trying to be topical....
Golarion runs on magic
And magic runs on:
......Diamond, silver, quartz, onyx, mercury, phosphorous and 4 dozen more precious and semi-precious materials
What if, throughout the world, these started to dry up....wizard and clerics of all colours and outlooks would start to loose their ability.
-the ill would stay ‘unrestored’
-the dead, would stay dead,
-the dead, would not be undead
-towers would lay undefended by the ‘arts’....
And hundreds of other spells would become in short supply
The repercussions would be enormous
The Price of Power AP, an adventure path that spans the whole of Golarion.
Intrique, trade, diplomacy, treachery, wealth and terrible secrets await......
Part 1: the party are gathered at Absalom, centre of the Inner sea. Called there by a mix of the great and good. Traders, clergy of light and dark, arcane dabblers, all looking somewhat uneasy. The party first task is to see why a large number of dwarven mines have just closed their gates and are no longer shipping their commodities. Research has shown that the closures started at one particular dwarven owned mine just over two months ago. It is one of the few mines that supplies a certain as yet undisclosed to the party resource, and on the quiet, so as not to upset any interested group or faction, a low level delegation is to be sent to investigate, made of of interested representatives.....
This AP suits any and all alignments and the bigger the mix the better. One thing all factions, and worshippers agree on its that Wealth is good.....or bad...dependent on how you use it! The group are forced together and best set aside any immediate differences
Traits. Am working on traits that are inter-dependent on the party rather than the NPC ones seen in many AP’s
thoughts?
Eschew Materials? Minor/Major Creation?
and the major created rares dont last very long either....although that could be a nice plot device, people selling these gems + metals, which turn out to be spell component duds!
occassionally
. for a start there is a silver shortage dont forget!!
and its not until the 3rd, 4th etc level spells that the real needs kick in
thanks for the input. i do need to know if there is an easy work around for the poor wizards and clerics in need of expensive components
|
Access to the Elemental Plane of Earth (through Plane Shift, etc), dig away.
Now that's not a game-stopper, because then the focus becomes conflict and negotiation with Elemental Lords / Shaitans and other beings inhabiting the Earth Plan, as 'those pesky humanoids' start strip-mining the place.
There's also the other planets in the solar system (Teleport), with the same outcome (ie. conflict and/or negotiation for resources).
Everyone could start using False Focus, ignores up to 100gp in material components.
This and/or an enterprising mage would buy A LOT of coal and start fabricating diamonds.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
|
It's a very interesting idea for a campaign. At first I thought it would be too punishing on spellcasters, but you can get by fairly well without using expensive components - with one exception.
Extreme care would have to be taken about the spell restoration. Many creatures inflict ability drain in an offhand manner, with the expectation that it can be cleared up with a single 100gp casting. In a campaign without diamond dust, ability drain basically amounts to permanently reducing a character's ability scores, and that's not something I would want to happen just because of an unlucky roll. There is a type of player who would retire a character over that sort of thing.
I really don't see it as an official AP myself, but I think it could make a very fun home campaign if done well, with an attention to the consequences and fully informed players.
|
|
Extreme care would have to be taken about the spell restoration. Many creatures inflict ability drain in an offhand manner, with the expectation that it can be cleared up with a single 100gp casting.
Ability Drain can be healed with Lesser Restoration, which requires no material component. It also heals on its' own over a few days, as do temporary negative levels. It's really only permanent negative levels (like those given by Raise Dead) that actually require a full-on use of Restoration to recover from.
The scope of this is far too global for an AP. They tend to spotlight a region, this would have to involve the entire planet.
I totally agree with Coridan on this, a global scope wouldn't really work, but the basic idea of spell component shortage might actually work much better on a local scale.
A local community would rely on a couple of providers. One might even imagine that for some components, e.g. the trade in precious stones, there is a local monopoly by one consortium. What if someone engineered a malicious plan to have this supply halted? It wouldn't be impossible to get your components elsewhere, but the means to do so are not readily available to everyone and it would certainly be a major reason for concern.
Just imagine that you live on an island and there is only one store where you can get food. It has everything you need at affordable prices and it's close to your home, so you have come to rely on it. What if the store suddenly closed its doors and your only alternative to get food is to take the ferry to the mainland? You would have no choice but to do so, but it would be a great inconveniance and some people on the island might not have the mobility to get there easily. It would also be more expensive to get your food, because you have to take the price of the ferry into account. You would also buy more at once, but maybe you lack the funds to buy a lot of supplies. And what if someone started raiding your supply room? It would certainly have a great impact.
There might just be a nice seed in this for a campaign with a mercantile intrigue.
thanks
yeah, maybe global is a big epic
and of course the shortage may well be just a ruse for something else im still planning on for example, a prelude to invasion.
I do think a merchanty theme would be fun, maybe some mini-game within....
and i wanted to start with some dwarf theme, and a trade dispute / mystery
and it does normally say this AP is suited to all characters. Sometimes they arent. I truly wanted one where a NE human cleric of some foul god, is just forced to work with a LG nice guy, a CN sneak etc....because wealth is so important no matter what your outlook
all further input most welcome
A lot of the solutions are quite high level,
at levels 1-5 im sure that spellcasters arent punished too much
i want lots scope for negotiation, and try to bring in little used skills
scope is also there to play one of the more unusual races for ARG as pcs as the shortgae affects everybody
im sure there are contract to say you cannot use earth elementals as slave labour of course this could also be part of a plot point
Due to the random things that make up spell components it would be hard to imagine this being feasible. As an example the "fly" spell only needs a feather from a wing. It does not even have to be a specific bird type.
I could see my players saying "You are telling me I can't find one bird, really?"
@wraith: not all spell components, just precious/semi-precious stuff that needs to be mined (see my OP)
@wraith: not all spell components, just precious/semi-precious stuff that needs to be mined (see my OP)
oops. :)
That makes it a little better. This would more likely be the work of a criminal enterprise though since not many spells require expensive compontents. The only ones that do, that are expected to be cast or the raise dead and restoration line of spells.
I would suggest hiding them very well though. Having a bunch of spellcasters mad at you, is not a good idea. :)
|
|
I think your putting magic into a way too accessible category. A vast majority of the people in the world already go unrestored and are left dead. A very large majority of communities can't even muster the funds to buy enough of those spell components to get those spells cast, let along support a spell caster of high enough level to cast them.
It'd be like a Golarion First World Problem. The AP equivalent of there not being enough iPhones to go around.
Morgen has a point.
yeah, it would start as a problem for the elite, BUT if they themselves start to pull silver and gold out of circulation to extract the pure metal, it ill slowly impact the masses
adventuring groups may start being wary about going to various places w/o the back up of the diamond dust being there I currently GM an AP and the party are 13th, and carry as much diamond as possible
Im free this weekend so will have a good look for 50 or so spells that have a component cost, and have a think what would happen w/o them...as someone mentioned, start with a localised problem and them mod 2 could stretch to another region
there is a good discussion elsewhere on trade routes etc
|
|
I think your putting magic into a way too accessible category. A vast majority of the people in the world already go unrestored and are left dead. A very large majority of communities can't even muster the funds to buy enough of those spell components to get those spells cast, let along support a spell caster of high enough level to cast them.
It'd be like a Golarion First World Problem. The AP equivalent of there not being enough iPhones to go around.
This is a slight exaggeration. Based on the settlement rules, most towns of over 200 have someone with Restoration, and most of over 2,000 have someone with Raise Dead. Over 200 is also where 1,000 gp goods are available fairly readily.
It is primarily an issue for the rich, due to the sheer costs involved, but that stuff's available to well-off people everywhere, not just in huge metropolises.
@deadman
yep. looking at the pure stuff as RAW, there is a lot of magic and access to spell casting in PF
all input is good, so am considering it all
I don't think caster can just move stuff out of circulation. I will also add that mines would have to be shutdown also. It would take a long time before this became a real problem, and by then some high level adventurers should be able to solve it. If they can't then it is not feasible for a low level party of adventures to deal with it, espeically since it would to be setup so that not only did it block high level PC classes, but entire nations since I am sure they would start to look into it also.
PS:The above assumes it takes place on a global scale.
I think this is better off set up as blocking a specific material component in an isolated area, that is needed "right now" due to another issue.
|
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
|
Ability Drain can be healed with Lesser Restoration, which requires no material component. It also heals on its' own over a few days, as do temporary negative levels. It's really only permanent negative levels (like those given by Raise Dead) that actually require a full-on use of Restoration to recover from.
You've got ability damage and ability drain confused. Drain never heals on its own, and lesser restoration explicitly excludes healing it.
A solution for this type of campaign might be a staff or other item capable of casting restoration.
PRD quotes in spoiler to prevent wall o text:
Diseases, poisons, spells, and other abilities can all deal damage directly to your ability scores. This damage does not actually reduce an ability, but it does apply a penalty to the skills and statistics that are based on that ability.
Unless otherwise noted, damage to your ability scores is healed at the rate of 1 per day to each ability score that has been damaged. Ability damage can be healed through the use of spells, such as lesser restoration.
Ability Drain: Ability drain actually reduces the relevant ability score. Modify all skills and statistics related to that ability. This might cause you to lose skill points, hit points, and other bonuses. Ability drain can be healed through the use of spells such as restoration.
Only damage not drain heals naturally. It's been that way since 3.0.
Lesser restoration dispels any magical effects reducing one of the subject's ability scores or cures 1d4 points of temporary ability damage to one of the subject's ability scores. It also eliminates any fatigue suffered by the character, and improves an exhausted condition to fatigued. It does not restore permanent ability drain.
The permanence is what makes it drain instead of damage
|
|
You've got ability damage and ability drain confused. Drain never heals on its own, and lesser restoration explicitly excludes healing it.
A solution for this type of campaign might be a staff or other item capable of casting restoration.
PRD quotes in spoiler to prevent wall o text:
** spoiler omitted **
Ah, you're right.
Stil, that's a very small subdivision of low-level monsters. I mean, I'm looking and seing a few CR 5 ones (Wraiths are the only 'common' one), nothing below that, and it being fairly rare even at higher levels.
@deadman
yep. looking at the pure stuff as RAW, there is a lot of magic and access to spell casting in PF
all input is good, so am considering it all
Based on what research I've done (a pretty fair amount), Golarion operates at a very close approximation of the settlement rules, so it's RAW and setting-as-presented. Other settings might, of course, differ.
|
|
This is a slight exaggeration. Based on the settlement rules, most towns of over 200 have someone with Restoration, and most of over 2,000 have someone with Raise Dead. Over 200 is also where 1,000 gp goods are available fairly readily.
Well yes it was an intentional exaggeration to point out the issue, but you have to remember the rules for the spell casting costs based upon the rules in the equipment section.
See spell description for additional costs. If the additional costs put the spell's total cost above 3,000 gp, that spell is not generally available. Use a spell level of 1/2 for 0-level spells to calculate the cost.
So a Restoration spell would be save to see as an available spell, coming in at minimum caster level of 1280gp, something like Raise Dead is not considered to be generally available by the rules. It doesn't have anything to do with the size of the settlement, that's as a GM you have control over. Oddly Reincarnate is, but pretty much any other method of coming back to life isn't.