Use Magic Device the BoVD?

[HellHound]

Rules Check, Aisle 3 Please!

I know a character can can BoVD that they are evil in order to carry it, but if they make the DC 30 check every hour for one week, do they also gain the Wisdom bonus and one experience level?

 

[Lladnar]

That depend on wether you play artifact = really powerful magic item or artifact = umm... artifact (fragment of a god, etc).

If the former then yes, otherwise, maybe> It will depend very much on the DM, but if they've already gone and said that artifacts aren't just powerful magic items, then probably not.

 

[Anabstercorian]

I would say that YES, they do gain the wisdom bonus and the level - But they also immediately and irrevocably become Evil in alignment from the sheer pollution of the experience. Only by sacrificing more experience than was gained from the book could they ever forget the foulness seen within.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I would say that YES, they do gain the wisdom bonus and the level - But they also immediately and irrevocably become Evil in alignment from the sheer pollution of the experience. Only by sacrificing more experience than was gained from the book could they ever forget the foulness seen within.

Yeah, I tend to agree -- accepting the level should turnthe user to Evil.

 

[Warbringer]

I'd said no. I see no reason in the BoVD why they wouldn't.

The understanding of evil does not make you evil, Nieztche aside.

For a rationale, the palyer has gained the insight without becoming tainted. Think of Cthulhu and the gaining of dark knowledge a successful sanity check keeps the madness at bay.

For roleplay, maybe make the player more susceptable to spells with an [Evil] descriptor... -1 per level gained or something like that

 

[Nifft]

Sounds like a very interesting "Meta-Gnostic" strategy... a beyond good & evil type of thing for Alienists.

-- N

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

You're obviously talking about a character with +29 or more to his UMD check or we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Not rolling a 1 on any one of 168 UMD checks is highly unlikely. Heck, even with a +29 UMD check, there's still a chance of failure if, at any time during that week, the character is effected by a prayer, bestow curse, spell, fear effect (shaken gives a penalty to saves IIRC), or other effect that would reduce his skill check.

As for how I'd rule, if they made the 168 UMD checks, they'd get the wisdom bonus, and one level... that had to be a level of cleric to an evil god. (Although I might allow blackguard). If they didn't want that cleric level, they'd have to quit reading the book before aquiring the other benefits. And if they did want that level, they're pretty darn close to evil already.

 

[Lladnar]

You're obviously talking about a character with +29 or more to his UMD check or we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Not rolling a 1 on any one of 168 UMD checks is highly unlikely.

House rules aside a 1 is not a failure on a skill check. And yes I know UMD has special rules for 1s, but if you read it carefully you'll observe that it is not an auto fail rule, but mearly a critical fail rule.

they'd get the wisdom bonus, and one level... that had to be a level of cleric to an evil god.

Obviously.

And if they did want that level, they're pretty darn close to evil already.

This, is a very good point. Wanting to be a better evil cleric than you are is a pretty evil act.