Planescape Affiliations for Factions

[Oryan77]

I apologize for posting this on 2 forums but I'm not getting any help over in the House Rules forum. Then I figured this may qualify for the Rules Forum since I'm not "changing rules" and it's sort of like asking for help for creating magic items. Plus I always get great help from the rules forum!

I found several Affiliations (from the PHB2) online for Planescape Factions. I want to use several of them for my players but some of the stats seem pretty harsh. I'm not a rules guy so I was wondering if anyone wouldn't mind looking these over and tell me how I should tweak them to make them work better. I figure you guys know your stuff!

If you aren't familiar with Planescape Factions, feel free to ask me for more info about the faction so you can make the affiliate fit that concept better. Although it's pretty easy to get a quick rundown about a faction by searching online. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I'll start off with 3 Affiliations that my players want to use in the following posts:

 

[Oryan77]

The problem I see with this one is the Sanity effects. I'm not big on requring players to roll percentages for every day (unless they really want to). And those effects seem really rough. I don't think anyone would want to be a Bleak Cabal member if he has to deal with those effects....I know my player who belongs to that faction doesn't seem thrilled by it.

Bleak Cabal


Modifier Criterion
+1/2 PC's level Character level
+1 Levels in bleaknik
+1 per 2 Levels in bleaker
+1 Base Will save +6 or greater
+2 Base Will save +12 or greater
+2 Access to the Madness domain or mantle
+1 per Each Bleaker feat
+1 5 or more ranks in Heal
+2 10 or more ranks in Heal
-1 Untrained in Heal
+1 Able to cast crushing despair
+2 Volunteers at the Gatehouse (One day/week and 4 DC 15 Heal checks)
+1 Self-exiled member of another faction
+1 per 5,000 gp Donates to charity
+2 Cured someone of insanity
+2 Survived the Grim Retreat
+1 Successfully resisted a fear effect that would have resulted in death
+1 Visited Pandemonium
+1 per (maximum 1/month) Convinced someone of the pointlessness of life
+2 per Each successful mission undertaken for the Bleakers

Benefits
Rank Title Saves Sanity Special
4 or less Namer - - -
5 - 14 Factotum +2 Wisdom x 6 Potions, Stun to Fatigue
15 - 22 Madman +4 Wisdom x 5 Paralyze to Exhaust
23 - 29 Factor +6 Wisdom x 4 Take Madness
30 Factol +8 Wisdom x 3 Turn Madness

Saves: The Bleaker gains the listed bonus to saving throws against mind-affecting effects. This bonus applies to saves made to recover from the Grim Retreat, below.

Sanity: Beginning at Factotum level, the Bleaker has a Sanity score which is a multiple of his Wisdom score. At the beginning of each day, the Bleaker must roll his Sanity score or less on 1d100. On a failed roll, the Bleaker suffers a random insanity from the list below for 8 hours. On a roll of 1, the Bleaker succumbs to the Grim Retreat. His Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma scores drop to 0 and he becomes comatose and unresponsive. The only treatment for the Grim Retreat is to be brought to the Gatehouse for reflection. Every 24 hours spent in a Gatehouse cell, the Bleaker may roll a Will save (DC 15 + character level) to recover from the Grim Retreat. On a roll of 1, the Bleaker loses the will to live, and dies.

Potions: At Factotum level the Bleaker may requisition a potion of lesser restoration once per week. At Madman or greater level, he may instead requisition a potion of restoration once per week.

Stun to Fatigue: Any time the Bleaker suffers the stunned condition, he can instead choose to be fatigued for twice the duration of the stun effect.

Paralyze to Exhaust: Any time the Bleaker suffers the paralyzed condition, he can instead choose to be exhausted for twice the duration of the stun effect.

Take Madness: Once per week the Bleaker can remove the effects of a lesser confusion, confusion or insanity spell with a touch.

Turn Madness: Once per day when the Bleaker would be the target of a mind-affecting effect, he can turn the effect back on its source as with spell turning, except that abilities which are not spells are also affected.

Insanity (1d10)

1. Apathetic: The Bleaker withdraws into himself, losing contact with the world. His Charisma and Wisdom are reduced by 2 for the duration.
2. Craven: The Bleaker becomes a lily-livered coward. When casting, he may only cast defensively. When attacking, he must fight defensively.
3. Enthralled: The Bleaker is drawn to and fascinated by death. He no longer has the will to resist it. When engaged in a deadly situation, he suffers a -4 penalty to Armor Class and skill checks.
4. Fatalistic: The Bleaker becomes oppressed by negative, defeatist thinking and believes there's nothing he can do to save himself from a horrible fate. He suffers a -3 penalty on all saving throws.
5. Hubristic: The Bleaker regards himself as superior to all things, even the gods. Divine healing has no effect on him.
6. Murderous: The Bleaker experiences irresistable murderous urges. If an opportunity to deliver a coup de grace is available, he must take this action. He cannot distinguish between an ally and an opponent- if anyone is helpless, he must deliver the coup de grace.
7. Paranoid: The Bleaker grows overly suspicious, even of his closest companions. In combat, he cannot avoid watching for signs of treachery. Whenever one of his allies engaged in combat makes an attack and fails to hit, he becomes suspicious that the ally is secretly a traitor to the party. He takes a -1 penalty to any rolls made during that turn, since some of his attention is focused on monitoring the suspected traitor's activities. If more than one ally fails to hit, the penalty is cumulative.
8. Severely Phobic: The Bleaker gains a severe phobia, which requires him to succeed on a Will save (DC 16 + the CR of the challenge) or become panicked when he encounters the object of his phobia. Roll 1d6 to determine the type of phobia. 1: Cramped quarters; 2: darkness; 3: fire; 4: heights; 5: magic; 6: water.
9. Unbalanced: The Bleaker's unstable mind makes him unpredictable, particularly in combat. He is automatically confused on his first turn in any combat.
10. Unresponsive: The Bleaker's senses are dulled and he loses the ability to discern the truth of the world around him. His Wisdom score is reduced by 4 for the duration.

 

[Oryan77]

Free League


Modifier Criterion
+1/2 PC's level Character's level
+1 per 2 Levels in indep
+2 Access to Liberation domain or Freedom mantle
+1 Each Indep feat
+1 per (maximum 1/month) Defeat a known bully
+2 Humiliated a member of a faction
+1/10,000 gp (maximum +1/month) Does 10,000 gp of trade in the Grand Bazaar
+1 Visited the Outlands
-2 Ex-member of a faction
-2 Placed yourself in the contractual service of another
+2 per Each successful mission undertaken for the Indeps

Benefits
Rank Title Saves Skills Special
4 or lower Namer - - -
5 - 14 Factotum +2 +2 Gather Info Sense Faction, Discount
15 Freeman +4 +4 Gather Info, +2 Knowledge (N&R) -
Saves: The Indep gains the listed bonus to saves against compulsions.

Skills: The Indep gains the listed bonus to Gather Information checks made within the Grand Bazaar, and to all Knowledge (nobility & royalty) checks.

Sense Faction: Once per day the Indep Factotum can determine the faction of a creature within 30 feet (Will save DC 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Wisdom modifier negates).

Discount: The Indep Factotum's purchases in the Grand Bazaar are at a 5% discount (15% with the Contacts in the Grand Bazaar feat). At Freeman level, this benefit improves to a 10% discount (20% with the Contacts in the Grand Bazaar feat).

 

[Oryan77]

Revolutionary League


Modifier Criterion
+1/2 PC's level Character's level
+2 Has an extraordinary or supernatural shapechanging ability
+1 Levels in anarchomancer
+1 per 2 Levels in anarchist
+1 per Each Anarchist feat
+1 5 or more ranks in Disguise or Sleight of Hand
+2 10 or more ranks in Disguise or Sleight of Hand
-1 Untrained in Disguise
+2 Infiltrated an exclusive group
+1 Hindered a government
+6 Overthrew a government
+1 Visited Carceri
-4 Discovered as an Anarch by an organization
+1 per (maximum 1/month) Recruited someone into the Anarchs
+2 per Each successful mission undertaken for the Anarchs

Benefits
Rank Title Skills Special
4 or less Namer - -
5 - 14 Factotum +2 Bluff/Disguise/Forgery Potions
15 - 22 Revolutionary +4 Bluff/Disguise/Forgery nondetection
23 Cell Leader +6 Bluff/Disguise/Forgery Plan B
Skills: The Anarch gains the listed bonus to all Bluff, Disguise and Forgery checks.

Potions: Once per week an Anarch Factotum can requisition a potion of invisibility from her faction.

Nondetection: An Anarch Revolutionary is continually affected by a nondetection spell as though cast by a wizard of her character level.

Plan B: An Anarch Cell Leader has a contingency effect in place which is triggered the first time in a week someone discovers her true identity as a member of the Revolutionary League. The spell triggered may be mislead or any spell the Anarch can cast whose level does not exceed 1/3 her character level (maximum 6th level).

 

[werk]

Seems a little washy to me. Without my planescape materials to compare back to I'm a little at a loss to compare these to the benefits bestowed by the factions originally...which would be my first suggestion.

Bleakers are crazy. I think you should be crazy before you can join and then just get crazier. Given the benefits detailed, I'd say the modifiers are rather low.

Indeps look pretty good, but visiting the outlands grants +1? Seems so trivial, I can't believe that the affiliation even cares if you've been to the outlands, but would rather assume that you had. Faction members are not clueless, it is assumed they have spent at least a small amount of time travelling the planes, and you don't travel far around the wheel without visiting the hub...unless you conciously avoid it.

Anarchs are the opposite, visiting carceri is a lot more difficult then visiting the outlands, yet bestowes the same modifier? I'd probably just drop the Indeps modifier all together, or raise it a little compared to the Bleakers.

Overall I think they seem fair, if a bit easy on their requirements. Rewards are small and specific, as they should be. I'd probably make some sort of initiation qualifier, like what a character would need to do to join, and make that trial a little steep.

 

[Oryan77]

Seems a little washy to me. Without my planescape materials to compare back to I'm a little at a loss to compare these to the benefits bestowed by the factions originally...which would be my first suggestion.

Factions didn't really get many benefits back in 2e. I'll give a quick rundown:

Bleakers: Immune to spells that cause madness type of effects (confusion, feeblemind, ect). They also got a save vs ESP spells.

They had to roll 1d20 each day. A 20 resulted in them not doing anything that day unless someone could convince them that it's worthwhile.

Indeps: They got a +2 save bonus vs any form of charm.

They have no members in any government position. They also have less protected rights than others.

Anarchs: Can automatically pose as a member of any other faction without detection. They don't gain special abilities but they do gain the privileges of whatever rank they pretend to be.

They can't hold office or own a business. They give 90% of their treasure to the faction or the poor (I've never enforced that though).

Given the benefits detailed, I'd say the modifiers are rather low.

That's the stuff I was looking for help on. I'm terrible at balancing rules on my own. Do you have any specific changes in mind? If the Indeps modifiers are too low (or others factions too high), what would you suggest be changed and by how much?

I'd probably make some sort of initiation qualifier, like what a character would need to do to join, and make that trial a little steep.

That's a good idea. I could come up with some ideas but they would probably be way unbalanced among each faction.

I'm not a numbers guy, so I'm clueless when it comes to judging the stats. But the thing that stand out to me are the Bleakers Sanity rules.

I just don't think any player would want to be a Bleaker if they have to deal with the "Grim Retreat" effect (especially if it can kill them). It is also a hassle on the DM...what does the DM do if a PC all of a sudden has to be taken to the Gatehouse when the party is in the middle of an adventure far away? It's a major killjoy for something so random & not part of an adventures makeup. I want players to want to play a bleaker, not scare them away due to such random possible death sentences. Is it a big deal to ignore the Grim Retreat effect? Are any of the insanity check penalties too harsh? The Enthralled insanity and a couple others seem like they would scare players from being a Bleaker.

Thanks for the advice so far, that's exactly what I was looking for!

 

[werk]

I'm not a big fan of the affiliations ruleset myself, I think it just kinda gets in the way of what I'm doing as a DM and gives the players another number-based metagame carrot for them to grind away at...so I haven't any real experience with it. You can take everything I say with a grain of salt, but that rule is always in effect.

What I remember about the planescape factions, like you've said, is that they really grant very little in the way of mechanical benefits. Usually just one ding for something close to the faction's core beliefs...like doombringers get proficiency with a sword (?) because the faction is all about entropy and destruction, and what brings more destruction than the sword? Dustmen cannot be brought back from the dead...is that a benefit? Cyphers get improved init...stuff like that. It's not a PrC, it's not even a church, it's just a club...maybe like a softball or bowling league. People can get really involved in their softball league, putting more and more time and effort into it, making friends, eventually running the whole league and choosing where they play who their sponsers are, where they go to drink, who the officials are...ITS ALL ABOUT POLITICS.

Benefits, besides the one ding, should include employment/loot sharing, and ability to have equipment made or requisitioned. That was really the major benefit that we always got from our faction, but we don't have custom magic shops, etc.

Each faction is going to be differently abled to serve it's members. The bleakers or dustmen, for instance, aren't going to have the resources that someone like the guvners or harmonium would, so you'd probably have to reach a higher rank to get worthwhile benefits, if at all, from the dustmen. Same goes with joining, it's really easy to join the dustmen, they love new members, but joining the athar should be an experience, possibly involving ritualistic forsaking of the gods in which the gods actually hear the incantation and snub the chanter in return, and your name is added to a living wall of blasphemy of something.

For your characters that want to join up. I'd lock the bleaker in the gatehouse, see how he likes it. I'd have the indep run into another indep that has an amazingly suicidal mission that he's perfect for. And for the anarch, yeah, good luck with that.

EDIT: Bleakers are crazy! Why would characters or players want to become crazy? ...like real crazy, not Jim Carey crazy.

 

[Oryan77]

No other critiques on these affiliations?

Wow, I stumped the rules forum