The Power of Ten

Chapter 5-117: Levels Passing By

Author’s Note: This chapter is extremely dry, as I list out what is gained and when they happen. It’s more for completeness and people who like the details and figuring out where Traveler’s build is going. You won’t be missing much story if you just skip this chapter.

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Night 18:Binder/1. Pact, Eidolon, Summoning, Spells. Two Skill Points. Yay. Feat was Augment Summoning, Binders automatically qualified; Mastery was Elemental Mastery/1, Fire, allowing me to convert any spell or effect with an Elemental Descriptor into Fire on the fly. Four more Elements to go, of which Thunder was always last...

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Night 19:Melee/2! Yay, I finally got my d6+4 more Soak, plus Con bonus. Resolve, and its iterations all kicked in, a little Vigor never hurting anyone. Four skill points to assign, plus the six from my Intellect for hitting Two, which meant I actually had some to get ready for making books, here.

Combat Technique was Charge Defense, which started with Steadfast, and would add Hold the Line and Archer Stands Thrust as my Melee Level grew. Just needed to make sure I had my Staff with me...

Training Technique was Great Fortitude, which would grow with my Weapon Mastery. Purchased Feat was Toughness, which would add Health = to my MAB or +3, whatever was higher. The Mastery was Strength Mastery/1, which added some carrying capacity as it built towards another point of Strength at /3.

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Night 20: Then came Sorcerer/2, which I could tell irked my Shroudborn connection, since I was focusing on that instead of Witch. For this, I picked the extremely important Residual Magic Feat, which basically handed out free Metamagic if you cast the same spell over consecutive rounds... which I fully intended to do in the future. Basic Metas/3, Extend Spell, rode with it, a +I Meta which I could use to double the length of my Buffs... when I could cast II’s. I certainly wasn’t going to double the length of a Cantrip Buff I could endlessly repeat...

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Night 21:Witch/2 followed the next day, but it allowed me to pick the Repeated Magic Feat and Arcane Domain/2, Silver Magic. The former gave bonuses to hit, Spell Potency, or Spell Penetration if you kept repeating a spell... and the bonuses stacked. The latter gave a +4 to Dispel or Caster Level Checks, making it the perfect Domain for Counterspelling, Exorcisms, Curse-breaking, and the like... and it was the only Arcane Domain that granted Shards as a Domain Spell. Sylune’s Magical Domain had some crunk behind it...

A Jinx Witch/2 also got the ability to eat incoming spells. If a spell with a Fort or Will save failed against me, I could eat the residual magic and use it to boost the Potency of my next spell. Usable 3 + Intellect times a day, so nine times. Yeah, soooo useful, I really wanted to be the target of nine spells coming in at me, yes I did. Still, it was eating magic and turning it into something else useful...

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Night 22: Ur-Priest/2 followed, with nothing special going on, save the ability to take command of undead while Rebuking them, if I so desired. More important was the Feat, Positive Edge, which gave Healing spells additional damage equal to your Heal Ranks if used to harm undead instead of cure. Vivic Shards had the Healing descriptor...

Extra Domain/3: Destruction was then forced upon me. Yay, I got a Destructive Smite. Wahoo. Dark nasty Clerical Domains FTW all around...

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Night 23:Blighter/2 kicked in at the next dusk, rounding out what the Shroudborn link thought were my key Prepared Caster spells, ignoring Wizard entirely. A Blighter/2 was Sustained by the Land... by expediently and viciously pulling the power right out of it, instead of the general manafield like my Ring did. Again, the theme of pulling and converting magic, as it was otherwise a revolting way to get the effect. If I stayed in an area too long, even without razing it to get spells, stuff would slowly wither and die as I leeched away at it.

Uh-huh. The ability to use Energy Fan: Fire as a spell-like ability at will was there to help the Blighter set forests on fire, not for actual offensive purposes. The flames had black depths to them...

More to the point, I spent the Feat on purchasing Nog Mastery/1, which opened that Mastery tree for converting my unusable spell slots from all these Classes into Stat points. Without hesitation, I spent the first Slot to improve my foundation Strength from base 10 to 11... which effectively raised me from 9 to 10, making me as strong as a completely average human male, yay me! Still, the extra Strength was completely welcome, leaving me not feeling so weak and useless when sparring with Clavus...

The Mastery it chose was actually useful, and stuck with the Fire theme. Fire Meta/1, Fiery Spell, was a +1 Meta that added +1/die of damage to all fire spells. That was the default Elemental resonance of my Shards, so more damage on the stack for me and mine...

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Night 24: Bard/2 naturally followed, with more welcome effects. Bards were the social side of the Heartsong, and so got a bonus on Charisma-based interaction skills equal to half their Level... namely Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidation, as well as Etiquette, Teaching, and Social Combat rolls.

They also got the key skill of Versatile Performer: all Perform skills a Bard used operated off the Ranks of one named Skill, which for me became Song (a necessity for the higher levels of Arcane/Heartsong synthesis, and the Sublime Chord Mastery). I only needed one Rank in any Perform skill or instrument, and I could play it wonderfully. They wouldn’t benefit from any Masteries or Feats based on Song, but just getting the Ranks alone meant a wealth of musical knowledge and skill was flooding into my head as I got the Level. I would totally be able to bring the songs of Terra-Luna to this Shrouded Earth...

The Feat that came up was Spiritual Performance, a +1 Ki Feat which added my Wisdom bonus to all my Perform checks as long as I had any ki, and I could spend a Ki point to reroll a Perform check if I liked... which was unlikely, as Take 10 was a thing. The Mastery was... Charisma Mastery/2.

I Nogged my second Blighter Slot to Strength, getting me to 12 base, 11 actual.

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Night 25: After Bard came its counterpart, Minstrel/2. At Two, Minstrels got a flat +4 bonus to their saves against any effect with a language or sound-based effect, such as Thunder or the many audible Heartsong effects.

In contrast to Bards, Minstrels got Flexible Performer: Pick a Perform Skill, and you could use your total check modifier in that Skill for two other Skills affiliated with it. Just like I’d told Helix to do, I picked Dance, which would substitute for Fly and Acrobatics.

Suddenly driving myself up to six Ranks in Dance was quite the sensation, as it basically pounded tens of thousands of hours of conditioning and muscle memory into me... as well as knowledge of everything from ballet and break-dancing to waltzes and metal thrashing. If I spent the next hour singing and dancing in a private room, just to enjoy the fact that I was now really in shape and could finally recall all the music I could possibly want, that was on no one but me...

As it was a Spontaneous Caster Class, I picked up Moment of Greatness for Spells Known, which doubled morale bonuses on the target for a brief moment of time.

I burned one of my two Bard Slots to raise my Strength to 13, the highest level it could go for only one Slot, using Nog Mastery.

The Feat here was Lingering Melody, which kept the magical effects of Heartsong going for a full minute after I stopped actively using it. The Mastery was Charisma Mastery/3, which finally gave me the full +1 to Charisma, with all benefits thereunto, raising me to 16 and +3.

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Night 26: The Spontaneous Caster Classes continued with Inquisitor/2 the next night. The Spell Known I learned was Endless Ammo... good for using on others, naturally enough.

Ah, and this Level an Inquisitor picked up the Eyes of Heaven... the ability to Detect Evil,Good, or any other Alignment at will, much like a Paladin or Heavenbound. This was a very nice ability with three attached Masteries I definitely had to take all the way to /5...

I also gained the ability to Track, an ability as much supernatural as actual, in the end, and Cunning Initiative, +Wisdom bonus to Initiative Check. Going first was always important to a Caster...

I opened the Eyes of Heaven/1, adding 60’ to the base range, for 120’ forward arc sensitivity. I definitely had to improve on it. /5, Behold the Heart of Darkness, awaited!

The Mastery was Wisdom Mastery/1, starting on that process.

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Night 27: The last Spontaneous Caster Class in the series was Binder/2, now in its proper place... and still pretty useless. Yay, Share Senses with an Eidolon I couldn’t Summon. Yay, Make a Vestige Pact with an entity I couldn’t contact.

Oh, I got a Spell Known... Life Conduit, which helped me heal the Eidolon I didn’t have! Wonderful!josei

The Feat picked was Rapid Summoning, a +1 Meta which allowed Summon spells to go off as Battle Spells, not full-round, stay-in-one-place-and-get-shot, spells. The Mastery was Intellect/1, starting that progression, and I Nogged +1 to Charisma, improving to a base 13, using a Binder Slot to do so, 17 actual.

That ended my ability to raise my Stats, since base Stats from 14 to 17 required spending 3 Valences of Slots per raise, not 1. I could and would do it, but I had to wait for Three in my Primary Casting Classes to do so...

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Night 28:Magus/2, that odd contribution to my Leveling schema, jumped onto the plate with the other Casting Classes all done now. The Class Ability it gave was Spellstriking, allowing a touch attack spell to be channeled through a Weapon as you attacked, so you got to use the weapon’s bonuses to hit and threat range, which were generally much better than by hand.

Two of the spells on my inner wall were picked and Written into Einz. I barely noticed which ones... both touch attack spells I didn’t want to use, but I suppose I could mark them as Magus specials, just in case...

I didn’t want to get in melee range if at all possible, but it was always an option, I guess.

I actually got to pick the Mastery, and I chose Snowcaster/1. This starter Mastery allowed you to add the Cold Descriptor to almost any spell... and it opened up the very powerful Snowcaster Mastery to affect those spells, as long as you were in a place with cold temperatures. You could also substitute fresh ice or snow for material components, and if a spell already had the Cold Descriptor, doing so Cast it at +1 Level.

Uh, huh... I had a Phoenix Bloodline, the Parched Domain, and it had shoved Elemental Fire Mastery on me first. I picked Snowcaster. Sue me, you dumb Bloodline. You don’t know how to build a powerful Caster...

It elected my Feat as... Metamagic Ki. I kind of goggled at it, until I remembered that the Arcana Mastery/3 it had forced on me made one big pool of arcane energy and ki, so using one was using the other. Gave me +1 Ki, too.

So, spend a point of Ki or Arcana to power a Metamagic Effect, subbing for a Valence Level. Interesting... just have to calculate what kind of effect, I guess? It didn’t let me break the metacap, so basically just extra Valences to use on demand for Metas, as needed.

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Night 29: Next naturally came the Magus’ counterpart in strange things, my Monk/2 Level.

The Monk/2 gave two features: a Bonus Martial Arts Feat, and Evasion. The former I picked as Deflect Ray, building on Deflect Missiles. As I’d told Sir Pellier, it was a misnomer that it only worked on Rays, although that was pretty nice. It actually worked on Ranged Touch Attacks, which included bullets!

Yes, at Two, with a point of ki, you could slap away or dodge bullets 1/round, every time.

Evasion was basically scampering out of the way of blasts and booms, and having the residual magic just flow over, through, or past you. Make the Reflex save vs an area effect, take no damage, instead of half. The bane of all fireball flingers...

The Mastery I purchased was Sun Mastery/2, for +1 Ki and accessing the third Tier of Sun techniques, leading right to...

The Feat I purchased was Action Before Thought, the Sun Save for Reflex saves. With a +29 Concentration modifier, that was now an auto-pass for no damage below a Reflex Save of 31 required... and if I was fighting something with a 31 req, I was just going to run.

When I could take 10, it was going to be even better.

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Night 30:Artificer/2 was next up on the block. Another infusion per day, yay. Bonus Item Creation Feat, which went to Craft Magic Arms and Armor, as I wanted to work on my damn Staff without needing someone else to do so, for when I couldn’t get Naming Karma... or make something for someone else, as it were.

My Purchased Feat was Frugal Artisan, which meant I needed 25% less gold when making magic items. Given how much Gear I was already making, this was a substantial benefit in a place as cash-strapped as this.

The complementary Mastery was Item Creation/2, Craft Wand, which meant I could now create and charge up Valence I Wands, Wands being by far the cheapest to make and use of the consumable devices...

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Night 31: Alchemist/2, the other side of the Crafting paradigm, gave me an Alchemical Discovery (basically just a devoted Feat from a Class List) poison resistance +2, and the ability to apply and use poison without error... like an assassin.

The Discovery I wanted was Vital Organs, a bioalchemical effect related to shapechanging, which allowed the alchemist to spread their organs throughout their body, decentralizing crucial bodily functions, and having back-ups available elsewhere in case of injury. It meant that getting stabbed through the heart might not do a damn thing, because your heart was in four separate sections in your torso...

The Feat I took was related to Crafting, Efficient Artisan. This reduced the time required to make an Item by 25%. Since you could still work eight hours a day, that technically expanded the amount of gold you could burn a day to 1 1/3^rd goldweight base...

Combined with Frugal Artisan, I now only needed 75% of the time and money when making magic items. When you are making seriously expensive stuff, that was SUBSTANTIAL.

Although there was some Bomb stuff I could have grabbed, I stuck with just Intellect Mastery/2, getting closer to a bonus with my precious brainpower...

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Night 32: Scout/2, finally reaching the ends of this slog with the non-magical Classes.

At this Level, thieves and rogues and upstanding citizens like Scouts got a Talent, an unearthing of knacks that were basically yet another renamed set of Feats from a Class List. The one I picked was Sharp-Eyed, granting a +4 to Perception Checks, which could turn a clueless street kid into a pretty wary sentry, if nothing else.

For the Purchased Mastery, I grabbed Shadow Mastery/2, for +1 Ki, because I needed it to grab...

The Purchased Feat I wanted, which was the hugely vital Darkstalker, basically the heart and soul of any stealth build. It expanded effectiveness of my Stealth to include any and all alternate senses, like heat vision, magic detection, soul sense, tremblesense, thoughtsense, echolocation, and so forth and so on.

It didn’t matter what kind of senses they had, I’d be able to hide from them, if I was sneaky enough!

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Night 33: Archer/2’s turn to shine.

The Archery Technique chosen was Woodland Archer, which had some very interesting applications with Weaponized Shards. The +4 to hit for all subsequent shots if I missed someone was incredibly nice with the massive penalties for shooting large numbers of Weaponized Shards, and basically necessary at the higher Caster Levels of the spell.

It also meant if I hit someone in concealment with one shot, I’d catch them with the rest, and I’d be able to snipe effectively, able to duck and cover between shots while remaining unseen... very vital when I had such bright and showy things shooting out...

The Training Technique was the bland but necessary Lightning Reflexes, giving a bonus to Reflex saves, initiative, and potential Attacks of Opportunity per round... and the Save bonus scaled with Armor Training.

The Purchased Feat was foisted on me, as the Shroud seemed to want my soul to get even stronger, and was investing even more heavily in it. Enduring Soul allowed me to ignore negative energy side-effects, such as life drains, for one minute per point of Con bonus, at which time I got a Save to throw them off, exactly like Renewal. Very convenient... if you weren’t getting mass swarmed, or didn’t have a Death Ward.

Dexterity Mastery/1 finished things off.

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Night 34:Vizard/2’s turn, with its Bonus Feats from anywhere.

Time to address my build.

I went whole hog into Snowcaster Mastery, grabbing Frozen Magic, Cold Specialist, and the Penetrating Cold Metamagic as Feats. They were the reason I grabbed Snowcaster in the first place.

Funnily enough, Snowcaster added the Cold descriptor to a spell, but didn’t necessarily change it to cold DAMAGE... which was very deliberate. It was basically about using the pristine and pure power of cold to energize your magic, not about casting ice in an icy realm... which, if you thought about it, was kind of silly. Would you really want to use ice magic against creatures of ice?

Frozen Magic increased Spell Potency the lower the temperature dropped; +1 below freezing, +2 in extreme cold below zero F. Cold Specialist added +1 or +2 per die of damage at the same temperature ranges. Penetrating Cold made half the damage Primal and so immune to cold resistance or immunity... and doing 50% more damage to creatures vulnerable to cold, all as a +1 Metamagic.

Stack it with Sacred Spell, and Cold Immunity and Resistance didn’t apply at all...

Finished it all off with Intellect Mastery/3, and +1 Intellect, and this Level was all about juicing my combat ability with spells. I just needed a way to always be in a cold area, dum de dum...

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Night 35, and entering the home stretch. Expert/2 rang up with its mighty 8 skill points.

Feat was Skill Focus: Concentration, because I still wanted that Sage of Focus title. Mastery was Wisdom Mastery/2.

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And that was it, Night 36 since I entered this Shrouded Earth, and the mighty Noble/2 deigned to pop up and remind me that I was supposed to be gathering an Allegiance about me.

Patience, patience...

Then it proceeded to make my soul shine bright and true with Light of Life: Take a Will Save and move action to remove negative Levels every round.

I guess it wanted me fighting undead. Then it gave me Strength Mastery/2 to tone my biceps and pretend I was strong, and my Two’s were done.

Because it didn’t want me taking Wizard Levels, and so didn’t prompt it. Witches did all that, right?

It was going to get a surprise soon enough...