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View Full Version : DM Help Mixing The Great Old One Patron and Sanity Score



Viishnahn
2018-04-02, 11:04 AM
I'm starting a D&D fifth edition campaign soon set in a homebrew world setting (the only relevance this has is that the usual pantheon of deities/patrons is not available), and I've got a player that's starting as a Great Old One Warlock. As the setting is homebrew, I've allowed the player to come up with what kind of patron they serve (attitudes, terms of the pact, nature, etc.), and what they've come up with so far is a being named Yeth'Shuul that sounds fairly close to Cthulhu (I'm no Lovecraft expert, so I might be a little off on a few of my assumptions). The being resides on the plane where all the otherworldly beings live in my homebrew setting, manifests as a hideous mass of eyes and tentacles, and trades knowledge (i.e. warlock level progression) in exchange for the soul power of magical creatures the warlock slays and offers up to Yeth'Shuul. The patron knew of its followers and tested them before revealing greater secrets to them, but was indifferent to most of what they did otherwise.

I asked my player what would happen if the warlock decided to walk away from the contract, and the player said something to the effect of "Nothing bad will happen, but my character won't gain more knowledge, which is what he strives for." As a player of a Fiend pact warlock, I viewed the relationship between a warlock and his or her patron as primarily a "strings-attached power contract", as a Fiend patron would likely not take being ignored or having its contract annulled lightly, and thought that the player was simply trying to have the warlock gain the benefits of the pact without any of the risk. I was humbled when I read an excellent answer to a related question on RPG Stack Exchange, which essentially states that the patron/warlock attitude is radically different between a Fiend and a Great Old One patron, where the Great Old One either isn't aware or doesn't care about its warlocks nearly as much as the other patrons. So I stood corrected, but I wasn't quite finished yet.

All pacts have risks; it's one of the defining elements of being a warlock. If the risk doesn't come from breaking the terms of the pact with a Fiend or Archfey, then it comes from the mere interaction between a mortal mind and something as incomprehensible as the Great Old One Yeth'Shuul. I proposed a system to my player where they would add the optional Sanity score stat to their character, starting with a score of 11 (+0). Every time the player had to make a significant contact with Yeth'Shuul (I'm thinking upon level up and a few other times as the story calls for), I'm going to have them make a raw d20 DC 10 saving throw (similar to death saving throw). Pass, nothing unexpected occurs. Fail, and one point of Sanity is lost. At this time, I'm planning on potentially introducing plot hooks where the player can go on quests to increase or partially restore lost sanity.

The main trouble I'm having is deciding downsides for sanity score thresholds (every score level where the modifier drops, so scores of 9, 7, 5, etc., or perhaps every other). I don't want to introduced mechanical downsides, as that neither adds to the story nor does it sound fun to play with disadvantage on a saving throw for the foreseeable future because you rolled low once. Instead, I'd like to impose changes in the interaction between the warlock and Yeth'Shuul, whether that be in change of attitude, change of contract, or the like. What I'm asking from the forum is ideas; I want to know what kind of things I could change to be interesting and threatening with the patron/warlock relationship without ruining the class for the player.

Note that I have discussed all of the above with the player already, and that I will inform the player of what I intend to do with the relationship before the campaign starts to see if they are all right with my idea (or maybe your idea!). I don't know if this post would be better suited for the Homebrew category, but I thought I'd give this board a whirl first. Thanks in advance!

Cheers
2018-04-06, 06:13 AM
I always liked the nihilistic interpretation of the whole old ones approach.
It's not that you are actively going mad, it's the realization that we are utterly insignificant that drives one insane. Or perhaps a bit more practical to a TTrpg, seeing the "truth" about things.

I once applied sanity points as such; as the character grew insane I started giving the players brief descriptions of visions as he met NPC's. Strange, seemingly nonsensical, visions with clues of what that NPC was thinking, feeling, secrets, past actions, future actions, and even potential actions. But it is never clear which one of these was shown.
As the character grew more insane the visions became longer, vivid, and with more clues. But never any more sensical.

When the character became close friends with a known murderer (because of the good he will do) and wanted to assasinate the friendly bartender (because of the monstrosity he might do) he appeared mad and erratic to the world. But he believed himself to act perfectly reasonable.

With low enough sanity (but we never reached that point), the character would start getting similar visions when talking to the old ones. Thus revealing the truth behind the deal, the old one, the world, etc...

In this way, the character gained power in exchange for sanity, which in itself eventually becomes more power if your willing to surrender yourself to it.

Andor13
2018-04-06, 09:08 AM
Similarly to what Cheers said. The Great Old Ones drive you mad by teaching you things that are true, but that you can't handle or which are orthogonal to mundane life. This is not their agenda, they generally don't care enough about PC races to have an agenda wrt them.

Each point of sanity lost, should represent an insight into the world which is true, and maybe even useful, but which makes no sense at all to the outside viewer or which is counter to the PCs own world view.

For this PC, of course, the last item of knowledge that takes him to 0 sanity and makes him an NPC is the truth about his "Power" and how his entire life has been a useless quest.

For each point lost give the PC some in character knowledge which is true but not usually of concern. "Mosquitos take your blood. Your blood can be used as a magical component in curses to attack you. The mosquito with one white foot serves the Necromancers of the Leftward Obelisk."

Some of them should have a use, in some weird way. "The ants know more than mankind ever will. If you give them 7 grains of sugar on a day of the new moon they will tell you a secret written in Kendarthan runes, but if you have allowed any other of your food to go to them in the previous week they will take one of your secrets instead." (Counts as divination of your choice once a month, but if you haven't been insanely careful about cleaning up any dropped food then a rival power learns something the PC wanted to keep quiet.)