Perignan's page

Wouldn't Vital strike be useful with a AoO build? say a fighter with a reach weapon and combat reflexes. No harm in doing more damage for those attacks, and when he got to move, that will be an option too (if he cannot charge)

Or is there something that makes it impossible to use it on AoO?

I, for one, would like to keep the fiction, but change it so it is more tied to the AP. As others have said, a short story on Ameiko, or Nualia, would have been perfect in RotRL. Or what have been done in AP #18.

Either way would be fine with me.

What if Rovagug's prison was slowly crumbling away and that in order to keep him there, something had to be done? Maybe that something was Aroden giving away his essence so that Asmodeus could strenghten the prison.

That way, Aroden had to choose between letting Rovagug go free and kill humanity, of letting Asmodeus control it.

The Eye of Abendego might be the "plug" that keep Rovagug from getting out, or something to that effect.

Granted, i havent read all Pathfinder material (yet), so maybe there is something somewhere making that theory invalid...

Are you set on Arcane Strike? You only get one Swift action per round, and by 7th level the bard would already have a +2 to her attacks & damage due to the archaeologist's luck, as well as she will likely already have a magic weapon. It may be a better investment to take another one of the other suggested feats, or something that extends/improves her achaeologist's luck.

The healing in combat thing seems like it has some widely varied opinions. In our group (we usually have only 3 players as well) we have taken the stance of if someone in combat gets down to 1/3 hitpoints, the healer is moving in to keep them up and fighting. The reasoning being that if one of your people goes down then you're down to 2/3 strength rather than 3/4. The 'reputation' of this particular AP seems to show it as highly deadly, even within the first chapters.

If you want examples, check out NobodysHome's campaign log, or even Gluttony's log. Both have had some very near TPKs, with multiple healers, and multiple dropped characters eeking by with some quick in-battle healing. Yeah its not a lot of healing, but sometimes just a few more points is all you need to carry you to your next action.

Let me think a little more on the bard management issue. See if I can come up with some other suggestions. I may have to play with a build or two.

Im not dead set on Arcane strike, but getting +1 to +5 to hit and damage is kinda tempting. And will lingering performance, it means you can use it 2 rounds out of 3. So at level 7, your looking at +2/+2 for 1st round, then +4/+4 for rounds 2 and 3. That seems pretty much the best you can get for a bard that wishes to do any kind of damage. But that's just theory... never actually seen it in game.

I'll take a look at the 2 threads you suggested, see if i'll have the same kind of problems.

Same here. I love the set, paint jobs are really nice. Unfortunatly, i am missing 2 minis(Aldern Foxglove and Warchief Ripnugget).

I also had 4 minis that were broken (nothing a little glue couldn't fix though).

The worse thing though is the Rune Giant. what's up with those pants?!?

Oh well, overall, a really nice set, but a bit on the costly side.

Good points CaroRose, but unrelated to the roguish part of the character ;) But you're absolutly right that the expanded spellcasting will come in handy, if only to lighten the load of the wizard buff-wise.

But im not sure it will help with the healing. How often do you cast a "cure" spell in combat? It rarely matter, because it doesnt heal enough. And out of combat healing, cure light is the better hit points/cost ratio, so it's all the same. At least in my game.

For the Vagabond child, it was already the second trait i had in mind for the character, but some might argue that with the bonus the archaeologist get, it doesnt really matter in the end. But it's nice to have for the first book or two.

The problem (for the player) with the bard is that there is a lot to manage. You need a swift action for Archaelogist luck, another swift action for Arcane strike, then you can either attack or use spells. Since we are talking about a beginner here, that's a lot to think about (adding lingering performance to the mix if you want to use your swift action for Arcane strike). That's the only thing that stop me from recommending it without second thought, as i think the ranger would be easier to play.

But let's say she does play the bard, any build you recommend? I tried to build an archer, but barring the human extra feat it looks like that:

1: PBS
3: Precise shot
5: lingering performance?
7: Deadly aim? rapid shot? many shot? arcane strike? extend?
9: anything that wasnt taken at 7...

Even if you go human, as a "skill monkey", focused study is tempting.

and if she goes melee (leaving the party without a ranged specialist), you either go STR (and it doesnt fit the character she wants to play) or weapon finesse, and with the latter, you become inefficient in melee, at high level anyway. I though about multiclassing with lore warden, for more option and combat manoeuvers, but again, at high level, inefficient.

any suggestions? :)

I would suggest the bard archaeologist to your 3rd player. Then you have a damage dealer (barbarian), your arcane caster (wizard) and a roguish player with some limited healing who can also utilize healing wands, etc.

Out of curiosity, why is archaeologist more roguish than the urban ranger for you? Is it only the rogue talents?

Both can disarm all traps (although the bard doesnt have disable device as a class skill). Both can use healing wands. On my side, the only difference i see is that the bard is more knowledge oriented and can be the party's face, while the ranger will bring more damage (FE, AC, full BAB).

Playing 2 characters, while it would solve many problems, is not really an option. They don't really want to do it and would highly prefer that i play DM PC (which i won't). I know it would have been a great solution, but not possible in this case.

as for what class to play, i agree that player 1 would be best served with a fighter, but im worried that the party will lack skills if he does so. Barbarian seems a good compromise (more or less the same firepower, more skills, less defense), but that might change.

For player 2, he read the arcane bond ability and liked it, so he wants to go wizard. At first, i was tempted to convince him not to (option paralysis, as you put it), but wizard is such a good fit for this campaign that i will let him decide.

Player 3 is still undecided between bard archaeologist, urban ranger or trapper ranger. Since they have not "healer", im not sure trapper ranger is a good idea (potions are not cheap), and urban ranger would leave the party "faceless", although more efficient in combat. Hard to do an archer bard, between all the archery feats, lingering performance, arcane strike, etc.

But thanks for all the suggestions :)

My "house rule" is for the players to create two characters. One stays in the tavern while the other goes on the adventure. A player can change characters any time they want (so long as it involves them being in the same place) but they must be played as different entities. It allows for already known death replacements too. That would allow your smaller group some flexibility. Playing them as the same person, even siblings, will result in removal of the privilege.

Alternatively, let them play multi-classed characters from 1st, don't use XP but let them level at the "speed of story" so their character abilities match the difficulty. 25 points allows that easily.

Arcane casting can be offset with wands and Use Magic Device. Even try a summoner or a Magus to give beefier arcane casting options.

Lack of divine casting can be offset by healing potions and buff potions if required, which is expensive but you can expand any of the potential potion sources to allow that.

But at the end of the day, if you DM in a balanced and flexible way, the lack of particular classes won't matter too much.

I like the idea of replacement characters, but im not sure my players would. They already put all their efforts learning one class, asking them to learn two would just be a burden. But im definatly keeping the idea in mind.

The party looks to be shaping as a barbarian, a wizard and either an urban ranger or a bard archaeologist. So they'll either be light on damage, or have no real party face. I guess i'll just throw more consumables to be found and we should be good.

thanks!

Hi all,

I’ll start GMing a RotRL campaign soon and I’ve got a group of 3 players. The 3 players have a bit of experience (2 short campaigns, one in PF, one in 3.5). Now, i want them to run the campaign without having to run a DM PC. Here is what i have so far:

Player 1: will play a melee of some sort, but don’t want it to be complex. No spellcasting if possible, no paladin (last class he played). I know he likes to hit hard and not be hit in return.

Player 2: hesitate between wizard, oracle and witch. Sometimes have trouble picking the right spells, so I’m helping a bit on that hand.

Player 3: wants to play a shaddy character. She played a rogue in the past and liked it. Last character was a sorcerer and thought that while cool, was too much to handle. Likes things simple. I was thinking Bard Archaeologist, or maybe Ranger (trapper or urban).

Now, they play in this campaign to have fun more than anything else, because they are not avid gamers. So i don’t want to force anything on them. But, i would like some input from people who have played the campaign to tell me if they have a chance. I read the entire book, but i want input from people who have played it. My guess is that an arcane caster of some sort is really important, especially near the end. And i think there is enough traps to make trapfinding worthwhile.

Other things of note for the campaign: It’s gonna be a 25 pts buy, maybe extra gold at start (maybe 200). I was hoping not to change any encounter, but might play some monsters dumber than they really are to help them a bit. I will allow them to recruit NPC if they do the right thing, but im not gonna give it to them free.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

That post is in reference to our regular adventure paths. I still have some confirming to do *if* we're going to be releasing the extra bits for this product as a separate PDF product for purchase.

well, for what it's worth, *if* you do it, i'll buy it :)

I remember that I read somewhere around here that they planned 'interactive maps' for extra purchase, I don't know if they will do so for already published APs.

Edit: found it

Thanks for the info! I'll wait for that i guess.

HangarFlying wrote:

8) I can print out the player handouts from the PDF so I don't have to cut up the pages of my pretty book.

I might not have mentioned, but there is also a third PDF in the PDF package that is just handouts for easy printing :)

Is there a way to only buy the handouts PDF? I bought the hardcopy and i had no intention to buy the PDF, but the handouts would sure be handy to have...

Anyway, just wondering if it's available somewhere.

Thanks!

It's not going to show on the subscription until we are processing it for shipping. This is because you might choose to use the store credit for something else between now and when the subscription ships. Sorry for any confusion.

Ok, thanks for clarifying. I was mostly confuse by the fact that i could use only a part of it.

Now i just have to wait for December to arrive :)

Perignan wrote:

Gary Teter wrote:

We've fixed the bug and I've poked your shopping cart. The black dragon is displaying the correct price now ($3.75).

Just saw that, thanks! trying to finalized my order, but i can't apply my store credit correctly... any idea? It will only let me use part of my credit. just enough in fact to pay for handling and shipping. but i can't use it to pay for the actual items.

Store credit gets used on subscriptions in a slightly different manner than regular orders. For using store credit on a subscription like this, check out like normal and then visit your My Subscription page and make sure the little box for "use store credit on subscriptions" is checked. Checking that box will apply any available store credit to your subscription shipments.

Now, the tricky part is if you have other Paizo subscriptions which the store credit might be used on before the minis might ship (since the minis are much further spread out over time than other subs). But that's a whole other kettle of fish.

I try that (checking the box) but it still doesn't show. However, i have not completed my order. I just went a bit ahead to see if it would apply but it didn't. I'm gonna try to go ahead and see.

We've fixed the bug and I've poked your shopping cart. The black dragon is displaying the correct price now ($3.75).

Just saw that, thanks! trying to finalized my order, but i can't apply my store credit correctly... any idea? It will only let me use part of my credit. just enough in fact to pay for handling and shipping. but i can't use it to pay for the actual items.

This is a bug we hope to have fixed soon.

Does that means that I'll be able to get a black dragon with my order at the same price it was before October 1st?

I just got my store account credit and was trying to get the black dragon with my subscription, but it shows at around 68$, including the 75% discount!! Is this a store problem or is it really the new price?