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Frog Dragon
2009-01-10, 11:24 AM
I have a problem. One of my players told he can't show up in tomorrows game so I'm having his character kidnapped at the start of the next session. But the place where he would logically be held is in a place they can't reach very soon given the amount of time it takes to get somewhere in a game. How I could explain is that he fled, but that requires flying because the place is riddled with pressure plate traps. The character is a level 2 cleric and I need a way for him to fly without totally destroying WBL for a party of four lvl 2-4 levels. They will most undoubtedly level up in the dungeon and the place is big on loot for realism and to make up for the nonexistent amount of loot they have had becasue they've been fighting goblins in a city and a cave. the next thing on their way will be a wizard's tower and that's where the cleric would be taken so I need a way for him to fly or hover for a few minutes without breaking WBL totally. He has no UMD ranks. If he had i'd just have him show up with a scroll of fly or somesuch.

So basically I need a temporarily flying cleric without breaking WBL too much.

Eldariel
2009-01-10, 11:29 AM
Scroll of Air Walk?

Dublock
2009-01-10, 12:00 PM
if he is the one being kidnapped, why is he trying to go to the kidnapper's place?

Make the captor take him there.

Kurald Galain
2009-01-10, 12:05 PM
Make him a gnome, with a flying machine that breaks down after the first usage.

Flickerdart
2009-01-10, 12:07 PM
Spider Climb, level 2 Sorc/Wiz/Druid spell would let him climb on the ceiling, negating the pressure traps. But it isn't a Cleric spell.

Frog Dragon
2009-01-10, 12:21 PM
if he is the one being kidnapped, why is he trying to go to the kidnapper's place?

Make the captor take him there.
Um you misunderstood. The captor is going to pop in the cave with teleport. Hold Person on the cleric. The captor is a level 8 sorcerer who's most likely going to succeed against a will save of +6. Now the player is unlikely to be unavailable for the next time after this session so I need the character back quick so he doesn't get excluded.
He has been kidnapped by a Teleport, Hold person, Teleport trick and now I need a way for said Elf cleric player character to get down the tower without stepping on pressure plates. I found stuff like winged boots, but that's a tad too big and might break WBL. He has been kidnapped and now I need a way for him to get back to the party so he doesn't get left out on the next session, but yeah Air Walk would do the trick nicely and scrolls aren't a WBL problem. Thanks.

Llama231
2009-01-10, 12:40 PM
Is the cleric a dwarf?


If so, you could throw it...

Frog Dragon
2009-01-10, 12:44 PM
I just said elf. Well hold person is an enchantment so he gets a +2 to save, but it just so happens that the Captor has high cha in addition to a cloak of Cha +2 totalling to a Save DC of 20 for third level spells. He can fend off the party because he has two (Fax's) monk levels. Yea he seems like quite the overpowering enemy, but they aren't supposed to fight him properly yet and anyway my campaing is high on challenge and I have told my players that the game will require inventiveness and out-of-the-box strategies and they're ok with this approach.

RandomLunatic
2009-01-10, 12:49 PM
Purloined Potion of Fly. 'Nuff said.

Curmudgeon
2009-01-10, 01:05 PM
If you want this to be special to a Cleric, give them the Travel domain and a divine scroll of Fly. One use should cover what you need.

Seonor
2009-01-10, 01:37 PM
Perhaps he is not the only captive? He meets someone in the tower/prison/dungeon with the appropriate spell or skill (Spider Climb would work, as Flickerdart said). They ecape together, than meet with the rest of the party. The other person could be an interesting plot oppertunity, maybe a spy of an enemy of the wizard, a old rival or he could be even planted in the party to betray them at a later date.

Frog Dragon
2009-01-10, 02:16 PM
If you want this to be special to a Cleric, give them the Travel domain and a divine scroll of Fly. One use should cover what you need.
The character is done already and he is a cleric of an elven war god with the domains of War and Protection so Travel domain is not an option

And yeah I might consider the another escapee thing, but it doesn't really fit my current scetch of things because the Sorcerer kidnaps him mostly to find out why are they there. He questions him with a zone of truth or somesuch. Hmm though the tower's current occupier is not the true owner. The Spelltower (an arcanist's guild this sorcerer is from) took the original owner by force and sent the sorcerer to observe the situation. The Spelltower also forced the goblins to attack and they removed the power the town could have used to save itself. The other captive could be the servant of the old owner.

Douglas
2009-01-10, 02:49 PM
He has been kidnapped by a Teleport, Hold person, Teleport trick
By RAW that doesn't work. Teleport can only bring along willing travelers. The kidnapper would have to knock him unconscious first to get around that, merely paralyzing him is not sufficient.


and now I need a way for said Elf cleric player character to get down the tower without stepping on pressure plates. I found stuff like winged boots, but that's a tad too big and might break WBL. He has been kidnapped and now I need a way for him to get back to the party so he doesn't get left out on the next session, but yeah Air Walk would do the trick nicely and scrolls aren't a WBL problem. Thanks.
Fly is also low enough level to have a potion do it if you prefer and has no chance of failure, unlike a caster using a scroll above his caster level. Shorter duration, but that can be dealt with by a combination of designing the escape route to be short and giving him multiple potions.

Llama231
2009-01-10, 03:00 PM
How about bayful polymorf being used on him?
Or some other type of transformation?

Keld Denar
2009-01-10, 03:02 PM
Teleport is willing only, but Plane Shift can force a save to come along with. Likely if the sorc can hit with a Hold Person, he can hit with a Plane Shift.

That, or you just exercise DM fiat, cast a spell the PCs can't ID, and poof, gone. The PCs shouldn't probe too deep unless they are really on their toes, and if anyone can actually make the spellcraft check, just say it was an independantly researched spell. It IS in the rules to do such a thing. Base it on the cleric spell Word of Recall, in that its tied to the sorc's sanctum, but allows him to bring along willing or unwilling targets touched.

As far as getting of the tower, a Potion of Fly would be your best bet. Even if the player pulls some shananananananananagens and gets out without consuming the potion, its still only 300g, and stuff PCs sell usually only garners 50%, thus he'd only be up 150g, hardly game breaking. And thats only IF he gets out without drinking it. Chances are he'll probably drink it though, so it won't be a problem.

Frog Dragon
2009-01-10, 06:18 PM
Umm I just want to find a cool justification for him to escape. He will not be playing the character at the moment and this is just a complication to get him out of the picture for a second. And yeah unconscious is going to work. The character has Nervestrike (Fax's monk) so he can knock him out. (gods I suck explaining things)

In a nutshell
Player cannot attend next session --> I have his char get kidnapped --> The place where he would go is long enough so the PC:s can't get there this session --> I wan't a way to get him back to the PC:s so the character is available when the player can attend.

There is it clear now?

Oh and I'm DM:ing for a bunch of newbies who don't know the mechanics, but I have a serious dislike for Fiating. They won't know mechanically what to do, but I try to make sure they have knowledge of what their characters can do even if they don't know it mechanically. I'm actually the only on ewho has rulebooks, but it works out quite nicely.

monty
2009-01-10, 08:59 PM
Flying Cleric

I think I just found a name for my new band.

Berserk Monk
2009-01-10, 09:12 PM
Couldn't YOU just take over the person's character while they're gone. It would avoid the whole "player x went off and did this thing for a while and now he has to return in time for the next session." I mean, that's probably the best solution. That way, the party isn't short anyone, and they can still earn EXP.

Rei_Jin
2009-01-10, 09:40 PM
You could say that he casts Summon Monster 1, and his deity hears his request for aid and sends a Hound Archon instead of the normal pleb, who casts Teleport without Error on your cleric.

Problem solved, and it gives him some RPing to work on with his deity.

Keld Denar
2009-01-10, 11:00 PM
You could say that he casts Summon Monster 1, and his deity hears his request for aid and sends a Hound Archon instead of the normal pleb, who casts Teleport without Error on your cleric.

Problem solved, and it gives him some RPing to work on with his deity.

Sorry to nitpick, but Archon's Greater Teleport ability, like almost all outsiders with Greater Teleport, is limited to self + 50 lbs. Unless the cleric is a gnome or halfling with a tight belt line, this probably won't work...

Thurbane
2009-01-10, 11:03 PM
I think I just found a name for my new band.
http://www.vinland.org/scamp/nuns/movies/pix/flyingnun.jpg

Frog Dragon
2009-01-11, 03:21 AM
Couldn't YOU just take over the person's character while they're gone. It would avoid the whole "player x went off and did this thing for a while and now he has to return in time for the next session." I mean, that's probably the best solution. That way, the party isn't short anyone, and they can still earn EXP.
I don't think DMPC:ing will yield anything good and I anyway have already figured a way to tie it with the plot to give it some relevance

Draz74
2009-01-11, 03:25 AM
Would a mere Feather Fall not be enough to get him safely out of the tower?

Ring of Feather Falling wouldn't break WBL too badly. Or there are splatbook items that give one-shot Feather Fall effects.

Berserk Monk
2009-01-11, 03:30 AM
I don't think DMPC:ing will yield anything good and I anyway have already figured a way to tie it with the plot to give it some relevance

Even so, the cleric is an important part of the team. I've always felt that a party can be missing any type of class except the ones that provide the healing. This isn't Final Fantasy where you can just buy an ass load of Pheonix Down and bam! No more dead PCs.
:belkar: "No cleric? No, no, no, Belkar gots to get his heal on! Those few hit points from resting are not gonna cut it!"

Frog Dragon
2009-01-11, 03:36 AM
Even so, the cleric is an important part of the team. I've always felt that a party can be missing any type of class except the ones that provide the healing. This isn't Final Fantasy where you can just buy an ass load of Pheonix Down and bam! No more dead PCs.
:belkar: "No cleric? No, no, no, Belkar gots to get his heal on! Those few hit points from resting are not gonna cut it!"
They have a ranger and a wand of CLW. nuff said

Jothki
2009-01-11, 03:52 AM
And yeah I might consider the another escapee thing, but it doesn't really fit my current scetch of things because the Sorcerer kidnaps him mostly to find out why are they there. He questions him with a zone of truth or somesuch. Hmm though the tower's current occupier is not the true owner. The Spelltower (an arcanist's guild this sorcerer is from) took the original owner by force and sent the sorcerer to observe the situation. The Spelltower also forced the goblins to attack and they removed the power the town could have used to save itself. The other captive could be the servant of the old owner.

Have an agent loyal to the original owner spring him loose. You could throw a plot hook in there as well by having him give the cleric a means to contact him later when the whole group gets there.

Funkyodor
2009-01-11, 06:00 AM
You can explain the surroundings to the Cleric Player and have him tell you how he'd escape. And do you know the best part? What ever he comes up with will work with only minor hiccups (the guards almost catch him, the dogs notice but the handlers don't, etc...) He'll play up his grand escape to the rest of the party and make the kidnapper look like a bafoon, when really the big bad sorcerer let him escape and hid an item within his boot heel, or other nook/cranny, so he can focus scrying items / track the party. If any player thinks it was too easy, they'll have to convince the Cleric Player so he second guess' his lucky escape. But most likely they will be unaware, and wonder how the bad guy knows where they are all the time.

Moriato
2009-01-11, 03:26 PM
How I could explain is that he fled, but that requires flying because the place is riddled with pressure plate traps.

Well, exactly how riddled is it? If it's possible to avoid them by knowing where they are, then Find Traps (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/findTraps.htm), which is a second level cleric spell, should do the trick. It would let him search for traps as a rogue does, and give a bonus equal to half his caster level to search checks for finding traps. If it's physically possible to avoid the pressure plates, then that would at least give him a believable chance at doing it.

Frog Dragon
2009-01-11, 05:38 PM
Mostly overjumpable, but there are some spots that don't allow that.