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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nyeshet" data-source="post: 2823620" data-attributes="member: 18363">He's referring to 'The Tome of Magic: Pact, Shadow, and True Name' that was released by WotC a month ago. It is part of the D&D d20 system, and it explains a few new forms of magic for the game. The first part, Pact, deals with Binders that bind Vestages to themselves, gaining some of the power the vestage had in its prior life. These act as continuous magical effects, including some at will powers and some 'once per four rounds' powers (rather like Breath Weapons of some creatures). It may also grant some proficiencies, some skill bonuses, etc. In the end it is a way to customize the character. At lower levels one can only bind a single weaker vestage. As levels increase more powerful vestages become possible - as well as multiple vestages. As I recall, around level 20 the Binder is binding around 4 or 5 vestages at a time. Changing a vestage takes about an hour if I recall and can be done at any point in the day. All in all, it is a nice system, although - for my own world - I would have preferred a more generalized, feat based system. Some problems that exist: nothing is mentioned in descriptive or mechanical text on how vestages are discovered, and the system seems to suggest that the Binder automatically knows all vestages (otherwise it would be quite underpowered at nearly every level, due to the lack of choice over vestages). Vestages are generally either mortals that died (or 'vanished') in such a manner that their soul is incapable of entering the afterlife or becoming ghosts. They have in a sense become Archtypes. Other vestages are deceased deities that died in an odd manner (one is Tenebrous, who died due to the use of the Last Word, as I recall). Still others are fiends fallen from power but yet continuing to hold on to existence (Geryon, I think, is an example). In my world I intend to make all Vestages fiends. This would tally well with the descriptive text, which states all (most?) religions tend to either hold Binders in disdain or actively hunt and persecute them. I would have preferred a system whereby a minor vestage is gained via a feat. The PC would spend an hour to gain a few minor benefits chosen from a list. More powerful ones could also be represented as feats - or perhaps instead of individual ones, a single feat will allow them to attempt to bind a specific vestage - with possession being the penalty for failure (rather than assuming uncommon and troublesome appearances or personality quirks). I will play with the system's structure a bit to see if I can manage to alter it to suit my world.</blockquote>

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