I'm working on a new campaign setting, and I believe it is time for me to begin preliminary playtesting. I am planning to run though three scenarios. The psycho Former Paladin/Cleric is first. The second scenario is one in which treasure hunters enter an "Egyptian" pyramid and wake up a swarm of undead guardians, magic traps, and one very pissed off mummy sorcerer, and the third scenario is the one I am talking about here. In all three scenarios the PCs are government officials dispatched to handle the situation.
Here's the third scenario. Paleontologists are searching for dinosaur bones, and come across a prime dig site. One paleontologist cheats another out of digging rights, leaving him so angry (this isn't the first time this particular rival has screwed him over like this) that he goes and hires a necromancer to animate all of the intact dinosaur skeletons as his revenge. Chaos ensues.
Now, I COULD just add the skeleton template to the dinosaurs from the Bestiary, but there is one glaring issue: These bones are 65 million years old. Presumably, that would effect their utility as fighting creatures. Should they get an AC penalty due to age? Hit point penalty? Be left alone? Furthermore, they are underground, encased in earth. Can such a skeleton be animated, and if so can it dig itself to the surface if so commanded? Can it even hear the command to do so?
I still think this is an awesome idea and no it should not age. Be left alone If it was a skelelton the entire time it would not take any penalites.
I'd say they get an AC bonus for being fossilized.
I'd say they get an AC bonus for being fossilized.
Oh, yea. I forgot that fossilization hardened bones. Silly me. How much of a natural armor bonus would you recommend?
|
Rather than have them encased in earth, and having to dig their way free, just state that they had already been dug up by the builders of the ancient society, which had some religious / philosophical reason to do so (they considered them the bones of the ancient beasts that their ancestors had defeated to claim the lands they now inhabit, and would dig up these bones and decorate the tombs of their kings with them, as a sign of their past glories).
While fantasy art is full of zombies being raised up from graves, the animate dead spell requires touch (and even if made into a reach spell, would require line-of-effect), so D&D/PF lacks the sort of magic that would emulate that traditional effect, so having the skeletons already out and available would be easiest. If you love the 'bursting out of the ground' effect, making a variant (or just flat out changing the spell itself) of animate dead that affects the ground, and anyone buried in it, instead, is an option.
Combining those ideas, perhaps the people who dug up the bones wrapped them in linen, before arranging them, creating the appearance of dinosaur *mummies* (still just skeletons, but should be good for a scare!).
As for the skeletons themselves, the Tome of Horrors has a Paleoskeleton template, but it includes some funky side-effects like a petrification attack. I'd skip that and just give the dinosaur skeletons the Hardness of stone (effectively DR 8/adamantine) and be done with it.
If I wanted to go with unique abilities, petrification is one option (perhaps affecting only those that get Swallowed Whole by one of the larger dinosaurs), or aging-related or fear-related effects, or some sort of mind-affecting effect that causes those struck to be overwhelmed by the 'weight of the ages' or something, or maybe even something dealing with how the creatures died, such as being surrounded by a tarry morass that doesn't slow them, but makes for difficult (and potentially flammable) terrain around them for everyone else.
But, for bog-standard fossilized skeletons, I'd just take the Hardness 8 and run with it. A T-rex skeleton with DR 8 and an extra +4 or so natural armor bonus should be scary enough. :)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I don't know about skeletons, but after reading Dead beat I have been looking for an excuse to throw a zombie T-Rex at my players
While fantasy art is full of zombies being raised up from graves, the animate dead spell requires touch (and even if made into a reach spell, would require line-of-effect), so D&D/PF lacks the sort of magic that would emulate that traditional effect, so having the skeletons already out and available would be easiest. If you love the 'bursting out of the ground' effect, making a variant (or just flat out changing the spell itself) of animate dead that affects the ground, and anyone buried in it, instead, is an option.
As for the skeletons themselves, the Tome of Horrors has a Paleoskeleton template, but it includes some funky side-effects like a petrification attack. I'd skip that and just give the dinosaur skeletons the Hardness of stone (effectively DR 8/adamantine) and be done with it.
Thanks. I like these suggestions. I definitely want the bursting out of the ground effect. It'd be such a scary moment.
The hardness of stone works fine for me.
I don't know about skeletons, but after reading Dead beat I have been looking for an excuse to throw a zombie T-Rex at my players
Is that the Western where everything is getting zombified, and then then find the land of dinosaurs, and THOSE start getting zombified? I liked that story.
I don't know about skeletons, but after reading Dead beat I have been looking for an excuse to throw a zombie T-Rex at my playersIs that the Western where everything is getting zombified, and then then find the land of dinosaurs, and THOSE start getting zombified? I liked that story.
No, it's part of a series called the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. One of my favorite series. Lots of good stuff.
An animated T Rex is a heap of HD for a caster to animate using animate dead, and being fossilized might stretch the definition of "dead" a bit. However, a few castings of animate object should get things going and make things a little more difficult for the party cleric.
Now, I COULD just add the skeleton template to the dinosaurs from the Bestiary, but there is one glaring issue: These bones are 65 million years old. Presumably, that would effect their utility as fighting creatures. Should they get an AC penalty due to age? Hit point penalty? Be left alone? Furthermore, they are underground, encased in earth. Can such a skeleton be animated, and if so can it dig itself to the surface if so commanded? Can it even hear the command to do so?WotC's revived fossil template, which was the "official" 3.5 take on this subject, can be found here (it's at the bottom of the page).
I just received a copy of that book in the mail yesterday. I ordered it last week. Haven't had time to browse through it, though. I'll look up that fossil template.
An animated T Rex is a heap of HD for a caster to animate using animate dead, and being fossilized might stretch the definition of "dead" a bit. However, a few castings of animate object should get things going and make things a little more difficult for the party cleric.
I just checked my copy of Libris Mortis, and fossils, under 3.5 rules, can't be animated with animate dead at all. A special ritual is used, and it doesn't say how it works or how many of these things I create, or whether they can dig themselves up, so I guess I get to decide that as GM, but the actual template for a revived fossil looks pretty cool. It's hard as stone (DR 10/Adamantine), gets bonus HP, gets Combat Reflexes, gets a brutal claw attack if it didn't already have one, and gets good natural armor.
Don't know if you care for this much realism, but just thought I'd share.
Not all dino bones fosilize, some come out VERY fragile. I've never worked on dinosaur bones, but I've dug up bison kills from way back when (don't recall the date), and some of the bones were about as hard as cake frosting that sat out a little.
Also, fosils as old as dinosaur bones rarely come through without some warpage. Geologic forces are pretty intense over that much time, so when you're describing the creatures, feel free to have them twisted and asemetrical a bit.
Don't know if you care for this much realism, but just thought I'd share.
Not all dino bones fosilize, some come out VERY fragile. I've never worked on dinosaur bones, but I've dug up bison kills from way back when (don't recall the date), and some of the bones were about as hard as cake frosting that sat out a little.
Also, fosils as old as dinosaur bones rarely come through without some warpage. Geologic forces are pretty intense over that much time, so when you're describing the creatures, feel free to have them twisted and asemetrical a bit.
An additional realism note.
Fossils actually arn't bones. They are mineral deposist that fill in the space of the bone and take it's shape. There really isnt any "Bone Matter" present in a fossil. Basically trying to animate a fossil as a skeleton would be like trying to animate a plaster cast of someone's face as a zombie.
Libris Mortis has rules for animating fossils, so I'll use those for this encounter.
There is the new and improved rules on animated objects in Pathfinder too. Might be something to think about, as pulling this type of switcheroo could be really cool, or really piss your players off...