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Heyo, all. I've always been a big fan of the 2nd Edition Planescape fan; a large factor of this being the fact that the setting placed more emphasis on philosophy, thought, and belief than simply "whacking it with a stick" (although there was plenty of that, too!).
For me, the cornerstones of the Planescape setting -- more so than cruising the planes and meeting bizaare alien beings -- were the Factions of Sigil. Taking a bit of inspiration from Pathfinder's optional "Character Traits" and the 3.5e Faction Feats from the (now defunct) "Kriegstanz" website, I thought I would try to capture the feel of Sigil's Sixteen (or Fifteen, depending on whom you ask) Factions in a Pathfinder-Friendly flavor.
That said, this is all very much a work-in-progress, and I would greatly appreciate any advice or suggestions you, the community, would be willing to offer!
General Rules for the following:
At default, groups which use the optional rules choose two "Traits": one "Character Trait" and one "Campaign Trait". The following "Faction Traits" are, for all intents and purposes, Campaign Traits; However, in my games, I would allow the players to select additional "Faction Traits" as their character developed and advanced in understanding of their factions. Ultimately, a devoted, high-level factioneer could have their Character Trait, all three Faction Traits, and the Faction Feat (which is chosen just as a standard feat) in their list of abilities.
One last note: I have pages upon pages of half-hashed out ideas for these conversions, and I haven't even touched upon the numerous Sects! As such, I'll break the conversion project up into several, digestible posts as time flows on.
"Athar spit in the preacher's eye,
while false powers bleed and die."
Faction Traits:
- Divine Resistance [Faction Trait, Athar]
A deep-root lack of faith in the Powers grant the Athar a resistance to most divine spells.Prerequisites: Membership in the Athar
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus to saves versus spells cast by clerics and the spell-like abilities of divine agents.
- Divine Rejection [Faction Trait, Athar]
Driven commitment to the Athar grants even greater protection from the agents of the so-called “gods”.Prerequisites: Membership in the Athar
Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus to saves vs Bane, Bestow Curse, Holy Word, and Mark of Justice. This bonus stacks with that of Divine Resistance.
- Obscured from the Powers [Faction Trait, Athar]
The factors of the Athar (Athaons) are able to avoid the gaze of the gods and their minions; further proof that the Powers are not divine.Prerequisites: Membership in the Athar, Ranking of Athaon
Benefit: You are treated as if under a permanent, specialized Non-Detection spell, which protects you from divination attempts by priests and proxies of specific deities unless they pass a caster level check. The DC to detect your presence is equal to 10 + your character level.
Faction Feats:
Banishment [Feat, Athar]
A member of the Athar may deny the influence of an Outsider, forcibly sending it back to the plane of its origin (or the nearest convenient parallel dimension).
Prerequisites: Membership in the Athar
Benefit: You perform a banishment ritual on any single extraplanar creature. The ritual takes one minute for every four hit dice the target creature possesses (minimum time 1 minute), during which time the creature is free to act freely -- it is therefore highly recommended that the target creature be restrained in some way! Once the ritual is complete, the creature is returned to its home plane as per the Banishment spell unless it can successfully roll a Will save (DC10 + Athar character's character level). As the Athar's Banishment is not a magical spell but rather a power of Belief, a creature's innate Spell Resistance does not apply.
Special: For every Athar joining the first in the banishment, the DC of the Will save increases by 2.
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I'd be interested in seeing how this turns out, since Planescape was always one of my favored settings. I think traits are a good way to represent the benefits of faction membership.
Suggestions:
1. Give a brief 1-2 sentence explanation of the faction. While people may know about the Planescape factions, I suspect far fewer have detailed knowledge of each. I know a lot about the sensates, but comparatively little about the "Godless" (Athar).
2. Be consistent in defining who is affected: Divine Resistance says clerics and agents, Divine Rejection doesn't specify, and Obscured from the Powers says priests and proxies. I would define who is affected at the beginning and eliminate it from the trait text.
3. You haven't placed any limits on Banishment, so it could affect any outsider, whether or not there is a connection to a deity.
4. The Banishment saving throw should probably be Will save (DC 10 + Wisdom Bonus + 1/2 Athar character level). I used Wisdom to denote strength of conviction, but I could see Charisma in its place. There is no Athar faction "level" requirement to use this feat.
5. A possible alternative to Banishment would be an antimagic field which only affects divine magic from clerics and agents of deities. It would be personal instead of the radius.
I really dug Planescape too.
You might want to place the "advanced traits" at levels 2, 6, 10, 14, and 18; those are non-class-related dead or empty levels (no feats or ability boosts).
You also might want to define what a divine agent is.
For my next Pathfinder campaign, I'm thinking of adding the faction ideas to it, even if it isn't really a plane-hopping campaign. Different factions that Planescape....but the world will be kind of similar to the Outlands (less the Spire!).
Athar traits and feats should also iclude caveat that they are always considered unwilling targets of divine spells cast by divine spellcasters who worship gods. I am not sure if their abilities should be effective against divine casters that follow philosophies and idead instead of actual deities.
I would limit faction traits to single trait per faction and moved rest of the abilities to feats or some kind of bonus traits that would have positive and negative effects to balance themselves.
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Bookmarking this. Love love love. Must have more.
+1
Good thread, but if the OP posts one faction every five years, he will be done in 2090.