Welcome to the weekend! Traditionally games night take place for me on the weekend but with lockdowns here in Australia lifting decided to get a cheeky Warhammer game in today instead of D&D.
So let’s have a look at something that will be encountered tomorrow with the publication of the adventure for this week.
How and what can we do to deal with not- quite lethal encounters such as the Cockatrice.
Well first of letters look at the little nightmare-chicken.
Petrification, turning flesh into stone, is a d&d staple and will invoke fear into the player. But let’s look at why.
Let’s look at petrification first and dnd beyond has a great entry for this status condition.
Now perhaps the fear comes from turning to stone, semi-permanent where they are now a incapacitated, and effectively dead to the world unless restored by powerful magic. Or could it be the loss of control where they can’t do anything to save themselves. This is their character who they have invested dozens or hundreds of hours into is now a glorified garden gnome who is at the mercy of the creature who did this to them who could early break their body apart and the character would just cease.
The Cockatrice is an interesting encounter as everyone would know of it, knows it can petrify but it’s only for 24 hours.
As a DM 24 hours is a long time. As the effect states any non-magical items are also turned to stone. Maybe a party beiny petrified by a nightmare-chicken gives us a chance to add in a twist or additional layer to the plot. Maybe a den of thieves use cockatrice’s as a way to capture and rob adventurers of their more valuable gear and equipment or they move the Steve-come-statue you their lair and wait a day until they revert back to flesh before robbing them.
The time condition on the Cockatrice bite makes it an interesting yet lower risk encounter that could prepare them for harder quests in the future.
Well that’s the ramblings if a ragged DM on a Saturday night. If you comet back tomorrow we will investigate the Cockatrice den and how it ties into the Adventure story.
As always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe
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