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Hey everyone, in my campaign the PCs are en route to a small town (200ish people) to investigate a series of murders. What seems like the case of a serial killer is actually the work of an IT style demon. Rather then eating people, it instead takes control of their body through implanting a small bug through the ear into the brain (dark stuff). This is similar to the Dominate Person spell, but subjects cannot resist once under its control and the demon can see & hear through their subject. The dominated person is essentially a living husk at this point.

Note, the murders are not actually caused by the demon directly, but by individuals that discover that people are being replaced by the demon.

My question is, what kind of advice would you have for running a few sessions about a creature that essentially replaces everyone in the town slowly and how would it defend itself to intruders if/when they began to catch on? And is there a creature in the Pathfinders monsters list that fits this type of creature?

Edit: Currently, the average party level is 6 with three players.

Ran a five year campaign. I blended rules form Pathfinder to Tomb Rules and MAN what a blast. My players had their characters temporarily leveled to 20 to combat some crazy powerful enemies (and one player actually turned on the party after accepting the powers of Famine from Death. Year, four horsemen Famine and Death. PVP drama!)

Has anyone experienced the end of a long, drawn out campaign where all the BBEGs are defeated and the good guys won? Or simply just finished a campaign and you feel that deep breath, "it's done!" sorta thing?

Just feel like posting, it's a great high right now (although I'm crazy tired).

Hello fellow players! My buddy and I are looking at running a new campaign, he will be DMing. We are experienced D&D players (and both have DM'd games before) and we spent a few hours discussing a new campaign idea. Before we get to ahead of ourselves, I'd like to run it on the forums to see if anyone has any suggestions and/or ideas/feedback.

The players start off on an island with a single kingdom. Roughly half the size of Ireland. Right at the start of the campaign, the island is in imminent peril from some natural disaster and everyone has a few days to leave. Not knowing of any surrounding land, the Kingdom packs people, resources, items, etc, in as many boats as they can and people sail out. As for the players, they were randomly selected via lottery to apart of an adventuring guild to help explore new land they may find. A few boats sink along the way, storms separate boats, but you eventually find land. Because of the separated boats, different boats set up different small colonies many miles apart.

Things that would be factored in:

- We would make a character sheet for the king. Depending on stats, quirks, flaws, would depend on how the king effects the growth of the colony.
- Talking about the king, the player may or may not land with the king and the king may or may not survive the trip. Gonna roll for it!
- We would use a kingdom building system (Pathfinder Kingdom Builder, we share a Hero Lab license so this would make it easy) to handle the growth of the colonies.
- Because nobility and high ranking members of the kingdom wouldn't want to be left behind, they will either be let boats or force themselves on. Will effect initial colony growth. (Using Pathfinder Kingdom builder, as mentioned before).
- The plot would be very much devoid of Macguffins, big magic machines, crazy demon lords, etc. Very much down to earth and survival based.
- The players would get rewarded for clearing caves, cartography, providing resources to the growing colony, etc.
- Players would encounter natives and monsters they have never heard of before.

The idea is to give that first 50 turns in Civilization feel while playing Pathfinder. Explore, grow, etc.

Any opinions?

Hello all! As the end of my campaign approaches, so does the final climatic battle. The players have been chasing after an incredibly powerful magical artifact (and so have the bad guys) that can essentially grant wish spells. (Hence why the end). Essentially, I'm going to ask for some pointers about managing a large scale conflict, how to direct player goals, and some other generic tips. I want this to be as epic as possible!

NOTE:
1.) The artifact is going to spawn in the capital of the largest country in the world, which is also the largest city in my continent.
2.) There are three factions vying for this artifact. Each faction hates each other for their own reasons.
i.) The Demon Lord Droselgaul and his army of rascally demons.
ii.) A small but crazy powerful group of ancient Elves lead by Eladrin. EDIT: Fun note, Eladrin is the one responsible for bringing Droselgaul into this world. Biiiig screw up on his part.
iii.) The PC's and their band of trusty NPC's and misc. allies.
3.) In terms of raw power of each faction, it goes Demons, Elves, Players.
4.) This artifact is VERY unstable and needs time to use. You can't just run up to it and shout "PUT 50,000 GRAPES IN EACH OF MY ENEMIES" and expect it to work.
5.) I use the Mass Combat quite frequently, so I will be using that again.

CURRENT PLANS SO FAR:
1.) The demons are going to get to the city first and pretty much wreck the shit out of it.
2.) The players get there next from one side and the Elves hit from the other.
3.) The players will have to do certain objectives, mini encounters/tasks in order to get to the final boss fight. My current ideas are..
i.) Get through the main gate
ii.) Fight and destroy Droselgauls most powerful warrior
iii.) Find a magic item in the Mages College to use the artifact safely
iv.) Get to the artifact and fight Droselgaul AND Eladrin at the same time.

LASTLY:

So as I mentioned, I want the players to fight both Droselgaul and Eladrin at the same time. A triple threat match, if you will. I have been thinking of some ways of making this final fight really interesting so I'd love some general ideas of just anything to make this triple fight awesome.

Sorry for the long post, but the party and I are getting really pumped about this. Any tips about anything for this would be very much appreciated :D

Had a great session today and something very unexpected happened. My main antagonist, Eladrin, has a Demonic weapon that is bound to him. After a few good roles and some clever moves, one player managed to disarm Eladrin and another player snagged the weapon. This weapon has a fragment of the demons soul in it and you can actively communicate with the Demon at will. (So the player who took it already had a nice chat with the Demon). Essentially, this sword provides some evil bonuses to the wielder, but every time you do damage or kill with it, it feeds the sword thus making the soul fragment more powerful.

Now, the Demon wants his weapon back in the hands of Eladrin, but I don't want to be a cheesy bugger and say it has Returning or can simply teleport back. Obviously, Eladrin is going to seek the weapon and try to take it back.

Any ideas on how Eladrin should go about seeking it? Or maybe the Demon might have a trick or two up his sleeve? I think this will make next session REALLY interesting and fun :D

NOTE: Eladrin is based off this http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/npc-s/npc-17/shadow-cleric-elf-cleric-18

Edit: Spelling error.

Hello everyone!

I've been working on this new homebrewed enemy for the players but I've hit quite the pickle when deciding on its stats. Here is a brief description of the baddie:

There exists a small group of Elves in my campaign (118 to be exact) that underwent a secret ritual to tie all of their souls together. They can feel each others presence, emotions, thoughts, ideas, etc. To make this ritual complete, each Elf wears a large heavy amulet around their neck. When two of these Elves nearing death or defeat choose to smash their amulets together, the two Elves fuse together to form a new being, one that is surrounded by incredible magical energy and a very dangerous foe indeed.

This being would wield a large blade made of blue fire in one hand and cast fire/electricity from the other.

So more or less I'm stuck on the stats. My players are at a CR 13-14 level as they are all minmaxers. Here is what I got so far

Defense:
Size: Large (Magical Aura around being is considered size Huge)
AC 21, touch 14, flat-footed 20 (+0 Dex, +15 natural, –4 size)
HP: Around 300.
Defensive Abilities: DR 20/Magic, Aura: Violent Magic(2d6, 20ft, DC 25)

I'd appreciate any input or general ideas.

Hey everyone! So I've been hankering at creating a D&D session built around a puzzle, or a series of small ones. However, I tend to be better at creating interesting encounters instead, but I want to mix it up a little.

A bit of background, the PC's are going to be heading into one of the most northern parts of the map to an ancient kings burial tomb. The PC's are tracking the main villain, an evil Cleric who lost his powers committing a heinous act but has somehow not only regained them, but has become more powerful more evil as a result.

Sooooooooo what the players are going to find out is that this kings tomb is not what it seems (as usual) and is instead the sight of not only the kings tomb, but the prison of an ancient (not so evil, sorta evil. If you really want to know more about this entity, I'll give the full story upon request) entity.

So going through this crypt, I want the puzzles to not only allow the players to advance but to hint at who & what this entity is. When the players reach the end of the crypt, they'll learn the truth + other plot stuff.

I've been thinking about for the past hour but only came up with a word puzzle. Anyone have any interesting puzzles or other fun ideas?

Hey everyone,

So my players just wrapped up the second arc of my three part campaign and one of the NPC's (whos name is Eladrin) since the start of the game has betrayed the group for his own purposes, nearly killed a player character, and almost got away with it. A smart play and some good roles from one of my players prevented Eladrin from fully realizing his plans, but they were partially successful

Now, this NPC, is a 8000+ year old Elven cleric. Because of his betrayal, his alignment shift has caused him to lose his spells and what not. Eladrin is dead set on ensuring his plans come into full fruition so I was thinking that since he has lost his powers, he goes to another god to get his spells back, perhaps becoming a dark cleric?

I am more or less asking for some ideas as to what this character may do to get his magic back, more or less anything to get the creative juices flowing :) It was a crazy session!

So I had a very interesting D&D session the other day. I host a game that has players currently in the Numeria campaign setting, but their original world is one of my own making called Verda. The main is an artifically intelligent robot called Scion who built a huge army of machines to conquer Verda in Numeria. Currently, Scion is using a small, temporary portal to pass between both worlds but is building a massive portal to link Verda and Numeria, so it bring its full army over.

The leaders of Verda has learned of Scions intentions thanks to the players and most are bringing their army to stop the construction of the portal. The players however have found a quick and dirty way of destroying the portal: essentially nuking it. There is a crystal, when overloaded, will detonate like a small nuclear warhead. (and yes, they know how it works due to other Numerian characters explaining it).

This is the delimma: the machine army is located inside a city of nearly 100 thousand lives. If they nuke it, virtuallu everyone dies, but the army and portal are stopped. If they dont, then the players need to find a way to stop Scion amd his army on Verda.

My players took 20 minutes, bouncing in and out character, decideding what action to take. Destroy an entire city for certain, killing 100 thousand people, or finding another way. They choose finding another way, but what would you do?

In my current campaign, there is a magical artifact that is the center piece of a conspiracy, where several major characters are vying for its power. The only twist is that there is so little information about it, only a handful of people (about 10-20) know it actually exists, but no one knows where or much about it, they only know its incredibly powerful and world changing. If ya wanna know more about it, check the artifact backstory.

So my problem is this: one of my players knows of its existence out of game (we shot ideas back and forth a year or so before I set up the game and decided to stick with the idea, so he put two and two together), but their in game character, Abby, has a very intelligent character in game (int score 20). While the PC's have gotten some hints and scraps of information about its existence, not enough to paint a full picture. So this player already scored a (18 roll + 14) 32 history check and was a little bummed to find out they didn't know about it. I explained that its because its a HUGE secret and next to know one knows about it. My question is, was I right to decline them knowledge, what would be a DC to beat to know something about this super secret artifact, and how should I deal with it if they want to roll another knowledge check to beat it?

Artifact backstory because why not:

Long story short, a soldier who lost his wife, who was a wizard, during a war, wanted to be with her again, without the drawbacks of raising dead and etc. So he essentially created an artifact that could grant the wish spell, anytime, any place, without limits. When he wished to be back with his love, he vanished, and the artifact was left behind. (Essentially he created a paradise plane for him and his love and left it behind by accident).

When he made the artifact, he ensured not one soul knew what he was up to, so he set up safe zones for teleporting around the world and pretty much did everything in his power to keep it to himself. He only kept in contact with one person, an old war buddy, a gifted Elven cleric, who provided the man with supplies and magical items when needed (he knew not the purpose, but assumed he was doing military contracting work). When the soldier left to be with his love, the cleric found the artifact but it teleported away from him. Ever since that elf has been looking for it, and only a few others have discovered its potential.

As a note, I wasn't sure if I should put this in advice or campaign setting but since I'm asking for advice on what to do next I stuck it here.

So I'm having a hard time determining what to do next in my campaign. I've taken a 2 week break from game and I promised to run game this Sunday, but I'm still not 100% sure what to do. I'm more or less asking for some creative advice for my campaign setting. The game is runs fairly standard D&D in terms of level of magic. No guns, epic level fantasy for point buy. Pretty much LOTR if it had more magic. Below is the description of my campaign and how the players came to the current events.

I am currently running a pathfinder campaign in which the current antagonist is a Adamantine golem pretty similar to Ultron called Scion. Essentially, the golem is powered by a magical stone that contains a soul. This soul was lawful good aligned and Scion acted accordingly. Scion aided the players in defeating the first main antagonist of the campaign, a demon lord, and his soul was trapped in a magical stone.

As an epilogue session, Scion, wanting to learn more about the stone that powered him, visited a wizard to the north with the players. This wizard tricked the players and replaced the stone Scion currently had with the evil one. Now, Scion is powered by the soul of the demon lord, turned on the wizard and the players and went into hiding. One player willingly gave her life to make sure the group got away safely (this player wanted to roll a new character anyways).

So with Scion in hiding, the players agreed to a 1 year time skip, occasionally searching for Scion with no success. During the 1 year anniversary of the defeat of the Demon Lord, the players were in a Roman style Colosseum participating in a friendly match against other schools. Suddenly, Scion attacked with an army of constructs and forced the players to retreat. Shortly after, Scion slaughtered the kingdoms leadership and proclaimed himself king of the land and branded the players traitors and to be killed on sight. The players were aided by an Elven npc to escape the land and they are several miles outside the kingdoms jurisdiction.

So here comes my question: what the heck do I do next? I've been stumped for so long as to what Scion might do, what quests might intrigue the players, how do I keep them interested in the Scion threat, etc. As a side note, Scion has been building new golems to aid in his goals, but I'd like to avoid the standard "take over the world" plot, something with a little bit more meat, something with a twist, even a small one. I know it's not the easiest question to answer, but it's had me stumped for sometime.

Thank you for any advice you may have!

Here is my first forum post on here ever and I need some DM advice!

I'm having a problem with magic, long story short. My players are a lot more experienced then I, by about 10 years. Players are using magic in ways that are literally breaking my games challenge. They are all level 9. The party is magic heavy with a wizard, sorcerer, rogue, and cleric.

For example, they battled against a demon lord (home brewed) and they hilariously whooped him (And this guy was statted like you wouldn't believe). This demon lord also had a gigantic beast on his side, think something like Cho-Gath for you league of legends players. One player who had a flight spell on simply flew up to the monster, stabbed it in the eye and used enlarge sword to puncture its brain, taking down what was supposed to be a very power beast literally instantly.

Another example is gloves of shaping. My next villain is literally a golem with intelligence. Think Ultron. One of players has gloves of shaping. He could literally just pin it down with a clever trap, glove of shaping, and kill it right away.

I'm having a very difficult time and I'm getting a little frustrated with their crazy use of magic. What can I do to make it a little harder for players to just flip a dues ex machina switch on my tougher monsters, encounters, traps, NPC's, etc.

Thank you.