The Boar at Oldlin's Orchard

[Vasin]

Hello, Everyone

So, my wife and I are playing through Extinction Curse together, just the two of us (lots of modifying creatures so we don't die instantly since it's only two characters) and we are getting ready to explore Abberton. I think I have a decent handle on most of the encounters, but one has phrasing that I'm not sure how to interpret. It's for the Boar at Oldlin's Orchard. It's been convinced that people want to kill it and turn it's babies into bacon. My wife is playing a druid, so can communicate with animals without issue, but the text is confusing.

"Heroes able to communicate with the boar might be able to change her attitude from hostile, but Nature checks aren’t sufficient to persuade the boar to halt her attacks."

If you can communicate to change her attitude, isn't that usually a nature check for speaking with animals? What else could it be referring to here? As a druid, she really is trying to avoid harming animals.

Any advice would be great!

[Zapp]

I think the writer meant nothing more than "having Nature as a skill shouldn't be enough to make the boar call off its attack".

If the player uses a class ability or magic, I definitely think she should have a good shot at ending the encounter peacefully.

PS. In your particular case, with a player specifically invested in not harming animals, I would as a GM have overridden the module instructions regardless, possibly going so far as having every outcome short of a critical failure (including a hero point reroll) ending with the Druid not having to kill the animal. DS.

[Riobux]

Vasin wrote:

"Heroes able to communicate with the boar might be able to change her attitude from hostile, but Nature checks aren’t sufficient to persuade the boar to halt her attacks."

If you can communicate to change her attitude, isn't that usually a nature check for speaking with animals? What else could it be referring to here? As a druid, she really is trying to avoid harming animals.

Any advice would be great!

Well, honestly, that's not really how I'd GM it. If you're using words to talk it down, I'd ask for a diplomacy check with an increase to DC to reflect non-sentience. Nature, in this context, would be more if you're trying to communicate without words like body language (e.g. how people train animals in real life). I guess a comparison would be how, despite being a beast, to tame a warg puppy does require diplomacy checks (according to Age of Ashes).

I think it is down to personal interpretation though. I would only just expect players not to just do Nature checks but something more, but then again if you're running for fewer players it might be an area to just tweak to make it easier.

[Hane11]

^ You guys are missing the point.

"Heroes able to communicate with the boar might be able to change her attitude from hostile, but Nature checks aren’t sufficient to persuade the boar to halt her attacks."

This is a more thematic way of saying "if you have Wild Empathy you can make Diplomacy checks to Make an Impression on the boar, but merely being trained in Nature isn't sufficient."

This is the entry for Wild Empathy:

"You have a connection to the creatures of the natural world that allows you to communicate with them on a rudimentary level. You can use Diplomacy to Make an Impression on animals and to make very simple Requests of them. In most cases, wild animals will give you time to make your case."

So yes I agree that using a class ability should give a PC a good chance to resolve an encounter peacefully. In this case that would mean setting a low DC for the Diplomacy check to calm down the boar.

If a Druid PC isn't trained in Diplomacy they need to rectify that ASAP.

[Vasin]

Thanks, all!

Everything everyone brought up really does help. I was kinda starting to think this is what it should be, but wasn't certain.

Thanks again!

[Unicore]

The way I have been handling wild empathy in my run through of this module is by being sure to add a large circumstance (usually +4) bonus when the the druid makes a diplomacy check instead of a nature check. The rules for make an impression do say: "At the end of the conversation, attempt a Diplomacy check against the Will DC of one target, modified by any circumstances the GM sees fit." Then I let the things the animal is willing to do be much more open ended when it is made friendly. In the case of this encounter, it feels like the biggest boon is just that a peaceful resolution is possible.

[Ron Lundeen]

Hane11 wrote:

"Heroes able to communicate with the boar might be able to change her attitude from hostile, but Nature checks aren’t sufficient to persuade the boar to halt her attacks."

This is a more thematic way of saying "if you have Wild Empathy you can make Diplomacy checks to Make an Impression on the boar, but merely being trained in Nature isn't sufficient."

[...]

So yes I agree that using a class ability should give a PC a good chance to resolve an encounter peacefully. In this case that would mean setting a low DC for the Diplomacy check to calm down the boar.

This was my intent with this encounter. Well-stated, Hanel1.