Author Topic: Suggestions for an attack mechanic  (Read 1085 times)

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Offline Jengada

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Suggestions for an attack mechanic
« on: August 18, 2017, 03:20:24 PM »
I'm making up a creature, and trying to figure out how to best build its attack mechanic. It's basically a worm/snake that crawls into sleeping victims' mouths or noses, then kills them and takes control of the body. Right now my best idea is an RR to wake up, then have i do some sort of Con damage per round if the person, or someone else, doesn't stop it. Other ideas are like the spell Fire Nerves, doing a % of HP each round.
Thoughts, or analogous monsters?

We ask the hard questions here, because they keep us too busy to worry about the hard questions in the real world, and we can go with the answers we like the best.

Offline Spectre771

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Re: Suggestions for an attack mechanic
« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2017, 11:51:38 AM »
This sounds sufficiently creepy!!  Eesh!

How is the creature killing the host?  Poison, physical destruction of vital organs?  How will it be controlling the host afterward?  I'm imagining Mentalism to at least control the brain functions of the host.  There are plenty of mind control spells within the Mentalism Realm.  What level of intelligence will the creature have?  Primal survival instincts, mildly cunning like a chimpanzee, human-like intelligence?

If you have access or use RM2, one of the later Companions has the Maleficant which has awesome spell lists that would suit this type of worm creature very well.
If discretion is the better valor and
cowardice the better part of judgment,
let's all be heroes and run away!

Offline Jengada

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Re: Suggestions for an attack mechanic
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2017, 02:50:56 PM »
I was thinking the killing would be by suffocation and heart-stoppage, basically. Poison would be a good option, I just hadn't considered it. The creature needs the muscles, or at least the skeleton, intact or it won't have anything to animate. They're not intelligent, they're primally driven - they're in a near-arctic environment, and once a body is obtained, they then use it only until they find a new, warm body to take over.

I'll check the Maleficant, I've got most of the RM2 Companions.

If I wanted to be particularly gruesome, now that you have me thinking, I would have it steal the nervous system from the brain down, and just take over the body. The victim would still have its mind and some senses, but the body is off-line, basically. Hmmm.
We ask the hard questions here, because they keep us too busy to worry about the hard questions in the real world, and we can go with the answers we like the best.

Offline Spectre771

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Re: Suggestions for an attack mechanic
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2017, 03:30:57 PM »

If I wanted to be particularly gruesome, now that you have me thinking, I would have it steal the nervous system from the brain down, and just take over the body. The victim would still have its mind and some senses, but the body is off-line, basically. Hmmm.

That's what I was envisioning.  The Maleficant spell lists would be fun and a good portion of the Mentalist lists as well.  I figured if the worm was going in through the nose, the 1st stop is the frontal lobe.  Through the ears, head to the cerebral cortex.
If discretion is the better valor and
cowardice the better part of judgment,
let's all be heroes and run away!