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View Full Version : [3.5]The Red Hand of Doom and...Pixies?



Rising Phoenix
2009-03-19, 08:33 AM
Hello all,

I've recently started DMing the Red Hand of Doom and one of the PCs that couldn't make it to the first session wants to play a Pixie.

I am fine with it so long as she accepts that she'll have very few HP and that (if she plays a spell caster) very few spells. (i.e. she's toast if she gets breathed upon by a dragon...)

However, looking through the spell like abilities of Pixies I see that they can cast polymorph on themselves once per day. Will this or any other of the spell-like abilities ruin the game? Should I ban potentially game breaking spells?

Thanks for any advice in advance! :)

R.P.

Douglas
2009-03-19, 09:24 AM
Polymorph got removed from that list by errata. I don't think any of the rest are really problematic. Irresistible Dance is a possible exception, but an extra +2 LA just for that is a rather hefty cost.

kamikasei
2009-03-19, 09:31 AM
I would strongly advise against letting the players have any LA, or at least no more than a +1. From everything I've heard RHoD is just too punishing to sacrifice saves and HP.


(i.e. she's toast if she gets breathed upon by a dragon...)

Heh heh heh.

Shades of Gray
2009-03-19, 09:32 AM
Their high dexterity helps counter the death by dragon scenario, and the constant invisibility helps counter the hit point problem. I personally love playing pixies, especially my very scary dread necromancer pixie.

Leon
2009-03-19, 09:44 AM
Yep wonderful thing that constant Invisibility, wonderful when the Low HP pixie gets knocked out and the rest of the party has to pat around in a frantic hurry before it bleeds out/trodden on etc

kamikasei
2009-03-19, 09:50 AM
Yep wonderful thing that constant Invisibility, wonderful when the Low HP pixie gets knocked out and the rest of the party has to pat around in a frantic hurry before it bleeds out/trodden on etc

What are you talking about? They just have to clap their hands.

\/ Sorry, you're right. They also have to believe.

Leon
2009-03-19, 11:16 AM
im not quite following you here.
Im citing things that have happened with pixies in the group that i play with

Tsotha-lanti
2009-03-19, 11:23 AM
Leon, you seriously don't know about faeries and clapping your hands? :smalleek: What kind of a childhood did you have, were you raised in a steel box? (Or possibly a shoebox in the middle of the road, and you had to get up at midnight to lick the gravel clean, and... ahem, got carried away.)


Their high dexterity helps counter the death by dragon scenario, and the constant invisibility helps counter the hit point problem. I personally love playing pixies, especially my very scary dread necromancer pixie.

You jerk, I had a sorcerer/true necromancer pixie first. He would polymorph into Medium humanoid females to charm and seduce powerful men... yeah, interspecies necrophilic rape-by-deception. Hey, it was a very evil campaign - we started an orphanage to get sacrifices for fiends...

The pixie unbalanced the game very heavily (since all enemies needed flight, ranged/area attacks, and/or a way to counter invisibility to remotely threaten him), but was not generally very effective in combat (because of LA and being a caster). Fun to play in some ways, frustrating in others.

I liked my evil thri-kreen psychic warrior (played like a Predator) more, frankly.

Kol Korran
2009-03-19, 12:03 PM
first of all i agree with kamikasei- the LA is too much for hand of doom. second of all, your player needs to understand that s/he'll probably have not much to do most of the time, simply for the lack spells. casters need their full arsenal for this module, especially the later parts.

alternate solution- by a wand or three, the character will need it.

as to the invisibility problem (when dropping unconcious), you could rule that the pixie needs to remain concious for it to remain invisible, so it will pop up visible when dropped below 0.

some would say it's cheating. i say who cares?

hope this helped in anyway,
Kol.

ericgrau
2009-03-19, 12:29 PM
Yep wonderful thing that constant Invisibility, wonderful when the Low HP pixie gets knocked out and the rest of the party has to pat around in a frantic hurry before it bleeds out/trodden on etc

Which RHoD are we talking about here? :smallconfused: If the pixie drops he is likely to be dead, not unconcious. I mean, that's true of the humans most of the time too. And body hunting would likely come after combat is over anyway. It's more a matter of all or nothing: not getting hit at all thanks to invisibility & flight or finally getting fireballed and nuked. The player should just stick to the sky and stay invisible. If he does drop and doesn't die from falling damage, the players can search for him based on the loud "thud". If he finally does die some day, oh well. He won't be the only one. Pixies have some major drawbacks from the LA but they also have huge advantages that make the LA worth it.

And HP may be one of the drawbacks, but saves aren't. The dex gives a +2 to +3 higher reflex save than normal, wis makes him break even on will, and fort is only at a -1 to -2. In RHoD reflex saves are the most common, especially among effects that deal HP damage. On top of all that, spell resistance blocks 50% of spells on average putting the pixie way ahead of everyone else in terms of magical defenses.

I suspect the pixie will spend a long time not getting hit at all while still attacking, other PCs will die in the meantime, then finally (after a dozen failed attempts) the pixie will get hit once or twice and die. And then get rezzed like the other PCs.

And I'd recommend that the player pick a rogue instead of a spellcaster, and pick up a bow plus rapid shot. Then greater invis flying sneak attack everything.

Epinephrine
2009-03-19, 12:40 PM
We have a pixie in our RHoD party. Plays it very safe, flies above us or off to the side/above, and stays invisible mostly. We're gestalt, so the pixie is a warlock/rogue, and makes sneak attacks with eldritch bolts. Evasion keeps him safer in area damage reflex save effects.

KillianHawkeye
2009-03-19, 06:24 PM
Don't forget that all true dragons have blindsense. Going Rogue or something else that gets evasion or even improved evasion would be a great idea for a pixie character playing this adventure.

kjones
2009-03-19, 08:26 PM
As a DM currently running RHoD, I would probably not allow a character with an LA of... +4? Are you freakin' kidding me? Considering that the module starts at 5th level, it seems to me to be very unlikely that they will be able to consistently contribute to the party in a meaningful manner.

By this I mean that they'll need to spend most of their time in combat hiding out of harm's way. And if the pixie is a caster, her low caster level will mean that she'll run out of spells quickly, and will have few other options.

If you want to allow it, it's your funeral, but suggest that they have a backup handy.

Rising Phoenix
2009-03-19, 10:03 PM
Thanks for your input everyone.

It seems that playing a Pixie is possible but hard. Another idea to make the character a bit more playable is to give her Summon Scrolls/ Wands/ Bag of tricks.

I am most definitely advising the player on all the benefits and cons that her choice will entail and if she accepts them and is happy, so be it (She initially wanted to play a Treant...>.<). I've already told the PCs that the likelihood of dying in this module is fairly high and they've accepted that.

If in the end she decides against playing something with a LA. so much the better for the party. Perhaps a Gnome is the closest thing core she can go...or Killoren from Races of the Wild.

Cheers and thanks! :smallsmile:

R.P.

golem1972
2009-03-20, 01:32 AM
Pixie warlock + eldritch spear. How much xp is an army worth?

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-03-20, 03:11 PM
Petal from MMII is usually a better option than Pixie, IIRC.