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!
