Nontheless, I need some kind of framework to start thinking about these things, so here's the seed. I'm trying for the usual balance between flavour, mechanical clarity and balance, and separation between the attributes tied closely to the host body and those inherant to the servitor.
I think it's quite important that the mind of the host has some influence on the final attributes. After all, the inhabiting spirit is not good at thinking in meatspace. Any actions with a physical component, even casting spells, need to be processed by the physical brain and body. Any accrued memories - less those burned out by the process of possession - will also be vitally useful to the emissary.
Physical attributes
- Brawn - strength, endurance, explosive muscular power and general burliness. Contributes to melee damage, especially with heavy weapons, damage reduction (natural and from armour/shields), health and fatigue pool size.
- Grace - agility, dexterity, speed and accuracy of movement, stamina. Contributes to hit checks with melee and ranged weapons, dodge and block/parry checks, stealth skills, attack speed, fatigue regeneration rate.
Mental attributes
- Wit - Speed of thought, depth of perception. Contributes to reaction speed, ranged hit checks, casting speed, damage with ranged and light melee weapons, resistance to mental attack.
- Lore - Accrued memories, ability to apply knowledge. Contributes to all crafting-type checks, casting checks, all identification checks (including things like combat styles, spells being cast, and all the usual stuff).
- Empathy - how well the spirit meshes with the host flesh. Affects how much magic can be safely channeled through the body, resistance to mental attacks, health regeneration rate, speed of recovery from debilitating effects on the body (poison, nausea etc.).
- Comprehension - sensitivity to the flows of the spiritual/arcane. Affects perception and identification of magic, and creatures of spirit (whether possessing a mortal body or not), as well as casting checks and speed of recovery from debilitating effects on the mind and spirit (curses, magical debuffs).
On the subject of magic items
Was pondering magic items whilst walking home from work. I think I'm going to rip off Talislanta because it is awesome and win.
You can have seven active magic items on your person at a once, any more than that and they all stop working. Most items will be considered active if you're wearing or using them, so having stuff in your backpack doesn't count. Likewise consumable or items only used briefly don't affect the total (in most RLs, these would be potions, scrolls, wands etc). The reason for this is simply that active magic flows through the mortal plane, and interacts... oddly. Having too many active items would have nasty side effects in addition to rendering them all useless, but those wouldn't be exposed immediately.
To make things more interesting, certain items will be active all the time, even if you're just lugging them about. Diable II (and possibly the original) had these, although I can't remember what they're called. In said game(s) they took up lots of inventory space, but were otherwise just passive, stacking bonuses exactly as if you'd found an extra inventory slot somewhere. Artifacts or items of similar crazy power will act like this, although depending on the nature of the item you may get no benefit from not using it, it'll still count towards your total, and possibly count as multiple lesser items. This should make 'retrieve the all-powerful maguffin!' quests a lot more... interesting. Anyone up for a naked Amulet of Yendor run?
There may be certain ways to get around these restrictions, with side-effects. For example, items with identical effects might be worn and count less towards the total, although any bonuses do not stack perfectly and there will be nasty things happening if this is done for any length of time. Sure, you can wear three rings or regeneration for a few weeks, but how are you going to go to parties with that atrophied spare arm dangling from the small of your back?
