Introduction (DK)

:Chapter from Dragon Kings
This book gives rules that allow existing AD&DR game characters to advance to 30th level in all classes; new spells for wizards and priests; and new psionic disciplines. Dragon Kings also covers important campaign matters like the role of followers and the sensory effects of magic. All this material is meant for the DARK SUNTM campaign, but it adapts easily to any AD&D campaign.
The book also offers much material specific to the world of Athas, like new vehicle types, new BATTLESYSTEMT armies, and the debut of a shadowy organization of powerful psionicists: the Order. You need the DARK SUN campaign set to use this information.
This Introduction summarizes two systems specific to the DARK SUN world that apply to both wizards and priests: psionic enchantment and advanced beings. More information appears later in this book in the sections devoted to these classes.
==Psionic Enchantment==
Beyond the horizons of routine magic are whole seas of power that cannot be tapped naturally. The unaided mind, regardless of intelligence, cannot comprehend, let alone command, such tremendous energy. But psionics can "tune" the mind for greater mastery of magic. The combination produces the most powerful magic available in a DARK SUN campaign.
Psionic enchantment is magic, not psionics. As stated in the Complete Psionics Handbook, "Magic is the ability to shape, control, harness, and utilize natural forces that infuse the game world and surround the characters... Psionics is the complete opposite of this. The psionicist shapes, controls, harnesses, and utilizes natural forces that infuse his own being." Psionics and magic are separate forces.
In psionic enchantment, psionics is a means toward an end, a catalyst in the magical process. Wizard spells beyond 9th level and priest spells beyond 7th level are too difficult for the unaided mind to comprehend. Only through psionic disciplines can the mind handle this magic.
In game terms, psionic enchantments are new spells for the highest-level wizard and priest characters who are also psionicists. For wizards, psionic enchantments are 10th-level spells. For priests, psionic enchantments are 8th-, 9h-, and 10-level. These spells become available based on the character's level, given on spell progression tables later in this volume.
There is no separate science or discipline for use of psionic enchantments. A spellcaster who reaches 20th level as a psionicist is always ready to negotiate psionic enchantments.
The enchantments are spells of great scope, at times dwarfing the effects of those normally available to wizards and priests. Whereas existing spells focus on the individual and immediate surroundings, psionic enchantments can affect entire cities or armies or alter the face of Athas itself.
Such extraordinary magic requires careful preparation for weeks, months, and even years as the spellcaster puts the magical wheels into motion. Gathering components becomes an exacting task in itself, often calling for grand and dangerous quests. The caster must become intimately familiar with the target, be it a tract of desert he wishes to make bloom or the personal background of an army he wishes to erase from existence. Many spells have durations directly proportional to preparation time. Psionic enchantments have a separate "Preparation Time" line in their game statistics.
Characters can research new psionic enchantments beyond those listed. Often, a wizard performs such research amid ancient ruins, studying old tomes and tablets, building on the work of longdead sorcerers. Such research takes at least one year, though a lifetime can pass without results.
==The Advanced Beings==
In addition to the awesome magical spells they﻿ can wield, the highest-level spellcasters also undertake a drastic mental and physical change. These advanced beings are among the most powerful creatures on Athas, devoted to either good or evil, foci of dramatic events and epic struggles.
In game terms, many spellcasters leave their human forms behind when they advance beyond 20th level, slowly transforming until at 30th level they complete the change into an advanced being.
Only defilers, preservers, and clerics may transform into advanced beings. To do so, the character must achieve 20th level in both the spellcasting and psionicist classes. At this high level, the character abandons the distinction between the two classes, becoming 21st-level in an advanced form. Details appear in the class chapters in this book.
Each class metamorphoses into a different advanced form. Defiler/psionicists become dragons. Preserver/psionicists become avangions, extremely delicate creatures of tremendous magical power. A defiler or preserver cannot advance past 20th level without becoming an advanced being.
Cleric/psionicists can become elements. Having united with the powerful magics of an elemental plane, the cleric slowly eliminates the three other elements in the body in favor of the purest forms of the fourth. At 21st level, the cleric is, in effect, an elemental, who grows in magical and psionic power at higher levels. Unlike wizards, the cleric can instead choose to retain a human body when advancing beyond 20th level.
Racial level limits: Most player character races cannot achieve the highest levels in the spellcasting classes. Human characters, unlimited in their advancement in any class, can advance to become dragons, avangions, or elementals. The only demihumans that can do so are the half-elves, and even they can become only dragons.
==Catching Up==
A character must achieve 20th level in both the spellcasting class and the psionicist class before transforming to an advanced form. Coordinating the two classes works differently for dual-classed and multi-classed characters.
Human dual-classed: Only human characters may be dual-classed. In order to become an advanced being, the human first achieves 20th level in either class, then switches from that first class to the second, advancing in it to 20th level. The human must then adventure for 500,000 additional experience points beyond 20th level to become a 21st level advanced being. The human must abide by all rules regarding dual-class advancement presented in the Player's Handbook.
Half-elf multi-classed: A half-elf character who wishes to become a dragon must begin play as a defiler/psionicist. Upon earning a total of 6,500,000 experience points, the character can become a 21st-level dragon.
Having become an advanced being, the character can never again opt for a dual-class; the advanced classes can never be combined. He can never freely reduce experience to zero and begin the campaign again in a new character class. For the advanced beings, there's no going back.
==The Sorcerer-Kings==
The sorcerer-kings of the Seven Cities are, in game terms, defiler/psionicists who have begun the transformation to dragon form. Each sorcerer-king's ambitions and approach to changing physical form are unique. Each is described here in broad
terms.
Balic: Andropinis of Balic is, in fact, a 21st-level dragon. He retains enough of his original human form, however, that he can be seen in public without drawing suspicion. Those who have suspected his true nature have been executed.
Draj: The more pompous Tectuktitlay of Draj is actually a 22nd-level dragon, having used his own blood-soaked arena to further his metamorphosis. Tectuktitlay's form is markedly inhuman-he retains human appearance through a vigilant psionic illusion.
Gulg: The oba is a 21st-level dragon, though still virtually human in appearance. With her attentions fixed on her city's ancient enemy Nibenay, Lalali-Puy has not metamorphosed further.
Nibenay: The Shadow King secludes himself for a reason he is a 23rd-level dragon. In his rare appearances he masks his form with illusion, then steals away to continue his transformation. Nibenay's senior templars know of their master's true form.
Raam: Abalach-Re, herself a 21st-level dragon, is confused by her situation. The nature of her powers has lead the Great Vizier to a mistaken conclusion about their source thus her invention of the fictitious "higher being" whom she compels Skeptical citizens to worship.
Tyr: The tyrant Kalak has been slain. His unique approach to dragon status is discussed below.
Urik: Hamanu is a 21st-level dragon who sees himself as the ultimate ruler of the Tyr region. By force of arms, he may succeed, but not without further power gained through metamorphosis.
==Ancient Origins==
Essentially, the seven sorcerer-kings are the first defilers who matched their great magical skills with ultimate psionic power. When they attained this level of magic is unclear-though rumors about their age range into the thousands of years, they are probably much older than that. On attaining the first stage toward dragon form, the seven delved deeper into research to understand what they had begun.
Each had mysteriously become the focus of unlimited elemental magic. Though they couldn't tap this power themselves, the sorcerer-kings could impart that power to their followers, the templars. The end result was clear, but why this transference of power became possible remains a mystery, even to the sorcerer-kings.
In actuality, with the casting of their first metamorphosing spells, the sorcerer-kings each attracted the attention of a very powerful and rare creature—a living vortex. With spidery fingers firmly anchored in all the elemental planes and the prime material plane, the living vortex is a continuous conduit of magical energy. The sorcerer-kings are, until their deaths, a source of elemental magical power funnelled directly to them by their living vortex, a creature they don't even realize exists.
With the passage of centuries, the living vortices have become extinct. Therefore, no future dragons will gain the ability to transfer elemental magic to templars. The original sorcerer-kings will take that privilege with them to their graves.
Having achieved magical mastery, the sorcerer-kings began their suppression of other wizards. They reserved wizardly magic for themselves, and fledgling mages were hunted and killed. In the centuries since they took power, no other mage has risen in power to challenge the sorcerer-kings.
==Kalak's Gamble==
Kalak was certainly the most ambitious of the sorcerer-kings. As such, he wasn't satisfied with the possibilities of staged metamorphosis toward dragon form. Impatient, he sought ancient tomes and magical texts that might afford him a shortcut. Kalak wanted to attain pure dragon form in one grand action.
Essentially, Kalak attempted to condense all the destructive force that would normally be parcelled into ten smaller steps into one gigantic deed. He built the great ziggurat to focus his powerful spell, with its attached arena where he would trap the life energy of thousands of spectators.
Would Kalak's scheme have worked? Nearly slain at the arena by a halfling spear through his chest, the sorcerer-king's plans were cut short. Since the survival of a single stage of dragon metamorphosis is uncertain, Kalak might have died anyway. Events have robbed us of that knowledge, which is probably for the best.
Game terms: In game terms, Kalak tried to go from 21st-level to 30th-level dragon all at once. He failed. No magic allows another DARK SUNTM game character to attempt this feat. The only path from human to dragon form has ten distinct steps.