Building the Chasm of Fire - help a hurried GM - Haraiva players stay out

[GreyShadow]

Pools of super heated tar. Gently bubbling away, going blub blub blub...

 

[masque]

* What icky tactics would you use if you were a Salamander in a firey enclave on the Prime?

I'd have a salamander wiz or sorc whose spells do not revolve around fire (but only one really, otherwise I would think it woudl seem unnatural and taking advantage of the player's sensible preparations). Seriously. Imagine the Prince's primary wizard having ice spells... it makes him especially fearful to fire-subtype creatures. As an added bonus, those coming into the gorge generally aren't protected against ice. Or Electricity or acid. Sonic could be seen as just cheesy.

To be kinder, there could be something of a warning that this particular salamander doesn't seem to be burning as brightly (or merely describe it as red hot and not white-hot, for a more subtle approach), or reduce the fire damage in the radius of the ice spell during that round and the following.

Even more fun, have the prince's other wizard have a nicely devastating fire spell, and have an Antipode 3-style combo attack (Chrono Trigger SNES RPG reference).

Random, mostly useless ideas.

 

[Greybar]

Thanks folks,

Masque - I did have an idea along those lines, though not getting away from the fire entirely. The image was that instead of a old-fashioned and expected <I>Fireball</I>, a conjuration that calls forth a spinning maelstrom of flaming chains that whips through the target area. I like the image of seeing one of the PCs (who has Evasion) ducking and spinning through the torrent of chains without a single blow landing on them.

Mechanism wise, it would be 1/2 fire damage (and thus probably sucked up by their anti-fire preparations) and 1/2 force damage. Reflex SV. Since it would be a Clerical spell, I'm figuring it should be a 5th level spell to match Flame Strike.

john

 

[Greybar]

Thanks everyone - The Palace of Fire was created, stocked, raided and defeated.

Opponents-

4 Salamanders with Fighter1 level
4 Salamanders with Fighter1 level and a magic spear
4 Flamebrothers with Fighter1 level
1 Salamander Noble (the Prince)
1 Salamander Cleric/Runecaster (the Priest)
1 Summoned Huge Fire Elemental
2 Summoned Hellhounds (useless!)

The Fire Elemental hid in one of two pillars of fire and then leaped out at the heroes. The Priest was on a balcony while the Prince was on his throne.

I'll be resetting the map with minis and take a digital pic (probably by midweek). If anyone is interested in the files used to make the map, they are created in CADKEY (CKD files) and I'd be glad to share them in that format or as DWG/DXF or something else.

The heroes prevailed - the only deaths being due to fratricide caused by the struggles over the aforementioned evil artifact axe. Ah, you make a deal with a demon (earlier session), you pay the price.

thanks for the ideas, folks!

john

 

[Piratecat]

Sounds like a fun game.