[NFSW] Exotic Terrains - Heroic Tier

[EP]

Its sad but true.

A more appropriate Chaos Effect might be to have all attacks taken from inside the zone target a random creature within reach/range, you could also include the person making the attack as a valid target for the hilarious sight of people attacking themselves.

Or have the effect take on a Clusoe-esque quality. Every missed attack roll actually causes a chain reaction of some kind that ends up striking the original target. You swing with all your might and strike the adjacent wall, which causes a tremor in the dungeon's structure and a large stone falls from the ceiling and strikes the target on the head.

Even if everyone tries roll low and hold their weapons backwards, you know they'll never be able to roll low when they want to. That was the whole basis of AD&D and I could never get the dice to go the way I wanted to.

But there is the mechanical matter of having your missed attacks more likely to strike your target than not. If the target has an AC of 17, you only have a 1 in 5 chance to hit (without modifiers). With this effect, it becomes 4 in 5. The odds even out a little bit at higher levels and such, but this is just to demonstrate a point. I think having this terrain set at high heroic levels (7-9) should even it out somewhat.

Saving throws could easily work this way - you just need to roll 10 or less.

But for a casual exercise, I still get a kick out of watching players intentionally try to screw up in combat.

 

[Apeiron]

What if the chaos field causes d20s to be replaced with d2s (coins). Heads you rolled a 20, tails you rolled a 1. Unless you have house rules for nasty fumbles, this just means there's a whole lot of hittin' crittin' goin' on. Wizards could hit as often as fighters with their staves and daggers, but fighters would still do more damage.

i use this exact effect in a card game of mine.

Zombie Grates:

+X vs Reflex to avoid them grabbing you. Once grabbed, they do dY damage at the beginning of your turn. You make make a +Str vs Z check to escape by force. A attack on the zombie arms is against an AC of A. A hit releases that character.

Perhaps we can crank up the scary by allowing the grabbing hands to grab all they can and make the penalties cumulative*. If you have 2 zombies grabbing and gnawing on you it will get harder to escape and they do more damage. It might be a pain for the DM, but... "Bob has 3 zombies on him. That's an escape DC of 20, and 3d4 damage per round. You'll have to score 3 hits to free him". Hmm.

*Everything Counts, after all.

i'd like to see as something scalable.

 

[EP]

Wild Earth: Any number of effects can be devised and determined by a random dice roll. Very much how chaotic magic has been handled in D&D for years.

Zombie Grates: One thing which never happens to PCs anymore is having their equipment stolen. I just remember that one zombie in the original Dawn of the Dead who gets a hold of the guy's rifle and holds onto it for the rest of the movie. If these zombies could take some of your equipment after grabbing you, it makes a big difference without having to beat the crap out of the PCs.

 

[malcolm_n]

I saw the nettles as stinging the target and clouding its mind. They are a thick bush which is hard to avoid and manages to slip through even plates of armor. Their poison is very weak, which is why it only works while standing in them. It also explains why normally poison-immune creatures are affected because it goes unnoticed at such low potency.

For paragon tier, I was going to update it to have it last until the end of the creature's next turn. Then in epic, I was going to have it last (save ends).

 

[EP]

Excellent. For those of you considering a post for the paragon and epic tiers, I'm considering having both run simultaneously next week and have the third week for building an encounter using these terrains. As always, there will a variable to the exercise, but I'd like to see some full-blown encounters for these bad boys.

 

[Zinovia]

Blood Crystals

Blood crystals grow in deep caverns. They consist of hundreds of thin crystal filaments growing from a central core, much like an enormous sea urchin. The crystals are completely transparent and can be somewhat difficult to see. The merest brush of living flesh will cause them to attempt to pull blood from the creature touching them - and to actually be pierced by one of the filaments is to ensure significant blood loss. The crystals feed upon the iron and other nutrients in blood, once they have fed, they become stained a deep red color. Often you will find the dessicated bodies of rats, bats, and other small animals nestled among the crystal spines. The red color fades over time, leaving the crystals clear once again.

Touching a blood crystal will cause it to attack by drawing blood through the pores of the skin. Being pierced by one through falling on it will cause ongoing damage (blood loss). They do not move, but are hard to see because of their transparency and the thinness of the individual filaments.

Mechanically I'm not sure if they should attack vs. Reflex (to avoid the crystals) or Fortitude (to withstand the blood-drawing effect). Ongoing 5 or 10 damage in the event of a puncture, depending on how nasty you want them to be. I envision these as a terrain hazard that can be used against opponents in a fight - great for pushing things into.

 

[EP]

Mechanically I'm not sure if they should attack vs. Reflex (to avoid the crystals) or Fortitude (to withstand the blood-drawing effect). Ongoing 5 or 10 damage in the event of a puncture, depending on how nasty you want them to be. I envision these as a terrain hazard that can be used against opponents in a fight - great for pushing things into.

I would actually say vs AC so you can approach with your shield to block the needles. This makes the PCs deal with an extra attack against them every round and extra attacks if they fall prone. Or vs Reflex with a -2 damage for characters in heavy armor.

Very cool description. Watching a room of these slowly fill up over the course of an encounter is a very extreme visual.