Why I don't like Bodaks...

[pallandrome]

Here is the situation. A group of level 7 characters run into a Bodak. The Bodak wins initiative, and being possessed of higher than animal cunning, uses his Death Gaze on the weakest looking party member, I.E. the Wizard. Wizard fails his roll, and dies.

My big problem with Bodaks, and other death effects at this level, is that there are no convenient ways to combat them. Death ward helps a little, but is too short to be used as a pre-combat buff (unless you blow a divination spell each day to find out WHEN a death ward would be of use. The worst part is that, unless you happen to have a druid on you, the bodak kill is perminant at that level. You can't use raise dead on someone killed by a Bodaks death gaze, it has to be ressurection, and not many level 7 groups have 10,000g in diamonds just lying around. Reincarnate can work, but it can also leave a bad taste in the mouth of roleplayers who got into their characters as, say, a grappling specialist Orc, only to become a halfling.

Does anyone have any differing viewpoints on this, or can point out bits I'm missing, or does it just seem like I'm being uptight about it?


Also, I see no reason, as per RAW, that cutting off the head of someone killed by a Bodak would stop that person from becoming a Bodak themselves. Fun Bodak Trick: Evil cleric takes his Bodak pet into a town, uses the Bodak to kill everyone, chops off all the heads, and sets them up on poles. 24 hours later, voila! A dozen Death Gaze sentries, for your enjoyment! Would this actually work?

 

[Voadam]

Cut the head off a bodak and I think it is dead. I'd check if vorpal kills corporeal undead.

In my game I changed save or die to save or dying (down to -1 hp instead of -10). This way PCs have to rush to save their comrades but can continue with the adventure if someone misses a save and I feel comfortable using these types of powers in the game. Otherwise everything would come to a screeching halt to raise up the dead PC.

 

[pallandrome]

Straight from the SRD Vorpal entry...

Others, such as golems and undead creatures other than vampires, are not affected by the loss of their heads.

It looks, so far, like the forest of Bodak heads looks good.

 

[Sejs]

Cut the head off a bodak and I think it is dead. I'd check if vorpal kills corporeal undead.

With few exceptions (vampires, which I believe are specifically called out in the Vorpal description) it does not.

 

[IcyCool]

With few exceptions (vampires, which I believe are specifically called out in the Vorpal description) it does not.

In the Living Eberron adventure that I'm currently running on these forums, the bad guy had a headless skeleton with a Vargouille sitting on it disguised as a woman with a heavy silk dress, and layers of veils and a hat covering the head (and it still didn't move right). It was pretty entertaining to me to be able to announce to one of the players that as the "black veiled woman" moved past, their character could make an attack of opportunity on her head, or her body (there had been plenty of odd occurances at that point to indicate something was up).

 

[Notmousse]

Of course it doesn't mean the head is what comes back as a Bodak. You may just end up animating a bunch of headless Bodaks and have rotting heads on sticks.

So I'd look for a way to skewer the whole corpse to a pike that it can't break.

 

[pallandrome]

Shouldn't be too hard to do. Bodaks only have 13 strength. A good ole classic impalement should do the job. Chop off and burn the hands below the elbows and the legs below the knees, if you are worried about it trying to pull itself off.

 

[Patlin]

I don't like Bodak's either. They aren't much fun -- I've been slashed to ribbons in a single round by a Dragon, for comparison's sake, but the Dragon seems fair and the Bodak is just lame.

 

[IanB]

I also tend to avoid using them - when running a pre-written adventure that uses a bodak, I'll typically just substitute in another creature instead.

Alternatively you could have the gaze attack do some Con damage instead, and keep the same consequences for death?

Say, d6 con damage, or 2d4 save for half?

 

[Boondoggle]

Save or die effects are one of the sacred cows of this edition. Epic battles that abruptly end with one anti-climactic die roll generally aren't a lot of fun. Spells and other limited effects that are designed to protect from them aren't really much help in the fun department. I definitely like the idea of con damage in place of out & out death.