Greater and Major Awards Options

[Eyeliner]

I think the "standard vs special races" discussion is for another thread.

Speaking for myself, I'm not interested at all in special races aside from a few novelties and would always rather pick something that enhanced a standard race a bit. I say "enhance" because it's not unreasonable to want your greater or major award character to feel a little "special" and unique. Hence why not allow a hin to be the one-in-a-hundred thousand who's stronger than the rest of their kind. I mean if we're talking letting them start at 20 or 22 str like many other races it's not going to break the game and it might be worth a greater or major to some people. (I think templates are the way to go, similar to bloodlines where there's a tradeoff and ECL cost maybe, instead of subbing race stats out)

I don't think you need that to play a fun character either, but this is about "what can we do to add more awards?", and I think at least this will entice players who want a "unique" character to spend an award on an outwardly standard race with no special wings and tails. We may end up with the same amount of "I'm different" characters, but it won't feel like it when wandering cities because it's not immediately apparent. That's all.

[perseid]

I realize this would go against the design philosophy of awards a bit but I think it'd be interesting if a higher level award could be expended on applying a lower tier award to an existent character. Perhaps even just in the form of an award two tiers lower than that which was being spent such as a Greater being expended to apply a Minor award bonus to a pre-existing pc. The main thought behind this is that I've seen a few people comment on enjoying a first character of theirs while simultaneously lamenting that they didn't understand the award system in advanced enough to grind a bit first for something like a bonus language and essentially feeling penalized. I get that part of the point is to encourage character turnover but I feel like this is still a legitimate grievance if the goal is also for an idealized award system to have people rolling characters they genuinely feel done with and not just leveling fodder toons for the sake of optimizing whatever their actual concept is.

[Xarge VI]

A cool Greater/Major award option could be Summon Familiar feat for classes that don't normally get it.

[IAmSwampFoot]

Expand that, too to Animal Companions, but only if the Familiar/AC scales in level along side the character. And I'd say limit scaling to the original class.

An interesting idea could be the option to treat all skills as class skills for a greater/ major award. Again, limited only to the original class. So a fighter that wants rogue skills can have them without taking levels in rogue.

[Waldo52]

A cool Greater/Major award option could be Summon Familiar feat for classes that don't normally get it.

Been reading these forums for over three years. Best idea I've ever seen. Would be better as greater, major is a little drastic.

[Thelight1]

It'd be cool for a character to get a few psionic abilities for a greater/major award.

[hugolino]

It'd be cool for a character to get a few psionic abilities for a greater/major award.

Some versions of D&D had "wild talents" that were those randomly born with psionic potential -- mostly NPC monsters but also particular races (such as humans and yuan-ti). I believe a character born with wild talent (or awakened to it) gained access to psionic feats but didn't gain them automatically. It does seem like a cool idea for a greater/major award. That said, psionics (though rare) is much more common in Faerun's Underdark than on the surface, so I think it should demand spending a higher award for someone on the surface than it would for someone in the Underdark.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Psionics

[Kuma]

1 Greater Award for 1 Extra Major Gift.

No, too mechanically optimal.

Having a functional familiar - anything but the fey - in any character would be rad.

Other non-functional companions would also be cool if you can emote through them. Pets, shadows, illusions.

Some innate spells for rp - bestow curse, contagion, hellball, faery fire. A whole skillset of useless but notoriously interesting spellslike abilities.

Perhaps some fixtures, props, devices to start with, though most of those I wouldn't pay a Greater for. At best a Normal.

I like this in principle but spell-likes should be approached carefully. Fixtures is a bit weird, since you're begging for it to be stolen. Companions would be cool.

Starting with one of the existing summon streams already known could be a good reward, but probably isn't worth a major or greater.

Starting with additional summon streams should honestly just be opened up to certain classes or alignments regardless. I made a suggestion last year to this effect that would be cool to see actioned: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=42705&p=323747&hil ... cy#p323747

I'd expand that idea to, say, Spell Focus: Conjuration allowing you to take any one elemental stream AND any one planar stream when you take it. Doesn't need to be an Award option at all. If your Award option is replaceable by an investment of, like, 100k and a few days' dedicated playtime, it's a bit odd to me (I am aware of the level jump start Awards, but this feels different).

everyone saying familiar as an award

Honestly make Find Familiar a feat. Though I guess as an Award wouldn't hurt.

[Rei_Jin]

New Greater: UD non-award monstrous races OTHER than Goblin and Duergar able to be inked as Sencliffian Pirates (currently Goblin and Duergar can do this with a Normal)

[Hazard]

Honestly make Find Familiar a feat. Though I guess as an Award wouldn't hurt.

That would be amazing. As long as it's not the fey one, for obvious reasons.

Would love familiars on more characters, especially now there's so many fun and interesting familiar models to choose from.

[Diegovog]

Major reward:
Upgrade a lower reward into major and you can get summoned by people using planar summonings at random. You get a message that you can accept or deny similarly to yoink.

Surface races summoning: Genasi, Fey, Firbolg, Aasimar
UD races summoning: Shadovar, Gloaming, Hag (only when in hag form), Imp

So instead of a normal reward for a shadovar, you can use a major and have this % of triggering a conjuration to help someone who is conjuring planar creatures.

[Edens_Fall]

What about bringing back the old PC to NPC Major award. Where a player could spend a major and have their PC rolled (for no award) and turned into a NPC for some location or settlement.

We could simplify it for the Devs and linited it to description only, no dialogue, for the new NPC and use them to populate the cities with background life rather then the more generic NPC civilians being used.

[The GrumpyCat]

What about bringing back the old PC to NPC Major award. Where a player could spend a major and have their PC rolled (for no award) and turned into a NPC for some location or settlement.

We could simplify it for the Devs and linited it to description only, no dialogue, for the new NPC and use them to populate the cities with background life rather then the more generic NPC civilians being used.

It's a really nice option, though has diffculties in some places, with character concept, the work involved, placement ect.

How about this: Instead of (or maybe as well as?) we have an area called the 'Graveyard of Heroes.' or something akin. For a major award you can have that character, OR one of your other characters (who must also be rolled, but you get to keep that roll) made as a perminent gravestone/statue, to exist as long as that area exists.

[Cuchilla]

How about the possibility to have a commemorative plaque on a location where something interesting happened:

"Birthe Braveheart died here"
"Bruce Evilheart drank his first beer here"
"This anvil was used by Greta Goodheart to make her famous hammer"
"Gudrun and Gunnar married here"
"Alice found this tunnel ...."
"Brumbar lived here for 20 years ..."

And more like that. Maybe time limited.

[Eira]

I would much rather commemorative things happen by the characters who remembered the ones they lost, not someone going "I wish people remembered me" and spending a reward. It's a little like those characters who have written a book about their player's previous character, or made a statue of them. Doesn't exactly sit right with me.

[Bazelgeuse]

i wish people wouldn't remember me

[Edens_Fall]

What about bringing back the old PC to NPC Major award. Where a player could spend a major and have their PC rolled (for no award) and turned into a NPC for some location or settlement.

We could simplify it for the Devs and linited it to description only, no dialogue, for the new NPC and use them to populate the cities with background life rather then the more generic NPC civilians being used.

It's a really nice option, though has diffculties in some places, with character concept, the work involved, placement ect.

How about this: Instead of (or maybe as well as?) we have an area called the 'Graveyard of Heroes.' or something akin. For a major award you can have that character, OR one of your other characters (who must also be rolled, but you get to keep that roll) made as a perminent gravestone/statue, to exist as long as that area exists.

That's not a bad idea. Could even open it up more to allow anyone to spend a Major award for a tribute not only for their own PC but other players PCs that have rolled. That should address concerns some might have with appearing to only ever promote their own image as now no one will known who spent the award for the memorial. It also allows everyone to honour the efforts of others as well, rather then only being able to honour their own.

Only issue I can for see though is if we do one location for this, it would have be be a neutral area to allow everyone to visit. That or instead of a graveyard the placards/statues could be added to a settlement of that players choice? Within reason. Don't want a Xun'viir statue in Bendir for example or vice versa.

[Waldo52]

I would much rather commemorative things happen by the characters who remembered the ones they lost, not someone going "I wish people remembered me" and spending a reward. It's a little like those characters who have written a book about their player's previous character, or made a statue of them. Doesn't exactly sit right with me.

100% im agreement.

An award for a monument is fine in terms of game balance because you're not gaining any mechanical benefit from it but when you start to think about it harder the concept becomes cringe pretty quickly.

I have had graves built for two of my characters without any prompting/requests and some random dude built statues to my character in Skal. The monuments in Skal made me particularly proud because this was not someone I knew at the time OOCly or ICly.

Having people recognize and commemorate your character has to happen organically, if at all. We've all seen characters we didn't like because of their RP style or lack of RP at all, and you can't win any popularity contests by spending an award.

Just think about the most annoying, grating, unlikeable character you've ever seen. Think about him dying and staining the server permanently with an undeserved statue/grave/whatever because his player spent an award for what amounts to fictional friends or loved ones because they couldn't attract that kind of following in character.

I am a loser with lowish RPR and my fallen characters almost all had a plethora of haters. I still managed to be remembered. When people see the pig' man's grave they know that whoever this guy was he was the real deal. I don't want to see the genuine monuments to our cherished characters watered down and confused with an inane process of grinding to 30 and pushing a button to be proclaimed as memorable.

TL;dr:

Please, no monument awards. As the player of your character, you have zero say in how memorable you were.

[Amateur Hour]

I'm in agreement here. I'd be far less bothered by someone's character being memorialized as an NPC forever parked by the Cordor fountain saying "I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow" because it avoids the problem Eira mentioned; no one's going to write a book or make a statue of someone still hanging around. It's just a cool little easter egg for the player to be all "I was that guy."

[Diegovog]

I'm in agreement here. I'd be far less bothered by someone's character being memorialized as an NPC forever parked by the Cordor fountain saying "I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow" because it avoids the problem Eira mentioned; no one's going to write a book or make a statue of someone still hanging around. It's just a cool little easter egg for the player to be all "I was that guy."

I agree.

And I even think this is a superb idea to somewhat add flavor to areas that are not so populated and very rarely visited. It would be a joy to see a PC that lived a life of devotion to Kelemvor in a cold crypt guarding the dead as an NPC.

Is it a lot of work for the devs to implement a character's perfect appearance and description as NPC? Maybe also limit the number of letters/words an NPC can have in its description this way?

[The GrumpyCat]

I would much rather commemorative things happen by the characters who remembered the ones they lost, not someone going "I wish people remembered me" and spending a reward. It's a little like those characters who have written a book about their player's previous character, or made a statue of them. Doesn't exactly sit right with me.

This is a fair point - though I'd hope as a 5% it'd still be pretty rare I'd hope?

One thing also to consider - just in general really... is that if I'm using a 5% award, I kinda want it to be special, right? The two obvious ways of that are
a) Mechanical benefit
b) Appearance benefit.

The problem with the first is it gives power creep. The problem with the second is that, potentially, it has the chance of Arelith being more of a 'zoo' as people say.

Finding good but also awsome answers that lie between these lines can be a little tricky. It can be done of course. But it's tricky.

[Dedman1234]

Coming up with award ideas that don't involve new exotic races is quite difficult. Having wings/tails or other unique features is a very enticing possibility for many people, but as mentioned here, if everyone is special, no one is.

I have started a new character recently, and on day one, I saw 5-6 winged people in Cordor alone.

I think a good solution here would be to move on from "in-your-face-special-exotic-winged-dude" races, and instead focus on things that promote subtlety.

Take Yuan-ti for example. Those guys can do a LOT of fancy stuff, yet at the same time, finding out someone actually is a snake-person is not easy at all. Any Yuan-ti living on the surface is incentivized to keep their origins a secret. They are scoring TONS of "being special" points, but they do not clutter the streets with their otherworldly features - their abilities are more of a tool that can lead to some great RP down the line, instead of being essentially a fashion statement.

We also got the Hags, we got the Rakshasa (but those hardly count as most ppl won't get one), and I say we should have more of such stuff. Races that can blend in with the general population, but don't have to. Some people might use such characters openly, and be even more "in your face" than the winged people, but if they decide to do that... Honestly, go for it. If they are willing to take the massive pains that go with being a revealed shapeshifter, then I'd say they deserve the "special points" that they earn with their choice. They will most likely end up in the UD at some point, but I have always thought that UD could use more monsters.

The great majority of people who pick such races will, as I wrote, choose to blend in with the population, only revealing their true nature to a select few, maybe even to the general populace, but that only during some epic showdown or something.

As for what to actually add - maybe an Aranea as a Greater/Major? I am not an expert on the lore, so I cannot really think of much else here. Some people could probably offer some more races that fit the bill.

[Hazard]

Coming up with award ideas that don't involve new exotic races is quite difficult. Having wings/tails or other unique features is a very enticing possibility for many people, but as mentioned here, if everyone is special, no one is.

I have started a new character recently, and on day one, I saw 5-6 winged people in Cordor alone.

I think a good solution here would be to move on from "in-your-face-special-exotic-winged-dude" races, and instead focus on things that promote subtlety.

Take Yuan-ti for example. Those guys can do a LOT of fancy stuff, yet at the same time, finding out someone actually is a snake-person is not easy at all. Any Yuan-ti living on the surface is incentivized to keep their origins a secret. They are scoring TONS of "being special" points, but they do not clutter the streets with their otherworldly features - their abilities are more of a tool that can lead to some great RP down the line, instead of being essentially a fashion statement.

We also got the Hags, we got the Rakshasa (but those hardly count as most ppl won't get one), and I say we should have more of such stuff. Races that can blend in with the general population, but don't have to. Some people might use such characters openly, and be even more "in your face" than the winged people, but if they decide to do that... Honestly, go for it. If they are willing to take the massive pains that go with being a revealed shapeshifter, then I'd say they deserve the "special points" that they earn with their choice. They will most likely end up in the UD at some point, but I have always thought that UD could use more monsters.

The great majority of people who pick such races will, as I wrote, choose to blend in with the population, only revealing their true nature to a select few, maybe even to the general populace, but that only during some epic showdown or something.

As for what to actually add - maybe an Aranea as a Greater/Major? I am not an expert on the lore, so I cannot really think of much else here. Some people could probably offer some more races that fit the bill.

Yeaaaaah_! ARANEA! LFG!

[Cthuletta]

Aranea are pretty dang cool. I know they're not lycanthropes- but having lycanthropy as an option from creation via an award would make me extremely happy.
Could also maybe do something like a changeling? Though that miiiight have to be locked behind a request like rakshasa is. Still, I love changelings.

There's also eladrin, which you probably wouldn't recognize purely based off the model, then a lot of opportunity based around half-races. Half-dryad, half-nymph, half-hag...
Honestly a lot could probably be done with just adding 'half-fey' or 'fey-touched' itself and letting the players take the reigns as to what kind, within reason. Doesn't really solve the concerns people have with there being so many special races, but those would be much more toned-down? I'm just kinda spit-balling ideas at the moment. It's a fun discussion.

[Thelight1]

New Greater: UD non-award monstrous races OTHER than Goblin and Duergar able to be inked as Sencliffian Pirates (currently Goblin and Duergar can do this with a Normal)

This would be pretty cool. See more Nelanther sorts of pirates. I’d rock playing an Ogre pirate.

Maybe even add an award option for chaotic good pirates.