PolterGhost
First Post
Too bad you can't actually put that on a potion, eh?
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N00b DM Questions
- Thread starter Scorponox
- Start date
Jacob
Explorer
I like what has been said already, but I feel it needed to note all the same.
It's not cheap for an NPC to have plenty of magic up its sleeve to disguise their true intentions, making their Bluff, Disguise, Diplomacy and all other checks high. In fact, you should have them there in order to manipulate the PCs who believe they have found a trustworthy NPC. Ring of Mind Shielding comes to mind, which blocks detect thoughts, discern lies, and alignment checking.What is cheap is a perfect defense of disguising your intentions. No matter how high your bonus is, if you should roll a Nat 1, you fail. If the PCs roll a Nat 20 against your high bonus, they still win no matter the number (though variant rules are popular). No matter what you do, you will be found out eventually should they stick around long enough.
Don't think of this as a setback, but as a boon: the players are rewarded for their incredible luck (and high ranks) by discovering someone of incredible power slipped in some means. what happens next is up to the PCs. Do the PCs call the corrupter out on the spot, who then chases the PCs to keep them silent? Or do they hold their secret and investigate what's going on, and undermine him slowly? A great setup for story.
Ok, as Steel Dragons asked upthread, the Wood Beholder fight was tonight! And this one was a classic. On the way to Ft. Kaylea, they encountered two nasty huge centipedes, that took a pretty big chunk out of their spells and HP. But they ended up with two strands of centipede silk, which they found out from their procurer NPC (He's like a merchant that knows the value of many items, and helps them pick out what to get from the corpses of the monsters they's slain.) is pretty valuable to seamstresses.
They rest for the night in the wilderness, and head out in the morning. As I planned already, they ran into a group of merchants, who were arguing about what they should do. The adventurers ask them, and they ask the adventurers to look over the little hill. They then see the Wood Beholder.
They are nice adventurers, so they actually don't ask for any money, but instead decide to get rid of it for free. The merchants join them on top of the hill in anticipation.
The party setup was Dwarf Cleric, Dwarf Fighter, Human Swashbuckler, and Human Sorceress.
They ask if anyone there knows anything about the Wood Beholder. Since they decided to bring along Sara the gardener, I rewarded them by telling them all the attacks of this plant, saving the part about the fairies, which I figured would be very specialized knowledge. Since Sara was a gardener, she would most likely be pretty familiar with this type of plant. The Procurer also told them how valuable the flowers are, and mentioned the very rich like to have them on their party gowns.
The Wood Beholder lumbered along the road, and the sorcerer casts invisible on the fighter. Sara then says she has heard these can see through invisibility. She was a commoner, and she would interpret it this way, when in reality, what the Wood Beholder really had was Tremorsense.
The fighter moves towards the tree, and the Cleric loads his crossbow and shoots it, hitting the plant in the arm. Note: This is important in the development of the story, because it was the adventurers who fired first, despite the Wood Beholder not attacking them at all. The Wood Beholder screams a low-pitched scream that sounds like it echoes straight from the caverns of Hades, and lumbers a little bit more swiftly towards the party. Swashbuckler moves between the trees of the forest, trying to get close to the thing to avoid any ranged attacks, if it has any.
Fighter then gives out a Dwarven war cry, and charges the Wood Beholder. But as he nears, the giant tree spews fourth its sleeping gas! (Readied action) The brave Dwarven fighter, still invisible, keels over and enters dreamland, hitting the forest floor with a clang.
Note: There was some discussion on the interpretation of the rules for Sleep. They said they think the person is still standing when they get hit with sleep spells, but it made no sense to us, since we don't know anyone who sleeps standing up. So we houseruled in the falling down while asleep.
The battle went on, with the Wood Beholder doing all it could to hold off the adventurers. It hit the well armored fighter with it's +10 atk arms several times, doing severe damage often. The poison needles, however, did not manage to pierce the armor of many of the adventurers, but still managed to poison the Sorceress twice. She also managed to avoid the silencing gas, just staying out of range and summoning fourth an army of badgers that helped the adventurers fight the Wood Ticks the Wood Beholder constantly spit out.
The Swashbuckler found himself entangled in the vines a few times, surrounded by Wood Ticks, but managed to break out at one point and head towards the Cleric, standing at a distance. The Cleric was able to restore his HP, which was down to less than 1/4 at one point.
The Cleric also cast this one spell on the Fighter that allowed him to share damage with the Fighter, so when the Wood Beholder's massive arms beat the Fighter like a red-headed stepchild, the Cleric was able to soften the blows.
At one point in the fight, I thought maybe the players were getting a bit tired of the fight, so I made the Wood Beholder retreat off the road and into the forest when its HP was down to 40%. They could've let it go at this point, as it was off the road and out of the caravan's hair. But nope, then continued to follow it into the forest, doing all they could to hack this thing down. The Dwarven Fighter, with his waraxe, did a lot of damage, as his axe gave him a +1 bonus to damage against plants.
The Wood Beholder was looking the worse for wear, and the crowd started cheering them on. (I gave them a +1 bonus to atk rolls for morale. )
They finally managed to kill it, and with a great thud, the monster fell to the ground. The crowd of merchants and the NPCs travelling with them erupted in cheers and whoops!
As they tried to finish off the Wood Ticks, the crowd started moving towards the downed Wood Beholder, and they heard people arguing in the crowd. Their NPC friends moved ahead of them and blocked them. They said "Some of them said they wanted to grab the flowers!" Which the crowd argued about and started claiming innocence and pointing fingers. Some said they had just never seen one of these monsters up close before and wanted to get a peak. Others wanted to admire the beautiful flowers found on the Wood Beholder. They started asking if they could buy the flowers, in which the adventurers said they are not selling them.
The merchants were also pretty thankful that they got rid of the Wood Beholder, and gave them 30 crossbow bolts, 20 arrows (which they asked for) and 200 gold pieces.
After the commotion was over, the merchants packed up and said they'll probably see them in Fort Kaylea. The Cleric said, since everyone is travelling in the same direction, why not travel together?
The merchants agreed, and they reached the rest stop called Ravenstead, where they checked into the tavern.
The rest of the story, next week!
They rest for the night in the wilderness, and head out in the morning. As I planned already, they ran into a group of merchants, who were arguing about what they should do. The adventurers ask them, and they ask the adventurers to look over the little hill. They then see the Wood Beholder.
They are nice adventurers, so they actually don't ask for any money, but instead decide to get rid of it for free. The merchants join them on top of the hill in anticipation.
The party setup was Dwarf Cleric, Dwarf Fighter, Human Swashbuckler, and Human Sorceress.
They ask if anyone there knows anything about the Wood Beholder. Since they decided to bring along Sara the gardener, I rewarded them by telling them all the attacks of this plant, saving the part about the fairies, which I figured would be very specialized knowledge. Since Sara was a gardener, she would most likely be pretty familiar with this type of plant. The Procurer also told them how valuable the flowers are, and mentioned the very rich like to have them on their party gowns.
The Wood Beholder lumbered along the road, and the sorcerer casts invisible on the fighter. Sara then says she has heard these can see through invisibility. She was a commoner, and she would interpret it this way, when in reality, what the Wood Beholder really had was Tremorsense.
The fighter moves towards the tree, and the Cleric loads his crossbow and shoots it, hitting the plant in the arm. Note: This is important in the development of the story, because it was the adventurers who fired first, despite the Wood Beholder not attacking them at all. The Wood Beholder screams a low-pitched scream that sounds like it echoes straight from the caverns of Hades, and lumbers a little bit more swiftly towards the party. Swashbuckler moves between the trees of the forest, trying to get close to the thing to avoid any ranged attacks, if it has any.
Fighter then gives out a Dwarven war cry, and charges the Wood Beholder. But as he nears, the giant tree spews fourth its sleeping gas! (Readied action) The brave Dwarven fighter, still invisible, keels over and enters dreamland, hitting the forest floor with a clang.
Note: There was some discussion on the interpretation of the rules for Sleep. They said they think the person is still standing when they get hit with sleep spells, but it made no sense to us, since we don't know anyone who sleeps standing up. So we houseruled in the falling down while asleep.
The battle went on, with the Wood Beholder doing all it could to hold off the adventurers. It hit the well armored fighter with it's +10 atk arms several times, doing severe damage often. The poison needles, however, did not manage to pierce the armor of many of the adventurers, but still managed to poison the Sorceress twice. She also managed to avoid the silencing gas, just staying out of range and summoning fourth an army of badgers that helped the adventurers fight the Wood Ticks the Wood Beholder constantly spit out.
The Swashbuckler found himself entangled in the vines a few times, surrounded by Wood Ticks, but managed to break out at one point and head towards the Cleric, standing at a distance. The Cleric was able to restore his HP, which was down to less than 1/4 at one point.
The Cleric also cast this one spell on the Fighter that allowed him to share damage with the Fighter, so when the Wood Beholder's massive arms beat the Fighter like a red-headed stepchild, the Cleric was able to soften the blows.
At one point in the fight, I thought maybe the players were getting a bit tired of the fight, so I made the Wood Beholder retreat off the road and into the forest when its HP was down to 40%. They could've let it go at this point, as it was off the road and out of the caravan's hair. But nope, then continued to follow it into the forest, doing all they could to hack this thing down. The Dwarven Fighter, with his waraxe, did a lot of damage, as his axe gave him a +1 bonus to damage against plants.
The Wood Beholder was looking the worse for wear, and the crowd started cheering them on. (I gave them a +1 bonus to atk rolls for morale.
)They finally managed to kill it, and with a great thud, the monster fell to the ground. The crowd of merchants and the NPCs travelling with them erupted in cheers and whoops!
As they tried to finish off the Wood Ticks, the crowd started moving towards the downed Wood Beholder, and they heard people arguing in the crowd. Their NPC friends moved ahead of them and blocked them. They said "Some of them said they wanted to grab the flowers!" Which the crowd argued about and started claiming innocence and pointing fingers. Some said they had just never seen one of these monsters up close before and wanted to get a peak. Others wanted to admire the beautiful flowers found on the Wood Beholder. They started asking if they could buy the flowers, in which the adventurers said they are not selling them.
The merchants were also pretty thankful that they got rid of the Wood Beholder, and gave them 30 crossbow bolts, 20 arrows (which they asked for) and 200 gold pieces.
After the commotion was over, the merchants packed up and said they'll probably see them in Fort Kaylea. The Cleric said, since everyone is travelling in the same direction, why not travel together?
The merchants agreed, and they reached the rest stop called Ravenstead, where they checked into the tavern.
The rest of the story, next week!
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Also, Harriette, the old lady alchemist wanted to go with them to Ft. Kaylea. The reason being, she has an opportunity to acquire a large quantity of a a very rare, highly valuable, and potentially dangerous substance called Biomimic Gel. It can be used for a wide variety of things, from illegal cloning, to super potions, to replicate expensive substances, and some say they can even use it to create new types of dragons!
Not sure what plot hook I'll try and throw into this, but the real reason I put this in is in case something baaad happens in Ft. Kaylea, (which I am guessing it will) she will be there to help them.
This party is really great in battle and knows what it is doing, but I find they are often taking the word of various unknown NPCs at face value. If I end up killing them, it will probably not be because of battle, but because they either fell into a trap and NPC set for them, or they trust someone a bit too much.
All the NPCs that are with them have been fairly good people so far, but this group seems like it would be easy to plant someone in there who is actually their enemy.
They did ask the old lady why she wanted the Biomimic Gel, but she said if she doesn't buy it, maybe someone who is not-so-good will, and better she have it than potentially their enemy. They asked her what she was going to do with it, but she was not totally forthcoming in her answer, yet they said yes to her anyways, and not only said yes, but agreed to put her large clumsy alchemists lab in their horse cart.
Not sure what plot hook I'll try and throw into this, but the real reason I put this in is in case something baaad happens in Ft. Kaylea, (which I am guessing it will) she will be there to help them.
This party is really great in battle and knows what it is doing, but I find they are often taking the word of various unknown NPCs at face value. If I end up killing them, it will probably not be because of battle, but because they either fell into a trap and NPC set for them, or they trust someone a bit too much.
All the NPCs that are with them have been fairly good people so far, but this group seems like it would be easy to plant someone in there who is actually their enemy.
They did ask the old lady why she wanted the Biomimic Gel, but she said if she doesn't buy it, maybe someone who is not-so-good will, and better she have it than potentially their enemy. They asked her what she was going to do with it, but she was not totally forthcoming in her answer, yet they said yes to her anyways, and not only said yes, but agreed to put her large clumsy alchemists lab in their horse cart.
You must be talking about this being a house rule - because RAW has no auto success or autofail on skill checks.
The nat 1 always fails and nat 20 always succeeds only applies to attack rolls and saving throws - not skill checks.
Rules As Written - as opposed to RAI (Rules As Intended)
I am a lucky fellow! One of my best friends is visiting Vietnam in early December, and so she and I decided to exchange gifts early for Christmas.
Well, she is not a geek at all, but ended up getting me the Dark Sun 4e Creature Catalog and the Pathfinder Bestiary. She ordered them off Amazon a week ago.
Anyways, I was looking through them tonight, and was wondering if these are compatable with DnD 3.5e? The Pathfinder one seems like it is, but there are a lot of things in the 4e Dark Sun book that look....odd. Are there converters online that will convert 4e creatures to be compatible with 3.5e?
She also got me the 4e edition Adventurer's vault, but I have yet to even open that one up.
Well, she is not a geek at all, but ended up getting me the Dark Sun 4e Creature Catalog and the Pathfinder Bestiary. She ordered them off Amazon a week ago.
Anyways, I was looking through them tonight, and was wondering if these are compatable with DnD 3.5e? The Pathfinder one seems like it is, but there are a lot of things in the 4e Dark Sun book that look....odd. Are there converters online that will convert 4e creatures to be compatible with 3.5e?
She also got me the 4e edition Adventurer's vault, but I have yet to even open that one up.
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