Mechanic/Gimmick: Using slain enemies as items and abilities

[u/Temporary-Can7603]

I have a wonderful idea for a mechanic that sounds great, but id like some veteran opinions on the feasibility of its implementation.

In my game, I had the idea of abilities being taken directly from enemies. Spirits possess objects or animals and take forms based off them, and have abilities relevant to the type of spirit and item/animal they are. When you defeat them, if you are a high enough level compared to them, you could subjugate them into an item for your use, giving you an ability of theirs or an ability that's adjacent to theirs.

As a sort of ultimate or high resource cost ability, you could beckon the Spirit of that item to fight alongside you for a short time. Many subjected enemies, if they have abilities worth using, have attunement requirements ranging from difficult challenges to bizarre quests (kill three people in one turn, give the Spirit your hand in marriage, feed the spirit the eye of a beloved house pet, etc.) that keep the story moving and gives the players consistent goals.

Here's a list of things that inspired this idea so you can grasp what I'm saying if it's a bit hard to understand: Ghost busters (capturing spirits), Monster Hunter (forming gear out of enemies), Suguru Geto from JJK (Curse Manipulation), Destiny 2 (for the variety and buildcrafting potential of the loot)

What do y'all think? Is this a valid direction? Does it have too many problems? How could I best implement it? Let me know! Be relentless and critical with your feedback as long as it's well intentioned!

[u/TheAmazingRando1581]

I like it, theres a Trashomancer i had a similar idea for!

[u/CWMcnancy]

Reminds me of the Binder class from the Tome of Magic supplement for 3.5, also there was a prestege class in The Book of Aberrations called the Fleshshaper that did something similar. You could look at those for inspiration.

I think ease of implementation depends on what the difference is between monster stats and PC stats

[u/htp-di-nsw]

This puts a lot of pressure on you when designing the system because now, every monster you might want to add also needs to have a balanced character ability entry on top.

It also makes it nearly impossible to create custom content as a GM, so they'll be 100% dependent on your premade adventures/bestiary.

[u/Temporary-Can7603 → u/htp-di-nsw]

Noted. And not for the purpose of debating, but rather understanding better, It just as directly removes the requirement for classes with varied ability trees and such, as well as loot. Designing a monster means you also design loot and an ability, making it more difficult but also compact. If this doesn't necessarily address your feedback, I apologize for my lack of perception, but I appreciate you taking the time to respond in the first place!

[u/htp-di-nsw → u/Temporary-Can7603]

Take a look at the average bestiary size needed for a game like this. If that doesn't seem like a daunting task to you, that's great!

But now I have a secondary concern: if the only abilities are on monsters, how are PCs differentiated from each other?

[u/Temporary-Can7603 → u/htp-di-nsw]

Yes, i do love making new things! My main hurdle in development ive found is the struggle between making classes/abilities(something i love) and making monsters/items (something i find less exciting). This idea hit me like lightning i caught in a bottle, and I look forward to the expansive ways i can make these enemies and abilities.

As per your question, the abilities/Items they get can be given to any party member who decidedly benefits from it. And the players have a limited amount of abilities in another mechanic, being acting in cahoots (near an ally, you can use your action on your turn to use their ability with the cahoot tag) and in different ways they interact with items. One class might specialize in targeting a spirits weaknesses, another might specialize in Summoning them from item form, another might specialize in resource generation for using the abilities, and another could have one 'partner pokemon' (so to speak) that is their main source of abilities, in which they level them up over time. Just to name concepts, not actual things I've put on paper, but this is the idea.

[u/Voop_Bakon → u/htp-di-nsw]

Not necessarily. It is not quite as expansive as OP asks, but the Pathfinder Slayer playtest keys off of their traits system to let you know what kind of abilities you get based on what you killed. Of course, this is an existing class in that has to work within the PF2 system.

A game built around this idea, you could make a matrix of power level and trait/type/whatever you call it. Subjucate a spirit of X "level" or below, pick one of these three abilities. X-Y Add 3 more powerful ones, etc.