Mastermind

Starting ability: ✪ Stratagem
Key attribute: Awareness

Your foes can never be sure if they’re winning or stumbling into some elaborate trap you’ve set. Surveying dangers from on high, holding your allies in tight formation as they advance, shouting a precisely- timed command for maximal advantage, a Mastermind’s clever leadership makes an adventuring party more than the sum of its parts.

Mastermind-Aligned Lore

When you start the game as a Mastermind, at least one type of your chosen lore must be from this list, and it must be from your origin.

Ask the Guide:

Does this plan seem like a smart idea?
What strategic advantages and disadvantages does our adversary have?
Is there any information I should be remembering to help with our current situation?

Abilities to Learn

Starting Ability

✪ Stratagem

Starting ability

When you start the game, and whenever you rest, you can devise one or more stratagems. Reduce your current and max Awareness to gain stratagem-focus, 1 for 1. Spend 1 stratagem-focus to spring any stratagem below, at any time—no action required. Devising stratagems doesn’t count as an endeavor. Also, you, the player, don’t need to pick a specific stratagem when you devise it. Trust that your genius hero has it all figured out! You regain +1 current and max Awareness immediately after springing a stratagem. Always Ready When faced with battle or storm, you and your allies all act in the first round automatically, without having to successfully Act First. Auspicious Advice When an ally takes any action, Compel them; the ally can use your result instead of theirs. Coordinated OffenseGrant Maneuver advantage to all heroes’ Attacks (including yours) for one round. One Step AheadInflict Maneuver disadvantage to one foe’s Attack, which misses automatically if the result fails to beat your core Awareness. The attack doesn’t have to target you.Your Mind's an Open Scroll Cause a foe’s Maneuver or Compel to fail automatically.FlashbackYou narrate something you did in the past that sets you up for success—or sets your enemies up for failure—in the present. First describe specifically what you would like this stratagem to accomplish. Then explain what your character did in the past, “off-camera,” to prepare for this contingency. The Guide can call for you to make action rolls for your past actions. They may also determine your plan requires more than 1 stratagem-focus if it’s particularly complex.

If you have “extra” stratagems, you can’t increase your max Awareness beyond your core Awareness by springing them.

Abilities to Learn

✪ Clarity

Mark of SPIRIT

Take -1 spirit, regain awareness up to your max, and Compel yourself to see the strategic paths available to you. Gain clarity-focus equal to your roll. Before your next turn, spend this focus on the following:

1 focus: Regain 1 awareness
4 focus: Gain 1 stratagem and reduce your max Awareness by 1
4 focus: Gain +1 overflow awareness if your awareness is at max

You lose all clarity-focus at the start of your next turn.

✪ Heart of Intellect

Mark of SPIRIT

Gain +3 max Life. When you learn this ability, you can replace one of your ideals with Order or Truth. Whenever you invoke one of these ideals and get a 4 or higher on your ideal die, you gain 1 stratagem-focus.

✪ Master Plan

Mark of AWARENESS

As an endeavor, Compel yourself and your allies to coordinate a clever plan.

4 or higher: You and up to six allies gain +1 overflow awareness.
8 or higher: You also gain 1 stratagem-focus without having to reduce your max Awareness.

✪ Observer

Mark of AWARENESS

When a character you can see takes any action, you can take -1 awareness and Compel as a ↻ reaction to carefully observe them. If you beat the target’s spirit, you benefit from one of the following observations, depending on what type of action you observed.

Clumsy tell (observe Move): The character’s Attacks and other Moves against you suffer a -1 penalty.
Weak spot (observe Brace): When you strike a lethal hit against the character, inflict extra life damage equal to your core Awareness.
Soft spot (observe Compel): You have a +2 bonus when you Compel the character (including with this ability).
Blind spot (observe Maneuver): You have a +2 bonus when you Maneuver against the foe.

Track your observations on your hero sheet separately for each character you observe. You can observe a character multiple times for different actions, but you only gain the associated benefit of each action once.Subtle observation. When you take this action, the observed character knows you’re intentfully watching them—unless you’re hidden or you Deceive them into thinking otherwise. Generalizing observations. If you Observe a monster and you know the following lore, you can generalize your observations and apply them to similar characters, as detailed in the table:

Monsters: All spawn of the Face of Yom that you observed—for example, all spawn of Yom the Cnidarian after observing a battle-jelly
Politics: All characters with the same role or title you observed—for example, all fighters after observing a single fighter
Wisdom of Adod: All wraiths of the same element you observed—for example, all wind wraiths after observing a single wind wraith

✪ Productive Rest

Mark of AWARENESS

When you rest, choose one benefit:

Gain +1 overflow awareness at the end of the rest, OR
Perform two different endeavors during a rest

✪ Scholar

Mark of AWARENESS

You gain 2 revelations when you study as an endeavor. You can study one or two books this way. (If you know ✪Productive Rest, you can study twice to gain four revelations!) Also, if you encounter a text you can’t read, you can study it to gain literacy in its writing system, though you don’t gain any revelations from it. Finally, you learn the following stratagem: I Read About ThisWhen you take an action, you can name a book you own or have recently read and explain how its contents point to some advantage. The Guide awards you an advantage die, determining the size of your die based on the plausibility of your explanation. During combat and other tense situations, book-learning is only modestly helpful at best. The advantage die ranges from a d4 to a d10. During less stressful situations where you have time to apply your academic knowledge, the advantage die ranges from a d6 to a d20.

✪ Survey

Mark of AWARENESS

You’ve learned how to scrutinize an area and devise stratagems to fit its unique terrain. You learn the following stratagems. Unlike other stratagems, you can only spring these near the place you rested.

TowerYou can only use this stratagem in or near the same place that you’ve rested. A ladder or a similar climbing device drops into view as you spring this stratagem, enabling you and your allies to Rush up it with a +2 bonus. Anyone who climbs on high this way also ends up behind cover relative to foes below. The top of the ladder can also serve as a threshold, if you wish.After you’ve climbed it, you can disable or destroy the ladder at any time, instantly. Without the ladder, your makeshift tower is not easily scalable; foes have a -2 penalty to Rush and climb it the hard way. The presence of this “tower” can’t contradict any facts established by the Guide, but it can take many forms. For example, a tree, a rocky slope, or a skyship’s mast can all serve as a tower.

TrapYou can only use this stratagem in or near the same place that you’ve rested. Describe the trap you’ve cleverly set—for example, a heavy bronze ingot suspended on a tree branch, a slick of oil on a steep stairway, or concealed sharp rocks strewn underfoot. Maneuver as a ↻ reaction against a foe when you spring this stratagem. On a success, you inflict grace damage equal to twice your core Awareness.You can’t spring another Trap until the next round. WardYou can only use this stratagem in or near the same place that you’ve rested. Name and briefly describe an obstacle you’ve prepared that occupies a threshold in front of you and your allies. This obstacle and threshold can’t contradict any facts established by the Guide, but you can otherwise invent their presence wholecloth.Foes can break through the obstacle by Bracing against it. The Guide tallies their results. The tally required to break through is 4 times your core Awareness.

✪ Too Clever to Die

Mark of AWARENESS

You have Maneuver advantage when you Survive. Additionally, you learn two new stratagems: Close CallIf an attack or other effect would reduce your Life to zero, Maneuver yourself with Compel advantage as a ↻ reaction and reduce the life damage you take by your result. Live to Fight Another DayYou and any willing allies fighting with you retreat beyond the Fray. You and your allies can then Evade as a following action.

← Wanderer ✧ Messenger →

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