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Hey guys, want to give me a hand balancing a feat? For those familiar with Story feats, I've tried my hand at constructing one for characters who have lost a loved one and seek to bring them back from the dead. Because raise dead requires 5,450 gold to have cast on one's behalf, I imagine a number of individuals have failed to come up with that sort of coin within the time alloted to bring a loved one back from the grave.
Since True Love, Unforgotten, and Vengeance didn't seem to fit very well, I give you:
The greatest love you have ever known was taken from you, but you will find a way to break death’s hold.
Prerequisite: You must have found love with a person who died through violent or unnatural means, or have the For Love, Major Disaster, or The Lover background.
Benefit: You carry a token of your lost love (such as a nonmagical piece of jewelry, leather or twine scraps from your handfasting ceremony, or a lock of their hair). While this token is in your possession, you gain a +4 bonus on saves against death and fear effects.
Goal: Find a way to bring your love back to life. This requires resurrection, true resurrection, wish, miracle, or some other powerful form of magic beyond the scope of raise dead.
Completion Benefit: You and your love share a life force. You both treat your Constitution scores as if they were 10 point higher than normal for the purpose of determining when hit point damage kills you. Because of the nature of your shared life force, you do not lose this completion benefit if your relationship with your love comes to an end for any reason, except death. However, if you or your love dies, the other may choose at any time to immediately and painlessly die.
Special: You may use the token from your love in place of a portion of your love’s body for the purpose of bringing them back with resurrection magic. This consumes the token. If this token is lost or destroyed, you may spend 1 week questing to find another token of your lost love.
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"Yes, you are truly beautiful, my lady," I said as I averted my eyes from her unclothed form, "but I am afraid I have already known and lost the most beautiful creature this world has ever known."
"And by what name did this creature, more beautiful than I, go by?" She asked me seductively.
"Wyn… his name was Wyn." I replied.
I could feel her smiling wryly at me now, and for a brief second her charming aura of confidence faltered.
"Your lover was a man?" The nymph asked a little amused.
"No more a boy, really. We both were. We were young, in love, and immortal. He was the son of an herbalist and a midwife. My family had been displaced by a war—a dispute between landholders over property lines turned bloody. We were strangers and he and his family showed us kindness and hospitality."
"My parents and older sisters worked on a nearby farm while I helped him with collecting wild herbs used in his father’s shop and his mother’s midwifery. Such tasks afforded him and me time alone. We became good friends… best friends… and, one sun-kissed afternoon, lovers. When we reached the age of majority, we announced our intention to be handfasted. This did not come as a surprise to either of our families and their blessings were given. I was so happy that day… I thought I would die of joy at any moment..."
"So what happened to this perfect boy of yours?" She asked.
"We had been wed less than a year when it happened. An unnatural beast was spotted by some trappers prowling the woods, but Wyn had left that morning to get an early start on collecting lavender and thistle. He had a way with animals so he never felt he had to carry a weapon with him, but this… thing, it was no animal… it was a monster. Even if he had a weapon with him, I doubt it would have changed anything… but if I had been with him…"
"When I found… Wyn… the monstrous beast, a tatzlwyrm, was attempting to drag him into the underbrush. It took all my strength and the last bit of my luck in this world to bring the beast down."
"I guess it was some time before the others found us. Wyn had died long before I could reach him, but I was holding his lifeless body in my arms hoping I could somehow will him back to life. It was a few days before we could bury him. You see, we were a poor community. We couldn’t come up with the gold to afford the healing magic that could bring him back from the grave, so we had tried to plead with the regional temple… I remember my heart breaking again that day."
There was a silence between us. I believe she sensed the pain I was hiding in my heart. Then, wistfully, she asked me what he was like.
"Wyn was… like sunshine; warmth spread with a smile. He was like air… his presence sustaining the very beating of my heart. He was every good thing the world had ever promised me, and when he died… the sun failed to rise in the morrow… and the stars fell from their place in the heavens. When he was finally buried… when Wyn was finally laid to rest, I left for the deepest part of the forest. I couldn’t bear to live in the place we had made our home, and even though his family didn’t blame me for his death… I still did."
"He loved nature; the way things grew and the beauty inherent in the balance of the natural world. So, I sought to remove myself from “civilized” lands, in the vain hope I might find him waiting for me in the darkest wilds. I have yet to find my Wyn, but I have found some solace in this realm; comfort in the balance of nature. Perhaps that will be enough to learn how to breathe again."
I dared to look upon her once more, and was taken aback by beauty perfected, marred by sympathetic pain. I wiped my tears away, previously unaware of their presence.
"And here," I said with a forced smile, "I thought I had shed them all."
Seems a little on the weak side to me. Great for keeping a character from dying and showing resolve, but a +4 to saves vs. death/fear is a little weak I think. You could probably make it add in another effect like charm/compulsion, or even +2 non stacking to fort/will and it wouldn't break the game at all.
Another suggestion might be once per day as a free action end a negative effect on yourself and regain a number of hit points equal to your HD. Love is strong and overcomes.
I was trying to balance the benefit of taking the feat with the completion benefit, in order to avoid abuse. After all, for the completion benefit, you gain a nice mechanical benefit and a minor roleplaying benefit.
I do like the idea of maybe once per day removing a negative effect and regaining a number of hit points equal to your level (or maybe gaining a number of temporary hit points equal to your level).
I guess it's ok. A summoner could do the same thing.
I like it. I like it a lot! I am more the person to sacrifice min/max for fluffy character choices, though.