You were once the pride of an esteemed arcane academy, a rare prodigy pulled from poverty because of your terrifyingly sharp mind. Your instructors praised your potential, and your future was guaranteed. Then came the disaster. A catastrophic failure in the laboratory resulted in an accidental death, a shattered timeline, and a massive scandal. To protect the academy's pristine reputation, the higher-ups scrubbed your records, labeled the incident a tragic malfunction, and quietly cast you out into the world. You carry the heavy burden of forbidden knowledge, the crushing guilt of what you did, and a permanent ban from any high-end arcane institution.
- Ability Scores: Your time at the academy was defined by intense, exhausting study, while your subsequent life on the roads has turned you into a quick-thinking scrapper. You gain a +2 bonus to Intelligence and a +1 bonus to Constitution.
- Feat: Telekinetic. Your raw, unrefined magical feedback manifests as an invisible extension of your mind. You can manipulate small objects at a distance and shove creatures 5 feet as a bonus action. Visually, this occurs because your haunted shadow lunges independently across the floor to manipulate the target's balance.
- Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, History, and Insight. Your high-end academic training gives you an advanced understanding of the multiverse and historical chronologies. Additionally, living on the run while hiding a dark past has forced you to closely read people's true intentions to ensure your secrets remain safe.
- Tool Proficiencies: Weaver's Tools. After being cast out of the academy with nothing but the clothes on your back, you had to learn how to keep yourself together on the open road. You carry a needle and thread to patch up your traveling companions' armor and maintain your signature patchwork coat.
- Languages: One language of your choice. During your late-night research sessions in the academy's restricted vaults, you spent hours translating forbidden texts and ancient scrolls detailing the nature of the cosmos.
- Equipment: A bottle of black ink, a quill, a small utility knife, a set of common clothes, a pouch containing 10 gp, and a final, un-graded exam paper or note written to you by Lucan right before the accident. You also carry a set of Weaver's Tools and wear Lucan's oversized patchwork coat as your primary outfit.
Though you've been stripped of your titles and expelled from the academy, you retain your brilliant research training. When you attempt to learn or recall lore regarding dunamancy, anomalies, or space-time magic, you know exactly where to find that information. Usually, this information lies hidden in places the academy abandoned—ruined research outposts, black-market arcane vaults, or the private collections of eccentric, rogue mages who don't care about your disgraced reputation. Furthermore, your desperate need to blend in means you can easily spot when others are hiding their own dark secrets or magical mishaps.
Spell List
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | magnify gravity, shield |
| 2nd | fortune's favor, immovable object, misty step |
Suggested Characteristics
The crushing weight of a tragic accident has left a permanent scar on your psyche, forcing you to develop unique traits to cope with the reality of your situation. You balance an overly cheerful exterior with a deeply buried reservoir of panic, guilt, and determination. Your characteristics are defined by a desperate desire to do good, an intense anxiety regarding your past, and a complicated relationship with the resentful entity bound directly to your shadow.
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I talk fast, use massive academic terms incorrectly on purpose, and aggressively try to fix everyone's problems so they like me. |
| 2 | I constantly hand out baked treats or offer to mend clothes during rests because I am terrified of being unhelpful. |
| 3 | I hum cheerful tunes whenever a room gets too quiet to drown out the whispers from the floor. |
| 4 | I am fiercely protective of my friends and will put myself in direct danger to make sure nothing bad happens to them. |
| 5 | I carry a notebook everywhere, constantly sketching small timeline loops and taking overly detailed notes on things that do not matter. |
| 6 | I avoid eye contact with my own shadow and nervously laugh it off whenever someone points out that it is moving independently. |
| 7 | I overcompensate for my gloomy past by dressing in excessively bright, colorful, or eccentric outfits. |
| 8 | I am incredibly eager to please authority figures, constantly seeking the academic validation I was stripped of. |
| d8 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Redemption. I took a life by accident, so I must spend every single day saving, healing, and protecting others. (Good) |
| 2 | Generosity. The world has enough suffering, so I'll spend my remaining time spreading warmth and comfort to those in need. (Good) |
| 3 | Atonement. I don't deserve comfort, but I'll use the forbidden magic that cost my friend everything to do right by the world. (Lawful) |
| 4 | Logic. Emotional impulses lead to catastrophic mistakes. I must keep my mind perfectly ordered and analytical. (Lawful) |
| 5 | Balance. Time and gravity are neutral forces. I must ensure that my light completely balances out the darkness tied to my heels. (Neutral) |
| 6 | Discovery. The fundamental laws of space and time are bigger than personal guilt. I only care about uncovering universal truths. (Neutral) |
| 7 | Self-Preservation. The universe wants to crush me for what I did. I'll do whatever it takes to survive, no matter who gets hurt. (Evil) |
| 8 | Dominion. My magic cracked reality once. Instead of hiding from that raw power, I'll learn to completely control it to bend others to my will. (Evil) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | I am bound to the spirit of someone from my past, and I must find a way to untangle our fates to give them final peace. |
| 2 | A single, mundane keepsake from my old life is my most prized possession, serving as my last connection to a time before the scandal. |
| 3 | The institution that cast me out may have discredited my work, but I will prove to my old peers that my theories were correct. |
| 4 | I owe everything to the traveling companions who took me in when I was homeless, broken, and running from my past. |
| 5 | I must protect the family of someone I inadvertently wronged from afar, sending them support anonymously whenever I can. |
| 6 | I travel to find a rare, legendary artifact that is rumored to be able to completely undo catastrophic magical mistakes. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I am completely terrified of tight, enclosed spaces, and I panic if I hear rhythmic noises that remind me of a ticking countdown. |
| 2 | I hesitate to deliver a final, lethal blow to an enemy, terrified that my magic will spiral out of control like it did before. |
| 3 | A supernatural burden from my past actively sabotages my rest, leaving me perpetually exhausted and prone to anxious outbursts. |
| 4 | I blindly trust anyone who shows me a modicum of kindness, desperate for any form of validation or acceptance. |
| 5 | I hoard forbidden research notes and books, completely unable to stop myself from collecting dangerous, restricted knowledge. |
| 6 | I hide severe panic attacks behind a blinding, fake smile, refusing to ever let my companions see that I am struggling. |
Instead of focusing solely on your disgraced academic standing, this variant emphasizes the supernatural burden of your accident. You have given up on formal institutions entirely, using your training to investigate localized rifts, temporal anomalies, and spiritual hauntings across the world. You are actively searching for any magical anomaly that might hold the key to untangling your own timeline from the entity bound to your shadow. Your unique combination of advanced arcane theory and practical occult survival makes you a valuable asset to any adventuring party dealing with the strange, the broken, or the supernatural.
The temporal feedback from the laboratory accident has left a lingering ripple in the localized space-time around you. Whenever you enter a room or an area that has experienced a highly emotional death, a violent temporal shift, or an anomaly involving dunamancy, your haunted shadow reacts instantly before you do. The shadow might drop its arms, point toward a hidden structural fracture, or freeze completely in place. While this reaction doesn't give you specific technical data, it serves as an early mechanical warning that the fabric of reality has been broken or altered in your immediate vicinity.
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