GitP PrC Contest XXXVIII: Chaos is as Chaos... Oh look, shiny!

[Glimbur]

Adept of Loki

Don’t worry, I have a plan. -Anonymous Adept of Loki

The Adept of Loki is a powerful wizard, a skillful thief, a dangerous fighter, and a dabbler in the unknown. Sort of.

Becoming an Adept of Loki
Adepts of Loki typically select themselves. A long night, maybe some hallucinogens, occasionally a giant frog, and the next morning they have attained a great insight. There has not yet been a coherent explanation of this great insight, but they seem pretty excited about it.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Alignment: Any Chaotic
Character Level: 5

Class Skills
The Adept of Loki's class skills are determined at random each level from four categories. When he gains a level he must roll a d4. On a 1, his skill list is the ranger skill list. On a 2, his skill list is the bard skill list. On a three, his skill list is the rogue skill list. On a four, his skill list is the wizard skill list.
Skills Points at Each Level: 1d8 + int
For each level, an Adept of Loki rolls 1d8 and gains that many base skill points. He still adds his Int modifier as usual. Wild Chance does not apply to this roll (see the class feature).

Hit Dice: Varies.
Each level, an Adept of Loki rolls a d6 to determine his hit die. On a 1, he gains a d4 hit die. On a two, he gains a d6 hit die. On a three, he gains a d8 hit die. On a four, he gains a d10 hit die. On a 5, he gains a d12 hit die. On a 6, he rolls again and maximizes his hit die. If he rolls a 6 twice, maximize and empower the hit die. If he rolls this result three or more times, he gains no additional benefit. He still adds his Con modifier to hit points gained per level, as usual. Wild Chance does not apply to the roll to determine what hit die is granted, but it does apply when rolling the hit die to determine hit points. For example, an Adept of Loki with Wild Chance gains a level. He rolls a 6, which means he rolls again and maximizes. This die does not ‘explode’. He rolls again, and receives another 6 which still does not ‘explode’. He then rolls a 5. Rolling the d12 to determine his bonus hit points (from the Empower effect), he rolls a 12. This die does explode, so he rolls another d12. This particular Adept gains 37 hit points this level, thanks to high rolls. The Dungeon Master resolves to roll for him in the future.

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special
0th					Disordered Life, Mad Capability, Bizarre Limits
1st	+1d3/2	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	Bound to Madness
2nd	+1d3/2	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	Smite Something, Giant Frog(I)
3rd	+1d3/2	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	Rainbow of Hurt, Guided Attack
4th	+1d3/2	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	Probabilistic Magic
5th	+1d3/2	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	Wild Chance, Eye Lasers
6th	+1d3/2	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	Master of Fate, Scattered Just Right
7th	+1d3/2	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	Rage of Loki
8th	+1d3/2	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	Sacred Boon
9th	+1d3/2	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	Erratic Action
10th	+1d3/2	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	+1d3-1	Grand Prize

Weapon Proficiencies: An Adept of Loki gains no additional weapon or armor proficiencies.

Disordered Life: An Adept of Loki is not like a wizard, who gradually learns higher and higher circles of magic. He is not like a fighter, who starts with a few tricks and eventually is an expert at several combat styles. He is granted powers in an order that make sense only to his inscrutable patron.
For each level of Adept of Loki taken he must roll 1d10. He gains the class features listed on the class table for the number corresponding to the die. If he rolls a level he already has the features from, re-roll until a new level is selected.

Mad Capability:Adepts of Loki vary greatly in martial ability and their resistance to various ills. This is partly due to personal ability, but it is also affected by the capricious whims of their master.
Each level of Adept of Loki provides 1d3/2 BAB (round down), and 1d3-1 to his base Fort, Ref, and Will saves (each save is rolled separately).

Bizarre Limits:Some Adepts of Loki are capable of mastering all known powers granted to their type. Others are only ever able to learn a lesser number of tricks.
When he takes his first level of Adept of Loki, the new Adept rolls 5d2. This is the maximum number of levels of Adept of Loki he may take. No mortal magic or power is able to change this limit once it is determined for a given character.

Bound to Madness:Some Adepts of Loki can be mistaken for those who share their souls with otherworldly beings. Normally the being is chosen for its helpful powers, but an Adept of Loki has no such luxury.
Each day, the Adept randomly selects a vestige from the list of vestiges the he qualifies to bind, using his Adept of Loki level X 1.5 as his effective binder level and ignoring special pre-requisites. He is bound to this vestige, and it is a good pact. He automatically knows what abilities are granted to him by this pact.

Smite Something:Some Adepts of Loki are granted the power to strike down their greatest foe. Sometimes they have the ability to strike down their allies.
At the start of each day, roll a d4. If you roll a 1, you gain the ability to smite good. If you roll a 2, you may smite law. If you roll a 3, you may smite evil. If you roll a 4 you may smite chaos. Smiting is a free action which can only be taken once per round. If your target matches the alignment you are allowed to smite, smiting adds your Charisma modifier to your next to-hit roll with a weapon and twice your class level to your damage. You may smite once per encounter for every three levels of Adept of Loki you have, rounded up.

Giant Frog(Su): Adepts of Loki are known to ride on Giant Frogs.
The Adept of Loki may, as a full round action, summon a Giant Frog. This Giant Frog is one size larger than he is and has two outsider hit dice for each level of Adept of Loki. It remains summoned for one hour per Adept of Loki level. Its base attributes are all 14’s, with a +2 to Str and Con and a -2 to Dex for each size category it is larger than medium. It has a natural armor bonus equal to the Adept of Loki’s class level. It has no weapon or armor proficiencies, unless it takes feats to change this. Its skills and feats are selected by the Dungeon Master when this class feature is gained, and future skill points and feats are also selected by the Dungeon Master. The Giant Frog has a bite attack which does 1d6 damage for a medium Giant Frog. It also has a special attack: it may use its tongue as a reach weapon (dealing no damage) to make a touch attack to start a grapple. If it succeeds, the target is pulled in to its square.

Rainbow Of Hurt: Adepts have a very esoteric martial art.
Every time an Adept of Loki deals damage(from a spell or weapon or natural weapon), roll on the following table to determine what type of damage.

Roll	Type
1	Piercing
2	Slashing
3	Bludgeoning
4	Acid
5	Fire
6	Cold
7	Electricity
8	Sonic
9	Subdual
10	Negative energy damage
11	Positive energy damage
12	Roll twice, half of each result

This ability is not affected by Wild Chance, though the damage roll is.

Guided Attack (Su): Some Adepts of Loki are famed for their skill with any weapon.
An Adept of Loki rolls a d30-5 for ability checks, skill checks, saving throws, and attack rolls, including grapple checks. The numbers for critical hits move to the top of the range, so a 19-20 x2 weapon becomes a 24-25 x2 weapon, for example. Effects that trigger on a natural 20 now trigger on a natural 30 (or effectively a 25, with the -5). In the case of rolling a 1 on the d30 and if the Adept has Wild Chance, the total roll is -4 (as well as automatically failing like a natural 1 on rolls subject to this).

Probabalistic Magic(SLA):Adepts of Loki are gifted with magic powers. The problem is that they are not always helpful.

Each day, an Adept of Loki with this ability gains access to some SLAs which are selected randomly from the list. At the beginning of the next day, all remaining SLAs disappear and new SLAs are granted. The Adept of Loki gains SLA's as shown on the table. All of these spell like abilities use a caster level equal to his character level. In addition, he is able to use all cantrips on the following list and all Cantrips are granted at will as SLAs as long as an Adept has at least one SLA other than a cantrip for that day.
Just like a normal SLA, these abilities do not require verbal, somatic, material, or XP components. They take the same amount of time to use as the spell they mimic.
The Adept of Loki does not actually cast spells (like a wizard, for example), so he does not have a spell list for purposes of magic item activation. Save DCs are 10+spell level+Adept’s highest stat modifier.
As stated in Wild Chance, the random selection of these SLA’s is not affected by the Wild Chance class feature.

Class Level	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
1	1	0	0	0	0	0
2	1	0	0	0	0	0
3	1	1	0	0	0	0
4	1	1	0	0	0	0
5	2	1	1	0	0	0
6	2	1	1	0	0	0
7	2	2	1	1	0	0
8	2	2	1	1	0	0
9	2	2	2	1	1	0
10	2	2	2	2	2	1

0th level Spells

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Prestidigitation, Light, Mage Hand, Arcane Mark(roll d20 when used, on a 1, this mark duplicates the Arcane Mark of a random NPC), Acid Splash, Summon Instrument

1st level spells

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1|Protection from Law

2|Divine Favor

3|Faerie Fire

4|Grease

5|Unseen Servant

6|Babau Slime(SpC)

7|Enrage Animal(SpC)

8|Wall of Smoke(SpC)

9|Ram’s Might(SpC)

10|choose one spell from this list

2nd level spells

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1|Shatter

2|Enthrall

3|Fire Trap

4|Obscure Object

5|Rainbow Beam(SpC)

6|Cheat(SpC)

7|Dark Way (SpC)

8|Reveille(SpC)

9|Fell The Greatest Foe (SpC)

10|one spell at random from next level of spells

11|one spell at random from the previous level 3/day

12|one spell at random from this level with free, automatic, Heighten 1d10 levels (this can be affected by Wild Chance if applicable)

3rd level spells

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1|Magic Circle Against Law

2|Dirge of Dischord (SpC)

3|Fangs of the Vampire King (SpC)

4|Devil Blight(SpC)

5|Meld into Stone

6|Quench

7|Water Breathing

8|Charge of the Triceratops(SpC)

9|Rainbow Blast(SpC)

10|free soda

11|one spell two levels lower at will

12|one spell of his choice from this list with Spell Thematics(DM’s choice)

4th level spells

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1|Chaos Hammer

2|Translocation Trick (SpC)

3|Wild Runner(SpC)

4|Telepathic Aura(SpC)

5|Rushing Waters(SpC)

6|Sound Lance (SpC)

7|Giant Vermin

8|Sleet Storm

9|Geas(Lesser)

10|two spells at random from the previous list

11|one spell at random from the 5th level list

12|one spell of his choice from the 2nd level list and a spell at random from the (1d6)th level list

5th level spells

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1|Dispel Law

2|Dragon Breath(SpC)

3|Essence of the Raptor(SpC)

4|Refusal(SpC)

5|Atonement

6|Stoneskin

7|Awaken

8|Awaken Ooze (as Awaken, but targeting an Ooze)

9|Shroud of Flame (SpC)

10|Phantasmal Thief(SpC)

11|Echo Skull(SpC)

12|grant the ability to cast a spell from this list once to any creature (this ability does not need to be used immediately, but it may not target the Adept or his Giant Frog (if he has one). If the spell is not cast when the Adept next gains new SLAs it is lost.)

6th level spells

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1|Animate Objects

2|Word of Recall

3|Liveoak

4|Legend Lore

5|Tenser’s Transformation

6|Cometfall (SpC)

7|Dinosaur Stampede(SpC)

8|Spider Plague

9|Transcribe Symbol(SpC)

10|Dream Casting(SpC)

11|Ray of Entropy(SpC)

12|Polar Ray

13|Hardening(SpC)

14|roll again and regain the chosen SLA tomorrow as well

15|Awaken (two castings)

16-20|reroll

Wild Chance(Su):Some Adepts of Loki occasionally do the impossible.
Whenever he rolls a die, the Adept of Loki treats the minimum result on that die as a 0 (which allows him to, for example, deal 0 damage with a successful attack even though this is normally impossible). If he rolls the maximum result, he rolls the die again and adds it to the previous maximum result - 1. If the maximum continues to be rolled the total continues to increase. If he rolls off of the chart on the treasure table or for reincarnation or what have you, the DM is encouraged to make something up. 1d100 is not considered to be two distinct ten sided dice, so this ability only activates on a natural 01 or a 100 for 1d100.
This ability does not apply when randomly determining what abilities are granted by Adept of Loki when gaining a level, and its interaction with other class features is described in the other class features.

Eye Lasers(Su): The blessings granted to the Adept by his otherworldly patron are varied.
An Adept of Loki may make a ranged touch attack as a standard action. This attack has a range of 60’ and does 2d6 untyped damage. At class level 4, the damage improves to 6d4. At class level 7, the damage improves to 12d2. At class level 10, the damage improves to 15d2.

Master of Fate(Su):Adepts of Loki are typically not allowed near games of chance.
Once per encounter, the Adept of Loki may set the result of any one die roll. This may also be used on a set of dice rolled together, like damage dice for a fireball. This is an immediate action.

Scattered Just Right(Su):Some Adepts of Loki are reputed to be able to walk through rain without getting wet. This ability might be the origin of that obvious lie.
Whenever an object or spell within line of sight or which affects the Adept of Loki is subjected to scatter, he may choose any valid result for the direction and distance of scatter. For example, if he is Teleported and lands ‘off target’ he may decide the direction and distance by which he is off.

Rage of Loki (Su): Sometimes you just have to break stuff.
The Adept of Loki may draw on the anger of his patron. Once per encounter as a free action, he may gain the effects of rage, whirling frenzy (UA), frenzy (CW), ferocity (Cityscape Web enhancement), ferocity (RotW), or Sanctuary (as the spell, DC 11+highest attribute modifier, CL = character level) as determined by a random die roll. These rage-like abilities are subject to all of the conditions and after-effects as normal.

Sacred Boon (Su): The power of his inscrutable patron makes the Adept of Loki better. Faster. Stronger. Smarter. But not all at once.
At the beginning of each day, the Adept of Loki is randomly granted one of the following powers:

-Strength. He gains a +4 sacred bonus to Strength, and an additional +4 sacred bonus to melee weapon damage and to strength checks to break things.
-Dexterity. He gains a +4 sacred bonus to Dexterity. In addition, he may use his Dexterity modifier instead of his Strength modifier for weapon damage; and he may add his Dexterity bonus to damage with ranged weapons.
-Constitution. He gains a +4 sacred bonus to Constitution, and in addition he is immune to poison and disease.
-Intelligence. He gains a +4 sacred bonus to Intelligence, and may treat one skill of his choice as though he had full ranks in it for purposes of making skill checks (but not for prerequisites)
-Wisdom. He gains a +4 sacred bonus to Wisdom, and also Blindsense 30’.
-Charisma. He gains a +4 sacred bonus to Charisma and Mettle (when he makes a Fort or Will saving throw against an effect that has a reduced effect on a successful save, he instead is not affected by the effect.)


Erratic Action(Su):Some Adepts of Loki appear to be in no hurry. They sometimes act at the pace of a zombie, and sometimes they act faster than the eye can follow.
In combat, the Adept of Loki does not have a standard and move action each turn, as normal. Instead, he has 1d3-1 standard actions, as well as a swift action and a move action as normal. Wild Chance does apply to this ability, but he may not gain the benefit of Wild Chance more than once a round for this ability, so he has somewhere between 0 and 6 standard actions every round. If he gains more than two standard actions in a round, he has no standard actions next round; he still has a move and swift action as normal.

Grand Prize (Su): Adepts of Loki sometimes seem to stagnate.
The hapless Adept of Loki that randomly selects this level gains no class features this level. Sorry.

Playing an Adept of Loki
Good luck. You’ll need it.
Combat: Use your encyclopedic knowledge of 3.5 to properly leverage your varied and ever-changing class features towards victory.
Advancement: Take Bard levels. Why not, right?
Resources: All the giant frogs you can eat.

Adept of Loki
Another one for the nuthouse. -Anonymous

Adepts of Loki are not generally well recognized. Some scholars of Chaos can discern their true identity, but such learned people are rare.
Daily Life: Varies.
Notables: The Forces of Good assert that they were aided by an Adept of Loki at the Battle of Thrumsberg. Strangely, the Forces of Evil also claim to have been aided by an Adept of Loki.
Organizations: Organization is inimical to the basic principles of the class.

NPC Reaction
The first meeting with an Adept of Loki is similar to meeting any adventurer. Over a longer time frame the varied abilities of the Adept will incite curiosity. Also, Adepts are often gibbering mad which can color first impressions.

Adepts of Loki in the Game
You let it in to your game, you deal with it.
Adaptation: It is trivial to replace ‘Loki’ with anyone else that likes disorder and randomness.
Encounters: If you run one of this as an NPC, you are braver than I.

Sample Encounter
Omitted for reasons of space and sanity.