Areas of Focus:
Major: Striking
Supplemental: Defense, Crowd Control, Miscellaneous
Ciphers are the psychic fighters whose talent descends from Glanfathan “soul hunters.” They use mental powers to affect the minds and souls of their enemies. Other classes are capable of manipulating their own souls to gain some effect, but not ciphers. Ciphers specialize in touching the souls of others to produce their own effects. To do this, they rely upon Focus, a resource they drain from enemies in combat through the use of their weapons.
Lore
A recent discovery in the Eastern Reach, ciphers were once called “brîshalgwin” (“mind hunters”) by the Glanfathans. Ciphers have the ability to directly contact and manipulate another person’s soul and psyche, using an ally’s or enemy’s essence as the focus for their magic. Though most ciphers are still found in the Eastern Reach, practitioners of the techniques have spread throughout the known world. They are gaining acceptance over time, but are generally distrusted, especially by the uneducated.
Overview
Ciphers are an unusual class, using the power of their minds and their souls to affect the minds and souls of other creatures. They are capable of performing many abilities that are unique to their profession. Cipher abilities generally require Focus to activate. Once they are activated, the Focus is spent.
Ciphers are uncommon and often misunderstood individuals with extraordinary mental abilities. Like wizards and priests, they have many talents that draw directly from their souls, but ciphers have the unique ability to peer through the spiritual energy of the world to manipulate other souls. While wizards use complex formulae in large tomes and priests tap into the passion of their faith, ciphers are able to operate directly through the power of their minds… and yours.
Starting Stats
Endurance
36 + 10/level (Very Low)
Health
4 x Endurance (Low)
Accuracy
25 + 3/level (Average)
Deflection
20 (High)
Skill Bonus
Lore +1 Mechanics +1 Stealth +1
Starting Abilities
Powers – Directly target allies and enemies with powerful soul-focused effects. These powers cost Focus, which is built through the use of their Soul Whip.
Cipher Companion
Grieving Mother
Race: Human
Sex: Female
Class: Cipher
Available: Dyrford Village
Description: Optimistic, introspective, troubled, encouraging, sharp, killer instinct.
Tactics
Psionic Archer Build
Advantages: Powerful Afflictions, Strong AoE, Buffs, Crowd Control
Disadvantages: Low Health/Endurance, Moderate Micro, Relies on Crowd Control
Strategy
The Psionic Archer Cipher build is heavily focused on controlling enemies while wearing them down with a barrage of arrows. Using spells like Mental Binding and Amplified Wave, you can easily render a group of foes immobile. Following up with a few ranged attacks, you should be able to build enough Focus to cast the spells again, or switch to other options.
Equipment
War Bows or Hunting Bows work best with this build. Though you could substitute a Wand, Rod, or Sceptre without much issue. If a gun is desired, consider dropping Penetrating Shot and taking Gunner in its place.
Wear lighter armor to build Focus more quickly.
Races
Wood Elf
Hearth Orlan
- Death Godlike
Culture
Old Vailia or Rauatai
Deadfire Archipelago or The White that Wends
- Living Lands
Attributes
Might 15
Constitution 10
Dexterity 14
Perception 9
Intellect 18
- Resolve 9
Spells
Soul Shock
Mind Wave
Whisper of Treason
Mental Binding
Mind Blades
Psychovampiric Shield
Secret Horrors
Ectopsychic Echo
Pain Link
Mind Lance
Silent Scream
Pain Block
Ringleader
Borrowed Instinct
Tactical Meld
Amplified Wave
Mind Plague
- Disintegration
Talents
Penetrating Shot
Biting Whip
Marksman
Weapon Focus
Envenomed Strike
- Psychic Backlash or Draining Whip
Alternate Build
If you’d like to take your Cipher into the thick of melee, swap the light armor for a heavy suit of mail armor or above. Ciphers can’t take very many attacks, but if they can lock down an enemy and then begin hitting them rapidly while dual wielding, they can generate even more damage and focus than a ranged cipher could. This build would drop all ranged talents such as Penetrating Shot and Marksman and play more similarly to the Assassin Rogue.
Special Abilities
Focus
Focus is a resource that ciphers require to cast their powers. Ciphers begin combat with a modest amount of Focus, but their more advanced techniques demand large expenditures of Focus. Additionally, repeated uses of even minor powers will quickly drain a cipher’s Focus, requiring them to dive into physical combat to generate more. The way they get Focus is by doing damage to enemies with melee and ranged weapons. So send your cipher into combat with traditional weapons to build your Focus. When it’s maxed out, their inherent damage bonuses get turned off because their Focus is full and they can’t drain any more.
Power
Powers require Focus and a nearby target other than themselves, one with a “housed” soul. In practical terms, this means that ciphers must always target a nearby ally or an enemy with their powers. It is impossible for them to target themselves, a distant target, or open ground. They have a lot of single-target damage powers, which inflict afflictions, and powers that affect jumps from target to target.
Soul Whip
At close range, the cipher’s weapons generate fields of parasitic energy that lash out at a target’s soul. The Soul Whip mode reduces the amount of damage caused, but each successful hit briefly lowers the target’s Psyche defense and generates Focus for the cipher.
Soul Whip
Available at Level 1 (Passive, Focus below maximum)
Effects: Self: x1.2 All Damage
Causes the cipher’s weapons to generate a field of parasitic energy that lashes out at the target, increasing Damage inflicted and generating Focus for the cipher.
Talents
Biting Whip
Modifies Soul Whip (x1.2 All Damage)
Soul Whip (Passive, Focus below maximum)
Effects: Self: x1.2 All Damage
The cipher’s Soul Whip bites deeper, granting a bonus to Damage.
Psychic Backlash
Grants Psychic Backlash (Passive, 1 per encounter)
Effects: Foe Target: Stunned for 3 sec vs. Will (-10 Accuracy)
Invokes a retaliatory strike, Stunning an enemy whenever they target the cipher’s Will defense.
Brutal Backlash
Modifies Psychic Backlash (5 Raw Damage)
Psychic Backlash (Passive, 1 per encounter)
Effects: Foe Target: Stunned for 3 sec vs. Will (-10 Accuracy)
The cipher’s Psychic Backlash becomes especially traumatic, inflicting a small amount of Raw Damage to the target on a hit.
Draining Whip
Modifies Soul Whip (+2 Focus on hit)
Soul Whip (Passive, Focus below maximum)
Effects: Self: x1.2 All Damage
Enhances the draining power of the cipher’s Soul Whip, regenerating Focus more quickly.
Greater Focus
Grants Greater Focus (Passive)
Effects: Self: +10 Max Focus
The cipher has an increased maximum Focus.
Cipher Powers (Spells)
Level One
Tenuous Grasp
Requires 10 Focus
Interrupt: 40 (Average)
Effects: Foe Target: Frightened for 6 sec, Confused for 6 sec vs. Will (+10 Accuracy)
Assails the target’s grasp on reality, Frightening and Confusing them.
Antipathetic Field
Requires 10 Focus
Range: 15m
Duration: 6 sec
Interrupt: 40 (Average)
Effects: Foe Beam: 10-20 Corrode vs. Reflex
User: x1.2 Beam Damage over 12 sec vs. Reflex
Creates a toxic physical manifestation of the mutual antipathy between the cipher and the enemy target. Anyone caught in the path between the two will suffer Corrosive damage.
Whisper of Treason
3 per rest
Speed: Slow
Interrupt: 40 (Average)
Effects: Foe Target: Charmed for 10 sec vs. Will (+10 Accuracy)
Imparts a bedeviling secret to an enemy that causes its allegiance to bend, Charming them for the duration.
Whisper of Treason
Requires 10 Focus
Speed: Slow
Interrupt: 40 (Average)
Effects: Foe Target: Charmed for 10 sec vs. Will (+10 Accuracy)
Imparts a bedeviling secret to an enemy that causes its allegiance to bend, Charming them for the duration.
Soul Shock
Requires 10 Focus
Range: 6m
Area of Effect: Allied Target + 2.5m Radius (base 2.5m)
Effects: Foe AoE: 22-30 Shock vs. Reflex (+5 Accuracy)
Briefly transforms the outer shell of an allied target’s soul into energy, releasing an electrical burst around them. Characters standing in the area around the target take Shock damage.
Eyestrike
Requires 10 Focus
Area of Effect: Target + 2.5m Radius (base 2.5m)
Interrupt: 40 (Average)
Effects: Target: Blinded for 10 sec, Dazed for 10 sec vs. Fortitude (+10 Accuracy)
Foe AoE: Blinded for 10 sec vs. Fortitude (+5 Accuracy)
Shocks an enemy’s visual receptors, Dazing and Blinding them, as well as Blinding nearby targets.
Mind wave
Requires 20 Focus
Speed: Fast
Area of Effect: Target + Length: 5.0m (base 5.0m) 120° Cone
Interrupt: 40 (Average)
Effects: Target: 10-18 Raw vs. Will (+10 Accuracy)
Foe AoE: Prone for 5 sec vs. Fortitude (+5 Accuracy)
Target becomes the object of a concussive blast of psychic energy, suffering Raw damage from the trauma. Characters in a conical area behind the target failing a Fortitude check are knocked prone from the blast.
Level Two
Mental Binding
Requires 15 Focus
Speed: Fast
Area of Effect: Foe Target + 2.0m Radius (base 2.0m)
Interrupt: 40 (Average)
Effects: Foe Target: Paralyzed for 6 sec vs. Will (+10 Accuracy)
Foe AoE: Stuck for 8 sec vs. Fortitude (+5 Accuracy)
Overwhelms the target’s mental ability to communicate with its own body, Paralyzing it and causing its soul to emit a shockwave that can leave nearby enemies Stuck.
Recall Agony
Requires 15 Focus
Speed: Fast
Effects: Foe Target: 30% of all damage reapplied over 12 sec vs. Will (+5 Accuracy)
Causes the target to relive the psychic trauma of an injury moments after receiving it, experiencing the Damage all over again.
Amplified Thrust
Requires 15 Focus
Speed: Fast
Range: 5m + 3m Jump
Area of Effect: Allied Target + 1 Foe Jump Target
Effects: Target: Additional Attack (+5 Accuracy)
Jump Targets: Additional Attack (+5 Accuracy)
Bounces psychic energy harmlessly off the target and onto the closest nearby enemy, causing Pierce damage and violently pushing them backward.
Psychovampiric Shield
Requires 15 Focus
Effects: Target: Drains -10 Resolve for +10 Deflection for 20 sec vs. Will (+10 Accuracy)
The cipher uses the target’s strength of mind against it, stealing a portion of its Resolve in order to better Deflect incoming attacks.
Phantom Foes
Requires 15 Focus.
Range: 10m
Area of Effect: Foe Target + 5.0m Radius (base 5.0m)
Interrupt: 40 (Average)
Effects: Foe AoE: Flanked for 10 sec vs. Will (+5 Accuracy)
Invades the minds of targets in the area of effect, causing them to believe they are surrounded by phantom foes, leaving them Flanked for the duration.
Mind Blades
Requires 15 Focus
Range: 10m + 10m Jump
Area of Effect: Foe Target + 5 Jump Targets
Interrupt: 40 (Average)
Effects: Foe Target: 13-20 Slash vs. Deflection (+5 Accuracy)
Foe Jump Targets: 14-22 Slash vs. Deflection (+5 Accuracy)
Co-opts the target’s essence, generating a Slashing blade of force that attacks them before leaping to up to five additional targets.
Level Three
Ectopsychic Echo
Requires 20 Focus
Range: 12m
Duration: 10 sec
Interrupt: 40 (Average)
Effects: Foe Beam: 20-30 Crush vs. Reflex (+5 Accuracy)
Generates a rebounding wave of psychic feedback between the cipher and an ally that causes Crush damage to anyone caught in between.
Puppet Master
Requires 20 Focus
Speed: Slow
Interrupt: 40 (Average)
Effects: Foe Target: Dominated for 10 sec vs. Will (+10 Accuracy)
Destroys a target’s psychic defenses, leaving them Dominated by the cipher for the duration.
Soul Ignition
Requires 20 Focus
Range: 20m
Effects: Target: 33.3 Burn Damage over 10 sec vs. Fortitude (+5 Accuracy)
Forces an enemy’s soul to “leak” energy, igniting the air around them and Burning them over time.
Pain Link
Requires 20 Focus
Effects: Allied Target: 25% of all damage reapplied to nearby enemies over 18 sec (+10 Accuracy)
Mentally links nearby enemies to the target, forcing them to experience a portion of all Damage the target suffers.
Secret Horrors
Requires 20 Focus
Range: 10m
Area of Effect: Foe Target + 3.0m Radius (base 3.0m)
Interrupt: 40 (Average)
Effects: Foe AoE: Frightened for 15 sec, Sickened for 15 sec vs. Will (+5 Accuracy)
Causes enemies in the area of effect to believe their worst fears have been realized, Frightening and Sickening them for the duration.
Fractured Volition
Requires 20 Focus
Interrupt: 40 (Average)
Effects: Foe Target: Hobbled for 12 sec, Weakened for 12 sec vs. Will (+10 Accuracy)
Violates an enemy’s memories to bring vivid recollections of past failures to the surface, leaving the target Hobbled and Weakened.
Level Four
Wild Leech
Requires 25 Focus
Effects: Target: 10 points stolen from a random attribute for 15 sec vs. Will (+10 Accuracy)
Latches onto some characteristic of the target’s psyche and drains it, granting the same amount as a bonus to the cipher. Affects a random Attribute.
Body Attunement
Requires 25 Focus
Speed: Fast
Effects: Foe Target: +7 Damage Reduction stolen for 15 sec vs. Fortitude (+10 Accuracy)
The cipher probes the mind and soul of the enemy target, finding the strengths of its defenses and stealing them for his or her own. Drains a portion of the target’s Damage Reduction, granting the same amount as a bonus to the cipher.
Silent Scream
Requires 25 Focus
Area of Effect: Target + 2.5m Radius (base 2.5m)
Interrupt: 60 (Stronger)
Effects: Target: 15-25 Raw, Stunned for 6 sec vs. Will (+10 Accuracy)
Foe AoE: 15-25 Raw vs. Will (+5 Accuracy)
Produces a psychic howl in the targeted area, Stunning the target, as well as dealing Raw damage to all enemies within. Stands a high chance of causing an Interrupt.
Mind Lance
Requires 25 Focus
Speed: Fast
Area of Effect: Target + Length: 10m
Interrupt: 60 (Stronger)
Effects: Target: 35-42 Pierce vs. Will (+10 Accuracy)
Impales the target with a lance of pure force, inflicting major Pierce damage to all in the line of attack with a high chance of causing an Interrupt.
Pain Block
Requires 25 Focus
Effects: Allied Target: +10 Damage Reduction, +66.7 Endurance over 20 sec for 20 sec (+10 Accuracy)
Provides an ally with a mental block on his or her pain, granting a bonus to their Damage Reduction and regenerating Endurance over time.
Level Five
Borrowed Instinct
Requires 30 Focus
Effects: Foe Target: -5 Intellect, -5 Perception for 15 sec vs. Will (+10 Accuracy)
User: +20 Melee Accuracy, +20 Ranged Accuracy, +20 Deflection, +20 Fortitude, +20 Reflex, +20 Will for 15 sec vs. Will (+10 Accuracy)
Ransacks an enemy’s Intellect and Perception for energy, causing damage to those enemy Attributes while boosting the cipher’s Defenses and Accuracy.
Tactical Meld
Requires 30 Focus
Speed: Fast
Effects: User: +20 Accuracy when attacking the same enemy as the target for 15 sec
Connects the mind of the cipher with an ally to gain the ally’s knowledge of his or her enemy, bestowing an attack bonus upon the cipher toward the enemy the ally is attacking.
Detonate
Requires 30 Focus
Interrupt: 40 (Average)
Effects: Target: 30-50 Raw, Additional Attack vs. Fortitude (+10 Accuracy)
Splinters the target’s soul with sheer force, inflicting Raw damage to them, targets with low Endurance explode, causing Crush damage to all in the area of effect.
Ringleader
Requires 30 Focus
Speed: Slow
Area of Effect: Foe Target + 3.0m Radius (base 3.0m)
Effects: Foe Target: Dominated for 10 sec vs. Will (+10 Accuracy)
Foe AoE: Charmed for 10 sec vs. Will (+5 Accuracy)
Imprints an insidious and powerful compulsion to obey the cipher across all enemies in the area of effect, Dominating the target and Charming all others.
Level Six
Mind Plague
Requires 35 Focus
Range: 10m + 8m Jump
Area of Effect: Foe Target + 5 Jump Targets
Interrupt: 40 (Average)
Effects: Foe Target: Dazed for 18 sec, Confused for 18 sec vs. Will (+5 Accuracy)
Foe Jump Targets: Dazed for 18 sec, Confused for 18 sec vs. Will (+5 Accuracy)
Destroys an enemy’s memory with calculated accuracy, Confusing and Dazing them before rapidly jumping to up to five other enemies.
Amplified Wave
Requires 35 Focus
Speed: Fast
Area of Effect: Allied Target + 8.0m Radius (base 8.0m)
Effects: Foe AoE: 25-32 Crush, Prone for 4 sec vs. Fortitude (+5 Accuracy)
Manifests the target ally’s mental strengths and projects them outward forcefully, causing a shockwave that inflicts Crush damage and knocks any in the area of effect Prone.
Disintegration
Requires 35 Focus
Speed: Slow
Effects: Target: 25 Raw Damage over 15 sec vs. Fortitude (+10 Accuracy)
Burns away the ethereal sinew that holds together the mind, body, and soul of the target enemy, causing it to rapidly take Raw damage. Targets that have their Endurance reduced to zero disintegrate into nonexistence.