Hello all and welcome to a special edition of CHARACTER REFERENCE!
Now, this entry spawned from two things.
The first thing that birthed this small piece of insanity was a question of multiclassing. The group had a long, meandering discussion about the pluses and minus’s of taking on more than one class across the life of the character.
Out of this, Panda, our resident incessant character creator, started spinning the wheels of optimization. His quandary was simple. What if you multi-classed in the four major spellcasting classes of Sorcery, Wizardry, Druidry and Clerical (and in that order)? What comes next is the chaotic offspring.
AS NATURAL AS BREATHING
Olzira (Alzeera) Roren was an ambitious half-elf who has had a special calling on her life since she was young. Apparently an ancient power has tapped her for an amazing future. The only problem was that that was all the information she had. There were no masters to teach her, no books to learn from and no physical creatures to lead her. All she had was this voice that beckoned her and her natural connection to magic.
It began as a voice in her head but it developed into so much more as she began to manifest magic seemingly by thinking. She was of the Psionic Soul sorcerous origin and never really had a moment in time she could think back to like being born in a special place or finding a sacred grove like some she had heard of. NO, she had just always heard the voice and, as she came of age, she took her journey to find out just whose voice it was.
As she journeyed, she had found solice in a gem she had found when she was very young. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that, upon discovering this gem, the voice began to speak to her. On top of that, her natural ‘mind magic’ seemed easier when she focused it through this gem. Although it was unlike any other magic she had ever experienced, it was natural to her. It had set her mind on fire from an early age and the intensity of it seemed to be getting stronger instead of weaker.
But something bothered her greatly. Upon gaining a certain level of master of this natural ‘mind magic’ she found she was no closer to understanding anything about the power at all. She could still hear the voice calling and directing her, but it fell so short to actually helping her grow to where she felt she needed to be.
(5 Levels in Sorcerer; The Pisonic Soul Sorcerous Origin)
TIME TO HIT THE BOOKS
Since the wandering around following this disembodied voice didn’t seem to be enough, Olzira decided to take a more studied approach. After a great deal of study, inquiry and searching, she found an enclave of wizards who delved extensively in a little known school of PSIONICS. She poured over all the books, sat though endless lectures and gained a rising mastery of this strange type of magic.
She found that the gem she had used when the magic came so natural, was also useful in focusing her learned magic through. Yet, although she felt she had grown in her use of this mind magic, she felt that even the scholarly pursuit fell a bit short of leading her to a knowledge of the source or what was really happening. Roaming from city to city, from library to library and wise wizard to wise wizard, she realized that the studied, civilized world only had so much information aobut it. What it did tell her was that this influencing power wasn’t in a book. No, to find the source, she would have to go back to nature.
(5 Levels in WIzard; Psionic Arcane Tradition in the UA)
BACK TO NATURE
Traveling deep into the wild, she came under the care of a group of druids that also had been touched by this unknown power. Calling themselves the CIRCLE OF THE EARTHMIND, they helped her commune with, not only her own mind, but the voice of the ancient that predated the nature of this world and MAY have predated the ARCHFEY themselves.
Focusing on, not only her own mind, but the source of this voice, she began to draw deeper and deeper into the power of creation itself. What she found was that the power was not just natural for her, but was just natural. It was a primordial power of this world. And it was a power that was in tune with the planet, drawing her closer and was older than time itself. This 5 level exercise brought her to a meeting with a primordial power that may have been the progenitor of the Fey.
(5 levels of Druid: Circle of the Worldmind; I found this on reddit if you just search Worldmind, but you could also work out your own Circle)
FACE TO FACE WITH A GOD
A godlike power, this precursor to the Seelie and Unseelie courts has reached from beyond creation to bring you into service and become a representative of an entity long forgotten yet ready to make itself known to your world. This entity defies name or gender and can represent itself in any form. Simply called THE FIRST, this voice that once spoke to her in whispers now becons to her in shouts. Olzira now stands as a priest and cleric of the first order in what is hoped to be a long line of devotees that will raise temples and turn a world back to its roots.
Following THE FIRST, you find yourself calling upon the domains of LIFE, CREATION and NATURE. So 5 or more levels in CLERIC to finish the journey.
THE MECHANICS
PANDA did the footwork, as always, on this character reference. He put the numbers together and explained to me the mechanics of multi-classing (although to this extent, I’m still getting my head around it). But I, being the writer and lore mage of the group, tried to make sense of it all.
SO, four classes, five levels each in perfect progression: being Sorcerer, Wizard, Druid and Cleric. At first, I told PANDA no one would EVER want this. But, as always, the gears began to turn and my mind would not let me rest till I made this more of a reality. I thought it was much too complicated to just give you numbers and say, “good luck”. I had to flesh this out and make some sense to it. And the aforementioned lore was my answer.
As usual, feel free to use this as you will. The ‘god’ that is the end all could be anything fey like the queens of the Seelie or Unseelie court. But, dealing with clerics and gods, I thought something more powerful and ancient was in order. Call this power what you like, It’s a combination of nature, creator god and Psionic primordial. It’s not on anyone’s radar and would be great for an evangelical push especially for Elves and Half-Elves. It could be a coming home and reordering of the mindset as with one hand he is seen as an elven all power and, on the other, he is seen as a unifying figure among the Fey.
I think this kind of character would be great to play from first to twentieth level as they take a journey of enlightenment and understanding not only of the pecking order among primordial powers, but their own soul and that of their people. A DM could also talk a character into playing the burgeoning Sorcerer blind to find what power is touching their character’s life. I just think the whole idea sounds fun. But to walk them through the whole process, the player has to trust the DM. They have to have a relationship and the player must flexible.
CHARACTER DETAILS:
BACKGROUND: ACOLYTE
This gives your character proficiency in RELIGION and INSIGHT.
RACE: Well, although you can go for any race, elf or half-elf would be best if you go for a FEY primordial.
Half-Elf is optimal for it gives your character Proficiencies in NATURE and PERSUASION while also giving you +2 in Charisma (starting in Sorcerer, remember) and +1 in two others (Panda suggests Wisdom for the Druid and Intelligence for the Wizard).
Ambition and Devotion are Olzira’s ideals but you be you.
As a Sorcerer, at first level, your character can pick two other proficiencies. PANDA went with INTIMIDATE and DECEPTION. To me, this may be too much on the tricky end although a cleric, down the road, with intimidate would be good.
For your SORCEROUS ORIGIN, a great choice is PSIONIC SOUL from UA. For the DM or the player that doesn’t want the complications that comes with psionics, this piece of flavor can easily be altered. But this is the idea.
For your ARCANE TRADITION, we decided on the SCHOOL OF PSIONICS. Although Wizards of the Coast later recanted this subtype, I think we can make it work.
The DRUIDIC CIRCLE is up for discussion. PANDA went with the CIRCLE OF THE SHEPHERD. But, I will suggest looking into a homebrew I found called CIRCLE OF THE WORLDMIND.
And, finally, once your character gets to the point at level 15 that they realize that they should be kneeling to a god, as a cleric, they will take on the domains of knowledge and magic. You could possibly make PSIONICS a domain or the mind. If you do, send us a copy. We’d be glad to see what you’ve done.
You should take all of the ability score improvements you can get as to optimize as much as possible; always keeping in mind the next step. Luckily, they come at all the right times (almost), Fifth level, use it to bump your Intelligence if necessary. Ninth, make sure Wisdom is up to grade. Fourteenth, whatever needs buffing. But, as a beginning sorcerer, you should make sure your Charisma is your highest ability. At nineteenth level or anytime before, you may want to take the ALERT feat to protect you from those high-level rogues.
Approaching Psionics in 5E, I believe, doesn’t overpower a character as most of it is simply using and reskinning spells as natural, psionic based. Some of the homebrew information I shared may have to be nerfed a little, but you will have to do some editing here to make it suit your needs anyways.
Good luck and let us know what changes or different directions you’d take with a character like this!!
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