This scene with the prisoners set the mood for all the story. From this point on, it was not just an adventure about some evil witches trying to conquer the world: it became a story about the suffering of the Irriseni people and finding how to help them.
Suddenly, my players were not into freeing Baba Yaga. What kind of monster could support this regime? Frreing the Little Mother would end all hope of changing things. They realized they had to find another way of saving Krynn.
And this is the moment when Blond goes out of the story to never come back.
When I created the character I intended to use him to give my players alternative ways of ending the adventure via a sidequest with the solamnic knights. Blond himself was one of a few solamnic knights kidnapped by the winter witches to obtain information about the enemies they would have to fight with in the upcoming invasion. Once the witches had enough information the knights were executed. All but Blond. Nazhena thought it would be funny to brainwash him and use him against his old friends. Of course, all kind or rumors spread. Some people said he was Nazhena's secret son; another ones believed he was some kind of magic construct, or even a disguised demon!
I roleplayed Blond as a quiet NPC who could slip bits of information to the PCs and help them in little ways (I didn't want him to overshadow the PCs in any way) and... the character was a complete failure. Lesson learned: Quiet characters don't work with my players. Fortunately, they quickly developed bonds with Argentea, who then became the focus of the solamnic sidequest.
As for Nadya:
Indi's player told us he was going to miss some sessions because of real life matters, so I took Nadya and made her an archer Skirmisher Ranger. I intended to use her as an NPC, but I never had to.
The first day Indi couldn't play we welcomed a new player. I didn't want to delay the session making a character for a player who maybe didn't come back, so I let him chose between Argentea and Nadya as his PC. He chose Nadya.
When the session was over, I told him that we could meet another day so he could roll his character. He didn't want to. He had become infatuated with Nadya's background and he wanted to keep roleplaying her. And that way Nadya Petska became one of the most memorable PCs in the adventure.
Be careful, Cal! This is an excerpt from "The Red Sign" (Vampire and Mage crossover) about "The King in Yellow":
Spoiler:
The play within began somewhat innocuouly, featuring the story of the court of a kingdom in a mythical realm. In the midst of a complex narrative of court intrigue, the courtiers await the coming of a messenger, the Man in the Pallid Mask, who either brings redemption or damnatiopn for all.
(...)
The play is so complex that the reader may sympathize with only one of the characters... but he sympathizes so thoroughly that the events of the play seem real. The reader is completely consumed by the story, believing that she is he chosen character.
(...)
Once the reader has been consumed by the book's delusion, the book's appearance changes. He may even lose the book and find some other to take its place: a dictionary, perhaps, or a manual on transmission repair.
(...)
Eventually, his former identity becomes a lie, and he becomes the character in the play, not in reality, but in his own thought and deed.
(...)
At some point, the reader or actor experiencing the play believes he is seeing the Pallid Mask, who then passes judgment on the play's new main character. According to legend, the outcome ir redemption or damnation. The judged reader/actor/character then disappears without a trace. The book disappears along with him, until is somehow found again.
I used that book in a chronicle... set in Canada... and the book disappeared after doing its thing.
About the last chapter, I'd like to make some clarification about the mark of Baba Yaga. (Dalindra will probably explain it better than me)
Not much more to explain. It was just like that.
Derailer of Threads wrote:
The fact that all the other players were like "I don't want it, it will surely screw us up" made the decission easier. I mean, I was also sure that the damned mark would really end screwing my character up too, but they left me no choice!!!
Fear is the little death, Kileanna. However, I think I have GMed too many horror games; you see, my players are becoming too cautious. I think they were expecting the mark would blow them up in pieces or so for the entire AP!
Derailer of Threads wrote:
Also, about the Geas. Dalindra hated it.
I HATED IT with passion. Such a lazy tool!
Derailer of Threads wrote:
That surely made Dalindra's job as a GM harder, but the resulting story was so good and interesting.
It was harder, yes, but also funnier. I love when my players surprise me. I don't like railroads when I play, but I HATE them when I GM.
With Talda'syn out and Indi warning me that he would have to miss some sessions for real life issues, I decided to let my players to recruit some NPCs to complete the party; Lady Argentea had the honor of being the first one. My rules with these cohorts were these: they can help in combat and, if one player wants to, he can control one of them. Out of combat, I'll roleplay them.
I gave Lady Argentea a sword and board build so she could help the party but not steal the spotlight from them. However, I was convinced that she was going to be very short-lived as my players would surely hate her. I portrayed Lady Argentea as a bossy, stubborn woman with some snobbish moments. And my party loved her. All of them! WTF?
And there came a moment where I thought she was getting too relevant for a NPC, so I kicked her from the group in order to do a personal quest. My players went all "When does she come back?", "I miss Argentea" and so on. At the end she had to come back. Even though they recruited a fair amount of cohorts, whenever we lacked a 4th player (too often) it was always Lady Argentea who was selected.
@Chromantic Durgon: I felt that you were picking on me because I did not agree with you; that was the reason for saying that you were not being very polite. I felt personally attacked for trying to help you.
And here is where we lost Talda'syn's player. He wanted so badly to be the hero that he "taunted" the skeletons (it was a good idea, btw) and then he run towards the inexplored. In fact, he run towards Izoze. I let him autopass a Perception check and I also assumed that Izoze botched hers (I didn't want a TPK so early). However, his only plan was "to run very fast". I told him that the skeletons had his same speed, but he didn't try anything different. He just kept running.
It was something like this: Talda'syn uses his two move actions running. The skeletons too; they cannot attack him (difficult terrain, so no charging). Talda'syn suffers damage from the ice aura (they were frost skeletons). Then Talda'syn runs again in straight line. Rinse and repeat. The freezing aura finally knocked him.
When the rest of the party killed Rokhar, the skeletons were freed from Rokhar's orders and attacked them, but it was too late. Talda'syn was dead. I didn't want the player to sit out the rest of the session, so I let him use Blond (I told him to play Blond as a typical knight; in a few chapters you'll understand). He wasn't happy, but at least he could keep playing.
An then all went south. At first, he demanded a free resurrection. A free True Resurrection, because he was level 1 and he didn't want the -2 to Con. Then he demanded that I let him play with his twin brother "who was just wandering the zone, looking for him". Of course, I said no. And then he started ranting about how the rest of the party had killed him with their incompetence. Seriously, bro...
I managed to calm him down and told him that he could make a character that was not identical and that he could join the party the next session, when they went back to town. In the meantime (because I was not going to stop the game just so he could make a new character) I offered him to play with Blond or Lady Argentea (in my story she was a capable sword and board fighter), the two only NPC with a full sheet that I had at the moment. His answer was... ehm... something like this:
Talda'syn: "I don't want to play a retarded fighter. Or a woman; I want to kill my enemies, not cuddle them to death".
At first we all laughed. Then we realized he was serious. We managed to avoid a heavy discussion, but we were very pissed off. He tried to make amends, but he only made it worse; I won't repeat his exact words, but we all realized that he was a misogynist and that he had been picking on Kileanna not because her character was marked with bad omens; it was because the player was a woman. Once the session ended he went away and never returned. We didn't miss him.
It's not very polite to express your opinion and try to deny me the chance to express mine, so:
Bonus is not open to interpretation? I do not agree. My interpretation is that the witch gets the Hex class ability at level 1 and then a bonus hex at level 1, 2, etc... If you look at how the class is written you can see it:
Witch wrote:
Hex: Witches learn a number of magic tricks, called hexes, that grant them powers or weaken foes.
That is the ability description
Witch wrote:
At 1st level, a witch gains one hex of her choice.
And that is the Bonus Hex.
So, my interpretation is that the "Bonus Hex" that the witch obtains with the archetype is the hex that the vanilla class grants. This explains the "Bonus Hex" and the "Alter 1st level Hex" part.
And now that both of us have expressed our opinion I think we can politely agree to disagree. I am not interested in keep arguing, either.
If it grants you an extra hex, how it exactly alters your 1st level hex?
As for the familiar, you can also consider a squirrel, a hedgehog or a bat. In autumn they are always busy gorging on fruit and insects to build up stores of body fat in readiness for hibernation. It's very autumn-centric.
I think that it locks you into choosing Blight Hex or Slumber Hex as your level 1 Hex. If it weas not so, you would have an archetype that gives you an extra hex and an increased DC in some spells in exchange for nothing.
No, don't bother searching for him in the book. He is entirely homebrewed. Previously I had stated that I had to cut some encounters, so I had to develope some new ones. However, this encounter didn't go according to planned.
I had planned an encounter where it was pretty obvious that Blonde Guy was a reluctant warrior, obeying the bandits like he was mind-controlled. The party defeated the bandits before Blondie could make his first move. Sigh. I had to improvise and Blondie ended with a child-like personality.
This character's backstory would be discovered as they continued the adventure. My aim here was to let them know about what a lovely person Nazhena was and start seeding alternate ways to end the adventure. Have I said I hate railroads?
In my group we don't disallow multiclassing, but if a character decides to, he has to have an in-game explanation and he has to roleplay it. No one can be an analphabet feral barbarian and then gain a wizard level just because. How did he managed to gain that level? Who taught him magic? How can he read his own spellbook? If he can answer that questions and he comes with a plausible backstory then he is welcomed to multiclass.
Of course, some multiclassings such as Fighter/Swashbuckler do not need explanations at all. They are close enough concepts.
I think you should speak with the dwarf player before it escalates into a big problem. And not an alignment problem.
As I understand, your group had decided to take a course of action (sparing the hobgoblins) and the dwarf player, with total and absolute disrespect for his friends, decided to boycott them. In my experience, that kind of players end up breaking groups. No one likes to take a decission and then watch as other players completely nullify it.
Seriously... Who thought that an ambushing Tatzlwyrm was a good idea? At level 1? And attacking the least armored character? There was nothing that my players could do save for praying for a low damage roll. It could have easily ended with a dead character before they even realized they were under attack. Even with a maxed-out Perception it was near impossible to spot. Not cool.
Well, enough ranting. For those of you that know Reign of Winter the next parts are going to be strange. Two-three months before starting this AP I had to improvise a short story, and you know what? Yes, I GMed the High Sentinel Lodge part. Two of my players (Kileanna and Cat) had already played that part with other characters, so I changed some things. This time there was snow, some encounters were out, some were changed, some new ones were in... I was not very satisfied with the result (I thought it was not different enough), but my players didn't notice it.
Fun fact: Cat was originally Ten-Penny Tacey in that short story, but one of my players had just fell in love with the character and asked me to play her in RoW. I accepted with the condition that he expanded her background and made the character his. He did really great!
I also started to change some things in the adventure. I was not happy with this AP being such a railroad, so I started changing things so the characters had real choices. No spoilers by the moment, but the sixth book was entirely homebrewed!
Talda'syn was the apprentice of the Kagonesti Lorekeeper, the elf responsible from keeping the lore and memory of the race. Kagonesti elves don't have written language, so the Lorekeeper role is a very important one.
When Sylvyana enslaved the kagonesti elves and turned them into ravenous cannibals, Talda'syn was one of the affected; he did very nasty things while corrupted, killing and feasting on his master the worst one. When they were purified, Talda'syn couldn't cope with what he did and he flew, trying to find redemption. He didn't understand the role he had to play as Lorekeeper, either, so this was going to be a self-discovery travel for him.
When I created this background for the character, I thought it would fit well with the other characters. You see, Kileanna was sort of a pariah among kagonesti. Cat was also a pariah by association and although she had not been corrupted by Sylvyana she had been fooled to help one of her followers. And Indi... well, he was the only not-kagonesti in the party and also a Neutral follower of an Evil goddess. And the elves are very strict with that things.
All in all, they were a party of pariahs trying to find themselves while saving the world. It should have worked, right?
But Talda'syn's player was only interested in antagonizing the other players (players, not characters). Ugh.
He also believed his character was inmortal because "he is one of the protagonists and they will always win". When I told him that in my stories you have to earn the victory and that characters could in fact die he didn't believe me. Sadly he learned it the hard way. Even though I always try to help my players, Reign of Winter is the story with the highest PC death score I've ever GMed.
Talda'syn's player was.. problematic to say the least. He left us really soon and never came back.
I'll explain Talda'syn's backstory when we reach that part. After all, he was not interested in creating a background for his character and I had to made it for him, so I know it quite well.
The only thing I've found is this excerpt from Reign of Winter 4: The Frozen Stars
Spoiler:
If the PCs recover the ruby from the denizen of Leng and break it, they can free Zilvazaraat. In an instant, his material body reforms into a 10-foot-tall blue humanoid wearing elaborate robes. Freeing Zilvazaraat from the gem does not require him to perform a service, but he is more than willing to make a deal, if the PCs are amenable. He thanks the PCs profusely for his freedom, and ever the
entrepreneur, inquires whether they are interested in doing business.
It looks like he knows he was a prisoner, and of course he is grateful for freeing him but it also says that he is not compelled to perform a service.
I am not at home at the moment, so I could be wrong but I think that you will have to spend one use of Divine Bond for each attacking member. So, one use for each hand, each wing and so on. Of course, you can flurry with only one appendage, but I think that is not your intention.
Weapon Finesse can be useful with Kinetic Blade and Kinetic Whip, but I think that spending a feat is way better than dipping a level.
As for the shield, a masterwork buckler has no armor check penalties. I also think that you can Gather Power with it (losing the shield bonus that turn, of course). Not 100% sure about it, though.
I am also trying a pyrokineticist and I was very confused at first. Here is the guide I used to learn the class. I am not sure about not needing Precise Shot, but it is worth a try.
I just started working on a quick adventure I want to run my friends through in an RPG called Demon Hunters: A Comedy of Terrors. I have so far written the following background for the BBEGs. Does it seem comedically terrifying enough?
Dalindra is my 3.5 Kagonesti Elf Druid. She just fitted so well in the history that the other players thought that I had privileged knowledge. I didn't, but the fact the GM was my girlfriend (hi, Kileanna!) didn't help. Dalindra is also friendly, helpful and extremely responsible, always eager to the self-sacrifice and always looking for the better path (and in that adventure, the better path was very hard to follow). It was a true challenge to roleplay that character and I enjoyed it greatly.
And Kiani is my Pathfinder Undine Watersinger Bard. Irreverent, happy-go-lucky Kiani. She is a true blast to play! What can I say? I love bards and I love positive characters, and she epitomizes both. I also love how, even in the darkest moments, her contagious optimism inspires her friends to endure.
I wonder what my parents did to pass the time before the invention of the internet. I asked my 17 brothers and sisters, but they didn't have any idea either.
Edit: One can assume they passed the time nekkid. And no, I did not plan this one to be top of the page, it was just lucky.
My grandparents had 11 children. And for what I know, I can figure out that it was because they tried a lot xD
And since I don't have a TV at home, nor a proper PC my life is waaaay more interesting.
So I can confirm what the joke says xD
Lucky you. And your roommate.
Well, we have a TV waiting for us since the last year, but we don't have the courage to bring it home. It could alter our... routines.
I was a big fan of the Undertaker, but I also lost interest when it become a soap opera. I just watched Wrestlemania highlists because of him. Now he has retired, so no more wrestling for me.
Having to choose between Combat Expertise and Dirty Fighting as Prerequisite, I'd choose the last one:
As a Bard you don't have enough BAB to make Combat Expertise worthy: until level 6 it is just +1 AC and -1 ATQ. Worse than Dodge. And it escalates poorly (+2 AC/-2 ATQ at level 11. Level 11!!).
Dirty Fighting, assuming a flanking buddy, nets you a +2 to all your Combat Maneuvers since level 3, and allows you to try trip attacks before that. It will patch your medium BAB.
Now, between Lingering Performance and Dirty Fighting, just answer this question: Do you want to focus on trip attacks or supporting? If you get Lingering Performance at level 1, you'll have to wait until level 5 for Improved Trip; that's a lot of time.
I just set my Dragonlance games after... mmmh... Takhisis last... gambit... and all the published material. Raistlin, Huma and the like are just legends who died some time ago.
We used... mmmh... Takhisis last plot... to remove almost all of that high-level casters. Some of them may still be around, but they have to develop their powers again. Just like the PCs.
The high-level NPC of our setting are usually former PCs. Of course, bad things can still happen to them: they have not plot armor. And I kinda like George R.R. Martin...
The easiest way is via Intimidate (-2 to all saves). If you have a melee with Power Attack he can get Cornugon Smash (and pair it with Hurtful for extra pain). Altenatively, the casters can go with Blistering Invective, that is an area effect.
The antipaladin can also get the Sickened cruelty (another -2) and, at level 8, he gets Aura of Despair (another -2 and another area effect).
