Planescape Planescape: Fantasy Taken to the Edge (5e conversion)

[Quickleaf]

I'm returning to converting the Planescape factions using the faction rules, assigning special abilities according to how much renown the character has in that faction. I've drawn these abilities from the PSCS, Factol's Manifesto, Dragon 287 prestige classes, various sources online, and my own interpretation of course. I'm paying special attention to (1) playability, (2) making abilities unique and interesting, and (3) making them work well in the 5th edition ruleset.
[MENTION=2067]Kamikaze Midget[/MENTION] I'd especially like to hear your thoughts since you've done so much work converting planescape already.

Btw, what follows is not a finished version and I've taken out the fluff to focus exclusively on the mechanical bits.

Example: Athar
Renown 1 - Defier (Namer) - Athar Restriction, Divine Curse Immunity, Defiant
Renown 10 - Athaon (Factotum) - Hidden from the Gods
Renown 25 - Factor - Banishment
Renown 50 - Factol

Athar Restrriction. Gods and their servants are initially unfriendly toward you. Accepting aid from a servant of the gods is considered beneath an Athar and prevents you from gaining Inspiration until you can atone or otherwise prove yourself to your faction's cause.

Defiant. You can spend I spirit ion to remove a condition or effect imposed on you by a servant of the gods (like an angel, cleric, or proxy).

Divine Curse Immunity. You are immune to divine cursed such as bestow curse, divine word, geas, and any other spell or effect your DM determines qualifies as a "divine curse."

Hidden from the Gods. You benefit from a perpetual nondetection spell when it comes to divinations cast by the gods and their servants.

Banishment. You can cast banishment on a petitioner, proxy, or other servant of the gods. This requires no material components, and your Spellcasting ability is Charisma. The target suffers disadvantage on its saving throw. You must take a short or long rest before using banishment again.

 

[Quickleaf]

So that's my template going forward with the rest of the factions. At Renown 1, you are considered a member who must abide by the faction's restrictions, and you get a passive ability and an active ability. At Renown 10 and 25, you gian new abilities. At Renown 50, you're the Factol. While I have a ton of my own ideas for Factol abilities, there is nothing canonical in Planescape that says the Factol gains unique special abilities, so I'd prefer not to focus on that yet.

In regards to the factions Restrictions, I am gauging how likely it seems a given restriction to come up in a "typical" Planescape campaign. If its uncommon or common, then that's enough for the Restriction. However if the condition is rare, then I am inclined to add a little extra hindrance. I also am going with what feels right, given the nature of the faction. For example, The Athar were a borderline case; I interpreted "receiving help from gods or their servants" as uncommon or common, however it seemed apropos that Athar not be popular with priests.

In converting the Athar faction abilities, one thing I noticed was that the core Athar faction feature was this odd list of cleric spells they were immune to. I whittled down that list, cutting out all divination spells, since the Athar gains Hidden from the Gods later on. This gave me a list of spells which *mostly* had a curse theme to them, so that's how I ended up with Divine Curse Immunity. It's a bit subjective, but that's perhaps how it should be.

Defiant replaces a bonus to saving throws, and I may make it a reaction.

Banishment was originally a ceremonial thing that required multiple Athar. Since I'm designing these based on the average adventuring party (which rarely has multiple members of the same faction), I cut out the "multiple Athar" bit.

 

[Quickleaf]

An update!

I have finished a rough draft of the factions, which I've attached as a PDF. Let me know what you think.

Note that the PDF is for an adventure I'm writing and includes other stuff like optional Inspiration rules, races, and spells. Chapter 3 has the faction stuff.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I shall return... anon.

It only took me two years, but I made it back to give you XP.

 

[Quickleaf]

It only took me two years, but I made it back to give you XP.

Haha, time heals all wounds, and apparently it XPs you too.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Haha, time heals all wounds, and apparently it XPs you too.

I added more XP for "interest."

 

[Quickleaf]

I added more XP for "interest."

There is no interest among friends!

I just was looking over the Rage of Demons Adventurer's Guide PDF and there are some interesting expansions on the Faction rules which I can see working well for Planescape Factions.

Main thing was the Faction Advancement Table:

Rank	Renown	Requirements	Features
1	0	-	Participate in Faction Activities Earn Renown Receive Your Faction's Insignia
2	3	-	Secret Missions Apprenticeship to an Adventurer Mentor
3	10	5th level, 1 secret mission	Faction Downtime Activities
4	25	11th level, 3 secret missions	Become a Mentor
5	50	17th level, 10 secret missions	Become a Faction Leader

It's an interesting model to apply to creating Planescape Factions, even if we don't know what apprenticing, mentoring, and faction leadership would look like exactly. The secret missions and faction downtime activities are definitely things that I can hack for Planescape, though they seem to be more adventure-specific.

Not sure about the level requirements. In 2e several of the factols were low-level characters, and the level requirements are more a thing needed for Organized Play, so probably can toss those out.

Food for thought!

 

[I'm A Banana]

It's an interesting model to apply to creating Planescape Factions, even if we don't know what apprenticing, mentoring, and faction leadership would look like exactly.

Namer, Factotum, and Factor, probably.

With Factol reserved for NPC's or DM's who want to Go There.

 

[Samloyal23]

An update!

I have finished a rough draft of the factions, which I've attached as a PDF. Let me know what you think.

Note that the PDF is for an adventure I'm writing and includes other stuff like optional Inspiration rules, races, and spells. Chapter 3 has the faction stuff.

Please, sir, may I have some more?

 

[Quickleaf]

Please, sir, may I have some more?

More on the factions? Or more on the mega-adventure?

Factions: I will be trying to tackle a more polished version of the factions given the model from Rage of Demons. That will take some time and work.

Mega-adventure: This is an ambitious long-term project that realistically needs a team working on it, rather than just little old me. I have shared a lot of ideas (including an old working GoogleDocs draft) over at: http://planewalker.com/content/5th-edition-planescape-campaign