Spes Magna Games

It’s time for another What Is It? Contest. This time the prize is unlimited bragging rights for having the best monster as judged by the votes of your peers plus any one PDF from my catalog. The picture for WIIC2 comes from Reginald Scot’s The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584):

The rules are simple:

1. One submission per entrant.

2. Post a complete stat block and fluff text for the creature depicted above in the ENWorld thread linked to above using the standard format for PF monsters. Also, include at least two plot hooks for the monster.

3. Your work must be your own and cannot use anyone’s Product Identity or Closed Content material.

4. The deadline is 3 March 2011. After this, all entries are considered final.

5. A winner will be chosen via a poll set up in another thread. This poll will remain open until approximately 10 March 2011.

6. All entrants retain rights to their submissions.

The Prizes
1. The winner chosen by poll gets to brag about awesome his or her monster is.

2. The winner will receive a copy of any one PDF from my catalog. Reception of the PDF is contingent on me having a valid email address for the winner.

(Written for Game Geek 14.)

When in the Course of gaming events it becomes necessary for players to dissolve the roleplaying bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of Oerth, the separate and equal station to which the Rule of Fun and of Fun’s Arbiter entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of gamerkind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all gamers are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Dice, Frivolity and the pursuit of Fun. — That to secure these rights, Game Groups are instituted among Gamers, deriving their just powers from the consent of the gamemastered, — That whenever any Form of Gamemastery becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the Gamers to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Game Group, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Free Time and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Game Groups long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that gamerkind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a Game Master, and to provide new House Rules for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Game Groups; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Gamemastery. The history of the present Game Master is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these Players. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Rules, the most wholesome and necessary for the gaming good.

He has forbidden his Players to write Backgrounds of interesting and useful game hooks; and when so written, he has utterly neglected to use them.

He has canceled Game Sessions repeatedly and without advanced notice, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the gamers.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Rules for establishing nonarbitrary Difficulty Classes.

He has made Players dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their characters, and the amount and payment of their XP awards, causing them to languish without advancement.

He has kept among us, in times of unnecessity, Standing NPCs that hoggeth the glory without the Consent of our gamers.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our group, and unacknowledged by our house rules; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For nerfing large numbers of spells and class features frequently used among us:

For protecting monsters, by choosing only those invulnerable to the class features of our characters:

He has constrained our fellow Player Characters taken Captive by high Enchantments to bear Arms against their Allies, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Game Master, whose style is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the game master of a free game group.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Gaming brethren. We have appealed via Chat Rooms and Discussion Boards to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity, claiming that the GM is like unto God.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united Groups of Gaming, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the campaign world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Groups, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Groups are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent Groups, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the Bad Game Master, and that all gaming connection between them and the Bad Game Master, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent Groups, they have full Power to search for a new Game Master and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent Gamers may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Share of the pizza money, and our sacred Honor.

Tags: Game Geek

(Which I wrote for Game Geek 13)

I remember when the 3.0 version of the d20 System hit the streets. I had been RPGing since the late 70s, and had only reluctantly moved from 1E to 2E circa 1990. Even then, I only made the change because the group of gamers that took me in when I was transferred to Hawaii was already playing 2E. For me, a good group of gamers was more important than the system. After leaving the military, I returned to Houston and picked up gaming with old friends who’d not left town. By this time, they’d all moved to 2E as well, so that’s what we kept playing.

I kept up with the Internet buzz about 3E. Not much of what I read seemed to merit investing time and money in the new system. For example, one of the supposed major improvements was replacing THAC0 with BAB. This really isn’t an improvement, however; it’s more like clever sleight of hand. BAB is just THAC0 with the math changed from subtraction to addition. I’d been using THAC0 as BAB since the mid 80s while playing 1E at Fort Bragg. More importantly, no one in my gaming group seemed interested in 3E, so why bother? The group, after all, is the thing; the game is secondary.

Then Fred decided to check out 3E. He bought the PH and fell in love. We were close to finishing up a 2E campaign, and Fred announced he wanted to run 3E. He insisted we’d all love it as much as he did. So, we made up PCs and went adventuring in a certain sunless citadel. We had fun, not really because 3E represented such a major improvement in game design, but rather because we were still that same group of friends gaming together just like we’d been doing since the late 70s.

That original gaming group is gone. In fact, I’m the only one left. Fred passed away. Others moved. The fundamental rule for me, however, hasn’t changed: The group is what’s important. I’d rather play a bad game system with people I like than a great game system with people I don’t care for.

I still try to keep up with gaming news. My reaction to 4E mirrors my initial reaction to 3E: Why bother? No one in my current group plays 4E, nor do they express any desire to. 3E’s flaws aren’t what persuaded me to eventually make the move to Pathfinder. It stands to reason those same flaws aren’t going to push me toward 4E either. After all, a game system’s flaws tend to be overwhelmingly matters of taste rather than matters of fact.

One of Pathfinder‘s widely maligned flaws is that the system did nothing to get rid of the dreaded Christmas Tree Effect. The gist of the CTE is that as PCs advance in level their equipment becomes more important than the PCs’ respective character classes. CTE critics often make three related claims:

(1) Without “level appropriate” equipment, encounters become too difficult. Attack bonuses, armor classes, saving throws, et cetera, can’t compete with more powerful creatures and effects.

(2) Without “level appropriate” equipment, the game skews even more heavily in favor of spellcasters, especially whichever one the objector feels is already the most powerful.

(3) Because of these first two claims, one cannot run a low-magic game with Pathfinder (or 3.0E or 3.5E) without a major rewrite of the rules.

Whenever I read these sorts of claims, I feel as if I’ve been stuck in some strange alternate universe where the games I play in aren’t what the game is really like. I’ve run low-magic without major rules rewrites. So have, I surmise, others. In the interest of helping gamers who might want to give low-magic gaming a try, here’re my helpful suggestions.

Replace Gear with Action Points

According to the “no low-magic” crowd, the Big Six magic items are hard-wired into the game system. Take them out, and the system falls apart, PCs die like mayflies, dogs and cats cohabitat, et cetera. The Big Six magic items are weapons, armors/shields, rings of protection, cloaks of resistance, amulets of natural armor, and ability-score boosters

The effects of these items can be replaced by Action Points. I use an Action Point system for my current low-magic campaign, and it works like a charm. (This system is described in my Rewarding Roleplaying PDF available at DriveThruRPG and at Paizo.com.) Here’s a quick and free system.

Each PC gets six Action Points per game session. A single Action Point can be spent as an immediate action even when flat-footed to gain one of the following for the duration of an encounter:

* A +1 enhancement bonus to weapon attack and damage rolls for every four character levels. This enhancement bonus counts as magic for purposes of overcoming DR.
* A +1 enhancement bonus to AC for every four character levels.
* A +1 deflection bonus to AC for every four character levels.
* A +1 resistance bonus to saving throws for every four character levels.
* A +2 enhancement bonus to one ability score for every five character levels.

The minimum bonus is +1, except for ability score bonuses, in which case the minimum bonus is +2. Using this down-and-dirty system, a PC can gain some pretty nice bonuses from round-to-round, gradually increasing in power in desired ways during the course of an encounter.

Also Do What I Do

Remember at the beginning of this article? How it seemed like I was just blathering about why I changed from one system to another? Well, there was a point to that blather, namely this: The group — not the game system — is what’s important.

So many problems with gaming groups could be avoided if people would remember that the highest purpose of any game is to have fun with friends. Everyone in a gaming group should play the game in such a way as to maximize everyone else’s fun. What that fun looks like will vary from group to group, and that’s okay.

How does this relate to low-magic gaming? Simple. If everyone agrees that abandoning most or all of the Big Six, for example, will be fun, and that the group will work together to make the game work, what more is needed? This is true no matter what the game system or style of play.

Tags: Game Geek, low-magic

(First published in Game Geek 10)

Let’s eavesdrop on a depressingly common Internet conversation:

First DM: My player’s PC has such-and-such class feature that is broken. What should I do?
Second DM: Just design your scenarios so that he can’t use the class feature. Problem solved.

Sound familiar? If so, and you’re a player, pass this article to the offending DM. If you are the offending DM, then pay careful attention, because the advice below might just keep your players from killing you and taking your stuff.

Favored Enemy, or How to Avoid Encountering Certain Creatures Ever Again

Let’s focus on one specific class feature: the ranger’s favored enemy. This class feature is frequently maligned because its bonuses are situational. Either you’re facing your ranger’s favored enemy and get the bonuses, or else you aren’t and you don’t. The DM gets to decide when your ranger gets to benefit from one of his defining class features.

Too often, a ranger’s favored enemies are much more like a list of creatures that the party won’t ever encounter. Take favored enemy (undead) at 1st-level, and you’ll never encounter an undead monster. Instead, orcs regularly mob the adventurers. Your ranger reaches 5th level and takes favored enemy (orc). From that point on, orcs are scarcer than hen’s teeth. Et cetera, ad nauseum.

“Well,” says the DM, “orcs and undead just aren’t challenging because you get so many bonuses against them. My job as DM is make sure the adventures are challenging.”

The best initial response to this is a sneer. As William Paley asked, “Who can refute a sneer?” After that, you can point out a few uncomfortable truths, starting with the one immediately below.

Class Features Aren’t Broken; You’re DMing Skills Are

This applies almost no matter what the class features. There is almost always no good reason to nix characters’ abilities. If you’re running a murder investigation, it’s bad form to rule that divination spells don’t work. Yes, that single speak with dead could very well bring the investigation to a quick end. So be it. In a similar vein, when the party tracks down the evil murderer, it’d be equally bad form for the paladin’s smite evil power to not work against him.

Characters’ abilities, feats, class features, et cetera, are the tools the players get to use to overcome the challenges the DM presents. Your players chose to play the characters they’re playing because they want to use those tools. That means that you’re not allowed to take those tools away without a very good and rare reason.

Most of the time, your players should count on getting to use those tools. Back to our ranger whose favored enemies are orcs and the undead. If that ranger isn’t encountering orcs and/or undead at least 50% of the time, then you need to stop and examine the adventures your running. Your ranger’s player deserves the opportunity to roleplay his ranger’s orc/undead-hate and to enjoy the bonuses the character gets against orcs and undead.

Letting the Characters Shine

Next time you’re prepping for your game, take stock of your players’ characters. What are those characters’ strengths in terms of feats, class features, skills, and so forth? Jot down at least one strength per character. Then, include some way for each character to revel in their respective strengths during the adventure. Pretend you’ve done what I just advised you to do, and this is what you came up with:

The Ranger: Favored enemy (undead).
The Wizard: Maxed out ranks in Linguistics.
The Cleric: Maxed out ranks in Knowledge (religion).
The Rogue: Just acquired slippers of spider climbing.

Here’re some sample challenges:

The Ranger: The BBEG is protected by a platoon of plague zombies.
The Wizard: The BBEG and its minions communicate via an ancient dialect of the Dark Tongue.
The Cleric: The BBEG and its minions are engaged in a complicated demon-summoning ritual.
The Rogue: The BBEG occupies a floating dais closer to the ceiling than the floor.

During the final battle against the BBEG, the ranger gets to have a field day mowing through the plague zombies. The wizard gets to make Linguistic checks to accurately understand the BBEG’s orders to its minions. The cleric not only gets to channel positive energy, but her keen insights provide the best way to disrupt the demon-summoning ritual. The rogue can most easily get to the floating dais. Everyone gets to use a character feature to contribute to the BBEG’s demise.

But Shouldn’t I Negate Characters’ Abilities at Least Some Time?

Yes, especially when dealing with intelligent enemies who’re expecting the sort of trouble the characters provide. The trick is to make the negation both reasonable and a challenge in itself.

For example, an undead BBEG who knows it’s being hunted by an undead-slaying ranger might recruit non-undead minions. If it’s sufficiently powerful, it might also be worried about enemies who can scry and teleport. There are reasonable defenses against both of these capabilities as well.

What is bad form, however, is to design adventures that negate character abilities in such a way as to railroad the players. Negating character abilities should paradoxically lead to greater variety in player tactics as those players seek ways to overcome the challenges presented by not being able to rely on their full arsenal.

Consider the undead BBEG again. It knows that it’s likely to face adventurers capable of teleporting. Not wanting enemies to show up at will in its lair, it employs an 11th-level cleric to ward key areas with forbiddance. Discovering the area is warded isn’t too difficult. Adventurers just need to try (and fail) to teleport into the lair. After this discovery, what choices do the characters have?

Well, they can just lump it and fight their way in the hard way. Or, better yet, they can discover that the BBEG’s cleric spends time away from the lair. This gives the characters the chance to nab the cleric and discover the password that permits them to enter the warded area without damage. Also, the characters might coerce the cleric into revealing that there is an area not warded against teleport within the lair proper. The BBEG uses this secret area for its own movement via planar means. Thus, after a side adventure, the characters have not only earned more experience, they’ve defeated one of the BBEG’s key minions and discovered a possible means of taking the BBEG by surprise.

Best of all, the ranger still gets to unleash his undead-slaying prowess.

Tags: adventure design, Game Geek

Mystery obscures Lumusi’s origins. Through some ancient ritual, an entire rat swarm became awakened. This in itself wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, but Lumusi possesses an evil disposition and a desire to inflict loss on others. It lurks in the hidden places of urban areas and farming communities. From its lair, it stealths out under cover of night to wreak havoc. It uses its spells to charm animals and vermin (thanks to its Vermin Heart feat), damage crops and property, and cause sickness and death.

Lumusi the Crawling Horde
Awakened rat swarm blight druid 9
CR 10; XP 9,600
NE Tiny magical beast (augmented animal, swarm)
Init +9; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +20
Aura forgetfulness (30-ft. radius, Will DC 19, 9 rounds/day)

DEFENSE
AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 12 (+3 Dex, +2 size)
hp 94 (14d8+28)
Fort +12, Ref +10, Will +12
Defensive Abilities swarm traits (as a swarm of tiny creatures, a rat swarm takes only half damage from piercing and slashing attacks); Immune disease, nauseated condition, sickened condition

OFFENSE
Speed 15 ft., climb 15 ft., swim 15 ft.
Melee swarm (1d6 plus disease)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks disease (Fort DC 16), distraction (Fort DC 16), miasma (Fort DC 19)
Druid Spells Prepared (CL 9th):
5th (2+1)- cure critical wounds, enervation*, flame strike (Elemental Spell, Heighten Spell) (Ref DC 20)
4th (3+1)- cure serious wounds, dispel magic, hurricane blast (Heighten Spell) (Ref DC 20), shadow conjuration*
3rd (4+1)- burning gaze (Elemental Spell, Heighten Spell) (Fort DC 18), cure moderate wounds, deeper darkness*, protection from energy, sleet storm
2nd (5+1)- barkskin, blindness/deafness* (Fort DC 17) (blindness only), elemental speech, glide, pox pustules (Fort DC 17), wood shape
1st (6+1)- charm animal (Will DC 16), cure light wounds (x2), entangle (Ref DC 16), longstrider, obscuring mist*, touch of the sea
0 (4)- create water, detect magic, read magic, resistance
*Domain Spells
Nature Bond Subdomain Loss

STATISTICS
Str 2, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 8, Wis 20, Cha 9
Base Atk +9; CMB –; CMD —
Feats Ability Focus (disease, distraction), Aspect of the Beast (wild instinct), Blind-Fight (B), Elemental Spell (cold), Heighten Spell, Improved Initiative, Natural Spell, Skill Focus (Perception), Vermin Heart
Skills Acrobatics +7, Climb +24, Knowledge (nature) +5, Perception +20, Stealth +15, Survival +21, Swim +16 (+24 to perform a special action or avoid a hazard); Racial Modifiers +8 Climb, +8 on Swim checks to perform a special action or avoid a hazard, uses Dex to modify Climb and Swim
Languages Common, Druidic
SQ nature sense, vermin empathy +8, wild shape 3/day, woodland stride

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Aura of Forgetfulness (Su): Lumusi can emit a 30-foot aura of forgetfulness for 9 rounds per day. These rounds do not need to be consecutive. Creatures you target in this area must make a DC 19 Will save or have no memory of any time spent inside the area. In addition, spellcasters in the area lose one prepared spell or available spell slot per round spent in the area, starting with 1st-level spells and going up through higher-level spells. Spellcasters are allowed a save each round to negate this loss (this save is separate from the memory loss save).

Disease (Ex): Filth fever; injury; save Fort DC 16; onset 1d3 days; frequency 1/day; effect 1d3 Dex damage and 1d3 Con damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Distraction (Ex): Lumusi can nauseate the creatures that it damages. Any living creature that takes damage from a creature with the distraction ability is nauseated for 1 round; a Fortitude save negates the effect.

Miasma (Ex): If Lumusi is adjacent to a creature at the beginning of its turn, the creature must succeed at a DC 19 Fortitude save become sickened for 1 round. A creature of the animal, fey, or plant type that fails its save is nauseated for 1 round and sickened for 1 minute thereafter. If the creature makes its save, it is immune to this effect for 24 hours, as are creatures immune to disease.

Touch of Darkness (Sp): As a melee touch attack, Lumusi can cause a creature’s vision to be fraught with shadows and darkness. The creature touched treats all other creatures as if they had concealment, suffering a 20% miss chance on all attack rolls. This effect lasts for 5 rounds. Lumusi can use this ability 8 times per day equal.

Vermin Empathy (Su): Lumusi can improve the attitude of vermin as a normal druid can with animals. Vermin have a starting attitude of unfriendly. Lumusi can also improve the attitude of animals and mindless undead creatures that were formerly animals, but it takes a -4 penalty on the check unless the animal or undead has a disease special attack.

Wild Shape (Su): Lumusi has the ability to turn itself into any Diminutive, Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, or Huge animal and back again. This ability functions like the beast shape III spell, except as noted here. Lumusi can also assume the form of a Small or Medium elemental as if using elemental body II. Furthermore, it can take the form of a Small or Medium plant creature as if using plant shape I.

Lumusi loses its ability to speak while in animal form because it is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make, but it can communicate normally with other animals of the same general grouping as its new form. (The normal sound a wild parrot makes is a squawk, so changing to this form does not permit speech.) The effect lasts for 9 hours, or until Lumusi changes back. Changing form is a standard action and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity.

NOTE
Due to Lumusi’s unusual nature, it has no equipment. As a result, its CR is 1 lower than expected.

Tags: Pathfinder monsters, rat swarm