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So after watching a lot of Dark Souls let's play I wanted to see if I could run a Pathfinder campaign with some mechanics inspired by dark souls. Since Mythic is pretty fresh now, I thought I would put it in there too and make it part of the concept.
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As for the Lore I have some vague ideas:
The PCs all have done something terrible, wether they were villains or heroes, they did something so terrible, that moved a higher power bring them to its own realm, where they would be punished for what they have done.
They would be tasked with defeating 11 powerful, mythic monsters/NPCs in order to gain redemption, and they would not be allowed to die until they did.
They find themselves stripped of all their power and equipment (they start of as level 1 characters, with no starting wealth and only a basic set of clothing and items that are required by their class (such as wizard spell books, or a bladebound magus's black blade) as well as their familiar/animal companion if they had any. (the companion willingly came to the realm with the character, wanting to help them, and if dismissed would be returned to the material realm). They would have to fight their way forward with the things they find until they meet any npcs that can actually sell them equipment.
This realm would be inhabited by those who had been punished before the NPCs and gave up their quest for redemption, trapping them in this realm for eternity where they would then have to take up an eternal task in a profession or as guards. Particularly evil indiviudals would become enemies for those on their quest of redemption. Other frequent inhabitants are undead (some of which long-time punished, who would have died of old age but their curse kept them alive) and fiends and fiendish creatures attracted by the suffering that is so prevalent in this realm. Other creatures also exist here, dragons, celestial and other outsiders might come to provide help to those they think deserve redemption or for their own agenda, aberrations, oozes and other monsters have been brought there by the powers that created the realm. Animals only exist in the form of fiendish animals if a character loses a familiar or animal companion, the new companion will be one of those fiendish animals which lose their fiendish status the moment they bond with the character and become normal ACs/familiars (unless the character has an ability to have a fiendish familiar or something). The majority of creatures in the realm however is evil.
When a creature dies, it will resurrect the next day, stripped of its mythic powers, if it had any and will have to perform certain task to regain that power.
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Mechanically I thought of the following:
The PCs are as I said, starting out at level 1 without any equipment, the game will use fast level advancement and for every 2 levels the PCs will gain one Mythic tier.
When a creature (including the PCs) dies they will be resurrected the next morning, but are temporarily stripped of all their mythic tiers, which they have to fulfill certain tasks to regain. A character that died can also be brought back with their mythic tiers intact with a resurrection or raise dead spell. The idea behind this is how you become hollowed in dark souls if you die and have to restore your humanity to have access to your full abilities.
When a corpse is destroyed to the point where only true resurrection would bring them back or if a corpse has been turned undead the creature is still resurrected by the realm's power but the creature will be brought back with a new body at a certain location (some sort of beacon, of which there are many spread all over the realm) nearest to where it died.
Raise dead and resurrection spells will be significantly less expensive (im thinking here costing only 10% or 20%) in material cost due to the restoring power of the realm.
I'm not sure on what the tasks should be to restore one's mythic powers, one idea is sacrificing an amount of currency (which should be more expensive than raise dead) proportionate to their tier, fulfilling a very short side quest or giving up an amount of XP proportionate to their mythic tier.
I was also thinking that gold will be replaced with a more metaphysical currency, not sure what yet.
Now Combat will be hard. Pretty much every encounter, with the exception of the first few, before the PCs have proper equipment, will be at least challenging (that is CR=APL +1) most will be hard (APL+2) and epic (APL+3) or even harder encounters will also happen. Dying will be a regular thing in the campaign and gaining levels will happen quickly. If a player wants to change their character their old PC will give up its quest and become one of the eternally trapped NPCs and his new character will come in with appropriate equipment and at the same level and mythic tier as the rest of the party, assuming that character has fought its own way through the realm so far.
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Now there are still a few loose ends here and there.
1. As I said, I am not exactly sure which are appropriate tasks to restore your mythic tier after death, it shouldn't take a lot of time from the main quest, if it's a task it should be either very quick to complete or something that can happen during the main quest, as for sacrificing currency or XP, I think it would appropriate to have 100 gp/xp per mythic tier of the character at level 11+ the amount of XP to sacrifice doubles though (this is based on the realitive wealth by level and experience points per level)
2. The second question, what could i make the currency? Is it some sort of essence, that the characters absorb into their bodies, or is it still something that can be physically carried around?
3. Also do you have any other ideas to flesh this campaign idea out?
Is there a permanent way of dying? You know, to reflect the hollowing that happens to people around the main character?
Is there a permanent way of dying? You know, to reflect the hollowing that happens to people around the main character?
I was thinking if you die of old age you turn into an undead and depending on the creature's willpower or strength of character they will turn into unintelligent or completely mindless undead, or if they do have the strenth to hold on to their sanity, or some necromantic abilities to preserve themselves with, become skeletal champions (being undead in this realm does not automatically make you evil) or more powerful intelligent undead. A third possibility is that the soul seperates from the body, leaving one of the few actual dead corpses in the realm and an incorporeal undead.
Particularly weak willed individuals could turn undead sooner. Basically your willpower determines how long you live, and how well you will be able to hold on to your sanity after you die.The power ruling the realm might sometimes take pity and destroy an individual, but that's a rare thing to happen.
As an addendum: mindless undead in this realm still actually contain the mind of the person they once were, it just has gone so far beyond insane that their actions and all mechanical effects are like that of a mindless creature, with the only directive: kill the living.
I'm afraid I don't have much to add at the moment, but as a fan of D&D and Dark Souls I think this sounds AWESOME. I would play this campaign in a second.
#1) Well, if you want to go full dark souls/demon souls, the mechanics of those games are fairly straight forward. In demon souls, simple defeating a great foe would restore humanity, whereas in dark souls a consumable was required. Either method (even both) could be easily implemented.
Have you thought of the use of hero points or a similar system for this? The ability to use hero points as per usual or to burn them to regain mythic powers would work thematically. This would allow you to grant hero points as a boss reward and potentially as part of a unique consumable item.
#2)In one of the books of the damned I'm pretty sure they have a table for souls as currency (although, admittedly, it was a fairly lackluster section from what I recall). Again, if you're going draw directly from the game, whatever currency you choose, it would be absorbed into the PC somehow. However, I think this is a point where I would diverge from the game. There is a lot of potential for soul or essence storing items for plot devices and as generally interesting items.
I like the concept of a game where the characters can see huge piles of gold and other riches and watch as they struggle with that strong looting instinct. It seems like a perfect plot device, to trick the PCs into looting a worthless treasure with the potential of having angry guardians and a whole assortment of problems associated with such a horde, such as curses.
#3)To me in order to faithfully mimic a dark souls setting subtle lore hints are key. Allowing the PCs to piece together the history of the crazy realm they've entered would be half the fun of it, and to that end I would advise a lot of careful planning. Having strategically placed dead NPCs, ambiguous dialogue with not necessarily trustworthy NPCs, and
rich tidbits of item and monster lore scattered about would be essential.
All of these are great ideas. I haven't thought of hero points before, but that would work wonderfully here, and defeating a mythic creature of a certain power level should also restore mythic powers. Something along the lines of "If the party defeats a mythic creature with a CR high enough to alone count as a challenging encounter to the party in its current state (factoring in who currently has mythic powers and hwho doesn't) will restore mythic power for all PCs in the party. Alternatively if the CR of the creature isn't high enough to count as challenging, all PCs whose mythic tier is lower than or equal to the creatures mythic rank will have their mythic powers restored."
I think some sort of magic device or object containing the currency is a good idea in that these objects could still be pickpocketed with sleight of hand.
I also like the idea of the mundane treasure lure, i'll definitely put that in there.
Yes i definitely want to have the lore of this world seeping through subtly for the players to discover gradually.
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Let me attempt a more complete writeup:
The Fields of Torment
Nobody knows who or what the entity is that created the Fields of Torment, some call it the Redeemer, the Judge Eternal or the Torturer. Some theories speculate it is the God of Judgement giving the guilty their just punishment, others hypothesize it to be a fiendish Lord who merely enjoys suffering while others believe the realm has its own conscious. However none can be proven, and the true nature of the Fields and the force guiding it remains a mystery.
Every morning a pale sun rises over the Fields casting its bleak light on the corpses that rise with it, as those who have been slain the day before are brought back to life, to live their eternal punishment for another day.
Many creatures inhabit the Fields of Torment, aberrations, lesser dragons, magical beasts and other monsters which have been created, or perhaps brought there from the material plane by the Torturer itself, evil dragons, outsiders and fiendish beasts who have sought out the plane to feed on the death and suffering, the lesser ones trapped by the Torturer the more powerful ones often choosing to stay to satisfy their unquenchable lust for violence and slaughter, beings of good hoping to provide aid and solace to those who they felt unjustly punished. But the most numerous among them are the punished.
Mortals who committed terrible crimes or gross atrocities, be it intentionally or not, are taken to the Fields of Torment at the seemingly arbitrary whim of the Torturer, and be tasked with a series of trials. These unfortunate souls are known as the accused. The accused, stripped of all their possessions and former skill and power must fight and slay terrible and increasingly more powerful foes. The accused go on a harrowing journey through an unforgiving land populated with violent or utterly hopeless creatures. Just as they grow in skill and experience as they overcome challenges on their way and thus restore their former power, so will they ascend to and increase their mythic power with each trial passed.
Not allowed to die, any accused slain will rise with the sun the next morning, just as all creatures in the Fields of Torment do. But even so, death is still a painful and harrowing experience. When returned from death like this an accused will find themselves drained of the mythic power granted to them by overcoming the trials and must make sacrifices to restore it.
Death being denied from the accused there are only two ways out of the trials: success or surrender. Those that succeed in their trial are redeemed and will be granted their choice of returning home to their material plane or the final deliverance of death. Those who surrender give in to their eternal punishment in the Fields of Torment. These are known as the punished, who spend the rest of eternity or the time they manage to hold on to their sanity in the pursuit of a single task assigned to them by the realm itself. Some become blacksmiths, forever working the forge, crafting weapons to sell to the accused or to equip the punished who are tasked with guarding the locations of the trials or artifacts that provide the key to such locations. Particularly evil punished eternally seek out the accused trying to prevent them from finding redemption, while the few truly good among them will try to aid the accused and deliver them from the fate of the punished.
The Fields of Torment may withhold death from its inhabitants but they still age. Once a creature gets too old for its body to support itself, the body will wither and die, but yet the soul stays trapped in the remains, having to continue its existence and its task in unlife as their body slowly rots away and eventually falls apart, leaving the disembodied soul to slave on into eternity. Some souls separate from their bodies well before their physical form is completely destroyed, and leave behind lifeless corpses. Why that happens is unknown, some of the punished believe it happens at the whim of the Torturer, some think the sould itself fled from the rotting body somehow.
Many punished go violently insane, some before slipping into undeath, some afterward, but even this insanity is no relief for the soul trapped within, as there will always be shred of sanity left having to watch as madness takes complete control of its body and goes around maiming and killing.
Gold and gems have no value in the Fields of Torment, some of the lifeforce of slain creatures is absorbed by the killer, who can transfer it to others. Such a transference will cause the punished a momentary feling of relief, often incentive enough to reward those who gave it to them in some way, effectively turning this life essence into a form of currency, that because of its usefulness with the punished has become accepted by other inhabitants of the Fields aswell.
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Next post will have the mechanics.
Character Creation
- Characters in a Fields of Torment campaign should be built with the point buy system. The amount of points to use is still subject to the GM's discretion depending on how hard he or she wants to make the challenges for the PCs.
- Hit points are never rolled. As normal, every character gains the maximum hitpoints possible for first level. Subsequent levels always get the average amount of hit points per die.
- Fields of Torment uses both Mythic and Hero Point rules, these are both essential to the system.
- Characters start at level 1 with no starting wealth. Each player starts only with a set of ragged clothing and has to scour the area for makeshift weapons and armor before they can get proper equipment. They start the game with any items required by their starting class (such as bound items, spellbooks, etc) and their animal companion, familiar or other class-granted companion is with them.
- The campaign spans levels 1 to 20, so fast evel progression is highly recommended.
- The PCs start the campaign finding themselves in separate cells of the same dungeon, not knowing where they are, or how they got there. each has to fight a single creature of equal CR before they all meet in a chamber adjoining the corridors leading from their respective cells. They have to fight their way out together and slowly learn about the Fields of Torment throughout the campaign.
Mythic ascension and the trials
- Ascension and each following mythic tier is achieved by defeating one of the 11 trials. Each of the trials should be taken on uneven levels (1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19), the final one happening at level 20 and mythic tier 10 and ending the campaign with the success of the PCs.
- A character who lost their mythic tiers due to death, can reaquire them by spending a hero point, sacrificing 100 essence points per tier at a resurrection stone, or fulfilling short sidequests (at the GM's discretion)
Death and Resurrection
- Rising at Dawn: When a creature dies, it returns to the living the next morning as soon as the sun comes up. If it had died within an hour before dawn, it instead rises the next morning after that. This effect works as the raise dead spell, except that the creature does not suffer negative levels or constitution drain from the effect and is raised with full hit points. Instead it loses all mythic tiers. When regaining these mythic tiers, they are restored exactly as they were at the moment of death. If a PC dies during a battle against one of the trials but the rest of the party succeeds in defeating the trials, the PC gains the new tier awarded by the victory as soon as his or her mythic tiers are restored. After rising at dawn a creature counts as having rested for 8 hours and may prepare spells accordingly (otherwise it has the same spells prepared and spent as at the moment of its death).
When a creature's body is destroyed too far for raise dead to restore it, it is instead restored as per true resurrection at the nearest resurrection stone, one of many large monoliths scattered throughout the Fields of Torment. All gear, if still intact remains at the location where the creature was slain.
If a corpse is turned undead, it will also be resurrected at a resurrection stone, while the undead corpse remains unaffected by this. Undead can't rise at dawn, unless they are punished who turned undead due to old age, or by leaving their body and becoming incorporeal undead.
Outsiders other than summoned outsiders will Rise at Dawn as well and not return to their home plane when slain in the Fields of Torment.
- Due to the restorative power of the Fields of Torment spells like resurrect and raise dead, that restore a dead creature to actual life cost only 10% of their regular material cost and the raised/resurrected creature does not incur negative levels or constitution drain. It is also restored with its mythic tiers intact.
- No matter by which means a creature is resurrected, it always retains its absorbed essence.
Currency and Gear
- Gold and gems are worthless in the Field. The currency used is essence, essence points translate 1:1 to gold pieces in value.
- At the end of an encounter the party absorbs the essence of the defeated foes. The essence aquired is equal to 25% of the level-appropriate amount of treasure in GP. PCs can still loot gear and other items from the defeated foe. The absorbed essence is divided evenly among the PCs surviving the encounter.
- A creature is always aware of how much absorbed essence it possesses and can transfer any amount of essence to another creature within 5 feet as a standard action.
- Punished throughout the field craft and produce all manner of gear and buy or sell them for essence.
- PCs can also craft items as per the regular rules except by spending essence instead of gold.
Challenges
- Campaigns in the Fields of Torment are supposed to be especially challenging. A regular encounter should have a CR of APL+2. +3 and +4 not being unusual either, and bosses, such as the 11 trials can be up to APL +5. Players will need to use tactics and teamwork to keep the upper hand.
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Other than that it should work like a regular campaign.
Addendum to rising at dawn: Spontaneous casters spell slots and all per-day abilities other than prepared casting are also reset as if the character hadrested for 8 hours.