blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
A balanced encounter is supposed to use 1/4 of the parties resources. One extinguished PC out of four sounds like 25% to me...Olaf the Stout said:
My First PC Kill As A DM (Sort Of)
- Thread starter Olaf the Stout
- Start date
Olaf the Stout
Legend
blargney the second said:
I guess you're correct.
However it will take more than 25% of the party's resources to get the PC turned back to flesh. And even if it does follow the guidelines for a balanced encounter, it doesn't make for much fun for the petrified PC's player. He gets to sit there, doing nothing until the other PC's can find a way to bring him back to life. Not very good game design in my opinion.
Olaf the Stout
Hussar
Legend
Yeah, count me in as not a fan of cocktrice as well. Never mind a CR 3 one, advance it a bit and see what happens. A CR 6 cockatrice is brutal. It's hit bonus and save DC's go through the roof.
There's a good critter for another Mearl's Makeover. Instead of instant death, why not have it whack on penalties like a poison or negative levels. Sure, if it hits you a bunch of times, it will kill you, but, the whole 25% chance every round of a PC death is a bit much. Jack up its combat damage and then add in some sort of cumulative slow effect with each bite.
There's a good critter for another Mearl's Makeover. Instead of instant death, why not have it whack on penalties like a poison or negative levels. Sure, if it hits you a bunch of times, it will kill you, but, the whole 25% chance every round of a PC death is a bit much. Jack up its combat damage and then add in some sort of cumulative slow effect with each bite.
QuaziquestGM
First Post
I ran a old module once where one peice of treasure was a cursed scrool of summon cockatrice.
About a week, and another cleared dungeon later, the 1/2 wizard finally gets around to trying to ID the scrool. He was going though treasure in the wagon while eveyone else was having breakfast on the other side.
So he reads the scrool, the cockatrice appears,....and the wizard trys to kill it himself. The fighters are eating rations a few yards away, and he doesn't call for help. 6 rounds later, the wizard is stone, and the cockatrice is gone. When the party finds him, all they got is a statue, a blank scroll, and some chicken tracks.
They had just rescued some elf and human children from some rabolds in an old dwarf mine (changed from goblins to throw the dragonborn pc a bone). One of the elf kids thinks that maybe "Grandpa can fix him", so they load the statue into the wagon. It end up serving as a towel rack, christmas tree, jungle gym, and after encountering a wondering cleric/sundayschool teacher, the PCs take the colored chalk and crayons and "make up" the statue wizard.
I put the elf villiage on the other side of a "monkey god" module, and the pcs ended up crossing a warzone. After they took a fort, they discovered that the orks were sending reenforcments. They put the kids, npc healer, and animals in the kitchen, and used the statue as the last line of defence and overturned wagon as the first.
The pc meanwhile is alternately playing his familiar, one of the kids, or the NPC contact of the day.
The pc ended up staying stoned for nearly 2 full months of game time, but everyone had fun with it.
I will always remember the michivious glee in the eyes of the player of the dwarf pc as he sieged on the throw away line about the cleric giving coloring books to the kids.....
About a week, and another cleared dungeon later, the 1/2 wizard finally gets around to trying to ID the scrool. He was going though treasure in the wagon while eveyone else was having breakfast on the other side.
So he reads the scrool, the cockatrice appears,....and the wizard trys to kill it himself. The fighters are eating rations a few yards away, and he doesn't call for help. 6 rounds later, the wizard is stone, and the cockatrice is gone. When the party finds him, all they got is a statue, a blank scroll, and some chicken tracks.
They had just rescued some elf and human children from some rabolds in an old dwarf mine (changed from goblins to throw the dragonborn pc a bone). One of the elf kids thinks that maybe "Grandpa can fix him", so they load the statue into the wagon. It end up serving as a towel rack, christmas tree, jungle gym, and after encountering a wondering cleric/sundayschool teacher, the PCs take the colored chalk and crayons and "make up" the statue wizard.
I put the elf villiage on the other side of a "monkey god" module, and the pcs ended up crossing a warzone. After they took a fort, they discovered that the orks were sending reenforcments. They put the kids, npc healer, and animals in the kitchen, and used the statue as the last line of defence and overturned wagon as the first.
The pc meanwhile is alternately playing his familiar, one of the kids, or the NPC contact of the day.
The pc ended up staying stoned for nearly 2 full months of game time, but everyone had fun with it.
I will always remember the michivious glee in the eyes of the player of the dwarf pc as he sieged on the throw away line about the cleric giving coloring books to the kids.....
Similar Threads
