Torturing a PC and leaving a lasting effect (my players stay out)

[John Crichton]

As a player I can safely say that if my character is tortured by the enemy and I'm left without some permanent mark I'd be seriously disappointed.

Agreed. But I think we are in the minority. Maybe not around ENworld, but in general...

I've had a few characters get pretty scarred. Tis fun.

 

[Amal Shukup]

I think permanent scars - physical or mental - offer characters the opportunity to create memorable and interesting characters.

I'm recalling a character I played from the mid-eighties to the early-nineties. Both 1st and 2nd Edition. He suffered from a variety of psychological afflictions...

Dion (by this point already a borderline alcoholic with poor impulse control) went through a bad patch - he kept getting burnt: LOTS of burning oil, 'greek fire', lava, fireballs, getting trapped under slowly burning debris (fun)...
Reduced to negative hitpoints many, many times.

The grand finale was being brought from 40-odd hit points to minus 30 something from a fire elemental's critical hit (thank you 'Good Hits and Bad Misses'). Several months later, party managed to bring him back.

Body got fixed, and the now thoroughly debilitating alcohol problem yielded to Cure Disease and peer counseling (I kid you not), but Dion NEVER recovered from his major fire phobia. Anytime he was burnt or even 'startled' by fire he had to make a Wisdom check or flee, freeze, or go berserk (randomly selected).

- Dion had a 6 Wisdom. He failed just about every check...
- A fellow party member ('Aryss the _Fire_ Charmer', natch) was notoriously careless about area of effect...
- One notable failed check, while also magically blinded, he managed to flee straight off a cliff...

Favourite. Character. Ever.

So I gotta go with messin' your character up sumpin' fierce... It's too much fun not to.

And I totally don't get this 'un-playable' concern people have - its all playable. Perhaps not survivable (long term), sure, but playable...

A'Mal

 

[RangerWickett]

Give him a phobia of jesus

Good advice for a Druid.

 

[Allanon]

Good advice for a Druid.

OMG... LOL, RangerWickett is teh funny

But more on the topic at hand, I'd think that a good fobia would do nicely. For example:

• Algophobia - a morbid fear of pain (ties in with the whole tortures stuff)
• Autophobia - refers to an abnormal and persistent fear of being alone or of oneself. (same as above)
• Hematophobia - An abnormal and persistent fear of blood. (Although I think traumaphobia more appropraite for this character)
• Merinthophobia - An abnormal and persistent fear of being bound or tied up. (Again ties in with the whole torture scene)
• Noctiphobia - An abnormal and persistent fear of the night.
• Lygophobia - An abnormal and persistent fear of being in dark places.
• Achluophobia / Myctophobia, / Scotophobia - The classic fear of the dark.
• Thantophobia - An abnormal and persistent fear of death or dying.
• Traumatophobia - An abnormal and persistent fear of injury.
• Xenophobia - An abnormal and persistent fear of strangers or foreigners.

I would be wary of high impact phobias as Xenophobia, Achluophobia, Algophobia and Traumatophobia as they really limit a characters usefullness in the long run.


If you're only going for the fun factor Pteronophobia is a nice one to consider , the fear of being tickled by feathers

 

[Dirigible]

Autophobia - refers to an abnormal and persistent fear of oneself

Well, ain't that just a kick in the pants.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Now, I want a way to leave a lasting impression on him by torturing him. It can be pretty much anything, as long as it's not TOO bad, and can't be removed by either a wizard of 9th level or a cleric of 9th level. Just so the druid remembers he was captured and tortured, and so forth.

If memory serves, regeneration only works if the spell was cast prior to limb loss and the lost limb is held up to the stump so it can reattach (that could be the old Trollish Fortitude spell from 2E). What if one of the druid's eyes were burnt out with a hot poker? The poker would have cauterized the wound making regeneration impossible. Typically wounds caused by acid or fire make regeneration impossible so go for limb loss or something like that using one of those two methods. Dipping the druid's hand or foot in Black Dragon acid would be one way to go. The PC could get a peg leg and suffer a movement penalty for it.

 

[Wippit Guud]

Dark druids are still druids, right? They still do nature and stuff?

I think it would rock if it drove the tortured druid to be a Blighter, due to a fear of nature

 

[Agback]

The druid is gonna be stripped, tied up in the Dark Druid's lair, (which is an underground grove of fiendish treants - which I stole from someone on this very board, bless you all) and tortured, while the Dark Druid tells him all about himself, why he's doing what he's doing, and why Dark Druids are right and suchlike.

I got quite a bad reaction when I tried something like this. Much worse than when I have had PCs killed. I would never do it again.

Regards,


Agback

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I got quite a bad reaction when I tried something like this. Much worse than when I have had PCs killed. I would never do it again.

Same here. But I'm a player, and the one with the problem is the DM.

I play a sadistic aasimar blackguard (which shows that he's a bastard) who has a hobby: Torturing. The torture instruments from BoVD is a real treasure chest. And, hey, it's an evil party. But as soon as I want to describe what I do to the guy, the DM almost shouts that he doesn't want the details. He says he wants to keep some standards, but I don't believe him: I think he's too soft to be a DM in an evil campaign.


To get back to the spot: I agree that it is a bad Idea to disfigure him and give him some purely mechanical disadvantages, like a penalty on all cha-based checks or decrease in movement speed. He might think he isn't treated fairly, and also it is unimaginative. Also, such things can often be healed (the spell heal frees you of any injuries, so if you tell him that his leg won't be whole after that spell, it feels forced)

Better give him a phobia, and make him mentally unstable. That's something you can roleplay with. If you want some mechanical aftertaste, let him get nightmares (as the spell). You could even make them be prophecies - in every of these nightmares is some clue to the current adventure, maybe a vital clue. This would mean that he had to allow the nightmares to happen in order to get the information he needs, even though he'd like to suppress the nightmares (it's a will save, something druids are good in).

 

[Painfully]

Bad druid tortures good druid.

I'd begin with a swarm of fire ants. Bite, bite. Munch, munch. Look at all the pretty scars all over his flesh.

Then move on to some bees, but not enough to kill him. You only want him to swell up a bit til he looks like he's gained 40 lbs of baby fat.

For a permanent reminder, especially if the good druid says something offensive to the bad druid, cut out his tongue. Besides the obvious drawbacks, it will now require the good druid to use the silent spell feat for any spells with a verbal component. This is a good way to permanently effect the good druid, while still allowing some room for a partial recovery. However, it will negate his highest level of spells.

Use a poison/venom to permanently damage the druid's eyes, or just remove them altogether. He might overcome his handicapp in some of his animal forms, but will at least be encouraged to take the blind fighting feat, and also to make up for his loss of vision with a magic item or spell.

Perhaps he "declaws" the good druid, by removing fingers and/or toes. Teeth might also be removed, leaving the good druid with no natural weapons in his animal forms, and appearing almost ghoulish to those who have to do business with him in towns. Such damage should certainly lower CHA and DEX scores permanently.

Making a necklace out of the good druid's teeth would just be a further insult, but gives the good druid some hope that he might be able to recover them.

If the treants "stretches" his bones, you might give him a +5 circumstance bonus (once he has fully recovered) to all of his future escape artist checks. It's only fair that he gain something from all his pain.

Insert rot grubs into his ears to eat his brain, just like in Star Trek II. That was just cool. Results from the grubs might be a permanent -2 to WIS, and partial deafness (-5 to all listen checks). These can be compensated by magic items in the future. So, although it is permanent, it isn't something that couldn't be compensated for in some way.