"A pensive Ardyn grumbles and scratches at his scaly chin, thinking long and hard about the fate of the hated enemy trapped within the aquatic vessel. Suddenly a deep gargle from within Ardyn's throat culminates in a sharp, bright, elemental blast aimed at the vessel and a loud crash echoes through the smokey blast. The air hangs heavy with choking smoke and you all struggle to catch your breath or to see the result of Ardyn's decision. Moments later the smoke is dispelled by a brisk flap or...
View full comment"A pensive Ardyn grumbles and scratches at his scaly chin, thinking long and hard about the fate of the hated enemy trapped within the aquatic vessel. Suddenly a deep gargle from within Ardyn's throat culminates in a sharp, bright, elemental blast aimed at the vessel and a loud crash echoes through the smokey blast. The air hangs heavy with choking smoke and you all struggle to catch your breath or to see the result of Ardyn's decision. Moments later the smoke is dispelled by a brisk flap or two from Ardyn's wings, their leathery, webbed wings creating a snapping sound in the air like a fatigued slave driver's whip hand. And there, arms braced over the edge of the vessels hull, lays a fatigued enemy gasping laboriously for air..."
I cast my vote for the Grizzowl. I had always thought of the beast in terms of the Gryphon as a combined creature (not that the Owlbear belongs to Greek mythology). Do you plan on illustrating a mating pair, as the original concept indicates? with a lean enough frame on the female Grizzowl, could wings actually come into play? The idea of a mating pair should bring potential for more realism with this creature, and it certainly gives great opportunities for DM's who could imagine the...
View full commentI cast my vote for the Grizzowl. I had always thought of the beast in terms of the Gryphon as a combined creature (not that the Owlbear belongs to Greek mythology).
Do you plan on illustrating a mating pair, as the original concept indicates? with a lean enough frame on the female Grizzowl, could wings actually come into play?
The idea of a mating pair should bring potential for more realism with this creature, and it certainly gives great opportunities for DM's who could imagine the behavior of family units and apply those in game.
Oh man, I wanted to vote last week "Significant violence is shown. Contact and fatal injuries, including dismemberment, are shown, with significant blood."
As far as I'm concerned, there are two kinds of Save or Die mechanics. The easy ones are those wielded by the PCs. If the scope of your game doesn't revolve around small numbers of long, dragged-out encounters (for example, in politics-heavy intrigue games, or old-school-style megadungeons), save-or-die effects are a great way to deal with some kinds of foes *quickly*, while still depleting strategic resources. Hit point *percentage* thresholds (like the bloodied condition in 4e was) lose...
View full commentAs far as I'm concerned, there are two kinds of Save or Die mechanics.
The easy ones are those wielded by the PCs. If the scope of your game doesn't revolve around small numbers of long, dragged-out encounters (for example, in politics-heavy intrigue games, or old-school-style megadungeons), save-or-die effects are a great way to deal with some kinds of foes *quickly*, while still depleting strategic resources. Hit point *percentage* thresholds (like the bloodied condition in 4e was) lose the gloriously fast speed of resolution.
I think absolute hit point thresholds (like with Hold Person in the playtest), though, are *fantastic*. Two thresholds (say 10 hp and 50 hp) would lets you deathspell crowds of kobolds automatically, force a rival wizard to save or die, and have a dragon laugh it off every time, (as he should). The catch is that you have to discipline yourself not to use these abilities on PCs without making sure it has some mechanic to mitigate the effect. That means no randomly giving major demons no-warning deathspells that work on appropriately-leveled heroes. Looking at you, TSR and 3e. Monsters and NPCs exist only to suck and die, but players don't.
The real problem is attacks that kill or paralyze *PCs* in one hit with no warning. You could ditch them, but you're restricting yourself. Those *are* useful to two kinds of game. In a more gonzo game you might WANT PCs to die on a bad run of luck. Playing "Who got Gibbed the Hardest" is half the fun. And seventeen years of DMing has taught me that even if you run a less bloody game, the most dangerous form of this ability can create a lot of useful table drama and encourage players to come up with crazy schemes to evade it. but you need three things to keep it fair: the PCs absolutely *NEED* a warning, an avenue of escape, and a gimmick you can plan to avoid having to save (say, medusas and mirrors).
Save-or-die is a dangerous, but useful tool. Leave it in, but warn new DMs when you use it.
"The biggest drawback is that spellcasters and monsters have to be aware of a target's hit points to decide if an attack makes sense." Not necessarily. Just make sure that if the target FAILS their save, but is ABOVE the hit point threshold, he or she suffers hit point damage. For example: Medusa's Gaze Successful save: Negates Failed saved: If target has 30 or fewer hit points, target is turned to stone. Otherwise, target loses 20 hit points. I don't want to see...
View full comment"The biggest drawback is that spellcasters and monsters have to be aware of a target's hit points to decide if an attack makes sense."
Not necessarily. Just make sure that if the target FAILS their save, but is ABOVE the hit point threshold, he or she suffers hit point damage.
For example:
Medusa's Gaze
Successful save: Negates
Failed saved: If target has 30 or fewer hit points, target is turned to stone. Otherwise, target loses 20 hit points.
I don't want to see Medusa trying to chip away at PC hit points with a dagger or the snakes on her head. The gaze IS the key attack, and always should be.
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