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Recently I played Tide of Twilight and some of the PCs succumbed to the Bestial curse. Rather then the GM simply saying "You now have the following template" I thought it would be more enjoyable to give affected players a handout with their Bestial template on it, as well as a description of the changes they were going through. Then it would be left up to them to describe their appearance and actions to the rest of the group. After I started writing my thoughts down I also decided that it would be more fun to have some abilities related to the animal variant they were given. Take a look at the following and tell me if you think this would liven things up.
Ape
“Coarse black hair has grown in thick patches covering your arms, torso and legs. Your remaining exposed skin darkens and takes on a leathery texture.”
Special Ability: Brachiation (Ex) You gain a +5 to Acrobatics checks as long as you begin or end your movement in a tree. You also gain a Climb speed of 20’.
Quirk: Whenever idle you have a compulsion to seek out the highest-Charisma member of your party and groom them.
Badger
“Your hair turns white down the center of your scalp. Your nose grows longer and your sense of smell has sharpened. Your fingernails have blackened and tapered to form sharp claws.”
Special Ability: You gain Scent (Ex) and a Burrow speed of 10’.
Quirk: You have a compulsion to tear apart rotting logs to look for tasty insects to consume. You are also irritable and don’t appreciate being touched.
Bear
“Coarse brown hair has grown all over your body, and your belly sags with a substantial layer of fat that hadn’t been there before. You feel pangs of hunger and crave something sweet to eat.”
Special Ability: Grab (Ex) whenever you hit with a claw attack.
Quirk: You have a compulsion to find a bee hive and plunder its sweet honeycomb, unless an equally satisfying meal comes along first.
I'm still working on the rest but I'd like to flesh out the boar, crocodile, dog, lion, raccoon, skunk, snake, wolf and wolverine.
The handout would have the Bestial template stats on the front and on the back would be the details about the animal they were becoming.
Your own contributions are welcome here. Just be aware that using these ideas in official PFS games is not allowed, just like adjusting the difficulty of encounters ;)
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This is a great idea...but I had it first. :)
I initially envisioned a template that would have multiple options based on the kind of animal. A "brutish" animal would get a bonus to Con and to natural armor, but a penalty to many skills. A "clawed" animal would get a bonus to Str and claw attacks, but a penalty on all non-natural weapon attacks. In the end, it was just too complicated--applying even a simple template at the table is already complicated.
There are a few suggested animals within the template description, and I make the PC afflicted with the template roll a d6 to see which animal type he or she looks like. Generally, the PC takes it from there as a roleplaying cue, but I use the result as the GM, too (having the lycanthrope hunter attack the wolf-looking PC, for example, with a cry of "Eat silver, werewolf!").
I really like the idea of a short handout to give to the PCs with the template changes--that will make it easier on affected PCs, I think. I'll definitely do that in the future.
I would have no problems with taking this the further step you indicate here and propose roleplaying quirks as well. Unofficially, of course. :)
Thanks,
Ron
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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I like the ideas being generated here. A lot. But I'd take care when entering the "quirk" territory. Unless the afflictions take control of a characters action (which I don't believe they do in Tide of Twilight), you should tread very lightly when making game mechanics that control a player's actions.
"You have a compulsion to tear apart rotting logs to look for tasty insects to consume. You are also irritable and don’t appreciate being touched."
While funny, it can easily become a problem for tables that will slow down play and aggravate your players. Just my 2 c.
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Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant
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I'm with Walter on this, this scenario can take quite a while, at least it did when I ran it, we went over 30-45 minutes, and that was cutting out the optional encounter with the twigjacks. (Which I think could have been a misprint? It mentioned not running the encounter if you have less than 2 hours left? Its the second to last encounter! Of course you're going to have less than 2 hours left, unless they absolutely breezed through the rest of it.)
I think giving them extra abilities is cool, but it might work better if it was in stages.
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So I made handouts for these and gave them a try. I had the players pre-roll 5 Fort saves then I rolled randomly to see which one I'd use. Only one PC failed. I gave him the Ape and he enjoyed it so much he spent each combat swinging around the trees instead of participating in the fighting. They were APL 3 playing down to the lower sub-tier so it wasn't like he was needed. Anyway, there weren't any bad outcomes but I'm definitely going to take Eric's suggestion and hold back on the special abilities unless they fail the Fort save a 2nd time.
I'd welcome any feedback or suggestions on other animals.
“Coarse black hair has grown in thick patches covering your arms, torso and legs. Your remaining exposed skin darkens and takes on a leathery texture.”
Special Ability: You gain a +5 racial bonus to Acrobatics checks as long as you begin or end your movement in a tree. You also gain a Climb speed of 20’.
Quirk: Whenever idle you have a compulsion to seek out the highest-Charisma member of your party and groom them.
The quirk is a role-play device and is not intended to cause conflict between players. Done properly this can make the game more enjoyable. Please be careful not to take things too far.
“Your hair turns white down the center of your scalp. Your nose grows longer and your sense of smell has sharpened. Your fingernails have blackened and tapered to form sharp claws.”
Special Ability: You gain Scent (Ex) and a Burrow speed of 10’.
Quirk: You have a compulsion to tear apart rotting logs to look for tasty insects to consume. You are also irritable and don’t appreciate being touched.
The quirk is a role-play device and is not intended to cause conflict between players. Done properly this can make the game more enjoyable. Please be careful not to take things too far.
“Coarse brown hair has grown all over your body, and your belly sags with a substantial layer of fat that hadn’t been there before. You feel pangs of hunger and crave something sweet to eat.”
Special Ability: Grab (Ex) whenever you hit with a claw attack.
Quirk: You have a compulsion to find a bee hive and plunder its sweet honeycomb, unless an equally satisfying meal comes along first.
The quirk is a role-play device and is not intended to cause conflict between players. Done properly this can make the game more enjoyable. Please be careful not to take things too far.
“Your teeth ache and your lower canine teeth stretch and grow into tusks. Your face elongates into a snout and rough bristles erupt all over your neck & back.”
Special Ability: You gain Scent (Ex) and Ferocity (Ex).
Quirk: You don’t sweat, so you must cool yourself buy wallowing in mud or submerging yourself in water to keep comfortable.
The quirk is a role-play device and is not intended to cause conflict between players. Done properly this can make the game more enjoyable. Please be careful not to take thing too far.
“Soft fur sprouts all over your body until you are completely covered head to foot. A tail grows from your backside and wags back and forth.”
Special Ability: You gain Scent (Ex) and may take a +5 racial bonus to Survival when tracking or living off the land.
Quirk: Lacking sweat glands in your skin, you tend to constantly pant. You are also curious about your companions and are driven to sniff them.
The quirk is a role-play device and is not intended to cause conflict between players. Done properly this can make the game more enjoyable. Please be careful not to take things too far.
“Your skin becomes scaly and dark, and boney ridges push up along your neck and back. Your jaw grows outward and contorts into a toothy maw.”
Special Ability: Grab (Ex) whenever you hit with a bite attack.
Quirk: Your cold-blooded metabolism is slow so you like to stand close to a heat source or linger in the sunlight.
The quirk is a role-play device and is not intended to cause conflict between players. Done properly this can make the game more enjoyable. Please be careful not to take things too far.
“Black fur sprouts all over your body, save for white stripes that start at your face and end at your new fluffy tail. Your face stretches into a furry snout.”
Special Ability: Musk (Ex) Up to twice per day, you can spray a stream of noxious musk at a single target within 10 feet as a standard action. With a successful ranged touch attack, the creature struck by this spray must make a DC [12 + your new Con modifier] Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1d4 rounds and then sickened for 1d4 minutes by the horrific stench. A successful save reduces the effect to only 1d4 rounds of being sickened. A creature cannot use the scent ability as long as it is affected by this musk.
Quirk: You are nocturnal and prefer to travel at night. If you see any logs you feel compelled to turn them over and search of tasty insects to feast upon.
The quirk is a role-play device and is not intended to cause conflict between players. Done properly this can make the game more enjoyable. Please be careful not to take things too far.
“Soft gray fur sprouts all over your body until you are completely covered head to foot. A tail grows from your backside and your face lengthens into a lupine snout.”
Special Ability: You gain Scent (Ex) and may Trip (Ex) any opponent that you make a successful bite attack against.
Quirk: You are the alpha, and as such deserve first claim of any of the ‘kills’ your pack makes. You will press your claim through growls & body language.
The quirk is a role-play device and is not intended to cause conflict between players. Done properly this can make the game more enjoyable. Please be careful not to take things too far.
“Course fur sprouts all over your body and your head and neck transform into a powerful wolf-like countenance.”
Special Ability: Rage (Ex) If you take damage in combat, you fly into a rage on your next turn, clawing and biting madly until either you or your opponent is dead. You gain +4 to Strength, +4 to Constitution, and –2 to AC. You cannot end your rage voluntarily unless you make a Will Save (DC 13).
Quirk: You are constantly hungry and quarrelsome.
The quirk is a role-play device and is not intended to cause conflict between players. Done properly this can make the game more enjoyable. Please be careful not to take things too far.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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The quirk is a role-play device and is not intended to cause conflict between players. Done properly this can make the game more enjoyable. Please be careful not to take thing too far.
Perfect. :)
Point of clarification, do the creature "forms" that include the Grab (EX) special ability also get natural claw attacks as well?
And I laughed hard at the Skunk's Musk ability. Nicely done.
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The quirk is a role-play device and is not intended to cause conflict between players. Done properly this can make the game more enjoyable. Please be careful not to take thing too far.Perfect. :)
Point of clarification, do the creature "forms" that include the Grab (EX) special ability also get natural claw attacks as well?
And I laughed hard at the Skunk's Musk ability. Nicely done.
Thank you. The template gives them both a bite and 2 claw attacks. The special ability that I added simply applies Grab to one of those attacks. I think most players would rather attack using their weapons even if they had a cool ability such as grab. And God help the GM who tells a player their PC is forced to use the natural attacks over weapons.
It also doesn't necessarily make sense that a dog or crocodile has claw attacks, but I am already making things complicated enough...
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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The quirk is a role-play device and is not intended to cause conflict between players. Done properly this can make the game more enjoyable. Please be careful not to take thing too far.Perfect. :)
Point of clarification, do the creature "forms" that include the Grab (EX) special ability also get natural claw attacks as well?
And I laughed hard at the Skunk's Musk ability. Nicely done.
Thank you. The template gives them both a bite and 2 claw attacks. The special ability that I added simply applies Grab to one of those attacks. I think most players would rather attack using their weapons even if they had a cool ability such as grab. And God help the GM who tells a player their PC is forces to use the natural attacks over weapons.
It also doesn't necessarily make sense that a dog or crocodile has claw attacks, but I am already making things complicated enough...
Ahh, that makes sense. And a dog could have a claw attack, especially if it were twisted and bestial, corrupted etc. A boar on the other hoof...
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The quirk is a role-play device and is not intended to cause conflict between players. Done properly this can make the game more enjoyable. Please be careful not to take thing too far.Perfect. :)
Point of clarification, do the creature "forms" that include the Grab (EX) special ability also get natural claw attacks as well?
And I laughed hard at the Skunk's Musk ability. Nicely done.
Thank you. The template gives them both a bite and 2 claw attacks. The special ability that I added simply applies Grab to one of those attacks. I think most players would rather attack using their weapons even if they had a cool ability such as grab. And God help the GM who tells a player their PC is forced to use the natural attacks over weapons.
It also doesn't necessarily make sense that a dog or crocodile has claw attacks, but I am already making things complicated enough...
Of course, if you already have a PC who uses unarmed or natural attacks...
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Contributor
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I posted this yesterday on the product discussion page but it occurs to me now I should have posted it here.
I'm prepping this scenario to run tomorrow night and have a question about the timeline.
I can in no way make this work with what's just below, where, in answer to another question, the VC says "it will take almost two weeks to get to Wispil from here."
By my measurements, a straight line route from Almas, where the scenario begins, to Bellis is 840 miles. Then it's a further 280 miles to Wispil from there. Well over half the distance of that straight line from Almas to Bellis is through the forest, and all of the 280 miles from Bellis to Wispil is. Yet I've got it figured that the PCs are supposed to be making 80 miles per day?
This isn't even taking into account the liklihood that the best route is probably along roads across the Carpenden Plains from Almas to Carpenden to Sauerton and then only entering the forest for the last couple of days in Andoran southwest of Bellis. Nor does it take into account the slower travel rate one would think that "logging trails" would force compared to the roads the PCs are likely to have traveled in Andoran.
If my measurements are right (and they could be wrong—I'm basing them off the map in Andoran, Spirit of Liberty) the best the PCs could hope for (assuming an unlikely straight road from Almas to Bellis and then trails from there to Wispil) on horses presumably supplied by the Venture-Captain is a journey of 28 days. The more likely route I outlined above sees them making the journey in 31 days.
Did I measure wrong? Has anybody else looked at this? I normally wouldn't worry about it but this is supposedly a scenario where the PCs are on a very tight timeline. Should I just change that line of Brackett's to read "at least a month" instead of "almost two weeks?"
Suggestions/clarification appreciated!
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Contributor
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See, this is what I want to read to them between the briefing in Almas and the first encounter in Wispil.
And so you leave Almas, the capital of Andoran, a city set on seaside hills and among rivers, most notably the grand Andoshen. You ride out along the cobbled street beneath the Archstone, a gift to the people of Andoran after the People’s Revolt, borne out of the sea by gillmen.
Quickly leaving the outlying districts of Almas behind you, you ride the north road for days across the rolling Carpenden Plains, stopping to change mounts frequently at waystations and small villages. Eventually, the featureless plains give way and you come to the city of Carpenden itself, a town set on seven hills where narrow cobblestone streets wind their way amid elongated buildings of rosy brick and dark wood.
And then a few days more of northward travel find you in Sauerton, the wine community infamous for Sauerton Red, a cheap wine floated in enormous barrels down the Andoshen River to Almas.
Now you at last turn to the northeast, and soon trees grow less sparse, eventually to the point where you realize you’ve entered the Andoren section of the vast Verduran Forest, one of the largest woodlands in the world. The roads remain good, however, so you do not slow until you come to the frontier town of Bellis, on the mighty Sellin River. Here, you ferry across into the lands of the empire of Taldor and begin the last leg of your journey, east along logging trails to the gnomish community of Wispil. All told, your journey covers over twelve hundred miles, and takes up a full month.
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When I run it, I tell the players, "You head to the docks, where you board the S.S. Cutscene for a long and uneventful trip. You eventually reach a small port town on the edge of the forest, where the esteemed trapper and guide Phillippe Montage guides you through days of seemingly endless woods. Finally, he leaves you at the edge of the gnomish town of Wispil"
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Contributor
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And this is what we call ironic!
3/4 of the PCs succumb to the ritual, and start turning bestial. One of our newer players (level 2 alchemist) is roleplaying it *super* awesome as a "Skunk". So, when they come to the river, he gets down on all fours and starts to crawl across, sniffing and looking for grubs to eat on the way.
No one was checking for anything, so the alchemist triggered the axe trap. Discussion started about whether him being prone would either help him dodge it entirely, or give him a -4 to his AC since it's a melee attack. He, being a brave soul, looked at me defiantly and said "bring it"... and I rolled a natural 20, and confirmed with a 17 on the die.
Irony - Alchemist was dropped to -14 hp, BUT had 16 con temporarily thanks to the bestial template! The player was never so happy to have failed a saving throw in his life!
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I just started reading this one to GM it this Thursday and/or Saturday. I played it about a year and a half ago, so I didn't remember many details until I started reading.
I played this one with my halfling cleric of Desna, and I do remember that this is the best scenario I've ever seen to have the Good Dreams trait. I've only played that PC a couple of times, but this is the only time the GM knew exactly what to do when I showed them the trait before the game.
I'm loving some of the ideas here. I was already planning to make a handout with the template details to hand to affected PCs, but I might copy some of the fluff for specific animals from this thread.
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I just ran this at the game store on Saturday, and there were at LEAST a 6 or 7 times that a monster's attack roll missed by 1, which was courtesy of the +1 Natural armor bonus given by the template.
The cleric said, "well, you take the bad with the good!"
And though I didn't use the little role-play things here, the players did a great job of role-playing their bestial side.
I really enjoyed running this.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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I played this yesterday and got whacked over the head by those druids a couple of times. The extra Con precisely saved my bacon.
I really enjoyed the scenario, nice surprising twists, and good opportunities to talk your way past things.
Though at one point I had the atomie grappled in a claw and I was really considering introducing it to my bite attack next round *eg*
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Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht
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Ascalaphus GMed this for me yesterday and it was a really fun experience. However, there's one thing I'd like to warn other GMs about. In the first encounter with the fire, we took a cautious approach and listened around the corner what was happening. The GM ruled that counted as one round for the fire to spread, after which it got too out of control to really do anything about. It felt a bit sour to lose our second prestige point before we could even do anything about it, but that's the only complaint I had. I didn't verbalise it well enough, but I think I've crystallised it by now: I think Ascalaphus didn't really explain what was on the map when we peeked around the corner. We saw red dots on the map, but he only explained that was the fire when it already started to spread.
Ascalaphus, don't take this as an attack on you, but I'd like to use this as a warning to other potential GMs. Your ruling made sense, but I think we could've had some information about the fire. Also, only let the fire spread when combat's really started. Again, it made sense for the fire to spread while we're waiting, but that made it so we couldn't possibly extinguish it without potentially misreading the situation and going murderhobo on those guys. Which we still sorta did.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Yeah, I agree that the way I handled it wasn't too great. Unfortunately it was a bit late to retcon. If I run this again, I'll do it as follows:
1) There's no clear startbox for the PCs on the map. Instead of starting on the southwest corner, start the PCs mid-south. That reduces the distance.
2) Emphasize the dryness of the garden in describing the scene. Warn the players that because of that, the fires are going to spread quickly unless something is done immediately.
3) Just give "for free" with no action cost that the NPCs are not currently making any effort to stop the fire but are arguing with each other.
4) Have the fire only spread vertical/horizontal, not diagonal. It's practically impossible to contain the fire if it can spread diagonally. (at diagonal, if nothing is done in the first round, on average 12 additional squares catch on fire; without diagonals an average of +6 which is still hard).
I know the scenario says "adjacent" and that normally includes diagonals; I thought that a 6-player party could handle that. I was wrong about that, although it didn't help that the PCs tended to have 20ft speed and focused on the enemies first. When the scenario was written, saving the field wasn't an actual goal so it being so hard didn't really matter. Since it became a secondary success condition, it suddenly began to matter a great deal, so making this (as RAW) an almost impossible challenge just doesn't make sense.
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So I have run this before, a few times, and am now running it in PbP (yea Outpost!) however this is the first time this situation has arisen.
During the first day's travel, most of the party managed to resist the effects of the druid's ritual. One however, is beginning to succumb to his base instincts and has suffered the bestial template: a nagaji bloodrager. With 5 starting INT
My question is: is how now a guaranteed goner/having to spend Prestige at the end?
The scenario's conclusion states that if the ritual is disrupted in time (essentially if the PCs don't need ot retreat for a day and defeat the druids) than "the e ects of the druids’ ritual are immediately reversed. Afflicted PCs lose the bestial simple template, and all ability damage heals normally." However, the Bestial Template sidebar also says that "a bestial creature whose Int or Cha reaches 2 cannot remove the template except with a break enchantment spell, and all ability damage becomes permanent. Such a character is removed from play in the Path nder Society Organized Play campaign at the conclusion of the scenario" Which would be any character with a 5 Int or Cha who fails the first save.
As those two things potentially contradict, essentially I'm wondering if succeeding at stopping the ritual would reverse the damage, or if those who have already hit 2 Int or Cha are already 'too far gone' and would need to immeadiately spend 2 Prestige or be marked 'dead'. I'm not opposed to significant effects needing to be cleared (and can even see the meta value in pointing out consequences for dump stats) but as this is being run/designed for potentially 1st level characters it seems surprisingly harsh
