Turn Undead - alternate results?

[jerichothebard]

So, I ran a game this weekend where the party was clearing out an undead-filled dungeon.

And it was pretty much a cakewalk, because the cleric almost never fails to turn the undead.


Now, I am not terribly concerned with the actual number-crunching involved - I have many ideas on balancing out the undead's resistance vs. the cleric's power.

What concerns me is the all-or-nothing flee & cower results.

The fact is, turning is either a fight-ender (if successful) or totally useless (if not).

Largely because, if an undead flees, it is out of the picture (at least for a while), and if it cowers, the rest of the party mops up after the cleric with no problems or resistance.

So, I'm wondering what other results for turning undead people use. I've considered making it create an area into which undead cannot penetrate (like magic circles), or just do damage to undead... I'm curious as to what everyone else uses.


thanks!
jtb

 

[The Spectrum Rider]

I've actually never seen it as a problem. If you mix together high- and low- level undead, some may be turned and others not.

However, if you're looking to include more moderate results: at certain DC's the undead could be shaken, frightened, affected as if fatigued or exhausted (I say "as if," since they're immune to actual fatigue/exhaustion), dazzled (that's a good one), as if stunned for 1 or more rounds, dazed for 1 or more rounds, suffer the effects of a bane spell, suffer the effects of a curse... there's lots of choices.

The Spectrum Rider

 

[Lord Kain]

ok first of all you do know if you come with in like 20ft of an undead that is fleeing or cowering because of turning your break the effect. Causing them to flee is good for only that making them flee.

Ok to make it harder an evil cleric to bolster the undead could be used.
The area could be effect by unhollow or other dark magic to make turning harder.

Finally the feat from Exalted Deeds called Exalted Turning causes 3d6 damage to any undead that is turned.

 

[Majere]

Our DM loves his undead
They are his all time favourite evil badguy because of the silly tricks and stuints he can pull. And he plays them like this:

1) Turned undead are destroyed, because otherwise turning is useless.
The undead run off, and then come back later, oh great. And if the undead are incorporeal this is even more useless.
2) People who make undead will unhallow the area (Giving all the undead turn resistance).
3) High level undead will be surrounded by lower level undead skum who get turned while the BBEG kicks ass.
4) The undead are advanced so that on a turn check only 1 or 2 at most of the evil peps die.

To be honest if you throw a gaggle of 4hd undead against a level 7 cleric your asking him to nerf them all to hell, just as you are asking the fighter to mince them with ease. The point about undead is that their HD should be up around the clerics level, at which point its harder for the cleric to turn them and he turns less of them.

Majere

 

[Aaron2]

So, I'm wondering what other results for turning undead people use.

I have two lesser results. The first and weakest result means the undead will only attack the turning character if there is no other possible people to attack. The second, intermediate, result prevents the undead from approaching within 10' of the turning cleric but they are otherwise unaffected.


Aaron

 

[rkanodia]

I played on a Neverwinter Nights server that had an alternate version of turning that worked pretty well. Undead that were successfully turned got knocked back 5' and fell prone, and couldn't stand for one round. I think they also took something like 1 point of damage per cleric level of the turning cleric. Undead who would have been destroyed under the standard rules suffered all of the above effects, +1d4 damage per cleric level.