So Savage Tide is a Campaign that near the end focuses somewhat heavily on Pact magic. as such I present a usable Vestige for any Binder or Pact Magic class in the Savage tide Campaign. I have read here that many DMs scoff at Pact Magic because it differs from the normal Magic system. Having had two Binding classes in my own campaign (One dead, one current) I assure you that aside from the powers it grants the Binding class leads to VERY interesting RP situation….
To the Players: There are Semi-Spoilers ahead. To sum it up I am presenting a house made Vestige, and if you are playing a binder or pact magic class: I suggest you give your DM this link and have him review it.
************Player’s stop reading at this point as there are Semi-Spoilers ahead***************
To any non-current Savage Tide Player I present for your review:
Shami-Amourae, Goddess of Debased Eros
Vestige Level: 5th
Binding DC: 26
Special Requirement: Yes.
Pact Symbol: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/designdev_vestige3.jpg
Shami-Amourae, The Lady of Delights, a forgotten figure of the great wheel. She grants her summoner the power of charms and knowledge of others deepest secrets.
Legend: As one of the first of the succubi birthed from the raw matter of the Abyss, Shami-Amourae's existence predates most mortal races, including humans. She had been once declared the Queen of Succubi and her cult flourished on the Prime Plane. However, other ambitious succubi also claimed the title and this struggle, known as the War of Ripe Flesh, became a matter of who will be the last one standing. Eventually, Shami-Amourae discovered a secret so dark that several Demon Lords imprisoned her with in the Wells of Darkness, and so she became a Vestige…
Special Requirement: You must have a gender, and must not be immune to charms and compulsions through means other then Binder (Or Soul Binding prestige Class) class features.
Sign: Your skin becomes pale, almost white, and your hair takes on a lustrous golden hue.
Influence: You fall under Shami-Amourae’s influence. This manifests as an all-consuming desire for
attention and companionship. It also makes you vain and somewhat haughty. Whenever another person compliments you on your beauty, they gain a +4 circumstance bonus on Bluff checks made against you.
In addition when you have no allies within 30 feet of you, you suffer a -1 penalty on Will saves, this influence persists even on good pacts.
Granted Abilities: Shami-Amourae grants knowledge of forgotten lore from ages past and charms and compulsions against your enemies.
Seduction: You find it easy to foil minds with your enticing words, you may use Suggestion three times per day. You may add +2 to the Save DC if the suggestion is of a sexual nature.
Lust: Your touch incites an overwhelming lust in any corporeal living creature, As a free action when you touch a creature they must make a Will Save or suffer a -20 penalty on grapple checks against you for the next hour. You may only use this ability once every 5 rounds.
Enthrall and Extort: You treat any Charisma based skill, Sense motive, Gather Information, or Knowledge: Local checks as class and trained skills. At the time you make a Pact with Shami-Amourae choose four of any Charima based skill, Sense motive, Gather Information, or Knowledge: Local and gain an enchantments bonus equal to half your EBL to those skills for as long as you bind with Shami-Amourae.
Notice Peculiarity: As a Standard Action the caster may use Detect thoughts as the spell however it manifests itself in such a way that creatures around you feel uneasy or intimidated and occasionally let partial words, sentences, or body language slip in a manner only you can interrupt. If you under the effects of the Detect thoughts spell by some other means reduce the time required to study a subject by 1 round.
Savage Compulsion: You are able to contact the Lady of Delights herself beyond the veil of time and space once per day. She speaks in riddles and often confusing rhymes as she attempts to impart alluring knowledge of events yet to occur. This ability acts as the Hypercognition psionic power or affects the caster with a suggestion, as determined by the DM. The end result is determined by the DM however the effect will always be benefaction to the caster. This ability may only be used once per day.
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Behind the scenes:
So I did this a little backwards from the “Designing Your Own Vestige” article, http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20060324a but I believed I followed it accordingly enough. So this is how I constructed the Vestige:
Vestige level- 5th. I choose 5th because it is roughly the same level a Wizard is able to cast/prepare 3 suggestion spells, and 1 extended detect thought… 6th was certainly too high for the granted abilities as there are better choices for vestige at that level, and 4th seemed to low.
Legend: Feel free to change the Legend to anything your Campaign requires. It’s fluff away and the PCs will eventually find out the truth near the campaign’s end.
Abilities: Most Vestige grant 4 to 6 powers usually something along the lines of:
-A feat or Constant ability (or both…)
-Numerous Skill Bonuses
-Mimic a spell or psinoic Power
-One unique abilities to Vestige (or two if it lacks a Mimicked Spell)
-The Unique Abilities or Mimiced spell (or both) have the “Usable only once every 5 rounds” clause.
Sign, Influence, Suggestion: They are the same as the Sign, Influence, and power then magic time: the Dahlver-nar-Tooth of Shami-Amourae (Dungeon 148? In the hands of Red-Shroud), grant you. Perhaps I should change this because a binder that receives the tooth will simply be getting redundant abilities. Alternately I could rule that if a Binder places the tooth in his mouth he becomes constantly bound to Shami-Amourae without using up any of the normal allotment of Vestiges. She/He will still have to roll to make a good or bad pact each day.
Lust ability: It’s a copy of the very same ability in Shami-Amourae’s stat block, only the DC is based off the your normal binder DC. I felt to keep the penalty at -20 because not only is it limited to 1 per 5 round use, but if you plan on using it you would have had to spend a feat or another vestige bind to gain Improved Grapple.
Notice Peculiarity : Eh… I wanted something to show how you are able to suddenly extract information from your allies or foes however this seems to trip on Danataions abilities (A 4th level vestige), so I added the clause of reducing study time to give a binder a reason to bind both.
Savage Compulsion : Quite simply Read- between- the- lines: Allows the player to ask the DM “Where should we be going or what should we be doing next.” You should never outright tell your players that though. Any information you get them through this ability should be cryptic but related to the next path in the campaign that they should be taking. This effect should never force the PC to do anything, it will merely suggest. This ability should only function within the Savage Tide Campaign itself.
Debased Eros: I really don’t feel this imparts how sexual screwed up Miss Amourae is… there should be something more but I’m hesitant to add anything more without overwhelming the PC.
The End: This Vestige completely ceases to function once an obvious campaign event occurs, another reason why I believe Binder’s should have access to this vestige at earlier levels.
Final Notes:
I based a lot of this vestige off of Shami-Amourae’s Tooth which appears in the campaign itself. I would like to point out that her Dahlvernar Tooth- or any Dahlvernar Tooth for that matter- should never incur a Vestiges Influence (The same should be said about Ahazu’s tooth!).
Both influences impart negative effect onto a player which is a huge no-no in the pact magic world. The Four other existing Savage Tide Vestige grant X per day powers- Again another no-no! Vestige abilities are either meant to be used once per 5 rounds or unlimited use.
These oversights are easily forgiven however because the designers were probably focusing on how to finish writing such an awesome campaign, instead of balancing a rarely used class. :D
The iffy or incomplete tactics presented in Dungeon #148 (WoD) that many people seem to complain about are for another thread, this is simply a review for a new Vestige.
Either way: Reviews, Questions, Comments, Concerns, Complains? Please and thank you.
Edit to the Seduction ability:
Seduction: You find it easy to foil minds with your enticing words, as a standard action you may make a touch attack and use Suggestion as the spell. At level 16 and up cast you cast Mass Suggestion as the spell instead of Suggestion, you no longer require a touch attack. You may only use this ability once every 5 rounds. You may add +2 to the Save DC if the suggestion is of a sexual nature.
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Wish I could just simply re-edit my orginal Post, this is a unintended bump.