Bofdm's page

Considering how the faith of the Blood of Vol works, "fervent belief in one's left shoe" isn't even a stretch.

The Blood of Vol is one of my favorite faiths of the Eberron setting. It's so humanist in nature, focusing on not only the bonds of a strong community and looking out for one another but that the power of divinity is within YOU!

Don't pray to some far-off god that does jack-all for you! Believe in the you that can plow that field and make a good harvest! Believe in the you that can land that interview, graduate from a good college, master how to forge that new weapon!

Their official sales pitch for the religion is basically a vampire Billie Mays in my head.

Thanks to Saints Row IV, the first thing that comes to mind after hearing "Asmodeus' Daughter" is "You're going to marry that Saint and that's final!"

Fantastic end to Stolen Land. Top notch. *applause*

While the party has gathered a number of npc followers throughout Kingmaker their levels and reliability won't be on the same level as someone with the Leadership feat, which also gives a bonus to the kingdom building portion of the AP.

As for the followers of the Stag Lord only two of those were left alive - Auchs (who was changed to a warforged) and Akiros who recently disappeared after having a Sentinel Marshal come looking for him with a warrant for murder...

Though there were some of the nameless bandits that had reformed after the Stag Lord's defeat...

The cohorts will be approximately 7th level by the time they are introduced - they're planning on picking up Leadership at 9th level and are currently 8th.

I'm personally trying to stay away from another Paladin as there is already another cohort that's a Sacred ShieldPaladin but I will definitely consider it.

I'm running the Kingmaker AP and my players (The Spymaster of the Kingdom and the General respectively) intend to pick up the Leadership feat to appoint competent seconds in their line of work.

The Spymaster is a Half-elf Staff Magus with a bit of Sense Motive but not much of a master spy himself - he's looking for a good infiltrator, information gatherer kind of person, most likely with good social skills to try and plant seeds of dissent amongst enemies. Less focus on magical manipulation via enchantment magic.

The General is a Half-orc Cavalier with a good intelligence and strength that now rides a Triceratops mount. He's looking for a second-in-command Cohort to help lead the armies of the kingdom. There could be almost any martial class that could fill this role.

Both of these cohort requests have very broad ways to achieve their goals, so I wanted to ask the forums if they have had experience with creating similar characters or can think of any archetypes, feats, or equipment that can help.

Advice for Varnhold Vanishing – Book 3 Spoilers and adventure mixing.

So! Hello everyone in the Kingmaker forums. Back again for additional advice and suggestions.

My group simultaneously finished up their first year of running their kingdom and Book 2. I’ve recommended (as per the book) that the PCs take anywhere from 1 to 5 years of running their kingdom before we jump into Book 3.

Book 2 lasted a whopping 28 sessions compared to the 11 of the first book. While I feel there is a lot to cover in Book 3 I’m attempting to condense the events while also including a number of additional pathfinder modules.

So let me set the stage. First off, my PCs each have two characters that make up the majority of the ruling council of their country.

Close to half of these PCs will have Cohorts by the time we’re through Book 3 (currently 4 PCs have Cohorts with at least another two planning on picking it up in the future). This enables me to do some interesting things…such as have one group go off into the wilderness to explore and move the story forward there, while another group stays behind and deals with plot in their capital city.

The Plot Threads Thus Far
An invisible obsidian mirror larger than a person was discovered at Candlemere. This is the portal sealing Rhoswen into her demi-plane of shadow. The seal on it will be slowly cracking as the PCs discover the Faengard runes that reinforces the binding. The PCs know that something is sealed there by the First Council of the Fae but they don’t know what and what exactly they want to do about it. Unbeknownst to them their PR Director Dox the Changeling Bard has made brief enough contact with the mirror to be placed under a geas to find these mysterious Faengards though she doesn’t really understand why.

As the years pass and the runes slowly found and either broken, mishandled, or moved it will crack the seal enough that Rhoswen can break free back into the material plane.

Changes to Rhoswen: Like many in the Kingmaker forums I am making Rhoswen the forgotten daughter of Nyrissa, who was punished as a very young girl (physically 10-12 years old) by the First Council shortly after they tore out Nyrissa’s heart. To see if they had truly removed ‘love’ from Nyrissa they announced their plan of eternal solitude in a demi-plane in front of her to see her reaction. Satisfied with her cold unmoving face they dragged the girl to Candlemere and carried out the sentence.

Tens of thousands of years in solitude has shattered Rhoswen’s psyche, making her simultaneously a broken hearted child and the adult manifestation she created to help deal with her psychosis – the Queen of the Felnight. (Combat Wise this will be a literal split, while the adult Rhoswen confronts the PCs her shadow will be the child Rhoswen able to act independently. Most likely with separate builds as well)

So! My grand plan is to mix and match events from the following modules to add to the plot of Book 3.

Home Events
Carnival Of Tears: The Carnival itself will be the start leading up to the resolution of Realm of the Felnight Queen, with the icy fae being commanded by Rhoswen (who is leaking through her mirror prison thanks to the discovery of the Faengard runes across the country) to destroy the community for her mother’s plans – while at the same time wanting to save the children from its destruction by taking them into the Felnight to live with her forever. (And to my advantage is that one of the PCs has a seven year old daughter who will be taken as well)

Realm of the Felnight: This will be skipping a lot of the build up (replaced with Carnival) and contain only the confrontation in the castle.

Exploration/Standard Plot of Book 3
Meanwhile! A group of the other PCs will be attempting to find out what happened to Varnhold and encounter the Nomen tribe of Xen’drik Drow (of which one of our PCs is the adopted daughter of the Matriarch) and the ancient lich Vordakai.
Changes: Vordakai is the ancient giant word for “Cyclops”, making the ancient lich the first of his kind as a genetic mutation back during the heights of the ancient giant empire. Finally awake after ten thousand+ years (It’s time to conquer earth!) Vordakai will start making the attempt to recover the ancient technologies of the Giant empire of Xen’drik…this is where the third adventure module I’m throwing in will be.
Other Twists: Nyrissa has been around for a long time. She had a hand in the fall of the giant empire as she was such a trusted ‘advisor’ to the giants they didn’t realize how badly she was steering them in the wrong direction – resulting in its eventual retaliation and destruction by the dragons of argonnesson.
Vordakai is aware of her treachery making him an adversary but not necessarily a trusted one. This can also serve as additional hints as to the true villain of the AP and how far back she has been trying to bottle up the Stolen Lands.

Crucible of Chaos: Not only does it take place in a jungle, but it’s connected to giants. I am torn between either replacing Vordakai’s standard dungeon with this place, or making the buried flying city a location Vordakai is moving towards making it a race to get there before the PCs. While the city would largely be non-functioning for many years…Kingmaker is the perfect AP to throw in this kind of caveat and still be able to do something with it. And it would eventually allow the PCs the opportunity to add a Flying City to their Kingdom.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Is it trying to throw in too much at once for a single book?

Alright so a few basic things first off.

Creating a character simply to stonewall another player is not a permanent solution in my mind and can lead to out of game fighting or arguments it comes to light that you're intentionally preventing him from the play style he appears to have the most fun with. That's not condoning his behavior, just a warning of something that can come up.

Before starting Kingmaker, I would recommend the GM and Players sit down and discuss out of game what kind of kingdom they want to build - and who plans to take on what role within it.

This would allow everyone to have a general idea of what to expect once the kingdom building rules start coming into play.

There are also rules for different forms of governmental rule such as Oligarchy (which is what my current game is using), Theocracy, and a few others.

Oligarchy gives every member of the "ruling council" a domain within the kingdom so there is not one absolute ruler.

Just a few quick thoughts.

Awesome! I really like what you've done with the idea. Please keep us up to date on how things turn out with Father Wolf and his Wild Hunt.

Alright, a more permanent version of the Big Bad Wolf has been slowly forming. Here are the semi-official stats I have so far. I don't have anything for any of his wolf forms, or a list of his specific BBW powers (his bonus feats have been added in, but not his Spell Like Abilities like Gust of Wind that the afflicted BBWs get, this will just get added in a later update.)

Overall the Big Bad Wolf is designed as a creature intended to be able to move away from any situation. It should be nearly impossible for the wolf to be cornered or forced into a tactical situation he doesn't want to be in simply based on his movement powers and spells.

His weapon, the Fang of the Wolf is a dagger forged from one of his own fangs. If stolen, the magical abilities of it will fade within a month. If it is given to someone however, perhaps as a trophy or gift for an impressive act of savagery or intelligence, the magic is sustained. It's also intentionally a dagger to be misleading as to how dangerous his strikes can truly be.

I do not yet have stats for a Dire Wolf or Huge Wolf form for him, this is currently a humanoid/hybrid form possibility.

As always, critiques are welcome and I hope there are folks in the Kingmaker Forums that find this useful in their own games in some way.

....ohhhhhh....righhtttt...the video game series Fable...well now I feel dumb.

Sorry about that, I've just been in a comic book mood lately.

I'd say go Mythic rather than Gestalt in this case, but as others in this thread have mentioned you don't need to go too terribly high up the mythic paths to re-create some of the high tier stuff you get as a main character in the Fable games.

While PCs can dabble in Might, Skill, or Will it does seem to boil down to "Strength" "Ranged Skills" and "Oh-god-why-does-anyone-choose-anything-other-than-magic."

You could mix a couple of the Mythic Paths together to create a "Might" "Skill" and "Will" path. Have each of your characters choose a "Primary" path that they will have higher than the others, but you could work in a system of being able to occasionally choose a power from another path to represent dabbling in some Might so your archer can hit harder, some Skill so your warrior can be a mean sharpshooter, or some Will to gain some magic tricks for your fighter. The possibilities are varied but I think creating these "Custom Mythic Paths" by cobbling together the others would add to the 'feeling' of being a hero in Albion.

I suppose the question would be - are your players supposed to pic a Fable character and develop them within the Pathfinder Rules set to the best of their ability or are they creating 'new' Fables meant to experience the Fables universe?

The other question would be are you using Fabletown or are they supposed to be in the time before that of fighting against the Adversary? (I'm only about 5 graphic novels into the comic myself).

Regardless I don't think there's an easy answer here. The approach I would take is that you're going to need to bend the rules a bit for each character. If they're creating storybook Fable characters of renown then they should each have their own specialty based on their own legends.

For example "Jack of the Tales" is cursed to be unable to see the consequences of his actions, but will always act in what seems to be the best payoff in the short term. His story "power" I would say is that he is always lucky enough to get through the trouble he causes

So if someone were to play "Jack" you could give them a particular 'Hindrance' to coin a Savage Worlds phrase that he should be playing to his character's weakness when it comes to making decisions. The benefit of this would be to give him extra 'luck' such as either a Paladin's charisma bonus to his saves or have him start with an Extra Hero Point every session or simply *give* him a Hero Point everytime he makes a short-sighted decision.

Hope this rambling helps and I look forward to what you come up with.

2) I'm definitely leaning toward Hargulka the Bard. How does it sound if I give him a low voice, with an impeccable English accent, and have him say things like, "Why, yes, you have your little kingdom. And soon, my followers and I shall invade, throw down your walls, enslave your children, and bake your bones into bread. Canape?"

Yes. All of the yes. You should definitely do this. Classy villains are always fun, especially if they're expected to act like a hulking monster.

For fun examples there's the line "You do know what those who underestimate tigers say don't you?"

"No, what?"

"Oh god help me I'm being mauled to death by a tiger."
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/954/shazamtawkyew6.jpg

Overcoming DR 10/Silver and Cold Iron and Epic requires a weapon that is simultaneously cold iron and silver.

Yes. Yes it does. >=3

I particularly like the mythic weakness and the way it ties in with your fairy-tale theme. But if this is Papa Wolf's weakness, look for your players to use it against Nyrissa, too.

Thanks! Also...that was something I had not considered. But I like it. I've already made plans about a more updated story of Zuddiger's Picnic (in the thread called "Zuddiger Publishing") involving the story.

If I go this route, I would likely make it unable to influence her core personality (it may even be likely that Nyrissa was unaware the story would be written, but drove the man insane after discovering it...but there's a lot of leeway there).

The easiest way to tie it further into the story would be making tracking down the original Zuddiger's Picnic a sidequest that could remove any Mythic Ranks Nyrissa has before the group confronts her in book six.

This also provides another narrative perspective regarding Nyrissa and perhaps why she wound up the way she is. "Getting your own written story" would be a very powerful thing for a Fae to undergo. A metamorphosis of sorts since it would allow a fae to change its own nature, whereas they are normally stagnant beings that cannot go against their own rules, even if they don't make sense.

The council of elder fae may have seen her as too uppity because she was trying to get one without going through the proper channels. Or perhaps she wanted to be written as a heroine. As punishment the fae created Briar and doomed her via prophecy to get the story she always wanted, only she would end up cast as the villain instead of the heroine.

...yeah this definitely has some possibilities.

Tentative stats for the Big Bad Wolf OR "Making Mythic Story Monsters is fun but hard."

I wanted to approach this character from the standpoint of most stories that it would appear in. Little Red Riding Hood of course, The Three Little Pigs, and other cautionary tales such as Peter and the Wolf.

The main disctinctions that came to mind were...
1. Trickster. BBW enjoys bantering with its prey, often traveling in humanoid disguises to track something it likes before deciding if its food or not.
2. Lone Wolf. While the BBW has cultist followers and afflicted 'children' the Wolf himself rarely travels with a group or has followers at his beck and call. He hunts alone and lives by his own rules. In this instance, he owes Nyrissa a favor so decided to cause some trouble for "That little spat of a kingdom ruining the way my continent looks" according to the exiled fae queen.
3. The embodiment of what it means to be a Predator. This is not a distinction of good or evil, but the BBW symbolizes within nature the concept of a predator animal. One that hunts, kills, and rules the land that it resides in. This does not necessarily mean the *strongest* animal but the greatest *predator*.

Mythic Abilities (Mythic Rank 6)
+6 Natural Armor
+60 HP
DR 10/Silver and Cold Iron and Epic
Mythic Power - Surge (6/day +1d8)
Ability Bonus - +2, +2, +2
Mythic Feats - Three Mythic Feats (currently listed as Deflect Arrows, Vital Strike, and Power Attack)
Mythic Abilities (He gets up to 6. While I haven't settled on these, I've made a list of thematically appropriate ones so far.)

1. Greensight 60 ft. (Just makes sense for tracking people through the woods.)
2. Dual Initiative.
3. No One of Consequence (allowing him to travel unseen and unremembered through populated areas)
4. Shadow Stealth (for tracking enemies and moving through shadows)
5. Menacing Whisper - playing up to the hunter and trickster aspects of just f%++ing with people that he's hunting.
6. Impossible Speed.
7. That One Ability that allows someone to "mark" a target and be able to track them to the ends of the earth. (Don't have my book in front of me at the moment...)

Unique Weapon
The BBW, when in a humanoid form always carries a simple dagger on his person that was fashioned from his own fang. Stronger than steel its name is Fang of the Wolf (this will likely either be just a strong magical weapon or a minor artifact since it was fashioned from one of his own teeth.)

Mythic Weakness: Fae love stories. They love the spreading of tales from the mouths of mortals because it gives them strength. The more people that know or interpret legends and stories add to the belief that powers these unique fae that sometimes spawn from those stories. This path to power however is a double edged sword. All Mythic Storybook characters are permanently attached (almost as if spiritually chained) to the *first ever written version* of their own story.

Words carry power, and by writing down what this Fae is and how it behaves gives it greater strength, but also permanently binds it to this interpretation in some fashion. It is the core of its being, and while later interpretations may allow the Mythic Storybook character to change part of its nature - it will always remain true to the original interpretation. If this Book was somehow found and re-written (in whatever the original language was of course) it can affect the very soul of the creature.

Destroying the Book will similarly remove its Mythic Subtype and all Mythic Abilities, making it a normal creature of its type.

In addition to its humanoid form, the BBW is able to take the shape of a Wolf, Dire Wolf, or Huge Sized Wolf as a standard action at any time it chooses.

Thoughts? Questions? Criticisms? All are welcome.
Again I would like to thank the awesome people on the Kingmaker forums for offering up these interesting ideas to work with.

Here's an update on the situation so far. We've had one cancelled session on account of weather and just picked up this past tuesday. Taking the awesome ideas in this thread into account here's what I've gone with so far.

Since the group was heading directly West into the forest which would cause them to run into the Jubilost Narthropple expeditions and then the Logger/Melianse standoff in the hex just west of it, I decided to make a trail for the players to follow concerning other wolves.

A few days ago the Narthropple expedition was indeed traveling alongside the river and while their carriage still wound up in the rapids, it was after having the ponies spooked by a group of lumberjacks approaching the gnome expedition, transforming into were-wolves in front of them, and capturing all the gnomes for snacks to feed on later.

So my PCs came across the Narthropple wagon in the river with the ponies having drowned from still being tied to it for a few days.

The Druid used his excellent tracking skills to discern that the folks in the wagon came across medium sized footprints and were apparently carried off by them further into the woods.

Following said trail led them all the way to a small clearing with two cabins that had been built by an enterprising logging company owner named Corax, who has become embroiled in a bitter argument with the nearby Nixie Melianse about chopping down trees. The group solved the dispute (with the Druid spending an Action Point to be able to cast Plant Growth on the stumps of the chopped down trees to replace them the next day - he didn't have it prepared yet) and managed to calm both sides - though melianse refused to give up her charmed loggers until the trees were truly back - even mentioning that the kingdom was looking to expand westward and this clearing would be a perfect place for a Sawmill.

Striking a bargain that Corax and his company would be considered for working rights of the Sawmill managed to make the gruff lumberjack somewhat friendly.

With the current issue resolved for now they asked if they'd seen any small sized groups traveling these parts in a wagon/carriage lately.

Corax knew of the Narthropple expedition but hadn't seen them recently. They helped him with scouting out some potential areas with good lumber though.

While Corax and his group stayed in the first cabin, the second cabin he rented out to travelers or other loggers, allowing them their privacy. After some investigation and probable cause for investigating the other cabin they discovered a makeshift trapdoor that had been built into the floor leading into a 10 foot pit containing the manacled and gagged Jubilost Narthropple and Co. somewhat beat up.

About this time for dramatic effect the eight lumberjacks that had been renting the cabin returned to the clearing and after being confronted revealed themselves as Afflicted Big Bad Wolves.

The fight is where we will pick up next session. I really liked being able to wrap up intended events with the followers of "Father Wolf" (as they've taken to calling him)and how a traveling group of Big Bad Wolves would hide some gnomes underneath the floor to eat every once and a while. Helps with maintaining your average lumberjack disguise if you have a ready supply of food. As an added note, none of the gnomes legs were manacled, only their arms. Running food is often tastier after all.

I do plan on providing evidence for the "Cult of Father Wolf" inside the cabin once it gets investigated and have them attempt to summon him from Thelanis (the plane of existence where most of the Fae live) as a dramatic event later in the year.

As for base "Big Bad Wolf" Cultists I've written them up as 4th Level Ranger Afflicted Big Bad Wolves at approximately CR 4-ish each

The Big Bad Wolf himself is somewhat harder to approach, but I have started working on him. The initial outlook is a 12th Level Bard with Mythic Rank 6 to put him at about CR 15 - making him a good ally for Nyrissa at the End Game for the Heroes to meet again and put him down for good.

Alright so I've done a little bit of investigation on Star Towers and Rovagug. They basically seem like defensive points built periodically at points where Rovagug's squirming might cause a horrible abomination to pop out into the material plane (such as the Tarrasque or any of his other brood, but also possibly natural disasters like Volcanos and Earthquakes).

So my recommendation would be, if you are set on a Demilich and Clockwork soldiers being the ruling force in this tower, then base some if not most of the 'prisoners' here on being things that would have an inherent weakness to Constructs and Undead.

Some basic ideas - Oozes/Gelatinous Cubes. I seem to recall some can't actually hurt objects, which could make construct guardians the best choice to keep them contained.

Creatures specializing in mind-affecting abilities such as Fear, Enchantment or Domination.

Horrible squigly monsters that are just spawns of Rovagug (I'm getting a distinct Lavos and Spawn of Lavos feel from this deity)

You'll also need to decide on whether the warden is still active (or even hostile - after all keeping Rovagug down even got Asmodeus on board with keeping the planet safe) and the reason why it was built. Perhaps there is some spawn of Rovagug that has to be kept dormant through a mixture of various kinds of creatures blood.

The possibilities are pretty varied in this case.

What kind of prisoners do these Star Towers typically hold?

The mystery behind Candlemere seems to vary from campaign to campaign, and in a sandbox like Kingmaker it's easy to manipulate the reasons behind it to be more interesting for your group of players to investigate.

I'm not as familiar with the Golarion setting (or Carrion Crown) but I would question the danger of having a run down tower with a demi-lich and mythic figures about three hexes away from where most kingdoms have their Capital set.

However if the question is "Would it be cool to have an old run down clockwork tower still run by the homunculus of an ancient and powerful evil that also contains timeless powerful creatures within it?"

Then the answer to that is YES ABSOLUTELY.

Making it one of these "Star Towers" could make it seem more 'real' to your players if perhaps they are aware of what these are (either in character or out of character) in Golarion lore.

As-written the tower seems to lean more towards the Cthulhu Mythos as its origins. Is there a particular goal you're wanting to achieve by having Candlemere be a Star Tower as opposed to connected to ancient crazy elder gods?

Excellent ideas all. I really like the overarching ideas for making the BBW a recurring more powerful villain. I'll try to post again later tonight with some more thoughts and possible stats for the storybook trickster.

Alright, so my players are about 1/3 of a way into the events of Rivers Run Red and one of the goals of my Kingmaker In Eberron game has been to emphasize the Fairy-Tale aspect of the Adventure Path.

Nyrissa is in large part (to me at least) a tragic fairy tale character that was cursed by the other High Fae. When Briar was created and Nyrissa became aware of the 'prophecy' that would eventually kill her what she was actually doing was being written into a Fairy Tale.

My PCs unbeknownst to them (so far) are also regular mortals that will be weaving their way into the story until their final confrontation with Nyrissa. I've been making ample use of the 6-player conversion as well as many of the other suggestions here on the Kingmaker page (you guys are awesome btw).

Anyways, the first "Set Event" involving Kundal the afflicted werewolf provided me with an opportunity to make things a little more Fairy Tale-ish rather than have it be a standard werewolf. Part of my approach to this was due to my game being in the Eberron setting where Lycanthropes of all flavors are considered to be fairly rare after a Crusade nearly wiped them all out.

Rather than have it be a standard werewolf I decided to throw in a few elements to make the situation more...interesting.

"The Big Bad Wolf" is in fact a Unique Fae that has the ability to infect people with its 'disease' much in the same way a True Lycanthrope can - however it comes with some varying abilities and powers that I added onto the 6-player Kundal conversion to throw at my players.

This is by no means a complete monster template to add onto anything, just a few changes that struck me as being fun and interesting to add onto an encounter. Balance was not intended or sought after in these changes.

I'll Huff and I'll Puff All Big Bad Wolves have the ability to puff themselves up (appearing a size category larger while they do so) with air before releasing it as a viciously powerful wind. The current version of this afflicted wolf was able to use Quickened Gust of Wind as a Spell-like ability. Anything equal to or smaller than the size of the Big Bad Wolf counts as Small Size for the purpose of the difficulty of walking through the wind or being knocked over.

And I'll Blow Your House Down All afflicted Big Bad Wolves gain Power Attack and Improved Sunder and deal double damage to all unattended objects (such as houses).

But Grandma what Big Eyes you have Big Bad Wolves have an innate ability to sound like someone their intended victim would want to see. An elderly relative perhaps or the voice of a friend from their childhood. This acts as a suggestion effect intended to draw the victim off the beaten path and into the wilderness where it can be attacked and dragged off to be eaten.

The Hair of your Chinny-Chin-Chin One of the more disturbing powers, this is really more of an innate effect of being hunted down and eaten by a Big Bad Wolf. Depending on how long the creature is hunting you, and how afraid the victim is they begin turning into a pig. Both victims (the shepard boy and the maid of the inn) had some of their internal organs transform into pig organs which my players discovered through an autopsy. Some of the 'sheep' that were eaten by the wolf as well were similarly found as fully changed pig carcasses.
(I don't know if pig organs are actually distinguishable from human ones, it was for the sake of the adventure. Also magic.)

While being an afflicted Big Bad Wolf can be 'cured' the same way as normal Lycanthropy, the curse/disease is more powerful and never be truly removed without a Wish or Miracle. To keep the disease at bay the infected can never ingest meat again for as long as he lives.

So my players face the moral dilemma of curing the poor killing machine, and they did. But now they are concerned that there is an original creature out there somewhere that seemed to intentionally infect someone and send them into their town to cause mayhem. So the posse is getting rounded up to go hunting the original Big Bad Wolf in my next session.

I have a few options in this case. Most of these involve making this wolf a 'mythic' monster.

1. Considering that it is a storybook character I have considered making the Wolf an ally of Nyrissa - possibly a recurring villain that could be faced in Thousandbreaths in Book 6. I would likely pump up his abilities in this case so it would be highly unlikely my group could currently face off against him.

2. Make this a memorable one-off encounter. Have a slightly scaled down but beatable Mythic Big Bad Wolf fight in the forest to save their town. This would be the easiest thing to do but I'm not sure how satisfying it would be.

3. Make him the villain of book two. Replace Hargulka and the majority of his forces with The Big Bad Wolf. The motivations could remain largely the same in a "You don't belong here" kind of way. I'm not sure if replacing Trolls with Werewolves would be balanced but it could make my players much more invested in dealing with the problem since they haven't officially met Hargulka yet.

Since the Kingmaker forums have been awesome to me this is just a small attempt to give back to the community. Please let me know if you have any questions or criticisms - definitely looking for some feedback before my next session (which will be Tuesday the 4th of February).

I look forward to hearing how the encounter goes Pennywit. I really like #4 here as well, and plan to use a similar situation.

The last moments of Hargulka that I am planning involve a similar "Did you really think I would bet the soul of this country solely on the outcome of a fist fight with you?" in kind of a Joker-at-the-end-of-The-Dark-Knight kind of way.

Then flash to the citizens in the capital city seeing a form moving through the nearby trees snapping them as they move (though I am sorely tempted to pull an "Attack on Titan" moment over any city walls they have.)

I don't recognize some of the other races, but for the most part they look good. The only changes I can recommend is to give moogles a 30 ft. base speed - they never seemed to let their size slow them down in the games, though if they have a naturally shorter number of movement squares in the tactics games you could go either way.

For the Viera I would give them -2 Strength, +2 Dex, and either +2 Wisdom or Charisma. Their classes seem to focus on ranged attacks or specialized hits with assassination techniques or magical skills mixed in to get a good hard hit in.

Just my two cents, I wish you luck and happiness with your conversions.

You have, of course, seen these, right?

Yes indeed! Those wood block prints are in fact the 'original' version of Zuddiger's Picnic that I intend to use in the game. Again I apologize for not looking up the original creators before I made this post.

The version of Zuddiger's that was released to the public is the much more child-friendly version created by Elizabeth Leib...link found here on the site.
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2l50p?Zuddigers-Picnic-artwork

Both are excellent portrayals of the story and I love being able to use them as different interpretations of what Zuddiger experienced in Thousandbreaths.

Hello fellow Kingmaker fans. So my group is just starting Rivers Run Red and we are working on the kingdom building rules for about a year before jumping back into the game. During this year of settling their land, there are hints that I want to slowly drop on my players to build evidence towards

1. Zuddiger's Picnic and its importance
2. and the idea that there are powerful fae working behind the scenes.

My hints in this case are coming in the forms of dreams for two of my characters so far. While I plan to eventually give dreams to all of my PCs only two have shown themselves to be easy to write for so far.

But before I get to that, the reason for the title of this thread. I like the idea of Zuddiger's Picnic. And I really have found the fan art of the book that has been created to be a wonderful instrument for furthering the story. I intend to use both versions of the story - the light fully colored children's book version (and I apologize for not looking up the creators names before starting this thread) for when the players discover the old book in its publicated form, and the dark creepy wood block prints of the *original* version of the book from Karn Zuddiger himself if they track down his old publisher.

So to create this scenario I wanted to add a bit of background to Karn Zuddiger and the Zuddiger family. While my current game assumes the world of Eberron which has a somewhat more advanced civilization than standard Golarion, I hope that this can be edited rather easily to fit anyone elses version of Kingmaker.

The Story of Zuddiger Publishing
Talented children’s book author and painter, Karn Zuddiger (gnome) is from a long line of storytellers of the Zuddiger family. Every book of the family line begins with the ominous or playful line “All of what follows is true”

The secret to the Zuddiger family’s inspiration is their bloodline dates back to a connection with the First World, and they would often have dreams or inspirational bouts of madness that would allow stories or creatures to be captured with words and pictures. This was never discussed publicly or openly even among the eldest of the family, though a reason for the secrecy was never given.

Famous titles of the Zuddiger family include…
“Through the Looking Glass” – contains information on The Tane, the weapons of destruction of the First World
“Grimm Fables” – contains many of the classic fairytales (with a twist if one so desires to account for the races of the fantasy world)
As well as a slew of other children’s books – feel free to use the titles of childrens books like the works of Dr. Suess to give your players an immediate idea of the kind of books these are. Here are a few suggestions…
“Oh the Planes you will go”
“The Avorial in Boots”
“Blink Dogs with Hats”
“Dorton Hears a Fae”
“The Treax”

Karn Zuddiger, unfortunately the last of his line as he had no surviving descendants, passed away nearly 40 years ago. Two years before his death, Karn was exploring Xen’drik with a hired expedition looking for inspiration for a new children’s story – trying to get away from the onslaught of war propaganda that had filled the newspapers and libraries to justify the ongoing war for succession in Khorvaire. The message changed by country but the players all remained the same. In one book the heroic Aundairian Legion of Dragonhawk Riders would foil the plot of the evil Cyran Nobility. In another the Aundairian Wizards were attempting to destroy the Cathedral of the Silver Flame, only to be thwarted by a small squad of Silver Flame faithful.

All of it was about death. About murder. Karn hoped to find something beautiful and primal in Xen’drik – and he found it. A rare convergence of the planes created a gateway that Karn slipped through by accident…finding himself in the realm of Thousandbreaths. There he met the exiled queen Nyrissa. Days later Karn re-emerged unharmed from the fae realm…but the man was possessed of a passion once back on the material plane.

Karn returned to Khorvaire and spent the next three years working on his next bestseller while ignoring any and all other projects that he was charged with writing. The business was going bankrupt, everything hinged on the last Zuddiger’s “Story to end all Stories”.

A week after the final extended due date, Karn’s friend and publisher went looking for him…and found his home in tatters as if a storm had hit it. It’s said that only Karn’s closest friend and publisher ever saw the room where the original wood block prints were created. The contents found within were never revealed to the public.

Karn Zuddiger was found later that day at the site of a murder, captured, deemed insane and sentenced to death. There were several murders committed by Karn that day with nonsensical images painted on nearby surfaces with his victim's blood. (In the original text in Book 6 it mentions a murder was performed each week until he was caught, either timeframe is viable. This change was largely to show that the events while horrible, were swallowed up and forgotten by the ongoing events of the war being more important. While the murders were scandalous for weeks, perhaps even months, by the end of the year people had moved on through necessity.)

The murders were largely covered up, the scandal of a beloved book author becoming a mass murderer was moved to the back pages of local papers as the news of the ongoing war consumed the daily lives of the people of Khorvaire. Karn was quickly forgotten.

The publisher performed one last act for his friend, to leave a small drop of light on the blotted end of Karn’s legacy. The business’ accounts were settled, the employees laid off, and one final book given a limited run to appease the investors of the company.

One last children’s book – changed drastically from the original woodblock prints found in the dark soot stained room within Karn’s home – was released in a limited run. “Zuddiger’s Picnic”

The prophetic images within have gone unknown in the world for over four decades.

That's what I have so far. Thoughts?

Now to the dreams I have for my PCs so far.

The first dream is for the Ruler of the Kingdom. It's meant to be a part of Nyrissa's story before she became increasingly involved with Ranalc and before her punishment by the rest of the Eldest. It's intended to have kind of a 'cinderella' twist to its feel. Right now it's simply a description of experiences and thoughts and I would really appreciate any assistance in bringing it more to life.

The reason the Ruler got this dream is because of some similarities she has had in her own life so far. While she is the ruler of the kingdom, she recently revealed to the rest of the players that she contains an Aberrant Dragonmark (an Eberron thing that is a social stigma and can be likened to having a mutant power from X-Men. Some go nuts, some are okay, it really depends on who's telling the story.) If it is ever revealed that she has an Aberrant mark, it could cause an uproar of drastic levels (oh I'm looking at a nice increase in Unrest when this eventually happens - though my players will already have issues with declaring that Intelligent Undead and Warforged will be considered citizens with full rights)

The Ruler has also been a disappointment to her parents, a failure to her Dragonmarked House (Lyrandar) and been harassed by an evil stepsister for most of her life.

Here is what I have so far for the dream...
Sometime during your first few months of building your kingdom…you dream. You have another name but you can’t recall it. You are ‘you’ and yet not ‘you’ at the same time. The people around you dress in fine clothes though yours are often ratty and in need of repair. Most of your days are spent toiling thanklessly for your family. But you know that time will soon come to an end. Your beloved, a noble who has begun courting you, has promised to take you away from all of this. Ranalc. He has eyes of purest midnight and a spirit that loves adventure and spontaneity, but you know that you are the one constant in his life. Once you are joined you will be one forever and finally take your rightful place among the first.

Simple and short, but providing a few hints that something weird is going on.

The other dream I have written so far is for the Bard and Investigator in the party. She's distant from her family and often found meaning in reading up on ancient civilizations (attempting to discover what happened to the ancient Giant civiliazation of Xen'drik is one of the reasons she's here).

Here is what I have so far...
Sometime during your first few months of building your kingdom…you dream. You fall asleep at your desk as you do sometimes, and you have a sensation of falling…falling…becoming smaller and smaller until you slip between the very pages of your books. Time has no true meaning in the land of your dreams and so you have no true sense of how long you’re here…but this ever changing landscape resembles old folksy towns, then suddenly vast untamable forests. You travel through the lairs of evil witches with houses suspiciously made of baked goods, and raid a house against your better judgment to eat porridge of varying temperatures. And then there are even stranger scenarios. Colors are more vibrant and alive. Emotions feel more intense than you thought possible. At one point you are a dog that stands on two legs greeting another atop a hill, comparing elaborate hats before passing each other by. You continually try to outdo one another with your elaborate hats. The night continues like this – living or visiting a dizzying number of scenarios where you change form and gender repeatedly. As Auchs wakes you with a gentle shaking of your shoulder in the morning there is only one thing you remember as a single constant of the whirlwind of experiences you lived through the night. One phrase kept repeating in every place, every time, every area. Painted on the walls or spoken by yourself or another – in some way it appeared in every dream.

All Of What Follows Is True.

So! Please let me know what people think. To heavy handed? To vague?

This is officially one of my favorite threads in the Kingmaker forum.

It does briefly mention that the unicorn in book 1, if its spirit is somehow spoken to or returned to life, that it was struck down by "Purest corrupted beauty" (paraphrasing not sure if I remember exactly).

Nyrissa also has been cursed/cast down by the other fae elders so there could be things like "The Lost Grace" "The Exile of the First World" "The Heartless Wretch." "She who will never know love."

Just some suggestions. For better effect you might want to have different NPCs/hints use different names for her to show she multiple 'titles' depending on who is referring to her.

For my group, the Stag Lord didn't arrive on the scene until after a rather large brawl with the Owlbear, the rest of the bandits, Dovan, and Auchs was nearly at an end.

His grand entrance was shooting an arrow through Akiros' back which was unfortunately the first of only two sneak attacks he managed to get (glitterdust and being outnumbered prevented a lot of stealthing).

But as for music...this worked out rather well as the Stag Lord, despite being surrounded, was nearly unhittable for the entire fight.

Battle for Survival

Another thought: After the PCs kingdom is nicely established (say, a couple years in), what if Talonquake becomes an additional kingdom event? Say, there's a 5 percent chance each turn that he comes out of his den and randomly wrecks a square>?

You could list it in the same category as a Dangerous Kingdom Event or even a Dangerous Settlement Event as a creature like that is effectively a natural disaster.

Depending on whether or not your PCs are away when Talonquake begins its attack you could determine how many siege engines are left working by the time they arrive. Distracting and leading it away could be a goal in and of itself (say 3-5 rounds as 'minutes' if you want to while the army mobilizes the remaining engines).

Then you could have the engines do a rolled amount of damage per round while the PCs actively engage it?

If you wanted to reduce its DR but give it Fast Healing or Regeneration/Epic or Fey Bane weapons, that might make it more of a returning hazard as time would become a smaller factor of when it could strike again.

If your aim is for your players to not be able to take it down themselves, but require a different approach rather than "hit it until its HP hits 0" then I'd say you're definitely on the right track.

This could even work as something driven off by their attacks and coming back later once the group levels up a bit.

Do the stats for Armies account for Damage Reduction?

Upon first glance you could practically declare this creature one of the Tane of the First World if you wanted to - it definitely says "City Killer" to me.

Even without any uses of Mystic Power the attack rolls, which with Power Attack should still be hitting easily averages around 20 HP per hit...the secondary save vs any ongoing effect...the damage resistances...the ability to try and block a single attack per round and its DR 10/Epic? Freakin amazing.

Definitely a foe for the ages - it screams "Mythic Encounter".

I'm not too well read on the mythic rules so far but if your players have methods of at least bypassing its DR or Resistances it will probably be a fair, but hard, fight.

Really my only question at this point in regards to making it an encounter with your players - whom you obviously know better than I - is can they actually damage it?

DR 10/Epic is a challenge to most lvl 6 fighters (if they can't bypass it), and Resistance 15 takes a huge chunk of damage away from most spells at that level too (near half on a max damage Fireball or Lightning Bolt).

Actually taking a look at the stats again...it has a Fly Skill modifier? Can this thing fly? Cause that would be hilarious and terrifying at the same time.

Overall, an excellent looking monster.

Excellent observations pennywit. I really like your changes with the bandits, and I've had a few strange wandering monster encounters myself. Most notably a herd of Elk that the group just let wander by and watched from a distance.

My favorite so far was the pack of wolves, led by a dire wolf, that began hunting the party after they smoked the hide of the dire boar Tuskgutter and were dragging literally hundreds of pounds of cooked pork and bacon back with them to Oleg's.

With it being Xen'drik I added a small bit of strangeness to the wolves in that they could naturally tree-stride and their fur coats matched the leafy green of the bushes.

Happs and Kressle similarly went down like punks in my game and the group has been slowly making their way down to the Stag Lord's fort after already having taken care of Tartuk and the Mites.

If the group doesn't get a move on soon Dovan may start to figure out that something's going on...

Also holy crap there's a random weather generator? I totally need to use that.

Kingmaker in Eberron.

My group is still on Book 1, about six sessions in having recently dealt with the Mites and Sootscales and just hitting level 3. They're close to the end of the Book aside from exploration and the big bad.

Please feel free to take a look. Questions and criticism are always welcome and appreciated.

Dotting for Eberron Great Justice.

I'm currently running Kingmaker in Eberron and my group is about five sessions in. While I agree that reclaiming the Eldeen Reaches for Aundair is a good initial substitute for Brevoy/Stolen Lands I decided to go with more of the pulp Indiana Jones feel and have the Twelve fund a group of Dragonmark-related PCs carve out an area of Xen'drik (a good ways south of Stormreach) into a Kingdom.

As for Skull and Shackles...Lhazaar Principalities seems like the perfect stage for pirate-y action. Also airships. Delicious Eberron Airship Battles.

I had initially dismissed Carrion Crown as impossible to run in Eberron but I absolutely love the ideas placed in this thread.

I really like that idea Penny.
One of my goals for my current Kingmaker group is to have every player create two characters. The first set are the ones who go through book 1 and establish their kingdom, the second set of characters are introduced in book 2 sent by their patrons as "a second wave of colonists and experts" essentially.

After this point the group will start governing their kingdom and when missions or events come up that they want to take care of via exploration or fighting off bad guys they can mix and match from their group of PCs who they want to send to deal with it.

So while one group can be out tracking down some trolls, the other group can suddenly find themselves defending the capital from a giant owlbear.

Now I'm really excited about this scenario. This thread is officially awesome.

I've been wanting to run Kingmaker for a couple of years now. There is just something incredibly enticing about a sandbox campaign that plays out over years, possible even generations of PCs.

So finally I started getting things organized and gathered a group of awesome PCs together to start exploring the Stolen Land and forge a new kingdom.

I will admit my favorite tabletop setting is Eberron, so that is the world I am running Kingmaker in (3.5 edition, 4e Eberron and I disagree on some things.)

Rather than be associated with Restov or Brevoy, all of my PCs have a connection to one of the mercantile Dragonmarked Houses, that for millenia have been bound by the Edicts of Korth restricting them from owning any personal land or noble titles within the Kingdom of Galifar. Well thanks to the Last War, the Kingdom of Galifar doesn't exist anymore.

So the think tank of The Twelve that all the Houses have representatives in are sending a group of explorers to Xen'drik the unexplored continent across the sea to initially explore and tame the land - and hopefully in the future found a kingdom by and for the Dragonmarked Houses.

My PCs are...
Alanea Shercroft (d’Medani) (Half-elf Bard (Archaeologist) 1)
A 25 year old female somewhat introverted half-elf from House Medani, Alanea spent most of her youth with her face in a book. Multiple books. Perhaps even all of the books. Rather than possessing the knack for detective work that House Medani is known for, Alanea is a lover of history. Ancient knowledge, lost stories, histories of pre-human cultures…there’s so much knowledge just waiting to be rediscovered! Alanea finished her schooling in multiple subjects at Morgrave University in Sharn and received a degree in Archaeology.

Sidney Xavier d’Cannith – Dragonmarked Scion (Human Artificer 1)
The love child of Tony Stark and Maes Hughes, Sidney d’Cannith is a prodigy of House Cannith’s Southern Division with the ego to back it up. His impressive skills would have led to a promising career climbing the ladder of the House, having obtained a Dragonmark has all but assured it. His precise reasons for traveling to Xen’drik have yet to be revealed though if Sidney is looking to break into uncharted territory for the House – then Xen’drik is the perfect proving ground.

Korin d’Kundarak (Dwarf Barbarian (Invulnerable Rager) 1)
Relatively young by dwarven standards 50 year old Korin is from a great bloodline within the Kundarak House with four older brothers and two younger – each with a Dragonmark. Korin never manifested his own and has struggled to find his place within the house ever since. Still considered a Scion of the upper families of the House Korin could not find his place with the lower families…though due to his failure at the Test of Siberys his place among the higher families was shunned. Living most of his life in Stormreach Korin learned to make friends with other delinquents and oddballs, mostly from other Dragonmarked Houses. Unfortunately many of his friends died in the Last War. Those that did not are slowly moving into their twilight years. Largely written off by his parents Korin views the Charter to explore and tame Xen’drik as his best chance of proving himself to his family and House. Korin’s expertise is largely based in accounting and business management with an unfortunate streak of anger management issues. (One his direct influences is Terry Tate: Office Linebacker)

Tarvis Eathro d’Lyrandar (Half-elf Magus (Staff Magus) 1)
A gifted youth who lived on the streets of Aundair until being found by another member of House Lyrandar. Recognizing that the boy developed a Dragonmark, Tarvis was declared an ‘orphan’ and welcomed into House Lyrandar under the wing of his mentor. Since then Tarvis has grown into his station though to the rest of proper dragonmarked society he’s still ‘new money’. Xen’drik is a proving ground for Tarvis and his first venture out from under the wing of his mentor.

Valerie Anona Ardovini d’Lyrandar (Half-elf Rogue 1)
Valerie is another scion of House Lyrandar though her history differs greatly from Tarvis’. Other Dragonmarked Scions whisper behind Valerie’s back, saying that she is cursed. Valerie’s mother (Anna Colleen d’Lyrandar) was involved in a scandal after she became pregnant after having a little too much to drink at a masquerade ball. Normally such an implication, especially resulting in a pregnancy (since Dragonmarked Houses frequently hold arranged marriages and controlling bloodlines as a high priority for the continuation of Dragonmarked Lines…), was enough to hold the threat of Excoriation over Valerie’s mother…but after seeing her child was a half-elf, House Lyrandar decided not to punish the child for the mistakes of its parent. Eventually Valerie’s mother married another scion of the House (David Mathieu Evered d’Lyrandar), bringing a stern step-father into Valerie’s life along with a jealous step-sister (Roberta Catherine Evered d’Lyrandar) who never forgave her new ‘sister’ for having her father ‘marry down’ in the hierarchy of the House.

David’s stern hand with raising Valerie assured she got into good classes and received the best training though sometimes he pushed the young girl too hard. As with most scions of a Dragonmarked House, Valerie’s future built towards her eventual Test of Siberys to see if she would manifest a Dragonmark. The test went horribly wrong, and her left arm was mangled in the process.

Years have passed since then and the family has since been blessed with three new children. Jackalyn Nadia (13), Sara Garnette (11), and Carl Ignatius (6). Valerie loves her family though stayed out of the public eye as often as she could – eventually emerging back into the political light with a completely prosthetic left arm.

The group is only two sessions in but have decided to take the fight to Kressle's bandit camp as soon as they can, which is where we will pick up in session 3.

It's been really fun so far and the group is excited about the sandbox nature of the area, the quests that give incentives for exploration, and even the cartography aspects of filling out their own map.

The Pathfinder Beta release was the main reason I started going to GenCon, and I've been going every year since.

Your game is fantastic and you treat your customers/rabid fans with pride and respect. I am very proud of Paizo and plan to have my beaten up copy of my Beta on my gaming shelf for years to come. It reminds me that there are gaming companies that want to create a good game, and that the input of their players actually means something to them.

That keeping a loyal following requires consistent, if not constant, interaction with customers for their input and feed back.

Making the Alpha and Beta versions of the Pathfinder RPG a free interactive experience with the developers of the game was the crowning stroke of brilliance for this wonderful game.

Thank you for the PRPG, and I look forward to purchasing Paizo Products for years to come.

A rather brilliant idea a friend of mine came up with that I am using for my own version of Warforged is making their 1st level "Warforged Armor" feats (Mithral/Adamantine/Composite) as their Alternate Racial Traits such as the ones created in the Advanced Players Guide.

It provides options for a starting Warforged PC, and it doesn't kill their 1st level Feat anymore.

If you're keeping a lot of their same immunities from 3.5 when converting to Pathfinder then I wouldn't worry about giving them Toughness as a bonus feat, they've already got plenty of boons without having an extra set of hit points - which if they really want they could just either get a high CON or use their Favored Class bonus for extra HP.

I also agree that the Warforged should have either a Wisdom OR a Charisma penalty, whichever feels more appropriate to you. Both reasons are valid and I like the sort of naivete it places on the young race that they just don't understand the other people or things around them.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your version of Warforged.

My only concern with making Dragonmarks as sorcerer bloodlines or Oracle mysteries, and Aberrant marks as Witch Archetypes is the implied power of NPCs in the setting. Now, everyone's version of Eberron differs by their own perceptions but I always liked the idea that most notable NPCs with Dragonmarks, such as most of the House leaders, had a lot of hit dice to be able to gain the dragonmark Feats but their class levels were almost always NPC levels.

If suddenly every NPC with a dragonmark is a sorcerer/oracle/witch that shakes part of the assumptions of the campaign setting.

Making them part of the Eldritch Heritage feat tree is not a bad idea but I think you can get more mileage and less of a headache out of adjusting the original trio of Dragonmark Feats than trying to create 10+ sorcerer/oracle bloodlines/mysteries and then shoehorn what abilities NPCs could get from the Eldritch Heritage feats.

As for the Varisian Tattoo feat I believe there were very similar feats printed in the Dragonmarked book (though many of the feats in there were fairly crappy), but I think this is closer to the answer you're looking for.

The Tattooed Sorcerer is an interesting archetype however and I could see how it would be intriguing to use in Eberron, especially with Dragonmarked characters. I think it would work well as a "Dragonmarked Heir" archetype or that the abilities could be used as a skeleton model for what you're looking for in a super-dragonmarked-character.

Always willing to share my two cents on Eberron, good luck with finding your version of it. =)

ROCK OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN whoa whoa...whoa whoa...whoa yeah heahehaehea...

Dragonmarks seemed to be, in 3.5 at least, modeled to allow someone to take the Least feat at 1st level, the Lesser feat at 6th lvl and the Greater feat at 9th level, with the Siberys Prestige Class being available at 12th Level.

To Reflect the feat change progression in Pathfinder I would suggest changing the level prerequisites to 1st, 5th, 9th.

The Dragonmarks themselves are rather powerful weak as currently written as well, while I have simply made them more powerful in my own version of Pathfinder Eberron that may not be what you are looking for.

Just my two coppers.

For wilderness exploration as well as showing the various aspects of the Eldeen Reaches I think the first two Kingmaker modules work very well in Eberron. Take what you want, because there are ideas a-plenty. Particularly you can use the various Eldeen Ranger factions if you want as there are at least four if I recall correctly - one of which (The Greensingers?) are attached to the Fae.

There are also pockets of demon infestations in the Reaches if I remember correctly which you can use a lot of hooks with.

If your question is "Would this work in Eberron?" then my answer is "YES!"

Are there any more specific queries you have such as where to fit in particular parts or events from the modules? Any parts of Eberron you want to make sure gets used?

Cool, thank you Tilnar.

This actually brings up a question about the Ranger though. They don't actually get a Caster Level until level 4 when they gain access to 1st level spells. I assume that a Ranger below level 4 cannot use a wand of CLW simply because he does not have access to magic yet. Is this correct?

If so I assume it works the same way with Paladins.

Ello again everyone. Not sure if this is technically a "conversion" appropriate thread but this is where I usually post anything related to Eberron so I figured why not?

I'll be starting up a pathfinder eberron mini-campaign (4-5 adventures long) and while I have a general outline of the plot, I could always use some extra insight from other forumites and fellow eberron fans.

Anyways the model of this campaign is after the B.P.R.D. organization from Hellboy, a mismatched group of somewhat supernatural/talented adventurers called in to investigate things that other people just can't deal with. There are things that go bump in the night. These are the groups that bump back.

Overview: A long time ago during the Age of Demons the Rakshasa Rajahs waged war against the forces of the Dragons and the Couatls across Eberron. At the end of this time all of the Rajahs were defeated, though most were simply bound as killing them proved to be nearly impossible.
One such Rajah is the dreaded Raan Iishiv, who when defeated was taken to the continent of Sarlona and bound underneath the land near the country of Adar (where the Kalashtar are from). The anger of this bound Rajah caused the land to explode, forming a volcanic mountain where he was kept. To channel the rage of this demon the Dragons created an Artifact made of Three Connecting Dragonshard - a khyber, siberys, and eberron respectively. This came to be called "The Teeth of the Three" and is the reason for the strange weather around Adar.

What begins as an investigation into a Brelish intelligence agent turned rogue turns into a world-spanning trip to discover the machinations of the Lords of Dust, a group of powerful Rakshasas who wish to free their Rajah masters and once again gain control of the world...

The adventures I *want* to use for this story are...(in the order I hope to run them)
The party starts at lvl 5 and the goal is to end the campaign at lvl 10.

So please fellow eberron fans take a look, and let me know what you think. I'm always open to criticism and if any of these adventure summaries give you ideas please share them. =)

First the Vodoni hit Sarlona. It has worked to isolate itself from the world, so the reasoning is take them out & few are likely to notice. They accomplish some of this with an artifact created when the gods of Vodonispace where trapped. A large crystal that allows the Fleet Commander to isolate large areas of a world from planar contact.

1. Combined with other magics, the Quori are effectively ejected from Sarlona.

2. Next major target will be the Demon Wastes. They don’t want rakshasa trying to take over after they conquer everything. Also, the use of the artifact isolates a major part of Khorvaire from the planes.

3. Namely Eberron's Fey from the Eldeen Reaches.

4. Their next goal, begin invading Khorvaire proper. Open with the artifact over Sharn. Destroys the manifest zone & most of the towers crumble. A terror attack of massive proportions. Now the kingdoms can’t produce more airships. Vodoni have cannon & firearms. They have air superiority. This stage is a war.

5. Towards the end, the dragons finally react & help drive off the invaders. Captured intel allows Spelljamming & PCs are tapped to go look for help. Pretty sure that if something isn’t done, the invaders will return. This starts the core part of the Under the Dark Fist module.

Now, what the PCs will be doing during this:...

Hey Xoriael. Had a little while to think about your campaign idea and wanted to throw some ideas at you. It sounds like you have a really solid foundation which is the hardest part (in my opinion) of starting an AP.

1. I have to admit I had a little schadenfreude at the idea that the Quori get their asses kicked off of Sarlona. Though this artifact does bring possible side effects. If it only affects Sarlona, keep in mind that there are Inspired ambassadors all across khorvaire that (if they are possessed) return to Dal Quor every night - and time travels differently there. I believe they have three days versus our 8 hours of night.

If there is the possibility of a counterattack or at least figuring out what is going on the Quori would probably be the fastest to *realize* especially if they suddenly cannot go back to Riedra. This of course would likely cause the social collapse of the entire country without the Quori to guide the people there. How fast they do so is up to you.

Edit: If this effect covers the entirety of Sarlona (and not just Riedra) then this could adversely affect the Kalashtar of Adar as well. Possibly even killing them all by ripping half of their soul apart.

2. I can't really find out anything bad about taking out the demon wastes. It makes sense from a power point of view, and would probably throw people off from sensing that something terrible is about to happen. After all a bunch of demons just disappeared, that's a cause of celebration to me. Maybe the barbarians that live there could have an idea that something is coming - but who would believe them? Plus I don't believe they usually ever leave the demon wastes.

3. The population of the Eldeen Reaches would realize something terrible is happening - in particular probably the Gatekeeper faction of (traditionally half-orcs). This would be another way to "get the word out" or at least have rumors start spreading.

4. It sounds like you want an independence day scenario of "Holy crap aliens and they're exploding all of our nice things." Depending on how wide spread you want this destruction to be there are some nice floating arcane schools in Aundair, Flamekeep in Thrane, the ziggurat of the Twelve in Karrnath, and I'm sure the Lord of Blades has some sort of precious location in the Mournlands.

5. Bringing the Dragons in is a difficult thing to do. You don't really give an indication of *how soon* they will be brought in to help, and I'm not really familiar the adventure module you're using so I'm not sure how much of this AP you're working on is supposed to take place on Eberron or not. BUT if the dragons are aware of what was going to happen because of their Draconic Prophecy and that people would need a way to escape to the stars then it all kind of works out. One of the things I would suggest if the players are concerned with "There is a continent of Dragons and they're only NOW coming to help us after everything has exploded!?" is that the concerns of dragons are not the concerns of other mortal races.
The last time the Dragons of Argonesson stepped in to fix a problem? they burned Xendrik to the ground

One last thing to keep in mind is that often when an area is attacked by an outside force, many people are willing to set aside their differences to repel the invader. While the Quori and the Dreaming Dark are considered antagonists their goal is stagnation not evil - they just view the world differently than we do.
An interesting possibility would be for all the different "factions" at work in Eberron to work together to find a way to repel these Vodoni. Such as the Daelkyr providing weird cthulhu-esque technologies so they can travel through different dimensions of space. Dragons providing lost technology and magic usually considered too advanced for the other 'young' races. The Quori acting as intelligence gatherers and providing weapons and psionics.

Just a bunch of ideas I figured I'd throw at ya. =)

So she's a more likeable asian version of Morrigan from Dragon Age? I am totally okay with this.

...and now she's a tsundere in my head.

I know, I know. Not another one. Well, thanks to the new playtest, there is another one. Also, this is about finding the original poster of the document I am going to link here for Eberron Conversion & House Rules. If you recognize your handywork, please let me know. I have edited the file, but not that much. I used the ARG Playtest, but some of the racial abilities had no analog, so I had to wing it. It would take a long time to explain all of my reasoning, but suffice to say I like them & will be trying them out soon. If you have specific questions on the races, I will answer them, but I am not changing them. LOL, your reasoning may be different. I am waiting to see what happens in game play. Maybe you will offer your takes on these races instead, because somebody may like yours better.

=) my converted traits and religion chart! I hope they've been of use to you.

Seeing that just made my day. ^_^

Flotsam, Jetsam, now I've got her boys. The boss is on a trollllllllll....

As long as the entire kingdom regularly gathers around to listen to their charismatic leader sing a robust version of "New York New York" this will work out fine.