Hey guys!
While I have been reading posts here for a while now, this would be my first time posting something (let alone starting a thread).
I'm going to be running a campaign shortly (ROTRL anniversary edition to be precise), and one of my pcs wants to play an oracle, though he does not like any of the curses available. As such, we have worked out a variant curse loosely based off the wasting curse:
Curse of Madness: Your mystery's influence on you has left you with a few screws loose, but strengthened your ability to resist magical effects on your mind.
You take a -4 penalty on Wisdom-based skill checks. You gain a +2 competence bonus on saves made to resist Mind-Affecting Effects.
At 5th level you gain immunity to Fear effects;
At 10th level you gain immunity to Charm effects;
At 15th level you gain immunity to Compulsion efects.
One of the things that we (my pc and I ) are trying to work out is whether the 5th, 10th, and 15th levels should grant immunity or +4 bonuses that stack with the level 1 +2 (for a total of +6 against fear, charm, and compulsion respectively.)
Any feedback about this curse (be it balancing issues, or just general thoughts) are most welcome as I want to let him play the curse he wants, but i want it to be balanced.
Thanks!
Edit: This idea was put forth on reddit…looks much better to me
You take a -4 penalty to all wisdom-based skill checks and initiative. You gain a +2 competence bonus to will saves.
At 5th level your competence bonus increases to +4 vs fear effects, and the initiative penalty deceases by 2.
At 10th level your competence bonus increases to +4 vs charm and compulsion, and you no longer suffer an initiative penalty due to your madness.
At 15th level you gain SR 10 + Oracle level against Mind-Affecting spells and spell-like abilities.
Yeah, immunity is pretty strong. The will penalty wouldn't have applied to the saves.
I must prefer the updated version though (gets rid of immunity), seems more balanced.
I like your curse better. I like neither your boons nor theirs. A flat +4 to certain mind effects are kind of lame and immunity strikes me as both overpowered and lame at the same time. What if madness has made you smarter? What if madness has made it dangerous for others to read your thoughts? What if your madness is infectious? I think this is design space better explored.
Immunity is pretty unbalanced, to be fair. In order to proceed, the Will penalty DOES NOT apply to Will saves, correct?
Will saves are not Wisdom-based skill checks. Though, shouldn't this curse affect Wisdom checks as well?
The reason the will save did not affect will saves was because the madness made it harder for other people to mind control you as your mind is a pretty scary place.
I really like the idea of making reading your thoughts dangerous for for other people to try on you, though how would you go about making it? % chance of when someone tries they get x condition? if they pass their save by x or more, the person trying to read your thoughts gets x?
The reason the will save did not affect will saves was because the madness made it harder for other people to mind control you as your mind is a pretty scary place.
I really like the idea of making reading your thoughts dangerous for for other people to try on you, though how would you go about making it? % chance of when someone tries they get x condition? if they pass their save by x or more, the person trying to read your thoughts gets x?
Try looking at a few creature of the Dark Tapestry. Many of them have an ability that causes mental ability damage if someone tries to read or detect their thoughts.
Also keep in mind that some mind-affecting effects, like morale bonuses, are benign when designing this. This is one reason why I don't like the reddit poster's suggestion. SR against mind-affecting spells and SLA can actually hurt the oracle more than help.
hmm…what about something along these lines:
lv 5: when someone tries to scan mind/read thoughts (telepathy, detect thoughts, etc.), they have to make a will save or suffer the effects of confusion for x time
lv. 10: same thing, but scan mind/read thoughts and mind control (dominate person/monster, etc.)
lv. 15: Same thing, but add on wisdom damage to the confusion effect.
Thoughts?
If establishing telepathic links between the oracle and another person is what's damaging, then would not the oracle be able to establish her own link (via telepathy, etc.) to inflict these effects on an opponent?
I would say no as the reason they are getting injured is due to the fact that they trying to make sense of such an insane mind ( as well as I feel that being able to use it offensively would be too strong).
On a different note, I am thinking about changing the wisdom drain for insanity (as per the spell) instead. Thoughts?
On the subject of Duration, I would have 1 round of confusion +1 at level 5 and for every five levels afterwards (for a maximum of 5 rounds at level 20 or +3 at level 10) If you decide to have mind control effects afflict the caster with Insanity, it'll also fit the feeling of an increase in severity as the Oracle's mind becomes more and more affected by the Dark Tapestry. I would, however, question the jump from being affected for three rounds to being affected permanently.
I had a changeling character with multiple personality disorder. Basically he should of gotten a bluff check when someone probed his mind.
That seems like a pretty insignificant curse IMO. What I would do is make it so that Perception and Sense Motive have like a 10% chance of giving you incorrect information.
That seems like a pretty insignificant curse IMO. What I would do is make it so that Perception and Sense Motive have like a 10% chance of giving you incorrect information.
On failed knowledge checks, a good DM won't let you know that you've failed and will give you false information.
i like the idea of sense motive….im not sure if it should be a percentage for failed info or simply they take a penalty (-2?, −4?)
So here is what I have decided on
Curse of Madness:
Your mystery's influence on you has left you with a few screws loose, but strengthened your ability to resist magical effects on your mind.
You take a -4 penalty on Wisdom-based skill checks (not will saves). You gain a +2 competence bonus on saves made to resist Mind-Affecting effects, as well as gaining a +2 to bluff checks against an opposed sense motive check.
lv 5: when someone attempts to scan mind/read thoughts (telepathy, detect thoughts, etc.), they have to make a will save* or suffer the effects of lesser confusion.
lv. 10: When someone attempts to scan mind/read thoughts (telepathy, detect thoughts, etc.), or dominate you (dominate person/monster, etc), they have to make a will save* or suffer the effects of confusion.
lv. 15: When someone attempts to scan mind/read thoughts (telepathy, detect thoughts, etc.), or dominate you (dominate person/monster, etc), they have to make a will save* or suffer the effects of insanity.
*DC + 10 + (1/2 class level) + charisma modifier