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View Full Version : Face of Baal (custom artifact mask; help requested)



Tatsel_Ganav
2010-09-15, 07:37 PM
I am attempting to design a major artifact mask, in which is bound the Archdevil "Baal," the devil lord of warfare. Most of his power is confined, but he can still give the wearer some infernal powers. Using it temporarily shifts your alignment to Lawful Evil, but you know that will happen before you put it on, and your actual goals don't change. So you may still be set on saving the village, but you'll have no more moral boundaries on how you do so and will be more likely to, say, follow orders a superior gives you.

How it works: Baal can't force himself on anyone because of the binding magic he's under inside the mask, but if you willingly accept his semi-possession of your body while you wear the mask, he can grant you some measure of power. Use the mask once though, and it becomes extremely difficult to never use it at all. Baal's request is simple, kill a number of hit dice of creatures equal to your own hit dice while wearing the mask each day, and wear it for at least 1 hour a day. You can stall the request , but the requirements stack and Baal gets upset. So if you ignore the mask for 3 days and you are a level 5 character, you need to wear it for 3 hours and kill 15 HD worth of creatures to satisfy Baal. He does not care what you kill.

The penalty for ignoring the mask is that Baal will start visiting you in your sleep and giving you terrible nightmares that seem perfectly real. This will deal Wisdom damage and some Vile damage that heals itself once Baal is satisfied. A Will save (not sure the DC) can negate these effects, but the save will get more difficult the longer you ignore Baal's needs.

If you are reduced to 0 Wisdom or fall unconscious while you have any of Baal's vile damage dealt to you, Baal takes full possession of your body and you begin regenerating the vile damage at a rate of 1 per minute. He will not attack allies or do anything else especially moronic for you, as if his host dies then he has no way to even perceive the outside world, but having an archdevil controlling you is sure to cause problems. Baal remains in control until you restore all of the vile damage he had dealt to you or your Wisdom returns to its full normal capacity AND he has been in control at least 24 hours.

The Face of Baal has two sets of abilities. One set that it gives at all the time while worn, and another set during Infernal Rapture, where you allow Baal to infuse both your body and mind temporarily.

Ideas for the Face of Baal

See in magical darkness
Telepathy
Immunity to inhaled poison
Poisonous or acidic breath weapon
Uncanny dodge (he's "watching" your back for you)
Intimidate bonus, demoralize as move, swift or free action
Ability that lets you spot weaknesses in enemy defenses, maybe automatically confirm a critical hit


Ideas for Infernal Rapture

DR/good and silver
profane bonus to damage rolls, saving throws
Automatic death knell when you kill things?
bonus to land speed
large bonus to Jump
Devil Brand: Make a melee attack as a standard action or at the end of a charge. This attack counts as a touch attack and deals an additional 1d6 unholy damage per hit die you possess. Half of this unholy damage is also dealt to each creature adjacent to the target, though you are immune. Using this ability ends the Infernal Rapture.


Basically, I'm asking for help. Maybe the abilities on this can scale somewhat with levels, I'd like it to be dangerous at higher level play, but I'm starting it out on a low-level character.