Chapter 1 — The Power of Ten

The next book of the Power of Ten, as requested by the readers, will be ‘urban fantasy’-mode.

Urban fantasy varies from one author to another. My particular inspirations center on Shadowrun (without the cyberpunk super-science aspect), Monster Hunters International, the Dresden Files, the Vampire/Masquerade world, and naturally enough, d20 Modern.

In my experience, Urban Fantasy has several particular features:

Into this mix of features, I’m going to be mixing the Power of Ten ‘reality’.

I will be reposting the glossary from Power of Ten: Sama Rantha.

Some History: I freely borrow from Pathfinder and D&D 3E and 3.5E as I do this, as well as AD&D, BECMI, and even Warhammer FRPG and some of the video games I’ve played in the past. Since I’m being authorial, I can add all this in to liven up the world and show the underlying mechanics of what is at play. Of course, playing with all of the stuff I use without a computer doing all the stuff behind the scenes might be very slooooooow… especially with Deep Tens getting access to all sorts of stuff!

===================================================

Forsaken are effectively limited to using ki (passive effects only), and some Alchemy in the story. They can use Powered magic items with passive effects, but cannot improve them.

Just like classic RPG’s and the video games that borrow from them, it takes more and more Karma to gain every extra Level. You can always keep accumulating Karma even if you can’t Level up, buying Feats, Masteries, Hit Points towards your cap, Secondary Levels, spend them to make magic items, and so forth.

A Level is defined as one Character Class Level, One Purchased Feat, and 3 Mastery Advances, in terms of Karma and Caps.

For this novel, Powered must Level to gain new caps on Feats and Masteries, and only if they cannot Level can they Train Feats and Masteries sideways.

It takes a Stat of 10+Level in the Class you want to take a Level in it. Thus, to be a Ten, you need a 20 in the prime Stat of that Class. It takes an exceptional person to gain Levels. If you play the system, you need a 14 base Stat to make it all the way to Ten eventually. Magical items do NOT count towards this limit!

Regardless of how much Karma you have accumulated, you can’t Level up ten times in one day. Between Renewals, you can add one Level, one Feat, advance one Mastery, or train up one Hit point towards your maximum (Health or Soak, not both).

You can only put a combination of 1,000 points of Karma and gold combined into a magic item (ONE Magic item!) per day via Infusing or Investing. There are special exceptions to this for Consumables, such as Scrolls and Potions, but largely 1,000 is a Hard Limit, until you get to very high end Forsaken Crafting…

This amount of 500 gold + the Karmic equivalent means a ‘goldweight’, the amount a Powered can Infuse a day, is a Known Standard of value, and the actual value of an object or power comp is generally measured against goldweight. This amount represents approximately five pounds of gold, half a pound of platinum, or fifty pounds of silver (pure, unrefined, uncrafted).

—————-

Spells are limited to Valence III at Six. Post-Six characters with higher Slots can meta their spells to be more powerful, but D&D level 6+ spells are not possible to cast, and 4-5

Batman would be a Deep Six… a Six with a LOT of secondary Classes, and many Feats and Masteries, and a nigh-prefect Stat Line.

The limit on Stats for a human body is 30-35. After that point, your body is basically a magic item, your mind is thinking in the akasha outside your skull, and so forth. Your strength is more telekinetic than physical.

Twenty is the absolute Mortal Limit. After Twenty, you become Eternal, stop aging, and will not die of natural causes, you can only be killed. The Road to Twenty is the Road to the Eternal.

Powered gain 10 years of additional prime years (normal age 20-40) for every Level they have… meaning they also live longer than the rest of us. Forsaken do the same. Primos who become Forsaken at Seven get back the years, which can rapidly de-age them, as do Primos who swear a Warlock Pact and become pseudo-Powered.

Gaining a Level in a Secondary Class costs exactly what it would cost to gain your next Level in your Primary Class.

You gain no bonus Skill points from Intellect from taking Secondary Classes, nor extra hit points. You do get the best of the Save/Resist Bonuses by Class, and Attack Bonus. You also do not gain any weapon or armor proficiencies, or other starter bonuses only available at Level One.

There are Prestige Classes, which are basically special niche Classes or work off combinations of one or more main Classes. The main Classes are where the real power is. Most such Classes are 5 Levels long, and cap at Ten (i.e. require you to be a Ten to take the final Level).

You gain a Stat point at Level 4 in any Class, and again at 8. When you first reach Ten, you gain +1 to all Stats (only once).

Skill Ranks impose absolute limits on certain things you can learn and know. If your Soul is not developed enough, you simply can’t understand certain things.

The existence of Levels is widely known and understood.

Good, Evil, Law, and Chaos are fundamental forces that empower the universe, not philosophical arguments.

There is no war in Heaven.

The vast majority of Renewals are at Dawn. Other popular times are Noon, Dusk, and Highmoon (midnight).

Renewal is based on personal time. Going to a world with week-long days, a Renewal is still once a day. The time of day can be changed by eschewing Renewal at the proper time, and proceeding to the time you want to Renew at.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Feats represent special tricks and capabilities that build upon other basic abilities, and come in all types and flavors, magical and not magical. They are analogous to some of the Skills of video games, but virtually all Feats are passive in nature. The ability to

Melees, Archers, and Scouts have access to Class Features that basically supercharge certain Feats, allowing them to improve with time. It’s how the Primos truly improve over time.

Many Feats require you to be a certain Level, have certain Stats, possess certain Class Features, be of a certain Alignment, or know other Feats and Masteries to take them.

Because they have no access to magic or spellcasting, Forsaken and Primos focus on Feats. Any time a Forsaken or Primos gains a Feat when Leveling or from a Class, they gain an extra Feat. If a Forsaken or Primos takes a Class that has magical ability or Casting, any Level where they would gain a Spell or similar power, they instead gain a Feat appropriate to that Class.

Competence bonuses for Skills are limited to +5, exactly what you get from a Mastery. Most other Bonuses are limited to +3 at Ten. Magical items that buff ability scores are limited to +5 at Ten.

—————–

– Every 5 points represents a doubling. So, a Strength score of 20 is basically about as strong as 4 men, and a 20 Intellect can match wits with 4 average people easily.

-The total bonus of a Stat increases by +1 every 2 points past 10, and is a penalty in the other direction. The subordinate score increases by +1 in between (i.e. Might increases before Power for Strength).

-The normal human Stat maximum at career start is 20 (base 18, +2 for starting choice reflecting training). In the real world, the human maximum is about 23. It is VERY difficult for an average human to train beyond that level. Having a Stat of 24+ basically means you are beyond human in some way. People who are born with natural 18’s and train to make it a 20 are incredibly rare… but not on Player Character Creation sheets, it seems…

-If you want to see what a 22-23 represents, pull out the Guinness Book of World Records!

—Ogres have a Str score of 21 on average, making the average Ogre stronger than all but the very strongest humans, and they have Cons of 18, making them incredibly tough. Spider-man sits in the mid-40 range since he can toss a car, the Thing has a Might of about 60 (Power low since he’s not very fast), and the Hulk a Str of 60+ (fast AND strong!).

—Succubi have Charisma scores of 26 (+8) on average, making them more charming than any human on Earth. Napoleon rode an 18-20+ Charisma to historical immortality, despite being nothing much to look at.

–Intellect maps to IQ. An Intellect of 13 is the smartest person in the room. 14, in your grade. 15, in your grade school. 16, in your high school. 17 is a true genius, and best in your college. 18, probably in your state. 20, probably in your country. 22, probably the planet (Sherlock Holmes range). Batman probably has a 23, and Lex Luthor a 24-26 (and a lot of Feats/Masteries). Reed Richards is probably in the 30’s, but has no ceiling, since he can grow his brain.

-Spider-man has a reaction time 15x a human athlete, and perfect balance and body control. That puts his Dex score in the 38-40 range (+14-15). The best snipers in the world will have Precision about 20, while the best yoga masters and gymnasts will have Agility in the same area.

-The wisest and most cunning advisors and plotters in history have Wisdom scores in the 20-22 range, which is about the basic level of a lesser Angel. The way Shakespeare’s Plays have endured the centuries is a timeless testament to the wisdom of their writer.

——

Someone with high

Strength is very important to a Melee combatant, signifying speed and control of a weapon, and being able to wield heavier arms and armor. A mighty warrior wields bigger weapons (perhaps ridiculously so), but a Powerful one controls them more easily and swings them faster and more lightly.

High Dex people are graceful, flexible, controlled, precise, steady, and balanced, and move with efficient motions.

People with high Constitution are in extremely good Health and phenomenally tough, able to keep going when others fail, and resist negative energy attacks more easily.

A high Intellect person knows a lot of things, and can apply them effectively and consistently, figuring stuff out faster than those around them.

People who work with Arcane magic and Crafters, as well as Skill-heavy folk, need high Intellects.

A Wise person can give (and take) good advice easily… or horribly wrong advice, if they choose. They tend to be hard to sway, self-controlled, and calm.

Wisdom is important for those wanting attunement with Nature and the Divine, so Monks and Divine and Druidic Casters require it.

Naruto would be an example of a high Charisma character… not much in brains or common sense, but gets people to follow him, never gives up, and becomes a leader.

—

The high Int character comes up with a dozen battle plans, the high Wis character picks the best one… and convinces the high Cha character to back it, so everyone follows along.

The High Int character goes looking for lots of advice and alternatives; the High Wis character gives the best advice; and the High Charisma character bulls ahead, figuring he can fix anything that goes wrong as he goes.

For a Negative Example, Donald Trump is an example of high Charisma, Low Wis/Intellect. He had the charm and personality to manipulate people to become President of the United States, but had neither the Intellect nor the Wisdom to do well once he got there.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

TH is divided into MAB, Melee Attack Bonus (close combat) and RAB, Ranged Attack Bonus (missile combat).

If you are subject to Luck, rolling a 1 (01-05) is always considered a miss, and rolling a 20 (96-00) is considered always a hit.

This is somewhat different from many video games, where you are presumed to hit, and damage is just modified. Mathematically, they end up in the same place… whiffing is basically the same as seeing 0,0,0 damage come up…

In terms of combat importance, you generally want your attacks to hit, then do more damage per attack, then gain more attacks. It’s all math, but if you can’t hit, it doesn’t matter how many attacks or damage you get, and if you don’t do any damage, it doesn’t matter how many attacks you have.

The main reason dice is used is because of mathematical averages with more than one die. 2-16 means an equal chance of any number from 2 to 16. 2d8 means the damage is heavily weighted towards the average of 9, and 2-4 and 14-16 are very uncommon. So, a 10d6 fireball mathematically stays around 35 damage, instead of having the same chance to do 10 or 60 as the middle.

A knife or dagger does a d4 in damage.

A gladiator’s short sword or a normal arrow does a d6.

A knightly longsword or broadhead arrow does a d8.

An average handgun does a d10.

A two-handed sword or axe, or a lance on a charge, does 2d6.

A rifle or shotgun does 2d8 or so.

A cloud giant is four times the height of a human, can wield a Heavy Weapon, and so his sword strike would do roughly 5d6 damage, +11 from Strength… Remember us Terrans have on average 5 Health…

A d20 is also known as an icosahedron! D&D basically invented the market for almost all non-d6 dice… If you take a geometry, you will learn that the vertexes of each die help make another one with more faces…

Sword-type weapons crit more frequently (19-20 roll) and generally do double damage, making them more consistent.

Axe-type weapons crit less frequently (20 roll), but hack down for triple damage when they do, making them more explosive.

Simpler weapons, such as clubs and maces, crit on 20 and do double damage. A few exotic weapons are 20/x4 and 18-20/x2. The big difference between simple and martial weapons is generally that martial weapons are designed to hit and kill things, and simple weapons are just tools or random objects that can double as weapons.

Exotic Weapons generally obey these crit ranges. The highest base combination is 19-20 x3, the natural damage range of a falcata (sword-axe, like an oversized kukri).

Video Games tend to assign hit points per level, instead of rolling variables, and using an average is perfectly fine. Basically, the more Hit Die you have, the tougher/stronger/more badass you are.

The average Human has 1 Hit Die for Human/1, and 1-2 Class Hit Die. How’s it feel to be a wimp like me? An experienced, Veteran soldier might be a Three, and the best spec ops soldiers in the world, Fours.

—

Armor Class is raised by wearing armor, using a shield, being dexterous, dodging, being insightful and reading movements, having a tough hide/skin/scales, and other methods. It starts at 10 (a normal human with no bonuses or penalties), and goes up as high as you can make it.

Bonuses to magic armor and shields raise the amount of protection they give by the same amount.

—

There are Feats and Masteries that help bypass DR.

Jotuns have

The five basic energy forms are fire/heat, cold, acid/base/corrosive, lightning, and thunder/sonic.

Other types of damage include necroic/negative energy, Force, Radiant, Primal, Divine, Eldritch/Arcane and vivic/positive (which generally doesn’t harm the living), among others.

Poison is not an energy type.

1 point of sonic/thunder resistance means you can fire off a gun next to your ear all day without harm.

1 point of lightning resistance means you’ll never pick up a static charge from the floor. 10 points means you can’t be shocked by your home wiring. 20 points makes you immune to a downed power line. 30 points means you can ignore being struck by natural lightning.

1 point of acid resistance means bleeding in the sea/salt in your wounds won’t sting, and most caustic fumes have no effect on you. 10 points means you can drink battery acid. 30 points means you can drink aqua regia.

1 point of fire resistance means you can’t be burned by a match, and are immune to sunburn and sunstroke, and physical exercise can’t make you sweat from the heat. 10 points means you can stand in a decent bonfire. 20 points means you can’t be burned at the stake. 30 points means you grab and mold lava, and stroll around in the heart of a forest fire. 50 points or so means you can go swimming in lava, and watch an acetylene torch not burn your skin.

1 point of cold resistance means you can hold a chunk of dry ice all day, and go swimming in ice water. 10 points means you can guzzle liquid nitrogen. 20 points means you can tolerate the cold of orbital space. 30 points means you can take a bath in liquid oxygen, and walk around on Pluto (air pressure and breathing still problems, however!)

——

The broad categories of Saves are

A Save works much like a To Hit Roll against Armor Class. The target number represents the potency of the attack, with a low number being easy to resist (12 for a small spider’s poisonous bite) and a high number meaning you better be praying (27 for a Banshee Scream or the poison of a house-sized Scorpion), and can reach 30-40 or higher for truly legendary monsters… and PC’s who build in that direction.

Naturally there are ways to make yourself immune to certain effects, which basically means you ‘auto-save’.

Generally speaking, a 20 on the die roll is considered ‘always saving’, and a 1 ‘always failing’, if you are subject to Luck.

There are many effects which can modify Saves, including high Stats, Resistance, Luck, insight, blessings from the Divine, and so forth.

—————–

Knife fighters are typical finesse-style fighters, but it’s not uncommon for many weaker, faster martial artists.

Generally speaking, someone who is using very fast, flashy, and precise fighting styles is using Finesse Fighting. In real life, it doesn’t work as well as Power (just ask an MMA fighter), but it sure does look prettier.

Notably, Sneak Attack dice are not multiplied by critical hits, since they are basically ‘critical damage’ as they are. Also, creatures that don’t have weak points in their anatomy, like slimes and oozes, elementals, golems, and the like, tend to not be affected by Sneak Attack damage (it’s hard to poke a liver when they don’t have organs).

++++++++++++++++++++

In the story, the demand for gold means that a pound of gold is valued at about $30,000, or about $1800 an ounce. The lack of power comps and desire for magical items naturally prices them out of reach of most people. Five pounds of gold is a goldweight, or $150,000. Making a Ten Slot Weapon at 200 Goldweight would thus be $30 Million JUST for the gold to power it up, let alone getting someone to make a QL 40 item.

The existence of active magic tends to coalesce pure minerals far more than in a non-magical world, so veins of precious metals and gems are more common. Different flavors of magic imbuing different materials creates Energized Materials, whose biases form ‘new substances’. Energized pure Earth Tungsten is Adamant. Mithral is Water Energized Titanium.

Burning gold to create magic items releases their essence into the item. The gold (or other material) dissipates into the aether… later to recoalesce as it gathers enough magic, forming another vein of the material once again, somewhere else, and has to be mined out again. So the precious metals will never run out… but you do have to find them.

The general rule is QL 20/Masterwork for the simplest, Cantrip-level weak magic items (shoes that tie themselves, a coat that sheds rainwater, etc), +1 QL for every Caster Level of effect you want to put in it.

Note that the maximum Caster Level you can imbue into an object is based on Spellcraft Ranks. As a Ten, that is 10 Ranks. Thus, many powerful magical effects cannot be put into magical items!

Different materials can only be crafted up to certain QL’s. Normal base steel can only hit a 30, with really fine steel alloys hitting 35. It takes mithral or adamant to hit a 40 QL or higher for metals. For wood, you’re looking at Weirwoods or other hugely rare, powerful trees; mundane woods will also only go to QL 30, with some alchemically/magically grown/raised able to hit 35.

Furthermore, Spellcraft Ranks must be 3 Ranks for every point of Enhancement Bonus or equivalent. This limits Weapons to +3 or equivalent effects at Nine, improving to +4 at Twelve and +5, the mortal maximum, at Fifteen. So, no Vorpal effects before Fifteen!

Opening each Slot is more and more expensive per Slot. Doing nothing but opening all Ten Slots on a Weapon costs 100k gold for a Powered, and 200k for a Primos.

Powered folk Imbue magical items with gold-equivs and Karma. Primos and Forsaken Invest them with gold or power comp equivalents, and Naming Karma, instead.

As a convention, magical items are capitalized. So, a Sword is magical, a sword is not.

—Because of the E6 limit of the story, powerful magical Weapons and items are simply non-existent for the most part. Each one is at least $300,000, too.

–Magical bonuses to Skills do not raise Skill checks, they only raise Crafting Speed (how much work is done). Thus, having two magic items giving you +5 to your checks gives you +10 to your check for speed, but has no effect on the Quality Level you can reach.

Banefire is exactly the hue of the blood of the creature it is

The corollary

Adding an effect to a Weapon or Armor must be declared and added until done, i.e. I’m adding

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Where necroic lifeforms (the undead), are mostly-dead and feed on life energy, vivic energy is mostly alive and feeds on death energy, their exact opposite. It has next to no effect on living creatures, unless they die, when it starts consuming their bodies like firewood, feasting on the negative energy slowly flowing into them. Corpses with magical power in them burn faster, and undead/negative energy life forms (including many necromancers) of any kind burn like oil, taking 1-6 points of damage from contact with vivic flame.

Vivic energy is unknown at the start of the story, as magic hasn’t been around long enough, and the things which might know about it have either forgotten it or have no desire to speak of its existence.

Vivic fire is slightly heavier than air, misting slowly along the ground as it burns, the energy slowly sinking into the Land, where it is absorbed and turned into basic life energy for the Land.

‘Unwhite’ is ‘true white’. The human eye sees ‘white’ whenever multiple colors stack on one another. Unwhite is ‘true white’, it has no component other colors. Its opposite color in the thaumaspectrum is naturally utterblack.

Octarine, Jale, Ulfire, and Dolm are examples of magical colors in the thaumaspectrum.

There exists a Pspectrum of psionic colors, and an Aural Spectrum of the Alignments.

At the beginning of the novel, the standard cap of Six means that Valence Three is as high as most people get, with shenanigans allowing some to access the Fourth.

A basic Vajra reduces food consumption by 1/x of normal, where X is the lower of Ki and Essence over 9. A basic Vajra also provides a low level of elemental resistance, sufficient to ignore 1 pt of Elemental damage/rd, if the character takes the Mastery. The character’s soul reaches up to an inch past his skin.

A Diamond Vajra kicks in at 20 each Essence/Magic and Ki. This actually represents full body awareness and the body as a magic item. Elemental Resistance improves to lower of Ki or Essence, -10. Resistance to alternate forms of damage is possible. Most importantly, the character becomes

This is a personification of the effects that allow monks to stay healthy, reject poison, be aware of their surroundings, lift things above their hands, etc.

A Mark III Vajra includes two of magic, Essence, or psionics, in addition to Ki, and extends the soul to 3 inches. A Mark IV Vajra includes all four.

These are the fundamental forces that drive the universe, not cast-offs to encourage proper role-playing. Your Alignment is determined by thought and action… doing the wrong thing for the right reason isn’t going to make you Good, and doing the right thing for the wrong reason isn’t, either. Alignments basically reflect where you stand in relation to all other living, thinking beings with respect to your moral code.

Note that this is different from a game, where playing fast and loose with Alignment is commonly tolerated so the game goes on. In the ‘real world’ of the story, you can fool yourself, but you can’t fool the Profound Forces.

Neutral GOOD people are yellow to golden. The more rigid the color, the firmer their beliefs. Angels are classic Good creatures. A farmer who just wants to tend his fields, but enlists to fight against the evil empire when called upon, is also NG.

LAWFUL Neutral people are blue to sapphire. They tend to be rigid in beliefs, conservative, and members of organizations who tell them how and what to think. Axiomatics and many militaries and bureaucrats qualify as Lawful Neutral. LN people tend to think that everybody sh