D&D 5e FFT: Jobs 2

Job Creation 2

Welcome to Part 2 of Job Builds! As I mentioned in Tuesday's Article, In this section of our FFT 5e Campaign Buildout, I'll be going through all of the Jobs, and figuring out how to get a reasonable approximation of them in D&D 5e, using only: Published Materials, UA Materials, and (if necessary) freely available Homebrew. No new abilities in these Class Lenses, but Mix & Match Class Features and minor tweaks will be made. Up next: The Mystic/Oracle, and the Mediator/Orator

Mystic/Oracle

Premise — So, the Mystic/Oracle (Depending on translation) is a Taoist mystic who uses their understanding of the Tao for magical effects, especially curses on other characters.

Core Gameplay Abilities — "Curses"(Blind, Undead, Silence, Berserk, Fear, Confusion, Paralyze, Sleep, Petrify), Remove Buffs, HP/MP Drain

D&D Analogues — Blinded: "Blindness/Deafness", Silence: "Silence", Frightened: "Cause Fear", "Fear", Confusion: "Confusion", Paralyzed: "Hold Person", "Hold Monster", Petrified: "Flesh to Stone", Unconscious: "Sleep", "Bestow Curse"

Class/Subclass Options

Lore Bard — Cutting Words is a decent fit as a curse. But most of the other bardic class features are not. The Spell list hits a good chunk of our targets, but so do other lists.

Knowledge Cleric — Many of the Knowledge Cleric features are a very good fit. Read Thoughts is not such a great fit, and Scrying and Read Thoughts will also get in the way of the themes of the setting. Turn Undead is also a terrible fit...

Prophecy Cleric? — Oracle's Burden doesn't fit the flavor. The other features are a pretty good fit. The Domain Spells aren't perfect, and could use some work.

Divination Wizard — Matches up decently well with the fluff. Lacks Silence, Confusion

We're going to build it out of the Prophecy Cleric.

Domain of Prophecy, Mystic, Cleric

"A Mystic with the ability to bend the forces of the cosmos to his or her will."

Proficiencies

Armor: Light Armor, Medium Armor. [No More Shields]

Weapons: Simple Weapons and Tomes* [*FFT Weapon which doesn't exist in 5e.]

Tools: None.

Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma

Skills: Choose two from History, Insight, Medicine, Persuasion, and Religion

Mysticism Domain (Altered Prophecy Domain)

Oracle's Burden: Oracle's Burden, which is equal parts positive and negative effects, does not apply to this Lens.

Domain Spells:

Cleric Level	Spells
1st	Cause Fear, Sleep
3rd	Blindness/Deafness, Crown of Madness
5th	Bestow Curse, Babel's Curse
7th	Confusion, Divination
9th	Commune, Hold Monster

Spell List:

• Mystic Spells (Changes to Cleric Spell List)
• Cantrips (0 Level)
• 1st Level
• Cure Wounds: Removed
• 2nd Level
• 3rd Level
• 4th Level
• 5th Level
• Mass Cure Wounds: Removed
• Raise Dead: Removed
• 6th Level
• Curse of Infirmity: Added
• Flesh to Stone: Added
• 7th Level
• Regenerate: Removed
• 8th Level
• Greater Curse: Added
• 9th Level
• Eternal Sleep: Added

Cleric Features

Turn Undead, Destroy Undead: Turn Undead, Destroy Undead isn't a good fit for the Mystic. He's really not that kind of priest, just like he's not a healer. He deals in Fate, Prophecy, and Curses. Instead, he gets Path to the Grave at 2, and Sentinel at Death's Door at 6, both pulled from Cleric of the Grave (UA)

Iconic Spells

Any "Curse" spell, "Fear" Spell, "Sleep" spell, negative and decidedly unfriendly Mind-Affecting spells.

Mechanically, here's our FFT Oracle/Mystic. It should fit the bill.

Roleplay: This is a Taoist mystic. I currently know virtually nothing about Taoism (I merely did an adaptation based on the ingame text and mechanical abilities the Job has), but I personally would look up a primer on the subject before playing one, in an FFT campaign (I imagine it would make the game more interesting). To save on the search if you're inclined to do so yourself, here are a variety of sources and comments I recently saw linked/suggested in a thread about Taoism for someone else's campaign. The first few are simple free articles on the subject, and a Youtube video.:

• "The most basic tenet of the Tao is this: you may do whatever you wish, as long as you are aware that if you act in accordance with the way the world works, you will find your path easy; and when you work against the way the world works, you will find your path made difficult by ten thousand things. The Tao does not care for good or evil, or right or wrong. People care very much about those things, and thus, if you act in accordance with the Tao, you must also act in accordance with the things the people around you find acceptable. There are some things which people do and think and act upon which are against the Tao, and when you must choose between them, choose the Tao."
• Alan Watts - The Taoist Way
• Tao Te Ching
• Taoism - Wikipedia
• Yin and Yang - Wikipedia
• Way of the Five Pecks of Rice
• Zhuangzi 1, 2, 33
• Everyday Tao by Ming-Dao Deng
• 365 Tao: Daily Meditations

If I were to decide I didn't care if I fit the Taoist flavor for my campaign, I'd simply run it as a sort of prophet type character with a talent for cursing people, and some influence on fate.

Mediator/Orator

Premise — So, the Mediator/Orator (Depending on Translation), is two different things. Fluffwise, it's a completely mundane party face that uses Animal Handling, Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion to raise or lower character morale, as well as to coopt characters into taking specific actions. However - Gameplay-wise, it's a social-skilled mind-control mage with guns. Building the former would likely be a complicated custom class. So we're going to build the latter. Plus, mind-control mages deployed by multiple factions during a succession war as a common battlefield occurrence is kindof terrifying.

Core Gameplay Abilities — Guns, Invitation, Stall, Praise/Intimidate, Preach/Enlighten, Condemn, Insult (Berserk), Mimic Darlavon (Sleep), Negotiate

D&D Analogues — Invitation: Animal Friendship (1), , Stall, Praise/Intimidate, Preach/Enlighten, Condemn, Insult, Mimic darlavon, Negotiate

Class/Subclass Options

Knowledge Cleric — Scrying and Read Thoughts will also get in the way of the themes of the setting. Turn Undead is also a terrible fit. It puts a bit more of a diviner spin on the Cleric, which may not be ideal. Some of the other features however, are pretty good.

Prophecy Cleric? — Oracle's Burden doesn't fit the flavor. The other features are a pretty good fit. The Domain Spells aren't perfect, and could use some work.

Enchantment Wizard — Hypnotic Gaze is a good fit for Stall, but you do have to get awfully close. If you find yourself in Melee, it could be a good way to hold the creature while the party dispatches his friends. Instinctive Charm is a good thematic mind control fit, though it doesn't really match up to any of the in game Job abilities. Alter memories isn't bad either.

It appears we'll have an easier time building this Class Lens from Enchantment Wizard, so that's what we're going to do.

Tradition of Enchantment, Orator, Wizard

"A warrior who participates in battle using Speechcraft. Words, rather than swords, are the orator's weapons."

Proficiencies

Armor: Light Armor

Weapons: Daggers, Guns, Light Crossbows

Tools: None.

Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma

Skills: Choose two from Animal Handling, Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, and Persuasion

Wizard

Spellcasting:An Orator uses Charisma instead of Intelligence as their spellcasting ability for all purposes related to their spells and class features.

Spell List: An Orator Wizard cannot learn or cast Abjuration, Conjuration, or Evocation spells, and can only cast Necromancy and Transmutation spells which are either mind-affecting or communication-based. (Yeah, we could make a whitelist instead, but this covers our bases well enough.)

• Orator Spells (Changes to Wizard Spell List)
• Cantrips (0 Level)
• Daze Animal: Added
• 1st Level
• Animal Friendship: Added
• Command: Added
• 2nd Level
• Animal Messenger: Added
• Calm Emotions: Added
• Enthrall: Added
• Helpless Grief: Added
• Zone of Truth: Added
• 3rd Level
• 4th Level
• Compulsion: Added
• Dominate Beast: Added
• Voice of Confession: Added
• 5th Level
• Interrogation: Added
• Reverence: Added
• Voice of Memories: Added
• 6th Level
• 7th Level
• Charismatic Shield: Added
• 8th Level
• Greater Curse: Added
• 9th Level
• Eternal Sleep: Added

Iconic Spells

Various Mind-affecting spells, such as Suggestion.

This should get the job done for our Mindcontrolling Mage Orator, with Guns. Key abilities are Charisma for spellcasting, followed by Dexterity for guns. His damage output will be decent but won't be amazing, but that's not his focus. My only concern is that a lot of these things are concentration effects, which may get in the way of the Job keeping up in a real combat setting.Some of these jobs could benefit from some playtest combat. Maybe that will make a good future article. The Guns themselves I'll be addressing when I get to equipment, but you can expect them to have scaling damage since you can't get multiple attacks out of them in a round without extra actions because Reload.

Roleplay: I see this as a combination Negotiator/Interrogator. However, they would also see use behind the scenes manipulating politics for whomever they represent. This take on Orator seems hella fun to me, and I would love to play one. A mundane gunslinging party face could be fun too, but in a very different way. People would be nervous around such mages, but they'd also be valuable assets. This is very much more keeping with the FFT Gameplay for the Mediator/Orator than it is for the fluff of the Job, naturally. Perhaps at some point I'll revisit it and make the other interpretation of the Job, but for now, here it is!

Hope you enjoyed this one, and I'll see you guys next time!

Hawkwinter