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Godskook
2009-05-07, 01:20 AM
First, the OP-K is a reference for if I continue this project later(so I can find relevant threads).

Alright, I've been thinking of a character creation option:

Ideals

Mainly, some characters just have ideals they live by, and seem stronger for it. I want to develop this into a way for that to be.

An Ideal is composed of:
1.Specific requirements that define what the ideal is.
2.A specific, concept related bonus.
3.A specific, concept related penalty.
4.The standard Ideal bonus.
5.The standard Ideal penalty.

An Ideal requires:
1.A core principle that helps define the character(Ex: Defending the weak). This principle is much akin to what many main characters in stories are 'about'.
2.Ways to violate and achieve said ideal.
3.A way for the DM to incorporate it into both RP and combat.

Design principles:
1.Taking Ideals should not 'break' the game. A character with an Ideal should be within 1 LA of a character without one, if otherwise equal.
2.The bonuses should be class-generic, allowing any character to take any Ideal without having an useless ability from it.
3.Penalties should be equally generic, penalizing characters across the board. UA flaws are, in practice, what I want to avoid on this point. In principle, this is exactly how flaws were meant to work.
4.Under rare circumstances, an Ideal can fail to meet the above(Ex: A character who takes an Ideal that requires being vulnerable to mind-affecting effects who eventually becomes a Lich). In these cases, rules for losing the Ideal and perhaps eventually acquiring a new one need to exist.
5.Ideals shouldn't normally conflict. Rules for having multiple Ideals and for dealing with groups that have 'conflicting' Ideals need to be developed(What happens when my character's Ideal requires me to defend the town and his character's Ideal requires him to chase down the villain?).

Other notes:
1.While this is presented here as usable in 3.5, that's not my intended goal for this. It is the start of a larger project. I want it to work in 3.5 because I want the whole project to be semi-compatible with 3.5(Read: Be able to use these characters in an Infinite Worlds game without breaking it for the other players).
2.For normal 3.5 use, I'm only worried about balancing it out with one Ideal per character. For my project, it'll probably be closer to 3 per character. I want to keep both sides of this in mind while working on it.
3.Ideally, these should mechanically be what flaws should've been, in my opinion. Ways to give a character more power by building him a glass jaw.
4.Probably, these shouldn't be used with the flaws variant because of #3.
5.If you figure out what my little code is, please don't post it. If you PM the correct answer, I'll tell you, but I'd like to keep my long-term project quiet for now.

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Ideas for Ideals:

Self-reliant
Never leave a man behind
King of my hill
Valued possession
Defender of the weak
Lovestruck

Standard penalty idea:
Essentially, as the quest spell.

Standard bonus idea:
Bonus feat? That seems tired. What else could I use? +1 to all saves? Hmm...

I'll get into fleshing out the different ideas I had for ideals in my next post. Want to get this up before something eats my thread(internet, battery, etc.).