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goken04
2007-08-08, 02:11 PM
Hi, I'm a fairly experienced DM gearing up to start a new campaign for my friends back home. This campaign is a very important world-shattering type campaign for my home-brewed world that my friends have been playing in for years and their characters are supposed to (prophecy and the like) play an integral part in these events. Additionally, I'm going to make this a really tough campaign for them, so I thought, in order to give them a nice little bonus, I'd give each of them a "boon". A friend of mine did this in a campaign a few years ago and his players really enjoyed it and I thought it was a fantastic idea.

(As an aside, as I was writing about the characters, I thought it necessary to explain. They played these same characters in a much earlier campaign and were all killed. It's been about a year IRL since then, and they're characters are being resurrected by a secret clerical order of Pelor they didn't know much about. This resurrection is the in-game explanation as to what triggered their boons.)

The basic idea is that I give each character some sort of special ability that they sort of stumble upon during gameplay and that levels up as their character class does, whether through uses per day or damage output or whatever. It doesn't necessarily have to be tied to anything class specific, although it could. It doesn't have to have anything to do with the weapon they would use, though it could.

Here's where you come in. I want to give each character a boon that their players will enjoy and that seems specifically tailored for their characters. To do this, I need your help coming up with fun special abilities you'd like to have if you were playing the characters. As well, it'd be good to suggest how these abilities might develop as the characters level up. I'm thinking they should improve about once every 2 or 3 levels, since we'll be starting at level 5 and ending probably somewhere between 12-15.

So here's each character and a brief description of who they are. Please feel free to submit as many different boons you'd like for each one. The more the merrier. I really want some help getting the creativity flowing and figuring out something that will help my characters have fun. People here at the forums are really great at this, hence, I'm turning to you for your help.

1. Owain the Bard. CG Half-Elf Bard 5. He's a ranged combatant, using a composite longbow, and plays a pan-flute. I think he's planning on going virtuoso or something, maybe. I'm not sure what his long-term character plans are. His mother was a bard and his father a monk and were killed when he was young.

2. Ares Magethere. CN Human Rogue 4/Fighter 1. He TWF, using silvered weapons. I think he plans to take another level of fighter and then going Assasin. He's a former bandit type character who is in service to the kingdom for his misdeeds.

3. Alesial Iain. NG Human Cleric of Pelor 5. He uses a warhammer and loves the melee combat because his AC is through the roof. He plans on going RSoP ASAP. He was def. the biggest hero of the party before and up-to his untimely death, despite being its youngest member. His domains are Healing and Sun.

4. Guther Ulfgar. NG (He doesn't know what race he is) Fighter 5. He, umm..... used to be a dwarf, but got polymorphed into a Tenku (OA, they're basically humanoid crow-type creatures) in their first dungeon. Ironically enough, I randomly rolled a +2 Katana for treasure in that very same dungeon and he uses it in battle, making great use of both PA and Cleave.


So those are my players. What different kind of boons do you think you could come up with for each one?

Sornjss Lichdom
2007-08-08, 02:16 PM
are you talking about spell like abilaties, skill boast, or somthing else.

Jasdoif
2007-08-08, 02:17 PM
First guess, #2 could use the ability to deal +2 damage per character level with silver melee weapons. TWF more-or-less requires bonus damage, and silvered weapons have a -1 to damage to start with.

earlblue
2007-08-08, 02:21 PM
I have a strange system using a tarot deck. I assign a special ability and/or curse assigned with each card, and let the player draw. I note the cards they draw, but do not tell them what ability or curse they have. I let them figure it out during the game.

One of the abilities was that associated with the 'Wheel of Fortune' Card was that the character will always make his saving throws, but whenever he should have failed, his companions/friends/family will suffer some misfortune and he saves.

The curse attached to the 'Devil' card was the feud that was with the character's family and a powerful outsider.

I don't quite remember the rest, but the abilities and curses are story hooks that I use to push the players in following the grand epic story I cooked up for them, and the whole thing was a blast while it lasted.

O'BeQuiet UWannabe.

goken04
2007-08-08, 02:25 PM
are you talking about spell like abilaties, skill boast, or somthing else.

Anything you like. I'd like their powers to be comparable to one another's, but I'm experienced enough that I think I'd be able to balance encounters against whatever powers I give them.

asqwasqw
2007-08-08, 02:29 PM
I would think a special ability you can activate is more fun than a constant +2, etc. to a skill, kinda like the rage ability.

For instance, the Rogue could have a fury of blows ability, where he could full attack as a standard action whenever he would be able to gain a sneak attack.

Ozymandias
2007-08-08, 02:30 PM
Do you mean 'Tengu'?

Due to his history, I'd suggest a limited Polymorph Self ability. Say, he can take the form of a creature he kills, or something analogous.

Otherwise, in Japanese legends Tengu could read minds and turn invisible, I think. You may want to do something with that.

Edit: You could tie each to a classical element, that's pretty easy in this case (Bard-Water, Assassin-Air, Cleric-Earth, Fighter-Fire) and assign /day spell-like abilities based on that theme.

Arbitrarity
2007-08-08, 02:36 PM
Aaanyways, someone who DM's around here did this, though there were some consistiency problems with Sp ability distribution (produce flame 3/day, compared to self-only FOM 3/day), and there's low treasure to compensate. On the other hand, my bard likes flinging fire around. Those abilities were elementally based, and gave some delayed progression class abilities (rage for fire, flurry for air). So, let's see how we can apply this sort of thing, in a more limited fashion.


If the bard is going into virtuoso, anything to do with sound and music, as well as preformance, is probably appropriate. "mocking" debuffing songs, sonic attacks, free additions to spells known (i.e. song of discord). 3.5 virtuoso, yes? The 3.0 one was much better.

A bandit assassin... stealth. Hiding, increasing applicability of sneak attack, prehaps some Shadow Hand manuvers (shadow stride, assassin's stance, shadow noose... that sort of thing).

Classic Pelor worshipper, good, RSoP... augmenting those abilities further might be redundant :smallbiggrin: . Sp Abilities, prehaps some improvements in turn undead (to damage or checks, maybe effective cleric level, radius, etc. Issue is, not too versatile), a "smite" like ability, prehaps, and maybe more potential uses for turning (summoning light, which could have various effects, blindness, concealment, etc. Healing, prehaps).

And, a melee combatant. Is he a Kenku, or is this something I haven't heard of? It sounds familiar. ToB might work again here... Swift action buffs of limited duration, "toughness" like abilities (temporary Hp, save boosts), it depends a lot on fighting style.

Sornjss Lichdom
2007-08-08, 02:40 PM
i always like the abilaty to levitate, thats always fun, alot more for spell casters.

the rogue could have the invisabilaty spell abilaty

fighters.. hm how bout blade of pain and fear, thats a great spell, but almost too powerful as a spell abilaty, but other wise its awesome.

goken04
2007-08-08, 02:41 PM
Do you mean 'Tengu'?

Yes, haha. I don't have OA with me and I knew I'd butcher the name, especially since my players (and no one in the parts of the world they've been to... yet) don't have any idea what he is.

To give you guys more of an idea of what a "boon" is, in my mind, I'll tell you about my friend's boons he gave to his players. The elf archer had ethereal fore-arms he kept wrapped in bandages. X times per day, he could remove the bandages and his ranged attacks were made as touch attacks. Another one had fire tattoos that covered most of his body and had no memory. Eventually, the character died and they discovered that when that happened, the fire tattoo on a certain part of his body would disappear, and he'd be engulfed in flames and resurrected. The third player had the ability to become Half-Celestial once a week, I think, but he'd be fatigued for a day afterwards. Still, though.

I don't know that I want something quite as powerful as turning Half-Celestial, hahaha, but if that was the final level of their boon at Level 15, that may not be out of the question. The basic idea, whether or not my players ever find this out, is that Pelor has granted them these boons upon their resurrection to assist them in their mission as his chosen. I def. want something that is showy and something they can grow into. And yeah, more of an activated ability as opposed to a constant effect, for the most part.

I really like some of these ideas I've seen so far, keep em coming!

Arbitrarity
2007-08-08, 02:58 PM
Ok, so let's try and be specific with our bard in relation to Pelor ressurecting them, to start with. As Pelor is a Good deity, he probably would give some sort of buffing ability to the bard. An example of that would be the Words Of Creation feat from BOED, which doubles most bardic music effects, and deals some hefty non-lethal damage when using it. (as well as some other benefits).

So, for our bardic friend, let's focus on the music, and buffing for now. Together, they seem in line for a good deity granting a musician powers. We can steal the words of creation ability (somewhat) granting buffs to bardic music in exchange for later penalties, or even immediate penalties. Even a lack of penalties can be fine. Multiple song effects, extra targets, "metamusic" effects, activation of music abilities as a swift action, and buffs to numerical effects.

Making this appear great, however, would either require some sort of "divine" implication (lighting, choirs of angels), or some other "showy" effect related to preformance. (joke idea: Stage lighting. Whenever the bard preforms, all squares in a 60 ft radius are affected by a darkness spell as long as he continues to play. The bard's square, and all squares adjacent to him, are affected by Daylight.)

Hmmm. If we give the bard.... nope, most such effects seem to me not to be very describable, visually. Any ideas, if anyone thinks this might help?

Telonius
2007-08-08, 03:01 PM
For the bard ... While his Bardic Music is active, he might discover that the twang of his bow can harmonize with the song. This could grant bonuses.

goken04
2007-08-08, 03:48 PM
For the bard ... While his Bardic Music is active, he might discover that the twang of his bow can harmonize with the song. This could grant bonuses.

I like something like that! You gave me an idea for something similar: Maybe that the bard could sing a song that would enchant all his arrows so that they sang a song in the mind's of whoever he hit with them that somehow debuffed. I like it. The penalties could become more significant as he levels up.

goken04
2007-08-09, 11:47 AM
Any ideas for the cleric at all? Actually, I'm still really open for ideas for any of them. Feel free to get very creative, I wouldn't mind having to come up with rules to make it work, it doesn't have to be based on anything pre-existent. I just want something they'd enjoy! And would be useful, haha

internerdj
2007-08-09, 12:00 PM
For the cleric, perhaps for every hour he spends in the sun he may store a charge up to his ECL. He may expend a charge to radiate light equivalent to a torch for one minute or a charge to create light of sunlight intensity for a round. Not saying those are balanced numbers there. His eyes would glow as he picked up charge and would fade as he spent the carges.

Xefas
2007-08-09, 12:56 PM
I think, for the cleric, a neat ability might be an alteration to his turn undead ability. Lets say that, first, he does not regain lost attempts normally. Second, whenever he uses an attempt, whether any undead are around or not, radiant energy bursts forth from his body, dealing 1d4 per cleric level in damage to all of an evil alignment within 10ft. The damage results directly from divine energy and cannot be reduced, and it cannot be effected by the regeneration power of evil outsiders.

Finally, when all of his attempts have been used up, the cleric is void of his inner light, having used it all up with his turning. At that point, he is consumed by his inner darkness, gaining Damage Reduction (cleric level)/silver, and all of his attacks deal an extra point of vile damage per 2 cleric levels. However, while in this state, he cannot cast spells, cannot be healed, and registers as evil for all spell effects. The condition lasts for 1 round per cleric level +1. 24 hours after the end of his transformation, he regains his maximum number of turn attempts.

The transformation wasn't the intended effect when Pelor granted him the boon, but rather a side effect of its over-use.

(Note that I figured silver was an appropriate damage reduction because of its association with the moon, and Pelor's association with the sun)

RTGoodman
2007-08-09, 01:17 PM
I didn't read through all of the above suggestions (I'm sort of in a rush), but one thing I've been thinking about for some upcoming campaign is to give every character a secret Bloodline from Unearthed Arcana (http://systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedBloodlines.html).

Each major bloodline gives +1 to like three ability scores, a bonus on interactions with other creatures of the bloodline, and some other abilities. If you just take away the fluff about the abilities coming from their bloodlines, you can easily use it. For replacement fluff, say that the divine power flowing through their bodies unlocked potential they didn't know about or perhaps even power directly from Pelor himself.

For instance, for the Bard character, look at the Fey bloodline. They abilities all seem like something a deity would grant to a bard who is necessary to save the world. Instead of Fey affinity, just give then Pelorite Affinity or something similar. You could give the Cleric a Celestial bloodline, the Rogue maybe a Vampire bloodline, and the fighter maybe a Titan bloodline or something like that.

And if you don't like those specifically, you can just create other bloodlines that are tailored to the characters using the rules at the bottom of the page I linked above.

ArmorArmadillo
2007-08-09, 02:01 PM
Katana Based Fighter with an OA race? *Must resist urge to plug self*
Iaijutsu! Simple ability; the first strike he makes each encounter after drawing doubles his strength bonus.

The Half-Elf Bard strikes me as fairly "Pied Piper" like; perhaps give him the ability to make a charisma check to charm animals with his flute. Not so explicitly as a SLA, but when he plays his flute animals roll a will save against his CHA score and if they fail, they sort of come near him, and he'll slowly realize he can give them small orders (Fetch, Come, Carry)

For the Assassin, his blades are silver and silver is magical and inherently chaotic, like him; maybe whenever he strikes a lawful enemy he learns that the silver reacts in some way: possibly the wounds carry an unearthly chill, doing extra cold damage, or maybe the power reacts backwards and gives him some small boon, like a sudden burst of temporary hit points.