While I like Emraag the Glutton as presented, I was looking into altering the encounter to inject a more otherworldly feel that would hint at the alien atmosphere of The Lightless Depths. How does swapping out the Dragon Turtle for an Uzollru (both the same CR), described on page 41 of Dragon Magazine #349, sound to you?
Do anyone think that an Uzollru might be a bit too much? It does make sense, in my mind, for an aquatic abyssal monster to be present on the Isle of Dread's surrounding waters.
I have a rather specific question and I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction. I wanted to make the interaction between Alicavniss and the pcs more memorable (I think she's just that damn cool) and I was thinking of somehow providing the opening and closing dialogue of Alicavniss in an actual female voice. Now, I am a pretty decent actor but faking a female voice is rather hard for a guy (try doing that while sporting a moustache and a beard -- your attempts fall flat and your players just laugh). I could just ask a female friend if she is interested in doing a recording for me but most of my female friends have never done roleplaying before and it might make them feel uncomfortable.
In short, what I am asking is has anyone else used a software or application that allowed them to record or type in a dialogue that they could convert to play in a different voice or tone range? I can do the research myself but I figured I ask first here on the Paizo forums to see if I could first benefit from the experience and knowledge of my fellow DMs.
I'm not expecting a miracle here, just suggestions and/or actual experience/knowledge. Thanks a lot in advance.
I know it has been more than 2 years since the last post on this thread but I had to post here. So, without further ado, spoilers abound below.
** spoiler omitted **...
I'm not familiar with either the default Pathfinder Campaign setting or this adventure path so most of what you typed for the adventure plot makes very little sense to me but I am familiar with the Realms as I've been a fan for a while now.
Looking at the wiki entry for Calistria, I can't help but think that it might be easier for you to just use Sharess (they even share at least three domains: Chaos, Charm, and Trickery). Normally speaking, most people would probably wonder what Sharess has to do with the elven pantheon but she has a tangential link in that a goddess that merged with her had previous ties with gods that in turn merged with the Seldarine.
Most of the pantheon worshiped by the Yuir pantheon merged with the Seldarine save for one member who merged with Sharess: Zandilar the Dancer. As a bonus, the gods of the Yuir have some history with the drow as well. I can't remember the details as it's been a while since I've read through my old AD&D 2nd edition material but it's mentioned in some of the books. In any event, it's just a suggestion from a Realms fan. Good luck with your adventure and I hope you and your group have fun.
Thanks for the suggestion, Alea Iact Est. I knew about Sharess. What I didn't know was that Zandilar agreed to merge with Sharess. However, using Sharess as a substitute for Calistria wouldn't work too well as it requires a more personal stake on the behalf of the deity in regards to the adventure plot. Sharess is more concerned with her portfolio than the well-being of the elves.
The reference to Zandilar agreeing to give her essence to Sharess is detailed in The Spellbound (campaign guide) and Powers & Pantheons, both 2nd Edition materials. ;)
I know it has been more than 2 years since the last post on this thread but I had to post here. So, without further ado, spoilers abound below.
adventure plot:
I am currently running the Second Darkness adventure path in the Forgotten Realms (DR 1375). I did not start with the very first module but instead I began with The Armageddon Echo. I switched Riddleport to being Saerloon, Devil's Elbow to being the Isle of Prespur (but having the nickname of Devil's Elbow), Celwyvian is located in the Wood of Sharp Teeth, Zirnakaynin retains the same name but is located northwest of the Gauth Grottoes in the Underdark (middle level), and Kyonin is Evermeet.
The Winter Council functions the same but tries to manipulate the Queen through the Council of Matrons and through various elven noble houses, primarily those of sun elf origins. However, their sphere of influence is stronger outside of Evermeet and thus they try to control the flow of information from the rest of the Realms to Evermeet. The Winter Council (I'm still looking for a better name in elven for them) is more willingly to pursue options to hide the secrets of the elves, including the nature of the Dark Fate. Some of the evil deeds committed by the Winter Council includes the assassination of King Zaor over 45 years ago (I have a few reasons why they did this but you can adapt as needed). The Eldreth Veluuthra is actually an extremist offshoot of the Winter Council but very few know of this. No one, except for those in the Winter Council, know of the exact origins of the Eldreth nor that the Winter Council has some of the Council of Matrons in their pocket.
The First Darkness I had to change to being the Dark Disaster that occured during the Crown Wars. The 2nd Darkness is an attempt to recreate that incident (which is still a massive meteorite that breaks up in the atmosphere causing a targeted large scale meteorite shower). The pcs are under the mistaken assumption that House Azirnae is targeting Evermeet. They are not. They are intending to hit the High Forest (with an even larger meteorite), wiping out the Silver Marches and the Elven Court in the process as well. If they succeed hitting the High Forest, the resulting destruction is also enough to free Araumycos from its "prison."
Thorn's End will be located at or near Hellgate Keep. I have not decided yet where the Blood Lands will be exactly in the Underdark but the group have not finished The Endless Night yet so I am not in a rush.
Perelir remains a cleric of Calistria but naturally I changed Calistria's history. She is still an elven deity and her portfolio remains the same. She was, often, a former consort of Corellon Larethian. In fact, she was the FIRST consort of his before Lolth, who was known as Araushnee, seduced Corellon and replaced Calistria as his consort. Calistria repaid Lolth by helping Corellon durinng Lolth's attempt to replace him as the head of the Seldarine. Calistria's origins though is only known to the Seldarine and she is completely forgotten by the elven race, except through a small following that she has in Arvandor. Thus, she has been reduced to demigoddess status instead.
I also decided to include a 3rd power behind the scenes: Graz'zt, who is manipulating both the drow and the elves through moles that he has placed among the two races centuries ago, including Quilindra.
I hope my changes to the adventure path here can provide some of you with inspiration as well.
First off, I enjoyed reading the Second Darkness Adventure Path. It has a nice overall plot, per se, that is a good mix of adventure and conspiracy thriller. I am particularly fond of Endless Night, for the roleplaying opportunities it offers to both Storytellers and Players.
That being said, I DO recognise where and why others can find fault and flaws with this particular adventure path. To be honest, it can come across as a railroad at times (particularly towards the latter adventures) and sometimes it does seem to throw away a bit of logic and common sense, if observed primarily from a logical and devoid-of-empathy point of view. Of course, such a point of view is not wrong and it is understandable, even if I do have to wonder why such an individual is an adventurer in the first place. After all, being an adventurer is like being in a dating relationship with Death. She does not have to come after you, YOU will show up on her front porch sooner or later. ;)
However, you have to make adjustments of the adventure to suit the needs of the players and your own. It is part of your responsibilities as a Storyteller, same way as it is part of your Players' responsibilities to compromise with you (by playing a different character instead of the barbarian psychopath he wants to sink his teeth into). That is why with the adventure paths, I wait until it is completed before attempting to run it. I make the necessary modifications to ensure (a) there is some challenges to the players' characters and (b) the story will make them WANT to continue with the adventure instead of quoting Eric Cartman and leaving the table. More often then not, the amount of changes to the storyline I do is minimal. It's generally the villians I have to change in some fashion. :/
Now, what I did with the Second Darkness adventure path is that I did not run the whole thing from beginning to end. Instead, I took the overall storyline and adapted it to my campaign, starting the story with the Armageddon Echo instead. The previous adventures were events that happened in the background, completed by other npcs (who, alas, perished afterwards). All of the players' characters are elves. Suddenly, instead of possibly feeling like second class citizens in regards to some of the npcs, they're viewed as potential saviours. This gave the story more emotion to it and the players felt a stronger desire to succeed. Essentially, I made it personal for the characters.
I will admit that because my campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms, it makes it much easier to actually run this adventure path. The very history of the Realms tend to suggest a higher than normal number of globally-scarring events that kills a HELL OF A LOT of people in conjunction with laying waste to the environment. The Crown Wars are ample evidence that if the elves (regardless of exact subrace) want to throw down the kid gloves, it's time to either stop them or GTFO to a another crystal sphere. It's a nice little FYI, ;)
Finally, her selection of spells seem to violate her prohibited schools (abjuration and enchantment). Banishment, greater dispel magic, stoneskin, and dispel magic are all of the abjuration school.
I'm no authority on magic, but wizards are not bound the same restrictions as they once were in the previous editions. They can prepare and cast spells from their opposition schools, but those spells take up two slots rather than the one slot that any other spell take up.
I agree about the initiative issue. As for the spell resistance, she is a drow noble and as such their spell resistance is higher than common born drow (as is borne out in the Bestiary on pg. 115). In this particular adventure path, those that are drow nobles have feats such as Dark Adept and/or Umbral Scion (the latter feat is for females only and they must have the Dark Adept feat to qualify).
Hi, Blayde, thanks for taking the time to respond. :)
First, I would normally agree with you on the issue of the prohibition of schools for wizards if Second Darkness was explicitly designed with Pathfinder RPG rules. It was actually designed with 3.5 Edition rules. Otherwise, they would have listed all of the upgrades wizards get in Pathfinder RPG in her stat block, such as increased HD and other new niffy class abilities, ;) And that's just the wizards. All of the rogues, fighters, duelists, etc., would have similarly received the new upgrades. No sarcasm intended, :)
Second, I was not pointing out that her Spell Resistance was too high. Rather, I was pointing out that it was too low (listed as 28). In 3.5 Edition, all drow have a Spell Resistance of 11 + class levels (page 103 of the 3.5 Edition Monster Manual). Granted, it is a 1-point so it is not a deal-breaker, ;)
Of course, these are not really that big a deal, and thus I was not actually complaining, per se, but rather pointing out errors that were present in the stat block for a major npc. I also find her outlined tactics and daily spells in effect to be a bit on the side of "Why would she even bother with that? There are other more effective ways." But again, that's a moot point. :)
I guess I should have phrased my original question as thus: "Who else has done alterations to Alicavniss's stat block or modified her to suit not just your campaign setting but also to your players' characters?"
CB out.
EDIT: Fixed one of the paragraphs as I accidentally wrote two sentences together. :)
I was going through "Endless Night" and adjusting Alicavniss Vonnarc to a higher level (since my players' pcs are of higher level than the suggested level for the adventure), when I realised that there are a few flaws in her stat block.
npc:
For example, her initiative modifier should be +7, not +4, since her Dexterity modifier is +3 and she has the Improved Initiative feat. Her spell resistance should be 29 (11 + class levels [18] = 29). Her casting of mage armor seems redundant since she already has an armor bonus from a magical item (and it grants a higher bonus to boot).
Finally, her selection of spells seem to violate her prohibited schools (abjuration and enchantment). Banishment, greater dispel magic, stoneskin, and dispel magic are all of the abjuration school.
Besides a few other things that I thought were kind of pointless for Alcavniss to have, those are the primary errors I noticed (not including the silly typo about her gender). I am sorry if these errors were already pointed out in another thread (didn't see it when I did a quick search). Has anyone else noticed these errors and what changes have you considered to substitute the errors?
We were required to delete the PDFs from our servers on April 7, 2009, so there's nothing we can do to help you at this point. I wish I had a different answer for you.
As for the comments on Wizards' policy, you can find pages and pages on that topic elsewhere on our messageboards (especially here). Paizo's customer service forum is not the best place to continue that conversation. Thanks!
Thank you, Mr. Wertz, for your reply. I appreciate the feedback and rest assured, I am not displeased as I understand Paizo's situation in this particular issue. It is merely a case of bad luck for me that I lost the .pdf file due to a computer crash. It happens! ;)
Fortunately, a friend was able to loan me a physical copy that I can browse for the time being.
To everyone else who posted in regards to my original post, I appreciate your responses as well. Thank you for your feedback and good gaming to you all.
I original paid for the .pdf version of AD&D OP1: Tales of the Outer Planes (order number 753020) and I can no longer can see it in my downloads. Now I understand that there may be a legal issue involving the older editions (since they're under WoTC's care - I'm not particularly educated about the matter) but I am hoping there is a way I can download the .pdf file again because last month my computer crashed (big time) and I just finally got it restored. Unfortunately, my copy of that .pdf was among the many unrecoverable files.
Is there anything that Paizo can do? I hate to think I lost money on this investment, :(
Actually the DC would be 15. The spell takes up a 4th level slot, but fireball is still a 3rd level spell. The intelligence modifier would still have to be 14 though.
You are right, my bad. For whatever reason, I had the metamagic feat Heighten Spell on my mind when I was doing those calculations.
Interesting that a wand of enlarged fireballs would have such a ridiculous range. It's more than the range increment of a catapult. Just point and boom! Also, according to the fluff text, the fireball makes only a low roar and creates almost no pressure. For some reason I always had the impression that it made one hell of a noise and would fling npcs away like they were made of straw. I must had that impression from 1E and 2E. Huh.
And that enlarged fireball wand has a range of 1200 feet - cripes!
Actually, the range on that wand is even further. An enlarged fireball takes up a 4th level spell slot so you need a minimum caster level of 7th (assuming a wizard). Thus the enlarged fireball has a range of 800 feet + 80 feet/caster level = 800 + 560 = 1360 feet.
The DC would be 16 (4 [level of the spell] + 2 [modifier for an Intelligence of 14 which is the minimum required to cast 4th level spells] + base 10). The average damage would be 24 points per fireball (remember, CL 7th = 7d6 per fireball). That is enough to kill most npcs but not enough to cause significant damage to buildings or walls. Exactly what the Crimson Fleet wanted, ;)
Well, for something totally different and unexpected...I present the following weirdness: a unholy scion (Heroes of Horror template) kobold marshal(Minatures Handbook)7/invisible blade 5/dread commando 5 (Heroes of Battle)/shadowdancer 1.
Assuming you decided to go at least with the motivate dexterity aura for the marshall, and let's assume that the kobold has a charisma of 20, its allies (and itself) in the ambush group have at least +10 bonus to initiative checks. With the ability to hide in plain sight and assuming that the kobold has maxed out Hide and Move Silently and also has equipment specifically for Hide and Move Silently, there is a good chance he's sneak attacking at least once every round. Just do hit and run tactics. Set up traps in advance. Coat his weapons with poison (check out Book of Vile Darkness for some really nasty ones).
Sooner or later, the party will have to stop and try to capture or kill the little bugger so they can continue without further harassment by a little lizard.
No one expects a kobold to burst forth from the earth to slash the tendons of the party members and then to hide like a vermin. ;)
If you want to give him a touch that is totally Demogorgon-themed, give the kobold two personalities, one controlling the right side and the other the left side. Or you could make half of him kobold and the other half gnome (both are the same size).
Well, if it were not for the fact that he is Gargantuan, you could have used Dalmosh from the 3.5 Monster Manual V as the end boss, simply because no one who have expected it. ;)
Well, since I am not sure if any of my players frequent these boards (highly unlikely but you never know for sure), I will just post the changes I made for the bad guys in a spoiler.
** spoiler omitted **...
hah. interesting ideas but don't you actually have to be large to qualify for war hulk? goliaths have powerful build and that does make them count as large for very specific things but i don't think qualifying for a prestige class is the same as a size or special size modifier for an attack (grapple, bull rush, trip, etc.)
frenzied berserker can be a real gamble too. something sets it off early and things get messy near the 'serker.
also, seems weird that players that spend the time prepping that stuff may not see any kind of advantage at all to doing so. dunno. seems counter-intuitive. good idea to try to aim for making it cinematic though. anyway, good luck!
In Races of Stone, there are feats there that required Large size or bigger and they specifically states that goliaths qualify by virtue of their powerful build. If their powerful build allows them to qualify for feats requiring Large size, then the same can be said for allowing them to qualify for prestige classes that require Large size or bigger.
In regards to the frenzied berserker, yes, it is a gamble, and yes, he will have poor will saves. Iron Will does grant a +2 bonus but even then, it is still a gamble. Hence why the other pirates leave a wide berth around him and why only the captain can control the 1st mate. But the pcs don't know that.
Finally, it may seem that I am punishing my players but actually, they will be seeing the advantages of their efforts since it all slows down the pirates, preventing them from entering the harbour en masse. Furthermore, the pirates cannot enter Farshore itself until they make a breach into the 30 ft. high walls that are completely smooth (hence, not valid for climbing) and even then they are restricted to entering only through the areas they've breached (not likely to let more than 2 pirates, possibly 3, to go through at the same time - it's like a bottleneck effect). With the defenders just waiting right at the breaches, they can effectively slow down even further the flow of pirates into the village, leaving the pcs to deal with the real menaces. Once the leaders are dealt with, morale for the pirates will begin to ebb and soon they will be fleeing, onty to run into more walls with no exit. Surreder is not far off then. Less lives will be lost on Farshore's side.
Sounds to me like they'll be getting their "money's worth" for their preparation. ;)
Wonderful! Great ideas, one and all! I was toying with playtesting the Oracle for V'Sesslin myself. I haven't statted it out yet. If you want nasty undead and don't mind explaining precisely how it got there, I wholeheartedly recommend the Necromentals from Libris Mortis. A Huge Necro-Earth Elemental wreaked havoc with my own powergamers. Two +23 slams doing 2d10+10+negative level will wipe the smile off anyone's face :-)
Have to see if I can get some more stuff statted up this weekend.
That can definitely rain on anyone's parade. I might get a mutiny though if I make it too hard and my players really hate negative levels....hmm, I could have the ghost of Rowyn haunt them. Huh, that's actually a good idea and it makes perfect sense given that they left her stranded in the middle of the ocean on a rowboat with minimum supplies.
In all fairness, the first mate I constructed is stupidly brutal. And half of me says "scale the bugger back," while the other half says "nah, they need the little tough love." Eh, maybe they can handle it? They are all powergamers, to one extent or another. Although to be fair, they probably would have not lasted this long with their pcs if they were not powergamers. The STAP is a heck of a bloodbath in the earlier adventures. Which is fine. Makes you want to do it again, ;)
I am also fitting the main CF ship with cannons (limited quantity of cannonballs) and all of the ships are listed as caravels (which have mounts for 2 light catapults and 1 heavy, as described in the Stormwrack supplement). The further distance they can make an attack with a heavy mounted weapon (in this case, it would be a heavy ballista, but they can mount a heavy mangonel or a scorpion in a heavy mount) is 1,200 feet. At that range, accuracy is probably not going to be that great but hitting a 30 ft. high stone wall that is more than 5 feet thick is not really an issue.
Besides, the point of the artillery is to distract everyone from the real threat: the golems and the 2 9-headed hydra making a path for the CF pirates to come in by boats and making holes in the walls for them to swarm in. By doing that, I am will be insuring that the pcs will be focused on the monsters instead of the low-level pirates which should be the job of the Jade Ravens, the Olman warriors, the phanatons, and the villagers. Plus, it will give the Vanthus the slip he needs to confront Lavinia. ;)
Well, since I am not sure if any of my players frequent these boards (highly unlikely but you never know for sure), I will just post the changes I made for the bad guys in a spoiler.
Adventure:
First thing I noticed when checking out the Crimson Fleet pirates (henceforth referred to as CF) was that V'Sesslin had the spell animate dead. So I decided to browse around and see what kind of undead he could have raised not only in the 3 months or so trek to the Isle of Dread from Scuttlecove. He's a 9th level spellcaster so that means he can control 18 HD worth of undead. Cool. So I look around in Libris Mortis (because it has samples of undead skeletons and whatnot) and imagine my glee when I spot hydras and minotaurs in the mix! I decided right there and then to increase V'Sesslin's caster level by givin him Practised Spellcaster so that means he could then animate 26 HD worth of undead (I compensate that by giving him flaws (each flaw grants a bonus feat and I restrict all characters to a maximum of 2 flaws).
So V'Sesslin has animated two 9-headed hydras (with the nimble variant added on top) and 1 advanced minotaur (with the fiery variant). Next, I checked out the upgrades available for golems (Dragon 327) and gave the flesh golems the advanced binding and rudimentary intelligence. Then I armed the golems with hide armour (made from the skins of slaves of the CF) and weapons (not sure if it is too cheesy to use large mauls or if I should just stick to weapons more familiar to Yuan-ti minions).
I also added in a 1st mate for the Captain of the CF. I decided to do the whole barbarian thing. But you know me, either go big or go home. So I constructed a goliath barbarian/frenzied berserker/war hulk with the alternate class feature mountain rage (as listed in the Races of Stone book). Combine that with the Reckless Rage feat and you get a +8 to Strength while raging. In a moment of dry wit, I decided to name this npc Kratos. Because when he rages, he will have a strength of 33. It is ridiculous.
Finally, for Vanthus, I kept everything with one primary exception. I changed his feats and with the bonus feats granted by flaws (plus, I allow pcs and major npcs to buy feats at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level, provided they spend 5 skill points at the time), Vanthus had most of the parry feats (they are listed in a Dragon magazine but not sure if they are listed in the Dragon Compendium). Ultimately what that does is to allow Vanthus to block melee attacks if he can beat the attack rolls. It just makes him a bit more capable in melee combat if he needs to get dirty with the rest of them.
I guess I should mention that I decided to playtest the Pathfinder RPG classes in this battle against my players' pcs (who use primarily core class from 3.5), just to see if how it balances out. So in case you were wondering what bloodline V'Sesslin has, it's the undead bloodline, of course, ;)
The reason why I made these changes was not only because the pcs used spells to great advantage but also, back in the ruins of Tamochoan, they had revived a few of the stone statues (thanks to persuading Urol to use his potions) and they added a 8th level paladin of Pelor and a 8th level cleric of Kord to Lavinia's crew. These npcs spent the months training the villagers of Farshore (defense tactics, how to use polearms, how to do tactical retreats, etc.) while the pcs fortified the village.
I am going to try to make this battle a really cinematic one, with lots of cutscenes, allowing the players to describe how they kill/defeat named npcs and the monsters, and letting them say what they want to say when they need to rally the villagers and boost morale. I will give them a chance to do the whole Braveheart speech before the battle begins, ;)
Even though my post here is several months too late to be of relevance to the original poster, I figured it would still serve as some advice for any other DMs running Tides of Dread at this point.
The druid in the campaign spent exactly one full month doing nothing but casting spells. First, she lowered the sand in the beach by several feet (spell from Sandstorm) to serve as a ditch. Then she raised a wall of stone all around Farshore, just inches from the palisade walls and across the docks (leaving only 2 piers, the main ones). This was done using stone shape and wall of stone, repeatedly (and using the dwarf druid from the Jade Ravens to assist as well). She also raised two stone towers by the entrance to the harbour to serve as scouting posts and a place for archers to rain down on ships passing through the harbour entrance. Using stone shape and wall of stone, she also placed a few stone barriers not too far from the harbour entrance, to serve as "sandbars" and the like, to have ships crash into them if they didn't know the right route to make headway towards the harbour entrance.
Finally, the druid also created several walls of stone to encase key areas such as the warehouses to ensure that they do not burn in case the pirates decide to cause any large-scale fire.
I have not run the attack yet on Farshore but I made some changes to the pirate fleet as I realised that the pirates should have some more surprises in store for Farshore due to the capabilities of some (i.e, the spellcaster[s])
I have done other changes, such as reworking the feats of some of the npc pirates attacking Farshore but I did not change their levels or classes as it would require too much work on my part.
Hopefully I will get a chance to run the attack on Farshore before Christmas.
When my players want to go do a little exploring (after we finish Tides of Dread) before the start of the next adventure in the AP, I will run "Rana Mor" for them. I cannot remember offhand what is the issue number but I figured it would serve as a nice, easy adventure for them.
I am also considering using the backroads and crossroads described in the Magic of Faerun supplement (it's 3.0 edition but still useable) as a means for the pcs to be able to return to Sasserine without the 3 month trek back (no one in the group is a real mage and they will only get access to teleport when the gun mage in the group is like 14th level or something like that).
Primary reason why I ask is because my group did not bother to even investigate the area. They knew beforehand, from asking the chief of the Tanaroa village, where the idol belonged in the shrine. As soon as they saw the shrine, they literally ran to the shrine and placed the idol back in place as the aspect showed up.
My group harboured no notion of starting a fight with the aspect. However, once they knew that they could take some of the treasure, some of the players started contemplating stealing some extras. At that point, the other half of the group is like "Are you crazy? He will see it! More to the point, we're in a freaking volcanoe and he's the one that is making it shake like an eel in a bunghole." I couldn't believe that the group actually split in half arguing whether or not they should steal from the aspect. It was an entertaining night for me, :)
Ultimately, common sense stayed greed at hand and they exited the volcanoe with their lives intact. Pity, I did want to see some mayhem by the aspect, ;) If only to teach them respect for the gods, :)
Since I ran the module in the Forgotten Realms, the group decided to hand over the tome to Candlekeep, where they will get future access to a tome that they may need later on in the course of their adventures. The folks at Candlekeep will probably make a nonmagical copy of the tome and then either lock up the original or exchange it to another interested party.
So yeah, they did not "destroy" the tome but they pretty much ensured that the Seekers or Eli Tomorast will not get their hands on it (at least not anytime soon).
I was thinking of having the tome be able to rebirth itself, much like how the Abyss always regenerate demon lords back to life, no matter even if they were eliminated by a sphere of annihilation.
For the Lost Citadel, I was thinking about using the adventure "Tomb of the Mud Sorcerer" (I forget which Dungeon issue it was) that would be the "underground" levels of the Citadel and use another adventure to serve as the "surface levels" of the city. Granted, it sounds like a lot of extra adventures but I wouldn't have to change much.
At least I will be able to use the materials sooner than 10 years down the line, ;)
In Prince of Demons, (not Enemies of my Enemy as I mistakenly alluded to), the demon that led Vanthus down the path of evil is General Ghorvash. I do not need to omit that encounter since I can simply have Avner *peel* away his skin to reveal General Ghorvash. I will have to modify his introduction a bit first. I am also toying with the idea that the Skull of Kallum be a light weapon with two skulls, one on each end. One skull belongs to Vanthus' uncle and the other to none other to either Avner or Rowyn, who they left stranded in the middle of the ocean on a rowboat. The weapon is considered a light weapon in the hands of a Huge creature (like General Ghorvash) so the change is minimal.
My players have only just started Tides of Dread and they're complaining a bit about the lack of magical gear (they have not gone to the volcano yet) and treasure per se. I'm considering adding Rana Mor (Dungeon 86) as a side-trek adventure in the Isle of Dread for them. The theme certainly fits. Just requires a bit of change here and there. I am not going to bother increasing the difficulty (except for the traps) since they do need a short adventure where they are not getting their butts handed to them every time they encounter something in the Savage Tide, ;)
I finally figured out what I am doing with Avner. >:)
plot spoiler:
Way back during Here There BE Monsters, where the group travelled through the underground passage towards the Olman Tomb, at one point, they had hear scuffling and noises behind them. The PCs did not see anything. Unbeknownst to them, a fiend was trailing them.
After the group exited the Tomb, they were attacked by monstrous crabs and Avner was killed during that battle. The party druid reincarnated Avner, who returned as an orc. What the party failed to realize, is that his soul did not return alone. The fiend that had been trailing them since the underground passage finally saw an opportunity before they got too close to Olangru's domain. The fiend rode Avner's soul into his new body and has remained there.
Now that the group is at Farshore, Avner is actually nicer, more of a proper noble than before. They still hate his guts but he no longer puts himself in a position to be abused by the party. Furthermore, all of the party's special defenses for Farshore gets noted by Avner and the fiend within sends the information via dreams to Vanthus. Why? Because the fiend is no other than the same fiend who originally helped turn Vanthus down the path of evil (not that it was hard since Vanthus was easily influenced). The information provided is not enough to help Vanthus win but rather, it will seem that the Crimson Fleet were somehow more prepared, as if they knew Farshore was more fortified than initial reports had indicated. Thus the war for Farshore will be a hard-fought battle, with no clear winner at the very beginning.
Thus, when Enemies of My Enemy arrives, they will find Avner waiting for them in Wat Dagon.
You know, that is an interesting observation....what if Avner turns out to the evil monster they equate him to be?...What if "Avner" had a hand in making Vanthus become the villian that he is today? What if "Avner" was just really a mortal guise? Ooooo, I think I am going to enjoy that train of thought very much.
In the meantime I have found a nice tree village map somewhere. So I am definitely going for the tree village, and probably for phanaton who just do not seem to grasp why it is so difficult for the PCs to swing from one tree to another. ("Please follow me! Hurry up, why are you so slow?")
I have also discovered some tree village rules in Dungeon Masters Guide 2.
I guess I want phanaton to be a lot more nimble than ewoks. [/QUOTE
Give the phanatons the Brachiaton feat (from Complete Adventurer). They can easily qualify for it at 1st level or you can give it as a bonus racial feat. It's not that powerful for a feat and it makes them look cool.
My recommendation would be the Dread Necromancer as they get a few necromancy spells that not even regular Necromancers get (i.e., Mass Harm and some cool curse-type spells). Plus, they can rebuke/command undead, make stronger undead than normal, and they eventually become liches themselves.
A good combo would be to take levels in the True Necromancer prestige class (but you would have to be a multiclass cleric/necromancer or cleric/dread necromancer in order for it to work optimally). If you want to be really evil, assuming your pc survives to epic levels, having the Ignore Material Component epic feat will let him create all sorts of undead for free (well, almost free) and if he has the right feats, created undead can have skill points, feats, intelligence, enhanced strength and speed, etc.
Plus, as a True Necromancer, by 14th level, he will have gained +12 spellcasting levels to his arcane spellcasting class and to his divine spellcasting class. Of course, all necromancy spells he cast would be actually be 3 levels higher by 12th level in the True Necromancer prestige class. So the pc would still have all the buff spells from cleric, kill his enemies with necromancy spells, and then add their animated corpses to his legion of undead. It's really can be a potent combination to play (and fun to roleplay! ;)
Oh, the priest is definitely turning evil. Which is not that big a deal yet. No one in the party is actually good. Most are CN or N (well, that one is dead now). And the priest turning evil doesn't go against his faith yet (he worships the oceans and the ways of being a sailor as a model of how to live your life piously).
Adventure plot spoiler:
The npc survivors are indeed horrified by that pc's actions. But they know they need the party in order to reach Farshore. Avner will definitely get some payback and methinks Lavinia will not be thrilled to hear the stories. Furthermore, the mayoral election will be difficult as the priest's actions will come back to haunt the party.
And in the later adventures, when Lavinia and the party are absent from Farshore for extended periods of time, guess who will be making his move (possibly with the help of an Agent of Malcanthet, hrm)? ;)
Oh, that player will get a lovely surprise when the group also encounters the couatl. :D I got so much in store for him.
My group is not there yet. They are in dark mountain pass and defeated the centipedes last session, which left one of the fighters severely weakened by the poison. The group cleric now wants to schedule an extra rest stop, since they still have enough food.
One of the other PCs has been quarreling with Urol a lot (since Amella is quarreling with Urol and he is trying to seduce Amella), and now I have planned for Olangru to snatch Urol's backpack, hoping everyone will blame the PC and Amella.
We will play again on Friday. I am curious how this will turn out.
And I am curious how your players figured out the mirrors. I have been sort of rewriting that room...
Well, the players are veterans so they approached the problem very carefully. Since the chamber itself quite frankly screams "It's a trap!," the players did everything at range (lighting the candles, putting a corpse in the throne chairs, etc.). Plus, they let the craziest party member (an old and nearly insane mage) to be the guinea pig. So when he become a feral version, it was rather easy to take him down without resorting to lethal damage.
It was basically trial and error for them. Besides,
adventure trap spoiler:
the objects in the chamber itself are clues. The candles, you light them. The stone chairs, you sit in them. The mirrors, you look at them and touch them. Plus, the fact that the objects are reformed no matter how much damage you cause them also high-light how important the objects are in this context.
Actually, it's funny, but as it turns out, they have completely forgotten about it as after their battle against everything in the Shrine they were just too exhausted. They don't want to ever return to the place where they lost one of their one. The entire party was nearly wiped out by the rock-slide trap at the end as they were exiting the Shrine (having nearly died at the hands of Olangru and the statue thereafter).
Thanks for your help though. Especially that idea for it to be the focus for a possessing demon (like, maybe, Olangru, eh?).
The group's priest (who really hates Avner) took the dead human body of Avner (who got reincarnated into an orc by the group's druid) and decided to use it to spring traps in the Shrine of Demogorgon (HTBM). Avner naturally objected to the taking of his original body but the priest made a strong point (specifically, he made his point by using the sharp end of his dire pick).
So, every 10 feet, the priest throws the corpse 10 feet. He even used the body atop the altar (where the mirrors are) and knowingly set off the fire trap. He threw the body against the stone thrones, propped the body in the stone throne as it becomes covered with fresh blood. He even threw the body against the mirrors, to do what, I don't know, except maybe to pulverize the bones.
The end result (and they have only just finished figuring out how to use the mirrors properly) is a bodysack full of burnt and shattered bones. I honestly don't know why he does this. Well, I mean, I do know why but I have never seen the players have this much contempt for a npc. I've roleplayed really evil npcs in the past and the treatment they got is nothing compared to what Avner, a mere arrogant noble npc, is getting. What the hell did I do wrong (right?) when I roleplayed the introduction for Avner? I seriously feel bad for Avner as the trials and tribulations of his life is not over yet. :(
Well, the 2nd gargoyle attack was swiftly dealt with by the party. A well-placed vortex of teeth (spell compedium) forced the gargoyles to ground after they had attack en-masse the group. With well-placed critical shots by the gun-mage captain and poor attack rolls by the gargoyles, the battle was soon over.
Their first encounter with the bar-lguras resulted in the kidnapping of two npcs (Tavey and Urol) and the newly-acquired animal companion of the druid (a fleshraker). The priest was visibly upset as he had spent the 3 months voyage on the Black Wyvern with Tavey under his tutelage. He had developed a rather close relationship with the cabin boy and he literally lost his anger at the abduction, vowing to chase through the fog-shrouded forest in the night to find the boy. Fortunately for him, the captain and the druid both convinced him (not an easy task) to remain with the group instead of stomping off alone in the night.
The fleshraker eventually made its way back to the party in the morning(it had escaped shortly after the abduction but got lost in the fog). The group's mage was the only one to suffer the Wisdom damage from the nightmares (resulting in a Wisdom of 5!).
The group succeeded in figuring out how to use the mirrors but man, how they managed to open the bronze doors leading to that room was definitely one of the weirdest moments I had witnessed.
The only changes I have made to Olangru was to add a 5th level of scout, change his ring's theme to that of a goristro (just a flavour change), changed his Dodge feat to Expeditious Dodge, and gave him two flaws in order to get two extra feats (Leap Attack and Fleet of Foot - the latter is great to keep them guessing who he is going to pounce next!). Finally, I changed his cause fear spell-like ability to grease instead. It's fun to use while hiding! :)
I suppose I should give Olangru another minor magical item since the party is behind in terms of appropriate loot acquired for pcs of their level but I don't want him to slay them all outright. Still, if he ends up killing the whole party, I prefer that he finishes them off one-by-one, Predator-style, as they flee from him (assuming they fail as a group to defeat him). However, I really don't see any reason why he would not flee in case the battle does not go his way. He's not build to stay in one battle for any lengthy period of time against a large group. His style is really that of an ambusher. ;)
Given my players' predilection to steal everything of value that is not literally impossible to obtain (i.e., stuff that is not glued down), I noticed that the large blood-red piece of quartz in the ceiling of areas 8-9 in the Shrine To Demogorgon is probably going to be removed by the party (having profession [miner] helps significantly in that endeavour).
So my question is just how big is this quartz? If natural sunlight is supposed to be filtered through it (an odd thing since the area outside is supposed to be gloomy given the heavy fog) and it is bathing the entire area with a red light, does that mean it is at least a foot in diameter?
I guess my real question is what is the value ascribed to the quartz? Sure, I can place whatever value I want to it, as I am the DM, but I like having, not exactly an official value, but rather a value that would be consistent to other gems or similiar "treasures" for the future. I, and my players, do like some form of consistency in the game, if only to add that little bit of realism to the game.
Thanks in advance for any advice in this matter, :)
I have yet to design the Infamous Seven for my campaign but I was thinking of using the "Legendary" template from Monster Manual II. I figured it made sense. Not sure if I want to add the titanic template as well. At any rate, while the pcs are the stars, I wanted to impress upon them that defeating any of the Seven requires considerable effort. Meaning, they should lead a hunting party against one of these monsters. I think it would make for a more climatic battle if they are ralling Olman natives and phanaton hunters alike to trap and defeat these creatures which have long plagued generation after generation of natives.
I was just curious to see if anyone else had added any other encounters for the party while they were travelling on the coastal pass in HTBM as they progress towards Fogmire.
Personally, I modified some of the suggested encounters from the adventure and some of those suggested by board members to make things as creepy and stressful as possible for the party. However, I did make one original encounter (I think, unless I was inspired by someone else's contributions and simply forgotten who).
The party settled down for the night at an abandoned olman village on a large beach. They had found evidence of a massive violent event that probably contributed to the disappearance of the natives there. As they were camping, they were visited by the ghosts of the slain Olmans. The party saw the natives going on by their daily life, ignoring the pcs until they screamed, pointing to the sky. Ghostly figures of gargoyles dived from the sky, bringing death to the Olmans. The pcs witnessed the entire carnage, helpless to stop the gargoyles dropping several villagers into the ocean several hundred feet above the water.
As the carnage faded away, the party wizard, a neurotic and paranoid fellow, saw, illuminated in the light of the full moon on a cliff ledge far away, the silhouette of a large ape that howled. It threw something towards the beach before disappearing under the shadows of the clouds as they obscured the moon. The pcs went to investigate and fought only one pair of footprints, belonging to that of a large ape. The object it threw onto the beach turned out to be a bloodstained thighbone of an ape. As they pondered upon this weird turn of events, a low fog billowed off the shores, only to break to let various undead walk out from the sea. A small group of skeletons, zombies, and aquatic ghasts make their way towards the campsite to act everyone there. By the 4th round, the leader of the undead arrives...one of the drowned (MM 3, I think).
Overall, it was a good, scary fight where the party had to rush to defeat all of the undead as soon as possible. They didn't hold back against the drowned, and despite that, they still nearly lost the pc cleric, and 4 npcs. Most of the pcs have mid-long attack range so they could fight the drowned one without too much risk. Another bonus from this encounter is that the pcs now really want to defeat the next group of gargoyles they will meet.
As the party now heads to Fogmire, I am planning to insert another creepy encounter for them prior to finding the shrine. Did anyone else do something like this to shake the party up? :)
Btw, Canada.....wtf? You have a party full of evil characters or something? I just read through that and....geez...that's beyond nasty. Sounds like something out of the BoVD playbook.
My apologies for not replying to this earlier (took a leave of absence from gaming for nearly a year). In regards to my players' choice of characters, they are not evil pcs but rather CN. Granted, their actions against Avner is nowhere near honourable behaviour among men, but they are not evil. Cruel, yes. As I mentioned before, they're former pirates who are trying to reform. I could explain (and defend their position) in more detail but that's rather beside the point of this thread. Suffice to say, the pcs are, to quote Chris Jericho, "ass-hats."
Anyhoo, I suppose the squeaky-cleans among us here will be thrilled to hear that they have made an improvement as of late in their efforts for rehabilation. When the pcs exited the Olman tomb, Avner was killed by one of the monstrous crabs. In an act of unexpected goodwill, the druid reincarnated Avner (free of charge too). :)
Of course, the hooligans among us here will no doubt be laughing to hear that Avner was reincarnated as an orc and the pcs now refer to him as "Orcner." The druid was crestfalled though. She was hoping that Avner would have been reincarnated as a shocker lizard that she could have adopted as an animal companion to show him what it is like to be someone else's property. Understandably, Orcner is now somewhat...er, not himself, and has taken to long periods of depression and sulking. Only time will tell when the rage will burst forth from the depths of his tortured soul.
This saturday I will run the group through the mountain highway and the beginnings of Fogmire. I expect nothing in the hopes that whatever my players do will not either gross me out or cause me to question their sanity more than I already have. ;)
Sorry I have not replied with thanks earlier (been working overtime since October until only last week) but my many thanks to all of you who have chimed in with your suggestions. I greatly appreciate it! :)
I was wondering if anyone knew either a good website that features a variety of fantasy art that I can browse to obtain the right visual aids for my campaigns. One of the things that I do need to find is a really good picture of a nightmare (the horse one, not your generic nightmares), and other mythological creatures. I'm also looking for creepy scenery and etc. I appreciate any help. I already found a few websites but there is so much more than I can handle and I know I can rely on the good taste of the Paizo community, ;)
I would like to cancel my subscription, following the shipment of the 16th volume of the Pathfinder adventure paths. I do enjoy reading the materials but lately the amount of actual gaming I have done in the last 8 months can be counted on one hand. I still have enough gaming material to last me for the next 20 years and it would just be irresponsible of me to continue paying for a subscription that I am most likely not going to use in the future, immediate or otherwise.
I like to thank Paizo for its fantastic work since its involvement in both Dragon and Dungeon magazines and up to its Pathfinder series, along with other innovative contributions to the roleplaying games community. I hope to one day become an active member again of the community as it certainly is full of talented, creative, and insightful individuals (with an instinct for comedy gold) who all share a common hobby.
Thank you Paizo, and its wonderful authors, for making D&D a great storytelling game once again. :)
Thanks everyone for your prompt replies, :) I was pretty sure I had seen a feat (like a metamagic feat) that allowed spells to be cast without harming animals and plants. It's such a stubborn itch in my brain. Unless of course I am mistaking it for something I saw back in 2E or possibly in another non-D&D d20 book. >_<
Maybe I can modify that Relic Guard feat from the Class Acts a bit. I have the relevant Dragon Magazine issue so that's a bonus.
I am looking for this feat that allowed spellcasters to use their spells to ignore any animal, plant, and natural environments and I think I saw something like it in a Dragon magazine. Either that or in one of the various splat books. Does anyone know what I am talking about or did I conjure that nonexistant feat in my head only?
Hi all. Does anyone know any adventures that take place in the plane of Gehenna. Any info would be greatly appreciated, since much to my player's chagrin, their characters ended up gating into Gehenna.
Offhand, I vaguely recall seeing an adventure in one of the Dungeon issues that took place in Gehenna but I could be wrong. When I have some spare free time this week, I'll take a look through my library. The Manual of the Planes and the Planar Handbook are both great resources for information regarding Gehenna.
That indeed is a cool concept. I always liked Victor Saint Demain. He's a villian with style and it is always fun to roleplay such npcs. I have always wanted to see a npc ghostwalker (from the 3.0 Swords and Fist) return from the dead to stalk the pcs and they couldn't figure out who he was until the very end. If Saint Demain returns from the dead, he should target the relatives/family/friends of the pcs first, just to get them afraid of who they know will be the next target.
I think it was the vampires i was referring to, not the monks. i don't have the adventure here and i ran it a couple years ago, so i'm understandably hazy. the glooms were tough as well, but seemed to be a fair encounter.
As for eravatius, i think i either held my punches back, or else i got confused by all the abilities and what to do. and i think they encountered him about halfway through, so not at his strongest or at his weakest.
of course it didn't help that the munchkin of the group basically min/maxed everyone their characters.
Ah, I understand, I have a similar problem with the munchkins in my group. The number of broken combos they have pulled off is just plain absurd. They have found more loop holes than I care to list. On the bright side, thanks to them the next games I run have the necessary feedback to prevent them from abusing the game like crazy.
I've started making some adjustments to the adventure already but the one hurdle I'm stuck on is what to do about the dragon. I am not 100% certain if I should just change that blasphemy spell-like ability to something else or change the template or drop it entirely and just advance her HD. I am also considering doing some changes to Erivatius in terms of changing some of his feats. The Bounding Assault and Rapid Blitz feats from Players' Handbook II are a good fit for Erivatius, running around to strike 3 different targets instead of just one target seems like a very monk-like thing to me.
I ran it (3.5), my players loved it and they all survived. there were a couple of times where it came really close (the cavern and the dragon are the 2 examples that stad out the most, but i think they had difficulty in that room with the two...i think they were monks or vampires or something...vampire monks?) the actual fight with Eravatius was a joke though. not sure if i just ran him wrong or something, but they barely sweated. In all though it was one of my favorite adventures to run and one of their favorite ones to play. it also got me thinking with portals...and tesseracts. my players rue the day i was inspired to use tesseracts.
Heh, I couldn't find any vampire monks but there are 4 human monks. The only vampires are Baucojin and Ivirere and neither one are monks. I am wondering if you are referring to maybe the 3 glooms?
Erivatius can be either a pushover or a tough fight, depending on when the party meets him. If they meet him on the very first day they arrive on the Hourglass (unlikely), then he is a tough customer. After all, his divine salient abilities still work in an antimagic zone and his attacks are treated as melee *touch* attacks and they are vorpal. Being immune to criticals does nothing to prevent their heads being lopped off (much like vorpal swords). Erivatius can also deflect and reflect any ranged attacks, including spells, even if he rolls a natural 1 on his Reflex save (unless his rank has been reduced to 0). He is also a mobile attack, using Spring Attack to smack around people.
When my players get to play against Erivatius, I would have him take out the divine spellcasters first, as quickly as possible (since they are generally the healers and support crew). Then Erivatius should deal with the melee types since most spells they can throw at him are easily evaded (Evasion) or reflected back at them. He is unlikely to fail any saves, and he is immune to most spells that doesn't deal hp damage but instead either penalties or negative conditions.
Running deities are difficult since they have a boatload of abilities and defences. Also, you should not hold back your punches. The god may be suicidal but he wants to die to power the Hourglass, not die at the hands of some mortals. So basically, you got to be a mean S.O.B. You deserve to have fun too, ; )
I was just going through this adventure in preparation for my players when I noticed a few things. I was wondering if they were genuine mistakes or just slipped by...
First of all, if the pcs accept the solar's offer to transport them via wish to the location of the portal, they are pretty much hosed. Not only are they dropped in a cavern that is capable of draining them of Constitution every round of physical contact, they are also pretty much in range of every symbol traps (since they're transported to the centre of the cavern, and the range of the symbols is 60 feet).
This is just nitpicking but I was wondering why Huersefful has Improved Spell Capacity when he has no metamagic feats to take advantage of with Improved Spell Capacity? Also, why would Huersefful have Spell Worm as an epic spell? That spell does take 1 full minute to cast. I doubt he will have opportunity to cast that particular epic spell in combat. Both are easy enough to fix. I altered Huersefful to have at least 1 metamagic feat and replaced Spell Worm with Ruin.
For Voursuol, all she has to do is just let loose with her blasphemy spell-like ability and the pcs are dead if they are in range. It is an evocation spell, with the sonic descriptor. So unless they are immune to it, they are automatically dead since Voursuol's effect caster level when she uses her spell-like abilities is 43rd and that is at least 10 levels higher than the recommended 30th level pcs. No save, to boot (the banishment effect is the only one that allows a save but it is irrelevant in the Hourglass).
There are a few other things that caught my eye but they are easily ignored or altered.
I will be running this adventure with the Pathfinder beta RPG primarily to see how it handles the higher levels.
Anybody else ran this adventure (whether it be D&D 3.5 or otherwise)? If so, how did your players' pcs fare?
Has anybody actually itemized exactly what is in Eli's copy of Boccob's Blessed Book? It says it has 1000 pages worth of spells. Is that enough to cover all the spells in the PHB? Or does one have to be more selective than that? Any completed lists (using the default Eli stat block in Dungeon) would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Greg
Well, when I ran this adventure, I was running it for 4 players who each had at least 2 pcs, on average, so I was looking at a group of 9 pcs. Because of that, I had to either increase the number of bad guys or buff them up more. I did a little of both. However, for Eli, for a planes-walking mage (at least, a wanna-be one) who likes to get up in your face, I had to do a fair bit of re-work with him. I did give him levels in Geometer (from Complete Arcane) so it only costs him 1 page to put a spell in a spellbook so his blessed book has 1000 spells. Thus, I really didn't need to worry which spells he had access to prepare.
Next, since I incorporated action points from the Eberron campaign to my FR game, it was just a simple matter to have Eli take the feat that lets him swap out a prepared spell for any spell he has in his spellbook for just 2 action points. Thus, whatever spell he really need on the fly, he can cast it easily.
I recommend though Eli has a greater ring of counterspells with a disjunction stored. Seriously, at high levels, it is just a good idea to chuck a disjunction from a scroll (so it is at minimum caster level and minimum save DC so most magical items have a more than reasonable chance of surviving a disjunction) at a bunch of bad guys or a single powerful mage. Your goal is not to destroy the items but to get rid of the numerous spells in effect, including contingency spells.
Posts
