|
hello.
Player Bard succeeds on casting hideous laughter on my (the GM's) Orc Berzerker. The PC has some way to bypass allowing additional saving throws for 5 rounds.
Question: Rather than just asking players to role damage, the rules say the ORC is not helpless. Is there anything the orc could have done during those 5 rounds?
My guess is... the players nailed it propererly, but wanted to ask?
Thanks for any insight you can provide.
Regards,
Pax
P.s. In addition the Word-Magic (Ultimate Magic) Sorcerer player has spells that can be boosted to disallow additional saves as well. This means this situation will come up again with some frequency---how do you mechanically do what is in the best interest of their opponent, other than just saying, "roll me some damage" or "eventually, you slay it."
Thanks.
The players must roll attack rolls normally (with the proper modifier for attacking a prone creature). There are no auto-hits due to Hideous Laughter. Coup de grace is not an option either as you already noted, the orc is not helpless.
- Gauss
Edit: Word-Magic is an optional rule. If you are having problems with it perhaps you should look at the flaw in the optional rule. If word magic is being used to accomplish something standard PF spells cannot do then maybe something is wrong.
|
If combat is clearly over and the outcome is obvious you can always choose to resolve it with Roleplay rather than making players actually role it out.
What did your Bard use to make the additional saves invalid, nothing comes to mind...
I'm not very fond of the decidedly, "optional" Word-Magic rules so I don't really have much to say about them as I choose to avoid them to best of my capabilities.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
If using the actual spell Hideous Laughter, you can basically handwave the encounter under that scenario. Realistically, the spell pretty effectively shuts down single-target encounters.
I disagree Serisan: The creature still has his normal AC (though the attack rolls are modified for a prone target). They can swing at it for 5 rounds and not hit.
- Gauss
Pax Veritas:
Regarding the Sorcerer, what words prevent successive saves? I am not seeing a word that does this.
- Gauss
|
|
Here it is:
The effect word Decelerate, which is what the player character sorcerer used, normally allows a save each round. However, it provides for a defined effect for the Boost meta-word, which disallows the additional saves. The balance here is that a wordcaster can only use metawords a number of times per day equal to caster level/2 (plus uses allowed because of feats, etc.). This is described in the Words of Power chapter in Ultimate Magic.
Can anyone confirm if this understanding is correct? (If found to be correct, its crippling my npcs and monsters.) lol
Decelerate is not Hideous Laughter. The target still gets to act, albeit only a Standard or a Move.
That makes a HUGE difference.
|
|
Decelerate is not Hideous Laughter. The target still gets to act, albeit only a Standard or a Move.
That makes a HUGE difference.
Yes, sorry, these were actually two different instances. Apart from the case of the Hideous Laughter, the PCs were fighting my Lycanthropic, Fiendish, Anti-paladin, Orc King when Decelerate was used. Does it leave him with a standard action or a move for the duration, and does it imply that if he's under that condition for 5 rounds theres nothing he can do about it? This is a pretty tough situation for my bbegs.
This is no different than a slow effect. Drink a potion of haste, cancel the effect. BBEGs with the ability to drink should have a couple of potions on hand anyhow. Maybe a potion of dispel magic to remove a specific effect.
- Gauss
Yes, sorry, these were actually two different instances. Apart from the case of the Hideous Laughter, the PCs were fighting my Lycanthropic, Fiendish, Anti-paladin, Orc King when Decelerate was used. Does it leave him with a standard action or a move for the duration, and does it imply that if he's under that condition for 5 rounds theres nothing he can do about it? This is a pretty tough situation for my bbegs.Decelerate is not Hideous Laughter. The target still gets to act, albeit only a Standard or a Move.
That makes a HUGE difference.
How in the world did that target fail his save?
He's considered staggered for the duration. Each round is either a Move or a Standard. Plenty to be done there.
I disagree Serisan: The creature still has his normal AC (though the attack rolls are modified for a prone target). They can swing at it for 5 rounds and not hit.
- Gauss
Yeah.
It was 3E and a pretty unoptimized party, but one time we fought a guy with DR 10 (and either w/o a bypass or one we could not) or so at level 6. Only one PC in the entire party could actually hurt it, and even then, it *also* had a high AC. The bard, the closest we had to a true "caster" eventually got it w/ Hideous laughter.
We almost ran out of the duration. Only reason we didn't is because we stopped trying to kill it and instead gang grappled it, pinned it, and tied it up, so we could then finally get the coup de grace.
Against most foes though, it is a sure-thing encounter ender.
It can't be cured with Haste, but it can be cured with Dispel Magic.
Serisan: Why couldnt it be cured with haste? Decelerate is clearly a slow effect.
Haste dispels and counters slow.
- Gauss