Playing up the Fey throughout RoW?

[Rycaut]

I'm about to run Reign of Winter again (my first group didn't finish due to players and myself all moving away) and this time I'm considering really emphasizing the fey as a linking and reoccurring enemy (and potentially at times ally) of the party. Posssibly changing some elements of later books when I do so (especially books 3 & 4). I'll be running for a group of 4 players and I hope to keep a fairly brisk pace (going to not let the group get too bogged down in repeated long combats and I'll probably adjust xp to level at the appropriate times without running lots of extra encounters. That said fandoms encounters in the past have led to some of the best moments of past campaigns.

I think of this AP as Russian fairytales meets Doctor Who. But also find the third and fourth books the least linked and thematic so plan to make the most adjustments there. (I also found in the past that book one could go very very long so will try to keep it moving without getting too literally bogged down.

(I'm also debating whether to rebuild certain characters to use Occult adventures rules and perhaps mythic)

[Piccolo]

Since you have run this campaign before, I was wondering what you would think of the PC group in my campaign...

Aasimar angelkin paladin with a bastard sword and shield

goblin knife master archetype unchained rogue

custom race boreal bloodline sorcerer

custom elf ranger archery style

aasimar plumekith restorer archetype druid

All of them have cold resistance 5 through race, class, or magic item.

Do you have any advice for me when running this campaign?

[Rycaut]

depending on the stats you have allowed be prepared that they may be a bit more powerful than the module assumes in many places - generally I think that should be fine - challenge them where appropriate but let them have their moments of glory.

keep in mind as well that the module is going to have some serious challenges for a paladin from a role playing perspective - the overall theme is to save a generally evil god (or near god) because she is, marginally, better than her evil progeny (who wants to literally freeze the world) - but there likely is some serious tension for a paladin

in the later books the group may also have some challenges getting magic that is appropriate for them (there are some built-in ways they can do some small degree of shopping in the later books) but they don't have any obvious crafter types (I guess the sorcerer might be able to do some limited crafting)

healing from time to time may also be a challenge

but overall sounds like a pretty optimized group capable of close and ranged damage in a range of ways - and between the paladin and the sorcerer probably have some decent social skills, the rogue may be useful as well (don't recall if that archetype trades away trapfinding or not)

[Piccolo]

Well, the player of said Paladin just wants to kill things and get cool stuff, so I doubt he will have a problem. I'll talk about it with him.

The Druid and the Sorcerer plan on taking item crafting feats (Craft Wondrous, Craft Magic Arms and Armor).

The Rogue does trade away trapfinding, but she's got a nice Wisdom score and the Trap Spotter rogue talent so I figure she should do okay.

Right now they don't have much for ranged damage since the Sorcerer just has Burning Hands at 2nd level and the Ranger doesn't have Precise Shot yet.

Yeah, healing should be a little more difficult since no Cleric, but the Druid can spontaneously cast Cure spells so I figure they've got a decent shot, plus the Paladin can lay on hands. Also, I poked them into giving a CLW wand to the Sorcerer with his Use Magic Device skill.

[Serum]

Piccolo wrote:

Yeah, healing should be a little more difficult since no Cleric, but the Druid can spontaneously cast Cure spells so I figure they've got a decent shot, plus the Paladin can lay on hands. Also, I poked them into giving a CLW wand to the Sorcerer with his Use Magic Device skill.

Is this just so the sorcerer can feel like he's contributing to healing in combat? The Paladin, Ranger, and Druid can all use it at level 1 without needing Use Magic Device, and wands are primarily useful outside of combat.

[Serum]

Rycaut wrote:

I'm about to run Reign of Winter again (my first group didn't finish due to players and myself all moving away) and this time I'm considering really emphasizing the fey as a linking and reoccurring enemy (and potentially at times ally) of the party. Posssibly changing some elements of later books when I do so (especially books 3 & 4).

(I'm also debating whether to rebuild certain characters to use Occult adventures rules and perhaps mythic)

I was considering setting book 4 in the First World. Perhaps one of the Green Mother's lieutenants has decided to expand her master's territories into the Thrice-Tenth kingdom, and your PCs have to push them back from the palace that Baba Yaga's minions built. Then they can push into the Green Mother's domain to kill the lieutenant. In this way you can still use the overall structure of book 4, while re-skinning its characters. I am no longer leaning in this direction myself, as I was unable to find a satisfactory motivation for the PCs to go there, but if you decide to go in this direction, I'd love to hear how you meshed it into the story.

Alternatively, you could place a First World breach near the battle-lines on Triaxus, to create a larger presence on the planet.

Personally, I like the setting of Book 3, but you may want to fiddle with the NPCs and their environments to make Artrosa more alive.

[Piccolo]

Serum wrote:

Piccolo wrote:

Also, I poked them into giving a CLW wand to the Sorcerer with his Use Magic Device skill.

Is this just so the sorcerer can feel like he's contributing to healing in combat? The Paladin, Ranger, and Druid can all use it at level 1 without needing Use Magic Device, and wands are primarily useful outside of combat.

Right now, the party is at 2nd level, and as such they need every source of healing they can get. The Druid only heals 1d8+2 and the Paladin 1d6, so having an additional source of healing at 1d8+1 sounds pretty damned good right about now. Also, the Ranger is a mite busy firing arrows/fighting, while the Sorcerer seems to run out of spells fast.

[Serum]

Thoroughly derailed conversation with Piccolo:

Piccolo wrote:

Serum wrote:

Piccolo wrote:

Also, I poked them into giving a CLW wand to the Sorcerer with his Use Magic Device skill.

Is this just so the sorcerer can feel like he's contributing to healing in combat? The Paladin, Ranger, and Druid can all use it at level 1 without needing Use Magic Device, and wands are primarily useful outside of combat.

Right now, the party is at 2nd level, and as such they need every source of healing they can get. The Druid only heals 1d8+2 and the Paladin 1d6, so having an additional source of healing at 1d8+1 sounds pretty damned good right about now. Also, the Ranger is a mite busy firing arrows/fighting, while the Sorcerer seems to run out of spells fast.

Are you saying that the druid and paladin and sorcerer need to spend the majority of their combat actions to heal in order to keep the party alive?

I am sorry if I caused a misunderstanding, but I mean that the paladin and druid (and ranger) can use the wand of cure light wounds without Use Magic Device, and therefore avoid the greater than 40% failure chance that the sorcerer has at this level (UMD DC 20 to use the wand, and the sorcerer likely only has a +9-12 bonus at this level).

[Piccolo]

Naw, just that spreading out the healing duties grants versatility. The Ranger can't really heal at this level. The Ranger is usually using his bow or sometimes his sword since he can't get that expensive bow he wants. Meanwhile, the Sorcerer saves his Burning Hands for cold creatures since he runs out of 1st level spells all too fast. Thus, we gave the happy stick to the sorcerer.

The combats are a little difficult for the party, since most of them are total newbies. The Druid, Sorcerer are veterans, the Ranger is a rookie, and the Paladin and Rogue are nearly totally inexperienced. Had to build the latter two PC's for them, unfortunately, as a result.

The sorcerer has a +11 UMD right now.

[Rycaut]

Serum wrote:

Rycaut wrote:

I'm about to run Reign of Winter again (my first group didn't finish due to players and myself all moving away) and this time I'm considering really emphasizing the fey as a linking and reoccurring enemy (and potentially at times ally) of the party. Posssibly changing some elements of later books when I do so (especially books 3 & 4).

(I'm also debating whether to rebuild certain characters to use Occult adventures rules and perhaps mythic)

I was considering setting book 4 in the First World. Perhaps one of the Green Mother's lieutenants has decided to expand her master's territories into the Thrice-Tenth kingdom, and your PCs have to push them back from the palace that Baba Yaga's minions built. Then they can push into the Green Mother's domain to kill the lieutenant. In this way you can still use the overall structure of book 4, while re-skinning its characters. I am no longer leaning in this direction myself, as I was unable to find a satisfactory motivation for the PCs to go there, but if you decide to go in this direction, I'd love to hear how you meshed it into the story.

Alternatively, you could place a First World breach near the battle-lines on Triaxus, to create a larger presence on the planet.

Personally, I like the setting of Book 3, but you may want to fiddle with the NPCs and their environments to make Artrosa more alive.

I'm going to think about this a lot. I have some time as the first couple of books can take a while but I like the idea of potentially reskinning aspects of the fourth book. I think I may look into this or into how to incorporate fey influences into the fourth book (which is a book I've done the least prep of so far)

Book five I'll probably run largely as is though I may add some things from the occult boo k(including possibly rebuilding the big bad - though I've seen many very different yet compelling approaches to doing so). I'm also going to try to focus on what my group enjoys - with a new group this could take the story in very different places depending on what they focus upon.