D&D General Pain for power

[TorgoTheWhite]

Need good Faustian Bargain elements.

For context: Ancient Forge-demon can make powerful (but cursed) weapons. It IS a demon, so it doesn't care about souls and traditional contracts. It just wants pain, sacrifice, something it doesn't have to make implements of death for those that are worthy.

I have a blood sacrifice that includes permanent HP loss. The aasimar can give up his wing feature. Each sacrifice gives another + to the weapon or ability

Some things will just be to freak a player out without any mechanical price up front (eat this egg). Otherwise, I appreciate some reasonable costs or bargains other DM have used

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

An aasimar giving up his wings feels more fey-coded to me. (In fact, this kind of thing is an inciting incident in Wild Beyond the Witchlight.)

Fiendish pacts should require moral transgression. You can start by giving up the blood of your enemies, then it progresses to your blood, and then it moves on to your friends' and allies' blood, before you are ultimately sacrificing the lives of your family to maintain your power.

It should also be an ongoing requirement. Yes, you can do X to unlock it, but you need to do a portion of that on an ongoing basis or the whole thing shuts down.

I would also include tearing down the religious, political and social structures in place, especially if they're good-aligned.

• If you want power over the undead, you need to desecrate a graveyard.
• If you want to be able to resist paralysis or mind control, burn down the local jail.
• If you want protection against radiant damage, you need to destroy a temple.
• If you want access to a wish spell, you need to murder the king.

 

[TorgoTheWhite]

An aasimar giving up his wings feels more fey-coded to me. (In fact, this kind of thing is an inciting incident in Wild Beyond the Witchlight.)

Fiendish pacts should require moral transgression. You can start by giving up the blood of your enemies, then it progresses to your blood, and then it moves on to your friends' and allies' blood, before you are ultimately sacrificing the lives of your family to maintain your power.

It should also be an ongoing requirement. Yes, you can do X to unlock it, but you need to do a portion of that on an ongoing basis or the whole thing shuts down.

I would also include tearing down the religious, political and social structures in place, especially if they're good-aligned.

• If you want power over the undead, you need to desecrate a graveyard.
• If you want to be able to resist paralysis or mind control, burn down the local jail.
• If you want protection against radiant damage, you need to destroy a temple.
• If you want access to a wish spell, you need to murder the king.

Good stuff. The wings are sortof "wings of the soul" ethereal wings after all, so it is more about the sweet juicy pain in the process, as well as giving the demon something it didn't have before.

This demon doesn't require ongoing payment, as he is more of a "breaker of chains" but he lost relevance long ago with his imprisonment. He just wants to put powerful weapons into the hands of mortals to bring carnage into the world.. honestly, he is eager to give these things out, but his "artistry" is limited by pain and sacrifice. The ongoing moral payment is primarily coded into the weapons, the curses are typically similar to crown of madness an self, losing ability to magically heal while gaining necrotic dmg.. etc. The end goal is a celestial city that his rival demon has sneakily overtaken... so the players will indeed be slaying celestial soldiers aplenty. They do not know most of this motivation for the demon however

 

[TorgoTheWhite]

For mechanical sacrifices, I want things that are somewhat punishing, currently have.
1) Given me your magic item
2) Your blood "permanent HP"
3) your healing touch.
4) a resistance type?
5) Your right hand
6) Your lucky way (lucky feat)

 

[Whisper-Kitten]

Require them to be possesed by the demon. They gain cooll powers, but occasionally wake up surrounded by bodies, and not sure what happenend. Orr the player takes on some of the demons personality.

 

[TorgoTheWhite]

Require them to be possesed by the demon. They gain cooll powers, but occasionally wake up surrounded by bodies, and not sure what happenend. Orr the player takes on some of the demons personality.

Ooh! I like this. I did think possession would be a good offer, but I should include it for all players... particularly because the 1st couple may not take up that offer. There will be a binding spell in-play, wich obviously the demon will wipe out if the player makes contact with his anvil

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There's a dark gift in the new Ravenloft book that models sharing your body with something evil that would work perfectly for this.

 

[Alzrius]

While it's for Pathfinder 1E, you might want to take a look at The Deluxe Guide to Fiend Summoning and Faustian Bargains (affiliate link), which not only covers this topic in detail, but also specifies what bargains can be made with (and has full stat blocks for) all of the demons from The Lesser Key of Solomon.

 

[Deset Gled]

For context: Ancient Forge-demon can make powerful (but cursed) weapons. It IS a demon, so it doesn't care about souls and traditional contracts. It just wants pain, sacrifice, something it doesn't have to make implements of death for those that are worthy.

How about this: The weapons are powerful, but also specific. And they can be modified, but doing so requires a ritual that costs Hit Dice.

For example: A +1 sword that changes all weapon damage to fire, cold, or electricity damage. In order to change between each element, you must first attune to the weapon. Once attuned, you must perform a ritual and expend 1HD. The ritual can be repeated as often as desired, expending 1HD each time.

If you want to be even more evil about it, require all the weapons to be attuned to use. But to un-attune also requires expenditure of HD.

 

[Umbran]

For mechanical sacrifices, I want things that are somewhat punishing, currently have.
1) Given me your magic item
2) Your blood "permanent HP"
3) your healing touch.
4) a resistance type?
5) Your right hand
6) Your lucky way (lucky feat)

Those prices seem high for a +1 on a weapon in 5e.