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I've played it at a con as part of Society and while it only grants 1 prestige, the rewards are pretty nice on the chronicle sheet. The adventure is a lot more challenging than your typical scenario, but it was also rather fun.
Also this is a very short module, and if run smoothly shouldn't take more than 4 hours, and if very smooth 3 hours.
Also, once my local crowd gets enough people into that level range I'd love to GM it.
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The only reason I didn't play it this past Monday is because the other adventure being offered at our game day was one that I'd previously played, and really enjoyed, so I volunteered to GM that day instead.
Given the scenario's reputation, I was reluctant to play my level 4 controller sorcerer in this one, but I would have happily played my level 6 cleric instead.
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It got a hard rap and as a Free RPG Day module it only grants 1 Prestige , grants 1xp, and no Job Rolls.
If it was on offer at your local venue, would you play it? Or would it be a case of 'Its too hard/dangerous/not rewarding enough'?
If I had not already played it for credit I would sign up for it. I plan on playing all the modules for PFS credit at some point.
Nathan Meyers
NYC Player/GM
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Only grants 1 PP? Well, sure. Theoretically, players will earn 1.5 PP on average. In practice, most players get all 2 PP every game. I don't see loosing out on 1 PP this module as particularly detrimental to any character's career.
Only 1 XP? Well... were you expecting anything else? It's a short adventure, not one of the 12-hour modules.
Day job rolls? They can be nice, but the money you actually get from them is almost insignificant. The boon more than outweighs any lost gold from day jobs.
Is the mission dangerous? Well... sure. You're a pathfinder. With smart thinking you can easily work around all of the challenges, unless you are woefully under-prepared, in which case... you're in a city.
Overall, I think Dawn of the Scarlet Sun gets way more bad rap than it deserves, likely because it is the first module that expects 6 players rather than 4. It's still a great PFS mission though, especially since it's based in Magnimar and has the PCs looking into the city's history. That's more Pathfinder-y than several PFS scenarios!
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I honestly think it's a good mod. It's got elements for heavy RP and heavy combat in equal parts. Player decisions certainly effect the way the mod plays out, too -- which can only be a Good Thing [tm] in my view.
When I played it, I thought it was rough; but when I read through the mod, the GM had taken a couple of liberties (which was fine, considering what they added). When I ran it, I rolled fairly straight-up and the table seemed to enjoy it. (As with anything someone else has written, YMMV.)
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I did run it once. Was it tough for my group - definitely. They lacked the proper equipment.
I regard this scenario as a fantastic way to get players accustomed to harder play as they will notice some tough aspects.
It allows the GM to dial up/down the difficulty just depending whom in the group you target with which ability. So if you have a GM you can trust - aka one who isn't out to outright kill you - then go for it.
I'm looking forward to use it at a convention in January.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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I've run it four times, with a variety of results: a hard-fought success with no loss of life, a roll-over, a TPK without the opposition raising a sweat or ever being below full hit points, and a partial party kill with two PCs escaping after dealing some damage.
The key seems to be: if each individual character piles on, doing the most damage he or she can, the party is in for a very tough fight. If the party picks one character, and buffs / heals / supports that character's attacks, then it's not too hard to take the bad guy apart.
So, play the early X-Men, not the Justice League.
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You played with a magus? I'm surprised you didn't get up and walk away..
This was my first convention using my new 'Give Magi a chance' rule.
The rogue/magus was fine. He didn't make it a point to solo every encounter and his character wasn't invulnerable. If every magus was like him I wouldn't have a problem.
Unfortunately, the other three I played with were textbook Magical Lineage/Intensify Spell/Crit on 15-20 Shocking Grasp spammers that one-rounded everything and had AC 10 points higher than everyone else at the table. No, there is very little exaggeration here.
I am currently reevaluating the rule.
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You played with a magus? I'm surprised you didn't get up and walk away..This was my first convention using my new 'Give Magi a chance' rule.
The rogue/magus was fine. He didn't make it a point to solo every encounter and his character wasn't invulnerable. If every magus was like him I wouldn't have a problem.
Unfortunately, the other three I played with were textbook Magical Lineage/Intensify Spell/Crit on 15-20 Shocking Grasp spammers that one-rounded everything and had AC 10 points higher than everyone else at the table. No, there is very little exaggeration here.
I am currently reevaluating the rule.
This build does crazy things, and it's super fun to play, don't hate on it too much. ultimately, the class is still a melee class the high AC problem, is different, and I dare say mostly unrelated. (Probably the fault of your other party members, more than the fault of the magus.)
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Side question: Can you ready an attack or spell (say magic missile) to force the magus to make a concentration check to use spell strike? If so, I know what my NPCs will be doing. ;-)
edit: Reading it, it looks like if he failed the concentration check, he'd lose the attack with the weapon. Delicious.
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Side question: Can you ready an attack or spell (say magic missile) to force the magus to make a concentration check to use spell strike? If so, I know what my NPCs will be doing. ;-)
edit: Reading it, it looks like if he failed the concentration check, he'd lose the attack with the weapon. Delicious.
Yup, and is very strong, unless the magus cast shield :-p
@Feral, I just don't see it as a one man army. Even blowing up one enemy (which it does, totally not denying that) The AC issue seems like an error (honestly, Magus AC isn't especially high). Summoner/Eidolon is a much worse offender of this.
I agree with you on grandstanding, if grandstanding is why you go to a PFS table, you should probably reconsider why you'replaying :D.
I just don't think it's the fault of the Magus class, as much as the type of players that tend to play them. A lot of magus rules are both "cool" and confusing, making it lend itself to more optimization focused players :D
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I just don't think it's the fault of the Magus class, as much as the type of players that tend to play them.
This is precisely the problem and exactly why I had my soft-magus ban to begin with. This was my first convention since lifting my personal ban and was one time that I would have been happy to be wrong.
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I played it. Our player with the pre-generated Paladin left after an hour because they got bored. We so could've used that Paladin...
My character (A Starsoul sorcerer) blew a Will Save against Dominate Person. Up until the time I'd blown that will save, I'd been throwing down Dazing Magic Missiles to make up for the fact that we were a 3 person party and reduce the enemy action economy.
The GM took over my character sheet...and cursed because I was out of 3rd level spells. He had so been looking forward to using me as a Fireball dispenser.
We did managed to ALL live through it. Saying we got out by the skin of our teeth is vastly overstating how safe it was...
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Get a wand of bless water and UMD if no cleric or paladin at the table.(25gp * 50 charges) + 750 gp = 2000 gp.... kind of expensive.
and I can't take 10 on UMD!
LOL!
(why not just buy the 50 flasks of Holy Water? to much weight?
50 lbs of flasks. It's more convenient to carry the wand. I never said it was an economically sound choice.
Before the sidetrack, I played DotSS for PFS, with all pre-gens. I enjoyed it, some of the other players didn't. I thought it was pretty fun, though it's quite dangerous if people don't either metagame a little ("hey, optional equipment, I wonder if that's a hint") or if the players don't cooperate well.
Side question: Can you ready an attack or spell (say magic missile) to force the magus to make a concentration check to use spell strike?
Technically, no. Spellstrike just allows you to deliver a touch spell with your weapon, it can't be interrupted. If he has a held charge or uses a supernatural ability or something, there's nothing to interrupt.
You can try to interrupt his spell, though, just like any other spellcaster. No spell = no free attack.
50 lbs of flasks. It's more convenient to carry the wand.
How does this work? Do you carry empty flasks, and use Create Water, and rule that casting Bless Water 'consumes' the water so it doesn't disappear after a day? Or is it just for emergencies when you know you'll need holy water and have a few minutes to cast, but can't get to a church?
I think they meant to speak of spell combat, not spell strike.
Same answer, pretty much. You can interrupt the spell, that doesn't prevent the rest of the action from happening. IE: Magus uses Spell Combat, tries to cast Shield, gets interrupted by Magic Missiles, appreciates the irony, then finishes with normal weapon attacks. (He still takes the -2 penalty, though)
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No I meant Spell Strike. Disrupt the casting of shocking grasp = wasted standard action and no attacking for Mr. Magus.Correct.
Unless he was ALSO using Spell Combat, in which case he still gets his normal full-attack, albeit with a -2 on all his attacks.
Right.. But who cares about that? Oh no, a sort-of-melee character is full attacking me! pfft.
The correct course of action is to not get into a full-attack situation with characters or creatures that are better at it than you. Just like you shouldn't charge a Gug, Glabrezu, or Dragon only to get full-attacked back.