I just checked the PHB, and therein it says nothing about whether rays are visible to the naked eye. The reason I ask is that I'm leaning toward makeing the Lurking Strangler's eye rays *IN*visible, to add suspense as a lone character suddenly collapses for no apparent reason.
every "Ray" spell in the PHB specifically describes the ray that is created, and for the most part, are explicitly visible. Neither spell effect from the LS's eye rays are normally ray spells, and thus the quandry.
Am I missing any rules references that claim that rays are visible? Or do I have free reign here?
Shidara
I just checked the PHB, and therein it says nothing about whether rays are visible to the naked eye. The reason I ask is that I'm leaning toward makeing the Lurking Strangler's eye rays *IN*visible, to add suspense as a lone character suddenly collapses for no apparent reason.
every "Ray" spell in the PHB specifically describes the ray that is created, and for the most part, are explicitly visible. Neither spell effect from the LS's eye rays are normally ray spells, and thus the quandry.
Am I missing any rules references that claim that rays are visible? Or do I have free reign here?
Shidara
Well, since you're the DM, you technically have free reign no matter what anyone else says. For my part, though, I ruled that they were indeed invisible effects, simply because if they werent, the first use of one would give the critter away, and then he'd be pasted. I wasn't about to fork over the 600 XPs for a CR2 critter without making it a challenging encounter. Just my take on things.
Well, since you're the DM, you technically have free reign no matter what anyone else says. For my part, though, I ruled that they were indeed invisible effects, simply because if they werent, the first use of one would give the critter away, and then he'd be pasted. I wasn't about to fork over the 600 XPs for a CR2 critter without making it a challenging encounter. Just my take on things.I agree - plus, since the two spells (Sleep and Cause Fear) are both listed as "Mind-Affecting," I think the argument is very compelling to have them be invisible.
Plus, I just love the idea of one lone scout squeezing his way through the opening at the top of the arch, creeping down the hall, and then suddenly crumpling to the ground in a heap as her friends watch, stunned, unaware of what happened. Then this thing swoops out from a n alcove and begins strangling the poor scout, as the rest of the party tries desperately to squeeze through the opening . . .
Shidara
I plan on having the rays be visible. The sleep ray will be blue, the fear ray will be purple.
Imagine walking down a dark passage, when suddenly out of the darkness you see a flash of blue light and the faint crackle of magic, the fighter in your group falls to the ground. Then a purple flash of light and the faint sound of a scream and the rogue takes off running, nearly running into the mage behind him.
Either scenario (with or without visible effects) can be fun. Just depends on how you run it. I personally don't like magic effects that have no visible light or sound or even smell. In this case rays will have a light effect and a sound effect.
I agree - plus, since the two spells (Sleep and Cause Fear) are both listed as "Mind-Affecting," I think the argument is very compelling to have them be invisible.Plus, I just love the idea of one lone scout squeezing his way through the opening at the top of the arch, creeping down the hall, and then suddenly crumpling to the ground in a heap as her friends watch, stunned, unaware of what happened. Then this thing swoops out from a n alcove and begins strangling the poor scout, as the rest of the party tries desperately to squeeze through the opening . . .
Shidara
I'm right with you on all of this. In fact, I'm sort of curious about how most DMs rule on any Mind-Affecting spell: specifically, when it's cast, do spells like Cause Fear, Sleep, Charm Person, etc, have visible effects? Video games like ToEE and Neverwinter Nights assume that they do, but I've always tended to rule that most mind-affecting spells don't actually create an effect that's visible to just anyone. Perhaps the caster and the target see something (like ghostly, horrifying images forming in the mind of someone targeted by a Cause Fear spell, for instance), but does anyone else? Don't want to hijack this thread, so maybe this should be posted as a thread of its own, but I'd like to get other DMs opinions on this.
Since these spells are mind affecting - I may describe them to my players as the following (on a failed save)
Sleep - You find yourself sleeping in a comfortable bed, perhaps the past few minutes have all been a strange dream. You roll over and go back to sleep.
Fear - You watch in horror as two large red eyes open in the darkness no doubt belonging to a dragon or some horrible abomination. They begin to move toward you, you turn to warn your friends and notice they have become wraithes. They reach for you as you quickly turn and run from them.
I ran this encounter last Friday. I used visible rays, and allowed a bonus (+2) to spot checks after each ray attack. The other thing that I did was I had the strangler hiding beyond the range of torch light (my PCs don't have darkvision). Many of them assumed that the rays were coming farther down the hallway and double moved right past the strangler, which then changed tactics and lashed out at the closest character and coiled around his neck. No PC failed the will save.
I assmued it was akin to the rays that a Beholder uses, which are typically considered visiable. Either way works depending on how you want to decribe the seen. They were visiable for my group, yet they didn't paste it right away. The fact that it was a strange monster that none of them had encountered before made them cautious. In the end, they actually captured in and put it into a bag. From that point on it was referred to as the eye-bola. It never got used as such, but it was funny none the less.
I assmued it was akin to the rays that a Beholder uses, which are typically considered visiable. Either way works depending on how you want to decribe the seen. They were visiable for my group, yet they didn't paste it right away. The fact that it was a strange monster that none of them had encountered before made them cautious. In the end, they actually captured in and put it into a bag. From that point on it was referred to as the eye-bola. It never got used as such, but it was funny none the less.
A lurking strangler in a bag... man, I love this game.
Personally, I like flashy arcane magic, as it's generally described being that way, and so most spells have at least some component of sight or sound. When casting Cause Fear, there is the sound of a scream, and eerie light plays around the caster's hands. Sleep is generally white, blue, or color in ray form. If it's the normal spell, then those colors also play around the caster's hands, though there is no apparent effect on the the target(s) other than sleep. Enchanmets often conjure green glows around the caster's hands- I'm not sure why, it's just the color that popped into my mind, and it's never left.
Divine spells are a whole different topic. They are often only accompanied by holy radiance (golden or white light), or shadow for evil priests, but nothing too dramatic (unless the spell makes sense otherwise, like Holy Smite or Chaos Hammer- I like those to be flashy).
I made the strangler's rays visible. It's still a good effect. Seeing a ray shoot from seemingly nowhere is to PCs what gunfire from a concealed shoorter would be to most people today. Yes, you know what it is, but that doesn't make it less dangerous or frightening, especially if you don't know where it's coming from. The rogue failed his save on the fear in my campaign, and even though the party spotted the strnagler, killing it wasn't easy because of the statue it was behind. Weapons kept bouncing off the stone, and there was no mage to cast Magic Missile. It was fun.
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A lurking strangler in a bag... man, I love this game.
lol speaking of bags, my PC's grappled the tomb-mote and threw it in one...then the fighter proceeded to smack it against the walls till all movement stopped...I was letting it play dead but then he jumped on it and then smacked it against the walls about ten more times....laughed my ass off....
I ran this encounter last Friday. I used visible rays, and allowed a bonus (+2) to spot checks after each ray attack. The other thing that I did was I had the strangler hiding beyond the range of torch light (my PCs don't have darkvision). Many of them assumed that the rays were coming farther down the hallway and double moved right past the strangler, which then changed tactics and lashed out at the closest character and coiled around his neck. No PC failed the will save.
This is pretty much the way I played it. I made Spot rolls for the characters each round of rays, but with the +14 Hide on the LS and the distance/darkness, they never made it.
I managed to Sleep two characters (the 2nd fell right on top of the 1st - cue the juvenile humor) and Fear two others, one of whom fled right into the brown mold. That was the 'Blair Witch moment'. Finally had it try to swoop down and strangle one of the characters, but that -10 grapple made that useless.
It would take a very weak character and/or a very bad roll for this critter to ever kill somebody.
If you're getting ready to run this encounter, take a look at a file I posted at http://therpgenius.com/ageofworms/GameMechanics/NPCStatBlocks/Chapter1TheWh isperingCairn/tabid/219/Default.aspx
It's just a Word doc with notes you can pass out to your players to increase the paranoia.