Some of us GMs on Myth-Weavers have been talking for a few years about running a PbP Special over there and we're thinking we have critical mass enough and are talking of trying one starting mid-September. We have several GMs who have been part of Specials in the past and think it could work fine with how our thread structure works and believe we could handle the pacing issues.
I see that there was some kind of online Special that you coordinated in the past and I thought I'd ask some questions:
Was yours a VTT/R20 thing or was it PbP?
Do you have any thoughts/cautions for us before we start?
Could we have access somehow to any of the more recent Specials or
would we be limited to the 4? that are currently available?
I thought I'd put up a message saying that we have several games looking for players on the Myth-Weavers PbP forum. Sign-up is easy and first come first served:
After 66 gaming sessions, my per-anniversary Rise of the Runelords/Kingmaker hybrid campaign reached a conclusion last night when Karzoug met an untimely end at the young age of 11,000 years or whatever.
The group ended in charge of a small Duchy that stretched from Ilsurian to Ravenmoor through the northern Sanos Forest and were personally responsible for thwarting Karzoug's return.
The highlight for me was the TPK back at the clock tower leading to the PCs being enslaved by Xanesha and finally sunk with her gambling barge (PCs escaped). They then had a running battle with her that spanned 3 different locations (the original clocktower fight, a fight in Fort Rannick, a fight on the Skull River Dam and finally when she rode in on dragonback to burn their capital town of Turtleback Ferry.
PCs had fun with hexploration and running a kingdom, rescued a disappeared town, defeated a rival duke with expansion on his mind and pacified a huge swath of wild Varisia.
The high-level half of the campaign dragged a bit as high level games do but the highlights in the second half were the Wrath and Lust wings of Runeforge, the Vekker's cabin and the multiple assaults on the Pinnacle and Eye of Avarice. Karzoug proved to be one tough cookie and was one round away from TPKing the campaign.
Now, we are off to the high seas and I am running a nervous Gnome Illusionist by the name of Pezzik as we live the Pirate live in a Skull and Shackles campaign ran by my brother.
Thanks to all the authors and the posters here who I shared and bounced ideas off of here. That interaction greatly enhanced the game for me.
We did pretty much all of the Rise of the Runelords Campaign and about 90% of the first 5 books of Kingmaker. I have warned the PCs that I may get the itch to return to these characters again and may run that final Kingmaker book as an epic-level game with the PCs bumped up to 20th level. Depends on whether I can endure the punishment of that much decision paralysis...
The adventures of Pezzik, gentlegnome turned reluctant pirate
Day 1, on which I learned that I am to be a swabbie
I woke today aboard the Wormwood, a pirate vessel of some kind. It is pretty clear that we were drugged. I say we because there are a number of us new recruits that seem to have gotten here at the same time, but more on that later. We were hauled up on deck with an odd taste in our mouths and introduced to some of the officers on this particular voyage. Our Captain goes by the name Barnabus Harrigan, and we are not to speak to him. I'm pretty sure we aren't to speak to his First Mate, Mr. Plug either and we should probably avoid talking to the Botswain, Master Scurge, except to say 'Yes Sir' and be about our duties.
Our first task was to test our abilities to run the rigs. Fortunately, I was not fast enough for that particular task but unfortunately, I also fell and bruised my shoulder on the way down. An elven fellow and a half-orc won that job and a meaty looking dwarf volunteered to be the cook's mate. That left me and a couple of humans to join the other recruits as swabbies. My day's task was not a hard one - fix a damaged cleat, though it did take me much too close to the rail for my liking. The work was rewarding and fortunately kept me out of some of the more undesirable tasks.
The day ended with some poor soul being keel-hauled for some transgression or another. I must keep my head about me.
Day 2, a fight and a friendship forged
Today started badly. the Rigger's Mate and three of her stooges decided to pick a fight with us just before we were to head up for the day's watch. The dwarf recruit took exception and soon, despite orders to keep from fighting one another there was a veritable brawl at the base of the ladder. I tried to talk sense into them but as soon as I heard the whistle tooting that we were late on deck, I used one of my Patterns to knock two of the goons unconscious. I hope they forgot it was me.
I was set to swabbing today and my bucket-mate was a gnome lass by the name of Giffer Tibbs, who seemed friendly enough, though she isn't all that fond of Conkobar, one of the other swabs. It was tiring work but not so bad. At the end of the day, I decided to try to earn the favour of some of the existing crew by putting on a little play using one of my glamers. I told the tale of captain Jerico and the Red Rock and it seemed to go over well, though I was as tired as I had ever been by the end of the day.
Day 3, A voyage to where?
Little came out of our altercation with Slipper Sly the day before beyond a mild beating for being late on deck and the whole situation seemed odd as they were not punished the way we recruits were.
I was set to repairing the Quartermaster's door. Her name is Cutthroat Grok, an half-orc woman and not too careful as a quartermaster goes as she left me alone with an unlocked door more than once during the day. I didn't pursue that avenue though as I continue to harbor a fear of Master Scurge's attentions. He has taken a dislike to one of the humans, whose name eludes me at the moment - the fancily dressed one, not the plain one - and he has been set to bilge duty. He, the human bilgester, not our Bos'un, seems a reasonable chap for he returned to me one of the items I had on my person before this trip began, a scroll that I had purchased at no small expense, and that had been taken from me along with everything save this book and my component pouch.
I kept my head down today and as of this time, have not asked where we are headed. Perhaps tomorrow.
Setup:
My almost 12th level players have taken a significant detour from dealing with Mokmurian and his cronies at Jorgenfist. They know that he collected stones from a number of monuments for some reason, and he has now had those stones for months.
My PCs have also used Commune to ask about when and if a Giant invasion is coming. They know that they have a good 5 months before they come pouring down into lower Varisia and have chosen to spend at least half of that doing other worthwhile things, including managing their fledgling kingdom built around Turtleback Ferry.
I am guessing that they will delay as long as they can before heading after Jorgenfist (as late as the full 5 months, as little as just over three).
My idea:
In this time, Mokmurian has done the following:
1) Used Stone Tell to figure out which Flume is the one he's looking for
2) Magicked himself and his inner crew to Sandpoint and opened up the Catacombs of Wrath
3) Cut a deal with Xaliasa and figured out the rhyme
4) Left for Runeforge and bypassed the White Dragon
5) Has entered Runeforge to make himself stronger
Fallout from this idea:
When my PCs get to Jorgenfist, they will find the armies growing but will find the heart of the citadel to be empty. If they make peaceful contact with Conna, she will tell them that "he left for a ruined tower in some town on the coast in search of ancient magic - something called a Hellfire Flume". If they don't talk to her, that information will be available from his notes in the library.
They will then be likely motivated to chase after him to Sandpoint, to the cathedral below, and thence to Runeforge.
Meanwhile, Runeforge will be largely as described except Mokmurian and a few of his giant buddies will be kicking around doing research, making weapons and will have learned the secret of how to escape. I'm thinking that he will be chilling in the Vault of Greed and after a brief skirmish with the PCs will cut and run and use what he's learned to escape, leaving the party imprisoned until they figure out how to get out (I'm thinking of incorporating an idea I'm modifying from Evil Lincoln's making Plane Shift not work but having a combination of runeforged weapons activate the portal, and there being a portal in the Conjuration wing that uses a Gate calling-effect). They'll either have to gather up the components to make seven runeforged items or they'll have to figure the other escape route out.
When they get back, if it's been a long enough delay, they will find the giants on the march in a suicidal invasion of the lowlands meant to fuel Karzoug's cauldron and hasten his return.
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Simple question: Can someone move their full movement rate and use stealth?
PRD wrote:
When moving at a speed greater than half but less than your normal speed, you take a –5 penalty. It's impossible to use Stealth while attacking, running, or charging.
This suggests that you must move slower than your normal speed (at least 5'/round slower?), so a human without the Fast Stealth rogue trick could double move 50'/single move 25' and a halfling could double move 30'/single move 15', while accepting the -5 penalty?
There doesn't seem to be an allowance for a full double or single move with stealth, even with the Swift as Shadows Halfling Trait.
We've always played it that you get the -5 penalty if you move more than half and up to your normal speed.
I put this in the AP general discussion thread group because it mostly pertains to people running APs.
Some of us contribute quite a bit of material to be shared with other GMs (maps, PCs and all that) but we are constantly skirting the copyright rules as to whether we can include images from a map from our pdfs. This skirting is commonly done in the following way:
1) GM posts material to share
2) People love it
3) Paizo moderators remove offending links because their content is verboten
4) GM says they'll email material to interested parties
5) Threads pile up with email_address at domain dot com requests
6) Paizo apparently looks the other way
What if there was a way for people to upload offending material and have them linked to whatever pdf purchases you have in your account?
i.e. Say I own the Rise of the Runelords AP and want to make battle tokens using the artwork in Burnt Offerings (Or campaign cartographer files or whatever). I cut and paste and make a pdf and upload it to the hypothetical server. Then, it gets flagged as being associated with the associated catalogue number and anyone who owns access to that catalogue number could see what I uploaded in something like "My Custom User Creations".
My PC wants a feat to be able to use his charisma bonus instead of dexterity for ranged touch attacks for his sorcerer.
Is there something like this out there already?
Think about it before you read my musings on balance:
That sounds like a pretty weak feat to me, what with ranged touch being a pretty easy threshold most of the time. To my mind, it would make this a quite a circumstantial feat unless he goes crazy on the ranged touch spells or something. Even then, we're talking about a buff from +1 from to a +4 for just a few of his spells.
My PCs are heading to the bottom of a freshwater lake to do some salvage from a sunken ship that contains almost all of their gear and some portion of their treasure. Anyway, I thought my underwater encounter ideas are kinda stale so I thought I'd poll this forum for ideas.
Rise of the Runelords background:
My PCs were taken prisoner by Xanesha in a TPK at the end of Skinsaw. She took them to work on the Paradise Barge as charm zombie slaves for a year and a half (thus there is no Leucretia) before the barge was sunk with them on it. They managed to escape, swim to shore (on the Shimmerglens side) and have made it to Turtleback Ferry.
The party is up to 6 6th level characters but are severely underequipped, in that they have about 30gp worth of treasure per person. They plan on pooling their money, hiring a boat to take them to where they figure the wreck is and using water breathing, plan to descend to the sunken ship, explore it and retrieve what's left of their loot and continue on with life after that.
The wreck has been on the bottom of a freshwater lake for 2 full weeks. and could have had anything happen to it in that time, including having the loot taken from there to somewhere else.
What I have so far is:
1) A minor alligator gar attack on the way down (using shark stats).
2) A giant Eel in the ship
3) Some kind of hazards on the ship to do with air pockets and trapped buoyant furniture maybe
4) A larger gar attack on the way up attracted by the blood and whatnot in the water
So, as I have posted several times in these forums, I had an anticipated Xanesha-TPK at the Clocktower at the end of Skinsaw. I had Madame X take the players prisoner and put them on the Paradise gambling barge to work as charm zombie slaves until a fellow slave snaps, lights himself on fire that spreads through the ship, eventually leading to it sinking. (I need an accident like this to explain why much of my PCs' gear will be still on board).
The group will escape, swim to shore, regroup, return to the barge to retrieve their gear and any clues I wish to provide and then will resume adventuring after that. Xanesha in the mean time will have travelled to the Kreeg clanhold and will be or will have started the attack on Fort Rannick, replacing Leucretia in that role.
In addition to making the PCs new character sheets with no (or minimal) equipment and temporary Wis scores of 1 :^), I was thinking about handing each of them a bit of paper containing a clue that they will have individually learned during their ~20 months in captivity. What I have in mind is dropping some clues about Xanesha's motives or her history or what really happened at the clocktower maybe. These clues have to be fairly subtle so as to not give the whole story away but will spark some interest in the long term plot that the PCs never get to see.
My PCs and preliminary ideas are:
- Dwarf Barbarian, basic raging warrior
---> He picked up Xanesha's murder list in the clocktower fight. I was thinking about him having a flashback to the fight and seeing the list go skittering off the clocktower roof to the crowd below. This is needed to explain why Xanesha didn't just stay in Magnimar murdering her way through the city but instead decamped and moved to Turtleback Ferry. I'm imagining that he will have been a rower on the ship and won't have seen much.
- Halfling Bard, history buff
---> He is learning Thassilonian but has never heard it spoken since he has had competence in the written language. I am thinking about him overhearing a conversation between Xanesha and some Karzoug agent and maybe dropping a fragmentary hint in Thassilonain about something called a Runewell. I'm imaging that he will have been an entertainer on the ship and may start with an instrument in his possession.
- Shoanti Cleric of Erastil, hunter, Animal and Community
---> I was thinking about giving him a new animal companion that he would have befriended on the boat (his old one being abandoned in a stable in Magnimar) - a bird of some kind that could give him information about local geography and help get the wet PCs back to civilization
- Human Rogue, pretty much evil - going for Shadowdancer
---> He will have been a card dealer on the ship and I am thinking that he will know about Kaven and Xanesha having a relationship of some kind but he won't know who Kaven is until they meet him later.
- Human Water bloodline Sorcerer, also mostly a blaster
---> He's pretty charismatic so he'll have a public job like bartender. Not sure what he will have learned - maybe he'll know something about some of the people in Turtleback Ferry?
- Human Wizard, blaster evoker
---> Maybe involved in the secret "Paradise Mark" tattooing process?
- Human Fighter, reckless sword and board type
---> A rower as well? Not sure? I might start him off with a tool of some kind that they could use to help them escape?
Any ideas for non-spoiler spoilers that I can use to get the PCs thinking about the bigger mystery without giving it away?
I have a PC who wants to play a polearm ranger. Being the old softie I am, I came up with this progression of feats, mechanically balanced against the damage output for a 2WF Ranger. Seems to me I heard about Grip Up (or something) somewhere else. As far as I know the others are my creations.
Available at 2nd - Polearm Mastery, Polearm Slam, Combat Reflexes, Grip Up
Available at 6th - Improved Polearm Mastery*, Polearm Defence*
Available at 10th - Greater Polearm Mastery*, Polearm Rend*
Polearm Mastery (Combat)
Many Polearms are equipped with multiple attack modes (back spikes, hammers, hooks, pikes etc., staff heads for bludgeoning), you are fully trained in these attack modes.
Prerequisites: Str: 13, Dex: 13
Benefit: When making a full-attack action with a Glaive, Guisarme, Halberd, Ranseur, Spear, Shortspear, Trident or Longspear, you can make a secondary Bludgeoning attack for 1d6 (x2) damage with no strength modifier** to damage rolls. All of your attack rolls take a -2 penalty when using polearm mastery.
Polearm Slam (Combat)
Your secondary polearm attack strikes with greater power
Prerequisites: Str: 13, Dex: 13, Polearm Mastery
Benefit: Add half of your Strength bonus to damage rolls made with your secondary attack.***
Normal: You normally don’t add your Strength modifier to secondary polearm attacks
Grip Up (Combat)
You can change your grip on plearms with reach to threaten an adjacent foe
Prerequisites: BAB +1
Benefit: At the beginning of your turn, you can change your polearm grip to threaten adjacent squares instead of those at reach. This is awkward so you take a -2 to attacks until the beginning of your next turn.****
Normal: You normally can’t threaten adjacent foes with a reach polearm.
* Improved and Greater Mastery are as Improved Two Weapon Fighting (2WF) and Greater 2WF respectively; Polearm Defence is as Two Weapon Defence; Polearm Rend is as Two Weapon Rend
** This is meant to be balanced with the 2WF feats. Normal 2WF strength bonuses are full bonus for the Primary attack and half for Off-Hand. If this secondary attack had a strength modifier (even ½), you would be getting 2x your strength modifier, an advantage over the 2WF damage potential. The reason that the critical threat is x2 and not x3 or 19-20x2 is because the primary weapon for the big polearms average +0.5 or +1 damage (2d4 or 1d10) when compared to a normal martial weapon (1d8). I am balancing that extra damage against the critical damage potential.
*** Two Weapon Slam increases the off-hand damage from ½ to full strength bonus, an increase of ½, so does this feat.
**** I’m waffling on this one. I balanced it against the Lunge feat, which is kinda the same thing in reverse that incurs a -2 AC penalty rather than an attack penalty. It makes sense as written but I’m not sure it’s a good feat.
For some reason, I wanted to remake Shalelu as a wilderness Archer rather than as a ranger or ranger/hybrid. She keeps most of her wilderness-fu and does a pile more damage with her bow at all ranges. This is what I came up with:
Shalelu Andesona Cr4
Female elf fighter 5
CG Medium Humanoid
Init +3; Senses Low-light Vision; Perception +5
AC 19, Flat Footed 15 (+6 armour, +3 Dex)
HP 47 (5d10+20+5)
Fort +6, Ref +4, Will +1; +2 vs. Enchantment, Immune to sleep, +1 vs. Fear
Speed 30 (including in medium armour)
BAB: +5, CMB: +7, CMD: 20
Melee: mwk long sword +8 (d8+2/19-20)
Ranged +1 composite +2 longbow +11 (1d8+6/x3) or +9/+9 (1d8+6/x3)
Str 14, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 7 (15 Point Build, +1 Dex at 4th)
Feats: Weapon Focus (bow), Weapon Specialisation (bow), Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Precise Shot, Able Hunter (+2 to Stealth and Survival)
Skills: Climb +5, Swim +5, Perception +7, Survival +8, Stealth +9, Knowledge (local) +2; (-1 Armour Check Penalty not included)
Languages: Common, Elven, Goblin
SQ: Armour Training 1, Weapon Training 1 (Bows), Full Speed in Medium Armour, Bravery +1
Gear: Wand of CLW (CL3, 34 ch); +1 Composite longbow (+2 Str) with 60 Arrows; MW long sword; Mithril Chainmail; 125 gp
So, my blending-in but definitely CE Chelish social-rogue noticed the dynamic at Fatman's Feedbag and has deduced that Jubrayl was the guy in charge and through some info gathering has learned that he probably runs the local Sczarni gang. Anyway, he sent me this in response to a question about what to do with a couple of days off:
"Wyndham will spend those days trying to set up a private meeting with Jubrayl (of the Sczarni).
If he can get a private meeting, W wants to find out what he would need to do to get involved with them. He also wants to know what it would take to have a non-Varisian given a bruising (but nothing disabling or lethal). Preferably by some folks from out of town, and on a night where W can be seen far from the action."
I expect that the target of the bruising is none other than the doomed Banny Harker (My PCs are just about to cross the bridge into Thistletop, so Banny won't be murdered for a couple weeks yet).
The player of the character who is to become Aldern Foxglove's obsession won't be able to make it for next session, which will include the Boar Hunt and is thus a real drag. The PC is a rich kid sorceror from Sandpoint (the youngest of the Valdemar children).
I am thinking about cooking up a short solo side-quest for this player involving a trip to Magnimar, maybe while Aldern on his way to meet with the Brothers of Seven (where he gets his ultimatum to return to the manor and get the fungus stuff). I guess I am looking for ideas about a scene or two that would further the story without blowing the whodunnit in Skinsaw.
Ideas so far:
- Some kind of trouble on the way. I've put feelers out for some banditry on the Lost Coast Road already but this is pretty stereotypical stuff and not my first choice
- Some kind of trouble in town - maybe Foxglove is looking into one last shady deal to get himself above water and is looking for help from the PC.
- I could extract one of the scenes from the first Second Darkness adventure:
SD spoiler:
Maybe Aldern and the PC enter the Cheat the Devil and Steal his Gold contest at the beginning of that adventure and get caught up in the heist.
My criteria:
1) Not too too deadly - L1 sorceror plus Foxglove as an aristocrat only plus body guard or two.
2) Is has some XP for the character
3) It ends up with Aldern in worse shape than when it started so he can get a bit pissy and send the PC away
4) It doesn't spoil Skinsaw but it would be nice if they were loosely connected and be the kind of thing the PC could figure out when he returns to Aldern's manorhouse in a couple months.
5) It isn't too combat heavy as I'd like to run it by email
The rest of my Players will be involved in some side-quest stuff of their own and may get to the end of the Glassworks while the PC is away - 4 or 5 days.
Hi everyone. I have just started a new campaign taking elements from the Kingmaker campaign and putting them into the Rise of the Runelords storyline. My discussion and campaign log thread is linked below. There are spoilers for both campaigns in there.
As my players put the finishing touches on their characters, I ran a pre-festival set of encounters for those who were ready, using ideas from this board. Several of the characters (Jarek, Abinscole, Jal and Amonon I think) took a job moving crates and tables the day before the festival. Part of the rewards from the job included reduced rates at the Rusty Dragon, where they went for the evening. There, they met a bunch of the locals who were also in attendance and took some time looking at the various wanted posters that were posted next to the bar.
The posters included some related to banditry along the Lost Coast Road to magnimar, comitted by an unknown group - the Stag Lord's band, one a simple bounty and one offering to pay for guard duty. One poster was looking for a pint of troll's blood, one was a bounty out on Orik Vancaskerkin for a petty theft and one was an offer from Davrien Hask of goblin squash stables of a reward if someone killed Tuskgutter, a nasty boar from Tickwood. These piqued the characters' interests but the festivities were just starting.
Several of the characters took part in the Rusty Strongman competition (an arm-wrestling contest), which Jarek won. After that, they heard that things were interesting over at the Hagfish so they went there to see that with all the festival eve excitement, people had decided to try drinking from Norah's tank. The characters all wussed out, except for Wyndham who took a 10gp offer to try a drink, which he took and intentionally spat out, pocketing the gold.
Wyndham decided he had a fun night and wanted to see if he could talk up one of the local ladies, bumping into no one less than Shayliss Vinder. They flirted and whatnot for the rest of the night until Shayliss said she had to leave, saying she hoped to see him again.
The next morning, the party went to the speeches opening up the Swallowtail festival and then spent the day participating in many of the various contests and games that so many of the DMs here have run to great enjoyment. When the sun began to set, the crowd was ushered back to Cathedral Square where the final dedication was to take place.
That dedication was interrupted by goblins that came out of barrels, wagons and down the street. While the crowd scattered (and the Priest and Town Sheriff went in a different direction after a group of goblins), the party engaged a large group of goblin warriors that Abinscole badly crippled with a Sleep spell. They barely caught their breath before they were attacked by a second, more organized group led by a warchanter and a commando who lit a pair of dangerous fires. The second battle was scattered and chaotic and ended up with the commando fleeing north towards the strangely undefended north gate. A chase ensued but the persuers were not quick (or small) enough to keep up with the commando as he fled into a tightly-packed thicket of trees. The persuers led by Jal tracked the goblin northeast and then south towards Devil's Platter for a short time before deciding to continue in the morning.
They returned to the square and joined the group that had been busy putting out fires when they heard a scream from down one of the streets. A goblin commando had killed a nobleman's dog and were closing around him. Arcanen bravely rushed in close and blasted one of the warriors with his cold ray, getting their attention. The goblins counterattacked but were quickly overpowered once the rest of the heroes got on the scene.
The nobleman identified himself as Aldern Foxglove and profusely thanked the heroes, suggesting that they meet him at the White Deer Inn in the morning so that he could properly reward him.
That night, the group asked around about what had happened while Wyndham skulked around, finding that (as he knew it would be), a grave had been dug up in the cemetary.
The next morning, the group split into several units, the largest group (Jal, Amonon, Arcanen and Richard) went to meet with Sheriff Belor, who asked them to stay in town for a few days and with whom they discussed the previous evening's events, including the grave robbing and the open north gate. They then went to meet Aldern Foxglove, who suggested that they go hunting the next morning for Tuskgutter (his treat). Aldern was obviously enchanted with anything Arcanen had to say, almost to the point where Arcanen felt that Aldern might be interested in more than friendship (yes that meant homosexual romance, which I'm sure Arcanen is not interested in). The group accepted the offer and decided to go back to the goblin commando's trail.
Wyndham went looking for Shayliss and found her to be quite receptive this time, going off to her parent's basement. Ven Vinder came down the stairs but Wyndham heard him and was quick enough to react, ducking into a corner to hide while Ven came upon Shayliss in a half-dressed state. She said that she was changing because of a spill, a somewhat improbable excuse that Ven was more than happy to accept. Wyndham was forced to wait several hours for Ven to leave the store. Shayliss and he then made a date for her to meet him at the Rusty Dragon that evening to finish what they had started.
Abinscole spent the morning chatting with Bethana Corwin (the halfling serving girl and maid from the Rusty Dragon) and found her to be quite pleasant once you got past her shyness. They talked a bunch about the town and the people in it when the conversation strayed to Abinscole's interest in the local monument, the Old Light. Bethana suggested that Abinscole go talk to Brodert Quink, which he did, getting an earfull about the monument and his theory that it was a Thassilonian fire-throwing war machine of some kind. Abinscole was quite interested in this and pressed Brodert on what he knew about Thassilonian history and culture. Brodert gave him a primer on the early history and they struck a quid-pro-quo deal where Abonscole would return with rubbings and whatnot for Brodert to study and Brodert would teach him more over time.
Jarek was sick from working in the rain the day before and stayed in bed (his player retired early).
Meanwhile, the larger group successfully followed the goblin's trail around up on to the Devil's Platter, where it terminated at a rocky cave entrance. They pressed into the cave and were immediately stopped by the goblin commando who wanted to parlay.
(This storyline is the first lifted fully from the Kingmaker AP. in this version the Birdcruncher Goblins take the place of the Kobold tribe while the Licktoad's take the place of the Mites. I may stat out goblins for the various baddies from Kingmaker or I may just describe them as goblins while using the attack stats of the Mites and Kobolds, we'll see.)
The group decided to listen to the commando, who explained that they were forced by the Licktoads into the raid because the Licktoads had managed to steal a very powerful statue that was sacred. Intrigued, the party decided to follow the commando further into the goblin warren and meet the "Big Chief" (i.e. the polymorphed gnome shaman behind all the unpleasantness), who said that they didn't want to do what the Longshanks asked and that if they could only get their holy statue back, they would go back to hunting birds and scavenging garbage from the sea shore. The PCs extracted some promises from the Shaman about never coming to town or bothering the local farmers and then pledged to see what they could do about getting their statue back. With that, the group returned to Sandpoint, joined up as a group and exchanged stories before retiring for the night, planning to go on the boar hunt the next day and then see about going after the Licktoads after that.
I had a thought that Kingmaker could run pretty well with minimal modification as an evil campaign where the PCs are Hobgoblins and Orcs and whatnot.
My idea is to change the original charter from the Swordlords of Rostov to originating from a bordering hobgoblin empire, specifically offering the PCs the Barony if they can prove themselves worthy by dominating the area of the original charter and solving the bandit problem there. Similar charters would have been offered to similar neighbouring groups per the original path.
The hangup as always is how to balance the PC races while allowing for a truly monstrous campaign and I think I have an idea using a couple of different methods. The first is to get rid of monster HD and figure out what the base racial abilities are, which I have done for a couple of races. The second balancing method allows for the different races to use different pathfinder advancement tracks.
The race list is:
- Bugbear (no monster HD, slow advancement)
- Worg (no monster HD, medium advancement, limitations in regards to body slots for magic items etc. due to being a quadruped with no hands)
- Hobgoblin (medium advancement)
- Orc (medium advancement) + Half-Orc if someone wanted
- Goblin (fast advancement)
- Kobold (with the kobold sub-race variant rule to beef them up a bit)
PC Race Details:
Bugbear (Slow advancement track – No humanoid HD to start, advance as class)
Str+4 Con+2 Wis+2
Size: Medium
Speed: 30
Armour: Bugbears have a +3 natural armour bonus
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., scent (*)
Skill Racial Modifiers: +4 Intimidate, +4 Stealth
SQ: Stalker(Ex) Perception and Stealth are always class skills for bugbears. Biggun(Ex) Average bugbears stand 7 feet tall and weigh 400 pounds. They can wield inappropriately sized weapons that are one step too large (Large two-handed weapons, Huge one-handed Weapons or Gargantuan Light weapons) applying the standard -4 penalty to hit for being 2 sizes too small.
Languages: Common, Goblin
Worg (Medium advancement track – No magical beast HD to start, advance as class)
Str+4 Dex+4 Con+2 Int-2 Wis+2
Size: Medium (quadrupedal - can act as a mount for a small creature)
Speed: 40
Armour: Worgs have a +2 natural armour bonus
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent (*)
Skill Racial Modifiers: +2 Perception, +2 Stealth, +2 Survival
SQ: Bite attack (d6+1) + Trip(Ex)
Languages: Common, Goblin
Limitations: Can only use items in Armour (as barding), Belt, Eyes, Neck, Ring (worn as earrings) and Wrist body slots; cannot use skills requiring fine motor control such as Craft, Disable Device or Sleight of Hand; can only take levels in Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Fighter, Ranger or Rogue.
Hobgoblin (Medium advancement track)
Dex+2, Con+2
Size: Medium
Speed: 30
Senses: darkvision 60 ft.
Skills: +4 stealth
Languages: Common, Goblin
Orc (Medium advancement track)
Str+4, Int-2, Wis-2, Cha-2
Size: Medium
Speed: 30
Senses: darkvision 60 ft.; Light Sensitivity
SQ: Ferocity(Ex) An orc remains conscious and can continue fighting even if its hit point total is below 0. It is still staggered and loses 1 hit point each round. A creature with ferocity still dies when its hit point total reaches a negative amount equal to its Constitution score. Weapon Familiarity (Ex): Always proficient with Greataxes and Falchions and treat weapons with the word “orc” in its name as a martial weapon.
Languages: Common, Goblin
Half-Orc (Medium advancement track) – Per PHB
Goblin (Fast advancement track)
Str-2 Dex+4 Cha-2
Size: Small
Speed: 30
Senses: darkvision 60 ft.
Skills: +4 Ride, +4 stealth
Languages: Goblin
Limitations: Cannot advance as a wizard because of ancient taboos against writing
Kobold (Fast advancement track)
Str-4, Dex+2, Con-2
Size: Small
Speed: 30
Armour: Kobolds have a +1 natural armour bonus
Senses: darkvision 60 ft.; Light Sensitivity
Skills: +2 Craft (trapmaking), +2 Perception, +2 Profession(miner).
SQ: Crafty - Craft (trapmaking) and Stealth are always class skills for Kobolds.
Languages: Draconic
Kobold Variants (pick one):
• Black: Widely dispersed in forests, swamps, and underground, the black-scaled kobolds are better swimmers than their brethren and gain a +4 racial bonus on Swim checks.
• Blue: The blue variant of kobolds appears most often within tribes dominated by other scale colors. They are said to be among the best diabolists and schemers, and gain a +1 inherent bonus to their Wisdom. Many are powerful clerics of Asmodeus.
• Green: These are the standard forest kobolds, well camouflaged in leafy undergrowth. They gain an additional +4 racial bonus on Stealth checks.
• Red: These kobolds are pyromaniacs and make extensive use of fire, especially the alchemical and magical kinds. These kobolds gain a +2 bonus to the DC of any spell they cast with the fire subtype and a +2 bonus on saves made against fear effects. Most are a bit more arrogant than average kobolds.
• White: Like the blues, white-scaled kobolds are a little less frequent than other types. They are often powerful sorcerers, gaining a +1 bonus to the DC of any spell they cast with the cold subtype and a +1 inherent bonus to their Charisma.
It would play out differently than most good groups in who they would ally with and who they might treat as enemies. By being bound by a charter with the goal of gaining control of a kingdom, an evil party would have some real built-in reasons to work together - heck, they could decide who is to be King in nonlethal single combat or something; if opinions changed about who is strongest, there's nothing to stop the group from fighting to be the next leader.
What do you think about using advancement tracks to balance out-of-balance evil races? What do you think the problems would be?
I am thinking about adding elements from the Kingmaker adventure path to my Rise of the Runelords campaign after the PCs liberate Fort Rannick. Specifically, I intend one of the PCs to become Baron Rannick, ruling over a 5-hex domain near Turtleback ferry and leaving it up to them what to do with what I am naming the county of Rannickshire. If they run with it, I would expand the timeline between the third and fourth modules and would likely relocate the Sandpoint attack to whatever city the PCs build.
To this end, I superimposed a 12 mile hex grid on the Varisia (and Turtleback ferry and Sandpoint Hinterlands) map and added in my interpretation of the holdings of the various political entities out there:
I was surprised by how large a hex is - essentially the first two RotR modules take place in about half a hex.
I guess I'm most interested in feedback about what I've done, about the political boundaries as I have defined them and in what people think about mashing these different themes together.
I am thinking about adding elements from the Kingmaker adventure path to my Rise of the Runelords campaign after the PCs liberate Fort Rannick. Specifically, I intend one of the PCs to become Baron Rannick, ruling over a 5-hex domain near Turtleback ferry and leaving it up to them what to do with what I am naming the county of Rannickshire. If they run with it, I would expand the timeline between HMM and FotSG and likely relocate the Sandpoint attack to whatever city the PCs build.
To this end, I superimposed a 12 mile hex grid on the Varisia (and Turtleback ferry and Sandpoint Hinterlands) map and added in my interpretation of the holdings of the various political entities out there:
I was surprised by how large a hex is - essentially the first two Runelords modules take place in about half a hex.
I guess I'm most interested in feedback about what I've done, about the political boundaries as I have defined them and in what people think about mashing these different themes together.
I haven't started DMing this path yet but I plan to. I have been thinking about how I would like to run the final clocktower encounter as written and not pull any punches and I think I have a way to get things back on track in the event of a TPK.
I am thinking that one thing that Xanesha could do is capture and enslave the PCs (via charm monster), and knowing that the jig is up in Magnimar, move her operation to Turtleback Ferry where she forces them to live and work aboard the Paradise barge for a number of weeks/months. (This means that there is no Leucretia in this scenario.)
Anyway, this sets up a number of pretty fun scenes where one of the other slaves wakes from the charm and precipitates the sinking of the barge by sabotage from within their shared cell in the lower part of the ship. The PCs then wake from their charms to escape to the surface by whatever means they have at their disposal, Xanesha flees to Hook Mountain and facilitates the attack on the Keep and in the mean time, the PCs make wooden spears and holy symbols and transcribe to makeshift spellbooks to re-prepare spells left in memory, then return low-tech style to the sunken barge and rescue most of their captured gear (in a strongbox that they know about) and whatever treasure and XP would be needed to move them along to where they need to be.
This would have an added bonus of making Xanesha an extra hated enemy and finding her in the Keep (and maybe in Hook Mountain later should she escape) all the more rewarding and it connects the two stories in a really straightforward way without the need to have the Mayor of Magnimar send them on an errand.
What do you think? Do you see any flaws? If you were a PC, would you feel railroaded or ripped off?
