Hangfire's page

Hello gang

My group has just switch over from 4e (which we were luke warm on) to Pathfinder (which we're enjoying much more). I, as the DM, have a few questions though.

I've noticed in combat, with encounters built per the core book, that the PC and monsters are pretty well matched, which seems to be a change from 3.5. What I mean is this - I'm finding that the monsters and PCs are pretty easy to hit, and that the damage each does will wipe out the other pretty quickly. I've been doing a fair bit of fudging of the dice because I figured I'd screwed something up. Is this working as intended? It almost seems like the PCs and monsters need a hit point kicker like Hackmaster, a bonus of somewhere around 20 hit points at first level to make things interesting. What are other DMs finding? Should I be lowering the CRs of the encounters, or just beefing up the monster hit points while lowering their damage output?

Thanks for your comments.

Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the package arrived very quickly, which is great. The bad news is that one of the items I ordered as not included. I ordered Pathfinder Chronicles: Curse of the Crimson Throne Map Folio print version, but received Curse of the Crimson Throne Player's Guide. Just let me know how you want to handle this.

Oh yeah, the Pathfinder RPG Beta looks great. Nice going guys.

Just letting you know that these issues have not shown up yet. I may be a little early on #146 but #145 is a really late by this point (so I've already purchased a copy from my LGS). I posted in the Dragon section that there seems to be a problem getting my issues of both magazines. I've had a subscription for two years now and when I first got it the service was great, but of late it's gotten pretty bad. Not sure who's responsible for that. As posted in Dragon section, any chance that the magazine could be shipped as other than 2nd class mail? Thanks.

I'm looking for some help with an excel file that I'm building to track XP for my group. I have the basic file built, but I need help with one part of it. I need to be able to compare the current XP of each party member to the XP table, and generate the actually level of each character. As it stands now I have a table that adds up the XP gained at each session and gives me a total at the top - which makes life much easier for me. But sometimes I look at the totals and can't remember how much is needed for 17th level. One cell in each column would calculate the level based on the XP table on another sheet of the workbook. Sounds complicated, and I'm sure with enough trial and error I could figure it out, but someone that really knows excel could probably generate the formula that I need in no time. I'm not even sure at this point whether to use IF(), AND(), OR(), COUNTIF() or whatever. Any help would be greatly appreciated, and I would be willing to email you the file after for your own use. Thanks.

Okay, I seem to have a problem in this adventure and I'm really hoping someone out there has a brillant bit of insight for me. My party (and they are all experienced players with at least 10 years under their belt) have entered the city of Ahlster and decided to visit one of the lower class bars. One of the players (a guy) is playing a human female barbarian. She sort of stands out, so she's approached by a few bugbears in the bar - they want to buy her a drink. She says fine, if you beat up my friend over there. I don't for the life of me know why she did this, but she did. The bugbears are always up for a fight and jump right in. The rest of the party, and bar, get involved. It's going great until one of the angels shows up to break up the fight. The citizens all quiet down, but the party doesn't want to go to jail and attack the angel, killing her! Now they just want to 'disguise' themselves and get away with it. No harm, no foul. I'm not to comfortable with that, there should be some kind of consequence - but does it mean the end of the adventure path? How is the Prince going to feel about the group that's going around killing his city watch - certainly he's not going to want them at his party. This one has me stumped. Any suggestions?

I'd like to get some idea of how other DMs are doing in the Spire segment of the Age of Worms. My party just entered the ziggurat, and they didn't have an easy time of it. I have six members in my group, with five of them being there when they entered Room #5. Now they rolled to listen at the door of the room, but undead just standing there are pretty hard to hear, so the party was surprised when they entered the room (the undead all have pretty good Spots and Listens I noticed - like ~+21, so no problem to hear the party at the door). Party steps into the room and wham! the Swords of Kyuss unleash their 'power of death' as my party has come to call it - 14d6 damage!! Well the cleric failed all of this reflex saves and died. Only the monk and rogue made it through unharmed. Needless to say the combat went down hill from there - the warlock also died eventually. After retreating all the way back to Magepoint, rearming, reincarnating/raising party members they trek back to the city and go for it again. The battle went better, but two party members died again - and the party was ready for undead this time. I know the group thinks this encounter is too tough. What about the rest of you - death trap or not? I'm not sure if the Swords of Kyuss, with that great ability they have, are only a CR 10 creature. I mean, they get to heal and harm at the same time three times a day - a total of nine times in the encounter. Pretty tough.

Okay, one more question. In regards to the Overworm - the stat block gives it a +21 to hit, but mentions that a 10 point power attack is included in that. However, a 20 HD magical beast has a BAB equal to it's HD as a fighter, or +20 in this case. The overworm has a Strength of 40 giving it a +15 to it's attack, which comes to +35, minus 10 for power attack should give it a +25. Right? Am I missing something (which is totally possible). Also, does the fact that it gets only one attack reflected in the CR? A 20th level fighter would get 4 attacks every round, but this beastie only gets one.

I have sent an email to customer service, but thought this might get noticed sooner. I'm sure that the Dungeon has been swallowed by one or the other of the postal services, but not sure if the Dragon is really late or just Canada late. Thanks for any help.

Hey all. I'm wondering if someone can help me. In an up coming section of the adventure path the party is going to find a piece of the Rod of Seven Parts. Now in the boxed set (that would be the boxed set of the Rod of Seven Parts) it's stated that the Queen of Chaos will send her wolf-demons to attack the party when they find a piece of the rod, and the same thing is suggested in the adventure path. I'm wondering if anyone knows where I can find details on a 3.5 wolf demon? If memory serves there were four different demons. I was a little surprised that these demons were not mentioned in the adventure path - but maybe there are legal issues and what not, or just space limitations. Any help would be great.

Okay, so my party encountered the mindflayer, Zyrxog. I'll get to how it went, but I'm curious to know how other DMs are handling the killing force we all love, Zyrxog?

So, the first time the PCs meet Zyrxog, and I'm not talking about the little mini-encounter when they're leaving Telekin's lair, they had all crowded into the scrying room. They were looking at Telekin's lair, and then they decided to try and use the device to scry on ol' Zyrxog himself. I thought that was pretty good thinking, so I say sure, you see him hiding in a shadowy area (he's in the nest room levitating up near the ceiling waiting for the party - love that Alarm spell). Of course Zyrxog gets a check to determine if he's being scryed - makes it! So, he turns and there's the party at his scrying pool. Lightning bolt. I get about half the party. Now the problem with them fighting Zyrxog where they are is that they have to line up the see and attack him. The monk jumps down to the floor - where the octopin are moving to climb up the wall from their starting position. From there is just went downhill. More lightning bolts, fireballs from the necklace, ray of enfeebelment (love that spell now), and so one. Eventually the party runs away with major damage but no deaths.

So they have time to heal and plan - our group has a forum set up for discussions, some role-playing of shopping and such (dice roller is great on a forum), and they set up a thread for party members only, no DM, to talk strategy. No problem there, only it doesn't go so well. They figure that they'll let Zyrxog know they're there, but then lock themselves away to let his defensive spells run out. Good plan, except for plane shifting. He sneaks up behind them (after recasting his spells that had run out) and lets them have it with mind blast. He is eventually defeated, but it was a tough one.

So, how did your party fair? Also, I'm wondering about what you thought of the encounter itself. With a SR of 32, mindblast DC of 23, you've taken out the fighters and the wizards from the fight. What's left, the rogue and cleric??? I'm still confused as to how this is a CR 11 monster (not to mention the inclusion of two CR 6 critters). My party has six members and they all managed to make it to the game for the mindflayer encounter, and still it was a tough fight - almost too tough. But for the roll of a dice or two it could have been a TPK. Thoughts?

Some spoilers!!!!! If you're playing in the AoWs then don't read this!!!!!!

I was wondering if anyone else had noticed something kind of strange in two of the dungeons - the Dourstone mine and the Sodden Hold warehouse? In both dungeons the elevators are useless as written. In the mine the control for the elevator was actually on the moving platform, making it to 'call' the platform. In the warehouse the water filled elevator can only be controlled from the underground room. What happens once you leave and want to get back in to the dungeon? If this isn't the main entrance, then who uses it. The mine elevator is similarily hindered. My players picked up on this right away. With the mine you could always have someone in the elevator at all time - though how he would know someone wanted a right at the other end is still a problem. It's even more of a problem for the water filled elevator - much harder to contact the person at the other end and be let in. Just thought I'd throw that out there. If you haven't already DMed these areas then read them carefully and make the changes that would have to be there to make the elevator usable.

I was wondering if someone can help me with a problem. I can't find an article I'm looking for in a Dragon magazine. I can't remember the articles title, but it was dealing with survival checks to find good camps sites, and the effects of less than perfect locations on the characters. Any help would be great - I really need to know what issue the article appeared in. Thanks.

I just have to ask about this as I'm waiting for my issue of Dragon to show up. What is the deal with the shipping times that appear in the Dragon section of the web site. It says that my copy was shipped to me on August 2, it's now the 18 and no magazine. It also says that it will appear on newstands on August 23, except that my local game shop had the magazine on display on the 15 (and since they only get new deliveries on Fridays that means they had the magazine on the 12!!). I just wonder why I'm subscribing if I can get it faster buying it at my local shop? What usually happens is that I buy the copy and then my subscription copy shows up a few days later. It's getting a little frustrating. The main reason for me to subscribe is to get the magazine faster, which just isn't happening.

I would just like to thank Eric for putting together such a great adventure. I ran a good portion of it last night to rave reviews from the group. I had to make some changes due to the fact that I have six players in my group and most of them are running races with LA +2. No big deal at all though. I like the fact that the dungeon doesn't rely solely on monsters for challenges. In fact, the party had the most trouble with the bug swarm, which is CR 1 if I'm not mistaken. They eventually came up with a unique solution. My only worry when starting out on this adventure path (and I haven't played or DMed the last adventure path) was would the players move through it too quickly. I do have to wait for a whole month for the next issue of Dungeon after all. It looks like we'll be okay on that front, but we play every Friday, so it might be close.

Anyway, great job Eric, and I can't wait for the next issue of Dungeon to hit my doorstep.