Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 mhbjarkistef Sep 19, 2011 8:41:16	It has now happened in two of my campaigns, that one or more heroes are exposed to some evil force and now carry a physical representation. In one case it was a "Chaos Shard" from the abyss that tainted it's surroundings and nearby creatures. Our heroes had to carry it to a portal and throw it back to the abyss. (very Chaos Scar meets LOTR). But the Shard saw one last chance of keeping an influence in our world, mainly by subject the entire room with "Chaos Scars" (see what I did there?). The other one was a part of an evil ritual. The king's advisor was going to use this paladin as his super soldier. He sent his minions to the paladin's rooms in the middle of the night and they started the ritual to purge him of holy power, and then replace it with something else. They did not get to finish the ritual but this paladin is now a blackguard and bears a scar that leaks corrupting energies into his body (making him a very coold "anakin" persona, that still tries to hold on to his humanity). What I suggest is we make a thread of these kind of scars, whether they be magical physical scars/tattoos or an evil item that is corrupting it's wearer. The Chaos Scar has the same format as a curse. I have not decided the DC of the Arcana check yet, but each and every character is going to have to make his own arcana check after each extended rest to "fight the chaos within". This is how the scar manifests, rule-wise: Class 1 Chaos Scar When you take an action point to take an extra action, at the end of your turn you can choose to take damage equal to your level or fall prone. Class 2 Chaos Scar When you take an action point to make an attack you also make a basic attack against the closest ally that you can attack as a free action. Class 3 Chaos Scar When you take an action point to make an attack, at the end of your turn you become dominated until the end of your next turn. Class 4 Chaos Scar When you take an action point to make an attack you summon a chaotic shadow image of yourself. The summoned creature acts on your initative and has your defenses. It is permanently dazed, has your bloodied value in hit points and one of your at-will powers and your level 1 encounter power. I use the "at the end of your turn" so they can finish all their action-point related stuff before I take control. I have not yet playtested the Class 4, so it might be broken. What should I do with the blackguard? Should I have some mechanical representation of his ritual scar or just the story-one?
#2 pluisjen Sep 19, 2011 8:48:04	I have one in my game, which is an evil artefact book. It more or less corrupted the Druid. She willfully gave in to it at some point and now it lends her its power, by draining it from her allies. Mechanically, whenever she rolls a 1 on an attack roll she gets an overload surge from the book, which makes the attack automatically crit all its targets, but drains energy from her allies (depending on the power, At-Will powers are Medium DC Endurance or lose a surge, Encounter powers are High DC Endurance or lose a surge, Dailies are no save, lose a surge) So far they seem to enjoy it, because it's only happened to At-Wills so far... be fun when she does it on a daily. Then again they're probably going to destroy it in a few sessions, so it won't be around much longer.
#3 arkthepieking Sep 19, 2011 12:42:29	A really great example of this is my Gloom Pact Hexblade. He recently had a run in with an avatar of his father, (some sort of shadow dragon. DM is in charge of all that since my Hexblade never knew his father), and it awakened 2 things in my character: 1) I now ignore necrotic resistance on all of my attacks, since any sort of necrotic resistance completely and utterly shuts down a Gloom Pact Hexblade. We ran into a combat with some undead and it became clear that was going to be a problem. 2) Once an encounter, I can choose to reroll an attack roll, and make a saving throw. If I fail that throw I have to draw a fortune card since I dipped into the power of the shadowfell and it managed to taint me in return.