D&D 5E dragonmark-like supernatural gifts

[pukunui]

Have you checked out the Mark of Warding? Might fit the cleric.

I have. The problem is that there are several that would be a good fit for him thematically, so I'm having trouble figuring out which one fits best.

I feel like you're headed in a good direction with having most of the granted power non-combat-centric.

Thanks.

If those are values of the faction they're becoming part of or the spiritual test they're undergoing, I'd suggest reworking the Sorcerer's power (which is too offensive for a typical silver dragon). You kind of have the Sorcerer's Red Dragon blood asserting itself regardless of the outcome of her test, but I'd suggest letting her have a power more focused on utility than combat if she passes the test favoring the silver dragon's values.

I've more or less abandoned the test and organization aspects of this. It's been long enough in the campaign now that the PCs have more than proved themselves worthy. This is now going to be the dragon's "Christmas" gift to the heroes. Instead of having a test, I'm just going to have her tell them that they have to vow to uphold a certain set of ideals (that just happen to match those of most silver dragons) before she'll give them their gift. I'm also thinking of having her describe it as being a gift from the Platinum Dragon, rather than from her. (They still don't know she's a dragon, although the sorcerer suspects something.)

As for the sorcerer - my idea there is that her red dragon heritage overrides whatever gift she would have received - partly because I like the story aspect of it, but also because I feel like it makes sense, given how the red and silver dragons are arch-enemies. Her mark is an aberrant one. In Eberron, aberrant marks are pretty much always destructive in nature. Plus, it fits with the red dragon heritage.

The whole idea here is that the other PCs get these seemingly benign powers but then, when it's the sorcerer's turn, something goes "wrong" and she ends up with this warped gift instead. Please also note that some of the bonus spells *are* of a more utilitarian nature, namely control flames and pyrotechnics. Also, by giving her a bunch of fire spells as a bonus, I'm also giving her the chance to have a bit more versatility. Instead of feeling forced to mostly just take fire spells to fit the theme, she'll be able to spend some of her limited spells known on other spells, maybe even some utility ones.


As an aside, I'm also questioning whether I really want to give the bard the Mark of Scribing. I might give him something different as well. It's just so hard to choose. And yes, I could always let the players choose for themselves, but then I'd have to come up with alternate power-ups for all of the marks rather than just four of them (not including the custom aberrant one).

 

[NotActuallyTim]

Imma naysay on passage. Looking out for others doesn't seem like the point of that set of powers. Much more focused on getting around conviently. I'd also like to naysay Sentinel. It's good, but it's pretty combat specific-all damage resist and AC buffs. And I'm actually gonna say nay to my previous Warding suggestion. Too much forethought and paranoia implied by it.

If he's really conscientious about others, Hospitality might be a perfect fit. Providing a comfortable place to rest after a weary day is a great way to take care of people in need.

 

[pukunui]

Originally I wanted someone to have the Mark of Passage so the group could eventually gain access to teleportation circle, which would allow them to return to their home base more easily, but that doesn't feel as important now than it did back when I first started dreaming up this idea.

To be honest, I really only have solid ideas for the sorcerer and the rogue. With the sorcerer, I want to give her more fire spells to a) represent her red dragon heritage manifesting itself more and b) allow her to feel free to take some non-fire spells with her limited known spell slots. With the rogue, I thought it would be cool to make it so his boasting about being able to talk to animals isn't just a load of BS.

I don't really have any solid ideas for the other three PCs. But I feel it would be unfair to give those two something without also giving the others something as well.

With the rogue, I like the idea of giving him proficiency in Animal Handling (which he hasn't already got), plus the ability to speak with animals as the spell but without the need to actually cast it as a spell. Giving him something like a 1/day casting of animal friendship and/or beast sense - maybe even conjure animals! - would just be icing on the cake - and since he's an arcane trickster, he'd eventually be able to cast all those spells more than once per day using his regular spell slots as well.

With the sorcerer, I really like the story element I've dreamt up - that she sticks her hand in the silver fire only to have it turn an angry red and burn her horribly, twisting the gift into this aberrant fire-based thing that leaves a hideous scar and so on and so forth. I know the player will just love it. I just feel like giving her a cantrip and maybe one or two extra fire spells, as per the default dragonmarks, isn't "enough". I like the idea of just giving her a list of bonus fire spells like how WotC experimented with giving the storm sorcerer (even though they ultimately decided not to) - to give her not just more power but more versatility as well.

EDIT: Then again, maybe I'm focusing too much on the fire. She's a dragon sorcerer, not an elemental one. She's already got some dragon scales and will eventually be getting wings. Maybe I should be giving her a breath weapon instead of (or in addition to) more fire spells. Maybe I should instead be giving her spells that an arrogant red dragon might be likely to take (although I'm not entirely sure what those would be at this time).

 

[Rabbitbait]

I'd think thematically about the goals of each character, and how a dragonmark might help enhance their abilities towards that end.
Because it is house ruled you don't need to worry too much about balance anyway. I actually don't like the ideas of dragonmarks giving you spells. It just doesn't feel story driven or special enough to me

Mark of the sentinel might allow the character to interpose themselves in the place of attacks against adjacent companions, and at greater powers might allow them to stop an attack with a thrown or missile weapon.

Mark of Finding might allow the character to feel the rough proximity of whatever or whoever they are searching for, but very rough - so that you wouldn't be able to feel if you are getting closer if you walk in a certain direction, but you would know if they are in the same city, or even in the same building. Sort of how Darth Vader is aware of the presence of Luke.

Mark of Making can be all about the roleplaying - allowing a character to make cunning or unlikely items quickly and easily and imbue them with a semi-sentience. So that could be used for setting up alarms, magic mouth type effects, distractions etc.

Just thoughts off the top of my head.... I can't remember what the other marks are. I'll be working on the Mark of Death soon though.

 

[pukunui]

I'd think thematically about the goals of each character, and how a dragonmark might help enhance their abilities towards that end.

Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do. Perhaps that's why I'm struggling with some of them: I'm just not too sure what their goals are, or what theme would be best to fit their concept. With the sorcerer, it's easy: I can focus on amplifying her red dragon heritage. With the rogue, I've essentially had the theme dumped in my lap. That is, while I wouldn't say becoming a "beast whisperer" is one of the rogue's goals, I know his player wouldn't object.

The others, though, I'm just not too sure about. Oh, the cleric's player has put a lot of emphasis on his character's devotion to Freya, but I'm already using a tweaked version of the piety variant from the DMG to reward him for that. The bard is still an open book; I haven't seen him in action enough to really get a good handle on his character, and his player, while enthusiastic enough, has been out of the game since the 2e days. I actually made the character for him. As for the dwarf, it seems like his player has found his niche as the party tank. He likes to position the dwarf up front, preferably in bottlenecks, where he can soak up enemy attacks. Sometimes he'll even just dodge instead of attacking back. With his high AC, it can be really hard to hit him when he does that! And so I'm not sure I want to make him even better at defending by giving him something like the Mark of the Sentinel.

Because it is house ruled you don't need to worry too much about balance anyway. I actually don't like the ideas of dragonmarks giving you spells. It just doesn't feel story driven or special enough to me

I'm more or less with you here, although I think it depends. Some spells make sense in context. But yes, that is why I've been looking at benefits that aren't spells.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Yeah, I'd say see if you can lock down the goals/aspirations of the other characters a little more and see if you can come up with something a bit more. As it is, you seem very clear about the sorcerer and the rogue, so that may seem obvious to the players too.

But again, if your players won't be concerned about balance issues, then I wouldn't sweat it.

When it comes to the question about the tools...how much relevance do you put on tool profociencies? So far in my game, Thieves Tools have been the only tools used.

 

[pukunui]

[MENTION=6785785]hawkeyefan[/MENTION]: In terms of tools, I'd say they'd come up most in my game during downtime. My campaign is episodic in nature, and I've been using the Adventurer's League method of handing out downtime days as a resource to be used between sessions. The fighter has been using some of his downtime days to craft himself some better armor using his smith's tools. If he had more tool proficiencies, he'd probably want to craft more items.


That being said, I've decided to seek my players' opinions on this. I've asked the sorcerer's player if she'd prefer getting more firepower (as in, more fire spells) or making her character more like a red dragon (eg. a breath weapon and/or utility spells like locate object and suggestion*).

I've also sent the players of the cleric and fighter the list of dragonmarks and asked them, based solely on the titles and their implied themes, which one they would choose for their respective character. EDIT: I've heard back from both of them already. The cleric's player says he'd choose either Warding or Sentinel because he's planning on MCing into paladin at some stage. The fighter's player says he'd personally choose the Mark of the Storm, which is interesting. He didn't say why.


*I went and had a look at red dragons in prior editions. According to my 3.5 books, red dragons of a certain age can innately cast locate object and suggestion. In 2e, they could innately cast a whole slew of spells, including affect normal fires (control flames?), pyrotechnics, and heat metal, as well as suggestion and hypnotism (plus detect gems!).

 

[hawkeyefan]

Gotcha. I've struggled to involve tools more, but things have been moving at a breakneck pace, so there has been little downtime. Hopefully, I can incorporate some of that into my game.

 

[Jester David]

Is this just a buff or is it using a feat slot? Or is it using one of the character's attunements?

 

[pukunui]

Is this just a buff or is it using a feat slot? Or is it using one of the character's attunements?

A buff. It's meant to be a bit like a supernatural gift (except more powerful than the examples in the DMG, obviously).

EDIT: Come to think of it, maybe I could tone these down even more and just make them like the example blessings found in the DMG. The book says that "a typical blessing mimics the properties of a wondrous item."

The bard's player said he thought the Mark of Finding sounded the most interesting. I could have that mark grant him the benefit of a pair of eyes of minute seeing.

I could give the dwarf the Mark of the Storm, which grants him the tempest cleric's Wrath of the Storm feature. That doesn't seem that far off from what a wondrous item might grant, and I'm sure the player would be happy with that.

Along those lines, giving the rogue a permanent speak with animals effect would also not be out of sorts.

With the cleric, since his player expressed an interest in Warding or Sentinel, I could have his mark grant him, say, the Protection fighting style or maybe advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks or something.

As for the sorcerer, I could just have her mark give her a breath weapon or, since it's an aberrant mark, I could let it be more powerful than the others' marks, granting her more spells or whatever.

KISS, right?

And by making them blessings (from Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon), I can take them away if the PCs ever break the vow they made before receiving the gift.

The vow would be along the lines of swearing to live "a moral life [that] involves doing good deeds and ensuring that one's actions cause no undeserved harm to other sentient beings". They must also swear to "gladly oppose creatures that dare to commit evil acts or harm the innocent."