Candide's page

My party is at Fort Trevalay, after making every sentry group near the bridges aware of their presence, the hobgoblins retreated into the fort and let the bridges go. Party knows other bridge is trapped, but found the other entrance near the well.
They've been breezing through most of this adventure, as there are 5 of them. I've added the Advanced template often. In some fights to everything. It's helped a lot.
Two of my PCs have the same trait, Blightburned or something like that. Trying to make their backstories with it MUCH different, otherwise its the same character. I really like this AP so far. So much of what I'm building on with a few backstories will come to a head in book 5, which feels SO FAR AWAY.

My party essentially bolted. I had Aubrin mention about Orelds and the bridge. Saved some survivors at the inn. Told the survivors to go to the bridge and into the forest while the PCs go to Oreld’s. They dealt with Tukang and saved Vane Oreld and some survivors. Make their way to the bridge and see the pile of bodies.

I had prepared a list of 20ish NPCs to use. Only need 6 now...

Though to be fair i think its i teresting that they went with the story prompt rather than being videogame completionists looking for achievements.

Please cancel all of my subscriptions. This isn't for lack of love of your product, just sudden money woes.

So in the first session, I have a Paladin of Shelyn(trying to clean up the streets of drug pushers), a wizard who is part of the Korvosan Guard(a by the book LG type), a Brawler and a bard.
The saved all the orphans and dealt non lethal damage to all the other enemies. So now they are dragging them around the city. We stopped after looting Gaedren.

A.) what would be the process for booking the criminals? My vision of them is part army, part cops.
B.) zellara wanted them to kill Gaedren and bring him to justice, due to feeling that the guard is inept. As a haunt/ghost, how should she react?
C.) I'd like Gaedren to escape to either Barvasi or more likely Pilts Swastel. In part to show how the guard can drag its feet. But I don't want to be a dick about how they should just kill people to avoid this same scenario again. I'd like to play on the line of how far someone should go for Justice. Especially with the paladin.

Any help is appreciated

Yeah, do not assume that earth traditions are accurate for Golarion. In Korvosa, if a king or queen dies, the surviving king or queen has the lawful claim to the throne. This is, in fact, relatively standard for most monarchies in Golarion. Regardless of whether there's a child or not, and regardless of who was King or Queen first.

I suppose I should have made that clear, but that was such a primal underlying assumption that the entire AP is based on I thought it was obvious.

I basically assumed that was how it was. The AP doesn't mention anything about pursuing rightful heirs to the throne. It's just not part of the story because she's aggressively ridding the city of undesirables.

So after the PC's kill Gaedren Lamm, they emerge onto riots in the streets of Korvosa. Various people yell things about Ileosa being a usurper, or various other things. The Guide to Korvosa mentions her as someone who has mentioned Korvosa being a "backwater-burg" and hating its inhabitants.
SO, the PCs have likely lived in the city for long enough to know that she hates the place. How much dislike for the city have you had her show publicly? I don't want people to immediately suspect her from the first adventure.
I'm listening to the audio drama now, and it has a little more detail about her thanking the PCs. I intend to run this AP as a podcast, so I want to have dramatic and impactful scenes.

What have you GMs done in your games?

Thanks Sharaya, sorry to be a pain about it all. You folks do great work.

Katina,
So my group is meeting earlier than expected, so I just bit the bullet and bought the digital download of Edge of Anarchy. Can you cancel my Legends subscription?

Have it sent out in it's own order, please. I thought I might be too late to add it to my other subscriptions.

Is it possible to know when this will ship? I'd love to be able to listen to the download before my first session on January 20th. If not, it's not a big deal.

Thank you

Sounds like Merisiel is looking for Kyra. Perhaps the Lost Love background trait from the AP? I hate that this comes out after my first session. Like a week late. Do we know the release date of the subscription of this? Or is it the Late Jan street date?

It worked! Thank you so much!

I originally responded to a Customer Service email with the below text. I've not heard back from them, so I thought I should post here. This was sent on November 1st.

I just received the notification email detailing that I can download the PDFs in this order. However, the Crimson Throne collected edition isn't there as something I can download. I was trying to preorder it so that I could get the PDF being an active subscriber. I sidecarted the book when I was ordering and it got moved from order 4086913(dated as October 5th). Is there any way I can get the PDF without paying the additional 40$ since I would have gotten it, had I not sidecarted the item?

Thank you,
-Adam

Hmm. Just let it ship with my other subscriptions. Sorry for the Trouble.

Can you calculate shipping on just the Crimson Throne Hardcover?

My PDF of the CoCT hardcover still hasn't shown up in my downloads. Is there something I'm missing here?

Thank you,
-Adam

So it's been a few days. Have you heard anything from your tech team? If not, do you think I could get a refund?

Monday I purchased "Syrinscape—Rise of the Runelords #3: "Hook Mountain Massacre" SoundPack" but it never showed up in my downloads. I have confirmation, it's order 4000834. I sent an email to the store email address yesterday but have not heard from them. Maybe just a site hiccup or do I need to do anything different since it's a Syrinscape product?

Thanks for any help on this,
-Adam

So my players did some epic fail moves last session. They threatened a Nascent Demon Lord...

Gelderfang and Nezirrius went amazingly well for them. They were good fights, but not as momentous as I had built them in my mind.

After that, they rested and were spooked by the idea of Rapture of Rupture. The city is not tempting to them, so that's probably my fault or they are just thinking "It's a demonic city, I shouldn't want any of this" even though at least one character is not super-good in outlook.

So they hear rumors about people trying to get noticed by Shamira at The Harem of Ardent Dreams. They barely make the diplomacy check, and she brings them in. The Sorceress takes point, instead of the Ranger who HAS Diplomacy. She rolls poorly on the check, and her points are mediocre. Shamira is unimpressed as per the book on a fail, and tells them to leave. Sorceress play says "my Intimidate is much better, I'll try that". Only the Fighter protests. She rolls super low as well, saying something along the lines of "yeah, well you better tell Nocticula etc..."

I took this as they linger, as described in the book. Shamira enters combat, Time Stop and Delayed Blast Fireballs kills 3/4 party members. Ranger is left standing asking if he can leave with his friends corpses. We stopped the session there for the night.

So I know there is an out for them as per the module of Nocticula raising them and having them give her something in return, separate from what the adventure outlines. But what? Also, would Shamira kill the last character, or maybe Dominate him and send him away? The latter is more interesting, as her goals could be slightly different than Nocticula's.

Thank you for any help you guys can give.

I've been wanting some Wayne Reynolds art as a tattoo for some time. I might have him sketch my favorite PC from Runelords(a Tiefling Paladin of Sarenrae) and use it.

That's cool Liz! I wondered if Paizo people had pathfinder related images. Y'know, brand loyalty and all that. Haha.

Yeah its about real tattoos. I can roleplay one on a character. I just put the thread here since it didn't make since in the general PF discussions.

So I got a Sihedron tattoo. For my Runelord masters. Well mainly because I love the image and want a leg sleeve of Pathfinder images.

Anyone else have Pathfibder or other roleplaying game ink?

My group is going at a shockingly slow pace it seems. We seem to play maybe once a month now. Ugh... But on an up note, I wiped the floor with them in the Xanthir Vang fight. They went in all cocky and proud like usual. They needed this. Cutting them down at the knees while frustrating for players, is overall better than having them NEVER face a real challenge. The Sorceress(Riftwarden Orphan) and Xanthir had a conversation for a bit. He gloated at killing her parents, asked her where she and her friends got their powers, and then tired of the evasive answers.

I ran it by his tactics in the book, I modified his INT to 28 for another spell or so, and higher DC spells. The Polearm spec'd fighter never carries a ranged weapon and they've had ample opportunities to stock up on one. He was dealing with a Spiked Pit spell for the entire fight. I nearly killed the Sorceress outright with a Disentegrate(makes no sense for him to cast it at a fighter type when the orphan most likely is the one talking to him).
Phantasmal Killer kills the Cleric who rolls low. Ranger constantly vexxed by the DR/abilites of Vang. No one can hit him, or really do any damage. Eventually they decide to run and will do library research about what Vang is.

And then I'll attack Drezen. In the "all out assault" way that the module mentions. So I need to find monsters that are on theme for 4 Level 11/Tier4ish PCs. So 3-4 encounters of CR13/14, if I go with the module recommendations

So in a random turn of events I am back down to 4 players. The paladin player had to drop due to work schedule.

So now my party is a ranger(guardian), sorcerer(Archmage), cleric(Heirophant) and fighter(champion). The damage dealers dropped(the slayer and pally) for life reasons. I'm completely stuck on getting them to the Succubus which is going to be this next session. I suppose she would reach out to the sorceress since she is more deifically similar to the Succubus. The story just doesn't have quite the punch that it would have given that the slayer had the chance encounter trait.

The encounter was a nail biter for the party as the Paladin and Marhevok the Bloodrager went toe to toe. They went in and weren't really sure of a plan other than to talk to him. I combined a few ways of interacting with him and he eventually felt like the paladin, who he saw as kin via the exposed to awfulness trait, was attempting to overthrow his rulership. I didn't have the frost drake since I made the Bloodrager more of a beast with dual path. It was a fairly even fight since none of the other PCs joined in(viewing it like the ancient trials of combat for sarkorans). Then when the pally needed to heal more Marhevok cast mythic Black tentacles(several levels higher than the PCs due to being a single threat). That occupied the party till the sorceress Dim Doored out and next round killed the Bloodrager with a mythic magic missile. I missed on a lot of attacks which was lucky for the paladin, but it's nice to see them act scared for the first time in awhile.

The palmas in player though has to drop the group for real life reasons. So I'm down to 4 players. Which is nice actually.

Kalindlara, the trouble I'm foreseeing is that there are 6 PC's vs. 2 main enemies(Marhevock and Beverack, his drake) and a slew of low level barbarians that won't be able to touch the PCs. They are speedbumps maybe.

I've got two versions. Both rely on being large and hitting like a mack truck. Trouble is, the AC/Defenses of those are super low. One is barbarian, other is Bloodrager. Bloodrager has neater tricks like Mirror Image, Displacement, and Mirror Dodge. Hell even fly trumps most of my PCs(5 melee types(the cleric too) and a sorcerer)).

Depending on the height of the ceiling, fly could be used with a reach weapon. But I do like the idea of your grappler.

Well my group of 6 level 9/tier3's took out the Woundwyrm in 5 rounds. I should have used the damaging breath and not the poison gas one. They all passed fort saves easily. I did kill the paladin but he was raised after the encounter. I added the loot from child of crusades to the dragons hoard since no one took that trait.

My party downsized 1. The Slayer's player switched to another group. Which means that I'm not sad if he dies. Might be interesting as he was the one searching for Arueshalae.

Next up on their tour of terror, Marhevok and his drake. Gotta make this guy mythic so he's not a pushover. Thinking Crossblooded Bloodrager(arcane/abyssal) to have some magical effects going, large size and wielding a nasty big weapon. Or changing archetype of Barbarian. Party has plenty of loot so giving him magic gear won't enrich them that much.

Maelyrra, Female Varisian Half-Elf Rogue 2
Tanrov, Male Shoanti(Hawk Clan) Druid 2
Grogg Argh, Male Half-Orc Barbarian 2
Elzaphir, Male Half-Elf Sorcerer(Arcane Bloodline)2

Just went through glassworks. Healing is...problematic. I can't wait till Misgivings and all the haunts.

Well he's barely given me any information. He's a wizard and his mom was an elf and a sorceress is pretty much it. I asked him if he wants me to take this and run with it, or if he envisioned something specific. He has yet to get back to me.

As of right now, I'm thinking of just making him one of the members of the cult at the Mill. We'll see.

Well Blasphemy scared all of them but eventually the day was won. Afterward the party made a B-line for the Fallen Fane(an area I had not prepared) and crushed Zanedra, and company. They've heard about the Woundwyrm now, and can't wait to kill it(while being 9th level/3MT). I've half a mind to say are you sure? And then let them find it. 6 mythic PCs vs a CR ATLEAST 2 higher(9 levels plus 1.5-3 from tiers, plus 1 from larger party). Woundwyrm itself is CR 15.

Basically I have 5 meleers and a Sorcerer with Haste and some fire spells. Maybe half the group is optimized the other, not so much. I've suggested and dominated the fighter a lot, which is now a running gag that he always fails will saves. The paladin has huge saves, and has Radiance as a legendary weapon making it intelligent, and animated(/facepalm). The Slayer is invisible most fights and undetectable, so I've ignored him.

The party has 2 Aasimar, but only the Pally is LG.

I was looking at Blasphemy wrong. I'm glad that's cleared up.

Suggestion to walk into the lava, or any other harmful action fails, as per the spell. Chaos Hammer is going to work on the Paladin the most. I might add Unholy Blight to it's spells... I know it's not supposed to be a boss type, rip roaring encounter, but I don't want them thinking things are easy. Then again, the weakness on the Blasphemy will scare them a lot.

I think that can work. Thanks.

Also, tomorrow's session will be the Jeskar Helton battle. Preparing for the eventuality of my PCs failing sense motive checks, and the Shachath Demon appearing. What would his tactics be? Seems like Greater Invisibility, then Blasphemy could TPK the group, but I could be underestimating Mythic PCs. But at his CL, that spell, paralyzes, weakens and dazes. If they fail, I fear it makes sense for the demon to coup de grace everyone since he wants to make a good impression with Aponavicius. I generally don't pull many punches especially for demons.

Fighter has Champion/Stolen Fury,
Cleric has Heirophant/Stolen Fury,
Sorcerer has Archmage/Riftwarden Orphan,
Ranger has Guardian/Exposed to Awfulness
Paladin has Champion/Exposed to Awfulness
Slayer has Trickster/Chance Encounter

The Sorcerer's background works with child of crusades since it's about her family, trouble is going to be the quest starts from a letter from her parents ideally. Arivashniel could have known them and I could change it to where he is supposed to give her the letter at some point in her life. Given the start of the campaign, that could have been impossible, and once the queen's entourage comes to Drezen, so could Aravashniel's things(magic stuff). He gives her the letter talking of a family history, a family ghost, and pointing to the thing they killed them. Just spitballing right now.

I'm tempted to just have the one at the Fane just happen to the dwarf cleric or the aasimar Ranger. Both are Iomedaeans(the pally has Radiance which is special enough). But they wouldn't get the additional mythic trial benefit.

No one in my group took the Child of the Crusades trait OR the Heirophant one. I'm trying to bring those quest in somehow. The rift warden orphan could be the child of the crusades too. But no one really fits the other trait. I just think it's too cool to miss once the fallen fane is completed. Any ideas?

That's the trouble is that that moment is so cliche now. The player has a vague backstory and only has a list of possible names(it sounds like) of fathers. His mom is dead. And there a ton of threads of "tsuto is actually Ironbriars son" which I don't care for.

The dad could be of the cultists? He's an accomplished Wizard who's identity is secret to the PC. His mom is tight lipped about him. Could be that she didn't know much about him, since he was leading a double life. PC is from Magnimar, as is dad but dad spent some time in Sandpoint. Maybe a Diviner grooming people for "something to come" or working more directly for the Skinsaw cult?

It is on page 15. In a small sidebar..

The reward for completing the Desecration of the father quest; XP and platinum? It says for 400pp or 700pp. Is this platinum, or does it stand for something else? Forgive me for not seeing the obvious answer

I just started running Runelords. My party has several half-elves in it and I wish to use some of their backstories in the AP.

The Half-Elf Sorcerer has the Arcane bloodline. His dad is/was a Wizard and his mom a Sorcerer. I want that to be a lie. Or that that's what he's been raised to believe. I'd like for Justice Ironbriar to be his real father. I'll have Ironbriar visiting the town for the Swallowtail Festival. We only just started with the AP and the first two encounters. He could be away from Magnimar to attend the festival due to it's cultural significance for the region, even though the Justice lives in Magnimar. Sandpoint is a Magnimarian holding however.

The other is a Half-Varisian half-elf. Looks archetypally Varisian. She's a rogue with a penchant for stealing books. Knowledge is power. This could potentially tie in with Ironbriar, as he's a devotee of Norgorber... I was also going to have her be the target of Aldern, seeing as she is a woman AND part Varisian. He'd see something of his former wife in her and become obsessed.

What are your thoughts about making Ironbriar both their dad? Different mothers of course. But it is it too much?

Thanks for the response. After thinking About it, I will wait for it to be sent with my other subscriptions.

Last week I added the PF RPG line to my subscriptions. Is it possible that I could still get a pdf of Pathfinder Unchained or is it too late? Or would that only be accessible after it ships? Thanks in advance.

My PCs face rolled over the first several mass combats because they brought every conceivable NPC with them. Huge bonuses all around. It was only in Drezen that they started getting any real opposition. They are about to attack the citadel after having killed the other armies/skirmishes, save for the group of 3 armies.

I'm going to add ranged weapons to at least one of the armies, have the dretch fight recklessly, etc. I have 6 PCs so upping the challenge is needed, though most are not optimized. The chimera scared them a lot. I like the idea of the mass combat rules, but my implementation of them was clunky(rusty gm/new rules subset).

In February I started receiving the Giantslayer AP. However the second volume looks like it won't be shipped till next month(April)? Why is that?

My party just defeated Soltengrabbe and it put 2 of the 4 characters down but not dead. Only 4 of 6 were in attendance so I didn't use it to its full potential. They were all melee combatants(no sorcerer or battle cleric present). 6 PCs though 4-5 show per session. Nervous to unload Scorpions full stat blocks against them, as they kind of optimize. Some don't. Both casters have yet to take mythic spellcasting. The dwarf cleric just took martial weapon proficiency: longbow this level. So we'll see...

I'm nerfing a few abilities and removing multiplication clauses of mythic power attack and vital strike. And the star boosts from tiers have to be put into something outside their niche. At least the first one or two. Maybe more. My players are either fairly new or not optimizers. Mythic does make it easier to optimize though. I'm holding out hope compared to all these threads, that this will be fun.

My group of 6 PCs is about to hit the Lost Chapel so we're still young.

We've only just started book 2 but I'm looking ahead and trying to figure out what is needed to buff encounters. With 6 PCs, I figure I will need to unleash everything I can on them to prove a challenge. The team is 5 meleers and a sorceress with haste now(but she didn't take mythic spellcasting).

I've done away with the mass combat rules thinking them too swingy. I'll just run regular battles with the army fighting around them. Probably keeping the first army easy so as to point out how different the PCs are than before. I plan to use Scorpions stats for everything now. Thoughts on any of this?

-Candide

Need to get better at updating routinely....

The group pushed onward, fighting the Peryton and zombies. They cleaned the guts out of the bowl, and saw the vision. Up the stairs to fight a half-fiend Minotaur(I wanted more of a challenge but only attacked with its greater and not a full retinue. They got scared when I hit the fighter and paladin for over 30 damage each. The ranger used the blinding shield and blinded everyone other than his leopard and the Minotaur. The celestial leopard finished of the Minotaur with a smite. Laughter and whews all around. Straight into next fight. I allowed Jesslyn to animate Deradnu but he was taken care of easily this time. As Schir demon was involved in the fight too.
4 attempts to fail the save were needed to destroy the wardstone. My players yelled for me to stop rolling high.

Then the wardstone blew up. And after all that description the PCs were super worried they'd just killed all of mendevs defenses. The battle vs the babau was funny to me explaining that these demons were so frustrated and confused about their ineptitude vs the PCs. Two rounds of it and it was getting late. I called it there and everyone went back to Defenders Heart.

Our group meets again tomorrow. we are potentially adding another. So that will be 6 PCs. I both fear and am intrigued. They are not optimized much, and like story. I did away with XP already to make the fights make more sense. Drezen will be full of baddies though. I'll be using Scorpions stats from now on. Wish me luck.

Tulty! Get back to your group so you can play/record/upload more sessions of Wrath of the Righteous on RPGMP3. Your podcast has been VERY helpful in my own game. And thanks for podcasting it. I'm a huge fan.

Also, for more helpful info: the Paladin in my group just became mythic and he uses a bastard sword. I let the sword change to a bastard sword so he would use it. I'm sure letting it be a musket isn't OP. Like Krinn said it's Mythic rules you will have to worry about.

I'd forgotten that I had not updated this thread. We are slated to meet up again tomorrow night and hopefully finish the first book.

Last session was 5ish hours in which the party, now 5 PCs strong, assaulted the Grey Garrison. They were accompanied by Irabeth, and 3 Mongrelmen Rangers. I forgot about Irabeth several times during the session, and more so the rangers.

The fighter walked up to the door and banged his fist on it, seeing if anyone would open it. The same password was used at the safehouses to attempt gaining entry. No dice. The Chime of Opening was used a few times with no luck on the door. The party spotted the window hatch to the second floor, but only 2 people were willing to climb. The two Aasimar characters(a paladin and a ranger) fought the 3 flies. I added creepiness by describing the flies via RPGMP3's podcast of the Wrath AP, where the DM mentions that the flies sound like the crying of babies in addition to possessing faces and arms of infants. I couldn't damage them much due to resistances and bad rolls.

The dwarf cleric climbs in the window too, and the sorceress levitates via Terendelev's scale. Meanwhile, the fighter attempts to knock the door down for a few rounds. I ruled they were made of stone and he wasn't strong enough with the rolls he made. He used the Chime of Opening several more times, eventually unlocking it.

As he threw open the doors, he was attacked by 5 ready action Tieflings, missing every attack. A few of them moved to him, and were killed due to reach weapons and Combat Reflexes, and the others ran. The party gets back together during the Abricandilu fight, and snoops around. Eventually I had them find a tiefling with the cultists in the Defiled Chapel, and one with Othirubo. I did a fair amount of damage to several PCs with his Fire bomb.

they found the hidden cache of weapons and we ended there. I'm going to take out several of the upstairs encounters due to being unneccessary. and removing XP potentially

Our group met last Friday and didn't get very far in the 4-ish hour session. Though fought through the 2 occupied safe houses. I loved the mandragora encounter. It drained a significant amount of blood from the only person not nauseated. Scared the party a lot with all the status effects. They bluffed their way to Faxon but a question or two in they said screw it and attacked him. I didn't get off any of his spells on them. Sad face. The party headed back to defenders heart. There they learned about the grey garrison and the rod of cancellation, made their way to the Riftwarden Cache that Arevashniel told them about, and are giddy with supplies and having a paladin with them.

Our next session will be this Friday. If all goes smooth we may be able to finish book 1. With the holidays coming, I don't think we'll have a lot of gaming time, so even if we finish on the 21st(our next session after the 7th) it sets up a good pause point.

Trouble is is that I may have 5 players now instead of 4 or 3 like I've had so far. I may end up using the conversions posted by Scorpion after all. My players play PFS but like I said don't seem to min/max a lot. Yet. I'm hinting that a paladin is made for this AP with the newest player coming in. I'm sure I'll regret it when he discovers mythic power attack, smite evil and mythic vital strike. We'll see. I think I can still manage it all.