The Plane of Essence[3.5]

[save da chicken]

Have you ever played RPG's and wondered "Hey I've just killed a spider. How in the world did I get, say, a shortsword?, gold(or money)?!?" I have, especially Final Fantasy and such.

I've been thinking about that, and , having the active imagination I have...
been trying to find an explanation for it....
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Frequent travelers of the Planes have stumbled across an undiscovered Plane, similar to the material Plane. Almost all the natural laws are the same too, except, when a creature native to the plane dies their soul(as it is called be the dwellers of the material plane) loses its form and forms a pool of Essence.

The Essence then dissipates(sp?) into the Essence Stream, the power source of the Plane. Magic users have been able to create devices to absorb some of the 'raw Essence' before it goes. 'Raw Essence' can then be changed into various things, such as magic items, magic itself and many other, undiscovered, powers. Powerful beings have powerful Essence, leading to better rewards
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Here's where I need help, figuring out what the mechanics and rewards for those fortunate or powerful enough to gain enough 'Raw Essence' please and thank you.

IDEA!! 1 essence = 100gp/CR 1 = 1 essence.

A +1 dagger would take 46 essence (+1 bonus, 4000gp, MWK dagger, 602gp)
Double the prices of the bonuses. Experience point materials cost the EXP x 2.

For spells/ spell slots/ charges, Spell level x Caster level x 10 x 2. 5th level Cleric, Cure Moderate Wounds, 2x5x10x2, 200gp, 2 essence. Less than 100gp uses 1 essence. (Round to the nearest hundred gp)

Magic items need to be made in a specific device, spells can be made almost anywhere with a specific (portable) device.
-------------------------------------------------EDIT: Doubled the prices
Does that sound good?

[Prometheus]

Well, if Essence accounts for the source of magic items as the result of killing a creature, than one would expect that essence is proportional to average treasure for the ECR (Effective CR). There is a table for this in the DMG, and you can just scale this by the greatest common denominator (erm, if the lowest is say 300, divide everything by 100).

[save da chicken]

Thinking over it, maybe magic items would be too big of a reward for killing the amount of monsters it needs to get enough Essence for a reward.:smallconfused:
Anyway what page would that be on? Or is it the experience table? I'm really just a beginner DM. Be better if my group actually played......:smallannoyed:

[Prometheus]

I'm using the 3.0 DMG guide, so I know the page number will be different by the on the 3.5 DMG guide, but the layout should be the same. There is the experience table, than a page or two after there is the treasure table. The bulk of the page is taken up by rolling random treasure, but there is a smaller table that gives average treasure values that aren't randomly rolled for.

Originally that table is designed for when a DM wants to pick out the treasure for an encounter rather than randomly roll for it, but it should be useful for your purposes of finding a reward for killing monsters. Keep in mind though, that this really is only helpful if you can find a way to relate the uses of Essentia into the values of magic items (there is a place in the book that gives the price for NPC spells and there is a table for creating magic items that replicate spell effects). For example, a +1 sword is 2000g and a +2 sword is 8000g. If you let the characters create magic swords out of Essentia you would have the price of a +2 sword be four times the price of a +1 sword, not two times.

[save da chicken]

Oh ok then. Now all I need is to figure out how to decide the amount of essence is needed for a reward and how much is given from a kill. Thanks for the help so far =]. I've also put this up in request-a-homebrew, so it should be finished soon. :smallsmile:

[save da chicken]

Ok, I've got most of the planar traits down.
The Plane of Essence has the same planar traits as the Prime Material Plane, except as follows.

Infinite size: The Plane of Essence goes on forever.

Divinely Morphic: Deities(sp) can shape the plane at will, mortals find it as difficult to shape as the Material Plane.

Native Immortality: Natives to the plane never truly die, they are reborn (as the reincarnate spell, no choice, PHB 270) with no memory of its previous life in 1D10 days.

Civilized Travel: The civil folk of the plane have discovered weak areas in the Stream that allow the Essence to be shaped to form portals. Since th plane is infinite, they are always looking for more areas to use.
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Any more ideas, feel free to add. I'm working on the devices and spells needed to control the Essence. Help is always appreciated =].

[AsuroftheStair]

An innovative idea simplifying the treasure process. You could use the average treasure table (pg 170 in 3.0 DM's Guide, 51 in 3.5) and split it among the party members. 1 essence could = 1 gp, thus you simply need a # of essence points equal to the amount of GP. Meanwhile, item-crafters could substitute essence points for XP in casting XP cost spells and creating items, 1 XP per 25 essence points (keeping with how crafting an item takes 1/25th of the market price as XP).
Are you familiar with the Magic of Incarnium? It deals with "essentia", the same as essence, but a lot less is needed than in the system I talked about above. If you're not familiar with it, it may be an interesting read (though many people seem to not like the book, since it deals with essentia & it's use in a strange way). If you are familiar with it, then you could make 1 essentia = 400 gp (as the talisman for 1 time use essentia), and use that for a separate soul energy, or just count essence in terms of essentia.

Finally, just two questions about how capturing essence streams interacts with the Native Immortality trait (since they seem semi-contradictory).

if the soul of someone dying violently can be captured, are they 'reborn' as spell energy or intelligent magical items?
Can the energy of someone dying of old age be captured and used?

[save da chicken]

Finally, just two questions about how capturing essence streams interacts with the Native Immortality trait (since they seem semi-contradictory).

if the soul of someone dying violently can be captured, are they 'reborn' as spell energy or intelligent magical items?
Can the energy of someone dying of old age be captured and used?

First question, you don't capture their whole essence, just a 'unit' before it departs, thus the memory wipe. I think that's what you asked, or how I interpreted it.

Second question, yes, if you were there at the time. But figure the CR of said person, and maybe divide it in half for the essence gained.

And Magic of Incarnium, never heard of it heh :smallredface:

Hope that helps.