How to raise a mocking bird - consequences of a scroll mishap


Advice

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

Last session, the druid's roc animal companion died during a fight with a forest drake. The party is currently level 3. Since rocs are uncommon in this area and not easily replaceable, another character used a plot twist card to find a scroll of raise animal companion in his pockets. The druid was not powerful enough to use the scroll, had to attempt a caster level check and, against all odds, produced a scroll mishap. The players immediately started speculating what could happen, but since our session ended, being the GM, I wasn't forced to make a decision yet. Having the roc companion reincarnate in the drake's body was a favorite option among my players, but is not really appropiate.
I would prefer a solution that penalizes the player for using his companion so recklessly, but opens up the option to regain his companion in the medium term (maybe as part of a small sidequest). What would you suggest?


Other than the fact that the animal companion died, you don't give any evidence for the player using the companion recklessly. Animal companions are designed to be in the fight, and sometimes, just like PCs, they get killed. Unless there is a whole lot more than you are saying, punishment doesn't seem appropriate. In addition, if some some sort of punishment is needed, this probably wouldn't be the best method.

The scroll mishap should be a scroll mishap, tied to being unlucky trying to cast a spell from a scroll with a higher caster level. It shouldn't represent any divine judgement or anything like that.

I am not sure why you don't like the reincarnate into the body of the drake option. I could see issues with it if you try and give drake stats or change the creature type or something, but if you just have it be a cosmetic change (the Roc animal companion stats apply, it is an animal not a dragon, etc. but it looks like a forest drake) that seems perfectly workable and fairly in line with what a scroll mishap should be.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

It's really not the GM's place to punish his players. It's a game. Punishments beyond not inviting an incompatible player back to the table should pretty much never come into it for any reason whatsoever. Any GM who thinks otherwise is likely a big time control freak.

That being said, scroll mishaps are usually not supposed to end well, so have fun with it. :D


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber

I agree with the others that there should not be a punishment for using an animal companion in combat. Its death was the punishment.

Now you're dealing with a scroll mishap, period. While spiritually inhabiting the drake would be cool, a mishap probably shouldn't be something they want (both to stay in theme with a mishap and to avoid bold players from trying to see what else they can get from scroll mishaps).

I might reincarnate it into an axe beak (and it's irritated that it can't fly). If you're feeling generous, have it slowly mutate back into a roc over some non-neglible time period.


You could pull a Freaky Friday and have the Roc come back, but in the druid's body. Meanwhile the druid is now in a fresh new roc body.

Let em switch back after the next level up or something

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

I'm not looking for a way to punish my player. It's about dealing with the consequences of his actions (in combination with the inevitable element of chance). The player is free to look for another companion if he wishes to do so, without any repercussions.

I'm looking for an interisting and dramatic way to bring the roc back, without giving the player the impression that it's a trivial thing and in a way that reflects the (very unlikely) scroll mishap. I was more thinking along the lines of turning the roc into a zombie under the druid's control. It should be a dramatic and horrifying experience, raises ethical questions (hopefully with some interesting roleplaying between the characters), and leaves the option open to return the companion to life at a later point.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

The Roc is resurrected without feathers, and will be unable to fly until the player next levels up.

Grand Lodge

Scrolls wrote:

A surge of uncontrolled magical energy deals 1d6 points of damage per spell level to the scroll user.

Spell strikes the scroll user or an ally instead of the intended target, or a random target nearby if the scroll user was the intended recipient.
Spell takes effect at some random location within spell range.
Spell's effect on the target is contrary to the spell's normal effect.
The scroll user suffers some minor but bizarre effect related to the spell in some way. Most such effects should last only as long as the original spell's duration, or 2d10 minutes for instantaneous spells.
Some innocuous item or items appear in the spell's area.
Spell has delayed effect. Sometime within the next 1d12 hours, the spell activates. If the scroll user was the intended recipient, the spell takes effect normally. If the user was not the intended recipient, the spell goes off in the general direction of the original recipient or target, up to the spell's maximum range, if the target has moved away.

Doing anything other than these is being punitive. Death in Pathfinder is a natural course of participation in combat, and has measures to reverse it with costs to the character's wealth by level. Fiddling around with this is just going to add a personal slap in the face to the character trying to deal with it.


check out this thread!


Hand the druid a permanent negative level as the scroll leeches his lifeforce to raise his beloved friend. Give the player a chance to turn this down and just waste the scroll instead.


Ms. Pleiades wrote:
Scrolls wrote:

A surge of uncontrolled magical energy deals 1d6 points of damage per spell level to the scroll user.

Spell strikes the scroll user or an ally instead of the intended target, or a random target nearby if the scroll user was the intended recipient.
Spell takes effect at some random location within spell range.
Spell's effect on the target is contrary to the spell's normal effect.
The scroll user suffers some minor but bizarre effect related to the spell in some way. Most such effects should last only as long as the original spell's duration, or 2d10 minutes for instantaneous spells.
Some innocuous item or items appear in the spell's area.
Spell has delayed effect. Sometime within the next 1d12 hours, the spell activates. If the scroll user was the intended recipient, the spell takes effect normally. If the user was not the intended recipient, the spell goes off in the general direction of the original recipient or target, up to the spell's maximum range, if the target has moved away.
Doing anything other than these is being punitive. Death in Pathfinder is a natural course of participation in combat, and has measures to reverse it with costs to the character's wealth by level. Fiddling around with this is just going to add a personal slap in the face to the character trying to deal with it.

That section I bolded could be fun. The Roc comes back, 1d12 hours later. oops.


I don't like sidequests that involve a single player looking to regain a companion or a particular item. It kind of makes the rest of the party and plot an afterthought.

Dark Archive

Some innocuous item appearing, per the scroll mishap section, could be a really easy plot device, if you need one.
Oh, Rocs are uncommon in that area, but not unheard of. The scroll works, but also a Roc egg appears. Quite weird, doncha think?
Sometime after the party has likely forgotten about the egg, (and probably gained a few levels) momma Roc comes trying to get her baby back.
"Seemingly innocuous item appearing" is possibly the easiest plot device, and a D20 handed you that opportunity on a silver platter and with an actual mechanical reason for it to happen.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Roc is brought back, but at night it appears as a corpse (similar to the first Pirates movie) and gains the undead subtype. Properly casting the spell (from any source) by the Druid a second time removes this effect.


You should be using only the CRB rules for UMD, not whatever splatbook has your optional rule.

Not using the stupid fumble rules is important to allow the game to progress since scrolls are used to keep the game progressing when something either happens early or to a party that doesn't have exactly the right caster with exactly the right spell prepared.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

Thank you for your suggestions. I like Ectar's idea of the druid hatching a roc egg. The link provided by Freehold DM is also very nice, even if it has mostly PCs in mind. I see no reason why animals couldn't suffer from resurrection-PTSD.

By the way, the rules for scroll mishaps appear in the magic item section under scrolls. Generally, a mishap causes the spell to have a reversed or harmful effect and the rules give examples for possible effects to set a baseline. And these can be quiet dangerous -- 5d6 points of untyped damage, no save, dealt to a 3rd-level character still wounded from combat might outright kill them. Obviously, I don't want to do that. Again, I'm not looking for a way to punish my player, I want to create a situation that is memorable and dramatic/weird/funny.

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