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I would too would like to see pre-build mini-adventures. Or large pre-generated encounters that would last approximately 2 hours of game play. Bonus points if normal animals / magical beasts are encountered in their home terrain and the home terrain has been included in detail in the encounter. Mostly non-magical encounters against difficult creatures in difficult terrain.

If the free stuff is still available: cleric please.

For any full BAB class with mithral medium armor a two level dip in monk is great: gain two bonus feats, lethal unarmed damage, great saves and evasion. It only costs 1 point of BAB, 1 fighter feat and off course a delayed progression in your primary class abilites.

Random thought

They sneaking around to avoid encounters I understand.

Let them spot from a distance an armed force which is too large for them to handle. Knowing players, they will investigate. Let them stumble upon another small group which is planning an ambush on the large group.

Depending on the history of your campaign you can make the larger group formed by some rebellious minority with a righteous grieve on their way to free a member of their society. The smaller group could be lead by officer of the law with a make-shift task force.

Make sure that one group has the ethics on its side and the other group the law.

Then lead the players decide on:
doing nothing
help the law
follow their conscience
support a group which relates to them (Guild, race, religion, Noble house)
support a group out of opportunistic reason
wait until the aftermath, kill the survivors and loot de bodies
heal the survivors

If possible make a sort of time table of events, then let the conflict continue each time the players get side-tracked with internal discussion

Good luck, give me feedback how it works out if you use this, if you want.

Dump your Wis attribute and compensate your AC by wearing mithril medium armor. It will only make you lose your Wis bonus to AC and your monk speed bonus. No loss of barbarian speed or other monk abilities. This enables a Str and Con or Str and Dex build for fewer point. As a visual bonus you can wear armor spikes.

Buy horse shoes with the spider climb spell and use the ceiling or walls for charging if the floor is too cluttered. It might take a round of manoeuvring to find the right charging starting point.
Combine with the Lunge feat and the reach weapon he is already using and the cavalier should have even less problems.

Befor starting an (evenings) session try to sense the atmosphere.

If everyone is joking and fooling around, don't try to advance the plot because they will not take note of "subtle" plot clues. Just throw in a bar brawl, escaped circus elephant, a low level mob of cultist who want to open a gate to hell, necromancers who are delving on the site of ancient battlefield or everything at once. Just give the sorcerer some targets for his fireball and some mooks for the fighter. Let them have fun and test some odd-ball ideas for cults or monsters.

Use these less focused session for magic item shopping, introductions to NPCs such as shopkeepers, the local constable, local thugs, woodsmen, the Beasttotem of the local kobols, etc. Setting up hooks for later.

If the atmosphere is more serious, try to avoid time consuming combat, spead it up with diplomacy and intimidate checks versus the NPC leaders. Have conversations which reveal motivations why the NPCS joined "the dark side". This will make character-building for the PCs and will call slumbering friction of ethics of PCs to the foreground. That just means more role-playing and less dice rolling.

What every you do, always try to introduce a few NPC nobodies with names but no levels. The players (not PCs) will get attached to the NPCs. Each Hero needs an audience. Feed their ego by saving villages and cities and besting monsters, next give them the devils choice of which beloved NPC to save when danger comes visiting town. Let them become attached to a place or organization by building a history of their own actions.

Annoy your players with NPCs without skills and spells but with real and legal authority and power: give them a constable to hate because he follows the book and will not tolerate vigilantes and law-breaking not even for the better good. Let the major be empathic, friendly but always postponing decision making until it becomes irrelevant.

A trick I stole from an other GM: have a just-capable undercover agent get in trouble while investigating a situation of national importance.
If the PCs saved him a few times, they get a NPC to love-and-hate and a link to a governmental organization for future adventures. And when they see this NPC they know they better intercept him before he causes trouble, again.

Dear all, thanks for all the to the point responses!

I will take the following into account:
- Do not change the actual game mechanics. This means not to mess with the hitpoints system as it is, during combat you lose them when being hit.
- Keep time linear from the point of view of the players
- Do not cancel actions done by characters via time reversal (prevent player impotence)
- Do not start with the death of the BBEG as this reveals the PCs are guaranteed to win.
- Divide the BBEG hitpoints into as many (equal) portions as there are combat segment, I think four is enough to prevent repetition and thus boredom.
- Make it appear to the players as if the combat segments are selected randomly, but think about what a nice order of combat, investigation and dialoguing is.
- Include some objects in the environment which become damaged and reveal the non-linearity
- Change the “flavour”, for example direction of gravity or exchange fire with cold

To give some control back to the players I will make their characters pass-out and “everything turns black” when they loose ¼th of their hitpoints in a combat segment. Then let them either re-spawn in the current combat if they want to (player’s choice) or leave them waiting unconscious until they move as a group to the next chamber when the current combat segment is finished. As a consequence they cannot die during their visit in the realm of madness. Which takes away all the fun and thrill of combat. Therefore I will give the PC who passed out or re-spawned one Madness point. At the end of the adventure when they leave the BBEG lair at the doorstep of the Realm of Madness each PC will receive (for example) xd8 hitpoint damage Will saves vs half, with x being the number of received Madness points. Reaching negative hitpoints will mean being Cursed with total insanity or death (player’s choice). This will be an additional game mechanic for which I will clearly warn them in advance.

On a side note:
This penalty for not defeating the BBEG during a combat segment I can also use if they do not solve other obstacles and encounters in the same lair as there will be a few more NPCs in the lair. This also means they do not have to solve or win every fight as one lost fight will only increase their risk of insanity just one small step at a time. So they can continue with the story and skip a fight or obstacle if they want.

My players (actually their PCs) are nearing the end of their quest and are about to enter the lair of the end boss. The end boss is from a different plane of existence, namely from a Realm of Madness and Nightmares in which the rules of physic are unknown and maddening to the inhabitants of the Prime Material plane.

The BBEG has manifested itself only partly yet on the characters level of existence. The lair will lead the characters through a series of look-a-like chambers. By visiting all chambers they will find themselves transported halfway between the Prime Material plane and the Realm of Madness and the BBEG will transport to them. While visiting these chambers they will have combat and they will suffer plot-exposure. In the last chamber they will finally meet the BBEG and its nightmarish physical form. Knowing my players they just want to dish-out damage.

However, as it is the Realm of Madness I want to time-reverse and time-forward the combat. (Stupid me.) So starting with a dead BBEG and let they PCs discover they are almost all out of hitpoints. Have some BBEG monologue-ing with opportunity for the PCs to ask questions while they are left under the impression its condition is declining toward death. Eventually they will loot or examine the body. When they remove a weapon from a wound of the BBEG its wound will heal. BBEG will attack (and hit) and remove a wound of a PC and restore hitpoints to this PC. Roll initiative and reverse-play a combat (going from zero HP to full). If they somehow gain more than their full hitpoints plus their wisdom score they will die of insanity (at the end of the adventure).

In general the BBEG will do melee damage (multiple attacks but with low strength), Touch of Idiocy and Confusion and Fear spells.

The fight might appear to look like for the players as: suddenly being half way hitpoints and attacking a wounded monster. Then examining a barely breathing monster. Then encountering a fleeing full health monster. Then talking with the monster when it has 1 hitpoint left.

So, I could cut this BBEG combat-sequence into different segments of a few rounds and let them fight this opponent in a randomly timed order of segments. So that when they have finished all chambers they have completed a single fight but with the combat rounds in a random temporal order. Unfortunately, my mind is very linear and I just cannot wrap my head around how to solve hitpoints loss and gain of PC and monster while time-hopping between combat rounds.

Any suggestions for hitpoints bookkeeping or alternative system to administrate the progress of the combat between party and monster?

Input would be appreciated!!

I read the excellent Dark Tower series by Steven King which features as main character a "paladin" gun slinger in an apocalyptic parallel Earth. There it works because the setting is both low-magic and low-tech and fire-arms are at the high end of the power curve.

In a game, I would only consider fire-arms if they as good or bad as archery.

Thanks for all replies!

Most answers refer to the APG (selective, intense metamagic feats and Contagious Fire), I was not familiar with these feats and spell. The selective metamagic feat in combination with fireball would approach what I am looking for. If I do not want to spent on that feat, the Contagious Fire would be a nice second option. In short, it seems that home-brewing a spell is not necessary.

For the game balancing feedback, the remark on "spells with saves vs half" and "spells with touch attack" does brings a point for min/maxing to the foreground.

In risk of getting sidetracked, it seems that in Pathfinder all classes have accesses to Evasion like abilities or spells to protect against energy damage. Making fireball a second-rate spell.

While being on a rant on fireball, compared with dnd 3.5 all classes have gained a larger Hitdie and the possibility of an extra hitpoint per level. Effectively giving most characters 2 hitpoints per level more, while the damage per caster level of the spells have not increased. With fireball (or many other damage spell) dealing 1d6/level this means that the damage of fireball has relatively scaled down due to the higher hitpoints for all characters. What I am trying to say: it takes more fireballs then it just to do to take down a character. Should the combination of easy access to Evasion and the increased hitpoints make all damage spells with "save vs half" decrease one spell level?

From a DM point of view the reduced effectiveness of fireball is a plus, it gives me the opportunity to soften-up the PCs and at the same moment the rogues get a heads-up on who to flank.

Most Mass spells are of the format:
- affect 1 subject per caster level
- deal per subject normal spell effect
- cast the spell 4 spell slots higher

Would it be imbalancing to have a Mass Scorching Ray at spell level 6?
Proposed spell description:
"You blast your enemies with searing beams of fire. You may cast one ray per caster level which deals 12d6 fire damage and require a ranged touch attack to hit. No target can be assigned more than one ray. All rays must be aimed at targets within 60 feet of the caster and are fired simultaneously."

Note the limit of one ray per target for 4x3d6=12d6 and the 60 ft distance from the caster. That are two differences compared to the Level 2 Scorching Ray spell.

Essentially this spell would be a bit like a precision fireball focused on the caster. Draw back, or great fun, would be to roll at least 11 ranged attack rolls (minimal caster level of 11).

Any comments for game balance or streamlining the dice rolling?
As a side question: are there metamagic feats which mimic the "Mass
spell effect"? Would be handy for high level sorceress.

My aim is to build a level 7 melee-oriented character who fights with combat gauntlets but still packs a punch.

But dealing damage with gauntlets is not a serious option. I do not want to make an optimized character but to bridge the gap between using a simple weapon and a proper martial melee weapon with its good base damage and better crit range.

Some class abilities, magic item properties and feats can grant extra damage dice to attacks, for example:
- sneak attack dice
- flaming/holy/bane weapon properties
- powerful charge feat
- vital strike feat

Which feats, items, weapon abilities, etc, did I miss? They should not be use restricted like the paladins smite or samurai's challenge. Foregoing secondary attack(s) is no problem.

Thanks for feedback or posting a link to an older relevant post (I did search).

Apparently I stirred up an ants heap....,
kind of funny.

Any polearm (melee reach weapon) has better crit range, better damage dice and str multipliers than the simple spiked armor. Therefore changing reach range of polearms should be expensive to buy with feats and subjected to constrictions. Extending the reach of polearms is powerful.

An AoO with spiked armor is nice to have but unlikely to affect a combat much, unless it is substituted by a combat maneuvre.

I do not think a player would spend equal number of feats (weapon focus, weapons spec, weapon training feature, etc) on both polearms and spiked armor for his PC.

Thanks for responding!

First some copy&paste from the PF SRD

Armor Spikes: You can have spikes added to your armor, which allow you to deal extra piercing damage (see “spiked armor” on Table: Weapons) on a successful grapple attack. The spikes count as a martial weapon. If you are not proficient with them, you take a –4 penalty on grapple checks when you try to use them. You can also make a regular melee attack (or off-hand attack) with the spikes, and they count as a light weapon in this case. (You can't also make an attack with armor spikes if you have already made an attack with another off-hand weapon, and vice versa.) An enhancement bonus to a suit of armor does not improve the spikes' effectiveness, but the spikes can be made into magic weapons in their own right.

Summary:
- deal extra damage when grappling
- can be used a regular (offhand, light) melee attack

My question:
When a foe provokes an attack of opportunity due to moving through your adjacent squares, can you make this attack of opportunity with the armor spikes?

Nowhere it is stated it can not, but as a DM I try to apply the rules correctly.
Often I have combined the rules (and spells) of 3.0, 3.5 an PF into a mixture of "3.75", which frustrates my players.

Thanks for any feedback!

Just a link to another relevant post/thread would suffice for me.

My solution would be to use lots and lost of cannon fodder.
Make a generic warrior with all physical stats on 14 with 2-handed weapon and short bow and rapid shot. Spend them like candy with no regrets. Up their level until they go down by one swing of your toughest melee-PC, on average, and with 2 or 3 swings by lesser melee characters. Ideally they can barely survive a fireball of the sorcerer.

They reason for using cannon fodder is solely to take actions away from the PCs. Each attack spend on low level enemies does not affect the main big bad boss which then has time to cast spells or should arrows that hit. Side effect is that the PCs will feel heroic due to splatter and gore.

Further, try to separate the casters from the non-casters by crumbling bridges, walls of stone-spells, webs, flashfloods, summoned minor monsters, enemies in full plate with tower shields but low damage output, etc.

Also, the first 7 rounds of battle were just the warm-up, behind the next door is the real challenge, which now comes to them.

Other option, but use it sparsely, throw them a minor opponent, which surrenders and deflects after 1 round. Effect: waisted spells, and a new "ally". Is he sincere or a plant. Will he sneak attack during a real relevant combat? Also, nice option to give (dis)information on the new challenges. Foreshadow difficult terrain, caves with deep shadows (sneaky opponents), or perfectly round chambers with one-fireball- diameter. Make a uphill battle on a long long narrow winding stairway, this irritates archers and casters.

Put multiple small characters with crossbows on a rhinoceros (or armored coach or dinosaur or dumb earth-elemental) with a druid to heal the rhino (or arteficer). Use the rhino to attach the strongest melee character will its main rider heals it and the other passengers shoot arrows. Combine net throwing or bolas with a trampling mount.

A trick a DM pulled on a PC of mine was a battle on a beach, below a cliff. We scouted the area, ambushed from above, levitated down, butchered some opponents easily, some looting. Then opponents did the same ambush on us and in addition summoned some sea monsters with the summoners in boats, away, out of reach. (Place summoners in trees or on balconies)

Personally, I think it is nice to have players who work as a team. Also, each healing ability used by the cleric mean he is not using his weapon or spell against the enemy. This makes the melee characters seem stronger then they are. They are the focus of the defensive and healing spells of the group and the focus of the buffing spells. This all drains spells and actions from the other PCs.

Don't forget lower level arcane casters with lots and lots of fireballs and archers protected by reach-weapon fighters behind a shield wall with healers.

Dear posters,

Thanks for you input!

I read the reviews and the rescue mission from Breaking of Forstor Nagar would fit my players the best, unfortunately it is not available yet. I will put it on my wish list.

The cult of the Ebon destroyers already drew my attention last week and seems crafted with eye for details. But, as it happens to be, my regular campaign is a dark-themed jungle adventure with the characters slowly getting from "in control" in to "the frog in warm-water with the heating on". The jungle is teeming with warring locals and underground resistance groups and demon spawn from the deep. Thus I will leave the jungle theme alone for this one-shot adventure.

The opponents in The living Airship are reviewed as to be challenging, my players are already playing for 15 years so I think they will enjoy intentional difficult encounters. I will go with this one and even encourage them build to maxed-out combat characters.

I will give The living Airship a try!

-EarthDragon

Hallo,

I searched the online Piazo and 3PP webshop for PDF adventures.
Unfortunately, you can sort on the publisher of the adventure but not on the intended level of the player characters. It would be a nice to have in the Download shop a filter to exclude PDFs for campaigns or filter on a range of levels or filter on expected duration of play.

What am I looking for?
- A story of roughly 3 short of 2 long gaming sessions
- pathfinder compatible
- PC characters of level 8-10.
- A "problem" to solve to which one can relate
- Encounters with motivated NPCs
- No random monsters
- Battles in which the environment give tactical problems and options.
- Big final battle

I would love it if the PCs have to solve a problem (find/retrieve/abduct/kill/summon/create item/solve murder/etc) for Group A. Only to find out that Group B, which is the antagonist of Group A, had rather reasonable motivations to cause the problem for Group A. Leaving the players with mixed loyalties. Knowing my players they will conceive a solution after long talking, try to implement it, screw-up and end up with a three-way fight between A, B and them.

So, actually I am looking for an adventure with NPCs with understandable motivations and the opportunity to give my players an excuse to indulge in a combat dice-fest at the end.

Does anyone has a suggestion?

Greetings, EarthDragon

Thank you all for responding!

I will keep in mind:
- the potion of shield of faith (+3 deflection bonus but at CL 6)
- fighting on holy ground (+1 sacred bonus)
- take improved dodge feat (+2 AC)
- Defensive stance
- Shield other spell (more HP, saves and non-stacking deflection bonus) by fellow cleric
- Greater Magic Weapon with Defending, by fellow mage at CL 5
- amulet with Luck Bonus +1
- dex 14

Total touch AC around 21 which is very nice.

This Guardian will hold the temple entrance but the people inside will first buff him.

So the loot will not be that big and I did not cheat, just prepared well as a temple guardian should do.

Imagine: a Paladin who worships a deity which is often depicted as Gold Dragon and receives a Blessing, an kobold cleric who prays to his Black Dragon Overlord for spells and is transmuted by his Lord, a child of a comely bard who had a love affair with a true dragon. How would a player character be constructed with such a background?

At the low levels a CR+2 rating for the Half-Dragon Template would be too heavy to create player characters. As a "solution" I made the Dragonblooded Class below. Its goal is to mimic the half-dragon template, by having a level cost of 3, similar to the arcane Dragon Disciple drop is effective spell casting levels. This means non-sorcerers can also have access to a draconic lineage.

Class skills: do not gain new ones
Skillpoints: 2 + Int bonus
HitDie: d8
Dragonblooded levels count as Class levels in respect to gaining XP, feats and ability score increases at level 4, 8, etc.

Dragonblooded Class levels
- 1st Level, but character must have 2 class levels
Bab 0, F1, R1, W1, Str+2, Int+2, Dragon Blood, gain claw attacks, Hide of the Dragon, lowlight vision
- 2nd Level, but character must have 4 class levels
Bab 1, F1, R1, W1, Str+4*, gain bite attack, darkvision 60 feet, Energy(type) Immunity, Breath Weapon 1xday
- 3rd Level, but character must have 6 class levels**
Bab 2, F2, R1, W2, Cha+2, Wings: Fly at twice the creature's base land speed (average maneuverability)

* Ability score increase are not cumulative
** A level 9 character can have all Dragonblooded levels, taken at level 3, 6 and 9.

Special abilities:
- Dragon Blood: Dragonblooded character count as both its base creature and dragon for any effect related to race.
- Hide of the Dragon converses energy resistance (one type) equal to total level and Natural Armor equal to number of Dragonblooded levels
- Breath Weapon strength increases with all levels, 1d6 per class level, DC 10 + Con bonus + half level, Reflex half.

Balancing issues:
- Natural armor +3 instead of +4.
- No immunity to sleep and paralysis as saves also increase with levels.
- Your "natural" attacks deal size appropriate claw and bite damage.
- You do not gain three attack per round but use the standard attack rules for using multiple weapons as with two-weapon fighting.
- Con+0 due to hitpoints gained from levels.
- Str bonus is a cumulative total of +4, not +8 as in Half-Dragon Template. This to balance increase in BAB and an ability point per 4 class levels.
- Fly is a spell of level 3 and Overland Flight a spell of level 5. Thus having wings at level 9 is in between these ranges.
- HD is d8 and not d10 or d12 as energy immunity, Str bonus and flight is granted.
- The Dragonblooded physical abilites (Str, Con, NA), immunites and number of breathweapons per day could be increased by including a 4th level, but I want to keep this a 3 level "solution".

I imaging I am not the first one to build such a construction, therefor a link or reference to something similair would also be welcome.

Feed back is welcome!!!

Currently, as a DM, I am building a though temple guardian in fullplate armor with around 8 levels of paladin (or 8 minus some melee ortiented levels).
In my design he deals damage with a bastard sword and has just a reasonable strength. In his other hand he has a towershield.

The goal of this challenge is a war of attrition in which the PCs have to obtain either the respect of the guardian or defeat him in melee or talk him out of defending the one and only entrance to the temple.

His damage output is low compared to the healing capacity of the party. The guardians melee AC is based on fullplate, tower shield, dexterity and dodge feat, shield focus feat, missile shield, and a minor ring of deflection and minor natural armor amulet. In melee the party suffers from low chances to hit high AC. Theire best melee character is a dex based ranger.

To further annoy my spell casting PCs I want to make him nearly immune to magic via high saves and have a stupidly high touch AC.
With levels in paladin and high wis and dex and con and cha (Divine Grace) a near magic immunity is no problem.

Well, lost of fluff text. Now my question:
How can I improve with a prestige class, unusual magic item or a feat the touch AC of this guardian in a drastic manner?
(In a manner that does not feel like cheating on the palyers.)

Preferably by letting count his shield bonus or armor bonus with his touch AC. Also, I do not want the party to have loot which makes them invincible in upcoming encounters, so preferably a prestige class or feat. I am willing to drop levels of paladin in exchange for a suggested prestige class.

Thanks for responding.