So, a thing that's been bothering me: at Mictena's Gazebo it says that the PCs have one chance to persuade Mictena, but that seems really weird to me because you can only make a Diplomacy check if you're conversing with the person for at least a minute, and the way the adventure lays it out makes it clear that Mictena wants these guys dead! So why would she stay idle for a whole minute when her prey is right in front of her! (EDIT: okay, so it says that Mictena "reads the litany of their [the PCs] crimes against creation and demands they submit quietly to death and peace." So that kinda makes sense for the 1 minute thing, but it still feels really weird)
Additionally, while it does state that the PCs can attempt a diplomacy check with her multiple times within a 24 hour period (which is good attention to detail), it also says "Each time the PCs shift Mictena’s attitude one step closer to friendly, she holds off her attack another round." That's not enough time to re-influence her.
In pathfinder, specific rules overrule general rules. So if adventure allows you to roll diplomacy in single round, then you can do so but only in that situation.
True, but the adventure never explicitly says “the PCs can influence Mictena with one round of conversation instead of one minute.”
So, a thing that's been bothering me: at Mictena's Gazebo it says that the PCs have one chance to persuade Mictena, but that seems really weird to me because you can only make a Diplomacy check if you're conversing with the person for at least a minute, and the way the adventure lays it out makes it clear that Mictena wants these guys dead! So why would she stay idle for a whole minute when her prey is right in front of her! (EDIT: okay, so it says that Mictena "reads the litany of their [the PCs] crimes against creation and demands they submit quietly to death and peace." So that kinda makes sense for the 1 minute thing, but it still feels really weird)
Additionally, while it does state that the PCs can attempt a diplomacy check with her multiple times within a 24 hour period (which is good attention to detail), it also says "Each time the PCs shift Mictena’s attitude one step closer to friendly, she holds off her attack another round." That's not enough time to re-influence her.
Paizo blurbs are written for GMs, not players. A GM deciding which AP to run has the right to know how it ends up before she buys the first book. This isn't any different than the description for any other 6th book of an AP. (If you're not spoiled for Reign of Winter, don't look at the blurb for The Witch Queen's Revenge.)
Short answer is, if you want to play in a campaign without being spoiled, don't go searching online for descriptions for the various parts.
That’s...actually a fair point...never really thought about it like that...I did overreact a bit. My bad. Here’s to me making a fool of myself once again :P
So...I noticed something pretty concerning and I was wondering if there was an answer for this (I also posted on the Product Discussion, but I’m also dropping it here for a second opinion):
Quote:
The Tyrant's Grasp Adventure Path reaches its world-shaping conclusion! The heroes learn that the keys to stopping Tar-Baphon's deadly Radiant Fire are the shards of the Shattered Shield still lodged in their souls—the only things dangling their lives above the grasp of the Boneyard. The heroes return to Lastwall to confront the Whispering Tyrant, but discover that he has led his army to the fields outside the city of Absalom. There, the Whispering Tyrant plans to blast his way through the city and crack the Starstone Cathedral open, transforming himself into a true god! The PCs must battle the lich's most powerful allies, turn the power of the Radiant Fire back on the Whispering Tyrant, and end the threat he now poses to the world.
If you’ve read things then you’d recognize this as the exact word-for-word description of Book 6 from pg. 91 of Book 1, which contains all of the spoiler-y stuff for the AP to come.
It casually talks about stuff like the Radiant Fire and the Shattered Shield and that pieces of it are embedded in the PCs—Which, from the way I read Book 1, is supposed to be a twist! I feel like any potential players can come across spoilers just by searching up the product, and have a good chunk of the mystery be ruined! It’s really strange that THAT’S the description that for many people is the FIRST THING they see for that product!
I don’t like to be demanding towards people, especially people whom I sure know what their doing a lot better—but I need an answer from Ron on this one: What the hell?!?!?!
Um...aren't petitioners the most obvious things ever? In the Boneyard they appear as non-undead skeletons.
Actually got around to reading the adventure—the citizens of Roslar’s Coffer ARE petitioners, but since they haven’t accepted their transition to death yet then they still appear as themselves rather than skeletons (like other Boneyard petitioners).
They haven't been judged yet, so they should be spirits of the dead (that can't be touched or harmed) rather than petitioners. Only after they're judged and sent to their home plane will they become a petitioner appropriate to their destination. It's highly unlikely that many of them will end up on the Boneyard as skeleton petitioners.
COMPLETELY forgot about that! Thanks! But I must mention that the adventure specifically says that the former residents of Roslar's Coffer are petitioners.
Also, REALLY out-of-nowhere, but am I the only one who imagines Mictena as having a Mexican accent—she’s based on Calavera iconography for Día de los Muertos, so it kinda makes sense...
Considering I'd be planning on making her personality similar to Mamá Imelda... No, no you aren't.
Also, the name's supposed to just be Día de Muertos, no "los", or at least that's the page name on the Spanish Wikipedia. See, Spanish is fine with using an adjective directly as a noun. English isn't, and the equivalent of a plural adjective meaning "those who are X" is "the X". Hence, "of the dead" not "of deads". The version with "los" is technically just a backformation that mimics the English translation.
Hey, I’m a young Caucasian male trying to describe Mexican culture; I’m just glad I got it grammatically correct from a literal translation instead of causing a cultural appropriation firefight. I’m still going to count that as a win for me.
Ron Lundeen wrote:
KingTreyIII wrote:
KingTreyIII wrote:
(I've read literally everything in Book 1 EXCEPT the actual adventure itself, so take what I say with a grain of salt)
I noticed a weird thing: It says that the obols give SR against necromancy, but it also gives false life (a personal-only spell) as an example of the SR being detrimental to the players, but anyone who knows anything about SR knows that an individual's SR isn't applied against that person's own spells on themselves (e.g. a faerie dragon wouldn't inherently need to roll against its own SR when casting a scroll of false life). Thoughts?
Bump Now that I know that Ron is actually checking this thread I would like a bit of insight from the Dev on this weird situation.
Yes, false life is probably a bad example. Better to use, say, death ward.
So, just to be clear, the SR from the obols work just like any other SR? A person casting false life wouldn’t have to make a caster level check against their own SR?
(I've read literally everything in Book 1 EXCEPT the actual adventure itself, so take what I say with a grain of salt)
I noticed a weird thing: It says that the obols give SR against necromancy, but it also gives false life (a personal-only spell) as an example of the SR being detrimental to the players, but anyone who knows anything about SR knows that an individual's SR isn't applied against that person's own spells on themselves (e.g. a faerie dragon wouldn't inherently need to roll against its own SR when casting a scroll of false life). Thoughts?
Bump Now that I know that Ron is actually checking this thread I would like a bit of insight from the Dev on this weird situation.
KingTreyIII wrote:
Wildebob wrote:
neonWitch wrote:
Wildebob wrote:
I think instead I'll have a few frantic, mauled petitioners hiding in the tomb from a pack of cacodaemons.
That's a really cool idea, but wouldn't that kinda ruin the big reveal when they step out and see Groetus hanging in the sky and realize that they're in The Boneyard?
Good point! I guess I'd say that it doesn't have to be clear that the petitioners aren't just people at that point and the cacodaemons aren't just bizarre monsters. Knowledge (planes) won't be real high that early. But I'll have to think about that.
Um...aren't petitioners the most obvious things ever? In the Boneyard they appear as non-undead skeletons.
Actually got around to reading the adventure—the citizens of Roslar’s Coffer ARE petitioners, but since they haven’t accepted their transition to death yet then they still appear as themselves rather than skeletons (like other Boneyard petitioners).
*
Also, REALLY out-of-nowhere, but am I the only one who imagines Mictena as having a Mexican accent—she’s based on Calavera iconography for Día de los Muertos, so it kinda makes sense...
(I've read literally everything in Book 1 EXCEPT the actual adventure itself, so take what I say with a grain of salt)
I noticed a weird thing: It says that the obols give SR against necromancy, but it also gives false life (a personal-only spell) as an example of the SR being detrimental to the players, but anyone who knows anything about SR knows that an individual's SR isn't applied against that person's own spells on themselves (e.g. a faerie dragon wouldn't inherently need to roll against its own SR when casting a scroll of false life). Thoughts?
Wildebob wrote:
neonWitch wrote:
Wildebob wrote:
I think instead I'll have a few frantic, mauled petitioners hiding in the tomb from a pack of cacodaemons.
That's a really cool idea, but wouldn't that kinda ruin the big reveal when they step out and see Groetus hanging in the sky and realize that they're in The Boneyard?
Good point! I guess I'd say that it doesn't have to be clear that the petitioners aren't just people at that point and the cacodaemons aren't just bizarre monsters. Knowledge (planes) won't be real high that early. But I'll have to think about that.
Um...aren't petitioners the most obvious things ever? In the Boneyard they appear as non-undead skeletons.
I’m more than a little annoyed at the description of this book because
Spoiler:
it’s word-for-word from the “Adventure Path spoilers” section of book 1 and casually drops information in a manner such that the person reading it is supposed to know the stuff, and it casually drops names (e.g. Radiant Fire) that isn’t necessarily supposed to be known to prospective players of the AP.
I wish they’d change the product description for those reasons.
Thinking on it a bit more, I don’t think I would have the mental capacity to do this—I definitely could, but I’ve got to focus on school and I think this would be just a bit too much of a distraction, especially since I’m doing a Signal of Screams run in Campaign Mode at the moment. I want to, I really do, but I don’t think it would be wise for me at this time...
I think I will have to start looking to connecting a virtual map to a tv for some of the larger maps - opera house and temple notably.
I highly recommend doing that as well. I’ve been doing it since I started my AP group and it works out surprisingly well (especially since one of my friends moved to Finland when we live in America). It’s also surprisingly helpful with weirdly scaled maps if you know how to manipulate it (including a certain map in Mummy’s Mask that was 1 square equals 30 feet!)
Yes. It's 10' per square. There's a lot of people there. Generally, the best thing to do is to set up several small key area maps for tactical, and then a rough map showing the relationship of all the parts. Maybe have a map for each escape door and the stage?
Warped Savant wrote:
Opera House Dimensions: Yes, each square should be 10". Compare the interior to the exterior of on the map in book #1. Yes, they're not an exact match, but 10' per square is a closer match than 5'. And 10' allows for the amount of people to make sense. As for the map, I use MapTools rather than drawing them out so I don't have a suggestion for you on that one.
PROCESSING....PROCESSING....WHAT?!?!
Thank goodness I had it in Roll20 and can just finagle my way into making it work.
A piece of advice for the monastery (don’t know if I need to put it in spoilers but I will anyway):
Spoiler:
I personally replaced the ogrekin with an actual ogre (had no gear except a broken club; made it almost exactly CR 2). The reason why I did so is because the Lout is guarding the door to Nox and, in my mind, I couldn’t see why Nox wouldn’t join the fight against Lout (or the redactors in that same room for that matter), and Nox is a serious fight in her own right, much less combined with other encounters!
Basically I had Lout stand in the doorway between Nox’s area and the one before and pretty much said that it’s body blocked line of sight into (and out of) the next room (hence why I went with a full-blood ogre: they’re Large).
TL; DR: replace the ogrekin with a full ogre to act as an ad hoc door so that Nox doesn’t join in on other encounters and rain hell on the party!
tl;dr: Remove the enemies in the belfry and have NPCs deal with exorcising the bells.
** spoiler omitted **...
I honestly like the encounter with Asmoden and the Devil’s Bells—I get that it comes out of left field, but so does the encounter with Natsiel and her hags.
Frankly, I like that it’s a representation of just how difficult it is to desecrate a sacred relic (er—consecrate a profane relic), which is FAR from an easy task!
That said, I can definitely understand if a GM would want to skip that encounter altogether.
And not to be the Forum Police, but you seem to have usurped another DM's campaign journal thread. Perhaps your questions would be better placed in a thread of their own or the relevant-for-the-book GM thread?
So they got to Lorelu with Shield Other up? Had they come straight from fighting the Luculla bunch? And why did that kill the cleric? Lorelu only gets one attack a round - the cleric got into the fight with the ghost with Shield Other up with low enough hit points to be killed by taking half the damage from a 7d6 attack - okay maybe it was 10d6 with sneak attack? The original target should have gotten a Fort save to cut it in half and even if that failed that should be 30-40 hp, split in half gets to 20hp of damage. That took the cleric past -CON? And if the cleric survived the first attack through Shield Other - that should have gotten cancelled at the cleric's next action if his hp were so low. Seems strange.
They had just rested after the Mahathallah fight, because…come on! The cleric is a summoner cleric (doesn’t get straight into the fray much if at all) and they took a sneak attack from Lorelu to the face, so their hp was low to start with and they have a whopping 12 Con.!
Latrecis wrote:
Also, the Lucky Bones exploration is not on a timer, especially after the Mahathallah cultists have been dealt with.
Technically there is: the Acisazi scouts.
Latrecis wrote:
There's no crime in hinting or explicitly telling them "Its clear no one has been in these halls for decades." Maybe even: "Hint: you can take your time and handle exploration slowly." And if there is a crime in it, it seems a misdemeanor in comparison to directly changing combat in a way that's obvious to the players. To a level they argue with you against themselves.
Whether the PCs were fully rested or just coming from another combat ultimately made no difference in the fight against the xorn; the wizard and the cleric didn’t dare to go in (especially considering the pit behind them) and the skald and the vigilante had crap AC compared to its attack bonuses.
Latrecis wrote:
I assume the Raise Dead scroll in question was the one they found in Luculla's stuff? That isn't they only Raise Dead they can come up with. If they are running the Rebellion and have Hetamon as an ally, one of the caches he can provide for them (Major) includes a scroll of Raise Dead.
GAH! Both me and my players COMPLETELY forgot about that! Honestly, it’s probably because the idea of setting caches never really sounded like a tempting or wise idea…
Okay, I need a little advice (and perhaps moral support):
Book 2 spoilers:
So my players just finished the undead section of the Lucky Bones and they were REALLY struggling! I managed to kill the cleric because they didn’t this to dismiss shield other during the Lorelu fight, which made them have to use their scroll of raise dead. They then fought the xorn and before I even noticed it managed to kill the front-line vigilante.
Knowing that in order to raise the vigilante back it would require going to the temple of Asmodeus or Zon-Kuthon, which I know that my group would NEVER do just out of principle. Knowing that I adjusted the xorn’s last attack to be nonlethal, and I got some serious pushback from that player—he honestly didn’t believe that it would fight nonlethally and was acting like he WANTED his character to die (he actually enjoys the character, so I know it’s not from a lack of motivation). He eventually stood down, but against the six ghasts he almost immediately got paralyzed, and I REALLY had to stretch the ghasts’ motivation to make sure that they DIDN’T coup de grace him.
Now, I know that the risk of character death is part of the game and that GMs shouldn’t just coddle their players, but I don’t like just slaughtering players for no reason—especially if they have no way back—and the Lucky Bones is DEADLY! So...am I in the wrong here? It’s been bugging me so much and I just don’t know if I did something disrespectful or what...
...I need to rationalize the rank increase to 10 at the end of book 1. They will want to use the Fantasmagorium, that deviates from the script heavily and it has them moving locations repeatedly.
Fantasmagorium spoilers:
At the end of the Fantasmagorium (Side tangent: my players loved the Ripley's Believe It or Not vibe to it!) there is a set of soul tomes that grant a +2 to all Organization checks, I would also flavor it as a significant increase in knowledge of Kintargo and secret organizations to increasing the max rank to 10.
As for using the Fantasmagorium as a base, it's a simple solution: Thrune already knows that it exists and has already infiltrated it.
Takes off GM hat I would personally go with an Explorer model because a weapon can be mounted in every arc, plus a turret, as well as better maneuverability.
And Trey, you're not allowed to make fun of me for all my characters worshiping Desna; it's not my fault she's the best deity!
Oh, no. I understand when worshipping a specific deity makes sense for a character. Plus I’m still astonished that you made an Oracle that isn’t dual-cursed! :)
Just testing out the waters here: wondering how much interest there is in players for Signal of Screams (I’m considering running it in Campaign Mode [or whatever it’s called in SFS])?
Well...uh...that was unexpectedly quick. “Recruitment” (if you could call it that) for Signal of Screams is closed...before it even started (I guess).
FYI, I may come to this thread occasionally to just say stuff about my group's time, but certainly not as consistently or as much as Livgin.
I'm cashing this one in, and this happened with my group last night and I really wanna talk about it!
Book 2 Spoilers:
So my group finished the Mahathallah section of the Lucky Bones and it was...something.
First off, I tend to rework NPCs and encounters to be more optimized because my group is a bunch of power-gamers and they said that they like that I do that.
So, I kept the standard cultists as cleric/rogue but gave them Net Adept (might as well use that free proficiency for something). Nothing too interesting.
Maglap I actually replaced with an advanced Morgodea (can't remember which book, but it's in one of the Hell's Rebels bestiaries) who had an Ioun Torch and I honestly felt that that was a better fight, as well as giving the players a moment of "What the hell is that?!"
The bearded devil was a hard fight! The wizard cast a create pit right in the middle of the room that the devil saved against and it actually worked in his favor (it made the already-tight spacing even worse) and he fell when the skald caught both me and the devil off-guard by running to grab his silver morningstar and then charging! Unfortunately, the combat lasted exactly long enough for Luculla to grab the twins without the PCs noticing.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I made a Mahathallan of my own by the name of Caterina, who was a oracle with the Intrigue mystery and the Sahir-Afiyun feat (because she was a serious pesh dealer). When Luculla decided to act as a sacrifice, I had Caterina act as the high priestess in Luculla's stead.
Now, I was planning on using this fight to test the PCs' endurance, so I added in an Ichkoh sahkil that was called with lesser planar ally and Caterina and the two cultists. I saw how depleted they were on resources, so I nixed the cultists. Because of how long they took with taking 20s on the cell where the twins were as well as the iron door, they actually managed to drain Caterina of all of her buffs! She was a sitting duck with a 14 AC. Long story short, the sakhil's deal (min./level) ran out mid-combat (an impromptu GM call to save the PCs' behinds from being annihilated by the barely-hurt outsider), so it shifted to the Ethereal Plane, leaving Caterina (who got hit with a crit with a glaive) pretty much screwed.
Afterwards, I had Luculla actually reveal herself to be a changeling to help with her lie (that she tried escaping the cult itself), and the group was actually really sympathetic towards her (I made the Sense Motive checks in secret; none of them saw through her lies!). In order to get into C9 (which is where Luculla's "gear" [incriminating evidence]) I had to have Luculla dispel the force ward because none of the PCs could (and she needed to destroy that incriminating evidence more than to do a little extra damage).
Now, I set the in-game rule that if the PCs kill (not knock unconscious) an unnamed NPC then they would reduce Kintargo's population, so they were just wondering what the hell to do with the cultists (I was secretly going to not have it count against Kintargo's population, but I wanted to see what they did), and they did the most unknowingly stupid thing that they could have: they left it up to Luculla to deliver the cultists to the dottari! Basically, they just gave the entire cult back to the high priestess! I'm so using that against them in the future!
Just testing out the waters here: wondering how much interest there is in players for Signal of Screams (I’m considering running it in Campaign Mode [or whatever it’s called in SFS])?
Oh my goodness gracious, that's brilliant! That's a very good transition from an impromptu situation into a written-in situation.
That said, if you haven't had her do so yet I would personally have Crissali keep quiet about why she wants to study Blosodriette (don't want some little nobodies mooching off of her research). And this probably shouldn't need to be said, but I'll say it anyway: if the civil court case goes down then I would hang a Notoriety increase over their heads.
As for the potion stuff, I'd say keep it at a 10% discount from Rexus (and even that is a little bit high) but know that he can only create very specific potions from his spell list.
FYI, I may come to this thread occasionally to just say stuff about my group's time, but certainly not as consistently or as much as Livgin.
Character Relations in my game (book 2/3/6 spoilers):
My group is kinda under-roleplaying (mostly because I'm trying to get them through Book 2 and the boring low levels) but there have still been some interesting character interactions:
The Calistrian herald caller's whole backstory is based around the fact that the high priest of Asmodeus screwed over her father (a priest of Asmodeus himself) by turning him into a scapegoat for his crimes (which makes it hilarious that I re-worked Grivenner into a herald caller/Diabolist [from the new Book of the Damned]). I am actually in the process of figuring out how I can shift the blame from Grivenner to the devil Fangrane from Book 6--the best I've got so far is that he had a contract with the devil to harvest the soul of one of his clergy and the scapegoat thing was the "public" reason for the PC's father getting killed.
The aasimar vigilante actually created a lot of characters that weren't written in using the surnames of a lot of the noble families that he did know, and one of them was that he accidentally caused the death of the eldest child of the Aulorian family and I was just giggling with malicious delight because I knew that they had to save Marquel Aulorian and I knew that Marquel would blame that PC for the death of his brother. Marquel actually ended up challenging him to a duel.
The kitsune arcane trickster actually made a big connection with Vendalfek and is basically an ad hoc familiar. She also connected decently well with Luculla Gens (I fooled them into thinking she was a Milanite) as well as another Mahathallan of my own creation named Caterina (she used to be an instructor at Lady Docur's School and basically runs a pesh ring). They're actually about to go into Lucky Bones later today, so they're in for a surprise.
The half-orc skald is actually kinda tough for me because he hasn't really made a connection very much. His backstory is that he's a member of the Cloven Hoof Society before the Night of Ashes saw Vestori disappear.
Anyways, weird off-topic tangent aside, keep track of those kinds of interactions because they will actually be important during the Ruby Masquerade.
I've kinda got a ghoran ranger worked out. I wanted to try going with the thrown weapon style, but the sheer number of feats needed made that really unworkable, so I decided to go with a two-handed ranger--it's not that interesting but I'm hoping for some good roleplay opportunities with him.
I was...actually thinking the exact opposite XD I was actually thinking a Dragon Hunter ranger (not the greatest archetype, but it has some fun flavor)
I personally did a script change and made whomever held the contract be able to control Blosodriette. I also made the choice to say that there were at least some magical documents (other than the contract, of course) so that it wouldn’t be über obvious that the contract was there. I honestly wish that I thought of disguising it as a worthless scroll (maybe a non-cantrip, like magic mouth).
I digress; it was actually an interesting time when Blosodriette revealed herself—my group spent a good half-session (about 2 hours) going “What the heck can we do?” The kitsune arcane trickster (well, intending to be one) decided that she wanted to redeem the imp (because she had the contract). They actually ended up making Blosodriette the Ravens’ strategist! XD
I ended up having her being an unrepentant *sshole and the kitsune is still determined to redeem her!
Suggestion for Livgin:
Depending on when the PCs sold the contract, they could very well have done an unintentional breach of secrecy. If they sold it after they established themselves in the Wasp’s Nest then Blosodriette would know the location of the Ravens’ hideout! If the contract ended up in the Sarinis’ hands, then it could be a very interesting development for Barzillai (since Sarini wants to be favorable in his eyes)! Just my two cents.
Latrecis wrote:
And this thread and many of the responses could benefit from a spoiler tag.
I know I just did that (more as a “just in case”), but care to elaborate what you mean by this?
Question: in the Guards and Wards/Countless Barriers sections it says “attempt four of the following,” but in the Guards and Wards section it says “If the PCs succeed at four or five checks...” emphasis: mine.
So, how many checks are the PCs supposed to attempt? I misunderstood the first time I’m currently running Part 3 for the second time and allowed one check per PC.
I wonder if I can find a handy mechanism to pit those Hellknight troops vs. the Silver Ravens troops in the backdrop or in juxtaposition with the Barzillai vs. PCs battle...
I believe there actually is one already. I think it's something along the lines of a DC 20 Security check every round or have citizens die (I personally am going to raise that DC to something more representative of Barzillai pulling out all of the stops).
As to the tie in - in book 4 the group are attacked by the leader of the Chellish Citizens Group (CCG) : Tombus Regegious (I may have misspelled his last name). Weirdly he has dottari with him
I actually had Tombus be fought with two "Citizens' Troops," (CR 6, 8 HD), and gave that troop the Savage Troop template from Bestiary 6 (gives the troop the ability to Rage for 4+Con mod rounds per day). I always thought of the CCG as being the ragtag group of misfits who try to help Thrune but ends up being more of an annoyance than anything, and I created that specific troop to better fit the flavor of the battle.
But I digress.
An interesting thought going forward: Unnamed NPCs that the PCs kill (and I mean reduce their hp to equal to or greater than their Con score) decrease Kintargo's population for the Rebellion. It's a little extra bookkeeping, but it makes the players realize that their actions have consequences and to adjust as needed.
And I personally do the milestone-based leveling-up system (after X event the PCs level), mostly because it requires a little less bookkeeping, but I would tread lightly with the system you're going for--have PCs at different levels from one another can lead to a bit of a strange situation (especially when they're relying on the higher-leveled person to do the work). I'm not saying that it's a bad idea, but rather that it's a risky one.
Except for the mint one... I have to change that so that it's something bigger than the reason given. I'm thinking he spilled mint tea on his mother (or perhaps played a prank using mint? Anyone have any ideas?) but as a punishment they forced him to have an excessive amount of mint on everything, especially birthday cakes and the like.
As for the "Why didn't Barzillai do the smart thing and..." argument, I'd say that this is a decent enough plothole that we need the man himself (James Jacobs) to clarify. Sits down, waiting for Jacobs
I feel like he answered this question already (as to why Barzillai didn't just live the rest of his life peacefully as a citizen of Kintargo), but I'm spacing out on where it was. I'll look around the forums and see if I can find it.
Except for the mint one... I have to change that so that it's something bigger than the reason given. I'm thinking he spilled mint tea on his mother (or perhaps played a prank using mint? Anyone have any ideas?) but as a punishment they forced him to have an excessive amount of mint on everything, especially birthday cakes and the like.
Two words for you, sir: Sensory Hypersensitivity.
I personally have high-functioning autism, and while I can mostly function in everyday life, there are certain things that cause me to act out—sudden schedule changes, a lack of fairness, etc. While I am one of the luckier ones in that I don’t have sensitivities to certain stimuli, I know of people who, for instance, can’t touch velvet or listen to certain sounds because they just can’t take it. It’s like nails on a chalkboard, except applied to a different sensory organ.
Who’s to say Barzillai isn’t like that with the smell/taste of mint?
I could honestly see him in his younger years being mocked for being “afraid of mint” and so forth.
And to tie it back to his sin of obsession: I could see him growing worried, more and more obsessed, about if, when, and where he would encounter this material that he psychologically cannot stand in the slightest!
Eh, I'd say it's more accurate to call him a megalomaniac. Barzillai is, deep down, extremely self-critical and insecure (though he would be last to ever admit it), but he more than a little obsessed with power and having it. It's like he hates the pedestal he's on so he lowers everybody else's in order to feel better about himself, but if he loses the power to do so then he has to face what he is: insecure. And he can't handle that. It's a typical Asmodean (and Kuthite) teaching--not that the strong do dominate the weak, but that the strong must dominate the weak.
The word loci is plural. The singular is locus. Just sayin'. :-)
In the actual English language that is the case, but with respect to genius loci specifically, it is both the singular and plural.
Breaking the Bones of Hell (pg. 66) wrote:
”Similar to the path of becoming a lich, the route to becoming a genius loci varies...”
Emphasis: mine.
And, frankly, I agree with Razcar. Barzillai is a complex person who wouldn’t dare let anything slip through his grasp. Frankly, the first time the PCs fight him they could very well fight him alone, which is far out of his comfort zone (teamwork feats and solo tactics). However, when he confronts the PCs later, not only does he have time to buff, but he brings a f***ing battalion! The PCs have to play by his rules. This could lead to a vastly different combat where the PCs have to balance between Barzillai, his cohorts, and not harming the populace in the process!
Personally, I did a rewrite that states that, if she dies, Rivozair transforms into a young adult Infernal Dragon with the Degenerate template (but not the devilbound template) and if she dies in that form then her soul is truly damned to Hell—so that she will definitely appear alongside Barzillai in that final battle (because my players are power gamers and I’m an a**hole!).
My PCs defeated Barzillai and he narrowly escaped to Egorian thanks to his ring of teleportation. Right now they're going through the process of shutting down the infernal engines and 'exorcising' the empty temple, so to speak (they haven't been in the belfry yet... surprises await! :) )
How long do they have before the House of Thrune or the rest of Cheliax come knocking?
(disclaimer: haven't read books 5 and 6 yet)
I believe that it's the introduction to book 3 that explains that the Queen is doing an "all hands on deck" situation with the Glorious Reclamation, and is as such unable to lend Barzillai the support of the crown that he likely needs. By the start of Book 3 Barzillai is on his own and can't count on his family to bail him out.
But if you're talking about when Barzillai comes back from Egorian, that's mostly up to the GM but I think the last encounter (where Barzillai would come back) has some recommendations for that.
First, how exactly does the dry Smuggler’s Tunnel look like?
D7 wrote:
areas D1–D9 and D12 have breathable air pumped into them. Areas D8 and D9 remain partially flooded, while the dotted line at the western tunnel entrance in D8 shows the western boundary of the area of the caverns that’s still flooded.
So, D1-D7 and D12 get completely drained of water, that’s fine. What doesn’t make sense is exactly how D8 and D9 are still flooded with water, and what that “dotted line” phrase means. It’s very poorly explained.
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Second, the book says that the Drowning Devil in D13 was bound using a scroll of binding, which makes sense—the devil couldn’t teleport away and the effect could potentially be permanent if not last years—but there’s one thing that’s overlooked: he’s not bound. The adventure makes no reference to him being hindered by the spell by, say, being stuck in a pair of manacles or stuck inside of a cage, so how is the binding still affecting him?
Seeing two vanguards and two witchwarpers, I'll make another biohacker. I'll work on getting my sheet together by Friday, and will answer both sets of questions by then.
Very excited to give the King Xeros a spin on the other side of the screen!
Oh yeah! We have the author here! It never really clicked in my mind that scenario authors participated in PFS/SFS XD
What sort of Playtest character do you want to build?
Vanguard melee tank semi-buffer
Do you have an up-to-date ‘bot me’ spoiler?
Same answer as Jelloarm: No, but I can make one, I just don’t exactly know how…
Will you be willing to bot other characters if I ask you to do so?
Of course!
Do you promise to let me know if you get super busy…
How dare you suggest otherwise! I am insulted! (I’m obviously kidding—of course I’ll let you know.)
What’s been your favorite SFS adventure so far?
In my limited experience, I gotta say First Mandate; my GM was a good roleplayer and Zo! was a blast!
Who are you on PFS Session Tracker?
Did not know that was a thing…I can guarantee that I haven’t played anything SFS that’s above a 1-4.
IC
Who are you and where are you from?
Xesh was a test subject of a particularly insidious group of Eoxians hoping to understand the Swarm, but when an experiment went haywire it destroyed all of the researchers—leaving Xesh alone with powers that they knew nothing about. They hijacked their way onto a ship bound for Absalom Station in hopes of finding an explanation for their new-found abilities.
What are your favorite things to do?
Xesh finds surprising solace in the study of thermodynamics, of all things.
What shenanigans do you like to do in combat?
Mostly using the Acceleration discipline to increase the damage of AoEs that they are in the middle of while also reducing the damage with the Friendly Fire discipline—maybe even set a grenade off right on their chest.
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Player Name Trey
Character Name (of the character you are applying this to) Cyrus Aztora
Character Number 229573-702
Slotted Faction We don’t slot boons until the scenario starts :) (but Second Seekeer [Luwazi Elsebo])
Chronicle Number No Idea (the character this is being applied to is currently lvl 1)
Starting XP See above
Initial Fame See above
Fame Spent None…
Day Job N/A
Heavy Stuff:
From the sounds of things I’m the youngin’, so it’s fairly hard for me to truly sympathize with the situation at hand, but nonetheless you have my sincerest condolences, Hmm—your fellow Path- and Starfinders are always here for you! ^^
Accursed timing! That’s six! Wait, I counted both Sauros and Nefreet...I’m sixth! Just FYI, I’m relatively inexperienced in Starfinder compared to my pathfinder Knowledge so excuse me if I’m a bit slow on picking up certain things, but I am trying to get back into playing it.
Well...that’s awkward...I was going to go with a shirren vanguard too...well, it shouldn’t be too difficult to change it into a vesk. I’m going to go with the Extergy aspect and the Acceleration and Friendly Fire disciplines, so by all means AoE people: put me inside the radius—it doesn’t matter if I take damage, as long as I’m in the area!
If you are wanting to play a Shirren, go ahead! Don't let my race choice negatively affect your character concept. Multiple Shirren can actually work quite well together, with the two of us being front-line combat pals.
Nah, it’s fine. A vesk synergizes with the class slightly better than a Shirren—and besides, I’d like some form of diversity.
This is the alias for Art Burd's character, who will be a Shirren Vanguard, likely with the spacefarer theme. For others who are building Vanguards, I am currently planning on going the Momentum aspect, with the Constant Vigilance discipline at least.
I will have the full character up sometime late Tuesday morning or early afternoon.
Well...that’s awkward...I was going to go with a shirren vanguard too...well, it shouldn’t be too difficult to change it into a vesk. I’m going to go with the Extergy aspect and the Acceleration and Friendly Fire disciplines, so by all means AoE people: put me inside the radius—it doesn’t matter if I take damage, as long as I’m in the area!
I’ve been trying to get back into Starfinder after a year of going AWOL and the playtest seems like a good enough excuse to play higher tier stuff with a “pregenerated” character, so count me in!
I’ll figure out what to do with a vanguard, because that looks fun!
Notoriety check boxes on their Rebellion Leader sheets,
but most of their Notoriety comes from the adventures
themselves. If the PCs earn at least 10 Notoriety points
in the course of play for a volume, check one Notoriety
box. If they earn at least 20 Notoriety points, instead
check two boxes. When running the adventures
in their entirety, instead use 15 and 30 points
as the thresholds respectively to reflect the
expanded opportunities to earn points.
Considering that events the PCs take later on cause a MASSIVE Notoriety increase (like destroying Menador Keep) then this feels very unfair. Do you guys think that it means a net gain of 15 or 30 Notoriety equals one/two boxes? Because that would seem a bit more fair...
Follow-up question: does every PFS character who gets a chronicle get access to the Rebellion Leader chronicle sheet, or is it an overall boon that applies to the player and not the character?
Something that seems overlooked is that many rebellion checks state "If you roll a natural 1 on the Organization check, you don't automatically fail, but..." This implies that, like attack rolls and saving throws, a natural 1 is an automatic fail on most Organization checks, meaning that the PCs always have a 5% chance of failure.
Honestly, if the players build their characters well then it's just like any check--fighters generally have a really high attack rolls when compared against an enemy of their appropriate CR. Push come to shove, though, just have a talk with your group about changing some of the DCs in the Players' Guide to scale--As for the written-in DCs: Change them without saying so. You're the GM, and what the players don't know won't hurt them.
