Name: Corinth Hastings
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Fighter (Aldori Swordlord) 2
Adventure: The Stolen Lands
Location: The Old Sycamore
Catalyst: “Let’s just burn it down”
The Gory Details: (optional):
Corinth and party (witch, bard, and rogue) discovered the Old Sycamore and a bunch of mite footprints, but failed to find the entrance to the mite hive and decided to move on. The next morning the party found mite prints in their camp and decided to go back and put the little blue menaces down.
The party returned to the tree and managed to find the entrance and head down. After hearing the mites playing with catapults, they shouted and insult and fled up the tunnel, where they gathered around the entrance to butcher anything that came out. The mites sent the three monstrous centipedes after them, which the party easily butchered. The party waited for more enemies but none were forthcoming, so they began making Molotov cocktails out of the alcohol from the Thorn River camp and rags and throwing them down the entrance shaft. After a half-dozen of these, the fires grew big enough that most of the dungeon’s inhabitants fled to the surface with the giant whiptail centipede leading the charge. I gave each of the inhabitants a save to avoid the fire and smoke damage, but 14 or so failed and died in the flames along with the kobold prisoner.
The battle outside was intense, with Corinth tanking the giant tick while the bard and rouge tried to hold off the remaining 6 mites. The witch was flinging slumber and misfortune hexes from the back while the giant whiptail centipede loomed over the battle making bites and whips at random.
After a few rounds, Corinth was knocked out by bites from the tick and centipedes, but the rouge took an attack of opportunity to put a cure light wounds potion down Corinth’s throat to stabilize him. The tick started attacking the rogue, and while it was botching grapple checks every round it was still doing a fair amount of damage. The party minus Corinth retreated a few feet to regroup and one of the mites coup de graced the unconscious Swordlord in retaliation for burning down their home. The battered party beat a hasty retreat back to Oleg’s, where they held a kegger in Corinth’s memory.
Character Names: Koya and Sandru
Race/Class: Human Cleric of Desna 13 and Human Rouge (Swashbuckler) 4 / Fighter (Mobile Fighter) 9
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: The Jade Throne
Catalyst: Human Bane Mook Squad
The party performed a crisis entry into the palace by flying to the castle, blasting out a 4th floor window, and quickly destroying all the guards on the third and fourth floor. The 5 PCs (human gunslinger, half-elf necromancer, aasimar oracle of winter, aasimar paladin of Shelyn, and Penelope) along with Sandru, Ameiko, Koya, and Shalelu entered the throne room and began the battle. The party focus won initiative and managed to drop Anamarumon low enough to gaseous form on round one. The other baddies got into position according to scrip and called out for backup in the form of the 4 ogre mages from downstairs (upgraded to Typhoon Commanders) at the beginning of round two. The ogre mages rushed to engage and managed to kill both Koya and Sandru with their human bane naginatas.
Character Name: Penelope Spice
Race/Class: Human Ranger (Skirmisher) 15
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: The Jade Throne
Catalyst: Ikarikurusai to the Face
The party managed to take down the Raven Prince, Jade Regent, and Renshii Meida along with three of the four typhoon commanders (the fourth being magic jar’ed by the party wizard). Anamarumon finally regenerated some health and took a solid form again and started laying waste with whirlwind and eye bolt attacks. Penelope escaped the maze effect to end up 10’ behind Anamarumon and took a vicious attack of opportunity to open up with a rapid shot from her bow. Surrounded by the oracle (who failed her spell resistance check to cast harm on him) and the bow wielding ranger, Anamarumon power attacked, knocking the oracle down to low health on the first attack then critting Penelope on the second to kill her (and drop the oracle with the chain lightning effect) before pounding the wizard’s ogre mage body. Then, to add insult to injury, the wind yai commanded his whirlwind to pick up the wizard’s empty body and carry it through a blade barrier. Though he was killed shortly thereafter, this will live on as the most vicious villain turn in the history of our group.
Character Name: Alban Athansius
Race/Class: Human Gunslinger (Musket Master 14)
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: Well of Demons
Catalyst: Finger of Death
A newly assembled party of adventurers assembled to try and figure out what happened in the well of demons. After finding the remains of the last group and recovering the seal, the group wandered down towards Shojinawa Ito’s domain. The battle was pitched and Alban was clearly the greatest threat, so Ito extinguished him with a finger of death. Alban was raised at the end of the fight.
Character Name: Alban Athansius
Race/Class: Human Gunslinger (Musket Master 15)
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: Well of Demons
Catalyst: Finger of Death (again)
The day after Alban’s last death, the party descended back into the well. They destroyed Sugimatu Nobinoru and his brood, but were ambushed by Ito again as they ascended to the surface. Alban took another finger of death as the party flew up the waterfall to level 1 and failed the save. His dead body was recovered by the party’s wizard in a desperate blind teleport to the highest point in the well before the dimensional anchor.
Two solutions come to mine and are relatively easy without grasping at some obvious deus ex machina
1. It states clearly the Maemi's ambition is to retake the Jade Throne for herself. Obviously, if it were possible to do prior to the party's arrival, she most likely would have attempted it already, so make it so that to realize her ambitions she needs the Seal and Ameiko. Which means that she needs the party. Alive.
The Seal is a artifact but it is also a major plot device. It is easy enough to impose a condition that makes it impossible for Maemi to handle the Seal herself, perhaps due to her corrupted condition. She can't use the Seal without the party and/or Ameiko.
Therefore, she needs the party alive to realize her ambitions, as a means to get to Ameiko and as bearers of the Seal.
So, she raises the party through whatever means you can contrive and the party must make the proverbial 'deal with the devil' either through geas or other means.
From my (very) limited understanding of lore from previous editions of D&D, the only way for an outsider to really die was to kill them on their home plane. If you killed them on the material plane, they returned to their home plane after some period of time. Does something similar to this happen in Pathfinder with Golarion? Is this undefined enough in current cannon that I can just say it happened anyways?
I think this could be a cool way to integrate the new characters into the story, but the PCs did manage to kill Maemi. I guess the daemon faction or the dread ghost (currently at work, don't have the module on me) could use their abilities/contacts to attract new party members for similar reasons.
Maemi kills the sorceress with her tentacle cage just before being killed by a 4x crit from the naganata wielding Samurai/Inquisitor. The infuriated erinyes continue to rain down arrows on the party, and manage to kill the cavalier, followed by the other two.
Ouch, that hurts… Are you going to restart, or is this the end of your campaign?
We are going to carry on, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to make things work. I've got another thread going here that gives some more details on our situation and I'm trying to solicit some help figuring out where to go. If you or anyone else has thoughts, I'd love to hear them.
I am currently in the middle of running The Empty Throne, and I kinda TPK'd my party in the Well of Demons. The players are really invested in the campaign and want to finish it, but I'm backed into a corner from a storytelling perspective. Here's my situation:
4 PCs are dead on level 1 of the Well of Demons. They have a number of really important items on them including the Amatatsu Seal, warding box, and three ancestral weapons
Level 1 of the well is cleared out except for the two advanced erinyes and three injured erinyes.
Sandru, Ameiko, Shalelu, Koya, Spivey, and the dead cavalier's mount and currently camping with Amatatsu Onoko at the latter's grave. That group also contains one player's backup PC (he died in Forest of Spirits during the seal's two week recharge period and rolled a new character to play for the remainder of the time), the PC and animal companion of a player who was absent for the TPK, and another hired body guard (former backup character of a different player).
The backup PC and the absent PC just learned in character that the others are dead from Koya's divination. They have no further details.
None of the dead PCs will be able to come back (Players want new characters and I have plans for the bodies if they are not recovered)
None of the original PCs from Sandpoint are alive.
The people playing the dead sorcerer, alchemist, and cavalier are rolling up new characters as I type (oracle of winter, gunslinger, and debuff necromancer respectively). Integrating these new characters is my biggest problem at the moment. From my understanding of the module, no one can enter or leave the island without an Imperial Seal. This means the camping group is stuck unless they go into the well. Thus far, the characters they are hesitant to venture down there with no knowledge of the inhabitants and reduced forces. Having all of the new PCs be inhabitants of the island already doesn't make much sense to me either.
I've had some (contradictory) random thoughts to try and get out of this jam, but I'm having trouble putting them together into a coherent picture. I will list what I have below:
Only three of the seals are in the control of the Jade Regent. One is lost somewhere and they have to undertake a dungeon crawl to recover it. When they retrieve it, they are marked as scions of another family. The new PCs can choose to pursue the throne themselves as rivals to Ameiko and her faction, or help Ameiko.
Shizuru, increasingly worried about the fate of her chosen country, intercedes directly. She could directly summon new "destined" PCs directly to the island or mark them with a divine mark (and corresponding Geas/Quest effect) to get them on track.
The Amatatsu Seal becomes tainted by prolonged exposure to the well and its spirits, requiring the PCs undertake a short quest to a specific location (Amatatsu estate, sacred site) to cleanse it or
find a new guardian kami.
The remaining denizens of the well bring reinforcements to battle for control of level 1 and further their plans.
Emperor Shigure's ghost gives in and descends into the well.
The PCs have to infiltrate the Imperial Palace and steal one of the Imperial Seals from the treasury to access the island.
Help me Paizo messageboard members, you're my only hope!
Character Names: Skizzik Winx – Gnome Alchemist 14
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: The Well of Demons
Catalyst: Amatatsu Maemi
Character Names: Jira Vorellia – Half-Orc Inquisitor (Preacher) of Cayden Cailean 8 / Samurai (Order of the Star) 6
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: The Well of Demons
Catalyst: Amatatsu Maemi
Character Names: Rika Nagato – Human Starsoul Sorcerer 14
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: The Well of Demons
Catalyst: Amatatsu Maemi
Character Names: Thom Suresaddle – Halfling Gendarme Cavalier 14
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: The Well of Demons
Catalyst: Amatatsu Maemi
The party had a very tough time in the Well of Demons with the Omox demons, and survived Teikoku Sokai by the skin of their teeth. They then headed over to the devil part of the dungeon, where they were having a fairly easy time. The shiko me assassin rolled a natural 1 on her death attack before losing initiative and being debuffed into uselessness, while the erinyes were thoroughly smashed after doing minor damage. Three of the erinyes teleported over to warn Amatatsu Maemi with less than half health. All in all, things were going fairly smoothly up until the TPK.
The party decides not to buff or heal from the last fight, and presses on at breakneck pace. Everyone but the Cavalier has a means of flight, and flies up to Maemi’s balcony while the cavalier begins climbing. The flyers land on the balcony and chat, politely ignoring Maemi’s tentacles. Deciding that they don’t want to introduce Ameiko to her ancestor, the party attacks and things go south. Maemi wins initiative and launches black tentacles that manage to grapple everyone except for the cavalier, who is still climbing up to the platform. Sadly, no one would be able to escape the black tentacles for the entirety of the fight. The two advanced erinyes and the three survivors from before take to the air and begin raining arrows down on the party. The alchemist throws some acid bombs for minor damage to Maemi and the rest of the party is generally useless.
Maemi decides that the sorceress is the greatest threat, and grapples her, eventually forcing her into the tentacle cage. The cavalier finally makes it up to the balcony and pulls his lance to try and poke Maemi to death. At this point I bent the rules and allowed the Inquisitor/Samurai to pull his naganata and use it while grappled, as this fight was going south quickly. Maemi kills the sorceress with her tentacle cage just before being killed by a 4x crit from the naganata wielding Samurai/Inquisitor. The infuriated erinyes continue to rain down arrows on the party, and manage to kill the cavalier, followed by the other two.
Character Name: Rika Nagato – Human Starsoul Sorcerer 13
Adventure: The Empty Throne
Location: Kasai Docks
Catalyst: Staying in Melee
The party decided to contact the local criminal element to aid there entrance into the city. They went to a nearby town, arranged a private meeting with the man in charge, and used dominate person on him to arrange passage on a ship bound for Kasai. The criminals loosely packed them into shipping crates rigged so that they could be opened from the inside and loaded them on a small boat.
Things went according to plan until they docked in Kasai, where one of the ogre mage inquisitors and 4 of his flunkies boarded the boat to search it after claiming to be customs officials. The party flubbed their stealth checks and popped out of their crates to attack before the oni could get organized.
The fight was going well until the alchemist decided to throw an explosive bomb at the ogre mage inquisitor , which ignited the pitch in the hull of the ship and the ogre mage. The ogre mage made a beastly strength check to kick down the burning section of the boat’s hull, flooding the boat and putting out the flames that were ravaging him. The ogre mage then decided to fly out the breach in the hull and wait.
The party managed to clean out the rest of the enemies and escape up the stairs to the deck of the ship and across the gangplank to the dock except for Rika, who decided to fly out of the breach in the hull. The ogre mage flew closer and took a chunk out of her with his human bane ability activated on its turn for moderate damage. On her turn, Rika decided to step back and attempt to disintegrate the ogre mage rather than retreat. She managed to hit the monster, but it easily passed its save, and full attacked her to death on its turn. The rest of the party killed the ogre mage and fished her body out of the harbor before beating a hasty retreat from the local authorities.
Character Name: Skizzik Winx – Gnome Alchemist 13
Adventure: Tide of Honor
Location: The Hotel Common Room
Catalyst: Kaibuninsho
The PCs took over the fortress in part one and decided to enlist the help of the geisha first, hoping to get some financing to bribe the ninja clans. They arrived in Sakakabe without incident and used diplomacy to get a meeting with O-Kohaku the next night. They explored the city, got rooms at the inn, and took in a play before turning in for the night. While they were exploring town, Kaibuninsho arranged to be in the same place several times in his monk disguise. The party was suspicious and attempted to interrogate him, but he refused to speak and they rolled terribly on sense motive.
The party arrived back at their inn late after taking in a play, and everyone went to bed except for the inquisitor and Skizzik, who accepted the inn keeper’s son’s offer of tea. Little did they know that Kaibuninsho had followed them to their inn earlier and snuck in later that night. Kaibuninsho murdered the innkeeper’s son and disguised himself to await the return of the party. After the inquisitor passed his fort save on the tea laced with oil of taggit (knockout poison) he went to bed and left Skizzik alone with the disguised assassin. The assassin made small talk while studying his target, then won initiative over the suspicious gnome and tried to assassinate him with a poised shuriken. Skizzik rolled a natural one on his fort save and died instantly from a shuriken to the windpipe.
Kaibuninsho dragged the innkeeper’s son into the common room with Skizzik's body and snuck away. The party was completely oblivious until the innkeeper found the bodies later that night and screamed his head off. They managed to raise him with the seal a few days later, but they are paranoid about being alone now.
My players just finished cleaning the bandits out of Seinaru Heikiko and loved it. They managed to find the secret entrance and fought in A4. It was fairly easy because they bottle necked everyone using the main door, but it is easy to see just how wrong it could have gone if they decided to fight in the courtyard.
Pit spells in the door creates a huge headache for most of the barbarians.
So, why did the crew of the fortress not simply pull back and wait on the party coming after them? After all, it's the party storming the fortress and not the other way around.
I switched out the barbarian leader with a new one (and put the old one on a pike in the courtyard). Players did an evil one shot with new characters working for the Jade Regent. Afterwards, the barbarian from the evil party went north and seized control of the soft bandits for the Jade Regent.
The bandits were terrified of ending up on pikes in the yard with their old boss, so half of them provided covering fire with bows while the other half attempted to jump the pit with their fair jump checks (only a few failed). Chain lightning and dragon's breath handled the archers nicely while the melee guys did a good job of cleaning up the barbarians that made the jump before pulling bows themselves.
Just about to return to Jade regent with this chapter. Looking forward to it as it seems to be a lot more involved than the previous books and really seems to be the start of the story to reclaim the throne.
Anyone run it have advice for things to look out for or change / avoid?
My players just finished cleaning the bandits out of Seinaru Heikiko and loved it. They managed to find the secret entrance and fought in A4. It was fairly easy because they bottle necked everyone using the main door, but it is easy to see just how wrong it could have gone if they decided to fight in the courtyard.
Pit spells in the door creates a huge headache for most of the barbarians.
Character Name: Rika Nagato – Human Starsoul Sorcerer 12
Adventure: Forest of Spirits
Location: Munasukaru’s Penance Lv 4
Catalyst: Unlucky Crit / Failure to buff
The party rescued a new aasimar paladin to replace their dead archer and proceeded to steamroll the rest of level 3 without a whole lot of trouble (though the destrachans and their cave-in was a near TPK).
The alchemist used arcane eye to scout ahead to E1 and noticed Jirou and Saburo and the family resemblance to Ichirou. On the way downstairs, the paladin and alchemist buff themselves while Rika… doesn’t. I asked her multiple times, knowing how tough these guys are, but she repeatedly declines. She goes into the fight with only mage armor, dark vision, and overland flight.
On the first round, Rika casts haste and the others move in to triple team Jirou, knocking off 2/3 of his health with smite evil, power attack, and bombs. Saburo felt left out, and went after the lone sorceress, landing an attack for moderate damage.
On the second round, Rika flies away 5 feet and does moderate damage to Saburo. The paladin finishes Jirou while the cavalier moves closer and the alchemist hits Saburo with his new madness bomb. Saburo moves up to Rika and lands a power attack critical hit for max damage of 70, knocking Rika down to around -5. Rika’s player then rolled a natural one on the save vs massive damage. Turns out the blow neatly cut her in half.
Rika’s body is currently in camp under a gentle repose spell while the player rolls up a ranger back-up character.
Character Name: Jira Vorellia – Half-Orc Inquisitor (Preacher) of Cayden Cailean 8 / Samurai (Order of the Star) 3
Adventure: The Forest of Spirits
Location: Munasukaru’s Penance Lv 2
Catalyst: Cursed Wounds
Jira, still suffering from the clay golem’s curse in my last post, was pretty close to death as the party dragged him back to their camp outside the House of Withered Blossoms. After a day or two, the party was still having trouble making the caster level check to heal Jira’s cursed wounds and Jira was growing antsy, so the party headed down back down to Munasukaru’s Penance Lv2, where the draw bridge had been raised and the hobgoblin defenders restocked.
The party fought well in the epic battle, using cloudkill to disperse the archers and acid bombs on the chains controlling the drawbridge to lower it. In the end, it came down to an epic melee as the 4 hobgoblins in the gate house and two heavily injured archers from the balcony sallied forth and charged the intrepid heroes. The weakened Jira was cut off from his fellows and cut felled from behind by a cunning hobgoblin. Rika the sorceress was furious, and killed him slowly by sucking the air from his lungs with her call of the void while caving his skull with her metamagic rod.
The party hauled Jira’s body back up to the surface and dragged the backup character they met when Jira last died for a long period of time, a elf archer named Zych, down into the depths. The party worked rather well together, with Zych providing some much needed artillery against the hobgoblin hoards. Everything went fairly easily until they reached the drain.
The party only made it 15 feet down the drain when the Sisters of the Broken Path levitated up and attacked. The sisters were very successful in disarming Zych and the Halfling cavalier while the alchemist and sorcerer failed to do much against them due to their high saves and projectile deflection abilities. Eventually, one sister decided to use her punishing kick to push the cavalier off the path down to the water below. The cavalier managed to swim to shore and trigger one of the confusion traps (and roll a natural 20 on the save), but he was too far away to be relevant for the rest of the fight. The sisters kicked the gnome alchemist off next, who was eaten by a giant garr and barely managed to blast his way out of the beast’s stomach. Finally, the last remaining sister kicked Zych off the edge, where he fell to his death.
Zych had never been exposed to the seal and the party lacks the material components to raise him, so the party is planning a burial for their first irreversible death this campaign.
Last week in my Jade Regent game, my inquisitor/samurai was dropped to around -30 by a critical hit from a clay golem. Rather than kill him off, I decided that he was barely alive and under the effects of a strange curse from the golem’s cursed wound property.
Cursed Wound:
Cursed Wound (Ex)
The damage a clay golem deals doesn't heal naturally and resists magical healing. A character attempting to use magical healing on a creature damaged by a clay golem must succeed on a DC 26 caster level check, or the healing has no effect on the injured creature.
I have been applying the cursed wound caster check to his healing and ignoring non-magical healing, but what can I do to make this curse fun and memorable? The injury occurred two in-game days ago, so it should probably be something with a slow onset.
Character Name: Rika Nagato – Human Starsoul Sorcerer 11
Adventure: Forest of Spirits
Location: Munasukaru’s Penance Lv 2
Catalyst: General Debacle
Rika’s latest venture to Pharasma’s realm was the result of the party’s unorthodox method of dealing with the upper levels of The House of Withered Blossoms. Things went as planned until the party got to level three (A8a), where the alchemist decided it would be a great idea to burn down the webs with explosive bombs while slaughtering the 8 araneas. I decided that this would be a great idea, and let them burn down all the webs in the pagoda, resulting in the deaths of the 8 sapphire spiders. Akinosa and his gossamer (and their pet shadows) managed to make it safely to the roof and then to the sides of the tower.
The next day, the party cleared out Munasukaru’s Penance LV 1, and decided to head outside to their camp to rest up and try to remove the spirit of the Ha Jau from the inquisitor. I decided that a very pissed off Akinosa and his crew were staking out the top of the funnel, and proceeded to surprise the party as they climbed up, subduing them easily with a ton of strength damage from shadows and webbing. Akinosa agreed to let the party go to destroy Munasukaru if he could hold their various NPCs hostage, which they agreed to.
The party was feeling some pressure from Akinosa and went down to Munasukaru’s Penance Lv2 early the next morning and still quite weak. They managed to engage the 4 hobgoblin archers from the ledge, the four hobgoblins guarding the gate, and the two water elementals with poor tactics. Rika spent the battle flying around and evoking before being turned into a pincushion by the hobgoblin archers.
The rest of the party managed to clean up and revive her with the seal, which led to…
Character Name: Jira Vorellia – Half-Orc Inquisitor (Preacher) of Cayden Cailean 8 / Samurai (Order of the Star) 3
Adventure: The Forest of Spirits
Location: Munasukaru’s Penance Lv 2
Catalyst: Face-tanking a clay golem
The still weakened party dusted themselves off after the previous disaster and decided to continue without fully healing and encountered the clay golem at the stairs it was guarding. The fight was two brutal rounds. Jira provoked an attack of opportunity and got hit pretty hard before attacking for moderate damage. Then the clay golem took one attack on the Halfling cavalier for moderate damage and took a second attack on Jira, which happened to be a crit. Jira dropped to -30 instantly, but I decided to keep him alive and “cursed” by the golem.
On character creation, dual path and dual power were very popular options. Players were frustrated with most of the mythic feats requiring a regular feat as a prereq. Many wished there was a mythic feat for extra mythic power. The universal mythic path abilities other than extra mythic power were completely dismissed. Giving them a 25 point buy was probably a bad idea, as they were able to crank their primary stats very high using stat boosting items and the mythic bonuses (24 was the the minimum highest stat in the party).
I ran them through several combats:
6 level 11 Human Paladins
This was a Warmup fight. The party took a fairly large amount of damage from smites, but rolled over these 6 fairly easily. Extra attacks from the marshal order ability were very powerful and generally given to the 26 STR barbarian with the two handed weapon. No party members dropped.
One Movanic Deva with the Invincible mythic template backed by three shield archons
The party was annoyed by the defensive abilities, but this encounter was little more than a speed bump. The block ability wasn't successful in three uses (though it was primarily used against the barbarian's attacks). I really wished the invincible template gave the creature one or two uses of mythic power to keep it relevant.
Two Guardian Naga with the Arcane mythic template and one Royal Naga with the Half-Celestial template
This encounter was fairly dangerous. The party was fairly loud on the way up, which gave the arcane guardian nagas time to cast improved invisibility. The royal naga managed to talk long enough to lower their guard while the invisible guardian nagas got some nasty attacks from their bonus spells (sirocco, waves of ecstasy, icy prison, and overwhelming grief). The uses of the mythic spells were nice, and the nagas got several mythic fireballs, which seemed pretty fair. The DC was in a range where there was danger of failure and one player was even set on fire by the secondary effect. The Royal Naga's spells were basically irrelevant thanks to the mythic saves ability, which feels a little too good (or I ran it wrong). It was a beast in melee though, and put the barbarian below 0 twice.
Hand of the Inheritor with the Savage Mythic Template.
I warned the party that the hand was coming for them, and they did their research and prepared. They manged to crush the hand in two rounds thanks to a good choice of battle field with minimal damage taken thanks to awful rolls by me. Smite evil was crazy good here with the Anti-paladin's huge Charisma mod. The ability to take an extra turn at initiative -20 was also very popular here, and contributed to the rout. The savage mythic template was pretty disappointing. The bleed damage was cool, but I wish this template also conveyed 1 or 2 uses of mythic power.
All in all, the players had a good time and enjoyed the rule set. I regret that I didn't get a chance to test any of the pregenerated mythic monsters, and thought that the mythic templates were a little too weak and not very mythic. If I were to do it again, I would have used much stronger monsters, as the mythic characters are very resilient.
Thanks for the advice everyone. I just finished running this encounter tonight, and the Hand of the Inheritor got destroyed in two rounds.
I gave the PCs a warning that the monster was coming in three days, and they booked it back to town and hit the library to figure out what was going on. After doing their homework, they pooled their gold to get unholy weapons, completed a side quest for a miracle (which they used to turn the anti-paladin into a grave knight... accidentally), and prepared for battle in a small cavern in the sewers.
They used pretty good buff tactics and extra attacks via the marshal bard, and between the anti-paladin's smite good and the barbarian's massive rage power attacks were able to bring it down in two rounds.
Lessons learned:
1. If you give the PCs time to be tricky, their opponents need to be tricky as well
2. Smite is REALLY powerful
3. Haste and the marshal extra attack abilities are REALLY powerful
4. Terrain is critical.
I'm running my group through an evil mythic one shot on Saturday since interest is pretty high. The party consists of four level 10 /MT 5 characters (Barbarian Champion, Antipaladin Guardian, Bard Marshal, and Monk Champion). Since their APL is technically 15, I thought I would cook up a nice CR 17 boss monster to make things memorable, but I’m worried I went a bit overboard.
Big Bad Good Guy:
Savage Hand of the Inheritor
CR 17 / MR2
XP 102,400
LG Large outsider (angel, extraplanar, good, lawful)
Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +28
Aura protective aura
DEFENSE
AC 35, touch 14, flat-footed 30 (+5 Dex, +17 natural, +4 shield, –1 size; +4 deflection vs. evil)
hp 227 (18d10+108+20); regeneration 10 (evil weapons and effects)
Fort +17, Ref +16, Will +13; +4 vs. poison, +4 resistance vs. evil
DR 15/evil and epic; Immune acid, cold, fear, petrification; Resist electricity 15, fire 15; SR 26
OFFENSE
Speed 50 ft., fly 150 ft. (good)
Melee +2 longsword +25/+25/+20/+15/+10 (2d6+9) and bleed, +2 axiomatic holy spiked heavy steel shield +27 (2d6+9) bleed
Special Attacks bleed 1 (all attacks, stacks with itself), vicious assault
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 18th)
At will—aid, detect evil, dispel magic, lesser restoration, magic weapon, plane shift (DC 23), remove fear
3/day—burst of glory, flame strike (DC 21), holy smite (DC 20), mark of justice (DC 20), order’s wrath (DC 20), power word stun, raise dead, see invisibility
1/day—blade barrier (DC 22), greater magic weapon, greater restoration, heal
Paladin Spells Prepared (CL 18th)
4th—death ward, dispel evil (2)
3rd—cure moderate wounds, prayer (2)
2nd—bull’s strength (2), resist energy (3)
1st—cure light wounds (4), divine favor (2)
STATISTICS
Str 25, Dex 21, Con 22, Int 22, Wis 24, Cha 23
Base Atk +18; CMB +26; CMD 41
Feats Cleave, Improved Initiative, Improved Shield Bash, Power Attack, Shield Master, Shield Slam, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (longsword), Weapon Focus (spiked shield)
Skills Craft (weaponsmithing) +27, Diplomacy +15, Fly +27, Heal +16, Intimidate +27, Knowledge (arcana) +15, Knowledge (history) +27, Knowledge (nobility) +15, Knowledge (planes) +27, Knowledge (religion) +27, Perception +28, Sense Motive +28, Spellcraft +24, Swim +25
Languages Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; truespeech
SQ lay on hands (15/day, 9d6 hit points, as an 18th-level paladin)
Combat Gear +2 axiomatic holy spiked heavy steel shield
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Aura of Courage (Su)
The Hand of the Inheritor radiates an aura of courage identical to that of an 18th-level paladin.
Protective Aura (Su)
Against attacks made or effects created by evil creatures, this ability provides a +4 deflection bonus to AC and a +4 resistance bonus on saving throws to anyone within 20 feet of the angel. Otherwise, it functions as a magic circle against evil effect and a lesser globe of invulnerability, both with a radius of 20 feet (caster level equals angel’s HD). The defensive benefits from the circle are not included in an angel’s statistics block.
Truespeech (Su)
The Hand of the Inheritor can speak with any creature that has a language, as though using a tongues spell (caster level equal to angel’s Hit Dice). This ability is always active.
Vicious Assault (Ex)
Whenever The Hand of the Inheritor makes a full attack it can make one extra attack with one of its natural or manufactured weapons
I’m worried that this thing will easily wipe the floor with my players for the following reasons:
Large number of attacks
Stackable Bleed damage
Massive AC (the barbarian only has +24/+24 to hit while raging due to the Percision path ability, which is the most accurate in the party).
Is it reasonable to throw this at my players, or would I be better off taking a lower CR monster and adding a few mythic tiers via the mythic subtype?
I just finished rolling up a bard for our playtest one shot next week, and was slightly disappointed with my perceived lack of support for the bard in mythic feats, mythic spells, and path abilities. We are going with level 10, mythic tier 5 for the playtest. I decided to build a support/warlord style bard with archery as a fall back.
Mythic path selection was a simple choice between Marshal and Trickster. Trickster seemed pretty dull, but Marshal introduced the orders, which inspired the character concept as a field general type. I ended up taking the dual path feat to get the Wild Arcana Archmage ability, but I was disappointed with the lack of good options in Archmage for bards. I really wish the Archmage or Trickster paths would have had abilities that keyed off or improved bardic performances. Since I really couldn’t boost my bardic performance, I ended up taking Assured Skill, Additional Order (Advance), Greater Power, Confidence, and Unwavering Skill. I really liked how much the martial path boosted my skills. Between bardic knowledge and Unwavering Skill, I can take 10 on a huge number of skills, which is really cool. I am also excited that I have a huge amount of mythic power, and that it is more powerful.
Mythic feats were also slightly disappointing because so many of them had the prereqs of non-mythic feats. Dual Focus seemed like an obvious choice for the extra mythic power, and mythic arcane strike and point blank shot seem like they will be fun. Dual path was a nice way to get the Wild Arcana ability so that I can access the whole spell list in a pinch, though I worry it will really slow the game down when it is used. I ended up taking mythic spells for my last mythic feat to get the mythic versions of suggestion and dispel magic, but I was disappointed with the relatively few choices that were on the bard spell list. I really wished that the bardic spell list had gotten more support from the mythic spells. I would have liked to see mythic versions of spells like Haste, Rage, Confusion, and Heroism to make the choice of mythic spells a little more meaningful for bards.
All in all, I am excited to test out the character next week and I am excited about all the new abilities, but I wish I could have made use of more of the mythic spells and had some way of modifying my bardic performance.
Character Name: Jira Vorellia – Half-Orc Inquisitor (Preacher) of Cayden Cailean 8
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Outside the Storm Tower
Catalyst: Enraged Charda
The party was heading towards the Storm Tower when they stopped to examine the unhallow effect on the entrance. Unfortunately, they decided the best place to conduct the investigation was on the causeway. The two chardas in the slush below decided to attack, and managed to drop the gnome alchemist and push Jira into the black sludge over the course of a few rounds of pitched battle.
The four PCs managed to drop the first charda in a coordinated effort, the second one used the opportunity to blast the entire party with its black bile in a fit of rage. Jira was able to put an arrow in the monster’s eye socket with a critical hit from his long bow in spite of the wind, but the creature retaliated with a full attack. The charda managed to land three successful claw attacks and one successful bite attack, killing the noble half-orc.
The party was able to destroy the monster shortly thereafter and decided to risk raising Jira with the seal, revealing their presence to the Five Storms.
Character Name: Jira Vorellia – Half-Orc Inquisitor (Preacher) of Cayden Cailean 8
Adventure: The Hungry Storm
Location: Storm Tower Level 2
Catalyst: Looking the tastiest
The party managed to clear out the rest of the first floor of the storm tower with little real difficulty, but were running short on resources as they took the elevator to the second floor of the tower. After a quick ride on the elevator, they arrived in a snow covered room that was strangely hot. The party quickly hopped off the elevator platform before it disappeared, but failed to notice something moving under the snow.
Unfortunately for Jira, the remorhaz guarding the room was quite aware of their presence and managed to surprise the party. The creature must have been fond of strange meats, as it chose to bite Jira rather than the succulent Halfling cavalier or his giant husky (wolf) mount. The sorceress cast boneshatter at the beast to try and weaken its grip, but the massive creature shrugged off the worst of the spell. Jira struggled but ultimately failed to break free of the creature’s maw and was swallowed.
Jira perished to the extreme heat of the beast’s insides seconds before his friends could slay the beast and cut him free. The party did recover his burned and partially digested remains, and returned to the caravan dejected. They plan to raise him once the seal recharges in two weeks, provided they can find some provisions and evade the hungry dead.
Character Name: Skizzik Winx – Gnome Alchemist 6
Adventure: Night of Frozen Shadows
Location: Ravenscraeg Dungeon Lv. 2
Catalyst: Trying to rest in a dungeon
The party was low on resources after clearing Ravenscraeg’s Dungeon Lv. 1 and Goti Runecaster and his zombies. Skizzik had the brilliant idea of trying to rest in the dungeon, and after scouting around the guard room determined that the treasury was the ideal location. The only problem with his plan was that the door was locked.
After a few frustrating attempts to pick the lock (and failed perception checks to spot the trap on the lock from him and the sorceress), Skizzik managed to convince the half-orc inquisitor to chop down the door with his great ax. In their excitement, both the sorceress and the Skizzik crowded around the inquisitor while he was hacking down the door.
The three of them were very excited when the door came down until the flame strike trap went off, catching all three of them. The inquisitor and the sorceress were both knocked unconscious and bleeding to death while Skizzik was fried to a crisp by the massive column of fire.
Fortunately for everyone but Skizzik, the Halfling cavalier and his mount were standing a little ways off guarding the hall. The cavalier managed to pull out his last two cure light wounds potions and stabilize the sorceress and the inquisitor.
Character Name: Rika Nagato – Human Starsoul Sorcerer 5
Adventure: Night of Frozen Shadows
Location: Kalsgard’s Fire Quarter
Catalyst: Running ahead of the meat shields
The party was heading towards the Temple of Shelyn after investigating the funeral ship when an irate earth elemental crushed the temple and starts rampaging in the streets. Rika wons initiative and ran forward to cast burning arc on the elemental, doing a fair amount of damage. The elemental took offense, and slammed her, knocking her down to single digit HP.
The rest of the party (Halfling cavalier on a husky (wolf), half-orc melee inquisitor, and gnome pyromanic alchemist) charged forward to attack, putting themselves between Rika and the elemental and attacking for very little damage thanks to the elemental’s DR. Rika withdrew 10 feet down the narrow street, thinking she was safe behind the front line.
The elemental realized the rest of the party couldn’t really do much to it and took opportunity attacks from the cavalier and the inquisitor to burrow under the front line and pop up in front of Rika. The elemental ended her with a savage punch to the face.
The rest of the party turned in righteous fury and managed to slay the creature, but it was too late for Rika.
