|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Could someone do the math for Hepzamirah critting a poor unfortunate soul? Not sure if I'm adding in how the power attack factors in correctly and that seems to be where the big difference is terms of insta-gibbing vs potentially survivable.
if i did the math right, should be right around 400 damage.
20*2*5=200(Mythic Power Attack)
22*5 =110(Base Str+Weapon)
8*5 = 40(fury of the abyss+divine favor+rage)
Plus Dice:
10d6+1d12=35+6=41
so right at 391 on average with a fort save for 3d6(10) more damage
Remember that if you use Mythic Power Attack as written (I don't), the bonus from PA should be doubled before applying the weapon's multiplier.
So the +20 from PA is +40 before you do the x5.
Ya, she was the NPC that really proved to me how silly the rules were getting. I was actually more concerned with her one shotting a PC without dice rolls than what my players were doing.
First of all, Sc8rpi8n_mjd nice work on the statblocks. I plan to use them in the campaing we are about to begin and im greatfull that you did a job that i would have partially done.
Now i have a question regarding the demon lords' Hightened Awarness(the ability they gain when on their realm)
The original gives +10 perception and +10 Initiative.
The one you write and use(as far as i can say) gives +10 perception and +10 AC. The initiative disappeared. Was that on purpose? You intentionally removed the initiative buff for the AC?
Hi leo1925,
Thank you for your kind words. I hope you find the statblocks useful for your campaign.
Regarding your question, demon lords still get the bonus to initiative, because they have the "mythic" trait. One of the things it gives is Amazing Initiative. Since they are considered 10th-rank mythic creatures, that gives a +10 bonus. And now they get the bonus everywhere (not only in their realms).
I suggest taking a look at pages 160-161 of the document to see all the changes.
Well, they can always have both amazing initiative and hightened awarness(for a total of +30 with mythic improved initiative). Anyway, i got that right.
1. Another question regarding their regeneration.
They normally have regeneration 30. But you put Fast healing 30(60 in their realms). You changed the regeneration to fast healing so the players cant stop it??
2. A thing about the "Demonic Aura". How did it go on your campaing? I see that thing is powerfull. Does it make a diffirence, is it dangerous? Or I am too cautious?
1- yeah, that is my intention. Most of the Demon Lords have regeneration (deific or mythic), so any mythic character that deals damage to them automatically deactivates the regeneration. It basically makes it useless in combat in this particular campaign.
With the fast healing, players can kill a demon lord, but it will be a little harder since the demon will benefit from a constant healing.
I also think that Pathfinder went too far when changing how regeneration works. In an effort to make it easier to run for the DMs, it lost a lot of power. Now, fast healing works better for a regenerating monster.
2- I haven't had the chance to use it, since I'm still on book 4. You can read Porridge's Baphomet combat in this same thread to get an idea. My intent is to make players think twice before unloading everything they have on the demon lord, since they will suffer the same damage.
I would say it depends on how optimized is your group. You can easily cut the aura's hitpoints in half, or double them to present and adequate challenge for your group.
Quick update: last session I ran roughly half of the encounters inside the midnight fane. Ursathella performed quite well, and she even killed the inquisitor. I'll try to post the details as soon as I can.
I'm still working on the document, but work has been awful these last weeks, so I'm trying to find a moment to get back to work on it.
Hmm... As I saw, Porridge's group had a bunch of extra healers to assist them. That way it can result smoothly. I guess I will take in consideration my party's preparations and act accordingly.
I like the battle updates that some of you do and so I decided to post any notable battle when it happens and before that I will ask again any questions I might have!
@RanisTheSlayer,
My pleasure. I hope to read some descriptions of your battles!
Do you have 4 players on your party?
The goristros are fun. They hit like a truck and have lots of hit points, but they are easy to hit. In my game they also performed very well.
To be honest I'm not looking to do a lot of changes to Areelu. I have given her some useful minions, will probably upgrade her tiers and give her a special ability or two to improve her chances of survival and make her last longer in the final battle.
I have no idea when I will be able to do it. As I said before, right now I'm busy with my work.
And now some details about the Ursathella encounter:
the party entered the fane, and was soon facing 2 goristros, 2 ash giants, 1 stone golem, and finally 8 incubus demons. Not everything appeared at once, and the battle was done at the entrance (area A1). I added some squares to the rooms and hallways, so the goristros and Ursathella could fit. I also changed the doors to open easily at a mere touch (I imagine it would help the demons carry stuff around the shrine and outside). When combat started, the loud magic mouth alerted the complex, so I started preparing the rest of the bad guys. Please note that they were warned by Xanthir Vang, who fled from the previous module.
The most useful enemy here were the goristros, with their pounces, rends and pull/pushes. They did a lot of damage to the frontliners.
The golem died on the second round after receiving two full-attacks from the inquisitor. It couldn't hit even once (very bad rolls on my part).
Ash giants got two-three hits before dying, but nothing else. Standard/mythic empowered fire snakes killed them quite fast.
For the incubus I used the drake rider stats in Demon's Heresy. I basically envisioned the hill where the Fane is as the headquarters of the riders, with a nest of rift drakes on the top. As the giants, they were basically useless and also died fast to area spells.
When the first wave of enemies was almost defeated after some rounds, Ursathella appeared from area A8, invisible, mythic hasted, and accompanied by two ash giants. She used hit and run tactics, combining fleet warrior with the extra move action from mythic haste, so she could move in, full-attack, and then run back to area A8; or using a move action, casting a spell (mythic chain lightning did a lot of damage), quickening a magic missile and then running back. Since she's still quite mad, I tried to attack a different character each time. It's important to note that I changed her draining attack to work on every weapon attack he made on a round, that made it much more useful as she could surge more often even after paying the cost of mythic spells, mythic feats, etc. I suggest you do the same.
The damage she caused gave the giants some time to attack, since the group had to spend actions healing all the damage the Lamia was doing.
On the last round of combat she got tired of the inquisitor surviving her attacks, killed him with a critical or two (can't remember exactly), and stayed to fight the party. She no longer was invisible (but protected with mirror image), the party focused on her and with some good rolls finally killed their enemy.
While the group retreated and started casting a resurrection spell on the inquisitor, Minagho, Mutasafen, the gibrileth and two goristros were waiting for them in area A8.
When the group returned, they were a bit unsure as to how to proceed into the room. They knew from the noise that there was a machine or something like that inside it. As the paladin finally entered the room, he got hit by opportunity attacks from the goristros (he was careless and didn't account for the 15 ft. reach) and thrown into the grinder as a result.
To clarify, I made an opening at the top of the grinder (a second "mouth", so to speak), so the goristros could use their pull/push maneuvers to throw enemies into the air and inside the grinder. This is a special maneuver that only this monsters could do.
The paladin's mount was also thrown inside with his master, and right now it's being torn to shreds. I don't think it will survive another round of "grinding".
For the rest of the combat (we haven't finished it) the goristros pummeled the PCs (even Arueshalae was beaten pretty badly) and threw the paladin again into the grinder after he escaped. Remember that the goristros can spider climb, that allows them to reach characters even if they fly (this is what happened with Arueshalae and the sorceress).
The gibrileth tried to hit different characters, to no avail. He summoned a friend that died to the inquisitor's blade.
Muatasafen has been this combat's surprise. From behind the grinder, he moved and full-attacked (mythic haste). I altered his statblock changing spells and feats, so he could do like 5-6 attacks each round. That coupled with mythic heroism allowed him to kill the dwarf cleric and damage the inquisitor. After each full-attack, he used amazing initiative to get a move action and get behind the machine again.
The cleric was resurrected by the paladin, using relentless healing to trigger a heal spell.
Minagho, after using her dust of dissapearance, projected an image of Yaniel and tried to convince the paladin to join her in Baphomet's glory. Since she has an incredible bluff check, I tried to hide the lie inside a lie, so the paladin got the impression that she wasn't actually trying to convince him to join Baphomet. He thinks she's controlled or something. She tried to dominate the inquisitor but failed.
Unfortunately, as the combat was getting harder for the PCs, they kind of forgot about Yaniel, so when Minagho's next turn came, I decided she would try to kill or kidnap one of the PCs. She moved behind the grinder, momentarily losing line of effect to her projected image (and thus ending it), and positioning herself to deliver a full-attack to the inquisitor the next round, wich she did, dropping him into negatives.
When we stopped, the situation was like this:
- Minagho is still invisible, with 3 rounds left. Mutasafen has nearly run out of bombs, so he will probably try to flee. The gibrileth is still alive, but I'm afraid he won't be able to do much except casting a cloud spell to cover Mutasafen's escape.
- Characters are conscious (can't remember if they are badly hurt or not) except for the inquisitor and the paladin's lion mount (he is inside the grinder and I predict will die this next round).
I like your setup, RanisTheSlayer. Hope you have a good time with Ursathella.
In my game the incubuses asked the players to drop their weapons, but of course they didn't want to do it. The denizens of the Fane don't want to play with the characters: they know they are powerful and dangerous. Minagho will be extra-careful with them.
I forgot to mention that I modified the save DCs (25) to resist the malfunctioning teleportation and the whispers in the portal room.
That caused quite a bit of damage when the sorceress tried to teleport out of an ash giant's strike. She failed the caster level check (same DC as in the module) and the fortitude save.
Demons can freely use their teleportation powers inside the sanctum.
I'd like to recommend rings of inner fortitude for this AP, seems to be they would be a better than usual investment.
(/derail)
The stat block monsters look terrifying after just a cursory skim through. I'm a player and I don't know if my DM will use these adjusted monsters so I'm not going to study anything.
I probably will have to prepare the same battle Scorpion just did for Tuesday, so this will be quite helpful. I'll probably want to do the whole non-Abyss side of the fane in one go, although I'd like "Yaniel" to do her thing, too... I'll have some hours to work it out. We'll see how it turns out, I'll do my report after the session.
Sounds like an intense combat. :) I guess you did not use Ursathella with the Vital Strike feats she has... otherwise her critical hit would have done something like 400+ damage.
Here is what I just found out:
Power attack says that you increase or decrease the base extra damage by 50%. So +2 becomes +3 for two handed and +1 for secondary or off hand attacks.
Going mythic, M.Power Attack says that the base +2 damage becomes +3. That meaning... When I wield a 2 handed weapon with M. Power Attack at 1 bab, i get +4 damage? (3+3/1=4)
And the table goes something like that:
Bab 1: -1 and +3(+4)
Bab 4: -2 and +6(+9)
Bab 8: -3 and +9(+13)
Bab 12: -4 and +12(+18)
etc etc
Bab 32: -9 and +27(+40)
In the brackets we have extra damage for 2-handed weapons.
Its progression is anomalous. It's not -1/+4 ratio. Deskari's and Baphomet's M. Power attack(and I suspect the other's too accordingly) doesnt have a bonus of +36 but +40
leo1925,
It is much easier to understand and calculate MPA if you increase the standard Power Attack bonus to damage by +1 on each weapon category (+2 light, +3 one-handed, +4 two-handed).
I have seen both interpretations (yours and mine) on these boards, and as fas as I know there is no official word on how it works. Even if there is, I will continue using it my way.
Of course you are free to use the method you want. I can tell you (after seeing the feat in action for 3 modules) that losing a few points of damage doesn't impact MPA at all. The big boost IMO comes from ignoring the penalty to attack rolls.
Sc8rpi8n_mjd, first of all, thank you for all the work you have done to make this AP more challenging and fun!
I stumbled across a very minor change that I needed to make in Kiranda to make her right. Her ploy is based on using glamered armor to appear as Maranse but as written she is only equipped with nonmagical leather armor. I modified that to +1 glamered leather armor since it needs to be at least +1 to carry the glamered enchantment. That increased Kiranda's AC by one point.
Like I said, its a very minor change but one that I thought I would share.
Hey, Scorpion, how is your campaign going? My party just arrived in Alushinyrra and will try as of next session to gain notoriety. How are you handling the different set-pieces, do you have any noteworthy stories of what the party met in this very big city? :) I could need some inspiration. :p
RanisTheSlayer,
Keep the stories coming! those battle look fantastic.
ArchAnjel,
Thanks! It took me a lot of time to put together this document, but it was well worth the effort if it can help other DMs.
Regarding Kiranda, I presented Maranse as a duelist-type fighter (perfect for Kiranda to impersonate since they share the same fighting style), so I didn't make any changes to her armor. He was chained wearing his armor and the players didn't assume something was off.
magnuskn,
Unfortunately last week we didn't play, but this Sunday we will continue with the campaign.
Last session we finished the fight with Minagho and Mutasafen. He struck a deal with the players: he helped them fight Minagho (she ended up fleeing through the portal and then greater teleporting to Alushynirra) and explained how the demons made the elixirs. He also helped them dismantle the grinder.
In exchange, they let him go. At first they weren't convinced, but after Mutasafen flat-out told them that he had no interest in the worldwound war, they chose to believe him.
They rescued Yaniel and the paladin got his nice holy avenger scimitar.
After resting, they tried to cross the portal knowing that it was guarded by an unknown presence (Mutasafen warned them). When they approached the portal, Ibaheniel and his three concubines (seraptis demons) appeared.
We are still on the first round of combat, and the players are already badly hurt because of Ibaheniel's chain lightning sp-like ability and the seraptis demons' grab ability.
If you need to do more combats in the Battlebliss, I suggest taking a look at The Moonscar pathfinder module
You can put these battles before Gelderfang, so the players have to use resources before fighting him.
I'll have to see if one of my friends from the other group has it, since I don't own it. But thanks for the suggestion! :)
There is no overkill in WotR. Remember, however, that your guys can get it, too, if you give it your NPC's as a regular feat to take.
I also bought Moonscar due to Scorpion's suggestion (thanks!), lots of good enemies in there. The anti-paladin in there would have been too strong for my group but its a good idea. So is the vampire succubus sorcerer, I did use that one.
EDIT: And from my memory, Hepzamirah didn't need any help with her saves. She was the only NPC that I thought would challenge my PCs.
|
If you use Sc8rpi8n_mjd's stat blocks, Divine Protection is definitely overkill. Otherwise (and with creatures not in the doc), go nuts. That said, I banned it from my games the moment I saw it. A level dip in cleric (with the domain that gives a 2nd level spell as an SLA) and a feat for divine grace? Nope.
|
|
Scorpion, just thought I'd note: Your statblocks have been very helpful especially in the last three books in boosting the overall threat-level of several of the encounters. I think you've wrapped your head well around the idea of how the mythic material works in actual combat and thusly how to set up the NPCs to be more effective without overkill.
RanisTheSlayer,
It depends on what you need. If your players have save DCs that are too high for your tastes, you may want to give some NPCs that feat. But you can also upgrade a mythic ability to do that. There are some statblocks that already add mythic rank or an ability score bonus to saving throws.
I'm not gonna use it. I try to use Core-only options as much as possible, with mostly the same exceptions as my players have (I've already talked about it in this same thread).
Zeqiel,
Thank you! I tried to do my best with the tools the designers gave us. If you have any interesting stories or feedback on the statblocks for the last three modules, I would like to hear them.
The only DM that has gone that far in the AP and shared his experiences is Porridge, but we haven't heard from him in a while.
Hey RanisTheSlayer,
I think this is a very cool concept.
I haven't had the time to review the statblock extensively, but I can point out some things:
- It has 20 HD but a +26 BaB.
- I got a +25/+5 for its initiative modifier [+7 Dex, +4 Imp. Initiative, + 7 amazing initiative, +7 Improved Initiative (mythic)]
- In the Bound By Deskari ability, I don't get exactly how the rebound spell part works. It says "a chaotic or lawful version of the spell" What does "version" exactly mean? and shouldn't it be a chaotic or evil version?
- I think it should do more damage. 10d6+5d6 fire is low IMHO for a mythic CR 24 critter.
_ I think you can drop the first phrase from Storm of Blades (how damage is calculated). It is basically designer's information that a DM doesn't need.
- The same applies to We Are Legion first part. You don't need to list all the things it has from its balor essence, just say it has some balor traits.
I would drop the "swords are natural attacks" text. I don't think you need it.
When focusing hatred, I would say the sword counts as a manufactured weapon in the hands of a balor for the duration. That way you get iterative attacks and you can Power Attack with it. Also, it is not specified if you intend the monster to be able to full-attack with the sword even if the swarm has moved that turn.
- Whirlwind of Death: The way it is designed, with no recharge mechanic, means the monster will just stand where it is (maybe move with the action from Amazin Initiative) and spam the attack. With two turns each round, you can make people automatically fail the saving throw. The 10% chance is a weird way to apply the vorpal quality to the sword burst.
The ability says that Legion reforms in the space it occupied and deals damage if someone is on the same space. I don't think that will come too often, given that the monster uses the attack and reforms on the same turn. A player would have to somehow move between the burst and the reforming. I can't come up with an ability that does it. Even Mirror Dodge doesn't apply, since it requires a hit by a melee or ranged attack.
Hope this helps! :-)
Ok, I got through all if this thread... The failed AP thread and nobody's coverage... I think I got that name wrong. I am completely taken back.
I am at the end of book 3. We rushed book 1 and 2 since they were higher level from a homebrew, but got them on track by the beginning of book 3. I did my best house the XP system and the mythic trials, but I gave up on it: XP is a pain and the math does not add up right for me - the mythic trials just seem like a gimmick and I'm giving them tiers per the schedule in the front of each AP.
I've talked to my players and had them read a page or two of this thread to let them know this AP breaks down quickly and I want to make some modifications before it breaks. We are 20 point buy, max hit point up to level 8 and we use hero points. I know this gives them a stronger character, but that was how the homebrew was because originally it was only three players with me experimenting in the worldwound. Now we have 4-5 players and we keep using the grandfathered system.
My players are getting slaughtered. I'm not really buffing the monsters much and I'm nervous. They build great characters but work horribly together. In Arueshalae's Rescue, three characters died, one permanently (story reason), one stabilized and one used two hero points to save himself from death.
They have terrible potential to do damage but almost always seem to go down. Now, they are about to enter the Ivory Sanctum, they are trying to work together, and I'm trying to figure out who and how to buff the monsters without killing them.
I am wondering what I am doing differently than you guys and what I need to do to make it balanced more. My players are scared to die and I'm nervous to have this AP break and represent another waste of time and money.
Yes, that would help. Sorry, I was typing all that on my phone during my kid's swimming lesson. Doesn't look like much, but when you have big thumbs and a small iphone.. a little is a lot.
We have 5 players all 11th level 4th tier:
Admixture wizard/Archmage focusing on fireballs (he does a lot of damage since she can switch it to any element - with selective and maximize metamagic, he clears areas - rods and feats). She will drop fireballs in the 120-150 range when he can. That is tough.
Diviner 1/Poison masterRogue 4/vivisectionist Alch 6/trickster - this build seems pretty wild but he was surprisingly effective using an elven curve blade and a lot of sneak attack damage. buff spells and mutagens get him to be very strong.
Ninja 3/Moms Monk 8/ Champion - he focuses on crane wing and snake style to get 5+ attacks per round. Pretty decent damage and really hard to hit
Synthesis summoner - I told him not to try and break the game, but he has more hit point than anyone, better pluses to hit and pretty much the best AC, as you would expect
Warpriest - he is a new player that will only be going one more session.
In the redoubt, the monk and the rogue/alchemist charged through the gates and ran all away round to the main area where I had Jaruunicka mocking Arueshalae. The monk was a lot faster with mythic haste and impossible speed and alerted the entire complex. I had the Bebilith just take an AoO and the Drekari's to one AoO instead of having them make the confusion saving throw. The monk took a little damage and run square into the forbiddance effect (I didn't allow a saving through for this artifact). He is LE (long story why, but he fell from grace) and took full 72 points of damage. He dropped.
The Rogue/alchemist charged in as well and got to Jaruunicka... that ended poorly for him as she killed him in two rounds. First round she ended with a grab attack and he couldn't get out.
I didn't have the hezrou or the Bebilith attack at all, and the drake riders only attacked once or twice throughout the battle. The Wizard reigned down ice balls (admixtured fireballs) and cleared the area. The warpriest took one of the hits from the drake riders and knocked him to the ground, he was riding on the synthesist summmon since they teleported so far away from the redoubt. He fell from the hit and took more damage. He was able to get into the tower after taking some damage from the bell.
The wizard took damage from something, I can't remember what, but she went down trying to enter the redoubt, also taking a full 72 points of damage. She spend 2 hero points to save her life.
The war priest was afraid to leave the tower with Jaruunicka standing out there with spell immunity:fireball on, so he tried to shoot arrows. He also didn't want to leave and potentially take damage going back in since he was already hurt.
At this point the summoner was left. I had the drake riders flee and the bebilith, will-o-wisps, the grubs and the hezrou with died from the fireball or just left since they didn't want to die. Jaruunicka was left. She almost killed the summoner in battle.
I didn't even rebuild her, although I did reselect her spells and gave her the appropriate buffs.
I use the terrain often and pretty much the party uses that terrain to isolate themselves. I don't even need to throw up walls since they tend to trap themselves, lol.
Is this helpful?
My players admitted after the fact this was probably the worst battle plan they have ever had, but it seems there is always something that puts them in peril.
We have done a lot to limit things. Turns have to be under three minutes, next week I'm reducing that to two. Taking when it's not your turn takes an immediate action if it's more than two sentences (players police themselves). We also made a pretty cool action economy tracker to make sure all the swift and immediate actions were not being abused.
Currently, they thing the game is too hard, but they know me to be a tough GM. I tend to play the creatures to what I think their intelligence to be. They take down casters if they are smart, just charge in if dumb. Retreats and darkness is used a lot as well as buffs and positioning. I make sure I know the enemies well to play them hard.
My players say I play the enemies very well and that people on the boards must not be: this is total horse crap. I've read what you guys do and it is amazing. I must admit my players are good theory crafters but it all falls apart in action.
With who is at my table, do you think I will have the same issues?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Caius... you make me feel stupid, lol. Yes, they have no healing. The warpriest can heal a little bit, and the alchemist has a little healing, but he is dead now and the player has replaced him with a barbarian: no healing except mythic recuperation.
They are mostly below wealth, but that is because I had rebuilt Zanedra and she took out the entire party with her Eidolon. I didn't level her, just rebuilt and changed her spells.
This battle went pretty poorly as well. At the time they were using a lot of invisibility, and with mythic undetectable, by RAW they would be impossible to find. We house ruled that EX methods could bypass it (blindsense, blindsight, tremor sense and perception checks, but still has total concealment if it applies).
Since they stood in the room pre-buffing before the fight with her, she started buffing her eidolon as well. They made their perception checks and continued to buff after knowing she was also casting buff spells. Now, to their benefit, they had no idea it was a summoner, but 4 (only four players at this time) against one, it shouldn't have mattered.
Round one, they opened the door under the status and the creature full attacked the flat-footed monk/ninja (no uncanny dodge) and dropped him. This took the party by surprise.
Round two, the fully buffed eidolon with lifesense (evolution surge to give undead and lifesense) pounced the wizard... down.
The next rounds didn't really matter. Everyone dropped after that and to salvage the game, the PC's were captured and tortured. All gear was lost and they have to salvage what they have now.
The last series of sessions had them at lower wealth and this made the encounters tougher, but they still could hit with good damage.
The biggest problem they have is staying up in fights. They are very paranoid on fights, specially failing saving throws. The battle with the woundwym got nasty as the entire party failed the entropic breath weapon and fought each other... the woundwyrm was mostly a secondary player as they went after each other with gusto. They are truly great Role Players.
Two characters died in this battle (we did a side mission to hell to get them back, only to have the rogue alchemist die again the next session). Dying seems to happen a lot.
We recently had a discussion to house rule out most of the hero point options. I didn't like the idea of being able to add +8 to a saving throw and then do a surge on top of that. This could add up to a +16 to a save. Not to mention is slowed down the table watching them contemplate if they want to do it or not.. and I have to wait.. and wait. I am sure you guys know what I am talking about when a 3 round battle takes 90 minutes because of all the hem's and ha's.
So the issues they have is:
- Not enough gear
- Saving throw failures tend to cost the life of a player (it doesn't, but they only remember the times it happens)
- battles are too deadly
They are not complaining. They really are enjoying themselves, but they cannot understand my concerns that the AP is going to get too easy and they are going to get too powerful. We have also done some of the typical things, made mythic power attack like mythic deadly aim, things like that.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I would say that the lack of teamwork tactics is what is working mostly against your party, but also that they do not seem to have any reliable damage dealers. The sneak attacking multi-class character would need a flanking buddy to get in his damage and would be sub-par in the hit department, while the monk/ninja is... a monk/ninja, so same problem. Especially if they don't work together. I can't really talk about the summoner. The wizard should do fine, especially when tier six rolls in and he can augment his mythic fireballs.
In the case of my group, I got three strong melee characters and an archer ranger who takes care of the airborne threats, so they simply kill everything before it can act. The sorcerer is also coming into his own and the cleric provides support and more firepower via Destruction and other spells. Overwhelming offense always is the best concept in Pathfinder, coupled with a smart buff/debuff plan and a high initiative.
Given this, do you think I should be running the NPC out of the box?
I know I know my group best, but I'm struggling on this one. Especially when the NPC's are built so poorly. Honestly, I look at them and cringe.
For example, Xanthir has mostly crafting feats or how most of the creatures have toughness and mythic toughness instead of useful feats.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
That the monsters and NPC's often have poor feat selections has always been true for AP's, mythic or not. :p Now, since you have a lot of adventure before you until the end of the AP, my advice would be to try to run them from the book and if you notice that they are now too weak, to mix in some of Scorpions versions for the boss fights. I'm pretty sure that, as soon as tier three rolls in, you will notice a decided upgrade in the capability of your player characters, so keep an eye out for that.
I will run the Ivory Sanctum as written and see what happens.
I fear they will blow through everything, but maybe not.
I have already prepared altered stat blocks for all the creatures, so I can switch if I need to.
BTW, they are already 4th tier and nearing 5th.
Huh, then I guess my original advice stands. I guess having that one character designed to take hits and him actually working to be the one to stand in front of the big ugly monsters also helps the party in my campaign. ^^
|
I have a Paladin who is playing the "tank" role in my game, he rarely get hit unless it is touch or a reflex save, it does help a lot but I find once the bad guys go after the other players they seem to drop pretty quick.
We are just about to do the Mythic Chimera fight, and they haven't rested yet, they cleared all of south shore and the crypt, then were alerted that archers were gathering across the bridge, they rushed off and managed to take the bridge although it only has 2 pillars left.
My PCs are playing two characters each and I am finding it is taking a lot of time for simple combat, some combats are taking in excess of 10 rounds, I plan to use Scorpins stat blocks for the Chimera and others as I see fit. I also planned on removing some of the mook fights as needed and maybe just buffing relevant encounters.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hi Globetrotter,
From the information you have provided to us, it seems your party needs a healer. In my game my players get hit a lot, and the healing support from the cleric, paladin and inquisitor helps a lot. Even the sorceress can use some healing through UMD checks.
My advice is simple: tell your players they should think about some defensive options or maybe choosing a class that can heal. Also stop modifying the bad guys. Use them as written and see what happens. Don't worry about the future. If you need to adjust the next modules do it, but for now it seems it doesn't help your players.
I wouldn't drop the hero points if they have no healer. I haven't used them, but I heard they help characters survive tough encounters.
Consider yourself lucky if you don't need to modify all the encounters for your group :-)
Obviously you care about your players and the game, so I'm confident you will find a solution.
As usual with Paizo AP's, "going after the other players" is not as easy as it sounds, since many of the fights happen in small areas. I'm enlarging many of of the fields of engagement already, but since the higher CR demons mostly happen to be large or huge in size, their own size hampers their movement. Since they often get killed as soon as they get in reach of their opponents, losing a round teleporting around the battlefield is not so viable an option as it may sound.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
These are great suggestions, and I thank you guys for taking my concerns seriously instead if the usual round of insults that frequent the boards.
I will play the next session as written and see how they do. I might modify Jerribeth since she is supposed to be an iconic baddie, but I think my players are prepared to strike a deal with her to end Xanthir.
We play this Saturdaya and I'll report the session. I will also try to find a good healing option until they find a cleric.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It certainly helps that the dislike of mythic adventures is pretty high on this board and the problems are so universally recognized as existing, so the usual apologists have basically already given up defending it. :p