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This thread is a GM Reference thread for Part 1 of the Jade Regent Adventure Path. Links for the individual threads for each part are as follow:
The Brinewall Legacy (Part 1)
Night of Frozen Shadows (Part 2)
The Hungry Storm (Part 3)
Forest of Spirits (Part 4)
Tide of Honor (Part 5)
The Empty Throne (Part 6)
The Players Guide states that the caravan is level 1 when the PCs first get it. However, by my calculations, the party will be Level 2 by this point (assuming they do everything in the swamp). Will the caravan immediately level up to 2 in that case?
Creative Director
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The Players Guide states that the caravan is level 1 when the PCs first get it. However, by my calculations, the party will be Level 2 by this point (assuming they do everything in the swamp). Will the caravan immediately level up to 2 in that case?
Yup.
Had we said, "You won't get the caravan until you're 2nd level" in the player's guide... that would sort of be a spoiler and even then not entirely accurate.
And there's certainly a possibility that by the time the PCs get to that point in the adventure that they'll be 1st level still. Or maybe even 3rd level. All that depends on the GM and how many encounters the PCs have up until that point.
I just wanted to say, I love Brinewall Castle! The encounters are fun and interesting, and make use of the layout well, and the castle map itself is one of the better ones I've seen. Knowing my group, I may run into trouble - they sometimes decide to move in and claim ruins, and this is one of the better ones.
I'm suddenly envisioning a Jade Regent/Kingmaker mash-up, and not where I was originally expecting to see one.
The state block for the lovely Advanced half-fiend decapus mentions 10 tentacles, 2 with claws. so should the OFFENSE state blaco have 8 tentacle attacks?
thanks,
The state block for the lovely Advanced half-fiend decapus mentions 10 tentacles, 2 with claws. so should the OFFENSE state blaco have 8 tentacle attacks?
thanks,
Decapus have only one tentacle attack, despite their large number of tentacles, as it states in the stat-block. So two of the decapus' tentacles are decked out with claws, and its fiendish blood gives the rest enough oomph to make up for those lost.
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Creative Director
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The state block for the lovely Advanced half-fiend decapus mentions 10 tentacles, 2 with claws. so should the OFFENSE state blaco have 8 tentacle attacks?
thanks,
A low CR monster with that many attacks is overkill. That's why we generally lump low CR monsters with lots of tentacles into the "It uses all of its tentacles to attack at once" category.
So yup; the decapus stat block is correct.
The state block for the lovely Advanced half-fiend decapus mentions 10 tentacles, 2 with claws. so should the OFFENSE state blaco have 8 tentacle attacks?
thanks,
A low CR monster with that many attacks is overkill. That's why we generally lump low CR monsters with lots of tentacles into the "It uses all of its tentacles to attack at once" category.
So yup; the decapus stat block is correct.
cool. thought it might be. :)
We just finished session #1 of new Jade Regent Campaign. I love how our previous Runelord campaign helped set the stage.
(one of the character is actually Shayliss Vinder, now a cleric of Desna.)
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got me reminiscing.
Epic Conclusion of Rise of the Runelord campaign from 01/2010
(yes, Santa was standing in for a Rune Giant.)
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Recently ran the first session of my Jade Regent campaign and thought I might have to post this in the obituaries thread instead of here.
I decided to post this due to the fact it will probably never happen again due its improbable nature.
The rest will be in the spoiler tag.
I randomly assigned goblin group to the various buildings Group 1 found the first lot (note per the encounter all of the goblins in the first building were shaken).
The barbarian kicked in a door surprising the three goblins inside. After missing his first blow on the goblins he surprised, the barbarian was hit with a critical threat not once but twice both times confirmed. Then the wizard was also hit with a Critical threat also confirmed dropping him to -1. The barbarian proceeded to miss the goblins two more times until the magus dropped one goblin and the rest of the party arrived.
So the short of it is 3 shaken goblins managed to critically hit (nat 20 for both hit and confirm 3 times in two rounds while the players nat 1 to hit the goblins 3 times in two rounds almost wiped half the party. The rest of the fight went as expected though by the end the party had exhausted every resource they had to clear the village.
The lesson is never underestimate goblins, they can be horrible little creatures.
Recently ran the first session of my Jade Regent campaign and thought I might have to post this in the obituaries thread instead of here.
I decided to post this due to the fact it will probably never happen again due its improbable nature.
The rest will be in the spoiler tag.
** spoiler omitted **
The lesson is never underestimate goblins, they can be horrible little creatures.
Cramped conditions..poor LoS all adds up to even things up for the goblins.
Another question, for Dancing Wasp, is the summoning a standard action or a full round one ? I guess its a full round (as with most summoning stuff) but the wording says both ...
I believe it has been said somewhere (not sure which topic) that its full round to summon and a standard action to maintain.
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Creative Director
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Another question, for Dancing Wasp, is the summoning a standard action or a full round one ? I guess its a full round (as with most summoning stuff) but the wording says both ...
It's a full round to activate, but then you have to keep whirling the weapon above your head as a standard action to keep the summoned wasp around. Essentially, using this power sort of "replaces" your actions in a round with the giant wasp's actions. It's less efficient than actually using a summon monster spell, but that's because the weapon itself needed to be more inefficient than that spell in order to keep its costs down.
It's basically a power you use when you're not in combat, but want to send a minion into, say, the next room or down the stairs to fight for you.
This is a bit off topic here,but does anyone know if the Creature at the end of Brinewall Legacy,is the same one that was developed at Paizocon? as I remember being involved in a design workshop there!
Spivey is listed as having a Mwk Studded Leather Armor giving a +3 AC bonus.
However, being tiny, shouldnt the armor only give a +1 bonus ?
EDIT: Just noticed on the table it says "divide armor bonus by 2 for tiny or smaller guys!"
Armor provides the same AC bonus regardless of size. weight and cost are reduced for tiny, but I don't see anywhere that it says AC is reduced.
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Creative Director
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Spivey is listed as having a Mwk Studded Leather Armor giving a +3 AC bonus.
However, being tiny, shouldnt the armor only give a +1 bonus ?EDIT: Just noticed on the table it says "divide armor bonus by 2 for tiny or smaller guys!"
Armor provides the same AC bonus regardless of size. weight and cost are reduced for tiny, but I don't see anywhere that it says AC is reduced.
That rule is pretty high on my list of rules that we need to abolish because they're needlessly cluttery and editor traps. And they create illogical situations—why doesn't armor for Huge or larger creatures INCREASE its AC bonus? And having it squirrled away as an asterisk on table 6–8 and not mentioning the rule on the main armor table or in the description for armor/shield bonuses is sloppy.
Anyway, adjust Spivey's AC as you wish in your game... but I'll not be doing so for games I run (even though I suppose I'll have to do so for characters that show up in print... maybe I'll just not give Tiny or smaller creatures armor ever again!).
That rule is pretty high on my list of rules that we need to abolish because they're needlessly cluttery and editor traps. And they create illogical situations—why doesn't armor for Huge or larger creatures INCREASE its AC bonus? And having it squirrled away as an asterisk on table 6–8 and not mentioning the rule on the main armor table or in the description for armor/shield bonuses is sloppy.Anyway, adjust Spivey's AC as you wish in your game... but I'll not be doing so for games I run (even though I suppose I'll have to do so for characters that show up in print... maybe I'll just not give Tiny or smaller creatures armor ever again!).
Agreed that is an odd rule couched away on a small table...especially since it goes one way and not other, definitely something that could be streamlined and cut.
I wouldn't adjust it by size. It's a game. A lot of it has some great realism, but other parts are just an abstraction. Armor is one of them. Does it make you more difficult to hit (not in reality... frequently it makes you easier to hit by slowing you down), or should it be damage reduction? Why should it decrease if you're smaller but not increase if you're bigger? To me, the answer is it's an abstraction and creates an unnecessary and obscure penalty for playing a smaller character. I've never noticed the chart and wouldn't use it anyway. Armor is armor and it's tailored for your size. But, yeah, it's ultimately up to GMs as a judgment call and how they want to run their game.
Just to add a bit to my previous post, will the said creature from paziocon, be appearing at some point in this adventure path? If not what book will it be apperaring in?
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Creative Director
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Just to add a bit to my previous post, will the said creature from paziocon, be appearing at some point in this adventure path? If not what book will it be apperaring in?
It will not be appearing in this adventure path.
When we were doing that seminar, the idea was that the monster might end up part of the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path, which is why we started out talking about a tropical flying creature that might live in a region of tropical islands like the Shackles.
Whether or not it actually ends up in that AP as a new monster... I can't say for sure yet. But it was never intended to be part of Jade Regent.
in area W2. the secret vault on page 50 of the Brinewall legacy the treasure mentions that you should customize the treasure to suit your players group. It says that the items should cost no more than 9000 gp. Is that supposed to be for each item or for the total value of all items?
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Creative Director
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in area W2. the secret vault on page 50 of the Brinewall legacy the treasure mentions that you should customize the treasure to suit your players group. It says that the items should cost no more than 9000 gp. Is that supposed to be for each item or for the total value of all items?
The intention is that the items IN TOTAL shouldn't cost more than 9,000 gp. But I kind of only put that in there out of a sense of responsibility; go ahead and put whatever type of customized treasure you want in there. You know what level of magic your game can handle better than me.
If I were running the game, I'd probably put in something that's worth about 4,000 gp for each PC... and if there were more than 2 PCs, that would bloat the treasure reward a LOT over 9,000. But I tend to give out a lot of treasure in games I run, so I'm used to how that impacts the game later on.
An idea: drop the +1 returning Starknife from the earlier pile of treasure. This gives you 8000gp extra to play with, which allows a lot more customization for the items while maintaining wealth by level. It is hard to make customized items with 9000gp, but 17000gp is more than enough. Mithril armors, fancy wondrous items... all are game. Unless everyone really, really wants a +1 weapon of some exotic sort.
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My plan is to make sure everyone has at least one "offensive" item and one "defensive" item. By the end of Brinewall Castle.
For the fighter types, they should all have their primary weapon as +1. Casters are a bit harder since most want to get their ablitiy stat boost item and 4,000gp is a bit much for single item at level 4. Granted a nice wand of magic missles can be a good non-permenant item.
Though I might put in a wand of something that can deal with annoying swarms.
On the defensive side, any +1 AC or +1 cloak of resistance will do.
With what ever budget is left, add a interesting utility item or so for the party itself. Might look at some of the advanced books for some ideas there.
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An idea: drop the +1 returning Starknife from the earlier pile of treasure.
But that is the greatest treasure of all time!
Well second greatest. The best one was the Tiny +1 returning dagger that you can get in the Rise of the Rune Lords. My barbarian actually used it once, nothing like 1d2+8 throwing damage. We even made it one of the special infused weapons that was required for the end of the mod.
On page 35 the Giant Toe-biter has 800 hp. I assume this is in error and we should use 35 that it lists on page 82.
yeah the oni has a hp typo too...the stats in the back are correct.
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Odd question...and I'm probably just missing something, but...
Chief Gutwad uses a Spear and a mwk comp longbow. The bonuses, as far as I can tell are determined as follows:
mwk comp lb (+9) = +4 from dex, +3 from BAB, +1 from mwk, +1 from PBS
Spear (+5) = +1 from str, +3 from BAB, +1 from ????
It's the spear that's getting me...where is he getting the other +1 from?
-Michael
Odd question...and I'm probably just missing something, but...
** spoiler omitted **
-Michael
I don't think PBS has been included in the ranged attack since it's a situational modifier, but I could easily be wrong. I'm guessing that the +1 damage for his bow attack is from strength, but in that case the strength rating is missing from the bow. So YMMV.
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Odd question...and I'm probably just missing something, but...
** spoiler omitted **
-Michael
Yep, I had found the size modifiers (I forget them on my own chars since I mostly play medium...don't know where the +1 on the damage is coming from, though), but was curious about something else:
Muthildah uses a +1 flail and a spiked gauntlet. Since she has the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, I calculate her bonuses at +7 on the flail and +6 on the gauntlet...is this correct?
-Michael
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Odd question...and I'm probably just missing something, but...
** spoiler omitted **
-Michael
Yep, I had found the size modifiers (I forget them on my own chars since I mostly play medium...don't know where the +1 on the damage is coming from, though), but was curious about something else:
** spoiler omitted **
-Michael
Actually,
Should be +8 on the flail since she has weapon focus.
Actually,
** spoiler omitted **
I think you're correct. +8 for the onhand attack, +6 for the offhand attack.
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A lot of other feats are "get +2 to skill check under condition X" e.g. courageous crew gives + 2 resolve against fear and rout and terrain mastery gives + 2 security in a specific terrain.
The only feats that work like that are Courageous Crew, Efficient Repairs, and Terrain Mastery. That's not actually a lot of them. Every other one grants a bonus that can't be imitated by Enhanced Caravan alone.
Also, if a caravan focuses exclusively on two primary statistics at the expense of the other two, it's possible to hit the cap on both of them by level 8. Of course most parties are going to build roving murder wagons with minimal Mobility and Morale, but for a merchant caravan that wants to max those stats, those three feats are acceptable endgame choices. Still not particularly good, but not worthless.
In the list of caravan encounters, it says that those marked with an asterisk have a 50% chance of occurring at night... but I didn't see any with asterisks.
Granted, it was pretty late so I might have missed them, but thought I'd check. :P
A little information about the XP values of the module: The advertised character progression in the front of the book ( the party should reach second level still in Brinestump March and be third level before entering Brinewall Castle ) does not correspond with the actual XP values in the adventure.
Doing every encounter ( excluding any random encounters ) will have a party of four just barely reaching second level at the very end of Brinestump March. Unless James seriously wanted people to make another whole level from random caravan encounters, this suggests that players are supposed to enter the castle at second level.
Furthermore, there are enough XP in the castle itself to get the party almost exactly at the end of the adventure module to fourth level.
So the progression in the front of the book is erroneous. I just wanted to put that out there, so that GM's are warned.
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Creative Director
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A little information about the XP values of the module: The advertised character progression in the front of the book ( the party should reach second level still in Brinestump March and be third level before entering Brinewall Castle ) does not correspond with the actual XP values in the adventure.
Doing every encounter ( excluding any random encounters ) will have a party of four just barely reaching second level at the very end of Brinestump March. Unless James seriously wanted people to make another whole level from random caravan encounters, this suggests that players are supposed to enter the castle at second level.
Furthermore, there are enough XP in the castle itself to get the party almost exactly at the end of the adventure module to fourth level.
So the progression in the front of the book is erroneous. I just wanted to put that out there, so that GM's are warned.
Deleted my post; Rob's got a more detailed response coming soon!
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I have to disagree here. During development, we track XP and treasure totals for each adventure to ensure that each adventure gives the PCs enough XP and treasure to get where they need to be, and that information is used to create the "Advancement Track" at the beginning of the adventure.
While we generally assume that most groups will also have random encounters, not every group does, nor will every group meet every encounter, but we hope that the combination of the two averages out. And the Advancement Track is there to help GMs know where their players should be at certain points in the adventure, so that if they miss some of the encounters in the adventure, the GM can add more to get them to the correct level.
In any case, we assume that the PCs will hit every encounter, and add up all of the scripted encounters in the adventure to reach the XP totals in the Advancement Track.
Looking back at my tracking worksheet, the PCs can each acquire just over 2,700 XP by the time they finish the swamp, bringing them to 2nd level. After exploring the first level and environs of Brinewall Castle, the PCs should each have about 6,800 XP, bringing them to 3rd level (and thus able to make a "serious attempt" at exploring the remainder of the castle). At the end of the adventure, if they have met every encounter, each PC will have over 11,000 XP, well above 4th level.
As a side note, the assumption is that there are 4 PCs in an average party. If a PC party is larger or smaller than this, the GM will need to make adjustments to the encounters (and the XP given) to reflect this.
I don't know how you are getting your XP values, Rob, but ( given my parameters of "no random encounters" ) they are incorrect as far as Brinestump March goes. I'll list the encounter XP in detail:
600 XP - Soggy River Monster (CR2)
600 XP - Volorog ( not counting the Vipers here, as they are a very optional part of the encounter )
600 XP - Saving Walthus
2025 XP - All normal Goblins
600 XP - Chief Gutwad
800 XP - Dispersing the Licktoads
400 XP - 3 Dire Rats
600 XP - Skitterfoot
400 XP - 3 Skeletons
400 XP - Giant Spider
400 XP - Giant Amoeba
800 XP - 6 Skeletons
800 XP - Tsutamu
Total: 9025 XP, 2256,25 per character.
I missed the story award ( 800 XP ) for dispersing the Goblins and just found that there are another 1200 XP after leaving Brinestump March, so the party should be at least a few hundred XP into second level at the end of Brinestump March. I still take a bit of an issue of declaring that a "serious attempt" to explore Brinewall Castle can only be declared after already clearing the first level and environs of it, but that is more a case of semantics.
In any case, there are definitely enough XP to get to level four without one random encounter in the module, but the declared level breaks are a bit off, IMHO.
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Creative Director
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I don't know how you are getting your XP values, Rob, but ( given my parameters of "no random encounters" ) they are incorrect as far as Brinestump March goes. I'll list the encounter XP in detail:
600 XP - Soggy River Monster (CR2)
600 XP - Volorog ( not counting the Vipers here, as they are a very optional part of the encounter )
600 XP - Saving Walthus
2025 XP - All normal Goblins
600 XP - Chief Gutwad
800 XP - Dispersing the Licktoads
400 XP - 3 Dire Rats
600 XP - Skitterfoot
400 XP - 3 Skeletons
400 XP - Giant Spider
400 XP - Giant Amoeba
800 XP - 6 Skeletons
800 XP - TsutamuTotal: 9025 XP, 2256,25 per character.
I missed the story award ( 800 XP ) for dispersing the Goblins and just found that there are another 1200 XP after leaving Brinestump March, so the party should be at least a few hundred XP into second level at the end of Brinestump March. I still take a bit of an issue of declaring that a "serious attempt" to explore Brinewall Castle can only be declared after already clearing the first level and environs of it, but that is more a case of semantics.
In any case, there are definitely enough XP to get to level four without one random encounter in the module, but the declared level breaks are a bit off, IMHO.
Of COURSE if you arbitrarily label some XP awards "optional" or ignore story awards, your totals are going to be off. We don't assume that in calculating our totals... and the fact that wandering monsters ARE a part of most games means that there's a "slush fund" of sorts of XP points out there waiting to make up for when the PCs miss or skip encounter elements.
Of COURSE if you arbitrarily label some XP awards "optional" or ignore story awards, your totals are going to be off. We don't assume that in calculating our totals...
Actually, I was wondering about this. Do you have a recommendation about getting the PCs to fight the vipers? If the fight just happened to spill out into their area, would the vipers attack everyone, or side with their "master?"
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Creative Director
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Of COURSE if you arbitrarily label some XP awards "optional" or ignore story awards, your totals are going to be off. We don't assume that in calculating our totals...Actually, I was wondering about this. Do you have a recommendation about getting the PCs to fight the vipers? If the fight just happened to spill out into their area, would the vipers attack everyone, or side with their "master?"
If the PCs stumble into the area, the vipers attack them. The bad guy there knows about them and might try to lure the PCs in there. Or the PCs might try to sneak in the back way. Or they could "recruit" the vipers to aid them via charm animal or wild empathy (that should get them XP as well).
And if the PCs miss the vipers... that's fine. They'll be a few XP short until they have some sort of additional encounter.
Frankly... when the PCs level up during the course of an adventure isn't really all that important. If they stumble into part of an adventure that's "too tough," they'll realize that soon and, hopefully, take action to remedy that (such as by deciding to focus on a less dangerous part of the adventure—the classic "let's clear out level 1 before progressing to level 2 of this location" is a great example). In the end, reaching the appropriate level to start the next adventure is what's important for an Adventure Path.