Custom trials of the gods

Hello,

I wanted to spit ball some ideas for herculean labors from the gods for my barbarian I am playing. In my campaign my character made a wager with Gorum to deal a certain amount of damage in a single round and he has completed that wager. Since the party has interacted with other gods I wanted to see if anyone had some ideas on what future labors can be from other gods. Currently I am thinking of Raetorgash. My character is prideful and I was thinking of a curse of pride. The Gorum wager had a goal to achieve, but this curse could be a test of endurance. Like my character deals with this curse until next level, or the curse acts like corruption. Other gods I have been thinking about that we dealt heavily with are Tsukiyo and Irori. For Irori I was thinking to go in the direction of perfection. My barbarian has a level dip of master of many styles monk and eldritch scapper sorcerer to get crane style and martial flexibility. As the campaign went on, for every failure I built my character to overcome these weaknesses. I am trying to think about a trial of perfection from Irori, but can't think of anything. Let me know what you guys think.

I'd recommend talking to your GM about this. I did something similar for some of my PCs such as having to clear the Godsmouth Ossuary and others.

Hello,

I wanted to spit ball some ideas for herculean labors from the gods for my barbarian ...

I don't know. Where... could we find some ideas... for herculean labors.

Seriously though... What about having to clean out a massive stable full of animal poo, and there's so many animals that it just can't be done... and the PC has to figure out there's a nearby river and channel it all to wash to poo away... or, there's an elder water elemental or neriad or something that is way too powerful to beat up or intimidate (and if they try it just goes and floods someone else's fields to punish the PC and just doesn't fight them). But if they can infuriate or tease it with their barbarian Diplomacy and Bluff skills (or, god forbid, good roleplaying), it will try and drown them in a flood... chasing them on a tidal wave that they can lead to the stables where it washes over the stone walls and the cows and all the poo.

Or,

There's some powerful beast, like a magical lion with near impenetrable skin, but it has Ferocity or rage or something and whenever it rages, it emanates a calm emotions effect (+4 racial bonus to DC to resist).

Or

They have to stab a sword into a stone, for some unknown reason that comes up years from now. Obviously swords don't stab into boulders easily. So not only do they need a DC 25 Strength check (add 1.5x their Str modifier if they're jamming it in with two hands) to get it in, they have to make that check with a critical hit (19-20, since it's a longsword). Yes, the boulder is immune to crits, but they have to threaten, confirm (Not hard, the boulder has AC 5), and beat the Str DC to jam it in there. Every attempt (success or failure) deals 1d8 + the character's Str damage (x1.5 if they're using both hands) to both the sword and the boulder. At half damage, the sword will bend and need to be repaired as per crafting rules. If the boulder reaches half damage, even if the blade is sunk into it, it will be so loose as to be considered too easy to pull out (-2 to the difficulty of whatever peasant tries), and will be considered not acceptable, find a new boulder (possibly having to carry/roll it to the location)

Or

He has to stare down the Basilisk King and tell the [quest-giver] what its eyes look like, but they will specifically ask, "What does its left eye look like?" and "What does its right eye look like?". This only matters if a mirror was employed, in which case either the player needs to remember, or the character needs a quick DC 10 Intelligence check (can't Take 10 because this is a sudden question and the pressure is high!) to remember that a mirror reverses things.

Of course, before meeting the Basilisk King, the PC will encounter his three beautiful, maidenly daughters (who wear veils over their faces, but little over the rest of them, in their secluded gardens at their bath or pool. They are sweet, attentive, and generally of good nature and if the PC decides to "diplomacize" them, they will truthfully tell him the color of their father's eyes (so Sense Motive won't help), but they've never seen his third eye and don't even know he has one, since they aren't evil and he's never had to searing blast anyone in their presence.

Or

Roll on Goth Guru's 101 Herculean Tasks table.

Seems to me there's two types of task depending on what your looking for either trials of strength or trials of weakness.

In a trial of strength the person needs to prove themselves by achieving some amazing feat or task by themselves. Hercule's trials are all examples of a trial of strength something impossible for a normal person to succeed in and something he can only overcome by his great strength and prowess. In this kind of trial you look at what the PC is best at and then give them a powerful challenge pitted against that strength they need to overcome. Defeat a terrible beast, solve a complex puzzle, steal an unstealable object like fire from the gods and so on.

Now a trial of weakness is not where you pit a challenge against areas where a PC is weak such as a mage having to overcome a strength based task. This is still a trial of strength its just that rather than being lauded for what they're good at, they're lauded for being so good even the traditional weaknesses of such a person don't exist. Such as Conan the Barbarian being a brilliant leader and tactician (in the books) in addition to his great strength.

No a trial of weakness requires both GM and PC agree because it involves taking away the players strength and usually putting them in a situation where that loss is directly related to teaching them a lesson. For example Elminster being turned into a woman to learn lessons about life and deepen her connection to magic before she could turn back. Same with a human being turned into an animal and having to overcome their own fear of conflict due to the fighting a stray has to face before they can turn back. Another example would be taking away a fighters ability to fight and forcing them to rely on wit and diplomacy to resolve a situation they'd normally just fight their way out of.

Trials of strength are generally much safer and easier to achieve both because they''re less likely to anger a player (which can be avoided by ensuring their ok with the change) and because you need to come up with a change, challenge and lesson where the transformation can be tied to succeeding at something. While in a trial of strength you just go barbarian strong, barbarian face monster.

For example you mention your character is proud so a good example of a trial of weakness in relation to that is beauty and the beast. The prince is proud and arrogrant so he's turned into a beast and must overcome his pride to find true love and turn back into a man when the source of his pride (wealth, power, priviledge) are all stripped from him. Another example would be princess and the frog where Tiana and the prince are stripped of their humanity and forced to survive in the wild as prey animals while defeating the enemy and again finding true love. A non-disney example that's a bit of a stretch is the whole nightmare on elm street series where the characters must find a way to defeat an enemy in a world where he literallly can change the rules and reality to suit his whims transforming them, controlling their bodies, altering the world around them and so on. They are in a position of complete vulnerability and must overcome it.