Organization Powers

[the Jester]

So what do you think about this idea?

ORGANIZATION POWERS
Certain organizations can teach their members new or unique powers. When a member of the organization gains a power of the appropriate level, the organization’s power is an additional option for the character. Pcs that are not members of the organization are not eligible to take these powers.

SAMPLE ORGANIZATION POWER:

THE FRATERNITY OF BATTLE: The Fraternity of Battle is an organization of warriors devoted to honorable battle. This whole idea came up because I made this in the quest to come up with interesting rewards for the pcs imc, and I thought I'd have one of them approached by these guys.

Honorable Pause--- Fraterntiy of Battle Utility 10
You step away from an enemy for a moment, giving up the advantage you had in the name of honorable victory. That honor gives you an edge against your foe.
Encounter--- Martial
Standard Action; Close burst 1
Targets: You and one creature that you have combat advantage against.
Effect: You shift 2 squares away from the target creature. Until the end of the encounter, you gain +2 to attacks and AC against that creature.

 

[FunkBGR]

I think that's an awesome way to implement Guilds/Groups and give them something special, without overpowering it (since it looks like you'd be able to pick this abililty instead of your regular power).

Would it require a feat for membership? I don't think you'd need one, but you could make the power "more powerful" slightly by requiring a feat, and the PC could indicate they're not a member anymore by retraining the feat, for example.

 

[ghearus]

It is definitely an interesting idea, and anything that gives players increased options is always a good thing, but when it comes down to giving players new options for powers, in order to preserve mechanical balance in the game there is a mechanical cost for everything.

Class Features, Class Powers, Feats, Paragon Paths, and Epic Destinies are all "payable" costs that can be used to gain new options, and any time a character gains a new power or option, it should be at an expense.

The best example I can think of for this is the Cleric; it doesn't matter if you are a cleric of a specific god, you only gain the Channel Divinity power for that god if you take the specific feat, and that only gives you a different way to use a class feature.

Paragon Paths are really easy to design, especially with the number that are out there now, you can simply cherry pick the features you want. The Forgotten Realms Players Guide illustrates how this can be used to capture the flavour of several different guilds and organizations as powers and features.

Hope this helps, cheers!

 

[the Jester]

It is definitely an interesting idea, and anything that gives players increased options is always a good thing, but when it comes down to giving players new options for powers, in order to preserve mechanical balance in the game there is a mechanical cost for everything.

Class Features, Class Powers, Feats, Paragon Paths, and Epic Destinies are all "payable" costs that can be used to gain new options, and any time a character gains a new power or option, it should be at an expense.

Right- the way I'm envisioning it, you can choose to take this as your 10th level utility power instead of one of your class 10th level utility powers. That's half the cost. The requirement that pcs join the organization is the other half of the cost, which prevents them from joining certain other possible organizations and could have rp requirements and so forth. Since they'll have the same number of powers as another pc at the same level, I see this as just a way to add a dash of flavor to the mix ("Oh, he's an honorable fighter" has some actual, demonstrable meaning).

 

[FunkBGR]

I think that's a cool way of doing it though.

Right now, in my game, I'm running a conversion of Age of Worms for 4e. I had planned on allowing access to a Paragon Path, for example, should the characters join an organization like the Seekers - but I think this would work better.

I'm at work, so I don't have my books in front of me - are lvl 10 Utilities ever "replaced" from levelling? It might make it worthwhile to have scaling powers, so that if a Lvl 30 is still a member of said organization, they might have something still useful from it. Granted, they should prolly be in CHARGE of the organization by then . . .

 

[the Jester]

I'm at work, so I don't have my books in front of me - are lvl 10 Utilities ever "replaced" from levelling? It might make it worthwhile to have scaling powers, so that if a Lvl 30 is still a member of said organization, they might have something still useful from it. Granted, they should prolly be in CHARGE of the organization by then . . .

My intention is to have a couple of powers for each organization that my pcs get involved with. At this point I've just got the one, though.