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What about nearby towns that have access to raise dead? Have them cast it on the basilisk whose corpse's blood you've drained, grease it quickly, drain it of blood and try the basilisk blood thing again on your buddies?
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Make sure they have food for munchies, let them rest the night in an inn, and make sure they keep away from strange brownies in the future.
For future note, the word "petrified" works for your purposes better, I feel.
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Some things just can't be cured in the early levels. This is one of them. A GM is a cruel, cruel person pitching such ridiculous creatures at their party (especially without a feasible means of reversal).
You'd have to be 9th level to cast Raise Dead (after destroying their bodies and casting Stone to Flesh), and your allies are still going to suffer permanent negative levels and all of that.
Best thing I can tell you is either beg the GM to give you an adventure with a MacGuffin that is able to fix them, or tell your stoned friends (assuming they're not thinking that rulebook is totally talking to them) to reroll new characters of the same level.
Because seriously, petrification BITES.
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Some things just can't be cured in the early levels. This is one of them. A GM is a cruel, cruel person pitching such ridiculous creatures at their party (especially without a feasible means of reversal).
You'd have to be 9th level to cast Raise Dead (after destroying their bodies and casting Stone to Flesh), and your allies are still going to suffer permanent negative levels and all of that.
Best thing I can tell you is either beg the GM to give you an adventure with a MacGuffin that is able to fix them, or tell your stoned friends (assuming they're not thinking that rulebook is totally talking to them) to reroll new characters of the same level.
Because seriously, petrification BITES.
A GM is cruel for sending a CR 5 creature with an ability that requires a DC 15 Fort Save to avoid at their party?
Assuming a party of four, and that they rolled horribly (seeing as how the two casters are not petrified, the good Fort classes most likely are), there's still 1d3 doses of basilisk blood that could help.
It's a legitimate foe, and as long as this GM didn't pull the "there are four basilisks, make four Fort saves a round or die" crap, it's not his fault. Sometimes PC's die. It happens.
Basilisks and medusae are mean like that. However, all is not lost.
A creature petrified in this matter that is then coated (not just splashed) with fresh basilisk blood (taken from a basilisk no more than 1 hour dead) is instantly restored to flesh. A single basilisk contains enough blood to coat 1d3 Medium creatures in this manner.
Load your buddies and the basilisk's corpse in a cart and head to a town that has a 9th level cleric lying around. Any distance is doable with the cleric's access to gentle repose every few days (to preserve the basilisk's carcass) and create food and water to provide chow. It's just a matter of how far you have to go. Once there, either hire the break enchantments to be cast or take the plunge, cough up a 5k gp diamond and the 450 gp in cash for the spellcasting service to drop a raise dead on the basilisk. Kill it, drain its shiny new reserve of fresh blood and smear it on your petrified buddies. It would be preferable from a cost standpoint to pay for the break enchantment spells, but those are not guaranteed to work, nor are your buddies guaranteed to make the Fort save to survive returning to flesh via break enchantment. The basilisk blood should not pose that risk, one hopes.
Some things just can't be cured in the early levels. This is one of them. A GM is a cruel, cruel person pitching such ridiculous creatures at their party (especially without a feasible means of reversal).
You'd have to be 9th level to cast Raise Dead (after destroying their bodies and casting Stone to Flesh), and your allies are still going to suffer permanent negative levels and all of that.
Best thing I can tell you is either beg the GM to give you an adventure with a MacGuffin that is able to fix them, or tell your stoned friends (assuming they're not thinking that rulebook is totally talking to them) to reroll new characters of the same level.
Because seriously, petrification BITES.
A GM is cruel for sending a CR 5 creature with an ability that requires a DC 15 Fort Save to avoid at their party?
Assuming a party of four, and that they rolled horribly (seeing as how the two casters are not petrified, the good Fort classes most likely are), there's still 1d3 doses of basilisk blood that could help.
It's a legitimate foe, and as long as this GM didn't pull the "there are four basilisks, make four Fort saves a round or die" crap, it's not his fault. Sometimes PC's die. It happens.
I'd say it's quite cruel. A bad roll and all of a sudden you have to make a new character because of an outrageous save or die? You might as well have been playing the Tomb of Horrors campaign if we're going that route.
In order for a PC to know the basilisk blood stuff, they need a good Knowledge (Nature) roll (which may have whiffed, and therefore can't feasibly apply it outside of metagaming, which is much more frowned upon), and even then, they might have rolled a 1 on their basilisk, meaning they'd still have one PC who's permanently turned to stone. Being forced to choose between which party member lives and which party member gets left behind as a decorative piece can be very difficult in the perspective of a PC, and can create unnecessary grudges between players.
There's also the factor that returning creatures to flesh from stone (as implied by the title) requires a 13th level divine spellcaster to perform. (Or scrolls and a lot of UMD, which are by no means cheap.) These characters are 6th level, and are having to deal with an effect that can only be fixed by something that is more than double their level.
With a scenario like the above, you're basically pitching a Wraith (or three) to a bunch of level 1 PCs, and expect it to be fine if two of them get turned into Wraithes themselves.
At least your party inquisitor/scout didn't mid identify a behir as a basilisk with a bad roll and have the party tank and beat stick wander into the cavern using closed eyes a blind fighting only to be crisped by a behir.
Uhhhhhhhh guys he doesn't turn you to stone after all.…
Kinda hard to make reflex saves with your eyes closed
Some things just can't be cured in the early levels. This is one of them. A GM is a cruel, cruel person pitching such ridiculous creatures at their party (especially without a feasible means of reversal).
You'd have to be 9th level to cast Raise Dead (after destroying their bodies and casting Stone to Flesh), and your allies are still going to suffer permanent negative levels and all of that.
Best thing I can tell you is either beg the GM to give you an adventure with a MacGuffin that is able to fix them, or tell your stoned friends (assuming they're not thinking that rulebook is totally talking to them) to reroll new characters of the same level.
Because seriously, petrification BITES.
A GM is cruel for sending a CR 5 creature with an ability that requires a DC 15 Fort Save to avoid at their party?
Assuming a party of four, and that they rolled horribly (seeing as how the two casters are not petrified, the good Fort classes most likely are), there's still 1d3 doses of basilisk blood that could help.
It's a legitimate foe, and as long as this GM didn't pull the "there are four basilisks, make four Fort saves a round or die" crap, it's not his fault. Sometimes PC's die. It happens.
I'd say it's quite cruel. A bad roll and all of a sudden you have to make a new character because of an outrageous save or die? You might as well have been playing the Tomb of Horrors campaign if we're going that route.
In order for a PC to know the basilisk blood stuff, they need a good Knowledge (Nature) roll (which may have whiffed, and therefore can't feasibly apply it outside of metagaming, which is much more frowned upon), and even then, they might have rolled a 1 on their basilisk, meaning they'd still have one PC who's permanently turned to stone. Being forced to choose between which party member lives and which party member gets left behind as a decorative piece can be very difficult in the perspective of a PC, and can...
If a basilisk is cr5 that means less than a 6th level parties equivalent challenge.
Is it unfair if orcs kill your 3rd level character because it takes a spell of more than double your characters level to reverse?
The funny thing is, being blind only makes you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC, per RAW. So, a blind person can still make as good a Reflex Saving Throw as a non-blind person.
That being said, I'd still see your point on that matter.
If the Wraith example wasn't obvious enough, a basilisk is only less than an equivalent challenge if the PCs are prepared for it and have the tools to deal with them. Wraithes are a bit more of an extreme example, but the principle still remains; just because the CR fits, doesn't mean the party/encounter is "fair."
I mean come on, most everyone who plays this game and/or comments on the messageboards will agree that the CR system is never 100% accurate, and the "Wraith v.s. level 1 PCs" situation is a prime example of the CR system, even if it fits, still being quite an unfair and capricious encounter indicator.
As evidenced by the OP, this mere CR 5 that was "less than a 6th level party's equivalent challenge" still caused two PC "deaths". You're going to tell me that's normal, or expected, of an encounter that's "less than a party's equivalent challenge"?
Death by a lucky critical with a X3 weapon is not the same as a creature having a ridiculously overpowered ability that can be used at any time, under any circumstance, to instantly "slay" you. I don't care if it's just an inverse, the point is that I can strategically combat receiving a lucky critical (by constantly kiting the orcs and shooting them at a distance until they're dead). You can't do that with something like a Basilisk Gaze, which is "I look at you, and you die."
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If the gaze's range was greater than 30 feet (it isn't), and if it had a speed better than 20' (it doesn't), I'd be more inclined to agree. A DC 15 Fort at 6th level is usually at worst a 50/50 proposition before factoring in basic tactics like averting one's gaze.
The fairness of a basilisk encounter is heavily dependent on the specifics of the encounter and how the dice went for the players. If the encounter's design sets the PCs up at gaze range, the encounter CR is much harder.
Under fairly typical encounter circumstances, the PCs - especially with anything remotely decent in Knowledge (arcana) available to them - should have twigged to the danger and adjusted their tactics accordingly. i.e., fragged the thing from outside of 30'.
They didn't, two characters are now statues and the survivors have to get a little creative to solve that problem. Can we help the OP instead of bickering about supposed 'encounter fairness', please?
The pcs aren't even dead yet
Unless this is a low fantasy game
They can be changed back
It's not like they were disintegrated by a 13ty level caster and can't even be resurrected
Nothing short of a wish bringing them back
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Wow, you really need to rename this thread title....Pertrification. They are not stoned...
Regarding petrification, the good news is that the party is not dead. In theory, you could leave them there and come back in 10 years, and they'd be fine. I suggest stealth/survival to camoflague them so they aren't easily noticed. Then make an "X" on a map where they are, and bury their half of the loot beside them.
The players should make new characters. Their old characters aren't dead, so they should save the sheets. You could plan on a rescue when you can, or the GM could use those statues as a back up party if your group becomes TPKed.
Stone salve works if they have bad UMD. Doubles price (2000 for 2 uses so 1000 for each use), but anyone can use it.
what we need is some funyuns
and water
lots of water