D&D 5E Underdark Bad Dreams make a save to long-rest POLL

[CapnZapp]

I'm running OotA and I want to make long rests less certain to keep my players on their toes.

What I can't decide on is what I am asking you to help out with:

What save or saves do you think would be appropriate? (The DC will probably be DC 10 if anyone wonders. If you fail the save you have just spent 8 hours but you can only gain a short, not long, rest out of it)

Con Save - Classic
Wis Save - Also classic, but lots of things in OotA already require Wisdom (Survival, Madness, you name it)

Con favors fightery types; Wis favors spellcastery types (mostly clerics, pals and rangers of course)

Cha Save - becuse those mad dreams attack your sense of self

Your choice: Con or Wis
Your choice: Con or Cha
Your choice: Wis or Cha

Choose your own (highest) save - to level the playing field; all classes have a chance to leverage a +5 ability and a +3 proficiency for a near-assured success

What do you feel would be the "standard" choice if this was in the module from the start?

 

[discosoc]

Each class is balanced differently, so in such a case someone like a Monk wouldn't care, but a Wizard would be devastated. Since the mechanic doesn't effect everyone the same, it's kind of useless and likely to feel punitive to certain players rather than enhance the game.

 

[CapnZapp]

Each class is balanced differently, so in such a case someone like a Monk wouldn't care, but a Wizard would be devastated. Since the mechanic doesn't effect everyone the same, it's kind of useless and likely to feel punitive to certain players rather than enhance the game.

If you do not agree with the premises of a certain thread, feel free to not post in said thread!

 

[El Mahdi]

I like the idea of using whatever is most appropriate for that character.

High Wisdom and High Intelligence characters resist it mentally.
High Constitution and High Strength characters resist it physically.
High Charisma characters resist it through force of personality.

The only snag I run into is envisioning Dexterity being able to help. Maybe their nervous system is more agile to resisting it...?


BTW, I think your idea sounds really cool. I think it will add some unique and appropriate flavor to your game.

Quartz's modification is interesting to me too...

 

[Quartz]

It's really not a good idea. If they don't get long rests they'll accrue levels of exhaustion which will only make things worse. If you want to keep players on their toes make it happen if they roll a 1 on a die of your choice, unmodifiable by racial or class abilities.

 

[discosoc]

If you do not agree with the premises of a certain thread, feel free to not post in said thread!

Has nothing to do with not agreeing with the premise. Just pointing out that your solution only effects certain characters.

 

[MarkB]

It's really not a good idea. If they don't get long rests they'll accrue levels of exhaustion which will only make things worse. If you want to keep players on their toes make it happen if they roll a 1 on a die of your choice, unmodifiable by racial or class abilities.

Yeah, it's going to really suck to be the only one to fail their save in this party.

And what about elves? They don't sleep.

 

[spectacle]

I think it's obvious; make it a SAN save. OotA seems like a great adventure for using the optional rule for a Sanity attribute from the DMG. Since no class has SAN as a primary or secondary attribute you won't get certain classes being more susceptible to madness than others, but players would still be free to build characters that are pillars of sanity, borderline lunatics or somewhere in between depending on how they want to allocate their attribute scores.

I also think that rolling a save for a slight chance to not rest is a great idea for adding some tension to what would otherwise be a completely unchallenging trek through the underdark. To balance things between classes, you could also make it so that if you fail your save you also can't benefit from short rests until after your have had a successful long rest.

Elves can have their trance interrupted by disturbing visions for the same effect. Maybe give them advantage on the save to finally make the "doesn't sleep" feature do something.

 

[AtomicPope]

I'm running OotA and I want to make long rests less certain to keep my players on their toes.

After reading through Out of the Abyss, but sadly not playing it, the Cthulhu themes are very strong but not in a way that expresses itself well with the high heroism of DnD.

What you might want to try for is a somewhat formulaic Dream sequence for one or two of the players. I've done this in other games (typical nWoD since the system and style lends itself to such things), and typically what I will do is start the session like it's a normal adventure. Then start adding things that are different. Talking monsters or enemies that show up with a character's mother or 2nd grade teacher. Have everyone play their characters as normal but slowly move the dream to something personal for one particular character. Let the dream tell a certain story, connecting the past and future, but not an obvious foreshadow. An easy way do to this is to insert a plot device, something that can be spotted later on in the story to serve as a clue: Rollo Tomasi, a lost button, or the smell of soap when you shake someone's hand. These are used in film and literature (L.A. Confidential, Sherlock Holmes and Great Expectations respectively) to create continuity, dramatic tension, and characterization later in the story.

An example might be, if one of the character's family members was killed by raiders then you have a that family member appear in the session and introduce you to a "friend", one of the Drow that's chasing the party. You roleplay that Drow like they don't know what he's talking about when it comes to slavery or the PC's being captured. Change it up a bit and keep it odd. Use one of then encounters in the module and have the Drow explain it while helping. Or maybe the "friend" is the Red Dragon. Choose a particular story you want to tell and let the players live it through roleplaying. Add in some Easter Eggs too, like a magic sword in a lost tomb.

The best part about these types of sessions is the dream can be fast-paced, odd, informative, and relatively quick (an hour or two). Also, you can make it VERY dangerous and give the PC's a taste of what some of these monsters can do. It's often good to kill the other PC's, but if the dreamer dies everyone wakes up. If the dreamer lives give everyone Inspiration. Since Out of the Abyss is short on experience points, give them the exp of a Hard Encounter. Rewarding players for a good session incentivizes good playing.

This may be redundant but I've done this before and usually do this once or twice in a campaign to switch things up and break the monotony. Since all of the players are involved in the actual gameplay (even though it's not technically their character's dream) they remember the dream, the details, and can make story connections to drive the campaign forward. Make sure you sprinkle in foreshadowing and character background. Make it personal, offbeat, and a bit funny. Most of all, do it just once or twice and stop. Doing this all of the time is a bad idea. It loses its novelty and spontaneity, and the player's won't take it seriously anymore.

 

[Daern]

I've had my players roll up a Sanity stat for this campaign. They roll under for Madness checks.