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I was surprised that I did not receive a Holiday Card in either of my last two monthly shipments this year. Is Paizo not doing the Holiday Card this year? They always brought a smile to my face.
Still waiting on mine. Anyone have a list of monsters included in this?
Ma'am, what is that awful stench.
Is there a way to get rid of the hampered condition? It persists even if I start a new character.
Laura Bailey <harp music>
Now I want a race of hairy lizards
That seems likely to me that its a leftover from the playtest and they meant to change it to stabilize at zero. I still would like an official reply from Paizo though. Whether or not a PC can get back to the fight is a pretty big deal.
On page 460, it says spending you Hero Points causes you to return yo 1 HP. However, on page 467 it says that doing so onky stablizes you at 0 HP. Which one is thr correct ruling?
The PCs: Fumbus, Kyra, Merisiel, Seoni, and Valeros Note: I had chosen Prakhavu to be the murder prior to running this adventure. GETTING STARTED Sebnet Sanserkoht met the PCs and gave them their briefing. I attempted to talk fast to roleplay the excitable gnome, although this was no very practical for mission briefings, so I ended up having to repeat myself. Before heading to the scene of the crime, the PCs decided to go shopping first, so I had someone direct them Ladhlia. Ladhilia attempted to interest Merisiel in a variety of trinkets, but the PCs were specifically looking for something useful against golems, so Ladhilia naturally tried to sell them some Quantium Adamantine Blanch. The balked at the 15 gp price and decided to come back later. They then headed to the scene of the crime. A. THE SCENE OF THE CRIME The party conversed briefly with the guards before heading inside. Fumbus chatted one up and commented on what nice armor he had while tugging on his coat, annoying the poor man. He also noted that he had a Qunatium admantine blanch and used Thievery to pickpocket it. This combat probably lasted longer than it should have for a couple things. First, the PCs initially tried to calm down/reason with the flesh golem, thinking it was perhaps a bodyguard of Kefanes that the Nexian guard captured by mistake (inspired in part by us having played Trial of the Beast about 1-2 years ago). I made it clear that was not the case by having it cry out "Kill Kefanes!" as it make berserk slam attacks, but they still wasted a full round or two on such tactics. During this time they focused heavily on the adamantine shards, thinking that if they removed them it would calm the flesh golem down. I had to make some spot rulings. Kyra cast Mending on the shards. I had the flesh golem make a Fortitude save against her Spell DC, which he critically succeeded at, so I said this did not damage but the shards merged into a single spike. Merisiel then used Pickpocket and Thievery to remove the spike, which I said she could treat as an adamantine dagger. This would be moot as she also took the adamantine sword offered by the guard (I rolled randomly to see if this was the same guard that Fumbus had robbed, but it was the guard that still had his adamntine blanch) and used that weapon instead. Second, Kyra rolled a natural 1 on her Recall Knowledge about flesh golems, so I told her that they were immune to fire; this would limit her effectiveness and severely cripple Seoni's in this fight.
The learned that prier to their encounter, the golem had suffered three sets of wounds; fire damage from the fireball trap, the adamantine shards (although the could not identify the trap), and fragments of sand and stone. They also found the supplies from Ladhila, promting a return visit. OUT OF THE BLUE After making their Diplomacy check and returning the supplies to her, Ladhlia told her what she knew about Kefanes and introduced the PCs to the two suspects, the Mwangi transmuter Ngasi and Vuldrani conjurer Prakhavu. The PCs immediately suspected Ngasi due to her association with the fleshforges (thinking that was connected to the flesh golem). Ladhlia also gave them a second adamantine weapon blanch for returning her supplies. SOLE-SEARCHING This "encounter" was short and sweat. Rather than a straightforward combat or skill check, this presented the PCs with a rather unique dilemma--how to retrieve the the body from what was clearly a "monster" beyond their power level. However, Seoni solved this problem with three castings of Telekinetic Manuever to disarm the golem. An investigation of Kefanes's body revealed similar sand and stone wounds as on the flesh golem. They also found a letter offering to buy the Collected Directives written by someone with a native language of Mwangi, which would implicated Ngasi (I had decided beforehand to have this letter actually be from Ngasi instead of Prakhavu and not falsified evidence as I reasoned she could have made legit offer to purchase the book separately from Prakhavu's more nefarious means of obtaining the tome. B. UNSUBTLE WARNING Making their way back to Nexus House for dinner, they party were ambushed by the ifrit Keeamah and three (increased from two for five players) fire elementals. The elementals did some damage, were quickly dispatched in not small part from Seoni's Rays of Frost and Fumbus's liquid ice bombs. Keeamah had failed to land a single Strike from her crossbow (despite using Favored Aim) and surrendered once the fire elementals were bested in part due to a successful Intimidate check from the PCs. She offered to reveal her employer in exchange for the party letting her go free, which they accepted. She revealed that she had been hired by Prakhavu. The PCs pressed her on how much she was paid, which I improvised was more magic crossbow. Merisiel then demanded she turn over her crossbow as well. Keeamah objected stating that wasn't part of their deal and tried to slip away. Merisiel then attacked, and the party came to her aid when Keeamah responding with a casting of burning hands. As her HP were swiftly disappearing, Keeamah shouted "Here, take it" and threw her crossbow at Merisiel's face (she hit and dealt 1d6+2 damage, which was enough to knock Merisiel out after the fire elementals and burning hands). The party let her escape as they teneded to Merisiel instead. INTERMISSION The party regrouped with Sebnet and compared notes. Sebnet obtained invitations to the Merchant's League Soiree where they could confront Prakhavu. MERCHANT'S LEAGUE SOIREE The party started by mingling and learning some more information about Prakhavu, which garnered the attention of Ngasi. She granted them a Scroll of Hypnotic Pattern and pointed out its usefulness against conjurers. (Seoni would neglect to use this scroll in the fight to come). The PCs learned that Prakhavu and an apprentice were seen headed to the garden, and went to confront him there. C1. A BRUSH WITH HISTORY This encounter was omitted due to time. C2. SHOWDOWN IN THE GARDEN The PCs arrived to find Prakhavu ready for them, having already summoned an Animated Statue (buffed with Augment Summoning) in addition to casting his buff spells. As I had 5 PCs, he was jointed by two additional (non-augmented) Animated Statues in addition to his apprentice. The PCs noted the water elementals in the fountain, but they would not factor into the final encounter. Kyra attempted to Intimidate Prakhavu into surrendering and rolled a natural 20. I had the apprentice turn to Prakhavu in question, only to have Prakhavu rebuke him while hurtling insults at the PCs. As the PCs began to enter the room, and Prakhavu cast Stinking Cloud on them while directing the augmented Animated Statue to attack. His apprentice used his scroll to cast Web to entangle them within the stinking cloud while the other two Animated Statues also moved in to attacked. Merisiel used her magic crossbow to shoot at Prakhavu while Fumbus, Valeros, and Kyra engaged the statues in melee. Seoni was stuck in the stinking cloud/web and could not assist until she freed herself. Merisiel's attack drew Prakhavu's attention and he blasted her with heightened Acid Arrow. Fumbus then began lobbing Acid and Alchemist's Fire boms at Prakhavu and his apprentice. Prakhavu blasted all save Fumbus with a Fireball (and destroyed the Web) while the apprentice moved away from Prakhavu (after being rebuked for standing next to him while the alchemist lobbed bombs at them) and cast Flaming Sphere on Fumbus (Fumbus critically succeeded on his save). The statues downed first Merisiel than Valerous, and Kyra began burning through her channels to Heal them and keep them fighting. Merisiel went after Prakhavu with her rapier and was downed a second time by a barrage of magical missiles. Freed from the Web, Seoni began supporting the PCs against the statues. Valeros and Kyra had managed to break the one statue's armor leaving it more vulnerable to attacks. Fumbus evaded the apprentice's Flaming Sphere a second time (another critical success!) and struck the man with his dogslicer, sending the man fleeing for his life. A barrage of magical missiles followed by splash damage from Fumbus was enough to down Merisiel a second time while the statues would fell Valeros twice more as Kyra repeated revived him with Heal spells (as well as using one on herself to remain standing). One of the animated statues fell (the one with the broken armor), but the other two (including the augmented one) remained. Merisiel used a hero point to revive herself to 1 HP and she retrieved and attacked once more with her rapier. Valeros and Fumbus also closed for melee with Prakhavu, who fell to their combined assault. The conjured animated statue vanished. At this point, Sebnet and a half-dozen guards arrived (with the apprentice whom they captured en route) to help clean up the remaining animated statue and recover the Collected Directives.
And now the promised dragon fight P5. THE COUNTDOWN COURT Since the party had just fought the Shoggoth in the next room, I reasoned that the green dragon Aetperax and his allies were able to pre-buff for the fight and Aeteperax had cast Spell Turning on himself. Since the PCs were not stealthy, Aeteperax and the 3 Deh-nolos also all had cast Haste just before the party opened the door. They would all mainly use this bonus action to fly, allowing all to both cast a Spell (or Breath Weapon) and make a Strike each turn. AETPERAX ROUND 1 The green dragon Aetperax and the Deh-nolos won initiative and acted first. Aeteperax started by flying towards the party with his Hasted action, used his poison Breath Weapon, and then attempted to Demoralize one of the PCs who saved against his Frightful Pressence (McBlasty I believe). With the party realling from Aeteperax's frightful presence, the Deh-nolos attempted to further weaken their Will saves with Feeblemind, targeting Dweevil, Scruffy, and McBlasty. Scruffy failed his save and suffered a -4 penalty to Will saves throughout the fight. They followed up by taking to the air and using a Synthesized Crystal ranged strike (I rolled a d4 each time to determine whether the energy damage was 1 acid, 2 cold, 3 electricity, or 4 fire). Falkin used his Wish (the party's last) to wish for his Dwarven Thrower to be Dragon Slaying. Looking through the Weapon Property Runes, I ruled that his Dwarven Thrower would function as a Vorpal Weapon against dragons (giving him about 20% to instantly-kill Aetperax on a critical hit). McBlasty blasted Aetperax and his allies with a Meteor Swarm, and Dweezil cast his favorite spell, Divine Aura, to grant the party a +2 AC against evil creatures. Scruffy retrieved and downed a Greater Potion of fly, and used his third action to active his Dueling Dance. AETPERAX ROUND 2 Aeteperax followed up with a Chain Lightning spell (heightened to 7th level), then Striking McBlasty with his tail and downed McBlasty (and made his save against Divine Aura). The Deh-nolos then either cast Dominate or Feeblemind (depending on their saves last round) on the remaining 3 PCs, with Scruffy being Dominated while continuing to Strike with their Synthesized Crystals. Falkin began striking the Aeteperax with his Dwarven Thrower, but unfortunately did not land a critical hit. Dweevil cast Regenerate on McBlasty (which allowed him to yo-yo back to health throughout the rest of the fight). Dominated Scruffy struck Dweevil, with Falkin using his Retributive Strike to lessen the damage. After this first round of Domination, Scruffy made his Will save to break its effects. McBlasty regenerated and cast Cloudkill on two Deh-nolos in close proximate, but sadly they were immune to the poison. AETPERAX ROUND 3 Aeteperax next cast Horrid Wilting on the party, downing McBlasty a second time. He followed up with another tail Strike. The Deh-nolos contunied to Dominate or Feeblemind as applicable and attack with their Synthesized Crystals. Falkin continued to attack with Dwarven Thrower (still no critical hits) while Dweevil cast a second Regenerate on Scruffy (who was still standing but low on Hit Points). Scruffy flew over to one of the Deh-nolos (the one no in the Cloudkill) to attack, drawing an attack from Aeteperax's Twisting Tail. This disrupted his first move action so he used all his movement to close for melee. McBlasty regenerated again and cast Disintegrate at Aeteperax, who used Spell Turning to turn the spell back at McBlasty; however, the ranged touch roll was not enough to strike its uninteneded target. AETPERAX ROUND 4 Aeteperax then cast a Polar Ray at Scruffy, downing him while he continued to attack with tail Strikes. Scruffy fell, but would be back thanks to regenerate. The lone Deh-nolo by him cast Mirror Image at this time, while the other two cast Synesthesia at the other PCs. Naturally, they all continued to fire more Synthesized Crystal strikes as well. Falkin continued to pound at Aeteperax with his Dwarven Thrower (still no crits). Dweezil cast Blade Barrier on Aeteperax and all three Deh-nolos. Scruffy recovered and landed a critical hit, dropping a Mirror Image and striking the Deh-nolo. McBlasty used his Staff of Evocation to cast Cone of Cold on Aeteperax (the Deh-nolos were all spread out too much to also catch in the blast at this point). AETPERAX ROUND 5 Aetwowerax had finally recharged his breath weapon and struck again at the party (save Scruffy who was not clustered near the other PCs). He flew closer towards the party to extract himself from the Blade Barrier and switched to Striking with his jaws with his third action. Scruffy's Deh-nolo moved out of the Blade Barrier as well, drawing an AoO. He then successfully cast Synesthesia on Scruffy and followed up with a bite Strike. The other two moved out of the Blade Barrier as well and attempted to mix things up as the party were frequently making their Will saves cast True Strike followed by Enervation, but these attacks both missed their targets. Falkin cast Lay on Hands, which thanks to Greater Mercy, negated the slow effect from the Prismatic Spray. I had some confusion as whether this would negate the Flesh to Stone effect completely since its dropped him to Slowed 0 (I believe so), and also whether this means he has 3 total actions this turn or just 2 (I believe 2 is correct as if I am not mistaken PCs get actions at the START of their turn, when he was still Slowed). He then made another Strike against Aeteperax (still no critical hits). Dweevil cast Heal on himself while Scruffy made three Strike on the Deh-nolo with no hits. McBlasty cast another Cone of Cold, this time catching both of the other Deh-nolos along with Aeteperax in the blast. AETPERAX ROUND 6 Aeteperax next cast Prismatic Spray on all save Scruffy, with Dweezil taking electricity damage, Falkin getting hit with a Flesh to Stone, and McBlasty a poison spray. He followed up with another jaw Strike. Scruffy's Deh-Nolo attempted to cast Phantasmal Killer on him, but his spell was interrupted by an Attack of Opportunity (which succeeded to hit true against the Deh-Nolo despite both having concealment from Synesthesia and 2 remaining Mirror Images). He then attacked with a bite Strike. The other two Deh-Nolos, seeing most of their spells fail against the PCs, opted to erect Mirror Images of their own as the continued to Sythesized Crystal assault. Falkin continued to attack with his Dwarven Thrower (still no critical hits) while Dweevil returned fire on the Deh-Nolos. Scruffy whittled down his Deh-nolos Mirror Images. McBlasty cast another Cone of Cold, dropping Aetperax. CLEAN-UP With Aetperax down, the Deh-nolos were little challenge to the party. Scruffy dropped his Deh-nolo with another Attack of Opportunity provoked as the Deh-nolo attempted to renew its Mirror Images, and the party quickly finished the other two. AFTERMATH Afterwards, the party elected to rest before attempting the Desynchronization Ritual. Dweevil cast one restoration on Scruffy before resting and another the next morning to completely remove his stupefied condition. They other effects on the party all dissipated on their own.
Thanks for commenting. I appreciate it. I will post a summary of the dragon fight late tonight when I have some more time. I also wanted to add that the party was fully rested before starting the ritual and had full HP, powers, and no residual conditions.
Posting out of order here, but I wanted to post a detailed blow-by-blow of the Ramlock fight while it was still fresh in my mind. EVENT 2: DESYNCHRONIZATION RITUAL Things started out slow as the party beging rolling their Occultism and Perception checks to gain axiom points, with the pendulum harassing the party members as they went. Dweevil cast Divine Aura to boost everyone's AC and with some improving dice rolls, they accumulated 12 Axion points, triggering the arrival of Ramlock. I believe each PC was hit at least once. RAMLOCK ROUND I: Ramlock started 120 feet up from the party. Scruffy, having used the last of his fly potions, moved over towards Dweevil in preparation for an Air Walk spell. Ramlock was next an opened things up with a Time Stop. With his Superior Quicken Casting, he cast a total of five spells in this time: Black Tentacles, Blur, Haste, Scintillating Pattern, and Spell Turning. Note that Time Stop allows for the casting of ongoing effects such as Black Tentacles and Scintillating Pattern since they are not direct attack spells. Falkin and McBlasty continued on the ritual, but at the end of his turn Falkin critically failed an was also stunned (McBlasty, form his Wish used last session, was given a Spell Check to counteract the confusion, but rolled natural 1). Dweevil granted Scruffy the requested Air Walk spell while maintaining his Divine Aura. Dweezil made the save against the scintillating Pattern (and thanks to Divine Will suffered no ill-effects), but was grapple by the Black Tentacles. RAMLOCK ROUND II: Scruffy spent another round on the ritual, waiting for Ramlock to get closer. Ramlock then cast Weird on the party dealing upwards of 60 damage to everyone, except Scruffy who made the save and took half. Using his Hasted action, he then flew done 60 feet (note because he is flying downwards he can move at double the normal speed). This put everyone in the Mind Quake Aura. McBlasty failed the save and was Confused for 1d6 rounds and Stupefied 2 while Scruffy critically failed and became Confused for 10 minutes and Stupefied 4 (McBlasty, form his Wish used last session, was given a Spell Check to counteract the confusion, but rolled natural 2). Dweezil made the save against Mind Quake (a critical success again thanks to Divine Will). Ramlock, seeing that Dweezil was the only one not confused, used his Superior Quickened Casting to cast Warp Mind on Dweezil, which Dweezil failed and became confused as well for 1 minute. McBlasty rolled a 2 on Confusion and attacked himself with his magical rapier, and Falkin was stunned. Dweezil rolled a 1 and attacked the nearest creature (Scruffy), trapping them both in what I call a Confusion lock since they have to keep attacking each other. RAMLOCK ROUND III: Ramlock then flew down to the platform and attacked McBlasty with his tendril, then Tendril Slammed him twice into Falkin. Falkin attempted to attack Ramlock with his Dwarven Thrower but missed whereas McBlasty cast Imploision (making the Spell Roll against Ramlock's spell DC to prevent failure due to the Stupefied condition) against Ramlock (Ramlock attempted to use Spell Turning on it, but with a -10 penalty from the level difference, was unable to do so; he saved and took half damage). Dweezil and Scruffy continued to beat on each other. RAMLOCK ROUND IV: Ramlock cast Power Word Kill to finish off McBlasty. He then spent one action to detach him from his Tendril, used his Hasted action to attack Falkin, and then bashed Falkin into Scruffy with Tendril Slam. Falkin continued to be ineffective with his Dwarven Thrower. Dweezil was next in the initiative order, attacking Scruffy and drawing his attention back to him instead of Ramlock since he was the last one attacked. RAMLOCK ROUND V: Scruffy struck down Dweezil on his turn. Ramlock Tendril Slammed Falkin twice more into Scruffy and dropped him, and then used his third action to cast Power Word Kill on Falkin to finish off the party resulting in a TPK, which since the party was unable to stop the convergence between Golarion and Aucturn stands for Total Planetary Kill. THOUGHTS: First of all, in my opinion, the party made two big tactical mistakes. First of all, they had burned through all their Wishes in the Star-Spawn fight and the Dragon fight. All of them were mostly ineffective, with McBlasty being the only one that had any benefit. Had they saved all 4 (or 3 and continued to make ritual checks), they could have used them the round Ramlock appeared and easily finished the ritual. Second, the players had been so used to saving Hero Points for Death and Dying that none of them thought to use 2 to reroll on of their saves against Scintillating Pattern, Mind Quake Aura, or Warp Mind, which together crippled the party's ability to be in any way effective. Also, I think the Solo Boss Monster fights seem overly difficult and not at all on par with similarly Difficult encounters containing multiple enemies. Monster that are 3 levels (and sometimes even 2 levels) higher than the PCs are significantly more powerful. This really highlights how significant a +2 or +3 bonus is in the Playtest. That said, I had a blast with most of Doomsday Dawn, with the exception of the Mirrored Moon (to be fair I am not a fan of sandbox adventures in general).
The party uncovered the revelations contained within the Last Theorem and their associated boons, included each getting access to a single-use wish. I also had the Budding Osirionologist (Scurffy) recognize the Four Pharaohs of Ascension in the vision, and the Pathfinder Hopeful (Falkin) recall that a group of Pathfinders had discovered the Veinstone Pyramid about 11 years ago to incorporate their backgrounds. Keleri suggested they rest before traveling to Ramlock's Hallow while she obtained a scroll of plane shift, and the party were more than happy. Even though they were at full health, the casters had expended many spells and were eager to regain them. They did not critically succeed on their Occultism check to learn more about the Hallow and did not learn about the time dilation effect, so they think they are on a much shorter clock than they actually are. Upon arrival, Dweezil cast light so that he and Scruffy could see without a Concealment in the low-light setting of the Hallow. The party identified the lone star as the planet Aucturn and traveled towards Ramlock's workshop. The Ashen Man greeted them at the entrance shaft and asked his questions. The party mostly played along, except for McBlasty who talked back to him, and earned himself a sullen glare (and the Frightened 1 condition for 24 hours). The Ashen Man then departed, leaving a Weak Star-Spawn of Cthulhu to attack the party. ENCOUNTER O: THE VEINSTONE PLAZA The Star-Spawn won initiative, and they party became various levels of frightened by its Frightful Presence. The Star-Spawn immediately cast Warp Mind on Scruffy, who failed the save and was confused for 1 minute. It then used its Overwhelming Mind on Falkin, who on a critical failure became permanently confused. The two of them would spend most of the fight attacking each other. The Star-Spawn's Mental Dominance aura shut-down most of McBlasty's spell casting. Dweevil fared better against the Will save and managed to cast Divine Aura and Flame Strike, and noted that the fire negated the Star-Spawn's regeneration. The Star-Spawn focused its attention on Dweevil, grappling him in his tentacles. Critically failing an escape attempt resulted in him being restrained while the Star-Spawn struck him with his tentacles and constricted him for additional damage. This wore really not going well for the party. McBlasty attempted to use a Wish to end the confusion on both Falkin and Scruffy ("I wish that Falkin and Scruffy will no longer be confused ever."). However, since Wish is a 10th level spell, and both the Star Spawn's Warp Mind and Overwhelming Mind abilities are also 10th level effects, I had him roll a counteract check on both effects, and he failed both times. The Star-Spawn downed Dweevil and moved to attack McBlasty. Falkin critically missed Scruffy, and since Scruffy had Dueling Riposte feat, allowed him to make a counter-attack, scoring a critical hit and dropping Falkin to Dying 2. With Falkin down, Scruffy began rolling for Confusion again, and began attack Dweevil (who had recovered using a Hero Point), and dropping him to zero a second time. Falkin meanwhile had fallen to Dying 4, used a Hero Point to prevent dying (the player was wisely waiting until he had no choice to use his Hero Point as being permanently Confused, he was more of a liability than an asset). He then rolled on confusion to attack himself and promptly knocked himself out with his Dwarven Thrower, and this time stabilized from his recovery rolls. As McBlasty fell before the might of the Star Spawn, Scruffy's confusion ended, and Dweevil (having recovered using his second Hero Point, which he received since his player hosts our game at his house) healed the two of them back up. He also used his Wish at this time in attempt to Desynchronize the Veinstone Pendulum, thinking that they did not necessarily need to defeat the Star-Spawn. With an assist from his Cloak of the Montebank, Scruffy and Dweevil flanked the Star-Spawn, with Scruffy scoring a critical hit against the Star-Spawn. McBlasty had used his Hero Point to recover and realizing he could use his Necklace of Fireballs without having to make saves against the Star-Spawn's Mental Dominance aura, began lobbing them, and combined with some critical hits from Scruffy brought down the Star-Spawn. This fight was extremely tough for the party. Early on it looked like the Star-Spawn was on its way to a TPK. At some point during this fight, 3 if not all 4 of the PCs had been dropped to 0 Hit Points. However, the Hero Points and Heal spells really allowed the party to recover and regroup, and with some lucky dice rolls and fortunate choice of equipment, were able to overcome the challenge. Afterwards, Scruffy attempted to dispel Falkin's confusion, but like McBlasty earlier, his check failed to overcome the Star-Spawn's DC. Note that the party has now used three of their four Wishes and have not yet reached the workshop. Out of options, the party tied Falkin up to prevent him from attacking them (or himself) while the rested so Dweevil could prepare a Restoration spell heightened to 9th level, and he, despite taking a -5 penalty for being a level lower, was finally able to overcome the DC with his spell check. The party then spent some time pondering the shaft, but given its depth, did not really have the means to transverse it except for a pair of Greater Potions of Flying. However, Dweevil decided to gamble that their was some kind of levitation effect in the shaft and jumped him. Fortunately, he was somewhat right as the gravity warped and deposited him safely in the workshop. The other party members followed suite. ENCOUNTER P1: DARKNESS BETWEEN THE STARS The party were met by the Shoggoth, who was little more than speed bump. The Shoggoth charged the party and attempted to Engulf as many as he could, but some successful Reflex saves meant that the evaded his first attempt. McBlasty struck him with a Polar Ray while Falkin and Scruffy struck with their weapons (with both grumbling about their critical hits being negated due to the Shoggoth's immunities). A second attempt to Engulf its foes resulted in Scruffy and Dweevil being engulfed by the creature, but a Finger of Death spell from Dweevil (he was able to make the flat-check from being grappled) finished the Shoggoth and released him and Scruffy from its form. Afterwards, Falking rolled a natural 20 on his Occultism check to identify Aucturn in the star-field above and note that the stars were those of Golarion's sky albeit with 2/3 missing. The party spent 10 minutes to Treat Wounds and fully heal from the encounter. Rather than explore the side chambers, they opted to instead head straight for the large ominous double doors. They have found the Veinstone Pendulum and its guardians: three Deh-nolos and an Ancient Green Dragon. And that's where we ended the second session.
Is the save for Dominion Bile really only DC 23 or is this a misprint? It seems awefully low for a Level 14 monster.
The PCs: Dweevil, Human Cleric of Iomedae (Esoteric Scholar background)
We spent a good chunk leveling up the characters and selecting new magic items and spells. One important thing to note is that Scruffy spent all his money on five Rings of Resistance (granting Resist 10 vs. acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic) despite Dweevil encouraging to get Winged Boots or Potions of Fly. He had a little leftover and invested in a +1 Composite Shortbow. SETTING THE SCENE: I began with recap of the events of the previous six parts. As Keleri, informed the party that the countdown clock would reach 0 in 1 weeks time, and it was time to use the White Axiom to unlock the power of the Last Theorem. I used an Abstract Algebra textbook as a prop for the Last Theorem. THE MALIGNANT THEOREMS: Taking a page from Mark Seifter and the Live Play stream, I had the party roll either Perception or Occultism for initiative. McBlasty won initiative and used Recall Knowledge to learn about the giants and learned quite a bit on a Critical Success (most notably that they are Immune to fire). He then opted to open things up with a Polar Ray, but missed. The Rune Giants went next, encircling the PCs and blasting them with 4 cones of electricity as they Invoked Their Runes. The giants took advantage of Air Walk to remain 10 feet above the ground so they could not also blind the PCs. Dweezil cast Divine Aura, buffing the party's AC and providing a blinding effect against evil creatures. Falkon proved quite effective with his Dwarven Thrower (he also used Righteous Ally to add Holy damage to it). Scruffy, on the other hand, was forced to fall back on his +1 Composite Shortbow, and was quite ineffective in the combat, they still managed to do a little damage on the odd high roll or with near misses thanks to Certain Strike. On the giants turn, they began attacking the party, but two failed their saves against Divine Aura and were blinded for 1 minute each. In my opinion, this was the key factor that allowed the PCs to win this fight as the blinded giants rarely managed both to roll high enough to overcome the party's AC AND make the Senses miss chance form being blinded. I tried to use a couple Dominates with them, but after my first two attempts (on their Will saves, Scruffy had a Success and Falkon and Critical Success), I stuck with swinging with their greatswords and scoring an occasion hit while waiting for Invoke Rune to recharge. The other two rune giants hit hard against the PCs with their Destructive Runes, though I never got to destroy any armor. I rarely scored an AoO against the party, but a key one was when I disrupted Dweevil's attempt to cast Air Walk on Scruffy, which would allow him to close for melee with the giants, but I rolled a natural 20 and not only stopped the Air Walk from being cast, but also dropped Dweevil. Falkon revived him promptly on his turn, after smartly provoking an Attack of Opportunity from his Dwarven Thrower so he could Heal without provoking additional attacks. Dweevil would spend most of the combat healing his allies, occasionally assisted by Falkon. Meanwhile, McBlasty (as the name implies) burned through a lot of high-level damaging spells such as Horrid Wilting, Disintegrate, and Chain Lightning to great effect. At some point, Scruffy came up with a plan to get around the Rune Giants Air Walk and Reach. He used his Cloak of the Montebanc to dimension Door on top of the giant and attempted to Grapple the giant, but he rolled poorly and fell to the ground. Naturally, the party focused on downing the two non-blind giants first. Falkon and McBlasty both fell at some point during the combat, mostly from the electricity damage caused by Invoke Runes as it recharged, but each were only down for a short time as Dweevil revived them with his Heal spells. The positioning of the giants after the first two fell allowed for burst healing without also healing their enemies. Eventually, the blind giants fell before the PCs before they could recover from their blindness. The fight ran fairly long but did not drag. Nonetheless, combined with the time needed to update their characters, it was quite late so we had to end the session before they could experience the revelations (and boons!) of the Last Theorem. Until next time....
True, at least, until a Monster comes along with Greater Constrict that doesn't do HP damage.
N11. Whark's Nest As per the cliffhanger, Syd had triggered the spectral tentacle trap. The party was good at keeping it down to one or two tentacles at a time, as they spawned 1 per round rather than overwhelming the PCs with their numbers. The Paladin was very effective with his magic glaive, and the Wizard was also surprising effective with a magic shortbow. The Rogue and Syd the Ranger had trouble beating the Hardness, and Syd rolled poorly on his attacks and rarely hit if at all. On the fourth round, the Rogue disabled the motion-sensing runes. It was unclear what would happen if the trap was disabled while sprung. The general hazard rules state that SOME Hazards can be disabled after being triggered, and the text reads that a Thievery check can disable the motion sensing runes. Does this cause the trap to end completely or have no effect? I ruled halfway, that it would not spawn additional tentacles, but the remaining ones would not be dismissed automatically. The rules for this trap were not very clear in many aspects. First, the constrict action does not extend the grab duration, so whenever a tentacle used this ability, it dropped the PC at the end of the turn. Second, when using Acrobatics to Escape, the Skill is rolled against the opponents Athletics DC, for which none was listed (using Athletics, on the other hand, to Break Grapple, uses its Fort save, so no problem there). Finally, listing the object immunities in the equipment chapter (and not listed in the index) made them difficult to find, and I only found them after our session. I used miniatures to represent the tentacles so this may have introduced some extra confusion, but it was not clear whether the tentacles could flank or be flanked (I believe they could not). Also, are the tentacles free to attack anyone in the room regardless of position (I believe so). After destroying several tentacles and disabling the traps, the party took 20 minutes for the Ranger to Treat Wounds while the searched for treasure. A success Perception check identified the poisoned faux-treasures and the secret door. The party completed looted the nest for all 6000 gp of goods. N12. Shifting Portals It was obvious that there was a magical trap here form the description. Necerion's goblin butler was found dead opposite the southern portal (the rules did not state which portal he tried, only that he tried an incorrect portal, so I rolled to pick one randomly). The party threw its body through that portal and observed no effect (since the trap is triggered by a CREATURE, I reasoned that the corpse would not trigger it). They also threw copper coins through all three with no effect, and then the Wizard sent his familiar through what turned out to be the correct one. Syd the Ranger tried to follow but was repelled back on the spikes with a critical failure. He then immediately decided to take 10 minutes to Treat Wounds on himself while the others worked on the traps. The Paladin then correctly guessed the correct portal and made it to the other side. The Wizard threw up a wall of force over the spiked, reducing the damage (thankfully,the hazard had such a scenario listed in case the creature flew against a non-spiked wall. The Ranger than tried another incorrect portal and flew back again, but was with a regular failure and the wall of force in place, took much less damage this time. The Wizard then attempted to discern a pattern and rolled a DC 39 Arcana check on the nose so the three remaining party members cleared the room. N13. Dangerous Second Steps This room proved little difficult thanks to fortunate magic item and spell selection. The party had chosen 2 Anklets of Alacrity for the Ranger and Rogue as the bonus items for this scenario, so they were able to pass via Water Walk. The Wizard bypassed this trap using a Fly spell, and the Paladin just jumped in and walked across the bottom, breathing fine in his plate armor of the deep. The adventure did not list an Athletics DC to climb out, so I used the same DC as listed to Swim in the water. N14. Hall of Mirrors Again, fortunate magic item selection aided the party here. Since they could spot the mirrors outside of the 20 foot range, the Rogue and Ranger used their Cloaks of Elvenkind to turn invisible, and thus had no reflection. Since the mirrors by a creature being reflected in the mirror, and invisible creatures having no reflections, they were able to move about this chamber with impunity. Several Thievery checks later with no Critical Failures, and the Rogue had disabled all the mirrors. N15. Vault of the Last Theorem That party rolled Perception against the Kraken's Stealth, and the Paladin won initiative, and struck the Kraken with his bow. The Kraken then filled the water with its Ink Cloud to provide itself with concealment and poison the waters. It then used Double Strike to attack the Paladin and the Wizard, and Grabbed both. The Rogue activated his anklets again to walk across the water to the island while the Rogue Sensed and struck the Kraken at range. The Kraken then moved to get within range of the Rogue, Double Striked them both with its tentacles, then maintained and grappled all 4 PCs. One by one, it Repositioned the PCs into the water, where it could attack with its beak, and they were subject to Suffocation and Kraken's Ink poison. Things seemed dire as first the Wizard and then the Rogue fell unconscious, but the Paladin then remembered he had Channel Life and used a burst-Heal to revive the fallen party members. Some lucky rolls to Escape the grapple (and a dimension door from the Wizard) got the Rogue and Wizard onto the island. Since it was compelled to protect the vault (and they both on the far side of it), the Kraken dropped the Paladin and moved so that it could attack the Rogue opening the vault. The Rogue had utilized his Cloak of Elvenkind to turn invisible, but that Kraken was able to Sense him anyway. However, the 50% miss chance would negate many hits against him (and the Ranger who likewise used his Cloak once he climbed up onto the island). The Wizard as not so lucky and fell unconscious once more. The Ranger and the Paladin made their way onto the island as well. The Rogue and Syd the Ranger both worked on unlocking the Vault Door while the Paladin revived the Wizard. A critical success revealed the trap switch, but after two success, the Rogue critical failed to disable the switch and triggered it, starting the countdown. Even the worst, the Kraken then clocked him despite his invisibility and downed him a second time. Syd the Ranger then unlocked the door and entered the vault, swiftly spotting the Last Theorem among Whark's treasures. Necerion then made his move, moving into the vault and turning visible to cast Reverse Gravity on the party. The Kraken, which had been a thorn in the party's side, now became somewhat of an asset as it directed its attacks on Necerion as well as Syd the Ranger. Necerion used Drop Dead to avoid the grapple, then moved out of range, then casting Repulsion to keep the Kraken (as well as the Paladin and Wizard) at bay. Syd managed to shove the Last Theorem into his Bag of Holding while the Paladin revived the Rogue, who in turn joined the Ranger in the vault. At this point, as per the 3 round countdown from the trap switch, the vault door slammed shut. The Kraken, being intelligent (+5 Int modifier, the same as the Wizard), realized that those inside the vault were the ones most likely to steal from it, so it focused it attacks on breaking down the vault door so it could prevent them from using magic to escape with the treasure (I reasoned that it new teleportation magics existed, but since it was not trained in Arcana, did not realize the vault was warded against such magic). Inside the vault, Necerion used Modify Memory to alter Syd's memory that he was a spy for the Order within the Night Heralds and that Keleri had instructed him to assist him in retrieving the book and asked Syd to hand him the bag so they could escape. The Rogue attacked him, and Necerion again used Drop Dead to avoid further attacks as he as really down in HP at this point. He then reappeared and blasted both Syd and the Rogue with Vampiric Exsanguination, dropping the Rogue a third time and regaining some much needed HP. The Ranger than asked for another save since Necerion attacked him (and thus contradicted the Modify Memory spell), which I granted and he succeeded on. By this point, the Kraken had broken the vault door. The Wizard at this point cast his own Reverse Gravity to return to normal gravity (although it is unclear if two castings of Reverse Gravity have this affect or if a Counteract check is needed), and asked for everyone to gather near him to he could Shadowwalk out. Syd shoved the Rogue into the bag of holding and moved outside the vault. Necerion gave chase and attempted a Heightened Paralyze on the PCs, but they all made their saved. The Paladin struck Necerion down with his glaive, killing him for real, and the Wizard cast Shadowwalk allowing the PCs to escape with the Last Theorem, leaving a dead Necerion and his Night Herald allies to take the blame. Despite a difficult encounter, the PCs succeeded with clever tactics and a little luck. Another thing I would like to point out, which has already been mentioned on the forums, is that the Kraken can grapple PCs, but they seem unable to attack it tentacles with a melee weapon, so if they are grappled out of reach, they must used ranged weapons to attack back. This seems a bit weird and should be addressed.
Thanks, Jason and Mark. It's nice to know that our efforts are appreciated. My group should be finishing up Part 6 of Doomsday Dawn this week, so we have plenty of time to finish Part 7. Two of my more steady players and I will also be attending PAX Unplugged and playing two playtest scenarios there (and I will finally get to see things on the player side). After wrapping up Part 7 of Doomsday Dawn, we should have enough time to complete the Resonance Test as well and perhaps even the last of the 4 playtest scenarios.
If you regain 1 or more HP for any reason, you become conscious.This would be a problem if you were already at full health. Since then you would not be able to "regain" any HP. Great point!
Let's look closely at this abilities: Improved Grab The monster can use Grab as a free action triggered by a hit with its initial attack. A creature with Improved Grab still needs to spend an action to extend the duration for creatures it already has grabbed. Note that this ability specifically states that the creature still needs to spend 1 Action to extend the duration for creatures it already has grabbed. Improved Grab also references the Grab ability, so let's include that as well for completion.
So the duration lasts until the end of the end of the round the monster (or hazard in this case) hits with a Strike unless it spends a Grab action to maintain. Now let's look at Constrict Constrict The monster automatically deals the listed amount of damage to any number of creatures grabbed or restrained by it. Constrict does not indicate that it extends the duration of the grapple. Now ordinarily this would be fine as most creatures get 3 actions. However, the Spectral Tentacles in Red Flags only get 1 action each. So Round 1, they spend their 1 Action to Strike a PC, then automatically grapple as a Free Action thanks to Improved Grab. Next round, they spend their 1 Action to Constrict and deal their damage. However, without having any additional actions, they are unable to spend any to extend the duration of the grapple, so after getting Constricted, they PC is released from their grasp. This seems counter-intuitive: the tentacles are unable hold you because they spent their turn squeezing you. Note most monsters have three actions (1 Strike with their tentacles or other Grab attacks, 2 maintain existing grapples, and 3 Constrict their grappled foes) so this a problem limited to his particular hazard under the Playtest Rules.
The way the errata interacts with this ability was an oversight of the update. The original rules had a Recovery save mechanic for regaining consciousness, but this was removed by the update. The update replaced this with having the character remain unconscious for at least 10 min or until he was returned to 1 HP or more. So under the update, the character would fall unconscious on a failed save, but immediately regain consciousness because their hp > 0. While this is obviously not the intent of the ability as it makes it useless (other than making the PC drop his weapon), for Playtest purposes, this is how we have to run the encounter unless Paizo tells us otherwise. I see three possible workarounds: 1) Restore the recovery save mechanic
Also, a quick note, when assisting the rogue's player with char gen, I noted a peculiarity in the class feats. One of the Level 6 Rogue Feats, Blind-Fight, requires the Rogue to be a Master in Perception, which rogues don't get to Level 7. Wouldn't it make more sense to include it as a Level 8 Rogue Feat?
Introduction: Just some notes before we start. As my group is experiencing some playtest fatigue, namely from having to create multiple characters that they typically only get to play for 2-3 sessions, it's getting more difficult to for players to get really invested in their characters. I get that different parts of the playtest focus on different areas of the game and thus have different party requirements, but I think things would have been nicer to be able to play the same character throughout at different levels. That said, here are the PCs. Note the lack of names on most of these PCs, as I have mentioned above, player investment is waning from creating these 1-shot PCs. The PCs:
The Nemesis:
A Meeting in Calaphas:
Arrival in Plumetown:
The Gala:
N5. Kadhibat "Kad" Alysamin:
N8. Whark the Alabaster:
N9. Kitchen and N10. Servant Quarters:
N8. Kasbeel:
When asked about Necerion, she not-so-subtly hinted that she would not mind of ill will were to befall him, but she could not assist them in that matter. However, she would not stop them either. They asked her where Necerion went, and I had them roll Perception vs. her Deception DC (a hefty 39, although the rogue succeed nonetheless by rolling a natural 19) to notice her glancing towards the door, as she would not answer the question directly. They then entered the Inner Sanctum. N11. Whark's Nest. The ranger took the lead, and began to Seek the room. He critically failed and triggered the Spectral Tentacle trap, and that's where we ended the first session. TO BE CONTINUED....
While I really like a lot of the new components of the game and the general direction things are headed and am overall optimistic that the final product will be great, I am very concerned about the amount of testing that will be done on the final version of the game. It sounds like there are significant changes being done to the system, right down to the core math of the game. As an engineer, I cannot fathom making this amount of changes without doing another large-scale test on the final product. I know that you will be doing internal testing, but that is a significantly more limited scope that an open playtest. I really want Paizo and Pathfinder 2E to succeed.
One question I had while preparing to run Part 6. A key part of Necerion's tactics is that he casts Disappearance to gain invisibility as he follows the PCs to the vault. But the adventure states that anyone casting magic within the Citadel is struck with a 24-hour Faerie Fire, which reduces all forms of invisibility to concealed. So wouldn't the PCs be able to detect him then? Am I missing something (like the Faerie Fire does not extend to the inner portion of the citadel) or does Disappearance somehow trump Faerie Fire?
Event 5: Demilich The paladin started this event still blinded from the Ghost Magi. The sorcerer also still had his Circle of Protection active. Also, I only had 2 players for the conclusion as the other two could not attemnd, so each player ran 2 PCs. At the start, 1 rolled the maximum 5 for the Risen Corpses. I would then roll minimum (2) in the 3 subsequent rounds, leaving 1 to "arrive" on the fifth round. The Demilich then opened things up with a Polar Ray on the cleric. This would have been a Critical Success on its ranged attack, but if I am understanding the rules correctly, the Polar Ray damage does not double unless it says so in the spell description (as opposed to Ray of Frost which explicitly says the damage doe double on a critical success). The sorcerer countered with a blade barrier between the temple and the graveyard, which would greatly weaken the Risen Corpses as they would move through. In the second round, the Demilich trapped the monk with a Maze spell (there appears to be no initial save on this spell). The sorcerer then blasted four of the Risen Corpses and the Demilich with a Flame Strike, which activated the Demilich's Contingency spell, so the Demilich Dimension Doored to the opposite side of the temple. The Demilich then trapped the sorcerer with a Maze spell as well (rolled a on the recharge so it was available the next round). He then spent two actions every turn to concentrate on both Maze spells, cutting the party in half while the Risen Corpses enganged with the cleric and the paladin to soften them up. They made the occasional hit on the first Strike, but the PCs never failed their saves against their Despair Auras or against Mummy Rot. The Demilich used its remaining third action to move and position its Telekinetic Storm to further wear down the PCs during this phase of the combat. As the Risen Corpses were almost completely defeated, the Demilich released the monk from its maze by breaking concentration and began blasting the PCs with Polar Ray and Vampiric Exsanguination. The paladin had to resort to his composite shortbow, which was not even magical (the player had chosen a magical bastard sword, armor, and the ring of energy resistance for his 3 magical items) and was largely ineffective against the Demilich. The goblin cleric did a little damage with his +2 Flaming Sling accompanied by Fire Rays. The monk used Wind Jump to leap into the air, make a Flurry of Blows, and land. The high AC of the Demilich as well concealment from the Telekinetic Storm made him a touch opponent to strike. The sorcerer eventually escaped the Maze with a natural 20 on his Perception check. The Demilich then unleashed Wail of the Banshee on the party. The sorcerer then attempted a Spirit Blast, but had his spell reflected back at him due to Spell Turning. Another Maze spell removed the monk from the combat. The goblin had one of his Fire Rays reflected back at him and was repeatedly knocked out from the Demilich's spell as he spammed Vampiric Exsanguinations at and the occasional Polar Ray at the party. The goblin would drop 3 times, then upon dropping him a 4th time, the sorcerer cast Breath of Life to revive him. The goblin cleric attempted to hide around the corner and heal at this point, but a Cloudkill spell was positioned such that it caught him the effect. He then stuck his head back out for a Fire Ray, which the Demilich reflected back at him with Spell Turning. The next hit dropped the cleric to Dying 4 and killed him. The sorcerer had used his Angelic Wings and cast Disrupting Weapon on his longsword to engage the Demilich in melee. The PCs also started targeting the Demilich with Heal spells, so that if the Demilich reflected them, they would heal instead of harm the PCs. The sorcerer also burned through the last of his spells, attempting to hit the Demilich with Flame Strike and Divine Wrath, though with its high saves did little or no damage. A Polar Ray eventually dropped the sorcerer, and demilich used its Trap Soul ability. Despite using the extra reroll from the altar as well as burning his 2 Hero Points on this roll, the sorcerer failed and was reduced to dust. Since the Demilich used its third action to Trap Soul instead of concentrate on Maze, the monk was returned to the battlefield. Running low on resonance points, the Demilich began using its Telekinetic Projectile cantrip, eventually using its last Resonance Point on a Polar Ray that would drop the monk for the third and final time. That left the paladin, with a medium Dex score and his non-magical bow, and he was unable to hit the Demilich's AC 36 (plus a 20% miss chance from Concealment) all combat. Even though the Demilich was done to hits Telekinetic Projectile cantrip for offense, it was clear the paladin was not going to win, and the player's forfeited at this point. The Demilich fight was extremely long, taking nearly 3 hours on its own and comprising nearly our entire play session. The fight lasted 21 rounds (39 rounds when added to the other Wave 2 fights), and would have lasted longer had the player's not forfeited. With its high ACs and SVs, the Demilich. The high spell DC on its spells really made it difficult for the PCs to succeed. The Monk was effectively neutralized for two long stretches of gameplay as he was not able to succeed on two Perception checks (the player even used a reroll at one point to reduce a Critical Failure to a regular Failure after previously making a Success and exiting the Maze). Coupled with the fact that their is no initial save on this spell, it was extremely effective. The Demilich also had significant defensive abilities: Telekinetic Storm provided concealment, Blink provided damage resistance to almost all damage types, and its free Countermeasure action allowing it to gain Spell Turning each round. With Fly further reducing the party's effectiveness to mount an offensive as they were lacking in spells and ranged attack options at this point in the Heroes of Undarin. The Demilich was able to survive long enough that it actually ran out of Resonance Points to use its most powerful abilities against the PCs. After the combat, I informed the players that the intent was to see how long it would take to get a TPK in this part of Doomsday Dawn, and let them know what would have awaited them in the next wave. I got the impression some of the players suspected or guessed that this was the intent of this portion by their responses, particularly during this final fight. They were surprised to find out at their was another wave of three combat encounters to come.
They had 12 days to spare. While I get what you are saying, I don't see it that way. I was folowing the rules set by Doomsday Dawn and the Playtest Rulebook. If Paizo wanted me to follow certain tactics, they would have listed them explicitedly, as they did in the Heroes of Undarin. The fact that they did not says to! me that they WANT the GMs to vary their tactics, which is also part of the point of having an open playtest. Also, I am not sure that this tactic would quakify as suboptimal. The cultists were lacking in offensive power as is, and while spending 2 of their actions to cast mirror image every time they ran out would prolong the fight, they needed to focus on dealing damage and dropping the PCs if they were to have any chance of winning.
The PCs: Merwin, Elf Sorcerer (Angelic)
SESSION 1 ARRIVAL AT THE TEMPLE The PCs found the hidden cache in the study, and learned about the magical properties of the stain glass window and the altar. Despite hints that the window appeared fragile, they immediately cast light on it, so it only negated the resistances of the Slaver Demons, of which they had none. WAVE 1 Event 1: Slaver Demons The slaver demons showed up as indicated (each 10-20 feet from a PC). As their tactics indicate, the started with Enslave Soul, then cast Haste (2 actions). With their Quick action, they closed for melee, but were unable to attack (the stated tactics should have had the demons cast Haste before Dimension Dooring in, or arrived adjacent to a PC and attacked without “charging”). The PCs started burning through their attack spells (such as the goblin cleric casting their 6th-level fireball). A question arose as to whether or not the monk could be disarmed of their fistwraps, which I ruled they could not since it was a Worn item, not Held. The paladin was disarmed of his sword, but he spent an action to pick it up. Since the Slaver Demon had already used its reaction to Disarm it, he could not capitalize with an Attack of Opportunity. Event 2: Treachery Demons
SESSION 2 Note, Sir Scruffy's player could not make this fight, so his PC was run by Merwin's player. Event 3: Ooze Demon and Blood Demons The reverse gravity spell was still in effect from the previous fight (do spells end if the caster dies, or do they still last their full duration). As the Blood Demons approached from the south, the sorcerer once again attempted a Blade Barrier, but a natural 20 on a Dispel Magic check dismissed it once more (poor sorcerer). The blood demons Dimensioned Doored onto the ceiling and engaged in melee, and the Ooze Demon revealed itself with a Stinking Cloud and ranged attacks (although it failed to trap any with its Slime Trap ability). The Stinking Cloud both helped and hindered the Blood Demons, as they could use the concealment to Sneak and trigger their abilities, but as they are not immune to Poison, they were afflicted with Slow and Sick at this point. In the middle of the fight, the Reverse Gravity terminated, dropping all to the ground. I was unsure how this would affect the Stinking Cloud, but ruled that it fell with them. The Monk once again reduced damage with Catfall, and the Angelic Sorcerer avoided falling due to Angelic Wings. The paladin’s blade took one dent from the Slime Demon’s Protective Slime (it might have been more because I believe I forgot to have him roll the save a few times). Once the PCs were on the ground, the Slime Demon closed for melee, but was unable to cast Cloudkill (3 actions; it had 2 after moving). It instead Struck and Grabbed the Monk, but was unable to use Smother as it was out of actions. The Slime Demon did not survive until its next turn to use either of these abilities. 1 HOUR INTERLUDE The party healed using Treat Wounds. The cleric rolled a natural 1 on his first attempt, so he was unable to assist. The paladin and sorcerer were able to pick up the slack and get everyone up to max save the goblin cleric who was 2 hp short. The paladin also used Quick Repair to remove the dent in his bastard sword. I noted the sun was setting, so the cleric and sorcerer cast light on the paladin’s bastard sword as well as one of his arrows. WAVE 2 Event 4: Dread Wraiths The dread wraiths rolled poorly on their initiative, so the party was able to act before they could. The paladin and monk attempted to bottleneck them at one of the holes in the temple wall, but being incorporeal, they were able to circumvent them. The PCs then clustered up and the dread wraiths surrounded all four PCs. However, their Draining Presence was completely unaffected on the party, even with each PC needing to roll 4 saves. Initially, I thought the party might have more difficulty with this fight between the Wraiths Resistance and the fact that they healed 10 HP every time they hit (or was it the intent that they only gained HP on a successful Drain Life). The cleric attempted to use a heightened Spiritual Weapon, but his attempt was foiled by an Attack of Opportunity The sorcerer cast Death Ward on himself, which was really effective against the Wraiths (as it should be, naturally). I failed to inflect a single point of Drain as the Dread Wraiths had a difficult time hitting the PCs and they consistently made the save against Drain Life. As the PCs began using positive energy attacks (plus scoring a few critical hits to overpower their resistances), the dread wraiths fell.
Event 5: Lich and Ghost Magi As per the rules, the Lich started with Flame Shield, Fly, and Mirror Image. The Ghost Magi as written would have precast Resist Energy, but they (A) did not have the spell and (B) even if they did, it would not benefit them more than their natural resistance to all energy attacks.
TO BE CONTINUED
THE PCs Boblin, Goblin Rogue (Finesse)
FIRST SESSION The party began meticulous searching every hex, which in itself became rather tedious. The high DCs coupled with most of the hexes being empty did not make riveting gameplay (note that for most of the first part, I ran it with only two PCs, Dweevil and Falkon, so they had fewer chances of getting a success than a standard 4 PC party. They encountered the gnomes of first Korlabablin, and I had to improvise some gnome names on the spot since none were given in the adventure (of course, there was plenty of information in the initial briefing that the PCs missed out on because they didn't ask questions, but the gnome's name they inquired about, as always seems to be the case). They learned of the rocs and went towards their nest. Unfortunately, none of the PCs had speak with animals, so their only option here was combat. ENCOUNTER J. ROC NEST I only had 2 PCs. I mistakenly ran it with 2 Weak Rocs (which I had prepared in case only 3 PCs made it), but in hindsight I should have further weakened them (or alternately had one of the other PCs run a missing player's character). The initial fight proved difficult, with rocs snatching and then dropping the PCs from 60-90 feet in the air, but the rocs were more interested in driving the intruders away from the nest so the PCs regrouped. After using Treat Wounds to regain their hp, the PCs returned with air walk precast on the dwarf paladin, but the rocs still managed to down the cleric in the rematch. After returning to Korlabablin and securing their aid, they made their ways through the woods, but did not investigate under the lake even though they were NOT warned of the sea serpent. They then made their way to the cyclopes longhouse and offered to aid against the dragon, then traveled into the tors until they found its lair (due to a short session from outside commitments and only having 2 PCs present, we decided to end things here rather than jump into another combat--the dragon fight kicked off our second session). SECOND SESSION ENCOUNTER L. LIRUTHALL'S LAIR I only had 2 players make it to game night, but I had 2 other PCs ready to go so they were now going at full strength (each player ran 2 PCs). The giant exited the cave first and warned the PCs, and they attempted to negotiate. The dragon (who rolled a natural 1 on his Perception for initiative) then flew out of the cave and unleashed his breath weapon. Early in the fight, my dice were vicious and tore through the PCs quickly. The giant often used flame strike to attack multiple PCs (usually 2 but once or twice he was able to hit 3) with the dragon alternating between its breath weapon and draconic frenzy (with a bite first attack when it didn't need to fly/move before attacking). Round 1, the dragon used its breath weapon; Round 2, fly down and use draconic frenzy, scoring a crit to reacharge; Round 3, fly up and use breath weapon again; Round 4+, land and engage in melee until weapon recharged, at which point only the dwarf was standing. Fortunately for the PCs, my luck had turn with the dragon frequently missing and rolling low damage late in the fight. After the brutal dragon fight, the party revived the fire giant and demanded he join them or die, which due to his highly dubious bargaining position, he accepted their terms. They looted the dragon's horde, made their way back to the cyclopes and secured their aid as well. They then headed down the river towards Ramlock's tower, encountering the dryad and securing her aid with a high Diplomacy check (even without getting into the cyclopes logging operations) as they did not otherwise need to gain her trust. They then found the tower and scouted their defenses. A sending spell to Keleri made arrangements for the final assault, and with their 8 treasure points, they purchased two +3 weapons (paladin and fighter) and two +3 armors (paladin and cleric). Keleri agreed to meet them in 6 to 9 days depending how long the magic items took. In the interim, the PCs decided to check the end of the last river (recognizing the pattern of their being something at the end of each branch) and found the slain cultists. They then returned to the tower and began their final assault with 12 days remaining before the eclipse. ENCOUNTER M: RAMLOCK'S TOWER With 7 ally points, this fight was reduced to the mummy pharaoh, the brain collector, and two cultists. With 2 reseach points, the PCs and the Night Heralds were able to cast buff spells over a minute, so the two cultists spread herosim out to all of their group. The PCs had no buff spells precast. Early in the fight, the PCs made a lot of key saves. The mummy great despair aura failed to paralyze any PCs (although the way the combat shaped out only half the PCs were in range). The brain collector used confusion and phantasmal killer early in the fight, but the goblin rogue saved after 1 round of confusion and the phantasmal killer was wasted against the human fighter. Two castings of resilient sphere only resulted in capturing the dwarf paladin for a single round (since he made the save; the human fighter critically succeeded to now effect) and the human cleric critical saved against enervation. However, on the second attempt by the cultist, he critically failed resulting in enervated 4 and severely nerfing the character. Another key spell was cast by the brain collector, who cast paranoia on the goblin rogue, which even on a success, prevented him from flanking and getting his bonus sneak damage. The cultists took to the air and mirror imaged while the brian collector remained on the ground for melee (although he also cast mirror image early in the fight) with the goblin rogue and human cleric while the mummy pharaoh engaged the human fighter and dwarf paladin. The cleric attempted to dispel magic on the enervation effect, which I was not sure would work or not. It seems like the spell lasts for 1 minute and grants the condition for that length of time, so I ruled that it would. He failed the dispel check (since he took a -5 penalty for using a Level 3 dispel magic vs. a Level 4 enervation). A couple blindness spells from the cultists were also rather ineffective. One target made the save and was only blinded until the start of his turn (I think it was the goblin rogue) whereas the dwarf paladin was inflicted with blindness for 1 minute, but he was able to remove it with his mercy on his turn as well. The cultists used their last third level spells to haste themselves so they could use their crossbows (2 actions to Strike, 2 actions to reload, using the hasted action for one of the Strikes). The mummy pharaoh was the first to fall--he got two sandstorm wraths out, but was largely ineffective with her longspear (he only hit twice I believe, and infected the human fighter with insidious mummy rot). Then the combat began to drag on. The cleric cast air walk on the goblin rogue who engaged the one cultist in-the-air. This cultist switched to his mace (I forgot that he could still use his crossbow in melee range without penalty under the new rules), and the two engaged in a slap fight with both sides did little damage each round to each other. The brain collector downed the enervated cleric and then moved on to the dwarf paladin, and with the aid of some true strikes (which actually didn't help him any), downed the dwarf paladin as well. Hero points and healing would allow both to recover and rejoin the fight. The other cultist used most of his 2nd-level spells to soothe the brain collector and keep him going as he was their main offensive weapon, and combined with the mirror images, kept the Night Heralds going for several rounds. I had lost track of the rounds, so I began hand-waving when things like Fly, Enervation, Paranoia. I also had the insidious mummy rot trigger its second save by fiat. I wished I had been more meticulous with my bookkeeping here, but some of the PCs beneficial effects were also ended this way (namely the cleric's fire shield spell which he cast in the first round). From hero points and self-healing, the human cleric and dwarf paladin rejoined the fight, and eventually winnowed down the brain collector. The human fighter withdrew from melee, switching to his shortbow and taking pot shots at the one cultists while guzzling potions for several rounds. The human cultists realized they need to take out the cleric first and began focus firing on him (as the combatants had all gathered near each other by this point), but one by one they fell as well. Note that I intentionally did not replenish the mirror images as they ran out as I felt this would only prolong the fight even longer, and it was already starting the become a tedious game of attrition with mummy down and all the big spells spent. This is the first fight where it really felt things dragged on in the Doomsday Dawn playtest.
One suggestion I tried with Undarin...write down when each effect expires and just track the round...much easier than tracking each effect separately. The bolstered thing needs work though, especially since it is not clear if it applies to all similar effects, effects of identical monsters, etc. It seems to vary from ability to ability.
You know what, on second thought, I'll just have them fall up to the ceiling and stay there. That is clearly the intent in the encounter design, even if the spell doesn't worknthat way as worded.
Okay, after giving it some thought, I plam to run reverse gravity as follows. 1) The PC falls up 50 feet to the ceiling and takes 25 falling damage. Realistically, it should be less, but I have to assume that was the encounter design intent. Also, falling damage should vary with the size of the PC (the bigger they are, the harder they fall), but I digress. This is a game so some simplification of physics should be expected. 2) The PC then falls down to 35 feet. If we assume a certain level of air resistance then this is a somewhat reasonable approximation. I haven't run the math to account for normal air resistwnce, but it eill vary with the size of the PC. These numbers probably assume a rather high pressure environment, which given its the Worldwound, might not be too off. 3) Anyway, the PC then falls up to 45 feet. 4) Finally, the PC falls and settles at 40 feet. Now the spell rules state the PCs can move along this plane, though without magic or say a 10-foot reach weapon to push off the ceiling, this is not realistic at all as they have nothing to oush against. Maybe they should just add a force wall at the top of the cyllinder. That would fix alot of problems with this spell.
Yup, I saw that too, once I actually looked up the spell and wasn't just going on what other people were posting about it on the board. The adventure also specifically says they slam against the ceiling, which contradicts the spell description and the listed height of the ceilings.
As has been posted on another thread, I can describe what would happen with reverse gravity (I am a professor of dynamics, ao this is literally my field of expertise). The PC would accelerate upward 40 feet, then decelerate 10 feet before hitting the ceiling with the same velocity as if he had fallen 30 feet (15 feet). For simplicity, we will assume the collision with the ceiling is completely inelastic and the PC does not bounce off it. At this point the PC will accelerate 10 feet downward theb declerate until he reaches 30 feet from the floor, then accelerate back upward towards the ceiling, traveling between the ceiling (with negligible impact) and thr 30 feet height in roughly 3 second cycles (I have actually worked out the exact math). Unless it is dispelled early, the spell expires after 1 minute, at which point the PC would be at 30 feet with neglible velocity, so he falls another 30 feet as normal (taking another 15 points of damage). I would imagine it would be hard to use ranged attacksand cast spella while in this cycle of alternating gravity, and would suggest having the PCs make a flat check to succed (probably DC 5 should suffice). They might also get quite motion sick, and might suggest having them make a Fort save or gain the Sick condition.
I anyone is interested, I made the math showing the PCs height over time (assuming completely inelastic collision with the ceiling).
Yep, Mudfoot's numbers do check out. One thing to add though is that he's assuming an inelastic collision with the ceiling, which doesn't account for the PC bouncing on impact (of course, neither do the normal falling rules). In the extreme case (it is perfectly elastic), the PC would bounce off with an equal velocity of its impact (34 mph) downwards accelerating for 10 feet than decelerating for 40 feet, gently bumping the floor and then repeating the cycle to the ceiling. Also, there would be essential no damage to the PC in this case as all the mechanical energy is conserved. Realistically speaking, the ceiling will be neither perfectly elastic or inelastic, so the PC will initially bounce back to somewhere between 30 feet high and the floor, "fall" to the ceiling, and repeat, which each cycle decreasing the total distance he bounces back until he oscillates between the ceiling and and the 30 foot mark, and will do so until the spell ends. This should not effect the below analyse of the ending falling damage unless it is dispelled early. So for game effect, the PC will take 15 falling damage from the initial casting, then somewhere between 15-25 falling damage depending on the exact timing the spell expires. Unless it is dispelled, it should end at the start of the turn (60 seconds after the initial casting), and after running the math, the PC will be 30 feet high with 0 velocity at this time, so he will take another 15 falling damage at this time. I will more later.
While as a Dynamics Professor I love this explanation! I will post a more detailed analysis later.
That is genuis Ediwir.
Had some confusion about this ability last night. The ability per the Rulebook:
And per the Updates (not relevant but included for completion) If the foe attacks on of your allies, the duration extends to the end of that foe's next turn. If the foe continues to attack on of your allies each turn, the duration continues to extend. The question in particular arises regarding to what the conditional damage bonus. He was using a +2 warhammer (later upgraded to a +3 warhammer). His reading was that he added 3d8 (4d8) damage to his attacks, but I believe that it should only be +3 (+4) damage as the ability states he gets a bonus equal to the NUMBER of weapon damage dice. I'm fairly certain my reading is the correct one but wanted to throw this out there in case anyone else had anything to add, or if nothing else, just to point out that this could be clarified with a quick example.
They didn't explore the lake on the stream.
Mark mentioned thst the ability should cost two actions on Pathfinder Friday. Should we make this adjustment if we rn this encounter as part of the playtest, or should we run it as written in the Playtestiary (1 action)?
I imagine PCs thinking the dragon has become a mummy dragon.
Please tell me some of those Heritage Names are placeholders: Unburdened Dwarf, Keen-Eared Elf, Sharp-Nosed Gnome, Gutsy Halfling, Nomadic Halfling, Skilled Heritage, Versatile Heritage don't really sound right.
I don't mind the idea of letting a player "pre-spend" their reaction to shift grip (which would preclude them from making a AoO, or Nimble Dodge, or w/e) but I think this sort of thing should require some investment. Like a Feat you mean?
A giant lollipop.
Spontaneous casting is enough of a difference between the Sorcerer and Wizard to justify choosing one over the other. The real problem is in differentiating Sorcerer's from the Bard and other spontaneous casting classes such as the Oracle that is sure to come later. Bloodline Powers are a step in the right direction, but Sorcerer's might need a bit more of a signature ability, something that when an NPC uses it it screams sorcerer. Something along the lines of Druid's Wild Shaping, Cleric's Channel Energy, Bard's Inspire Courage, or even just the Wizard's Spellbook. Several posters have suggested Metamagic is probably the way to go here, though I'm not sure how to implement this. Limiting metamagic to sorcerers seems to much of a nerf on other casters, and just changing the mechanics of how metamagic works won't really change the feel of the sorcerer. Others have suggested Arcanist-type powers, but these might be a little too strong without dropping Bloodline Powers (which are thematically appropriately). On the other hand, clerics get Channel, Domain Powers, and Spells, so maybe not. What about something like a Bloodline Mutation, similar to Bloodline Arcana in that it's a constant ability, but that also changes the sorcerer's appearance. For instance, a Draconic Sorcerer might have scales, the provide a +1 conditional bonus to AC or some such.
Shadows spawn Regular Shadows with a debuff condition. Greater Shadows spawn also Regular Shadows without the debuff condition.
Question 25) As I post on another thread, my adjustments for 5-players are:
For 6 players, double the additional creatures. Question 27) Based on Pale Mountain, I believe they mean how many times does the party need to rest to regain spells etc. I counted all days there (including the first several days where no encounters happen), but that was not the impression I got that they were looking for in Doomsday Day Deconstructed. I really hope one of the Developers will clarify what they are looking for with this question in relation to Mirrored Moon.
Shouldn't paladin be Str or CHA, not Con?
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