Custom divine abilities, portfolios, etc.

[Khisanth the Ancient]

EDIT: Somehow I double posted, so I guess I'll put a different ability here:

Chronos [Effect] (Transcendental Ability)
Your [Effect] ability wields time as a weapon against your foes.

Benefit: The effect contains several different powers, all time-based. First, a catastrophic space-time warp deals 2d6 chronal damage per hit die of the effect, which repeats each round for a number of rounds equal to your divine rank. Secondly, the immense weight of the ages, which turns all things to dust, catches up with the effect's victim, equivalent to a powerful disintegrate effect (4d6 damage per hit die of the effect, reduced to 1/8 on a successful Fortitude save). Thirdly, the target's memory is wiped away, inflicting a loss of 2d1000 experience points per hit die of the effect. Finally, the victim is slowed for 1 round per divine rank of the deity.

e.g. A First One (300 Hit Dice) taking Chronos Breath would gain a breath weapon dealing 150d6 chronal damage (which repeats for each of the next 48 rounds), 300d6 disintegration damage, 150d1000 experience points, and the victim is slowed for 48 rounds.

Special: This effect can be taken multiple times, and its effects stack. Each time it is taken it either applies to a different effect, or to the same effect as follows:

Taken twice = Superior Chronos [Effect], original effect doubled.
Taken three times = Greater Chronos [Effect], original effect tripled.
Taken four times = Perfect Chronos [Effect], original effect quadrupled.
Taken five times = Chronos Mastery, use any type of Chronos effect at the Perfect level.
Taken six times = Uncanny Chronos Mastery, use any type of Chronos effect at the Perfect level, and shape area effects to only affect those you wish to target.

 

[Belzamus]

I like them both, though I think Draconic could actually be doubled in power since it isn't Divine Energy. As it is, it does almost exactly as much as Cosmic (5d4 vs. 1d20), while Cosmic ignores any Resistance/Immunity.

Chronos is awesome, especially since the Chronal Effect is next to useless. I only worry that it's a little too similar to Atomic. The Disintegration aspect is actually weaker, as Atomic's is Save or Die, take the 2d6xEffectHD on a save, unless I'm not remembering correctly. Was that intentional? As it stands, you've got the divine energy, the ability damage, the disintegration, and replace the Wind Effect with Slow, which is cool.

What if, rather than repeating, the damage started off lower and got progressively stronger over a number of rounds = to Divine Rank?

Too bad my First One lord of time and stars already has the Atomic Effect...

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

Draconic now does 1d8 rather than 1d4 of each.

Chronos Effect has been heavily edited, it's now a lot less like Atomic; it's two applications of Writhing + two applications of Karmic + a cosmic level disintegrate spell + slowing.
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An [Effect] ability I made for a sidereal I'm currently working on...


Regenerating [Effect] (Cosmic Ability)
Your [Effect] ability can heal almost any wound.

Benefit: The effect grants fast healing 10 per hit die of the effect for a number of rounds equal to the divine rank of the deity.

e.g. An Elder One (140 Hit Dice) taking Regenerating Hand gains a touch that grants fast healing 700 for 24 rounds.

Special: This effect can be taken multiple times, and its effects stack. Each time it is taken it either applies to a different effect, or to the same effect as follows:

Taken twice = Greater Regenerating [Effect], original effect doubled.
Taken three times = Superior Regenerating [Effect], original effect tripled.
Taken four times = Perfect Regenerating [Effect], use any type of Regenerating effect at the Perfect level.
Taken six times = Uncanny Regenerating Mastery, use any type of Regenerating effect at the Perfect level, and shape area effects to only affect those you wish to target.

 

[paradox42]

An application of repeatability to Iatric, taken to greater extremes. I like it. Consider it snagged!

Oh, and Vexing is actually the effect that sets up a Luck penalty on the target like a curse, not anything damaging. Not sure which effect you mean the edited Chronos to have, but Vexing isn't what it has now (as I type this).

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

An application of repeatability to Iatric, taken to greater extremes. I like it. Consider it snagged!

Thank you!

I may make a few more Healing ones ... it depends if my Sidereals need them... Regenerating Effect will be used to give the sidereal who is the Moon [mine can be celestial bodies - planets, stars etc. - as well as or in addition to planar layers/planes/dimensions] a healing touch (via Regenerating Hand), and a couple others may use it too (Cipactli probably gets some Regenerating [Effect]; she will also get a powerful Draconic Breath)...

Oh, and Vexing is actually the effect that sets up a Luck penalty on the target like a curse, not anything damaging. Not sure which effect you mean the edited Chronos to have, but Vexing isn't what it has now (as I type this).

Writhing, sorry. Dumb mistake, I fixed it in the other post.

 

[paradox42]

New Incarnum Abilities

During today's game, one of my players interested in Incarnum pointed out that existing Incarnum bonuses are pretty weak in Divine terms. During the discussion, we managed to wrangle out a few new abilities to correct the imbalances: I think they're worth a look for other games.

Divine Least Chakras [Divine]
Prerequisites: CON 21, DR 1
Benefit: Every Soulmeld you shape that occupies a Least Chakra (i.e. Crown, Feet, or Hands) gains bonus essentia equal to your Divine Rank. This bonus essentia grants you bonuses as if you invested an equal amount of your own essentia in the Soulmeld normally; however, it does not count against your essentia capacity, nor does it actually subtract from your essentia pool the way normal essentia investment does.

Divine Lesser Chakras [Divine]
Prerequisites: CON 27, DR 6
Benefit: Every Soulmeld you shape that occupies a Lesser Chakra (i.e. Arms, Brow, or Shoulders) gains bonus essentia equal to your Divine Rank. This bonus essentia grants you bonuses as if you invested an equal amount of your own essentia in the Soulmeld normally; however, it does not count against your essentia capacity, nor does it actually subtract from your essentia pool the way normal essentia investment does.

Divine Greater Chakras [Divine]
Prerequisites: CON 35, DR 11
Benefit: Every Soulmeld you shape that occupies a Greater Chakra (i.e. Throat or Waist) gains bonus essentia equal to your Divine Rank. This bonus essentia grants you bonuses as if you invested an equal amount of your own essentia in the Soulmeld normally; however, it does not count against your essentia capacity, nor does it actually subtract from your essentia pool the way normal essentia investment does.

Legendary Chakras [Cosmic]
Prerequisites: CON 70, Divine Least Chakras, Divine Lesser Chakras, Divines Greater Chakras.
Benefit: Whenever you invest essentia, the bonus you get from investing it is doubled. This applies to magic items, Soulmelds, feats, and anything else which provides benefits or penalties that vary based on essentia investment.

 

[paradox42]

The idea for this came to me at work last night, and after spending some time thinking it over carefully, I thought it fit the Transcendental tier best. The thing I spent time on once I got home, was figuring out how many "dice" of the effect each copy is worth- I balanced it by figuring that a Sidereal who takes one of the "intense" [Effect] types (such as Hand or Breath) of this, should get only one or at best two, copies; Eternals are of course much stronger and can get a lot more.

I figure this would be a popular choice with Eternals who represent some sort of guardian or judge, like the Living Tribunal in the Marvelverse.

Reciprocal [Effect] (Transcendental)
The effect assaults enemies with their own power.

Prerequisites: CHA 130.
Benefit: The effect duplicates the target's most powerful attack and uses it upon the target itself. The effect creates one copy of the attack per 100 hit dice of the deity. For the purposes of resolving this effect, "most powerful attack" means the spell, ability, or physical attack (taking equipment and weapons into account) that deals the most damage (not necessarily hit point damage) to the target, given its immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities. Thus, a Red Dragon assaulted with a Reciprocal [Effect] will never be struck by copies of its own breath weapon, even though that is usually its most powerful single attack option in damage output, because Red Dragons are immune to Fire.

e.g. A First One (300 hit dice) taking Reciprocal Hand would gain a touch attack that hits its target with one copy of that target's own most powerful attack. A Demiurge (II) with 600 hit dice taking Greater Reciprocal Beam would gain a beam that assaults each target with 3 copies of its most powerful attack.

Special: This effect can be taken multiple times and its effects stack. Each time it is taken, it either grants to a different effect, or applies to the same effect as follows:

• Taken twice = Greater Reciprocal [Effect], original effect doubled.
• Taken three times = Superior Reciprocal [Effect], original effect tripled.
• Taken four times = Perfect Reciprocal [Effect], original effect quadrupled.
• Taken five times = Reciprocal Mastery, use any type of Reciprocal [Effect].
• Taken six times = Uncanny Reciprocal Mastery, shape area effects to only target enemies.

This is obviously a difficult mechanic to balance, but as UK said more than once during the early development of the IH rules, it's not a question of whether something should be disallowed- rather it's a question of when it should be allowed. For this one, I'm thinking Transcendental, because that tier includes abilities such as Anti-Matter [Effect] (based on enemy hit dice rather than the one who takes the effect), Supremacy (add enemy divine bonuses to yourself- which could end up adding more than your own normal bonus under appropriate circumstances), and Evil Eye (opponents have the worst possible luck foisted upon them). Also, the closest existing analogues to this in Ascension are Doombringer, which just hits a target with the worst attack that it was ever personally hit with, rather than the worst pain it can inflict upon others; and Replicate, which only grants one ability at a time and requires that the immortal with Replicate has actually "encountered" the ability in question (i.e. seen it work). Both of those are clearly less powerful than Reciprocal [Effect], and both are Cosmic tier.

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

Reciprocal is very, very cool. Looks somewhat complicated, but cool.


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Animal Command [Divine]
The immortal has great sway over the natural beasts of the earth.

Prerequisites: Cha 21, Wis 21

Benefit: The immortal can command (as charm animal) or calm (as calm animals) any number of animals within the immortal's divine aura with total HD up to twice that of the immortal. If any saving throw is allowed (see the description of calm animals) the DC is 20 + immortal's Charisma modifier.


Animal Rulership [Divine]
The immortal has unparalleled dominion over the natural beasts of the earth.

Prerequisites: Animal Command, Cha 40, Wis 40

Benefit: The immortal can control (as dominate animal), command (as charm animal) or calm (as calm animals) any number of animals (no limit on total number of hit dice) within the immortal's divine aura so long as none of them have hit dice greater than the immortal's. If any saving throw is allowed (see the description of calm animals) the DC is 20 + immortal's Charisma modifier.

 

[Belzamus]

Any reason for the save not to be 10 + Divine Rank + Charisma Modifier?

 

[paradox42]

Agreed on the save DC point, but otherwise I like 'em. They seem so... obvious, in retrospect. I'm surprised nobody came up with them before. I mean, seriously, Nature deities should be all over these two. In fact, they could arguably be house-ruled into the Nature Portfolio somehow, though it might be better to just make a new Animal Portfolio instead that uses them.

And regarding Reciprocal's complexity, as I said in the Nehaschimic Dragons thread where I first showed what the effect can do (the Mirrorwarp Dragon's new breath weapon is, of course, Reciprocal), it's very complicated to explain but should be pretty easy to adjudicate in play. The explanation has to be complex because there are variables involved in the explanation which cannot be known until play time, but any being that's actually going up against a Mirrorwarp Dragon or other entity with a Reciprocal [Effect] should logically have combat stats handy. And of course, a simple glance at combat stats is usually enough to see what the most powerful attack is.