the Poet (GLOG class)

This class is a combination of Coins and Scrolls 'Fast Talker' and 'Goliard,' Goblin Punch's 'Poet,' and a few other sources from around the web. As always I am an inveterate magpie. I changed some of the 'inspiration' results to ones based on my re-contextualizing 5e Bard spells from a few weeks ago. I also changed the Goliard-derived 'Fortune's Wheel' ability in a key way: when you roll the dice up, you don't get to decide the order. You just get to know in advance. My hope is that this will lead to poets doing silly things in the middle of combat in order to burn off their crappy dice.

by Le Vuong

Poet

Starting Equipment: robes, walking stick (as quarterstaff), wineskin full of cheap wine.

Starting Skill: 1 =  Dregs, 2 = Farmer, 3 = Noble, 4 = Religion, 5 = Literature

Starting Save: Law

A: Poetry, Winning Smile, Dissolute
B: History of Seduction, Fortune's Wheel
C: Fast Talk, Flighty
D: Heartfelt Sorrow, Poetic License

Compositions
You can compose poems / stories.  These are sort of analogous to spells.  You can have a maximum of two poems composed for each poet template you have.

To compose a poem / story, a significant event must first happen in the game.  The term "significant" is left to the DM's discretion, but any large obstacle, life-threatening event, or notablemilestone counts. Odds are, there will be several significant events each session.  After the significant event, the poet or storyteller announces that they will be composing something, then roll on the Inspiration table to see what sort of inspiration they get (analogous to a wizard rolling to see what spell they will prepare). Part of composing may be telling it out loud or writing it down. It takes you 10 minutes to perform a poem.

Winning Smile: As long as no bloodshed has taken place, you get a +1 bonus to all reaction rolls as long as you are the one doing the talking.

Dissolute: If you ever have more than 50gp on your person and are able to spend it, you must Save or spend it within 24hrs. Save a second time, and if you fail that, half the money you spend is lost and provides no benefit whatsoever. The second Save may not be required if your spending habits are sufficiently profligate already- such as spending all of your money Carousing.

History of Seduction: If left alone with a willing, interested, or corruptible person for 1d4 - [the number of Poet templates you have] hours, to a minimum of 1 hour, you can seduce them. You need to be able to carry on a conversation without anyone overhearing. A soft horizontal surface also helps but is not required. Roll on the Seduction Side Effects table. Targets who have taken vows or whose preferences do not match yours get a Save to have second thoughts. Targets are aware you are trying to seduce them and will act accordingly (including throwing you out, kicking you in the face, etc.). PCs are not affected unless they choose to be affected.

Fortune's Wheel: You are resigned to the whims of fate. When combat begins, before Initiative is rolled, you may roll a number of d20s equal to two times the number of Poet templates you have. Write down the numbers and the order they are rolled. Any time you would roll a d20 (for Initative, Attacks, Saves, etc.) use the top result from the list instead and cross it off. Once you use up all the results you listed, roll normally.

You can also use this ability in a stressful, multi-check situation such as a chase, a prolonged espionage attempt, etc. Ask the DM.

Fast Talk: You are an expert blatherer, liar, punster, and trickster. You can persuade any number of people of that whatever you are saying is true for 1d6 minutes, provided it is not immediately and obviously untrue. Sober, angry, and intelligent people may get a Save to negate. When the effect ends, they realize whatever you've been saying is utter nonsense. They'll be very angry with you and immune to any future use of your Fast Talk ability, at least until you level up and they forget about the whole thing.

Flighty: If you choose not to attack in a round your armour counts as Plate (16 Defense). This only applies if you can see your enemies.

Heartfelt Sorrow: If you roll a critical failure or fail a saving throw, you may reroll the result by dropping to 0 HP. If you were at negative HP, you instead heal to 1 hp. This does not remove wounds, etc, only restores HP.

Poetic License
Choose a poem between 1-20 on the list below. Henceforth, when you compose a poem, you can choose between composing the favored poem, or a random poem.

Types of Poems
They all take 10 minutes to compose or perform (but only a single action to invoke).

Simple Poems: These are most like spells.  You "prepare" them by composing them and "cast" them when you read them.  They are sort of like scrolls that you scribe, that no one else can cast except for you.

Glyph Poems: You create a poem or work of art. You need to provide your own pen and ink or other materials. The poem is triggered the first time it is read, affecting the reader. Assume any aware person walking by will read the poem, if it’s out in the open.

Destiny Poems: Fate favors a poet.  After this poem is performed, a certain fate is created.  Later, any one of the people who heard the poem can invoke it, which then causes the intended effect to materialize. Once a poem is performed, it must be invoked before the day is over, or it is lost.

Inspiration Table 1d20
1. Simple: Command the Word - Create, destroy, rearrange, hide, or reveal any text within line of sight.
2. Simple: Tongues - through gestures, expressions, etc, you are able to communicate pretty well with any creature.

3. Simple: Detect Magic. 'I got a feeling something weird is going on' - plus instead of school of magic, they'll know genre of story- horror, fairy, religious, epic, etc
4. Simple: Universal Forgery - You create a perfect forgery of any written object, even if you don't know exactly what the original document looks like.
5. Simple: Suggestion - As suggestion.
6. Simple: Love - Two targets compare to see who has the better save vs charm person.  Whichever one has the better save makes a save against charm person. If they fail the save, they both fall in love with each other, permanently.
7. Simple: Commune - One question per template, yes/no answers.
8. Glyph: Curse of No Poetry - Target loses all language (spoken, written, understood) and can only communicate by representations (drawing of an apple) and not symbols (words for apple).  They have a 25% chance to fumble any spellcasting. Save negates.
9. Glyph: Weakness - Target gets -2 attack and AC until the end of the day.  Save negates.
10 Glyph: Paralyzation - Target is paralyzed for 1d6 rounds (as ghoul ability).  Save negates.
11.  Destiny: Disguise Self. Poorly-improvised disguise works unrealistically well.
12. Destiny: Sleep. Can't be cast in combat, but basically works retroactively- for example, guards have a better-than-average chance of being asleep ALREADY when you try to sneak by. Save negates.
13. Destiny: Aggression - Free action.  Invoke when you hit someone in combat.  The hit turns into a critical hit.
14. Destiny: Fool. Invoke when you have disadvantage on a roll: you have advantage instead.
15. Destiny: Spite. Turn someone’s critical success into a critical failure.
16. Destiny: Survival - Free action.  Invoke to succeed a single save, before you roll, or to negate all falling damage. You fall at normal speed, but something miraculously breaks your fall- water, a pile of hay, etc. Somehow, you take NO damage, even if the thing breaking your fall should only, at best, cushion it. On falls over a hundred feet, make a save to avoid being knocked unconscious. Maybe you land on a ledge?
17. Destiny: Escape - Invoke to automatically escape from a grapple or bindings, have a door be left unlocked, etc. To escape grapple, you may have to leave them holding a piece of your clothing.
18. Destiny: Health - “Awww, see? Just a scratch! You'll live to fight another day old chap!” 1d8 for each poet template.
19. Destiny: Lucky Find - You find some minor item in some feasible location.  For example, you could declare that you are going to find a rope in the next room, and unless the next room is actually a portal to the tentacle dimension, you will.
20. Destiny: Rat - A rat approaches from someplace not infeasible. (A rat could come out of a bush, or from a crack in the wall.) The rat does one round of actions that the invoker chooses (such as chew through a rope or bite someone) then behaves exactly as a wild rat would.