Necrosh [Archive] - Wizards Community - Pages Merged by Solauren

Necrosh [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
warlock_devilkill
05-17-07, 11:58 AM Okay i've been toying with this idea for a while and i thought some of you could help out. Okay here goes.....
The world is over run with zombies(and to a lesser extent mummies), run by vampires(modified to be more blade style vamps), and packs of werewolves(only) running to and fro, and one very big very nasty flesh golem, and maybe some form of swamp lizard man. Ghosts will be there but won't acutaly fight. I want to limit it to core classes, but how should they be modified to fit? LOW LOW LOW magic. Core races, thinking about limiting it to just humans,elves, and either halflings or gnomes.
The party would be from a small neighboring land and the're like a strike team sent in to scout,sabotage, and dissrupt, essencialy preparing Necrosh for being retaken,possibly high level characters?
One last question if i were to do this camp.. should i buy heroes of horror?
taradusis
05-17-07, 12:30 PM Heros of horror is good buy.I might consider LIBRIS MORTIS for a wider selection of undead.Also has the half-vampire template which yeilds a character similar to marvels Blade.
warlock_devilkill
05-17-07, 12:37 PM Lbris mortis okay
warlock_devilkill
05-18-07, 11:47 AM Anyone else got anything?
taradusis
05-18-07, 01:44 PM Well I was toying with the idea of FrankenFiend.A wizard loses his wife and goes mad.He begins trapping female devils and demons and cutting them into peices.He then reassembled the peices into a flesh golem.The flesh golem is so wanton in her behaviour that the wizard drives her away.Use a flesh golem with the fiendish template?You could also have a celestial golem called angeleyes made from chopped up solars and devas?RANDOM THOUGHTS.
queenfange
05-19-07, 06:42 AM Your emphasis on undead sounds somewhat like the campaign setting I'm building (creatively titled "Gothvania" :P ). I have stuff on races, classes, cleric domains, culture, and sample NPCs if you want to use any of it. Anyway, I guess you should look into Heroes of Horror and Libris Mortis, though I never really read them. I use a class called "slayer" in mine, which is a sort of combination between fighter and ranger and doesn't use magic; you may want to consider something similar in a minimal magic campaign.

Just keep in mind that low magic means it's harder to access healing, fight monsters with magic, etc. You may want to adjust experience accordingly. Alchemy items will likely take on a much greater importance, if they are cheaper and more readily available than magic items.
Jürgen Hubert
05-19-07, 08:52 AM How do the zombies spread? Created by spells, necromantic energies, or something else?

If they are of the "infectious movie zombie" variety, you must get World War Z (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_Z). It's set on Earth in the near future, but it does tell of a world overrun by zombies, from the first outbreaks to the point when they have overrun all the continents (and the quite horrific tactics humans use to survive) to the point where humanity is finally able to fight back and cleanse most of the world.

You could easily run such a scenario in a fantasy world. The PCs can be among those who encounter the first outbreaks, and thanks to their abilities survive to reach supposedly safer areas - only to encounter more and bigger outbreaks. If magical cures for the zombie infection are rare, such zombies could easily overrun the world - all it requires is that zombies appear faster than clerics can cure them. It will take some time until the surviving nations learn the strategy neccessary to survive and beat back the onslaught, and until then they will have to deal with anarchy and starvation...

Nomadic tribal societies will probably be best suited to survive, especially if they live in plains terrain where they can see zombies coming from a long way off. Civilized nations will have the best chance if they have large-scale barriers that can keep the zombies away.
warlock_devilkill
05-23-07, 11:15 AM Queen i like your imput skoot me a message & i'll give you my e-mail so we can share info.
Jurgen as for your question the vamps took over first then by controlling the feed of magic weakened the world so zombieism could spread sorta like malaria with some immune to it and there for just carriers.
molten_dragon
05-23-07, 11:39 AM sounds interesting, although you'll probably have to change some things to balance the classes. As it stands, in a campaign where you're fighting mostly undead, paladins and clerics will have a huge advantage. Rogues will be almost useless in a fight. Some other things to think about:

- Will there be any effect on Druids, since so much of the natural world is overrun by undead?
- Will the characters be able to find safe places to rest and resupply?
- Many undead require the use of magic to beat effectively, if you're running low magic, they will be more powerful.
- If the setting is such low magic, what created all the undead
- Will having such a large area bathed in negative energy have any effect on magic (healing less effective, necromancy spells more effective, etc.)
warlock_devilkill
05-26-07, 11:24 AM see thats what i was asking how could i modify the classes to make them all effective & balanced. zombies in my world are more romero zombies & less dnd zombies. so noone knows or remebers how zombies came around and they've been around for ??? (depends on what races i use)
queenfange
05-26-07, 04:20 PM One option I'd consider is making Turn Undead a skill. Then all classes can use it, though clerics and paladins still have an edge (since it'd be a class skill for them).
taradusis
05-26-07, 09:08 PM Now this is where i'm forced to disagree with the queenfange.Each character class has it's signature abilities and if they get spread out then it obviates the need for a party of specialists.If you have a party rogue and make a magic item that acts like a Knock spell it reduces the need for a rogue.If you give every body Turn Undead as a skill instead of having it be the result of channeled positive energy it lessens the special-ness of the divine classes.It also effects some of the feat trees as well.It's your game but it still is something I'd reccomend against,I'd make them all multiclass as clerics or paladins before I made Turn Undead a skill.
queenfange
05-26-07, 09:48 PM I stand by what I said. It does depend on the flavor of the game you are looking for, that I freely admit, and it may not be a good option for some DMs. However, multiclassing is not useful if you start out with first level players. Clerics still regain some special abilities, such as spontaneous cure or inflict spells. Other classes, such as fighter, can be molded in so many different ways there isn't a certain "special-ness" to each. So, while I respect taradusis's point of view, I don't think the idea should necessarily be discarded.

Other options that you could consider instead would be, for example, lowering clerics' base attack bonus. They still have a special skill that is useful against most of the world's inhabitants, but they are now not overpowered because of it, and regain their own unique flavor.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
warlock_devilkill 05-17-07, 11:58 AM	Okay i've been toying with this idea for a while and i thought some of you could help out. Okay here goes..... The world is over run with zombies(and to a lesser extent mummies), run by vampires(modified to be more blade style vamps), and packs of werewolves(only) running to and fro, and one very big very nasty flesh golem, and maybe some form of swamp lizard man. Ghosts will be there but won't acutaly fight. I want to limit it to core classes, but how should they be modified to fit? LOW LOW LOW magic. Core races, thinking about limiting it to just humans,elves, and either halflings or gnomes. The party would be from a small neighboring land and the're like a strike team sent in to scout,sabotage, and dissrupt, essencialy preparing Necrosh for being retaken,possibly high level characters? One last question if i were to do this camp.. should i buy heroes of horror?
taradusis 05-17-07, 12:30 PM	Heros of horror is good buy.I might consider LIBRIS MORTIS for a wider selection of undead.Also has the half-vampire template which yeilds a character similar to marvels Blade.
warlock_devilkill 05-17-07, 12:37 PM	Lbris mortis okay
warlock_devilkill 05-18-07, 11:47 AM	Anyone else got anything?
taradusis 05-18-07, 01:44 PM	Well I was toying with the idea of FrankenFiend.A wizard loses his wife and goes mad.He begins trapping female devils and demons and cutting them into peices.He then reassembled the peices into a flesh golem.The flesh golem is so wanton in her behaviour that the wizard drives her away.Use a flesh golem with the fiendish template?You could also have a celestial golem called angeleyes made from chopped up solars and devas?RANDOM THOUGHTS.
queenfange 05-19-07, 06:42 AM	Your emphasis on undead sounds somewhat like the campaign setting I'm building (creatively titled "Gothvania" :P ). I have stuff on races, classes, cleric domains, culture, and sample NPCs if you want to use any of it. Anyway, I guess you should look into Heroes of Horror and Libris Mortis, though I never really read them. I use a class called "slayer" in mine, which is a sort of combination between fighter and ranger and doesn't use magic; you may want to consider something similar in a minimal magic campaign. Just keep in mind that low magic means it's harder to access healing, fight monsters with magic, etc. You may want to adjust experience accordingly. Alchemy items will likely take on a much greater importance, if they are cheaper and more readily available than magic items.
Jürgen Hubert 05-19-07, 08:52 AM	How do the zombies spread? Created by spells, necromantic energies, or something else? If they are of the "infectious movie zombie" variety, you must get World War Z (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_Z). It's set on Earth in the near future, but it does tell of a world overrun by zombies, from the first outbreaks to the point when they have overrun all the continents (and the quite horrific tactics humans use to survive) to the point where humanity is finally able to fight back and cleanse most of the world. You could easily run such a scenario in a fantasy world. The PCs can be among those who encounter the first outbreaks, and thanks to their abilities survive to reach supposedly safer areas - only to encounter more and bigger outbreaks. If magical cures for the zombie infection are rare, such zombies could easily overrun the world - all it requires is that zombies appear faster than clerics can cure them. It will take some time until the surviving nations learn the strategy neccessary to survive and beat back the onslaught, and until then they will have to deal with anarchy and starvation... Nomadic tribal societies will probably be best suited to survive, especially if they live in plains terrain where they can see zombies coming from a long way off. Civilized nations will have the best chance if they have large-scale barriers that can keep the zombies away.
warlock_devilkill 05-23-07, 11:15 AM	Queen i like your imput skoot me a message & i'll give you my e-mail so we can share info. Jurgen as for your question the vamps took over first then by controlling the feed of magic weakened the world so zombieism could spread sorta like malaria with some immune to it and there for just carriers.
molten_dragon 05-23-07, 11:39 AM	sounds interesting, although you'll probably have to change some things to balance the classes. As it stands, in a campaign where you're fighting mostly undead, paladins and clerics will have a huge advantage. Rogues will be almost useless in a fight. Some other things to think about: - Will there be any effect on Druids, since so much of the natural world is overrun by undead? - Will the characters be able to find safe places to rest and resupply? - Many undead require the use of magic to beat effectively, if you're running low magic, they will be more powerful. - If the setting is such low magic, what created all the undead - Will having such a large area bathed in negative energy have any effect on magic (healing less effective, necromancy spells more effective, etc.)
warlock_devilkill 05-26-07, 11:24 AM	see thats what i was asking how could i modify the classes to make them all effective & balanced. zombies in my world are more romero zombies & less dnd zombies. so noone knows or remebers how zombies came around and they've been around for ??? (depends on what races i use)
queenfange 05-26-07, 04:20 PM	One option I'd consider is making Turn Undead a skill. Then all classes can use it, though clerics and paladins still have an edge (since it'd be a class skill for them).
taradusis 05-26-07, 09:08 PM	Now this is where i'm forced to disagree with the queenfange.Each character class has it's signature abilities and if they get spread out then it obviates the need for a party of specialists.If you have a party rogue and make a magic item that acts like a Knock spell it reduces the need for a rogue.If you give every body Turn Undead as a skill instead of having it be the result of channeled positive energy it lessens the special-ness of the divine classes.It also effects some of the feat trees as well.It's your game but it still is something I'd reccomend against,I'd make them all multiclass as clerics or paladins before I made Turn Undead a skill.
queenfange 05-26-07, 09:48 PM	I stand by what I said. It does depend on the flavor of the game you are looking for, that I freely admit, and it may not be a good option for some DMs. However, multiclassing is not useful if you start out with first level players. Clerics still regain some special abilities, such as spontaneous cure or inflict spells. Other classes, such as fighter, can be molded in so many different ways there isn't a certain "special-ness" to each. So, while I respect taradusis's point of view, I don't think the idea should necessarily be discarded. Other options that you could consider instead would be, for example, lowering clerics' base attack bonus. They still have a special skill that is useful against most of the world's inhabitants, but they are now not overpowered because of it, and regain their own unique flavor.