There are many strange talents to be learned in the world. Some are so common that it would seem almost unnatural for a warrior or wizard to lack them. Other abilitiies are more esoteric, known to only a few special or highly focused individuals or small groups. These more rare gifts are often very much worth the effort to find. In the ever expanding realm of the Flanaess, there are many such bits of knowledge, skill, and craft to be mastered. What follows is just a small sampling of the many strange things that can be learnt should the individual put forth the effort to find the knowledge.

Name	Type		Name	Type
Bloodthirsty	Ceremonial		Power Drive	General, Fighter
Clever Wrestling	General		Reflexive Stance	General, Fighter
Elemalefic Spellcaster	Ceremonial		Spellbinder	Ceremonial
Ethereal Tendril	Ceremonial		Spellstrike	Ceremonial
Greater Versatile Stance	General, Fighter		Superior Summons	Ceremonial
Improved Versatile Stance	General, Fighter		Thick Skin	General
Improved Drive Back	General, Fighter		Versatile Stance	General, Fighter
Invigorating Spellcaster	Ceremonial

 

Bloodthirsty (Ceremonial)
This feat originally appeared in Dragon magazine #311, this was the January 2003 issue. It is being relisted here only to serve as a reminder that it is available to spellcasters interested in persuing template options.
After a daylong ritual involving you and at least six others, one of whome must be a necromancer, you gain mastery of the blood.
Benefit: You may apply the bloodleech template to your spells. If you have cast a bloodleech spell in the past 24 hours you heal naturally at an accelrated rate, recovering twice your character level with a night of rest, or three times your character level with an entire day and night of rest.

Clever Wrestling (General)
This feat originally appeared in Dragon magazine #303, this was the January 2003 issue. I reprint it here only for completeness and as a requirement for a prestige class presented elsewhere on the site.
You have a better than normal chance to escape or wriggle free from a big creatures's grapple or pin.
Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike, Small or Medium-size.
Benefit: When your opponent is larger than medium-size, you gain a circumstance bonus on your grapple check to escape a grapple or pin. The Size of the bonus dependds on your opponent's size, according to the following table.
                  Opponent Size         Bonus
                  Colossal                            +8
                  Gargantuan                     +6
                  Huge                                 +4
                  Large                                +2

Elemalefic Spellcaster (Ceremonial)
This feat originally appeared in Dragon magazine #311, this was the January 2003 issue. It is being relisted here only to serve as a reminder that it is available to spellcasters interested in persuing template options.
After a daylong ritual involving an invocation to angry elemental spirits, you can call upon their rage to enhance your spells.
Benefit: You may apply the elemalefic template to your spells. You also gain a +2 bonus on Survival checks made while you are on any of the four elemental planes.

Ethereal Tendril (Ceremonial)
This feat originally appeared in Dragon magazine #311, this was the January 2003 issue. It is being relisted here only to serve as a reminder that it is available to spellcasters interested in persuing template options.
After a daylong ceremony in which you sacrifice and devour an ether scarab, you can imbue your spells with the power to strike incorporeal foes.
Benefit: You may apply the ghost touch template to your spells. You also gain the ability to move at your normal speed (instead of half speed) when traveling on the ethereal plane.

Greater Versatile Stance (General, Fighter)
You are better at using a reach weapon as a non-reach double weapon.
Prerequisites: BAB +10, Improved Versatile Stance, Versatile Stance, Weapon Focus (any reach weapon)
Benefit: You no longer suffer any penalty for shifting the grip of your weapon back and forth. (see Versatile Stance for additional details).

Improved Versatile Stance (General, Fighter)
You are better at using a reach weapon as a non-reach double weapon.
Prerequisites: BAB +6, Versatile Stance, Weapon Focus (any reach weapon)
Benefit: The penalty for shifting the grip on your weapon back and forth is now only -2 (see Versatile Stance for additional details).

Improved Drive Back (General, Fighter)
You are particularly skilled at using your melee attacks to drive back your opponent.
Prerequisites: Int 13+, Expertise
Benefit: When performing the drive back maneuver, your opponents are driven back 10 feet.
Normal: A character performing a drive back normally only forces his opponent to move back five feet.

Invigorating Spellcaster (Ceremonial)
This feat originally appeared in Dragon magazine #311, this was the January 2003 issue. It is being relisted here only to serve as a reminder that it is available to spellcasters interested in persuing template options.
After completing a daylong ritual involving you and six clerics, you can cast healing spells that have additional invigorating powers.
Benefit: You may apply the invigorating template to your spells. You also gain a +2 bonus on all Heal checks.

Power Drive (General, Fighter)
You are capable of forcing your opponents to retreat from your melee attacks.
Prerequisites: Str 13+, Power Attack
Benefit: When you perform a drive back, if your opponent chooses to remain where he is, you may choose to force him to step back instead taking an attack. You and your opponent must make an opposed attack roll. If you succeed, your opponent must move back.
Normal: When performing a drive back without this feat, your opponent can choose to remain where he is.

Reflexive Stance (General, Fighter)
This feat was suggested at the message board at the EnWorld.Org website. The person suggesting the feat gave no name,but I was impressed and so put it here for general consumption.
You instinctively react to nearby and distant enemies.
Prerequisites: BAB +4, Weapon Focus (any reach weapon), Versatile Stance
Benefit: Because of your training in shifting grips during attacks you now threaten both those spaces that are 10 feet away and 5 feet away when wielding a reach weapon. However, when striking at someone within 5 feet, you suffer a -4 -penalty to the attack roll.

Spellbinder (Ceremonial)
This feat originally appeared in Dragon magazine #311, this was the January 2003 issue. It is being relisted here only to serve as a reminder that it is available to spellcasters interested in persuing template options.
Upon completing a daylong ceremony during which you and six other participants are shackled together at the ankles, you master the ability to inhibit others' movement with your magic.
Benefit: You may apply the shackled template to your spells. You also gain a +2 bonus on Use Rope checks made to bind a creature.

Spellstrike (Ceremonial)
This feat originally appeared in Dragon magazine #311, this was the January 2003 issue. It is being relisted here only to serve as a reminder that it is available to spellcasters interested in persuing template options.
After a daylong ritual involving you and at least six monks, you gain the power to knock down foes with your spells.
Benefit: You may apply the concussive template to your spells. You also gain a +2 bonus on Concentration checks made to ignore vigorous, violent, or extraordinarily violent motion while casting spells.

Superior Summons (Ceremonial)
This feat originally appeared in Dragon magazine #311, this was the January 2003 issue. It is being relisted here only to serve as a reminder that it is available to spellcasters interested in persuing template options.
After completing a daylong ritual attended by six others, at least one of whom is a conjurer, you gain the ability to summon more powerful creatures than normal and establish a magical connection with them.
Benefit: You may apply the champion template to your spells. Furthermore, you cast conjuration (summoning) spells at +1 caster level.

Thick Skin (General)
You are harder to hurt than the average person.
Prerequisites: Constitution of 15+.
Benefit: This feat gives the character a +1 to their Armor Class make them harder to hit, due to the difficulty of penetrating their skin. This might be from some ancestral cross breeding with another race or the result of simply being one very hardy individual.
Special: This feat can only be taken during character creation. If its not chosen then, it cannot be chosen at all. Either you are thick skinned or your not. You don't gain it through experience.

Versatile Stance (General, Fighter)
This feat was suggested at the message board at the EnWorld.Org website. The person suggesting the feat gave no name,but I was impressed and so put it here for general consumption.
You may use a reach weapon as a non-reach double weapon.
Prerequisites: Weapon Focus (any reach weapon)
Benefit: Once per round during your turn, as a free action, you can designate if a reach weapon you are wielding can be used as a normal reach weapon, or a double weapon that lacks reach (much like a staff). The weapon's shaft deals 1d4 damage with a critical of x2 when a 20 is rolled. Because the weapon is not balanced to be used in this fashion, all attacks are made at a -4. If no choice is designated (for instance, during a surprise round), the weapon is considered to be a normal reach weapon.

........     .....      ........

 

   

The Value of Skills When you Want to Hang Around

The journey down the corridor felt like it had taken a lifetime for the halfling. He was a master of stealth and it was never more important than at this moment. If any of the gigantic men chasing him were to catch up, it would be the end everyone, not just his little hide.

He reached the wall and looked to the top of the crevasse. It must have been at least 150 feet up to the top, but that was where he needed to go. With the skill of experience and the knowledge of training he began to scale the stone in front of him. It took half an hour to accomplish this feat of strength and when he reached the top he discovered a fiery dog waiting for him.

Even as the creature lunged at him the halfling made a quick feint as if he were going right. When the dog charged toward where it thought the halfling would be, the small fellow rolled past it and into the air shaft that he had spotted earlier. He thought to himself that it was a good thing he had been observant in their initial entry into the mountain caverns. As the halfling began to slide down the shaft the small fellow braced himself against the sides to stop the fall. With great difficulty he pulled himself upwards, toward the top of the small tunnel. He knew if he slipped, the fall would feel as if it went on forever. Not the 1000+ feet that it really was.

When he reached the top of the shaft he saw the chamber he wanted to be in. There, across the room, was the Spear of Black Ice. That was his objective. He trotted the short distance across the room to the edge of the last drop-off blocking the path. Only forty feet of nothing stood in his way now. Carved into the ceiling were the elemental statues he had heard of, they were the key. He went back across the room and started his run. Just as the edge was reached he thrust himself with all his strength and magic into an upwards arc. The mightiest jump of his life. Even as the halfling reached the apex of his jump he knew it would not be enough. Swinging his whip over his head he managed to wrap it around the fist of a ceiling statue. When the whip caught he used it as a swing-rope to propel himself the last bit of distance to the edge. He hit the ground in a roll and stopped at the block of ice that held his prize in hand.

He called the shadows around himself and cast a darkness on the ice. Without the constant light of the fires to keep its magical form, the mystic ice began to melt away. When the last of it was drained, he bent down and picked up the Spear.

The easy part was done. Now all he had to was get the magic weapon to his large partner.

A typical day in
the life of a
great halfling
rogue.

xxx xxx xxx xxx

The Advantages of Experience

The air of the pub was thick with the smell of stale beer and rotting sweat. Heat from the day's activities had given way to the cool of night that so plagued the month of Coldeven. Within the Two-Axes saloon all the regular scum were accounted for . Cutthroats and back-alley bashers lined the bar and filled most all the tables.

Two heavily wrapped men entered the unsavory room letting the cold of wind herald their arrival through the leather drape that was the door . Silence fell across the crowd as they sized up the strangers. Both were small and compact, but well armed. One shrouded only in black wore a falchion across his back marking him as a man from the distant west. The other held only a staff, not even a dirk was sheathed at his side. The two new members of the bar's crowd locked onto a table filled with the worst Greyhawk had to offer.

The patrons formed a path for the pair, sensing a fight and not wanting to miss it or be caught in it. The gathering at the table looked up in curiosity, none saying a word, but all touching their hilts and axe handles. The westerner spoke first, "Who among you is called Yryn ?"

"I am," spoke the largest man still sitting, "Who wants to know?"

"Not important. What is important is the map you have that doesn't belong to you. If you hand it over now, we will probably let you walk out of here."

"Sure, here it is." With that the man called Yryn threw a dagger at the westerner's heart. Just as the blade made contact with the black fabric the silent member of the pair dropped his staff and threw his hand out catching the hilt.

The table thrown aside by its uncaring occupants the fight broke out in earnest. Three men went for the silent one, Yryn and three others went for the westerner who now brandished the highly polished falchion for battle.

The fight was compact, none having a great deal of room to move in the circle created by the spectators. The three pressed hard against the silent fellow but all blows were blocked and dodged by a man of almost supernatural reflexes; clearly he was a monk of no small skill. When an opening presented itself the monk lunged forward with his open palm striking the man clearly in his chest. The first assailant stumbled back in a daze and collapsed into the crowd. The other two took a step back only now realizing the danger they had been placed in.

For his part the westerner held his own against Yryn and his thugs. Two fell in quick blows dealt by a master swordsman. Yryn was harder though. He barked out words that meant nothing and the last thug began to split from his master, trying to flank their victim. The swordsman was prepared for the attack and when they came he sidestepped the thug and blocked Yryn's blade with practiced ease.

Another minute passed and the last thug on the westerner fell to his knees, trying vainly to hold his guts inside his now split abdomen. At the monk's feet lay another of his opponents, his head lying at an odd angle. Yryn knew his foes were his equal and prepared for the worst. When the westerner's blow was supposed to land, Yryn jumped to the side and punched the westerner square in the face. The dark man's had began to swim and he fell down, uncertain where he was or what he needed to do. The monk closed on Yryn hoping to catch the adversary unprepared, and for his trouble Yryn planted a foot in the monk's side. As Yryn's foot came back down he swung his sword over into the monk's arm, cutting to the bone.

Watching the monk fall back for just a moment Yryn turned and ran across the room. Using tricks he had learned since childhood, Yryn jumped onto a table and used it as a spring board to go out the window, glass cutting his face as payment for using the makeshift exit. The Monk helped the westerner to his feet and together stumbled out of the room looking for the fleeing man.

The remaining patrons fell upon the five unconscious and dying men and stole all their personal belongings. All their wealth taken, the bodies were dumped onto the cold streets of Greyhawk's night.

Within a moment's passage conversation had resumed and the routine of life had firmly reasserted itself in the Two-Axes Saloon.

How Godsday is honored in the Two-Axe Saloon. The finest tavern in Greyhawk.

LoG

    The battle had been short but ugly. The dwarf and his archer companion had proven almost too much for the small gathering of companions despite the dark plagues that had ravaged the bodies of the enemy. With the infected blood still dripping from his blade tip and his heart beating faster than a sane man would have thought possible, Drax started the slow process of reigning in his emotions.

    Li-Mae had already fleeced the fallen archer of his meager possessions while the remainder of the troupe had scavenged the wealth to be had from the crooks and corners the fevered enemy's cavernous hallow. All was slowly beginning to calm down. As frayed nerves were again mastered a gutteral, half-barked, command came forth from the vast chamber's entryhall, "You wanted in Main Hall now!" The shaggy gnoll turned and rambled down the hall leaving the adventurers to ponder the brief, if to the point, order. Could the smelly beast have not realized what had befallen his disease-ridden allies? This, they quickly realized, was their moment to strike at the heart and head of the hidden enemy.

    It took only moments for Drax to convince his companions of the sketchy plan laid before them. Drax along with Nailo and Xhang would walk out to meet with him while Li-Mae and Vega wait in the shadows to see if the ruse actually works. A harsh bluff with an unknown foe is difficult at the best of times, but when you know not even what the deal being bargained is, well its all but impossible. Still, it was their only plan and something had to be done.

A harsh light shone down on the trio when they walked into the monolithic room. It was easily a hundred feet between the walls. Torches lined the walls offering their limited illumination to the room, but it was the great chandelier hanging from the uppermost tier of the dome more than 60 feet up that cast light as bright as a noon sun across the room.

Drax let his eye trail across the room taking in all there was to see. Ten highly polished steeel tables were arranged in a circle about the center of the room. Oaken pews glistened with newly polished sheen glared from the southern wall. Even the small alter, seemiingly carved form a single block of granite held a small collection of secrets from him in its hinged top. Only the slaves, now unconscious from pains callously inflicted, seemed ill at home in the great room.

As the trio approached the robust, grey-haired man wearing violet robes, they only casually noted a smaller fellow retreating from the room. The smallish man had just reached the conclucsion that he might be better served in some remote section of the fractured keep. The troupe approached before him, unaware of the black images racing through the priest's mind. It was the older fellow who broke the silence, "Glad you have arrived, where is the dwarf?"

    "He is ill my lord, he won't be able to make it." Even as Drax said the words he doubted they would have much impact. Still the priest showed no sign of realizing the deception. Instead, he was focused on the half-elf Nailo.

    Gazing at the pointed ears and angular features of the elf-blooded face the priest let out a small grin, "I am most pleased with the effect it had on you. Far more than I could have hoped for really. You will make a fine gift for the tree-folk's impending demise."

     Unable to contain his own wild impulse Nailo could not accept the idle remark, "I am nobody's to give away you son of a bitch."

    The dark priest's congenial smile falted for only a moment. Still it was more than telling to Xhang, he knew the ruse had failed. Hoping to save his foolish companion, the westerner focused his mind, with a flicker of sparking light and a a sharp furrowing of his brow, a blade of pure mental strength manifested in his hand, glowing as his inner fire was made physical. With a quick thrust Xhang managed to work his soul-knife through the priest's well concealed armor and draw first blood.

    Howling in anger, no longer able to keep up the facade of friendship, the priest unleashed his own dark power. Mumbling a few harsh syllables that no sane mind could keep hold for more than half a heartbeat, he reached out and touched the psychic westerner unleashing a wave of infernal energy in the process. Xhang reeled from the divine strike, feeling all but the last remnants of his vitality body drain away with a single touch. The Enemy was too strong to face directly.

    Realizing the very mortal danger they were now all in, the remnants of the troupe sprung into action. Nailo fell back half a dozen paces so that he might use his own arcane power to enhance his battle prowess. Li-Mae, seeing her brother reduced to almost nothing and knowing that their own priest could prove a prime target chose to make a dash for the pews. When the priest had turned to face Drax the western woman dashed for the safety the wooden pews might afford. Vega felt no such urge to flee though. His own god had set deep into his soul the need to protect your comrades and to stand against evil regardless the cost. The young novice of Pelor ran a wide circle towards the wounded Xhang, none would fall while the blessings of his god coursed through his veins.

    Time had slowed to a crawl from Xhang's perspective, the battle was one for survival, not riches or glory, not anymore. The westerner looked about to get a feel for everyone's relative position and in that moment was inspired. Focusing more of his inner essence into the soul-knife, he threw it high, the energy weapon struck true to its target, severing the old chain that held the great chandelier in place. Its immense weight came crashing down. The evil priest barely had a moment to spare the ancient relic a glance before it slammed him into the cracked floor.

    Vega took the moment to channel the healing of his god into his drained friend. Drax took the opportunity to line up what should have been a perfect shot, and though the bolt went true, the crossbow was unable to pierce the adamantine shell protecting the enemy. Nailo cast another defensive spell and readied his blade. Now he felt confident in his ability to do battle.

    The dark priest let out a powerful roar and with great effort launched the fallen chandelier from his body. He stood weakly, still clearing his head after the harsh blow. He pointed to Xhang, "Now you die."

    Unwilling to face the enemy up close, but not willing to consign her brother to an early grave, Li-Mae summoned up her own inner gifts. She crept to the first row of pews and focused her mind on the great pew. With a shimmer its surface seemed to change the way it refracted the light, a damp sheen coated its form. With a yell to distract Li-Mae rushed forwards with the great pew, her own gifts allowed the mass of wood to slide across the stone floor as if it were being flung across a great icy field, there was no resistance to be had.

    With a mighty thud the priest was sent sprawling yet again, now all but pinned by gifts crafted to fit his vanity. The evil in the man would not surrender though. No, he would not go peacefully into the night.

   The battle had only begun...

---First Battle with
the Elder

 

 

 

 

 

 

LoG