Preview: The Woodsman
The Wood lies outside fae and human influence alike, but there are some who immerse themselves in its ancient depths nonetheless. The Woodsman does not dominate the wilderness, but they have reached with it what some might call a polite accord. In exchange for the cooperation of the world’s forests, rivers, and deserts, the Woodsman has dedicated themselves to a particular doom, and fate will have its due.
There is much debate as to the nature of abilities conferred by the Wood. Are practitioners simply reading signs hidden in the natural world around them, or is the wilderness shaping itself to their needs? Those who have seen the granite bones of the earth explode from black soil to crush the Woodsman’s foes under the weight of geological eons do not ask these questions.
The Woodsman is going to die. The Doom class feature designates a fatal circumstance that the Woodsman must one day meet, and it makes them a little more vulnerable to death when they do. There’s no avoiding it (in fact, the GM is encouraged to force them to confront their doom with some amount of regularity) but the upside is that they can’t be killed by anything else. Plus, in exchange for their deal with death, they get access to a suite of powers tied to the Heart of the Wood.
The rest of the Woodsman’s class features revolve around their contract with the Wood. Natural Foresight allows them to find exactly the natural feature they want when it would be most convenient. This covers anything from a tree fallen across a chasm to an overstressed beaver dam just upstream from the bandit’s camp. Natural Harmony allows the Woodsman to invoke the power of the Wood to radical change, arranging natural features into barriers, passages, or other simple — but potentially massive — structures. Trees and vines knit together, rocks jut from the earth, a river pours from a newly-burst natural spring.
John Cates: Mechanics that let players establish narrative facts trigger my salivary reflex — almost every class has at least one way to do that, and the Woodsman has several. It’s also fun to imagine what a survivalist or naturalist is like when the setting describes the Wood as such a difficult and bizarre place — it is unchartable and can only be navigated by intuition, the Heart is unpredictable and capable of ecological paranoia and hostility, and humans are very far below the apex of the food chain. A person who thrives there must be profoundly adaptable and self-reliant; they’ve probably got some ballin’ skills, and chances are they’re a big weirdo. I think that’s a good space to design a character in.
There is much debate as to the nature of abilities conferred by the Wood. Are practitioners simply reading signs hidden in the natural world around them, or is the wilderness shaping itself to their needs? Those who have seen the granite bones of the earth explode from black soil to crush the Woodsman’s foes under the weight of geological eons do not ask these questions.
The Woodsman is going to die. The Doom class feature designates a fatal circumstance that the Woodsman must one day meet, and it makes them a little more vulnerable to death when they do. There’s no avoiding it (in fact, the GM is encouraged to force them to confront their doom with some amount of regularity) but the upside is that they can’t be killed by anything else. Plus, in exchange for their deal with death, they get access to a suite of powers tied to the Heart of the Wood.
The rest of the Woodsman’s class features revolve around their contract with the Wood. Natural Foresight allows them to find exactly the natural feature they want when it would be most convenient. This covers anything from a tree fallen across a chasm to an overstressed beaver dam just upstream from the bandit’s camp. Natural Harmony allows the Woodsman to invoke the power of the Wood to radical change, arranging natural features into barriers, passages, or other simple — but potentially massive — structures. Trees and vines knit together, rocks jut from the earth, a river pours from a newly-burst natural spring.
Designer Commentary
Joshua Mann: The Doom is honestly one of my favorite class features we’ve come up with from a cool-factor perspective. While it’s passive, which I’m usually not that interested in, it’s just so flavorful. I love the mixed curse/blessing nature of it. Plus, if the Woodsman knows what their Doom is (which they might, at the player’s option), it’s fun as a GM to see how they react when confronted with it.John Cates: Mechanics that let players establish narrative facts trigger my salivary reflex — almost every class has at least one way to do that, and the Woodsman has several. It’s also fun to imagine what a survivalist or naturalist is like when the setting describes the Wood as such a difficult and bizarre place — it is unchartable and can only be navigated by intuition, the Heart is unpredictable and capable of ecological paranoia and hostility, and humans are very far below the apex of the food chain. A person who thrives there must be profoundly adaptable and self-reliant; they’ve probably got some ballin’ skills, and chances are they’re a big weirdo. I think that’s a good space to design a character in.
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