The Battle of Tatzlford
I started on Blood for Blood, Episode 4 of Kingmaker, this evening. The adventure opens with the battle for Tatzlford, a small town in the Narlmarches (a large forest) between the player's lands and the neighbouring demesne of Baron Hannis Drelev. In the intervening period between vanquishing the lich Vordakai and now, the party have expanded their kingdom and consolidated their new realms. They have build a road network linking their out-flung settlements and founded a new town at Nettle's Crossing, where roads from several directions meet.
The party had coincidentally built up Tatzlford to a similar state to that described in the adventure, in fact it was considerably larger. As a result the attacking and defending forces were likewise larger, and I opted to run the battle a little differently in structure to the way originally described.
The Prelude
As the party had good relations with the boggard Goruum and the Nixie, and due to the structure of their kingdom's borders actually extending further north and west that Tatzlford, I decided to give them some warning, but not too much to get their main army involved.
The monk Leessin, Marshal of the land, has to travel around it a great deal - with her movement this is not a problem. She had visited Templeton, with it's temple and it's new Academy, and was travelling along the Pilgrim's Path, a road that was made linking Templeton in the East across to the hot springs on the edge of the Narlmarches, then looping south past the Lone Statue to Tatzlford and thence back to Castleton the capital. In late afternoon Leessin spied a column of smoke rising form the direction of a sawmill on the Skunk River.
Investigating Leessin found the sawmill had been destroyed and the lumberjacks either dead or fled. The nixie attracted his attention to the river and informed him that she and Goruum had pulled some of the lumberjacks to safety when they tried to swim for it, after the attacking "nasty men" had started shooting at them in the water. From the boggard, the nixie, and the lumberjacks Leessin ascertained that a large force of soldiers had entered the land from the north west and we heading down the Skunk River toward Tatzlford.
Leessin, being an undine, took to the river and swam downstream, sneaking past the enemy encampment and getting a good idea of their numbers. She then saw an apparent deserter sneaking in the direction of Tatzlford, and apprehended them for information. Kisandra Numesti explained to Leessin the source and intention of the invasion, as well as their strength, generalship and origins, as well as her own back-story.
Leessin and Kisandra proceeded to Tatzlford and warned the town, and Mayor Loy Resbin raised the alarm and called out the militia. While the town had a barracks, it did have any resident soldiery, but a requirement by the party that all citizens have a weapon they could use, and the dominance of the church of Erastil in the area meant they had a fairly strong militia - more later. Using her silver raven figurine Leessin dispatched a message to General Kefflin in Castleton, thirty plus miles away:
General Kefflin,
Urgent news from the west. An enemy force has destroyed a northern sawmill and is marching upon Tatzelford. The force as we know of consists of approximately 200 Mercenary's, 100 Barbarians bearing Tiger-lord Banners and 12 Trolls. I request that you inform our fellow Kingdom Keepers and mobilize the Spartans. I have sent word to the Elves in the south with a request to mobilize, also I have a daughter of a deposed lieutenant from Fort Drellev. She claims that these forces have been sent by the Baron of the lands. I have asked her to remain within Tatzelford and she is complying. In the meanwhile I have raised the Militia – 200 "regulars" and 200 "irregulars" – for the defense of Tatzelford where I plan to hold 'till reinforcements.
Marshall Leesin Ladovka
P.S. Return the silver raven (Preferably with a response)
P.P.S. If you were in the Whorehouse clean it first
This got the rest of the party hastening to Tatzleford without their army, while the Marshal saw to the town's defences.
Defensive Forces
Because of their edicts on people being able to defend themselves, Tatzlford with a population of 2,000 souls had a sizeable body of troops available if called upon to defend it. Because of the number of PCs, I allowed for this large force being broken into smaller units so most characters could have a stake in the battle.
Tatzlford boasted some 200 regular militia, most 3rd level warriors or there about. Joined to this were another 200 "irregulars" which were essentially armed civilians willing to defend their homes (1st level NPC classes). The Marshal Leessin elected to deploy them as follows:
*Half the regular militia (medium army) were placed to defend the northern edge of the town assisted by barricades and the part-completed defensive wall.
*A quarter of the regulars (small army) were deployed on the rooftops to act as sharpshooters.
*The last quarter of the militia (small army) were deployed on the barricaded and fortified bridge to harrass the enemy's approach.
*Half of the irregulars (medium army) were deployed with missile weapons inside the barracks complex to provide covering fire and to defend the non-combatants gathered inside.
*Half the irregulars (medium army) spread out through the town to ambush any foes that broke through the defences.
This was all decided on by the Marshal (the monk player) in a pre-game session to set the scene. The character has a skill of Profession (soldier) +10, so she knew her stuff.
Enemy Forces
The Fort Drelev forces were of considerably better quality than the defending militia, but were not expecting a forewarned enemy willing to put up a stiff fight.
*A Large army of mecenaries (200 3rd level fighters) were their largest constituent, well armed and armoured, with Areon Trusk
*A medium army of Tiger Lord barbarians (100 level 4 barbarians) made up their shock-troops, lead by a lvl 9 barbarian who was marginally competent.
*Twelve giant trolls (advanced troll barbarians).
I upgraded the number and strength of the trolls to match the party's strength and size.
Preparation
The rest of the party arrived in early light with a handful of cavalry (the cleric's followers & bodyguard). The cleric set up with these as a mobile force in the centre of the town (diminutive army of 1st level cavaliers) ready to counter any breaches in the walls. Prince Ygdrasil, the ruler, took up station in the garrison's tower to provide magical support, along with John, Spymaster and halfling rogue taking command of the irregular crossbowmen.
Royal Enforcer and ranger Ilyana took charge of the archers on the bridge (tactics and boons: sharpshooters), Marshal Leessin the monk took command of the irregulars in the town (tactics & boons: ambush, hit-and-run), Magister Myke the dhampir Magus took command of the militia archers on the rooftops (tactics & boons: sharpshooters), while General Kefflin himself inspired the militia manning the outer defences.
John and Ragnar also set many traps at entryways and on the bridge for any enemies that made it that far.
Battle is Joined
The enemy force came marching down the Skunk River at dawn without anticipating any trouble. Just as they paused three hundred feet from the bridge to turn and strike at Tatzlford just visible through a screen of trees, the archers on the bridge struck. They aimed at the barbarian army, and a natural 20 meant they did very serious damage to them. The Drelev army retreated into the screen of trees in disorder, and re-assembled on the other side to attack the town.
Main Attack
The archers and crossbowmen in town were less effective, even with magical support they did not inflict serious casualties on the mercenary army. The Drelev army massed and attacked head on. The defenders however had excelent protection behind their walls and barricades, and suffered no serious casualties either while inflicting serious damage on the barbarian shock-troops.
Attack of the Trolls
The giant trolls launched their own attack, and smashed through the defending barriers. At this point the battle went tactical as the PC's became personally involved. The trolls made three breaches in the walls and came through in three groups of four. Kefflin (on the wall), Myke (on a house roof near the wall), and Leessin (in a room overlooking the wall) were each placed conveniently near a group, while Ragnar, John, and Ygdrasil were at the centre of the town in the path of the trolls.
Ygdrasil spammed fireballs while John set up sniping shots from the barracks tower, dealing steady attrition damage on the trolls that made it through. Two trolls attacked the town inn, two more made it to attack the barracks building itself. Another two attacked Ragnar in his central position, and the cleric used a spell to turn one on the other.
Myke, Kefflin, and Leessin each found themselves facing a pair of trolls apiece. Kefflin hacked his down over several round; he took some 60 damage himself but got no less than three critical hits in three rounds of combat. Leessin the monk leapt from her building to tackle a pair of trolls, and discovered that with Snake Fang good defence IS good offence, as she got more hits on the trolls when it was their turn than when she flurried. Myke was cornered on a roof, as the trolls smashed up the house he stood on. He used several fireballs but could not deal enough damage to take down his attackers and was clawed down to unconscious.
Ilyana, meanwhile, realised that the town was not bearing up well, and redeployed the archers closer to the town. In the process she got a bead on the trolls attacking Myke and riddled one with arrows until it fell.
Ragnar was able to take down one troll with another troll, and send it to attack a third attacking the barracks, while John and Ygdrasil blasted and pummelled the remaining troll. Soon fireballs had reduced them all to over-cooked troll-meat. Ragnar then lance-charged the remaining attacker on Myke with all his clerical buffs up, and took it down in one turn, though not without taking some heavy damage back.
Leessin was working the way a monk should work, being almost untouchable to the trolls by boosting her AC, and getting in lots of AoOs from Snake Fang. She took one troll down, then moved to taunt the two destroying the inn while maintaining contact with the remaining troll. When they rushed her, she used her kusarigama AoO's to trip them both, finished off the remaining troll with a few more attacks, and started on the fallen trolls. She took 1/3 of her hp in damage but finished off all four with the help of some supporting fire, although her last troll was the last to fall in the final phase.
Final Phase
Ygdrasil flew to heal the dhampir magus, while the barbarian leader challenged Kefflin - but was charged by Ragnar before the General could accept. He took some damage but chopped Ragnar clean off his horse before Kefflin could respond, and a fireball from Myke the magus killed not only the barbarian leader but damaged many of the mercenaries. The monk killed the last troll she faced, while John the rogue directed the crossbow irregulars to shoot the fallen trolls until they could be burned, keeping them down.
The barbarian army rushed into the town, while the mercenary army focussed on destroying the militia. The irregulars in the town sprang their traps and ambush, and the barbarian army - on very low HP - was effectively destroyed by a pitchfork army. Ygdrasil used a wand of wall of fire to start closing the gaps forced in the defences.
The redeployed archers applied flanking fire onto the mercenary army, and the sharpsooters in town added to their misery. The militia still manning the walls kept up their defiance. Now having taken more than half their hit points in damage, and with both allied armies destroyed, the mercenary army withdrew from the field, leaving the Tatzlford militia victorious.
Aftermath
Although this battle was a little more micro-managed than perhaps the designers intended, the outcome was positive: the party triumphed and Tatzleford was largely saved. It actually suffered damage to two buildings, a house and the inn, while the Tatzlford militia suffered light casualties. The defenders made saw their tactical advantages and exploited them to negate the inferiority of their soldiery with good planning and inspired leadership.
Monk Analysis:
The monk's combat performance was everything I could have hoped for in the fight with the trolls: she didn't dish out mega-damage but steady attrition damage through lots of attacks and AoOs, just as intended for the class, but so rarely seen in play. Compared to the barbarian, the monk did far less DPR, but made up for this with resilience and combat tricks. What DPR he did do was reliable: a solid ~75 a round, to the barbarian's 60-120. That may not seem a big discrepancy at the low end of the range, but both were fighting largely without buffs like haste that favour the barbarian.
You are now farther along in Kingmaker than my group is and they've been playing it for 5 frickin years. Some of this is because of the party, but a large part of this is the disorganization of the GM.
Part of me wishes I had stuck around in the campaign long enough to fight this battle, but at the same time, I'm glad I dropped out. I have no intention of playing Kingmaker again, so I'm looking forward to see how this all turns out. The Monk is now getting to the levels where they start having serious problems, so we're going to see the real result of your changes.
I agree...in the last monk I played this level was the point where it all went south. Damage was well below par, AC was OK but not stellar. While this party have blown through WBL guidelines, they all have a lot of surplus gear that is not directly very helpful to them (for example, the barbarian is carrying two swords - one +3 Greatsword, one +2 fey-bane greatsword - as well as a +2 thundering bow, and a ring of freedom of movement), so in terms of effective gear they are doing relatively normally. I'm just about to work out their XP and see if they have levelled after this encounter...
The party have levelled - just - and their average wealth is about 150% of WBL thanks to a crafting cohort. I am not too worried about this as the party are about to go through a "lean" period, and as I stated they have a lot of redundant gear.
Looking at the party martials...
The barbarian rages and Power Attacks for +22/+14 at 2d6+25 17-20/x2 with his +3 greatsword. At range he shoots with for +14/+9 at 1d8+6 x3+2d8 sonic. Raging his AC is 21, and he has 131 hit points. He moves 40 feet and can pounce, and cannot be grappled or restrained in any way including paralysis. If the party is hasted he's a killing machine. His tactic is to get in close and hack away like a mad thing; only if the enemy is flying or otherwise out of reach does he use his bow.
The ranger casts gravity bow and uses Deadly Aim with Rapid Shot at Point blank range for +17/+17/+12 at 2d6+11 19-20/x3. If she's shooting at a human, it goes to +23/+23/+18 for 2d6+17 19-20/x3. She doesn't provoke AoOs and can make them on enemies within 5' and rides her Elk animal companion at up to 80' per round while doing so. She also ignores any miss chances as long as he knows which square to aim at. He has a selection of bane-arrows, and his other favoured enemies are undead and fey, both at +2. She is AC 23 with 74hp. In melee the ranger can boost AC to 28 using a +2 buckler and a +2 defending sword. Her tactic is to hang back and shoot foes to pieces, avoiding close combat.
The monk attacks unarmed for +19/+19/+14/+14 for 1d10+9+1d6 acid, and can spend ki for an extra attack. He gets up to 5 AoO's a round at +18. She uses a Kusarigama with up to 15' reach that hits at +17/+17/+12/+12 on a flurry for 1d3+2+1d6 electrical +1d6 acid; with it she can trip or grapple for +23 CMB. The monk has no effective ranged option, and his movement is 60 feet. She is AC29 and has 83hp. Tactics vary: against multiple foes she gets in among them and disrupts them with trip attacks, while flurrying against opportune targets and taking AoO's using Snake Fang when she is attacked. Against single foes she goes to trip, grapple, and pin his enemies if she can. She rarely just punches away preferring to use maneuvers to render enemies less able to hurt her or the party. Using ki, she often opts for defence, relying on Snake Fang to provide extra attacks instead.
Other Characters:
The rogue is a wild-card: with his slingshot he can deal 50-60 temporary damage on an attack if he can sneak attack, at +15/+10 against a flat-footed AC. Against foes not susceptible to temporary damage, or that he can't get a sneak attack on, he's less effective. He's started multi-classing wizard to pick up levels in arcane trickster later.
The dwarf cleric can buff himself to hell and back, and in the battle against the trolls was charging mounted with a +1 adamantine lance, accompanied by a dancing holy axiomatic hammer. More usually he supports others with buffs and healing.
The magus player has not yet found his feet with the character. He had a tendency to get too defensive but has started to shake off this way of thinking.
The sorcerer is straightforward: he spams destructive spells and blows things to bits. While he sometimes buffs allies, he seldom gets into anything related to normal combat.
Another session done, our first on a Monday.
The party embarked on a new bout of exploration heading toward the settlement of Fort Drelev. They explored as far as the Wyvernstone Bridge, then tracked south and use their folding boat to explore the marsh and the edge of the lake. They hae two notable encounters, neither of which was a serious challenge.
The first (a random encounter) was with a cluster of shambling mounds, no less than eight. The shamblers would have acquired surprise save for the undine's ability to see underwater, and she spotted them coming. Two attacked her in the water, the other six attacked the boat, attempting to slam, grab, and pull out of the boat and drown the occupants. Although the party were a man down (the rogue player couldn't make it), they made short work of the shambling mounds, with no serious injuries.
The second was with a group of boggards at an abandoned way-station on the edge of the lake. In the rogue's absence the monk was scouting, and his aquatic nature proved invaluable. The way-station was a collection of four huts on a platform on stilts, with jetties coming off each side. The boggards I had beefed up by giving them a few levels of ranger, although even with this and their blowguns they were not a major threat at all. Ten were in the huts watching the approaching boat, the remaining four were on the roofs, peering over the crest at the party as they approached.
The undine made her approach underwater, and came up on the opposite side of the way-station. With a good stealth check the boggards did not spot her, but with an awesome perception she spotted them. Swimming underwater she returned to the boat, surfacing on the far side of it, and told the party what he had found.
The party then buffed her with haste, greater invisibility, and silence, and off she went again. While the party held back with communal water walking held in reserve, the monk picked off the boggards group by group. The silence meant that each group could not raise the alarm, and the monk used temporary damage to subdue all of them. Only the last group of three spotted the monk's effects coming, at which point he became visible. Even they didn't stand much chance: they couldn't touch the monk's AC without a natural 20, but she could hurt them easily.
Analysis: The rogue could probably have done the job as easily, save that the rogue could not swim underwater and breath at the same time. As was, the circumstances perfectly suited that character as a capable warrior, with stealth, and aquatic.
Apologies for the lack of updates recently - the game has continued, and for the most part it has been a succession of encounters both random and planned.
The party have gone to M'butuu, and deposed (and killed) Priest-King Sepoko, replacing him with Goruum. I added a boggard sorcerer to the mix, but the fight progressed as expected. The monk is dishing out 2/3 the DPR of the barbarian fairly consistently, but with more whistles and bells.
I have some interesting encounters lined up ready for the party later...including up-gunning the hydra in the south of the swamps.
Some changes in the game have occurred, the sorcerer player got frustrated with their character, and decided they would have more fun as an alchemist, and the party have progressed through a series of encounters in the swamp. Most of them are hit point piñatas, to be honest, in spite of my attempts to make them challenging. I'm going to have to soup things up a little more than I am...
Monk performance is good. He's not dishing the hurt of the barbarian, but he can do more esoteric things the barbarian cannot. This is the best "solid" performance I have seen from a monk in 3.X...it really looks like I got the balance of tweaks just right.
Last night was the first game the Barbarian player could not make, this left the monk as primary melee in the party. Against the low AC targets the party encountered in this session, the monk dished out a respectable 70-80 DPR on a hasted full attack (as compared to the barbarian's 100+)and avoided taking serious damage (where the barbarian would take more damage, but has more hit points to soak it).
This is fairly good, it places the monk where he needs to be, less effective offensively but with some better defences and tricks.
Question, has your Monk player ever played a Monk before? Has anyone else at the table played a Monk before? If so, what are their thoughts on your changes?
Just trying to get a feel for how the other characters feel about the changes; whether or not they feel it's too much or too little or if they're being overshadowed or something.
With my Monk changes, which are very similar to yours, I asked the other players and they didn't really have much of a comment about it. However, some of the players were curious how my Monk vs the Party fighter would work out in a fight, so we ran a couple combats and my Monk won every fight, largely due to having such a high Defense, while not terrible offense. I could hit, and I could deal some damage (but not a lot) so I whittled him down in every combat over the course of some ~15 rounds or so.
Although I would, admittedly, like to run such a combat between us with zero gear involved, so we could see who's -core- abilities were better. Optimization isn't really a factor, though, as I built the Fighter up to level 8 or so and then he took it from there and he's gone right along with the same theme I did so he's pretty decent, feat and gear wise.
However the only person who felt over-shadowed is the party Rogue, but that's because he's felt overshadowed for awhile in nearly every are regardless. It's funny, he took Leadership and the GM gave him a doppleganger with class levels as a cohort, and now he's been thinking about killing off his Rogue so he could play the cohort, because the cohort is totally better than him.
Anyway, just curious as to how your party feels about this Monk and the changes.
Question, has your Monk player ever played a Monk before? Has anyone else at the table played a Monk before? If so, what are their thoughts on your changes?
No, he's not played a monk before, only the barbarian player has tried it. Some of the players saw my own efforts playing a monk in another campaign, and agree this monk is a HUGE improvement: they can hit things, have a chance of succeeding at maneuvers, and their mobility means something other than being the fastest to run away.
Just trying to get a feel for how the other characters feel about the changes; whether or not they feel it's too much or too little or if they're being overshadowed or something.
I've had no complaints on that score. Ironically the only characters felt to be under-performing were the sorcerer (now swapped out for an alchemist), and the magus (that player is slowly getting it together, though). The only "over-performing" characters would be the barbarian (sheer overwhelming DPR) and the cleric (played by a capable player). The monk has flexibility, but actually the character's main "dominance" comes more from being an undine - being aquatic in the river kingdoms has it's advantages.
The rogue is in some danger of under-performing, but the player has really made the most of the class that he can, and he's holding his own quite well.
With my Monk changes, which are very similar to yours, I asked the other players and they didn't really have much of a comment about it. However, some of the players were curious how my Monk vs the Party fighter would work out in a fight, so we ran a couple combats and my Monk won every fight, largely due to having such a high Defense, while not terrible offense. I could hit, and I could deal some damage (but not a lot) so I whittled him down in every combat over the course of some ~15 rounds or so.
We did compare stats and abilities, the monk could hold off the barbarian with maneuvers and may be able to pull off some delaying tactics, but the raw truth is that the barbarian can kill the monk with (on average) two or three solid hits, and against the monk he hits better than 50% of the time. The monk would take several rounds of full attacks to kill the barbarian, and his best chance was to grapple...until the barbarian got a ring of freedom of movement. With the latter item, the barbarian is likely to win any encounter.
Although I would, admittedly, like to run such a combat between us with zero gear involved, so we could see who's -core- abilities were better. Optimization isn't really a factor, though, as I built the Fighter up to level 8 or so and then he took it from there and he's gone right along with the same theme I did so he's pretty decent, feat and gear wise.
I don't think zero gear would favour either character - the barbarian has the beast totem rage powers, so he has boosted AC and claws. He would lose a lot of AC, but the monk would lose a lot of DPR. They really do epitomise their roles: the monk is a more defensive warrior, using mobility, maneuvers, and multiple attacks to win. The barbarian is a solid attacker using sheer damage output to down foes before they can significantly hurt him.
However the only person who felt over-shadowed is the party Rogue, but that's because he's felt overshadowed for awhile in nearly every are regardless. It's funny, he took Leadership and the GM gave him a doppleganger with class levels as a cohort, and now he's been thinking about killing off his Rogue so he could play the cohort, because the cohort is totally better than him.
Anyway, just curious as to how your party feels about this Monk and the changes.
As mentioned above, the rogue is the only character in danger of being genuinely underpowered, but the player has that problem in hand by branching into arcane trickster.
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Another few sessions. Last week's the monk-player couldn't make, but the party did OK without him in a series of largely random encounters. This week he did, and the game continued.
The wild horses were the first "encounter" although it was a pre-ordained one in the adventure. The party successfully got the drop on the herd and captured a mare to fulfil another quest. Of course the Awakened head of the herd slipped back while the party were encamped and freed the "prisoner" and slipped away again. In the morning, the party gave chase. Eventually they realised these were smarter horses, and the monk used the Ebony Fly to catch up with the herd (he had the best Perception), and talked to the Stallion. Accepting the herd wanted to be wild, he decided that in law they were either sentient creatures and capturing them would be enslavement (which they outlawed in their kingdom), or they were the property of the stallion and taking one would be theft.
The party circumvented Fort Drelev in their explorations, running afoul of a Nukulavee (dispatched by the ranger in one round) and then some auromvoraxes. The latter gave them trouble: with multiple legs, the monk couldn't trip them as they attacked, and they went for the monk, the ranger's elk and the dwarf's charger (I gave the larger party an extra one).
In the surprise round the monk avoided damage, the Elk was injured and the charger killed outright. The magus moved in to attack the dwarf's attacker, blasting it with lightning and his whip, and using his rod of metamagic to haste the party. The ranger riddled his elk's attacker with arrows, but it kept coming and hurt his elk even more. The magus had his own horse torn out from under him, while the monk got bitten and clawed but used Snake Fang to do serious damage to his attacker, then flurried both his and the elk's attacker to incapacity and death respectively, while the barbarian steamed in and hacked the dwarf's attacker to pieces by a large overkill. The final living (0 hp) aurumvorax was hit by a bomb from the slow-moving alchemist.
Now the party are down two horses...
I knew I was missing something from my life... Monk updates!
Now to actually read it...
[Edit] The party is getting to that point where the options they bring to the table is truly staggering. Between the Ranger, Magus, Barbarian and Monk, it's like a solid wall of churning death across the battlemat. That's before anyone starts tossing any spells a round either!
Sounds like your whole group is working well together too. All of their bases seemed to be filled so they don't seem to have any specific weaknesses to exploit in encounter design.
My group is a large group too, but fortunately (and unfortunately sometimes), some of the people aren't that experienced, or they have that NotPayingAttention-itis and make bad decisions from time to time so when I GM, there is usually some little hole or mistake and I can exploit to give them that seat clenching fear every once in awhile.
Well, there was one encounter I did shy away from while the monk-player and the rogue-player were absent, the week before the last update. The random encounter table gave me zombies in an empty "plains" hex. What the hell would zombies be doing there? And zombies would be no serious threat to the party.
Instead, I flicked through the monsters and found a banshee - undead, and much tougher, at CR13 - doable for five 10th level characters! I described that the party advanced on a concealed gulley in which lay a ruined home of elven architecture. While the party discussed tactics as the evening advanced, I read up on the banshee. Fort save DC23 or 140 damage? That would kill most of the party. Hastily I changed the monsters to four bodaks.
Either way, though, many lone monsters are XP piñatas - hence the golden gorgers went for the horses and not the riders. That they foxed the monk's trip attacks of opportunity was an added bonus. The party have now been rather inconvenienced, and reminded of their need to care for their mounts. This is all in aid of getting them to consider other options for mounts. It'll take more of a combined assault to shake up the party, and I have something special prepared...
In this way, you could have a couple of party guests of 11th level or so that run around and cause conditions like dazed, blinded, confused, using maneuvers while the Baron himself does damage to his opponents.
Dazed and Nauseated are the worst conditions, because it takes a Standard action to remove the penalty inflicted by the Dirty Trick, but Dazed and Nauseated both prevent you from taking Standard actions.
If it weren't for the BAB requirement on the Dirty Trick Master feat I would say go Qinggong Maneuver Master Monk 5/Lore Warden X so you could add Quicken SLA (Truestrike) to the build. Then you could make a maneuver for the Dirty Trick, then swift action cast Truestrike, and then land another Dirty Trick which would add +20 to the CMB. With Greater Dirty Trick and Dirty Trick Master, you could inflict something like Dazed for 1d4 rounds plus 1 round for every 5 by which you beat the CMD. With Truestrike, weapon training and maneuver training from the Lore Warden, you're fixing up for a very long duration Daze or Nauseated.
For Nauseated, I like to think of the Lore Warden using groin shots. I know when I got hit in the jewels during little league, I certainly dropped everything I had, wanted to vomit and wasn't able to do anything other than slowly crawl away :P
Bodak aren't that fun either. Just by looking at them you make a DC 18 fortitude save or lose 1d4 levels, which can be really harsh. Every level lost gives a penalty on saves making it easier to fail further saves against more negative levels. Gaze Attacks.
The bodaks were a problem, quite a few characters took negative levels, but isolated encounters are the Achilles heel of this entire adventure path, save for a few set-piece parts.
Yes, I plan on throwing in some very talented lieutenants - I am not going to make them all the same, though. I plan on using some oddities the party will not be expecting. They won't be very powerful (8th-9th level) but they will be potent enough to tie down a PC each for a few rounds.
Another session last night, again largely encounters which the party was able to dominate with their heavy damage output. An encounter with the chimera was spiced up by me adding a larger, advanced creature in with the rest, but as with most "wild" encounters the ranger's damage output at distance was very telling. During this encounter the monk's mobility was helpful, although the magus could have done as well as he was, as usual, flying.
The remaining encounters were largely annoyances, and the party are, at last, planning their infiltration of Fort Drelev.
A 10th level Inquisitor, secretly of Zon-Kuthon, for some divine backup.
A 10th level fighter (pole fighter) with an adamantine bardiche.
A 9th level rogue (swashbuckler & scout) to dart in and out of the fight.
A fighter (weapons master) 3/monk (sohei) 7 just to see how it plays out.
An 8th level Zen archer, likewise to see how it works out.
Four of these could go down in one full attack from the barbarian, I am not expecting to last too long but I expect them to do some damage and slow down the fight from the usual XP piñata round that this battle might otherwise devolve too, given the party's size and strength.
Just a brief update, the party have started their infiltration, but so far only had to deal with some black puddings. Deliquescent gloves certainly have their uses.
So the party have finally made their way to the inner sanctum…
Last session the party liberated Temerion Numesti, Kisandra’s father. With his advice they had good intel on the keep and how to get around it. They used the secret trap doors and rooms to get into the ground floor, but the dwarf’s appalling Stealth check caused the guards on that level to check the cloakroom. The rogue and the monk knocked them out before they could raise the alarm, and the two found themselves safely in the dungeon when they woke up. The party then climbed to the top level.
Exploring the upper level they found Baron Drelev’s bedroom, then the rogue discovered his mistress Quintessa May. He tried to knock out the bard, but failed and she used dimension door to escape and warn Drelev there were intruders. Rather than raise a general alarm Drelev quietly mobilized his forces and his allies buffed. Meantime the party had also discovered Baroness Drelev, and she did not suspect the barbarian was anything but what he seemed – a guard, as he was wearing a hat of disguise – and the party quietly locked her in her room.
The ranger then used a hat of disguise to mimic the baroness, and with three “guards” (halfling rogue, undine monk, human barbarian) took point and led the party down to the next level, where they found a few guests in the ballroom for the Baroness’ party, but no Drelev. They were helpfully pointed to the banquet hall where Drelev was holding an impromptu council of war.
Drelev saw through the disguise immediately (the ranger’s bluff wasn’t very good), and battle was joined. Ranger and Drelev acted in the first round, the ranger shooting Drelev once, and again as an AoO, before Drelev disarmed the ranger of his bow. This proved a serious blow, as without it one of the party’s main damage dealers was seriously hindered.
Then the fight REALLY started.
The halfling rogue took out the two regular guards present with temporary damage, while Drelev’s lieutenants and the party closed with one another and fun was had by all. The allies I had prepared for Drelev worked quite well:
Drelev himself was rapidly bracketed by the magus, ranger, barbarian and monk. He took some hits as they closed around him, but then disarmed the barbarian and dished some back. The ranger withdrew, drawing his sword and buckler. The barbarian switched weapon and was disarmed again; the monk was Drelev’s undoing although to be fair no character could have lasted long under the sustained attack from two effective fighters.
Drelev’s bodyguard (pole fighter 10) cut down the magus with his bardiche, and the party had its first fatality. He was one of the last standing, and surrendered to the dwarven cleric with whome he was fighting after Drelev was killed and the fight was clearly lost. The Zen Archer (8th level) injured the magus and the barbarian, but despite a lot of shots didn’t score many hits; she was taken down by the halfing rogue with his horrendous temporary damage; she survived the fight though. The 10the level inquisitor gave their side some buffs, and injured the halfling but was set on fire by a blistering invective from the ranger supplied by the alchemist – this also demoralized Drelev and all his allies, which hurt them. This hindered his spell-casting, and the alchemist finished him off with bombs.
The weapon master/sohei proved quite effective, getting hits on the monk and ranger, and was hard to hurt. She was one of the last of the enemy standing and was able to exit stage left as the fight clearly went against Drelev’s men. Quintessa May was caught by the cleric’s forbidding to make any attacks, and couldn’t directly attack the party, but compromised by healing Drelev early on. When he fell, she switched sides and healed the barbarian after he was hit by Imeckus Stroon’s disintegrate.
Imeckus Stroon was nasty. He hit the party with chain lightning first, then as Drelev went down he targeted the barbarian (chosen at random, it was him or the monk) with his disintegrate, and a ‘1’ on the save nearly cooked the barbarian’s raging goose. At this point though, Quintessa May could see Drelev dead and his men losing the fight, and opted to heal the barbarian to ensure she could come out on the winning side. Imeckus himself was grappled into submission by the monk.
The poorest performer was the 9th level rogue, who found himself by circumstance trying to attack the best AC in the party, and died of missing a Snake Style oriented monk two rounds in succession.
This fight was one of the longest and toughest the party had yet, and the players loved it. Even the magus player, who died, and the barbarian player (who almost died) enjoyed this conflict.
Performance:
The barbarian was hindered by Drelev’s disarming tactics, but still hurt him bad. This kept him constantly off balance and unable to full-attack. The monk wasn’t effected at all, and it was the monk who finished Drelev with a flurry of blows. The ranger discovered life without a bow is hard.
The enemy zen archer was lackluster, but the enemy weapon master/sohei did quite well flurrying with an Aldori dueling sword and was the only enemy to escape. The enemy spellcasters had problems – one set on fire, one unable to take offensive action, only Stroon was truly effective. On the flip side the party magus was taken down hard.
This fight played to the monk’s strengths and it worked well. It was played to the barbarian’s weakness, and it showed as he didn’t get one full attack – however, he still accounted for the larger share of Drelev’s hit point loss as the combat progressed.
I did not anticipate the ranger leading in to the fray, and her disarming came close to killing her.
In the end the party had a hard-fought victory.
Sounds like it was a blast to play and run. I'm guessing it will probably go down as one of the more memorable moments of the AP.
It was. Lots of RP fun and skills use as they explore the tower in disguise, then a desperate fight to the finish. I couldn't give you a blow-by-blow account, it was that complex, but the highlights were memorable.
The ranger trying to fight without her bow was...interesting. I mean it would have been tough under any circumstances, but she managed a memorable round of two natural "ones" and a "six" on a full attack...
The barbarian's habit of carrying a cutlery drawer of weapons proved helpful - I think he's going to take Quickdraw as his next feat, though.
Now I'm preparing some extra foes for the next phase of the adventure...
In the encounter with Armag, I have decided that instead of Armag and eight bloody sekeletal champions - the stated encounter - I'll give the party something more to get their teeth into. For a start, the party is seven-strong, not four-strong, so they are likely to steam through any encounter. Even Armag, with 200+ hit points, won't last more than two rounds against the damage output this party can churn out.
So I'm boosting up the encounter. First off, I am re-stating Armag with a few extras. This includes the Cape of the Golden Tiger, a combined cape & headpiece that acts as a Headband of Mental Prowess +2 (Wis & Cha) and a Cloak of Resistance +3 combined. I've upgraded him to 20 points rather than the heroic NPC stat array as well.
Next, while Armag slaughtered his own allies, Gorum has resurrected the strongest of them as Graveknights (appropriate, I felt). So he now has the support of a ranger (archer, with thylacine animal companion), barbarian, cleric (shamen), and bard (herald). These are all tenth level, and gravenights. The party should be 11th level by the time of this encounter, making them more than tough enough.
Kingmaker Spoiler:In the encounter with Armag, I have decided that instead of Armag and eight bloody sekeletal champions - the stated encounter - I'll give the party something more to get their teeth into. For a start, the party is seven-strong, not four-strong, so they are likely to steam through any encounter. Even Armag, with 200+ hit points, won't last more than two rounds against the damage output this party can churn out.So I'm boosting up the encounter. First off, I am re-stating Armag with a few extras. This includes the Cape of the Golden Tiger, a combined cape & headpiece that acts as a Headband of Mental Prowess +2 (Wis & Cha) and a Cloak of Resistance +3 combined. I've upgraded him to 20 points rather than the heroic NPC stat array as well.
Next, while Armag slaughtered his own allies, Gorum has resurrected the strongest of them as Graveknights (appropriate, I felt). So he now has the support of a ranger (archer, with thylacine animal companion), barbarian, cleric (shamen), and bard (herald). These are all tenth level, and gravenights. The party should be 11th level by the time of this encounter, making them more than tough enough.
Graveknight is a beastly template that has a lot going for it, defensively and offensively. If each ally is 10th level NPC, then that means each one is a CR 11 threat (CR 9 NPC +2 template), with Armag (CR 13) you're looking at a CR 16 encounter right there.
Although, I guess, a lot of what the Bard brings in the form of buffs are probably going to be worthless. Most of the Bard buffs are mind-affecting, which, as an undead, all of the Graveknights are immune to, including Inspire Courage.
Just kind of worried about the encounter as proposed, I'd probably expect some or even several character deaths in this fight.
A single CR16 encounter would probably do that, yes, but I've found multiple smaller CR enemies have different effect. Armag himself is very tough, but frankly the party can deal out 200 dpr practically in their sleep - the only way to make the encounters last longer is to provide multiple attackers, and to get the party to spread their offensive power is to pose credible threats.
The fight against Baron Drelev consisted of:
Baron Drelev CR12
Five CR9 foes (fighter, inquisitor, bard, fighter/monk, wizard)
One CR8 foe (rogue)
One CR7 foe (zen archer)
During that combat the latter two foes were dealt with almost as an afterthought - the zen archer achieved few hits and the rogue none. The main damage against the party was dealt not by Drelev himself but by the wizard and the fighter. The lesson of this was that against the party's high AC's mediocre attacks aren't going to cut it.
The other thing that has impressed me in these combats is that the action economy makes having multiple options in one monster a dubious advantage. The graveknights may have many options for blasting the party, but they can only use one at a time - they can't even full-attack, their best attack form, if they get tripped. Given the tight confines of the encounter they will not be employing their phantom mounts, and their main advantage is in their many immunities. Most of the party have high AC's, so only foes with high accuracy will hit them in combat and pose a real threat, unless they have other abilities which isn't likely among a bunch of barbarians. Hence I couldn't make the graveknights less powerful, but at the same time I couldn't use less of them because of the action economy.
I think the party have good odds of beating these enemies, but it's like to be an exciting fight. The reason I think they can win is that the DPR of the party on the graveknights is going to be much better than the graveknights on the party, thanks to the higher ACs of the latter. I expect the graveknights to do a lot of damage, and maybe one or two PCs will go down, but I expect them to win it.
Rough DPR figures would be:
Barbarian - 80-100
Ranger - 80-100
Monk - 60-80
Rogue - 50 temporary
Magus - 20-60 depending on spells and weapons
Alchemist - 50-60
Cleric - Varies with buffs
The graveknights vary from 100-130 hit points. Armag has 200.
Does the Alchemist have an Acid Bomb of sorts? Because, otherwise, chances are high that the Graveknights will be immune to them (immune to cold, electricity and fire).
Most Magus I see rely on cold or electricity spells, which the Graveknights are, again, immune to.
I'm just worried that the Graveknights defenses will be stronger than the party can handle, especially when combined with their damage output. But, at the same time, playing a Barbarian/Cleric/Bard as a Graveknight is, actually, kind of bad.
Why? Because Undead have the following:
Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).
I'm not entirely sure if a Barbarian's Rage is mind-affecting or not, but it does call out morale effects, so it may be that Barbarians make terrible undead. At the same time, most of the best buffs available to Clerics/Bards are mind-affecting (inspire courage, bless, prayer, heroism etc.) so most of the buffs the Cleric/Bard could throw out won't affect anyone but Armag.
So it could easily go either way. It may be the Graveknights won't be much of a challenge due to the loss of HP bye the martials, but the lack of damage from the casters, while also the lack of working buffs from the casters (and possibly rage). I expect that the Ranger will probably be the most dangerous of the 4 as he is the lest affected.
It's worth noting, the Graveknight doesn't say it gains the 'usual undead traits' as all of the other undead templates do, though those are specific to the Undead-type, they may just apply automatically.
Anyway, this is one encounter I'll be worried about, but I expect the party will, ultimately, prevail. It may come down to the Monk being the 'carry' for the team with his superior AC and defenses allowing him to last the longest. I guess we'll see how things turn out huh?
When do you expect to run this encounter?
It'll run either this Monday or the following Monday, depending on how far they get.
To answer your questions, the alchemist does have the acid bomb ability, and the magus tosses fireballs around. The rogue is the one I too am worried about - but if all the enemies but one are clearly undead, he'll just go for that one. Given that an average hit from him would be 25% of that one's hit points, I'm not too worried that the rogue will lack a target.
I think the monk player may get worried in this encounter - the monk's AC is good, but not so good he isn't going to get hit and the monk's hit points are only mediocre - critical hit from Armag could take her to negatives, for example.
I'm ruling that the graveknight barbarian can rage, because that's a personal quality. I don't think a graveknight made by Gorum would be unable to do so, after all.
I agree, this is an encounter they could lose...but that's the point: if there's no danger, there's no excitement. To be honest, though, my biggest worry is that the party barbarian will pick up Ovinrbaane...
It'll run either this Monday or the following Monday, depending on how far they get.
To answer your questions, the alchemist does have the acid bomb ability, and the magus tosses fireballs around. The rogue is the one I too am worried about - but if all the enemies but one are clearly undead, he'll just go for that one. Given that an average hit from him would be 25% of that one's hit points, I'm not too worried that the rogue will lack a target.
I think the monk player may get worried in this encounter - the monk's AC is good, but not so good he isn't going to get hit and the monk's hit points are only mediocre - critical hit from Armag could take her to negatives, for example.
I'm ruling that the graveknight barbarian can rage, because that's a personal quality. I don't think a graveknight made by Gorum would be unable to do so, after all.
I agree, this is an encounter they could lose...but that's the point: if there's no danger, there's no excitement. To be honest, though, my biggest worry is that the party barbarian will pick up Ovinrbaane...
Well, the default is immune to fire, so the default graveknight is immune to cold, electricity and fire, leaving only acid as a viable elemental damage (except sonic, but that's rare).
So if the Magus uses any cold, electric or fire damage, then the graveknights are immune to them, if you use the default graveknight. You could just use acid, which would allow fireballs and normal bombs to hurt them, or make it so two are immune to acid, and two are immune to fire, letting the Magus and Alchemist split roles.
I'm using a gravenight of each elemental type - so fire will hurt three, acid will hurt three. Electricity and Cold are right out, but the party are aware by now that cold and undead do not mix.
Tonight's session turned out to be consolidating the party's hold on Fort Drelev. They had rescued Lord Terion Numesti, and he helped turn the guard who were locals (not part of the scenario, but I reasoned that a number of the soldiers would be men with local families - Drelev would not entirely trust his foreign mercenaries). They and the party had secured the inner bailey of the castle, but the outer bailey still held twenty-plus mercenary guards, seven hill giants (I gave them a barbarian leader), and Elose Drisk, the one of Baron Drelev's lieutenants that had escaped (fighter (weapon master) 3/monk (sohei) 7).
Elose had taken time to rally the remaining troops - she didn't tell them that the Baron was dead - and moved to seize the gate to the inner ward. The party at this point were on the keep balcony and reacted swiftly: a fireball killed most of the guards with her, and the monk performed a flying leap from the balcony to the curtain wall to block Elose, who was now the target for missiles and spells.
Meantime the barbarian went knocking on the mercenaries' door with a simple offer: will you take money to go away? As he had the Baron's severed head on him, they took it seriously and decided that leaving would be a good idea.
Although the gate wasn't opened, and Elose went down easily enough, the giants attacked it anyway. A missed bomb from the alchemist weakened the gate, and the hill giant barbarian smashed it to firewood. The monk dropped into the midst of the hill giants and started using his kusarigama to trip his attackers, keeping the majority of the giants occupied while the rest of the party used spells and missiles to pound them into submission.
When the remaining mercenaries saw this, they accepted the barbarian's offer to leave peaceably with gold in their pockets. Shortly thereafter the locals arrived, wondering what had happened. When they found out that the rulers of Yolonia had liberated them. Terion has been installed as viceroy in the interim, and within a few days two units of the Yolonian army arrived: their army of cavaliers, and their elite army of zen archers.
The only other matter to deal with was the Baroness. While not a pleasant person, they decided that she hadn't committed any specific crime, and would be allowed to leave Fort Drelev. The schemer has departed for the party's capital, as she has heard their ruler is unmarried (the alchemist player's prior character, a sorcerer, she retired him because she wasn't having as much fun as she thought she'd have and liked the idea of a clockwork-obsessed alchemist).
This completed several quests, and together with other Xp the party is levelling up prior to going after Armag...
What level are they now?
11th level, with appropriate WBL or better.
The bodaks were a problem, quite a few characters took negative levels
In 3e the Bodaks gazes were save or die. I much prefer the d4 levels as a mechanic here. Still it can get ridiculously nasty quick if you face groups of them.
Demon God's Fane by Monte Cook for high level 3e had an encounter with 8 of them that pop out of jars in a room to ambush the party IIRC. I swapped them out for similar CR undead when I ran it.
Yes, I hate save-or-die. A house-rule I play is when you face a spell that is save-or-die, you instead go to -{spell level} hit points and dying. I also run that if you are taken below your Con in negative hit points, a cure spell administered before the end of the round effectively "saves" you.
In this game only one character has actually died, and the party had several raise dead scrolls...
This evening's session - once more, Kingmaker spoilers!
Ranger and rogue took point and were closing stealthily with the decoy smilodon, while the other managed to sneak around the party, beating even the monk's Perception check. It sprang on the magus just as the first smilodon slipped into a creek running parralel to the party's approach to drop out of sight of the ranger who was just about to line up a shot.
The ambusher sprang on the magus, and only some awful attack rolls kept him alive (AC27 vs the +23 pounce and rake, five attacks in all). The party sprang into action: the ranger called a warning and dropped into the creek himself to shoot an arrow at the smilodon there. He got a second shot as an AoO from his feats as it charged, then watched his hit points drop precipitously from 83 to 11. The halfling rogue darted in and got two solid sneak-attack hits with his slingshot, which wiped off 2/3 of that smilodon's remaining hit points. The dwarf cleric decided to aid the ranger and also moved in to hit the smilodon with a blindness spell, but it made its save.
Meanwhile, against the other smilodon the monk turned the tables on it by using Acrobatics to vault behind it (barely beating it's CMD), and hitting it for a few points of damage. It turned on the monk and mauled him for more than 30 damage, even his boosted AC was not proof against this brute, but it missed one attack which gave him an opening to Snake Fang it to make the exchange even.
The magus recovered and used his metamagic rod to quicken a vampiric touch, then added a second one, and sucked back most of his hit points before retreating. The alchemist bombed the smilodon's rear-end, and the barbarian, who rolled poorly on initiative, finally rolled into the fight and scored a critical hit with his first attack.
With the first smilodon now down the monk rushed the second one and scored another hit, though not a telling one. The ranger on her turn simply stepped back five feet and drilled the smilodon with arrows, and it went down.
The second encounter was at Armag's camp, where the party found twenty of his barbarians encamped (the game called for a dozen, but again I souped up the encounter for the party's strength), waiting for him to come out of the tunnel they had helped clear. With their stealth and woodcraft from the ranger the party got close enough to see the prisoners in the cage, and the rogue suggested a workable plan: he would dart in with the wand of dimension door taking with him the monk and the alchemist, they would get the prisoners into their portable hole and dimension door out again, getting the prisoners to safety.
It almost went to plan, too, but a sharp-eyed barbarian saw them appear and challenged them on the next round. The alchemist threw an origamy swarm at him, the halfling prepared the an action to transport the party to safety, and the monk whipped out the portable hole and blocked the odd missile thrown their way. In moments, they were gone and the cleric hit the group of barbarians on one side with a flame strike while the magus locked down the other side with a web. The magus threw in a fireball and a quickened fireball the next round, wearing down most of the remaining barbarians as the party barbarian did what he did best: charge!
The party had great fun, the barbarian great-cleaving through the mooks, while the monk used his chain to trip and strike the attacking horde with AoO's which in their weakened state were enough to take most of them down. The rogue, ranger, and alchemist targetted the smaller group of barbarians charging their position, and not one made it through.
While the scenario called for the barbarians to fight to the death, I judged that not all of them were completely stupid, and the last surrendered when he was called up on to do so. This gave the PC's some intel, though not all they could have had.
Next session it's into Armag's tomb...
Do you think any of your feedback will make it's way into Pathfinder Unchained?
I have no idea. I'm just chugging away at testing the changes in a live game. Thus far, everything seems about on par with other combat classes - given that I have a magus, ranger, and barbarian to compare against. The monk's damage output is slightly lower, but accuracy (the main problem) is good and the range of options and mobility now compensate for this adequately.
Another night of fun! We only had a short session...
The party started investigating Armag's tomb; because the party was particularly large (7 players) I increased the number of Dark Sisters to three, and they summoned the Babau demons as the party approached. The party (well, the cleric and monk) heard the casting, and took steps: while the halfling and ranger stalked closer, the cleric cast silence on the monk so that she could rush in and engage the enemy spell-casters. It wasn't a plan with no drawbacks...
The sisters of Gyrona had summoned the demons in a line opposite the statues in the first chamber to add an element of confusion, and were arrayed at the back of the chamber while the demons held actions to rush anyone who entered the room.
First down-side was the magus had to wait until the monk moved forward to cast his buffs. The monk rushed in and got close enough to silence the three sisters before a babau intercepted her, but it couldn't get close to hitting her - the cleric interceded to negate my only '20' I rolled for the fight. In response the babau took a punch, then got tripped. The magus then used his rod of metamagic to cast a quickened improved invisibility, followed by haste and moved up to the entrance, and much of the rest of the party followed. Immediately the two remaining babau moved to attack (they can see invisible), but crossed the monk's threat range with her kusarigama and she used her AoO's to trip them. Then the sisters acted: one had the movement to get out of the silence, and hit the monk with chaos hammer - he failed his save on a '1' and was not just injured but slowed - this was a problem as he was out of range of the haste when it was cast (in hindsight, a dispel magic on the silence might have been more useful). She still had her AoO's (actually I may have made a mistake here allowing them, but what the hell, no-one's perfect). She then also got hit by the other two channelling negative energy. By the end of the round the cleric summoned a spiritual ally to attack the two channelling sisters, and the barbarian made it into the room to attack a babau.
Round two. The ranger and rogue had positioned themselves to 5' step and full attack with their missile weapons...except that now most of the party were blocking them, so they advanced again, targeting the clerics of Gyrona. The babau demons jumped to their feet, taking a host of attacks of opportunity, and even when they attacked they hit nothing. They did, however, act as piñatas which was kind of the idea. The monk was able to take a step and burn ki to attack a babau and a cleric of Gyrona and trip both. The magus moved in and grappled the spell-casting CoG, and she responded with a shout spell that injured him and the barbarian (everyone else in the cone was in the silence field). The other two CoGs channelled again, injuring the monk and rogue. The barbarian crushed a babau, and the cleric waded in while his spiritual ally kept plugging away.
Round three. The ranger and rogue unloaded at range at last, dealing out some hurt to a babau and one of the CoGs. The babau attacked ineffectually, and one took further AoO's from the monk as it got up, got hit, attacked, and got tripped, then got hit more. The magus used dimension door to transport himself and the cleric he was grappling up and out, let her go and dropped her from a great height. The remaining demons and clerics were on the ropes, the barbarian chopped and the ranger shot through them in short order.
At the end of the fight, the monk was down from 91 hp to 24 hp. The constant channels really hurt her, and the slow effect crippled her offensive ability. Although never hit in combat, she still got ground down - this wasn't her fight, though she was able to contribute. The barbarian by contrast took minor damage and smashed his way through the babau; the ranger took none at all, and as usual hailed arrows all over the battle field. Unlike the monk and barbarian his bow didn't have enough enhancement to bypass DR, but the CoG's took serious damage from him.
Following the inevitable healing, the party entered the hall that was the test of strength, despite the mist and illusions. With the ranger's elk and the barbarian they shifted the stone spheres, after locating and disabling the trap. We halted the session once they had located and opened the door to the Test of Endurance...
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I have found this thread incredibly enlightening. Thank you so very much for the effort you've put in Dabbler.
You're welcome, Mage Evolving. I'm glad this has helped in some way.
Another session, after missing one due to loss of my car (my GF had to borrow it).
The party reached the ice-room trap in Armag's tomb, which they negotiated carefully with the cleric casting protection from energy on the rogue and the undine monk using her natural resistance to cold to get through the challenge. Along the way the magus used elemental body to become an air elemental and keep the rooms they were in clear of the fog effect of the guards and wards effect.
The monk discovered the illusion covered exit, and after some ice-breaking the party exited. The continued on the the Test of Prowess, and as they entered the chamber (cleared of fog) the iron golem sprang into life.
The rogue lead the charge, but took a bad AoO before he landed a sneak attack. The monk followed, and flurried at range with his kusarigama chain to deliver shock damage that slowed the iron golem. The magus hasted the party, just before the golem itself breathed it's breath weapon (on the rogue, who saved) and then hit the rogue again, hurting him badly. The barbarian waded in, taking hits and dealing them out. The incremental damage from the party was starting to add up, when the alchemist hurled in some acid bombs and got a critical hit...and the iron golem melted.
With this encounter over, the party searched for exits. The monk's combination of high Perception and high Will save made her the best at finding the illusion-covered doors, and all were discovered including the secret door leading back into the Test of Names. As it was secret, the party went that way first with the ranger scouting ahead. Around a corner he met the daemon, but reacted faster than the monster and shot it with an arrow before retreating while it was still flat-footed.
Once again, the party sprang into action. Monk, rogue, and ranger were in the passageway, with the rest of the party clustered at the doorway. The monk raced forward and used acrobatics to get behind the daemon, while the magus (in air elemental form) darted in to try and whirlwind the monster - he failed, as did the monk's stunning fist, but the monk's DR bypass was effective in at least inflicting some damage.
The rogue also darted in and attacked with his sling, his array of feats dishing out masses of temporary damage. The daemon summoned a second daemon in the square the rogue had vacated, right in the face of the rest of the party. Things, as they say, had become interesting, as the summoned daemon unleashed a hail of attacks, seriously wounding the alchemist and damaging the ranger, who moved out of range to send a hail of arrows at the original daemon.
The monk and the first deamon traded blows, both taking damage and dealing it out - it was a fairly equal exchange, possibly with the daemon having the edge. However, the rogue's temporary damage was telling, as was the magus drawing attacks from the multi-armed creature.
The summoned daemon got hit by bombs, a cleric with a holy hammer, and an irate barbarian, with predictable results.
Although these combats were short, the party did take damaging hits, and at least one critical was averted by the cleric's divine interference.
The party didn't realise the significance of the sigils, and discovered the Test of Agility and decided it wasn't worth the effort. They proceeded toward the Cavern of the Warriors, and paused when after the magus cleared the fog they realised the ridge was full of skeletal warriors; because I had beefed up the Armag encounter, I decided all the undead warriors would be here, including some extra for the large party - twenty in all.
Well, you have to give the party a mob to wade through now and again ;)
The party waded in, with the rogue, ranger, barbarian, and alchemist using their ranged weapons from the cavern floor; the barbarian was spectacularly ineffective even with the bow Skybolt - bad rolls meant in three rounds he scored no hits! The monk and the magus waded straight in. the monk's High Jump got him onto the ridge where the undead warriors attacked in mass with the result of glorious carnage of bones as the monk's flurry and Snake Style landed dozens of blows that wore down the skeletons, while the magus started sweeping them up with his whirlwind. The cleric charged in, mounted on the ranger's elk, and getting close hit the skeletons with a powerful channel - and the magus, who was a dhampire.
Contrite, the cleric withdrew enough to effect some undead without hurting the magus, while he continued sweeping up skeletons in his whirlwind. The rogue abandoned his sling and used his own acrobatics to join the monk. Although the skeletal warriors were tough they started to fall to the attrition damage from the party's archers, bombers, and slingers, and the magus unleashing his last AoE spell. The barbarian eventually gave up the bow and started climbing the ridge, but the last skeletons were destroyed just as he reached the top.
Analysis: the monk fared reasonably well on the offence, and while strong in defence she still took damage in two of the fights against serious enemies - alone against them, she would not have lasted. The barbarian dealt out more damage, as usual, but had fewer tactical options. The magus really enjoyed using his spells in this battle
Sounds like a good session!
I totally approve on the horde of enemies. Sometimes it's just fun for the party to wade into a horde and unleash hell.
Especially if it's like an 80+ horde of 1-3 HD skeletons against a 12th level party. Always fun to see a Wizard pick up his quarterstaff and go bonking skeletons :P
one of the first D&D scenarios I ever played, the GM has the party of six in this little town, trying to save/protect it from the ravening horde of 100,000 orcs outside the gates. One die roll, and... we won. :-)
It was fun. The golem and the daemon were dangerous enough to do some damage but they didn't threaten to wipe out the party. The skeleton warriors were tough enough to not be a complete pushover, but mook-enough for the party to go to town on.
Decisions, Decisions...
Another session (we have had a few mishaps over the summer, the usual stuff at this time of year) and we finally ran headlong into...
...Armag & the graveknights I created for him. The party took the secret passage back to the entrance chamber, along the way destroying the sigils of the skeleton warriors they found there. They then rested up and then returned to the chamber and located the door to the Temple of Gorum.
Impressing the shaman there proved a difficult task, until the alchemist pulled out the stops and set off a firework display in the chamber. A natural 20 on his Spellcraft skill of +20 provided a considerable boost to the barbarian's Intimidate check of 32...and the shaman stepped aside.
Buffing themselves, the party entered the penultimate chamber and found Armag and co also buffed and waiting. To remind, his retinue consisted of:
a 10th level barbarian
a 12th level bard (pre-casting some buffs)
an 11th level cleric of Gorum (with righteous might and some pother buffs cast)
a 10th level ranger plus thylacine animal companion (buffing everyone with fivkle winds).
...all graveknights, although without the deathless quality (their armour disintegrated upon their deaths if Armag was no longer alive).
The party would have walked over the original encounter, with their damage output, but this provided more of a challenge.
The ranger was first off the mark, and immediately discovered that fickle winds is a real b*tch of a spell to face an archer. The other archer responded by unleashing a hail of arrows on the front-most party member....the monk, whose Deflect Arrows feat dealt with the one shot that breached his AC. The 10th level barbarian charged him next, and his chain of trippiness lashed out and landed that unfortunate on their posterior before they came close.
Then the monk and barbarian acted simultaneously, and the monk circled Armag to flank him and attempted a disarm and a stunning fist, the disarm failed, the strunning fist hit but didn't stun. The barbarian, enlarged and buffed with cat's grace, delivered a present from the alchemist, a blistering invective that hurt and demoralised Armag.
The undead bard cast haste on the enemy, picking up their speed. The magus (in air-elemental form) tried to slam the bard and pick her up in a tornado, but missed - he also tried a Quickened shocking grasp but the graveknights were immune to electricity. The cleric of gorum attacked the barbarian and delivered nearly 60 damage in two hits. The alchemist realised his bombs would not have much effect against the fickle winds and instead buffed the ranger's elk. The halfing rogue, granted improved invisibility, attacked Armag and delivered a massive dose of temporary damage and sapped his strength. The party cleric, buffed to the hilt, attacked the prone undead barbarian with a holy axiomatic warhammer, and dished out a third of her hit points in one blow. Lastly, Armag acted (thanks to a really terrible initiative check). He attacked the party barbarian, and only thanks to the demoralize didn't get more than one hit...though that his was a confirmed critical, another 60 damage and the party barbarian was looking worried...
Top of the round, and the ranger moved in to target the one enemy not covered by fickle winds: the enemy ranger's Thylacine. He only had one shot, criticalled, and killed it. His elk comanion charged the cleric of gorum and gored him. The enemy ranger peppered the dwarf cleric, but his armour was proof against most of the hits. The enemy barbarian tried to leap to her feet...provoking attacks of oportunity from the dwarf cleric, the party barbarian, and the party rogue. It wasn't a pretty way to go.
The monk attacked Armag and landed another failed stunning fist, and then tripped him. The party barbarian took advantage of this and landed three blows, one a confirmed critical hit, on the prone Armag, and it was curtains for the barbarian warlord. As I predicted, he lasted two rounds. The monk directed his remaining attacks against the graveknight cleric of gorum, and the barbarian his last attack - and got another confirmed critical which destroyed a second graveknight.
The undead bard stepped away from the fight and hit the party with a discordant blast that knocked them back, but was then hit by a fire sneeze from the alchemist and swept up in the magus' whirlwind attack, while the dwarf cleric closed with the undead ranger. The party ranger's elk also attacked the enemy ranger, who stepped back and let loose a hail of largely ineffectual arrows (I confess I was rolling diabolically for the enemy this session). The monk charged hiom from across the room and delivered the coup-de-grace (metaphorically speaking), while the barbarian thrust his sword into the magus' whirlwind which had an effect somewhat like a food blender on the unfortunate undead bard...
Ah fickle winds... a situational spell that is probably OP when used in it's situation.
Funny story, Baleful Polymorphing a Paladin into a bird, stops the Paladin from attacking you through fickle winds. But once it gets dispelled, it's hilarious to see a Paladin doing ~50 points of damage when he pecks you with his beak.
Yeah, that would do it! The ranger kept "hinting" to the casters to dispel the fickle winds but they kept finding other things to do! I felt a bit of a sod for using it but the spell exists, and the enemy WILL protect themselves.
This combat, the monk worked well in supporting the party. Damage output was not as important as his battlefield control, but it counted. Overall performance was good, well up to the standard of the other combat classes.
In the last session the party tied up loose ends and then went exploring in the swamp. We had only four characters on this side-adventure: the dwarf cleric, human alchemist, human ranger, and the undine monk. This means we get to see how the monk works as the party's main fighter, and in the few encounters we had he performed adequately.
One encounter was with an aquatic creature that tried to lure the party in (successfully) was interesting: the monster, a particularly large and nasty ahuizotl, used voice mimicry to call for help from the depths of the swamp, then circled around in the murky water.
The monk and cleric (the latter mounted on the ranger's elk companion, equipped with horseshoes of speed) raced ahead to the "rescue" while the alchemist and ranger followed (all save the monk had water walking cast upon them). The ahuizotl grabbed the alchemist and tried to drag him under, but failed. The ranger managed some spectacularly bad rolls to hit with his bow, and the monk and cleric came racing back. The monk failed his stunning fist attempts, but his flurry of blows and snake fang attacks tore the ahuizotl to bits.
The monk took less damage than the barbarian would have taken, but had less hit points anyway. He took slightly longer to kill the ahuizotl than the barbarian would have, but the end result was the same.
In the last session the party tied up loose ends and then went exploring in the swamp. We had only four characters on this side-adventure: the dwarf cleric, human alchemist, human ranger, and the undine monk. This means we get to see how the monk works as the party's main fighter, and in the few encounters we had he performed adequately.
One encounter was with an aquatic creature that tried to lure the party in (successfully) was interesting: the monster, a particularly large and nasty ahuizotl, used voice mimicry to call for help from the depths of the swamp, then circled around in the murky water.
The monk and cleric (the latter mounted on the ranger's elk companion, equipped with horseshoes of speed) raced ahead to the "rescue" while the alchemist and ranger followed (all save the monk had water walking cast upon them). The ahuizotl grabbed the alchemist and tried to drag him under, but failed. The ranger managed some spectacularly bad rolls to hit with his bow, and the monk and cleric came racing back. The monk failed his stunning fist attempts, but his flurry of blows and snake fang attacks tore the ahuizotl to bits.
The monk took less damage than the barbarian would have taken, but had less hit points anyway. He took slightly longer to kill the ahuizotl than the barbarian would have, but the end result was the same.
Sounds good, and how it should be.
A pleasant read. It's good to see the monk perform on expectations.