Alright, so I had skimmed through the guide and thought it was kind of cool that there was a local population of Imps as well as a naturally occurring population of Pseudodragons. It added a nice bit of flavor to the city as a whole but when I pointed it out to my roommate and his response was one of shock. How could pseudodragons and imps be natural foes when statistics wise the pseudodragons should be anihilated.
The imps are superior combatants and actually do more than one point of damage. They have better aerial maneuverability, immunity to the only thing really going for the PD's: poison, and damage reduction so should a pseudodragon actually hit an imp it would do nothing. Technically you could have ten of them after a single imp and they'd be incapable of doing anything. Was this something that was overlooked or does Paizo plan on beefing up the poor pseudodragon so they can actually survive the imp menace?
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Alright, so I had skimmed through the guide and thought it was kind of cool that there was a local population of Imps as well as a naturally occurring population of Pseudodragons. It added a nice bit of flavor to the city as a whole but when I pointed it out to my roommate and his response was one of shock. How could pseudodragons and imps be natural foes when statistics wise the pseudodragons should be anihilated.
The imps are superior combatants and actually do more than one point of damage. They have better aerial maneuverability, immunity to the only thing really going for the PD's: poison, and damage reduction so should a pseudodragon actually hit an imp it would do nothing. Technically you could have ten of them after a single imp and they'd be incapable of doing anything. Was this something that was overlooked or does Paizo plan on beefing up the poor pseudodragon so they can actually survive the imp menace?
If you search the forums, you'll see a thread on this exact topic which covers various tactics the psuedodragons could use. Additionally, on the blog there was an entry detailing a bonus feat for the Korvosa pseduodragon that would allow them to overcome the imps' DR.
Crunch followed fluff in this instance.
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Also, check the blog:
Imps and Pseudodragons
Monday, March 24, 2008
While Mike was working on the Guide to Korvosa, he and I brainstormed ideas for what kind of perils might be dwelling in the Shingles. We'd both seen plenty of monster-infested city undergrounds, but we wanted something more with Korvosa; we wanted a monster-infested rooftop. Sort of. We didn't want things like dire bats or manticores stomping around up there—whatever ended up in the Shingles had to be relatively small and agile. Nick Logue's adventure already had a pseudodragon in it, and I liked the idea that these little dragons were perhaps native to the region and adapted to the rooftops as the city took over the landscape. And Mike had all these rogue, castaway imps flapping around. From there, the image of periodic imp-on-pseudodragon sky clashes popped into my head—it was too awesome an image to resist, and so the imp and pseudodragon battles became a part of the city's flavor.
This wasn't really meant to be much more than flavor; just something that makes Korvosa unique. But we got a little carried away, and suddenly two huge pictures in the book were of this supposedly rare event. With the extra weight lent by the illustrations, the imp and dragon clashes became THE iconic Korvosan event. Problem is, of course, that the game rules get in the way of this flavor. Pseudodragons can't actually hurt imps, so logically speaking, such huge battles should only ever happen once and after that, it's all imps all the time, right?
Not really. If you want more rules to back up how these battles work out, it's a relatively simple thing to come up with variants and additions for both sides to even things up a bit. Of course, you can just fake it, saying that with enough pseudodragons piled onto you, no amount of damage reduction will really help. Alternately, you can rule that Korvosa's imps have lived on the Material Plane so long that they're now considered native outsiders and have lost their fast healing and damage reduction as a result.
My preference? The Impslayer feat! Give it to all your Korvosan pseudodragons as a bonus feat, and watch the imp ichor fly!
New Feat: Impslayer
Many of Korvosa's nobles decorate their roofs with tiny amounts of precious metals, among them silver-lined weather vanes, shingles, and gutters designed to catch the sunlight to give their homes a distinctive sparkle in the sunlight. By spending years sharpening stings and teeth against these silver-enhanced decorations, or sneaking drinks of holy water from outdoor fonts at various temples, some pseudodragons have effectively transformed themselves into deadly weapons against the city's imps.
Prerequisites: Pseudodragon
Benefit:Your natural weapons bypass an imp's damage reduction. In addition, your great skill at fighting imps allows you to apply your Dexterity modifier to damage done with natural weapons rather than your Strength modifier, as your blows are delivered with great precision rather than force.
Special: Pseudodragons born and raised in Korvosa's Shingles gain this feat as a bonus feat.
James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief
Thanks for the answer. Neat little feat.
Wellll i know where my next pseudodragon familiar will be born and raised
;p
Impslayer indeed!