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Hey All,

After my AoW campaign stalled out at a Gathering of Winds (largely due to system slow-down of 10th-12th level) my group has been having fun playing other games. However, we would like to get back to the campaign but with a different system. I just picked up SW: Explorer Edition and it looks great for our purposes (Fast! Fun! Furious!).

I was wondering if anyone has any resources, tips, experience or advice porting D&D 3.5 (specifically the AoW AP) into SW.

Any help is appreciated!

Grunk

My group has just ventured into Greyhawk and I have a few questions:

Where would a temple/shrine to Wee Jas be in the Free City? I have a dwarf duskblade (loong story) in the party who is a worshiper of the Ruby Enchantress and would like to pay a tithe. Doesn't seem like Wee Jas is generally to well supported in the area as she is primarily a Suloise goddess. I'm thinking a small shrine over by the graveyard, tended by a Suel man who will give the dwarf a hard time.

Also for the dwarven duskblade: Where would a brothel catering to those who have specific desires for elven women be located? (Even longer story). I'm figuring he's not going to be welcome at the Star of Celene (and anyways he's not really interested in talking ;) I don't even think your average elf would consort with a dwarf. Maybe the best he can hope for is a dopple? >:)

More questions may be forthcoming. Thank you in advance.

Hey All

I am trying to design a prestige class for my Cleric of Brandobaris (Planescape setting, Faerunian Deity). I have largely based the class on the Thamautaragist (sp?). The main thing I want in this class is full spellcasting progression and Evasion. I haven't given everything a flavorful name yet, this is purely a mechanical question. Let me know what you think.

Hand of Misadventure
Prereq: Ability to cast 7th level Divine Spells
Domains: Luck or Travel

HD: d4
Skills and Skill points: Same as cleric

Class BAB F R W Special Spells
Level 1 0 0 0 2 Fast Movement +1 Caster Level
Level 2 1 0 0 3 Endurance +1 Caster Level
Level 3 1 1 1 3 Spectral Hand 1/day +1 Caster Level
Level 4 2 1 1 4 +1 on all Cha based skill checks +1 Caster Level
Level 5 2 1 1 4 Evasion +1 Caster Level

What is the best way to phrase questions for a commune? I'd like to get the most bang for my spellcasting buck.

In Planescape:
My party needs to assault (or otherwise infiltrate) a temple of Mask and my character (a cleric of Brandobaris) wants to commune with his deity with some questions about what we're getting into (guardians they might have, resistences we might need, etc.). We need to deposit an item behind a statue in the temple so I was thinking of asking if the statue is warded with death magic or something similar.

Some pertintent info:
I'm a Cleric 10 so that's 10 questions. We are currently on one of the planes of hell (which doesn't exactly make sense...isn't Mask CE?...earlier the DM thought we went to the abyss, maybe this is a plot remenant). Most of the party is Good or chaotic (though my cleric is True N) so they are taking major penalties just being in hell. Hopefully, the chaotic forces of Mask will take the same penalties.

Also, if anyone has any specific tips for ya'know...assaulting a temple feel free to put them here. Our party sucks at Gather Information (even more so in the hells), but some sort of scrying before the commune would probably be a good idea.

Hey all,

My group has reached a breaking point. One of the players does not have a car and lives all the way on the other side of town. In addition, he has made time commitments that conflict with our normal gaming time on the weekends. We've tried playing during the week but the inconvinience of picking him up coupled with the short amount of time we get to play (most have got 9-5 jobs) has made this unfeasible.

The rest of the players all live very close to me and we could easily get together at a moments notice. We've decided to proceed without the player. But there's a few problems:

1. How do we break this to him gently? He's our friend and such, but we're all just sick of driving him around and changing our schedules to coincide with his.

2. Each of the players (there are 3) plays 2 characters a piece so if this guy stops playing that will take out 1/3 of the party. I was thinking that each remaining player would adopt another character, but this could slow down our play considerably.

3. The player in question plays two very important characters. The arcane spell caster and the smoking eye ranger. I could justify these characters jagging off somewhere else, but they both are pretty integral to the story (esp. the smoking eye character). The arcane caster is Vortimax Weer (who post-eruption) is looking for money to re-open his shop. I can just have him go back there. But what of the smoking eye character...I guess he can go back to Occipitus and supervise there, but what about the final battle? What about Vhalantru's return.

4. The party is currently ~18th level and being run through the final rooms of "Root of Evil" (side trek). How can I justify 1/3 of the party leaving all of a sudden. If I do bring in more characters, how do I justify their arrival?

5. What characters would you recomend for a replacement? The previous party composition was
run by player A:
Paladin of Heironeous 18
Barbarian 17
run by player B:
Human Rouge/shadow dancer/fighter 18
Cleric 17
Run by player C:
Wizard/Archmage 18
Ranger/Aasimar/Smoking Eye 17 who's pretty much full on evil outsider bane (arrows, bow, favroed enemy)

I was thinking bring in a sorcerer 18 or 19 for Player A since he's not playing any primary caster. But what would you guys say I need for player B? He was thinking of going ranged fighter build as well, but I think that's not very powerful unless it's with a ranger (favored enemy evil outsider) at least for these last few levels. I dunno maybe a monk or something.

It really is a bummer that we can't put the campaign on hiatus but I may be leaving the area soon and thus, want to get it wrapped up. We've been playing for more than a year and just want to get it finished. So what do y'all think?

Hey All,
I'm starting a new campaign that is going to have 3 brand new (never played D&D) players. It is going to be set in the woods and one of them is a druid. Thus, I've incorporated as much wilderness as possible yet I also want to have some other stuff to spice it up.

I'm using:
Cry Wolf
The Devil Box
The most recent issues goblin adventure (maybe)
Shut In (Maybe)
Final Resting Place
Mellorn Hospitat
Racing the snake
The stink

Any suggestions incluiding non-dungeon material...Do you have a good idea? Something that worked that you did?

I am running the Chamber of Antiquities as a side-trek dungeon for my SCAP by making the book of dead names contain background for Adimarchus, Grazz't, and Nabathoroton.

I made the chamber leap around the multiverse randomly once a week, so it's no longer part of Maure castle, having disappeared some 300 years ago. It "happened" to appear in the hills outside Sasserine and noone had returned back from it, so the party went exploring.

The party consisists of:
5 15th level PCs and 1 with the smoking eye. Their classes are paladin, rouge/shadowdancer/fighter, cleric/contemplative, barbarian, wizard/archmage, and ranger/fighter.

First, they went shopping in Sasserine. They made the logical leap that anything that was guarding such a place had to either live a really long time or be immortal or a construct. The ranger bought a bunch of construct and undead bane as well as evil outsider (favored enemy) which he's been forgetting to buy at every oppurtunity. They also bought some scrolls of raise dead and deathward.

They approached 1 and looking around the room (and towards the M's to the east and west) activated the traps. Within three rounds, the ranger, paladin, and wizard go insane. The rest of the party subdues them while the rouge moves quickly to disable the traps. The cleric had to rest two days before all 3 greater restorations could be cast (they left the paladin for last) so after the second day, they decided to do some exploring.

The wizard stayed at the bottom of the stairs (outside of the map) and scouted the room with prying eyes a few times to get a gist of where the M traps were. The rouge then entered the room with the cleric. The cleric cast an antimagic field on himself and kept the rouge within 10 feet as he disabled the traps just in case one were to activate. They disarmed the trap at the south end of the dais and then moved to the southeast bookstacks.

The rouge entered the stacks and the mettallic doors began to close. Thinking quickly he tumbled out of the room(I had him make a reflex save and he rolled a 20). Just then, the cleric turned to see the Juggernaut spring to life. The juggernaut trampled the rouge and cleric who immediatly began withdrawing but not before taking a fair amount of breath weapons (slow, fire, and ice). The barbarian ran up the stairs into the room and helped evacuate them by throwing them down the stairs. Bruised, the party rested again so that they could restore sanity to their paladin.

The next day, the party cast a fair amount of buffs before entering the chamber including fire, ice, acid, electricity resistance 30, fly, haste, and deathward. The barbarian had greater heroism.

They moved in and initiative was rolled. The party barbarian was first in and did a fair chunk of damage (he had a very magic, construct bane adamantine great axe). The paladin approached but his sword was wholly ineffective. The rest of the party moved into position along the balcony while the rouge and cleric hung back.

the party rouge attempted to disarm the M traps that were around the room but failed early on and was affected by fear.

The juggernaut captured the barbarian in a forcecage and tried toasting and freezing him to little avail. It succesfuly dispelled the greater heroism. Over the course of the battle, the force cage was disintegrated by the cleric and wizard and greater heroism was cast again but again promptly dispelled.
This tactic was repeated adnauseum by the juggernaut as the barbarian was really the only one that could hurt it. The party ranger's construct bane arrows were not adamantine and were thus slightly less effective. The battle lasted 7 rounds and did not have a single death although everyone in the party had been slowed, poisoned, buffs dispelled, or forcecaged.

All in all, the juggernaut easily could have killed the party were it not for the energy resistances and the teamwork of the cleric and wizard with well timed disintegrates.

The party continued searching the chamber after resting. They disintegated the door to the chaos room which gave me one of those "oh s$^#" moments, until I read about the antimagic field. That could have been BAAAAD. They sent the barbarian in after checking the room with the old mirror on a ten foot pole trick. They found the room cool and trippy.

They searched some of the treasury rooms and greedily lapped up the robe of spellwarding and the shoes of farstriding. They then ventured into the room of changes. Some of them had the acuity to don the protective armor but some did not.

The party all entered the room and all made their saves the first round...except for the barbarian who rolled a 1. I rolled the percentile dice...elemental change...rolled the d6...OWCH...Odd number.

The party barbarian (nigh indistructuble mind you, believe me I tried) exploded in a ball of electricity. The party collectively crapped their pants, grabbed his body and ran. They ran all the way back to Sasserine and got him reincarnated. The character had previously been a goliath, then was reincarnated as a halfling so he felt it would befit his character more to be reincarnated again. and he rolled half-orc. Boy was he happy!

The party then set into the room with the skullreaver who they quickly dispatched due to the rangers favored enemy (outsider) and the clerics domains (law).

That's where we left it! I can't wait to get back to it in two weeks. The players are challenged by this module while still having a good time. Great stuff!

I was wondering if anyone else used NPCs in the PC's assault on the fiery sanctum. I did this for Sunday's session, using 14th level Shensen, Fellian, Cora Lathenmire, and Annah Taskerhill. The party already had 6 members, but I felt that for a big, assaulting the BBEG's type adventure, some of the other heroes of cauldron would step up.

Unfortunately, this slowed down gameplay considerably. I ran two big battles in the last session. The first was Freija, 2 Kelubar, Dericini and 4 Flamewarders. The Second was Nulin, Grehlia, Ardeth, Ti'irok, and the other 4 Flamewarders. Including the summoned creatures in Freija's battle that's 10 Baddies, 6 PCs and 4 NPCs...20 total, 14 of which were controlled by me.

Cora Lathenmire was relatively ineffective. She couldn't get past the damage reduction of all the evil outsiders. She helped by flanking.

Shensen was a little more useful. Her Ice Storm was effective against the Flamewarders and Ti'irok. Her flamestrike was semi-useful against the evil outsiders. She also removed disease to get those that failed their nausea saves against the Kelubar.

Fellian used some of his spells to help bulstor the allies. His Pathwarden levels came in handy when they were in acid fog, and he could move unhindered.

Annah Taskerhill was by far the most effective. She used her greater dispel magic to remove an acid fog that hampered the party. She used greater invisibility on the alakast wielding rouge which allowed him to beat down the harankin. Her bardic music helped the group score a lot more hits and damage.

For next session, I think Shensen and Cora are going to depart for the surface. They have not been particularly effective, have taken a fair amount of damage, and Shensen has used almost all of her spells.

Annah Taskerhill only has a few spells remaining, but maintains a lot of her scrolls and 6 more uses of bardic music ability.

Fellian has a fair amount of his spells left and a stoneskin from Shensen.

I would definetly warn against using NPCs if you don't want to slow down gameplay A LOT. I did a fair amount of prep work (about 20 minutes an NPC) and their turns still took forever. Caveat DM.

I was wondering if anyone else used NPCs in the PC's assault on the fiery sanctum. I did this for Sunday's session, using 14th level Shensen, Fellian, Cora Lathenmire, and Annah Taskerhill. The party already had 6 members, but I felt that for a big, assaulting the BBEG's type adventure, some of the other heroes of cauldron would step up.

Unfortunately, this slowed down gameplay considerably. I ran two big battles in the last session. The first was Freija, 2 Kelubar, Dericini and 4 Flamewarders. The Second was Nulin, Grehlia, Ardeth, Ti'irok, and the other 4 Flamewarders. Including the summoned creatures in Freija's battle that's 10 Baddies, 6 PCs and 4 NPCs...20 total, 14 of which were controlled by me.

Cora Lathenmire was relatively ineffective. She couldn't get past the damage reduction of all the evil outsiders. She helped by flanking.

Shensen was a little more useful. Her Ice Storm was effective against the Flamewarders and Ti'irok. Her flamestrike was semi-useful against the evil outsiders. She also removed disease to get those that failed their nausea saves against the Kelubar.

Fellian used some of his spells to help bulstor the allies. His Pathwarden levels came in handy when they were in acid fog, and he could move unhindered.

Annah Taskerhill was by far the most effective. She used her greater dispel magic to remove an acid fog that hampered the party. She used greater invisibility on the alakast wielding rouge which allowed him to beat down the harankin. Her bardic music helped the group score a lot more hits and damage.

For next session, I think Shensen and Cora are going to depart for the surface. They have not been particularly effective, have taken a fair amount of damage, and Shensen has used almost all of her spells.

Annah Taskerhill only has a few spells remaining, but maintains a lot of her scrolls and 6 more uses of bardic music ability.

Fellian has a fair amount of his spells left and a stoneskin from Shensen.

I would definetly warn against using NPCs if you don't want to slow down gameplay A LOT. I did a fair amount of prep work (about 20 minutes an NPC) and their turns still took forever. Caveat DM.

I just wanted to say what a great time I had running this portion of the encounter. The players had a great time roleplaying with the movers and shakers of Cauldron. One of my players was a PolySci major in College so it was a great oppurtunity for him to shine.

The party convinced the rest of the attendees to vote in a democratic way. Each party present would have one vote, except the party, which would have two. The party paladin quickly nominated Jenya for election after Aslaxin's suggestion. Flustered, the nobles quickly nominated eachother. The striders nominated the party rouge (who they have taken a shining to) and Maavu stood with him as well (the PC's father is in the Chisel...*cough*Freemasons*cough*)The party paladin (who had maxed out diplomacy) went around and first convinced the rouge to concede, then went through the merchants and religious figures. In the end, it was a landslide decision for Jenya. While this was happening, the party and the council discussed moving to a system by which there would be three branches of government...etc...etc.

A really fun encounter and the players had a blast. Of course, they were rewarded with that big chunk of XP. Anyone else want to share?

I had Skaven Umbermead replace Fetor Abradius: Skaven has infiltrated the Ebon Triad and secretly worships Adimarchus. His presence eventually allows Adimarchus’ madness to grab hold of Grehlia and bring her into the fold of the Thirteen.

When the PC’s stormed the Kopru ruins, Skaven enervated their cleric out of existence. As he attempted to dimension door to safety, the gnome wizard grabbed a book that fell out of the folds of his shirt. Skaven and the gnome had a little mini-tug of war that ended with the book being torn in half. The party discovered that this journal was strangely encrypted.

Using Decipher script after they left the ruins, the party wizard was able to glean that Skaven, Triel, Tarkilar, and Grehlia were part of an organization called the Ebon triad and background information such as what happened to Tarkilar, the nature of some of the monsters in the ruins, the beholder’s involvement with, and the fact that Skaven was working for mysterious benefactors. I staggered the revelation of information throughout the AP up until the Demonskar Legacy.The journal ends with the entry:

“No one, save Grehlia, knows where my real alliance lies: With …” This is where the book is torn.

A side effect of this journal is that it was encrypted with Adimarchus’ madness. Thus, in decrypting it, the gnome wizard began to grow mad himself. He guarded the notes in a very paranoid manner, only giving the rest of the party tiny tidbits of information, such as Skaven’s name. He had terrible dreams of fire (his phobia) and desires to kill party members in their sleep. Unfortunately, this wizard (and the notes) were consumed in the lava during the final test when he was telekenesed by Kaurophon.

This wizard was replaced by his younger, lazier brother who hopefully will succumb to the same madness when the PC’s retrieve the second half of Skaven(Fetor’s) notes during Secrets of the Soul Pillars. This will reveal some of the identities and his opinions of the 13, (Grehlia and the Fish, especially some of the Fish’s background), the nature of Karran Kuraal and its guardians (as detailed in the HC) Vhalantru’s true nature (def. revealed after Oblivion). Also, it will reveal that Skaven actually worships Adimarchus (although it won't mention him by name) and similarly to how he infected Grehlia, infected some of the 13 (albeit a long time ago)All this information will be staggered and *meh* cause a little madness.

I came up with these changes before the HC was written but found Grehlia an easy connection to the 13 and used it. I like the journal concept because it allows me to reveal some of that neat background information that the players wouldn’t get to see otherwise without giving them an advantage during the adventure. Also, by replacing Fetor with Skaven, he has been a much more effective villain and one that my PC’s are definitely looking forward to eliminating.

I have a larger party (6 members) and have been trying to determine an appropriate challenge for them with scaling the adventure. They have just cleared the first level of Karran-Kuraal.
They are:
Simon Trueblade - Male Human, 12 Paladin of Heironeous

Bonebreaker - Male Halfling (Reincarnated from Goliath) 11 Barbarian 1 Goliath

Azurius Foundling - Male Half-Aasimar (Smoking Eye) 11 ranger 1 Aasimar +1 smoking eye

Snalacious 'Snizler' Garrick - Male Gnome, 12 Wizard (was ressurected after assassin attack)

Erasmus Bufont - Male Human 10 Rouge, 1 Fighter, 1 Shadowdancer

Toric Grimgirn - Male Dwarf 10 Cleric of St. Cuthbert, 2 Contemplative

So that's 5 characters that are 12th level and 1 that is effectively 13 levels (Smoking eye). I seem to remember a guideline (don't know from where) that for every party member above 4 you add 2 the appropriate challenge rating level. So by that logic a CR 16 would be as easy of a challenge for them as a CR 12 would be for a party of four. Is this right? Any help would be much appreciated.

Hi All,
From reading the entire adventure path it seems like this is much to convenient and redundant of a plot hook. Has anyone else felt this and/or adapted the adventures accordingly?
For example, in Strike on Shatterhorn, Jenya divines that the cagewrights remain active there. My solution to this, is introduce the new high priestess of Wee Jas (sent from Sasserine) after or during 13 cages. Then when, Embril Aloustani abandons Wee Jas for Vecna, the new priestess (informed by Wee Jas herself) reveals the location of the traitor.
what do y'all think?

hey all
was wondering which issue in the upcoming greyhawk map issues will feauture cauldron and sasserine. i'm about to start to the adventure path but am also on a budget right now. Also, where did you DMs place the City and it's environs. Any information would be appreciated.
Grunk the Monk