Eanow
2014-06-17, 07:40 PM
Mechanics question relating to a game I'm GMing, for Pathfinder.
My players (level 5, nearly 6) will come across a dungeon/prison/holding cell area in a larger complex they are exploring during the next session, and inside it is a bard who's in pretty bad shape. Mechanically, I want to have him weakened, unable to cast anything but 0th-level spells, but recover naturally after a few days. Fluff-wise, he's been beaten and tortured for a few days, and the mental stress of the situation has caused him to be unable to focus on his sense of self (i.e. his Charisma). Also, it seems kind of silly if you have a spontaneous spellcaster as a prisoner without some mechanic preventing them from using magic to escape. Ideally, I want him to initially be a weak character (during the session) they rescue who later can be a useful NPC, as they don't have any arcane spellcasters since the sorcerer's demise.
I considered ability score damage, which heals normally at the rate of 1/day, but best I can determine from the Pathfinder rules ability score damage can't actually remove your ability to cast higher level spells. From the PRD:
Diseases, poisons, spells, and other abilities can all deal damage directly to your ability scores. This damage does not actually reduce an ability, but it does apply a penalty to the skills and statistics that are based on that ability.
Ability score drain looks like it would remove the higher-level spellcasting, but it doesn't heal naturally over time, requiring a restoration spell, which I don't want to require.
I'm not above hand-waving this a bit and just having it function the way I want it to narratively, but it's always nice to have things rest on rules whenever possible.
Any suggestions?
My players (level 5, nearly 6) will come across a dungeon/prison/holding cell area in a larger complex they are exploring during the next session, and inside it is a bard who's in pretty bad shape. Mechanically, I want to have him weakened, unable to cast anything but 0th-level spells, but recover naturally after a few days. Fluff-wise, he's been beaten and tortured for a few days, and the mental stress of the situation has caused him to be unable to focus on his sense of self (i.e. his Charisma). Also, it seems kind of silly if you have a spontaneous spellcaster as a prisoner without some mechanic preventing them from using magic to escape. Ideally, I want him to initially be a weak character (during the session) they rescue who later can be a useful NPC, as they don't have any arcane spellcasters since the sorcerer's demise.
I considered ability score damage, which heals normally at the rate of 1/day, but best I can determine from the Pathfinder rules ability score damage can't actually remove your ability to cast higher level spells. From the PRD:
Diseases, poisons, spells, and other abilities can all deal damage directly to your ability scores. This damage does not actually reduce an ability, but it does apply a penalty to the skills and statistics that are based on that ability.
Ability score drain looks like it would remove the higher-level spellcasting, but it doesn't heal naturally over time, requiring a restoration spell, which I don't want to require.
I'm not above hand-waving this a bit and just having it function the way I want it to narratively, but it's always nice to have things rest on rules whenever possible.
Any suggestions?