Unconventional
One of my favorite things about writing The Handbook of Heroes is the complete lack of narrative responsibility. Why did Cavalier feel obliged to sink Swash/Buckle’s pirate ship? I dunno. Why does this giant freaking thing exist? Why did Paladin and Inquisitor team up that one time? How did Alchemist ever win his body back from Abercrombie the tumor familiar? We don’t go into these comics with fully-formed storylines. Sure I could make something up. I could explain how Cavalier is a sworn knight of the Order of the Shell, pledged to patrol the lonely coasts and hinterlands of her homeland’s Roaring Archipelago, escorting honest merchantmen through the treacherous, pirate-infested waters between the region’s many active volcanoes. But that sounds like work. It’s far easier to just make a cool choice now (turtle knights!) and see how it shakes out later.
And in a fantastically roundabout sort way, I think we all do the same thing when we build our PCs. Why did you decide to put that grappling arrow on your character sheet? You probably aren’t planning to scale any castle walls in the immediate future, but you never know. It might come up. Same deal with weirdly specific feats (tactical entry!). Same deal with silver bullet type spells (elevator farts!).
Those examples aren’t chosen at random either. Laurel’s archer paladin just got himself out of lava at 17th level with the trick arrow he’s been carrying since 5th. One of my buddies is still waiting for his Kool-Aid Man moment with that stunning irruption feat, but damned if his Macho Man fighter will ever swap it out. And as for the aforementioned elevator farts, a Starfinder of my acquaintance managed to ace a certain jungle expedition (spoilers) by picking up a speculative life bubble spell. These aren’t necessarily the best choices from a tactical perspective. They’re situational, unnecessary, or more fancy than good. But in the same way that a turtle mount looks like a goofy, sub-optimal decision, all of these minor choices have the potential to pay big in narrative terms. They can create unconventional moments. Weird situations that, in an emergent gameplay kind of way, plunge the table into fits of laughter and unexplored territory.
And so, for today’s discussion question, what do you say we talk about the idiosyncratic character choices that paid off at your table? Was it a seldom-used weapon? An obscure feat tree? Perhaps you managed to save the kingdom with naught but a gallon of mayonnaise and your wits? Tell us all about your own unconventional fighting styles down in the comments!
EARN BONUS LOOT! Check out the The Handbook of Heroes Patreon. We’ve got a sketch feed full of Laurel’s original concept art. We’ve got early access to comics. There’s physical schwag, personalized art, and a monthly vote to see which class gets featured in the comic next. And perhaps my personal favorite, we’ve been hard at work bringing a bimonthly NSFW Handbook of Erotic Fantasy comic to the world! So come one come all. Hurry while supplies of hot elf chicks lasts!
My first Shadowrun game happened last week and as flavor for my Dwarven Street Samurai, I decided that he’d start the game with a hamburger (real beef). Whilst he planned to eat it at some point of session 1 as a RP thing, it instead ended up helping him for his first run.
We were breaking into a wearhouse to steal some Wiz-tech (the equivalent of some premium computer components). We made a clean entry, but then were informed that the guards noticed we broke in and were about to search the warehouse we were in.
To make matters worse, they had a dog. A genetically enhanced dog that was scienced to be more effective than your usual variety of guard dog.
We had gotten what we needed and were ready to bug out by this point, but the dog would surely follow our tracks and lead the guards straight to us (not to mention be nasty to fight).
In a moment of brilliance, I decided to leave my hamburger on the floor to distract the canine (checking with my ‘Common Sense’ whether it would work as intended). This bought us enough of a distraction to break through another door and get out, without even needing to fight anyone.
Honestly though, ‘hamburger’ should come standard on every equipment list. It’s just got so many uses!
For some reason, this makes me want to have a Shadowrun character who buys a burger before every mission, fully intending to eat it, but then has to sacrifice it for the good of the mission.
Frag if I know how that’d happen, though. That kind of contrived drek is a lot easier to set up for more traditional authors.
Going by Swash & Buckle’s track record of naval damage (and lack of funds afterwards), they’re going to have their ship damaged and/or destroyed in every comic from now, like the pirates in Asterix, aren’t they?
https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1516838767i/24906032.jpg
No wonder Thief parted from their company on unfriendly terms – they kept breaking/sinking and made her lose money!
I can already see them featuring in a comic titled ‘ramming speed’. :p
Laurel might be a fan of Seahawk:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AeF5DUGehJvQZfKnPgWVkXatbGWyYoyytndmV0ZWfDQtO1kIFEcvdWQ/
Got a parachute from the Waterdeep Dragon Heist game that I’ve kept long after we campaign finished and we went through a few other campaigns, including Dungeon of the Mad Mage, a lil homebrewed campaign, and a bit of Storm King Thunder. I was level 14 before I ever needed to use it.
The long story short was that we were finally getting around to taking out Xanathar (I’m a Zhentarium agent so that’s pretty much a big career opportunity for me) and my party had the perfect plot. Knowing that Xanathar was getting mighty peeved by our actions in Waterdeep, we coordinated a false conspiracy about taking out the Zhentarium from the inside, knowing that Xanathar would send his agents to try and get a tentacle in the plan. This in turn allowed the party wizard to basically uno reverse card the mindflayers sent to us to turn them into our spies on the inside, which allowed us to basically figure out where Xanathar is, sabotage the place, and finally stage a huge attack.
At some point in the battle I was manning a balista we brought to siege the base when old giant eye basically disintegrates the entire floor I’m on and sends me plummeting hundreds of feet towards the ground. As my party was too far and I was a rogue, seemed like the end for me. Nay I say! I finally got to use that parachute all the way back when I was level 3, and managed to even stay in the fight by parachuting and plinking arrows at Xanathar before our Zealot Barb managed to come back from the dead for the second time and put old Xanny down with an axe to the primary optical lobe.
Well that’s ridiculously cool. Though I have to wonder if shooting upward through one’s own parachute gives disadvantage.
Most parachutes have a small hole in the top, so one shot is fine.
I was running Tomb of Annihilation a while back and my players stumbled across a puzzle that involved a bunch of statues holding weapons. Stuff like a blowgun, a sickle, a trident, and a few others were on display.
“I think I get it” one of my players announced. The dungeon punishes people who favour the most powerful weapon types and rewards you for having suboptimal weapons!”
This wasn’t exactly what the book had in mind, but I liked it and quietly edited the answer to the puzzle a bit to fit with her reasoning.
I edited and inserted a few traps later on to make use of this too. When they found a trio of teleportation circles, I described how one bore the stylized symbol of a maul, one a rapier, and one a trident. They deduced that the trident was the safe one. When they faced a puzzle that involved getting into a cylinder of unbreakable glass and one suggested “Wait, try hitting it with your blowgun! They’re both cylinders and it’s on-theme for the dungeon!” I went with it again and allowed the glass to shatter.
A whole dungeon where one of the themes was “Carrying all the mechanically-best weapons isn’t always the best option turned out to be a lot of fun!
I kind of want to turn that into a mini-dungeon now.
Is Cavalier going to be a more common character? Seems she doesn’t have an entry on the cast page.
It took us a year to update the cast page last time. This time around, it’s our goal to beat that record by at least a week.
So, a week longer than before, or a week shorter? :p
I make no promises.
I think this is at least partially up to the GM. Weird items are a kind of lock-and-key puzzle, and having an oddly-shaped key in your inventory is just a red herring if the party never encounters an oddly-shaped lock. I consider this one of my failings as a GM, in that I love giving my players creative magic items but I’m not great at creating scenarios where those items would actually be useful.
Well, time for that to change. I’m already planning a water-based dungeon for the player whose sword repels water. There are wild beasts coming up for the flute that tames beasts. And a region where casting spells is disallowed, forcing the players to make use of their magic items instead. Time to get creative!
I don’t know that it’s necessarily lock-and-key. Your water-repelling sword could see play in a swamp encounter or an ocean voyage, sure, but it could just as easily mess with a wall of ice, repel a water elemental, or lower penalties for crossing slick rocks. You can set up those situations as a GM, but at some point it’s on the player to make the connection.
The real trouble is helping the player to remember all their options. That’s made even harder when those options tend to disappear into the depths of an inventory. That’s one of the reasons I like for GMs to have access to players’ digital sheets. It means your can periodically peruse those inventories, find what’s there, and remind the player of their options.
For example: “It’s raining out, and truly a miserable day. Everyone is drenched and miserable. Except for Bob. He’s dry and bone and thoroughly un-chafed on account of his sword.” It’s not a full encounter or a themed dungeon, but it does help to keep that weapon on the player’s mind, making it more likely they’ll pull it out at an opportune moment.
The examples you give are basically just looser “locks”.
But yes, keeping track of your own inventory—let alone all the wacky stuff your players picked up—is quite the ordeal in any loot-heavy game. It’s a bit easier in e.g. D&D 5e, since magic items are so much sparser (and mid-level characters can’t spend their loose change on half a dozen quirky utility items), but then you have the problem of players picking up random junk in town or weird bits of dungeon instead.
I think of the sword as a skeleton key to multiple problems rather than any specific lock (to beat a metaphor to death).
But at some point, it really is on the player to remember the contents of the bag of holding and bring it into the game. If you set up situations as a GM where a “key item” is necessary, you risk the player feeling a little led by the nose.
The ship deserve what she got for offending chevalier. Next time that Swash and Buckle get a less mouthy ship. She was defending her honor in a just duel the ship freely accepted 🙂
Also when are you get to work and update the character sheets for the cast? Our pirates stole their entry? Chevalier’s turtle is bringing hers? 😛
Good reason not to get an animated figurehead. Those things curse like sailors!
You should listen to the sails, those things make even sailor faint 😀
The ship compass is more polite, at least when not drunk 😛
Magnetic compass or geometric compass? Every geometric compass I’ve talked to has had at least one topic that would get them talking in circles for gods-know-how-long…
XD Good one 😀
I just notice this, but the marks on Chevalier’s face are like the ones Contessa got. In her previous apparition i didn’t notice but now i can only see it and think: What would Contessa do if she meet Chevalier? Surely something awesome and bloody 😛
Awesome and bloody is right! The Contessa allows no cheap imitations. (Would you believe me if I said I didn’t notice that I’d drawn essentially the same tattoos until after you pointed it out? I guess Chorus is still lurking in my subconscious.)
I can’t believe it, but i remember that time when you said: “It’s weird to think that i accidentally spoiled the comic years ago”. So i will believe you 🙂
They asimilar not the same. Contessa got up to three on each side. Chevalier only one each side of her face. Also Chevalier’s marks go up to her eyes, Contessa ended up, or maybe begin up, the circles. As i said, in this comic you can see Chevalier’s face much more close and detailed, that is why i notice it. Be proud of making such a fine comic that even surprises its authors 😀
Also good to hear that there would be an awesome and bloody duel between Contessa and Chevalier. I left the answer of who would win up to you, and maybe a poll on Patreon if you want. but my money goes to Contessa in any given conflict. Sorry Chevalier, you are nice, but Contessa is gonna making turtle soup to feed her children 😛
Thanks for the answer and have a good weekend 😀
You’d curse too if you were screwed to the side of a ship.
The moment I obtain something I dedicate myself to finding uses for it. That chalk I purchased? Lots of Madden-strategizing in the dungeons. That signal-whistle? I find excuses for plans that involve “When I give the signal”.
When all you’ve got is a hammer everything looks like a nail. Conversely; when you’ve got a hammer and a screwdriver, you’re equipped to handle screws and nails.
On the actual comic: I’ve thought aboot this before, but there’s almost nothing a ship can do to defend against an attack from below. Similarly castles aren’t equipped to defend against attacks from above. The architecture and shipbuilding of worlds with dragons and krakens would be very different.
Not to mention monsters with the screw or nail templates!
As for anti-aquatic ships, I’m not sure how much you can do to defend against kraken attacks while still having a ship that functions as a ship. I’d think you would need attack dolphins or some kind of escort rather than trying to create a kraken-proof hull.
Re: Stunning Irruption: The feat doesn’t say you have to break the wall/door to get to an opponent. You just need to “break through a door, wall, or window to enter a room.” Sadly, this means you can’t just punch a window and turn around to attack someone inside the building with you (you need to move through it, and you would be exiting a room if you did that), but you can absolutely bash down an interior door, moving into the next room, and then immediately turn around and attack someone. Who is now likely stunned, if they have a poor Fortitude save.
Re: Life Bubble: How is that spell not useful? It’s a first-level spell that lasts a day per level (making it easy for even a 2nd-level caster to set it up a day beforehand if they need to conserve their 1st-level slots), and it lets you go basically anywhere with no further preparations needed. Underwater, into the deepest tundra or harshest desert, weird planets’ atmospheres, and even space. Heck, even if you’re drifting naked and alone in space, you should be able to cast it on yourself before your first spell wears off, and survive up until you dehydrate to death (or get rescued/captured, and hopefully clothed).
Re: Personal experiences: Shadowrun has spells that let you turn into animals, which explicitly don’t transform your gear or clothes. Turning into a rat, snake, or bug for infiltration sounds cool, but it’s less handy when you’re naked if your concentration lapses (or you need to do something inside instead of just looking—and mages have astral projection for that).
So far, the only time I’ve used that spell has been when he needed to maintain line-of-sight on teammates he was keeping invisible while the other mage levitated them, but the other mage could only levitate two people at a time. So my mage cast the invisibility spell, turned into a rat, and rode on the other mage’s shoulder so we could float in unseen. Repeat the process for our other teammates, grab my clothes and gear on one of the trips, and find a semi-private part of the roof to un-transform in, and we’re golden.
(I’m considering having my mage research a version of the spell that lets him carry stuff so I can do Animorphs antics more often. Or maybe that’ll be my next character. Though that one could just be a shapechanger…)
New character concept: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EXmhmOjU4AAHqNg.jpg
As for the life bubble, it falls into the “unnecessary” category for me because armor exists in Starfinder. And all armor in that setting is a space suit. And space suits are pretty good at helping you survive in adverse conditions.
You might appreciate Laurel’s “Princess Vermin” PC.
https://www.deviantart.com/fishcapades/art/Rubbish-109632421
Aquatic mounts are a neat idea, albeit extremely situational. I remember having a turtle mount in World of Warcraft 10 or so years back. Went at the normal walking speed, but it was fun to ride around on.
It may be slow, but it’s so stylish!
Right? Especially because it was a rare mount you could only get from special loot cards in the TCG.
On the subject of idiosyncratic character choices, although not something I’ve brought to a table yet, I’ve been toying with the idea of an explosion-powered axe. It would be a single-edge axe, and the blunt side would hold an explosive rune or a black powder charge or whatever technology exists in the game. Alternatively, the blunt side could be a hammer that explodes on impact. There are a lot of bugs to work out, though. Surviving the explosion is the first issue.
Heh. I did a bit of editing for a 3rd party Starfinder product a few years back. It was basically a repeating boom-lance, and seemed like a fun alternative to that system’s ubiquitous grenades. Wish I could remember what it was called.
Cool. I wish I could say I was more familiar with the game, but that sounds fun.
That’s the fun thing about Starfinder. They post everything on their SRD:
https://www.aonsrd.com/Rules.aspx
Also, I managed to find the thing I worked on:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/237031/Secret-Weapons-Project
Looks like it was the “combustion lance” I was thinking about.
Nice. I’ll have to read over this when I have more time. Just glancing at it reminds me of some partially-conceived character designs I made when I was younger. They were a team of three heroes in experimental power armour with weapon loadouts based on Mega Man Battle Network folders. No idea where I even came up with the concept.
My first pathfinder character was a ratfolk ranger with whom instead of getting feats that would say help me use my crossbow better or make my animal companion more useful I invested all my early feats into the tree to get burrowing teeth which then proceeded to not be useful till near the end of the campaign when we had to destroy a bunch of catapults to break a siege and I was able to get under all throughout the camp without needing to roll more than a few stealth checks and save the city.
Ratfolk with burrowing teeth is exactly the kind of shenanigans I’m after, lol. I can just picture all the catapults breaking on the first volley the next morning as the enemy discovers the sabotage.
The one and only time I played a Kindred of the East game I had no idea what I was doing, and it was so long ago I can’t even remember anything else about this particular spy character, let alone why he took particular skills. But when, after a battle on the docks, our spy team somehow managed to destroy some giant-ish wannabe-cthulu demonic… thing, and it fell backwards into the sea, we thought we wouldn’t be able to loot the thing for whatever on earth the Macguffin was of that quest.
After a tense few minutes of trying to figure out a workable solution by brainstorming and poring over character sheets, I bellowed out in triumph “I HAVE SCUBA!”
I don’t remember anything else about that campaign, but that wonderful moment will never be forgotten.
I love the image of this jiangshi vampire hopping up in down in glee at the prospect of scuba diving.
See, this reminds me of my party going pirate hunting at one point when we had a druid who thought to memorize water walking. For some reason my DM wasn’t happy when my maul wielding minotaur paladin of conquest smashed through the side of the pirate ship instead of us actually doing a normal boarding action…
Nice! How many HP does a ship’s hull have anyway? Not enough, I’m guessing.
He just had me do a strength check, being under a potion of storm giant’s strength sure helped.
Well , now, speaking of that gallon of mayonnaise… our monk/paladin did once make use of the Jug of Alchemy that our artificer had made for a lark to kill a vampire! The party had engaged this fighter/warnock undead horror at far too low a level, but damned if he didn’t meet an… ahem… sticky end.
The process:
Conjure mayonnaise
Cast Ceremony, creating Holy Mayonnaise
Lead vampire away from rest of party
Cast mayonnaise over vampire
Proceed to outrun vampire with the same movement speed and a dash as a bonus action, whilst it takes 2d6 radiant damage per turn.
Enraged by the pain, the flavourful fiend followed the fearless and faithful (kung) fuist through fathoms of fetid floors, nearly catching him upon several occasions before finally expiring just as the monk hit a dead end, having only time to give him a nasty scratch before expiring.
The paladin/monk THEN realized that he was lost.
I kind of want a holy-mayo BLT now.
I completely destroyed a campaign because the DM forgot he literally Deus Ex Machina’d us some rings of god tier curse suppression. I was also the only character still in the party that also still survived.
By that point the curse was no longer particularly harmful (it merely prevented us from speaking about a subject we already spoke about when we first got the rings) but the DM decided to stonewall his magic item shop via an annoying imp filling in for the usual shopkeeper, who kept demanding absurd prices for the wares, claiming all the money we offered was worthless since it couldn’t help him with his problem.
Turns out he was a problematic demigod who was cursed into the imp form as a form of punishment, and thus the entire campaign was derailed to go chase down its secondary power source before it could completely regain it and start destroying the world again.
It ended up pretty much not going anywhere.
This is why the brawler is so much fun. If you’re in the situation where you suddenly need that feat …. you have the feat!!
Now man. She’s so much fun because she freakin’ adorable: https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/small-packages