Help me design a balanced template [Archive] - Wizards Community

Help me design a balanced template [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
eamon
08-21-07, 12:14 PM I'm looking for a template that will roughly be LA +1 or +2 or inbetween, but be roughly equally valuable to sorcerers, druids, and fighters.

Background:

In a game I'm DM-ing, set in Eberron, the party have carried around an evil artifact created in the age of the giants. The artifact was part of research into warforged and thus into the creation of magical creatures, and perhaps it was even part of some diabolical machine to make half-'forged half-living creatures: I haven't decided, and perhaps I'll never reveal these details to the players.

What's important is that the artifact has a purpose, and maybe even a will in an alien kind of sense, and it's been shaping the affected party member though slow enchantment without their knowledge. If you will, it's a little like lycanthropy, but instead of making them part animal, it's shaping them according to some unknown pattern.

What I'm trying to do is to design a template which will "improve" the bearers of the artifact, and can be applied piecemeal. I'm going to have them through will saving throws, and on success they'll feel sickened, and on failure, they'll feel... better :crazy: - then the template will be applied slowly, and though it will seem to make them more powerful there'll be an insidious twist of course :evillaugh.

For metagame reasons however, I want the template not to disrupt intra-party balance horribly; for they won't be able to lose the template very quickly should they want to.

So: does anyone have any ideas what to put in an LA +1 or +2 template such that it'll benefit most party members at least somewhat equally?
Marcus Majarra
08-21-07, 01:18 PM My recommendation for you: look up the bloodline rules from Unearthed Arcana. They can also be found in the online SRD: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm

These are about as close as you can get to a template with level adjustment, without giving spellcasters the nerfbat. The bloodline strength will largely depend on how many levels you'd expect the character to give up, if you used LA.
kymaera
08-21-07, 05:02 PM There's a section on warforged grafts in one of the Eberron books (I forget which at the moment). You could apply the effects of a graft to them as part of the development.
Doom_Linnorm
08-21-07, 05:43 PM Lords of Madness and Fiend Folio also have grafts, you could borrow some of those ideas.

The template could also incorporate some of the Abbarant feats from Lords of Madness, subtle bonuses to that come with a subtle penalty to certain charisma related skills due to slightly off anatomy.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
eamon 08-21-07, 12:14 PM	I'm looking for a template that will roughly be LA +1 or +2 or inbetween, but be roughly equally valuable to sorcerers, druids, and fighters. Background: In a game I'm DM-ing, set in Eberron, the party have carried around an evil artifact created in the age of the giants. The artifact was part of research into warforged and thus into the creation of magical creatures, and perhaps it was even part of some diabolical machine to make half-'forged half-living creatures: I haven't decided, and perhaps I'll never reveal these details to the players. What's important is that the artifact has a purpose, and maybe even a will in an alien kind of sense, and it's been shaping the affected party member though slow enchantment without their knowledge. If you will, it's a little like lycanthropy, but instead of making them part animal, it's shaping them according to some unknown pattern. What I'm trying to do is to design a template which will "improve" the bearers of the artifact, and can be applied piecemeal. I'm going to have them through will saving throws, and on success they'll feel sickened, and on failure, they'll feel... better :crazy: - then the template will be applied slowly, and though it will seem to make them more powerful there'll be an insidious twist of course :evillaugh. For metagame reasons however, I want the template not to disrupt intra-party balance horribly; for they won't be able to lose the template very quickly should they want to. So: does anyone have any ideas what to put in an LA +1 or +2 template such that it'll benefit most party members at least somewhat equally?
Marcus Majarra 08-21-07, 01:18 PM	My recommendation for you: look up the bloodline rules from Unearthed Arcana. They can also be found in the online SRD: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm These are about as close as you can get to a template with level adjustment, without giving spellcasters the nerfbat. The bloodline strength will largely depend on how many levels you'd expect the character to give up, if you used LA.
kymaera 08-21-07, 05:02 PM	There's a section on warforged grafts in one of the Eberron books (I forget which at the moment). You could apply the effects of a graft to them as part of the development.
Doom_Linnorm 08-21-07, 05:43 PM	Lords of Madness and Fiend Folio also have grafts, you could borrow some of those ideas. The template could also incorporate some of the Abbarant feats from Lords of Madness, subtle bonuses to that come with a subtle penalty to certain charisma related skills due to slightly off anatomy.