So you want a mechanic to give a character an unreasoning phobia of Japanese schoolgirls. Gotcha.
By the same token, any character who had ever faced that rabbit from the Holy Grail would never look at a bunny the same way again.
Or we could come up with something sensible and leave the phobia monsters for Phantasmal Killer.
|
I just allow a defender to choose to ignore all opponents except one if they choose. The opponent they pay attention to they get full AC agains, anyone they ignore get's 2x flanking bonus.Then you trivialize encounters with multiple rogues. Getting an additional +2 to attack in no way makes up for being unable to sneak attack. It's an obvious, no-brainer choice.
Seems quite sensible for me for houserules....
Even if an experienced adventurer "have seen it all" and knows that things may not be what they look like : the little Chiwawa dog may be, just may be, a polymorphed "kick-arse" dragon ... or may just be what it looks like .
So what would my experienced adventurer would focus on ? The obvious 6 feet axe about to chop his head off ? or the "may be" threat hanging to my leg and trying to bite through my platearmor ?
He would surely concentrate on the obvious threat.
Now ... If the little dog was doing 10D6 of magic fire every time it hits, then the adventurer may reconsider reranking the threats...
I like this "rule" I take it since I'm not doing any society stuffs.
|
So you want a mechanic to give a character an unreasoning phobia of Japanese schoolgirls. Gotcha.
By the same token, any character who had ever faced that rabbit from the Holy Grail would never look at a bunny the same way again.
Or we could come up with something sensible and leave the phobia monsters for Phantasmal Killer.
not a mechanic to give a fear of japanese schoolgirls, it was an example of an implemented rule. a damage threshhold that if bypassed doesn't alow you to ignore that character or anything extremely similar. having one of your lungs or even kidneys ripped out by a japanese scholgirl with a dagger would make you fear japanese schoolgirls? am i right? especially ones that look similar to the one that ripped out that vital organ of yours. assuming you can survive, (which IRL you can't) it is called association. if an old man did it, would you fear every old man that looked like the one that performed the action. near death experiences are always life changing. a smart adventurer would be uber paranoid anyway. every japanese schoolgirl could be a possible ninja candidate to Samuel Mcswingy, as he remembers what one of them did to his left kidney one day. every chiauaua would be assumed to either be a polymorphed dragon, wildshaped druid or a wizard's familiar. he probably remember's when Anansi the drow blackguard cut that gash in his lower back and left him to the spiders. so he avoids spiders. Samuel Mcswingy is an adventurer. he's seen many threatning things. maybe he is afraid of that japanese schoolgirl. his kidney was ripped out by one. maybe he's afraid of waifs, period. he still trusts he 5'2" 100lb female Aasimaar cleric he travels with, she's an exception to his possible fear of waifs. she's given him cure spells before. he knows she wouldn't cut his lungs out with a dagger. in fact, she wears an espada ropera at her hip, and prefers the honor of fencing rather than the sneakyness of backstabbing.
not a mechanic to give a fear of japanese schoolgirls, it was an example of an implemented rule. a damage threshhold that if bypassed doesn't alow you to ignore that character or anything extremely similar. having one of your lungs or even kidneys ripped out by a japanese scholgirl with a dagger would make you fear japanese schoolgirls? am i right? especially ones that look similar to the one that ripped out that vital organ of yours. assuming you can survive, (which IRL you can't) it is called association. if an old man did it, would you fear every old man that looked like the one that performed the action. near death experiences are always life changing. a smart adventurer would be uber paranoid anyway. every japanese schoolgirl could be a possible ninja candidate to Samuel Mcswingy, as he remembers what one of them did to his left kidney one day. every chiauaua would be assumed to either be a polymorphed dragon, wildshaped druid or a wizard's familiar. he probably remember's when Anansi the drow blackguard cut that gash in his lower back and left him to the spiders. so he avoids spiders. Samuel Mcswingy is an adventurer. he's seen many threatning things. maybe he is afraid of that japanese schoolgirl. his kidney was ripped out by one. maybe he's afraid of waifs, period. he still trusts he 5'2" 100lb female Aasimaar cleric he travels with, she's an exception to his possible fear of waifs. she's given him cure spells before. he knows she wouldn't cut his lungs out with a dagger. in fact, she wears an espada ropera at her hip, and prefers the honor of fencing rather than the sneakyness of backstabbing.
I don't know, not to be snarky or anything, but, my preferred mechanic for getting someone not to ignore the small petite assassin is the cerebral cortex. Theirs to be specific.
If they want to ignore someone who's doing 30hp of damage per round, I'm perfectly ok with that, honestly. Makes it easier to kill them quickly, which is what we might call rpg darwinism in action. On top of that, doubling the flanking bonus means that confirming crits just got that much easier.
That's why the rule has never been abused in my games, people don't ignore people who are doing hefty damage to them, they ignore Toto the wonder dog and Stabey the 2nd level goblin comic relief.
I think mdt has it right: Why force silly mechanics to make characters flip-out about something that's generally innocuous? We're supposed to be playing battle-hardened warriors, not walking wounded and PTSD cases.
Yes, if a Japanese school girl once ripped out your lungs, you might flip out if one attacked you and be unable to ignore her. You also might decide to kill anything that looked like a Japanese schoolgirl with extreme prejudice regardless of whether they attacked you.
Congratulations, you've just firebombed a convent, a girl's school, and the local Sanrio store. What are you doing for an encore?
Here's a simple rule to follow: Ignore whatever you want, but ignore it at your peril. If something you were ignoring suddenly turns out to be a "true threat" by whatever benchmark you personally gauge "true threat," then you are free to stop ignoring it.
Hell, you can also do that beforehand if you want to. But by the same token, you character can sacrifice himself to a volcano if he feels like it.
You make a tactical decision. If it works, you stick with it. If it doesn't, you switch tactics.
As much as you may have been traumatized by anime schoolgirls in the past, if you concentrate on one in battle and ignore the battle tank, and the batte tank suddenly sneak attacks you for extra vivisection damage, well then, you may suddenly decide something's a bigger threat than just mere "rip out lungs" damage which you previously survived.