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The fear of the Wight is the beginning of wisdom
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<blockquote data-quote="nnms" data-source="post: 5502318" data-attributes="member: 83293"><p>Well, I tested it. More below.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I'm not sure this is the case. It could be that I don't run encounters where the only options are kill every monster or be killed by them, but surely players can think of a few things to do in a circumstance where they fight a monster they can't hurt. Escape (either forward or backward) should probably be high on that list.</p><p></p><p>I don't buy that not being able to reduce a monster's HP to zero makes one useless. </p><p></p><p>In the session I ran with wights with this ability, the hunter did an amazing job dazing, knocking prone, slowing and sliding the wight around. Another character had charged the wight and upon finding out the attack did nothing, the controller (who only did untyped damage and by the quote above, should have been rendered "useless") totally shined. After the more conventional undead were taken care of, those with the ability to hurt the wight killed it pretty quickly. All told, the wight managed to successfully hit once during the first encounter that had one.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>If you were a warrior and found yourself facing a foe you could not harm, what would you do? Keep attacking it again and again uselessly while it killed you and all your friends? Or look for another option?</p><p></p><p>In another encounter, I tested an undead warrior that had a high resistance to untyped damage rather than an immunity. Powerful encounter powers only did one or two points of damage, but it was the power's rider effects that the PCs wanted to apply to the undead knight. They utterly overwhelmed it and destroyed it. The party is a pretty typical mix of power sources and damage types. The wizard ended doing the lion's share of the damage to it along with the cleric.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yes. See:</p><p><a href="http://slamdancr.com/wp/2011/01/what-is-fourthcore/" target="_blank">What is Fourthcore? | Save Versus Death</a></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>In BECMI (and other previous editions of D&D), a wight represents a threat so much more enormous than losing a bit of your hit point recharge. A hit represents losing an entire level. Or if you're level 1, instant death. One of my design goals is to restore that level of threat without:</p><p></p><p>a) undoing the player's accomplishment by taking away the XP they've earned</p><p>b) instantly killing a PC because a monster hit them</p><p></p><p>Part of the difference in approach is also how I design/run adventures. There are no "must do" encounters. The PCs goals are what drives their decision making and how they fight and whom. Here's a great blog post about rethinking the dungeon that will provide some more background information:</p><p><a href="http://www.robertjschwalb.com/2010/09/reexamining-the-dungeon/" target="_blank">Reexamining the Dungeon</a></p><p></p><p>So imagine a situation where the PCs have decided they need to get into the Catacombs of Tael Shar and discover that it's guarded by a Battle Wight that can't be harmed by their attacks. The players options might include things like:</p><p></p><p>1) Go fight it and die.</p><p>2) Try to lure it out of the gateway so they can sneak/rush past it</p><p>3) Go find a means to arm themselves with weapons/equipment that can hurt it (holy water, alchemical fire, etc.,).</p><p>4) Find another entrance to the Catacombs</p><p>5) Trick another creature into battling with it to distract it</p><p>6) etc., etc.,</p><p></p><p>This type of creature modification is ill suited to a game where the players don't have any meaningful choice when it comes to whom they fight, why, where or how. So yeah, for a (sadly) typical game where the DM runs the players through encounters, without their input or choice, it'd probably result in PCs seeming useless (or even a TPK).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="nnms, post: 5502318, member: 83293"] Well, I tested it. More below. I'm not sure this is the case. It could be that I don't run encounters where the only options are kill every monster or be killed by them, but surely players can think of a few things to do in a circumstance where they fight a monster they can't hurt. Escape (either forward or backward) should probably be high on that list. I don't buy that not being able to reduce a monster's HP to zero makes one useless. In the session I ran with wights with this ability, the hunter did an amazing job dazing, knocking prone, slowing and sliding the wight around. Another character had charged the wight and upon finding out the attack did nothing, the controller (who only did untyped damage and by the quote above, should have been rendered "useless") totally shined. After the more conventional undead were taken care of, those with the ability to hurt the wight killed it pretty quickly. All told, the wight managed to successfully hit once during the first encounter that had one. If you were a warrior and found yourself facing a foe you could not harm, what would you do? Keep attacking it again and again uselessly while it killed you and all your friends? Or look for another option? In another encounter, I tested an undead warrior that had a high resistance to untyped damage rather than an immunity. Powerful encounter powers only did one or two points of damage, but it was the power's rider effects that the PCs wanted to apply to the undead knight. They utterly overwhelmed it and destroyed it. The party is a pretty typical mix of power sources and damage types. The wizard ended doing the lion's share of the damage to it along with the cleric. Yes. See: [url=http://slamdancr.com/wp/2011/01/what-is-fourthcore/]What is Fourthcore? | Save Versus Death[/url] In BECMI (and other previous editions of D&D), a wight represents a threat so much more enormous than losing a bit of your hit point recharge. A hit represents losing an entire level. Or if you're level 1, instant death. One of my design goals is to restore that level of threat without: a) undoing the player's accomplishment by taking away the XP they've earned b) instantly killing a PC because a monster hit them Part of the difference in approach is also how I design/run adventures. There are no "must do" encounters. The PCs goals are what drives their decision making and how they fight and whom. Here's a great blog post about rethinking the dungeon that will provide some more background information: [url=http://www.robertjschwalb.com/2010/09/reexamining-the-dungeon/]Reexamining the Dungeon[/url] So imagine a situation where the PCs have decided they need to get into the Catacombs of Tael Shar and discover that it's guarded by a Battle Wight that can't be harmed by their attacks. The players options might include things like: 1) Go fight it and die. 2) Try to lure it out of the gateway so they can sneak/rush past it 3) Go find a means to arm themselves with weapons/equipment that can hurt it (holy water, alchemical fire, etc.,). 4) Find another entrance to the Catacombs 5) Trick another creature into battling with it to distract it 6) etc., etc., This type of creature modification is ill suited to a game where the players don't have any meaningful choice when it comes to whom they fight, why, where or how. So yeah, for a (sadly) typical game where the DM runs the players through encounters, without their input or choice, it'd probably result in PCs seeming useless (or even a TPK). [/QUOTE]
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