Venture-Agent, Netherlands
|
I had 2 questions while prepping this:
1) In Level B, is Zone A where the Moonflower starts? (Edit: Well High Subtier says so, but I guess the same applies for Low Tier)
2) The Spheres say "creatures reduced to 0 hit points by the spheres' attacks must succeed at a DCXX Fort Save or become a pile of ash."
My question is: does the imploding on round 10 count as an attack? Do PCs have to make a Fort Save? My initial thought is yes, but I don't want to unfairly turn someone into ash.
Also, what are the options for recovering a pile of ash? Do you sweep it all together and then they can raise dead when they get back home?
|
1) Yes
2) I would say no; in my mind, they get turned to ash by the disintegrator ray (or whatever the spheres have, I've forgotten), where the explosion is just firey death, so it wouldn't instantly disintegrate them.
Also I am fairly certain getting ashed is permadeath short of a Reincarnate spell. Relevant text from Raise Dead:
"While the spell closes mortal wounds and repairs lethal damage of most kinds, the body of the creature to be raised must be whole."
I don't think Starfinder has a True Resurrection analog, but I could be wrong.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I had 2 questions while prepping this:
1) In Level B, is Zone A where the Moonflower starts? (Edit: Well High Subtier says so, but I guess the same applies for Low Tier)
Yes, it should start in Zone A. Though the relative symmetry of the room means it doesn't matter too much.
2) The Spheres say "creatures reduced to 0 hit points by the spheres' attacks must succeed at a DCXX Fort Save or become a pile of ash."
My question is: does the imploding on round 10 count as an attack? Do PCs have to make a Fort Save? My initial thought is yes, but I don't want to unfairly turn someone into ash.
It was certainly my intention that the spheres' implosions also turn victims into piles of ash. It's a sort of punishment for failing to deal with them within that time. The developers' interpretation may be different and would supersede my own.
Also, what are the options for recovering a pile of ash? Do you sweep it all together and then they can raise dead when they get back home?
Good question! I based the effect off the disintegrate spell. It's intended to be extremely nasty. My interpretation is that raise dead wouldn't work. Reincarnate would work. But that's a larger rules question, not just a ruling for this scenario, so I could be wrong.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I played this scenario last friday and enjoyed it. But I do have a comment on this;
It was certainly my intention that the spheres' implosions also turn victims into piles of ash. It's a sort of punishment for failing to deal with them within that time. The developers' interpretation may be different and would supersede my own.2) The Spheres say "creatures reduced to 0 hit points by the spheres' attacks must succeed at a DCXX Fort Save or become a pile of ash."
My question is: does the imploding on round 10 count as an attack? Do PCs have to make a Fort Save? My initial thought is yes, but I don't want to unfairly turn someone into ash.
I think this needs good telegraphing by the GM though. When James ran it for me he said it was just untyped damage, and people kinda shrugged because "oh well, that's just something that's hard to resist". And it's not actually all that much damage, so you can easily think it's low damage but balanced because it goes through all defenses, and that's all there is to it.
I think the GM should make a point of really describing it as disintegrating, making it clear just how dangerous those things are.
Also, you can control the spheres, and it's very easy for players to think "oh, the author meant for us to use these things against the plant, that's neat". They have a very high to-hit compared to PCs, so that seems like a great idea. To then punish people for "not doing anything about them" seems like a bad thing. The players would think they were working to do what the author intended.
The solution I think is simple:
1) When describing the damage dealt by the spheres, make it clear this is not an effect to be scoffed at. Not something abstract like magic missile force damage.
2) If the players hack the spheres, let them know the spheres are charging up for something, and that the player can't tell how long that's going to take.
That should be enough to let them know they're playing with atomic fire. Sweet sweet atomic fire.
|
When "you know who's" recording mentions a self destruct, my players started looking for one. The first time they controlled a sphere it was out of range of the flower but I let them zap some of the overgrowth. My description was that the blast disintegrated a 10 foot area. That made the party really nervous about leaving those active.
I did give them a hint about the effect in the lab when one of the mildly cursed players crushed a physical science check.
After the initial exposure to the curse in the lobby (which got 3 characters due to aid another actions), they didn't want to touch the other devices. One player did jump on the grenade, so to speak, so the rest of the team could keep going. I got him to Stage 3 by the time they got the idol. Anyone get a PC to the end of the curse track?
