|
8 months ago ::
Oct 23, 2012 - 12:49PM
#11
|
Date Joined:
Jan 11, 2007
|
Do the players have the option to turn it into a combat encounter by killing the attacking creatures?
Yes, but if they can't keep the creatures off the scarecrow, it will be torn apart. I think I'll use some Crow Swarms and include a few huge Deep Crows. If the skill challenge doesn't go well, then they might have to fight the birds off.
iserith, I agree that the corn fields are interesting terrain. I'll tie that into the skill challenge or combat if that occurs.
|
|
|
|
8 months ago ::
Oct 23, 2012 - 12:54PM
#12
|
|
|
Why not combine it?
Have some players try to scare off the swarms, while others have to engage the deep crows (deep crows shouldn't be scared by a player jumping around yelling ooga booga, anyway)
FWIW [4e designer] baseline assumption was that roughly 70% of your feats would be put towards combat effectiveness, parties would coordinate, and strikers would do 20/40/60 at-will damage+novas. If your party isn't doing that... well, you are below baseline, so yes, you need to optimize slightly to meet baseline.
-Alcestis
|
|
|
|
8 months ago ::
Oct 23, 2012 - 1:55PM
#13
|
Date Joined:
Sep 17, 2012
|
Nature: Collect enough ears of corn and strip the husks off them to create an attractive feast for the crows.
Success= crows are attracted to the sweet pile of peaches and cream
Fail= the corn pile is too small to attract more than a few varmits if it got left out over night.
|
|
|
|
8 months ago ::
Oct 23, 2012 - 2:23PM
#14
|
Date Joined:
Jun 20, 2012
|
Ok, fair enough, crows are pretty lame. I'll change the crows to either: flying monkeys, deep crows or a few Vrock's. The Bulette seems out of place, ha, ha. I can't believe I'm trying to make this make sense.
Onikani, your skill suggestions are very helpful.
This skill challenge was just not manic and cool enough, so I'll tinker some more. I'd almost resigned myself to dropping the skill challenge today, but this has helped me see the point of it now.
I would probably mix this Wizard of Oz scene with Children of the Corn. Maybe a bunch of demon-possessed child cultists are sacrificing The Scarecrow in order to summon some vrocks. Protecting them is some kind of burrowing demon (reskinned bulette).
Interesting terrain idea - corn rows. It's tall and thick enough where you can't get line of sight/effect on people who aren't adjacent to you. You can Stealth up in it easily enough but the burrowing demon has tremorsense. Difficult terrain. The burrowing demon, when it moves, clears paths through it and makes "crop circles" when it erupts from the ground.
Monster Goal: Complete the sacrificial rites and set The Scarecrow alight. This happens in 3 rounds if they aren't stopped. Failure summons some vrocks or something.
PC Goal: Rescue The Scarecrow and get the hell out of there.
Good stuff!
Fiendish bulette? Fiendish ANKHEG!!!
Wicker Man also comes to mind. And that baseball movie.... "If you build it, they will come", which also ties in with the crop circles, with Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind... which comes Full Circle if you add some stones in the field, like stonehenge or something. Evil druid sacrifice = Samhain.
A rogue with a bowl of slop can be a controller.
WIZARD PC: Can I substitute Celestial Roc Guano for my fireball spells?
DM: Awesome. Yes.
|
|
|
|
8 months ago ::
Oct 23, 2012 - 2:25PM
#15
|
Date Joined:
Jun 20, 2012
|
I'm currently building a simple skill challenge, but I'm stuck. I need some more primary skill check ideas if people have the time. Nature would be great. The mechanics of the skill challenge are included below.
Scaring Crow Skill Challenge
A scarecrow is being attacked by swarms of black crows in a corn field. You can hear the straw-man screaming for help as more crows circle the creature.
Set-up: The PC’s must scare or drive the birds out of the corn field and away from the scarecrow man. If the PC’s do not aid the scarecrow the birds will rip the straw-man apart.
Level: 10
Complexity: 1 (requires 4 successes before 2 failures).
Experience Points: 500
Primary Skills: Athletics, Bluff, Intimidate, Nature. Each player must make at least one skill check.
Athletics (DC 25): You swing a stick, staff, sword or some other long implement around swatting and knocking the crows off the straw-man.
Bluff (DC 25): You create the sound of a large predator like a lion to frighten some of the birds away.
Intimidate (DC 25): You threaten the birds by yelling, shouting and waving your arms around to scare some of the birds away.
Nature (DC 25): You ?
Success: The PC’s scare the crows away from the straw-man, who has straw scattered all over the ground, but it appears to still be alive. The scarecrow will thank the PC’s.
Failure: The crows are not scared away and instead attack the PC’s in swarms.
Birds are scared of fire and smoke. Set fire to the scarecrow. Win.
A rogue with a bowl of slop can be a controller.
WIZARD PC: Can I substitute Celestial Roc Guano for my fireball spells?
DM: Awesome. Yes.
|
|
|
|
8 months ago ::
Oct 23, 2012 - 2:28PM
#16
|
Date Joined:
Jun 20, 2012
|
If there's a possibility of actual combat, you might want more than one creature type.
Or enough Vrock to do the Dance of Ruin.
A rogue with a bowl of slop can be a controller.
WIZARD PC: Can I substitute Celestial Roc Guano for my fireball spells?
DM: Awesome. Yes.
|
|
|
|
8 months ago ::
Oct 23, 2012 - 3:01PM
#17
|
|
|
I'm probably going to steal some ideas from this thread. Very visual encounter, either as a combat piece or skill challenge. In my game, one of the Big Bads is the Autumn King, who controls all scarecrows and sees through their eyes. So for my players, they actually would hesitate and debate the merits of saving the scarecrow, like seeing an enemy being attacked by another enemy. The "failure" portion for me would have to be greater than "the scarecrow gets torn apart." Do they need the scarecrow? Is he secretly a traitor?" Does he hold the key to a fey passage? Is it actually not a scarecrow? If the crows eat him, do they become like the scarecrow? Scarecrow crows... now that is interesting too 
|
|
|
|
7 months ago ::
Oct 26, 2012 - 2:11AM
#18
|
Date Joined:
Jan 11, 2007
|
Well, I didn't get to run the skill challenge, not enough people showed up. I'll try again in two weeks.
|
|
|
|
7 months ago ::
Nov 09, 2012 - 1:10PM
#19
|
Date Joined:
Jan 11, 2007
|
Well after running this part of the adventure my players selected to go straight to combat and ignored the skill challenge. A lesson learned, skill challenges don't work when players can select to just fight. I now know the failure conditions needed to be slightly different. The description of the situation needs to be adjusted. The skill challenge requires the absence of the deep crows till the skill challenge is failed. Big targets mean PC's will more likely just attack the birds and ignore the scarecrow.
|
|
|
