Babies as body shields...

[Rel]

As the father of an infant, I can assure you that this would provide a severe circumstance penalty to your Move Silently rolls. And frankly, wearing "Baby Armor" for more than a few minutes would require some kind of Sanity Check in my games. The cacaphony of multiple screeching voices would push most people over the edge.

And if you try to go with a slightly older child for an increased cover bonus and to cut down on the number of voices, you're in for a whole other kind of trouble. Then you get the constant stream of questions: "Why are you so mean why are you furry all over what's that pointy thing who are those guys where do babies come from?..."

No thanks. I'd rather just have the heroes kill me.

 

[Carnifex]

Rel - the bad guys in question are werewolves, and not your standard MM ones either; they've been created by the warping corruption of a rather lovecraftian Elder God, and are led by a truly psychotic and callous master werewolf. They're all quite insane already, no need for further San checks They don't think along the same lines as normal people...

The babies are the younger kind.

The Move Silently thing isn't a problem. The PC's are holed up in a temple along with some militia and a bunch of pretty much defenceless peasants. They're in a small village that the werewolves crept into overnight and killed most of the occupants, with the survivors fleeing to the temple. They just survived the first wave of lesser werewolves, and during the battle the second wave (the leaders and the master, wearing babies), moved into position, and within seconds of the first wave being routed they've closed in too.

 

[Sodalis]

your own baby or someone else?

your own- i would not even think about it. no animal in their right nimd- much less savage beats would do this to their own young. Cannibalism is used for survival- and to even think of using your own child as a shield is just sick.

using someoen else? I would make that very difficult- as they child would notlisten to you, stay quiet and stop struggling.. and much muchmore to huinder more than help...

and how in the deep blue sea did you come up with baby armor...?

 

[med stud]

Making the babies be still is not that hard if you dont feed them properly, or give them a concussion or something like that.

Just writing about it makes me sick though

As a PC, it's a really hard situation. On one hand, you can pull your punches or maybe save the babies, but as the only ones really capable of dealing with the threat, pulling your punches may prove fatal to the entire community. It is the interrest of few vs the interrest of many.

Decisions like this have been made historically on a lower and less dramatic scale; Viking and Spartan fathers decided on who of their children they would keep and who they would just leave in the woods. I dont think they did it out of some strange religious reasons or that they enjoyed it, it was just their reallity that a weak child could mean disaster in a world with small margins. Applicate that thinking on the villagers in the temple.

 

[Henry]

your own baby or someone else?

your own- i would not even think about it. no animal in their right nimd- much less savage beats would do this to their own young. Cannibalism is used for survival- and to even think of using your own child as a shield is just sick.

using someoen else? I would make that very difficult- as they child would notlisten to you, stay quiet and stop struggling.. and much muchmore to huinder more than help...

and how in the deep blue sea did you come up with baby armor...?

As he noted in his first post, it wasn't an idea new to him... A certain beloved moderator is the instigator of this Rat-bastardly tactic.

Plus, the opposition would doubtlessly drug the little boonchkins to keep them quiescent...

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I don't know which is more disturbing: this thread or the fact that this thread isn't the most disturbing one I've found on this forum.

 

[drothgery]

Of course, repeated uses of this kind of tactic will lead to the rat-bastard all-wizard party focused on the art of targetting bad guys who use human (or elven or whatever) shields. Cover is useless against a magic missle, after all...

 

[Hedgemage]

My sick bastich of a DM once had our group encounter a wererat who was feeding babies to a gi-normous dire rat. Before he changed into rat form he used the baby he was holding to get in a couple of good whacks on our cleric.

No baby-shields though. They're too valuable for snacks to be used as shields.

 

[Limper]

How is this a issue? Shoot through the baby...... they're soft and feeble and couldn't provide any substantial cover.

Just my thoughts.

If you want to get even hold a knife to a puppies throat.... that'll show the werewolves.

 

[mirzabah]

Challenging your players with moral dilemmas is all very well and good, but you have to make sure there is at least the possibility of a win. Otherwise it's not really a "challenge" anymore - it's just plain f***ing with their heads. It may be fun for you, but at the expense of your players' enjoyment. It's just like rolling a d20 behind your screen and announcing "you're all dead" - except more depressing.