Post/Author/DateTime	Post
boozerker 06-15-06, 02:14 AM	What would be a good set up for a haunted house that reflects the supernatural side effects found in stories and/or movies? Side effects such as hallucinations and temporary possession, and even twisted occurences such as rooms locking and filling with liquid, or being grasped by a hand and pulled forcefully into murky water (ala The Grudge), or perhaps even a haunted carriage (ala Christine). Do the rules cover this, and are the proper monsters/templates available? Also, are there ghosts that influence or twist the landscape so that danger lurks anywhere?
Bruunwald 06-15-06, 12:50 PM	What would be a good set up for a haunted house that reflects the supernatural side effects found in stories and/or movies? Side effects such as hallucinations and temporary possession, and even twisted occurences such as rooms locking and filling with liquid, or being grasped by a hand and pulled forcefully into murky water (ala The Grudge), or perhaps even a haunted carriage (ala Christine). Do the rules cover this, and are the proper monsters/templates available? Also, are there ghosts that influence or twist the landscape so that danger lurks anywhere? The Monster Manual ghost can possess a character. A ghost retains most abilities from his former life, so a deceased spellcaster could pull or push someone into your murky water using the telekinesis spell. He could animate a carriage using animate object, or you could just create a carriage as a permanent construct. The ghost could duplicate any of the supernatural effects you've mentioned through spells learned in his former life. Adding effects to areas is easy, too. Spells can be made permanent, so the DC for an affected area would be determined by the spellcaster. If you want something like a haunted room, where the haunting is a byproduct of some event, try to find a spell that most resembles the effect and just consider it permanent. (You might also want to treat it as a supernatural effect.) If you can't find an appropriate spell, you can simply create the effect. As an example, let's say Dirk murdered Dave in the study, many years ago, and now the study is haunted by the "memory" of the event. Dave was found in the chair in the corner (which was subsequently cleaned up and is still in use). As a relatively harmless effect, you could write a rule that anybody who comes within ten feet of the chair automatically feels uneasy, and anybody who sits in the chair must make a Will save (DC = 10 plus Dave's Charisma modifier at the time of his death) or be wracked with pain and experience a vision of the murder. (Again, this effect would be treated as supernatural.) If you want to add damage to the effect (Wisdom damage might be appropriate), then you'd probably want to find a spell or supernatural effect that was equivalent to the party's level and adapt that level of damage and an appropriate save DC to your effect. Basically, there's no substitute for being a good study of the rules, when you want to trick out a haunted house. The fun thing is, the next time a PC is in the room, and already afraid of the chair, your wizard ghost, or whatever, can animate the chair and send it after him.
boozerker 06-15-06, 06:21 PM	A ghost retains most abilities from his former life, so a deceased spellcaster could pull or push someone into your murky water using the telekinesis spell. He could animate a carriage using animate object, or you could just create a carriage as a permanent construct. The ghost could duplicate any of the supernatural effects you've mentioned through spells learned in his former life. The spirit from The Grudge isn't a spellcaster, it just became that strong through a violent life and death. Probably my two biggest goals are to recreate a mix of The Grudge and Amityville Horror Adding effects to areas is easy, too. Spells can be made permanent, so the DC for an affected area would be determined by the spellcaster. If you want something like a haunted room, where the haunting is a byproduct of some event, try to find a spell that most resembles the effect and just consider it permanent. (You might also want to treat it as a supernatural effect.) If you can't find an appropriate spell, you can simply create the effect. Nice ideas. Would these add to the CR of the ghost?
CryoSilver 06-15-06, 06:23 PM	Also seeing haunting presences in Heroes of Horror.
Altar_Boy 06-15-06, 07:44 PM	DMG II has a random encounter table for haunted houses. Anything from animated objects to ghosts to "freaky happenings" (no enemies, just freaky things")
Bruunwald 06-15-06, 07:48 PM	The spirit from The Grudge isn't a spellcaster, it just became that strong through a violent life and death. Probably my two biggest goals are to recreate a mix of The Grudge and Amityville Horror Nice ideas. Would these add to the CR of the ghost? Ghost is a template, so the CR is added to the original CR of the humanoid sort of like how an LA is. Spells cast or set in place by the ghost do not have their own CR. But you would want to assign a CR to anything laid as a trap which could be overcome by the PCs. Creatures like that in the grudge have some partial counterparts in the D&D universe. A wraith, for instance, is black, incorporeal, drains people of their life force, etc. A bodak is evil-looking like something from House On Haunted Hill, and can kill with a glance. But you wanted a means to have that sort of thing and also have an environment that is manipulated on many levels. The first thing I thought of to accomplish all the effects you mentioned, was a ghost, since it's one of the few undead that retain past-life abilities, and spellcasting would explain some of those things without having to make something from scratch. However, if you want something really customized, that can get everywhere, cause visions, alter reality, inhabit inanimate objects as well as people, etc., but does not have class levels, you're probably going to have to create a creature yourself. And it's going to be pretty powerful. Personally, I am a creature freak: I love making them. I spend far more of my time with the back of the MM, creating things, than I do with the actual listed entries. But before you go making something really powerful, you might want to experiment with advancing and creating some lower-level creatures. Test them with dummy PCs for awhile until you get the hang of it. Nothing is worse for a player than finding out that his beloved character was wiped out in two rounds because the DM was going nuts with his creature concepts, but didn't know how to balance them correctly. CryoSilver mentioned Heroes of Horror. I have not picked that up yet. If you're at all worried about my advice, that probably is a good book to check out. I'm sure they've thought of plenty of things I haven't.
boozerker 06-15-06, 08:32 PM	My thanks, Bruunwald. Now it's clearer what's needed: a template for a ghost that has suffered in a precise manner, perhaps its powers are granted by a divine entity of an appropriate nature. Now it wouldn't need to be overly powerful, remember that the characters in The Grudge or House On Haunted Hill aren't exactly high level either. Also, the ghost only has power against those that enter its lair, and once away from the house, that effect could be ended with a remove curse or similar effect. So you're a monster creating fanatic? What say helping create this one, then? All I need is a quick draft and an approximate CR (and why). The ghost's powers are probably limited, it more resembles an improved Hallucinatory Terrain (Phantasmal Terrain?), and the hunting of characters who leave the house would resemble the curse of an ancient tomb and its avenging guardian. Any of its powers could be a spell duplicate at will, and treated as supernatural. See what you can do as a short draft, I'll finish up :)
Bruunwald 06-16-06, 01:28 PM	My thanks, Bruunwald. Now it's clearer what's needed: a template for a ghost that has suffered in a precise manner, perhaps its powers are granted by a divine entity of an appropriate nature. Now it wouldn't need to be overly powerful, remember that the characters in The Grudge or House On Haunted Hill aren't exactly high level either. Also, the ghost only has power against those that enter its lair, and once away from the house, that effect could be ended with a remove curse or similar effect. So you're a monster creating fanatic? What say helping create this one, then? All I need is a quick draft and an approximate CR (and why). The ghost's powers are probably limited, it more resembles an improved Hallucinatory Terrain (Phantasmal Terrain?), and the hunting of characters who leave the house would resemble the curse of an ancient tomb and its avenging guardian. Any of its powers could be a spell duplicate at will, and treated as supernatural. See what you can do as a short draft, I'll finish up :) Well, you kind of caught me on a busy weekend. We have a rather huge event going on here at work, and my little boy's birthday is tomorrow. If you can wait until Sunday night I can probably come up with something, but I'm simply not going to be near my books until then. Do you have a target CR? What level are your PCs?
Erik Mona 06-16-06, 04:35 PM	Dragon #336 (available online from paizo.com) has a great 10-page article on this very topic, and the author--Dungeon Managing Editor James Jacobs--wrote it because he was trying to emulate hauntings from ghost movies, with "The Grudge" cited as a specific example. It was one of the most popular articles in that popular issue, and I think you'd find it worth a look. --Erik Mona Editor-in-Chief Dragon & Dungeon
boozerker 06-17-06, 07:31 AM	Do you have a target CR? What level are your PCs? Oh, about 5th to 7th level PCs, but any level really, there's always future campaigns. Thanks anyway, it looks like we could have a good source: Dragon #336 (available online from paizo.com) has a great 10-page article on this very topic, and the author--Dungeon Managing Editor James Jacobs--wrote it because he was trying to emulate hauntings from ghost movies, with "The Grudge" cited as a specific example. It was one of the most popular articles in that popular issue, and I think you'd find it worth a look. Wow, great timing then. I'll definitely check it out, thanks.
Bruunwald 06-19-06, 12:25 AM	That's fine. Here it is Sunday night and I still only have the vaguest outline. Some good ideas, but nothing really worked out. Sorry to be flaky, but it was just such a busy weekend. I'll draw something up during the week and post it anyway, and maybe somebody can get some use out of it.
boozerker 06-22-06, 01:03 PM	I'll draw something up during the week and post it anyway, and maybe somebody can get some use out of it. Awesome :)