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I am just wondering... I have some players b!#&~ing that they aren't getting the amount of loot that they are supposed to be getting. Is this adventure path that light on loot?
If memory serves, many of the late-game nasties have long reach melee touch attack that deal enough ability damage to a mental ability score to outright kill a PC in one attack. This can be a critical hit. Haven't seen it yet... but I'm just quickly looking through stuff in the game. I usually have to alter stuff due to their high ACs, and have to use AoE and Touch attacks to hurt them... They are getting to the higher levels though. I just can't wait for them to get to Red Hand... considering a few of them are playing uncouth hicks... I wonder how they will deal with the Royalty.
The Wormhunter class isn't that important at all. Personally, I certainly wouldn't do them any favors. They failed to investigate Bozal's activities. That should come back to bite them. Actually its their 10min dungeon exploring. They use buffs to make themselves almost unkillable. So almost all their spells are on buffs, and they didn't have anything else for 'exploring' and thought they could get away with it after the games. They did manage to kill the Herald, but it was a close thing. It downed the NPC fighter, and they were wondering why a fighter doesn't have a dagger as a back up. A pair of high rolls followed by low rolls for con damage gave them enough time to take t out. One more round, they would have had a very hard time.
Considering they are Munchkinning out. I think don't mind them getting some of their stats drained. Its getting a bit ridiculous with AC 39+ for their spell casters...
How would Sheltered Vitality work with a Kyuss Worm? Does it just delay the onset until the spell wears off? Then it starts to eat the brain?
Not important IMO. Are you playing 3.5? Yea, they already are kinda of Munchkinizing their builds. But I was wondering how much probs the Worms will give them at the Spire of Long Shadows.
My players just finished up AoW: The Champion's Belt. Unfortunately, they have lost their chance at the Apostolic Scrolls. Since they are mostly a group of mages, they buffed themselves up for the arena battles and managed to pass them mostly with ease. The problem was since they are the 10-min adventurers, they didn't have the resources to go searching around. As a result, they didn't find the Shrine of Kyuss, and on the last day of the battle the Apostle of Kyuss managed to break free. Fortunately, they managed to slay it before it finished the ritual. They did manage to do a few things. One of the mages managed to fly over to Raknian and Dominate Person him, but everyone else managed to get away. How useful is the Wormhunter class? I know they will be meeting more and more worms, and the "Return to Diamond Lake" is going to more or less give them a nice breather from undead. Its just after that adventure, they will be meeting more and more Kyuss spawn and I was wondering how badly do they need the Wormhunter prestige class? Considering it is made especially for this adventure path.
I'm still trying to find a monster for them to fight on the 3rd arena battle. Need things with AoEs and/or touch attacks. Their armor is still ridiculously high and now their power level is still pretty damned high. They actually one hit killed a few people in the first arena battle.
I was thinking that also they were going to try and hang back. The problem so far, is that they have several things drawing attention to themselves. The Druid and his Fleshraker pet are planning to go Huge. (They are large right now, and will probably will be Huge at the Arena due to Enlarge Animal.) So I figured that creates also a HUGE cross hair on both the Druid and the Fleshraker, but everyone will work together to take down the Dinosaur and the Druid. I've warned them certain things will paint crosshairs on their back. (The Wiz mentioned that he was going to cast Invis Sphere and Silence. I figured that would also make the the other groups work together as it puts up a flag that the party will try and kill steal or just wait out the combat and pick off only people.) If they follow their SOP, the Enlarge on the Fleshrakes and Druid Wildshape will cause everyone to look at them. The Wizard casting Girralon's Blessing (Spell Compendium) then Polymorphing into a Susurrus , will probably paint another one on them. The Cleric, Healer and Warmage will probably be able to avoid attention if they play their cards right, but knowing them they will draw aggro after the 3 big leagues. Especially if they decide to help out. I'm also upping the CL of the battle. The calculation of the EL for it is a total of all the groups. BUT since the groups are fighting each other, the party technically is not the focus of all the attention (I don't think its fair that the party gets xp for some temporary allies doing the work for them.) So I'm thinking upping it by either 1-3 levels to represent that they are NOT supposed to be focus of the other groups (unless they do really stupid things.)
Presently they are in "Hall of Harsh Reflections", and just finished up the Mind Flayer. Right now they are going backwards and picking up loot and hitting the museum where they skipped. The list of spells above is pretty much everything they use except for the Warmage who has all of the Evocation spells (Guess who provides the most damage.) As I said, the Druid is casting Kelpstrand, and the War Mage and Wizard now have Evard's Black Tentacles as Damage. Cleric has a few other spells, but mostly is memorizing buffs. So far, I'm thinking the only faction they pissed off right now is the dopplegangers. Still figuring out how to integrate them into the game. The Greater Doppleganger did provide the Wizard and the Druid with problems as his touch attack actually can hurt them quite a bit. We are doing 3.5, but a majority of the books are allowed. There are some exceptions. So far the only outright banned books is Book of Nine Swords, Unearthed Arcana, and Races of Destiny. All Campaign Book specific items and things are not allowed. Some of the campaign items are allowed, but anything else needs approval. (Recently the Druid is asking for a spell that the Yuan-Ti use. Told him no, unless he wants to be evil and worship the Yuan-Ti gods.) The Octopins are unable to affect this group. Since they pretty much only use buffs. They have AC's of 34+ and with "Freedom of Movement", they auto-win any grapple so the party members, so the Ocotopins just became speed bumps to the party. I needed something to cause them problems. So far the Intellect Devourers caused the most problems. Problem is I messed up a little. I should have had the ceiling of the Mindflayer room be ringed with a line of alcoves 20 ft from the ceiling. They casted Evard's Black Tentacles on the CEILING so it grappled and killed off the Intellect Devourers I replaced the Octopins with. ----------------------------------------------------------
1. Arcana Auriga into a mostly either Elven Caster, or a combo of Sor and Warlocks. (Lots of AoE and Touch Attacks since their AC is probably too high to hit with arrows.) 2. Badland Revenge - Druid and Barbarian Combo (Druid with some of the Stats of Pitch Blade in it.) 3. Sapphire Squad - Mounted on Flying Mounts instead, or having a bunch of halflings mounted on Dinosaurs. (Seeing how they might like being on the other end of the Fleshraker.) Actually while typing this out, why couldn't I have a Halfling group mounted on Fleshrakers and another Druid Halfing for Badland Revenge. Sounds like that would still be name appropriate. Sapphire Squad I really want to have Flying Mounts since when meeting flying people that the tentacles would have problems with. Looking at the 3rd day. I have a surprise with Pitch Blade and I think it'll provide enough enjoyment for them. 4th day, I have got to find a new monster for them to fight. The one listed in the adventure has a tendency to use... Grapple... so I'm looking for creatures that have AoE effects, or can remove buffs.
We are doing 3.5 since it was originally written for it. I've been adjusting several of the encounters so they no longer have a complete walk in the park. I swapped Intellect Devourers for the Ocotopins, and gave them a major fight for their lives. They had to use Spiritual Weapon, and Lesser Acid Orbs to take them down. It was amusing seeing the Tiefling go Catatonic as he didn't have high Cha and was the focus of several Ego Whips (and failed his save several times.) Unfortunately, once the Evard's Tentacles came out, it pretty much was game over as the Intellect Devourers only have a Grapple of +1. I should have gone with an advanced Intellect Devour, but didn't have enough time to write out the stats for an advanced one. Unfortunately, a Phrenic Destrachan wasn't much of a threat to them. Especially since it didn't have a decent concentration check and a trip from a Dire Wolf and a grapple and pin from the Flesh Raker allowed them to coup de grace it. I'm thinking about having the Mind Flayer escape and become a Reoccurring Enemy. If they do manage to kill him, turning him in a Mind Flayer Lich so they might have to start looking for his Phylatery. I have a few ideas for his dying speech. Although, a friend of mine suggested I try a dying curse from Heroes of Horror to affect someone. That way they'll have some interesting times ahead.
A Tiefling Wizard, Halfling Druid, Human Cleric, Warmage, and Healer. Everyone for the most part has the following spells buffed on them.
The Halfling and Tiefling are usually either polymorphed or wildshaped into something with a high natural armor bonus. Usually a Salamander (+7 AC) for the Tiefling and Fleshraker (+6 AC) for the Druid. Druid has enhanced wildshape, and Tiefling also has Shield (+4). Tiefling and Halfling Druid are the tanks in the front.
They are level 7-8 and are presently walked through the Doppleganger Hideout and now trying to take out the Mind Flayer. Recently the Cleric has been casting Freedom of Movement on 4 of the party members, and the Druid has natural spell which he is now casting Kelpstrand on anything they have trouble hitting and his Grapple is high enough that he out grappled the Mimics. If its a caster of some sort he summons allies on them. Especially anything with Spell Resistance. The Druid wasn't able to get his pet past the guards, unfortunately poison isn't allowed in the city (another Fleshraker) They are 'reaping the rewards', but to me when they take no damage from an encounter and keep pulling back soon as the spells are dispelled or wear out, its making it slow going. I've debated about have the monsters come back later, and/or leave instead of sticking around. They might not complain about wanting more of a challenge, but doing dungeons practically untouched and the healer hasn't even used more than 2-3 spells is making me think they need to be challenged better. Any encounter without a boss, they walk through it. More or less nothing can hit them unless it does touch attacks. The recent Freedom of Movement prevents grappling now, so the Arena Battles coming up is going to be cakewalk. I need ideas to make it more where the monster's can't even hit them and hurt them. Only thing I've considered is increasing the number of spells casters tremendously. Except I don't feel that having a coterie of nothing but sorcerer and clerics is believable. As for the Arena, I need some builds that will make them also have problems since nothing with the groups will cause them any problems what so ever. They could essentially take everything on at one time and win. What I need is stuff that uses touch attacks, and goes through Fort and Dex saves instead of Will saves. I don't mind changing a couple of the monsters to be more challenging and would like to see them get through so the Healer has to case more than a Cure Minor, a Cure Light, and MAYBE a Cure Moderate. Psionics are allowed, but no one has used them yet.
I've considered the enemies use the black market and use loot in the adventure to aid their defenses (any uses is just used...), but if they pull back I usually don't have enough time to adjust on the fly and can't determine what was used to buy what. Usually they pull back, craft magic items and then go to sleep. I'm deciding if they pull back they will get harassed, but I'm afraid that they will Rings of Sustenance for everyone so they need less sleep. They've more or less sold all the magic arms and armor so they have a large Warchest.
I'm running Age of Worms for a new group of PC's. Unfortunately, they aren't running with the standard group. They all over spell casters. Every beginning of the adventure, they buff themselves only and then proceed to walts through the module. When they run out of spells, they retreat and repeat. I need ideas on how to change the module to deal with people ACs so high they cannot be hit normally. Have freedom of movement up so grapple doesn't do anything. Have usually 1 or more resist energy spells so they are immune to damage types. I need monsters that will give them a decent challenge an not just be butt monkeys and die. The only other thing I can think of is attacking them in their sleep, which is kinda a dick thing to do, but they have had to put up watches in an Inn to make sure they don't die from the factions they have pissed off.
I'm a little worried about my group.
Elven Druid
Yep no Tanks, we might have a Ranger come in with the usual Two-Sword Style later. (He doesn't like to play in Lvl 1 games, waiting at lvl 5.)
Actually, I'm just gonna play with it anyway. Some of them are a bunch of Min/Maxers (aka Munchkins) and they keep thinking they can get away from stuff. So far they have stolen horses and other items from Diamond Lake (where they won't be able to show their face again), gotten Allustan VERY angry (to put it mildly), tried to rob the inn that they had a stop off at on the way to Blackwall Keep and generally 'bully' their way through things. Right now we are still working on "Encounter at Blackwall Keep" I was missing a few of the first two modules, and I really wanted to run them through those also. At the same time they wanted to be higher level. (Which I allowed since I didn't think it would be that bad.) I've warned them time and time again that the Anti-Social Behavior that they so love to do, will haunt them. I'm adjusting a few things on the fly, but I have a feeling that the important stuff that they need will be missed... badly. I'm just wondering HOW bad will they do. I've only done a brief overview/reading of the modules that I do have. While I could spend some time readjusting, we are going to have a 'Marathon' session on 19 July 2006 (about 16hours of playing) and I was wondering how badly will they screw up. I can fly pretty well with a canned adventure that I've read a few times, but I haven't read deeply past "The Champion's Belt". I'm wondering how much more their 'Anti-Social' behavior will actually give them problems. Essentially take EVERY ally and enemy they could meet in the game, and make them hostile. I'm wondering when would the campaign end cause they don't have anymore leads or the person who they need to talk to is so angry with them. I've also been toying with the idea of a 2nd group of adventurers who will 'follow' them and are all 'Good'. So when they mess up the 'Good Group' will follow up, take out the baddies and 'Get all the Glory'. Having them play second fiddle to a bunch of NPCs.
I am presently running a group of PCs though the Age of Worms adventure path. The only problem is that two of the PCs keeps saying thare are 'Chaotic Good' or 'Lawful Neutral'. Its just that they keep doing 'evil' things. While I don't mind moving their alignment to evil. I am wondering how this might affect the rest of the adventure? I've been reading through what I can, but I'm worried at the upper levels, when they start to decide to summon creatures, having some Devils and Demons fighting undead kinda makes me wonder if they wouldn't mind joinning up against the PCs and all. If anything, I think the campaign universe that I set it in will go through an Age of Worms. If anything the players would probably CAUSE it. |
