Old portrait
Player | skatay |
Class | Medusa/Fighting woman 2/2- (Advances as Fighter) |
Title | ? |
Alignment | Neutral |
Languages | ??? |
Abilities | |
Strength | 10 |
Intelligence | 16 Exceptionally Bright |
Wisdom | 9 |
Dexterity | 10 |
Constitution | 12 |
Charisma | 8 |
Combat | |
Armor | Platemail & shield, iron crown, Grey Cloak +1 |
Weapons | Longsword, shortbow |
Magic Items | |
Cloak of the Grey Company, Wand of Fireballs | |
Special Ability | |
Level 3: Medusa abilities (not fully matured) asps/gaze: first round: save, fail: 1 die damage, second round: save, fail: full effects as Medusa. Casts as MU of 2 levels lower. | |
Level 4: both saves in single round | |
Spells | Charm Person, Detect Magic |
XP | 5000 (starter) + 2375 (Ashur Ram) + 300 (Monsters) + 2400 (Carouse: Cult of Blind God) + 2306 (Ontussa's hoard) + 200 (carouse on invisibility object)=12481 XP |
Gold | 381 gps |
Background
Neisseria the Medusa has trained with the Grey Company on look-away drills, and they know by changes in her voice to avert their gaze when she is hoodless. She often wears a gauze hood when dealing with the party on a day-to-day basis. Neisseria often neglects her Medusa studies in favor of magical tomes, but does not study with the fervor of a great wizard.
She is also a monster, and looking to stock her lair with powerful monsters, possibly by blinding them. Her carousal around the town of Denethix caused her to learn of a temple to the blind god. She is currently able to hire 1st level clerics from this order as retainers. She is studying members of the Grey Company (and their enemies!) for ways to increase the scope of her personal power. She has jotted down some notes for a possible future field of study: spell creation.
Neisseria's Mark of Obeisance
Caster gets to leave a <10 word series of instructions with the subject. If the subject fails to perform the instructions (and is capable of doing so) the subject takes a single die of damage. Avoidance or obfuscation of the instructed matter will put and keep the subject in visible pain.
Character get saving throw. If failed, a mark materializes on the subject's head, plain for all to see, a unique mark for each caster of the dweomer. This spell is easily dispelled: Cure disease, Remove Curse, Dispel Magic, and higher level cure spells as well will remove this effect. It's duration is until the instructions are changed.
Session 46: Neisseria has allowed the recently freed and gracious Wraith-King, Agamemnar (sp?) to suck out two levels of magic user, leaving her with 2 levels of medusa, her gaze attack is currently in double save territory in a single round, I am unsure if her asps are similarly immature. Her soul has been supplemented by the addition of the soul of an Amazon, Basheena, she can no longer cast spells, but is a full-fledged fighting woman. In a secret gambit that is yet to be played out, she spent 1500 gp for a potion of expedient round trip travel whose outcome it yet to be determined. She caroused for 200 gp/XP to see about the purchase (or other acquisition) of a ring of invisibility and has a lead on someone in Denethix who received one from Ashur Ram. She is currently outfitted in the standard Adventurer escape pack, Platemail, sword, shield, and an iron crown which can hold a frontal veil, and allows her asps freedom.
OMG, if I knew how foxy Neisseria the Medusa was I would a) have had the teenage were-tigers be much more eager to get aboard the rocket party barge and b) have drawn a veil across everything you might have read in their minds concerning her. Yowza!
I am thinking that Neisseria's Mark of Obeisance is a second-level spell, since it is more potent than the first-level cleric spell Command but well short of the fourth-level Geas.
As her 4th level special ability, I can take a full on Medusa gaze attack, right? Are her asps matured as well, or do I wait until 8 for those?
Also, the spell is just for notes, as I try to emulate Xeno. I can't even cast it yet!
I think a mass save vs. petrification usable at will is still tougher than other 4th level PC abilities (even special abilities). What if they still get to make two saves, but do both in the same round so that it is faster-acting?
of course, I'm in no position to barter:
OPTION 1:
can I then ask for full on poison asps with only a single save then, with this double save vs petrification gaze in the same round thing?
OPTION 2:
can I ask only those greater than my level get the double save?
(more desperate: greater than half my level?)
OPTION 3:
As you say, but I have immunity to Medusa, Basilisk and Cockatrice type petrifications?
With looks like that, any Saves vs Petrification should be at +5, if ya know what I mean.
I'm talking about boners.
Zolobachai replies here, as Neisseria gnashes her teeth in frustration at being denied the full gaze attack of her 4HD sisters.
:-O
Oh don't make that face, you asked me.
I think James is more or less correct. When we make a new PC at the table, I go through a song and dance routine about the abilities that the three core classes have and which of them the player wants their character to have. This is as much about education (not everything that a fighting man can uniquely do is obvious to new players) and establishing the style of consensus-based adjucation as it is about game balance. I think Scott and I were happy with the results of that conversation because it had back-and-forth, non-verbal communication; was a concrete part of a gaming session; and is a way of doing things that I've specifically practiced in the White Sandbox.
None of that is true when I undertake to consider elements of character class design in front of a keyboard. This context tends to bring up the things I've practiced as a freelancer, in which communication is by email and typically one-sided, considerations of actual play take a distant second to abstract ideals of balance, and getting paid requires having internalized a lot of new-edition principles I don't actually believe in or want to be part of the games I run.
I think that the right way forward in thinking about the awesome Neisseria is to talk about what her equally awesome player wants, and hash it out until we're all happy. Here are some of my thoughts:
- I suspect that being a self-identified power gamer means that you want some element of challenge and gratuitious difficulty. The two-saves-vs.-petrification mechanic was, I think, satisfying because a) it meant that not every encounter could be dealt with by stoning them all out of hand; b) it meant more spotlight time for Neisseria's abilities - we are thinking about her petrifying someone for two whole rounds; and c) it dealt with balancing in a dice- and rule-bound way.
- The other way I could introduce balance is the way I do with Javi's Pokemon abilities, for example: you can generally do whatever you say, I will just look for negative consequences. One that we talked about is accidentally stoning party members; others include losing magic items on the target (turned to stone = item saving throw roll to remain functional if de-petrified), being petrified by an enemy using a mirror, biting yourself and being poisoned by your own asps, etc.
Having more mechanical disadvantages will thus tend to offer more protection from negative consequences - both in a game-balance way and in the practical sense that you'd have two saving throws to protect against self-inflicted injuries.
To talk about these issues in a more generally applicable way:
Right now the current balance for elves vs. humans is negative fictional consequences: the game world hates elves because they have so many mechanical advantages, and loves humans because they have none.
Last session Eric and I sketched out some mechanical advantages for humans, some of which I've had in mind all along (e.g. lycanthropy and lichdom are only human possibilities). Are people interested in taking this route?