Fae Boon/Punishment!

[Fishyninja]

Hello fellow D&D peoples!

So had a really good session with the group.

Some Background, along their travels the wizard found a magical jar that contained two small skeletons that were embracing. Maybe a few inches high or so. He determined this jar when opened caused a large amount of sullen and depressed feelings in a certain area. He noticed that any Fae creatures seemed to be attracted to him. Fast forward and he discovered the two skeletons are Members of the Seelie court and he decided to try and release their skeletons and souls from this item that they were trapped in.

He was successful with the help of the party and the departing souls have granted a boon to all the party members.

But since they are fae. I want the boon to have a temporary detrimental effect as well.
Since the party is Level 8 I want something that will be usable but not abusable as they have some powerful items as well.

Also I was thinking about basing the boon of their class/character personalities and this is where I am stuck and I need your assistance!

Below are the characters and some information about them.

Gharl - Human Divination Wizard
Gharl is the Son of a Noble, about 30 years in age and worships one thing, the Law of Waterdeep. He has begun Travelling with the group to experience the world and teach the 'savage lands' about how society should be (i.e. Waterdeep)

Gharl is a bit of an arse, the classic born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he ultimately wants to do good but he still believes in the class structure etc.

Vasile - Human Battlemaster Fighter
Vasile is a crass and filthy man, not only with his mouth but his appearance, he does little to maintain his looks and has long lank greasy black hair and a severly pockmarked face. His speech shows you he hails from Baldur's gate and certainly was in the working class, he carries a heavy crossbow and what seems to be the weight to the world on his shouders
Vasile works for Gharls father and at present acts as his Bodyguard, Vasile is a crass man but he is a good worker, he originally trained as a woodcarver and spends a lot of time making minor adjustments to his crossbow. Vasile dislikes Gharl but really hates his father who employs him, solely as Gharl's father keeps Vasiles daughter as a ward and will use her against her if needs be. As mentioned Vasile will do what he can do to protect Gharl as his daughter's safety is dependant on Gharls.

Samalyn - Half-Elf Divine Soul Sorcerer
Samalyn believes herself to be a an angel of Selune who was sent to earth as punishment. She believes all mortals are evil and need to be punished. She believes that Selune has sent her to live among mortals as a punishment
Samalyn is confident to the point of being arrogant, she truly believes she is an angel and acts like she still is and always seems surprised that people do not give her the respect she deserves. When she fought with Selune she was a warrior but now she has noticed many of her powers are based on healing and not combat

Scarlet the Meadow Crocus - Human Kensei Monk
Scarlet has had a rough life, spent most of he lights in an underground fighting ring in Waterdeep, a slave and a fighter she learned quickly that to fight is to lice and that killing is a part of life. She has managed to escape that life and now fights to further her skills but she will still happily kill and would rather settle a dispute with a knife in the ribs than diplomacy
Scarlet is emotionally stunted. She is uneducated and Ignorant, she cares naught for society, rules or etiqutte, all she wants to know is who to fight and whether they need to be killed or not. She just wants better gear, better trainers and her own house. And possibly to kill the person who first enslaved her

Nanaleen Dale - Halfling Arcane Trickster/Shadow Sorcerer
Nanaleen while probably being the oldest of the group acts like the youngest and like a young girl as part of her ruse. Again raised on the streets as a thief she will steal to survive, she has killed but only in self defense however a short while ago she was collared by guard and is now acting as a Confidential Informant for them. She has been tasked with keeping an eye on the others as the guard do not trust them.
Nani as mentioned beforehand will act like the cute little girl and will normally be the first one to suggest a fun activity, she hates the great outdoors and wide open spaces and prefers to be curled up in a tight small space.

Scad - Changeling Assassin
Scad is a friend of Nani's, he wears a mask to hide his true nature and excudes an air of deadliness and menace he is actually a coward. He will prefer to hide where possible and usually will only fight if his life is dependant on it.

So I implore you all to provide me suggestions for a Boon/Bane I can give them, maybe something temporary or long term. Lend me your ideas!

[Unoriginal]

Here's my suggestions, hopefully ironically tied to the PCs' classes, backstory and mindsets:

"To Gharl, to help him gather the knowledge he needs, we give The Gift of Empathic Understanding":

Gharl now has 100% accurate knowledge of the emotions those he talks with/talks to feel.

"To Scad, to help him show his true nature, we give The Gift of Secured Discretion"

Scad is now always considered hidden. He now has a Passive Discretion equal to 10+Dex mod+ Stealth proficiency mod+ (Expertise and any other positive mods), and can only be noticed by those whose Passive Perception/WIS(Perception) check are higher than that, unless he does an action that makes him more noticeable (attack, do a loud noise, etc).

"To Vasile, to help him surpass his heavy burden, we give The Gift to Make his Acts Count"

Vasile can now adopt the persona of the Count of Mount Waterdeep, an extremely wealthy and influential noble who many have heard of (in reality, a disguise that many of the Seelie court have been using when going around the world, with its bank account filled in case they want to have fun). However, his disguise only last for as long as he plays the part of the Count.


I need to think longer for the others. Please tell me your opinions on those.

[rlc]

Sorcerer gets some extra sorcery points, but glows in the moonlight

[Fishyninja]

Here's my suggestions, hopefully ironically tied to the PCs' classes, backstory and mindsets:

"To Gharl, to help him gather the knowledge he needs, we give The Gift of Empathic Understanding":

Gharl now has 100% accurate knowledge of the emotions those he talks with/talks to feel.

"To Scad, to help him show his true nature, we give The Gift of Secured Discretion"

Scad is now always considered hidden. He now has a Passive Discretion equal to 10+Dex mod+ Stealth proficiency mod+ (Expertise and any other positive mods), and can only be noticed by those whose Passive Perception/WIS(Perception) check are higher than that, unless he does an action that makes him more noticeable (attack, do a loud noise, etc).

"To Vasile, to help him surpass his heavy burden, we give The Gift to Make his Acts Count"

Vasile can now adopt the persona of the Count of Mount Waterdeep, an extremely wealthy and influential noble who many have heard of (in reality, a disguise that many of the Seelie court have been using when going around the world, with its bank account filled in case they want to have fun). However, his disguise only last for as long as he plays the part of the Count.


I need to think longer for the others. Please tell me your opinions on those.

They are interesting to begin with this is something we might be able to work with, just to make sure I understand where you are including the punishment aspect:

Gharl = Understands immediately how people feel about him, whether that is joy, indifference, disgust etc.
Scad = Basically never seen or heard unless he specifically tries to be noticed.
Vasile = Could become a powerful noble, with the means to complete the role but must believe in the role and play the role. I.e. change his entire persona.

Sound about right?


Sorcerer gets some extra sorcery points, but glows in the moonlight
Hmmm Interesting, makes stealth and things difficult....she might use that to her advantage to try to convince others of her 'divinity' could lead to possible followers.

[Unoriginal]

Gharl = Understands immediately how people feel about him, whether that is joy, indifference, disgust etc.

Not only that, but he knows how people feel about *everything*. The starving urchin in the street, the captain who abuses their power, the noble who think how those of lesser standings are trash, the servant who has to bear being treated like trash for a paycheck...



Scad = Basically never seen or heard unless he specifically tries to be noticed.

Indeed. And since you said he's a coward who never fights when he can hide...



Vasile = Could become a powerful noble, with the means to complete the role but must believe in the role and play the role. I.e. change his entire persona.


It's more like an alternate form which he can uses to help with his daughter's situation and getting rich etc, but he has to change how he acts for the duration of the form, and basically has to pretend to be someone like Gharl's father (which he hates).

[Fishyninja]

Ok I get where you are coming from now.

I certainly like the Gharl Idea.
I am concerned that the player who plays as Scad will try to cheese this for automatic assassinations so may want to maybe reduce its effectiveness.
Edit Maybe something similar along those lines of Scad gets the ability to use the Invisibility spell once a day, however upon the spell ending (whether it be through this own choice etc) he is then under the effect of Faerie Fire for 1 hour).

For Vasile I certainly like the idea, However my concern is that once he has paid back his debt etc by acting as a count for the while and got his daughter out. What keeps him travelling with the group? He is travelling because he has too. Essentially he could use this as an Out for his character.
Edit How about something like this daily he gains an amount of gold (either a set amount or rolled amount) he can send the gold how he so wishes however if he has any of that gold left at the end of the day half of his gold magically disappears, if this happens every day for a week then half of his gold, possessions and magical items disappear.

[KittenMagician]

for scad i like the idea of him being permanently invisible. but lets take it to the next level. not only is he visibly invisible to other characters but audibly invisible and corporally invisible from them as well. for all intents and purposes he doesnt exist from the point of view of other characters. no cheesing the assassination stuff. for him to be able to interact with people he has to put in an effort of will power, either a charisma check to make his personality felt or a wisdom check as to will himself into "existence"

taking away a characters reason for being with the group isnt a good idea as it more or less kills character motivations. for Vasile i would say he is cursed to always be exceedingly polite and gracious and very well behaved with people of noble standing which conversely gives him advantage on persuasion checks with those same said people (or counted as expertise with persuasion against noble)

i cant really come up with anything for the rest of them but i think the fae boons should be something that at first, at least mechanically, seems pretty great but in the long run you might rather not have it. that just feels in line with the nature of fae beings. you might take a look at the epic boons in the DMG for some mechanical inspiration and then toss in some nice flavoring stuff that mostly impacts RP.

good luck. you have set yourself a difficult task.

[Fishyninja]

for scad i like the idea of him being permanently invisible. but lets take it to the next level. not only is he visibly invisible to other characters but audibly invisible and corporally invisible from them as well. for all intents and purposes he doesnt exist from the point of view of other characters. no cheesing the assassination stuff. for him to be able to interact with people he has to put in an effort of will power, either a charisma check to make his personality felt or a wisdom check as to will himself into "existence"

Hmm potentially I would have to set the DC lowish, maybe a 12 or 14 as he has terrible Charisma (Dump Stat) and he gets moody when he fails saves.


good luck. you have set yourself a difficult task.

Dont I know it.
I found a list of 100 things such as: 'You no longer have a shadow', or 'Your eyes change colour' or 'If you see a bear you think it is actually a man in a bear costume', while interesting have no real disadvantages.

If needs be I might just give them all the effect of bless for 24 hours but also be under the influence of Faerie Fire for 24 hours.