[This is a rant--feel free to ignore it.]
What is it about D&D angels, anyway?
We just got done discussing the v3.0 problem with Planetars, and then....
The PCs were confronted by a leonal who demanded that they leave the
Evil members of the group behind. This elicited the best
statement of Fritz' philosophy I've ever heard--I was really excited to
finally understand how he sees himself as a ruler. It ended up with
Fritz challenging the leonal to single combat by the rules of Celestia
(non-lethal combat only). Charis, the paladin, naturally intervened,
since Fritz' chance in a fight would be next to nil.
"Do you think Charis has a chance?" said the GM, suddenly looking worried.
"Not a good chance, but it's a CR12, she's 11th, and if neither side
uses its spells that probably hurts the leonal more."
The GM then looked the creature up, blanched, and said, "No. No chance."
We fought it out, and this was quite correct: it did 120 points of damage
to her in 6 rounds and she did none to it, not one point. Fairly average
rolls on both sides. It was apparent that even a string of 20's would not
have been enough.
The GM didn't care for the probable result of this, and I suggested that
Fritz could argue, "My strength is in my ability to unite these disparate
people. I don't agree to single combat, because that gives up everything
that makes us powerful" and the PCs could fight it as a group.
The GM blanched further and said, "I'm not sure you win that, either."
This is a party of, at that point, size *thirteen*, levels 13 to 6 but
mostly
11, and all but two of them experienced at working together. They'd just
killed a greater demon of significantly higher CR with no difficulty at
all.
What is going on with these CRs?
In the end we stood by the outcome: Charis fought it and lost, and the
party
abandoned the person in contention and went on, embittered. (The module
has had a continual theme that Good People are Bad, and this was just
another
nail in that coffin.) It was distressing to find out that CR was
so completely useless as a guide: the GM felt bad, because if he'd known
he would have told the more knowledgable PCs "You can't fight this." But
he had no idea that a CR12 would be out of reach.
Fritz' statement was, essentially, "The ideology you call Good is not the
only thing in my realm that I value." I had thought the "neutrality as
an active desire for a balance between good and evil" position suggested
in some of the D&D material was philosophically bankrupt, but Fritz sees
Good and Evil not as good and evil simpliciter, but as ideological
positions
which have been *claimed* to contain all good and all evil, but don't
really.
And to my surprise and delight, this makes sense to me, and makes a lot
of sense in the gameworld.
But now he really wants to kick some angel butt, and I fear will be deeply
frustrated.
Mary Kuhner mkkuhner@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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