Having been granted rulership over the city of Vanhoover, and confessed their feelings for each other, Lex Legis and Sonata Dusk have started a new life together. But the challenges of rulership, and a relationship, are more than they bargained for.
“Hey!”
Hearing his girlfriend’s voice, Lex glanced over and saw her trotting towards him, grinning and waving. “Whaddaya think?” she called, an action which everypony else apparently regarded as a signal to take a break, because they immediately dropped their makeshift tools and began milling about, several shooting glances their way as they struck up conversations with their fellows. Either oblivious or uncaring, Sonata continued to trot toward him. “Just like you ordered: a whole buncha ho-whoops!” Her report was cut off as she almost stepped in one of the tiny pits in the ground, sending her stumbling. Managing to catch herself, she laughed good-naturedly as her mistake. “These’ll totes trip up any ghoul that wanders into them.”
But Lex couldn’t have been less amused by her antics. For a brief instant he considered letting her know just how useless her efforts had been, but there was no time to dwell on that now. “Sonata, I want you to listen to me very carefully,” he spoke softly, making sure his voice didn’t carry. “Take everypony and gather them in the center of the camp. Put the elderly, young, and the sick toward the center, with the healthiest on the outside. Try and make sure the ponies on the outer edge are armed, and instruct everypony to light a ring of fire around the grou-”
“Whoa, whoa, slow down!” Gesticulating wildly to punctuate her gesture, Sonata gave him a confused look. “What’s going on, now? Is this some more anti-ghoul stuff?”
Lex winced slightly at her outburst, glancing around to make sure that she hadn’t attracted too much attention before continuing. “Yes. They’re going to be here in an hour, which means that there’s no more time to focus on fortifications. The only thing everypony can do now is establish the most defensible formation that they can.” He paused to think for a moment, before amending his previous orders. “The ghouls are coming here from the city, so make sure that the most capable ponies are on the western edge of the group. C. Shells’ crew are the optimal choice, since they have combat experience. They’ll need to work with makeshift weapons, but…what are you doing?”
While he’d been speaking, Sonata had reared up on her back legs, holding her left foreleg up vertically while laying her right foreleg perpendicular across her hoof, making a “T” gesture. “Calling for a timeout,” she explained, before falling back onto all fours with a huff, “since otherwise you would have kept rambling.”
“I was not ram-” He cut himself off with a sigh, closing his eyes and taking a long moment to pull himself together. We don’t have time for this! “Sonata, this needs to happen right now.”
“I get that,” she insisted. “I just wanted to ask what you’re going to be doing?”
Lex cast a glance back toward his saddlebags. “Coming up with a plan.”
“Hmm…” She gave him a suspicious look then, before adding. “I’ll go round up the ponies, but then I’m coming back here and checking on you.” Not waiting for a reply, she turned and started to call for everyone’s attention, telling them to head back into camp. The assembled ponies seemed quite happy to call it quits for the day, quickly dropping their tools and trotting back toward the assembled fires. Sonata was one of the last to leave, shooting him a pointed look before disappearing around the side of the medical tent.
She wants to fight the ghouls alongside me, Lex knew. Despite being one of the least intellectual ponies he’d ever met, Sonata had often displayed keen insight into the dispositions of others, including himself. But for once, he felt confident about what she was thinking as well; her pointed question about what he would be doing had quite clearly telegraphed that she was under the impression – correctly so – that he intended to battle the undead horde personally. Worse, her statement about coming back, taken in conjunction with her earlier displeasure that he’d faced Xiriel without her, made her intentions obvious. The thought was enough to fill Lex with low-grade anxiety. Why didn’t she understand that the last thing he wanted was for her to be anywhere near danger? That worrying about her would erode his ability to concentrate on what needed to be done?
He recalled the Night Mare’s words then, chastising him for trying to do everything on his own. The memory made him scowl, but it did bring his thoughts back around to focus on what he needed to do now. Hopefully Sonata would be so caught up with getting everypony together that she wouldn’t have a chance to do anything else. In the meantime… “Severance!”
For a moment he couldn’t see if the scythe was responding to his call; when the work crew had left, they’d taken the light-bearing unicorns with them. With the medical tent between him and almost all of the campfires, he was blanketed in darkness and barely able to see anything. Even so, Lex didn’t move, keeping his eyes on the night-shrouded west. Sure enough, a moment later Severance floated into view, having obeyed the last orders he’d given it: to stay alert for anything that wasn’t a pony.
Slightly pleased that it had been effectively guarding Sonata and the workers from any ghouls that might have gotten ahead of the others, Lex decided to keep his satisfaction to himself. He was still mad at the thing for letting Cloudbank and the others die, after all. Instead, he grabbed the blade in his telekinesis, bringing it alongside him. “Light your blade,” he commanded it tersely. A moment later, the scythe obediently glowed with purplish fluorescent light, and Lex moved on to the next order of business. “Did anything try to approach the camp?”
When the weapon answered in the negative, Lex knew it was time to get down to business. Slowly, he emptied his saddlebags, letting Severance go as he held each item in his telekinetic grip. Silently, his eyes slid over the various gemstones and the scroll tube, considering each one in turn.
His eyes lingered longest on the oversized ruby, letting his circlet examine it magically as he remembered what the Night Mare had said about it. “Use it to bring Cloudbank back to life.” Just the thought that she’d given him a resurrection spell was enough to send a shudder of excitement down his spine, despite the situation he was in. The Night Mare might have meant for him to use it before he fought the ghouls, but Lex had no intention of doing so. Not only was bringing someone back from the dead only to immediately subject them to a life-or-death battle foolish, but if he cast the spell directly from where it had been embedded in the ruby then it would be gone for good, denying him the chance to study it and potentially learn how to cast the spell on his own…and if he could do that, then he could potentially bring anyone back to life! Just that thought was enough to make his mind swirl at the possibilities, and it was a long moment before slowly placing the ruby back in his saddlebag.
It was only after it had been stowed that he turned his attention to the other five gems. Despite their myriad effects, which could be reaped indefinitely rather than only once, Lex couldn’t help but regard them critically in comparison to the promise that the oversized ruby offered. Still, the ruby’s ability to restore the dead to life would be of no help in the upcoming battle, whereas these smaller gems – with their ability to enhance their user – would, even if only a little. But then again, that little had made all the difference when he’d fought that belier devil scant hours ago.
Holding the five gems aloft, Lex released them one by one, each of them adopting a different orbit as they began to revolve around his head. First the orange prism, which would enhance his spellcasting. Then the pale green prism, with its slight boost to his overall competence, followed by its dusty rose counterpart and the modest defensive precognition it granted. The iridescent spindle was fourth, and Lex fought down a shudder as he released it, remembering how it had enabled him to cast a spell without breathing when his lung had been punctured. But with the fifth gem, the scarlet and blue sphere, Lex hesitated. This had been the only one of those five gems that did him no good at all, being filled with knowledge that he already possessed regarding the manipulation of magic items. Utilizing it now would gain him nothing, and it was with a curled lip that he shoved it back into his saddlebag.
That left only the scroll…
Looking at it again via his circlet, Lex confirmed once again the numerous magical auras on it, and that he had no way of conclusively determining if they were from embedded spells or active magical traps. Not without conducting more testing, which would require time he didn’t have and spells he hadn’t prepared. I should just put this away until I can examine it safely, he knew, but the thought had no conviction behind it. It was possible that the magic this contained would aid him in combating the ghouls. After all, the scroll that he’d taken from that green dragon’s horde had proven to be invaluable when he’d fought Lirtkra; there was every reason to believe, with how many auras of powerful magic this scroll had, that the same thing would happen here. Besides, Xiriel had been arrogant enough that it was entirely plausible that it hadn’t bothered to lace the scroll with any further protection. But if I’m wrong…
Frowning as he realized that he was procrastinating, Lex pushed his doubts away. With disaster an hour or less away, there was nothing to do but take the risk! Firmly grasping the scroll tube in his telekinesis, Lex moved it a dozen feet away from himself just to be safe, and then slowly removed the scroll from the casing. Confirming that the case itself had no magical aura, he let it fall to the ground, turning his full attention to the rolled parchment. Gritting his teeth, he unrolled it all at once.
When nothing happened, Lex let out a slow breath. So far so good, but that didn’t rule out other ways that the scroll’s contents might be protected. Tentatively, he took a step closer to the scroll, his eyes squinting as he examined the first line of-
The explosion caught him completely by surprise.
“Look, I know you had to seduce her-”
“Sedate her!” interrupted House Call, fighting down a blush. “Miss Newsy was becoming hysterical, so we had to sedate her!”
“Right,” nodded Sonata, clearly not understanding the difference. “But I totes need to get everyone all together, so if you could just wake h-”
She didn’t get a chance to finish as a huge boom filled the air, as though someone had just set off some dynamite, causing her to jump. She wasn’t the only one, as all around her ponies were crying out in shock. “What the heck was that?!” she yelped, adding her voice to the growing chorus of panic, looking toward the back of the medical tent. That had seriously freaked her out! Lex had probably had it worse though, since that sounded like it had been super close to…to where he…
A moment later Sonata put two and two together, and the blood drained from her face. “L-Lex!” she yelled as she struggled to overcome her shock, lurching forward as she broke into a run, circling the tent. “LEX!”
Rounding the tent, her heart jumped into her throat as she saw her boyfriend lying on the ground, unmoving. Barely noticing Severance hovering a few feet away from him, she ran to his side, shaking him heavily. “Lex! Oh geez! Wake up! C’mon, wake up!” She looked around, and was about to yell for help when he groaned, starting to stir. “Lex!” This time her cry was one of relief, hugging him tightly.
“‘m alright…” he muttered. “The scroll…”
But Sonata wasn’t listening, doing her best to pick him up and drag him back toward the front of the medical tent, barely noticing the crowd that was starting to form. “C’mon, I’ll get the doctor-”
“No!” Somehow, he managed to wrench himself away from her, stumbling as he moved in the opposite direction. “I have to…get the scr-, no…” He stopped suddenly, staring at a patch of ground a few feet away.
Giving an incredulous shake of her head, Sonata glanced back at the assembled ponies. Seeing House Call there, she went over to him and lowered her voice. “Listen, could you do like with Nosey and seduce him a little? He’s not going to-, um, Doctor?” She blinked, wondering why he was groaning and putting his face in his hooves. “What? What’d I say?”
Oblivious to his girlfriend’s conversation, Lex simply continued to stare at the scraps of paper that were all that was left of the scroll.
Lex takes a chance on that scroll, only for it to blow up in his face. Literally.
What will he do now?
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Looks like Xiriel memorized Explosive Runes the day they made that scroll.
Makes my day to see this on the front page.
Scroll has a user only protection with delay and proximity to give anyone else a very nasty suprise? At least the scroll was useful against the ghouls.
in he feature box excellent.
so the scroll defiantly had / has a trap.
and the battle is approaching fats.
Lex needs to calm down and think out side the box.
Lex's gamble in the scroll's magic certainly blew up in his face, both figuratively and literally. The spell that caused the explosion was most likely something Xiriel planted in case anyone ever decides to steal it from him, like a rival demon seeking to gain power from his labor. Xiriel would be laughing if he could see the look on Lex's face right now.
Hopefully, the loss of the scroll and whatever magic it held will prompt Lex to slow down a bit and come up with a better plan than making a one stallion stand against a horde of ravenous ghouls. Then again, he's rather obstinate when he wants to be but so is Sonata.
As for Nosey...guess she had a panic attack when Sonata's magic wore off and she didn't see Lex nearby. Good thing she was sedated before the explosion or she would have had a heart attack. It's likely that she'll need to be periodically sedated, which would be a drain on the doctors' limited medical supply so Sonata's powers will need to be applied whenever Nosey starts panicking again.
The other alternative would be to let her stay with Lex as a form of therapy though there is a risk that Lex would become a crutch to her and it could become unhealthy. Of course, this is all just conjecture on my part and a pointless one at that if Lex doesn't save everyone from the incoming ghoul rush.
8884153 Technically, it had some other devil cast the spell for it, since Xiriel wasn't a spellcaster per se. But otherwise, you're right about what just happened.
8884224 Lateral Movement was featured?! When?! It's not there now! How did I miss this?!
8884602 Doggone it! How did I not see that this was featured?!
...that said, this is a serious downturn for Lex, since that scroll might very well have contained spells that were the answer to the current crisis. But now...not so much.
8884392 Strictly speaking, the scroll had explosive runes on it, which activate upon being read, not just viewed. Hence why it triggered when Lex started to look at the actual writing on the scroll.
8884612 Lex did indeed trigger a trap on the scroll, placed there for exactly this sort of situation. The real issue here is that the spell in question isn't too terribly dangerous unto itself, but that is destroys the item it's placed on. That's the real cost of this particular trap, since Lex has now lost access to whatever spells were on it. As you said, Xiriel would doubtlessly be laughing at this latest development.
As for how Lex will react to this, it's hard to say. After losing several ponies on his watch, having Nosey brutalized right in front of him, been chewed out by his goddess, given a new crisis to react to, and now this, I suspect that he's at the end of his rope. Unfortunately, that tends to push him into his worst self, which typically means digging his hooves in and being more stubborn, rather than less. But maybe he'll surprise us; he did just have that tender moment with Sonata, after all.
Regarding Nosey, she certainly started to have some sort of hysterical reaction when Sonata's magic wore off, so for the moment sedating her was probably the best move. But as for her long-term care...that I'm more dubious about. Other than a one-off sight gag in Lesson Zero, I can't recall anything in the show to suggest that Equestria has a mental healthcare system, as there doesn't seem to be any examples of ponies with severe mental health issues that would have spurred such a development. Which is one of the pitfalls of living in such an idyllic society, when you stop and think about it.
8884753
Ah. I considered the initial narrative example a straw-man because I've never really heard of people doing something that dumb in real life, but since you've personally witnessed it, that's different.
Mayyyybe. In my experience, a lot of times the best way is to do 2-3 raids on the dungeon, each time clearing out a certain sub-group and at least a field commander, hiding and carefully resting, and killing the overall boss on the last raid. A lot of times this is done with a few consumable resources, but not a huge dip in them. If you use up most of your renewable/per day resources but very few consumables, would you consider that nova-ing? I'm honestly not sure.
But that's just it, you can't reinforce defenses everywhere at once! (Unless you mean just building a bunch of traps). The thing about dungeons is that they are usually isolated. A cave complex deep in the woods might have a secret tunnel into Nar'voth that leads to an allied tribe of orcs, but can a runner really reach those tribes, and convince them to return in ~12 hours? More realistically, whoever is leading the defenders of the dungeon isn't going to be able to add new resources to the dungeon within less than a day, just optimally deploy those resources in response to the threat. And if the party just wiped out 30-40% of the monsters in the dungeon and looted those rooms, the defenders of the dungeon have a lot less resources to go around on day 2. They can double the watch on certain areas, though that will lead to monsters getting exhausted (assuming those monsters need to sleep). They can barricade and trap corridors with what materials they have on hand or can pull together in half a day. They can send out roving patrols to try and catch the adventurers sleeping, though that means less guards in the complex, and if they want to ensure they find these adventurers they better send out multiple patrols in all directions. They can hand out buffing potions and scrolls, though they would have to tell their minions not to use them until they hear the adventurers around the corner, which means the minions lose a round of moving and attacking.
Your point about a cleric using their scroll of Planar Binding to call in a Glabrezu with a wish makes total sense, if the cleric already had a scroll and was currently sitting on it. Honestly, the way it's described of intensifying all defenses in response to an incursion makes me think it's not about punishing characters for nova-ing, it's about rewarding characters for not nova-ing by having dungeon denizens initially organized in a haphazard manner and poor defensive posture.
This might speak to the differences in our tabletop experience. Most of my time has been spent playing Pathfinder Adventure Paths, which are much more narratively focused and less sandboxy. I agree that in 1st and 2nd Edition and even modern campaigns that are just the GM freestyling, players have an opportunity to pick out a dungeon filled with orcs who are not expecting them, and get a free day of rampaging through an unprepared complex in.
When my party visits a dungeon, it's usually to combat an active, organized threat, who's heard about those adventurers in town asking questions and expects them to show up here any day now, so dungeons we visit are usually already set up like a Day 2 dungeon, on day 1. There are rarely unused scrolls or other buff materials sitting around, the boss has consumed them right before we reached him, and any allied monsters or fiends the dungeon denizens can bring in are already there. In that context, the dungeon is already on alert, so the risk/reward ratio of resting is different.
One other aspect that I totally agree with the author on is, the dungeon boss and his chief lieutenants just running away and taking their loot with them. I think that's a smart and reasonable response to a party that seems quite powerful, and there have been times my party has to to pursue a boss to a second location and fight their way through a second group (while carefully watching the exits) to get whatever McGuffin we needed.
Funny enough, right now in the story Lex is the dungeon denizen, and the ghouls are the adventuring party. The ghoul attack could be considered a "day 2" attack because Lex knows almost exactly when they will arrive, so it's kind of fun watching him strengthen all the defenses.
Sorry, what I meant was, my dispute with Thoth's article has diverged pretty heavily from Lex's prepping against the ghoul threat, so I was trying to seperate them, but I'm too lazy to make 2 seperate comments.
Even mobs need someone to say "let's get 'em!" That said, I could see it playing out something like this:
In the westernmost part of Vanhoover, one clever hungry ghoul has the idea of a bunch of ghouls raiding the camp. He tells the ghouls around them, and they start moving forward, gathering in numbers as they move. Everyghoul hears the commotion and wants to get in on that action, until by the time they reach the eastern edge of the city, most of the ghouls have joined the mob. Does that sound about right? If so, Severance doesn't really have any leaders to target, but he could just start heading straight to the city and start killing the closest ghoul. The ghouls would start moving around him, avoiding him, etc. It would probably buy Lex like 5-15 extra minutes.
Here's a thought: Severance is pretty much indestructible, yes? But if a large enough army of ghouls start attacking him, trying to grapple him, and then forcing a Will Save against his Ego.... 99% of the time they would get themselves killed trying to grapple Sev, or be dominated by Sev, released and killed, but ghoul number 473 might actually grapple Sev, avoid his attack of opportunity, and roll a nat 20 on the will save and control Severance for 24 hours.
8885391
Yeah, I was rather horrified, and had no problem with the lich personally making an appearance in the middle of their rest cycle to slap them around for their tactical screw-up. While they didn't make that mistake again, they were rather sore at me for it, which I found somewhat unfair. To this day, I have a "killer GM" reputation with them...though I consider it a personal victory that the player who's now GMing isn't afraid to kill off a PC if the situation calls for it.
I'm not sure what "best" means in this context, since as I see it it's always more preferable to try and complete your objective in a single surge, since otherwise you're giving your enemies time to regroup (assuming, as mentioned last time, that they're able to do so, i.e. aren't non-intelligent, etc.). Even if they don't find you, they're still going to shore up what defenses they have, and you'll be experiencing some degree of hardship that you weren't before, even if it's just them scattering caltrops, making sure to shout for help, having readied actions prepared, etc.
I should note that when I said "consumable resources" before, I wasn't referring to potions or scrolls or one-shot wondrous items per se. Rather, I was referring to anything that has a per-day limit to it, such as spells, barbarian raging, etc. The idea is that once the party is out of their "best stuff," they're going to fall back regardless of issues of hit points, their tactical situation, etc. This is contrast to things that don't run out, such as how many times the fighter can make a full attack action, for example. Hence, if the party is expending some of those resources to shore up a prepared hiding place (e.g. using a spell slot for a magnificent mansion), working things out with local forces (perhaps using some rounds of bardic music, or a charm monster spell), or otherwise utilizing per-day resources around implementing strategy to shore up their chances of success and minimize their chances of defeat, then that's necessarily going to cut down on their combat ability...which will (or at least, should) make them think more strategically about their combat tactics, since that means that they'll have less to devote to the "walk in, go nova, leave" routine.
It's important to remember that we're talking about two related things here: the idea of a group just using their best per-day abilities and then walking away, and the group engaging with the world as though everyone else was also dynamically active and capable of proactive combat strategy. The two tend to go hand-in-hand, but are distinct issues. Even so, groups that know better than to do the first often know to do the second.
Why not? If you have the manpower, and the equipment/magic, why can't you reinforce everywhere at once? Bear in mind that this doesn't necessarily mean stationing a contingent of troops in every room. Rather, it can mean activating/making new traps (as you noted), setting up signal gongs to alert everyone nearby when there's a fight, prepping spells with a more combative focus this time around, barring and locking doors wherever possible, doubling patrols, burying valuables that your enemies might loot, knocking out bridges or collapsing staircases, or otherwise making it more difficult/costly for your enemies to advance (and, by extension, make their rewards less worthwhile for their efforts). If they have to dimension door down a broken staircase, that's one less spell that they have to use later on as they advance.
"Isolated" is a relative term. Few places are completely inaccessible to the world around them, because that runs into logistical issues of basic things like supplies. Unless they have a staple of clerics casting create food and water, then there's likely to be some sort of locale that they can rely on if they're stationed in any sort of permanent garrison (presuming that they're enemies that need to eat). It might be easy to find food with a low-DC Survival check, but that's not going to feed that many people per day everyday. Moreover, the issue of assistance is that you don't necessarily need to call upon some sort of far-flung contingent of your own troops. It can be anyone who can be convinced to fight for you. If you can use charm animal on a bear, and station it near the entrance, that's a bit of reinforcement right there (even better, have it use scent to track down where the heroes went). Even better if you can reach out to the local druid(s) and bribe them for help. And you don't need to send a runner if someone can use whispering wind or animal messenger, etc.
Okay, but I'm not sure what that has to do with anything. The issue is that they'll try to maximize everything they have, and will presume that another attack is imminent. Whether or not they'll necessarily accomplish their defensive goals is less important than the fact that they'll make the attempt, since doing nothing really isn't feasible. Can you plausibly see any sort of fortified position not going onto a state of heightened alert in the wake of a devastating assault, presuming that a majority of its personnel and resources remain intact?
Considering Pathfinder's anemic rules on sleep deprivation, that's not really a problem, particularly if anti-fatigue measures are in place (e.g. a wand of lesser restoration). Likewise, "doubling the watch" doesn't mean that people sleep less, it means that you're redeploying creatures from less critical areas to reinforce the watch, so the guys who were guarding the prisoners on sub-level three are now near the entrance to supplement the other guys.
Right. This is entirely viable, and likely to be done.
"Roving patrols" are more typically going to be doing cursory checks over a large area, rather than patrolling with the same diligence that they would their home base. Their modus operandi is going to be "get out there, scan the area, and report back." So the issue of "less guards" isn't really one that the PCs will have to deal with. Likewise, most places will know better than to utilize a bunch of search parties sent in random directions; that's what you have someone use Survival for, in order to track them down (or, as mentioned above, supplement that with something that can use Scent). If the PCs are high-enough level to travel magically, chances are that their foes are high-enough level to track them that way too.
You don't lose a round of attacking if you're adopting a defensive position wherein you're waiting for someone else to come to you, since otherwise you wouldn't have done much with that round anyway. Hearing a battle is a Perception DC of -10 (that's "negative ten," and not a "minus ten modifier"), with modifiers for distance and intervening obstacles. The odds are good that once the PCs start to engage in melee, neighboring groups will hear them (to say nothing of an alert being sounded), at which point they'll use one-shot items before joining the fray.
If you have access to it, there's a great article about this in Dungeon #95 (November/December 2002), in the Polyhedron #154 section (this was back from the brief period when both magazines were being bundled together), called "Alert Levels." It was a three-page article on using a systematized metric to generate the level of alertness that the dungeon denizens had and how they acted at each level. I found it to be inspired, to the point where I'd call it recommended reading for a GM. It's a shame it's so obscure now.
It's not about "rewarding" or "punishing" at all. It's about portraying a world that's plausible for its internal logic and self-consistency. One of those is having monsters with human-like intelligence and reasoning acting in a manner that fits with how we'd understand them to act in that situation, barring any sort of information to the contrary. By that regard, it stands to reason that 1) nobody can maintain a period of heightened alert for a long period of time (i.e. multiple days on end), and 2) they will enter such a period in response to an assault being suffered.
Insofar as the issue of that sort of scroll goes, that's kind of what scrolls are for. That is, scrolls function best when holding spells that aren't applicable to most situations, and can't be easily utilized even if prepared (i.e. due to very long casting times, etc.). If you're in a quasi-military installation, it makes sense to prepare combat-related spells, making utility-oriented spells a natural for storing on scrolls. It's why Scribe Scroll is so valuable, since it allows you to basically externalize part of your spell preparation, albeit at a cost. That doesn't mean that they'll always have it, but keeping contingencies like that on hand is a smart tactic if you can afford it.
For what it's worth, I own physical copies of literally every single Adventure Path module that Paizo has ever published, and there are quite a few adversaries in them (albeit not usually the main adversaries) who can hardly be called "active," let alone "organized." I say this because I know I've seen various treasure hordes that still had scrolls, potions, wands, and other magic items that weren't being put to active use at the time. I can't name specifics at the moment, but I suspect that it's not that hard to flip open almost any AP and find them listed there. (It helps that my group is playing through an AP at the moment.) Even then, this doesn't speak to the issue of how the enemies react after a group that's "gone nova and gone home" leaves. If the enemies' position on day two is essentially the same as it was on day one, then that's an issue that - at least to me - creates problems of verisimilitude. The bad guys know what they're doing won't work (it didn't yesterday, after all) so why are they trying the exact same tactic again?
Even then, the bad guys rarely have the PCs number so precisely that they can narrow down when an attack is going to come with any sort of "high alert" precision. A significant number of Adventure Paths have open-ended scenarios included in them, wherein the PCs are able to spend days if not weeks exploring some intermediate area (if you're playing Kingmaker, this could be years) or could alternately skip most of the additional encounters and barrel straight through to the next "scripted" encounter zone. The PCs won't necessarily know the difference, of course, but that's sort of the point; neither do the bad guys. If the PCs are intent on clearing the hex map, then the bad guys might very well not be in any real state of readiness by the time the PCs get there.
Yeah, that happens to. This is something you don't see that often in published modules in my experience, because monsters that run away create some problems (hence why Third Edition dropped morale scores and morale checks altogether), both in terms of genre emulation (i.e. "is it really heroic that we shot all those fleeing orcs in the back?") and mechanics (i.e. "so we fought them once and routed them, getting XP for making them run away...but now do we get XP a second time for tracking them down and killing them? They were still pretty hurt."). It's all too easy to presume that every monster just fights to the death (and ignores other smart tactics, like finishing off a downed opponent so that they can't be healed back up).
Portraying Lex as being the defender has been quite fun for me, particularly since he's not exactly the most "good" of good guys. That, and he's really having to push what he can do in order to maximize his chances of not just winning, but protecting everypony in the process, since the deck is stacked against him pretty hard.
TowerCamp defense for the win!Well, I'd say that it's too late now, but to be fair I'm as guilty of that as you are.
Ah, but who exactly did that? Xiriel seemed pretty confident that Lex would see ghouls overrun the place, don't you think?
That certainly sounds plausible, though I have to wonder if it would really buy Lex that much time. Severance is still subject to the action economy just like everyone else, so the ghouls wouldn't need to swing too wide out to avoid it. After all, if they're taking double moves (or even running), then it's not going to be able to hit that many, since it'll need to stop in order to make attacks. Certainly, it doesn't have much of a reach in order to make attacks of opportunity. Ultimately, there's only so much one individual can do versus a near-literal flood of enemies. Normally the d20 System has very little to say about fighting overwhelming numbers, since it doesn't take things like fatigue and overbearing into account as natural parts of combat (hence why fighters can fight forever, and the grappling rules are...complicated, to say the least), but if your enemies are just trying to run past you, then the bulk of them are almost certainly going to get through. With some damage, maybe, but that's probably not going to be enough to stop them all.
Ego checks don't work like that. Intelligent items can force ego checks against their wielder, but the wielder can't force an ego check against them. Basically, an ego contest occurs when an intelligent item decides that it wants to be the one wielding you, rather than the other way around. Even then, losing it just means that it can't control you, not that you control it; a wielder succeeding on the Will save versus an ego test basically means that the weapon can't take the actions listed in bullet points. (The rules contradict themselves as to whether or not a dominant wielder can use the item's powers against its will, saying "All powers function at the direction of the item, although intelligent items generally follow the wishes of their owner," but also "Unlike its other powers, an intelligent item can refuse to use its dedicated powers even if the owner is dominant," implying that's not the case for its other powers.)
The reason for this is because most intelligent items are immobile. If your "run of the mill" intelligent sword doesn't like that you're wielding it, there's comparatively little it can do about it short of forcing an ego contest (though I've seen a lot of interpretations about what exactly an unhappy weapon can do to spite its wielder). Severance, on the other hand, is completely mobile, and if it doesn't like you grabbing it can just fly away...or use heat metal on itself.
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That's not killer GM, that's suicidal players!
That's true, I'm saying that in general, wiping out about a 30-40% of the forces and confiscating their resources, then returning tomorrow with a full tank, makes sense because an optimized 60-70% is not realistically going to be better than a standard 100%, unless you can sneak up on sleeping enemies and slit throats.
This is tricky. If a party is almost out of per-day abilities but still mostly full health when they leave, are they nova-ing? I guess it depends on defining "best." A 9th level wizard at full health who still has all his 1st level slots (and cantrips, and lets say a wand of magic missile) wants to retreat. Is he nova-ing? I'm not sure, it might be more of a scale than anything.
It's the manpower, equipment and magic I'm referring to. We might be quibbling about the definition of "reinforce." I generally assume reinforcing means adding something additional to the mix from somewhere else, redeploying is moving resources around within a closed system. You're an orc warlord with 100 soldiers guarding 20 rooms, except a bunch of adventurers ran in, killed 40 of your men, and fled. You now have 60 men. You can't reinforce all 20 rooms, but you could go from 5 soldiers in 20 rooms to 15 soldiers in the 4 rooms closest to the entrance the adventurers fled through. I wouldn't call that reinforcing though.
I definitely agree with all of these, and that sounds like stuff that could realistically be accomplished inside the dungeon with a limited time frame.
That's also a good point. Of course, if a smart party figures out an alternate entrance into the dungeon, they might have an even easier time of it on day 2 becauses forces were redeployed out of their way towards the way they left from.
A lot of being a "monster" usually means you can't go into town and buy food, and it often seems to mean you don't practice agriculture. Most of the dungeon denizens that need to eat, in my experience, do so by hunting in the surrounding wilderness, or having a hunting party.
That's the kind of thing that is tricky. So a hunting party, which normally takes a day to hunt up food, tries to track down an animal in the wilderness, make successful handle animal checks, and really hope you had the right spell already prepared that day you knew they were coming, or else the cleric/druid/whatever prepares those spells in the morning and hopes the adventuring party sleeps in.
Again with a lot of these monsters, generally not popular with the neighbors. Most druids hearing from an hobgoblin tribe that they want protection from the local adventuring party are going to laugh into their dragonscale armor.
Also a lot of these monsters aren't the best at diplomacy, so a raven flying up at the next orc tribe over (which would probably take 3-4 days to arrive) with a note saying "come help us fight adventurers, we promise you all our treasure if you do" is going to face long odds of being taken seriously.
If the PCs are high enough level to travel magically, hopefully they are smart enough to realize they are high enough level to use magic to cover their tracks. (Though it sounds like you know some exceptions. )
That is a very good point. Of course the flip side is that if you've built barriers and traps to slow down the enemy, it slows down reinforcements coming to the aid of the guys being attacked.
I think I remember that. I definitely remember them using those alert levels in a reprint of the Temple of Elemental Evil, and it was indeed inspired. I wish they still used that. 24 Hours at Alert level 3, 1 week at Alert level 2, and 3 weeks at Alert level 1 and all that.
Exactly, which means monsters need to be held to the same logics of time, effort, and limited resources as adventurers.
Human levels of intelligence+, but not human levels of cooperation and mutual trust, which is why most "monstrous" denizens don't have giant empires like humans have, even though they are often stronger, smarter, or faster breeding. One of the advantages civilization has over the wilderness is the rapid ability to reach out to ones' neighbors and quickly request or barter for aid, with a reasonable assumption that your neighbors, even if they are of a different species, will either have enough empathy to help you for altruistic reasons or enough trust that they can reasonably expect repayment. There's a reason the guide to Taldor talks about how human armies were able to wipe out plagues of evil dragons across the nation, albeit at a tremendous cost, though we both know a unified dragon army could wipe out pretty much any force on the planet.
(Now if you want a great counterexample of this, have you read IronFang Invasion?)
That makes a lot of sense. Given the fact that in the many dungeon statistics I've read these kind of scrolls rarely appear, my assumption is that the local orc shaman couldn't afford to make too many scrolls, even though there are some logical ones he should have prepared in case of a raid.
I mean the occasional side quest sure, but we're talking about large groups of organized, intelligent foes, which in the APs usually means part of the main plot, and after say level 3 they always seem to know the PCs are coming.... except, yes, of course, Kingmaker, and other exploration-hex style portions of adventures like parts of Mummy's Mask.
There's also the way the Golarion setting has made many typical monsters, like Hobgoblins and Kobolds, perpetually paranoid and on high alert. I wouldn't change the tactics of a Kobold of Hobgoblin encampment much the day after they were raided, because those guys act like every day is the day they will be raided.
Unused consumables, sure. But most of the time the consumables I've seen tend to be shorter-term buffs that, if all applied at once, the first one would wear off while the last one is being applied. Or, healing magic that the boss doesn't get to use because you killed him first. Or, specialized-use scrolls and potions that wouldn't have been any help to the boss in fighting the party, but the party can coincidentally make use of at the next location they are headed to.
Of course, there's the answer of "just hand out every last buff to minions." The thing about monstrous tribes is, they are almost always ruled by strength and intimidation. A leader who who generously gives out all his caches of magic to his followers in the face of a raiding adventuring party might well be struck down because his lieutenants think he is showing fear and therefore weakness. Or the minions, armed with enough magic to make it as an independent bandit, might desert rather than face adventurers, leaving the leader alone.
It's a good point that monsters never think of destroying their wealth before adventurers can get to it though, that's a good way to teach a party the merits of stealth.
Maybe I've just had luckier experiences with my GM, but I never see this happen. Enemies are always reacting dynamically. I've read through at least some of the AP text, and most of the time I've seen notes detailing "if the PCs do X, then the boss reassigns minions to Y and readies these buff spells when she hears them coming." It's not as good as the alert system, but it is reacting.
In a large point, I totally agree that most dungeons should react dynamically and intelligently to shore up defenses and optimally redeploy their forces to do this. And in the few cases where there are nearby recruitable allies or resources that have not already been put into service in the dungeon, they should. What I'm saying is, that in the vast majority of times, coming in killing 30-40% of a dungeons inhabitants, retreating, and returning tomorrow, gives you an easier time of it on the net, because 60-70% of forces buffed up and on high alert are not quite as exhausting to deal with as 100% of forces taken partially unawares. And that if the enemies ability to rapidly fortify their defense significantly outstrips their original threat level, even with their reduced numbers taken into account, there's a good chance the GM is not being realistic about the capabilities and limitations of the dungeon's inhabitants.
Yup. That's why cultists were invented, so smart enemies would fight to the death! Also why coup-de-grace provokes Attacks of Opportunity.
Hmmm. It's perfectly logical that if you have a large number of hungry ghouls next to a smaller group of living creatures, the outcome is inevitable. That said, their rapid behavior and cohesive mob structure could indicate he may have found a way to force the issue.
Sure. My thinking is: ghouls aren't zombies, they have self-preservation instincts. If Severance shows up at the edge of the tide, broadcasts "I will slay all who approach the camp," and then flies around one-hit killing whatever ghoul gets closest, most ghouls are probably not going to try and Xerg-rush him. They won't give up entirely because of that terrible ghoul hunger that drives them, so they'll sneak off around a block of buildings and try and slip past him. Most will succeed, but I think that should buy a few minutes.
I guess the intersection of intelligent items and dancing items isn't really covered. Have we ever seen stats for Severance? I'm guessing he has the old epic ever-dancing ability.
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Well, to be fair there have been a few other "incidents," though I maintain that they were all appropriate for the situation!
That's only true if you're looking at the forces arrayed against the PCs as a sum total, rather than with regards to individual encounters. Most individual encounters, where the enemies aren't already on alert status, are going to be fairly isolated "level-appropriate" challenges where the enemies often won't be operating at their maximum capacity in terms of readiness or preparation (e.g. they won't have readied actions prepared for when the PCs enter, won't have utilized short-term buffs before they arrive, won't be ready to signal for reinforcements, etc.). Contrast that with foes who are already expecting an imminent attack, and the entire "level-appropriate" expectation gets thrown out the window, which can mean that the PCs won't be facing individual "set pieces" anymore.
There's certainly no strict definition for what constitutes a "nova strike," to be sure, but I suspect it's one of those "I know it when I see it" scenarios. Again, it's based around the idea that the PCs aren't bothering to conduct much (if anything) in the way of resource-management for their renewable abilities, simply using them willy-nilly to flatten any opposition they can't naturally steamroll, under the presumption that they'll retreat when they're low and resume things when they're replenished.
Again, I don't think that the sum total of the forces arrayed against the PCs is an accurate measurement for outlining the differences between what happens when you raid a dungeon (or similar area) where the monsters are unprepared and static versus one where they're expecting an attack and being proactive about their defense. It's not about what the PCs are going to fight, but what they're going to fight all at once. A few encounters where the PCs are outnumbered by monsters that have buffed themselves and made appropriate countermeasures for the PCs strengths is going to be very different than if they faced a few separate encounters of an equal number of monsters who weren't prepared. Also, it depends on the tactics that the GM is willing to bring into play; having enemies collectively focus on bringing a single target down is often treated as being "dirty pool" on the GM's part, despite it being the smart thing for them to do.
That was all off the top of my head, but it does represent that the defenders can make life exceptionally difficult for their foes if they know what they're doing. Which is sort of the point of occupying a fortified position in the first place.
I look askance on the idea that the defenders wouldn't think to fortify every entrance into the dungeon when they're preparing for a likely second strike by a hostile party. Presumably they know where they all are, so why ignore one just because it wasn't the one you used yesterday? At the very least, collapse or blockade it if you can't man it, maybe add some noise-making traps, etc. How many dungeons have numerous entrances, for that matter? And if they do, then the smart thing to do is pull back until you reach a choke-point that can be defended easier.
I'm less certain about this. Most "monsters" who are humanoid in nature and are represented as having some sort of civilization only function at the hunter-gatherer level if they're a comparatively small group and/or are semi-nomadic. Otherwise it's much too easy to deplete the local area's resources in rather short order. You might say that dungeons are just such a small group, but that really depends on how many individuals are considered "small." Even then, prolonged habitation will eventually cause this problem to grow in seriousness unless the number of creatures is notably minimal.
This gets beyond how most dungeons are designed, of course, but if we're going to follow verisimilitude that deeply, we should look at the following quote from "An Army Travels On Its Stomach," from Dragon #94 (February, 1985): "Each warrior needs 3,500 calories a day, including 70 grams of protein, to stay in fighting trim and good condition. In prolonged battle conditions, he requires 4,000 calories and 80 grams of protein. In medieval ration terms, this translates to three or four pounds of whole grain, measured raw, and a pound of mixed cheese, meat, fruit and so on a day. Without some fruit and vegetables, warriors will develop scurvy and yaws. [...] Orcs and goblins require a standard ration, but they will insist on having a large part of it in meat and will spurn fruit and vegetables."
Which sort of underlines the point with regards to these other humanoids: if they're not living as tribal raiders, and are presumed to have some degree of civilization, then they're going to need to have large-scale agricultural and ranching techniques, which will in turn lead to some sort of commerce-based interactions with those who would sell them. It's why we see mushroom farmers and rothe-ranchers in and around Menzoberranzan, for example, trading with duergar and other evil races. If we posit that orcs, goblins, hobgoblins and others live in any sort of large-scale communal areas, then they either need to engage in similar activities (which could include slavery) or have a commercial relationship with those that do, since macro-level raiding doesn't really work, short of conquering a neighboring kingdom for its resources.
(Fun fact: thinking along these lines is how we got the excellent story The Last Ringbearer, since the guy who wrote it was a scientist who determined that an inhospitable land like Mordor could never have fed its native population.)
Actually, the Survival skill says that using it (other than for tracking activity) "may represent activity over the course of hours or a full day" (emphasis mine). So that might not take very long. Likewise, you don't really need to make a Handle Animal skill check, though I suppose the GM wouldn't be out of line to call for one after you've used the spell on the creature. As for having the spell prepared, well, didn't we say that's what scrolls are for?
I think you're oversimplifying. Only one-fifth of all druids are good-aligned, as a basic breakdown of possible alignments goes. Given that, it's going to be a question of individual motives, since the druid might possibly have no more love for adventurers than resident humanoids. Remember, in the first official 3E adventure The Sunless Citadel, an evil druid was living in a dungeon that was also inhabited by kobolds and goblins.
Again, I don't think it's as simple as you're making it out to be. While "monsters" don't place much importance on the concept of reciprocal altruism, they tend to understand pragmatism, both in terms of "give something, get something" and "mutually-hostile forces are my problem too." Certainly, those aren't ironclad rules, but neither is the idea that they'll all look the other way and shrug when their neighbor's under attack. Think of it in a mercenary sense, and it's much more plausible.
I really do, and it makes me curious how most other groups do things. Most of what I hear are anecdotes, but they all seem focused around some sort of unspoken contract that the NPCs won't play at the same tactical level that the PCs do, resulting in the PCs not having to think very strategically beyond dropping some buffs or canceling debuffs in a fight, and after-action healing. Of course, a lot of those same people tend to complain about how primary spellcasters are overpowered and the PCs are running over all of their opposition.
As far as anti-divination spells go, note that those are a cat-and-mouse sort of defense. Very few of them are infallible, particularly if your opponents have comparatively equal resources to draw upon.
Does it? If you've laid down rough terrain on the hallway in front of you, and you're calling for reinforcements from behind you, that seems like you'd be just fine. Likewise if your reinforcements use ranged weaponry (since the Pathfinder rules don't really have "hitting someone other than who you targeted"), can use communal spider climb, or even just use their darkvision after someone sunders the PCs' torch.
I'd have to go back and check my copy of Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, but the article in question came out after that, so I'm not sure. It used a slightly different format than what you're laying out here, but the general principle's the same.
Which typically puts them ahead, since they'll typically outnumber the PCs (meaning they can do more in the same amount of time) and have comparatively greater resources due to their being at a base of operations (even if Wealth-by-Level has neutered this fairly hard).
As mentioned previously, humanoids that belong to evil races don't engage in certain aspects of the social contract, but they do have at least some of them, which is why they're typically capable of some level of civilization. Most orcs and hobgoblins, for example, tend to live in communities that function at the clan/tribal level, albeit with higher levels of intra-tribal violence than you'd expect from elves, dwarves, most humans, etc. So the issue isn't really one of one of cooperation per se, and as for trust...well, it's iffy how much of that you'll find in most human societies, since large swaths of society are dedicated to not relying on trust (e.g. most justice systems, which are formalized to eliminate that very thing).
To my mind, the lack of humanoids having their own countries or empires is actually less plausible now than it was back before Third Edition. Back then, we had level limits on virtually all non-human races, with demi-humans having higher level limits than most humanoids. So you had countries of elves, dwarves, humans, etc. dominating the world because they were simply better at everything than orcs and goblins, whose only response to quality was to throw greater quantities of enemies at their racial foes. With that gone, we now need to come up with sociological reasons that are inherently less concrete, since there's little reason to say why an empire of Lawful Evil hobgoblins is less plausible than one of Lawful Evil humans.
I have; it's okay, but to my mind Paizo tends to get a little too lost in the history/lore of their world, which I find actually distracts from the overall "game-ability" of some of their later Adventure Paths. Fire Mountain Games might have gone down in flames, but their Way of the Wicked campaign was, to my mind, far and away better than Paizo's Hell's Vengeance.
I place the blame for this squarely (or at least partially) on the fact that the rules don't agree with themselves, since NPC gear values don't agree with the treasure value per encounter listings. Since a single enemy can constitute "an encounter" the same way a half-dozen enemies can, that means that these latter values are going to necessarily be all over the place compared to how much gear you'd expect, even if you account for "limited use" items that get utilized during the fight.
Which is sort of my point; the PCs rarely operate on any sort of time-table that's predictable to the point where enemies could reasonably remain on "very high alert" the majority of the time. In terms of game mechanics, there's no reason why they can't, of course, but in terms of plausibility your average orc isn't going to spend eight to ten hours during his shift with his bow nocked and pointed at the door, ready to shoot any non-orc that walks in the room. That kind of heightened tension can't last very long, so even a few days of different can start to wear on just how alert your enemies are, and affect their overall combat posture.
I think that's different from what I was talking about; they tend to take it for granted that a raid could happen at any time, which is why they'll have things like weapons, traps, buffs, etc. in the first place. But that's different from thinking that a raid will happen in the immediate future, in which case they make sure their weapons are drawn, traps are set, and buffs prepared.
The issue of "the first consumables would expire by the time the last ones are applied" doesn't strike me as being more than an outlier, at the very most. If you're at the point of using low-level one-shot items which have an incredibly short duration, then you're probably not going to be able to afford many of them. Likewise, if you're at the level where you can afford to carry a lot of consumables to begin with, then you can afford for them to have a higher caster level that extends their duration. The idea of quaffing six potions that each have a duration or three or four rounds isn't really one that's very plausible otherwise. Now, healing magic is certainly not something anyone with any tactical sense would apply in combat (unless they were extremely desperate), but that's all the more reason why those with access to it would prioritize retreating when they were badly injured, rather than fighting to the death.
I think that's overly reductive, but I'll certainly grant that it can happen. But as I outlined above, that doesn't have to be a reason why they wouldn't have buffing consumables in the first place. For that matter, not all buffs are single-target only; if you have a scroll of haste, then you can just use it on yourself and your allies, which neatly eliminates that problem. It's likewise the reason why Ultimate Magic introduced so many "communal" versions of lower-level spells, which really should see wider use considering that they're typically only one level higher than the individual versions.
I agree, though I think most creatures will only do that if they think that they're going to die or are about to flee and think that they can't take it with them (and that latter one is motivated by the idea that they'll come back and dig it up later, if at all feasible).
I seem to recall that some of those NPC notes in the Adventure Paths are tactical with regards to "if X happens, this character does Y," which are meant to provide shorthand tactics (e.g. "if she falls below 25% of her hit points, she'll retreat to room 26A and cast heal on herself before rejoining the fight"). That's certainly a step in the right direction, but it's not quite what we're talking about here, since it doesn't really outline larger-scale issues of dynamic reactions, particularly with regards to strategic (as opposed to tactical) issues. Which, to be fair, is because it can't; the level of NPC reactions we're talking about here can't really be scripted; there are simply too many different possibilities to outline. Does such and so chase fleeing opponents? Do they call for help at the first sign of intruders or only when they feel like they're in trouble? Do they leave spell slots open so that they can prepare necessary spells after fifteen minutes of downtime? Things like these can't really be set within the confines of a printed adventure, which means that the GM needs to step up...but for some reason, a lot of players (at least on the Paizo boards) seem extremely hostile to having NPCs react like that.
We're backtracking here, but I've outlined why I don't think this is right; because "on the net" isn't how oppositional forces are measured in terms of clearing out a dungeon. Each encounter is viewed in isolation, which is really the issue that we're talking about here. One of the main points about a dynamic dungeon that is given time to react to a devastating incursion is that the PCs won't be able to treat each encounter as an isolated set piece any longer. Instead, individual monsters will hear the alarm sounding and know to take action, which will not only include buffing themselves with everything available, but also heading toward the areas under attack. While some will certainly continue to guard sensitive areas, maintain lookouts, and otherwise hold their positions, there will absolutely be some who will be deployed to reinforce an area that's under siege, which will rapidly inflate the immediate challenge that the PCs are facing. Saying "the entire dungeon is now at 60% effectiveness" misunderstands the calculation, because the PCs were never facing it as "100% effectiveness"; they were facing four separate encounters, each of which made up 10% of the dungeon's overall forces. Now, they're going to be facing 30% at once (the other 30% hanging back at sensitive areas) when they come back, because the monsters are prepared now, and will summon each other at the first sign of trouble.
You know, the "coup de graces provoke AoOs" thing always makes me shake my head. If your enemy is already at negative hit points and you're concerned about finishing them off, why are you bothering with a coup de grace in the first place? Just make a normal melee attack! If they're at negative HPs, then that'll almost certainly finish them off, and it's not like they'll have a very high AC when they're unconscious. You won't provoke, and you'll still have a move action left.
I'm not quite ready to give this one away, but the answer does fall within what's been outlined so far. Of course, bear in mind that we haven't actually seen the ghouls yet, but rather that we're postulating based off of what we've seen so far. The rest will need to wait for future chapters.
The issue of how undead think has always been an area where I've had some very clear thoughts about things. Notwithstanding certain specific kinds of undead, such as vampires (who maintain a great deal of their living self, both in appearance and mindset, in exchange for exacerbated weaknesses) and liches (whose deliberate methodology of attaining undeath works to necessarily store at least part of their mentality), I think that most undead creatures are more than a little insane, their minds having been warped by the transition to undeath. It's part of why their alignment changes in the process, and why they're not horrified at their current condition and attempt to destroy themselves, since the classical depiction of undead creatures is that they exist in a state of existential angst and torment. To that end, it strikes me as plausible that they'd have a reduced sense of self-preservation, especially in the face of overwhelming urges such as uncontrollable hunger.
It's one of those many corner-cases that got past the designers. Severance does indeed have the everdancing epic weapon ability. As far as its stats...I postulated some in Lex's write-up, though I made those on my own (with no input from David Silver), and they openly admit that they don't reflect the totality of its abilities (such as how it can use heat metal on itself. I should note that I'd make a few tweaks to what's here if I were writing this today, but overall it's still pretty much what I'm assuming for the purposes of this story. Here's the relevant section:
Well that was unfortunate.
9219847 Sometimes even a calculated risk will blow up in your face. Literally.