So, I have a Psychic Bloodline sorcerer/paladin (not actual psychic spell list) in our campaign. He was a character that was brought into the AP after the death of my previous character. I wanted him to kind of have a different type of backstory to justify this his relevance, and to avoid any tired chosen-one, or former mercenary tropes. So the character's concept became closely tied to my friend's new character that was also being freshly brought in (his previous character also died). He saw this new person as his best friend and believed that it was his purpose to defend and protect him, thinking that his friend had a far greater purpose in the world.
I followed this up mechanically by making him slightly capable in melee and using aid another, bodyguard, and combat reflexes to "protect" his ally. Alas, it proved to not be enough, and the friend met his fate two sessions ago. Now my GM has ruled that because I lost my best friend/purpose in life that I would be going through an emotionally tumultuous state of grief and it might include some sort of difficulty with my psychic casting. I said that's fair because it makes sense through the story and because I welcome the challenge.
However, yesterday we just played a long 8 hour session including a 27 turn combat with a dragon, and the penalty that he had in mind was that my emotional state is so fragile, that I have to roll a 50% chance to have a successful spell get off, otherwise it fails and I lose that spell slot. I figured it would last in the dungeon where the fallen comrade was, but it persisted for multiple days in game, and possibly multiple sessions.
I became frustrated and discouraged and complained a bit because I essentially was afflicted with the effects of Bestow Curse for multiple days with no mechanical way to handle it. I essentially had to roll 50% chance to cast a spell, 30-40 % chance to penetrate spell resistance, and 50% to target the creature via displacement (which we later determined was also wrong), and beat Saves and energy resistance on top of that. I was essentially 10% of a functional character.
I brought up my frustration to him later on, explaining that I agree and encourage story based effects in the game since I actually like the role-playing aspects of the game, but I thought the penalty was a bit extreme and didn't really promote a "fun" style of playing. He thinks that he's being generous by allowing me to cast spells at all, as per the rules of Psychic Magic.
It was my intention that the emotion-based components of psychic magic are tied to actual mechanical effects in the game. Things like a curse of melancholy, the crushing despair or rage spells, or Intimidation & fear effects. Things in the game that have actual mechanical descriptions as Emotion & Fear. I know they aren't the most common things in the game, but If a GM wanted to challenge a player, then he has the power to add any of these effects into the game as he sees fit. I explained using the logic of how limited the effects are to reduce verbal components (Silence effects, language dependent things etc.). He argues, that I should have just cast calm emotions on myself, but It is a round/concetration duration spell that eats up my standard action.. so it doesn't really help me cast spells at all (AND I have the 50% chance of failure to even cast it in the first place).
It really just feels like I am being punished for another character's death rather than being challenged. I as a player can research and find ways to use spells and scrolls and whatever to solve and circumvent the negative mechanics of psychic casting, but there's nothing I can do to deal with a penalty that transcends game mechanics... of a very mechanically heavy game.
Long in short... I still really can't do much about it, but is my frustration justified? I just don't wanna feel like I'm being a wuss or unnecessarily difficult. Maybe my interpretation of Psychic magic rules is wrong, maybe his are wrong? Any thoughts?
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Outside emotions compelled by someone else are emotion effects that prevent casting with emotion components (NOT spells that only have thought components). Your own natural emotional reactions to things don’t harm your ability to use emotion effects. Your GM is entirely wrong.
I concur with Xenocrat. A psychic caster is someone who is masterfully in control of their own emotions (to the point where they can turn them into magic). So normal, natural emotions like "I am sad because my friend died" or "I am happy because I am at my birthday party" don't get in the way of psychic spellcasting at all.
It's just externally imposed emotions that can interfere with your casting.
I mean, RAW is " It is impossible to cast a spell with an emotion component while the spellcaster is under the influence of a non-harmless effect with the emotion or fear descriptors." Grief and sadness do not have the fear descriptor and neither are harmful effects (as unpleasant as they may be, they do not directly cause harm).
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Here's the bit about emotion components:
"Emotion Components: Emotion components represent a particular emotional state required to cast the spell.
A psychic spellcaster marshals her desire in order to focus and release the spell’s energy. It is impossible to cast a spell with an emotion component while the spellcaster is under the influence of a non-harmless effect with the emotion or fear descriptors. Even if the effect’s emotion matches the necessary emotion to cast the psychic spell, the spellcaster is not in control of her own desires and animal impulses, which is a necessary part of providing an emotion component."
Also this tidbit:
"If a spell’s components line lists a somatic component, that spell instead requires an emotion component when cast by psychic spellcasters"
Your gm has, apparently, decided that grief has bestowed upon you an effect with the emotion or fear descriptor.
Your technical options are:
Focus on spells without the emotional/somatic component.
Prepare spells with the logical spell metamagic or grab a rod of it.
Access a form of memory modification such as modify memory and edit out memories of that character until you've erased the emotional connection.
Your 'talk to the dm' options are:
"The way you're approaching this makes me not want to develop any new emotional connections on my characters, and it makes me want to sever my existing one. Your approach is so penalizing that it means being a murderhobo is a better option than roleplaying."
"Fine, then my character is going to sit in an inn indefinitely until you drop the penalty. The plot? No reason to touch that, and all the reason to avoid it, when I can't even do my job."
"Reasonably, someone who has to adjust their emotional state from spell to spell should have excellent emotional control. That alone should be sufficient by now, as plenty of time has passed."
"Why are you taking an approach which is incredibly penalizing, feels terrible both from a player and character viewpoint, isn't developing anything at all, and wastes my time since I basically can't play my character? How is this making the game FUN to play? Where is the enjoyment factor in this game supposed to be for me?"
Your 'snark a.f. options are:
"Sorry dave, that last attack hit your sword hand. Since your fingers hurt, you can't wield your greatsword for the next two months without a 50% chance of dropping it. It makes sense though, because holding weapons is part of your class." repeat a version every time a party member takes damage or does anything you could draw parallels to.
"My turn? I spend it weeping about my dead friend, pulling my hair, and I'm so grief-stricken that I'll even consider myself helpless. By the way, I've got a backup character who is also a psychic spellcaster but weirdly lacks any personal attachments at all."
"I'm sorry Dave, I'd like to buff you, but my years of experience and training in manipulating my emotional state has been completely overwhelmed by a sad thing that happened weeks ago. It sure is a shame that my training in emotional control didn't include control over my emotions." repeat a version every time you cast a spell
"Oh, look, a drinking cup. 'deceased character' used to use those all the time! I break down sobbing again." Repeat every single time something changes in the game. Walk between rooms? "they looked at a painting once too!" character pulls something out of a pack. "they carried a pack sometimes!"
Make everyone suffer for as long as you're suffering. Really eke out the pain. When the dm calls you on it, just reply with, "I'm just acting out the ridiculous level of grief that would be necessary to interfere so constantly and consistently with someone who is trained in controlling their emotional state. And since you refused to take a more reasonable, less penalizing approach, I don't have any choice but to act out the the degree that you've decided my character must feel. If it's annoying you, imagine how I feel about it."
Punishing a player for being emotionally connected in a game seems so completely backwards... Your frustration is completely justified.
Maybe if the GM had given the spells a chance at failure similar to a wizard wearing armour (10-20% or so) but heighten suitable spells it would've been okay.
But a 50% chance of failure is WAY to extreme.
Punishing a player for being emotionally connected in a game seems so completely backwards... Your frustration is completely justified.
Maybe if the GM had given the spells a chance at failure similar to a wizard wearing armour (10-20% or so) but heighten suitable spells it would've been okay.
But a 50% chance of failure is WAY to extreme.
Yeah, I said exactly the same thing. I don't care if it was a 40% chance, but I felt like it should at least favor the opportunity to do Something, as opposed to being a 50-50 coin flip.
Update: He now says that he stated that calm emotions now works at hours per level as opposed to rounds per level with concentration. Like... why even fight for this ground-breaking story fueled penalty only to have it essentially revoked at the cost of a single level-1 spell... It feels like a complete backpedal, but I guess I won't argue with it.
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Punishing a player for being emotionally connected in a game seems so completely backwards... Your frustration is completely justified.
Maybe if the GM had given the spells a chance at failure similar to a wizard wearing armour (10-20% or so) but heighten suitable spells it would've been okay.
But a 50% chance of failure is WAY to extreme.Yeah, I said exactly the same thing. I don't care if it was a 40% chance, but I felt like it should at least favor the opportunity to do Something, as opposed to being a 50-50 coin flip.
Update: He now says that he stated that calm emotions now works at hours per level as opposed to rounds per level with concentration. Like... why even fight for this ground-breaking story fueled penalty only to have it essentially revoked at the cost of a single level-1 spell... It feels like a complete backpedal, but I guess I won't argue with it.
Yeah man, it sounds like he's trying his best to be honest.
The hardest thing for me to learn in RPGs is to be forgiving to ignorance, especially for a GM. It sounds like he wants to stick to the call he made but secretly feels bad so he's giving you an easy out.
If you want to play along with the idea, it might even be cool to bake something like this into your Character to the effect that you deal with the grief in roleplay to "get it out of your system" so to speak.
Calm Emotions is not a Harmless spell. You would be entirely unable to cast with Emotion components. Even if it were Harmless, it would make you unable to take violent actions and any aggressive action towards you would break the spell.
There's a reason folks turn to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain.
/don't do drugs, kids