Don’t Ignore the Rules

Rules should be used creatively. It is important to remember that the AD&D game rules (or whatever version of the rules you happen to be using in your campaign) help define reality for PCs, just as the laws of physics help define reality for real folks.

Players, especially experienced gamers, use their knowledge of the rules to help them interpret what is going on around them and to help them decide how their characters react when it’s time to take action. If the DM interprets the rules inconsistently, or applies one set of rules to the player characters and another set to the monsters and NPCs, players often have no firm basis for making decisions about their characters. Uninformed decisions aren’t terribly meaningful. The players’ inability to make meaningful decisions ultimately robs them of control over their characters, and frustration quickly sets in.

The rules themselves can provide a creative springboard for designing adventures and describing NPCs. For example, suppose the PCs are searching a vast dungeon complex to locate a lich. The group discovers a block of prison cells and frees the inmates, which include a sharp-eyed woman who seems to have fairly good knowledge of the complex. The woman offers to guide the party as far into the complex as she can take them. The woman, in fact, is the lich, using a polymorph self spell.

Assuming that the PCs don’t immediately detect the masquerading lich with a true seeing spell, the “woman” might display a few quirks that clever PCs can detect. From a rules standpoint, polymorph self lasts only two turns per caster level, 60 turns (10 hours) if the lich is 30th level. So, if the lich has spent several days in the cells, her neighbors might have noticed her renewing the spell from time to time. A particularly sharp-eared neighbor might note that the woman is in the habit of mumbling to herself once in awhile.

If the party allows the woman to accompany them, she must find an excuse to be by herself at least once every 10 hours or her ruse is revealed. If you’re already in the habit of requiring moving characters to take regular rest periods, this shouldn’t be hard to arrange, but it should provide the PCs an opportunity to notice the spellcasting. If rest periods aren’t part of your normal game routine, you need to find some other way to regularly separate the polymorphed lich from the party. Perhaps she just moves on ahead while the PCs talk among themselves, or periodically makes an excuse for leaving the party. Such ruses can make for lively role-playing.

A polymorph self spell also does nothing to eliminate the aura of magical power and cold that surrounds the lich (as the DM, you can rule otherwise, but remember to use your rule consistently for the remainder of the campaign). High-level characters are unaffected by the magical aura and might not even notice it, but the polymorphed lich must be careful to stay out of lesser creatures’ sight lest they flee in fear. In addition, the lich’s chilling touch continues to function as well, and the creature would have to avoid touching and paralyzing anyone. Thick gloves might do the trick. Of course, sharp players might wonder what a prisoner is doing with a set of gloves, but that is exactly what they should be doing.

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