I'm going to be taking over as main DM in a few months and I had a great idea for a starting area for my PC's. Inspired by the episode of Love, Death, + Robots called "Sonnies Edge" I wanted to make an underground fighting ring for my PC's to start off in. All but one of the players started playing DND about 3 or 4 months ago, the other and I have been playing together for years. I figured this would be a good way to show my players some monsters they might not have seen otherwise, and some of the weaknesses of certain monsters should they run into them in the world. I haven't run this by them yet, so hopefully they're all cool with it and I'm not doing all this work for nothing, but we'll see! I envision it somewhat like Pokemon meets Pacific Rim. I've written up some rules that I was hoping to get some feed back on!
5 Roles: 2 pilots: 1 magic user, and 1 martial character 1 healer 1 trapper 1 magic circle maintainer
Initiative for monster battles works as follows: The players roll initiative as usual. Then the DM takes the average of the party's initiative. That is their teams initiative vs the opposing teams initiative. During the parties team turn, each member takes their turn as per usual, but only the party gets to go in that turn. Then it goes to the opposing teams turn.
Capturing the monster
In order to capture a monster the party must take 5 minutes to set up two magic circles. One for the pilots, and one for the monster. The party must lure the monster into one of the circles, and the pilots must be in the other. The pilots must make an Int check with DC 8+ monster challenge rating rounded down to make a mental connect to the monster. Once this check is succeeded they do not need to make the check again.
Pilots
After a connection is made the pilots can use the creature's senses as their own, and their movement is made through the creature- however the creature can only move once per round using its movement speed. The pilots cannot move, and they are blind and deaf while they are piloting the monster. All spells, and spell-like abilities the monster has will be controlled by the magic user. All physical attacks will be controlled by the martial character.
Maintainer
The magic circle maintainer is there to ensure the link between the pilots and their monster is in working condition. As the monster takes damage, or should the pilots disagree too much on a plan of action the magic circle will degrade. .5% degradation per hit point taken rounded down. Or 10% degradation if the pilots cannot agree upon a plan of action in the alloted time (typically 30 seconds of out of game time) Should the magic circle link between pilots and monster fall below 50% every action between the pilots and the monster will require a percentile dice roll. Should the pilots fail this check, the monster will act of it's own accord. The Maintainer must make a wisdom check no DC is required for this, however the amount rolled by the Maintainer equals how many percentages the magic circle regains.
Healer
The healer works on the side lines, healing the monster as they would a party member in combat. The health regained also helps maintain the magic link between the pilots and the monster. .5% per health restored rounded down.
Trapper
The trapper will work the traps that line the fighting pit. The goal is to trap the opposing teams monsters so that your own may have an easier time attacking and winning. The trapper is the only team member allowed to leave their teams platform to use the traps all around the pit. Each teams trappers are also the only members allowed to fight outside of the pit. The goal being to incapacitate the other teams trapper, so that your team may have an advantage. No death is allowed outside of the pit so non-lethal force must be taken, should the trapper decide to use force at all. For instance: - On the side of the pit you see a large claw. There is a control panel outside of the pit with levers all across the face. The trapper must make an int roll to discern which levers make the claw go up and down, left and right, and which levers open and close the claw. The monsters seem to be inching towards this claw, and the trapper begins to pull levers to catch the opposing teams monster. However just as the trapper is about to pull the claw closing lever, he feels a sharp pain on the side of his head, and is knocked away from the panel. The trapper may make an opposed strength check to wrench the controls away from the opposing trapper, or fight the opposing trapper to gain control of the panel back.
I know some of the wording can be improved, but otherwise what could I do to improve these monster battles?
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I'm going to be taking over as main DM in a few months and I had a great idea for a starting area for my PC's. Inspired by the episode of Love, Death, + Robots called "Sonnies Edge" I wanted to make an underground fighting ring for my PC's to start off in. All but one of the players started playing DND about 3 or 4 months ago, the other and I have been playing together for years. I figured this would be a good way to show my players some monsters they might not have seen otherwise, and some of the weaknesses of certain monsters should they run into them in the world. I haven't run this by them yet, so hopefully they're all cool with it and I'm not doing all this work for nothing, but we'll see! I envision it somewhat like Pokemon meets Pacific Rim. I've written up some rules that I was hoping to get some feed back on!
5 Roles:
2 pilots: 1 magic user, and 1 martial character
1 healer
1 trapper
1 magic circle maintainer
Initiative for monster battles works as follows: The players roll initiative as usual. Then the DM takes the average of the party's initiative. That is their teams initiative vs the opposing teams initiative. During the parties team turn, each member takes their turn as per usual, but only the party gets to go in that turn. Then it goes to the opposing teams turn.
Capturing the monster
In order to capture a monster the party must take 5 minutes to set up two magic circles. One for the pilots, and one for the monster. The party must lure the monster into one of the circles, and the pilots must be in the other. The pilots must make an Int check with DC 8+ monster challenge rating rounded down to make a mental connect to the monster. Once this check is succeeded they do not need to make the check again.
Pilots
After a connection is made the pilots can use the creature's senses as their own, and their movement is made through the creature- however the creature can only move once per round using its movement speed. The pilots cannot move, and they are blind and deaf while they are piloting the monster. All spells, and spell-like abilities the monster has will be controlled by the magic user. All physical attacks will be controlled by the martial character.
Maintainer
The magic circle maintainer is there to ensure the link between the pilots and their monster is in working condition. As the monster takes damage, or should the pilots disagree too much on a plan of action the magic circle will degrade. .5% degradation per hit point taken rounded down. Or 10% degradation if the pilots cannot agree upon a plan of action in the alloted time (typically 30 seconds of out of game time) Should the magic circle link between pilots and monster fall below 50% every action between the pilots and the monster will require a percentile dice roll. Should the pilots fail this check, the monster will act of it's own accord.
The Maintainer must make a wisdom check no DC is required for this, however the amount rolled by the Maintainer equals how many percentages the magic circle regains.
Healer
The healer works on the side lines, healing the monster as they would a party member in combat. The health regained also helps maintain the magic link between the pilots and the monster. .5% per health restored rounded down.
Trapper
The trapper will work the traps that line the fighting pit. The goal is to trap the opposing teams monsters so that your own may have an easier time attacking and winning. The trapper is the only team member allowed to leave their teams platform to use the traps all around the pit. Each teams trappers are also the only members allowed to fight outside of the pit. The goal being to incapacitate the other teams trapper, so that your team may have an advantage. No death is allowed outside of the pit so non-lethal force must be taken, should the trapper decide to use force at all.
For instance:
- On the side of the pit you see a large claw. There is a control panel outside of the pit with levers all across the face. The trapper must make an int roll to discern which levers make the claw go up and down, left and right, and which levers open and close the claw. The monsters seem to be inching towards this claw, and the trapper begins to pull levers to catch the opposing teams monster. However just as the trapper is about to pull the claw closing lever, he feels a sharp pain on the side of his head, and is knocked away from the panel. The trapper may make an opposed strength check to wrench the controls away from the opposing trapper, or fight the opposing trapper to gain control of the panel back.
I know some of the wording can be improved, but otherwise what could I do to improve these monster battles?
Hey great post currator, you're the best man. These rules are rad. I'll use this in my campaign too!
I refer you to the second quote in my signature ...
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Lol, wow that's very accurate! At least I have my self I suppose. If I don't have me then who do I have