Blackish Dragonoid's page

I like "Trailer Music" it's hard to recognize for your players and you get it alredy labeled for each situation, for example (Epic,Futuristic,Comedy,Drama,Terror) on the downside they are usually short (1-3mins).

Here you can check a sample of Epic Action Trailer Music

The paladin tries to save both of them, though the price be his own life.

The answer of a true paladin!... Then if you were sure that you can save only one, even with the sacrifice of your own life? I exchange you your life for the baby’s OR the wise good old man’s? If you don't pick only one, both of them die but you live. Be a paladin and choose!

I love hero points too! I think they are an awesome tool for rewarding characters.

Something I do with HeroPoints is using them as "Limit Breakers". As a reward I usually let the PCs learn powerful techniques or get powerful items which consume HeroPoints to be used/activated. This are a little bit overpowered so they feel great about having them, and since they consume HeroPoints are not really "That overpowered" from the DM standpoint,They love them, since their uniqueness turn them into their signature-moves easily.

Until and unless the children can make moral decisions, they are neutral...

Ok, you convinced me I could play with that logic and it would be aceptable. Now let me ask you a question to get a bit more of your insight. If you could somewhat gain "good" karma or "evil" karma you where a Paladin...and could only save one of the following: an old person, confirmed to be very good and a neutral baby, who has the posibility of being very evil... saving who would give you the most good-karma by your good god standards?

Heck, make it easier than that: Your BBEG is a nine-months-pregnant antipaladin or high priestess of Lamashtu. Anything short of lopping her head off followed by an emergency caesarian will likely kill her child too, and that includes Holy Smite.

Well you might be mocking me, but I actually like the spirit of the idea. It would make GREAT role playing, and quite a good story. A BBEG woman pregnant, she evil as hell and must be stopped at all cost... but the party has divine insight that if the baby grows to be mature he will be a champion of light. Like a reversed Darth Vader story. It's good to have a story where mauling the BBEG to death isn't the solution.

I question why someone with good aligned powers should be able to just go around blasting area effect attacks and get a pass on innocent bystanders?

Your concept of innocense seems a bit broader than mine, I say that a baby should be protected from good-aligned damaging powers(that state that they don't hurt good-aligned creatures), because of the nature of his innocence (being a baby). Normal bystanders would be affected normally by the rules.. you are good you are safe.

I just imagine 10 people in a burst of a good-aligned damaging spell, 6 good-aligned children, 4 babies... BOOOM... only children standing?... Its weird...

Doesn't Paladins have to be "LAWFUL-good"?, lawful meaning that they must adhere to their code?... So maybe a Paladin can justify the means and still be good, but certainly that would make them more "Chaotic" than "Lawful".

You could just as well rule that PCs are incapable of harming babies. Simpler rule.

I don't understand how "not letting good aligned powers" harm innocent creatures be equal to not letting PCs harm babies... What I want in my game is that if someone takes a baby as a hostage, the good guy with the repeating crossbow to be at a disadvantage in rescuing the baby over a PC that HAS good-aligned powers and has to be good to get his powers... it's not that similar, is it?

Not wanting to kill a baby is all well and good.

I think this is a "key-factor" in the discussion. I agree with the fact that a baby is true-neutral like an animal, but killing a baby, or a pup or anything innocent that proves no harm would be evil.

So for the sake of storytelling I would say that a baby is true-neutral for effects that does not harm the "innocent creature" for he is not good yet, but should be considered "good" due to its innocence for effects that harm or hinder. ie:you can't use detect good to find a baby nor strike it down with effects made to protect good creatures by destroying evil/neutral ones.

You are never sure about the "end" of a course of action, so the "means" is what you really have power over.

I think that the code of the paladin is somehow comparable to the code of a samurai, the code dictate how you live, not what you have to accomplish,
For a samurai it would be better to lose a battle and die than to win the battle dishonorably and take his life through seppuku to keep their honor.(Dying is the end always)

In a similar way if I were a Paladin, I'd rather fail at stopping evil, than turning evil to stop it. (That's the role of a "good" Inquisitor I guess).

I added Charisma to the list of prerequisites for the hero point-related feats and added a few more. There's also a feat or two that ties into the luck roll mechanics I use that also have Charisma prereqs.

Very interesting! I will do something like that too. Thank you.

I tie Charisma to hero points and luck rolls, that's how I make it useful.

I have thought of tying it to hero points too, but thought that it might empower Paladines, Sorcerers and the like too much. How have you tied it? How generous are you with Hero Points? I might do that too.

I am glad that you like it! Having appropiate DCs as in skills checks would be really nice! So please share them with me once you got them.

know this is not what you are asking, but I would like to share how I "empower" CHA in my games. My GMring style is quite open, so I usually don't have prepared a lot of "details", That means that I ask for a lot of "Luck" checks. A typical luck check would be something like, Your characters are in a bar brawl when someone asks, Do I have a bottle to use as a weapon nearby?(Note that this is no perception you are actually modifing the existence of something)... So you roll 1d20+Chr mod. Look at the roll and if the roll is good, you tell him, yes there si a bottle at reach, for a bad roll, there is a bottle but further away so he needs to move to get it... but when Luck Rolls get especially fun is with particularly bad or good rolls... A typical extra-low roll would be "Yes there is one at hand" (but the bottle is actually an enlarge person potion and the slim drunk he was fighting now is a large muscular drunk(not much of a change but really funny to RP)... or with a particular high roll they get a bottle of a particular hard crystal that works like a +1 club...(After adding flavour to the bottle, that bottle is a keeper for the PJ, hell it can be even an adventure hook! -Find out what was inside that bottle.) I don't know it gives you an interesting mastering tool... and makes your characters think twice when dumping Chr... because that would mean being "unlucky". I also use general luck for the party, for this I randomly chose a party member and use his/her`s luck to the roll... so having low charisma can also mean bad luck for the party.

An example of "party luck" would be something like, if they are hunting down someone in a city and they are not being too successful (and you WANT them to find that someone because this is taking forever, after a while you roll randomly to choose someone... and tells him to roll luck. A good roll would mean that they just stumble upon the guy like "how Marcel finds Butch in pulp fiction" a great roll would mean that they find the guy and he hadn't noticed them and a bad roll would mean that they find the guy but he has some people with him and has notice their presence... you have the idea I hope!

depending on the BBEG's monster Type i will often add one or two racial hit dice to make them stand out.

Can they handle a party by themselves with that adjustment? I have not tried that myself.

I really like your ideas Blackish. Personally I think the biggest problem with most peoples Big bads is that they don't think carefully while playing them. The big bad should take every advantage they could get, Trying to get a suprise round, or fighting in terrain that sucks for the players or even if that means running away for now.

I agree with you, that's handling BBEG like Tucker's Kobols. (an awesome read if you haven't) But usually my adventures are very sand-boxy, so that means they can reach the BBEGs in different situations where he might not be as prepared, thats why I want them to be powerful by themselves and not because of exterior conditions, pretty much like the party is.

Sorry about the multiple-posts.

The problem I see with the One-Character party is that you end up with someone who can do things hat no PC can ever do, namely make more than one full round attack a turn. It's like a super version of Haste. I've been stating my Boss villains as gestalt with max HP for a while now. Gives them more survivability and options than a straight up person of their level, but the action economy keeps them in check.

Yes... that is true and that concerns myself too, maybe the same rule could be applyed from time to time to a PC if he is alone and spends X numbers of hero points. To be a BBGG. Imagine your party captured and you are the only one that could scape... you are the only one that can save them against all odds... so you apply that and have the power of a party for an encounter. I see how this could feel great for a PC... specially if they have faced a One Party Enemy before.. what do you think?

That said, I've looked at giving them more attacks too... I like the idea of giving them one reactionary ability rather than a whole new action. Something like "whenever someone starts casting a spell, then hurl a dagger at them". It's like a free readied action.

This is very interesting. An enemy with premade triggers. Would the old-school JRPG counterattack be too strong? (Whenever the BBEG is hit with a melee attack he can take a 5fts and make a single attack). Plus the dagger example?

If this rule is used you could give the PCs the option to do that as well in exchange of X Hero Points to solve the problem we discussed above.

Hero Points would work well for boss monsters. Only use them for negating failed saves and crits and the boss won't be more lethal on a peer round basis, but will be able to endure longer.

That's a good idea! I find a bit frustrating, nulling crits and failed saves thought... it's like everyone in the table gets all worked up and you say... eeeeehm... No.. that cool thing never happened... I am not very fond of that.

Maybe create BBEG points? With different options that would make the BBEG effective by itself and not by nerfing the PCs actions?

I find tossing on the Advanced template and maxing hit points makes the BBEG/Solo a more challenging fight without making it too much more dangerous.

That sounds elegant. We are talking about: +2 on all rolls (including damage rolls) and special ability DCs; +4 to AC and CMD; +2 hp/HD. The monster's CR + 1.

Just a couple of questions, does the +4AC don't affect too much the to hit chance? And which APL encounter have worked for you after applying the CR adjustment?

Interesting take on elves, its nice too see them out of their finespun self, just one question to see if I understand correctly. In your world elves can not be arcane spellcasters nor advanced fighters? Do you plan to give them a boost in primal/natural classes like the barbarian or the druid? If you where a player in your world and where to play an elf which is the "strongest" build you would make?

Thank you very much for your thoughts Darkwolf!I think that merging those two ideas could work very good, will try that out too.

About damage reduction and resistance... I am not very fond of using them as adjustments, specially since they nerf different kind of characters differently. For example I have powergamers that rely on single powerful attacks for DPR,and others that rely on multiple attacks for great DPR, this later are at a disadvantage which I try to avoid. I mean if the monster has damage reduction it's okay, but I don't like to give other monsters DR.

I am 100% with you on not touching the AC, as you say Whiffs ARE boring, and that had me thinking on Blueluck's suggestion of bumping its "saves". Does that include AC? Or just Fort, Ref and Will? If so, wouldn't that hurt spellcasters the most?

I am trying to get a solution where BBEGs give a challenge but would not like to affect too much the effectiveness of each class.

I like where this is going!

Thank you very much for your suggestion Blueluck, that certainly is more practical and I will put that to good use too.

Anyways I would like to hear some more opinions about this rules. One thing that maybe I should have mentioned is the fact that I play with powergamers (nothing wrong with that) but I would like to nerf their crazy amounts of damage per round, at least in Boss fights. I am not sure if a single, bigger hp pool would do the trick.

First of all I am not a english native-speaker so this thread will need all of your sense-motive skills to understand what I am tring to say, thanks for your efforts.

Warning! the following paragraph is all babble, but the next has some content so you can skip it if you like.

I have been reading a lot about parties facing lonely powerful monsters/npcs, in a Boss battle style, and every thread have always reached the same conclution, or the monster is Opa-gangbang styled by the PJs and dies a horribly forgetable death or the creature is so many levels above the party that everything ends in a cheatful TPK. Then in the same thread somebody somewhere says, 'Never throw monsters alone for the system does not favor them...' And I agree... the system does not favor them... but should that mean that we CAN'T have them? I say NO!... Solo Bosses are a great tool to tell a story.To have a NPC that can be a threat all by himself, proving to be an exiting challenge, hard to beat, but beatable. No legendary Boss Monster should be afraid of being alone! That's what I say...no ancient Dragon should need minions to be feared.

And thats how I get to the point, I have made 2 template-like house rules for Bosses and I want to hear what do you think about them, what would you do to make it more balanced or any critisism you might have.

First the BIG BAD BOSS (BBB)
The BBB is a monster, larger in size than the party's characters that in order to die, all its parts need to be destroyed. It have full-hp instead of average and he has 6 parts where his hp is distrubuted For example like this. 1/15HP Head, 2/15HP each Arm, 3/15HPs each leg, and 4/15 the torso. Damaging a part to 0hp does not 'actually' destroy that part, it should only provide a small benefit, for example if an arm is 'destroyed' the monster drop the weapon he is holding in that hand, or can't attack with that arm for a round. The point is that every part must reach 0 to defeat the monster. If the characters 'destroy' the same part again, by reducing it to negative hp, you could give them a better benefit, maybe they totally cut the arm of the body, but should not bring the monster any closer to death. Another restriction is that you can't target more than maybe 2 parts in the same turn. (If you need flavor, this could be because of the monsters position in that moment).

PROs
- A devastating full-attak could destroy 1/6 or 2/6 of the actual monster no mater how much damage it took.
-You can rule interesting things like, the head is out of reach for melee and can only be hit with arrows or by reading an action (when the monster try to bite)

CONs
-Area spells would be more effective since they can be used on groups and Bosses. I think one should divide the damage by the number of parts and apply it to each part.
-The monster is still vulnerable to status as a single monster
-The head is so weak that it would need special conditions like more AC. and Players would instinctly keep hitting the head..

Second is the One-Character Party (OCP)

The OCP is a Bad Ass NPC that should be able to handle a party all by himself but be defetable. Consider the OCP as many copys of the same NPC that have one body but different initiative positions (Probably Roll INI, then INI-5,-10-15). In order to defeat the OCPs all its initiative positions must be destroyed. But only one copy per turn can be destroyed. The OCP have a full turn in every initiative position it have. And keeps acting in every position until all have been defeated.

PROs
-The itinerancy of its attacks would make it as dangerous as a party of its level.
-Its like a party where all members must be destroyed to stop working at full power.
-Buffs work in all the "party' at the same time.

CONs
-He can't flank or use any team strategy.
-If he gains a status condition, its like all the 'party' gained a status. (Probably each one of its initiative positions should count like a round, for durations of spells)
-He does not have the versatility of a mixed party. Tough I imagine some of its initiative positions could be different and he could use different moves in different positions, but still he would not have as much versatility as a real party.

Well I hope you can decypher what I am trying to do, I have no tested it yet and would apreciate any comment you have. If you dont fully understund something, please ask me and I will try to clarify. Thank you!