Hellenic Sorceress

In the Greek myths, the only beings who practice magic are the gods and a few mortal women who devote themselves to the darker aspects of Hecate, the goddess of magic. Feared for their power by other mortals, they are tainted in some slight way, either by a lack of morals or a touch of madness. Still, the Hellenic sorceress is a woman with many skills valuable to a traveling hero, and more than once she has been the only reason the heroes succeeded, or survived at all. Circe and Medea are examples of the Hellenic sorceress class.

Adventurers: Most Hellenic sorceresses prefer to work alone in secluded places, pursuing their magic to the exclusion of all else, but from time to time they encounter someone worth their attention, and once convinced that their involvement would benefit them they have been known to travel with adventuring heroes on their adventures. Their experiences researching the depths of the mind and the underworld inure them to the commonplace horrors of the mortal world, and often the sorceress finds herself bolstering the courage of her heroic allies frozen at the sight of some horrific monster created at the birth of the world.

Characteristics: Hellenic sorceresses cast arcane spells, many of which draw upon the sorceress’ knowledge of strange drugs and magical herbs. Their spells are oriented toward affecting creatures’ minds, creating illusions, certain aspects of necromancy, and transforming men into beasts. They have little interest in weapons, preferring to thwart enemies with spells and protect themselves with special magic and intervention by allies or charmed slaves.

Religion: All Hellenic sorceresses worship the Greek gods, for they understand that all power, magical or otherwise, comes from the gods or their titan forbears. In fact, many Hellenic sorceresses are directly descended from the gods (Circe was a daughter of Helios, god of the sun, and some say that Medea was Circe’s niece). They specifically revere Hecate as their patron goddess. Sorceresses are still mortals and have been known to defy godly laws—Medea murdered her own brother, one of the most terrible sins in Greek culture—but if they do they still keep their magical powers, though they may be punished by the gods for their transgressions.

Background: Sorceresses are born with the talent for their magic, but most never realize it because they are never initiated into the study of magic. The lucky few are found by an established sorceress, trained in the basics of magic, and then leave to study on their own. This means that every sorceress knows at least one other of her kind, though they may not be friendly toward each other. Most established sorceresses usually have one or more apprentices on hand to work as servants while they learn magic.

Other Classes: Sorceresses see the world divided into three parts: the gods, sorceresses, and everyone else. Many treat common people and even heroes with utter contempt, regardless of their profession, valuing them only for the minimal services they can perform.

Role: The sorceress is the source of magic and knowledge in the party. Of all the classes in the Argonauts campaign, only the sorceress has any sort of spellcasting and access to multiple Knowledge class skills. While she has few direct damage attacks, her magic is useful for bolstering her allies or befuddling strong enemies.

Alignment: Any. Because they study things mortals were not meant to know and sometimes flaunt the laws of mortals and gods, few Hellenic sorceresses are good or lawful. Because some of their spells draw on evil forces, even the rare good sorceresses usually become neutral or evil after a while.

Hit Die: d6.

Class Skills

The Hellenic sorceress’s class skills are Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (local) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (nobility) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Perform (sing) (Cha), Ride (Dex), and Sense Motive (Wis).

Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Table: Hellenic Sorceress

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
						1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	New moon casting, cantrips	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3		4	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3		5	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Power focus	6	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4		6	4	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5		6	5	3	—	—	—	—	—	—
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5		6	6	4	—	—	—	—	—	—
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6	Power focus	6	6	5	3	—	—	—	—	—
9th	+4	+3	+3	+6		6	6	6	4	—	—	—	—	—
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7		6	6	6	5	3	—	—	—	—
11th	+5	+3	+3	+7		6	6	6	6	4	—	—	—	—
12th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	Power focus	6	6	6	6	5	3	—	—	—
13th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8		6	6	6	6	6	4	—	—	—
14th	+7/+2	+4	+4	+9		6	6	6	6	6	5	3	—	—
15th	+7/+2	+5	+5	+9		6	6	6	6	6	6	4	—	—
16th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10	Power focus	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	3	—
17th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10		6	6	6	6	6	6	6	4	—
18th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11		6	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	3
19th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11		6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	4
20th	+10/+5	+6	+6	+12	Power focus	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Hellenic sorceress.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

A Hellenic sorceress is proficient in all simple weapons but not with any armor or with shields. Armor interferes with a Hellenic sorceress’s gestures, which can cause her spells with somatic components to fail (see Arcane Spells and Armor).

Spells

A Hellenic sorceress casts arcane spells drawn primarily from the Hellenic sorceress’s spell list. She can cast any spell she knows without preparing it ahead of time. To learn or cast a spell, a Hellenic sorceress must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a class name’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the class name’s Charisma modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a Hellenic sorceress can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Hellenic Sorceress. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Charisma score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells).

A Hellenic sorceress’s selection of spells is extremely limited. A class name begins play knowing four 0-level spells and two 1st-level spells of her choice. At each new class name level, she gains one or more new spells, as indicated on Table: Hellenic Sorceress Spells Known. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells a Hellenic sorceress knows is not affected by her Charisma score; the numbers on Table: Hellenic Sorceress Spells Known are fixed.) These new spells can be common spells chosen from the Hellenic sorceress spell list, or they can be unusual spells that the class name has gained some understanding of through study.

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered Hellenic sorceress level after that (6th, 8th, and so on), a Hellenic sorceress can choose to learn a new spell in place of one she already knows. In effect, the Hellenic sorceress loses the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged. A Hellenic sorceress may swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that she gains new spells known for the level.

Unlike a wizard or a cleric, a Hellenic sorceress need not prepare her spells in advance. She can cast any spell she knows at any time, assuming she has not yet used up her spells per day for that spell level.

Because the level of magic in the Greek myths is weaker than your standard fantasy campaign, the Hellenic sorceress spell list has no spells above 5th-level. To offset this, the Hellenic sorceress has other special abilities that augment her spellcasting.

When a Hellenic sorceress would normally gain a new spell known of level 6, 7, 8, or 9, she may instead use it for one of two things. First, she may use it to learn a lower-level spell on the Hellenic sorceress spell list. Second, she may apply a +1 modifier to the DC of one of her existing spells known.