Chris P's page

Hi all,

Was wondering if my fellow gamers out there had some words of wisdom. I'm currently running a 15th level Halfling Rogue in my weekly campaign and once again it has come time to choose a feat. Any ideas? He currently has Dodge, Improved Initiative, Mobility, Nimble Fingers and Spring Attack. Obviously, he is very skill based so those Feats which add a permanent bonus to a certain skill or skills are always appealing but there are so many choices it's hard to settle on one. Our DM allows Core rule books and Forgotten Realms (where our party is campaigning) source books when selecting. Curious to hear thoughts.

So he is not allowing anything from the Complete series? Tactile Trapsmith from the Complete Adventures is always good for those with a very high Dex score.

I guess the reason I didn't have him readied was that was some time between when he was warned and when the players opened the door. Not so much time that he wasn't willing to cast he defensive spells that lasted hours, but there was some time. He got his first warning from the eyes which were on one side of his room. The second warning was from an acolyte who was just below his room (the party is stealthy so the acolytes didn't know what hit them). For this reason the Faceless One had idea which door they were coming through. His readied action would have been more likely to more to which ever corner was oposite where they came in then hoped he got initiative to cast the spell. It doesn't bother me one way or the other if they took him out fast. Good for them. The players felt very good about how it went because they used tactics and planned ahead. While it may have not seemed challenging from a mechanics stand point, the real challenge for the players was the strategy. That's how they like to play these characters.

Why did he have to make a Concentration check if he was using a rod?

It was a meta-magic rod to augment his Summon Monster III spell, so he was actually casting.

Have many people tried this Prestige class for the Complete Warrior? I'm currently playing one (7ht lvl bar/3rd lvl bear awrrior) and have mixed feelings. What are the feelings of othere people who have tried them or run a game with one in it?

I guess I would've treated it as if he were holding an action and not flat footed. My bad I guess.

Yeah he knew they were coming, but not the exact time they would open the door. So action basically came down to initiative, which the rogue got higher. On top of that the rogue has the Quick Recognoiter (sp?) feat which allows a spot an listen check as a free action, so she can determine the situation very quickly. This group is based around stealth and quick decisive actions, so this kind of opening to a fight is not uncommon. My terrible rolls is ultimately what made it as easy as it was.

So last Friday my group got to the fight with the Faceless One in 3FoE. He was aware the group was coming (both the eyes and his acolytes informed him). So he cast his defense spells and waited with his rod held aloft ready to cast Summon Monster III. The door to the room flys open and we roll initiative. The Faceless One gets a 25, so I think all is going well until the rogue rolls a 26 (she has a +11 on initiative). She quickly crosses the room and sneak attacks. Critical. She deals a decent amount of Vitality damage (optional rule from Unearthed Arcana) fituguing him, but not stunning him. Now it's his turn. He attempts to cast defensively to summon the huge centipede, hoping to separate the rogue from the rest of the group. Notice I said attempts, because I rolled a 2 so the spell fails. Next the monk comes in and smacks the Faceless One good. The cleric and the wizards attack doing a little damage. It comes back to the Faceless one who notices that the party is positioned perfect to all be captured in a web spell. Casting defensively again (he is now threatened by two opponents) he attempts to web the party. Yep failed again with a 3. Needly to say, the Faceless One went down pretty easy. It was still a lot of fun. :)

My group snuck into the mine, so their presence there is unknown to any of the miners. Now they went into the mine for two reasons. First, Smenk told them to clear up a little problem for him. They didn't like how he presented it, but took to heart the fact that he could make life in Diamond Lake very difficult for them (they had just gotten the deed to the offic building near WC so they were set on being in town for a while). Once they got down to the temples, they actually rigged the elevator in a halfway up position (using a combination of skills and spells). This made it difficult (but not impossible) for the cultists to get out. Since they are in no hurry to get anywhere, it wasn't a big deal for the cultists (I figure the Hextor's are the only ones that might leave on a semi-regular basis). They took out the Hextor temple first, so the other temples were none the wiser. So far they have taken out everything but the faceless one. I am actually impressed with how intelligent and methodical that are doing this.

My group did it very similar. They hit the Hextor temple first and cleared it out. They then rested the night there. They then hit the caverns with the Grimlocks and cleared it out. They went back to the Hextor temple to rest. Now they have entered Vecna's temple and are just through the lybrinth. I assumed that none of the temple really got along, so they really didn't visit each other (thus not noticing that they had been destroyed). Also I assumed that the supplied only showed up a couple of times a week, so it was not uncommon for each temple to not set foot out side its doors for a few days at a time. They are fanatics after all, what need do they have to leave their temples. ;)

I guess I worded my original post a little wrong. I didn't mean to imply that I was gonna take 20 on the roll. I was wondering that since I didn't see anywhere where a failed Dispel set off the trap, if I could sit there and keep trying. A Warlock only gets a set few of invocations so I was trying to figure out all the uses of the Dispel magic one. I am in a group that has no theif, so traps tend to be a problem for us. The high HP dwarf tends to be the default trap finder. If I can use detect magic and dispel magic to find the magic one it would be a great help. I'm gonna look for the article that Xellan pointed out and see what it says. Thanks for all your help.

I'm getting ready to play my Warlock and I'm already planning ahead on my invocations. Here is something I noticed, so tell me if I'm wrong or not. I was planing on picking up Voracious Dispelling as my first lesser invocation. This is dipel magic at will right? So if I find a magic trap with Detect Magic, can I take 20 on caster level check? The reason I ask is I can use it at will and there is no negative affects for failing, so taking 20 seems do able. This would give me a 26 for a caster check dispelling a spell from a 15th level caster. Am I missing somethin? This seems relativily powerful. Don't get me started on the fact that I can try and couterspell a caster like crazy. :)

My group just finished the maze part. They got surrounded by the Kenku on two occasions, but came out of fairly well with a combination of intellegent spell usage and a few bad rolls on the Kenku's ranged sneak attacks. The thing that suprised me the most was when the Female Elven Monk got a dire weasel on her. It latched on and was about to start doing the Con drain. As a last ditch effort to get it off, she Stunning Fisted it. Failing it's save it released here and stood dumbfonded while the rest of the party pummeled it.

Thanks for the swift reply. I had picked up Shackled City at GenCon with the intension of running it but when my wife saw it she insisted on running it herself. From what little I have seen, Shackled City beat hands down our group's other 'adventure path' product, "The World's Largest Dungeon." Since I am now jealous that my wife gets to run such a cool product, I was hoping to see what else Paizo offered along these lines.

Yeah I'm currently playing in the worlds largest dungeon. I'm not impressed so far. The adventure paths from Dungeon magazine are much better.

Ok so here is my question. The group I play in just moved into the World's Largest Dungeon. It wasn't the plan when we started the characters, but that's where we ended up. I'm playing a Wizard and so far the adventure is very wizard unfriendly. To add to that, the group I'm in isn't much for tactics and relies mostly on the buff dwarven fighter to lead the charge followed by the really strong priest of Pelor. Add to that a Ranger specialized in shooting a bow.

I tried just buffing people since organizing the group to use other spells didn't seem to work. That still doesn't seem to be working. So I have thought about switching to a Warlock. Would it be a good fit? I know it's not an exact replacement for a wizard, but with a brute force group I was thinking it could work.

My group ran and hid in another part of the dungeon. The wizard then sent his raven familar to scout it out. The raven was enough of bait to lead the beetles out, but the mad slasher was persistant. The group finally went to help the raven once the wizard realized that the fear feeling he was getting from it wasn't going away.

I assmued it was akin to the rays that a Beholder uses, which are typically considered visiable. Either way works depending on how you want to decribe the seen. They were visiable for my group, yet they didn't paste it right away. The fact that it was a strange monster that none of them had encountered before made them cautious. In the end, they actually captured in and put it into a bag. From that point on it was referred to as the eye-bola. It never got used as such, but it was funny none the less.

I have to go and re-read this now (my players haven't gotten to it yet). For some reason I thought one of the eggs burst open, giving the players the clue that something was horribly wrong. Even if it doesn't say that, I may go that route anyways.

Everything that Steel_Wind is right on, which is why grappling can be devestating to a group. I do believe that WotC did state in one of their Grappling articles on their website, that a monster with multiple attacks can make multiple attacks while grappling (with the appropriate minuses). So it really doesn't lose all that much.

I sounds like they should run and come back more prepared. It's fights like these where I'm glad I use the Action point system from Unearthed Arcana. It gives the players an extra edge in these tough fights without having to fudge anything.

Lilith wrote:

FWIW, I prefer "fluffy" (...I hate that term...)

We do too. We use "flavor." :)

/thread hijack

Oh! And don't forget to pick up copies of Dungeon #118 through #121 for the super cool Greyhawk map therein. (I took my copies of those maps home with me because they're so cool and I don't even DM in Greyhawk!) :D

I have those maps all taped together and the whole thing laminated. Its one awesome map.

I've got some questions about the law in Greyhawk, and Diamond

Lake. Two of my five PCs have been caught in the commision of
a few crimes with numerous witnesses around. So I'm wondering
of what crimes they should be accused, and if I seem to have
missed anything. I'm currently using the legal code from
Greyhawk: The Adventure Begins.
So the episode starts with the party rogue in the Feral Dog
learning that Kullen's gang are the likely culprits in a recent
grave robbery. He starts to go over to question Kullen when a
voice in his head (the other players) suggests he should get
the rest of his party before proceeding.
Fully gathered, the party's fighter strides up to the
bartender, points at him and says, "Watch what's about to
happen." (Later the bartender will recall "Red", the fighter,
ordering, and slamming back, a shot of whiskey.)
"Red" walks over to wear Kullen is seated and speaks loudly,
"Hey, the Land family wants to know what happened to its
graves!"
Kullen, and the rest of his party rises, Kullen exclaiming,
"What?"
Now, seeing a potentially explosive situation, I decide
initiative is in order, so I know who does what when. This
might have inadvertantly caused our least experienced player to
assume we'd entered combat.
Kullen's mage friend acts first. Sensing the hostility, but
not wanting to attack first he elects to cast Mage Armor on
himself. Then Decum goes, immediately drawing his bastard
sword and attacking Kullen's ranger friend.
Now combat was joined in earnest. Things were fairly even
until Kullen's mage friend successfully Color Sprayed Decum,
the party's barbarian. The fight seemed to be turning sour
when the party's cleric elected to cut and run, quickly
followed by the rogue. The mage made for the front door,
while "Red" attempted to drag Decum away. Kullen, almost
casually, stepped over to "Red" and knocked him out.

I figured the constables would be showing up by now, being just
across the square....

I would say you have it about right. They could probably get out of it with some bribes since the sheriff isn't the most trustworthy person to begin with. Otherwise it's probably time served and some fines.

I got loucky, since my group got the info from Kullen and crew using ale, Detect thoughts and a fast atlking halfling rogue. It never came to blows.

Chris P wrote:

Eleazar wrote:

Can someone be resurrected after being fed to an ochre jelly and then having the ochre jelly burned to ashes? Forgot to mention that part earlier - the PC's were feeling really mean :)

Oh well, I can always introduce a henchman or another member of the Kyuss crowd to fill in for Raknian... Thanks all.

I assume most your party is nuetral or evil, because that came off sounding kinda evil to me. Maybe its just out of context. I haven't received the Champion's Belt yet, so maybe that will explain it all.

Yeah, it was kinda evil, but he was willing to let loose the urlgastasta (am I spelling that right?) on the whole city. Not to mention trying to kill the party twice - once from the mind flayer and once from the frogemoth. But the icing on the cake was the dancing girl.

The PC who found her zombie drew a somewhat logical conclusion that Raknian had killed her and then given her to the tiefling cleric as a toy - she was found in his bedchamber after all. So he told the party he was personally going to kill Raknian real nasty in revenge (he's true neutral and as an elf was offended Raknian would use and disgard this girl - refer to Ekaym's description if that's unclear), and asked if anyone else wanted in.
The female CN sorceress volunteered immediately for obvious reasons. The LN monk saw it as his duty to St. Cuthbert to see that Raknian was punished for his evil ways, but he agreed this was kind of excessive and so did not actively participate. Likewise the NG fighter was not happy about it, but agreed Raknian could not be left alive and went along to cover everyone's back but did not actively participate, and the CN barbarian was in it just for the fight.
I thought it worked out pretty well and gave everyone a few extra XPs for playing true to character.

Yeah I wasn't saying it was super evil, but if revenge continues to be a trend I would think it would start moving their alignment to evil. Although I tend to view alignment different than others. I does sound like they were acting well within character, since it was such an emotional reason for them.

I get the impression that your group wants to do things on their own without the help of NPCs. That makes it difficult to dispense the needed info. You will probably need to let some of the NPCs be a little more loose lipped and also make the info that they do let out be more appealing to the players. Now maybe it was just how I read it, but the group seems like a stereotypical, looking for stuff to fight, we want treasure group (I could be totally wrong). So the info that the NPCs let slip needs to be geared in that direction, so the player can't help themselves.

If they do go to the Whispering Cairn, let them. By now everything the place is empty of monsters and treasure. When they go back to town complaining about a waste of time, maybe they can hear about all the treasure/monsters in the mine. Hopefully that will get them going.

Can someone be resurrected after being fed to an ochre jelly and then having the ochre jelly burned to ashes? Forgot to mention that part earlier - the PC's were feeling really mean :)

Oh well, I can always introduce a henchman or another member of the Kyuss crowd to fill in for Raknian... Thanks all.

I assume most your party is nuetral or evil, because that came off sounding kinda evil to me. Maybe its just out of context. I haven't received the Champion's Belt yet, so maybe that will explain it all.

VedicCold,

Yeah, that's what the group I'm DMing did (check each position before choosing one). I was a little surprised at how cautious they were being. As veteran players (or despite that fact, perhaps) I expected them to eagerly explore but they were VERY reluctant to go down ANY of the elevators (perhaps I've impressed the point of what a lousy idea it is to separate the group a little too powerfully). They didn't want anybody "waiting" at the bottom of the elevator alone even for the amount of time it would take for the elevator to return to the sarcophagus room.

Yeah my group tried each position first. The swarm didn't come out until they were ready because as soon as they heard it make sound they moved it to the next color quickly. Once they had seen what each one did, they went through them one at a time saving the swarm one for last.

My group beat him down and then questioned him. When they got all the info they wanted out of him they told him to leave town and never come back. Granted they entered the observatory from the top, so they made the deal before seeing all the sick things he had in his little tower. They were starting to second guess their decision when he lead them out past his dining table.

The group I run is as follows.

Halfling rogue lvl 5 - she the scout and quick as can be.

Elf monk lvl 5 - from the Twilight Monastary and the main fighter of the group

Human wizard lvl 5 (soon to be of the Arcane Order) - son of a rich family and acts like it. He is the brains of the outfit.

Human cleric lvl 5 - follower of the god of twilight, his specialty in knowledge and trickery has been a great help.

This group is interesting for me since they are almost all finesse. The use a lot of stealth and often they will have dropped half the enemies before they knew what hit them. For all the planning and plotting they do, they have moved pretty quickly through the modules.

Perhaps a starved and ravenous Ghast? Another member of the previous seeker expedition, perhaps a rogue, who finally managed to make it this far into the room, only to be killed by the trap (could make his head look all caved-in and fractured-looking). Frankly, if you want to think about things logically, it would almost HAVE to be an undead or construct of some sort lingering in the chamber, since there's no easy way in or out until the Face is opened from the other side, and only something without a constitution score could exist in the chamber indefinitely without food or water.

I thought the text said something about a fissue in the room, which is how the Grick got in. But I agree, for the encounter to make sense is should be an undead, contruct or creature that would normally come in through a fissue. I initially though spiders would be fun, but they would starve to death in that room.

Overall the Grick worked really well for my group. When the halfling rogue was lowered to the ball floor, she was quite suprised when the tenticle swung out at her. She was down right scared, when the little voice giggled at the attack. ;)

Does anyone know where I can download a pic of the abandoned mine-office so that I can print it out and give it as a hand-out to my players? They'd decided to use it as a base.

Vishnu.

Well the whole write up is in Dragon magazine issue #333. My group fixed it all up and are using it as their house as well. They even went as far as going to the garrison to get the deed to it.

(Trying again - the forum monster seems to have eaten the first post)

Hey all,

Requesting some advice on plotlines, major NPCs, side quests and approaches concerning Age of Worms and the City of Greyhawk.

It’s been a long time since I played in Greyhawk and I don’t think that I’ve ever set a campaign in it. (If I have it was a short lived experiment 25+ years ago!).

To help prepare for the “Free City of Greyhawk” portion of the AoW campaign, I’ve done some shopping. I have the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer for 3e, and I recently purchased Issues 0,1,2,3,4, and 5 of the Living Greyhawk Journal off of ebay. (I paid too much, but I really wanted the poster map of the City of Greyhawk in Issue #2.)

I have a plethora of 1st and 2ed Greyhawk material in print and in .pdf form. I expect there are some products I should odnwplay and others I should rely on more.

If I had to prioritize getting 5 or 6 products in print form for Greyhawk (apart from the 3e stuff mentioned above) what should I be concentrating on?

What plot hooks and spins are working best for those who are further progressed in the AoW campaign than I (approx. one session left in Whisp Cairn).

Any campaign seeds to share?

Any and all advice is very welcome.

I set AoW in Greyhawk as well. I have never run a game in Greyhawk or even played in one, but I thought it would be fun. I picked up the #e stuff as well, which gives most of the background stuff. The Greyhawk boxed set is great for when they get to the free city. The huge Hardy be article for Dungeon is nice as well (especially since my group is from Harby). I took the four Greyhawk maos from Dungeon (issues 118-121 I think) and made it into a huge laminated map. All the should be plenty to keep you and your player busy.

I'm starting AoW with my group, which currently consists of two players. These are the two guys who make it every week without fail, and I want to run a full campaign with them. So, I'm going to need NPCs to fill out the rest of the party. I was thinking of pulling the NPCs from the fifty described in AoW Overload. I'm wondering how others have approached playing with a smaller group of players and how you might fill out the party given all the resources associated with AoW.

My group only has three players. I was running an NPC cleric along side them for a while but it was becoming a pain, so instead I gave them a cohort to run. It works for me since they are already part of an adventuring guild, so the guild just sent them someone to teach the ropes to. I'm not going to worry about the Leadership feat since they will only get tthe one cohort, but it will never be higher than 2 levels behind the lowest level member.

I went with 6. I don't know why, I thought I read it as 6 at one point. It didn't really matter for me since their main goal was bait. They never attacked as a group, since some went to the main arena right away to draw the group into the trap (which they did).

I used the damage listed in the text. To tell you the truth I didn't even notice it had flail damage and was listed as a heavy flail. ;)