Author Topic: Stone Dragon maneuvers & the iron cubes of Acheron  (Read 2354 times)

Offline ksbsnowowl

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Stone Dragon maneuvers & the iron cubes of Acheron
« on: September 06, 2016, 03:29:17 PM »
My party of players will soon be traveling to the Infernal Battlefield of Acheron.  The adventure will remain on the first layer of the plane, which is composed of iron cubes floating in an airy void.

One of my players has a few Stone Dragon maneuvers, specifically Mountain Hammer.  Stone Dragon maneuvers have an odd requirement:

Quote
Stone Dragon’s defensive abilities focus on tapping into the enduring power of stone to turn aside attacks.
...
Unlike with other disciplines, adepts of this school rely on an external force — the power of the earth and stone—to help power their maneuvers. As a result, Stone Dragon maneuvers can be initiated only if you are in contact with the ground.

If a PC is standing on a iron cube of Acheron, can they initiate Stone Dragon maneuvers?
What about if they are standing in an iron castle built on one of Acheron's iron cubes?

In the process of reading up on Acheron, I delved into some 2e Planescape books to gain extra info.  I found this tidbit, which is swaying me toward not allowing Stone Dragon maneuvers to work on Acheron:
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With the right keys, elemental magic works well on Acheron, especially the magics of fire and water.  Earth magics have absolutely no effect on the iron cubes of the plane. ...

Thoughts?

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Stone Dragon maneuvers & the iron cubes of Acheron
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2016, 05:55:03 PM »
Yes, they should work. That's what passes for the ground there. If it said something more specific like unworked stone, it would be different.
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Offline Nanshork

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Re: Stone Dragon maneuvers & the iron cubes of Acheron
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2016, 06:31:47 PM »
IIRC each cube is habitable with a possible ecosystem and defined gravity.  That sounds close enough to ground to me. 

I would treat being in an iron castle the same as being in a normal castle on the prime material plane when it comes to if it counts as ground or not.

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Stone Dragon maneuvers & the iron cubes of Acheron
« Reply #3 on: September 06, 2016, 06:46:42 PM »
Acheron is the hell of eternal war. Why would any attack not work there?

Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Stone Dragon maneuvers & the iron cubes of Acheron
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2016, 04:59:23 PM »
Mechanically you'd gimp your player if you kicked out his access to Stone Dragon, which seems very thematically fitting, which is a bad deal to be on the receiving end of.

I would offer a Magical Item or Wand or some such. Think of it like throwing Undead at a Rogue, without a little investment the Rogue loses most of his effectiveness but unlike your Stoner he can pick up a means to use his specialty against his nemesis. So you can take the middle ground and say Stone Dragon cannot pull it's power from the iron cubes because the planar traits of Acheron impedes all forms of Earthen powers (include any earth spell shenanigans for good measure). Then offer a variant of the Steadfast Boots, +750gp to the cost (aka wand of gravestrike), made out of stone with +50% weight (flavor), but as long as you are standing on an Huge or larger object you can execute a Stone Dragon Maneuver.

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Stone Dragon maneuvers & the iron cubes of Acheron
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2016, 06:03:16 PM »
Mechanically you'd gimp your player if you kicked out his access to Stone Dragon, which seems very thematically fitting, which is a bad deal to be on the receiving end of.

I would offer a Magical Item or Wand or some such. Think of it like throwing Undead at a Rogue, without a little investment the Rogue loses most of his effectiveness but unlike your Stoner he can pick up a means to use his specialty against his nemesis. So you can take the middle ground and say Stone Dragon cannot pull it's power from the iron cubes because the planar traits of Acheron impedes all forms of Earthen powers (include any earth spell shenanigans for good measure). Then offer a variant of the Steadfast Boots, +750gp to the cost (aka wand of gravestrike), made out of stone with +50% weight (flavor), but as long as you are standing on an Huge or larger object you can execute a Stone Dragon Maneuver.

A lot of AD&D Planescape revolved around learning such secrets - one could build a whole campaign around finding ways to adjust to various planar traits, especially concerning magic ("this is Ysgard, the land of the Norse gods. If you want to cast augury here, tarot won't do, you have to cast runes.")

Offline awaken_D_M_golem

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Re: Stone Dragon maneuvers & the iron cubes of Acheron
« Reply #6 on: September 15, 2016, 04:58:00 PM »
Avalas the 1st layer, there's a realm called Resounding Thunder that's related to some OA 5 Elements thing.  Only in that realm would Metal =/= Earth under all circumstances.  99.9% probably No everywhere else, 'cept for tricky maybes.  Could force the PCs into a rationalizing or philosophy discussion about the concentrated earth nature of metals ... while the rust monster sneaks closer and closer.

Thuldanin the 2nd layer, almost everything is petrified and/or turning to stone = yes, totally yes.

Tintibulus the 3rd layer, is volcanic basalt ... stone but wait, it might actually be cooling Magma.  Yes , or maybe-oughta-be-yes.  Lots of dust around, dust of what?

Ocanthus the 4th layer, is "black ice" if you have a clarification on what/why it's not ice proper, still 99.9% no.
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