Tome of Magic binder vestiges as voodoo-esque loa?

[Set]

I'd certainly love to see it. The mechanism is wide open to apply to different concepts, as already pointed out upthread, from Loa, to Scarred Lands Titans, to actual pantheistic priests (picking a god to channel from the settings pantheon, say, the Soveriegn Host, in Eberron) to primal forces / planar manifestations like Fire, Earth, Shadow, Chaos, etc.

Loa Binders, Titan Binders, Pantheistic Binders, Planar Binders, Beast Binders (who tap into the primal nature of various beasts, assuming a range of their abilities, as a variation on Incarnum-users), etc.

 

[Andor]

I'd certainly love to see it. The mechanism is wide open to apply to different concepts, as already pointed out upthread, from Loa, to Scarred Lands Titans, to actual pantheistic priests (picking a god to channel from the settings pantheon, say, the Soveriegn Host, in Eberron) to primal forces / planar manifestations like Fire, Earth, Shadow, Chaos, etc.

Loa Binders, Titan Binders, Pantheistic Binders, Planar Binders, Beast Binders (who tap into the primal nature of various beasts, assuming a range of their abilities, as a variation on Incarnum-users), etc.

Oh, now that's a great idea. In a game where you were using Binders you could repackage Totemists as a different flavor of Binder, rather than as an Incarnum user. Consider that yoinked.

 

[amethal]

I've only played alongside a binder, never as one, and I've only barely skimmed the rules, but it seems like it would be a good fit for a setting where you can call spirits to ride your body, instead of being 'dead gods' as described in the core rules.

Sound good? Any suggestions?

Not sure what "ride your body" means.

One of the key points of binders as a class in a game is that vestiges can influence you, but you can resist freely (if you made the original binding check) or can successfully resist but take penalties to your subsequent actions (if you failed the original binding check).

To give an extreme example, the vestige Kas (from Dragon magazine) requires you to betray a comrade within one hour of binding to him. It needn't be a major betrayal, but the victim needs to realise what you have done.

The first time I bound to Kas, I borrowed a scroll from the party's wizard, then tried to sell it. As it happened, I couldn't get a fair price so kept it and returned it the next day, when I was no longer bound to Kas, but even that caused some in character tension.

The second time I bound to Kas (against my better judgement, but we knew we were facing powerful undead and Kas would be a big help) there was no "convenient" betrayal so I eventually took the penalty instead.

Don't let the spirit force the character to behave in a certain way. Leave the player the choice.