Pathfinder 1E Fighting a Medusa with mirrors?

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

If the medusa is not a solo, she could have a female assistant who covers her face and do something to her hair to make it lumpy. The PCs use mirrors to look at her when the real medusa attacks from behind while invisible. The invisibility drops, the PC looks right at her...

 

[Marshall Gatten]

I would also add that if the Medusa knows the party is coming after her, she will likely put herself in a place that is most advantageous to her. To be honest, I'm not sure what that would be - I'd have to puzzle that out for a bit.

To be brutally realistic, if I could turn somebody to stone by having them get a glimpse of me, and I knew they were coming to kill me, here's how I might defend myself: Paint a map of my lair (probably an inaccurate one, but convincing) and make it complex enough that the whole party will want to take a nice prolonged look at it. Hang it so it covers a hole in the wall at head height. As soon as the characters are all nicely focused on that spot, I'd knock the painting down from behind and leer at them through the hole during the surprise round. Nobody is going to be reading the map through a mirror. If any of them make their saving throw, then step two is pulling the rope that triggers the deadfall trap dropping tons of rocks on them. (For extra flavor, instead of just regular rocks, perhaps they are actually statues of past victims.) Survivors get poison arrows shot at them through the hole in the wall. It's hard to imagine Medusa, knowing ahead of time that the party is on their way, being anything other than a TPK.

(I know she can't gaze attack the whole party at once as written, but what does that mean when the entire party is looking at her? You're not supposed to be able to look upon Medusa. If she can get the attention of several people at once, I see no reason that each of those several shouldn't have to roll their saves. Then again, Medusa is a higher CR in my game than in most, I suppose.)

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Hmm ... what about half-silver glass shields (i.e. one-way mirrors)? How might that work? Negate gaze attack, reflect back to the originator, or both?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Don't one-way mirrors require unusual light sources? And knowledge of physics? Well, I guess a high Int check takes care of the latter.

 

[Marshall Gatten]

One way mirrors don't really exist. They are just the affect of being in a dark room on one side of a peice of glass with people in a bright room on the other side. It can be enhanced with tinting, but that's not going to exist either in most D&D worlds. Even if they did exist, how would that work with a Medusa? You can look right through it and be turned to stone. Maybe she turns to stone at the same time since she's seeing her reflection, but that's a weird way to sacrifice yourself. Or you turn it around and now you can't see her any better than if you closed your eyes, but she can see you just fine. Doesn't sound like a very workable solution.

 

[Unwise]

I guess I am a bad man, because the Medusa my players fought was a vampire. Oh boy the glares I got when they got ambushed by the villain who was standing right in front of them was priceless. She had no reflection of course and they were relying entirely on mirrors.

One had even made up a nifty little periscope to try and see her with. He went to great pains to describe how hard it was to take off his periscope helmet, thinking to thwart any DM bastardry on my part. Seeing him spend 2 rounds taking it off, only to get turned to stone once he did still warms my evil heart.

Of course, I did not tell them that the villian was a vampire, it took them a while to work that out. Once they did though, the clerics liberal use of AE radiant damage and turn undead turned the tide in their favor. It was a close call though.

 

[Marshall Gatten]

I guess I am a bad man, because the Medusa my players fought was a vampire [...] She had no reflection of course and they were relying entirely on mirrors.

Wow. That's inventive. I like it. I like it probably too much for my players' own good... [evil laugh]

I wonder what Medusa would be like if she was infected with Lycanthropy? A werewolf covered tip to tail in snakes? A stone-making bite attack instead of gaze? Hmmm....

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Don't one-way mirrors require unusual light sources? And knowledge of physics? Well, I guess a high Int check takes care of the latter.

One way mirrors are really just partially reflective mirrors, nothing more. The secret is the light levels--you must look from dark to light through them.

Lets say the mirror reflects 50% of the light. There's a one-way mirror in place of a window.

We are outside under a full moon. That's EV -3 (Exposure Value--it's from photography. I'm using it as an easy way to quantify light levels. Here's a detailed listing.) Inside is candlelight. I'm not finding a good value for a room lit by candles, lets call it EV 2.

From the outside: We see a reflection at EV -4 and the room at EV 1. Effectively we see only the room. From the inside we see the same thing--only the room.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I guess I am a bad man, because the Medusa my players fought was a vampire. Oh boy the glares I got when they got ambushed by the villain who was standing right in front of them was priceless. She had no reflection of course and they were relying entirely on mirrors.

That's *EVIL*!

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I guess I am a bad man, because the Medusa my players fought was a vampire. Oh boy the glares I got when they got ambushed by the villain who was standing right in front of them was priceless. She had no reflection of course and they were relying entirely on mirrors.

One had even made up a nifty little periscope to try and see her with. He went to great pains to describe how hard it was to take off his periscope helmet, thinking to thwart any DM bastardry on my part. Seeing him spend 2 rounds taking it off, only to get turned to stone once he did still warms my evil heart.

Of course, I did not tell them that the villian was a vampire, it took them a while to work that out. Once they did though, the clerics liberal use of AE radiant damage and turn undead turned the tide in their favor. It was a close call though.

That's HILARIOUS! Tried to xp you but "must spread around ..."