What is the true measure of an adventurer? Is it his skill with the blade? His knowledge of the arcane? The magical items he wields?
Everything mentioned can be taken easily. No, what defines an adventurer –a hero — is his Spirit. The ability to carry on despite insurmountable odds, the capacity to reach deep within himself to tap new reservoirs of strength and mental toughness. This is what will define your adventurer, what will cause stories to be told of him or her one day.
Spirit
Spirit is your PC’s life essence. It represents his capacity to push himself and to do extraordinary things. It goes farther than an Action Point as it is tied to your character’s personality. Action Points represent flashes of brilliance, while Spirit represents your character’s true self when faced with adversity.
How it Works
Each character begins the game with 1 Spirit Points. Each character chooses one Aspect at character creation. Aspects define what can be done with your Spirit Points, and how they may be gained or lost. You may have no more than your level in Spirit Points at any 1 time.
Spirit Points do not normally refresh. When a character is at zero Spirit Points, he takes a -1 on all skill checks and attack rolls until he regains at least one Spirit point.
No character may gain or lose more than 1 Spirit Point per encounter via your major aspects. Special events may alter this. The DM is the final arbiter of whether points are gained or lost.
I’ve given each aspect a name, but obviously this is 4e, so skin them however you want, name-wise.
Aspects
Enduring Vigor
- Spirit Gain: Outlasting others; Endure great hardship or suffering.
- Spirit Loss: Succumbing to a disease; being outlasted by someone else.
- Spirit Use: spend 1 SP to re-roll any Con-based skill check.
Force of Arms
- Spirit Gain: Besting a foe using raw strength; performing an impressive feat of strength.
- Spirit Loss: Losing a contest of strength; find yourself too weak to perform a task.
- Spirit Use: spend 1 SP to re-roll any Str-based skill check.
Fleet of Foot
- Spirit Gain: Perform an impressive stunt; escape an enemy successfully.
- Spirit Loss: Fumble; lose a contest of quickness.
- Spirit Use: spend 1 SP to re-roll any Dex-based skill check.
Thirst for Knowledge
- Spirit Gain: learning a secret; gain access to a new skill or source of knowledge
- Spirit Loss: lose access to a source of knowledge; your knowledge fails you
- Spirit Use: Spend 1 point to re-roll any Int-based skill.
Mystic’s Mind
- Spirit Gain: Choose the correct course of action; give guidance to others.
- Spirit Loss: Your advice goes bad; make a bad decision.
- Spirit Use: spend 1 SP to re-roll any Wis-based skill check.
Way with Words
- Spirit Gain: talk your way out of a tricky situation; persuade others to your way of thinking.
- Spirit Loss: defeated in a duel of wits; fail to talk someone into one of your plans.
- Spirit Use: spend 1 SP to re-roll any Cha-based skill check.
Other Uses for Spirit
Spirit is a great resource when your players are in a place of oppressive gloom or necrotic energy, such as the Shadowfell. Instead of yanking healing surges, you can take away Spirit. You can also award Spirit points for actions that affirm life in the face of that. In differing environments you can offer different penalties as well. With a clever use of Spirit and scenario, you can actually have an adventure on your hands.
Examples
The characters and everyone in their village are enslaved by an army of goblins. The force is too strong for the characters alone to overthrow…They need the help of the village, to have them rise up and take arms against their oppressors. But who has the Spirit to lead the resistance? PCs need to raise their spirits to take action, and raise the Spirits of the villagers so that they will overthrow their enslavers.
the penalty here with Spirit is that you cannot take action against the slavers until you have a certain quantity of Spirit. PCs must find ways to keep themselves in hopeful spirits while dealing with the spirit diminishing actions of their overseers. The players then have to raise the spirits of the people around them. Finally, their will be a revolt and hopefully thereafter, freedom.
The party is in the Shadowfell and are associating with the Shadar-Kai. There is a constant drain on Spirit in the Shadowfell, and the Shadar-kai show the party their way for dealing with it. The Shadar-kai method of thrill-seeking definitely gives Spirit back, but there is certainly a price that is paid in terms of yuor safety and your lifespan. This isn’t a full scenario, but an extra way to use Spirit that can add flavor to your game.
A Jack of All Trades ,or if you prefer, an extreme example of multi-classing, Gamefiend, a.k.a Quinn Murphy has been discussing, playing and designing games straight out of the womb. He is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of this site in addition to being an aspiring game designer. As you would assume, he is a huge fan of 4e.
By day he is a technologist.
Follow gamefiend on
It’s a good idea, but I don’t like the specific execution.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to tie spirit to specific attributes. Most players would feel beholden to tie it to their highest attribute, giving them the best chances to regain spirit (as well as the lowest chance of failing a roll and losing it). This would lead to more one-note characters, as people optimize for their spirit attribute and linked skills, and ignore the rest (which is already a problem with combat attributes).
Instead, I suggest decoupling spirit and attributes, and have a few more broad choices. Losing spirit is a big enough penalty that it should be able to be spent for any skill roll. My suggestions:
Compassion:
Spirit Gain: Helping another in extraordinary circumstances.
Spirit Loss: Comitting or failing to stop an act of cruelty.
Excellence:
Gain: Perform an extraordinary act, push yourself past your former limits.
Loss: Fail at a key moment. Perform below your own expectations.
Endurance:
Spirit Gain: Outlasting others; Endure great hardship or suffering.
Spirit Loss: Succumbing to a disease; being outlasted by someone else. (This one works just fine)
Acquisition:
Gain: Gain a significant possession (it need not be a material object) that you have sought after.
Loss: Lose a significant possession.
Power:
Gain: Change the world to match your desires and vision. Bend others to your will.
Loss: Fail to change another’s mind, have the world change contrary to your wishes.
I think things like this have more roleplaying potential, and let the players customize a bit more.
The only problem with re-rolling all anything would be that it de-values other re-rolling mechanic. If everyone can re-roll whenever, what good is the elven precision mechanic? I like your additions, but definitely will not be using general re-rolls. You can tie them to specific skills or actions though, and that makes them fine I think.
Another good resource. One interesting twist to it, is that it also serves, in some sense, as an alignment mechanic.
This is an interesting concept and I’d like to see you develop it further. For example what defines when you loose a Spirit Point? It would also be nice to see what can be accomplished with Spirit Points be expanded further. I short on time right now, but I’ll try to return and expand on the idea’s.
Glad you guys like!
It can definitely be an ersatz alignment mechanic.
Wimwick, I invite you to bring th discussion to the forums and we can get some group batting around of ideas. I’ve already started up a thread.
I like the thinking behind this, but I agree it needs some tweaking. I’ll post further in the forum.