Divine Boons, Legendary Boons, and Grandmaster Training

[Engilbrand]

What have you come up with? Boons seems like a great new addition, and I'm wondering what other people are doing. I just see this as a place to throw your stuff out there. Let's hear 'em!

 

[Engilbrand]

Or not?
While I realize that the book only recently came out, I find myself surprised that people haven't thrown themselves into working with this new mechanic addition in interesting ways.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

The only major reaction I had to it was sort of "we need rules for this?". Its a good idea and the DMG2 writeup on it is good, but it ain't like we haven't been doing this kind of stuff around here for years and years. Nothing about 4e makes the process especially different from what it ever was. I was glad to see it in the book, I'm sure it will be a lot easier for DMs to do this kind of stuff when it has some patina of official rulesness.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Or not?
While I realize that the book only recently came out, I find myself surprised that people haven't thrown themselves into working with this new mechanic addition in interesting ways.

I need more time! Aaaargh.

 

[Garthanos]

Me three, I like it but I haven't yet purchased the book just read the preview.

 

[Garthanos]

The only major reaction I had to it was sort of "we need rules for this?". Its a good idea and the DMG2 writeup on it is good, but it ain't like we haven't been doing this kind of stuff around here for years and years. Nothing about 4e makes the process especially different from what it ever was. I was glad to see it in the book, I'm sure it will be a lot easier for DMs to do this kind of stuff when it has some patina of official rulesness.

Well dont you feel the games == game element seriously assumes a plethora of magic items and it has had little encouragement for DM's who want more classic environments of fewer more powerful items... Or characters who are not dependent on even some big magic item...but rather are more personally competant (Arthur 1 big item = Lancelot negligible items)
I remember seeing the d20 translations of certain fantasy characters who in literature had maybe 2 magic items the D&D conversion had about 10 because the game presumed they would need them to be par with their levels... it annoyed me, mayhaps it was the fault of the converter ... but I think they were following standards even when they shouldnt to allow cross compatibility with the rest of the game, having official ways of presenting these divergences is good.

 

[Eric Finley]

Oh, as a concept they're excellent, and I like the way they divvied them up like that. Flavour-wise, it was a big help to DMs who didn't already handle items like that (we have two items in our group (one belt, one amulet) which are reskinned as battle-scars already, pre-DMG2).

Crunch-wise, however, personally I fear power creep in them. For one thing, they didn't do anything to make sure you didn't stack 'em with slotted items, and thus lost out on that balancing mechanism. Mine will continue to "occupy" particular slots mechanically, thank you very much. And for another, I don't like the comparative power levels on some of these. The Ioun's blessing springs immediately to mind. I mean, with a head slot item of level 4-6 you can get +2 to one or two skills. With a blessing of level 3 you can get +2 to all skills, plus a daily power for a further bonus? WTF? Who vetted this thing?

 

[Garthanos]

Oh, as a concept they're excellent, and I like the way they divvied them up like that. Flavour-wise, it was a big help to DMs who didn't already handle items like that (we have two items in our group (one belt, one amulet) which are reskinned as battle-scars already, pre-DMG2).

Crunch-wise, however, personally I fear power creep in them. For one thing, they didn't do anything to make sure you didn't stack 'em with slotted items, and thus lost out on that balancing mechanism.

My zen "riddle of steel" geasa has as a part of it not using magic weapons for that is the way of weakness how can you find the weapon in you if you let external magics do it for you? etc.
No fade after five levels things but rather conditions which you can maintain or not then .. likely incompatibility if somebody wants to take a different path... such as learning from the external magics or absorbing them.. or other boons which give ice touch and transform the nature of this inner power etc.

Bathing in the dragons blood can such and such... spontaneous enchantments love it.

I think of it as pretending they are magic items you can no longer really transfer to a friend(or have easily stolen) like take a familiar and make it always passive... you are now fundamentally enchanted.

I would like to see lots of these the way I would like to see lots of custom home brew enchantments...

 

[Engilbrand]

I have one for my game. It's for a 2 person game where a player is collecting the forbidden dances of the world. The other character is her Guardian. I went ahead and created a Guardian Boon.

Guardian Boon- Permanent
Property- The Guardian always knows the exact direction and general location of their charge.
Daily Power- Ranged 10- Minor Action. The Guardian teleports to any square adjacent to her charge.

This makes sense for the campaign. I'm also not overly worried about balance for stuff like this. It doesn't seem too crazy to me, though. They just hit Paragon, so this is the first thing that happened. That character will probably also be going through some Grandmaster Training with her patron hero. It's an Eberron game with time travel. I look forward to the guy's reaction when his Valenar Elf comes face to face with her patron.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Well dont you feel the games == game element seriously assumes a plethora of magic items and it has had little encouragement for DM's who want more classic environments of fewer more powerful items... Or characters who are not dependent on even some big magic item...but rather are more personally competant (Arthur 1 big item = Lancelot negligible items)
I remember seeing the d20 translations of certain fantasy characters who in literature had maybe 2 magic items the D&D conversion had about 10 because the game presumed they would need them to be par with their levels... it annoyed me, mayhaps it was the fault of the converter ... but I think they were following standards even when they shouldnt to allow cross compatibility with the rest of the game, having official ways of presenting these divergences is good.

Yeah, its all a great idea. Its good that the DMG2 addressed it. Wasn't ground breaking though. I did also notice the oddity about slots. It wouldn't matter much in a really low magic environment but I could see it being a bit of an issue in something like LFR.