Hey,
I'm relatively new to GMing, a few sessions in to running my first campaign. I've got a party of 6 PCs, and half of them are at the extreme end of the chaotic scale. They make a whole bunch of actions that I could never have anticipated, that I have to make up rules for on the fly. In today's session, though, there's two things that I've no idea how to handle. This is all done in a good way, not being disruptive. They're playing their (possibly unhinged) PCs very well, and are all new players too, so they're really keeping me on my toes.
Firstly... after an encounter with a pair of dire bats, one of the PCs wanted to skin them for bat leather. She believes they will probably have some value, or if not, she wants to try making some kind of glider out of the wings... I said it would take an hour or two to skin them, knowing that they were on a time limit at that time, but she fully intends to go back and try to skin them on the way out. Are there rules for this? Will the skin/leather have any value? The glider idea is relatively amusing, and suitable to her character (she's a gnome... nuff said) so I'm tempted to let her try.
The other thing they did was, upon encountering a spider nest and dispatching the mother spider, the gnome and two others decided they wanted to keep some of the spider eggs. A knowledge (nature) check told them that the eggs were a few days away from hatching. So they took a few each before the paladin got tired of their shenanigans and burned the nest. So now I have 3 PCs each wandering around with a 2-3 live spider eggs in their packs. Any ideas what I can do with this?
Thanks in advance with any advice you can give. I'm really enjoying the challenge of DMing, and a challenge it definitely is. I just want to be able to mess with them as much as they're messing with me!
To the first:
-Trying to make a glider out of dire bat wings is a crazy idea. It just might work, if other critters in the dungeon haven't already done silly things that critters are wont to do, such as enjoying a free lunch.
-The skin... not likely to be valuable. Dire bats are mangy mice. Very large mangy mice. With leathery wings.
-To the second: If they don't take any precautions, the eggs hatch, and the baby spiders become an annoyance. If any of the egg-bearers are casters, it'll put a concentration check on them. Nothing major, maybe a DC 5, just enough to where they might actually fail (even if it's on a 1.)
There are existing rules for most of what your players want to do, but unfortunately these particular rules are some of the worst in the game.
There are rules for a glider in Ultimate Combat, or on the prd. The glider itself isn't bad, but the vehicular rules in general are super deadly.
Unfortunately, crafting in pathfinder takes forever, so it's not really viable to craft things without magic in most campaigns. Assuming a glider is as complex as something can be, it would probably take about 2-3 months of dedicated work to build. There aren't rules for substituting adventuring stuff for the base cost of crafted items, but it seems reasonable and exactly what your players think would be fun.
As to the baby spiders, there are rules for rearing wild animals, assuming that your players wish to do that rather than smuggling the eggs into their enemies' clean laundry or something. Incidentally, we don't know whether you meant they have spider egg sacs, which would contain a lot of tiny spiders, or the individual eggs. If it's the first, you could use them as a swarm, which have their own rules.
The glider sounds fun. Definitely a secret craft roll. There isn't much of a Craft(glider) skill so maybe just wing it (pun intended) with Knowledge(engineering). Set the DC at 20 and no matter what you roll, tell the player "Well, you definitely crafted... something. It seems sturdy enough. Maybe. I suggest taking off all your dead weight though. Like backpacks, armor, boots, pants..."
I would not use crafting rules for the glider. After all, nature already built the wings. Just grab some rope and a 10' pole (they have a 10' pole, right? EVERYBODY has a 10' pole...) and then find some way to lash the wings onto the pole and then lash the gnome onto the, uh, glider. It's a glider now, right? What did he roll? Oh, and I said lash, not whip... Whadaya mean they're the same thing?
As for the spiders. Yeah, unless you're a drow priestess, spiders aren't pet. Can't teach them tricks. Can't even teach them not to suck all the moisture out of your entire body... So when those things hatch, well, roll for initiative. How big are they, anyway?
Best use for those is to drop them off with someone they don't like and then whip up some popcorn. Yeah, I said whip. Don't lash your popcorn though.
As to the baby spiders, there are rules for rearing wild animals, assuming that your players wish to do that rather than smuggling the eggs into their enemies' clean laundry or something. Incidentally, we don't know whether you meant they have spider egg sacs, which would contain a lot of tiny spiders, or the individual eggs. If it's the first, you could use them as a swarm, which have their own rules.
Sadly, this isn't really going to work. Spiders are vermin, not animals. Vermin by definition have no INT score. That's not an INT of 0, that's actually an INT of --. You can't even give it Headband to make it smarter (can't add a bonus to something it doesn't have).
Handle Animal is useless on Vermin; the skill only works on animals or other creatures with an INT score of 1 or 2. Just as well, as you pointed out, Handling/rearing animals is a pretty clunky rules system.
For the spiders, here's a different approach: attract another creature.
1. Mites: as the PCs are exiting the dungeon a band of mites, sensing the distress of the little babies use Stealth and Sleight of Hand to "liberate" the egg sacs. Next game have the PCs face down a mite witch 3 with some power over vermin and the ability to ignore the "distraction" ability of a swarm standing in the midst of her new "children."
2. Aranea: the PCs successfully escape with the eggs. On the road they encounter a woman who claims to be weaver. She notices the egg sac poking out the top of one of the packs and seeks to trade for them. She offers some reasonably valuable tapestries or rugs she's made for the deal. If the PCs refuse or try to haggle she uses magic and attempts to abscond with the eggs on her own. If she DOES manage to get away with them she uses the creatures to make magic, woven Wondrous Items and may even become a recurring NPC.
3. Ettercap: as the PCs are hunting for a campsite the egg sacs are readying to hatch sooner than expected! The PCs are a bit distracted locating a campsite and wander to close to the nest of a group of ettercaps. As traps start spearing and strangling the PCs a pair of the purple man-spiders arrive and summon the swarms of babies to themselves. They are not looking for combat, leaving the PCs to deal with the traps.
4. Drow: the "mother" they murdered is one of dozens monitored by a drow cabal as "sacred" the underdwelling elves track the party as far as they can then wait for nightfall. As the PCs are at their most helpless (one guy on watch) the drow ambush them and demand recompense. The PCs are in luck; these particular drow are evil but lawful; they will settle for wailing on the party while also having a drider collect up all the egg sacs as the combat distracts the PCs. Once the PCs are properly thrashed the drow leave them, retreating with their blasphemous prizes.
Thanks everyone, this is all excellent advice.
I think I'll allow construction of the batwing-glider, with a high DC requirement on the check to build it and hilarious/catastrophic results for failure.
The spiders... It was a total of 9 single eggs that were taken, so not enough for a swarm. But if they still have the eggs in 2-3 days time, they will be waking up to a bit of a surprise. After all, spiders do eat their mother for their first meal. ;)