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As the rift closed behind Rovagug, the master of destruction knew himself betrayed. But the god of disasters could afford little time for regret. Crushing pressure, liquid metal, fire, and stone surrounded him, pressing the Beast from all sides. Rovagug took out his rage upon the planar fabric, squeezing air from earth, turning fire to water, carving vast halls against the weight of rock.

In time, he realized that he could not send too many, for each child left him exhausted. And so the spawn of Rovagug grew fewer, even as he impressed on each monstrosity the urgent need to find a passage out of his prison. Some of these children did find the world of light and, having inherited their parent’s savagery, set to slaying every living thing they found. Yet none of these monstrosities ever returned to the depths, being as wrathful as their father in their murderous abandon, and heedless of Rovagug’s search for freedom.

Depressingly clear that if this was a table top game you'd be using buttons in place of minatures at this point. Let us hope no jujus in this mix.

Oh for that wall of fire.

But if I rested, didn't I level up? ;)

And the skeletal champion archers fire at .... Telurion.

Start by apologising to the other players for letting things get to this point.

You favored the one player, granted him ridiculous abilities, abetted him shredding the social contract governing the game (we can only presume the other players weren't expecting things to turn PC vs PC) and affecting the fun of the other players. And you only want to do something about it now when it affects your specific plot lines?

Rovagug's followers want to literally end the world. Have them betray the betrayer or some such. Your at the point where you either kill off the single PC or convert him to NPC status.

Unless the whole game was PC vs PC from the start. Although in some ways thats even worse on your part for boosting one PC over the others.

Either way the real problem here seems to be you.

It was in the 12,13,14 .. damn it start again 12,13.. close enough category.

1#

Detecting an illusion requires an interaction with it. That usually takes the form of an action although not always.

Here I'd give anyone shooting at it a will save. Anyone who succeeds can see through it normally. If they tell anyone else and they subsequently interact they get the bonus to their save. If they fail the wall still looks solid and blocks sight even if they "know" its an illusion. Its still a figment though so I'd rule they could walk through it whether or not they made their save.

Where the rules get wooly (or woolier) is what form the interaction must take (ie can the player stare really really hard at the wall and try and make his check). I'd normally say he has to shoot at it or touch it or something unless he's concentrating on it with detect magic (but thats another can of worms). If everyone can detect illusions just by staring at them it substantialy reduces their practical effectiveness (not to mention it has players saying "I disbelieve" every 5 seconds which is painful).

2#

I don't believe there is anything in the rules that says this specifically. I would say no although its pretty obvious if the illusionist can survey the scene.

Retcon him as having survived without replaying the combat seems like the most reasonable action.

Your balancing realism (he would have had the ring on) with having him bear some responsibility for forgetting something he shouldn't.

In this case it actually works well because he was going to unconscious ring or not.

While thinking about it, I also realized that there's a slight plot hole attached to the end of The Jackal's Price. Up to that point in the AP, Vardishal's spirit has been singularly obsessed with ensuring that the...

Yep although I'd call it an enormous plot hole :) Another sign that the Templar / moldspeaker sub-plot got thrown in without thinking through the implications for the main plot.

I do like the slightly irrational Vardishal manipulating the PCs plan as well though.

My PbP is nearly on chapter 3 and I was going to post some detailed thoughts when I got there.

Some short ones (many good tips already stated above):

1. Many APs are criticized for not revealing the BBEG until late. I think the opposite applies to this AP. The existence of the BBEG is revealed too early and that actually helps to derail the plot (or at least make things much more difficult). The group should have a strong incentive to activate the scroll rather than a disincentive. You may want to work in some subtle clues that something is not quite right with it though.

2. The Templars are one of the coolest part of the AP but badly underutilised due to them being slapped in at the last minute. I think its a lot more fun to have them do more. There are good ideas how to add the dead one on this forum. Plus Zayifid surviving chapter 2 is capable of solving many plot problems in chapter 3 (and he should, most parties will really struggle to end him prior to dimensional anchor). I want the monk to appear as early as chapter 3 as well *evil grin*.

3. Tell the party in advance that shopping opportunities will be limited at times and crafting won't be practical either. You will need to do some loot tailoring and party wizards don't get much love in the spell book department.

4. Difficulty does seem really uneven from chapter 2 (hard) to chapter 3 and 4 (easy). I have to substantially beef up enemies for my 6 player 20 point group in any event. The Carrion King will brutalise some parties and fall easily to others (his will save isn't great and his reflex save horrendous). Simple things like grease and create pit will give him fits. Have a think about how your party will go against him and adjust as appropriate (how they go against Kardswann isn't a bad indication he's another high offense, medium defense melee boss). I think the main thing is not to throw other gnolls in as well if you think they will struggle (by himself my group would have thrashed him without breaking a sweat).

5. The writer of chapter 4 can be emailed to provide his uncut version of the chaper (see that forum for details). It is much awesomer than the printed version I think.

6. So many many high strength enemies with greataxes. All in theme but chances are someone is going to die to a x3 crit eventually.

7. I plan to cut most of chapter 5 as suggested above. Its a largely boring dungeon crawl right where a fun adventure in the City of Brass should be. You could add some extra-planar fun or amp up the first part of chapter 6 instead. Few campaigns go full circle and end up where you started. I think its a great feature and deserves more focus.

8 The ability to wish arrives in chapter 6. Think about how your going to deal with this in advance. The AP doesn't really help out much in that department.

9 The final fight looks like it needs a lot of work (scorching rays and walls of fire, seriously do you think they may not have resist fire at that point?!)

I've lost count of the 3.5 rules I was utterly convinced were correct until I actually checked :).

VS channels is fine. I did look up the issue for Nuveril in LoF I admit :).

Not surprised.... *delurk*

Seven players and very high stats is pretty much a guarantee of disaster. You could keep continually adding to the power and number of your enemies but frankly that gets exhausting and is generally not so fun particularly if you are inexperienced.

Most players want high stats. Its fun for them (at least for a while) to trounce things, often not so much to you.

Work out the equivalent point buy of their array. I bet its well over 20 from your "rolled very well" comment and the 20 str at lvl 2 (nuts).

Seriously, don't let things go any further. Sit them down. Tell them you realise the point array is crazy given the number of players and your trimming it (I would say 15 point buy given seven players but thats me).

No doubt most will whinge like children with their sweets taken away but its always best to rip the bandaid off as quickly as possible. If they threaten to walk out well thats a sign that your campaign wasn't going to get very far anyway.

I swear I try and kill all of you evenly.

Zmar wrote:

Actually I'd use paladins as the idealistic young knights like Brienne of Tarth and Loras Tyrell :)

Barristan Selmy could out-paladin Loras Tyrell on the paladiniest day of his life with an electrified paladinning machine!

So did he lose his paladin powers before or after watching his king burn innocent people alive in their armour and continuing to serve said king until he was killed and himself defeated in battle..

I'd recommend the underated Empire Trilogy by Feist and Wurts. A very strong lead female character without an ounce of fighting skill or magic powers has to lead her shattered house from the edge of ruin.

Pity Feist never wrote any books after this and the initial magician trilogy.

Another note, I'm going to continue the trend of ignoring errata and follow Alex's lead in saying that a character using the trip or disarm action needs to wield a weapon with the trip or disarm feature respectively in order to apply bonuses such as weapon focus to the check.

Good thing there is that prohibition on same sex marriage in order to preserve the sanctity of traditional marriage.

Sorry to be a wet blanket but why? Just can't see the point.

As it stands the gap between chapter 1 and chapter 2 is merely to allow Kelmarane enough time to grow into a town to suit the rest of the plot (and chapters 2 - 6 are all likely to conclude in a matter of months).

The party leave at the beginning of chapter 2. Have perhaps a short stay at the beginning of chapter 3 (although some groups might head straight for Katapesh).

Then they don't come back til the beginning of chapter 6 by which time everything has hit the fan and any development is kind of irrelevant.

In Kingmaker you presumably have 5 chapters at least partly set in the player's kingdom. Developing it is interwoven into the plot and takes years. The timescale of LOF couldn't be more different.

Lastly and frankly, if I was a player in such a game and spent all of this time building up my kingdom I think I'd be rather pissed to find out my kingdom got stomped into the ground by DM fiat while I was stuck on another plane.

Replacement BBEG for this AP, Corrine the lich.

"You wouldn't listen to me! Now you'll pay!"

I don't understand this mentality.

Elections aren't the Price is Right.
Democrats and Republicans have almost directly opposing views on alot of fronts.
Why, as a conservative, would I want to vote for a guy who's most like Obama, without going over?
This is whats being told to us, that Romney is that canidate. Only a canidate like that can win. I don't want that canidate. I do not accept this premise.
Obama has done such a meh job, anyone has a chance.
I want a conservative canidate that will get out there and share his views (ones that don't change every election cycle) with the American people, and let them decide who they want via the election.

Its not complicated.

Nominations are determined by the party base. General elections are determined by everyone.

Anyone whose political views are to the left of your preferred candidate (and Cain is pretty far right indeed) are going to split between your candidate, Obama and not voting at all.

I started fist pumping when that will save came up a 20. My office roomate is looking at me very strangely...

Don't even try and implement a solution in game.

Say that the situation is making you unhappy and the only solution you can think of is to retire your current character. Youve decided your new character has a pathalogical hatred for whatever type of character annoying player has. Can't stand them, must immediately attack them on sight etc etc.

When annoying player says something like "thats not fair" or "your being a jerk" say simply "well its just what my character would do".

If that doesn't produce a "I see your point" kind of response then you are not going to resolve situation with annoying player without the DM stepping in.

My interpretation is no more or less right/wrong than anybody elses in lieu of evidence that it's inaccurate.

We must now put our faith in the hallowed FAQ button. Surely, if we pray, it shall deliver us.

EDIT: It's effects last until the next turn. Which could imply that any restriction imposed by the feat is an effect that lasts until the next turn.

Garbage. Your personal interpretation doesn't have equal validity just because you declare it so, doubly so when your interpretation is simply inconsistent with the express RAW.

An AOO is a melee attack. You make an attack roll.

The words used are clear. The designers could have used different words. They chose not to.

Every time someone calls for a FAQ for something this silly you decrease the prospect of designers providing input on things that do need clarification.

Its got nothing to do with fudging.

There are simply times where having the players see the DMs roles is deterimental to the game because it provides the players with information that their characters don't.

Example

Sleazy PC sorcerer casts charm person on barmaid.

Barmaid is in reality a 12th level assassin sent to deal with said sleazy PC.

If all dice rolls are made in the open said player knows immediately something is up when said barmaid makes her will save despite rolling a 10.

Given making some rolls openly and some rolls not creates its own very similar problem best for the GM to make all rolls secretly.

1. A grappled creature still threatens adjacent squares and therefore can count as a flanker of the grappler.

2. If you grapple a creature that is not adjacent to you then you move it to an open square. If there is no open square the grapple fails.

3. If you are grappling a creature, succeed on your maintain grapple check and elect to do damage you can use unarmed or light weapon damage and choose it to be lethal or nonlethal without penalty.

4. If you are grappling a creature and pin it then YOU also become flatfooted. Its nice to grapple the BBEG but make sure you've gotten rid of the rogueish minions first.

5. The penalty for firing a ranged attack into melee does not apply if the target is at least ten feet from the friendly creature.

6. A prone creature cannot crawl five feet without triggering an attack of opportunity.

7. Using acrobatics to move through the threatened area of multiple creatures imposes a -2 penalty for every creature past the first.

8. A flat footed opponent doesn't get attacks of opportunity (so obvious but so commonly got wrong).

9. A creature with the frightened condition must flee as best as it can. A creature with the panicked condition flees along a random path.

10. If you miss a trip maneouvre by more than 10 you fall prone unless you are using a weapon with the trip feature in which case you can drop it instead.

11. A splash weapon is still a ranged weapon and has the same penalties such as firing into melee.

12. When missing with a splash weapon the splash goes a number of squared equal to the range interval. Far shot reduces the penalty for firing at range not the range interval and doesn't shorten the miss distance.

13. You can ready a swift or free action (still takes a standard action).

14. Charging gives you a +2 on a bull rush maneavour but not others.

15. You can't move through a square with a prone enemy creature, it must be helpless.

16. A shuriken can be used in addition to a crossbow while prone (not a thrown dagger though).

17. You can't withdraw from combat if your blinded.

18. After taking the first attack in a full-attack sequence you can stop and take a move action instead (unless youve used a five foot step).

19. Total defense is a standard action. You can use it and then move its its not prudent to withdraw.

20. You can't cast spells requiring a somantic component while grappled even with a concentration check. You have to have any required material components in hand.

21. You have to make a concentration check to cast a spell while riding a mount that is moving.