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1 Eclipse II: The Libram Incarna A Distant Horizons Games product by Paul Melroy, with Contributions from Patrick Bryant, Margaret Norris, and Anthony Robbers. Cover Art from Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912). The Sculpture Gallery. Copyright 2004-2009 by Paul Melroy. Proofread by Carol Melroy with assistance from Andrew Maitland. Distant Horizons Games logo trademark Distant Horizons Games. The following items are hereby designated as Product Identity in accordance with section 1(e) of the Open Game License, version 1.0a: the “Welcome” section, the Genesis 101 Essay on using Eclipse, the various “discussion” sections (under Revised Humans, Transhumans, Magic Items in the Game, Narrative Powers, Templates, Lerandor’s Rule, and How Merchants make Money), the NeoDog and Neodolphin historical information, the Cultural information on the Races of the Twilight Isles, the Shadow Elf House Descriptions, the descriptive sections of the various Archetypes, the Names and Descriptions of the various Relics, and Descriptive material other than game mechanics, including captions, invented “quotations”, and elements of game setting, including but not limited to, capitalized names, names of artifacts and relics, spell names, characters, countries, creatures, geographic locations, gods, historic events, lands, magic items, organizations, secret societies, legends, and original storylines. The product identity listed above is not Open Game Content. Several other games are briefly mentioned; these are not OGL OR Product Identity. Those mentions fall under “Fair Use”. The same applies to the bits derived from broadcast programs and Movies about Time Lords, the TARDIS, Cartoon Gargoyles, Flying Electric Cat Mutants, and similar productions. Permission is hereby granted to refer back to this book when presenting characters in point-buy format in other products. Questions? Comments? It will be easiest to ask online at http://ruscumag.wordpress.com/ Sample file

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Page 1: Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema Sample file - RPGNow.comwatermark.rpgnow.com/pdf_previews/70117-sample.pdf · In the PDF version you’ll also find an attached list of weblinks to the original

1

Eclipse II: The Libram Incarna

A Distant Horizons Games product by Paul Melroy, with Contributions from Patrick Bryant,Margaret Norris, and Anthony Robbers.

Cover Art from Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912). The Sculpture Gallery.

Copyright 2004-2009 by Paul Melroy.

Proofread by Carol Melroy with assistance from Andrew Maitland.

Distant Horizons Games logo trademark Distant Horizons Games.

The following items are hereby designated as Product Identity in accordance with section 1(e) ofthe Open Game License, version 1.0a: the “Welcome” section, the Genesis 101 Essay on usingEclipse, the various “discussion” sections (under Revised Humans, Transhumans, Magic Items in theGame, Narrative Powers, Templates, Lerandor’s Rule, and How Merchants make Money), the NeoDogand Neodolphin historical information, the Cultural information on the Races of the Twilight Isles, theShadow Elf House Descriptions, the descriptive sections of the various Archetypes, the Names andDescriptions of the various Relics, and Descriptive material other than game mechanics, includingcaptions, invented “quotations”, and elements of game setting, including but not limited to, capitalizednames, names of artifacts and relics, spell names, characters, countries, creatures, geographiclocations, gods, historic events, lands, magic items, organizations, secret societies, legends, andoriginal storylines. The product identity listed above is not Open Game Content.

Several other games are briefly mentioned; these are not OGL OR Product Identity. Those mentionsfall under “Fair Use”. The same applies to the bits derived from broadcast programs and Movies aboutTime Lords, the TARDIS, Cartoon Gargoyles, Flying Electric Cat Mutants, and similar productions.

Permission is hereby granted to refer back to this book when presenting characters in point-buyformat in other products.

Questions? Comments? It will be easiest to ask online at http://ruscumag.wordpress.com/

Sam

ple

file

Page 2: Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema Sample file - RPGNow.comwatermark.rpgnow.com/pdf_previews/70117-sample.pdf · In the PDF version you’ll also find an attached list of weblinks to the original

Eclipse II: The Libram Incarna 2

Welcome to the Libram Incarna

Eclipse II does presume that you have access to both Eclipse: The Codex Persona and The Practical Enchanter.If you don’t, you can pick up the shareware versions (or, preferably, the paid versions) at RPGNow.Com or in acouple of other places online. A lot of the material in The Libram Incarna will still be usable without either of thosebooks, but the mechanics behind things will certainly make a lot more sense if you’re familiar with The CodexPersona.

Unlike The Codex Persona and The Practical Enchanter, The Libram Incarna doesn’t bring you major chunks ofnew rules. That’s simply because Eclipse was designed to handle everything that had been published for d20 beforeit came out - and I haven’t seen anything since that it couldn’t accommodate.

Instead it brings you ways to apply the rules from The Codex Persona, developed ideas, and plot devices, to dropinto your campaign. Here you’ll find both new and old races broken down into Eclipse point-buy mechanics so theycan be easily tweaked to suit your game, magical birthrights usable as either races or templates, templates, partytemplates, archetypes, sample first level point-buy character builds and variants, relics (and their accompanying plothooks), martial arts, power packages, information on how to customize your world and how to use the more complexoptions in The Codex Persona, and level-by-level breakdowns for the basic classes to make it easy to convertcharacters and customize the base classes.

In the PDF version you’ll also find an attached list of weblinks to the original pages, so that - if there are anyquestions - you can simply ask for more information on line.

Why this particular format? That’s simple enough:

Most of the questions that come in for Eclipse start off with “How do I build...”, “Do you have any writeupsfor...”, or “Where do I start...”.

I usually answer those online, but at this point the site - Ruscumag.Wordpress.Com - contains a couple ofthousand pages and subpages, including both answers to questions and material written simply because it occurred tome. I wrote almost all of it, and even I have trouble finding things by now.

And that problem gets worse every day.

Ergo, The Libram Incarna.

This book is an organized, compiled, edited, and expanded version of some of the material on the site, as well as250-odd pages of ten-point type, and should cover all the basics of creating point-buy characters. More advancedcharacters, as well as material for campaigns, exotic fields of magic, and the rest will just have to wait for the nextbook. There’s no room for it here.

Still, with The Libram Incarna, The Codex Persona joins the age of instruction manuals that are bigger than theactual product.

Sam

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General Index:Genesis 101:

Using Eclipse 7

Building Basic RacesBlink Dog 9

Limiting Unlimited Use 9Bugbear 9Centaur 9Dark Reaper 10Dragon, Darkweird 10Dream Entity 11Dwarf, Basic 11Elan 12Elf, Affinity 12Elf, Aquatic 13Elf, Basic 14Elf, Drow 14

Minor Innate Spells 14Elf, Gray and Noble 15Elf, Wild 16Elf, Wood 16Elf, Xin 16Fair Folk and Feyblooded 17Lesser and Feyblooded 17Greater 18High 19Gargoyle, Cartoon 20

Race Design Example 20Gnolls 21Gnomes 21Goblins 21Half-Elf 21Half-Giant 21Halfling 22Half-Orc 22Hobgoblin 22Human, Basic 22Human, Revised 23Human, Spirit-Touched 26Janni 27Lesser Outsider 28Lizardfolk 28Ogre 28Ri'aal 29Satyr 30Sentient Office Device 30Talon 31Time Lord 32

Building a TARDIS 34Transhuman 35Werewolf, Minimal 37

Atherian BirthrightsAbsolute Command 38Blood 39Crystal 39Death 39Dimensional 40Divination 40Elemental 40Forest/Plant 40Ice 40Illusion 41Life 41Light 41Lunar 42Order 42Shadow/Darkness 42Solar/Purity 42Totemism 43Venom 43Warding 44The Dragon-Born 44

High-Powered RacesCartoon Critter 45Childe' of the Starborn Fire 45Cinematic Hero 45Corrupted Maiar 46Demonically-Infused Human 46Evil Outsider 47Istari 47Krell Psychic Adept 47Light Cruiser 49ML-ELF Cyborg Super-Soldier 49

d0 Hit Dice 50Cybernetic Package 50

Minimal Dragon 51Neanderthals 52Neodogs and Neodolphins 53Praetorian 56Pureblooded Human 57

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Eclipse II: The Libram Incarna 4

Twilight Isles RacesDesign Background 58

Ikam 38Racial Modifiers 59

Shadow Elves 61Racial Modifiers 63House Mechanics 64Sample Houses 64

Thunder Dwarves 68Racial Modifiers 70

Veltine 72Racial Modifiers 74The Veltine in Depth 75

Children of the NightDevelopment Options 77

Awakened 77Demons 78Magi 79

Advanced Rune Magic 79Vampires 81Werewolves 83

TemplatesStacking Templates 84Races and Templates 84

Ancient One 85Anime 87

World Laws 87Template 87Identities 87

Cliche Hero 88Narrative Powers 89Robotic 90Spirit Fetch 92Talismanic Mage 93

Allomancy 93Warbeast 94Wild Magic 95Wind Guardian 96

Party TemplatesParty Templates General Rules 97The Angbokor Guild 98

Minimal Uses 99The Company of Kardeon 100The Forest Stalkers 101The Knights of Yggdrasil 102The Royal Cartographic Society102

Archetypes and RolesFloating Identities 104

Fantasy and Historical Roles 105The Aristocrat 105The Berserker 105The Broken Spirit 106The Brute 106The Centurion 106The Commander 106The Elder 107El Diablo 107The Fortunate Scion 107The Great Leader 107The Laborer 107The Magus 108The Merchant 108The Messenger 108The Official 108The Performer 109The Romantic 109The Scholar 109The Seducer 110The Shadow 110The Shaman 110The Stoic 110The Thief 111The Wanderer 111The Wise Companion 111

Sci-Fi ArchetypesThe Annoying Brat 112The Captain and Second 112

The Action Guy 112The Science Guy 112

The Chief Security Officer 112The Cosmic Wedgie 112The Counselor 113

The Mystic Counselor 113The Doctor 113The Engineer 113The Ensign 113The Hologram 114The Infiltrator 114The Mudslinger 114The Teleport Officer 114

Sci-Fi Psychic ArchetypesBasic Sci-Fi Powers 115The Minimal Nice Psychic 117The Minimal Evil Psychic 117Advanced Force Powers 118

Literary Magic ItemsMagic Items in the Game 119Magical World Laws 119

Sample RelicsArnwen’s Sacred Sunstone 120Blades of Legend 121Bracer of the Archmagi 122Chessboard O/T Invisible Hand 123Clasp of the Mandarin 123Cloak of Zorro 123Coronet of Command 123Cursed Quill of Antilleus 124Dirge 125Dragon Crown 125Gossamer Shroud 125Grimfang, the Heroes Blade 126Hat of the Demon Pirate Ferret 127Helm of Tolwyn 127Kether Scrolls 128Lawgiver 128Lion Bracer 129Malachite Bindings 129Parrying Dagger 130Philosopher’s Stone 130Rings of Mastery 131Seals of Seigrun 131Sheathe of Excalibur 132Sigil of Dark Fortune 132Sigil of Yamanu 132Skill Enhancing Relics 133Skull of Scykanthos 133Sortilege Staff 133Staff of Rassilon 134Stormbreaker 134

Character-Related RelicsAlbertius Log 135Animist’s Wand 135Black Compass 135Blademaster’s Ring 136Codex Obscura 136Determined Emissary’s Amulet 136Ebon Binding 136Elerus Sigil 137Eye of Arithur 137Eye of Flames 137Eye of Odin 137Eye of Stars 137Eye of Wrath 137Ithian Dragonstone 138Lion Ring 138Litany of Illumination 138Medicine Bundle 138

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Philosopher’s Stone Type II 138Ring of Speed 139Savage Seal of Alar 139Sigil of Lugh 139Torc of Annwyn 139Umbral Torc 139Warding Gauntlet 139

The Tongues of Heaven 140Minor Relics 141

Power PackagesArtificer 142Buying Cyberware 143The Taskmaster 144Cinematic Talents 145Incarnum Builds 146Psychic Pilots 146Reserve Feats 149Weapon Specialists 150

Spooky PowersDown Among the Dead Men 151Spirit Riders 153

Martial Arts FormsAlarian Legionary Swordsman 156Asura Roushan 156Blade Expert Martial Art 156Body Like Water 157The Breath Of Creations Morn 157Cangmarg 157Cheetah Style 157Close Quarter Combat System 157The Cursed Tongue 158Cutting Wind 158Deathstrike 158The Division Of The Waters 159Drunken Fist 159Falcon’s Eye 159The Feathered Winds 159Fire Juggler 159First Rays Of Heavenly Fire 160Guard of the Helpful Mage 160Gun Bunny 160Harpist of the Weave

or Spellweaving 160Heavenly Radiant Sword 161Iron Spear 161Iron Storm Technique 161Kogusoku Kappo 161Koryu Kensho 161

Krav Maga Mark II 161Lightning Blade 162Lightning Fist 162Lunar Orbit Kung Fu 162Makendon Combat Training 162Nine Deadly Winds 162Pistol Expert 163The Rejuvenating Manual 163Rhynsin Dragonslayer Style 163Sabre Master Martial Art 163Sagcire 164Senjat 164Seven Deadly Pressure Points 164Shadow Spear 164The Shaping Of The New Earth 164Skillet of Fury 165Spider’s Fang Technique 165Spring Gale Naginatajutsu 165Starlight Blade 165Street Fighting 165Temple Mount Krav Maga 166Thunder Palm 166Tide’s Fury 166Tiger Style Kung Fu 166Two-Fisted Hero 166Urban Staff Combat 167Warmind 167The Whispering Blade 167Whisper of Devastation 167

Level One BuildsCombatants and Experts:

The Battlerager 169The Bladesinger 170The Bulwark 171The Fortunate Hero 172The Iron Dragon 173The Street Rat 175The Swashbuckler 176

Empowered Entities:The Bloodmarked 179The Hellguide 182The Primal Warrior 183The Transhuman 184The Wraith 185

Magi:Building Spellcasters 187Spell Memorization 187

The Collector 189The Elementalist 190The Kabalistic Ritualist 191The Mystic Adept 193The Runesmith 195

Lerandor's Rule 195The Vedic Master 197

Merchants and Money 198Modern and Future Builds:

The Cyber-Warrior 199The Hotshot Pilot 201The Investigative Reporter 202The Tech Wiz 203

Priests and Mystics:The Animistic Wizard 205The Paladin of Death 206The Poseur or Mad Cultist 207The Scholarly Priest 208The Shamanic Adept 209The Toller 211

Psychics:What is a Psychic? 213Building d20 Psychics 213Strain Systems 214The World of Vindahl 214

The Courtly Witch 215The Dweomer Master 217

GM Judgement Calls 217The Gifted Psion 218The Revised Psion 219The Starfire Adept 221The Witch 222

Bad Examples:The Harbinger of Doom 223Inaro Montban 225

Level-by-LevelBreakdowns: 227

The Barbarian 228The Bard 229The Cleric 230The Druid 231The Fighter 232The Monk 233The Paladin 235

Psychics in the Game 237The Psion 237The Psychic Warrior 238

The Noble Sword 238The Ranger 239The Rogue 240The Sorcerer 241The Wizard 242

Appendixes:Art Credits 243Product Identity 243

Non d20 Fair Use 243Open Game License 244Weblink Index 246

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Eclipse II: The Libram Incarna 6

Prospects of EclipseSa

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7

Genesis 101: Using EclipseMaking characters in Eclipse is trickier than in most d20

systems; it’s a point-buy system that lets you build anythingyou can imagine. It works with 3.0, 3.5, Modern, Future,Past, and the vast majority of other d20 products out there.You can use Eclipse to build fighters, wizards, priests, androgues. You can also use it to build sapient World War IIbattleships, telepathic energy beings that live in deep space,magic mice, superheroes, scientists, deities, demons, andsmall children. You’re free to use it to create your ownspecies, templates, and any sort of “class” you can imagine.

That means that the first step is to check with the gamemaster. You’ll need to know what sort of game he or shehas in mind, what the setting is, what system he’s using forattribute generation, and what skills he or she will be using.Most game masters will have a preferred set of races, andwill often only allow templates on a case-by-case basis.Fortunately, d20 races, ECL adjustments, and templateswork just fine with Eclipse. For that matter, so do Classes –but if all you use Eclipse for is a source of customizedFeats, you’re missing most of the point.

Now that you know what the restrictions are, it’s timefor the real core of your character – the concept. Given thatEclipse allows you to build anything at all, the trick is todecide what you want to create.

Come up with that concept.

Now look at the mechanics of it. Don’t get distractedwith the description, the special effects, or how thecharacter is supposed to be accomplishing something. All ofthat is window dressing. You’re only looking for the actualgame effect that’s being produced.

Your character might sprout claws, lash out with akinetic aura, have rock-hard fists, manifest a spirit weapon,or disrupt molecular structures with a touch – but all of thatcomes down to special effects attached to “inflict largeamounts of hand-to-hand damage without using aconventional weapon”.

You might instantly regenerate a portion of any damageyou take, have skin harder than rock, be able to withstandan almost endless number of small wounds, draw nearbymatter into a constantly-rebuilt shell of armor, radiate anaura of distorted time that spreads attacks out to make themless effective, or any of a hundred other things – but all ofthose reduce the damage you take from attacks. That’sDamage Reduction.

Once you know what you’re actually trying to buy, youcan start looking for the abilities that cover it.

Depending on what level you’re building the characterat, you may need to strip the mechanics of your conceptdown to the minimum essentials you can afford at level one– or you may need to expand on it, to build it up tosomething suitable for high-level character. Most characterswill start at level one, with a base of 48 Character Pointsand (4x Int Mod) Skill Points - but Eclipse does allow (page9) levels below one to allow for “apprentice” games and theuse of ECL-adjusted templates and races at first level.

! Level Zero characters get a base of 3 HP, 24Character Points, and 3x Int Mod Skill Points.

! Level (-1) characters get a base of 1 HP and 2x IntMod Skill Points.

! Level (-2) characters get a base of 1 HP.

After level one, the progression is constant – +24 CP, abasic d4 Hit Die (which may be bought up), and + (IntMod) Skill Points, at each level.

There are quite a few sample first-level builds later on inthis book - but the summary of actually building a characteris pretty straightforward.

You’ll want to make sure that your character starts offwith some basics. Those include:

Weapon Proficiencies (Page 49). Most charactersshould know how to use at least a few weapons, and somewill know how to use some exceedingly esoteric ones. Anyadventurer should know how to use at least a few weapons.

Skill Points. You may be getting enough from yourIntelligence to start with – but a lot of characters will wantmore. Most characters will want to look into Adept (Page24) and Fast Learner (Page 17). Those make it a good dealcheaper to have a decent number of skills, and helpcompensate for the power creep found in the classes fromlate in the d20 cycle.

Saving Throw Bonuses (Resist, Page 41). These arealways a good idea.

Hit Dice (Page 9). Every character automatically gets atleast a d4 at each level, but tougher characters will usuallywant to buy these up a bit. Characters who want to be verytough can buy extra hit dice - or find other ways to boosttheir hit points, such as by taking augmented or enhancedconstitution bonuses.

Base Attack Bonus. This is bought as Warcraft (Page10). Characters can get along with more specializedbonuses, or with no physical combat ability at all – but mostconventional adventurers will want at least a little baseattack bonus eventually. It’s hard to avoid picking up someknowledge of combat in that job.

Sam

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Eclipse II: The Libram Incarna 8

Bonus Feats are normally simply converted intoCharacter Points, and are used to buy whatever-it-is youwant.

If the game master is using the Basic AdventurerTemplate (Page 16) or one of it’s variants (Page 17), thereare some minimum purchase requirements and somerestrictions on what can be purchased at each level, assuringsome minimal character balance. Real balance, of course, isalways up to the game master.

Naturally, there are never enough character points tobuy everything you want. Fortunately, characters can scrapeup a few more with limitations – Restrictions or Duties(Page 17) which provide extra points every level, orPackage Deals, Unique Training, or Disadvantages (Page18), which provide a smaller number of extra points, butwhich provide them up front. Go ahead and take some.Weaknesses make characters more interesting anyway.

After that, comes special abilities – and those come in avirtually endless variety. By this point you should have afairly good idea what abilities you want.

You can buy spell or psionic power progressions(Page 11) – or you can build customized sets ofmagical abilities. You can explore special abilities(Page 21), expand and specialize your combat skillswith individual Martial Arts (Page 80), or explore thegeneralized metamagics (Page 56). You can create,buy, and extend templates and racial abilities (Page61). Finally, you can explore various new magicalsystems – Channeling (Page 66), Dominion (Page72), Hexcraft (Page 79), Mystic Artist (Page 84), thePath of the Dragon (Page 92), Ritual Magic (Page96), Rune Magic (Page 97), Spell Storing (Page 98),Thaumaturgy and Dweomer (Page 100), or dabble inWitchcraft and mystical Pacts (Page 109).

Most of the abilities are pretty broad. You canSpecialize and Corrupt those powers – making themless generally useful in exchange for either makingthem cheaper to buy or more effective in certaincircumstances.

That’s a place for caution. Like any open-endedsystem, it’s possible to build extremely specializedcharacters in Eclipse, making them overwhelminglypowerful when their powers do apply, and uselessotherwise. Unfortunately, this is boring all the time.It’s boring when you don’t have anything useful todo, and it’s equally boring when you automaticallytrump everyone else. A starring speciality is good. Agodlike one is dull - and it’s better to limit yourselfthan it is to force the game master to tell you “no”.

Personally, I prefer characters with a good specialityand a lot of minor powers that can be used to good effect ifyou get creative, but that’s just me. A solid base of generalpowers works just as well, as will a lot of other designs.

This is one of the places where sample builds come inhandy; you’ll find a lot of them in this book. Since Eclipseis modular, you can simply pick one that resembles whatyou want, pull out the bits you don’t want, and plug in somestuff that you do – or simply lift power packages from themto start creating your own design around.

Finally, now that you have a good idea of what youwant in your design, it’s time to put the pieces together andwrite everything down on your character sheet.

You probably won’t be getting into epic-level spells,divine ascension, world creation, or character profilesimmediately - but the rules are there when you want them.

That’s also the end of the basic primer. From here, thebest I can do is point you to the examples and the standardbuild breakdowns that take up such a large chunk of thisbook. There simply isn’t any way to provide a fullwalkthrough for the millions of possible combinations

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