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old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Sep 2023
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I’m sure that many of you have found the rings True Love’s Caress and True Love’s Embrace around the House of Healing in Act 2. If you’re wearing True Love’s Embrace, you can cast warding bond on the person who is wearing True Love’s Caress. Warding bond gives resistance to several kinds of damage to the recipient, but the one who casts it also takes half damage of whatever the recipient gets hit with. If you read the note that comes along with True Love’s Embrace, you’ll see that the rings have quite a horrific history. Spoilers of course. You find out that a Dark Justiciar, who was on the front lines of battle, pretended that she was marrying this guy who was in love with her. She gave him True Love’s Embrace and unbeknownst to him, they perform a little magic ritual under the guise of them getting married, and he casts warding bond on her. Then, when she’s out in battle, he keeps getting sicker and sicker, with holes all over his body, and he doesn’t know why. He eventually dies, as his skeleton attests. So there’s an awful history surrounding the ring, which put me off on using it for quite a while.
But then, I thought, what’s more romantic than an *actually consenting* person wearing True Love’s Embrace, and casting warding bond on their romantic interest? In a combat-filled RPG like this, the only thing more romantic is getting an advantage on a dice roll from the power of someone’s faith in you. So, I thought, let’s do this!
So I got my rings on my Durge and Shadowheart and cast warding bond on her. Now here’s where my suggestion comes in. Why not have a little content there? Just a little conversation. Like the character who you cast warding bond on, or they cast it on you, will have a reaction and a few lines of conversation. And it could be quite funny or quite romantic, depending.
If you cast warding bond on Lae’zel, for example, and she’s your love interest, that would go really well thematically with her act 2 romance scene. If she whomps you, she says something like, “I don’t want to hurt you. I want to protect you. I want you to protect me.” So having her react to warding bond would be a really nice touch.
Or let’s say, with Shadowheart, there could be the consideration of whether the warding bond lessens the pain of her mysterious Sharran wound, as they call it. And you could have a short-lived debuff like Astarion’s Bloodless/Happy. (The workaround being, Remove Curse works on you, but not on Shadowheart.) I think it would be cool! I’m finding so many other little small touches throughout the game that I think this would be a neat touch too.
Last edited by Ecc2ca; 07/02/24 02:05 AM.
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addict
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addict
Joined: Nov 2023
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I think the main issue is Warding Bond is a literal spell that all Clerics get access to.
It's not specific to those rings. The only unique thing about the rings is their ability to allow a non-Cleric to cast the spell (After which, the rings don't even need to remain equipped) which can be useful for example a Bear Heart Barbarian or Fighter can cast it on a squishy Wizard to protect them while not being in danger from the shared damage thanks to the resistances given by Rage or damage reduction from Heavy Armor (+ Heavy Armor Mastery feat)
Which takes away some of the romance of the situation given it's no more special than casting Freedom of Movement on someone (Not to mention one of the best uses of the spell is to have a sacrificial Hireling or Companion sit in camp and cast it on your entire party while equipped with heavy armour + heavy armour mastery + several items that grant resistances to simply buff your entire party with resistance to all damage + 1 AC + 1 all saves at the cost of maybe needing to resurrect them occasionally if you take too much damage)
If it was a unique effect, then sure, add in some dialogue for using it. But with it being just a cast of a regular spell, it doesn't feel special enough to warrant it.
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old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Sep 2023
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Good points.
(I’m still going to secretly headcanon the rings as special though, lol.
For the record the rings use the spell “Gentle Warding Bond,” which is functionally the same as warding bond, but it does get its own name.)
Last edited by Ecc2ca; 07/02/24 09:05 AM.
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Joined: Sep 2023
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It would be funny to have a little argument about who wears which ring, because you both want to wear the one that protects the other.
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Joined: Dec 2023
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Yes! Totally supportive! My Tav and Astarion have been using these rings all game since we found them, I've been putting a Gentle Warding Bond, on him every morning. Would really like to have a dialog about this. If it was a unique effect, then sure, add in some dialogue for using it. But with it being just a cast of a regular spell, it doesn't feel special enough to warrant it. Unfortunately, yes, as well as the fact that these rings can be removed after the spell is cast (which of course you have to do, since there are many other useful magic rings in the game). If making these rings more unique, like adding some other extra effect and the need to wear them all the time, that would be great. (I’m still going to secretly headcanon the rings as special though, lol.
For the record the rings use the spell “Gentle Warding Bond,” which is functionally the same as warding bond, but it does get its own name.) They are still special to me, too.
One life, one love - until the world falls down.
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2023
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Having a sacrificial hireling in camp is so very reflective of the history of these rings. ^^
I had Lae'zel and Shart wear them as friendship bracelets for a bit, but come to think of it, they give "source of my bruises" a new meaning.
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