AD&D: No-Save Magic

As a player, I prefer the lower levels of play. There is an uncertainty to the way the system works. Sure, you can do many things to try and ensure victory, but in a game that uses random number generators to resolve outcomes it really is more of a gamble when the dice are rolled. There are few, if any, certainties in the game. Oh sure, some spells have no saving throws (magic missile, for example), but there are limits on how many spells can be cast at the lower levels.

The premise of high-level magic (including magic items) is that your castings are more of a certainty. Fewer and fewer spells have a saving throw and the magic items become brutally efficient in their usage. As a Dungeon Master, I hate it when the players use magic exclusively without a saving throw to achieve a guaranteed result. To me it seems like cheating. I also refrain from using magic with no saving throws as the players seem to balk and complain when it is perpetrated on them. Last night's session of AD&D was no exception.

I had rolled a wandering monster encounter 2 weeks ago on the 2nd level of the Halls of the Fire Giant King as the party was transporting giant adamantite morningstars to a safe location for later retrieval. It was late and we stopped here on a cliffhanger - the players knew something was about to occur but had no idea what that was. I happened to roll up an encounter with a drow fighter/magic-user of 7th/7th level and his were-rat accomplices (6 to be exact). We packed it in for the night and waited until last night to play it out.

All Saturday afternoon I crafted the encounter. Since the drow surprises 75% of the time and the were-rats surprise 4 in 6, it was almost certainly going to be a surprise encounter. Half the party was hefting the huge morningstars, while the weaker members were waiting in the ettins' guard room along with all the gold they had ransacked from the giants in this section of the dungeon. Without looking at my notes from the previous session, I sat down to craft the random encounter.

In order to remain fair and neutral, I used other drow magic-users in the module and from module D1 as a basis for spell selection. Also, we use a house rule that gives bonus spells to magic-users based on high Intelligence in much the same manner as clerics get from high Wisdom. Therefore, since I rolled a 17 Intelligence for the drow F/MU, he was getting 2 bonus first level, 2 bonus second level, and 1 bonus third level spell. He already had 4 first, 3 second, 2 third and 1 fourth level spell. High-level Drow also gain access to darkness, faerie fire, dancing lights, levitate, know alignment, and detect magic. I ended up giving this drow 3 magic missile spells and a slow spell, the few low-level spells without a saving throw. The drow F/MU I was basing this one on also had a rope of entanglement. I figured what the heck, and wrote it in. Then I read the item in order to become more familiar with it. Here is where I drew the line and quickly removed it from the write-up.

You see, the rope of entanglement belongs to a category of magic items that I refer to as "ultra" items. It isn't cursed; quite the opposite! It is one of those ultra-powerful items that completely negates the party with a simple command word. There is no required to-hit roll against the target(s) and there is no saving throw against the effect. There are a number of items in the DMG that function this way - most are almost never found or used by player characters.

The party currently consists of the main characters (Druid 12th, Magic-user 11th, Ranger 10th), their henchmen (Fighter 8th, Fighter 8th, Cleric 9th, and Fighter 6th), and followers (two Druid 3rd). That's nine characters of small to medium size. The rope of entanglement can entrap up to 8 man-sized creatures with a single command from a distance of 20', with no hit roll or saving throw required. That means I could have immobilized the entire party with no hope for them to escape! That's no fun and no fair! And I'm certain that the party would have complained loudly if I simply stated that they were all now prisoners of the drow, who could enslave or slay them at his leisure.

So the rope was removed from the encounter. My fear was that it would either cause the players to hate the game, or worse, that it would fall into their possession! They already select spells based on 100% chance of success (i.e. no saving throw or impossible to avoid), and this item would have become unbalancing.

Still, I left the spell selection for the drow as it was and we began the session. First off I webbed the fighters and the djinni servant into the crypt and sent half the were-rats after the weaker party members. The fighters were surprised for 2 segments thanks to the ranger's ability, but the others were surprised for 4 segments! It didn't take long for the ranger to light a torch and bring it to bear on the webbed entrance, but by that time the drow (who I deemed had already cast strength on himself that day) was casting protection from good on himself, increasing his AC from -3 to -5 against attacks from good-aligned creatures. The players were already suspicious when I had them roll percentile dice for surprise...

The were-rats attacked the weaker members immediately, gaining 2 segments worth of attacks once they had moved into position on the dwarf and halfling fighter henchmen left to guard the others. The party is so well-armored by now that I barely scratched them. The three were-rats could not withstand the onslaught of the two henchmen's enchanted blades or the magic-user's magic missiles and fell within 2 rounds of combat. Meanwhile, the webs were burnt away in 1 round and the were-rats waiting in ambush outside were revealed in the flickering torchlight of the level. The drow was still slinking in the shadows waiting for a shot with his poisoned hand crossbow bolts.

Everything went south from there. The three other were-rats were being trounced by the fighters. The drow got a shot off on the druid, but he made his saving throw (even at -4!). The druid immediately transformed into a mountain lion as the drow cast his monster summoning I spell to call forth 5 manes to attack the party (geez, 1 HD sub-demons against 8th and 10th level fighter-types?). The ranger started destroying the were-rats while the fighter took on the manes. The druid leaped over the small manes and was charging the drow when he got plugged by a volley of magic missiles (which barely dented his 70+ hit points). The rest of the party, fearing for the safety of the others came around the bend in the corridor to see the mountain lion leaping for someone and several demonic creatures shambling forth to attack their fighter friend. The dwarf fighter charged the nearest manes and that's when the combat went wacky. The drow, in combat with the mountain lion, dropped a darkness globe on the middle of the corridor intersection and started to flee slowly. The ranger had dimension-doored behind the drow, but was unaware of the darkness coming into play when he did so (it's an innate ability he wished for long ago). He was not only disoriented from the spell, but also blind in the darkness. The party magic-user and her halfling fighter henchmen had approached the battle scene and were also caught in the darkness along with the demons and the dwarf fighter.

The drow then levitated up and out of the darkness to escape along the ceiling. The others soon wandered out of the darkness and the ranger removed a pebble from a neck-pouch with a continual light spell cast upon it. The darkness was negated and regular lighting resumed in the corridor. As the drow continued to escape 30' up, the party attempted some ranged attacks. The drow faced off in a wizard-duel with the party magic-user; shield spells, magic missiles, hold monster spells, and finally a slow spell cast upon the party. Nothing seemed to affect either of them - they both are magic resistant! So the drow stopped wasting spells and sought to flee up the stairs to the north where the druid had run to await the drow, thinking that his levitate spell had to end at some point. When he saw the drow was escaping, the druid turned back to his half-elven form.

We ended just as the druid cast his heat metal spell on the drow's weapons and armor. Now, the spell affects the metal, not the drow, so magic resistance does not come into play. The armor is not truly magical, so it gets no saving throw despite being considered +4 chain mail; it also specifically states in the monster description that the armor is an iron-adamantite alloy. So once again, the party will cook another drow in its own armor, with no hope of escape or avoidance. I'm OK with this; but if the tables were turned, I think the party would all be dressed in leather armor and using wooden weapons to avoid ever having to deal with this situation! I have a means of negating the spell (with the sleet version of ice storm), but I don't think I can cast in burning armor while levitating...