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Threeshades
2007-09-01, 08:28 AM
So yeah im going to use this thread for my present and future random ideas of homebrew designs that are hardly worth their own thread.

So let's not beat all over the bush but start to get to the point:

First off a feat:
OFF-HAND FEINT
You are trained to use your offhand to make quick feints along with striking with your primary weapon.
Prerequisites: Two-weapon Fighting, Improved Feint
Benefit: When taking a full attack action with two weapons you can choose to give up your first offhand attack and make a feint as a free action.



And a (rather simple) template:
ETERNAL SERVANT
Some necromancers, especially Liches and Vampires, sometimes transform their most reliable servants into undead, so their servant can serve them for eternity.
Undead created this way are called eternal servants. They are not much more powerful than they were in life. However though they have an own will and can make decisions of their own, eternal servants are also bound to the will of their master and are not able to act against their masters' will.
When an eternal servant's master dies the eternal servant is completely free from their will and can henceforth make decision without the limits their master sets. Eternal servants free from their former masters will often try to undo their master's deeds as good as they can, since after years, or sometimes centuries of slavery they started to despise their master.
An Eternal servant shows only little features marking him as undead. They usually are very thin have extremely pale, often completely white skin and hair and their eyes show no expressions even though the eternal servants are capable of feeling and emotions.

Creating An Eternal Servant
Eternal Servant is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature).

An Eternal Servant has all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to undead. Do not recalculate base attack bonus, saves, or skill points. Size is unchanged.

Hit Dice: Increase all current and future Hit Dice to d12s.

Spells: An Eternal Servant can cast any spells it could cast while alive.

Darkvision: An Eternal servant has Darkvision with 60' range. If the base creature has Darkvision with a higher range, it keeps its natural Darkvision.

Special Qualities: An Eternal Servant retains all the base creature’s special qualities and gains those described below.

Turn Resistance (Ex): An Eternal servant has +2 turn resistance.

Abilities: The Ability scores remain unchanged except, as being undead an Eternal Servant has no Constitution score.

Skills: Eternal servants have a +2 racial bonus on spot and listen check. They also get a +5 racial bonus on disguise checks when disguised as their base creature. Otherwise same as base creature.

Challenge Rating: Same as base creature +1.

Treasure: Standard

Alignment: Usually evil. Freed Eternal Servants are often good as they try to make up for their masters' mischieves.

Level Adjustment: Same as base creature +1




I'm not happy with the name eternal servant yet and im not sure about LA and CR yet. But please post your opinions.

Threeshades
2007-09-07, 07:41 AM
:smallannoyed: Well?

Tormsskull
2007-09-07, 07:56 AM
OFF-HAND FEINT


Seems balanced to me. Would allow a high level rogue to more reliably get sneak-attacks in. I think the prereqs and the opportunity cost (losing an attack), and the fact that feint is sometimes difficult to pull off due to the special opposed roll that occurs, and the fact that were a fighter to take this for fighting against quick opponents, they'd have to invest a lot of ranks in Bluff (cross-class) to make it worth anything balances it.



ETERNAL SERVANT


Mostly good. Ever read/watched Salem's Lot? I immediately got an image of Striker in my head when I read this. Though, I don't think he was actually undead, he was just empowered by his subservience to the master (vampire).

But this lead me to thinking. Most undead masters who want a servant like this, wouldn't want the servant to be undead, because they would still be vulnerable to the things that the undead master would be.

So if you want to try to capture that feeling, I suggest making the template even simpler. Perhaps adding a strength bonus and con bonus & maybe a profane AC bonus or something, with the "has to follow master's will" clause, and bam, its done.

If you want to stick with the idea of an undead servant, then I think you are on the right track with what you have here.



Level Adjustment: Same as base creature +1


I might be mistaken here, but I think this should simply say +1. The way it reads right now, it technically means you count the base creature's LA twice. So if a Hobgoblin is the base creature (LA+1 IIRC), then LA would be +1 (racial) + 2 ("base creature" +1) for a total of 3. But what you are meaning to say is that the LA is just +1.

Threeshades
2007-09-07, 08:50 AM
Thank you. About the Servant my initial idea was to simply make a normal creature undead and not specialized in any way, that's why they have hardly any bonuses.

@The Level Adjustment: Well I took the Lich's entry from an online SRD as an example how it is written. And the lich's entry also said "Same as base creature +X" so i thought if i write "Same as Base creature +1" it would mean in the case of a hobgoblin: The Hobgoblin's +1 + 1 from the template, so a total of +2.

Maybe i am wrong though.

I might use this template for several encounters in the future.

FireSpark
2007-09-07, 09:20 AM
I might be mistaken here, but I think this should simply say +1. The way it reads right now, it technically means you count the base creature's LA twice. So if a Hobgoblin is the base creature (LA+1 IIRC), then LA would be +1 (racial) + 2 ("base creature" +1) for a total of 3. But what you are meaning to say is that the LA is just +1.

I believe that Threeshades has it stated correctly. Seeing as how a template tends to add to a base creature, this would indeed increase the LA of the base creature. A base creature will simply say LA: +X, but a template that you add to a creature will always say LA: same as base creature +X.

Using your example: A hobgoblin has LA+1, giving it ECL 3 (2HD, Racial LA +1). An undead hobgoblin (that loses almosts nothing but a CON score in the process), would add an additional LA of +1, giving the creature an overall ECL of 4 (2HD, Racial LA +1, Template LA+1).

Tormsskull
2007-09-07, 10:07 AM
Using your example: A hobgoblin has LA+1, giving it ECL 3 (2HD, Racial LA +1). An undead hobgoblin (that loses almosts nothing but a CON score in the process), would add an additional LA of +1, giving the creature an overall ECL of 4 (2HD, Racial LA +1, Template LA+1).

Hmm, that's interesting. I don't make much use of templates myself, but it would seem that if they say "base creature +#" rather than a flat +#, that the templates LA would override the base creature's LA.

So if a Hobgoblin's LA line reads: +1, and you add a template atop of that, (say a LA +1 template) then the result would be ("same as base creature" (1) +1 (template), for a total of 2.

Which works fine and dandy, except when we add in multiple templates. Because if we have 2 LA+1 templates atop our hobgoblin, the language of "same as base creature +1" would imply that the template that is applied last overrides the previous templates, resulting in a grand total of "base creature +1" and not considering the previous one. It would seem to me that it would be much easier to simply say LA +1, but maybe there is some issue with not using the base creature bit that I am not thinking of.

AKA_Bait
2007-09-07, 01:34 PM
You probably want to put in something like a ritual including a cost of some kind to create this thing.

Perhaps something phylacteryish like:

Chain of Servitude

Eternal servants are bound to their bodies in a way not dissimilar from that of liches but requiring far less investment and a ritual slightly less grisly. The object that binds them is referred to as their Chain of Servitude. A Chain of Servitude need not be an actual chain but must be of a construction such that it can be looped around an extremity of the creature, such as a necklace, coif, bracelet or anklet. The chain is worn at all times by the Eternal Servant and cannot be removed by any mundane or magical means short of a Wish or Miracle spell. If the chain is ever removed the eternal servant collapses into a pile of dust.

Each Chain of Servitude must be made by the aspiring master of the eternal servant to be, which requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat. The character must be able to cast spells and have a caster level of 5th or higher. The Chain of Servitude costs 12,000 gp and 480 XP to create and has a caster level equal to that of its creator at the time of creation.

Threeshades
2007-09-07, 02:59 PM
You probably want to put in something like a ritual including a cost of some kind to create this thing.

Perhaps something phylacteryish like:

Chain of Servitude

Eternal servants are bound to their bodies in a way not dissimilar from that of liches but requiring far less investment and a ritual slightly less grisly. The object that binds them is referred to as their Chain of Servitude. A Chain of Servitude need not be an actual chain but must be of a construction such that it can be looped around an extremity of the creature, such as a necklace, coif, bracelet or anklet. The chain is worn at all times by the Eternal Servant and cannot be removed by any mundane or magical means short of a Wish or Miracle spell. If the chain is ever removed the eternal servant collapses into a pile of dust.

Each Chain of Servitude must be made by the aspiring master of the eternal servant to be, which requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat. The character must be able to cast spells and have a caster level of 5th or higher. The Chain of Servitude costs 12,000 gp and 480 XP to create and has a caster level equal to that of its creator at the time of creation.

An expensive ritual will be necessary anyway. but weak spot such as your suggestion is not really what im aiming for (i mean chop the chained arm off and poof goes the servant).
I think most undead (apart from a few very powerful ones such as liches and Death Knights) are controlled without the use of an artifact. And also kept at un-life without any.
So im thinking about a high material cost for the transformation but i dont want the character to be bound to an artifact as well.
I think that way they wouldnt be very suitable for player characters. And I want them to be an option for players too (like a freed servant might make a nice adventurer) besides from being important NPCs


PS the three guys in my sig are triplets and eternal servants.