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Dark Immolation
 
PostPosted: Fri, Aug 28 2015, 4:38 AM 

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Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Location: The downeaster "Alexa"

Neat stuff. Looking forward to seeing it IC. Mainly because I miss roving elves making patrols through the Amian Forest. This next idea comes from the Grey Knights and Inquisition from WH40k. Anyone I talk to can tell you I've been on a warhammer kick for the past few days, so this is what has come of it.

The Purifiers

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"We forget.

Magic enlightens us. Protects us. Empowers us. When taught to a small, backwater community, it has the potential to see them rise to the heights of any ancient nation within but a few generations. Such fast-swelling power is oft taken for granted. Mishandled. Abused. When gathered in the hands of a few, it holds the potential to shatter worlds. To rip the very reigns of reality from the hands of the Gods. To cause untold and undue suffering to millions. All it takes is one user of the Weave with the notion to do so, and it is done. The wheel of time has turned as so for eons. Magic is gifted to us. We misuse it. We fall.

We forget.

And now, I and my templar, my brothers in holy arms, are come to remind us. There is a Great Order to all within the Multiverse. Into this order fall every man, woman, and child, every arcanist and beast alike. It is this arrangement that allows us the peace and safety of the Art and the Power. But when forgotten, when perverted by greed and fear, or zeal and over-piety, it shields us no more. It was not a year ago that the Would-Be Karsus-the-Second, Collin Reyes, sought out upon a mission that has irreversibly changed the face of our World. Many other destructive and chaotic beings within the Power and Art also make their home on the island at the root of his plans. And it would seem, at least from afar, that none have learned any lesson from this close call. Magic-users are back to the leisure of their own affairs with little to no regard of their neighbors or own well-being. The wheel of time turns once again.

But we shall not allow it to do so. Not this time. Not without a fight. Not one revolution more, not one more crumbling empire, not one more broken family. This I pledge on my life. This we have all pledged, by whatever means appropriate. We shall learn from our history... Or may we perish in the attempt."


ImageImageImage


The idea would be a small group of Mystran Clerics who make it their business to police arcane matters on the isle. Not necessarily roaming around fighting the new necromancer of the month(though they still may occasionally), but attempting to introduce more regulations for magic into society. Similar to the idea of Sanctioned Psykers in WH40k, they would issue certificates to PC and NPC mages that mark them as "Sanctioned Arcanists". That is to say, arcanists, who by their Order's criteria, have proven themselves trustworthy, safe, and worthy of employment or elected office by the general public. The hope being that non-sanctioned magic-users will sort of be black-balled by settlements and pressured to stop using their Art so haphazardly. They would seek out and attempt to educate or re-educate young arcanists to have at least some passing commitment to their fellows and community. And if all else fails, to be there when they inevitably screw up.

They would be no strangers to battle, as believe it or not arcanists don't often like people telling them what they should or should not be doing or interfering with their business. Each would have a great deal of magical knowledge, despite being men of the cloth. They would have Magic as at least one of their domains, with the others being Spell, Rune, or Knowledge. Additionally, they would work out tactics of how to (safely) subdue and contain arcanists and transport them to local authorities. Or, when there was no choice, to kill them and see the bodies put to rest. The individual members may have very differing opinions on what constitutes "no other choice." Some would try all they could not to engage arcanists in battle or even debate, but rather work with or around them for their own good. The others... well... Let's just say they keep a torch handy.

I've always like the fantasy theme of magic/technology = religion, religion = magic/technology, which is I guess is one of the reasons I like the Emprah and his Spess Mehreens. I also like thinking up concepts that are somewhat opposed to my own characters. So, you know, extra points if you roll these guys and have Beldor referred to as a heretic or "the Anathema." x)

The three characters above are ones that I thought might fit into such a group.
On the left: A Halruuan. Youngest member of the group. True to his heritage, he has a fascination in the Art. Some of his brothers find his interest distasteful and are quick to remind him that over-indulgence can lead him astray. No matter, he is as dedicated to the cause as any other, and truly marvels at what Magic can do for people. Cleric/Bard. Domains Magic/Spell.

Center: The narrator of the little blurb above. A middle-ranked member in a leadership position. He is a true believer, and while he does not share the young Halruuan's energy, he does admire him in many ways and takes it upon himself to be both battle brother and mentor to him. He is rather quick to get forceful with arcanists, having become tired of hearing them weasel their ways out of things with silver tongues. Among the three, he is the most quick to draw steel and see an unruly magic-user put under when reports of magical violence or unrest reach him. Of all arcanists, the only ones he truly respects are artificers, as their art seems to have less potential to go awry. Cleric/Divine Champion(and/or)Knight Commander. Domains Magic/Rune.

On the Right: A veteran member. Old age has tempered his zeal and he most often serves as the voice of reason and patience to the other two. He has seen that energetic indulgence in the Art solves the problem no more quickly than an over-eagerness to smack those who use it in perverse ways into the ground. There must be dialogue and there must be steps taken for long-term solutions. While a man of faith, he has seen much more battle than the other two, and so his skills favor good, down to earth planning and know-how. Cleric/Fighter/Rogue. Domains Magic/Knowledge.

_________________
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You think Magic is your ally... but you merely adopted the Art. He was born in it. Molded by it.
Sometimes, an angel is simply a devil with better intentions.


 
      
Dark Immolation
 
PostPosted: Sat, Sep 05 2015, 1:26 AM 

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Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Location: The downeaster "Alexa"

A mock up of what the Purifier's symbol or heraldry might look like.

Image


A sword wedged between the spokes of a wheel, it's point resting on an open book. Below, a banner reads in Thorass "Never Again." If it's not obvious, it's a visual metaphor their goal of halting the continuous rise and fall of society due to magic. From Imaskar, to Netheril, to Amia, they see this endless ebb and flow of progress as the one real thing preventing Faerun from fulfilling Mystra's ideals. When people have power, they don't understand it. When they finally fall and understand it, they no longer have it.

_________________
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You think Magic is your ally... but you merely adopted the Art. He was born in it. Molded by it.
Sometimes, an angel is simply a devil with better intentions.


 
      
Dark Immolation
 
PostPosted: Sat, Nov 28 2015, 0:25 AM 

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Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Location: The downeaster "Alexa"

Scholars of the First Spell

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"Which was it? What could it have been? A cry for help. A glamor. A simple trick that allowed a farmer to hitch his oxen more easily. We do not know. And for the most part, we do not care. Now. I know that sounds hypocritical, but hear me; do you recall your first word? 'Mama.' 'Dada.' 'Yes.' 'No.' If you could, what would it say about you? Not much, I imagine. But understanding the situation that led to your first word, how you enunciated it, the environment in which you conceived the notion of it... that might reveal more than the word itself. Such are our thoughts towards our journey. We have no great expectation that the Prime would be some great work of magic. And most of us have even less expectation of actually finding it, at least in our own lifetimes. But to understand the things that led to it, what came after, what came before, its lineage... the discovery of such things would be to triumph where even the Gods have failed and to recall what even they have forgotten.


The idea for this PC or group of PCs would be the search for the "first spell." Magic has existed from very early on in Realmspace history. But the actual act of channeling that force into a conscious effort is a task that mortals undertook sometime after. Thus the question of how and why this happened exists. Where did it come from? Was it a gift from a god or the tireless research of a person who could perhaps be thought of as the "first mage." These are mainly philosophical questions as there is little hope of ever finding out for certain these things. While there are occasionally some diehards who occupy the ranks of the Scholars, they usually burnout from what is a very long-lived job of sifting through ancient tomes and comparing nuanced translations in dead languages. Nonetheless, some find the work a liberating exercise. To that end, just as many young, philosophical minded adventurers can be found in their number, alongside elderly professors and wizened magi.

They would likely ally with such groups as the Guardians of the Weave, though most of the Guardians' members would find them less helpful than they'd hope. The Scholars are much more interested in debating and understanding the Weave than picking up staff and shield to defend it. They could still be counted on to join in teaching young adventurers about the nature of Magic, and this alone is the reason much more 'active' groups in the Realm consider them friends, albeit them rather lax and sometimes aloof ones. Meetings of the Scholars of the First Spell more often than not turn out to be excuses for old mages and adventurers past their prime to gather, drink, argue, and exaggerate the exploits of the years in which they took up(and all the same, failed) the task of finding the first spell. Something like a magical fraternity whose almuni constantly bicker over which fallen empire could conquer which, instead of sports teams.

_________________
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You think Magic is your ally... but you merely adopted the Art. He was born in it. Molded by it.
Sometimes, an angel is simply a devil with better intentions.


 
      
Strom
 
PostPosted: Tue, Oct 04 2016, 16:37 PM 

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Location: Wales, UK

Trogath Turan + 4


The dream, it felt like it had been an eternity. He could still feel it, stark and strangely real. He lay clasped upon an altar, dark iron chains encircling his wrists and ankles in the harsh pinch of manacles. The soft kiss of dark silk upon his face, lying beneath some kind of dark veil as he stretched his head to try and look around the chamber. The walls were covered in dancing glyphs. Candles burnt green and blue, purple and red as the chanting around him pitched higher toward a beautiful, terrible chorus.
It was then she approached, the last thing he would see for so many years - branded forever into his mind. Her form swaying beneath diaphanous silk, as the mantle of bat-like wings reared up proudly behind her. She smiled with the ruin of a thousand souls, her eyes sanguine with sin. The blade was lifted from a baptism of blood, high above her head. . . Silence, the echo of the song dying down.

A vision of dark steel, gothic in design. Wrapped with a handle of red leather and etched with a phrase he could not read, it's letters twisted and barbed, "Undoth, quel'thax unar..?" She asked him, with a sardonic curl on her lips? "What..?" He answered, dumbly as if the song had stolen so much of his wits. She laughed, sweetly. Like an angel he thought, before her dark eyes lidded, her other hand gripped the blade, curled over the pommel a she stalked toward the altar, "Wait... Yo-... No! NO, WAIT!" He yelled. It came down into his chest with little ceremony, she hunched over him. Staring down into his bulging eyes as his last breaths left him, his eyesight faded. Sound become muted and strange, as she spoke one final time, "You will live forever.."

His name was Trogath Turan. . . And had he survived long enough to see the moments after his death; those barbed letters twisted and changed, into something so very, very familiar.


I've always wanted to play an intelligent weapon. I think it'd be interesting to try and steer your wielder toward your fate, rather than theirs.

_________________
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Rook - Tiefling Witch

Grumdur Bari'Var - Dwarven Raider

Desimir Maric - Spellblade of Savras

Cassius Dain - Scribe of House Gulderhom

Timezone: UK (GMT+0)


 
      
#StraightOutaAvernus
 
PostPosted: Tue, Oct 04 2016, 22:10 PM 

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Location: WHY SHOULD I TELL YOU WHERE WHEN YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE?! NGAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!

I actually love these ideas DI and they need to happen. Specifically the first. The templar-y concept has always kinda appealed to me (due to a bias toward the Dragon Age setting as tied with FR for my favorite), and I never understood why if Mystra is one of the few CG deities that allows paladins she doesn't have this sort of 'law over magic' order.

In fact, let's forget the PC part completely and propose this be a DM plot.




Hell I'm working on an english major. I'll write up a plot initiative.

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Playing: Tanar'i Shit Disturbers


 
      
Kamina
 
PostPosted: Wed, Nov 02 2016, 17:01 PM 

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Strom wrote:
I've always wanted to play an intelligent weapon. I think it'd be interesting to try and steer your wielder toward your fate, rather than theirs.


Do you have any idea how long I've been trying to come up with a concept that would do this justice? I've always wanted a ying-yang relationship with the wielder and the weapon, maybe along the lines of a cursed weapon that the wielder can not be rid of, which would ultimately cause a somewhat humourous relationship between.

I'd really like to see someone do an intelligent weapon justice, if not a concept I could see myself committing to one day.

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"Operating in the border between light and darkness, shadowdancers
are nimble artists of deception. They are mysterious and
unknown, never completely trusted but always inducing wonder
when met"


 
      
Dark Immolation
 
PostPosted: Mon, Nov 27 2017, 7:28 AM 

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Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Location: The downeaster "Alexa"

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I've been musing with the idea of some sort of rage-monk, for a while. Either re-purposing my Hoarite STR Monk into it, or fooling around with it as an alt.

The first hiccup is of course Barbarian and Monk are not compatible in alignment. But a workaround I figured might be cool enough would be having a Spell Widget that gave the Rage or Ferocity monster spells. Not nearly as powerful as actual Barbarian Rage, but given how spread out monks tend to be for stats, they could still serve a purpose in addition to being cool for RP.

It's not coincident I used an image of Udyr from LoL above. I also toyed with the idea of having it come from a natural world angle. You could very easily have the same monk employ the "aspects" of the Bull, Cat, Bear, and Owl and have spell widgets that corresponded to the correct buff spells. Or, now that custom scripting is back, you could request a widget that took Ki charges and gave temporary versions of the spell to be reeeeally Udyr-y.

Anyway, I thought it was a neat concept worth looking into. I probably won't get around to making it, so I'd look forward to seeing anyone else's attempt at it.

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You think Magic is your ally... but you merely adopted the Art. He was born in it. Molded by it.
Sometimes, an angel is simply a devil with better intentions.


 
      
Dark Immolation
 
PostPosted: Thu, Jan 18 2018, 5:21 AM 

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Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Location: The downeaster "Alexa"

It just dawned on me that the Weaveborn concept I came up with would probably fit very easily into our Warlock class with a few tweaks. If anyone is interested in giving that a shot, let me know. I'd be willing to help come up with something and would definitely look forward to any characters riffing off of that idea showing up IC.

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You think Magic is your ally... but you merely adopted the Art. He was born in it. Molded by it.
Sometimes, an angel is simply a devil with better intentions.


 
      
Pinkhaml86
 
PostPosted: Fri, Jan 19 2018, 5:32 AM 



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Joined: 12 Dec 2015

I've never read this thread before today. And I just read the whole thing twice. These concepts are glorious. I want to play them all.

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Dark Immolation
 
PostPosted: Sun, Feb 04 2018, 22:56 PM 

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Recently had the idea for a sort of Halruaan noble/royal family. It would be a patriarch wizard, his adult children from a previous marriage(to a sorceress, deceased), his current wife(a cleric of Mystra), and their children.

The roleplay would center around enterprise, monetization of knowledge, and sibling rivalry. I'm seeing a couple of specific archetypal characters, but there is place for any number of them. The patriarch would be business savvy, having built a successful business with his previous wife's creativity and intuition. Their children, a sorceress and a bard, would share their mother's natural magic. They would also resent how quickly he remarried and had new children, jeopardizing their claim to the family's fortune. The new wife would be extremely traditional, somewhat disdainful of her step children for, what is considered in Halruaa, a perverse form of magic. Most of her children with the patriarch would be too young to engage in business, but the eldest two would be late teens:a wizard following in his father's footsteps and a ranger(with a cool Halruaan behir animal companion).They would be just aware enough of the business world to know that the elder siblings are likely trying to muscle them out of their inheritance, and try that much harder to prove themselves as rightful heirs.

In so many ways, an Ed Greendwood production of Dallas.

This could all just be used as the backstory of a single character, or perhaps the whole thing is just a backstory for something else, but it struck my fancy. I'll probably flesh it out a bit later, but I think there's room for the Weaveborn concept to work into this too as some sort of dark family secret.

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You think Magic is your ally... but you merely adopted the Art. He was born in it. Molded by it.
Sometimes, an angel is simply a devil with better intentions.


 
      
Dark Immolation
 
PostPosted: Wed, Apr 04 2018, 17:34 PM 

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Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Location: The downeaster "Alexa"

I'll eventually get back to the Halruaan family idea. But as a passing thought

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How easy would it be to start some sort of Monster Hunter-esque type group? They could be Rangers with different monstrous favored enemies, or just regular adventurers. They could organize boss hunts, which isn't too far from what Monster Hunter is essentially, Boss-fighting: the game. I don't know, something about walking through Guldorand a while ago and watching some MonHun World gameplay really stuck with me for some reason.

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You think Magic is your ally... but you merely adopted the Art. He was born in it. Molded by it.
Sometimes, an angel is simply a devil with better intentions.


 
      
Yimmi
 
PostPosted: Thu, Apr 05 2018, 0:27 AM 

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Location: Santiago, Chile

Dark Immolation wrote:
I'll eventually get back to the Halruaan family idea. But as a passing thought

Image


How easy would it be to start some sort of Monster Hunter-esque type group? They could be Rangers with different monstrous favored enemies, or just regular adventurers. They could organize boss hunts, which isn't too far from what Monster Hunter is essentially, Boss-fighting: the game. I don't know, something about walking through Guldorand a while ago and watching some MonHun World gameplay really stuck with me for some reason.


I really love that concept... For some time I've been thinking about something like that... specifically a dwarf ranger with a crossbow! Hahaha Idk if its something that would work on Amia, but it's something I'd like to participate with.
A bloody dwarven ranger monster hunter.... yeah I can see that! At least from a RPing point of view hahaha
The problem is my very limited playtime :P

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-Jacob Hel'Tharan: Knowledge through sacrifice.
-Bjalfi Bolverkson: Blood, beer and thunder!
-Aedan Turghaer: Life of a mercenary... it ain't easy.

We are southamerican rockers, nou sommes rockers sudamericaines...


And DM side: DM Clangeddin


 
      
Dark Immolation
 
PostPosted: Mon, Sep 23 2019, 0:00 AM 

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Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Location: The downeaster "Alexa"

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A thought came up during a world building exercise. I would love to see or create a setting that only knew of or practiced one or two of the traditional Schools of Magic.

Simply because of how 3rd Edition expanded, you have various magic systems piled one on top of the other with new locations, classes, and entire cultures(Psionics, Incarnum, Binders, Pluma and Hisna). Meanwhile, the base 8 schools are just assumed to be ubiquitous and present in every land that has arcanists for the most part, with limited impact on the actual setting. Arguably, the schools are just a post-Netheril convention that was widely disseminated over Faerun; so it might be assumed that to know of one school is to know of them all. But certainly there were ancient mages who had an affinity for one school, moved out to the backwoods, and only managed to pass on the philosophies they were most proficient in, right?

Like, imagine a culture that only knew of Divination magic. When someone talks about magic there, that's what they mean: scrying, prying, eavesdropping, or fortune telling. Their view on arcanists would be they're all nosy but largely harmless degenerates at best, and at worst, hustlers seeking to cheat fate or sell you your own. Official Diviners might be involved in a king's court to keep eyes on nobles or enemies, but even they would be looked at warily, the ruler knowing full well a prying eye could always turn in their direction and see something it ought not.

Compare that to a country that mainly had Transmuters. Or Evokers. Um... Conjurers? You get the point. The closest thing we have in our Amian setting that I can think of would be Rauthym and how Artifice is heavily preferred and valued there. Even so, that impact is limited as artifice in game basically boils down to mythal crafting or requests. But the RP potential there is something I think is awesome. Both from an insider or outsider angle. As exciting as it could be for a PC well versed in magic to discover yet another way of manipulating it, someone venturing out from Ruathym to see these lunatics running around with sticks of dynamite in their bare hands would be equally exciting. There's always the option of Demiplanes I suppose, which allows tons of leeway in devising cultures and history.

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You think Magic is your ally... but you merely adopted the Art. He was born in it. Molded by it.
Sometimes, an angel is simply a devil with better intentions.


 
      
robbi320
 
PostPosted: Mon, Sep 23 2019, 0:34 AM 



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Joined: 04 Jan 2015

Durpari are actually sort of like that. Not to the 100%-only Illusion-and-nothing-else extent, but their religious/spritual background is pretty interesting in that regard. Durpari think killing is evil. Insane, right?

But what makes it even weirder is the fact that they believe a person dying to Illusion spells isn't actually murder, but instead more along the lines of 'fate'. After all, if it wasn't fate, you could tell it was just as illusion, and not a real monster killing you.

(Exaggerated for comedic effect) But it's still an interesting concept. You've still got stuff like say, transmutation, but I'd assume Evokers and Necromancers are a lot less common around there, due to it being immoral to just blow up random strangers.


 
      
Dark Immolation
 
PostPosted: Mon, Sep 23 2019, 17:10 PM 

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That's a possible example! I figure most things are left blank when it comes to magical traditions to allow the DM or Player in P&P room to create them. But it's just always struck me as odd that we get these super detailed backgrounds on later-introduced forms of magic, but the base ones don't get fleshed out too much beyond the tropes we associate with specialists. To be fair I remember Complete Mage or Arcane talking about the different "styles" of mages, controllers, blasters, etc, but I can't remember if they ever tied those styles to specific FR locales.

I remember Halruaa has a hierarchy in terms of what wizards they consider to be the most prestigious(something like Necromancers on the bottom with Enchanters and Diviners on top). And it being particularly common practice for divinations to be in constant use on the street level. So that comes close to a Diviner-themed nation as anything. It's just the boatloads of other magic present in the setting that keeps it from thoroughly being focused on any particular school.

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You think Magic is your ally... but you merely adopted the Art. He was born in it. Molded by it.
Sometimes, an angel is simply a devil with better intentions.


 
      
Dark Immolation
 
PostPosted: Thu, Oct 03 2019, 21:00 PM 

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Digging further into this brought me to some interesting places. Namely, Hedge Magic. The idea of magical traditions that are largely self-taught, self-discovered, or handed down by family or cultural construct. In many ways that can end up in Sorcerer or Bard territory, but I think there's ample room for Wizards to make use of the concept. It is very possible that only certain schools of magic are taught or used because there is simply no one else to learn magic from in your loose confederation of fishing villages. Something like that makes a great background for Specialists. A Transmuter could be raised where the very idea of "magic" is synonymous with Shapechanging and alteration in general. Sure, as he ventured out into the larger world, he learned about other Schools, but by the time he even heard of Conjuration, he was already too overwhelmed by the options to ever try to understand it. I imagine an Uthgardt hedge wizard who operates like a Skinchanger or Greenseer from Game of Thrones walking into Halruua and having some sort of Blue Screen of Death moment. :lol:

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You think Magic is your ally... but you merely adopted the Art. He was born in it. Molded by it.
Sometimes, an angel is simply a devil with better intentions.


 
      
Dark Immolation
 
PostPosted: Thu, Oct 03 2019, 22:03 PM 

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Enter the Dragon

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Parsing the post for thoughts. I also came across a plot hook that might be interesting to people who want to play a dragon or heavily draconic being and DMs who understandably are wary of such things as player characters. Credit to WebDM's Sorcerer episode for the germ of the idea.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The basic idea is that, somewhere in your family line, you had a draconic ancestor. Cool, right? You either become a Bard, or Sorcerer, and maybe even a Dragon Disciple. Just one thing.

That ancestor is still alive.

They live for centuries, after all.

Not only that, but they didn't just shack up with your great-great-great grandma in a sort of heat-of-the-moment one night stand. No, dragons are meticulous planners. They begot your line with the intent and understanding of collecting those who showed any magical potential to become their henchmen or cohorts. Your power is not a gift; it's a debt. And that debt is repaid by doing the work of this dragon progenitor.

For your service this DM-controlled dragon bequeaths to you 1) the glorious privilege of not being eaten and 2) the promise of greater draconic boons, ways to become more like them, that only they can show you. Yes, you can toil for years to become some sort of veritable Half-Dragon, via your own research. But if you ever, ever, ever hope to be anything close to the real deal... well, who else could teach you? Some magical morning, through their tutelage and guidance(and paying off your debt many times over), you will reach a draconic apotheosis, similar to the amount of effort that culminates in a PC becoming something like a lich or vampire.

This doesn't have to be specific to chromatic dragons, mind you. I could see metallic dragons seeking out their descendants to draft them into tutelage and servitude. Because Io help you if you think you'll besmirch their legacy and name by using your powers for anything but the noblest of causes. All dragons have to some degree a level of arrogance and self-importance that could extend to their bloodlines. Alternatively, dragon-blooded folk might seek out their dear old grandpappies in an attempt to prove themselves worthy of a true transformation.

The end result is this: rather than plopping a full-fledged PC dragon down into the middle of our setting, without explaining or examining how their mere presence influences the draconic social world around them, they are slowly built into the setting. Similar to how we handle Vampiric patrons. Dragons of all ilk exist in an extensive network that involves not only other dragons(who may have century-spanning histories, pacts, feuds, and agreements between them), but tribes of kobolds, local settlements, and the many entities that hunt and murder dragons outright. Here, you come in on the ground floor. A draconic minion, learning from the inside what it is to be a dragon. It's the difference between merely aspiring to be a great musician and playing open mics versus enrolling in a conservatory with the goal of being a respected conductor. It's a task that not only requires an innate level of talent, but some guidance from the masters upon whose shoulders you now stand.

DMs, rather than having to set an understandably high bar, get to instead make a number of much smaller, easier to correct checkpoints. Checkpoints that can give the player some sense of progression without feeling like they are bumping up against some sort of wall. After all, a draconic apotheosis may be the goal, but it's not guaranteed. If the PC doesn't seem like it can fully embody or grow into the mindset of a dragon, oh well, that's where their journey ends until they can overcome it. But at least then it's largely up to the player and the PC to continue to strive and keep the story going, rather than the story never getting off the ground to begin with. I've never played a draconic PC, on Amia but the server does have a history of them. This sort of plot hook struck me as a possible way to bridge the gap for people that are looking to roleplay something like those previous incarnations.

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You think Magic is your ally... but you merely adopted the Art. He was born in it. Molded by it.
Sometimes, an angel is simply a devil with better intentions.


 
      
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