Isilda

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Instead of starting with "You awake in the dark" and telling what happened using flashbacks, I've put my players in the middle of the action. They were in the middle of the chaos created by the demons' attack until the rift opened under their feet and Terendelev casted Feather Fall to save them.

During all the attack's description, they were stunned to see such powerful creatures at the very beginning of the adventure :)


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After reading Sword of Valor, I knew I’ll have to rework a bit certain parts of this module in order for it to be more appealing for my players.

First, in my opinion, the army feels like an anonymous mass of faceless stormtroopers. Only one soldier has a name and a face (Arles). The Queen gave them an army which would help them to accomplish an important mission, making them responsible of the fate of these guys. I knew my players would want to know them and would care for them. I’ve read that the army isn’t supposed to be the center of the experience but it feels odd to not have at least several soldiers’ names. It feels like the players aren’t supposed to interact or even care for their army. My guess was that my players would interact with them and that I have to prepare myself for this.

In order to “humanize” the army, I split it in 4 groups of 25 men, each leaded by a captain.

Spoiler:
- Arles has been promoted captain. The veteran, pessimistic one. I keep the event with him and determinate that my players will have to prove themselves as competent enough to earn his trust.
- Friedrich, an heir of an old Sarkoris family. A really pious and serious paladin with a burning hatred for demons. At 1st unfriendly with the players.
- Celina, a young female paladin. Very friendly, dynamic and enthusiastic girl.
- The last one is a private joke with my group. During the 1st module, they were joking about posters’ recruitments “We want YOU in the Crusade” with a typical paladin’s image on it (blond, bright white smile, big armor). Well, now, this guy exists :D. Mathis is a local celebrity in Kenabres and now a captain in their army :D

It worked even better than I thought. As soon as my players received the army from the Queen, they wanted to learn more about the captains and the army. My Wizard even made a point to learn each soldier’s name (no I didn’t create all the names, just acknowledged he knew them all) . During all the way to Drezen, they took care of the army, trying to limit soldiers’ loss during the fights (My group feel responsible for the 1st deaths. They gentle repose every dead soldiers in order to raise them later. Don’t know if they will really raise them though) and were really careful to keep the soldiers’ morale as high as possible. During the battles, they worked as a team with the captains, started to create bonds with them and they earned the respect of everyone (even Arles).

Second, I’ve already tried (as a player) the mass combat system with two of my current players. We all disliked it (it felt too random and, as a player, you have no impact on the fight even if your abilities like AoE or Buffs would greatly impact the fight). So I modified it to include the group inside the mass combat fights. It looks like that:

Spoiler:
- If they manage to locate the army without being spotted, they have the possibility to act if they want (observing the environment, planning their attack, eliminating sentinels, sabotaging…). I improvise a lot during this part as I react to what my players want to do.
- The enemy’s army has a General. The main goal of the players is to defeat the General in order to lower the army’s morale. Defeating the General is basically winning the battle. If there are several armies during the same battle, each army has his own General.
- I place different types of enemies in the enemy’s army: sorcerers, heavily armored fighters, archers... in order to add more variety.
- When the battle starts, each army rolls their attack. The army with the higher score will have the upper hand during this round. This will determine the “mood” of this round.
- My players roll an initiative. At their turn, they’ll have to react to random situations. As they are in the middle of a battle, it can be anything: “A heavily armored horse runs towards you, how do you react? You spot a sorcerer throwing fireballs at your paladins, how do you react? One of your captains is critically wounded, how do you react? An enemy tries to dismount you, how do you react?”…
- They can also shout orders at their army (I consider that each player is considered a General by the army) and the army can use their special abilities (channel energy, lay hands…) as a normal player. Same for the enemy army (the Dretches can use their Stinking Cloud for example). I use the NPC Codex or the monsters stats to determinate their saves if needed.
- They also have to find the General and make their way to him (Perception checks). When they reach him, a custom-made encounter triggers with the General and several minions (I use the NPC Codex for the generals’ stats). If they defeat the General, it’s a win!
- After the encounter with the General, I stop playing round by round, I describe how the battle ends and I encourage my players to describe what they are doing until the end of the fight.
- Depending on how they handle the fight, I determine how many soldier passed away.

I was a bit concerned about these changes (more improvisation for me and I didn’t know if my players would like to “not follow the rules”) but, we are now in the middle of the 2nd part of the module and my group ADORES my version of the mass battles (They gave me very enthusiastic feedbacks). It feels more dynamic and dangerous, they feel they are a real weight in its outcome and they can use their buffs, spells and abilities. The Wizard can throw his fireballs, the Oracle can heal and buff, the Paladin can charge with the army and give orders. They are living the battle.


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Hey guys

I’m currently mastering Wrath of the Rigtheous for a group of 3 players and we have finished the 1st Module of the AP. It was great: my players really enjoyed it and felt really implicated in an impressive and epic adventure (and this is just the beginning :))

My players’ team (all experienced players):

Spoiler:
- A LG Aasimar female Paladin of Iomedae (Oath against fiends, Oath of vengeance). She is really pious, charismatic, with an intense hate for demons. She is the one with the most rigid morale in the group (“a good demon is a dead demon”). She is willing to let a second chance to evil people but, do not break the trust she puts in you (you won’t have another chance). Her Mythic Path is Champion/Marshall.

- A NG Aasimar male Oracle with the Lore Mystery and Dual Cursed (Legalistic and Tongues). He worships Abadar and he is the easy-going, open-minded, nice guy. He is really good at handling people and supporting the team. His Mythic path is Hierophant.

- A CG Elf male Spellslinger Wizard worshipping Nethys (and he loves to talk about his goddess). He is the smart and the funny one in the group. He also believes that everyone (and everything!) has some good hidden inside them; it’s just harder to find in some people/creatures (!). His mythic path is Archmage.

As the GM, I had some restrictions for my players for this AP: no crafting feats and everyone has to be good aligned. I’ve also strongly suggested to my players to have at least one worshipper of Iomedae as it feels really flavorful for the campaign.

Even if my team is only a 3 players’ group, I didn’t change any encounter and even boosted the Bosses’ HP. Several encounters were challenging, they had to use their resources (potions, spells, abilities) and my players felt challenged but not overwhelmed by the difficulty.

Some thoughts below as I feel like sharing my experience:

AP's Introduction :

Spoiler:
First, I took my time to describe the city of Kenabres to my players. I wished to make them care for the city, feel comfortable inside it and made them believe they would evolve in the city for a long time. I wanted to catch them by surprise with the demons’ attack, breaking their certitudes. Of course, they were aware that something would happen (as a good adventure starts with an extraordinary event!) but, as I was describing the explosion of the Kite, the arrival of Khorramzadeh, the fight with Terendelev, they were stunned as they didn’t imagine they would see such powerful demons so soon in the adventure! The intro of the AP is great for that as you feel that you are thrown in a truly epic adventure. I’ve read some really good ideas about making players do some quests inside the city before the events, I would have loved to do that but I’ve missed time to think about it as my players wanted to start this AP as soon as possible :)

Allies:

Spoiler:
Anevia and Aravashnial were easily handled by the players. Our Wizard was really happy to talk to a fellow arcane caster and he easily won Aravashnial’s trust and friendship by making him feel important and his opinion respected. I was surprised to see that Aravashnial was the 1st ally to become helpful. The players also took care of Anevia and her broken leg without making her feel like a burden for the group.

Horgus was harder to handle and, at start, I was pretty sure my group wouldn’t be able to secure his friendship. Our paladin took an instant dislike of him as he was bossing everyone around and was really insulting. The argument at the Chapel between Anevia and Horgus was really intense and ended with Horgus screaming that he wouldn’t stay any longer with the group and left the party.

But our Oracle saved the day: he went after him, talked to him (did an awesome RP speech and rolled awesome diplomacy checks). It also helped a lot that our Oracle worships Abadar (as Horgus also secretly worships Abadar, I’ve determined that Horgus would be more friendly with this player because of their common faith). Horgus finally stayed with the group and, even if he continued to make unwanted remarks, he started to appreciate the players’ company. When they reached Horgus’ manor in Part 2, the players were surprised to see that Horgus offered them to share one of his finest bottles!

They were surprised when they first met Irabeth as she is a paladin half-orc but they quickly got along with her. They even brought her with them in the Gray Garrison and gave her back her sword when they found it.

Story/Encounters:

Spoiler:
I’ve read several posts stating that the Darkmantles were a possibly tough encounter but, with 2 aasimars in the group, my players didn’t have a hard time. Part 1’s encounters were easily handled by my group (I kind of liked having an easy start as it allowed the players to learn to play together and learn to play their character)

Millorn was a great moment of roleplay. They managed to capture him in order to try to get informations from him. I played Millorn like a crazy paranoid guy, cursing and insulting the “crusaders” (everyone but him is a crusader), saying he was persecuted by them. Our Wizard was convinced he could be redeemed and tried to talk about Nethys to him. I already secretly determined that Millorn couldn’t be redeemed as he would never accept to repent himself but it was fun to see the Wizard trying to convince the group (especially our Paladin) that there was some good left inside Millorn, even after Millorn tried to escape during one night.

The 1st Mongrelmen encounter in part 2 gave them a tough time, one of the Mongrelmen was “on fire” and downed the Paladin in the negatives with really good die rolls. After defeating this encounter, my players were really cautious around Mongrelmen because “they seem like weak creatures but they hit damn hard!” But, following that, they didn’t have too much difficulty with the others encounters (even Hosilla) until they reached…. the Gars (dramatic music).

Damn, don’t know what happened but my players were horribly unlucky with their rolls, so much it was hilarious. I’m pretty sure the Gars never did as much damage before in their entire life :D They finally defeated this really terrifying encounter but they are now traumatized by fishes and are still talking about this encounter with a scared expression.

In the Part 3, I didn’t roll on the random encounter table but placed the unique street encounters where I wanted. I only had one custom-made encounter where my players had to save 2 kids from a Howler. I’m not a fan of random encounters and it feels more involving for the players to have these mini-stories instead of just some random monsters attacking them.

In the Gray Garrison, the Tiefling Alchemist gave them a hard time as he did a lot of damage with his bombs. The Half-fiend Minotaur was also a great fight. My players were impressed and they were lucky to kill the Minotaur fast enough before he did too much damage (but I understand now why this encounter is marked as a tough one by others GM).

I was a bit disappointed with Jeslyn. After playing this fight, I felt I should have added minions with her. She was prepared, buffed and used her spells but she didn’t feel as much impressive as the Minotaur was. Guess I should have done a better job with her :/

They loved the part after the wardstone’s destruction and Areelu Vorlesh’s intervention. They’ve really appreciated to see/learn about the future bosses during the module (Staunton Vhane, Vang, Minagho…). Guess my players like to have a bit of teasing  Also, seeing their faces as I was describing the 6 babaus was priceless, they didn’t imagine there would be another encounter after Jeslyn! But, with the wardstone’s buffs, they had a great time destroying the demons.

I was really happy that they enjoyed this 1st module and I can’t wait to see their reactions to the next modules. We have started the Module 2 (we stopped in the middle of Part 1) and so far, they still enjoy it :)