After fighting xulgath once or twice, some of my players crafted ear plugs, then promptly jammed their noses with them anytime they smelled xulgath nearby (but well before getting into range of their auras).
They want blanket immunity for their creativity. I'm not sure I'm willing to allow the total nullification of an important monster ability so easily, but I don't want their actions and ideas to cease having any meeting either, or for the game to lose any sense of immersion for the players.
How might you handle it? I'm thinking of letting them treat their save results as a step higher. (You can still taste after all.)
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That's the moment where you should draw Circumstance bonuses to their saves, in my opinion.
A RAW way of negating Xulgath's smell is to just keep one (low level) with the party to benefit from the minute immunity you get after being affected by one aura.
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I wouldn't allow total immunity either, or there'd have to be a significant downside too. I think treating your save as one step better is a decent option. You can also go with treating critfail as only fail, or success as crit success, patterned on class save bonus abilities.
So, downsides to having nose plugs. I can think of two:
- A penalty to Perception, because scent can also warn us of important things. So maybe a -2 Perception check to notice things unless those things are exclusively about a different sense. You have difficulty spotting the lightning trap because you can't smell the ozone in the fair. You got ambushed by the several days old tuna sandwich. This requires a bit of discretion to use, I wouldn't apply the penalty to your Sense Motive against Feinting for example.
- You get winded faster. Most sports teach you to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth to keep your wind during exertion. Even if you have a stuffed nose from a cold, adrenaline will clear your sinuses. But if you plugged that? It'd be hard to function at peak performance. How to mechanically implement that though? Well the condition that does a good job of mimicking short term out of breath, fixable with a bit of concentration on your breathing, would be Sickened. Ah, ironic. That's the condition you were trying to avoid. But maybe this is "every three rounds of heavy exertion with your nose plugged, you get sickened 1, with a lower DC to recover". So if they can make short work of the enemy it's not so bad.
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On the whole I think I'd go with simplicity though. Plugs give you -2 to Perception to notice things and +2 to saves against Stench.
That's the moment where you should draw Circumstance bonuses to their saves, in my opinion.
I didn't think ad hoc bonuses were that much of a thing anymore. Most rules that give an advantage usually seem to do so by messing with the level of save result.
A RAW way of negating Xulgath's smell is to just keep one (low level) with the party to benefit from the minute immunity you get after being affected by one aura.
Hah, very clever!
You can also go with treating...[a] success as crit success, patterned on class save bonus abilities.
The problem with that is that there is no benefit to getting a critical success against stench, which would--in effect--be leading my players on with advantages they don't actually have. The other ideas you presented would work okay though.
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There is an earplugs item where you can take inspiration from.
A +2 circumstance bonus seems fine to me.
There is a section in the GMG about ad hoc bonuses in general.
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People breathe and smell through their mouths as well so unless they stuff their nose and also hold their breath while having gasped for air BEFORE they were in proximity to the smell then they would still be impacted... just saying.
If you do want to be generous though, you can let it work as an immunity until after the combat and so forth but when they pull the plugs out they should then be subject to the smell anyhow because odors linger for a LOT longer than one might imagine and most of the time when we think a bad smell has "gone away" it is simply due to becoming adjusted to its presence.
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I kind of feel for the players, because as a player in a certain adventure path, I am getting real sick and tired of Xulgaths and their stench ability. And I say that from my character's perspective, who is an Alchemist and quite eager to develop some sort of alchemical substance that temporarily negates your sense of taste and smell. Even with a fairly robust fortitude save and having to roll higher than a 12 on a d20 in order to just 'succeed' on the check, shakes my sense of verisimilitude.
I see the issue from the GM perspective too, but there are so many other ways in which to challenge the players with fights that letting them have a 'win' with the Xulgath stench ability (even if it gives them a slight bonus or full immunity) wouldn't even give me a pause. I currently GM the Strength of Thousands adventure path and actively reward the players for their clever ingenuity. And they surprise me at just about every turn.
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Xulgath burn out the nostrils of their beasts of burden. If a player's character was willing to go to such extreme lengths I'd probably grant him immunity in that case.
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Xulgath burn out the nostrils of their beasts of burden. If a player's character was willing to go to such extreme lengths I'd probably grant him immunity in that case.
Or play a character without a nose like a Skeleton or Ghost. ;)
Xulgath burn out the nostrils of their beasts of burden. If a player's character was willing to go to such extreme lengths I'd probably grant him immunity in that case.Or play a character without a nose like a Skeleton or Ghost. ;)"I can't smell; I'm a skeleton! I've got no nose, ha!"
"So how are you talking without any vocal cords?"
"... Shuddup."
LOL "gag them so they can't talk!"
"Hey boss, this guys a skeleton. How do I do that?"
Xulgath burn out the nostrils of their beasts of burden. If a player's character was willing to go to such extreme lengths I'd probably grant him immunity in that case.Or play a character without a nose like a Skeleton or Ghost. ;)"I can't smell; I'm a skeleton! I've got no nose, ha!"
"So how are you talking without any vocal cords?"
"... Shuddup."LOL "gag them so they can't talk!"
"Hey boss, this guys a skeleton. How do I do that?"
"Like a mummy!"
Xulgath burn out the nostrils of their beasts of burden. If a player's character was willing to go to such extreme lengths I'd probably grant him immunity in that case.
The temptation for that is incredibly strong, but that method would simply jar my verisimilitude even worse. If my character wasn't the go-to HP 'replenisher' of the group (cleric handles weird status effects), and nearly always bathed in some kind of rejuvenation or healing effect that would likely heal said injury, I'd probably consider it.
I guess I'll just invent some sort of reverse scuba helmet, fill it with water and cast air bubble on myself. Screw you, Xulgaths. Haha