The reason why the halflings by the side of the road insisted so much on selling you a blowgun...
Is there a way to balance this? I really like this creature's concept, as a character incapable of causing *precisely* 1 HP damage except by accident could meet a slow demise should they come across a bundle of these...
First of all, thanks for getting that theme song stuck in my head for the next 3 days.
Secondly, it could be cool if their attacks reduced a PC's damage in a way that eventually sets their damage to 1 after they've been hit a few times. This would drive the encounter towards a resolution while still giving the PCs a chance to end it early if they can figure out a way to do so (hopefully your party doesn't immediately recall that a torch does 1 fire damage, but if they do they can feel smart for knowing it).
Although they are awfully cute, I would avoid the charm mechanic here. What I would want to see is a group of people frantically whacking these things around to no avail, and charm kind of gets in the way of that. Maybe they could deal damage simply by bumping into you, and so hitting one hard may make it ricochet into an ally and damage them too.
These mechanics could lead to some interesting combats - first you have a combat with just them, but later on you can have them come into combats with other creatures where damage reduction would be a bigger problem. Or maybe the PCs could use them by bashing them into other creatures and thus reducing their damage dealt.
If you wanted to be really devious, their attacks could trap a PC in a bubble that could only be popped from the outside, and any overflow damage from an attack on that 1hp bubble would go to the PC inside it...
I'll have this reworked to absorb those pointers. Specifically, I think you're absolutely correct that the charm mechanics are getting in the way of greater fun. My first thought was "freezing" chars while the monsters roll to recharge their breath, but that could actually get pretty morose with an unfortunate series of rolls.
I really like the idea of having their gimmick being revealed as consequence of their own attacks. I was thinking of hinting players with some odd scene in the RP portion of the session, such as placing a couple of shady gnomes selling blowguns at 25gp close to the entrance of the cave. But having it embedded in their own mechanics is better, opens up the opportunity to really play on numbers with this creature, as their deaths would have a somewhat set number of turns to happen.
I see this "creature" reinforcing the arsenal of traps of some cave dwelling kobolds, you know? They'd have like 20 of those stuck to a net in the ceiling of the cave, just waiting for some adventurers to step beneath it to let them loose all at once.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
The reason why the halflings by the side of the road insisted so much on selling you a blowgun...
Is there a way to balance this? I really like this creature's concept, as a character incapable of causing *precisely* 1 HP damage except by accident could meet a slow demise should they come across a bundle of these...
First of all, thanks for getting that theme song stuck in my head for the next 3 days.
Secondly, it could be cool if their attacks reduced a PC's damage in a way that eventually sets their damage to 1 after they've been hit a few times. This would drive the encounter towards a resolution while still giving the PCs a chance to end it early if they can figure out a way to do so (hopefully your party doesn't immediately recall that a torch does 1 fire damage, but if they do they can feel smart for knowing it).
Although they are awfully cute, I would avoid the charm mechanic here. What I would want to see is a group of people frantically whacking these things around to no avail, and charm kind of gets in the way of that. Maybe they could deal damage simply by bumping into you, and so hitting one hard may make it ricochet into an ally and damage them too.
These mechanics could lead to some interesting combats - first you have a combat with just them, but later on you can have them come into combats with other creatures where damage reduction would be a bigger problem. Or maybe the PCs could use them by bashing them into other creatures and thus reducing their damage dealt.
If you wanted to be really devious, their attacks could trap a PC in a bubble that could only be popped from the outside, and any overflow damage from an attack on that 1hp bubble would go to the PC inside it...
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
All very good points, thanks!
I'll have this reworked to absorb those pointers. Specifically, I think you're absolutely correct that the charm mechanics are getting in the way of greater fun. My first thought was "freezing" chars while the monsters roll to recharge their breath, but that could actually get pretty morose with an unfortunate series of rolls.
I really like the idea of having their gimmick being revealed as consequence of their own attacks. I was thinking of hinting players with some odd scene in the RP portion of the session, such as placing a couple of shady gnomes selling blowguns at 25gp close to the entrance of the cave. But having it embedded in their own mechanics is better, opens up the opportunity to really play on numbers with this creature, as their deaths would have a somewhat set number of turns to happen.
I see this "creature" reinforcing the arsenal of traps of some cave dwelling kobolds, you know? They'd have like 20 of those stuck to a net in the ceiling of the cave, just waiting for some adventurers to step beneath it to let them loose all at once.