Man on Fire
2013-04-01, 01:31 PM
Hello again. I was thinking for my plot for party of Tier 1s (Wizard, Witch and Druid) and a Bard, that would involve being posessed by spirits - generally speaking, I would let the party find two magic swords and if any of them wouldn't be careful about investigating them, they could get posessed by ghost of paladin who once owned the sword and now tries to find out why their souls have been trapped inside and what they need to do to put themselves to rest (my game doesn't use alignment by the way). I was thinking of doing this posession on several levels:
1) Sometimes the posessed player would hear the whispers from the ghost inside their head, uging them to do something, not always helpful to the party, but also not always harmful. They could try to reason with the voice in their own mind or resist it with will save, but failure would mean they're now compelled to do what ghost asked them to.
2)They could also try to force their will upon the ghost, trying to gain acess to some of his powers, or unlock their memories and knowledge. This would basically be either roleplay or some sort of roll (maybe casting ability score test?) with DC depending on situation (for example, if negotiating with demon, it would be harder to convince ghost to help than when fighting bandits).
3) The ghost might try to take over the control of the character, basically making them his avatar. In that case player would roleplay the ghost in their body - they would get basic describtion of ghost's personality and abilities. The rules for this would be:
a) During the posession character gets BAB, class features, feats and saves appriorate to the paladin of ghost's level (party will probably be level around levels 7-9 when I'm going to do this to them by the way, paladins will probably be either equal or level higher). They would also grant some Ability score bonuses (like +6 Str/Dex (one paladin is probably going to be dex based, because why the f not?) +4 Con +4 Cha) but also cloud their mind (-4 to casting dependent ability score) for the duration of posession.
b) For the duration of posession character cannot use their own abilities and class features
c) Before the posession starts and each round it happens character can fight it, attempting a will save (uing their own will save, not the ghost's, obviously) with DC equal..I think we will start from 15. Now, each round spend posessed increases the DC to one for the duration of that posession. And now is the bigger trick - each time they will fail will save from point 1, succed at point 2 or get posessed, next time they would have to fight the posession the DC would be permamently increased by one, showing thet bond between two souls becomes stronger
4) Would the PCs fail to put the souls to rest, they will be bonded permamently, giving them specific permament bonuses (probably +2 Str/Dex +2 Con -2 Casting score) and some abilities, and also leaving permament change in their personalities in some way [I'm worried if the last one ain't going to far].
I wanted to ask how it looks from mechanical point of view - are there any things you guys would fix in it?
Also, because I don't think it's good idea to have thread about the same thing on general roleplaying forum - any advices what I should be wary of as a gm here?
1) Sometimes the posessed player would hear the whispers from the ghost inside their head, uging them to do something, not always helpful to the party, but also not always harmful. They could try to reason with the voice in their own mind or resist it with will save, but failure would mean they're now compelled to do what ghost asked them to.
2)They could also try to force their will upon the ghost, trying to gain acess to some of his powers, or unlock their memories and knowledge. This would basically be either roleplay or some sort of roll (maybe casting ability score test?) with DC depending on situation (for example, if negotiating with demon, it would be harder to convince ghost to help than when fighting bandits).
3) The ghost might try to take over the control of the character, basically making them his avatar. In that case player would roleplay the ghost in their body - they would get basic describtion of ghost's personality and abilities. The rules for this would be:
a) During the posession character gets BAB, class features, feats and saves appriorate to the paladin of ghost's level (party will probably be level around levels 7-9 when I'm going to do this to them by the way, paladins will probably be either equal or level higher). They would also grant some Ability score bonuses (like +6 Str/Dex (one paladin is probably going to be dex based, because why the f not?) +4 Con +4 Cha) but also cloud their mind (-4 to casting dependent ability score) for the duration of posession.
b) For the duration of posession character cannot use their own abilities and class features
c) Before the posession starts and each round it happens character can fight it, attempting a will save (uing their own will save, not the ghost's, obviously) with DC equal..I think we will start from 15. Now, each round spend posessed increases the DC to one for the duration of that posession. And now is the bigger trick - each time they will fail will save from point 1, succed at point 2 or get posessed, next time they would have to fight the posession the DC would be permamently increased by one, showing thet bond between two souls becomes stronger
4) Would the PCs fail to put the souls to rest, they will be bonded permamently, giving them specific permament bonuses (probably +2 Str/Dex +2 Con -2 Casting score) and some abilities, and also leaving permament change in their personalities in some way [I'm worried if the last one ain't going to far].
I wanted to ask how it looks from mechanical point of view - are there any things you guys would fix in it?
Also, because I don't think it's good idea to have thread about the same thing on general roleplaying forum - any advices what I should be wary of as a gm here?