Turin the Mad's page

Chaosium's underlying "game framework" is what they call the Basic Roleplaying system (BRP). It is almost as much fun to GM as GURPS (for me). The CoC rules add the Sanity & Cthulhu Mythos Skill. The more percentile points a character has in the Cthulhu Mythos skill, the SAN score is directly reduced 1 for 1. (Yes, skills are on a percentile roll basis. No, new meat cannot start with any points in the skill.) SAN fluctuates as there is permanent / maximum SAN and current / temporary SAN.

Typically, SAN erodes far faster than it is recovered. In typical CoC adventures (if you survive) you'll probably acquire a temporary insanity at least once per session. More likely, you'll lose 10 - 20 points of SAN and recover ... 4.

In a fast-paced beast like HotOE, you lose SAN at least as fast as you lose HP. Gibbering in mind-shattered fear, fleeing at top speed out the train car door is pretty rough when you bail out from the aforementioned train car as it is crossing a trestle bridge in the Alps ... can you fly, Bobby? *splat*

Should your courageous investigator somehow survive an adventure, extended stay in a Roaring 20's asylum is your best method of replenishing your remaining current SAN.

Sounds .... fun? ^__^

Remember Sir Hamster: kill zem, kill zem all. Consign Kamelot to the ashbin of history! :D

Horror on the Orient Express is a Call of Cthulhu adventure set in the Roaring '20's aboard the European train of the same name. It came chocked full of pregenerated NPC's that are available to replace the messily dispatched.

Adapting it to Eberron CoC d20 would be the only worthwhile use I would have for that setting. A train wreck of epic proportions to be sure. :)

KGM, it is my impression that HotOE is long out of print. Believe me, I would hang my PF Charter Subscription for six months to set aside the money if I knew that Chaosium was going to reprint that monster in all of its character killing glory. If memory serves, the playtest groups died in droves, garnering Chaosium's "stamp of approval".

It had *tons* of handouts and props built into it too, representing the characters' gathered information. As well as a cardboard cut out for a key prop element that the players could literally piece together.

The Mountains of Madness I have long contemplated acquiring, holding off due to a combination of the price tag and the realization that most players I know couldn't or wouldn't stomach getting driven insane and/or horribly killed in droves.

Horror on the Orient Express racked up a single-sessioln body count of 15 with appalling ease. By the time it was concluded, the only survivors were from the train's crew and stewards. Dozens and dozens of dead and/or permanently insane. Good times!

Haven't worked on any stat blocks since, oh, September maybe?

Dardapterebus is beyond their ken since attaining full power. Now, if they are so foolish as to request "the nastiest thing I can throw at them" to conclude the campaign, I would have to oblige them. Happily,indeed joyously!

Sadly, one or more of the players had to deal with the Real Life Monster once more, delaying the War of the River Kingdoms from unfolding in all of its brutal glory until the earliest of the 26th.

Maybe I can finegle a ritual into the campaign ... hrm, that sounds promising, *very* promising indeed. A doomsday weapon to be sure. I LIKE IT!!

I dub them (in order): Teresa Tightbutt, Fotar Fatboy Jr, Fumblefingers and Sir Shineybritches. ^__^

Or you could use their *actual* names, or something ....

Destiny awaits, you bunch of murderous monarchs. grins

I am always impressed that Sir Al of N manages to round up a passle of suckers ... er, "players", to belly up to the table only to die often and repeatedly.

Then again, if you're going to have a Turin/Allen NPC available to provide reincarnation spells, be sure to have the charming hobbit sporting a pair of filet knives, a tome entitled "How to Serve Man" on the nearby shelf (or hanging from his belt) and a shockingly in-depth knowledge of the Cthulhu Mythos.

It wouldn't be right otherwise.

Since mid-fall of 2011 all has been quiet at the gaming table. The Real Life Monster is a terrible nemesis at times.

We have a tentative date of 12th February to resume the campaign.

Will Our Rulers triumph against the vast armies marching against the kingdom of Starfall? Will their citizenry be slaughtered by wyverns, giants riding mastadons and bloodthirsty sell-swords out to loot, pillage and plunder (and worse)?

The next session will see the War for the River Kingdoms unfold!

Turin the Mad wrote:

That dragons' umbrage at these meat snacks' temerity caused the GM to forget about their Frightful Presence and access to limited wish to effect resotration of hit points.

I had actually prepared a good number of quickened reach remove fear spells just for this reason! I was surprised they didn't use their FP. If I was more on my game, I would have opened with a Heightened Major Curse rather than Dimension Lock.

That was a great preparation for you to have - makes me wish I hadn't forgotten the Frightful Presence to reward that preparation on your part. Be sure to keep at least one of those handy in the future ... just an FYI.

Maze, Please cause that would work for more than 1 round? and other criticisms of high level spells

Barring innate ability to dispel magic, against these supposedly stock monsters, maze works VERY well. Most critters are going to be stuck inside for quite a few rounds (3+) as VERY few 'stock monsters' possess an overly high Intelligence bonus. Unless that campaign entirely comprised of mutant minotaur minions led by high-end outsiders, maze should get gobs of mileage. Barring failed checks to beat SR on your end, which is doubtful at best against stock monsters.

Summon Monster VII's purpose is not to provide your wizard with beat sticks to command - the critters summoned are to provide your wizard with additional ranged attack support (gobs of lantern archons), assorted buffs (numerous outsiders), flanking buddies for the other characters, aid another buddies for your own AC/Touch AC and curatives without relying upon the rest of the party as well as mooks to carry your palanquin for a short time and most importantly VERY LARGE physical blockers between the wizard and the enemy (especially the paladin).

Greater Planar Binding is no more 'cheese' than EACH MEMBER OF THE ENTIRE PLAYER CHARACTER GROUP. 'Nuff said. The main reason not to use it is the expense of the material components.

Greater Polymorph - and at 15th+ level Polymorph Any Object - has LOTS of uses beyond SoS / SoD. Get creative. Make your summoned velociraptors into DRAGONS under your complete command as one example.

Prismatic Wall is not offensive - it is defensive. It *completely blocks* pretty much *everything* from getting through it. You can't bypass it without teleportation or moving around/over it. Depending upon terrain as to how much of that kind of thing is even POSSIBLE for most creatures. This blocking is nondiscriminatory however, so use it to divide and conquer your foes (when there is more than one).

Reverse Gravity has more uses than the immediately obvious as well - just because many things fly does not mean *everything* flies. An excellent use of this is to fling your allies INTO THE AIR to intercept a dragon that's been strafing the group. mass fly or its analog is highly recommended to back this up - but you can't beat the rate of ascension / free vertical movement speed the spell can provide.

Here's a basic set of spells for you to have several of prepared: Dispel Magic and its big brother Greater Dispel Magic. Make sure you have Arcane Sight or, even better, Greater Arcane Sight up and running. See critters flying around without wings? Are you Knowledge skills up to snuff? They should be at a +14 INT bonus - there's 10 Knowledge skills, leaving your drow lich with at least 6 additional skills at maximum ranks to play with. At a +14 INT bonus, you can stop putting ranks into them at 16th level at the latest. Make the free action Knowledge check for the critter if it is flying without wings and without discernable magic items. Target the most likely magic item providing flight with a quickened dispel magic, critter loses flight mode pretty much guaranteed against the generally miserably low CL of flight-providing magic items. If it is clear magic is providing flight, a targeted dispel against the fly effect solves that problem immediately.

A 40 STR is not the same thing as a 38 INT in terms of 'means of dealing with the character's strongest ability score'. The STR is much easier to penalize or otherwise decrease than the INT score is. ray of enfeeblement, numerous numerous poisons and measly shadows can shred a 40 STR character in 2 or 3 rounds - less against hordes of shadows. I doubt it would take more than 2 rounds for a properly played gob o' greater shadows at an encounter CR sufficient to challenge this group - say, about a CR 25 - to decimate the group in a right hurry.

If your save-dependant effects were of no use, there's a magnificent feat in the APG called Arcane Blast. Short range, but it's unstoppable if your wizard is prepared to make proper use of it. quicken true strike, true seeing, see invisibility and glitterdust are your friends. You don't care about the blinding save of glitterdust - you care about the "if it's invisible, no one cares any more" part.

From the sound of the group outlined above, the group should not have remained together by any sane reasoning. Paladins and diabolist-wizard liches just don't travel in the same circles. The paladin's code is explicit in this matter.

There are some wording concerns for this last version.

Proficiency with both specified weapons should replace "proficiency with selected weapon".

There is no restrictions section bolded/highlighted. The most important stipulation of this feat has not been made explicit: at any time you do not have both weapons readied you lose the benefits of all abilities and feats that derive from the use of these weapons. Without this, the restriction is a non-issue. This restriction MUST NOT be bypassable to be remotely palatable.

Here's my concern with this feat: it allows "doubling up" with archetypes and/or prestige classes that are designed around a single weapon. The principle example of this concern is Weapon Master archetype from the APG.

Turin the Mad wrote:

Thundershot wrote:

Okay, I feel like I'm doing something wrong.

The characters are at the island where the tomb is at. How in the heck are they supposed to get there? The cliff is 100 ft. and there doesn't appear to be any beach or anything at the bottom. How are they supposed to get to the bottom into the tomb? They have the folding boat from Varnhold, but what can they see from above? I guess I'm just missing something...

The entrance into the bottom level is there at the bottom of the map with a tiny pseudo-beachy-looking spot before the doorway. I'd suppose that the entrance as mapped is at a higher water level than it would be later in the year when the water level is much lower. It is also pretty easy to see from shore.

The "upper entrance" is not normally all that visible, although it is certainly findable with clever reconnaissance.

So... how are they supposed to get there from the south part of the map? If they scale down the 100 ft. cliff, then they're in the drink and have to risk swimming a decently long distance to the shore. That's also assuming that there's beach at the bottom of the cliff.

Thanks
Chris

The main entrance? They walk across to it. The critters that came out of there did, the numbskull that started the whole mess did and the "missing person" did too.

The hidden entrance ? If they locate it, they have LOTS of means to find it if they're "on level" for that part of the adventure. Make them get creative. The most mundane means are a boat - which they have probably already found - some take 10 climb checks and a few coils of rope tied together for the rest of them to climb up.

Now THAT's what I call a session!

It was awesome. About 2/3rds of the way into the slobberknocker Zin Serina came to the realization that this would probably end the campign if they failed to wipe out the dragons. Both of DMT's attempts to feeblemind failed to penetrate the dragons' SR. Mulder "da Cultist" attempted a curse that similarly failed to take effect. That dragons' umbrage at these meat snacks' temerity caused the GM to forget about their Frightful Presence and access to limited wish to effect resotration of hit points.

It was also pretty draining. There's a simplicity to running single-critter baddies which is deceptive in the face of severe action economy deficits. It sucks eggs to have a well-crafted baddy get smoked in a single round due to sheer firepower.

It will be interesting to "Turin-ize" the Chapter 6 baddies (since most of them were lost) with access to the APG, UM and UC instead of "just" the APG. ^__^

38 INT Old Drow noble lich wizard ... there's a line as a PC that should not really have been crossed. Drow in almost all campaigns are as or more evil than home-made soap, despised by almost every civilized surface-dwelling race/society and have a major problem with sunlight. Liches are almost always evil incarnate, sacrificing newborn unicorns and engineering genocide to fuel their insatiable thirst for arcane power. They too are despised by almost every surface-dwelling race/society and have a severe reaction to certain sunlight-based effects.

I do hope that this was an Evil campaign. Otherwise, your character should have run into an imprisonment made into an automatic failure by a quickened wish by now.

I'd take odds on a loaded d20 "just for you" behind the screen. If the monsters were stock, then the GM was trying (and failing) to be subtle.

Either way, stock monsters don't deserve to go up against PCs that are that far ahead of the curve for their supposed level. By all rights, that group's mundane encounters should have been ~CR 18-19 with heavy hitters ~CR 22 (at APL 15).

In other words, when your group would have normally encountered 1 CR 18 critter, you should have been getting pounded on by 4-5 of them.

It is possible/probable that the GM was taking it easy on the new player despite the fact that you made that character for the player.

Okay, I feel like I'm doing something wrong.

The characters are at the island where the tomb is at. How in the heck are they supposed to get there? The cliff is 100 ft. and there doesn't appear to be any beach or anything at the bottom. How are they supposed to get to the bottom into the tomb? They have the folding boat from Varnhold, but what can they see from above? I guess I'm just missing something...

The entrance into the bottom level is there at the bottom of the map with a tiny pseudo-beachy-looking spot before the doorway. I'd suppose that the entrance as mapped is at a higher water level than it would be later in the year when the water level is much lower. It is also pretty easy to see from shore.

The "upper entrance" is not normally all that visible, although it is certainly findable with clever reconnaissance.

With regret, I had to postpone today's game until Next Saturday, October 15, due to 'group mechanics' issues... We'll try again next Saturday. ~KGM

Drama! Drama! Drama!

Our Rulers spend a few months investing loot into yet more magic swag before tracking down the "brother" dragons Reggie and Ozzy - more accurately, their lair.

Upon arrival, they see an adult red discussing Matters of Importance with Reggie the ancient Black Dragon Loremaster and Ozzy the ancient Green Dragon Eldritch Knight.

The dragons' two dozen wives - now about 5 months along with their next batch of offspring - and two dozen feral hatchling black and green dragon hatchlings frolicked and picnic'd while the "menfolk" were discussing those Matters of Importance.

Our Rulers eavesdropped upon the tail end of this discussion before dropping the hammer. Seems that these feral dragon offspring have been getting handed off to some one named Choral. The red dragon is Choral's emmisarry or one of his emmisarries. Reggie and Ozzy made it clear that their scutage and tribute to Choral has been paid in full.

Already buffed to the nines, Our Heroes drop the hammer from 300 feet out. A pinpoint accurate crossbow bolt confirmed crit from the Nameless Fighter replacement cohort of DMT (King of Cordelon) slapped into the red dragon along with Quickened Cold-ball and a rod-Maximized Cold Fireball that slew the red dragon on the spot via massive trauma.

Our Rulers pressed their advantage of surprise, dropping a Dimensional Lock betwixt the dragons (who were just outside the mouth of the submerged tunnel that let into their lair). Additonal Stuff Happened before both dragons dove into the tunnel that provided a temporary reprieve from the PCs' assault. The hatchlings scattered into the swamp while the wives QMF'd upon their picnic blankets.

Following the dragons into their lair, they found out the hard way that the dragons have a pair of shield guardian stone golems. During the two rounds that passed, the dragons ordered the golems to activate their Shield Other ability while tacking on a handful of buffs apiece. Within the lair the smackdown began in earnest.

Armag-Varn flew past the two golems to engage Ozzy the green dragon with his deadly blade, eating three AoOs in the process. The highlights:

Ozzy made use of Quickened Dimension Door to bounce back and forth between the inside of the lair and just outside the Dimensional Lock near their lair entrance. Reggie dropped a miasma breath weapon that filled the entire tunnel leading to their lair. Reggie was Mazed 3 times before a Dimensional Anchor was used to ensure that he stayed put.

Over the course of the battle Armag-Varn died three times. Each time he was returned to the living via Breath of Life followed by a Heal. Da Cultist similarly died once, returned to life by his armor's Determination property.vthe Namelss Fighter cohort was messily slain by Ozzy while the irate green dragon was outside, buying the PCs a valuable additional round with which to focus fire upon Reggie the black dragon.

In the end Our Rulers, almost all of them severely wounded by spell, acid and the dragons Maul and Mattock of the Titans, wre desperate. The last golem had been returned to its constituent components by Zin Serina. The dolls were either in rough shape or had never been brought out (Mr Straw). Reggie had been put down by a combination of blade and numerous cold spells, his frozen corpse soon to be made into accessories, luggage and armor. Ozzy was in bad shape but was wearing through the PCs in melee with his Mattock of the Titans. whichever one is Gargantuan sized

Her Royal Majesty had been rolling poorly during the majoirty of the fight on her spell penetration rolls. The final shot of the fight was a Disintegrate that followed a Limited Wish to penalize the dragon' next saving throw. Even with the penalty, Ozzy only needed to throw a 4+ to shrug off the worst of the spell's effects. The die is thrown and lo and behold ... a 2! Ozzy was disintegrated, the green particles dissolving into the murky water of his lair's entry tunnel.

Our Rulers made of with roughly 725k gp of loot and swag and the 8 wives that survived the battle. Armag-Varn's body count is now on par with the group's average.

What a slobberknocker!

The slobberknocker-fest continues:

Name: Mulder "da Cultist"; General Armag-Hirish Varn; Nameless Fighter cohort
Race: reincarnation-junky; human (advanced); human
Classes/levels: UA Cloistered Cleric 16; Fighter 16; Fighter 14
Adventure: Blood for Blood
Location: the Hooktongue Slough
Catalyst: taking on dragons in their lair
The Gory Details: (short version) Our Rulers, having acquired the major artifact greatsword "Enemy of all Enemies" elected to violently remove the "brothers in scales" ancient green and ancient black dragons that have held ownership of the kingdom's gold mine from the domestic political equation.

While the PCs were victorious, the cloistered cleric died once and the fighter thrice, each time resuscitated by breath of life. The Nameless Fighter cohort died more permanently, but he got better.

Just heard this on the radio.

In the name of the book, impure souls of the living dead shall be banished into eternal rest!

I can't believe this group! First we by vote agree that we should break our contract with the dragons. Now we are actually WORKING with undead! I don't know how long I can put up with these abominations. Maybe I should bow our of the active adventuring with the court and majesty till these undead have left our company. I just want them gone, and attempting to make it happen is very tempting. They are not evil, strange that is, but I just can ignore them for too long. I will just have to put up with them for now; hopefully not for too long.

In light of General Armag/Varn's honor guard of bloody skeletal champions taking up residence in the basement/dungeon of Varn Keep, what is your intention?

I so wish that I had come across this two sessions ago - my Black Sisters would have recited this in stereo. I would've had the two ladies of hack at the table recite it stanza by stanza as the rogue was disabling the glyph-trapped hallway. *sighs*

Great stuff!

It will be interesting to see how long this group elects to get put through the meatgrinder before they hang it up as a waste of time.

From what I'm hearing, this group might not make it past the first or maybe the second session. Good luck!

Ten thousand men eh? ^__^

Well, first of all, is that really a problem?

They are heroes and saving their town, if they already ahve the forwarning, is the point.

Second of all, what would the levels of the opponents be?

Whatever's written is fine. "Aid Other" is useable with ranged attacks too. Most of the OpFor are 2nd level or higher if memory serves. They can't be total 'tards..

Forewarning is fine and dandy. If you want this to even vaguely resemble a challenge, basic tactics is within reason. :)

The "attack" on Tatzylford, let alone the "war" to follow in the next chapter, are pretty thin. I recommend ramping this up for you group to account for action economy on the PC's side of the equation. As written, it's almost too easy.

If they meet out to whack 'em, make use of scouts with feather token messengers and making the leader at least semi-competent. Focused fire, using cover and basic tactics. Frankly, unless your group is all about the smash-mouth approach, they're likely to scry n fry the lot.

Our Rulers rested a couple of days, sweeping around the dungeon (away from the derghodaemon's "resting hallway") before entering the cavern. They wiped out the 8 archer-greatsword ranger skeletal champions with a pair of fireballs, swung up into room 11 and ...

Proceeded to impress old Featherboy with a 37 Intimidate by Her Majesty on an unassisted check. Waiving them into the final chamber were another 8 bloody skeletal champion rangers (guide skirmisher archetypes) awaited them. As did Armag the Twice-Born behind closed doors at the top of the stairs across the room from them.

Buffing to the utter gills, the old man closed off the doors behind them (blocking off the recently rejuvenated dread exemplar derghodaemon) while opening Armag's doors.

Since Armag won initiative, he bounded down the stairs, raging mightily and swinging a wickedly crimson-glowing greatsword, slobber flying everywhere while he foamed at the mouth. Acrobatically bounding into the midst of Our Heroes, his pounce ability let him land amidst them and nearly hack down Her Majesty with 3 mighty blows.

A wall of thorns isolated Armag from his skeletal minions, who spent the subsequent 3 rounds attempting to shoulder through the barrier to no effect.

Over the subsequent several rounds he attempted to hack down General Varn (once) and Da Cultist (twice) before the mighty Fighter, tag-teaming him with Zin Serina and a trio of summoned cyclopses courtesy of Da Druid Cohort finally brought him low. Her Majesty, Torsin Tightbutt and Da Cultists' numerous spells were thwarted one and all by Ovirnbaane's counterspelling. The sword told everyone to "Bite It!!" with each successful counterspelling before Torsin and Her Majesty switched over to packling Armag with arcane blasts.

Fetching Ovirnbaane, General Varn elected to hike home with his sixteen skellies as his new honor guard.

Turning their efforts to returing the chunky salsa back to life, they spend five days' time having Zin Serina do the dirty work. They find out that some mercenary leader dude with siege engines in tow along with the Tiger Lord Glenebon Highlanders showed up outside the incomplete walls of Fort Drelev clearly intent upon sacking the place.

Being a craven cur, Baron Drelev immediately capitulated and sent the quintet of hostages with Armag to eventually end up deceased at the business end of the crystal dragon's breath weapon.

Needless to say, Da Mystic Theurge eventually returned with Molly Missy's soul focus in tow a couple of days after this.

Reader's Digest version: Our Rulers kicked ass on an improv session involving an infiltration of Fort Drelev under the guise of visiting nobles with impressive gifts, reconnoitering the 3rd floor drug-food-orgy party (involving multiple stage compound drugs/poisons lacing the beverages, food, smokes and incense). The intent by the "hostesses behind the scenes" was a coup d'etat by way of "death by orgy!".

The orchestrators of this tawdry coup d'etat in the making were the 3 Ladies in Purple, smokin' hawt sisters in countenance with the moral restraints of serpents. Her Majesty whipped out her rod of splendor to raise a magnificent pavilion a short distance outside the northern city walls. While combining limited wishes to effect communal delay poisons, assorted illusions to lure the Ladies Purple (who were entertaining their principle charges, much to the "death with a smile" found on the Baron's face) into a false sense of security whilst the partygoers were stuffing their faces and each other before being sent out to the Party Pavilion. Within the aforementioned pavilion antitodes were administered and toxins extracted via judicious useage of healing kits and Heal skill checks by players no longer in attendance.

Jewel was "accidentally on purpose" abandoned to his messy, yappy, annoyingly not-going-to-be-missed-anymore demise by child gang-stomping. Stupid yappy little sh*t of a dawg.

Her Highness, Magister Stroon and 'General' Ameon Trask were convicted of High Treason, strung from the western gates by the necks until dead and subsequently rest eternall'd to ensure permanent deaths for the lot.

The three Ladies in Purple under purview of true seeing were revealed to be an old foe from long ago: simulacrums of a mummy villainess that long ago murdered them all and set fire to their orphanage - way back in Council of Thieves. It seems they have once more acquired the msytery woman's attentions in some way or fashion.

Our Rulers left off at this state at the tail end of April 4715 (before beginning westward expansion, magic item creation and the annexation of Fort Drelev - to be renamed Numesti in honor of the newly appointed Lord Mayor and Protector Numesti).

P.S.: Eventually they pry the masked memories of Lord Numesti open and piece together that the "mercenary leader" was none other than King Irovetti of Pitax.

That's the point of the feint against Varnhold - they'll hopefully panic and send too much east before Varnhold's puny walls and watchtower crumble while leaving a thinner guard against Drelev.

Concentration of firepower combined with siege engines under cautious strategy [intent is to take no damage while each army's engines batter down the defenses] until the defenses are down to their last +2 or so before the all-out assault takes place. Sieging Drelev need not be a normal "starve them out" siege with the balance of forces available from the west. :)

CMD is not a check, it's a target number as with AC.

22 HD dragon with book standard stats *might* be equal to a 20th level character ...

Excepting that the dragon will definitely be target numero uno for almost everything they encounter. I highly recommend you compare a "naked" dragon to one of the equipped PCs [especially a fighter/paladin or ideally an eldritch knight based on sorcerer] and see what the differences are. The 2 extra racial HD are not to be discounted lightly.

CR does not equal Level, not as a PC.

22d12 racial hit dice - better than all the other characters: +22 base attack bonus, +13 base saves bonus for all saving throws.

Senses: blindsense 60 ft, darkvision 120 ft, enhanced low-light vision.

Aura: frightful presence 240 ft w/ "book standard" DC of 27. Great for starting the ball rolling - as an added bonus, the universal monster rules stipulate "opponents", so there's no worrying about his buddies!
* Last I checked, the best a regular PC can do as a full-round action is an Intimidate check with an "aura" of 30 feet ... this ability happens for free and is save-based, not skill-based. It would STACK with the other PCs' Intimdate-based stuff though, so be aware of this.

Speed: 250 ft fly (clumsy), 60 ft land speed, 60 ft swim speed. No other PC can match this without the most powerful of magic.

Gargantuan size - MUCH bigger than the rest. Brings with it 250 ft fly speed & (as pointed out) a whopping 6 natural weapons during a full attack plus the options of crush and tail sweep.

+28 natural armor bonus = AC of 33 "book standard".
* Touch AC will be in the tank at a 5, but that's par for the course when you're as big as a cottage. Even if you are mobile.

SR 29 for free (17 points over 12 in a magic item is priced at 170,000 gp by itself - and this SR is "built in", not sunderable/stealable/targetable...) Against ~CR 19-23 foes, maybe not worth much, but every bit helps, figure it stops 25 - 35 % of effects to which SR is applicable.

Immune to fire, paralysis and sleep
* Vulnerability to cold offsets the fire immune. Being a nonhumanoid helps a lot too. CL vs HD-based effects are skewed in the dragon's favor as it has those 2 extra dragon HD compared to the rest of the group.

DR 10/magic is almost a non-issue at this level. It's pretty much a non-issue when dragons get the ability at DR 10/magic ...

16d10 60 ft cone of fire breath weapon - plus weakening gas option to deal 8 Strength damage instead. "Book standard" DC 28 Reflex or Fort respectively to halve/negate.

"Book standard" stats are 35 Str, 8 Dex, 25 Con, 22 Int, 23 Wis, 22 Cha without magic items. Not counting feats and gear, that's a ranged attack bonus of +17 on ranged attacks [meh] and a +30 on all melee attacks [not bad, considering]. Saves are Fort +20, Reflex +12, Will +19 not counting feats and gear. The only thing the dragon is hurting on is initiative with the -1 penalty from Dex.

Spell-like Abilities (CL 22nd, DC 16+SL, concentration bonus +28):
3/day - detect gems
1/day - luck <-- awesome hand out to his buddies btw.
At Will - detect evil, bless, daylight, geas/quest

Change Shape - nondispellable, very nice, makes fitting in with the meat snacks very easy. Comes with the added bonus of simple weapons proficiency for free, permitting Gargantuan weapons usage. Gargantuan Heavy Crossbow ... Gargantuan Longspear ... this could get ugly ...

Fire Aura is negligible except in melee with trolls or the like - but, it is supernatural and non-dispellable, so it's always around unless the dragon suppresses it.

11th level arcane spell casting as sorcerer (DC 16+SL, concentration bonus +17, can select cleric spells as known spells in addition to sor/wiz spells) is built-in self-buffing and at least modest condition removal capacity. On top of full melee capability...

With the addition of Ultimate Combat, even with "paltry" 11th level sorcerer abilities I would expect this dragon to pick up most or all of the dimension door based feats ... can we say "full round attack plus teleporting into and back out of melee a bunch of x/day" ? I thought we could.

The feats and skills ranks are what they are - that is, the full BAB all Good saves 22d12 HD character has 12 skills at 22 ranks each.

This might not go as well as expected when the dragon plunks most of his 800k gp on the full suite of books. +5 Str & Con, +3 Wis, +4 Dex, Int & Cha tally up to 687.5k - setting his ability scores at 40 Str, 12 Dex, 30 Con, 26 Int, 26 Wis, 26 Cha with all the attendant bonuses from them (+3 on STR and CON based stuff, +2 on all the rest). This leaves about 170.5k or so to kit out with ...

Assuming "average" hp with that +5 CON book, the dragon-PC will have (without Toughness or any other gear) 363 hit points [143 +220 from CON]. Thanks to the books the dragon has +23 Fort saves (no feats/gear), +14 Reflex saves (no feats/gear), +21 Will saves (no feats/gear), Melee AB +33, Ranged AB +19, Breath Weapon DC 31, Frightful Presence DC 29, Spell DC 18+SL, concentration +30 (Sp) or +19 (spells). CMB +41. CMD 52. Touch AC 7 (6 ff), regular AC 35 (34 ff).

If you are going to keep the dragon in the game, it might be in your best interest to *require* the book assignments above (and "book standard" ability scores). I highly recommend requiring the LG alignment but leaving feat and skill selections to the player (only keeping in mind the dragon's racial skills).

Who has actually had their character's spellbook stolen/sundered/otherwise destroyed in a game of Pathfinder or any edition of D&D?

Wizard meets engulfing ooze that dissolves equipment. Wizard might survive while the gear does not.

Wizard submerged in water without a waterproofed spell book for more than a round or two is self-explanatory.

Wizard dies by incineration / acid bath / what have you generally does his gear in too. Such as by green slime immersion (Age of Worms as a prime example, others pre-3e).

Turin, your wording ("might survive" and "such as") suggests you have not seen these things happen, just what is possible. Am I misunderstanding?

That said, it's interesting the situations you are describing are not situations where the spellbook is specifically targeted. Same with Chris's experience.

All the above situations--failed fireball save, oozes, acid, water, antimagic field--are situations any character could find themselves in and would be equally in danger of losing their stuff.

DQ, that isn't what you asked. You asked about circumstances under which spellbooks have been damaged/destroyed. Mine are ones that did and will likely continue to happen (probably to me).

Specifically targeting a wizard's spell book is exceedingly rare in my experience, since game play generally doesn't see a wizard holding one during a fight. Sorry my reply wasn't more informative! :)

Looks like its time for a computer upgrade, and an end to my self imposed ban on MMOs.

My computer guru assured me that my computer could indeed run it ... excepting the whole "fighting" thing. An upgraded computer is not in the cards that soon unless I win a lottery or something.

Have fun!

Release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic announced as 20th December today. I doubt my anemic 'puter can handle it. 'Tis a fairly purty game tho...

Quote:

Depends on how you play out the war itself. If you do "war in the background", it should play out in anywhere from 2 to 4 sessions. Waging war in full will add to this, especially if you've elected to take things a bit further than "scripted".

I'm going to play out the war. I've decided to include a little mini adventure where the PCs are invited to join the Outlaw Council. This will let them meet Irovetti, and encourage them to hopefully attend the tournament once they see everyone else is planning to attend... well, at least the major River Kingdoms are planning on attending. I am planning on having a blitz attack on Fort Drelev that is coordinated with a minor attack on Varnhold. The Varnhold attack will consist of one flight of Wyverns. Fort Drelev will be attacked by the humans and trolls. If they don't immediately start the battle at Fort Drelev with some early gains, Irovetti's forces will lay siege to it.

How important is it that the PCs are level 13 by the start of this?

Frank

I suggest the wyverns hit Varnhold early enough that the attention of the PCs is drawn there. Once the "western army group" crosses the border en route to Fort Drelev, the PCs will be forced to decide. I would suggest - given the baddies' information gathering capabilities - that "eastern army group" pack enough punch to actually draw decent strength to deal with them.

Planning is everything. Varnhold in this case is the feint to draw your PCs main strength east to deal with that threat. It needs enough strength to succeed in that goal before the hammerstroke lands upon Fort Drelev. The Catspaw Marauders are mounted - and the wyverns are intelligent. They can "pair up" with the Marauders to strike Varnhold from the east. This attack needs to hit early enough to permit "western army group" enough time to reach Fort Drelev from the kingdom's western border (at least theoretically unhindered) while the main strength of the kingdom was drawn eastward to repel the "eastern army group" before having to wheel around and march the entire length of the kingdom back to the west. One flight of wyverns won't be too likely to draw that response. Wyverns flying cover for a ground force probably will.

If all participants are of legal age and inclination, a drinking game would go a long way to straighten this mess up.

That, or assigning mocking names: MiB 1, MiB 2, Sir Morr of Onn, Dame Easy On Theighs, etc.

Or sicc a pack of goblins wearing colored hats on 'em, catch is: the hats are cursed hats of disguise. The color (which should be neon bright - pink, bright green, a pastel blue, a particularly nice light purple. And of course yellow) changes between the hats to match the "modus operandi" of the character. Yellow for fighter, pink for paladin, purple for arcane, green for the elf, blue for whomever's left.

When they get low in hp, a booming voice overhead declares (for example) "green elf is about to die" or "pink cavalier needs food badly". They can't get rid of the hats until you're bored with the shtick. Call on players by their hat/class (or race) combination throughout the game. In e-mails, same thing. If you keep an internet campaign journal, use it there too. In short, they're Gauntlet characters - treat them as such.

Alertantively, pranksterish fey can simply *pouf* their headgear accordingly. ^__^

This coming Sunday our intrepid band of rulers/adventurers resume their quest to obtain the sword of Armag, Ovirnbaane "Enemy of all Enemies". They have to rescue the Queen from her panicked flight, patch themselves up (although these details may have already occured) and acquire the weapon in not more than another day's time (since they have presumably already rested) before the Dread Derghodaemon returns. Somehow they have to remove the daemon's curse from the General/Fighter and Zin Serina/Da Monkette. Since they presently lack accesss to a caster that is immune to fear and able to cast a Remove Curse, I suspect that Limited Wish spells are going to be uttered to effect a solution to this dilemma.

The Cast of Characters:
* Nixie Druid 13 cohort
* Mr Straw, Rogue 13 soulbound doll cohort
* Da Cultist, Cleric 15 - UA cloistered cleric (advanced human, reincarnated half-elf)
* Torsin Tightbutt, Wizard 15 (universalist, advanced elf)
* Zin Serina, Monk 15 (archetypes out the wazoo, advanced human)
* General H. Varn, Fighter 15 (advanced human)
* Eirwen Kirsi, Eldritch Knight 7 / Sorceress 7 (water bloodline, advanced human)

Will Our Rulers prevail against the challenges that remain in Armag's Tomb? Will they take too long to get there? Will they have enough time to do so and throw down with Ozzie and Reggie? Or will the Dread Derghodaemon get to nom on them again?

That aura is the only possibility she has to not become a smear on the ground in round 1 as I read it. I like teaming her up with "P". *yoinked!*

Makes a mental note to find a way to add something nasty to the ladies...

Wow, talk about changing the guard.

I sympathize with you on "GM burnout". Having a vested interest from the players helps. Sometimes swapping out to a one-shot module can help, especially if the module can at least be loosely tied into the main campaign. Approaching 2 years' real time with the same campaign (Council of Thieves leading into Kingmaker) myself, I'm feeling that burn too.

Mixing things up and *especially* getting some time in as a player helps a LOT in my experience.

Well, he did it. Wendigo who was in a very thick fog, such that you had to be within 15' to even see and had 20% concealment further than 5' away.

Melee got to have fun, I got to shoot it a little but no full-rounds from me, and it actually lived a whole four rounds or so. The witch, who only moves 40' (flying carpet), didn't actually get to see it to ID it until it was dead.

** spoiler omitted **

^__^

I have a serious, non-rhetorical question, and I would be over the moon if anyone actually answers it seriously:

Who has actually had their character's spellbook stolen/sundered/otherwise destroyed in a game of Pathfinder or any edition of D&D?

Would you please describe the circumstances in which this happened?

Wizard meets engulfing ooze that dissolves equipment. Wizard might survive while the gear does not.

Wizard submerged in water without a waterproofed spell book for more than a round or two is self-explanatory.

Wizard dies by incineration / acid bath / what have you generally does his gear in too. Such as by green slime immersion (Age of Worms as a prime example, others pre-3e).

Turin the Mad wrote:

wraithstrike wrote:

Turin when you get everything back I would suggest getting a portable hard drive or at least a 2nd one in any event. I update the backup HD about once every week. I do need to put all this stuff online also in case I have the bad luck of losing both HD's at once.

An external drive has been acquired and Da Monkette's player has been / is performing a raise dead computer ritual. Fortunately, there has yet to be a need for any costly material components. Success appears to be on a system shock basis however, so word on survival has not yet been determined.

We will see soon enough. :)

(OOC: I hope everything goes well. Best of luck and sorry for your loss.)

I guess my services are not needed, you don't want it to turn into a toaster or blu-ray player.

I would gladly take its being reincarnated into a spiffy 55" 1080p HD LED wall-mountable TV though! ^__^

I dunno ... a wand of flaming sphere can dish out an awful lot of burning in its life, even at CL 3rd. They should burn away all the fog near them, provide plentiful illumination with enough of them and after a minute of igniting trees the tree-hopping hippeh should be willing to negotiate.

Heavily-armored fighters are prime targets for a Sunder, especially when the baddie is whiffing against AC. When you're missing against AC, Sundering against CMD is a solid second choice to lower that AC when provided (seemingly) by armor, a shield, bracers and/or an amulet.

It is a valid tactic for PCs too for precisely the same reason. Loot has no value when you are deceased.

A hasted fighter-type swings solidly (10 or 11) on his best attack and the blow harmlessly bounces off the baddy's full plate. With the extra best-BAB attack, why not hack that armor off? Broken armor is a pain in the butt. Destroyed armor - such as the aforementioned full plate - drops the AC for subsequent attacks by 9+. I'll trade the Sunders for making my entire party's job of killing this critter 50% easier!

Turin when you get everything back I would suggest getting a portable hard drive or at least a 2nd one in any event. I update the backup HD about once every week. I do need to put all this stuff online also in case I have the bad luck of losing both HD's at once.

An external drive has been acquired and Da Monkette's player has been / is performing a raise dead computer ritual. Fortunately, there has yet to be a need for any costly material components. Success appears to be on a system shock basis however, so word on survival has not yet been determined.

We will see soon enough. :)

Sir Turin,

I have combed my email box, and forwarded back to your good self any message I could identify as having originated with you which had an email attachment.
None of it is your more recent work, I fear - Some Savage Tide and Styes stuff, plus one file about Scarwall.

Hoping that there may be something of use to you in there. (I think I saw a mention of Dardapterebos on some of the attachments, so there as at least one very modest sized piece of entertainment perhaps available with a bit of system conversion work...)

(Sir) Charles.
Edit:
Oh yes; and if Dardapterebos should happen to snack upon any PCs, do give your players my very kindest of regards... ;)

^__^ It is tempting, so awfully tempting ... and again many thanks for the forwarded goodies!

Turin the Mad wrote:

Gentleman wrote:

I'm in a bit of a bind in my adventure.

My players are raiding Vordakai's tomb right now, and they managed to find the hidden entrance, and managed to break through it's magical lock. They've just gotten part of the Hell Pit, and are now heading in the direction of Vordakai...

The problem is, they're missing out a lot of the dungeon, as well as a LOT of treasures. It's all well that they avoided the evil deathtraps on the first level though, but the entire shrine as well as the prison is a big deal. One of their NPC friends are there(aside from the Centaur), that got kidnapped by Vordakai.

The Hell Pit is not easy to get across, so they might not even try to head that way before jumping on Vordakai. With the updated encounter for 6 players(the one that adds an anti-paladin into the fight), I think it'll be hard without their NPC cohort support. As well as the additional XP/potential level before they tangle with Vordakai itself.

Kill zem all ... if they are so foolish as do not "perform a tactical advance to the rear". The survivors can regroup and do a sweep n clear.

Turin your something else man. :-)! We just don't what yet. lol

I endeavor to entertain. :P

I'm in a bit of a bind in my adventure.

My players are raiding Vordakai's tomb right now, and they managed to find the hidden entrance, and managed to break through it's magical lock. They've just gotten part of the Hell Pit, and are now heading in the direction of Vordakai...

The problem is, they're missing out a lot of the dungeon, as well as a LOT of treasures. It's all well that they avoided the evil deathtraps on the first level though, but the entire shrine as well as the prison is a big deal. One of their NPC friends are there(aside from the Centaur), that got kidnapped by Vordakai.

The Hell Pit is not easy to get across, so they might not even try to head that way before jumping on Vordakai. With the updated encounter for 6 players(the one that adds an anti-paladin into the fight), I think it'll be hard without their NPC cohort support. As well as the additional XP/potential level before they tangle with Vordakai itself.

Kill zem all ... if they are so foolish as do not "perform a tactical advance to the rear". The survivors can regroup and do a sweep n clear.

Turin the Mad wrote:

Tragedy Strikes! down my computer

Fell and terrible news gentlecritters one and all. My computer has effectively shuffled off this mortal coil, taking with it a thousand hours+ of homebrewed villainous statblocks, side quests, mass combat rules and all the rest. Eventually I'll be able to recover the information ... but not any time soon.

While the campaign will go on, it will largely be on an ad-lib basis relying upon "the Script".

The back-up computer will suffice for day to day affairs at least.

sadface! :(

at least most of your Mass Combat stuff is up here on the boards.

May I suggest a cloud-storage format, like Google Docs, for future development. I love it, and it prevents this from reoccurring...

Sorry that happened.

I will undertake tutelage in the cloud computing arts at the earliest time frame of reasonableness (as it were).

What went *pouf*: Pitax's revised armies; revised stat blocks for all of Chapters 4, 5 and 6; side baddies: Reggie and Ozzy (the dragons); King Max; Mistah Mwangi; Fluff Gugg; Mirthilda Blaggard the Dreadnaught Troll Antipaladin; Cassandra Slayn; draft noted on Choral and his goodies; draft notes on two other facets post Chapter 6 ... it's painful. That's just the home-brew pertaining to Kingmaker...

Tragedy Strikes! down my computer

Fell and terrible news gentlecritters one and all. My computer has effectively shuffled off this mortal coil, taking with it a thousand hours+ of homebrewed villainous statblocks, side quests, mass combat rules and all the rest. Eventually I'll be able to recover the information ... but not any time soon.

While the campaign will go on, it will largely be on an ad-lib basis relying upon "the Script".

The back-up computer will suffice for day to day affairs at least.

MrTim wrote:

ChrisO wrote:

Wanted to stop by and give a hearty thanks to Greg, or whomever it was who came up with the Soul Eater.

Actually, the Soul Eater is from an old X-series module back in the 80s (X4: Master of the Desert Nomads by Dave Cook) and was, as implied in the stat block, resurrected in Necromancer Games' Tome of Horrors.

Does remembering the origin of the Soul Eater (and being able to pull the module off my shelf) make me a grognard? Or just old?

Greetings,

Regarding the Soul Eater ... I have a question about his Wisdom Drain ability. I know it's from being hit by a claw attack, but a soul eater has 2 claw attacks... does each (successful) attack have the potential to cause 1d6 Wisdom Drain (damage)? Or is it the "less deadly" 1d6 Wisdom Drain no matter if one or both claw attacks hit?

I'll very likely be GM-ing this encounter tomorrow evening (PCs are in Varnhold now, just fought the Chuul (nearly drowned the PC Magus heh-heh). They haven't yet "stumbled" across the ** spoiler omitted ** which I am thinking of increasing). I have 6 PCs and allowed for a 25 point buy... but I am buffing/increasing the encounters to keep pace with 'em. So... in that regard, if the Wis Dmg would be from both claw attacks (provided both attacks hit) I'd be okay with that.

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

~Dean

Yep - drain their brains ASAFP with those nasty nasty claws. The Big V would approve wholeheartedly.