Body Snatchers!!! [Archive] - Wizards Community

Body Snatchers!!! [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Strauss
03-20-04, 07:54 PM The party I DM for are a bunch of dragon slaying, body butchering, craft wonderous item maniacs!!! Every time they kill something they stop to "acquire" materials for the magical item creation costs that they are constantly calculating in their quest for ultimate power!!! So I have created this formula: CR x HD x 10-100(based on number of special attacks, defenses or abilities x 10). So, a dragon with CR 7 and 12 HD with a 100 multiplier for it's special properties will produce 8400 in dragon materials for item creation cost's. If the dragon had taken 200 damage of it's 150 hit points you would take 8400 and devide it by 200 and then multiply it by 150(8400 devided by 200 = 42 then 42 x 150 = 6300). Now the DC for collecting these materials will be set by it's special properties devided by 2 plus it's CR plus 20. So, the above dragon's DC would be 5+7+20=32. The collection would be based on the knowledge arcana skill and others could aid in the task if they had skills in knowledge arcana, leather working, butcher, alchemy, etc... The other characters would add +2 to the one characters roll for everyone of them who beat half the DC set for collecting of the body(16 in this case). It takes 1 day/1000 in materials collected. Failed DC check means 2d4+2x10% loss of materials collected. What changes or suggestion you can think of would be appreicated.
CeresOfTerra
03-20-04, 11:55 PM That's a pretty freaking complex formula you've got there. Perhaps you could just say that components are factored in to the gold recieved from treasure?

Perhaps you could just tell them to cool it with the vulturing unless it's needed for plot or a specific item, say Dragonhide Armor?

It's not a bad formula, just complex.
Drake Dragonslayer
03-21-04, 04:41 AM ARGH reminds me of maths lessons.:twitch:

Still, why don't you just ask them to lay off the crazed collecting.
MageofMyth
03-21-04, 09:07 AM You could make the items useless. For example they want to make a item that requires a dragon’s heart, well that heart must be harvested in the dark with a silver sickle to work on that item. Make them research the item and then go find the components for it. In second edition items needed strange things harvested in strange ways, like a hair from an elderly dwarf, pulled out by a chaste Elvin girl, between the ages of 100 and 102, and the hair had to be pulled during the full moon, in the desert.
MinusInnocence
03-21-04, 09:22 AM Yeah that system is pretty insane. I like the idea but what exactly would be the end result? Can these 8,000GP worth of dragon bodyparts be harvested to create an equivalent amount of Power Component XP? Or do you have some way of watering down that number (because very few items have a boatload of required XP, by default the Crafting feats reduce the number by 1/25 in some cases)? I would rule that whatever the end number is, it's worth 1/10 in Power Component XP.

Also, while at first I dismissed the idea that this amount should be considered part of the treasure... I've changed my mind. This is a highly lucrative business and maybe it should be part of their loot, of course this causes problems of inconsistency.

Basically, only intelligent humanoids would ever have magical items; unless they were harvestable, too, which means that practically nothing has real treasure anymore. Thus, no one must be making this treasure, which has a two-fold problem: 1) The group can't even go out and buy the items they need with whatever loot they end up with, and 2) Why are THEY bothering to create the Items? Should they be allowed to; will that suspend disbelief too radically?

What's good for the goose is good for the gander, after all. If no one else in the campaign creates magical items because it wouldn't be cost effective (which is the only plausible explanation for why the current treasure system doesn't allow for magical items to be found along with harvestable organs), then Item Creation feats probably don't even exist.

So, we have two options. We can either recreate the entire treasure accumulation system, with the understanding that harvested bodyparts from creatures counts as part of their treasure (which also means that if you intend to roll out treasure beforehand, you have to dumb down that crazy system you just devised so it can be factored in a few simple steps). Or, we can just ask the PCs to knock it off.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Strauss 03-20-04, 07:54 PM	The party I DM for are a bunch of dragon slaying, body butchering, craft wonderous item maniacs!!! Every time they kill something they stop to "acquire" materials for the magical item creation costs that they are constantly calculating in their quest for ultimate power!!! So I have created this formula: CR x HD x 10-100(based on number of special attacks, defenses or abilities x 10). So, a dragon with CR 7 and 12 HD with a 100 multiplier for it's special properties will produce 8400 in dragon materials for item creation cost's. If the dragon had taken 200 damage of it's 150 hit points you would take 8400 and devide it by 200 and then multiply it by 150(8400 devided by 200 = 42 then 42 x 150 = 6300). Now the DC for collecting these materials will be set by it's special properties devided by 2 plus it's CR plus 20. So, the above dragon's DC would be 5+7+20=32. The collection would be based on the knowledge arcana skill and others could aid in the task if they had skills in knowledge arcana, leather working, butcher, alchemy, etc... The other characters would add +2 to the one characters roll for everyone of them who beat half the DC set for collecting of the body(16 in this case). It takes 1 day/1000 in materials collected. Failed DC check means 2d4+2x10% loss of materials collected. What changes or suggestion you can think of would be appreicated.
CeresOfTerra 03-20-04, 11:55 PM	That's a pretty freaking complex formula you've got there. Perhaps you could just say that components are factored in to the gold recieved from treasure? Perhaps you could just tell them to cool it with the vulturing unless it's needed for plot or a specific item, say Dragonhide Armor? It's not a bad formula, just complex.
Drake Dragonslayer 03-21-04, 04:41 AM	ARGH reminds me of maths lessons.:twitch: Still, why don't you just ask them to lay off the crazed collecting.
MageofMyth 03-21-04, 09:07 AM	You could make the items useless. For example they want to make a item that requires a dragon’s heart, well that heart must be harvested in the dark with a silver sickle to work on that item. Make them research the item and then go find the components for it. In second edition items needed strange things harvested in strange ways, like a hair from an elderly dwarf, pulled out by a chaste Elvin girl, between the ages of 100 and 102, and the hair had to be pulled during the full moon, in the desert.
MinusInnocence 03-21-04, 09:22 AM	Yeah that system is pretty insane. I like the idea but what exactly would be the end result? Can these 8,000GP worth of dragon bodyparts be harvested to create an equivalent amount of Power Component XP? Or do you have some way of watering down that number (because very few items have a boatload of required XP, by default the Crafting feats reduce the number by 1/25 in some cases)? I would rule that whatever the end number is, it's worth 1/10 in Power Component XP. Also, while at first I dismissed the idea that this amount should be considered part of the treasure... I've changed my mind. This is a highly lucrative business and maybe it should be part of their loot, of course this causes problems of inconsistency. Basically, only intelligent humanoids would ever have magical items; unless they were harvestable, too, which means that practically nothing has real treasure anymore. Thus, no one must be making this treasure, which has a two-fold problem: 1) The group can't even go out and buy the items they need with whatever loot they end up with, and 2) Why are THEY bothering to create the Items? Should they be allowed to; will that suspend disbelief too radically? What's good for the goose is good for the gander, after all. If no one else in the campaign creates magical items because it wouldn't be cost effective (which is the only plausible explanation for why the current treasure system doesn't allow for magical items to be found along with harvestable organs), then Item Creation feats probably don't even exist. So, we have two options. We can either recreate the entire treasure accumulation system, with the understanding that harvested bodyparts from creatures counts as part of their treasure (which also means that if you intend to roll out treasure beforehand, you have to dumb down that crazy system you just devised so it can be factored in a few simple steps). Or, we can just ask the PCs to knock it off.