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Tatterdemalion
As far as you can tell, you have always been a pile of clothes. You have no memory of what came before you realized that your hands were gloves, your torso a shirt, and that under all the clothes you wear there’s nothing at all. While not exactly memories, you do have flashes of something in your mind’s eye—disjointed and chaotic experiences. You know how to practice a trade or recall information about a particular subject, but beyond that, nothing.
Tatterdemalion Traits
- Size: 1/2
- Additional Descriptor: Spirit
- Senses: True Vision
- Immune: asleep, blinded, deafened, poisoned, slowed; exposure, deprivation, infection, suffocation
- Cloth Body: Your body consists of bits and scraps of cloth all knotted together. You ignore any effect that would transform you or change your shape. When you take damage from fire, you take an extra 1d6 damage.
- Spiritual Existence: When you become incapacitated, the cloth making up your body falls to the ground at your space, and you are stunned instead of unconscious. If you heal any damage, you flow into the nearest pile of cloth within 20 yards and inhabit it. If no such pile exists, you remain stunned until one comes within this range. If you die from being incapacitated, your spirit descends to the Underworld, and nothing short of divine intervention can restore you to your previous form.
Tatterdemalion Novice Path
Level 1 Tatterdemalion
Suggested Attributes: Strength 10, Agility 10, Intellect 10, Will 13
Natural Defense: 11
Health: 10
Languages: Common
- Spectral Touch (Magical): You can use an action to extend a spectral appendage from your body. Target one creature within reach. Make an Agility roll against the target’s Strength. On a success, the target takes 1d6 damage, and becomes weakened (luck ends).
- Superior Reflexes: You make Agility rolls with 1 boon, and you impose 1 bane on rolls against your Agility.
Level 2 Tatterdemalion
Health: +2
Tradition: One
Spells: Two novice
- Spiritual Recovery (Magical): While using an action to use Spectral Touch, you make your Agility roll with 1 boon; on a success, the target takes 2d6 damage. In addition, you use this talent to heal half your damage total and, for 1 minute, you make Will rolls with 1 boon and impose 1 bane on rolls against your Will. Once you use this talent, you lose access to it until after you rest.
Level 5 Tatterdemalion
Health: +2
Spells: One expert
Bonus Damage: +1d6
- Hijack Apparel: You can use an action to move from the clothing making up your body to the clothing worn by another. Target one creature within 5 yards that wears clothing of any kind. Make a Will roll against the target’s Agility. On a success, you control the target (luck ends). On a failure, you lose access to this talent for 1 minute. You can use this talent a number of times equal to half your level and regain expended uses after a rest. While you control a target, you occupy its space and move with it when it moves. If the target sustains damage, it takes half of it, and you take the rest. You use actions normally; however, the target you have controlled can make use only of actions normally available to all creatures such as attack, defend, etc.
- Spectral Strike (Magical): While using an action to use Spectral Touch, you make your Agility roll with 1 boon; on a success, the target takes 5d6 damage.
Lore
A ghostly presence
You’re dead. That’s why you can’t remember anything of import, such as your name, your background, or, really, any other details from your past. Who you were, how you lived, who mattered to you, and the circumstances of your death all escape you. For now. What you do know is that you have a body made from bits of clothing—maybe a shirt, possibly a hat—but the rest of you is rags, knotted together in the semblance of a humanoid shape. You replace your pieces all the time, snatching up useful material and incorporating it into your form. Your cloth body stands about 3 feet tall and weighs no more than a few pounds. You decide what kind of clothes make up your form. If you have armor components, the armor protects you as if you were made of flesh and blood. During your existence as a tatterdemalion, you will change out your physical components many times.
Recalling Your Lost Life
It takes no time at all to figure out that you are dead, though the circumstances of your end and why you are still here remain a mystery for now. Memories return, little by little, over time, helping you rebuild the identity you lost. Advancement in your paths represents the progress you make toward restoring your memories, so that by the end of your final quest, you can be sure you will have earned the rest that is to be your reward.
Each time your level increases, you learn a bit more about who you were. You can come up with this information on your own, but you might find it rewarding to have your fellow players reveal something each time instead. The Sage might step in to knit the information together so that it fits into the campaign.
Unwilling to Move On
Ignorance of your past in no way diminishes your eagerness to remain in the mortal world. Something keeps you here—something important that needs doing. This responsibility anchors you when you feel the Underworld’s pull.
Your existence defies the natural order, and reality aims to correct an obvious violation of the rules. You feel something tugging at you all the time, though the sensation in no way discomfits or limits you. It just reminds you that you should not be among the living. The sensation worsens as you sustain injury: Black spots appear in the distance, yawning holes that offer glimpses of the shadowy world beyond. You even hear faint moans of those consigned to oblivion.
Unnatural Nature
As much as you might miss the flavor of a good meal or the relief of a cool drink, you can take in no sustenance, nor do you need it. You can benefit from magical substances, such as potions and the like, by soaking the material constituting your body with the liquid. Sleep never comes over you, but you do find it useful and restorative to have extended periods of downtime.
Your senses change too. You have no ability to smell or taste; such things have no meaning for you. You can feel things through the body you assemble and “hear” by feeling the vibrations in your clothing. You see, sort of, but your vision goes beyond what you had when you were alive. Your vision enables you to see people and objects, but also spirits, invisible things, and recognize visual illusions for what they are.
A Little Upsetting
When people see a pile of clothes wandering around, they act as you might expect them to act, with a little fear, perhaps some loathing too. Luckily, you are small and can squeeze though tight places. When needed, you can stay out of view. You must be mindful of those who hunt spirits, for such people consider you an abomination.
First Glimpses
The first thing you remember is how to do whatever it was that you did when you were alive. Your profession can offer clues about how you died. If you were an academic, perhaps you dis covered something dangerous during your research. Enemies of your faith could have claimed you if you had a religious calling, while battle might have snuffed out your life if you were in the military. Rather than choose a profession, allow the dice to decide to spark your creativity.
Tatterdemalion Names
You can not recall your name, so you have one given to you. Common nicknames include Chuckles, Hob, Rags, Haunt, and Tatters.