Pregnancy [3.5]

[ideasmith]

What if the targets of the spell are male? How do you determine which one gets pregnant?

Debby

Well according to the SRD (context indicates that ‘you’ means the caster.)

You make all pertinent decisions about a spell (range, target, area, effect, version, and so forth) when the spell comes into effect.

However, from the spell description:

The targets will know which one of them is to be impregnated when determining whether they are willing.

Whether the targets are male has no effect on the spells function. (It might affect the decisions of the caster and/or targets.)

[ideasmith]

I have made more changes in the system (based on advice from another webpage): See original post.

[Rephath]

I have a few bits of feedback.

You make pregnancy for NPC's. This seems to leave out certain natural ramifications and possibilities that might be worth including. That said in this world, radiation often makes people sterile. And in D&D, whatever the equivalent of gene-altering energy would be, I assume adventurers are regularly exposed to it. Also, if it's mainly for NPC's, why do I care about the rules.

You make pregnancy spells only workable on willing targets. What about a spell that works on unwilling targets? The ramifications of such a spell, while horrible, could be quite hilarious in the short term in some instances. Especially if capable of being inflicted on enemies to get them instantly to the third trimester. Also, this adds in possibilities for magical reproduction for monsters incapable of normal methods. Think about this: "The barbarian charges into the room, battleaxe raised to attack the xenomorph when it snarls something at him. Nine months later 'Congratulations! It's a squid.'"

You mention storks as a possibility, yet no stats are listed for such a creature. Think of the adventures seeds that could develop into adventure babies! A father watches his wife give birth to quadruplets, raising the total number of whiny brats he has to care for to 17. This needs to stop! He hires a team of adventurers to keep a wary eye out for incoming fowl and shoot them out of the sky. Or, the opposite, an escort mission. The king of dropsatania desperately needs an heir. But local avian predators mean his kingdom suffers from barrenness. Or, maybe one stork is working with a cloud that keeps producing terrifying offspring. He needs a strong suit of armor to stay alive.

[JKTrickster]

Wait to understand...

You wanted to create a Pregnancy system for DnD...

But not model it after biology? Or sex?

Instead, you want pregnancy to depend on magic?

You've succeeded...but I'm curious why you prefer this method.

Also I'm curious why you can't add a rule stating males can't be a target for those types of spells/can't get pregnant.

Do you feel making an exception for males detracts from the rules in some way?

[ideasmith]

You make pregnancy for NPC's.

No I don't. In fact, this article is specifically about pregancy in characters with PC classes and doesn't specify how, or even if, other characters get pregnant.

You make pregnancy spells only workable on willing targets. What about a spell that works on unwilling targets? The ramifications of such a spell, while horrible, could be quite hilarious in the short term in some instances. Especially if capable of being inflicted on enemies to get them instantly to the third trimester. Also, this adds in possibilities for magical reproduction for monsters incapable of normal methods. Think about this: "The barbarian charges into the room, battleaxe raised to attack the xenomorph when it snarls something at him. Nine months later 'Congratulations! It's a squid.'"

I wouldn't blame a player some DM did that to for rage-quitting. I am not writing rules to encourage such DMing.

You mention storks as a possibility, yet no stats are listed for such a creature. Think of the adventures seeds that could develop into adventure babies! A father watches his wife give birth to quadruplets, raising the total number of whiny brats he has to care for to 17. This needs to stop! He hires a team of adventurers to keep a wary eye out for incoming fowl and shoot them out of the sky. Or, the opposite, an escort mission. The king of dropsatania desperately needs an heir. But local avian predators mean his kingdom suffers from barrenness. Or, maybe one stork is working with a cloud that keeps producing terrifying offspring. He needs a strong suit of armor to stay alive.

Given the variety of D&D cosmologies, I prefer to be vague about the fluff.

Wait to understand...

You wanted to create a Pregnancy system for DnD...

But not model it after biology? Or sex?

Instead, you want pregnancy to depend on magic?

You've succeeded...but I'm curious why you prefer this method.

It isn't modelled after biology for the same reasons the D&D hit point system isn't.

It isn't modelled after sex because members of a gaming group can have very different preferences in how explicit they would like/tolerate such, and to avoid upsetting the parents of any underage players.

Also I'm curious why you can't add a rule stating males can't be a target for those types of spells/can't get pregnant.

Do you feel making an exception for males detracts from the rules in some way?

1. Consistency with the core rules, which invariably have the same rules for both genders.

2. Having game rules treat different genders differently tends to annoy one or both genders.

3. Treating different-gender PCs differently in the name of realism never works, since the rule in question never ends up being realistic.

[Rephath]

And most of my comments weren't serious.

[ideasmith]

And most of my comments weren't serious.

I'm glad to hear that.