The Power Of Ten: Sama Rantha 286 Author Commentary On Power Of Ten: Sama Rantha, Book One

Sama Rantha is yet another chapter in my Power of Ten storyline, a story I feverishly started back in 2005, and poured out something like a hundred thousand words in about two weeks as I wrote it out. Needless to say, it needed a lot of editing and rewrites, but it formed the foundation of the stories which have continued to this day, and which I've expanded upon since.

Yes, the Sama of this novel is a 'copy' of the Sama Rantha of the original, who is one of the few high-level Forsaken Tens back on the planet of Terra, as is Briggs. They'd be rather surprised to know the templates of their game characters got reused by a certain power... and no, the same couldn't be done with actual Powered.

The main trope I intended to address in my original story is the standard 'magic comes to the world video game style, and dystopia results.' Yeah, no. I refuse to believe all would go to absolute s.h.i.t, and the bad people would take over. Too, it is HARD to write about the apocalypse, simply because of that trope. Sure, having more bad people around makes for a great story for the heroes, but what happens when Good rises up and takes the lead? After all, in reality, n.o.body wants to work for a cultivation-style murder hobo who is all out for himself and his own, and screw anybody else. Those kind of people get shot in the real world.

Another trope I wanted to address was the power hunger of video game and novel characters, especially cultivators. Me me me me me. Just, ugh. Sure, Sama wants power. But she's also trying very, very hard to spread ma.s.sive low power, raising the floor as well as her own ceiling. At the same time, a subtle undertone is about making this possible. While video games play with unlimited gold at will, in the story, I constantly bring up money, because the amount of money required to build up thousands of people is absolutely mind-boggling. One of the reasons it's hard for people to Level up is that there simply isn't enough cash and loot to go around, nor enough opponents. Indeed, the desire to fight to gain Karma and Level up is a perfectly valid desire of many people to start wars and fights. Glory awards are addictive, as anyone who has repeatedly run a high value quest in a video game can attest to.

I also wanted to point out some of the fallacy of racial equality, re: elves and dwarves. It's very subtle and I don't emphasize it, but the elves and dwarves are higher Level than any average human, on account of both their lifespans, and their better gear. Dwarves are smiths and miners and crafters, and have been making magic arms and armor and pa.s.sing them down to their descendants for centuries, if not millennia. This starts a cycle of better gear = survive more fights = higher Level = make even better gear = even higher survival rate, ad infinitum. Humans, even if they have more drive, have a problem of pa.s.sing on that knowledge, which longer-lived races don't have. Elves and dwarves can have multiple generations alive and vigorous at once, their oldest members are all high Level and can make great stuff, and further enhance the power of their people. Only the very youngest members of their race, and the most horribly equipped, would be the equaled by the average human.

So, the trope from Tolkien that dwarves and elves are tougher than humans I simply back up with their longer-lives contributing to better crafting, and the cycle feeding higher Levels.

I also wanted to play on and against alignment tropes. Too many people think that being Good means you can't discriminate, and that you can't fight. War is not evil, war is a neutral force that oppresses everyone equally. War can be undertaken for very Good reasons, and it is. Fighting is a part of Nature and simply cannot be denied, it will happen. Not being willing to fight when the other party is, is the height of foolishness, and while there are fools in every Alignment, Good is not made of fools. Not fighting when they could take advantage is a sign of Good, not holding back from fighting when there is real purpose to doing so.

Furthermore, Good doesn't mean being nice, and Sama can very much not be nice, especially to the non-Good. Remember that Alignment is not what you are, it is where you chose to stand by deeds and desires. Sama extends goodwill to all Good people, regardless of race, rewarding the choices they have made in the past, and is perfectly willing to exploit Neutrals, who have chosen NOT to be Good, exactly like they would choose to exploit her. She doesn't have to be charitable to those who are not charitable themselves, it is her choice to do so. To those who have chosen not to be Neutral, she shares information that a Neutral would consider great secrets to be h.o.a.rded for the benefit of themselves and their family members. Of course, a Neutral will claim she's discriminating just like they would, completely ignoring the fact that they are getting p.i.s.sed because it's not them she's sharing with, when all these other people they'd never think of doing the same with are getting benefits...

Likewise, a person is Evil because of what they have done in the past and what they believe, not because someone said 'you are Evil, act like this'. Sama has absolutely no inclination to treat such a person who makes such decisions like she does others who have proven they make better ones.

Furthermore, sharing is the highest strength of Good. Good is the alignment that raises the floor of the world, trying to make it a better place for everyone, not just the elite. Cooperation, teamwork, mutual benefit are things that drive the Good, and they are willing to sacrifice to make it so. Good is strong, not because it has champions, but because its floor is so much better than all other Alignments, and the weak work together to make their champions strong, instead of being exploited, as is typical of the other Alignments. While its champions might compete, they also help one another, instead of being deadly rivals, as is typical in many other belief systems.

I also wanted to work with the trope of Leveling speed. In short, if you have an unlimited supply of gold and XP/Karma, it is possible to Level very, very fast, and this is totally by design, allowing the Land to raise up powerful champions against powerful threats very quickly. If great danger continues, those champions simply get deeper and deeper with their strength, stepping from human to post-human to superhuman to superheroic levels of strength.

The Power of Ten works with a triple ceiling: human level, post-human level, and true superhuman level. I specifically put Six as the Human limit, because just about anything possible in the Guinness Book of World Records is accomplishable by a Six in 3E D&D rules. Getting beyond Six makes you more than a h.o.m.o Sapiens, and is very difficult. The average person will never get past Three in their lives, because they don't have the stats or the willpower to do so. Even most exceptional people won't make Five, which is world-cla.s.s on our homeworld of Earth here. Batman, Tarzan, and the like, without trans-human power, are Deep Sixes in Power of Ten parlance. If you want to write them up as Tens, then you specifically have to acknowledge that the skills and abilities they have surpa.s.s anyone on Earth... which they do, but you have to ACCEPT that they are more than human, and their super-power is in fact their ability to gain post-human Levels of skill.

A side effect of this ceiling thing comes out of the Leadership rules in D&D, where more powerful people have more powerful followers. Naturally this means higher Level people inspire lower Level people to greatness. By getting Sama's Marshal ability to Twenty, she is inspiring her followers to exceed their limits as they never would themselves, a subtle but devastatingly powerful metagame ability.

I definitely wanted to work with tropes on how some abilities are just so much better than others, and how combinations can break a character. At low levels, where Stat bonuses aren't that high, a Monk's Wisdom bonus to AC when unarmored isn't that exceptional, even if they put on Bracers. Once that Wisdom starts. .h.i.tting the 20's, 30's, or higher, it is exceptionally broken. Games have many combinations mechanics like this, especially those tied to Stats which have no cap. The whole mechanic of Cleave Trains is supremely lethal once you get to a high enough level of fixed damage, for instance.

There's also the 'tipping point' mechanics, that probably everyone is unconsciously familiar with in games, i.e. how fast you can kill something. Things get crazy once you go from ten hits to kill, to five, to three, to two, and then one-shotting. Building a one-shot-kill style of combat for dealing with both bosses and minions has always been a balance headache (and makes me want to go own in Diablo3, rarr!)

The headache of bosses was a trope I addressed with Health Qi. They don't have to be that much stronger on offense to be lethal, but they have to be able to take the damage. D&D doesn't use the scaling millions of HP rule that many video games do, everything is based off Hit Dice/levels and stats in 1-3E. Simply throwing in Health Qi alleviated a lot of stuff, and definitely set true bosses apart as something special.

The combination of Health Qi, Soak, and Health is in there purely to address the fact that gaining Levels IS a magical thing. Health makes a tougher body, tied to Racial Levels. Soak is magical, and tied to Cla.s.s Levels. Health Qi is a unique thing, purely magical, for unique types.

I also wanted to heartily explore the fact that most combat characters don't get the equivalent of 9th level abilities/spells, which puts them far behind on the power curve vs spellcasters. Naturally, this is displayed by the Forsaken becoming increasingly immune to those great powers, and Grandmasteries, which turn them into true death machines. Whether it compares to someone using Perpetual Spell and Residual Metamagic to shoot unlimited amounts of Meteor Swarms that can clear off an acre at a time is another issue... but they certainly can't Twin Admixture Widen Dawnstop a Stone Shape spell and literally make a castle and all its walls in less than a day, so their out of combat usage is simply that much lower.

Or, as the final chapters noted, the downtime of Casters is as or more lethal than their uptime, as the Razzers found out. Sama's whole shtick with her Forsaken Ironblood was getting them to a level where they didn't need to rely on the Powered to be their champions and do their fighting for them... and so they could survive those fights with Powered opponents. The Land is fair, but they still had to work for it. Casters combining in big enough Rituals can change the world. Forsaken, not so much.

And of course, it costs a LOT more money for the Forsaken.

I also wanted to explore Template abuse, which in 3E D&D is a way of ridiculously overpowering something, and hence the various Templates stacked on monsters to make them very strong, especially Exemplars... and what happens to normal humans when they get some of those buffs. The combination of stats, DR, AC, and fast healing for warrior-types from the ExLite Template literally makes them demi-G.o.ds from the perspective of normal folks, and the +4 Caster Level for Powered isn't shabby, either.

Racial Levels are things I took note of from the Oathbound Setting, which had a fair array of template/racial advancements, and from 3E D&D, along with the racial cla.s.ses of BECMI D&D. In particular, Elven Racial Levels are awesome, making every elf a fighter/caster, and making it their preferred way of gaining Levels was an awesome trope to tie into, given how much quality stuff is of elven make, for elves, by elves, etc. In later years, 3E actually made a stab at making monsters PC's, giving them racial levels they could advance by, and so the ability to take Racial Levels in other races is a power I decided normal humans in a magical world could have, extending out of the Bloodline ability of Paizo and 3E sorcerers, which posits that non-humans interbred with humans in the past, and/or your ancestors were experimented on/changed by magical accidents/blessed by G.o.ds/cursed/etc by any and all sources, meaning humanity is just swimming with the potential genetics of other races.

Which all fits into the core trope that base humanity has no magic at all, and is Forsaken, and by getting their power from Other Races, the Powered are effectively Not Purely Human...
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Although I didn't dwell on it, the fact is that humanity is the genetic center of all the other humanoid races in the setting, up to and including all non-True Jotuns. All of them have humanity as their roots, if they go far enough back, and it is the reason they can interbreed with humans. Halflings/hyn/hobbits are simply human midgets in a magical world, not afflicted by genetic problems like in the real world. Beastmen and anthros were literally made by mixing humans with various animals in the past, and they 'got loose'.

Some differences I made in my system within the novel are that it's basically an E10 world, with very few people ever getting past Ten... and not needing to, since Ten is bufu powerful. In gaming terms, breaking Ten requires a Quest-level success, and a lot of Karma, or direct divine intervention, and most people simply can't achieve it without equally grand circ.u.mstances being around to LET them do so. That's very different from most games, where just getting the xp means auto-advancing. So, it's not like Forgotten Realms, where you find an archmage in every city, or a video game, where you just level automatically even if you aren't very good at the game.

Also, I put strict Stat requirements on leveling. You can't get any higher in your Primary Cla.s.s then the dependent Stat-10. So, to become a 5, you need a 15. In human terms, that's a 150 IQ for Intellect, or the strength of a devoted athlete for Strength. Getting to 10 is the equal of a 200 IQ, and being some of the strongest people in the world, like, say, an NFL football player.

Getting to post-10, naturally the requirements keep going! So, no high-Level characters with mediocre Stats, a conscious decision on my part. Since average humans have Stats from 8-12 on average, most of us never get past 2-3 because of Stats.

In 3e D&D, skills are a matter of hitting a target number. Someone with a +20 Competence Toy is as skilled as someone with 20 Ranks in a skill. I deliberately separated knowledge from skill, and Ranks in stuff are Level dependent, i.e. your soul just isn't big enough to comprehend that. So, Sama has the Skill to carve an Epic-level Rune Pattern on Tyrant Fuego's horn, but she needs Elder Arg's 21 Ranks to tell her what to do, because she can't understand the why of how it works, despite her +50 modifier.

I also borrowed directly from the Dresden Files and D&D to combine the power of Renewal. Regaining powers has always been a headache, as is when effects stop, and when per-day abilities recharge. You can do it the hard/logical way, which is meditating to regain power, making it fluid, or you can just use a Renewal mechanic, when your magical day turns over, and the best time to do that is at sunrise for most people. Being able to set your magical day is a perk of having Levels.

Likewise, I wanted to totally avoid the unlimited levels/day trope, which even has some novels written about it, i.e. destroy the lizard man armies, instant level 200. And so, I put hard caps on how fast you can advance per day.

I also wanted to avoid the idea of wizards and other Casters potentially getting access to incredible numbers of spells, but fighting types being unable to gain more skills then Levels allowed them to gain. Thus, training and using Karma to buy extra Feats and Masteries is a thing, and Forsaken are twice as good at it as Powered, who can use magic.

I cracked down on the abuse of Necromancy and Summoning. Both of these methods are ways of leveraging power in downtime that other Casters don't get. Naturally there would be solutions to both of these abilities, or they'd rule the world! Necromancers have power against the unprepared. Against the prepared, they and the undead go down fast. Unsummonings, Dispels, Banishments, and Interdictions cripple Summoners. After all, if they can be brought in from elsewhere, it's got to be even easier to send them back.

I tried very hard to stay away from the cheesy drain others/steal their powers trope, which is simply wishy powergaming at its worse, like a certain super-slime. Sama was starting to get into this, but always through the mechanic of Racial Levels, so slowly, one Level at a time, and she certainly didn't get to steal knowledge/memories, and the effects didn't stack, they just took the best of... and she didn't get most of the truly magical stuff. Getting the magical stuff comes with implications...

D&D doesn't have a good system of resource management compet.i.tion/nation-building, but that's what the Marktell makes possible, right down to real-time, individual decision-making. The reason the Ironblood take off so fast is simply because Sama can engage in such a 'game', while everyone else is restricted to alternate, slower forms of management.

Likewise, the Marktell being available in a fight, to give morale bonuses, morale support, and instant command/communication means she is fighting in a video game, and her opponents are restricted to real world solutions for all of the above. The difference is devastating, naturally. The reason they are straight up mauling their opponents is because that is exactly what would happen with the modifiers and combat cohesion they have, regardless of the resolution system you would use.

Using Warhammer Fantasy Battles online (Hail Turin!), for instance, a unit of swordsmen has something like MS 32, MD 32, BS 30, Morale 80, Dmg 30, Will 30, Dodge 30. Under Sama's Marshal bonuses, this same unit would be something like WS 62, MD 62, BS 60, Morale 110 (+50 vs fear/terror test), Damage 60, Will 80, Dodge 60 (vs Missiles), turning a normal unit of swordsmen into one of the most terrifyingly elite units in the game. Tack on a Mark for more Strength, and it just gets worse! (+4 Str = WS 72, Dmg 70!)

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Sama's Final Stats....

I'm not going to list out all the cla.s.ses, or even all the damage bonuses she has. Her list of abilities would actually take up several MORE pages, especially with all the Racial Levels, so I'll be condensing them down. Note that she has NO post-Ten Levels as of the end of the arc, and still hasn't become an ExLite. Also, (almost) no magic items included.

Strength: 50 +20, bend steel bars with ease, lift about 13 tons (x4 w Girdle). At this level, Strength is mostly touch-telekinetic in nature, i.e. you want yourself to be this strong, so you are. Totally defies physics. You hit like you are made of steel, and can make abrupt motions faster than the eye can follow, literally. Her sword weighs like thirty pounds, a barbell weight, and she can wield it like a willow wand.

Dexterity: 50 +20 , impossibly precise, reflexes faster than most machines (technically, 256x normal human speed), about as agile as Spider-man, or even moreso. Like Strength, Dexterity at this level is basically actualized thought as reality; you want to move perfectly, so you do. Bullets move about at the speed of a lobbed softball, and Sama is responding to stuff before she actually thinks about it.

Const.i.tution: 63 +26 Doesn't tire, impossibly resilient, beyond needing sleep, food, or water, ignores anything other than Eternal-level poisons or diseases. At this level, you are basically trying to beat on someone's soul to try and kill them, and the body won't die unless the soul gives out. The avatars of most G.o.ds are nowhere near this tough.

Intellect: 45 +17 Knows more about stuff she's never heard of then most mortal experts in a field. Masters new skills almost instantly. Unbelievably acute recall and memory retention. A good chunk of her intellect exists outside her head in the Human akasha. Can out-think computers, divine level computational abilities, profound awareness of cause and effect from pa.s.sing observations. 16 different thought streams of various subdivisions of intellectual responsibilities.

Wisdom: 59 +24 Divine level of self-awareness, harmony with nature, depth of will. Second thoughtstream engaged in meditative awareness all the time. Sense Motive modifier of +55ish means she can almost read your mind just by feeling your aura, and will know you are lying even if you don't.

Charisma: 53 +21 Her presence enough to make normal people do her bidding as if she was a beloved commander. Force of personality at a divine level. Retains own personality and desires in the face of the most catastrophic or traumatic events and pressure without difficulty. Secondary thoughtstream devoted to managing social relationships/manipulations. Prolonged contact will turn others into fanatical followers/admirers. Diplomacy Modifier in the +55 range means she's impossible not to like, and Intimidate modifier of +71ish means she can make a stone golem p.i.s.s pebbles with a glance.

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Soak: 571~ [10x (10 maxed Melee HD + 1 FC +26 Con) + 51 Tough/2 + ~150 (Psychic Body/Heart and Soul)]. This much Soak is taking an AK 47 and holding down the trigger while you shoot 80 or so bullets into something, before you actually land a hit. Or jumping off a 200' cliff and face planting in the stone below... 8 times.

Health: 490 [10 x (10 (max soulborn HD) +1 Toughness +26 Con) + 120 Body and Soul]. Another way of looking at this is doing enough physical damage to kill her is equivalent to hacking your way through over four feet of fine steel... with the right tool, of course. See her DR...

Sama also has Die Harder, and doesn't die until -10 + 2x Con Health, or -136 Health, and she can act freely the whole time. She would lose Health if she did, but since she heals all the time, it doesn't matter. She'd look like a ravaged corpse, worse than a zombie, and still be moving and fighting normally.

DR: Base 21/Holy Silver, or 11/-, buffable by +10 w Stalwart. Oh, what I was saying before? Ah, you can't hurt her with an AK-47. You're going to need a heavy machine gun on full auto-fire to have a chance, or an auto-cannon. 21 points means she can ignore an average hill giant swinging at her (dmg 2-16 +7). 31 points is ignoring a sniper shooting at her with a long gun (2-16 x 3 for One Shot +4 Specialist). Ping! No Headshot.

Fast Healing: 10/rd (5 (Healing Mastery + Warshifter) + 5 (Blood and Soul)). And then she's going to heal up faster than you are inflicting it.

Crit Immunity: 100% (Alchemist Discovery x 3 + Steadfast Pauldrons Tat) So, you are NEVER going to get lucky and hit a weak spot. She doesn't have any.

Beyond Law and Chaos: Immune to Luck and Insight bonuses of others. Also, does not hit or Save on a Nat 20 automatically, nor miss/fail a save on a 1 automatically. Is not automatically hit on a 20, nor automatically missed on a 1, nor can opponents auto-save or miss a save from her on a 20 or 1. Skill is everything.

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AC: 100/124 [10 base + 24 Wis +20 Dex +13 Dodge + 13 Natural Armor +5 Deflection +6 Morale, +7 Armor (Nog) (+ 13 Shield +11 Defender) + 2 w sword]. + miscellaneous others...

Touch AC 78/89. So, unless you have a +58 bonus to hit, you simply CANNOT hit her if she doesn't want you to. It doesn't matter how many of you there are.

TH/Sword: +46 (+10 MAB + 20 Str +4 Spec +3 Courtier of Death +2 Nat Swordswoman, +6 Morale + ignore 6 Armor, Dex, Insight/Luck/Deflection bonuses each). With Tremble, ignore all Nat Armor (Brilliant) or all Armor/Shield (Umbral), and Tremble can be anywhere from +9 to +17 to hit (+14 to +22 W Psychic Weapon), + half that in Morale from Courageous stacking on top.

Dmg/Sword: roughly 15-60 w Tremble and stacking weapon dice modifiers, with Supreme Power Attack, Sage of Swords, Courtier of Death, Strength, specialization, and such combining for over +120 more, crit range of 17-20 and x4 damage, with +10d6+20 Sneak Attack damage on top. Can do Slashing, Piercing, or Blunt damage as desires, or switch to elemental dmg as needed, and hit ethereal, intangible, and incorporeal foes as readily as real ones. Tremble adds another +15-20 plus Bane or other bonuses, too.

Dmg/Unarmed: Approx. 12-40 or so base, + bonuses as Sword. That includes biting.

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Movement: 220, x 5 running (Run Feat) [base 40 (Succubus) + 20 Fleet, +10 Fast Move, +20 Mark, +10 Nog, +10 Speed of Thought, x2 Monk Levels] = Walks at the speed of a world-cla.s.s human sprinter, and runs at 120+ mph, and can sprint basically forever. Lightfoot ignores terrain/doesn't leave tracks. Can move on walls and ceilings as long as returns to the floor at end of round.

Jumping Modifier: +140 [+44 base, +96 (speed)], x2 distance (Psychic Leap), +10 feet (lightfoot), can make a running jump from a standstill. So, can jump about 80 feet straight up, or 300' sideways.

Swim Speed of 180~ (twice as fast as a shark) -Sirine/nymph/nereid levels +Mark + Nog, x Monk.

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Base Number of Attacks: Just 2!... but up to 45 Attacks of Opportunity (Wis+ Dex + 1), and unlimited Cleaves, and full attack/flurries for 4. Arakne Arms add two attacks with Missile Weapons. Tail adds four Ranged Attacks (Manticore Belt) + 2 bolts from Sparky. Hair attack is possible, but usually is no more than a s.n.a.t.c.h/grab of loot... or could spit poison and generally does not. Just being able to execute 46 different attacks against different targets means her blades are literally everywhere at once, and with being able to advance 5'/Cleave attack up to her movement rate, plus Evasive Reflexes for 5' instead of making an AoO, the number of attacks she can rip out in six seconds is literally HUNDREDS. All she has to do is get close enough to them.

Sneak Attack: 10d6+20. She can flank with herself, or use Sneak attack off Cleaves, attacks of opportunity, or intimidated foes (which she can do with a free action after killing someone, or a swift action, and to everyone who sees her kill). Note that with a -20 penalty modifier, she can Intimidate creatures that are immune to fear, like undead, or even constructs!

Her Death Attack, if she chooses to use it, is at DC 40/51. (+10 AB +5 Cunning +5 a.s.sa.s.sin Levels + 20 Dex, + 11 Ruby from Tremble).

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Primary Cla.s.s Skill Points: 340 (10 x (8 (Expert) + 8 (Melee) +1 FC +17 Int bonus)

Secondary Cla.s.s Skill Points: 6 x at least 20 Secondary Cla.s.ses avg 4/level = 240ish.

Advanced Cla.s.s Skill Points: Zero! Advanced Cla.s.ses don't give skill points.

Racial Skill Points: 80 (10 x 8/Soulborn HD)

# of Masteries at /5: Pretty much all of them. Too many to list. a.s.sume a +6 Skill Feat, a +4 Skill Feat, and a +5 Mastery bonus to most Skills.

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Saves: (Note: +3 Insight bonus all 3 Saves from Courtier of Death if applicable). Rough numbers – cla.s.s abilities could boost them further. I'm pretty sure she gets another +4 to all from Grace...

Fort.i.tude Save: +51, +57 vs Poison – Poisons heal 1-6 dmg if saves against them. Note that the highest save for a mortal poison is 33 for a Scorpion the size of a barn. If Sama makes a Fort save, suffers no secondary effects (Mettle).

Reflex Save: +38 Greater Evasion, no damage on save, half if fail. The oldest and mightiest red dragon has a save DC for its breath weapon of 40. If Sama is using a shield, she auto saves, and takes no damage.

Will Save: +39 While she is immune to Fear via Undaunted, she also has an additional +6 to saves against Fear from Bravery if there is an immunity bypa.s.s. She is also immune to Intimidation from anything with a lower Intimidation modifier then her (base +71), and has a constant Astral Ward (re. Mind Blank).

1/rd, can instead sub a Concentration Check at 66 for one saving throw (Sun saves)

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Soul Essence: ~100

Ki: ~100

Vajra: 100 (Diamond Mark IV: Resistances, Greater Resistances, Visual File, Sustained, hypertrophy). Doesn't get wet if not desired, immune to water pressure/wind/vacuum, can clean self instantly, filters ga.s.ses, can recycle air, Vajra extends 4 inches outside of body (including hair). Total control/awareness of own anatomy. Doesn't need to sleep.

PP Reserve (psionics): 348 (88 + Con/Wis bonuses + Strength of Mind/5 (+20) – PP base of Psion/10 (Null up to Reserve in radius anti-Psi manifestation zone with Vigor use) – Can hear local telepathy with a Perception check, even if directed at another. Very dangerous to attack mentally.

Spell Levels: 29/27/25/24/22 (Null Matrix, Con/Wis/Int/Cha bonuses) = 364 levels (Interdiction zone increase up to 3640' radius/minutes with Resolve expenditure, or Matrix in radius anti-Casting zone).

Null: 66 (Character level 10 + 51 Fort Save + 5 Null Mastery) - Ignores Caster Level below +45. Can't be sensed by divinities except by personal view of an avatar. Immune to the Luck/Insight bonuses of others. Has no visible future to timesight, and her past can only be viewed in her presence in real time and the present. Temporally locked past (cannot be altered) as is temporal s.p.a.ce around her (no time-bombing her). Interdiction zone 660-foot radius with Vigor expenditure, up to 660 minutes. Constant Interdiction up to 65' radius at will. Mark IV means a 20' Null Vajra interfering with all spellcasting/unnatural energy usage in up to a 20-foot radius at will.

Note that Nulls work against constant effects draining energy or spells being Cast. They have no default effect against magic items or spells already in effect, except...

---Can dispel a spell by making a TH roll against 10 + Spell level + CL of spell. Can reflect a thrown spell back on target instead. Can automatically dispel illusions and protective spells with a successful attack.

Resistances: 100 to Fire, Cold, Lightning, Acid/Base, Thunder + Force, Necroic, Divine/Aligned, Eldritch, Radiant (Diamond Vajra). Stacks with immunities, in case of immunity bypa.s.s.

Immunities: Disease, Poison, Death Effects, Acid, Fire, Cold, Lightning, Electricity, Petrification, Paralyzation, Fear, Illusions + Most forms of magical concealment, Curses (which merely feed the Hag Curse), Aging (has no maximum age).

Reduces Ability drain/damage/burn by 3 from all effects.

Effective Constant Astral Ward as long as has PP Reserve (Psi Slayer).

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Vigor use: 11/day (5 base +5 Soul and Vigor + 1 Special) for 59 dmg converted to subdual per, Heals subdual dmg 1/minute. Powers larger Interdictions/Nulls. Also removes stuns, diseases, poisons, paralyzation, and similar effects as a free action, and breaks a grapple.

Inspiration uses: Base 5, + Soul of Inspiration for up to +5. Has up to 21 active Feats in Inspiration, can swap out up to 10 at a time.

Bardic Music Uses/day: 10 (5 Minstrel + Maestro, + 5 Soul of Music). Effects persist 5 rds after ending play. Maxed Minstrel Skills are Piano, Violin, Dance, Singing, Oratory, Drums, Guitar, Horns, Painting, Sculpting, and Whistling. She is considered to have one Rank in any musical instrument she runs across, as long as she has at least a minute to practice with it (and thus gets her Cha bonus to the Performance check with it). She won't be able to play complex music with it, but people will love it anyways (+22).

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Senses: Tremblesense to 60' in all directions (combined radar/sonar/vibration sense, extends through solid/liquid objects, tracks electricity and temperature, planar/temporal/spatial sense, blindsight, spiritsense, lifesense, thoughtsense) = Trembling Sage. Scent (track by smell/differentiate). Ultrasonic/subsonic hearing. Can hear with skin/hair.

Hag Curse: Sensitive to Evil in 60-foot radius (constant) or by strength of evil if large enough (evil lands from over the horizon, for instance). Basically, it is feeding off the evil of others to sustain itself. Absolute Self: Because of the Curse's brand, Sama cannot be effectively imitated/disguised as by other creatures, as they can't imitate the brand. It also reduces her presence down to an effective 10 Charisma as desired, so she isn't mobbed by others who see her with her Charisma, and can effectively just melt into the background. Can sense Hags nearby and identify Hags and Hagbloods and their bloodlines on sight.

Vision: x20 human range (Mask of Clarity). True Seeing (ignores illusions, sees true forms of creatures, spirits, souls, ethereal, planar, magic, etc.). Infravision (sees heat), Ultravision (sees UV), Ignores Mist, Fog/Clouds, Smoke, Sand, Dust. Devilsight (ignores darkness) and Devasight (immune to bright light/dazzling effects/visual mirages, sees individual colors clearly). No sight penalties in water. Can see with entire face (eyes are irrelevant/lilitu).

Visual File: Interactive Eidetic Memory, basically a transpsionic computer in the head. Tracks Lived-line for teleporting purposes, time, etc with Tremblesense accuracy, among other things.

Marks (full set of 9 Master Marks, lilitu-level): +4 to All Stats, +4 to Charisma rolls against s.e.xual interests, +20 Move, +3 Nat AC. Allows Shapeshifting as Alter Self spell into creatures templated into the Marks, subject to the limitations of Alter Self. Forms anchor templates for Racial Levels.

Hair is animated (Vajra), and can actually be used as a weapon if desired. Is like water to other people if desired, and if cut, just dissipates and regrows. Can change length, style, and color at will.

Can speak with all creatures and plants, oozes, and elementals. (Whiskers of the Wild+ Soulborn)

Learns any language in one day from exposure to it (Polyglot feat + Soulborn), including written forms, via akashic linkages, and can master accents and dialects thereof in minutes. Naturally she's picked up all she's been exposed to.

Marshal Mastery is 4,000 people she can directly give Marshal bonuses to at one time/in hearing via guidance. Bardic morale bonuses can be given to anyone Marked, as they are in hearing range, as desired, no personal guidance necessary. Her Marshal bonuses are base +2 to hit, damage, AC, and Saves, and +10 to Will Saves, +20 against Fear. The Bardic bonuses are +3 Th/Dmg, or +6 to crafting/skill checks. Tremble increases the bonuses by anywhere from +4 to +6 normally via Courageous, as they are both morale bonuses.

Current Personal Followers: Cohort/Henchman: Fido Nessian Warhound Melee/10, Monk 6+, etc; Shirley, Animal Companion: Canian Warhound Melee/10, Monk 6+, etc; Tremble, Item Familiar and Intelligent Sword; Sparky, Greater Soulspark Familiar Riding in Tail; Thrum (Psicrystal Familiar, w 5 advances), worn in hair. The McMikal clan brownies would be considered civilian Leadership followers, and the Ironblood are her Marshal force. Since all her officers have Leadership themselves, the amount of people she can have under command radiates outwards tremendously.

Other Soulbound armaments besides Tremble: Fall, +Zehn Autobow (Hand to Siege Crossbow size, plays like a guitar), Down (as Fall, usually dual wielded in Arakne Arms, plays like a tambourine), Stand (+Zehn/Zhen Shield/Weapon, prefers a drumbeat), Quaver (second longsword +Zehn), Chalice (first psychic Weapon, not Intelligent). Doc is pa.s.sed around the Ironblood as a healing tool for combat infighters, and is prized by the Rockborn.

Approximate amount of Gold Equiv Tremble is worth: In excess of 500,000 gp, or equal to 10+ fully made palaces.

Most broken Weapon Enchantments: Brilliant (4 slot, ignore nat armor), Umbral (4 slot, ignore armor/shield), Healing Edge (3 Slot, do d8 dmg, heal d8 dmg/hit), Bane (1 Slot, +2/+2 +2d6), Psychic Weapon (No Slot, up to +5/+5), Courageous (2 Slots, Add ½ Enhancement bonus to any Morale Effects)

Most broken Cla.s.s ability: At high Stat levels, Monk Wis to AC. If I allowed it, Fist of the Forest adding Con to Natural Armor!

Most Broken Feat: Evasive Reflexes(Sidestep). Take a 5' step instead of an Attack of Opportunity in tight fighting when you have a lot of AoO triggers and uses translates to ma.s.sive amounts of movement. Combine with Supreme Cleave – the 5' step between Cleaves is actually UNLIMITED in the original ability, errated to only work 1/rd later, and I popped it up to go up to your base movement maximum per round. Between the two of them, Cleave Trains covering 200 feet every six seconds and killing anything in a swathe 20-30' wide along that path becomes possible. And if you can't miss on a Nat 1...

When combined with her Sage of Swords, Profound Artisan's mediocre damage base of +2-3 getting multiplied by every applicable skill breaks everything, giving Sama a +70ish damage boost. However, the ma.s.sive cost of Skill points IS a mitigating factor in most campaigns that don't allow tons of secondary Cla.s.ses and gonzo Intellect bonuses.

Sword Beats Fist deserves honorable mention, triggering 1 att/rd per target if attacking without weapons or reach. So all those claw/claw/bite routines were killing their originator monsters, and don't attack her with open hand.

Shut-Down Ability: Interdiction. The ability to lock down dimensions and stop flying stops so much magical power abuse it is not funny. Even if they didn't have their own Nulls, this ability would terrify all Casters.

Most Broken Racial Ability she could reasonably take: The Grace of several of the skimpier clad female races would grant +Charisma to saves and Deflection to AC. I'd allow it, but she has to pay the Karma for every advance, like a magic item, and would have to obey Level Caps (i.e. a +5 Cap before Eternal).

I probably shouldn't mention the Nymph ability to kill you if you see her naked, or the Nereid that simply cannot be harmed by males... You thought Succubi were dangerous, right?

Skills affected by Sage of Swords: ~27 (i.e. 270 committed skill points)

Weapons affected by her Grandmastery: 15 or so, adapted to Sword and/or Unarmed. Kill combo: Hew and Finish: Auto-crit if you reduce something below 0 HP 1/rd (killing fast healers, for instance), Hew means you carry over excessive damage on a Cleave to the next target. So drop a minion, crit, and carry the crit damage over to its boss next to it... From Axe and Spear feats.

Leadership score is 41 (Effective Marshal Level + Charisma bonus). As a Marshal, she can recruit older dragons and archmages if she's of a mind to... and she did the former...

Perfect multi-weapon fighting mastery (no penalties for fighting with multiple limbs... be it five tails, four arms, wings, hair...) (Tempest Adv Cla.s.s/Fire Dragon Style/Marilith)

Crafting Skill check for Sword-making is +73 (+110) ([+10 Ranks, +3 Cla.s.s, +6 Skill Focus, +5 Cunning, +5 Mastery, +8 Sword Spec (with Gloves), +17 Intellect, +3 Resolve, +2 Nat Swordswoman, +4 Craftsman, +10 Warsmith] + 22 Strength (Gloves) (speed only), +15 for Shaping Hammer, Silent Anvil, and Floating Forge (morale, insight, competence), 1/8 normal time (speed only)). With the Unlocked Masteries, she is easily capable of doing over 8,000 gp of work on a sword in one day, i.e. she can make 4 magic swords +1 in 8 hours, or one sword +2, at a QL of 33 (Six Slots possible), or 4 Swords+1 at QL 43, with potentially eleven Slots possible... if she has the right materials.

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If and when Sama maxes her Racial cla.s.ses, she can finally take Exemplar Lite and the Heavy Gravity Training, which, just for starters, is Str +15 (Might +22), Dex +12, Con +19, Int + 6, Wis + 8, and Cha + 8 altogether. Then you tack on +6 +4 for Gauntlets/Girdle combo for Str, and +6 for other magic items to increase all other Stats, and Sama ends up with a Stat Line of Str 75, Dex 68, Con 88, Int 57 Wis 73 Cha 67.

She'll also have 17 Racial Hit Dice, and can at the very least take her Primary Cla.s.ses to 17, which means Secondary Cla.s.ses to 9, which will trigger a cycle of more Stat increases. She will also get a +1 Inherent bonus to a non-Con/Wis Stat, whatever is lowest, per level past 10, to a max of +5. As an ExLite with a +4 Level bonus, she'll also be effectively an Eternal.

She'll also add another fast healing/5, DR 5/-, 7 ranks in all skill limits, +7 Attack bonus, +4 to all Skill checks, +2 Luck to AC, +2 Insight to AC, +4 to Nat AC, +10 to all base movements, her Lightfoot bonus will increase to +5/3rds (um, like 375 or so?) , her Null will go up by 4 (instead of her Caster Level) and 20-some more otherwise, +3 per level Health/Soak, and +5 Luck bonus to hit and damage, all from Exemplar Lite and raising her Cla.s.s Limit to 17. Many of her abilities will explode into Eternal limits, and she's eligible to take Eternal Feats and stuff... and that's not even talking about other pa.s.sive abilities she could feasibly get.

It should come as no surprise that writing about Sama at that point is like writing about a G.o.ddess, and in real terms to us normal folks, she's already that simply with a Stat block of post-40 scores. Going completely overboard on it is going to be somewhat monotonous. She's in the big leagues.

So, the next book will not be focusing on Sama, because she's grown too big to focus on. She will be there, and she will be messing with things, but she's going to be operating at the level of Eternals, and somebody is going to have a bad time...

Could I NOT make her grow? Sure. But I've been playing this straight, Sama follows the rules, Sama gets rewards. So, she's entering the 'character retirement' phase of a normal campaign, where she becomes part of the supporting crew.

But the next arc is going to be having plenty of Sama regardless, because Sama be not dumb...

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Hope that was enough Stats for everyone. :P On to the next Arc!