Soul Forge
Requires: Blacksmith or Heirloom
When you have access to a Place of Power and a symbolic trophy of a defeated foe, you may trap a reflection of its spirit in your signature weapon. Choose one of its moves as part of this process. When you wish to channel the spirit and perform that move, roll +CHA; on a hit, you perform the move, but on a 7-9 you also succumb to the spirit’s Instinct and must act accordingly.
Inspired by a recent exchange with Ben George.
Super cool!
I might even suggest removing the place of power bit.
Is it a 2-5 or 6-10 move?
Tim Franzke I was thinking 6-10, since both of the possible prerequisite moves are 2-5. It’s about on par with Blacksmith, though, so it’d probably be fine at the 2-5 level.
It doesn’t really even need to be a Signature Weapon thing, I’ve just been on kind of a kick lately; learning or absorbing power from defeated enemies fits a lot of concepts.
The Place of Power requirement is mostly to have similar place requirements to Blacksmith. I agree that an involved ritual that could be performed anywhere would suit just as well. Possibly more so, if it must be done while the body is still warm or some such thing.
I’m curious why you chose CHA for this move. My gut would have said WIS, as in having the willpower to resist the instinct of the creature while making use of its power.
shaydwyrm Short version: I considered both, and WIS would be just as valid.
Long version: I mostly made it CHA because that’s what Heirloom uses, and I felt having the same attribute dependency would make more sense and be less harsh on the player. Outside of that, though, I think that CHA works a little better because Charisma represents force of personality, and making sure that you can act in accordance with your own desires rather than succumbing to the desires of another sounds like force of personality to me.
I think the holdover from DnD about every force of will and mental resistance being based on Wisdom is a bit of a disservice to Charisma. For resisting things that screw with your worldview, like illusions and the like, I think Wisdom makes sense, as it’s all about being in touch with the world on a sensory and spiritual level, but for resisting things that make you act in stark opposition to your nature I think Charisma, as a representative of your nature’s basic strength, should be considered as an equally valid attribute.
Interesting. I think part of the problem is that in D&D the “will save” covers things that aren’t really about willpower – detecting illusions, for example, which line up fairly cleanly with Wisdom as a measure of perceptiveness. Resisting things like charm person line up much better with Charisma. There’s definitely a grey area in between where I’m not sure which ability is more appropriate, and I think this move may be in there.