From: ecrjbruce@economics.adelaide.edu.au
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Kobolds (Re: Intelligent opponents)
Date: 10 Oct 92 04:22:33 GMT
Organization: Economics, University of Adelaide
NNTP-Posting-Host: eco.economics.adelaide.edu.au

In article <1992Oct7.203655.29858@pbhyc.PacBell.COM>, djdaneh@pbhyc.PacBell.COM (Dan'l DanehyOakes) writes:
> In article <1992Oct7.004210.15057@usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU> barnett@mummy.agsm.unsw.OZ.AU (Glen Barnett) writes:
> 
>>This thread was quite interesting in that a number of reasonably intelligent
>>ways for a lich to be more than another lamb to the slaughter were put 
>>forward. What other ideas for other monsters (or ideas in general) can
>>you crafty xdnd DM's put forward?
>>
>>Glen Barnett


> .. . . well, you get the idea.  By this time I was toning things down a bit
> so the party had a chance of surviving; the original plan was to have a whole
> bloody bucket brigade of kobolds tossing a bucketload of GS every other round.
> This was their _home_, dammit, and after 10,000 years there, they've evolved
> some pretty elaborate plans for defending it.
> 
> Really, folks.  You don't have to constantly come up with bigger and better
> monsters, spells, and weapons to keep the game interesting.  Your monsters
> brains are, or should be, the best weapons they have.
> 


Absolutely, didn't Dungeon magazine have something along the lines of the
Invincible Kobolds??  Basically they had adapted to thier terrain equally as
well as your guys and had actually modified it a bit to help even more.  From
memory my campaign to dispose of super-munchkins went something like this
(based on what I  remember of the game and DUNGEON module).

me> ok guys you see the small entry hole beneath the tree you were looking for.

thief> OK I activate my artifact of total invisibility and unreal thieving
abilities and enter! (see how easily they get separated...)

me> ok you see a cavern, probably the entry cavern, and there are 2 exits at
the far end.

thief>ok call the others in.

rest of pc's scramble through.

they take the left cporridor.

me>ok the corridor stretches out for a fair distance.  Standar 10*10 corridor
(why confuse munchkins?)

thief> ok I will go 100' ahead so I am quiet and not disturbed.  What happens?

me>ok you get about 100' down tyhe corridor and a huge stione block slams
downbehind you.

thief> big deal, I get out my wand of instant zap of corridor blocking objects
(aka disintegration) and blow it apart.

me>ok you go for your wand and aim it at the door, make me a dex roll...

thief>(look of surprise on face) why? I'm just using a wand...

me> sure but the kobolds (note plural) jumping on you from the roof hatches are
trying to overbear you.

thief> shit!!  I hack them to piece with my sword of 37 attacks per round...

me> um yeah ok but roll me that dex chack first..

thief>ok (assume he makes it)

me > ok now there are about 5 of them gouging at you and doing all sorts of
wierd stuff.  Of course your ring of protection +10 and ring of stoneskin are
rotecting you quite well....

thief> blloody kobolds I'll show you...

me>ok they're overbearing you again (they succeeded), you're on the ground. 
They're swarming all over you and getting very nasty about it.

(note the other pc's don't know whats happening, they just assume the thief is
doing his usual recce stuff and they're confident he can deal with anything...)

thief> shit!! OK I stand up using my gauntlets of ogre power and....

me> umm you don't need to they are sick of trying to hit you and have backed
off from you.  They're about 50' away trembling with fear...

thief> Hah! ok I stand and check to see if all my gear ids still there,
thieving little buggers!

me>OK, you hear a grating noise....

silence

thief> and then?

me>silence.

more silence

thief>ok obviously it wasn't anything important, where are those kobolds?

me> ummm you can't see them.

thief> what??!! I must have seen where they went!

me> no not really, dead people don't see too well....

thief> huh, what dead, who,  ME!!??!!  HOW!!??

me> well that grating was the second 30 tonne block falling from the ceiling,
these guys have had centuries to get their defences ready.....

thief> but what about my chain contingency and my uneering intelligent daggers
ability to teleport me to safety before certain death?

me>well you wren't in a fight you see so the dagger had no way of knoeing what
trouble you wre in, besides your earrings of regeneration had kept you at full
hp so it wasn't worried by some pesky kobolds, pretty much just as you weren't,
maybe your attitude got infectious.....

thief> shit ok I'll just have to get the cleric to ressurect me....

me>sure........

we go back into room with rest of group.

me > ok guys what are you doing?

group> what happened?

thief> I ..

me> you can't say anything you're not there yet.

group> hm ok figther get rid of that block.

fighter>ok I lift the block with my crowbar +15 of adamantite and my strength
of 30 and my ghirdle of thor and my gloves of odin....

me > ok you lift it on your standard 999/1000 chance, roll d1000.

makes it (surprise)

me> ok you see another one there.

party> bloody thief must have set a whole corridor of thwem off,I saw something
like this in a movie once (actually it was the movie where the evil queen gets
sealed in a pyramid with her dead husband when a block slides down a shaft and
smashes open some sand valves of all things!! but that's another story...)

me>ok what are you doing?

group> goes ito discussion mode.

me> fighter take 4 pts damage.

fighter> huh what hit ac-100??


me>scything blade

fighter> ok I move back out of its way, 4hp/300 isn't too bad...

me > ok what next?

fighter> hmm ok we'll go look at the next tunnel.

they look but actually decide that it may be a good idea to follow the thief
and come back.


ftr>lift the next stone.

me>ok roll, you do it.
there is a huge bloody mess under it,  and you see the corridor stretching away
from you.

group>examine bodybits.

me>looks like part of the thief, a fair amount of his gear is there.

group>shit lets see if we can raise dead him...

me> a spear  lobs among you, missing by a mile.....

group> who threw it?

me> a grinning learing kobold!

pc's> a kobold??!!  he's mincemeat!

varuious range weapos drawn, too late he's disappeared.

group> only a kobold lets go get him....(running off)

me> ok you go round a corner and see a cavern full of gold....

group> having forgotten about thief now (and he's not allowed to speak)
OK what's in here?

me> nothing but more gold than you have ever seen.....

group> (I did not allow a save vs illusion as they all had huge gold lust
written across their faces) well lets grab a huge pile of it!!

me > OK, cleric roll me a dex roll.

cleric> ok base dex is 25, boosted to 37 with my gear.

me > ok you made it (what a surprise).  A large rck lobs near you, there's that
bloody kobold again


cleric> ready my mace of total disintergration and I go get him

group> ok meet back here we'll start loading gold up.

cleric> ok run after him.....

NOW REPLAY WITH CLERIC WHAT HAPPENED TO THIEF

others> ok now that we're all fully loaded(and encumbered I add silently) we
follow in the clerics footsteps.

me> ok you come to a fork in the tunnel, there are actuially three other exits.
(note that none of these are the exit the cleric took, the kobolds have opened
and closed various secret doors to confuse the party and to divide them)

PC's> ok we take X door.

me>ok marching order etc.

pc's> ok thief first, ftr,.....

me> excuse me the thief is not with you, nor is the cleric.

party> shit yeah ok umm we better find the cleric and get the thief ressurected
ok figther elf first then.....

me>ok elf 60 ' in front for silenceIassume?

elf> yep, my leather armour +15 will protect me

me> grins knowingly

me > ok the corridor stretches away from youetc.etc.etc.

elf>great I walk down it in super-secret stelath mode, all my funky magic
kicksin.

me> OK on the floor you notice a secret door (it's designed to be noticed).

elf> ok look at it

me> obviously covering a pit.

elf> can I walk around it?

me> yes

elf> I use my hel of telepathy to warn the others

me ok

ef> walk around it.

me>OK you walk toward the left or right of the crridor (doesn't really matter)?

elf> (after checking for traps and stuff) the left

me >  ok, you walk to the left and a sortof battering ram comes out and buffets
you into the pit. Take 2d8 damage.

elf> shit! OK I look and see how deep the pit is.

me> bit difficult coz its dark.

elf> infravision on

me > OK you see lots of kobolds rushing around , mainy in your direction...

elf> sword out, get some light in here.....

me> ok but you're about knee deep in a foul smelling liquid so fighting will be
hard....

elf> hah! thats my advantage - ring of free action......

me> (acting worried) BUGGER! OK, you hear a command and one of the kobolds
lights a torch....

elf> OK go for him.

me> he's about 25' away and 6' above you.  You want to use your bommerang  of
megazap death I suppose?

elf>good idea,(rolls dice) modified total of 37 to hit...

me>Oh you only got a low number fior you did you....

elf> yeah rolled a 3

me> ok what are you telling the others?

elf> hadn't thought iof that, warn them of the pit, let them know there are
kobolds down here too.

me> ok you throw your boomerang and tell the others what gives.  Roll damage.

elf>86pts. Me  hmm slaughters any known kobold.  He dies.  Drops his torch and
pppphhhhhhwwwwwwwuuuuuummmmmm, the liquid catches fire.  Take 9d6 damage.

elf> argh! minr damage but ok, I teleport out with my ring of teleport.

me> sorry that requires a command word and you're in absolute agony.  You're
lungs are seared and your tongue is dry etc.  You notice that all those little
openings are  turning this into a blast furnace type effect.....

OK your chain contingency of teleport gets you out.  What do you do?  

elf> look around......

me> well you're on your designated home tower of unfailable teleportreception
and you're burning pretty badly.  Tae another 9d6 damage....but the flames are
now out.

elf> bloody hell!!  I drink my potion of heal.

me> sorry the intense heat vapourised it...

elf> damnation OK the party have the location, I telepathise (?) to the to
summon me back.


me> ok you are back.

party> what happened?

lf> <fills them in>

party> ok lets be more careful...

I groan inwardly at this.

me>okguys waht now..

pc's> heal the elf cleric.... cleric, what cleric......

me >umm there's that pesky kobold again, throwing a net at you....

party > Easily avoid net "get him"

me I feel generous so they slay him ith arrows....

elf>that corridor is impossible, clericcouldn't have gone that way!
go down door #2

and so it goes on.  The party finds a fountain and drink at it after
determining that there is no poison etc. Then they get hit by arrows from
everywhere.  No damage due to stoneskin etc. but enough to piss them off and
they charge away again....

they get dropped into pits of acid
they get whole caverns collapsing on them, they get dropped over cliffs by
walking allong illusory floors...

In short they get the hint and retire the dumb characters.....

regs

Rob
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd