Forsaken ¶

A 13th Age 2E Character Class

“The light that shines the brightest hides the deepest darkness”

Overview ¶

You are a knight in shining armor, a hero and protector. In your brightest hours, that is. Yes you are strong, but the power that you hold within must be contained.

When you focus, when you are in control, there is hope. But the real monster is not what you face in the dungeon, it is within you. When your control slips, when the anger takes over, when you give in to hatred and despair, people get hurt, and it’s not just the ones who deserve it.

When you create a Forsaken, choose the burden they carry and its nature. Use your One Unique Thing, your backgrounds and icon relationships to define it.

It could be divine, like the essence of a dead god that blessed and cursed your lineage. It could be iconic, a fragment of a fallen icon of a past age that you were born with. It could be demonic, when you absorbed something that crept out of a hellhole to save your village. It could be from the fey realm, a prank of a powerful lord that a mortal body can barely contain. Or it could even be from beyond reality, and you’re the anchor for something very alien that is trying to push through.

Whether you carry the burden as punishment for sins in your past, or through the whims of fate, it is on you to carry. You can pray to the gods and plead to the icons, and some might be able to lessen your pain, but they cannot lift the burden off you.

The more powerful you become, the more you are able to protect, but also the more dangerous you are when you let loose. Ultimately the ones you love, and want to protect, will be too weak to withstand it when you spiral out of control and you are destined to lose them, voluntarily or involuntarily.

Even if you are not Forsaken yet, ultimately that will be your fate.

Play Style ¶

You swing between two states, Hope and Despair.

You begin battles in a defensive role with high Mental Defense, protective and healing abilities. Your disciplined focus keeps your burden contained while you shield allies and maintain battlefield control.

When you become staggered at half hit points, you transition to Despair. Your Physical Defense increases but Mental Defense drops. You gain access to devastating attacks and area effects that can harm allies as well as enemies. Raw power replaces precision and protection.

Icon Relationships ¶

With the powerful burden you carry, the icons are carefully watching you. Unfortunately for you, while they are all too happy to use you in their games, and some might even genuinely try to ease your pain, ultimately the burden is yours to carry and not even the power of an icon can take it off you.

• The Priestess: Ultimately the Priestess might help you find redemption, but it will be a long arduous journey and you are the one who has to walk it.
• Great Gold Wyrm: Like you, the Great Gold Wyrm aims to contain a greater evil, especially if what you keep contained is of demonic nature. But his followers might also believe that the easiest way to destroy what is within is to smash the vessel
• Archmage: The Archmage has great experience in containing powerful chaotic forces, but whether he considers you interesting enough to study is another question
• Emperor: The Emperor is always in need of those who are willing to keep evils contained and out of the Empire … but how long can you stay in control before the Emperor decides that your mere presence is a danger to the Empire?
• High Druid: Depending on the nature of your powers, the High Druid may consider them a blessing or a curse and might want to see it unleashed or destroyed.
• Crusader: The Crusader does not see people, only weapons. You could be very useful to him, and he is probably the least worried about you losing control.
• Diabolist: The Diabolist probably considers you blessed no matter what and will happily support you in accepting and unleashing your true nature, demonic or not. Worst case you are a distraction to their enemies.
• Lich King: If your power is tied to the Underworld, the Lich King will be very interested. If not, you’re just another freak.
• Prince of Shadows: Who knows? If your burden can’t be taken off you, that means it can’t be stolen. Wait, is that a challenge?
• The Elf Queen: The Elf Queen’s attitude mainly depends on whether you are a beacon of hope or a threat to elvenkind.
• The Dwarf King: If your burden is contained in an ancient artifact, the Dwarf King will happily offer to take it off your back and store it in a secure vault. If it’s not in artifact form, the Dwarf King will likely suggest forging a vessel so it can be.
• The Three: Powerful magic is always of interest to the dragons. Maybe they would like to study you?

Backgrounds ¶

Former temple guardian; Sole survivor of magical disaster; Voluntary sacrifice for greater good; Heir of a Cursed bloodline; Artifact research gone wrong; Transformed by extraplanar contact; Fallen paladin or cleric; Victim of ritual gone wrong; Guardian of forbidden knowledge; Last of a doomed bloodline

Ability Scores ¶

Forsaken use Strength for attack and damage rolls. Hope abilities use Wisdom for secondary effects and rider bonuses. Despair abilities use Constitution for secondary effects and damage bonuses.

Gear ¶

Other: Holy symbols, protective talismans, restraining devices, arcane focuses

Weapons and Armor ¶

Armor Types ¶

Armor Type	Base AC	Attack Penalty
Heavy Armor	15	-
Light Armor	12	-
Unarmored	10	-
Shield	+1	-

Melee Weapons ¶

	One-Handed	Two-Handed
Simple	d4 dagger, club	d6 spear
Light	d6 shortsword, handaxe	d8 greatsword, greataxe
Heavy	d8 longsword, warhammer	d10 dire flail

Ranged Weapons ¶

	Thrown	Crossbow	Bow
Simple	d4 dagger	d4 hand crossbow	-
Light	d6 javelin, handaxe	d6 hand crossbow	d6 shortbow
Martial	-	d8 heavy crossbow	d8 longbow

Level Advancement ¶

Level	Total HP	Recovery Dice	Total Feats	Maneuvers	Level-up Benefit
1	(8 + Con) x 3	1d10 + Con	1 adventurer	2	-
2	(8 + Con) x 4	2d10 + Con	2 adventurer	3	-
3	(8 + Con) x 5	3d10 + Con	3 adventurer	3	-
4	(8 + Con) x 6	4d10 + Con	4 adventurer	4	+1 to 3 abilities
5	(8 + Con) x 8	5d10 + Con x2	4 adventurer + 1 champion	4	-
6	(8 + Con) x 10	6d10 + Con x2	4 adventurer + 2 champion	5	-
7	(8 + Con) x 12	7d10 + Con x2	4 adventurer + 3 champion	5	+1 to 4 abilities
8	(8 + Con) x 16	8d10 + Con x4 + 5	4 adventurer + 3 champion + 1 epic	6	-
9	(8 + Con) x 20	9d10 + Con x4 + 10	4 adventurer + 3 champion + 2 epic	6	-
10	(8 + Con) x 24	10d10 + Con x4 + 15	4 adventurer + 3 champion + 3 epic	7	+1 to 5 abilities

Class Stats ¶

Stat	Value
Ability Scores	Strength (primary for attacks/damage). Hope abilities use Wisdom. Despair abilities use Constitution.
Hit Points	(8 + Con modifier) x Level multiplier (see Level Advancement table)
Recoveries	8
Recovery Dice	Level d10 + Con modifier (Con x2 at 5th level, Con x4 at 8th level)
Armor Class	15 + middle modifier of Con/Dex/Wis (heavy armor)
Physical Defense	10 + middle modifier of Str/Con/Dex (+2 bonus in Despair state)
Mental Defense	10 + middle modifier of Int/Wis/Cha (+2 bonus in Hope state)
Initiative	Dex modifier + Level
Attack Bonus	Strength modifier + Level
Background Points	8
Icon Relationship Points	3

Basic Attacks ¶

Melee Basic Attack ¶

Melee attack

Attack: Strength + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Level damage

8th/9th/10th: +5/+10/+15 damage

Miss: Damage equal to your level

Ranged Basic Attack ¶

Ranged attack

Attack: Dexterity + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Level damage

8th/9th/10th: +5/+10/+15 damage

Miss: —

Class Features ¶

You swing between two states, Hope and Despair.

Hope State ¶

You begin battles in Hope state.

Focused Spirit (Defense Bonus): +2 Mental Defense

Hope’s Liberation: Allies engaged with at least one enemy also engaged with you gain a bonus to disengage checks equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Despair State ¶

When you become staggered (first time reaching half hp in a battle), you transition to Despair.

Strength from Suffering (Defense Bonus): +2 Physical Defense

Clutch of Despair: Enemies take a penalty to disengage from you equal to your Constitution modifier.

State Transitions:

• Hope to Despair: Automatically when first staggered in battle (half hit points).
• Despair to Hope: When spending a recovery to heal, roll a normal save (11+) to return to Hope state.

Talents, powers, and feats may also change your state.

(Adventurer Feat) Recovered Hope: You've learned to claw your way back from the brink when everything seems lost. Once per arc, when you spend a recovery while in Despair, you automatically succeed on the save to return to Hope.

(Champion Feat) Glowing Hope and Deep Despair: Increase the defense bonuses to +3.

A Fraction Of My Power ¶

The thing you contain is of immense strength and offers dangerous knowledge that can drive mortals insane. While you should avoid leaking any of it at all costs, sometimes the end justifies the means.

Once per arc, you can reroll any skill check that does not require stealth or subtlety with a +5 bonus. Narratively, this represents a sudden, superhuman feat, and will be accompanied by either sudden darkness or bright flashes of light. Whatever you did there, people will notice and remember.

Adventurer feat: You can use this ability twice per arc, and the bonus is +7.

Class Feats ¶

Burden Mastery (Champion) ¶

You've seen what happens to others who carried similar burdens, and you've learned from their mistakes. You're walking the line between control and chaos more skillfully than most.

Choose one of your talents. You can use both the Hope and Despair at-will attacks from that talent regardless of your current state.

Inherited Burden (Adventurer) ¶

Your burden has deep roots in your bloodline or past.

Gain resistance 14+ to one damage type of your choice that represents your burden (psychic for curses, radiant for divine fragments, etc.).

Class Talents ¶

Choose three class talents at 1st level.

Each talent provides two at-will attacks (one for Hope, one for Despair).

Broken Martyr ¶

Your suffering has taught you that pain shared is pain diminished, but in your darkest moments, you spread that suffering to everyone around you. Every time you heal someone, you feel their wounds as if they were your own. Every time you ease their burden, yours grows heavier. You understand others' anguish because it mirrors your own.

Once per battle, when you take damage, you can reduce it by half as an interrupt action. If you are in Hope, you switch to Despair. If you are in Despair, deal psychic damage to the attacker equal to your Constitution modifier (x2 at 5th level; x4 at 8th level).

Adventurer Feat: You can spend a recovery without healing to reduce the damage to zero instead.

Empathic Blow (Hope) ¶

Melee attack; At-Will

Attack: Strength + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Strength damage, and you choose a nearby ally, The next time the ally spends a recovery to heal this battle, they heal additional hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier (x2 at 5th level; x4 at 8th level).

Miss: A nearby conscious ally gains hit points equal to your level.

Shared Agony (Despair) ¶

Melee attack; At-Will

Attack: Constitution + Level vs. MD

Hit: WEAPON + Strength damage. Deal psychic damage equal to your Constitution modifier (x2 at 5th level; x4 at 8th) to all other nearby enemies, and damage equal to half your level to all nearby allies.

Miss: Psychic damage equal to your Constitution modifier (x2 at 5th level; x4 at 8th)

Cursed Bloodline ¶

Ancient sins flow in your veins, passed down through generations. You're not the first in your family to carry this weight, and the voices of your ancestors guide your blade when hope remains. But when despair takes hold, their collective rage pours through you like a breaking dam.

Hope: Add your Wisdom modifier to saves against conditions.

Despair: When you successfully save against a condition, a random nearby enemy must succeed at a save or be afflicted by the same condition.

Adventurer feat: You choose the enemy, and the save is a hard save (16+).

Ancestral Guidance (Hope) ¶

Melee attack; At-Will

Attack: Strength + Wisdom + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Strength damage.

Miss: You take damage equal to your level and switch to Despair state.

Hereditary Fury (Despair) ¶

Melee attack; At-Will

Attack: Strength + Constitution + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Strength damage.

Miss: You cannot use the escalation die (save ends).

Divine Fragment ¶

A piece of a shattered god burns within you, a fragment of divinity that your mortal form was never meant to contain. You are simultaneously blessed and cursed, holy and damned. In hope, you can channel its sacred power with purpose and control. In despair, the godfire erupts without restraint, consuming everything in divine wrath that makes no distinction between righteous and wicked.

Hope: When you spend a recovery to heal, a nearby ally heals hit points equal to half the amount.

Despair: When you spend a recovery to heal, deal fire damage to all enemies you are engaged with equal to half the healed amount.

Adventurer feat: Once per arc, heal the maximum amount with a recovery.

Sacred Weapon (Hope) ¶

Melee attack; At-Will

Special: Demons, devils and undead are vulnerable to this attack.

Attack: Strength + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Wisdom holy damage.

Miss: Holy damage equal to your Wisdom modifier (x2 at 5th level; x4 at 8th).

Godfire Punishment (Despair) ¶

Ranged attack; At-Will

Special: This attack uses your melee weapon as a thrown weapon. It returns to your hand.

Target: One nearby enemy

Attack: Strength + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Strength + Constitution radiant damage that ignores resistances and immunities.

Miss: Constitution radiant damage.

Fallen Champion ¶

You once stood in the light, a hero among heroes, until something changed everything. Maybe you made a terrible choice, maybe you were betrayed, maybe you discovered your noble cause was built on lies. Now you fight with the weight of your former glory and the knowledge of what you've lost. In Hope, echoes of your former self shine through. In Despair, you remember exactly what you used to be and can never be again.

Hope: Once per battle, as a free action while in Hope, you can inspire a nearby ally, granting them a reroll on any d20 roll that is not an attack roll.

Despair: Once per battle, as a free action while in Despair, you can discourage a nearby enemy, forcing them to reroll an attack roll that is not a critical hit.

You can use both in the same battle.

Adventurer feat: The ally’s reroll gains a bonus equal to your Wisdom modifier. The enemy’s reroll gains a penalty equal to your Constitution modifier.

Righteous Fury (Hope) ¶

Melee attack; At-Will

Target: One enemy

Attack: Strength + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Strength damage. Gain temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier (x2 at 5th level; x4 at 8th).

Miss: Damage equal to your level.

Fallen Glory (Despair) ¶

Melee attack; At-Will

Target: One enemy

Attack: Strength + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Strength + Constitution damage, and you deal extra damage equal to your Constitution modifier for each negative condition affecting you.

Miss: You take damage equal to your level.

Living Prison ¶

You are the lock, the cell, and the key for something that must never be freed. Every day is a constant act of will to keep the prison intact, and every day you feel more like the prisoner than the warden. Your disciplined strikes bind others as you bind yourself, but when your will breaks, the chains that hold everything together threaten to shatter completely. What happens when the prison becomes weaker than what it contains?

Hope: Gain a +1 bonus to AC. Adjacent allies gain a +1 bonus to all saves.

Adventurer Feat: Grant the save bonus to all nearby allies.

Despair: Enemies you are engaged with take a -1 penalty to saves. At the start of your turn, deal thunder damage equal to your level to all enemies you are engaged with. Deal damage equal to your level to each ally engaged with at least one of these enemies.

Binding Strike (Hope) ¶

Melee attack; At-Will

Attack: Strength + Level vs. PD

Hit: WEAPON + Strength damage, and target is stuck until the end of your next turn. As a quick action, the target can try to end the effect by taking damage equal to your Wisdom modifier (x2 at 5th level, x4 at 8th level) and succeeding at a normal save.

Miss: The target takes a -2 penalty to disengage checks until the end of your next turn.

Chain Break (Despair) ¶

Melee attack; At-Will

Attack: Strength + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Strength + Constitution damage. You also take damage equal to your Constitution modifier (x2 at 5th level; x4 at 8th) as your restraints fail.

Miss: Damage equal to your Constitution modifier (x2 at 5th level; x4 at 8th).

Plague Bearer ¶

You carry something infectious - not just to the body, but to the soul itself. In Hope, you can contain it, even turn it to healing purposes. But in Despair, everything you touch withers and spreads the contagion. You've learned to keep your distance from those you care about, knowing that loving you might literally be their doom.

Hope: Once per battle, reroll a failed save.

Despair: Once per battle, force an enemy to reroll a save.

Adventurer feat: Your reroll has a +1 bonus, and the enemy’s reroll a -1 penalty for each (other) nearby enemy with at least one condition.

You can use both in the same battle.

Purifying Touch (Hope) ¶

Melee attack; At-Will

Attack: Strength + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Strength damage, and one nearby ally can save against a temporary condition with a bonus equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Miss: Damage equal to your level.

Contagion Strike (Despair) ¶

Melee attack; At-Will

Attack: Strength + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Strength damage, and ongoing poison damage equal to your Constitution modifier (x2 at 5th level; x4 at 8th).

Miss: Poison damage equal to your Constitution modifier (x2 at 5th level; x4 at 8th).

Void Touched ¶

Something from the spaces between realities has marked you, and you're starting to realize this wasn't an accident. Your burden exists partially outside reality itself, allowing you to interact with things that shouldn't exist. When control fails, reality around you becomes as unstable as your inner state. You catch glimpses of the truth sometimes - that you were chosen for this, that the void has plans for you.

Hope: Once per battle, as a move action, you can teleport to a nearby location.

Despair: Once per battle, when you score a critical hit against an enemy, you can remove the target from the battlefield (save ends).

You can use both in the same battle.

Champion feat: Each battle, you can use one of the two abilities twice.

Banishing Strike (Hope) ¶

Melee attack; At-Will

Attack: Strength + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Strength damage, and target is disoriented from briefly phasing out of reality (-2 penalty to attack rolls) until the end of your next turn.

Miss: Damage equal to your level.

Rending Void (Despair) ¶

Melee attack; At-Will

Attack: Strength + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Strength damage, and target’s reality fabric is cracked (-2 penalty to all defenses) until the end of your next turn.

Miss: Damage equal to your level.

Adventurer feat: On a natural 16+ with either attack, the target also takes ongoing psychic damage equal to your Wisdom + Constitution modifier (x2 at 5th level; x4 at 8th).

Warding Sentinel ¶

You have bound yourself to protect others, even as your burden whispers that they will abandon you. In Hope, you are the steadfast guardian standing between harm and your allies. In Despair, your protective instincts become twisted into indiscriminate destruction that cannot tell friend from foe. You've seen what happens when protectors fail - and you refuse to let that happen, even if it destroys you.

Hope: Once per battle, as an interrupt action when a nearby ally is hit by a close-quarters or ranged attack, you can roll a save. If you succeed, change the target to yourself. Compare the attack roll to your defenses to see whether it hits. On a fail, the attack hits the original target.

Despair: Once per battle, as an interrupt action when you are hit by a close-quarters or ranged attack, you can roll a save. If you succeed, change the target to a random nearby enemy. If you fail, change the target to a random nearby ally. Compare the attack roll to the new target’s defenses to see whether it hits.

You can use both in the same battle.

Protective Strike (Hope) ¶

Melee attack; At-Will

Attack: Strength + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Strength damage, and one ally gains +2 AC until the end of your next turn.

Miss: Damage equal to your level.

Adventurer feat: The ally also gains temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Reckless Cleave (Despair) ¶

Melee attack; At-Will

Effect: Take a -2 penalty to AC until the end of your next turn.

Attack: Strength + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Strength damage.

Natural even hit: Make a second attack against the same target. Deal half damage on a hit.

Miss: Damage equal to your Constitution modifier

Forsaken Powers ¶

1st Level Powers ¶

Choose two maneuvers at first level. Powers with the Hope descriptor can only be used in Hope state. Powers with the Despair descriptor can only be used in Despair state.

Burden's Hunger (Both) ¶

Violence feeds the thing inside you, and it shares some of that stolen vitality with you. But each time you use this, the hunger grows stronger, and you wonder if you're healing yourself or feeding something that shouldn't exist.

Close-quarters power; At-will; Free action

Trigger: You score a critical hit.

Effect: If in Hope, enter Despair. Spend a recovery to heal hit points equal to damage dealt.

Cry of Despair (Despair) ¶

Close-quarters attack; Once per arc

Target: All nearby creatures

Attack: Constitution + level vs. MD

Hit vs. enemy: Psychic damage equal to four times your level and the target is dazed until the end of your next turn.

Hit vs. ally: Damage equal to twice your level.

Miss vs. enemy: Damage equal to twice your level.

Miss vs. ally: —

Forsaken Blade (Both) ¶

Melee attack; Once per battle

Attack: Strength + Level vs. AC

Hit: WEAPON + Strength damage.

Hope: Spend a recovery. Make a recovery roll and add your Wisdom modifier. Grant the healing to a nearby ally.

Despair: Spend a recovery. Make a recovery roll and add the roll to damage instead of healing.

Miss: Damage equal to twice your level.

Iron Will (Hope) ¶

You've learned to recognize the moment when control starts slipping, and you dig deeper into reserves of willpower you didn't know you had.

Close-quarters power; Once per battle; Free action

Trigger: You would transition to Despair

Effect: Stay in Hope state. You can save against a temporary condition.

Pray for Redemption (Both) ¶

Your struggle is empowering you and inspiring others.

Close-quarters power; Once per battle; Quick action

Effect (Hope): You and a nearby ally can spend a recovery to heal.

Effect: (Despair): You spend a recovery to heal and you can choose to switch to Hope state without rolling a save. All nearby allies gain a +1 bonus to their next attack roll.

Protective Sacrifice (Both) ¶

Your protective instincts override self-preservation completely. When someone you care about is threatened, you don't even think before throwing yourself in harm's way. Your burden feeds on your willingness to suffer for others.

Close-quarters power; Interrupt action; Once per battle

Trigger: An ally takes damage

Effect (Hope): Both you and the ally take half damage.

Effect (Despair): The ally takes half damage. Both you and the attacker take full damage.

Adventurer feat (Both): Roll a save. If you succeed, you can spend a recovery to heal.

3rd Level Powers ¶

Corruption Spreads (Despair) ¶

Your burden is infectious in ways you're only beginning to understand.

Close-quarters power; Once per battle; Free action

Trigger: You drop an enemy to zero hp or below

Target: All nearby enemies

Attack: Constitution + level vs. PD

Hit: Ongoing necro damage equal to twice your level

Miss: You take damage equal to your level.

Desperate Gambit (Despair) ¶

Sometimes the only way forward is to risk everything. You pour all your pain, all your rage, all your desperation into a single devastating strike. Win big or lose everything - there's no middle ground when you're forsaken.

Melee attack; Once per arc

Special: The escalation die must be 2+.

Attack: Strength + Level vs. AC

Hit: 2x (WEAPON + Strength damage) and you take a -2 penalty to AC until the start of your next turn.

Miss: Take a -4 penalty to AC until the start of your next turn.

Adventurer feat: Gain a bonus to the attack roll equal to your Constitution modifier.

Last Stand (Both) ¶

When your vessel breaks, the thing inside you takes over completely.

Close-quarters power; Once per arc; Free action

Trigger: You are reduced to zero hit points or below.

Effect: Spend a recovery to heal. You still gain a skull. Until the end of the battle, you are in Despair state and cannot change states. You also increase your critical range by one for each skull you have.

Mirror of Suffering (Both) ¶

You've learned to reflect others' pain back at them, using your intimate knowledge of anguish as a weapon. When someone hurts you, you can make them understand exactly what it feels like to carry a burden like yours.

Once per arc; Interrupt action

Trigger: An enemy deals damage to you or a nearby ally

Effect (Hope): The attacker takes psychic damage equal to the damage dealt, and is dazed (save ends).

Effect (Despair): The attacker takes psychic damage equal to the damage dealt, and each other nearby enemy must succeed at an easy save (6+) or take half damage.

Adventurer feat: (Hope) The target is weakened instead; (Despair) The save is a normal save (11+).

Momentary Control (Universal) ¶

You can force a state change through sheer will, but the effort tears at you. The whiplash of forced transitions is never without cost, and your body pays the price for defying its natural rhythms.

Once per arc; Free action

Effect: This battle, you can switch states voluntarily as a quick action once per turn, but take damage equal to your level each time.

5th Level Powers ¶

Contagion of Despair (Despair) ¶

Your inner darkness spills outward like a plague, infecting everything around you with the same hopelessness that consumes you. Spreading corruption weakens your own defenses - darkness shared is darkness doubled.

Close quarters power; Once per arc; Quick action

Target: All nearby enemies

Attack: Constitution + Level vs. PD

Hit: The target is in a state of despair (can’t regain hit points, can’t gain temporary hit points, -2 penalty to all defenses, ongoing necro damage equal to your Constitution modifier; save ends all).

Miss: The target adds the escalation die to attacks until the end of your next turn. (If they already do, they add it twice!)

Controlled Strike (Hope) ¶

When you’re in control, you’re in control.

Once per battle

As Forsaken basic melee attack, except …

Attack: Roll twice and choose the result.

Hit: Add your Wisdom modifier to damage.

Hollow Victory (Hope) ¶

You can achieve the impossible by sacrificing pieces of what makes you human. Success tastes like ashes when you've given up something precious, but sometimes that's the only way to save others.

Close quarters power; Once per arc; Free action

Trigger: You fail a save or check, or miss with an attack.

Effect: Expend an icon connection and gain a complication without rolling. You succeed at the save or check, or hit with the attack.

Unleashed Fury (Despair) ¶

You stop holding back entirely, letting the destructive force flow through you without restraint. Everyone learns to fear you when you stop caring about collateral damage - including your allies.

Once per battle; Quick action

Effect: Your next attack this turn targets all nearby enemies, but nearby allies also take half damage the first time you hit an enemy.

Champion feat: Allies take one quarter damage instead.

7th Level Powers ¶

Apocalypse Unleashed (Despair) ¶

You let everything go at once - every restraint, every protection, every safeguard you've built. This is what everyone fears you might become: a force of pure destruction that doesn't distinguish between friend and enemy.

Close-quarters attack; Once per arc

Target: All nearby and far away creatures

Attack: Constitution + Level vs. AC

Hit vs. enemy: WEAPON + Strength + Constitution fire damage.

Hit vs. ally: Damage equal to three times your level.

Miss vs. enemy: Damage equal to three times your level.

Miss vs. ally: —

False Dawn (Hope) ¶

For one shining moment, you feel completely free of your burden - like the person you used to be, or the person you might have become. But it's just an illusion, and when it fades, the darkness returns twice as strong.

Close-quarters power; Once per arc; Quick action

Effect: Until the end of your next turn, gain all the benefits of both Hope and Despair states. At the start of your next turn, immediately transition to Despair and take damage equal to your level.

Wail of Agony (Both) ¶

Close-quarters power; Once per arc; Free action

Trigger: An ally is reduced to zero hp or less

Effect: If you are in Hope state, enter Despair.

Target: The attacker

Attack: Constitution + Level vs. MD

Hit: If the target has 200 hp or less, it is stunned (save ends). Otherwise, it is weakened (save ends).

Miss: —

8th: 250 hp or less

9th: 300 hp or less

10th: 400 hp or less

9th Level Powers ¶

Become the Monster (Both) ¶

You stop fighting what you are and embrace it completely. This is the moment you've been dreading - when the thing you've been containing finally wins. But maybe, just maybe, you can aim it at something that deserves it.

Close-quarters power; Once per arc; Quick action

Effect: For the rest of the battle, you are permanently in Despair state, you gain a +6 bonus to your critical range, resist all damage 18+, a +6 bonus to saves and checks (ability checks, skill checks, disengage checks etc.).

However, something goes wrong. You unleashed something that shouldn’t have been unleashed. After the battle, even if the enemies are defeated, the party suffers a Narrative Loss (see HH 299) determined by the GM.

Redemptive Sacrifice (Hope) ¶

You can save everyone by destroying yourself. This is the ultimate expression of what it means to be forsaken - to give everything, including your future, for people who might never even know what you sacrificed.

Close-quarters power; Once per arc

Effect: Enter Hope state. Spend up to three recoveries, but grant the healing to each ally instead. Each ally can also save against a condition for each recovery spent. Then make the attack below.

Target: All enemies

Special: Reduce your hit point total to zero.

Attack: Wisdom + level vs. PD

Hit: Damage equal to the hit points you lost.

Miss: Half damage.