Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Nived 03-26-06, 04:48 PM	I was on a hike through the woods and I ended up in a place that struck me as the ideal scene for an encounter in a game. I started thinking about how to run it and realized that I didn't have all the answers on this scenario. I have a good idea but I want to bounce it off the boards before I run this against my players. Now the place I was hiking in was a forested river canyon with some bluffs and I came across a grove of honey locus. Honey locus is a thorn tree. Its a tree with whicked looking thorns and barbs that burst out of irregular places on its trunk. I was looking at these and thinking that it would really really hurt to be slammed into one of those trees... and that's where this idea came from. So looking around to the bluffs I thought about what kind of creature I'd place in a setting like that. Troll is what first popped into mind. So I imagine an encounter like this happening. The party is moving through the forrest and comes through the grove, nothing seems amiss at first, the trees are a local variety though the denseness of this bunch is a little odd. A DC 18 (maybe) spot check will be allowed to see blood coating one of the thorn tree trunks. If this check is made they may make search checks or survival checks to look around. If they make their checks they'll find more evidence of blood against the trees and on the ground and scuffled tracks that seem to indicate a battle. If they make those checks they'll be on edge enough not to be surprised... if they miss all that they'll be allowed one last listen check... but anyway. A troll is hiding up on one of the bluffs at such an angle that it cannot be scene. When it acts it'll jump off the bluff grab a tree limb to break its fall and charge into action. Now here's where I come up against my quandry. How to mechanically run this battle. I want the troll to barrel in and start slamming people into trees for damage. But it occurs to me that the Trolls two claw and rend attacks are grievous and I need a reason that it would slam people into these thorn trees rather than just rending them. Poison thorns was one option... but I don't like that idea. Instead I was thinking this... but I'm not sure if this is the best way to handle it. The troll would bullrush (and for the purposes of this troll that makes this grove his home he'll have Improved Bullrush) characters trying force them into the trees. If he succeeds he barrels them into the thorn tree. The thorns deal 1d6 points of damage plus Str mod of the creature bullrushing the victim into the tree. Now to make this action worth it for the troll when a character tries to move off of the thorn tree they run the risk of the thorns breaking off in their skin. I'm not sure whether a Save should be used to avoid that, or maybe a check like Escape Artist. Failure to make the roll though would cause 1d3 points of dex damage each time a character is slammed against the thorns as they are broken off and embedded in the flesh. This would reduce ACs and give the troll reason to hunt in this way so that he can then claw-claw-rend. Now I'm not married to it being a troll, its just what my gut went with. Moreso I'm looking to the mechanics of battle. Would I be going about this the right way? Would it be a balanced fight (I care less about 'fair' but would it be balanced)?
KnaveofClubs 03-26-06, 11:51 PM	Ok, thorns would do less than suspected. Each thorn should do about 1 damage and the characters would get stuck by about 1-4 thorns if pushed against the tree. A reflex save DC 12 would be needed to avoid having the thorn under the skin. This would hinder movement (-2 to dex checks) and interfer with spellcasting (concentration check of DC 10+spell level+ # of thorns). A troll might have use of this by grappling a character and throwing him out of combat into a tree, maybe actually into the limbs. The troll can then continue ripping the apart the rest of the party. A more useful approach is a druid using the plants to thier advantage, a minotaur who would have an excuse to ram people into trees, or assassin vines which pull victims in to a painful death.