hogarth's page

Interesting... My personal take on Cauldron's justice system was much more "Judge Roy Bean" frontier-style. My players got the idea that the city was a darker place; you can hardly blame them when the first thing they encounter is a helpless cleric getting beaten up by off-duty city guards!

Here's what I told my players about the law:

"In case you're interested, here's the general idea of how the Cauldron legal system works:

-The subject is arrested, either by the town guard or by a posse of concerned citizens.

-After the subject has been apprehended, he is generally kept in a cell in the barracks of the town guard. A rich suspect may be allowed to return home pending trial if he posts bail/ransom with a city magistrate. A monstrous suspect ( e.g. any non-PC, non-humanoid race) enjoys few rights; the more monstrous the lawbreaker, the more likely that they may just get summarily executed before trial.

-The suspect is interrogated. This generally involves a beating (for poor suspects) or a respectful chat (for the rich and powerful).

-If the suspect confesses (either by signing a confession or confessing in front of a magistrate), a magistrate sentences the guilty party to the appropriate punishment (showing leniency as he sees fit). Appropriate punishments include serving time in the stocks, amercing a fine, and flogging for minor crimes and ear/nose-cropping, branding, maiming, exile or death by hanging for more major crimes.

-If the suspect doesn't confess, a trial is held. For minor crimes, a single magistrate presides; the magistrate questions all witnesses and the defendant and has fairly broad jurisdiction over what evidence he is willing to entertain. For major trials, a full panel of four magistrates plus the Lord Mayor presides; questioning is done by an Inquisitor from one of the major churches (almost always a cleric of Wee Jas or St. Cuthbert, and almost never a cleric of Kord) who uses Zone of Truth and/or Discern Lies to question the defendant and other important witnesses. Rich defendants often hire a barrister to act as an advocate on their behalf before the court.

-If the defendant is found guilty, punishment is carried out, generally in the town square for the edification of the good citizens of Cauldron. On occasion, the hanged bodies of notorious malefactors are suspended in cages outside the town gates, but this isn't especially common.

So, for example, the thugs who accosted Ruphus yesterday will probably be tortured for a bit (a beating; nothing fancy) and then sent before a single magistrate to face trial for assault. The first one to confess might get flogged or maimed in some way, and the others might be sentenced to hang (unless they can come up with a good excuse, or maybe a big, fat, juicy bribe)."

Ha ha! Why does this remind me of "The Untouchables"?

"We might not have enough evidence to get them for attempted murder, but we've got them dead to rights on a zoning violation!"

Maybe the 3.5 version of the bar-lgura is different, but in the Book of Vile Darkness the bar-lgura's teleport is a supernatural ability, not a spell-like ability, so it wouldn't require concentration.

In the Tumble skill description, it says a character can tumble "as part of normal movement" and as part of a move action. I would say that a charge doesn't count as normal movement (and it certainly isn't a move action), but it's up to the DM.

By the way, note that a character with the Drunken Master prestige class has a class ability that allows them to do a tumbling charge.

I agree -- let them win their fights however they want, but play it up by showering them with boos and rotten tomatoes. Ultimately I think they'll just be hurting their wallets, though; potions of gaseous form don't grow on trees!

Half-Orc Monk
Half-Elf Bard
Human Psion (Telepath)
Human Cleric
Human Fighter
Human Rogue

For the most part, I'm confident that this party configuration will do well, but the lack of a real arcane spellcaster causes me some worry (I don't count the bard).

In the opinion of those of you who have begun the campaign,how does this lineup look? Should I try to push to include a wizard or sorcerer?

I'm not an expert on the campaign, but I think Psion + Cleric + Bard should have enough magic between them to do O.K. You might want to change some of the treasure suitable for wizards to something psionic, though (e.g. scroll --> power stone, wand --> dorje).

At higher levels the bard could potentially go for the Sublime Chord prestige class to give the party an arcane spellcasting boost.

Appendix 4: The Street Thugs from the beginning of "Life's Bazaar" are listed with a short sword attack modifier of +2, but it should be +3 (+2 BAB, +1 Str).

Tak wrote:

overpowered as all hell.

Clarification? I believe the word 'commentary' implies constructive criticism, not a meaningless phrase. What strikes you as overpowered? Actually, Extrude Wormswarm, which is printed in that issue of Dragon, is 7th level and summons a mobile wormswarm. This 8th level version duplicates the effect of that spell in a way. It allows a greater area of effect but the effect can't move itself once cast, unlike the Extrude Wormswarm spell. The wormwall would be up to 10' high (debating 20'), and obviously has no save because its a conjuration. Its not as if players suddenly are stricken by the effect; they choose to walk through it or not. It also might be one of those whammer-jammer spells that simply gets nerfed by mobility such as dimension door, teleport, etherealness, and the like.

I wasn't thinking that creatures would walk into it so much as get stuck in it (e.g. cast a Wall of Worms and a Solid Fog on your enemies so they can't get out) or bull-rushed into it or whatever. I don't know the details of the Wormswarm spell, but presumably you can kill the swarm; you didn't list any way of destroying the Wall (other than Dispel Magic, obviously).

As far as the undead creation aspect goes, I don't really like the school of thought that goes: "It only helps the bad guys to create a bunch of free-willed kyuss spawn; therefore it's not overpowered." I know that Animate Dead works the same way (e.g. "It's evil, so it's not overpowered.") but I don't like that either. ;) If it gives anyone an unfair benefit (whether it's the PCs or the enemies), it's overpowered in my book. Otherwise, what's stopping a PC from researching a version that turns enemies into Neutral Good half-celestials after death?

Wall of Worms seems overpowered to me. The continuous mental ability drain is extremely powerful and it has no save/SR, too. As a bonus, you can also create powerful undead at no cost (other than the "raw materials").

I would also clarify whether it has to be a flat, vertical wall (like a Wall of Iron) or if it's shapeable (like Wall of Thorns or Wall of Stone), as well as how exactly how tall it is (5'?).

Hmm.I remember them from comic books. I take it the ads were in Dragon too?

Were they the ones that fought the jackalwere?

Russ

I was drawing a blank on those ads until I saw someone mentioned they encountered green slime. Then I totally remembered a picture of green slime dripping from a dungeon ceiling. Ah, memories...

In the OP the lessor AC for one of the forms is:

A.C.: 57 (+6 dex, +9 insight, +11 deflection, +20 natural, +1 divine) touch 37, flat-footed 51, flat-footed touch 21

How the heck is that supposed to be hit? Take my Dwarf Tank at level 20.

20 (bab) + 6 (22 str) + 5 (gmw) + 2 (focus+greater focus) + 1 (haste) + 1 (hero's feast) = 35

He has to roll a 22! to hit.

-- david

22 Str is pretty low for a level 20 fighter. I would think they could have a 20 natural strength, a +6 item and an inherent bonus from a tome -- that's leaving aside the possibility that the party mage might have polymophed him into a stronger form as well.

There are other powerful buffs that can be layered on top of this, too (like bard song, prayer, etc.).

The Handle Animal skill says it can be used on any creature with 1 or 2 Int with a +5 DC if it's not an animal. Since it's a 2 Int creature, it can learn 6 tricks. So, for instance, training it for fighting would be DC 25 and take 3 weeks.

Note that the rules seem to assume that you can only train a domesticated animal. Whether the rust monster counts as domesticated is up to you.

I just started a play-by-email "Shackled City" game. The party is starting at level 2 and includes:
-an elven warlock
-a dwarven rogue
-a human fighter
-an elven ranger
-a dragontouched human cloistered cleric/dragon shaman
-a human wizard

It should prove to be an interesting game!

I haven't played through the modules, but it sounds like a character with trapfinding might come in handy (e.g. a rogue, beguiler or artificer). My vote's for artificer if you can swing it.

How about an advanced marut? That seems like a "paragon of law" that might be interested in fighting liches and gods returning from the dead.

My other thought was of a formian queen with a few more levels of sorcerer so that she could cast Shapechange into a more mobile form.

Vengeance can often be a pretty strong motivator, too. I had one of the PCs almost get recruited to the Ebon Triad Cult by a friend who thought it was some kind of revolutionary Worker's Union that was going to overthrow the mine owners. He soon found out otherwise and motivation hasn't been a problem since. The Faceless One has dodged them a couple times first from 3FE to the Mistmarsh which segued nicely into EBK and then to Greyhawk. Nothing works like making it personal!!

I agree that, in a game, revenge can be pretty sweet! >:-) But if that's your main motivation, then if you manage to get your revenge on your arch-foe halfway through the campaign (say), it leaves you trying to come up reasons to stick around for the second half.

Personally, I think there's a difference between running a free-form campaign (in which case I can develop an individual character's goals in whichever way they happen to lead) and running a prepackaged campaign (where the path is more-or-less predetermined, so a player might have to work a little harder at finding motivations for their character to stick around to the end).

Someone asked the same question in the thread "#143: A Question of Mechanics (spoilers)". The official response seemed to be "Keep the points secret, but make sure you indicate that their actions are having an effect on the defense of the town."

Any suggestions? I'm kind of lost here. I know I should phrase it as a bonus for them and not a quest.

It seems to me that if you all sit down and decide to run the whole adventure path, then your players should meet you halfway in terms of deciding what motivates their characters. It's frustrating to have one player whose character is completely disinterested in your campaign hooks.

Surely one of the top three motivations has to apply for them in this case:
1) greed
2) curiosity
3) bum-kicking for goodness

Whoops...Oh well, hard to catch every detail in a fight as big as that. WOuldn't have made a lot of difference, probably would have knocked about 20-25 damage of the breath weapons of the druid. (Dragotha rolled natural 1 on the one he failed).
I'm actually a lot cooler with him turning into a Wyrm than turning into a Titan and casting Gate or getting Wish as a spell-like ability as a Solar. Getting a breath weapon seems more balanced than getting free 9th level spells a druid should never have.

Shapechange doesn't give spell-like abilities, only extraordinary and supernatural abilities. Don't get me wrong: it's one of the most powerful spells in the game, but it doesn't do everything you're attributing to it.

Just curious -- how did your druid Shapechange into a 38 HD Great Wyrm green dragon? Isn't there a limit of 25 HD on Shapechange forms?