ChemE Kaun's page

I’m fond of an NPC. His name is Kah Blah. He’s a gremlin with the eternal template which means he can’t die or advance in levels. He is a 8th level Alchemist and can only say his name, usually with an exclamation point at the end, Kah Blah! He is chaotic neutral and revels in destruction, pranks, and chaos. He has the following mental disorders: Hypomania, Pyromania, Trichotillomania, Pica, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Chemical Inhalant Addiction, Amnesia, Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, Narcolepsy, Chronic Adrenaline Addiction.

Every time he dies, he rematerializes within 2d6 minutes. He is fearless and somewhat addicted to dying. He will jump into a dragon’s mouth, or into a lake of lava, or into a machine that grinds him to paste. He adds a certain humor to the game.

I was thinking about having the main villain in a high-level campaign be a 12th level bard / 10th level Chronicler

He is the leader in a guild of assassins and uses the Epic Tales ability to give his followers his performance buffs during combat without him actually having to be there.

The Deadly Performance ability kills someone through either joy or sorrow. One of his main ways to kill people involves using his Deadly Performance ability with his Greater Epic Tales to basically send a letter that kills whoever reads it. Basically, a short anecdote or profound truth that causes the reader to die of sorrow, kind of like the movie the Ring.

Is this use of Deadly Performance with Greater Epic Tales feasible? Also, would the letter radiate magic?

The concept of Revan basically ties an existing PC to the past and history of the campaign without him/her being aware of this.

There was a spell in the Forgotten Realms 2nd Edition called the Curse of Yondalla. Yondalla is the main god of Halflings. The spell was used against individuals that caused great harm to the Halflings. It caused the victim to turn into an infant and the baby would be brought up to respect halflings.

Your Revan could be a victim of this spell or similar curse modified to fit your campaign. Perhaps the path of good and evil could rest on whether the PC decides to kill the priest and remove the spell (maybe resulting in some past evil buffs Revan had), or embracing the goals of whatever good entity cursed them.

Maybe a psion split the consciousness of Revan into separate consciousnesses enabling every PC to be effectively Revan and be equally vested in the plot. Maybe this psion did not want to destroy the memories completely so it stored them in psi-crystals. The PCs could find various psi-crystals throughout your campaign and regain some memories that enable you to advance the plot along with some XP.
Maybe Revan was a mythic creature that could not be killed (see mythic rules), and thus was separated into separate entities. Maybe give the PCs a minor mythic ability after finding a psi-crystal or whatever Mcguffin you use.

The Starforge could be replaced with the artifact called Trueforge, basically a magic anvil that can produce magic weapons/armor cheaper and faster. It could rest inside an underground city overseen by clockwork creatures. Various clockwork creatures could serve as trigger points to advance the story line (Mcguffins) either by providing information, or perhaps the 5 mcguffins could be keys that unlock the city or certain areas in the city.

Or maybe ditch the Trueforge and instead make the main Mcguffin the city itself and whoever holds the command rod has power over all the clockwork creatures and their amazing production capabilities. The good path fights Malek and his clockwork creatures, the evil path commands the clockwork creatures and fights the Mage/Jedi order.

Yes to all of your questions, and very creative regarding ghost touch fabrication.

The language does state that an incorporeal creature can’t be grappled but I disagree. A corporeal creature cannot interact physically with an incorporeal creature. But an incorporeal creature should be able to interact with an incorporeal creature. Do the rules as they are written refute this? Yes. Was it intended to apply towards an incorporeal creature? No. One of many examples in which the rules don’t touch on every issue and require a common sense logical approach. I’m surprised this was disallowed.

The description of ectoplasmic spell states that an ectoplasmic spell has full effect against incorporeal or ethereal creatures. That’s pretty black and white to me. If Black tentacles grapple, and ectoplasmic spell states that it has full effects against incorporeal creatures then it should grapple a ghost. A ghost does have a CMD after all. And for +3 spell levels cost I do not see the ability to grapple a ghost unbalancing.

Attack his pride. Introduce reputation and honor rules. He is known as a coward to the locales. Many players want to be a badass, not just in ability but in reputation. They want to cultivate an image. Perhaps he is thinking of himself as Stormcrow or Deathwing or some other vain title. Have the group come upon a wanted poster offering 500gp for the capture of the infamous “Chicken Witch” or the “Yellow Druid” or some name to illustrate his actions.

Building upon my first suggestion, have the locales perhaps launch an inquisition against “witches” (witches, druids, all the same to a peasant). They could use falconry (trained predator birds to attack). Have orcs train hawks, and giants train rocs.

Introduce a cult of druids of opposing alignments to basically employ a similar tactic.

The wingclipper feat would cause him to plummet down. As would a dispel magic, or an arrow imbued with dispel magic.

Rangers with species enemy “animals.” See the “Ranger Creature” template to give ranger qualities to monsters.

Start awarding bonus experience points to other players for creative tactics and their ability to handle monsters in unique ways. Then if he is discontent just shrug your shoulders and tell him that there isn’t anything creative about doing the same thing over and over again.

Since his spells come from nature or a being of some sort, perhaps such a being may not approve of its follower using its abilities to rain death at every encounter like an apache helicopter.

I’m not sure if you can adjust the XP for an easy encounter but if you can then go for it.

Introduce a much higher level NPC druid of similar alignment that could wipe the whole party out if he wanted but don’t. Just have him be a part of an adventure hook. Basically the embodiment of what your player wishes to be. Your player will expect a connection but perhaps this much older and wiser druid scoffs at the way your player carries himself. An old school playa disgusted with this generation of druids. “The gifts of mother nature are a shield, not a sword young druidling.”

As for his argument. As others have pointed out spellcasting is noticeable whether coming from a bird or human. Building upon this, if his logic is sound in that an animal wouldn’t be perceived as a threat then watch how he reacts when you introduce the same tactic. If you describe a bird flying overhead and he immediately casts a stoneskin before you are done reading the description then call him out on his hypocritical argument. Remind him he is roleplaying poorly.

I had a character act in this manner. As the DM you aren’t going to describe every scene in which the players encounter. They will see birds, they may even hear a noise that turns out to be just a mouse. Prepping for battle every time you open your mouth is poor role playing. The players may know that every time you describe something an encounter is likely to occur. But their characters do not and you cannot act on player knowledge if your character is ignorant. I had a player do something like this. Whether I was describing the winter chill before a frost giant emerged, or the smell of fungus and blood before a troll came out of hiding he would cast stoneskin before I could even finish the description. So I simply changed the encounter on the fly. I continued with my description which ended with nothing more than flavor text and him out 100gp material component. Do the same to him. Have him waste his wildshape abilities on minor encounters. And remind players what poor roleplaying entails.

Time to introduce a subterranean adventure. Or travel through a forest where he is forced to fly low in order to actually see the enemies.

My friend. I feel for you. Players like this take the charm out of the game. Druids are supposed to be mystical and mysterious. Not ultrapractical 100% efficient military scientists. This is a tricky issue to handle though. The rules are so robust that weaknesses exist and players love to exploit them. But they don’t look at it as exploitation. You don’t want to give him the impression you are waiving the DM wand. The trick is to slowly implement these changes so subtly that you don’t appear as though you’ve done your homework and plan to single him out. Try to have all these suggestions effect another player before him. Perhaps in 2 or 3 sessions the dynamics of your campaign will change such that your new implements won’t make you seem like an A-hole DM.

New to this website. 4 questions.

1. Shadowdancer's at 10th level get a DR 10/- while in shadows or dim lighting. If a character is wearing shadow armor would you allow that alone to great him the bonus? A player's argument is that the armor creates shadows that "blur" his movement.

2. Would you allow a character to use magic to create his own dim lighting to benefit from this?

3. Would this work in complete darkness or just dim lighting and shadows?

4. Lastly, If a character is fighting a giant or creature that casts a large shadow. What kind of penalty, if any, would you impose if the shadowdancer is actively trying to stay within the creatures shadow to gain its special DR?