A Walk Into Diablerie Join/Discussion.

[Siberys]

Sweetness, that makes 2 players.

Oskatat and Yepi.

All I ask from you yepi right now is what type of character (generally) what you'll be. Take your time with this...

Arcane, Divine, Stealth, or Fighter?

[Siberys]

Oh and just a premise to your type of character (good or evil.)

A walk into diablerie-

With the introduction to Incantations, people have lived much better lives as of yet. The new
form of magic is for everyone, as in, anyone can use it. How it works is similar to magic,
a few words, some ingrediants, but unlike magic, it takes two precious things from the body,
a portion of the soul, which can regenerate, but does take a lot, and a portion of there knowledge,
their very strength, prowess, abilities.

(in gaming terms, I'm going to be implementing Mana and XP costs for the incantations)

Some people, however, do not enjoy this type of good hearted, beneficial magic. They created
what is known as Diablerie, which is near the same thing, but it involves negative effects
and sometimes requires a thing called "eqivelant exchange."

Equivelant Exchange is where they must sacrafice something as important as what they are doing.
Meaning, if they want to have someone suddenly have an "accident" with some force that ends
up having that person's arm broke, they must first break there own arm to cast the spell.

This diablerie, though powerful, does have it's limits. One can only take so much at a time,
and takes several weeks to heal. The most common Diablerie users are Bards, rogues, assassins,
and blackguards.

Diablerie is 100% chaotic, and will always be outcast as an evil thing to do, in any situation
whatsoever. Whereas, Incantations are lawful, as they benefit many things. You can argue the
difference between an incantation and a diablerie, but it's all in how you word the incantation.

For instance, "I want money," is obviously a diablerie. However, "If the economy of (insert town name)
would improve and benefit the people in a much better way, in terms of work and their social life, then
by all means, that is what I request," is obviously thinking of others, thus it would probably get the
incantation part.

Simple tricks like "I want money" don't necessarily work all the time either, as with diablerie, you have
to give up something of equal value.

This differentiation in society has caused a lot of tension between towns. Algrandar, a decently prospering
town with good morals, a just guard system, and a stable economy has ruled in favor of incantions and outlawed
diablerie. Whereas, Grandith, a slave trade town, is the opposite, ruling in favor of Diablerie and outlawing
incantions.

(Summarized- Incantations- good, less potent. Diablerie- Evil, more potent but more cost)

[Oskatat]

tough dicision

I can put off choosing a character a while, since I know most classes a bit. there is one thing I won't play though. I'll never be a cleric (or paladin)

[Siberys]

It is totally up to you to be evil or good, so just let me know what you want to be when you decide (in terms of alignment too) so I can start making a plot for you guys.

[Oskatat]

yepi is having a lot of fun being evil, too much perhaps, but I'm not going to pin him down on it.

I will play either sorcerer, rogue or fighter, I think. Multiclassing allowed I asume? Rogue/Sorcerer is still one of my favorites

[Siberys]

Oh, yeah, multiclassing is always allowed. No worries about that, just make sure you don't get that 20% penalty to XP.

[Oskatat]

if you can practice diablery, is it impossible to use incantation? Or is it a matter of social stigma

[Siberys]

The latter. You can use both in any way you want.

However, it can and will affect your alignment either way. (just don't get caught doing something illegal with it)

[Oskatat]

ok. Since they both seem to be suitable for some exclusive things, like which kind of curse you would give. And Siberys, would I do anything against the law?

BTW, breaking your own bone to break someones else's is a bit useless. Rather make him come down with a flu and suffer a minor cold yourself. But thats probably not going to happen or I would use it all the time

[Siberys]

Yeah, it's gonna be a bit balanced, so no worries. It's not going to be totally an eye for an eye, but it will cost a bit. that was a minor example.

The breaking the law thing....

[Siberys]

Also, one thing that I think is working alright in one of my campaigns I'll be implementing here is a "What did you learn" situation.

How this works is I ask you what you learned and you gain an XP bonus on what you literally learned about the campaign.

The simple way to do this is quantity, meaning you will gain 25 XP for each fact that you represent that has relevance in the game. Now, if you have quality information, I, or ravager, might be inclined to give you a little more, as you did pay attention to the campaign.

This way, you don't just gain adventure XP for hack and slashing, you need to learn significances to be able to gain the XP.

You will have exactly ten minutes to respond, and if you don't respond in that time, you gain no bonus XP whatsoever. So this is rather critical.

[Oskatat]

thus removing the possibility of rereading the thread to see if you find something relevant

as to possible incantations... I'm just giving brief descriptions of things that seem likely. Most are from cantrip to lvl 2 strenght

good luck and bad luck (- or + roll on skill checks or, yer or, attack. not both), good/bad fortune (more powerfull version of g/b luck) either a bigger bonus/penalty or aplicable to more rolls.

Death curse/blessing. I believe this subject is also touched in BoVD. Its more or less 'the dying breath curse' or blessing in this case. You should need very high requirements to pull this off, since dying curses and stuff tend to be very powerfull as they are fueled by your life.

fora n incantation using sneak: draw shadows. Make a 'cloak' of shadows that help to hide you. In other situations than darkness you should not ask for shadows but adapt the incantation acordingly
diablery variety would affect the guard's vision instead of hiding you. So instead of giving you a bonus it would give someone else a penalty

Sooo, I'm mostly going for passive, term effects (not much instantanous, mostly several hours and the like)

[Ravager]

You could also say the intention that fuels the diablerie/incantation determines the result. If you're sneaking to avoid unnecesary loss of life this may be considered an incantation whereas sneaking to avoid a treasury guard would be more along the lines of personal gain and thus be a diablerie.

[Oskatat]

but if its the treasury guard of an evil lord who had a magical item stolen and you are tasked to get it back it would be an incantation, right?

If so, then I think I'm getting the hang of it

[Ravager]

That would generally be true, yeah.
Though it might depend on why you were tasked to get that magical item in the first place. If it's going to lead to a good outcome in the end or is intended to do so, then that would be a likely incantation. If you're taking the item just so you get paid then it would probably be a diablerie.