My viewpoint would be that while they might be using a resource such as the infosphere, they would be doing it with a diplomatic approach. Not necessarily "diplomacizing" it, as much as using diplomacy to base the criteria of the searches.
Those who understand the synthesizer can also control it
to create items. Doing so takes 10 minutes per item created.
Any item of item level 4 or lower can be created with a
successful DC 15 Computers, Engineering, or Mysticism
check. An item with an item level of 5 can be created with
successful checks made by two different characters using
two different skills. An item with an item level of 6 can be
created by three different characters using all three of the
skills.
Crafting rules in core book have nothing to say what happens when you fail, since you do not make a roll. So in this instance above, what happens when the players fail a roll? Did I miss something somewhere? If so, can someone point me in the right direction? I was thinking they would lose half of the materials needed for the item.
I am not familiar with Rise at all, but have been through KM and(forgot other one), and have had the pleasure of GMing PCs past level 20 on several occasions. So after reading your question and other replies here this is what I can add.
1. Like others have said, if the players and you are enjoying the game then you do not need to change anything. Just go with it.
2. If they are not enjoying it, you really need to know why so you can make a more informed decision on what to change/alter. If you are not enjoying it, that is where it gets tricky. There are several ways to make it more appealing to yourself, and still fun for the PCs. You do not like the simple CR increases (which does get boring after awhile), so I would suggest what other have hinted at, modify the parameters of the encounter or encounters.
If you are following PFS gaming setup and not having multiple encounters per day, then I strongly suggest doing that a couple times. Make a day from hell with 5-6 encounters. none deadly but all challenging to some extent to make them have to dig into the bag and use items they forgot they had. Then give them a day or two of normal encounters and then another day from hell (borrowing information previously stated, use the mages to hire mercs of one type or another, and by hire I include summoning and such, to justify the concentration of encounters. You can even let the players find this info out if it suits you). After that, write up another day and keep it to the side for use at a later date, because they should start to ration out their resources better now and not throw everything at the first thing they see.
Other modifiers to look at include black tentacles, entangle with plant growth, and swarms (and I suggest using the swarm template for new and different swarms)for caster offset. Sounds like there is a lot of ranged damage taking place, so take them underground. That will eliminate the flying and limit the ranged stuff pretty hard ad well as making the AOE difficult combined with movement issues.
Hope it helped, just remember it is supposed to be fun for all.
I did talk to GM about the Healers Touch feat and he liked the idea. And I think I missed something with my original post.
I was looking at taking the PrC Harrower with my cleric after 6th level, and was looking for insights into what other people thought. We are not a power gaming group, been doing it way too long, and with other having access to healing but focusing on other options (oracle is going to be AOE DPS build I think, druid is going to use companion to help her tank, and the bard is wanting to play a gypsy but does not think harrower is for him) I was just looking for something different. Searching though the boards, I saw a lot of builds and suggestions for other classes, but none for the cleric. So any advice or thoughts are welcome.
So I am going to be the healer of the group, taking cleric with merciful heal arch, and going to try for the Healers Touch achievement feat. If I can work out the details, I will be taking 6 levels to get the empowered ability from merciful healer (combined with healers touch will be nice), so would be open to take it at 7th, which would give me enough time and points to get the prereqs taken care of.
So I am looking for thoughts on the combination, and any insights on something I might be missing. I know that my channel energy will not go up with harrower, but my special abilities focus on healing spells (maximized and empowered) not the channeling. Additionally, this is for a group about to start Jade Regent, rest of the group is composed with a druid, oracle, and bard (gypsy).
Couple options we have used in the past have been the "level when AP says to level", level when DM says to level (because they seem to know best what is coming and what they think we can handle), fast and dirty adjustments per encounter (for simple ones) was to maximize HP on mobs and in your case would be to divide XP by 4 and give that amount to all 5 players (1k xp for encounter divided by 4 = 250 per player). Another fast and dirty using the same math as above is to add another mob (from say 4 to 5) in the encounter.
Honestly we look at XP as "experience", what did your character learn from the last fight? your group? even, your GM? The numbers and levels are just there as a guide, you can min max them all you want but the end result is supposed to be fun. So my advice is suggest the GM do what they feel comfortable doing, and as a group work with what they come up with.
Yes now I see, thank you very much Drakkiel. I was forgetting that you roll and add a D20 to your caster check to overcome. I knew it was something simple, thanks.
The spell does not affect the creature, but the lightening bolt is still there and will still jump to additional targets doing damage. The primary target takes no damage, but does not "absorb/kill/eliminate" the spell in any way.
Ok, so putting together an encounter and was going to give the NPC the "Staff of the Slain". Here is the description copied from HeroLab:
This special ability can only be placed on melee weapons. A
spellstealing weapon allows its wielder to siphon protective magic
from a target and transfer it to herself. When the wielder rolls a
critical threat against a target, she can forgo confirming the critical
hit and instead automatically learn which spells or magical effects
are active upon the target. The wielder may then make a caster
level check to steal her choice of one of those effects, using the
spellstealing weapon’s caster level plus its enhancement bonus,
against a DC of 11 + the caster level of the effect. If the check
succeeds, the target immediately loses the benefits of that effect
and the wielder gains the effect for 1 minute (or until the effect
expires, whichever comes first). If the spellstealing weapon has a
critical multiplier greater than ×2, the wielder may attempt to steal
one additional spell effect per additional multiple beyond ×2 (two
effects for ×3, and so on).
Construction
Requirements Craft Magic Arms and Armor, greater arcane sight ,
limited wish ; Cost +3 Bonus
Appears In : Ultimate Equipment
The bold/italic part is what is confusing me. This item is an intelligent artifact so assuming it would be a CL 20 item, it is a +5 weapon, which would make the CL check =25 to steal the spell effect. So doing the math, CL 25 -11 (from DC) = 14 CL. The highest caster level you can effect with this is 14th? So any caster over level 14 has nothing to fear from this item? Something is not right here, and for some reason I cannot figure it out, so please if someone can see what I am missing please point it out.
Also on the flip side, if you attempt this against a caster 14th or lower, you will automatically succeed? I know the circumstances that need to be met for it to happen with the crit etc., but once they are met it is auto-success?
All I can say Mavrickindigo is that if you have no problem with the character, then do what you think sounds fair (and change a few dice rolls) and allow him to live. While I do somewhat agree that this is an interesting character selection for this AP, he is not in my group, and I am not GM of his group, so you do what you feel is necessary.
Unfortunately I am short of time and did not have time to read all of the comments following the original question. The advice I can offer from what our group has experienced so far (just finished book 1) is that multi-classing is beneficial (of which none of us did). Start with a good race/class for the testing/working part of being a pirate, and after surviving to where you feel comfortable with your survivability, then transfer to the class you really want to play. Personal suggestions without giving much away, a fighter based for hp and combat basics, or a rogue type for skill points. And always remember you are a pirate first, so think about what a "real" pirate would need to survive, then what you want your character to be able to do.
Lee a rule that we tend to follow is that the players will have to deal with the party composition when overcoming obstacles. If they do not want an arcane caster, they can do without. Of course, I think there is a big enough need later in the AP that they will have a hard time not having one. As mentioned above, teleport will come in very handy, as well as AOE which does tend to fall on arcane caster the most. With 3 melee options, I think you could influence one to lean towards Magus at least, good combination of melee and an ability to use arcane magic. I do wish you well with this party as laid out though, I do forsee many combats going very quickly. I would find the 6 player conversion and definitely use it. But the bottom line is, they will play what they want, how they want, and figure out how to overcome what they are not prepared for with what they have.
Could use some insight on this, did not see it covered enough to answer what I am asking.
Uprooting Thousandbreaths (page 35 of Book six)
Not putting spoilers in here as it is for DMs anyway. It states that by defeating certain gaurdians that there is a percent chance (cumulative) that 1000Breath will enter the prime material plane. As it reads, this implies that it only happens when the PCs are actually in the First World. And while the benefits of it happening are definitly helpful to the PCs, I am questioning whether it has a chance to happen as they defeat blooms. I know the gaurdians listed do not actually show up in the blooms, but they have some control over them. This control reaches across the planes enough to make the bloom appear, so by destroying the bloom I would think that this would impact the chance that 1000Breath transfers, since it impacted the controling entity.
I was considering giving it one-half of the listed chance to relocate for each appropriate bloom being defeated (for a max total of 45% as I would not count the bonus from area F), according to who was responsible was responsible for the bloom. If they deal with all of the blooms and the relocation does not happen, then when they went to the First World, I was going to wipe the slate clean as the gaurdians have had a chance to recover from the loss of the blooms.
If the relocation was triggered, I would think that the blooms would stop, and if it happened unknowingly that Nyrissa would take a couple days to put together a plan for what to do (no idea at this time myself, but could see a gathering of forces and a full out attack against the PCs if they are still in control of Briar). If of course the PCs learned of it soon enough, then I would enforce full penalties. Was thinking of a fort save per day to overcome the staggered condition, or a chance that Nyrissa would figure out how to "fix" it.
So I guess I am asking for your thoughts on the possibility of the relocation happening from the "killing" of blooms.
Ok, I will try to help out a bit here as the group I am running is doing incredibly well in the DPS area in encounters. I have been using the 6 player options as reference and sometimes just straight up seeing as we have a party of six now. Reading through the reasoning behind some of the increases makes very good sense, and opens up many more possibilities. Adding levels, HD, minions, templates are all good responses and can be tailored to help offset some of the damage. I would suggest changing it up a bit and make it so that each character has a chance to shine and pull off the save for each encounter.
I do agree that this is a hero building AP and that the characters are to be powerful and impressive when done. Make them work for it, playing the monsters in abstract ways and very smart is the best thing you can do. Make new monsters, or even old ones that are different than the norm, had to identify. Make the PCs wonder what it is exactly they are fighting. You are not really changing the encounter, just making it so there is more of the "unknown", which always make players nervous and cautious. Just try to keep it fun for everyone, especially you as a DM. If you are feeling that you cannot handle it or think it should be different, I suggest talking to your players (as players, not characters) and seeing what thoughts they might have. Perhaps they are getting bored of running everything over, and would like a challenge.
Additionally, on the matter mentioned about Rapid Shot and Manyshot, our group decided that they would stack. Reasoning is this: First, you need Rapid Shot to take Manyshot, lending us to believe they were meant to work together; Second, they both use the same wording in the description of how the feat is used "When making a full-attack action ...", which lead us to believe that it is used when making the full attack, not in place of the full attack action. So using both during the same round would give extra damage for the first shot only (two arrows and applicable modifiers), an extra attack at highest bonus, and ALL attacks would be at -2 to attack. The big drawback is that fact that you will be using a lot of arrows.
Spoiler:
I did use both at the same time when running the encounter with the Hunter in Book six 1000 screams. The text states he had 20 arrows as combat gear, I thought that wasn't enough, but after figuring out how much damage he could do per round (firing up to 6 arrows per round),I stuck with it. Of course I assumed he would get what he wanted within that 4 round period of full attacks, and if not then he was having a bad day.
Name:Mikhail and Var
Race:Human and Half-Orc
Classes/levels:Magus and Fighter both 15th
Adventure:Part 6 Sound of a Thousand Screams
Location:Thousand Voices Woods
Catalyst:Inevitable due to encounter parameters
The Gory Details: First some background. Party of six, three players each playing two characters. Suggestion from the DM (me) as it was easier for me to upgrade and adjust for 6 than it was to adjust for three characters.
Party composition: Var, half-orc fighter with Sherry Aasimar priest; Mikhail, human Magus with Gale Sylph Wizard; and Glaz, half-orc Bard with Kaillum Grippli rogue.
Spoiler:
Party had an issue with previious encounters versus human bane and unholy weapons, they got hit hard as most are either human or good and some fill both orders. So I knew this encounter was going to be an issue. Our group is very good at staying alive, and very good at pulling tricks out of hats to overcome difficult situations so I ran a couple of scenarios before the encounter to see what I thought might happen and as "background information" the Hunter might have. No matter how I did it, the Magus (who was wielding Briar) was not going to survive this fight. As luck would have it, I had a NPC druid I had been playing with that I figured I would put in the area in case things went like I thought they would. I knew they did not have the materials on hand for res, and did not like using raise dead. So I thought I would give them an option for reincarnate. And since all of us utilize Hero Lab, I took it upon myself using a dice roller and an expanded reincarnate chart, to pre-roll all of the characters in a new body in case they died and chose reincarnate.
Well for the combat part of the deaths, the Hunter (using the six-player modifications) had set up an ambush for the characters after fiegning an attack at Littletown and leaving a easily followed trail. He drew them in, and seperated them as the ettins popped out from hiding spots to attack the casters. Well as things the bard used a spell to dim door next to the hunter with the fighter in tow, forcing him to use a teleport charge and get away from them, so the first two rounds I only got one shot off on the human.Next round the bard did it again, so the half the ettins came to help surround him and allowed him to break out of proximity of the two attacking him. So in the forth round, with several of the ettins down now due to spells and arrows from the rogue, the fighter attacks a couple ettins wounding and killing one. The bard does something similar and the hunter is allowed to finally take a full round of attacks at the human Magus holding Briar. So utilizing many-shot and rapid-shot, and only missing with one attack but critting another, the Magus was hit for 272 points of damage. Next round, bard and fighter are able to get next to hunter as an ettin picks up the sword and runs toward the hunter to give it to him. Rogue drops that ettin, as the fighter almost dropped the hunter. Mage and priest deal with a couple of ettins that have been pestering them, and the bard positions himself along side the downed ettin and Briar preparing to stop the hunter from getting to it. So next round the hunter teleports out of range and sight of the party, and heals in preparation for claiming the sword again. Party gangs up on ettins, but did not fair well in damage so a couple are left standing. Next round, Hunter steps out from where he was hiding and fires 2 shots (3 arrows with many shot active) at the fighter, and other 3 at the bard. Hit all 3 times on fighter and critted once, but only hit bard twice. That took the fighter to -57 hit points as he had been wounded bad already, but the bard was still standing. Now the fighter had a Ring of Regeneration on at this time, so was not officially dead, but was beyond healing besides what the ring would do. Top of the next round, the druid appears and banishes the hunter (house rule on the banish, and it allows me to use him again later).
Feeling sorry for the party, the druid offers to reincarnate the 2 down party members. the fighter mentions that he is not technically dead because of the ring of regeneration. He is given the option to heal up using the ring or the druid will reincarnate him, he decides it would be fun to be rincarnated (he is thinking that half-orcs do not live long and this will allow him to rule longer). So the Magus and the fighter both are given the choice of what I have already rolled, and set up in Hero lab, or do they want to roll themselves? They both take my rolls and what I have already prepared. Now, I told myself that I would not alter any rolls that were made when I was doing the reincarnate table. However, the first one I did was the Magus and I rolled half-orc. With the animosity his character had with the half-orc, I thought that would be cruel. So I re-rolled, and got orc. Thiniking that would not work I was going to re-roll again, but then stopped myself realizing that I could do this all day and would stick to what I rolled. So he became an Orc, and the fighter turned into a Nagaji. So while they did both die, they both live on in newer different bodies.
Short side story to this, the druid had a companion with her (psuedo dragon) that had in his possesion a Deck of Many Things. Seeing as they had a couple hours to kill, a couple of the characters decided to try thier luck. The priest fell to the Donjon card, then the bard drew the talons card, and as the fighter was recovering he thought nothing else could go wrong or get worse so he drew three cards: rogue, rogue, talons. The rogue was trying to decide how many this whole time and at the last minute decided against it as he saw nothing good come from any of the draws. So this encounter drained the party of many magic items, a couple of lives, a good chunk of gold, and temporary loss of the primary healer, and has put a big chip on their shoulder for the next meeting with the hunter.
Hop -- that is a very nice book and I highly recommend it, it really does seem to clarify some of the rules set forth in Kingmaker as well as catagorizing them for easier reference.
I love the fact that so many different groups went so many different ways, so much to choose from. I like the ideas presented for continuing the conflict in the Kingdom, I had already been working on a couple different end game scenarios, and am going to try and work as much in as I can for as long as they want to continue. Personally I had incorporated an opening for the underdark to come into play (side trek I made where they discovered an underground passage filled with nasties that they had to deal with, They found that the passage continued down and instead of exploring they stone shaped it closed), they encountered two brother black dragons, and only managed to kill one as the other flew away plotting revenge
:
(and then come to find out that there is a big black dragon in the last module)
. They really like the mass combat, but in my opinion it is too "short and sweet" to really make too much out of, but will have to deal with it again as I think they are planning on assaulting the "motherland".
They also have made contact with a silver dragon and his "great" father, they have pretty much incorporated all living beings into the kingdom in one way or another that they have encountered, and are now working on diplomatic relations with surrounding kingdoms for trade purposes as they get ready to start on the final chapter. They finally found a use for all the extra consumption they had.
Seeing as we are about to start the final chapter on this wonderful AP, I almost wish I would of thought of something like this when the group was big into exploration. They did not have too much of a problem exploring hexes, it was a bit of a break actually from the rest of the high tension stuff I put them through. I will admit that we did skim over the last map pretty fast, considering the limited encounters and other personal reasons.
If I were to adopt something along the lines of "automapping", I would definitely stick to 10 or less hexes per month explored. Normal exploration is 1 day per plains/hills, 2 for forests, and 3 for mountains. If your players decide to increase loyalty more than other stats, then the loyalty/# would get out of hand, by the last module they could explore half a map easily in a month. And with 1 week to do kingdom maintenance, you only have 3 weeks to explore.
I would think that if they hired someone to explore, that could work out nicely. But I still think it would be better to get a report of "dangerous conditions" exsisting in a hex that the PC's would have to take care of personally.
Yes, our party composition is able to handle about anything that is written (been gaming together over 15years through multiple systems). So I start every encounter anymore giving max HP to monsters, this helps to be able to do some damage and soak up some resources from them. But, yes, one encounter a day is not enough to keep them on their toes, and does not seem like it is worth the work. So I will group a couple from multiple days into one day, or hex. The party currently consists of a magus, fighter, bard, and a witch. So they are not strong on healing, but if they roll well, they can kill about anything (except a rock troll ... lol).
Enough time for my king to need an amulet of age resistance!
What you are asking for is a fairly simple Ioun Stone, I recommend a Wayfinder to keep it in as having an asteroid belt orbiting your head is distracting.
This does not stop you from aging, and you still die when your time is up but that can be solved with a Reincarnate spell followed by a wish or a polymorph any object spell.
But they only have to orbit for a month to become attuned then you can pocket them.
Did figure out to edit the information to add information for new structures. Also edited the original file to scale it down so it could be used on a tablet if anyone is interested.
Just found your sheet, and am liking it so far, very easy to use. I have however downloaded and have implemented the resource from Jon Brazer "Book of the River Nations: Complete Player's Reference for Kingdom Building", which has a few new options for buildings and "open spaces". While I have played with Excel a little, I am not familiar with how to add the new buildings and stats to your sheet. So if you (or someone else for that matter who is following this) could help me out I would appreciate it. Or if you prefer, I could forward you a copy of the pertinent information and you could update your sheet with it (actually if someone else wanted to do that I could forward them the information as well). Either way, love the sheet and many thanks for putting it together for us.
Love the program. Our GM uses it on a regular basis and it has made his life easier thus enriching our experiences gaming. I have been working through an idea for a campaign and am going to use your program to assist me in setting up encounters and testing. I am working my way through some of the features, and reading through the many pages here has given my quite a bit of information. However, I was wondering if there was a tutorial or something similar that I could go through to get a better understanding of the workings of the program and options I might be missing.
One thing I would like to know is if there are more options for templates. I found most of the basic ones, but are there plans to include, or for me to implement others such as lich?
