I'm watching Avatar and had a thought. In the show there's this air bender game which is a reasonable facsimile of a combat situation. At the very least I imagine it's good practice for combat. In real life and non-magic situations there's all kinds of analogues to this. Sparing rings, etc.
Anyway, I was considering how one could do a similar thing for the various pathfinder classes. Something that allows them to practice, but minimize friendly fire.
Some random thoughts on the matter:
Druids - I imagine they just go feral tooth and claw on each other healing when necessary.
Martial - Same as it is IRL
Casters - This gets tricky. I imagine they need a special sparing area and/or a well designed game to keep them from accidentally or intentionally killing each other.
What do you think?
Handwave it.
Have a magical set of matched helmets/rings/whatever.
Each 'combatant' wears one, puts them in a virtual arena.
Projects a magical 3d display of what's happening so others can view it.
Boom, done.
Handwave it.
Have a magical set of matched helmets/rings/whatever.
Each 'combatant' wears one, puts them in a virtual arena.
Projects a magical 3d display of what's happening so others can view it.
Boom, done.
That's not bad.
Small virtual replicas (akin to Astral Projections, but severely limited) of the casters complete with spell allotments, but without the ability to harm anything other than the other replica.
Handwave it.
Have a magical set of matched helmets/rings/whatever.
Each 'combatant' wears one, puts them in a virtual arena.
Projects a magical 3d display of what's happening so others can view it.
Boom, done.
That's not bad.
Small virtual replicas (akin to Astral Projections, but severely limited) of the casters complete with spell allotments, but without the ability to harm anything other than the other replica.
Oh I meant the two combatants are in what seems like a real arena, the 3d projection is just for the benefit of viewers.
Oh I meant the two combatants are in what seems like a real arena, the 3d projection is just for the benefit of viewers.Handwave it.
Have a magical set of matched helmets/rings/whatever.
Each 'combatant' wears one, puts them in a virtual arena.
Projects a magical 3d display of what's happening so others can view it.
Boom, done.
That's not bad.
Small virtual replicas (akin to Astral Projections, but severely limited) of the casters complete with spell allotments, but without the ability to harm anything other than the other replica.
I know what you meant. I just wanted to clean up the process and make it a bit more mechanically closer to something in game.
Metamagic rods of merciful spell
Had a really fun session where a ruthless mercenary (PC) character and an honorable samurai (PC) were sparring. The samurai assumed a sparring match went until one character was touched by the sparring sword, the mercenary assumed a match would continue until a character was unconscious or yielded. t made for a fun memorable encounter.
This is what I recommend as a Sparring Sword: Damage as per base weapon -2, fragile, non-lethal bludgeoning. I tried to introduce sparring weapons as a normal weapon that did non-lethal damage, but it ruined immersion when a PC realized that it was an awesome take down alive weapon and I had to ask the to 'just don't' out of character.
For casting, there is casting with distractions, or touch attacking moving targets, or summoned monster vs summoned monster. Or a limited list spell duel (where they can ready an action to counterspell the other guys cantrips).
For druids, a game of capture the flag / keep away that utilized the mobility aspects of a character would be fun. Something where they can climb, swim, fly, burrow, and acrobatics for advantage.