Reverse Powers Check?

[DeepShadow of FoS]

My campaign currently center on the machinations of Karl Von Salzburg, creator of the flesh golem Angelique. He's currently locked up and she's hiding apart from the other PC's, but he recorded his creation process for her, along with all the other insights he got from the Dark Powers, on three wax cylinders using a dictation device. The PC's repaired the device and have started listening to the recordings to get evidence against him
..and here's where things get interesting.

One PC is a doctor by trade, and has served as a juxtaposition for Karl's evil genius. This player has spoken out repeatedly on how the knowledge Karl gained isn't evil all by itself, it's about how it's used. He volunteered to transcribe the records for use in the investigation after the rest of the party suffered horror checks.

These cylinders were magically imbued with Karl's obsession, and have become like cursed magic items. They are basically a scientific version of the Raiment of Clarity. It's going to be a serious spiritual feat for him to listen to these with the intent to learn, without being corrupted. The player knows that. He's prepared to wager his PC's sanity on this, because it's worth it if he can become a brilliant life-saving doctor.

I want to support the player in this. If he takes all the appropriate precautions and the dice don't betray him, I want to give him an actual reward for his character, in terms of his skills and stats. But what's the reward for NOT being corrupted?

[Cromstar]

I have a couple questions for some details or clarifications that might help.

Does this player use his doctor skills in play?

If I understand right, the basic knowledge Karl discovered is a super-advanced version of surgery involving grafts, transplants, etc. Is that correct?

The first, most obvious thing to me would be a better understanding of physiology and anatomy as evidenced through bonuses to any healing abilities he uses. There may also be something of value for a doctor in having non-corrupted knowledge on performing basic grafts and transplants, and the knowledge of how to remove them from the recently deceased, at a minimum, and the ability to teach and pass on that knowledge.

You could also consider the possibility that the Dark Powers could embrace him as a foil to those (apparently somewhat numerous) doctors who have discarded their morals and ethics for pure knowledge. I'm not entirely sure how you might represent this, but I'm basically figuring there would be some effect of, say, Karl himself coming face to face with someone who not only understands his work, but is also a better person using it to help other people. He'd be faced with someone that makes all his own faults and failures glaringly obvious.

[Mistmaster]

Put him on a path of exaltation and give him the light equivalent of the corruption path of the Frankenstein.

[tomokaicho]

I want to support the player in this. If he takes all the appropriate precautions and the dice don't betray him, I want to give him an actual reward for his character, in terms of his skills and stats. But what's the reward for NOT being corrupted?

Grant him accolades and fame within his field of study. That means the common man will have never heard of him, but in the medical field he will be prominent.

Too bad he is just being used by the Dark Powers to put this information out there to tempt others into corruption.

[DustBunny]

Grant him accolades and fame within his field of study. That means the common man will have never heard of him, but in the medical field he will be prominent.

The ego boost to having NPCs refer to him by name and being invited to all the nice parties and speaking gigs should be a nice reward. Also universities may grant him a faculty position (Tenure!) and honorary degrees which would make access to upper crust of society much easier.

Eventually others outside the field will gradually learn of him. When other medical experts refer patients to him as _the_ expert people will begin to learn of him and demand his services.

This has a downside too, as people who he would rather avoid - say a powerful person or even DL who wont take no for an answer - take an interest and start 'requesting' his skills.

Too bad he is just being used by the Dark Powers to put this information out there to tempt others into corruption.

Nasty. But the road to hell....

[Mistmaster]

Too bad he is just being used by the Dark Powers to put this information out there to tempt others into corruption.

The powers are not evil.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Put him on a path of exaltation and give him the light equivalent of the corruption path of the Frankenstein.

What does this mean? Is this like your 'lightlords'? Do you have rules for this?

[DeepShadow of FoS]

If I understand right, the basic knowledge Karl discovered is a super-advanced version of surgery involving grafts, transplants, etc. Is that correct?

Yes.

The first, most obvious thing to me would be a better understanding of physiology and anatomy as evidenced through bonuses to any healing abilities he uses. There may also be something of value for a doctor in having non-corrupted knowledge on performing basic grafts and transplants, and the knowledge of how to remove them from the recently deceased, at a minimum, and the ability to teach and pass on that knowledge.

Okay, so what would this mean, stats-wise?

You could also consider the possibility that the Dark Powers could embrace him as a foil to those (apparently somewhat numerous) doctors who have discarded their morals and ethics for pure knowledge. I'm not entirely sure how you might represent this, but I'm basically figuring there would be some effect of, say, Karl himself coming face to face with someone who not only understands his work, but is also a better person using it to help other people. He'd be faced with someone that makes all his own faults and failures glaringly obvious.

Of all the options here for why the DP's would do this, I like this the best. The PC's already juxtaposed with Karl, giving him a foil seems like the next step.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Grant him accolades and fame within his field of study. That means the common man will have never heard of him, but in the medical field he will be prominent.

Okay, but are you saying he should be famous without getting any actual boost to his skills as a doctor?

Too bad he is just being used by the Dark Powers to put this information out there to tempt others into corruption.

Well, the DP's already have a vehicle like that--the cylinders themselves are basically mini-minor artifacts now. You could say the same of the Weathermay Twins, printing excerpts from the Raiment of Clarity like they did. Knowledge is power, but the dissemination of it is not an overtly evil act, even if it winds up in the hands of someone evil.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

The ego boost to having NPCs refer to him by name and being invited to all the nice parties and speaking gigs should be a nice reward. Also universities may grant him a faculty position (Tenure!) and honorary degrees which would make access to upper crust of society much easier.

Sure, but he needs a reason to be so well known and liked. He's looking to boost his skills from this, are you saying that he shouldn't get a skill boost, just the notoriety of being great in his field without helping people like he wants to?

[Mistmaster]

Put him on a path of exaltation and give him the light equivalent of the corruption path of the Frankenstein.

What does this mean? Is this like your 'lightlords'? Do you have rules for this?

Yes, on a rule of thumb, I consider worthy of a Light Power check any action of good which involves a cost or a risk for the person who does that; a success (not a failure, so you should revers the probabilty, where a Dark Power Check has a low chance to fail, a Light one has a low chance to succeed), mean that the character get started on a path of exaltation, which I build reversing appropriate paths of corruption; My Lightlords are people who arrived at the end of those paths.

[tomokaicho]

Okay, but are you saying he should be famous without getting any actual boost to his skills as a doctor?

If you must give him an ability, give him the ability to rebuke or turn flesh golems as a cleric does undead, with his HD replacing the cleric levels.

[DustBunny]

If you must give him an ability, give him the ability to rebuke or turn flesh golems as a cleric does undead, with his HD replacing the cleric levels.

I'm a bit aginst 'mechanical' rewards but it could work.

Say he has a large damage bonus to golems, or can negate their special abilities - he knows how they are put together, so he also knows how to take them apart. This could carry across to any 'artifical' being as they are generally similiar.

If this is not an option, then maybe a 3/day skill for a clerical ability via 'tech medicine' - cure wounds, cure disease, etc. A regeneration spell would work as well - he knows how to rejuvinate/replace tissue - but it seems a bit too powerful IMO.

Sure, but he needs a reason to be so well known and liked. He's looking to boost his skills from this, are you saying that he shouldn't get a skill boost, just the notoriety of being great in his field without helping people like he wants to?

The 'first author' on a revolutionary paper (IRL) is not just something people go 'meh' about - researchers today would sacrifice various body parts (pun intended) to be in such a position. They can command a _huge_ amount of respect and money. Wether he helps people or not, the very fact his name is attached to the papers/books would have academics lining up and begging him to grant his approval to them. Deans and Chancellors of famous institutions would grovel before him in order to get him to endorse/attend their university.

From a gameplay point of view, his name alone would open doors in society unimgaginable. He would be the equivilant of the Ravenloft Einstien.

[Cromstar]

The first, most obvious thing to me would be a better understanding of physiology and anatomy as evidenced through bonuses to any healing abilities he uses. There may also be something of value for a doctor in having non-corrupted knowledge on performing basic grafts and transplants, and the knowledge of how to remove them from the recently deceased, at a minimum, and the ability to teach and pass on that knowledge.

Okay, so what would this mean, stats-wise?

At a minimum, bonuses to something like proficiencies, skills or feats, etc depending on what system you are doing this in (I feel like any specifics will require information on this character and the system you are using). The basic idea being anything related to healing or the body could get a bonus. Or even provide a new one, such as a chiurgeon ability that allows a chance to repair major damage (think a cure major wounds or the like), cure some things that are incurable, reduce or overcome effects of critical wounds, etc.

It could even, depending on class, provide bonuses to things like spells or abilities. Off the top of my head I'm thinking of healing priest spells, some of the wizard spells that manipulate bodies (like polymorph), psionic abilities that change the body, etc. It could even potentially translate to something like a rogue's backstab ability depending on how you want to play it up.

Another possibility: a boost to an ability score like constitution? Permanent for him and the ability to prepare allies with temporary boosts or something?

You could also consider the possibility that the Dark Powers could embrace him as a foil to those (apparently somewhat numerous) doctors who have discarded their morals and ethics for pure knowledge. I'm not entirely sure how you might represent this, but I'm basically figuring there would be some effect of, say, Karl himself coming face to face with someone who not only understands his work, but is also a better person using it to help other people. He'd be faced with someone that makes all his own faults and failures glaringly obvious.

Of all the options here for why the DP's would do this, I like this the best. The PC's already juxtaposed with Karl, giving him a foil seems like the next step.

This one I really don't know how to handle in a mechanics sense (the only thing that jumps to mind immediately is maybe a debuff to Karl in battle?), but I'm glad you liked the idea.

[order99]

I'm not sure you actually need either a Powers Check OR it's reverse for a situation like this...giving the PC special Abilities, Skill Bonuses, Fame and Wealth should be more than enough.

After all, if the knowledge is inherently corrupting (carrying the Seeds of obsession due to the nature of the Knowledge and the power it brings) then its dissemination is likely to create...interesting situations, in that for every noble healer who fails to succumb to temptation, there may well be a dozen putting together "Much Liveliest Awfulness" in the local basement/cellar/mortuary etc. And all the while your hapless PC-innocent of any but the best of intentions-is playing Typhoid Mary with Forbidden Knowledge, and may come to regret all of those Special Skill/Abilities at a later date even though he was completely innocent of foul intent... In fact, I could envision a scenario where the PC might later attempt to suppress this knowledge himself (perhaps even allowing himself to be tagged a Fraud and lose Status) in an attempt to put the Genie back in its Bottle...

Also-it might be fun to see if the PC is corrupted by his newfound status and power-I imagine that a Noble Soul, given "enough Rope" and yet remaining unhanged by it-is almost as amusing to the DPs as a nascent Darklord on The Dark Path...and would possibly lead to an "even MORE Rope" escalation just to watch the PC still "Not Hang" AKA the Paladin's Temptation Gambit. Either way, the Temporal Powers will ALSO want to have many long talks with this medical genius-and the life of the PC steadily becomes More Interesting Yet (AKA More Adventure Hooks, YAY!!!).