When the SF Armory and Pact Worlds are available on Roll 20, then I will be interested.
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I ran this one yesterday and it is definitely not one of my favorites. I will post the highlights or this post will go on forever The bumper boats scenario was the biggest mess, even with the cheat sheet. Upon further reading it seems to imply the PC's should not be making checks to get the linnorms off the boats until they start playing bumper boats (i.e. the fourth round) and focus on saving the sailors instead. I did not realize this and they started dividing their efforts immediately, pulling sailors out of the water with 2 of the PCs having swim speeds. They had all of the linnorms convinced to get off the boats within two rounds except for Whiny I mean Crookscale (I think I saw every eye at the table roll upwards when they told him to jump off the boat and he complained he couldn't swim and was afraid of water). This was well before the sixth round so Angry Amiri just swam out attached a line to his boat and they hauled him in with no goods from the skiff spilling in the water. They also had the crowd working together and had all the sailors in within 3 rounds. Then came the fight with Revna and the Ulfen warriors. The text went into great detail as to what would happen if the PCs fought on after going under 15 hp. It said nothing (that I could find) as to what would happen if they accidentally killed one or more of them. Which was exactly what happened. Revna said nothing about using the flat of the sword or non-lethal spells (at least nothing I could find) and that was probably a big mistake on her part. All the members of Team Ulfen rolled like crap for initiative, ate a fireball, saw Amiri rage and down one of them with one critical hit (he was well into negatives after the hit so I ruled his head went sailing off into the river), and eat another fireball against which all failed their saves and 3 critically failed, once again putting them well into negatives. I had Revna call for quarter after the first round, realizing they had picked the wrong fight, she was down four warriors, and had no chance of winning. None of the NPCs were below 15 hp when any of the deaths happened so they had no chance to surrender. And since the scenario said nothing about punishing the PCs for any deaths on their hands, I just figured Revna would not hold it against them, as she realized she was the one who started it. Or something. It did give them a good laugh when Skarde Nineblades was crowing about the combat prowess of his warriors in comparison to the Pathfinder Society. And yes, Manglefang joined in. So much for setting a good example. Maybe other GM's and groups will have fun with this, but I did not. There were some nice moments and laughs but way too much of me checking and rechecking modifiers and me offering nonexplanations of things that didn't make sense. Maybe part of the problem was the 4 hour convention time slot. A home group with more time on their hands (and maybe a GM with a better eye for details and conveying things subtly) may be able to get more out of it.
Thank you so much for this! Maybe I will actually be able to finish this within four hours now at our local convention this weekend. As for Martyr's Shield, it will become unlockable after you run/play the module under the boon section in your My Organized Play. Once you purchase it you will be able to download what amounts to a chronicle sheet. I'm not sure if this chronicle just gives you the Shield in question outright or just gives you access to it.
I have a question about the cybernetic tyrannosaurids. Their size is listed as large but their space and reach are listed as 15 ft as though they were huge. Does anyone know which is correct. They are nasty enough with the swallow whole ability so I am inclined to give them the space and reach of large creatures i.e. 10 ft.
Just a question about the Goblin Scrapshooters AC. is it really supposed to be E11/K12? Because that is one hell of an armor check penalty as their Dex mod is +4. They would be better off going into battle naked. That being said, goblins are not the brightest creatures in the galaxy so I could see them wearing armor that they thought looked cool but did not help them at all. I can also see a canny party doing a "work" (in pro wrestling parlance) for the benefit of the cameras. That is, working out some hostilities and juicy goings between the party members on that are agreed on in advance that everyone knows are going to be said or done for the benefit and titillations (sp?) of the audience and are not in earnest. My group that I played this adventure with did not think of this but if the group I'm running for this weekend thinks of it I will totally run with it. I doubt Zo! would care and would run with it too.
Here's something else I just thought of as I'm going through prep work the night before I'm scheduled to run. The Consecrate ritual requires two additional worshippers of the consecrator's faith to make crafting or performance checks. What exactly are the PC's to do if there are not at least two of them who are worshippers of Hanspur? As I'm sure Sylvina is the only worshipper of Hanspur (or the only one willing to admit it) in Prophet's Rest. Or is this being handwaved? Or am I missing something?
Players seemed to get it when I explained tasks using this term; e.g. "clearing the rubble takes 8 work-days." I was surprised too about there not being an extra charge for the skilled workers. I guess Razmir is not a supporter of labor unions.
If they hire 12 villagers a day wouldn’t that cost 12 gp per day instead of 3? After only 12 days, they would spend 144 gold and nearly be out of money.As I read it, it says " It costs 3 gp per day to hire 3 villagers per PC from Prophet’s Rest to put in a full day’s work". To me that says that it costs 3 gp a day, and for that you can hire 3 villagers per PC, or each PC can hire 3 villagers. So for a table of 6 players, you get a real bargain, as you can hire 18 of the 27 villagers for only 3gp that day. That is exactly as I read it as well. You spend 3gp and get up to 3 times the # of PC's to work for you. The only time you will be shortchanged is if one or more PC's "take the day off" to schmooze with the locals or plant the lilies. So if I have a table of 5 PCs, on day one they hire a total of 15 workers for 3gp. On day two one of my PCs decides to go plant flowers so they are only able to hire 12 PCs for that same 3 gp cost. This doesn't make any sense, but I guess it keeps the math simple and keeps PC costs down.
I remember reading in the CRB that anyone traveling for four hours or more in rainy conditions becomes fatigued. I don't remember mention as to how long the trip takes, but it seems a bit of a jerk move to throw the fatigued condition on top of all the other miserable conditions the PC's have to deal with. On the other hand, does this remind anyone else of those when-animals-attack eco disaster movies from the 70's like Frogs or Prophecy or Day of the Animals?
I have a question about the Nature DC to command the horses pulling the Wagon to move. With a DC of 15 and a penalty of -2 to command the horses, I can see a party not trained in nature having all kinds of difficulty with this, especially at first level. I am picturing a fighter swearing and cursing at the horses failing repeated nature checks to even get them to move in the first place. Khoumrock mentions the options of hiring a teamster, but I can't find anything in the text as to how much and what benefit that would be.
Is it just me or does Shonvyzam's drone's defenses seem off? By my math the KAC/EAC for tier 1-2 (assuming she's a 1st level mechanic) should be 13/15 respectively not 10/12, saves should be Fort +0/ Ref+5/Will +0 not Fort -1/Ref-1/Will-3, and HP should be 10 not 6. The higher tier drone does not look right either but its almost time for bed and I don't have time to list them. Am I missing something?
That final encounter was sooooo anticlimactic.
Spoiler:
I ran my PC's through tier 1, 4 PC's with 1 2nd level gunslinger 1 2nd level fighter-type and the other two first level. Da'Tunga lasted all of two rounds against the fighter. This was after the massive buildup straight out of King Kong, with the party shaking in it's boots, absolutely convinced that Da'Tunga was going to rip them apart with his bare paws. That lasted until it's first attack did... all of 4 damage. That was the last time he hit, as he simply could not get through the fighter's armor. The Tik Taan Idol was absolutely useless in support, and once Da'Tunga was down it was over as the idol has virtually no offensive capability. With all this in mind, I would not beat yourself up by having a Druid end the fight like he did. Especially since the druid probably did not have a whole lot of time to show his/her stuff during the rest of the mod, as it took place entirely indoors. Good call.
I'm a first time PFS GM and need some advice. What are the guidelines for adjusting monster/NPC stats from scenarios from season zero? The reason I ask is that the undead antagonists from The Rising Tide, which I will be running in a couple of weeks at tier 1-2, were built using 3.5 rules. Their charisma is a whopping six, which would give them a -2 HP/die. So what should I do? Mod the charisma to 10, which would mean they still get one less HP per HD? Keep the charisma score as it is and have them take the HP hit? Or not worry about it and run them with their HP as written? The PF Organized Play guide has guidelines for modifying NPC's and monsters, but say that creatures should be unmodified other than to add CMB's and CMD's. I'm inclined to do the last of the three because they, to be frank, are not much of a threat to anything but a 1st level commoner as written and I'd rather not see them take a HP hit. And if anyone knows of an offical revision to this scenario updating it to PF rules please let me know.
Let's not forget the ninjas. Yes, there are ninjas in a medieval flavored fantasy movie. And not just one or a small band sneaking around special-forces style. I'm talking about a whole frickin regiment of them, arrayed in a line of battle! They look more out of place than a Cleveland Browns fan at a Steelers-Ravens game (sorry Cleveland). My jaw just hit the floor when I saw the battle scene with the ninjas vs the Krug.
This movie was indeed horrible, but in all the right ways. Uwe Boll is a modern day Ed Wood, and his movies are best watched with good friends and a bottle of rum. Let's see... there's Power-Rangers like fight scenes, Ray Liotta pronouncing evil-wizard edicts with a barely concealed Jersey accent, Burt Reynolds walking around with an "I'm here for the paycheck" look on his face, the amazing appear-out-of-thin-air Krug (who don't have a stealthy bone in their body), the list goes on. What's not to like? For the bad-movie enthusiast, that is. I am chuckling just writing this. I am planning on buying this movie on DVD when I see it in the bargain bin, and it will occupy a place on my shelf right next to "Plan 9 From Outer Space," "Showgirls," and "Robot Monster." Come to think of it, Uwe Boll's output reminds me a lot of what Ed Wood could have done had he had an endless bank account..
I just had another thought on the matter. I have nicknamed the Paladin "Harpoon Missle" (a real-world ship killing missle that can sink just about anything afloat, for those who don't know) because the player has built him around killing things with a mounted charge. He has a flying hippogriff mount, and with the spirited charge, mounted combat, and ride by attack feats he can attack just about anything with impunity and be out of range of retaliation if it survives the initial charge. Add the spells Rhino's Rush (add another multiplier to your charge attack) and Find the Gap (resolve your next few attacks as touch attacks) so he can power attack for his entire attack bonus and he can kill just about anything he can charge. He has been using this tactic for the past 8 levels or so and it has worked well. He brought down a titan two game sessions ago using this. The reason he may have thrown such a hissy fit is that he feels he would not be able to execute his "human-and-hippogriff-missle" tactic inside the confines of the cave. The paladin is only average in a stand up melee combat and does not have the best HP's, so it may have been a tactic to avoid being mauled in melee. If this is the case, it makes his behavior even more reprehensible. I will not bother asking him because he will never admit it if it is true.
Sorry. I just watched this tonight, and realized the Game Master's name is Leon, not Melio. Melio is Harold's annoying party member who has some of the funniest lines in the movie.
Actually, after Scary Movie 3, the Wayans didn't work on the series any more. It was handed off to random writers/directors, eventually landing in the hands of Adam Seltzer and Jason Freidman for Epic Movie, two hacks with even less talent and worse humor than the Wayans brothers. They continued to vomit forth atrocities such as Date Movie, Superhero Movie, Meet the Spartans, and perhaps the most mind-laceratingly stupid movie I've ever seen, Disaster Movie. Honestly, I think they're worse than Uwe Boll... I agree wholeheartedly about the [fill in the blank] Movie being worse than Uwe Boll's movies. Mr Boll's movies may be horrible, but at least they are fun to watch if you like bad movies. I think I've watched about 10 minutes total of the crap that Mr Seltzer and Mr Friedman have put out in the past several years, and I can't bring myself to watch any more. I love bad movies that are so horrible they are good, but their output is just painful to watch. The biggest mystery is to how they are getting the funding for this crap.
I grew up in this decade, so there are too many for me to name. Probably the best one I remember that anyone who was not preeteen in the early 80's has never heard of was Midnight Madness . Not a very good movie by any stretch of the imagination, but still a lot of fun. It features David Naughton (from the Dr Pepper ads in the late 70's early 80's) and Michael J Fox in his first role. The movie is one of those screwball comedies that were prevalent in the era, but with none sex and vulgarity that characterized just about every other comedy of the era, thus making it perfect for my age group. The plot revolves around a game (don't remember what it is called) run by a nerd named Melio. He arranges for 5 competing teams each made up of a particular stereotype (i.e. the nerd team, the jock team, the man hating female team, etc) to race around the city to particular locations where they will have to complete a certain task or obtain a clue that, when deciphered, leads them to their next destination, et cetera until they reach the finish line It's a lot like the Amazing Race with larger teams and a smaller travel budget. HBO ran this movie at least every day back in the early 80's, so me and my brother and sister pretty much had the dialogue memorized. It's been ages since I've seen it, so I put it on my Netflix queue. Now that I've read this thread, I have definitely got to check out Night of the Comet as well! Thanx for the recomendation!
There are basically 2 kinds of dumb movies. Dumb movies that are fun to watch (i.e. Showgirls, Plan 9) and dumb movies that are painful to watch (Pearl Harbor, Battlefield Earth). The most recent dumb movie that is fun to watch was In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, straight from the creative "genius" of Uwe Boll. So bad I can't begin to describe it, but watch it with a group of friends and a bottle of rum and a good time will be had by all. The most recent second variety (that I can think of, there may be others) was M. Night Shamalan's "The Village." I will not give away the "twist" ending, but it was the only time that I ever seriously considered asking for my money back at a theater. Don't get me started on Roland and Emmerich's Godzilla AKA GINO (Godzilla In Name Only) or this post will never end...
I think what David Fryer was talking about are movies that have horrible production values, bad acting, and incredibly stupid dialogue, and are unintentionally hilarious, thus being highly entertaining to watch. This sets them apart from movies that are so bad they are painful to watch (i.e. Battlefield Earth, Dungeons and Dragons, ad infinitum…) I’ve seen dozens of them, as I am a self proclaimed bad movie connoisseur. While some modern efforts come close (i.e. Showgirls, Catwoman), none surpass the ineptitude of Plan 9 From Outer Space. Seriously, if you have never seen the worst dialogue ever written being performed by actors so wooden they would give cigar-store Indians a run for their money, you have not lived. Truth be told, Plan 9 is probably not the worst movie ever made. There are movies with worse production values out there from the era. There are movies with as bad of acting (if there’s one with worse acting, I haven’t seen it). However, there are no movies that I have seen with worse dialogue. I still can’t believe that Criswell delivered the opening monologue with a straight face (how many times can you use the word “future” in one block of dialogue?) And there’s more. Glaring continuity errors (What do you mean you left the police station in a 55 Chevy and arrived at the cemetery in a 56 Chevy? It took you a year to arrive? What did you do, stop for donuts?), obvious stock footage usage (what B-movie makers would have done without stock footage we’ll never know) and the most ludicrous plot I have yet to see. What’s more is that it is done completely straight, and you can tell that the actors are giving it their all, which isn’t much. When you throw all this together, you get most entertaining bad movie out there. If you are looking for a horrible-yet-entertaining movie, you can’t go wrong with Plan 9. However, if you have seen it more times than you can count (like me) and are tired of it (I’m not…yet), here are a few others to get your MST3K riffing going… Beginning of the End.
Robot Monster
The Amazing Colossal Man
Bride of the Monster
That should set you up for your Halloween bad movie viewing pleasure. If you need any further guidance in the matter please check out El Santo’s website [url=http://www.1000misspenthoursandcounting.com].
I think that one thing that is being overlooked in this discussion of magic item creation balance is what has kept the Artificer in my 3.5 Age of Worms campaign from crafting every single blessed item the party wants; time. Because of his craft reserve, I don't think our party Artificer has ever had to dip into his XP to craft magic items, so that has not been a factor. However, as I had to point out at one point in the game after every one had made wish lists of magic items, Kyuss and his minions are not just going to sit back and take a holiday while you craft every item in the Magic Item Compendium that you can afford. To craft every item he wanted to would have taken close to 3 months. All of the City of Greyhawk would have been undead by then... I feel that the time constraints should definitely remain in place. If you have an evil demigod threatening to destroy the world, taking a week to craft a single item that can help your party out should be OK. Taking a year off to craft every non-artifact item in the DMG is not. To echo some previous posts; DM's, your players are running adventurers, not merchants. If they have enough time to sit around and craft magic items with nothing more pressing to do, they have waaay to much time on their hands IMHO.
The way I read it, improved cover is basically akin to hiding behind a wall that is low enough to shoot over (would probably only work with a crossbow) or an arrow slit that gives you a wide field of fire. That means to gain the benefit you have to remain relatively still. If you want to do the "peek and shoot" bit like you see in all the cop movies, you may want to assign a penalty of -2 to hit or more b/c you are basically trying to aquire a quick sight picture and snap a shot off before someone returns fire.
It was Admiral Yamamoto, and you forgot the "and filled him with a terrible resolve" part of the quote, which is also accurate. This is why I do not normally post on these subjects, because people have very emotional attachments to particular versions of D&D, and no argument is going to get them to change their minds. I happen to like 4th edition just fine, but I would no sooner try to get a 3.5 adherist to change his mind than I would get a die hard Republican to vote Democrat.
I want to thank all of you (better late than never) for your well wishes. The campaign is going smoothly, and we are now in the middle of the Spire of Long Shadows. The two toughest parts of the campaign so far have been the 3 Faces of Evil and the Hall of Harsh Reflections. For the 3 Faces of Evil, specifically it was the duel with the Grimlock archers. The artificer failed his will save vs the krenshar's scare ability and went clambering down the ladder into the pit. Which made him target practice for the archers, who promptly turned him into a human pincushion and earned him the nickname "damage sponge." Fortunately for him, the krenshar fell in the next round, and I ruled that he could now flee from the archers back up the ladder. He made it back up only to be shot in the back, knocked to negative HP. It would have been curtains had he taken one more arrow a round sooner, as the fall would have outright killed him. The kenku maze and the battle with Beast were no picnic either, but this was the toughest. The second hardest battle was probably with Zyrxox, who was remade as a 13th level (I think) Psion. He was bad-ass, as he had double his normal HP's thanks to one of his powers, plus defenses up the wazoo. He had over 150 PP's (I think, I don't have his stats in front of me) and his augmentable powers made him extremely dangerous, and psionic fly is a whole lot better than levitate any day. And his SR was near-impossible to penetrate. It took a specialized anti-abberation artificer power (once again, don't remember what it was) to bring him down. And I now have a son! His name is Owen, he is four months old yesterday, and he is a gamer in training! If someone could show me how to post pics I would be willing to show a game-related baby picture or two.
Well, the encounters on the initial level went pretty much as I thought they would. The party had a little trouble with the e-beetles, but the ranger kept making his will saves and blasted them to pieces with silver arrows from his undead-bane bow. The Kyuss Knight fell to a mounted charge from the paladin after being mostly disintegrated, and the other beetle got blasted to pieces by the party psion. In the Hall of Knowledge, they had a little more trouble with the Swords of Kyuss and the Wormcaller. The Wormcaller got off a single flame strike then got disintegrated by the Artificer from his staff of transmutation. They had a bit more trouble with the Swords of Kyuss and their Worm Invocations, with the cleric almost buying it but blasting the final Sword of Kyuss with a ray-type spell (don't remember what it was, it was from the complete spell compendium) and destroying it. The most trouble they had was with the Angels of the Worm. No one died, but they all came awful close, especially with the discorporation dive from the Sword Archons. The party wisely took the fight outside the wormswarm room, but that just gave the angels more room to manuver. Everyone was making their saves, which was just as well as after the prismatic spray half the party could have been petrified or in the 9 hells. The closest anyone came to dying was when the party psion got hit with a discorporating dive and made her save by one point. The Ghaele Eladrin was almost impossible to hit, especially after the party was weakened by the Blasphemy spell. He finally fell when the Psion used the death urge power, penetrated SR, failed his will save, and disemboweled himself with his own sword. More to come.
My party found a rather novel way around the trap. The party artificer was doubling as a trap monkey in this instance. He detected the trap without a problem (the nasty carving in the chest also gave it away) but he rolled horribly in trying to disarm it. One failed will save later and he was sucked into the chest. So that the party would not think that he was disintegrated, I ruled the party saw him physically being shrunk and sucked inside the chest. The party psion had maxed out arcane knowledge skills, so she was able to figure out what happened. She also was able to figure out that breaking the chest would also disable the trap. So the party gave her the sole adamantine weapon (a morning star, I think), she created a strong Astral Construct with the power attack feat, handed it the weapon, and let it have at the chest. It did not matter that it was non-proficient in the weapon as it always struck and it would power attack for all it was able. Of course it would fail the will save and end up being sucked inside the chest, but the psion would just summon another, have it pick up the morning star, and pick up right where the previous one left off. The text specified that all possessions of the suck-ee were left behind so she was able to do this. With an adamantine weapon wielded 2 handed with power attack, the chest lasted about 3 rounds. The party artificer returned from his ordeal naked, with some ability damage, and babbling about worms crawling all over him, but ok considering his ordeal. I imagine a party with some summoning magic could pull off something similar if they had an adamantine weapon if they did not have a psion with the astral construct power. This little tale just goes to show that DM's should never underestimate the creativity of PC's.
I am not worried about the Eviscerator Beetles. There are only two of them, they have no SR, lousy touch AC's, crappy Fort saves, and the party Psion has a disintegrator beams with both their names on it. Her will save is through the roof, and she has action points to spare, so between her and the undead-slaying ranger (5 arrows of undead bane with Undead-favored enemy bonus in one round) I don't think the eviscerator beetles will survive more than 2 rounds. I don't have the module in front of me, so I don't remember if the beetle has DR/silver, but that would be the only thing that spares them in the first round. Oops, never mind, he remembered to stock up on silver arrows in Magepoint. One, maybe two rounds tops for the E Beetles.
Thank you all for your help. I will take appropriate actions to make sure my PC's have at least a chance for survival. I am not too worried about the Eviscerator Beetles or Kyuss Knights, as the party Psion has Psionic Disintegrate at her disposal and with bow continually charged with Undead Bane courtesy of the artificer, Machine Gun Kelly will knock the undead down like nobody's business. I forsee the Worm Nagas and the Worm Angels giving them the most trouble. I am also considering nerfing the Swords of Kyuss Invocation of the Worm to once a day. That way they will not all just cut loose with all three at once but will save them for healing. I am also considering including a Kyuss Knight or two for backup for the Harbringer encounter. Not that it will do much good, as just about our entire party can fly and will be more than willing to soak up AoO from Kyuss Knights to get to the big bad undead spellcaster. And of course there is the Worm Naga Feeblemind ability. I will have to see what happens when they run this gauntlet. I will try to only have one or two worms come at them at a time and see what happens.
My party is just getting set to investigate Kuluth Mar and all the monstrosities theirin. The Beastlords (the name they got in the Greyhawk Arena, long story)are 12th level with a human ranger (archery style) with Undead as a favored enemy, a human artificer with a warforged fighter cohort, an elven psion, a human paladin mounted on a griffon (nickname "Harpoon Missle," as he does about as much damage as that particular ship-killing missle on a mounted charge with his lance), and a human cleric/combat medic (think Piffany from Nodwick and you'll get the idea). I am having a hard time not imagining this area as a huge TPK. The Worm Naga passage in particular. I think that being subjected to 1-3 feeblemind attacks every round they descend is going to result in the whole party (with the possible exception of the Psion or maybe the Cleric) being ready for Special Ed by the time they come out the other end of hole. Their saves are pretty good, but asking party members to make multiple saves every round or become Forrest Gump is asking a lot, even with the use of action points. They may not be dead by the time they come out, but they most certainly will have problems getting back to civilization. I am considering nerfing the Feeblemind to a spell-like ability as opposed to a gaze attack. Thoughts? What happened with your groups when they ran this little gauntlet Any help I could get with this section, and the whole Spire of Long Shadows, would be greatly appreciated.
You are right. I think whoever did the stats forgot about the power attack. I may just eliminate the power attack when I have the Kyuss Knights full attack, as the eye worm attacks can be more debilitaing than the damage from the sword, especially for Markath.
Let me just tell you: a ranger with all undead favored enemy and an undead-bane composite longbow and multishot/rapid shot is absolutely SICK in this campaign. One full attack action took the Apostle of Kyuss down about 80 HP at range. I agree completely. My group has an Artificer (in Greyhawk, don't ask) that, with preparation, can give any bane property to any weapon in the party. With an elf-bane property added to his bow, the party ranger took down the leader of Arcane Auriga in the the first round of the Free City Arena competition before she was able to fire a shot in anger. However, the Apostle's flailing cilia prevented him from doing the same thing to it. He goes through most undead like a knife thru butter. His nickname after the Free City Arena games has been Machine-Gun Kelly....
The Diamond Lakers <Snigger> did they have a set of cheerleaders called the "Laker Girls." Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Once again, thank you for all the input. I did indeed end up using an encounter at the abandoned mine office. I had been fighting thru a ton of xvarts at the time on Baldur's Gate, so I used a Xvart bandit encounter, taking their stats from a Campaign Classics Dragon issue (not sure which one). They gave the party a hard time, especially when the leader entangled the Beguiler in his war-net. They ended up winning of course, but it was a nice start to the campaign. The ironic thing is that, even after clearing the place of enemies, they decided not to use it as a home base. After giving Filge the boot from the observatory, they took over his domicile and remodeled it. I could find no reason why it would not work, and it made sense since it was a lot closer to town, yet far enough away so that opportunits would not just wander by. It took a few weeks to clean it up and make it habitable for a six person party, but it's now prime real estate in Diamond Lake. Until Illthane gets through with it, that is..... <insert evil chuckle here>
The thing that concerns me about the item being possibly broken is that it is a license to bypass just about any and all DR. Very few (if any) monsters have sonic resistance, and elemental damage is not stopped by DR. So by posessing Elemental (air) quiver, a fairly low level archer can bypass just about any DR. I am reluctant to allow my party artificer to craft this relatively low cost item and give it to the 11th level ranger (with archery combat style) for this very reason. Are my fears unfounded? My party is about halfway thru the age of worms, and the artificer, while not quite breaking the game, is making things a whole lot easier on the PC's than I anticipated. I can forsee a lot of problems if this were given to an archer, particularly a high level one. A 5000 gp item that has the potential to negate any DR seems a little too powerful to me.
I hate to sound like a know-it-all, but the most your uber character (the one who drew the Sun card from the DOMT) would be able to advance would be one level. Period. It's very clear on page 58 of the PHB. The extra XP may put him/her somewhat ahead of the rest of the group, but it's far from capaign busting IMHO.
It seems that a good deal of the most difficult encounters were random encounters from the posts I've read. No different here. The harpy encounter could have turned ugly, but they were no good in a stand up fight to someone (like my party's paladin) resistant to their song. Shukak put up a fairly good fight, but only because I ditched the Bracers of Armor he was wearing, gave him a plain old chain shirt to compensate, and added the shocking special ability to his trident, and had him wield it two handed. Oh, and I rearranged it so that the party fought his lieutenant Kotabas at the same time, and they still had it pretty easy. I won't even mention the kobold rogues. No, the most difficult encounter the party had was with a trio of ogres (two standard, one "advanced) who laid out a "roadblock" (they staked out one of the known trails) after the party ranger got the group lost on the way back to Blackwall Keep. I took them straight from the MM, replacing the 4th level ogre barbarian's greatclub with a greataxe. They could have avoided the whole battle with some good RP'ing or diplomacy checks (the ogres wanted money, not a fight) but the ranger got impatient and let fly with some arrows. The two lieutenants did not last past the second round, but once the leader got in range of the impatient ranger, it was chop chop and down he went. Of course the next target in line was the paladin on his hippogriff mount, who got himself and his mount hacked at. The party ended up winning, of course, with help from a timely augmented Mind Thrust from the party psion which fried the ogre's synapses. I won't go into more detail, but suffice to say that even with the addition of Marzena (as a 5th level battlemage) to help the party out it was the toughest encounter of the whole adventure.
Thank you for your input, it is greatly appreciated. One more question, though. Can anyone give any input on adapting the campaign with psionics? One of my characters is probably going to play a psionic of sort, and I don't want him to feel left out with no psionics in the campaign. I will do the occasional treasure-substitution, but is there anything that sticks out in your minds that begs to have psionics added?
I have been salivating for over a year to be able to run the AoW campaign, and now that my wedding and honeymoon are done I will be able to. I see a lot of people have already played through the campaign. My question is, can anyone give me any pointers as to running it. In this I mean, any possible TPK's I should be aware of, any encounters in the first 2 installments (Whispering Cairn and 3 Faces) that may be too easy or too hard, or anything else you think I should watch out for. I wish to profit from the experience of others, so if you've run a group through and wish to share your experience let me know.
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