Homebrewed Curse

darkbard · Feb 4, 2019

The following is a hack of the Injury Deck optional rules in Dungeon 204 and the Disease track subsystem. It is intended as a fun way to implement the lasting effects of a brutal wound received from an early story BBEG. The Player is on board with the idea, but I'm eager to have a few more eyes pass over this before we implement it in play to check for balance issues (or, potentially, alternatives that seem more appropriate, evocative, etc.).

My thought is to set the initial stage at 2 so this is at play for at least two levels.

Kalarel’s Vile Retribution Variable Level Curse
The afflicted creature experiences frequent piercing pain in the wounded flesh that eats away at their strength and vitality.

Stage 0: The target recovers from the curse. An ash-colored scar of Kalarel’s handprint remains on the target’s body as a permanent reminder of the encounter.
Stage 1: Whenever you use a Daily Attack power, you are dazed until the end of your next turn.
Stage 2: Whenever you use a Daily Attack power, you are weakened until the end of the encounter.
Stage 3: Whenever you use a Daily Attack power, you are stunned (save ends).
Stage 4: The target dies and rises as a wight under Orcus’s control.
Check: Every time the target gain a level, the target makes an Endurance check if it is at stage 1, 2, or 3.
Lower than at-level Easy DC: The stage of the curse increases by one.
Between at-level Easy DC and at-level Moderate DC: No Change
Higher than at-level Moderate DC: The stage of the curse decreases by one.

Profit from Setback: Once per encounter, if the afflicted creature meets the trigger described in the text below, they can attempt to turn the pain of the curse into a momentary advantage. The character makes a Constitution check as a free action against an easy DC of the character’s level. On a success, the character benefits from the positive effect; on a failure, the character suffers the negative effect.

Kalarel’s Vile Retribution Variable Level Curse
Encounter
Immediate Reaction
Trigger: You take damage from an attack.
Success: You can spend a healing surge.
Failure: Your healing surge value is reduced by one half until you take a short rest.

Thoughts?

MoutonRustique · Feb 4, 2019

Very cool!

Changes I would make (mostly because I can't help myself...)

A - at all stages, if the character dies, he rises as a wight (as stage 4). Mostly fluff, but it reinforces how serious this is.

B - I would change the Con check to a saving throw : feels more appropriate (fate-based)

Tying it to Daily power use is a good idea - it allows for a good deal of player agency, doesn't impact it's power too much, but it will feel like a major impairment to the player. (At higher levels, this might be too severe, but in Heroic, it's a bit less of a burden.)

Well done!

darkbard · Feb 5, 2019

MoutonRustique said:
Very cool!

Changes I would make (mostly because I can't help myself...)

A - at all stages, if the character dies, he rises as a wight (as stage 4). Mostly fluff, but it reinforces how serious this is.

B - I would change the Con check to a saving throw : feels more appropriate (fate-based)

Tying it to Daily power use is a good idea - it allows for a good deal of player agency, doesn't impact it's power too much, but it will feel like a major impairment to the player. (At higher levels, this might be too severe, but in Heroic, it's a bit less of a burden.)

Well done!

Thanks, my countrified sheep friend! In my first draft, I had the check as a saving throw but then changed it. You're probably right that it just works better as a saving throw.

As to (A) above, that goes without saying!

Joshua Randall · Feb 5, 2019

Depending upon the PC and party makeup, Stunned (save ends) is far less bad than Weakened until EOE. Because you can be granted saves or buff up your own save bonus, but you cannot so easily shed EOE effects.

darkbard · Feb 5, 2019

Joshua Randall said:
Depending upon the PC and party makeup, Stunned (save ends) is far less bad than Weakened until EOE. Because you can be granted saves or buff up your own save bonus, but you cannot so easily shed EOE effects.

Thanks, Joshua, for the input! Totally agreed. In this case, the PCs are second level and without any good save granting abilities (the Vestige Warlock can opt in to King Elidyr as his pact boon), and the afflicted PC is the party leader (Cleric|Warlord), so weakened is far less pernicious, methinks.

AbdulAlhazred · Feb 6, 2019

It is a pretty heavy-duty curse, but it should be fun to get rid of!

pemerton · Feb 6, 2019

My only comment is that the failure for the profit from setback is really brutal! Maybe make that (SE), or (until you spend a HS)? That should still introduce some tension and frustration.

darkbard · Feb 6, 2019

AbdulAlhazred said:
It is a pretty heavy-duty curse, but it should be fun to get rid of!

No doubt! In our second session, the PC dropped to negative Bloodied value in the combat against Kalarel-reanimated-as-a-wight. (In one of these threads hereabouts I have a conversation about said creature's power and build, so it was heavily hacked and homebrewed, tilting it to somewhat overpowered in my estimation, and that's on me as GM/designer; at one point 1 (of 4 PCs) was removed from play and the other 3 were dazed (save ends) for 2 or 3 rounds, and while all of that was the outcome of poor rolls, it didn't feel fair.)

So rather than kill off the character, we decided to implement this curse, and that her soul is saved and death reversed by the intercession of her patron deity, Sehanine, who has placed a geas upon her in her return from death's door.

pemerton said:
My only comment is that the failure for the profit from setback is really brutal! Maybe make that (SE), or (until you spend a HS)? That should still introduce some tension and frustration.

This part of the curse is totally at the player's discretion (it is, essentially, an encounter power with high upside or downside). But you may be right; perhaps (SE) is more appropriate. At L2, this character has a HS value of 7, so a typical HS triggered by a leader power (in this case, her own, most likely) would be 10.5 (HS + 1d6), whereas this failed roll would make it 6.5 (1/2(HS) + 1d6). In the typical combat wherein the PC would likely only spend a surge or two, is this difference that significant (obviously, depending on circumstance, it very well could be! But I'm thinking of typical circumstances)?

But I do like the idea that making this (SE) would introduce additional tension!

Thanks for the feedback, folks!

pemerton · Feb 6, 2019

darkbard said:
In the typical combat wherein the PC would likely only spend a surge or two, is this difference that significant

Well, 2*4 = 8, which is approximately a surge value for this PC, and is also the typical damage for a Level 1 monster, which is in the ballpark range for the things 2nd level PCs encounter.

It's a long time since I've played 4e at that level, and when I did the party had rather limited access to Leader healing and was using a lot of self- or paladin-triggered healing (which doesn't have the +3.5 boost), and so maybe my sense of how much it matters is exaggerated. I just look at it and think that, even at high levels, my players would feel the pain of a halved HS value! And that's before I factor in its possible effect on short rest recovery (which depends on how your group handles short rest HS expenditure vs short rest recovery timing - I think that's something the rules themselves are a bit fuzzy on).

If you want the encounter power to be a last-ditch move only, I think the current wording would work for that; but if it's meant to be an element of compensation for the curse, I feel the cost is a bit hard.

darkbard · Feb 6, 2019

pemerton said:
If you want the encounter power to be a last-ditch move only, I think the current wording would work for that; but if it's meant to be an element of compensation for the curse, I feel the cost is a bit hard.

This is persuasive. I certainly intend the latter!