Cynical_Lurker's page

IIRC, the closest thing to that are the rules about advancing HD, which doesn't increase the CR of the monster, but does increase the XP earned from it - doubling HD yields double XP.

Just giving max HP (which is usually doubling the standard amount), is not as big an increase as adding HD, so going by the above rule wouldn't increase the CR, but could be used as a way to boost the XP awards to make up for the party size a bit.

Maybe something like a 50% increase for maxing hp?

But, I agree with what others have said - the size of the party will eventually force them to be under leveled, which offsets the power of a larger party in the long run (there will be encounters that will vary in this regards, but that just keeps things interesting.)

As my highschool math teacher once told our class, "mathematicians are lazy - we invented the calculator so we didn't have to do all the work."

Unless you enjoy tweaking all the encounters (and some folks will), there isn't a real need to put that kind of work into it and risk burning yourself out over it.

Personally, I'd probably just have ruled that, as a god of undeath, he'd be neither alive or undead, as suited him. So either Heal or Harm would function as Heal when cast on him, and he'd use Harm since it gives him more options.

The fun thing about this is how much it would confuse players, but that's par for the course when fighting a god.

My main concern would be the 'outsider' aspect. I've had plenty of players over the years who convinced me to let them play a race/template that would, clearly, face some serious social issues.

They said they were fine with it, but when push came to shove and they had to deal with, for example, some villagers wanting to stone them for being a monster in a human dominated society, the player suddenly refused to accept that this was to be expected, and that I was just being unfair.

But since you've been playing with these people, this shouldn't be an issue. Still, especially with a lizardfolk race, you really want to make sure the player knows that his race selection will be an issue and will cause him problems.

That aside, the race should work well enough. Nothing overpowered about it, and as others have said, the use of poison isn't going to be of much use late in the game, and the prices should limit it in the lower end.

You could have the notes just say "You are not the traitor", so if a player peaks, it just adds to the tension.

But more cryptic fortune type notes would work better, in general, for that.

A great way to do this: (But I think your PCs are past the piont where this would work)

Have the PCs run into some type of fortune teller prior to these events, the 'fortunes' being the draw lots that, if done properly, let the party know something is going down, but not what.

Well, with each of them getting a different sending, I'd imagine that it won't take long for the group to figure out that they were all told different party members to kill, and I'd think that would make them assume all the sendings were faked.

2 slightly more interesting alternatives:

Don't give names, just have the sending say there is a double in the party.

Or

Have Elgios send a message to all PCs about a specific one being a double - as Telakin has feed him false information.

In either case, the PCs don't have any good reason to doubt the sendings, but don't have enough evidence to know for sure who is or isn't a dopp (or even that there really is one...)

One other thing, with assigning the dopp:
Don't have them draw for it right at that moment - have them draw lots (or some such) well before hand, so they don't know what they are for.

If you draw them with the sendings, the players will *know* there is a dopp in the party, but if they draw before then without knowing, you can withhold the true on that matter till they have plenty of time to second guess themselves.

And if the PCs convince themselves that there is no dopp?

Hehe. Fun times. ;)

A bit complicated, but you could give the worms a chance to get a hold of armor/clothing on the character (unless they are nude... ew...)

They make the first reflex save, but if they miss by less than 5 points, they fall on/into some fold or opening in the character's armor/clothing, where they can make a second attempt with a +4 bonus to the save (or whatever you think is appropriate).

Provided they aren't wearing armor (or anything bulky enough that it would be hard to get to a worm), a character can take a standard action to shake any clinging worms off, negating the second attempt. Additionally, making a full attack action or a double move/run/charge would be sufficient to automatically shake any worms, as would any other sufficiently vigorous movements.

The idea here is mostly to make the PCs realize that this isn't a 100% perfect way to negate the worms, plus the description of it would be fun.

Personally, I wouldn't shrink the island itself, but I'd rather limit the amount of land sutable for building things on. If the total area is around 3,000 sq mi, I don't think it would be unreasonable to say that between the mountains, coasts and the effects of erosion on the mostly barren land that less than 10% of the land is usable as-is.

Certainly high level PC could, over time, increase that area alot, but that would be in post game, as it's the kind of project that would occupy them for years to come.

I do like the idea of Druids coming in and flat-out strong-arming their way to a huge chunk of the land. ;)

I see an interesting possibility:

Have the Hextorites take up the issue, along side the owner of the mine. They have, via the mine owner, legally 'rented' the space, and the PCs not only entered the mine and temple without permission, but murdered a number of Hextorites who had done nothing to provoke them save for being Hextorites.

This is a pretty firm case, regardless of local views of Hextor. In reality, the cult is just doing this as a holding action - to keep the PCs, or anyone else, from coming into the other temples and finding out what is really going on

Now, at this point, depending on the social graces of the PCs, they may just be placed under a restraining order to stay away from the mine while an investigation is underway, or they may even be placed under arrest.

This could pose a problem for the PCs, unless your's like to play litigation...

However, they do have a resource the probably don't realize.

Smenk.

While he's not about to put his neck on the line, Smenk is freaked out by the cults, so has a vested interest in seeing them shut down. Since it's very likely the PCs got information on the cults from him, he also has a good reason to be afraid that his connection to the attack may come out if things go on.

So Smenk, discreetly, flexes his political muscles a bit to ease pressure on the PCs enough so they have a chance to either make another go at the cult or to convince the Militia that something else is going on down in that mine... maybe a certain green worm might be good evidence...

Of course, all three temples will be on high alert, save mabye for the Hextor temple, who would be prepared for a potential legal investigation from the militia, so they have to keep things looking normal.

The others would hide there own entrances with the strongest magic they have access to, and be ready to kill anything that finds them.

If the PCs are good dipolmats, they may end up with back up from the militia to help with the more alert cultists.

Quasi-random idea:

The Age of Worms set in the Scarred Land setting using core classes/mechanics from either Iron Heroes or the Black Company Campaign Setting.

Thoughts?

Hrm.

My PoV is that the Faceless one wants as much death as possible, so a battle of attrition plays in his favor. As such, the Labyrinth makes for the best possition, but it would work better to spread out the incoming forces, and to that end he'd want to do something with the other areas to force the PCs/Militia to at least send some forces there.

Now, if he knows the PCs are comming in first, which is resonable, I'd have him try and draw them away from the entrance and tie them up for as long as possible so he can deal as much damage to the militia as possible.

So, to open with, I'd have as large a force as possible hidding in the labryinth, hopefully so that even if the PCs enter, they won't find anything and will move on to the other areas.

Then I'd put an obvious guard force at the entrance of the caves - whatever it takes to make that look like where the main force is holding up. Leave the weaker grimlocks inside to lure the PCs in further - then cave in the entrace (ideally useing a silence spell to prevent them from realizing what happened). Of course, you'll need more grimlocks to keep them busy as well.

The goal here is to slow the PCs down long enough for the militia to arrive and get pulled into a meat grinder in the labyrinth. Have some grimlocks as well if anyone is left that can use Darkness to set some real nasty traps.

This would also work with the idea of having the players run some of the militia - while the real PCs are digging out of the caves (borring), they get a first hand taste of the mess they are about to have to step in and save the day from.

That, ye-old-book'o'dragons doesn't cover, but I did find a thread about the topic that has some sound ideas, IMHO:

http://www.enworld.org/archive/index.php/t-21693.html

Draconomicon lists a gargantuan dragon can produce enough hide for a Huge hide armor, Large banded mail, Medium Half-plate or a small full-plate or breastplate. It can also produce a shield as well.

These are the largest sizes it can make, and for every size you go down, you double the yield, so a gargantuan can give you 4 medium sized sets of hide armor, for example.