Harvesting the Shadow
Shadow creatures carry the darkness of their home dimension with them into our realm. This power remains in the creature so long as it lives, and when it dies it is spread to the nearest people who are aware of the Shadow. When a Shadow Chaser kills a shadow creature, he (and probably his nearby allies) absorbs power and can choose one of two paths: He can purify the mystical energy, tearing the shadow from it and storing it within his soul (read: he gets experience normally). When his soul can contain no more of this energy, it unleashes it upon his body and it integrates with his mind, body, and even his spirit (read: he levels up). The energy cannot be released until it fills his soul, unless he trains to pour it into something mundane, solid, and occasionally animal.
The second option is to relent to the Shadow. Once you relent to the Shadow, you must continue to do so until it fills the place in your soul that stores mystical energy. Once that is filled, the Shadow combines with your body, mind and spirit and warps you to be more like it. This is a dangerous, but powerful path to take; you gain 10 mutation points (see D20 Future Chapter 12: Mutations) to spend, as well as a +1 level adjustment. You can only have as large of a level adjustment as your wisdom modifier, or your character will become insane and join the hordes of the Shadow.
If a character takes wisdom damage to a point that would take his wisdom modifier below his level adjustment, he attacks the nearest living thing he can find (unless there is a known enemy in sight, at once point he will attack the enemy before his friends or innocents) until the damage has been healed at least to the point where his wisdom modifier and LA are equal.
I wrote this up very nicely the first time, with a whole lot more flavor... but then someone closed Firefox while I was away, so... here's the concept in a nutshell.
What do you guys think?
More rules variants:
Purification as a will save:
When one absorbs the dark energy given off by a shadow monster, he must choose whether to relent or purify. If he decides to purify the energy, he must succeed a will save (DC5+Creature's HD) or be forced to relent to the Shadow anyway.
Alternatively, one could use a modified level check so characters with low will saves are not screwed over.
This is a really cool idea. It really fits the dark/gritty feel of a Shadow Chasers game, and the mechanic seems pretty sound.I'm not sure how many players would CHOOSE to take a level adjustment and become slightly dark, but then again, there's always the Will Save..
I wouldn't mind playing in a game where this was a will save, but I can see a few players in my group getting angry about their character taking on shadow without their consent.
Anyhow, I'm glad you like the idea! I just re-read my post and saw I forgot to put my reference to Highlander in there, as that's where the idea for the mechanic came from.
And now for another thought/question: I was contemplating having the focus of the campaign being the prevention (or aiding) of the Shadow's merging with our world. After a few sessions of monster crushing, I'll have my PCs stumble upon a few members of a cult of Shadow. As they find more people and gather more information from hideouts and bases, the cult's cause will be revealed: aid the merging of Shadow to improve the world by bringing the Shadow into public awareness, and in a positive light (hooray irony).
If the human race accepts and embraces the Shadow, they will be taken into its embrace. If the human race realizes, but repels the shadow, it will be purified once and for all.
At this point, and any later point really, the PCs will be able to choose one path or the other.
My question is as follows: how do you persuade people to relent to the Shadow? Just what kind of person (ability wise) does it take to bend that many wills?
Taking my own advice from another thread, I might make him a modified Thrallherd, but I'm not sure. Any ideas?