question on levels

[inuroku842]

Hey all, moderately experienced DM with a quick question. I'm trying to plan out a scenario with a succubus and I'm wanting to know how to give negative levels without making it obvious to the players. Obviously if I tell the players you take one negative level after kissing the woman in the red dress, they're going to catch on pretty quick.
Do I just keep my own tally of what their penalties are or what? Help me please!

[Gwaihir Scout]

I don't think that's the sort of thing that is possible to hide from the characters, let alone their players. If a succubus wants to hide her identity, she won't be draining her prey's life force until she has him alone and under her control.

[inuroku842]

ok then, got it. i had one more scenario i was considering. say for instance the longer they stay at an inn the more they rack up negative levels (1 lv per day, for instance). Any way to work that? or after every night do i have to tell them upon waking that they accumulated 1 negative level?

[Gwaihir Scout]

Interesting. This one goes beyond me. You might want it to start as waking up fatigued for a while before actually draining levels.

[inuroku842]

Well that's actually what I had planned on doing, or at least describing it as. They would wake up feeling progressively more tired and weak. Eventually start taking negative levels (was planning on describing the negative levels as feeling weak without telling them about the loss of level; is that incorrect/wrong?) Just not sure to make that work. (the inn, in and of itself would be a sidequest, trying to break the curse of the inn)

[Gwaihir Scout]

This seems more like a question for the Paizo forums. Personally, I wouldn't put such a severe status on them without telling them what it was, as I think the PCs would feel substantially weaker. You could probably get away with saying "The effect is as if you had a negative level."

[inuroku842]

Ok then, you're probably right. I may end up not doing the whole negative levels thing and just go for status effects or temporary debuffs instead, maybe a stat drain or something. i might be able to make something work. just worried about scaring the players off from the quest

[Willot]

Ok then, you're probably right. I may end up not doing the whole negative levels thing and just go for status effects or temporary debuffs instead, maybe a stat drain or something. i might be able to make something work. just worried about scaring the players off from the quest

Maybe some sort of effect or Aura that gives penalties to their die rolls. Something you can hide from the players but not thier character.
The Characters are feeling a bit weak and out of it ,and the players dont seem to be able to hit those DC's for some reason...

The players will eventually catch on when someone cant tie their shoelaces on a roll of 18, but if the penalty builds up slowly..

[Blackfoot]

I'm pretty sure you can add an effect to a character in the tracker and make it only visible to the GM.. although when the 'effects' come into play on rolls they will see them... at that point you can say.. strangely enough... you really aren't feeling quite up to snuff... and after that romp with the gal in the red dress... who would be surprised?? I mean.. she was AMAZING!

[Crossfireue]

I think in the Effect window you can choose to select who the effect is visible, too. These options are on the left-hand side of the entry in the Effect window.

[inuroku842]

I'm pretty sure you can add an effect to a character in the tracker and make it only visible to the GM.. although when the 'effects' come into play on rolls they will see them... at that point you can say.. strangely enough... you really aren't feeling quite up to snuff... and after that romp with the gal in the red dress... who would be surprised?? I mean.. she was AMAZING!
Was playing around with the tracker (thanks for the suggestion btw!), but I can't figure out how to make them show up on rolls.
I do love the idea of making a weakness aura effect, that's a pretty good idea Willot, thanks for that!

[Blackfoot]

What effect line are you using?

You should be using :
NLVL:1

[inuroku842]

effect line? I've tried dragging and dropping an effect I made from the effects tab on the upper right hand menu, and I've also tried typing an effect straight into the tracker. Nothing. I think I'm doin it wrong.

[Blackfoot]

If you set a new effect to 'GM' visible only and then type on the line :
NLVL:1
it should do what you are looking for.
You can find all sorts of fun effects if you look at the FG library... User Guide (3.5E)... then scroll all the way down to the bottom and click 'effects'. This stuff is really cool and you can do all sorts of great and useful things.

Effects Docs (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/userguide35E/ref_effects_35E.xcp)

[inuroku842]

Ahh! ok then, will play around with that. If I set an effect to GM only, will it still show up on their rolls though?

[Blackfoot]

Ahh! ok then, will play around with that. If I set an effect to GM only, will it still show up on their rolls though?
Yes... it will show up as [Effects: -1] on their attacks, skills, ability rolls...
but they won't be able to tell 'why'.

[inuroku842]

Yes... it will show up as [Effects: -1] on their attacks, skills, ability rolls...
but they won't be able to tell 'why'.
Oh, okay then. Think I got it now, thanks!

[Feithen]

I did this recently in Rappan Athuk. I kept track of the number of negative levels each player had throughout the roleplay section on a scratch pad. I also gave some characters skill checks to notice something was wrong. That went on for a while, hah. When they finally tried to actually STOP her from kissing them, I had everybody roll initiative, and added their accumulated negative levels as an effect. You CAN make it invisible but I figured that by then, they knew what was going on, so it was worth showing it.

[inuroku842]

I did this recently in Rappan Athuk. I kept track of the number of negative levels each player had throughout the roleplay section on a scratch pad. I also gave some characters skill checks to notice something was wrong. That went on for a while, hah. When they finally tried to actually STOP her from kissing them, I had everybody roll initiative, and added their accumulated negative levels as an effect. You CAN make it invisible but I figured that by then, they knew what was going on, so it was worth showing it.
That's definitely an interesting way to do it. I like it, having it take effect during roleplay and then laying it out as a surprise later on down the line, nice. But how'd your players react?