KhorasForum

Hi David, I'm here asking for help on statting out a certain critter for the 3.5 DnD ruleset.

The Rock Wasp in particular has my attention at the moment and is the one giving me alot of frustration.

Obviously this is going to be classified as a swarm.  My issue is with the effects of their poison/venom/whatever you'd like to call it.

In DnD there's a spell or multiple spells to counter any ailment.  Blindness/Deafness is countered by Remove Blindness/Deafness, Petrification is countered by Stone to Flesh, Curses are countered by remove curse, etc etc.

With the rock wasp their poison (for lack of a better term atm) is hard to classify.  It's not true petrification, it doesnt cause ability damage, and it's not a curse.  I know you said the only way of curing somebody of such an ailment is to find the queen and forcefully inject the antidote, but for DnD, and more specifically an online chat environment, there should be another option, because more often than not the party will do what they can to keep the wasps from flying off with their friend, and then take him/her back to the nearest town.

So here's what i was thinking:  The poison of the Rock Wasps requires a fort save obviously, and if the target fails, they take 1d6 dexterity damage.  When somebody reaches 0 dexterity the effects listed on the site go into effect.  But then in order to save the person without getting the queen a series of spells needs to be cast.

For the spells i was thinking this:  Stone to Flesh to soften the skin back to normal, Remove Paralysis to limber up the body, then restoration spells to get the dexterity back above 0 so that the PC can start healing normally the damage done to the system.

Does that sound alright to you?  Or do you recommend something else or would you prefer i stick strictly to what's said on the site with regards to needing the queen to save the person effected?

EDIT:  It just dawned on me i should elaborate on my hesitation with this one abit.  When you're running a game for friends on Table Top and something happens to where the whole party dies, everybody knows it was just a bad run of the dice, or a bad decision made by the group.  They get over it and make new characters.

When you're DMing online however, a TPK (Total Party Kill) nets you a VERY bad reputation.  If it happens, people start to loose trust in the DM, and start thinking that DM is out to just kill PC's.  Add to this the fact that there are people who think the DM's have full control over what the dice roller (a simple program for it from what i understand) rolls, for the DM and the players.  We dont hesitate to actually kill PC's if they get stupid or make bad mistakes or just end up on the wrong side of the die roller...but we try very hard to avoid TPK's because, yes...that whole reputation thing. 

The Rock Wasps...while probably just an annoyance to higher level PC's, is something that can cause a TPK on  low and mid level parties.  Especially if they have to go into the hive to try to retrieve a friend, that's pretty much a death sentence for your average party of low to mid levels.

That doesnt matter one bit.  This forum is for the fantasy setting of Khoras.  Besides, if you start writing your idea's down it's very possible you could get enough to fill a book with short stories or one large continueing story.  Give it a shot sometime.  =)

We can see you all coming in and poking around.  We would like to invite you to register on these forums and come say hello, maybe even get involved with some discussions, it's not too difficult, just register, log in and say Hello, sit a spell if you would like.  You dont have to stay if you dont want to, but we would all appreciate it if you'd just pop in and say hello.

Spence

The only way to minimalize number crunching is to roll for your abilities.  It's completely random so people dont know what they'll get.  This works fine for Table Top. 

Online in chats is a whole other story.  In order to preserve some semblance of balance, you have to use the point buy system.  This means you have anywhere from 25 points to 32 points to spend on your starting abilities.  Now, having this kind of customization over your own character can be great, you can set your PC up how you want to, but it promotes number crunching...and i admit i sometimes do it myself without realizing it. 

All that being said...this is again an RPG and more often than not, all those crunched numbers are going to come in handy less than half the time.

I see what you're getting at.  And i think i know where you can find your answer.

http://www.khoras.net/Khoras/Civil/Cities/Asylum/Hammerfall.htm

Read that first.  I have some conclusions i've drawn based soley from what's there.  I think that the dwarves have diverted water, firstly so they can build their city, and secondly so they can fuel what they're planning.  With this as an example, i figure the dwarves have built a very elaborate dam to keep the water at bay.

Sometimes parents do some quirky things like that.  But it's always good to know a second language....i think i'm gonna have to try to learn Spanish just because of how frequently it's spoken where i live.

In a pantheon with so many gods, they're generally known by just about everybody.  At least with the greater gods.  Alot of times in a pantheon such as this (Think of Ancient Greece) people will worship multiple gods for different reasons.  One day a person might be sending prayers to Imarus that his/her friend might heal faster from an injury or illness.  The next day that same person might be sending prayers to Erylon in hopes he will guide that person to some game so he/she can bring food home.

There's alot of different ways you can go with this.  Ultimately it'll be what best fits your campaign.

QuotePerhaps it is commonly accepted that all god really exist (polytheism) but everyone worship the god he wants. Or perhaps Barrinor's adept believe he is the only one and could be offensed by other cults...? 

If it fits with your compaign or that adepts beliefs then yes.  Generally i would say that certain other deities and religions would not offend an adept of Barrinor though.  Imarus, Sorrath, Assytia and Threll are all good deities for example, and generally have a good aligned religion following them.

QuoteAbout religious war, I think it's much more important between monotheist religion. But are these religions monotheist or polytheist?

Again it's whatever is going to fit with your campaign.  However, i would suggest the polytheist method and any wars between the gods would be grand scale (all good  deities vs all evil deities for example) and...could be happening right now.  That's a possible storyline that could take PC's from 1rst to 20th level without issue.

QuoteAnd what about the gods between two race? It's said that some human may worship some ogrish gods, but in the case of polytheism, does all human accept the existence of ogrish god, or do they only accept "their" human gods...?

In a polytheistic pantheon, i wouldnt look at race as a limiting factor for anything.  But i'd also pay attention to regions as well.  Some nations arent too habitable for certain races.  For example:  You wont see many Saurians in Normidia, it's abit cold for them.  So Normidians would not have much reason to know about Saurian gods.  However Normidia does see Borellians at a fairly consistant pace so they would have reason to know about the Borellian gods.

Hopefully this helps you some!

Spence

This is often used in descriptions and roleplay for the game...unfortunately i dont know of any DM's (aside from myself, i'm pretty leniant with creative things) that would allow it to actually function as a normal holy symbol.  Personally i'm trying to get tattoo'd holy symbols to be allowed on Dathkandra...with the various cultures on the chat that do lots of tattoo's it only makes sense to me.

The whole basis of playing an RPG is to roleplay a character in a fantasy world...but then there's times when it's very hard for people to concentrate on staying in character, but they still want to get into the hack and slash.  In my opinion it's perfectly fine for one or two sessions to be pure hack and slash, it helps you by giving you a break from concentrating on the main storyline and it helps your players by giving them a break from serious roleplay.

That being said, you're still playing an Rpg correct?  It's important that the hack and slash be balanced out by good roleplay.  When you give your players a combat situation, try to balance it out later by giving them a situation they can solve via good roleplay (This is why i dont like certain skill sets, Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidation are roleplay skills not something that can always be determined by the roll of dice).  Most situations should be able to be solved via good roleplay to be honest...but the few that cant, combat is always an option.

More random thoughts from your friendly, neighborhood online DM :-)

I dont suppose there's any more copies are there David?  I think it'd be very very interesting and fun to watch, not to mention seeing some of your stuff in movie form would really be kickass =)

Funny thing is...i used this demon-spawned wyrm as a baby khoras dragon...i think it gave the player the picture of what an adult khoras dragon can do ;-)

I can expand on this some more as well.  Lets assume you have a 20th level NPC wizard.  He doesnt adventure, but he sells alchemical supplies (Craft: alchemy).  Now the maximum ranks in a skill for a 20th level character in DnD is 3+ level.  So said wizard has 23 ranks in Craft: Alchemy.

Now lets add some things to this.  The wizard takes the Skill Focus Feat for an additional +3 modifier to the skill, we're up to 26.  Lets say he has a 20 intelligence (+5 modifier) That bumps his alchemy up to 31.  Now add in an alchemists lab, his modifier is now 33.

Assuming an average roll on a d20 of 10, the wizard will get 43.  Half of this is the number of gold pieces he can make per week.  21.5 gp per week for a monthly income of 86 gold pieces. 

By commoner standards he's living large.  By adventurer standards....he's a broke fool for even trying to live that way.  The average amount of treasure per adventure that a 20th level PC should get is 180,000gp.  This figure is of course before expenses (cost of magic items, potions, transportation, NPC services, etc etc) so the PC would end up with less than that...but these numbers should give you an idea of the difference between an Adventurer and a commoner NPC.

Spence

As far as the long term, the price is very correct.

Consider this.

A farmer toils all day every day during the spring, planting seeds, watering his crops, sowing the crops.  All day every day during the summer he tends to those crops to help them grow.  Then all day every day during the fall he harvests those crops very carefully.  In the end, he makes about 10 gold.  That 10 gold must last him until the next fall, including the price of new seeds, work animals, tools, home maintenance, food for himself and his family as well as the animals. 


For the average person in a fantasy setting, those nails are very expensive.  For an adventurer they arent, but adventurers are far from your average, run of the mill person in a fantasy setting.

Je ne parle Francais pas ( i think i just said i dont speak French...i took 1 year of french in high school and came out with very little french)

Excellent, thank you very much David.