I'm running CotCT (converted to PF2e) and my group just finished Book 2. Looking ahead, I don't feel a History of Ashes will be a good fit for my group makeup, and I'm not really looking forward to running it myself (not really criticizing it as a chapter, just not the vibe I'm looking for).
I'm trying to make a list of key plot points that are furthered or introduced or resolved in History of Ashes before I look at modifying or replacing it, and so far I have the following:
1) some more Red Mantis involvement, intro of Cinnabar
2) Longacre building (Maiden and Mantis - will probably keep this)
3) exposition on pages 254-255 of Anniversary Edition
4) Song of Spirits and Infused Weapons&Armor/Soul buffs
I also seem to remember Sial showing up sometime in Book 4, but this may be from the original AP, and so far it seems he and Laori are just hanging out and plotting in Kaer Maga.
Anything that I'm missing? I'm thinking of replacing this with Night of the Frozen Shadows (converted to PF2e and up-leveled) which I've always liked but never had a chance to run.
Any advice appreciated - just want to make sure I'm not missing any major plot beats that would leave gaps or holes later.
My 5E group wiped in LMoP, and after a brief debate, they liked the sounds of the Shattered Star AP, but much prefer the 5E rules. So I'm going to try converting it, although I am worried about how much work this will be as it gets to the more complicated volumes.
Anyway, if anyone familiar with the 5E has time to take a look at and comment on my notes for the first part (up to the Natalya fight), I'd appreciate it.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gxfo-zIpxPxYGsplZR7R4NHSBcRQBLcV5uokzHZ k0jI/edit?usp=sharing
(Hopefully that works, haven't shared a Google Doc before...)
Also, I'd love to hear from anyone whose converted or run an AP using 5E rules - general opinions, things to watch for etc.
This is a bit of a "make sure I'm not being a dick" check...
My group for Shattered Star is very dysfunctional - first three chars were barbarian, sword and board fighter and zen archer. I rolled up a halfing archaeologist to try and fill some gaps, and we've been muddling along ok so far.
We're almost L6, and I talked to the DM about taking Leadership at L7. My idea is to get a cleric of Desna as an apprentice archaeologist, and 6 first level academics (alchemist, wizard, lore oracle etc) to serve as 'research assistants' back at my Heidmarch manor home base. They will basically save us half off on common 1st-level potions/scrolls and what not. As I level up I'm gonna turn away any additional followers, but we'll rule my 1st-level dudes can gain a level if I would normally receive a higher-level follower.
For my apprentice, I want him to accompany us, but basically hang back and stay out of combat. Perhaps cast an occasional buff spell on me. In between combats he will channel, which should save us a lot of $$$ on healing wands. I don't want him to be a presence in combat because I don't want to bog the game down and end up taking 2x as many turns as others. I'll build him primarily as a long term buffer, crafter and knowledge helper.
My conundrum is how to treat my apprentice loot-wise. I know that as a cohort I don't have to technically pay him, but I'd think common decency should dictate that I provide them with some money/items. I'm considering offering the party two alternatives:
1) they give him a half-share of any monetary treasure we find (so we divide things 4.5 ways), and he casts spells as needed for their benefit, in addition to channeling and knowledge checks etc. He'll also craft items at cost when time permits (but crafting for me is first priority).
2) he gets nothing from party. I'll pay him some out of my own pocket. However, if they want any spells cast by him or items crafted, he is free to gouge them or charge them as an NPC would (albeit at a discount - perhaps making a Belt of Strength +2 for 3000gp instead of 2000gp for instance). Perhaps spells would be cast at 1/2 (or less) the cost of an NPC, and if they save his life or toss him a hand-me-down magic item he'd of course remember and reciprocate. If we find items he'd like that we are going to sell, he will be forced to pay what we could sell them for (I'd likely refund him my share of that money).
Any money he makes will be kept separate from my char's funds of course, and used to buy/craft items for him.
Does this sound reasonable? I believe in my char doing anything possible to help the party free of charge, but then my bard is getting a share of the loot. If the party doesn't want to cut my cohort in (a reasonable opinion for them to have), then I don't feel they should expect the same sort of consideration from him that they would get from me. I just wanted to see how others feel and make sure I'm not being a dick (I remember the giant thread on charging party members for crafting).
I'm playing through Shattered Star (no spoilers please) with a particularly dysfunctional group. They are S&B fighter, standard barbarian and zen archer, so in order to cover as many gaps as possible I created a Fate's Favored halfling archaeologist. It's going ok so far and I'm enjoying playing him, but I'm coming to a crossroads and could use some advice.
Currently: L5, Stats (rolled): 10/18/13/12/9/18, Traits: Fate's Favored, Exchange Agent, Vagabond Child (disable device as class skill). Feats: Lingering Performance, Point Blank Shot, Deadly Aim, Precise Shot (via Combat Trick rogue talent at L4).
So far I've been using a light xbow, but I'm approaching L8 with iteratives, which means I'll either need to take Rapid Reload or switch to a shortbow.
My current dilemmas are:
1) switch to shortbow or take Rapid Reload to keep xbow viable?
2) which feat to take next - L7 contenders are Leadership, Arcane Strike or Rapid Shot (assuming I don't go Rapid Reload route).
3) any classes worth dipping in the near future? Ranger? Inquisitor? Oracle with Lore Keeper?
(L8 rogue talent will be Trap Spotter, so no help on archery side there.)
I have an issue with Arcane Strike in that activating my Luck requires a swift action, such that Arcane Strike would only be available for 2/3 of the rounds in a key combat. Still worth it? So far, I'm pretty solid at hitting but do very little damage. I just hit 5th level and picked up Deadly Aim so that should help a bit, along with a luck bump to +3/+3.
Leadership would help our group a lot: I imagine taking on a 5th-level dwarven cleric of Desna (I'm a devout follower) as an assistant, which would help us a ton with healing and such. (Still not as good a solution as letting one of current group members die off and rolling a more useful class...) The L1 followers seem kinda useless - I imagine them as research assistants back at Heidmarch Manor :P. Perhaps a bunch of priests, wizards and alchemists scribing scrolls and brewing potions. This is clearly the best group wise, but again I'm taking a hit because of the retarded class selection of my fellow players.
Anything I'm overlooking? So far we're going along ok, but I'm kinda worried about being mostly martials as we advance in levels, and our healing bills are getting kinda steep (we chew through wands of CLW like candy - got chided by the priest at the Temple of Abadar last session).
I'm hoping to join a new Shattered Star campaign this Friday, and am trying to decide on a character. The group currently consists of a fighter, barbarian and a life oracle.
I'd like a character who can provide some history/knowledge skills, utility and serve as a competent trap-finder/disabler. There may be a 5th player who I'm hoping will be an arcane caster (if not, I may go witch, wizard or sage instead).
Without giving me any spoilers on SS AP, does anyone have any thoughts on archaeologist vs. crypt-breaker?
For an archaeologist, I'm leaning towards a halfling with the Fate's Favored trait, and will concentrate on archery feats (after Lingering Performance at L1). I may try to sneak in a level (or two) of Ranger(trapper) to make disable device a class skill, and give me prof with a longbow and a favored enemy.
For the crypt-breaker, I see him as a human from Ustalav, again going with mostly archery feats to augment the normal bomber build. (Want to stay away from melee since we have two front-liners already - don't like stepping on other's role-playing niches).
I'm leaning towards the archaeologist since he can fill in as an ersatz healer/arcanist if either the oracle or (hopeful) arcane caster can't make a session.
Let's say we have a wizard/cleric/mystic theurge, rejoicing in the resurrection of this much-maligned PrC brought about by the early entry allowed by SLAs.
I was reading the bit on spontaneous casting, and no where does it say that the prepared spell to be lost must be a cleric spell. According to the rules, would it be possible for said character to 'lose' a wizard spell in order to spontaneously cast a heal?
A good cleric (or a neutral cleric of a good deity) can channel stored spell energy into healing spells that she did not prepare ahead of time. The cleric can “lose” any prepared spell that is not an orison or domain spell in order to cast any cure spell of the same spell level or lower (a cure spell is any spell with “cure” in its name).
Just curious.
For added amusement, I imagine the MT could do this is in armor without worrying about the Arcane Spell Failure %?
I'm putting together a mini-campaign for my triumphant return to RPG's, and one of my personal quirks is I hate non-interesting (ie +1/+2) magic items. I'm trying to make most items have something to make them interesting, and not something to dump once you get the next item up the ladder.
Campaign Arc/Background:
It's based on some of my favorite materials from various editions, and culminates in the Red Hand of Doom.
Several lower level adventures lead PC's to kill and recover the journal of a goblin leader who is in charge of garnering weapons for the goblin Horde. His journal indicates that the attack will hit Elsir Vale, as well as several other facts: he has contracted to procure many higher quality arms from a group of dwarves in Durgeddin's Deep (Forge of Fury), lots of low quality arms from orcs in The Five King's Mountains, his boss is a wyrmlord at a place called Vraath keep which no one has heard of. Hopefully the PC's will investigate and learn the tale of Glitterhame and the dwarf smith Durgeddin. If they do follow it up, I'm modifying it heavily, to have more duergar and orcs/fire elementals mining/smelting steel in the 2nd level in place of other stuff, and the duergar scaled up to have more slaves for mass producing master work weapons in the forges. I plan on having Durgeddin's ghost with his hammer on the 3rd (semi-secret) level. I'd like that hammer to be something unique - his personal weapon.
For my campaign outlined above, I'd like the players to find the personal weapon of a legendary dwarven smith, but they'll be only 5th level or so.
I'd like it to be something that remains useful, but not overpowering at 5th level. I'm thinking he had a weapon called a Hammer of Grudges. It's a +1 weapon (initially I was thinking of making it adamantite, but perhaps that's too good and it should be fire-forged steel instead). I'd like it so that a user can perform a ceremony on any Oathday (Sunday), where they can place the hammer on an anvil (any will do, as long as it's used to make weapons), and recite a long list of grievances against a specific race or group, and appeal to some nebulous dwarven ancestors to imbue the hammer with the Bane property against that group. This would remain (but only for whoever performed the ceremony), until a new ceremony is successfully performed to change it.
Thinking about the ceremony, I'd like it to go something like this:
1) cost about 2000gp in special materials (incense, fancy scrolls with mithril and gemstone inks which list the character's, his race's or society in general's grievances with the target group, which are burned in the forge)
2) character needs to make a Wisdom check of 20 to be successful, failure results in no Bane and a wasted 2000gp in materials
3) many ways to gain bonuses on that Wisdom check:
- being a dwarf, +4
- target being a group that dwarves have racial emnity for, +4
- having someone make a knowledge(local) check to list specific instances of the group causing 'harm' (from the char's and dwarves' perspective) - perhaps +6 for a DC 20, +4 for DC 15 or +2 for a simple DC 10
- perhaps a knowledge(history) or knowledge(planes) as appropriate to the group check to come up with more general, but less immediate, grievances - perhaps +2 for a DC 20, or +1 for a DC 15 (not as valuable as an immediate local example of a grievance)
- immediate, personal examples at DM's discretion ("Dem rotten no-good orcs killed my uncle and his family" might be +4, char's own parents might be +8 or something)
4) perhaps let dwarven clerics have option to take 10 on the check (since they are used to appealing to dwarven gods/spirits)
The idea being to require a significant investment, and near certain success to a group which has harmed the character or his family, but less certain against a race or group which is not 'evil' or generally behaving obnoxiously. The character can help his/her chances by doing some research and coming up with examples which would justify punishment in the eyes of a group of dwarven spirits (note that others can help by making the checks, then recording the deeds on scrolls to be burnt etc).
Basically, it's a +1 Bane hammer that can be changed as needed, albeit at some cost and inconvenience. I came up with the 2000gp figure based on adding Bane to +1 hammer normally costing 6000gp. I wanted to make it enough that the character wouldn't be changing weekly, but low enough that it made the item worth the hassel.
My concerns: Is ceremony too nebulous or badly explained? Is 2000gp too much, too little? Is adamantite too good, or should I stick to fire-forged steel or mithral? Is the DC 20 Wisdom check about right, or should it be higher/lower? If they fail I figure they can gather more grievances and try again next week, albeit at a cost of another 2000gp.
If the group cleric has it be a goblin bane weapon (for instance), and the group barbarian somehow pulls off a ceremony to be a dragon bane weapon, should I let both stand, or only the last one? ie the cleric carries it for fighting normally, but tosses it to the barbarian when a dragon is spotted. This seems kinda cheesy and meta-gamish to me.
The player's haven't rolled up chars yet, so I don't know who will be in the group. Will I regret having a char with a +1 Goblin Bane hammer running amok in RHoD, or Dragon Bane for that matter? I figure they could just buy one for 8000gp so it's not totally off the charts for power. A martial character would likely rather have a big 2h weapon (and I'll be leaving a +1 Frost 2h sword in the first keep), so I'm hoping this acts as a way for the cleric or other secondary melee char to have some fun caving in goblin heads, without ruining all the boss fights.
Sorry if all this is kinda basic, but I haven't DM'd or played since the 2E days.
TL;DR - I'd like a +1 hammer than can be a Bane weapon and be changed at some cost/hardship. Too powerful? Cool or cheesy?
I'm applying for some campaigns on www.roll20.net, and sometimes it'd be helpful to have a possible character ready at short notice. While some things may need to change depending on DM's char gen rules, I decided to put together a possible PC with a 20pt buy as a potential char. Wanting something that is fairly flexible, but fun to play, I decided on a gnome oracle of flame.
Here is my current build thoughts - any and all advice welcome. I also have a few specific questions:
1) with wis 8 and crossblooded, I'm looking at -3 on Will saves. On the other hand, at L2, I have +4 to Will from classes. Is -3 too much? Should I drop dex in order to raise Wisdom to 10?
2) what feat at L1? I'm tempted to go Toughness or Improved Init. I don't think the other revelations are all that great to be worth going for extra revelation - correct? Any other options I should consider.
3) I only get 1 L1 spell as a crossblooded sorc, castable 4/day. I would love to get something with no somatic components so I can cast in a breastplate, but more important is to pick something that will remain useful as I level. Any ideas? Burning Disarm (2d4+4 dmg)? Grease?
4) Idea would be to blast with fire, or summon/buff and heal when fighting monsters resistant to fire. Is lack of Spell Focus/Spell Pen feats a deal breaker? I'd obviously not choose this character for an AP like WotR or LoF, but I should be ok for a Kingmaker or JR campaign, I'd hope.
Ibn Fazuul - gnome oracle of flame - NG
S8 D14 C14 I14 W8 Ch18
Racial traits: Keen Senses, Academician (knowledge:planes), Pyromaniac, Gift of Tongues, Low Light Vision
I'm slowly trying to get back into RPG's after a long absence. What is the best way to acquire a critical mass of miniatures quickly and at a reasonable price?
My first inclination was to buy a case of Heroes & Monsters, but it's not available from Paizo (and was at the upper end of what I wanted to spend to get started anyway). They do have a brick, but I'm not guaranteed as wide a variety with 4 bricks as opposed to a case, correct? Any other sources for sealed cases? I need a place that can ship to Canada reasonably, or else a brick and mortar store that has one in SW Ontario.
I do have the Pathfinder Beginner Box, so I have a few paper pawns. I also have my beloved Warhammer Quest boxed set with a fair number of minis, plus a couple of dozen (mostly characters) lead mini's from my old 2E days.
Any other sources I'm overlooking for a decent quantity of the basics? ie skeletons, zombies, orcs, goblins, humans, ogres and trolls and whatnot. I don't mind painting the singles and smaller groups, but would rather not sit down painting all the goblins, skeletons and such.
Also, has anyone made a portable chest with pull out trays for miniatures? I'm thinking of making something the size of a large tool box that I can load up with trays with miniature compartments for travelling, and then a larger piece of furniture to hold the trays back at my lair here. If anyone has done the same and has any suggestions I'd love to hear em.
