Fluff / rule combo for seven sins themed party.


Homebrew and House Rules


Okay, background is that I'm running a WotR campaign with a heavily modified story. The party of 6 have no memory of who they are and are being forced together to survive. The campaign has most of the same progression in the first few books but the major twists are that the players, along with an unrevealed 7th NPC, are the true cause of the demon invasion. Since the PCs are playing characters of their choice I wanted to really develop their evil alter-egos that caused this mess as I see how they progress. Don't worry, I'm not going to make the players into bad guys.

Anyway, each of the characters has a specific Focus item that is connected to one of the seven classic deadly sins. My items are a small coin purse that either double or destroy any an item to put inside it (greed), a pocket watch that disappears from time and memory depending how long you set it only to reappear in the possession of whoever set the timer (sloth), a flask that separates liquids into their components like purifying water or turning a potion into its basic ingredients (gluttony), glasses that make the wearer blind only while wearing it (evny), a pair of rings that can let the wearers control each others hands (pride), a mirror that shows a split reflection of half from minutes ago and half of minutes in the future (lust), and a letter opener that cuts on one edge and reassembled whatever it cut with the other (wrath, doesn't work on living people).

What I'm looking for is other powers that would thematically work with the sins as they players level up. Artifacts that will grow with the players. I've got plenty of ideas of spells per day or bonuses for them, I just really need a brainstorm for what kind of wacky powers, useful or not, would fit the theme of the items themselves.


That coin purse is a recipe for disaster- the players, if they're not all that wise, might destroy an important or very valuable item. The rest of the items are flavorful, but the envy glasses and sloth watch seem completely useless for an active adventuring party. I think some items will see much more use than others if you keep them how they currently are.

Could you tell us the party composition and which ones embody which sins? That would be very helpful in determining what sort of powers would be useful for them.


From your list it is unclear if the items are all supposed to be slight buffs, or slight debuts to your PCs. Greed is to strong in comparison to the rest of the items. Here are some Ideas and reworks, (mind that item level should not be 1:1 with PC level:

Greed
level one; This coin purse causes any vendor who touches this gold during a purchase of their goods to come under the effects of a fool's gold spell equal to your PC's level.
Level two; This coin purse allows you to find gold pieces as per the locate object spell, however you do not need to be familiar or clearly visualize the gold pieces in order to detect them.
Level three; This coin purse generates one gold piece per day.

Sloth
level one; This pocket watch can be set for a number of round equal to the PC's level as a standard action, while the timer is going the PC comes under the effect of a slow spell and delay poison spell. This can only be done once a day.
level two; in addition to the previously mentioned effects the PC comes under the effect of Martyr's Bargain and deadly juggernaut spells.
level three; The PC heals as per the heal spell after the timer has runout and the previously mentioned effects have expired.

Gluttony
level one; this tea pot boils liquids into its base parts. Potions can be used to gain tea and return a spell slot to the caster that prepared the potion. The tea pot may only be used this way once a day.
level two; if a potion is broken down as mentioned in level one, anyone who drinks the tea is treated though as if they had just eaten a goodberry from the gooseberry spell. The tea pot creates enough tea for seven people.
level three; When drinking the tea created from breaking down a potion all drinkers of the tea come under the effects of a hero's feast spell.

Envy
level one; while wearing these glasses the wear and all creatures within ten feat are blinded.
level two; the wearer of these glasses gets the blind fight feat while wearing them.
level three; the wear of these glasses gets the blinded blade style feat and the improved blind fight feat while wear these glasses

Pride
level one; this set of ten rings allow for one person to perfectly manipulate another person's hand from 60ft away. These two characters must be wearing five rings on the same sided hand (i.e. two pairs of five rings on both characters right hands)
level two; a spllcaster can use somatic components of the other players hands to cast spells, this allows the wizard to use silent spell to cast a spell from the location of their ringed partner. You may only use the rings to do this once a day.
level three; on your allies a turn your ally may attempt a DC 20 + spell level use magic device check to cast a spell you know if you are a spellcaster

Lust
level one; this mirror allows anyone who looks in it to come under a charm person spell with the original caster being the owner of the mirror. the mirror uses its owner's level for all spell effects.
level two; the owner of the mirror may use divination as per the spell once a week by consulting the mirror
level three; the mirror may be used to cast the spell magic jar. If you choose to posses a creature, a look-a-like version is trapped behind the mirror while you are in possession of its body in the real world.

Wrath
level one; this bastard sword can cut through any object without leaving a permanent mar, this does not work on any creatures or items who are capable of expressing agency.
level two; this weapon can cut shapes into objects, this leaves them open in the desired shape for two rounds, the round the items is cut in, and the round directly afterwards. If the weirder has the rage class feature, this bastard swords becomes a +2 bastard sword.
level three; This bastard sword can be used to sunder items that are unattended (not held, worn or on another creature's body). Items sundered by this item automatically break and are destroyed. If the user has the rage class feature, it becomes a +2 vicious weapon.

Here are some interesting ideas for items that build up and become pretty strong by the end of the game. enjoy!


Wrath might be a little too strong due to wording allowing you to cut walls. Maybe have it reduce Hardness equal to character level, or get a bonus to sunder checks? Also maybe giving it a Release Fury effect while raging or after taking X amount of damage?

Sloth appears to be mostly a penalty, and the spell effects don't really fit. Instead, how about:
The owner is under the effect of Restful Sleep. Then owner halves the time needed to rest. Full night becomes 4 hrs, Full day becomes half a day. Finally, the owner is under the effect of Vigilant Rest.

Gluttony has a lv1 effect that's too strong, its stronger then a Pearl of Power since it has no spell lv limit. I would specify a 1st lv spell slot, or make it the end effect with a suitable slot limit. Also, I feel like it should give Purify Food and Drink, and the owner is not sated by the food effects; or give them the Insatiable drawback.

For Lust, I dont think it makes much sense to have a Magic Jar effect. Effects that compel or change attitude make more sense. A negative effect could be getting the Hedonistic drawback (maybe remove the gold gain part).

****************
Overall look at drawbacks, for some inspiration for negative effects.


Didn't realize walls = items, oops. Also is KO'ing walls super broken? I imagine it'd be a pain for a DM while building a dungeon, but outside of that I can't imagine it being too powerful. It was just meant to create portals in walls not strait up destroy them.

Agreed for Lust, Geas spell maybe, idk some sorta high level compulsion spell

Gluttony should be adjusted to only give tea part of the spell, insatiable doesn't seem like to big of a deal given what the effects of the tea pot do.

I feel like sloth is meant to be more focused on doing things slowly and thus more methodically, rather than just sleeping. That just sounded more fun as a player, than "hey you can take second/third watch now, without penalty". But also maybe there should be more benefits for being under the effects of a slow spell?


That makes sense what you wanted with the walls: And, what I meant is that object/item rules were weird so I tried to make a more general version that doesn't have the weirdness.

For gluttony, the insatiable thing is too give the "eating in excess" thing, although I admit it doesn't really do much. I wonder what a better penalty might be.

What you described there sounds more like diligence, not sloth: Sloth is usually associated with laziness, sleeping, apathy, and/or melancholy. Btw I was going for the always sleeping but always ready trope, which I admit is kinda meh.

How about instead of slow (I just think staggered is too harsh) using the drowsy (3pp) or a fatigued-like condition? Possibly with a movement penalty aswell. Going by Tassilonian (Sin) magic, bonuses to conjugation and minions would be best; So maybe increases to bardic performance/banner/auras and summon monster?


Estaban, great ideas. I'm going to be tweaking it slightly but mostly they'll work 9ff the shelf.

My party: rogue, ranger, bard, barbarian, cavalier, monk. I haven't decided who is who yet, and the basic powers I've listed are the only ones they have access to for now. Soon I'm going to have the party 'awaken' the items and gain the equivalent of tier 1 powers, they are only level 3 right now. I'm playing it by ear who's being which sin embodiment.


So one of the sins isn't represented, or one player has two sins? 7 sins and 6 players.

That party makeup is a huge surprise to me. No full arcane or full divine casters... that's gonna make the game a living hell at high levels. Maybe they plan on taking cohorts? That's a way to keep things stable, but it adds even more characters to an already bloated party.


TheGreatWot wrote:

So one of the sins isn't represented, or one player has two sins? 7 sins and 6 players.

That party makeup is a huge surprise to me. No full arcane or full divine casters... that's gonna make the game a living hell at high levels. Maybe they plan on taking cohorts? That's a way to keep things stable, but it adds even more characters to an already bloated party.

No cohorts, no followers. I am going to be playing the 7th character, a cleric. It's about that time I will 'introduce' them to their trinket and let them awaken these items into full artifact mode.

I haven't firmly allocated the sin to the character but I'm leaning towards: bard/lust or pride, barbarian/wrath or gluttony, monk/sloth, rogue/lust or greed, cavalier/pride or wrath, ranger/envy.

PS, I ran a 10-person (usually 7 or 8 at the table) Kingmaker campaign for years. A 6 man party in nothing.


My 2 cents.

Bard: Lust (bards are notorious seducers)

Monk: Sloth (Too lazy to fight with weapons or carry around armor :p)

Barbarian: Gluttony (Barbarians are all about feasting and drinking)

Rogue: Greed (Obviously)

Cavalier: Pride (Waving a banner around and shouting battle cries? Pretty prideful if you ask me)

Ranger: Wrath (Hatred of favored enemies)

Cleric: Envy (Wants the power of the gods)

The addition of a cleric will make things easier, since they can at least remove some debuffs. You know your group better than I do, and if you ran a 10 player game before and managed to still make it a challenge, you'll probably be fine.


That was my first composition for the breakdown but I also want to play off my player's personalities. And, with most of the party playing good, I was actually thinking of assigning based on the virtues their characters presents. The most humble will be tempted with the power of pride, the chaste with lust, etc. Though your characterization is pretty perfect and part of my idea of doing this. Except the monk, who still mostly fits sloth because he is a meditative and contemplative character and a bit hesitant in battle.


Perhaps a dwarf cleric with a genocidal hate for Orcs and goblinoids?

An envy cleric, perhaps he draws power from the hydra like false god of Lamias? All the power of a god, but none of the other gods recognise her, or it.


Lamias worship Lamashtu.


The gods of envy are Zon-Kuthon (he is more masocist and sadist), Shax (he is more murder and psychopaths), and Fumeiyoshi (straight up envy and undead)


If you want your cleric to be evil, I can definitely see an Undead Lord cleric of Fumeiyoshi who forces their corpse companion to constantly spout praise and belittle others around them. Might be grating on the other PCs, though. :p

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