Solo Tome games

Stories about games that you run and/or have played in.

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Maxus
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Solo Tome games

Post by Maxus »

I might as well post reports of them on here, since the hack-and-slash has been postponed by scheduling conflicts.

First, I have one game going where the player is a Kantian Paladin, starting level 4. I have a few story and character ideas, but I'm really putting things together a little bit before the player gets to them.

So far, he's at the end of his first day of being on the road. This has been a rather long day, in which he was:

-Assigned to carry a relic (a magic helm) from a main cathedral to another temple in another town.

-Suffered an attempted mugging, which quickly broke apart when he downed one of the muggers with a critical.

-Outside of town, ran into highwaymen. Harder fight because the dice cooperated with them slightly, but he still took all three of them down.

-He's just now cured someone of Ghoul Fever and was last seen as a cliffhanger.

I've got a level 4 ranger/ghoul paragon statted out and plan to run the player around the village a little bit.

Later, I'm going to throw him against some goblins, worgs, and barghests, to see what happens.

After that, I plan to have him do a jailbreak of a dragon, which will become his special mount, and then he'll be 5th level.

Other notes:

-It looks like I'm committed to using a Divine Assassin. I have some stuff written down about motivations/character.

-I'm thinking of turning a Kantian Paladin into a Kantian Blackguard. Besides replacing all mentions of "evil" with "good" and "good" with "evil" and changing the auras...anyone have any recommendations either way about what to do with the spellcasting? It could remain mostly the same, or it could go more Assassin-ish.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Bigode
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Post by Bigode »

"Kantian" just because of rules scavenging, right, or are you making someone dedicated to do wrong stuff for Kantian ethics?
Hans Freyer, s.b.u.h. wrote:A manly, a bold tone prevails in history. He who has the grip has the booty.
Huston Smith wrote:Life gives us no view of the whole. We see only snatches here and there, (...)
brotherfrancis75 wrote:Perhaps you imagine that Ayn Rand is our friend? And the Mont Pelerin Society? No, those are but the more subtle versions of the Bolshevik Communist Revolution you imagine you reject. (...) FOX NEWS IS ALSO COMMUNIST!
LDSChristian wrote:True. I do wonder which is worse: killing so many people like Hitler did or denying Christ 3 times like Peter did.
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Post by Maxus »

Bigode wrote:"Kantian" just because of rules scavenging, right, or are you making someone dedicated to do wrong stuff for Kantian ethics?
Rules scavenging, I'm afraid. I don't have nearly as much background in ethics as I'd like, so I wouldn't know how to handle Kantian ethics as applied to selfish, might-makes-right, I'll-take-what-I-want actions.

In this particular case, the future Blackguard will be motivated by envy and a thirst for power, specifically for a particular suit of armor.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Post by Bigode »

Maxus wrote:
Bigode wrote:"Kantian" just because of rules scavenging, right, or are you making someone dedicated to do wrong stuff for Kantian ethics?
Rules scavenging, I'm afraid. I don't have nearly as much background in ethics as I'd like, so I wouldn't know how to handle Kantian ethics as applied to selfish, might-makes-right, I'll-take-what-I-want actions.

In this particular case, the future Blackguard will be motivated by envy and a thirst for power, specifically for a particular suit of armor.
Well, my background isn't that hot, but I don't think that's even possible. Anyway, it's easy to just pick it as a leader and use similar rules - but have you seen the vengeance/dark knight, BTW?
Hans Freyer, s.b.u.h. wrote:A manly, a bold tone prevails in history. He who has the grip has the booty.
Huston Smith wrote:Life gives us no view of the whole. We see only snatches here and there, (...)
brotherfrancis75 wrote:Perhaps you imagine that Ayn Rand is our friend? And the Mont Pelerin Society? No, those are but the more subtle versions of the Bolshevik Communist Revolution you imagine you reject. (...) FOX NEWS IS ALSO COMMUNIST!
LDSChristian wrote:True. I do wonder which is worse: killing so many people like Hitler did or denying Christ 3 times like Peter did.
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Post by Maxus »

Bigode wrote:
Maxus wrote:
Bigode wrote:"Kantian" just because of rules scavenging, right, or are you making someone dedicated to do wrong stuff for Kantian ethics?
Rules scavenging, I'm afraid. I don't have nearly as much background in ethics as I'd like, so I wouldn't know how to handle Kantian ethics as applied to selfish, might-makes-right, I'll-take-what-I-want actions.

In this particular case, the future Blackguard will be motivated by envy and a thirst for power, specifically for a particular suit of armor.
Well, my background isn't that hot, but I don't think that's even possible. Anyway, it's easy to just pick it as a leader and use similar rules - but have you seen the vengeance/dark knight, BTW?
I have not. Sauce?
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Post by Cynic »

Maxus wrote:
I have not. Sauce?
I assume, Bigode's talking about this post.
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Post by Maxus »

Oho. I like. I like it a lot. Looks like something Harvey Dent took levels in.

And it just gave me a more solid motivation for this particular character.

Thank you kindly.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Post by Aktariel »

Oddly enough, I was looking at the Kantian paladin as a framework around which to build a dark knight; the problem there is that if you just flip everything and you're still fighting evil creatures, then you wind up getting screwed because you can only smite good.

The Vengeance Knight fails, IMHO, by not being powerful enough.

There must be a balance. Either that, or the only choices are being Mother Theresa or eating babies.

I suppose it depends on your game.

EDIT: You can't have a "Kantian Anti-Paladin." The way Kantian ethics work, it's not possible.

Well, you could... The way it works is, the main precept is "Act according to the maxim whereby what you will can become universal law." Or something to that effect. Short version is, Golden Rule type situation. Do unto other yadda yadda.

However, Kant also goes into detail about a set of Universal Ethics and so on, and basically says that lying, cheating, etc, is bad.

You could argue that you're simply trying to say that stabbing people in the face is an ok way for everybody to be...
Last edited by Aktariel on Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Bigode »

"Sauce?" "SAUCE?" Yeah, Harvey Attorney at Law FTW.

Aktariel: what part of "unfinished" you didn't get? And anyway, Kant = Golden Rule? Totally not AFAIK - it's "do what one must" as opposed to anything left to personal preference, as the Golden Rule AFAIK relies on whatever the hell's bad according to oneself (personal opinion).
Hans Freyer, s.b.u.h. wrote:A manly, a bold tone prevails in history. He who has the grip has the booty.
Huston Smith wrote:Life gives us no view of the whole. We see only snatches here and there, (...)
brotherfrancis75 wrote:Perhaps you imagine that Ayn Rand is our friend? And the Mont Pelerin Society? No, those are but the more subtle versions of the Bolshevik Communist Revolution you imagine you reject. (...) FOX NEWS IS ALSO COMMUNIST!
LDSChristian wrote:True. I do wonder which is worse: killing so many people like Hitler did or denying Christ 3 times like Peter did.
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Post by Aktariel »

I know it's not finished. I'm not saying, "It will suck balls," I'm saying "It doesn't work for me as it stands."

I suppose it was a bit more of a generalization to equate Kantianism/Deontology to the Golden Rule, but the ideas are somewhat similar.

By acting in such a manner that your actions could be moral guidelines for everyone, you are creating to and adhering to a universal moral code. Granted, this is not what the Golden Rule does but...

Fuck it. You're basically right, but there's a connection in there somewhere; I'm just too tired to draw it clearly.
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Post by Maxus »

Vengeant Knight

"I'll do it. You don't have to watch."

'Evil begets evil', so the priests say. And they're right. They also say that evil contains the seeds of its own destruction... and they're right about that, too.

The Vengeant Knight is a child of evil, bound to the darkness yet sworn to its defeat. He may have been born - as some creatures are - with a canker in his heart, or he may have begun as an innocent who was exposed to such horrors that his soul became blackened and twisted. To his enemies, the nature of his genesis makes little difference; not that they will have long to ponder the question.

The Vengeant Knight takes the bitterness, cruelty, and hatred from the deepest recesses of his benighted soul and embraces them. He doesn't fight for redemption, nor for glory, but for revenge against the entire world and the vicious satisfaction to be derived from crushing those whose vileness mirrors his own. He does not balk at harming the innocent in the pursuit of his foes if it is needful, yet wherever possible he stays his hand against the undeserving; only the slaying of Evil creatures grants him the dark joy that for a time slakes his burning thirst for destruction.

Alignment: A Vengeant Knight may be of any Evil alignment.

Races: Suffering is experienced by all sentient creatures, and even the best-intentioned race can produce the occasional monster; Vengeant Knights born of the pain of Good-aligned races are often the most fearsome of all.

Starting Gold: 6d4x20 gp (300 gold)

Hit Die: d12

Class Skills: The Vengeant Knight's skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str) and Use Rope (Dex).

Skills/Level: 4 + Intelligence Bonus

BAB: Full

Saves: Fort: Good; Reflex: Poor; Will: Good

Level: Benefits

1. Aura of Evil, Embrace the Darkness, Inexorable Evil, Sense Kinship, Smite 1/day
2. Original Sin, Strength of Corruption
3. 'Been There, Done That', The Abyss Gazes Also
4. The Quality of Mercy
5. Battle Not With Monsters, Smite 2/day
6. Nowhere to Hide
7. The Enemy Within 1/day
8
9. You're Next
10 Smite 3/day
11 The Enemy Within 2/day
12 My Evil Twin
13
14
15 Smite 4/day, The Enemy Within 3/day
16
17
18
19 The Enemy Within 4/day
20 Smite 5/day

Below are described the class features of the Vengeant Knight class:

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Vengeant Knights are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, all armour and all shields except tower shields.

Aura of Evil The power of a Vengeant Knight's aura of evil (see the detect evil spell) is equal to his class level.

Embrace the Darkness (Ex): The Vengeant Knight gains damage reduction equal to his class level against attacks with the [Evil] descriptor, such as melee damage inflicted by creatures with the [Evil] subtype.

Inexorable Evil (Ex): The Vengeant Knights's melee and ranged attacks are considered to meet any alignment requirement necessary in order to overcome damage reduction.

Sense Kinship (Su): Evil calls to its own; a Vengeant Knight is considered to have the effects of a detect evil spell on his person at all times, except that he need not take any actions to gain the information, the range is 30ft and he can only discern the auras of creatures or objects within his line of sight. Any method that foils the detect evil spell will also foil this ability.

Smite (Ex): Once per day, as a standard action, a Vengeant Knight may attempt to smite a nongood sentient creature with a melee attack. He adds his Charisma bonus (if any) to his attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per Vengeant Knight level. All of the damage inflicted by this attack is Vile damage. If the Knight accidentally smites a creature that is mindless or good-aligned, the smite has no effect but the ability is still used up for that day.

At 5th level, and at every five levels thereafter, the Vengeant Knight may smite one additional time per day, to a maximum of five times per day at 20th level.

Original Sin (Ex): As a swift action, a Vengeant Knight can sacrifice up to his class level in hit points. He then gains the number of hit points sacrificed as a morale bonus to damage on all attacks made against evil creatures until the start of his next turn. The extra damage thus inflicted is Vile damage. If this ability is activated immediately prior to a Smite attack, the Smite gains two additional points of damage per hit point sacrificed, but no attacks other than the Smite gain the bonus damage from this use of the ability.

Strength of Corruption (Ex): At 2nd level, a Vengeant Knight gains a morale bonus equal to his Charisma bonus (at least +1) on all saving throws.

'Been There, Done That' (Ex): When you've embraced the worst that lies within yourself, what else is there to be afraid of? A Vengeant Knight of 3rd level or higher is immune to fear effects.

The Abyss Gazes Also (Su): Looking too long into the eyes of one who has caused or witnessed horrors can itself be dangerous. As a standard action, a Vengeant Knight can make a gaze attack against any creature within 60', causing traumatic memories and dark imaginings to spew forth from their subconscious and root them to the spot with fear. A targeted creature who fails a Will save (DC = 10 + Vengeant Knight's class level + Chr bonus) can take no actions - including movement - other than the 'total defense' action until the end of the Vengeant Knight's next turn.

This is a supernatural, mind-affecting, fear effect.

The Quality of Mercy (Ex): If a melee attack carried out by a Vengeant Knight would reduce an opponent to 0 hit points or lower, he may, at his option, choose to instead inflict a dreadful wound that leaves his opponent with 1 hit point, but racked with agonising pain. On subsequent turns, the Vengeant Knight can spend a full-round action to put his enemy to the question. The creature thus afflicted must make a Fortitude save every round (DC = 10 + Vengeant Knight's class level + Chr bonus) or be forced to answer the Knight's question fully and truthfully to the best of their ability. The Knight and the subject of this ability must share a common language in order for the questions and answers to be understood. Asking a single question (and receiving an answer, if any) takes one round, after which the Vengeant Knight must spend another full-round action to question his enemy further.

The Vengeant Knight can maintain his victim in this state for a maximum of one round per class level. At the end of this period, or if the Vengeant Knight discontinues his interrogation for any reason, the pain ends and the victim either dies (-10hp) or is left with 1 hit point, at the Knight's option.

A creature prepared to face death rather than talk can attempt a Will save (DC = 10 + Vengeant Knight's class level + Chr bonus). If successful, the victim dies immediately. This ability does not function on undead, constructs or creatures otherwise immune to pain.

Battle Not With Monsters (Su): At 5th level, the Vengeant Knight's gaze attack becomes more potent. At his option, the victim is afflicted with violent rage instead of being rooted to the spot. This ability functions in all respects like the confusion spell, except that a target who fails the Will save (DC = 10 + Vengeant Knight's class level + Chr bonus) always attacks the nearest creature, and the duration of this effect is 3 rounds.

This is a supernatural, mind-affecting ability.

Nowhere to Hide (Su): A creature marked for death by a Vengeant Knight is surely doomed. As a standard action, the Vengeant Knight can concentrate to discern the location of any opponent upon whom he has inflicted Vile damage with any of his class abilities. The ability functions in all ways as per the locate creature spell, except that it is not blocked by running water, is not fooled by polymorph-like abilities so long as the target retains their original personality and has a duration of 'concentration'.

The Vengeant Knight can only discern the location of one creature at a time with this power, although he can switch to a different viable target with another standard action. The Vengeant Knight can continue to use this ability until such time as his opponent has managed to heal the Vile damage he has inflicted. Vile damage inflicted by means other than the Vengeant Knight's class abilities - such as a Vile weapon, or spells gained from another class - does not count for the purpose of determining whether the Knight can locate a creature in this fashion.

The Enemy Within (Su): At 7th level, the Vengeant Knight can make the evil in a creature's soul rise up against them. Once per day, as a standard action, a Vengeant Knight can make a gaze attack against any sentient nongood creature within 60'. This attack functions in all ways as a phantasmal killer spell, except that the phantasm cannot be turned back upon the Vengeant Knight by the use of a helm of telepathy, and a successful Fortitude save results in 1d6 points of damage per class level of the Knight. The DC of both saves is (10 + Vengeant Knight's class level + Chr bonus). The Vengeant Knight gains a further use of this ability per day at 11th level, and again at 15th and 19th level.

You're Next (Ex): From 9th level onward, any creature of the Vengeant Knight's CR-2 or less that witnesses a Smite or Quality of Mercy attack is automatically shaken for the duration of the encounter. Witnessing further such attacks will cause affected creatures to become frightened and then panicked as usual. There is no saving throw against this effect, but mindless creatures and creatures otherwise immune to fear are unaffected.

My Evil Twin (Su): When targeted by, or in the area of, a spell or spell-like ability that allows a saving throw and that would normally not affect (or have a reduced effect upon) the Vengeant Knight because of his evil alignment, he can choose as an immediate action for the spell or effect to function as though he were of the alignment targeted. If he succeeds in his saving throw, the caster or originator of the effect suffers the result of the attack as though they were in the area and of an alignment that would normally suffer the attack's full effects. The Vengeant Knight need not be able to see the caster for this ability to function, but he must have line of effect. If the caster would normally be immune to the effects of the spell for reasons other than alignment, they are not otherwise rendered vulnerable.

If the Vengeant Knight fails his initial saving throw, he is affected normally by the spell as though he were of a targeted alignment and the caster is unaffected by the attempt.
Well, let's see.

I'd make Smite just an at-will standard action, or per-encounter and let it apply to ranged attacks (I don't remember the particulars of vile damage).

I'd also give them some "Fucking Terrifying" abilities that let them penetrate immunity to fear and not take penalties for using it against stuff like undead. Possibly some auras that let them debilitate people (I like the idea of being able scare/hit people so hard they take a -2 or whatever penalty to a stat for a while).
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Aktariel
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Post by Aktariel »

Maxus wrote:Well, let's see.

I'd make Smite just an at-will standard action, or per-encounter and let it apply to ranged attacks (I don't remember the particulars of vile damage).

I'd also give them some "Fucking Terrifying" abilities that let them penetrate immunity to fear and not take penalties for using it against stuff like undead. Possibly some auras that let them debilitate people (I like the idea of being able scare/hit people so hard they take a -2 or whatever penalty to a stat for a while).
Keep the Smite progression and ability, but make it an at will standard action. The thing about Vile damage is, unless it's a recurring boss, you're going to kill people so hard that they aren't going to care how they're dying. What I mean by that is that Vile damage is sweet for two reasons: It's a bullshit energy type, which means that no one has resistance to it, and it hurts people over the long term. Really, this is something meant to be used against the PC's, since they are the only people who are going to be in the story long enough to care.

Also, the fear things sound good. Some evil auras. Cower them. Terrify them. Make them afraid. Even undead.
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Post by Maxus »

Aktariel wrote:

Keep the Smite progression and ability, but make it an at will standard action. The thing about Vile damage is, unless it's a recurring boss, you're going to kill people so hard that they aren't going to care how they're dying. What I mean by that is that Vile damage is sweet for two reasons: It's a bullshit energy type, which means that no one has resistance to it, and it hurts people over the long term. Really, this is something meant to be used against the PC's, since they are the only people who are going to be in the story long enough to care.

Also, the fear things sound good. Some evil auras. Cower them. Terrify them. Make them afraid. Even undead.
Well, here's a few official ideas I jotted down in an hour I had between classes...

-Penetrating immunity to fear and mind-affecting effects (as above)
-Hitting someone and them taking a -2 penalty to a stat or multiple stats. Maybe eventually being able to do this to a whole group as an aura effect, and even later, it increases to -4.
-An aura of Reduced Saves (-2 to whatever).
-Some means to take people down non-lethally, for use on bystanders.
-Aura of Terror with a will save.

I'm running a little short of inspiration. What're some anti-hero characters who did neat things, or do we start branching into the powers of psychotics like Mr. Teatime?

Edit: Had a couple more brain waves. Presented here for consideration.

-Aura of Badassery. Get bonuses for Intimidation, Gather Information, Sense Motive, and maybe Diplomacy at something like half of class/character level.

-Eventually, get a Dies Irae ability where the Vengeant Knight can gain his Aura of Badassery as a bonus to stuff like attack, AC, Strength, saves, or hit points for something like...1 minute/level, maybe increasing to 10 minute/level.

-My Mind is My Own: Immunity to diplomacy and mind-effecting affects.

-Implacable: You're continually under the effects of Freedom of Movement. If something's in your way, you get your Aura of Badassery as a bonus to break it down/escape from it.

-People who try to read your mind or use Sense Motive on you get a nasty shock as they realize better than most just how scary you actually are. Possibly increasing effects depending on just how profound the contact is, with Sense Motive being the least. Maybe eventually forcing a Sense Motive check or being shaken.
Last edited by Maxus on Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Bigode »

Aktariel wrote:Fuck it. You're basically right, but there's a connection in there somewhere; I'm just too tired to draw it clearly.
Yes, there is - that in both cases, one's supposed to wish good things for everyone, but the fact that one's explicitly wishing their own view of it while the second strives for absolute conclusions' a huge difference.

Vile damage: only healable in a sanctified area - I actually find that too much, and would establish something like "make some really hard check to heal it; if you fail, try again after a natural rest period".

Standard-action smite: ha, ha, ha .... You might steal that outright from the Kantian paladin.

The original idea of Amra's class was more the powers of psychotics (Dexter's the perfect example, I hear). But I, personally, wanted that generalized, for example to include the concepts (and possibly abilities) represented by the dark knight I linked in the second page of Amra's thread - it even allows Lawful Good dark knights, complete with non-standard ethics.
Hans Freyer, s.b.u.h. wrote:A manly, a bold tone prevails in history. He who has the grip has the booty.
Huston Smith wrote:Life gives us no view of the whole. We see only snatches here and there, (...)
brotherfrancis75 wrote:Perhaps you imagine that Ayn Rand is our friend? And the Mont Pelerin Society? No, those are but the more subtle versions of the Bolshevik Communist Revolution you imagine you reject. (...) FOX NEWS IS ALSO COMMUNIST!
LDSChristian wrote:True. I do wonder which is worse: killing so many people like Hitler did or denying Christ 3 times like Peter did.
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Post by RiotGearEpsilon »

A Kantian Blackguard would be a character designed to be someone who /inhabits/ the world that a Kantian Paladin idealizes, but does not follow it's rules. "I imagine a world where there is no war, no theft, no cruelty, and I imagine invading that world, because they'd never see it coming."
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Post by Bigode »

RiotGearEpsilon wrote:A Kantian Blackguard would be a character designed to be someone who /inhabits/ the world that a Kantian Paladin idealizes, but does not follow it's rules. "I imagine a world where there is no war, no theft, no cruelty, and I imagine invading that world, because they'd never see it coming."
Well, that'd be ironic, but no place in D&D. :)
Hans Freyer, s.b.u.h. wrote:A manly, a bold tone prevails in history. He who has the grip has the booty.
Huston Smith wrote:Life gives us no view of the whole. We see only snatches here and there, (...)
brotherfrancis75 wrote:Perhaps you imagine that Ayn Rand is our friend? And the Mont Pelerin Society? No, those are but the more subtle versions of the Bolshevik Communist Revolution you imagine you reject. (...) FOX NEWS IS ALSO COMMUNIST!
LDSChristian wrote:True. I do wonder which is worse: killing so many people like Hitler did or denying Christ 3 times like Peter did.
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Post by Aktariel »

Serenity wrote:The Operative: I'm sorry. If your quarry goes to ground, leave no ground to go to. You should have taken my offer. Or did you think none of this was your fault?

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: I don't murder children.

The Operative: I do. If I have to.

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Why? Do you even know why they sent you?

The Operative: It's not my place to ask. I believe in something greater than myself. A better world. A world without sin.

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: So me and mine gotta lay down and die... so you can live in your better world?

The Operative: I'm not going to live there. There's no place for me there... any more than there is for you. Malcolm... I'm a monster.What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done.
I imagine a Kantian Blackguard might be something like the Operative.
<something clever>
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Post by Maxus »

So I got bored and started generating Vengeant Knight idea. I wish I could say constant idea generation was a rare thing for me. It's not. So here they are, take any concepts you think are spiffy...

True Terror: The Vengeant Knight is such a terrifying figure that any fear effect he generates bypasses both immunity to fear and immunity to mind-affecting effects. Furthermore, he can even put the fear of…well…himself into the undead and mindless living creatures. Undead do not gain their usual bonuses against mind-affecting and fear effects, and mindless living creatures flee before him.

Aura of the Nemesis: The Vengeant Knight walks around knowing he’s one bad dude. This gives him a morale bonus equal to half-class level, to Bluff, Intimidate, Sense Motive, and Diplomacy.

Dreadful Aura: No one's at their best when they're confronted by a terrible threat. All enemies in 60 feet gain -3 to saves. The Vengeant Knight may have one aura, other than his Aura of Evil, active at a time, and may change auras as a swift action.

Poisonous Fear: The Vengeant Knight can scare the strength from a Barbarian and the wits from a Wizard. Choose a poison with a DC equal to 10 + ½ character level + Charisma or less, and which does only ability damage. When you use Intimidate to successfully demoralize someone, they must make a successful save (their choice of Fortitude or Willpower), DC 10 + ½ character level + Charisma, or take ability damage as if affected by that poison. The Poisonous Fear is a supernatural, mind-affecting, fear effect, not an actual poison. Each time you gain this ability, choose a new type of poison for your scariness to mimic. It lasts for as long as they are demoralized.

Aura of Poisonous Fear: Select a type of your Poisonous Fear. All enemies within 60 feat of you are affected by this type when

Implacable Aura: There is very little that can stop a Vengeant Knight from getting where he wants to go. He’s under the effects of a Freedom of Movement while this aura is up, and gains his class level to Str checks to break or move objects in his way.

My Mind is My Own: The Vengeant knight is quite aware that all that he is, is because he's decided to be so. This profound self-acceptance renders him immune to mind-affecting effects and diplomacy.

Dies Irae: Once a day, as a swift action a Vengeant Knight may stop holding himself back and allow the full strength of his hatred to power him to incredible feats. He may have two auras active in addition to his Aura of Fear, and he gains one-half of his character level as a bonus to one of the following:

-AC
-Attack bonuses
-Strength
-Constitution
-Skill Checks
-Saves
-Base speed (Treat each point of bonus as 5’ of speed).
-Hit points (Treat each point of bonus as 2 temporary hit points per character level).

This lasts for 1 minute/level.

Improved Wrath: At levels 9, 12, 15, and 18, the Vengeant Knight gains another category which improves during Dies Irae.

Vita Irae: The Vengeant Knight’s wrath knows no bounds, and upon reaching level 20 he need never leave the state of Dies Irae.

Not a Very Nice Person At All: Looking into the mind of a Vengeant Knight is like getting a glimpse of fifth circle of Hell. Anyone who attempts to get inside his head will get a profound shock as he realizes just how much hate is in this person. Anyone who succeeds on a Sense Motive--even one trying to discern something else--check (opposed by the Vengeant Knight’s Bluff) is shaken unless he passes a will save (usual DC); this can happen in the course of a normal Sense Motive. Anyone who tries a magical or psionic means of connecting minds with the Vengeant Knight (such as by means of dominate, detect thoughts, Probe Mind, etc.) gets a painful shock as the Vengeant Knight’s psyche recoils against the invasion. See the Inflict Pain Psionic Power for the effect. Furthermore, the attempt to connect with or control the Vengeant Knight fails. The Vengeant Knight can suppress this if he wants to, but they usually won’t bother to hide their vicious intent.
Last edited by Maxus on Fri Aug 22, 2008 4:09 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Post by Cynic »

Poisonous fear - Sounds badass. Does the poison damage scale with level?
Ancient History wrote:We were working on Street Magic, and Frank asked me if a houngan had run over my dog.
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Post by Aktariel »

A_Cynic wrote:Poisonous fear - Sounds badass. Does the poison damage scale with level?
In a sense. Since you get to pick a poison with a DC equal to 10+1/2 Char level + Cha mod, the poisons get more deadly as you level.

One thing I think should perhaps be an ability is to be able to pick the poison every time you manifest Poisonous Fear.
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Post by Maxus »

A_Cynic wrote:Poisonous fear - Sounds badass. Does the poison damage scale with level?
Well, I seem to remember writing something about choosing poisons for your fear to mimic, of a DC equal to or less than 10 + 1/2 character level +Charisma modifier. But the poison uses that same DC, so you can get some more powerful effects. I think there's a DC 11 poison that can do 3d6 Con or something...

If that doesn't float your boat, feel free to write a scaling mechanic. 1d4 per X number of levels, maybe?

Edit: Or, maybe, 1 point of ability damage per 2 character levels, and each time you get a new Poisonous Fear, you select a new ability to target?

Re-Edit: Here's a tentative progression...

1. Aura of Evil, Embrace the Darkness, Inexorable Evil, Sense Kinship, Smite
2. Original Sin, Strength of Corruption, Aura of the Nemesis
3. 'Been There, Done That', The Abyss Gazes Also
4. The Quality of Mercy, Dreadful Aura
5. Battle Not With Monsters, Poisonous Fear
6. Nowhere to Hide, Dies Irae
7. The Enemy Within 1/day
8 Poisonous Fear, Mettle
9. You're Next, Improved Wrath
10 True Terror
11 The Enemy Within 2/day, Poisonous Fear
12 My Evil Twin, Improved Wrath
13 Not a Very Nice Person At All,
14 Poisonous Fear, Implacable Aura
15 The Enemy Within 3/day, Improved Wrath
16 Aura of Poisonous Fear
17 Poisonous Fear
18 Improved Wrath.
19 The Enemy Within 4/day
20 Poisonous Fear, Vita Irae

Again, that's just using the abilities I wrote.

To really optimize it, make Demoralize a move action? And if that's already possible for a character, a swift action? Maybe as an add-on to True Terror?
Last edited by Maxus on Thu Aug 21, 2008 6:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by Cynic »

WHy do you have several of the bonuses as profane bonuses?

I'd suggest just making them a bonus. If playing with Tome, the profane bonus really doesn't exist anyway so... yeah.
Ancient History wrote:We were working on Street Magic, and Frank asked me if a houngan had run over my dog.
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Post by Maxus »

A_Cynic wrote:WHy do you have several of the bonuses as profane bonuses?

I'd suggest just making them a bonus. If playing with Tome, the profane bonus really doesn't exist anyway so... yeah.
It seemed appropriate, and I'd forgotten that detail...

Edit: Fixed.
Last edited by Maxus on Thu Aug 21, 2008 8:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Maxus »

Allright, so I'm looking at the game format. It looks like it's somewhat episodic, with a large cast of characters, and something of an overlying plot. The player has expressed interest in getting a Leadership feat eventually, so I'm thinking that the character will become important. I'm thinking about putting the character in charge of a short military endeavour at about level 8 or 9, and he picks up the Command feat during process.

Problem is, what's this about a Command rating? I assume it's from a sourcebook, but a quick dig through the pile a friend left me when he moved hasn't turned up anything. A pointer in the right direction would be nice.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Post by Maxus »

It's tempting to make the overplot a web of revenge and backstabbing. That'd certainly suit a Vengeant Knight, and I think I could see a Ghostwalker being in there...

If the class weren't a pile of suck. Here's someone's 3.5 version of it:

http://forums.gleemax.com/wotc_archive/ ... p/t-347888

I'm thinking:

-shift Shadow Strike and Hide in Plain Sight to levels 1 and 2 (respectively) and let Shadow Strike be an at-will standard action

-Drop the skill requirements...

-replacing the entry feats with their Tome equivalents (Great Fortitude and Iron Will).

-Maybe the skill points could be bumped up...

Random ability ideas:

Dark Sphere: The Ghostwalker can focus on anyone or anything within Medium Range, and center a collection of Shadow energy on that person or thing. The Dark Sphere does 1d6 Damage per character level reflex save for half (DC 10 + 1/2 character level + Cha bonus).

Shadow Sink (Su): The Ghostwalker's connection with the Plane of Shadow allows him to 'sink' into any shadow he can stand in as a full-round, putting him into an effect similar to a Rope trick. Other people can come along, if they're holding hands with him, or at least holding hands with someone who's holding hands with him (up to eight people).

Shadowstreams: As a full-round action, the Ghostwalker can summon and release multiple streams of corrosive energy from the Plane of Shadow and cast them at multiple enemies. How many it can attack depends on the defined range, chosen when using the ability.

-It may attack every enemy it can reach when used within short range

-When used at Medium range, it may attack a number of enemies equal to the Ghostwalker's character level plus his charisma modifier.

-When used at Long range, it may attack a number of enemies equal to the 1/2 character level + charisma modifier.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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