Your players don't seem to have a lot of luck, I'm noticing. Arkamit has already died twice.Name: Arkamit.
Race: Human.
Classes/levels: Wizard (Conjurer) / Alchemist (Mindchemist) 3 2/3 (gestalt w/ modified step system).
Adventure: The Haunting of Harrowstone.
Location: Dungeon, U11.
Catalyst: Splatter Man.
The Gory Details:
** spoiler omitted **
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Name: Abraham Seward
Race: Human
Class: Barbarian (Drunken Brute) 6
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Schloss Caromarc, the Gatehouse
Catalyst: Hungry Monsters with Reach
The Gory Details:
Name: Lucinda
Race: Human
Class: Cleric 3
Adventure: Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: Central dungeon chamber
Catalyst: Eight burning skeletons, overconfidence
The Gory Details:
It was still early in the adventuring day and they had never fought burning skeletons before so the players did not take the fight seriously at all, even when I described the skeletons gradual starting to convert to burning mode. "Let's not waste a channel energy on this", "we seem to have this fight well in hand so I pass my action", that sort of thing. They were down to three skeletons when the burning effect activated. The cleric and bard were both dropped into the negatives almost immediately, the barbarian and wizard who were still conscious were able to save the bard but the cleric bled out. Since then, "we have this fight well in hand" has been a running joke in our group.
Name: Wind Ravenkin
Race: Half-Elf
Classes/levels: Evoker 9
Adventure: Wake of the Watcher
Location: Recondite Order of the Indomitable Sea
Catalyst: Caleb Voltiaro
The Gory Details: Let me preface this by saying the party is 8 players strong, with 32 point buy, so they are excessively powerful. So much so that I've basically increased the CR for every encounter by 2. This allows me to keep the adventure's XP in line (since CR +2 is double XP, then I can have it and poof, perfect for 8 people). This meant that Caleb was level 11 and had access to level 6 spells.
They visited the Recondite Order, and Caleb heard the group fighting the Cultist in E5, and so prepared himself in case they came towards him next. He cast Harm and held it. The party wizard was fully buffed (mage armor, shield, elemental body (water)), and was feeling pretty cocky after the way they'd handily defeated the cultist, and so steps through the door first, into a waiting Harm touch attack. He failed his will save, bringing him down to 1 hit point. Caleb had another trick up his sleeve though, and blasting the now weakened Wizard with a Cold Ice Strike (along with the line of folks trying to crowd into the room).
Needless to say, the wizard perished, as he had spent 2 hero points already this level to stave off the assassin in thrushmoor's Death Attack.
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Name: Innara
Race: Changeling
Classes/levels: lvl 1 Witch
Adventure: Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: Harrowstone Grounds
Catalyst: 2Haunts and Burning Skeletons emerging from the pool
Randomly, she ended up fleeing into the murky pool,
Why on earth would any player send their character into the pool? If you're fleeing, that's the last place to go. In fact, I'm thinking of changing the module to have the skeletons come out with a different trigger, because I don't see my PCs ever touching the water!
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Name: Daedelus
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Inquisitor of Desna 6
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Shloss Caromarc
Catalyst: Player panic
The Gory Details: (optional)
Missing detecting the trap by a single point the players opened the door triggering the trap and summoning a Huge Air Elemental. After some panic some of the inquisitors moved through the door to run into the animated weird thing (AWT) in the next room.
Now fighting on two fronts, two inquisitors took on the AWT and two took on the Elemental. After several rounds of this, the Elemental had taken the Dwarven Inqusitor Durim out and the Elemental struck hard at Daedelus who was the only one left outside. two solid blows later the unfortunate Inquisitor was toast and the two other players closed the door until the elemental dissipated after 11 rounds.
Name: Ursa
Race: Half-Orc
Classes/levels: Ranger (Skirmisher) 4
Adventure: Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: Harrowstone Basement ~ The Nevermore
Catalyst: Heroic Sacrifice Provoking an Attack of Opportunity From the Splatter Man
The Gory Details: One of the only party members still standing in the final assault by the Splatter Man, Ursa bore the severely weakened undead wizard’s spellbook, but the ghost backed her into a corner. With nowhere to go, she decided to take a chance and provoked an attack of opportunity by tearing a page. The Splatter Man plunged a ghostly hand into her torso and stopped her heart, but she managed to rip the page out as she fell dead… destroying the ghostly wizard in an act of self-sacrifice.
She got better, though (spoilered for length:)
The heroes were able to get her raised through a pinch of fiat… but appropriately garnished with a solid dose of cool plot. The one spirit the heroes were never able to exorcise was Father Charlatan. He possessed the Half-Orc Paladin, (Ursa’s lover); but the paladin’s will was too strong to bend. Father Charlatan was never able to manifest, and therefore, was never able to afflict him or be conquered by the heroes. It was a standoff. The impasse resolved with a discussion between the paladin, Vesorianna, and the Father… when the dame-warden released the Charlatan into the paladin’s care… letting the half-orc serve as a sort of a parole officer. After they were finished with Harrowstone, the Father Charlatan offered them an honest deal. The paladin served an Empyreal Lord, Ragathial; and though the Charlatan offended enough gods in mortal life that he didn’t wish to trust his soul to them in death, but he never crossed an Empyreal Lord. The Charlatan offered his soul up for Ragathial in exchange for returning Ursa to the living. Grant you, it was as much a dodge as anything else, a cross between an attempt at self-interested redemption and avoiding the wrath of the gods… but when the party performed the ritual, Ragathial accepted the trickster’s soul. There’s evidence that Charlatan’s final scam might not have turned out well for him, but Ursa was revived, so the Empyreal Lord must have been satisfied. (though Ursa got 2 negative levels and the paladin and inquisitor performing it both got 1 for nonstandard revival methods.)
Name: Darien von Carstein
Race: Dhampir
Classes/levels: Wizard 15
Adventure: Shadows of Gallowspire
Location: The Bone Stair
Catalyst: Keening Suicides Haunt
The Gory Details: The group trotted up the Bone Stair chasing Adivion Adrissant. Well, boom-- they run right into the Keening Suicides haunt. They see the architects and masons that built Gallowspire's spirits committing suicide just after being set free from their long slavery and paid off with thousands of gold pieces. Half the party notices. Brandishing a greater haunt siphon, they deal 10d6 damage to the haunt-- for 24 damage (2.4 avg damage on dice -_-) out of it's 28 hp. A disrupt undead does another 3 for 27, and it goes off. Everyone makes their save but Darien-- and he experiences what it felt like to leap from the tower and impact the ground below. Instant 140 damage, and he dies.
Averted at first by spending two hero points, and later, by remembering he had a scarab of protection equipped and that wail of the banshee is absorbed by such an item.
Still, a good reminder-- if your entire party tanks a save there, TPK! Do not pass go, do not collect 200 platinum pieces!
Name: Kwen Buttmonkey, Heir of Derp
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Fighter 3
Adventure: Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: The Western Cellblock
Catalyst: The Piper of Illmarsh and his fellow PCs
The Gory Details: Kwen's player wanted to retire him so that he could play an alchemist instead. (It was his first game and he hadn't know about the APG when everyone rolled up.) Together we decided that the when the Piper's haunt was on its last legs, we should have it possess Kwen (since Kwen's drunken singing had called the Piper's stirges earlier in the module) and the other PCs would have to kill Kwen to defeat it. After Kwen died, they left his body up in the Cellblock to rot.
His alchemist replacement, Phoenix, is an evil, cowardly, and greedy elf.
Name: Darsk
Race: Dwarf
Classes/levels: Ranger 3
Adventure: Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: The Nevermore
Catalyst: The Splatter Man and his summoned dire rats
The Gory Details: Darsk was a devout practitioner of the Green Faith. When his tracking skills deduced that the vandal had drained the blood of living animals to deface the town statue, he declared a vendetta on whoever had committed this heinous crime. When it came time to fight the Splatter Man, it seemed as though his chance had come! Alas, the combination of previous wounds, the Splatter Man's maximized magic missiles, and the toxic bites of the summoned dire rats proved fatal to poor Darsk. He was avenged by his comrades, who took his body from the dungeon and buried in the forest, planting a tree to mark his grave.
Well, except for Phoenix, who wasn't allowed to go to the funeral because of being creepy.
Darsk will be replaced next week by a middle-aged half-elf summoner named Azren.
Name: Kazgar Alesmith
Race: Dwarf
Classes/levels: Ranger 1
Adventure: The Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: The Restlands
Catalyst: Zombie Mosh Pit
The Gory Details: After finding a drunkard outside of the Laughing Demon that turned out to be a zombie, and slicing it up and its partner in the alleyway, Kazgar tracked the source back to the graveyard where another 6 zombies were clawing out of their graves. Being his favored enemy, his hatred for undead made his claws hungry for zombie gore and he ran up into a couple of them on his own. A solid hit and critical from the zombies sent him under, and they proceeded to beat the life out of him while they could. The zombies were eventually taken down by summoned riding dogs.
Name: Thodd, Saban
Race:Human, Dwarf
Classes/levels: Paladin 6, Rogue 6
Adventure:Trial of the beast
Location:The bridge between the Gatehouse and the main castle
Catalyst: Not finding the Air Elemental trap.
The Gory Details: The paladin took a plunge over the falls the first time they tried to kill Flesh Golem Hound after being bullrushed off the bridge. Moderate fall damage plus some good swim rolls left the paladin wet but very much alive down river. After regrouping they were able to kill the golem but the rogue didn't find the Air Elemental trap. The air elemental used its whirlwind ability to scoop the Paladin and Rogue up. The party cleric and alchemist fled, leaving their companions to be dropped off the bridge to their deaths.
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Name: Alatier Zaituc
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Cavalier 5 (Order of the Dragon) (Honor Guard)
Adventure: Carrion Hill
Location: Carrion Hill
Catalyst: A mad Necromancer
The Gory Details: Now, I know this is not normally part of the Carrion Crown, but we ran it anyways.
Wizard comes out, hits party wizard with ennervate 4 neg levels, hits alatier with a hold person, party wizard drops obscuring mist in panic, evil wizard drops a black tentacles where he last saw the party clumping, alatier fails 5 will saves in a row (DC 18), Tentacles strangle him, zombies beat on him, and then dies.
Party spent their reward for helping Carrion Hill to rez and restore him.
Name: Mittelgrew Catterdink
Race: Half-orc, Raised by Gnomes
Classes/levels: Alchemist 3
Adventure: Haunting of Harrowstone
Location: The Lorrimor Place
Catalyst: The Piper of Illmarsh (Altered)
The Gory Details: I found the piper's haunt kind of weak, so I made him an Ectoplasmic Bard 4 and sent him to the Lorrimor house at dawn once they had the flute. Mittlegrew was in the kitchen making breakfast. He carried a plate of eggs into the room, set it on the table and then threw a bomb towards the Piper right after he blinded the Sorcerer, but he missed and burnt his friends. The Piper cast Sleep on Mittlegrew and performed a Coup de Grace after the Paladin neglected to wake him.
His epitaph: TRY THE EGGS
Kingmaker is a much, much easier campaign. I'm currently playing in both (14 ranger in Kingmaker, 8 wizard in CC) and it's been much harder combats in CC overall. We've had one death in KM so far which was mostly that player's overconfidence. In about half the levels, we've had 3 deaths so far in CC.Yeah, it could just be that your DM for Carrrion Crown is a meanie :)
No, she is completely right. Kingmaker is much, much easier on the PC's, with combats mostly occurring once per day and dungeons being quite short.
Carrion Crown so far has the potential to turn into a PC meat grinder, alleviated only by my group being five experienced players with powerful characters. They survived triggering the air elemental due to the Wizard having prepared Levitate, Feather Fall and Fly... in total the Paladin and Cleric both would have been dropped off the bridge and probably drowned, if it were not for this.
We have actually had a lot of deaths and near deaths so far in CC. This is my first contribution to this thread but we previously had a Magus die at the hands of a skeleton in the basement of Harrowstone and the dwarven cleric die at the hands of a troll in the gatehouse of Schloss Caromarc. Both of those character deaths were undone by selling much of their magical and non-magical loot and spending nearly all of their money to have the characters raised. Today we had two characters die that are not being raised. Below are the character deaths we had today.
Name: Greltus
Race: Dwarf
Classes/levels: Cleric 6
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Schloss Caromarc
Catalyst: Climb check on the Stretching Way
The Gory Details: Rolled poorly when trying to make the DC 10 climb check (which was not easy for him anyway having a climb check of -3), fell into the waters below and died.
Name: ...does not remembering make me a bad GM?
Race: Half Elf
Classes/levels: Ninja 4, Sorcerer 2
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Schloss Caromarc
Catalyst: Mummy rot and insatiable curiosity
The Gory Details: Contracted mummy rot from the mummy in the museum, lost quite a bit of Con. The group rested so the cleric could prepare the spells necessary to cure them (the cleric was infected as well) but was only able to cure himself. The ninja was quickly falling to the affliction (13 Con, 12 points of Con damage) when they entered the secret curios room. A bit too much curiosity caused him to be exposed to the yellow mold which finished him off.
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Name: Nami
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Fighter 5 (Cohort)
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: Town at the end of the Module
Catalyst: 1) PC not keeping track of it xp and adjusting & 2)Demonwolves with Advanced Templates
The Gory Details: The PC who decided to take leadership feat for the cohort is horrible about book keeping. But it was the first time for him to try using a cohort, so we'd (mistakenly) thought he'd get a little better for the sake of his cohort. The Cohort should've been 2 lvls higher when we fought the demonwolves, but he failed to pay attention and she died from 2 crits and a nast bite.(He'd probably would've survived with an extra 16 HP (Pathfinder Average 10=6 +2 for con X 2 = 16)
Name: Grim
Race: Damphire
Classes/levels: Inquisitor 9
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: Town at the end of the Module
Catalyst: Not paying attention. Advance 8th lvl fighter Zombie Lords and a Cloud Kill.
The Gory Details: I'm still scratching my head on this one. We were chased out of the building be Vrood's Cloud Kill. The whole party retreated 60ft away from the cloudkill and the really nasty Zombie Lords that nearly dropped the heavy armored High HP front line fighter. Grim retreated with the rest of the party, and though he had not take any damage, everyone had suffer 1 point of con loss from the cloud kill, and he was soft and quishy to begin with. The Zombie Lords followed us through the cloud kill and stood 20ft beyond the cloud kill.
Cloud kill moves in a direction away from the caster at a rate of 20ft per level. As the party was healing and contemplating retreating to get past the cloud kill and get the casters Grim decides against party tactics and charges one of the Zombie lords that escaped the cloud. He swings mightily, and scores a tremendous hit against the creature 40+ damage with bane and judgements up, but the Zombie lord survived. The following round, the cloud is right behind the Zombie lord swings 2, connecting and dropping him to negative 10. With a 13 con, (14 -1 from cloud kill earlier) he might've survived, but the following round the cloud kill swallowed him, 2 points of con and 1 bleed dropped him to -11 with 11 con.
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Three nobles souls passed on yesterday during the grand finale of Trial of the Beast.
Name: Sig Cho
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Samurai 6
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Schloss Caromarc
Catalyst: The Aberrant Promethean's tentacles.
The Gory Details: Sig was a recent addition to the team, but an important one. He'd played a key role in getting the group this far; his Naginata and Katana had made melee combat much more fluid and swift.
However, the Promethan's brutal tentacles were too much for the foreign blade master, and he was finally crushed to death and his body thrown aside like a rag doll. He played a crucial role in buying time for the group, however; without him, the group would have not have lasted anywhere near as long as it did.
Name: Victor Sanders
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Sorcerer 5, Dragon Disciple 1
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Schloss Caromarc
Catalyst: The Aberrant Promethean.
The Gory Details: A Sorcerer with a passion, Vic has always fought against his nature; he has Red Dragon blood in his veins, giving him power, but he didn't want to just be greedy and evil. He wanted to be something more.
He had that chance during the battle. As the Promethan slowly worked its way up the tower, Sig had already fallen, the Wizard was out of useful spells, the Witch was still channeling through the Thrall, and the Barbarian and Magus were still desperately trying to slow the creature in any way possible.
In an instant, Vic knew how to redeem his evil blood. Extending his dragon claws, he leapt off the top of the tower, slamming down on the creature with all his might.
Time had indeed been bought, but at a great price. The tentacles wrapped around Vic's neck as well. Just as he reached 0 hit points, the creature slipped on the ice platform (courtesy of the wizard), throwing Vic to the side. he managed to slam down on the roof level's ledge, but the impact finished Vic's HP off. Now at negative Hit Points, Vic slipped off the side and into the raging waters 350 feet below. Dead, but redeemed.
Name: Sarrek
Race: Elf
Classes/Levels: Magus 6
Location: Schloss Caromarc
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Catalyst: The Aberrant Promethean's tentacles.
The Gory Details: In the desperate race to get to the top of the tower and active the Bondslave Thrall, some had to stay behind and hold off the monstrosity. Sarrek, a seasoned military veteran who had been with the group since its very beginning, was the first to stand up and the last to fall.
His Mirror Images bought him (and the group) precious time. Unfortunately, his luck eventually ran out, and he found himself a victim of the creature's tentacles. The paralyzing secretions never managed to take hold, however, and a well-timed strike from the Barbarian's halberd cut him free.
As the Promethean slowly ascended the Tower towards the Thrall (and the Witch controlling it), Sarrek leapt back into the fray, swinging from the ladders and doing everything possible to distract it.
Distract it he did; the creature once again burned valuable time trying to attack the mulitple magi, but finally scored a true hit on the real one. Its tentacles slowly wrapped around Sarrek's neck, and he let one small gasp out as it crushed in his esophagus. Sarrek's body was heartlessly thrown over the side of the tower, landing on the bridge below. His blackblade fell dormant, and did not utter another word. Some say the blade was separated from Sarrek's body on its trip back home, and fell into the hands of the next great Magus...
---Sarrek had cheated death more than once; I guess it was his time to finally play it straight and face the music.----
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Name: Nami
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Fighter 5 (Cohort)
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: Town at the end of the Module
Catalyst: 1) PC not keeping track of it xp and adjusting & 2)Demonwolves with Advanced Templates
The Gory Details: The PC who decided to take leadership feat for the cohort is horrible about book keeping. But it was the first time for him to try using a cohort, so we'd (mistakenly) thought he'd get a little better for the sake of his cohort. The Cohort should've been 2 lvls higher when we fought the demonwolves, but he failed to pay attention and she died from 2 crits and a nast bite.(He'd probably would've survived with an extra 16 HP (Pathfinder Average 10=6 +2 for con X 2 = 16)Name: Grim
Race: Damphire
Classes/levels: Inquisitor 9
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: Town at the end of the Module
Catalyst: Not paying attention. Advance 8th lvl fighter Zombie Lords and a Cloud Kill.
The Gory Details: I'm still scratching my head on this one. We were chased out of the building be Vrood's Cloud Kill. The whole party retreated 60ft away from the cloudkill and the really nasty Zombie Lords that nearly dropped the heavy armored High HP front line fighter. Grim retreated with the rest of the party, and though he had not take any damage, everyone had suffer 1 point of con loss from the cloud kill, and he was soft and quishy to begin with. The Zombie Lords followed us through the cloud kill and stood 20ft beyond the cloud kill.
Cloud kill moves in a direction away from the caster at a rate of 20ft per level. As the party was healing and contemplating retreating to get past the cloud kill and get the casters Grim decides against party tactics and charges one of the Zombie lords that escaped the cloud. He swings mightily, and scores a tremendous hit against the creature 40+ damage with bane and judgements up, but the Zombie lord survived. The following round, the cloud is right behind the Zombie lord swings 2, connecting and dropping him to negative 10. With a 13 con, (14 -1...
Yeah, that's not how ability damage works. When you take ability damage, your actual score doesn't go down. You only take a penalty that applies to specific things. For example, for every 2 poitns of str damage you take a -1 penalty on all attack and damage rolls. Even if your Str drops to 10, you can still use Power Attack, becuase your actual strength is still 13 (or more).
Similarily, when you take con damage, you take hit point damage, but your original Con score doesn't change and you die at -your original con, not modified.
It would have to be an ability DRAIN to affect you so. With ability drain, you wouldn't be able to use Power Attack with Str 10.
Three nobles souls passed on yesterday during the grand finale of Trial of the Beast.** spoiler omitted **
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! *cough* sorry.
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(In response to MetalPaladin/Helaman)
VERY well done encounter, overall. Hellish, yes, but done well.
Kudos to Mr. Pett, if he's ever sadistic enough to read through these himself...
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Name: Jamir Skiprock
Race: Halfling
Classes/levels: Fighter 1
Adventure: The Haunting of Harrowstone.
Location: Dungeon, R10/S18.
Catalyst: An afternoon swim
The Gory Details:
The surly half-orc monk watched in disgust as the halfling, who can only speak his name, bellowed in pain "JAAAAMIIIIIR." Before anyone could reach the halfling, or even see the skeletons, everyone heard his dieing "Jaaaamiirrggugugllglleblubblubblub."
As it turns out, being in the water both saved his life and cost him his life. As he wouldn't have lasted so long without the -2/half damage for slashing weapons, but he couldn't make a swim DC 10 to get the hell out of there either.
The funny moment was when the last skeleton, now moved to land and fighting the rest of the party burst into flames. The alchemist exclaiming "I wonder if it is a bad idea to stand next to a flaming skeleton." To which the passing out monk discovered the answer was no.
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Kingmaker is a much, much easier campaign. I'm currently playing in both (14 ranger in Kingmaker, 8 wizard in CC) and it's been much harder combats in CC overall. We've had one death in KM so far which was mostly that player's overconfidence. In about half the levels, we've had 3 deaths so far in CC.Yeah, it could just be that your DM for Carrrion Crown is a meanie :)No, she is completely right. Kingmaker is much, much easier on the PC's, with combats mostly occurring once per day and dungeons being quite short.
Carrion Crown so far has the potential to turn into a PC meat grinder, alleviated only by my group being five experienced players with powerful characters. They survived triggering the air elemental due to the Wizard having prepared Levitate, Feather Fall and Fly... in total the Paladin and Cleric both would have been dropped off the bridge and probably drowned, if it were not for this.
+1 to this, KM you almost always fully charged, the only thing you can say is that prepared casters might have a broader breadth of spells prepared so not have as many nukes, but aside from the odd dungeon most of the encounters are one offs. They should have ramped the CR on average by at least 1 to accommodate that.
Name: Kesha
Race: Changeling
Classes/Levels: Bard 7
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: Ascanor Lodge
Catalyst: Giant Tarantula
The Gory Details: Kesha attemped an acrobatics roll to move into melee range against the tarantula, she failed and took a bite, but got an attack in. The tarantula responded with another bite, this one was a critical hit.
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Got two here in different spots.
Name:Petrus Volaznic
Race: human
Class: magus 4
Adventure: trial of the beast
Catalyst: wraith children
I enhanced the wraith children with some special abilities to make the fights harder. Petrus died after dealing the final blow to elsie(?). She blew up, and he failed all his saves, thus becoming a dust pile.
Name: Victor the white
Race: dwarf
Class: cleric of pharasma 8
Adventure: broken moon
Catalyst: auren vrood
Very nearly a tpk. Luckily the bard's archivist ability enhances saves too. While everybody else barely passed, victor failed badly. He was slain by circle of death, and now lies with his lady.
Name: Fane Diare
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Cleric of Abadar (Wordcaster) 6
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: The Roof of the Lightning Tower
Catalyst: The Reaching Wrath of the Aberrant Promethean
The Gory Details: While one of their number called to Ven (their name for the Beast of Lepistat) from the Bondslave Thrall, the party arranged themselves around the iron shutters above the Aberrant Promethean, ready to attack as soon as it emerged. The unnatural assemblage of alien awfulness burst up from the laboratory, surfacing its horrid bulk within reach of the party cleric, a Wordcaster of Abadar. Taking a chance at suffering an attack of opportunity, Fane strategically retreated to cast a summons for hound archons from Abadar's Vault. Unfortunately, he only realized the hulking horror possessed the ability to grab and strangle its foes when it closed its tentacled hand around his entire head, cutting off his air and his spell. As its next act, the Aberrant Promethean crushed him exactly to death.
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Below is info regarding my campaign that made this death very interesting, plot-wise.
This isn't quite a death, but it is a PC being, ah, retired while his player rolled up someone new.
Name: Azren
Race: Half-elf
Classes/levels: Summoner (Synthesist) 5
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Vorkstag and Grine's Chymic Works
Catalyst: Summoned back to his home planet.
The Gory Details: When Player T said he wanted to roll up a summoner to replace Darsk, I said sure. My husband went 'oooh' because he likes summoners too and brought out Ultimate Magic to show T all the different summoner archetype. T decided he would play a synthesist and summon himself.
Unfortunately, as we would find out over the course of the next few sessions, the synthesist archetype is very easy to make massively broken and I became very frustrated with Azren. Finding out that that he and the party barbarian, Haskel Stonearse, would eventually be able to team up in order to RAGE-LANCE-POUNCE their way through everything drove me to drink. Feeling cocky, T challenged me to do my best to kill him off and I almost did the one time T was forced to drop his synthesist form.
Finally, T showed me how he'd worked out exactly how scary he'd be at level ten and I looked him in the eye and told him that I was very sorry, but I needed him to retire Azren from this campaign. He would be allowed to bring him back over the summer for when I do my homebrew campaign, but he's just too unbalanced for an AP. T admitted sheepishly that he expected I'd say something like that if he'd showed me the level ten build and spent a lot of the evening figuring out what else he'd like to be.
Which is how Azren was suddenly summoned back to his home planet last session.
We'll be meeting his newest character, a tiefling magus named Sertiyel, in the upcoming sesson.
Guh! Dang inability to edit posts after a certain amount of time! Fane Diare was actually a 7th level Cleric of Abadar (Wordcaster.)
I'm noticing a lot of deaths to the Aberrant Promethean. The Beast just shows up 1-2 rounds too late (by design) and no one of appropriate level can really go toe-to-toe with it.
For future reference: if making an encounter with two over-CRed things fighting it out, make sure the PCs can stay well out of it! Basically requiring a PC death/sacrifice in order to not-fail is ... not cool, in my book.
My PCs killed it in two rounds. I had to fudge the encounter, dragging out out for many rounds to even allow the Beast to show up to fight him.
5 PCs. Cleric, wizard (left fight because immune to magic to summon Beast), phalanx soldier, gunslinger, synthesist summoner.
I'm noticing a lot of deaths to the Aberrant Promethean. The Beast just shows up 1-2 rounds too late (by design) and no one of appropriate level can really go toe-to-toe with it.
For future reference: if making an encounter with two over-CRed things fighting it out, make sure the PCs can stay well out of it! Basically requiring a PC death/sacrifice in order to not-fail is ... not cool, in my book.
My PCs killed it in two rounds. I had to fudge the encounter, dragging out out for many rounds to even allow the Beast to show up to fight him.
5 PCs. Cleric, wizard (left fight because immune to magic to summon Beast), phalanx soldier, gunslinger, synthesist summoner.
I'm guessing the phalanx soldier stood in front of it as a wall while the others shot it from range/used reach to hit it? Our fighter tried to do something similar but got hit, grappled, and crushed easily even at a full defensive. That one round bought us the time for the Beast to arrive, however.
Even so, how'd they do enough damage to it so quickly? It has DR/adamantium, reasonably good AC, and a whole lot of hitpoints. Did the gunslinger crit a bunch or something?
They just hit it with power attack. The gunslinger didn't crit. Surprisingly, the phalax soldier, gunslinger and synth summoner all had the same exact AC throughout the campaign fluctuating little, so they all ran into melee to ruin it while the cleric cast a buff spell. They were extremely offense focused in that AP, though-- a normal party not with three death machines would've fared worse.
Actually, I'm going to pipe in by saying the chief reason Fane the cleric in my group died was bad luck and unfortunate placement. If he'd been at least ten feet further away from the Aberrant Promethean, he could have taken a five foot step ( to evade the 15 foot reach,) and dropped a squad of Hound Archons to occupy the horror. I'm sure it would have squished its way through those holy hounds fairly easily, but they would have injured it and occupied its stimulus-response kill-what-moves instinct long enough for the cavalry golem to arrive. I don't think anyone would have died.
That said, the Aberrant Promethean hits like a freight train, and it's easy to underestimate it because players are instinctively wired to the idea their characters aren't going to meet something they can't handle in a fight. And you can't blame them for this because that's the way D20 adventures are usually (even almost universally) designed.
However, that's why there's a little guy situated before its room whose entire job is to go, "No, no, don't fight it yourselves! It will kill you! Get the Beast!" That's also why, when I handed the Beast's character sheet to the guy summoning the friendly golem (since his character sat the encounter out, he controlled the Beast,) I was very glad the player said, "Oh... wow... this could be bad. If the Beast is this powerful, we're probably going to need him."
If I have any quibbles, it's that it's fairly hard to get up to the roof without going through the Promethean's lair and it isn't all that clear how. Also, if the players don't have someone well versed in Use Magic Device, well, poop on them. I ended up putting an access ladder on the side of the tower and changed the UMD to activate the Bondslave Thrall to an Arcana checks, just because it's a more universal skill.
Well, this is kind of cheating, because she died while playing in The Feast of Ravenmoor which I slid in between the first two Carrion Crown volumes, but:
Name: Elzbeth
Race/Class: Half-elf Rogue 3
Adventure: The Feast of Ravenmoor
Location: The crop circle behind the Chenowitzs' farm
Catalyst: Blightspawn of Ghlaunder
Gory Details:
The second session started with the greased pig event (which was truly epic even before the pig transformed into a demon!), but I did such a good job reassuring them that it was just their paranoid imagination that by the end of the second game, the party had disastrously split up--the wizard went home with Alizna the aranea to discuss magic; the summoner got totally shitfaced and let his pecker lead him into trouble with Shel Lupescu; Elzbeth, after being danced and romanced by Viorec the farmer went home to sleep at the mayor's house by herself; and the fighter (who had been preternaturally aged by The Splatter Man) fell asleep at the feasting table!
So, when the third session started, none of the party members were at full health and most of them started in some pretty dire circumstances. But they rallied heroically, overcame adversity (and the summoner got laid!) and then Viorec the farmer showed up and told them how the semi-NPC cleric, Father Varnalium had been kidnapped by mosquito-masked cultists. The party was off!
They whupped the mongrelman and the fighter burned down their shack. That provoked the attention of the people in the house who attacked en masse, but the party survived although Alizna was able to escape. Then the fighter burned down that house, too. The mosquito swarm was easily dispatched with a gust of wind spell (which, I think, the wizard learned from The Splatter Man's spellbook), although the faceless stalker (or "Assface" as he was dubbed by the party) was able to whittle away some much-needed hit points and Con damage with his blue whinnis poison.
The party took on the Mayor and a newly healed-up Alizna at the crop circle. It was an epic battle! I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said that the entire party was down to single-digit hit points. The mayor's casting of sanctuary on himself was particularly awesome, as the players kept trying to hit him but failed their Will saves! That sucked up a lot of wasted rolls, including two crit hits--hee hee! But they prevailed in the end. Luckily, the party had freed Father Varnalium from being sacrificed and he was able to heal the party a little bit before the Blightspawn emerged from the mayor's corpse.
That was a tough battle--the wizard was out of spells and was reduced to using his telekinetic fist, the summoner's eidolon was dispatched back to the Plane of Dreams and nobody was using magic weapons. Elzbeth the rogue snuck up on the monstrosity to get some sneak attack damage in, but that just enraged the Blightspawn who whirled around and made her the new focus of his attack.
His stingery-tongue shot out and slammed into poor Elzbeth who was reduced to -10 hp. I figured, okay, she'll be fine, Father Varnalium will get around to her, but, as the player's husband helpfully pointed out, Elzbeth's Con had been taking damage from poison and what not all night long and had been reduced to 9. I'm sure they had a pleasant ride home!
Elzbeth's death pissed off the party royally and they all threw themselves into a seemingly suicidal assault on the Blightspawn. It tried to fly off, but there was no hiding from the wrath of the rest of the party who, with lucern hammer and earthbreaker, +1 silver morning star and telekinetic fist were finally able to destroy that foul abomination!
Poor Viorec, though, was distraught when he found out that Elzbeth had been slain. C'est la vie in Ustalav, right?
That is EPIC!!! Fantastic game, DA!!!
Loving the blightspawn death. :)
That is EPIC!!! Fantastic game, DA!!!
[Blushes]
Wait til the party hears that their actions were applauded by the module's author!
And I didn't even mention Biff the Sexually-Harassing Peasant! (Before you start cluck-clucking, Biff was played by Elzbeth's husband--if that's how they want to roleplay, who am I to stop them?)
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Name: Rosie Valley
Race/Class: Human Rog 8
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: Just outside the Tower of Feldgrau
Catalyst: Auren Vrood
Name: Alfr
Race/Class: Half-Elf Ftr 1 / Brd 7
Adventure: Broken Moon
Location: Just outside the Tower of Feldgrau
Catalyst: Auren Vrood
The Gory Details:
Name: Viorec Ghalmont
Race: Human
Class: Bard 4
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Vorkstag and Grine’s Chymic Works
Catalyst: Bad timing and overly helpful player
The Gory Details:
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This is true. It's one of the more overlooked changes from 3.5 to PF, and overall a very good one from the point of the PCs. It makes stat damage not quite so ungodly painful while maintaining stat drain as being really bad. But it means an empowered ray of enfeeblement doesn't prevent a 10 Str cleric in full plate from casting spells or moving anymore.Yeah, that's not how ability damage works. When you take ability damage, your actual score doesn't go down. You only take a penalty that applies to specific things. For example, for every 2 poitns of str damage you take a -1 penalty on all attack and damage rolls. Even if your Str drops to 10, you can still use Power Attack, becuase your actual strength is still 13 (or more).
Similarily, when you take con damage, you take hit point damage, but your original Con score doesn't change and you die at -your original con, not modified.
It would have to be an ability DRAIN to affect you so. With ability drain, you wouldn't be able to use Power Attack with Str 10.
Wow. I wasn't aware of that. Ofcourse he still would've been dead from the -2 con because of the reduction in hit points. At 9th level he'd have lost 9 hitpoint from the con damage, actually bringing his HP total to - 20 with a con of 14. But this is still an important clarification that may save another player down the road.
Name: The Aberrant Promethean
Race: Flesh Golem
Classes/levels: Advanced
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Schloss Caromarc
Catalyst: Gunslinger. Critical hit.
The Gory Details: That just happened today. Not a player death, but I wanted to highlight this to put a spotlight on how stupidly unbalanced the Gunslinger can be.
The party had gotten all the information from Waxwood about what was awaiting them upstairs. Everybody had buffed up, but nobody had thought about trying to fly or climb up to the Bondslave Thrall and Stormcaller, so the players were going to assault the Aberrant Promethean head-on. Which had me quite worried for a few minutes.
The Paladin opened the hatch und looked inside the laboratory, spying the Count, his dead wife and, looking up, the Aberrant Promethean hanging in the rafters. The AP dropped down from the ceiling and hit the Paladin easily with an attack, although the Paladin had half cover. He also had no problem grabbing him, dragging him through the hatch and ending his turn with the Paladin in his claw. So, both were flat-footed.
The Gunslinger, who was directly behind the Paladin, moved up five feet, pointed his dual pistols upwards and ( already being hasted during the buffing phase ), shot the AP three times in his belly, using Up Close and Deadly two times and critting on the third hit. Since we use Paizos critical hit deck, he got only triple damage on the critical hit, but nonetheless, the AP ended up with 116 points of damage, one hitpoint short of destruction. The next player in the initiative easily destroyed it.
This was, as you can imagine, highly anti-climatic. And this done by a Gunslinger at level five ( total level six, got one level of Alchemist ). I really am worried that Adivion Adrissant will end up the same exact way. Less fights against one "powerful" opponent, please! :(