![]() ![]()
The Paladin in the game I am running ignored all of my hints that something was off and maybe he should stay his hand when he killed a shadow demon possessed Anevia who had been disguised as Staunton Vhane. I made him fall for that one. He continued through the whole castle without his powers when he could have run back out and cast Atonement (or had it cast) right away. I made sure when he did it worked without a problem. The party ended up using their loot to pay for her resurrection, but it took considerably longer for Irabeth to forgive said Paladin. It was a great bit of story that all of the players loved (after it was over). I agree about being generous when it comes to forced alignment changes or falls from grace. It should only happen if the player made a choice to go through with the action knowing that there could be consequences. If the player insists on keeping the Profane gift, there should be consequences as deals with demons never end well. Nocticula, as a demon lord, can claim souls for herself. Perhaps the player's choice to bind herself to a demon could manifest along those lines. However, there should be a way for the player to find this information if she cares enough to look, and then a way to reverse it if she desires to pursue it. ![]()
They haven't actually gotten to Greengrave, Wizard's Tower, or Petrified Library yet. They will find the Family Crypt tonight and maybe move onto the next area. More details spoilered just in cast one of my players comes poking around here, also for giant blocks of text. Players:
PC Characters: Saavedra Gods Can Die (Saa): Devil Spawn Tiefling Rogue, offered an alignment swap (LE to CG) when caught in the Wardstone explosion, joined party after 1st book Sir Alden Fredrickson: Human Paladin of Iomedae, family is from Kenabres (and Sesker's Gully). Father's line has a tradition of heroic Paladins, Mother was a daughter of Terendalev. Kiras Goldenleaf: 1/2 elf Cleric of Desna. From Kyonin, Human Mother fled the Worldwound when the Circle of Heirophants fell. She holds the key to unlocking the secrets under Spiral Hill. Kiras is Desna's great grandson. Melikaf's cousin Melikaf Goldenleaf: Elven Magus. From Kyonin, Great Uncle was a wizard studying with the Living Library, designer of the original ritual to try to purify a Nyhandrian Crystal potion. His is the tower they will explore. Gerulf: Human Druid of Gorum. From the Realm of the Mammoth Lords (Sarkoran refugee) Ancestors were from the same tribe as Areelu Vorlesh. Has sworn vengeance on her to Gorum. Nyhandrian Crystal Purification Ritual:
Just before the Living Library and the Circle of Heirophants fell to the demons, a desperate attempt was made to create heroes that could fight back the demons. The Sarkoran Druids got their hands on one of the rare Nyhandrian Crystal Potions and designed a ritual to purify its power and infuse the participants with it. They gathered volunteers representing many different powers, energies, gods and magics. The best and strongest warriors gathered to be part of the ritual. As far as they know, the ritual failed. It killed most of the participants instantly and those that did survive were greatly weakened. The loss of Sarkoris' strongest protectors was the final blow. It fell not long after. The ritual site itself will be an area of shattered lay lines, haunts, and twisted plant life. At the center is a gazebo where the Druid protector of this area turned himself to stone. I am pretty sure he will be a centaur, though satyr and treant are possibilities too. As I am writing it, it looks like it will end up a gauntlet of haunts, traps, hazards and obstacles. I added a wand of lesser restoration and several scrolls of restoration and heal to the treasure in the family crypt. Mythic power in my game has only one source, Nyhandrian Crystals. It took mythic power to make the Wardstones. The sacrifice of St Clydwell was the catalyst for their formation. St Clydwell was a descendant of one of the ritual participants. Fighting the demons triggered his mythic ascent. The destruction of the Wardstones triggered my player's mythic ascent. Each of them is a descendant of one of the ritual participants. The ritual gave the children and blood relatives of the ritual the potential to awaken their mythic abilities. It didn't fail. It just took much longer than anyone had anticipated to do its thing. General:
The players have been enjoying finding bits and pieces of this puzzle. They decided to steal and purify a Nyhandrian Crystal Potion at the beginning of book 3, so have already been to the Ivory Sanctum (tricked the location out of me, sneaky players!). The rogue has an amusing encounter with Jerribeth who she thought was just an elf. Fortunately for the poor rogue, Jerribeth was more interested in making a deal than squashing her. Also, I had Vang be able to scry through worms that were part of him. He had many infesting Drezen. The Magus even kept one in a jar on his desk. It took the Rogue and Druid (the ones who snuck in) a while after they were out to figure out that Vang was actually in his room as piles of worms, watching them dig through his desk and steal the potion he had planted for them. They had planned to use the Redemption Forge to reforge the potion (I had let them reforge an inflict potion into a cure potion, reasoning that you could put a potion in a crucible in the forge). Vang thought it would be great to have one explode in Citadel Drezen's basement. The PC's figured out that it might be a bad idea just before trying it. They did use the incriminating papers they found to imprison Drezen's new commander. Since they enjoyed Nurah so much, I decided to add another traitor, the new commander's wife. She has everyone freaked out and scared of her. The players interrogated her and when I thought they were about halfway through they threw up their hands and decided that they believed her. I have decided that she will use her skills (Inquisitor Torture Master) to convince Arueshalae to use her energy drain on a 'traitor' Can't wait to see that play out.
Greengrave:
I don't have many specifics planned for this encounter yet. I need to make Shaorhaz mythic. Kiras decided to visit home and mention to his mother that he is heading for Greengrave, so she is freaked and went into hiding as soon as he left. I think the demon in Kyonin is going to capture her and trade her to Shaorhaz. She has the key to unlocking spiral hill. Petrified Library:
Again, I don't have a lot planned for this area yet. I do want to throw some Siabres at the players and let them find a ritual here to purify the land of Abyssal taint. (powered by mythic energy of course) Wow, that is a lot of information. If you want more, I can send you a link to my google drive folder where I have most of my stuff. I ask that you don't post the stuff publicly so my players don't stumble across it, but you are more than welcome to use anything you find interesting. ![]()
I am running book 3 right now. The exploration is my player's favorite part. I just don't let exploring less interesting hexes take much game time. I dislike random encounter tables, so I have a list of small designed encounters that are ment to inform the players about some part of the world. Maybe I am foreshadowing a future encounter or highlighting the strangeness of the place they are. An interesting encounter was a rain of frozen eyeballs. Easily dealt with, but it illustrated how strange the world is. Also, I was rolling on random encounter tables to tell my Druid what kind of eyeball he was looking at. One of the other players looked at me incredulously and asked me if I actually had a random eyeball table. My answer was yes, yes I do. I made a large map that the players are marking up as they explore. It helps make exploration tangible and keeps both them and me from getting confused as to where things are, what has and has not been explored etc. I also added a lot to this book in terms of area to explore, plot lines, Player histories and more. Each of my players is tied by fate and blood to the world wound and the events surrounding the fall of Sarkoris. I cut a couple of smaller encounters that I could not easily tie to one or more of the characters, then added an ancestor's wizard's tower and trips to the Petrified Library and Greengrave. Great stuff and the players are loving it! ![]()
My plans for this particular problem are similar. My PC's will be drawn in various ways to a gazebo in the worldwound. There will be a centaur Druid of the Green Faith that turned himself to stone after Sarkoris fell. He was one of a group (each tied to a PC of course) of heroes that tried to stop the demons. They got a hold of one of the Nyhandrian crystals (more rare, back then, but still causing problems). These heroes designed a ritual to purify its energy and infuse themselves with it. It backfired and killed or severely weakened them. It has taken almost 200 years, but fate has finally completed the ritual. The power now resides in the PC's. These Sarkoran heroes also developed a purification ritual to cleanse the abyssal taint from the land that never worked (lacking the mythic power necessary). ![]()
I am just starting to run the 3rd book with a great group of role players that are enjoying this adventure path immensely. There is one player though who, in every game I play with him, is consistently stronger than the rest of the party. He does 2-3 times the damage of the rest of the party combined. We have talked about this and he just does not understand that there is a problem because the rest of the party could be doing the same thing. But they aren't. Which is what I keep trying to explain. I think the mythic resolve system suggested sounds perfect. I am enjoying the mythic rules and what they add to the game. I think my players are as well. Mythic is a big thing and the PC's are just figuring that out. I don't want to tell this one person that he is the only one who can't use the mythic rules the way the rest of the party can. So far, the only other mechanical changes I have made are to beef up monster HP in general and have the enemies use decent tactics. I suppose my point is that I am having more trouble balancing the party with itself rather than to the enemies. I don't think I do any more work tweaking the challenge because of the mythic rules than I would without them. I would recommend just playing through the adventure path and fix issues as they come up, rather than worrying about how to head them off. Your GM sounds like he knows what he is doing and is used to running a fun, balanced game. That said, your suggestions for tweaking Mythic Vital Strike and general crits sound entirely reasonable. My players have not tried to use Mythic Vital Strike or any crit enhancers so I cannot comment from experience on those. As to Inspired Spell and the like, I don't think it is that bad. The ability replaces the use of most wands and scrolls and gives the spells a bit of a boost. Kind of cool and not really overpowered (except in the hands of the player mentioned above who is restricted to one summon spell active at a time). Same with mythic points and Recuperation. My players have only had Recuperation for 1/2 a session (I forgot that they gained a tier a couple of sessions ago, whoops!) It will just mean that resting is not that big of a deal. I hope this helps and I can tell you that this game is one of the most fun I have ever been a part of, playing or running. I will consult the rest of the group and see if we can come to a consensus on mythic resolve. Thank you Ckorik for the wonderful suggestion ![]()
I just got done running my party through Citadel Drezen. I made a couple of changes that made for a very interesting run. The party did it in mostly one go. It really stretched their resources. Abbreviated run through Drezen highlighting the changes I made: Anevia had gotten kidnapped when Nurah defected. When they found 'Staunton Vhane' in his room it was Anevia possessed by Eustoriax, disguised by one of the Succubi to look like Staunton Vhane (even wore his armor). They knew about the shadow demon, knew that Anevia was a prisoner and knew that Staunton Vhane was in there. There was still no hesitation, even though they suspected that it was not Vhane. The unlucky paladin got the killing blow and fell, then managed to make his save vs possession. He has avoided telling Irabeth so far...
Later in the Forge, the second the cleric left the Magic Circle against Evil Eustoriax pounced on him and took him over. Then led them on a merry chase (through the 'secret' door) to the pit where he jumped to the statue and telekinesed half the party into the pit. The Druid did enough nonlethal damage to the Cleric (who had 4 negative levels) to drop him below 0. The rogue jumped into the pit and guided the pali and Magus to the sewer drain (that I added in the center of the pit). The Druid dropped Eustoriax, grabbed the barely conscious cleric and burrowed for the army. They spent an hour (how long it takes to get from the Citadel to the gorge through my sewers) there waiting to hear that the rest of the party was not dead, healed HP and ability damage and charged right back in. They found Chorussina (who had her spell components stolen by the rogue), a handful of demons, Staunton and Joran in the ritual room. The party made quick work of them (Joran surrendered and Chorussina Dimension Doored away). I could have made Staunton harder, but we were all tired by then and I knew that they still had the shadow Stegosaurus and Velociraptors that Eustoriax had guarding the Sword of Valor to deal with... ![]()
NobodysHome wrote: So I'm looking for gift ideas for a Riftwarden Orphan sorceress. I know it is a bit late, but still valid, I think. I gave my magus the Pauper's Thighbone mentioned in the back of Sword of Valor. He is making great use of it casting his favorite spell that he has dubbed 'Quad M' (Maximized Mythic Magic Missile). I should mention that everyone in the party now has an artifact. Paladin = Radiance, Cleric = Starbow (from Demon's Heresy), Shadow Dancer = talkative intelligent armor I made up, Druid = Sarkoran Magic Warpaint that I made up. Most of these will improve as they go through the books. If you are going to go epic, go epic. :-) laraqua wrote: Does anything in this book return the river to flowing through the cracked banks of Drezen? I have only read through Demon's Heresy, but there is nothing about reclaiming demon tainted land. My players really want to know where their mythic power came from. In case any of them read this: Spoiler: They will soon discover that the most powerful casters that Sarkoris could offer got together to corrupt powers they stole from the demons (Nyhandrian Crystals) to create heros that could drive the demons back. The ritual 'failed' and killed or severely weakened the participants. It has taken a couple hundred years, but fate has finally completed the ritual. Each of my PC's is related somehow to one of the participants in the ritual. They will find the sole survivor and he will provide them with a ritual that was developed to reclaim tainted land. The ritual never worked due to lack of 'something' (mythic power). So they will be able to spend time and mythic power to actually reclaim land and make it fertile again. ![]()
I am running this with the rules more or less as written. I had to reign in my Druid a touch, but that is an expected player trait rather than a problem with the rules. I usually ad hoc the bigger monsters to have twice or more the listed hp if the combat looks like it won't last more than a round. I have to challenge myself to remember that the point of the game is for the players to be awesome. Say the paladin casts his smite and crits to one shot a big bad. He will think he is awesome and that is a good thing. Some combats will be harder than you expect. Last night my party discovered that they are woefully inequipped to handle a flying nabasu casting enervate at them. As long as your players are enjoying themselves, sit back and roll with it. ![]()
Working through the first bit of book 2, I think we finally have a solid party (I did not make them take campaign traits): Alden Fredrikson: human paladin of Iomedae, born and raised in Kenabres Gerulf: human druid of Gorum (I know, but it works), raised in one of the barbarian tribes to the south that was decimated by demons while he was out communing with dinosaurs Kyras Goldenleaf: Half-elf cleric of Desna, curious traveler from Keyonin; came with his cousin Melikaf Melikaf Goldenleaf: Elf Magus, curious scholar from Keyonin; came with his cousin Kyras X Anslen Bavel: Human Cavalier from Gelt; searching for a 'Holy Grail' for Queen Abridgale. Player decided he didn't like playing her so after the end of the first book, she got a vision of her grail from Iomedae and rode off alone into the world wound. Saavedra Gods-can-die (Saa): Tiefling rogue, heading for shadow dancer; She was a devil descended follower of Asmodeus until the wardstone thing altered her drastically (alignment from LE to CG + mythic powers). Talked her way into the party by mentioning that she also had a dream from Iomedae. ![]()
My druid has rather successfully redeemed the mandragora from the safe house. The party puts earplugs in and tosses it into combats where it screams and usually takes out half the room. The same druid convinced one of the 'Lost crusaders' to follow Gorum instead of Iomedae and charge the barracks during the last battle. The only other one they are trying to redeem (they haven't reached Drezen yet) is Irabeth, who got pissed when Nurah ran off with Anevia and abandoned the army to go rescue her. The party hunted her down and dragged her back and currently have her watched by the afore mentioned druid. She blames the party paladin for dragging her (and Anevia) out here (which he did) and for being chosen as a Hero by Iomedae. So we'll see how that goes... ![]()
My first character in Carrion Crown was a witch with the hedgewitch archetype. We didn't have a cleric at the time so it fit in nicely. She used control spells like grease and hit things with a quarterstaff. Also, beguiling gift was great for trying to get the uptight paladin to put on this ugly hat...
|