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 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?
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, :(
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 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? :)
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. :)
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?
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?
Out of curiosity, did anyone else find the Dark Mountain Pass (in HTBM) insanely brutal? Especially
Spoiler:
the spears trap? My players had beefed themselves up just prior to crossing the bridge so they wanted to "run" through the entire complex while still enjoying the benefits of their spells. Since they didn't bother with disturbing the dead in area 3, they found the entrance to area 4 without encountering anything else other than the centipedes. However, the priest decided to stroll in and open the sarcophagus. Of course that sets off the trap. 1d6 spears per target in the room is just nasty, with a save for each spear that hits (not hard with its attack bonus). Tavey alone suffered 8 points of Con damage while the rest suffered, on average, 3 points of Con damage. Now they have to deal with the mummies that will arriving soon after. More Con damage (thanks Mummy Rot!) I sincerely doubt the entire party is going to surive.
I am just wondering if perhaps the brutality of Dark Mountain Pass was intentional or just accidental. Of course, it doesn't help the party if they don't have a single rogue or scout.
At any rate, feel free to share your experiences with Dark Mountain Pass.
I was away on an extended trip so I did not get to check my shipment as soon as it has arrived. However, upon checking my shipment, I noticed that the GameMastery Combat Pad that I ordered only has the magnetic wet- and dry-erase board. It did not include any of the indicators nor the magnets. I thought it was odd that the board was in its plastic package by itself. Are the other items packaged separately? I'd appreciate any help on this matter. Thank you.
CB out.
[EDIT]
Nevermind, I am a completely idiot since I did not checked the back of the pad. IF I did, I would have realised the magnets and indicators are there. Duh.
I intend to run Chimes At Midnight for a higher level group (15-17th level) because it's a neat adventure and one of the pcs is a master inquistive/cleric of the silver flames (who also happens to be one of the dragonmarked nobles of House Cannith). I intend to sort of run the adventure as a competition for that player to 'catch' Victor.
Anyways, my question is does anyone know of a good decent that can destroy Victor's home and present a challenge to higher level pcs? The Acidic Fire Gas trap is cool but the damage is nothing against higher level pcs. Not that I am trying to kill them but I really do want to scare them. I was thinking of a collapse that is triggered by the trap but that might seem a little too cliche. Other than increasing the damage dealt, does anybody got a devious trap in mind?
I was sitting here at work thinking about the various Dungeon adventures I have used in the past and I recalled one that was intended for Mature Audiences (i.e., those over 18 years old and supposedly not for the weak of heart). I cannot recall the name and the Dungeon issue number but I was wondering...has anyone here actually used that adventure? If so, did you use it as written or did you modify the adventure to suit your players' sensibilities?
No need to go into details (not that I would be offended but I am well aware that others would be and there are minors on this board). If I recall correctly, the adventure revolved around stopping a yuan-ti cult dedicated to demogorgon in a port town.
I was wondering if anyone had already came across some 3E/3.5E/d20 version of the Sheens (a machine race first introduced in Dragon #258, I think)? I have already done some preliminary versions of the Sheens (no play-testing yet) and wanted to compare other versions with my own.
I was just wondering if anyone knew a Prestige Class or Core class from any of the D&D or Forgotten Realms books that focuses on summoning? I know about the Thaurmaturgist and the Alienist but they don't quite have the flavour I'm looking for. I suppose I could just change the situation of the adventure to a cabal of summoners...any help would be appreciated.
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