GC-children as PCs?

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

As the Gazeteer series was never completed, we never really found out who were all of the GC's children.
But do you know what this means?
It means... They can be anyone! Everywhere! They could be in your party!

Wouldn't it be cool to play an orphan tiefling who doesn't know why vampires keep spying on her throughout the campaign? Slowly discovering the effects of her reality wrinkle? Maybe having a few spooky encounters with her father before key moments? With the climax being the party kidnapped by the Kargat to Castle Avernus and having to stop the dark ritual from happening - or maybe not?

[Teravala]

I have also had similar ideas, and am currently gathering info to make a go at writing up a fanbook detailing the rest of the GC's children. IDK if I would necessarily want one as a PC though, for a few reasons, the largest of which being party balancing a reality wrinkle seems like...a lot.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I have also had similar ideas, and am currently gathering info to make a go at writing up a fanbook detailing the rest of the GC's children. IDK if I would necessarily want one as a PC though, for a few reasons, the largest of which being party balancing a reality wrinkle seems like...a lot.

Right.
Remind me what are the mechanics of a reality wrinkle?

[Teravala]

I have also had similar ideas, and am currently gathering info to make a go at writing up a fanbook detailing the rest of the GC's children. IDK if I would necessarily want one as a PC though, for a few reasons, the largest of which being party balancing a reality wrinkle seems like...a lot.

Right.
Remind me what are the mechanics of a reality wrinkle?

Without grabbing my RLPHB (so off the top of my head) it depends on whether the outsider is evil or good aligned. Evil aligned outsider's reality wrinkles disrupt a dark lords control and immunity to powers checks, they also allow those inside it so slide right through closed domain borders. Good aligned ones disrupts the planar fabric of RL, making things turn spooky looking (ie, Isolde and the Twisting effect of the Carnival)

Both suppress natural, but not magic healing as well. They basically act as miniature, moving pocket domains centered at all times on the outsider generating them. Dark lords are also instantly aware when one enters their domain. There is some hypothesis that certain immortal dark lords could in fact be killed if they were inside a reality wrinkles at the time of death, but nothing concrete in the rules as written for that.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I have also had similar ideas, and am currently gathering info to make a go at writing up a fanbook detailing the rest of the GC's children. IDK if I would necessarily want one as a PC though, for a few reasons, the largest of which being party balancing a reality wrinkle seems like...a lot.

Right.
Remind me what are the mechanics of a reality wrinkle?

Without grabbing my RLPHB (so off the top of my head) it depends on whether the outsider is evil or good aligned. Evil aligned outsider's reality wrinkles disrupt a dark lords control and immunity to powers checks, they also allow those inside it so slide right through closed domain borders. Good aligned ones disrupts the planar fabric of RL, making things turn spooky looking (ie, Isolde and the Twisting effect of the Carnival)

Both suppress natural, but not magic healing as well. They basically act as miniature, moving pocket domains centered at all times on the outsider generating them. Dark lords are also instantly aware when one enters their domain. There is some hypothesis that certain immortal dark lords could in fact be killed if they were inside a reality wrinkles at the time of death, but nothing concrete in the rules as written for that.

Okay.
So these are environmental effects, things that passively happen around the character.
My idea was that the character's heritage is a plot twist, meaning the party isn't aware of the wrinkle until its effects come into play, and - as DND parties stick together most of the time - probably won't associate it with the character until they have a reason to split. The character might gain more control over the wrinkle asfter they find out about it.
Also, notice that these effects aren't necessarily beneficial to a mortal tiefling wanting to be a hero and thus protect other mortals - sure, cancelling darklord's powers is sick (assuming you're fighting a darklord, which would take a while), and bypassing closed borders can be useful (if that's a plot device you were planning to use in the campaign), but suppressing natural healing?! Including your own's and your comrades?! The cleric would be working extra hours! And do you really want to attract the attention of every single darklord you come close to?

[Teravala]

Right.
Remind me what are the mechanics of a reality wrinkle?

Without grabbing my RLPHB (so off the top of my head) it depends on whether the outsider is evil or good aligned. Evil aligned outsider's reality wrinkles disrupt a dark lords control and immunity to powers checks, they also allow those inside it so slide right through closed domain borders. Good aligned ones disrupts the planar fabric of RL, making things turn spooky looking (ie, Isolde and the Twisting effect of the Carnival)

Both suppress natural, but not magic healing as well. They basically act as miniature, moving pocket domains centered at all times on the outsider generating them. Dark lords are also instantly aware when one enters their domain. There is some hypothesis that certain immortal dark lords could in fact be killed if they were inside a reality wrinkles at the time of death, but nothing concrete in the rules as written for that.

Okay.
So these are environmental effects, things that passively happen around the character.
My idea was that the character's heritage is a plot twist, meaning the party isn't aware of the wrinkle until its effects come into play, and - as DND parties stick together most of the time - probably won't associate it with the character until they have a reason to split. The character might gain more control over the wrinkle asfter they find out about it.
Also, notice that these effects aren't necessarily beneficial to a mortal tiefling wanting to be a hero and thus protect other mortals - sure, cancelling darklord's powers is sick (assuming you're fighting a darklord, which would take a while), and bypassing closed borders can be useful (if that's a plot device you were planning to use in the campaign), but suppressing natural healing?! Including your own's and your comrades?! The cleric would be working extra hours! And do you really want to attract the attention of every single darklord you come close to?

I believe celestials can suppress their WR, but I don't think fiends can. I am also unsure if tieflings would generate one either, it might require full blooded outsiders, I bet someone else on here knows though.

Yeah, WR are cool, but Idk if I'd want one around my party at all times...

[Rock of the Fraternity]

AFAIK, all reality wrinkles function as miniature mobile domains, with the Outsider generating them as its lord. It could be interpreted as a pearl; a protective layer oysters form around something sharp that they can't expel. Though if the Outsider engages in Land Rituals, taking the essence of the Demiplane into themselves, they grow less objectionable and their wrinkle decreases in size.

[The Dark]

Without grabbing my RLPHB (so off the top of my head) it depends on whether the outsider is evil or good aligned. Evil aligned outsider's reality wrinkles disrupt a dark lords control and immunity to powers checks, they also allow those inside it so slide right through closed domain borders. Good aligned ones disrupts the planar fabric of RL, making things turn spooky looking (ie, Isolde and the Twisting effect of the Carnival)

Both suppress natural, but not magic healing as well. They basically act as miniature, moving pocket domains centered at all times on the outsider generating them. Dark lords are also instantly aware when one enters their domain. There is some hypothesis that certain immortal dark lords could in fact be killed if they were inside a reality wrinkles at the time of death, but nothing concrete in the rules as written for that.

Okay.
So these are environmental effects, things that passively happen around the character.
My idea was that the character's heritage is a plot twist, meaning the party isn't aware of the wrinkle until its effects come into play, and - as DND parties stick together most of the time - probably won't associate it with the character until they have a reason to split. The character might gain more control over the wrinkle asfter they find out about it.
Also, notice that these effects aren't necessarily beneficial to a mortal tiefling wanting to be a hero and thus protect other mortals - sure, cancelling darklord's powers is sick (assuming you're fighting a darklord, which would take a while), and bypassing closed borders can be useful (if that's a plot device you were planning to use in the campaign), but suppressing natural healing?! Including your own's and your comrades?! The cleric would be working extra hours! And do you really want to attract the attention of every single darklord you come close to?

I believe celestials can suppress their WR, but I don't think fiends can. I am also unsure if tieflings would generate one either, it might require full blooded outsiders, I bet someone else on here knows though.

Yeah, WR are cool, but Idk if I'd want one around my party at all times...

I don't think we know about tieflings, but it doesn't require a full-blooded fiend. Malocchio has a reality wrinkle, and he's only half-fiend. He also has the reality wrinkle of a true fiend (on the scale of lesser/greater/true). In Van Richten's Guide to Fiends he's the only known half-fiend in Ravenloft, but that just means he's the only one van Richten knew about.

The 2e version of reality wrinkles are much less significant:
Borders can never be closed to a fiend. Their local control of reality is more focused than a Darklord's larger-scale control, and when their reality wrinkle overlaps a domain border, the border becomes open with the area of the wrinkle.
Darklords cannot magically scry a fiend. Others can through normal magic, but the connection a Darklord uses to survey their domain doesn't exist within the wrinkle.
However, a Darklord does instantly know where the wrinkle is because of their disconnection from that area. They just can't do anything to affect that area from a distance.
Other than that, the wrinkles don't do much on their own. One of the power rituals (for the Nightmare Lands, IIRC) lets the fiend reshape the physical environment within its wrinkle at will, but that's a mostly separate thing.

Of note, Steve Miller commented once that reality wrinkles "give way" to a Darklord who physically enters one, so they're not a Get Away From Strahd Free card. Just to use Azalin as an example, he can't peek into a wrinkle, but he can teleport just outside it and then use his normal lich spells to blast whatever's in it or raise a horde of undead and send them to annoy whatever's in it (they won't take down a fiend, but they might make it use some of its powers).

[Jeremy16]

AFAIK, all reality wrinkles function as miniature mobile domains, with the Outsider generating them as its lord. It could be interpreted as a pearl; a protective layer oysters form around something sharp that they can't expel. Though if the Outsider engages in Land Rituals, taking the essence of the Demiplane into themselves, they grow less objectionable and their wrinkle decreases in size.

This does open the possibility of a half-fiend that originally had a reality wrinkle but used so many land-based rituals that they reduced it to 0, thus nullifying its effects. But that basically takes the PC right back to being a normal tiefling with a set of maybe-interesting extra abilities.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

AFAIK, all reality wrinkles function as miniature mobile domains, with the Outsider generating them as its lord. It could be interpreted as a pearl; a protective layer oysters form around something sharp that they can't expel. Though if the Outsider engages in Land Rituals, taking the essence of the Demiplane into themselves, they grow less objectionable and their wrinkle decreases in size.

This does open the possibility of a half-fiend that originally had a reality wrinkle but used so many land-based rituals that they reduced it to 0, thus nullifying its effects. But that basically takes the PC right back to being a normal tiefling with a set of maybe-interesting extra abilities.

Exactly. Any Outsider with a reality wrinkle should think long and hard whether any land power is worth the risk to the biggest get out of jail free-card short of a way out of the Demiplane of Dread - in the knowledge that each power makes escape less likely.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Okay.
So these are environmental effects, things that passively happen around the character.
My idea was that the character's heritage is a plot twist, meaning the party isn't aware of the wrinkle until its effects come into play, and - as DND parties stick together most of the time - probably won't associate it with the character until they have a reason to split. The character might gain more control over the wrinkle asfter they find out about it.
Also, notice that these effects aren't necessarily beneficial to a mortal tiefling wanting to be a hero and thus protect other mortals - sure, cancelling darklord's powers is sick (assuming you're fighting a darklord, which would take a while), and bypassing closed borders can be useful (if that's a plot device you were planning to use in the campaign), but suppressing natural healing?! Including your own's and your comrades?! The cleric would be working extra hours! And do you really want to attract the attention of every single darklord you come close to?

I believe celestials can suppress their WR, but I don't think fiends can. I am also unsure if tieflings would generate one either, it might require full blooded outsiders, I bet someone else on here knows though.

Yeah, WR are cool, but Idk if I'd want one around my party at all times...

I don't think we know about tieflings, but it doesn't require a full-blooded fiend. Malocchio has a reality wrinkle, and he's only half-fiend. He also has the reality wrinkle of a true fiend (on the scale of lesser/greater/true). In Van Richten's Guide to Fiends he's the only known half-fiend in Ravenloft, but that just means he's the only one van Richten knew about.

The 2e version of reality wrinkles are much less significant:
Borders can never be closed to a fiend. Their local control of reality is more focused than a Darklord's larger-scale control, and when their reality wrinkle overlaps a domain border, the border becomes open with the area of the wrinkle.
Darklords cannot magically scry a fiend. Others can through normal magic, but the connection a Darklord uses to survey their domain doesn't exist within the wrinkle.
However, a Darklord does instantly know where the wrinkle is because of their disconnection from that area. They just can't do anything to affect that area from a distance.
Other than that, the wrinkles don't do much on their own. One of the power rituals (for the Nightmare Lands, IIRC) lets the fiend reshape the physical environment within its wrinkle at will, but that's a mostly separate thing.

Of note, Steve Miller commented once that reality wrinkles "give way" to a Darklord who physically enters one, so they're not a Get Away From Strahd Free card. Just to use Azalin as an example, he can't peek into a wrinkle, but he can teleport just outside it and then use his normal lich spells to blast whatever's in it or raise a horde of undead and send them to annoy whatever's in it (they won't take down a fiend, but they might make it use some of its powers).

Parts of this remind me of Patricia McKillip's "Riddle-master trilogy", and the phenomenon of 'land-law'.
A nation's ruler had a deep, instinctual connection to their land, and was in some ways shaped by it - and it by them. They could feel if things were very wrong, for instance when one man tried to replace a ruler's connection to a single stone and replace it with their own... but they could not all just wipe out such a person with an eartquake.

The rulers of the Riddle-master trilogy resemble the darklords to some extent, but are not the same. Rather than prisoners, they are srewards, borne up by their territories ans not tormented by them.

[The Dark]

AFAIK, all reality wrinkles function as miniature mobile domains, with the Outsider generating them as its lord. It could be interpreted as a pearl; a protective layer oysters form around something sharp that they can't expel. Though if the Outsider engages in Land Rituals, taking the essence of the Demiplane into themselves, they grow less objectionable and their wrinkle decreases in size.

This does open the possibility of a half-fiend that originally had a reality wrinkle but used so many land-based rituals that they reduced it to 0, thus nullifying its effects. But that basically takes the PC right back to being a normal tiefling with a set of maybe-interesting extra abilities.

Exactly. Any Outsider with a reality wrinkle should think long and hard whether any land power is worth the risk to the biggest get out of jail free-card short of a way out of the Demiplane of Dread - in the knowledge that each power makes escape less likely.

I'm not sure they're supposed to know that power rituals bind them to the demiplane. It's a Hotel California plane that nobody comes back from anyway, and it's not like there's a support group for newly appeared fiends (or that they'd trust anyone that did try to give them advice). Unless they're a scholar like Drigor, it's a trap they learn about after they've already sprung it.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

This does open the possibility of a half-fiend that originally had a reality wrinkle but used so many land-based rituals that they reduced it to 0, thus nullifying its effects. But that basically takes the PC right back to being a normal tiefling with a set of maybe-interesting extra abilities.

Exactly. Any Outsider with a reality wrinkle should think long and hard whether any land power is worth the risk to the biggest get out of jail free-card short of a way out of the Demiplane of Dread - in the knowledge that each power makes escape less likely.

I'm not sure they're supposed to know that power rituals bind them to the demiplane. It's a Hotel California plane that nobody comes back from anyway, and it's not like there's a support group for newly appeared fiends (or that they'd trust anyone that did try to give them advice). Unless they're a scholar like Drigor, it's a trap they learn about after they've already sprung it.

'Hotel California plane'