Running my group of 5 players through the "Fortress of Ghouls" player-contributed set-piece to the Legacy of Fire AP, we ran into a possible Total-Party-Kill situation.
The party's Fire-bloodline Sorceror had previously acquired a type III necklace of fireballs, which still had all of the fireballs attached.
Fighting the Great-Ghul Boss at the end of the set-piece, which had a necklace of fireballs of his own. The Ghul tossed a fireball, doing 20HP damage, which the sorceror did not save against, taking 10 HP after his Fire Resistance 10 absorbed 10 points.
His necklace also failed to save, exploded with a 7D6, 2x 5D6 and 4x 3D6 fireballs, for a total of 29D6. On average, this would do 102 HP damage to the party and the Ghul, more than twice the highest party-members remaining HP. In fact, even with saves, this was enough to kill everyone in the party outright, except the sorceror, who ended up taking only 4HP damage from his own personal immolation, due to lucky saves (against each fireball) and fire resistance. The Ghul also would have taken very little damage due to his own fire resistance and saves - and could easily have killed the sorceror by himself with no one else to worry about.
To avoid this TPK, and because everyone in the party (except the sorceror) had Sarenrae's blessing, I read the the last line in the description of the Necklace with a variable ruling:
"If the necklace fails to save, all its remaining spheres detonate simultaneously, often with regrettable consequences for the wearer."
Consequences only affected the wearer - so only the sorceror was affected by the mass explosion, and no one else.
Was I too lenient? I try to give each player one "Hand of God" ruling per character, so this was his. And I didn't really want to end the campaign at this point.
Just Pete wrote: Was I too lenient? I try to give each player one "Hand of God" ruling per character, so this was his. And I didn't really want to end the campaign at this point. I think you did fine. It is one of the Game Masters jobs to make and keep the game fun and fudging things, when appropriate for the group, is an important part of that IMO.
If your still having fun and your group is too, then keep playing. Just, like you said, make sure that your group knows that the kid gloves are now off from now on for the Sorc as he has used up his 'golden ticket'.
Don't let it become a matter of course though. If combat loses it's danger then the game loses fun as well.
Just Pete wrote: Was I too lenient? I try to give each player one "Hand of God" ruling per character, so this was his. And I didn't really want to end the campaign at this point. I dont think it was too lenient. I think others might disagree with me though. However, it comes down to your last line for me, didnt want to end the campaign at this point.
Just Pete wrote:
Was I too lenient? I try to give each player one "Hand of God" ruling per character, so this was his. And I didn't really want to end the campaign at this point.
I tend to agree with the others. A) your campaign, your ruling; B) the penalty for the failed save on the necklace is that it was utterly destroyed - I think that's consequence enough, honestly.
Was the necklace an attended item(grasped, held, or worn)? If it was, does fireball even do damage to it? Fireball only deals damage to creatures and unattended items.
Did the Sorcerer Roll a 1? i couldn't find that int he post as this is the only situation the necklace could be damaged in.
Beyond that i think you delt with it fine.
I had a char who was hit by two fireballs, the First killed her. the second Hit her corpse where the Necklace was now considered an unattended object.
Its the only time ive seen it happen though.
The necklace of fireballs has special rules about exploding separate from the normal rules. For that exact reason most players in our group that get those keep them inside things like a Handy Haversack to avoid the explosion possibility. If they are not warn and exposed they are much less likely to blow up. (basically you have to roll a one, then the haversack needs to be the target of the random roll per the normal rules... then it needs to fail the save... then your necklace blows up. That many blown rolls is unlikely.)
Finally, we use Hero Points from the APG for just this reason. Most players save one or two points to avoid this type of random death.
ah I see, the necklace of fireballs has a specific rule in it about this exact situation.
I think I just discovered my new favorite treasure to hand out.
Pete
Same thing happened to my group in Legacy of Fire when the rogue muffed saving vs elemental fire damage and rolled a 1 for the necklace's fire save.
We all laughed, and then we pretended it did not happen (I allowed the use of a couple of hero points to make this so).
IMHO you did the right thing.
Everyone will talk about that moment for ages.
Thazar wrote:
Finally, we use Hero Points from the APG for just this reason. Most players save one or two points to avoid this type of random death.
I haven't used Hero Points yet, gonna have to look into this further. This may allow me to stop using 'GM Fiat' to save this group's collective butt.
So far, 3 out of the 5 characters in the group have had their 'Hand of God' ruling - this one, the Druid who ran up to Xulthos and got smacked down to beyond dead in just one full attack, and the Cavalier, who was the only person who could hit the Schir Demon - and only because I ruled that her LG Alignment satisfied the 'Good' requirement to overcome it's DR. (The entire group encountered it way too early).
2 more to go, then rocks fall and everyone dies!
Oh, and thanks to everyone who confirmed that I wasn't really being a wuss...
Just Pete wrote: Thazar wrote:
Finally, we use Hero Points from the APG for just this reason. Most players save one or two points to avoid this type of random death.
I haven't used Hero Points yet, gonna have to look into this further. This may allow me to stop using 'GM Fiat' to save this group's collective butt.
So far, 3 out of the 5 characters in the group have had their 'Hand of God' ruling - this one, the Druid who ran up to Xulthos and got smacked down to beyond dead in just one full attack, and the Cavalier, who was the only person who could hit the Schir Demon - and only because I ruled that her LG Alignment satisfied the 'Good' requirement to overcome it's DR. (The entire group encountered it way too early).
2 more to go, then rocks fall and everyone dies!
Oh, and thanks to everyone who confirmed that I wasn't really being a wuss... A long time ago, when playing 1st edition Ad&D, I had almost this exact problem. The only reason that the party didn't all die was due to a fighter/thief having a ring of fire resistance, plus a ring of invisibility. He was left on 3 hp, everyone else was dead, and the fire giant enemies were laughing.
The survivor hid, then spent the next entire session sneaking around to steal his friends' corpses and their equipment. He used a rod of resurrection to raise the cleric, who then raised the rest of the party.
The point of all this is: In my opinion, it made a better story to have the necklace detonate. Using 'god' points (or hero points) to allow survivor(s)is an excellent idea, but leave them damaged or in trouble and having to do something about that. Then they can have fun from attempts to get around their remaining problems, rather than having the entire situation eliminated.
Whatever you do, having fun is the aim. Ignore rules if they prevent fun.
|
