No god is a philosopher or seeker after wisdom, for he is
wise already; nor does any man who is wise seek after wisdom. Neither do the
ignorant seek after wisdom.
-The
Symposium
I decided
that I wanted to put sages in my Portown campaign but Holmes does not include
rules for sages and I didn’t really like the way that Blackmoor handled sages.
Blackmoor presents sages as scholars in a guild. They seem to be designed as a
money sink on the PCs, which makes sense. Massive amounts of treasure is needed
to gain levels in OD&D and DMs need to give the players something to spend
it on or the players find perverse stuff to spend the money on (not necessarily
sexually perverse, but the players will use the money to upend social order). The
sage is kind of a dm screwjob. It is an NPC that the players are eventually
going to need that is designed to cost them a lot of money and annoy them.
Naturally the players are going to want to kill these sages, so Blackmoor
states that sages can give powerful curses and that all sages know each other
and players that kill one sage will not be able to get another.
That is not
the type of DM screw job I like. This is the type of DM screw job I like:
The Philosopher
|
Level Title
|
HD
|
XP
|
Chance
to answer question
|
|
|
1. Student
|
1d4
|
0
|
5%
|
0%
|
|
2. Sophist
|
2d4
|
2,500
|
10%
|
0%
|
|
3. Epistemologist
|
3d4
|
4,000
|
20%
|
0%
|
|
4. Metaphycisist
|
4d4
|
8,000
|
30%
|
0%
|
|
5. Nihilist*
|
4d4
|
12,000
|
20%
|
5%
|
|
6. Stoic
|
6d4
|
34,000
|
40%
|
0%
|
|
7. Structuralist
|
7d4
|
68,000
|
50%
|
0%
|
|
8. Philosopher
|
8d4
|
136,000
|
60%
|
5%
|
|
9. Sage
|
9d4
|
272,000
|
80%
|
10%
|
|
* No typos, nihilists regress.
|
Philosophers save as magic users but get -2 on all saves vs.
poison
The philosopher is an NPC character class obsessed with the
pursuit of wisdom from first principles. When a philosopher reaches the 9th
level they become a sage. A sage is no longer obsessed with the pursuit of
Wisdom because they have obtained an understanding about the basic principles
of the universe and time. Because of this they are seldom willing to answer
questions unless the players can give the sage a new question, never asked
before.
Sages however will have students that follow them around:
1d6 students
1d4 Epistemologists
1d2 Metaphycisists
Answering Questions
All questions fall into 5 categories
5 Totally pointless theoretical questions
4 Questions Related to the metaphysics of the universe
3 Questions related to the metaphysics of the
dungeon/underworld
2 Questions about the mundane properties of the
dungeon/underworld
1 Questions about anything else.
Sages will only answer questions in categories 5 and 4.
Nihilists will not answer questions in categories 5 and 4.
Philosophers from levels 1-5 will answer a question for 3d6
* 10 * their level in gold. Structuralists and Stoics will demand magic items
that they have never seen before. The power of the magic item is unimportant,
but it must be novel.
Name Level Philosophers and sages demand potions of
forgetfulness to stop the chimeras from forming in their skulls.
Philosophers will answer a question by engaging in a long
drawn out questioning of the asker until they arrive at the answer themselves.
ELBRATH:
Well, then, consider and try to explain what is the meaning of 'better,' in the
matter of making peace and going to war with those against whom you ought to go
to war? To what does the word refer?
LEOMUND:
I am thinking, and I cannot tell.
ELBRATH:
But you surely know what are the charges, which we bring against one another,
when we arrive at the point of making war, and what name we give them?
LEOMUND:
Yes, certainly; we say that deceit or violence has been employed, or that we
have been beset by Chaos.
ELBRATH:
And how does this happen? Will you tell me how? For there may be a difference
in the manner.
LEOMUND:
Do you mean by 'how,' Elbrath, whether we suffered these things justly or
unjustly?
ELBRATH:
Exactly.
LEOMUND:
There can be no greater difference than between just and unjust, Law and Chaos.
(The
Education of Leomund the Bold Adapted from Alcibiades I)
The player asking the question must make wisdom checks equal
to the category number. For each failed wisdom check the DM rolls the
philosophers chance to answer question. If the Philosopher fails the player
arrives at a false conclusion. The higher level the philosopher, the more
likely they will enjoy talking to a fool. Nihilists enjoy talking to fools the
most because they are at a point in their journey where they no longer see a
meaningful distinction between right and wrong conclusions.
How philosophers get
xp
Philosophers get experience from 2 main sources, debates and
answering questions.
1
Debates. Philosophers love to
debate each other on the nature of reality so I have made convoluted rules to
determine how many experience points a philosopher gets for debating. There is
of course a convoluted set of rules governing debates that has little relation
to other rules. Here are the rules:
1.
Only Sophists, Nihilists, and Structuralists can
win debates. Other debates are considered symposiums where ideas are exchanged
in a collegial manner.
2.
Philosophers can only debate once a week.
3.
Pick a category for the debate using the 5
categories above any category the rules about certain levels not answering
questions does not apply to debates.
4.
Calculate the experience each participant will
get from the debate: Base Reward * category * level of interlocutor/level of
philosopher * rhetoric modifier.
5.
Here are level modifiers:
|
Level
|
Base xp Reward
|
Rhetoric Modifier
|
|
1.
Student
|
50
|
1d4
|
|
2.
Sophist
|
100
|
1d6
|
|
3.
Epistemologist
|
200
|
1d8
|
|
4.
Metaphysicist
|
400
|
1d8
|
|
5.
Nihilist
|
100
|
1d12
|
|
6.
Stoic
|
500
|
1d8
|
|
7.
Structuralist
|
600
|
1d10
|
|
8.
Philosopher
|
800
|
1d10
|
6.
A sage gains no xp from debates. In fact a sage
cannot gain xp as they have already experienced everything having deduced it
metaphysically from first principles.
7.
If you need to figure out a winner for the
debate, compare the level modifier rolls. The highest roll wins. Anyone except
another nihilist who loses a debate against a nihilist has their experience
reward halved as they begin to doubt the nature of truth
2. Example. In the time when Ethbran was a stoic she met
a man, Bazarov. He smirked derisively at the world and went about he market
stealing. Ethbran confronted him one day as he walked away from a grocer’s
stand with a pomegranate.
“You should return that
pomegranate,”
“Why?”
They argued for six hours. A crowd
gathered. Eventually Bazarov was hauled off for theft. Ethbran was left in the
market crying.
In this exchange Bazarov, a
nihilist and Ethbran a stoic are arguing about a category 1 question. Bazarov
is level 5 and Ethbran is Level 6. Bazarov rolls a d12 and Ethbran Rolls a d8.
Bazarov gets 6 and Ethbran gets a 4.
So to calculate Bazarov’s xp you
multiply 100(bass reward) * 1(category) * 6(Ethrbran’s level)/5(Bazarov’s
Level) * 6(Rhetoric Modifier) = 720xp
To calculate Ethbran’s xp you
multiply 500 * 1 * 5/6 * 4 = 1664 and then you divide by 2 because she lost the
debate. So you get 832xp.
3. Experience
from answering questions. When a philosopher answers a question they get xp
equal to the category of the question * their base xp value * their rhetoric
modifier. They get half xp for delivering wrong answers except for sophists and
nihilists who get double xp for wrong answers.
The Philosospher’s Curse
A sage whispers in my
ear that no pleasure except that of the wise is quite true and pure—all others
are a shadow only; and surely this will prove the greatest and most decisive of
falls?
-The
Republic
When someone kills a philosopher they are cursed. They can
find no other joy or fulfillment other than the pursuit of knowledge. They can
gain no xp by any means until they become a philosopher themselves and obtain
the level of the philosopher whom they killed. They must stop being whatever
they were before and find a teacher that they can follow. Remove curse will not
work and a wish spell will have dire consequences.
Once the player becomes a philosopher
their hit points a reset to that of a first level philosopher. the Once players
achieve the level of the philosopher killed they may return to their former
class from where they left off and regain their former hit points. They also
retain their philosopher class abilities.
