Adding a template in game

[Lord Il Palazzo]

I have a player in my 3.5 game whose character is a druid whose backstory revolves heavily around the fact that he's the grandson of a powerful and influential djinni. To model this, he decided to use the bloodline variant rules (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm) from the SRD to get a Major Djinni bloodline.

For those unfamiliar with bloodline rules:This means that he basically has to take a dead level before reaching level 3 and gain before 6 and 12 as a bloodline level. These levels don't count toward any new abilities he might gain from his class but do advance his caster level and things like that that are calculated from his class level. in exchange, he gets an additional (fairly small) bonus with each level (the best having been an extra point in each of wisdom and dexterity, invisibility once per day as an SLA and improved initiative as a bonus feat. The party's level 10 and all in all I don't think it's been worth as much as the two levels he missed, though he's still one of the most powerful characters in the party (that's a druid for you).

In the next session or two, my players are going to meet (after much questing) the djinni himself. At this point, I've offered the player a few options as in-character power ups/rewards for pursuing resolving (for now, at least) this particular personal plot. The option he seems the most interested in is a modified version of the Genie-bound template (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/genie-bound-creature-cr-2) from Pathfinder. As a related event, each player is going to get the chance to do some special training to redo some decisions they've made in earlier two earlier level-ups (this is mainly for a couple guys who joined the game at higher levels as almost first-time players so they can fix things they aren't happy with from character creation, though the more experienced player are encouraged to use it to smooth things out as well.)

Long story short (too late) the druid player has asked if he can use the level-up redo to remove his bloodline levels and lose most/all of their bonuses in order to take the genie-bound template closer to how it's printed (i.e. more powerful) turning the two dead levels into a level adjustment of sorts for the CR+2 template.

I'm open to (most of) it, but my concerns are these:

1) The template lets the creature take +10 on a skill check every three rounds. Outside combat, this would translate into a +10 on almost all skill checks which is problematic. I might allow it at a (much) lower bonus or with a limit in uses/day, but just plain +10 is nuts.

2) The template also gives the base creature +6 to distribute as it chooses between its ability scores. I'm not doing this. The druid already rolled better than most of the party on his abilities so this would just be too much, I think.

3) The template on the whole looks like it's worth more than two levels. +4 to AC, attacks and damage, plus the SLAs of a djinni is pretty great without any of the other bits and pieces.

Has anyone ever done anything like this in one of their games? Does anyone have any insight about this as I ponder how and whether to make this work?

[Almaseti]

Yeah, that's overpowered. PF stuff in general tends to work at a higher power level than 3.5, and I'd also be worried about all the stuff about the genie being pleased and the genie's control. I don't know if that's something you really want to make part of your game, but it's also part of the design of the template, so it puts you in sort of a strange position where the drawbacks are dependent on roleplay, and it might seem like railroading or like you're being unfair if you try to enforce them.

This template is supposed to be something that empowers the servants of the genie, right? And it's only supposed to last for a year. But I don't think the player would respond well to having the template revoked later on.

Plus, in Pathfinder, CR isn't necessarily the same as LA. For example, the erinyes-bound template (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/devil-bound-creature-template), which is also +2 CR, is +5 LA.

So overall, I'd say either nerf it heavily or ban it outright.

[Lord Il Palazzo]

Yeah, that's overpowered. PF stuff in general tends to work at a higher power level than 3.5, and I'd also be worried about all the stuff about the genie being pleased and the genie's control. I don't know if that's something you really want to make part of your game, but it's also part of the design of the template, so it puts you in sort of a strange position where the drawbacks are dependent on roleplay, and it might seem like railroading or like you're being unfair if you try to enforce them.Given that the genie in question is the grandfather of the PC, I don't think this would come up too often but it's an option. The PC would certainly want to have a long heart-to-heart talk with the genie before consenting to this.


This template is supposed to be something that empowers the servants of the genie, right? And it's only supposed to last for a year. But I don't think the player would respond well to having the template revoked later on.Again, the blood relation thing comes into play, as does the fact that the genie in question would only be likely to offer something like this without big strings attached if he though there was a big crisis very close that had to be stopped.


Plus, in Pathfinder, CR isn't necessarily the same as LA. For example, the erinyes-bound template (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/devil-bound-creature-template), which is also +2 CR, is +5 LA.

So overall, I'd say either nerf it heavily or ban it outright.Very interesting, thanks for finding that. I'm trading emails with the player now in the direction of nerfing heavilly. Have you any specifically suggested nerfs?