4e Planescape Class Discussions

Sure, add this.

Arcane Classes

"No power in the 'verse can overcome Arcane Magic, it is a force that's within every facet of existence.  From a body, to the rocks and the air to the  very forces that bind the planes together.  Arcane power lies everywhere, from the furthest reaches of the Astral, to the limitless expanses of the Elements and Outer Planes, the depths of the Shadow and everywhere between and beyond.  It's the laws of reality, and as well the heart and soul of reality itself.  The only way for one to become a true blood is through arcane magic, a force beyond the tiny inferior minds of most of the berks out there.

You see, magic the one and only true force of all reality is the greatest force there is in all of existence.  A cutter who knows what he's doing bends the multiverse to his will, a feat that's only possible through the power of the arcane itself.  To be a real blood, you must be able to understand the complexities of how existence works around you.  It's something that only the enlightened, the truly canny and capable of doing, the rest of the sods out there are mere mortals.  Years of study and a constant drive to learn more of the secrets of the verse is perhaps the most reliable path to such power.  But the art of the arcane comes in many forms and practices as the art was never something so easily limited by methods and narrow paths.  For some bloods magic comes naturally, but perfection can even come in the form of tinkering with trinkets and formula, the very soul of power from music and art itself, to more base methods such as the darks gleaned from terrible unknowable beings to vulgar techniques with tools such as swords.

Others are foolish enough to prostate to deities, or to limit themselves to small aspects of reality such as the elements, the shadows and the natural world.  The arcane encompasses those aspects and more, it is not something as infantile as swinging a sword or endless navel gazing.  Of the berks in Sigil's thought guilds, every one of them tries to lure in the powerful to push their agendas around, only a few of them are truly accommodating to enlightened.  In the past they were the Sensates, the Takers, the Guvners, Godsmen, Signers and Xaosmen, as each of those factions had a portion of understanding how the arcane works, but now they've all fallen by the wayside.  It was never about the true lifeblood of the planes, but always their petty political games and power plays with those factions.  Now they are sects just like the rest of us.  The might of the arcane is the only thing that's concrete, with the right darks a top-shelf enlightened one can reshape the planes and bring the Gods to their knees, what more needs to be said.

You feel the hunger for knowing, the thirst for power as I do.  Well perhaps you can learn some of my secrets for a price if we meet at anti-peak in the sub-basement below the Lower Ward storefront Thriden Anvil on the crossroads of Obsidian and Walker's Lane.  There's a lot we both hunger for with all the possibilities of the Arcane."

-Kadrol Errith D'iern (NE male aasimar wizard) ancient archmage of the former Incantifiers of Sigil

I think some people can see outside the merits of their own power sources...  And Rayl was a fighter/wizard back in 2e, picking a name from the Factol's Manifesto.  Being that she's described as the one who instructs the Takers in matters of warfare and magic, she'd know a thing about or two about both subjects.

As for Kadrol, well he knows all he needs to talk about.  Of course asking a member of the Incantifiers about the subject Arcane magic is going to be fair and balanced.

Primal Classes

"Many bashers out there get the wrong ideas when referring to the spirits and so-called primal energy. First wrong assumption is the one that the spirit world only has a connection to the prime material plane. While it's true that some of the most easily distinguished spirits are based on the prime, every plane out there in the 'verse has its own spiritual reflection. The Outer Planes are not the exclusive domain of the astral powers, and neither is the Inner Planes the exclusive domain of the primordial powers. Every plane has its consciousness and fractions of consciousness, sure as Sigil itself the Beastlands has one, Ysgard has one, Limbo has one, the Outlands do, and the Abyss most certainly has a malevolent one.

Another wrong assumption about spirits and the spirit world is that they're all about trees and rivers. In regards to the planes they're on, they may just be about that, but the spirits of Mechanus don't give a cranium rat's arse about trees and furry critters, they're more about gears and rotations. So this brings us to the question on just what are the spirits? Well as I said they are the consciousness of the planes, the soul as some might say. They are what came to be when the planes came to be. They represent the true nature of a plane untouched by interlopers such as the powers.

Most of the spirits are unseen, barely taking notice until roused or growing to significance based on the weight of what has happened. They are different from the powers that aren't truly tied to the planes they reside in. Some spirits are more receptive to the rules that the powers enforce, but not all are. Many powers have been forced to relocate their realms based on conflicts with the spirits of the planes. Some spirits eventually do take on more concrete forms, whether it is as animals, or celestials or fiends or bashers like you and me. Once it happens they take on a different existence moving on and living as different beings no longer tied intrinsically to their home plane. Despite such an existence a body still feel a weight, a calling to the spirit world.

So what is the spirit world? Well it's not another plane that exists parallel to every other world, rather it's another part of a world, one that can't be seen by most bashers without the right senses. Spirits live in everything we see around us, some spirits are weak and barely aware while others are stronger. They exist at different levels of reality than what most of us exist in, we for the most part exist in the third level of reality, while spirits live as parts and flow through the others, from the primal dreams and the dreamscape that touches ours, to hyper-reality and beyond, their presence is felt.

Of the bashers who perceive the spirit world and deal in what goes on there, we can change transform and change the world around us and even ourselves evoking on their powers. We spirtwalkers as many of us call ourselves are a bunch that many bashers don't completely tumble to, but the factions and other such clubs do have an appeal to some of us. You can find numbers of us among the Sensates, the Mind's Eye, the Wylders, Ragers, Primals (ironically enough), Xaosmen, Ring-givers and Ciphers. Though beyond the Wylders there's no club we tend to flock to in large numbers, and none we exclusively stay away from, even a few of our kind happen to be Sinkers or Dustmen or in the Red Death and other unpleasant groups. It's all up to a spiritwalker's own preference and relationship to the spirits."

-Ragyl Blackhooves (LG male bariaur shaman) of the Society of Sensation

Psionic Classes

"The mind is the window from which we perceive all of the 'verse, in a way it is the 'verse for all of us.  It is our own unique multiverse, from which we can control the rest of the 'verse around us. The mind controls the body, and that is how most bashers out there can control the rest of reality, but those with the right understanding, a special type of enlightenment and talent can do more than just move their bodies around. Such is the power of psionics, the ability to call upon the multiverse that exist within a body's self and exert their influence without limitations. Limits of the physical body, or even of time and space and the planes become meaningless.

In a previous life I was once a human woman born in a sheltered life in the Lady's Ward, a daughter of a wealthy family to be married off to an associate of my father to secure an alliance.  It was a life where my very path was already decided for me, yet I still reached out yearning for more with my existence.  It was in my explorations I learned more of the multiverse out there, without even leaving the confines of the Cage.  What lay out the in the planes, was as open to the mind as it was by planewalkers who could reach there.  All it took was a change in perceptions, and the nature of your own reality could be adapted to the plane around you.  And the moment I was betrothed to a young merchant king's son, it took to the planes myself going out of town and then out of reach of my family.

I went from the wilds of Limbo to where the mind could easily shape the planes, to the gears of Mechanus, from slimy depths to citadels of pure light, looking for an answer of into what was the nature of the 'verse and thus the nature of myself.  In time it became part of my destiny to become something else from what I was.  My life as Rynadeep Dhil would be put in the past, and I would be reborn as Askia Farseer.  My very body remade and powered by the boundless energy of the mind.  All beings do possess energies such as the type that courses through my veins, but to harness it is difficult.  It's the mind that's the original source of all concepts in existence, and therefore the root of everything that is and will be.

Sometimes concepts and forms are unharnessed, flowing through currents of the mind and the 'verse.  This is what we psions call ectoplasm, a material, the substance to what a concept is.  Ectoplasm flows through the Astral Plane, the mind's way of classifying the raw forms of concepts and thoughts of the 'verse.  Our minds form these illusions for us to comprehend its true nature, the difference between inner and outer space is but an illusion, the difference between here and there is but an illusion, even the difference of a massive universal mind and other minds is but an illusion.  True reality is both inside and outside, is with the right understanding of such ideas we can change both what we perceive to be ourselves and what we perceive to be around us.  Like a crystal it's best to look at it all from many facets, as the 'verse and our minds have many such facets in which we can perceive and know.  Constructs, mental manipulation, the bending of space and time, projected energy and the shaping of the body, is only the very tip of what one can achieve with this understanding.

All the factions were formed by seekers of truth and the 'verse to achieve understanding have an appeal to a mindbender looking for enlightenment.  It does not matter if one seeks to perfect the self, or their understanding, or seek justice, or an end, the result to enlighten oneself and the 'verse is universal.  But among the factions it's perhaps the Mind's Eye, the Transcendent Order, the Guvners, the Bleak Cabal, the Sensates and the Xaositects you will find the most of us among.  Still the path one takes can go in many ways."

-Askia Farseer (N female elan psion) mystic and instructor among the Mind's Eye

 

Elemental Classes

Hello mortals! Xanxost is here to talk to you about users and abusers of elemental power. Because the wonderful editor was completely clueless and had no soddin' idea on what an Elemental Power Source is, and couldn't get any of the mortals who call themselves the Primals to rattle their bone-box, the editor decided to ask for dear old Xanxost for help. But oho! Xanxost wonders why the Primals call themselves Primals, maybe they should get a name change like the primors or elies or soupies or zykilliyiki'xi-nglo!k. But Xanxost wonders why mortals even presume that they are experts on elemental powers.

So mortals, are you still listening? Well the best way Xanxost can describe elemental power as, is it's playing with the fundamental building blocks of the 'verse. You know Xanxost sometimes plays with things! But fundamentals are far tastier than building blocks. Yes, mortals do play with such toys all the time; they tend to do it with their breath or their mind or something silly like that. But for many beings out there, it comes very naturally. You see mortals everything out there is built from basic elements, so it makes perfect sense, much like how Slaadi are perfect sense, to use these basic things to do things like boil puppies and buy donuts from Yugoloths.

It takes a scientist to understand these things, in fact a blue slaadi scientist! Some say there are 4 elements such as earth, air, fire and water, others say there are 5 like earth, fire, earth, wood and metal, and still there are silly mortals that say there are 92 elements or even 118! Who's been counting? Xanxost says they simply count too much, there's actually something like 10292 elements. But oho! Elements are what some sod makes of them, trust Xanxost, Xanxost does a lot of research in the inner planes. Wants to know why foolish mortals now assume that Limbo is part of the inner planes, and can't tell when they're there and they're not. Limbo is everywhere foolish mortals! It all adds up to infinity and Xanxost wonders why some can't conceive of it. Infinity is as easy as 1+1+1 and you turn it sideways and you have half of infinity!

But back to elemental powers, elements are in everything and make a fine soup. Sure, Xanxost knows that dragons can vomit ice, bards can sing flumphs on fire, and wardens can hit mercanes over the head while spiky rocks shoot up their arses, but they are only working with the finished product. Those who understand it all, they simply attune themselves to what is already there. It doesn't take much to shape it all, it's not like it's a complicated concept that requires years of study, though some get themselves too caught up in it. Maybe you should talk to noted biologist Gorad Drummerhaven, he just loves to talk about the relation between centaurs and bariaurs, and the mating habits of Thoqqua and Arrowhawks.

Where was Xanxost? Xanxost still has some more things to do. There are some bodies out there that use elements just fine, some berks call thems things like shoes, woos and sheers, they tend to relate to the elementals that they think care about them. Did you know all elements think? Yes they do! And now you know mortals, it's just not all elementals have much to think about. To some they only want the attention of the greatest elementals, the Primordial Powers like Cronus the Baby-eater, Ssendam and Zaman Rul, but they only tend to pay as much attention as those Astral Powers do. So what does Xanxost say? Well you don't need the attention of anyone else, just yourself, it's just that most mortals have long forgotten play with clay and other fun building stuff.

It's about as distracting as a bunch of Happy Baern Friends, but Xanxost knows you can't spend too much time in Shrak'tlor, the Githzerai can't get enough of Xanxost's research of the Abyss. Xanxost wonders who wants to associate with such sods who play with elements in their spare time. Well Xanxost thinks it's fun for everyone, except for those Guvners who don't understand fun and science! Maybe Xanxost should research some of them! It's not all about those berks in the Primals.

-Xanxost (CN Male Blue (Talon) Slaadi Scientist)

That's actually good since, I was just writing a bunch of crap hoping they put Incarnum into Ki.  But there really isn't too much of a difference, between psionics and ki even though I tried really hard to emphasize it.