Rite of the Storm

[Madara]

The Rite of the Storm
Should a living creature (referred to hereafter as the Subject) receive a pact or boon from an appropriately high-powered creature with the [Air] subtype, they become more like an elemental and even gain the power to summon elements of a storm.

The Rite requires the creature gifting the power to have some of their body grafted into the subject. Should the creature be a true elemental, this process is similar to binding an elemental, but doesn't trap the creature's full form. The Rite always causes weather changes within a mile, creating stronger winds and summoning storm clouds.

The subject of the Rite shows some sign of change after receiving the boon. Usually this manifests in lighter hair or even white eyes.

Due to the unusual nature in which this power is conveyed, a spellcaster or character capable of creating magic items who has the Bind Elemental feat can perform this Rite on any subject provided with a restrained elemental or the corpse of a properly powerful creature. In this case there is only enough material to perform the Rite once, and performing the Rite completely destroys the corpse.

A character who is subjected to the Rite of the Storm is subject to the following effects:


Thunderlord
The subject permanently reduces their Dex score by 2 but gains a breath weapon(Lighting in a straight line) which can be used once every 5 rounds as a swift action. If the subject has 6 HD or more, once per day, the subject can teleport as a free action to any square hit by their breath weapon once per day per point of Con bonus. This lightning breath has a Reflex save DC of 10+(1/2 HD)+ Con. If the subject has 10 HD or more, they can also make the line of lightning only hit the first creature in that line and perform a Bull Rush on that Creature at a +12 bonus. The Lightning breath deals 1d6 Sonic damage per 3 HD of the Subject



Subject HD
Line(Length)


1-4
30 ft.


5-9
60 ft.


10-14
90 ft.


15-20
120 ft.

[Debihuman]

Because of the action economy, breath weapons should always be standard actions. This looks a bit too powerful as just a boon. You should probably limit the number of times the subject can use this breath weapon to 3 per day useable once every 1d4+1 rounds. I also think you should limit the teleport as well.

You might want to describe the ritual in detail so that the subjects know what it entails. Which creatures are capable to granting such a boon?

Your lines don't scale well. I'd recommend 30-foot increments for the lightning line: 30, 60, 90, 120.

Debby

[Madara]

Because of the action economy, breath weapons should always be standard actions. This looks a bit too powerful as just a boon. You should probably limit the number of times the subject can use this breath weapon to 3 per day useable once every 1d4+1 rounds. I also think you should limit the teleport as well.

You might want to describe the ritual in detail so that the subjects know what it entails. Which creatures are capable to granting such a boon?

Your lines don't scale well. I'd recommend 30-foot increments for the lightning line: 30, 60, 90, 120.

Debby

The goal is to make it roughly the same strength as a Vestige. Specifically, I had in mind boosting the mobility and combat effectiveness of a straight fighter(because I have a player who is playing one). I think I will change the distance scaling, but I don't want to change the actions because he should be able to breath-blink-full attack.

The reason the ritual isn't in great detail is because it's fancy DM fiat. The ability should be more of a gift to a player character who needs the boost, or a reward equal to a powerful piece of magic equipment at the end of a quest.

In terms of damage, it's about equal to the eldritch blast of a warlock of equivalent level who has the eldritch chain modification. I don't think a per-day limit on the breath weapon is more fun than a 1/combat sort of limit. There should be the possibility of using it out of combat.

I used the Rite of Blood from Eberron as a baseline, but a little bit more fluff could work.

[Debihuman]

While I appreciate that you want to be able to breathe fire, teleport, and make a full attack -- there's no way a decent GM should allow this as is. Using a breath weapon and casting teleport are both Standard Actions. Effectively, you are allowing 2 standard actions and a full-round action in the same round.

Note: the only action actions you can take with a Full-Action are a 5-ft step and free actions. In a normal round, you can perform a standard action and a move action, or you can perform a full-round action. You can also perform one or more free actions. You can always take a move action in place of a standard action.

For a more in-depth look at how actions are supposed to work, I suggest you read this: http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/31592/can-i-cast-two-swift-spells-in-a-round-or-otherwise-trade-a-move-action-for-a-s

Do you think a fair DM would give this to a monster? I doubt it. Are you giving this boon to all the PCs or just one because I'd hate to see you play favorites that way. Also, what level are you aiming for? This is certainly less of a problem at higher levels.

HOWEVER, there are perfectly legitimate ways to get most of this without breaking the action economy. Feats will help.

The Quick Breath feat from Dragonomicon allows you to use your breath weapon as a free action. It is a Metabreath feat and it requires Con 19. But it's legit. That takes care of the breath weapon. The Quicken Spell feat allows you to cast teleport as a Swift action. It doesn't get you another free action but it does allow you to still make a standard attack. So you get breath weapon, teleport, standard attack. Not quite what you hoped for, BUT it's as close as I can think to get you wherfe you want to be.. If you want to use a full attack, then you have to teleport before or after your turn but not while attacking.

That's a pretty sweet boon: 2 feats effectively, ability to cast teleport and a breath weapon. What else are you giving out?

One last thing: Lightning would dish out electricity damage; thunder would deal sonic damage.

Debby

[Madara]

While I appreciate that you want to be able to breathe fire, teleport, and make a full attack -- there's no way a decent GM should allow this as is. Using a breath weapon and casting teleport are both Standard Actions. Effectively, you are allowing 2 standard actions and a full-round action in the same round.

Note: the only action actions you can take with a Full-Action are a 5-ft step and free actions. In a normal round, you can perform a standard action and a move action, or you can perform a full-round action. You can also perform one or more free actions. You can always take a move action in place of a standard action.

For a more in-depth look at how actions are supposed to work, I suggest you read this: http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/31592/can-i-cast-two-swift-spells-in-a-round-or-otherwise-trade-a-move-action-for-a-s

Do you think a fair DM would give this to a monster? I doubt it. Are you giving this boon to all the PCs or just one because I'd hate to see you play favorites that way. Also, what level are you aiming for? This is certainly less of a problem at higher levels.

HOWEVER, there are perfectly legitimate ways to get most of this without breaking the action economy. Feats will help.

The Quick Breath feat from Dragonomicon allows you to use your breath weapon as a free action. It is a Metabreath feat and it requires Con 19. But it's legit. That takes care of the breath weapon. The Quicken Spell feat allows you to cast teleport as a Swift action. It doesn't get you another free action but it does allow you to still make a standard attack. So you get breath weapon, teleport, standard attack. Not quite what you hoped for, BUT it's as close as I can think to get you wherfe you want to be.. If you want to use a full attack, then you have to teleport before or after your turn but not while attacking.

That's a pretty sweet boon: 2 feats effectively, ability to cast teleport and a breath weapon. What else are you giving out?

One last thing: Lightning would dish out electricity damage; thunder would deal sonic damage.

Debby


Consider LA buyoff, which gives what is considered 2 levels of monster for essentially free. Usually these levels are meaty, stat-buffing levels. For example, Pathfinder (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/thunder-child-creature-cr-2) has a very similar array of abilities for a boost of +2 CR. I think you misunderstand the situation, because "Are you giving this boon to all the PCs or just one because I'd hate to see you play favorites that way." makes it seem as you don't understand the gap between a level 8 fighter and a party of casters. The reason the boon is less accessible is because it is designed to be a raw and free boost to a character to provide a use for swift actions(something which fighters lack) and to provide extra mobility, something else they lack.

I can't tell if you believe me to be a player or a GM, but I think it's perfectly reasonable to give this to a monster, as long as the CR is properly calculated. I use Vorpal Tribble's CR calculation (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?192329-CR). Considering that a wizard can get abrupt jaunt as an immediate action at level 1, limited teleportation at level 6 is perfectly reasonable.

The targeted sweet-spot level is 6+ a point at which the common melee starts to drop off in terms of functionality. The goal is to allow for the breaking of the action economy, because fighters should have nice things. I believe a decent DM would allow this in the right situation. Only siths deal in absolutes

[JBPuffin]

Consider LA buyoff, which gives what is considered 2 levels of monster for essentially free. Usually these levels are meaty, stat-buffing levels. For example, Pathfinder (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/thunder-child-creature-cr-2) has a very similar array of abilities for a boost of +2 CR. I think you misunderstand the situation, because "Are you giving this boon to all the PCs or just one because I'd hate to see you play favorites that way." makes it seem as you don't understand the gap between a level 8 fighter and a party of casters. The reason the boon is less accessible is because it is designed to be a raw and free boost to a character to provide a use for swift actions(something which fighters lack) and to provide extra mobility, something else they lack.

I can't tell if you believe me to be a player or a GM, but I think it's perfectly reasonable to give this to a monster, as long as the CR is properly calculated. I use Vorpal Tribble's CR calculation (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?192329-CR). Considering that a wizard can get abrupt jaunt as an immediate action at level 1, limited teleportation at level 6 is perfectly reasonable.

The targeted sweet-spot level is 6+ a point at which the common melee starts to drop off in terms of functionality. The goal is to allow for the breaking of the action economy, because fighters should have nice things. I believe a decent DM would allow this in the right situation. Only siths deal in absolutes

You've got it spot-on. Casters get plenty of nice things; if a player built a fighter and has survived this long without being too overshadowed/endured being overshadowed this long, he should have nice things too. I'd allow it for martials - maybe even in a party without (m)any casters and simply give it to everyone who isn't a tier 1 played-as-a-tier-1 character.

[Debihuman]

While I can see where you are going with this (now that I've looked at the Bloodtouched Rite from Player's Guide to Eberron page 23), I'm rather confused as to why an air elemental would gift this or what it would get out of it. At least the worshippers of Vol get a new member to add to their ranks and donating blood is rather different from having a piece of you grafted onto another creature. A pound of flesh or something like that I suppose. The fact that the elemental is treated as if it were bound is a tad off-putting as that is in direct contradiction that the elemental "gifts" it to the subject. Why not just have a willing air elemental do this?

"The Lightning breath deals 1d6 Sonic damage per 3 HD of the Subject" isn't exactly correct. If it were, you'd need at least 3 HD to gain this ability and you can gain this boon with only 1 HD. Note: Bloodtouched Rite starts at 3rd level so you may have copied that in error. Does the breath weapon cap off after 18 HD? See my chart below because I'm not sure this is an accurate presentation.

HD Damage
1-3 1d6
4-6 2d6
7-9 3d6
10-12 4d6
13-15 5d6
16-18+ 6d6

Debby