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If a beast starts devouring gods the first thing I'd check is if anyone's seen Achaekek recently. He's probably in Pharasma's basement still. I'd make sure Rovagug hasnt had any more kiddos
This one was awesome! Glad to see Erastil sticking around and even if he didnt that death was metal as hell. Would love to see that chase animated
Woo! Hard to kill what's already dead. The hint that Arazni might be the one to do the slaying is lending credence to my theory that it'll be Iomedae.Wait, why would Arazni slay Iomedae? Did I miss something? I believe the only thing we've been told about them (unfortunately, because I'd like to hear more) in so far is that Arazni has complex and ambivalent feelings about her old Paladin: That she resented her for reaching divinity easily, and that she was proud of her for her victory over the Shining Crusade. Arazni is only ever described as blaming Aroden for that though. With her thoughts on Iomedae being a combination of "resentful of her successor Iomedae for having reached divinity so successfully and easily, and proud of her for having won the Shining Crusade, and recognises that none should be subjected to her ordeals" copying from the wiki rather than Tyrants Grasp here but the summary is pretty much on point. But I dont see it as suggesting that Arazni felt betrayed by the Knights so much as Aroden himself
I've seen a few folks saying this one doesn't make sense, but honestly it doesn't feel too far-fetched to me? Like. The whole premise of the Exemplar class is the divine power of the dead god very much still being A Thing if I understand it right. So Urgathoa's death causing Undeath to go out of control feels like an extension of the same idea to me. I kinda get that interpretation. Its just that none of the other prophesies have displayed its after-effects of the death in a way that sort of aligns with that dieties power being spread among the world in a similar way. Of Course Cayden and AzzyD seemed for like, close up rather than world scale like Urgathoa and Pharasmas were. For Pharasma it felt like no one was inheriting her spark as it were, but shes also a bit literally core to the setting so her death might break a bit too much
Seriously. Its baffling
This one...makes like no sense. How does Urgathoa's death impact Pharasma's ability to take in the souls of the deceased properly. Like, this outcome feels more like what happens when Pharasma dies than anything. But instead Urgathoa dying makes Undead *more* prevalent and somehow neither magic or the servants of the boneyard are apparently able to do anything about it? This feels like the first L of this series which is a damn shame because I've been loving them. ...also its gonna be Iomedae isnt it. Dammit.
Doesnt Starlit Span require a ranged weapon? I was just planning on rocking fists/claws
So long story short, Playing a Tiefling Magus in Strength of Thousands. Want to go unarmed and I'm unsure on how best to go about it. I like the aesthetic that comes with using my ancestry feat on claws, especially in conjunction with spellstrike. But I think the class feat for Arcane Fist is probably better. Unfortunately going Arcane Fist means I wont have expansive spellstrike which seems rather important. I dont believe they stack in any way either, since I dont think natural weapons count as brawling? On the Strength of Thousands unique side of things, as an arcane boy I'm gonna end up with a Druid dedication. But have no earthly idea what feats to take from it. I like wildshape, so probably that order, but since i cant use magus stuff while transformed it would be more for scouting. any help or advice would be appreciated. I know the *vibe* of what I want, its just makin things work im struggling with.
Oh. I also forgot. The note establishes Eliza and Rayland as enemies. With Rayland hating Eliza usurping his authority. Later in the book you encounter the pair of them, dominated and acting as allies with Rayland deferring to her. If they kept this note in mind that can clue then into the shenanigans and keep them more suspicious
The note basically sets up the idea that the Colony was in the midst of some kind of factional conflict. The "Fishing Trip" is what I believe they are using to refer to the Faceless Stalkers taking prisoners to the other island. Dulin is likely not anyone of import, just one of the group of Colonists that realized something was wrong before things came to a head. Same with Barnabus who apparently was going to try and use the canoe that was destroyed. We do know some about Una however. The Wand in the barracks had her initials. And she was also likely the one who tampered with the Colony log as the plum tree reference was in there. She was likely caught by "Rayland" though as her spell book could be found under his bed. The recipient of the note probably worked in the govt building. Since the clue was in a logbook that would have normally been stored there. And with them not knowing who to trust or who might be listening, it mightve been safer to leave dead drops to coordinate. Tldr: the note is there to give some background on the tensions at the original colony. Though it's information is ultimately a Red herring due to the author not knowing what was really going on.
Like the title says, Im trying to find any image or description of whatever symbols or heraldry the ancient azlanti empire used. Most ive been able to find is for the Star Empire. Theres quite a few NPCs in Ruins that have symbols on their outfits, but I think they are all for their respective dieties as they are all religious types afaik.
Dead Board is dead. But has anyone else gotten through book 3 yet? I'm about close to starting it and I ***STILL*** have no idea how I'm gonna handle it. The Twist either is gonna come completely out of nowhere. OR I just run the clues as they are written and make plan between the Int 22 Devil and the 23 Int wizard hit every branch on the idiot tree as it goes into motion.
So I've been looking at the map of the Islands that is given by the AP and trying to match them with the map in Inner Sea World Guide, Aquatic Adventures, and even the 2e core book. And i just cant figure out where Ancorato is supposed to be within the mass of islands that is Azlant. Is it noted anywhere just where Talmandor's Bounty even is? I was wanting to add in some of the supplementary stuff from others books and flesh out the region some more in my game. Since my players are the type to want to explore and discover. I was wanting to include more than just 3 islands in my particular Ruins of Azlant campaign, but unless i can figure out which island is Ancorato i might end up having to take up my own cartography. tl:dr is there a larger scale map anywhere that has Talmandor's Bounty/Ancorato on it or just a good map of Azlant's island chain in general.
Yeah, thats kind of what i meant though. Item DCs kind of suck. And if im classing this as a custom artifact i want it to not suck. Especially come late game when that spell restoring ability is most useful. I think thats part of why I really like the scaling magic items like in War for the Crown and in Unchained.
Interesting idea. I'm still iffy on the DC though. I'm leaning towards making it a scaling dc based on the user since I kind of like those better in general and it might also help it scale better into late game. Because demilich is a what cr11? Come late game dc 22 fort is basically only a fail on a nat1 I feel like. At least against monsters and martials.
It eating your soul if you die sounds fun actually. But does that win out if it's a lich holding it...
I think that's excessive. That would make it so killing a creature with 20HD only nets you back a 5th level spell or on average about 30hp. Having the fort DC that low would also make it nearly useless even like sub level 10 because of how high fortitude saves tend to be.
Description: This jeweled skull resembles that of a Demilich, and was in fact created from the remnants of one. The skull retains a small portion of the Demiliches devour soul ability. On Command, the skull can attempt to devour the soul of a dying creature (Fortitude save DC: ??? Negates) On a failed save, the creatures soul is stored within one of the 9 intact gems on the skull. Each gem can only hold 1 soul, multiple weak souls cannot be consumed to mimic a stronger soul. Souls contained within the gems can be consumed in two different ways. - The user is healed for 1d6 per HD of the creature. - The user regains a spent spell slot, as per the use of a pearl of
Thoughts? I need to figure out a decent DC for the soul devour effect. But I run into the issue of making it free on low level enemies or impossible on higher level ones. I suppose I might have scale with the user, maybe a 10+Caster Level sort of thing. Im also unsure as to how i would price this thing. Alternitively i could just slap "Minor Artifact" on the label and ignore the price issue.
Well, if you want to save yourself quite a bit of work. Theres already a finalfantasyd20 conversion that uses pathfinder 1e rules. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to link it here. But if you search it on google you should find it pretty quick. They also have a very active discord.
So is it just me, or do the Infernal Boons feel somewhat unbalanced? In relevance to eachother I mean. I feel like when the time comes every single PC is just going to pick the Pride boon. That +2 inherent bonus is worth quite a lot. The Natural Armor one also feels like a great value. But the other ones feel like the fall flat in comparison. The spell like ones especially just seem lacking in both power and flavor. Anyone who has gotten that far, what did your players think of them and did you change them up at all?
So uh. Is it just me or do the Chernasardo Rangers just kinda suck? Like they got a lot of hype but the things that they have apparently been taken out by in this book just dont really paint the best picture of them. Not to mention how weak the survivors are. Like first part of book 2 has you find bodies of them that were slaughtered for sport by anything from like CR3 hobs to freakin oversized vermin. They're supposed to be an elite guerilla fighting force fighting on their own turf.
See the confusion is mostly from the wording on OotD being unclear. Or rather not specifying the +3 as a replacement like HH does. It also doesn't specify if its supposed to be a +1 to Aid Another like the scaling sort of implies and would therefore scale with Swift Aid. Apparently the way HeroLab combines them is by making Helpful Halfling take precedence with +4. And then doing OotD as a scaling bonus. So it becomes +5 with both, that then becomes a +6 at 8th and so on and so forth. Not sure of the interaction with Swift Aid though
To clarify, Order of the Dragon reads "whenever an order of the dragon cavalier uses the aid another action to assist one of his allies, the ally receives a +3 bonus to his Armor Class, attack roll, saving throw, or skill check." it doesnt actually say "instead of a +2" like helpful does. This is the point of contention that the player has with saying they wouldnt stack.
Ok so question about Aid Another. Does it have a type of bonus it gives? And how does stacking it work? I'm 90% sure you can stack aid another from multiple people. But what about someone who has swift aid and wants to use both their standard and their swift action doing Aid Another? Do they stack to give a +3? How do these interact with say the Halfling Helpful trait (2 becomes 4) or Order of the Dragon Cavalier (+3 which scales)? The way i had been reading it so far, a Halfling Order of the Dragon Honor Guard Cavalier has been able to slap +8 aid another bonuses on his allies, and with combat reflexes is able to bodyguard almost any attacks I make in his vicinity for the same bonus. Which I'm fine with for the most part, its basically all he can do. But if he can use swift aid and start making it into +16s for one attack thats a bit much i feel like. Even the +8 he has currently is a little excessive tbh.
I want to add more notables to the AP but I've been having trouble finding details on other Chelish nobles, especially for House Thrune whom I would like my PCs to have stronger ties to. I imagine Abrogail would like to make certain that other noble houses to get to dig their claws into the PCs with how potentially dangerous and influential they can become. Unfortunately, even with the extra party guests bit at the start of Book 4 I feel like there's not many NPCs that the PCs could really connect to. Some of them are interesting quirky characters, but the types that I feel like my PCs will really connect to or inspire much loyalty in the nation of Cheliax to them. I feel like most of the nobles engender more feelings of "Asmodeus Below, why are we fighting for these people" instead of helping them be the loyal Chelish murdermachines they are meant to be. For House Thrune, there's a few (living) notables I know of that might be able to be worked in, though I'm not entirely sure how to go about it yet. As my table has yet to touch Skulls and Shackles, that leaves Grand Admiral Druvalia Thrune as an option. Her Armada might complicate matters for the GR and she could be an interesting person to interact with. There's also Ghislaine Thrune who runs some kind of Captain Cheliax Super Soldier Project. Other than those two, and Barry over in Rebels there's none that I know. For non Thrunes, I'd love to find a way to incorporate the Grand High Priestess Aspexia Rugatonn as some of her more zealous followers become the antagonists of the end of the Book. Maybe find a way to throw Varian Jeggare in there even... Does anyone know of any other Nobles or other Notable NPCs I could have the party encounter to make Cheliax seem more worth saving for the PCs. Or at least make it seem like the PCs arent the 4 only competent people in the entire nation?
Yeah they are level 2 currently. Brawler, Barbarian, and the companions are damn strong. Just bad rolls. The cavalier is an aid another build and can basically guarantee a hit with his aid. I dont think buffing the PCs to a higher PB is the answer when the main problem I need to deal with is making sure the campaign isnt made into a cakewalk for them off of action economy alone. As for encourage or punish? I'd say encourage. Its a campaign with heavy guerilla warfare elements. It encourages them to plan ahead and use tactics that arent just "run in and bash". Most of our combats have ended up being a drag. But some of them they have done flawlessly. Pulling off a 1 round victory against any fight in which they have a numbers advantage instead of being outnumbered. I find it an interesting mechanic that helps represent that they are the underdogs fighting and running vs this established force in the form of a trained professional army. Yeah the enemy is always going to be freshed while the heroes might not be, but the enemy can afford to send wounded soldiers back to recover. The heroes dont exactly have that luxury. So they have to pick their battles accordingly.
I think Wound Thresholds were a good way to encourage the style of Ironfang as the hit and run guerilla warfare style AP. As for combat round time its been wildly varied. If my party rolls above a 10 on dice they will just casually roll through and one shot every single enemy one by one. But they roll poorly so a fight against some spiders and an ettercap that ended up going for almost 2 hours because no one could roll above a 6 all night. My party is plenty strong even on 15pb. They just roll like hot garbage and theres basically 8 of em. So each round ends up taking like 30ish minutes and fights for for several rounds.
I dont see how 15pb makes the game slower. As for Wound Thresholds we are on R20 so it autocalculates everything.
As the title implies, I am currently running Ironfang Invasion for 6 players. Playing 15 pb with the optional rules for Unchained Skills, Hero Points, and Wound Thresholds.
1. Treesinger Druid
Which as I'm sure you can tell, means that I basically actually have 8 players not 6 with the druid and the inquisitor being companion classes. This has kind of led to a small slew of problems so far even only 3 sessions deep. 1. Combat takes too long - Thus far I've been evening the odds by increasing enemy count. So far this has made combat still a challenge, but it has the downside of making rounds go so long that I've had players actually pass out while waiting on their turn. (doesn't help that we play late, but still) 2. Applying the Advanced Template makes monsters a bit too much to handle so far. This was the other method I've tried to make things a bit more of a match, but its turned combats into a long slog of constant near misses followed by the maiming of a PC who then retreats to be healed while the other 4 are able to defend the wounded and healer until they finally manage to take down the enemy. 3. Bosses. I haven't quite gotten to the point of boss fights yet. But when I do, I imagine the standard problem is going to be exacerbated quite a bit. That being action economy. Making an important enemy stay significant and intimidating is difficult to manage when they get 1 move per the party's 8 unless I buff them up to potentially unwinnable levels. 4. This one is rather unique to Ironfang I think. But the militia management is a lot bigger of a time sink than i think any of us expected. It being a big theme of the campaign I don't want to cut it. But ways to expedite it would be appreciated. Here's some solutions I've been looking at and was hoping to get some advice on the viability of. 1. Troop Template. Ironfang does this one on its own, and even has quite a few in the books. Problem is I've never used them before, and was curious as to how balanced they really are. They put out quite a huge amount of unavoidable damage that makes me think they should probably be avoided until my PCs have a bit more HP on them. 2. Make Monsters Share initiative. Similar to the Troop idea, just make say X amount of hobgoblins act as a unit. 3. Stick to adding Templates or extra levels to the default enemies. Tried this one so far, and it seems to be a bit hard on the difficulty for my Players thus far. 4.
If the PCs befriend Faydreth Zane he shows them around the manor right? How do they avoid setting off the Thrune trap in that situation?
- In my experience, Book 5 of APs is where balance really starts to fall apart and you need to start just using most encounters as like... the plot, but make the stats your own. Parties are all different so just tailor things to match your parties strength better while keeping the themes the same. I'd keep the Geryon Cultists as divine unarmed builds for example, just make them more effective. Warpriest has a good archetype iirc - it's been a minute since I've read over the fountain, but at a glance your idea seems valid. I'd double check to see if any templates that the defenders have allow them to do shenanigans like that though. But keeping it so that "Only followers of the Inheritor" can use those types of magic seems perfectly logical for a holy site. - the Crows are weak yeah, but the way I interpreted that whole sequence was that its supposed to be a bit of a power trip for the PCs. If you want to make them strong enough to pose even a minor threat that's your prerogative, just keep in mine that I think the point is that they arent supposed to he a major threat. - From what I've read the Ghost Dragon is absolute b@@*%&%& difficult and is indeed TPK central. However, I'm 95% sure its supposed to be done in the Library. IE, burn the place down and perform it while the ashes are still hot. At least that's how it was done in most stories I've heard. Which is a factor in how TPK central it is, lots of parties dont rest beforehand.
From my understanding, Aasimar are very oppressed within Cheliax. Would it be viable for an Aasimar PC within Hells Vengeance? If so, where can I find more info on their treatment and how people might react to an angel blooded servant of house thrune.
Thanks man.
As the title says, I'm going to start Hell's Vengeance soon and I am beyond excited. However I do have a few questions about running it for people who might have already done so. 1) How did you find the difficulty balance? I know its got a heavy intrigue focus, but some of the combats seem like they would get really difficult if the PCs build too heavily in that direction 2) Whats the timeline like, in game time i mean. Book 1 kind of lays out a rather specific time frame that ends up being around a month in game time length. But how about the rest of it. Will I need to make changes if my Players like doing downtime activities like crafting or what not? 3) Book 3 seems to get some heavy criticism, Any suggestions on making the twist more of a surprise? The fetch quest aspect i don't think my players will have particularly much problem with. They'll have a more fun version of it in Book 5 regardless. 4) Book 4 has a nice Stat Block for Abrogail II, but unlike every other such stat page I've seen theres basically no info on her background, her motivations, or any real fleshing out of her as a character instead of a plot device. She has 3 paragraphs of text 1 about how she got the throne, 1 about how she treats traitors, and a 3rd that just says she tells the PCs what to do. Are there any other sources that flesh her out more? 4b) It does seem like she's young and single though. Anyone who's played this ever have anyone try to do anything with that? One of my Players
5) The Hellfire Compact and its later expansions, how troublesome is it down the line if players dont want to sign on? I know come book 4 Abby kind of forces it on you at least in part. 6) I've seen some suggestions online to tweak the final fight in some way. Some Suggest giving her the Thorncrown in addition to her normal kit. Anyone try that? How did it work out. 7) Are there any thematically appropriate magical items/artifacts i might want to consider adding to spoil, i mean reward my PCs? 7b) I also have a player who is interested in taking advantage of the evil nature of the AP to explore Necromancy and maybe even Lichdom. However i dont want to open that door for only one PC. I dont consider Lichdom to be super powerful in this AP due to the primary enemy being Good Aligned Divine Classes. I do need to find options for 2 martials and an enchantment caster if thats the case though 8) Any other tips and tricks. Thank you a bunch for your time and any help you might have to give me.
Yeah Giantslayer isnt the most popular AP, this entire forum is pretty damn dead it feels like. Personally i dont really think they would need to destroy it so much as render it inert (Like Minderhal's Forge in Book 3) or something so that the next would be tyrant who gains Zursvaater's favor cant start doing what is currently happening again. Course I half expect my own party to just try and collapse Ashpeak somehow. High level casters can probably manage that. Unless ive missed a recent update or dont have the most recent version of your Doc, how did you intend for the social encounter to play out? To deprive the Tytarian of his God's favor and ability to use the Anvil?
I like this alot. Any idea on an alternate way to maybe disable or destroy the anvil that the players are likely to be able to accomplish though? I like its destruction condition, but that's not the kind of thing PCs will be able to do most likely
A pit fight, or better yet a full on tournament could be really fun. My GM put us through a tournament in a different AP and it honestly ended up being one of the highlights of the campaign. Gives you a chance to toy around with builds too. The AP even gives you quite a few things to work with. The Iconic Villians might form a rival team.
Has anyone had a PC be bold enough to try and do the bard thing with the Queen? Shes young and single after all. Honestly I half feel like it's an oversight to not give us any info on what her reaction would be to a PC flirting with her. Politely and with reverence of course.
So the loot by the AP isnt exactly super fitting for my party. Just got past the first part of book 3 and it's just becoming more and more obvious that the loot is favoring very strongly a single party member. I've got a Dwarven Cleric [hes fine. Hes better than fine. Never been more fine] A Halfling Opportunist, giants sure do use a lot of daggers and light armor yep sure. A Dervish Dancing Magus [I can't even throw metamagic rods at him cuz he needs a free hand.] A Nat Attack Half Orc Barbarian [he also doesnt need much tbh. Hes just there to party.] And a Half Orc archer ranger who will never replace her hornbow after the cleric slapped giantsbane on it. Does anyone have ideas for items that my party would actually use that might be found in the possession of giants? Thus far theyve been getting along alright by just using the loot they get as basically scrap and having the Cleric do enchanting stuff on the gear theyve had since level 1.
I feel like the AP is kind of light on named NPCs for the party to interact with as they go from giant camp to giant camp and traverse the mountains. Does anyone have any ideas for making the world seem a bit less empty? I want to give my players more people to care about so that its more personal than just protecting the nameless masses.
I feel like the AP is kind of light on named NPCs for the party to interact with as they go from giant camp to giant camp and traverse the mountains. Does anyone have any ideas for making the world seem a bit less empty? I want to give my players more people to care about so that its more personal than just protecting the nameless masses.
Im running it as well. Currently nearing the conclusion of Book 2. Party is making the AP into a freaking joke so far and im having trouble trying to spice thigns up. Also reading ahead into Book 3 it looks like theres a good bit of locales that there are no maps or images for. Im gonna need to find something for those because we play on Roll20 and half my table cant visualize stuff if they dont have images or maps. 15 point buy
Im running it as well. Currently nearing the conclusion of Book 2. Party is making the AP into a freaking joke so far and im having trouble trying to spice thigns up. Also reading ahead into Book 3 it looks like theres a good bit of locales that there are no maps or images for. Im gonna need to find something for those because we play on Roll20 and half my table cant visualize stuff if they dont have images or maps.
Hopefully its not too dead in here to get some tips. So my party im currently guessing is probably about 90% likely to get Kurst to come along for the ride into the Mountains. Problem is I kind of hate his build and was looking for tips on how to improve it without ruining his flavor too much. Atm I'm kind of between having him go full 5 Luring Cavalier and focus on giving covering fire and bestowing Teamwork feats. Or Going Cav 1/ Ranger 4 like he is in the book, but using the Guide archetype instead of base Ranger since he uses Hunters Bond: Companions instead of an animal companion. Any thoughts? Maybe I should ask in the thread for book 3 instead since thats when he would be joining them. But his stat block is in book 1. |
