Opposition

The Opposition is not a full faction, just one of the many small sects scattered across the planes. Its creed holds that every force, idea and object has an opposite, that opposites give things meaning, and that anything left unchallenged withers. Conflict brings knowledge, power and confidence; it culls the weak so the strong grow stronger.

The sect lives on the Inner Planes, where earth battles air and fire wars on water in an eternal clash that, Opposers say, keeps the multiverse running. Whatever you believe, they are against it, not from spite but from a sincere conviction that resistance improves its target. The boldest members try to defy the laws of reality itself, since the greatest strength must come from the greatest struggle. Meet Opposers and expect them to obstruct you, unless they are already busy obstructing someone else.

Most Opposers are fighters; typical statistics describe a 4th-level fighter member. The sect grants one power, and it is potent: once per day a member automatically thwarts another's action, such as stopping a blow, halting a fleeing foe or refuting an argument. The action must come from a thinking being (no opposing avalanches), the Opposer needs a believable method, like a shield, a tackle or a dodge, and the result must be possible in the DM's judgment. A player character member must explain the method and declare the opposition before any dice are rolled, never knowing whether the action would have failed on its own.

Organization is loose. Tiny contingents keep the sect splintered, so it will never rival the great factions of the great planar city, and many members waste their efforts opposing each other. Each contingent claims one Inner Plane, the Elemental Plane of Air most often, since few members can endure the others for long without serious magic. Still, they roam the harshest planes whenever they can, believing adversity strengthens them.

All Inner Planes matter equally to the sect. When a splinter group declares one element supreme, the rest naturally turn on it, and such squabbles fade fast. Opposers seldom visit the Outer Planes; they like the clash of alignments there but prefer the plain elemental opposites of the Inner Planes.

Only true neutrals may join, since anyone tied to good, evil, law or chaos would be swayed by forces they should resist. Everyone finds members contrary, belligerent and unfriendly, which is fair, and non-Opposers react to them at -2. A member may never voice any belief or motive except the sect's own, unless contradicting someone. Call something white and an Opposer calls it black.

Their creed in short: you are wrong, hardship breeds greatness, conflict hones people and ideas toward perfection, and agreement is weakness. Do not bother pointing out that opposing everything means opposing themselves. They have all heard it, and the usual answer is 'Now you're getting it!' and a punch. They want their own beliefs challenged constantly.

Small and made up almost entirely of outsiders, the Opposition counts for little on the Inner Planes as a whole, yet in isolated places a contingent can be a respected or feared power.

A faction of would-be gods admires their love of testing, and both a faction of ruthless self-made strivers and a faction of despairing nihilists share their view that life is struggle. None of that wins the sect allies, which it does not want. It rejects every faction's beliefs, rather like a faction of revolutionaries, who are no friends of theirs either. Rumor says that if the Opposers ever grew important, the other factions would crush them on principle.