So I may have goofed - Artifacts

[Silus]

So last session I may have given the players in my Pathfinder Game an artifact level item around level 6 with no real idea on what it does.

Basically (and this is all I have at the moment), it's like a combination between the Necronomicon, Tom Riddle's Journal, and Morden from Bablylon 5 (I think. I've never seen the show). The book is sentient and gives a +4 to Knowledge Arcana, Planes and Religion (+8 should a skill rank cap be met). In addition, it "attunes" itself to a person, usually whoever uses it first. That person, and that person only, can utilize the book's full power, which comes in the form of several Limited Wishes. The cost, however, is part of one's soul. Specifically 1/20th of your soul per Limited Wish. Losing one's soul essentially means that you can't be raise barring some Wish-related spell, among other stuff.

So the problem is, I don't know how to balance this more, especially considering the party is mostly Evil and don't really care about losing their soul.

Ideas put forth by the (far more experienced) players:
1. The more souls/bits of souls it claims, the more intelligent the book becomes, essentially becoming a progressively more powerful Intelligent Item (with all the hazards therein).
2. The book is an extension of some cosmic horror using it as a conduit to mess with, corrupt and destroy mortal life.

And an idea of mine:
-After losing so much of one's soul (~50%?), the character must make a will save vs insanity for every wish thereafter, with the insanity compounding.

[Dusk Eclipse]

If the Book is inteligent it should have it's own purposes and goals and it should try to steer it's wielder (reader?) towards archieving those goals even (specially) if they pose a danger to him or her. I would also give the limited wish a higher cost than one fragment of the soul, since Limited wish is an extremely powerful spell.
Using the Limited Wish SHOULD be a last resource, even for a group of Evil characters.

You can also add other dangers to the book, since it is an Artefact and somewhat lovecrafting there could be one (or several) groups trying to find it to either use it for their own purposes or destroying/sealing it (which ties really well with your Evil party BTW).

[Silus]

If the Book is inteligent it should have it's own purposes and goals and it should try to steer it's wielder (reader?) towards archieving those goals even (specially) if they pose a danger to him or her. I would also give the limited wish a higher cost than one fragment of the soul, since Limited wish is an extremely powerful spell.
Using the Limited Wish SHOULD be a last resource, even for a group of Evil characters.

You can also add other dangers to the book, since it is an Artefact and somewhat lovecrafting there could be one (or several) groups trying to find it to either use it for their own purposes or destroying/sealing it (which ties really well with your Evil party BTW).

Whispering seditious-but-not-totally-dishonest whatnots in the PC's ear regarding prominent political figures that the PCs are working for maybe?

What would you suggest the cost be for the limited wish though? A full Wish (actually three) is the general going price for Devils, though the wording is often up to interpretation (often with disastrous results). Maybe duplicating the general feel of wishes, but on a more situational basis? Like "We need to be halfway across the continent NOW" and the book offers to port them for a bit of soul?

[Drachasor]

I wouldn't do some fixed amount of soul-stuff. 1/20th seems weird.

I'd have it eat part of the soul, sure, and if you made too many wishes close together, you'd be consumed and become an extension of the book's will.

If you do it more slowly, then you'd not risk death. However, each wish it grants you should give it say a cumulative +1 bonus to the DC to take over (see intelligent items). The Book can try to exert its dominance over people that aren't even holding it, so long as they have made at least one wish from it.

1 Wish: Person must be within 30' AND Line of Sight
2 Wishes: 120' or Line of Sight
3 Wishes: 500'
4 Wishes: 1 mile
5 wishes: 50 miles
6 wishes: 1000 miles
7 Wishes: Same solar system
8 Wishes: Same Plane
9 Wishes: Any Plane, Any Time, Anywhere

It can use this ability on someone not holding it 1/day.
Using a complex, dark, and expensive ritual, it can use this ability on everyone that has ever held it -- though the person holding it currently is not affected (they can be possessed normally, however).

Unlike normal Ego Possession this lasts indefinitely (not just 24 hours). It allows one save per day to escape its effects -- this works like Dominate Person, though it is not limited to creature type and has no set duration. When a target successfully saves to break this effect, they are immune to this ability for 1 week unless they make another wish.


It may use Suggestion, as per the spell, on anyone that has ever used a wish at will. The range on this is the same as its possession ability. It cannot use this to Suggest that someone make a wish. However, it can still try to convince the target through other means, and it can suggest things to be done where using a Wish is easiest.


Something like that.

Edit: Because I didn't want to type "limited " a dozen times I didn't, but I naturally meant Limited Wish above.

[Andezzar]

I wouldn't do some fixed amount of soul-stuff. 1/20th seems weird.It gets especially weird if the wielders know that the book takes one 20th of their soul. So what are the penalties for having only x 20ths of a soul? Are there other creatures/objects that can take parts of a soul? If a partial soul is equal to a whole one and there are no other things that can take parts of the soul, it is essentially 19 9 (I overlooked the possible insanity beyond 50% of the spells) limited wishes with no extra drawbacks.

[Sith_Happens]

Twenty Limited Wishes is definitely above a sixth-level party's power level, but hardly game breaking. Wishes, on the other hand...

[captain fubar]

With the exception of the soulthing this sounds almost banevalant compared to morden he is a servant of the shadow and his MO is to ask a single question "what do you want?" unknown to the person he is speaking to they get 1 wish that has way more power than the listed affects of the wish spell but with two exceptions it is always corrupted and if you dont answer he atacks you with such intensity as to be a threat even to kosh.

The two exceptions are for you to go away and your head on a pike though he had no intention of fulfilling the second one.

Acualy I take that back he has no special power but he is the face for the shadows who do.

as for the necronomicon dont forget "Klaatu verata nikto"
"Klaatu verata Ncoughing" wakes up the deadites

[Allanimal]

Losing one's soul essentially means that you can't be raise barring some Wish-related spell, among other stuff.

...snip...

And an idea of mine:
-After losing so much of one's soul (~50%?), the character must make a will save vs insanity for every wish thereafter, with the insanity compounding.

I think there should be more of a penalty for even losing a part of the soul. Maybe the player has to roll for insanity for each time, but gets progressively harder. Roll over the number of soul chunks missing on a d20, so 5% the first time.

In the games I have DMed, especially at such a low level, the penalty for not being able to be raised is so insignificant, especially when stacked against 10 free limited wishes and up to 10 more without consequences.

It should be tied to more than that. Sure, make the cost of resurrection an exponential formula of the normal cost 0 soul chunks lost = base cost listed in the spell, 1 chunk lost cost is slightly higher than usual, 19 lost it is dreadfully expensive, 20 chunks lost means cost is infinite. And cost is more than GP cost! The spell costs the caster that much more XP, so even if the other players have a mountain of gold, they may not be able to find someone willing or able to cast the spell, even at the normal XP to GP conversion rate.

[Curmudgeon]

Fix your goof. The book isn't an artifact, but the target of a unique ongoing spell which interacts with the characters and produces some fairly convincing illusions. The spell expires in a month, leaving only an ongoing boost to those Knowledge skills.

You know it's inappropriate to hand out artifacts to a low-level party. So you didn't do that.

[Zanos]

I find it odd that any group of adventurers, even evil ones, would not be particularly concerned in character about the loss of their souls. Evil represents being selfish, not stupid and careless. Unless they all dumped intelligence or are just incredibly reckless for some reason.

[Drachasor]

I find it odd that any group of adventurers, even evil ones, would not be particularly concerned in character about the loss of their souls. Evil represents being selfish, not stupid and careless. Unless they all dumped intelligence or are just incredibly reckless for some reason.

Well, they weren't usin' them none.

[NamelessNPC]

The book was willed into being by a vestige of a powerful cosmic horror looking to resurrect itself. It collects tiny pieces of souls, and once it has gathered enough material to build a whole soul this being can walk the material plane again

[Kizor]

If you want it to be dangerous and quite possibly ultimately deleterious, but not so bad that the PCs would toss it in the sea and be done with it, you might want to look up the swords of the Book of Swords book series. Many of the more powerful ones have drawbacks making them highly situational (though Woundhealer's just useless as a sword).

Other than that, the basic ideas I see are much the same of yours. It can twist its effects around to harm the user, or to make the user use it more. It can outright try to convince the user to use it. It can have potent but poorly controlled power, so that it's worth having around to save your lives but has a significant chance of creating bigger problems in the process.

It can also be outright addictive: the corruption mechanic in an expansion to the Arkham Horror board game is like this. There's a deck of corruption cards, green ones on the top, red ones at the bottom. There are also a number of events that offer power at the expense of a corruption card, or pass a penalty if you don't take one. For instance you might be given a chance to roll dice to see how many clue tokens you gain (clue tokens being a pretty big thing), but also get a corruption card if it's more than two. Green cards are mild and even beneficial, and their effects seem to often involve taking more cards or discarding cards from the deck. Red cards are dangerous and debilitating, and sometimes have effects on other players that are beyond their control. For instance everyone with at least one orruption card might take a sanity penalty and draw another card. Running out of cards is a Very Bad Idea.

[linebackeru]

What if the first use of the book were to cap the user's maximum level at 20, and each subsequent use reduces the cap by 1? You've conveniently scaled its soul-eating in 1/20ths, and this imposes a major long-term cost on the player.

[Sheogoroth]

Make it come with a fortitude save that, if failed, immediately inflicts the user with the disease: Warp Touch.
If you don't know Warp Touch, it's from the Book of Vile Darkness, essentially it has one save, you roll on a table and you are permanently deformed in some facet that can't be reversed.
It also might kill you.

Then make the DC scale with uses.

[SimonMoon6]

Personally, I would extend the "can't be raised" problem:

For every 1/20th of your soul that you've lost, there's a 1 in 20 chance that any raise dead/resurrect/etc spell will fail when they try to raise you.

[Silus]

Ok, an idea just came to me (sorta).

What if the book is tied to the BBEG banished corrupted Goddess that'll be showing up in the second half of the campaign? Selling your soul/parts of your soul will get you some cheap wishes, but will also expedite the process of freeing the aforementioned BBEG and give her some control over the PCs that sold their souls to the book. Like -# on saves vs the BBEG equal to however much of their soul they sold?

Only...downside that I can think of is that the whole "The book really is part of/belongs to the BBEG" reveal will likely come at the last minute, right before the fight, or close to it.

[ericgrau]

Personally, I would extend the "can't be raised" problem:

For every 1/20th of your soul that you've lost, there's a 1 in 20 chance that any raise dead/resurrect/etc spell will fail when they try to raise you.

How about extending this and the insanity (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/insanity.htm) issue too. Not sure when you'd roll. Maybe roll each morning for the day. It could be cured the usual way, even by using the item again, or by waiting for the day to elapse.


I would also give the limited wish a higher cost than one fragment of the soul, since Limited wish is an extremely powerful spell.
Souls are kinda nice too, even for evil guys. I can see more abuse if commoner souls were farmed for the item, especially by an evil party. At sufficient level the party could handle anything that sprouts from an antagonistic wish, and they could threaten to kill the commoner if he doesn't comply with the wish they want.

[Rogue Shadows]

Instead of 1/20th, have it consume 1d2 points of Charisma permanently. Nothing can prevent this Charisma loss. At 0 Charisma, the wielder of the book becomes something Not Very Nice. Something with a name that has a deficit of vowels and an "oth" somewhere.