Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Vampiric Field mutation + Living Ammunition = Oops!

Chalk this one up in the "Didn't see that one coming" department.  I mentioned in my last post that the Dog Boys were wielding an alien weapon that could, among other things, shoot glass darts containing an alien worm.  Two members of the party have the Vampiric Field mutation.  Rok used this mutation in conjunction with his once a session roll of the d30 for part of his damage roll, doing something like 22 HP damage to everything within 30' of him and giving him all the drained HP as temporary HP.  After tallying up the 66 HP that he got from the Dog Boys within range, he asked me, "So what about the worms in the ammo?  You said those were living organisms, right?"

...

Doh!
Each worm has 10 HP and each gun has four worm darts.  A couple of them were already shot, but he still killed 10 worms and got another 100 temporary HP.

This inspired Bark, the other member of the party with Vampiric Field, to use a similar tactic in the battle he was engaged in hundreds of feet above the rest of the party at the entrance to the tunnels the Dog Boys used to gain access to the Sub-Basement Levels of the Ooh-Oh Monks.  He got a little over 150 temporary HP in one round by draining all 8 worms from the two guns of the Dog Boys he was facing.

Now in this particular instance it probably all worked out for the best, as Bark took over 150 damage in the next round and still had to flee the scene, and Rok got caught in an alien goo-web and couldn't move, but it has got me thinking about whether or not I am going to allow this tactic in the future.

This may have to be the first time I amend the Order of the d30 houserule; I am not sure if I can live with the horrors of a d30 Vampiric Field.  Bark is a mutant plant with a shapeshifting mutation, and he could just turn into root form, burrow under a gathering, and activate Vampiric Field - potentially within range of dozens of individuals!  Am I ready for a PC with a thousand temporary HP?  Great Hoogledy Moogledy!

8 comments:

  1. My gut says not to sweat it. There are many non-HP related ways for PCs to die. Eventually almost all of them find one or another method that best suits them. Let them run rampant with this power for a few sessions. It will seem that much sweeter in retrospect when a mountain falls on them and this golden age oozes away.

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  2. I was just going to say the same thing that Jeff said, but saw he said it first.

    Maybe it would be interesting to introduce a non-lethal, but interesting effect to that many HP gained. Memories, life force conflicts... all sorts of cool stuff. Imagine what happens when he fires his mutation, then the thing that survived fires it's Vampiric Field mutation and sucks his HP away. :) Sauce, goose.

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  3. @ Chgowiz -
    I had actually already been thinking about what side effects receiving that many temporary HP could have - I like the idea of getting memories along with it, and I was contemplating a save vs. energy attacks or be stunned for a little while from the sudden surge of power.

    The thing is, vampiric field normally only does 2d4 damage per use, which is really not that powerful. Its when you throw in the once a session use of a d30 for one of those d4's that it gets a little crazy.

    Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I am going to allow this to continue, but woe be unto the party when Rok and his 300 HP gets controlled by some mutant's mental powers!

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  4. Guess I missed the party. Everyone said what my thoughts were regarding this matter.
    I think the idea of getting memories and such with Life Lee..er I mean Vampiric Field is a great idea. Very much like Rogue from X-Men.

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  5. I know I would be way happier if you put a Cap on temporary HP that way it wouldn't throw off the Balance, with enemies dealing way to much damage for players without this mutation to survive ehhh errrmmm...*CoughBozkoCough* it would be nice for the D30 house rule to stand it really makes all the in game interactions that are non combat related, Tech rolls etc.. a lot more of a strategic thinking game, Do you use your D30 now or wait and save it for a tech roll ? or a negotiation situation ( sweet rhyme )also even if you only got 4 or 5 hp from each worm think how many of those it would take to make up an Elephant ? and if we can find big living things to put them in it's really a question of how many worms will fit in the range of vampiric field ? so it's not wholly the D30's fault

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  6. @ James - Yeah, I know its not the d30's fault - I just totally failed to foresee the implications of vampiric field + living ammo.

    I am not going to cap the HP gains or anything, but I sure hope Rok and Bark have good Willpower or the party is going to be fighting a possessed 300 HP friend pretty soon!

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  7. Roks got a 16 will and hopefully our solution wouldn't have been to kill him if he gets possessed anyway so his HP shouldn't matter. As for as bark I don't see him keeping his temporary HP not matter how great for very long the way he plays lol

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