We've played 1/2 of this now. party of 5 14th level characters, played today with 4.

I've cut the 2nd Vekker brother from the game entirely because I thought it would only waste time.
Instead, I had the Wendigo's blizzard reach it's climax after the PC's had opened most doors on the upper level. In the meantime, I had the Wendigo telepathically communicate to the sorcerer 'stop messing with my masterpiece'
Then I started the Cannibal Urges haunt that lasts several rounds. During the 4th round, when all goes quiet, I had the wendigo howl. At this point, the players, 4 grown men, were more spooked than they'll ever admit.
I put the Wendigo at the top of the stairs and they fought him vigorously. at one point, the raging barbarian rolled a natural 20 on his grapple roll after the Wendigo had grabbed him, and because we like to add something spectacular on a 20, the barbarian lifted the Wendigo up 5 feet and stuck his antlers into the wooden ceiling for 1 round. a few rounds later they burned the Wendigo to bits, and I read the "thank you" section that Silas Vekkar would normally speak.

This made for a very memorable event and it cut the dull fetch-my-brother quest from the game. I highly recommend this change to anyone playing this AP - the players even requested I suggest my changes for the new hardcover, and as such I hope this post is not yet too late :)

My players decided to "Occupy Xin-Shalast".
I lol'ed.

Something that I just noticed confused me in Karzoug's stats today, and I was hoping for clarification (Anniversary Edition):

According to Karzoug's stat block, he's got +3 Int, Wis, and Cha for being beyond his venerable age, but that seems to contradict the aging rules. Based on the core rules:

Middle-age results in a -1 to all the physical ability scores and a +1 to all mental ability scores.

Old age results in a -2 to all the physical ability scores and a +1 to all mental ability scores.

Venerable age results in a -3 to all the physical ability scores and a +1 to all mental ability scores.

So should Karzoug's Int, Wis, and Cha each be 2 points lower? Is there an errata to aging rules I've missed? Is Karzoug just outright ignoring rules that don't benefit him because he's the main villain? Someone help me out here.

Something that I just noticed confused me in Karzoug's stats today, and I was hoping for clarification (Anniversary Edition):

According to Karzoug's stat block, he's got +3 Int, Wis, and Cha for being beyond his venerable age, but that seems to contradict the aging rules. Based on the core rules:

Age wrote:

Middle-age results in a -1 to all the physical ability scores and a +1 to all mental ability scores.

Old age results in a -2 to all the physical ability scores and a +1 to all mental ability scores.

Venerable age results in a -3 to all the physical ability scores and a +1 to all mental ability scores.

So should Karzoug's Int, Wis, and Cha each be 2 points lower? Is there an errata to aging rules I've missed? Is Karzoug just outright ignoring rules that don't benefit him because he's the main villain? Someone help me out here.

The penalties/bonuses for aging categories are cumulative. Hopefully you didn't make STR, DEX, or CON your dump stat. ;-)

Gluttony wrote:

Something that I just noticed confused me in Karzoug's stats today, and I was hoping for clarification (Anniversary Edition):

According to Karzoug's stat block, he's got +3 Int, Wis, and Cha for being beyond his venerable age, but that seems to contradict the aging rules. Based on the core rules:

Age wrote:

Middle-age results in a -1 to all the physical ability scores and a +1 to all mental ability scores.

Old age results in a -2 to all the physical ability scores and a +1 to all mental ability scores.

Venerable age results in a -3 to all the physical ability scores and a +1 to all mental ability scores.

So should Karzoug's Int, Wis, and Cha each be 2 points lower? Is there an errata to aging rules I've missed? Is Karzoug just outright ignoring rules that don't benefit him because he's the main villain? Someone help me out here.

The penalties/bonuses for aging categories are cumulative. Hopefully you didn't make STR, DEX, or CON your dump stat. ;-)

According to the core rulebook only the penalties are cumulative. The bonuses hit +1 at middle-age and never advance further from there (CRB page 169, right beneath table 7-2, the bonuses stay at +1 while the penalties increase).

According to the core rulebook only the penalties are cumulative. The bonuses hit +1 at middle-age and never advance further from there (CRB page 169, right beneath table 7-2, the bonuses stay at +1 while the penalties increase).

Page 168 of the CRB states:

With age, a character's physical ability scores decrease and his mental ability scores increase... The effects of each aging step are cumulative.

So at venerable age, your physical stas have a -6 penalty and your mental stats have a +3 bonus. In Karzoug's case, because he is special, only the mental bonuses apply.

Oh, so I've been misunderstanding the physical stats as well then.

Damn. That Str penalty could end up dropping casters into the range of "can't stand under the weight of their own body" by venerable age.

Would anybody with the anniversary hardcover edition be willing to post the stats for Chellan from page 421?

Would anybody with the anniversary hardcover edition be willing to post the stats for Chellan from page 421?

James Jacobs hooked me up here.

(James is awesome)

bump since stickies aren't working

Does anyone know how the reality-warping effects of Leng play out exactly with respect to the saving throws mentioned on page 317? Does every PC passing the save allow them to bypass the hunger and full moon requirements, and simply see XS (they don't see a phantom river, but they cross mountain tops and eventually just see the place, is how I'm envisioning it, if that is the case)? what happens if some PCs pass the save it others fail it, do some end up in XS and the others end up on the other side? With the effect being subtle and gradual, would they not notice that they were split up until they've (either group) already crossed the area?

Edit: thinking about it some more, I think I've come to the realization that they need to be hungry, wait for a full moon, and pass the Will save when entering the area, the area of being the "XS environs" (not particularly in that order), in order to get to XS. But what about the splitting up thing?

Does the occlusion field prevent teleportation within the area affected by it, or only when the teleportation crosses the boundary?

Asked this in the "Ask James Jacobs" thread, and this was his response:
(link)

1) The Will saves talked about on page 317 must be made whenever a character enters the Xin-Shalast environs, yes.

2) If every PC passes the Will save, then they get to ignore the requirements associated with the Avah River.

3) They will indeed get separated. The PCs who passed the saves will need to backtrack out of the region to "re-sync" with the reality that the save failures are still in.

4) If the PCs take this route, and the caster level check is accurate, they can appear within the Xin-Shalast environs zone and thus bypass the Will save, but where they end up is entirely up to the GM, since until the PCs visit the place, they can't pinpoint it to teleport to it.

2b/4b) The CL check does both. You cast teleport, then make the CL check. If you succeed, you know something was trying to mess with your teleporting but you powered through it. If you fail, you know the same thing and when you arrive, you know because you're not where you were trying to go to. Following the phantom river is the best option for groups who lack the powerful "rules breaking" options of certain high-level spells or the like, but if the party has the resources to use those options, they should absolutely be able to enter Xin-Shalast.

The point of this whole thing is to explain why very few people have found Xin-Shalast over the past 10,000 years, and to make the PCs feel like they're high-level bad-asses when they DO find Xin-Shalast.