Arkhios
2016-10-25, 07:40 AM
Once upon a time, in a game long time ago, one of my players' character picked up a skull for whatever reason (I've forgot) and kept carrying it around with him. Sometimes even talking to it, IIRC.
With the reboot of our campaign (from Pathfinder to 5th edition) the player decided to reroll his character as a cleric of Death domain. We decided that the skull he was carrying with him was a defining feature of the character, so I let him have it as a Trinket of sorts. The skull is polished white, harder than one might think. Doesn't have a single scratch or dent in it, and has a pristine onyx embedded on it's forehead, between the empty eye sockets.
As the game started, I surprised the player with a scene where pickpockets filched something from each character in a busy bazaar, and his stolen object was, of course, the skull. For reasons yet unknown, the skull reappeared in the player's possession after a while, without him noticing when it had returned, or how. This was only the start of the strange occurences regarding the skull.
Note, that I didn't actually plan much of this ahead of time, but once I played it out, I thought I had to make it stick.
So, one time, a while after this incident at the bazaar, the players faced a deadly foe that would cast a cone of cold (albeit a tuned-down version of it, potentially dealing only half of the normal minimum damage, before any resistances and saves), but for reasons unknown to the cleric, and other players, the skull sprang out of the cleric's possession, free-floating and formed a barrier in the nick of time, protecting the cleric (and his allies consequently) from the deadly spell entirely (I admit, it was a DM fiat because I realized that had I rolled the damage, it could've resulted in TPK, and I didn't want that to happen due to my own mistake).
Shortly after this, the cleric realized that the skull had begun to speak, though in a language he didn't quite understand. (a special language, not from PHB). As a minor twist to it, no one else can hear the speech except the cleric.
At this point I decided that I might actually make the skull as a recently dormant sentient artifact, which the player could eventually attune himself with. I decided to put a simple prerequisite first; the player had to learn the language in order to be able to attune with the skull. The normal downtime 250 days requirement to learn a new language is pretty good in my opinion.
Now, however, I've faced an inspirational impasse.
I know I want certain things from the item, but I'm not sure if it's balanced.
1) the skull might function as a spellcasting focus for a worshiper of a death god.
2) the skull could duplicate itself as a familiar to the attuned character, being able to fly on its own volition.
3) the skull could probably cast a few spells, or produce effects similar to some spells. Such as, maybe, animate dead, and a spell/effect that could protect against cold damage.
4) the skull couldn't be removed from the character's person as long as it's attuned by the character. And the character isn't dead.
Help as to how should I word the abilities would be welcome, as well as suggestions for the abilities mentioned.
Also, what other abilities could it have?
With the reboot of our campaign (from Pathfinder to 5th edition) the player decided to reroll his character as a cleric of Death domain. We decided that the skull he was carrying with him was a defining feature of the character, so I let him have it as a Trinket of sorts. The skull is polished white, harder than one might think. Doesn't have a single scratch or dent in it, and has a pristine onyx embedded on it's forehead, between the empty eye sockets.
As the game started, I surprised the player with a scene where pickpockets filched something from each character in a busy bazaar, and his stolen object was, of course, the skull. For reasons yet unknown, the skull reappeared in the player's possession after a while, without him noticing when it had returned, or how. This was only the start of the strange occurences regarding the skull.
Note, that I didn't actually plan much of this ahead of time, but once I played it out, I thought I had to make it stick.
So, one time, a while after this incident at the bazaar, the players faced a deadly foe that would cast a cone of cold (albeit a tuned-down version of it, potentially dealing only half of the normal minimum damage, before any resistances and saves), but for reasons unknown to the cleric, and other players, the skull sprang out of the cleric's possession, free-floating and formed a barrier in the nick of time, protecting the cleric (and his allies consequently) from the deadly spell entirely (I admit, it was a DM fiat because I realized that had I rolled the damage, it could've resulted in TPK, and I didn't want that to happen due to my own mistake).
Shortly after this, the cleric realized that the skull had begun to speak, though in a language he didn't quite understand. (a special language, not from PHB). As a minor twist to it, no one else can hear the speech except the cleric.
At this point I decided that I might actually make the skull as a recently dormant sentient artifact, which the player could eventually attune himself with. I decided to put a simple prerequisite first; the player had to learn the language in order to be able to attune with the skull. The normal downtime 250 days requirement to learn a new language is pretty good in my opinion.
Now, however, I've faced an inspirational impasse.
I know I want certain things from the item, but I'm not sure if it's balanced.
1) the skull might function as a spellcasting focus for a worshiper of a death god.
2) the skull could duplicate itself as a familiar to the attuned character, being able to fly on its own volition.
3) the skull could probably cast a few spells, or produce effects similar to some spells. Such as, maybe, animate dead, and a spell/effect that could protect against cold damage.
4) the skull couldn't be removed from the character's person as long as it's attuned by the character. And the character isn't dead.
Help as to how should I word the abilities would be welcome, as well as suggestions for the abilities mentioned.
Also, what other abilities could it have?