Hi I’m new here but I was looking for some advice for a thing I’m wanting to do. Long story short, there is this thing that feeds off of the Intelligence of living things. It doesn’t steal it but offers a trade, “To what is the price of knowledge” the being says to which the player will say.
Wealth: the being offers gold for Intelligence.
Power: it would either be a stat trade or you would get exp
Knowledge: won’t go into too much detail but it’s a trade, knowledge for knowledge (you don’t lose Intelligence here but you trade what you knew for new knowledge)
A Wish: anything within my power to grant (nothing to OP but something other than the previous choices)
Nothing: for nothing is more valuable than knowledge
My question is what is the price of 1 stat point of Intelligence. I’m also thinking of making the price vary from class to class because it’s more valuable to some more than others.
Interesting question. Before we get into this edit your post to correct "witch" to "which".
You are absolutely correct that in 5e the Intelligence attribute has a sliding scale of meaning for PCs. Heck, a lot of players would consider it a dump stat because they know they can just play "smarter" and few groups are going to call them on it. I would suggest however not simply taking a single point of INT away in the bargain, drop it by 2. Make any PC that makes the bargain instantly feel it because they will get a -1 modifier from the exchange. Now, how much to recompense that PC...
Give them a Feat. Makes sense because you just gave them an Anti-ASI.
Gold is next to worthless in 5e RAW. If you have say Colville's Strongholds and Followers or use looser rules for "Magical Wal-Marts" in your game giving the PC gold has more meaning. I would honestly put the number on a sliding scale. A Wizard losing 2 INT might get 250,000+gp, where as a INT dumped Barbarian would only get 50,000-75,000 in such a scenario. It is about the level of sacrifice not objectivity.
Your last entry has me intrigued. A player asks for power, and the Giver translates that into character level for the PC. I might just give them a class level bump.
What I do think is that the Giver should have long lasting impact on the PCs. Give the players a short list of questions about things that their PC loves, cherishes, and has fond memories about. Make them write down answers. Then collect the lists and pin some of them to your GM screen. Make the Ranger unable to remember what Poison Ivy "looks like" and forget the name of his first born child. Make the Cleric unable to recognize her mother and further have no memory of her childhood home (works best for Folk Hero Backgrounds). Make the loss hurt, because the Players are going to try to ignore this event and keep playing their PCs without translating the loss of intelligence UNLESS you force them to.
Thank you for the advice, it's extremely helpful and I think I will take you up on the whole "drop it by 2" thing. you have given me more to think about.
I was already planing on doing the last part about making the knowledge taken have meaning.
This sounds like a very fey type being, working in bargains and equal trades that work out in its own benefit. Have it speak in riddles and circular reasoning to put the players off.
I agree with hawksmoor on the sliding scale and so forth and rather than xp maybe have it offer a magic item, a feat or perhaps even a boon? Something that is a lot more tangible than just experience.
Ya after talking to you guys (and a few other people) I'm starting to feel like the exp/level mite bight me in the ass, I don't know. TophatBandit I didn't even think about boons, thank you(now I just need to think of the best way to do that).
Someone was saying that because INT is a dump stat for any class except wizard, that it wouldn't be a fair trade for a feat and had the idea to roll a d6 to determine which score you got -2 in and roll from a wild feat table to see which one you get. I love the idea but it wouldn't really work for what I'm going for with this. The dungeon is called the "Prison of Fools". It wouldn't be hard to change but the being is meant to eat your INT, knowledge, and memories.
Like Hawksmoor said If the player goes through with the trade it will be more than just a simple stat loss, you lose a part of who you are and the decision will have long reaching repercussions
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Hi I’m new here but I was looking for some advice for a thing I’m wanting to do. Long story short, there is this thing that feeds off of the Intelligence of living things. It doesn’t steal it but offers a trade, “To what is the price of knowledge” the being says to which the player will say.
Wealth: the being offers gold for Intelligence.
Power: it would either be a stat trade or you would get exp
Knowledge: won’t go into too much detail but it’s a trade, knowledge for knowledge (you don’t lose Intelligence here but you trade what you knew for new knowledge)
A Wish: anything within my power to grant (nothing to OP but something other than the previous choices)
Nothing: for nothing is more valuable than knowledge
My question is what is the price of 1 stat point of Intelligence. I’m also thinking of making the price vary from class to class because it’s more valuable to some more than others.
example: 1 point = 1000 gold or 1 point = 100 exp
Interesting question. Before we get into this edit your post to correct "witch" to "which".
You are absolutely correct that in 5e the Intelligence attribute has a sliding scale of meaning for PCs. Heck, a lot of players would consider it a dump stat because they know they can just play "smarter" and few groups are going to call them on it. I would suggest however not simply taking a single point of INT away in the bargain, drop it by 2. Make any PC that makes the bargain instantly feel it because they will get a -1 modifier from the exchange. Now, how much to recompense that PC...
Give them a Feat. Makes sense because you just gave them an Anti-ASI.
Gold is next to worthless in 5e RAW. If you have say Colville's Strongholds and Followers or use looser rules for "Magical Wal-Marts" in your game giving the PC gold has more meaning. I would honestly put the number on a sliding scale. A Wizard losing 2 INT might get 250,000+gp, where as a INT dumped Barbarian would only get 50,000-75,000 in such a scenario. It is about the level of sacrifice not objectivity.
Your last entry has me intrigued. A player asks for power, and the Giver translates that into character level for the PC. I might just give them a class level bump.
What I do think is that the Giver should have long lasting impact on the PCs. Give the players a short list of questions about things that their PC loves, cherishes, and has fond memories about. Make them write down answers. Then collect the lists and pin some of them to your GM screen. Make the Ranger unable to remember what Poison Ivy "looks like" and forget the name of his first born child. Make the Cleric unable to recognize her mother and further have no memory of her childhood home (works best for Folk Hero Backgrounds). Make the loss hurt, because the Players are going to try to ignore this event and keep playing their PCs without translating the loss of intelligence UNLESS you force them to.
Thank you for the advice, it's extremely helpful and I think I will take you up on the whole "drop it by 2" thing. you have given me more to think about.
I was already planing on doing the last part about making the knowledge taken have meaning.
This sounds like a very fey type being, working in bargains and equal trades that work out in its own benefit. Have it speak in riddles and circular reasoning to put the players off.
I agree with hawksmoor on the sliding scale and so forth and rather than xp maybe have it offer a magic item, a feat or perhaps even a boon? Something that is a lot more tangible than just experience.
Ya after talking to you guys (and a few other people) I'm starting to feel like the exp/level mite bight me in the ass, I don't know. TophatBandit I didn't even think about boons, thank you(now I just need to think of the best way to do that).
Someone was saying that because INT is a dump stat for any class except wizard, that it wouldn't be a fair trade for a feat and had the idea to roll a d6 to determine which score you got -2 in and roll from a wild feat table to see which one you get. I love the idea but it wouldn't really work for what I'm going for with this. The dungeon is called the "Prison of Fools". It wouldn't be hard to change but the being is meant to eat your INT, knowledge, and memories.
Like Hawksmoor said If the player goes through with the trade it will be more than just a simple stat loss, you lose a part of who you are and the decision will have long reaching repercussions