New GM seeking advice for dealing with player's 'creative' solutions.

[Traskus]

Okay, as the title of the thread says I am new to GMing and I have already found that it is an entirely different beast sitting behind the screen than on the player side of it. I've come across a few situations in this that I really had no idea how to respond as a GM to some of their ideas.

My group of four players (myself included) has decided to run through Rise of the Runelords together and switch off GMs for each book so no one has to GM for the entire campaign. I drew the first book (Burnt Offerings) and before I go any further I feel that I should place a warning that there may be some spoilers ahead.

Two situations, in particular, come to mind. The first is in the Catacombs of Wrath part of the first book. The party allowed Erylium to escape from the initial encounter (which they had gone to almost immediately) and she later ambushed them in the room with Koruvus. With all of her spells activated the PCs were struggling to lay a hand on her. The Paladin who had used smite on her earlier couldn't even seem to hit her. After several rounds the Rogue takes down Koruvus and I mention that Erylium seems to be about to flee. On the initiative the Paladin decides to remove his cloak and attempt to grapple/entangle Erylium in it. Unsure of how to respond I allowed it to go forward telling the Paladin that if he wishes to attempt it he will need to make a reflex save to avoid stepping on one of the lids on the floor and falling 20 feet like the cleric already had. He agrees and makes his grapple check and beats her CMD significantly but ends up falling in the hole with her. The scene goes downhill quickly as he (while getting attacked by a zombie) proceeds to pin and then use rope to tie her up.

The second involves a more absurd scenario at Thisletop. The group had already killed the druid and his animal companion before fighting the other group of goblins and taking one of them alive. While the Paladin was away from the table the group questioned the goblin getting what information it had. And learning what was at the bottom of the hole the group came up with the idea to use their three 50ft segments of hemp rope to tie up the goblin along with several swords and to make a make-shift fishhook and lower the goblin down the roaring hole to get the Bunyip from its lair up to them. When the Paladin came back they had already secured the goblin below and told the Paladin to pull on the line they secured to some trees and proceeded to make opposed strength checks to pull the creature up from its lair. Not having any idea how to respond to the idea of "Goblin Fishing" I made them roll a survival check followed by I offered them a craft Trap or Profession Fisherman to actually make it.

So I'm asking for input from other GMs to see how you might respond to a party who insists on such measures that aren't covered in the rules?

[Kolokotroni]

Rule of thumb:
Is it attacking someone? Make it a combat maneuver check. Make sure the effect is not superior to grapple, or dirty trick or trip. Want to kick the table at the bad guy on the other side and knock him over?

If its not attacking someone, figure out what skill fits best. Trying to lure a creature with bait in fact sounds like either a trap or a survival check, it sounds to me like you are handling it quite well.

In the end you want to reward their creativity, I love it when my players do things other then 'i hit it with my sword', it makes things far more interesting.

[wraithstrike]

Traskus wrote:

Okay, as the title of the thread says I am new to GMing and I have already found that it is an entirely different beast sitting behind the screen than on the player side of it. I've come across a few situations in this that I really had no idea how to respond as a GM to some of their ideas.

My group of four players (myself included) has decided to run through Rise of the Runelords together and switch off GMs for each book so no one has to GM for the entire campaign. I drew the first book (Burnt Offerings) and before I go any further I feel that I should place a warning that there may be some spoilers ahead.

Two situations, in particular, come to mind. The first is in the Catacombs of Wrath part of the first book. The party allowed Erylium to escape from the initial encounter (which they had gone to almost immediately) and she later ambushed them in the room with Koruvus. With all of her spells activated the PCs were struggling to lay a hand on her. The Paladin who had used smite on her earlier couldn't even seem to hit her. After several rounds the Rogue takes down Koruvus and I mention that Erylium seems to be about to flee. On the initiative the Paladin decides to remove his cloak and attempt to grapple/entangle Erylium in it.......

The second involves a more absurd scenario at Thisletop. The group had already killed the druid and his animal companion before fighting the other group of goblins and taking one of them alive. While the Paladin was away from the table ......

For the cape situation I would not have allowed him to break the rules. It seems like he used the cape to get extra reach. It is likely made of cloth and not substansial enough to grapple someone with as if they were using hands. If you insist on the rule of cool, then applying a -6 to -8 penalty would have been in order. You already take a -4 penalty for grappling with one hand. I am sure that one hand trumps a flimsy cape.

For the second one I would have waited for the player to come back to the table since his character may have objected to the situation. If the paladin(character) had walked off that would have been different.