Welcome to the Blog Ed. That’s a great story… HAd you been an Evil vindicative DM, that fall on the Barbarian’s head could have made him ‘funny’ and turn evil… replacing your BBEG!

The barbarian charged and bull rushed him over the edge.

Well, I sort of needed this guy for the plot, so I figured a little railroading wouldn’t hurt. He landed on a soft patch of grass and mud, battered but still alive, while the entire tower went into a hornet-like frenzy. I figured that’d keep them busy enough for my villain to retreat.

Then the barbarian leapt off the tower, helmet spike first, hit against a ton of penalties, and impaled him through the chest.

$@&%ing barbarian.

Call it a 20 foot cone.
1st round 1d6 (feel warm)
2nd round 3d6 (feel hot)
3rd round 6d6 (feel very hot, metal starts to spark)
4th round 10d6 (boiling from the inside.)

etc…

@Jason: That’ll teach him… I hate boasters that can’t back their claims. Excellent ‘riposte’!

@Dave: Join me in the Real life intrudes on the fun stuff crowd! Asterix is pure gold namewise… I’m not sure I could top it… While I have a way with words, i’m more of the smartass/clever response type than the pun maker… and when I do, the whole place tends to crumble in groans.

@Bart: Thanks man! Drop by Gtalk anytime!

@Lanir: I pegged Glitterdust as the perfect Spark effect! Thanks for the suggestions.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/glitterdust.htm

@Dean: We too have a lot of insiders… most of them I can’t write here and expect my grandmother to approve. But there is this one quote from Clerks where Randal discusses the merits of Hermaphrodite erotica that comes up whenever my plot becomes too complex.

Eventually, “Greg… Luck roll” made its way into our real life conversation, and persists over a decade later in our interactions.

I was kind of figuring the sparking effect would be a constant faerie fire on anyone using metal weapons or armor that dissipates as they leave range. If you want to be really mean you could assign a -1 per d4 of damage they’re taking at the time to offense (metal weapons) and/or defense (metal armor). I think this ability on it’s own would probably add 1-2 CR to the critter but who knows. I sometimes think CR is assigned based on recommendations by the magic 8 ball.

Bartoneuss last blog post..YouTube of the Week: Betraying Warthog Edition

Cacofonix is the english version of the bard. (A play on cacophony, or loud, usually unpleasant noise.)

In the french book the bard is named Assurancetourix, which sounds like “assurance tout risque” basically meaning full coverage insurance. Great pun since is singing is the worst.

I’ve actually tried to move away from some of those references, though my first campaign (as a middle schooler) was by far over the top. Deities included “Lute Skywriter” and “Dort Invader”, and very few of the PCs had original concepts (mostly taken from Final Fantasy.) Check out the other campaign on my Obsidian Portal site if you want a bigger taste. I’m happy to talk about using references whenever you like. (Still haven’t made my GenCon plans, gah…)

Hey, you could do an authentic Asterix the Gaul game in French! That’s something that wouldn’t work here.

Dave T. Games last blog post..YouTube of the Week: Betraying Warthog Edition

I take it the mushroom were of the recreational kind…

@Khorboth: Way cool. I appreciate you taking a stab at this. My pal Graham has cooked something a CR 13 critter based on the Ember Guard in MM V that is very promising! I’ll let you know how it went as soon as I try it. I really like all the meltastic stuff you cooked up!

@Jason: Why do I picture your gaming group drawing steel during a rules argument?

One of the reasons I’d go with the Heat Metal application (possibly with an area of effect?) is so that you can hit them with part 1 before they see the bad guy (dramatic reveal and all that). They won’t take enough damage to be detrimental, and you can make sure you give them the full effect. If this is mostly a gimmick encounter, I’d make it pretty easy. Also, nobody expects it; it’s a very underused spell.

Other possibilities:
Cone-shaped heat attack. Doesn’t need to mimic a spell.
Disintegrate effect widened to a cone. Say… DC10 with 5D6 electric on a failure? Scale to your party, of course.
You could go with whatshisname’s acid breath. Good meltyness there.
The sparks are illusion?
Or… Ranged grapple with effects like the Mind Flayer?

And, I didn’t think of this earlier, but you should probably also do a fear aura like dragons have. that’ll account for a not-so-nasty ogre with a very nasty reputation. Or, if you’re feeling mean, give the ogre levels of Blackguard.

There’s the (colourful, immaterial-or-not) grand piano, there are squirrels (don’t trust the bastards), lizard brain soup in a glass container (the glass is sand that melt around the undeadish lizardman thingy due to very critical electrocution by magic), an indestructible NPC named Tum-P-ELO (a Paranoia reference that works in Finnish) that always fails at everything but just won’t die, a reincarnating mule, and mushrooms. There was an Ars Magica covenant built in a cave filled with mushrooms. There was a dwarf who made stuff from the mushrooms, described roughly as “maybe not instantly lethal”.

I also have some select quotes in a notebook somewhere around here.

Then there’s all the insider jokes. Good times.

Dave T. Games last blog post..YouTube of the Week: Betraying Warthog Edition

Are any of you coming from Johnn Four’s last newsletter? Or were you readers that stepped up to the commenter’s plate?

I wonder how well received my new monthly column there was received? I’ll post it here as soon as Johnn posts the newsletter on his website so we can have comments on it.