Search Posts
What effect do effectively permanent stat bonuses on maximum Mythic points? It seems obvious that the maximum Mythic points would be increased, which is fair because you can only get up to +3 extra points that way. But then there's the Dual Focus, you could quickly (and easily) end up with +5 maximum Mythic points at high level, for the cost of a single mythic feat and another belt/headband, where other abilities or feats only provide +1 or +2.
What about the rest of the VS chain? Does it stop working? If yes, then the rest of the chain is kinda pointless (unless you're already low damage). If no, then VS is way better than taking the extra iterative attacks.
It's been a long year and a half of playing Kingmaker. 61 three-four hour online sessions (using Fantasy Grounds) and my 6-player group is ready (or not) to face Nyrissa, and I though I might share some thoughts on things that occured, and ideas we tried. Prologue
The Stolen Lands.
Spoiler:
An excellent introduction, though early on my players showed they were less interested in slowly going from hex to hex around a map basically without aim (and would often bee-line serious threats instead of pacing themselves). In the first 3-4 sessions I used day to day weather in an attempt to keep things interesting, but a large number of exploration encounters, especially before the whole party is mounted means they often won't get more than a single encounter per day. The mite lair had too many ineffective enemies. The area dragged out and was very little fun. The kobolds were more interesting, as they routed Tartuk and make good friends with the pests - a fact that came back to bite them several times in the future... The Stag Lord's fort was fun. I think it works especially well when the players play along, and get into the fort in disguise rather than assaulting the walls directly. The earlier placed grog and prisoner information was great for leading the players to that conclusion, rather than railroading them. Rivers Run Red
Spoiler:
Probably the most forgotten chapter. There were trolls (which was a nice, if a bit pointless, dungeon). There was the giant owlbear - which could have been better used to forshadow Nyrissa, but we played that before chapter 6 was available, so I didn't have the information to make the changes I could have. The Kingdom running rules went right over the head of at least one of my players, and only had the interest of one or two. We played with 'hidden values' variant in an attempt to keep interest - but I scapped running the subgame for a more roleplaying focused idea later... Varnhold Vanishing
Spoiler:
I quite liked this chapter. The town had enough evidence for my players as written to go chasing the Centaurs, then on to Vordakai's lair. This whole adventure was a bit on the easy side however, except the piscodaemon who almost TPK'd the group thanks to some bad saves against his stinking cloud. By now my players had all but stopped exploring except on their way somewhere. *Realm of the Felnight Queen
Spoiler:
Due to the lack of exploring, my players were about 2 levels under recommended at this point, so I found myself a copy of Felnight Queen to bolster them a bit, and also try out some mass combat rules I'd written where players would be able to make their own actions as well as their armies. They turned out ponderous and unfun, but overall the module worked nicely, if a bit easy. It was very easy to change some names - make the town Tatzlford, and the marriage couple Loy Resbin and his defacto wife. Blood for Blood
Spoiler:
I was in the process of re-writing my mass combat rules when we started this module, so I ended up running it as written. The infiltration of Drelev Demesne and Fort Drelev was quite fun, with much self control my players only killed the giants and arrested the nobility - almost no human loss of life - which lead into an awesome RP sess putting the former leaders on trial. The old Baron was sentanced to death, and in the process the party bard swayed Quintessa so well she fell in love. Took a bit of convincing to prove she actually quit working for Irovetti - which wasn't helped by the Poison Plot quest when she was fed misinformation. Armag's dungeon was quite fun, my players dodging the most deadly of the traps. 6-player improved Armag himself proved to be extremely difficult - not evil so not subject to smite, and he took down 3 players (of 5 in the session) by himself from full health. Also it was around this chapter when I implemented RP kingdom running. Once a game month I would present certain players with difficulties that the kindgom had to face, to present to the group. If I'd had more time to develop this idea I think it would have been a better way to make kingdom running less crunchy. War of the River King
Spoiler:
My new mass combat system was finished by this point. Each army was effectively a character that had several abilities. It was quite simple in execution (though I'd crunched a lot of numbers on my side) so players just had HP, number of attacks and damage (not even AC - attacks would automatically hit) - and special 'powers' that would do other things, like an army of clerics could swift-heal themselves or adjacent armies. And after every battle the army would get a new power or type equipment, or more men. Meanwhile the tournement was interesting. The boasting was by far the most fun. Jousting least. My players ended up losing the tourney to 6 player version of Villamor. My players didn't understand why they should keep searching White Rose Abbey when they confirmed with Gaetane there was no 'secret weapon' and whatever Irovetti found there was removed years ago. And then when they cleared out the ghost they all but ignored the waterclock with Evindra in it - the one serious bit of Nyrissa forshadowing in the game. In the end I had to drop the subtleness and have one of the NPC rulers 'accidentally' release her. Irovetti's palace had some good encounters and some bad encounters. The throneroom was one of the best encounters I've ever run. The roving bands of guards, Alasen, Geovidius, etc were very plain in comparison. Having read noted from the writer it sounds like it was originally a much more interesting place overall, but oh well. Due to a confusion in the stair cases my players managed to miss the Remoraz completely. I felt Irovetti as a bard was very weak, and made him into a Magus. A couple of bad moves meant that he failed to escape in the end, to haunt them another day. Sound of a Thousand Screams
Spoiler:
The blooms of this section worked marvelously. The players knew they had to take the fight to Nyrissa soon, but when these started popping up they got worried. Mostly due to luck they uprooted the realm after their second fight in Thousand Voices. We're all pretty tired of the campaign by now, so I've decided that the timeloop still functions, though the rest of the House of Knives does not, meaning all foes are staggered, which is still eating resources and means they will not face Nyrissa at full power, but also stops them from resting and recouperating, while Nyrissa just sits and waits. My players only have the defaced nymphs, Phomandala, and Nyrissa, unless they stop their current trend of running straight towards the finish. I still plan on using the upgraded 6P Nyrissa. I'm not sure my exhausted party will have a chance, but it's the end. I'm OK with a TPK. :P Conclusions:
I've run three different ideas for kingdom running now. In Rise of the Runelords I had a very precise system of income, staff and such, which was too much work for the GM and not very interesting for the players.
15 minute work day is to be avoided. Kingmaker is very guilty of making these happen. Even interesting combats, if there's only one in a day, it's either super life threatening, or steamrolled. I think this could be avoided by clustering 2 or 3 locations into a single hex - which would leave more hexes blank but also make things more interesting, IMO. 6 player mods to a 4 player adventure path. A few others and I went to a lot of work to make sure there was enough XP and treasure to go around by expanding encounters for 6 players. In practice a lot of these encounters ended up going wildly wrong. Irovetti's guards were still a pushover, but gave more XP. 15 minute working day encounters took longer to resolve, but didn't provide more of a challenge. Armag became so powerful he was taking out tanks in a single full round action. Some of them went right, like Kankerata. Rebuilds worked well too, like Irovetti as Magus and Zorek as Oracle. This raises a fundemental problem in PF (and 3.5) - that a higher effective party level does not mean they can handle single higher level bad guys. Objective. It has to be clear. Chapter 2, 4 and 5 are all about protecting the Kingdom, which is good. It works. But my players would be like "What do we do now?", even with a plate of sidequests still on the table. All of the antagonists in Kingmaker were too short lived, or not antagonistic enough. I'm sure I had more stuff I wanted to say, but that's all I can think of. :P
I'm wondering how the destination is selected. Can the caster choose a specific plane, or is it random? If random, are there limits on which planes they might get sent to?
Hi everyone,
So what I came up with was a system as close to normal combat as possible (as I use Fantasy Grounds I wanted something that would fit on the combat sheets, and I could parse effects into) and that let the players have armies that level up with use. The rules aren't comprehensive, but I'll share what I've got. :) Combat changes:
The armies I gave out:
Lothar's Sleepless Knights Army of human knights (paladins)
Kyria's Woodland Defenders Army of mixed dryads, centaurs, unicorns and satyrs
Borg's Lovers' Scorned Large army of mixed female barbarians
Elohra's Holy Blades Huge army of mixed humanoids (mostly human) warriors
Zakko's Brute Squad Large army of fighters with some rogues
Viraqk's Sootchems Army of kobold alchemists
For the most part I winged making them. I used approximately level 4 characters as a basis, but also combined size for their HD (medium 5, large 7, huge 9, etc.) From there they have a bunch of upgrades to choose from each time they 'level up' - every time they win a battle is the current idea (the list is reduced based on each army) but most of the common ones are are: New army abilities
GM armies for Ch5 Kingmaker:
The human armies are based on a heroic NPC build, then size = approx level. Monsters use their own HD and CON, but the number of HD = size of army. Note that an army of large creatures has less present, but since they can take and dish much more damage, I figure they work out about the same. To hit is tough. For the most part I used size as HD, with STR mod, but I fudged them a bit. Still don't know how well they'll go. name, size, hp, ac, to hit, damage ATTACK ON PLAYER LANDS:
If the characters want a duel, they fight the leaders:
2x Troll Marauders Medium5 52 16 +8/+8/+3 1d8+5
2x Wyvern Flight Medium5 52 19 +10/+10 2d6+4
I) Tusker Riders CR 7
J) Pitax Horde CR 9
K) Reserve Wyvern Flight (As above!) O) Catspaw Camp CR 9
Pitax defense:
Other troops:
Centaur Cavalry Medium5 42 20 +9 1d8+2 ranged, mounted 3
Kobold Skirmishers Garg11 60 15 +9 1d6-1 4 attacks, ranged
Boggard swarm Garg 11 71 14 +10 1d8+3 4 attacks, 1 speed, 2 in water/swamp
Thoughts? Comments?
As I've transcribed 14 modules into Fantasy Grounds (including creating my own tokens) and the recent update in Fantasy Grounds version 2.8 to include pathfinder friendly character sheets and NPC statblocks. (Yayness!) I'd say there's about 15-20 hours of work to copy everything over, with useful hotlinking, image sizing, token creation - based on the latest one I've done - The Brinewall Legacy. Playing online, I get about 30-40 hours per chapter. So it's an alright deal. I'm wondering if Paizo plans to make any AP modules available for FG? It would be nice to either save myself from doing it - or contibute, so the work doesn't have to be done again. Previously I've done Rise of the Runelords, Kingmaker (both used now). I've done Carrion Crown 1, and at the moment I'm finishing up on Jade Regent 1.
Kingmaker chapter 6 for 6 players Done! ... Almost. All that's left is the Knurly Witch. I wanted to redo her as a Witch, but I'm really not that familiar with the class, so I'm going to just do her as a cleric as presented. If someone else could whip up a block of her as a witch I'd be much obliged. ;) Other comments and suggestions highly encouraged!
I've come across a conflict as far as the the title sources are concerned: You may choose a familiar with an alignment up to one step away on each alignment axis (lawful through chaotic, good through evil). E.G. voidworm, but also Lyrakien... In order to gain a voidworm as a familiar, a spellcaster must be chaotic neutral, be caster level 7th, and have the Improved Familiar feat. Improved familiar states that different alignments can be taken. But the specific entries in Bestiary 2 state in no uncertain terms that alignments must match. Now which do we go by? My gut feeling is by the newer rules in Bestiary 2.
Several of my players have expressed interest in running mass combat tactically instead of two formless blobs just hitting each other until one goes down. Objectives:
Comments, critique, and ideas welcome!
Hi everyone, Presto:
Was a bit slower on this one because I was busy with my own kingmaker game (in chapter 2 at the moment) and Star Wars saga. Let me know of any grievous errors or anything that could be improved. -GC
My players have begun discussing annexing the kobolds. I'm wondering if anyone else has run into that, and if so how you handled it?
Hi, Just wondering if a mod could change the title of the thread of: http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/adventurePa th/kingmaker/convertingKingmakerRiversRunRedChapter3For6PCs&page=1#1
Thanks
Damn! Title should be Varnhold Vanishing, and I can't edit. >_<
As a GM I've found that antimagic shell can turn almost any Wizard spell-centric battle into a NPC stomp. Notably, I ran the final battle with Karzoug a few nights ago, and while I still managed to kill 3/5 players the wizard put an antimagic shell on his familiar. (Actually he's a diabolist, so it was an imp, but has Share Spells anyway) He could step out of the AM field to cast as spell, and then the familiar would move to cover him again. As far as I know, there's nothing that can get rid of AM, except for the caster dismissing it. How does one combat it? (Keeping in mind a wizard who cannot effectively flee) |
