Besides "Gibbering," What Talents Should a Cultist Have?

[the_gneech]

Some people unwind with Super Smash Bros. — I do it with supernatural dread. So I've started actually doing some real noodling on the Saga Edition / Call of Cthulhu fusion idea, and I've run up against some unexpected difficulties, not the least of which is Talents. So far I've been able to pull several of the talents from Sword & Sorcery Saga and remap them a bit. So far:

Adventurer was the easiest, getting a mashup of talents from the Scout and Warrior classes, plus a "Combat Focus Talent Tree" that enables him to crank up his BAB.

Fixer (formerly "Shadow") gained a lot of the talents from the Rogue, plus a "Gumshoe Talent Tree" that has talents good for private eyes, such as "Licensed" and "Insightful Deduction."

Scholar, which I'm working on now, is a bit trickier. In S&S Saga scholar was a cross between a D&D bard and sorcerer; in a mystery/horror context a scholar is more like a doctor, professor, or antiquarian. So while he still gets the Lore and Priesthood Talent Trees (with some tweaking), I'm not sure what else to give them. I figure that the Adept and Hypnotism trees from S&S Saga should probably go to the Visionary, assuming that Hypnotism is left at all, and the Alchemist Talent Tree has no place at all. I suppose I could try some kind of a tree for Doctor/Psychologist types, giving them the ability to do surgery and whatnot. I'm not sure what to give them that would be more generally useful, tho — enhanced healing or the ability to mitigate SAN loss, maybe?

Socialite should be pretty easy, getting mostly stuff from the Noble and a bit of the Rogue's charming abilities.

Visionary will be tricky; I'm figuring they'll have some psychic abilities, as well as some enhanced senses or insight abilities. I was also thinking perhaps of what boils down to roughly a "Mad Science Talent Tree," although it would need a name change to fit the intended atmosphere better. (Prerequisite: SAN 30 or less?) I wonder if this might be better as a path for the Scholar, however. Was "Herbert West, Reanimator" a scholar, or a visionary? Tough call.

I'm open to suggestions!

-The Gneech

Comments

[mouser.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnNSe5XYp6E



Oh, you mean a cult for a GAME!

[theodwulf.livejournal.com]

I saw something on the homebrew forums of Giant in the Playground about a "Philosopher" base class. It basically was to cleric what sorcerer is to wizard, but what he'd done with the domains was interesting: you could get various minor buffs for aspects of the philosopher's philosophy.

I remember thinking that the class as built worked a lot better for eastern philosophers. It was difficult to see it working for a Socrates or a Descartes or a Chesterton.

Anyway, to the point: something like that might work for the Scholar. Maybe if they're an expert on Plato, they get resistance to things that would require sanity checks, because they're used to the idea of seeing beyond the physical world, or if they're a librarian they get something like a bardic knowledge skill (like that one guy in "It"), or if they're a naturalist then they get additional chances to notice if something unnatural is in the area because it's warping the natural world insidiously.

The possibilities are pretty wide.

[cyberhorn.livejournal.com]

a sacrificial personality would seem to be required
(him/herself and anyone else too) LOL