Tempo from the point of view of GMs and Players

[Corinth]

It's because of experiences like this that I abandoned the paradigm of RPGs as a storytelling device. Not once did I see a player not go full-bore once the fighting started; they never held back with their PCs (nor I with mine), so I no longer hold back with the NPCs either. If that means that I wipe out a few parties here and there, so be it- it's part of the game.

 

[diaglo]

...And for his save, he rolled a 1.

Now, I'm already laughing at how overpowered this spell is, which effectively keeps a creature from doing anything for 13 rounds. He can defend himself, but he can't move or attack or pretty much do anything. But I can't believe that even as a 20th level character, his attempts at butt-kicking can be thwarted by a 2nd level spell...

so what happened next? did they kill him? and how did they do it?

finish the story, please.

i thot the spell just made him fall prone. and continue laughing. so for 13 rounds he can't act. but he is not helpless.

so other than gaining +4 to attack him...he still has a high AC. and high Hps.

from the SRD...Prone: The character is on the ground. An attacker who is prone has a -4 penalty on melee attack rolls and cannot use a ranged weapon (except for a crossbow). A defender who is prone gains a +4 bonus to Armor Class against ranged attacks, but takes a -4 penalty to AC against melee attacks.
Standing up is a move-equivalent action that provokes an attack of opportunity.

 

[FireLance]

You know, this thread and Herpes Cineplex's post about an energy got me thinking back to a "dice pool" mechanic that I came up with once, but never got round to using. The basic idea was that characters got to pre-roll some dice, and could elect to "spend" them by using the result instead of rolling whenever they wanted to.

If I was to translate this mechanic into 3e, it would go something like every character gets a "dice pool" equal to his Charisma bonus. You roll a d20 for every point in your dice pool and record the result. At any time, you can use one of these numbers in place of a d20 roll, and the number is replaced by a new d20 roll.

This means if you get lousy rolls, you will look for opportunities to use them when they wouldn't hurt you much, and if you get good rolls, you save them for when they would really count.

Of course, you need to put in place some mechanic to stop players from blowing lousy rolls on Search checks to find an item in their backpacks and effectively "taking 20" on their dice pool numbers.

 

[RangerWickett]

so what happened next? did they kill him? and how did they do it?

finish the story, please.

Well, the full story is a little complicated, but hey, sure:

The villain, named 41, had linked his soul with that of an NPC ally of the party, named Shalosha. Shalosha was friend of a couple PCs, and the fiancee of the main party fighter, Rantle. Rantle and Shalosha each had a Ring of Friend Shielding. Whenever 41 took damage, Shalosha took that much damage, but because of the ring, the damage was split between her and Rantle. 41 also had an effect that let him regenerate, such that he was confident the party would hesitate in killing him because they didn't want to kill Shalosha.

Also, the location they fought in had weird psionic effects. Whenever you attack someone there, you both have to make Will saves, and if both of you fail, you swap bodies. 41 had a +22 Will save, so normally he'd never fail the save, but after he started laughing, he voluntarily let himself fail his save againt the bodyswapping, just so he could get out of his body.

Finally, after 5 rounds and nearly 200 points of damage, one of the PCs who was wailing on him failed his save too, and they switched. Unfortunately, the body he ended up switching into was a crystal golem that the party psion lived in, and it had some odd vulnerabilities that they were able to take advantage of.

The way I ruled it, magical effects stay tied to your body, but psionic effects follow your mind, so 41 was no longer laughing. But unfortunately, the crystal golem body was much weaker than his original one, so he couldn't hit with physical attacks (which was his big power), so he had to settle on recalling agony on the person he used Brutalize Wounds on, since she was hitting him for the most damage.

Meanwhile, Rantle was back with Shalosha, trying to keep her alive by punching her so she'd switch into different bodies that were less injured. Oh, and Shalosha was laughing through most of it, because when they hit 41 with the Tasha's Laughter spell, it also hit her, and she failed the save too. The wizard who cast it finally dispelled it so the party could have more people to beat up on 41, and it was at that point that 41 tried wailing on his original body, hoping to get back into it. But the current occupant would not fail the Will save, so 41 finally went down to a combined barrage of spells and attacks that shattered the crystal body and left his soul trapped in a gem.

So Tasha's Hideous Laughter didn't take him out for the full combat, just 4 or 5 rounds. It was still fun, and we had a little Jackie Chan-esque tactical bodyswapping. *grin*