And this right here is one of the reasons that I sincerely don't want to leave these particular games. While we only know each other from here, and only writing, I still consider you all friends. To see your support really means a lot. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all very much. :D
all, I need to apologize for not posting for the last while, and this bit of full disclosure will hopefully give you a feeling of where I'm at. About 4 months ago, we had an update of a critical software, that was my project, go horribly bad, and it got me put on a performance review. 90% of the time this leads to the termination of the person on it. So for the last 4 months, I've been working with my nose to the grindstone, most of the time putting in 50+ hour workweeks, which left me not doing much of anything else. Fortunately, that 4 months is up, and I find myself in the 10% that kept their job. You should see an uptick in my regularity at this point now that that pressure and stress is eliminated. The review had been lessened and put back in place a few times (more because of HR issues than my performance), which is why I'd given optimistic posts here about things lightening up, but then fell back to being irregular. The actual sign off on that PR came yesterday, with my manager actually letting me shred a paper copy of it ;). Thanks again for the patience, I know it's been a bit of a struggle for you all as well. Pat (Ragnir)
Ragnir continues to cover Leira as best he can with his shield, moving between her and the scorpion, muttering in his low growl that he *thinks* can't be heard, Bloody young lass sleepin' in her dainties on t'road. Not that i's no bein' a foine sight, but I'll no be seein' the lass gettin' cut up by the likes o' tha' thin'. An i's bloody well distractin" He continues to steadfastly make a point of NOT looking back at Leira.
Ragnir rouses, wearing a nightshirt, quickly snatching up his axe and shield, "Who's makin' all that racket! We be needin' our sleep." He does a double take when he sees Leira, pausing for a moment, stepping between her and whatever is making the noise. "I'll jus' stay here wi' me back facin' to ye, lass."
Crimson gives a quick humph, "The newbies are workin' out fair. Seems they live by the code, an' their loyalty is to you and Wraith till ye're dead, or the Wraith is. Far as a bit o' walkabout ta hunt? That sounds like a crackin' good idea ta me."
Preety much what Mazra said. I have a lot of friends in minority groups that saw the election of Trump as an attack on the rights that they've fought so hard to gain. Many of those folks are depressed, some to the extent of being suicidal, so it was a rough few days.
Ragnir growls "What in the nine hells is tha?!" He looks back at Leira and watches her appear behind it. "Well longlegs, I'll no be backin' up now, if'n I do, this jelly beast'll have Leira trapped. Torag lend me the might o' th' mountains!" Ragnir moves quickly, light emanating from his holy symbol and suffusing his whole body. The dwarf then lays into the creature with his axe.
Ragnir moves in on the overgrown salad. "Greens shouldna be this big. Ye're meant tae be a small side dish, no the bleedin' main course!"
Ragnir sets to with his axe, glaring back at the elf, "If'n I wanted te be a gardner, I'd have found meself an elven community. Cuttin' down plants is no job f'r a dwarf!
Sorry for any delays. I was just made a PM for a big project at work which is eating up almost all my time. I'll be posting at night, mostly now.
Ragnir has Prot from evil, and protection from evil communal memorized, Haskyll, so you don't need to mem it, if you don't want. We should coordinate spells. I've been taking mostly utility/buff spells Bless
I'm using the letters idea, but also adding another element. I'm using Obsidian Portal to do upkeep on the campaign, listing npcs, items, a wiki, maps and an adventure log. I started writing the log in the style of an observer that was following the PCs exploits and had some insight into what they did almost day to day. I really started with no intent to havec it be anyone in the game, but switched the idea when one of my players asked me "Do we know who the creepy author of the logs is, how do they know so much?" Suddenly, I have something completely out of game that can get under the PCs skin so when I send them the letters they'll really be freaked out.
Shared treasure list is up
Ragnir looks at Szacha with a crooked smile on his lips, "Does it look like I'm a bard, whelp? Me tales are no fer spewin' jus' anywhere. And certainly ain't worth tellin' ta try'n gain coin from it. Didn't mean fer ye ta get yer knickers in a bunch. Grab a pint, and drink wi' th' rest of us." With that he turns his attention to Anga, "Giants? I ken a bit about em. Habits? Mostly disgustin', best way ta kill em is ta hamstring em, or cut out the back o' their ankle. Then they flop around like fish, and ya bash em. Easier n' droppin' a Calistrian's knickers. What else ya want ta be knowin?"
So just an update on things for me personally. My son is still in the NICU, but that's routine for a premie. He's eating really well (like a pig!), and they had him under the lights because he was jaundiced (again completely normal for any baby, but more of a concern for premies). Everything else is normal, and believe me they tested EVERYTHING. As long as he keeps eating and getting rid of waste, we should be able to take him home soon. My wife is sore, but doing well. So I'll try to maintain the one a day post at least, but things have calmed some after the chaos of the birth and getting my son stable and doing well.
After a short while in the Warm Respite, sampling the fine drink and fare, the trumpets blare, marking the start of the jousting tourney. The starting rounds are to begin, and many of you are not in the lists till some of the later rounds, but certainly scouting out the competition, or just taking in the majesty of the tourney is too tempting and you move towards the Clydwell Plaza, in the shadow of the Cathedral, and too your pleasant surprise are able to get places very near the front of the crowd. You see the trumpeters with their long silver, banner draped horns blasting out the fanfare. Nearly a dozen of the trumpeters bellowing out a clear clarion sound. The listmaster announces the first two competitors and you watch as Sir Kuranith steadies his charger on one side of the field, readying to meet Sir Yasek Balron on the other. The flag is dropped for them to start... Everything is dark. You're on your back. You take in a deep breath and find you have trouble breathing. Dust fills your mouth and nose, and your head throbs with a monstrous headache. After a moment, the ringing in your ears subsides and you can hear the sound of clattering rock, along with moans of pain. Feeling around you, you can feel rubble and rocks, along with softer items that you'd rather not identify and realize that your are covered in dirt, but seem otherwise unharmed...
Wrath of the Righteous. Even the name says it all, and in that name is the promise of the hero rising from the ashes to battle the odds with righteous fury. Or at least that's my take on it. The theme of the epic adventure is one that all of us know, and many hold dear. Arthur and Camelot, The Lord of the Rings, The Belgariad, Sword of Shanara, and the list continues enough that I could fill this whole space. They all hold one thing in common though, the fight between good and evil. Wrath of the Righteous has the same feel to it, and I'm looking for a few epic heroes (in time ;) ) to come take that trip with me, and see what kind of tale we can weave. That being said, I am looking for four, and only four characters to join this game. I am looking for good aligned heroes, with outstanding backgrounds that have been given thought, with enough drive for the character, and enough dangling threads that I can use to weave into the game itself. I am also going to be doing things a bit different. I am going to have a prolonged recruitment. The first week or maybe two are going to be for character submissions, after which the next week or two is going to be roleplaying the festival Armasse in Kenabres so I can get a feel for how the characters are portrayed, writing styles, personalities so I can put together a group that meshes well. At the end of the two weeks, I'll start the campaign, and may even have a surprise or two. Character creation details:
Expectations:
I look forward to finding my four. Who’s up for the challenge?
With the quick responses we usually get to just about anything, I don't think this group is in danger of falling apart. I expected a slow down over the holidays, especially with Astein having to attend to some court cases (I worked for a large law firm, so can totally symapthize). Which is why I wanted to try and ease things into the holidays, and then come out of the flip side with a hunger for more ;) I'm still fired up about this campaign, and this group. You all have provided some great characters, with some interesting backgrounds that I can pull items from to add some spice to the book as well. So you can rest assured that I'm not going anywhere.
One other thing that I will mention. Come mid/late February, my posting will most likely slow down some. My son is expected to be born then, and while I love this game, and this group is awesome? My firstborn takes precedence ;).
Ah, one thing I'll mention as to the way I play Identify or Spellcraft checks on magical items. Usually, I'll just give you the info, if you make the check. It's tiresome, and creates too much bookkeeping to give you the school, the strength of aura etc, and then try to keep the bonuses to hit/ac etc to myself. So on those type of items, I'll mark it, and tell you. On items that have multiple effects ie many of the wondrous items, I will make you roll a number of spellcraft checks, or cast identify. Potions are another item entirely. I have a spreadsheet that generates the color, smell, consistency, and taste of all the potions. So once you identify a potion, say potion of cure light wounds, the description that goes along with it will always be consistent. So I'll give you cure light wounds, since I think one of you has one. The potion is Light Grey, with a smell of burnt wood, a slimy texture, and a salty taste. That descriptor will *always* accompany a cure light wounds potion.
Guys, I also have this to say. I've played PbP games before on other sites, and follow a few here, but I have to say that this group, right here, just seems to be more friendly, and much more like a group of people that I would game around a table with, than a group of strangers with a keyboard and monitor between them. So, I just wanted to say thanks :D You're all of you making this a really fun game, and I look forward to adventuring with you all for a good long time.
Vixen, wait, you mean you play evil in an intelligent way, and don't just use the "evil" alignment as an excuse to be a murderhobo? I thought that people like that didn't exist, just like there weren't people that played lawful good as lawful stupid ;). Thank you!
Paladins do not get their abilities from a deity, they get their abilities from being a non swaying, stalwart defender of things good and lawful. They get their abilities from following their code, NOT from following a deity. The question is about worshiping an evil god, which would mean following that god's tenets, observing that gods rites, etc. An evil gods rites are bound to include some items that are going to be considered evil. We're not talking about a Paladin being duped into doing something for the evil god, we're talking about WORSHIPING an evil god. If the Paladin takes place in, or turns a blind eye towards the rites and tenets that are evil, the Paladin breaks the code and falls, or has to atone.
I disagree with the statement that AC is not a stat that can be described "descriptively". After the rolls of the PCs trying to hit the creature, I'll routinely give out descriptions. If they are way off the mark for the AC, I'll give a description like; "You move into a position you think is good and make your blow, but the creature manages to move and your blow falls wildly off the mark." Whereas something that is one or two away might get a description like: "You step forward, lunging into your blow, and feel contact, but the blade skitters off the scales with a high pitch screech, and the beast seems unaffected." The first lets them know, whatever the roll, that they missed by a wide margin. The later lets them know that they were close, but just missed actually doing damage. My players have learned that my descriptions give them the "number", and have changed tactics without ever hitting a creature.
This is one of the strangest rules in the game; requiring a feat to draw two weapons at the same time. Like a regular person can't use both hands at the same time to do basically the same thing on opposite sides of your body. Try using both hands to write complete sentences at the same time, and have them be neat and legible. You could probably pick up the pens, and even hold them correctly, but as soon as you start writing, unless you are a truly unique person, I'd put money down that your dominant hand will still write, but not quite as neat as usual, and your off hand will be pretty much a mess. Now try to write something in 6 seconds, and it'll get worse, try it under duress, and it'll get worse still. Nothing is saying you can't do it, you just can't do it effectively. If you trained yourself, you would get better. So the feats, which simulate training, or experience, are perfectly understandable.
I don't even think that this is a question of Cleric and Wizard classes. I think it's a function of the type of magic. Clerical magic is granted by a divine source, and arcane magic is gained by force of will and study. It's not that the classes are incompatible, the magic itself is of a different nature. If you look at the sorcerer/wizard question, it's arcane to arcane, so it's two like types of magic being amplified by the bloodline. Druid/Cleric would also be divine to divine magic, so dropping to gain a cure OR dropping to gain a summon spell would also be like types of magic. I also agree with Matthew, that the Cure spell would need to be one that either of the two classes would need to be able to cast, in order to spontaneously cast it.
Still, and I may be wrong about this, but if a character is being grappled, the should be easily flanked, yes? If flanked, the rogue gets the sneak attack bonus. I can see where Paizo was going with grappling not allowing an automatic sneak attack. Using a couple of wrestlers as an example, they may be grappled, and making maneuvers, but are not still, so it would still take *some* work on another person's part to sneak attack. I mean really, how many times have we seen the wrestler's toady line up for the chair shot, only to have the two wrestler's move and the toady nails his master? ;) Put that into game terms, and the toady flanks the target, and made his attack, and rolled REALLY poorly so nailed the other guy. Otherwise you see the chair shot nail the target and drops them. A hit, with the extra damage.
"Your honor and valor have been measured. They have been found...inadequate."
I think the main thing to keep in mind is that fudging is okay if it enhances the fun for everyone. In the case of the OP it seems like the GM is doing it to counteract an ability that is fun for the player, and probably many of the other players. If it were done rarely, or the GM gave SOME of the NPCs abilities to counter, I think that's acceptable, as long as it makes things more enjoyable. Ultimately if the GM is making encounters that are getting rickrolled ALL the time, it's a deficiency in the encounter creation, and not the player's problem. They're using the abilities they chose, and should be allowed to do so. Make the BBEG the one that's got some sort of resistance, and throw in a mix of minions. The witch can go bonkers on all the minions and henchmen, allowing some of the others to concentrate on the BBEG. Everyone feels useful. If your PCs manage to curbstomp your big fight by using tactics, good on them. If they do it because the NPCs simply weren't up to the fight, the GM needs to reevaluate how they make encounters (and still goodonya for the PCs ;) ). I'll generally make a fight that I think the PCs will have a difficult time with, and then sprinkle liberally with minions. Minions don't hit often, and go away with one hit. As long as you don't have all the minions show up right at the beginning of the fight, the fight is controllable. If the PCs are having an easy time of it, minion reinforcements come in early. If they're struggling, hold off on the minions, or don't have them show up at all. Minions are also great for that melee fighter that has cleave/greater cleave, and any player that I've run into loves the feeling of wading through their foes to get to the BBEG. It's fudging of a sort, I suppose, but still adds to the enjoyment of the PCs. The "Oh s**#" look the PCs get when they see a new wave of minions is great, and the look after they've annihilated everything is even better.
I've had a running gag with Goblins in my game, that the PCs just aren't quite sure how to handle yet, and have run the gamut from just smushing the poor goblin to trying to adopt the Goblin as a minion. Basically during the first fight of the campaign, goblins and orcs laid siege to the town the PCs were in, and were winning at first, but the tide turned against them, with most of the orcs and goblins being killed off. Soon three goblins ran past the front line to run amok in the city, leaving a lone goblin fighting a magus and fighter, both of whom the goblin had hit with a short sword in rounds before. The goblin looked at its compatriots running away, dropped his sword and started to walk away saying "I Quit." The Magus hesitated, and looked at the fighter, "I....don't know how to react to that." The dwarven fight looked at the Magus and said "Dwarven Diplomacy." and cleaved the goblin with his axe.
Scavion, this is your quote: Here is what Detect Evil pings off of, 1. Powerful(5 HD) Evil Aligned Creatures
Hesitation puts the lives of others at risk. So if your Paladin were to come across a leader of a land, who pings evil, but is generally liked by the populace, by your rules he would have to attack on sight. He may rule firmly but by the law, and his land is generally at peace due to his tight rein. By killing him outright, your Paladin causes unrest, a power vacuum that could result in the innocents being harmed in the end run. In that case, that Paladin caused more harm than he healed because he didn't think. That is why being a Paladin is difficult, they have to weigh their actions against the greater good, ALWAYS. If it were as easy as "is evil, SMASH" there would never be a fallen Paladin...ever. Playing a Paladin is hard, and it should be. It's also some of the fun that goes into playing a Paladin. Their decisions matter, but watering the complex character down to a cheap Hulk knockoff ("Paladin smash evil!") is doing the class itself a great disservice. In the case above, the Paladin would be causing farm more harm than good by outright slaying the Evil Leader. However, the Paladin could still work against the leader, stopping the evil where the leader puts it into action, thwarting him at each turn until the people start to see him for what he is. He is working for a far greater good that way, and ultimately, yeah, he'll probably still get to smite the evil lord at some point.
I don't know about the rest of you but what I read here is the OP who is using the alignment and intelligence of the character to hide behind doing whatever it is the player pleases. It seems that the player was going to attack, regardless of what happened, and now that he did, he's using the character as a shield. As a player he made the decision that the GM was going to arrest them and then perform a PC Death march. This is an OOC decision. His character is too stupid to know different, but then states the authorities showed no id, had no warrant etc, as if that would have made ANY difference in his actions. The player made his mind up, acted to avoid what he thought was railroading, and forcing the PCs into a situation. Not the character. The PC stated they found documents on the Paladin that said the church was pursuing the PC group for some reason. So it seems to me that the GM had put thought into why the Paladins were after them, and that there was a story element to it. The PCs stole a sword. The church wants it back. Could it have had some sort of significance for the religion? Also, the OP says that it was a group of Paladins, but we only know for sure that one was, the one he killed. I think the OP wasn't remotely interested in the post question, he was simply looking for someone to justify his actions, so he could go back to the GM and say "SEE I WAS RIGHT!" In my opinion, there may have been some novice mistakes made by a novice GM (as the OP says it was a new GM), but the metagaming by a "veteran" player and roleplayer is the bigger offense.
In a situation where you would be releasing a slave into a population where they would be worse off, say uneducated about local laws and customs, without understanding of the language, etc, and were protecting them as a means to better prepare them, or if your owning the slave would protect them from another owner with more prurient designs, until the slave could become a citizen with means to support themselves, then yeah, I'd give the person a pass for the more good side of things. If that person is owning the slave with the intention of freeing them to better conditions. You can keep adding in qualifiers. The example above was just meant to be quick, and not an in depth look at it.
I think also one thing that gets overlooked on the slave owner side of things is if the slave owner it treating the slave well, and presenting it with a way to gain freedom, and standing as a "citizen" then that person is not evil. They have found a way to work around the evil of oppressive slavery. The institution of slavery is by its definition the owning of people as property, which leans more towards oppression etc, and many of the things considered evil. Once you take the argument down to the "well what if this person does x, y or z?" then you are not arguing whether the institution is evil or good, but that person themselves. Which is a totally different argument. As far as the paladin debate? Why are we arguing what a paladin in Cheliax would do with the law? First, if a Paladin were in Cheliax, I'm fairly certain that they wouldn't be there to uphold the laws of Cheliax, they'd be there fight against it. Cheliax is put there to be the demon worshipping, evil rite casting entity that it is to give Golarion an easy villain. The whole purpose is so PCs and GMs have a clear cut case of "Yep, that's evil." If Paladins existed there, they'd be a VAST minority, and unless they worked in a resistance type role, would most likely be shunned, if not outright killed (or offered up as sacrifice in a demon worshipping rite). Paladins exist as the holy crusaders of Lawful Good dieties to uphold that diety's dogma. And even then, loopholes are found. Take the 12 Paladins of Charlemagne in The Song of Roland. Before battle with the "infidels', the Priest comes out before them and basically (and yeah, this is paraphrasing) says that one of the 10 commandments is "Thou shalt not kill" and therefor all the paladins are damned because they are going to go kill. BUT, if they kill only 'infidels' then there place in heaven is assured. That's some loophole.
Why is it you think this is the "starting zone"? To be honest it sounds like your GM is just using good tactics after someone came in, and attacked. They're now on alert, waiting for another attack. If they're aware of what's going on in the city, which is reasonable considering you attacked them a week ago, then they realize you've rolled through the other districts. If they realize you aren't having trouble with them, then they realize you're not just a "rag-tag" bunch of adventurers, and realize that you're probably going to come back. You ran away one DAY ago. It would be unreasonable to expect them to just stand down and ignore the fact that they were just attacked, and in fact attacked twice in the span of a week if I'm reading things right. Flip the equation around. If your party was at your campsite, and the Charau-ka attacked twice in a week, you'd have spells, traps, alsarms etc set to make sure you were prepared for the next time. Seems to me that NPCs should be just as smart. Also, if this is the ape that I'm thinking of, you may want to have your GM describe him again. He's a bit more than just another Dire Ape.
The race can actually be pretty fun, if you keep reminders around that there is a race. Since the pirates are "sea bound" and possibly worshipers of gods of the sea, you could have them find Nkechi the Tempest and set up some rivalry there, if you let it slip that Nkechi can offer them guidance and possibly hasten the pace, so to speak. Then you either have the pirates mad at the pcs for stealing the guide, or the pcs behind the 8 ball in regards to having to really push the pace. Kalabuto at that point becomes more interesting, having pirates attack the PCs, making it clear that the rival group is on to them, or at least slowing them down. Don't be too hasty in getting to Saventh though. That adventure takes a LOT, and by that I mean a LOOOOOOOOT of work for the GM if you want to keep it interesting. It can either be a ton of fun if you work up a lot of interesting discoveries, or a boring slog through the same old stuff. Personally, I had a lot of fun with giving out information to the pcs, setting up how the other factions would deal with Saventh etc. One thing you could look into as far as the pathfinders and sargavan govt conflicting about is control. The Pathfinders want the finds, etc, but what if the Sargavans start talking about taxing their finds, etc, or otherwise bogging them down in red tape. Or demanding that any "useful" finds be claimed by the government, since they are the law. You could really create a lot of friction.
Ah, okay, I would have just had him not try to use dimension door defensively, and taken the attacks of opportunity, which would negate ranged attacks, but then he wouldn't have had to make the concentration check. From the sound of the combat there, there wasn't much in melee range, so minimal aoo's. I'll avoid that tactical snafu.
Trellian, I'll take a stab at some of the problems you have with this, and how I explained them Eleder/Freeman's revolt - Much of this depends on how the PC's interacted with the fellow castaways at the Shiv. My players haven't been all that interested in interacting too much with the NPCs, so this will be a challenge. I'm also not sure how much secrecy the players will institute when they discover Yarzoth's journal, and how much I can plausibly explain to the players when suddenly the entire city is abuzz with their discoveries. We'll se how it turns out. -- Since the PCs aren't experts on the language that Yarzoth wrote in, they had to hire a scribe from the city. Said scribe turned over information. Also, day after day after day, the same PCs come to the library to research. Small city, so this kind of thing gets noticed. Especially if they are non natives. The Journey itself - Isn't it a faster route to go by boat to Kalabuto and then hire porters, pack animals and guards? Or all the way by boat, for that matter. --The river, like many rivers in a jungle/savannah type area are subject to drought/flood, so may not be navigable. Tempest - Why does he need to join them? Is there a benefit for having him there? Does the trip go slower if he's not around? I don't necessarily disprove of rail-roads, but there must be consequences to the PC's action. I cannot see a consequence of failure here. -- Nkechi shaves off a couple of days, I believe. He also knows how to avoid native dangers, which I allowed the pcs to have a quicker travel time, since they didn't get stuck in natural slowdowns, etc. The Salt Mines - The caravan will save a day if the PC's clear the mines. Can a large caravans with wagons and pack animals really traverse this partly flooded mine? The caravan, like many jungle treks wouldn't use wagons for the most part, there's simple no room for them if you have to hack your way through the brush. There is definitely room for pack animals and native porters to get through the mines. Cockfight - The players have to watch a hawk fight an eagle, but can make some money on it. No matter if they win or lose, or give in to the bad guys or not, they have to fight them. No choice. -- My party just chose to keep travelling past this, as the nature lover in the group was offended by the display. Village under siege - I like the encounter, but again, there is no choice. No matter what the PC's choose, they get attacked by the chemosits. I will not have the chemosit's attack if the characters avoid the village or refuse the witch's offer. -- Same thing I did. One of the people in my group was a Mwangi Oracle though, so she made the party help the witch :) A feast of vultures - I thought that vultures were carrion eaters, but I may be wrong. I will instead try to have the carrion bird appear if someone (a PC or NPC) dies or falls unconscious. Makes more sense. -- Vultures are more like lazy eaters. They go after carrion because it's easy. They will attack if they get hungry enough. Gallows tree - I think I will have them encounter the gallows to get the feel it is meant to evoke "scars of a country at war", but I don't want them to fight any zombies. It just feels pointless and not plot advancing. -- Again, my party saw the tree, saw the hanging corpses and gave it a very wide berth. Kalabuto - Again, no matter how the character's treat Kibi (short of killing her), she somehow manages to alert her handlers. If the PC's manage to stay hidden from her no matter what, I will not have them be discovered by the rival faction. Or maybe I will have Cheiton betray them. -- I just played up Kibi as the poor girl trying to sell her goods. By the time she laid on the puppy dog eyes, the fighter in our group that has a soft spot for kids, bought all her wares. Warriors of the Child-God - thematical, but not very challenging and is there to give XP mostly. -- Our Oracle's background was leaving a city of an "Undying child-god" so this was a gut wrencher for her. Bodies on the riverbank - not bad either, plot advancing and allows the characters to use the spirit fetish -- My party almost forgot they had the fetish, but the oracle remembered just before the fighter got gacked. Amghawe's tomb - Tweakable. I can perhaps add another treasure map at some point, giving the characters the choice between a detour for a treasure or not. -- Exactly what I did, and also tied in what he was doing, who he was doing it for into character backgrounds. Eloko Headhunters - Another relatively simple encounter which follows four other combat encounters without not much in-between. There are several days between these combats, and it is unlikely it will be very challenging. Spirit Dancers - on paper a fun encounter, but in reality, a dozen warning bells will ring for the players at this point. At this point, the concept of a totem spirit is known (through Tempest), so it might be possible to goad them into accepting a meal and companionship from three native women bathing nude in a river... maybe. -- This one was challenging, but I made the dancers much more believable, and didn't over play their charmed state. Eventually the party got savvy, but the fighter (the only male in the group) did get charmed by the Succubus. I don't want to do too much work (that is why I bought an adventure path), but I just cannot run this as written. Overall, what you've said works pretty well. REally what I did was explain some of why certain things should or shouldn't work, and added in personalizations where I could.
My players thought the Charau-ka were silly too, until they kept moving and pelting them with rocks, hiding and setting up ambushes. As for why them and not humans? I just let the pc's learn that the Charau-Ka flourished in the deeper parts of the jungle, where men had seldom gone, like the parts of the jungle that they were now exploring to find Saventh-Yhi. The Charau-Ka are only going to be silly, if you portray them that way. If you portray them as ruthless, smart adversaries that start beating the crap out of your players with thrown weapons, they stop laughing. They haven't met the Gorilla King yet, but I'm fully expecting that when they see him, the overwhelming feeling is going to be OH S**T! because of the way the Charau-Ka are being portrayed. Because anyone that can rule them is going to be a solid match for the players. Anything can be made to be not silly if portrayed right. It's all in how you play them. Just ask any of my old players how they enjoyed the pixie/sprite/brownie adventures they played in... I played them as old school fae, and by the time the game was over, the PCs were scared of them. |
