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Is there a version of the Players Guide that can be shown to arachnaphobes, one that doesn't have spiders crawling all over the border of every single page? Also, is this AP going to be a huge problem for someone who would rather not have their phobias thrown at them in their gaming time?
Quatronics requires the 16-th level PCs to accept a Lesser Geas - a spell that only works on creatures of 7HD or fewer. Is the idea that the PCs won't have to worry about that worthless contingency because they're expected to just kill him and move on? I'm thinking it would be fun to require it of the Paladin to swear not to remove any Ioun stones after he already bergudgingly gave Auberon his word he would bring back the lich's phylactery.
Any advice on what to do if the PCs keep the Bracelet of Friends, attune it to the missing scion, and just summon their friend back home? Item's description doesn't suggest they have to be present to be keyed to the charm. Not sure if there are magics in Auberon's tower that would prevent teleportation magic from summoning someone out.
Why are there so many blood drinkers? Spoiler: Once upon a time, there was a cult of demon lord Zura, Vampire Queen here.
My PCs had their Regatta last night. I started off the session with the big party atmosphere of all the ships hanging out before the race. Rosie and Conch asked Captain Anitra to marry them and there was a wonderful season-ending wedding as well as a meet-and-greet with the other race captains. One of my PCs, the lame oracle, approached Harrigan. He tried to dismiss her by reminding her of the first rule aboard his ship - he doesn't want to talk to you. The druid PC, Mord, has tricked out his character with every feat and trait and magic item he can get to improve his Profession sailor with. He can't really fail the DC 20 or 25 rolls. I made them have Captain Anitra at the helm for the start line and finish line per the race rules of a captain entering with her own ship. She flubbed her first two rolls for a Laredo moment at the start, crashing their ship twice at the gate. It was especially funny because Mord and Anitra had just had a conversation in which she stood up for her own sailing ability when he condescendingly acted superior. During the race he shut his mouth and let her failure do all the chiding that was necessary. Roger used their farglass to spot the reefs, making that part trivial. Vashti diplomacized Hirgenzosk when they went in - she's amazing at making friends with monsters. She also Billy-Goat-Gruffed the lightning elemental into going after Kelizandri's Favor instead, which I had described as looking like it was made out of metal and gems. That poor ship did not ever make it to the finish line, which they can feel guilty about or not as they like. By the rules as written, they were well into the overwhelming win category with Mord's ridiculous Profession sailor rolls. So using the tactic of anchor feather tokens instead of having the invisible stalkers attack directly was a nice way to give the Wormwood a shot to slip past them and make things tense. They took a lot of damage from the sudden stop, but no one went unconscious, so it took them a little time to break their own ship to get the anchors off and then use every trick they had to boost their speed and leave Harrigan and his crew in their wake. Having them meet the other officers and giving them all names and pictures and a little bit of backstory meant the PCs cared more about poor Captin Fark of the Barnacled B&&%@ and Caption Hammond of the Sullied Strumpet. Selissa, the river naga, whom they recruited because that's what they do, was jealous of Rosie and Conch's wedding. She's obsessed with Mord and went to talk to him. He promptly said yes without waiting to hear what she had to say, which resulted in a very confusing conversation for her. She was shocked to discover this meant they were engaged when all she wanted was a party where people pay attention to her and she gets to wear pretty clothes and she wants to have lots of parties like that, not just one.
Has anyone compiled a list of all the NPCs who were part of the Liberty's Herald expedition? Here's the ones I've found mentioned:
If anyone has a more complete list of the 60 or so original colonists, that would be helpful.
Chapter 2 question:
Spoiler:
When PCs are supposed to go out and talk to folks in the Borderlands, page 19 tells all about the various terrains and suggests using the rules for Overland Movement from the Core rulebook to determine how long it takes PCs to get from place to place - important as there are random encounters to check for every hour they are out there...
But the map of the borderlands on page 20 has no scale. "In general, most characters can walk along the Path Road and its branching trails at a rate of just over 2 miles (or 2 squares on the map) per hour. If the PCs are on horseback, they can easily travel 3 miles per hour on the road and trails." So there should be a scale of 1 square = 1 mile.. But there are no squares. How far away are the various homesteads supposed to be?
A bit late for the original poster, but for those considering the same question: If you want to run players through their intros in the Formidably Maid you need mature enough players to establish "You do not have the option of 'winning' in this scene. The end result is: you get press-ganged." Don't roll any dice. There is no random chance here, the outcome is predetermined. Dice imply there is a distinction between success and failure that matters. There is not. However awesome the PCs might be, in this they failed and got kidnapped. You can have them roleplay any introductions in the tavern. You can give them the freedom to describe exactly how the pirates got the better of them. Maybe they'll fuel you with all sorts of things to use against them later as they explain how they try to prevent the inevitible. What you cannot give them is the chance to escape their campaign trait and skip out on being included in the AP. You don't want to give them the chance to take out the first book's big bad before the game even starts.
You could show off Plugg's magic cutlass by having him hydrolic push a hated NPC overboard, Lightminder. Harrigan's not here to stop Plugg and Scourge from killing people they don't like, and even if he were, Plugg has gotten away with worse in his 11-month rise to first mate. I'm running to attack on Man's Promise on Sunday and have been doing each session with flashbacks to each character's backstory and highlighting parallel stories happening outside their ship that will eventually all come together. This time I'm thinking of switching it up and doing Plugg's flashbacks. Anyone have suggestions for horrible actions of his past to highlight?
Is there an explanation for the nonchalance of the nurses at Mother's Care? "The human nurses passively work through their days and pay little attention to what's happening around them. Beyond observing that the center seems to have lowered its standards for care, they can tell the PCs little." It would make sense if they were under a Dominate Person, but none of the villains who would possibly be responsible seem to have that available to them. I can't wrap my head around why people who have devoted their lives to caring for others would ignore the things that are going on there - no doctors, no cleaning staff, no cooks... and they just adminster medicine and keep their heads down? Certainly makes no sense if these are the same nurses from before it changed management. If newly hired, who are these people to agree to work there with things the way they are? Thugs with no actual ranks in heal? I'm going to run them as having been dominated. That explains why they don't help fight when things hit the fan, as well as why they shrug off the horrors and direct questions toward the staff.
Alas, poor Fishguts! He's not critical, but the cook's assistant who murdered him should not get the reward he wants because Plugg and Scourge HATE the PCs are it's their job to make the PCs miserable. If the assistant has lots of ranks in cooking and actually enjoys the work, he should be put on scrub duty immediately just because they don't want him happy. If he sucks at it, use the opportunity to allow him to fail a lot and get whipped a lot as well as have the general attitude of crew towards him go down for the horrible food they have to eat. Another thing - if the officers ever get even a whiff of an idea that Kroop was murdered, you should take the opportunity to launch a full investigation and then keel haul to death the party's favorite friendly/helpful NPC as if there were evidence she was guilty of it.
The druid in my party decided to wild empathy the rats they're always asked to catch and send them to destroy the rum rations that were killing the crew. That evening, they all got a rum ration polluted wth dead rat and about half the crew have filth fever now. Sandara only has one lesser restore a day, and apart from treating disease with heal checks, this could be quite deadly. My plan for the next session is for the Captain to get rid of the rum ration - he doesn't want a dead crew, after all - and ALL alcohol (at least until the disease runs its course and people are either better or dead from it). Everyone who is sick will be put into Stitchman's care, which means those who still work will be exhausted from having to handle two or three person's jobs for the day. Sandara will ignore her tasks for the day to help healing people, which Scourge will want to whip her for and the Captain will stop from happening. Scourge will take out his frustration on the PCs any way he can.
I'm interested in how sending works in relation to characters disguising themselves as someone else. Let's say you make up a false identity - Mr. Goodweather - and make some friends. One of those friends tries to cast sending to Mr. Goodweather. Does the spell
Take this a step further. Instead of a false identity made up, let's say you stole someone else's identity - Mr. Fairweather - and pretended to be him. You meet some people who have never met the real Mr. Fairweather, so in their mind, you are him. One of those people casts sending to Mr. Fairweather. Does the spell A) connect to you, because you are the person they intended as the recipient?
And to add another level of complication, let's say your friend from the second example later gets to know the real Mr. Fairweather but remains ignorant of your deception. He has no idea that you and Mr. Fairweather are different people. As far as he's concerned, the guy he knows today (the real thing) is the same person as the one he met originally (you). He has something to tell Mr. Fairweather and so casts sending. Does the spell: A) connect to you, because you were the one he first thought of as Mr. Fairweather?
Now in the other direction, if you're familiar with someone and a bad guy impersonates them and fools you, it seems logical to me that a sending would go to your real friend and not the imposter. But what if your real friend was dead, and the imposter completely fooled you. Would sending now connect to him, or fail?
You're right, it's more complicated than I initially realized - she's swapped out some feats and skills from the standard shae, so it took some tweaking. MAFFEI CR 5
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So my party of grippli has an Iroran monk. They finished Part II and understood that they had a month to kill before the auction. Some of them were happy to go around town like a band of overly cheerful migrant workers desperate for any odd job - not for money, but to make people like them more. But the monk had heard about that old haunted temple and wanted to give it a visit. Of course, the titular dragon has not made the titular demands yet. They decide to stealth in - I roll for the kobold archers and see them. My thoughts at this point are: the alarm goes up and everything in the monastery basically collapses on this random group of murder-hobo frogmen. I'm thinking that there's some leveling they're supposed to have done in the crypts before coming here, so stuff should quickly start to seem above their pay grade. They stomped the kobolds. They stomped the Grioths. I though about what happens to the story if they actually manage to clear this area now and pulled the plug, going into story mode where they get to realize that things here are harder than they are ready for (mentioning the call lightning bring brought down on them was good for convincing them of that). Now they are back in town being helpful again and I need some advice as to how the world should shift in reaction to their actions. Should the dragon ask for the heads of these foul villains who attacked his men unprovoked? Should the auction time-table be moved up, now that this wasp-nest has been kicked - and if so, how to deal with the other parties who originally needed a month to travel there? If you were a dragon, and you got word of a band of delicious frog folks attacking you out of the blue, what measures would you take to deal with them or prepare for their inevitable arrival?
Is Maffei statted somewhere, when fully healed (all 3 negative levels removed)? Bestiary 3, page 242 is a Shae with no negative levels. Each negative level removed is going to be +1 to CMD, ability checks, attack rolls, combat maneuver checks, saving throws, and skill checks;; +5 HP, and +1 to caster level for spell-like abilities.
My party opted to create characters that are all Small races. Equipment Treasure Spoiler: Should I adjust some of the treasure to give them dragon-slaying equipment that the party can actually use? How important is the stuff they get in Tula's Crypt and the monestary for the final fight? What would you recommend?
The bases don't match up with the minis. Most are matched up perfectly, but: Pentosh doesn't get a base, nor does Mathezic, but there is an extra base for Cruel Dire Rat.
What have your villains done to make their lair more defensible? Flip My Lair: Alarm spells on all the entrances.
Stone-shaped the entrances closed on the first, second, and their floor. (At least one party of adventurers died on the outside stairs looking for a secret door they were sure would be there, but wasn't). Created huge bay doors for the sanctum level, again with judicious stone-shape, knowledge engineering, and time. Made entrances to the first and second floors from the secret stairs. Walled off the ooze. Adventurers can come in the hole in the wall to a room with oozes that have a sleep aura. The only door out of the room has a solid wall right behind it. Yes, they love stone-shape. Added a bell-pull next to the secret door to the stairs, figuring adventurers would not be able to resist the temptation to pull it, alerting the villains. Yeah, their lair has a doorbell. Animated the dead bodies of just about every darn thing they have fought. When they killed the lightning elemental, my grave-walker witch argued that if it had blood, it might have a body and therefore could be turned into a zombie. She tried it. It appeared to work for a little while, but then I had the fleshy parts fall off, turning the huge thing into an uncontrolled negative-energy elemental. As a lightning elemental, he liked to hang out at the top of the sanctum, flying around like a moth. Now, he likes to hang out in the room full of scorch marks and ash. They freaked out, and began stone-shaping the entire room to have walls too thick for a huge incorporeal creature to pass through. They were a day away from finishing that huge engineering endeavor when the haunt happened. Upon determining that the haunt was an anniversary thing, they covered their cube-cage with writing in celestial and infernal suggesting that evil Vetra-Kali worshipers had imprisoned an angel inside, that could only be released on this specific date at midnight. You just know, years from now, some adventurer is going to fall for that. Probably a Pathfinder on a mission from Sheila Heidmarch.
So what are some of the most creative solutions to problems your villains have come up with? Nefarious Plans:
Having failed to discover the letters in Edderly's room, but knowing of the affair, my players latched onto Mott's description of being career oriented. They intercepted a raven, forged a note with promotion orders sending him to be the new guy in charge of Brandescar prison (which needed new management because they have murdered the place). Mott took off with his wife. Then they baked brownies and delivered them to Edderly and gave an awesome speech which indirectly relayed the message of "If you love someone, don't let her go. Fight for her!" Edderly waffled on the decision, but bailed when everyone was supposed to be watching the play.
When it came to dealing with Lord Havelyn and Tacitus, they had their summoner call up a minutes-per-level earth elemental, buffed him up and made him invisible and sent him to coup-de-grace the heroes in their sleep. Note: If your castle is made out of stone, put some tapestries up, cover the floor with rugs, and maybe reinforce the stonework with wood or something. Also, use alarm spells - seriously, pay for the spell casting so you don't get killed in your sleep. My other table had a player get himself apprenticed to the alchemist in town, told him that he'd heard rumors of rat infestations, and got permission to cook up some more doses of arsenic. When they poisoned Mama Guiseppe's stew, it was a lot nastier and more obvious that the place was under attack, but managing to get Tacitus's wand of fireballs made obliterating the poisoned guards easy. It says something when your villains stop to worry that the bugbears will be bored by not having enough to do when they storm the watch wall.
Comic Relief Plans: A hilarious moment happened with one of my groups on their escape from prison. They had gotten to the gatehouse and were about to be swarmed by guards. Having figured out the window on their veil of useful items, they looked at one of the other items and thought, "That looks like a wall. It probably puts a wall wherever we want when we peel that off." So there, in the doorway, they dramatically ripped it off the veil. Instead of the wall they were expecting, one hundred gold pieces spray into the air and rain to the ground in the doorway in front of very confused prison guards.
You've got a fighter, a cleric, and a wizard. The only choice is rogue. Pick an archetype that swaps out trapfinding and trap sense, but don't tell them that he's rubbish at detecting traps. Give him something like Survivalist. Race: halfling Abilities:
Skills:
1st feat: Lightning reflexes. Have him insist on searching for traps, and make a big show of it before he inevitably sets all traps off. Get his reflex save as high as you can so he typically comes away unscathed thanks to Evasion. Even funnier if you can have him walk safely over pit traps that his weight is not enough to set off, declaring the way safe. Give him improved initiative, and have him charge up to go toe-to-toe with monsters before anyone else has a chance to go. Make him whine to the party and try to get them to provoke AOOs to get a flank for him. Have him do the occasional awesome thing, like stealing the evil cleric's holy symbol right out of his hand, followed by rounds of wasted actions talking about how awesome that thing he just did was. With his con tanked, it'll be easy for them to get him killed, if he doesn't do it himself. Have him demand healing whenever he is down even a single hit point. If you can get him the Friendly Switch feat, have him use it to push his cleric closer to danger when he desperately needs healing - if they catch on and stop being willing to let him swap places with them, have him drop and make himself helpless in the cleric's square. Make him the relative of someone they have a reason to keep happy, and make that other NPC insist that they bring Fargin' home safely, or there will be consequences. Have him always be willing to scout ahead. He's good at stealth, but not good at perception. Let him Mr. Magoo areas of incredible danger while the party is attacked, only to have him return training all the encounters behind him at once. |
