Im a DM and a fan of RWBY and I find Qrow's semblance to be interesting (He's a character from said show). His power is basically he is a literal bad luck charm, he makes misfortune happen to everyone but himself. And I was thinking of introducing an friendly NPC that had that ability, bringing misfortune to allies and enemies I am trying to figure out how this could work mechanically. We are using all core books besides mythic, as Well as Path of War and all the psionic rules. If people could give me suggestions for this, I would be really thankful.
Some of my ideas Ive had for it so far were to raise DC's of checks when the character is around, as well as roll for random "misfortune" events every so often when the party is with the character.
Im open to any suggestions.
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You could take a look at the pugwampi's unluck aura as an example. It basically gives everything in the area misfortune.
(Note that this does affect everything, including allies and the creature itself.)
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It's not on the book list you mentioned, but the Malefactor by TPK Games sounds exactly like what you're looking for.
You could take a look at the pugwampi's unluck aura as an example. It basically gives everything in the area misfortune.
(Note that this does affect everything, including allies and the creature itself.)
It doesn't SAY that it affects the pugwampi itself. I for sure wouldn't run it that way! Everyone else, friend or foe, yes. Except for those with a luck bonus. And I wish it allowed a Will save, even with a high DC.
It would be interesting to give the NPC a conditional luck bonus: it gets to roll d20's twice and take the better roll, but only if something is in its aura and is being adversely affected.
There's also the halfling jinx. Just home brew it to a different race.
The Follower trait penalises allies, even if it's just a little bit.
There's the Fortune-Spurned creature template.
I can't believe that that adds 1 to the CR, instead of subtracting 1! Or did I read it wrong, and all those penalties apply to the creatures in the aura and not to the base creature itself?
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There's the Fortune-Spurned creature template.I can't believe that that adds 1 to the CR, instead of subtracting 1! Or did I read it wrong, and all those penalties apply to the creatures in the aura and not to the base creature itself?
all creatures within aura are affected, the Fortune-Spurned creature is already under the effects.
These types of creatures would be a true hinderance against crit-fishers. Failing a save on a Nat 20 could doom many a player.
Also, the Calamitous Mishap ability can lead to some hilarity if properly employed.
I ran some Fortune-Spurned Cultists in Among the Dead, and I had the players cry foul when one cultist caused someone to fall prone without any sort of roll, another called down a bat swarm, and the last one tried to collapse the floor beneath himself and PC he was fighting.
You could take a look at the pugwampi's unluck aura as an example. It basically gives everything in the area misfortune.
(Note that this does affect everything, including allies and the creature itself.)
It doesn't SAY that it affects the pugwampi itself. I for sure wouldn't run it that way! Everyone else, friend or foe, yes. Except for those with a luck bonus. And I wish it allowed a Will save, even with a high DC.
It would be interesting to give the NPC a conditional luck bonus: it gets to roll d20's twice and take the better roll, but only if something is in its aura and is being adversely affected.
Whoops, you're right, I was conflating it with the Fortune-Spurned template mentioned above. (For the memorable encounter I had with a pugwampi, the GM ALSO gave it that template. Cause hey, bad luck all around! Hence the mixup.)
In the Dirty Tactics Toolbox, they've got something called the Ashes of Unluck that might help to give inspiration for bad luck. ;)
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I can't find much first party material that involves bad luck. The Pugwampi is okay I guess.
I was thinking about using the Fortune-Spurned template, but I don't like the Calmitous Mishap ability. In my opinion this needs limits like a DC (Hit Dice/2+ability, maybe Charisma?) and a damage threshold. (1d6 per level? Kinda like sneak attack?)
I'll throw this wild idea out there:
You, as the GM, don't actually need mechanics. Just describe every failure when the NPC is around as some inexplicably unlucky thing happening and some of the successes as crazy accidental success. When the NPC isn't around, you don't play up the misses.
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I'll throw this wild idea out there:
You, as the GM, don't actually need mechanics. Just describe every failure when the NPC is around as some inexplicably unlucky thing happening and some of the successes as crazy accidental success. When the NPC isn't around, you don't play up the misses.
Well, that's one way of doing it. I'd prefer a subtle effect that players wouldn't notice at first. Having to roll 2 dice and taking the lower result is kinda obvious, so I'm looking for something simple, like a -1 on all attack rolls, saves, skill checks and ability checks. It might work with Bestow Curse. Maybe I should look up examples for Bestow Curse...