Medusa gazE attack rules


Rules Questions


hi all, I'm wondering about how a medusa might fit into an adventuring party that isn't immune to her gaze.

1). Can she turn off her gaze attack naturally?
2). If not, what about veiling her eyes? I read that medusas in urban settings tend to play the role of a seer, and dress the part, veils and cowls and all. She can veil herself and use her snake eyes to see for her right? Her normal eyes can study shadows and such to help.
3). Can enemies get around her gaze attack by using mirrors to track her? Didn't Perseus do that to win the day using a mirrored shield?
4). Vampire medusa...good idea or nay? No reflections for mirrors :p
5). What other things can her party members do to avoid being petrified?

Shadow Lodge

1) No

2) Probably, see here and a few posts below it. Note the "blinded oracle" suggestion.

3) I believe that would count as averting their eyes (50% "miss" chance)

4) Meh. If I'm right about (3) mirrors aren't that big a deal, and the medusa and vampire aren't otherwise particularly synergistic.

5) Smoked goggles, though they're not as good as (2).


1.) No, which is why they are monsters that are ostracized from society. They also tend to leave tell tale signs that they live in an area due to the fact that random animals are suddenly statues because she looked at a sound in the bush, and they cause the decay of plants around them since they accidentally take out bees and other pollinators get turned into tiny marbles.

Medusa are cursed with their power. They might enjoy occasional benefits... but it still generally sucks.

2.) Since they are often described as successfully running thieves guilds and seducing shop clerks so they can take them somewhere where the rubble can be hidden... yeah, veils can work... but take that with a grain of salt (wardrobe malfunctions, basically. If Janet Jackson can't get through a half time show without flashing the entire nation, what makes you think you can avoid even one person seeing your eyes in public for your entire life?).

3.) There are rules for that. Basically, using tricks like mirrors or just looking at her feet have a 50% chance of actually working, in return for 20% miss chance from concealment. So maybe a good trade since medusa are mostly just that one ability most of the time.

If you really want a medusa in an adventuring party... well... they have all around vision from their snake hair. That means that...they would not exactly be crippled if they did not have their eyes. This is a rather extreme solution, but it would certainly work in making them safe for society.

Not suggesting this as a solution for the character. Just blind folding would generally work (since people rarely lose their hats in most games most of the time, and those are much easier to lose than tied blindfolds). Just throwing that out there as a character concept.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
lemeres wrote:


2.) Since they are often described as successfully running thieves guilds and seducing shop clerks so they can take them somewhere where the rubble can be hidden... yeah, veils can work... but take that with a grain of salt (wardrobe malfunctions, basically. If Janet Jackson can't get through a half time show without flashing the entire nation, what makes you think you can avoid even one person seeing your eyes in public for your entire life?).

This is essentially a medusa using a different form of lair. Within that context they're still almost as reclusive as their sisters who lair in ruined temples. As the hidden leader, she's hardly ever seen..... more than once.

As part of a traveling adventure party, they are far more exposed, so it would take a great deal of effort to make that kind of role plausible.

Remember that a medusa veiling her eyes is imposing severe penalties on herself, making herself more vulnerable.


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Ow exactly would she be penalized, with her snake hair seeing for her?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Bard-Sader wrote:
Ow exactly would she be penalized, with her snake hair seeing for her?

Without covering her snake hair, how would she be keeping her identity as a monster of petrification secret?


LazarX wrote:
lemeres wrote:


2.) Since they are often described as successfully running thieves guilds and seducing shop clerks so they can take them somewhere where the rubble can be hidden... yeah, veils can work... but take that with a grain of salt (wardrobe malfunctions, basically. If Janet Jackson can't get through a half time show without flashing the entire nation, what makes you think you can avoid even one person seeing your eyes in public for your entire life?).

This is essentially a medusa using a different form of lair. Within that context they're still almost as reclusive as their sisters who lair in ruined temples. As the hidden leader, she's hardly ever seen..... more than once.

As part of a traveling adventure party, they are far more exposed, so it would take a great deal of effort to make that kind of role plausible.

Remember that a medusa veiling her eyes is imposing severe penalties on herself, making herself more vulnerable.

Of course- messages would mostly be transmitted through expendable messengers.

Still, it takes a lot of work and connections to set up a network like that. She has to meet with people and not kill them somehow. You need a certain amount of clout before you can be a secretive recluse with a lot of power. Because people do not accept that hassle without either fear or greed motivating them.

Anyway...yeah, it can be complicated to blindfold herself and still do a successful disguise that lets her see with snakes. The best answer to 'how?' is 'with a lot of time, effort, and practice'. I have never tried to make a peeking hole for snakes in my clothing before (depending on the location, I fear that it could get me arrested)

Sczarni

Spoiler:
There is a medusa NPC/monster in a single PFS scenario. She keeps her hood on until she approaches PCs in order to catch as many of them in the gaze effect. While I am not sure if she can "turn of" her gaze attack, it would be logical that she could cover her "hair" at least temporarily and prevent the effects of gaze.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
lemeres wrote:


Still, it takes a lot of work and connections to set up a network like that. She has to meet with people and not kill them somehow. You need a certain amount of clout before you can be a secretive recluse with a lot of power. Because people do not accept that hassle without either fear or greed motivating them.

The way things are done in this case is through a powerful lieutenant who becomes the up front face leader. She needs one with absolute loyalty either through riches that she provides up front, power, or simply abject worship, (or a combination of the above), the lieutenant does the grunt work of setting up the organization and she makes the right amount of appearances to set up. If the medusa herself has class levels this can vastly influence the nature of the group. If she is a cleric, it may well be a cult as well.


LazarX wrote:
lemeres wrote:


Still, it takes a lot of work and connections to set up a network like that. She has to meet with people and not kill them somehow. You need a certain amount of clout before you can be a secretive recluse with a lot of power. Because people do not accept that hassle without either fear or greed motivating them.

The way things are done in this case is through a powerful lieutenant who becomes the up front face leader. She needs one with absolute loyalty either through riches that she provides up front, power, or simply abject worship, (or a combination of the above), the lieutenant does the grunt work of setting up the organization and she makes the right amount of appearances to set up. If the medusa herself has class levels this can vastly influence the nature of the group. If she is a cleric, it may well be a cult as well.

Again...she has to actually meet and get to know this lieutenant (finding good help takes time and effort). Unless she meets up with Zatoichi, medusa need a way to semi reliably talk with people.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Bottom line is that medusae as adventurers don't work. The scenario I described is how generally an NPC medusae may operate within society. As an NPC you don't have to worry about starting her up the ranks. You present such a character complete, with her gang or cult already in place, just like you would any other NPC.

I'm not going to give you the nuts and bolts on how to make it work or build it from scratch, that's YOUR job if you feel you need to approach it that way.


LazarX wrote:
Bard-Sader wrote:
Ow exactly would she be penalized, with her snake hair seeing for her?
Without covering her snake hair, how would she be keeping her identity as a monster of petrification secret?

Who said we needed to keep her monster identity a secret? I just wanted the party to. It be turned to stone, along with our allies.

We can also buy her a hat of disguise self if we really need to hide her evil appearance.


There's actually a really well written supplement presenting rules for medusa PCs that can fit in with a 'normal' party (i.e., using core PC races and classes). I'd recommend using that.


LazarX wrote:

Bottom line is that medusae as adventurers don't work. The scenario I described is how generally an NPC medusae may operate within society. As an NPC you don't have to worry about starting her up the ranks. You present such a character complete, with her gang or cult already in place, just like you would any other NPC.

I'm not going to give you the nuts and bolts on how to make it work or build it from scratch, that's YOUR job if you feel you need to approach it that way.

I had the nuts and bolts- she used veils. You are the one who tried to take that apart by assuming that she is completely blinded.

A light cloth covering for the eyes could possibly do the job- since light comes from outside the veil, you can hide the eyes while still seeing outside of them. Same principle as shade glasses. Hell, even just randomly putting my t-shirt over my face still leaves enough visibility that I just went to my kitchen and made a sandwich (silly, but true). I might suggest using the the basic 20% miss chance concealment though.

I am arguing that, through a good disguise check, she may have the ability to cover things enough that she doesn't freeze people...most of the time... and that this kind of thing is strongly implied by the bestiary entry.


On a side note, are Earth elemental a immune to medusa and basilisk gaze attacks?

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