Ioun Stones [6E]

[AlHazred]

Worked this up for my home game, and figured it might be useful for some other folks hereabouts. These are based on the d20 SRD, so they are open content, adapted to the Hero System 6th edition; you could easily use most of them as-is in 5th, except the costing changes for some of them -- not a problem if you don't make characters pay points for equipment. Prefab can be found here.

[AlHazred]

Re: Ioun Stones [6E]

 

What do you guys think of the Focus limitation? I'm waffling between OAF and OIF. According to the description in D&D and in the original novella "Morreion" by Jack Vance (from which it made its way into D&D), you can grab an Ioun Stone from its orbit around a person's head or even damage/destroy it, but they're really hard to hit and tough enough to withstand some punishment. The Focus rules don't really say anything about the difficulty of removing an Accessible Focus.

 

In any case, I worked out the 4E Ioun Stones. They're going with a far more utilitarian feel for them, which I think robs them of flavor. Also, they're now definitely "head slot" items as opposed to being "slotless" as in earlier editions (in D&D, the game limits how many magic items you can use by giving you "slots" corresponding to body locations where you might use said items). The prefab can be found here.

[phookz]

Re: Ioun Stones [6E]

 

Sounds like an OAF to me since you can grab them.

[dmjalund]

Re: Ioun Stones [6E]

 

Buy DCV OAF, only to protect focus

[AlHazred]

Re: Ioun Stones [6E]

 

The way the Focus rules are written (6E1 376-380), they assume the character is holding the object. Let us assume an attacker is trying to deprive a defender of a Focus. The attacker must make an attack roll to hit the defender's DCV+2, and then makes a STR vs. STR roll to see if he knocks it out of the defender's grasp. The Advanced Players Guide goes into more detail, explaining that the GM may adjust how hard it is to hit the Focus, and that in cases where a Focus is not held, he may assign an effective STR that the Focus has to remain with its owner.

 

With Ioun Stones, it would seem that they must be harder to hit than normal. They circle a character's head, so they have the owner's DCV, but they're really tiny -- a little more than an inch long maybe. That's about 1/64 the size of a human being, which is worth -12 to OCV (or +12 to DCV, depending on the way you do it). They also seem unusually tough; Vance's story puts their origin at the heart of dead stars, so they would seem to be Durable Foci, with PD and ED (Resistant) equal to 1/5 of the Active Points in the stone's largest Power.

 

I'll have to modify my write-ups accordingly. Thanks, guys!

[AlHazred]

Re: Ioun Stones [6E]

 

Prefabs have been modified.

[Narf the Mouse]

Re: Ioun Stones [6E]

 

Also, the dull gray stone should probably also have 1 NR Charge.

[AlHazred]

Re: Ioun Stones [6E]

 

Hmmm... the prefab already has that. I didn't redo the pdf when I redid the prefabs -- mayhap I had missed that the first time around.

 

I'm considering doing the Pathfinder ones next -- they decided that ioun stones were a signature item for their in-game Pathfinder Society, and have an extensive set of them, with variations for flawed or cracked stones, in the Pathfinder Chronicles - Seekers of Secrets book.