What are prestige points? Well in short, they are acquired points that your PC’s can spend for a variety of purposes to gain abilities that affect game play. Some of these effects are temporary in duration, such as Round and Encounter Abilities, while other abilities are Permanent in effect. How do you gain prestige points? Simple. By contributing to the creation and glory of our Obsidian Portal: The Maelstrom campaign site. Exactly what this contribution consists of will vary. However the typical ways of earning points are to keep an updated character sheet and a character journal.

Once points have been acquired, they may be used in one of three ways:

First, they may be used once per combat round to gain a short term benefit lasting the duration of that round (refer to the Round Abilities table below). Each Round Ability uses up 1 prestige point. You may use only one of these abilities per round, however you may choose to double the numeric effect of any given ability by using an additional 2 prestige points . Points “used” in this way are not permanently lost but refresh at the start of the next game session.

Second, prestige points may be used once per combat encounter to gain an immediate short term benefit (refer to the Encounter Abilities table below). Each Encounter Ability uses up 2 prestige points. While you may only “use” prestige points to gain Encounter Abilities once per encounter, you may also choose to “burn” prestige points to gain additional Encounter Abilities. Each additional Encounter Ability gained in this way burns 1 prestige point. Points “burned” in this way are permanently lost.

Finally, prestige points may be burned either during a game session, or out of session, to gain some permanent benefit. The burn cost of these abilities varies (refer to the Permanent Abilities table below), but regardless of cost, no single permanent ability may be purchased more than twice by the same character.

You can gain 4 Prestige Points during character creation.

• 2 points for writing up a good character background.
  
  
• 1 point for having a picture of your character.
  
  
• 1 for posting your character sheet onto the Maelstrom’s site.

Player	Points Earned	Points Burned
BaronBloodbath	4	0
Fox71jy	0	0
Hrunthmund	4	0
PromontoryID	4	0
SerenityNow	2	0
Sulfa	6	0
TomIdler	4	0
Zeram	4	0

Ability	Benefit	Point Cost1.
Offensive Prowess	+1 to attacks and damage	1
Defensive Prowess	+1 to AC and Saving Throws	1
Heightened Channel	+1 to DC and damage of Channel Energy	1
Heightened Spell	+1 to spell save DC’s and +1 to overcome SR	1
Skilled Acumen	+2 to any skill check	1
Hardiness	+2 to stabilize from dying	1
Wild Vigor	Extend Wild Shape by 1 hour	1
Lasting Rage	Extend Rage by 1 round	1
Vigorous Dance	Extend Dervish Dance by 1 round	1
Righteous Aura	Extend all Paladin Auras by 5ft	1
Encore Performance	Extend Bardic Performance by 1 round	1
Mutated Mutagen	Extend Alchemist Mutagens by 10 minutes	1
Push	Push target backwards 5 feet	1
Pull	Pull target into unoccupied square within 5 feet	1
Swap	Swap places with adjacent target	1

¹Doubling the numeric effect of a Round Ability increases the “use” cost to 3 points.

Ability	Benefit	Point Cost2.
Offensive Fortune	Reroll attack or damage die	2
Defensive Fortune	Reroll any Saving Throw	2
Skilled Fortune	Reroll any skill check	2
Nimble Recovery	Avoid a critical failure	2
Devastating Attack	Confirm a critical hit	2
Quick Witted	Win Initiative	2
Resilient	Stabilize from dying	2
Swift Attack	Gain one additional attack	2
Fleet Footed	Increase base land speed by 5ft	2
Arcane Insight	Gain temporary knowledge of one unknown spell3.	2
Arcane Adaptability	Retrieve one previously cast spell3.	2
Divine Adaptability	Retrieve one previously cast spell3.	2
Narrow Escape	Avoid being Grappled	2

²Additional Encounter abilities have a “burn”, rather than “use”, cost of 1 point each.

³This requires losing a spell slot, and the spell/invocation may not exceed caster level.

Ability	Benefit	Point Cost4.
Second Chances	Survive a killing blow (reduced to 0 HP instead)	3
Vital Fortune	Reroll HP gained at time of leveling	2
Skills Training	Attain +1 competence bonus to any skill	2
Accomplished	Gain a bonus Character Trait upon creation	4
Renaissance Man	Gain a bonus Feat	8
Improvement	Raise ability score 1 point
	Up to 9	2
	10 to 11	4
	12 to 14	6
	15 to 17	8
	18 to 20	10

⁴Permanent Abilities have a “burn”, rather than “use”, cost. Points burned for Permanent Abilities are lost and not regained for the next session. No single Permanent Ability may be purchased more than twice by the same character.