Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Crimson Hellkite 04-12-04, 08:34 PM	Basically, the campaign I'm working on goes like this. The BBEG passes himself on as an exalted sword. Specificially, eons before the adventure, he and his brother tried to become liches but their ritual was interuppted. The BBEG's brother was killed, and they put the BBEG into a sword known as the Chronoflux Cross-Cleaver, which is a huge-sized adamantine mercurial greatsword. In the beginning, I plan my party members to find the sword, which would be intelligent. He will say that his brother was revived, and trying to become a lich again, and he will help them; little do the players know that the BBEG was with his brother in becoming a lich. In the end, they'll find out that the BBEG didn't lead them to their brother, but actually a gigantic Dorje (or some other crystal), which breaks the sword and releases the BBEG. Then, he'll use the shards of the Chronoflux Cross-Cleaver to break off four chunks of the giant crystal, which become Ioun stones. My plan is that each stone will drastically increase one stat. Say the first stone is red, and in the BBEG's first action, he draws energy from it. This increases his strength by 10, and the next round, he'll physically attack. Then, he draws from a second stone, which increases his charisma by 10. Then he casts a fireball (he would be a sorcerer/fighter). My question is, what kind of action should drawing energy from the stones be, and would destroying the stones completely disable the effect, or just not let him be able to use it again?
Stormweaver 04-13-04, 09:20 AM	I don't think such a drastic increase should come from ioun stones, even powerfull ones. You'd need a couple of wishes to get that dramatic an increase (or epic magic items worth half a million GP each). You could substitute this for some kind of regalia that gives an enhancement bonuses. Make the BBEG look more evil every time he puts on an item. You can boost his stats by 6 (more reasonable) Make the item tuned to evil so your players don't pick em up after the eventual fight. If you persist in your ioun stone line, i'd say draining the power from a stone should take at leasta full round and draw attacks of opportunity.
Noria Merfolk Mage 04-13-04, 10:47 AM	How long would the boost last?? If it's only for the next round, then the ability doesn't look to be beyond the abilities of an artifact. Much longer than than and we're talking epic items, which means the players would have to be fairly high level. Also, think about what's going to happen when the players beat this guy and get the stones for themselves. Do you really want them to have these abilities???
Moonstonedragon 04-13-04, 11:40 AM	Id say make it full round action to draw effect: +6 to stat, only a +3 mod. not to big of deal with all the items that give you stat increases duration: 2d4 rounds, that aint to bad Draw back: After the duration runs out the user takes -2 to the stat that gotten the +6 and the char is also fatigue (hope i spelled that right) since the ioun draws out his own inner strength to power the effect
Crimson Hellkite 04-13-04, 03:38 PM	Full-action, huh?
Crimson Hellkite 04-13-04, 03:38 PM	For one, the BBEG is the Dorje stone, so killing him would destroy the stones, plus the gigantic crystal. I think the effects should only last 1d3+1 rounds, and multiple uses don't stack. The question still remains, though; if he has two rounds remaining with one stone bonus and a character destroys the corresponding stone, should the effects immediately stop? And if you really think +10 is too great, I'll chop it down to a +6.