Dread

[tbone]

A picky point: Draugr aren't listed as "truly evil" and lack Dread, so I don't think Turning and holy items would have an effect.

("Well, these draugr are truly evil" is, of course, an acceptable response. : )

A tangent: Looks like Turning doesn't have a "facing". Might be a little more interesting if it did: say, targets outside the cleric's front hexes suffer lesser effect. Tougher to game out, but it'd yield the fun effect of the zombie horde circling around the cleric, who'd have to keep whipping around to repel zombies drawing too close from behind...

Another tangent: Given the completeness of monster stats in the game, I'm a little surprised that vulnerability to Turning isn't explicitly made a monster disadvantage and specified among traits (presumably as a type of Dread). Oh well, it's clear enough which creatures are subject to it; not a problem.

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by tbone

A picky point: Draugr aren't listed as "truly evil" and lack Dread, so I don't think Turning and holy items would have an effect.

("Well, these draugr are truly evil" is, of course, an acceptable response. : )

A tangent: Looks like Turning doesn't have a "facing". Might be a little more interesting if it did: say, targets outside the cleric's front hexes suffer lesser effect. Tougher to game out, but it'd yield the fun effect of the zombie horde circling around the cleric, who'd have to keep whipping around to repel zombies drawing too close from behind...

Another tangent: Given the completeness of monster stats in the game, I'm a little surprised that vulnerability to Turning isn't explicitly made a monster disadvantage and specified among traits (presumably as a type of Dread). Oh well, it's clear enough which creatures are subject to it; not a problem.

And unlike Skeletons and Zombies, there is no note about "magic to animate is usually true evil". In my case, however, they were summoned by a unique power by a very evil supernatural being so there's that.

[Dalin]

My recollection of running the reiði encounter in Forest's End was that the party couldn't have possibly survived without the cleric.

I used a spreadsheet to preroll the turning vs. skeletons so I knew how many would be at each range. (And I ran it a few times in case the cleric was forced to drop concentration and start over.) Some of them were unaffected and needed to be fought. Others were able to get close enough to threaten other PCs. Many were able to throw things and otherwise harry the party from a distance. Mostly, though, they acted as a terrifying backdrop... if the cleric went down, the party would be overrun.

When they reached the reiði's chamber, it couldn't approach too close, but the room was large enough that it could always keep the PCs in sight if it wanted to. It ducked into the walls a lot and popped out to use its Drink Life ability against the PCs. Focusing on the cleric, it forced her to drop her Turning a few times to heal up. This changed the configuration of skeletons which forced the other PCs to split their focus. As much as possible, the rest of the party tried to figure out how to do enough damage to the reiði in one turn to drop the thing. I don't remember how they pulled it off in the end, but even with the cleric, it was a very tense fight.

[benz72]

If it is in a dungeon it controls why does it not have nasty traps or ranged defenses it can use to mess with the cleric? Get the druger to drop a slime on him, or throw a basket with a swarm of (snakes? Stirges? Beehives?) to break his concentration. Or have them light fire to a prepared section of tar in the hallway. Really anything to break his concentration so they can close and whomp him.

[sir_pudding]

I generally woud interpret "Holy Items" as magic items that have holy origin (and therefore respond to sanctity instead of mana) and not include ordinary runes and hammers.