In my Council of Thieves campaign, I encouraged the paladin in my campaign to worship the Light Bringer aspect of Asmodeus. This made sense to me since everyone in Westcrown must at least pay token respect to Asmodeus. Now his character is beginning to realize that there is more to life than the Lawfulness of Asmodeus. He sees evil in the Church and his sworn Lord and wants to combat it. He has been learning of Iomadae from another player and is considering switching religions.
This character voluntarily took on the Runecurse from the Asmodean Knot. My plan is to have Asmodeus confront him when the Bone Devil appears to kill him and have Asmodeus prevent anyone from helping him as punishment for his infidelity. Asmodeus planned then to take his soul to Hell for torture. Iomadae will then intervene and temporarily turn his sword into a holy outsider bane, if the paladin turns to her. If the paladin survives, he has successfully made the conversion and suffers no further effects. If the bone devil defeats the paladin, I do not want to permanently kill the character; rather I want him to suffer some sort of affliction that does not ruin the character for the player.
First I thought I could have this character live with the knowledge that no matter how devoted he is to Iomadae, he is destined to be dragged to Hell as the lowest form of soul for torture. This does not appear to be damaging enough so I thought he could have some kind of visible runes written on his skin which all officials of the Asmodean church and devils would immediately recognize him as future slave of Asmodeus. It could give negative bonus on charisma-based skill checks.
I am looking for a curse that has some kind of game effect. Something he can play on, yet neither be too debilitating nor too harmless. Perhaps something that would get progressively worse, like sanity loss. Maybe he could slowly turn into a devil form, losing charisma as time goes on. Or any time he drops below 10 hit points he flies into a diabolical rage and attacks the nearest creature.
I need some good ideas!
Thanks!
Legalistic curse from oracles might be something to peak at. While not a physical curse, its on the far side of lawful and something to keep the paladin feel bound to asmodaeus. Defying Asmodaeus word or law would sicken him.
Diabolical rage sounds like something that would take too much control away from the PC, and charisma drain would be absolutely damning to his class features.
Tattoos like chains or barbed wire creating the apperances of a collar and manacles seem pretty symbolic if you want to go with runes. Little words written on them that tell of his fate and how he is promised.
I am looking for a curse that has some kind of game effect. Something he can play on, yet neither be too debilitating nor too harmless. Perhaps something that would get progressively worse, like sanity loss. Maybe he could slowly turn into a devil form, losing charisma as time goes on. Or any time he drops below 10 hit points he flies into a diabolical rage and...
Interesting character concept! As far as the curse goes I'd consider a combination of your ideas above- living with the knowledge that he's going to be suffering damnation as a traitor is one thing, but some sort of manifestation of his fate is even better. I'd go with something that happens each time he goes below 0 hp (does this happen often?), as that's when he's hovering at death's door and he's in greatest peril. Losing charisma is pretty harsh for a paladin, so you'd probably do better to just apply penalties to specific charisma-related activities. I like the idea of a creeping panic in the back of his mind as he's approaching 0 hp- even though he's immune to fear, it's a subtle way of corrupting him into behaving just a LITTLE more cowardly. Which might cause problems with his *new* god as well, and would suit Asmodeus just fine :)
ajbaker - That's an awesome idea.
Something I was thinking about was that maybe his Smite Evil wouldn't work against Devils. If that's not harsh enough, maybe Asmodeous sometimes blocks his smites and it has a 20% (or higher) failure chance. Paladin tries to Smite evil, rolls a percentile, 20 or less, the smite evil is used up, but the Paladin gets no benefits.
The first response I thought of when I saw the title, was force the paladin to join a group of CN characters...
and then I saw he is a paladin of Asmodeus...umm that seems enough of a curse as it is..whatever aspect of Asmodeus it claims to be.
Perhaps he could be the being who begins the redemption of Asmodeus himself.
What redemption? He's never broken his word right?
How surprising that someone named MrSin would say, "What redemption?" ;)
True evil only leads you to a better future. Every act is a step towards the greater good. Its not so complicated...
If you really wanted to be mean to the paladin make him take on the appearance of someone wanted or tempted by a succubus, or whatever the LE counterpart is. Comes with a free profane bonus!
Interesting character concept! As far as the curse goes I'd consider a combination of your ideas above- living with the knowledge that he's going to be suffering damnation as a traitor is one thing, but some sort of manifestation of his fate is even better. I'd go with something that happens each time he goes below 0 hp (does this happen often?), as that's when he's hovering at death's door and he's in greatest peril. Losing charisma is pretty harsh for a paladin, so you'd probably do better to just apply penalties to specific charisma-related activities. I like the idea of a creeping panic in the back of his mind as he's approaching 0 hp- even though he's immune to fear, it's a subtle way of corrupting him into behaving just a LITTLE more cowardly. Which might cause problems with his *new* god as well, and would suit Asmodeus just fine :)
I also like your ideas. He has only gone below zero once so far. (They are fifth level and we are just starting What Lies in Dust.) I had been thinking of giving him a devlish feature: horns, cloven hoof, tail, red skin, fangs, each time he goes below zero. This would make him more untrustworthy to good characters: progressively increasing penalties to diplomacy and bluff. I think I like your idea better. He needs to face some kind of danger when he is at death's door, but I do not want him to have to trash his character the next time he goes below zero. At the same time, there should be some sort of penalty that is bad enough to inspire this fear.
You can still go with the Damned bit as well.
There's quick rules for it in the Evil Outsider based PrCs.
When a diabolist is killed, her soul is instantly sent to Hell. Any character attempting to resurrect her must succeed at a caster level check equal to 10 + the diabolist's level or her spell fails. That character cannot attempt to resurrect the diabolist again until the following day, though other characters can attempt as they please.
Perhaps nightmares?
Every time he falls asleep there's an X% chance he gets a vision of Hell and the tortures that await him when he dies.
If you want a mechanical penalty, Will save or be Fatigued for the next day.
In case you want to know how it turned out....
http://parhoon-naval-yards.blogspot.de/2013/05/for-paladin-his-word-is-his- bond.html
-Michael
Looks good. Sounds like it was a lot of fun to play through as well.