Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Multikills

Finally game night was had on sunday, but thanks to a late start and classes early in the morning, we only had a short session. There was something a little off about the energy too. I'm having a bit of GM burnout with this campaign, and unfortunately we werent really able to get into our stride. With that said, however, I worked in an unusual new house rule: the Hero's Kill.

The PCs in the campaign I played on sunday night are about 12th level, and they are extremely powerful. Since there are only two PCs in the game, I allowed them very high stats and a strong build. At this point, they can dish out enough damage to handle pretty much anything CR 12 or lower without much difficulty - given adequate circumstances for the fight.

I recently listened to Homer's Iliad on my sweet librivox app for my iphone, and was inspired by the descriptions of the mighty heroes in battle. When Ajax, Achilles, Diomedes, Aeneas or Hector are faced with rank and file troops, none can stand before them. They stride through great swathes of men, laying waste with impunity - killing who they might. It is only when confronted with another mighty hero that these men are actually challenged.

With this in mind, I created my new ruling. The PCs are right now in the wartorn city of Braetona, and during the fighting, they are often faced with large numbers of the enemy army's rank and file soldiery. I decided that with a high enough attack roll (attack roll is vs. enemy soldier's AC + number of enemy HD in unit +5), the PC could kill the entire unit, effectively sharing the damage dealt amongst all soldiers present. This made for a kind of cool on-the-fly rule, resulting in some fun roleplaying as well. I asked the PC making the roll to describe the way in which he dealt with the many enemy soldiers who swarmed about him, trying in vain to bring down the mighty hero.

In this way, we had the paladin's hippogriff throwing broken bodies through windowpanes while the paladin shook a dead man's corpse off his lance. The rogue/barbarian laid about him with his axe with nonchalance while devoting most of his attention to the paladin's murderous work across the street.

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