[FOCI]
Path of the Planebreaker
Most spellcasters know a little about the other planes of existence from the start. Some even believe that all magic flows from some otherplanar source. No one knows whether that's actually true. There are as many hypotheses about magic as there are spellcasters. People like you know your magic is drawn from a specific and terrible demiplane called the Grove of Crows, and you call yourselves "defacers."
You began your journey with a mask. Perhaps you made your face covering from sticks and feathers after an unsettling dream about a flock of dark.winged birds smothering the sky. Or maybe you found your mask after following the sound of squawking crows into the forest, and there discovering a lightning.struck tree. From its husk, you plucked a shard of dead wood that was already in the form of a disquieting mask.
You found or fashioned a mask that has no clear features, inspired by your connection with the Grove of Crows. While wearing the mask, you can see in dim light as though it were bright light. You can see in total darkness as if it were extremely dim light.
When wearing the mask, you have face blindness, meaning you have a hard time recognizing people by their facial features. Your deception, intimidation, and persuasion tasks are hindered.
When you are not wearing the mask, all of your tasks are hindered.
If your mask is lost or destroyed, you can use an action to fashion another one with whatever scrap is handy if you're not choosy. For instance, wrapping a rag around your face works in a pinch.
A companion tentacled crow—and also probably a spy—is sent to you from the mysterious but certainly aberrant entity nesting in the heart of the Grove of Crows. The tentacled crow becomes your new familiar; if you already have a familiar, they're eaten by the tentacled crow. The tentacled crow accompanies you and follows your instructions.
The tentacled crow acts on your turn. As a level 1 creature, they have a target number of 3 and 3 health, and they inflict 1 point of damage. Once per tier, you can spend 4 XP to permanently increase the level of your tentacled crow by 1, up to a maximum of level 4. If your tentacled crow dies, another one arrives to serve you 1d6 days later; this tentacled crow is the same level as the one that died.
If your tentacled crow is within an immediate distance of you when you make a recovery roll, you automatically recover 1 additional point to your Intellect Pool. For example, if you roll a 6, you get a total of 7 points, 1 of which must go to your Intellect Pool (this has no effect if your Intellect Pool is already full).
You find that you get a better night's sleep if you keep your mask on, even though the dreams are unsettling. One of those dreams imparts new magical prowess to you. You are trained in Intellect defense and gain +2 to Armor against damage that selectively targets your Intellect Pool (which normally ignores Armor). When wearing your mask, you can speak and understand Deep Speech, the language of aberrations.
By linking to your tentacled crow, you can perceive through their senses if they are within a long distance of you. This effect lasts up to one minute.
Action to establish.
Erase Face or
You are trained in any physical ranged attack that is a character ability or comes from a device. For example, you are trained when using an Onslaught force blast because it's a physical attack, but not when using an Onslaught mindslice because it's a mental attack.
When you make a Speed defense roll, you can use your Intellect in place of your Speed.
By accessing the resources appropriate to your character, you can ask the GM one question and get a general answer. The GM assigns a level to the question, so the more obscure the answer, the more difficult the task. Generally, knowledge that you could find by looking somewhere other than your current location is level 1, and obscure knowledge of the past is level 7. Gaining knowledge of the future is impossible.
The entity in the Grove of Crows wants you. But in the meantime, they're satisfied with the occasional visitor you send their way. As an action, you transport a creature of level 3 or lower within short range to the Grove of Crows. Each round, you can make another attack roll to keep the creature banished to the Grove for another round, up to one minute total. When the creature returns, they appear where they were when they vanished, or in the closest available space.
The Grove of Crows is a difficult place for unprepared newcomers, and all the creature remembers from being there is an unending mass of battering, flapping wings.
If you have the Erase Face ability, the banished creature is automatically affected by Erase Face, starting the moment they are transported away.
For each additional level of Effort you apply, you can attempt to affect a target of one level higher.
or
You exist outside of everything until the start of your next turn. To you, a few seconds pass while you are alone in a cool void. To everyone else, you seem to vanish for a few seconds and reappear in the same place. While in this unreal state, you can use abilities or objects on yourself, but you can't perceive, interact with, or affect the rest of the world, and vice versa. Time-based effects already on you (like a poison that inflicts damage every round) are paused while you exist outside reality, but when this ability ends they resume as if no time had passed. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the duration; each level of Effort used in this way adds one round to how long you spend outside reality.
GM Intrusions: Incomprehensible sensations from the Grove of Crows overwhelm or confuse you. Your tentacled crow does something unexpected. Your magic affects an ally instead of a foe.