Random Backstory Tables: Barbarian, Bard & Cleric

The tables in Xanathar's Guide to Everything are great, but they're way, way too short! Happily that makes them an excellent subject for a blog post. Here are the first three classes: Barbarian, Bard, and Cleric.

The barbarian 'tattoos' table is a bit longer cuz I got carried away.

BARBARIANS

Personal Totem

Tattoos

1- a grinning shark-like maw extending on either side of your mouth and up your cheeks

2- A series of protecting runes encircling your throat and covering your heart

3- Red geometric lines, like blood streaming from the corners of your mouth

4- A random-seeming phrase in a language you don't know. To you, all writing has powerful magic potential, and when you 'liberated' this bit of script from some scholar you inscribed what you thought must be the most important bit of text onto your skin, to absorb it's magic.

5- The entire sleeve of one arm, inked a solid black.

6- The phases of the moon (or one of the moons) inked across your knuckles.

7- The name of a lover who broke your heart. Seeing it causes you great pain and anger, but you're too stubborn to get it removed or covered up.

8- A map to a secret location. Work with the DM to determine where this might be. You don't trust paper or writing, so you had this tattooed on you, and had the map itself destroyed.

9- A face tattooed on your but. The idea is that you can move your buttcheeks and make the face kind of look like it's talking. At your option, the face may be that of a famous political or historical figure, a scowling demon or dragon, or a badly rendered replica of your own face.

10- A to-do list. You didn't have a pen handy, but you did have a tattooing needle...

11- Knuckle tatts that read 'RAGE' across one hand and 'KILL' 'HATE' 'LOVE' 'DEAD' 'SMRT' 'FUCK' or some other four-letter word across the other hand.

12- Traced white lines, as if scarred by lightning.

13- A keyhole shape, around your eye, and a key on your hand.

14- A series of hatched lines; you add a new one for each worthy foe you slay in battle.
15- "MOTH" inside a heart

16- An anchor. You're a traditionalist.

Superstitions

1 - Never let an ally become entirely obscured from view during a fight or in a dungeon, or you will be suspicious of them until they reprove their trust. One way of restoring trust is by asking "what goes up a chimney?" And the other responding "smoke."

2-  birds are unlucky, especially pictures of birds. You will never tolerate having a picture of a bird in a house, and if you can destroy the picture that's ideal

3- the last person to arrive for drinking has to quaff a whole drink, as a penalty. When drinking, alcohol must be poured for all present, altho they are not required to drink

4- it is bad luck to give or receive a weapon or any kind of blade as a gift. This may be avoided by exchanging a token amount, such as one silver piece, since an uneven trade is not a gift. 

5- wizard's magic is weak to silver - their magic may ward off a knife, but silver will cut through. 

6- things always come in threes. So if you have fallen into a hole twice, or found gold twice, you're bound to have it happen a third time

7- Someone who dies will need their weapons after their dead. Don't loot that sword off your friend, as he may be fighting ghosts with it in the afterlife. Replicas or substitutions may be acceptable. 

8- money is cursed, and you will never touch it with your hands if you can help it. 

BARDS

Defining Works

1- 'the Tain of Greenmere' A rambling saga - chant that recalls every river, hill and dell of a long journey across your homeland, now lost under the sea

2- an extremely experimental work, filled with invented words and seemingly stream of consciousness verses that in fact you poured inordinate amount of time into getting just right

3- a catchy hit song that you're famous for performing as part of a band of five nearly identical-looking young singers

4- its a cover of someone else's song, but your version was so defining that even the original artist has basically given it to you, going so far as to say they'd hesitate to perform it themselves without your blessing

5- 'Misummer Knights' a bawdy tale about the queen of the fairies, her clone, and a lot of nudity, chaos, fighting, and mistaken identity. 

6- a conceptual art piece consisting of precisely measured long intervals of silence, interspersed by a few single notes. 

Instrument

1- musical saw stolen from loggers trying to clearcut a dryad's grove

2- Balalaika, engraved with images of a polar bear grappling a moosetaur

3- Crwth made of scrimshawed whalebone 

4- Aulos won from a satyr in a drinking contest

5- Nyckelharpa made by a famous firbolg crafter 

6- Digeridoo fashioned from a mastodon horn

7- Ocarina with a built in watch ⌚ 

8- Xaphoon bound in red gold and inscribed with the sigil of your house

9- Lur with a matching helmet with decorative horns

10- A hurdy-gurdy engraved with eldritch prophecies of doom in an ancient tongue

Embarrassments

1 - Having read far more words than you've heard spoken, you frequently mispronounce rarely-used words.

2 - You completely forgot the Duke's name in the middle of the season's premiere social gathering

3 - It was discovered you'd used illusions to fill out the audience of your play 'Qouth the Zondervoze.' 

4 - Interupting the production of the play 'the King in Yellow,' you wrecked the set and burned the only copies of the script before the actors could learn any of their lines. You are mocked for it, but you swear there was something deeply sinister about that writing.

5 - One does not need to explain the depth of this faux pas: You wore white after the harvest festival, but before the beginning of spring.  

6 - Challenged to a rhyming duel, threw up before getting on stage- ruining your chances and your favourite sweater. 

Clerics

Temple

1 - A black, basalt column sprouting from a seaweed and barnacle encrusted rock in the middle of a storm-tossed sea

2 - an idyllic grove, ringed around the hill with ancient henges of stone and wood, where wine and food is always on offer

3 - a hospital in the slum of a war-ravaged city, dedicated to administering aid to the sick and wounded.

4 - A hidden safehouse, tucked in a blind alley, impossible to find unless you know where to look, and with half a dozen secret escape routes

5 - a barn, converted into a church by the rustic folk of the village, decorated with homespun 'tapestries' and colourful murals. 

6 - a sprawling, bureaucratic edifice, a brutalist building filled with clerks and auditors, filing everything in triplicate.

Keepsake

1 - A feather of ever-shifting iridescent hues

2 - A teapot, painted with one of the symbols of your faith

3 - A bedraggled doll, given to you by a child whose life you saved to keep you safe when you were headed into danger.

4 - A bottle of wine you acquired during a frankly somewhat hedonistic evening in the big city.

5 - This pocket-sized holy book still bears the scar of the arrow that would have pierced your heart.

6 - A set of manacles, which you wore during your imprisonment for the crime of following your faith.

7 - A finely crafted pen, taken from the seminary where you underwent your training.

8 - Flint and tinder- a reminder that there can be light in even the darkest places.

Secret

1 - What's the harm in making a little money performing magic on the side? Surely the gods wouldn't have given you these gifts if they didn't intend for you to use them.

2 - Whether sentimental or superstitious, you keep an icon of the spirituality of your childhood, from before you converted.

3 - Although sworn to avoid all worldly attachment, you have a secret spouse- an important figure within the government.

4 - If the gods don't grant you the miracles you need, you're not above faking them.

5 - You are writing your own treatise on religion, one you hope will eventually supplant the existing orthodoxy of your faith.

6 - A parent forced you into the clergy to avoid an inheritance complication. You never wanted to be a priest, but to everyone's surprise you manifested the gift of divine power!

GLOG class: Severed Head

I wanted to make a spooky halloween class, so here we go!

Not just for severed heads! You could be any kind of basically-immobile creepy dude

you're the guy in the back

--
Starting Skill: History, Literature, Religion, Anathema, Chartered

Abilities
A: Severed Head, Store of Weird Lore, Encouragement
B: Helpful advice, Intuit
C: Commandeer Body, Minion
D: Laughing Flight, Intuit x2


Severed Head: You are a severed head. Perhaps you are a zombie, fae, evil wizard, pumpkin, brain in a jar, or something else. Point is, you have no arms, legs, or body. You can magically still talk even though you don't have lungs, tho. You can't hold things, except very small things in your mouth, which may impede your ability to talk. You take up one inventory slot, but probably insist on being a held item as much as possible 'cuz it's more fun.

Weird Lore: You gain the 'weird lore' skill. This is only useful for stuff about monsters and magic that no-one should really reasonably know- if you encounter a unique slime on subsurface level #8, you get a skill check to see if you know stuff about it. You were a really bizarre scientist when you were alive, or something.
I love mysteries in games, but mysteries are only really fun if someone has a reasonable chance of learning more about them.

Encouragement: Despite being super annoying, your constant instructions and stream of conversations do in fact spur your host to get things done. On your turn, you can essentially take an action for them, with their permission- fighters can attack, wizards can cast a spell, etc. You can't move AND act, but you can use your (their) action to move- this also means characters carrying you can force-march longer and faster than normal (+50% speed). This ability doesn't override 'charm' type effects, but can allow the character to ignore 'confusion' or illusions if the severed head isn't also affected. If the character can't see a target but the severed head can, the head can goad an attack, but the attack still has disadvantage as normal.
Usually the severed head player should roll for the attack or whatever, but a stubborn 'host' player could certainly elect to keep the dice for themselves.

Helpful Advice. Once per session per Severed Head template, you can 'help' a character to allow them to re-roll an ability, skill check, or attack roll, using your Intelligence bonus in place of their own ability score if yours is higher. Alternatively, when not directly in combat with an someone, you can use your advice to undermine an attempt, forcing them to re-roll such a check which would otherwise be successful. If they have reason to distrust you, they get a Wisdom saving throw to resist, and if they are actively hostile towards you or your carrier they are immune to such sabotage.

Intuit: Once per session, you learn some DM-only information about a creature, room, or encounter. This could be AC, Saves, an Ability Score, Challenge Rating, the location of a secret door, how many rounds until the volcano erupts, etc. It has to be something you're interacting with, so you can't intuit stuff about the Overpope of Zenith when they're on the other side of the continent.

you're the pumpkin

Commandeer Body: by removing the head of a humanoid and placing yourself atop the stump, you are able to pilot the body fit your own. This takes a full minute as you prepare the requisite technological/magical interventions, and have yourself bolted securely in place. Obviously you cannot do this yourself, so someone else will have to do it, following your instructions. You use the corpse's Str, Dex & Con. The corpses hp is equal to its constitution score, but once you're out of HP the corpse takes ability score damage instead of simply dying. These borrowed stats degrade by 1d6 per day until the corpse is unusable. HP heals to full on a short rest.

Minion: You get a brainwashed minion to follow you around. They have mediocre stats, 1d10 HP, and the skill 'Minion' which they use to do things like prepare bodies for you to commandeer. They're not proficient in any weapons, but they'll attack anyway if you order them to. They'll probably die a lot, but a new one will show up the next time you take a long rest in a town, encampment, or anywhere there's lots of people you could reasonably coerce. Roll at least once on the 'How I Browbeat or Duped This Poor Idiot Into Working For Me' table

At the GM's option, you may be able to minion-ize a goblin or other weak but intelligent monster to replace a lost minion (these don't show up automatically, you might have to track 'em down.)

Laughing Flight: You can channel your eldritch power to take to the air, traditionally laughing maniacally as you do so. You can fly for a number of rounds per day equal to your Constitution score. Once per day, plus one additional time for each point of Charisma bonus you have, you can also cackle maniacally while you do so, causing every enemy within 60 ft. who can hear you to Save vs Fear or else flee in terror for 1d10 rounds.
        If you use this ability to leave a body you have Commandeered, you may return to it and assume control again immediately (naturally your preparations included a little landing pad and some docking hooks)

Table: How I Browbeat and/or Duped This Poor Idiot Into Working For Me Basically For Free
1- They were extremely poor, and are under the impression that the 1d6 copper pieces you toss to them per day represent a hoard of generous wealth. To be fair, they're probably getting a better deal than anyone else on this table. If you fail to pay this measly stipend they become quickly extremely irate and even violently hostile- if there are many such minions, they'll probably organize a militant union.
2- They're conveniently enchanted. You didn't cast the spell, but you recognized it and hijacked it for your own purposes. They have one active but sometimes useful command that you can't figure out how to turn off, such as 'insists on being the one to open all doors,' 'won't attack humans,' stuff like that
3- They're so in awe of your genius they'll follow you everywhere, as long as you let them 'help' with some of your magical experiments.
4- You've promised them a share of the treasure. They will accept almost any excuse as to why the don't qualify for a share of THIS particular treasure. As long as you keep lying to them, they won't figure out they're being screwed
5- Blackmail! They did something horrible, you know about it, and if they don't do exactly as you say EVERYONE will find out.
6- You broke a curse they were suffering under. They weren't actually cursed, it was all in their head, but now they're indebted to you. Could also have been a curse on a beloved family member.
7- You've convinced them that you or one of your companions are a ranking officer in whatever cult or military the used to be part of. When faced with evidence to the contrary, they will assume whoever revealed the truth must be a traitor or trying to test them, and may respond with violence
8- They were going to be executed, but you convinced the authorities to let them come with you instead, since it's basically a death sentence anyway.
9- You helped them fake their own death to escape authorities/the mob, and they have to stick with you until the whole thing blows over
10- They're a poet, you're their 'patron,' and this whole thing is an 'artistic experience'
11- Technically they don't work for you, they work for some bureaucracy who pays their salary, and what you're doing here is kind of embezzlement
12- They were sent to spy on you, but they're really bad at it, so you keep them around in case they end up being useful
13- Lost a bet, so they also have to do this entire dungeon in their underpants
14- It's a pyramid scheme, you recruited them to be their minion, and they'll recruit other people to be THEIR minions. They will never recruit their own minions, but this won't stop them from trying.
15- They're a magical construct, like a homunculus, and therefore must do whatever you say.
16- You bribed a fortune teller to prophecy that it was their destiny to be your follower.
17- A demon or sorcerer sold you the schmuck's soul for cheap, so if they want to get it back they have to do what you say
18- Just an extremely eager, ambitious, and incompetent apprentice.
19- After all this is over, you've promised to owe them a favour.
20- they are extremely drunk (critical failure on 1-5 instead of just a 1)

the Muse (GLOG Class)

Another GLOG class! This is my rework of the Muse class, with a bit of the Divine Concubine mixed in to give them some more active buffing/investigation type abilities ('Intimacy'), and survivability ('Beautiful'). The charmed life table is also re-appropriated, but honestly I feel it belongs to the community.

The 'starting skills' refer to the skills & backstory prompts found in Skerples various classes. I've put together an edited document for my own games, which I'll probably post at some point, but I also link to the appropriate post and class for each skill.

The 'starting save' refers to Ten Foot Polemic's saving throw system. Rather than having a whole table of different saves, I just use Charisma as 'the saving throw ability score,' like most GLOG-like systems, plus 'proficiency' lifted off 5e (1d4 at 1st level, 1d6 at 4th). The saves are Death, Doom, Destruction, Chaos, Law, and Poison.

I kinda want to go all in, and make it Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium, but I haven't quite figured that out yet. Fodder for a future post.

A few times, the class references specific spells. I've included GLOG versions of those spells at the end of the post.

Muse

Starting Equipment: Fancy clothes, concealed dagger, sword OR pistol and 6 charges OR dagger
Starting Skill Artistry, plus (1d8 ): 1 = Dregs, 2 =  Farmer, 3 = Noble, 4 = Religion, 5 = Music, 6 = Medicine, 7 = Literature, 8 = History
Starting Save: Doom

A: Obsession, Rejection
B: Charmed Life, Beautiful
C: Intimacy, Suitor
D: Redemption, Fury

Obsession: For each Muse template you have,

you may have 1 character Obsessed with you. Obsessed characters are in love, pining hopelessly for your recognition. This does not necessarily change their overall motives; however, it does change their attitude towards you in particular. You can attempt to Obsess a character at will, the act needing nothing more than a wink, a smile, or perhaps just the light hitting your perfect skin just so. Targets must be capable of something at least akin to love (so a dog may be targeted, but a zombie may not). The target may Save to resist this effect. However, you can only have as many Obsessed characters as you have Muse templates, and the only way to end an obsession is for the character to die, or for you to Reject them (see below).

Rejection: Ending an Obsession requires an act of cruelty, performed upon an Obsessed party - something that utterly ruins you in their esteem, and poisons their heart with regret. Their Conviction to protect you becomes a Conviction to destroy you.. You may not replace this Obsession with a new one until you've had a full night's rest to process the ugly breakup.

Charmed Life: Even the fortunes love you. Whenever you roll a d20, roll a second one, making sure it is easily distinguishable from the first. Call this your Happenstance die. Whenever it shows the same number as the d20, something strange happens. This occurrence does not change whether you succeed, but brings some strange magical occurence into the mix. In addition, you can invoke this happenstance once per hour of playing (IRL), by saying something like ‘"Oh I can't conceive how I ever fell into this deplorable circumstance," or "We are indeed doomed and now birds will gnaw our eyes.” Times of great stress are of more interest to the gods, fates, or dark powers. See the Charmed Life table, below.

Beautiful: Anyone that damages the Muse must make a save at the beginning of their next turn. If they fail, they are unwilling to attack the Muse for one round. If the Muse or their allies are being aggressive, the target gets a +4 bonus on this save.

Intimacy: Yes, this includes sex, but it includes any activity that meets the following criteria: Peaceful. (Everyone must be non-aggressive and receptive), Vulnerable Everyone must be unarmed and unarmored (This includes magical protections), Willing (You cannot coerce someone into intimacy with threats/promises to ulterior motives), At least one hour of talking (Though the total activity can take longer).

Intimacy can have one of the following effects. Once per day the muse can choose, otherwise they roll 1d6.
1: Target receives the results of a commune spell (once per day.)

2: Remove 1d3 Insanity Points (once per adventure.)

3: Target gets a new save against an ongoing curse.
4: Plant a suggestion (with disadvantage on the save.)
5: Muse learns a secret desire of the target.
6: Muse learns a secret weakness of the target.

Depending on circumstances, you possibly have to roll on the Seduction Side Effects table.

Suitor: Once per adventure, at the player's will (but certainly not the Muse's), an ex-lover, former fling, or spurned admirer will appear to woo the Muse. This NPC acts as a 1HD follower with maximum Loyalty, and arrives minimally if poorly equipped for whatever task is at hand. They are clingy, annoying, and utterly devoted, but will leave in frustration at the end of what they judge to be the current adventure (unless the Muse returns their love, in which case they will run off to slay a dragon in your name or something and surely perish).

Redemption: The Muse can peacefully end an Obsession with several hours' tearful conversation. At the end of this, the Muse makes a Charisma check. If they succeed, they may attempt to Obsess the target again in future. If they fail, the target is utterly immune to the Muse's charms and special abilities.

Fury: The Muse may opt to deal 4d6 damage to an Obsessor they break up with. If reduced to 0 hp they are despondent, and Save or die from their grief. If they survive, they are immune to the Muse's abilities

Charmed Life Table

by Jeremiah Morelli

1: A secret door is revealed. If the DM has made no provision for a secret door, it leads to the nearest unexplored area.

2: The muse realizes they have something on their person- it can be any non-magical and generic item (a key, not the key) and that is small enough that the muse could have reasonably hidden it on her person at the time.

3: an ordinary animal- cat sized or smaller- appears. The muse cannot directly control it, but it will not under any circumstances hurt the muse.

4: A fact about the situation at hand occurs to the muse- a piece of local or monster lore, for example. 

5: someone of the player's choice falls down (line of sight)
6: The weather in the immediate area changes in a way decided by the muse’s player- the change is general not targeted (no aimed lightning bolts or gusts of wind)
7: a nearby creature is charmed by the muse for an hour (line of sight)
8: and inorganic device or object of the muse’s choice breaks (line of sight)
9: something not ordinarily able to talk (DM’s choice) begins speaking to the muse, and is generally sympathetic
10: creature’s present completely forget the muse is there for ten seconds, and then for as long as the muse keeps making saves vs. magic (roll whenever it comes up)
11: Someone is sent to fetch the muse out of their current predicament. If there is an obvious candidate from among the local NPCs (giant eagles, a friendly knight), that’s who it is. Otherwise the DM makes up a weirdo with d10 HD. The NPC doesn’t automatically have the ability to extricate the muse from the situation, they merely appear as close as possible and attempt to do so.
12: someone or something of the player's choice begins to shrink at 1 foot per round down to playing-card size (line of sight). The player can have the shrinking stop sooner, if they wish.

Related Spells:
Note on spell-like abilities: Roll 1 Magic Dice for each template you have of that class, ignoring doubles and triples unless otherwise indicated. The dice also aren't used up unless otherwise indicated, and they can't be combined with Magic Dice from other sources.

Adapted from Buildings are People
Commune
R: Region of Deity   T: A deity you have met   D: Special

Contact a deity you've met and ask [dice] yes/no questions. If [sum] is 10 or greater, you may ask any question using [dice] words. For a single yes/no question this takes but a moment, arriving in a flash of insight, but longer exchanges require at least [dice] minutes of meditation. You need incense or drugs to cast this spell: DMs, this is a spell component you should actually enforce. 

for the Muse, the casting time is rolled in with their class ability, and they probably get to pick the deity in question.
Suggestion
R: 30 ft   T: One creature with which you share a language   D: Special

The target is hypnotized into doing something or believing something, either immediately or based on a specified trigger before the duration ends. The spell lasts [best] minutes (1 MD), Hours [2 MD], Weeks [3 MD], or Months [4 MD]. The target will refuse obviously self-destructive actions.

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.

Mystic: GLOG class

I've been sitting on this post for awhile, but Goblin Punch's recent post has me spooked since he mentioned publishing a cleric class, and I don't want this to be TOTALLY redundant when posted. So I'm posting it now, even though some of the spells aren't written up yet- I;ll fix it up later ;)

Religion comes up a lot in my games. There are small gods running around in everyone's business, there's the far-reaching power of the Church. My players love shouting 'praise Zulin' (even the tree-worshipper, I guess he does it ironically?)

But if I'm going to eventually trick them into playing the GLOG, I'll have to have a good 'cleric' type ruleset. Plus, it seems like one of the major projects for that design space that's not a solved game. Hopefully it will prove to eventually be as useful and adaptable as Skerples' wizard rework
As well as the abovementioned and linked blogs, this owes inspiration to Last Gasp Grimoires mystic, although my version is a little more... restrained.


Mystic Class

Starting skills and equipment vary by the mystic's Religion

Starting Equipment: chainmail, shield, mace, holy symbol
Starting Skill: [d3]: 1. History, 2. Scripture, 3. Commerce
A: +1 Faith, Miracles, Religion
B: +1 Faith, -1 Doubt
C: +1 Faith, -1 Doubt
D:  -1 Doubt, Divine Inspiration

You also gain a +1 to Save vs Unholy and +1 HP for every two Cleric templates you possess.

Your faith is represented by d8s, similar to a wizards spellcasting dice. Faith dice do not deplete on rolls of 1 or 2. Your Doubt is represented by d6s. There are four of these at first level, with one being removed for each additional template gained, as shown on the above table. When you make a spellcasting roll to invoke a miracle, you roll as many Faith dice as you would like to invest, and all of your Doubt together. Doubt does not contribute to the result of the spell, it only exists to trigger doubles and triples. On a double, the spell fails, and the mystic gains an additional point of doubt. On a triple, the mystic has been Forsaken.

Excess Doubt can be removed with prayer, fasting, and other rituals, which takes at least an hour for each point of doubt to be removed.

Design note: This is the basic mechanic, which I'm most proud of. I'm awful at estimating probability curves, but if FEELS like it shouldn't be too much less/more powerful than the wizard's spellcasting method, and it should be different enough that it won't be a strictly better/worse situation even if it's a little off. 

Miracles
When you pray, your god sends you miracles in the form of spells to help you over the next day. You get one miracle per mystic template you have. Your god picks them, not you, so roll for what you get randomly, unless it's extremely obvious what you'll need (water walk if you're planning on crossing a river). You can petition for specific miracles by making a meditation check, offering a sacrifice, etc. You can always choose to take one of your religion's domain spells, instead of one of the spells you roll. 

You can also use scrolls, wands, etc, the same as a wizard. Arcane and divine magic are effectively interchangeable, once they're in item form. Mystics tend to have prayer beads and other more religiously-themed tools, but they work the same.

Design notes: I'm not 100% on the rando thing, but I *do* like the idea of preventing players taking 20 minutes deciding on their spells. Probably at the table, I'd let them pick whatever they wanted to a certain extent, as long as they had it off the top of their head- as soon as they start reading, I start rolling

Forsaken: When a mystic pushes their god too far, demands too much, they may be abandoned by their god. When this happens, they cannot cast mystic spells until they have won or wormed their way back into their god's good graces (or found another religion). The method of regaining favour varies by religion, but it should be no small task, and in some rare cases may be impossible if the god is really fed up. In addition, every time a mystic is Forsaken, they gain a point of Madness.


Design note: I like the idea of cleric's occasionally getting fed up and switching gods. I think some religions will have slightly more 'attractive' rites, or maybe signing bonuses, to encourage conversion. 
also, I want to facilitate moments where priests are falling on their knees screaming at the heavens 'why hast thou forsaken me' and this seems a step in the right direction

Religions: As a mystic, you belong to a religion or tradition. One is detailed here, the Priest of the Authority. More to follow.

If you switch religions, you gain a permanent point of doubt. This doesn't stack, so once you've bailed on one religion, you can just keep doing it! Probably don't tell anyone though, it'll make you seem less trustworthy

This makes conversion LESS attractive. I guess I like the idea of players having to weigh these sorts of choices

Your religion determines what miracles you are granted, what your crisis of faith might look like, and so on. They also come with a set of boons, taboos, and orisons (minor prayers that produce more consistent spell effects)

Divine Inspiration: Once per game session, the mystic can replace a miracle they know with another one of their choice. At the DM's discretion, this may include miracles from other spell lists.


Note on Spellcasting Mechanics: In addition to the [sum] and [dice] mechanics in the core GLOG spellcasting, I'm introducing the [best] mechanic. In this, you take the best result (or the result of your choice) out of any single die you invested in the spell.

Volcano Cultist

Boons: Once per day, you can sacrifice a living creature or a work of art to the flame to ignore your Doubt for one spellcasting roll.
Taboos: You must have a living flame (at least a red-hot coal) in order to cast spells.

Orisons: 1. Spend 1 hp to create flame. Lights a flammable object on fire, or deals 1d10 damage to a creature on a successful attack roll.2. You can sift ashes to tell what they originally were, even reading text from burned books. 3. You can meditate to ignore fire damage from passive/terrain effects (iron bathhouses, red hot coals, etc)

SPELLS

1. Scorching Rays. You create 1 ray for each die you invest in this spell. Roll to attack with each ray, they each deal [best]+[dice] damage. You can split the attacks among targets, or aim them all at one target, as you see fit.

2. Ash Cloud. Cloud [dice]x10 ft across, deals [dice] fire damage a turn and anyone in the cloud except caster is blinded and must save or spend turn coughing (no action, can still move as normal)

3. Enfeeblement. Range: Touch. 
Target looses [sum] points of Strength. If you invest 3 or more dice, the loss is permanent until the curse is broken- Dispel magic means the strength drain returns at a rate of 1 point per hour, Remove Curse restores it all back immediately.

4. Speak to the Blaze

5. Darkvision 
You or a creature you touch

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

10. 

11. 

12. 

13. 

14. Light

Written up here

15. 

16. Speak with Dead

Written up here

17. Burning Hands

Range: [dice]x10‘ cone  Duration: Instantaneous

Does [best] damage to anything in the cone. Save for half damage. Very flammable things are set on fire. 

22. 

Priest of the Authority

Boons: You don't get dirty, grimy, bloodstained, unless you want to. Blood and mud still splashes on you, it just doesn't stay for very long. You are legally (and magically) allowed to act as a judge, if no other authority is present.Taboos: You cannot break a promise you willingly make. 
Orisons:1. You can separate things that have been mixed together (grain and sand, milk and wine, etc). This takes a full round for each cubic foot of material being effected.2. When you speak the truth, you can pay 1 hp to have a listener KNOW that you're speaking the truth3. Once per day, for a minute, you can act as if you could see, regardless of darkness, blindness, etc. You can't actually see, but the hand of the Authority guides your steps.

SPELLS

1. Purify
R: 50 ft. T: creature or creatures D: instantaneous
You flush all toxins, poisons, and diseases from up to [best] number of creatures.

2. Sticks to Snakes. 
A bundle of sticks transform into snakes.The snakes attack and take damage as a group. The snakes deal [best] damage and they have [sum] HP. They occupy a [dice]x10 ft square which they share with other creatures, though they count as difficult terrain for any creature that might trip over or get bitten by them, and they can attack up to [dice]x2 number of creatures within that area. They will not attack the caster or very pious churchgoing characters, but otherwise do no differentiate between friend and foe.

3. Abominate
Written up here

4. Command
Written up here

5. Heal
Written up here

6. Sleep
Written up here

7. Gust of Wind

R: 50’ T: a gust of wind D: concentration 
At one [die], use wind to (a) clear away fog or gas, (b) extinguish a fire no larger than a torch, (c) blow all the papers off a desk, (d) with concentration, provide enough of a breeze to power a tiny sailboat. At two [dice], creatures in the area must Save or be pushed in the direction of the wind, up to [best]x5 feet.

8. Zone of Truth

9. Circle of Protection

10. Detect Evil

11. Binding

12. Banishment
Written up here

13. Sending

14. Light

15. Water Walk
Written up here

16. Speak with Dead
Written up here

21. Light
Written up here

22. Hold Person. 
R: 50' T: creature D: concentration, up to [sum] rounds
Target creature or object is locked in place by divine force. You must maintain concentration for this spell to work. Target can breathe and move their eyes, but cannot swim, fly, or perform any other action. If the creature is particularly willful, blasphemous, or a spellcaster, it may Save each round to break free, with a penalty equal to the [dice] you invested.