Pariah's page

Mine's more of an ongoing thing that amuses me to no end. We had to take a break so are still just on 3FoE, but my party doesn't trust Allustan at all... I tried to play him nice and helpful so the party instinctily see him as a bad guy in disguise just waiting for the moment to swoop in and kill them. On the other hand, Smenk has managed to convince them he just has a bad rap and so the party is mostly helping him out.

Another me too... I wiped out almost all of my groups funds after they needed a raise dead at the end of Whispering Cairn, there basically broke (I think they managed to hold onto the +1 chainmail and masterwork quarterstaff) starting the second TFoE. On top of that, the cleric (the one who died) is noticably underpowered for this next set.

The problem is nobody has taken my advice and created a back-up character 'just in case' the first adventure IS as deadly as people say so.
...
What I need now is quick and easy 'plug-in' backstories that fit any character, fitting them into Diamond lake.
...
Advice for working a new pc into the adventures 'mid-encounter' would be incredibly helpful.

Cleric of Hextor - Masquerading as a Cuthbertian Flaggelant, but actually seeking to find and destroy a temple of Hextorian heretics. When he learns that the heretics are more spread out than just this temple, he stays on to destroy every last vestage of them.

Barbarian/Ranger/Warrior type - Was an indntured servant forced to work in the mines and has just recently paid off his debt and is looking to make some money. Even hunting monsters can't be as dangerous as working in the mine.

Rogue - Made a reasonably good living working the veiled corridor of the Emporium, but really doesn't like working with all the dirty miners and has a few otehr skills that may be worth turnign a coin.

Wizard - Allustan's apprentice, it's time he goes out and learns a bit about the world. Dragonchess will only get him so far.

Woodsy Type (Druid/Ranger/Scout) - Tales of unkillable undead are a great concern to the Lodge. Asked to work their way into the adventurers group and learn what they can, help if their cause will serve nature.

Monk - After a startling vision, the head of the order sends you out to stop the worms from breaking forth.

Warmage/Sorcerer/Psion - I actually don't have this one, but I would thing Demon Boy is a good example of a starting story on this one. Worked as a freak at Zalamandra's emporium.

That should be plenty to get you started, as for working them in... they all have reasons to be looking for the party and unlike some of the other modules, the party can turn back to go to town at any point they like.

Instead of trying to foil the plot themselves, they've decided that they should report the problem to the regional law enforcement through the Justicar that's in our mix of players.

Anything the party does to delay will probably ensue the mass attack on the Hextor temple. After defeating them, the party may just think "We can take them all" and if not at least they did something :) If they flee, you can have the guard tell them that they will probably have bumped up their schedule as a result and they must get back in and do whatever it takes to stop it.

PC Name: Mort - Male Aasimar Cleric of Pelor
Adventure: Whispering Cairn
Location of Death: The True Tomb
Catalyst: Player being late to game

Long Description: Things were not going well... They had managed to kill the first of the Wind Dukes, but due to splitting attacks, they had taken quite a bit of damage. The ranger had just fallen the warrior was down and stabalized and the cleric rushed forward to hill the Ranger. (The rogue and the Warlock were attacking from a distance.). The cleric heals the Ranger but only gets him up to 1 hp. The Wind Duke was up next, and I asked the ranger if he was going to play dead or try to get up and fight. He answered he wasn't making any attempt to hide that he was concious, so I hit him again, dropping him back to neg 6. The cleric again healed the ranger (up to -1 this time) and stepped back five feat. The wind duke let loose with a full attack hitting both for a total of 16 damage. That couple with a previous hit and the Sonic Boom the first one let loose, he was killed outright.

The late player arrived seconds later, and was able to finish it off.

This is my first time experimenting with the actual experience rules. In my normal home campaigns I've done a level per session (which may seem insanely fast, but it's worked well since we rarely maintain campaign longer than 10 sessions... in any case, following the guidelines provided by the DMG and the EL's of the encounters my party of 5 managed to hit 2nd level after meeting Alaster Land and killing the Grick. I lost some members (1 death midway through, and 1 no show) for the next part but they hit 3rd after immediatly after the observatory. I suspect most parties will level at about the same time, but if not these seem to be really good spots to level them anyway. We have not gone back into the Cairn yet to face the Wind Warriors.

Kind of off topic, but this problem is why I ALWAYS give PCs maximum hit points at every level (not just 1st).

I'd leave it.. just beacuse previous characters in a previuos campaign couldn't do anything against it doesn't mean this group can't. How did they take the Acid Beetle Swarms? Anything they used against them should work on the Grick. Spells, the magic shortsword, alchemist fires, etc will all get through, and as someone else pointed out, each person aiding the person with the magic shortsword gives a bonus 10% to hit. If they wisely give it to the warrior or flank for a rogue that is carry it, it's not going to last more than one or two rounds.

I was actually rather disapointed with how quick it went down... stupid Warlocks...

You might tell him that you will allow it at a later level (when the ECL is more fitting). Have him start off with a more normal character then retire/kill him off when you get the the Free City (work that out with the player). The Thri-kreen could be another gladiator in the arena and get in with the party there.

when the super-munchkin of the group announces that he really wants to play a psi-warrior thri-keen!!!

1) Thrikeen are +2 ECL and +2 monster level.

3) I am running this in FR, Daggerford. Why on earth would a thri-keen be in Daggerford? And doing what?

Question: Should I let the player go for it?

PC Name: 'Web' - Female Woodelf Barabarian
Adventure: Whispering Cairn
Location of Death: The Observatory, top floor
Catalyst: Zombie Paranoia

Long Description: Having stormed the top of the tower the hero's traded quite a long series of blows with the Zombies. The party rogue fled in terror after being hit by a scare spell, and the weakend monk was doing little to bother Filge. Only the cleric and the barbarian seemed to be contributing. The cleric had managed to use his last turn attempt to send 2 of the 3 trogladytes cowering in a corner and his high AC was keeping the others busy. Neither the barbarian nor the zombies seemed to be able to hit each other until the bugbear landed a solid blow. The barbarian raged to make up for the lost HP and again, the battle seemed to stalemate. The party was taking the worst of it but had dropped the skeleton and the remaining trog zombie when the rogue finally made it back (8 rounds later, 4 rounds fleeeing, 4 rounds running back).

The bugbear landed another blow staggering the barbarian, but what really caused the problem is that was the 11th round and the turn attempt on the other two trogs wore off. One 5' and hit the barbarian dropping him to -5. The following round he dropped out of rage (-9) and failed his stabilization check.

In hindsight, the cleric wished he hadn't used 2 of his turn checks down stairs on the Zombies at the dinner table.

When I was in the planning stages it looked like I was going to have 9 players, and none of them were going to make it to every game so I knew between death and character absence I was going to have some level disparity, so before starting I sent out a house rules sheet.

Missing Games / Joining Late / Death
It's bound to happen that either someone has plans and can't play when everyone else does, someone dies, or someone wants to join in late (or maybe just for one or two mods). If you miss enough games to fall significantly behind (at least 1 level lower than the lowest regular player), you die, change characters or join late I will bump your XP to a point where you are at the minimum XP needed to be the same level as the lowest level PC in the party.

So if we have a 3rd who is almost 4th, and 3 4th lvl pcs, you come back as just having hit 3rd. Money will probably be half the recommend GP for the level, but I may fudge that based on what everyone else has.

Of course I'd love for everyone to make every game, but I'm not going to count on that.

I want to make the cold Iron Longsword that my PC's Cleric/Paladin of Heironeous found a Weapon of Legacy. But, I would like the rituals and history be to campaign specific, perhaps even tuned to Kyuss himself.

Players beware - the following link is of course for DM's only.

Here is some good research on Kyuss -
http://melkot.com/mysteries/kyuss.html

perhaps a few hints on what the rituals could be.

What powers might a weapon attuned to fighting Kyuss have.

My 2 cents is that the creature is a magical beast. On page 36 of the Players Handbook it states an animal companion is treated as a magical beast for purposes of determining which spells will affect them.

Animal Companion
Player’s Handbook, page 36
Contrary to the text, a druid’s animal companion is not
treated as a magical beast; it remains an animal.
Trim the first paragraph of the sidebar so that it reads as
follows:
A druid’s animal companion is superior to a normal
animal of its kind and has special powers, as described
below.

So actually magical beasts never come into the equation at all... I'd still allow it cause it entertained me, but deffinetly not allowed by the rules.

Now what I've got on my hands is very VERY ticked off necromancer still alive with no spellbook, no zombies, and close ties with Smenk. What I need here is a brilliantly evil plot for revenge to hopefully make a short adventure out of.

So they catch said incompetant rogue, he spills the beans as to where he was supposed to take the spell book. The party goes there and is ambushed by mercenaries hired to capture or kill the party and get the book from them. Mean while, Filge expects them to have left their loved ones unprotected. He captures them. If he can manage it, turn one into a zombie from a scroll as a warning to the party and trade back teh rest of thier loved ones for his spell book. If for some chance his mercenaries actually do the job and take the party, well, then he has his spell book and can do them all in.

Might even be more fun if he escapes and ends up working for one of the Dragons in the series. You could throw in random loved ones as undead throughout the entire campaign and make them REALLY want to kill him.

Owlbears are listed in the MM as 'Large Magical Beasts'...as such, they are possible animal companions, but also highly unlikely.

Not to say I wouldn't allow it. It's probably not significant, but enough that I would probably assigning a -2 level adjustment to the player for choosing it or a feat to call an Magical Beast, but technically speaking, its against the rules.

its too confusing with all the nonplaying characters, the different locations, the organizations involved, and the "biggness" of the plotline.

1. If your group is used to a hack and slash campaign, you can simplify the plot. Each of the modules are written to run stand alone, they don't really need to know about the back story of diamond lake. The modules run fine without ever seeing the sheriff, the other adventurers, and even Smenk for that matter. Allustan I'd keep because he's actually going to help point the party to the next module.

2. The better way would work if your party likes the detail and just can't follow it. For at least the rest of Whispering Cairn (and possibly TFoE) provide a synopsis for the party (either email, handouts, or I really liked the Yahoo group idea). Have a list of things like

Whispering Cairn - You started off exploring this in hopes of treasure but have found that it once belonged to the wind dukes. Blah blah blah....

Wind Dukes - Your not sure how they are, but long ago they fought the forces of chaos. Perhaps you could find more information at a library or a knowledgable historian.

Smenk - You haven't met him yet, but everyone seems to agree that he's a jerk.

Allustan - Seems nice enough, and is willign to identify items for you for a small surcharge.

So then when they find some new information add it to their list. As a DM it's a lot easier to follow the plot and get to know the characters than it is as a player.

this kinda rubs me the wrong way as it makes the dungeon delve very disconnected.

*spoiler Three Faces of Evil*

Your chance to mess with them for sleeping or leaving comes soon enough in the next mod when you having a group of people living in the dungeon, who are bound to know if something happens there. Give tehm a chance to rest in this one.

1. Trolls - Like them so much that I've put one in every module I've ever done... 2 normal trolls, a Troll Were-wolverine (trolls are giants and susceptable to lycanthropy), a half clay golum/troll, and most recently a spell warped advanced cave troll (for a 14th-ish lvl party).

2. Aboleths - Fish are scary...

3. Wemics - just cause they look cool

4. Shadows (wraiths, dread wraiths, allips) - nothing quite as mean as something that is incorporeal and drains abilities

5. Basalisk

I cant find the adventure hooks anywhere!

Players from Diamond lake should run into or hear of the adventurers in town looking intot he stirgenest cairn and hoping to find treasure. Players should remember visiting the Whispering Cairn and think that they should try it out.

I ran a few Roleplaying encounters in email before the start of my campaign, and when I failed to get them to decide to go to the whispering cairn themselves, I did what any self respecting GM would do... I stuck in a missing child.

So basically, while in town the party came across someone shouting for his daughter who didn't come home last night. With a little invetigating the party learned that she had been dared by some friends to stay the night at the whispering cairn. Her friends didn't tell anyone because they were covering for her and said she was staying with them. When the father or party comes looking for her, they have to break down and tell where she is at.

Party heads to the Whispering Cairn, find her stuck in a tree thanks to the wolves, and decide to investigate it themselves.

I've been using my old Dell laptop to run my game.

I think it's pretty cool. I just indicate if they were present or not, and what Challenge Rating they fight and it figures out how much XP they recieved (based on number of players, what level they were, and the CR of the encounter), adds it to their current total, and tells me if they level (based on new XP, current level, and whether or not the have an ECL for their character.)

In the same spreadsheet I also created a Greyhawk calander that includes every holiday I could find from other sources (what they mean and how they are celebrated). I'm keeping track of what day it is on that for my characters...

I use a heavily modified version of HeroForge for creating characters (and getting more modified by the day, adding PRC's and such).

Finally, I got sick of carting around mini's, so I started creating monster tokens for everything the party faces. I haven't finished the Black Keep ones because I'm waiting on the web enhancement, but if you want to see or use them you can find everything on my website here.

http://www.geocities.com/oneoftheunloved/aow/

I'm with Aeso, in that changing the module is probably the best way to prevent cheating. I wouldn't just move the traps and treasure though. I'd consider making Allusten an evil wizard, Smenk a paragon of virtue.

It's not good enough to just confuse them, you have to turn their ill gotten knowledge against them :) Plus, even though I suspect them of cheating, doesn't mean they really are. I've played long enough that some times my hunches are right on. I did a module I had no former knowledge of and figured out three traps in a row on the first guess without making any rolls. I just figured that's what I would do if I wrote the module. Sometimes players just guess right, give them some rope and let them hang themselves... don't hang them yourself.

I started at the begining of the year and had a blast with snow based movement.

I made a handy excel calander (which I stole all the data for from multiple internet sources, canonfire primarily) and figured I would track everything on there (including holidays, and disease incubation :)

If anyone wants a copy, I'm keeping it on my website (along with my tokens, and hyper links to valueable message board articles.)

http://www.geocities.com/oneoftheunloved/aow

Startign Sunday, if I can find time I'll do a campaign journal, but we are doing Greyhawk.

Kira - 1/2 Drow 1/2 Grey elf Rogue, from the Bandit Kingdoms (I tried to gently push her to be from Red Hand, but she decided Stoink, and I didn't want to pressure her or make her think there was a reason I wanted Red Hand).

Mortilal - Aasimar Cleric of Pelor, thinks he's just a human, but doesn't look much like his sister.

Horus - 1/2 Drow 1/2 High Elf Warlock, (no relation to Kira, and neither one of them have any clue that they both wanted to play a 1/2 breed drow. I thought about disallowing one or the other so they weren't treading on each others character concepts, but how fair would it be if I let one and not the other).

Yet to be Named Monk - Practically average in every way, until just recently when Izenfen the Occluded had a vision of worms and this charater being at the center of it. Figuring that he was either the cause or the savior, Izenfen removed him from the monastary figuring either he needs to be out saving, or he needs to be out of the monastary to keep them safe.

Yer to be named Ranger - Still working on a history, but is planning on going Ascetic Hunter route and multi-classing monk.

There's really almost nothing on Prince Zeech. Here's the relevant info from the LGG, which summarized all pre-existing material on him (which largely consisted of his name and levels from an old one-page Dragon article).

A friend of mine and I are both starting campaigns soon and we each gently guided players into being from Redhand... Might also be fun having a player from High Mardreth now that I think about it.

It's always mentioned that it takes years of studying to become a wizard and by multi-classing you can have this effect just by gaining a level. I never allowed this in my games because we are always playing continueing campaigns and are avoiding long time gaps.

http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=126

In any case, I'm always for giving an opinion on multiclassing.

Throwing in a level of a fighter class to make your cleric a little hardier? Don't do it.. Don't even think about it... The extra feat and an extra +1 BaB over the course of 4 levels don't come close to teh cost of delaying that higher spell level. As a general rule, if you are a spell caster, be a spell caster, your power is going to come from your spells, not from a d6 of sneak attack, the ability to rage, or anything else any class is going to give you.

Of course there are exceptions to every rule, you can build a decent ray specialist by tying rogue and wizard together, but by the time you hit 9th level and are still tossing scorching rays when your buddy is dropping disintigrate, I doubt you'll think it was worth it.

Multi-classing between different fighter types is generally not as bad as most of the abilities stack well. 4 levels of fighter for weapon specialization are an acceptable trade for an extra rage attempt, dropping 1 BaB and some HP for 2d6 sneak attack and evasion is a decent trade off too.

Finally we have mutts, which can be fun, reasonably effective, but generally not as good as a straight class character. Things to watch out for are Do your abilities stack? I have a Barb/Wizard/Dervish that I thought was pretty cool until I realized that I can't rage or dance and cast spells, nor can I rage and dance at the same time. Pick classes where your abilities don't walk all over each other. Also watch out for classes that don't have the same stat requirements. A rogue/wizard works better than a rogue/sorcerer or a rogue/cleric just because Rogues and Wizards both need high int. Charisma and Wisdom are basically dump stats for the rogue (unless your going for a diplomat, in which case wisdom still isn't that great). A Paladin/Sorcerer or a Paladin/Cleric are better than a Paladin/Wizard for the same reasons.

Mutt's do excel at one thing though, and that is saving throws. Because you get a bigger hit at lvl 1 and 2 for each class, you can stick two just a few levels, be a decent fighter, and have ungodly saves. Monk2/Favored Soul2 already has the same saves as an 8th lvl monk. Favored Souls need a good charisma, throw in a level of Paladin and get your Charisma bonus to all saves. Assuming human, we arn't taking any xp penalties if we now go Favored soul 4th (giving us second level spells, no loss on BAB, and qualifies us for Pious Templar. Assuming a modest 14 charisma (we need stats in other places, I wouldn't go higher than that without magic) we have at 8th lvl
Fort - +12 (+con)
Ref - +8 (+dex)
Will - +10 (+wil)
mettle and evasion, good setup for Sacred Fist or going deeper in pious templar for Weapon Specialization and a useful Divine Sacrifice spell.
Compared to an 8th lvl monk (best save progression)
Fort - +6 (+con)
Ref - +6 (+dex)
Will - +6 (+wil)
evasion

Sorry, I'm rambling now, I'll shut up, but bottom line is I'm all for multi classing as long as your primary role isn't a caster.

“That sword is a holy artifact of my order” (Player must donate weapon or begin to gather a flock of harmless pilgrams that follow him _everywhere_ hoping to touch the holy weapon. Thay are led by a priest who makes a running commintary on every action of the player.

Of course... the cool thing about this rule is the neat fact that a common housecat has a really good chance of killing the 1st-level party wizard in two rounds.

But the reason the poison works is because these little critters, unlike house cats do real damage, at least in my game :) (which starts next week)

Didn't think we were giving him/her a hard time, some people like to have a source to a ruling and not just 'I think it works like this" or "It says somewhere".

Necromancer 6, spell focus (necro) instead of sp.f(evo)
1st (6) -- cause fear, mage armour, prot vs good, ray of enfeeblement x2, shield
2nd (5) -- blindness, Melf's acid arrow (extend), spectral hand, touch of idiocy, web
3rd (4) -- summon monster III x2 (extend), vampiric touch x2

Here's something else I find confusing:

Kyuss Spawnling, damage 1d3-3 plus poison. But that means there will never be any damage from the "tiny, razor-sharp teeth", thus there will never be any "injecting a burning toxin into the victim's blood."

What am I missing?

Very cool. 'course, I'm not sure what everything stands for, but hey, that's the spice of life.

I went ahead and uploaded Hi Res versions and also added the tokens for the second module. Enjoy

http://www.geocities.com/oneoftheunloved/aow.htm

I'm actually digging out my 1E DMG to outline its abilities. An official answer would be great!

My plan is to have the Kenku manoeuvre in advance of the party with one to use mimicry as a lure. They all prepare a readied action to fire their crossbows when the PC’s come to within 30feet so they can get their sneak attack damage on the flatfooted PC’s then to take a move action to disappear through a secret door (opening the door is a free action for the Kenku).

No attachment :/

Go ahead and email 'em to abernat (at) gmail.com. Probably easier that way.

Or am I just missing something obvious? BTW, I have 125 and can make a monster list for you if you'd like.

If you play Living Greyhawk, it's the starting location for one of the modules.

But I don't see it adding a lot to your campaign. The feel of the town is slightly different all though it does quote two different cannon sources that mention Diamond Lake.

City of Greyhawk Boxed Set
Greyhawk, Gem of the Flaness page 22
2 paragraphs - no new information

The Adventure Begins, Page 3
2 short paragraphs
Only thing of interest not covered in the AoW is occasional bandit problems with teh wagon trains heading to Greyhawk, a nest of Cockatrices, and Several miners and explorers disappearing in 590CY south of the lake.

Finally the module itself describes 5 locations

The Old Wharf Inn - No real information, and the players should have enough inns without it. If you want to use it, I'd put it SW of 21 as it's described as being by the waterside.

The Well - Center of town. Social place to gather as the lake water is polluted and it's the only place to get fresh water. I may include this in my game.

Brendigund Trading House - Brendigund was a notoriously corrupt (but not a bad guy) merchant who gets redeemed in a series of LG mods. I'll probably include this also as most of my players know him.

The Docks - Nothing to add from AoW

The Cairns - Nothing to add from AoW

Oooo... I'd be very interested. Let me know if you can't post 'em and I'll put up my email addy.

I went looking for swarm images for the beetles... didn't find any good beetle pictures...

Ernest Mueller wrote:

All Evil characters aren't total sociopaths...

True, but the general problem is that players who want to play evil characters rarely understand that.

Of course, when you don't allow him to play NE he'll probably play the same way and just say he CN.

I'm not sure if it would be a copywrite problem with me sharing them, but I had some spare time and decided to make tokens for everything. Basically I took pictures from the DMG, Dungeon Magazine, and a few odd sources (photo's from the internet of a terra-cotta warrior and a Bombardiar beetle) and resized them so tehy fit the correct size squares and such. I printed mine in color on card stock (paper is too hard to pick up and move).

I haven't gotten part 2 in the mail yet, so I haven't added the creatures from it yet except what I found on the online supplement, but it's cheaper and easier than carting around a ton of minis.

(Yah, I'm a bit anal, I also drew out all the maps in advance on 1" grid paper)

If you play Living Greyhawk, it's the starting location for one of the modules. I'm pretty sure it was 'That Which was not meant to be Known' (also known as the module with the really long title) and it detailed an extra 2 or 3 locations. I plan on incorporating the Brendigund Trading House, but I can't remember what else was in there. I'll see if I can find it.