wade@nmtvax.UUCP (10/03/84)
Experience G.P.
Point Value Sale Value
Potion of Nauseous Form --- 100
Potion of Nauseous Form
This potion is alot of fun to give to some paladin or such
that gets a little too cocky. Anyone of a class that requires
a decent charisma is fair game for this potion.
When this potion is quaffed, the users charisma is permanently
dropped to 1. No one, not even the players best friends, will be
able to stand the presence of the person after that, and the person
will be outcast. This will wipe out paladins, making them straight
fighters, and will have similar effects on other classes requiring
charisma. When the player encounters anyone, monster, player, or
otherwise, the creature encountered will either (50%) attack to
wipe this horrendous thing off the face of the earth or (50%) run
away gagging with revulsion. The player under the influence of
this potion obviously will not be able to deal with anyone.
Only a restoration spell will give the character back his
original charisma. If the person is killed and resurrected, the
effects remain. If the person is killed and reincarnated, a new
charisma is rolled.
Level Recommendation
It doesn't matter, use it on anyone you want to be
cruel to.
Richard Wade
nmtvax!wademr-frog@sdamos.UUCP (Dave Pare) (10/08/84)
: I find it hard to believe that so many items can be generated with no other goal in mind save injuring player characters. Only a DM who has a persecution complex and fears that his players get away with too much would find these items useful. Basically, a DM who uses such items frequently is using his superior position to punish particular players by placing them in situations where a given player's instinct works against him. With these items, once a player commits himself to a given action regarding any of them, that magic item kills or permanently maims said character. I for one wonder how the creator explains how the items managed to get enchanted in the first place. I'd be *most* interested in seeing the creator of these "items" give some info on enchantment times. Remember, none of these items have any saving throws! Thats a pretty tough magic item if it was working in FAVOR of a given PC. Does that somehow indicate that items that are bad for PCs are easier to make? You may get the idea I'm not wholly behind the use of these past series of items from nmtvax!wade... Dave Pare 1104-w: Ominous Sarcasm, with Hint of Impending Reprimand, Written (Keith Laumer)
chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Zonker T. Chuqui) (10/09/84)
> I find it hard to believe that so many items can be generated > with no other goal in mind save injuring player characters. > Only a DM who has a persecution complex and fears that his players > get away with too much would find these items useful. > > Basically, a DM who uses such items frequently is using his superior... I think the key word here is frequently. I can see many situations where an item like those that have been posted recently come in VERY handy. paladins with an ego problem is one that comes to mind immediately. I don't think that the person who developed these had it in mind to spread them around indiscriminately, I think the point is that every so often it is useful to put in a real ugly ringer to force your players to think about what they are doing. It's too easy for players to hack and burn their way through dungeons relying on reincarnations, wishes, and whathaveyou to back out of most ugly situations... In the dungeon I'm somewhat working on now, I'm trying to develop situations that will force people to think their way through and remember that the characters they play can DIE if they aren't careful... Too many dungeons aren't terribly willing to kill off characters (probably because many DM's remember the pain of losing a 7th level magic user that has been built over a period of months). The problem is, though, that they tend to overreact and characters that SHOULD have died because of the situation they got themselves into (or how they reacted to it) don't, and that creates a new set of problems... chuq -- From the Department of Bistromatics: Chuq Von Rospach {amd,decwrl,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA How about 'reason for living?'
rick@uwmacc.UUCP (Captain Calvert) (10/11/84)
[ save at +2 vs. line eater bugs]
There has been some debate of late concerning deadly magic items.
The ones posted were recommended for obnoxious paladins, overly
powerful magic users, etc. I would say that these "lethal to
user" items are a very bad idea in general, for the following
reasons and with the following exceptions:
(1) Why is this PC so obnoxious? Either you, the DM,
let him/her get the goodies in the first place that
have made them too powerful; or else you didn't
screen the work of other DMs enough in letting the PC
into your game. Power levels of games differ a lot.
Locally, I have seen games where everyone walks around
with pet dragons, unicorns, powerful MU buddies who
teleport in to save them, etc. Everyone in the game
is having a good time; who am I to say that they can't
play that way? But if one of those characters gets into
MY campaign, then my players and I have to live with my
decision. The owner of the PC shouldn't be penalized for
the DM's inability to judge what is acceptable power.
(2) Who wastes their time building these useless items?
In most FRP systems, an item is an investment of someone's
time. Finding these deathtrap things tends to destroy one's
ability to suspend disbelief. (Some deathtraps are ok:
an evil mage might very well have a booby-trapped copy
of his spellbook as a trap to discourage thieves. But
many such items have no visible function except to be
bad news).
(3) A reasonable exception is for campaigns and/or scenarios
where the player has been warned that the danger rate
will be noticeably higher than whatever the local standard
is. (I.e., I once played in a game where in 4 hours, the DM
killed permanently 20 out of 30 PCs (I lost all 3 of mine)
but no one minded because we knew the game would be the
"big shootout" of the campaign.).
A final note: there seems to be a subcurrent of feeling that
PCs are only behaving "believably" when ultra-cautious.
Most of my D&D characters behave like cowardly psychopaths,
favoring the quick shot from behind on unsuspecting & unarmed
foes. So, when I play my Paladin, I play a character who has
no conception of the meaning of the word fear (he's not even
sure how to spell it....). If he charges a group of 100
goblin warriors, it is because I think my Paladin does brave/stupid
things like that. (I thought the rest of the party would
take advantage of the diversion and run away -- for some
reason they followed me & we managed to win! But this was
a side effect of experimental combat tables which heavily
favored plate armor, missile fire, and quick infliction
of casualties to breaking the morale of one's opponents.)
Just some thoughts.
--
"Democracy means that some people rise to the top, and other people
rise to the bottom." -- Unknown Philosophy 103 student, Fall 1975, UofI
Rick Keir -- MicroComputer Information Center, MACC
1210 West Dayton St/U Wisconsin Madison/Mad WI 53706
{allegra, ihnp4, seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!rick