What thematic purpose does a halo serve?

What thematic purpose does a halo serve?
Should a player character ever have a permanent halo effect on their character?
What sort of beings in your setting would have a halo?
Does a halo provide any intrinsic bonuses?

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Depends on the setting
Depends on the game
Depends on your sense of style

Ok, so my GF leaves her halo hanging from her bedpost every morning.

How would I go about using the thing? I mean, it's not mine, so do attunement rules apply? I've tried it before, and I really just can't understand how to work it out. Any help?

Have you tried duct tape?

Basically this. Without context it's impossible to give a meaningful answer.

Halos are symbolic of a divine being's nature flowing outward from them to influence their surroundings passively. It's a tangible aura that lets anyone nearby know "this thing is more than material". The visible halo is just a metaphor for that.

If an OP does not declare which setting it's safe to assume "In your setting".

this

>What thematic purpose does a halo serve?
Bling. The cooler the halo, the higher rank the wearer.
>Should a player character ever have a permanent halo effect on their character?
Assuming 3.5 (seriously cut Depends On The Setting, generic DnD is the default unless something clearly doesn't fit there), a Cleric, Aasimar, or Deva could totally get a halo.
>What sort of beings in your setting would have a halo?
Just said. Angels as well. Anything holy.
>Does a halo provide any intrinsic bonuses?
Probably as a variatiton on a magic helm.

In my group when the cleric casts Celestial Healing, Greater on someone they get a faint shimmering halo for the duration of the spell. Otherwise we haven't used halos in our campaign at any point so far.

>Does a halo provide any intrinsic bonuses?
You don't have to carry a light source anymore when dungeon delving.

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I'm not really sure how that would work either. Just watch after yourself. Don't leave anything broken out in the open. Wouldn't want it to get ripped out.

>What thematic purpose does a halo serve?
Visual queue that someone is more Spiritual.
>Should a player character ever have a permanent halo effect on their character?
If they're very powerful/spiritual relative to other beings, perhaps.
>What sort of beings in your setting would have a halo?
Asuras and Devas.
>Does a halo provide any intrinsic bonuses?
Slightly blinding, great for intimidation.

>What thematic purpose does a halo serve?
Having the sun behind your head in art shows that you're the Emperor of Rome.
>Should a player character ever have a permanent halo effect on their character?
Should a player character ever become Emperor of Rome?
>What sort of beings in your setting would have a halo?
The Emperor of Rome, but only in depictions.
>Does a halo provide any intrinsic bonuses?
People unfamiliar with you can identify you as the Emperor of Rome.

>Should a player character ever become Emperor of Rome?

Is this not everyone's aspiration?

>wanting to be Christ's regent on Earth
>not wanting Lalage
youtu.be/6gYvS8L0nDY

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Obscure porn reference?

Every Morning by Sugar Ray.
Bad late 90's musical reference.

>Divine chakram

Halos are really, really scary in one setting I'm writing. They serve three important purposes:

>Magic focus
Anything with a halo can pull downright ridiculous amounts of power out of the netherworld at will, so they can pull of some pretty silly magical bullshit
>Weapon
Said magic bullshit includes charging the halo with energy and using it to cut a fool. Or burn a fool. Or freeze a fool. Or disintegrate a fool. Or...well, you get the idea.
>Mark of divinity/allegiance
There are whole groups that put you on the "don't kill" list just because you have one. They're all scary.

Yeah, people with halos are kind of ridiculous in that setting. Even if it's a small halo, like the kind you can fit over your head, it still makes the wielder significantly more powerful and quite a bit more influential among certain groups.

That sounds pretty cool user. Care to elaborate more?

The halo prevents them from accidentally comitting an action that would inversely effect their alignment, requiring a will check in order to circumvent it.

In my homebrew setting, people would have no idea what the fuck it is. Nobody has those, not even the three final remaining demigods, their avatars, and the last demon.

If somebody got one, it would be stemming from a custom magical item, and would have no intrinsic power beyond what was given to it.

On my settings halos are not physical things but a visual manifestation of the spirit of some beings.
It can have many shapes and forms and it is always seen behind the being it belongs to, no matter from were you look at them.
Players can have them if they reach a certain point of spiritual development, the halo is not always permanent and they do not give them real bonuses, but the sight of the halo can be used to intimidate or inspire others, so I guess it counts as a charisma bonus depending on the situation.

>Halos
>Posts a woman with a glory

It allows you to be a pretty cool guy, kills aleins and doesnt afraid of anything.

Back in 3.5 the Favored Soul had the option to gain wings. I always imagine having a halo floating behind you would be cool if you went with a more eastern flavor for Favored Soul

I've always felt halos are best when they are specific for an individual.

Like, a really ancient and highly divine Nature God would have a halo comprised of thorny vines, crackling lightning, and eyes sticking out from everywhere

Or just being a basic feature on space wizards

My niggas

It shows your players that you're not going to kill this thing.
Remember that thread where some user bitched that his GM wouldn't let them kill Yahweh

Sure.

>Magic Focus
Okay. The Netherworld is a parallel world that is the source of all magic not used by the gods. In the old days, the only way for a human to work magic was to be grant divinity by them - aka a halo. So, having acquired a halo, an individual could harness the power of the gods. After the discovery of the Netherworld, however, halos were found to have another interesting function. A halo that has basked in the light of the Netherworld would forever after be able to pull raw magic from it, and so it became tradition for a favored servant to make a pilgrimage to the Netherworld in order to complete his initiation into the divine.

>Weapon
Having established why halos are great for magic, how about I tell you how they got around to using that magic. The way spells work in this setting is that there are two fundamental components to every spell: power and concept. The power is whatever's fueling the spell, be that divine magic or (more commonly in the "present day" of the setting) the Netherworld. The concept comes from warping that magical energy towards a target and altering it according to a certain concept - for example, Burn is a common concept used for offense by casters. A common spell used with halos is Shear, in which the halo is given a magic edge and spun towards the opponent.

>Mark
The overwhelming majority of gods are very much Greco-Roman-types - fickle, wrathful, and intolerant of defiance. In fact, at the very beginning of the timeline for my setting, a God War blasted humanity back to the Stone Age. So, taking pity on humanity, five of the gods worked in concert to trap the others in the Netherworld. The ones who were betrayed cursed their captors from the world beyond, and after sacrificing a great many of their servants for power, struck their halos from them. So, anyone bearing a god's blessing (there are other visible indicators, just roll with it) without a halo are instantly assumed to serve the Five by the Exiles.