Rixxen's page

Just an update to what has happened. We are now using Alpha 3 playtest rules. Our Warlock has remained such, and we are looking at balancing his class with the new classes. The knight took a look at the fighter, and asked (and was allowed) to become a straight fighter. She is going to continue to play her character as the knight (issuing challenges, forgoing the flanking bonus) just have the fighter abilities instead. The party's rogue is playing arround with maybe taking some cleric levels down the road, and the fighter/paladin is now just a paladin. So far, game play is smoother, and everyone seems to be happier with their characters.

/casting summon dead thread iv

So last night, my wonderful band of adventurers have stumbled across this chest adorned with the skull of Kyuss. After a careful examination by the rogue (without touching it, as he was quick to point out), and declaring it free of traps, he decided to open it. A failed save and the room was suddenly minus one. A quick perception check (we have made the conversion to Alpha 3, but I degress) notices the familar face being tortured on the side of the chest. Some Knowledge (Arcana) checks, and it is decided that probably a dispell magic or more powerful spell could free the comrade from his prison. Dispell magic fails, and a quick assesment of party abilites determines this is WAY beyond them. So the warlock decides to blast it a couple times to try to damage the chest. 3 blasts, one failed save, and the rogue now has some company. A couple buffs, and the valiant paladin brings forth his legacy Holy Avenger and joins his friends in Nightmare Wormland. At this point, I have the three "guests" roll the first d4 and proceed to tell them that its Charisma, Wisdom and Intelligence damage.

So here comes the druid. Not actually attacking the chest, but summoning a Nature's Ally to do the dirty work. 4 spells later, and the room is suddenly full of naked men and disoriented animals. But at least they got the hand full of (as the rogue descirbed best $#!^) that the chest contained. A wonderful trap if the party has a balance of characters, but since we have Fighter, Paladin, Druid, Rogue, and Warlock, not a nice one at all. So the party decides to return to Coenoby where the next arena battle is set to take place in a few hours. The guards take notice as the three men in the party return from the sanctuary with just blankets and sheets as clothing. A Bribe, a quick word with Eakym, (who is somewhat releived upon finding out the fate of his sister) and that his gladiators took care of her (which they sort of forgot to do). He manages to take the winnings so far and provide the men with a few trinkets to hopefully make it through the next battle.

My problem is, my party now has 3 members with very little magic equipment. The rogue had just spent his savings up until now to equip himself with much needed items (First few adventures kind of not favored him for treasure), and the Paladin lost a Weapon of Legacy. But at least its not as bad as the Bag of Holding that the Warlock had. Since the items are traped in the dreams of Kyuss, I intend to give them an opportunity to get their items back (By adding a vision to the SoLS? of the three of them being tortured, and letting the party participate in their "rescue")

Just curious if anyone else had a simmilar event and how did you handle it?

I'm pretty sure the OGL wont allow this, but are there any plans to update the base classes from other sources? Looking forward to intergrating the Alpha rules into my AOW campaign, however I have a Warlock and a Knight, and they are going to feel left behind (screwed) with the first round of intergration. Any ideas out there?

It would be fine to ship with next shipment. Let my know of any extra charges. Thank You.

I got a notice a while back that my post office wouldnt deliver due to size (kind of funny since they had no problem with the first ones. Anyway, so my first chance to get there (had to go to a funeral today) and they no longer have it. They claimed that it might have been returned as undeliverable. Of course, I get home and the Paizo package is waiting for me on my porch, but it had issue 7 in it. Please respond here or via email as far as what I can do to get it back.

Been a while, time to update

Caellanna - 4th level Elven Ranger from Bronzewood - retired after 3FoE to become
Ivvyadora a 9th level Halfling Knight
Veritek changed name Jannis - 8th Human Warlock, assistant to Allustan wtih several close calls to death and one death.
Liam - 4th level Human Fighter 5th level paladin of Lathander
Matteo - 5th level Rogue/1 Swashbuckler/ 3rd level Spymaster, plotting to rule the world.
Kalla 8th level Gnome Druid (formerly Half-Elven), died after spitting in a troll's Face on the way to Waterdeep.
???????? - 7th level Asimir Bard.......only played twice....Not even sure of her name.

As you can tell by the caveat attached to my name, I am now on board with Pathfinder. By subscrbing, the cost is only 1$ more for me to get (I was previously buying both Dungeon and Dragon at my FLGS) The reason I felt it necessary to jump on board, is that for the better part of 2 years, the only D&D purchases I have not had buyer remorse for have been the Paizo published content. WOTC's Hardcover books are $30-40 each, and they publish 2-3 a month. As I am currently running an AOW campaign, and eagerly looking forward to playing in Savage Tide, (OK, so I haven't read my last 7-8 Dungeons completely), the guarantee that Adventure paths are going to continue is worth it to me.

It seems that Wizards is pulling all its licsenses back, though I don't understand why. Last November, e-Tools was de-liscensed, leaving me out the $250 dollars that I had spent on the program and data patches. Now Wotc pulls the plug on Dragon and Dungeon. I read that Paizo got a 4 month extension to finish out Savage Tide, so this announcement would have come Back in January or December. Hmm....just wondering how long OGL is going to be allowed. WOTC has the right to modify the liscense at any time which also means they can pull it at any time.

Anyway, the name Dragon and Dungeon are just that: Names. The heart of the content is the authors, editors, cartogaphers, etc. that have made the last few years enjoyable and memorable. With that, count me on board, just make sure I get a window seat.

Not only is Bane back, but the opportunities are there to bring back more dead gods. IMC, the players are not going to succede in stopping the cataclysm in "The Champions Belt" That great event will fracture the realms and bring back Myrkul. Bhall will come later, probably in Redhand. The players still think that Cyric is behind it all, granting spells to the followers of dead gods, all the deception. Even granting some hints (More ramblings of Grallak Kur, a few added lines to the Faceless One's letter) and my players are totally on the wrong track. Which is where I like em.....

Name: Jannis, Orphan Human Warlock (Lvl 4)
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location: The Labrynth
Catalyst: Dire weasals and a couple bad rolls for breaking grapple

Because he has darkvision and damage reduction, Jannis thought it would be a good idea for him to lead the party just on the outside of the light source. A wrong turn lead him into the weasels, hungry and willing. Damage reduction doesnt help for con damage, and the party was blocked from getting to the weasels. 3 rounds, the party missing their ranged attack, and our first fatality in the Age of Worms. He did earn enough experience to reach level 5 before hand, and St. Cuthbert's was willing to do a reduced resurection, especially after the party got rid of Smenk.

My players don't have a good mix of classes (fighter/paladin, Rogue, Warlock, Knight and Druid with wolf companion) so any battles with undead (Filge and Bane(Hextor) temple) have been pretty devastating. Invading the Hextor temple, the rogue using spider climb cast by the druid, crawls down the elevator shaft, only to roll a 3 on his hide in shadows (against my tiefling's 20 on spot) Two tieflings vs one rogue, not good. I am using optional hover on deaths door (-10 to -max hp, can be restored to -1 with one spell or potion, second spell or potion to restore to 0, third spell or potion to return to action.) so when the warlock managed to reach the bottom with ring of feather fall( I don't know why they just didn't take the elevator down all together) he found two tieflings about to finish off his friend. The warlock takes out one, gets dropped to 2 hp before dropping the second one, who had sounded the alarm to the temple before engaging. The rest of the party arrives, heals up the rogue a bits, and charges head long into the temple. Melee ensues with the skeletons, cultists, more tieflings and the beast. Rogue drops again, along with the knight and paladin. a well placed entangle by the druid and some decent damage rolls on eldritch blasts by the warlock saves the day.

Most memorable battle(so far, only 2/3 way through 3FoE) was in the Grimlock caves. Upon reaching the final temple of Grallak Kur, the party is hit with a deeper darkness spell. When the warlock fails his attempt to read a dispell magic scroll, the party is at a stand still. Not wanting to give the grimlocks a tactical advantage of darkness, the party stands on the edge of the effect. Druid casts Summon nature's ally, bringing in a dire bat. Bat snatches a grimlock, and brings it bakc, where party procedes to anhilatee in one round. Wash, rinse, repeat. With his minions disapearing fast, and his latest visions not shared with the other sects, Grallak offers a truce. The party reluctantly lets his last two minions go (in which they proceed to the Faceless One with a warning and the last vision) while Grallak accepts his fate (He has forseen his death along with Theldrick and FO will awaken the Aspect)

I wouldn't be a fan of not allowing crafting at all. First, you are taking away an interesting and rewarding part of the game. Second, players with craft feats tend to be more 'balanced' and not min/maxed characters. For example, the party wizard won't have all the metamagic feats if he wants to make a few trinkets for himself and to share. Third, you give the party a chance to have more control over the experience by letting them have a better selection of equipment. Fourth, you create a more realistic system of matching the players desires (It just so happens, the magic dealer does have a magical bastard sword of fiery burst and a wand of cure serious wounds.) with what can be found arround a town. Fifth, side quests open up as players track down hard to find materials and componets. Finally, you introduce another way for players to spend walth and keep things in check.

Personally, I encourge craft feats as well as the various crafting skills. It is more belieavable to me that the archer has craft- bowyer and can not only repair his primary weapon, but make the endless supply of arrows that is needed to quest with such a character. You would be suprised how much pride a character can take in his newly smithed masterwork longsword, that the party wizard just enhanced into a magical wonder.
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Not to fond of point buy, I prefer to hand out a standard array at the start of any campaign. I just completed a high power campaign where I let players use a 18,16,15,14,13,12 array. Of course, whats good for the PC's is also good for the DM, all recurring villians and major NPC's used the same array. For HP, I used the Living Greyhawk model of 1/2 HD +1 per level, max HP for first level. This tended to balance the high abilities. For the new campaign, (AoW), I lowered the abilities (15,14,13,13,12,11) but am letting the players have max HP each level.

Look ahead in the AP and try to tie characters into future adventures. IMC, for instance, one PC is Marenza's best friend, while another is her lover. A third PC was brought to Diamond Lake by Balabar Smenk himself, to help with the Ebon Triad situation (Balabar wants access to smoke powder, and the church of Gond has interest in gaining access to the raw materials being mined.) So, not only are they all motivated to work together in the begining, 3FOE and EaBK have hooks into the PC's Backgrounds.

..... Waterdeep was the place where Myrkul died, what a perfect spectal to bring the Lord of Bones back into the Realms. With the amount of destruction 10,000+ wights would cause, it would be the perfect catalyst to bring him back. I am just not sure exactly what portfolios to give give since Kelveor is the Lord of the Dead. Any suggestions?

Besides death and the dead, Myrkul's portfolios included corruption and old age. However, more fitting to the campaign would be undeath, and will probably be the portfolio I assign to him. After all, the goal of the FR Ebon Triad is the Returning to power Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul, and the uniting of the three dieties. One way to motivate the PC's would be to bring back another of the dreaded three. Of course, how would anyone know a dead god had returned? Enter Filge, recently reformed and now part of the clergy of Kelemvor, destroying what he once created. The Lord of Bones has a new priest, and Filge is well on his way to causing more trouble.

Sibblings, no but three of my players are orphans who grew up in Diamond Lake together. Made backgrounds alot easier.

Veritek - Human Warlock, left the orphanage at age 14 after the "fire" incident. Taken in by Allustan, who was intersted in his strange magic

Liam - Human Fighter, left the orphanage at age 13 and became an accolyte at the temple of Lathander. Wants to become a paladin.

Matteo - Human Rogue, was kicked out of the orphange at age 15 and went to work at the Emporium doing odd jobs. Would like nothing more than to never see Diamond Lake again.

Forgotten Realms, made Diamond Lake a town east of Daggerford. Played once so far, party has managed to get through the Architect's Lair in WC.

Caellanna - Elven Ranger from Bronzewood
Veritek - Human Warlock, assistant to Allustan
Liam - Human Fighter, training to be a Paladin of Lathander
Matteo - Human Rogue, just wants out of Diamond Lake
?????? - Gnome Priest of Gond, in town to 'advise' Balabar Smenk (player missed first night)

And for every person who doesnt renew, 2-3 people probably subscribe or renew because of this. Personally, I buy all my issues from my Friendly Local Gaming Store, helping to keep the one good store in 100 miles in buisness. Paizo has done an excellent job with the restructing of Dungeon over the last 2 years. Every issue has content that I use, and after completing a campaign in Kingdoms of Kalamar, It was nice to not to have setting specific adventures to draw from. Now, starting an AOW campaign, I chose to use the Realms to play in. The conversion guides are nice starting place, but I have added and changed alot.

If you are finding that there are not enough Realms, Eberon, or whatever adventures, try writing one and submitting it.

Just my 2 cp.

New to the blogging concept, so please be gentle. One session in the books, my group alternates DM's, so we will play this campaign once a month or so. Also, going to point my players here, so they can add their prespectives to it as well.

http://wmiaow.blogspot.com/

I prefer an assigned point aray tha all players use. When I run AoWAP (Decemberish right now), I will be using 15,14,13,12,12,10 as the Ability array. What I am doing different this time is making the players roll a table for race. All the characters will start as residents of Diamond Lake, I am hoping that this 'trapping' will add to their characters. Players will start with a 5-6 page personalized handout descrbing what they know of Diamond Lake and how they fit into the town. Hoping it works out for the best.