An Interesting Character Idea from one of my Players

[Thaddeus Lorington Harnhold III]

I'm preparing to run a Kingmaker campaign and all seems to be gearing up nicely. One of my players came to me with an interesting idea for his character and I would like to try to implement it. It is as follows:
He's going to be playing an oracle, but with a difference. He wants to have one shriveled hand (His off hand I guess); this hand is pretty much useless except when he lays it on something and gets the history of that item or its owner etc etc. I quite like this idea as it gives me a chance to supply plot hooks and the like. The only thing is that I don't want him going around finding out everything about everything. I was thinking rules wise that this appendage would have a -4 on anything done with this hand and then maybe once a day he gets clairvoyance with the hand. (although that spell is a bit naff for my purposes). Any ideas?

[Rickmeister]

Simply make it clear to him that this wil be a "dm hand(led hand)".
I would applaud the player for this roleplayhook, and truly make the hand useless for 3-7 days after a "vision". He wil be less inclined to touch everything, but still gives you some really nice potential for emersion in the world..

I would not add a spell to the ability, simply "dm call" it. Also, i would make him trance for 15 minutes to an hhour, and encourage to wear a glove (Phoebe Halliwel - King Midas comes to mind)

[Elro the Onk]

I like it; it also has good potential to "level up" as the other oracle's curses do. I would make it replicate existing spells so that the player has a better idea of what to expect - one progression might be (all powers manifest by touching/handling the item in question):

- -4 on anything done with the hand as you suggest, detect magic at will at 1st-level
- at 5th-level, you gain all 3 rounds' detect magic info through a single touch (std action); you can also use blood biography 1/day through the hand
- at 10th-level, your detect magic through the hand is only a move action; you can also use legend lore 1/week. After so doing, the hand's powers become dormant for 24hr
- at 15th-level, you automatically succeed at the knowledge (arcana) check associated with the hand's detect magic, and using legend lore does not shut down the hand

Or something :-)

[Othniel Edden]

I'd go with just using it for items of interest with strong memories. If they are magical items its easier to get a read on the item. It would be an interesting way to give out backstory you normally won't have a chance to reveal, like the Temple of the Elk, or the Barbarian Cairn or to hint at the long term plot of the story. Its a tool to draw your players further into the story. As he levels up make the visions more clear. Places like Candlemere should make their head swim.

[blargney the second]

There's a psionic power that's been around since 3.0 called object reading. It does pretty much exactly what he wants.

[Philip Knowsley]

One of the girls in a game I played in had an oracle with an ability which
caused her hands to be almost useless for fighting etc... but I can't
remember what it what called. It may have been one of the curses...
You should see if you can find it, so that you can properly scale what
you're trying to do.

[Pirate]

Yar!

Random idea: this is somewhat similar to the Lore Warden abilty gained by clerics with the Knowledge domain.

Knowledge Domain wrote:

Lore Keeper (Sp): You can touch a creature to learn about its abilities and weaknesses. With a successful touch attack, you gain information as if you made the appropriate Knowledge skill check with a result equal to 15 + your cleric level + your Wisdom modifier.

Perhaps something to think about?

~P

[Thaddeus Lorington Harnhold III]

Some good ideas there guys, thanks! Most likely I'll use a combination of the DM hand to reveal things I want them to take an interest in, but also give a couple of those ideas a whirl. I'm itching to use nearly all of these now!