Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Pivotal 12-09-06, 09:19 AM	Question: I'm considering giving my lvl 8 party some nonstandard treasure. My plans are for them to solve a puzzle and opening up acsess to a 1 per person use artifact. The artifact has completely different effects on each person, but the flavor of it is that its in the ruins of an old giant/cyclop nations so the effects of the artifact will improve the characters in a way that improves their strong sides and can be linked to the old nation. The party consists of: Elven lvl 3 fighter, lvl 3 barbarian, lvl 2 Frenzied Berserker. Human lvl 7 Cleric, lvl 1 Sacred Exorcist. Human lvl 2 swordsage, lvl 2 fighter, lvl 3 psychic warrior lvl 1 elocator Halfling lvl 8 Druid Human lvl 5 Sorceror lvl 3 Chaos Mage Now, I need to find a way to give them all interesting bonuses that fit flavourfully and isn't to strong. My first rough sketch is: Barbarian - Loose 1 level (or perhaps some other penalty), become large sized. (or powerfull build feature?) Dexterious fighter dude - one of his eyes fall out. permanent +4 Wisdom bonus (he gets ac from his wisdom) cleric - holy symbol tatoo in his forehead wich he gains some bonus from, perhaps extra turning attempts Mage - Not sure.. Druid - Not sure.. perhaps animal companion as X levels higher or more more wild shapes per day? So yeah, the effects might be to powerfull, but they will replace most of the normal treasure they would find from the adventure and the reward should be high because the risk is also high as its pretty likley one of them will die. Any advice? I really want it to be quite big and memorable, but I'm afraid of putting in to much, balancing it badly and such.
Kakita_Duelist 12-09-06, 09:32 AM	personally, i like the idea. For the mage, hmmm, maybe lose 1 spell slot, but gain a +4 Cha bonus?
Dei 12-09-06, 09:44 AM	Barbarian - Loose 1 level (or perhaps some other penalty), become large sized. (or powerfull build feature?) Dexterious fighter dude - one of his eyes fall out. permanent +4 Wisdom bonus (he gets ac from his wisdom) cleric - holy symbol tatoo in his forehead wich he gains some bonus from, perhaps extra turning attempts Mage - Not sure.. Druid - Not sure.. perhaps animal companion as X levels higher or more more wild shapes per day? They seem alright but why give them penalties? The powerful build feature is nice but I don't think it's worth a +1 ECL on it's own. If you look at the half-giant race which has a +1 ECL racial hit die it, in addition to powerful build it has naturally psychic, the giant type (so immune to "xxx person" spells), low light vision, resistance to fire and stomp as a natural ability. If you're going to trim a level something of a similar utility should be offered, not just powerful build. I don't know the details of your campaign but assuming the cleric utilises his turning ability regularly powerful build seems about on a par with an extra 3 or 4 attempts per day, remember, it does not increase reach or anything either. I would personally just give it to him without a penalty, same for the Fighter though perhaps trim the bonus to +2 (a tome of wisdom +2/+4 which is the equivalent treasure is mighty expensive afterall) For the mage, perhaps give him a magical tatoo that allows him to cast Bigbys X hand a number of times /day or something similar? Or maybe an extra +3 or 4 on spell penetration rolls for the destruction school to represent the extra destructive strength at his command. Alternatively a nice simple boost to his con I'm sure would be very appreciated. For the druid I think more wildshapes per day is fitting though not more than 1 or maximum 2 as it is a very powerful ability. Hope this helps. Peace out
Pivotal 12-09-06, 09:59 AM	Yeah, I was thinking either Large with a penalty or Powerful Build without a penalty to the barbarian. But I think I might just give the fighter dude bonus powerpoints instead. So for now: Barbarian: Powerful Build Psi-Fighter: 10 extra Power Points Cleric: 4 extra Turning attempts Druid: 1 extra wildshape per day Mage: Increase his Dragonmark to a Lesser one. +1 to SP on Evocation spells. Is that balanced?
Dei 12-09-06, 10:49 AM	Compared to the rest a +1 on SP rolls for the mage seems a little underpowered but otherwise it looks good.
lears_fool 12-09-06, 11:27 AM	For the barbarian/frenzied bezerker, perhaps adding a bonus to their will save to break a frenzy? There's nothing like rewarding the player AND the DM at the same time ;)
Pivotal 12-09-06, 01:19 PM	lears fool: You want to take away all the fun? :p Dei: He also gets a dragonmark improvement. He has a Orien Least mark atm, but this would give him a lesser mark. What I'm most unsure of is the Power Points. He is only 50% or so psionicbased and Im kind of unexperienced with psionics so I dont know how much of a bonus +10 power points is power-wise :p
Pivotal 12-10-06, 04:51 AM	Noone has any more ideas or balance suggestions?
Pivotal 12-10-06, 05:11 PM	bump?
Lawen 12-10-06, 07:21 PM	I'm hesitant to say this, as your fighter is only mildly based in psionics, but be careful when giving power points. Look at it from the mage's perspective. 10 PP is the equivalent of 10 extra level 1 spell slots, or 3 extra level 2 spell slots. That's without augmenting the powers in any way, true, but the point stands. Don't be surprised if your mage looks at that power bump and says "geez, all I got was this crappy dragonmark." In a campaign I ran during high school, one of my friends played a psychic warrior/pyrokineticist. I actually ended up giving him a legendary weapon that let him do more damage, but reduced the amount of power points he had. He could still smack things pretty hard if he wanted to, but a lot fewer times per day. Made him happy and my life a lot easier.