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whiskytangofoxt
2009-08-01, 09:58 AM
Hey guys, first time poster, long-time lurker, looking for any help, advice or improvements you can offer on a encounter...

At the moment, I'm DMing an "not-really-evil, just a bit of a ****" party in a homebrew setting. Due to the quality of the chat, the game is not too serious, but still has a serious arc plot, and part of the Big Bad's plans is currently annoying a very large section of the Hells - as such, our "heroes" will find their time much easier should they try and get in touch first.

Unfortunately, they can't get through, hence the encounter:

The PC's adventure to collect enough cash, equipment and space to perform a summoning spell, which will summon a single devilish entity to answer some of their questions and to act as an intermediary between them and the forces of the Hells.

After performing this ritual, instead of any form of demon, they are faced with a cheery-looking, if slightly demonically tainted, Warforged of uncertain gender (though further investigation leads you to assume it to identify as female), wearing "smart" robes. In a chipper, sing-song voice, the Warforged tells them:

"Good morning/afternoon/evening, sirs and madams. Unfortunately, there are no fiendish advisors available to take your call. Please direct any questions you may wish to ask to me, and I will be able to pass them on to the next available advisor as soon as possible.

My name is Switch - how may I help you?"

The players can either:

1. Leave their message and be done with it,

2. Enter a skill challenge to try and convince her to enter their party. She will be a 5th level Fiendish Pact Warlock.

Only issue I have is that I can't see how to structure a medium-difficulty skill challenge for this one? Any ideas, or any other suggestions on how to do it without the skill challenge?

WTF

Alex Star
2009-08-01, 10:29 AM
Be prepared for your party to attack.

LOL i can't name the amount of times I'd love to crush a telephone operator HAHAHA!

ninja_penguin
2009-08-01, 10:48 AM
What Alex Star said, also be prepared for them to try and break it.

Otherwise, I'm guessing diplomacy would be good; potentially stuff like arcana and history, depending on how you want to convert the warforged into joining the party. Also, good ol' bluff and intimidate, if you're intending for a social one.

Meek
2009-08-01, 11:18 AM
Ask your party to come up with their own rationale for which skills they want to roll and how they want to use them to accomplish the goal of the challenge. You provide the DCs and try not to veto them if they're being creative and having fun with it.

Kylarra
2009-08-01, 11:24 AM
Well let's see, we'll call it complexity 3 (probably a bit low considering they're trying to get her to leave her job, 4 may be more appropriate if you think your group would be dedicated enough to try).

So next to skills.

Diplomacy (moderate DC) is an obvious one.
Insight (easy DC) - worth no successes, but will tell you that trying to intimidate her is futile.
Intimidate (auto fail) - She's a telephone operator and a fiend-pact warforge from the hells, She's seen a lot and been threatened by the "best".
Bluff (moderate-hard DCs) - depends on the bluff and failing a bluff makes the rest automatically hard (second failure renders them all as auto-failures).

Athletics, Religion, Arcana, Nature, Acrobatics etc (depending on char) to prove competency in their respective field. (moderate DC) - no more than 1 success per character. Only applicable if they've already scored either a bluff or diplomacy success to try to influence her towards joining their party


This is mainly a social encounter and a mostly amicable one, so you've got a minimum of 3 successes based on CHA skills, and the rest depending on the competency of the party.

Success - join party
Failure with 1-7 successes - Carries message back (if any) with minimal grumbling
Failure with 0 success - Something bad happens. Probably sets some of the demons against them or somesuch.

Jack_Banzai
2009-08-01, 02:07 PM
Intimidate (auto fail) - She's a telephone operator and a fiend-pact warforge from the hells, She's seen a lot and been threatened by the "best".

I agree with almost the entire post except for this. Almost every published skill challenge involves an auto-fail associated with Intimidate. And I have to ask - why? Isn't Intimidate a perfectly good method of getting what you want? If nobody ever gave up the goods to someone trying to sweat them, people wouldn't do it all the time in real life. And you can't tell me that that ogre chieftain ordering around those goblin hordes does it because he has a great 401k and an understanding, teacher-like demeanor.

Let's face it - Intimidate is not necessarily the #1 way to go with all skill challenges or social interactions, but come on, D&D players and DMs, are you going to nerf this skill entirely? Some of us don't HAVE Diplomacy as a class skill.

And yeah, there is that "force the bloodied to surrender" deal - but this gets overridden all the time. "Oh, that guy is a fanatic. Oh, it's an unthinking construct. That creature doesn't understand Common." And so forth.

Why all the hate for Intimidate?

Kylarra
2009-08-01, 02:31 PM
I agree with almost the entire post except for this. Almost every published skill challenge involves an auto-fail associated with Intimidate. And I have to ask - why? Isn't Intimidate a perfectly good method of getting what you want? If nobody ever gave up the goods to someone trying to sweat them, people wouldn't do it all the time in real life. And you can't tell me that that ogre chieftain ordering around those goblin hordes does it because he has a great 401k and an understanding, teacher-like demeanor.

Let's face it - Intimidate is not necessarily the #1 way to go with all skill challenges or social interactions, but come on, D&D players and DMs, are you going to nerf this skill entirely? Some of us don't HAVE Diplomacy as a class skill.

And yeah, there is that "force the bloodied to surrender" deal - but this gets overridden all the time. "Oh, that guy is a fanatic. Oh, it's an unthinking construct. That creature doesn't understand Common." And so forth.

Why all the hate for Intimidate?I dunno about other skill challenges but the way I see it, they've got no ground to stand on here. She's here at their request and threatening her can and should just result in her saying whatever and going back to her overlords. In other skill challenges it might be different, but blustering here shouldn't do much.

On an unrelated note, my friend's paladin has gotten us a fair number of captives through intimidate and forcing them to surrender, so I guess it depends on the DM there.

Jack_Banzai
2009-08-03, 01:07 AM
I dunno about other skill challenges but the way I see it, they've got no ground to stand on here. She's here at their request and threatening her can and should just result in her saying whatever and going back to her overlords. In other skill challenges it might be different, but blustering here shouldn't do much.

On an unrelated note, my friend's paladin has gotten us a fair number of captives through intimidate and forcing them to surrender, so I guess it depends on the DM there.

Yeah, because nobody ever tries to browbeat phone operators.

Kylarra
2009-08-03, 01:10 AM
Yeah, because nobody ever tries to browbeat phone operators.I didn't say they can't try. :smallwink:

1of3
2009-08-03, 02:14 AM
Arcana - To identify her as an Inflock, or to learn about, why she might answer the call. (Once)

History - To learn whether other Inflocks were in a similar situation.

Jack_Banzai
2009-08-03, 02:30 AM
I didn't say they can't try. :smallwink:

It so happens that phone operators can get fired through someone threatening their job (which can work if it's a big enough client!) and if the person doing the threatening is a devil-may-care adventurer with spells and/or swords, the threat can be that much more effective.