1. Karma
Karma in D&D is basically "Good Luck," it can be used to spend points, spending points can result in your character suddenly getting bonus. This bonus can be range from a simple +1 bonus to pierce the armor of a monster, to rerolling for a skill challenge, to getting a critical hit. However extraordinary good luck, is often rare, and can only be used once per session. If one character spends karma, none of the other characters in the party can use it. However you do not acquire Karma from simply slaughtering monsters and completing skill challenges, that is the standard way to acquire xp. However gaining karma quite diffrent in compasation, to gain karma, you can:
- Amuse the DM, do something clever or funny, taking example from others
- Roleplay Well, just do a good job roleplaying, perhaps your character has qui
- your character has an interesting background/backstory
Daar I think you will like the Taint Rules
4th Edition Taint Rules
The corrupting influence of evil is a concept explored in numerous books, films and games, including D&D which came out with taint rules in both 3.0 and 3.5, which provided penalties to players who were exposed to (or committed) overwhelming evil. While the rules for such taint provided considerable flavor, they were uneven in their implementation, with some providing penalties and others providing both penalties and bonuses and limited players to displaying 3 symptoms of taint for depravity and 3 for corruption. This system intends to capture the feel of taint rules for past editions while ironing out the mechanically wonky bits that have plagued such systems in the past.
Acquiring Taint
Characters can acquire taint in several different ways:
Committing acts of unspeakable evil: in cultures throughout the typical D&D setting certain acts earn universal condemnation amongst races and peoples with even the slightest moral code-murder, torture, genocide, and rape as well as fouler acts warp the mind of those committing them and result in the offending character gaining depravity. This does not represent external evil creeping into the character’s mind, but rather represents the wearing away of one’s moral compass as characters begin to treat others as pawns and toys rather than as individual creatures worthy of respect. Even characters that describe themselves as “hardened” or “jaded” are not immune to gaining depravity in this fashion-indeed, one could argue that being extremely hardened to or jaded about the suffering of others is a sign of one gaining depravity.
Exposure to areas warped by evil: whether due to the presence of demons, foul creatures from the far realms, or simply areas forever marred by evil of a less supernatural variety (such as the execution of an innocent man by a corrupt court, or the shack where a serial killer went to hide his “conquests”) can result in character’s gaining corruption through no fault of their own. Typically, there are only certain areas in the blighted zone that bestow corruption (the area around the altar where innocents were sacrificed to dread gods), but in the cases of extreme blights, every square foot of the area might potentially bestow corruption. This corruption is typically applied to a character after a certain length of time and is accompanied by a feeling of instinctive disgust that warn both the player and his or her character that it would be wise to spend as little time in the location as possible.
Certain sanity-rending locations that warp the minds of those who travel through them, like an area tainted by the energies of the far realm might very well bestow depravity instead as character’s minds break under the strain of sights alien to any sane man or woman.
Exposure to dread items: While tools and weapons both magical and mundane have no moral significance in and of themselves, the uses they are put to or the techniques used in their creation can sometimes result in them being a vessel of corruption or depravity. A blade carved from the bones of a whimpering slave carries with it an imprint of the suffering of the one who “donated” the material for the blade and might whisper words of condemnation and hatred to a character who chooses to carry it, slowly increasing his or her depravity. A weapon wielded by a demonic general or an unknowable far-realm entity might have acquired some of it’s master’s inhuman corruption, and might plague a wielder with disgusting growths. Then of course, there are weapons and other items specifically crafted by mad cultists or vindictive spell casters that slowly drive their wielders insane with lust for power, or that cause them to rot from the inside out.
Taint Rules for Characters
Every character has what’s called a depravity threshold and a corruption threshold, these numbers are determined by multiplying a the higher of the character’s constitution or strength score by 5 and the higher of their wisdom or charisma scores by 5 respectively. These thresholds indicate the maximum level of depravity a character can possess before going completely insane (and thus becoming an NPC) and the maximum level of corruption the character can possess before dying of it (and likely transforming into an undead creature). Example: Brandis, a human fighter has a constitution of 14, a strength score of 16, a wisdom score of 12 and a charisma score of 11. Taking the higher score of constitution and strength (16) and multiplying it by 5 we determine that Brandis’s corruption threshold is 80. Multiplying the higher of his wisdom and charisma scores by 5 (12) we determine that his depravity threshold is 60.
The degree to which a character has been consumed by corruption or driven mad by depravity is measured in 3 stages- mild, moderate, and severe. A character reaches mild depravity when he manifests his first mental symptom (at 5 points of depravity) and reaches mild corruption when he manifests his first physical symptom (at 5 points of corruption). A character is considered to possess moderate levels of depravity or corruption when that form of taint is above ¼th but below ½ of the character’s respective taint threshold and is considered to possess severe levels of depravity or corruption when that form of taint is above ½th of the character’s respective taint threshold. These distinctions are useful for seeing how deeply a character has been affected by taint, and serve as requirements for the tainted feats listed later on in this article. Example: Brandis’s adventuring companion Liara is an eladrin warlock with a constitution score of 12 a strength score of 10, a wisdom score of 8 and a charisma score of 18. This gives her a corruption threshold of 60 (5 times the higher of her constitution or strength scores) and a depravity threshold of 90 (5 times the higher of her charisma or wisdom). This means that she counts as mildly corrupted at 5 points of corruption to 14 points of corruption (at 5 points or above but below 1/4th of her corruption threshold) moderately corrupted at 16 points to 29 points of corruption (at above 1/4th of her corruption threshold but below ½ of her corruption threshold) and severely corrupted from 30 points to 60 points of corruption (above ½ of her corruption threshold). Note that when Liara’s corruption reaches 60 points she’ll die, as her body simply gives up trying to resist the disgusting changes that evil has wrecked upon her.
For every 5 points of depravity a character possesses, she manifests a mental symptom-a sign of the toll that great evil has taken on her psyche. For every 5 points of corruption a character possesses she manifests a physical symptom as evil twists and warps her body. Each symptom offers a bonus and a penalty to a character afflicted with one-madness often brings power in fantasy and horror fiction and a decaying and mutated body can often hide unearthly strength and strange and horrible new “talents”. Some symptoms may even be chosen multiple times, increasing both the penalties and bonuses that such as symptom provides to the one afflicted with it.
The symptoms your character gains should be decided upon by yourself and the DM together to decide which symptom makes sense for your character, is compatible with your character’s abilities, and which one makes sense based on the circumstance that caused your character to gain taint in the first place.
Explanations for how to remove taint will be explained later
Thanks JohntheDM7000 for the taint rules.
I have a feeling a certain character who claims to be evil will enjoy this
Let me know what you think
