Armour: Iron Scales (equivalent to Chainmail).Some also wear ornate plated leather breastplates and greaves (equivalent to Leather)
Instinct: Hypnotise those who can best serve me
Special:
Seduce is a special social conflict. Attempting to engage the Ophidia in any form of social conflict triggers a Seduce conflict.Should a character lose the conflict without any compromise, the player loses control of their character. The character now acts under the direction of the Ophidia and is an NPC until the Ophidia is killed, or can be convinced by another to remove the hypnotic hold. Should the character lose with a compromise, the character must change its belief to one that submits the character to the service of the Ophidia.
Venomous Bite: The bite of the Ophidia is to dull the senses rather than kill. A successful Attack or Feint with the Ophidia’s Venomous Bite forces the target to make a Health test with an obstacle equal to the Ophidia’s margin of success. Recommended failure result: condition (Exhausted), or twist (incapacitated by lethargy and mild hallucinations for the remainder of the turn and next).
Beautiful. I think for Venomous Bite the condition on failure would be better suited as Exhausted if it’s a numbing effect. I usually see Sick as pretty hardcore. Cold sweats, vomiting, etc. Good twist would be incapacitation for a number of turns equal to MoF.
I also see their strength being Convince or Trick rather than Kill, just based on nature descriptors. (Edit: Make that strength a 12, too! Double nature for strengths. Don’t be shy.) Using those social weapons would be so much fun too. Maybe save Kill, Drive Off, or Flee for a Nature roll and shift those around.
Love the special conflict. Reminds me of the brutality of the special “Trapped” conflict for the Creeping Ooze. If caught unawares (ie: Ophidia is introduced on a twist), you could engage them with a hypnotic gaze to initiate that conflict and go from there. Good stuff.
Excellent advice thank you. I don’t know why I didn’t go for Exhausted really, but that will be changed. As for Convince or Trick? I think just having the seduce conflict ties in to the idea of the creature - the PCs may want to convince and or trick an Ophidian, and may well begin a conflict with that intent, however the Ophidian treats those conflicts as opportunities to bring someone under their control. That may need rewording in the creature description.
John
Cool. Perhaps include language for the special like “attempting to engage the Ophidia in any form of social conflict triggers a Seduce conflict…” This way it’s very much like a trap. They can’t be dealt with socially on the players own terms. The Ophidia dominates.
The seduce thing is golden - especially the fact that it is triggered by attempting any social conflict.
You need to seed any adventure involving these things with this rumor (or some variant): “Whatever you do, don’t speak with the snake women! Attack first, and strike hard, before they get a chance to entice you with their words. They speak only lies, anyway!”
Because, if I know players right, that will only make them want to speak with them more…
For the Ophidia, a Seduce conflict would pit the player(s) against a disposition of 16. The Ophidia would roll Nature and add in the benefits of any weapons listed under the specific conflict type (attack, defend, feint or maneuver). In other words, try to flee, kill or drive off an Ophidia, don’t try and talk to one.
The players enter a Persuade conflict (for example) with the Ophidia, so roll the usual disposition and skills for Persuade. Unfortunately for them, they are being opposed by someone who wishes to control them.
Ah, I see, so they continue to Persuade or Trick the Ophidia as normal, but no matter what kind of social conflict it is, the Ophidia is always trying to seduce them and always the same high disposition and same vicious weapons.
