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This is a campaign I'm running in Greyhawk. The party is Level 9 consisting of a cleric (Good and Life domains), a fighter (shielded fighter), an alchemist/Master Chymist, and an aether kineticist. The cleric had gotten to know a Good NPC that adventured solo. However, this NPC found a cursed magic item and, due to an alignment change when putting it on, joined an evil cult. The party is chasing this cult and they are about to come upon this NPC's body. The cult leader murdered the NPC in order to obtain the cursed magic item. I wanted to have a haunt on the NPC's body both to provide a challenge and to show what happened to the NPC. This is what I came up with. Did I do it right and will it be effective?
NPC Betrayed (CR 9)
XP 6,400; NE haunt (the interior of the tower, a circle of 40 foot radius); Caster Level 9th; Notice Perception DC 30 (Once the scenario showing the NPC's betrayal and murder begins, the party is transfixed watching it; hp 18; Trigger touch; Reset 1 hour
Effect
When the body of the NPC is touched, a ghostly scenario begins that shows their murder. When the NPC is murdered in the scenario, the person who triggered the effect takes 90 points of negative energy damage as if affected by the [i]harm[i] spell. The damage is reduced to 45 points of negative energy damage if the target makes a successful DC 19 Will save.
Destruction
The NPC's body must be buried and the bloodstained tiles that make up the floor of the ruined tower in which she was killed must be destroyed.
My first thought is that 90 damage is too high for a CR:9 party. Sure the Barbarian will be fine but the wizard won't. If you're actually following the rules for HARM then it can't take them below 1HP, so it's not going to 1-shot anyone which means you can deal more damage without making it unfair.
The other thing is that I think the destruction condition could be a bit more lenient:
- does the body have to be burried or can it be burned? Does simply performing a funeral ceremony cover this? I'd be lenient if the players do something unusual (like a viking funeral)
- I'd probably allow the bloodstained tiles to be cleaned and/or sanctified in some way, rather than having to burn them. Again this is more about being open to player creativity.
Otherwise, how does the "transfixed" portion of the Haunt work? You could give a Will save to avoid that. How long does it last for? How helpless are they while watching? You don't need to answer these questions but they're something to think about.
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My first thought is that 90 damage is too high for a CR:9 party. Sure the Barbarian will be fine but the wizard won't. If you're actually following the rules for HARM then it can't take them below 1HP, so it's not going to 1-shot anyone which means you can deal more damage without making it unfair.
The other thing is that I think the destruction condition could be a bit more lenient:
- does the body have to be burried or can it be burned? Does simply performing a funeral ceremony cover this? I'd be lenient if the players do something unusual (like a viking funeral)
- I'd probably allow the bloodstained tiles to be cleaned and/or sanctified in some way, rather than having to burn them. Again this is more about being open to player creativity.Otherwise, how does the "transfixed" portion of the Haunt work? You could give a Will save to avoid that. How long does it last for? How helpless are they while watching? You don't need to answer these questions but they're something to think about.
My intention was to duplicate the Harm spell so I will add this line.
This effect cannot reduce the target's hit points to less than 1.As for destruction, considering that the NPC, before the curse that changed her alignment, followed the same Faith as the cleric, I'd be okay with a simple funeral ceremony and some method of cleaning the blood.
Btw, how do the players figure out what to do to destroy the haunt? I didn't see anything about that in the rules I looked at.
I guess, for fairness, I should add a Will save to not be transfixed but that means the cleric will almost certainly succeed on that check. Maybe I should make it a high DC, like the perception check, around 30? I just want to make sure that they see this scenario through to the end as I'd like them to see what happened to the NPC and set up the fact that the cult leader now has the cursed magic item.
They are basically going to be paralyzed for about 30 seconds to a minute while this ghostly scenario plays out. The location is isolated so they're not going to be interrupted by anything while this happens.
if the point is only to tell a story with the transfixation, I would just make it happen, no save, players get to experience the story. Maybe allow a Will saving throw to avoid the Harm as well? Like they pull themselves out of the reliving before the death stroke of the haunt. That way it works more like Phantasmal Killer, just using Harm as its base.
as for destroying the haunt, you could lay some clues in the scene and the environment after the haunting scene plays out along with some Knowledge checks.
Laying the body to rest is pretty easy to guess, but the blood on the tiles could stand out, like the blood is always fresh, no matter how much time has passed, or something similar to draw attention to it. Then I'd just let any creative and/or fitting way to clean that up work. I'd go with a good Mr. Clean eraser pad and holy water blessed by the deity they worshiped.