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an (OSE Variant)

Prime Requisite

• Intelligence and Charisma

Hit Dice

• 1d6 per level

Armor & Weapons

Allowed Armor

• Leather armor
• Chainmail
• Shields

Allowed Weapons

• Any one-handed weapon
• Bows
• Spears
• Staves
• Swords

Attack Progression

As Cleric.

Saving Throws

As Cleric.

XP Progression

Similar to OSE Bard or slightly slower.

Class Abilities

Lore

The Loremaster may attempt to identify:

• ancient ruins,
• heraldry,
• relics,
• magical inscriptions,
• forgotten cultures,
• monsters,
• or historical events.

Chance of Success

Base chance:

• 2-in-6 at level 1

Improves by +1 every 3 levels:

• 3-in-6 at level 4
• 4-in-6 at level 7

The referee may modify difficulty based on obscurity.

Saga of Heroes

By reciting epic histories and sacred lays, the Loremaster can inspire allies.

Once per day:

• allies within earshot gain:
  • +1 morale
  • +1 saving throws vs fear

Effect lasts:

• one encounter
• or one exploration turn.

At level 7:

• bonus becomes +2 vs fear.

Tongues & Scripts

The Loremaster begins play literate and knows:

• Common
• one ancient language
• one additional language of choice

At levels 4 and 8:

• gains another language.

May attempt to decipher unknown writing:

• 2-in-6 chance
• increases with level.

Memory of Ages

At level 3, the Loremaster may recall hidden truths about places or creatures after 1 turn of contemplation.

Examples:

• legendary weaknesses,
• lost passages,
• forgotten names,
• burial customs,
• religious taboos,
• ancient betrayals.

Usable:

• once per day initially
• twice/day at level 7.

Bardic Spellcasting

Beginning at level 2, the Loremaster casts spells as a limited arcane caster.

Spell list focuses on:

• divination,
• protection,
• charm,
• memory,
• and warding.

Uses Magic-User spells, but cannot cast:

• explosive battlefield magic,
• overtly destructive spells,
• or reality-warping sorcery.

Appropriate spells:

• Read Languages
• Detect Magic
• Light
• Protection from Evil
• Sleep
• ESP
• Clairvoyance
• Legend Lore (high level)

Optional Ability: Song of Rest

At level 5:
after one uninterrupted night of rest and storytelling:

• allies recover +1 hp.

Cannot benefit more than once per day.

Stronghold

At level 9, the Loremaster may establish:

• a Hall of Records,
• monastery,
• skaldic court,
• archive fortress,
• or wandering college.

Students, scribes, and seekers gather there.

Typical Equipment

• weathered manuscripts
• rune-staff
• traveling cloak
• horn lantern
• ancient maps
• bone flute or harp
• reliquary of saintly writings
• satchel of ink and parchment

Northern Reaches Flavor

A Loremaster Bard in your setting could be:

• a chronicler of St. Ygg,
• a keeper of pre-Futurus oral histories,
• a survivor of lost Helvecian monasteries,
• a skald of Brine,
• or a wandering scholar investigating the Barrowmoor.

Such characters are often welcomed in civilized halls because they preserve:

• ancestry,
• treaties,
• songs,
• and the names of the dead.

But they are also feared, because loremasters remember truths others would rather bury.

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