Daredevil (sage study)

Daredevil is a sage study in the field of Circus, allowing the performance of dangerous stunts and tricks to elicit a moment of terror from an audience, followed by relief and stunned respect for the magnificence of the performer's bravery and skill. Examples include walking tightropes between buildings, leaping over spikes or pits, scaling towers without equipment, engaging with bulls or baiting wild animals, dancing on stilts — overall, challenging the thresholds of human ability within natural conditions — gravity, balance, tension, height, flame — and using those to elicit awe.

The study is legitimately dangerous — characters performing stunts outside their normal routine will have to make dexterity checks to stave off possible injury and death. However, within the framework of a prepared performance, where practice has occurred and the character is familiar with the details involved, the danger is only apparent. Nonetheless, the skills that make such performances possible may also allow the character to act in the real world with an unnatural level of skill when carrying out unlikely feats.

The daredevil lives as though fate were a dance partner, not a master. There is in them a defiant grace, an ease with danger that borders on seduction — they refuse to yield to fear, forged through countless moments at the edge where calculation, instinct and motion become one. They carry themselves with a kind of light-hearted bravado, from a joy in testing the limits of flesh and will. They may laugh in the face of danger, but it's a trust they have in their ability to make the impossible seem like a day at the beach.

Sage Abilities

The sage abilities below are those acquired by a character through the study, according to status.

Amateur Status

• Animal-baiting: allows the character to draw the attention and aggression of natural large mammals, causing them to see the character as the immediate threat. So long as the character has room to move about, and doesn't make an attempt to hit, attacks by the animal will miss unless a natural 20 is rolled; critical hits, however, still count as "critical," so that if one is achieved it's assumed the daredevil did something very wrong.

• Climb Walls: allows characters to climb a vertical surface, with or without equipment, provided that surface retains cracks or mortared separations at least ⅓ of an inch deep.

• Leap: permits the character to make leaps of 16 to 19 feet (d4+15) when running, an improvement on the average distance of 10 to 13 feet achievable by an ordinary levelled character. This distance is increased by 1⅓ inches per point of knowledge above 10.

Authority Status

• Flexibility: shows intensive physical conditioning that has honed the character's body to operate at its peak potential, allowing rapid weight transfer, precise coordination and quick reaction times.

• Stilt Walking: allows the character to move with ease upon stilts of six feet in height or greater, enabling steady travel across uneven or obstructed ground. The character may stride, turn, halt or maintain balance without difficulty, and is capable of fighting while elevated, using the added height without losing control or footing.

• Tightrope Walking: allows the character to move with confidence along a narrow line, beam or rope, maintaining balance across open space without hesitation. The character may advance, turn, stop or adjust footing with precision, even where footing would fail an ordinary person. Some capacity for fighting or using tools is inherent.

Expert Status

• Catch from Fall: permits the character to arrest a fall of up to 20 feet by seizing any projecting object at least 6 inches in length, without requiring an ability check. The character may do this instinctively, even when surprised or otherwise unprepared, turning what would be a dangerous fall into a controlled recovery.

• Impact Resistance: permits the character to forfend injury by making a dexterity check against it; when injury would normally occur, a successful roll negates the injury and halves the normal damage taken.

See Bard Sage Abilities