ENTROPIST
Salorras Paragon: Entropist · Base Path: Mage (Magic-User) · OSE build: custom Magic-User-variant class A custom OSE class for the only mages who wield the wild, forbidden magic of entropy with perfect stability — the soul-bound book-mages of the Arcanawrath, masters of the entropic Strand of the Pale Thread and the rarest, most feared arcanists of Salorras. Played from 1st level; the character’s forbidden apprenticeship is part of their background.
The entropists are perhaps the only spellcasters who can reach the all-powerful spells of the entropic Strand of the Pale Thread — the necromantic magic of the dead-and-unmade — without those spells turning dangerous and uncontrollable in their own hands, despite the wild instability this magic suffers in the cosmology of Salorras. That instability is no accident of any one plane: in prehistoric eras the Pale Thread of the Fabric was derailed by the eolmes, and ever since the magic drawn from it has acted wildly and unpredictably, forbidden to all but the masters who can bridle it.
Few things are known of these exceedingly rare mages, for they gather in small castes and live nearly cut off from the societies of Salorras. Myth says the first known entropist was Ymenos Talak’Er, who received the occult secret from the god of forbidden knowledge, Kaith’otl, as a gift for his unshakable faith. Entropists handle negative energy with outstanding ease and have accepted death and its unknown paths as part of their very existence; the powers they hold are often of staggering level, for they can decipher even the highest necromancy — and this alone stirs unease in the most powerful ordinary mages.
The one known sect of entropists in Salorras is the Arcanawrath, in the city-state of Naerys in the south of Asmeda — the core of one of the world’s oldest factions, the Congress of Mysticism. Their role has political facets, for they pull the strings of the confederation of the Free Cities of South, though their chief concern is the safekeeping of ancient knowledge and forbidden spells kept for their eyes alone. Religion troubles most entropists little, though the oldest — those of the Arcanawrath — bind their role closely to the doctrine of Kaith’otl.
Class Overview
Requirements: Minimum INT 13; initiation into the Arcanawrath’s forbidden study Prime requisite: INT Hit Dice: 1d4 Maximum level: 14 Armour: None Weapons: Dagger, staff, or crossbow Languages: Alignment, Colloquial
Entropists are master mages of the Pale Thread — the one discipline of arcanists who can cast the forbidden necromancy of entropy in perfect safety, and who bend its wild surges to their own advantage. A prime requisite of INT 13–15 grants +5% to experience earned; INT 16–18 grants +10%. Like any mage they wear no armour and are frail in a melee, trusting to their forbidden art alone.
The Entropist
The columns 1–6 are arcane spells per day by spell level, cast as a Magic-User of the entropist’s level.
| Level | XP | Hit Dice (1d4) | THAC0 | D | W | P | B | S | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 1d4 | 19 [0] | 13 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2 | 3,750 | 2d4 | 19 [0] | 13 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 3 | 7,500 | 3d4 | 19 [0] | 13 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — | — |
| 4 | 15,000 | 4d4 | 19 [0] | 13 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 2 | 2 | — | — | — | — |
| 5 | 30,000 | 5d4 | 19 [0] | 13 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 6 | 60,000 | 6d4 | 17 [+2] | 11 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 2 | — | — | — |
| 7 | 120,000 | 7d4 | 17 [+2] | 11 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | — |
| 8 | 225,000 | 8d4 | 17 [+2] | 11 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | — | — |
| 9 | 450,000 | 9d4 | 17 [+2] | 11 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — |
| 10 | 675,000 | 9d4+1* | 17 [+2] | 11 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — |
| 11 | 900,000 | 9d4+2* | 14 [+5] | 8 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 12 | 1,125,000 | 9d4+3* | 14 [+5] | 8 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 13 | 1,350,000 | 9d4+4* | 14 [+5] | 8 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 14 | 1,575,000 | 9d4+5* | 14 [+5] | 8 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
* Modifiers from CON no longer apply. — Saving throws: D Death/Poison · W Wands · P Paralysis/Petrify · B Breath Attacks · S Spells/Rods/Staves. The entropist casts as a Magic-User of their level; the XP column is the Arcanawrath’s elite track (half again above the plain mage’s).
Class Abilities
Combat. Entropists wear no armour and bear no shield, and wield only a dagger, staff, or crossbow.
Arcane Magic. The entropist keeps a forbidden spellbook and casts arcane spells as a Magic-User of their level, from the standard OSE list. Their study runs chiefly to the entropic and necromantic spells of the Pale Thread — including animate dead and the death-workings barred to ordinary mages — and they carry an unusually deep library of such formulae, needing far less than others to seek them out.
Control Necromancy. The defining gift. Where every other caster who draws on the Pale Thread risks a wild, unpredictable surge — if they can cast such magic at all — the entropist casts every entropic and necromantic spell with perfect stability, no surge, no misfire, anywhere in the cosmos. This is what it means to hold the derailed Thread with a steady hand.
Attunement to the Pale Thread. From 1st level the entropist has learned the forbidden formulae so deeply that they need not prepare them in advance: they may sacrifice any prepared spell to cast, in its place, an entropic (necromancy) spell they know of the same or a lower level — a spontaneity ordinary mages never manage with the wild Thread.
Negative Conduit. From 3rd level the entropist becomes a living conduit of negative energy: they are healed by negative energy and harmed by positive, as an undead creature would be, though they gain none of the undead’s other traits. Once per day they may channel a terrible measure of negative energy straight from its source — a touch dealing 1d8 per entropist level, so pure it allows the victim no save — or turn it inward to heal themselves or an undead. They gain a second use per day at 7th level and a third at 11th.
Purest Conduit. From 5th level the entropist’s conductivity is so pure that the Negative Conduit always deals its maximum measure: every die of its damage or healing counts automatically as an 8.
Wild Magic Adept. Also from 5th level, the entropist has so mastered the Pale Thread that its wildness turns to their favour. Whenever they cast an entropic (necromancy) spell, roll d% on the table below (the Adept column) for a chance the spell is enriched:
| Adept d% | Master d% | Beneficial Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 01–50 | 01–30 | The spell functions normally. |
| 51–70 | 31–55 | The spell is not expended — its slot or prepared casting can be used again, and any material components are not consumed. |
| 71–85 | 56–75 | The spell is empowered: its numeric effects increase by half, and saves against it suffer −1. |
| 86–95 | 76–90 | The spell is maximized: its numeric effects reach their maximum, and saves against it suffer −2. |
| 96–100 | 91–100 | The spell is quickened: it is cast as a free, instant action, without taking the entropist’s turn. |
High Necromancy. From 9th level the entropist’s command of forbidden magic is so complete that they prepare every entropic (necromancy) spell as though it were one level lower — a spell of the sixth circle held ready in a fifth-circle slot, and so on, at its full and undiminished power. By the same mastery they alone may read and prepare the legendary entropic spells written in the Era of Myths, whose power is said to pass beyond the sixth circle entirely; such spells are vanishingly rare, and the referee should place them with great care.
Sanctum of the Wrath — After Reaching 11th Level. An entropist of the eleventh circle may raise or claim a forbidden sanctum — a warded vault often tied to the Arcanawrath in Naerys — whereupon undead servants and a rare apprentice or two of the Congress of Mysticism gather to serve the master of the dead and guard the secrets kept there.
Wild Magic Master. From 11th level the entropist’s control grows finer still: for their entropic spells they now roll on the Master column of the Wild Magic Beneficial Effects table above, where the enriching results come far more readily.
Phylactery. At 14th level the entropist can enclose a piece of their own soul within a phylactery, as the undying liches do. Its making needs no special art beyond the entropist’s own, though it demands a great price in gold and time. When the entropist dies, their soul flees into the phylactery; some days later it rises and roams until it finds and seizes a compatible corpse to dwell in — and so the entropist returns to life, at the full height of their powers, a true master of the dead-and-unmade.
Leaving the Order
An entropist’s power is their own hard-won mastery, and cannot be stripped from them — but the Arcanawrath does not lightly suffer a keeper who carries its secrets away. One who betrays the sect, or lets a forbidden spell slip beyond the guarded vaults of Naerys, keeps every gift of the class yet is hunted thereafter by the Congress of Mysticism, who would sooner see the traitor dead than let the deepest magic of the Pale Thread wander free in the world.