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We are all familiar with the danger of basilisks as encountered monsters. For that reason, may designers include them as monsters in their scenarios. However, in combination with the 4th level mage spells enabling a party to capture monsters, basilisks can be the downfall of many a good scenario. Imagine the player is running a one character party. (There are people who do this.) This character encountered a basilisk early on in the scenario and captured it. Later, the character gets to your tactical puzzle where (s)he is ambushed. Your tactical puzzle was designed to be difficult for a 6 char party, and should easily wipe out a lone individual. Instead, the character creates basilisks each turn, who stone two of the enemy each each round. Rapidly, the battle is over. Even the 1000 hp demigod you created as the top beast fell to the gaze of the basilisk, without even being struck by a blow. How to combat this? For one, you can leave the capturing spell out of the scenario, but it is likely that some characters will come in with it. You could also leave out basilisks completely, but they are so cute and fuzzy that that is not desirable either. The best solution I have found is to make them immune to magic. Yes, that means you must change their level upwards by 3 levels or so to compensate in the exp. awarded, but it also means they can not be captured. Editors note: Making basilisks or any other creatures immune to magic will not prevent them from being captured. Whatever your solution, be aware of the problem! |
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