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The bard has made sure to optimize his initiative. It's hard to spread out foes when they are constricted within dungeon rooms. I've done the Thundercall alerting enemies thing. This hasn't hurt them yet. Tons of ghouls were no problem and tons of low-level Skinsaw mooks were no problem. Tons of goblins did give them some issues in the first chapter, though. Ranged is a problem for them. In the rare instances that this has happened, the Barb/Rogue was able to take on the proper role of a barbarian (taking damage) while using the barbarian speed to close with the squishy archer enemies. Most of these options aren't readily available in a lot of the parts of the next chapter, though. The fort could be fun, fast, furious, and over within a few minutes. AbyssLord
Where does Thundercaller come from? Varisia, Birthplace of Legends Which is very appropriate for this AP. I allowed the group to be PFS legal. This archetype is broken, IMHO. Allowing a seventh level caster 20+ uses of a spell daily that is the equivalent of a second level divine spell is broken. It needs fixing. Especially since SR doesn't work because it's defined as (Su). AbyssLord
And I hesitate about splashing undeath everywhere because part of the psychology of this next chapter is that the ogres are sentient and thinking and utterly vile and horrible beings that are doing the worst things imaginable. Making them undead will ruin the flavor of the chapter, because they are no longer "thinking" beings. AbyssLord
Minor spoilers ahead, but this is the ROTRL thread. I just finished Chapter 2 with my group. The initial runs in Burnt Offerings were a challenge, but the PCs seem to have found their niches, and this AP is having a hard time challenging them now. The Xanesha fight was very one-sided. The party just can't seem to fail saving throws at all. What I have: Aasimar Bard (Thundercaller) 7
Fights normally go like this: Bard thundercalls forcing most enemies to take sonic damage and save to avoid being stunned. Magus and Barb/Rogue use spell combat and sometimes massive sneak attack damage to mow down the mooks that aren't stunned. Pally/Oracle provides support, and in the event that anyone does take damage, slowly soaks it up over the next few rounds to keep anyone from falling down. Some fungi and undead have advantages versus the thundercall approach due to immunities to sonic damage and inability to be stunned, but the next chapter really worries me. Ogres are going to be falling all over the place. It's going to be a bloodbath. Without doing a major overhaul of the chapter and without doing something that specifically singles out the Thundercall ability to nerf the one PC, what are my options for making this a challenge for them again? Do I need to resort to giving a whole bunch of the ogres the zombie template along with one or two doses of advanced template? AbyssLord
Are there any guidelines for deciding the level of a spell that combines the utility of multiple other spells (if some of variables are nerfed)? One of my players is asking me about something like this: A spell with three potential uses: 1. Creates a blue flame that can be hurled as a ranged touch attack for one point of damage.
My argument is that no matter how much you nerf the utilities, it prevents you from having to make choices with 0-Level spells that you would otherwise have to make, which bumps the power level up to at least a 1st level spell. AbyssLord
Name of PC: Rune
Story: The player characters are rolling through Thistletop between hiring a boat to sneak them up next to it, Spider Climb to crawl up top and onto the roof of the complex, sneaking down into the courtyard, freeing the evil horse after taking out the Goblin Dogs, and basically finding the treasure cache. They find both back-way stairs straight down to Nualia after knocking out her Wizard cohort without much of a fight. Then they take Nualia down. Afterwards, they decide to get brave and open up the crypt with the shadows inside because the Alchemist has taken his cognatogen, they have Bull's Strength and a few other buffs on them and they just can't stand the thought of wasting all of these buffs. Barbarian and Druid both whiff their first attacks through the Shadows realizing they can't do damage. Magus arcanes up. Alchemist can do some damage with bombs due to it being a Supernatural ability. Barbarian runs back to gather Nualia's sword hoping it is magic. Unfortunately for the Alchemist, he ends up furthest into the room without much room to be mobile. The cognatogen also drops his Strength score overall. Three shadow hits, and Rune is down. Magus goes from 22 Strength down to 7 after the Bull's Strength wears off and he is out of the room. Druid had split after being able to do minimal damage. Barbarian is back on time to see Magus barely limp out of the room very weakened. Next session: finding their way out of the place with no boat waiting to take them away from the place and no Spider's Climb to get down. New PC may show up as one of Nualia's prior retainers that really didn't care too much for Nualia anyway.
Just kicked it off last night. Human Rogue (will be going Mad Dog Barbarian to provide flank buddy)
Two Chaotic Goods and two Neutral Goods in the party and they mesh rather well with one another. They've done well so far. AbyssLord
Tonight was the first session of our RotRL campaign. Events:
Party meandered around town for a while making sure there was no more action to be had while also accepting healing from Father Zantus. They took Aldern Foxglove's invitation to meet him at the Rusty Dragon. At this point, Sheriff Belor Hemlock invited the new heroes to escort him to the desecrated vault. They complied. They took down the skeletons, discovered the robes (and what the robes were), as well as finding that Father Tobyn's body was missing. Here's where it went off the rails. The Druid has a very high Survival check and he also has tracking. He began tracking Tsuto's steps out of the graveyard. The party had an incredible string of 26+ tracking result rolls in a row. No random encounters. It's horrendous how close Thistletop is to Sandpoint since it took very few tracking rolls to get them there. They tracked Tsuto all the way to the doorstep of Thistletop. The Dragonfire Adept is also a modified Skinchanger (weredragon-kin (using werebat-kin as a template of sorts)) with the ability to shapechange into a tiny flying dragon form. He scouted out most of the outside of Thistletop and didn't find too much dangerous stuff there within his field of vision from his aerial recon position. Mostly a lot of goblins. I gave them level two to start the next session. They're technically supposed to be level three pretty close to the start of Thistletop according to the advancement track. The story is derailed. Nualia may never get the chance to sacrifice Father Tobyn to grow her demonic arm. Tsuto won't get the chance to return to Sandpoint to kidnap his sister. The player characters will likely not learn about what is below Sandpoint. Most importantly of all, I think the PCs are walking into a TPK on Thistletop. Any ideas for fixing this? Nualia can be weakened a bit, since she hasn't received any of the blessing from Lamashtu due to the lack of sacrificing Father Tobyn. Not sure what else I can reasonably do to power it down a bit while also getting the storyline back on track so that the player characters visit the Glassworks in Sandpoint. AbyssLord
I never saw this during voting, and sad to say, I can make a guess why: it's extremely likely you got disqualified. Unfortunately, you latched on to one of I think two monsters Paizo has published in the AP bestiaries that aren't actually Paizo-owned. (The Deep Crow, I believe, being the other one.) Paizo... No joy. Would anyone mind ripping it apart for me and telling me where there is room for improvement? AbyssLord
According to this, they're prior-existing outsiders the summoner forms a bond with and can reshape the body of. Really? You made me look like Jigglypuff? How original. I want to be stabbed with a dagger so I can go back to my original form on my home plane. Now.
I guess that depends on the opinion of what the eidolon really represents then? I can see it a little bit both ways. You created it, so it exists because you made it? I don't know about that. The description says that the summoner can summon to his side a powerful outsider...the eidolon forms a link with the summoner. This seems to indicate to me that the eidolon existed before this link was made, so that it is actually an outsider that is magically tied to the summoner once summoned for the first time. If it wasn't for the summoner, it wouldn't have to be pulled across the planes of existence to the prime. You would hope that someone that has made such a link with an outsider wouldn't just stab it with a dagger for the sake of "the player's" metagame convenience...unless that player's player character in the game was evil. I never thought about conjurers and the moral implications of summoning creatures to grisly dooms. I think the only saving grace there is that you summon them temporarily as allies, and what happens to them in the brief amount of time that they're around is subject to chance. Having a dying symbiotic outsider ally and then striking them down when you are fully capable of healing them seems different in my mind. AbyssLord
"When summoned this way, the eidolon hit points are unchanged from the last time it was summoned." If it wasn't slain, then it doesn't come back with the 50% hit points. If dismissed with negative hit points, then it comes back unconscious with negative hit points. "...if the eidolon was slain, in which case it returns with half its normal hit points." So, basically, if the party doesn't have divine magic to heal the eidolon, and the summoner has access to be able to Rejuvenate, but the summoner instead chooses to coup de grace the eidolon, this is a perfectly non-evil act? Not sure where I read that cure spells do not work on eidolons, but that helps somewhat in the rare instance that the party does have a divine caster or a happy stick. There might be some confusion out there with the synthesist archetype. Maybe it's an interpretation of "does not heal naturally" to mean that it can only heal through the spells cast upon it by its summoner. AbyssLord
I don't think I survived past the cull. I must have done something seriously wrong. I don't know if it's flavor, that it is probably best for only one class, that I neutered down a powerful item by limited uses, pricing, partaking of some other taboo, that I over-engineered the name (Coeurl being a creature in the back of the Legacy of Fire AP, domino meaning the mask and not the game piece), etc. Coeurl Domino
Construction
This has come up a couple of times in my games with summoners. The eidolon goes to negative hit points and is unconscious. It cannot heal naturally and cure spells do not heal it. The summoner is either out of spells to heal it for the day or really needs access to his other summon abilities or he/she does not want to "waste" spells to heal it and would rather have it come back half-healed the next day. As a GM, should this be declared an evil act? For a Chaotic Neutral character, would this be considered acceptable behavior or should it steer the player character toward an evil alignment? AbyssLord
This sounds a lot like the campaigns that my teenage/early twenties children play. Young gamers? Maybe the werewolf aasimar has a super Bugs Bunny ability to dig trenches? I would be careful just blindly throwing grappling hooks out to see what the fishing line pulls back in. This reminds me of an incident where we were playing with a group that consisted of two paladins and one rogue. While the paladins were busy with evening prayers at the temple the rogue decided to question one of the city guards by using his grappling hook to pull the guard down from the city wall. The result was a loud ka-chunk sound followed by a splat on the cobblestones when he crit'd on the dice rolls. Hilarity ensued when the paladins returned from prayer time and the rogue had to explain that the group needed to leave town quickly without giving away that he just murdered one of the town guards. You may be going through some growing pains in the group where some of the players are just there to hang out and goof off while others are there to play a serious game. I'm seeing an aasimar werewolf, a dhampir, and a batman. There is a party size of 7. That's pretty big. Maybe the guy on the iPad is slightly bored with the fact that it takes an hour to perform one round of game-play before it gets back to his/her turn. Maybe he has a girlfriend on the other end that is much more interesting than anything that is going on in the game? Maybe the GM needs to institute my rule that there will be "no electronic distractions at the gaming table." My 22-year-old and 19-year-old son played in games that sounded like this. It always reminded me of this: http://www.kraproom.com/pacman/aod/gallery/d/3451-1/GURPS.jpg Maybe splitting the group into two groups so that those that want to play a different play-style can enjoy it more? If everyone getting together really is the goal, then maybe you'll just have to find ways to enjoy being social despite the in-game problems. I eventually caved to some of the tastes of the younger generation, but I still use the "Acceptance" rules presented in the Bestiary of Krynn Revised (by Margaret Weiss Productions) in traditional settings, but also have some non-traditional settings that we play in where the character races are acceptable. What should you do? That depends. You probably need to have a conversation with your Game Master about what is fun for you and what is detracting from your fun. I wouldn't lobby for removing anyone from the game, but having some GM ground-rules and eventually a GM-led group conversation about the goal (everyone having fun) would be good. Having this sort of open and honest conversation might tell you what your next steps should be.
Your joking...right?!? I don't have to go through my consumables when playing AT TIER. Oh yeah, maybe a charge of a wand of infernal healing or two if there isn't a healer around. If I am playing down...yeah.... I'd be sad if I needed to use any consumables. Now the 1-2 MAY need consumables for their end...but with the system you proposed, why would the 5th level use THEIR consumables on them to keep them alive when all that does it sap their power for future games? Future games where they may actually need said consumables to keep THEMSELVES alive. Sigh. The current system rewards players of higher levels when they bully players of lower levels to accept higher sub-tier adventures that they most likely face a higher danger of not surviving. That rewards selfishness, so you end up perpetuating an organized play environment of selfish players. The alternative that I presented seems to me to support players that support one another through the game to succeed cooperatively. As the higher level PC, you give of your resources if you play with lower level players for the good of the party and success at the scenario. There's no way around it. Players of higher level characters will always bully the players with lower level characters as long as the system supports players of widely diverse character levels. Perhaps, you're right. Selfish players make organized play untenable.
Offering to fix this by completely negating any incentive for playing a healer does ruin the fun for a person that really enjoys playing that beneficent, helpful role. Players often show by example that "fighting to the death" is the only option they consider for overcoming encounters. Not so.
Higher level PCs playing with lower level characters necessitates that the higher level PCs shoulder more of the danger and burden during the scenario in order for success to occur. If you are still applying the logic of "play up/play down" then what you say would be the case, but if there is no option to create a cakewalk scenario for a high level group of PCs, then the danger level will on the balance be appropriate for the group. For those rare groups of players that cheat with their GM to know the contents of the scenario and engineer groups of player characters to allow the high level PC to get his share of the wealth easily (which he would get no matter what scenario he/she played within, so it's not really an unbalanced amount of wealth for the character at the level the character is playing at), there's nothing that can be done about that level of conspiring (even under the current system). You don't think that a fifth level player would have to blow at least some of his/her consumables in order to get the first or second level PCs through the lower sub-tier scenario? Do you really think that three or more other players/GMs would always play second fiddle to a higher level PC just to give him an easy pass? Even if they passed the right to play the fifth level PC around the table, that's an awful lot of gaming and cheating to get the levels that they all want out of it (and I'm saying levels, since all characters of that level would have the same wealth). And one of the precepts of this style of play is that you have to trust the community to be honest until they show that they are not trustworthy. I'm sure there are fake scenarios played all of the time just to boost character levels, but there's not really anything that can be done about that level of player cheating. They're missing out on playing the game for a cheap thrill.
To get back on track, I believe that one of the basic assumptions of the game that is broken with playing up and playing down along with treasure based on scenario sub-tier is risk versus reward. Higher level characters take on more risk and should be rewarded commensurate to their level of risk. The oldest reference to dividing treasure by character level that I could find was page 109 of the 2nd edition PHB (maybe there were references in 1st edition, but I wasn't able to find any). This is a concept that has been around for quite a while, so I've just launched it up as a possible solution. I don't find it to be a bad idea unless someone can think of a reason that it won't work. Perhaps the only reason that I can think of would be that certain power-gamers wouldn't like the idea that they could no longer power-creep their characters up to unbalanced levels without the option of playing up all of the time. Also, if this can find some sort of happy resolution, then perhaps the campaign leadership could concentrate on the other areas of the rules that break the power-level balance of the game (banning overpowered build and item options).
I don't know how the role balance is in other regions, but in my region, there is a definite lack of divine casters (and to a lesser extent, skills monkeys). One of the reasons for this is that every group has access to healing wands. And the same can be said of the tank, the face, the damage-dealer, the trap guy, the crowd-controller, and the arcanist. Offering to fix this by completely negating any incentive for playing a healer does ruin the fun for a person that really enjoys playing that beneficent, helpful role. No other role is so completely obviated by access to magic items at low levels. Working around these gaps can be part of the fun and challenge of playing in organized play, but IMHO I don't believe that forcing players to self-correct for potential party deficiencies is healthy for the state of the game as a whole.
Considering that high level is 10th or 11th level in PFS, I have played in and GM'd quite a few high level games in the past 25 years. Using 16 pp is another escape from having a divine caster in the party, so you re-emphasize my argument about the lack of incentive to play a divine caster. You do bring up an important reason that the meat grinder at lower levels means that divine casters are more survivable to higher levels due to the high Will saves. And yes, I've seen a Destruction Domain cleric of Nethys do some nasty things with Disintegrate (among other high level divine PC use of spells like Harm...though mostly beyond reach for PFS). With Channels and spontaneous casting as options, being a dedicated heal bot isn't completely necessary as a divine caster. They're side-thoughts, but they're completely unnecessary ones with consumables and prestige methods of covering for it. Especially at low levels in PFS, though, there is little incentive to play through to get to the higher levels where a divine caster is really appreciated. Wouldn't "Breath of Life" be considered a dedication to being a "heal bot" considering the strict limitation on timing (hard to get it done from a consumable (scroll))? And I'm not saying at all that there should be no healing wands. What I am saying is that something is not right when it gets to the point where almost every character that cannot even use a Wand of CLW considers buying one so that they can hand it off to someone that can use it in future sessions. The drawback for doing something you really like to do in a hobby that you really enjoy usually means that you get paid peanuts, so yeah, probably no "big bucks" involved there. Just a lot of dedication to craft.
There are too many groups running around at low levels with a Wand of Cure Light Wounds that basically gives them a never-ending supply of healing during a low-level scenario. I don't know how the role balance is in other regions, but in my region, there is a definite lack of divine casters (and to a lesser extent, skills monkeys). One of the reasons for this is that every group has access to healing wands. Why would a party want a fully devoted divine caster if they can replace that entire role with the purchase of a 750 gp wand and one person who has either Use Magic Device or just enough spell list access to use it? It's also a reason that Kyra makes a lot of appearances as a pre-gen. I'm also a player that feels strongly that this is a social game about cooperating with fellow party members (and their players) to succeed at the task at hand. If each player character is built to be completely self-sufficient, then why do we as players even bother to play the game with other people? We could just go do something else by ourselves like play a one-player video game and get that same self-centered experience. This is a social game and gamers should help one another out in and out of the game. Friendships are made at gaming tables. And I would never consider it a "dick move" to be depended upon to help out my fellow Pathfinder Society teammates when I can. As for campaign leadership, I believe that they are reasonable people that respect the rights of anyone and everyone to express their opinions as they see fit. I'm one voice among many, and while I may not completely reflect what has been gone before me, sometimes a fresh perspective is what is needed to resolve past problems.
Once again, does not deal with the consumable use issues. If you get the gold regardless, then playing down will mean you will have more treasure through less consumables use and so mechanically, your promoting playing down and cakewalking sessions. The way you would fix this is to adjust the gold based on tier played vs level and like I said, that gets to complicate things when people seem to have issue with just the plain old normal and slow track...much less the addition of a "fast" track when playing up. If that is an issue, a comparative adjustment is just out of the question.Has anyone suggested that instead of tracking to the scenario level that you might instead gain a flat gp total based on the level of the player's character? That levels the playing field and neither incentivizes nor disincentivizes playing up or down. People get bored with things that are too easy, so I really don't see where folks would consistently play down just to survive if it isn't fun. Each xp gained could get you 1/3 of the way between one level and the next on the wbl table in gp totals. Then they could provide incentive to play up by offering access to better purchase lists instead of an unbalanced gp reward. It's not like you would expect more Xp from playing up so why should wealth be any different?Well said good sir! This would not only balance out WBL, but also give an incentive to players who take the risk of playing up with access to better equipment. Also, since it works both ways, high tier players don't suffer any serious detriment, as they will already have the needed FP/PP needed to get most items (save for example unique items made specifically for a scenario, that in of itself could be another potential benefit of playing up). Consumables proliferation needs to be fought. Flat wealth by level would do this. There are too many groups running around at low levels with a Wand of Cure Light Wounds that basically gives them a never-ending supply of healing during a low-level scenario. If a character knows that they will only ever get 108,000 gp by the time they reach 12th level, their perspective on things will shift toward saving gold for the non-consumables that they really need for survival in high-level play. I would argue that "playing up" or "playing down" could be a thing of the past. The tier 1-5 adventures could be split up into sub-tier 1-3 and 4-5 play, tier 3-7 at sub-tiers 3-5 and 6-7, tier 5-9 at sub-tier 5-7 and 8-9, tier 7-11 at sub-tiers 7-9 and 10-11. Basically, the first sub-tier would be bumped up one level to the average half-way point of the scenario's spread. The average party level would automatically calculate the sub-tier that you are forced to play. Having more than four players would automatically add one to average party level. Here are some examples with a tier 1-5 scenario. One fifth level and three second level (5+2+2+2=11, 11/4=2.75, 2.75<3.0, play at sub-tier 1-3). One fifth level and four second level (5+2+2+2+2=13, 13/5=2.6, 2.6+1=3.6, 3.6>3.0, play at sub-tier 4-5). Four third level (3+3+3+3=12, 12/4=3, 3 = 3.0, play at sub-tier 1-3). And if that higher level character is stocked up on consumables, then they should be allowed to keep them since consumables have less value in a game with a finite gold piece cap over the course of 12 levels of play especially as they level to higher levels. Potions of cure light wounds do not do a whole lot of good for 10th level characters.
Hi Majuba. Ardurak... Ten-minute work-out: Lvl Full Half Total At Beginning of Next Level
It seems easy and fair to me...just retro all of the prior scenarios to ignore the wealth figures and use the chart that can be printed on an index card.
James Sutter i believe wrote the short stories about Eando Kline, also was the author of City of Strangers and Distant Worlds, both incredibly excellent books, so i'm not sure what the problem is. i find his break down a bit harsh myself, i rather like Asylum Stone myselfI am curious, can you give me examples of that? It's not bad if that's what you're looking for, but like I said before just a matter of taste and opinion. It is well-written if you are ignorant of some of the indulgences taken. Any harshness was coincidental due to my personal feelings. I might even have fun playing in this module, it's just not something I would like to run for my group especially considering the fact that most of my players are in the 50+ year-old category. Luddites.
Has anyone suggested that instead of tracking to the scenario level that you might instead gain a flat gp total based on the level of the player's character? That levels the playing field and neither incentivizes nor disincentivizes playing up or down. People get bored with things that are too easy, so I really don't see where folks would consistently play down just to survive if it isn't fun. Each xp gained could get you 1/3 of the way between one level and the next on the wbl table in gp totals. Then they could provide incentive to play up by offering access to better purchase lists instead of an unbalanced gp reward. It's not like you would expect more Xp from playing up so why should wealth be any different?
Several issues with this module: 1. I'm old school and I don't like mixing technology with my fantasy. Also not a big fan of some later stuff in the AP, but I can remake most of that without having to swap the entire module out. That's also why I wasn't a fan of Spelljammer, I'm not a fan of guns in my fantasy, and I wasn't a fan of Eberron (call them golems if you want, but they're really fantasy robots...same for Gearforged). Not a fan of Distant Worlds. 2. Some of it is just gross for the shock/novelty value of it. 3. It feels disjointed. There are whole lead-up portions of it that seem so far distant from the rest of it that the entirety of it doesn't seem to mesh. 4. Not organized well, since there are some things too close to one another in the adventure to be in close proximity with one another. 5. It's weird just to be weird. 6. The whole thing feels like an advertisement for the author's other works more so than most other modules that I've read/ran. It breaks versimilitude to be advertised at. 7. I'm just not that crazy about the BBEG. I never did like things that too closely resembled real-life myths or concepts. I know that there is very little original inspiration, but this one is nearly straight out of folklore.
Each person is entitled to their tastes and opinions, and it just happens that I don't enjoy the contents of this module. I would like to replace it whole-cloth with the 3.5 hardback re-write of Expedition to The Demonweb Pits. Thematically, it makes about as much sense for the shard to end up in the claws of an aspect of a non-Golarion deity as it does the guy on the front cover of that module. The thing I'm primarily interested in discussing is power creep. Has anyone gone back and ran any of the later 3.5 materials as Pathfinder modules and what kind of tinkering with power level was required? Would it be very similar to my experiences with running the Legacy of Fire AP? My group will consist of 5 or 6 players on any given game night, so they're already ahead of the curve due to numbers alone. The hardback book is written for 9th to 12th level 3.5 edition characters. At the end of Curse of The Lady's Light, they should be somewhere around 8th level. Considering their numbers, and considering the slight power differences in the two modules, would I necessarily have to re-stat everything in Expedition to The Demonweb Pits for Pathfinder (except for the obvious things like Spot/Search/Perception and Tumble/Acrobatics and figuring out CMB/CMD)?
Other small update. I won't be able to use the teamwork feat with the mount until I get the wolf Animal Companion up one in intelligence, so the Alternate Advancement for this wolf is not an option (top-right on Core Rules, page 53). I'm still not sure of the legality of the "Readied Attack Action" with the use of "Other Trick," but the way I see it is that if you can teach a dog to balance a hot dog on its nose and tell it to "wait for it...wait for it...wait for it...NOW!" it's the equivalent of the same for when an enemy is approaching (especially since it already has the Guard Trick which is similar).
I would like to see a Darklands AP that actually spends most of its time in the Darklands. Something reminiscent of Descent Into the Depths of the Earth/Shrine of the Kuo-Toa/Vault of the Drow/Queen of the Demon Web Pits, but done well Pathfinder-style with a good story arc. That would be quite awesome. It doesn't even need to have dark elves in it. It's more about the underground world and the lack of access to familiar settlement resources for extended periods. I also know that it's not likely, but it would be nice to have an introduction to Psionics at some point. Even teaming with Dreamscarred Press to pull it off would be cool (even if it's not one of the main-line Pathfinder APs set in Golarion). I think that it's unlikely that they would do something in Hold of Belkzen right after Wrath of the Righteous, but putting orcs back to the forefront for a little while would be a nice change. Osirion sounds cool. I had a lot of fun running LoF, and I wouldn't mind doing something similar again. I'm also intrigued by some of the lesser-traveled areas of the map like Thuvia and Druma. I'm ready for something not quite so experimental, though, so I'm not ready for a Numeria campaign just yet. World-hopping and then Mythic should not really be followed by something with the possibility of alien technologies and robots in it. The same goes for the Mana Wastes. Of course, I'm not a big fan of guns at all, so I don't mind if they never go to these places. Was also not a big fan of Spelljammer, so the other planets do not interest me much either.
I updated the Wolf Animal Companion. Same link. I swapped out Lightning Reflexes for Weapon Finesse to get another +1 on the bite attack. I traded out the Perform trick for an "Other" trick specified as Ready Attack Action to make it a free action with a lower DC with Animal Companion Link (hopefully the GM will buy off on that since I burned a Trick to do it). The final thing I did was trade out the Skill Point for Stealth for one in Acrobatics for more battlefield options to move around things without getting smashed upside the head quite as often.
I found out on one of the rules threads that there is a fine line in the definition between movement and move action. Movement requires actual movement, as in moving from one square to the next. A move action doesn't necessarily require any actual movement. The Attack of Opportunity rules can be summarized that a 5-foot step is a free action as long as there has been no other "movement" during the turn. So, standing up from prone, while it is a move action, it is not movement. Therefore, I wouldn't get the second attack of opportunity during that 5-foot free step. I would still get 2x 1d10 plus Str with a two-handed weapon (1.5x Str mod), though. The halfling tops out at character creation with a max Strength of 16. Best I can pull off is 2x 1d10+4 and the wolf's 1d6+1 per round at first level. I'm thinking about gearing this toward a Lunge build. The wolf won't get it until the Cavalier is level 9, but it might still be fun. I'm still working on the equipment, because there is a lot to consider.
Kinda wondering if it loses some of its level-dependent benefits because the person that it derived these from is no longer alive? Maybe it returns back to being a normal animal? Maybe there's an island out there full of ex-Animal Companions. I find it unusual that there are no ex-Animal Companion rules.
Name: Elmtor Untdaro
Adventure: Curse of the Lady's Light
They would've had a chance to escape if, after several rounds into combat, the Bard wouldn't have cast Enlarge Person on the damage-dealer of the party. This effectively kept the Large size enemy and the Large size ally locked in the room with the door that was too small for either of them to get out. There was brief talk of abandoning the damage-dealer to its fate, but they knew they'd all be dead later if they did. To top it off, they're now halfway through the dungeon with 1/3 of their normal power and very little healing capacity 50 miles from civilization. I played the optional Web Enhancement for The Lady's Light, and the Bard and Goblin Barbarian (through thieving and greed on the boat on the way down) made it so that the only way back to Magnimar is a long hike on foot through the Mushfens, since there will be no return boat to take them back north and they have no horses. They're close to some level-ups. Maybe the only hope is if one of the characters finds some religion.
With combat reflexes, I could do the second AoO since Standing up from Prone is a move action, which would mean that the enemy's subsequent close is not a true five-foot step (and thus doesn't give him immunity from AoO).Doesn't work that way. You can't do a 5-ft step if you move any distance, but you can take a 5-ft step if you take a move action that does not involve moving any squares (such as standing from prone). Good clarification. I need to armor up the wolf then so that he can take 10 foot moves and risk AoO of his own from prone characters.
I'm trying to figure out if all of this is RAW. I decided to go with a Lucerne Hammer, since the double damage on the small lance is only when charging, and the Lucerne Hammer gives me both bludgeoning and piercing depending on what the situation calls for. My secondary weapon is a Dogslicer (just because it's flavorful to have a halfling that doesn't think that wolves qualify as normal dogs). The Ride check for guiding with knees is not so bad to keep me from using a two-handed reach weapon (DC 5). I would prefer to do this. 1. Move and pull up short on edge of main party
Next turn 6. Wolf uses 5-foot step back.
Wash, rinse, repeat. With combat reflexes, I could do the second AoO since Standing up from Prone is a move action, which would mean that the enemy's subsequent close is not a true five-foot step (and thus doesn't give him immunity from AoO). Instead of 2d6 on a mad charge with a lance which could put me out of the range of party aid (Channel, buffs, etc), I would generally get two (and if all goes well three) attacks at 1d10 plus Str mod (even as a small character). Since it's a two-handed weapon, 3d10+12 at first level plus wolf bite of 1d6+1. If the enemy gets smart and slows down their tactics, I don't mind, since that means I'm pinning down enemy resources for a time advantage during the combat while my companions mop up the rest of the mob.
I'm trying to figure out if all of this is RAW. I decided to go with a Lucerne Hammer, since the double damage on the small lance is only when charging, and the Lucerne Hammer gives me both bludgeoning and piercing depending on what the situation calls for. The Ride check for guiding with knees is not so bad to keep me from using a two-handed reach weapon (DC 5). I would prefer to do this. 1. Move and pull up short
Next turn 6. Wolf uses 5-foot step back.
Wash, rinse, repeat. With combat reflexes, I could do the second AoO since Standing up from Prone is a move action, which would mean that the enemy's subsequent close is not a five-foot step (and thus doesn't give him immunity from AoO). Instead of 2d6 on a mad charge which could put me out of the range of party aid (Channel, buffs, etc), I would generally get two (and usually three) attacks at 1d10 plus Str mod (even as a small character).
My mind was focused on fire this morning apparently. I meant something more like DR 20/bludgeoning or DR 20/-. I think I found the answer anyway. "Damage reduction does not negate touch attacks, energy damage
That it must be a weapon or natural attack along with a blurb about DR/-, both are clarified in the Universal Monster Rules. "The creature takes normal damage from energy attacks (even nonmagical ones), spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities." "When a damage reduction entry has a dash (—) after the slash, no weapon negates the damage reduction."
I'm wondering how this would interact if the PC scored a critical on such creature. Are the Flaming Burst and Frost abilities considered magic/spells which then completely bypass DR? If not, do you total the damage up and just take the 20 points of damage off from the non-fire-based damage? Or do you count the sword's damage and each of its individual abilities as separate damage pools and the only pools of damage that are reduced is the sword's damage and the Frost damage?
Corrosive Touch in a game with Shocking Grasp? I still think that there are options in the game that are only good if you are not overly concerned with optimization.
Mythic will appeal to the optimizer crowds, but there are plenty that will leave it on the shelf unbought.What does Mythic have to do with optimizing? It isn't like the players get to choose when and if they gain their mythic tiers. If GMs take this as the queue to ratchet up power creep, then it does become the new optimal standard. If the players demand it in order to have fun, then GMs will have hard decisions to make. |
