Slayers

Has nothing to do with the Dwarf Slayers or the Halatu, the House of the Second World.

The Slayers is a series of light novels, anime, and manga about a sorceress and her adventuring party of murderhobos. The Slayers was originally a Westaboo's steampunk vision of a fifteen year-old girl and her ten year-old clone, but ultimately the focus was changed to a European sword and sorcery setting, which was becoming popular at the time. Take, for example, Record of the Lodoss War which was based on another Westaboo's DnD campaigns, or Berserk, Claymore, or Sorcerous Stabber Orphen. The largest difference between Slayers and the rest of the genre is that it focuses on comedy, rather than calamity.

The protagonist is Lina Inverse, an extremely powerful black magic sorceress who had already become infamous by the time she was thirteen years-old as both a "Bandit Killer", having a minor catchphrase "Villains have no rights!" before executing them and taking their hard-earned stolen loot, and "Dragon Spooker", a shortened way of saying "dragons are so disgusted by her existence they want nothing to do with her". She's tagged along with Gourry Gabriev, her self-proclaimed guardian and possibly greatest swordsman on the planet (though stuck with the brains of a jellyfish), and has occassional other party members. The first pair to travel with her is a one-third human, one-third blow demon, and one-third golem Zelgadis Greywords, a "blessed-with-suck" arcane warrior that's an expert in elemental shamanism, and Amelia Wil Tesla Saillune, a princess and third-in-line for the holiest of countries on their continent and is gifted in restorative white magic. Before meeting Gourry, Lina also traveled with one Gracia Ul Naga Saillune, better known as "Naga the Serpent" in the stories, though they were just as much enemies as allies as the latter proclaimed herself "Lina's foremost and most-beautiful rival".

Through the series there were a collection of interesting villains that any DM should learn from, either from what to do, or what not to do. Rezo the Red Priest is their first antagonist, an extremely-powerful sorcerer and regarded as one of the Five Wise Men of the age. Originally perfoming great miracles and healing the sick or injured, he slowly descended into madness in pursuit of a cure for his own blindness, which no healing magic could cure. Other antagonists include wizards adept at creating chimeras, warlocks who make pacts with demons in the pursuit of immortality, demonic generals and priests capable of militarizing entire countries to war and their masters who have control over death and Hell, and even fragments of the Dark Lord Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo which are so powerful they've killed gods.

The story's rules are very consistent, making them a good example for anyone wishing to create their own campaign and understand that there needs to be limitations to make a story interesting. For example, despite how powerful Lina is, she's unable to use her greatest spells "Ragna Blade" or "Giga Slave" without access to powerful magic amplification. Furthermore, she can't cast Giga Slave recklessly, as the ability itself draws the Lord of Nightmares, the creator of everything, into her body, and a failed casting will result in Lina being possessed or, even worse, the entire world sinking back into the Sea of Chaos, or nothingness.

Cast of Characters

Whilst the precise cast of characters and more importantly details on those characters varies between the light novel and anime continuities, there's still a pretty solid core set.

Lina Inverse is our star, a Chaotic Neutral Black Mage who has an uncanny aptitude for the most destructive spells in her setting, most famously the Dragon Slave, which is pretty much THE biggest boom in the canon. And she uses all this magic of mass destruction in a VERY casual manner. Vain, arrogant, temperamental, greedy and gluttonous, she mostly travels to gain loot, see new places and make herself famous. Her big sister is a famous archmage and hero, and her twitching inferiority complex over being essentially the less-powerful, less-attractive, less-successful version of her is at the root of many of her personal issues.

Gourry Gabriev is Lina's dumb-as-a-stump meatshield and longest traveling companion. There are hints of a romantic attraction between the two, but it usually goes nowhere, save in the odd season finale. Pretty good at swordfighting, actually, and wields the setting equivalent of a lightsaber, but, well, is ultimately stuck being the sole single-classed fighter in a series where everyone else at least dips something a bit more... world-smash-y. His ability to kill a man with a thrown acorn is a bit less impressive when his partner's go-to attack spell is the magical equivalent of a tactical nuke, ya feel me? Has a surprisingly tragic backstory that never gets mentioned or brought up.

Zelgadis Graywords is a cursed sorcerer-swordsman whose great-grandfather, the famous Red Priest Rezo, magically fused him with two different kinds of monsters to make him stronger. From a Blue Demon, he gained increased magical aptitude and superhuman speed and reflexes, whilst a Stone Golem gave him super-tough rocky skin and metallic wire for hair. He hates looking like a freak and is always out to find a cure for his condition. Has kind of a thing for Amelia that is a bit more explicit than the other main romantic couple in the series. The fact that he's often the only character taking things seriously is in and of itself often hilarious. His super-durable body has, on various occasions, resulted in him blocking cannonballs by headbutting them and being used as a makeshift ship's anchor.

Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun is a well-meaning, cheerful, good-hearted white mage princess who thinks she's in an old-school magical girl-style series, and conducts herself accordingly. (Ironically, she predates many of the cliches of the genre she's a spot-on parody of.) Has a big heart and a flair for drama that causes her to serve as the moral compass of the party, despite being the youngest. Is probably Naga the Serpent's younger sister, though nobody can prove anything confirmed in the novels.

Xellos is the enigmatic trickster priest of the Mazoku race, who specializes in trolling Lina's group and playing them like puppets. Is an evil jerk, but he's funny and charming enough to also be a fan favorite. He NEVER lies, using half-truths or his catchphrase "It's a secret" instead.

Naga the Serpent is Lina's original traveling partner, before she finally managed to ditch her. An incredibly arrogant ditz with a laugh that can crack glass, she infuriated Lina as much for her bungling stupidity as for her incessant wearing of super-skimpy clothing to show off her ridiculously oversized rack, which made Lina feel quite inadequate. Her real name is Gracia Ul Naga Seyruun, the runaway princess of Seyruun.

Filia Ul Copt is a Gold Dragon priestess who recruits Lina's party to help her save the world in the third season of the anime. She knows some white magic, and tends to whip out the mace she keeps under her skirt to beat on Xellos whenever he shows up. Of course, this means many members of the fandom have shipped the two as a couple

Pokota is a prince whose people were experimented upon by Rezo, resulting in him being ripped out of his body and stuck in the body of a living doll.

Sylphiel Nels Lahda a timid cleric and Gourry childhood friend, which means, according to the laws of anime, she have a crush on him. His healing and protective magic are second to none, but she is comically inept at casting offensive spells. Despise this, somehow she manage to learn how to use the Dragon Slave in the same level that Lina

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Plot

The plot in Slayers is kind of an ups and downs thing. At the very start, you need to know that there are two major continuities; the original Light Novels, which never made it out of Japan AND where a lot of information is literally made up by the author on the fly in interviews, and the anime, which mostly sticks to the light novels where it can, but does its own thing, and doesn't try to info dump on the world. So, yeah, we'll stick to the latter.

There are currently 5 seasons of the Slayers anime - well, technically 8. See, the Slayers tends to internally divide each season into two major plot-lines, which are told over their own 13 episode arc, although they share a greater continuity. In fact, the last two official seasons - Revolution and Evolution-R - are literally the result of taking this to the official level, consisting of only 13 episodes apiece and fitting together as a single meta-season. The general plotline is that Lina Inverse goes running around looking for bandits to rob and ruins to loot, but keeps getting embroiled in bigger shit.

Season one, or "The Slayers", consists of two arcs. In the first, "The Red Priest Arc", Lina meets and teams up with Gourry and Zelgadis, as she becomes embroiled with trying to keep the magical Philosopher's Stone away from Rezo the Red Priest, who turns out to be vassal to one of the seven fragments of Ruby-Eyed Shabranigdo. When things go wrong, the three are forced to fight together to prevent this fragment of the ultimate evil from annihilating the world. In the second arc, "The Copy Rezo Arc", Lina's party grows to include Amelia, and they find themselves having do to battle with Copy Rezo, an insane clone of the Red Priest who wants to annihilate them all in vengeance.

Season two, or "The Slayers Next", again consists of two arcs. The first, "The Clair Bible Arc", sees Lina, Gourry, Zelgadis and Amelia teaming up to hunt down the lost magical grimoire known as the Claire Bible, an ultimate book of spellcraft. Lina desperately needs to find it because the outcast Mazoku Lord, Chaos Dragon Gaav, is trying his hardest to kill her! But when they succeed at that, it only leads to more problems; it turns out Gaav wanted Lina dead because her personally designed ultimate spell, the Giga Slave, is actually an invocation of the Lord of Nightmares - which means that if Lina ever loses control of it, she will annihilate the entire universe! Worse yet, the Mazoku Lord Hellmaster Phibrizzo knows she can cast this spell, and will stop at nothing to force Lina into casting it, resulting in the surprisingly dramatic "Hellmaster Arc".

Season three, "The Slayers Try", opens up the Slayers world. Centuries ago, the segment of the world where Lina and her buddies live was sealed behind a Mazoku-created barrier. Now, that barrier has fallen, and the party reunites with plans of exploring the strange new realms beyond. These innocent plans are scuttled when a Golden Dragon priestess from the outer world named Filia recruits the Slayers to avert a prophecy of doom in the "Darkstar Prophecy Arc", which also sees them facing off against Valgaav, the half-mazoku dragon servitor of Chaos Dragon Gaav. Then, when they botch their initial attempts at foiling the prophecy, they must locate the five Weapons of Light and deal with the insane, murderous Shinzoku/Mazoku/Ancient Dragon hybrid that is Darkstar Dugradigdu merged with Valgaav, in the "Weapons of Light Arc".

"The Slayers Revolution" is either season 4 or season 4, arc 1, depending on how you look at it. In this 13 episode, the Slayers meet Pokota, a cursed prince who is looking for some way to restore his lost kingdom. However, Pokota isn't the only survivor of his kingdom, and first, they must stop his one-time ally, who has instead become obsessed with destroying the neighboring kingdoms that he feels betrayed their own.

This then concludes in "The Slayers Evolution-R"; having learned that Taforashia was sealed in its slumber by Rezo the Red Priest, they seek out the Hellmaster's Jar, an enchanted vessel which promises the ability to revive the dead archmage/high priest. Unfortunately, when they succeed, another fragment of Shabranigdo is restored alongside of him, and they must battle to save the world once again.

Cosmology

As touched upon under Plot, because of the rather...uncoordinated release of Slayers material, it's hard to get a perfectly accurate reference to what the Slayers multiverse looks like, but this is what is known:

The foundation of the multiverse is a swirling ocean of golden primordial chaos. Sapient and self-aware, this Chaos is a Chaotic Neutral Overdeity referred to as the Lord of Nightmares. From itself, the Lord of Nightmares has created the various worlds, which are depicted as plates sitting atop cosmic pillars that rise from this golden sea. We know of Lina's world, and have no idea how many others there are, although it's suggested that four are known to Lina's world in total.

In each world, the Lord of Nightmare created life - most specifically, the beings called "Shinzoku" and "Mazoku", terms that are difficult to translate from the Japanese, but most closely work as "Gods" and "Monsters". She charged the Shinzoku with preserving their chosen world, and the Mazoku with destroying it. In truth, she doesn't care which force wins; she just enjoys watching the conflict as a source of amusement from her eternal ennui. The plot of Slayers Try actually stems from the lead Shinzoku & Mazoku of one world - Volphied and Darkstar Dugradigdu - learning that their titanic cosmic battle was nothing but a game she was watching, resulting in them fusing together and trying to annihilate their world in order to spoil her game and then recreate it on their own terms, away from her.

In the Slayers World, the Shinzoku manifested as mighty dragon-gods, served by lesser dragon underlings. The Great Shinzoku and Great Mazoku, the most powerful of all their kinds, are respectively known as Flare Dragon Ceiphied and Ruby Eye Shabranigdu. Eons ago, the two fought a mighty battle, which resulted in Ceiphied splitting Shabranigdu into seven pieces and cursing those pieces to be repeatedly bound into the bodies of different human hosts, in hopes that eventually this would cleanse him of his nihilistic instincts and end his threat to the world. Ceipheed then vanished, and is implied to have been mortally wounded.

Ceiphied's underlings are known as Aqualord Ragradia, Flarelord Vrabazard, Airlord Valwin, and Earthlord Rangort, respectively associated with the North, East, West and South. During a later titanic battle, Aqualord Ragradia was slain by the Mazoku Lords, which is why the art of Holy Magic has been all but lost in the Barrier Realms.

Shabranigdu's underlings, the Mazoku Lords, were originally five-fold; Hellmaster Phibrizzo, Chaos Dragon Gaav, Greater Beast Zelas Metallium, Dynast Grausherra, and Deep Sea Dolphin. Of the five, we only know real details about the first two.

At some point in the past, Chaos Dragon Gaav was sealed inside of a mortal host, much like his master - unlike Shabranigdu, he was not strong enough to resist the "purifying" effect of being bonded to human souls, which stripped him of the instinctive yearning for obliteration that all Mazoku are supposed to feel. This made him a traitor to the Mazoku race, who are supposed to eagerly seek the annihilation of all things, whereas Gaav wanted to live and enjoy himself. For this reason, he took to wandering the land and indulging in whatever whim he felt, whilst occasionally rising up to strike down particularly powerful threats to the world. This culminates in Slayers Next, when he attempts to kill Lina Inverse for the sake of preserving the world from her deadly Giga Slave spell. Instead, he himself is killed when, after Lina weakens him in self defense, Hellmaster Phibrizzo takes advantage of his condition to strike him down.

Hellmaster Phibrizzo is a sadistic, manipulative monster even by the standards of the Mazoku. Possessing authority over the otherwise undetailed underworld of the Slayers dimension, he has the power to raise the dead and slay the living with just a thought. Having learned of Lina Inverse's Giga Slave spell, he becomes the big villain of the second half of Slayers Next, where he tries to force her to use the spell in hopes that she will lose control and annihilate everything. Instead, Lina Inverse ends up being possessed by the Lord of Nightmares herself, whereupon Phibrizzo has a surprisingly creepy mental breakdown, shifting from begging her to destroy him to trying desperately to save himself. Ultimately, the Lord of Nightmares effortlessly obliterates him, ending his threat to the world.

Magic

Magic in the Slayers universe is most deeply detailed in the light novels, but the anime shares pretty much the same ground.

Theoretically, everyone can do magic in the Slayers universe - all one needs to do is speak the Chaos Words (incantations that invoke the various metaphysical entities from whom spells draw their power) and bam, the spell goes off. This is because spells are fueled by mana, and every living thing in the Slayers universe has mana. Chaos Words help to shape mana into specific patterns, and can be forgone if you're sufficiently skilled; a good mage can cast a spell just by invoking its name, whilst a great one doesn't even need that.

The reason the entire world isn't crawling with archmages is two-fold; Dedication and Capacity.

Sure, pretty much everyone knows a cantrip or two that comes in handy in their day-to-day life, but not everybody has the chance or the desire to dedicate their lives to studying spells. Add in that you need to know the incantations, and that not every spell is just in a public library waiting for some yahoo to memorize it, and that keeps most of the powerful mages aligned to the various sorcery guilds. Also, if you're a dumbass, then you're naturally not going to be very good at magic - the Slayers' creator has actually claimed Gourry's talent for sorcery rivals Lina's, but because he's such an absent-minded dreamer, he could never remember the incantations, and so he can't cast spells.

Capacity is the other big issue. See, every spell requires a certain amount of mana before it can function. Bigger spells need more juice. Now, a person's mana "pool capacity" - how much mana they can store at one time - grows with repeated spellcasting, much like how a muscle strengthens with exercise. But their "bucket capacity", how much of their internal mana they can actually access at once? That's set in stone. Doesn't matter how much you practice or how much you wish it, if you can barely muster the mana to fuel a Flare Arrow, you're never going to cast a Dragon Slave. This has resulted in at least one spell being lost to humanity; the ultra-destructive Fire Shamanism spell Blast Bomb is such a mana-guzzler that even Lina Inverse can't cast it on her own. And bucket capacity boosters? Oh, those are rare indeed - Lina Inverse has the only set known in the series, and she had to steal those off of Xellos.

Magic Schools

In the Slayers universe, magic is divided into several different schools; Black Magic, Holy Magic, Shamanism and White Magic.

Black Magic draws its powers from the dark, destructive, negative energies embodied by the Mazoku. It is, thusly, an offensive style of magic, most useful for delivering powerful magical attacks, with a side-deal in curses. It is the most useful anti-Mazoku school known in the "Barrier Realms" of Lina and her crew, because it tends to attack physical and astral bodies at the same time. However, that makes it very subject to nerfing; if the Mazoku you're blasting is stronger than the Mazoku you're drawing energy from, then that spell's not going to do anything. Likewise, spells drawn from a particular Mazoku will do all of jack squat if you cast them on that very same Mazoku.

Holy Magic is the polar opposite of Black Magic, drawing its power from the positive energies embodied by the Shinzoku. Very little is known about this kind of magic because it's been lost in the Barrier Realms for generations, whilst in the Outer Realms, magic itself has dwindled to become virtually a lost art, a result of virtually every magically skilled individual being drafted for the ancient war that saw the Barrier Realms being created, leaving all the mages stuck inside and the non-mages stuck outside. It presumably has similar abilities to White Magic, but with vastly more potent anti-Mazoku killing spells.

White Magic is a lesser form of Holy Magic mixed with aspects of Astral Shamanism. It focuses on curative and protective spells, healing injuries and trying to keep people safe.

Shamanism is a form of elementalism that draws its power from five elements; Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Spirit. It's the most well-rounded and utilitarian of schools, with lots of spells for attack, defense and utility. Earth Shamanism focuses on manipulating earth and metal, such as throwing giant rocks at people, causing spontaneous eruptions under them, or creating protective walls. Air Shamanism grants flight, razor sharp wind projectiles, lightning bolts and protective barriers. Fire Shamanism burns the shit out of things. Water Shamanism can manipulate water or hurl icy blasts, and is useful for countering Fire Shamanism. Spirit Shamanism is more commonly referred to as Astral Shamanism, as A: all shamanism spells call upon spirits, and B: its spells focus on manipulating the Astral Plane. This makes it the only branch of Shamanism that can hope to affect Mazoku, with its Ra Tilt spell being considered almost as powerful as the Dragon Slave.

Slayers and Gaming

This page is in need of cleanup. Srsly. It's a fucking mess.

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Guardians of Order has, on two occasions, failed to make a good RPG out of the license. First was a series of three splatbooks for their BESM tristat game, each book represents a single season of the series. These books did nothing a veteran gamemaster couldn't already do. But they did present playable stats of all of the main characters from the season they covered. Their second failure was the Slayers d20 book, which was one of many hanger-ons to the d20 OGL. Unlike most copycats though, this system did try to rebalance the classes, but ended up making a shit-ton of crap, such as the man-at-arms, shrine-maiden and sorcerer classes. One good feature was its innovative magic system; it allowed a caster to know a level dependent number of spell level worth of spells. This was also capped in that there wasn't a spells per day system, but instead a caster roll based on the arcana skill.

The Slayers D20

Since 1d4chan takes pride in rescuing lost /tg/ stuff from the depths of time, let's take a look at some of the unique material from the Slayers D20 game that might be worth stealing, or at least building upon for your own games.

Slayers D20 Races

The Slayers anime is a weird setting; humans, beastfolk and dragons abound, and so do various hybrids or magically crafted fusions. To represent this, the Slayers D20 has a relatively small set of true races, but a larger set of racial templates. These allow players to represent half-breeds or chimeras - a chimera is literally just a character that takes a base race and then takes two or more templates. It's an interesting idea, but, sadly, the scourge of Level Adjustment makes it incredibly impractical.

There are only three core races in Slayers D20; Humans (use the stats from the 3e PHB), Beastfolk, and Golden Dragons. The templates consist of the Half-Demon, Half-Dragon, Half-Golem, Half-Mazoku and Half-Troll.

Beastfolk

Technically called "beastmen" in the actual series, beastfolk are a strange phenomena in the Slayers world. We really don't know much about them, except that they are distantly connected to the Mazoku and tend to fill the generic enemy mooks slot. A sprawling, chaotic mess of a species, beastfolk consist of both the typical humanoid beasts and what D&D would call "monstrous humanoids" - Slayers-world orcs are literally porcine beastfolk, whilst the "Berserker" monsters are considered a kind of beastman. For simplicity's sake, the Slayers D20 version of the race focuses strictly on the various humanoid animal beastfolk.

Most beastfolk look humans with animalistic heads and skins, but one strain is particularly weird. Fishfolk look like giant trout who have human arms and legs, and are unabashedly used as the most comedic of comic mooks. Even the book wasn't sure what to do with them - it gave them a specific ability score modifier set and favored class (+2 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence, Favored Class: Bandit), but didn't give them a swim speed.

Beastfolk strains have different ability score modifiers and Favored Classes, as described here:

Bear: +4 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -4 Charisma, Favored Class: Warrior

Boar: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma, Favored Class: Warrior

Bull: +6 Strength, +2 Constitution, -4 Intelligence, -4 Charisma, Favored Class: Warrior

Dog: +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma, Favored Class: Bounty Hunter

Fox: +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, -2 Strength, -2 Constitution, Favored Class: Rogue

Goat: +2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma, Favored Class: Bandit

Lizard: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma, Favored Class: Bandit

Raccoon: +4 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, -2 Strength, -2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom, Favored Class: Rogue

Wolf: +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma, Favored Class: Bounty Hunter

All beastfolk, regardless of their strain, have the following stats:

Medium

Base land speed 30 feet

Low-light Vision

Bonus Feat: From a list of Endurance, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Loyal, Run, Scent, Toughness or Track.

+2 racial bonus on List, Spot and Survival checks

Golden Dragon

The dragons are another example of the somewhat slipshod approach to lore seen in Slayers. Golden Dragons, we know for a fact, are intelligent beings directly descended from the Shinzoku of their world, which gives them a powerful affinity for the forces of holy & white magic and a natural instinct to preserve the world. They view themselves as the living exemplars of good, and have an understandable hatred for the Mazoku, but as is shown in the series, they are - much like Dragonlance elves - nowhere near as morally infallible or as perfect as they like to view themselves. Then... there are the other dragons, which seem to vary from apparently sapient to mindless beasts, and with no explanation ever given.

Technically, Golden Dragon PCs are supposed to be restricted to Non-Evil, Non-Chaotic alignments.

Ability Score Modifiers: +6 Strength, +2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom

Dragon type

Medium

Base land speed 30 feet

Low-Light Vision

Breath Weapon (Su): A Golden Dragon has two different kinds of breath weapon; Laser and Diflasher. Both are single-target attacks that can be dodged to avoid all damage if the target passes Reflex save (DC 10 + half the dragon's character level + the dragon's Con modifier). Laser Breath is a 100ft line of radiant energy that inflicts 1d8 Fire damage per character level possessed by the dragon. Diflasher is an astral attack, meaning it only affects Outsiders and other creatures vulnerable to astral damage; it inflicts 1d10 astral damage per character level possessed by the dragon.

Alternate Form: Golden Dragons can shift between their true draconic form and a humanoid "interaction" form (which basically resembles an elf with some minor draconic traits, like a tail, slipping through) by making checks of their Control Shape skill - this is always a class skill for golden dragons and keys off of Constitution. Changing between forms requires a DC 15 Control Shape check, and a Golden Dragon in a highly stressful situation may be forced to take Control Shape checks (typically DC 20 or higher) to avoid reverting to their draconic form. In dragon form, a Golden Dragon is Huge sized, has a base land speed of 40 feet, has a Fly speed of 200 feet (Poor maneuverability), and receives the standard modifiers for changing size: +16 Strength, -4 Dexterity, +8 Constitution, +5 natural armor, -2 size penalty to attack rolls and Armor Class.

Dragon Magic (Ex): Golden Dragons receive a +5 racial bonus to their Spell Drain & Spell Control Checks when casting White Magic.

Dragon Faith (Ex): Golden Dragons of the Priest class don't require a staff to use that class's abilities.

Hunger Resistance (Ex): Golden Dragons can go twice as long without food and water as a human, and only need to make checks against starvation/dehydration once every two hours.

Spell Resistance: 11 + Character Level

Damage Reduction: 10/Magic

Favored Class: Priest

Level Adjustment: +6

Half-Demon

If dragons are confusing when it comes to the question of where they sit amongst the racial hierarchy, then demons are worse. We know that they're lower down on the hierarchy than Mazoku, but share many of the same traits, such as being predominantly astral beings who manifest themselves in the world physically. However, they don't seem to be as invested in the whole "commit cosmic murder-suicide" deal. Theoretically, a half-demon could have a demon parent, at least in the Slayers D20 understanding of the lore, but the majority of half-demons are either a case of a mortal being possessed by a demon and having the ability to tap into that demon's inherent power, or else they are sorcerous fusions created to power-up the existing being. Demons are actually quite popular for this, especially if you're trying to make a chimera with enhanced spellcasting ability.

This is a Template Race, so you apply the following modifiers to a base race first.

Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution

Intuitive Spellcaster: A half-demon has the ability to cast Common spells, regardless of its class. White/Black/Shamanism spells still require that the half-demon take the appropriate classes.

Intuitive Magic (Ex): +2 racial bonus to all Spell Drain and Spell Control Checks.

Spell Resistance: 10 + Character Level

Racial Skills: +2 to Spellcraft, Summoning and Use Magic Device checks.

Level Adjustment: +2

Half-Dragon

Of the five template races, Half-Dragons are one of the only two that are likely to have actual interspecies erotica for a backstory. Whilst the lesser dragons, with their more bestial levels of intelligence, are used in chimeric fusion experiments, the template itself focuses on a half-golden dragon race, which is almost certainly the result of a rare tryst between races.

This is a Template Race, so you apply the following modifiers to a base race first.

Ability Score Modifiers: +4 Strength, +2 Charisma

Breath Weapon (Su): A half-dragon can use its laser breath as a single-target attack that can be dodged to avoid all damage if the target passes Reflex save (DC 10 + half the half-dragon's character level + the half-dragon's Con modifier). Laser Breath is a 100ft line of radiant energy that inflicts 1d6 Fire damage per character level possessed by the dragon.

Damage Reduction (Ex): 5/Magic

Low-Light Vision (Ex)

Hunger Resistance (Ex): Half-Dragons can go twice as long without food and water as a human, and only need to make checks against starvation/dehydration once every two hours.

Intuitive White Magic: Half-Dragons gain a +2 racial bonus to all Spell Drain and Spell Control Checks when casting White Magic spells.

Spell Resistance: 5 + Character Level

Level Adjustment: +2

Half-Golem

Like any good high fantasy setting, the Slayers world is full of golems - simple masses of stone animated by sorcery to serve the bidding of a master. They're strong, tough... and stupid. Half-Golems, mortals magically merged with animate stone to gain the golem's toughness and resilience, are far superior.

This is a Template Race, so you apply the following modifiers to a base race first.

Ability Score Modifiers: +4 Strength

+4 natural armor

Damage Reduction: 10/Magic

Immune to Poison and Disease

Level Adjustment: +2

Half-Mazoku

As incarnations of negative energy compelled by their divine creator to seek the oblivion of all things, Mazoku don't have a very rich dating life. In fact, they reproduce asexually, giving up fragments of their own astral being and letting these fragments awaken as new Mazoku. Half-Mazoku, then, are the result of magic. Whilst Mazoku are far more powerful and willful than demons, some mages are strong enough (or crazy enough, or stupid enough) to use them as power-boosters in chimera fusion experiments. Other "Half-Mazoku" are actually sealed Mazoku - mortals with Mazoku bound inside of them, creating a kind of possession where the host retains control over their body and can tap into the power of their spiritual occupant.

This is a Template Race, so you apply the following modifiers to a base race first.

Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +4 Intelligence, +4 Charisma

Type changes to Outsider (Native)

Shield of Will: A half-mazoku adds their positive Charisma modifier to their Armor Class as a deflection bonus.

Damage Reduction: 10/Magic

Darkvision 60 feet

Hunger Resistance (Ex): Half-Mazoku can go twice as long without food and water as a human, and only need to make checks against starvation/dehydration once every two hours.

Immune to Poison & Disease

Astral Phasing (Ex): Once per day per 2 character levels, a half-mazoku can shift from the material plane to the Astral Plane, and can return from the Astral to the material at will. They can also take along other people they are in physical contact with by giving up one extra "charge" of this ability to do so.

Racial Skills: Vision is always a class skill for half-mazoku, and they receive a +2 racial bonus on Bluff, Intimidate and Summoning checks.

Level Adjustment: +4

Half-Troll

In the Slayers world, trolls are a species of monstrous humanoid known for their strength, their toughness, and their ability to heal from almost anything. They readily interbreed with other races, or at least with Beastfolk, and are also a logical choice for the chimera-maker's arts.

This is a Template Race, so you apply the following modifiers to a base race first.

Ability Score Modifiers: +4 Strength, +4 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisa

+2 Natural Armor

Regeneration (Ex): A half-troll automatically recovers hit points every single round, at a rate of (1/2 character level + 1/2 Constitution bonus, round down). A half-troll reduced below 0 hit points automatically stabilizies itself, and regains 1 hit point per round until its hit point total reaches 0, at which point it resumes its normal regeneration rate. A half-troll reduced to -10 hit points is dead, having been damaged too badly for even its trollish regenerative ability to cope with.

Level Adjustment: +1

Slayers D20 Spellcasting

If there's anything mechanically sound in the Slayers D20, it's the unique spellcasting mechanics it came up with, which actually reflect the mechanics of the setting very well.

Casting Mechanics

To start with, all spells require a single standard action to start casting. Then, the spellcaster has to make a Fortitude save, based on the difficulty of the spell; this is called a Spell Drain Check, and reflects the struggle to pull the mana for the spell out of the caster's own spirit. To further reflect how much a spell saps the caster's strength, all spells have an automatic Drain value, which is an amount of non-lethal damage they take as a side-effect of casting the spell. If they're exhausted when they try to cast, then Drain becomes lethal damage instead.

And you got to pay attention to how well you do on your Spell Drain Check. If you pass the check by 10 points or more, you halve the Drain you suffer. If you fail the check, then you take double the Drain anyway and need to make a Control Check, but if you fail it by 10 points or more, you're also automatically Exhausted.

What's a Control Check? It's a check of (1d20 + character's total caster levels + character's relevant ability score modifier) against the spell's Spell Drain DC - 10. If you pass this check, the spell still goes off, it just took a lot more out of you than it should have. If you fail, then the spell flubs in some way; usually harmless or annoying, this could potentially be incredibly dangerous for high complexity spells, such as Dragon Slave or Giga Slave.

Pretty simple rules. But, there's a lot of little sub-rules that make things more complex.

For one thing, you can use the spell's name as part of casting. This alerts everyone within earshot of what you've actually cast, but gives you a +5 bonus to your Drain and Control Checks.

Secondly, you can use the spell's incantation. This changes the casting to a full-round action, but gives you a +5 bonus to Drain & Control (which stacks with naming the incantation) and boosts the save DCs of the spell by +2. You can actually use the incantation without naming the spell, in which case listeners must make a Spellcraft check to see if they identify it.

Thirdly, there's Lethal Drain - so long as you weren't exhausted to begin with, you can choose to take your Drain as lethal damage for +5 to the Drain & Control Checks. This stacks with all of the above.

Now, this is pretty flavorful, but since the Wizard class in Slayers D20 is still running off a D6 hit dice mechanic, it's inherently flawed; spells quickly become too taxing on hit points to be worth casting at all, which really messes up the paradigm.

Cooperative Casting

Spellcasters using the Slayers D20 system can work to combine their powers in multiple ways.

For starters, up to three casters can pool their efforts to cast the same spell; this functions as a designated "primary" spellcaster making their Drain & Control checks, but with a bonus to the check equal to the secondary caster's caster level and equal to 1/2 the tertiary caster's caster level. This increases the chance of the spell going off, and lightens the load; drain is shared out as equally as possible amongst the participating casters, with excess going to the primary caster - so, if three casters pull off a spell that inflicts 22 points of drain, then the primary takes 8 damage and the other two take 7 damage each.

Secondly, when a caster has a spell sustained, a friendly caster can attempt to boost it by making a Spellcraft check (DC equal to the spell's Base DC -10); this lets the secondary caster either increase the spell's effect by one-half their caster level, or apply a single metamagic feat. As with pooling a spell, drain is shared out equally, but with excess going to the primary caster.

Finally, multiple casters can attempt to merge their spells together for greater effectiveness. To do this, each caster has to individually cast the same spell, but direct them at the same target. Area of effect and damage are multiplied by the number of casters merging spells (doubled, tripled, quadrupled, etc), unless the spells have different values to the others, in which case it's the largest individual value that applies. Save DC is always the highest DC of the individual spells, plus the appropriate ability modifiers of all participating casters. For countering spell resistance, a merged spell uses the combined caster level of all participating casters.

Concentration

Concentration works differently under Slayers magic. Certain spells, called Sustained Spells, can be held as long as the caster concentrates. This requires a new Control Check each round; fortunately, all of the original bonuses the caster benefited from when they first cast the spell still apply to each Control Check they make whilst sustaining a spell. However, a sustained spell is less taxing; a successful Control Check causes them to sustain the spell without any drain, whilst failing the check still only inflicts half the normal drain for that spell.

A caster can also attempt to use other spells whilst they have a sustained spell active, which requires a Concentration check (DC 10 + 10 per sustained spell). If they fail the check, the spell fails to go off. Likewise, if they get distracted whilst sustaining spells, they need to make a separate Concentration check for each spell they have sustained; depending on the roll of the dice, this may mean some stay active, or lead to a cascade failure.

Disguising Spells

One final little trick of Slayers D20 spellcasting is that it's possible to fake out others as to what spell your casting. This is a Bluff check opposed by Spellcraft, but it prevents the caster from using the Naming & Incantation options and inflicts a -5 penalty on the Drain & Control checks.

Metamagic

Under this system, metamagic doesn't influence spell-level or casting time. Instead, it simply ups the spellcasting checks by an amount determined by the metamagic effects you apply. On the plus side, this means you can apply metamagic on the fly and as much as you need it.

Gallery

• 
  BESM Slayers, book 1
• 
  BESM Slayers NEXT, book 2
• 
  BESM Slayers TRY, book 3
• 
  Slayers d20 book made by the same dipshits who made the BESM books.
• 
  It's pretty much like that.
• 
  4e tries to be like this
• 
  Not to be confused with the fucking Furries.

Lost Universe

The Slayer's own science fiction spin off. According to the creator, Lost Universe may or may not be part of Slayer's universe, or even its prequel, but shit is complicated so here's the plot:

Background

Slayer and Lost Universe are similar in a lot of ways; the deity Vorfreed and Dark Star Dugradigdu from Slayer exist in this series as well, but in the form of an ancient eldritch starships known as "The Lost Ships". The Lost Ship are suppose to be space ships created by the ancient ayyy lmao to wage war. But the truth is that Vorfreed and Dark Star Dugradigdu got tired of each others shit so they fuck off to a planet and turn into starships. Then came Alicia shon Stargazer and Albert von Stargazer, the brother and sister that found these ships. Albert von Stargazer choose the ship Dark Star, but he was corrupt by its influence and was turned evil. He turned so evil that he started a galactic crime syndicate. To stop him, Alicia boarded her ship The Swordbreaker (Vorfreed), hoping to fight against her brother in order to restore him, but lost her life in the process, leaving that that task to her grandson Kane Blueriver. It is also noted that these lost ships have AI that can project their human forms via hologram.

The Plot

Kane Blueriver, a luke skywalker wannabe going around the galaxy doing mercenary work a trouble contractor.