Changing Gamers’ assumptions about Pathfinder (Part I)

 

If you like to play with your players’ encyclopedic knowledge about Pathfinder/D&D, here are some ideas (I actually used most of them at least once). In my experience it’s always refreshing to change a few game clichés, especially at campaigns with 1^st level characters. As usual, the idea to make players think and to entertain them, not to backstab their characters at the last moment with dirty tricks.

- Trolls aren't vulnerable to fire. In fact, they’re supernaturally flammable. Place a troll on fire and he'll lit like oil, causing 2d6 fire damage to all creatures and objects at 5 feet. Oh, and trolls on fire enter a berserk rage (like a Barbarian). After approximately an hour the fire will usually burn out, leaving behind a dark and Exhausted (but otherwise intact) troll. Quenching the fire will result in the same condition, although it’s something considerably hard to achieve [This variant is one of my favorite, in part because every encounter between trolls and player characters is so tactically boring].

- Dragons actually change their scales and innate characteristics. Sages aren't still sure if a dragon’s scales change with age or geography. Yes, that means that scale color has nothing to do with alignment. What about metallic dragons? It is speculated that a dragon gains metallic scales after devouring certain types of creatures. Gold scales, for example, are theoretically acquired after the consumption of pure royal blood (a few princess will do, though a clever dragon can manage the change with a true emperor).

- Lycanthropy is actually genetic. It is passed through generations, not bites. However, wounds inflicted by a lycanthrope induce madness and recurrent episodes of uncontrollable animal rage on the victim. This curse, as far as it’s known, is incurable [No, I never used this once, but I’m totally stealing this from the Malazan Book of the Fallen – by the way, if you liked it, you can go a step further and make lycanthropes immortals].

- Rats (or cats, or wolves or another common animal) are actually magical beasts with Intelligence 10 (just like normal humans). They have their own languages, cultures, magic and societies. Beware: they don’t like their secret being known by “Big Folk”. [I use this option with cats most of the time… blame Lovecraft and my first pet].

- Shadows aren't undead but unfettered shadow of living creatures. When a Shadow drains you all way down to 0 Strength, you don't die, but in 1d4 rounds your shadow rises free as a new monster. “Shadow-less” people have Charisma 3 and are always Fatigued. However, they're ignored by mindless undead and normal animals (and rumors hint to some resistance against Divinations).

- Goblinoids are actually a fungal life-form. They have all the advantages of a Plant type. Their breeding chambers are a series of weird underground (and heavily protected) gardens. These gardens require humanoid blood and flesh to grow and are really hard to eradicate (dragonfire is a safe solution). Oh, remember that plants are immune to poison in Pathfinder. Guess what goblins love to use? [Yup, this is from Warhammer. Besides the fact that it presents a solution to the whole “goblin babies” conundrum].

- All oozes are actually cursed wizards. To be more precise, they are what happen when a wizard loses his mind (Intelligence 0). No one knows why this happens. Clerics and oracles like to say that this is an old curse from the Gods, to punish wizards for meddling in things forbidden to mortals. A mindless wizard (i.e. ooze) can be "freed" only through a limited wish, wish or miracle. Remove curse or break enchantment also work, but only if the name of the cursed caster is known. A dispel magic might works, but only if cast within 7 days of the transformation. The various types of oozes are thought to represent the various schools and traditions of arcane magic.

 

About Gnolls, Gnoles and Trollish Gnomes

The original D&D (and Chainmail) is still such a trove of ideas and inspiration because of its mash-up approach to its source. It mixes all kind of fantasy (and early science fiction) sources, without regard to consistence and without taking itself seriously. Unfortunately, it can be argued that the last two traits were lost with the game’s commercial success – check the differences of tone between OD&D and AD&D 1^st.

Anyway, the one part of the original Brown Books where I’m sure Gygax was having a little bit of fun is the gnole. This bizarre creature was inspired by the short story “How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art Upon The Gnoles”, by Lord Dunsany. Like many other great pieces of fiction from the author, the best parts of that short story are based on flavor and hinted things – not on clear and precise descriptions (it isn’t surprising that Lovecraft was his fan).

The aforementioned Gnoles are never described. Gygax, who seemed to love word plays, couldn’t resist the temptation. From that came the notorious OD&D gnole or gnoll.

Today, a gnoll is basically a beastman (or “the beastman”, given D&D’s importance). They actually become so famous and standard that other medias use the hyena-headed humanoids, like World of Warcraft.

However, in OD&D they were something completely different. A gnoll wasn’t a beastman, but a “gnome-troll hybrid”. The monster’s description is actually minimal, and it seems probable that Gygax was jesting with the entire concept.

As far as I know the best “description” of a Gnole comes from this illustration (from the Wonder Book, 1912 – I couldn’t find the author):

Gnoles were feared and stealthy humanoids that lived deep in dark woods. Much Dunsany’s Gibbelins, we get more a flavor than a description.

So, let’s play with some gnollish stuff for Pathfinder.

First, for the purpose of this post, let’s leave the “official” Gnoll just as a beastman. In fact, I believe one could expand the concept to cover all kind of mammal-headed humanoids by just changing a few stats and replacing some special abilities of the Gnoll. It’s easy to come up with ape-, tiger-, goat-, bear- or even bull-headed beastmen. This concept can be used to explain why there’re some many barbaric humanoid races out there (if I remember right, the D&D Mystara setting used this idea to explain the origin of all chaotic humanoids, from orcs and ogres to gnolls). The beastmen can even cover other monsters, like minotaurs or even ogres and lycanthropes. If you like world-building, it’s a cool concept to explore.

With the Beastmen done, let’s focus on the Gnoles.

I believe that D&D/Pathfinder already has a terrific Gnole: the bugbear. Think about: a bugbear is a strong and creepy humanoid, whose concept deals with fear and stealth. It’s the perfect Gnole candidate. Bugbears actually make terrific and scary monsters for low/middle-level Pathfinder – especially horrors adventures. I hate to see them wasted as “barbarian goblins” or “boss monsters” of goblinoid dungeons.

Official Pathfinder bugbears have Intelligence and Wisdom 10. They aren’t stupid. They also have Stealth and Perception as class skills, good Strength, Dexterity and Constitution – and 3 racial hit dice! Give them some Rogue/Fighter levels and you can make one the scariest things out there to hunt your player characters. If a Gamemaster is really interested in setting a “Dunsanian” mood for hits bugbears, it’s frigging easy! The cool part is that the original legends regarding bugbears reinforce that notion, check it out.

If you liked this idea, but want to can give bugbears a little more mojo, a good source of inspiration is Paizo’s Classic Monsters Revisited. Check the bugbear ideas given there, specially the awesome kardan, murd, slate-stalker and koblak variants (which can also be found here). Reading Dunsany’s tales, I believe one could give Gnoles a 1/day silence or fear spell-like ability or even a hide in plain sight (woods) extraordinary ability.

Ok. Beastmen and Gnoles are done. What more can we do? How about some gonzo-stuff?

Time for the gnome-troll hybrid. With such crazy stuff as beholders and owlbears, I’ll not even care to explain how this thing came up – probably a demented (and dead) archwizard somewhere. Mechanically speaking we can use the bugbear as a template. I’d just give it Regeneration 3 and probably a few spell-like abilities like ghost sound, minor image and silence. I’d also let our hybrid Gnoles talk with evil, dire or aberration-like burrowing creatures. Imagine a Gnole with a pet bulette. If you prefer, you can give them the illusory ability to assume a normal gnome’s shape. I also would let them command normal trolls (they’re smart, after all). This gnomish Gnole can be a good alternative to the Spriggan.

Hmmm… if I can accept a gnome-troll, maybe the Thoul isn’t such a ridicule thing either (actually, thinking about it, the Thoul seems almost like a Lovecraftian ghoul for Mystara, because it isn't an undead).

Weird Arcana - Become the Steel (New Domain Spell)

Become the Steel

Transmutation
Level: Cleric/Oracle 6
Components: V, S, F (weapon; see below), DF
Casting Time: 1 immediate action (see below)
Range: Personal

Target: You
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This secret spell is given only to the most favored servants of the deities of war, so that they can continue to serve until the end of times. When the war priest is fatally wounded, he can cast become the steel as an immediate action.

As life leaves his body (if any remains), the caster’s spirit is transported to his holy weapon, powering it.

After casting become the steel the cleric effectively turn into a new character – a unique intelligent magic item. To determine the weapon’s characteristics, build the item using the PC entry from the Character Advancement and Level-Dependent Bonuses table. For example, as 12^th level cleric using become the steel would turn into an intelligent magic weapon with a cost of 108,000 gp.

Become the steel requires as focus either a magical or a masterwork weapon. The chosen item must also be the deity’s favored weapon.

This is a domain spell; actually a War Domain spell. This means that only clerics with the Domain of War (or oracles with the Battle Mystery) can cast ask for this spell. However, if another cleric find this spell in scroll form, he can add it to his spell list by meditating and making the proper sacrifices and rituals (and paying the same cost of wizard writing a new spell in his grimoire; this costs cover incenses, expensive herbs, ritual instruments and special holy symbols etc.). War clerics (and Battle Oracles) will try to kill “the heretic” for stealing their secrets.

This spell is also the type of dweomer that I love to find in fantasy RPGs – weird and of dubious utility at first (definitely not a ‘gamey’ spell), but also potentially awesome in its dramatic consequences. Imagine if the most powerful weapons of the scenario actually house the souls of the greatest war priests? I would even let a PC continues to play with his character (now a magic weapon), maybe with his Cohort wielding “him”. As always, the GM must forbid any abuses from the players – specially “suicide” PCs that want a “cheap” way of creating potent magic items (the GM is encouraged to remove the spell or the make each new intelligent a NPC with its own agenda – probably alien and contrary to the party’s plans).

Weird Arcana - Embrace Grief (New Domain Spell)

Embrace Grief

Transmutation [Good]
Level: Cleric 2, Paladin 1
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Target: One creature
Range: Touch

Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

This spell allows the caster to transfer to him one grief afflicting the target. This can be an affliction (curse, disease, poison, drug or madness), a negative condition (like nauseated or panicked) or a negative spell (like a continual damage spell). The caster instantly suffers the chosen effect; if a saving throw is allowed (or SR applies), then the caster also can roll to resist. If the caster is immune to the effect, then he can ignore it completely.

If the chosen grief is of permanent duration (like bestow curse) or leaves permanent effects (like fleeblemind), then embrace grief must be cast until the next round after the target suffered the effect. Otherwise, only powerful magic (like break enchantment, remove curse or wish) will do.

Finally, embrace grief has a second function of narrative nature. It can be cast on a target suffering intense (and usually recent) pain of emotional nature (like the loss of a loved one or after suffering a grave betrayal). This use of embrace grief has a casting time of one minute and the target must be conscious. If successful, the target feels the lift of a heavy burden from him. His attitude regarding the caster automatically improves by one step and he gains a +1 morale bonus all his checks for the next 24 hours. Finally, the caster also gains one free Diplomacy roll to improve the target’s attitude yet further. The GM is final arbiter regarding this secondary use.

This is a domain spell; actually a Good Domain spell. This means that only clerics with the Domain of Good can cast ask for this spell. However, if another cleric find this spell in scroll form, the can add it to his spell list by meditating and making the proper sacrifices and rituals (and paying the same cost of wizard writing a new spell in his grimoire; this costs cover incenses, expensive herbs, ritual instruments and special holy symbols etc.).

In fact, if your GM allows, you can prepare Embrace Grief as your 2nd level Good Domain spell (instead of Align Weapon).

The secondary use of Embrace Grief is still too elusive for my liking but it was the best I came up; it was based on the Shield Anvil priests from ‘The Malazan Book of the Fallen’ novels. 

Weird Arcana – Spell Variants

I never liked the fact that you can roll Spellcraft to identify a spell being cast by another spellcaster. It’s boring and doesn’t make much sense to me (yeah, that’s a hazy argument). For example: how in the Nine Hells does an ice witch from the North know what is a fireball spell? Ok, you can argue that fireball is a classic, but only from a gamer perspective. I prefer to let the player discover only some aspects/components of a spell with a successful Spellcraft check: things like descriptors, area and/or damage. Usually higher rolled numbers give more information. Of course, it easier to just say “he’s casting a fireball”, but it also removes some of the unpredictability aspect of magic (besides, “predictable magic” is something total contradictory for me).

Another reason why I prefer that approach is that I love to tinker with spells, creating all kind of bizarre variants. This is an advice given by Monte Cook in the Dungeon Master Guide 3.0 (still the best DMG for me, maybe losing only for the famous AD&D 1^st DMG). Changing visual elements is easy, but I really like to make small variants.

A few examples with 2 classic dweomers (none playtested!):

Magic Missiles variants:

Holme’s forceful missiles – Each missile deals 1d6+1 damage, but the caster must roll to hit (ranged touch attack).

Valuriel’s fey darts – The caster must also roll to hit (ranged touch attack) but each target hit is covered in fey mists, suffering 20% miss to every attack roll made for a number of rounds equal to the inflicted damage. The mists can be dispersed only through dispel magic or if the target is drenched.

Damazar’s merciful infliction – The missiles do nonlethal damage and the targets are dazed for 1d4 rounds.

Fireball variants:

Baelorn’s fireball – shots a green fireball sphere that deals no damage to vegetal matter (and plant creatures), besides healing oozes. It’s reputedly an elven-version of the famous dweomer, the ooze bit being an unforeseen side-effect.

Arcturus’s unearthly fireball – shots a sphere of ulfire. Besides the usual fire damage, targets suffer 1d6 Wisdom damage (Will negates). The caster suffers 1d6 Wisdom damage himself for each casting (no save).

Blackfire – shots a sphere of black flames that deals 1d4 points of (untyped) damage per caster level (maximum 10d4). In the following rounds, all damaged targets must succeed at a Will saving throw or suffer 1d4 points of damage. This damage is continual until a successful save is made. Black flames can’t be naturally extinguished (treat it as a curse effect), but only affects creatures vulnerable to negative energy. The caster’s hands get black after casting blackfire and he ignores the next 25 points of healed damage cast on him (once this happens, his hands get back to normal; treat it is a curse).

Ancalagon’s dragonfire – Only a dispel magic removes fires started by this dweomer. It also ignores the hardness of stone, wood or iron objects. However, the caster suffers 1d8 Dexterity damage (no save) after casting it, as his hands are horribly and preternaturally burned.