Designing Pure Evil: A New Power Source? - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Designing Pure Evil: A New Power Source?

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
caelicola
Mar 29, 2009 15:29:14 I've been kicking around the idea of a Malign power source for quite some time now, but could never quite flesh it out fully (i.e., one class for all four roles, each with two different build options) without seemingly stepping on something the game already has. Cool darkness and disease powers? Dark warlock. Hellish powers? Infernal warlock. Summoning demons and devils? Any one with Ritual Caster (at least theoretically). Inspiring fear and terror? Plenty of classes already do that (especially thaneborn barbarians). Carving gratuitous, painful, bleeding, disfiguring, hideous wounds into the flesh of your enemies? Well, everyone does that, but the specific fluff for it was mostly taken up by the rogue and his striker buddies. And there's no telling what facets of evil are waiting to be introduced in the shadow power source. Then I realized something: it didn't matter a damned bit!

The Malign power source draws its energy from pure evil, as embodied in the Heart of the Abyss (and the fragment of that heart stolen by Asmodeus, who now wields it as his rod's capstone). One can acquire it by agreeing to serve Asmodeus, by ripping it from the Abyss through foul rituals, or simply find that the power resonates with the evil in your own soul, granting you the ability to manifest your wickedness in supernatural displays of power and prowess.

Defender: blackguard (dreadlord and bloodblade builds)
Striker: ravager (flesh carver and murk harrower builds)
Leader: malconvoker (insidious and depraved builds)
Controller: entropomancer (blightblast and wastelayer builds)

The blackguard wields his evil power to strengthen his sword arm, mercilessly pressing his enemies back and providing them no hope of safe passage. The dreadlord blackguard wields his power to instill his foe's minds with terror and panic, driving them into self-destructive or even suicidal actions to escape his wrath. The bloodblade draws his strength from carnage. The higher the piles of enemy dead, the higher his sword arm is raised before the blow.

The ravager seeks pain and terror. He can be the inhuman monster that carves off your face, flays you alive, and laughs, licking his blade clean of your blood. He can be the hidden terror, the creature in the shadows, the demise unseen that draws its victim's final moments into a fear-wracked eternity of nightmarish horror.

The malconvoker knows the dark side of the mortal mind better than any other. He can be the silver-tongued calumniator who draws up a fog of moral ambiguity around himself, and turns good people to evil—making them more effective in the process. He can also be the raving lunatic, bloody spittle flecking his lips as they spew blasphemies that sear his foe's brains like acid, while invigorating his duped or unwilling pawns with demonic fury.

The entropomancer wields concentrated evil as a manifest power, either corrupting his foes with entropic curses that rot them from the inside out, turning them against one another and their bodies or even souls against themselves, or simply tearing down creation in swathes of ever-growing entropic power drawn from the heart of the Abyss in hissing arcs of red shadows.

And that's as far as I got. I'm no good at designing powers anymore since 4e came out; all I have are guidelines and tags that would define the power source, if I could actually design it:

*The pure evil of the Abyss, if it dealt energy damage, would be necrotic and acid.
*Powers that discourage teamwork would be wonderful; for example, a power might stipulate for its targets that if someone used aid another, the person they were aiding would take damage, and if someone enabled another character to regain HP, the healer might take damage (like say, xd6) themselves.
*Powers that make targets attack each other are also good, though this niche is starting to fill up pretty rapidly between the wizard, the warlock, and the sorcerer (and probably the psion as well, when he finally shows himself). Perhaps a power that made nearby targets run away in fear, and those further away had to make opportunity attacks against their fleeing comrade as he ran past them.
*Although the Dark Pact Warlock can already damage his allies for extra power, the Malign power source should do this as a matter of course. The power source's tendency to do more damage after taking damage should balance out the friendly fire.
*Condition effects and ongoing damage should be rampant.
*Yes, this is pretty much going to be restricted to NPCs.
#2
pigknight
Mar 29, 2009 15:40:21 I'd allow it for darker good/neutral aligned PCs. Fight hellfire with hellfire.
#3
powerattackfortwenty
Mar 29, 2009 16:49:40 looks cool to me.
keep up the good work
#4
Rustmonster
Mar 29, 2009 21:01:07 One thing to remember is that you don't need to "fill the grid". There doesn't have to be one class for each role. For example, Martial has one Defender, two Strikers, and one Leader.
#5
caelicola
Mar 30, 2009 22:04:04 BLACKGUARD
"You will bow before me, with your head or without it."
Role: Defender. The blackguard keeps his enemies too fearful for their lives to attack the blackguard's allies.
Power Source: Malign. Blackguards wield fear, terror, and unholy power alongside their arms and armor.
Key Abilities: Strength, Constitution, Charisma

Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, leather, hide, chainmail, scale, plate; light shield, heavy shield
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, military melee, simple ranged
Bonus to Defense: +2 Fortitude

Hit Points at First Level: 15 + Constitution score
Hit Points per Level Gained: 6
Healing Surges per Day: 10 + Constitution modifier

Trained Skills: Intimidate. From the class skills list below, choose three more trained skills at 1st level:
Class Skills List: Arcana (Int), Athletics (Str), Bluff (Cha), Endurance (Con), History (Int), Insight (Wis), Religion (Int).

Build Options: Dreadlord blackguard, bloodblade blackguard

Class Features: Unholy Might, Doombringer, Engine of Destruction

BLACKGUARD CLASS FEATURES

UNHOLY MIGHT
Choose one of the following options and gain its benefit:[INDENT]
Lord of Dread: A successful attack with a blackguard power that has the rattling keyword grants you combat advantage against the target until the end of your next turn. You gain a +1 bonus on damage rolls for blackguard powers with the rattling keyword, which increases to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level.
Lord of Carnage: Whenever a target marked by you becomes bloodied or drops to 0 hit points or fewer, you gain a power bonus to all defenses equal to your Constitution modifier until the end of your next turn.[/INDENT]
Your choice of Unholy Might will affect certain blackguard powers, as noted in their individual descriptions.

DOOMBRINGER
You bring your devastating wrath to bear on your foe, forcing them to put all their energy into holding back your onslaught lest they be overwhelmed by crimson waves of supernatural hatred.
At-Will » Malign, Necrotic, Psychic
Free Action
Trigger: You make a successful melee attack
Target: One creature hit by the attack
Effect: The creature is marked by you until it makes an attack that doesn't include you, moves away from you, or you use this power against a different creature. If the current target of this power makes an attack that does not include you or moves away from you, it immediately becomes slowed, weakened, and gains ongoing 2 necrotic and psychic damage (save ends all). The ongoing necrotic and psychic damage increases to 5 at 11th level and 10 at 21st level.

ENGINE OF DESTRUCTION
You channel your innermost reserves of power into a tremendous surge of hatred as you lay waste to your enemies.
At-Will (Special) » Malign, Necrotic, Psychic
Special: You can use this power a number of times per day equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum 1), but only once per round.
Minor Action
Personal
Effect: You spend a healing surge but regain no hit points. At any point before the end of your next turn, you can turn one successful melee attack with a blackguard power into a critical hit (use the unaltered die roll for determining the effects of such powers as Curse of the Fey King).

LEVEL 1 AT-WILL VIOLATIONS
Blade of Blood
Your weapon leaves a bloody mist in its wake as it arcs into your foe.
At-Will » Malign, Necrotic, Weapon
Standard Action
Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 1[W]+ Strength modifier damage.
Increases to 2[W] + Strength modifier damage at 21st level.
Effect: You can choose to lose 5 hit points as a free action before making the attack to gain a power bonus on your attack roll equal to your Constitution modifier and deal an additional +1[W] necrotic damage.

Hateful Strike
Your hatred fuels your power as you slam your weapon into your foe.
At-Will » Malign, Necrotic, Weapon
Standard Action
Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength -2 vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier + Constitution modifier necrotic damage, and you make a secondary attack against the target.
Secondary Attack: Strength vs. Fortitude
Hit: The target is weakened until the beginning of your next turn.

Soulcrushing Strike
Your foe's resolve crumbles beneath the weight of your unholy power.
At-Will » Malign, Psychic, Rattling, Weapon
Standard Action
Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Charisma vs. Will
Hit: 1[W] + Charisma modifier psychic damage.
Increase damage to 2[W] + Charisma modifier psychic damage at 21st level.

Harrowing Blow
Your eyes blaze with hellish red light as you swing your weapon in a whirling arc, scattering your foes in panic.
At-Will » Fear, Malign, Psychic, Weapon
Standard Action
Melee weapon
Primary Target: One creature
Primary Attack: Charisma vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Charisma modifier psychic damage, and you make a secondary attack.
Secondary Targets: Every enemy in a close burst 1.
Secondary Attack: Charisma vs. Will
Hit: Push the target a number of squares equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1).
Increase the damage to the primary target to 2[W] + Charisma modifier psychic damage.
#6
Lineov
Mar 31, 2009 5:22:01 This was posited to me earlier on a different thread, but as leaders all have some sort of healing.. your malconvoker should have some sort of healing ability but make it have a limitation that it can only be used if something has just died. (i.e. you're using the dead to fuel the living)

also, Lord of Carnage should only be when a creature hits bloodied (that way it doesn't become abused during minion bashing) and doombringer seems a bit too much being slowed and weakend, and the ongoing.. i'd get rid of the weakend. slow them and damage them minorly but other than that leave them alone.. they've learned their lesson.
#7
vebrandsson
Mar 31, 2009 10:51:08 Very interesting, I've been working on some similar things myself. I'm using undeath as a power source and already have a striker, controller, and defender lined up for the source. These seem to some degree to be in line with the flavor of what I'm doing (which I will post at some point once its more complete) I'm going to watch this topic and see what you do.
#8
caelicola
Mar 31, 2009 15:55:17
also, Lord of Carnage should only be when a creature hits bloodied (that way it doesn't become abused during minion bashing)

The creature has to be marked before it can be used to fuel Lord of Carnage; since the minion dies on the first hit, it can't already be marked when it gets hit.

and doombringer seems a bit too much being slowed and weakened, and the ongoing.. i'd get rid of the weakened. slow them and damage them minorly but other than that leave them alone.. they've learned their lesson.

This I have no qualms with changing [though they don't learn their lesson until they're dead].

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 caelicola Mar 29, 2009 15:29:14	I've been kicking around the idea of a Malign power source for quite some time now, but could never quite flesh it out fully (i.e., one class for all four roles, each with two different build options) without seemingly stepping on something the game already has. Cool darkness and disease powers? Dark warlock. Hellish powers? Infernal warlock. Summoning demons and devils? Any one with Ritual Caster (at least theoretically). Inspiring fear and terror? Plenty of classes already do that (especially thaneborn barbarians). Carving gratuitous, painful, bleeding, disfiguring, hideous wounds into the flesh of your enemies? Well, everyone does that, but the specific fluff for it was mostly taken up by the rogue and his striker buddies. And there's no telling what facets of evil are waiting to be introduced in the shadow power source. Then I realized something: it didn't matter a damned bit! The Malign power source draws its energy from pure evil, as embodied in the Heart of the Abyss (and the fragment of that heart stolen by Asmodeus, who now wields it as his rod's capstone). One can acquire it by agreeing to serve Asmodeus, by ripping it from the Abyss through foul rituals, or simply find that the power resonates with the evil in your own soul, granting you the ability to manifest your wickedness in supernatural displays of power and prowess. Defender: blackguard (dreadlord and bloodblade builds) Striker: ravager (flesh carver and murk harrower builds) Leader: malconvoker (insidious and depraved builds) Controller: entropomancer (blightblast and wastelayer builds) The blackguard wields his evil power to strengthen his sword arm, mercilessly pressing his enemies back and providing them no hope of safe passage. The dreadlord blackguard wields his power to instill his foe's minds with terror and panic, driving them into self-destructive or even suicidal actions to escape his wrath. The bloodblade draws his strength from carnage. The higher the piles of enemy dead, the higher his sword arm is raised before the blow. The ravager seeks pain and terror. He can be the inhuman monster that carves off your face, flays you alive, and laughs, licking his blade clean of your blood. He can be the hidden terror, the creature in the shadows, the demise unseen that draws its victim's final moments into a fear-wracked eternity of nightmarish horror. The malconvoker knows the dark side of the mortal mind better than any other. He can be the silver-tongued calumniator who draws up a fog of moral ambiguity around himself, and turns good people to evil—making them more effective in the process. He can also be the raving lunatic, bloody spittle flecking his lips as they spew blasphemies that sear his foe's brains like acid, while invigorating his duped or unwilling pawns with demonic fury. The entropomancer wields concentrated evil as a manifest power, either corrupting his foes with entropic curses that rot them from the inside out, turning them against one another and their bodies or even souls against themselves, or simply tearing down creation in swathes of ever-growing entropic power drawn from the heart of the Abyss in hissing arcs of red shadows. And that's as far as I got. I'm no good at designing powers anymore since 4e came out; all I have are guidelines and tags that would define the power source, if I could actually design it: The pure evil of the Abyss, if it dealt energy damage, would be necrotic and acid. Powers that discourage teamwork would be wonderful; for example, a power might stipulate for its targets that if someone used aid another, the person they were aiding would take damage, and if someone enabled another character to regain HP, the healer might take damage (like say, xd6) themselves. Powers that make targets attack each other are also good, though this niche is starting to fill up pretty rapidly between the wizard, the warlock, and the sorcerer (and probably the psion as well, when he finally shows himself). Perhaps a power that made nearby targets run away in fear, and those further away had to make opportunity attacks against their fleeing comrade as he ran past them. Although the Dark Pact Warlock can already damage his allies for extra power, the Malign power source should do this as a matter of course. The power source's tendency to do more damage after taking damage should balance out the friendly fire. Condition effects and ongoing damage should be rampant. Yes, this is pretty much going to be restricted to NPCs.
#2 pigknight Mar 29, 2009 15:40:21	I'd allow it for darker good/neutral aligned PCs. Fight hellfire with hellfire.
#3 powerattackfortwenty Mar 29, 2009 16:49:40	looks cool to me. keep up the good work
#4 Rustmonster Mar 29, 2009 21:01:07	One thing to remember is that you don't need to "fill the grid". There doesn't have to be one class for each role. For example, Martial has one Defender, two Strikers, and one Leader.
#5 caelicola Mar 30, 2009 22:04:04	BLACKGUARD "You will bow before me, with your head or without it." Role: Defender. The blackguard keeps his enemies too fearful for their lives to attack the blackguard's allies. Power Source: Malign. Blackguards wield fear, terror, and unholy power alongside their arms and armor. Key Abilities: Strength, Constitution, Charisma Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, leather, hide, chainmail, scale, plate; light shield, heavy shield Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, military melee, simple ranged Bonus to Defense: +2 Fortitude Hit Points at First Level: 15 + Constitution score Hit Points per Level Gained: 6 Healing Surges per Day: 10 + Constitution modifier Trained Skills: Intimidate. From the class skills list below, choose three more trained skills at 1st level: Class Skills List: Arcana (Int), Athletics (Str), Bluff (Cha), Endurance (Con), History (Int), Insight (Wis), Religion (Int). Build Options: Dreadlord blackguard, bloodblade blackguard Class Features: Unholy Might, Doombringer, Engine of Destruction BLACKGUARD CLASS FEATURES UNHOLY MIGHT Choose one of the following options and gain its benefit:[INDENT] Lord of Dread: A successful attack with a blackguard power that has the rattling keyword grants you combat advantage against the target until the end of your next turn. You gain a +1 bonus on damage rolls for blackguard powers with the rattling keyword, which increases to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level. Lord of Carnage: Whenever a target marked by you becomes bloodied or drops to 0 hit points or fewer, you gain a power bonus to all defenses equal to your Constitution modifier until the end of your next turn.[/INDENT] Your choice of Unholy Might will affect certain blackguard powers, as noted in their individual descriptions. DOOMBRINGER You bring your devastating wrath to bear on your foe, forcing them to put all their energy into holding back your onslaught lest they be overwhelmed by crimson waves of supernatural hatred. At-Will » Malign, Necrotic, Psychic Free Action Trigger: You make a successful melee attack Target: One creature hit by the attack Effect: The creature is marked by you until it makes an attack that doesn't include you, moves away from you, or you use this power against a different creature. If the current target of this power makes an attack that does not include you or moves away from you, it immediately becomes slowed, weakened, and gains ongoing 2 necrotic and psychic damage (save ends all). The ongoing necrotic and psychic damage increases to 5 at 11th level and 10 at 21st level. ENGINE OF DESTRUCTION You channel your innermost reserves of power into a tremendous surge of hatred as you lay waste to your enemies. At-Will (Special) » Malign, Necrotic, Psychic Special: You can use this power a number of times per day equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum 1), but only once per round. Minor Action Personal Effect: You spend a healing surge but regain no hit points. At any point before the end of your next turn, you can turn one successful melee attack with a blackguard power into a critical hit (use the unaltered die roll for determining the effects of such powers as Curse of the Fey King). LEVEL 1 AT-WILL VIOLATIONS Blade of Blood Your weapon leaves a bloody mist in its wake as it arcs into your foe. At-Will » Malign, Necrotic, Weapon Standard Action Melee weapon Target: One creature Attack: Strength vs. AC Hit: 1[W]+ Strength modifier damage. Increases to 2[W] + Strength modifier damage at 21st level. Effect: You can choose to lose 5 hit points as a free action before making the attack to gain a power bonus on your attack roll equal to your Constitution modifier and deal an additional +1[W] necrotic damage. Hateful Strike Your hatred fuels your power as you slam your weapon into your foe. At-Will » Malign, Necrotic, Weapon Standard Action Melee weapon Target: One creature Attack: Strength -2 vs. AC Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier + Constitution modifier necrotic damage, and you make a secondary attack against the target. Secondary Attack: Strength vs. Fortitude Hit: The target is weakened until the beginning of your next turn. Soulcrushing Strike Your foe's resolve crumbles beneath the weight of your unholy power. At-Will » Malign, Psychic, Rattling, Weapon Standard Action Melee weapon Target: One creature Attack: Charisma vs. Will Hit: 1[W] + Charisma modifier psychic damage. Increase damage to 2[W] + Charisma modifier psychic damage at 21st level. Harrowing Blow Your eyes blaze with hellish red light as you swing your weapon in a whirling arc, scattering your foes in panic. At-Will » Fear, Malign, Psychic, Weapon Standard Action Melee weapon Primary Target: One creature Primary Attack: Charisma vs. AC Hit: 1[W] + Charisma modifier psychic damage, and you make a secondary attack. Secondary Targets: Every enemy in a close burst 1. Secondary Attack: Charisma vs. Will Hit: Push the target a number of squares equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). Increase the damage to the primary target to 2[W] + Charisma modifier psychic damage.
#6 Lineov Mar 31, 2009 5:22:01	This was posited to me earlier on a different thread, but as leaders all have some sort of healing.. your malconvoker should have some sort of healing ability but make it have a limitation that it can only be used if something has just died. (i.e. you're using the dead to fuel the living) also, Lord of Carnage should only be when a creature hits bloodied (that way it doesn't become abused during minion bashing) and doombringer seems a bit too much being slowed and weakend, and the ongoing.. i'd get rid of the weakend. slow them and damage them minorly but other than that leave them alone.. they've learned their lesson.
#7 vebrandsson Mar 31, 2009 10:51:08	Very interesting, I've been working on some similar things myself. I'm using undeath as a power source and already have a striker, controller, and defender lined up for the source. These seem to some degree to be in line with the flavor of what I'm doing (which I will post at some point once its more complete) I'm going to watch this topic and see what you do.
#8 caelicola Mar 31, 2009 15:55:17	also, Lord of Carnage should only be when a creature hits bloodied (that way it doesn't become abused during minion bashing) The creature has to be marked before it can be used to fuel Lord of Carnage; since the minion dies on the first hit, it can't already be marked when it gets hit. and doombringer seems a bit too much being slowed and weakened, and the ongoing.. i'd get rid of the weakened. slow them and damage them minorly but other than that leave them alone.. they've learned their lesson. This I have no qualms with changing [though they don't learn their lesson until they're dead].