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Organized Play Member. 70 posts. No reviews. No lists. 3 wishlists. 1 Organized Play character.


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GMPC

I'm preparing to run Wrath when my group finishes the current AP (Crimson Throne). During the latter part of that AP I noticed that having a voice in the party is really helpful for me. I can close any gaps in the party loadout, thereby freeing them to play what they want, and I can give them hints and nudge them to roleplay if necessary, without it coming from the disembodied voice behind the scenes.

My players likely won't have a divine caster, the only healer being an Investigator. He will probably be able to deal with HP damage in downtime, but in-combat healing, buffs and remove X will be a rare commodity (apart from items maybe). I was thinking to provide them with a GMPC who can heal, possibly taking Hierophant and/or Marshal path to best enable them. Something like a cleric, bard, etc..

I'm reading NobodysHome's Journal, and he did have a GMPC with them, so it seems possible. On the other hand, the AP is already pretty full of NPCs who can accompany the party, and who I want them to engage with.
How doable is a GMPC in Wrath?
Thinking of running it

Hi there, my group will be finishing Crimson Throne soon, and we're looking for a new campaign. Our finalists are WotR and Azlant.

Maybe you can tell me about Ruins of Azlant:
- how is the fights/RP balance?
- How linear is the story? Lots of small missions, or more straightforward?
- it looks like a lot of mystery/detective work, with the BBEG only being revealed pretty late, is that correct?
- does it involve colony building rules or anything?
- it sounds like a rather slow campaign, is that so?
- is there much that needs to be rewritten or changed?
- Other things I/we should know about this AP?

Thanks in advance!
Thinking of running it

Hi there, my group will be finishing Crimson Throne soon, and we're looking for a new campaign. Our finalists are WotR and Azlant.

Maybe you can tell me about Wrath:
- how is the fights/RP balance?
- How linear is the story? Lots of small missions, or more straightforward?
- is it really impossible to balance? (I have some experience with adjusting stats on the fly)
- do I need to rewrite much?
- Other things I/we should know about this AP?

Thanks in advance!
Harrow Deck (Book 6) Changes (SPOILERS!)

My players are currently within Scarwall, and I'm thinking about how to approach the last book, including the Deck of Many Things. I'm mostly happy with it, but some cards don't feel right to me. This is especially true for Cards that kill/remove a character, because it's either "waste a harrow point", "waste resources reviving them" or "new character" (As I don't think they would - for example - travel to the plane of air, just to get their companion back.

So my goal is to use the hivemind to find other fitting effects for those cards.
Rough Structure: Original Effect - Problem - Suggested Change.

The offenders:

The Avalanche:
The character is imprisoned, either by the imprisonment spell or some powerful being.
This is just a dead PC.

The Crows:
The character must make a choice between his most valuable item or a major ally of the GM’s choice.Whichever the character does not select is destroyed or slain and cannot be restored by any mortal means.
This is not horrible, but killing a major ally doesn't really have a ton of in-game drawbacks, and just makes life difficult for the GM.

The Cyclone:
The character is drawn into the card, appearing in an arena-like chamber surrounded by ghosts. There, the character must fight an elder air elemental alone. If she can’t defeat the elemental in 1d6+1 rounds, she is instantly transported to the Elemental Plane of Air.
Again, dead PC. With Korvosa on the line, the party won't mount a rescue mission to the plane of air.

The Demon’s Lantern:
The character’s body disintegrates. All that remains are her items and a glowing gem containing her soul. This gem is worth an amount equal to the character’s level x 2,500 gp. A miracle, resurrection, true resurrection, or wish is required to restore the character; doing so destroys the gem.
Dead PC or just a wasted card.

The Forge:
The PC must choose armor or a weapon he owns to be reforged into another suit of armor or weapon of equal or lesser gp value. Any gp value not spent is lost.
This is OK, but somewhat boring.
The Card is neutral, so any effect should have a positive and a negative side.

The Midwife:
The character gains exactly enough experience to advance to the next level.
This is alright, but I'm unsure how to use it with milestone leveling. Is that PC now one level ahead of everybody, or do they just level up earlier? Any other suggestions are also welcome.

The Paladin:
The PC is granted a holy avenger. If the character who gains this card’s effect currently wields Serithtial, this card has no effect and the player instead gains a permanent +2 increase to an ability score of her choice.
I have one Paladin in my party, and he's probably the one who's going to wield Serithial. For everyone else, a holy avenger is only useful for sale, which is pretty underwhelming.

The Sickness:
The PC becomes afflicted with incurable blood veil. The disease cannot be cured by any effect short of a miracle or wish spell.
This is thematic, but does nothing but effectively make the PC spend resources on restoration every day.

The Tangled Briar:
Once per day, the character can use speak with plants to ask a single question of a plant. Using this ability upsets the surrounding flora, however, causing 1d4+2 shambling mounds with the fiendish creature template to erupt from the ground and attack the character, regardless of the surrounding terrain.
Why would anyone ever use this?

The Teamster:
When the character draws this card, he receives a vision of a beautiful ghost. With a successful DC 35 Knowledge (arcana or history) check, he recognizes the woman as Sorshen, Runelord of Lust. The ghost informs the PC that Ileosa intends to destroy her legacy, and commands the PC to defeat Ileosa before the passage of 7 days. If Ileosa has not been defeated in this time, Sorshen is displeased and the PC gains a negative level that cannot be removed—a new negative level is gained each additional week that passes without Ileosa’s defeat. If the PC is slain by accumulated negative levels in this way, he becomes a wraith. As soon as Ileosa is defeated, any negative levels imparted by this card vanish and the character immediately gains a permanent +2 bonus to his Charisma score.
This is wicked cool, but it's a bit sad that any positive effect kicks in only after Illeosa is defeated.

Harrow Deck (Book 6) Changes (SPOILERS!)

My players are currently within Scarwall, and I'm thinking about how to approach the last book, including the Deck of Many Things. I'm mostly happy with it, but some cards don't feel right to me. This is especially true for Cards that kill/remove a character, because it's either "waste a harrow point", "waste resources reviving them" or "new character" (As I don't think they would - for example - travel to the plane of air, just to get their companion back.

So my goal is to use the hivemind to find other fitting effects for those cards.
Rough Structure: Original Effect - Problem - Suggested Change.

The offenders:

The Avalanche:
The character is imprisoned, either by the imprisonment spell or some powerful being.
This is just a dead PC.

The Crows:
The character must make a choice between his most valuable item or a major ally of the GM’s choice.Whichever the character does not select is destroyed or slain and cannot be restored by any mortal means.
This is not horrible, but killing a major ally doesn't really have a ton of in-game drawbacks, and just makes life difficult for the GM (me).

The Cyclone:
The character is drawn into the card, appearing in an arena-like chamber surrounded by ghosts. There, the character must fight an elder air elemental alone. If she can’t defeat the elemental in 1d6+1 rounds, she is instantly transported to the Elemental Plane of Air.
Again, dead PC. With Korvosa on the line, the party won't mount a rescue mission to the plane of air.

The Demon’s Lantern:
The character’s body disintegrates. All that remains are her items and a glowing gem containing her soul. This gem is worth an amount equal to the character’s level x 2,500 gp. A miracle, resurrection, true resurrection, or wish is required to restore the character; doing so destroys the gem.
Dead PC or just a wasted card.

The Forge:
The PC must choose armor or a weapon he owns to be reforged into another suit of armor or weapon of equal or lesser gp value. Any gp value not spent is lost.
This is OK, but somewhat boring.
The Card is neutral, so any effect should have a positive and a negative side.

The Midwife:
The character gains exactly enough experience to advance to the next level.
This is alright, but I'm unsure how to use it with milestone leveling. Is that PC now one level ahead of everybody, or do they just level up earlier? Any other suggestions are also welcome.

The Paladin:
The PC is granted a holy avenger. If the character who gains this card’s effect currently wields Serithtial, this card has no effect and the player instead gains a permanent +2 increase to an ability score of her choice.
I have one Paladin in my party, and he's probably the one who's going to wield Serithial. For everyone else, a holy avenger is only useful for sale, which is pretty underwhelming.

The Sickness:
The PC becomes afflicted with incurable blood veil. The disease cannot be cured by any effect short of a miracle or wish spell.
This is thematic, but does nothing but effectively make the PC spend resources on restoration every day.

The Tangled Briar:
Once per day, the character can use speak with plants to ask a single question of a plant. Using this ability upsets the surrounding flora, however, causing 1d4+2 shambling mounds with the fiendish creature template to erupt from the ground and attack the character, regardless of the surrounding terrain.
Why would anyone ever use this?

The Teamster:
When the character draws this card, he receives a vision of a beautiful ghost. With a successful DC 35 Knowledge (arcana or history) check, he recognizes the woman as Sorshen, Runelord of Lust. The ghost informs the PC that Ileosa intends to destroy her legacy, and commands the PC to defeat Ileosa before the passage of 7 days. If Ileosa has not been defeated in this time, Sorshen is displeased and the PC gains a negative level that cannot be removed—a new negative level is gained each additional week that passes without Ileosa’s defeat. If the PC is slain by accumulated negative levels in this way, he becomes a wraith. As soon as Ileosa is defeated, any negative levels imparted by this card vanish and the character immediately gains a permanent +2 bonus to his Charisma score.
This is wicked cool, but it's a bit sad that any positive effect kicks in only after Illeosa is defeated.

only one can wield Serithial, items for the rest
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Hi guys, does anyone else feel it's a bit weird that only one of the PCs gets this powerful McGuffin, and the Rest of the Party gets nothing "special"? I don't want any of my players to feel overlooked, so I thought about designing flavorful items or boons for the rest of the party. Has anyone done something similar? Am I overlooking something? How did your party react to only one wielding the cool sword?
Harrow Deck Draws in Crown of Fangs (SPOILERS)

The title is vague to avoid spoilers, I'm of course talking about the Harrow Deck of many Things.

I was reading the Anniversary Edition rules for the use of this deck, and it's not clear to me when the PCs should be allowed to spend the Harrow Point to redraw a card.

Should they know what exactly is going to happen, and then be allowed to instanty counter the card? That seems a bit Meta to me. An alternative would just me as GM telling them how bad the card is ("annoying/really problematic/you might lose the charakter/you will lose the charakter), but that can be subjective, and I don't want them to feel cheated.

Any advice?

Thanks in advance. ^^
Anniversary Edition - Escape from Old Korvosa leveling

Hey, so I recently got my hands on the anniversary edition of CotCT. I've been running the path for some time now on the old material, and my Players were just at the start of Book 3, just after Meeting the young noble.

My problem is, that the AP suggests the PCs being Level 9 after dealing with the Emperor, but Level 10 before entering the final dungeon. How on earth is that supposed to work if they don't murderize their way through the Arkona's Palace? Glorio's whole point is to try and solve things diplomatically, but even the XP reward for that is not enough to Level up.

I couldn't find this Topic anywhere, so maybe I just misunderstood something...