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View Full Version : Opportunity for me to gain an obscene amount of wealth for my level. Do I take it?



Forderz
2015-03-24, 11:36 PM
Currently playing a Pathfinder game.

Our party of five adventurers is currently in a dungeon that houses a mystical mcguffin at it's core. We're all level six and our party consists of myself, a witch, a bruiser druid, a superstitious barbarian, a sorcerer, and a whipping tripping ranger.

We had just taken a rest halfway through the dungeon, after clearing out a flesh golem, some demons that had at-will rivers of wind combined with a pit of spiders, a maze trap, and a bunch of darkness-covered trap-infested pits. We entered the next room, saw it had a mysterious pillar and weird floor markings, and dithered.

While arguing whether or not to poke the pillar, a mechanical man in pimp-ass armour drops down the same hope we entered from. He asks us if we seek the orbs. We counter with asking him his name. He replies with Inevitron III or something, and asks us if we seek the orbs for our own purposes.

My character truthfully replies that she doesn't, as she hopes to return the orb to her city's royal treasury, where she believes it rightfully belongs. Our barbarian also replies no, as she wants to hand to it Asmodeus.

Inevitron threatens to kill us if we get in his way. He mutters something about releasing Pandorium with the orbs power, that Inevitron I and II met grisly ends chasing down other orbs, and then clams up.

My character blows her Planes check to realize he's an inevitable, and probably shouldn't be messed with, but nails her checks to determine he's rolling with a +2 adamantite vorpal longsword and +5 ghost touch improved fire resistance banded mail. That's like 200k, and my character has three different crafting feats.

Inevitron III demands we help it activate the floor markings, which triggers the party getting split, with everyone but Inevitron and our barb fighting one regenerating (fire doesnt stop it)invisible mummy while we fight another mummy. Inevitron deals perhaps two damage to the mummies all fight, and is generally unimpressive. Our sorcerer and barbarian are afflicted with Mummy Rot.

We are reunited immediately following the fight. I have four lesser restorations ready, so our sorcerer will soon have more than one strength to his name, but both he and the barbarian are heavily wounded.

The session ends. Both me and the barbarian player begin discussing how we can kill Inevitron and loot his cooling corpse. The DM immediately reveals that Inevitron is an altered CR 20 endboss creature, with the only alteration being a reduction in BAB from +17 to +5. His saves, AC, hit dice, etc., are through the roof. He has at-will enervation rays and quickened suggestions. Conventional battle tactics are a no go. The DM obviously wants this NPC to live.

My character has an empty bag of holding and an implement to pierce it with. The fight would be over in the surprise round.

Inevitron has been rude, brusque, and clearly wants the same goal my character does. My character knows nothing about Inevitron except he has some dead allies/predecessors and has more wealth on him than is produced in a year by a small kingdom. She's been framed for murder in her town and needs the orb to clear her name.

Should I put the bag on his head and stab it?

May I remind you, the longsword and banded mail are P I M P.

goto124
2015-03-24, 11:41 PM
How would the DM feel about it?
How would the rest of the group feel about it?

Kid Jake
2015-03-25, 12:00 AM
How would that get you the loot, wouldn't it be lost too?

Sith_Happens
2015-03-25, 12:41 AM
My character has an empty bag of holding and an implement to pierce it with. The fight would be over in the surprise round.

You don't just get to say "I put my bag of holding over the inevitable's head and stab it" and have that automatically happen. You have to beat its Perception and/or Sense Motive to get a surprise round, beat its initiative if that fails, and surprise round or not getting the bag over its head is going to be an attack roll of some kind or possibly even require you to grapple it first. Oh, and that last part means you need to wait until your next turn to stab the bag, good luck surviving until then.

Geddy2112
2015-03-25, 01:34 AM
Your character failed to notice the mile of plot armor covering this inevitable. Sure, it is possible to get the drop on it, put it in the bag and puncture it, but good luck. You are risking losing your character/a TPK if you try. 200k is nice, but you DM already pulled invisible mummies with constant regen on a level 6 party, after forcing a party split...Don't try to fight this thing unless the group is onboard: either it will go off fine, or you TPK. Both will probably piss off your DM; just understand the consequences of your actions.

If I was you, I would not even try, but the option is there.

Karl Aegis
2015-03-25, 02:15 AM
So you kill something. You may or may not get some gear. Looks like nobody would actually want to use the gear. Very few places will actually pay full price or even half price for that kind of gear. So you're stuck without liquid assets that you have to lug around wherever you go. Congratulations, you accomplished absolutely nothing except made your dungeon master angry. Whoop de doo.

Gritmonger
2015-03-25, 08:51 AM
I'm not the type of DM to plot armor anybody, so frankly something like this inevetron would stick in my craw as a player. And I suspect I'm not the only one.

The bag of holding and blade I might save for emergencies, though. I wouldn't off the thing for the money; I'd off it when it became a liability.

Yora
2015-03-25, 09:13 AM
Even if it works and you can destroy him: Inevitron III is on a mission to complete the task that Inevitron I and II failed to finish. So there most likely would be an Inevitron IV showing up soon after. And when he figures out who killed Inevitron III and probably took the sphere, he'd be coming straight for you. And then you wouldn't have the option to try the same trick again.

Rakoa
2015-03-25, 01:26 PM
Please, please make this happen. Do it.

Sith_Happens
2015-03-25, 02:41 PM
Before anyone else makes a crack about plot armor, "Inevitron III" is actually named Obligatum VII and is a published NPC. This DM has merely chosen to introduce him/it extremely poorly.

On that note, Forderz probably deserves to know that somewhere down the line in this campaign anyone particularly fond of calling, summoning, and/or teleportation spells is going to start having a bad time. I won't go into detail because spoilers.

Beta Centauri
2015-03-25, 02:51 PM
What would happen if you didn't obtain those items? Would the game go down the tubes for some reason, or is the GM capable of entertaining you even if you don't have them?

If you'd rather play a game in which you have those items, you might consider just telling your GM that you'd like to play at a higher level.

Gavran
2015-03-25, 04:10 PM
Obviously not. But you're free to make your own mistakes.

Just how amusing do you really think the real life people involved in the game will find it, though?

Kalmageddon
2015-03-25, 05:06 PM
I once played a character that won an obscene amount of money by gambling, basically betting everything in a 1 in 31 chances to win x31 times his money back. He won. Campaign ended the following day.

Sith_Happens
2015-03-25, 05:07 PM
On the bright side, this--


and clearly wants the same goal my character does

--is actually false. You need to return the orb to your town to clear your name. Obligatum needs it for something much more long term. It's also a Kolyarut and thinks (justifiably or not) that it needs the party's help to get the orb. Tell it that you'll offer any further help only on condition that it agree to (a) let you return the orb to the treasury and (b) wait at least a month after you've done so before launching its inevitable (pun intended) assault on/infiltration of the treasury to claim the orb for itself. The month delay being to make sure no one has any reason to think you had anything to do with the theft.

Not that you likely want Obligatum to eventually succeed on its mission (just trust me on that), but you're going to need a lot more levels under your belt to stop it so for now you might as well take advantage of it to help you get something you want.

Mr Beer
2015-03-25, 08:41 PM
A super-powered NPC that's also brusque and rude? How novel!

Obviously the crime of being douchey to professional murder machines (i.e. D&D PCs) is risking death, OTOH there's no point in trying to kill an NPC that the DM is going to protect. Doesn't sound like a done deal either.

Jay R
2015-03-25, 09:49 PM
There is a legal maxim: "Any lawyer knows the law. A good lawyer knows the exceptions. A great lawyer knows the judge."

Similarly, any player knows the rules. A good player knows the exceptions. A great player knows the DM.


The DM obviously wants this NPC to live.

This is the only crucial fact mentioned. Find a way to achieve your goal while the DM achieves his. You will not find a way to achieve your goal while the DM fails to achieve his.

Arbane
2015-03-26, 12:10 AM
Let it tank all the monsters. Who knows, some of them might get lucky.

Other than that, Sith_Happens's plan sounds like a good one. Probably won't work, but it sounds good.

VincentTakeda
2015-03-26, 09:42 AM
Logistics aside, the answer to the question is 'is wealth a means to an end, or an end in and of itself. If you cant answer the question 'what's my character doing to do after he gets rich and is that something I can continue to make fun and interesting, then it's probably not a good idea. If there's fun on the far side of being filthy rich, then by all means, give it a go!