I don't know what it is with my group, but they refuse to leave those stupid bison be! "But they're evil", they said... "how evil can you be with a 3 intelligence?" I countered but to no avail. They attacked and killed two herds (47 total) before I just re-rolled random encounters that indicated bison.
I don't know what it is with my group, but they refuse to leave those stupid bison be! "But they're evil", they said... "how evil can you be with a 3 intelligence?" I countered but to no avail. They attacked and killed two herds (47 total) before I just re-rolled random encounters that indicated bison.
Even the best DM can't dangle enough plotline in front of a group, sometimes - but they CAN give them enough to hang themselves with...
You say that they attacked and killed two herds...over 47 animals...how long did that take?
Even a party of five characters, killing one bison EACH every two rounds, would still take almost ten rounds to complete this task; if they attack the herd you just rolled up, that would take them into two or three minutes of constant, frenzied, high-exertion activity.
Ask anyone in the SCA (like me) or any competitive sport what it's like to operate at 100% output, nonstop, for more than a few minutes.
There's no doubt that the party is going to eventually suffer fatigue (as per the DMG) and that all the yelling, combat, spell-casting and dying "moos" of the Bison is certainly going to attract any nearby attention (not to mention the smell of death and blood spreading).
As DM, you might have the party trigger an immediate encounter roll from all that ruckus...they might find themselves a bit winded after killing all those Evil Bison - and not ready to handle the Death Slaad that sees all the activity in the distance...
M
"how evil can you be with a 3 intelligence?"
Skeletons are plenty evil with no intelligence. At 3 a creature is cognizant of at least some of the ramifications of its actions. Heck, a PC could have a 3 Intelligence (granted, he'd be little more than a smart monkey, but monkeys are pretty evil as they are!).
If you don't want them to kill the herds, you've got lots of options. You can obmit them (as you have done), have them run away (they should be able to escape most PCs, and if one keeps following them... then they can all gang up on the fool), or have them call for backup. They are intelligent creatures, capable of forging some minor alliances.
"how evil can you be with a 3 intelligence?"Skeletons are plenty evil with no intelligence. At 3 a creature is cognizant of at least some of the ramifications of its actions. Heck, a PC could have a 3 Intelligence (granted, he'd be little more than a smart monkey, but monkeys are pretty evil as they are!).
If you don't want them to kill the herds, you've got lots of options. You can obmit them (as you have done), have them run away (they should be able to escape most PCs, and if one keeps following them... then they can all gang up on the fool), or have them call for backup. They are intelligent creatures, capable of forging some minor alliances.
Skeletons are neutral not evil.
As the Dm you could always choose to ignore the random encounters and move on with the story or pregenerate them and give the party a good challange. Use them to give the players the feeling they are part of a world, and not living in a vacuum. When my party was on Occipitus I used the fiendish centaur encounter, like a John Ford scene with the centaurs as the indians. Shortly after the party arrived, the centaurs began trailing them, staying just out of bow shot, appearing on the horizon. It set a great mood of paranoia. Everytime the party would attempt to close the distance the centarus would open it. The party rested once before reaching the Cathedral of Feathers, in the osaic forest I believe. They were so paranoid some didnt want to rest. In the end they set double guards. The centaurs watched the party all night and never attacked, then disappeard when party reached the Cathedral, only to reappear between tests 2 and 3 up to there same old tricks. They finally disappeard in a cloud of occipitus dust when the black dragon took wing. The party never picked up on that little clue (until after)the black dragon appeared on the horizon and made his first straffing run.
Taking the western theme from this, have a heard of fiendish buffalo stampede your parties camp some night, and the 47 buffalo would have there revenge. You could even have it be a ghostly stampede of 47 buffalo!
Skeletons are neutral not evil.
Um...
Skeletons:
Alignment: Always neutral evil.
I think in 3.0 they goofed and made them neutral. That's been fixed now.