Daemonology Rules
Familiar Spirits
If you have three or more pacts signed with a single daemon, that daemon is considered a familiar spirit. Summoners are exempt from Morale checks when summoning a familiar spirit, though any witnesses (who do not have a familiar relationship with the daemon themselves) must make Morale checks as normal.
Each familiar spirit a daemonologist has adds +1 to their caster level. Additionally, familiar spirits can be petitioned for specific gifts and powers. Instead of negotiating with the daemon and turning down or accepting whatever random assemblage of powers and prices they offer, the summoner can request a particular occult gift. Familiar spirits seem limited in what they are willing or able to give when specifically requested.
Servitors can only offer lesser gifts, the equivalent of results of 50 or below on the Boon table. They can offer the equivalent of up to 3rd level spells.
Dukes can offer the equivalent of results of 70 or below on the pact table. They can offer the equivalent of up to 5th level spells.
Lords cannot be familiar spirits. Instead, when a daemonologist attempts to forge their third pact with the spirit, the lord daemon will offer a particularly powerful pact: a contract that offers three Boons for one Price. Learned daemonologists know that this pact is enforced by two dread Banes from the daemon lord, however, and inflicts a -4 penalty to warlocks attempting to unfetter it.
Warlocks
Daemonologists who intentionally break their pacts with daemonic entities in order to glean greater levels of magical power are called warlocks. Unlocking the magic power of a pact in this manner is called unfettering. Becoming a warlock by unfettering a pact for the first time requires 250 arcane reagents, spent over the course of an hour of banishing rituals, at the end of which the warlock must make a threshold 7 Intelligence check. This check takes a penalty depending on the rank of the daemon empowering the pact: -1 for servitors, -2 for dukes, and -4 for lords.
If the check is successful, the pact is destroyed but the warlock retains all Boons from the pact. They also increase their caster level by +1 each time they unfetter a pact. They escape any Bane, and unfettering is the only way to escape a pact without triggering a Bane (besides, perhaps, death). If the check is unsuccessful, the pact is destroyed. All Boons are lost, and a Bane is incurred. Banes from failed unfetterings always roll twice and take the higher result on the Bane table.
The first time a daemonologist unfetters a pact, they become known as a warlock, and enjoy a one-time bonus of +1 to their caster level. The also lose a permanent point of Valor, reducing their maximum Valor by one, as a side-effect of metaphysically going back on their word. This means that upon becoming a warlock, one's caster level increases by +2 (+1 for becoming a warlock, and +1 for unfettering a pact). Initially becoming a warlock offers a rush of power, but continuing down the left-handed path requires escalating acts of occult audacity and self-aggrandizing ritual. The reagent cost doubles after each successful unfettering. Unfettering their first pact costs a warlock 250 reagents, but unfettering the second costs 500, the third 1,000, and so on.
Sigils, Talismans, and Imbuing Powers
One of the most tempting abilities offered by the path of the warlock is the power to imbue inanimate objects or even people with spells and daemonic energy. Once a pact unfettered, the daemonic power gifted to the warlock is now solely their metaphysical property, which they can dispense with as they like. Unfettered powers can be imparted into other objects or even a warlock's followers. The most powerful warlocks become almost like daemons themselves, dispensing occult blessings to their underlings to better secure their positions. Warlocks can only imbue powers they've unfettered by breaking pacts. If the pact that granted a particular spell is still in effect, the spell cannot be imbued.
If imbuing an inanimate object, the warlock must decide whether the item is single-use (such as a scroll or potion) or intended to be used many times (such as a magic wand or staff). Single-use items are called sigils require 250 GP of arcane reagents per spell level to properly consecrate the vessel, and for the warlock to cast the spell he or she wishes to imbue. The spell, when cast, has no effect, but instead flows into the vessel to be "stored" for later use. When the magic inside the item is finally used, the vessel is destroyed, disintegrating into flecks of black ash.
Imbued items that can be re-used are known as talismans, and they require more investment to create. First, the warlock must use 1,00 GP arcane reagents per spell level of the spell they wish to imbue (so, for example, a warlock who wishes to create a talisman of Fireball must spend 3,000 GP in arcane reagents for the level 3 spell). The warlock permanently loses this unfettered power, and can no longer cast the spell per day or per month. This power is now wholly imparted to the object, which casts the spell instead. The item's effective caster level is frozen at whatever the warlock's happened to be when it was first imbued.
The only Boons suitable to be imbued are those that bestow a spell once per day or once per month. Those that impart a spell once (and once only) cannot be imbued, even by the most skillful of warlocks. No other daemonic Boons (such as those that grant a specialty or impart an 18 in an attribute) can be imbued. Creatures (including humans) can be imbued as talismans, but not as sigils.
A warlock can only imbue a number of items equal to double their caster level. Once they hit this limit, one of their imbued items must be disenchanted via Dispel Magic, physically destroyed, or used up (in the case of sigils) before they can create more.
Stealing Pacts
If someone is able to steal an intact pact or contract for a daemonologist, they can attempt to replace their name with the signatory's, effectively stealing the pact for themselves. The new signatory is subject to all Prices and Banes for the pact as normal. The former signatory suffers a Bane for letting his pact fall into enemy hands.
Stealing a pact requires 250 arcane reagents, one hour of concentration, and a successful threshold 7 Intelligence check, with a bonus or penalty equal to the difference between the caster levels of the original signatory and the thief.
Stealing a pact is, notably, one of the few aspects of daemonology that actually requires literacy. Success allows the thief to place their name on the signatory's line, causing the original signatory to immediately lose access to that Boon and suffer a Bane. Failure on this roll results in the destruction of the pact; the original signatory suffers a Bane as normal, but so does the attempted counterfeiter.
Studying Pacts
With 8 hours of time and 100 arcane reagents, a careful daemonologist can study a pact to try and glean more information about the exact nature of the agreement. With a successful threshold 7 Intelligence check, the daemonologist can ask the GM three yes or no questions about either a pact's Price and Boon. For example, if studying a pact, they may ask the GM:
- Will this pact allow me to cast a spell?
- Will the Boon from this pact increase my caster level?
- Will this pact allow me to cast the spell Fireball?
The GM must answer these questions truthfully, but with only yes or no answers and no additional information.
Studying Boons and Prices are primarily done to glean more information regarding the pact, and to help a daemonologist decide whether or not he is willing to sign.
There is no penalty to failing at studying a pact, with the exception of lost time and arcane reagents.
Decoding Seals
Daemonologists can also study the name and office of an individual daemon on the pact, in an attempt to decode the daemon's Seal. Seals are the true names of daemons, magical symbols of power that encapsulate the entirety of their being. Knowing a daemon's Seal allows you to summon that daemon specifically, opening the door to possibly channeling that daemon, or making them a familiar spirit. Seals are jealously guarded by those daemonologists that manage to learn them.
Decoding seals allow you to target particular daemons, allowing you to summon the same daemon multiple times or even channel them. Decoding a seal is also a threshold 7 Intelligence check. Servitors impose a -1 penalty to this check and cost 100 reagents to decode, dukes impose a -2 penalty to this check and cost 250 reagents, and lords take a -4 penalty, due to the complexity and vastness of their occult seals, and cost 500 reagents per research attempt.
Just like studying pacts, there is no penalty to failing at decode a seal, save for lost time and arcane reagents.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:37, Tue 25 June 2019.