oatsmalone:

askmerriauthor:

paintmeahero:

Dungeons and Dragons: A new generation.

It may be that Nothics in particular are vulnerable to this sort of sympathy because of what causes them to come into being.  But in a recent game, my Tiefling Bard – who is the party’s den mother since she acts like a hireling who cooks all their food, does their chores, and otherwise keeps them from turning into uncivilized murder hobos – “defeated” a Nothic in a similar manner.  When the party stumbled across one in the depths of an old manor basement, it started psychically hissing about how great its hunger was, which was meant to intimidate the party.

Cue my Tiefling going “You poor darling, you’re skin and bones!  C’mere, I’ve got five days worth of travel rations and the magical ability to make it actually taste good.”  And then rolling a 25 on Persuasion in the process.  The rest of the party just sort of hung back and gawked in horror while my Tiefling sat down to make the Nothic the first home-cooked meal it had eaten in decades, had a heartfelt chat with it, and sent it on its way with a smile.

There is something about nothics, for sure. After getting into a skirmish with one of them, the kids in my old before-school program (8-10yo) experienced surprising sympathy toward the cowering creature, and they decided to visit him twice a week and bring him better food than he was getting in this dingy cave. They insisted I give him a name, and so I wound up writing a whole redemption/cure arc for the monster.