Derek Poppink's page

My lunchtime rpg group just finished the Three Faces of Evil.

The home group just started Lords of Oblivion (Shackled City). A few more adventures to go before I start them on Whispering Cairn.

3) There are a couple of cases where the Last Laugh goons are hiding in shadows -- my group has 3 guys with darkvision, which means they are hanging out in plain sight to them. Did this detract from the encounter? Should I put them behind cover to hide, just to give the encounter a small semblance of a challenge?

Darkvision does not allow you to automatically spot hiding creatures. It just allows you to see with no light source. In a world with lots of creatures with darkvision, I'm sure that people have learned to hide in ways that counter it as well as normal vision.

My players noticed the cut window pane after they disintegrated three sections of the roof from the air and dropped fireballs, circle of death, and other area effect spells into all the big rooms. The barbarian flew into the torture room and grappled Jil before she could strike Shensen. The cleric flew in, released Shensen, flew out with her, and then cast heal. Only one of the harlequins was able to make a melee attack before dying, and he missed.

It was a slaughter. It helps that Meerthan was able to give them general descriptions of the layout of the house from the telepathic link.

Last Tuesday my heroes did a great job taking on Ike and his minions. Truthfully, only Ike and the dread wraith really gave them any problems. When the dread wraith made its first appearance and put the smack down on the cleric for 8 con drain there were some very very worried PC's. I have to admit they rallied well. After seeing Ike heal himself with the quickened inflict serious the cleric got his revenge with back to back mass cure lt's that not only healed most of the rest of the party but manged once to catch both the dread wraith and Ike at the same time.

The party had a lot of fun, and tonight it's off to korran korral.

My party did not do so well. Six characters including a paladin, barbarian, sorcerer, and three rogueish types. The barbarian and one rogue charged into the illusionary hall created by the bone devil. The sorcerer with true sight entered and dispelled the illusion. Ike dropped the flame strike on him and the scout/bard. The zombie renders completely surrounded the barbarian and rogue as the bone devil dropped a ice wall between them and the rest of the party.

The dread wraith pursued the sorcerer, who was spider climbing the walls. The barbarian flew up to grapple Ike, who hit him with a successful Harm. The paladin and other two rogues busted a hole in the wall of ice, but could not get past the renders to accomplish much.

In the fourth round the dread wraith killed the barbarian, Ike cast Destruction on one rogue, and the sorcerer teleported away. The paladin refused to teleport with him, and was killed the next round by the wraith. The bard/scout was pounded flat by the renders while the other rogue was killed by Slay Living.

My players are also off to Karran Kurral, but with an almost entirely new party. :)

Second near-TPK in the Adventure Path, and both times the arcanist was the only survivor.

When they got to the Pillars themselves, I had replaced the dracolich with a Nightwalker (my players have lived in fear of that miniature for a long, long time), and that was very memorable -- especially when the Nightwalker snatched away one of the players' intelligent sword and rendered it to so much scrap ...

Oooh. Neat idea. I've used that mini for the Huge Fire Elementals in Demonskar Legacy, but using it for an actual Nightwalker would be sweet!

Before D&D Minis I was a big fan of Fiery Dragon Productions' Counter Collections. They have a $30 CD with digital versions of all their counters: http://www.fierydragon.com/products/prod-ccdigital.htm

You can easily print out a lot of dragons and giants that way. I might go that route once I get to Kings.

I hear the previous poster's frustration regarding 13th level combats. I'm running Secrets of the Soul Pillars in the Shackled City Adventure Path currently, and the opening battle of the Wee Jas temple took almost three hours (with 6 players and additional enemies). Certainly nothing like the 2-3 encounters per hour that Monte Cook suggests in his latest Dungeoncraft.

A small part of me wonders if I could instrument modules like these in Neverwinter Nights. Then all the combat would be fast and furious, while I could focus on the roleplaying components.

I've run the Shackled City Adventure Path through Test of the Smoking Eye with six players. I through in two sidetreks, and they've stayed just ahead of the recommended levels for each adventure.

I tend to scale the boss fights or climactic battles and let the filler fights take care of themselves. A key thing to remember is to confront larger groups of PCs with larger groups of enemies (not just higher level enemies). Six to eight characters can put the smackdown on boss monsters without minions, unless the boss monster is so powerful that he takes characters out of the fight each round (which isn't much fun for the players whose character get eliminated first).

If the D&D world wants to start attracting more women/girls to the hobby, they should start showing the female characters in a more positive way. Possibly a half-naked man being rescued by a woman in full armor. Maybe then we’ll start to see full page ads for D&D books in Cosmo instead of ones for Harlequin romance novels.

Check out the Iron Lords of Jupiter mini game in Polyhedron #160 (on the back of Dungeon #101).

For those Dungeon readers like me who don't subscribe to Dragon, I'm excited to share that the "Toughest Critical Hit Ever" has his own mini in the upcoming D&D Minis War Drums set. The mini was previewed in the latest Dragon, and is discussed here:

http://www.maxminis.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15023

The pose is straight out of Dungeon #105. I'm eagerly awaiting sending this guy at my Shackled City or Age of Worms PCs.

I know D&D Minis have some detractors on these boards. If you haven't seen the last few sets, you might want to revisit your opinion. The line has come a long way in two years, and some of the latest commons and uncommons are as gorgeous as the best of Harbinger's rares.

Dungeon 132 arrived in the mail yesterday. The second thing I did (after reading Downer) was skim Library of Last Resort, the 9th episode in the Age of Worms Adventure Path.

Wow

This Adventure Path continues to shine. The artwork is gorgeous. The encounters with advanced creatures reminds me of the best parts of Clash of the Titans and Jason and the Argonauts. The new creature featured in the appendix is as intriguing and well drawn as the Wind Warriors and Kyuss creatures featured in earlier episodes.

But the coolest part has got to be the artifact. The campaign has already worked in a piece of one famous artifact. We have reason to believe we will see another in the future (based on a certain talisman from the first adventure). But the planners and writers have found an excellent way to incorporate a third storied relic of D&D in this episode.

By the way, it looks like this campaign is headed for epic territory. The PCs are expected to reach 18th level by the end of this episode, and there are three more adventures in the path.

If you have tough PCs, consider these tactics:

1. Have Ike cast Silence on the Bone Devil, then have it bum-rush the spellcasters. The Bone Devil doesn't need to speak to use any of its abilities, but the spellcasters do! The Bone Devil can even stay invisible for the bulk of the combat and just stay near the spellcasting PCs! See idea #3 to minimize the area a PC can enter, trapping them inside a "quiet zone."

2. Have the Bone Devil cast Fly on the everyone in the room (with the duration of Fly, we can assume that the Bone Devil keeps it on everyone at all times). Have the monsters attack one PC at once from three dimensions.

3. Have the Bone Devil keep Wall of Ice spells criss-crossing the room. If the fight goes badly for Ike, he can cast Antimagic Field to run through the walls and PCs cannot follow easily, buying him a few rounds of healing spells. Close off the stairs with 5-6 Walls(more than 30' apart to prevent a Dispel from taking one more than one at a time) to slow the PCs, make them waste time/spells, and allow Ike to cast his more useful buffs.

4. Have the Bone Devil start the combat by maintaining an illusion of Ike and the undead as pillars or something, with a fake Ike and and undead across the room. Let the PCs waste a round of spells on the illusions.

5. Let Ike concentrate on the death magic like Hold Person(plus a Coup De Grace by a Zombie) and Slay Living. Melee only if he's out of spells.

6. Don't forget that Ike has a scroll of Teleport. If things go bad(he looses 50% hp) and he can't heal to full next round with a spell, he is going to try and get out of there. Use that Mirror Image scroll!

7. Save his non-death magic spells for spontaneous healing, as well as his Harm.

These are EEEEVIL. One comment on #5. The zombies can't coup ded grace because it is a full round action and they can only take a single action each round. The dread wraith, on the other hand....

A year later, and I have feedback on these comments...

Ike's daily tactic while expecting an attack from the PC's is to cast both Magic Vestment and Greater Magic Weapon on himself twice a day. He has 4 Magic Vesment spells prepared. He should only need to have 2 prepared, freeing up 2 3rd level slots for other spells. His duration of 13 hours means that he will only need 2 Magic Vestments instead of 4.

Ike casts Magic Vestment on both his armor and his shield twice a day, so he needs to prepare it four times.

He also has prepared a Divine Favor and Shield of Faith, plus quickened versions of both spells. There really isn't much of a point to having them prepared twice, the durations of the spells are 1 minute and 1 minute/level respectively, and it's unlikely that the fight will last longer than his spell durations. I'd say keep the quickened versions and go for 2 other 1st level spells to prepare.

I've seen a number of high level fights last more than ten rounds, and the quickened versions are also useful if someone hits Ike with a targeted dispel magics (although his ring of counterspells will counter the first one).

Another thing is that Ike Iverson has the Tomb-Tainted Soul feat from Libris Mortis so he is healed from negative energy spells and harmed by positive energy spells. His tactics include the casting of Death Ward on himself, which makes him immune to negative energy effects. The description of Death Ward (PHB p.217) says "The subject is immune to...any negative energy effects such as from inflict spells..." Since the spell is in the PHB and rules in the PHB take precedence over rules in any other book, doesn't that mean he can't use his Inflict spells to heal himself? The spell doesn't prevent being damaged from negative energy effects, it makes the subject immune to them. I didn't notice this until after he was dead, so he got to heal himself with an inflict spell, but if I had noticed it beforehand I probably would have swapped his Death Ward for another spell.

Death Ward is his domain spell from the Death Domain, so the only thing you could swap it for is Imbue with Spell Ability from the Magic Domain. On the other hand, it may not make sense tactically.

I'm running this fight tonight or next week. Wish me luck.

I would just like to say that I've liked Downer since the beginning and it's the first thing I read when I'm done with Erik's editorial.

It's the first thing I read when I pull the magazine out of its plastic.

Might as well throw my hat into the ring. I'm 32 and started DMing again four years ago shortly after 3.0 came out. I'm married with two kids, a dog, a house, and a full-time job. In the last four years none of my campaigns (a homebrew, the 3.0 Adventure Path, and Banewarrens) have been as successful or as fulfilling as Shackled City (which I run once a week in the evenings) and Age of Worms (which I run once a week during lunch at work). I'm loving it.

Here is my problem.

The Ebon Aspect starts churning at this point and is supposed to start coming after the party in 10 minutes. The cleric/wizards are out of every tactically useful spell and need to rest. Most of them will die if they face the aspect at this time. Do I let them rest and set up the final battle in the dark cathedral the next day? Or, do I have the aspect come after them as written...

If they are resting in the dungeon, I think staging the final battle in the dark cathedral the next day will be fine. It sounds like Erik had the Aspect show up a while after the Paizo team finished off the Faceless One.

Got it Wednesday in Detroit, MI.

Got mine recently in Detroit, too! Seven new Kyuss creatures, not counting some corrupted celestials and very cool Harbinger of Worms.

RatPunk wrote:

I love all these hip Greyhawk in-references.

Has anyone matched the omens to published adventures yet?

I got the Istivan reference, and the Cauldron reference, but I guess I'll need to go through my archives of Dungeons for the rest.

:-D This will be a fun use of the weekend.

The Black Blade of Aknar Ratalla is from Dungeon 119: The Tomb of Aknar Ratalla.

The Dread Forge is from Dungeon 120: Lost Temple of Demogorgon. The Obsidian Eye is from an eponymous adventure in the same issue (a very cool low-level desert adventure, I might add).

The demonic tree Malgarius is from Dungeon 122: The Root of Evil.

Do I qualify as a D&D nerd, too?

Yesterday I got the latest copy of Dragon in the mail, so it really looks like I won't be getting dungeon 125 this go round. Hopefully Paizo will let me know if I need to go out to the magazine shop to buy a copy instead. I don't want to miss out on AoW material.

Generally speaking magazines will replace issues for subscribers that get lost in the mail. In my experience Paizo has been very good about this.

Here's a portion of the SRD on Ready:
---
READY
The ready action lets you prepare to take an action later, after your turn is over but before your next one has begun. Readying is a standard action. It does not provoke an attack of opportunity (though the action that you ready might do so).

Readying an Action: You can ready a standard action, a move action, or a free action. To do so, specify the action you will take and the conditions under which you will take it. Then, any time before your next action, you may take the readied action in response to that condition. The action occurs just before the action that triggers it. If the triggered action is part of another character’s activities, you interrupt the other character. Assuming he is still capable of doing so, he continues his actions once you complete your readied action. Your initiative result changes. For the rest of the encounter, your initiative result is the count on which you took the readied action, and you act immediately ahead of the character whose action triggered your readied action.

You can take a 5-foot step as part of your readied action, but only if you don’t otherwise move any distance during the round.
---
So yes, the kenku can't shoot and move further than 5 ft with a readied action. They don't get another action until a full round has passed. I would also rule that the readied action is the surprise round (which was designed to prevent one side in a battle from overwhelming the other before they had a chance to respond).

Way cool, wakedown! I would love to have this.

I concur. Great work. My email is dpoppink (at) yahoo.com

I'm finally at a point where I want to read the character backgrounds Erik wrote for his playtesters, but I can't find them. Did they get deleted? Does the messageboard drop obsolete threads? Am I losing my mind?

Thanks,
Derek

Answering my own question, they are in the Age of Worms Archive, which is reachable by searching on one of the character names (Dram, Taan, Demon Boy). Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to navigate there directly. It does not seem directly accessible from the messageboards themselves or any of the messageboard indexes. Can one of the Paizo web staff illuminate me?

Anyway, to "get on with it," the real "Enemy" of the my Plane of Conscious Possibility is the Plane of Stasis and it's four realms of anti-alignments: Apathy, Hedonism, Fantasia, and Dogma. As the banality of civilizations grow, the borders of Conscoius Possibility begin to shudder, creating these anti-alignments in the population, leading to the demise of Consciousness itself, with all of its conflicting dualities and existential constructions.

As long as the struggle of Good vs. Evil, Law vs. Chaos continues, then the Plane of Stasis has no power. That is why the "Adventurer" is the true Hero, regardless of whether they are considered Good or Evil, as they infuse reality with intense, dynamic struggle.

I also play Villanous NPCs with as much bravery, valor, and perspective as I can. They have as much to lose by the denizens of the Stasis Plane as any goody two-shoes Paladin.

Wow. I really liked this description. Thanks.

I'm finally at a point where I want to read the character backgrounds Erik wrote for his playtesters, but I can't find them. Did they get deleted? Does the messageboard drop obsolete threads? Am I losing my mind?

Thanks,
Derek

Thanks. This is very well written.

hi, I saw a message thread on here yesterday (monday the 27th) about the bronzewood lodge, and now I can't seem to find it. anyway, the long and short of the thread was that info on the lodge wasn't included in Dungeon # 125 afterall, and that it would instead be posted here at some point in the next few weeks. I was hoping that you could do a quick run-down of the most important aspects of the lodge now, so that I can use it for the druid in the party that I'm DMing for (starting very soon). I can obviously make the stuff up if necessary, but I'd rather not have what I make up conflict with anything that gets released in the future. please let me know if this is possible. thanks.

Erik just posted it here:

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/dungeon/ageOfWorms/ageOfWormsOverload

Am I missing anything?

The Magical Threats Agency (Zenith Trajectory). I hope the hardcover fleshes them out a bit.

Nice job on quoting the SRD there Derek :-)

The SRD. Don't leave home without it. :)

Erik, you just sold me a 12-issue subscription to Dragon.

I was about to let my subscription run out, but I'm rethinking that choice for the same reason.

I understand that to hit the IS, the PC must first, take a guess on where it is, second roll a percentage die due to concealment (50% miss chance) and third, roll to hit at a -4 due to the creature being invisible. Is this correct?

You are correct except for the -4 to hit. Here's other important information from the SRD:

"The ability to move about unseen is not foolproof. While they can't be seen, invisible creatures can be heard, smelled, or felt.

Invisibility makes a creature undetectable by vision, including darkvision.

Invisibility does not, by itself, make a creature immune to critical hits, but it does make the creature immune to extra damage from being a ranger's favored enemy and from sneak attacks.

A creature can generally notice the presence of an active invisible creature within 30 feet with a DC 20 Spot check. The observer gains a hunch that "something's there" but can't see it or target it accurately with an attack. A creature who is holding still is very hard to notice (DC 30). An inanimate object, an unliving creature holding still, or a completely immobile creature is even harder to spot (DC 40). It's practically impossible (+20 DC) to pinpoint an invisible creature's location with a Spot check, and even if a character succeeds on such a check, the invisible creature still benefits from total concealment (50% miss chance).

A creature can use hearing to find an invisible creature. A character can make a Listen check for this purpose as a free action each round. A Listen check result at least equal to the invisible creature's Move Silently check result reveals its presence. (A creature with no ranks in Move Silently makes a Move Silently check as a Dexterity check to which an armor check penalty applies.) A successful check lets a character hear an invisible creature "over there somewhere." It's practically impossible to pinpoint the location of an invisible creature. A Listen check that beats the DC by 20 pinpoints the invisible creature's location.

Listen Check DCs to Detect Invisible Creatures
Invisible Creature Is . . . DC
In combat or speaking 0
Moving at half speed Move Silently check result
Moving at full speed Move Silently check result -4
Running or charging Move Silently check result -20
Some distance away +1 per 10 feet
Behind an obstacle (door) +5
Behind an obstacle (stone wall) +15

A creature can grope about to find an invisible creature. A character can make a touch attack with his hands or a weapon into two adjacent 5-foot squares using a standard action. If an invisible target is in the designated area, there is a 50% miss chance on the touch attack. If successful, the groping character deals no damage but has successfully pinpointed the invisible creature's current location. (If the invisible creature moves, its location, obviously, is once again unknown.)
If an invisible creature strikes a character, the character struck still knows the location of the creature that struck him (until, of course, the invisible creature moves). The only exception is if the invisible creature has a reach greater than 5 feet. In this case, the struck character knows the general location of the creature but has not pinpointed the exact location.

If a character tries to attack an invisible creature whose location he has pinpointed, he attacks normally, but the invisible creature still benefits from full concealment (and thus a 50% miss chance). A particularly large and slow creature might get a smaller miss chance.

If a character tries to attack an invisible creature whose location he has not pinpointed, have the player choose the space where the character will direct the attack. If the invisible creature is there, conduct the attack normally. If the enemy's not there, roll the miss chance as if it were there, don't let the player see the result, and tell him that the character has missed. That way the player doesn't know whether the attack missed because the enemy's not there or because you successfully rolled the miss chance.
If an invisible character picks up a visible object, the object remains visible. One could coat an invisible object with flour to at least keep track of its position (until the flour fell off or blew away). An invisible creature can pick up a small visible item and hide it on his person (tucked in a pocket or behind a cloak) and render it effectively invisible.
Invisible creatures leave tracks. They can be tracked normally. Footprints in sand, mud, or other soft surfaces can give enemies clues to an invisible creature's location.
An invisible creature in the water displaces water, revealing its location. The invisible creature, however, is still hard to see and benefits from concealment.

A creature with the scent ability can detect an invisible creature as it would a visible one.

A creature with the Blind-Fight feat has a better chance to hit an invisible creature. Roll the miss chance twice, and he misses only if both rolls indicate a miss. (Alternatively, make one 25% miss chance roll rather than two 50% miss chance rolls.)
A creature with blindsight can attack (and otherwise interact with) creatures regardless of invisibility.

An invisible burning torch still gives off light, as does an invisible object with a light spell (or similar spell) cast upon it.

Ethereal creatures are invisible. Since ethereal creatures are not materially present, Spot checks, Listen checks, Scent, Blind-Fight, and blindsight don't help locate them. Incorporeal creatures are often invisible. Scent, Blind-Fight, and blindsight don't help creatures find or attack invisible, incorporeal creatures, but Spot checks and possibly Listen checks can help.

Invisible creatures cannot use gaze attacks.

Invisibility does not thwart detect spells.

Since some creatures can detect or even see invisible creatures, it is helpful to be able to hide even when invisible."

DMFTodd wrote:

Found a snafu: The assasins in room 81 (or so) don't have any spells. They should.

Hmmm... they certainly should! Try these out:

Assassin Spells Known (4/3; caster level 5): 1-feather fall, ghost sound, obscuring mist, true strike; 2-cat's grace, darkness, invisibility.

Sorry about that!

Hi James,

I believe these three assassins are in the submission guidelines for Dungeon Magazine, and they don't have spells there, either.

Derek, Jeremy's reply cleared things up for me. Here's a more accurate stat block for an awakened tree using an oak as an example....

Awakened Oak: CR 5; Huge plant; HD 8d8+40; hp 76; Init –1; Spd 20 ft.; AC 13, touch 7, flat-footed 13; Base Atk +6; Grp +19; Atk/Full Atk +9 melee (2d6+7, slam); Space/Reach 15 ft./15 ft.; SA constrict; SQ hardness 5, low-light vision, plant traits; AL N; SV Fort +11, Ref +1, Will +3; Str 20, Dex 8, Con 20, Int 8, Wis 13, Cha 14
Constrict (Ex): An...

Thanks, Greer. It looks like your example is similar to my third one (plant features like d8 HD and strong Fort save as well as plant traits), only with more variety on the mental attributes and Con.

My version of the same, using standard ability scores and adding skills/feats, turned out like this:

Awakened Pine: CR 5; Huge plant; HD 8d8+32; hp 68; Init -1; Spd 30 ft; AC 13 (-2 size, -1 Dex, +6 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 13; Base Atk +6; Grp +19; Atk or Full Atk +10 melee (2d8+7, slam); Space/Reach 15ft/15ft; SA constrict; SQ hardness 5, low-light vision, plant traits; AL N; SV Fort +10, Ref +1, Will +2; Str 20, Dex 8, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10
Skills: Listen +10, Spot +10
Feats: Alertness, Weapon Focus (slam), Improved Natural Attack

Personally I like that choice, as it makes awakened plants like other plant creatures. The only thing that gives me pause is the wording of the Awaken spell, which seems to support my previous first option (an animated object with the plant type and mental stats tacked on).

More confusing, is that trees are now constructs? A tree is a living creature. You're telling me it has no Constitution score? A very confusing spell description.

Which animated tree stat block below makes more sense (see hp, darkvision, SQ, and Con)?

Awakened tree (construct stats): CR 2; Medium plant; HD 2d10+20; hp 31; Init +0; Spd 40 ft; AC 14 (+4 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 14; Base Atk +1; Grp +2; Atk or Full Atk +2 melee (1d6+1, slam); SA constrict; SQ darkvision 60 ft, low-light vision, construct traits, hardness 5; AL N; SV Fort +0, Ref +0, Will +0; Str 12, Dex 10, Con -, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10

Awakened tree (construct stats, plant traits): CR 2; Medium plant; HD 2d10; hp 11; Init +0; Spd 40 ft; AC 14 (+4 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 14; Base Atk +1; Grp +2; Atk or Full Atk +2 melee (1d6+1, slam); SA constrict; SQ low-light vision, hardness 5, plant traits; AL N; SV Fort +0, Ref +0, Will +0; Str 12, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10

Awakened tree (plant stats): CR 2; Medium plant; HD 2d8; hp 9; Init +0; Spd 40 ft; AC 14 (+4 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 14; Base Atk +1; Grp +2; Atk or Full Atk +2 melee (1d6+1, slam); SA constrict; SQ DR hardness 5, low-light vision, plant traits; AL N; SV Fort +3, Ref +0, Will +0; Str 12, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10

Wouldn't it be nice if WoTC had added a monster to the 3.5 MM called Awakened Tree, or shown an example of an awakened animal like they did with advanced monsters?

It really would be nice to have some template info on this. But from what I have seen from multiple awakened animals in print (Throne of Iuz, Dungeon 118; Lost Temple of Demogorgon, Dungeon #120), the only part of being a magical beast they get is their new type (name only). They still have animal Base Atk, d8 for HD, and so on.

In my opinion, the spell description for Awaken should simply have the part about their type being changed to magical beast edited out.

I'm interested in sending some awakened animals in to Dungeon at some point, so it's good to know the Dungeon standard, at least. No darkvision 60 ft. either, then, right?

Well, that makes it easier to calculate the CR change. Improving an animal by 3HD is +1 CR, so adding 2HD, some intelligence, and changing the type (which insulates it from certain spells and class abilities) probably also warrants +1 CR. Adding 2HD of magical beast and darkvision would be better, but class levels and elite arrays ought to make up for that.

Hello, I'm the fellow who wrote "Throne of Iuz."

I'm glad you liked him. "Awakened" is indeed just a spell that's been applied to him. I didn't use any official template, but rather applied the results of the spell as best I could. I did consult the WotC messageboards where there is at least one or two threads attempting to push the spell results into a template. I honestly wish there was an official template for it.

I've got to go back and look at King Bog again, as I'm trying to create some awakened creatures. The thing that is tripping me up is whether to change the hit die from d8 to d10, change the BAB, etc as they become magical beasts. Any tips on how that works?

I adapt the Eberron content (or Eberron's okay)

I almost ran the Fallen Tower as a side adventure to the Adventure Path (Lord Vhalantru sponsoring the expedition), but my players took another hook instead.

I've also threaded him into one of the players background as the former patron of her adventuring parents before she was orphaned. She's going to have a very interesting moment in LoO when she discovers a pair of statues that bear an amazing family resemblance.

That's EVIL! (I am going to have to use it as well)

DDM doesnt have a were-baboon, and I like my monsters to match my minis.

Yeah, but plenty of the orc minis look sufficiently bestial to seem like a hybrid form (Mountain Orc, for instance). And if he drinks his potion of Enlarge Person, the Dire Ape is perfect.

OK OK, I heard you guys and am happy to announce that the map supplement for Dungeon 124, and all future supplements, will include untagged maps. :) Note that the supplement will still contain tagged versions for you to keep behind the DM's screen. I'll just pop the untagged versions in along with tagged ones.

Also, I've created higher resolution versions of the downloads for issues 118-121 in case you want to blow them up. All future supplements will be available in low (150dpi) and high(300dpi) resolution formats.

Hope this helps,
Mike

Both awesome improvements. Thanks!

First level class benefit of the Fist of Raziel is a continuous Magic Circle vs Evil effect.

And I knew she was going to be getting this...it was part of the initial character concept, reviewed and oked by myself from the start. My disappointment for the lich fight will be made up when she has to deal with the ethical dilema the final test presents.

No need to fret that your player has made a good choice. Just run the encounter differently.

Important consideration for Protection from Evil: "Good summoned creatures are immune to this effect. The protection against contact by summoned creatures ends if the warded creature makes an attack against or tries to force the barrier against the blocked creature. Spell resistance can allow a creature to overcome this protection and touch the warded creature."

Presumably the lich will realize the Magic Circle vs. Evil is in effect as soon as the first summoned creature is unable to penetrate it. He can still keep the evil summoned creatures around the encounter area, which will prevent the Fist of Raziel from manuevering much (you can't force a Magic Circle vs. Evil into creatures). Other players who move outside the circle will be open to attacks. If everyone huddles together they should be a great target for range attacks and area effects (I don't remember whether he has any or not, but perhaps he should have a few, and perhaps there are some creatures he can summon that do). Some of the creatures may have spell resistance, too.

Also, check the first sentence above. Summon Monster lets you summon any monster on the list, of ANY alignment. Evil clerics might be restricted, because summoning a good creature is a good spell, but a sorceror lich is not so restricted. A celestial polar bear would have fun with the Fist of Raziel, walking right through the protection.

So if you can hold off starting a new Shackled City campaign until the hardcover comes out in a few more months... that'd probably be best.

If you can't wait, Life's Bazaar is huge enough that it should keep your party busy for a couple months, so if you time it right they'll be able to start the new adventure before Flood Season anyway.

That makes sense to me. Based on all the changes you've mentioned, I'm seriously considering postponing my campaign (just finished Flood Season) until after the hardcover comes out. One of my players will be having a baby soon, which gives me a good excuse to do something else for a while. Perhaps I'll give the Banewarrens another spin...

James is right about the length of Life's Bazaar. That adventure could take six to eight four-hour sessions. You might also run a small adventure before Life's Bazaar, so your characters are a little tougher when they encounter Kazmojen (rather than altering his stats).

I couldn't remember if toungeeater was afflicted or not, but I thought he wasn't. Besides, how it was written, being still 3.0, the DR was intended as 10 and there was risk of infliction. With 3.5 afflicted lycans cannot inflict others. Even if I'd off know for sure he was afflicted I'd of made him a natural.

Ooo, I totally forgot about the chance of infection. And the paladin got bit several times...

i'm going to run the enconter with the lich in TotSE the one where you are suposed to summon monsters I was looking at the choises of summoned monsters and was kinda board with them. I thought it would be fun to have a themed summon list like UA talkes about however I want to do an insect list.

Here is my problem and the point of this post I can't find a good pattern between HD and CR for each summon monster spell so it's hard to subsitue creatures in the list UA says to switch with monster of app power level but I don’t know what they mean. It's not a list by CR witch is what I would think power level is all about.

thanks

That's always bothered me. Why should summoned vipers always be a much lower CR than other summoned creatures? It might be a calculation about how much harm a creature can inflict within the limited time frame of the summoning (poisons, for example, can do harm even after the creature vanishes).

I was thinking you could look at the vermin on the list as a guideline, but even they vary (Summon Monster 5 gets you a CR 4 Scorpion while Summon Monster 4 gets you a CR 4 Mantis or a CR 3 Spider).

Here's my recommendation:
Summon Monster 6 gets CR 7-8 creatures
Summon Monster 5 gets CR 5-6 creatures
Summon Monster 4 gets CR 3-4 creatures
Summon Monster 3 gets CR 1-2 creatures

You should probably decide for yourself whether to push your players or be more conservative. Remember they get no experience for all these beasties (at least, not directly).

Anyone have a good idea for the demodands? I chose Bloodhulks for the Kelubar (they are corpulent and strange) and Chokers for the Farastu (thin, could be covered in tar), but then I realized that the Chokers are small. I have no idea what to do for the Shaator (Blue Slaad? Aspect of Orcus?). In Asylum the party can encounter as many as 10 Farastu at one time, so it would be good to start collecting the appropriate mini early.

Looks very good almost done with it i see... i use many of the same minitures.. however i laughed when you use the dire bear as an alternate for the beholder

Yeah, there aren't many options when it comes to large uncommons as alternates. I used Skullcrusher Ogre for all Large humanoids, Destrachan for most large monster-like creatures, and Dire Bear here and there. Perhaps I should put a few rares in the alternate column, and restore the Gauth as an alternate for the Beholder (even if the size is wrong). Or maybe just eliminate the alternate column if there is no good alternate.

My players will soon be starting Flood Season, so I've updated my list. Rather than post it here in uneditable form, I've started an Excel spreadsheet and put it online.

http://poppinks.com/derek/ShackledCityMinis.xls

I updated the spreadsheet to include the entire Adventure Path. You can sort by adventure, miniature, miniature set, rarity, etc. This is still a work in progress, so suggestions are welcome (dpoppink@yahoo.com).

Near-TPK in a side adventure (Mad God's Key)

The new party has already suffered two fatalities in Flood Season:

Markis Steelshield, Aasimar Paladin, survived the attack of an ogre zombie (who, along with Veltargo from Mad God's Key, replaced Skaven) only to fall to a coup-de-grace from a thug. To add insult to injury, it was the player's birthday.

Delmar, Pixie Rogue, was eaten in a single bite by a Zombie Megaraptor (which replaced the Tyrannosaurus Skeleton). Shortly after being raised he was critically hit by a zombie spider and nearly wormed by the Spawn of Kyuss (rough night).

On a related tangent, is anything familiar with the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)? Aspiring authors challenge themselves to write a novel (50,000 words) in the month of November. Quality is less important than actually getting words on paper. Authors in particular genres link up online to share ideas, tips, and encourage one another.

How is this related? I thought it would be fun to enter the challenge this year, but make my personal goal 50,000 words of campaign and adventure material. That's enough for a mega-module or campaign. I'd be interested in finding other aspiring adventure writers who'd like to try it as well, and working on a user-created adventure path would certainly be an option. If a bunch of people were all working on their adventures in the same month (and sharing the drafts online), you might develop some good cohesion in the story line.

What do you think?

Hey Solomani,

That's a cool idea. I started thinking along those lines myself recently, for a completely different reason. One of my PC's is an illumian (from Races of Destiny), with plans on becoming a Shadow Sentinel. Illumians hate the githyanki for destroying a great library of theirs in the Astral Plane, and I have considered having Vlaakith planning to assault their stronghold in the Plane of Shadow as well. I would then want to use some intersperse some gith encounters throughout the AP as well.

However, several other PCs have a celestial bent (aasimar, half-celestial, etc), so I will probably keep most of the fiendish aspects of the AP intact.

My first group of PC's had such terrible luck that they dubbed themselves the High Rollers. They were all killed (except for one survivor) by Veltargo in Mad God's Key.

The new group of PC's works for the church of Pelor. They call themselves the Radiant Elite. They might not spend much time at Skie's, as Kristof will be supplying them with magic at a good discount.

My players will soon be starting Flood Season, so I've updated my list. Rather than post it here in uneditable form, I've started an Excel spreadsheet and put it online.

http://poppinks.com/derek/ShackledCityMinis.xls

I dropped down to recommending a single mini and a common/uncommon alternate if the original was a rare.

Comments are welcome. Time to go trade. :)

Only silver bypasses damage reduction 5/silver. If you hit Tongueater with a +5 wounding keen shapechanger-bane adamantine greatsword, five points of the damage you do is ignored.

Of course, you'll probably kill poor l'il Tongueater with one hit anyway, at that point.

Monte Cook has some cool house rules on DR which allows +2 or greater weapons to bypass silver damage reduction. Check it out here:

http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?otherd20_damage_reduction