I thought I’d go back to terrain powers today, since I always meant to go back and add more ways to interact with the fantastic terrains of the DMG and DMG 2. Several of them go away when used anyway – if you look at that as a “per encounter” kind of thing, they’re already terrain powers in a sense, so there’s not really any work to do on my end in getting them there. Doomlight Crystal, Eldritch Influx, and Energy Node are all examples of this.
What I do have for you today is a new application for the Grasping Bog and a way to attack with Quick Sear.
In the Bog’s Clutches At-Will Terrain
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.
Minor Action
Requirement: An enemy must be prone in an adjacent square of grasping bog.
Check: Athletics check vs. enemy’s Athletics check
Success: The target takes a penalty to its next saving throw against the Restrained condition equal to your Strength bonus or -2, whichever is greater.
Alternate Use:
Drowning Bog Single-Use Terrain
Drowning in sucking mud. What is this, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay?
Standard Action
Requirement: An enemy must be prone in an adjacent square of grasping bog.
Check: Athletics check vs. enemy’s Athletics check
Success: The Effect line of Grasping Bog gains the following. “On the first failed save, the creature is dazed (save ends). On the second failed save against the Restrained effect, the creature is unconscious (save ends). On the third failed save against the Restrained effect, the creature is dead.”
(It’s single-use on the notion that the bog is only so deep, and later targets can’t sink far enough in to be dragged down if there’s a buoyant body in-place. If there are many squares of grasping bog, obviously the GM could feel free to allow this trick more than once. Also, this would be a kind of awesome way to kill an enemy who was nigh-immune to your other attacks.)
Quicksear Lash Single-Use Terrain
With a coil of arcane force, you lift and twist the silvery-green fluid into a whip-like tendril. After you strike with it, it breaks and scatters once more.
Standard Action – Implement, Acid
Requirement: Must be within 5 squares of a patch of quick sear that includes at least four squares. You must have an available power with the Force keyword. (This keyword may not be granted by a weapon or implement.)
Check: Arcana (moderate DC)
Success: The tendril forms, and you may use it to make an attack against a target within three squares of any part of the quick sear patch that you have targeted.
Target: One creature
Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex
Hit: Medium Limited damage expression.
Effect: Rearrange up to four squares of the target patch of quick sear, as long as they end up no more than three squares from their previous location.
Alternately, reduce the damage expression to Medium Normal, and make this an at-will effect as long as the user has a power with the Force keyword available.
Finally, I’ve been reading a novel where the threat of petrification is a big deal, and it got me thinking. Pools of fluid that do awful things to anyone who touches them take all different forms. Petrification is a pretty under-used effect in 4e. I think something called petrific water or basilisk blood could be cool. I imagine evil alchemists storing this stuff in vats in their laboratories, which creates great opportunities for havoc during a fight, especially for a grapple fighter. (Pardon me if describing it sounds a lot like a cement mixer…) Thus, a new terrain:
Basilisk Blood
This grainy, gray tar-like substance alchemically transmutes skin to stone on contact, if kept heated and churning. It bubbles up naturally in places, wherever certain oils of the deep earth are infused with infernal fumes.
Effect: Squares filled with basilisk blood are difficult terrain. Upon entering or starting your turn in a square with basilisk blood, you are slowed (save ends). On your first failed save, you are restrained (save ends both), except that instead of being immune to pushes, pulls, and slides, you become prone when you are forced to move through a push, pull, or slide. On your second failed save, you are stunned (save ends all), and on your third failed save you are petrified.
Special: If you are prone in a square of basilisk blood, you take a -2 penalty to the save against the slowed condition and any resultant conditions.
Usage: Much like grasping bog terrain, basilisk blood combines well with enemies that can knock PCs prone; it is also good for places that characters have to stand in order to manipulate battlefield features, such as traps or levers. Adapt the terrain powers of the grasping bog, above, to let players make full use of this.
Basilisk Blood Vials
When collected out of pits or an alchemist’s vats, basilisk’s blood stays potent until you have gone through two milestones or one extended rest, whichever comes first.
Alchemical Item
Power (Consumable – Poison): Standard Action. Make an attack: Ranged 10, +12 vs. Fortitude; the target is slowed (save ends). On the first failed save, the target is restrained (save ends both), except that instead of being immune to pushes, pulls, and slides, the target becomes prone when forced to move through a push, pull, or slide. On the second failed save, the target is stunned (save ends all), and on the third failed save the target is petrified.
Level 14: +17 vs. Fortitude
Level 19: +22 vs. Fortitude
Level 24: +27 vs. Fortitude
Level 29: +32 vs. Fortitude
Because it is not portable in the long-term, basilisk blood vials are a way to give players a consumable item that they’ll want to go ahead and use, since they can’t keep them past the duration of the adventure.
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