This page provides tips for running journeys.

Suggested Penalties

The outcome of an exploration challenge is decided by the Narrator. On failure of an exploration challenge, there are suggested outcomes in the challenge stat block, but also consider the following penalties.

• Fatigue and/or strife
• Supply loss
• Damage
• Hit dice expenditure
• Equipment damage
• Diseases
• Mental stress effects
• Time loss
• Unusual penalties (see below)

Penalties can be instantaneous, permanent, until the next long rest, or until the next haven .

Exploration Challenge Damage

If a challenge inflicts damage as a penalty, the following values are suggested. Damage is doubled on a critical failure.

A trap is designed to inflict damage directly. An obstacle inflicts less damage but may also incur Supply loss or other effects.

Note that damage is recovered during a long rest, so unless a combat encounter is anticipated before the next long rest, damage has less practical effect as a challenge penalty.

Unusual Penalties

• Aging +/- 1d6 years (permanent)
• A stink or odor which inflicts disadvantage on Charisma checks until you reach a haven
• Other conditions , such as rattled or poisoned until the next long rest
• Inability to consume or benefit from Supply until you reach a haven
• A magical mutation of some kind
• Nightmares which prevent benefiting from a long rest until you reach a haven
• Loss of voice (which can affect spellcasting)

Clockworks are constructs of steel and bronze that perform complex routines. Clockworks are neither living nor magical, but their clever engineering can make them appear to be both.

Nonmagical Guards. In a world where magic prevails, mundane engineering is rarely appreciated. But clockwork constructs have one advantage that sets them apart from magical inventions—their very lack of magic. Dungeon architects pay princely sums for complex nonmagical sentries, knowing all too well that thieves have many tools to detect and bypass magic.

Authorization Required. Clockworks perceive the world using delicate sensors capable of picking up the slightest vibrations. They sense shape but not color, and are not fooled by visual illusions. Nevertheless, they are able to identify individual creatures by their shape, size, and behavior. They can be programmed to allow authorized creatures to enter an area, while attacking or monitoring intruders.

Creations of Routine. Clockworks follow instructions built into them by their creators. While these instructions can be very complex, clockworks don’t think and don’t learn. If you trick a clockwork once, you can do so again the next time you meet it.

Clockwork Nature. A clockwork doesn’t require air, nourishment, or rest, and is immune to disease . 

Immutable Form. The clockwork is immune to any effect that would alter its form.

The myriad motes shining in the night sky influence the world through subtle magic, and with the proper study that magic can be grasped and harnessed. Skyseers, familiar with sensing the patterns of the stars, can learn to wield this magic in battle, enhancing themselves, conjuring otherworldly destructive forces, or shifting the environment to be more like those of these wandering planes.

The Great Eclipse increased public interest in the heavens and in skyseers, and researchers at several new telescope observatories seek to measure the effects of the planets and stars, gaining deeper insights than traditional skyseers can glean with their more intuitive techniques.

The airship docks at Flint are currently constructing an experimental levitating scientific vessel, to be commanded by one Captain Phineas Mount-Redoubt, an academic skyseer who hopes to observe the night sky from above the clouds themselves. Mount-Redoubt hopes that this escapade will attract the attention and the patronage of one or both of Lanjyr’s space exploration agencies: Pemberton Industries’ interplanar exploration division, and the Drakran Planarnaya Razvedyvatel’naya Kompaniya.

Prerequisite:  Skyseer Vision feat, proficient in Arcana and Nature, character level 7th, must be able to name and identify all the planets detailed in Chapter Five

Features

Hit Dice: 1d6 per applied astronomist level.

Hit Points: 1d6 (or 4) + your Constitution modifier per applied astronomist level.

Spellcasting

Add the following spells to all of your classes’ spell lists: augury , clairvoyance , contact other plane , divination , guidance , guiding bolt . Whenever you gain a level in this class, it grants or advances your choice of bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, or wizard spellcasting, or warlock Pact Magic and Mystic Arcanum. This advancement includes spell slots, spells prepared, and spells known.

Stargazer

You gain darkvision with a range of 60 feet, or if you already have darkvision, its range is extended by 60 feet. The range increases to one mile under starlight or moonlight. You cannot be blinded .

Touching the Wheel of Heaven

Different planes are in ascendance or decline each day, entering or leaving conjunction with various constellations and other celestial phenomena. 

After a long rest , if you were able to spend an hour watching the night sky in the past day, roll two times on the following table to determine which planes you are able to connect to. Reroll duplicates. This connection determines the effects of some of your powers. The connection lasts until you finish a long rest, but no more than 24 hours.

Table: Planar Connections

1d8: Roll two times each day. 

1 – Jiese, plane of fire.

2 – Caeloon, plane of air.

3 – Av, plane of dreams.

4 – Ostea, plane of water.

5 – Urim, plane of earth.

6 – Mavisha, plane of journeys.

7 – Ascetia, plane of time.

8 – Amrou, plane of wards.

Heavenly Flare

As an action, you can choose one plane you are attuned to and one creature you can see within 60 feet. You manifest a flare of starlight which deals 2d6 radiant damage to that creature and inflicts an additional effect based on the plane you chose. The damage increases to 3d6 if your character level is 11 or higher, and 4d6 at level 17 or higher. A saving throw against your spell DC negates the damage and extra effect. The type of saving throw depends on which plane you choose.

Follow Yonder Star

You can let the stars guide your movement and protect you. At the start of your turn you can call upon the stars. This does not require an action. Until the end of your next turn opportunity attacks that target you or your allies automatically miss. You cannot use this feature again until you finish a long rest .

Space Travel

Each day you gain movement options or bonuses from the two planes you are connected to.

Cataclysmic Conjunction

As an action you can cause a portion of another plane to temporarily merge with reality. Choose a plane you’re attuned to today. A 15-foot-radius burst within 60 feet of you becomes suffused with the essence of that plane.

When you use this ability, creatures in the burst must make a save against your spell DC. The chosen plane determines the type of save, as with heavenly flare. On a failed save, a creature takes 4d6 force damage and 4d6 radiant damage and suffers the same effect as a heavenly flare of that plane. A creature that succeeds its save takes half as much damage and suffers no extra effect.

For the next five minutes, that area is altered, depending on what plane you chose. You cannot use this power again until you take a long rest .

The following ten prestige classes are tied to the character themes in Chapter One. You can multiclass into a prestige class if you meet the listed prerequisites. Each only has three levels. With each level you take in a prestige class your proficiency bonus increases normally (as if you had taken levels in a standard class).

Choose one of the twelve themes in Adventures in ZEITGEIST to provide a quick hook to link your character to the ZEITGEIST campaign setting. Themes don’t have a mechanical benefit, but can help your Narrator plan what sorts of adventures will appeal to you. Each theme offers an associated feat for characters who are especially committed to the ideals of the theme. As you gain levels, you could potentially even take multiple theme feats. These feats may be selected as part of your normal allocation of feats.

Most backgrounds are still suitable to the Zeitgeist setting, though might warrant a few small changes. Guilds have fallen out of favor outside of Crisillyir and Drakr, so “guildmember” could be replaced with “factory worker.” An “entertainer” might actually be a journalist, and the “charlatan” background could represent someone spying on behalf of a politician or industrialist.

Also, modern society and scholarship leads to a few new backgrounds.

Archaeologist |  Faction Agent | Investigator |  Riven Mind

The modern great nations of ZEITGEIST offer some new cultures.

Bloodmarked | De Guerra | Dialectician | Elfaivaran | Harimau | Pedresco | Steelmarked

These cultures are generally specific to ZEITGEIST . The Adventures in ZEITGEIST hardcover contains more setting-specific information. 

Most people won’t blink at the sight of a gnome or halfling, though outside of Risur they might not be able to tell the difference at a glance. Dragonborn, gnolls, goblins, kobolds, lizardfolk, and minotaurs all are respected in Ber. Devas have spread from a single battlefield in Crisillyir to every corner of the world. Many other peoples have homelands of their own, unknown to all but the wellread and the adventurous.

Despite their small population, two of the most well-known uncommon heritages are deva and gnolls. We also present brief entries for common Beran races not present in the core rules.

Deva | Gnoll | Goblin | Kobold | Lizardfolk | Minotaur

These heritages can be used in any Level Up game world. The Adventures in ZEITGEIST hardcover contains more setting-specific information, as well as setting information on humans, dwarves, elves, orcs, and tieflings.