Bellicose Hamster's page

I'm starting the AP tomorrow. PCs are a summoner, ranger, rogue, paladin (the latter is planning to multi-class cleric).

I've read a lot and I'm still undecided about running it as written or some variants I've read online.

** spoiler omitted **

The beginning being "in media res", presented a problem in that no player was really connecting with the story like they should have. No one felt sad that the city was destroyed, because they had no connection to it. My group recommended that the beginning occur a bit before the destruction of the city, so that they had time to get attached, care about the location and peoples, then freak out when things went badly. Starting out with a dragon getting killed by a balor in boxed text, then fighting bugs was anti-climactic for the group. Not to mention immersion breaking.

What was most disappointing is the absence of any reaction to the Heirophants background. It's revealed in the prior book that the characters with this background are children of the specified diety. With the extremely high likelihood of Iomedae being chosen for this background, it's sad that no mention of how the deity will react to the player is included. What's more unreal, is that Iomedae would lethally blast her own child in a fit of angst if she didn't hear the answer she wanted.

What baffles me is that Iomedae even TESTS the players after 4 books of monitoring their actions. The deity already knows what the players are like, she's seen it first hand. The meeting feels forced, arbitrary and railroaded, not story driven or a good narrative. Iomedae should have treated the good players whose actions have been heroic with respect, and told the less heroic people man up. As the Goddess of Valor, it baffles me her idea of leadership is to beat her subordinates to near death in order to get them to follow her commands. Is she not supposed to have inspired people with her greatness? Lead by example, etc?

If there are arseclowns in the group who are not heroic, would mouth off, or otherwise antagonize her, I don't see why she would bother to bring them to her realm. I'd have said she'd speak with those who are heroes, and if THEY want to recruit others, they can.