Wings_Of_Ink's page

Dragons cheat. Liches cheat. DMs cheat. Dracoliches controlled by the DM ceat A LOT.

If your players trust you enough, you can play it like this-

Dragotha is very very very very very very smart. He's seen almost every trick that could possibly be used against him. This means he'll usually have figured out most of what a party is going to do, round-to-round.

To represent this, have each character roll their Int vs. Dragotha's at the beginning of each round. If Dragotha wins, have that player write down a rough idea of what they are planning to do that round. (don't have them be over specific, "I move to the right, take a potion, and activate a protective item", is fine) They give it to you, NOT showing it to the other players. If Dragotha fails, nothing happens.

Don't hold the players to their plans. If they have to change their plans, let them. Combat is ever-changing. Also, it's ok for a player that has no idea at all to say so.

Dragotha\the DM can now plan around the party's actions BEFORE they take them. The logic is that Dragotha is just that smart.

This gives Dragotha an unfair, but very realistic edge.

Thank you for this! It's a very nice re-balance of the Artificer.

I had a few ideas myself, though I'm not sure of the meat of them yet-

1. Juryrigged magic- an Artificer may attempt to create an infusion on the fly, by removing the enchantment of a minor magic item (scroll, potion, ect), and then using the magic as an Infusion. This destorys the item. It's a full-round action to remove the magic, and then a full-round action to use the magic. If it is not used on the round after it has been gathered, the pool is lost. (I don't know what kind of Infusions can be used)

2. It worked, didn't it?- an Artificer can attempt to re-create the effect of a minor Infusion, Potion, Scroll, or Wand(possibly of no more then 2nd level), using nothing more then mundane items. Think of spring-loaded boots for Jump, flamethrower Burning Hands, ect. The item will work only once or twice before the effect is lost, as the mechanics wear down. The cost is high, though I'm not sure what it could be.

It's a work in progress.