A couple more: a familiar in contact with its master does not count as a seperate creature for teleport, dimension door, or other instantaneous transport spells.
Wizard bonded objects: a hand holding a bonded weapon, wand, or rod counts as an empty hand for spell casting.
Breath of life is a "cure" spell for spontaneous casting purposes.
I might steal these in the future!
It's so rare that folks do have Familiars, so it tends to be forgotten many times, but that seems like a better way to handle it.
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Rules I am currently using for my Ruins of Azlant-campaign (adapted to Mystara):
1. Favored Class options is limited to +1HP to +1SP. This is because I find the alternate ones to be wildly imbalanced to the point where it's not fun.
2. Using Knowledge skills to identify monsters and opponents is a Standard Action (this stops one player from bombarding with request for using Knowledge skills before I even get around to describing a monster, I also stole this rule from a GM in another group I play in).
3. All classes that start with 2 Skill Points start with 4 instead. This is because I find it doesn't break the game and make it possible for players to invest in fluff or background skills.
4. I use Bjørn Røyrvik's houserule for magic item creation.
5. Page of Spell Knowledge has been changed slightly to be more like a magical scroll that can be used repeatedly:
To cast the spell from the Page of Spell Knowledge, the caster must have one hand on the item (either by holding it or keeping it on their person in an accessible place). To create a Page of Spell Knowledge, the creator must have access to the relevant spell.
We had a session before christmas (and one yesterday so we're behind on updating this journal).
The PCs enjoy some peace and quiet as everyone is settling into the colony, though the peace is quickly shattered only a day or so after. The two priests, Hongli and Kurvis, had originally moved into the house next to the chapel, but had ended up with an argument that made the two friends decide to take some time apart, thus both moved out of the house (Kurvis taking up abode in the chapel itself, and Hongli moving into the barracks).
This left one of the nice big houses vacant, making Luetin and Galerius both pounce on it. The group comes across their heated discussion and overhears the situation. Luetin, despite having an attached quarter to the smithy to live in, wants the house for his family when they arrive with the next wave of settlers (a wife and kid). Galerius desires the home for similar purposes (awaiting the arrival of his fiancé), and as a wealthy sponsor of the expedition feels entitled to it.
The PCs end up siding with Luetin, finding it more useful that the smith, who is currently working mostly solo, gets a nice dwelling to rest in close to his place of work. They convince Galerius to back down by appealing to the benefits of settling into a house that has more possibility for expanding and space for the horses he plans to rear and train. No surprise to this group, Vår does have very good Diplomacy and thanks to the others do a decent job of calming things down between the two men.
After this, they are finally able to enjoy almost two weeks of peaceful work for the colony. As noted above, Sylvia spends her time working to make potions for the colony, while Tibor and Vår do various jobs for the colony (Tibor puts his farming knowledge to use to help with salvaging the crops, while Vår uses her meager seamstress skills to mend clothes, bags, nets, and other things that require a needle and thread or simply just deft hands). Bo-Bi decides to help out in the smithy, which helps Luetin a lot even if it's just an untrained pair of hands (or pair of eyes that can keep an eye on the fire to maintain a steady heat).
One day, Carver Hastings, more or less the unofficial sheriff in the colony at this point due to his age and experience, pays a visit to the PCs' home at the farm. He asks them if there have been any unusual activity or happenings for them in the past days, to which they say no (which is also true), and they in return ask what has happened. Carver tells them that some shady figures have been seen lurking between the houses at night, which was worrying but nothing dangerous yet it seemed, but last night one of the carpenters, Da-Bi, was attacked in his home while asleep. Carver and the group pays a visit to Da-Bi and his wife Mi-Su, and hears the first-hand account of what happened; Da-Bi was sound asleep when he suddenly awoke because of a strangling sensation around his neck, and to his shock some sort of dark creature was on top of him as it tried to choke him to death. Tibor already suspects it might be a creature similar to the one that nearly did the same to him, and inspecting Da-Bi's neck, similar markings are visible to the injuries Tibor sustained before. Mi-Su explains that she had gotten up in the night to fetch herself some water to drink, and had come back into the room to see some monster strangling her husband. In panic she had grabbed the closest item, an iron pan, and hit it on the head. The attack caused the creature to let go and stagger away in a hurry, clearly dazed from the attack.
Our heroes assure the couple and Carver that they'll look into this strange matter to put an end to the danger, starting by searching for clues and tracks at the couples' house. Mi-Su informs them that the door was opened by the creature to get in, and it left that way too, so they look there to begin - easily Sylvia finds some tracks, almost identical to the tracks that they found before, and also leading to Levin Farm like the last time. This time however the tracks stop at the farm's well. It doesn't take much as they conclude the creature might have come up from the well and one of them takes a climb down to investigate. A crack in the wall, over the waterline, just big enough for a medium sized creature to squeeze through, seems to be the source of the problems. They gear up and decide to go into the dark, dank, tunnel.
After a very uncomfortable and squeezed trek through the darkness, they enter a more spacious cave, finding some common gemstones as their light reflects off of their surfaces. True to form, the group goes left when the cave splits in two directions, and come upon a group of four young chokers. The chokers are made aware of them pretty fast because of the light, and combat ensues! Tibor acts quickly and moves forward to face them off, and one of them takes a swipe at him with little effect. Seeing this, Vår decides to do a pincer move and place herself off to the side of Tibor, where she can shoot the choker with her crossbow (and miss). This does leave her completely open for charge from the remaining three chokers... and one of them proceeds to do exactly that and with one attack that grabs onto her (and constricts), Vår is reduced to unconscious. This causes some exasperation for the rest of the group as they have to deal with the chokers and also save Vår, but they manage to do a pretty good job of things, dishing out a lot of damage in one turn and taking out one of the young chokers. The remaining three, seeing that resistance is much tougher than anticipated, decide to flee back to Ma and Pa, as they would much rather risk any punishment from their parents than dying at the hands of these intruders. Bo-Bi gives some pursuit but decides against going too far into these unfamiliar tunnels, while the rest of the party gets Vår up again. Regrouped and healed, they follow Bo-Bi's lead after the fleeing chokers. Even if they see the obvious potential ambush for what it is, they don't know about Ma and Pa , expecting only the three they gave chase to. What follows is a somewhat brutal surprise attack and a tough battle in taking out the two adult chokers and their remaining offspring, but our heroes are successful in stomping out this evil that could have been a real threat to the safety of the colony.
After rummaging around the choker-cave to find some treasures, they continue exploring, and stumble upon some very precious shiny rocks. Sylvia is pretty eager to get her hands on them, as is Aidu, and the two are quite happy to dig through the piles of gems. As they do so, the rest of the group becomes aware of the approach of two crystal-like creatures. With no knowledge of the planes, no one can identify what they are, but Vår and Sylvia, are able to barely understand some of the strange sounds they make (because of some of the languages they know; as I make the GM decision that the gnomish language having some root to the Plane of Earth, and Druidic being a patois of many different sylvan and elemental languages). Though pretty much all they can make out are words like "Offspring", "Kin", "Grow" (or "Create", hard to tell).
Sylvia isn't very happy about backing off, but the creatures don't seem to be openly hostile (but are very much wary of the party and ready to fight if need be), so she decides to let them keep their shiny rocks. Aidu takes much more convincing, eventually being dragged off by the tail by Bo-Bi.
Leaving the Crysmals alone (which pleases me, and I'll think of some neat reward for this to come down the line, also I would've been concerned if they decided to fight the Crysmals since they can be pretty tough), they find a tunnel that leads back to the surface. Realising that there is more of the cave system they haven't explored, they backtrack some, and find a nest of Darkmantles, as identified by Vår who grew up with stories of them as boogeymen in nearby caves. The Darkmantles use their Darkness to great effect, removing the light of the party, and proceed to gang up on the only person available to attack - Tibor. Much to the Darkmantles' dismay, Tibor is suffering from the Red Curse of the Savage Coast, which means his body has gone through some horrible mutations... in his case, it has caused sharp growths and spikes to form on his shell. The Darkmantles are very upset that the food is biting back, and eventually let go of trying to envelop Tibor and just attack him instead. The fight is easily resolved after that.
Having cleared out the cave system now, they follow the tunnel up to the surface and finds that the exit isn't that far away from the colony. The group reports to Ramona and Carver what they found and the threats eliminated. Ramona thanks them for a job well done, but decides that apart from keeping the tunnel-entrance off-limits, there won't be anything said officially about what is down there apart from possible dangers. "We don't need idiots looking for treasure getting lost or worse in those tunnels"
The group pay a visit to Dora the alchemist after their report, which allows them to heal up and identify some of the loot they found. Dora listens to their story with great interest that reminds her of her own youth, serving them something refreshing to drink as they chat. She informs them that she would like to ask them for their services in procuring some reagents in the wilderness, but assures the party they can take their time in resting up after their little adventure before setting off.
We end the session there, and I award everyone a level as a christmas gift (a bit earlier than the book says, but it felt fitting considering it was christmas!).
We had a brief session last night (one player was down with the flu and I was feeling tired myself) to merely wrap up the fight with Brinetooth and move on to the Downtime at the colony.
The party chose to show mercy to the Grindylow Queen, much to her surprise (a surprise but a welcome one). She agreed to a wary peace between herself and the colony, and Tibor said that if they wished to speak with her, they'd plant a flag on the beach nearby so they wouldn't intrude on her territory again. As she recognizes them as someone stronger and far more dangerous than her, now that she doesn't have any minions left, Brinetooth gives them her locked chest as tribute (she hasn't opened it anyway) in recognition of their strength as "Big Bosses".
At this point, I the GM consider the ecology of the grindylows and what Brinetooth will do since she has no minions left... perhaps she will reproduce as an anglerfish does, and start laying some eggs to hatch new underlings. After all, the grindylows are more or less the goblins of the sea, so they probably respawn fast.
After peace has been brokered, the party returns to the Peregrine and reports to Ramona. She is pleased with the outcome and praises the PCs, and finally they all set sail back to Thincol's Jewel.
The PCs accept Ramona's offer, and settle down at Levin Farm (easily the best building, imo, for a group of adventurers who also want to have their own alchemy lab).
This is where I introduce the downtime rules, which I ripped more or less from Ultimate Campaign, but removed the use of Magic, Influence, Goods, etc, since I didn't feel like dealing with that extra mechanic. I saw others here on the board had let the players take a more active hand in shaping up the colony once settled, and we will be doing that as well, though I have to expand upon those rules some more as the main focus on working for the colony this time was to get everything in order and cleaned out. Sylvia set to work with brewing a lot of potions, donating a fair amount to the colony's use (most were not needed at the moment, but the soldiers appreciate having healing potions and such available in times of crisises), while Tibor and Vår spend their time helping the colony with anything that needs doing. Aidu will be focused on crafting his nest, and Bo-Bi's activities are currently unknown as he was the one down with the flu for the session, but he'll let us know in time.
If others are interested, here is my homebrew rules for downtime activities: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Euy4rJQ19IqvJIoS4BlEVQkw2cvXefcen3x3m-H opGk/edit?tab=t.0
The magic item creation houserules is an expansion upon already existing houserules Bjørn Røyrvik has used as a GM. I felt it would be nice to introduce them here too as this AP has limited options for shopping, so I wanted to angle for more self-sufficient PCs with Crafting capabilities. (which meant I also had to look up what the costs would be for crafting furniture, thankfully someone else had thought of it on the great internet)
Some of our readers (if you're there) might be confused about the names of the NPCs here (and the colony). That is because I have changed some of them around to fit better into the world of Mystara, specifically the names of characters from the Empire of Thyatis.
Thyatis is very inspired by the Roman Empire (a solid mix of its various periods and east/west), so the names are in similar often Roman/Latin sounding.
Here is a list of following name-changes (for now)
Zendrolio's Herald (renamed Liberty's Herald. Zendrolio is one of the old emperors of Thyatis, and this boat was named after him)
Thincol's Jewel (renamed Talmandor's Bounty. Thincol is the most recent emperor of Thyatis)
Hongli (Eamon Caranth, who is now a dark-skinned elf from the colony of Ochaela, which is pseudo-China inspired)
Galerius Andorux (Harcourt Carrolby, now a rich man from the Isle of Dawn. Played as if he was Daerran in Wrath of the Righteous, just not as amazing or douchey)
Luetin Pollux (Luetin Calewick)
Petillia Berys (Perrell Beys, our resident pencil pusher)
Ramona Avantus (Ramona Avandth)
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Rabio Arcturus (Rayland Arkley)
The ring with "my dearest Livvy" has been changed to "my dearest Livia".
Not every player chases the most optimal thing though. Not necessarily because they don't know how to optimize but because they find enjoyment in playing something else or like taking on a challenge. Paladins and Magi are also popular at our table. I think any player with some understanding of the system sees that the MT isn't a powerhouse, but can be entertaining to play.
I would very much like the chance to play MT myself because I like the idea of two different casting classes combined, and it would make fun flavor for a worshipper of a magic-deity. I played a Theurge class in 3.5 (Ultimate Magus, sorcerer/wizard combo), and yeah, I was behind on spell levels but I had spells for days (so we rarely had an issue with needing to stop and rest for spells) and more than once frustrated the GM by having the right spell for the occasion.
Currently in my Ruins of Azlant campaign, a player wants to aim for the Mystic Theurge. They'll be the only divine caster in the group (granted that no one else dies and rolls up a cleric or oracle or druid), but share the arcane casting with a Unicorn Sorcerer. I think it will be fine. In my own playthrough of the same AP, our two casters were Bard and Warpriest, and we did succeed without a fully focused caster.
Hello, I am the GM. I will pop in to provide some background info to the readers on how some things have been adapted to Mystara and location near the Sea of Dread/Isle of Dread (nothing bad can happen on an island near this, right? RIGHT?!), in case anyone is curious.
Players, stay out.
Book 1, part 1:
After traveling often past the Sea of Dread and its surrounding waters, the Thyatian Empire found a series of islands that didn't seem to suffer from the large beasts that the Isle of Dread and its ilk does. What the investors and the Thyatian government don't realize is that their designated site for a colony was once a pair of Azcan settlements tied together with magic, now completely submerged. With the colonization efforts, dangerous and powerful secrets once lost are now being loosed upon the world!
Little is known about the Azcan empire today, and hardly anyone knows about their relationship to the algolthus (the assembled races of aboleths, veiled masters, and similar creatures). Even the empire's best and brightest minds were completely unaware of the algholthus until a relatively short time prior to their downfall, let alone the millenia in which the creatures manipulated the course of destiny. And yet, it was the chance discovery of the algholthus and their subtle manipulations that lead to their downfall.
The term "veiled master" originates in Azcan folklore and conspiracy theory. It was attributed to an anonymous council (which some tales claim was composed of powerful mages) that was thought to manipulate sociopolitical events as a means to secret control the world. For example, if a bank loan was denied without cause, a satirical playwright murdered, or an architectural project collapsed, it was said "the veiled masters were against it". Only in the final days of the empire was the term associated with aquatic spymasters, and even then only between high-ranking elites in the empire.
Azcan was mired in a culture of espionage conducated by other nations and races both known and unknown, each jockeying to steal new discoveries and innovations (such as Azcan took from the Olmecs they enslaved). It became the practice of highly placed arcane scholars and scientists to alternate absolutely secrecy with clever misdicreciton and thus the Spindle Solution was founded. The Spindle Solution was publicly understood to be an Azcan humanitarian project concerned with the improvement of the human condition through the creation of ioun stones. This perception was further reinforced as the Spindle Solution did in fact perform such research and development, and came up with wondrous uses for these magical gemstones that benefited the empire greatly, especially at its height.
Secretly, the ioun stones were created through the craft of the Olmecs and their arcane talents, and it was only one branch of the Ioun Imperative; an organization that served the Azcan empire's intelligence agency. The Ioun Imperative had a mandate from the highest ranking in the empire to create potent weapons to defend and advance Azcan's interests throughout the world - particularly to the long war between the Azcans and their serpentfolk rivals. A cunning and powerful wizard named Jazradan was appointed as the group's director, and a secret facility known as the Compass was established for the purposes of research and development, and as a secure location for coordinating Azcan's magical response to threats against the Empire in this part of the world. The epitome of Azcan hubris, Grand Arcanist Jazradan saw it as his responsibility to ensure that Azcan had no equal in arcane military might, and thus steered the organization toward the creation of what could only be described as doomsday weapons.
Although the majority of Azcan society was unaware of the Spindle Solution's activities at the behest of the Ioun Imperative, the group attracted the attention of a veiled master named Ochymua. Ochymua was the head of the algholthus' ongoin monitoring of the Ioun Imperative, and it recognized the threat that the Spindle Solution's clandestine work posed to the algholthus should their connection to the Azcan people ever be uncovered. Cautious of the group's true activites, Ochymua took human form and set about infiltrating the group.
Ochymua successfully penetrated one of the Spindle Solution's research facilities, and quickly grew alarmed by the weapons under development. Furthermore, it miscalculated how advanced and thorough the facility's security protocols were - particularly that the Spindle Solution members in this facility all benefited from the resonant power of a clear spindle ioun stone that provided protection against mental control. Ochymua was caught off guard by its inability to dominate the Spindle Solution scientists, and its surprise allowed it to be discovered and captured alive.
Grand Arcanist Jazradan had no idea who or what he had caught, initially thinking it was a disguised serpentfolk come to spy on the empire, or some other race. The algholthu spymaster remained in human form and resisted all attempts at interrogation so as to not expose itself and potentially the truth of the algholthu's influence on one of the great empires of humanity. Frustrated by his inability to break the spy or glean even the slightest bit of information, Jazradan placed Ochymua in a temporal statis, safely cutting off the spy from the rest of the world while Jazradan sought another approach, possibly transferring his prisoner to a great city of the Azcan empire. While Ochymua never betrayed its kind, the damage had already been done - the Azcan leadership now knew of powerful spies in their midst, and in short order, the empire's tom minds learned that this secret conspiracy of powerful entities ran through their civilization. Though the Azcan didn't know the algholthu's true forms, they now knew of their existence, and soon after began to realize they were victims of millenia of social and genetic manipulation. The algholthu's grand experiment was contaminated.
Eons later, Azcan is gone. Some ruins still exist, scattered, and time has worn away obvious traces of civilization and created new ecologies. Hundreds of years ago settled an island once a part of the Azcan empire, establishing the Sun Temple Colony. Contact with that colony mysteriously ended just over 200 years after its founding. Centuries later, Thyatis seeks to establishing a thriving colony in the Adakkian Ocean. Three years ago, Thyatis dispatched dozens of ships (through trade companies backing the project) to survey islands in the area where the Sun Temple Colony once sat, looking to determine their suitability for building a new colony. The survey was successful, and last year the Thyatian government, in conjunction with a group of wealthy private investors, started outfitting a new colony to be named after Emperor Thincol on the island of Ancorato (named after the ship captain who discovered it). The first group of colonists sailed about the Zendrolion's Herald and arrived on Ancorato 10 weeks later. These settlers began their work, constructing homes and community buildings and planting crops. Meanwhile, the Zendrolion's Herald sailed back to Thyatis, and another ship was scheduled to arrive 6 months later with supplies and additional colonists.
Horror struck in the interim. While exploring the island, one colonist discovered the ruins of a partially buried complex where Ochymua somehow still remained in stasis. This would-be adventurer failed to comprehend the significance of her find and inadvertantly released the veiled master, who found that thousands of years had passed by it in the blink of an eye. Ochymua seized control of its liberator and began to scour her mind to understand what had transpired since its imprisonment.
After its release, Ochymua established telepathic contact with an omnipath who had kept the veiled master in its telepathic mesh for all this time. Ochymua reached out through the mental network to assess the state of algholthu society. Although alien by human standards, algholthu culture is neither static nor immutable, and Ochymua discovered it had little in common, either socially or politically, with its modern day peers. Seething at its perceived sense of loss, Ochymua elected to pursue its own agenda rather than attempting to acclimate itself. The veiled master surmised that if its own prison site survived the Rain of Fire, the Ioun Imperative's military bunker might have as well, along with its weapons of mass destruction.
Ochymua made contact with an aboleth nearby named Onthooth who had taken up lair in a ruined temple of Atruaghin. Ochymua agreed to trade the colonists in Thincol's Jewel to Onthooth in exchange for information. Approximately a month ago, faceless stalkers under the leadership of the treacherous ugothol Thanaldhu slowly replaced the colony's leader and other key community members in order to abduct the settlers for transport to Onthooth's lair. While the faceless stalkers took pains to hide every trace of their deeds, lest they forewarn future arrivals, they nevertheless left some clues behind. Meanwhile, Ochymua reserved a pair of dominated and slimed colonists to guard its former prison and alert it when new colonists arrive, before departing in search of the lost military base.
Today, the player characters arrive on the shores of Ancorato on the Peregrine, only to discover empty homes and abandoned possessions with virtually no sign of violence. Here, they must establish a new home, while not so far away from Ochymua and Jazradan are on course for a second confrontation: Their first confrontation precipitated the fall of the world, and it is up to the PCs to prevent the devastation a second confrontation could unleash.
Another thread-revive (a year later) and I am too very interested in the tech-tree and Kingmaker/Kingdom rule changes to fit Ruins of Azlant. I'm planning on running the AP myself later this year, and I always felt that it would be interesting to let the players develop the colony more. A stronger attachment to why they're there and all.
Different tables clearly have different ideas of what power-gaming and roll-play is.
What OP describes is considered completely normal at the three different D&D/Pathfinder tables I play with, reflecting a character that is preparing for different types of enemies based on experience. And hey, if people want to shuck money at their golf-bag of weapons, go right ahead.
It's also a nice plus for the players who invested in different types of weapons or spells to get the pay-off for it when a specific type of enemy appears. Recently in Pathfinder, our Fighter got to shine in a boss battle because he really wanted an adamantine sword and for months it hadn't mattered at all, but since the boss had a Shield Guardian golem, it mattered a whole lot and probably turned the tide in an otherwise very tough fight.
I think trying to gain Slashing as well as Piercing would be a stretch, as a GM I would probably double the base price for such a custom-made item.
Anyway, I feel the Spiked Gauntlet as a base works fine, with the attached keyword. These sheaths would have to be fastened to the horns quite well to avoid slipping off in combat after goring someone or because you dip your head too much downward.
Recently I've been watching Blue Eye Samurai (on Netflix, recommended!), and I love the character Ringo in it. He's missing both his hands, but is still a very useful and helpful party member.
Inspired by that idea, I'm looking to play a character with one missing hand, and I'm trying to think of how to figure out the penalties, what sort of tools they could have to make up for the missing hand (like could they have a clamp or some such to grab on to a weapon?).
It is fun to start high level, and I personally enjoy it myself and am happy that there are APs for higher level play. But I wonder if anyone has used any of the other APs to level the characters from 1 and up, leading them into the FotRP-AP?
