Some one else already asked, but what is a spirit?
Is it a race, class, template, or monster?
Please define.
The answer is: Yes.
That was only partially a joke. As I mentioned in my "explanation" post (the one right before Gibnem v. 2.0), his very nature is ambiguous and unique. I'll give you a more straight answer, but first, ask yourself this: does it matter? Do you really need to nail down exactly what his "race" and "class" are? Do you really have to cram everything into little pigeon-holes of categorization?
Straight answer: "spirit" is closest to his "race," but almost in the same way that the Tarrasque's race is, well, "Tarrasque." Gibnem is not that unique: there are other, similar spirits out there, but they are all different enough that they can't rightly be said to be a "race."
The best RPG-rules analogy I can think of is Yoda in the Star Wars RPG. If you look up his stat block, his race is not listed; this is a deliberate design choice. If they were to name his race and give full rules, stats, and backstory for it, would you know more about Yoda than you currently do? Sure. Do you need to know any of that stuff for him to be useful as an NPC? Not at all. Would he be a better character if we knew that stuff about him? I don't think that he would--I think his uniqueness and the mystery surrounding his origins contribute to his appeal as a character.
This uncertainty about "what" Gibnem is, is a big part of his character, something so fundamental that I wouldn't want to change it. Some people (including Clark) don't like it, so it could very well be a terrible characteristic. If that's the case, I'd rather crumple him up, throw him in the trash, and start from scratch than try to re-work him as something his isn't.
Gibnem, aka Old Man Sebreck v. 2.0
Better, less tied to a specific locale and more active.
Some suggestions though...Gibnem is not that great name either (I keep reading it as "big men"), and from the title it could be scrapped altogether, mentioned only in the description.
I do not know what is current Pathfinder take on this "small gods" scenario, if that is actually supported or not (and as that does have considerable effect on cosmology, that would be a major issue). Golarion experts, how is it?
There is still a bit of "I think I have read about this guy in a book or two" feel, American Gods meets demonology, and have come across some things like this in other RPGs (at least In Nomine and Changeling have thown in similar concepts). And this is what this still feels like, a nice concept somewhat lacking in personality. Tightening the backstory might help a bit for wordcount...
There were couple of expressions that bugged me, "hard-hit" -> "hit hard", and famine is an effect, not a cause, so go for either "suffering from famine" or "hit by crop failure" or something of that effect.
And "crimes of passion" is a bit strange choice of expression here, all of those crimes are motivated by love/lust/jealousy/similar and the motives are known by all? I'd go for "violent crimes".
Oh, and I would be really curious how you would pull off the statblock of this villain :)
Or, am I just so bad at this that I should just give up on the idea of doing game design in a professional/semi-pro capacity?
One mistake does not end a career, even a big one, early on. I once misspelled someone's name on the cover story. I felt like I'd been kicked in the gut when I saw it. Still, I learned from it and ended up leaving the profession on my own terms.
And, yes, as a DM I want to know the race and class particulars even if I don't tell them to the PCs. I think describing it as a unique spirit, a minor god, or at least lamp-shading that it's not a ghost would help me as a DM.
I think describing it as a unique spirit, a minor god, or at least lamp-shading that it's not a ghost would help me as a DM.
Alright: he is now officially a "unique spirit" instead of just a "spirit." Also, if it helps any, my (incomplete) stat-block lists his type as "outsider (native)."
Oh, and I would be really curious how you would pull off the statblock of this villain :)
I had already started on a stat block, but it is still incomplete. If enough people express an interest, I'll try to find time to finish it. In the meanwhile, here are some special abilities which more or less describe his core mechanic: (disclaimer: this is from a very rough draft)
Spirit Being (Su) As a creature of spirit, Gibnem is immune to all magical and non-magical poisons and diseases, and to all mind-affecting spells and abilities.
Gibnem does not need to breathe, eat, or drink to survive. He may do so to keep up appearances, but gains no sustenance from the consumption.
He is also able to shift at will from the Ethereal Plane to the Material Plane as a free action, and shift back again as a move action; there is no limit to the amount of time he can spend in either plane. The ability is otherwise identical with the ethereal jaunt spell (caster level 17th).
Hidden Nature (Su) Once per day, Gibnem may alter his appearance to that of any intelligent, humanoid race; this ability is identical to the alter self spell except that the change is permanent until superseded by another transformation.
In addition, any character who targets Sebreck with a spell which would reveal anything about his nature must make a DC 35 caster-level check. If the check is successful, the spell reveals Gibnem's true nature. If the check fails, the spell indicates that Sebreck is a true neutral 10th level bard of whatever race his appearance matches. After failing such a check, a character cannot attempt another check for one month; any such spells cast during that time automatically fail the check.
Beneficiary of Evil (Su) Gibnem gains sustenance from acts of evil committed at his behest or in his name, especially murder. A single murder will sustain him for a full year and lesser acts of evil for proportionally shorter lengths of time (DM's discretion). Any mortal creature who commits an act of evil for Gibnem becomes his "Benefactor" for the duration of the act's usefulness to Gibnem (e.g. someone who commits a murder for Gibnem will be his Benefactor for one full year afterwards).
By his very nature, Gibnem is unable to deliberately harm one of his Benefactors, any more than a normal human can touch his nose to the back of his own head.
Gibnem has many spell-like abilities which he can only use on his Benefactors, and he must use them upon the request of a Benefactor in need. In addition, when a murder is committed for Gibnem, he gains the spell-like ability to reproduce the effects of a single Miracle spell for the Benefactor who committed the murder, and he must do this upon request. Although his nature compels him to cast certain spells upon request for his Benefactors, Gibnem is not compelled to tell them about this requirement, or even that he is capable of casting spells—this includes Miracle spells for murderers. A murder also grants Gibnem the spell-like ability to reproduce the effects of a single spell of his choice of eighth level or lower from the Druid spell list, which he may use as he desires. If either spell (the Miracle or the Druid spell) is not used within one year, it is lost.
If Gibnem runs out of sustenance (i.e. if he goes too long without instigating evil acts by others), he begins to diminish. Upon running out of time, he immediately loses all of his spell-like abilities. For every month he goes without sustenance, he temporarily loses one hit die and suffers one point of ability drain to Constitution (both cumulative). A murder immediately restores him to full abilities and hit dice. A lesser act of evil stops the process of decline and restores his spell-like abilities but does not restore lost hit dice or Constitution. Multiple acts of evil run contiguously but single-use spell-like abilities gained are cumulative (e.g. if two murders are committed for Gibnem in quick succession, he runs out of sustenance one year after the second murder, not two years after the first; however, he does get two Miracles and two Druid spells).
My target CR is 17, but I'll make the final decision on that after (if) I fill the rest in. Most of the rest of his stat block will consist of spell-like abilities: a lot of at-will low-level spells and a few daily mid-level spells. For example, he'll be able to Charm Person at will, and then maybe Dominate Person once a day and Enthrall once a day. He'll have lots of spells he can use at will, but only on his Benefactors: Mass Cure Light Wounds, Remove Disease, Neutralize Poison, etc. Mostly, he'll get spells that help him manipulate people and spells he can only use to support his Benefactors, and then maybe I'll throw in some daily spells he can use for combat if he gets cornered.
After previewing this, I realized that I more or less rejected every piece of advice you gave me, so I want to start out by saying that I definitely appreciate your feedback, and I would very much appreciate getting more. I could also probably be convinced that I'm wrong about some of this if you're persuasive enough, except for the "style" thing at the end: I really just don't want to open that particular Pandora's Box. At the other end of the spectrum, I'd really like to hear more from you on the "personality" issue.
Some suggestions though...Gibnem is not that great name either (I keep reading it as "big men"), and from the title it could be scrapped altogether, mentioned only in the description.
I totally agree that "Gibnem" was a poor choice for his name. I even said so in my previous post. I didn't keep it because I like it, I kept it to avoid confusion. If I were to use him in a game, I would definitely call him something else, and if anyone else wants to use him (feel free!), I would expect that they would also choose a new name for him. On these boards, however, I will keep his name as "Gibnem" for the sake of continuity.
I do not know what is current Pathfinder take on this "small gods" scenario, if that is actually supported or not (and as that does have considerable effect on cosmology, that would be a major issue). Golarion experts, how is it?
I'm pretty sure that nothing published thus far makes any mention of such beings in the pathfinder world. However, I would be really surprised if anything published excludes them, either. In fact, even very well fleshed-out worlds like FR still leave room for creatures like this. I also don't think that the existence of Gibnem has a major effect on the cosmology of Pathfinder. At best, he's a footnote in the history of a major god; at worst, he's a footnote in the history of some long-forgotten god. Either way, he doesn't really effect the grand scheme of things. If I had said that a lot of creatures like this were running around in the pathfinder world, then I would be making major changes to cosmology, but I said the exact opposite: Gibnem is virtually one of a kind.
There is still a bit of "I think I have read about this guy in a book or two" feel, American Gods meets demonology, and have come across some things like this in other RPGs (at least In Nomine and Changeling have thown in similar concepts).
This happens a lot in fantasy, period. In fact, a whole book has been written on the idea that all myths and fairytales are really just different takes on the same story: The Hero With a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell. If people refused to publish any works of fiction which were reminiscent of pre-existing works of fiction, then very, very little fiction would ever get published. If you set your definition of "originality" that high, then pretty much nothing is original.
More specific to this case, the idea of using human sacrifice to appease some sort of greater power, or to feed the nature spirits responsible for a good harvest, is a common theme not only in fantasy, but in real human history.
To give another example, when I re-read version 2.0 again before posting this, I was suddenly reminded of C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters. The similarity never occurred to me before, but now it's so obvious that I'm almost a little bit embarrassed. I'm sure there are other examples out there just as similar.
And this is what this still feels like, a nice concept somewhat lacking in personality. Tightening the backstory might help a bit for wordcount...
Tightening the backstory is what got me into trouble with my original submission: the backstory tells you who this guy is, and why he does the things he does. I cut all of that out in my original submission, and as a result people interpreted him as a passive implement of evil, not a villain. He's a sneaky, dishonest, vile creature who spends all of his time carefully manipulating other people into doing bad things, both because he enjoys doing so and because he will die if he doesn't. If that doesn't give you a good window into his personality, I'm not sure what would.
If you can be more specific about the kinds of things you'd like to know about his "personality," then I'd be happy to find a way to work them in, or at the very least make a post giving my thoughts on what Gibnem is like in those regards.
There were couple of expressions that bugged me, "hard-hit" -> "hit hard", and famine is an effect, not a cause, so go for either "suffering from famine" or "hit by crop failure" or something of that effect.And "crimes of passion" is a bit strange choice of expression here, all of those crimes are motivated by love/lust/jealousy/similar and the motives are known by all? I'd go for "violent crimes".
All of this falls under the heading of "writing style." I'm happy to take suggestions on substance, but my style is my own. I'm sorry you don't like these particular turns of phrase, but taking input like this is a really good way to invite too many chefs into the kitchen (if you'll allow me to abuse a metaphor). If a professional editor or publisher tells me to avoid certain diction or to word something in a certain way, I'll listen. Otherwise, I'm going to stick with my own tastes.
About personality, he strikes me as a bit straightforward and one-note, doing things out of survival. Inspire murders to stay alive, repeat ad infinitum.
Does he prefer certain types of murders, victims or puppets? Or other evil acts, does he have preferences?
Same goes for benefits he provides, what kind of benefits does he favor? Adventure hook seems to imply material prosperity is at least part of the menu, but is it the only one or preferred benefit he provides?
What does Gibnem actually think of his benefactors? He provides for them but does he care about them? Is the relationship more nurturing "we against the world, go forth and kill my pretties" or a grudgeful passive-aggressive dependency where he wishes his puppets to ultimately destroy themselves?
What are his long-term plans? He has been a tribal demigod, and has tried to establish cult, but now is he really settled to spend the rest of his existence figuratively scavenging rats?
It is true that if he is more or less one of his kind his existence will not upset cosmology, though then one is forced to ask why is he so unique, and where does he fall in the grand scheme of things? Could the same happen to the other gods? Are they aware of this? What is his relationship with other immortal beings and gods? How does he see them, and how do they see him?
Lots of questions which are hard to answer in 500 words...but answers to at least some of them are needed, to distinguish this entry from all of those other similar concepts in fact and fiction.
About personality, he strikes me as a bit straightforward and one-note, doing things out of survival. Inspire murders to stay alive, repeat ad infinitum.
Does he prefer certain types of murders, victims or puppets? Or other evil acts, does he have preferences?
Same goes for benefits he provides, what kind of benefits does he favor? Adventure hook seems to imply material prosperity is at least part of the menu, but is it the only one or preferred benefit he provides?What does Gibnem actually think of his benefactors? He provides for them but does he care about them? Is the relationship more nurturing "we against the world, go forth and kill my pretties" or a grudgeful passive-aggressive dependency where he wishes his puppets to ultimately destroy themselves?
What are his long-term plans? He has been a tribal demigod, and has tried to establish cult, but now is he really settled to spend the rest of his existence figuratively scavenging rats?
It is true that if he is more or less one of his kind his existence will not upset cosmology, though then one is forced to ask why is he so unique, and where does he fall in the grand scheme of things? Could the same happen to the other gods? Are they aware of this? What is his relationship with other immortal beings and gods? How does he see them, and how do they see him?Lots of questions which are hard to answer in 500 words...but answers to at least some of them are needed, to distinguish this entry from all of those other similar concepts in fact and fiction.
You've given me a lot to think about here. I'm definitely going to try to find a way to cram something in about his taste in evil, because I want it to be really clear that he doesn't just need evil, he savors it. As for his benefactors, I had always envisioned that he is constantly thinking of ways to bring them down as well, that he would take special delight in betraying those who have served him, so I'll try to fit that in, too.
I'm not really going to get into his relationships with the cosmological order of things. I think it's tangential to his role as a villain in a campaign, and therefore not worth the extra words. I already said what I wanted to say about this: he does his best to avoid the attention of greater powers, because such attention is always bad for him.
As for long term plans, I pretty much answered that: he is resigned to an eternity of table scraps. The whole "farming community/valley" thing is the closest he has to greater ambitions: he would be able to stop scavenging and live in relative stability, but would not get so big that he would attract unwanted attention. I think that his nomadic nature and low aspirations could make him a very useful tool for DMs: if the PCs get him angry, he can really make their lives miserable by running a constant guerrilla campaign against them. He's going to spend all of his time wandering around encouraging evil anyway, so it shouldn't be too hard to wander around the PCs directing evil their way. As envisioned, his stat block does not make him a very big direct threat, but it does make him extremely difficult to kill because he can escape pretty easily.
I'll think about all of this for a while, and then try another re-write.
There is one plot idea which involves big ambitions, and even his place in the cosmology, but it really doesn't belong in his 500-word description. I was going to use it for my adventure proposal, if I had made it that far. It was intended to be a final adventure for closing out a high-level campaign (or, for those who prefer to go past 20th level, a stepping-stone into Epic play). I was going to have an extremely powerful wizard create a plot to elevate Gibnem to demigodhood almost instantly by committing an act of mass-murder in Gibnem's name. The second layer of the conspiracy would be that he only wants to do this because he wants to cast a ritual spell so powerful that it requires a demigod as a material component: in one feel swoop, he will raise Gibnem up into demigod, and then immediately sacrifice him to fuel a cataclysmic spell.
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I think you would have been a lot better served using that evil wizard as your villain for this round. He's got a lot of the things that Gibnem lacks - motivations, ambition, a grand plan that the PCs should want to stop, etc. Plus the concept of a wizard who wants to create a demigod just to murder it really starts the DM wheels spinning.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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I like the revised Gibnem a lot better than the first go-round, though I think the round 3 rules indicate you'd have been in some trouble with maintaining the "spirit" angle, since creating new races & monsters is outside the rules. I think you could have achieved the same effect with just biting the bullet, so to say, and ruling that Gibmen had "descended" far enough that he had ended up in a humanoid body - a doppelganger might have been an ideal choice, as he could be mutable to seem to be anyone, but without falling into the cliche of doppelganger spy or crimelord. You could have used his "sustained by evil" power as your new rule choice for the next version.
I actually think, though, that the best fit for Gibnem would have been as a ghost. He gets to stay as a spirit, he can use his possession power to take on the role of almost anyone, almost anywhere, and use subtle influence to compel people to acts of evil. Perhaps he would be a ghost Expert 20 - a high-level character but without all the trappings of class abilities and goofiness. Just an evil spirit with power to burn.
That's one of the tricks of the contest - seeing how far you can go without tripping over the boundaries. I think in insisting on his ambiguity as a "spirit" you did yourself a disservice with the creature design, as judges and voters alike got stuck there. Even though the "design a villain part 1" challenge was almost all flavor text, there was a little bit of rules-fu in that one little subject line for your creature, and whiffing on that one line made a big difference in the accessibility of your entry - while one Sor10 or Ftr10 can be radically different from another Sor10 or Ftr10, either one still gives the reader an organizing framework for understanding the nature of the challenge.
The mystery is for the players playing the adventure. The DM running the adventure (or the reader thinking about running it) needs to know exactly what Gibnem is and what he can do, and good or bad I think that is what this contest is about.
You've given me a lot to think about here. I'm definitely going to try to find a way to cram something in about his taste in evil, because I want it to be really clear that he doesn't just need evil, he savors it. As for his benefactors, I had always envisioned that he is constantly thinking of ways to bring them down as well, that he would take special delight in betraying those who have served him, so I'll try to fit that in, too.
Thanks, this and other info gives me a better idea what is it that we are dealing with here and how to use him.
But generally I'd say/echo that you might have gone for a bit too ambitious proposal here for the purposes of this contest...
Jason: thank you very much for taking the time to respond. From the very beginning I've looked at RPG Superstar as a learning experience first and a competition second (and a good thing, too, or I would have had a harder time dealing with the results of round 2).
I like the revised Gibnem a lot better than the first go-round, though I think the round 3 rules indicate you'd have been in some trouble with maintaining the "spirit" angle, since creating new races & monsters is outside the rules. I think you could have achieved the same effect with just biting the bullet, so to say, and ruling that Gibmen had "descended" far enough that he had ended up in a humanoid body - a doppelganger might have been an ideal choice, as he could be mutable to seem to be anyone, but without falling into the cliche of doppelganger spy or crimelord. You could have used his "sustained by evil" power as your new rule choice for the next version.
It was actually never my intention to use him for round 3--I had a completely different villain in mind for that round (who, in retrospect, probably would have done much better than Gibnem in round 2). When they announced that we would have to use our round 2 villains for round 3, I would have been completely stressed out if I had thought I had a chance of actually making it to round 3.
I actually think, though, that the best fit for Gibnem would have been as a ghost. He gets to stay as a spirit, he can use his possession power to take on the role of almost anyone, almost anywhere, and use subtle influence to compel people to acts of evil. Perhaps he would be a ghost Expert 20 - a high-level character but without all the trappings of class abilities and goofiness. Just an evil spirit with power to burn.
I really like the possession angle, but I don't like the idea of making him a ghost, because that would make him undead, and I definitely see him as either an outsider (native) or fey. I'm going to dig through the SRD to see if I can find an incorporeal outsider or fey capable of possession. If not, I'll take a look at the doppleganger angle, because it actually fits really well from a functional perspective, and "monstrous humanoid" doesn't bug me as much as "undead." I just don't like the idea of clerics being able to turn him, although I suppose I could just crank up his turn resistance.
That's one of the tricks of the contest - seeing how far you can go without tripping over the boundaries. I think in insisting on his ambiguity as a "spirit" you did yourself a disservice with the creature design, as judges and voters alike got stuck there. Even though the "design a villain part 1" challenge was almost all flavor text, there was a little bit of rules-fu in that one little subject line for your creature, and whiffing on that one line made a big difference in the accessibility of your entry - while one Sor10 or Ftr10 can be radically different from another Sor10 or Ftr10, either one still gives the reader an organizing framework for understanding the nature of the challenge.
This highlights one of the biggest lessons I've taken away from my experience this year. I thought that people wouldn't care what I called him as long as I explained what he did and how he worked. Turns out I was wrong. If I make it to the top 32 again in the future, I'm going approach things with a completely different mindset, always thinking of it as a competition, always thinking about what people will vote for. People often say, "Think outside the box," but the fact is that there are actually layers of boxes, like stack dolls. When people say that, they mean, "Think outside of the box that contains all of the stuff I've seen before, but inside of the box that contains things similar enough for me to recognize and understand easily." I think it's actually harder to stay between those two boundaries than it is to just go hog-wild and get as original as possible. True talent lies in getting as close to the edges of the outer box as possible without crossing the line.
I really am going to post another revision of Gibnem here, but I've got a lot of input to ponder, and I'm just way too busy right now to sit down and work all of this out. It's probably just as well that I didn't advance, because I don't think I would have had time to create a stat block and meet all of my other obligations right now.
Just in the defense of the name, Elric, I've never heard of the Elric of M-yadayada prior to actually doing the google search that Clark had suggested. But upon research of the name Elric, it is an actual name of none modern fictional origin.
Of germanic origin it is derived from the meaning either elf ruler or noble ruler. Its usage was medival english. So I don't see the problem with its usage.
Infact upon finding the definition of the name, I find it a rather suitable name. If it is such an issue you could easily use a alternate spelling such as Elrick.
Or an altername of germanic orgin such as Alaric which also means noble ruler, though it lacks the ascociation with fey creatures of germanic myth so it lacks the subtle ascociation with the reality of who and what Elric really is.
Just in the defense of the name, Elric, I've never heard of the Elric of M-yadayada prior to actually doing the google search that Clark had suggested. But upon research of the name Elric, it is an actual name of none modern fictional origin.
True, however I guess most people who play fantays RPGs also read fantasy literature, and are thus familiar with some of the major icons like Elric, Gandalf etc and in most cases associate the names only for those, no matter if they are used also elsewhere in other contexts. Tolkien did take a fair amount of names from Germanic mythologies and languages but naming the character Gandalf is still a really bad idea because most people will be thinking just Tolkien and not the ancient Germanic roots of the name.
Harry Potter is a real name but creating a villain named Harry Potter for this contest would get you labeled as a joke entry in a nanosecond.
Lucas gets it right here:
People often say, "Think outside the box," but the fact is that there are actually layers of boxes, like stack dolls. When people say that, they mean, "Think outside of the box that contains all of the stuff I've seen before, but inside of the box that contains things similar enough for me to recognize and understand easily."
It is a good thing to catch a reader with some good hooks, like name, and there a certain level of familiarity plays a role, so going for some very vague description ("spirit") or precise-but-meaningless ("xhasgid of Y'uah'plat") are not good hooks even if you eventually explain what xhasgid does.
But indeed picking something where many or most readers have very specific associations does not work either.Some people will get specific associations from any name though...in one book I read the main character had exactly the same name as someone I knew in real life, so reading about a twentysomething relationship drama with associations of sixtyish college professor in your mind was a bit dizzying...but those are unavoidable quirks and a good editor should get past those personal associations.
Human mind is a messy thing, in the way it perceives, associates, thinks. A good writer finds the strings and can make wonderful music.
Well thing is not using the full-name. Like in the case of Harry Potter. You could call a character Harry or Potter, and you shouldn't have to worry about it being some sort of infringement. The Elric in question is not referenced as just Elric in all the pops its Elric of Myadayada...I really should look it back up and memorize its spelling.
I hadn't realized that Gandalf had germanic origins, I'm actually reading the poem that it is originally from the Völuspá. Its very interesting.
Also there are other Elrics in the google search, the Elrics from Fullmetal Alchemist for example. Which given the meaning behind the name I find even more interesting.
Edit: Honestly when it comes to using real world names in fiction, there is a chance of overlay, and when it happens it is a matter of insuring that yours is uniquely its own. As for Elric of Melniboné, I'll have to see if can find some of these at the library see what all the hubbub is about it.
It's been an incredibly hectic week, and it's just as well that I didn't advance because I honestly believe that something in my life would have broken if I had tried to make a stat block in addition to everything else I did (not sure what, but something would have had to give). However, this weekend was a little bit better and I found time to revisit my concept. Following Jason's advice (in general, but not in the particulars), I found a way to make Gibnem using a SRD race and standard classes:
Gibnem, aka old man Sebreck
Male Jann Druid 13/Bard 4
Of course, he won't be a normal Jann, he'll still be a former Demigod descended to a much lower form. Making him a Jann makes him a native outsider, and a "creature of spirit," (kinda). The Janni abilities to plane shift and Ethereal Jaunt also match nicely with the powers I had in mind for him. And, although it isn't written into the d20 rules, the concept of Genies granting wishes dovetails nicely with my concept for Gibnem. Having 13 levels as a Druid gives him access to the A thousand faces class ability, which gives him the ability to change his appearance in order to blend in. Finally, the four levels of Bard give him access to some spells and abilities to help him manipulate people.
Based on all of this, I calculate his CR as:
19 [base 4 + (1/2)*6 non-associated class levels + 11 associated class levels + 1 for “benefactor of evil” special ability]
I'm a little unsure about "associated" vs. "non-associated" class levels: the SRD is a little bit vague on how spellcasting classes are categorized, and the language is also unclear about how to apply the rule when multiple classes are involved. I decided to make the first six levels of Druid "non-associated" and everything else "associated," but I'd appreciate any information which clarifies this issue.
I'm still working on a new write-up; I'll post it here whenever I finish it.
It took way too long, but here is the latest revision:
Gibnem, aka Old Man Sebreck v. 3.0
Male Jann Druid 13/Bard 4
DESCRIPTION:
Sebreck appears to be a perfectly average old man. In reality he is a powerful and unimaginably ancient Jann named Gibnem, but he isn't a normal Jann, either: in the distant past, he was a demigod worshiped by a brutal and warlike society. Gibnem's worshipers sustained him by dedicating acts of violence and cruelty to him. Eventually they declined in numbers, and as he received less and less worship Gibnem also declined in power until he diminished into the form of a Jann. However, he has retained one very important aspect of his divine nature: his powers and life-force are sustained by evil acts committed in his name or at his behest. All evil acts give him sustenance, but only murder is sufficient to keep him alive for any significant length of time. Murders also temporarily increase his powers. His nature compels him to reward those who serve him, just as mortals are compelled to breathe; similarly, he cannot directly harm those who have recently done evil on his behalf.
MOTIVATIONS/GOALS:
Gibnem wanders the world disguised as the mortal Sebreck, sustaining himself by goading mortals into acts of evil, which he rewards using his diminished but still significant powers. In the past, he has attempted to raise himself back up to demigodhood by establishing murder cults, but in each instance he was discovered and thwarted by a greater power, barely escaping with his life. He has learned his lesson and no longer seeks elevation, instead striving to maintain a low profile. Resigned to an eternity of scavenging, he seeks out those with the seeds of evil in their hearts, seeds which he nurtures until they blossom into acts of violence and cruelty. He could survive simply by getting people to murder each other, but he prefers to savor the misdeeds he feeds on. He considers himself a connoisseur of depravity, striving to elicit the most base and petty motivations possible. With whispered half-truths and magical suggestions, he gets people to act out their worst impulses. Although he is unable to directly harm those who sustain him, he is able to manipulate events to bring about their downfall, and he takes especially great pleasure in such betrayals.
SCHEMES/PLOTS/ADVENTURE HOOKS:
Good entry, it has developed a lot. Now I get a much better idea what this guy is about and how to run him (and I have a fondness for manipulative villains).
A minor spelling correction: I think it is "worshipped" and "worshipper".
Good entry, it has developed a lot. Now I get a much better idea what this guy is about and how to run him (and I have a fondness for manipulative villains).
A minor spelling correction: I think it is "worshipped" and "worshipper".
Thanks for giving it another look--it's good to hear that I finally hammered this into something somebody likes. I actually spelled them your way at first, but my spell checker slapped me down. I just went with the spell checker at the time and then looked it up later: both versions (one 'p' and two) are valid spellings. American English tends to favor a single 'p,' British English tends to favour two.
Consider giving him a few food sources other than murder. Or at least add something interesting to the murder thing. Perhaps he gains more sustenance from murders when the murderer is seeking vengeance against the victim for imagined wrongs. Or maybe he gains more power from murderers who kill family members and loved ones. Some sort of angle that makes all of the murders committed in his name more bizarre and distinctive.
I did say that "all" acts of evil give him some amount of sustenance, so he does have plenty of other food sources. It's just that murder is his "staple food." I also don't want him to get more or less susenance for different types of murders, because then his motivation reduces back down to "eating to survive," and that makes him less evil. I do want him to choose bizarre and distinctive murders over mundane ones, not because he gets more sustenance out of them, but because he prefers them as a matter of taste. I thought that I had made this pretty clear, but I'll give it another look and see if I can't describe it better. Also, I will try to say something to the effect that he will sometimes pass up a "plain" murder for a more twisted crime of lesser magnitude, if he is well sated and doesn't really need the extra energy from the murder.
Also, you might want to throw out a few hints about the "greater powers" that are keeping Gibnem down. Are they full-powered deities? Does Gibnem do anything to spite them for keeping him down? Does he target priests when the opportunity presents itself, for example, or burn down temples? Has he ever tried to organize a rebellion of oppressed spirits?
These are great questions, but I'm trying to keep this thing under the 500-word limit and I don't think the answers are important enough to displace other things. I'll think about this and if I come up with anything good, I'll post an "addendum" with the extra stuff to answer your questons, but I won't be incorporating these ideas into the "main" description.