[Sorry is this a double post!!]
So, my palyers bypassed about half of the dungeon at our last gaming session and is gearing up to go fight Kala. THe cleric, a Radiant Servant of Pelor, wants to call a planar ally of some type to help out in the fight.
My plan, since I don't think they need that much help, is to make the summoning fail becuase of the pervasive Abyssal qualities and becuase Kala has place wards around the temple itself to protect it. I was thinking a modron would pop in, say "We're sorry, your call could not be completed at this time. Please try again later," and then pop out. Is this fair to the players? I don't want a TPK on my hands but I also don't want them to walk right through this big, very important fight.
A couple of things to mention-they are currently in a rope trick. Would a summoning work there? If they tried to do it in the mudpool caves, would Kala 'feel' it and send something to stop it?
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[Sorry is this a double post!!]
So, my palyers bypassed about half of the dungeon at our last gaming session and is gearing up to go fight Kala. THe cleric, a Radiant Servant of Pelor, wants to call a planar ally of some type to help out in the fight.
My plan, since I don't think they need that much help, is to make the summoning fail becuase of the pervasive Abyssal qualities and becuase Kala has place wards around the temple itself to protect it. I was thinking a modron would pop in, say "We're sorry, your call could not be completed at this time. Please try again later," and then pop out. Is this fair to the players? I don't want a TPK on my hands but I also don't want them to walk right through this big, very important fight.
A couple of things to mention-they are currently in a rope trick. Would a summoning work there? If they tried to do it in the mudpool caves, would Kala 'feel' it and send something to stop it?
Not to be overly harsh but that approach smells like railroading to me, and nothing kills a players enjoyment faster than that.
I would certainly allow it. It's part of the characters arsenal. However, if you feel that this would trivialize the challenge you could always add a planar ally of Kala's own (don't worry about how/why its there). Whatever you do, do not say "Your planar ally attacks the Demon and the two are locked in mortal combat, effectively cancelling each other..." Yikes, that would be bad. The characters shold be able to attack Kala's ally and Kala should be able to attack theirs.
Not too harsh at all. I haven't been DMing very long, so any critique/advice on how I run things is always welcome.
Currently, the party will face Kala, his 'pets'the skulvyns, the wastrilith, and Onailati. I'm not worried about the skulvyns and Onailati since they will serve as meatsheilds. My biggest fear, I guess, is that by allowing a planar ally, the battle would go easily for them. I could throw in a retriever, probably, as another tank.
The party is currently:
Aasimar cleric/Radiant Servant of Pelor who likes to throw out wall spells
Halfling druid/beastmaster/servant of Ehlonna with a crazy tough dire ape companion (an avg of 50-60 pts of damage with a rend, 100+ with the spell girallon arms)
Olman hexblade/fighter with a holy great sword
Elf bard/wizard/ultimate magus/sublime chord who specializes in fire magic
Half elf ranger/rogue/dread pirate (in vacation in FL at the moment)
Maybe I'm just over reacting and my inexperiance is showing. They did have a tough time with the ambush and the skinwalkers in the main hall so maybe it will be appropriatley tough with the planar ally, since one player is missing
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My plan, since I don't think they need that much help,
You could always have the planar ally be ticked off that it was summoned for something that wasn't really necessary and exact a more stringent payment, or just shame them. "Would you like this humble servant of Pelor to also polish some armor for you, mighty adventurers? Perhaps you need some refuse removed from the bilges of your vessel?"
Remember that the Planar Ally is a NPC mercenary, not a class feature. Even if you allow PCs to micromanage their familiar, animal companion, or special mount, the same does not apply to called outsiders. The Planar Ally should act according to its nature. In general, it should fulfill the contract as simply as possible while minimizing its own personal risk. Some Planar Allies may choose to make sacrifices that the PC would prefer it did not make, while others will engage in side missions even as it continues fulfilling the contract.
In this case? Have it pick off the Skulvyns until they are gone. They're really only there to be decorative anyway, so you can put more effort into the interaction that is actually important -- The PCs vs. Khala & Fiends.
Remember also that there is a chance (which is at the sole discretion of the DM) that an attempt to get a general type of outsider will bring in one that is either significantly weaker than normal (say, bad roll on constitution) or significantly stronger than normal (yay! it has an extra fighter level... oh, wait, that puts its hit dice over the control limit). Furthermore, the called outsider and its associates back on its home plain may have further demands or may desire revenge later on, even if they do not have an inimical alignment.
Remember that the Planar Ally is a NPC mercenary, not a class feature. Even if you allow PCs to micromanage their familiar, animal companion, or special mount, the same does not apply to called outsiders. The Planar Ally should act according to its nature. In general, it should fulfill the contract as simply as possible while minimizing its own personal risk. Some Planar Allies may choose to make sacrifices that the PC would prefer it did not make, while others will engage in side missions even as it continues fulfilling the contract.
In this case? Have it pick off the Skulvyns until they are gone. They're really only there to be decorative anyway, so you can put more effort into the interaction that is actually important -- The PCs vs. Khala & Fiends.
Remember also that there is a chance (which is at the sole discretion of the DM) that an attempt to get a general type of outsider will bring in one that is either significantly weaker than normal (say, bad roll on constitution) or significantly stronger than normal (yay! it has an extra fighter level... oh, wait, that puts its hit dice over the control limit). Furthermore, the called outsider and its associates back on its home plain may have further demands or may desire revenge later on, even if they do not have an inimical alignment.
Thanks, those are really good points I hadn't thought of. That makes it so I can kind of control what the ally is doing without being too controlling, ya know? Again, thanks for all the suggestions!
actually - what levels are the characters and what type of Planar Ally (lesser, greater, specific being ) are they going to summon specifically ?
Second, what price will the planar ally ask and will they pay it ?