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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other Pearl of Dark Power (variant Pearl of Power)



Segev
2019-03-08, 12:05 PM
Pearl of Dark Power
This magic item functions much like a Pearl of Power, save that instead of functioning once per day, it consumes the necrotic energies of undead under your control to fuel your magic. When you activate this Pearl, it destroys a number of undead under your control (by any means, so long as they are not free-willed; you may have to win opposed Charisma checks to confirm control in some cases) sufficient to amount to 2 HD per level pf spell the Pearl restores. You may choose which undead are destroyed, though any HD in excess of the amount needed are wasted. Intelligent undead may make a saving throw as if against a spell you cast at the level being restored to avoid destruction; if they do, they also gain their freedom from your control (and this definitely counts as acting against them). You may immediately choose additional undead to make up the HD requirement, but if you run out of eligible HD before you reach the minimum required, the undead that you successfully destroyed are still destroyed, and no spell is restored.

Assuming enough HD of undead are consumed, an expended spell slot or prepared spell of the appropriate level that you choose is restored as if you'd not cast it.

Strong necromancy; CL 17th; Craft Wondrous Item, command undead, creator must be able to cast spells of the spell level to be recalled; Price 1,000 gp (1st), 4,000 gp (2nd), 9,000 gp (3rd), 16,000 gp (4th), 25,000 gp (5th), 36,000 gp (6th), 49,000 gp (7th), 64,000 gp (8th), 81,000 gp (9th), or 70,000 gp (two spells).

JoshuaZ
2019-03-08, 04:00 PM
Pearl of Dark Power
This magic item functions much like a Pearl of Power, save that instead of functioning once per day, it consumes the necrotic energies of undead under your control to fuel your magic. When you activate this Pearl, it destroys a number of undead under your control (by any means, so long as they are not free-willed; you may have to win opposed Charisma checks to confirm control in some cases) sufficient to amount to 2 HD per level pf spell the Pearl restores. You may choose which undead are destroyed, though any HD in excess of the amount needed are wasted. Intelligent undead may make a saving throw as if against a spell you cast at the level being restored to avoid destruction; if they do, they also gain their freedom from your control (and this definitely counts as acting against them). You may immediately choose additional undead to make up the HD requirement, but if you run out of eligible HD before you reach the minimum required, the undead that you successfully destroyed are still destroyed, and no spell is restored.

Assuming enough HD of undead are consumed, an expended spell slot or prepared spell of the appropriate level that you choose is restored as if you'd not cast it.

Strong necromancy; CL 17th; Craft Wondrous Item, command undead, creator must be able to cast spells of the spell level to be recalled; Price 1,000 gp (1st), 4,000 gp (2nd), 9,000 gp (3rd), 16,000 gp (4th), 25,000 gp (5th), 36,000 gp (6th), 49,000 gp (7th), 64,000 gp (8th), 81,000 gp (9th), or 70,000 gp (two spells).

This is well done. Minor thought: am worried that someone could possibly use this along with some tricks to get indefinite number of spells without too much work or very little work. I would specify two things: First, the pearls shouldn't function on summoned creatures. Second, there should be some large maximum number of daily uses, maybe no more spell slots can be restored daily than than your caster level?

Segev
2019-03-08, 04:14 PM
This is well done. Minor thought: am worried that someone could possibly use this along with some tricks to get indefinite number of spells without too much work or very little work. I would specify two things: First, the pearls shouldn't function on summoned creatures. Second, there should be some large maximum number of daily uses, maybe no more spell slots can be restored daily than than your caster level?

Not working on summoned creatures is a good call. That could quickly become free HD well in excess of the spell slot used to cast the summoning spell.

Getting tons and tons of undead under your control is possible, but I don't think you could make it infinite. Making undead atomic - that is, not able to take a high-HD undead for multiple spell slots - cuts back on command undead being cheesed for it, too.

Creating undead costs a minimum of 25 gp/HD (until you get to 9th level spells, at least, with plague of undead that makes 4x CL HD for 100 gp, and could thus fuel approximately 3 re-castings with its own one casting for 100 gp each), so it can become expensive if you're not really good at hunting down free-range undead and enthralling them for your necromantic spell-engine.

Putting a daily cap on it bothers me because the idea that it's still hard capped when you're replacing the 1/day cost with "consume HD of undead" undermines the thematic value of it.

JoshuaZ
2019-03-08, 05:03 PM
Not working on summoned creatures is a good call. That could quickly become free HD well in excess of the spell slot used to cast the summoning spell.

Getting tons and tons of undead under your control is possible, but I don't think you could make it infinite. Making undead atomic - that is, not able to take a high-HD undead for multiple spell slots - cuts back on command undead being cheesed for it, too.

Creating undead costs a minimum of 25 gp/HD (until you get to 9th level spells, at least, with plague of undead that makes 4x CL HD for 100 gp, and could thus fuel approximately 3 re-castings with its own one casting for 100 gp each), so it can become expensive if you're not really good at hunting down free-range undead and enthralling them for your necromantic spell-engine.

Putting a daily cap on it bothers me because the idea that it's still hard capped when you're replacing the 1/day cost with "consume HD of undead" undermines the thematic value of it.

Maybe, but I can see two ways of abusing this. First, someone with necrocarnum (from Magic of Incarnum) and access to corpses can spam this; they have a very limited amount of undead but once a being is destroyed they can immediately make more out of more corpses. Second, a warlock with The Dead Walk invocation can do something similar.

I agree there's a problem with thematic value/fluff, which is part of why I suggested making the cap depend on the spellcaster's own ability rather than a fixed number; that helps reduce the issue somewhat.

Segev
2019-03-08, 05:25 PM
Maybe something like requiring a CL check against a DC of 10+spell level restored+1 per time it's been used since you last recovered spells normally, and a failure consumes the undead without restoring the spell slot?

JoshuaZ
2019-03-08, 05:30 PM
Maybe something like requiring a CL check against a DC of 10+spell level restored+1 per time it's been used since you last recovered spells normally, and a failure consumes the undead without restoring the spell slot?

That sounds reasonable.

Segev
2019-03-08, 05:37 PM
Alternatively, simply 2x(spell level restored)+(# times used since last normal spell recovery).

This will generally make the first time restoring the highest-level spell automatically succeed,, and only slowly ramp up the difficulty. Using lower-level Pearls of Dark Power will work for CL times beyond easily, while higher-level ones will peter out relatively quickly. But a low-level caster wielding one will still get a few uses out of it as long as he's got the undead to fuel it for his low-level spells.

A 1st level caster would automatically succeed the first DC 2 check (d20+1 has a minimum of 2, and a 1st level spell restored would have DC 2). He'd succeed 95% of the time on the second restoration, too, and so on, reducing by 5% each time.

A 3rd level caster has a similar story restoring a 2nd level spell slot. Auto-making the DC 4 the first time.

A 17th level caster also has this.

So it would in general give you a 5% accumulating chance to fail after the first time on your highest-level spells.

JoshuaZ
2019-03-08, 05:54 PM
Alternatively, simply 2x(spell level restored)+(# times used since last normal spell recovery).

This will generally make the first time restoring the highest-level spell automatically succeed,, and only slowly ramp up the difficulty. Using lower-level Pearls of Dark Power will work for CL times beyond easily, while higher-level ones will peter out relatively quickly. But a low-level caster wielding one will still get a few uses out of it as long as he's got the undead to fuel it for his low-level spells.

A 1st level caster would automatically succeed the first DC 2 check (d20+1 has a minimum of 2, and a 1st level spell restored would have DC 2). He'd succeed 95% of the time on the second restoration, too, and so on, reducing by 5% each time.

A 3rd level caster has a similar story restoring a 2nd level spell slot. Auto-making the DC 4 the first time.

A 17th level caster also has this.

So it would in general give you a 5% accumulating chance to fail after the first time on your highest-level spells.


Hmm, that seems like a better solution. Not sure. Maybe someone else can chime in.

rferries
2019-03-09, 03:52 AM
Posting from mobile, so apologies in advance.

1) With no Create Spawn shenanigans, a core caster Will be paying 25 gp per Hit Dice for undead (from animate dead material components).

2) With Create Spawn shensnigans (e.g. rebuking even a single mohrg and using it to convert villagers into zombies), there's an unlimited supply of HD to sacrifice.

Agreed that there should be a limit on maximum number of uses per day, but with a rule-abiding player the pearl seems fairly costly in the long run - simply crafting scrolls might be more efficient at getting extra spells per day.

I lovvvvve the concept, btw.

rferries
2019-03-09, 03:54 AM
(Sordy for double post)

What about simply making it a discounted pearl of power, but can only be used for necromancy spells?

Segev
2019-03-12, 10:54 AM
To be fair, it's only an unlimited number of HD if you have an unlimited number of eligible living things to conver to spawn. This is not a guarantee, though yes, it is a risk.

On the other hand, if we don't assume that spawn controlled by undead you control are "under your control" for purposes of this item, you'd have to be a spawn-creating undead, yourself, for that to work.

I hesitate to make it just a discounted Pearl of Power that can only work on Necromancy spells, because that makes it a 1/day with a pretty hefty cost and a strong limitation. And Pearls of Power are not that expensive to begin with. So it would become a thing that just isn't worth it, unless it was priced so cheaply that the limit, again, was the HD of undead you had available to sacrifice.

rferries
2019-03-28, 10:29 PM
I hesitate to make it just a discounted Pearl of Power that can only work on Necromancy spells, because that makes it a 1/day with a pretty hefty cost and a strong limitation. And Pearls of Power are not that expensive to begin with. So it would become a thing that just isn't worth it, unless it was priced so cheaply that the limit, again, was the HD of undead you had available to sacrifice.

I was actually thinking a bit more literally - make it the same as a pearl of power or ring of wizardry, save that you can only use it to regain/prepare necromancy spells (i.e. no need to sacrifice undead).

Paleomancer
2019-03-29, 05:34 PM
I was actually thinking a bit more literally - make it the same as a pearl of power or ring of wizardry, save that you can only use it to regain/prepare necromancy spells (i.e. no need to sacrifice undead).
Hmm... That really doesn't help, though. All that gives you is an inferior pearl of power or ring of wizardry... And if so, why bother in the first place?

I do think the combination of increasing difficulty plus the need to get undead is a good combination. Maybe have it only affect undead you directly control (I.e. no sacrificing spawn controlled by an undead you control)? So if a necromancer has a morhg controlled, any zombies it controls are resistant until you control them? Or mindless undead count as fewer HD than intelligent undead?

rferries
2019-03-30, 04:22 PM
Hmm... That really doesn't help, though. All that gives you is an inferior pearl of power or ring of wizardry... And if so, why bother in the first place?

One can never have too many spell slots, haha! Especially depending on the discount - if a black pearl only recovers spells from 1 of the 8 schools, it could be argued it should only cost 1/8th as much as a pearl of power (though obviously that's probably far too cheap). Even this limited version might appeal to anyone interested in the current version.

It also has the advantage of simplicity - the current version seems almost more like an artifact than a wondrous item (given the elaborate sacrificial ritual etc).