Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ptolemy18" data-source="post: 2673681" data-attributes="member: 24970">Hello everyone,I'm running a D&D3.5 campaign, and I've been thinking recently about whether it would be "appropriate" to give one of the PCs a bonus to one of their ability scores (say +2) for purely role-playing-related reasons.I run a game with a fair amount of character death, so that, 52 weekly sessions after we started playing, there are now no characters remaining from the initial group. (It's mostly the same *players*, but everyone has died and started with a new character once or twice by this point.)One of the characters has, to me as DM, developed into one of the more interesting characters from a plot perspective (mostly because he bothered to play a character who's actually *from* the region where the campaign is centered, rather than some wandering weirdo/gnoll/hobgoblin from a faraway land who doesn't have any connection the local NPCs and dramas... I assume most roleplayers know the difference in character-types I'm talking about <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ). Unfortunately, that character has rather low/unexciting ability scores -- I think something like 15, 15, 12, 10, 10, 10. I know that the player is aware of this and has occasionally regretted his character's sucky ability scores, and although he seems to be enjoying playing his character, I'm sure he knows that if he died, his new character would have the chance of having better rolls. His character has become central to the plot, but in terms of ability scores, he's not blessed as much as the other characters.So anyway, I've been considering coming up with some in-character role-playing reason for the guy's character to get a +2 bonus to one of his ability scores. Like, the characters will all meet a celestial being, and this one character -- since he's got the most plot importance at the moment -- will get blessed with a permanent +2 bonus. Just to make the player enjoy the character more and feel more "heroic." If a celestial being shows up and tells the character "YOU, YES YOU, MUST SAVE THE KINGDOM" *and* gives them a +2 ability score bonus for the purpose of saving the kingdom, it seems like a nice combo.But I don't know if this is a good idea.Firstly, there is the possibility that the player will feel singled out in an awkward/uncomfortable way by me the DM. (I think there's not *much* risk of this, but...)Secondly, there is the *very high* possibility that the other players will get jealous. Although I'd prefer to keep the +2 bonus secret, since I don't think all the players have eachothers' characters' ability scores memorized, I doubt it'd stay secret forever. I don't want to give *everyone* ability score bonuses... only the person whose background ties in with "saving the kingdom" and all that jazz. Thirdly, there is the possibility that it might set a dangerous precedent where all the characters will expect to have gods show up and increase their ability scores all the time. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Fourthly, although I don't know how important this is, I really can't find *any* rules justification/explanation for this. Since it's all a game, I *assume* that a demigod could give someone a permanent +2 strength bonus somehow, but I can't recall finding anything like that anywhere in the rules. The obvious choice is to make the aid come in the form of a magic item but I'd prefer not to do this because D&D is so "equipment-centric" already (and besides I don't want the magic to be transferrable to another character in case this one dies... although I suppose I could always just establish that the Gauntlets of Ogre Power, or whatever, are tied to this particular character's life force). Anyway, I can't think of any "excuse" for a permanent +2 ability bonus in the D&D3.5 rules. (Permanency + Bull's Strength? I dunno.)BTW, about the whole problem of singling out one character for rewards... it's not like the campaign *depends* on this one character or anything. I realize that every player and player-character has to feel the love equally, and I'm trying to give everyone their chance to shine. If the character in question dies, I'll just turn the plot in a different direction which will focus more on the other characters. But I *do* like the plot possibilities of this one character. I wouldn't cheat or fudge the dice (the worst possible DM behavior!!!) to keep this character alive, but I'd *like* to make them slightly buffer if possible, to give them a slightly better chance of surviving long enough for their plot threads to develop. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Of course, maybe if the player is growing tired of his character, I can't force it, and increasing his scores won't help. Or maybe there's other incentives I can try.What do y'all think?Jason</blockquote>

Verification