Madeiner
2011-09-29, 08:09 PM
Hi folks.
Recently in my game, i had an idea on how to manage certain spells and abilities.
The idea sprang up when the cleric player wanted to have intercourse with a woman in at a private party.
He wanted to use "Silence" on the door to prevent any... uncomfortable noises to exit the room.
Of course, i was about to say him no, silence dosn't work that way, and it's duration (pathfinder) is rounds/level.
But then i thought that there was no reason that i should have denied that use. It was cool, and it didn't give him any combat or important advantages.
A week later, i introduced an houserule. Any PC can now use their abilities in a different way. As long as a spell or ability doesn't give you any advantage in combat, social, or otherwise "important" situation, you can use it to perform minor "tricks" to help you roleplay a situation better.
You dont' need to have the spell/ability prepared (but must at least know it), as long as you don't breach immersion and don't get any advantage from the use, and you do not expend an use in casting/using it.
You can "fluff" spells and abilities as you like, not needing to follow the exact rules at all.
A few examples:
- Silence on the door as said above, to prevent noises to reach the outside. This doesn't work if you are planning an assault and actually NEED that no one hears you, and it is a challenge to do so. It works if you want to roleplay intercourse and not being heard. Duration is as long as it's needed.
- The paladin can summon his mount to join a regal procession, and it can even have special summoned armor that looks they way he wants to. It cannot be used to get special protection or advantages from it.
- If you want to talk with someone you know, and you have "sending" prepared, you can talk to him in whatever form you like, without expending the use or check for number of words. You can even decide that your image appears next to him and you can see as if you were there. You cannot use it if speaking with that person in time is actually important, or if the trip to get to the person was a challenge, and so on.
- The inquisitor can cast "zone of truth", "confess" and the like, and not have it resisted by commoners. If you could obtain the information in another way, and are level 10+ and the commoner is no danger to you, then no save is allowed. You could get the information you need in a hundred ways, but you look cool doing inquisitor-stuff, then you get to do it.
- The druid can chat with animals and roleplay with them if he desires. He can mentally control a nearby animal to impress someone, or to look cool, or to roleplay. It cannot gain any advantage from this use, so the animal will never reveal anything very useful. The animal can tell him where someone went or when he last saw him, treating this as a gather information check. If you are trying to solve a mistery, then the animal cannot help you. (unless you can normally speak with them, that is)
One last rule is, if you do something out of this houserule that i let you do, but then it gives you a non-intended advantage, you either:
- pay the spell slot or ability use if applicable;
- decide not to gain any advantage from it even if you could;
- find a way for the effect to end sooner than you wanted, negating any benefit.
So, if you have silenced the door and bad guys come, you can state that you lose concentration and the spell fails (in this case you cannot expend the use because the effect isn't legal in a normal situation); if you have summoned your warhorse for the parade and baddies come, you either expend the usage, unsummon it, or decide not to use your mount for the combat.
What do you think of this? Do you like the idea? I believe that for this to work, you have to trust your players a lot. I trust mine, and while i know that this could really, really get abused, i'm (almost) sure they won't try to. In a sense, i'm giving them a little of the DM power: the ability to shape nice roleplay opportunities without needing any special in-game abilities to do it.
Oh and, if you can come up with more ways to use abilities just for roleplay or rule-of-cool, you can share it if you want!
Recently in my game, i had an idea on how to manage certain spells and abilities.
The idea sprang up when the cleric player wanted to have intercourse with a woman in at a private party.
He wanted to use "Silence" on the door to prevent any... uncomfortable noises to exit the room.
Of course, i was about to say him no, silence dosn't work that way, and it's duration (pathfinder) is rounds/level.
But then i thought that there was no reason that i should have denied that use. It was cool, and it didn't give him any combat or important advantages.
A week later, i introduced an houserule. Any PC can now use their abilities in a different way. As long as a spell or ability doesn't give you any advantage in combat, social, or otherwise "important" situation, you can use it to perform minor "tricks" to help you roleplay a situation better.
You dont' need to have the spell/ability prepared (but must at least know it), as long as you don't breach immersion and don't get any advantage from the use, and you do not expend an use in casting/using it.
You can "fluff" spells and abilities as you like, not needing to follow the exact rules at all.
A few examples:
- Silence on the door as said above, to prevent noises to reach the outside. This doesn't work if you are planning an assault and actually NEED that no one hears you, and it is a challenge to do so. It works if you want to roleplay intercourse and not being heard. Duration is as long as it's needed.
- The paladin can summon his mount to join a regal procession, and it can even have special summoned armor that looks they way he wants to. It cannot be used to get special protection or advantages from it.
- If you want to talk with someone you know, and you have "sending" prepared, you can talk to him in whatever form you like, without expending the use or check for number of words. You can even decide that your image appears next to him and you can see as if you were there. You cannot use it if speaking with that person in time is actually important, or if the trip to get to the person was a challenge, and so on.
- The inquisitor can cast "zone of truth", "confess" and the like, and not have it resisted by commoners. If you could obtain the information in another way, and are level 10+ and the commoner is no danger to you, then no save is allowed. You could get the information you need in a hundred ways, but you look cool doing inquisitor-stuff, then you get to do it.
- The druid can chat with animals and roleplay with them if he desires. He can mentally control a nearby animal to impress someone, or to look cool, or to roleplay. It cannot gain any advantage from this use, so the animal will never reveal anything very useful. The animal can tell him where someone went or when he last saw him, treating this as a gather information check. If you are trying to solve a mistery, then the animal cannot help you. (unless you can normally speak with them, that is)
One last rule is, if you do something out of this houserule that i let you do, but then it gives you a non-intended advantage, you either:
- pay the spell slot or ability use if applicable;
- decide not to gain any advantage from it even if you could;
- find a way for the effect to end sooner than you wanted, negating any benefit.
So, if you have silenced the door and bad guys come, you can state that you lose concentration and the spell fails (in this case you cannot expend the use because the effect isn't legal in a normal situation); if you have summoned your warhorse for the parade and baddies come, you either expend the usage, unsummon it, or decide not to use your mount for the combat.
What do you think of this? Do you like the idea? I believe that for this to work, you have to trust your players a lot. I trust mine, and while i know that this could really, really get abused, i'm (almost) sure they won't try to. In a sense, i'm giving them a little of the DM power: the ability to shape nice roleplay opportunities without needing any special in-game abilities to do it.
Oh and, if you can come up with more ways to use abilities just for roleplay or rule-of-cool, you can share it if you want!