Jhaosmire's page

Hey everybody! I finally ran this level!

Thanks a bunch Covid-19 for helping delay this by four months (sarcasm).

Here's how it went down: I pre-rolled all the monster initiatives to save time. Went from high (21) to low (1), with the most powerful bunch going first. Players were scattered in the middle of the track.

All the players decided to stay defensive round 1 as the monsters lurched forward. This gave the mindless creatures a chance to corner the party in the room entry (which I think was a mistake of mine to do). Stuck in a small bundle, I tried to "lure" them away by hitting them with Unholy Blight a couple of times. Stubbornly, they stayed where they were at.

As for the clock-mechanic, they were WAY too suspicious of it to get anywhere close (again, my mistake of cornering them). Other than summoning Ghouls, the clock played very little a part in the battle, other than being a cool decoration.

With my party still sticking to the entryway, the Bar-cromancer started hitting them with his punishments. Confusion got a couple of them, but the big heavy-hitter was Stinking Cloud. Every single one of them failed their save, and they were cornered two creatures deep in a nook. That alone was leaning this fight towards a TPK.

Players were Shaken from the Dirge of Doom Doomharp being played, Confused, Nauseated, often Sickened, Paralyzed from mass Ghoul attacks, and one even became Slowed. On top of all this, they didn't focus their attacks in any way, spreading damage all over the place, keeping more of the monsters in play through most of the fight.

As things got worse and worse, one big factor kept them on top: one player had used an Elemental Gem of Fire round one, and it was hurting Mummies and butchering Ghouls from start to finish. The player controlling it realized there were ghouls behind curtains and started burning them way, and then the Ghouls would be cornered by the elemental until their demise.Additionally, the Fire Elemental (the MVP of the fight) found the Bard-cromancer, who was armed primarily with loads of fire spells. Thof his 192 HP (he was boosted from many things story-wise), the Elemental did about 140 damage!

The Players finally got out the their corner, take loads of AoO's in the process, and hide and stayed defensive until the Nauseated condition left. Finally they started picking off monsters. The paladin summoned his Gorthek mount, which is always a big player in battle, and a key moment almost went awry: the paladin, with his healing spent and 20 HP remaining, surrounded by 5 monsters (including the Flesh Golem and the Erinyes Devil), debated between mounting the Gorthek or using his Great Cleave feat tree. EVERYBODY tried to talk him out of mounting, due to the AoO's he'd provoke. He was tempted. He weighed it heavily. In the end, he went with a big attack against the Erinyes Devil. He hit. He killed it! he cleaved through into a Spectral hand of the Bard-cromancer, dissolved it, cleaved into the Wraith, dissolved it, and continued into some Ghouls. This, timed with the reveal of the BBEG, changed to mood from despairing to hopeful.

At this point, several characters were down. I was running the party wizard (as the player has been MIA for over a year). He, literally, did NOTHING the entire fight. The Paralysis + Stinking Cloud + Confusion held him from round one, until the was pummelled and dying. at -9, the character stabilized. The gunslinger, being run by a substitute player as the actual player cannot come until after the pandemic fully ends, did some harm, but unfortunately fell in battle. He, sadly, never stabilized, the paladin was out of heals, potions were all consumed, and the rogue with the Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds was slowed and far away. This was the first casualty.

With the minions defeated, the BBEG cornered with a Fire Elemental burning him away, and twelve rounds gone, the paladin mounted his beast and lined up for a charge. The other players cleared rubble from his path, and even ordered the Fire Elemental away. This, however, left a straight shot from the BBEG to a grouped together party of four, and he had yet to use either of his Fireballs. Dice were rolled, saves were mixed, and the paladin, mounted but not yet charging, burned to unconsciousness. Our Fighter too, realizing the mistake of grouping again, was killed from the Fireball. The group now was down to two.

I had the mount, dismayed and burned, wander off and dismiss itself, disappearing. The wizard shot a few Magic Missiles but was rebuked by a Brooch of Shielding. The Rogue, finally at full speed again, went invisible and rushed into the bosses room. He sneak attacked, injured the BBEG who now only had 20 HP remaining. The Elemental came back in, did another 9 damage. The paladin, flung to the ground, stabilized! Finally, surrounded, flanked, almost dead, the BBEG pleaded for mercy (after launched a Scorching Ray). No luck. The rogue attacked. with Sneak. Crit! with 11 HP left, the BBEG took 60 damage!

The group won, at the cost of two PC's, dozens of condition cards, all their potions, every trick they had up their sleeves, and 15 rounds of combat! Additionally, with a tragic twist ending of storyline madness, they all agreed it was the best game of Pathfinder they had ever played, and the most challenging fight any of them had ever encountered!

Thanks everyone for your help building it all, we all had a blast!

-Jhaosmire

The Plan, currently:

Here's what monsters I have planned for the combat right now:

Bard-cromancer 6,400 XP CR 9
Wraith 1,600 XP CR 5
Wight 800 XP CR 3
Shadow 800 XP CR 3
2 Mummy 1,600 XP CR 5
Flesh Golem 3,200 XP CR 8
Erinyes Devil 4,800 XP CR 8
Shadow Demon 3,200 XP CR 7
Unending Horde of Ghouls,400XP each, CR 1

I'm thinking the ghouls will always number about 10, likely a d6 of ghouls will join the battle every round. There will be ten starting out in a mixture of disguises/armor to make them look like the Bard-cromancer (who is a venerable Warforged prototype). They'll hang back, pretending to cast spells in unison (which will actually be buffs/debuffs from the organ playing)

The room will be coated in dark curtains, shaped like a square-ish gear, with many crenellations on the sidelines, hidden by the curtains. Behind one of the curtains is the BBEG, behind the rest are the many, many Ghouls. Presumably, if they throw back all the curtains except the BBEG, that would end the flow of Ghouls (but they're near infinite until that happens.

The Erinyes Devil is actually a shell the Bard-cromancer built to house his Frankenstein-style wife, a gnome safely tucked inside. Once defeated, she'll emerge, and plead with the PC's to let him live.

The Shadow Demon is going to be what is driving the Bard-cromancer mad, living inside the Dark Grimoire. He'll bolster troops from the sidelines, and keep the darkness flowing. If they try to destroy the book, he'll join in regular combat. If destroyed, this will give the PC's HeroArmor, in that the BBEG will be sane enough to help them out now, for a bit. There is still evil in the Grimoire, afterall.

Also, I chose a lot of these creatures based on a combination of CR, what he would have created, and what I have available in my Bestiary Box 1.

Howdy All,

My Players all over the way combat roles out in Pathfinder, so I'm trying to adapt it to more areas. Here was the formulae I have come up with, using a social situation was the example:

Social Combat:
AC = 10 + Sense Motive
AB = 1d20 + Knowledge/Appraise/Linguistics/Perform (choose one)
Damage = Ranks in (AB Skill)
HP = 10 + Bluff + Diplomacy + Intimidate + Sense Motive

Once defeated, a character will be "out" without being dead. In the example above, they'll have been so humiliated/shamed/disgraced that they resign from further interactions. I'm hoping to use this format for a series of situations, some serious some silly: A dance-off, an intellectual debate, a wilderness survival challenge.

What do you all think? What would you adjust? Any suggestions for other ways to use this, both situations and combinations? Thanks!

-Jhaosmire

Howdy all,

I'm looking at running a leisurely Riverboat Adventure through Nirvana for my group. On this trip, I want to include a series of minigames and gambling games for the Players to try out, preferably something more substantial than "roll a d20, highest wins." I found an old dead post from 2013 that I'll post down below which had two good ideas. So my questions are thus:

What minigames have you all run and/or created that worked out well, and what system did you use to run them?

Here are two that were posted on another thread in this forum (no hyperlink as I'm doing this all from a phone on vacation):

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Spicy food eating contest
Include npc contestants

Waiters will quickly bring out plates of Curry and remove them all at regular intervals. Players have to roll 3d6 and add either their will save or fort saves to the totals. For every 6 points they get, is one bowl of curry they manage to finish. the player with the most bowls of curry finished by round three wins!

Also at the end make them all roll a DC14 fort save or throw up.

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Junk stacking contest
Include npc contestants

Players have to stack random junk as high as they can and attempt to make the highest tower possible. The player to build a tower 50 inches high wins.

Players play one at a time and roll 2d6 with each 1 point representing 1 inch of height gained. Players have to push their luck or lock in their progress because if they get a 1 roll on a single dice, their current amount of work crashes down and is lost, if they roll two 1 results, their whole tower collapses and they start again.

The trick is for players to roll their 2d6, gather points and knowing when to stop to "balance their tower" locking in their progress. Trying to be too greedy can result in their work being wasted unless they know when to lock in their progress.

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Word making

Randomly grab letters from your scrabble or upwords box and place them in front of the players, give them 5 minutes to make as many words as possible

What about a party stat buying system? Everybody rolls their six stats, all those are thrown into a group pool (in order, so a STR roll is a STR roll, no swapping), but then Players have to opt to buy each from the pool? Then there is some amount of option in character build, no one player gets to dominate with highest stats, etc.

Here's the link to the Skill Chart, created by Reddit user u/Kesselya. I love how he built it, though admittedly it won't get it's first use until tonight, me thinks.

Howdy All,

I'm looking for some battle music, of a very specific variety. Disco. Or Electronica Disco, or anything else along those lines. Any suggestions for me to try? I'll likely use Spotify or YouTube to bring it up during the game.

A mad wizard has lured the Party into his lair, a cave he has decked out in his particular style. Here is the scenario:

A set of six wide stairs leads into the chamber, which is strewn about with rugs, pillows, and pelts of every variety. Tapestries line the log walls, the scenes on each slightly in motion, magically charmed. A thick, metallic, four pronged anchor, with a spike in it's center, is pounded into the ground in the center of the room. You see the anchor, barely visible, among a crowd of dozens of skeletons, each coupled together, staring face to face with each other, motionless. On a platform twenty feet up, on the far side of the room, in front of a huge mechanical box, wearing a helmet that only covers half his head and one ear, a familiar Warforged Wizard looks down on you all. "Let's Disco..." he says. With that, he activates the machine, which amplifies and blasts the music from Salami's chest speaker. As he manipulates the box, one hand on the helmet covering his ear, flashing lights blink and pulse in every color to the beat of the music. The skeletal couples dance with erratic moving and gyrating, blocking up the path to get to the mad wizard.

And that's the situation. Necromancer Rave. The Player's likely won't attack the Wizard, as he's a former party member. To defeat him, they'll have to "out dance" the skeletal groups, trying to get to that anchor, which is their goal. Thanks again for any musical advice!

-Jhaosmire

I would (and plan to) run my Vigilante's identity as a secret for as long as I possibly can. If I hit twentieth level and they haven't figured out that I'm "not really a rogue," then kudos to me, I will be proud.

Howdy all,

I'm building a town (a few actually), that I want to populate with some unique businesses. I'm thinking interesting characters, odd means of selling, and the types of businesses that one would visit after just hearing the name. I've used some generators to build a basic town with some flavor, but was hoping to get some good ideas from here also.

So, what businesses have you come up with for your campaigns, and what sorta characters are in there?

One great assist I found recently was to have one of my player's build the character, not letting them know if it was a hero or a villian. They're great minmaxers, so they made a competitive Chaplain (Bard-type). Saved me time, and was fun for all. Plus, only one player had any idea of what was going on.

Songs be ultra important in my campaign, to the point where one of our player's has made our party a theme (yet to be revealed).

I'm running a Steampunk campaign, and am literally designing my levels around various Steampunk bands. Steam Powered Giraffe for a base feel, The Cog is Dead for multiple level concepts.

This might be my favorite thread I've found so far...

I like to balance silly with oddly practical:

Magical Hooded Lantern + Prince Nez: Looks like a lantern that does nothing, but when coupled with the glasses, works for a single player as a normal lantern. Good for sneaking.

Animated Gloves: Pretty much Dr. Strange's cloak, only in butler glove form. No magical bonuses, but let's it's bearer physically handle the incorporeal. I didn't expect my group's Monk to be able to grapple ghosts, but I love it.

Mystical Menu: A list of drinks, that when a player puts the right coins onto the right drink, the coins disappear, and a drink with mug appear seconds later. Player's figured out how to use this to send messages to the bar that fills the orders (beer means yes, wine means no, piss means anger, etc.)

I gave out some cigars that can be burned as stinking cloud, a settee couch that grants the benefits of a long rest during a short rest, slow glass that captures or freezes the image in a mirror, an affinity scarab that uses coded dots to communicate, a parasol of many (alchemical) items, ethereal monocles, goggles of fog penetration, lens of detection, a (haunted?) player piano, automated abacus, mammoth-powered springs of mithril or adamantine, life-thread-weaved domesticated dire dung beetles, pocket watchdogs of warning, double-headed spears of rowan wood and silver (for vampires and werewolves, respectively), spring-heeled boots, glamoured slippers of spider climbing that change to match any outfit AND are self-cleaning, petticoats and/or parasols of parachuting, top hats of persuasion, cumberbands of grace, snuffbox of healing...

Excellent list! thanks so much!