When You Ness With the Best

I was fortunate enough to have gotten a copy of Earthbound when it came out on the Super Nintendo. While quirky RPGs are nothing new these days, at the time the game was an extremely different experience from Final Fantasy and similar high-fantasy video role-playing games. It took place in a modern setting, eschewed magic in favor of psychic powers, and played up humor over drama. It was quite the trip!

Earthbound’s intro screen, depicting an epic scene that never happens in the game.

Later, we’d find out that the game was known as Mother 2 in Japan, being the second of what would be a trilogy of “Mother” games. But while the first game would eventually be given a domestic release (under the name “Earthbound Beginnings”), the third one has yet to be formally released outside of its home country. Even the release of the original game took years, and then only as a pay-for-download option.

The end result was that Earthbound, while achieving a cult following, would likely have been forgotten. But then something unexpected happened that breathed new life into the series, at least in terms of its wider acknowledgment in the gaming community.

Ness, the main protagonist of Earthbound, was brought into the Super Smash Bros. series of games.

Appearing as an unlockable character in the first game, and selectable from the start in each subsequent one, his role in these hit games took Ness from being obscure to wildly popular. Nor was Earthbound’s influence in the game limited to Ness alone. The Mr. Saturns – the basketball-sized rotund little alien-creatures – would also make an appearance, as thrown items of all things. The Franklin Badge, which reflects projectiles, was likewise added as an item that characters could use. And eventually Lucas, the star of Mother 3, would also join the games’ ever-expanding roster of characters.

One thing that confused fans of Earthbound when they first discovered Ness in Super Smash Bros., however, was his array of powers. While Ness was a powerful psychic in the original game, the powers he used in Smash Bros. were actually those of his friend Paula. This was answered in later games where it was explicitly stated that Paula (and Poo, another of Ness’s psychic friends) taught him to use their powers prior to his inclusion in Smash Bros.

Now that’s a war face!

So given that we’ve see Ness in a traditional turn-based RPG, and in a fighting game series, I couldn’t help but wonder what he’d look like with d20 stats. Using Eclipse: The Codex Persona and The Practical Enchanter, here’s what I think the answer would look like:

Ness, 13th-level psychic savant

Available Character Points: 336 (level thirteen base) + 42 (feats at levels 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13) + 6 (“starting traits”) + 13 (restriction: may not wear armor) = 397 CP.

While Earthbound differed from traditional RPGs in many ways, the lack of equipable armor wasn’t really one of them. Rather, the game simply provided different varieties of defense-improving items for its characters, such as hats, bracelets, amulets, etc. In the d20 System, however, we can treat those as being magic items (see below) and so say that Ness’s eschewing armor is worth some extra CPs as a restriction.

Ability Scores (25-point buy): Str 13 (+1 level = 14), Dex 12 (+6 enhancement = 18), Con 15 (+1 level = 16), Int 11 (+1 level = 12), Wis 16 (+2 racial +6 enhancement = 24), Cha 12.

As this point-buy allotment makes clear, Ness is using the Pathfinder Package Deal.

Human, Esper (25 CP/+0 ECL)

• Bonus feat (6 CP).
• Fast Learner, specialized in skills (3 CP).
• Like all humans, espers get to pick which attribute enjoys the Pathfinder Package Deal bonus – buying off a Corruption worth (4 CP).
• 1 caster level, specialized in the psion progression (3 CP).
• 1 augmentable psionic power (far hand) (3 CP).
• 3d6 (10) power points (6 CP).

Ness was born with latent psychic abilities, as we find out during Earthbound that as a baby he would telekinetically grab his bottle when it was out of reach. As such, we’ll say that Ness is an esper, a type of human with inborn psionic powers.

For Ness’s bonus feat, he’s taken Immunity/the inability to jump while in mid-air (very common/minor/trivial) (4 CP), Reflex Training/may make an Acrobatics check to jump while jumping, falling, or otherwise in mid-air (6 CP), and Immunity/the normal limits of jumping via Acrobatics (uncommon/minor/minor) (2 CP). That’s 12 CP altogether, specialized for one-half cost/must be psionically focused, not wearing armor, and carrying no more than a light load. Note that the second Immunity grants him a +10 bonus to Jump checks, removes the penalty for not making a running start before jumping, and makes the result of a high jump a number of feet equal to the check result instead of the check result divided by 4.

Basic Abilities (167 CP)

• Proficiencies: Limited set of weapons (3 CP).
• Hit Dice: 13d8 (52 CP).
• Base Attack Bonus: +9 (54 CP).
• Saving Throws:
  • Fort +4 (12 CP).
  • Ref +4 (12 CP).
  • Will +8 (24 CP).
• Skills: Fast Learner, specialized for double effect/skills only, and corrupted for two-thirds cost/only to be added to Adept skills (4 CP) and Adept (Knowledge (psionics), Perception, Psicraft, and Martial Arts (little slugger)) (6 CP).

Ness’s weapon proficiencies consist of the baseball bat and combat yo-yo, detailed below.

Psionic Prowess (211 CP)

• 13 levels of psion progression (with thirteen specialized caster levels) (156 CP).
• Two additional (id insinuation and power turning) powers known (6 CP).
• Mighty Invocation (12 CP).
• 13 levels of wilder progression (without any caster levels), corrupted for two-thirds cost/no powers known (26 CP).
• One additional psion caster level (3 CP).
• Two d0 Hit Dice (8 CP).

Ness’s psion progression uses a customized power list, giving him access to a few powers that a normal psion wouldn’t receive. We’ll also say that, since Eclipse doesn’t use class-based progressions, energy-based powers such as energy bolt and energy wave can be used to their most effective degree (i.e. as if Ness were a kineticist) rather than needing to expend and regain psionic focus to change their energy type.

Note that the last bullet point is not a typo; Ness has bought two zero-sided Hit Dice. While that might seem pointless, these not only grant his Constitution bonus in hit points, but also count when measuring abilities whose effects vary by Hit Dice (and, in most cases, by level; this includes his Defender ability, listed below).

Power Turning

The power turning ability is the psionic version of the spell turning spell. While it was present in 3.0, it was deleted when the psionic rules were updated to 3.5. Presumably this was done because 3.5 psionic psionics put a heavier emphasis on augmenting lower-level powers, which didn’t actually change their base level. That meant that power turning was more effective than its spell-based counterpart.

Since this power emulates one of the psychic abilities from Earthbound, we’ll go ahead and reintroduce it here. Originally the power noted that it was Constitution-based (3.0 psionics keyed different powers to different ability scores based on their psychic discipline), but this has been eliminated to bring it into line with how psionics works in 3.5 and Pathfinder (and add it to the tactician’s power list).

POWER TURNING

Discipline psychokinesis; Level psion/wilder 7, tactician 7

Display mental, visual

Manifesting Time 1 standard action

Range personal

Target you

Duration until completely expended or 10 minutes/level

Power Points 13

Powers (and spell-like effects) targeted against the manifester rebound on the original manifester. This power only turns psionic powers that have the manifester as a target. Effect and area powers are not affected. Power turning also fails to affect touch range powers.

From 7 to 10 (1d4+6) power levels are affected by the turning. The DM secretly rolls the exact number. Each power turned subtracts its level from the amount of power turning left.

A power might be only partially turned. Subtract these from the power level of the incoming psionic power. Divide the number of the remaining levels of the incoming power by the power level of the incoming power to see what fraction of the effect gets through. For damaging power, the power turning manifester and the original manifester each suffer a fraction of the damage. For nondamaging powers, each has a proportional chance to be affected.

If the manifester and an attacker are both warded by power turning effects in operation, a resonating field is created. Roll randomly to determine the result:

d%	Effect
01-70	Power drains away without effect.
71-80	Power affects both characters equally at full effect.
81-97	Both turning effects are rendered nonfunctional for 1d4 minutes.
98-100	Both characters go through a rift into another plane.

Creative Combatant (13 CP)

• Reflex Training/3 actions per day variant, specialized for one-half cost/only to use a psionic power (3 CP).
• Defender/dodge bonus, specialized for double effect/only while not wearing armor, corrupted for two-thirds cost/only while not carrying a medium or heavy load (4 CP).
• Enhanced Attacked/Crushing, variant/must be made as a charge, specialized for increased effect/on a missed attack, must continue moving the full distance, gains shocking burst on a successful attack, corrupted for increased effect/does not gain 1 free use per minute, charge works in any direction and ignores rough terrain, and all other non-barrier impediments (e.g. holes, caltrops, etc.) (6 CP).

The third bullet point is representative of Ness’s ability to hit himself with his PK Thunder power and launch himself as a projectile, to devastating effect. While this is technically an attack, there’s no reason why Ness can’t use it (as he often does in Smash Bros.) to move himself tactically around the battlefield. However, as written here, this ability costs him 3 power each time he uses it.

Well-Rounded (6 CP)

• Change human Fast Learner from half-price to double effect (3 CP).
• Privilege/allowance (3 CP).

In one of the more amusing twists in Earthbound, while defeating enemies nets you experience and (on occasion) item drops, you don’t actually receive any money from them. Rather, Ness’s father makes periodic deposits into his son’s bank account, though those deposits just so happen to correspond with enemies being defeated. Nevertheless, we’ll say that he has an allowance here. Since Privilege is undefined for what it grants, we’ll have this correspond to Ness being +1 levels higher for determining his wealth-by-level (which, since he’s a major heroic NPC, will be equal to that of a PC).

Gear

• Combat Yo-yo: merciful battle yo-yo +2 (18,321 gp)
• Legendary Bat: wooden baseball bat of collision +1 (18,304 gp)
• Handy haversack (2,000 gp)
• Goddess Band (35,000 gp)
• Hard Hat (26,200 gp)
• Rabbit’s Foot (42,000 gp)
• Souvenir Coin (36,000 gp)
• Star pendant (minor artifact)

While the above approximates the gear that Ness has by the end of Earthbound, the actual effects of these items are things that we need to approximate, since the mechanics of that game are different than the d20 System. Equipment in Earthbound offers stacking bonuses (e.g. multiple items contributing to your Defense score), which is something the d20 System shies away from unless the bonuses are all of different types. As such, the mechanics for the above go a little further than the rest of this article does in what they offer.

Before listing those, however, the following are the weapon stats for the baseball bat and battle yo-yo, presented using Pathfinder’s weapon design system.

BATTLE YO-YO		Price 21 gp
Type light melee		Proficiency exotic
DMG (M) 1d4 bludgeoning	DMG (S) 1d3 bludgeoning	Critical x2
Weapon Group close, monk		Weight 1 lb.
Qualities additional design points (0), attached (1), concealed (1), improved damage (1), weapon feature (disarm) (1), weapon feature (trip) (3).

BASEBALL BAT		Price 4 gp
Type two-handed melee		Proficiency simple
DMG (M) 1d8 bludgeoning	DMG (S) 1d6 bludgeoning	Critical x3
Weapon Group hammers		Weight 3 lbs.
Qualities improved damage (3), improved critical multiplier (3), weapon feature (blocking) (1).

While the battle yo-yo is always made out of metal in order to have sufficient mass to inflict damage, a baseball bat may be made out of wood or metal. This doesn’t alter any of the above statistics, but does change how it interacts with spells such as heat metal or warp wood, as well as for characters that have a restriction against using weapons of a certain type (such as druids forswearing metal weapons).

GODDESS BAND			Price 35,000 GP
Aura moderate abjuration, enchantment, and transmutation	CL 9th	Slot wrists	Weight 1 lb.
This elaborate bracelet provides the wearer with a +6 enhancement bonus to Wisdom, as well as a +4 resistance bonus to saving throws. It also provides immunity to all magical and non-magical effects that would cause them to fall asleep or otherwise render them unconscious, such as the sleep spell or blue whinnis poison. It does not prevent unconsciousness due to nonlethal damage, ability damage, or hit points going below 0.
Construction Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, enhance wisdom III (TPE, p. 17), rouse (PHB2, p. 123), warding rune (TPE, p. 39)			Cost 17,500 GP

HARD HAT			Price 26,200 GP
Aura moderate illusion and transmutation	CL 9th	Slot head	Weight 2 lbs.
This headpiece provides the wearer with a +4 natural armor bonus. Upon command, the hard hat can be made to change its shape and appearance to appear as another type of headgear, such as a cap, ribbon, headband, etc. It retains all of its properties (including weight) when it is so disguised. Only a true seeing spell or similar magic reveals the true nature of the hard hat when disguised. If removed, the hard hat immediately returns to its normal form.
Construction Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, barkskin, disguise self			Cost 13,100 GP

RABBIT’S FOOT			Price 42,000 GP
Aura faint transmutation	CL 5th	Slot none	Weight —
This charm grants the wearer a +6 enhancement bonus to Dexterity. It also allows them to act as though under a perpetual haste spell.
Construction Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, enhance dexterity III (TPE, p. 17), haste			Cost 21,000 GP

SOUVENIR COIN			Price 36,000 GP
Aura moderate evocation	CL 9th	Slot none	Weight —
So long as it remains in the wielder’s possession, this oversized gold coin grants them a +3 luck bonus on attack rolls, damage rolls, Armor Class, and saving throws. The bonus to damage rolls does not apply to damage from spells or spell-like abilities.
Construction Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, karmic shield (TPE, p. 32)			Cost 18,000 GP

STAR PENDANT (MINOR ARTIFACT)		Slot neck
Aura strong abjuration, conjuration, and enchantment	CL 12th	Weight 1 lb.
This pendant grants the wearer resistance 30 to acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic damage, as well as a +4 deflection bonus to their Armor Class. Additionally, the wearer is immune to paralysis (but not being entangled, pinned, or other conditions that restrict movement) and confusion.
Destruction The star pendant is destroyed if worn by a being with the air, earth, fire, and water subtypes for an entire year.

Ness’s total gear value, as listed above, comes out to 177,825 gp out of 185,000. Of course, the star pendant should throw that off considerably (if made as a standard magic item, it would cost over 100,000 gp on its own). But that’s the nice thing about minor artifacts: they have no price, and so don’t count against a character’s total gear value.

The Star Pendant as a Magic Item

If you want to use the star pendant as a magic item instead of a minor artifact, use the following statistics:

STAR PENDANT			Price 100,800 GP
Aura strong abjuration, conjuration, and enchantment	CL 12th	Slot neck	Weight 1 lbs.
This pendant grants the wearer resistance 30 to acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic damage, as well as a +4 deflection bonus to their Armor Class. Additionally, the wearer is immune to paralysis (but not being entangled, pinned, or other conditions that restrict movement) and confusion.
Construction Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, clarity of mind, remove paralysis, resist energy, shield of faith			Cost 50,400 GP

The clarity of mind spell used in the construction of this version of the star pendant is a custom spell, as follows:

CLARITY OF MIND

Level bard 1, cleric/oracle 1, inquisitor 1, psychic 1, shaman 1

This spell functions like calm emotions, except that it only removes the confused condition from all targets.

Derived Stats

• Hit Dice: 8 (d8; 1st level) + 54 (12d8) + 45 (Con bonus) +13 (“favored class” bonus) = 120 hp.
• Speed: 30 ft. (base) + 30 ft. (haste) = 60 ft.
• Saving Throws:
  • Fort: +4 (base) +3 (Con) +4 (resistance) +3 (luck) = +14.
  • Ref: +4 (base) +4 (Dex) +4 (resistance) +3 (luck) +1 (dodge) = +16.
  • Will: +8 (base) +7 (Wis) +4 (resistance) +3 (luck) = 22.
• Armor Class: 10 (base) +4 (Dex) +6 (dodge) +1 (dodge) +4 (natural armor) +3 (luck) +4 (deflection) = AC 32, touch 28, flat-footed 21.
• Attacks:
  • Combat Yo-yo: +9 (BAB) +2 (Str) +2 (enhancement bonus) +3 (luck) +3 (martial art) +1 (haste) = +20/+20/+15 (1d8+7 plus 1d6 nonlethal)
  • Legendary Bat: +9 (BAB) +2 (Str) +1 (enhancement bonus) +3 (luck) +3 (martial art) +1 (haste) = +19/+19/+14 (1d12+12/x3)
• Combat Maneuver Bonus: +9 (BAB) +2 (Str) +3 (luck) +3 (martial art) +1 (haste) = +18 (plus weapon enhancement bonus) CMB.
• Combat Maneuver Defense: 10 (base) +9 (BAB) +2 (Str) +4 (Dex) +6 (dodge) +1 (dodge) +3 (luck) +4 (deflection) = 39 CMB.
• Power: 147 (level 13 psion) +147 (level 13 wilder) +45 (Wis) +10 (racial) = 349 power.
• Powers Known (ML 15th; concentration +22)
  • 8th – greater psychoport (DC 25).
  • 7th – energy wave (DC 24), power turning.
  • 6th – brutalize wounds (DC 23), cleanse spirit (DC 23), heal injuries (DC 23).
  • 5th – psionic revivify, psychoport (DC 22).
  • 4th – correspond, intellect fortress, power leech (DC 21).
  • 3rd – body adjustment, energy bolt (DC 20), energy burst (DC 20), psionic blast (DC 20).
  • 2nd – cleanse body (DC 19), concussion blast, energy push (DC 19), energy stun (DC 19), id insinuation (DC 19), mental disruption (DC 19).
  • 1st – demoralize (DC 18), energy ray, entangling ectoplasm, offensive precognition, slumber (DC 18).
  • 0 – energy splash, far hand.
• Skills: 26 (Fast Learner) +13 (Int bonus) + maximum ranks in Acrobatics, Perception, Psicraft, and Martial Arts (little slugger) = 39 (plus four maximum) skill ranks.

Skill	Ranks	Class Bonus	Ability Modifier	Misc.	Total
Acrobatics	3	+3	+4 Dex	+12 speed (jump), +10 Immunity (jump)	+10 (+32 jump)
Diplomacy	3	+3	+1 Cha	—	+7
Escape Artist	3	+3	+4 Dex	—	+10
Handle Animal	3	+3	+1 Cha	—	+7
Heal	3	+3	+7 Wis	—	+13
Knowledge (geography)	3	+3	+1 Int	—	+7
Knowledge (history)	3	+3	+1 Int	—	+7
Knowledge (local)	3	+3	+1 Int	—	+7
Knowledge (psionics)	13	+3	+1 Int	—	+17
Martial Arts (little slugger)	13	+3	+2 Str	—	+18
Perception	13	+3	+7 Wis	—	+23
Psicraft	13	+3	+1 Int	—	+17
Ride	3	+3	+4 Dex	—	+10
Sense Motive	3	+3	+7 Wis	—	+13
Survival	3	+3	+7 Wis	—	+13
Swim	3	+3	+2 Str	—	+8
Use Psionic Device	3	+3	+1 Cha	—	+7

Ness’s class skills are, obviously enough, the ones listed on the above chart. Note that Knowledge (psionics), Psicraft, and Use Psionic Device all function as per their magical counterparts under the default assumptions of most campaign worlds. On a related note, Ness should have one additional language due to his Intelligence bonus; I’d recommend whatever language it is that the Mr. Saturns speak.

Little Slugger (Str)

While technically patterned off of baseball, this martial art is actually far older. In fact, it goes back to the very beginnings of tool use in humans: hit your enemies with a big stick, or failing that, throw something at them. In this case, it’s been adapted to the baseball bat and battle yo-yo (a mild variation on pitching), but its roots are obvious for all to see.

This martial art has no occult techniques, being developed by non-psionic practitioners. The entry requirements are correspondingly lower as a result.

• Requires: proficiency with baseball bat.
• Basic Techniques: Attack 3, Power 2, Strike.
• Advanced/Master Techniques: Combat Reflexes, Mighty Blow, Vital Strike, Weapon Kata (battle yo-yo).
• Known: all except Strike.

Further Development

The statistics given above represent Ness after the end of Earthbound, subsequent to Paula and Poo having taught him their psychic techniques for his joining the fight in Super Smash Bros. As he is now, Ness is a powerhouse, albeit one that could be optimized a little more. His hit points could be greater, his Armor Class could be higher, and he really should learn another martial art, ideally one focused on Wisdom that he can use to raise his defenses somewhat. But overall, he’s a fairly solid build, being able to hold his own in melee, having plenty of combat-focused psionic powers for up-close and ranged combat, and a decent selection of utility powers. And of course, his gear is top-notch for what it does.

Of course, given the caliber of characters that he’s up against these days, he’s going to need all of that and more in order to win.

From PSI to Psionics

The list of psionic powers that Ness knows represent the entirety of the PSI (or, as they’re called in Super Smash Bros., PK) abilities used by him and his friends in Earthbound. As noted previously, Ness’s most recent appearances have him using powers taught to him by his friends. For the purposes of this article, we’re assuming they’ve taught him all of their powers known, including the ones we haven’t seen him use yet.

The PSI powers used in Earthbound have different degrees to them, much like augmentable psionic powers. But the PSI powers are measured with Latin letters, and have effects that are specific to Earthbound’s mechanics. That makes matching them to d20 psionics a tricky proposition. If you’re inclined to do so, use the following list to match Ness’s psionic powers in this article to the ones we see used in Earthbound/Smash Bros. The combination of various powers (exempting only far hand, since we don’t see any PSI powers that telekinetically manipulate objects the way we were told Ness did as a baby) and their augmentations should allow for a satisfactory translation of abilities.

• Brainshock – id insinuation.
• Defense Down – brutalize wounds.
• Healing – cleanse body, psionic revivify, cleanse spirit.
• Hypnosis – slumber.
• Lifeup – body adjustment, heal injuries.
• Offense Up – offensive precognition.
• Paralysis – entangling ectoplasm.
• PSI Fire/PSI Freeze/PSI Thunder – energy bolt, energy burst, energy push, energy ray, energy splash, energy stun.
• PSI Flash – demoralize, mental disruption, psionic blast.
• PSI Magnet – power leech.
• PSI Rockin – concussion blast.
• PSI Shield – power turning.
• PSI Starstorm – energy wave.
• Shield – biofeedback, intellect fortress.
• Telepathy – correspondence.
• Teleport – greater psychoport, psychoport.

Eclipsing Dead Levels

It used to be, when your character gained a level, that you only received a modest boost in power.

More hit points were the biggest gain, since older editions had less safeguards against character death built into them. If you were a martial-type character, you probably had your to-hit chances go up as well; for other characters, your hit chances operated in brackets, so it was uncertain if they’d go up at any particular level or not. The same was true for saving throws as well, though the brackets varied depending on which category of saves was being looked at. Later on, you also gained a proficiency slot every so many levels. And of course, spellcasters gained new spell slots, though gaining new spells to actually fill them with was something else again.

However, as time went on, we began to see level inflation. What you gained at each level was expanded upon, increasing the relative power you received over time. Hit points were always rolled instead of becoming small, flat bonuses, and everyone (not just warrior-types) got to add their full Constitution bonus to them. Iterative attacks became baked into base attack bonus progression, allowing even non-martial characters to make multiple attacks per round. Saving throws were consolidated, and the target number you rolled against was now defined externally – and so could vary wildly – rather than being set according to your level.

And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Skills were now codified, using points and ranks that could be freely purchased, albeit with class-based restrictions and level-based caps. Spellcasters gained a new spell or two for free each and every time they gained a level. Feats were gained every few levels, replacing (non-weapon) proficiencies. The same was true for ability points. What classes you gained levels in could be mixed-and-matched much more freely than before.

And each level of each class now granted a special ability. Indeed, it got to the point where there was eventually a term for when you gained a level but didn’t gain a special power: “dead levels.”

It eventually got to the point, in D&D Third Edition, where the game designers went back and published a few late-stage additions to classes that had dead levels on their website.

These patches weren’t very powerful, since the designers didn’t want to upset the balance of the game (such as it was) too much. So they tended to be small benefits, little more than minor supplements to what the characters could already do. Of course, that raised the question of why grant these benefits at all, if they didn’t do very much, but this was mostly ignored. The point was that characters receive some sort of special power at each and every level; what they were was secondary.

Now, if you’re playing with a point-buy character-generation system, such as Eclipse: The Codex Persona for d20 System games, then “dead levels” are a complete non-issue. You simply took what (available) powers you wanted for your character at each level. If you wanted to ignore your attack bonus and focus on buying a lot of skills and powers related to skills, you could do that. If you were a warrior who wanted to increase their focus with a specific weapon and buy up defenses against the spells that those cowardly wizards always used, you could do that. If you wanted to be a stay-at-home character who spent their time cultivating relationships with powerful people, opening merchant companies, and dabbling with politics, you could do that, even if it meant that you were likely playing a different game than the other players at the table. Point-buy systems can do a lot, but there’s no set of rules that can curb a disruptive player.

And of course, if you wanted to build characters very close to what you’d find with standard class-level builds, you could do that as well. In fact, that’s in Appendix 2 of Eclipse. But what if you also wanted to gain those dead-level additions given in the article linked to above? Well, let’s take a look at each of them and how we can build them in Eclipse. Since the monk and barbarian have no additions, due to having no dead levels in the first place, we’ll omit them, focusing on the other nine classes from the PHB:

Bard: The bard, as presented in WotC’s “Dead Levels” article, gains two abilities; one allows them to re-roll a Perform check once per day, but only with regards to using Perform to earn money, and the other gradually maximizes the subsequent rolls for exactly how much money they earn.

So overall, the effect here is to put some extra money in the bard’s pocket, but only if they spend a day putting on performances. That’s a downtime activity, and honestly not a very good one after the first few levels or so. Even presuming that they can always hit the maximum Perform result (DC 30) and get the maximum result on 3d6 gp per day, that’s only 126 additional gp per week. Given that a 20th-level character is supposed to have 760,000 gp in wealth, this means that even if they spent every day performing, they’d earn less than 1% of their total gp value over the course of a year.

That seems like a rather roundabout method of giving the bard some pocket-money.

If you want a character to earn a few extra gold pieces in Eclipse, there’s a simpler way to do it. Pick up Equipage (p. 31) for 10 gp per character level per week, specialized and corrupted for one-third cost/only to earn actual gold pieces (rather than equipment of commensurate value), and the character must spend two days each week performing in populated areas (during which time they can’t do other activities, such as crafting). That will cost you 6 CP, and now gives your character a weekend gig, one that earns them slightly more money than they would gain even with maximized Perform checks.

Cleric: The cleric gains, a bonus to Knowledge (religion) checks to “identify undead creatures during an encounter from any distance” but “gains no insight about their special powers or vulnerabilities,” which starts at +2 at 2nd level before going up by +1 each level thereafter. Now, there’s a minor ambiguity here when they say “identify undead creatures.” Do they mean simply recognizing them as undead (even through disguises, cloaking spells, etc.)? Or does it mean identifying what kind of undead they are (i.e. “that’s not just a zombie, it’s a juju zombie!”) , even if they then don’t gain that bonus on knowing much of anything about them?

Of course, it doesn’t really matter either way, since if you can’t identify its powers or weaknesses, knowing what a particular type of undead is called doesn’t matter very much, unless you plan on going and doing some research later (though that brings up the awkward question of how you know about that type of undead but don’t know anything useful about it anyway). So it’s probably better to just make this into a generic undead-detecting power, one that has some better-defined parameters regarding how it works:

Pick up Innate Enchantment (p. 34), specialized for one-half cost/only for half the normal gp value (i.e. 2,500 gp). Now buy detect undead. The total cost is 3 CP and, technically, 80 XP. Or you could buy Occult Sense (p. 38) for detect undead as well; that will cost you 6 CP, but has no XP cost. Either way, this is less ambiguous than the WotC version.

Druid: The druid gains two new abilities, both of which are slightly stronger than normal for what that article introduces, owing to not receiving them until very high level. The first extends their immunity to non-magical undergrowth to magical undergrowth. The second gives them spell resistance, but only to the spell-like abilities of fey creatures. Neither are really that useful by the time they’re received (though the latter could conceivably be, against certain high-level fey monsters), but that’s kind of the point, since all of the new abilities in this article amount to little more than lagniappe.

To make these in Eclipse, first buy Immunity (p. 34) to magically-overgrown terrain (uncommon/minor/minor) for 2 CP. Given that most magical terrain-manipulation effects (at least as far as causing undergrowth to impede travel goes) seems to top out with entangle, you might be able to reduce this to a trivial Immunity, lowering the final cost to 1 CP, but this covers you against anything of 3rd-level or less, which should be enough to defeat anything else that falls into this category. As for the other new ability, buy Spell Resistance (p. 45) with the Improved modifier, both of which are specialized and corrupted for one-third cost/only applies against fey creatures, only against their spell-like abilities, for 4 CP.

Fighter: The fighter gets eight instances of buying a +1 bonus to a particular ability check: Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution. Now, ability checks are already a comparative rarity compared to skills, but these are further limited: the Strength bonus only applies to breaking/burst an object, the Dexterity bonus only applies against falling when damaged while balancing or moving quickly across difficult surfaces, and the Constitution bonus only applies on checks to continue running or continue a forced march.

Now, this is a little awkward. While ability checks are similar to skill checks, they’re not something you usually receive bonuses on, other than the relevant attribute modifier. But that’s the beauty of using such a flexible point-buy system like Eclipse: if you want to allow ability checks to receive bonuses like skills, you can allow for that. In this case, what you’re buying is a +8 skill bonus (p. 8) and applying it to an ability check the same way you would a skill, specialized for one-half cost/only for a particular type of ability check, as listed above. That costs 4 CP, and you can distribute the bonuses between those three ability checks as you like. You might want to have ability checks for other things come up from time to time, at least for those attributes, in order to keep that specialization relevant, but honestly this is such a minor set of bonuses that it probably doesn’t really matter all that much.

Paladin: The paladin can, up to eight times, choose between gaining a +1 bonus to their Leadership score for the purposes of attracting 1st-level cohorts only, or gain a +1 bonus to Sense Motive checks only to gain a hunch.

Neither of these are very good options, and the article all but admits to that. The Leadership option only works if you’ve taken that feat (and in my experience, a lot of GMs disallow that feat for the complications it brings), and even then your Leadership score tops out at 25 anyway, unless you use the Epic Leadership table. Likewise, the “hunch” use of Sense motive has a static DC of 20, so bonuses become less and less relevant the closer you get to being able to make that automatically (plus, as the article admits, paladins have detect evil anyway). If you’ve already gotten to the point where you can hit DC 20 with Sense Motive no problem, and you don’t have Leadership, then both of these options are useless.

But let’s say you’re not concerned about that. How would you go about building these in Eclipse? Well, if you’ve already bought Leadership (p. 35), then you’re going to want the Strength in Numbers modifier for +3 CP to get a bunch of low-level servants who can fulfill the background tasks that most campaigns overlook anyway; if you actually want to gain 1st-level characters who will be moderately useful when dealing with minor problems, buy Horde (+3 CP) also. Similarly, buy Skill Emphasis (p. 44) in Sense Motive, specialized and corrupted for triple effect/only for the “hunch” application of the skill; that will only buy a +6 bonus, but for 3 CP that’s really all you’re going to need. If you do want to hit +8 (the way you could if you chose that option each time that the “Dead Levels” article allows for it), buy +1 Skill Focus (p. 44), with the same corruption and specialization; that’s an additional 2 CP for a further +3 bonus, taking you to +9 altogether.

Ranger: The upgrades given for the ranger are perhaps the most minor in the entire article. Despite receiving five different abilities, all of them are based around using the Survival skill, and the sidebar flat-out admits that all of them are so extremely minor as to be practically irrelevant. To mimic these abilities in Eclipse:

• Buy an Immunity (p. 34) to the time needed to find (but not follow) tracks (uncommon/minor/trivial) for 1 CP. By itself, this is more than enough to get the time down from “a full-round action or longer” to “a standard action,” replacing two of the listings points in that article (specifically, perceptive tracker and instinctive tracker). I’d venture that if you kicked this up to a minor immunity (paying 1 additional CP), that would be more than enough to make this a free action; the time requirement to locate tracks tends to be such a minor issue that it honestly shouldn’t cost any more than that to remove it entirely.
• Buy an Immunity (p. 34) to the speed reduction for engaging in outdoorsmanship (uncommon/minor/trivial) for 1 CP. Just like the previous bullet point, this will cover two different listings in the original article (woodland hunter and seasoned explorer), allowing the character to “get along in the wilderness” and make a check to gain a bonus on Fortitude saves against inclement weather without suffering an overland speed reduction.
• Buy Mastery (p. 37), specialized and corrupted for one-third cost/only to apply to Survival checks, for 2 CP.

Rogue: Similar to the ranger, the rogue entry is dedicated to overcoming some of the restrictions with a particular skill, in this case Disable Device. The first ability removes the penalty for not using thieves’ tools with a Disable Device check, which makes it seem a little awkward that this doesn’t also apply to Open Lock checks as well, since they’re normally subject to the same restriction. The second cuts the time required to use Disable Device in half, down to turning full-round actions into standard actions.

To overcome these in Eclipse, buy a +1 skill bonus in Eclipse (p. 9) for Disable Device, specialized for double effect/only to remove the penalty for not having thieves’ tools. This only costs 1 CP, making it affordable if you want to buy another a similar bonus on Open Lock as well. For the second, buy an Immunity (p. 34) to the time required to use Disable Device (uncommon/minor/major) for 3 CP. That’s relatively cheap, since most characters aren’t trying to disable complex mechanisms while a fight is going on, making the time spent fairly unimportant from a game-play standpoint.

Sorcerer: The sorcerer’s ability is essentially the same as the one the cleric received, except that instead of being specific to the undead, they can pick a different creature type of their choice. Technically, they have to choose a creature type that has at least one monster with arcane spell-like abilities, but that’s largely a pointless restriction; rule out the animal and vermin types, and across the myriad monster books (especially if third-party ones are allowed) you’re bound to find a creature with arcane spell-like abilities somewhere. There are ogre magi for the giant type, scorpionfolk for the monstrous humanoid type, and even gnomes for the humanoid type!

As such, you can build this ability in Eclipse identically to what we did for the cleric, except that the detect ability will work just like detect undead, but for a different creature type.

Wizard: The wizard ability is similar to the ranger abilities in that, while it deals specifically with their spellbooks, the abilities in question are all ones that interact with a particular skill check, in this case Spellcraft. Pleasantly, the article actually provides some flavor for the ability: the wizard can animate the ink in their spellbook, making it move across the page (in a way that sounds similar to a news ticker). This increases the DC of two different Spellcraft checks for others who try to use their spellbook: deciphering the writing to begin with (normally DC 20 + spell level, though a read magic apparently still bypasses this) and preparing a spell from the spellbook (normally DC 15 + spell level).

The problem with this ability is that it’s actually a rather severe money-sink. You see, as written, the wizard who uses this ability increases the aforementioned DCs by their Intelligence modifier, +1 for each dead level (so by level 20, that can be up to their Int. mod. +15). They can set the DC increase below the maximum possible, and there’s a reason for that: this costs 5 gp per +1 above their Intelligence modifier per page of the spell. (And, as written, they can’t go below Int. mod. +1.) But spells take up a number of pages equal to their spell level (and even 0-level spells take up one page). So a 20th-level wizard who wants the full Int. mod. +15 increase to the Spellcraft DC for a 9th-level spell will be paying 75 gp per page for nine pages, at a total cost of 675 gp. For one spell. Presuming that they want to encrypt the full one hundred pages that come in your standard spellbook, that’s 7,500 gp in costs. Multiply that by ten if they want to encrypt every page of a blessed book.

Now, this is a fairly good security measure, but unless they want the party bard funding this via the pocket change they’re picking up with their new Perform abilities listed above, this isn’t a good use of the wizard’s money. After all, when’s the last time you had a wizard character worry about someone accessing their spellbooks without their knowledge? The most likely way you’ll see this ability use is when an NPC used this on some of the spells in their spellbook, frustrating PC attempts to copy it (though that might be useful if the GM wants them to use spells but doesn’t want the PCs to learn them, though be warned that a lot of PCs will take this as a challenge).

If you really want to do this in Eclipse, just buy the Encryption (+3 CP) modifier to the Spell Shorthand ability (p. 45). If you want that to function more like what’s here, giving modifiers rather than an absolute immunity to being deciphered by anyone else, corrupt it for two-thirds cost/only increases the Spellcraft DC to decipher and prepare spells from your spellbook by your spellcasting modifier, +1 per level. You can also specialize it if you want to remove the part about making the spell only take up a single page. Together, those get the cost down to a mere 1 CP, and don’t have any increases in gp cost for what they do.