Cheiromancer said:
I think there needs to be some way of building up an account with the dark powers that can be drawn upon as needed. Or a way of running up a "blood debt" that will be paid up later. Or a feat that gives them a "pool" of virtual con points (that replenish at the normal rate of 1/day) for use in emergencies. Or the possibility of having an ongoing relationship with a dark patron so that the blood cost can be waived (in exchange for ongoing services) or something of the sort.
I appologize for never getting to your original question Cheiro. I had meant to, and actually HAD, but lost the post and was sort of bummed about writing it over again.
Then struck the Christmas Holiday.
So now I'll get back to it.
The Sacrifice cost for spells is partly flavor and partly balance (pretty much everything is, I guess). But that balance is on the PLAYER end, for the most part. Diabolism is supposed to be dark and dangerous, with a heavy toll on the user's body or morality.
And yet, at the same time, who really wants to cart around a sack full of kittens for the purposes of tossing fire and brimstone about?
There are many ways to go about it, but when I put together something within "The Rules", I take into account what it will do in the hands of the PCs. I'd already put together a few things for playtest that I'd intended to include in the Diabolism web enhancement and an upcoming meta-SFX product (with the SFX Adept and related AdCs, items, etc). And I tried to polish them up a little to present here. Note that they're not fully playtested yet, and by the time they see Official Release (if they do) they may be changed ... but I wanted to share my ideas.
One is, basically, a way for a sufficiently depraved Diabolist to gain access to some of the lower-end spells without, as I said, hauling around a sack full of kittens or slicing up his thumb with a pen-knife (though that's a good option for non-"Evil" Diabolists. The actual amount of blood, as per the rules, isn't actually what is important.) You'll notice that I cleverly made this feat all but totally useless to a PC Diabolist by requiring a single large sacrifice:
Dark Pact (MetaSFX, Diabolism)
By invoking a Diabolism SFX spell during a specially prepared ritual, you gain the ability to use that spell for 24 hours without need of the normal Sacrifice
Prerequisite: Voices of the Damned 3 ranks
Benefit: You gain the ability to form pacts with one or more fiends via ritual tribute and sacrifice. The ritual must be performed in a specifically consecrated area requiring six hours of work to prepare and the ritual itself requires fifteen minutes to perform. Once prepared, a consecrated area (typically containing an altar and surrounded by a focusing circle) remains so unless substantially disturbed or destroyed. The ritual involves utilizing the SFX Skill the Diabolist wishes to form a pact for (a DC 15 skill check) and paying the Sacrifice cost +7. Successfully completing the ritual allows the Diabolist to make use of that skill any number of times over the course of the next 24 hours, paying the Strain costs normally, as if it had a Sacrifice cost of 0. Failure at the required skill check causes the ritual to fail utterly, though the Sacrifice costs must still be paid.
Normal: A Diabolist must pay the Sacrifice cost of his SFX Skill spells as part of their casting.
Special: This feat may only be taken once. It applies to all Diabolism SFX Skills whose unmodified Sacrifice costs are 2 or less.
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With this feat, a Diabolist could Sacrifice a Large animal for Brimstone, or a human for Bend the Will. The fact that it would require 8-9 Con damage and lasts only 24 hours will keep most PCs from using it. The balance trade is utter depravity for easy access to a skill, allowing you to include a powerful Diabolist who tosses Brimstone almost every round without passing out too quickly.
My second suggestion is a little more PC friendly, but not quite as open-ended:
Black Iron Knife: This long, heavy knife appears to be made of a single piece of badly tarnished iron. The metal of the blade is deeply pitted and the entire length is patterned with reddish oxidation. Diabolists use these weapons to aid their magical workings. When used as part of a special ritual sacrifice, the Black Iron Knife is able to absorb and store some or all of the Sacrifice’s power. The Black Iron Knife can store up to 4 points of Sacrifice as magical energy which may be used to enact Diabolism SFX spells as if they were part of a character’s Constitution score. While the Black Iron Knife contains even one point of magical energy, if it is used as the focus component for a Diabolism spell, it grants the caster a +1 circumstance bonus on his SFX Skill check.
Type: Wonderous Item; Caster Level: 9th; Purchase DC: 36; Weight: 1lb.
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I didn't choose blood debts or replenishing-con-stores because they proved to be "too perfect". If a PC playing a Diabolist jumps on a feat with a howl of joy, it's probably too powerful. The Black Iron Knife functions as a Con pool, but has to be replenished from the PC's own Con (or Sacrifice). So the PC can replenish his knife early in the week and rest up the Con damage and use the knife. This self-limits his spells per day, but is a rather large boost in power (thus the large cost). It forces the PC to lose time and gives the GM an "out" to keep the PC from having, more or less, 4 free brimstones a week or 2 Bend the Wills, or a moderate Black Binding.
Now, as a GM, I would feel safe using Dark Pact and expanding the time limit to a week, a month, a year ... but unofficially, because it depends on how much you like the idea of PCs being able to toss fireballs at people. The Con cost kept Brimstone rather unpopular among the players, which I appreciated, but it may not be to everyone's tastes. A higher-magic campaign, for instance, may do well to remove the Sacrifice entirely for Brimstone, and make it a common must-have Diabolism power. I found it more appropriate to save for the Real Bad Dudes. Even with the Con cost, I think each Diabolist I saw had at least one rank for that "back up piece" that couldn't be disarmed.
Hope that helps.
--fje
