Back in March, when I posted the signature items I’d written for Faith, that was actually everything I had at the time. I wanted to give the players something when they reached L2 and I figured I wouldn’t get them done before they reached L3, so I wrote the first two levels of those items. Since then I’ve been working on them, going back and forth with each player to understand what they want and what they need, and I think we’re all pretty pleased with the results.
Sildroag, the party’s ostensible leader, had two problems he wanted to solve. First, he’s the party’s tank in an edition that doesn’t have many ways to force enemies to attack you besides standing directly in their way. Second, his key power, bloodrage, is only available for a certain number of rounds per day. If bloodrage runs out in the middle of a fight, he loses a bunch of power and gains a penalty for a while. That’s fine from a power balance perspective but it’s not especially cinematic. To solve these, his item grants him a few 4E-like defender abilities and lets him go beyond the impossible by ignoring his bloodrage limit, at a cost.
Collar of Perseverance
This stylized slave collar feels heavy in your hand, but once around your neck it’s almost weightless. In fact, you almost feel it lifting your body, spurring you onward at the end of a long day.
Determinator (Su): Your tenacity stretches the limits of the possible. You can enter or maintain a bloodrage even when you have no rounds of bloodrage remaining. Essentially, your remaining rounds of bloodrage may go below 0. At the end of any round in which you have negative bloodrage rounds remaining and you are in a bloodrage, you take one point of nonlethal damage per class level per round of bloodrage (for example, if you have -2 rounds of bloodrage remaining and you are 4th level, you take 8 nonlethal damage at the end of the round).
Unshakable (Ex): You won’t fall to magic tricks when you know you’re needed. When you are in a bloodrage with fewer than 0 rounds remaining, you gain a +1 bonus to saving throws. At 6th level, and every four levels thereafter, this bonuses increases by +1.
Obvious Leader (Ex): Something about your bearing causes enemies to swarm around you. Beginning at 3rd level, each round at the end of your turn you may engage the enemy closest to you as a free action. This enemy takes a -1 penalty to attack rolls on any attack that can target you but does not. At 7th level, and every five levels thereafter, this penalty increases by -1.
Failure is Optional (Ex): Only you can decide when you’ve come up short. Beginning at 4th level, when you fail a saving throw, you can lose two rounds of bloodrage to instead succeed on it. If you have fewer than 0 rounds of bloodrage remaining, you only lose one round but you can only use this ability during a bloodrage.
When you succeed on a saving throw, you can instead fail it to regain one round of bloodrage.
When you succeed on a saving throw, you can instead fail it to regain one round of bloodrage.
Negative Power (Ex): When desperate, you can tap into untold stores of power. At 5th level, gain one rage power for which you qualify. You can use this rage power only when you are in a bloodrage with fewer than 0 rounds remaining. If you later gain this rage power via another method you can swap the power gained by this ability for another rage power for which you qualify.
At 11th level, and again at 17th level, you gain an additional rage power usable only when you are in a bloodrage with fewer than 0 rounds remaining.
Unsurvivable (Ex): You hit hardest when you have to. Beginning at 7th level, your critical multiplier increases by 1 when you are in a bloodrage with fewer than 0 rounds remaining.
Suffering is Optional (Ex): You can’t be slowed by petty things like objective facts. Beginning at 8th level, you can lose two rounds of bloodrage to end any negative status effect on you. If you have fewer than 0 rounds of bloodrage remaining, you only lose one round but you can only use this ability during a bloodrage. You must be conscious to use this ability.
When an ally within 10 feet gains a negative status effect you do not have, you can also gain that status effect to regain one round of bloodrage.
Center of Attention (Ex): You’ll bear anything to protect your allies. Beginning at 9th level, once per day when an enemy within 15 feet of you attacks one of your allies, as an immediate action you can pull the enemy adjacent you to and become the target of its attack instead. You can only use this ability if you can pull the enemy to an adjacent empty space. At 11th level, and every 2 levels thereafter, you can use this ability one additional time per day.
Obvious Threat (Ex): Clearly you’re the biggest problem in the room. Beginning at 10th level, you may engage the two closest enemies with your obvious leader ability.
Irresistible (Ex): Even the toughest creature can’t stand against you. Beginning at 12th level, when you attack a creature with damage reduction when you are in a bloodrage with fewer than 0 rounds remaining, you ignore half of that damage reduction.
Big Stick (Ex): You’re always in control, despite appearances to the contrary. Beginning at 13th level, when you use the feat Power Attack, you can choose to apply the penalty to your AC instead of your attack rolls.
Unkillable (Ex): No opponent decides when you’re done fighting. Beginning at 16th level, you cannot die from hit point damage or fall unconscious from nonlethal damage when you are in a bloodrage with fewer than 0 rounds remaining. This ability only functions during combat and up to one round after combat ends.
Perfect Rival (Ex): The manner in which you trade blows is legendary. Beginning at 20th level, when you are in a bloodrage with fewer than 0 rounds remaining you may make an attack of opportunity against any enemy who damages you. There is no limit to the number of attacks of opportunity you can make in this way, but each attack roll after the first takes a cumulative -3 penalty. This penalty returns to 0 at the start of your turn.