"Particularly interested in the philosophy of life and death and the flner points of the more cruel and sinister religions of the world, a roper can talk or argue for hours with those it initially sought merely to eat. Quick-thinking spelunkers can sometimes stave off a roper’s appetite by entertaining it with stories or discussions of philosophy, but ropers do not willingly allow such intriguing prey to escape alive. Stories speak of particularly skilled debaters and philosophers who have been kept for days or even years as pets or conversational companions by roper clusters, but in the end, if such pets don’t eventually escape, the ropers’ appetites win out over their intellectual curiosity—especially in cases where the pets constantly outmaneuver their keepers’ wits and patience."
So Ropers are, evidently, quite intelligent, and prone to letting people live if they can provide interesting enough conversation, at least until they become boring. However, most of the online discussions I've seen about them across various editions generally just focuses on running their unique mechanics for combat. This seems like a wasted opportunity.
I've come across a Paizo written PF1 encounter where you can convince a Roper to let you go with a DC 30 knowledge check, and evidently the thing will continue to talk to you even as it drains the life from you. I feel like this is a more interesting resolution to these encounters, and I'd like to brainstorm ideas on how it can work in practice. This includes both RP approaches and mechanical consideration. As an example of the latter, unless you make the DC 35 perception check to spot the Roper before getting within 50 feet of it, you're likely going to have some people snagged by a strand before you can start talking. How does a conversation resolve in the turn order in this case?
And how do you role play such an event? Do you just let your players make a knowledge check and move on? Do you have some fun Roper quips you can use? Do you give bonuses for bothering to role play it?
|
My favourite roper encounter with my party currently is the one in final book of RotR.
Basically, no one in my party knew that Paizo Ropers are philosophy/teology majors or even intelligent so they were really surprised when out of nowhere the attacking random roper stops fighting, and starts speaking surrenders in exchange for information about the city xP
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
To the tune of Rappin’ 4-Tay Playaz Club.
Me and my party, Enter the dungeon from above
We take all the treasure, how we do it at the Adventuring Club
Talk down that that NPC or hit them with a stub
Cause we kickin’ monster ass at the Adventuring Club
We found a creature the rouge wanted to kill
But it started talking about dark philosophy, you know the deal.
Wanted to sit and chat terror and freaky things all night
But something with the cleric didn’t sit right.
A lot of adventures would of ended the game
But we kept on entertaining it, the wizards to blame
As we continued chatting , the roper looked at me like a snack
Next thing you know we were under attack
Tentacles and teeth tried to overwhelm me
But me and my party could not let that be
The fighter took his axe and chopped it in half
And as the creature fell, the alchemist let out a laugh.
Me and my party, Enter the dungeon from above
We take all the treasure, how we do it at the Adventuring Club
Talk down that that NPC or hit them with a stub
Cause we kickin’ monster ass at the Adventuring Club
How I'd handle it is by letting a successful check call for a cease-fire and drop into exploration mode. First the party has to learn this, which would probably be a hint I'd sprinkle in during exposition (like when the party gathers information, or as bonus info on a recall knowledge, or when the party gets the hook to explore the underground which may contain ropers.
In combat to start it'd be a 2-action activity and a skill check. A character with Legendary Negotiator would be able to do it in 1 action, but that is a moot point since a 15th level character wouldn't be fighting a roper anyways. DC would be a level 10 DC modified by the skill used. Diplomacy would be a standard level 10 DC, arcana occultism society or religion would be an easy level 10 DC and a lore skill that especially applied would be very easy. A success would get the roper to stop attacking for as long as the PCs stopped attacking, a critical success would get it to let go of its strands too, and a failure would mean it wouldn't stop fighting, but it would do nonlethal damage (a -2 to attacks for the fight). Critical failures would do nothing.
Moving on in exploration mode during the cease fire, someone has to be actively engaging in conversation with the roper to keep the cease fire up. If anyone is still grabbed by sticky strands then I'd call for a fort save (against fort DC of the roper) to keep from being more enfeebled every minute, though a diplomacy or deception check could get it to let go. Every 10 minutes of conversation would require a check and each consecutive check for a conversation would increase the difficulty by a stage. While the roper converses with a PC, the others can do anything that wouldn't provoke it. It can't recognize spells quickly, so casting spells would break the cease-fire. So would attacking it or obviously moving in position to attack it. But sneaking around, stealing treasure, skulking away, repairing gear, refocusing, treating wounds, etc all would be on the table while the roper is distracted.
For RPing I'd give a quick snapshot of the conversation in each 10 minute interval, along with what the other party members who don't engage with the roper are doing. I'd probably give a +1/+2 bonus for good RPing though if the player keeping up the conversation just wanted to gloss over with a quick one-line
Eventually the party will fail the conversation checks and the roper will go back to attacking (doing nonlethal damage) though if the roper was an intentional plot point and not one of many subterranean creatures the party faced underground I might include that if they succeed at 3 or 5 checks to converse or an incredibly hard DC check that the roper lets them pass freely. Or if I know it is a one-way pass I might have the roper let them go deeper into the dungeon without conflict, but make no such promise on letting them return.