Techno - Mage

Every time a Techno-mage uses their implants to cast chaos or Technomancy abilities, they take 2 or 4 points of temporary Sanity damage that can be recovered when they sleep, this damage cannot be healed by any means except rest.(2 point - Technomancy, 4 Points - Chaos)

This Sanity damage, Referred to Chaos points must be tracked, Each time a techno-mage casts a spell of any kind while his chaos point total exceeds his Wisdom score—even if that spell does not have a chaos cost—he must make a Will save (DC 10 + the number of chaos points he has in excess of Wisdom). Failure indicates he goes berserk. While in this state, he casts destructive chaos spells at random on any target he can reach, and when he runs out of opponents, he immediately seeks out others to slay or destroy.

While a techno-mage is berserk, all chaos spells cost only half the listed cost (minimum 1 point) and cannot be maintained. When able(due to another class skill), the berserk mage will also automatically convert hit points to Chakra points as much as possible, and will convert at 50% more efficiency than the marked ability. The berserker will not stop his violent attacks until he drops. He is an NPC under the control of the Games Master(or original player), with no moral control over his own actions. He will even attack friends, allies, and other techno-mages unless he succeeds in a Will save at the same DC as the original check (the one made to see if he becomes berserk). If the mage is still an apprentice, the deactivation of his chrysalis will end the berserk frenzy, but otherwise, the only solution is to wait until he drives himself into unconsciousness.

Accrued chaos points fade at the rate of your wisdom modifier point for every day spent without casting any spells (of any kind). The mage may employ other abilities—such as skills, organelles for self-healing, magical items, and the like—so long as the ability or magic item does not duplicate a spell effect. The mage may also eliminate chaos points faster by using a technique called scouring. This is the ritual application of pain to clear one’s thoughts of destructive impulses. Scouring can involve cutting, pummelling, gouging, or any other means to score physical damage, although the most common method is to call down fire on oneself. This is why so many techno-mages are bald and hairless.

Regardless of the means, scouring trades physical damage for a quick reduction in accrued chaos points. The mage takes 1d6 damage and eliminates 2d6 chaos points from his total. This can be repeated as often as desired to eliminate as many chaos points as the mage deems necessary. Any damage taken cannot be reduced by any kind of DR, and is actual (not subdual) damage. This damage cannot be healed with ordinary first aid or curative magic, but the mage’s organelles will eliminate it fairly quickly in combination with natural healing.

At 1st level, a Techno-Mage gains his power from a device called a chrysalis. This piece of highly advanced technology attaches to the spinal cord via a specially implanted series of nodes planted amidst the vertebrae and at the base of the skull. Each chrysalis functions only for the mage it is designed for. The mage may not attach or remove his chrysalis, but his master or any other mage may do so as a full round action. Any mage may also deactivate or reactivate a chrysalis by grasping it as a standard action; there is no skill check required to turn it on or off. The chrysalis is a training tool, and as such is designed to be quickly activated or deactivated as the master sees fit.

While wearing the chrysalis, the character may employ any chaos and technomancy abilities without limitation. However, his master or any other mage may monitor his activities at will from any location, so long as the character is within the Techno-Mage FTL network, as described below (i.e. anywhere within known space).

The chrysalis is a visible piece of equipment that hangs down the back. It has a hardness of 10 and 20 hit points. Each hit point of damage it sustains produces a –1 penalty to all jutsu skill checks. Repairing a point of damage requires a successful Technical (electronics) checks at DC 20, but this can only be done by a Techno-Mage who has completed his apprenticeship and is now a full fledged mage. A Techno-Mage cannot build a chrysalis – the device can only be provided by mysterious agents of the shadow, who attune it directly to the DNA of the recipient

At 1st level, the apprentice mage must select a mental focus for his art.

This is the means by which he will visualise and activate the magic when he wishes to cast a spell. Each individual employs a different sort of focus. A mage could imagine himself mixing chemical formulas, painting works of art, doing mathematics, cooking, singing, or virtually anything else. Galen, for example, visualises himself writing computer programs, while Isabelle imagines she is weaving cloth.

A mage’s focus normally involves his voice (chanting, singing, shouting, or merely talking) and physical activity (working his fingers, waving his arms, and the like). In other words, his spells have both verbal and somatic components. If he cannot speak for some reason, or is unable to use his arms/hands, he cannot cast spells .

The mage can avoid these limitations by purchasing the feats as described in the meta-chakra section, although some spells may still require specific words and/or gestures to operate. Such spells will list these requirements in their text.

At 2nd level, the apprentice Techno-Mage’s blood becomes infused with the nano-technology devices that provide extra healing and damage resistance benefits. These add the following effects:

• The mage automatically stabilises without the need for Constitution or Medical checks.

• The mage is assumed to always be under constant long-term care by a doctor who always succeeds in his Medical check. The amount of healing received is based on the level of activity taken by the Techno-Mage each day.

• The mage receives a +2 bonus to all saving throws to resist all disease, poison, radiation, and other similar effects. This does not apply to effects that cause hit point damage, such as fire, cold or acid, which are simply healed normally.

At 5th level, the bonus to saving throws is increased to +4.

At 9th level, the bonus to saving throws is increased to +6.

At 4th level, the apprentice Techno-Mage has learned enough to undergo the final implantation of the technology that turns him into a full-fledged mage.

This event occurs during a special ceremony, called the ‘Becoming,’ that is administered only during one of the tri-annual Convocations. Because the events are held only on fixed occasions, it is entirely possible that a student could advance beyond 4th level before experiencing a Becoming. Galen, for example, has 6 character levels as the time of the next Convocation approaches. Regardless of level, a Techno-Mage may not establish a Place of Power before undergoing the becoming

Once he has become a full mage, the ex-apprentice no longer needs to rely on the chrysalis, although that particular item will always feel like a part of him, and may be employed for other purposes (such as to remotely control his ship). His abilities may not be deactivated or shut off by other mages, although if he acts against their order or violates any of their edicts they may take action as they see fit. A mage who completely fails to live up to the tenets of Techno-Mage society can even be flayed– his implants ripped out in a procedure that causes incredible pain, and almost certain death.The advancement of a Techno-Mage from apprentice to full mage is not automatic. The character must live up to the seven principles of Techno-Magery: solidarity, secrecy, mystery, magic, science, knowledge, and good. The mage will undergo various tests to ensure he can control the magic, including a final task set forth by his master based on the apprentice’s skills and character. His master will be the final arbiter of whether or not a mage is ready to undergo the final change, as it will ultimately fall back on him if the apprentice proves to be a failure.Should the mage fail the tests at the Becoming, or the Circle deems him unfit to wear the technology, his chrysalis is destroyed and he is cast out, never to employ technomancy again. Upon his Becoming, the Techno-Mage’s body becomes infused with the technology, which provides a number of advantages and features that are always active.

These are as follows:

• His spine possesses microfilaments that reach very close to the skin, giving his back the appearance of possessing an intricate, random tattoo in a reddish-brown colour. Those who know of this feature can use it to positively identify any Techno-Mage, unless of course the mage is using a means to conceal his true identity.

• His vision is sharper, and his hearing more acute giving him a +4 inherent bonus to all Perception checks pertaining to vision and sound.

• His eyes can also see into the infra-red spectrum. Out to a range of 60 feet, he can detect the presence of heat sources, even in total darkness. The nature of these heat sources cannot be specifically identified, however.

• He possesses other sensors that can detect changes in heart rate and voice stress, giving him a +4 inherent bonus to Sense Motive checks.

• He has a built-in ‘messaging system’ that allows him to send and receive messages to any other Techno-Mage whom he knows.

When he sends a message, it is delivered using a trio of encoded frequencies that are reassembled on the other end, positively identifying the sender. A mage can send and receive messages anywhere within the FTL network. A mage ‘sees’ messages as text and can send and receive them as a free action, but must actively concentrate to see if he has actually received a message since his last check– it does not arrive with any kind of alarm or warning. Note that when mages meet, such as during a convocation or a meeting of the Circle, it is considered rude to carry out private message-based conversations while engaged in verbal discussion with others.

Once a character becomes a Techno-Mage, he may depart the presence of his master if he wishes, although the bond between them will always be strong. The character may explore the galaxy, seek out knowledge, settle on a world of his choosing, or do whatever else he desires. He is even free to take another profession through multi-classing, if he so chooses, but the total number of other class levels may never exceed his total number of Techno-Mage levels, as described previously.

Techno-mages of the 4th Circle and higher can begin to learn Jutsu carrying the Technomancy Descriptor.

Beginning at 6th level, after the ritual is completed with other technomages,a Techno-Mage becomes able to employ an FTL network created and placed by the Techno-Mages in the distant past.

This network allows a mage to use certain long-ranged spells to reach out all the way into deep space. The FTL network is normally used for communication, although some powerful mages employ it for other purposes. The FTL network is limited to only those areas the Techno-Mages have visited, which encompasses virtually all of known space. If a mage moves into a part of the galaxy (or beyond) that has never been surveyed by mages, he may find himself cut off from the rest of his order, and cannot employ spells using FTL components.

Techno-mages of the 7th circle and higher can naturally use the Chaos magic inherent to the shadows and other chaotic beings without taking Enhanced Sanity damage.(Cost reduced from 4 to 2)

When a Techno-Mage reaches 8th level he may – but is not required to – establish a special site referred to as a place of power. This location, which requires two months to construct, is equipped with a variety of Techno-Mage gadgets to ensure his privacy.

The place can take any form: a circle of stones, a wooded grove, cliff walls over a seashore, a mountain cave, a deep grotto, or any site he wishes. The location must be natural, however – he cannot select the penthouse of a skyscraper, or a fortified castle, although he could select a cave or tunnel beneath a building. The place of power will be immobile, and taps into the natural energies of the planet he has selected as his home – geothermal power, magma vents, hydroelectricity and the like.

So long as he is within his place of power, a Techno- Mage gains the following abilities:

• +2 bonus to all Jutsu checks.

• +5 bonus Chakra per level in Techno- Mage or any Techno-Mage prestige class.

• Recovery rate of Chakra is doubled.

• All healing and subdual damage recovery times are halved.

• He can maintain one more Techno-Mage spell or ability than normal, and does not count the first one towards the DC of any required Concentration checks.

• The maintenance cost of all spells is reduced by 3 points (minimum 1).

In addition a Techno-Mage with a place of power can receive additional benefits if their total Techno-Mage levels (including Techno-Mage prestige class levels, as with the Organelles feature) are of a certain amount:

If the character has 11 total Techno-Mage levels, the mage may employ the abilities of his place of power even if he is not located directly on the site, but he must still be within 500 yards of that location.

If he has 15 Techno-Mage levels, the bonus to Jutsu checks increases to +4, and the character receives an additional +5 bonus Chakra per level, and may maintain a further bonus spell or ability than normal.

Finally, if the character has a total of 20 Techno-Mage levels, then he may employ his place of power benefits from anywhere on the planet where the site is located.

A Techno-Mage is not required to create a place of power, and doing so does bind the mage to that location. Whenever he is away from his place of power for more than a week, he receives a penalty of –1 to all skill checks, ability checks, and saving throws for each fortnight (2 weeks) he is gone (maximum penalty –10).

Furthermore, the mage suffers one hit point of damage per week of absence, and this damage cannot be healed or cured by any means, either medically or through Techno-Magery.

The mage must return to his special site for at least a day before any such penalties are lifted.

Should the mage completely uproot (by destroying his old place of power), he may not establish a new one until he achieves another level of experience and at least two months have passed – after which he will be quite weak indeed. Should he be unable to do so, he will perish.

A Techno-Mage’s pinnace may be constructed as a place of power, however, should it be destroyed then the Techno-Mage suffers a –2 penalty to all skill checks, ability checks and saving throws each week until it is replaced.