| | You are not authorized to post a reply. |
| | Author | Messages | |
kyrin
Commander
3171 Posts
    
 | | 08/04/2006 11:50 PM |
| Hey guys! I thought I'd drop in a goodie for our Cleric/Bard in the next adventure. What do y'all think of this?
The Pipes of Comfort are a paired set of pipes, similar to those played by Satyrs. But these are enchanted to give aid and succor to those who hear it.
The Pipes are of Masterwork Quality, and thus confer a +2 bonus on Perform checks when they are played.
In most people's hands, the Pipes are simply a well-made musical instrument. In the hands of someone with ranks in Perform, the Pipes reveal their true nature. By playing the Pipes as a full-round action, the piper can cast each of the following spells once per day:
Cure Disease
Lesser Restoration
Neutralize Poison
[Too many spells? Too few?]
Additionally, if somone with 5 ranks in Perform plays the Pipes for one hour while creatures are sleeping, those creatures regain hit points at twice the normal rate while asleep. This ability of the Pipes can be done only once every three days.
If someone with 10 ranks in Perform is playing the Pipes, the piper can cast a spell as if the spell had "Mass" in its description. The piper must play for a number of full rounds equal to the level of the spell to be augmented. The spell does not have to be a bard spell, but it does have to be a spell that normally has a "Mass" counterpart. [Is this too restrictive?] If the song is interrupted, it must be begun again. This ability can only be used once per week. [Too much? Too little?]
So, pick it apart and tell me how its broken!
Thanks,
JIM
aka kyrin | |
My Have/Want List <-|-|->My Trades and References 1 <-|-|->My Trades and References 2
Pronounce "Drow" like "crow"! Viva la Revolution! We Shall Overcome!
Vindicated Champion of the Stirge! Vindicated Champion of the Githyanki Knight on Red Dragon!!
Vindicated Champion of the Androsphinx! | |
|
gss_000
Commander
3204 Posts
Baltimore, MD
| | 08/05/2006 9:54 AM |
| I think whether or not it is broken really depends on the price range and the level of the cleric/bard. This should be really expensive for what it does. The three spells alone are very useful and you're speeding up the casting of lesser restoration from 3 rounds to a full round.
After a first reading it seems like you almost have two good items here. One that does the "metamagic", a very useful one BTW even with the long time restriction, and the spells themselves. The healing during rest is effectively irrelevant at a point where you can buy/find this.
What you could do, and I've never made my own items so take this with a big grain of salt, is drop the "metamagic" part and change the spells to a three uses a day or the pipe can be used three times per day with the player decding which spell to be used. Then it would be appropriate for almost any character | |
Completed trades: blackthorne, Drakkengi,Thorgrin, Ironfist Boulderbender x2, ckissee, nasamonkey, Username, Star, Ace13 x3, emontedodger x2, Drconveyor, church, Joeyb, Sir Bozak The Damned, Xeromod, the other guy x2, Qucalion of Celene, Dagaron x2, berus316, qillan_dvra, AshloreDarkShadow
For further info go to My Reference Thread and Trade Interface
Champion of Radiant Sevant | |
|
dagonet
Sergeant
442 Posts
| | 08/05/2006 1:03 PM |
| Heya Kyrin,
Alternately, you could have the pipes usable three (or five, or one, or pi) times per day, and a results table of potential effects based on the Perform check. So a result of 10+ gives you Cure Disease or Lesser Restoration, 15+ gives you Cure Critical Wounds, 30+ gives you Greater Restoration, etc. etc. etc.
Or give the Pipes unlimited uses per day, but each Perform check (in a given day) after the first has a cumulative -5 modifier, and the Pipes break if their user ever has a Perform check of 0 or below.
And for the party acquiring the item, perhaps have it wielded by an evil Bard, who plays it backwards to access the reversed versions of all those Curing and Healing spells.
Cheers,
Dagonet | |
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
Champion of Kyuss and his Servants of Squishy Doom | |
|
kyrin
Commander
3171 Posts
| | 08/05/2006 1:11 PM |
| Just FYI, the party is 10th-12th Level.
Thanks for the comments, guys. Keep 'em comin'.
JIM
aka kryin | |
My Have/Want List <-|-|->My Trades and References 1 <-|-|->My Trades and References 2
Pronounce "Drow" like "crow"! Viva la Revolution! We Shall Overcome!
Vindicated Champion of the Stirge! Vindicated Champion of the Githyanki Knight on Red Dragon!!
Vindicated Champion of the Androsphinx! | |
|
gss_000
Commander
3204 Posts
Baltimore, MD
| | 08/06/2006 11:34 AM |
| | Okay, so most of what I said in my first point is mostly moot by the level of the party. I will say just consider, depending on your campaign structure (whether there is a lot of downtime or not), that the "Mass" ability of the pipes with a spell like Heal could change things a lot. What might be better is to make the ability once per day but restrict the levels of spells it can be applied to, like 1st-4th. That way, it is still very useful but does not crush encounters with applying this to higher level spells. | |
Completed trades: blackthorne, Drakkengi,Thorgrin, Ironfist Boulderbender x2, ckissee, nasamonkey, Username, Star, Ace13 x3, emontedodger x2, Drconveyor, church, Joeyb, Sir Bozak The Damned, Xeromod, the other guy x2, Qucalion of Celene, Dagaron x2, berus316, qillan_dvra, AshloreDarkShadow
For further info go to My Reference Thread and Trade Interface
Champion of Radiant Sevant | |
|
kyrin
Commander
3171 Posts
| | 08/07/2006 11:41 AM |
| Okay, how about this:
Three times a day, the Pipes can be used to cast divine spells with the Conjuration (Healing) descriptor. The level of spell that can be cast depends on the Perform (Wind Instruments) check:
Less than 11: Level 0
11-15: Level 1
16-20: Level 2
21-25: Level 3
26-30: Level 4
31-35: Level 5
The pipes must be played for at least one full round; if the spell requires more time, that extra time must be spent. Any material components required must be present and used up, and any xp cost must be paid.
Howzat?
JIM
aka kyrin
| |
My Have/Want List <-|-|->My Trades and References 1 <-|-|->My Trades and References 2
Pronounce "Drow" like "crow"! Viva la Revolution! We Shall Overcome!
Vindicated Champion of the Stirge! Vindicated Champion of the Githyanki Knight on Red Dragon!!
Vindicated Champion of the Androsphinx! | |
|
kyrin
Commander
3171 Posts
| | 08/07/2006 11:44 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by gss_000
Okay, so most of what I said in my first point is mostly moot by the level of the party. I will say just consider, depending on your campaign structure (whether there is a lot of downtime or not), that the "Mass" ability of the pipes with a spell like Heal could change things a lot. What might be better is to make the ability once per day but restrict the levels of spells it can be applied to, like 1st-4th. That way, it is still very useful but does not crush encounters with applying this to higher level spells.
I can see what you're saying here. Restricting spell level is a good idea, but what if I say that using the "Mass" function renders the pipes non-magical for a time (week? 3 days?)
Thanks for the comments. Keep 'em coming!
JIM
aka kyrin | |
My Have/Want List <-|-|->My Trades and References 1 <-|-|->My Trades and References 2
Pronounce "Drow" like "crow"! Viva la Revolution! We Shall Overcome!
Vindicated Champion of the Stirge! Vindicated Champion of the Githyanki Knight on Red Dragon!!
Vindicated Champion of the Androsphinx! | |
|
bshugg
Underboss
1833 Posts
| | 08/07/2006 12:41 PM |
| X uses per day/week abilities are the strongest in the game (besides constant effects). By giving almost unlimited access to the three spells, you are essentially removing 3 aspects of challange that a DM can throw at the party. Rather than making for an interesting effect, its in a way making the game "duller" for your group. Now poison/disease/drain effects have no meaning unless they kill you immediatly. It also lessens the need for the Cleric to carry these spells in a way removing one of his cool abilities and making him less interesting as well. If you really want to include it I would make it a charged item, with the most powerful effect "mass X" making the item useless for a week.
As an item for 8th level group I would give it 12 or 20 charges:
Cure Disease 2 charges
Lesser Restoration 1 charge
Neutralize Poison 2 charges
Mass effect on spell 5 charges
I would not let it be recharged as well.
Alternatly you could let it be a "ward effect". While the bard is playing the players are protected from a specific effect for X amount of rounds. This gives them a cool way to overcome a challange, but doesn't let them ignore them. The players will be happier when they have a proactive effect to use to overcome a challange rather than having to react to something. It would also give the bard another spot to shine in, which is something bards have trouble with doing. It also wouldn't step on the cleric's toes as much as he still would need these effects for when the bard wasn't fast enough to get the protections up. ie "whoops, I fell into the filthy sewer sludge" or "didn't know the wraith was going to ambush me like that".
| |
Looking for someone to cosponser a midwest DDM event. let me know if your interested!
Check out my brand new blog:
http://bshugg.blogspot.com | |
|
dagonet
Sergeant
442 Posts
| | 08/07/2006 1:00 PM |
| Despite my lack of experience playing D&D proper, I'm going to respectfully disagree with bshugg here. Poison/disease/drain generally don't have a huge amount of meaning anyway, as (assuming they survive) the party can always disengage and retreat until the cleric has a chance to prepare remedies.
I'm not sure about a "warding" effect either. It might be more thematically appropriate for the Pipes, if used to create Bardic Music, to spend one of their daily uses to extend the Music Effect by a number of rounds equal to the level of the spell that they could have cast.
Kyrin, what's the current Perform skill on the Cleric/Bard? I suspect it's low enough that the Pipes won't be spewing forth powerful magic on a regular basis.
Errmm, this just occurred to me. Is the rest of your party going to be irked that the cleric/bard receives a nifty, custom item?
Cheers,
Dagonet
| |
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
Champion of Kyuss and his Servants of Squishy Doom | |
|
kyrin
Commander
3171 Posts
| | 08/07/2006 2:24 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by dagonet
Kyrin, what's the current Perform skill on the Cleric/Bard? I suspect it's low enough that the Pipes won't be spewing forth powerful magic on a regular basis.
He has a high Perform skill, but he tends to roll low. And I think he's put most of his points into stringed instruments.
quote:
Errmm, this just occurred to me. Is the rest of your party going to be irked that the cleric/bard receives a nifty, custom item?
A legit concern, but I'm actually making things up to him. The Sorceror/Rogue has a Ring of Air Elemental Command that he has been slowly "awakening." This has been a major source of quests for the party. The paladin has a magic spear sacred to his goddess (The Lance of Courage), and the cleric has a similarly sacred mace (The Radiant Fist). That will only leave the wizard that I have to dream something up for, but he *is* the newest member. [:)]
JIM
aka kyrin | |
My Have/Want List <-|-|->My Trades and References 1 <-|-|->My Trades and References 2
Pronounce "Drow" like "crow"! Viva la Revolution! We Shall Overcome!
Vindicated Champion of the Stirge! Vindicated Champion of the Githyanki Knight on Red Dragon!!
Vindicated Champion of the Androsphinx! | |
|
kyrin
Commander
3171 Posts
| | 08/07/2006 2:33 PM |
| I can see many of your points, bshugg, and I'm going to give some of them more thought. Let me reiterate, though, that the bard is also a cleric -- it's common in my game for clerics of gods like Dionysius and Apollo to have levels in bard, or at least ranks in Perform. So he wouldn't be stepping on any toes.
I think that allowing the cleric/bard to use this to perform cures and healing will allow him more versatility by freeing up spell slots for other types of spell. And my game is such a grinder that I don't think any of the players will be getting complacent anytime soon. To my mind, the device frees me up to include MORE weird effects like poison and ability drain, 'cuz I know the players can handle it on the spot instead of retreating and slowing things down.
Like I said, I'll give your comments some more thought. I've got a couple of weeks to finalize this.
JIM
aka kryin | |
My Have/Want List <-|-|->My Trades and References 1 <-|-|->My Trades and References 2
Pronounce "Drow" like "crow"! Viva la Revolution! We Shall Overcome!
Vindicated Champion of the Stirge! Vindicated Champion of the Githyanki Knight on Red Dragon!!
Vindicated Champion of the Androsphinx! | |
|
gss_000
Commander
3204 Posts
Baltimore, MD
| | 08/08/2006 2:04 PM |
| | I really like your idea on the Perform check dependant on the spell level. Also, I think with the length of time to use the pipes, you now have an item that can really help with resource conservation while not destroying encounter balance. I like it. | |
Completed trades: blackthorne, Drakkengi,Thorgrin, Ironfist Boulderbender x2, ckissee, nasamonkey, Username, Star, Ace13 x3, emontedodger x2, Drconveyor, church, Joeyb, Sir Bozak The Damned, Xeromod, the other guy x2, Qucalion of Celene, Dagaron x2, berus316, qillan_dvra, AshloreDarkShadow
For further info go to My Reference Thread and Trade Interface
Champion of Radiant Sevant | |
|
| | You are not authorized to post a reply. |
|
| |
ActiveForums 3.7 | You must be signed in to participate in the
games. |