Well met!
I am a rather new DM, only having run this one game. Now, this game just passed its 1 year anniversary, but still, 1 game, 1 group.
In my campaign magic items require totemic components to create and also expulse energy when destroyed, a la staff of power but scaled to the potency of the item, though the players have just broken their first enchanted item and I don't know if they'll try to make this a thing.
Anyway, upon ousting and forcing into retreat a group which had taken over a major mill, the entirety of which is protected by an anti-magic field, they come across a free standing stone arch and door that the remaining bandits used to escape. The doorway basically contains a dimension door enchantment able to function briefly within the anti field.
The Paladin shouts, "EEEEEEEVIIL" and attacks the portal. Nat 20, max damage, Smite just in case.
Sparks from the blow catch the mill powder on fire doing last damage to portal, portal explodes sending out a coruscating wall of purple flame dealing 5d12 fire damage followed by a dc20 fortitude save to resist the unbound teleportation magic.
Those who failed I had roll 2 d100's. 1 to see if they are affected permanently in some way, 1 to see how many miles from the epicentre they are teleported.
My questions are twofold.
1 as a new DM looking always to improve, does this series of action/ consequence feel fair and intuitive to you?
2. What sort of interesting permanent affect can I give/ impose on the player? It must be based on, or at least related to, Dimension Door.
Thank you for your time :-)
Xerif wrote: 1 as a new DM looking always to improve, does this series of action/ consequence feel fair and intuitive to you? Intuitive? Not to me as the 'all magic items explode' rule isn't part of my game, but maybe to your players if you explained it properly.
Fair? I can't tell. Was there some reason the paladin thought the portal was evil? Are they high enough level to reasonably expect to survive 5d12 fire damage?
Xerif wrote: 2. What sort of interesting permanent affect can I give/ impose on the player? It must be based on, or at least related to, Dimension Door. How about "if ever struck by a critical hit, the PC is immediately teleported a short distance away in a random direction"?
You are pretty far off the reservation for a new GM. Nothing inherently wrong with that, and if everyone is having fun good for you, but be aware that as such anyone advice to you is fairly limited.
First off, it would seem to me that while you can explain the portal being specially enchanted to resist the anti-magic field, it seems unlikely that the explosion from the portals destruction would also have this capability. The explosion, not being specifically enchanted to ignore anti-magic would be effect by it. That said, your rules, your call. I don't know any rules in the game that would achieve the ignore the anti-magic anyway.
To me, having a teleport of 'miles' in response to the destruction of a dimension door that can go maybe 1000' seems excessive, although the permanent nature and the ability to ignore anti-magic might explain its increase potency. More concerning for me as a game master would be how it will effect the game if people are sent all over. The party being separated and you having to run them in separate groups until they can get back together might not be enjoyable, especially for the players that are waiting for you to get back to them while dealing with someone else.
You don't say why you want an 'interesting permanent effect' and whether you want it to be beneficial, detrimental or neutral. Personally, I wouldn't do anything like this at all, but given the style of game you seem to be attempting here I could see the following possibilities:
1) increase of any teleport failure chance by 5% whenever being teleported (cumulative for all participants with this condition, so if 4 PCs with this were being teleported, the chance of the spell going wrong would be 20% higher)
2) permanent teleport energy makes them easier or harder to teleport. The count as either half as many or twice as many small/medium creatures than normal. Unlike other pathfinder math you would round up for a 1/2 count, but if you had two 1/2 counts it would just count as a single creature in terms of how many the teleport could bring along.
3) once a day can make a limited dimensional hop as a standard action, 10 feet range otherwise like dimension door.
4) teleport alergy: character becomes sickened for 1d4 rounds after being subject to a conjuration(teleport) effect.
5) teleport response: character has a physical reaction to teleport energy. For 1d4 hours after being subject to a conjuration(teleport) effect the have a noticeable physical manifestation such as purple energy sparking off them or parts of them dematerializing briefly (more like a patch of skin fading out then a hand disappearing.) There is no mechanical effect on the character, but it is quite noticeable and may attract attention.
@Matthew Downie
Thank you for the response.
To clarify, it's not that everything with explode, just that the enchantment will be released. The effect could be entirely benign or simply graphic, or this.
Party is lvl6. With a stupid CON lvl4 dwarf monk. This was meant to be somewhere between very painful and lethal. Partly to deter future mindless smashing and also to take advantage of a potentially stressful situation. The actual enemy threat was ended so the damage was recoverable.
The Paladin, who to his credit does not play his character lawful stupid, had a moment of stupid and decided that it was used by evil people so it needed to die.
The party also recently completed a trial through a temple of flame and all contain some minor amount of fire resistance.
I like the crit idea.
@Dave Justus
Thank you for your response.
I'm not entirely certain what you mean by off the reservation, or how to take it. I immediately think AWOL and want to get defensive.
You're right, there is no rule for resisting an anti-magic field, but my players are accustomed, due to conversation and understanding at outset of campaign, to rule serving narrative not subjugating it.
You may be right about miles being too severe, though the complication of separation isn't horrible. My group enjoys one on one sessions. But I will reconsider. Even at 5× the strength, the dweamor wouldn't even reach a mile.
I wanted there to be a chance of a permanent affect simply because of the player's reactions to the situation.
The description was a coruscating wall of purple flame roiling out from the sundered portal,matched in intensity only by its brevity as it folded back in on itself. The anti-magic field seeming to swallow the effects like flame pushed into vacuum. After the damage was dealt and 3 of the 4 party members failed the fort save, only the monk was left on the mill roof, alone in silence. The bodies of the slain bandits and forms of his companions vanished, scattered into the aether.
Every player at the table was standing with huge smiles. Laughs, a slow clap, and "whoooaa".
Because this was such a moment for them, I wanted a chance at some lasting effect. 1 player rolled 99 on the d100, ironically the Paladin who caused the whole thing!
Thank you for your time.
By off the reservation I just meant straying pretty far from the published rules of the game. As I said, if everyone is having fun, that is perfectly fine, but the more your game differs from the official rules, the harder it is to give advice about it.
Yeah, my advice would be don't break the rules like that. But if you're all having fun, then roll with it.
If that was the end encounter of the current arc for the story, then having them separated is a good cliffhanger. Normally you wouldn't do this 'during' an adventure as it would sidetrack or derail it.
As long as you give the PCs a reasonable chance to recognize where they are and they know which direction to start going in to regroup; a certain city, camp, landmark, etc. then it's a great time for one-on-one and solo quests. Maybe the dwarf ends up in a cave, maybe another ends up on a ship in the middle of a pitched naval battle (Can he recognize the flags and pennants? Who does he help?)
As for permanent magic effects. Was the roll to see if they got them or to determine them randomly? For all we know only 1 guy got them. I would keep it mostly balanced between good and bad. More like a quirk. Dave Justus had some good ones based on teleporting. You could just have any torch or flame they pick up turn purple, even everburning torches as long as they hold them. You could turn their hair white (it can be dyed back). Leave a strange flame-shaped scar somewhere on them (not too noticeable, on a hand, or arm, or shoulder.) Does it mean anything? Maybe not now but later you can work it into something.
Maybe you have the flame-shaped scar/tattoo on one player's cheek or face, but it's completely imperceptible except in the presence of purple flame, meaning the PCs don't find out until they meet back up and one of them is like,
PC 1: "Look what happens when I hold a torch."
PC 2: "It turned purple, like that fire that separated us!"
PC 3: "There's glowing lines on your face... it looks like... a flame... or a tower, maybe. I think I saw something similar on a map in the captain's quarters of that ship I was telling you about."
Maybe it's a treasure map.
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