Duke of URL
2007-09-18, 02:38 PM
Idiosyncrasies
You're a PC, dammit. You're special, not just a random everyday NPC caught in someone else's story. But how do you distinguish yourself from those losers when they have the same access to classes, feats, and skills that you do? I mean, you have the power of plot, but that isn't exactly visible on a regular basis.
No, the story is about you. You're one of the the heroes (or anti-heroes, if that's the way you want to be). You should stand out from the pack in a clearly-defined way available only to PCs, really cool NPCs, and the biggest and baddest bosses in the campaign. You need some seriously personalized signature idiosyncrasies.
Idiosyncrasies function similarly to feats, except that they have absolutely no mechanical benefit or drawback whatsoever. You gain a idiosyncrasy at first level (more precisely, at character creation), and... well, I could set a schedule like feats are awarded, but really, given what idiosyncrasies are for, additional idiosyncrasies are granted when the DM says they ought to be, typically as a reward for completing a campaign or major sub-campaign. Heck, it could even be an extra merit award only offered to characters who distinguish themselves. Essentially, it's a tangible reward that does not affect game play balance.
In short, feats like Spell Thematics would work better as idiosyncrasies (see "Signature Effect" below). The mechanical benefits seem "tacked-on" to a feat that is primarily for "color" purposes. Well, why not keep the "color", ditch the mechanical stuff, and provide a way to make a character a little more distinct from the surroundings?
Rules For Idiosyncrasies
Idiosyncrasies are only available to PCs and key NPCs or villains/bosses (examples: Miko - yes, Hinjo - maybe, Thog - probably not)
PCs get an idiosyncrasy at level 1, and then any time the DM grants them the choice of an additional idiosyncrasy
There must never be a "mechanical" benefit or drawback to an idiosyncrasy, they are for color only
An idiosyncrasy may be used to "improve" a cohort or possession, but if such cohort or possession is later lost, so is the idiosyncrasy
Examples
Billowing Cloak
Requirements: None
Effect: Any cloak you wear constantly flutters gently as if in a light breeze, no matter what the actual wind condition is, if any
Catch Phrase
Requirements: Finishing Move
Effect: Select a weapon for which you have Finishing Move. You develop a catch phrase to say during each of your signature moves for that weapon.
Example: Using the katana example from Finishing Move: "don't lose your head!", or alternatively, depending on the player's knowledge of languages, the player may also choose to have characters from any southeast Asian script pop up as he strikes as the "catch phrase".
Special: This may be taken multiple times, each time applying to a different melee weapon.
Cheesy Accent
Requirements: Must be able to consistently pull off a cheesy accent.
Benefit: Your character speaks in a cheesy accent, and neither the DM nor the other players can force you to stop using it as long as you are speaking in character.
Normal: The use of cheesy accents is dependent on the patience and tolerance of your gaming group.
Cheesily Accented Stand-In
Requirements: Cheesy Accent, must be able to consistently pull off two or more cheesy accents and switch between them quickly.
Benefit: As Cheesy Accent, except that the benefit now also applies whenever you control someone else's character because they couldn't make it to the session. The accent you use for your own character and the accent you use for the other player's character must be different from each other.
Normal: The use of cheesy accents is dependent on the patience and tolerance of your gaming group.
Double-Jointed
Requirements: Caster level first OR Undead type OR Cheesy Accent (eastern European)
Effect: You can make creepy beckoning hand gestures, Bela Lugosi style.
Normal: You can't do it like Bela Lugosi can.
Drama Queen
Requirements: A tolerant DM
Effect: One per session, your character is allowed to make any given situation/sub-plot actually really be all about him or her.
Special: Despite the name of this idiosyncrasy, it is not gender-specific. The DM may override this ability by fiat if you're going to seriously boop up his or her plotlines.
Extra Bacon
Requirements: Drama Queen
Effect: You are connected to every plot NPC and boss by no more than three degrees of separation
Normal: You are connected to everyone within seven degrees of separation
Fashion Rebel!
Requirements: An item that everyone else has.
Effect: You may wear a mundane item in an unusual place or in an unconventional manner which distinguishes you from the masses of other people who possess the same item, piece of clothing, etc.
Example: "I wear the ninja headband like everyone else, but on my arm! Woooo!"
Finishing Move
Requirements: Weapon Focus in a melee weapon (including unarmed strike and natural weapons), BAB +1
Effect: Select a melee weapon you have Weapon Focus in and a descriptive signature attack move using that weapon. When landing a blow on an opponent with the chosen weapon that reduces it to 0 HP or less, you may describe the strike as having used that move. For each five points of BAB above +1 (i.e., at +6, +11, etc.) you can add another signature move to your repertoire, to a maximum of four signature moves. Each signature move may be used up to once per encounter.
Special: This may be taken multiple times, each time applying to a different melee weapon.
Example: "Way of the Samurai" (katana) -- Whenever you deal lethal damage to an enemy with a katana, you and the enemy suddenly end up facing away from each other, having gone past each other. You both stand like this for a few seconds, and then the opponent's head falls off. This has no actual effect on movement. This is a "dramatic effect" only and does not impact the requirements for the raise dead spell of the body needing to be whole.
Funny Green Outfit
Requirements: Must possess a funny green outfit
Effect: Every time someone sees your funny green outfit, they comment on how strange it is. This does not have any effect on how recognizable you are (either for or against), though at appropriate moments some NPC's may tell you about the last time they saw someone wearing that funny green outfit (that is, you) and talk about your exploits.
Variants: Could also be a funny-named instrument (like an ocarina), or similar unique item.
Normal: Normally your funny green outfit is just green and funny. Other outfits are usually neither green nor funny.
Goggles
Requirements: None.
Effect: You wear goggles. They do nothing.
Jumping The Shark
Requirements: None
Effect: You may incorporate one pop-culture reference into your character (or the character's followers, possessions, etc.)
Special: Keeping it subtle enough to not be annoying may be required
Example: A "batman" wizard uses this to have his cohort, named Robyn Grayson, be able to use phrases like "Holy Zombies, (wizard's name)!"
Example 2: "Windstriker, I choose you!"
One-Hit Wonder
Requirements: Truly Badass or Spellcasting ability
Effect: If you manage to "one-shot" a boss creature, you are allowed to literally dance on its grave as a free action.
Perfect Hair
Requirements: Hair, CHA 13+
Effect: No matter what happens to you, your hair is always perfectly in place
Player (Pronounced: "play-ah")
Requirements: CHA 17+
Effect: Your character can get laid anywhere. Seriously. Even in the middle of a convent populated by non-gendered eunuchs. Regardless, this has no effect on personal reputation with anyone involved.
Python's Patience
Requirements: None
Effect: You may make one extra Monty Python reference per session then the DM would normally allow you.
Special: This idiosyncrasy may be taken multiple times, each time it is taken you gain an additional reference/session
Sexy Shoeless God of War
Requirements: Truly Badass
Effect: In a non-CR-appropriate situation, if you are single-handedly responsible for killing enemies whose total hit points equal at least 300% of your own during the encounter, you may describe said enemies' deaths in a ridiculously over-the-top manner. All manner of realism may be ignored (subject to DM discretion), provided you do not actually change the battlefield.
Special: Despite the name of this idiosyncrasy, you can use it while wearing shoes
Shadowy Presence
Requirements: None
Effect: You are always described as having your face concealed in shadows, regardless of the actual lighting conditions. Nonetheless, this has no impact on anyone being able to recognize you.
Shocking Secret
Requirements: Armor Proficiency (any), must wear armor at least 75% of the time.
Effect: Your armor hides something, anything, subject to DM approval.
Examples: A disfigured face worthy of censorship, everyone assuming your character is of the opposite gender thanks to the gender masking nature of your armor, or maybe you just have a stupid haircut.
Normal: You're just someone who likes a good AC bonus, with nothing to hide.
Signature Effect
Requirements: Ability to cast level 1 arcane spells
Effect: Your spells have a visual theme, such as ‘sphere’ or ‘lightning’. Spells you cast have special effects based on your theme
Special: You may choose one spell per caster level to apply this idiosyncrasy to, and one spell each additional caster level gained
Example: With a "sphere" theme, Summon Monster I would be represented as the creature springing from a thrown sphere.
Soliloquy
Requirements: Drama Queen
Effect: Once per session, you may suspend game play to go on a long winded monologue discussing what the character is thinking and feeling, how the current situation directly affects the character, and how it relates to his or her past. The monologue ends if the player strays at all from those points, or when the DM tells the player to shut the hell up.
Special: While The monologue must be done in character, any information imparted is technically OOC. Technically.
Sonic Screwdriver
Requirements: At least 1 rank in a skill that requires ambiguous tools (Such as Disable Device, or Open Lock)
Effect: When a player takes this Idiosyncrasy, he/she may choose one of the skills required in the Prerequisites. Any time that player succeeds on that check, he/she may declare: "Luckily I always carry my...", with the ellipsis replaced with a chosen tool related to that check. From then on, the tool mentioned in the phrase may not change, unless the DM approves a change, or the tool in question is lost, taken, stolen, broken, sundered, snapped by another player, ect.
Special: This idiosyncrasy may be taken more than once, its effects either stack (Allowing the player to declare "Luckily I always carry my...and my..."), or may be applied to a different skill, depending on Player Choice/DM approval.
Theme Music
Requirements: None
Effect: Any time you make an entrance, you can, at your option, have your theme music play, even if you have to sing it yourself
Special: Abuse of this idiosyncrasy may lead to physical violence or banning from future game sessions
Truly Badass
Requirements: None
Effect: Whenever you manage to kill a CR-appropriate enemy that had more than half its hitpoints remaining at the start of your turn, you may describe said enemy's death in a ridiculously over-the-top manner. All manner of realism may be ignored (subject to DM discretion), provided you do not actually change the battlefield. This only applies to damage caused by a weapon (including unarmed strike and natural weapons).
Special: No whining from you spellcasters... this is what you DO.
You're a PC, dammit. You're special, not just a random everyday NPC caught in someone else's story. But how do you distinguish yourself from those losers when they have the same access to classes, feats, and skills that you do? I mean, you have the power of plot, but that isn't exactly visible on a regular basis.
No, the story is about you. You're one of the the heroes (or anti-heroes, if that's the way you want to be). You should stand out from the pack in a clearly-defined way available only to PCs, really cool NPCs, and the biggest and baddest bosses in the campaign. You need some seriously personalized signature idiosyncrasies.
Idiosyncrasies function similarly to feats, except that they have absolutely no mechanical benefit or drawback whatsoever. You gain a idiosyncrasy at first level (more precisely, at character creation), and... well, I could set a schedule like feats are awarded, but really, given what idiosyncrasies are for, additional idiosyncrasies are granted when the DM says they ought to be, typically as a reward for completing a campaign or major sub-campaign. Heck, it could even be an extra merit award only offered to characters who distinguish themselves. Essentially, it's a tangible reward that does not affect game play balance.
In short, feats like Spell Thematics would work better as idiosyncrasies (see "Signature Effect" below). The mechanical benefits seem "tacked-on" to a feat that is primarily for "color" purposes. Well, why not keep the "color", ditch the mechanical stuff, and provide a way to make a character a little more distinct from the surroundings?
Rules For Idiosyncrasies
Idiosyncrasies are only available to PCs and key NPCs or villains/bosses (examples: Miko - yes, Hinjo - maybe, Thog - probably not)
PCs get an idiosyncrasy at level 1, and then any time the DM grants them the choice of an additional idiosyncrasy
There must never be a "mechanical" benefit or drawback to an idiosyncrasy, they are for color only
An idiosyncrasy may be used to "improve" a cohort or possession, but if such cohort or possession is later lost, so is the idiosyncrasy
Examples
Billowing Cloak
Requirements: None
Effect: Any cloak you wear constantly flutters gently as if in a light breeze, no matter what the actual wind condition is, if any
Catch Phrase
Requirements: Finishing Move
Effect: Select a weapon for which you have Finishing Move. You develop a catch phrase to say during each of your signature moves for that weapon.
Example: Using the katana example from Finishing Move: "don't lose your head!", or alternatively, depending on the player's knowledge of languages, the player may also choose to have characters from any southeast Asian script pop up as he strikes as the "catch phrase".
Special: This may be taken multiple times, each time applying to a different melee weapon.
Cheesy Accent
Requirements: Must be able to consistently pull off a cheesy accent.
Benefit: Your character speaks in a cheesy accent, and neither the DM nor the other players can force you to stop using it as long as you are speaking in character.
Normal: The use of cheesy accents is dependent on the patience and tolerance of your gaming group.
Cheesily Accented Stand-In
Requirements: Cheesy Accent, must be able to consistently pull off two or more cheesy accents and switch between them quickly.
Benefit: As Cheesy Accent, except that the benefit now also applies whenever you control someone else's character because they couldn't make it to the session. The accent you use for your own character and the accent you use for the other player's character must be different from each other.
Normal: The use of cheesy accents is dependent on the patience and tolerance of your gaming group.
Double-Jointed
Requirements: Caster level first OR Undead type OR Cheesy Accent (eastern European)
Effect: You can make creepy beckoning hand gestures, Bela Lugosi style.
Normal: You can't do it like Bela Lugosi can.
Drama Queen
Requirements: A tolerant DM
Effect: One per session, your character is allowed to make any given situation/sub-plot actually really be all about him or her.
Special: Despite the name of this idiosyncrasy, it is not gender-specific. The DM may override this ability by fiat if you're going to seriously boop up his or her plotlines.
Extra Bacon
Requirements: Drama Queen
Effect: You are connected to every plot NPC and boss by no more than three degrees of separation
Normal: You are connected to everyone within seven degrees of separation
Fashion Rebel!
Requirements: An item that everyone else has.
Effect: You may wear a mundane item in an unusual place or in an unconventional manner which distinguishes you from the masses of other people who possess the same item, piece of clothing, etc.
Example: "I wear the ninja headband like everyone else, but on my arm! Woooo!"
Finishing Move
Requirements: Weapon Focus in a melee weapon (including unarmed strike and natural weapons), BAB +1
Effect: Select a melee weapon you have Weapon Focus in and a descriptive signature attack move using that weapon. When landing a blow on an opponent with the chosen weapon that reduces it to 0 HP or less, you may describe the strike as having used that move. For each five points of BAB above +1 (i.e., at +6, +11, etc.) you can add another signature move to your repertoire, to a maximum of four signature moves. Each signature move may be used up to once per encounter.
Special: This may be taken multiple times, each time applying to a different melee weapon.
Example: "Way of the Samurai" (katana) -- Whenever you deal lethal damage to an enemy with a katana, you and the enemy suddenly end up facing away from each other, having gone past each other. You both stand like this for a few seconds, and then the opponent's head falls off. This has no actual effect on movement. This is a "dramatic effect" only and does not impact the requirements for the raise dead spell of the body needing to be whole.
Funny Green Outfit
Requirements: Must possess a funny green outfit
Effect: Every time someone sees your funny green outfit, they comment on how strange it is. This does not have any effect on how recognizable you are (either for or against), though at appropriate moments some NPC's may tell you about the last time they saw someone wearing that funny green outfit (that is, you) and talk about your exploits.
Variants: Could also be a funny-named instrument (like an ocarina), or similar unique item.
Normal: Normally your funny green outfit is just green and funny. Other outfits are usually neither green nor funny.
Goggles
Requirements: None.
Effect: You wear goggles. They do nothing.
Jumping The Shark
Requirements: None
Effect: You may incorporate one pop-culture reference into your character (or the character's followers, possessions, etc.)
Special: Keeping it subtle enough to not be annoying may be required
Example: A "batman" wizard uses this to have his cohort, named Robyn Grayson, be able to use phrases like "Holy Zombies, (wizard's name)!"
Example 2: "Windstriker, I choose you!"
One-Hit Wonder
Requirements: Truly Badass or Spellcasting ability
Effect: If you manage to "one-shot" a boss creature, you are allowed to literally dance on its grave as a free action.
Perfect Hair
Requirements: Hair, CHA 13+
Effect: No matter what happens to you, your hair is always perfectly in place
Player (Pronounced: "play-ah")
Requirements: CHA 17+
Effect: Your character can get laid anywhere. Seriously. Even in the middle of a convent populated by non-gendered eunuchs. Regardless, this has no effect on personal reputation with anyone involved.
Python's Patience
Requirements: None
Effect: You may make one extra Monty Python reference per session then the DM would normally allow you.
Special: This idiosyncrasy may be taken multiple times, each time it is taken you gain an additional reference/session
Sexy Shoeless God of War
Requirements: Truly Badass
Effect: In a non-CR-appropriate situation, if you are single-handedly responsible for killing enemies whose total hit points equal at least 300% of your own during the encounter, you may describe said enemies' deaths in a ridiculously over-the-top manner. All manner of realism may be ignored (subject to DM discretion), provided you do not actually change the battlefield.
Special: Despite the name of this idiosyncrasy, you can use it while wearing shoes
Shadowy Presence
Requirements: None
Effect: You are always described as having your face concealed in shadows, regardless of the actual lighting conditions. Nonetheless, this has no impact on anyone being able to recognize you.
Shocking Secret
Requirements: Armor Proficiency (any), must wear armor at least 75% of the time.
Effect: Your armor hides something, anything, subject to DM approval.
Examples: A disfigured face worthy of censorship, everyone assuming your character is of the opposite gender thanks to the gender masking nature of your armor, or maybe you just have a stupid haircut.
Normal: You're just someone who likes a good AC bonus, with nothing to hide.
Signature Effect
Requirements: Ability to cast level 1 arcane spells
Effect: Your spells have a visual theme, such as ‘sphere’ or ‘lightning’. Spells you cast have special effects based on your theme
Special: You may choose one spell per caster level to apply this idiosyncrasy to, and one spell each additional caster level gained
Example: With a "sphere" theme, Summon Monster I would be represented as the creature springing from a thrown sphere.
Soliloquy
Requirements: Drama Queen
Effect: Once per session, you may suspend game play to go on a long winded monologue discussing what the character is thinking and feeling, how the current situation directly affects the character, and how it relates to his or her past. The monologue ends if the player strays at all from those points, or when the DM tells the player to shut the hell up.
Special: While The monologue must be done in character, any information imparted is technically OOC. Technically.
Sonic Screwdriver
Requirements: At least 1 rank in a skill that requires ambiguous tools (Such as Disable Device, or Open Lock)
Effect: When a player takes this Idiosyncrasy, he/she may choose one of the skills required in the Prerequisites. Any time that player succeeds on that check, he/she may declare: "Luckily I always carry my...", with the ellipsis replaced with a chosen tool related to that check. From then on, the tool mentioned in the phrase may not change, unless the DM approves a change, or the tool in question is lost, taken, stolen, broken, sundered, snapped by another player, ect.
Special: This idiosyncrasy may be taken more than once, its effects either stack (Allowing the player to declare "Luckily I always carry my...and my..."), or may be applied to a different skill, depending on Player Choice/DM approval.
Theme Music
Requirements: None
Effect: Any time you make an entrance, you can, at your option, have your theme music play, even if you have to sing it yourself
Special: Abuse of this idiosyncrasy may lead to physical violence or banning from future game sessions
Truly Badass
Requirements: None
Effect: Whenever you manage to kill a CR-appropriate enemy that had more than half its hitpoints remaining at the start of your turn, you may describe said enemy's death in a ridiculously over-the-top manner. All manner of realism may be ignored (subject to DM discretion), provided you do not actually change the battlefield. This only applies to damage caused by a weapon (including unarmed strike and natural weapons).
Special: No whining from you spellcasters... this is what you DO.