I'm guessing this only covers monster/npc conversion to the 5e rules. Any notes on treasure management for 5e games?
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I'm in exactly the same boat, Haladir. I love Golarion and Pathfinder products, but lately have been running 5e games for some newer players since it seems much more "rules light". I have to say that 5e is a really impressive system. I came here looking for some ready-made adventure path conversions, but may end up having to do the converting myself. Not sure if you've seen this already, but I found this post on converting Pathfinder and 3.5e material to 5e. It seems pretty thorough and analyzes the official conversion by Wizards of the Coast as well.
I think I'll end up going this route. Luckily, we weren't able to meet for one of our weekly sessions, so we haven't gotten to the Cornucopia yet. Thanks for the suggestion!
I know there likely aren't many people still mindful of this adventure path, so last bump attempt just in case.
Bump.
I'm currently running Council of Thieves for a group (using 5e rules), and am starting The Sixfold Trial tomorrow night. Reading the adventure, it looks like a blast, and my players should have a lot of fun with it.
^ Are you sure they can't maintain more than one grapple at a time? Yes, they can as you said with a -20 penalty. That's what I was saying toward the end of my post. This is indeed possible, but the -20 penalty to the grapple checks keeps success for those attacks to a minimum. If they don't use limbs and instead perform a standard Grapple, they get their full +15 to grapple checks, but are restricted to the actions of a standard grapple.
My understanding of creatures with the Grab ability is this: If they perform a Grab as part of an attack, they can initiate a Grapple as a free action. If that check succeeds, they can either perform a Grapple as normal, or use the individual limb to perform the Grapple. If they do a normal Grapple, in subsequent rounds they can do damage as a regular attack + Constrict damage once. They are restricted to this damage once per round as they have the Grappled condition, so cannot perform any actions that require more than one hand (like attacking with multiple limbs). They can, however, make regular attacks with one limb if they have a high enough BAB, but those attacks wouldn't then do the Constrict damage. If they instead perform the Grab with each limb individually (which is an option), each Grab attempt is performed at a -20 penalty. This would allow them to perform all of the attacks, damage + Constrict damage in your example above, but with this penalty the likelihood of succeeding on dealing the damage is pretty minimal. For this example the +15 Grapple then becomes a -5, and if a limb succeeds at its Grapple attempt it still has a 0 bonus to subsequent rolls.
The creature was on the surface when the spell was cast. I agree with the logic of your post, so I'll say the spell would act normally. Thanks for the explanation!
Hi. I'm running the Rise of the Runelords campaign, and needed some advice on an encounter in part 4. Specifically regarding how a spell would affect a creature with Earth Glide. Check the details under the spoiler. Situation: Under Jorgenfist, the party had a run-in with the Forgefiend on the library level. The mage in the party cast Hungry Pit beneath the Forgefiend, and I was wondering what the effects would be? The creature can basically pass through all earth substances at will, so when the pit constricts would it pass over the creature harmlessly? Does the Forgefiend still take falling damage, or would it pass through the earth at the bottom? If it would gain immunity to these types of effects, what about other spells like Stone Call? Am I just over-thinking this, and should just assume everything works?
I don't have a lot of advice as far as keeping encounters interesting for flying characters. My party has been doing the same thing, and I pretty much just tackle every encounter organically. Be sure to use the rules for flying when they are hit, etc as previous posters have mentioned. Some encounters will be cake-walks for the party, but others have the potential to still be challenging. Remember to have the enemies react realistically. If there's any cover they can take against flying opponents raining down the hurt to them make sure they take it. All in all things will be easier for the PCs for the most part when they are outdoors. That's just the way it is, and I give my group the satisfaction their power brings. One thing I feel I should definitely recommend at the end of Hook Mountain though is to change Barl's throne room from having an open roof to being a large, enclosed cavern. My group's party had one person fly invisibly over the area scouting, and saw the throne room below. The party then proceeded directly to the throne room - all flying and invisible - to attack Barl with surprise. He fell in 2 rounds, barely getting a spell off. That was disappointing for me, but my players were pretty much high-fiving for days.
Thanks for all of the great ideas everyone! I did make mention of ongoing control being an evil act, and essentially slavery. That got the paladin and the elf in the party (a worshiper of Sarenrae) to convince the wizard to release control over the giant. After the giant's release they quelled any violent reaction from him through a convincing display of power, and they were able to convince the giant to lead them to the Storval Stairs if he agreed to return to his original tribe and not Mokmurian's army. The party wizard is still struggling with his power and morality. He's tied with the barbarian for Wrath points, and with the paladin for Pride points. Oddly enough, the elf magus is the least sinful of them all. The party hasn't yet returned to Magnimar for a while, so we'll see what happens with that situation when they do. As for the church of Abadar, the last interaction the party had with them was a cold exchange between the party paladin and some of their clergy escorting the mayor. The paladin questioned their virtue and scoffed at their obvious wealth.
I'm looking for some direction in how to realistically portray how citizens in Sandpoint and Magnimar would react to certain actions of the PCs in my group. We're at the beginning of Fortress of the Stone Giants after the giant attack on Sandpoint. The PCs are currently 11th level. The situations I have are as follows: Sandpoint - After the giants were defeated there is much revelry in honor of the PCs. One PC in particular has been letting the fame get to his head. He is a young wizard of about 20 years old, and has one stone giant dominated via Dominate Person. The wizard has him follow him through town as a display of his power. I had the mayor and sheriff ask him if he could possibly leave the giant outside of town to avoid panicking the locals, but he almost dismissively disregarded their request by stating that the "giant is harmless, and completely under my control. He isn't a danger to anyone" - which he demonstrated by having the giant bark like a dog (after a failed Will save, of course). I think it makes for good roleplaying, and like that he's kind of displaying that his power is growing faster than the character's maturity is. I guess what I'm wondering is how do you think the town would react to his behavior? Should they ignore it for the most part as he is one of the heroes that saved the town? Should they start avoiding him? I was going to have the mayor and sheriff ask the other party members to maybe help persuade the wizard to keep the giant outside of town, and to keep his actions minimal for the sake of the populace. What if he refuses? Magnimar - This situation isn't so immediate. After the events in The Skinsaw Murders and Ironbriar being exposed, the party has the general assumption that most if not all of the Magnimaran judges have the potential to be corrupt as well. Because of this they feel almost above the law there, and though they haven't really broken any laws they would likely ignore any that they don't agree with. Their perception of Mayor Grobaras is negative to say the least, and they've gotten the idea that he may even be the Forever Man. We have a paladin of Iomedae that believes the city is on the verge of corruption, and he wants to bolster the citadel in town in an eventual attempt to bring the city under the rulership of the church of Iomedae. What sort of repercussions do you think this would entail? If he starts making a noticeable influence in the city do you think the established officials would take action to keep it constrained? What about the Hellknights? Anyhow, just looking for some ideas, I guess. I like the dynamics of the PCs in the party, and am not looking to punish them for making difficult situations. Just trying to figure out realistic reactions/repercussions to what they're doing. Thanks!
Lots of good advice here. I suppose first I'd ask why you want to up the role-playing as opposed to sticking with the numbers. If it's from an immersion standpoint, I understand that. The more involved the players are inside as well as outside of combat the better the game in my experience. If you're willing to put in the effort I believe the game will be more fun for everyone involved. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to be a full-on actor. Lots of good role-play can be had through subtlety, and without having an outrageous or outgoing character. I've been in games with (and played myself) non-talkative characters that just grunt or 'hmpf' at everything, and throw out some dialog here and there only when directly spoken to. Just having a personality - even a minimal one - that's consistent helps create a persona that the other players will recognize. When you decide you want to branch out or elaborate on it a bit more, do so when you feel comfortable doing it. I also think that maybe using your character sheet as a starting point might help you flesh out your character as well. Using the choices you've made to create your character, try to ground your decisions with real-life motivations. You said your character has pretty much every tool in his (or her, but I'll use masculine reference) backpack, right? Give your character a reason for this. Maybe he's one of those people that has constant "Aha!" moments, and pulls out just the right thing at the right time. You could even delve a bit deeper and say he's always worried about being unprepared because of some traumatic event in his past when he wasn't. If that sounds too silly, maybe he's just a very efficient professional, and always keeps things on hand to handle any job. Maybe he's just a hoarder. Even inside of combat there are plenty of opportunities for role-play. If you aren't the type of player that wants to spout out lengthy monologues during downtime, that's fine. Use combat to flesh your character out. What feats and abilities does he/she have? Figure out how it would look when your character performs those actions, and keep those in mind. Just describing a little bit of what you're doing instead of (or along with) just naming off an ability can help with immersion. An easy example would be Power Attack. Just say that you're pissed and swing hard and recklessly. Or if you're not angry, maybe you just want to hit somebody hard to keep them off-balance. Basically, just put some thought into how you built your character, and why they might be that way, and go from there. Lastly, (I know this is a bit long-winded, sorry) I feel that you might not necessarily need advice on how to role-play your character, but rather to role-play them while ignoring obvious tactical advantages or player knowledge. That may take practice. I know some players that find this extremely hard to do, and others that make it a point to make non-advantageous decisions for the sake of role-play. I guess my only real advice for that is to try it out. Let go a little. This is easier to do if you have a strong character concept to inform your decision making, but even if you don't maybe just do something kind of fun during a combat that isn't that critical. Up against 2 goblins? Punch one in the face. Sure, they might get an attack of opportunity, but you'll live (probably). If you get in a fight in a bar, throw your mug at someone. Use your fork. Of course these examples aren't necessarily relevant to your character or game, but hopefully I'm getting the idea across. Just find an opportunity or two to let go a little and possibly make sub-optimal decisions. Just to feel it out. Once you allow yourself to do that a few times on purpose, it may be easier to make character-driven decisions in the future that aren't necessarily the most strategic.
After a bit of a hiatus, my group has now finished part 3, and are about to start Fortress of the Stone Giants. I did some write-ups of Turtleback Ferry, Bitter Hollow, and Pendaka if anyone is interested. Used a random town generator for the foundation then added details, so nothing too special. Cleaned them up and saved them as .pdf files and added them to my Dropbox here:
I'm currently running this Adventure Path, and am using MapTool. I see that no one's uploaded a map for Bitter Hollow. I created one in MapTool (1.3.b87) and figured I'd share it in case anyone's interested. Not much use for people not using MapTool, but here it is anyway. It's pretty minimal. I didn't label anything, etc. Just some buildings and roads. Also, I didn't paint swampland to the west of the river. Every time I did it just didn't look that great. Anyhow, it's a starting point for anyone that wants to use it.
I ran a solo campaign for my brother a while back, and he was a barbarian. I think barbarian culture can lend itself pretty well as a solo campaign at beginning levels. Used a pretty typical coming-of-age scenario to start with. That gave him a task to perform with opposition that can be easy enough to overcome alone (a few wild animals, etc). Use treacherous terrain as low-level traps to gain some more xp without being overwhelming. Another benefit of this type of starting scenario is that even if the character is overcome it can be easily enough explained that they were being watched by a tribal scout the entire time, who can bring them back to health in the case of failure. Although that sort of outcome may seem a little convenient it's believable enough, and still penalizes them (with shame) without ending the campaign prematurely. It may be pretty generic, but it worked well for me.
Thank you, Cosmo!
Hello. I have a subscription to the Pathfinder Adventure Path. The latest order includes both Pathfinder Adventure Path #48: Shadows of Gallowspire (Carrion Crown 6 of 6), and Pathfinder Adventure Path #49: The Brinewall Legacy (Jade Regent 1 of 6). I don't have a particular interest in the Jade Regent path, and was wondering if only #48 can be shipped as I will be temporarily cancelling my subscription. If it's too late, that's understandable. Just wondering. Thanks!
Awesome. Sounds like I'm pretty unrestricted in my planning. Having the murders ongoing in Magnimar is a great idea, and I'm sure I'll be using it. Thanks all!
Hi all. I'd started a run of Rise of the Runelords campaign about a year ago that ended with a TPK in Foxglove manor. Our group ran through a few other adventures since then, and I'm thinking of trying my hand at the Runelords campaign again. I'm planning on keeping the nature of the actual campaign from my players, and designing a new adventure or two to get a new group of adventurers either to the end of the second module or directly into the third. I'm sure they'll realize what campaign they're in eventually, but I'm hoping it will be a fun surprise.
Not to mention that with single spells per page you can print only the spells you want. For example, if I have a Sorcerer and only need the spells on P.8, 15, 20, and 22 you can set your printer to just print those pages, set it to print 4 pages per sheet, and there you have all your spells on one sheet. With the 6 spells per page format I'd often have to print a sheet with spells I don't need at the time just to get the one or two spells I did need. I'm actually happier with the new format than with the old.
Quick question. Does the Inheritor's Crusader increase in Channel Energy? It's shown as a prerequisite, but isn't mentioned in the abilities. Just wondering if it's an omission. |