1. The book mentions Inevitables and their relationship to Golarion's history. Am I allowed to call them Inevitables in the book? For that matter, am I allowed to bring up terms of chaos, evil, good, and law?
If released prior to September 1 and including the appropriate OGL citations, yes.
CoeusFreeze wrote:
2. Suppose I were to publish a placeholder book on PF Infinite prior to September 1st. Would I be able to make edits to it at a later date that expand upon and add to the discussion of Inevitables in Golarion's history?
Fixing a typo or broken link in a previously-published PDF would be allowed. But trying to grandfather in content added after September 1 because the product came out prior to that point would not.
CoeusFreeze wrote:
3. In the even that the answers to the first two questions are "no", would I be able to still publish the book for free online?
If it's just lore, then sure. But if it's got rules and stuff that would require you to cite the OGL or ORC, then no. That wouldn't be allowed under the Fan Content Policy.
So, to confirm, where would I be able to release a rules-agnostic "Inevitables of Golarion" book under that title as of September 2nd? Could I charge for it on PF Infinite?
I have several vital questions pertaining to a book I am in the process of writing. I doubt it will be finished by September 1st, so my questions are as follows.
1. The book mentions Inevitables and their relationship to Golarion's history. Am I allowed to call them Inevitables in the book? For that matter, am I allowed to bring up terms of chaos, evil, good, and law?
2. Suppose I were to publish a placeholder book on PF Infinite prior to September 1st. Would I be able to make edits to it at a later date that expand upon and add to the discussion of Inevitables in Golarion's history?
3. In the even that the answers to the first two questions are "no", would I be able to still publish the book for free online?
I haven't worked much with Patrick personally, but I feel like I kinda needed the reminder to tune things out when writing. Hopefully this will help me out.
The Qlippoth Lords in the book are all new, hence why they have illustrations. All of the other Qlippoth (save for the Wilbopik, which probably should have gotten art in retrospect) are modified versions of existing Qlippoth from previous Paizo and LG books.
I do have one question. On page 37 mech enhancements, the bio mech enhancement mentions a feat called Biomech Speaker. Did you mean the Biomech Pilot feat, if not where is the Biomech Speaker feat located?
Yes, I mean Biomech Pilot. Biomech Speaker was the archetype that used Biomechs.
Thanks, is there a recommended starting tier? For planning purposes should one want to be at the correct target to start...the pitch clearly mentions it is for very high level (20+)
I personally think mythic tier 4 or 5 is ideal if you want a challenge without being at too much of a disadvantage.
Do the PCs need to have any mythic tiers before starting this part, or does it work for non mythic to go mythic?
It's possible to play through this adventure without any mythic tiers or possibly to grant mythic tiers as you progress (there are enough mythic monsters and events here to justify that). That said, such a decision can make the adventure substantially harder and a no-mythic run is described in the adventure as especially challenging.
Arazni became a deity in the minor timeskip? Did she free herself from Geb's yoke and undo her undead state somehow (a mythic True Resurrection spell perhaps)? Did she take the Trials of the Starstone? I've got to read more about this!
Arazni freed herself from Geb's yoke and undid her undead state by.
** spoiler omitted **
I'm aware of this, but I'm still not sure that this jumped her to godhood. I could also use some more explanation of this.
Here is a question about an attempt I am considering to apply one of the feats in this book to a non-legendary medium. As written, the only feat in this book that could be applied to a non-legendary medium is Spirit Focus, which is basically the same as the original feat by that name except for its "Special" line that allows it to be taken more than once, choosing a different spirit each time (and thus a slight powering up of the original feat).
The benefit section of the Dilettante Medium feat reads as follows:
"Benefit: For the purpose of determining the effects of your spirit, spirit powers, and spirit bonus class features, you may use your legendary medium caster level in place of your legendary medium level so long as your total effective legendary medium level does not exceed your character level."
Would it be overpowered (by the power level set by the standard medium class) if I struck every occurrence of the word "legendary" from this paragraph so as to make it applicable to a non-legendary medium?
I think it would be fine. The regular Medium doesn't really outdo the Legendary Medium in any regard.
I've enjoyed the previous books in this series and I like SoP and SoM, so that's a no brainer.
But since you're open to questions, how about a short rundown of the SoM love in this book? Talents, archetypes, feats?
It's not a huge part, honestly. Spheres of power gets love in the form of the Technomancy Sphere, a bunch of new Armorist options, and a new Symbiat archetype. The big thing for Spheres of Might is the bevy of new martial traditions in the book, each tying into a major locale in Vandara.
If you want more Spheres of Might stuff down the road, please let us know.
I've been writing up a backstory for her for my own game, which I may put somewhere eventually. The basic story is that she was born into a wealthy Azlanti merchant family who were worshippers of Ulon (the Deity of Secrets from Ruins of Azlant). When the Veiled Masters came to exterminate the cult, Sorshen escaped and buddied up with Xin to acquire his protection.
So it was mentioned in Return of the Runelords that a more powerful Alaznist than the one the players fight existed at some point, and I envision that at least one sadistic GM out there wants to throw the all-out version of the Runelord of Wrath at their players. Hence, I decided to complete the statblock of a mightier Alaznist for all your sakes
I also used this opportunity to patch up some odd discrepancies with the presented Alaznist, namely her large number of item creation feats given her in-lore unwillingness to craft things herself. I also added in the Scepter of Alaznist from the City Outside of Time, as it makes sense for her to wield it (I take partial responsibility if the entire party is annihilated by an empowered maximized augmented mythic meteor swarm).
Now anyway, enjoy.
RUNELORD ALAZNIST CR 28/MR 10 XP 1,228,800
Female advanced human evoker 20/archmage 10
CE Medium humanoid (human)
Init +30M; Senses arcane sight, darkvision 60 ft., see invisibility; Perception +31
------DEFENSE------ AC 52, touch 27, flat-footed 40 (+13 armor, +5 deflection, +10 Dex, +2 dodge, +7 natural, +5 shield)
hp 600 (20d6+528); fast healing 10
Fort +29, Ref +24, Will +28
Defensive Abilities mythic contingency, evasion, hard to kill, mirror dodge;
Immune confusion, disease, feeblemind, fire; SR 30
-----OFFENSE----- Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (perfect)
Melee Alaznist’s Hateful Ranseur +22/+17 (2d4+13/19–20/×3 plus 1 bleed), Scepter of Ages +21/+16 (1d10+12/18-20), Scepter of Alaznist +22/+17 (1d8+12)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with ranseur)
Special Attacks arcane metamastery x2, channel power, eldritch breach, intense spells (+10 damage), mythic power (23/day, surge +1d12), mythic spellpower 2/day
Evoker Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th; concentration +37)
At will—elemental wall (20 rounds/day)
20/day—force missile (1d4+10)
Evoker Spells Prepared (CL 21st; concentration +34)
9th—maximized chain lightningM (DC 37), crushing hand, meteor swarmM (2, DC 40), power word kill, time stop, quickened wall of forceM, ride the lightning (DC 40) wishM
8th—clenched fist, empowered maximized fireballM (2, DC 39), quickened greater invisibility, horrid wilting (DC 35), maximized quickened magic missile, phasic challenge (DC 35), polar ray (2), power word stun
7th—control weatherM, delayed blast fireball (2, DC 38), elemental body IIIM, quickened displacement, finger of death (DC 34), forcecage (DC 38), quickened lightning bolt (DC 35), limited wish, project image (DC 34)
6th—borrowed timeM, chain lightningM (3, DC 37), disintegrate (DC 33), flesh to stone (DC 33), quickened mirror image (2), sign of wrath (15d6, DC 37), true seeing
5th—cone of cold (DC 36), dominate person (DC 32), dream, feeblemind (DC 32), interposing hand, rune of ruin (DC 32), sending, telekinesis (DC 32), wall of forceM (2)
4th—charm monster (DC 31), fire shield, greater invisibility, ice storm (2), phantasmal killer (DC 31), resilient sphere (2, DC 35), wall of fireM (2), wall of ice (DC 35)
3rd—fireballM (4, DC 39), hasteM, lightning bolt (3, DC 34), ray of exhaustion (DC 30), slow (DC 30), vampiric touch
2nd—blindness/deafness (3, DC 29), fiery runes, flaming sphere (DC 33), gust of wind (DC 33), invisibility, pyrotechnics (DC 29), scorching ray (2), spectral hand
1st—blood money, burning hands (2, DC 32), charm person (DC 28), disguise self, magic missile (3), ray of enfeeblement (DC 28), reduce person (DC 28), shocking grasp
0 (at will)—bleed (DC 27), mage hand, prestidigitation, read magic
Thassilonian Specialization evocation; Prohibited Schools conjuration, abjuration;
M mythic spell
-----STATISTICS----- Str 24, Dex 30, Con 42, Int 44, Wis 28, Cha 36
Base Atk +10; CMB +19; CMD 44
Feats Arcane StrikeM, DodgeM, Empower Spell, Fleshwarper, Greater Spell Focus (evocation), Improved InitiativeM, Inscribe Rune, Intensifed Spell, Martial Weapon Proficiency (ranseur), Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell, Scribe Scroll, Spell FocusM (evocation), Spell Penetration, Spell Perfection (Fireball), ToughnessM
Skills Bluff +35, Fly +35, Heal +31, Intimidate +35, Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering, engineering, geography, history, local, nature, nobility, planes, religion) +42, Linguistics +42, Perception +31, Sense Motive +31, Spellcraft +42, Use Magic Device +35
Languages Aboleth, Abyssal, Aklo, Aquan, Auran, Azlanti, Celestial, Draconic, Elven, Giant, Goblin, Ignan, Infernal, Necril, Protean, Shoanti, Sylvan, Terran, Thassilonian, Undercommon, Varisian; tongues
SQ amazing initiative, arcane bond (Alaznist’s Hateful Ranseur), arcane surge, component freedom, enduring armor, exceptional statistics, immortal, inherent bonuses, mythic spellcasting, permanent spells, profane pact, recuperation
Combat Gear scrolls of greater restoration (3), scrolls of heal (3);
Gear Alaznist’s Hateful Ranseur*, belt of physical perfection +6, cloak of quick reflexes +5/+6 (Mythic Adventures 149), emerald ellipsoid ioun stones* (20), headband of mental superiority +6, ring of evasion, ring of protection +5, runewell amulet*, Sihedron Tome*, diamond worth 25,000 gp (for wish), diamond worth 1,500 gp (for limited wish)
-----SPECIAL ABILITIES-----
If Alaznist drops below 100 hit points, she takes a Contingent Action to use the Scepter of Ages to transport the attacker through time.
The first two times Alaznist takes ability damage, a Stalwart Resolve spell activates on her negating the ability damage to the damaged stat. These usually activate when Alaznist casts mythic Borrowed Time and Blood Money
When Alaznist bites her tongue (a free action), she creates a Mythic Globe of Invulnerability around herself which is augmented to negate all non-mythic spells
When Alaznist becomes grappled or entangled, she is immediately affected by Freedom of Movement
Exceptional Statistics (Ex) Alaznist's ability scores were generated using 25 points, rather than the standard 15. Additionally, she has much more gear than an NPC of her level would normally have. These modifications increase her total CR by 2.
Immortal (Ex) Pacts with forces from the Abyss have allowed Alaznist to live well beyond a human’s normal lifespan. She gains the +3 bonus to her Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores for having lived beyond venerable age, yet she retains the youth of a young woman and does not take the penalties to her physical ability scores. She is immune to disease and to all forms of madness (including confusion effects and feeblemind).
Inherent Bonuses (Ex) Alaznist has used wish spells to increase her statistics and has a +4 inherent bonus to her Constitution, Dexterity, Strength, and Wisdom scores and a +5 inherent bonus to her Charisma and Intelligence scores.
Mythic Contingencies (Sp) If Alaznist takes damage when she doesn’t have a displacement spell active, a displacement spell immediately activates on her.
Permanent Spells (Sp) Alaznist has made the following spells permanent on herself: arcane sight, darkvision, see invisibility, and tongues.
Profane Pact (Su) Alaznist bears a brand in the form of the rune of wrath on her hip—a mark bestowed by the powerful lilitu demon Ariashrael that also grants the runelord a profane pact; this pact grants Alaznist a +4 profane bonus to her Constitution score.
So far, there have been four adventure paths dealing heavily with these nations (Rise, Return, Shattered Star, and Ruins of Azlant. One more if Curse of the Crimson Throne counts), and most of the big set pieces from that era have been dealt with. The Runelords have risen, most of the major landmarks have been explored, and to my knowledge every major NPC having something to do with these nations (save for Aroden) has been utilized.
Are there any more plans for future content in this portion of Golarion? Will we ever get to explore the labyrinths below Castle Korvosa? I’d personally be fine seeing other parts of Golarion take center stage from this point on.
A rather annoying error I found in the adventure when reading it.
Area B4:
The High Justice doesn’t have any spells listed for the Divine template and is two points of CR higher than he should be according to the rules. Any suggestions on what I should fill in?
Okay, I've got a few questions about the adventure now that I have it.
1. What happens if the PCs lose? Does Alaznist control everything? What if she's in the Eye of Fury?
2. Are Alaznist and Sorshen not actually pureblood Azlanti? Their stats say human while characters like Belimarius specified this ethnicity due to its impact on her stats. Were they calculated with +2 in all stats?
I especially liked nano-metabolic interface and Resonant Musculature of the Goddess
I do wish Necrotic Scourge Augmentation had been written with the intent to include an option for those playing an undead character (thanks to third party material). But oh well.
Kudos for the aegis inspired power armor rules.
Only wish the rules had been in one book, because Arcforge really made me want an akashic iron man type archetype for the Helmsman.
Psibertech and Technology Expanded were originally a single book, but we split it into two volumes. If you want to make an Akashic Iron Man, there are ways to do it with content in either book.
Not familiar with any playable third-party undead races. Which books are those from?
The appendix of Secret of Roderick's Cove contains a timeline of the seven Runelord positions and key events. It lists the exact dates at which Xanderghul, Sorshen, and Alaznist became mythic. Nowhere does it say where Zutha became mythic, which leads me to conclude that he isn't. Given that we have non-mythic statblocks for Karzoug, Krune, and Belmarius (the latter two aren't even 20th level) I'd say it's very presumptuous to say that Zutha is a mythic character.
Honestly, I went with a mythic Zutha for a few reasons.
1. He's been talked up as being "more than just a lich" in some of the older books, and Lord of Runes certainly built him up as something utterly bonkers in terms of power. I thought mythic abilities would be fitting for that.
2. The Cenotaph, which is Zutha's dungeon, is a mythic location which gets a ton of attention in Mythic Realms. This made me think that Zutha had mythic power backing him up before Return of the Runelords came out.
3. I wanted to build a character based around constant consumption, and nectar of the gods seemed to be a great way to do that. The item only works for mythic characters so I felt obligated to implement that.
4. With all of the ways Zutha has been built up, a level 18 lich just feels kinda underwhelming to me (especially given how some of his underlings described in Mythic Realms, Dead Heart of Xin, and Undead Revisited had higher CRs than 22). Zutha is quite possibly the oldest lich on Golarion and I wanted him to live up to his twisted reputation.
I could probably do a weaker, CR 22 version at some point, similar to Xanderghul's lesser incarnation.
Well this has certainly got my attention, and I quite liked Technology Expanded the companion book, anyone up to sharing a little review of the material in here?
Author here. A basic rundown is as follows
-Psibertech: a new system which lets characters trade feats, talents, or powers for cybernetic implants. Many are tied to psionics in some way, such as a skeletal augment that boosts the effects of psychometabolism powers or a robot arm that merges with your mind blade.
-New Archetypes for the Aegis, Druid, and Daevic, all of which use either the new templates or the new variant rules from this book
-Some new technological weapons, most notably the Rocket Glove, Monofilant Stiletto, Micromissile Array, and String Launcher (my personal favorite)
-Armor Penetration, an alternative ruleset for firearms and advanced weapons as a replacement for them just hitting touch AC.
-New armor and weapon enhancements, many of which are geared towards high-tech settings and characters
-A bunch of templates, 8 in total, which are designed for high-tech monsters. Robot animals, fleshy mecha, undead AI, and radioactive dragons are among them
-Modular Robot variant rules, which offer allows players and GMs to custom-build robotic constructs for a wide variety of purposes. 19 sample robots are provided.
Just looked over it and Savith has critical feats but is missing the prerequisite of Critical Focus for all four of them.
Also, just to check, but a number of things seem to be left unsaid: like whether she has inherent bonuses or not (which are kinda needed to reach a strength score of 40 and usually included in statblocks) as well as age bonuses and whether she's affected by them.
I also realized you may not have known about it, but:
That is Savith's canonical shield that she lost in battle against Ydersius.
Other than those critiques, it's a good-looking statblock for Savith and I'd love to use it (if I ever get a chance with players doing what I hope they'll do and I ever get that game running again...)
You can probably trade Blinding Critical for Critial Focus. That was a gaffe on my part.
She has a +5 inherent bonus to strength and +4 bonuses to dexterity and constitution. I factored those in by deducting WBL as if she had spent them on the respective tomes.
As for Savith's Iron, it should be pretty easy to trade out her headband of mental superiority for the shield.
Well, the Alara'hai have been passed from Runelord to Runelord over time, often violently, so I envision that those who would want to take up the mantle of a new Runelord could claim them and continue to use them at full power.
A lot of folks were requesting this one after my Runelord stats, so I decided to cook her up. I decided to challenge myself by seeing how powerful an un-archetyped fighter could be, and I think that I created something pretty impressive. Savith here could definitely 1v1 a god and pull it off.
SAVITH CR 24/MR 6
Azlanti Pureblood Fighter 20/Champion 6
LN Medium Humanoid (Human)
Init +35M Senses Perception +23
Aura Perseverance 30 feet
-----DEFENSE----- AC 41 touch 21, flat-footed 35 (+15 armor, +6 dex, +5 natural, +5 deflection)
hp 415 (20d10+210)
Fort +25, Ref +25, Will +19;
Defensive Abilities: Armed Bravery, Armor Training +1, Armor Specialization, Aura of Perseverance, Bravery +5, Fighter’s Reflexes, Force of Will, Hard to Kill, Recuperation DR 5/-
-----OFFENSE----- Space 5 feet Reach 5 ft
Speed 30 feet
Melee Serpentdeath +47/+42/+37/+32 (3d6+34/17-20/x3), Vital Strike +47 (3d6+40/17-20/x3)
Ranged +2 Longbow +15 (1d8+15/x3)
Special Attacks Abundant Tactics, Advance, Fleet Charge, Mythic Power (15/day, Surge +1d8), Punishing Blow, Trained Initiative, Warrior Spirit (+7), Weapon Training (Heavy Blades) +6, Weapon Mastery (Greatsword)
-----STATISTICS----- Str 40, Dex 26, Con 26, Int 16, Wis 16, Cha 16
Base Atk +20; CMB +35; CMD 53
Feats: Advanced Weapon Training (Armed Bravery), Advanced Weapon Training (Fighter’s Reflexes), Barroom Brawler, Blinding Critical, Combat Reflexes, Combat Stamina, Cornugon Smash, Craft Magical Arms and Armor, Critical Mastery, Critical Versatility (Currently Tiring Critical), Cut from the Air, Devastating Strike, Dual PathM (Marshal), Furious Focus, Greater Vital Strike, Improved Critical (Greatsword), Improved InitiativeM, Improved Vital Strike, Master Craftsman, Power AttackM, Smash from the Air, Sprightly Armor, Stunning Critical, Staggering Critical, Vital StrikeM
Skills Acrobatics +31, Craft (Armor) +26, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +26, Intimidate +26, Knowledge (Nature) +13, Perception +23, Spellcraft +13, Survival +26
Languages Aklo, Azlanti, Draconic, Giant
SQ Adaptable Training, Extra Mythic Feat, Legendary Item x3 (Serpentdeath, Foebiting, Perfect Surge, Rejuvenating, Unstoppable Strike, Intelligent (fly, darkvision, telepathy, spellcasting, skill)), Master Armorer
Combat Gear Serpentdeath, +2 Longbow, +5 Heavy Fortification Mithral Breastplate, Amulet of Natural Armor +5, Gloves of Dueling, Headband of Mental Superiority +4, Belt of Physical Perfection +6, Cloak of Resistance +5, Ring of Protection +5, Ring of Freedom of Movement, 50 Adamantine Arrows, 50 cold iron arrows, 50 silver arrows
SERPENTDEATH Aura strong divination and evocation; CL 18th; Slot none; Weight 4 lbs.
Alignment LN; ego 20
Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +12 Int 20, Wis 20, Cha 20
Communication telepathy
Languages Aklo, Azlanti, Common, Draconic, Giant
Powers fly 30 ft., 10 ranks in Perception
Lesser Powers: Righteous Might 1/day
Special Purpose defeat/slay serpentfolk; Dedicated Power true seeing at will
-----DESCRIPTION-----
Savith’s +6 Axiomatic Impact Monstrous Mithral Greatsword has become legendary for its use in Ydersius’ destruction, and the weapon is capable of slaying far more than just gods. Whenever Serpentdeath strikes a chaotic evil creature, it gains the Bane property against creatures of that type for 1 hour.
-----DESTRUCTION-----
Serpentdeath can be destroyed by a serpentfolk cleric who travels to a location where an Azlanti god perished and targets Serpentdeath with a Destruction spell, causing it to crumble to dust.
I'm planning to do something similar with my PC's too. Her power level shouldn't really be of too much concern though. From what I understand Alaznist's was already mythic at the start of this adventure but gained even more mythic power when she slew Xanderghul. The final adventure is supposed to be the Return PC's trying to strip her of some of that mythic power to be able to take her down. So when your SH fight her it should be an even more powerful version of her than the ones the Return PC's are destined to fight. A fitting sacrifice I believe.
Challenge accepted. Will probably put tier-10 Alaznist in the Homebrew chat as soon as I can get my mitts on the book.
It will be absolutely worth it to rain down a tier 10 Meteor Swarm just once.
What are the odds of seeing full-power Xanderghul? I homebrewed my own version in case my campaign does go down that route but I'm curious to know if there ever will be a release of the official version.
Stethelos is a HUGE part of the adventure—so integral to its structure that all of the information about it ended up being contained within the adventure itself. I could have moved all that information out of the adventure and into its own gazetteer, but that would have made the flow of the adventure itself awkward to read. I abandoned the idea of separating that information out into its own article and instead expanded the adventure by several pages so that it would be able to contain all the info needed, in other words, which allowed Greg to build the adventure much more efficiently and excellently than if I'd had a different author create the content (which would have created a sort of chicken and the egg thing with both articles...
Aaaaand my hype level just escalated even further.
Nothing significant was cut from this Adventure Path. I knew going in that doing an Adventure Path that reached 20th level would require longer adventures than normal, and so I cut the forewords and at least one (and in some cases two) support articles to make room for the oversized adventures. No content was created and then cut, in other words. I knew going in I needed the room, and built the outline to support that decision.
Could there be expansions to the adventures that presents more material? Of course, but that's the same with ANY adventure or campaign. There's not any "cut content" that didn't make it into print, with the sole exception being the stat block of Runelord Xanderghul I built at full power in order to backwards-engineer the less powerful version of him that actually does appear in print.
My mistake. My reason for thinking this was conversations with a few authors a while back about a Stethelos article that didn't come to be (there may have been other things mentioned but Stethelos was the big one I remember).
If there are any future adventures that deal with the Dimension of Time, I would love to see a full Stethelos gazetteer similar to the one Kaer Maga got in Shattered Star.
Ridiculously excited about this adventure. There's so much I'm curious to see (I would say tomorrow can't come soon enough, but I have deadlines to deal with).
A personal hope that I have about this adventure is that we'll get to meet Xin before he went off his rocker and became the secluded and unstable maniac he is in Shattered Star.
Also, I've heard from a lot of devs that a tremendous amount of content has had to be cut from this adventure for space reasons. Are we gonna see a "Runelord Apocrypha" or "Even MORE magic of Thassilon" blog post at some point that covers what couldn't make it in?
I hope that I'm not the only one thinking that at some point in the Realm of Frozen tears, a lot of GMs will bust out this song. I'd like to know if the naming of the White Death was an intentional nod to one of Finland's most legendary soldiers.
Regardless, I might just swap Inkariax's favored weapon to the rifle, maybe change a few of his followers to the undead snipers from Rasputin Must Die.
Here's what I have planned so far. This ties into another game which my friend is running.
Spoilers for Rise, Return, Shattered Star, and Wrath of the Righteous:
Since none of my party is particularly intellectual by disposition, they are contacted by a Thassilonian scholar (possibly Ogunthunn, although right now I'm not certain if she'll survive the entire campaign). The Onion Kid Division goes to the outside of Crystilan where Ogunthunn explains how Alaznist is messing with time and how this screws everybody over. The party starts up the timeglass ritual only to watch as a horde of monsters comes pouring in from the east bank of the island.
Alaznist has spent the last few months recruiting demons from the Worldwound-less domain of Sarkoris and has accrued a tremendous army which she is throwing at Ogunthunn and the Onion Kid Division. Fortunately, Ogunthunn brought backup, and busts out Xin's clockwork army which she has finally figured out how to unlock and control. Most of the demons are nondescript, but a few noteworthy creatures that Alaznist has under her command are Belsefelek (packing Garvok), a Herecite Eliandra (both from City of Locusts), Crimson Lotus, Balravnus, and Saorhaz (all from Demons Revisited). She's got a couple Rune Giants and Devastators too for good measure.
The party and the clockwork army have to fight off the horde from the sea, but they have a set of allies in the form of the original Sihedron heroes (from my friend's Rise of the Runelords game). For most of the ritual, things go pretty well and the party is managing to hold their own. At this point Alaznist arrives and tries to kill them herself. If she ever gets to a point where she's losing, a contingent action spell activates and Alaznist sends the heroes hurtling through time using the Scepter of Ages.
If you've done it in the past without issue before, and you have either the same or some of the same players from that time, I think you could go ahead and do it.
My big question is, if the players lost the final-session encounter before, was it because they got beaten in combat or because the bad guy used a maguffin to take them out of the fight?
It was with a different group, and the players lost that one because they opted to detonate a nuke and take the villain with them once they came to realize that their victory was unlikely (one player fled the scene).
For Alaznist, I plan for her to deploy the Sceptre of Ages as a tool of last resort, giving the party a good solid fight before time-warping them as a desperation measure.
So I'm running Shattered Star right now and plan on running Return of the Runelords afterward. Naturally, I plan on utilizing the Onion Kid Division (long, hilarious story behind the name) for the Sihedron Heroes.
However, after having built the party up, the idea of just taking down the whole group offscreen seems not only anticlimactic but unfair to the characters and their players. Hence, I have decided to take a more dramatic route.
What I plan to do is to run the encounter outside Crystilan that took place prior to Return with the Onion Kid Division, having them fight of Alaznist and her followers in an epic but ultimately futile final confrontation that would end with Alaznist using the Sceptre of Ages to seal them in Crystilan but causing her to lose the item in the process.
The ending is effectively scripted, but I think that a suitably difficult encounter could give the players the sense that they tried their hardest to avoid this fate. I've had successful final-session encounters in the past where the players have lost but were ultimately satisfied with the conclusion, and I'm fairly confident that I could repeat that success here.
What do you folks think? Should I go through with this or would it be better for the Onion Kid Division to fall without the players' involvement?
Should these CR 18 behemoths have it? Without it, there’s no way for them to break from a Greater Planar Binding spell, meaning that any spellcaster with enough Cajones to drag one to the material plane is virtually guaranteed its service.
So I had an idea for my Wrath of the Righteous character which I am planning on using in this week’s opening session. The GM thinks it is cool but concerning due to how some NPCs may interact with him. Hence, I wanted to run him past you to see what you folks would do with this character or point out obstacles he might face.
Marcellano is a LG cleric with the Channeler of the Unknown archetype whose father was a priest of Aroden in Cheliax. Although the god of humanity is long-dead, Marcellano’s father still clung to the old trappings, teachings, and methods, teaching his son about the faith of Aroden and the glories Cheliax knew before the Diabolists took over. It was at the age of 30 that Marcellano made a pilgrimage to Absolam, and it was there that he heard a strange voice beckon to him for the first time. The voice offered him power, guidance, and purpose, and Marcellano became convinced that Aroden was contacting him from some remote corner of existence.
Taking his bastard sword and eye-emblazoned shield to the Worldwound, Marcellano is determined to retrace Aroden’s steps, finish what his god had started, and ultimately reforge the faith in the hopes that it might bring Aroden back to Golarion.
Plan on going Hierophant/Archmage dual path and grabbing Divine Source so that my character can grant spells in the name of an allegedly-deceased god. Marcellano’s chosen domain is Void, and though he’s no slouch in melee his primary interest is BFC and Support. In time, I want Marcellano to build a following of Aroden loyalists which becomes a full religion by the end of the campaign.
Hoo boy, there were a lot of things I enjoyed working on this year.
One thing I enjoyed was writing my first real adventure path for Blackmoor Society (Ascendant Saboteur)
I was really happy to join the Legendary Games team and release my first three Starfinder books (Star Empires, Star Classes: Envoy, and Star Classes: Solarian).
I had a great time working on City of Seven Seraphs and am incredibly excited to see the final product all of my friends have put together.
But honestly, the biggest thing that makes me happy is finally getting Arcforge into print. There’s something to be said for having for original darling project finally out there for other gamers to enjoy.
Okay, so those of you who have made their way to book 3 know that Sorshen's blood simulacra are running around Golarian with some hidden agenda. The surprising thing about them is that they're chaotic neutral rather than chaotic evil as most would expect from a mastermind who started a seven-way civil war by killing her master and carried out a 1100+ year reign of terror (among some other horrific and unsavory things). Unless Pharasma has suddenly decided to relax a lot of rules regarding alignment or Sorshen has does some big things we don't know about in order to atone for her misdeeds, there's something fishy here. I was trying to figure out what could possibly explain it when I came across a certain mythic ability that fits the concept perfectly: Beyond Morality.
My theory is that Sorshen's recent actions have not been enough to push her out of the CE territory (seriously, 1100 years of being a sexually predatory warlord is a LOT to atone for), but the Beyond Morality ability allows her to disguise that fact. Her blood simulacrums are whatever alignment she wants them to be, and CN is just troublesome enough to not seem suspicious but just innocent enough to get some powerful alignment-sensing allies on her side (and possibly innocent to allow her to seize power without the other nations of Golarian freaking out).
I'm sure we'll get an answer on this in the next volume, but I'm curious to know what the rest of you think. Did Runelord Sorshen pull off the impossible and actually redeem herself, or has she pulled a fast one on the multiverse the likes of which haven't been seen since the Pact Primeval?
