Is it possible to combine the two shipments above into one single shipment? I thought there was an option for combining shipments, but I didn't find it during the payment process.
I and I think others have been soliciting the players' view of the game.
I admit, based on the OP history, my initial 'take post with positive intent' had been strained a bit...but I would like to think he's learned from experience and is continuing to solicit views to further his development and not incite flame wars with malice. I've pulled my share of "oops" over the years and certainly made a few charged posts myself.
If there were any signs of betterment or insight, I would agree with you. But every new thread worsens my impression.
I couldnt't put my finger on it, but this thread and its sister thread had been somewhat unsettling for me (although amusing). Then I looked up the OPs thread history and found this little gem: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qpwv?How-to-deal-with-a-half-assed-paladin ;-)
Conclusion: Don't allow Paladins if you can't handle/don't want to handle them.
I'm not sure if I recall all details correctly, but he used his moan in round one. Then he failed his saving throw versus Glitterdust while the melees were closing in. His regular Slams had a 50% miss chance for the next two rounds, because of his low Will Save and my mediocre dice rolls. I believe he hit them once before it was over (although with a crit). The fight was rather anticlimatic, but that was absolutely okay for me. The rest of Schloss Caromarc was tense enough.
This fight is luck dependent in my opinion. You either make your Saving Throws and beat the crap out of him or you get cc'd/debuffed and should print out new character sheets. I was afraid of a TPK after some close fights in Schloss Caromarc (with one character death versus the buffed Guardian of the Tower) before the final tower (especially the Erinyes and the Swarms), but my players succeeded at every Saving Throw and the Promethean went down in 2 rounds.
No problem. It's the internet, so everything is ultraserious business. :-)
In my experience the Inquisitor tends to be a stage hog because of his versatility. Somebody on this board called him the Ego Bard and this description is very fitting in my opinion. You're like a Bard for yourself and (almost) only you. If you really want your group to shine, I'd take a bard or a cleric and go for the buff route. The Inquisitor can support the group too, but this would ignore the strengths of the class.
An Arcane Duelist would have roughly the same combat performance as an Inquisitor, but his main contribution would be Inspire Courage and his spells, which would let his entire group shine and not himself alone.
Maybe Castle Kronquist and Lord Malyas would be even more appropriate than Tiriac? I'm not really familiar with Ravenloft, but wasn't Strahd one of these irredeemable evil guys? Tiriac seeks redemption (although his methods are questionable at best). Malyas on the other hand is just your regular vampiric overlord (who's been described in detail at least twice in different publications), who can easily be reflavored and castle Kronquist has the plus that it has been fleshed out in an entire source book chapter.
I bought the Carrion Crown pdf-Maps, disabled the map markers and secrets, resized them a little bit and printed them out in A2 format (59.4 cm * 42 cm). It worked incredibly well for Harrowstone and Schloss Caromarc and took less than 5 minutes per map.
Why would I do that when I have BAB of 9? The bonus would be too small since it's based off of your BAB, it's not a damage build, it's mostly supportive. plus the high str is for the giants in my campaign that love to use combat maneuvers. If I wanted to do all damage I do my current character, a half giant two handed fighter using a lucerne hammer. He hits for 3d6+33 per swing. Get a wizard in the party to enlarge and now you're hitting 4d6+36. Get vital strike and improved vital strike and now you're using 12d6+40 all in one hit at you're highest bonus minus the power attack. I currently have 2 other fighter types in my group both with AC near 40. Now imagine How the GM has to react to a character like this?he has to focus on the character with way less ac doing a lot of dmg. And with a healer that is currently not that powerful? I could use some more healer/fighter types.
1. Because you have the Justice Judgement which increases your BAB to almost full-BAB-progression without even using Favored Judgement or Judgement Surge and +9 Damage (assuming that you use a 2-handed weapon) is "slightly" better than +1 AC from Dodge (which will be superflous if somebody casts Haste on you).
2. What should the other example of yours tell me? I know that Vital Strike is not as bad as some people here say (especially when you can't count on regular Full-Round-Attacks), but I really don't see a connection to your opening question (besides being offended by my criticism ;-)). And to answer this rather unrelated topic: Especially Vital Strike doesn't need AC to be countered. Just let the enemies use Mirror Image and Blur and you will curse your single attack per round. And even if the GM can't kill him outright, he can still dominate/charm/confuse such a Fighter to crush his own team mates.
3. Because of his obscene stats your character should still be able to survive the adventure, but he is so far away from the term "best", that I'm hard-pressed to keep my answer serious.
4. Unless his deity grants him the proficiency, a dwarven Inquisitor doesn't get the proficiency for Dwarven Waraxes.
That's exactly why I'm asking. We are starting the 5th book of a certain AP soon, where the opposition consists almost entirely of Vampires. Although I'm rewriting the plot extensively, my group will face lots of them. And having a certain weapon from the 4th book of this AP in the right hands, means 3-4 Will saves with a 5% success rate per round if our cleric gets his full-round-attacks going. As I really despise those emo bloodsuckers, I have absolutely no problem, if my group goes full-Blade-mode. But I want to be sure, that my interpretation is correct.
Yep that would be the interpretation I'd go with. Depending on how "Blade-like" you want to get you might even use your mighty GM powers and up the Will save DC a bit as even with 4 swings a round it's going to be a few rounds between 'piles of ash' happening if the vampire saves on a 2+. Or even go with something in between where vs vampire spawn rather than the 'sire" you increase the effective DC so the spawn go "poof" even a bit easier than they normally would.
And yes Kobold Cleaver is correct that is what I meant by " ... and then you keep swinging ... "
The normal ruling is absolutely okay for me. My group likes a challenge and as long as some sparkling a***** get kicked, I'm happy too. Thank you very much for your input though. :-)
Gaseous form only kicks in from hit point damage. Things that destroy it outright, such as disruption or being exposed to sunlight . . . destroy it outright.
Compare the lich, which can reform after being destroyed, to the vampire, who simply changes form when killed to prevent being destroyed. Disruption will destroy a lich's body, but it won't keep it from reforming. A vampire has no such "get out of hell free" card.
Ok, that's exactly how I understood the rules. Thanks alot for all your answers!
That's exactly why I'm asking. We are starting the 5th book of a certain AP soon, where the opposition consists almost entirely of Vampires. Although I'm rewriting the plot extensively, my group will face lots of them. And having a certain weapon from the 4th book of this AP in the right hands, means 3-4 Will saves with a 5% success rate per round if our cleric gets his full-round-attacks going. As I really despise those emo bloodsuckers, I have absolutely no problem, if my group goes full-Blade-mode. But I want to be sure, that my interpretation is correct.
"You can touch a creature, letting the healing power of your deity flow through you to relieve the creature of a minor condition. Your touch can remove the dazed, fatigued, shaken, sickened, or staggered condition. You choose which condition is removed. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier."
There is no mentioning of rounds or anything, just the entire removal of the selected condition.
I have a rather simple question: A Vampire that fails its Will save after being hit with a Disruption weapon is destroyed without assuming its gaseous form?
I think that becoming a spontaneous caster is a good boost for a magus
Sorry, but you discredited yourself with that sentence. A spontaneous Magus version is something I'd appreciate myself (crosses fingers for ACG), but the Magus does not need any kind of boost.
Yep, the Cabalist does that. But remember that Spell Combat and Metamagic will be mostly mutual exclusive, because of the increased casting time for spontaneous casters.
Actually this matter has been a running gag in our group since we started playing PF. Everybody had a short but exciting life full of strife and peril. And then there was the Aasimar Paladin, who was rotting away in a backwater Erastil temple for the 30 years of his adolescence as an Adept 1 (until his life went to hell and he had grow up finally).
The ARG is wrong. The question was answered for Aasimars during the last week. The starting ages are almost the same for Tieflings and Humans and the next printing of the ARG will hopefully have the correct numbers.
You're right. My memory failed me. It's a persistent haunt and my group got only hit once, because they ran away and never came back to the furnace room after the Ranger lost his beard and his self-confidence with the first blast.
It still played out rather well for your group, but doesn't Embermaw have a reset timer of 24 hours? Otherwise my group would have lost at least 2 people in Harrowstone.
Trial of the Beast saw a lot more changes than Haunting of Harrowstone. I will list them chronologically.
1. Largo and Finch returned after their botched zombie assault on Ravengro. Supported by 3 Ghouls and 1 Ghast they ambushed the PC's during the night. The group's Unbreakable Fighter was killed during the raid, because the player wanted to switch characters. I went a little bit over the top with Largo and Finch. An enlarged fighter using Improved Critical (Greataxe) in combination with the crowd control support of his undead minions while the alchemist kept tossing his bombs into campsite was simply too much at level 4.
2. The Crooked Kin were replaced by a more normal trading caravan, who came to the PC's aid during the aforementioned raid. The names of the people and their personalities stayed the same (as well as the extremely well desigend encounter with the Phase Spider), I only removed the freakshow aspects, because I consider Ustalav outlandish enough.
3. The next noteworthy changes were added in Morast. I put a greater emphasize on the almost unnatural longevity of the townsfolk. Especially the spitting and cursing Lazne aroused the suspicion of my players. This only changed after they found Vorkstags stash at the graveyard. I also added a red herring regarding a very unfriendly gentleman from cheliax who visited Morast right before the murder series began. The combat encounter with the Manticore was replaced with two breeding Wyverns. This proved to be a surprisingly dangerous fight, but the Paladin (as usual) ended it with a critical hit from his +2 Halberd.
4. The trial itself was easily the best part of the AP so far. We roleplayed everything and used the diplomacy checks to determine how the speeches were received by the judges and the crowd. But this only worked because the Paladin (btw: Book 2 was the book where he really shined) had a very good Diplomacy skill modifier and also put alot of energy into playing it out. This entire section can easily fall apart, if the players and/or their characters don't have the required social skills. If that's the case, Gustav Kaple should become a more competent barrister and the players should be relegated to a pure investigator role with only short testimonies before the court.
5. Nothing had to be changed in Hergstag. But the fight with Brother Swarm works best when he's encountered in his underground lair, where he can block the entrance tunnel, so that the players can't gang up on him too easily.
6. Now to a change I shouldn't have made. Thinking "What difference can 1 HD make?" I added 1 HD to the Ghasts at Sanctuary. This almost resulted in a TPK and we had our first involuntary character loss. Our Ranger got flanked by two Ghasts, was stunned and ripped apart (even without using the coup-de-grace-rules). I strongly advice against further buffing any Ghasts and Ghouls. Their high number of natural attacks in combination with their paralytic abilites can easily overwhelm even hardened adventurers.
7. The battle with Vorkstag and Grine worked out very well, but I made several changes:
The Mongrelmen were unwilling servants of the alchemists and can be reasoned with (a Knowledge (Arcana) role revealed that they are normally peaceful creatures that avoid confrontation) and the Magus intimidated them into surrendering.
The Juju Zombies had one additional member and their leader and had the Advanced template. They subdued Kendra when the rest of the group was busy fighting Vorkstag and Grine and pulled her away. So the party was split when the Samurai and the Inquisitor chased them to the corpse pool where they went into hiding underwater.
Vorkstag had several changes. He wore a chain shirt and drank a potion of Barkskin (CL 4) before the fight. As a weapon he used a Corrosive + 1 Morningstar. Improved Initiative was replaced by Power Attack. With this greatly enhanced AC he was a very strong combatant and put 4 PCs into the negatives before being put down by the last woman standing.
Grine was completely reworked to be more challenging. He harrassed the group while Vorkstag was preparing for battle. He did a good job but he ran out of luck when the Magus bullrushed him from the planks into one of the acid vats. He didn't die yet, but when he tried to climb out Vorkstag rolled a natural 1 with his next bomb (aimed at the magus) and it hit the homicidal dark creeper and the vat. The following explosion killed "poor" Grine.
Grine:
GRINE
CR 6
XP 2,400
Male dark creeper rogue 4
CE Small humanoid (dark folk, dark folk)
Init +10; Senses see in darkness, Perception +13
DEFENSE
AC 21, touch 17, flat-footed 21 (+2 armor, +6 Dex, +2 natural, +1 size)
hp 88 (7d8+32)
Fort +6, Ref +13, Will +3, +1 Reflex to avoid traps
Defensive Abilities evasion, trap sense +1, uncanny dodge ;
Weaknesses Light Blindness,
OFFENSE
Speed 9 m
Melee masterwork sword (short/small) +13 (1d4/19-20)
Ranged masterwork crossbow (heavy/small) +13 (1d8/19-20)
Special Attacks Death Throes (DC 15), Sneak Attack 2d6,
Spell-Like Abilities: darkness ( at will) detect magic ( at will)
STATISTICS
Str 11, Dex 22, Con 18, Int 11, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +5; CMB +9 (+11 grapple); CMD 21
Feats Armor Proficiency, Light, Improved Initiative, Quick Draw, Skill Focus (Sleight of Hand), Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +11, Appraise +0, Bluff +2, Climb +12, Craft (Alchemy) +9, Craft (Untrained) +0, Diplomacy -2, Disguise -2, Escape Artist +6, Fly +8, Heal +1, Intimidate +5, Linguistics(Common) +4, Perception +13, Perception (Trapfinding) +15, Perform (Untrained) -2, Ride +6, Sense Motive +5, Sleight of Hand +15, Stealth +22, Survival +1, Swim +4, Use Magic Device +5
Languages Common, Dark Folk
SQ fast stealth, poison use (Black Smear--injury; save Fort DC 15; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Str; cure 1 save.), rag armor, see in darkness, swift poison, trapfinding, weapon and armor proficiency, potion of spider climb, potion of barksin (CL 4)
Gear masterwork sword (short/small); crossbow bolts (10); black smear (x3); rag armor; Masterwork Crossbow (Heavy/Small) ;
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Death Throes (Su) When a dark creeper is slain, its body combusts in a flash of bright white light, leaving its gear in a heap on the ground. Creatures within a 10-foot burst may be blinded for 1d6 rounds.
Evasion (Ex) You can avoid damage from many area-effect attacks.
Fast Stealth (Ex) This ability allows you to move at full speed using Stealth without penalty.
Light Blindness (Ex) You are blinded for 1 round if exposed to bright light, such as sunlight or the daylight spell.
Poison Use (Ex) Dark Folk are skilled in the use of poison and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves.
Rag Armor (Ex) A dark creeper's multiple layers of filthy rags function as leather armor when worn by one of their kind.
See in Darkness (Su) Dark Folk can see perfectly in darkness of any kind, including that created by deeper darkness.
Sneak Attack (Ex) If you can catch an opponent when he is unable to defend himself effectively from your attack, you can strike a vital spot for extra damage. [2d6]
Trapfinding (Ex) You add +2 to Perception skill checks made to locate traps and to Disable Device skill checks. You can use the Disable Device skill to disarm magical traps.
Trap Sense (Ex) You gain a +1 bonus on Reflex saves made to avoid traps, and a +1 dodge bonus to AC against attacks made by traps.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex) You can react to danger before your senses would normally allow you to do so.
TEMPORARY BONUSES
Temporary Bonuses Applied Barkskin, Spider Climb
8. The mob at the court house dissolved quickly after the Paladin talked them out of violence (another failed plot of Largo and Finch).
9. The Trolls at the gate were mostly unchanged. I increased their number by two and Grork had an Amulet of Natural Protection +2 "implanted" into his chest for some additional durability.
10. The first asthmatic Golem Hound was great, but repeating such a niche monster so fast didn't seem like a good idea. I replaced it with a Golden Guardian, who used the same Bull Rush tactics. Positioning was key in the outdoor fights at Caromarc as my players quickly learned during that fight.
11. Important note: Our Bard was completely focussed on providing emergency Feather Falls during the further exploration of Schloss Caromarc, after the first person was bullrushed from the bridge. Plan ahead if your group doesn't have the spell available and hand out proper magic items/scrolls/potions. Otherwise you're risking a TPK.
12. The Huge Air Elemental is a potential TPK. I made several changes to keep it manageable: The Elemental can only lift and hold 1 person at a time into the air. And it takes him 2 rounds to lift somebody up and let him or her fall into the water. He's still a dangerous opponent this way, but not an almost certain death sentence anymore.
13. After their fights with the Golden Guardian and the Air Elemental everybody was paranoid about yet another bridge in that damn castle. So they send one scout ahead, who promptly ran back to the workshop when the Erinyes materialized. They lured her into the workshop and the Smite Evil-guy went to work. It was still hard, but the players adjusted their tactics to the unique circumstances of Caromarc and prevailed. If they're still surprised by a nasty monster on one of the bridges at that point, they deserve more than one character death.
14. The Mimic and the Mummy were replaced with one Mummy Magus 3. This foe was fought by one of the former owners of our Magus' sentient scimitar in Osirion millenia ago. The sword sensed this threat and warned the Magus ahead. So the group was prepared when they met and destroyed Suthek's Servant. (Caromarc was deeply saddened when he heard about its destruction. He liked to hold conversitions in ancient osirianni with this undead monstrosity during his lonely nights and grew attached to it, although he knew its inherent evilness)
Suthek's Servant:
SUTHEK'S SERVANT
CR 8
Male Mummy undead 8 / magus 3
LE medium undead
Init +3; Senses Darkvision (18 m), Perception +15,
Aura Despair (30 ft., paralyzed for 1d4 rounds, Will DC 19 negates),
Languages Ancient Osirianni
AC 19, touch 9, flat-footed 19
hp 143 (11HD)DR 5/-
Fort +12, Ref +2, Will +13
Immunities Ability Drain, Death Effects, Death from Massive Damage, Disease, Energy Drain, Exhaustion, Fatigue, Mind-Affecting Effects, Nonlethal Damage, Paralysis, Poison, Sleep, Stunning,
Weaknesses Vulnerability to Fire,
Speed 6 m (4 squares)
Melee slam +16 (1d8+13)
Face 1.5 m Reach 1.5 m
Base Atk +8; CMB +16; CMD 25
Special Actions Despair (30 ft., paralyzed for 1d4 rounds, Will DC 19 negates), Mummy Rot, Pool Strike, Spell Combat, Spellstrike
Prepared Spells Prepared Spells:
Magus (CL 3): 0th - acid splash , detect magic , open/close (DC 11) , read magic (DC ) 1st - burning hands (DC 12) , color spray (DC 12) , corrosive touch (2)
(CL ):
Magus: Spells per Day: (4/4/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/ DC:12+spell level), Spells Known: 0th - Acid Splash, Arcane Mark, Dancing Lights, Daze, Detect Magic, Disrupt Undead, Flare, Ghost Sound, Light, Mage Hand, Open/Close, Prestidigitation, Ray of Frost, Read Magic, Spark 1st - Burning Hands, Color Spray, Corrosive Touch, Magic Missile, Shocking Grasp
Abilities Str 26, Dex 8, Con *, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 20
Special Qualities Arcane Accuracy, Arcane Pool (2/day), Armor Proficiency, Cantrips, Darkvision, Vulnerability to Fire,
Feats Arcane Strike, Armor Proficiency, Light, Combat Casting, Extra Arcana, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Martial Weapon Proficiency, Simple Weapon Proficiency, Toughness
Skills Acrobatics -1, Acrobatics (Jump) -5, Appraise +1, Bluff +5, Climb +8, Craft (Untrained) +1, Diplomacy +5, Disguise +5, Escape Artist -1, Fly -1, Heal +4, Intimidate +19, Knowledge (Arcana) +15, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +9, Knowledge (Geography) +2, Knowledge (History) +3, Knowledge (Religion) +13, Perception +15, Perform (Untrained) +5, Ride -1, Sense Motive +4, Stealth -1, Survival +4, Swim +8,
Possessions ring of arcane mastery; magus spellbook;
Magus Spellbook
Arcane Accuracy (Su) You can expend 1 point from your arcane pool as a swift action to grant yourself a +1 insight bonus on all attack rolls until the end of your turn.
Arcane Pool (Su) You have a reservoir of mystical arcane energy that you draw upon to fuel your powers and enhance your weapon. This arcane pool has 2 points. The pool refreshes once per day when you prepare your spells. You can expend 1 point from your arcane pool as a swift action to grant any weapon you are holding a +1 enhancement bonus for 1 minute. These bonuses can be added to the weapon, stacking with existing weapon enhancement to a maximum of +5. Multiple uses of this ability do not stack with themselves.
Despair (Su) All creatures within a 30-foot radius that see you must make a DC 19 Will save or be paralyzed by fear for 1d4 rounds.
Mummy Rot (Su) Curse and disease, make fortitude save (DC 19) every day or loose 1d6 consitition and charisma. Make succesful remove curse (DC 0) and magical heal (DC 20)
Pool Strike (Su) You can expend 1 point from your arcane pool as a standard action to charge your free hand with energy. You can make a melee touch attack with that hand as a free action as part of activating this ability. If the touch attack hits, it releases the charge and deals 2d6 points of energy damage (acid, cold, electricity, or fire, chosen when he spends the arcane pool point to activate this ability). You can use this ability with the spellstrike class feature. If you miss with this attack, you can hold the charge for up to 1 minute before it dissipates.
15. The next change was too harsh. I added two Electrified Flesh Golems to support the Guardian of the Tower. This was too much for the frontliners and the Samurai died after the Guardian ripped him into pieces. One additional Golem should be enough.
16. I expected the Aberrant Promethean to be another potential party killer and I didn't change anything. My players proved me wrong as everybody made his or her saving throws. Without his debuffs and disables working he was no match for their combined efforts. They didn't even need the help of the Beast. But I still won't advocate for buffing the Promethean. If the players fail their Saving Throws even higher level characters can easily fall prey to him. And after this deathtrap dungeon with all its dangers they probably need a moment of uncontested success. And this came for my group with beating up that abomination in 3 rounds.
I ran this Module mostly as written. There were only four important changes I made.
1. The Skeletons in Harrowstone were already burning when the fights began. Therefore they didn't explode right after they were reduced to zero hp, but 2 rounds later. So the PC had enough time to evacuate the danger zone, after they realised what will happen soon (The bones started to glow white and kept smoldering).
2. I increased the number of Stirges on the upper floor to 15. Everybody was drained to the lower single digits when the fighting was over. This could have easily ended in a TPK. So I don't know if it's a good advice to run this encounter as I did.
3. Two players missed two sessions early on. So they were only level 1 when the other PCs were already level 3. To compensate Ravengro was attacked by a huge zombie horde (an entire orc tribe which was poisoned by the Whispering Way after they disturbed Vrood and his goons). I expected a large and long siege with lots of dead Ravengro citizens, but I underestimated the power of Channel Positive Energy. The group put the Sarenrae Cleric (Kendra was still grieving about the return of her zombified father during the last night and didn't help in this encounter) in their middle and lured the zombies away from the village. When they had the attention of more than half of the horde they let themselves become surrounded and the channel massacre began. 4 Rounds later 60 zombies were destroyed and Ravengro had some new heroes.
4. I added two Whispering Way hitman to the AP, who were sent to Ravengro to clean up the Vrood's mess: Largo (Fighter 4) and Finch (Alchemist 4). The group was warned that they were approaching Ravengro. But they couldn't prove their bad intentions. So the Paladin only chased them away instead of fighting them. They repaid this kindness by unleashing the zombie horde from point 3. After that they stayed into hiding until book 2 when they saw their undead minions being defeated so easily.
I want to share my challenge adjustments to the Carrion Crown AP with you as most AP modules tend to become too easy for experienced players after the first 1 or 2 books. Although we have been new to PF when we started, my group consists of genre savvy RPG veterans. Once they had a firm grip on the rules, I had to increase the AP's challenge drastically. My early adjustments were wonky sometimes and several PCs died. But as we progressed through the AP it got much better. So I will present you the encounters as I would run them today. I will also highlight the parts where a challenge reduction is appropriate to avoid too much frustration (I look at you, Air Elemental and Vrood!). At the moment we are in the middle of book 4 (just about to go through the portal in Undiomede House), so this list is not complete yet as I adjust the encounter difficulty from session to session.
On average there a 6 players present. Everybody uses a 20 points buy build. The average character wealth roughly correlates to the WBL-table and we use the medium experience progression track. The PCs are between level 8 and 10 at the moment. Nobody uses dump stats below 8, but every character is as effective as possible without compromising the basic concept. Summoners and Gunslingers are banned. The Advanced Classes from the recent playtest are banned as well, as we came to the conclusion that they are a bit too unbalanced right now. The coup-de-grace rules are ignored. Helpless itself is bad enough as a condition. Crafting was forbidden during the first 2 books, but this ban has been lifted now. Kendra accompanies the group as a NPC and is a Cleric of Pharasma (always 2 levels below the hightest group member), who focusses on channeling and healing.
General Adjustments:
Due to the larger group size every opponent has maximum HP and the number of mooks is increased by 50%. Since book 3 I try to avoid save or die-spells as much as possible, because we realised that their binary nature makes them unfun for everybody.
Read on, but be warned: The following posts will contain massive spoilers.
Party composition in detail:
Logen Kennett, male LG Angelkin Paladin of Iomedae 9
Greatswordswinging, evil-smiting bastion of good and the group's chief diplomat, who succeeded at every dice roll during the trial. He has not much to offer outside of talking and smiting evil-doers, but he does a damn fine job at both.
Davor Lorrimor, male NG Half-Orc Bladebound Magus 9
Davor was adopted by Professor Lorrimor at a young age when the Professor and his assistant Dr. Arnisant failed to save the toddlers mother from a vicious shapechanging monster. I expected him to be a walking nuclear weapon with the durability of a paper sheet, but the player distributes his resources evenly between offensive and defensive spells and he became the group tank and knowledge expert.
Fala, female CG Human Arcane Bloodline Sorcerer 9
Fala started as a wild Kellid Barbarian but the player wasn't happy with her pure combat focus. So we reworked her as a Savage Skald Bard for Books 2 and 3. This was much better but she realised that she wanted to play a full caster, so Fala was reworked again (hopefully for the last time) as a Sorcerer towards the end of Book 3.
Khair, male NG Human Cleric of Sarenrae 10
Khair began the AP as a pure Heal/Buff/Channel Cleric, but the player became frustrated with his passive role. So he was reworked as a Warpriest during the Advanced Classes playtest. After 1.5 books we came to the conclusion that this class is ridiculously overpowered (e.g. the fight at the temple of Dagon where he singlehandedly fought four cleric of dagon 4/fighter 4 and a cleric of dagon 11 at once.) So Khair was downgraded to a regular Battle Cleric for our next session.
Gavin, male NG Human Unbreakable Fighter 4
=> Leto, male LG Nagaji Sword Saint Samurai 7
=> Hank, male N Human Beastmaster Ranger 9
=> ?
Welcome to the bad luck part of our group. The player has lost three characters due to bad luck so far (described in length in the obituaries thread). He almost quit playing PF because of that. But we talked about the problems that lead to his character deaths and came to a solution. He will hopefully rejoin the group next session with a new character.
Bran, male NG Dwarf Ranger 5,
=> William, male NG Human Urban Barbarian 8
=> Lugos, male NG Human Oracle of Life 9
Another player who already lost two characters. In his case it was a combination of bad luck and poor tactical decisions. After joining the party with his new oracle at the stairs of the moon he had to take break because of a serious problem in his real life, but he will rejoin our sessions soon.
A similar thing occurred about 20+ years ago in a game. An NPC became pregnant with an effective anti christ. We found a way, via a Gate spell, to eradicate the evil presence. If you had to continue, maybe a wish of something could downgrade the child to a tiefling?
Sounds reasonable, but probably too reasonable for creators of such sideplots. ;-)
We've started Wake of the Watcher last session and they just had a brutal fight at the temple with almost the entire (upgraded) Order of the Indomitable Sea at once.
These are the regular players of the "core" group:
Logen Kennett, male LG Angelkin Paladin of Iomedae 9
Greatswordswinging, evil-smiting bastion of good and the group's chief diplomat, who succeeded at every dice roll during the trial. He has not much to offer outside of talking and smiting evil-doers, but he does a damn fine job at both.
Davor Lorrimor, male NG Half-Orc Bladebound Magus 9
Davor was adopted by Professor Lorrimor at a young age when the Professor and his assistant Dr. Arnisant failed to save the toddlers mother from a vicious shapechanging monster. I expected him to be a walking nuclear weapon with the durability of a paper sheet, but the player distributes his resources evenly between offensive and defensive spells and he became the group tank and knowledge expert.
Fala, female CG Human Arcane Bloodline Sorcerer 9
Fala started as a wild Kellid Barbarian but the player wasn't happy with her pure combat focus. So we reworked her as a Savage Skald Bard for Books 2 and 3. This was much better but she realised that she wanted to play a full caster, so Fala was reworked again (hopefully for the last time) as a Sorcerer towards the end of Book 3.
Khair, male NG Human Cleric of Sarenrae 10
Khair began the AP as a pure Heal/Buff/Channel Cleric, but the player became frustrated with his passive role. So he was reworked as a Warpriest during the Advanced Classes playtest. After 1.5 books we came to the conclusion that this class is ridiculously overpowered (e.g. the fight at the temple of Dagon where he singlehandedly fought four cleric of dagon 4/fighter 4 and a cleric of dagon 11 at once.) So Khair was downgraded to a regular Battle Cleric for our next session.
Gavin, male NG Human Unbreakable Fighter 4
=> Leto, male LG Nagaji Sword Saint Samurai 7
=> Hank, male N Human Beastmaster Ranger 9
=> ?
Welcome to the bad luck part of our group. The player has lost three characters due to bad luck so far (described in length in the obituaries thread). He almost quit playing PF because of that. But we talked about the problems that lead to his character deaths and came to a solution. He will hopefully rejoin the group next session with a new character.
Bran, male NG Dwarf Ranger 5,
=> William, male NG Human Urban Barbarian 8
=> Lugos, male NG Human Oracle of Life 9
Another player who already lost two characters. In his case it was a combination of bad luck and poor tactical decisions. After joining the party with his new oracle at the stairs of the moon he had to take break because of a serious problem in his real life, but he will rejoin our sessions soon.
A Paladin Archer should make most fights manageable. The rest depends on spell selection. If the Inquisitor doesn't take lesser Restoration and the Summoner neglects Feather Fall they'll probably leave Challenge-city and enter TPK-county in book 2.
Ohh, I forgot: The Promethean is neutral. So no smite-fest there I guess. ;-) (I just remembered the rage of our Paladin when he discovered that the BBEG wasn't evil at all ;-))
I've yet to use this, but an idea I've had for the iconic solo monster:
Simple Template: Elite (CR +2)
Creatures with the Elite simple template are meant to be fought alone, though this is not always the case. Sometimes they are encountered alongside weaker, subservient creatures, but this is the exception.
Rebuild Rules: An elite creature gains all the benefits of the Advanced simple template, plus the following.
Hit Points: An elite creature has ×4 as many hit points as normal.
Defensive Abilities: An elite creature with 4 or less HD gains DR 5/—. If it possesses 5–10 HD, an elite creature's DR increases to 10; an elite creature with 11 or more HD increases it's DR to 15. In addition, an elite creature is immune to death effects, energy drain, and ability damage; charm and compulsion effects; and any affect that would render it unable to act normally (daze, stun, etc.).
Special Qualities: An elite creature gains the following ability.
Dual Initiative (Ex): An elite creature gets two turns each round, one on its initiative count and another on its initiative count – 20. For example, if the creature's initiative is 23, for its first turn it could make a full attack (and take a 5 foot step) at initiative 23, and for its second turn at initiative 3 it could take a move action and cast a spell. This allows the creature to perform two actions per round that normally take an entire round, such as using a summon monster spell. For the purposes of spells and effects that have a duration of a round or longer or trigger at the beginning of the creature's round or the start of its turn such as saving throws against ongoing effects or taking bleed damage), only the creature's first turn each round counts toward such durations.
I've been pondering about the mechanical solution to this problem for some time now and your approach is very good. I will use it from now on! :-)
Maybe my english is not as good as I hope it was, but the Mi-Go are followers of Shub-Niggurath? From my understanding they are just experimenting with the moits without knowing what will happen, because they are fascinated by their mind-shielding properties.
Let the Dark Young use its first round to kill off the last Mi-Go. This gives the group enough time to weaken it without resorting to deus ex machina tactics.
Actually I didn't find that either. The Voltiaros are Skum hybrids but that's it. In my version I use an Illmarsh which is much closer to the original Innsmouth. So most male citizens are future Ulat-Kini. But that is only modification.
My experience is that it's actually pretty easy to challenge selfproclaimed Über-Optimizers. Just drain their ressources. Such players tend to think in terms of 1-3-encounter-days and go full nova knowing that they won't suffer repercussions because it was their 3rd encounter tonight and a 4th won't happen. But if they face many encounters and waves of encounters per resting period their one trick pony tactics fall apart quickly (especially for casters). Actually building an optimized and seemingly OP character in PF almost laughably easy in my opinion. The real challenge is proper ressource management, if the GM knows what he is doing.
There are published stats for the Whispering Tyrant in one of the mythic books. I guess it's time to use them. If your group still should have a chance at beating him, just drop the mythic part and say that he still needs time to regain his full power potential.
Side note: HOW did they screw it up so hard? The AP is rather easy after Book 2 in my opinion.
1.) Your idea is nice. I avoided the "why don't they simply ressurect him?"-problem by having Vrood use a Circle of Death instead of a Phantasmal Killer spell. Actually the professor knew the danger of his situation and planned ahead. He gave Father Grimburrow a Scroll of Raise Dead and the necessary material components. Grimburrow was shocked that the scroll didn't work and warned the PCs about the strange circumstances of Lorrimors death when they started their investigation.
2.) There is only one old (although relatively powerful) cleric in town but he didn't take actions or informed the higher ranks of his church because Harrowstone was a quiet and relatively harmless place due to Hawkren's watch in a very dangerous country where horrors lurk behind every corner. Harrowstone only became a place of interest since the abduction of Hawkren's soul and there is no noticable danger at the start of the adventure.
