Allergic to Death: Part 2

Tone Deaf
This is a tricky weakness to exploit, as you need to get the creature singing and then laugh at it until it starts to cry. You then, of course, kill it while it’s busy sobbing. Or, you could promise not to laugh, get it to sing again, and then laugh some more. NOTE: my sister deserves credit for this weakness and causing me to never sing in front of anyone EVER.

Coulrophobia
Or, as it is more commonly known, the fear of clowns. This is a hard-one to identify, as having an absence of clown paraphernalia is pretty normal. The only real way to exploit this is to have the party dress up like clowns when adventuring, on the off-chance a random orc will scream ‘Aaaagh! Clowns!’ and run away (granted, you will need to know orcish to figure out why it’s fleeing). As Lon Chaney, Sr. supposedly said "There is nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight."

Fear of Commitment
This particular weakness is generally only found in male monsters, but is fortunately fairly common. Pre-battle, just have the female party members announce that they would like to talk about ‘our future,’ moving in, and meeting said monster’s parents (assuming they haven’t been eaten). With any luck, half of the marauding orc war band will suddenly remember they left the campfire burning and quickly evacuate the area. There is, of course, the danger that there will be the rare goblin that wants a relationship and is perfectly willing to move in and get a cat (and not just for dinner). You should try to let him down easy.

And there it is. GMs, please free to use these in your own campaigns. Once your players catch on, they’ll be running around dressed like clowns, and carrying milkshakes, dictionaries, and solid gold anvils in a vain attempt to actually find a critter that is susceptible. You, obviously, will have a good laugh and beat the snot out of them with creatures vulnerable to pink roses.

Cheers,
-Jason

Allergic to Death: Part 1

In most sci-fi and fantasy games, it is not uncommon that a specific critter or race will have some sort of ‘weakness.’ These usually run the gamut from a weakness to cold for fire-based critters, a weakness to flame for cold-based creatures, and a general weakness to being stabbed, shot, or lasered repeatedly for most living organisms.

However, I find that these weaknesses tend to be rather mundane. The aforementioned weakness to cold for fire-based critters has been done to death. If it has flames, tends to use fire/heat, is red in color or dress, lives in Phoenix, or watches CNN, it’s most likely weak to cold.

It’s rather predictable.

So, in the interest of both creating more interesting races and critters and confusing the hell out of the players in my DnD game, I created a list of new and unusual weaknesses that could be exploited . . . er, used, in a gaming environment.

Lactose Intolerant
Rather self-explanatory. The adventuring party just needs to get the critter to eat some sort of giant sundae or drink a milk-shake. Mordenkainen’s Marvelous Milkshake would be most useful when dealing with these critters.

Poor Speller
Only really apropos for intelligent, literate monsters. This particular weakness can be exploited by simply asking them how to spell ‘surreptitious’ at an opportune moment and then sneaking up and stabbing them when they’re consulting a dictionary.

Bad Back
The creatures with this affliction habitually lift with their backs, not their legs. They can easily be defeated by dropping a large, solid-gold anvil near them and then running away. They attempt to pick up the anvil, throw their back out, and then are easy pickings. Beware, though, leader-types may be wearing a +3 Weight Belt of Disc Alignment.

Later:Part 2