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!
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.
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.
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.
