RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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We'd an incident last night and I was left wondering if the Vow of Poverty druid had overstepped the mark, or if I'm mistaking Exalted for softie too much.
Here's what went down. The Wyvern is a week out of Sasserine and Rowyn has been getting busy. In my game she's a Beguiler 9 with a lot of scrolls of Rope Trick. She poisoned the spellthief and posed as the hot young passenger's daughter to seduce the Forsaker. Once in bed she sneaked in a Hold Person and Coup de Grace'd him. He survived the blow and when his fast healing kicked in she got a bit freaked out and left, having caused enough damage for one night. She left the knife in his throat though, until the Hold wore off. She's a nice girl like that.
The party, on hearing what happened, roused the family and demanded they appear in the captains cabin immediately. The poor commoners were understandably frightened, but then again - the party had no way of knowing there was an illusionist on board, having swept the ship with Detect Evil and Detect Magic. (Rowyn had Misdirection active and was in a Rope Trick anyway).
When the daughter hid behind her father and he started to get annoyed with how they were being spoken to, the Exalted, Vow of Poverty Druid cast Beast Claws to 'let them know they were serious'.
Big, black, hairy, six-inch claws... to hurry up some level 0 NPCs...
Not the behaviour I expect from her, but is it un-Exalted or just rude?
Not the behaviour I expect from her, but is it un-Exalted or just rude?
Anything that makes an innocent young girl cry is probably to be frowned upon for an exalted character, IMO.
By my impression reading the Book of Exalted Deeds discussion of ends and means on page 9, I'm inclined to say using fear as a tool would be crossing the line - not for your average good, even Lawful Good character, but for exalted, yes.
But I'm given pause in noticing that the exalted classes of Champion of Gwynharwye, Prophet of Erathaol, Slayer of Domiel, Sword of Righteousness, and Vassal of Bahamut all have Intimidate as a class skill.
So it must be situational. Staring down the villain and unnerving the devil are fine. Frightening a group of mostly, if not all, innocents in hopes of rooting out one bad guy with nothing but your own group's safety on the line? "Frowned upon" may be too gentle a verdict.
And yet, I'd humbly suggest a warning this go around. No fair crashing down on the player on something that wasn't crystal clear even to you. Maybe tell the character he keeps thinking back to the interrogation with some troubled feelings about it. Or maybe one of the people who was in the room, preferably someone wise and likeable, has a chance to come up to the character later and say, "I respect you so much for __________ , but, gosh, when your hands turned to claws, most of us thought you were going to hurt us. It may not be my place to say, but along with being afraid, I was disappointed. I think you're better than that." But you know your player best, and it may need to be heavier than that.
"I think you're better than that."Nice!
I see exalted as above-and-beyond paladin-style LG, so this really threw me. Still, a warning and some in-character disappointment might be enough to draw the line.
this would count as definitely threatening behaviour in my book, and one used against - presumably innocent - low-level targets who are both dependent on the PCs for their protection and no real (especially not proven ) threat. since the Druid is exalted and therefore presumbaly of "good" alignment, this would count as a definite, if not overwhelmingly so, alignment violation
Yes, exalted characers can have Intimidate - mostly so (IMHO) to facilliate those feat based manouevres meant to cause awe and shake up the opposition without resorting to immediate violence, e.g. hacking and bashing.
And I remember some debate about the entire "Vow of Poverty + shapeshfiting druid" shenannigan some months back. If the player can explain it away as an instinctual reaction of his character's frustration.... well.
Otherweise - suspend the powers granted by VoP for some time, as the character goes through a crisis of faith due to the warring insticnts in his soul. he/she should be better, but obviously it seems o be a hard fight. Let the character struggle, then perhaps have the powers gradually return as he/she comes to grips with the inner turmoil. If she "fail", ahem "falls", well, not everyone can be saintly and far-above normal devotion.