I was fascinated by the Article in Dragon 304 about Prestige Races where you basically take spend XP to get some special abilities.
Wouldn't have been nice to create a system where a character with the appropriate ranks in Craft (Alchemy) and a special Craft Item (or just Soul Syphoning) feat that would allow him/her to create extracts from monsters thus giving himself some permanent bonus, spell like ability, etc that the monster has? (but in a fairly less potent form).
And obviously all remembering the "non stacking rule" about bonuses. This would oviously have as a consequence pc becoming specific monster hunters just to be able to gain access to new abilities and also seeking always more and more powerful monsters to gain greater abilities. It would be interesting to put a time constraint of how long can you wait until the monster dies until you can steal a fragment of his soul-impregnated blood (that would be freshly killed I guess).
Type of gains should be bonuses to AC, saves, energy resistance, spell-like abilities, spell resistance, etc...
Not to mention it would also make for a nice Prestige Class (or class) concept....(reminds me a bit the Illithid Savant from Savage Species)...
So guys what do you think? Sort of Highlander stuff though...
Oooo, I don't have this issue in my collection, but it sounds like an interesting mechanic.
My experience is that players are reluctant to sacrifice XP to make anything, however. Still, it sounds like an interesting route.
I wonder if it could be incorporated with an optional system like Craft Points (Unearthed Arcana, p. 97). That would take away the sacrificing element, but still maintain a means of balancing with the character's strength relative to level.
Good luck with the query.