NPC Dave's page
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My players and I have finally gotten started with this adventure in earnest, so as I go I will be publishing any errors or fixes I spot in the 3.5 D&D ruleset and stat blocks. It does look like Wolfgang Baur was more careful error checking his stat blocks than the previous authors, so I expect less posts than my threads on the previous adventures.
First up is the Stygian Linnorms (p84-85) and the Arcanoloths (p46-47) stat blocks. Now if you read them each individually, they each look completely correct. But take a look at the HD and hit points for those two entries:
Stygian Linnorm hp 243 (18 HD)
Arcanaloth hp 243 (18 HD)
They are identical! Should they be identical? Most likely not. I think what happened is Wolfgang built the Stygian Linnorm encounter first, finished the stat block, and then copied and pasted that stat block when he started working on the Arcanaloths... and forgot to update the hp/HD entry.
The Stygian Linnorms are presumably the correct one, and the arcanaloths are supposed to be upgraded to be more powerful than their 3.0 Monster Manual II entry, but most likely not 18HD and certainly not the exact same hit points as the linnorms. I don't know what the official fix would be since this Dungeon issue was the only official update arcanaloths got for 3.5 D&D, so you can leave them with 18 HD since it won't hurt to give them the extra hit points. If you do give them 18 HD than their hit points should be a little lower than the linnorms since the linnorms have 12-sided hit dice and Con 24 compared to the arcanaloths having 8-sided hit dice and Con 28.
For 3.0 arcanaloths had 12 HD. Maybe split the difference and give them 15 HD?
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As I did with the four prior adventures, I will be adding some corrections and possibly a trap or two to Wells of Darkness.
First up is the guecubu Sidith-Yeus. The sleep touch supernatural ability was accidentally left out. So here is the missing text.
Sleep Touch (Su): A creature touched by a guecubu in its natural form must make a successful DC 25 Will save or immediately fall into a deep sleep for 1 hour. A sleeping creature is helpless. Slapping or wounding the sleeping creature awakens it, but normal noise does not. Waking a creature is a standard action. This is a mind-affecting sleep effect. The save DC is Charisma-based and includes the +2 bonus granted by the guecubu's Ability Focus feat.
I made the Will Save DC 25 instead of DC 27 like the other abilities, because the guecubu baseline before any ability focus feats is Haunting DC 15, Possession DC 17 and Sleep Touch DC 13. If we assume this baseline, then accounting for his eight point increase in Charisma and the addition of Ability Focus(possession), the Will Saves for him would be Haunting DC 19, Possession DC 23, and Sleep Touch 19.
However, Haunting is listed as a DC 27 Will save, and Possession is listed as a DC 27 Will save. I assume that the Haunting listing is incorrect and that the extra +4 increase to Possession is the correct extra bonus to make the guecubu competitive against 18th level characters. That would make Haunting and Sleep Touch a DC 23 Will save and Possession remains a DC 27 Will save. If that isn't high enough you can leave Haunting and Possession as listed and the Sleep touch is a DC 25 Will save.
As far as tactics, if Sidith-yeus only waits five minutes to attack, I don't see him successfully possessing anyone because he has to put a PC to sleep before he can hope to possess, and the rest of the party will likely have someone seeing invisibility. You could either wait for him to attack when the PCs are camping and resting, or have a second guecubu distract the party with telekinesis attacks while Sidith-yeus tries to ambush a PC.
Lastly, while the DC Will save for telekinesis is not listed, it should be:
10 (baseline) + 5 (spell level) + 7 (Charisma bonus) + 2 (Ability focus feat) = DC 24 Will save.
As I did with the three prior adventures, I will be adding some corrections and possibly a trap or two to Into the Maw.
First up is actually an errata for the Savage Tiding article in Dragon Magazine #356...
p69 Demonhair Shirt
This magic item lets a character with the rage class feature swap out two daily uses of rage to be overcome with demonic fury that lists four benefits...
1) +6 profane bonus to Strength
2) +2 profane bonus to AC
3) +10 profane bonus to speed
4) Attacks are chaotic aligned
However, I believe 1) should instead be...
1) +6 profane bonus to Strength and Constitution
The reason I believe this correction is needed because of the following sentence:
"Once activated, the demonic fury lasts for a number of rounds equal to your improved Constitution bonus."
Talking about improved Constitution is copying from the rage class feature, but it makes sense that this demonic fury which is patterned after rage would improve both Strength and Constitution.
I am running a high level 3.5 campaign with a group of five players that are mid to high in terms of optimizing characters. One of them plays an arcane trickster whose optimization is geared toward traps much more than combat.
This worked fine up until about 15th level where we get to the point that 3.5 doesn't have many traps above CR 10. So I am creating this thread as an index of all the traps I can find that are CR 11 or higher for future reference.
Starting with a few from the Savage Tide campaign...
Dungeon Magazine #145
p72: Fusillade of Poisoned Spears : CR 11 (mechanical)
p80: Collapsing Path (into boiling water) : CR 12 (mechanical)
Dungeon Magazine #146
p71: Chain Energy Drain : CR 12 (magical)
p72: Iron Chest of Hathruman : CR 16 (magical)
Dungeon Magazine #150
p84: Breath of Dagon : CR 13 (magical)
I am only just starting this adventure so I may post more at a later date.
But this adventure carried no Affiliation Award side bar, and my PCs still need some assistance with building up their scores, so I went ahead and created the following.
Each of the following criterions grants an affiliation score modifier of +1.
Church of the Whirling Fury, The Dawn Council, Emerald Crest, and The Scarlet Brotherhood:
Destroy the Crimson Fleet pirate base and terminate Cold Captain Wyther with extreme prejudice
Emerald Crest:
Rescue the pirate captain Harliss Javell and recruit her into the Emerald Crest.
The Seekers:
Recover the Athrinoord Stone found in location H4 and donate it to a Seeker Chapterhouse.
Witchwardens:
Recover a serpent symbol and donate it to the Witchwardens in Sasserine for study.
Zelkarune’s Horns:
Capture the fiendish eye of the deep and return it to Sasserine alive for the arena, or slay the yuan-ti anathema and bring its corpse back to Sasserine as a trophy. Accomplishing both tasks nets PCs with this affiliation a +2 to their score.
Better late than never!
Page 64: As a maurezhi demon, Onailati has no spell-like ability or magic to teleport. If he cannot escape on foot, a skinwalker might escape to warn the temple of the PCs approach. You could give Onailati a one-use item to teleport or simply allow the PCs to make an initial surprise attack on the temple should they prevent any of the ambushers from escaping.
Page 68: “The two secret doors on the balconies are of stone”
This is incorrect. The secret door leading to Location 6 is, indeed, up at the balcony level. However, the secret door leading to Location 8 is not at the balcony level but is, instead, at base ground level with respect to Location 3. It is in the wall underneath the balcony.
Page 68: Chief Achcauhtli’s bashing light wooden shield has a base damage of d6, not d8. Thus, he does 1d6+3 hp of damage when striking with the shield. Also, with his Multiattack feat his natural weapons (two claws and a bite) are hitting at a -2 penalty. They are unaffected by his two-weapon fighting style since these natural attacks are the lion/rakasta skin part of the chieftain skinwalker rather than the human part of him. Thus, with a BAB of +17 and a Strength bonus of +5, his attacks with natural weapons should be 17+5-2 = +20, not the +19 which is listed.
Page 69: “Once four skinwalkers are slain, the survivors howl in rage - this din is enough to call the Chieftain, his ape animal companion and the second acolyte into the battle.”
Skinwalkers share an empathic communal consciousness while they are within sixty feet of each other as a supernatural ability (see page 84). Therefore, making any noise at all is unnecessary. From the very first round of combat, the chieftain and acolyte can begin prepping for the battle just in case by casting spells, and know exactly how many of their fellows have fallen as the battle progresses.
Page 77: The fiendish template applied to a kopru behemoth increases the creature’s CR by +2, not +1. So, the taboo temple kopru are CR 12.
In Dungeon Magazine #145, the main chamber at location 3 and surrounding environs are a bit confusing in matching up the text with the map.
Location 1 is at water level and the water level roughly corresponds to Level 2. Location 2 has the stairs which ascend and thus we get into the complex and enter the main chamber at location 3 which has the stairs and balconies to either side and an exit passage to the east along with two secret doors.
One secret door leads to location 6, which is the lookout position keeping an eye on the lake and location 2. The other secret door leads to location 8. My confusion is the following sentence in Location 3...
"The two secret doors on the balconies..."
I don't think the secret doors are actually at the balcony level. Location 8 is a room with a steep stairs in the nw corner which lead up to what I presume is the cubby hole where someone can sit and overlook Location 3 from the hollow face in the wall above the eastern passage. Putting the secret door at the balcony level means you wouldn't need a steep staircase presumably. Unless the eastern passage way opens at the balcony level of Location 3 instead of ground level at Location 3. But that doesn't seem right as the balconies seem to end rather than connect to the east passage.
Location 6 could be up higher at the balcony level, but seems to make sense to open at the ground floor of location 3.
Location 9 also implies that Location 10 is further below Location 8. "A flight of steps descends to...a makeshift wall."
That means that you walk out of location 3 and descend stairs...and Location 10 is 20 feet above Location 31 which is partially flooded, while Location 8 is 20 feet above Location 33 and room 33 is dry.
Am I correct?
I noticed that for location 13 in this adventure, you can't give the players the image on page 72.
Because it has the solution on it!
Helpful for the DM to visualize, terrible to print out and hand to the players.
My PCs will soon be starting City of Broken Idols, and as they are a party of six, some of whom are highly optimized, I was looking at beefing up their opposition.
If I give the average Olman skinwalker two levels of fighter, he picks up one general feat (at 9HD) along with the two fighter bonus feats. I then assign him the feats Power Attack and Improved Critical(macuahuitl) and for the general feat I assign him Leap Attack from Complete Adventurer.
So now he can make a charging leap and use power attack to do 2x the damage of a normal power attack. Since he has pounce, that also means he can do a full attack.
My question is...does the power attack hit penalty and damage bonus apply to the bite and claw attacks of the skinwalker in addition to the macuahuitl weapon the skinwalker carries? Or does the power attack only work for the macuahuitl?
My players are halfway through this adventure, and all are enjoying this dungeon crawl. As good as it is, I have made a few additions and fixed a few problems that have come up, and I offer them to anyone who might be interested.
The first item on my list are a couple of NPCs created for the negotiation with Emraag the Glutton, the dragon turtle of Gallivant Cove. The adventure notes that Emraag can be summoned if the PCs use a musical instrument made by the local natives called a sea skirl. The pipes can be played underwater and if it is played well (Skill : Perform(wind instruments), Emraag will be in a more agreeable mood.
Unless you happen to have a PC who picked up that skill, the players will either have to do without or recruit someone to fulfill the job. My PCs took a trip back to Sasserine with word of recall.
Justine Pike is a 5th level bard, skilled in playing the flute and other wind instruments. Combining her Charisma bonus and skill ranks, she has a total Perform(wind instruments) skill check of somewhere between +10 to +12. She is married to Horatio Pike, the second son of the Pike patriarch and ex-ruling family of the Champion District. The Pikes have fallen on hard times and were recently displaced by the Toregson family (see page 52 of Dungeon Magazine #139).
As a result, Justine is now supporting her husband playing in Sasserine taverns, while her husband hatches numerous schemes to earn a fortune that have yet to pan out. She is willing to travel to Farshore and play the sea skirl despite the inherent dangers involved, but her husband must accompany her and will set his sights on Farshore as the ideal location to regain his family's fortune. While she will practice the sea skirl on the Sea Wyvern's journey to the northern side of the isle, Horatio will pester the PCs with various ideas for money-making ventures once they return to the colony. Assuming the adventure is a success, the Pikes will return with the PCs to Farshore and attempt to invest their payment and open a new tavern in Farshore.
My campaign is about to start the Battle of Farshore, and I wanted to share how I handled a few things which I haven't seen covered in these forums or in Dungeon Magazine.
With respect to the Vanderboren/Meravanchi election, the text assumes that there will be enough campaigning going on between the PCs and Avner and enough successes and failures that one of the candidates will have 41 votes out of the undecided. In my case, however, Avner failed his first two rolls and gave up without winning anyone over to his uncle. (There is a 1/4 chance of that happening in your campaign.) The text assumes that Meravanchi wins if no one campaigns, but how does the undecided break down exactly? If you assume that Meravanchi has a 51% majority of the undecided than Avner just decided the election for Lavinia without the PCs doing anything.
I wanted the PCs efforts to matter so I came up with the following. 75%- d20% of the undecided who have not been swayed to either candidate will vote for Meravanchi in the election. Thus before Avner and the PCs do anything, the undecided will go 60 to Meravanchi and 20 to Lavinia as an upper bound and 44 to Meravanchi and 36 to Lavinia as a lower bound. Technically this makes Avner more effective if he just stays home but he doesn't know that.
In any case, between Avner's failures and my PCs successes there were 30 undecided swayed to Lavinia and 50 still undecided when the election took place. I let the PCs roll the d20 and they got a 15. So 60% of the 50 remaining undecided went to Manthalay and the final result was Lavinia 130 votes and Manthalay 110 votes. The players were a bit disturbed the election was that close because they considered the plan to press gang the Olmans crazy, but it is not like the upcoming US presidential election is any less crazy.
I will update this thread in another week with my efforts for making the Battle of Farshore a miniature wargame in the spirit of Battlesystem and mass combat. As both myself and one of the players are wargamers, we decided we will run this whole thing as a tabletop wargame interspersed with the major PC fights.
Nothing is really specified for how Forol is suspended from the chain. My PCs have just cleared out the rest of the shrine and found the second ape paw. It is possible one or more PCs will fly up to Forol to release him.
How have others of you handled it? Was Forol padlocked to the chain so an Open Locks roll was required? Or just tied by rope so a move-equivalent action was enough to get him free?
Or do most parties just jam the winch quickly so they can save him after the fight is done?
All of this is IMHO of course.
I don't know if this is true in other countries, but anytime I see or hear US media coverage of the Olympics, I am informed of which "place" the US is on "medal count". The US media treat the Olympics like a horse race, as if the point of the Olympics is taking home more medals than any other country. As if we somehow "win" should that happen.
It annoys me because that isn't the point of the Olympics, which is individual and team performance and competition. But it also annoys me because it falls apart on analysis. Even if the US ends up with more medals than Norway and the Netherlands...considering that the US has 60X more population than Norway and 18X more population than the Netherlands, exactly who is putting in the more impressive performance?
Remarkably, things have improved from the Cold War days, when the US and the Soviet Union treated the whole thing as a statement about who had the "superior" system. As if the amount of gold medals your "side" wins is somehow a metric for quality of life, infant mortality, personal freedoms, etc, etc, etc...
Drowned Ones automatically pick up this feat. Am I correct in assuming that Drowned Ones are not vulnerable to any blindness spell effect because as any undead they are immune to anything requiring Fortitude saves?
They presumably have this feat so they can fight in total darkness such as the deep ocean and reduce their miss chances against any types of concealment.
This is for 3.5 but it probably didn't change in Pathfinder.
Anyone have any suggestions?
If there isn't any than I will fall back on the Kreegs from Pathfinder #3 in Rise of the Runelords AP, but if anyone knows of any others from Dungeon Magazine's run up through #150 let me know.
Searching these threads, a few people in the past mentioned doing this. I was curious where people put Diamond Lake. I am thinking of just adapting the two Wind Duke cairn adventures from this AP, rather than the whole thing.
There are a few places where Diamond Lake fits, but if any of you who ran this before in Birthright happen to see this post, let me know what you did.
They aren't really identified except they are the chieftain's strongest hunters.
I am thinking about 25 Level 2 or 3 phanaton rangers. It isn't necessary to know their stats because of the VP system in the adventure, but I may expand the battle into a mass combat scenario.
As the players in my campaign prepare for departure in Sasserine, they meet some of the passengers and crew that will be traveling on the Sea Wyvern. They meet Aver, whom they previously met at the banquet at the end of There is No Honor, and right after that they are introduced to Master Forol.
Player 1 turns to Player 2, "You see what he is doing right?"
Player 2, "Professor and Mr. Howell?"
Player 1, "Exactly, this means he is going to try and shipwreck us."
Player 3's eyes light up, "I am going to go find Mary Ann."
Meanwhile I am thinking, "There is no convincing them otherwise, I will have to make the stowaway Ginger."
The Coles have their own Kickstarter, Hero-U : Rogue to Redemption.
For those who liked the Quest for Glory series, this adventure game will continue the traditions of QfG with a new character. Even contains the same world/setting used in the QfG series.
Anyone else want to relate their experience?
Normally I spend Free RPG Day making the rounds at the various game stores in Silicon Valley, but this year was different.
I woke up at a hotel near the Washington Dulles airport, and got ready for my flight to Knoxville, TN. I wasn't supposed to be traveling at all on Free RPG day, but I missed my connection the night before and United put me up overnight on their dime.
I arrived in Knoxville about 2:15 pm, and reached the only game store in the area that was participating...Organized Play. The place is a mixed game and comic store, staff was friendly and I picked up the DCC adventure module from Goodman Games, along with buying Paizo's Shackles sourcebook.
Later that evening I logged in to Noble Knight games website and bought some Privateer Press miniatures I intend to take to GenCon, along with Dawn of the Scarlet Sun, the NeoExodus pathfinder offering, WH40K Eleventh Hour, and the Harn map.
I would still like to take a look at the Orcus adventure and Slavers of the Sunken Garden, but not a bad haul this year.
I have been extremely busy lately so I haven't been paying attention to my Pathfinder subscription. I received #53 without trouble and received #55 in the mail over the weekend. But I never saw #54, the last issue of the Jade Regent adventure path. I knew it was a long time between issues but I assumed there had been a delay.
A.G. SCHNEIDERMAN ANNOUNCES MAJOR LAWSUIT AGAINST NATION’S LARGEST BANKS FOR DECEPTIVE & FRAUDULENT USE OF ELECTRONIC MORTGAGE REGISTRY
Complaint Charges Use Of MERS By Bank Of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, And Wells Fargo Resulted In Fraudulent Foreclosure Filings
I have posted a lot on this in the past, ever since TARP. In summary, the banks basically committed fraud in all 50 states, and have been trying to get the Obama administration to waive all criminal and civil liability by paying a fine. The Obama administration has been working very hard for the banks lobbying all 50 attorney generals to give them a sweet heart deal, paying a fine of $20 or $25 billion the last I heard.
Knowing the banks, if they are willing to pony up $25 billion, that means, at minimum, they know they are liable for $250 billion worth of fraud, and probably a lot more.
It is nice to see that although we have two Bank parties in this country(the first the Democratic party, the second the Republican party), the crimes are so great that it was impossible to herd 50 attorney generals to all go along with a wrist slap. Here is hoping a few more break ranks and start prosecuting these criminals.
Unfortunately, this means that the Song of Ice and Fire series is just going to progressively decline.
Michael Moorcock [Born 1939]: Definitive series Elric 1965-1979, Nebula Award Behold the Man, 1967. Prime writing years Age 26-40.
Orson Scott Card [Born 1951]: Definitive series Ender 1985 - Ongoing [but can you name a book after Xenocide, 1991?], Nebula Award Ender’s Game, 1985. Prime writing years Age 33-40.
Stephen King [Born 1947]: Definitive series [Fantasy] Gunslinger 1982-Ongoing, Bram Stoker Award Misery 1987. Prime writing years Age 30-50 [ending with The Green Mile].
Piers Anthony [Born 1934]: Definitive series Xanth 1977-Ongoing [I dare you to name all 36 current volumes!], Award Nebula Nomination A Spell for Chameleon, 1978. Prime writing years Age 32-52.
J.R.R. Tolkien [Born 1892]: Definitive series Lord of the Rings 1940+ [written], Published 1954, Award International Fantasy Award 1957. Prime writing years Age 40-57.
Arthur C. Clarke [Born 1917]: Definitive series Odyssey 1968. Hugo Award 1956 ‘The Star’, Prime writing years Age 40-55.
Robert Jordan [Born 1948]: Definitive series Wheel of Time 1990-Ongoing [Jordan died in 2007 at age 58], Locus Award Nominee Lord of Chaos, 1995, Prime writing years 40-50 [before the wheels came off Wheel of Time].
Isaac Asimov [Born 1920]: Definitive series Foundation 1942, Award Nebula The Gods Themselves, 1972, Prime writing years Age 22-65.
David Eddings [Born 1931]: Definitive series Belgariad 1982-1984, Locus Poll Best Fantasy Novel Nominee Pawn of Prophecy, 1983, Prime writing years Age 50-60 [in which he wrote both the Belgariad and the Mallorean]
Sue Grafton [Born 1940]: Definitive series ‘is for’ [A is for Alibi] 1982-Ongoing, Anthony Award ‘B’ is for Burglar 1985, Prime writing years 42-55 [ending sometime around ‘M’ is for Malice]
Anne McCaffrey [Born 1926] Definitive series Pern 1968-2001 [before she started co-authoring the series], Hugo Award Weyr Search, 1968, Prime writing years Age 42-65 [ending around All the Weyrs of Pern].
As the author points out, this also applies to everyone, not just authors, and can help explain the Star Wars prequels...although to be fair there was at least one writer who I can't recall that helped Lucas write the script for the original trilogy.
Basically, if you want to write something, don't wait until you are retired from your day job.
I noticed the art showing the battle between the PCs and Diamondback with her stiltwalkers has these guys using flaming daggers. Did anyone go with that and let those rogues hurl daggers which deal a point or two of fire damage along with the standard damage?
I am wrapping up There is No Honor and planning the start of Bullywug Gambit.
I dug into the rules of Affiliations in PHB2, and I did note that for multiple affiliations a PC gets a -10 score on any second affiliations they join. So of the six listed for Sasserine, this implies you can really only belong to one at the start, rather than multiple.
However, it does note that for Witchwardens, you get a +2 to that Affiliation if you are a Dawn Council member. On top of that, belonging to the Dawn Council really just means being a citizen of Sasserine.
Did anyone play it to ignore the -10 specifically for Dawn Council? In other words PCs could start in one other affiliation plus qualify for Dawn Council?
Secondly, I note that for Dawn Council one of its powers is Holiday, and that means citizens of Sasserine have a +1 morale bonus for attacks, saves and skill checks during the festival. So the PCs will get this benefit during their siege of the Vanderboren manor. Not unbalancing I would assume.
Fascinating the government admits it
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The message all these institutions are sending is the same: banks must follow the law -- and those that haven't should immediately fix what is wrong.
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Which is that if a banker breaks the law, he or she doesn't get prosecuted, he or she just has to "fix what is wrong".
I suspected since TARP was first suggested that bankers in general are granted government immunity from all the crimes they commit, but it is nice to get official confirmation.
NPC Dave wrote: Jason, pointing out someone is acting like a small child, is not actually calling them a small child. It is a description of their behavior, an accurate description in my case. It is not name calling.
Just an FYI.
"I didn't shoot the man. My gun did. I just happened to be holding it at the time. I don't see why this is so hard for you to understand."
Perfect.
This is, of course, unsustainable. This is why the economy is not recovering, and why so many people remain out of work. Too much productive capacity is being funneled into an unproductive government sector and debt payments. Interest rates will remain low for only so long, once they shoot up, the government will be trapped.
It is time.
I have officially switched rulesets from Rules Cyclopedia to D&D3.5...the reason being to run Savage Tide.
First thing is making sure the party has characters that are suitable for the campaign long term. Any feedback on whether what they have so far will work?
1 Lawful Neutral human paladin (Heldannic Knight that smites chaos rather than evil along with a few other mods)
1 elf who will maximize efficiency of rogue and mage levels to become an arcane trickster
1 elf ranger who plans specialize in archery including the prestige class Order of the Bow
1 elf warlock
1 gnome cleric of Bozdogan, using the Wavecrest gnome abilities from Stormwrack(the racial attack and damage bonus will work on kopru rather than sahaughin), having domains Magic and Trickery
This is campaign is begin run on the southern continent of Mystara, for those who aren't familiar with some of the names.
My first concern is that there is only one PC designed to melee, unless the gnome cleric can do the job. Looking at warlock abilities, should I allow his invocations to count as appropriate arcane spell levels should he join the Witchwardens for the purposes of affiliation bonuses? I am restricting some of those invocations...see invisibility at 1st Level all day? Seriously?
I know I need to compensate for spellbooks for the arcane trickster...I do plan to slow down level progression to add a few more adventures, with the first one being Mad God's Key.
Any feedback is appreciated.
I must have one, complete with gigantic sword, as shown on the cover of PF #6.
Preferably with the runes etched in the arms and body, but I can paint that myself if necessary.
Make it big enough to terrify not just roleplayers, but wargaming enthusiasts.
Thank you for reading this request.
I was going through Tomb of Abysthor and I recall the gnoll village mentioned got detailed in Bard's Gate, but it also mentions Wrath of Orcus.
My understanding is this never got published in print or pdf, is that correct?
Anyone know if it might be done in 4E?
I am still wavering on my choice of what to transfer my subscription dollars to, either Pathfinder or back issues. Since Gamemaster modules are now being offered as a subscription, and I liked Hollow's Last Hope, is there any chance of an additional option being added to switch to the Gamemaster module series?
Other than the stat blocks in the Savage Tide adventure path Dungeon magazines, have the behemoths been fully described anywhere? The entries in Dungeon refer to the Monster Manual II, but that contains only the main kopru entry. Am I missing something?
I only recently became aware of the massive post rate increases the USPS is planning for small periodicals in July. While I don't expect Paizo to speculate on what might have happened, since the USPS is too incompetent to yet be able to reliably calculate how much the new rates will be for small publishers, it may be the Digital Initiative came just in time. Many small periodicals may have to go online only this year.
Hopefully Pathfinder with its book format will be unaffected by these changes. Or at least be able to ship some cheap option like media mail.
If you are not aware of what I am talking about, you can read more here:
http://fe15.news.re3.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20070516/cm_huffpost/048616
http://reclaimthemedia.org/communications_rights/postalhike
But basically the short of it is, the USPS proposes raising all periodicals shipping rates by 11%. Time-Warner jumps in and manages to bribe/bully/lobby the USPS to get price breaks for itself, and massive increases on small publishers who compete against them by catering to smaller market interests. Some magazines might see their postal costs rise by 30%. Time-Warner was having trouble competing with its news periodicals in current day markets, so it figured out how to solve the problem.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0514/p13s01-wmgn.html
Just got the latest issue, and finished perusing the letters section.
In the entry "Time is on My Side", the writer expresses concern about the general issue in D&D 3.5 campaigns of level progression, namely, the tendency of a campaign that takes place over the course of a year(in game or campaign time) to see characters go from level 1 flunkies to level 20 superpowers. As an example, this is the default expectations in the adventure paths of Dungeon magazine.
This is something I also dislike, although I accept what is mentioned elsewhere in the same letters column, namely that market research shows the average campaign(real time) lasts six months or so, at least a solid majority no longer than a year, and players expect to be able to cycle through much of a PCs potential abilities in that time frame, either finishing at mid-level or high level.
If this issue doesn't bother you at all, than you can probably skip the rest of this post.
Of course real time is not campaign time, and there is no reason a campaign has to only last a year in campaign time. One way to extend it is to simply extend the amount of downtime between adventures, which is what the writer suggests.
The magazine response does make a fair point that Savage Tide will take longer in campaign time to complete than previous adventure paths, with longer downtimes between adventures. It also says, "I don't think it's at all unbelievable to have an entire campaign go from 1st to 20th level in the span of a single game year(or less)". This is a fair opinion, and maybe it is even the majority opinion, with the letter writer and myself being in the minority.
But then the response goes off the mark(IMO) in the next two points. The first is that "downtime is boring." Well yes, this is true, but the writer was not suggesting that downtime should actually be played out on the tabletop, the point about downtime was that it can be any length of time, and a longer downtime can be handled offline just as easily as a short downtime. What the writer liked about longer downtime is that the PC can go through greater changes based on the background of what is happening during that downtime.
The second point is that in Lord of the Rings, you have some low level characters who can barely handle themselves in a fight who, over the course of about a year, go on to fight witch kings, battle ancient spiders, and save the world. Again I say this point does not address the complaint of the writer. The writer did not say that an epic campaign should take longer than a campaign year, or that you can't save the world in one year, the complaint was going from level 1 to level 20 in a year stretched credibility/suspension-of-disbelief in a way he did not like.
With that in mind, looking at Lord of the Rings once again, we see that the hobbits in the story do not go through such a progression, and if they had, the story would be quite different. Yes, Merry did fight the witch king and helped defeat it, but I don't think anyone would seriously argue he could have taken the witch king in a straight up fight. When I read Sam driving off Shelob I am not reading about a skilled warrior defeating the beast through strength of arms, but instead victory is achieved through surprise, a fair bit of luck, and an enemy that is not used to having its prey fight back. The world is saved by destroying the BBEG through indirect means, not with the hobbits carving a path through Mordor and putting the smack down on Sauron.
Some advancement certainly does happen, and that would be expected, but nothing as dramatic as a comparison between a level 1 and level 20 character would suggest.
So my point in bringing this all up is to provide some solutions that I have for this issue. Writing your own campaigns with a timeline you can be comfortable with is ideal, but we all don't have the luxury of that much free time, which is why we buy Dungeon Magazine.
My suggestions:
1) Rewrite just enough to increase the downtime between adventures, if possible.
2) Come up with a story reason for why the PCs are progressing so quickly, while most if not all NPCs around them are not. That they are prodigies or have a special destiny is one solution, but can get old if recycled. The best are unique occurences which can be fit into the story. For example, the hobbits drinking the ent potions in Lord of the Rings makes them stronger and taller. Another example from a series of computer games was a mid-level character being granted a wish from a djinni, and that wish is used to push the character beyond normal human limits in terms of skill and abilities.
3) Forget starting the adventure path at level 1. Run the players through some other adventures, and then start the PCs in the beginning of the adventure path at mid-level.
This last suggestion is what I will do if I every run Savage Tide. It does have the disadvantage of making the first few adventures a cakewalk, but it addresses something that I find to be a more nagging problem. One way around it might be to have only one or two PCs go through the first or second adventure, gradually bringing more in as the adventures increase in difficulty.
I just recently picked up issue #343. I was wondering if an errata fix for the Malfera entry in the new Creature Catalog was posted. The Malfera skills paragraph is an erroneous copy from the the Nuckalavee skills paragraph.
On a side note, why is the Nuckalavee suddenly aquatic?
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