Immortal's Handbook continuation thread

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Anabstercorian mate!

Flaming/Shocking/Freezing/Caustic/Screaming Armor
Elemental armors inflict 1d4 of the relevant damage type to anyone who successfully strikes the wearer with a melee attack without a reach weapon. +1.

Burst versions do not exist. 2d4 damage is +3, 3d4 damage is +5, 4d4 is +7... And so on.

I have this power; though I call it "Bleeding" armour.

Deathspurning
Deathspurning armor protects the wearer as a continuous Death Ward spell.

Isn't something like this in Defenders of the Faith (or elsewhere?)

Unshakable
Unshakeable armor lets the wearer roll every saving throw twice and take the higher roll.

Interesting. I have been toying with a similar idea (incorporating a reroll) but haven't settled on anything yet.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Dark Wolf mate!

How about..

Shattering -
Each time you strike an object (weapons, armor, other), it (not the weilder) makes a Fort Save DC 29 or be destroyed.

Already sorted! Same name too!

Shifting -
3/day this weapon may change into a differnt weapon within one size catagory. (Greatsword to Longsword to Shortsword)

Interesting. I actually had this power but dismissed it because I couldn't find a suitable enough name. Shifting sounds great though.

Deciever -
Each time you strike an opponent, they make a Will Save DC 25+your CHA mod or shift one alignment towards your alignment. (Your AL=CG Theirs=LE it goes to NE or LN)

Got that. I refer to it as "Corrupting".

Undoing -
Once per week, before you hit an opponent you may choose to use this ability, if you do and hit the target they make a Fort Save of 147, if they fail they are completely undone and removed from time, all actions taken in the last 3d6+10 minutes are undone, but the memory remains, if they suceed they are unaffected and the time is wasted for the week. If you miss the target, you may still use this ability. (Note- this might be impossible to use because of Paradoxes....or maybe the Dm can't remeber everything he has done that will affect things) A creature or object removed in this way can only be brought back by the combined effort of 3 of the Time Lords.

Very interesting - I could see a version that completely removes the being from ever having existed - but it might be difficult to adjudicate? Very good though - I'll have to develop something along these lines!

Damning -
A creature hit by this, makes a Will Save (caster level of creator) or is banished as the spell Damnation. (the epic spell)

I'm sure I have a Damning weapon ability somewhere.

And UK a question - what are the ranks of Gods beyond Greater? I know of Overgod and Time Lord, but thats it.

Immortals:

Hero-deity
Quasi-deity

Demigod
Lesser Deity
Intermediate Deity
Greater Deity

Sidereals:

Elder One (Elder Deity)
Old One (Over-deity)
First One (Proto-deity)
Demiurge

Eternals: (Time Lords)

Supernals: ...

I have to keep some secrets!

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Bjoorn mate!

Yeah, I know charisma doesn't equal beauty, but I was just goofing around, so it felt good in the moment. but good-looks would help charisma. I heard somewher that tall politicians are more likely to be elected. And chalk anything else up to my un-rules-minded-ness.

Sometimes when developing stuff you are better just forgetting the rules and concentrating on the idea.

Anyway, what effects would a "groin-smashing" weapon have?

I had to cross my legs just thinking about it!

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Knight Otu mate!

OK, I admit not all of them sound impressive.

Maybe a touch sci-fi orientated but thats hardly a crime considering their origins.

The Suit of Time
Anyone wearing the Suit of Time can learn the history of any dead creature, provided he has access to the skull. There is no limitation on how often the skull can be used, and the time elapsed since the death of the creature matters not.
The skull cannot keep any secrets from the wearer of the suit, and the wearer can even see through the eyes of that creature three times per day.

Should be called the Suit of Secrets methinks!

The Suit of Darkness
The Suit of Darkness allows the wearer to walk along the event horizon of black holes without further protection.

Everybody loves black holes.

The Suit of Distance
The Suit of Distance allows grand manipulations of the three dimensions of an object. The wearer can move whole suns, collapse suns by shrinking them, or create new suns from interstellar matter.

Sounds like one of the Infinity Gauntlet gems.

Maybe a Polymorph Planet spell.

The Suit of Gravitation
The wearer of this Suit can detect and manipulate gravitational lines, moving whole planets. Suns, however, are usually too large to be affected.

I can see this working better as an epic spell.

The Suit of Dream
The wearer of the Suit of Dreams has a limited power over reality, making his dreams partially come true. He can also capture a whole planet in nightmares. Some say that the suit also speeds up its wearer.

I actually have an Omnific Power similar in nature to this.

The Suit of Death
The wearer of this Suit is suffused with negative energy, making him immune to all attacks using that dread power, and all death attacks. Any living creature within a mile of the wearer dies unless making a Fortitude save with a DC that is increased by 10.

Maybe a 'Shroud of Death' epic spell?

The Suit of Power
This Suit increases the save DCs of all the wearer's special attacks, spells, spell-like abilities and supernatural abilities by 30.

+60

The Suit of Talent
The wearer of this Suit can learn very fast, learning new abilities at twice the speed he normally would.

Sounds like one I have...okay, borrowed.

The Suit of Trust
Anyone seeing the wearer of this Suit cannot help but trust him, becoming a friend of the wearer.

I definately see most of the above working better as epic spells than actual permanent capabilities.

Were these all used within the Perry Rhodan universe?

I'll reply to Grommilus next time I'm online.

 

[Knight Otu]

I definately see most of the above working better as epic spells than actual permanent capabilities.

It's not my fault!

Were these all used within the Perry Rhodan universe?

More or less.
The Suit of Talent was destoyed by the intended wearer, fearing it could control his mind.
The Suit of Power was used to attack IT (no, not Steven King's!), the "patron" of the galaxy. Later, it was weakened and destroyed for the failure of the wearer.
The wearer of the Suit of Death walked on Terra.
Some others were employed against other allies of the terrans (including the Suit of Time and Suit of Dream). The rest only were described (as the Suit of Darkness).

Edit - Just noticed that this was post 2000. I'm catching up to you!

 

[Upper_Krust]

Re: Gimme

UK

This is Grommilus, cannot get my account to work, ie, posting messages and whatnot, so I made a new one.

Hi Grom mate!

Send me a copy of your revised CR and ECL calculator. I will try my darndest to break it =) email jdke50@mizzou.edu

Just sent it to you. I must say I thought you already had it though!?

Remember that many of the elements are already set to be changed (or at least tweaked) in the final version.

I could just wait till I see you on Instant messenging, but I'm impatent to find a good base for CR and ECL calculations.

I have been going over the changes I am planning to make and it seems like every CR factor (you'll know when you see the pdf) is different - shows what I know (although obviously breaking the fractions down further has imposed itself in many places.

Btw, Grommilus was getting old, been using it for years, gonna do a new alias =)

We have chatted far more on messenger than on the message boards that I am more used to calling you by your real name.

I particularly think that the special abilities that scale with HD, especially the powerful ones like medusa stone gaze, need some mechanic that takes into effect their increasing save DCs.

Remember of course that the two factors that govern the actual DC (Hit Dice and Charisma) both add to CR.

Its also easy to recalculate any changes.

Additionally, are you planning on including epic spells in the ImHB?

Yes the second section "Grimoire" has all the magic and magic items/artifacts elements.

If so, I thought up an interesting one.

Sure fire away.

It's titled Overkill.

It does the following:

Fort save or be petrified.

Will save or suffer a Trap the Soul

Fort save or die.

Reflex save or be caught in the 10 foot diameter sphere that is annihilated. If caught, Fort save or be annihilated with the sphere (physical form wiped out of exsistance).

(One could argue that even if you succeed on this fort save, since the sphere was annihilated, you are now in a 10 foot diameter vacumn, and explosive decompresion and then his friend implosive recompresion from surounding air occur. You might say this is 20d6 with Fort save for half, since it fits in with the Seed Destroy. Flesh bags only please, constructs and most undead need not apply. Unfortunatly, while I was playing the Star Wars d20, we could never find the rules for explosive decompresion, dispite it's frequent occurance, so I have no official d20 rules for it. By the official rules we could find in both the revised and old star wars books, suffication is what killed you, but the exposure to the cold did some subdual damage, and the radiation (assuming in space) was pretty nasty after they pull you back in the starship).

Spell seeds: Transform 21 +10(inanimate, nonliving) Ad hoc 30 for trap the soul, slay 25, and finally Destroy 29

final DC is 115

I must admit, I'm unused to the spell creation system for epic spells, as I don't like the system for casting them. But if you must use them, based on letting players use their epic handbooks, then here is one i liked.

Advantages of this spell are many fold. Fail the first save and you are a statue that gets disintegrated, requiring a Wish to get you back. Fail the second and then you have 2 more chances to die, with your soul trapped, which is a pain unless your group wins the battle. And if you succeed on the first 2 saves, the other 2 are just plain death spells, nothing to see here, move along, move along. Reason I do petrification first is that if you trap the soul then petrify, they just need to free the soul and you count as dead for true resurection (least i would rule that). I see epic battles between organizations as fights to see who makes who expend the most wishes fixing whatever you did to the other guy (or equivalent epic spell with annoying costs).

anyways, I should go to bed now.

I like the concept and the name; though I might pick the effects differently myself.

 

[Eldorian]

UK

I like the concept and the name; though I might pick the effects differently myself.

Thats fine. The original idea came about as "save or die twice." We just elaborated on how to make "die" actually suck for epic characters =)

Btw, I am very interested in hacking out a decent CR system with you, one that takes a monster and with only minimal eyeballing required turns it into it's actual CR, such that it exactly mirrors typical PC power, including magic items and elite stats (15 14 13 12 10 8). I'm thinking that a PC's CR is 3/5 character levels, 2/5 magic items, with the elite stats considered average, or perhaps being a flat +.5 to the CR.

Pulling out Ye Goode Olde MM2, and looking at the HD types for the various monsters, and the DMG for npc classes we have what looks like 4 classifications.

3/5 PC classes, PrC, and Dragon, Outsider

1/2 Monsterous Humaniod, Magical Beast, Warrior, Adept

2/5 Aberration, Elemental, Giant, Humaniod, Shapechanger, Aristocrat, Expert

1/3 Animal, Beast, Construct, Fey, Ooze, Plant, Undead, Commoner

Another thing, having a stat of "nil" for Con should count as at least a 10. It has many advantages over 10 tho, namely, Con damage is no problem, and any Death effect is no problem, no life to kill. You could classify "nil" as a 10, and then add in the immunities it represents as part of the immunities CR bonus.

For "nil" any other stat, it should be a flat 0.

For intelegence and charisma, since they have reduced effect for encounter effectiveness (cha only effecting Diplomatic encounters, and Int only setting up tactical advantages), perhaps they should have a reduced factor on encounters at low stats. Might be too much work to do this, and not worth the effort, but hey, it's a thought.

Another thought is that monsterous PCs should be allowed to take NPC classes (or raise their racial HD) in order to force thier ECL/HD ratio down, with the stipulation that HD can never exceed ECL on a PC.

For example. Dungar is a PC with ECL 10 and 9 HD. He could advance using Expert levels for 3 levels, gaining one level of expert at level 11 in exp, 2 levels of expert at level 12 in exp, making him ECL 12 with 12 HD and the exp of a level 12 character. When he gets to level 13 for exp, he can take a level of some PC character class, making him ECL 13, with 13 HD. So he traded his racial bonuses for crappy character classes until he got his HD up to his ECL.

So (assuming planetouched is +1 ECL), a level 2 fighter planetouched is ECL 3, but a level 3 Aristocrat planetoched is ECL 3 as well.


Anyway, more later.

 

[Eldorian]

UK

back to my Medusa fasicanation...

Medusa 6 Monsterous humanoid HD= +3

total difference over average stats 14 = +1.4

Natural armor 3 = +.3

Poison snake bite ad hoc (extra attack and weak poison)= +1

Petrifying gaze (similiar to bodak death gaze from pdf, 1.5, I think it should be higher) = +2

Total 7.7 (.7 higher than MM, this one is pretty close to book actually)

Medusa as a PC. Since wealth is 2/5 the character,

medusa statsifies equation

7.7=3/5C

where C is the ECL (assuming has magic items for the ECL, which is 2/5 the ECL)

ECL of medusa PC with normal magic item set is 12 5/6. So a Pc medusa, with level 13 magic items, is level 13. Seems too high. But, judging from the CR/ECL ratio in the MM2, 3/5 is about right.

Lets look at this using my proposed NPC classes to catch up on HD.

Since we must factor in Magic after HD.. lets work in CR from character alone.

Medusa 6 HD, 7.7 CR

want CR to be 3/5 HD
Lets add commoner levels in bunches of 3

level 3, 9HD, 8.7CR
level 6, 12HD, 9.7CR
level 9, 15HD, 10.7CR want CR 9
level 12, 18HD, 11.7CR want CR 10.8
level 15, 21 HD, 12.7CR want CR 12.6

Holy crap, in order to get a medusa up to HD=ECL, need to be a level 15 commoner, with 6 HD of medusa. Perhaps 1/3 is too generous for commoner levels. 1/4 might be in order. 1/3 for commoner means that 9 levels of commoner are the equilvalent of 5 levels of fighter. Going by HP, BAB, and Saves, the common falls a bit short there. however, going by 1/4, 12 levels of commoner are equal to 5 levels of fighter, where the commoner gets 3 more HP, 1 more BAB, and better ref and will saves (3 feats less tho tho). If the feats were toughness and weapon focus tho... hmm.. 1/4 might be about right.

Commoner levels in bunches of 4
level 4, 10 HD, 8.7CR
level 8, 14 HD, 9.7 CR
level 12, 18 HD, 10.7 Want CR 10.8, done

Medusa HD=ECL, need to be a level 12 Commoner, with 6 HD of medusa, at ECL 18.

My medusa would have 5d8 +12d4 + 18(bonus con)HP= 8 +4.5*4 +2.5*12 +18= 74 base hp.

Bab = 6+6=12, +2 from bonus dex on ranged, so +14 ranged to hit.
base saves at fort +6, ref +9, wil +9, with +1 to will and fort from bonus stats, 2 from bonus dex.
total saves fort 7, ref 11, wil 10.

with petrification gaze at DC 10 +1/2HD +2(bonus cha) +CHA = 21+ cha

poison DC 20 +con

that doesn't look so bad for a level 18 character. crappy fighter, mean gaze attack.

I think, in conclusion, we can agree that the medusa is a hard PC to make.

Also, it seems that the most important calculation to make is "how much does character wealth effect CR" With this calculation, we can determine exact ECL. 2/5 - 1/4 is what it seems wizards says, based on the MM2 and what I've read of the Savage Species.

Eldorian Antar

 

[Dark Wolf 97]

Originally posted by Upper Krust
Very interesting - I could see a version that completely removes the being from ever having existed - but it might be difficult to adjudicate? Very good though - I'll have to develop something along these lines!

I only intended for the changes to be physical (so if an evil Warlord was removed as you say, all the people he killed personally should come back to life. But if he had ordered his guards to kill people or burn the grain, they would not come back.) Thats why I said the memories remained.

I like the idea of completely removing them, but I thought it would be much too difficult to handle (I tried it once in a mini-adventure, but I needed more forethought).

I plan to try again, and change the wording to sound good.

What bonus to you think such an ability would have, and if the DC is variable (based on casted level), how would it change it? (DC of 5 would be worthless = 1, DC of 5000 would be = ALOT)

Polymorphing
On a critiacl hit, the subject makes a Will save (17) or is polymorphed into whatever the wielder wills.

Paralysing -
On a critical hit, the creature hit makes a Fort save (17) or is Paralysed for 3d4 rounds.

Maddening -
Once activated by the owner, this weapon emits horrible sceams and sounds, demoic ranting... all within 30 feet must make a Will save DC 30 or suffer the effets of the Insanity spell, this lasts as long as they are in the radius and 7 rounds after they exit it. The owner is unaffected.

Blocking -
This weapon has a 50% chance to block any physical attack that would hit (attack has suceeded, damage to be resolved) the wielder.

Greater Blocking -
This weapon has a 50% chance to block and turn back any physical attack that would hit the wielder. (the attack that would have hit the wielder, now hits the attacker)

Doom Frost -
This weapon always has the spell Dire Winter focused on it, the owner may repress or activate this effect at will.

I'll probably have a few more tommorow.

Oh and I've been working on a spell to bring eternal night to a plane but I can't figure how, any suggestions?

Looking forward to the Supernals.

 

[Dark Wolf 97]

I need a better name for the Blocking and Greater Blocking abilities. (anybody, feel free)

I'm probably going to copy the lot of this stuff (the item abilites) to use in my campain, maybe I'll see some of it in the IH.

And UK (or anyone else who knows), why are other D20 books not in color (or as you say colour)? I am quite sure Wizards does not have rights on colored D20 books.