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Emma Drake
Learned Scribe
USA
206 Posts |
 Posted - 13 May 2013 : 16:20:36
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My group's current campaign is in the Underdark and involves a high number of deep gnomes characters. An issue came up about their spell-like abilities this past weekend that had me looking for lore about their use of blindness and I couldn't come across anything other than that the all svirfneblin can use the blindness spell once a day.
I'm hoping that Candlekeep's vast store of knowledge will shed some light on the issue.
Here's the scene: a squad of low-level deep gnome fighters (~12) led by a sergeant, an illusionist with two elementals, and two rogue/illusionists has been given the mission to protect a certain spot. They know that they are about to come up against a bad guy that is way outside of their weight class and who will, eventually, kill them all. There is no question about that in any of their minds. They're there to buy time so that other deep gnomes may live.
The DM asks: "Ok, what's the plan?"
Me: "The three spellcasters are hunkered down, trying to hide, using see invisibility to look for approaching bad guys. They will communicate to the fighters if they see anything out of the ordinary and are prepared to launch spells to slow or impede the progress of the bad guys."
DM: "And the fighters?"
Me: "The sergeant has told all of the others that when he indicates the target, who will be the biggest, baddest combat monster that he thinks they're coming up against, every one of them is to cast blindness on that target at once."
We then had a discussion in which the ways that deep gnomes use their blindness ability was debated.
My reasoning was that deep gnomes are a race that considers community to be paramount and are always on the defense from the surrounding Underdark predators (many of whom are stronger than they are - leaving them perpetual underdogs), so they would have to find inventive ways to use their skills together to continue their existence.
This particular ability, having such a low save but being something that they all have, would be one that the gnomes use as a saturation attack. In other words, if one gnome tries to cast this spell at a big bad Underdark monster, it will probably not work, but if 10 gnomes hit him with it, chances are either a) the DM might consider the save to be more difficult because the bad guy/monster is getting hit with the same spell 10 times, or b) he will fail his save once if he rolls 10 dice.
The DM argued that he'd never seen them use it in that way and that they might not necessarily think about it in the way that I was, as someone at a table rolling dice.
The point of this post isn't to ask who was right or wrong, the situation has since resolved itself. The question is... how do svirfneblin use their blindness ability? Why do they have it/what are the origins of it in lore, what books (fiction or game source books) include instances of them using it, etc., etc. Neither one of us could point to any one piece of lore that would support either of our ideas on it or even any examples of deep gnomes using blindness in the fiction that is written about them.
Beyond those pieces of lore about the deep gnomes, if surrounding intelligent races know that deep gnome communities have such a powerful ability that they can all use, how would a higher-level enemy (as opposed to rank and file - you just assume you'll lose a certain number of those) protect him or herself from it preemptively? For example, a powerful deep gnome, knowing that drow often use sleep poison might have a potion of neutralize poison or a periapt of proof against poison.
I have a particular fondness for deep gnomes and would really like to hear if there are more sources of lore on this than those with which I am already familiar.
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"I am always here, all about you. You are never truly alone. I flow wherever life flows, wherever winds blow and water runs and the sun and moon chase each other, for there is magic in all things."
- Mystra (Ed Greenwood, Silverfall) |
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Ze
Learned Scribe
Italy
147 Posts |
Posted - 13 May 2013 : 16:49:48
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Just a thought - Remove Blindness must be very popular round there.
No cleric would get out without praying for it. :)
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Emma Drake
Learned Scribe
USA
206 Posts |
Posted - 13 May 2013 : 18:12:22
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quote:
Originally posted by Ze
Just a thought - Remove Blindness must be very popular round there.
No cleric would get out without praying for it. :)
I was thinking Remove Blindness would be quite popular as well.
The question got me thinking about the various defenses/offenses of the main intelligent Underdark races that we see most often.
Duergar - Immune to poisons and illusions. Able to enlarge or become invisible.
Drow - Immune to sleep and have bonuses against enchantments. Able to cast Faerie Fire and Detect Magic. Nobles (or higher level characters/priests depending on your edition) are able to cast Dispel Magic. Often use sleep poison on crossbow bolts and attack from hiding.
Deep Gnomes - Constant Nondetection, Able to cast blindness, disguise self, and blur. Specialize in illusions.
The duergar counter the drow sleep poison and gnome illusions with their immunities. The deep gnomes are better able to hide from drow via nondetection and disguise self and use blur to defend against more martially powerful races. Drow are able to cast faerie fire to offset the benefit of blur of the deep gnomes and invisibility of the duergar.
I've always understood that there was a relationship between the different abilities of the Underdark races that bespeaks of centuries of them fighting each other and developing natural ways of countering the abilities of the others. I never quite understood why the Drow have Dispel Magic... the other abilities they have always made more sense to me. But mulling this makes me wonder if it, like some of these other things that are a complicated interplay of strengths and weaknesses between the races, has anything to do with the blindness ability all of the deep gnomes have... |
"I am always here, all about you. You are never truly alone. I flow wherever life flows, wherever winds blow and water runs and the sun and moon chase each other, for there is magic in all things."
- Mystra (Ed Greenwood, Silverfall) |
Edited by - Emma Drake on 13 May 2013 18:14:00 |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7989 Posts |
Posted - 13 May 2013 : 22:08:23
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A racial ability need not be identical to a spell. Svirfy blindness might, for example, have a limited duration (say, 1 round or 1 turn per caster's level), a limited range (requires touch), spell components (need to hurl dust, blow smoke, or spit towards opponent), or some degree of concentration (-2 penalty to all actions while maintaining the blindness, or half-movement or whatever).
Even if left unchanged, this blindness requires an action to initiate (as per the spell) and is honestly only really useful at low power levels or vs low-powered opponents. Imagine the arsenal your svirf will have at mid- or high-level and you'll find that these freebie racial powers are sometimes very useful but mostly saved for hunting for lunch, or for situations of utter desperation, or for battles involving specialized conditions and/or large groups of svirfs.
Anyone familiar with svirfs and their tactics will expect them to employ blindness and have devised methods to minimize or neutralize the effect. |
[/Ayrik] |
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Emma Drake
Learned Scribe
USA
206 Posts |
Posted - 13 May 2013 : 23:43:53
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| Heh. Svirfs. |
"I am always here, all about you. You are never truly alone. I flow wherever life flows, wherever winds blow and water runs and the sun and moon chase each other, for there is magic in all things."
- Mystra (Ed Greenwood, Silverfall) |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7989 Posts |
Posted - 15 May 2013 : 00:34:52
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Well, continuing your earlier thought of offensive racial adaptations ... blindness assumes the target depends on visual senses. Does it also blind vision based on nonvisual spectra, like infravision? Does it have any real impact in an underground environment where nobody can see by light anyhow? Is it a specific counter vs drow faerie fire, illusions, line-of-sight spellcasting, and archery?
In AD&D 1E, svirfs often possessed psionic abilities (basically discarded in 2E onwards). 1E psionic attacks and powers largely required line-of-sight to the target, although many of the potent powers did not. |
[/Ayrik] |
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Svirfneblin and Blindness
