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random school notes

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The Court Jesterthis page will go under heavy changes and will store notes here. the jester class will be

converted and transfered to a format that will very closely match the PHB format.

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Playing a lute while jumping and flipping around, a half-orc jester leaps about, crashing, playing, laughing, singing the most ridiculous lyrics ever heard in a song, his purple and orange suit matching the absurdity of the whole performance. The other orcs are borderline hysterical, drinks flying everywhere creating a maelstrom of alcohol, blood, and sweat. The court jester continued onto another song while ducking under a flying table; he could tell the orc mead hall was in a borderline upheaval. Some orcs are clenching their sides in laughter, others are rolling around on the floor, chairs and tables being knocked aside like trees in front of a speeding boulder. As he finishes his performance, the room is not filled with music, but with laughter and roars of approval followed by thrown chairs and occasional head smashing; he sees the orc tribe leader smashing his cup on the grand chair, a half drunken grin still marking his face as he weakly

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tries to hold back his laughter, throwing his fists in the air howling a warcry in approval, the rest following suite.

In a dull dragonborn city, the attention of the inhabitants are caught on the performance of a juggler. A green dragonborn wearing a prismatic costume, donned with an ass’s ears as he deftly juggles nine beautifully bright brass balls, the morning sun shining off the golden globes, creating a pseudo-light show and a spectacle for passing inhabitants. 3 dragonborn kids half tumble past the jester, in an almost comical fashion in an attempt to run away from their mom. With equal dexterity and strength, he swiftly kicks them in the air before proceeding to juggle the children with a deftness not commonly seen. The spectating crowd giggles and cackles, even the kids being juggled can’t help suppress a smile on their face.

A half-elf donned in a motley pattern of greens and blues leaps on a table in a lavishly decorated feast hall in a prominent human kingdom, merely 15 feet from the elderly king and queen. “and I told the lady, sorry ma’am, do I look like a half wit to you?” the king blasts out a half coughing half wheezing laugh. the jester takes this as a nod to continue. “and speaking of ladies, those effreat demons, they’re faces are not bad, but they got a hot body.” more laughter erupts from the room, well composed nobles are grasping their sides and hardly unable to finish their drinks. The jester shifts forward to say something to the king, but slips on a plate and falls on the floor,followed by a whole bowl of wine that falls and drenches the jester as if on queue. the entire audience grows quiet, as that bowl contained the king’s most prized wine. “well, i’d be grape-ful for the wine, “ the jester grinned “no sense in whining about it”. A moment of silence permeates before the kings falls out off his throne. He is rolling on the floor laughing hysterically, the crowd of nobles howling in joy and glee, the jester wearing a dirty grin on his painted face.

A public and noble fool

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As an entertainer, jesters are often used to a change of pace, and nothing gladdens a jester more than to slap a smile on even the grimmest of people, with a nonchalant and almost satirical sense. jesters employ everything in their kit, yet exceed traditional entertainers by housing a sense of humor rarely found or created, often times a humor that jesters are born with, or “bestowed” upon as some people might suggest. while being diverse and multitalented with tools and toys, they can employ their arts by magical means, and often rely on lady luck the most with their everyday shenanigans. despite their mischief and sometimes biting tongue, jesters love everything about life and people, and can become one of the happiest people, or the most sadistic performers. despite this, jesters tend to be the most honest of people; kings and nobles have often adopted jesters as a hybrid mix of advisor and close friend due to a jester’s honesty, as well as a good humorous form of delivery in most cases.

Roaming about

court jesters often travel about, as more people met allows an expansion of a jester’s repertoire. while a wizard learns spells or a barbarian masters his fighting style, jesters seek to learn tidbits of the world, and have what fun they can with what they encounter. perhaps jesters are even seen as the bravest of adventurers, as no situation downs their plucky spirit; and few classes can look at death and smile in its face, maybe even laughing at the dire situation as a whole. though a jester isn’t as involved in direct combat or deep magics, he more than makes up for this on his travels with a never ending supply of tricks, with some creative thought and lady luck to look out for these hapless fools. there is hardly an adventuring party that would mind having a social butterfly in the group, albeit one that's slightly off center.

Making a Jester

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Charisma is a core stats on a court jester, affecting his spells, abilities, and even his stances, it is bar none a much needed stat. dexterity follows close behind, being able to land abilities and dodge is a key to his survivability. con and int are not bad additions either, as this adds to the strength of his skills, and con helps him to survive the brutal later levels. jesters have often come from a variety of background too. were you the “slow” son of a farmer? were you an entertainer that a king employed? maybe you were a lonely hermit that grew out of his shell to be around people? a jester often needs nothing more than a unique sense of humor and a knack for learning on the spot to become a well employed jester. it is possible to not take a background, nothing makes a jester more interesting than a mysterious past, clouded in mystery and terrible jokes.

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Hit PointsHit Dice: 1d8 per Jester levelHit Points at 1st level: 8+con modifierHit Point at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + con per level

ProficienciesArmor: lightWeapons: simple, as well as weapons part of stancesSaving throws: Charisma, DexterityTools: one musical instrument

Skills: choose four from the list: performance, diplomacy, deception, intimidation, acrobatics, history, arcana, religion, sleight of hand.

Other: spontaneous caster

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class type: half caster, ranged, utility (5th level magic)needs spell componentschoose 2 of 4 fighting stances/styles?cards - ranged dpsjuggling - (improvised weapon?) - ranged, defensive, utilityrubber chicken - no attack damage, enchances magic? grants access to cantrips?

stances = tier /\ these stances

juggling, dagger(finesse,light,thrown(range 20/60), handaxe(light,thrown(range 20/60), lighthammer(light,thrown(range 20/60)be sure to list the special rules for a weapon under jugglingcards (thrown, finesse, light(range 20/60))

lucky jester is (vanilla) jester

Level Proficiency Bonus Features

1 +2 stances I

2 +2 spellcasting/fighting style.

3 +2

4 +2 A.S.I.

5 +3 Stances II/ extra attack

6 +3

7 +3 archetype feature

8 +3 A.S.I.

9 +4

10 +4

11 +4 Stances 3archtype feature options 1

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12 +4A.S.I.

13 +5

14 +5

15 +5 achtype feature

16 +5 A.S.I.

17 +6 stances IV

18 +6

19 +6 A.S.I.

20 +6 Chaos Incarnate/ archtype feature option 2

FEATURES

the following feats will be distributed accordingly

Jack-of-all-trades - you can add your prof bonus rounded down to any skills checks with no proficiency. (jester?)

Harlequin's Mask - starting at level 5, the jester can pay 2.5 x jester level in gold to create a mask or to put on face-paint. while worn, the jester is completely immune to charm effects and compulsion abilities. this lasts a total of 12 hours, but cannot be put on during combat. the jester also must complete a long rest to refresh the paint/mask. (psychotic jester?)

Killer Clown - number of times can be used per day equal to jester lvl/3 rounded down. the person affected must roll a charisma save, if they fail, that person is frightened for 1d4 minutes. this ability is refreshed after 24 hours or long rest (psyphotic jester?)

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Evasion - increase in dexterity saves. when your hit and need to roll a dexterity save, success negates damage, failure in succeeding the roll only cuts the damage in half rounded down. (lucky jester?)

Lucky - you have 3 luck points per day, revived on a long rest. one can be used on an attack, ability check, or a saving throw.this can be done after the roll but before the outcome. you can also use lucky when an attack roll is used against you. lucky can be taken again instead of a A.S.I. and the points will stack, but can only be done once. (lucky jester?)

Coulrophobia- 3 times per day, all enemies that see the jester on the start

of the jester’s first turn must make a wisdom save, or they are frightened for

d4 rounds. this is refreshed on a long rest. (psychotic jester)

Elusive - no attack roll has an advantage against you while you are not incapacitated. (lucky jester)

Stances

As a performer, the jester fights differently than other characters. unlike the traditional fighter or wizard, the jester treats everyday skirmishes as a performance, using something called Stances. starting as a jester he must choose 2 of 4 base stances, and can pick one more stance from the archetype list at level 2.

At the beginning of combat, the jester enters a stance and gains a special bonus noted under each stance; he can also choose to change his stance by expending his bonus action beginning of his turn; Afterwards, he must remain in that stance for the remainder of his turn. he does not gain a combat bonus when switching stances mid-fight

His stances kit comes with the following, each weapon tied to each stance in his kit, a stance change is considered a weapon swap.

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1. Juggling Kit- Comedic Juggler Stance: good for defense against multiple opponents

2. Stilts- Freakshow Stance: supplies good damage with good mobility and some ally movement

3. Cards- Humorous Deck Stance: great single target damage and suppression from range

4. Rubber Chicken- Jesting Sorcerer Stance: gives the widest use through spells and luck through wild magic surge.

5. None- Chaos Incarnate Stance- lots of aoe, not available until jester level 20

1. Comedic Juggler Stance

At level 1, the jester starts with the improvised weapon feature? and juggles that said weapon, making magical copies.

The number of juggled items he starts with when he enters the comedic juggler stance is equal to {2 + (stance lvl x 2)}[min. 4]. when he enters the juggling stance, enemies within the 5 x 5 square centered on the

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jester must beat a wisdom save of (8+cha+prof) or be distracted, granting allies and jester an advantage on rolls against distracted enemies, who must reroll at the beginning of each turn to regain focus. The following actions on the jester’s turn can be used to regain juggled items and refill the number of juggled items accordingly:

Movement Action- refill +1

Attack Action- refill +2

When in the juggling stance, he has access to the following actions, if the attack hits when thrown in normal range, the juggled item is recycled:

1. Standard Attack - The jester tosses his juggled item at enemy, making the appropriate damage roles. Even if a miss, the missile is still expended. If hit, the enemy must make a dexterity save or be knocked back one square.

2. Reflex Juggle - the jester can expend a juggling item and reflex to reduce damage done to the jester equal to jester level / 2 rounded down, he gains an additional juggling reflex action at lvl 11.

3. Call Shot - The jester precisely aims his juggled toy at a bodypart to maim and disable foes, gaining disadvantage. this has no effect outside of the weapon’s normal range.

When making a call shot, the available targets, numbers, and debuffs are available here in the table below.

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body part Debuff

Head stun

Hands disarm

Feet knocked prone

2. Freakshow Stance(might need some clarity?)

The jester dons stilt legs and long fake arms, which increases the jester’s size by one size with the appropriate changes in numbers, i.e. medium>large, small>medium, etc. while stilted, the jester is unimpeded by hard terrain and has +5 feet of extended melee range. The stilted jester can also choose to stand in an ally’s square, granting them his bonus AC at the expense of him being flat footed. He can also avoid attacks of opportunity during his turn equal to his stance level. The jester takes the role of a mobile damage dealer as he has access to the following moves while in this stance:

Chaotic Clown Cyclone - the jester quicks spins in place, throwing his arms about. one takes 4d4 damage, 2 enemies take 3d4 damage, 3 enemies take 2d4 damage, 4 for more enemies take 1d4 damage. cannot be done twice in a row.

Jogging Jump Kick - moves and kicks doing d4 damage, this move must be done in a straight line. adds a d4 with each 5ft traversed after the initial square, up to a max of the jester’s movespeed

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5ft = 1d4; 15ft = 2d4; 20ft =3d4; 25ft = 4d4; 30ft = 5d4

Glorious Backflip - the jester backflips over a target, landing on the opposite side and gaining automatic advantage on next turn. If the target is the same size or bigger as the target, the jester instead crashes into the target doing 4d4 damage to them and himself and returning to his square knocking both the jester and the enemy prone unless either person beats a dex save.

Rolly Polly Cartwheel - rolling in a straight line, the jester dealing stance level x (d6) damage to everyone in a line, moving up to half movespeed rounded down. does not work if target is same size or larger, both instead take 4d6 damage and fall prone unless passing dex save.

Harlequin's Shuriken - can be done on an ally’s turn or jester’s turn. both must be standing next to each other and have at least one square of space. when done, an ally throws the jester in a line like a frisbee, max distance thrown is (2 x stance level) + thrower’s strength modifier in squares from the thrower’s square. when done, the jester does stance level x d10 damage to enemy and does ¼ the damage to the jester, rounded down, knocking both prone unless either passes a dexterity save. if the thrower misses everything in a line, the jester flies max distance and takes 2d4 damage being knocked prone automatically.

Bombastic Ballerina - the jester twirls gracefully in a spot as well as moving up to 2 squares, doing damage to anything in bordering squares equal to (stance level) x d4 damage. this move cannot be done twice in a row.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In addition to these moves, the jester’s allies have access to two mobility moves. The jester himself can’t use these, but allies have access to the following on their turn as a free bonus action:

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Circus Swing - can be done on the ally’s turn. ally must be within 2 squares. when done, ally grabs arm, and swings off of it, going in a line through jester’s square and landing up to 2 squares away.

Piggy Back Ride - can be done on the ally’s turn. both the ally and jester make a dex check. when done, both occupy same space, and jester can carry ally. they must both make a dex save at the beginning of jester’s turn to maintain the ride. when either roll fails, the person with the failed roll falls prone.

3. Humorous Deck stance

He begins combat with # of cards = lvl/2 +3, and can expend an attack action or bonus action to throw a card. The jester draws 1 card at the beginning of his next turn and/or by expending his bonus action to draw 1 more card, pulling from a traditional deck with 52 cards and 2 jokers. The Jester can hold no more than 13 cards in his hand max, and must discard one when the max # held is reached.

Each card has a unique effect. Throwing a card is like throwing an object otherwise. Drawing an ace card gives the jester automatic advantage, as well as having the damage multiplied by the jester’s stance level and ignoring damage reduction.

When the card throwing roll crits, the card applies an additional effect. The Joker card cannot be picked as an ace, and its effect happens every time the card succeeds on the AC check.

Spades - d10 - max effect= paralyzed (strength save)

Hearts - d8 - max effect= does 2d8 bleed damage (constitution save)

Diamonds - d6 - max effect= pierces, going in a line, doing an additional d6 of damage to each enemy hit (dexterity save)

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Clubs - d4 - max effect= Forces target to make a standard melee attack against nearest creature in sight (wisdom save)

Joker card - does 8d8 points of damage, person must make a will save or laugh and be incapacitated, and must make a wisdom save each turn to stop laughing.

The jester can regain a pack of cards on a long rest, or expend a whole turn to pay gold equal to (10 x lvl) +50 gold for another deck, which magically appears to him after the gold is offered up. the jester with this stance expands the crit range,

4. Jesting Sorcerer stance

The jester adopts the role as a spell caster. Along with his spells and cantrips, he has access to a rubber chicken. The rubber chicken can be

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used for a melee attack, doing d1 stupid, pointless, dumb-ass damage and procs one effect of wild magic surge - roll a d100 and follow the effect as stated on the wild magic surge table. Otherwise, follow traditional spell rules for his kit.

Spell Slots per level: Spells known per levelmust do all spell slot numbers for half caster, NO spells at lvl 1

level spells known 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th

1 4 2 ----- ----- ----- -----

2 5 3 ----- ----- ----- -----

3 6 4 2 ----- ----- -----

4 7 4 3 ----- ----- -----

5 8 4 3 2 ----- -----

6 9 4 3 3 ----- -----

7 10 4 3 3 1 -----

8 11 4 3 3 2 -----

9 12 4 3 3 3 1

10 14 4 3 3 3 2

11 15 4 3 3 3 2

12 15 4 3 3 3 2

13 16 4 3 3 3 2

14 18 4 3 3 3 2

15 19 4 3 3 3 2

16 19 4 3 3 3 2

17 20 4 3 3 3 2

18 22 4 3 3 3 3

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19 22 4 3 3 3 3

20 22 4 3 3 3 3

The list below shows the available spells the jester has to choose from. Each level up only allows you to relearn one spell. Otherwise, traditional rules are followed.

1st level - Charm person(ench), Chromatic orb(evoc), Color Spray(illu), False life(necro), Grease(conj), Jump(trans), Longstrider(trans)

2nd level - Enthrall(enchant), Knock(trans), Mirror image(illu), Misty step(conj)

3rd level - Conjure barrage(conj), Counterspell(abju), Revivify(conj), Speak with dead(necro), Speak with Plants(trans), Tongues(Divi)

4th level - Fabricate(trans), Mordenkainen(conj), Stoneshape(trans)

5th level - Conjure volley(conj), Creation(illu), Dream(illu), Passwall(trans) THIS CLASS WILL BE A HALF CASTER, SPELLS BELOW WILL BE PUT IN SPELL LISTS OR REMOVED ENTIRELY

6th level - Contingency(evoc), Mass suggestion(ench), Hero's feast(conj)

7th level - Mordenkainen’s magnificent mansion(conj), Plane shift(conj), Prismatic spray(evoc), Regenerate(trans), Symbol(abju), Teleport(conj), Forcecage(evoc)

8th level - Antimagic field(abju), Antipathy/Sympathy(ench), Feeblemind(ench), Mindblank(abju), Power word stun(ench)

9th level - Prismatic Wall(abju), Time stop(trans)

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5. Chaos Incarnate

Once the jester hits level 20, he gains access to a powerful stance called chaos incarnate. This creates a whirling aoe prismatic globe around the jester, extending 20 feet out (4 squares) and around the jester.

Any enemy inside the bubble has reduced vision as if in a sleet storm. The jester’s action turn forces one enemy to roll a d20 and being affected by the aoe. Enemies whose turn ends in the bubble roll a d20 and must pass the respective save. If the jester is buffed instead, the enemy must reroll until they are affected by the sphere.

d1 get thrown out to the edge, dexsave or take 2d6 damage

d11 ghost grabs weapon. str save. fail, lose held item.

d2 wisd save. if not, smacks self for basic attack damage

d12 polymorph. con save, lasts until leaving the aoe, roll d8 to decide

d3 adds 10 ft to jester’s next movement turn

d13 heals jester for 2d8 points

d4 jester gains +1 ac on next turn d14 mystic dagger flies through, take 6d6 piercing damage, dex save

d5 dark shadow claw swipes. dex save. fail take 3d8 necrotic

damage

d15 hear a terrible joke. int save. if not, reduces int. by 5 points

d6 greases the ground below, make dex save or slip and fall prone

d16 hear lullaby, cha save, fail fall asleep for d4 turns

d7 flood of emotion. wis save, if fail, attacks nearest ally

d17 giant rock falls on you, str save or suffer 8d8 crushing damage

d8 cow falls on you, str save or be knocked prone and take 2d6

crushing damage

d18 wisd save, if not is charmed by jester, leave field or beat wisdom

save to not be charmed

d9 swarm of bees, con save, fail take d6 bleed damage for d4

rounds

d19 dex save, if not get hit by daggers for 6d6 damage, reflex fail is half

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d10 cha save from scary faces, if fail become speechless, no verbal

d20 str save, if not get grappled by hand and take 4d4 force damage

Out-of-combat

3 possible class sub archetypes?

these will be more fleshed out.

demon jester - infernal, melee/clones, stilts - evil jester stance?

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bonuses to con, can create clones by expending x number of hp, while clone has double what was expended

sadistic psycho - mind game, psychic

immune to mind tricks, converts some damage to physic damage? has acess to a few more spells?

lady fortune’s fool - lucky, really really lucky

feat heavy, hard to kill, can get rerolls and have enhanced crits.