goatmeal's page

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I think maybe making the overall encounter an extra +2 CR might be right.

A bit more on the scenario. The players aren't going to totally understand the situation, and if they do choose to attack it from melee distance it will be very difficult to deal with. They might be motivated to do this, as it is using a device to bring more zombies to the room (there is a finite number of zombies that can be attracted in this way, but they aren't going to know that, and they would eventually encounter all of these zombies anyways). If they do stay out of range of the tendrils, then they are concentrating themselves into a smaller section of the room, making the zombies more difficult to deal with and increasing the likelihood that they will encounter more of them by allowing the bloody bones to keep bringing them in.

It's still pinned, it is just able to make ranged attacks with its tendrils. If they can kill it from 35 ft away, this isn't even a real danger.

I am designing a 1st level adventure in which I would like to use a CR 4 creature (bloody bones) which is essentially permanently bolted to the ground (for which all of the drawbacks for being pinned will apply). The tendrils could be bad if they get too close to it, but I'm going to start with those restricted as well. It can use a move action to free one tendril per round, so there will only be one tendril attack the first round it would be able to do so. There will also be a finite number of zombies slowly entering the room (around one per turn or so). The PCs should be able to stay clear of the tendrils, fight the zombies, and then deal with the bloody bones at range.
It seems like a first level party should be able to do 42 points of damage (I might even lower this a bit) to an AC 12 target from 35 feet away eventually. I could even dump the fire resistance if necessary.
My best guess is permanently pinning a creature results in a CR adjustment of -2. Any thoughts?

Thanks. I'll check it out. My game is going to be here: http://www.rpgcrossing.com/forumdisplay.php?f=12688

starting in about a month. Still quite a bit I'm going to get put up before then.

Thanks. I was kind of thinking something along that line based on what I'd read about the play. Are there later modules that I should skip or run in a different order? Should I just wrap it up after 4? Rearrange the order of 4,5, and 6 as some have suggested?

Another thing I'm considering is to have a falling out between Janiven and Arael as far as how the rebellion should proceed: sort of like Provessor X and Magneto as far as disagreeing about the means to the ends they both want. The PCs will have to decide which of them best represents their own goals.

I’m going to start this AP in about a month, and I’ve been reading some of the other threads here to get an idea of what to expect. I’m pretty sold on the idea of running this game as a rebellion the way the first part starts out, and I’ve seen lots of commentary that it doesn’t play out that way.
What I want to know is how to make it play out that way. I’ve seen recommendations to skip some modules or possibly do them in a bit of a different order. If I want to focus on the rebellion, are there modules I should leave out altogether? I’m thinking the PCs might even try to convince the Bastards and possibly even the twins to take a different approach to their own attempts to change things. I’m definitely planning on including the Delvehaven bit. Any good advice on what else should stay or go for this approach?