T.G. Oskar
2013-03-05, 03:54 AM
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, CHILDREN OF ALL AGES!! OUTSIDERS AND ELDRITCH ABOMINATIONS, COME GET YOUR ATONEMENTS!!
Today, instead of a class (or a prestige class), I choose (due to odd timing) to take a piece of 'brew from one of my favorite books, though not everyone's favorite.
That being, of course, the Book of Exalted Deeds.
The book deals with a very...well, controversial vision on what's to follow the straight and narrow path. The examples are controversial due to the nature of the game: adventurers are often considered to have psychopathic behavior that is only tolerated because of their heroism, not because they intend to work in those terms but because the only way they can progress is through assassination of various monsters.
Just trying to speak of this politely can make a good orator sweat. Thus, you may imagine, if you've seen the book, how much sweat can be drawn from attempting to interpret the Vows, or this singular spell.
Sanctify the Wicked, as written, allows a creature to abandon its wicked ways and become a creature of Good...if necessary, against its will. It's no coincidence, then, that its common nickname is "Holy Mindrape", taken from its counterpart sourcebook, the Book of Vile Darkness, and its Mindrape spell. Both spells act in very different ways, but end up causing one creature to end up with a different alignment, often against its will (or else, they wouldn't be allowed a Will save). One of the big reasons this spell causes troubles is because it doesn't affect a willing creature.
Which led me to think: if the creature was willing, and the effect was detailed, would it lose its stigma? The act of redemption is core to the concept of Good, and having the ability to aid someone to surpass their own innate evil and become reborn as a creature of Good is one of the best storytelling tools a player or DM can have, or grant. However, this power should not be limited only to a few: thus, instead of making it require a spell slot, let's go with this method (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/incantations.htm) instead! It turns this effect into a ritual, able to be done by just about anyone but having Clerics pull them off with little difficulty. It also has a backlash effect, which ranges between slight to brutal. And, finally, because this spell is tied to a template, that means the template is also improved!
Will it hit the mark, or will it be a "nice try"? We'll see as I present to you...
SANCTIFY THE WICKED
Necromancy [Good]
Effective Level: 9th
Skill Check: Diplomacy DC 26, 3 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 26, 3 successes, Knowledge (the planes) DC 26, 3 successes
Failure: Betrayal
Components: V, S, F, Sacrifice
Casting Time: 18 minutes
Range: Close (70 ft.)
Target: One willing creature with the Evil subtype
Duration: See text
Saving Throw: None (see text)
Spell Resistance: No
The caster and the target enter a state of meditation, chanting a sacred prayer while grasping a large diamond. Before, during, and after the chant, the caster asks the target if it’s willing to change its ways permanently. Upon finishing the incantation, the soul of the target slowly flows into the diamond, where it has the ability to face all its evil with the aid of the forces of Good.
Sanctify the wicked is a powerful incantation that allows any form of evil, even innate, to purge its sins and redeem itself. A more powerful version of atonement, this incantation allows the soul of a willing evil creature to inhabit a special receptacle, where it may face its inner darkness with the promise of complete redemption.
To cast the incantation, the target must be willing to receive the incantation; the choice of redemption is never forced, but offered. If the caster or the target has second thoughts, the incantation immediately fails. Once the incantation is complete (and if successful), the creature’s soul becomes trapped in the diamond, from where it may not escape until it redeems.
While inside the diamond, the creature’s body turns into resilient stone, whereas its soul faces its own evil. The power of Good imbued within the diamond slowly purges the soul from evil, while it learns about the repercussions of its actions, the nature of Good and the purpose of altruism. The process is often hard, particularly for innately evil creatures. The soul remains within the receptacle for an amount of time determined by its type and subtype, its culture, and the nature of its evil:
{TABLE=head]Conditions|Duration
Humanoid|1 month
Monstrous humanoid|2 months
Giant|3 months
Dragon|4 months
Outsider|1 month/Hit Dice
Alignment: usually evil|+1 month
Alignment: always evil|+2 months
Has [Evil] subtype|+1 month/Hit Dice
Is willing to follow a god of Good|-1 month
Has [Good] subtype|½ duration[/TABLE]
If the duration would otherwise reach less than 1 day, the duration lasts for 1 day.
At the end of the duration, the creature’s body and soul are reconstituted, adopting the good alignment of its choice (chaotic good, lawful good or neutral good). Creatures with the [Evil] subtype gain the [Good] subtype. An outsider with the [Evil] subtype undergoes a further transfiguration, acquiring the sanctified template (see post below). Characters with the half-fiend or fiendish subtypes become half-celestials or celestial creatures instead, respectively.
Because the journey towards redemption is often difficult, a creature may end up refusing the chance to change, essentially spoiling the process. The creature must succeed on a Will save against a DC of 19 + the caster’s Charisma modifier. Further modifiers to the save DC may apply:
{TABLE=head]Modifiers|DC increase
Per month|+1
Per saving throw failed by 5 or more|+1
Per saving throw failed by natural 1|+5
Caster is within 70 ft.|+2
Per creature with [Good] subtype within 30 ft.|+1
Receptacle is attacked|-1
Per evil creature within 30 ft spending more than 24 hours in area|-1
Per creature with [Evil] subtype within 30 ft.|-2[/TABLE]
If the creature succeeds on its Will save, the crystal immediately shatters, reuniting body and soul. The incantation is spoiled, and the caster takes a backlash effect (as indicated below). As a rule of thumb, if the effect is used in favor of a NPC, roll a d% and add the result of the highest Diplomacy check done; on a result of 01-50%, the creature attempts a Will save; else add 5 to subsequent checks. If the bonus result exceeds 99, the creature no longer attempts to escape and fully seeks to face its redemption. If done in favor of a PC, the player may attempt a saving throw once per week (although making a saving throw every week defeats the purpose of using the incantation for redemption).
The diamond receptacle, and the solidified body, is resilient to a variety of attacks. The diamond itself has a hardness of 100 and 1000 hit points; the body has a hardness of 20 and an amount of hit points equal to the creature’s own. If the diamond or the creature’s body must make a saving throw (against Fortitude or Reflex), the effect’s DC must exceed the incantation’s own, and both use the creature’s own saves, applying the modifiers of the save DC as a bonus. If the diamond is broken, the incantation immediately fails and the caster takes a backlash; if the body is destroyed, the creature’s soul is liberated and treated as if killed.
This incantation can be used on good-aligned creatures if they choose to adopt a path of exaltation. This effect allows a good-aligned creature to gain exalted feats, and even recover certain features (such as sainthood, if lost). The good creature may spend an amount of time equal to 2 days per character level.
Failure
The target of the spell becomes infuriated and immediately becomes hostile to the caster and its allies.
Backlash
If the spell fails because of a successful Will save to willingly escape the diamond or a creature breaks it, the caster must succeed on a single Will save or immediately adopt the alignment of the creature. This is because of the psychic backlash of freeing an unredeemed soul.
Focus
A flawless diamond worth no less than 10,000 gold pieces.
Sacrifice
1 character level, which is lost whether the incantation succeeds or not.
As you can see, this version of Sanctify the Wicked is an incantation, and anyone with the right skills can attempt it. Of the base classes in the PHB, the Cleric (naturally) and the Bard (impressively) can pull it off on their own; the others will need some serious boosts to their skills.
The second thing is that, and I insist on that fact because it's the main reason why the change is made, that the target must be willing. The increased casting time for the incantation precludes using this in combat, and the whole point of making it a ritual is to bypass this little problem outsiders have of being innately evil. In fact, the example I'll give of a sanctified creature does a noble job of trying to find redemption on her own, but I find she deserved the aid. I mean, she's going to nerf herself out of obstinacy!?
Anyways, as you can see, the effect is voluntary; it can't be done by means of coercion, because the spell would immediately fail. Think, for example, of Dominate Monster: as it acts just like Dominate Person, the idea of having a dominated demon or devil willingly accept the idea of the invitation would imply a brief instance of a second thought, which by definition RUINS the incantation IMMEDIATELY (well, the casting of the incantation. After being affected by it, things act differently). No ifs, buts or ands; incantation fails, you lose one level, you do not gain (n x 1000, where n is your current, or new, level) XP to level up.
The third thing is that the incantation is incredibly volatile. It's not a foolproof spell, it may, and WILL, fail. Speak with the DM when using this incantation, because while it's a challenge that the creature has second thoughts after accepting the incantation, allowing it to make Will saves each round definitely ruins the idea of casting the incantation in the first place (and will suggest that the creature really didn't want to repent, ergo it's willingly accepting that its rear ends will be smitten down to the Lower Planes ipso facto)
This might require an explanation. The idea is that, to prevent accusations of Holy Mindrape better represent the idea of redemption, the incantation works in two ways. The first allows the creature to reject redemption at the last minute, thus ruining the effort: perhaps it asks for more time, perhaps it has some doubts, but this makes it reject the effort, and thus the effect is ruined. Once the incantation is complete, the creature may have second thoughts, but because it's already on the process, it will take a strong amount of willpower to reject redemption, which as the darkness is completely purged, stops appearing like a bad idea at all. The modifiers exist to reflect the idea of how the process starts changing the subject.
The fourth thing is that others may attempt to sabotage the incantation once complete. A personal belief is that, when you redeem evil, good wins twice (alternatively; when a good person is tempted, evil wins twice): one, because there's one less evil person in the world, and another, because there's a new good person in the world. Because of this, Evil will take any chances to ruin the effort, and bring their partner once again to the cause. Again, this calls for DM's judgment and player strategy: will they remain days, weeks or even months securing the redemption of the creature on their own? Will they invoke the aid of the powers of Good? Will they move the statue to a safe place, probably within a temple devoted to a god of Good? Will they use their contacts to keep a watch on it? The DM can be just, fair or frank: just, in that once the incantation is complete, Evil won't bother them and the party will have ample time to prepare for any events where the forces of Evil strike; fair, if the DM decides to drop a challenge every now and then; or frank, and tell them outright "the spell fails because there's no possible way you can redeem this guy". There's also sadist, but that implies less seeking to protect the guy and more smacking the DM with its books.
Finally, once the effect is done, it's transcendental. If it acted just like Atonement, it'd be horribly boring. Good people reach exaltation because they've purged what little wickedness they have; Neutral people become Good, Evil people become Good but take more time, the innately Evil become entirely purged of their wickedness and become true agents of Good, and those who were once truly and absolutely VILE can, after some time, find themselves completely cleansed of their sins and turned into resilient agents of Good.
Oh, well, there's one more thing I need to say. The reason why the rolls have to be Diplomacy, Knowledge (religion) and Knowledge (the Planes)? Well, Knowledge (the Planes) implies finding the conduits within the area that are favorable to contact the Upper Planes; after all, the forces of Good will sponsor using their power to redeem the creature. Knowledge (religion) will ask the same of the gods of Good, in case a deity wishes to offer its aid. And Diplomacy, well...the act of redemption requires some diplomacy, using the right words, and each check represents the "are you really sure you want to accept this?" The fluff can be explained differently, but there are reasons why these three feats are chosen.
...And I guess there's one last thing. Notice there's both a failure AND a backlash? The failure represents failing two skill checks, as per the requisites for failure. The creature, thinking that the failure of the spell is an inability to be redeemed, will react violently out of frustration. Perhaps, in time, it'll attempt it again; there are ways to control its hostility, but you might figure how frustrations can affect people. The backlash is VERY specific: if someone breaks the crystal (or the Evil creature succeeds on its Will save to free itself), the caster of the incantation has a chance of falling into Evil. The risk is because of the intricate connection between the caster and the creature to be redeemed. It's a pretty harsh risk, but you're dealing with Evil, after all: it doesn't like to play fair.
Next: Sanctified Creatures, and a special surprise!
Today, instead of a class (or a prestige class), I choose (due to odd timing) to take a piece of 'brew from one of my favorite books, though not everyone's favorite.
That being, of course, the Book of Exalted Deeds.
The book deals with a very...well, controversial vision on what's to follow the straight and narrow path. The examples are controversial due to the nature of the game: adventurers are often considered to have psychopathic behavior that is only tolerated because of their heroism, not because they intend to work in those terms but because the only way they can progress is through assassination of various monsters.
Just trying to speak of this politely can make a good orator sweat. Thus, you may imagine, if you've seen the book, how much sweat can be drawn from attempting to interpret the Vows, or this singular spell.
Sanctify the Wicked, as written, allows a creature to abandon its wicked ways and become a creature of Good...if necessary, against its will. It's no coincidence, then, that its common nickname is "Holy Mindrape", taken from its counterpart sourcebook, the Book of Vile Darkness, and its Mindrape spell. Both spells act in very different ways, but end up causing one creature to end up with a different alignment, often against its will (or else, they wouldn't be allowed a Will save). One of the big reasons this spell causes troubles is because it doesn't affect a willing creature.
Which led me to think: if the creature was willing, and the effect was detailed, would it lose its stigma? The act of redemption is core to the concept of Good, and having the ability to aid someone to surpass their own innate evil and become reborn as a creature of Good is one of the best storytelling tools a player or DM can have, or grant. However, this power should not be limited only to a few: thus, instead of making it require a spell slot, let's go with this method (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/incantations.htm) instead! It turns this effect into a ritual, able to be done by just about anyone but having Clerics pull them off with little difficulty. It also has a backlash effect, which ranges between slight to brutal. And, finally, because this spell is tied to a template, that means the template is also improved!
Will it hit the mark, or will it be a "nice try"? We'll see as I present to you...
SANCTIFY THE WICKED
Necromancy [Good]
Effective Level: 9th
Skill Check: Diplomacy DC 26, 3 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 26, 3 successes, Knowledge (the planes) DC 26, 3 successes
Failure: Betrayal
Components: V, S, F, Sacrifice
Casting Time: 18 minutes
Range: Close (70 ft.)
Target: One willing creature with the Evil subtype
Duration: See text
Saving Throw: None (see text)
Spell Resistance: No
The caster and the target enter a state of meditation, chanting a sacred prayer while grasping a large diamond. Before, during, and after the chant, the caster asks the target if it’s willing to change its ways permanently. Upon finishing the incantation, the soul of the target slowly flows into the diamond, where it has the ability to face all its evil with the aid of the forces of Good.
Sanctify the wicked is a powerful incantation that allows any form of evil, even innate, to purge its sins and redeem itself. A more powerful version of atonement, this incantation allows the soul of a willing evil creature to inhabit a special receptacle, where it may face its inner darkness with the promise of complete redemption.
To cast the incantation, the target must be willing to receive the incantation; the choice of redemption is never forced, but offered. If the caster or the target has second thoughts, the incantation immediately fails. Once the incantation is complete (and if successful), the creature’s soul becomes trapped in the diamond, from where it may not escape until it redeems.
While inside the diamond, the creature’s body turns into resilient stone, whereas its soul faces its own evil. The power of Good imbued within the diamond slowly purges the soul from evil, while it learns about the repercussions of its actions, the nature of Good and the purpose of altruism. The process is often hard, particularly for innately evil creatures. The soul remains within the receptacle for an amount of time determined by its type and subtype, its culture, and the nature of its evil:
{TABLE=head]Conditions|Duration
Humanoid|1 month
Monstrous humanoid|2 months
Giant|3 months
Dragon|4 months
Outsider|1 month/Hit Dice
Alignment: usually evil|+1 month
Alignment: always evil|+2 months
Has [Evil] subtype|+1 month/Hit Dice
Is willing to follow a god of Good|-1 month
Has [Good] subtype|½ duration[/TABLE]
If the duration would otherwise reach less than 1 day, the duration lasts for 1 day.
At the end of the duration, the creature’s body and soul are reconstituted, adopting the good alignment of its choice (chaotic good, lawful good or neutral good). Creatures with the [Evil] subtype gain the [Good] subtype. An outsider with the [Evil] subtype undergoes a further transfiguration, acquiring the sanctified template (see post below). Characters with the half-fiend or fiendish subtypes become half-celestials or celestial creatures instead, respectively.
Because the journey towards redemption is often difficult, a creature may end up refusing the chance to change, essentially spoiling the process. The creature must succeed on a Will save against a DC of 19 + the caster’s Charisma modifier. Further modifiers to the save DC may apply:
{TABLE=head]Modifiers|DC increase
Per month|+1
Per saving throw failed by 5 or more|+1
Per saving throw failed by natural 1|+5
Caster is within 70 ft.|+2
Per creature with [Good] subtype within 30 ft.|+1
Receptacle is attacked|-1
Per evil creature within 30 ft spending more than 24 hours in area|-1
Per creature with [Evil] subtype within 30 ft.|-2[/TABLE]
If the creature succeeds on its Will save, the crystal immediately shatters, reuniting body and soul. The incantation is spoiled, and the caster takes a backlash effect (as indicated below). As a rule of thumb, if the effect is used in favor of a NPC, roll a d% and add the result of the highest Diplomacy check done; on a result of 01-50%, the creature attempts a Will save; else add 5 to subsequent checks. If the bonus result exceeds 99, the creature no longer attempts to escape and fully seeks to face its redemption. If done in favor of a PC, the player may attempt a saving throw once per week (although making a saving throw every week defeats the purpose of using the incantation for redemption).
The diamond receptacle, and the solidified body, is resilient to a variety of attacks. The diamond itself has a hardness of 100 and 1000 hit points; the body has a hardness of 20 and an amount of hit points equal to the creature’s own. If the diamond or the creature’s body must make a saving throw (against Fortitude or Reflex), the effect’s DC must exceed the incantation’s own, and both use the creature’s own saves, applying the modifiers of the save DC as a bonus. If the diamond is broken, the incantation immediately fails and the caster takes a backlash; if the body is destroyed, the creature’s soul is liberated and treated as if killed.
This incantation can be used on good-aligned creatures if they choose to adopt a path of exaltation. This effect allows a good-aligned creature to gain exalted feats, and even recover certain features (such as sainthood, if lost). The good creature may spend an amount of time equal to 2 days per character level.
Failure
The target of the spell becomes infuriated and immediately becomes hostile to the caster and its allies.
Backlash
If the spell fails because of a successful Will save to willingly escape the diamond or a creature breaks it, the caster must succeed on a single Will save or immediately adopt the alignment of the creature. This is because of the psychic backlash of freeing an unredeemed soul.
Focus
A flawless diamond worth no less than 10,000 gold pieces.
Sacrifice
1 character level, which is lost whether the incantation succeeds or not.
As you can see, this version of Sanctify the Wicked is an incantation, and anyone with the right skills can attempt it. Of the base classes in the PHB, the Cleric (naturally) and the Bard (impressively) can pull it off on their own; the others will need some serious boosts to their skills.
The second thing is that, and I insist on that fact because it's the main reason why the change is made, that the target must be willing. The increased casting time for the incantation precludes using this in combat, and the whole point of making it a ritual is to bypass this little problem outsiders have of being innately evil. In fact, the example I'll give of a sanctified creature does a noble job of trying to find redemption on her own, but I find she deserved the aid. I mean, she's going to nerf herself out of obstinacy!?
Anyways, as you can see, the effect is voluntary; it can't be done by means of coercion, because the spell would immediately fail. Think, for example, of Dominate Monster: as it acts just like Dominate Person, the idea of having a dominated demon or devil willingly accept the idea of the invitation would imply a brief instance of a second thought, which by definition RUINS the incantation IMMEDIATELY (well, the casting of the incantation. After being affected by it, things act differently). No ifs, buts or ands; incantation fails, you lose one level, you do not gain (n x 1000, where n is your current, or new, level) XP to level up.
The third thing is that the incantation is incredibly volatile. It's not a foolproof spell, it may, and WILL, fail. Speak with the DM when using this incantation, because while it's a challenge that the creature has second thoughts after accepting the incantation, allowing it to make Will saves each round definitely ruins the idea of casting the incantation in the first place (and will suggest that the creature really didn't want to repent, ergo it's willingly accepting that its rear ends will be smitten down to the Lower Planes ipso facto)
This might require an explanation. The idea is that, to prevent accusations of Holy Mindrape better represent the idea of redemption, the incantation works in two ways. The first allows the creature to reject redemption at the last minute, thus ruining the effort: perhaps it asks for more time, perhaps it has some doubts, but this makes it reject the effort, and thus the effect is ruined. Once the incantation is complete, the creature may have second thoughts, but because it's already on the process, it will take a strong amount of willpower to reject redemption, which as the darkness is completely purged, stops appearing like a bad idea at all. The modifiers exist to reflect the idea of how the process starts changing the subject.
The fourth thing is that others may attempt to sabotage the incantation once complete. A personal belief is that, when you redeem evil, good wins twice (alternatively; when a good person is tempted, evil wins twice): one, because there's one less evil person in the world, and another, because there's a new good person in the world. Because of this, Evil will take any chances to ruin the effort, and bring their partner once again to the cause. Again, this calls for DM's judgment and player strategy: will they remain days, weeks or even months securing the redemption of the creature on their own? Will they invoke the aid of the powers of Good? Will they move the statue to a safe place, probably within a temple devoted to a god of Good? Will they use their contacts to keep a watch on it? The DM can be just, fair or frank: just, in that once the incantation is complete, Evil won't bother them and the party will have ample time to prepare for any events where the forces of Evil strike; fair, if the DM decides to drop a challenge every now and then; or frank, and tell them outright "the spell fails because there's no possible way you can redeem this guy". There's also sadist, but that implies less seeking to protect the guy and more smacking the DM with its books.
Finally, once the effect is done, it's transcendental. If it acted just like Atonement, it'd be horribly boring. Good people reach exaltation because they've purged what little wickedness they have; Neutral people become Good, Evil people become Good but take more time, the innately Evil become entirely purged of their wickedness and become true agents of Good, and those who were once truly and absolutely VILE can, after some time, find themselves completely cleansed of their sins and turned into resilient agents of Good.
Oh, well, there's one more thing I need to say. The reason why the rolls have to be Diplomacy, Knowledge (religion) and Knowledge (the Planes)? Well, Knowledge (the Planes) implies finding the conduits within the area that are favorable to contact the Upper Planes; after all, the forces of Good will sponsor using their power to redeem the creature. Knowledge (religion) will ask the same of the gods of Good, in case a deity wishes to offer its aid. And Diplomacy, well...the act of redemption requires some diplomacy, using the right words, and each check represents the "are you really sure you want to accept this?" The fluff can be explained differently, but there are reasons why these three feats are chosen.
...And I guess there's one last thing. Notice there's both a failure AND a backlash? The failure represents failing two skill checks, as per the requisites for failure. The creature, thinking that the failure of the spell is an inability to be redeemed, will react violently out of frustration. Perhaps, in time, it'll attempt it again; there are ways to control its hostility, but you might figure how frustrations can affect people. The backlash is VERY specific: if someone breaks the crystal (or the Evil creature succeeds on its Will save to free itself), the caster of the incantation has a chance of falling into Evil. The risk is because of the intricate connection between the caster and the creature to be redeemed. It's a pretty harsh risk, but you're dealing with Evil, after all: it doesn't like to play fair.
Next: Sanctified Creatures, and a special surprise!