Reign of Winter Obituaries Thread (Spoilers)


Reign of Winter

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Name: Jamion Fairground
Race: Half-elf
Classes/levels: Cleric of Nethys 8
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Location: Maiden Statue, the Garden (C4)
Catalyst: Poryphanes learned he was Good.

The Gory Details:

The half-fiend satyr's tendriculos ally wasn't really threatening the party, so Poryphanes stepped things up with an Unholy Blight. Jamion, who is Good despite his deity's indifference, failed his save and was sickened. The satyr smiled evilly and advanced on Jamion while cloaked in darkness, for which the party was unprepared. Jamion stood his ground and healed, but Smite Good on a full attack killed him outright from 30 hit points.

The cavalry (a daylight spell from the absent-minded wizard, as well as a whole new party member) came in the next round, and the sorcerer and oracle forced Poryphanes to flee. Jamion was reincarnated as a gnome using a Salve of Second Chance, all according to Nethys's plan. The good thing is that when the party encounters Poryphanes again, he won't recognize Jamion. Neither will all the people to whom Jamion owes money.

Third death in fairly quick succession. I wonder if I'm becoming *that* DM. :)


Name: Kit
Race: Kitsune
Classes/levels: Bard 7/Fighter 7 gestalt
Adventure: Mother, Maiden, Crone
Location: on the second floor deck of the Hut
Catalyst: Frost Giant
The Gory Details: So the party having overcome and bound Ratibor, awoke to the entry room being shaken by crashing impacts hitting the interface with the outside world. They figured out it was frost giants who had ice netted the Hut and were attempting to smash it with boulders and one up close with an ice axe.

Being bold champions of Baba Yaga they freed Ratibor, geared up for a round and charged out to engage all the giants.

Kit decided to be strategic and sing from the top porch to buff the other six PCs and NPCs while plinking with his newly rebuilt fighter archer archetype gestalt build.

A furious fight with a high powered large number of PCs made it a possible thing. Lots of people scared of being one shotted but never backing down for a moment, using improved invis, mirror image, invisibility and fog cloud defensively to close without drawing AoOs but still engaging fairly straight up. They pressed on and on taking out giants one by one and being wracked by axe and boulder as the hut stirred and started to swallow giants (not 1d4 a round but close).

Kit not being the strongest in AC or hp was quickly bloodied but stuck it out, using bow and lots of grease spells to provide battlefield control. He stopped a couple of giants from maneuvering but one heavily wounded one managed to close with a charge.

On the giants turn Kit had 32 hp left. The giant power attacked, and critted with his x3 greataxe.

75 points of static damage bonus before the 9d6 get rolled.


Name: Malyk Kaspaele Euphram
Race: Aasimar
Classes/levels: Bard (arcane duelist) 9/Marshal 3
Adventure: Mother, Maiden, Crone
Location: The Eon Pit
Catalyst: Vsevolod and his mighty hammer

The Gory Details:

Spoilered for length:
Malyk has always done well in battle, relying on mirror images and his AC to keep him unscathed, and his inexplicably frequent crits with his falcata (usually at least once a round, despite a 19-20 crit range) to put foes down rapidly.

And so he activated his celestial armor and flew forward to engage the vile centaur (who was airwalking 10 feet off the floor).

This in turn drew the attention of the svathurim, which against all odds (i.e., attacking a man with mirror images) charged Malyk for 55 damage.

Dahrahn the black powder inquisitor opened fire.

Quote:

Dahrahn: Stand down fool! We're on a mission from God!

Vsevolod: So am I.

Vsevolod, in turn, dispelled Malyk's mirror images with a mythic dispel magic. Vsevolod then used his bonus action from amazing initiative to deal a crushing blow, but rolled a 1.

After Jadrenka and the witch Devana hex'd Vsevolod's AC and saves, Malyk held his ground and began chopping at Vsevolod, dealing about 150 damage over 4 strikes. Meanwhile, Saeralia the ranger closed with the svathurim and ripped it to shreds, while Svetlana the oracle threw an air walk on Saeralia and Dahrehn, Greta, and Marislova fought the demons that had starting arriving to support the centuar.

And then Vsevolod's turn came around, and he attacked. 150 something damage later (with 50 points being negated by a mythic glitterdust), Malyk was well and thoroughly dead.

While Jadrenka and Devana continued hurling spells and hexes at Vsevolod, Saeralia and Svetlana turned their full wrath to the terrible centaur. Svetlana using amazing initiative to blast the centaur for 26d6 cold damage (interstaller void revelation twice), and Saeralia closed with a fleet charge and tried to shred him.

And then rolled 3 1's over five attacks, falling a couple points shy of hitting. (Always a chance is amusing with sufficient buffs - Saeralia had chopped some frost giants pieces with a string of 1s in an earlier fight; Vsevolod's hexed AC was about 2 points above what Saeralia could hit on a natural 1). After everything, he still stood with about 40 HP left.

And so Vsevolod lived to take a final string of attacks - and then died in the middle of his own turn, because Saeralia, after being cut to 7 HP, killed Vsevolod with an 80+ point critical hit with her retaliatory strike from Sudden Block.

From there, the party mopped up the remaining adds to the fight (at that point, a fiendish frost giant and a confused advanced andrazku).

With Jadrenka's assistance, the party then used a raise dead to return Malyk to the world of the living.

Also, to be provided without context:

Quote:
Devana: Fine! Put a leash on his body and drag it! She'll follow!


Name: Karp the Kobold
Race: Kobold
Classes/levels: Paladin 1
Adventure: Snows of Summer
Location: Outskirts of the Woods
Catalyst: Arctic Tatzylworm
The Gory Details:

Spoiler:
A solo campaign where Karp the Kobold was racing off to rescue the Damsel in distress. After a couple comically effective battles Karp failed to see the hidden worm. He fought the worm to a standstill for several rounds, but sadly was not able to roll over a 10 on the die for several rounds in a row, and in the end the multiple claws and teeth shredded out hero.

Made for the shortest rescue in the history of heroes.


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Name: Benjifur Ulafinson
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Barbarian/Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple 8
Adventure: Mother, Maiden, Crone
Location: Crone
Catalyst: Nymph's Bastards
The Gory Details: Having previously gotten his con rotted by the ratter, and his strength dropped by Ungrist's quills the invulnerable rager still charged ahead into the jungle gym of the vivisection caves to challenge two of the swinging triplets (Allicore and Ballicore I named them) who were up 15' in the structure.

The inquisitor decided she could not really chase them up there on the rickety structure and Benjifur was tough so when two of the triplets flanked the barbarian she threw a tree token under him, sending him and his flankers up to the top of the cavern and crashing the cage. The two maneuvered to flank him up high and the third, Calicore, with spider climb clambered up to join the melee. The rest of the party shot spells and crossbow bolts from below while the improved invis rogue wizard climbed the tree.

Each of the triplets offered Benjifur "the hand of friendship" sneak attack! and with 2 claws doing 3d6+6 each it was penetrating his DR. When it was three on one and one of the bastards got a crit it went bad quick from reverse action economy. Benjifur dropped Allicore but then bought it big time and dropping rage was beyond his reduced con.

The very next action was the rogue two weapon fighting full attacking Balicore and nuking him in a spray of sneak attack mutagen'd fey blood.

Calicore fled but the inquisitor managed to trap him for a quick finishing duel.


Name: Quendalin Raining Alms
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Rogue/Wizard 8
Adventure: Mother, Maiden, Crone
Location: Crone
Catalyst: Ear Seekers
The Gory Details: Having had his constitution wrecked by the ratter, Quendalin was down to 4 Constitution. After the fight with the Nymph's Bastards he, the magus, and the inquisitor all took samples of the vivisected animals' furs for various purposes. Quendalin is a transmutation specialist and he and the magus thought about future beast shape components while the inquisitor was thinking of making herself some cloak linings or some such.

Quenadlin missed his save while the others made it.

They camped out and survived an attack during the night by a centaur and two Andrazku of Vsevolod's. In the morning Quendalin woke up with impaired hearing. An hour later he screamed as eggs started hatching and hungry larva began to burrow and fatten up. With 4 con left he rolled the d6 for con damage and got . . . a 6.

Dead, Dead, Dead.

Further details:

Spoiler:
Mostly Dead.

This left the party with only two members plus GurraGurra who Quendalin had charmed into working for him by using an abusive boyfriend ploy and a one-shot narrative magic.

I had him take over playing Gurra for the night. I still played Gurra so we could banter back and forth.

Deep in the Crone the locks had reset overnight and the barbarian with the chime of opening was dead and they had forgotten he had it. Their rogue could open all the locks by taking 20 but now Quendalin was dead too.

GurraGurra picked up Quendalin's body and wrapped it in a blanket like a baby in a Maia wrap for carrying. She wanted to bring him to either Jadrenka or Caigreal thinking a coven could raise him. They convinced her to try taking them out so they could take him to the centaurs instead. She didn't have any keys though, and her str 20 is insufficient to break down the DC 28 doors. They cast enlarge person on her which made her huge but not quite strong enough. So they went exploring and encountered Caigreal.

Caigreal wanted GurraGurra to form a coven with her to bring back Grishelmuk which the party had killed earlier. With Sissyl as well dead she needed a third and the Iomedae inquisitor would not do it. The hexcrafter magus agreed until he realized that Caigreal was having him dedicate himself to Mestama in the Mestama temple as part of joinging the coven. Her man-hating was too much for him and he drew his black blade, called out to the inquisitor, and they fought Caigreal with GurraGurra joining in. Though almost dropping to evil channeled energy they prevailed by hacking her 1 image per round and triple teaming her.

Quendalin would need to await another source of raising . . .


Name: Iskandar Fezulin
Race: Elf Jadwigga
Classes/levels: Magus 8
Adventure: Mother, Maiden, Crone
Location: Maiden - Garden
Catalyst: Poryphanes
The Gory Details: Entering the Garden Iskandar heard some pipes and some guy suggest he cross to the other side of the room to give the speaker some time alone with the ladies. One failed save on the suggestion and Iskandar thought moving past the Tendriculos was a reasonable thing to do.

Then the plant grabbed him on an AoO and it was on. He engaged the Tendriculos while the Inquisitor and GurraGurra tried to take on the flying half demon satyr. He got grabbed and broke out of the grapple twice and finally full attack killed the huge plant after being smashed fairly hard multiple times.

He then activated his flight hex and charged Poryphanes as the inquisitor and GurraGurra were getting nowhere fast with their levitate chase of the flying seducer who threw at will charms and suggestions.

Iskandar tagged Poryphanes heavily with a flying charge, but this opened Iskandar up for a full attack smite from the half demon and bite, claw, claw, gore all hit, knocking him to -26.

Dead, Dead, Dead.


Name: Dame Petra Mudd
Race: Keleshite Oread
Classes/levels: Inquisitor/Fighter 8
Adventure: Mother, Maiden, Crone
Location: Maiden - Garden
Catalyst: Poryphanes, GurraGurra, and a broom
The Gory Details:

So Mudd walked into the Garden and saw Iskandar fall for the suggestion to walk into a plant monster. She saw through the hanging cloud of darkness to the lothario Poryphanes. He suggested she slip out of that armor into something more comfortable. Her will was strong and she resisted further charms and suggestions until she cast silence on herself so she would not have to hear his temptations. GurraGurra gave her levitation but Mudd couldn't get off more than a lunge attack or two before he would fly away out of reach.

When she realized her silence did not stop his spell like abilities she dropped it so she could communicate with the party and cast verbal component spells as needed.

GurraGurra got caught up by a summoned wolverine for a while before failing to succeed with any of her cast spells on Poryphanes.

Unholy blight did them all wrong but Mudd's repeating crossbow started to whittle him down until it ran out of bolts. Iskandar engaged Poryphanes and died leaving the Oread and the ettin.

Poryphanes was about to make his escape when GurraGurra pulled out the party's broom of flying from Iskandar's bag of holding and threw it to Mudd. Mudd caught it and activated its flight magic.

The magical broom from Artrosa's broom closet then revealed its true cursed nature and dumped Mudd onto the ground and began beating her with stick and straw, successfully blinding her for a round. Poryphanes thought this promising and tried one more compliment for GurraGurra which she went for and switched sides, grabbing Mudd. Poryphanes suggested Mudd not resist and poor Mudd missed her save, not resisting the ettin's pin.

Things faded to black at that point.


Huh, is that functionally a TPK?


Zhangar wrote:
Huh, is that functionally a TPK?

Yeah, Mudd was the last best hope and the last of the four standing.

I'm swamped with overtime and was planning on taking a break at the end of MMC and turning over DMing for a while with the option to return in the future when things let up for me at work. I was planning on them either teaming up with Caigreal or making it out but that's not how it happened. They were not disappointed that Baba Yaga's dungeon was so deadly and that it ended with party inflicted tree deaths and surprise cursed broom attacks.

I have a few story options if we want to take it up again later (Mudd did not die onscreen, the hexcrafter magus is also a blackblade and the blade which was crafted by Baba Yaga wants her magus brought back, one irregular PC was not part of the TPK and is running around in the dungeon, and they left the barbarian's body in the Mishtu cauldron hoping Benjifur stew would eventually bring him back alive) but for now it is effectively a TPK and I will be a player in Wrath of the Righteous.


Name: Jamion Fairground
Race: Gnome
Classes/levels: Cleric of Nethys 9
Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Location: The Eon Pit
Catalyst: Vsevolod's Fury

The Gory Details: Despite a mythic boost to Vsevolod (Heirophant 2), the fight went hard against him and his ally right out of the gates when the svathurim got confused and Vsevolod got dazed by a summoned anklyosaurus. (Does the spellchecker seriously think anklyosaurus should be tyrannosaurus?) Vsevolod dispelled the confusion, then was saved from an ignominious dinosaur death by failing his save against Create Pit. He used the impromptu break to heal up.

The svathurim had a good time trampling over everybody and almost killing the viking with full attacks, but the dinosaur was a problem. He successfully lined up a Charge Through the dinosaur and into Jamion. With everybody else arranged on the other side of the dinosaur, Vsevolod dispelled the pit and emerged in full glory to batter down the closest foe - Jamion. A forceful strike sealed the deal, sending Jamion back to Nethys's domain.

The party triumphed not too much later. Suffice to say, I was not anticipating the dinosaur. Boss fight 2.0 against Caigreal and her allies - or maybe Jadrenka, depending on what the party does - will proceed next week.

This happens to align with the player moving away. It was an okay death, as he had an opportunity to heal, but instead used it on the fighter to keep him alive in turn. They might raise the character anyway, if they get a chance. My only regret was not having the time to throw off an augmented disfiguring touch, the perfect weapon of a priest of Kostchtchie.


Name: Aaraxie
Race: Merfolk
Classes/levels: Wizard/1
Adventure: Reign of Winter - Snows of Summer
Location: Part 1 - C - Snow trail on way to High Sentinel Lodge
Catalyst: Artic Tatzlwyrm
The Gory Details: Immediately the Tatzlwyrm grapples the mermaid and within 3 rounds she was dead, just like that. Her party actually did not try all that hard. One of those situations where a players says "I do nothing" and argues that they can't do anything, then decided to throw a shuriken at in while it's snowing. LOL the -4 really screwed him on that one.

They ended up taking her body back to Heldren and a lvl 14 Oracle just happen to be there talking to the Elder when they arrived. The Oracle took 2 days and brought Aaraxie back to good health and off the went only to get party wiped by Rohkars raiders in the lodge. Lucky for them the Oracle was actually sent from Oppara to locate Lady Argentea and was able to come in and finish off the raiders for them. Only to have Rohkar freak out and flee across the bridge where I had to force a fight between him and Izoze since Rohkar had nothing to offer to the fey anymore. Poor Rohkar.


A merfolk character?!?

My completely personal opinion: it's a ridiculous character concept for any adventure away from water (and most definitely for RoW). Has the player never heard of the term "a fish out of water"?


It really is a fun character. He is a Pathfinder & DnD veteran. So yeah he is aware.


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Name: Sooka
Race: Vanara
Classes/levels: Ranger/Horizon walker 14
Adventure: Reign of Winter - Rasputin must die!
Location: Prison camp
Catalyst: The Bear hunter

The Gory Details: Two crits with The Bear hunters boarspear gutted the plucky Ranger.


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Name: Sooka
Race: Vanara
Classes/levels: Ranger/Horizon walker 14
Adventure: Reign of Winter - Rasputin must die!
Location: Prison camp
Catalyst: Pale snipers.

The gory details: Three days later (In gametime, an hour later in playtime) the resurrected Sooka was gunned down by Pale snipers. The party tried but were unable to get their money back on the obviously faulty Raise dead scroll they had just used.

DBH


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Name: Nissa Lightstep
Race: Sylph
Classes/levels: Bard/Rogue 14
Adventure: Reign of Winter - Rasputin must die!
Location: Prison camp

The Gory Details: Hit for 180 points of damage by a Destruction spell from the man himself. Left in ashes.


DBH wrote:

Name: Nissa Lightstep

Race: Sylph
Classes/levels: Bard/Rogue 14
Adventure: Reign of Winter - Rasputin must die!
Location: Prison camp

The Gory Details: Hit for 180 points of damage by a Destruction spell from the man himself. Left in ashes.

I think you'll find destruction doesn't even leave ashes, just a pile of your gear. ;)

What, too soon?


ibayboy wrote:
DBH wrote:

Name: Nissa Lightstep

Race: Sylph
Classes/levels: Bard/Rogue 14
Adventure: Reign of Winter - Rasputin must die!
Location: Prison camp

The Gory Details: Hit for 180 points of damage by a Destruction spell from the man himself. Left in ashes.

I think you'll find destruction doesn't even leave ashes, just a pile of your gear. ;)

What, too soon?

One day we'll look back on this and laugh. One day....

DBH


Name: Vors
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Warpriest of Goetus 1
Adventure: Snows of Summer
Location: Border Woods

Name: Argus
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Kensai Magus 1
Adventure: Snows of Summer
Location: Border Woods

Name: Malcolm
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Paladin of Iomedae 1
Adventure: Snows of Summer
Location: Border Woods

Name: Alk Goodmace
Race: Dwarf
Classes/levels: Cleric of Milani 1
Adventure: Snows of Summer
Location: Border Woods
Catalyst: Random Encounter with an ogre
The Gory Details: After tangling with the tzatlwyrm, the group decided to take a rest and camp for the night. Malcolm and Vors took first watch, with the cold taking it's toll on Malcolm. After an uneventful first watch, the Malcolm went to sleep, with Argus taking his place. Vors decided to stay up, the voices in his head speaking to him about the cold heralding the end times.

About two hours into the second watch, they heard a loud rustling in the woods. Vors lit a torch and went to investigate as his brother, Argus, stayed behind to keep an eye on him, keeping in contact via the message spell.

Vors stumbled upon an agitated ogre wearing the hide of a bear it had slain. The ogre looked at Vors and saw his next meal. Vors relayed the description of the creature back to Argus who proceeded to wake up Malcolm and Alk, and laid out a bear trap in case the ogre came forward.

The ogre swung at Vors and missed, and the warpriest landed a mighty blow, but the ogre withstood it. Vors couldn't say the same, as he crumpled under the ogre's club when the monster retaliated.

Malcolm moved through the snow, calling out and taunting the creature to try and lure it away from Vors' unconscious body. Alk channeled energy to heal Vors, but didn't return him to consciousness. Argus threw a spear to strike back against the ogre, but missed.

The ogre closed the distance between himself and Malcolm, and with a critical blow, struck the paladin down. Alk fired his crossbow at the monster, but missed, and Argus tried to cast color spray, but the ogre's will was too strong.

The ogre stepped forward towards Argus; the beartrap didn't go off, and the ogre swatted the magus down.

Alk tried to flee firing back at the ogre as he went. The dwarf's bolts missed, and the ogre closed in, striking down the cleric.

The night's snow fell on the bodies of the party as the ogre set down it's club to prepare for it's feast.


Ouch! Perhaps for practical purposes, they could all wake up from a bad dream about being killed by an ogre.


It's reasons like this that I don't just sic things from the Random Monster encounter sheet without compensating for player level. First level characters are fragile.

One way around this could have been to have the players have their ogre encounter be seeing tracks of an ogre. Perhaps they saw the ogre footprints in the snow near where they camped when they wake in the morning or the like. Encounters need not be combat. It can be roleplay or even atmosphere itself - wolves might not attack, but instead you hear wolves howling, while a wildcat might be hearing the yowl of a wildcat in the night.

A total party kill, especially so early in the game? That disheartens groups. And if you invested in the AP... to have your friends say "nah, we don't want to play this" means you threw $120 out the window.


We discussed that as an option but ultimately decided that the party'll roll up new characters and start in a new location. We now have a much more colorful party, with a strix slayer, tiefling investigator, shoanti ranger(dual klars!), and a samsaran who'll either be a cleric of pharasma or an oracle.

Here's hoping that ogre-shaped lightning doesn't strike twice.


Tangent101 wrote:

It's reasons like this that I don't just sic things from the Random Monster encounter sheet without compensating for player level. First level characters are fragile.

One way around this could have been to have the players have their ogre encounter be seeing tracks of an ogre. Perhaps they saw the ogre footprints in the snow near where they camped when they wake in the morning or the like. Encounters need not be combat. It can be roleplay or even atmosphere itself - wolves might not attack, but instead you hear wolves howling, while a wildcat might be hearing the yowl of a wildcat in the night.

A total party kill, especially so early in the game? That disheartens groups. And if you invested in the AP... to have your friends say "nah, we don't want to play this" means you threw $120 out the window.

Well, what happened was a combination of factors. I overestimated the party's capabilities. My dice were rolling fiendishly against them. And the party made some simple mistakes in how they approached the attack.

I honestly thought they had it well in hand at first. They started with max health, max wealth, and their stats were rolled out and all well above most point buys. Figured they should have been able to handle a threat slightly above the norm.

When the warpriest hit the ogre he took it down to half health. That the magus didn't throw any offense against it when he had the chance was the first sign things were going down hill. Then the warpriest went down and the paladin tried to close into melee range instead of pulling out his bow despite having a few points of non-lethal damage from failed fort saves, and unfortunately no one but the warpriest was rolling well that night.

I gave them a few breaks. Neglected to take a few attacks of op that were open to me. Had the ogre go after the paladin instead of the magus after the magus threw the spear- the downed warpriest was between the ogre and the magus and we determined that 650lbs stepping on your chest would at the very least do a bit of damage and destabilize him, if not kill him out right.

Over all, while the group wasn't particularly happy about the situation they took it all in stride and are quickly getting excited for their new characters. The magus' player is actually more excited about his samsaran idea than he was about the magus as he kind of got roped into this game in a rush.

Edit: As an aside, I didn't actually invest in the AP, myself; it was the cleric's player who bought all the books and lead the group in shanghai'ing me into running it. So while I do want to run the game to completion if possible, I see them dying by random dice rolls as kharma doing it's good work.


Small note - rolled stats can be overpowered. I know as I've a group with rolled stats - one player is around a 25-point build, a couple others are close to 35 point builds, and one lucky girl is a 52 point build (yet started out without a single 18 and started play with a rogue with the blowgun as her favored weapon).

I suggest the below only once the group is around 3rd level and no longer completely fragile:

Rather than use the Advanced Template to compensate, you can just do a minor rebuild of monsters to compensate them - the AP (and monsters in the Bestiaries) are build assuming players have a 15-point build.

25 point build: +1 to each stat of each monster
37 point build: +2 to each stat of each monster (which will definitely give +1 hit point per die, +1 to armor class, and probably +1 to hit and damage)
52 point build: +3 to each stat of each monster
62 point build: +4 to each stat of each monster (which will definitely give +2 hit points per die, +2 to armor class, and probably +2 to hit and damage)

If you have Hero Labs or the like, it becomes much easier to track. But I've noticed rolled stats when doing the 4d6 method usually give between 25 and 35 point builds; +2 to each stat would be the quickest way of compensating for rolled stats.


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I'm aware and am fully planning on rebuilding several monsters and characters with significantly stronger builds as the adventure progresses. First couple levels I figured(correctly, apparently) that the group would be fragile enough that I wouldn't have to compensate, but I can tell you that Rasputin and Elvanna will probably be on 30 point equivalent builds.

But I'm adamantly against point-buy systems. You sit down for a game at my table, you don't use point buy, you roll your stats.


I wasn't for point builds. Then I had a barbarian with a two-handed weapon and power attack walking through most encounters in Runelords and started singing a different tune.

Mind you, the barbarian's player recently chose to leave the Runelords game to focus on my Reign of Winter game, so I can stop rebuilding everything with max hit points and extra character levels to stand a chance. Three players and the NPC Arcane Trickster/Swashbuckler should do well with the module as-written. Even so, I now prefer point builds because you can have one person with a 52 point build from rolls and someone else who rolled poorly and has a 15 point build. Is that fair to the person who rolled poorly? Is it fair to the person who rolled well to let the latter player reroll several times?


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There's nothing more fair than random chance.


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we roll stats, always will:)
but they also dont use buff spells unless it involves flying or invisibility:)


and i did the same thing with the ogre, except it was 2 and it was my first stab at writing my own adventure for 3.5 edition (not pathfinder) after the blood bath i decided i shouldnt be writing my own adventure encounters and soon thereafter got Stolen Lands, my first Adventure Path book:)

i immediately began the full conversion to pathfinder:)
and sometimes it takes a TPK to get the right set of characters to maximize your fun for the AP:)
as long as everyone is happy with their new characters a TPK isn't so bad, as they say in Sporstball if you're going to lose, lose early:)


Trust me. Random chance is not fair. Let's put it this way. Random chance decides on which genes you get and which genes someone else gets. The end result is not equal or fair. Otherwise someone born with a developmental or physical problem would have some other "advantage" to compensate for their disability. Yet you can have someone born with no advantages at all and who doesn't survive past their first year of life, even if born into a wealthy family that has lots of insurance and tries hard to ensure their child survive.

Yet it's random chance.

If you have four players and one has really high stats and someone else has really low stats... is the person with really low stats going to be happy about it? In most cases, no. Nor would their character be able to do as much as the person with uber-stats. In fact, their character could end up being a detriment to the group because that low constitution and low dexterity results in the person being hit often in combat and needing a lot of healing to stay alive. In fact, they might not have a single stat above 10 and thus not even be able to use spellcasting. Thus they're forced to play a fighter or rogue or the like... and don't have any ability with ranged attacks because of those low stats.

So. If you let them reroll, that's not fair to the person who rolled high stats in the first go. It's even less fair if the person who rolled a 40 point character equivalent sees that player given a reroll and somehow pulled off a 50 point character.

Nor is it random anymore.

You can easily give everyone a 25 point build. It's more than enough to have good stats. And you can compensate for it with a simple +1 to every stat for all of the monsters.


This is why I prefer to meet in the middle - roll a handful of arrays, then let the players choose the one they like. If they pick a lower array, it's their choice. Keeps all the randomness and variability of rolled stats, without screwing over the guy whose dice just don't want to cooperate that night.


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Tangent101 wrote:

Trust me. Random chance is not fair. Let's put it this way. Random chance decides on which genes you get and which genes someone else gets. The end result is not equal or fair. Otherwise someone born with a developmental or physical problem would have some other "advantage" to compensate for their disability. Yet you can have someone born with no advantages at all and who doesn't survive past their first year of life, even if born into a wealthy family that has lots of insurance and tries hard to ensure their child survive.

Yet it's random chance.

If you have four players and one has really high stats and someone else has really low stats... is the person with really low stats going to be happy about it? In most cases, no. Nor would their character be able to do as much as the person with uber-stats. In fact, their character could end up being a detriment to the group because that low constitution and low dexterity results in the person being hit often in combat and needing a lot of healing to stay alive. In fact, they might not have a single stat above 10 and thus not even be able to use spellcasting. Thus they're forced to play a fighter or rogue or the like... and don't have any ability with ranged attacks because of those low stats.

So. If you let them reroll, that's not fair to the person who rolled high stats in the first go. It's even less fair if the person who rolled a 40 point character equivalent sees that player given a reroll and somehow pulled off a 50 point character.

Nor is it random anymore.

You can easily give everyone a 25 point build. It's more than enough to have good stats. And you can compensate for it with a simple +1 to every stat for all of the monsters.

Alright, instead of getting drawn into a philisophical debate over this, how about this instead;

You prefer point buy to random rolls. That's all well and good. That's your prerogative. It works better for you. You enjoy it more. It works for your group(s).

I prefer random rolls. It works better for me. I enjoy it more. It works for my group.

Leave it at that?


Actually, it's not a matter of preferring point buys to random rolls. It's a matter of having one game where point rolls had significant discrepancies, and a second game where I increased one player's stats (as she was unhappy with the character and her stats - after which point she quickly grew to love the character) and gave a second person higher starting stats rather than risk low die rolls.

I've chosen that in the future I'll do a 25-point build because otherwise there's entirely too much chance of a bad character sheet. And I prefer doing less work in rewriting an AP if necessary seeing I'm lazy. ;)

You can do random rolls if you want. I brought the philosophy into it to point out that no, random isn't fairer.


Random is fairer because random has no bias. It has no prejudice. There's no deserving, there's no earning, there's no right or wrong. There's no judgment.

And that is fairness in it's purest form.


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You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.


Steve Holt!


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Huh, coming back to this thread because at the moment I favor RoW for my next AP to GM, I am surprised to see so little deaths by cold. Seems random Yeti's where a much larger danger than the cold rules, after all.


Because unless your party is being foolish, there shouldn't be. They are, after all, warned beforehand. The first thing my party did after talking to the caravan guard was break out some cold-weather gear.


and fire, can't forget fire, i know they try to vary things and do a good job for the most part but lets be honest this AP is a pyromaniacs wet dream:)


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*drools steam*


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Well, there are lots of groups around and lots of people who make stupid mistakes (much of which are enumerated in the obituary threads ^^), so I expecting more early campaign deaths due to the weather. Cold weather gear doesn't exactly protect you perfectly and once you get the cold damage and fatigue snowballing...


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I imagine a lot of those groups either don't know or don't accurately track the weather effects by-the-book. I'd bet many just say "You're wearing cold-weather gear? Okay you're fine" and leave it at that.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Well, if this is the AP I'm going to GM next (could still be Shattered Star or Rise of the Runelords), I'll try to track it, just because I think giving my players a hard time after Wrath of the Righteous would be the right thing to do. :p


Yeah stick it to them Magnuskn, remind them what a fear of death is like again:D


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Needs to be done from time to time, or they will grow arrogant. ^^


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magnuskn wrote:
Needs to be done from time to time, or they will grow arrogant. ^^

just make sure the first time someone bites it, you say "Thats for Taking Foe-Biter!" or "where's those Mythic Surges now!" ;)

or ya know you could take the high road:)


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Have a LOT of fun with those environmental rules. Don't forget what snow does to archers - -2 to hit will hurt at lower levels. Heh heh heh. Also, no charging. No five-foot step. Enemies that fly and ignore that. I toned it down because my players are novices and I didn't want to just kill them all... but for an experienced group? Play it up. Be evil.

That said, rewrite Rokhar to be a Cleric 2/Rogue 1. Because played intelligently he'd wipe the floor with a 1st level party.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Well, we'll see if it'll be RoW, after all there are two other very good AP's to choose from. ^^


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Yeah cant go wrong with any of them, i'm especially fond of Shattered Star myself:)

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