I want to run a chase tonight using the normal rules, but my characters can fly or cast fly on others. How can I make the chase interesting?
One idea is to have the people that are being chased go through a barred door. Some kind of strength check will have to take to get through it. And if they are in a large building, flying will not help as much.
Other thoughts?
Thanks everyone.
The basic principle of a chase scene is this: the fleeing character subjects themselves to skill checks in the hopes that the pursuer will fail those same checks.
Flight makes some obstacles (mainly climb and jump checks) irrelevant, but introduces others (like clouds or flocks of birds). The Fly skill is the obvious one, but allowing or forcing alternative checks is what makes a chase interesting.
Maneuverability becomes important for such things, if the fleeing character is forcing fly checks by flying close to buildings, through forests and canyons, etc, in order to push the distance up far enough to make an effective stealth check and end the chase. Sounds pretty exhilarating to me.
For inspiration, I'd start with the chase deck, go through all the cards and think: "How could this obstacle be relevant to a aerial chase? If it can't, what is something that I could replace it with that would fill a similar role?"
NOTE TO PAIZO: High-level Chase Deck, please. Some cards could even account for things like dimension door shortcutting.
Non-detection + invisibilityDarkness/deeper darkness spells
stealth
whip out ranged weapons, shoot at the sitting ducks flying above
several illusions may be used as decoys (invis + an illusion running the opposite direction while making some noise might give the PCs difficulties
Which illusion spell would allow a caster to create a the illusion that she was running in a different direction? I did a quick search but didn't see one.
Flight makes some obstacles (mainly climb and jump checks) irrelevant, but introduces others (like clouds or flocks of birds). The Fly skill is the obvious one, but allowing or forcing alternative checks is what makes a chase interesting.
Fly checks, brilliant. So if the sorcerer has the fly spell, it still has to make either a Fly or Dexterity check to perform complex maneuvers. If the PC fails a fly check, they are still flying but can't advance past the card - is that correct?
Like you said, any number of things can invoke a fly check - baloons maybe, tall church steeples, birds...
Remember that the fleeing character's objective should be to reach a certain distance so that stealth checks can end the chase!
Remember that the fleeing character's objective should be to reach a certain distance so that stealth checks can end the chase!well then a fog spell and a forest will end that encounter very fast.
Or any number of mundane ways to create enough visual obscurement that the NPC gets a round of cover (dropping behind a fallen log would work too)
If the NPC just needs a stealth check to escape/end the encounter, then there's a massive number of ways to do so very easily.
Tbh I've never used/heard about a chase deck before so have no idea what you do with it.
The OP wanted ways to hamper flying PCs from chasing. You're giving a whole other set of things to discuss.
This is where chases need a bit of their own rules style.
I would probably do like the chase cards and count the number of obstacles, rather than the distance between them. If you're both working your way through the fog cloud, or if you would see the quarry immediately after leaving the fog cloud, then the chase isn't really over.
But if the quarry is 3 or four obstacles ahead of you, then they will actually have time to land somewhere and hide, or find another route, or just put enough distance between you that you're flying blind.
So the GM needs to decide on escape conditions for the chase, but it needn't cleave to the rules exactly. Using literal ranges will probably be more work and less fun than it is worth.
EDIT: Of course, the stealth value of each obstacle would make an interesting mechanical variable in and of itself. High-level chase deck, Paizo. Think about it.
OMG Daedelus, did you just find a USE for hallucinatory terrain?
... oh, nope. That spell still specifically prohibits doing anything useful. :)
Huh. Okay, so it's like a 4th level arcane agent orange spell.
Congratulations, you've done what I thought was impossible! And it still might be impossible, if trees count as "structures".
OMG Daedelus, did you just find a USE for hallucinatory terrain?
... oh, nope. That spell still specifically prohibits doing anything useful. :)
The use is there.
The quarry runs through a forest
casts Hallucinatory Terrain
The forest now seems like ordinary fields
PCs come swooping in, spots the guy and goes for the kill
PCs get very personally aqquainted with the feel of trees in the face as they collide with the hidden forest canopy.
*evil grin*
Would it be cheating if my NPC used hallucinatory terrain on a church steeple?