Decstarr
2017-06-02, 04:21 AM
Hey guys,
running a homebrew setting. My group is level 14 now, our Sorcerer had a really elegant and well-written backstory including memory loss and running from a being he named "Lord of Chaos". I used this and shamelessly stole parts of the Malazan Book of the Fallen and they just found out that he is pretty similar to Icarium (or maybe more known: the Hulk). So he gets angry, and the angrier he gets, the more powerful he becomes. Once his anger reaches a certain threshold, he'll become a near unstoppable machine of destruction and lose most of his memories (or all that happened after the moment of his very first rage several hundreds of years ago).
I've talked to the player about this and he is fine with it. Also the others in the group have absolutely zero issue with it since by now it is obvious that they need him to be able to control his powers to be able to overcome all the baddies in the game. None of them seems to feel like this PC is stealing the spotlight from theirs, though some of them are a lot more cautious around him than they were before :smalltongue:
My predicament now is this: I need to come up with some mechanic/scaling for his rage which doesn't require me interfering with his character. Meaning, he has to know and roleplay accordingly and tell me when he gets angry/roleplay it. The player is pretty great at roleplaying and already has had minor fits of anger before he ever knew my idea, so it is fitting. But, like I said, I desperately want to avoid a scenario in which the DM says "you are angry now" or just have some effect pop up without giving the player - and the rest of the group - a warning.
He is a wild magic sorcerer and already has received a lot of buffs due to a magic staff that they need to assemble piece by piece. So I need ideas for:
- How to "measure" his rage, likely by stages (as Exhaustion is done for example).
- How to "calm him down" once he starts raging (Icarium usually is just knocked out by someone before his rage reaches critical mass)
- Effects the rage has on his abilities. It is of course different from the "normal" Barbarian Rage since he will still be able to cast spells.
- Effects on the "memory loss" issue. While it is clear that he shouldn't reach "full rage" until the very end of the campaign and therefore lose all of his recent memories with the group, he might reach a higher level of rage at one point at that should include some minor memory loss. Now I could either entirely leave this out for convenience reasons or have to come up with something that determines how many things he forgets.
Does anyone have experience with something like this or could offer advice?
So far, I've asked the player to provide a list with things that would anger the PC, going from "slight annoyance" to full blown "this pisses me off a lot" so that I have a way of trying to trigger it and to control it if he's actually sticking to the concept. My idea is to set an Initial Rage Number for the PC, set certain numbers for different events that anger him (and calm him down) and come up with a way to calculate it.
- I am well aware that this can be potentially game-breaking, since the character is known for performing brutal acts of raw power in the past. He is known as the Lifestealer, like Icarium, after all. So he destroyed entire cities and brought down a mountain once during his rage. The rest of the group is aware of this, too. So they'll be very unwilling to let him go into any sorts of rage since they haven't figured out a "Hulkbuster Suit" idea so far. The PC himself also has heard of this but honestly doesn't remember any of it nor has any idea on what triggered the rages in the past. And we've been playing for a year, the guys are all very reasonable players, so there is little to no risk that this extra power might be abused.
- I am to some degree relying on the rage as a story telling mechanism. They will encounter entities sooner or later which they wouldn't be able to fight without the extra boost a somewhat raged Lifestealer would provide. At the same time, all these entities will also to some degree be scared or cautious around the dude, since no one knows his full potential but everyone knows what he has done in the past (at least in the circle of millennia old super strong beings).
Not all/any of them need to be applied or stack/overlap. This is merely brainstorming so far.
- Each level of rage allows him to add additional damage die to any of his attacks. Could either be a "Rage Die" similar to the maneuver dice e.g. or could be just the Dice the spell already uses.
- The "Rage Die" is a D12. Rage Level x Rage Die is added to a spells damage.
- The raw power of his rage allows him to overcome (=ignore) enemy resistances
- Spells cast on a certain Rage Level have creatures automatically fail their saving throws (Legendary Resistance could still be used?).
- On higher Rage Levels: The spell is cast twice for the original cost.
- Auto Wild Magic Surge on Rage Cast (using the 10000 table for WM ever since the beginning).
- Taking damage while raging increases the rage level. The factor depends on the amount of damage that is taken.
- Collateral damage: Once enraged, he will cast spells with little to no regret for anyone else but himself. Beyond a certain threshold, he might attack anyone that seems to be a threat to him, even if it is his party members.
I'm thankful for any ideas you can provide. Again, I am well aware that this entire concept is way overpowered in terms of ordinary game balance. But both my group and I are fine with it and I trust them. I wouldn't create such a potentially all-destructive PC with just any group as I am well aware of the risks. So please refrain from comments like "why would you do this?" or similar and just comment to actually help me figure out a good mechanical way to do this.
running a homebrew setting. My group is level 14 now, our Sorcerer had a really elegant and well-written backstory including memory loss and running from a being he named "Lord of Chaos". I used this and shamelessly stole parts of the Malazan Book of the Fallen and they just found out that he is pretty similar to Icarium (or maybe more known: the Hulk). So he gets angry, and the angrier he gets, the more powerful he becomes. Once his anger reaches a certain threshold, he'll become a near unstoppable machine of destruction and lose most of his memories (or all that happened after the moment of his very first rage several hundreds of years ago).
I've talked to the player about this and he is fine with it. Also the others in the group have absolutely zero issue with it since by now it is obvious that they need him to be able to control his powers to be able to overcome all the baddies in the game. None of them seems to feel like this PC is stealing the spotlight from theirs, though some of them are a lot more cautious around him than they were before :smalltongue:
My predicament now is this: I need to come up with some mechanic/scaling for his rage which doesn't require me interfering with his character. Meaning, he has to know and roleplay accordingly and tell me when he gets angry/roleplay it. The player is pretty great at roleplaying and already has had minor fits of anger before he ever knew my idea, so it is fitting. But, like I said, I desperately want to avoid a scenario in which the DM says "you are angry now" or just have some effect pop up without giving the player - and the rest of the group - a warning.
He is a wild magic sorcerer and already has received a lot of buffs due to a magic staff that they need to assemble piece by piece. So I need ideas for:
- How to "measure" his rage, likely by stages (as Exhaustion is done for example).
- How to "calm him down" once he starts raging (Icarium usually is just knocked out by someone before his rage reaches critical mass)
- Effects the rage has on his abilities. It is of course different from the "normal" Barbarian Rage since he will still be able to cast spells.
- Effects on the "memory loss" issue. While it is clear that he shouldn't reach "full rage" until the very end of the campaign and therefore lose all of his recent memories with the group, he might reach a higher level of rage at one point at that should include some minor memory loss. Now I could either entirely leave this out for convenience reasons or have to come up with something that determines how many things he forgets.
Does anyone have experience with something like this or could offer advice?
So far, I've asked the player to provide a list with things that would anger the PC, going from "slight annoyance" to full blown "this pisses me off a lot" so that I have a way of trying to trigger it and to control it if he's actually sticking to the concept. My idea is to set an Initial Rage Number for the PC, set certain numbers for different events that anger him (and calm him down) and come up with a way to calculate it.
- I am well aware that this can be potentially game-breaking, since the character is known for performing brutal acts of raw power in the past. He is known as the Lifestealer, like Icarium, after all. So he destroyed entire cities and brought down a mountain once during his rage. The rest of the group is aware of this, too. So they'll be very unwilling to let him go into any sorts of rage since they haven't figured out a "Hulkbuster Suit" idea so far. The PC himself also has heard of this but honestly doesn't remember any of it nor has any idea on what triggered the rages in the past. And we've been playing for a year, the guys are all very reasonable players, so there is little to no risk that this extra power might be abused.
- I am to some degree relying on the rage as a story telling mechanism. They will encounter entities sooner or later which they wouldn't be able to fight without the extra boost a somewhat raged Lifestealer would provide. At the same time, all these entities will also to some degree be scared or cautious around the dude, since no one knows his full potential but everyone knows what he has done in the past (at least in the circle of millennia old super strong beings).
Not all/any of them need to be applied or stack/overlap. This is merely brainstorming so far.
- Each level of rage allows him to add additional damage die to any of his attacks. Could either be a "Rage Die" similar to the maneuver dice e.g. or could be just the Dice the spell already uses.
- The "Rage Die" is a D12. Rage Level x Rage Die is added to a spells damage.
- The raw power of his rage allows him to overcome (=ignore) enemy resistances
- Spells cast on a certain Rage Level have creatures automatically fail their saving throws (Legendary Resistance could still be used?).
- On higher Rage Levels: The spell is cast twice for the original cost.
- Auto Wild Magic Surge on Rage Cast (using the 10000 table for WM ever since the beginning).
- Taking damage while raging increases the rage level. The factor depends on the amount of damage that is taken.
- Collateral damage: Once enraged, he will cast spells with little to no regret for anyone else but himself. Beyond a certain threshold, he might attack anyone that seems to be a threat to him, even if it is his party members.
I'm thankful for any ideas you can provide. Again, I am well aware that this entire concept is way overpowered in terms of ordinary game balance. But both my group and I are fine with it and I trust them. I wouldn't create such a potentially all-destructive PC with just any group as I am well aware of the risks. So please refrain from comments like "why would you do this?" or similar and just comment to actually help me figure out a good mechanical way to do this.