Checkmate for BOZ and Shade !

[JiCi]

Congrats for the "Checkmate" article in Dragon #358 guys. Those constructs are great, but I see a few issues.

- All 6 pieces can advance in class levels, but what are the LAs of each one ?
- All the pieces, except the king, have a "Advanced" paragraph. What it intentional ? If so, what advice can you tell to players and DMs alike to enhance the king chess piece.
- Are the special abilities available at all time, or only in a chess-like encounter ? what about the king's weakness "check and mate" ?
- Could the pawn and the knight wear armor ? They have natural armor even if they're depicted with armors, but could they wear a full plate on top of it ?
- Can a knight be dismounted ? If so, what's the stats for its mount ?

Aside from that, it's all good. Great work again !

 

[freyar]

Have to say that I really enjoyed this one, too. Now if I can just figure out where to work them into an adventure.

 

[Shade]

Thanks, guys!

To answer the questions....

1.) We didn't figure LAs, as we didn't think they'd make good player characters. However, if I had to eyeball them, I'd go with pawn +4, knight +5, bishop +5, rook +6, queen +7, king +7.

2.) Here's what we turned in for the king. It was probably cut for space.

ADVANCED KINGS
A king’s favored class is duskblade (Player’s Handbook II 19). If you are not using this book in your campaign, substitute fighter as its favored class.

3.) Abilities and weaknesses were intended to be always present, in or out of chess battles.

4.) I'd leave that up to you. It seems odd to wear armor over what looks like armor, but really nothing prevents it. The pseudo-armor grants a natural armor bonus, so it would stack with regular armor.

5.) The knight and mount are one composite being, so it can't be dismounted and they don't have separate stats. (At least that's how we saw it).

 

[JiCi]

Thanks for the answer Shade, I'll make good uses of these.

By the way, I think we should come up with new chess-like encounters. You guys have put up a chess board for mind flayers, githyanki, undead, devils and such.

Demons, archons, and even dragons (especially for the strategic sapphire gem dragon) could be fun to run. What do you guys say ?

 

[BOZ]

we kind of wanted the abilities to be useful outside of a chess match, to give the creatures more utility outside of such a game.

as for the knight and mount, i think i insisted we go the path of making it a single creature just to avoid that extra stat block.

 

[JiCi]

Have to say that I really enjoyed this one, too. Now if I can just figure out where to work them into an adventure.

If you've seen/read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, you get a nice idea: have your party play chess against these constructs in order to advance in a dungeon. You could also have it with a dragon, a very strategic one, such as the sapphire.

Oh, I forgot a question for you guys.

- If a king wielding a dire mace has reach, what about another user ? Does a human has reach when wielding a dire mace one-handed or two-handed ? If so, can it strike adjacent opponents ?

 

[freyar]

If you've seen/read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, you get a nice idea: have your party play chess against these constructs in order to advance in a dungeon. You could also have it with a dragon, a very strategic one, such as the sapphire.

Oh, but that's just so cliche now!

 

[JiCi]

Since the queen has a dominating gaze, you could have a lawful evil queen dominate or charm (with her spells) other creatures in order to battle them in a chess game. The losers get either killed or enslaved, which could lead to possible conquering of small villages and towns.

 

[freyar]

Since the queen has a dominating gaze, you could have a lawful evil queen dominate or charm (with her spells) other creatures in order to battle them in a chess game. The losers get either killed or enslaved, which could lead to possible conquering of small villages and towns.

Now I like that idea! Very RBDM!

 

[JiCi]

Or have your party witness the capture of fellow allied NPCs, lead them to a land-sized chess board and have the opposing pieces challenge them to a game, using the NPCs as the PCs' chess pieces. The pieces could work for someone else who wants, not to eliminate the PCs right away, but to discimate their forces piece by piece. (Okay, pun intended)