Banes and Boons
Banes and boons are temporary or limited abilities, complications, or weaknesses granted by the GM for accomplishing something of note to the story. For example, if a character finds a magic sword, they get a "Magic Sword" boon which would function like a Magic Item Ability at the appropriate rank.
Banes are detrimental complications, curses, or penalties while boons are benefits, blessings, or bonuses. Banes and boons are often imposed in place of or in addition to afflictions, conditions, or XP rewards. They can vary based on circumstances, and often have different conditions that must be met in order to remove them or activate them. Some examples are listed here.
Boons and banes can be take away, lost, or suppressed, depending on what they are. Magic items can be taken away and conditional powers may not work in certain environments or may not work on certain targets. Such dependency and volatility makes these abilities less reliable than normal abilities.
However if a boon or curse is ever permanently taken from you, you regain the invested points or losses, allowing you gain new ones or improved others the next time you get an in-game opportunity (as determined by the GM).
Boon Object: Some boons come in the form of objects you have to keep on your person to activate. They may require an action to use or require you to consume a magic item slot, but either way, they cost a surge to activate their effects or can be used only once.
Boon Burn: You can sacrifice a boon at any time to gain 1 temporary surge. Once sacrificed, it cannot be regained except through story interactions just like any bane or boon.
Example Banes and Boons
Anything But That: When you fail a save or a foe hits you with an attack, you can expend this boon to automatically pass the save or cause the attack to miss. When you do so, the next 1d4 instances where you make a save automatically fail and attacks against you automatically hit. The GM rolls this die in secret and rolls all these attacks and saves secretly. Self-inflicted attacks do not count. You can also activate this effect on an ally's behalf to avoid them failing a save or getting hit but only if they are within your reach. You still suffer the consequences even if someone else benefits from the boon effect.
Battle Scar: You have a brutal battle scar. Upon acquiring this boon, you must select one magic item slot. This is where you received the scar. The battle scar gives you +1 innate bonus to Constitution and Intimidate checks. If the item slot is not filled by a magic item or other boon, this bonus increases to +2, and also applies to saves against Bleed, Fear, and Pain effects. If you already have an innate bonus to these things, this stacks.
Blessing of the Wind God (Bag of Wind): You can open this bag to unleash up to 10-tier's worth of air spells. Opening the bag requires the same actions used to cast the spell. Each time you use it, you choose one air spell and cast it as if you knew the spell. Each time you do this, the total tier's worth of magic in the bag are reduced by the tier of the spell you used (minimum drop of 1). Once the remaining value is reduced to 0, this becomes just an ordinary bag and this boon is lost.
Compelled: A new motivation is bestowed upon you in addition to your normal motivation and take two breaking points every time you fail to make progress towards it when given the opportunity. You must fulfill the this motivation to remove it. This is both a bane because of this compulsion but also a boon allowing you to have more than one motivation which you can gain surges and XP for fulfilling.
Curse of Solitude: You take a -1 penalty to all d20 rolls and disadvantage on all attempts to Aid Another and saves against Fear and Emotion effects, but only if the emotions are negative such as fear, rage, or sorrow. Anyone attempting to use Aid Another to help you or use any buff or healing effect on you also suffers these penalties to any rolls they make to attempt to help you. If someone who genuinely cares for you performs an act of affection, such as giving you a kiss, a hug, or giving you a gift, and you do not resist or insult them but politely accept the affection, this bane is lifted.
Cursed by Betrayal: An enemy (named NPC) who was once an ally blames you for their loss and you cannot shake the feelings of guilt or unease. Every time that enemy is mentioned in conversation or you are otherwise reminded of them (such as being in their presence or seeing their banner on the battlefield), you must make a Will save against DC10 + enemy's level + enemy's Charisma modifier or become shaken for the remainder of the scene (or day if this happens outside a scene). You only need do this once per encounter, but a foe can use two actions to invoke the enemy's name and reason they cursed you to force you to attempt this save again. You suffer a -4 penalty to this save if the foe that cursed you is present or if they are dead and cursed you with their final breath. Only by righting the wrong that caused the foe to curse you can this bane be lifted. "Righting a wrong" is defined based on how others feel about it, not your character's feelings such as making amends with the foe, or settling the debt with their next of kin, or achieving the dead foe's dream for them and in their honor.
Desperate Measures: While at 50% or lower on both HP and MP, you can expend this boon and immediately gain 1d6 temporary surges.
Doomed: You suffer disadvantage on saves and skill checks to avoid attacks (such as Acrobatics checks to avoid AOOs) and attackers get advantage on attack rolls against you. If an attacker is a lower level than you, their level is treated as equal to yours for the purposes of calculating attack bonuses and DCs but only for attacks they make against you. A specific set of conditions to end this bane are given upon acquiring it, though your character may or may not know what they are. The GM will give you a hint that typically allows you to figure out what the conditions are to end this bane.
Final Breath: You know you will die soon, and have made peace with it. Upon death, you can say something with your final breath, and inflict a bane or grant a boon to another character. You can use this effect only once. If you're ressurected, the bane or boon you created is lost as a result.
Flower Friend: While within a field of flowers or the Flower Dryad's territory, you gain the benefits of two of the following abilities of your choice: Camouflage, Hide in Plain Sight, Pace without Trace, Wind Stance, Lightning Stance. These abilities do not work against Flower Dryads or any fey or florafolk. You lose this boon if your Influence with the Flower Dryad ever drops or vanishes. You regain it when your Influence with her grows.
Home: You've made a base of operations a home. While resting in this particular place, you heal twice the normal amount of hit points and mana points. The target must be a large place and cannot be an item or inside an item that can be carried around easily. Visiting home should be a trek and a treat for your character.
Letting Go: During a moment of extreme duress, near death, or extreme risk, you can release or destroy a Boon Object, permanently losing the Boon(s) attached to it. Doing this immediately grants you a number of temporary surges equal to the cumulative tier(s) of the Boon(s) lost.
Memento: You kept an object as a memento from an event that was vitally important to you. So long as you keep this object on your person in an obvious spot, you can use an action and spend a surge to grab the memento to remind you of the event, and how it affected you. This can function as an emotion spell such as Calm Emotions, Rage, or Heroism, depending on the events. It can also function as Legend Lore but only for the event in which you took the memento.
Olive Branch: You can give an item of some sentimental or honorary value to someone and gain advantage on a single Diplomacy check with them. You can use this boon an infinite number of times, but each time it's used the item given must have some significance to the person you're attempting to persuade or negotiate with and it must be unique and not just one of many of its kind. It doesn't need to be expensive, just unique and meaningful.
Oracle's Curse: You gain an Oracle's Curse. If this is a bane, you only gain the detriments. If this is a boon, you gain the benefits and detriments as an Oracle with a level equal to your character level. This only lasts until the conditions of the curse are met. Both the bane and boon version have specific conditions which end their effects. For example, the Haunted boon could end if you ever willingly choose NOT to investigate a strange sound or odd coincidence.
Self-Sacrifice: As a free action, you can gain the Combat Reflexes, Body Guard, and In Harm's Way feats for 1 round. You can do this up to three times before this boon is gone. If you already have any of these feats, you can a cumulative +2 competence bonus per feat you already have (max +6) to any Aid Another attempts you make as part of using these feats.
Symbol of Hope: You've become a symbol of hope for certain people. When meeting these types of people, they are automatically one step friendlier than normal towards you.
Token of Thanks: You've been given a token of thanks by an NPC. As an action you can grab the token and reminisce on what you did to receive this thanks. Doing so grants you 2 temporary surges and removes this boon.
Trophy of Conquest: While equipped in a magic item slot, a trophy of conquest grants you a +2 circumstance bonus to Intimidate checks and Perform checks that elicit emotions of fear, unease, or dread. You are also treated as having the Ability Focus fear for all Fear effects you use.
Wrath: You can fly into a rage as a barbarian with a level equal to your level to determine their bonuses. You can use this boon up to three times before it disappears. If you are already a barbarian, increase your effective Rage bonuses by 1 cumulatively each time you use this effect, returning to normal bonuses the third time when its gone.