Adepts are living weapons and athletes that have trained their bodies and honed their minds to perfection. This process endows them with considerable mental power and an unusual understanding of the self.
Every adept has a different reason for striving towards ever greater heights of personal achievement, but all can be incredibly deadly.
Be they rough pugilists used to life in the pits, religious dancers whose prayer is battle, or covert assassins from secret societies adepts all learn amazing supernatural abilities that set them apart from common warriors.
Adepts harness mental and physical power through training, an energy they call focus. While this can be fuel for supernatural feats, in essence it is nothing more than the innate potential every living being has. Adepts channel this power within themselves to accomplish the impossible and surpass the limitations of their bodies, allowing them to be as deadly unarmed as a trained warrior is with sharp blades. As they grow more powerful, they learn several new ways of using their focus.
¶ MASTERS AND STUDENTS
The art of the adept is old and personal, often taught by one master to a single student, and though the path to perfection is always long, each chooses their own different way to reach it. However they are all united by the generations of adepts that came before them, the ones who discovered these secrets and passed them forward. Adepts are always ready to learn, both when it comes to their own abilities and about the world around them. They are also always ready to teach, for they know their craft will never survive unless more adepts are trained like they were.
You can find the instructions on how to create an Adept here.
- Arachnid Guardian (DDG Pg. 30) - Spiders are often regarded as frightening or dangerous—and indeed, they often are. But spiders also prey upon insects that destroy crops, gnaw at foundations, and carry disease. Arachnid guardians take inspiration from the positive aspects of spiders. Originally composed exclusively of shadow elves, today the order has expanded to include anyone who seeks to fight the dangers lurking in the darkness
- Blade Dancer (PMG MOAR: I Pg. 15) - More than an ordinary swordsman, a blade dancer combines peak physical conditioning with absolute mastery of the sword. Some are rakish, dashing swashbucklers, as quick with a joke or an acrobatic trick as they are with a blade. Others are hardened, cold-hearted killers who waste not the slightest movement as they viciously cut their opponents down.
- Brawler (AG Pg. 117) - Most adepts find intellectual and spiritual knowledge an important part of their studies—that’s not the case for brawlers. These adepts are only concerned about fighting and winning, which not only makes them tougher than their peers but also more versatile and unpredictable.
- Bruiser (GPG #6) - While adepts are typically known for a certain level of grace and speed, there are other traditions that value strength, resilience, and power more than agility and grace. Known unflatteringly as bruisers, these formidable adepts can stand toe-to-toe with foes that many of their contemporaries would prefer to dodge around.
- Deathless Master (HOaN) - Some adepts seek to train their bodies and spirits towards one singular purpose: to defy and overcome death. These masters gain incredible resilience, capable of shrugging off wounds and afflictions that would destroy lessers. It is said the greatest practitioners of this path also slow or even stop their aging, coming very near to the secrets of eternal life.
- Durala Carao (AiZ Pg. ) - The Durala Carao means ‘The Way of the Gun'. This order’s teachings requires them to seek out battle to master their visceral mortal fear, and thus free themselves from the burden of any fears. Adepts of the Way of the Gun can dodge and even catch bullets, curve their shots around barriers, and perform other supernatural feats with firearms. Due to their devotion to confronting fear of the unknown, nearly every student undertakes a journey into foreign lands, and tales of wandering elvish gunslingers are popular. A few such adepts have shared their enlightened mastery. (If you've ever wanted to play a character that can execute Gun Kata as seen in Equilibrium, this is it)
- Exalted Athlete (AG Pg. 117) - For most adepts the path to perfection is a lonely one. While knowledge is shared in rodas and colosseums around the world, each journey is extremely personal. No companion can truly share an adept’s road except for the adept themself. However, this otherworldly dedication invites attention from supernatural beings. An exalted athlete utilizes divine boons to augment their already striking prowess.
- Field Agent (PMG MOAR: I Pg. 15) - Some adepts put their training to use less in fights or athletic combinations and more in the clandestine world of spies and criminals. Because adepts are less dependent on weapons, armor, and other equipment than most other adventurers, they enjoy some unique advantages to their spycraft. They are especially talented in the vitally important abilities needed to blend into crowds, pass through weapons checks and remain dangerous on the other side, and quickly escape from pursuers through superior athleticism.
- Focused Archer (MMM) - Focused archers are those adepts that have turned their focus, discipline, and training towards mastering a different weapon: the bow. They can perform amazing feats of long range pinpoint accuracy, and fire off arrows at lightning speed without any significant penalty. This is because for a focused archer, the bow is not merely a weapon or a tool, it is an extension of themselves, and it works fully in tandem with them.
- Forbidden Fist (MoAR Comp Pg. 113) - While most adepts are content to hone their bodies and minds, some go looking for additional power outside themselves, tapping into traditional magical practice alongside the more standard physical conditioning all adepts take part in. More traditionally-minded adepts often frown on this practice, condemning such pursuits as "a pointless distraction" at best and a dangerous, spiritually-corrosive endeavor at worst, and it is from this condemnation from their fellows that Forbidden Fists get their name. Despite the taboo nature of this practice, there is no denying that its practitioners enjoy a higher degree of versatility than other adepts.
- Ghostly Soul (GPG #10) - Adepts that pursue an inward path to enlightenment and perfection discover that the soul can be a gateway to the apotheosis they seek, the tether upon which their life depends becoming a means to reach incredible heights. These warriors do not just consider concepts of life and death, but foster the power of their souls to walk between the realms of mortality while they still yet live and breathe.
- Mentalist (MMM) - Adepts are Adepts are best known for their mastery of their own bodies, and the training they undergo to achieve it. Mentalists are those adepts who instead focus as much if not more on honing something else: their minds. And in pursuing such practices they unlock potent psionic abilities that allow them to accomplish truly amazing things.
- Oaken Fist (GPG #13) - Some of the strongest, most unyielding things in the natural world are plants. Mighty trees, tenacious thorn bushes, and lichen that can grow anywhere are all compelling examples of incredible resilience. It is therefore unsurprising that some might take the endurance of plants as inspiration, and from these admirers of the natural world, Oaken Fists arise. (Tertiary Caster)
- Quickstepper (GPG #2) - There’s something spectacular about dodging an enthusiastic blow, an amazing sense of exhilaration that only comes after a well delivered taunt drives a foe to make a strike they are likely to miss. The mixture of fast feet and quick wits is a unique talent, however, and only those who train to develop these peculiar skills can utilize them to maximum effect (Quicksilver).
- Sentry (PMG TT-S Pg. 2) - Sentries are highly-trained and elite guards who specialize in keeping secure areas safe from eavesdropping and invasion. They master polearms to help even them fend off enemies and learn to pick out suspicious details in normallyinadequate light. The most experienced among them develop a supernatural awareness of their surroundings.
- Tranquil Master (GPG #3) - Calm and unassuming, tranquil masters are as much about limiting conflict as they are at swiftly putting it down. In addition to their formidable mental fortitude, such adepts use a variety of soothing roots and herbs for the warm drinks they use to ply their craft.
- Walking Rock (GPG #29) - Part of an adept’s personal quest can be the conditioning of the body. To most this means simply staying in peak physical shape, maintaining great personal discipline, and keeping a healthy and nutritious diet—but so much more can be achieved. Years of specialized training and manipulation of the body’s energy has turned the skin and fists of these adepts into callused armor and weaponry (The Thing).
- Warrior Monk (AG Pg. 118) - Adepts of the warrior monk tradition value the legacy of their forebears. While they emphasize prowess as much as any other adept and keep their gaze fixed on their path towards perfection, warrior monks treasure their roots deeply. They unearth lost martial arts knowledge and are always ready to fight in any situation, enhancing their unarmed skills beyond those of their peers.
- Wrestler (MMM) - Wrestlers are those adepts that have fully specialized in the grappling arts. They know how to various locks, holds, and the leverage and the body weight of themselves and their opponents to both lockdown and restrain targets. They can even grapple creatures that normal warriors would be incapable of, performing near superhuman feats.