Mists of Mwangi #0-05 Jerk tactics?

[FLite]

Reading through MoM in preparation for next week, and I'm thinking about possible tactics.

Spoiler:

the three idols at the end, have deathknell, and animate dead, (one a day each) and in their tactics, it says that "Any person slain
during combat is immediately animated as a fast zombie." Does that mean that if someone drops negative, I should use deathknell to take them the rest of the way down, and then raise them?

Or would that be being a jerk? Also, how does that gel with:

Spoiler:

The Tik Taan idols are intelligent enough to avoid
melee combat if at all possible. Given that they have a move of 10 feet and this would require them to sit next to a combatant for 2 rounds using touch spells. Would they do that?

[GM Lamplighter]

I'd have them wait until something was actually dead (below neg Con) - two rounds next to someone is hard to pull off, unless they are hidden or the party is so spread out they have the time.

In the higher tier, they could tag-team a downed PC, but I wouldn't do that unless the down PC is far enough away that the idols wouldn't be in danger - it says they avoid melee combat.

[Doug Miles]

FLite, I think the error is expecting ANYONE is going to drop into negatives in this encounter. That gorilla is going to draw everyone's fire and go down like the Titanic. The idols are better off using deathknell on him then animating his body than waiting for a PC to drop.

[FLite]

Yeah, I recognize it is an unlikely thing. But it's one of these where if he goes second or third, he could easily wind up getting a full attack off before he goes down, and that, with some dice luck, could knock someone to -1. Fortunately, his tactics are such that it would be highly unlikely.

[Mergy]

Doug Miles wrote:

FLite, I think the error is expecting ANYONE is going to drop into negatives in this encounter. That gorilla is going to draw everyone's fire and go down like the Titanic. The idols are better off using deathknell on him then animating his body than waiting for a PC to drop.

That's a fantastic idea. :o

Now I want to run Mists again!

[nosig]

hay, I could see doing this and giving the player for the dead PC the control of the Zombie. (requiring him to "talk like a Zombie" etc.) esp. around the end of this month...

Player: "moooooan...brains!" as his PC staggers upright.

[Mergy]

I did that in another scenario. I gave him control of all of the other undead as well. It HELPED that he was playing a pregen, and a skeletal samurai is AWESOME.

Scenario name:

The Goblinblood Dead

[godsDMit]

Doug Miles wrote:

FLite, I think the error is expecting ANYONE is going to drop into negatives in this encounter. That gorilla is going to draw everyone's fire and go down like the Titanic. The idols are better off using deathknell on him then animating his body than waiting for a PC to drop.

I feel like a newb for never thinking of this.

[Nathan Hartshorn]

By the time the ape was dead the tikis were all grabbed and put into bags when I ran this...

[FLite]

I looked at the tactic of animating the gorilla to bring him back up (I assume that's why they have Deathknell in the first place.)

I think it's also pretty unlikely. Both DK and AD are touch spells, and the little guys only have a move of 10 feet, and a reach of 0, so they have to be *in* his square to use the touch, which means they need to start almost adjacent to him, which is going to be hard.

I figure animating the PC could work if he attacks the PC and then battle moves on.

[Rycaut]

Actually the idols as I recall have an ability that lets them use touch spells on some followers at range. (I don't have the scenario before me. When I've run this I've had them animate the gorilla occasionally twice).

Remember that the idols are small and will look like statues and are hiding up along with dozens of monkeys and decorations. It should be hard for the party to even recognize that the idols are there let alone find and capture them (they probably shouldn't be at ground level)

[FLite]

Share Abilities (Su) An idol can share any spell-like ability that
would normally only affect itself (as the caster) with any ally
within 5 feet. The idol’s creator or allies familiar with its
abilities may request the idol grant them specific powers on
its turn. Spell-like abilities usable in this way are marked with
an asterisk (*).

Not actually all that useful.

For one thing, it would require the monkeys around them to know their capacities, to be involved in the combat, and to be within 5 feet, and to be sentient and rational enough to use them. As far as I can tell, by RAW, the only one who could even potentially use this would be DaTunga, because he is the only one who has stats, and thus is the only one who can act in combat, and it doesn't really fit him. (He isn't likely to stop a turn and deathknell someone.)

Also, they cannot share animate. They can only share Deathwatch and Deathknell.

While we are on the topic of the idols, why are they only DC 12 to spot??? They have a +13 stealth, +17 if hiding among wood? From the description of tactics, they are not using their DC 25 inanimate object poser. Which wouldn't help anyway since the PCs are looking for inanimate objects as the source of the trouble. But they should still get their stealth.

[hogarth]

Speaking as a player, I'd be somewhat disappointed if the GM forced me to shell out for a Resurrection instead of a Raise Dead (since zombies can't be raised).

[Matthew Morris]

Hogarth,

You may be disappointed, but don't be in the GM, they're supposed to animate dead. "Any person slain during combat is immediately animated as a fast zombie"

[FLite]

Well, the animate is kind of besides the point in this scenario, since the tactic I'm describing starts with death knell, and death knell is already a death effect, thus no raise dead.

I'm not really worried about using animate because (a it is so unlikely the PC's almost need to do something seriously wrong to make it happen. (b the scenarios tactics explicitly state that it is what is supposed to happen if the PC's leave themselves open to it.

I'm really just worried about is it ethical to use a death effect "coup de gras" to create that opening. (note that it is a DC13 will save on the Death Knell, so most 4-5 level characters should have a decent chance of making it.)

[Matthew Pittard]

Ive never run this. Now I want to !..

[hogarth]

Matthew Morris wrote:

Hogarth,

You may be disappointed, but don't be in the GM, they're supposed to animate dead. "Any person slain during combat is immediately animated as a fast zombie"

Maybe I'm misinterpreting the original post. But if the question is "Should I go out my way and make extraordinary efforts to force the PCs to use Resurrection?", I would hope the answer is "no".

-hogarth, card-carrying softy

[FLite]

It is more like:

The scenario has an enemy that has a death effect power, and a tactic and power that come into play if characters die. But it is ambiguous whether they are supposed to passively wait to use the tactic, or whether they should use the power to create the opening.

The scenario designer already gave them not only animate dead, as well as death knell, which implies they are there because they are meant to be used.

Tier 4-5 is where you are going to start running into (rare) death effects (they could easily have had death knell aura at tier 4-5), so it is not entirely unreasonable for the PC's to run into it.

[FLite]

Well, after players started the first round by Acid Immolating one of the statues to death with max damage, and following that by turning the entire room into difficult terrain, and crushing all the straw huts, (Stone Call) It just became a non issue. (DaTunga spent the whole fight either stunned, dazed, evil eyed, blinded, or some combination of the above every single round, and never laid a hand on his opponent. Who just ignored him and went hunting statues. While the first level zen archer slowly plinked him to death at 5-10 HP per round.)