Anyone think Corruptions will be in 2nd Ed Pathfinder? If so, does anything think they'll add "Dragon Sickness" (aka a Corruption that Thrór suffered from and Thorin overcame in the Hobbit) as a Corruption?
I liked the corruptions in horror adventures, but I seem to have been very much in the minority in that regard. They where very unpopular/controversial (something to do with player agency and the potential to lose characters or have them rendered "unplayable").
I am honestly not sure if the corruption system will return any time soon.
As for dragon sickness, I think most ttrpg designers and writers have been trying to get away from the old d&d tradition of "just copy wholesale everything Tolkien ever wrote".
Additionally, unlike the corruptions in horror adventures (which where mostly physical corruptions, such as the disease of lycanthropy, hive infections, etc) Dragon Sickness (depending on how you interpret it) is either a vague spiritual corruption caused by treasure (which I personally think is far too literal an interpretation, and probably not what Tolkien meant), a literary metaphor for how wealth corrupts people, or simply just a mental illness suffered by dwarves.
None of those three translate well into the corruption mechanics, as there are supposed to be noticeable signs of the corruption and mechanical advantages and disadvantages gained by the corruption (the corruptions needed to have distinct advantages to make it an interesting choice between keeping the corrupting and curing it).
I think dragon sickness is most accurately represented as a mental illness (its kind of like extreme, wealth specific hoarding), and I personally don't think that a mental illness should be a thing expressed in a game system like corruption, at least not one that normally gives you special supernatural powers.
I think it could still be a possible Corruption in Pathfinder RPG (maybe caused by facing too many evil dragons, being exposed to their magic and power, or simply exposed to too many of their treasure hordes?).
Maybe you could start to horde gold and wealth, you gain draconic abilities, and slowly but surely you become more and more draconic like as a result (your greed gets worse, your voice becomes like a dragon, scales start to blister your skin, you desire to situate yourself in a lair, etc etc)?
I think it could still be a possible Corruption in Pathfinder RPG (maybe caused by facing too many evil dragons, being exposed to their magic and power, or simply exposed to too many of their treasure hordes?).
Maybe you could start to horde gold and wealth, you gain draconic abilities, and slowly but surely you become more and more draconic like as a result (your greed gets worse, your voice becomes like a dragon, scales start to blister your skin, you desire to situate yourself in a lair, etc etc)?
That would be a more literal dragon sickness, which would be a lot better as a corruption - I would probably make the cause be direct exposure to dragon blood however - that way it echoes real world mythology (I recall there being myths in which a hero bathes in the blood of a slain dragon to gain immortality or invulnerability).
It also gives the advantage that the risk of corruption is something that is a result of meaningful player decisions, and something they can take measures to prevent -
"don't ever be within 100 feet of a dragon" isn't a great decision to have to make, because it often isn't a choice that the party can actually make (if the adventure requires that you deal with the dragon, or the dragon is threatening a city and only the heroes can stop it, or the dragon finds and attacks the party, this isn't a real choice).
"don't let a dragon bleed on you" is a lot more tenable - you can fight the combat that the adventure might require of you, but make meaningful choices in that combat to mitigate the risk (like favouring ranged weapons, or using a fire enchantment on your swords to cauterize the wounds).
Additionally, a pc or npc can choose to bathe in the dragons blood (they may have heard that it is a way to gain powers in legends) which is a bit more satisfying/definite/deliberate than choosing to "be in the general vicinity of a dragon"
I think corruption should work as ancestry feats. You can take them instead of your ancestry feat. You can also choose to take one by 'giving up' one of your already chosen ancestry feats in order to simulate giving up on your heritage in favour of the corruption at appropriate story beats (losing humanity for example.). You can also choose to take one even if you don't have anymore ancestry feats left to giveup at appropriate story beats, but that's what advances a counter to losing your character to the corruption. Maybe 2 points?
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I think it could still be a possible Corruption in Pathfinder RPG (maybe caused by facing too many evil dragons, being exposed to their magic and power, or simply exposed to too many of their treasure hordes?).
Maybe you could start to horde gold and wealth, you gain draconic abilities, and slowly but surely you become more and more draconic like as a result (your greed gets worse, your voice becomes like a dragon, scales start to blister your skin, you desire to situate yourself in a lair, etc etc)?
That would be a more literal dragon sickness, which would be a lot better as a corruption - I would probably make the cause be direct exposure to dragon blood however - that way it echoes real world mythology (I recall there being myths in which a hero bathes in the blood of a slain dragon to gain immortality or invulnerability).
It also gives the advantage that the risk of corruption is something that is a result of meaningful player decisions, and something they can take measures to prevent -
"don't ever be within 100 feet of a dragon" isn't a great decision to have to make, because it often isn't a choice that the party can actually make (if the adventure requires that you deal with the dragon, or the dragon is threatening a city and only the heroes can stop it, or the dragon finds and attacks the party, this isn't a real choice).
"don't let a dragon bleed on you" is a lot more tenable - you can fight the combat that the adventure might require of you, but make meaningful choices in that combat to mitigate the risk (like favouring ranged weapons, or using a fire enchantment on your swords to cauterize the wounds).
Additionally, a pc or npc can choose to bathe in the dragons blood (they may have heard that it is a way to gain powers in legends) which is a bit more satisfying/definite/deliberate than choosing to "be in the general vicinity of a dragon"
I like how you think dude! :D
I like how you think dude! :DI think it could still be a possible Corruption in Pathfinder RPG (maybe caused by facing too many evil dragons, being exposed to their magic and power, or simply exposed to too many of their treasure hordes?).
Maybe you could start to horde gold and wealth, you gain draconic abilities, and slowly but surely you become more and more draconic like as a result (your greed gets worse, your voice becomes like a dragon, scales start to blister your skin, you desire to situate yourself in a lair, etc etc)?
That would be a more literal dragon sickness, which would be a lot better as a corruption - I would probably make the cause be direct exposure to dragon blood however - that way it echoes real world mythology (I recall there being myths in which a hero bathes in the blood of a slain dragon to gain immortality or invulnerability).
It also gives the advantage that the risk of corruption is something that is a result of meaningful player decisions, and something they can take measures to prevent -
"don't ever be within 100 feet of a dragon" isn't a great decision to have to make, because it often isn't a choice that the party can actually make (if the adventure requires that you deal with the dragon, or the dragon is threatening a city and only the heroes can stop it, or the dragon finds and attacks the party, this isn't a real choice).
"don't let a dragon bleed on you" is a lot more tenable - you can fight the combat that the adventure might require of you, but make meaningful choices in that combat to mitigate the risk (like favouring ranged weapons, or using a fire enchantment on your swords to cauterize the wounds).
Additionally, a pc or npc can choose to bathe in the dragons blood (they may have heard that it is a way to gain powers in legends) which is a bit more satisfying/definite/deliberate than choosing to "be in the general vicinity of a dragon"
Thank you, though dude does not apply in this context.
My bad. Dudette then?
I think corruption should work as ancestry feats. You can take them instead of your ancestry feat. You can also choose to take one by 'giving up' one of your already chosen ancestry feats in order to simulate giving up on your heritage in favour of the corruption at appropriate story beats (losing humanity for example.). You can also choose to take one even if you don't have anymore ancestry feats left to giveup at appropriate story beats, but that's what advances a counter to losing your character to the corruption. Maybe 2 points?
I think corruption as 'ancestry' feat would not be good
Corruption is thought to be something most players do NOT want to contract - and it has no relation to ancestry whatsoeverCorruption could open options for ancestry feats related to the corruptions itself ('while I'm here might make the best of it')
On the other hand I would think corruption is more of a 'free' dedication feat with downsides so you have to choose between your class advancement and corruption progression
Either way - if corruption should work as feats the gm should also hand out a few over time
My bad. Dudette then?
Much better :)