KrazyHades
First Post
I need some help balancing a spell that I've been working on with one of my players. The background is that in this campaign, there are barbarian tribes dedicated to different totems, and each one has a PrC related to the totem creature (such as Tribe of the Sloth Barbarian etc...). One of the practices of these tribes is to take and shrink the heads of powerful enemies that have been defeated in combat, and for these heads to go to to tribe's wizards and sorcerers.
The idea of the Memory of a Monster spell is that the caster uses the head to summon the physical body of the monster, and then transfers his mind into the body, replacing the Charisma , Wisdom, and Intelligence scores with his own.
Note: To help balance the spell (which essentially gives the caster a more powerful body than it's regular one) the caster CANNOT CAST SPELLS or use their abilities while in the other body. It can use the abilities of the monster, however.
The caster's physical body becomes empty and limp, but if it dies so does the actual caster, and the spell ends. Maybe the caster can only go within a "short" distance of their body, which is the range in which the spell works. If the monster body leaves that range, the spell ends.
The questions are:
--how should I make it so a weak caster can't summon a super-powerful creature's body?
On this, I've been thinking about splitting the spell up into levels, similar to the Summon Monster spells, where each level can summon a monster body of double the HD of the level. So Memory of a Monster VI can summon up to a 12 HD body, etc... The problem this runs into is that some types of HD aren't very useful (like Animal levels) and some are very powerful (like Dragon levels). Splitting it up by CR just seems unrealisticly using the game mechanics, but it may be the only option.
--How many times should a head be usable?
We've been thinking that perhaps it can be used 5 times, or perhaps based on the Craft(barbaric item) check made to shrink it, but each time the spell is cast with the head, a Caster Level check must be made. The check must beat either a Will Save or an HD check (d20+HD) or the spell fails, but still uses up one of the head's uses. Failure by 5 or more and the head is destroyed. Failure by 10 or more and the head is destroyed and the monster is summoned, but instead of being a vessel for the caster's soul, it retains its intelligence and is hostile to the caster.
--What other reccomendations does the ENworld community have?
The idea of the Memory of a Monster spell is that the caster uses the head to summon the physical body of the monster, and then transfers his mind into the body, replacing the Charisma , Wisdom, and Intelligence scores with his own.
Note: To help balance the spell (which essentially gives the caster a more powerful body than it's regular one) the caster CANNOT CAST SPELLS or use their abilities while in the other body. It can use the abilities of the monster, however.
The caster's physical body becomes empty and limp, but if it dies so does the actual caster, and the spell ends. Maybe the caster can only go within a "short" distance of their body, which is the range in which the spell works. If the monster body leaves that range, the spell ends.
The questions are:
--how should I make it so a weak caster can't summon a super-powerful creature's body?
On this, I've been thinking about splitting the spell up into levels, similar to the Summon Monster spells, where each level can summon a monster body of double the HD of the level. So Memory of a Monster VI can summon up to a 12 HD body, etc... The problem this runs into is that some types of HD aren't very useful (like Animal levels) and some are very powerful (like Dragon levels). Splitting it up by CR just seems unrealisticly using the game mechanics, but it may be the only option.
--How many times should a head be usable?
We've been thinking that perhaps it can be used 5 times, or perhaps based on the Craft(barbaric item) check made to shrink it, but each time the spell is cast with the head, a Caster Level check must be made. The check must beat either a Will Save or an HD check (d20+HD) or the spell fails, but still uses up one of the head's uses. Failure by 5 or more and the head is destroyed. Failure by 10 or more and the head is destroyed and the monster is summoned, but instead of being a vessel for the caster's soul, it retains its intelligence and is hostile to the caster.
--What other reccomendations does the ENworld community have?
