PDA

View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other To Serve the Ancient Ones (Vile Feats, 3.5)



Zaydos
2015-10-02, 03:47 PM
The Great Old Ones of Horrible Polyp* Lovecraft's Mythos stories are powerful beings in our cultural memory. In less than a century they have rooted themselves into our pop culture and concepts of horror. They have long been intertwined with Dungeons and Dragons, yet due to legal concerns and Chaosium they are under represented within. Here I have decided to provide a few feats to help flesh out a character who serves these ancient beings.

*You cannot convince me this is not what the H.P. stands for.

Besides Servant of the Old Ones each feat is inspired by a specific Great Old One (Shub-Niggurath, Cthulhu, and Yog-Sothoth) but all of them are intended to be available to the servants of any Great Old One.

Servant of the Old Ones [Vile]
You have sworn yourself to elder things, great beings from the beginning epochs of time.
Prerequisites: Must have sworn oneself to a Great Old One, Outer God, or Elder Evil.
Benefit: Once per 10 minutes you gain a +1 insight bonus to any attack, saving throw, level, skill or ability check.
Special: A cleric may not take this feat unless they draw their spells from the entity they swear to. You may not take this feat and Servant of Hell or Thrall to Demon.
Special: A character with this feat may cast spells with the thrall component (www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?447622-Spells-for-Thralls) which are on their spell list.

Awakened by Madness [Vile]
Your mind has been touched in your dreams by elder entities from before modern history awakening within it a dark and twisted power.
Prerequisites: Servant of the Old Ones.
Benefit: When you take this feat select one mild depravity effect from Heroes of Horror page 65. You gain that depravity effect, as well as 1 PP + 2 PP for each other Vile Feat you possess, and you gain the Psionic subtype.
Special: This counts as Wild Talent for the purposes of prerequisites.

Dread Knowledge [Vile]
You hear the whispers of your unspeakable lords in your dreams and thoughts, telling you dread secrets and mundane lore.
Prerequisites: Any 3 Knowledge skills 5 ranks, Servant of the Old Ones.
Benefit: You gain the Lore ability. This functions as Bardic Knowledge except you use your character level in place of your Bard level.

Unnatural Vigor [Vile]
Your body recovers at an unnatural rate, muscles knitting back together, and even lost limbs regrowing.
Prerequisites: Servant of the Old Ones or Thrall to Demon.
Benefit: You heal 1 hit point per 2 character levels every 10 minutes (minimum 1) and 1 point of ability damage to each ability score every 10 minutes. You can regrow limbs and organs over the course of 1d6 days, or by holding them to the stump for 10 minutes, and can naturally heal ability drain at a rate of 1 point of ability drain to each ability per 2 days of complete bed rest or 1 week without it; a creature with vile feats and the heal skill may enable you to heal this at increased rate (1 per day of complete bed ret or 1 per 2 days of care without complete bed rest).
If you have Fast Healing from any source it is increased by 1. Finally when you are dying you have a 40% chance to stabilize each round instead of a 10% chance.


Originally Playgrounders as Caricatures:

Brood Plague Worm:
In your service of the Ancient Ones you have made yourself into the spawning grounds of blasphemous parasites.
Prerequisites: Servant of the Ancient Ones, character level 5, Craft (alchemy) 6 ranks, Corruption score (if taint rules are used) 1 or higher.
Benefit: You gain immunity to wraithplague (disease, see Plague Worm below).

A plague worm (see below) symbiont grows deep within you. Unlike others of its kind it cannot survive separation long dying after 1 hour removed from your body even if given a new host. You are able to communicate telepathically with this plague worm regardless of distance, it never has an ego conflict with you being wholly subservient to your will, and you do not suffer the disadvantages listed in the infest ability. In addition its plague burst ability can be used once per day per 5 character levels you possess and has a DC of 10 + 1/2 your character level + your or its Con score whichever is higher or the standard DC (15) whichever is higher; subsequent saves against the inflicted wraithplague are at the normal DC. If your personal plague worm dies you can spawn another one given 3 days.

In addition you may grow additional plague worms not so tightly attached to you within your body. To do so requires 4 days, and the consumption of a diet of rotting meat, copious amounts of worms and bugs, large amounts of milk, and 4,000 GP worth of rare (and borderline toxic) spices, and the sacrifice of a small amount of your vital essence in the form of 300 XP, this is the cost in time, gold, and XP for each worm; feats or abilities that reduce the time or cost of magic item creation reduce the time and cost of brooding plague worms as well. You may have one plague worm spawned by this ability in your body, plus another one per point of Constitution bonus (minimum +0). You may remove a plague worm from your body 'surgically' as a full round action with a slashing or piercing weapon which deals 2d6 damage to you and 1 Constitution damage, or you may remove them naturally as an action requiring 10 minutes and best left undetailed.

Diminutive Magical Beast (Evil, Symbiont)
Hit Dice: 1d10+1 (6 hp)
Initiative: –3
Speed: swim 5 ft.
AC: 11 (+4 size, –3 Dex), touch 11, flat-footed 11
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/–17
Attack: —
Full Attack: —
Damage: —
Face/Reach: 1 ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Plague burst
Special Qualities: Bestow resistances, darkvision 60 ft., infect, symbiont traits, telepathy
Saves: Fort +3, Ref –1, Will +0
Abilities: Str 1, Dex 5, Con 12, Int 5, Wis 10, Cha 7, Taint 3, Ego 6
Skills: Listen +2, Spot +2
Feats: Ability Focus (Plague Burst)
Climate/Terrain: Any swamps
Organization: Solitary (symbiont)
Challenge Rating: 1 or as host + 8000 GP market price item
Treasure: —
Alignment: Always neutral evil
Advancement: —

A tainted parasite, a plague worm looks almost like an unusually large cross between a millbug and a leech. Despite this outwardly normal appearance the creature's internal organs are mostly simply factories for disease. Carried within willing hosts, a plague worm releases its payload of disease, the infamous wraithplague, into a crowd and simply lets the disease spread. When a plague worm must resort to controlling its host it leads them to release the plague into unsuspecting crowds.

Only one plague worm may live in a single creature that lacks the Brood Plague Worm feat, any additional ones are poisoned by the first's changes to the creature's body chemistry.

Plague worms cannot speak but they understand Undercommon.

Combat:
Plague worms do not engage in combat, if forced they will release a plague burst but even that is only a last result. Any creature that plays host to a plague worm and which has a Corruption score of 0 gains 1 point of Corruption.

Bestow Resistances (Ex): A creature with a plague worm symbiont gains a +2 bonus on Fortitude saves versus diseases and poisons as the worm absorbs them from their system, this bonus increases to +6 against ingested poisons or food/drink borne diseases. In addition if you succeed on a single saving throw against a non-magical disease you are cured of it.

Infect (Ex): Plague worm eggs are sometimes found in the fetid pools of tainted marshes and swamps, filling the foul water that pools near temples to beings elder than the gods, and inect creatures that drink the water. A purify water spell does not remove the eggs from the water, although they die if left in pure water for one day, and a bless water spell will kill such eggs instantly.

Once inside a host, the eggs hatch in 1d4 hours, and the spawn set about poisoning and devouring one another until only one remains. A remove disease spell cast on the host kills a plague worm, but the host must make a Fortitude save (DC 15) against the wraithplague as the creature releases its diseased load into the host (save DC includes a +2 from being within the host).

A creature with a plague worm must eat twice as much food as it normally requires each day, and must start making daily Constitution checks
after only one day without food (instead of the normal three days). In addition, the host creature is fatigued after 8 hours of activity and takes a –4 penalty on the following checks and saves: Swim checks to resist subdual damage; Constitution checks to continue running, to avoid subdual damage from a forced march, to hold its breath, or to avoid subdual damage from starvation or thirst; and Fortitude saves to avoid subdual damage from hot or cold environments, or to resist damage from oxygen deprivation.

Plague Burst (Su): Once per day a plague worm can release its accumulated load of supernatural pathogens. It may do so subtly or overtly. In the former case it produces a distinct odor which can be recognized (Heal or Knowledge (religion) DC 20) and which is particularly odious to creatures with scent (animals, and other creatures with less than 3 Int, with scent within 30 ft become instantly unfriendly if not openly hostile to you), and creatures within 5-ft of the host (or if a plague worm has no host of the worm) including the host must make a Fortitude save (DC 15, includes Ability Focus and a +2 racial bonus for having a host, if outside of a host DC 13) or contract the wraithplague with an incubation period of 2d4 days. If done overtly in addition to the distinct odor above, it produces a dark haze around the host, but the incubation period is instead instantaneous the creatures immediately taking effects of the infection.

The wraithplague is so named due to its visual symptoms of puffy, red, inflamed skin around the eyes and black splotches across the flesh giving the infected a wraith-like appearance. This coupled with the other symptoms of sunlight aversion and being damaged by positive energy cause it to be further associated with the undead creatures. There are even rumors that those who die under the weight of the plague are many times over more likely to become a wraith upon their death.

A creature with wraithplague suffers a -1 to attack rolls, skill checks, caster level checks, and ability checks when in direct sunlight; only natural sunlight causes this effect, even a [i]daylight spell does not. In addition they are damaged by positive energy as if undead. Finally the wraithplague deals 1d3+1 Constitution damage each day on a failed save (DC typically 13 or 15 depending upon if the original plague worm was in a host or not).

The wraithplague is a supernatural disease but can be cured naturally. Heal checks made to treat the disease suffer a -5 penalty, however, and each patient with the plague counts as two treated patients. In addition it resists remove disease unless the caster level is at least 7th, these two facts coupled together make it a (comparatively) dangerous disease.

Telepathy (Su): A plague worm may communicate telepathically with its host assuming its host is able to speak a language.

Code of Tawil At-U’mr [Vile]
You have been taught one of the fundamental codes of reality by the Most Ancient and Prolonged of Life for reasons that belong to none but that enigmatic entity. By focusing upon it you can insert it into key places to disrupt a spell being cast.
Prerequisites: Servant of the Old Ones, Int 13+, Spellcraft 11 ranks
Benefit: Once per day plus once per day per 2 vile feats you possess you may attempt to twist a spell that is being cast as an immediate action. To do so you must first identify the spell being cast and then make a level check against DC 11 + the spell’s caster level. You gain a bonus to this level check equal to the spell level of the spell to be affected. If you succeed on the check you cause the magic to backfire against the spellcaster, making the spell fail as you turn it against them causing them to suffer a penalty based upon the school of the spell they attempted to cast. These minor curses last for 1d4 rounds. If the spell is a dual school spell determine which of its two schools’ curses is applied randomly, if it is Universal roll 1d8 to determine which school it is treated as.
Abjuration: The caster suffers a -2 penalty to AC and saves.
Conjuration: Any item the caster holds has a 50% chance, rolled each round it is held, of being teleported 10 ft away from the caster in a random direction.
Divination: The caster is partially blinded and deafened giving them a -8 penalty on listen, search, and spot checks, and causing all creatures to have concealment to the caster, and areas within shadowy illumination to have total concealment unless viewed with darkvision.
Enchantment: The caster has a 50% chance each round of being struck mute for that round rendering them unable to talk.
Evocation: The caster takes 3d6 energy damage of a random energy type each round.
Illusion: The caster becomes only partially real dealing 70% damage, and spells and abilities they use having only a 70% chance of affecting creatures.
Necromancy: The caster suffers a negative level each round, these negative levels fade when the curse fades never becoming permanent level loss.
Transmutation: The caster suffers a -4 penalty to their Int, Wis, and Cha.

This basic fundamental proto-spell comes at a cost however, you suffer a -2 penalty to your caster level for all arcane spells and psionic powers; this does not affect invocations or divine spells.

Journal of Madness [Vile]
You scribble the mad insights of your dread masters within a book or series of tomes, writing within them blasphemous words of nightmare and madness.
Prerequisites: Servant of the Old Ones, must possess a fixed amount of spells known which you cast spontaneously.
Benefit: You maintain a journal of the mad revelations of your dreads masters. For each level of spells you possess spells known for select a single spell from your spell list or a Corrupt spell of that level which is 'written' in this journal. Each day when you regain your spells per day you may consult this journal to temporarily exchange one or more of your spells known with spells of the same level within this journal gaining them as a spell known for the day in exchange for the spells chosen to exchange; this exchange lasts until you next regain your spells per day. If you exchange spells in this way you gain the depravity effect of a randomly determined mild depravity until you next regain your spells per day. Whenever you gain access to a new level of spells known you gain a new spell in your journal of the same level.

The writing in your journals is in fact merely blasphemous and nightmarishly disturbing gibberish. It contains no true magical insights, and the change of spells known is merely a delusional placebo effect. If you lose your journal(s) you may make a new one with merely a week of writing of your nightmares and mad 'insights'.

Normal: Your delusions do not grant you additional options for spells known.

Maddening Breath [Vile]
Your breath carries your madness with it, a corruptive force which infects the mind and drives your foes to madness.
Prerequisites: At least 2 points of depravity, Constitution 13+, Charisma 13+, you must possess a breath weapon, Servant of the Old Ones.
Benefit: When you use your breath weapon you may elect to release a maddening breath. All creatures damaged by your breath weapon suffer 1 point of Wisdom damage per 2 dice of damage dealt by your breath, if they succeeded on a save to reduce the damage dealt by your breath weapon this Wisdom damage is reduced as well. In addition any creature damaged by your breath weapon suffers 1 point of depravity, this never dazes or stuns the creature. Once you have used your maddening breath you cannot use it again for 1d4+1 rounds even if you could use your breath weapon more quickly; if you use multiple breath weapons at once (pyrohydra, fivefold breath of Tiamat) your Maddening Breath only applies to one of those breath weapons. If you use an ability that adds a second type of damage to your breath weapon use only the dice of your base breath weapon.

You suffer a -1 penalty to Wisdom checks and Wisdom based skill checks.

Pleasure of Corruption [Vile]
Succumbing to your corruptive influence is oddly pleasurable, a taste leaving a creature permanently touched.
Prerequisites: Diplomacy 4 ranks, Corruption or Depravity Score of 4+, ability to cast spells or use spell-like abilities, and Servant of the Old Ones or Disciple of Darkness.
Benefit: When a creature fails a saving through against Charm or Compulsion spell you cast they feel a strangely maddening pleasure. If they have less depravity than ½ your Charisma score they gain a point of depravity. In addition you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Bluff and Diplomacy checks against any creature which has ever failed a Will save against a Charm or Compulsion spell you have cast and they suffer a -2 penalty to future saving throws against such spells.

Psalm of Madness [Bardic Music, Vile]
You sing a song of praise and glorification of all those things that whisper to your mind and all the horrid delusions that writhe in your brain.
Prerequisites: Bardic Music, Servant of the Old Ones, Perform 6 ranks, Depravity 1+.
Benefit: When you use bardic music you may instead sing a Psalm of Madness. This functions the same but any creature hearing you sing suffers 1 point of Wisdom damage per round, once a creature has this song for 5 rounds in a row they become immune to Wisdom damage inflicted this way (even by other psalms of madness) for 2 days. A creature is not aware of this effect unless they succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + 12 Bard level + Cha modifier). In addition any creature which listens to this song for 5 rounds and has less depravity than you gains 1 point of depravity.
Your Inspire Courage (if any) is also irrevocably altered. It no longer has any effect on creatures with a depravity score of 0. It functions normally for creatures with Mild Depravity. For creatures suffering the effects of Moderate Depravity, or which possess the Evil subtype or Undead type, its bonus to saves now applies to all mind-affecting effects and not merely charm and fear. For creatures with Severe Depravity it now grants immunity to Compulsions and Fear and have the other bonuses increased by +1.

Remnant of Sanity [Psychic, Vile]
Your mad gods have seen fit to leave you with a remnant of your sanity to better serve them. Weaving it into the psychic force of your mind you hold your will in place, releasing yourself into madness when mentally threatened.
Prerequisites: Servant of the Old Ones, Cha 13+.
Benefit: When you make a Will save against a mind-affecting effect you may expend your psionic focus to add your Charisma modifier to your saving throw.

While you maintain your psionic focus you suffer none of the disadvantages of your depravities.

Step of the Silver Key [Vile]
You move out of phase with the world your steps carrying you between worlds seeming to flicker in and out of existence as you move.
Prerequisites: Servant of the Old Ones, 1 other feat with Servant of the Old One as a prerequisite, 5 ranks in Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge (the planes).
Benefit: As a free action you may take 2 Wisdom burn which cannot be prevented or reduced in any way, to gain the benefits of Freedom of Movement until the end of your turn, except that it does nothing to allow you to move while paralyzed or immobilized (see Tome of Magic) and does not allow you to escape grapples. You seem to flicker in and out of existence as you move, actually teleporting extremely short distances, and any attacks made against you while you are moving suffer a 50% miss chance. This ability has no effect if you are under the influence of dimensional anchor or in an area where teleportation is impossible.

Sword of Devoted Madness [Vile]
Your spirit burns with madness, and when you strike foes down with your devotion you infect them with your madness.
Prerequisites: Servant of the Old Ones, ability to use Devoted Spirit maneuvers.
Benefit: When you damage a creature with a Devoted Spirit strike it must make a Will save (DC 10 + Maneuver level + your Cha modifier) or gain a random Severe Derangement for 1 minute. In addition if they are Good aligned they take 2 Wisdom damage if they fail their save, or if they are Good aligned but match your alignment on the Law/Chaos axis they take the Wisdom damage even on a successful save. If they are suffering under a derangement due to this feat’s effects they cannot gain a second from it, but any Wisdom damage is still dealt.

Vow of Violence [Vile]
You have sanctified yourself as a ritualistic implement to your dark master(s), your every act of bloodshed a profane prayer. Blood for the blood god.
Prerequisites: Servant of the Old Ones or Thrall to Demon, Profane Vow (Drow of the Underdark).
Benefit: Your every act of violence is a prayer and sacrifice to dark gods. Whenever you attack a creature with the intent to kill it you gain 2 ‘Offering Points’ if its CR = your character level, +1 per CR above that it is, and 1 Offering Point if it is 1 or 2 less than your character level. Whenever you kill a creature you gain 2 ‘Offering Point’ if its CR = your character level, +1 per CR above that it is, and 1 Offering Point if it is 1 to 6 less than your character level.

Once per combat you may spend ‘offering points’ to gain some benefit.
Spend 3 offering points as a swift action to gain ½ character level temp hp for 4 rounds.
Spend 4 offering points as a swift action to gain a +1 to hit for 4 rounds
Spend 4 offering points as a swift action to gain a +2 to damage for 4 rounds.
Spend 6 offering points as a swift action to gain the benefits of Improved Critical for 4 rounds.
Spend 7 offering points as an immediate action to re-roll an attack roll or saving throw.
Spend 8 offering points as a free action to recover 1 maneuver (it does not immediately become granted but is placed back into queue to be granted).
Spend 11 offering points to gain +4 Strength for 4 rounds.
Spend 14 offering points as free action to recover all maneuvers. If you have granted maneuvers you may select 1 to be granted immediately.

When you spend offering points you are momentarily seized by fury. Until the end of your next turn you may take no action not directly related to killing another creature.

As a secondary benefit when you kill a creature its soul is entangled by your dark master making it hard to revive them, requiring a DC 5 + your hit dice + your Charisma modifier Caster Level check to revive them with (if it is not a spell substitute appropriate level or Character Level). If this check fails they may try a higher level spell, but otherwise may not attempt the check again until they have gained 1 character level.

Unfortunately this dark service leaves its mark on your mind, and makes it difficult for you to peacefully interact with other creatures. You suffer a -3 penalty to Diplomacy and Gather Information checks, and a -1 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, and skill and ability checks for 1 hour whenever you resort to non-violent means other than intimidate to deal with an enemy.

Special:As part of this vow you swear to your dread master that you will murder in their name. Once per week you must kill a sapient creature that has done you no harm and which you gain no benefit in killing save serving your dark master’s will. If you do not attempt to do so you lose all access to this feat. If you fail to do so but made the attempt you lose all access to this feat until you atone.

Words of Binding Corruption [Vile]
You are able to use conversation to draw a creature into a web of madness, subtly altering their world view as you do so, making them perceive you in the best light possible even as they begin to see the world in a new, darker light
Prerequisites: Charisma 15+, Bluff 6 ranks, Diplomacy 6 ranks.
Benefit: You gain a +2 profane bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, and Gather Information checks. In addition by talking to a single humanoid creature for 1 minute you may, 1/day plus 1/day per 3 vile feats you possess, work words of madness and despair into their psyche causing yourself to seem to be a deeply trusted friend even as you work a sense of depravity into their psyche. The target must make a Will save (DC 10 + ½ character level + Charisma modifier) or be affected as if by Charm Person with an indefinite duration. Each day they may make this Will save again to end this effect. While under this effect the target suffers from a random mild depravity. If it lasts for a whole day they begin to suffer from a 2nd mild depravity. On the next day a moderate depravity is added, then on the 4th a 2nd moderate depravity. On the 5th and 6th day a severe depravity is added. In addition every 3 days they remain under this effect they gain 1 point of depravity. A Restoration, Heal, or Greater Restoration spell immediately ends this effect.

You suffer a -1 penalty to Will saves as your own delusions grow in the shadows of your mind.

Eldan
2015-10-02, 04:36 PM
Given how much he disliked them, Ir ather doubt Lovecraft was a polyp. I suggest that it stands for "Hates Pelagics", instead :smallwink:

Servant of the Old Ones is, really, a bit boring. In line with other "servant of" feats, sure, but it's just, you know, one of those prerequisite feats that you have to take because you want other stuff.

Awakened by Madness seems pretty nice. A small handful of power points is usually not that good, but it's still better than Wild Talent.

Unnatural Vigor, however, really seems quite good. I'm wondering if one ability damage every 10 minutes might be too much.

Zaydos
2015-10-02, 05:06 PM
Given how much he disliked them, Ir ather doubt Lovecraft was a polyp. I suggest that it stands for "Hates Pelagics", instead :smallwink:

Servant of the Old Ones is, really, a bit boring. In line with other "servant of" feats, sure, but it's just, you know, one of those prerequisite feats that you have to take because you want other stuff.

Awakened by Madness seems pretty nice. A small handful of power points is usually not that good, but it's still better than Wild Talent.

Unnatural Vigor, however, really seems quite good. I'm wondering if one ability damage every 10 minutes might be too much.

He made a lot of horrible polyps for someone who wasn't one :smalltongue:

I balanced Unnatural Vigor off the idea that a Lv 1 vestige grants ability damage healing 1/round, and you can pick up ability damage resistance 1 with a feat (Shape Soulmeld). So I figured with a prereq it'd probably not be too strong.

As for Servant it's better than the official ones since they're 1/day instead of 1/10 minutes (roughly 1/encounter), but yeah it's a prereq feat.

Edit: Oh yeah anybody got a suggestion for a King in Yellow feat? Or a Nyarlathotep one? Feel like the Crawling Chaos could do with at least 2.

Eldan
2015-10-03, 04:27 PM
Nyarlathotep... changeling artificers? Some kind of forbidden knowledge, at the very least. It's his main offer to humans. Hm. Knowledge bonus/rerolls/etc. in exchange for mental degradation of some kind?

For the King in Yellow, that is hard to say. At least in the original book of the same name, he never shows up or does anything. For the play, well, just forbidden knowledge again. Maybe really complex madness, the main character of the Repairer of Reputations makes up an entire illusionary world in his head. Something with illusions?

7th son of sons
2015-10-05, 06:35 AM
Dread Knowledge says you gain Bardic Music, but I assume you meant to say Bardic Lore?

Also, how you not gonna have one of these feats for my dude, Yig? I'm kidding, he's pretty minor in most regards, but what you got is good. Fitting, I'd say. Bokrug might deserve one. He's a pretty well know beast of the Cthulhu Mythos. Or what about an Epic one for Asathoth? If I remember anything from C.o.C., it's that anything with that guys stamp on it will most likely kill you, and seeing him and dying of insanity isn't the worst way to go out