BladeSmith's page

Since Darl uses scrying a lot, he is intimately familiar with the party’s tactics. Knowing this, you can metagame the crud out of him. Have him make himself immune to their best spells. Use a new tactic that your players aren’t use to, like battlefield control and force cage/walls on the party until they have to fight as individual instead of as a team. Give him more minions. Use 'anticipate teleportation' if the party is planning on getting the drop on him. He knows as much about them as you do, so just give him really good tactics.

--BS

But I need to know which ones (if any) would be most helpful.

Dragon 339 has a neat item that lives in Manzorian's basement. Its a fountain that gives you one stat boost and one flaw. You can either pick the bad thing and get a random good thing, or pick a good thing and get a random bad thing when you drink. Nothing game breaking, but it will be fun to make the players choose.

Dragon 340 is a fun addition to the Prince of Redhand module if your party likes role-playing. It covers all the things you can buy or do to improve your charisma based skill checks vs nobles. Everything from flashy dresses to new hair styles.

Dragon 341 talks about high level transportation, but I tend to gloss over long travel, so it didn't interest me much.

Dragon 342 has some nice anti-dragon magic items that I will probably have my group research or find before they head to the Kings of the Rift module.

Dragon 343 has been popular for its high level gated creatures. I probably won't allow them as my party has 8 players and a few pets already, but other parties have used the high level critters to great effect.

Dragon 344 is just an intro into epic level play and it discusses a few interesting tricks and tips if you have new players. If they are veterans, there is probably nothing new here.

Page 154 of the Arms and Equipment Guide gives details on the rod. Each part has a separate ability(s) and joining sections together enhances them.

It's fully detailed in the picture of Prince Zeech in Dungeon 135.

It is a stylized symbol of Hextor with red arrows on a blue field.

Download it here.

http://paizo.com/dungeonissues/135/DA135_Supplement_HR.pdf

--BS

I bought two Age of Worms custom dice from Chessex for each of my players. At the end of each module, I'm going to have them roll these d6's to see if the "age of worms" side comes up. If it does, I will advance that players taint counter 1 per dice. I figure you can only wade hip deep in evil for so long before it begins to take its toll on you. Hopefully around chapter 6 or 7 a few of the players will begin to exhibit symptoms, and I can toss in a side quest to reset their taint counters.

You can see the dice at the link. It is case sensitive.

http://www.thetatons.com/dice.JPG

Chessex did an awesome job on the dice, they just look slimey and evil.

Per the Grayhawk map, it's about 90 miles from Diamond Lake to the Free City.
Per the PHB pg 129, hiring a Coach Cab is 3cp per mile.
I'd jack the price up by 50% since it's coming from Diamond Lake and everything is inflated.
3*90*1.5 = 405 cp so I'd say it's about 4 gold per seat to get to FC from DL. They should have more than enough after their first adventure, assuming they were able to sell some loot. That might be an issue, as very few in town have the liquid assets to buy equipment.

-BS

Wizard players stock up on orb spells for this very reason. They are simply overpowered.

The problem with Orbs is they use Touch Attacks. Simple solution. Increase the Touch AC of your critters using spells like this. I'm sure you can be creative and give most of your critters some sort of Natural AC spell or item to use in conjunction with this low level spell to great effect. A friend used this spell on a dragon recently to launch his touch AC into the stratosphere. None of the wizards touch spells landed against that flying monstrosity. It darn near took us apart.

Scintillating Scales
Abjuration
Level: Sor/Wiz 2
Components: V
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target(s): You
Duration: 1 minute/level

You invoke the words of this spell, and your skin glistens and shimmers with a silvery protective aura that makes you shine.

This spell transforms your natural armor bonus to Armor Class into a deflection bonus to your Armor Class. While your overall Armor Class might not change, the deflection bonus applies to melee touch attacks and ranged touch attacks, including incorporeal touch attacks. If you have no natural armor bonus, this spell has no effect.

Location
Spell Compendium pg.181

Farewell to Grubber, Mak and Storm, all of whom died bravely at the hands of Kyuss or his minions.

It was such a sad ending to a very cool story hour.

I’m going to have a large party for this one.

Gray Elf – Wizard / Master Specialist (evocation) / Arch Mage
Wild Elf – Rogue
Gnome – Cleric – Lots of turn undead feats
Half-Orc – Barbarian / Frenzied Berserker
Human – Warlock / Enlightened Spirit
Aquatic Elf – Monk with Vow of Poverty
Halfling – Druid
Gold Dwarf – Paladin / Ranger / Fist of Raziel / Marshal / Deepwarden / Dwarven Defender

As you can see I have a few veteran players that will be optimized, and some newer players that are sticking with more core classes. This group should have all their bases covered.

2 tanks
2 melee damage dealers
2 arcane damage dealers
2 healers

With them being large and rather well optimized, I’ll have to see how they do. I’m considering allowing the bad guys access to new spells and feats from the splat books as well, and I fully intend to play them to the best of their abilities.

Have the party wizard use an illusion spell. It will of course be seen through at some point, but it gets him into the party and then puts him in a tough diplomatic spot, and likely poisoned. Much more fun than being a servant and unable to participate in the games.
--BS

I don't have the link available, but go to Enworld.com, to their message boards section, into the story hour section. Find a post by DM Lazy Bones. Go to his main website which can be found in his signature file. He has a Shackled City pdf story hour that he took epic, and I mean WAY epic. I can't even begin to describe how cool and epic his storyline is. If you guys find it, post a link. I'm at work and his site is blocked.
--Bladesmith

Do you recall if the Withering Tabernacle had any type of forbiddance up that would have prevented the party from teleporting directly in or opening a gate in the first place?

There is an Unhallowed effect, and some restrictions on ethereal interactions with the temple structure, but no restriction on planer travel into or within the temple. There is a ban on scrying effects too. Nothing would stop an outward gate however.

I don't have the stats for the Gate spell or Dragotha available so if someone is free (I don't want them to waste any company time)could they check to see if it was physically possible to fit Dragotha thru the gateway?

Dragotha, as a Gargantuan creature, has a space of 20 ft.

I would probably have allowed this had they used another spell like battering ram or some other method of getting Dragotha through the portal. I'm not a big fan of polymorph. The clever tactics however, totally deserve some sort of benefit. I most likely would have had him reappear in 1d4 rounds with 1/2 hit points and a severely pissed off attitude.

I plan on having him stun everybody in the first round (33 save or something I know they can't beat) and then give a bad guy speech. "How dare you attack me in my own lair...your feeble and pathetic...bla bla bla". Every round the players will be given a chance to escape from his mental hold. DC 17 or something. Hard, but fair. If they break the spell they can take their turn immediately. After which he will probably stun them again, but at a lesser DC each time. That is a loose plan anyway. It should make for an interesting fight. I plan on playing him as very arrogant. He's better than they are and he knows it. He doesn't need to take them all out at once or be the most devastating combatant because he doesn't feel threatened by them. Running commentary like "now where do you think your going? and Did you really think that pointy metal stick was going to stop me boy?" should also serve well to set the party on edge.

Hopefully the party will thoroughly enjoy killing him until he dies from it, if for no other reason than to shut him up.

--Bladesmith

In my campaign, I'm going to have Allustan provide his apprentice with a book that was given to him from his one time master Tensor. The book is an encyclopedia on how to identify many magic items of the world. If the party wants to know what that glowey pointy sword is right now, they will still have to cast identify. If however, they can wait until the wizard has time (when they camp for the night) she can look the items up in the book to identify them for free. Not every item will be found in the book, but a majority, and certainly all of the boring little things. Unique, strange, or fun items will require more effort to identify.

My group plays DnD to escape real life, so I don't force them to roll play the trivial aspects of the game. If they don't find it fun, and it doesn't advance the storyline, then I don't see the point.

--Bladesmith

My only regret is that I didn't think of adding traps to the list until after I was finished. I know the Whispering Cairn and a Gathering of Winds are trap heavy, but what about the others?

I don't have Dawn of a New Age with me at work, but here are the traps for the other 11 modules.

AoW Trap List

The Whispering Cairn
Sarcophagus Trap Magical Cr2
False Elevator Mechanical Cr2
The Face in Darkness Magical Cr4
Slab Trap Mechanical Cr2
Hail of Iron Spheres Mechanical Cr2

Three Faces of Evil
Inflict Light Wounds Magical Cr2

Encounter at Blackwall Keep
Snare Magical Cr?

Hall of Harsh Reflections
Wide Mouth Spiked Pit Mechanical Cr7
Devious Spiked Pit Magical & Mechanical Cr8
Wide Spiked Pit Mechanical Cr4
Poisoned Ceiling Spear Mechanical Cr6
Glyph of Warding Magic Cr5

The Champions Belt
Greater Glyph of Warding Magic Cr7
Dreams of Kyuss Magical Cr10
Symbol of Fear Magical Cr7

A Gathering of Winds
Windspike Magical Cr5
Poison Gas Magic Cr10
Falling Pillar Magic Cr8
The Word of Law Magical Cr8
Energy Drain Magical Cr10
Tempest Globe Magical Cr10
Collapsing Tunnel Mechanical Cr10

The Spire of Long Shadows
No Traps

The Price of Redhand
No Traps

The Library of Last Resort
No Traps

Kings of the Rift
Brain Juice Shower Mechanical Cr10
Cube Trap Mechanical Cr12

Into the Worm Crawl Fissure
Deathtrap Magical Cr12
Wormcall Magical Cr15

Dawn of a New Age
?

-BS

Third Course: Tojbassarirge

I had a similar idea, though I wasn't going for 'gross' but just fun food. My plan includes sour gummy worms, a chicken pot pie, and a Turducken. Turducken is a chicken in a duck in a turkey. There are many recipies for it on the web. Here is one example.

http://www.thesalmons.org/lynn/turducken.html

-BS

There are some mansions in the Shackled City Adventure Path that you can harvest easily. They are in the "Lords of Oblivion" portion of the adventure. I don't remember which Dungeon that was in off hand.

I was thinking of using the Purple Worm mini for the Ulgurstasta.

http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/r/reaperMiniatures/byProductType/miniature s/darkHeaven/magicalBeast/worm/v5748btpy7m9g

I was also contemplating using a Twinkie & some spray paint.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinkie

--Bladesmith

Also, put the other 16 into Dex (not Cha) and consider Improved Initiative so that you're fireball has a good chance of being the first shot of the round :)

To ensure you’re maximized, empowered, star-shaped, green-tinted, fireball of doom hits that nicely clustered group of bad guys before the paladin charges in and gets in the way simply utter the magical word "Nerveskitter."

Nerveskitter

Level: Sorcerer/wizard 1
Casting Time: 1 immediate action
Target: One creature
Duration: 1 round

"You suffuse your ally with a brief, blue glow. He jerks away from you, as if he can anticipate your next action."

You cast this spell when you and your party roll for initiative. You enhance the subjects (your) reactions in combat, granting a + 5 bonus on initiative checks for the current encounter.

And I wholeheartedly agree that Improved Initiative is a must for any arcane caster. I actually think that everybody should take this feat. Nothing makes a DM cry like watching a monster that he spent all night working on get slaughtered before it even gets to hit you once.

--BS

Since he can only port himself, let him go inside. If I recall there are some creeps inside that would love to welcome a low level caster by running him through. Let them come at him, beat him within an inch of his life, and allow him to 'just' escape. Go into the full wonderful and awe inspiring description of the chamber and its wonders. He will really want to go into the chamber, but will have to go through the Filge story arc in order to bring support. Make it obvious that unless they all go in together, they won't stand a chance. This will alleviate any scheming like "I stuff the Halfling into my Heward’s Handy Haversack" and the like.

"As you appear in the room, the room's magic activates, bringing about an ambient glow. The chamber is circular and domed, with walkway around the outer edge, and a large pit in the center. The pit is quartered by 4 walkways leading to a central platform with another hole in its center. Out of the hole blows a gale of wind causing the air about you to swirl playfully. You see detailed murals all about that immediately capture you attention. You don't have the time to truly take in all that you see. The illumination of the room also awakened the guardians of the chamber. Two empty suits of armor with banners flapping in the wind and very sharp looking swords in each mailed fist float toward you with alarming speed. Allaster pokes his head through the door and sees the wind warriors bearing down on you. “You should have listened to me when I told you that I was the only way into the chamber. At least now I’ll have some company in the afterlife.” He says with a grin. Roll initiative."

If that doesn’t send your wizard running for his life, let him take a few hits. If he insists on searching for the lever and refuses to leave, kill him. The party then has even more motivation for helping Allaster and trying to get into the chamber. You can only protect the PC’s from their own stupidity for so long before they must suffer the consequences of porting into an unopened, heavily guarded tomb all alone without a meat shield for protection.

--BS

I don't have all the back issues I need yet. I have the stats for Diamond Lake and Alhaster, but I don't have the issue with Free City stats. Could somebody post those for me?

Also for those of you with more campaign knowledge, are there any other significant cities the PCs get access to in the adventure? If so, could you post the stats for them?

Thanks for the info.

--BS

Go outside and try to stab an anthill to death with a pocket knife. It doesn't work. With any swarm, the only way to significantly hurt it is to do damage en mass. This means fire, cold, acid, or ... MAGIC. Sometimes the rules of logic do apply to D&D.

--BS

Then the PCs get there and find the giants unhelpful. They don't trust strangers. As they are dealing with the giants via diplomacy or slaughter, the dragons attack and they find themselves in the beginning of the war instead of the middle of it.

--BS