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If you haven't heard (or heard of) it already, the 3.5 Private Sanctuary have done a podcast of their first Alpha playtest, which you can get here. It's a bit short at 82 minutes; I'd like to hear them do another (longer) playtest podcast after they've got a few more Pathfinder sessions under their collective belt.
I'm planning to run my group through the Expedition to Castle Ravenloft hardcover, and have been doing a lot of reading up on Ravenloft lore in that book, White Wolf's 3rd Edition campaign setting book, and the AD&D Ravenloft Boxed Set. I'm really looking forward to running this, and will be doing plenty more research to interweave some classic feel with the updated "Expedition" material. The taint rules from Heroes of Horror (adapted from the OGL taint rules in Unearthed Arcana) are mentioned several times throughout the Expedition hardcover as an optional addition, which got me thinking in broader terms about how taint and curses might be related within Ravenloft. Here's my first pass at how this might look in my game: Spoiler:
Taint in Ravenloft
While adventuring in Ravenloft, characters acquire taint as described in the Taint rules found in Heroes of Horror, but suffer none of the normal effects associated with taint. Characters can accumulate any amount of taint without being affected, until they are subjected to a curse spell or effect while in the demiplane of Ravenloft. The spell Bestow Curse, and other effects based on it, function differently in Ravenloft. When a character is targeted with a successful curse, the normal effects of the spell are ignored; the curse instead exposes a creature to the effects of its accumulated corruption or depravity. If a character is already subjected to the effects of one type of taint, a second Bestow Curse or related effect subjects him to the effect of the other type. Characters already suffering the effects of both their accumulated corruption and depravity are unaffected by additional curse spells or effects. While under the influence of a curse effect, a character in Ravenloft immediately shows the normal effect of all current accumulated corruption or depravity, and is affected normally by future accumulation of taint while under the influence of the curse. Additionally, a character's Good alignment score is reduced by the severity of his corruption or depravity, minimum 1. Mild taint reduces this score by 2, Moderate taint reduces it by 4, and Severe taint reduces it by 6. The Good alignment score of insane creatures is reduced by 8. This reduction in Good alignment score is based on the level of either corruption or depravity, whichever is higher. Ending the curse effect prevents any further effect caused by the character's accumulated corruption or depravity, but accumulated taint and any existing effects must be removed or reversed separately as described in the taint rules. A creature's accumulated taint can be sensed using the Detect Taint spell, as described in Heroes of Horror. If a target's level of corruption or depravity has already been sensed through the Detect Taint spell, casters can cause a specific corruption or depravity to manifest as the result of a curse. The caster makes a Spellcraft check as part of placing the curse; on a successful check, the caster may select a specific corruption or depravity effect to manifest as a result of the curse. The DC for this check is equal to the amount of taint plus the character's ability score modifier (Con for depravity, Will for corruption). Also, as an aside: Spoiler:
While thinking about how best to old-schoolify the "Expedition" material, I ran across my PDF of the 3.5 update for Tomb of Horrors and decided to incorporate this adventure into the Ravenloft campaign.
Acererak the lich is replaced by Azalin the lich (described in the AD&D Realm of Terror book from the boxed set), and the Tomb of Horrors was built in part to keep the Holy Symbol of Ravenloft out of the hands of any who might use it against Strahd. When the Fortunes of Ravenloft are used to determine the location of the Holy Symbol, the characters will instead find some important clue or necessary information leading them to the Tomb to retrieve the Symbol. I've got a lot more homework to do, on all of the above, but wanted to share these thoughts on taint and curses while it's all fresh. Feedback welcome :)
I never liked the idea of spending XP to power spells, but since I usually don't play spellcasters I never thought much about it. I'm playing a sorcerer in a new Eberron campaign starting next week, and the thought of facing XP costs for spells motivated me to work up an alternative. Instead of spending XP to power spells that include an XP cost, a spellcaster risks taking ability score damage in his primary ability for spellcasting. The ability score damage must heal normally (no magical healing), and is determined by the following formula: 2d2 +1 per 1,000 XP (or fraction) -1 per four caster levels Additionally, the caster must make a FORT save (DC 10 + ability damage taken) or become fatigued. If the save fails by 5 or more, the caster instead becomes exhausted. This save must be rolled (at DC 10) even if the caster take no ability score damage from casting the spell. If the caster fails the FORT save he must take at least one point of ability damage, even if the damage rolled was 0 or less. This condition does not apply when there is no chance of ability damage due to his caster level modifier. I ran a few examples just to see how the math works out, and got some pretty interesting results. It seems most spells top out (i.e., caster runs no risk of ability damage) at caster level 20. Two of the big 'uns (Wish, and casting Permanency on Prismatic Sphere) topped out at caster level 36. Commune: 100xp cost (+1 mod)
( cast w/no chance of ability damage at level 20 ) Vision: 100xp cost (+1 mod)
( cast w/no chance of ability damage at level 20 ) Wish: 5,000 xp cost (+5 mod)
( cast w/no chance of ability damage at level 36 ) Gate: 1,000 xp cost (+1 mod)
( cast w/no chance of ability damage at level 20 ) Limited Wish: 300 xp (+1 mod)
( cast w/no chance of ability damage at level 20 ) Permanency (resistance): 500xp (+1 mod)
( cast w/no chance of ability damage at level 20 ) Permanency (prismatic sphere): 4500xp (+5 mod)
( cast w/no chance of ability damage at level 36 ) Lesser Planar Ally: 100 xp (+1 mod)
( cast w/no chance of ability damage at level 20 ) I like this (or something like it) because, while you're worse off in the short term due to potential ability damage and possible fatigue or exhaustion, you're better off in the long run because you don't jeopardize that most precious of resources: XP. Any time you take ability score damage in your primary casting ability, you also reduce the save DCs of your spells, as well as (possibly) the highest-level spells you can cast. The increasing modifier for caster level reflects the idea that lower level casters feel the XP loss more than higher level casters, so the possibility of ability score damage decreases as your caster's power increases. If you think the damage potential is too low, you could use 2d3 instead of 2d2. If your game runs into a wild magic zone, replace 2d2 with 1d4 (or 2d3 with 1d6) to reflect the volatile nature of wild magic. Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Lemme have it :)
Howdy! I recently ordered a month-to-month subscription to both Dungeon and Dragon, to carry me over till they end and Pathfinder begins. My Dragon subscription shows properly in the My Subscriptions sidebar, but nothing is listed here under Dungeon. I checked my order history to confirm that I did put in a month-to-month order for both magazines, so I'm not sure why it's not showing up. If you could take a look and let me know if the Dungeon order went through, I'd appreciate it. I'd hate to miss any of the last Dungeon issues! Thanks :) Edit: I just realized, the difference might be I've got two issues showing as "remaining" for Dragon - possibly for the annual subscription still remaining? And the fact that the Dungeon icon shows under My Subscriptions means I'm signed up for the month-to-month? |
