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9 months ago ::
Oct 03, 2012 - 12:15PM
#11
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Date Joined:
Sep 17, 2012
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Aside from some individual DMing philosphy, is there a LORE related reasoning for warm-blooded reptile critters?
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9 months ago ::
Oct 03, 2012 - 12:31PM
#12
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Aside from some individual DMing philosphy, is there a LORE related reasoning for warm-blooded reptile critters?
Nothing in 4e lore on whether they are warm or cold-blooded. Nothing in Wikipedia or d20 SRD either. I guess it's rightfully left to the DM and players to decide what works for them in that moment.
Even if it did say "cold-blooded" in the LORE and the players needed it to be "warm-blooded" to get a cool plan to work... what would you tell them?
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9 months ago ::
Oct 03, 2012 - 12:51PM
#13
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Date Joined:
Jul 21, 2004
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Aside from some individual DMing philosphy, is there a LORE related reasoning for warm-blooded reptile critters?
Magic.
[N]o difference is less easily overcome than the difference of opinion about semi-abstract questions. - L. Tolstoy
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9 months ago ::
Oct 03, 2012 - 1:15PM
#14
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Date Joined:
Sep 17, 2012
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Aside from some individual DMing philosphy, is there a LORE related reasoning for warm-blooded reptile critters?
Nothing in 4e lore on whether they are warm or cold-blooded. Nothing in Wikipedia or d20 SRD either. I guess it's rightfully left to the DM and players to decide what works for them in that moment.
Even if it did say "cold-blooded" in the LORE and the players needed it to be "warm-blooded" to get a cool plan to work... what would you tell them?
I'd tell them the plan wouldn't work. If the players came to me and said they had a real cool plan to kill a dragon, but it wouldn't work if the dragon had scales, I would NOT rule that dragons don't have scales just to let their plan work.
"I've got a really cool way to kill this beholder, as long as it's no stronger than a goblin."
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9 months ago ::
Oct 03, 2012 - 1:20PM
#15
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Date Joined:
Oct 24, 2001
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In my world, they are warm-blooded. This is a biologically distinguishing feature separating the lizardmen from the dragonborn (in my world). It is also a point of contention between various sages and so-called experts where one group claims they are related and another claims they are unrelated.
However, this world lore came about because my players made it so when 3e introduced the dragonborn. I had not realized I was already doing some of what Iserith does regularly (having players help shape the world) until I started to answer this question.
Here are the PHB essentia, in my opinion: - Three Basic Rules (p 11)
- Power Types and Usage (p 54)
- Skills (p178-179)
- Feats (p 192)
- Rest and Recovery (p 263)
- All of Chapter 9 [Combat] (p 264-295)
A player needs to read the sections for building his or her character -- race, class, powers, feats, equipment, etc. But those are PC-specific. The above list is for everyone, regardless of the race or class or build or concept they are playing.
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9 months ago ::
Oct 03, 2012 - 1:22PM
#16
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Date Joined:
Oct 24, 2001
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Aside from some individual DMing philosphy, is there a LORE related reasoning for warm-blooded reptile critters?
Magic.
Or the evolutionary path of the the development of sentience on the planet. The warm-blooded lizardmen are the evolutionary result of the advantage of warm-blooded over cold-blooded. They are lizardmen, but not lizards. They are reptilian, but not reptiles.
Here are the PHB essentia, in my opinion: - Three Basic Rules (p 11)
- Power Types and Usage (p 54)
- Skills (p178-179)
- Feats (p 192)
- Rest and Recovery (p 263)
- All of Chapter 9 [Combat] (p 264-295)
A player needs to read the sections for building his or her character -- race, class, powers, feats, equipment, etc. But those are PC-specific. The above list is for everyone, regardless of the race or class or build or concept they are playing.
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9 months ago ::
Oct 03, 2012 - 1:30PM
#17
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I'd tell them the plan wouldn't work.
Stealing their thunder on something so easy to give up, something so inconsequential to the game or to the DM. Something that'll make them feel great for coming up with a good plan that works, but you just can't do it because someone, somewhere may have written in a book that it wasn't so. That's unfortunate for your players. And for you, really.
If the players came to me and said they had a real cool plan to kill a dragon, but it wouldn't work if the dragon had scales, I would NOT rule that dragons don't have scales just to let their plan work.
"I've got a really cool way to kill this beholder, as long as it's no stronger than a goblin."
Right, because both of those things are sure to come up just as you say. Wow. Talk about defensive DMing.
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9 months ago ::
Oct 03, 2012 - 1:42PM
#18
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Date Joined:
Sep 17, 2012
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Those are both examples the player sitting beside me came up with on their own.
I'm cool with my DM style/skillz, since we don't play together perhaps you could find it in yourself to do the same?
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9 months ago ::
Oct 03, 2012 - 1:44PM
#19
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There's a difference between 'dragons have scales' and 'lizardmen are cold-blooded', in that there's at least some evidence to support the former, but the latter is entirely undefined.
And 'I have a plan to defeat this beholder provided it's no more powerful than a goblin' fails on more levels than I can easily articulate, one of which being that there's no reason a goblin couldn't be more powerful than a beholder anyway.
Another day, another three or four entries to my Ignore List.
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9 months ago ::
Oct 03, 2012 - 1:46PM
#20
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Date Joined:
Jul 21, 2004
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I'd tell them the plan wouldn't work. If the players came to me and said they had a real cool plan to kill a dragon, but it wouldn't work if the dragon had scales, I would NOT rule that dragons don't have scales just to let their plan work.
Whether or not dragons have scales has been pretty well established in other sources, though I don't know if, say, Chinese dragons have scales. A dragon's armor class is a set number, too. There's very little to establish that a fantastic race of lizard men is cold blooded or not, and probably enough relevant biological basis to go either way, if one wanted.
"I've got a really cool way to kill this beholder, as long as it's no stronger than a goblin."
Level-wise, it's probably pretty well established that it's not, though one can make tougher goblins or weaker beholders. Physical strength-wise, that could be plausible. They just float around, and command underlings, so why do they need strength? That they'd be relatively weak is plausible.
It's probably not inherently crucial to an adventure or to anyone's imagination that the lizardmen be warm or cold blooded, so if a player declares it one way or another (indicating that to that player it is crucial) then the DM is free to accommodate that player. I hope no DM would decide on the spot that it's the opposite, just to foil a player plan.
[N]o difference is less easily overcome than the difference of opinion about semi-abstract questions. - L. Tolstoy
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