Community

From Rich Baker's blog, posted October 31st. 

community.wizards.com/wotc_richbaker/blo...

Interesting talk about the art keeping the iconic Brom look, and some teasing about the 4e belgoi mechanic. Plus this:

The belgoi are psionic *fey*, not natural humanoids. That's why they have their supernatural powers and the strange but flavorful focus of a bell for their mental summons. The Feywild of Athas is in pretty poor shape (more on that in another post, I guess), so centuries ago the belgoi abandoned it and became roving nomadic predators in the deserts.

Interesting. I can go with that! Though the tease about the Feywild has me chomping . . .

Belgoi used to drain constitution...it's the Thrax that drained water.

"...the story indicated they attacked you in camp and tried to lure one PC at a time out into the desert. That just didn't play well at the table; as soon as the DM asks for Joe to make a saving throw and Joe fails it, the other players at the table are shouting things like "I tackle Joe to keep him from leaving!" or "I look for monsters out in the dunes!" In other words, player metagaming meant that the belgoi encounter never worked the way it was supposed to even though it was an evocative story."

I've read a bunch about Belgoi. I love the ideas behind them, but none of the encounters I've played have ever had the look or feel that is described. Rich talks about metagaming problems, and I totally agree.

Has anybody ever had a "fun" encounter with a Belgoi - something memorable? Something where the characters didn't have the foggiest idea what was happening until the last moment? How did the DMs do it?

Nov 2, 2009 -- 10:22PM, Pennarin wrote:

IMO there will no longer be equivalencies of levels between 2e/3e monsters and what we'll make of them in 4e. For example, the T'Chowb was this low-level critter in 2e/3e yet that could drain Intelligence and cripple a character. Those crippling powers (stun, preventing from attacking, preventing from using powers, etc) are now reserved for higher level monsters, even elite or solo ones. My variant T'Chowbs are currently solos of close to level 10 or higher.

Ohh that's a tough one. You make a good point: that powerful abilities, such as stun, "save or die" powers, etc... tend to be reserved for high-level critters. But one of the reason Dark Sun was difficult was that even low-level creatures has these nasty/powerful abilities. Does this 4e rule still have to stand, or could low-level critters still have power abilities without destroying the system? Does this 4e rule-of-thumb make sense in Dark Sun or are we now forcing it into Dark Sun?

In Dark sun, a lot of the critters, even at low levels, would seem to make good solo creatures. Right? The T'Chowb and Belgoi would make good examples of such creatures. The entire party would face off against one creature. But if the Belgoi uses its bell to attract one creature, or the T'Chowb hides and attacks one player at a time, what is the rest of the party doing? Rich says they often meta-game, and I agree.

Here are some alternatives I've been thinking of:

1. Rich's answer is to throw in more creatures to the combat... the Belgoi lurker picks a character that the Belgoi tries to take out, one by one. The other characters get distracted by the remainder of the combat. For example: a combat encounter could involve 1 Belgoi Lurker/Leader + 4 Zombies Brutes. 
2. Skill Challenge: make the encounter a solo with one Belgoi Lurker Solo. The Belgoi attacks one character at a time and drains the player's strength. The other characters need to "find" the Belgoi before they can join in the attack. Using Insight (to hear the bell), Perception (to see the belgoi), Nature (tracking the Belgoi/Player), Arcana (general knowledge about Belgoi) or Athletics (out-run the Belgoi). Once the character "find" the Belgoi, they get a couple of chances to take it out before it flees... only to come back again by dominating another player, and attracting it out into the darkness.
3. Make the T'Chowb a solo, low-level encounter, with some of the nasty powerful abilities listed above, but give the powers weaknesses or work arounds that require player actions. For example, give the T'Chowb a rechargeable power that stuns everybody in a close blast. The stun ends with a save. However, the T'Chowb's ability doesn't regenerate or all players are no longer stunned if the T'Chowb takes damage during the round. That way, characters need to work together to make sure the T'Chowb is constantly taking damage (no matter how small) - mostly this is the goal of a striker. The leaders will be helping the striker hit, giving flank, whatever. Defenders and controllers need to make sure the T'Chowb doesn't run off and hide.

Sorry, I meant that t'chowbs are now elites. I reasoned back then, like it was just mentionned, that these monsters needed a support group. 2e monsters were not presented to DMs as creatures that co-operated.