My players have backstory that I feel should grant them cool abilities that they would not normally get.
I have a forge cleric whose god is very southern and redneck. He recently granted the cleric the ability to hock a lugi of dip spit at enemies (Reskinned Circle of Spores ability).
I have a Conquest Paladin who tussled with a lich in his backstory and I want the lich to have kind of "Horcruxed" into the paladin. The paladin recently got a "connection to god" boost, that gives him a weakened "Hellish Rebuke." I also want to strengthen the lich spirit inside him with that boost.
I have a druid who, in her backstory, interacted with a machine that spews acid and cuts down trees to enable the faster growth of civilizations, but also corrupts the forest. She got the "connection to god" boost as well. I want the corruption inside of her to get that boost too.
And I have a wizard who... wants to overthrow the gods? He's very vague on his character goals and it is a source of endless frustration to me. He turned down the spiritual boost because the method was too embarrassing (Getting licked by a granny werewolf).
So with all that info dump out of the way: How do I keep the power of the party balanced when the cleric doesn't get a negative effect for his boost?
For the Paladin I want to just have him randomly shoot out lich spells but weaker. I'm trying to make a system for that, but have issues with when it would go off.
For the Druid I want to have her experience a little madness from time to time. I'm not sure how to work out the timing of the madness or the duration. I don't want this to be so severe that she feels she NEEDS to be cured right NOW and she ignores the other needs of the party. So her madness needs to be more inconvenience than world-shaking.
These problems are keeping me up at night and I was hoping someone had some experience with something like this? Thanks as always for your time.
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My players have backstory that I feel should grant them cool abilities that they would not normally get.
I have a forge cleric whose god is very southern and redneck. He recently granted the cleric the ability to hock a lugi of dip spit at enemies (Reskinned Circle of Spores ability).
I have a Conquest Paladin who tussled with a lich in his backstory and I want the lich to have kind of "Horcruxed" into the paladin. The paladin recently got a "connection to god" boost, that gives him a weakened "Hellish Rebuke." I also want to strengthen the lich spirit inside him with that boost.
I have a druid who, in her backstory, interacted with a machine that spews acid and cuts down trees to enable the faster growth of civilizations, but also corrupts the forest. She got the "connection to god" boost as well. I want the corruption inside of her to get that boost too.
And I have a wizard who... wants to overthrow the gods? He's very vague on his character goals and it is a source of endless frustration to me. He turned down the spiritual boost because the method was too embarrassing (Getting licked by a granny werewolf).
So with all that info dump out of the way: How do I keep the power of the party balanced when the cleric doesn't get a negative effect for his boost?
For the Paladin I want to just have him randomly shoot out lich spells but weaker. I'm trying to make a system for that, but have issues with when it would go off.
For the Druid I want to have her experience a little madness from time to time. I'm not sure how to work out the timing of the madness or the duration. I don't want this to be so severe that she feels she NEEDS to be cured right NOW and she ignores the other needs of the party. So her madness needs to be more inconvenience than world-shaking.
These problems are keeping me up at night and I was hoping someone had some experience with something like this? Thanks as always for your time.