I blinded myself and smashed it.
What?
Paladin.
So me and my group are running through Kingmaker and we're nearing the end of 'The Varnhold Vanishing'.
After defeating a certain BBEG with a magical eye my character, Baltz Rogarvia Male Witch, was overcome with curiosity and a slight hunger for power tore out his own eye and inserted the new one.
Anyways he's neutral but heading down a path of evil and corruption since the artifact won't grant him all of it's powers just yet.
Being in a majority good aligned party this should be intersting.Any other similar stories that someone would like to share?? =D
Have you decided what your next character will be? The witch seems destined for NPC-hood any day now. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that and can make the most sense for the character, but such a powerfully evil artifact will make him all but unplayable. It'll be fun for your new character to hunt him down though!
Hah... what?I blinded myself and smashed it.
What?
Paladin.
I was playing a paladin.
To destroy the artifact you must be a) permanently blinded and b) wielding a holy bludgeoning weapon.
I blinded myself, got out my warhammer and used my divine bond to make it holy, and smashed it. Then I stopped being permanently blinded due in part to the grace of my god.
Always the cool toys for the evil characters.
Hah... what?I blinded myself and smashed it.
What?
Paladin.
I was playing a paladin.
To destroy the artifact you must be a) permanently blinded and b) wielding a holy bludgeoning weapon.
I blinded myself, got out my warhammer and used my divine bond to make it holy, and smashed it. Then I stopped being permanently blinded due in part to the grace of my god.
Always the cool toys for the evil characters.
That situation cries for the Paladin to shout "Evil doesn't get to have nice things!" as he smashes it.
That situation cries for the Paladin to shout "Evil doesn't get to have nice things!" as he smashes it.Hah... what?I blinded myself and smashed it.
What?
Paladin.
I was playing a paladin.
To destroy the artifact you must be a) permanently blinded and b) wielding a holy bludgeoning weapon.
I blinded myself, got out my warhammer and used my divine bond to make it holy, and smashed it. Then I stopped being permanently blinded due in part to the grace of my god.
Always the cool toys for the evil characters.
Kingmaker may as well be named If You Are a Paladin Ha Ha Ha in terms of awesome unique magical items.
What exactly is the drawback to having this thing in your head?
It seems to me that there is no reason not to simply plug it in. After all the eye can not communicate directly with the owner, and doesn't seem to be dangerous. How do i keep this item interesting and not just seem to be a bauble with flavor text?
Is there no cost or down side?
From the description:
The occulus of Abaddon is powerfully neutral evil and possesses a limited and hateful intellect of its own.
Also - it refuses to activate its powers for any user who is not neutral evil.
Earlier in the text it suggests that the occulus was designed to tempt mortals into the serving the needs of the four horsemen.
So as long as the user is spreading pestilence, famine, war and death I can see no reason why the eye wouldn't work for him. If he pursues other goals (like most goals a party would strive towards in D&D) I would say the occulus just wouldn't work since it has that choice. Although the occulus cannot communicate directly, it can influence the choices made by the wearer by "rewarding" behaviour it likes and refusing to work otherwise. If a player wants to walk that path, he will very quickly be working against the rest of the party and would need to be relegated to NPC-hood.
Personally, I find that to be a perfectly acceptable end for a character and would certainly go that route if it was what he would do. It makes for a great story for how one member of group of heros was tempted by power and corrupted beyond redemption. His former allies were forced to make the difficult choice to put an end to his ways. Perhaps he escapes their initial attempts and will eventually resurface as a powerful enemy to the PC's kingdom.
Well, that's fair. I don't think I'll be as lenient with my players, however.
To perhaps get a better feel for what the occulus views as "ideal" is well described in the Daemon entry which also includes some info on the four horsemen:
To epitomize painful death, the allconsuming hunger of evil, and the utter annihilation of life.
and
seek only to consume mortal life itself.
Finally, your goal should be to
spread fear, mistrust, and despair, tarnishing the luster of existence and drawing the planes ever closer to their final, ultimate ruin.
I think an interesting analogy here would be the reverse case of doing something evil for the greater good. Good dieties and powerfully good mortals don't stand for such things. Just like how a paladin would not kill an innocent even if he knew that leaving them alive could cause great pain or death to others.
In this case, you have something powerfully evil that wouldn't put up with you doing something good for the greater evil. The act of protecting innocents and developing a safe civilization is the antithesis of what the occulus wants - even if it knows that those actions could be used in the future for evil ends.
Regardless, this is a grey area where each DM has the ability to use their own judgement. I fully expect at least one power-hungry PC to want this item and I may even let them play with it for a level or so before their biased actions cause inevitable unresolvable differences with the rest of the party. At that point, they'll be relegated to being an NPC.
...and try my best to ruin someone in the party...
Atta boy!
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My player's ended the last session with the Vordakai's defeat. They haven't had a chance to investigate him or his lair and I have been wondering about how to handle the eye. Would anyone who wasn't NE who handled the eye want to pluck their eye out even though it would not work for them? How have others handled this?
My player's ended the last session with the Vordakai's defeat. They haven't had a chance to investigate him or his lair and I have been wondering about how to handle the eye. Would anyone who wasn't NE who handled the eye want to pluck their eye out even though it would not work for them? How have others handled this?
While my players haven't gotten here yet, I told them all months ago that I'm altering (slightly) how Intelligent (or semi-Int) items work according to RAW. I thought it would be more interesting to allow such items to function for those whose alignment is one step away, but the item will attempt to influence a change in character alignment to coincide with its own. Which means if any Neutrals pick up the Eye, they can use some of its powers, but it will try and draw them towards NE. I'm looking forward to roleplaying this one--especially later on in the AP when the major power of the eye could REALLY corrupt someone...;)
And I'm dang well gonna have them roleplay the eye-tearing part. I better hear some weeping and screaming! (Of course, that's *if* one of them actually tries it in the first place. I'm tempted to have anyone who picks it up make a Will save (DC 0) for the compulsion...)
Though I should add that I'm a story-over-rules guy--YMMV.
Hah... what?I blinded myself and smashed it.
What?
Paladin.
I was playing a paladin.
To destroy the artifact you must be a) permanently blinded and b) wielding a holy bludgeoning weapon.
I blinded myself, got out my warhammer and used my divine bond to make it holy, and smashed it. Then I stopped being permanently blinded due in part to the grace of my god.
Always the cool toys for the evil characters.
I thought that it had to be smashed with a holy weapon by a "permanently blinded outsider".
I thought that it had to be smashed with a holy weapon by a "permanently blinded outsider".
** spoiler omitted **I thought that it had to be smashed with a holy weapon by a "permanently blinded outsider".
Cool - I stand corrected.
Lucky for the pally that his GM has a different definition of "permanent" than others do.
Game on...
** spoiler omitted **I thought that it had to be smashed with a holy weapon by a "permanently blinded outsider".
Cool - I stand corrected.
Lucky for the pally that his GM has a different definition of "permanent" than others do.
Game on...
I blinded myself permanently with the intention of it staying permanent.
Abadar saw that I did this to destroy the artifact and restored my vision as a reward.
I did not entirely intend to continue playing the character (I wanted to try a dragon disciple; my paladin was great but I ultimately fumbled more than anything else and I was certain the character was cursed) but ended up doing so anyways for the next book until I took over DMing the game for the unfortunately burnt-out DM.