Thursday, November 17, 2011

Battle Oracle Mechanic + Easy NPC Wizard Spells

Battle Oracle Mechanic

PC wants to know how s/he'll do in the upcoming fight. Consults wizened and raisin-like oracle. Wizened oracle says something cryptic while fondling armor and PC's primary weapon. Then the PC openly rolls ten D20s and whatever die s/he uses for damage with his/her primary weapon of choice. DM does the same. The results are noted, in order.

The DM looks at these rolls, treated as the actual rolls that will come up, and says some goofy thing summing it all up like "The tide of battle will rush toward you, but break upon you like waves upon the shell of Inevitable Tortioise--but your sword's first strike will be a mere glancing blow..."

In the next battle, the PC's strikes--and those of his/her foe--will be treated as if s/he had just rolled exactly those numbers. In the order already written down for each side.

Naturally:

-the PC is told this

-this "number-matching" doesn't apply to the PC's allies

-nothing prevents the PC or his/her foe from using tactics that do not require an ordinary "to hit" roll or which cause a different kind of damage than the "primary weapon" die rolled

-the more the PC studies his/her foe, the more useful this oracle is

-DMs sensitive to non-immersive mechanics won't like this spell

-
the PC doesn't necessarily already know his/her target number (the target's AC) in the fight

-the nice utility-but-vagueness of this oracle is based on that ignorance-of-the-target-number, so using the same mechanic for tasks that require no input from the other side is less interesting. If you want to adapt it for persuading, climbing, or other noncombat tasks make sure the tasks use a GM-designed target-number system rather than a roll-under or otherwise static-target system.


Which Spells Does The Randomly Encountered Evil Wizard Have Left Today?


The wizard has one spell left for each letter in his slash her evil name, conveniently enough.

Consult the table below for Ye Olde Specifics. Same letter twice? They have it memorized twice. If the spell is over-level for the wizard, just make it a wimpy version with a save or something Hey--you're the god-damned DM, right?

A -Animate object
B -Blink
C -Command
D -Disintegrate
E -Evard's Black Tentacles
F -Fireball
G-Globe of Invulnerability
H-Hold Person
I-Illusion
J-Joke causing Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter
K-Kiss of Dismemberment
L - Lightning Bolt
M-Monster Summoning
N-New And Disturbing Limb
O-Otto's Irresistible Dance
P-Polymorph
Q-Quest
R-Reduce
S -Sleep
T-Transmute Rock to Mud
U-Undo Last Round
V-Volley
W-Web
X-X-Ray Vision (good for seeing your magic items)
Y-Yoink! (one object transferred from target to caster)
Z-Zone of Silence

Thus "Vorgon the Cruel" has...Volley, Otto's Irresistible Dance (twice), Reduce. Globe of Invulnerability, and New and Disturbing Limb.

If I wanted to be a real bastard I could also give him Transmute Rock To Mud, Hold Person, Evard's Black Tentacles (twice), Command, Reduce, Undo Last Round, and Lightning Bolt.

5 comments:

Ian Whitchurch said...

If you've got a tarot deck you dont mind using,and enough D20s, do some sort of ten-card spread and put a dice on top of each card.

As a DM, you can either pay attention to the tarot cards as well, or not.

Greyhawk Knight said...

Spells according to name?
Where do you get ideas like that?

(I want some, too.)

Zak Sabbath said...

(troll translation)

My fawther says EVerything on this blog flows into one inconsequential torrent of Rubbish, Potter!!!!!!

Zak Sabbath said...

@troll

We've discovered you are finally actually funny if we read you in the voice Jim Dale uses for Draco Malfoy in Mandy's Harry Potter audiobooks.

Zak Sabbath said...

Troll Perceived Negatively By Parties Trolled. Film At Eleven.