Once again, I feel a need to share the silliness. As before, no mentioning of what lies beyond what I'm describing please! :)
A Bridge Too Far
Imagine this scene if you will. Our intrepid heroes tramp through a forest and successfully sneak through a goblin-infested briar maze with the help of our silly little gnome druid (the very same who soundly defeated an Ridiculous Quasit with an equally ridiculous eagle and dog trick). We managed to avoid ALL the encounters in the Briar maze, and so we arrived at a bridge spanning the gap to the goblin fort, perched up on the rock.
Here we stopped for a full 20 minutes of real time, trying to come up with a sound plan for sneakily crossing the bridge without goblins in watchtowers noticing us. One of our better plans included painting a goblin on the dwarf's tower shield having him "sneak" one person across at a time. In the end, we decided to say "screw it" and just rush across and tackle whatever we came across head on.
So the fun starts. Dwarf goes first, I, the cleric go second, and then the third person goes and *snap* bridge goes out. The third person jumps back successfully but me and the poor dwarf go plummeting into the drink. Upon impact, my cleric takes enough damage to go unconscious and starts to drown. The dwarf, while surviving the fall, is so encumbered by his armor (-14 armor check?) that he cannot swim correctly and sinks.
Our gnome decides to tie a rope around his waist, hands it to our nimble third, and jumps off the cliff so he can reach me and save me before I drown to death. DM not-so-secretly rolls Use Rope: 2. Gnome falls into the water as well. The gnome then summons a Dolphin to save me and bring me to shore while he climbs back up the rope. At this point the dwarf begins the long slow march across the bottom of the ocean toward dry land, holding his breath all the while.
So then the murderous BUNYIP appears and eats the Dolphin's head. Hmmm. Now it's right next to my unconscious form, ripe for the head-eating. At this point, the rest of the party on the cliff is desperate coming up with plans to distract the Bunyip away from me; everything from crossbow bolts to Dancing Lights.
Suddenly, our gnome gets another bright idea! He dashes back into the briar maze and taunts a group of 10 goblins hanging out in the maze, then proceeds to dash for the cliff! What is his plan you say? He jumps off the cliff, rope still tied to his waist, and leads the pursuing goblins, 10 in all, over the edge! The gnome slams into the cliff side because of the pendulous swing of the rope and goes unconscious, never to witness the sight of goblin bodies splatting to the ground around my half-drowned form.
Somehow, all of this distracting nonsense gets the Bunyip to flee. Eventually, me, the gnome, and the dwarf are hauled back up onto the cliff face and awakened. All of this nonsense because of a stupid, simple bridge. And the very worst part? None of the goblins in the watchtowers noticed any of it! We yet retained the element of surprise.
Creators of this ominous Bridge: I salute you!
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The Pickle Plan
Nothing so long-winded as above, but much hilarity ensued and soon as we found a bag of pickles in a goblin watch tower. Our DM slipped to us that there was actually a intricate and convoluted story concerning a bag of stolen pickles. For the rest of the session we continued to devise ways to use the bag of pickles to taunt and trick various goblin encounters. Goblins playing 'Kill Gull' (as our DM describes)? We threw pickles at them from hiding and watched the funnies unfold. Battle with the Goblin chieftan and his cronies? Throw pickles at them and let them fight over the goods! One of our more complex plans included trying to plant the pickle bag on one of the human collaborators (perhaps our wayward Aasimar?) and let the Goblins draw their own conclusions!
This is seriously excellent stuff. I am in total awe of the creativeness behind these madcap situations. My hat is off to you, oh creators of Rise of the Runelords. So far, this has been a campaign to remember, and we're still in the first chapter!
Okay, so I'm starting the Savage Tide AP soon and after poring over all 12 Dungeons (plus 12 Dragon Issues) I think I have it.... except I have one problem I wanna try and troubleshoot ahead of time:
This concerns the intensely convoluted subplot concerning Malcanthet.
Let me try and figure this out:
1) Malcanthet has a demon-bat steal a Tooth-thing of Ahazu and stash in with Camazotz stuff.
2) Takes a Camazotz idol to Tomoachan for PC's to find.
3) PC's find it, so that when they get to Isle of Dread, they can conveniently turn it over to the aspect, which in turn, grants them access to his hoard, which in turn, allows them to come across the Tooth.
4) PC's carry around mysterious Tooth for another 8 Levels of play....
5) PC's inadvertently discover Tooth can be used to Bargain for Shami-Amourae's freedom, and thus, do so.
Does any of this seem excessively complicated? And there are holes up and down this thing...
For one, the entire AP assumes the PC's will find and KEEP both the bat idol, THEN the Tooth of Ahazu. What happens if they lose one of these things? Or they decide having a crazy tooth in their mouth isn't worth it and try to sell it? Does Malcanthet intervene and arrange for the object in question to bounce back into the party's belongings? And this all assumes the PC's even TAKE the Tooth at all. I can easily imagine a generous player offering said Tooth to Camazotz's Aspect. Or just plain leaving it there because it isn't theirs.
The whole idea is based on some oracular "feeling" Malcanthet got during Sea Wyvern's Wake and assumes the PC's will keep said mysterious objects with them until they are needed 8-10 levels later. It feels very awkward to me.
I do understand that the PC's don't NEED the Tooth to bargain for Shami's freedom, but still, what's the point to all this? Some obscure reward for being a pack-rat the entire game? It just seems overly convoluted to me.
Maybe thats the point. Malcanthet is a convoluted jerk.
I would love to know how the designers thought of this subplot. Perhaps it could give me some insight into why it's all necessary? -.-;
If the PC's are hellbent on staying with Lavinia, then have her come aboard the 'Sea Wyvern' and participate in the fun that occurs during the trip and adventure into the interior of the island.
Having her get captured by Orlangru instead of the gnome would be golden in this case! :)
I have always felt that the current falling rules in D&D are too lenient. I understand that the idea behind the rules is to be fast and easy and not to distract from the game, but still, the rules have never sat well with me. So I decided to try and come up with my own alternate rules for falling to make it a little more scary a prospect. Please understand that I still want to keep falling somewhat of an abstract and do not want to delve too far into the realm of realism. I've seen plenty of threads discussing how falling should work physically and am not interested in being that precise. I only wish to make falling more dangerous, not real. So here it is:
First off, the damage from a fall is still 1d6 per 10 ft. fallen. Now with the changes/additions:
One: The damage cap for falling is increased to 50d6. I figure that after 500 ft. one has probably reached terminal velocity, and even if they haven't, I didn't want to stray too far away from the abstract.The reason I changed the damage cap is because I have always been dissatisfied with the 20d6 cap. It seems so small when compared to the kind of HP higher level characters will possess. The current system caps out a maximum of 120 damage. Now, while that certainly is nothing to scoff at, it really isn't very scary after, say, Level 10. While even very high level characters will eventually be able to shrug off this damage, it is likely still high enough to provoke concern.
Two: Institute death by massive damage ruling. I'm not sure if death by massive damage applies to falling or not per actual rules, I decided to enforce it here as follows:
If character takes 50 points of damage or more, they must make a Fort Save DC 15 + 1 for every additional 10 damage taken or die from system shock of the fall. I figure that with the risk of real death, falling becomes a lot more scarier.
I do recognize that this scaling of the Fort save may be a bit too much, especially if I'm also allowing a higher damage cap from falling, and am thus open to the possibly of being more lenient here. Perhaps DC 10 + 1 for every additional 10 damage? Or perhaps DC 15 + 1 for every 20 damage? Or even increase the threshold from 50 to, say, 60? 70?
Three: Falling from great heights is traumatizing to the body, no matter who you are, and so I added the following to simulate the shock:
If a character falls 200 ft. or more, they must make a Fort save DC 20 + 1 per every additional 10 feet fallen (DC 21 at 210 ft, DC 22 at 220 ft. etc).
On failure, character is nauseated for a number of rounds equal to the DC minus 19 (1 round at DC 20, 2 rounds at DC 21, etc) and then sickened for twice that length.
On success, character is only sickened for a number rounds equal to the Fort DC minus 19 (like above).
Why nausea and sicken? I believe that these conditions can adequately simulate the shock one's body takes from falling so far without delving too deep into realism. I wanted to remain somewhat abstract concerning falling and I feel these conditions do a decent job of representing that without going into things like ability damage (something I was trying to avoid). After all, if you really fell from such a distance, chances are you would be in shock for a lot longer than just a minute or two, so I'm still being somewhat lenient here.
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So there it is, part and parcel. Tell me what you think of it or tell me to go home, I'll appreciate either. :)
I'm 2 weeks away from beginning the Savage Tide adventure path and these lower-level reads are a godsend. Keep 'em coming so I can roughly gauge what my PC's are in for.
I see good points on both ends, but I personally lean toward the individual varieties. Yes, anyone can make up their own kobold versions, that's not the point. Some people do not have the time to write up kobolds with levels (especially at higher levels where monsters-with-classes can take forever to make and are gone in 5 minutes), and this method helps that. I will dislike the loss of some more iconic monsters, but I think I'll still enjoy the variety of kobolds (and other monsters-with-classes) available to me. To be honest, I find a lot of monsters out of the basic MM to be quite useless and will not cry to see them go. Thoqqua and Tojinda, anyone?
As to the marketing thing, I agree. However, it is move that is both totally expected and totally acceptable. Companies need to make money after all, or they don't make material anymore. Even the wonderful Paizo markets its material in increments. The difference there is the quality, however, which I will agree is typically superior.
I found almost everything out of the Monster Manual 2 to be pretty much useless. Oh, there was a few... like Death Knight... and some others... I think.
Fiend Folio and even Monster Manual 3 had some cool monsters, though. Much better books in my opinion.
Wow. Only three years? Somewhere I got the impression that Age of Worms began a decade after Shackled City. Still, three years isn't a big deal; I could always change if it really mattered anyway.
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So I'm seeing that I should beware Ravenous Zombies and Ragodessas. Possibly keep an eye on Flotsam Ooze, Orlangru, and Khala.
I'm surprised there was no deaths from the Kopru Thrall of Demogorgon (unless I missed that). I figured that control water trick would have screwed over somebody.
I was just wondering if there was an official time line for the adventure paths concerning Shackled City, Age of Worms, and Savage Tide.
In other words, if I were to run all three adventure paths, what is the time gap between shackled city and age of worms, then age of worms to savage tide?
I ask because I played in Shackled City to it's conclusion and am now playing in savage tide (skipped age of worms, unfortunately) and would like to tie some of my characters and ideas in shackled city to savage tide.
As an extra note, I would also appreciate any inpute and advice on how to run Savage Tide and perhaps what others did to make the game more enjoyable.
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Does anyone else feel as insulted as I do right now? Suddenly I'm playing an immature game? And what are they doing with those PHB's?? Burning them?? I feel ill...
If your looking for a real meat-grinder of a dungeon, try "Dungeon Crawl Classics #13: Crypt of the Devil Lich" by Goodman Games.
I've played, then run this crawl and it's totally ridiculous. Er.. in a good way.
There's a trap in there that is completely unavoidable death unless the PC's have access to true seeing.
Spoiler:
The trap features 2 advanced gelatinous cube-black pudding hybrids in a silenced and darkness'd pit, covered with an illusory floor, protected by an illusion that appears as soon as a PC enters the area making the PC appear to cross the floor without problem and wave his comrades on to follow whilst he's really drowning in a paralyzing acidic equipment eating soup. PC's only receive a will save to disbelieve if they interact with the illusionary PC (i.e. calling to him and he doesn't respond, etc). This trap (quietly) killed every PC in the group. I took each PC aside to tell them what was being done and for them to make the appropriate (and ultimately ineffective) grapple checks, fort saves, etc.
To be quite honest, these kinds of dungeon crawls can be very unfun in any kind of serious role-playing campaign and would recommend neither Tomb of Horrors or the above crawl if you actually enjoy playing your characters. :)
Wow. I got a response from the Editor-In-Chief. That's awesome. That really impresses me.
I guess I just want to thank people for responding and whatnot.
If possible, I hope I could post some of my experiences in the future as they happen, if people would care to hear them, that is. These forums strike me as a place that such a thing is more responsive than in some other forums I troll. I know I wish I had posted some of our group's crazy Shackled City adventures back when we were still playing through it.
My gaming group is participating in the Rise of the Runelords adventure path and our last session featured a battle so ridiculous (in a good way) I felt I had to share it.
And before I begin, a word of caution: I'm -playing- the game, not -running- it so please don't say anything about what happens beyond the part I'm describing. :)
Me and four others are currently Level 1. We had just beaten the Glassworks, and descended into an underground complex beneath it. We wandered a bit until we eventually found a room with two pools and a Quasit who was obviously a summoner of some kind. It's here that we got officially stuck. Now, I'm not sure if this Quasit was designed to be this hard, but he was extraordinarily difficult for us to beat. I mean, come on. We're level 1. But this guy could be invisible... he could fly... he had damage reduction.. hell, he even had SR I think! We literally couldn't efficiently harm him!
Finally, our little gnome druid pulls out all the stops. He summons an eagle. An eagle. But, as I watched, I couldn't help but wonder what he could possible do with it. I mean, if we couldn't hurt the little bastard, what was the eagle going to do?
The eagle grappled it. Proceeded to pin it. They both fell out of the air into the pool. Then the eagle promptly vanished. His summon duration is, after all, only 1 round. ;)
Finally, to ensure the little bastard wouldn't fly out of reach again, the druid's dog (not wolf!) companion grappled it so that the rest of us could wail on it til it finally died.
It was the funniest fight we have ever done. Our DM was shaking his head the whole time.
Now, hilarity aside, I'm wondering if this monster is really meant to be like this. I mean, seriously. Flying and DR at level 1? I just don't see how many people could really defeat this thing without a party of archers (or grappling it with an eagle, hoo!)
I'm just curious if anyone else who has played or ran this part had as much difficulty with the little bugger as we did.
Anyway, cheers to Paizo for a fun and unique experience!
As a player who survived through this encounter, I can honestly say we had a terrible time with her.
She killed our dwarven cleric and we had to back out before she killed us all.
The second time around we avoided the whole fly thing altogether by luring her into one of the side rooms where she could not fly away from us. Still a hard fight though. I guess thats what we get for having a warmage and not a true wizard. :/
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