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View Full Version : Enchanted Coins: Balance and Concepts



llehctim
2013-05-07, 05:57 PM
I am (re)creating a setting that will be a world where for eons chaos has been (mostly) sealed away and order has ruled, but in the distant past some of the forces of chaos escaped and knowing they were outclassed, laid the seeds for chaos to grow before they were crushed and sealed again. The campaign will also have a background theme of ultimate power ultimately corrupts.
I am most likely going to be using the pathfinder system since I have heard good things about it, and from what I've read its a good system.

So getting to the actual point of the thread, one of the ideas I was going to use for the bringing back chaos (and adding a little more history to my world) is to have had the forces of chaos craft 'enchanted coins' that when held by someone for long enough, gives them buffs/powers and compels them to find more of that coin type (will saves based on how many of the coins they have already collected). I am trying to figure out how to make these balanced enough that they are both a risk to use, and a possible way for the PCs to gain an extra boost, since I am also implementing a few similar boosts with drawbacks for several other factions.

Sample:
Coin title: Wages of Flame
Description: This coin appears to be made out of a strange alloy that almost makes it look like a flame that was frozen in place. When you touch it it feels warm to the touch.
Image: Engraved on the coin is an image of a face that is made of flame.
History: These coins were crafted from the still burning corpse of a fire elemental prince that was driven to madness, and slain when he led a war to try and cover the world in flames.
Powers: These coins give mastery over flames as they are collected, however they also cause strong pyromaniac tendencies in their collectors.

The idea being the more of them you collect the more powerful the bonus they give you but the harder it is to resist their influences.
If anyone has any advice on how I should keep it balanced or has any cool ideas for different types of coins/stories to go with them it would be appreciated.

Some of the balancing ideas I had for them so far are:
-Making it take exponentially more to increase the effect ex: 1st effect at 1 coin, increase at 10?+, increase at 100? (or smaller), increase at X etc until a certain point where it doesn't actually help anymore.
-being generally hard to find the right type if any at all.
-Possibly limiting someone to only being able to use a certain type.
-having some only work for people who have the right personality traits/class?
-having a hardcap of how many there are in the world

Had this idea in my head since I read about red Angarak gold in the Belgariad 6+ years ago :smalltongue:

The Mentalist
2013-05-09, 03:01 PM
-Making it take exponentially more to increase the effect ex: 1st effect at 1 coin, increase at 10?+, increase at 100? (or smaller), increase at X etc until a certain point where it doesn't actually help anymore.


I find that when doing something like this a exponent 2 has the best effect.


-being generally hard to find the right type if any at all.

So artifacts? Seems good for something like this. You may look at the collection of teeth from 2nd edition that had stacking powers based on how many you have.



-Possibly limiting someone to only being able to use a certain type.
-having some only work for people who have the right personality traits/class?


I think for the idea of what you're doing here it might be better to not do it this way, the corruption of a coin completely opposed to your personality type might be better.



-having a hardcap of how many there are in the world

This seems reasonable. Might be interesting if all the coins are brought together the entity is freed. You might also look at the Elder Evils book for their apocalypse scenarios for when most of the coins come together.