04-14 My Enemy's Enemy


GM Discussion

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3/5

Targets one creature/level, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart

Since the min castor level would be 5 he can hit 5 people.

3/5

Finlanderboy wrote:

Targets one creature/level, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart

Since the min castor level would be 5 he can hit 5 people.

Doh! Ahh that's right

4/5

Disclaimer - Have not read the mod but I trust the GM.

WARNING: Grand Lodge faction mission is messed up ( believe it was due to a simple typo) for this session.

Spoiler:
Grand Lodge members are given a mission to try and track down info on a pathfinder that's gone missing. While you do find that pathfinders wayfinder, the initials inscribed on the wayfinder are not the initials of the person you're looking for on the faction briefing.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Yeah that's what really confused me. The initials read AV instead of LH.

Dark Archive 4/5 5/5 ****

Ok, got a question for you all...

BBEG scaling:

In the tier 3-4 version, the alchemist is scaled down for 4-player parties by making him Sickened. Seems rather tame as a scaling, since the Alchemist bombs are a touch attack.

In fact, I don't think he ever missed with a bomb. Those of us that have been using touch attacks know that their strength is that they hit so often (why some people believe that Gunslingers are a broken class).

Couldn't they have found a better way to balance this encounter? I don't have the scenario, so I don't have all of the details, but it seems there could have been better balancers.

In general, it really seems to me that Alchemists are almost over-powered, at least as NPCs, since they don't have to ration their bombs (or other abilities). So, perhaps part of the balancing would be to say that the alchemist has already used a number of his bombs, and perhaps extracts... in fact, they had already been in an encounter that day, right? Would make sense.

Sorry if this sounded like ranting, or whining. We did defeat the BBEG, and survived the adventure. But, it was a round or two away from a TPK.

5/5

KestlerGunner wrote:
Yeah that's what really confused me. The initials read AV instead of LH.

Well, it has her actual name inscribed above the initials AV...that detail might have gotten lost in translation.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Yep. I think my character must have snorted some

hidden item:
EXPLOSIVE PESH RUNES.

4/5

Sniggevert wrote:
KestlerGunner wrote:
Yeah that's what really confused me. The initials read AV instead of LH.
Well, it has her actual name inscribed above the initials AV...that detail might have gotten lost in translation.

Indeed, it was essentially to the effect that it was gifted to Lydia Hobbs by "AV", who I presume to be Ambrus Valsin.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, West Virginia—Charleston

So, I'm getting ready to run this on Sunday, and I had a few questions.

1) What is the status of Mr. Chert? I know that he is supposed to be recovering from the poison - is he available for the PCs to speak to? What if they take the convenient stairs up to his room? Would a heal check be able to revive him from unconsciousness if he's unconscious? I only ask because I think it's likely my players will want to talk to him.

2) What happens if the PCs can't find a way to open the door to the temple? Mission over?

3) What are the combat effects of drinking a diluted potion of rage? Any?

4) How deep is the non-island water in the lightning room? Does it impede movement?

5) What object is the source of the lightning trap? It has a disable device DC, so there must be some location from which it can be disabled.

6) In the sinkhole encounter, what happens if the NPC dies? Seems like that would be mission failure as well?

4/5 *

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber
Netopalis wrote:

So, I'm getting ready to run this on Sunday, and I had a few questions.

1) What is the status of Mr. Chert? I know that he is supposed to be recovering from the poison - is he available for the PCs to speak to? What if they take the convenient stairs up to his room? Would a heal check be able to revive him from unconsciousness if he's unconscious? I only ask because I think it's likely my players will want to talk to him.

Thwarted by box text. From the scenario, p. 6:

Quote:
If a PC restores 4 points of Wisdom damage to Mr. Chert, he instantly recovers from his delirium, but settles into a deep sleep immediately and can’t be questioned.

It's cheap, but it's the way it's written.

Netopalis wrote:
2) What happens if the PCs can't find a way to open the door to the temple? Mission over?

Well, the scenario does provide several ways in — Disable Device, Linguistics, Use Magic Device, rage class feature or potion of rage. I'd rule that a decent Strength check would operate it too, based on the description of using rage effects. I'd even let a sneaky party wait and slip in behind someone else using the door. I would think that's enough avenues for most parties.

Netopalis wrote:
3) What are the combat effects of drinking a diluted potion of rage? Any?

No one in a game I've GMed has tried this yet, but I'd rule it to be a half-duration spell myself.

Netopalis wrote:
4) How deep is the non-island water in the lightning room? Does it impede movement?

Probably only a few inches deep. I would say no to impeding movement since the scenario doesn't say that it does.

Netopalis wrote:
5) What object is the source of the lightning trap? It has a disable device DC, so there must be some location from which it can be disabled.

This isn't clear, but I personally would tie it to the female face on the wall, since the other trap is tied to the male face.

Netopalis wrote:
6) In the sinkhole encounter, what happens if the NPC dies? Seems like that would be mission failure as well?

I don't know that it's game over; I would probably offer a Diplomacy check on the surviving NPC — a sort of a "your losses don't outweigh your gains" thing, since the NpCs are having second thoughts already.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

Had an excellent time running this yesterday. I did not prep quite enough for it as I should have, but other than a few minor hiccups it went smoothly.

The party was a 6th level Shadow Lodge sorcerer, 5th level Silver Crusade cleric, 5th level Andoran fighter, and 4th level Chelaxian magus. The lack of a trapfinder was inconvenient, but not insurmountable. The group has been burned on playing up, so we went 3-4 subtier.

Things started off well with excellent roleplay between the party and Abigail. I played her as very old-fashioned and strict, and concerned for her tenant's well-being. Some diplomacy got them in to examine Chert's condition, allowing the cleric to make his Heal check and find clues. They were finally allowed to examine the scene and on initial investigation thought Antaios was the stolen item. Their Knowledge checks allowed them to know what the potion was but not the vial, although they had strong suspicions about it after examining Chert.

Getting to the back room was an amusing experience as the magus was continually tossed back into the display area by the vine. (The party dubbed this the bouncer bush.) His vanish spell did not work as assassin vines have blindsight, so the party decided to have the fighter rush through with him. I ruled that the magus going first got tossed back, but then the fighter was past and out of reach of the trap. Of course, this attracted Antaios who moved in and won initiative. One smack in the face later, the fighter decided to step back into reach of the vine and get thrown into the other room.

Combat ensued with some attempts to reason with the topiary, the sorcerer having made his Knowledge: Nature check. When this failed, they proceeded to employ burning hands on the plant. The hedge stride came into play as Antaios went for the sorcerer that had burned him, but the party was able to take him down before he caused any trouble. They then managed to stabilize him and put him back in his soil to recover.

I ruled that the key they were given opens the door behind the counter to expedite them moving on, and they explored the back room. They had no problem finding the false bottom and accomplishing the Andoran faction mission. They failed to identify the scrap of cloth and had to go ask around about it. There was some trouble with red herrings, as they asked the guard about the other thefts and were stonewalled as I had no information about them to give. (Mostly focused on the idea that the guard was handling them and they were being allowed to investigate this one as a courtesy.) The magus misread his faction mission and wanted to speak to the noblewoman whose letter had been stolen, but dropped it when he realized he had to track down the stolen item and not the servant who had been robbed.

The party moved on into Ordellia and crossed paths with the Szcarni at the sinkhole. This encounter was almost the briefest, as the fighter and magus ran up to help pull Eun out, and the sorcerer and cleric moved to intercept the swarm before it could even act. Two burning hands later, the fight was over. I stumbled a bit through Ylandria's explanation of events, but the party was already getting the idea that the Twincandles were being used. This only became more apparent as they spoken with the capteos in Two Lights. Armed with a pretty clear idea of what they were up against and what they needed to do, they entered the Sodden Crypt.

Unfortunately, the first door was a stumper. The cleric failed his Linguistics check, and I wasn't sure if he could take twenty to figure it out. They proceeded to pick at it in all sorts of creative ways that did not work. Had my wife been playing her rogue instead of her fighter, the door would have been opened in an instant. As it was, they had no Disable Device to open it, although I missed that the magus' or sorcerer's UMD would have worked. Finally I gave them the inscription after they threw water on the door Fifth Element-style. That got them to use the potion and open the door, but over all those ten minutes were frustrating for the group, if not a dealbreaker.

The rest of the dungeon was incredibly therapeutic after that, as they explored a very flavorful dungeon, and the cleric won initiative on the rogues in the chapel. His first action was to throw a fireball at the pair as they were on the upper level.

A snake eyes on their Reflex saves ended that encounter without a chance for the traps to be activated.

They proceeded to order the youths up top and stabilize the crispy rogues before moving on to take advantage of their buffs. The cleric had daylight going, so I ruled that while the final bosses did not hear the brief foosh of flame in the other room and could not buff, they did see the light approaching and were not surprised.

Normal initiative began, with a lackluster sneak attack before the party could act, and the overturned barrel leaving the magus the only one with line of sight on anyone. He held his own quite well against the rogue, getting around the evasion via his shocking grasp spells and having a high enough AC to be an effective tank against the partnerless rogue. The rest of the party moved slowly up, some taking acid damage, some (the aasimar cleric) not.

The rogue tumbled away from the magus through the cloud as a better option than standing there to be pummeled. The sorcerer ran afoul of him when moving through the mist and had to eat an AoO to reposition. However, the lack of Combat Reflexes allowed him to lightning bolt the rogue at point blank. Evasion kicked in to save his bacon, although the alchemist was less fortunate.

At this point, the mist dissipated, allowing the fighter to use her bow. Some poor rolls prolonged the fight, although the sorcerer having mirror image up saved him from a nasty longspear crit and prevented the rogue from employing his freshly poisoned rapier. A tactical error on the alchemists part had him in the acid pool without his protection from energy potion, doing just enough damage to drop him. The rogue soon followed.

Overall, the party was completely successful, and thanks to that good shot in the chapel set up the final battle in their favor. Had the guards actually gotten the trap off, the final battle would have become MUCH more uncertain. Overall, a wonderfully balanced mixture of roleplay and combat, with a good story. Keeping this one on my favorites list.

Silver Crusade 3/5

I'm going to run this next week and I was wondering about the DC 30 Perception check for the bosses. Do you think it has taken into account everything like distance, sounds of battle, etc? Those normal modifiers to Perception. Or should I try to adjust the DC according to the Perception skill rules. Related, could the bosses technically hear the battle even without the traps activating, it could make awful lot of noise anyway? I'm just wondering if they'll be threat if they don't get time to prepare.

Grand Lodge 3/5 5/55/55/5

Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Question on the boon to this one -

For Rivalry's End:
Has anyone seen it used? I assumed it might come up in Rivalry's End when you confront the Spider, but I don't see any mention of the boon in there. GMs, how are you handling that?

Shadow Lodge 4/5

I know it asks if you played certain scenarios, but I forget if this was one of them.

Dark Archive 4/5 5/5 ***

Prepping the scenario for a home game right now and there is one point that really bugs me and I need to get it of my chest: Titus and Lal can hear the battle with a DC 30 Perception check...Lal has +9, Titus has +1 (in hight tier, as a rogue)...how?
There is no chance for them to make that check. Why even give a DC? Or a preperation routine?
Why would you give a rogue a +16 on disable device check and no perception?

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