic-tivity, if you will). I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do with it. The downstairs was completely re-arranged while I was away (this happens a lot) and my downstairs workstation is going to take more getting back in order than usual, though there are also more places I can sit with a laptop now. I kind of want to get on the desktop because I haven't in weeks, but it'll depend on what I'm up for, physically, whether I do or not, and that'll decide in part what I spend my afternoon doing.

AWW: Sneak Previews continue - Primal Empath

Today's preview is for the Primal Empath CQ, which is based around the idea of a "beastmaster" character and things like the "Wild Empathy" of D&D rangers and druids in 3E. By default it doesn't provide any permanent companions, but it does make it cheaper/easier to get a useful animal companion at level 1 and includes summons starting at level 2.

---

PRIMAL EMPATH
Basic Abilities
[A] Primal Understanding: You have an instinctive or very well-rounded understanding of animals. You have knowledge of animals and beasts, and can add a +1 bonus to Knowledge Checks, Perception Checks, and Healing Checks concerning animals. When you fight animals or beasts, your physical attacks and defenses have this bonus as well. When you are using magic to directly affect an animal or beast mentally, you can add this bonus as an element bonus, and can use Perception or Presence in place of Magic for the Spell Check. You take no penalty to Influence Checks or social attacks for language or lack of intellect when dealing with animals or beasts.

[A] The Gentleness of Lions: Animals not under the direction of a handler and not being supernaturally controlled will not attack you, if you do not attack them or their group first. Note that taking food, approaching an egg or live young, and other transgressions may well register as an attack, but animals will give warning and a chance to stop first if the approach is slow enough to allow it. From level one, this protection can be extended to one other person per level until a fight has actually begun. All who are protected must be within 1D of you. Beasts and animals being controlled by others can still attack you, though their attacks are clumsy until you've taken hostile action. Extremely well-trained or loyal creatures (the equivalent of a player character's companion) may be completely immune to this.

Standard Abilities
Animal Communication: Add your level to Influence Checks and social attacks made against animals, and half your level (round up) against beasts. You can use Magic or Presence in place of another attribute to make Influence Checks against animals or beasts. You can substitute the better of your Magic or Perception for either Persuasion or Coercion for any purpose in a Presence-based mental attack (for example, damage modifiers in social attacks).

Animal Mimicry: You have a +3 bonus to Deception Checks to imitate an animal, including copying its calls, faking tracks or other signs of its passage, or emulating the way it moves through foliage. Increase to +5 if an actual example of the animal or the signs being faked is at hand. When an animal is within 3D and clearly in your view, you can make a Perception or Magic Check as an Aid Check for yourself, for a task that the animal is noted for. Ignore the usual penalty for aiding yourself. You can keep that bonus for all similar checks until the end of the adventure, or until you use this ability again. No animal is noted for Magic Checks, for purposes of this ability.

Primal Bond: Any animal or beast companion you have can have the callable, sensory link, combat companion, or intellect trait for free. At levels 3 and 5, you gain the ability to give one more trait from this list to each animal or beast companion.

Inspire Fierceness: In each round of a fight scene, one animal or beast companion of you or an ally can act as though they have the combat companion trait. All your animal or beast companions that have the combat companion trait can add half your level to their Attack Checks.

Advanced Abilities
Level 2 Friends Everywhere: You can find or summon a living animal or beast companion worth 2 Gear Points at any point during an adventure. If this companion is killed or violently defeated, you take 2 Wound Points or one point of Magic Burn and cannot summon a new companion again during that scene or the next one. Otherwise, you can dismiss your temporary companion at any time and gain a new one, but you can only take a companion once per scene. At levels 4 and 5, the value of the companion increases by 1 Gear Point.
##USED

Level 4 Coordinated Control: Once per round, you and one animal or beast companion can both take one action and have it count as a single action or you can make a mental attack against an animal or beast as an extra action.

Level 6 The Beast Within: Any living organic being that isn't a plant counts as a beast for purposes of the abilities of this quality, except for applications that specifically apply to your companions.

---

This is one of the few CQs that gets a fairly unrestricted extra-attack-every-round ability before level 6, but I feel that's appropriate for the archetype. The level 6 ability is more of a game changer insofar as it opens up the most common type of opponent (i.e., other people) to your abilities.

The ability to make substitute Spell Checks to mentally affect animals and beasts was a late addition to this CQ, after I decided to give the element-o-mancy CQs more utility for non-wizards by doing a similar thing. I feel it adds a lot to this quality... this kind of character should be able to convince a bunch of mice to chew through ropes or snag a key off a table or something, but writing rules to cover that and fitting them into the single page allotted would be cumbersome. Giving them limited access to the magic system covers that nicely.