ECHOE
Salorras Paragon: Echoe · Base Path: Legatee · OSE build: custom essencer-variant class A custom OSE class for the strangest of the eidolai — those whose unlocked minds “see” the branching moments just ahead and bend the action around them, drawing on the foreknowledge of the Golden Thread. The strike-company of the Tyrant’s Voice in Praecaria is their most famous gathering. Played from 1st level; the awakening of the echoe’s foresight is part of their background.
The echoes are the most mysterious and strange eidolai in all of Salorras. They took their name from their ability to “see” the possible versions of the future movements of those around them. Carrying the innate quick-wittedness of their orilyni ancestors, they unlock even the most complex functions of their minds, and out of the chaos foresee small fragments of the immediate future — steering the action around them as they will, making themselves exceptionally dangerous opponents and difficult targets at once.
An echoe’s power grows as they unlock new facets of their evolved mind. In the cosmology of Salorras this foreknowledge flows from the Golden Thread of the Fabric, the same thread that feeds prophecy and oath; and in the echoe it is fused with the essence-work of the legatee gift, the mind-essences answering their will alongside their foresight. Most echoes believe in no deity, though some revere Othrax, lord of time, and a number are faithful to the mysterious Kaith’otl.
It is not easy to come across an echoe by chance, for the nature of the eidolai is to hide even in plain sight. The Tyrant’s Voice of Praecaria, however, is an open company: though its warriors support the tyrant starborn Kyrthan Kane, they never serve as his slaves, standing instead as the unpredictable and chaotic outgrowth of the organized forces of Praecaria.
Class Overview
Requirements: Eidolai; Chaotic alignment; minimum INT 13 Prime requisite: CHA Hit Dice: 1d6 Maximum level: 14 Armour: Leather or chainmail; buckler or small shield only Weapons: Any Languages: Alignment, Colloquial
Echoes are foresight-touched essencers — eidolai who burn the mind-essences of the legatee gift and read the branching seconds ahead, turning aside blows that have not yet landed and guiding their own to the mark. A prime requisite of CHA 13–15 grants +5% to experience earned; CHA 16–18 grants +10%. The sharper the echoe’s Intelligence, the harder their foresight is to resist. An echoe who ceases to be Chaotic loses the gift entirely (see below).
The Echoe
The columns E1–E3 are produced mind-essences per day by essence level — the capacity of the echoe’s thalamus.
| Level | XP | Hit Dice (1d6) | THAC0 | D | W | P | B | S | E1 | E2 | E3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 1d6 | 19 [0] | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 1 | — | — |
| 2 | 3,750 | 2d6 | 19 [0] | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 2 | — | — |
| 3 | 7,500 | 3d6 | 19 [0] | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 2 | 1 | — |
| 4 | 15,000 | 4d6 | 19 [0] | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 3 | 1 | — |
| 5 | 30,000 | 5d6 | 17 [+2] | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 3 | 2 | — |
| 6 | 60,000 | 6d6 | 17 [+2] | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 7 | 120,000 | 7d6 | 17 [+2] | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 8 | 225,000 | 8d6 | 17 [+2] | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 9 | 450,000 | 9d6 | 14 [+5] | 6 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| 10 | 675,000 | 9d6+1* | 14 [+5] | 6 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| 11 | 900,000 | 9d6+2* | 14 [+5] | 6 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| 12 | 1,125,000 | 9d6+3* | 14 [+5] | 6 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| 13 | 1,350,000 | 9d6+4* | 12 [+7] | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 4 |
| 14 | 1,575,000 | 9d6+5* | 12 [+7] | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 |
* Modifiers from CON no longer apply. — Saving throws: D Death/Poison · W Wands · P Paralysis/Petrify · B Breath Attacks · S Spells/Rods/Staves. The echoe burns essences as a legatee of their level; the XP column is the Tyrant’s Voice elite track (half again above the plain legatee’s).
Class Abilities
Combat. Echoes may wield any weapon, but favour speed over steel — leather or chainmail and at most a buckler, so that nothing slows the foreseen step.
Essences. Like the legatee, the echoe produces and burns essences — chiefly the mind-essences of the vital core, though they awaken essences from all three cores as their gift matures. Essences are not spells: armour does not hinder them, and they cannot be dispelled. The echoe’s thalamus and reactor wake with the gift; they know one more essence of each level than they can produce per day, and burn from the same essence catalogue as the legatee (the Magic section of this system).
Essential Grace. From 2nd level the echoe’s foreseeing nerves lend them a +1 bonus to all saving throws, rising to +2 at 10th level — half their danger is sidestepped before it arrives.
Catalytic Combustion. From 6th level the echoe can burn an essence catalytically, as the legatee does — forcing greater power from it while halving its duration, declared as the burn begins.
Foresee. The heart of the class. The echoe sees the possible next movements of those around them. As an instant reaction the echoe rolls d100: with a chance of 1% per echoe level they may cause one incoming melee or ranged attack that round to miss automatically — even after the enemy has rolled — choosing which attack to negate; a failed roll costs nothing. By the same 1%-per-level chance, once per round, the echoe may cause one of their own attacks to hit automatically, chosen even after the roll. In no round may Foresee be used more than twice — at most once to strike and once to defend.
Instincts of the Foreseen Step. From 1st level the echoe is never truly caught off guard: they do not lose their defence when surprised or struck from hiding (retaining any Dexterity bonus to Armour Class unless bound or helpless). From 4th level their foresight grows so wide that they can no longer be flanked — foes gain no advantage for surrounding them, nor can slip a back-stab past their guard by position alone.
Predicted Initiative. From 2nd level the echoe glimpses an opponent’s opening move in time to answer it faster. A number of times per day they may reroll an initiative roll, add half their echoe level (rounded down), and take whichever result they prefer. Usable once per day at 2nd level, twice at 5th, three times at 8th, and four times at 11th.
Anticipate. From 3rd level, foreseeing a few seconds ahead, the echoe can bend the odds of a blow or a peril. A number of times per day, as an instant reaction, they may either reroll a saving throw (adding half their echoe level and taking the better result), or, when a hostile attack has beaten their Armour Class, force that attacker to reroll with a penalty equal to half the echoe’s level, the lower roll applying. Usable once per day at 3rd level, twice at 6th, three times at 9th, and four times at 12th.
Trap Sense. Also from 3rd level, the echoe’s intuition warns them of traps: they gain a +1 bonus to saving throws and Armour Class against traps, rising to +2 at 6th level and +3 at 9th.
Inevitable Strike. From 4th level the echoe can foresee a foe’s defence and guide their blow past it. A number of times per day, as an instant reaction, they may reroll an attack roll they have just made (adding half their echoe level, taking the better); or, when they loose an effect the target may dodge, force that target to roll its save twice and take the lower. Usable once per day at 4th level, twice at 7th, three times at 10th, and four times at 13th.
Insight. From 5th level the echoe can, once per day, literally foresee the next movements of a single living being. The target must save versus Spells (harder the sharper the echoe’s Intelligence) or, for 1 round, be laid bare: the echoe treats them as caught wholly off guard (no Dexterity bonus to Armour Class, open to precision strikes), the target automatically fails any save to dodge the echoe’s attacks, and the echoe gains a bonus to Armour Class against that one foe equal to their echoe level. Usable once per day at 5th level, twice at 8th, and three times at 11th.
Sanctum of the Voice — After Reaching 9th Level. An echoe of proven gift may establish a hidden sanctum — often a cell of the Tyrant’s Voice — whereupon other eidolai whose minds have begun to “echo,” and agents of Praecaria’s chaotic strike-forces, gather to the echoe to learn the reading of the moments ahead.
Perfect Foresight. At 14th level the echoe’s mind unlocks fully, and for a single moment the branching futures collapse into certainty. Once per day, as a free action, the echoe enters a round of perfect foreknowledge: until their next turn, every attack against them misses automatically, and every attack they themselves make hits automatically — the fight, for one round, unfolds exactly as they have already seen it.
Ex-Echoes
An echoe who ceases to be Chaotic loses the gift of chaos that reveals the future to them: Foresee and all the foresight gifts of the class go inert, and they can rise no further as an echoe. The essences they produce by their own gift remain theirs — that power sleeps in the blood, not in the chaos — but the branching futures close, and they see only the present like anyone else.