Expanding on Dark Speech...

[Arravis]

I'm not sure if this would be the right forum for this... but does anyone know if there are any expanded rules for Dark Speech? I feel it's one of the most interesting feats WOTC has come up with and I see alot of possabilities with it.

Has any other book, article, post, etc... made mention of expanding or further detailing it's abilities? I'm not talking about making the feat more powerful, but basicly adding more fluff to it (stuff like being able to wither normal plants, rotting food, etc.)

 

[haiiro]

FWIW, I've never seen anything expanding on Dark Speech. Doing a <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=dark+speech+feat">Google search for "dark speech feat"</a> doesn't turn anything up either.

 

[Shemeska]

I thought that the idea behind Dark Speach was really quite interesting, and while I'm not using it in my current Planescape campaign, I have been using something similar. Rather than casting their spells using draconic, or any of the common lower planar languages such as Abyssal or Infernal, I have several of the villains in my game ( a cadre of Arcanoloths) incanting their spells using either a smattering of, or entirely in Ancient Baernaloth.

How they learned a language mentioned only in obscure lower planar legends by creatures that even most of the Yugoloths themselves think of as only existing in legends is an open question.

Just hearing even a corrupted version of the language makes the listener feel unclean and pains the ears to listen to, if only incidentally and the spell is not directed at them.

If it was 'just' dark speach my players wouldn't be afraid of it, they'd have read the book its in, and OOC would know about it and wouldn't fear it. Keeping it mysterious, unexplained, and never really seeming to do the same thing twice keeps them frightened and off balance.

 

[Clueless]

As we have found out many a time... 'fuzzy'.

As it turns out - making up your own thing in a game does *wonders* at keeping a group guessing and actively scared of a monster. Otherwise they remain calm knowing in the back of their heads what they're facing.

Prime example being a bit part race a group I run for ran into at level 3. Now level 10 they are still terrified of these creatures, which are... essentially merely Underdark adapted humans. As their familars would tell them if they asked and gave the little things enough sweetmeats to convince them to speak of something that scared them that badly.