WotBS Balance effect - WotBS

[Ormazd]

Hey, all.

So my party is approaching Eresh and the Monastery of the Two Winds, and I am trying to figure out how to work the effect of the Trillith, Balance, on the PCs.

I want them to have some concern about being affected by the malaise, but I don't want it to be this annoying drag as the party wanders around dazed the whole time and unable to fight until bloodied. Has anyone else run this in 4e and have any suggestions for how to make it memorable without becoming a slog?

Thanks, O.

 

[Truename]

So my party is approaching Eresh and the Monastery of the Two Winds, and I am trying to figure out how to work the effect of the Trillith, Balance, on the PCs.

I want them to have some concern about being affected by the malaise, but I don't want it to be this annoying drag as the party wanders around dazed the whole time and unable to fight until bloodied. Has anyone else run this in 4e and have any suggestions for how to make it memorable without becoming a slog?

My 4e group is Entering Eresh on Tuesday. I'm converting the 3e version myself rather than using the (imo substandard) official conversion. I'm planning to make a secret attack vs. Will (modifier TBD) as they enter, then hand out pre-prepared "roleplaying notes" to the ones who fail. The notes will say:

"You have failed an attack vs. Will.

"Effect: You feel a sense of peace and calm suffuse your entire being. You're still in possession of your wits, but have no desire to take aggressive action or disturb the status quo. However, you will defend yourself, reluctantly, if absolutely necessary. As the condition worsens (over the course of several days), you will lose the desire to do anything at all.

"Roleplaying Challenge: Show these symptoms subtly at first and gradually ramp them up to be completely obvious over the next hour of play."

I'm considering a follow-up note for when they leave Eresh.

"The previous effect has been broken. You are overwhelmed by conflicting emotions and loss of control as your previously-suppressed emotions come rushing back. Roleplaying challenge: Your character isn't consciously aware of what's happened to him/her. Demonstrate your loss of control without explaining what happened."

Since the effect ends when the heroes leave Eresh for the monastery, and there aren't any combat encounters before then, I don't foresee any significant problem. After the heroes return from the monastery, Balance has taken sick and her effect is no longer an issue.

 

[Truename]

We played this tonight and it went okay. I didn't think to ask the players how they liked the roleplaying aspect, but from my perspective as the DM, it dragged a bit. We were down a player, so there were only three PCs, and two of them got hit by Balance's effect. That resulted in just once player driving all the action and the other two saying things like, "That sounds like a lot of work." The unaffected PC's player didn't clue in for a while and as a result things dragged.

I think it might have worked better with more players, or if the players affected had been a little more over-the-top in their roleplaying of the effect. If I were to do it again, I'd probably do it the same way, but do more as the DM to drive the action forward.

 

[Ormazd]

Cool. Thanks for the idea and the heads-up.

I think I'll try similar, though I fear similar issues. As an 18th level "disease," it should rightly have something like +22 vs. Will. That, on average, will hit 3 of my 4 characters (assuming I roll sub-5 once). Maybe I'll just roll some dice and tell the two characters with the lowest Wills that they have been affected.

Also, as far as I know, the PCs get an Endurance check (maybe I'll use Insight) to recover each day, and only get a bonus when over a mile away from Balance. The monastery is clearly within a mile of town, so did you apply the Balance effect when the PCs faced the air elemental guards on the mountain path?

Thanks,
O

 

[Truename]

I think I'll try similar, though I fear similar issues. As an 18th level "disease," it should rightly have something like +22 vs. Will. That, on average, will hit 3 of my 4 characters (assuming I roll sub-5 once). Maybe I'll just roll some dice and tell the two characters with the lowest Wills that they have been affected.

Also, as far as I know, the PCs get an Endurance check (maybe I'll use Insight) to recover each day, and only get a bonus when over a mile away from Balance. The monastery is clearly within a mile of town, so did you apply the Balance effect when the PCs faced the air elemental guards on the mountain path?

Well, I'm converting the 3e adventure rather than running the 4e adventure. And it says that the effect attacks when the heroes enter Eresh, and every morning thereafter. According to the 3e version, once you get hit by the effect, you don't get another chance to save.

So I statted it up as a lvl 15 lurker attack to be challenging but not ridiculous. (My players are level 13.) That's +18 vs. Will. I also ruled that the effect went away when they got far enough up the path to the monastery. However, if you don't want to do that, the 3e version says that the effect ends if the target is attacked in any way (p.14).

When they came back, Balance was weakened, and I rolled +8 vs. Will to simulate that. (I also let them know that the "pressure" on their minds seemed weaker somehow, to foreshadow the upcoming loss of Balance.)

I didn't use the disease track rules at all, and probably wouldn't in this case. It's too much mechanics for something that's meant to be an interesting and transitory plot point.