Class: Trainer

The Trainer
		Memetics
Level	Special	Cache	Memory	Libraries	Max Grade	Memes Known
1	Mementos	2	1	1	Common	3
2	Trainer's Secret	2	1	1	Common	4
3		2	1	2	Common	5
4	Trainer's Secret	3	1	2	Uncommon	6
5		3	2	2	Uncommon	7
6	Trainer's Secret	4	2	2	Uncommon	8
7		4	2	3	Uncommon	9
8	Trainer's Secret	4	2	3	Uncommon	11
9		5	3	3	Rare	12
10	Trainer Talent	5	3	3	Rare	13
11		6	3	4	Rare	14
12	Trainer Talent	6	3	4	Rare	15
13		6	4	4	Rare	16
14	Trainer Talent	7	4	4	Obscure	17
15		7	4	5	Obscure	19
16	Trainer Talent	8	4	5	Obscure	20
17		8	5	5	Obscure	21
18	Trainer Talent	8	5	5	Obscure	22
19		9	5	6	Secret	23
20	Trainer Talent	9	5	6	Secret	24

 

Trainer

Locke'mejis and Ashe'cathari, iconic trainers

"Shorts are comfy and easy to wear. Let's fight!"

The world of Trinity is a dangerous place. Some, such as the commonfolk, rely upon their well-trained members of their society to defend them from attackers; others are those defenders themselves. However, some societies lack the comfort of walls or homes, always on the move. Halflings, selkies, and even lunari often find themselves almost always on the move or lacking stable fortifications. While the more aged among their people may be able to fend off an attack, their children are not always so able. Thus: the trainer.

In times past, when the halflings were under attack from prophet moths, they sought a manner of assistance from the gnomes. The gnomes gifted them with knowledge of the blue, of learning to use the abilities of monsters. However, this was ill-suited for the halflings' intentions: they needed a weapon, easily wielded, with which they could arm their children. Taking the lessons taught to them from the gnomes, however, the halflings devised a new idea: rather than learn the abilities of monsters, capture the monsters themselves, and ensure that they could only fight what they were directed to.

The halflings devised a new method of interacting with the blue, which they called meme crystals - small items that were capable of storing a creature or item in the world's memory, such that it could be summoned back at any time. They then began capturing small monsters of Sarteri and training them, then giving the meme crystals in which the creatures were stored to children, instructing them to only use them in dire need. As they grew older, the children were taught the ways of the gun, and passed their meme crystals on to the children that came after them.

Some halflings, however, decided not to become gunslingers, and instead focused on raising the monsters they had been gifted with. Through trial and error, they determined that some creatures were better-suited to some abilities; they devised a basic understanding of genetics, and began breeding creatures to attain desired traits: small, but ferocious, with unalarming appearances so that children would not be frightened to use the creatures.

Centuries have passed since then, and trainers are still relatively rare - but not unheard of. The way of the trainer has spread throughout the world, and though it is often thought of as the path of cowards, it is a welcome relief to those who must fight but have no formal training.

Game Rule Information

Trainers have the following game statistics.

Force Alignment: Blue.

Force Resistances: TO 5 + level, CO 5 + level.

Abilities: Dexterity is important to a trainer, as - in order to capture new creatures - they must be agile enough to accurately throw a meme crystal. Charisma is also important, as a more powerful personality allows them to more successfully exert control over creatures.

Hit Points at 1st Level: 5 + Con score.

Hit Points at Each Additional Level: 5 + Con modifier.

Healing Surges: 6 + Con modifier.

Defenses: Fort +0; Ref +4; Will +0; Det +4.

Skills: Trainers are trained in Informatics (Int), plus any four skills from the trainer class skill list, below.

• Acrobatics (Dex)
• Athletics (Str)
• Chronology (Int)
• Discordia (Int)
• Diplomacy (Cha)
• Dungeoneering (Wis)
• Thievery (Dex)

Starting Age: Simple.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the trainer.

Proficiencies

Weapons: Any two ranged, any one melee, any one.

Armor: Light, mystic.

Implements: Records, tomes.

Memetics

Trainers are memeticists, and as such make use of memes, conceptual packets of information that are essentially programs that interact with the data that comprises the world in some fashion.

To use memes, a trainer must first ready it, an arduous process that must be performed on a regular basis, updating the meme to ensure that its various structures are synchronized with the world.

 

Blue Libraries
Library	Description
Abstract	Directly interfacing with the structures that form the very core of existence, this library gives you extremely powerful but limited ways to manipulate reality.
Data	You can delve into the caches of information storage hidden "beneath" the world, learning answers to impossible questions.
Instance	Through introduction of new pointers and structures, you can create temporary objects and creatures.
Lambda	Relatively simple and direct commands, these memes are useful to modify reality quickly and in fashions similar to those wielded by other Forces.
System	Manipulating processes, you can take control of the real world in a wide variety of ways.
Virus	Rather than attempt to produce particular effects, you can instead corrupt existing data and processes, causing them to decay or behave erratically.

 

To access his memes, a trainer must ready them into his active meme slots. A trainer can only modify his active meme slots after a long rest, in a process that takes ten minutes.

Meme Grades
Grade	Minimum Wisdom
Common	9
Uncommon	10
Rare	11
Obscure	12
Secret	14
Forgotten	16

To use a given meme, the trainer must meet the minimum Wisdom score for that grade, as per the table on the right.

When an trainer readies his memes, he can also choose to put them into his personal memory, using his own informational process to improve the meme in some fashion. You can change which memes you have allocated into memory with a short rest.

When you process a meme, it becomes temporarily scrambled after its interaction with the world, and you cannot use it again until it recharges. At the beginning of each of your turns, if you have any memes that need to recharge, you roll your recharge die, which is 1d6. If the result of the recharge die is equal to or greater than the recharge value for a given meme, that meme recharges, and you can process it again. The recharge value of a meme is dependent upon the highest grade of meme you can access, per the table below.

All of your memes automatically recharge after a short rest.

You gain additional active meme slots based on your Intelligence modifier; at each even level, you gain a bonus active meme slot, until you have a total number of bonus slots equal to your Intelligence modifier.

 

Memes: Recharge Values
	Meme Grade
Highest Meme Grade Accessible	Common	Uncommon	Rare	Obscure	Secret	Forgotten
Common	5	---	---	---	---	---
Uncommon	4	6	---	---	---	---
Rare	3	5	6	---	---	---
Obscure	2	4	5	6	---	---
Secret	2	3	4	5	6	---
Forgotten	2	3	4	5	6	6

 

The trainer begins with three known memes. He gains knowledge of additional memes each level, as per the class table, above. At fourth level and every four levels after, he can trade out up to two memes for new memes from any library he can access.

If you would gain access to a library, you can choose to instead gain a bonus feat, which must be a feat for which you qualify. If you would gain access to a library and already have access to six libraries, you gain a bonus feat instead.

The trainer's key ability for his memetic attacks is his Charisma.

Mementos

By exerting his belief on a meme crystal, a trainer can control the creature held within.

On each of his turns, the trainer can expend a move action to direct the actions of a controlled creature. If he does so, the controlled creature behaves like a summoned monster, until the start of his next turn; if he does not, the creature will defend itself but otherwise take no action, and an uncontrolled bloodied creature will retreat if possible. A trainer cannot control a creature whose level is greater than his trainer class level. An uncontrolled creature will act independently once released, until returned to its meme crystal.

Due to this being a memetic effect, the trainer can issue complex commands to a controlled creature without the need for a shared language. However, the trainer cannot actually communicate with the creature.

Base Statistics By Role
	Skirmisher	Brute	Sentinel	Lurker	Controller	Ravager
HP @ 1st	10 + Con	20 + Con	15 + Con	10 + Con	5 + Con	5 + Con
HP per Add'l Level	7 + Con mod	11 + Con mod	9 + Con mod	7 + Con mod	5 + Con mod	5 + Con mod
Healing Surges	8 + Con mod	12 + Con mod	10 + Con mod	8 + Con mod	6 + Con mod	6 + Con mod
Fort	+2	+4	+4	+0	+0	+2
Ref	+4	+0	+0	+4	+2	+2
Will	+0	+0	+2	+2	+4	+2
Det	+0	+2	+4	+0	+2	+2
Technics Known	4	3	3	4	5	4

Releasing a creature from a meme crystal is a standard action, and the creature appears in an unoccupied square adjacent to the trainer. A trainer can return a creature to its meme crystal by touching the meme crystal to the creature: if the creature is within the trainer's reach, this is a move action, otherwise the meme crystal can be thrown at the creature as a standard action (in such an instance, the trainer automatically hits the creature's Reflex if the creature is currently controlled, but may miss due to concealment or other factors; the trainer must roll to hit an uncontrolled creature normally).

You can apply the controlled condition to a single creature in a meme crystal. You can also apply the controlled condition to additional creatures, but each additional creature requires you to expend one memory to do so; treat this memory as though it were allocated to a meme.

In addition, a trainer can improve a creature's abilities, increasing its level in its role. The creature must be within its meme crystal, and the trainer must meditate for the duration of a short rest, after which the creature gains a level. The trainer cannot grant a level to a creature that would make the creature's level higher than the trainer's class level. Unlike characters, once the trainer begins training a creature in a role, the creature always gains levels in that role.

The trainer can also grant roles to creatures that do not have them, as is the case for many monsters. Once the trainer has captured a creature in a meme crystal (see below), the trainer can spend a short rest to give the creature a role. A creature so trained immediately loses all of its natural statistics, which are replaced as though it had levels in a role equal to its level. The exception to this are all attacks the creature possessed, as well as all racial abilities and traits; in essence, only the statistics on the Roles table are replaced.

Example: Locke captures a 5th-level metroid. Metroids do not have roles, and so he wants to spend a short rest to give it the lurker role. The metroid loses all of its original statistics and becomes a 5th-level lurker, but retains its racial bonuses to ability scores and any abilities it had.

The mementos page has more information on how a trainer's creatures work.

Trainer's Secret

At 2nd level, and every two levels thereafter until 10th, the trainer gains insight into the handling of creatures and the art of training. Choose one of the following abilities; unless otherwise noted, each ability can only be taken once.

▶ Craft Meme Crystal

The trainer becomes capable of crafting his own meme crystals. Constructing a meme crystal requires one hour and supplies worth 100 gp; a meme crystal is considered a Blue item for purposes of force resistance.

A meme crystal is used as a thrown weapon, and is treated as a ranged touch attack, with a range of 20 feet; if it hits, the creature takes potency 1 subdual damage. If this damage is enough to knock the creature unconscious, it is captured by the meme crystal. Once a meme crystal has captured a creature, the meme crystal takes a mental "snapshot" of the creature, before it is sent into the Blue; this is so that, when the meme crystal is activated once more, it is able to retrieve the creature from the world memory. This information becomes imprinted into the meme crystal when it first captures a creature; once a meme crystal is imprinted, it cannot be used to store a different creature. A meme crystal is incapable of capturing creatures that can take class levels - the imprinting process is too complicated to allow for a sentient being to be imprinted. In addition, a meme crystal is also incapable of capturing a creature that has already been imprinted into a meme crystal: the method by which the meme crystal retrieves a creature from world memory makes it impossible for two objects to both refer to the same creature in memory.

▶ Craft Improved Meme Crystal

Prerequisites: Craft Meme Crystal

The trainer can construct an improved meme crystal. Such a meme crystal requires supplies costing 500 gp. When an improved meme crystal strikes a creature, it deals potency 2 subdual damage.

▶ Double Team

You can have up to two controlled creatures out of their meme crystals at once. On your turn, you can expend a standard action to command two creatures; if you only expend a move action, you can only command one creature, not both (you can choose which creature you command when you do so).

▶ Teamwork

Prerequisites: Double Team

Choose a Teamwork feat whose prerequisites you meet. When you have at least one controlled creature out of its meme crystal, you and all of your controlled creatures gain the benefit of that feat. You can take this secret multiple times; each time you do, you can choose a new feat.

▶ Heal Creature

A trainer can use the power of her memories to restore wounded creatures to a significantly healthier state. By spending a full round action, the trainer allows one of his controlled creatures to spend a healing surge. Only a creature stored in a meme crystal can be healed in this fashion.

▶ Revive Creature

Prerequisites: Heal Creature

You can revive a creature that has died. Doing so requires that you return the body to its meme crystal, and you must spend an hour concentrating. Once the revivification is complete, the creature cannot be recalled from its meme crystal for 24 hours.

▶ Soothing Healing

Prerequisites: Heal Creature

When you heal a creature using heal creature, you also remove all negative status effects (except for the dead status) from the creature.

▶ Wild Empathy

The trainer can improve the initial attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check to improve the attitude of a person. The trainer rolls 1d20 and adds her trainer level and her Charisma bonus to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly. To use wild empathy, the trainer and the animal must be within 30 feet of one another under normal visibility conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute, but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time. The trainer can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but she takes a –4 penalty on the check.

▶ Monster Talk

Prerequisites: Wild Empathy

The trainer becomes able to communicate directly with animals and plants, as though benefiting from permanent speak with animals and speak with plants effects.

Memes

The following are akashic memes, ordered by library, then by grade.

Abstract Library

Common Abstract Memes
Meme Name	Action	Effect
CD	Move	Teleport a short distance.
CP	Swift	Temporarily overwrite one of your active meme slots with a meme from one of your other active meme slots.
GREP	Standard	Search local memory for a particular term, and find out what nearby creatures, objects, or locations are related to it.
LS	Standard	You gain knowledge of all objects in a small area, including hidden ones.
MAN	Standard	You can learn basic information about a creature, object, location, or event.
MV	Swift	Replace one of your active memes with a meme you know but don't currently have active.
PS	Standard	You gain knowledge of all active effects in a small area, including hidden ones.
WHO	Standard	You gain knowledge of all creatures in a small area, including hidden ones.

 

Data Library

One of the most common paths that leads an individual to study memetics is that discovered by a deep curiosity about the world. Those who seek answers to their myriad questions may find themselves studying the world memory, and in so doing discover that nearly any question they could ever ask can, in time, be answered. This library contains memes that give the memeticist more information about the world around them. As such, it is incredibly useful for those who need to do research or discover lost lore, while also providing some amount of indirect combat utility to adventurers.

 

Common Data Memes
Meme Name	Action	Effect
Amanuensis	Standard	Absorb knowledge from a touched book or other data storage.
Anticipate Peril	Standard	Target gains a +4 power bonus on Initiative checks.
Comprehend Languages	Standard	You gain the ability to understand, but not speak, other languages.
Identify	1 hand	You can identify the functions of Force items.
Libra	Standard	You gain libra.
Memetic Tracking	Standard	You can track a creature through its impressions on world memory, rather than its physical tracks.
Query	1 hand	Ask a simple question that can be answered with a "yes" or a "no."
Read Memory	Standard	Read the recent memory of a creature, learning its surface thoughts.

 

Uncommon Data Memes
Meme Name	Action	Effect
Destiny Cache	Swift	Roll a d20, keep the result for later.
Locate Creature	Standard	Locate a particular creature or type of creatures nearby.
Locate Object	Standard	Locate a particular object or type of objects nearby.
Locate Weakness	Standard	Find a weak point in the target's defenses, causing exposed for a short time.
Share Memory	Standard	Share a memory with the target, either showing one of yours, showing the target one of theirs, or seeing one of the target's memories.
See Invisible	Standard	Gain the ability to pierce the invisible status for a short time.
Tongues	Standard	Target can speak and understand all languages for a short time.
Transcribe Knowledge	1 hand	Gather disparate information sources into a single place, allowing you to ask multiple questions with greater accuracy.

 

Rare Data Memes
Meme Name	Action	Effect
Analyze Dweomer	Standard	You can see Force effects, and learn things about them.
Detect Scrying	Standard	You can detect remote viewing and similar nonphysical sensors.
Legend Lore	1 hand	Learn the history or stories about a creature, object, area, or event.
Loresight	Standard	Learn details about a creature, object, area, or event.
Memory Link	Standard	Link your memories with that of another creature, giving both of you a number of advantages.
Remote Viewing	1 hand	View a distant area or creature.
Truesight	Standard	You gain truesight for a short time.
Truespeak	Standard	You can communicate with any creature that is not mindless.

 

Instance Library

Common Instance Memes
Meme Name	Action	Effect
Abundant Ammunition	Standard	Create a small amount of specialty ammunition.
Air Bubble	Standard	Creates a small pocket of air around your head or an object.
Fabricate I	1 minute	Create a simple object of wood or cloth.
Glue	Standard	Cover an area in glue, making it sticky and difficult for creatures to leave the area.
Grease	Standard	Cover an area in grease, making it slippery and difficult for creatures to move through it and remain upright.
Instantiate Monster I	1 round	Create a temporary creature that fights for you.
Repair	Standard	Restore an object of potency 3 hit points.
Web	Standard	Create an area of entangling web.

 

Lambda Library

Within the world memory are data representations of every ability, power, or skill invoked by the peoples and creatures that inhabit it. While it would not be impossible to categorize all of these abilities, there are - essentially - an infinite number of them. Memeticists through the ages have found some of the more useful or unique of these abilities and codified the means to access them, resulting in the lambda library: a library of memes that can be invoked that replicate the abilities of long-dead or powerful creatures, or techniques now lost to the ages. By far the most obvious of libraries, memeticists who use it are significantly more akin to sparks of other Forces, able to bring to bear a variety of primarily combat abilities, with a small amount of narrow utility.

 

Common Lambda Memes
Meme Name	Action	Effect
Aero	Standard	Burst of wind deals potency 3 wind damage to a creature, potentially knocking them prone.
Eerie Sound Wave	Standard	Remove a status boon from the target.
Flash	Standard	Attempt to blind nearby creatures.
Goblin Punch	Standard	Make a physical attack that has the potential for significant damage.
Limit Glove	Standard	When you are critical, you can use this meme to deal potency 8 physical damage.
Magic Hammer	Standard	Reduce the target's ability to call on Force effects.
Roulette	Standard	A random creature gains doom.
Self-Destruct	Standard	Explode, dealing fire damage to yourself and those near you equal to your hit points.

 

Uncommon Lambda Memes
Meme Name	Action	Effect
Diamondhide	Standard	Target gains a potency 4 shield.
Guard-Off	Standard	Reduce a target's Defenses, armor checks, saving throws.
Hastebreak	Standard	Gaze attack causes slow, or stops those with haste.
Mind Blast	Standard	Deal potency 5 psychic damage to a creature, possibly stunning them.
Rippler	Standard	Exchange status ailments with a creature.
Sandstorm	Standard	Create a zone that deals potency 3 earth damage, may blind, immobilize.
Thousand Needles	Standard	Deal an exact amount of penetrating damage.
Zephyr Mantle	Standard	Target can fly for a short period.

 

Rare Lambda Memes
Meme Name	Action	Effect
Big Yawn	Standard	Cause creatures to go to sleep.
Cocoon	Standard	Grant the target protect.
Erase	Standard	Remove a status ailment from the target.
Goo	Standard	Cause immobilize and lag in an area.
Matra Magic	Standard	Switch the target's current hit points and class resource pools.
Moon Flute	Standard	Target gains berserk.
Trine	Standard	Deal potency 6 lightning damage in an area.
Vanish	Standard	Target becomes invisible.

 

Obscure Lambda Memes
Meme Name	Action	Effect
Aqua Breath	Standard	Deal potency 7 water/wind damage to creatures in a cone.
Angel's Whisper	Swift	Target can spend a healing surge and gains reraise.
Bad Breath	Standard	Cause a variety of status ailments in a cone before you.
Blaster	Standard	Deal potency 2 arcane damage, has a chance to cause dead.
Discord	Standard	Give the target negative levels.
Grudge	Standard	Deal damage equal to the difference between your current and maximum hit points.
Mighty Guard	Standard	You and allies gain protect, shell, other effects.
White Wind	Swift	You and allies can spend a healing surge to gain hit points equal to double your healing surge value.

 

Secret Lambda Memes
Meme Name	Action	Effect
Actinic Burst	Standard	Cause blind and malice to creatures near you.
Degenerator	Standard	Cause the dead and eject statuses on a creature.
Dragon Force	Reaction	Gain a potency 10 shield against one attack.
Karma	Standard	Deal psychic damage to a creature, with potency equal to the number of healing surges you and all allies are missing; this meme can break the damage cap.
Magnetic Storm	Standard	Deal potency 8 lightning/magnetic damage in an area.
Shockwave Pulsar	Standard	Deal potency 10 cosmic damage to a creature.
Twister	Standard	Deal potency 6 wind damage in a wide area, draw creatures to the center of the area.
War Dance	Swift	You and all allies recover class resource pools faster for a short period.

 

Forgotten Lambda Memes
Meme Name	Action	Effect
Molting Plumage	Standard	Deal potency 10 wind damage in a cone in front of you; gain dex up (4) and benefit from the Dual Wield feat until this meme recharges.

 

System Library

Common System Memes
Meme Name	Action	Effect
Boost Experience	Standard	Target gains a positive level for a short time.
Causal Chains	Standard	Temporarily lock a creature's initiative in place.
Lock Time	Standard	Prevent creatures from taking actions out of turn.
Normalize Time	Standard	Remove both beneficial and harmful temporal effects from a creature.
Pattern Recognition	Standard	Gain a significant bonus on checks made to search areas.
Predict System I	Swift	At the end of your turn, accept the outcome or decide to change something.
Status	Standard	Know creatures' status.
Vaccime	Swift	Remove a mental status ailment from an ally.

 

Virus Library

Common Virus Memes
Meme Name	Action	Effect
Amnesia	Standard	Target gains the amnesia status, or forgets the last few minutes.
Autotoxic Meme	Standard	Target gains the berserk status.
Cancel Memory	Varies	Nullify an ongoing memetic effect, or counter one being processed.
Inconsistent Schema	Standard	Target gains the confusion status.
Language Virus	Standard	Target gains the babel status.
Memory Bolt	Standard	Disrupt a creature's memories, dealing potency 4 psychic damage.
Memory Trap	Standard	Plant a trap in a specific meme, causing those who process it to suffer a negative effect.
Purge Experience	Standard	Target gains a negative level.

 

Design Notes

Had to kind of redo this from the ground up, a little bit.

Trainers are alt casters, and so have to also have memes. Sorry Garth, but I had to mess with the concept a bit to make it fit the setting. Don't worry, learners are going to get the same treatment...

t20 v4.

Back to Main Page → d20 Mechanics → Classes