Divine Boons, Legendary Boons, and Grandmaster Training

[Garthanos]

Yeah, its all a great idea. Its good that the DMG2 addressed it. Wasn't ground breaking though. I did also notice the oddity about slots. It wouldn't matter much in a really low magic environment but I could see it being a bit of an issue in something like LFR.

OK, do we need a new thread for ground breaking 4e stuff? Many things I see as "new to D&D" and the over all design "really targeted". Nice features but... I am feeling skeptical about this GB classification.
and yeah ummm slots would be a "perfect" mechanical balance
but it might feel artificial compared to other ideas... and I can replace them with things like I mentioned (geasa like limits).

Note you cant "sell off" a boon but it might just be a prerequisite to acquiring another boon.... which takes its place, like you sell off a magic item to replace it with a better one.

I am holding my breath until the funds arrive for some of my next purchases of D&D books so dont be suprised if I look purple.

 

[Engilbrand]

Outside of the main 3 things that characters need, everything else is just extra. Boots are nice, but they aren't a dire necessity. Same for belts. Same for everything other than armor, weapon, and amulet/cape. You provide balance by not filling up every single slot on your players. Even if you do, and there's a Dragonshard in the weapon and a tattoo and a boon and some training and.... who cares? You players have a couple of extra options, but that doesn't mean that they're stronger than each other unless you, the DM, have done something wrong. They don't need to be balanced against the world, just each other. These boons still place a limit on the character in that the use of their powers is just like from an item. Sure, the player may have 10 magic item powers. How many can be used before a milestone? 1 in Heroic, 2 in Paragon. Is it really an issue? I don't think so.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I tend to agree EB, and I'm not really personally concerned too much about the slot thing. Like Garthanos says, you can always create your own restrictions if you need to since the boons seem to be pretty free form.

DMG2 does actually address the idea of boons as requisites for other boons. It just does it in terms of "boon upgrades", which is just the standard idea of magic item levels as treasure applied to boons. So if I want to have boon X, its an upgrade to boon Y, so I would have needed that to start with. It also deals with what I saw as the slightly awkward "boon duration" thing. Boon duration can definitely be handy, but I doubt too many players would be enthused by the situation where they hit level N and all of a sudden their boon vanishes and they're basically WORSE off than they were at level N-1. This could happen quite easily in a case where a boon fills the niche of some fairly key item, like say in the case of a warlock that might have a boon giving them a "curse spamming" property. Obviously the DM can avoid the problem, but it seems cooler to me to have the boon be a fairly significant aspect of the how the character functions since it should be at least a moderately important story element for that character.

 

[Garthanos]

I tend to agree EB, and I'm not really personally concerned too much about the slot thing. Like Garthanos says, you can always create your own restrictions if you need to since the boons seem to be pretty free form.

Some limits can be fitting and oddly fae like at the same time, tie them to the nature of the power or its source .... to draw on the vitality of the sky god to enhance your speed you cant be wearing a hat/helm/head gear = slots dont have to be ignored completely.
;-) and it might work better when not under ground (extra point of speed if in open air with visible sky)

 

[Pennarin]

You could do like this guys proposes, and add xbox-like achievements.

Hombrewed DMG2 categories could go like this: Divine Boons, Legendary Boons, Grandmaster Training, Gaming Achievements

Giant Killer Achievement
If you slay a creature at least two sizes larger than yourself you unlock this Achievement.
Benefit: Once per Gaming Night (Adventure) when you encounter any creature at least two sizes larger than yourself, you can gain 1 action point.


Dragon Slayer Achievement
If you slay a dragon you unlock this Achievement.
Benefit: Once per Gaming Night (Adventure) when you enoucounter a dragon, you gain 1 action point and +4 bonus to initiative.

Fearsome Gaze Achievement
If you successfully make an opponent surrender by using the intimidate skill during combat you unlock this achievvement.
Benefit: Once per Gaming Night (Adventure) you can gain either a +2 fear bonus to your next Intimidate skill check (until the end of your turn) or you can attempt another Intimidate check on a target you failed to Intimidate during combat.

Opportunist
If you successfully hit 10 enemies with Opportunity Attacks during one level you unlock this achievement.
Benefit: Once per Gaming Night (Adventure) you can use the Rogue's Sneak Attack class feature.

Feign Surprise
If you are first to act during 10 initiatives during one level you unlock this acheivement.
Benefit: Once per Gaming Night (Adventure) you can act during a surprise round in which you are surprised.

Twist the Blade
If you make 10 Critical Sneak Attacks you unlock this acheivement.
Benefit: Once per Gaming Night (Adventure) you can deal maximum damage with your sneak attack. You may do this after dice have been rolled. You may also spend an action point to roll an additional sneak attack damage.

Cheat Death
If you failed two death saves and succeed with the third you unlock this acheivement.
Benefit: Once per Gaming Night (Adventure) you can roll two dice taking the better result for all death saves until end of the encounter you use this acheivement.

Or instead of giving benefits like this you can also hand out points per achievement. Players can use these points for whatever you come up with or they can be bonus experience points.

 

[Engilbrand]

That's not a bad idea.

 

[Pennarin]

Yah, EB, King Nate's stuff sounds light yet rewarding. I wonder how it would play out in a real game session.
Players can aim for a Gaming Achievement, having been informed by the DM it exists. Once aquired, and every time they play (usable on a per gaming session basis) they can use this booster and feel proud because their personal achievements were the cause of this boost. 'Course some of those are obtained in a purely random fashion, like the one about succeeding at death saving throws, but randomness has never stop players from feeling a personal achievement...
/cough
slot machine addicts
/cough cough

 

[tyrlaan]

<casts Raise Dead Thread>

There doesn't seem to be a lot of talk about boons so I figured I'd drudge this old thread up. I'm currently exploring the use of boons for my game but I'm trying to get a bit of assistance. There aren't many officially released boons right now (which brings up a CB challenge, but I'll deal with that as necessary), so I'm pretty sure I'll be building my own. I'm looking for (a) examples of homebrewed boons and (b) guidelines for creating them.

Anyone have anything to share?

 

[knightofround]

As far as guidelines for creation goes, the thing I like about boons is that they're like an extra item slot, and are balanced accordingly. So far in my campaign I haven't passed out any of the boons as written -- instead, I yoink a power/effect from an existing magical item and slap it onto the boon, straight up...I've taken the attitude of using boons in a way similar to the "teamwork feats" in 3.5E, where some boons once gained are accessible to the entire party (but of course only one person within can use the effect per encounter/day)

This way players aren't slave to "stupidly good" items like Iron Armbands of Power that don't allow the players to choose any other items and/or cool effects found in that slot. Boons are a good way to get those effects back into the game that normally wouldn't see the light of day in any optimized build.

 

[Aramax]

What Ive been using for boons are lower level powers from classes,specificlly my group was awarded a L2 warlord utility that must be an encounter ,they get as a daily.This was awarded when they were around 10th.