Awake up ! 3 new awakening spells

[Gez]

Re: Re: Awake up ! 3 new awakening spells

What are the rules for determining personality? Or at least guidelines.

There are no more than for awaken, awaken construct, etc. DM's call, or awakener's call.

The bit about allignment implies you could almost choose the basic personality, but I think that doesn't fit with the idea that you are really awakening "its elusive personlity."

Ah, the "elusive soul" bit was a reference to a famous poeme of Lamartine:

Objets inanimés, avez-vous donc une âme
Qui s'attache à notre âme et la force d'aimer ?

(A clumsy quick & dirty translation gives:
Inanimate objects, do you have a soul
That ties to our soul and the force to love ?)

Reasonably it would be DMs choice, based on things like traits ascribed to the item, the use of the item and the personlity traits of those in contact it. This could lead to some interesting developements, like a sword which had some agressive traits but had also absorbed the pain of those it was used to kill and was ambivilent because of it...

Would an animated statue of a real person have a personality based on what people associated with that person/ thought of when they looked at it? Or the traits of the people doing the looking? Fun stories abound....

That seems reasonnable.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Re: Re: Re: Awake up ! 3 new awakening spells

There are no more than for awaken, awaken construct, etc. DM's call, or awakener's call.

I'm not familiar with awaken construct, but most animals (IMHO) already have a base personality, you're just making it smarter. Even a construct has behaviours it already takes, no? An inanimate object seems a bit trickier, and I would at least spell out in the spell whether the call belongs to the DM or caster. (big votes for DMs call and unexpected effects of absorbed auras.)

"The gladiators had always looked upon the shapely statue in the practice room with lust, and paid a wizard to awaken it to be their untiring whore. But in that room over the years, far more thoughts of strength, battle and death had been felt than those of lust, and the gladiators did not consider the curved blades the statue had always posed so alluringly with..."

Kahuna Burger

 

[Andion Isurand]

Given what I have seen in savage species, Awaken Object should be at least 7th level.

Awaken Ooze is definatly a 9th level spell.
They get big and dangerous. ( Its an Instantaneous spell man! )

Awaken Vermin is also definatly a 9th level spell.
They get big and venomous. ( Its an Instantaneous spell man! )

I would also put a limit to the awakened thing's hit dice, equal to your caster level.

I would also work your XP costs based on the targets hit dice.

(i.e.) XP cost = 200 * Target's Hit Dice

 

[Saeviomagy]

There is indeed no rules for creating intelligent magical items in the DMG, at least not in the 3.0 edition (maybe 3.5 will adress that).

Actually, you're wrong there. There aren't any rules for creating ANIMATED objects, but the rules for creating intelligent magical items are found in the same section as all the other magical item rules, under the heading (surprisingly) of "Creating Intelligent Items"
You need to be 15th level, then you spend the cash and xp (10,000gp to 90,000gp) according to the level of intelligence you want, and there you go.

There's nothing whatsoever stopping you from enchanting (say) a golem with intelligence.

 

[Gez]

Andion, awaken is level 5, and can affect dire and legendary animals. As well as freakingly big trees (awaken on an old sequoia, or on a baobab, colossal animated object stats).

Saeviomagy, the little hidden paragraph (page 246) you are referencing to is not what I call satisfying rules: it's "be level 15, pay cash, roll everything else," with no consistency, neither inner (consistency between the item, its powers, its eventual goal, and its function) nor outer (consistency of the mechanics with regards to the other item creation rules).

That's like if, when you wanted to scribe a scroll, you rolled on table 8-24 or 8-25 rather than choosing the spells you write.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I didn't say that they were GOOD rules, merely that the rules existed.

Personally, I can't see how allowing the caster to choose the special powers would be particularly out of line.

 

[seasong]

The Epic Level Handbook, oddly enough, has reasonably percise rules for adjudicating the cost of an intelligent item based on its powers, stats, etc.

Just halve that cost for production, calculate XP as normal, and you're golden

 

[GruTheWanderer]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Awake up ! 3 new awakening spells

"The gladiators had always looked upon the shapely statue in the practice room with lust, and paid a wizard to awaken it to be their untiring whore. But in that room over the years, far more thoughts of strength, battle and death had been felt than those of lust, and the gladiators did not consider the curved blades the statue had always posed so alluringly with..."

That was really well written. I could easily picture the scene.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Awake up ! 3 new awakening spells

That was really well written. I could easily picture the scene.

thanks, I'd been considering working some sort of living rock/awakened statues themes into my games since I read the Liveship traders series (wizard wood, fun stuff)

kahuna burger

 

[FCWesel]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Awake up ! 3 new awakening spells

thanks, I'd been considering working some sort of living rock/awakened statues themes into my games since I read the Liveship traders series (wizard wood, fun stuff)

Liveship Trader series?