1001 Psychological Warfare Methods [Archive] - Wizards Community

1001 Psychological Warfare Methods [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Nerdynick
04-26-08, 09:13 PM Having just finished the Icewind Dale trilogy, I got to thinking about some of the tactics that Drizzt and his companions use. One thing I noticed was that Drizzt often used his Drow heritage to inspire fear in foes. I'm going to be playing a Drow assassin in an upcoming campaign and I was thinking of ways I could play with my victims before killing them. Besides, psychological warfare can often turn up some humorous results.

1. Use illusion magic to cause the enemy's hands turn into butterflies

2. Throw a Darkness spell onto a person afraid of the dark.

3. Wear a big dark red scale around your neck and say that it's a demon's scale

4. Feign killing your party members to prove your mercilessness

yeah, I know I'm pretty bad at this, so I turn to the boards
CaptainPicard
04-26-08, 09:21 PM A favourite of my players is to yell something totally incoherent at the villain to throw them off-guard.

*PCs enter room with villain*

PC: "Hey you! We were supposed to kill the guy!"
Villain: "I am- Wait, what?"
PC: "You said you'd pay us to kill that guy with the statues and 500 arrows. Where is my ****ing money?!"
Villain: "... What?! Who even are you?!"

And then they get a surprise round.
Nerdynick
04-26-08, 10:15 PM Thats a good one I'll need to try that one out sometime. I need to go to bed, but i'll try to post some tomorrow. =D
lunoc
04-26-08, 11:00 PM anything from the shivering isles (ill give examples if youve never played)
pigknight
04-26-08, 11:07 PM 7. See Lovecraft's work
Escef
04-27-08, 03:47 PM "Stay back, heroes! I wave a scroll of Disjunction and I'm not afraid to use it!"
Thracos
04-27-08, 06:52 PM Permanent magic mouth on the besieged cities front gates singing "this is the song that never ends...." Sooner or later they'll burn down their own gates just to shut it up.
Zombie_Babies
04-28-08, 10:04 AM Research Vladislav Dracula. He was a genious with this sort of thing. It's on a broader scale, of course, but you may become inspired. His heavy handed and often disturbing methods saved his people from the Ottoman invasion and he is still regarded as a national hero in Romania. Good stuff.
Daeva
04-28-08, 03:46 PM your number 1 doesn't work, read all about illusions if you care to know why in the rules section.
Mock26
04-28-08, 04:03 PM I used this in a second edition game. My low-level group was fleeing out of a town where our chaotic thief did something that he shouldn't have been doing. The only way for us to get out of the town was to through the sewers. So, we're running through the sewers and we can hear the sound of pursuit. We get to one "exit" in the sewers and it is covered by a locked gate, with the lock on the outside. We knew it would take a few minutes for the thief to get the lock opened and we thought the pursuit was getting closer. So, my character, a mage, headed back up the tunnel to the turn just before the first intersection (from the direction we were heading). I pulled a skull out of my pack. (I had previously attached two small pointing animal horns on top of the skull). I cast magic mouth on it and ordered it so that it would start moaning when it saw anyone. One of the fighters, who was tagging along for protection, had a metal camp tripod for cooking. He set it up, I cast invisibility on it and placed the skull on top of it. We then doused it with several vials of greek fire. When we heard the pursuit approaching the intersection we set the skull on fire and high tailed it out of there. The light did draw the pursuers in our direction, but when they turned the corner and saw a hovering, flaming, and moaning skull they failed their morale check and fled the horror before them. When we got back to the rest of the group the thief was just finishing up with picking the lock and we got out of there.
nytemare3701
04-28-08, 04:29 PM Man I wish that would happen in one of my games...My DM always says "If it's not in the rules, IT DOESN'T HAPPEN"
zacnn
04-28-08, 04:50 PM that one is good Mock26. how about putting a organic contaioner of blood in your vest or something then when you see a foe stab your self there. Blood should gush out and screw with thier minds.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Nerdynick 04-26-08, 09:13 PM	Having just finished the Icewind Dale trilogy, I got to thinking about some of the tactics that Drizzt and his companions use. One thing I noticed was that Drizzt often used his Drow heritage to inspire fear in foes. I'm going to be playing a Drow assassin in an upcoming campaign and I was thinking of ways I could play with my victims before killing them. Besides, psychological warfare can often turn up some humorous results. 1. Use illusion magic to cause the enemy's hands turn into butterflies 2. Throw a Darkness spell onto a person afraid of the dark. 3. Wear a big dark red scale around your neck and say that it's a demon's scale 4. Feign killing your party members to prove your mercilessness yeah, I know I'm pretty bad at this, so I turn to the boards
CaptainPicard 04-26-08, 09:21 PM	A favourite of my players is to yell something totally incoherent at the villain to throw them off-guard. PCs enter room with villain PC: "Hey you! We were supposed to kill the guy!" Villain: "I am- Wait, what?" PC: "You said you'd pay us to kill that guy with the statues and 500 arrows. Where is my ****ing money?!" Villain: "... What?! Who even are you?!" And then they get a surprise round.
Nerdynick 04-26-08, 10:15 PM	Thats a good one I'll need to try that one out sometime. I need to go to bed, but i'll try to post some tomorrow. =D
lunoc 04-26-08, 11:00 PM	anything from the shivering isles (ill give examples if youve never played)
pigknight 04-26-08, 11:07 PM	7. See Lovecraft's work
Escef 04-27-08, 03:47 PM	"Stay back, heroes! I wave a scroll of Disjunction and I'm not afraid to use it!"
Thracos 04-27-08, 06:52 PM	Permanent magic mouth on the besieged cities front gates singing "this is the song that never ends...." Sooner or later they'll burn down their own gates just to shut it up.
Zombie_Babies 04-28-08, 10:04 AM	Research Vladislav Dracula. He was a genious with this sort of thing. It's on a broader scale, of course, but you may become inspired. His heavy handed and often disturbing methods saved his people from the Ottoman invasion and he is still regarded as a national hero in Romania. Good stuff.
Daeva 04-28-08, 03:46 PM	your number 1 doesn't work, read all about illusions if you care to know why in the rules section.
Mock26 04-28-08, 04:03 PM	I used this in a second edition game. My low-level group was fleeing out of a town where our chaotic thief did something that he shouldn't have been doing. The only way for us to get out of the town was to through the sewers. So, we're running through the sewers and we can hear the sound of pursuit. We get to one "exit" in the sewers and it is covered by a locked gate, with the lock on the outside. We knew it would take a few minutes for the thief to get the lock opened and we thought the pursuit was getting closer. So, my character, a mage, headed back up the tunnel to the turn just before the first intersection (from the direction we were heading). I pulled a skull out of my pack. (I had previously attached two small pointing animal horns on top of the skull). I cast magic mouth on it and ordered it so that it would start moaning when it saw anyone. One of the fighters, who was tagging along for protection, had a metal camp tripod for cooking. He set it up, I cast invisibility on it and placed the skull on top of it. We then doused it with several vials of greek fire. When we heard the pursuit approaching the intersection we set the skull on fire and high tailed it out of there. The light did draw the pursuers in our direction, but when they turned the corner and saw a hovering, flaming, and moaning skull they failed their morale check and fled the horror before them. When we got back to the rest of the group the thief was just finishing up with picking the lock and we got out of there.
nytemare3701 04-28-08, 04:29 PM	Man I wish that would happen in one of my games...My DM always says "If it's not in the rules, IT DOESN'T HAPPEN"
zacnn 04-28-08, 04:50 PM	that one is good Mock26. how about putting a organic contaioner of blood in your vest or something then when you see a foe stab your self there. Blood should gush out and screw with thier minds.