Hi All!
New(ish) GM running RotRL for the first time, using the anniversary edition. I've been doing a ton of work on Sandpoint, working w/ my Jade books (I'm also running that on the side), to make the town feel very real.
As I was pulling together a quick reference sheet for myself, I found a discrepancy I thought I'd ask about.
In the town stat block, it mentions that Spellcasting services are up to level 4 spells. However, I just went through all the NPCs listed in the Sandpoint Appendix, and I couldn't find anyone who could cast any spells over level 3. The best option was Madame Mvashti (who seems kind of cranky), and that's only assuming that her Theurge level was applied to her arcane side. Other than her, the best available would be 3 clerics, 1 wizard, 1 bard, and 1 alchemist (potions only) who can access level 2 spells.
So... where all the Cleric 7s at?
My assumption is that perhaps that spell casters come up from Magnimar and set up in the market to sell their services, but it seemed harsh to limit spell casting to once per week, especially if the PCs are dealing w/ massive ability damage or a cursed item. Am I missing something obvious? If not, how did other GMs handle it?
The Stats for Sandpoint are basically built off the rules in the GMG, which define what amount of magical items are in a town, and what level of spellcasting a town can offer. If need be just come up with an NPC. Personally I just handwave it. Sure Father Zantus isn't a high enough level to cast remove curse or restoration, say, if you go by the listed stats, but I just fudge it. If your players really care about these little things, it might break their suspension of disbelief, so it won't work, but honestly I don't think most players are going to notice "Hey, there's no way Zantus could have a third level spell when he was channeling only 2d6 worth of energy."
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I solved the issue somewhat like this; there is several priests in fact in the cathedral, 6 different religions if I remember right, so at very least 6 priests. I simply gave them the ability to cast 3rd level spells by uniting their divine power. Limited, but they can use Remove Curse/Disease/Blindness/Deafness/Poison around 3/day.
I made Abstalar Zantus a cleric 7. There are a few other priests that work at the cathedral, but none of them are over level 3.
I also made Madame Mvashti a druid 3 / sorcerer 4 / mystic theurge 4, and the most powerful spellcaster in town. Of course, she's also of venerable age.
Creative Director
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The 4th level casters in Sandpoint can be assumed to be visiting spellcasters from Magnimar if you wish. Otherwise, you can just up a few caster levels of NPCs in town. There's sometimes a disconnect between the city stat blocks and the actual inhabitants of a town... especially in a case like this, where the inhabitants of the town were created before we had the rules for generating town stats from the GameMastery Guide.
The best option was Madame Mvashti (who seems kind of cranky), and that's only assuming that her Theurge level was applied to her arcane side
I think you might be misunderstanding Mystic Theurge a bit. It applies to both classes equally.
However even so it she's only getting 2nd level spells out of it, since it puts her caster level for druid at 4 and her caster level for sorcerer at 5.
Right... forgot that the choice was only if there were more than one arcane class or divine class (and of course, sorcerer is the slower progression).
Thanks for the input, all! This confirms how I was leaning, though I like the idea of the combined prayers working in concert. I mostly wanted to make sure I wasn't missing a key NPC somewhere, or that I wasn't misinterpreting how the casting services in the town stats are supposed to work.
Onward to our first session! Now I just need to work on my goblin singing voice...
Interesting twist on this one:
The party is now level 2 (almost 3), and 2 PCs and an Animal Companion have been infected with the Vargouille Kiss. They are in need of Remove Disease, a level 3 cleric/druid/ranger spell. The spell caster will need to make a CL check of 16 to overcome the disease (need to roll an 11), so it could take multiple castings in order to halt the transformation.
The PCs have pockets full of gold from the loot they got thus far in the AP (and haven't spent too much of it). How can/should the spellcasting service work here? Should I assume that the Temple has access to an unlimited number of scrolls? Should I limit this to a certain amount of castings per day, like a higher level cleric would have?
I'm... cautious... about making a call here, as it very well could lead to a PC death. Normally I'd just look at the level of the PC/NPC, and that would give me the number of castings of that spell level per day (and if there are too many fails, it's time to roll up a new character). On the other hand, I worry that an unlimited casting could lead to party/player conflict, as bad rolls could lead to a significant drain on their wealth (and put them behind on the WBL chart), leaving them the hard (and real-world) choice of making a call that a PC would just have to die. But if I just assume it's X scrolls, then am I as a GM potentially dooming the PCs?
So how would others handle this?
I had two (rolled in advance) scrolls available by the residing priest of Desna. The PCs got the first for free (being The Heroes(R)), but it failed. For the second scroll they had to pay.
Where there are great rewards, there are great risks. *shrugs*
WBL is easy to handle: you're the GM--just add a random encounter with a hundred gp extra.
Ruyan.