Unrestrained Order

[Atypical_Necro]

Long story short, the BBEG in my campaign has altered the balance of the fabric of the world by seizing the focal point of chaos. This has given order (law) much greater influence over the world. The PC's have already seen some flavor in this direction (cube cloud formations, strict weather patterns, and dice stacking themselves 10 times in a row when thrown, etc.) And now I'd like it to occasionally have a mechanical effect, particularly in combat. Problem is, I'm having trouble coming up with ways to accurately reflect this. Does anyone have any ideas on how to represent supernatural excessive order in combat?

[SparowCrow]

The first thing that comes to my mind is Averaging rolls, but that would get old pretty quickly

[Extra Anchovies]

Spheres are more orderly than cubes, just sayin'.

Anyways, combat.
-only straight-line movement along the grid (i.e. like a rook in chess) is allowed
-spells and ranged attacks must be targeted in straight lines along the grid
-natural 1s aren't auto-misses, natural 20s aren't auto-hits

Any other restrictions will make combat pretty un-fun.

[OldTrees1]

You can always take 10.

It is optional but sometimes a benefit meaning the players will be tempted to use this mechanic even though doing so is a small victory for the BBEG.


I think that cubes are more orderly, in general, than spheres. Cell membranes are an exception not the rule.

[nedz]

Some ideas:

Characters always take their initiatives in alphabetical order
Spells can only be prepared in triplicate (though the three copies of each spell may have different meta-magic applied)
Spontaneous casters must cast their spells in alphabetical order — or cast them in ascending order by level

[Telonius]

d20s are rolled only half as often as usual. The first roll is a regular random roll; the second is the "opposite" roll. A 20 is followed by a 1; a 19 is followed by a 2, and so on.

[Extra Anchovies]

d20s are rolled only half as often as usual. The first roll is a regular random roll; the second is the "opposite" roll. A 20 is followed by a 1; a 19 is followed by a 2, and so on.

Oooh, this is a good one. I second this suggestion.

[Svata]

Makes it impossible to confirm a crit, though. Or succeed on complex skill checks.

[(Un)Inspired]

Instate a 25 cent fine for OOC chatter (Or charge them in character gold at a steep mark up).

The party must wait in long lines to get to see the king/go to the magic item shop/enter the dungeon; then they must fill out paperwork to proceed (Decipher Script checks).

Enforce a speed limit in combat. Anyone who travels faster than 30'/round has Inevitables warp in and issue them a speeding ticket.

[ko_sct]

Switch from using a d20 to using 3d6. The average is the same but it now follow a bell-curve distribution.

[Atypical_Necro]

Wow, didn't expect this many answers so quickly. I like some of your ideas, especially the balancing d20's one. It should be noted that this won't be a whole campaign thing, she'll be attempting to steal the power of order soon which will make things... strange to say the least. I won't be using it every combat either; that would become tedious. Thanks everyone!

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Cast law spells at +1 CL; cast chaos spells at -1 CL. Basic, but can be used both for and against hte party.

[Inevitability]

Cast law spells at +1 CL; cast chaos spells at -1 CL. Basic, but can be used both for and against hte party.

Except there's only a handful of Law/Chaos spells.


Having Lawful outsiders running around might be interesting, especially when they start considering Law more important than law.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Except there's only a handful of Law/Chaos spells.


Having Lawful outsiders running around might be interesting, especially when they start considering Law more important than law.

True enough.

[(Un)Inspired]

Having Lawful outsiders running around might be interesting, especially when they start considering Law more important than law.

Exactly!

That's why Inevitables should start popping up, issuing unreasonable citations to people. Make it extraordinarily irritating. Make it incredibly satisfying for your players to fix the balance.

Remind your players of every parking ticket they've ever gotten; every bureaucratic mishap they've ever had to endure; every trip to the DMV. Then let them fight back against it.

Let them bring swords and spells against in-game representations of every abysmal Kafka-esque law they've ever been forced to endure in real life.

[ExLibrisMortis]

The base penalty for a strongly law-aligned plane is -2 on all INT-, WIS- and CHA-based checks for all non-lawful creatures. Just throwing that out there.

For spells that do 1 die/level damage, you can reduce the number of dice by some number, say 2, and apply the average instead. A CL 10 fireball deals 8d6 + 7 damage, rather than 10d6.

You can treat all die roll results of 1 as a 2 instead, and all results of [maximum] as [maximum - 1]. That makes it impossible to auto-miss or auto-hit, and certain weapons won't crit anymore. It's probably not bad for things like summon spells or time stop, though.

[AnonymousPepper]

Exactly!

That's why Inevitables should start popping up, issuing unreasonable citations to people. Make it extraordinarily irritating. Make it incredibly satisfying for your players to fix the balance.

Remind your players of every parking ticket they've ever gotten; every bureaucratic mishap they've ever had to endure; every trip to the DMV. Then let them fight back against it.

Let them bring swords and spells against in-game representations of every abysmal Kafka-sequel law they've ever been forced to endure in real life.

This is the exact opposite of (Un)Inspired. :biggrin:

Like, by Mystra, wow, I love the cut of your jib.

[nedz]

You could have something like the Justice field from Red Dwarf: The consequences of every crime are reflected upon the perpetrator. Applying this to combat, with some suitably bizarre rules of engagement attached, could be hilarious.

[Malimar]

Cast law spells at +1 CL; cast chaos spells at -1 CL. Basic, but can be used both for and against hte party.

Similar: free (or even automatic) metamagic on [Law] spells.

[(Un)Inspired]

This is the exact opposite of (Un)Inspired. :biggrin:

Like, by Mystra, wow, I love the cut of your jib.

Thanks very much! I'm glad you liked the idea.

[Thealtruistorc]

Exactly!

That's why Inevitables should start popping up, issuing unreasonable citations to people. Make it extraordinarily irritating. Make it incredibly satisfying for your players to fix the balance.

Remind your players of every parking ticket they've ever gotten; every bureaucratic mishap they've ever had to endure; every trip to the DMV. Then let them fight back against it.

Let them bring swords and spells against in-game representations of every abysmal Kafka-esque law they've ever been forced to endure in real life.

Let's amp this up further.

Everyone takes a penalty to saves against hold person, command, or similar spells (-2 or -5, I'd say).

Juggernauts start rolling around with inevitable judges and podiums on top of them (complete with the wigs english judges wear). Anyone at any time can be forcecaged and tried for something completely random.

Transmutation effects start to fail at random. EVERYTHING MUST REMAIN IN PROPER SHAPE!

Constant Zones of Truth start popping up everywhere, and rogues will be terrified.

[Elandris Kajar]

Maybe sometimes replace d20 with 1d10+5. This negates some randomness.
Maybe have inevitable tell them off for clearing dungeons or have bladeling patrols literally everywhere, who arrest people for minor transgressions. Anyone who resists is executed immediately.
Every time you want to go anywhere, you need papers, and to go between nations requires an expensive passport that requires you to wait weeks.

All calling spells have a 10-25% chance to call an inevitable instead.
Make magic banned in many places, along with weapons.
Cut down on excessive travel.

Have "community meeting" replace all other ways of obtaining information.
No freedom of speech, anyone who hesitates before agreeing with authority is imprisoned.
All spells that deal with emotion other than calm emotions are banned.
Super extreme: all alignments shift 1 step towards LN