On the Creative Crocodile Conundrum

Are modern gamers objectively less creative than old-school gamers?

Here over at Monsters and Manuals, Noisms discusses some of the agency-sucking, mind-reading, poorly presented, 'Gotcha!' ideals that make up some of the 4thcore adventures.

Noisms postulated a problem that could be solved creatively in a variety of different ways. A treasure hoard is on the other side of the room, with a channel in the middle filled with crocodiles.

One of the posters responds:
"Conversely, any realistic solution to the crocodile problem is going to involve someone being fast enough or strong enough to do something at some point - it's also a skill check scenario (even if it boils down to the good old OSR dodge of the GM rolling a percentage chance - that's still a skill check, just a very arbitrary one)."

I do not think this point of view is uncommon—that the only solutions for problems are skill solutions. A short word about old-school play.

A dice roll in an old-school game is only made when the outcome of an action absolutely cannot be decided by agreement or fiat.

You don't roll to climb up to a ledge or a wall, get out of a pit, ride the horse up the mountain, tie up the prisoner, or jump off the horse; YOU DON'T NEED TO ROLL TO FEED THE CROCODILES POISONED MEAT or have your unseen servant bring the treasure over, you don't need to roll to climb over the channel, or to throw the bag across the channel or any one of a hundred different solutions.

Some actual dice rolls may be required for some of the solutions—but they will most definitely not require only strength or speed. Sure, if you cast web or sleep, the crocodiles will get a save. Sure, if you have the ranger attempt to calm the beasts, they may get a reaction roll.

A roll for discovery is different than a roll for allowing the player not to play.

I know the cliché of the young player looking at his sheet and going "There's nothing on here that lets me solve this problem" is a cliché because it occurs often, but the comment above got me thinking. It occurs a lot—personally—to me—in many of the games I ran. Players who only want to follow the main hook, players who wonder how they can tie someone up without the use rope skill, and even players who can only have relationships with NPC's if there are rules for romance. (No, not my current groups)

So are new school players just objectively less creative? Is it part of the generational issue of millennials having a fear of doing anything that's not explicitly permitted by authority sources? Why is the above sort of response so common? And really, as DM's, what can we do about their lack of creativity in problem-solving without holding their hands and giving them a half dozen ideas for solutions? Is this the same lack of creativity bemoaned by Gygax and Kuntz after the publication of classic D&D, or something different?

But thieves need to make a skill check to climb walls!

No, they don't. Anyone can climb walls. Just like anyone can hide or move around quietly. Thieves can climb unclimbable walls or normal walls unreasonably quickly. They can hide in the very shadows themselves and move so quietly that you never hear them until the knife enters your back.

Just because there is a resolution method for an action doesn't mean you need to use it—you don't make your players roll to kill unconscious opponents.

But if you don't make them roll, how will they ever fail?

The problem here is that you want the game to be a railroad. You don't want your players to decide what to do or how to solve a problem; you want to call for a skill check.

If you take off the safety rails and give them some freedom, you will be astounded at the bodies and rooms they forget to search and the actions they neglect to do. How many monsters or NPC's they leave on the ground unconscious to get up and get revenge another day.

I've got a post up about treasure generation. I put the opportunity for about 50,000 experience, 45,000 of which is treasure, to give the party the 10k total they need to reach the second level. Why is that? because they miss a full third or more of the treasure in the dungeon.

The fact is, if you don't lead them by the nose, player skill is a real thing they will need to have, and if they don't have player skill then they will fail.

The whole skill system is a crutch because it allows them to fail without feeling personally responsible, among other reasons.

Then you're just playing a guessing game! The whole session becomes about "Guess what the DM is thinking"!

If you tell the players what they need to know to solve the problem, they don't have to guess. They still have to solve the problem.

How come it's ok to use 'skill checks' for combat and not for something like talking to opponents?

Because at the table, I can't use my personal skill to swing an axe, but I can use my personal skill to convince a crocodile to let me pass.

Well, then how about I make my players lift something heavy when they want to bend bars, huh? Isn't that player skill?

Nice strawman, but as above—if we cannot agree or decide by fiat that you can't lift the gate, then a roll is required isn't it? This is a situation like "do I hit the monster" that is best decided by a die roll. Of course it's a continuum. I may know that the gate is latched closed, and no matter the level of your strength you will not be able to lift it, but you might be able to bend the bars.

If you use your skill to talk to the crocodile and there is no skill roll, then the DM just makes a decision—But you don't have any control over the DM's decisions! Without the dice to protect you, you'll just be railroaded into guessing what he's thinking all the time.

This is of course, another strawman—a misrepresentation of the actual process of play. The process of the DM making a decision comes down to discussion and agreement.

What does the party know about crocodiles in a skill light system?
The DM starts by asking if anyone is a druid or a ranger, but that's just where it begins.

Here is the important part - if anyone can come up with a reason that they would know something about crocodiles that is reasonable, then they do.

Reasonable how? By table consensus, but as always, the DM has the last word.

If your problem is that the DM can be unreasonable—let me assure you that more rules is not a solution to that problem.

How many solutions can you create to the Crocodile Conundrum problem?

Originally published 10/7/11

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On How to Make 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons more Old School

Moving parts of 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons are designed for heroic fantasy gaming. Mid-level characters are mighty heroes, slayers of dragons, and ready to take on any danger. Their resilience makes them brave, dangerous and deadly threats, with the resources to overcome any obstacle.

Usually these are planned adventure arcs. Here's a bad guy. Here's his evil forces. Here's a variety of deadly environments, ripe for heroic activity.

I don't have bad guys. I don't have expectations about what will happen when the game starts. I'm here to play a game to find out what happens. The core cycle of play for 5th edition doesn't match that style.

What changes do I make to my game so that I can play 5th edition in the classic style?

5th Edition to Classic/OSR style play

• Give 1/100th the experience for killing monsters. Give 1 experience per gold piece value of treasure collected.

This shifts the focus of play. Fights are dangerous and they only cost, they don't reward. It puts the focus back on outhinking your opponent to get the riches, without exposing yourself to the risk of a fight. Because your players aren't expecting to get experience by killing things, you're free to populate your world with liches, dragons, and other deadly creatures, because there's no unspoken expectation that players should fight creatures to advance. 

I also recommend against using the milestone system, because this either presumes an outcome or distances player skill from advancement. They should advance comparable with their skill at securing treasure and power, commensurate with the risks they take. They should not advance simply by reaching numerical thresholds.

However, granting experience for surviving your first in-game month, witnessing a death, locating a new feature, exploring a new area, or other tasks that create a sense of adventure or exploration is encouraged, as long as these rewards are delineated ahead of the game and accessible to the players.

In general, keep rewards low, and look to advance one level every 3-5 adventures till reaching level 3, and then distribute treasure so that levels take between 4-6 adventures (weeks) to level. Obviously taking a lot of people along and being cautious will slow this rate. Taking risks and braving danger can shorten this. 

This results in treasure hordes that maintain their value, even if they don't increase in size very much. It makes finding a piece of jewelry or a few hundred coins a rich find. If the treasure grow at a slow rate, it should compensate for the rapid advancement assumed by fifth edition play.  See my Hack & Slash blog compendium II for an in depth look at treasure valuation and type.

• Change long rests to take a week and short rests to take 8 hours

In the 1st edition game I'm currently in, even with a Cleric, Druid, and Paladin healing through bed rest is relevant. Changing a long rest to a week and short rests to overnight makes play more threatening and decisions more meaningful. Characters are forced to spread their resources in a manner more like an older-style game. 

This seriously adjusts the class balance.  Melee classes and classes that don't rely on refreshing abilities (rogues, rangers, champions) are significantly more effective. 

Cantrips are fine. Firebolt is fine. In earlier editions there was silliness with jarts. Wizards with crossbows abound. Allowing wizards to attack in combat is ok. Shooting flame wasn't common in classic style games, so purists will disagree. Better a bolt of fire than some weird-o flinging jarts into combat. (A jart is a weaponized dart—taking traits from a javelin. Javelin-dart: jart.)

•  Eliminate Death Saves

They don't exist. You die when you reach 0 hit points. That takes it back to Original Dungeons and Dragons or Basic/Expert. There, your game is ridiculously deadly. 

No classic style game that I'm a part of is actually that deadly. In my game, I use a critical hit table after opponents drop to zero hit points. Any hit taken at 0 hit points causes a serious long term wound or death. Another option, made popular by 1st edition, is any hit that drops you from a positive hit point total to a negative hit point total more than twice your level kills you instantly, otherwise you are bleeding out to -10/-Constitution total/-2xlevel. Take your pick.

• Give Inspiration Strictly for Creative Play

Classic style play is not about people talking to each other in character, necessarily. It's about the players facing challenges. The games are based around challenging the player, not their character sheet. So inspiration isn't about remembering to display your background accurately—classic gaming assumes background is what happened in play. What happened before the adventure is of minimal importance. Does the Dungeon Master talk in-character for all the monsters? Yeah. Can the characters if they want? Yeah. Is it the focus of play? no.

• Recalibrate Encumbrance & Light

Classic style games focus more on basic resource management. 

Make the light spell 1st level. Make Continual Flame 3rd level. Make Produce Flame consume a 1st level spell slot if used 6 times. 

Remove Darkvision from Elves, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, and Tieflings. This leaves Dwarves and Gnomes as the only races that can see in the dark.

You can carry a number of significant items equal to your Strength. A significant item would be a suit of light or medium armor, a weapon, a bundle 5 of torches, a potion, a vial of oil, a lantern, 200 coins, etc. A suit of heavy armor or a bulky item takes 2 slots. If you have more than 1/2 your slots filled, you are encumbered per the variant rules in the 5th edition Player’s Handbook on page 176. If you are wearing a suit of armor that grants disadvantage on Stealth (Dex) checks, you are encumbered. If you have more than 3/4 of your slots filled, you are heavily encumbered. Let common sense carry the day.

• Consider the Ability Check Proficiency  variant rule on page 263 of the 5th edition Dungeons Masters Guide

It's really difficult to get players away from the idea of skill checks. Removing skills from the game is an optional way to move the je ne sais quoi of the game towards a more old school play style. This is certainly the option I would use with new players, to reduce choices required at player character creation. 

• Remove individual initiative checks and always consider morale

Old school play is fast. Reasons you might have a dozen combats in the course of a session are two fold. Players generally take their actions in groups without worrying too much about which character goes first. Popular options include vegas style, where each side rolls a single die, and high roll goes first, or over/under, where for the first round some players move before the monster, and then the players and monsters alternate turns.

The second fold is there's no morale in the versions of Dungeons & Dragons that give the majority of experience from killing monsters. Institute morale to avoid combat slog. You can wholesale steal whatever system you find most useful, but a 2d6 roll against a target based on bravery is fine. If the die roll beats the numbers, the monster flee. Triggers for this roll are losing guys, or having a leader cut down (often providing little mini-missions in combat). Example targets are 11 for fanatic, 9 for brave, 7 for average, 5 for poor.

The Bell Curve is important to morale, because it makes enemy behavior predictable enough for the players to take advantage of it. It is possible to convert the appropriate % chances to a D20, but it appears arbitrary, (Why is this one 11+ and the next one 16+ on a d20?). But 2d6 for 9/7/5 (good/normal/bad) is straightforward and predictable. 

• Finally, understand that unlike low level games that cap at the lord stage, 5th edition allows characters to consider growing in power far beyond the first 9 levels, making them powerful in a similar way that demigods are powerful.

Consider a limitation of level inflation, either by capping advancement and allowing players to purchase features like E6 or E8 systems, or by increasing the experience points required to advance beyond level 5 by some arbitrary value.

Conclusion

It seems like it is a great deal of work to do, and yet, it is not! It's just a few house rules that speed up play. The advantages are manifold. You have easier access to classic style adventures like Eyrie of the Dread Eye, Isle of Dread, and Keep on the Borderlands, now that the gameplay assumptions match what's happening at the table. You have compatibility with the system that's most frequently played. 

You get to keep playing the exploratory, extemporaneous, player-driven, long term games you love.

Watch your players minds begin to turn, as they engage with the game by trying to figure out ways to turn it to their advantage. 

On Strong & Weak Henchmen Forces

A house rule, to speed up play involving entourage or henchmen heavy play.

The Weak Henchmen Force

Each henchmen in combat with a player character raises that characters armor class by 1. When ever the player hits an opponent, the player does an extra point of damage for each henchmen involved in the melee.

The Strong Henchmen Force

As above, but the bonus is 1d4 damage when the player hits.
!
Note that this only applies to the player's henchmen in melee with the player. If your henchmen have ranged weapons, even if they are not the henchmen of the PC using ranged weapons, the ranged weapon using PC gains the benefit of the ranged henchmen for the duration of the missile fire. If no PC's are using ranged weapons, then the henchmen will not either due to fear of hitting their bosses.

This provides a reason for the monsters to go after henchmen (they have become ablative armor and damage bonuses).

If your loyalty is high enough (Fanatical) , you may also use henchmen as shields as in 'All Shields Must be Splintered!"

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On a Guide to Illusions: Spell Types

This was originally published in April of 2014. Hack & Slash compendium III is available in print in  from Lulu and in PDF from DTRPG, and contains this series of articles on illusions, as well as many other class ideas. 

A FLAILSNAILS and Campaign guide

Illusionists are the most powerful class in the game bar-none, but you won't play them because your Dungeon Master will screw you.

Well, it's 2014, and it's past time for illusions to be screwing over players and dungeon masters. It's powerful, but it's not nearly powerful enough to unbalance a campaign, any more than any other kind of wizard. Illusionists have their power limited by locality. An illusion has to be seen, after all, to be believed. And in order to be one, you're giving up the fireball/teleport/ real ultimate power path of the traditional mage.

Shouldn't you actually be good at illusions?

The cardinal rule of the illusionist is this: An Illusionist can be more flexible, but not more powerful than a Magic-User of his level.

There are literally hundreds of spells to use as guidelines for power levels. What the illusionist gains in battlefield control and target influence, they give up in utility and raw damage. ("I can summon an illusionary ladder you can't climb?")

An Overview of Illusionist Magic 

Figments
Example Spells: Phantasmal Force, Audible Glamer, Spectral Force
These use light and force to trick the senses. They may create sensations of light, heat, sound, or touch. However, they are not real. It is like a hologram. They are images and cannot be touched. They cannot change the nature of something -- A real sound cannot be altered, though a figment could make noise.

In order to produce a figment you must be familiar with the creature, object, sound or whatever you are producing. Familiar means you've experienced it with the sense you're trying to trick in real life.

Being unreal, means that they cannot damage creatures, support weight, feed people, or various other effects. This does not mean people cannot believe they are hurt, but any damage they think they have taken is simply subdual damage.

Glamour
Example Spells: Change Self, Invisibility
Glamours use light and force to affect an object, making it somehow look, feel, or taste differently. Otherwise it works as a figment that appears to change the nature of an object. Like figments, they are not real. It changes appearance and sensation only.

Patterns
Example Spells: Color Spray, Hypnotic Pattern
Patterns create visual displays of light and color, but these directly affect the mind. Belief is a non-factor in these spells -- they are handled much like charms.

Phantasm
Example Spells: Fear, Phantasmal Killer
A phantasm creates an illusion that exists only in the mind of a target. It is a magical effect targeting their mind and is not perceivable to anyone in the real world, other than by the effects it has.

Shadow
Example Spells: Shadow Monsters, Shadow Magic
These spells are not entirely illusions, but are partially real! They have real effects just like normal magic user spells, as noted in their description.

Concentrating: Some spells last as long as you concentrate on them. This prevents you from casting spells or making attacks [Standard Actions], but allows you to move or take other actions [Move Actions].

Adjudicating Illusions (Figments and Glamours)

Most illusions are simple to adjudicate. Shadow spells, phantasms, patterns, and more traditional magics all have their results spelled out in the spell.

But the pièce de résistance of the illusionist is the Figment and the Glamour: The spells most open to creativity and most likely to be shut down by the Dungeon Master. What is a fair way to adjudicate these spells? (Figments below refers to figments and glamours in every case). Super simple guidelines and rules follow:

Figments look real: Any creature (player or monster) that can perceive a figment or glamour receives no saving throw and believes that it's real and acts accordingly. If a player casts a phantasmal force of a 20' x 20' pit that's 20' deep in a room, and then a bunch of hobgoblins enter the room, each hobgoblin will treat the pit as if it is real.

Figments can't do real damage: If one of those hobgoblins is knocked into the "pit", that hobgoblin would receive a saving throw versus spells to disbelieve the illusion. On a successful save they would disbelieve the illusion. On a failed save, they would take 2d6 subdual damage from the "fall" and then realize after that the pit was an illusion, because even though they can see it, they are still clearly lying on the 'floor' level.

Figments continue to exist after being disbelieved: All the other hobgoblins see the hobgoblin "fall" and just hit the floor, they don't need a saving throw to disbelieve. At this point, every hobgoblin can clearly tell that the pit is an illusion. The figment is still visible as a translucent outline to those that know it is false.

Often people might descend into arguments like "The hobgoblins were fighting! They wouldn't see!" or trying to get very specific about the fictional reality. The important fact is we are playing a game. Figment spells are usually low level (generally 1-3) and exist primarily for the purpose of battlefield influence and control or trickery. Generally they are not expected to last much beyond their first interaction. The trick is in creating a situation where their influence won't be tested and will continue to assist the party.

Figments and Glamours inhibit behavior: If the figment is believed, then the subject will act as if the figment is real. If there is some question about taking a risk versus an illusion a morale roll is a good method for adjudicating the subject behavior. This is especially useful because this method means that undead and constructs are generally unlikely to let illusions modify their behavior.

Figments are not mind control: If a figment does not successfully duplicate the effects of its representation, then it is disbelieved without a saving throw. I can use Phantasmal Force to create the illusion of a wall of fire across the room, but anyone approaching within 10' will instantly disbelieve the illusion because there is no thermal component. Creating an illusion of a pit falling open in front of a monster with no sound? Instant disbelief for everyone in hearing range of the pit. Pits don't fall open with a clatter or bang.

Figments can trick the target: You can create an illusion of a wall over a hallway, and unless touched the illusion will be believed. If your illusion of fire is a Spectral Force, then getting close enough to feel the heat forces a save, not automatic disbelief. On a failed save, passing through the fire causes subdual damage from the imagined pain. If you fail a save versus a figment, you believe it, until you are provided new evidence to the contrary or told that it's an illusion, both forcing new saves.

Figments are expected follow normal rules: A Spectral Force of a fire subject to a deluge of water will be automatically disbelieved if the fire continues to burn.

Figments cannot duplicate spells: You cannot create a figment of a 'fireball', for several reasons -- primarily because fireball is instantaneous, consisting of heat and force (which figments cannot produce). Figments and glamours produce primarily images, along with sounds, smells and temperature changes. The illusionists ability to mimic magic user spells are covered by the shadow spells. Attempting to use a Figment to do so will fail.

Interacting with Figments provides a save: Whenever you have an opportunity or chance to interact with a figment a saving throw is made. This saving throw may be modified by a number of factors, but is usually only modified from -4 to +4. Factors that may modify a save include:

• +1 for every hit die the subject has higher than the level of the illusionist
• -1 for every level the illusionist is higher than the subject
• +4 (or more) if the illusionist is not familiar at all with the image produced by his illusion
• -1 to -4 for the degree of familiarity the illusionist has with the image produced by the illusion 
• No modifier at all if the illusion is familiar (i.e. has seen or studied for a turn) the subject of the figment. 
• Situational modifiers that may increase or decrease the likely-hood that the illusion is believed. 
• Dumb or gullible creatures are more likely to believe illusions. Smart, genius, canny, or skeptical individuals may be less likely to believe illusions, though they are not immune. (reference wisdom defense bonus)

Illusionists are skilled at producing figments: This means that, in general, reasons that the DM might think of that the illusion won't work outright are also things that the illusionist is aware of. The illusionist is assumed to be skilled. When the illusion is being described, the players and DM should discuss any obvious problems or issues with the illusion. The object is not to 'trick', stymie, or remove the power of the illusionist -- the goal is to understand what is being produced so it can be adjudicated fairly.

These should provide clear guidelines for adjudicating illusions fairly.

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On Locks and Keys: Redux

This post was originally published in 2014. This is part of an effort to update and archive these posts on the "Links to Wisdom" wiki.

So for the past year or so, we've been playing with the BURP lock system in Numenhalla.

After extensive playtesting, we've found it to be somewhat unsatisfactory.

BURP Lockpicking

In short, a lock has a number of pins. Each pin has an action that will set it, allowing you to go to the next pin. If you guess an adjacent option the pin gets stiff. If you guess an option farther distant, the pin jams.

The actions are, Bump, Undulate, Rake, and Probe.

Pro's: If you have a Dragon Shadow Double Pin brand lock (BBUU), and the players record the sequence, then the next time they run into a Dragon Shadow Double Pin, then they already know how to get past it. You can have related locks (Like a Dragon Shadow Triple Pin (BBBUUU)) allowing players to use their previous collected "Lockpick spellbook" to assist with future locks. Con's: The process of selecting which pin is completely random and uninfluenced by player skill. Why? There is always a "Best Option" and when there is more than one choice, there's no information to use to decide which is best, making the choice random. Since all the player choices are random, you could essentially just calculate a percentage chance of success and roll the dice to save time!

You could calculate a percentage chance of success and roll the dice to save time!

I wonder where I've seen that before?

A new solution

What we're looking for is a minigame that involves player choice and considers character skill. Mastermind seems like an excellent option (for example), but it isn't a mini-game. It's really a whole game, and would occur far too frequently in a megadungeon environment with many locked doors.

So here's my new solution!

Yahtzee locks
Locks have a set number of pins. The number of these pins is unknown to the lockpicker.
Players receive a pool of D6's. They may roll these dice once and turn in the dice in to pick a certain number of pins.

For example, if you turn in a single pair, let's say two 4's on the dice, that will set a single pin. If you turn in a set of triples, you set two pins. A full house (a pair, and triples) will set four pins.

If you have a lockpicking skill, at certain thresholds/levels/whatever, you gain the ability to reroll any number of the dice you wish, once, twice, or more. If you have a reroll and your dice come up 1,2,2,3,4,4 you could choose to reroll the two's and three's to go for more fours, or reroll the 3 to get a full house. The 1 would be pulled from your die pool.

Again, the player decides when to turn in dice to set pins and they don't know how many pins the lock has.

Anytime you roll a 1, that dice is removed from your pool for this lock. You start each new lock with a fresh pool of dice. If you fail to set all the pins, you jam the lock and it will no longer open.

Viola! Meaningful player choice, a reason to track locks, and something that takes into account player skill.

Here is the table:

Dice Set	Number of Pins set
Doubles	1
Triples	2
Four of a Kind	5
Five of a Kind	8
Small Straight (4 in a row)	5
Large Straight (5 in a row)	8
Full House	4

• Characters get a number of dice (1d6) equal to 1/2 their level (minimum 1) in their lockpick die pool.
• Thieves/Experts get a number of dice (1d6) equal to their level + 1 in their lockpick die pool.
• Characters get a number of bonus dice equal to their AC bonus from Dexterity added to their pool.
• You need lockpicks to pick a lock
• Masterwork or excellent lockpicks allow a free reroll.
• For percentile editions, every 20% you get in your lockpicking you get an additional 2 dice and an additional reroll.
• For Skills, the middle road: Untrained devices just grants you your dice as listed above. For each level (Skilled/Expert/Master) you gain +2 dice and a free reroll. So a master in devices would have +6 dice and could reroll 3 times. (Note that experts still get their 1 free mulligan per level, which can apply to any single die rolled in this pool)

How many pins does a lock have? Generally a number of pins equal to 1d6 per dungeon level.

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On What to Do With a Dragon Corpse

My players were about to leave Thundertree, when they decided to look around to find a certain missing amulet. While they found the amulet, they also found a strangely attired group of humanoids.

Failing their stealth roll, they were invited in for tea and a strongly worded offer.

Thull explained how the dragon cult helped his sick grandmother out and provided for his every need. He explained that they quite successfully recruited dragons, he himself having never heard of a dragon refusing an offer of the dragon cult. And he strongly suggested that the players that had been spotted and invited in join, because he'd much rather be their friends than have to offer them to the dragon also.

The players agreed and the cultists got to walk outside of the door before the rest of the party attacked. The bard put dissonant whispers in the mind of the leader, who fled screaming.

The murder of several dozen cultists is not the quietest activity, especially not when one of them has taken psychic damage and is screaming as loudly as he can in draconic, which no one in the party can speak.

Shortly, the ground shakes as Venomfang roars, quite upset about having being woken from his slumber. The raging reckless frenzied barbarian, tired of the shrieking madness of the cult leader, runs up to him and splits him in twain. The Dragon climbs to the top of the tower and flies towards the party, landing right in front of the dead cult leader and the barbarian standing over his corpse.

"WHO DARES DISTURB THE SLUMBER OF THE MIGHTY AND POWERFUL VENOMFANG?!"

The bard, being the bard, attempts to talk Venomfang down. She says "Oh, great and mighty dragon, we come only to bask in awe of your mighty form." Using the updated 5th edition modifications to the "On the Non-Player Character" social system, she rolls for the Honor action and gets a 26, changing his mood from hostile to neutral.

Then it is the raging reckless frenzied barbarian's turn to act. She attacks twice. Combat is joined.

It doesn't matter how powerful your dragon is. When you lose initiative against six players, you're going to have a bad time.

By the time Venomfang got to act, he had already lost nearly 100 hit points. The dragon took flight, and breathed on as many targets as he could. Two targets, only being the barbarian and the 1/2 orc monk. Venomfang did 56 points of damage. You'd think this would be deadly to a 1st level monk and a 3rd level barbarian. They both save. 28 hit points leaves the barbarian with 10, and the monk, being a half-orc, is not killed outright, so remains standing with 1 hit point.

How upset is Venomfang at this point?

Not nearly as upset as he is as he fails his saving throw against Tasha's Hideous Laughter when he's 30 feet in the air.

So, the point of todays post is, 

What can you do with a dragon corpse.

Essences

There is very little value in fighting monsters, except for the value of the monster itself. ACKS uses "Monster parts" that's defined as having a value in gold equal to the experience point value of the monster, arbitrarily assigning each unit a weight of 5 stone for 300 gold.

Essences work differently in that you can acquire 1 per hit die of the creature you kill. They are worth 10 gold towards crafting a relevant item or spell research, or may be sold for half price to recoup some value. In a system that is essentially on a silver standard such as Lamentations of the Flame Princess or 5th edition, then this value is reduced to 10 silver.

Dragons, being magical creatures, can provide up to 3 times the normal essence as a more mundane creature. That means a 16 hit die creature like Venomfang can produce up to 48 essences. You may extract essence from the blood, the flesh, and the brain. Note that this is an all or nothing affair. You can either have the corpse, or you can reduce it to essence. Turn the flesh into essence, no dragon armor for you.

This means totally breaking down the dragons corpse grants 480 gold, which is just in line for the amount of treasure handed out in Phandlever and Hoard of the Dragon Queen.

Armor

Dragon Hide makes excellent scale mail armor. It can also be used to craft a shield. It cannot be used to make other kinds of armor, select the rationale for such a decisions from the following list: verisimilitude, balance, simplicity.

A medium dragon produces 1 hide-unit of armor. A large dragon produces 3 hide-units of armor. A huge dragon produces 5 hide-units of armor. A unit of armor produces a medium sized shield, helm, or mantle (cloak). Two hide-units produce a medium sized suit of scale mail armor.

This is assuming the dragon was slain in normal melee combat. If the party takes care to do as little damage to the hide as possible (blunt weapons, sleep spells), then add 1 hide unit to a medium dragon, 2 to a large, and 3 to a huge dragon. If the party is particularly vicious in their attack on the dragon (arrows, many sword blows, violent spells), feel free to reduce the hide-unit values appropriately.

Dragon hide armor is resistant to the element the dragon breathes, and is easily enchantable. This can work however your rules system manages, but generally reduce the costs to enchant dragon hide armor, helms, shields and cloaks by half.

Dragon hide is consumed if the flesh of the dragon is converted into essence.

Note that good or evil, no dragon looks favorably upon someone wearing their skin.

Blood

The blood is a deadly poison if ingested, causing death if eaten or swallowed on a failed saving throw versus poison at -4, (or a DC 15 Constitution save, or DC 18 Fortitude save, depending on your system.) It has no poison effect via contact, inhaled or injury, although it is strongly corrosive against most metals and rocks, causing them to become brittle and prone to breakage over time (weeks).
If you bathe in the blood (requiring 40 gallons for a medium creature, half that for a small creature) you are cured of any diseases, any poisons are neutralized, and you gain 1d12 years of life, as a potion of longevity. After a single bath, the blood is useless for any other purpose.
There are 2 gallons of blood in a medium dragon, 10 gallons in a large dragon, and 500 gallons in a huge dragon. Blood sells for the same price it breaks down into if transmuted into essence, 10 gold pieces per hit die. The Dragon blood is consumed if the dragon blood is broken down into essence.

Bones

Dragon bones, horns, teeth, and claws, can be used to create staves, wands, rods, weapons and trinkets. A medium dragon produces 4 bone-units, a large dragon produces 16 bone-units, and a huge dragon produces 256 bone-units.

Why don't I include stats for a gargantuan dragon? Because get out of here. If you're killing a CR 24 gargantuan dragon, you don't need to be scavenging it for parts, leave that for the mortals.

As with other dragon parts, these reduce the cost of enchantment of items by half.
A wand or trinket (amulet, etc.) or small weapon costs 1 bone unit.
A rod or medium weapon costs 2 bone units.
A staff or large weapon costs 4 bone units.
A single bone unit can produce 10 arrows or bolts.

The dragon bones are consumed if the dragon bones are broken down into essences.

Brain

It is possible to consume a dragon brain to gain great power. It is also possible to die horribly. Make a saving throw versus poison when eating the brain or regurgitate the brain, ruining it and losing all benefit. (Constitution DC 10 save for medium, DC 15 save for large, DC 20 save for huge, or DC 10 + Dragon's hit die Fortitude save).
On a success, violent changes occur inside your body. Make a system shock roll or die. (Constitution DC 3 for medium, DC 5 for large, or DC 10 for huge, or DC 2 + 1/2 dragons hit die Fortitude save). If you live roll 2d8 on the following table:
2 You believe you are the dead dragon. Act accordingly.
3 You gain 1 hit point per hit die permanently.
4 You gain 1 point of Strength and Constitution. This can exceed your normal maximum.
5 You gain the ability to smell gold (As Treasure Finding, once a day)
6 You gain magic/spell resistance of 10% (SR of 5 + Character level, or advantage on all saves versus spells)
7 You gain 1,000 experience points times your level.
8 Gain 1 point of intelligence and 1 point of wisdom. This can exceed your normal maximum.
9 Gain 1-4 points of intelligence. This can exceed your normal maximum.
10 Gain 2 points of wisdom. This can exceed your normal maximum.
11 You gain 1d10 x 500 experience points.
12 You gain the ability to cast charm person 3 times a day.
13 You gain 1 point of Dexterity and Constitution. This can exceed your normal maximum.
14 Your eyes glow red, and you gain a 10 foot aura of dragon fear activatable at will.
15 Your skin becomes tough and resilient to damage. Gain a +2 bonus to armor class (+2 natural armor).
16 Gain immunity to the dragons breath weapon type.

The dragon's brain is consumed if the dragon's flesh is broken down into essence.

Eyes

The dragons eyes may be swallowed. This follows the same procedure for swallowing the brain above.  If successful, the eyes replace (painfully) the eaters natural eyes, granting them dragon sight. This has several effects.

The eyes bulge unnaturally, extruding from the face. The orbs are the color of the dragon with vertical pupils. You gain Blindsight out to 15 feet, and darkvision out to 30 feet per size of the dragon, i.e. Medium is 15/30, Large is 30/60, and Huge is 45/90. Also, roll percentiles:
01-10 see into ethereal plane
11-30 see invisibility
31-70 no additional effect
71-90 detect magic
91-00 true seeing

The dragon's eyes are consumed if the dragon's flesh is broken down into essence.

Gallstones

There is a chance that a dragon has magical stones in it's kidneys, gall bladder, or gut. 1d4+1 stones may be found. There is a 40% chance of a medium dragon, an 80% chance for a large dragon, and a 20% for a huge dragon to have 2d4+2 (huge dragons always have 1d4+1 stones). These are Ioun stones and their effects are generated randomly.

The dragon's stones are consumed if the dragon's blood is broken down into essence.

Heart

Eating the heart of a dragon has different effects depending on the size of the dragon.

Eating the heart of a medium dragon affects the eater as if they were  under the effects of a haste spell. There are two servings of the heart.

Eating the heart of a large dragon affects the eater as if they were under the effects of a haste spell and a heroism potion (of the appropriate class). There are 4 servings of the heart.

Eating the heart of a huge dragon affects the eater as if they were under the effects of a haste spell, a super-heroism potion, and and the spell aid cast by a 15th level cleric. There are 8 servings of this heart.

In any case a system shock roll (Constitution DC 3 for medium, DC 5 for large, or DC 10 for huge, or DC 2 + 1/2 dragons hit die Fortitude save) must be made after the effect ends to avoid dying.

The dragon's heart is consumed if the dragon's blood is broken down into essence.

Tongue

A character may sever their own tongue, and attach a dead dragon's tongue in it's place. This process is dangerous due to the bleeding risk, but rarely fatal. The person attaching the tongue must succeed at a DC 7 Healing check (DC 20 Medicine check, DC 25 Heal check) on a success, roll on the following table:
1 Saving throw difficulty of your spells increased by 1.
2 Blindsight 10 foot radius.
3 ability to detect poison in a 5 foot radius.
4 verbal charisma based skills (persuasion, charisma, bluff) increased by 2 points.

On a failed healing/medicine check, the attachment was botched, and you speak with a lisp or slur. This causes you to fail casting spells with a verbal component 1 in 5 times (20% spell failure chance).

The dragon's tongue is consumed if the dragon's flesh is broken down into essence.

This is available in permanent form as a Pandect for free from DTRPG. If you like this content, you can support it on Patreon and get advertisement free versions of the pandects. This post was originally published on October 17, 2014

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Hack & Slash 

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