Santicorn 2019: Fairytale Classes

Pseudo Fenton from the Discord (he has no blog, sorry!) requested a smattering of Scandinavian/Nordic fairy tale-themed classes, which I ran away with! I ended up drifting a bit into some Tchaikovsky, but... eh. It happens. Hope you enjoy! There's enough class concepts here to replace an entire D&D party!

 Inchling (Thumbelina/Tom Thumb)
This class uses the Saves, To-Hit, and XP progression of a Rogue, but has a d2 Hit Die.
You are the smallest thing. The size of a thumb, if that. Perhaps not even the size of a bean. You could actually perhaps dance on the head of a pin, which will be ironic later. Because of your small size, you are almost impossible to detect if you're trying to go unnoticed; you have the maximum possible ranks in the Hiding skill for your system, but otherwise suffer all the drawbacks of being so small, with one exception: You... don't suffer fall damage. That's... weird. Perhaps you just safely Feather Fall safely, or your fall is always broken by something cushy. It's very conspicuous, because even in a world that doesn't understand modern Newtonian physics the little thing should still go splat when it falls from up high. But you don't.

Additionally, you can speak to all little things as if they were people. Insects, frogs, birds, and the like all share a language with you, and are inclined to treat you kindly at first blush.

Finally, you have one mundane, non-combat skill that's pushed to supernatural degrees. Perhaps your singing voice can entrance anyone who hears it on a failed save, or perhaps you can spin a piece of straw into solid gold if you spend all night doing so. Decide this with your GM.

At Name Level, you grow a pair of fairy wings, explaining all the mysteries of your existence. If fairies are entitled to any other traits or abilities in your system, you gain them.

Ice Queen (The original story, but also Frozen, lol)
This class uses the saves, To-hit, Hit Dice, and XP progression of a Magic-User.
For some reason or another, you have powerful elemental control over Ice magic.* It's to such an extent that it's a part of you, ignoring environmental effects related to ice, and taking 1 less damage from every die related to it. The cold never bothered you anyway, you might say.

An Ice Queen has a pool of Magic Dice (d6s) equal to their level. Due to the intimate, personally expressive nature of their magic, Charisma is used for any stat-related purposes and they have no spell list, and instead describe effects ala carte, investing as many dice as is proportional to the effect. Simple cantrips like producing snowflakes or little flurries are free, producing an entire block of ice might be a single die, and producing an entire palace made of ice might take nine or ten dice. The dice are rolled when the effect is produced, either determining the damage of the ice attack, or else determining the efficacy or stability of the effect. Dice that roll a six are removed from the pool, and when the Magic Dice pool is exhausted, a Wild Surge occurs. Dice can be recovered by rest (full recovery), or a single die by exposure to your element you didn't produce, such as gorging yourself on snow or bathing in frigid water for an hour.

These effects can be positive or negative, but are mostly negative. Perhaps you produced a snowlem personifying your best qualities, with HD equal to the MD invested in him. Perhaps you accidentally struck someone you cared about them and cursed them to slowly turn into ice. Perhaps you caused an eternal winter, or you turn all the food at the party into delicious ice cream. Perhaps you create a giant mirror of ice that reflects the light of heaven back up toward the sky and only reflects the ugliness of the mortal world which then shatters and lands its shards in the eyes of men so that they only see the bitter, rancid, sinful truth to everything.

You know, whatever.

At Name level, some event occurs that allows you to gain better control of your powers. You discover the Power of Love, or you beat up the Devil who gave them to you, or you realize you're actually the Avatar, the Last Icebender. Either way. your powers adjust; all effects cost one less Magic Die than normal, and when you Wild Surge, you receive a partial veto power, allowing you to reject and replace any detail of the Surge the GM describes with one of your own.

* This class can be adjusted to be about any other elemental or conceptual force. Play a Summer Queen, or a Noise Prince, or a Flower Knight, or a Rubbermancer. Go wild.

Nutcracker Prince (The Nutcracker)
This class uses the Saves, To-Hit, Hit Dice, and XP Progression of the Fighter.
You are a nutcracker, or perhaps a tin soldier, or a puppet boy. In any case, you are a living toy, with all that entails. You need neither food, water, air, nor sleep. You have the power to change to human size, but when in your smaller form, you can choose to remain perfectly still and be totally indistinguishable from a normal object. If someone doesn't know you personally or see you move, they'll never even suspect you're anything but what you appear to be; this even trumps divination magic.

In your fully-sized form, your wooden or metal nature gives you the AC of being appropriately armored, and you have all the fighting capabilities of a Fighter of your level, though you roll Disadvantage on Dexterity and Initiative checks due to your stiff body.

Finally, you have two magical abilities that foreshadow your true nature. Firstly, you can dance in the dreams of others. When people slumber in your presence, you can meld truth into their nightly fiction, and manipulate their dreamscape. You can defend them against nightly intruders, plunder their minds for secrets, or retrieve imaginary treasures from the dungeons of their unconscious. Secondly, you have the power to remove curses by absorbing them into yourself, by performing some appropriate ritual, such as cracking a nut in your mouth and hopping backwards seven steps. If you do this, the curse is lifted from the victim and it now applies to you. This is your true nature.

You weren't always a toy. It was a curse you accepted, and it was your first curse, swallowed too deeply. The only way to remove it is something you can't accept or accomplish; perhaps you need to forgive the person who hurt you so deeply it broke your name and your heart. Perhaps you need the reincarnation of one who spurned you to promise to love you unconditionally. Perhaps you need to crack the world's shell in half.

In any case, at Name Level, you learn of how you can finally accomplish this task, and are capable of actually performing it. Once you do so, your curse is lifted, and you return to your former splendid form. Not only do you become a handsome immortal prince of dreams (or whatever you were), but every curse you absorbed inverts into a blessing, and you now possess the power to grant others a dream come true, pulling a single fantasy of theirs into permanent reality.


Polymorphic Princess (Swan Lake)
This class uses the to-hit, Hit Dice, and XP Progression of a Cleric, but the best saves possible in your game.
You are an unjustly cursed innocent, with a curse so deep it pervades not just your body and soul, but your very story. Your love, your innocence, your purity, your beauty and virtue are all heavier and truer than the world, but this curse uses that weight against you, and shackles you down.
This curse damns you to a form you don't belong in. Perhaps you turn into a swan during the daylight, or an orc during the night, or perhaps you turn into a frog around anyone who would ever know your name. Regardless of the condition, it always forces you back into your unnatural shape whenever it would most hurt you; you can never be yourself around the one you love. You can never return home. Whatever the nature of it, you can't receive the happiness you deserve.

That being said, there's some condition that lets you trigger the transformation deliberately. You turn into a swan whenever you touch water, and change back whenever you are under a tree's shade. You turn into an orc whenever you bleed, and back whenever you taste fruit. You turn into a frog whenever you smell flowers, and back whenever you look in a mirror. You gain all the abilities of your cursed form when you're in it, and can speak with your cursed form's kind in either form. Additionally, you are in many ways a Princess, and your purity did not abandon you.

You may Lay on Hands as a Paladin of your level, and you are extraordinarily lucky, rolling your already amazing saving throws with Advantage unless it is against magic related to your curse, in which case you roll with Disadvantage. However, you are otherwise totally immune to any other curses or hexes; it was a total fluke that the first ever took, and there's no room for a second. You also have a number of Luck Points equal to half your level (rounded down, minimum 1), you can use to reroll any die. These points refresh every session.

At Name level, you meet whichever condition is required to break your curse, and it becomes a boon. You have full control over your transformation; it never works against you, and you do not require any trigger but will or intent. You are now truly immune to all curses for all time, and may cast Remove Curse by kissing a target. Once ever, should you die, you can return to life by the magic of True Love's Kiss, or the tears of everyone around you. Your story's curse was lifted, and you are entitled to your Happily Ever After with the full force of an apologetic, remorseful Fate.

Santicore 2018: 1d10 Useful, Cool, Magical, Cursed Swords!

 For Save VS. Hollowing. Happy Holidays, Anton.

1. The Chicken Knife

What appears to be a simple dagger, and about as effective. However, every time the wielder of this blade runs from a combat instead of engaging with it, the dagger gains a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls, with no upper limit. However, as soon as it's used for even a single attack, the bonuses are all spent, and disappear afterwards, resetting to zero. This is situational enough, and certainly useful, but there is an additional curse. You see, the higher the bonus the knife has, the more the wielder smells and tastes like delicious chicken, making it harder to actually escape from hungry foes.

2. The Sword of the Swan Prince

This elegant longsword appears to be optimized for honorable dueling and heroic action; its hilt stylized to resemble two intersecting swans. In truth, this blade is a Holy Avenger, save that it will work in the hands of anyone who is pure of heart, fair of soul, and loves the world and is loved by the world. Additionally, at any time, the sword can be willed into the form of two swans that will serve as the familiars of the wielder, and this will happen automatically if the blade is sundered, able to repair itself simply by the mental command given to the swans.
The sword has a power that is both its greatest miracle and its most legendary curse. At any time, the wielder of this sword may, as a prince once did, turn the blade unto themselves and sunder their own heart, sacrificing their will, emotions, memory, and personality. Their spirit will be fragmented and cast to the winds, leaving them a shell that can still walk, speak, and act, but lacks all passion and determination. in exchange for this horrid price, the wielder can perform a miracle, and achieve any Wish, with the caveats that this wish must be noble and selfless in intent, and must not destroy anything. A great evil can be sealed, but not slain, etc. Finally, if the sacrifice's heart is ever restored or replaced, the wish will be rendered null and void.
There is one more curse; a deeper curse. The wielder of this blade is a hero, a prince, a child of wyrd. No matter what happens to them, they will face adventure, calls to heroism, and peril only they can quell. This isn't much different from most fantasy adventurers, so this quest isn't immediately apparent, but there's one bitter catch. The 'prince' of the story spun by wielding this blade... will never live Happily Ever After, so long as the sword exists.

3. The Thousand Knights Fang

Forged from the fang of a great demon lord, this sword was created in order to bring peace and protection to those caught in-between, and those dear to them. This sword can only be attuned by someone of mixed blood, such as half-elves or half-orcs, otherwise it functions as a mere cold iron longsword. In the hands of a proper wielder, it becomes a +1 blade of any shape desired or preferred by the master, and it possesses a unique ability. Firstly, it can cast Identify 1/hour, and secondly, it can sunder and destroy magical weapons and permanently absorb their enchantments. New enchantments overlap instead of stacking, so if the sword has been improved to a +4 blade, and you destroy a +5 weapon, it becomes a +5 sword, not a +9. If two qualities contradict each other, the new one overwrites the former. Curses are also absorbed and become part of the blade.
Additionally, if a magical beast is slain with the blade, their qualities, if applicable, can be absorbed as well. A drider's venom might lace the blade, or it might wreathe itself in the flames of a dragon, as appropriate. However, absorbing the qualities of a monster is especially dangerous. As discussed, the blade absorbs curses, and no curse is greater than the grudge of a dying creature. If a creature is killed for its abilities, it may spend its last breath to prompt a saving throw against its curse, and may add a cursed quality to the blade of their design, as long as it doesn't overstep the bounds of a Bestow Curse spell, and it's thematically appropriate to the creature, the circumstances of its death, or the ironic folly of its murderer.
If two curses conflict, they have a 50% chance of cancelling each other out, incentivizing cursed psychopaths to go get cursed more. They murderfucked their way into this mess, they'll murderfuck their way out.

4. The Thousand Heavens Fang

The twin of the Thousand Knights Fang, born to give mortals salvation from the sorrow of parting. This blade can only be used by 'monsters', such as demons, full-blooded orcs and other monstrous races, vampires, and the like, or mortals who have killed at least a thousand of their own race. However, it only have value to those with compassion in their hearts. This sword is inarguably, unambiguously unable to harm mortals and the living. Against psychopomps, angels and devils (and other extraplanar beings related to the next world), and the undead, this functions as a +4 greatsword despite its slender, lightweight shape. It offers its wielder perfect Truesight in regards to seeing souls, spirits, and any otherworldly phenomena, seeing them and for what they truly are. However, its true value is when it is drawn through a body. it passes like mist through a mortal, but can fully heal those it passes through, once a day per person it passes over. In fact, as long as the body is less than four hours old, it can even revive the dead, flawlessly with perfect healing. However, the soul must be intact and able to return, and a person can only be raised once ever by the mercy of the sword.
The sword shines with boundless compassion, and that is its curse. Useless as a weapon, it attracts the attention of undead and fiends, who will always prioritize the wielder as a target. The final curse, however, is also its greatest gift. The wielder of the blade can revive someone who is otherwise impossible to see again, either because their soul is destroyed, or they were already revived by the sword once before, or whatever. The only exception is a natural death to old age. This special resurrection also blesses the person with permanent safety to whatever killed them the first time; a child raised from a plague will never know illness again. A hero beheaded will let no blade break their skin. In exchange for this miracle, the Fang's master pays everything. They are erased, vanished, and gone. No afterlife awaits them, and none remember them. Those who loved them most in life will grieve them, feel their absence, but never understand why. This is the worst curse under all the heavens, and yet, if only all curses could be so.

5. The Dead Shriver

This flamberge is as beautiful as it is ghastly, bone-white and stainlessly alabaster. The sword is simple at first blush. Having an ethereal and material nature, it can harm incorporeal beings as easily as physical ones. Additionally, it drinks the blood of its enemies, and heals the wielder. The blade is, however, cursed. These hit points are actually Spectral Hit Points (SHit Points, if you will), and they otherwise function normally, but even one SHit Point keeps the wielder from healing naturally, and any magical healing overwrites the SHit before recovering any actual damage loss. If the sword's master ever fully replaces their hit point total completely with these spectral hit points, these downsides are lost... because he is now genuinely, and truly, transformed into a vampire, and all that implies.
But this is not the true Dead Shriver. If the vampire wielder is destroyed at the same time as the sword, or is staked through the heart with the blade (which will magically shatter it), then both etheric essence become one. The sword's master rises as a unique sort of ghost, wielding the ghost of the blade, which is permanently fused to theirs. The sword has a soul, and now it is thee. You are the Dead Shriver.
The Dead Shriver is immune to Turning or Rebuking, answering to a higher purpose. In 3e terms, it's a "Deathless", not an Undead. You are a ghostly creature that can freely materialize between the Material and Ethereal (and Shadow, etc. whatever other 'spirit mirror worlds' your setting has) Planes, can always perceive spiritual/incorporeal beings, and can now devour souls. When the Dead Shriver kills something, or finds something that's been slain/destroyed for less than five minutes, it can devour its soul, which recovers 5 HP per Hit Die.
This is important, as every minute spent in the Material Plane causes the Dead Shriver to lose 1 hit point, and it is unable to heal through anything except its soul-devouring, or magic meant to heal undead, specifically. When the Dead Shriver is reduced to a third of its hit point total or less, it is unable to materialize, and is restricted to the spirit world until it can devour itself back up to maximum hit points again.
Souls devoured by the Dead Shriver are not destroyed; they are saved. Souls that are damned, damaged, corrupted, enchanted, doomed, or broken are saved, healed, purified, redeemed, renewed, and mended before being sent to their rightful place. The Dead Shriver is, literally, the Spirit of Hope to those who have lost it. The final curse is the Dead Shriver Wraith's alone, then. When it is destroyed, it is consumed by the spirit-blade, becoming part of its consciousness. The wraith then possesses the nearest non-magical sword, becoming the new Dead Shriver, to begin anew.
Because the spirit-blade is a spirit, the Dead Shriver Wraith rolls with Advantage on all mental checks, and can Commune once a day, privy to the collected knowledge of countless vampiric martyrs.

6. The Hands of Time

This greatsword is made of clockwork, and it indeed turns to accurately keep time, by manner of the blade functioning as the minute hand, and the handle as the hour hand, both of them slowly turning around the hilt of the blade to form clockfaces. This means that at some times of the day, the sword will overlap in such a way that you cannot grasp the sword's handle without cutting yourself, or swing it without aiming its blade at yourself.
However, the clock is always accurate. This is its power; for if you turn the Hands of Time, you can literally rewind and fast forward through time apppropriately, though you cannot go more than 24 hours in either direction without burning it out for a full day. Finally, the sword can be broken apart, separating the Hands. In the case of this, time is broken, and the wielder benefits from 24 hours of Time Stop. Use this wisely, for afterwards, the sword will repair itself, and the Time Stopper will be gone, vanished into thin air. It's what they get, for they literally broke their own time. They destroyed their future by their own hands.

7. The Monado

A +2 Greatsword of destiny, the sword that governs and guarantees the future. This blade gives the wielder visions of the future, offering Augury at the DM's discretion; the sword has the strange quirk that it will not harm any members of the wielder's race, and deals double damage to any creature that attempts to suppress the future of the wielder's kind. The wielder of the Monado can, at-will, grant its bane ability to all enemies within 100 feet for 1d6 rounds, but each time they do so, or invoke the Augury ability deliberately, they take 1d4 damage, and must save VS permanently losing a point of STR, DEX, or CON (rolled randomly). This is the sword of gods, and is not to be wielded lightly.

If the sword's master is someone who has a limitless lifespan, its nature releases some shackles. It becomes a +3 sword, and no longer causes the ability score burn. The Augury ability becomes Foresight, usable by the wielder 1/minute. Essentially, he can play a round of combat and rewind it in order to change the immediate future. The Monado also gains the ability to cast Dispel Magic, as a Holy Avenger. Using these abilities continues to cause the backlash damage, which is raised to 2d4.

If the sword's master is someone of a mythic nature (such as a demigod or prophecized king), it becomes a +4 sword. It no longer has its restriction against harming the wielder's own kind, nor does it offer backlash damage. However, fate is now trying to correct the Monado-master's existence. Every time they try to change the future, the world attempts to fight back aggressively. Final Destination, straight up.

If and when the sword's Master overcomes 108 unique circumstances of the world's karma trying to counter them as above, they have proven that they are essentially a god. The Monado now bears a +5 bonus, and the wielder can cast Wish 1/day; the sword is also now capable of killing anything. However, the destiny of the wielder is assured; they are now one with the Monado, and they must declare their final quest, their remaining dharma. All the power they now wield must be directed to this final task, and when they accomplish it, they shall vanish from this world, along with the Monado, ascending to a higher plane of existence.

8. The Sword of Dios

The most interesting thing about this sword at first glance is that its sheath is a girl. A maiden named the Rose Bride, whom is engaged to and owned by her current champion, their Engaged, and serves them like a robot, their personality being whatever is desired of them. To such a person, they may mystically draw the beautiful longsword from her body, serving as a Holy Avenger in the hands of the Engaged. This is by default, but the sword actually grows more powerful the more the Rose Bride comes to care for them genuinely. Awaken a true personality within them, and the sword will develop new powers, custom to the context of their relationship. However, the Engaged must always observe the rules of chivalry, and accept any duel made to them. If they lose an honorable duel, the Rose Bride is transferred to the victor, and all that implies, even if it means her personality totally resets. The sword is an unhealthy dating sim with super fucked up inherently abusive power dynamics.
However... if you can fully win the Rose Bride, become irreplaceable in her heart, and truly become her Prince (gender does not matter), then you achieve her power to Revolutionize the World. Whatever you desire, whatever you treasure, whatever you quested for, it is now yours. The world changes to become exactly how you wanted it to be, and the Rose Bride is free to be a normal girl.
Later, however, a new game will begin. And people will fight over a new Rose Bride. He or she will share your face and your name, but... can they be said to share your soul?

9. Ea, the Sword of Rupture

The ultimate sword, the first sword. The divine urmetal that knows the memory of the truth of the world. This is the sword used by the gods to divide Heaven and Earth, and churned the world when it was magma and flame. To cut with this blade is to restore that memory. Anything cut by this sword is reminded of the truth, and reverted to its origin. Whatever you first were, you return to being. For mortals, this generally means 'oblivion'. And if this sword is aimed at the world and swung, then Creation will be unmade, in its totality.
This sword is not even a sword. It predates the concept of swords, and so mortals cannot behold it. Perceiving or observing it in any way overloads the mind, such that it cannot think so long as it is perceiving Ea. This makes putting it away, much less using it, pretty difficult.

10. Cane of the High North

A giant candy cane; though it tastes like peppermint, it is hard as steel and not for eating. In it's natural form, it's a +1 mace that makes its attuned wielder immune to cold. This weapon increases its power with deeper attunement to its master.

If the Cane's owner saves seven people from a life-threaten situation without killing anbody in the process, the Cane becomes mystically merciful, able to convert its damage dealt into harmless, nonlethal fainting 'damage', and can also let the wielder Detect Good and Evil at will.

If the Cane's owner defeats a evil extradimensional being with equivalent Hit Dice to itself or greater, the Cane is now capable of smiting with holy power as if it were a Paladin's Divine Smite. Additionally, the wielder grows a jelly-belly that gives them 5 temporary hit points every round, and allows them to cast a modified Phantom Steed 2/day (and increasing with each tier of the Cane's power, to a max of 5 times) to conjure a mystical Reindeer, with a glowing nose that allows for perfect vision in darkness and fog.

If the Cane's owner ever successfully breaks into a secured space by sneaking through a space too small for them to move, and then out again without detection, they unlock the third tier of the Cane's magic. The wielder can now cast Prayer at-will, always benefits from Freedom of Movement, and counts as insect-sized for the sake of slipping through spaces.

The 4th tier is unlocked if the Cane's master gives 4,000 GP as gifts to the needy within the span of a week. This gives them the "A Few of My Favorite Things" ability as a Fairy Godmother, and they begin every encounter with Sanctuary freshly cast on them. Even when Sanctuary breaks, the Cane's master retains a benevolent aura that gives them a +4 AC bonus against evil creatures, their attacks, and evil spells, and evil summoned/extradimensional creatures cannot touch them at all. Additionally, the Cane's owner can now turn invisible at will.

The 5th and final tier is unlocked if the Cane's master goes on a perilous quest to help a needy child that has already claimed a life, and must do so without any reward. At this tier, the Cane's master gains a limitless lifespan, and any healing they gain over their maximum hit points is reflected outo all allies within 30 feet. Finally, they can cast Limited Wish once a week.

While the powers of the Cane are truly awesome, it is on this list of cursed swords, and while it is not a sword, and it is not cursed, it does bear an obligation. Being bound to the Cane gives the Cane's master a fey aura, making them vulnerable to anything harmful to the fey and the elven. They must also forego all other weapons, and forsake violence and malice whenever possible, as well as any material goods that are not directly in service of bringing smiles to the needy, the good, and the innocent. You're Santa now, act like it.