The Wide-Swing Dilemma

My party’s cleric wields a large, two-handed warhammer. It’s not a weapon which appears in any of the Pathfinder books I’ve read, but I include it in my games as a piece of standard equipment because they are awesome. In our last game session, the party was ambushed by a number of animated goblin skeletons while they were exploring the base of a giant statue. As monsters go, skeletons are not particularly deadly. But they were numerous, and none of the players had ever encountered a creature with damage reduction before. The party’s ranger was none too pleased when his arrow simply clattered through the undead’s ribcage without dealing damage.

Once I explained how damage reduction worked to my party, they figured out that the cleric’s warhammer, as a bludgeoning weapon, was able to overcome this defense. The barbarian cleverly responded by finding the largest rock she could, hefting it, and waddling around the battlefield smashing skeletons to pieces. The rogue and ranger did the best they could, but found that their piecing and slashing weapons weren’t up to the task. They encouraged the cleric to take the forefront in the battle, since her weapon was ideally suited to the fight. She did, and eventually ended up in this position:

I know, my battlemat is out of scale with the miniature base. I need to do something about that eventually.

Anyway, when the player found herself in this position, she told me she wanted to try and attack all three of the skeletal goblins in a single horizontal swing. I couldn’t think of a single diegetic reason why she wouldn’t be able to attempt this. I made a quick ruling at the table, and told her that she would be able to attempt it as a full action, but that each attack would be made at a cumulative -2 penalty. So her attack on the first goblin in her arc would be at a -2 penalty, the center goblin would be at a -4 penalty, and the final goblin would be attacked at a -6 penalty. This seemed like a reasonable penalty to me, and I had the player roll her attack dice.

As it turned out, none of her attacks landed, nor did any of her attacks land on her next turn when she tried the same tactic again. The penalties didn’t even come into play, she never rolled above a 10. Bad luck, but the party prevailed, and continued on with their adventure. But the encounter stuck with me throughout the rest of the evening, and I’ve continued to ponder it ever since. My ruling ‘steps on the toes’ of two mechanics built into the Pathfinder game: multiple attacks from a high base attack bonus, and Cleave/Great Cleave feats.

If you’ve played Pathfinder, or D&D 3.x, you’re familiar with these rules. Each class has a base attack bonus which rises as the character goes up in level, and this bonus is added to most types of physical attack that the character will make. Once the creature’s BAB gets high enough, they gain secondary, tertiary, and even quaternary bonuses which are lower (-5, -10, and -15 lower) than their full BAB. As a full action, the character can make multiple attacks per round using progressively lower bonuses. But while a character must be at least level 11 to gain three attacks with their BAB, my table ruling allowed a 2nd level character to attempt three attacks. And she did it at a -2, -4, -6 penalty, rather than a -0, -5, -10 penalty. A net bonus over the official way of doing things.

Gaining iterative attacks from base attack bonus does have a few benefits which I would not have allowed the cleric, had she asked. For example, a character attempting multiple attacks using their BAB is allowed to choose the order in which they attack their foes, can take a 5ft step in between attacks, and can even decide whether or not they want to continue attacking, or take a move action instead, after the first of their attacks. None of these should be possible if all of the attacks are made in a single fluid motion. But nor would they seem to make up for the fact that my cleric was able to access an ability which (according to the rules) was far beyond her ability.

The second rule I stepped on the toes of, the cleave and greater cleave feats, serve a similar function. If a character with the cleave feat successfully deals damage to one foe, then that character may make a second attack (at their full BAB) against another adjacent enemy. The greater cleave feat works the same way, it simply allows the player to continue making new attacks against adjacent enemies so long as the chain of successful attacks remains unbroken. Both feats subject the player to a -2 AC penalty for a round after use.

My player did not have the benefit of being able to use her full BAB on each attack, as the cleave feat allows players to do. But she also did not suffer a -2 penalty to AC, nor did she need to successfully deal damage to the first enemy in order to attack the second, or the third. And, on top of that, she didn’t need to take 3 feats (Power Attack > Cleave > Great Cleave) to make the attempt in the first place. Once again, it seems that my table ruling gave the player more a net bonus over the official rules.

Despite my ruling interfering with two official rules, I can’t help but feel that I acted correctly. I still cannot see a single diegetic reason why Gibbous the cleric would not be able to attack all three of the closing skeletons with a single horizontal swing. And while I’m sure the rules could be debated forever, I don’t particularly care. Combat balance is not sacrosanct. Player Agency is.

None the less, I am left with a few thoughts on how to improve my game in the future.

If a player attempts this tactic again, I think they should take a -2 penalty to AC for being off balance. I think it makes a lot of sense that a player who attempts a really wild attack wouldn’t be able to block attacks as effectively.
If a player attempts this tactic again, a slightly more harsh penalty might be appropriate. A -3 cumulative penalty, instead of a -2, should be sufficient.
Players with high base attack bonuses can make iterative attacks as a standard action, rather than a full action. This is a house rule that my twitter friend Rilgon first pointed out to me, and I’ve thought it sounded like a good idea for awhile now.
I long ago abolished the Power Attack feat from my games, because it falls prey to my problem with feats. I now think I’ll remove the Cleave feat for the same reason. Great Cleave can remain, as a means of allowing players to overcome the cumulative attack penalty, but only if they hit each time. After that the penalty stacks for each attack they miss.

I’m curious how other GMs would have handled this situation. Personally, it’s just edged me closer to the day when I build my own tabletop role playing system, with blackjack and hookers.

Abyssal Rambling

Note: Members of my ToKiJaTiMo gaming group should not read this post.

I don’t remember precisely when I first obtained my copy of D&D 3rd edition’s Manual of the Planes. It was probably among the first supplements I ever owned. It’s almost certainly the first RPG book I read cover-to-cover. I spent much of my early life exploring fantastical worlds through books and video games, so I was no stranger to the idea of otherworldly dimensions where the laws of reality work differently. What was completely new to me was to see those worlds explained and quantified. In a narrative, it’s important to maintain an aura of mystique about such locals. But this book had diagrams, explanations of different types of gravity, even pseudoscience about how the planes interacted with one another. The volume of concepts the book presented set my imagination aflame. The possibilities of running a planar adventure are always wafting about in my mind, but in all this time, I’ve never got around to actually doing it.

In our most recent session I presented my players with four different hooks. The elves needed help in their war against the orcs to the south, and there were three different adventures the players would need to undertake to obtain the three different materials they would need to transform their sorceress into an Arachnohominid. So what happens?

Gibbous The Cleric “What about all those gnomes that were turned to stone in the dungeon?”

GM “Well, Pumofe [The party’s new gnome barbarian] was one of them. The rest are still in there.”

Gibbous “We can’t just leave them down there. We should help them first.”

Poker the Rogue “I see no profit in that.”

Rosco The Ranger “Well, we could at least tell the gnomes that they’re in there.”

Pumofe “But they can’t get them out, can they? There’s the magical barrier thing that keeps gnomes out.”

Poker “Oh! Since we’re the only ones who can go in there, we can charge the village per statue we carry out!”

Gibbous “Guys, we have gotta help these gnomes! I wasn’t here last session, how did we rescue Pumofe?”

Rosco “We used Demon’s blood.”

Gibbous “I have some of that!”

GM “No you don’t, that’s the blood they used.”

Gibbous “Cuthbert damn it! We need to find some demons then. Come on guys!”

A few hours of gameplay later, the party had tracked down their wizard friend Mahudar Kosopske, and convinced him to make them a Gem of Plane Shift with 2 charges. One to get them to the Abyss, and one to bring them home. (a scene which I recently posted an illustration of, in fact). Assuming they stick to their present adventure path, it looks like I’ll be running my first Planar adventure pretty soon. I’m excited, and brimming with ideas.

The gem the wizard is making for them will teleport them to a relatively unpopulated area, ostensibly for safety’s sake, since they are still low level adventurers. But since the purpose of their trip is to harvest blood from demons, a remote location serves the double purpose of making their task more difficult. I’ve been trying to come up with challenges they’ll need to face which will test their mettle without giving them what they need too easily. So far I’ve com up with the following:

Field of Chains an area of ground covered in barbed chains and dead bodies. At first these chains will appear to be set dressing, but once all players are standing on the chains, they will begin to make grapple attempts against the players. Once grappled by at least two chains, they will attempt to pull the player apart. Each chain is AC: 12, Hardness: 4, HP: 6, with a CMB of +6. Each round a character is successfully grappled, they will take 1 damage from the barbs on each chain, as they shift and twist. Once there are two chains on a player, they will make a combat maneuver check at a -4 penalty to pin the character. This penalty is reduced by 1 for each chain on the player. Once a player is pinned, the chains deal 1d6 damage per round as they attempt to pull the player apart.
Suicide Forest An extremely dense forest of dead trees, with a body hanging by a noose from each tree. The branches of these trees are extremely brittle, and whenever one breaks, the tree screams in agony from an unseen mouth. It is impossible to move through this forest without breaking branches every few feet. And every scream has a chance to attract a hellhound–or worse. (Thank you, Dante Alighieri!)
Acid Lake A titanic creature died here–violently. Only its top half is anywhere to be seen, and it towers above the players like a castle. It appears to have died some time ago, because it has rotted away enough that many bones are visible. Its stomach is completely gone, and from the rotted cavity a wash of green, bubbling acid flowed out to form a lake which deals 1d8+2 damage per round.
The Gods are Not Welcome Anytime a player attempts to cast any good aligned clerical magic (such as Gibbous’ healing spells) demons nearby will sense the intrusion into their realm, and a random encounter will be rolled to appear 1d6 rounds later.
Field of Razorgrass Field of waist-high grass. Any character not wearing armor takes 1d4 damage per square they move through. Characters wearing armor on their legs still take 1d4 damage, but only once per movement.

If anyone has any more environment ideas, I’m eager to hear them.

I think the best way to run this little planar excursion will be to style it like an outdoor dungeon. Instead of using 6 mile hexes, I’ll use 5ft hexes, and the players will need to solve problems in 10 minute turns. I’ll also need to figure out just how much blood they can get from each demon–and how big and bad the demons will get. If they’re not careful, they will probably encounter something severely out of their league, such as a Marileth.

Campaign Art: Gifts of a Wizard, and a Battle against Ogres!

Only a short post today. As I’ve mentioned in the past, two of the members of my current gaming group are artists. This works out pretty great for me, because I regularly get to see my games come to life in cool ways. Such as the above picture.

Currently, my ToKiJaTiMo gaming group has a lot on their minds. They need to kill a dire spider for its eyes, find an entrance to the underdark so they can steal some hair from a drow, track down a spider which is more than a thousand years old so they can nab one of its eggs, investigate a nearby forest where gnolls are mysteriously being transformed into half-ogre monstrosities, hunt down a lich, and make a trip to the Abyss to harvest some demon blood. And some of them haven’t even reached level 2 yet!

In order to facilitate their rather ambitious goals, they traveled across the continent to meet up with their old friend Mahudar Kosopske. The wizard gave the original party members (now level 3) some of their first adventures, and they’ve remained on friendly terms. So when they came to him requesting information and supplies, he was happy to aid them. Even if he did require almost all of their treasure in exchange!

This piece, by the way, is from my rather talented ladyfriend. She’s done a lot of art for Papers & Pencils in the past, and you can see more of her work on her DeviantArt page.

Edit: My ladyfriend is on a roll! This post has not even gone online yet, but she’s already completed another piece based on the same game. Here she depicts a battle earlier in the adventure where the party fought some of those mysterious half-ogre monstrosities. I really love the coloring here, with each of the characters being highlighted in a color which thematically represents their class. Red for the barbarian, green for the ranger, blue for the rogue, yellow for the cleric, and purple for the sorceress.

Poker Comics: The Natural Order of Things

Today I learned that the newest player at my game table, Poker the Rogue, is an artist. Now I’ve got two of them! The comic above depicts a scene which took place early in his first adventure, when I rolled “Worg” on my random encounter table, and “Wounded” on Trollsmyth’s “Monster Motivation” table. I think the party’s reaction is documented rather well.

Two of the members of my group (both of the artists, actually) have a large interest in ecology. So when one of them mentioned that it might be an invasive species, I confirmed that Worgs (along with any “Magical Beast”) could be considered an unnatural, and thus invasive, species. It was funny to see sympathy for the creature completely dry up once the players realized it was harming the game world’s ecosystem.

The whole exchange took perhaps ten to fifteen minutes of game time, and the fact that it was memorable enough to make a comic about just goes to prove what I’ve always said: the best kind of fun is the kind which players create for themselves. The game included several well crafted NPCs, a dungeon filled with rich lore, and a few very impressive landmarks. But the #1 thing this player latched on to, and wanted to share, was a moment when a randomly-rolled encounter gave birth to some quirky party interaction.

This comic tickles me absolutely pink. I hope there are more of them forthcoming!

Behind the GM's Screen: ToKiTiMo 3

First thing is first: If you are one of the four people playing in my ToKiTiMo campaign, you should not read this post. It contains information from this past Saturday’s game, as well as information which may be used in future sessions. I believe at least two of the players in that game do check this blog occasionally, and reading this post will ruin some of the game’s upcoming surprises. Fortunately for me, I don’t play with any child-minded buffoons who would actually cheat at a tabletop RPG, so I can rely on the honor system for this kinda thing.

Moving on; I recently got around to doing what most other GMs did back in the 90s: I started preparing my game notes on a computer rather than by hand. It was a difficult decision. I’ve always loved the tactile feeling of a pencil scratching across paper. Plus, since I don’t own a printer, it saved me a trip to Office Max and a few dollars on prints. The downside, though, is that it can be difficult to make changes. Sometimes mistakes can force you to scrap an entire page and need to re-write it. And with the way I grip pencils, my hand tends to cramp up after a few minutes, which limited the progress I could make in a given evening.

Plus I type about four times as fast as I can write on paper, so there’s that.

Anyway, now that my games are neither trapped on sheets of paper, nor written in indecipherable chicken-scratch, it occurs to me that I can easily share them. The question is: should I share them? Is this something people would be interested in reading? I certainly have fun writing it, but whether anyone else is interested in them is something of a mystery to me. I think I would like to read other GM’s game notes. I could certainly learn a thing or two from GMs who are better than I. And, hell, if somebody wants, there’s no reason they couldn’t just run my adventure for their own group. That last part might just be my ego talking, but I like to pretend that people find my small contributions to gaming helpful.

So here’s the deal: below is act 1 of the third adventure in my ToKiTiMo campaign. Or, if you’d rather, you can download all three acts of the adventure as a PDF file. If you read it, leave a comment. Let me know if you enjoyed it, and if you’d like me to continue posting my adventures. And if you’d rather I not do this again, speak up! I can take criticism, and if nobody tells me they hate this, I’m going to keep doing it.

ACT 1: Journey to Overton

Part 1: Mahudar Kosopske’s Tower

When the previous adventure ended, the players had just returned from the goblin village with the special tree branch the gnomish wizard would need in order to ward the town of Honon against fire. He allowed them to stay the night, and to drink from his curative fountain to restore their health. The game will begin the following morning.

In the morning, Mahudar is eager to begin his journey to Honon. He ushers the players out of his tower. As he locks the tower, he asks the players if they have any pressing engagements. Assuming they say no, he asks them if they would like to do some work for him. If they agree, read the following text.

“There is an artifact–a small golden orb–which I would like you to retrieve. It’s an item of great importance to the gnomish peoples, but is hidden deep within an underground keep which is warded against our entry. Despite my best efforts, I was never able to dispel them. You lot seem to be trustworthy folk, and as humans the wards would have no effect on you. If you would retrieve this artifact for me, I would reward you handsomely.”

He intends to pay each party member 200 gold for their trouble, and will allow them to keep or sell anything they find. If the players Haggle, Mahudar offers only moderate resistance. We still want to encourage haggling. He will go no higher than 400 gold pieces.
If the players do not mention it themselves, Mahudar offers them 4 days rations, which he pulls from his bag of holding. In the future, rations should be up to the players, but I haven’t been strict about ration tracking in the past, so they should not be punished for not thinking of it this time.
Since Mahudar used “teleport” in the last game, they may ask for one. He has not prepared it that day, and he must begin his travels to Honon immediately, so unless they wish to accompany him that far, he cannot help them. If they press, he will require payment for the spell (8,000 gold).

When the players ask how to get there, read the following text.

“You will first need to travel to Overton. Two miles south of my tower is the river Bynt. Follow its northern bank through the forest. Overton is built where the Bynt meets the mighty River Yosregal. Your journey should take no more than four days time if you don’t stray. In Overton you can rest and resupply. Once you are ready, seek out the man known as Geary Therman, and ask him to direct you to Ursnol, a gnomish settlement a few days travel from Overton. In Ursnol, you will have no trouble finding a guide to lead you the rest of the way to the dungeon entrance. After that, you will be on your own.”

Part 2: Hex Crawl

The area between Mahudar Kosopske’s Tower and Overton has long been the domain of a tribe of Gnolls, known as The Spotted Bull tribe, which is led by a minotaur named Korakus. Recently, an evil Wizard named Dheef Gason moved into a nearby dungeon. He has been using unholy magics to merge captured Gnolls with his Ogre servants. He sets the twisted abominations free in the forest, and they have gathered into a loose society, directing their rage at anyone they find.

While winding through the hilly hexes, the river is at the bottom of steep hills on both sides. This makes it a great place for an ambush if combat is rolled. This first leg of the journey will work off one encounter table for the hills, forest, and plains hexes.

Remember to track the character’s food closely. Also track their movement (they should have 24 movement points if they do not attempt to acquire a mount.) Lastly, make sure Rosco (the ranger) rolls survival to avoid getting lost, in accordance with this table:

Terrain	Examples	Movement Cost	Becoming Lost
Easy	road	4	No Check
Average	clear, city, grasslands, trail*	6	Survival DC: 10
Moderate	forest, hills, desert, badlands	8	Survival DC: 15
Difficult	mountains, jungle, swamp	12	Survival DC: 20

Weather: Day 1 is Cloudy and Windy, Day 2 is Rainy and Windy, Day 3 is Rainy, Day 4 is Sunny, Day 5 is Sunny, Day 6 is Cloudy, Day 7 is Sunny

Time Tracking: This is the first game in which we will be tracking time. For simplicity’s sake, the adventure will start on the first day, of the first month, of the 3999th year of the common era. Day, Week, and Month names can be determined at a later date, but start keeping track now of how many days have passed.

Kobold Adventuring Party: In the first adventure, the players attacked a Kobold encampment. Despite being given an opportunity to negotiate, they attacked. 6 survivors, separated from their clan, have vowed vengeance on the party. They are stalking them. They will not attack the players outright, as they have not yet become powerful enough. However, they do attempt to lay deadly traps along the party’s suspected paths.

Undead: A lich named Erstic Von Kolt lives not to terribly far from here, though he is not along the projected hex path. Years ago, while he was still alive, he passed through this area and created a number of undead goblins. He’s long since forgotten about them, and they roam aimlessly now. If the players investigate the undead, they might discover a distinctive mark on all of their chests. Showing that mark to anyone in a leadership role will get the players some basic information on the lich.

Part 2 Subsection A: Random Encounters

Each day, roll twice. Once for the morning, once for the evening. Roll a third time for the evening, but only accept results which have mobility (such as monsters). All other results for the nighttime roll should be considered “Nothing of particular interest occurs.”

Monsters: When rolling a monster, use Trollsmyth’s purpose chart. 2d4 for bestial monsters, 1d10 for intelligent monsters:

1. Diplomacy
2. Patrolling Territory
3. Hurt
4. Horny
5. Hungry
6. Napping
7. Fighting (Roll again to see which creatures it is fighting.)
8. Home
9. Raiding
10. Art

Kobold Traps

1. 10ft deep pits. Perception DC: 16
2. Trip wires onto leaf-covered sharp sticks. Perception DC: 17, Attack +8, 1d6 damage.
3. Snare. Perception DC: 18. Failure causes characters to be pulled up 10ft off the ground.
4. Falling tree. Reflex save DC: 14 or be hit for 4d6 bludgeoning damage, and be trapped under the tree until you can be rescued.

Part 2 Subsection B: Fixed Locations

Garok Torar

This dungeon is represented by a dungeon icon in the center of the forest, one hex north of the river, and two hexes east of the large mountain. Parties entering this hex have a 10% chance to encounter this location.

Garok Torar is a collection of ruins in a large clearing. Made of blue-white stone, the ruins are heavily overgrown now, and no structure save one rises above the first floor–or even has a roof. In the center of the ruins, however, is a larger building. A stairway leads up to the large double-doored entrance–though the doors are long gone. Within appears to be some manner of courthouse, or other official building. In the large central room, an ornate staircase winds downwards.

The staircase leads to the first sub level of a 3-level dungeon. This is where the wizard Dheef Gason has taken up residence. His ogre minions can be commonly encountered throughout all of Garok Torar.

Mount Suvisar

The tallest mountain in the region is located near the western edge of the forest, next to the clearing where Overton can be found. The mountain is heavily forested. It is a little known fact that this is where the roost of Kolgoth’Ronnomaktar The Red can be found.

Castle Nalew

This mega dungeon extends 6 levels above ground level, and 15 levels underground, ending in entrances tot he underdark. However, it is currently sealed up tight, and none know how to enter it. It can be found on the southern edge of the Overton fields. Locals know of it, but none have ever been within its walls.

Part 3: Overton

CN Large Town (Population: 3k; 98% Human, 2% Half Elf, 1 Gnoll) Government: Mayor

Basic Info
Overton is built at the joining of two rivers. The town subsists primarily as a fishing village, but also serves as the central hub for the many frontiersmen who live and work in the nearby forest. It also trades with the gnoll and elvish tribes which live there. The people are generally friendly and honest, but hard from a life in the wilderness. The town’s official patron deity is Obad-Hai, but the town’s population is not particularly devout.

Services Available
Carpenter, Butcher, Blacksmith, Small temple (Obad-Hai), Brothel (“The Comely Castle”), Alchemist’s Shop (“The Crimson Elixer”), Stable (6 horses for sale, left by previous adventuring party who didn’t come back), General Store, river transport, tavern/Inn, leatherworker, tanner.
Town’s Total Purchasing: 4k gold

Notable NPCs
Geary Therman – The town’s mayor. A broad-shouldered huntsman with graying temples. Highly respected, always willing to do manual labor, and to help those in need, even outsiders. Tends to be anywhere he’s needed within the town. When the players ask for him, he’s on the docks talking to Ester Thomas about fur prices.
Hyerman Devon – Manager of the general store. One of the scrawniest men in Overton, but polite and willing to haggle. Sticker price is a few gold more than normal costs.
Old Berman – The high priest at the temple of Obad-Hai. Able to cast 4th level spells. Is not very friendly to those who do not follow his god. Will help for a hefty price, unless anyone offends him or his nature deity.
Melina Ayvon – Wizard in charge of the alchemist’s shop. Sells a variety of concoctions, and able to sell 2nd level spells for a fee. Acts more like a wheedling salesperson than a scholarly wizard. If the players seem capable, she might ask them if they want to find a rare herb for her
Anita Whyk – Half-elven Madam at the Comely Castle. Works as an information broker on the side. Advanced in age now, she still cuts a dashing figure, but does not work herself. She’s protective of the sex workers she employs. She’s a little distracted because one of her girls is missing. (Detective sidequest. she was taken by Gnolls. will be dead by day 7)
Ester Thomas – Ferry captain. A six-and-a-half foot tall woman with beefy arms and a bellowing laugh. She can be brutish and rude, but she’s much smarter than she lets on. She and her sailors are spending a week at rest in Overton whilst they wait for a delivery of animal furs to take south.
Bittereye – Geary Therman’s old hunting companion, a gnoll whose tribe is no more. He helps barter with the nearby gnoll tribes, and serves as an enforcer for the town guard when they need some extra muscle. Doesn’t want players help locating missing brothel girl.

When the players eventually seek out Geary Therman, he’s only too happy to direct them where they need to go. Read the following text:

“Well, easy way is ta cross th’ river here, and hoof it due west until you reach The Forest Queen–that’s a big hulkin’ statue of an elf lady. Can’t miss it. From her, ye can go north until ye reach th’ grasslands. Follow them nor-east. Iffun ye reach the forest’s edge, ye’ve gone too far.”

And that’s Act 1. If you’re interested enough that you’d like to read more, you can download the entire adventure. It’s 22 pages long if you include the three maps. And don’t forget to let me know if you would like for me to continue doing this!