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Swift Hunter is a feat that allows you to stack ranger and scout to determine Skirmish dice and favored enemy (and maybe the battle fortitude as well, I'm not sure). This appeared in Dragon and maybe in Complete Scoundrel. -c
My SCAP started with three gestalt (with the potential for a fourth) as well. It now has six gestalt characters. I also use Action Points (Unearthed Arcana style), and for this AP, let them get average on the hit die if they roll below it. So far, I've had no deaths, and everyone has had a great time and been thoroughly challenged. I have not tweaked any villains, aside from making TongueEater feral, as per GlassJaw's tweaks (search the board, trust me), and that was in exchange for a bbn level. I did gestalt the Stormblades (thru level 20), as they are the direct opposition for my group (the ill-named Union of Justice). If you (or anyone) have a need for those files, email at freeclint (at) yahoo (dot) com. (I might also gestalt Kaurophon) So, as far as my experience goes, try a chapter or two straight from the book and see how they stack up, some adjusting might be necessary. The only near TPK level dangerous combats for my gestalts were Kazmojen, TongueEater and Tarkilar. Most importantly, remember to adjust XP for every creature per the rules in the Gestalt section. Everything is -1 CR and the creatures that rely on abilities with saving throws are -2 CR. Hope that helps!
My gaming table currently in a large unfinished basement, consists of a door (salvaged from a job site, never used before, no holes cut in it). The door is supported on my families plastic storage tubs about 2.5 feet off the ground, lower than a normal table (so all the gamers have a view down on the battlemaps). At the GM's end, there is a octagonal 48" poker table top (on top of which we use flip mats or tac-tiles). Each player has a TV tray to keep their clutter off the game surface (or at least we did before we grew to 7 players + GM at our weekly game). At the corner where the GM sits is a card table for the GM Screen and all his notes and miniatures. We have a bookshelf as well, for all the gaming books and whatnot.
It is a very, use-what-you-have setup. If pictures are needed, I can take some. -c
off hand, I'd say: Righteous MightAside from that, you'd have to look into the polymorph line of spells and at just straight changing form. I'd comment further, but I'm not quite sure I fully understand the new polymorph subtype of spells change. -c
4th level eh? Only two more levels until the Sorcerer can pick up leadership. Might be a good plan to help exp[and out the parties numbers. Or go one step further, give them both Leadership as a bonus feat at 6th. Even if the barbarian has an abyssmal charisma score, having a low level rogue or healer can help, so long as they are cautious. -c
Thanks RMC!
I don't have the spell compendium, and I can't remember which issue contained the spell Revivify. It was in an article about character deaths, and I didn't see it in my perusal of October issues just now (which was my guess). Thanks!
My gestalt party is ready to begin chapter 4, Zenith Trajectory. They are as follows: Tom Riddle (Githzerai Monk 4 / Panther Totem Druid 3 / Scout 4, Mark of the Beast, he is a teen and his guardian is Sir Alek Tercival) ECL 6 "The Hawk" Calvin Surabar (Human Urban Ranger 5 / Ninja 6 / Order of the Bow Initiate 1, noble, scion of surabar, , big-time Batman copy) ECL 6 DaVid Navalant (Human Wizard 6 / Cleric of Boccob 6, Noble) ECL 6 Xiloscent "Goldy" Jones (Half-elf Bard 4 / Urban Ranger 5 / Half-elf Paragon 1, Noble) ECL 5 Noke Arrier (Human Monk 6/ Fighter 6, Scarred Soul) ECL 6 Jax Vaine (Human Mystic 5 / Fighter 2 / Rogue 2 / Wizard 1, wyrmblooded) (Mystic is a homemade monk like class based on gaining knowledge and uses spell like abilities) We lost two players, both characters are now Stider NPCs. The Demonskar ball went amazingly (thanks Delvesdeep!)
This looks like a great adventure! I am running it Saturday only Dirty Dozen style. Using the option to set the prisoners from the nearby prison loose on the gnolls. Hoping for some neat savage species style PCs, and maybe I'll get to finally see a small playtest of the Dragons by level rules! Good job Tim! -c
As far as movie soundtracks go, I love to throw in 13th Warrior as well as many mentioned above. I find that if I have star wars stuff in a playlist I need to edit out any really identifiable themes (main theme, imperial march, etc). -c
TounguEater was afflicted, not natural, therefore he can't pass on lycanthropy. (That's why his DR was 5/silver and not 10/silver) -c
I used the imp to impersonate Tarkilar's voice. Every time they fought some more undead in the carverns, he made it sound like Tarkilar controlled the ogre zombies and t-rex skeleton. He kept demanding payment or they wouldn't escape alive. Once he learned they were after the wands, he kept tempting them with the knowledge he had. Eventually, they fought the kyuss spawn and fear hit nearl all of them. When they returned to the cave, all their gear was on the slab/chest, along with a wand (tarkilar's used up animate dead wand). The voice once again taunted them that he had one and knew of another (in the bloodbloater ooze). They left the corridor and came up with a plan, using hide from undead to come back for the gear (they wouldn't leave that) and grabbed the stuff and ran like babies, but did end up revealing the Imp as an imp. The imp flew to the cavern (invisible again) and made enough noise to bring out the Skulvyn and Kopru, which caused them considerable trouble. (But the Kopru ended up helping them trying to kill he Skulvyn who was on the ropes). They have left the caves, without any wands (my sane cultists in hiding in the city) except a burnt out animate dead wand. They've since caught Triel and killed Skaven. I sent the Stormblades in to clean out the Kopru Ruins, get the treasue they left, and who will make a big deal of recovering the wands. Wow, that was long, apologies.
-c
This site is a treasure trove of maps. I have pre-printed buildings of all sorts for SCAP when they surprise me. Too bad they aren't to 1 inch scale, we just use smaller dies and tokens to represent the heroes on the maps. I just can't say again how helpful the maps are.
Happy looting!
Line of Lightning. Just plane cool and easy to adjucate in play.Second is Cone of Fire for classic nature.
The Union of Justice.
The Bard composed a song about them set to the 80's GI Joe theme song music. Their leader is The Hawk, a blatant Batman ripoff. (Noble and Scion of Surabar- last of the line) Its been very entertaining. -c
Yep, we use the new full classes. My favorite class is now the Ninja. In former campaigns we have had: warmage, ninja, hexblade, swashbuckler and dragon shaman. In current 3 campaigns we have:
So we have a pretty good representation of the new classes, and they don't seem unbalanced. Hexblade might seem a little weak, from my play experience, though. -c
About your venu problem, have you thought about a WIKI for play by post? I'm doing it for Red Hand of Doom here:
the pbwiki.com site is amazingly simple to use. Some other examples I play in:
Just a thought!
Remember that Triel wasn't the leader during the whole deal of the crafting contract (soulcages) with the Cagewrights. Grehlia Cairhns (Spelling?) was. Have her be the only one who ever met with a cagewright. Things Triel can leak without killing the storyline: 1) The group enchanted adamantine/mithril cages with the schools of necromancy and conjuration. 2) A fire giant named Dugobras built the cages for them to enchant. His craftsmanship is amazing. 3) They made a total of 14 cages (you can adjust this number if you think that the Cagewrights made some themselves before subcontracting the work) 4) Grehlia left to join the group that contracted them for the job. (maybe, just maybe drop the name) 5) Have her say that the plans for the cages enchantment included a birdcage symbol on every page. 6) Perhaps have Triel have viewed one of the cagewrights meeting with Grehlia. My choice the Drow (with minotaur body guard), just to drop a random red-herring on the players. 6b) As alternate contact point, you can use Rhiavaldi, Beholder Vhalantru, Ike or Embril. All of which can be hinted at as bad guys still. Remember that Ike and Embril have the extra soul cage in their church tower. You could alternately have all four characters make the pickup, or have been seen. (Granted, I wouldn't reveal Ike or Embril at this point, just hint at them.) This crew could also be in charge of pickup/delivery of soulcages. Just remember, Triel is only the "boss" because Grehlia left and Tarkilar blew himself (and his mind) up. Use her information like the Thug she is, and not as a genius ringleader. Let the players see that she is just not that smart or in the know. Good luck, I hope my players pull off something this neat.
-c
Check out my wiki for Red Hand of Doom: http://redhandofdoom.pbwiki.com/ Other examples of a friend of mine:http://phoenixforce.pbwiki.com/ http://torg.pbwiki.com/ The pwbiki site: http://pbwiki.com/
Hope that helps!!!
I'm running that now, but kind of setting it up on the fly, life kept me too busy to properly plan it. IMC, Tarkilar's sanity degenerated much quicker. He went crazy on the rest of the Triad and started killing and animating all the lackeys. Triel and Skaven fled. Now my PC's have been led to the Kopru Ruins as planned in the book, only they are finding skeletons and zombies rather than Alleybashers and Hillfolk. I've also been dropping lots of clues and little notes passed between the guards about goings on in the base. They have pieced together a lot, like which characters have wands, who the three main bosses are (and are close to labelling race and sex to the names). Also hinted at Grehlia joining the Cagewrights and mentioned the Firegiant crafter (now my groups really scared). I had Skaven escape with the Big Spider and the Ettercaps using a watery tunnel to an abandoned warehouse on the waterfront. (He used a stack of Water Breathing scrolls and some potions of swimming for the Spider-folk, which my group found the remnants of and collected without investigating). Triel will be mobile during the Mardi Gras style Flood festivities. Meanwhile, back in the Ruins, Tarkilar's base is as written. I expect them to overload the carriage on the way out and fight the Skulvyn. Once in the city, the two urban druids can track them down, using their clues from the ruins. Skaven is next, should track him through wizard type supply shops I think. Of course, with the right information up front and money, I'll let the cook at the Tipped Tankard point them in the right direction. I expect I'll hint at Minuta's Board as the base of the Alleybashers (again), and they'll catch Triel's trail from there, chasing her through the streets, being ambushed by Alleybashers. When I'm all done, I want to write up my variant of flood season to put up on RPGenius site. I am leaving as much, stat wise for creatures and traps as is. Just shifting around the encounters to make it more Urban. -c
Overall: Ninja Core Rules: Cleric (followed closely by Rogue)
It is in the FAQ under Feats I believe. Do a search, I had a thread on this in the last 4 months.It is a perfectly allowed combo. Just like Ability Focus works for the Monk's stunning fist. -c
I require my players to have a full nights rest to gain the new level. Once they have enough XP, they gain a "positive level" (the exact opposite of a negative level) until they can rest a full 8 hours. So far, it is has worked well. I also only hand out XP at the end of each session, not as they earn it. -c
Could someone help me? Check out the Age of Worms Overload. http://paizo.com/dungeon/resources/downloadsIt is about halfway down. I am considering running AoW as a mini epic arc after SCAP, and that was a HUGE tool in helping me figure who's who and what adventures I'd like buy to upgrade to epic. -c edit- misread the question, omitted my useless info
Thanks for the list. Do you think Spire would be difficult to scale up (or would I have to completely alter it) and still keep all that background. I could leave hints to send them after Dragotha here as the next step (or send them to figure out where his Phylactery is) thus into Kings of the Rift.
Yeah, I planned on them stumbling into it already underway. I'm not sure if I want to rain Kyus worms down on the Amedio jungle region, unless that is called for in the modules...? I feel like the Dracolich in ItWF is easily scaled to epic.
After reading the AoW Overload, I'm thinking I might introduce Lashonna as a Sage who occassionally stops through Cauldron (like for the Demonskar Ball), and set her up as an ally early on, to send them after Dragotha's phylactery. I also plan to leave some clues to Dragother being linked to the Ebon Triad in SCAP's Flood Season, just to plant their tangent (in this AP) connection to Kyuss. Thanks for the suggestions, anyone else have ideas? -c
I would definitely have Kaurophon shadow them to the test. Perhaps he can recruit any enemies the heroes leave for dead, but not quite dead. Then he can show up with his own force, for two reasons:
Plus Kaurophon has the added luxury of being able to sacrifice any of his new allies or his former allies, your heroes. So, if he can save any of those guys who might not have died in the Cathedral fight, or get the Rakshasa and the Fire Giant from last test, that'd give him a boost. But I'd have him show up with help, even if it is just some grey and death slaadi looking for a good time. -c
Hello, I'm running Shackled City (SCAP) now, and am not really interested in running an undead heavy campaign like Age of Worms (I've done that before). However, I'd like the help of the lords of the boards here, to see if several chapters of AOWAP would be suitable to do an epic mini arc to stop Kyus after my SCAP wraps up. Rather just buy the last adventure and alter to run it, I'd like to lead into it, which brings me to my questions: Which Adventures would be best to vamp up to Epic? Which Adventures are most important to the story arc? I have none of the issues, and would like to buy as few as possible (that I won't be using the adventures from). Thanks!
Just going to toss in another vote for some Epic material. So far I've bought in back issues all the previous epic material, and plan on using them should my group ever finish SCAP (fingers crossed). I don't use Psionics, high-tech-Eberron stuff, Incarnum, etc, but adventures using those would not bum me out. After all, I'm here for the adventure paths (less work for me!), and would love to try out Epic when the group gets there. Keep up the great work, and great variety of adventures! -c
My issue of 142 (should be the first of my subscription) has not arrived. Should it have by now? I was hoping to get it to take on my holiday trips, but that is looking bleak now. Thank you,
This just got answered in my Ranger Combat Style thread: Dragon 326, p 97 Strong-Arm Style
-c
Thank you el_skootro, you're a genius! I swear I flipped through that one recently as well.Great, now when I build my gestalt sorcerer/planar ranger, he can have a combat mastery that might well save his life (instead of unused ranged or twf)! Thanks again! -c
Have the guards set up a smoke screen between them and the ranger. Miss chance is nice. have the guards determine what quadrant he is in and start a forest fire to smoke/burn him out. Send one guard in each direction for reinforcements. And lastly pray to their ogre god for salvation.
Steal a side plot from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. The heroes need to use a bridge to cross a river, but get caught by one army or another. The commander enscripts them to destroy the bridge, so that both armies may move on. That is one that i'd definitely throw in. I'd offer more suggestions, but it is hard without knowing what levels this should run through for your pcs. I'm assuming low to mid level, to make the chase an actual chase. At high level, you have many means to beat him to the capital. -c
I come from a very comic book oriented background to preface this. My villains generally always have some kind of escape plan, or manage to survive certain doom if any possibility is left to do so. In my first campaign, the main bad guy was always escaping, and my players HATED it. They really unload on BBEG's now, and I find it hard to have equal threat level BBEG's escape. But yeah, I'm drifting more towards the norm in my SCAP campaign, with major villains living less than 10 rounds (though they left Kazmojen for dead, who had stabilized at -9, forgetting their almost omnipresent coup de grace). My two coppers,
Hey all, I can't find anywhere an alternate combat mastery for a ranger that involved grappling feats and animals. I believe it was called Beast Wrestler or something. Does anyone know where that might of appeared? Any help is appreciated,
I was not said poster, but would like to hear the answer. I have gestalted the level progression dragon class before (Green w/ Hexblade, very nasty). The way I did it was overpowered, assuming you are using a Savage Species style level progression, I would only allow gestalt levels on the levels that grant Hit Dice. The other levels can be considered Level Adjustment. When I made the character originally, I gestalted every level, and felt the character was too powerful. I currently have no players in my SCAP with monster hit dice, though we do have one githzerai, whose level adjustment we made into 1 (from a normal 2), that takes up both class slots at 1st level. I'm still not sure this was the proper way to do this, but is much more fair than allowing LA to gestalt fully. Which is why we changed the gith. We have an ex-player that was a tiefling rogue/wizard. With only a +1 level adjustment, it seemed more balanced. and looking at the char sheet, I had allowed the LA to gestalt. It is tricky when you throw in something like Gestalt with alternate rules like Monster PCs and LAs. I kind of wish I had ruled out non-standard races, but hindsight is 20/20. -c
It is hard to say. The AP is very difficult. Many factors weigh in, as already said.
1) It is geared towards a 6 man party
It is a fun, but very tough path. Play smart and careful if you at all can. Good luck and happy gaming,
I have been playing smart and not making careless mistakes but my character ended up dead and then resurrected at level 2. Is this common to this campaign? I hope I'm not doing something incredibly wrong. Has anyone else met an early death like me?
The question ist: can you make an unarmed attack while you are armed? (carrying a weapon) Well, I was about to comment on this, when I decided to check the srd:
by the RAW, you need to be fully unarmed, which makes sense the way I'm imagining it. You grab someone on both shoulders and sweep with your leg to shove them over. Of course, you might picture this differently for a Monk. So to answer the initial question, no the Dwarf cannot trip with his Shield and Dwarven Waraxe. He'd need to wield some weapon that allows tripping, like a flail. my two coppers,
As a DM... In my SCAP, my players searched out or bought rough maps of the first two dungeons (Jzadirune and the Malachite Fortress).
For the next module, it was mostly caves and I just mapped it on tact-tiles and flip mats. But they were pretty simple caves, and the direction the cave sloped told you which way was which. So no mapping for them to do. I haven't decided about the ruins in Chapter 3 yet, but I know I'll give them crude floor plans of the tavern before they go there, as one of them frequents it. They may go buy a complete floor plan before they leave even. As a Player... I know that I hated mapping as a player, nothing more tedious, what I do now, is I take my digital camera and take pictures of the battle maps to do my mapping. Before I had my camera, I'd write down in written format roughly where we went, to avoid getting totally lost, but I've not mapped anythign since I played 0th edition out of the rules cyclopedia. But I think it makes the game drag, unless they are in such a place they need to do it to survive. I know I'm gonna hate the Crater Ridge Mines when we get there in RttToEE. Figure out the best mix for you and your players to have fun, then apply it is all I can suggest.
Color Spray: Depending on the exact layout of the minis, and which corner of his square the wizard casts from, yes it is possible. Web: Definitely possible, make the wizard choose a grid intersection, and use the template patterns from the back of the DMG to determine what gets hit. Just remember that those patterns in the back of the DMG are what determines which squares are hit. Make the wizard choose his target or direction of attack for the cone, and then apply. I have made wire templates of the spells out of simple electrical wire, not as nice as Steel Squires products, but works none-the-less. (You can check out the Steel Squire stuff in the store here). good luck!
I tried to draw out the most important stats above. You seemed to ramble a little, so I'm going to do my take of it: BAB: +2
Regular attack with one of unarmed/kukri/sai/kama: +6 (+2 base + 4 dex mod for light weapons) with +2 damage Two Weapon Fighting with two different choices above: +4/+4 (+2 base +4 dex mod for light weapons -2 penalty) with +2 damage on attack 1 and +1 damage on attack 2 Flurry of Blows: uses unarmed/sai/kama, mixed in any order: +4/+4 (+2 base +4 dex mod for light weapons) damage is +2 on both attacks Flurry of Blows + Two Weapon Fighting: +2/+2/+2 (+2 base, +4 dex mod for light weapons -2 flurry penalty -2 twf penalty)
Of course, all this is much nastier when you flank your favored enemy, getting sneak attack (up to three times) and your favored enemy damage on each strike. That is where your multiclass character will really really shine. Since you've chosen so many classes, your bab has suffered, and your attacks won't be as high as most other 4th level characters. However you can throw down up to three attacks (which is good vs easy to hit opponents and those impossible oppenents as well, as you pray for that 20) Hope that helps!
Hello, Order #673939 is shown by the tracking number to have been delivered on Friday, however it isn't here. Nor was it incorrectly delivered to my immediate next door neighbors. What steps do we need to go through to figure out where UPS actually did deliver it to or where it might be? Thank you,
Yeah, that works well, since my players report most things to the Striders.
This however, is one of those evil little ideas I like so much. Then, later on, if the players see the Dispersal collar, they'll remember its importance. -c
SPOILERS: SCAP & The Fall of Graymalkin Academy I just finished readying "The Fall of Graymalkin Academy" from Dungeon 140. The whole time, I just kept seeing a SCAP sidequest at Bluecrater Academy. This adventure is geared for (four) 9th level pcs, with scaling up or down a three levels. It seems like a pretty good fix for the recent complaints around Demonskar Legacy to bump up the XP. It would be easy to tie Weer (of Weer's Elixir's), or have him send in the PC's to save the day. Of course, Meerthan/Tyro is also a good person to send in the PC's to make sure nothing gets out of the vault. You could make either of the villains a cagewright apprentice, or even ex-apprentice (in the manner of Kaurophon, who thought the CW's were insane and left.) The Drow sorceress/villainess could easily be an apprentice of Viirdan Daraqor (the drow eldritch knight). Or if you prefer, the Rakshasa Vaxis could be anyone's apprentice. The module can be left as is, and the villains are sent after the 'Tapestry of Midnight.' Or the cagewrights might want something else from within, or perhaps just the Wizards out of the way. Should the undead themed tapestry stay in, any of the Necrocants could be involved. Thoughts? comments? suggestions? (my pcs are starting flood season, so i've got plenty of time to see if they are gonna need the xp boost) -c
True, but you get so many extra benefits and abilities, that you shouldn't be considered either a tank or artillery. They don't truly fill any one nitch in the iconic party, but can function as any if designed that way (except maybe healer). I have only had the chance to play a Green Dragon (lvl 9) for half a session, b/c my character had died. The Dm ruled that the character was too powerful and wouldn't let me play him anymore. I don't think he was overpowered as much as I was really aware of capabilities and used them to the fullest. I'd love to use those rules again in play, but none of the players in my game seem interested in playing a dragon (half-dragon maybe...) -c To be honest I'm not a big fan of dragons as PCs. They have so many abilities bumping up their level adjustment that the higher level you get, the stronger everything gets relative to your hit points and saves. You end up dealing as much damage with your breath weapon as a wizard of below your level, and fighting less well than a fighter in heavy armour.
Remember that this adventure is supposed to be setup. If they succeed and bring Zenith back, great. Otherwise, Vhalantru has one less adventuring group to worry about. He can have Riavhaldi report to the Cagewrights about Zenith's location, and they can send the mad Derro Kravichek to get him or somesuch. This is a mission that is designed to fail, like Vhalantru does to adventuring parties. (Like the setup that gets Todd Vadnerboren killed later.) It really sounds like your characters didn't plan well, or either you overplayed how little time Davked Splindershield has left, and they are overly concerned with speed over safety. On to the advice now, I'd let the bard roll up a new character, and the other two (captured players) characters play Fario and Fellian (unless they like Shensil better) and mount a rescue. Have Meerthan/Tyros prep them with some scrolls and such, as well as universal solvent (for the shields). Perhaps buy some Kua-Toa Bane arrows. You have sneaky characters escaped, and the Half-elves are fairfly sneaky, so they could infiltrate and mount an escape to get Zenith. (Or if the sneak in fully, use a scroll of rope trick, caster level 9, to rest and memorize spells while in the Bhal-hamatun.) I'd only use the Stormblades if your two escaped characters give up and don't plan a rescue. have Vhalantru send the SB's to finish. They can show back up with the prisoners and Zenith and all the loot. Really irk your players. Then you just grab a dungeon module for the right level and send them on a different mission after adjusting it to Cauldron. my two coppers,
Without knowing your lower level spells or any common themes you have running, or the rest of your party makeup, or even what sources are allowed for the game, I'd do as follows: 6th: True Seeing
Hope that helps
swap a feat, any feat for Fly By Attack. That will help vs your polearm PC as well.-c
Chef (or anyone else), do you have the 3 maps for Drakthar's Way? My players are renovating it for their base, and having the numbered version is much easier for record keeping for them. You can email me at freeclint (at) yahoo.com thanks!
Your Lizard fold armor monger has something wrong, his Max Dex in Mithril Full Plate is +3, so only 3 of his 4 dex bonus counts towards AC (which also means his future gloves of dex won't help him with AC). His big weakness is his Touch AC, only 15-20, so hit him up with some range touch spells, Scorching Ray hurts a lot. Also, Spectral Hand to hit with Shocking Graps and Vampiric Touch, etc. Also, if the creature can't hit him, it may decide to grapple him and take AC out of the equation. Touch attack to start grapple (with AoO). Then it only must win a grapple check to damage the lizardfolk. I have similar trouble with 4th level (gestalt) githzerai monk (multiclass monkey; scout/druid/monk) AC 25 (26 with Skirmish from Scout): DEX +7 (dex)
AC 25-26
His animal companion, however, is easy to hit. Good gaming,
"Needless to say he's a little tough to take down. Anyone else have players like that?"
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