Sin and Virtue Points

In any struggle there are moments that turn the tide, moments of divine intervention or heroic bravery that influence the final outcome. Does the brave warrior lay low the villain before he can finish casting a devastating spell? Does the sly rogue avoid detection as she sneaks into the giant chieftain’s lair? Does the pious cleric finish casting her healing spell before the rain of arrows ends the life of her companions? Just a few die rolls decide each of these critical moments, and while failure is always a possibility, true heroes find a way to succeed, despite the odds.
Sin and Virtue Points represent potential for greatness. They give the characters the chance to succeed even when the dice turn against them. SVPs are only awarded to player characters. NPCs, animal companions, familiars, cohorts, and mounts do not receive SVPs. Unlike other points in the game, SVPs do not renew over time or with rest. Once spent, they are gone forever. SVPs are awarded as a character gains levels or whenever a player believes his character has accomplished a feat or experienced a personal event that will change the character’s life, its view of the world, or one she will remembered forever. The GM is the final arbiter on the award and use of SVPs, but any player may ask to gain or use an SVP at any point.
Sin and Virtue points do not drastically increase the power of the PCs, but they do grant the PCs the ability to greatly increase their chances of success during critical moments by tapping into their true inner personalities. While the game itself is set up to give the player characters an edge, SVPs take that a bit further. The value to SVPs is that they add dramatic tension to the climax of your game. Most uses of SVP points increase your chances of success but do not guarantee it, making the moment they are used even more important to the players nd their characters. SVPs are a very limited resource and their use should be described with additional detail and dramatic style. Used in this way, they can help create very memorable sessions for both GM and players.

Awarding Sin and Virtue Points

Each character begins play with 1 point, regardless of her level. In addition, whenever a character gains a level, she earns one additional SVP. Aside from these basic rules, awarding additional points is up to the player & the GM. The following options are just some of the ways that a character may gain SVPs. Maximum SVP Points: Characters can have no more than 3 SVP points at any one time.
A Sinful Act: A player may ask for an SVP for a character that committed a sinful act that was either publicly known or somehow risked her life or her reputation (Based on the seven Thassilonian Sins: Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Wrath)
A virtuous Act: A player may ask for an SVP for a character that committed a virtuous act that either risked her life or was done despite a loss to herself. (Based on the seven Thassilonian Virtues: Charity, Temperance, Generosity, Love, Humility, Zeal, Kindness)
Character Story: You can award your character an SVP for the completion of a written character backstory plot. For example, when your character learned something new about a prominent figure in her past, or came to terms with a pivotal event in her back story. This reward encourages players to take an active roll in the history of the game.
Completing Plot Arcs: The characters may gain an SVP if they were deeply involved in completing a major chapter or arc in the campaign story.
Faith: You may ask to grant your character an SVP whenever they uphold the tenets of their faith in a grand way, or whenever they take on one of the faith’s major enemies.
Heroic Acts: Whenever a character performs an exceptionally heroic act, she can be awarded an SVP. This might include anything from slaying an evil dragon when the rest of the group has fled to rescuing townsfolk from a burning building despite being terribly wounded. It does not have to be related to combat. Convincing the reticent king to send troops to help with a bandit problem or successfully jumping a wide chasm might earn a character a SVP, depending on the circumstances.
Return from the Dead: A character who’s hp drop below 0 and yet manages to return to consciousness may gain an SVP.

Using Sin and Virtue Points

Sin and Virtue Points can be spent at any time and do not require an action to use (although the actions they modify consume part of your character’s turn as normal). You do not get an SVP point from performing an action in which you spent an SVP point. You cannot spend more than 1 point during a single round of combat. Whenever you wish to spend an SVP you have to declare on what virtue or sin you are spending this point, and you must describe your actions accordingly.
Every sin or virtue grants you a different bonus or advantage. Only by declaring the use of a Wrath point and by describing your character acting in a wrathful way will the advantage that the SVP grants be granted to the character actions. Whenever a point is spent, it can have any one of the following effects based on the sin or virtue chosen:

• Envy – You may spend a sin point on Envy to use the last D20 rolled by anyone on the table as your next D20 roll as well, using his or her result as the result of your roll.
• Charity – During combat and after you roll a D20 you may spend a virtue point on Charity and give your D20 roll result to any player below you on the initiative order. Re-roll a new roll instead.
• Gluttony – You can spend a sin point of Gluttony to immediately gain a +3 on your next D20 roll.
• Temperance – You can spend a virtue point on Temperance to gain a +5 on your next Will Save.
• Greed – You can spend a sin point on Greed and take your turn immediately, moving your initiative to just before the currently acting creature.
• Generosity – You can spend a virtue point on Generosity to immediately grant any other player a second roll of a D20. The player takes the roll with the higher result. On your next d20 roll, you do not roll the die. Instead you use that player’s lower result.
• Lust – You can spend a sin point on Lust to immediately cause a creature to treat you as a friend. This is a spell-like ability, that acts exactly like Charm Person. The save DC is 10 + your character level + your Charisma.
• Love – You can spend a virtue point on Love to gain +4 on three Aid another rolls made by you or anyone else in the next round.
• Pride – You can spend a sin point on Pride to recall a spell you already cast or to regain a daily use of an ability you have already used.
• Humility – You can spend a virtue point on Humility to gain a +8 on a diplomacy check to improve the attitude of someone who is not already attacking you.
• Sloth – You can spend a sin point on Sloth and have any other character roll a skill check. If she succeeds it counts as if you succeeded. If she fails, she takes the consequences, if any.
• Zeal – You can spend a Virtue point on Zeal to gain a second d20 roll on any skill check. You take the higher result.
• Wrath – You can use a sin point on Wrath to gain +2 on your next attack and damage rolls or to automatically confirm a critical hit even after the confirmation roll has already failed.
• Kindness – You can spend a virtue point on Kindness to heal a single target by 2d8 hps. This is a standard action that requires you to touch the target, but does not provoke an attack of opportunity.