M0bious's page

This is excellent work and really usefull map! Thank you very much for sharing!
Now all we need is a more detailed map of the isle of Erran ! :P

Have actually someone combined Rise and Return? I am trying to do that too.. I want Karzoug to remain the bigger threat thought.. Any ideas or recommendations? Especially for part 6 of such a mega campaign:)

I don't know if anyone's still interested, but I rebuilt Karzoug for the final fight to be significantly more dangerous (because my PCs would have steamrolled him otherwise) and with updated sources, spells and theme.

** spoiler omitted **...

Leandro your stat block is great as I am looking into toughening part 6 myself too. My players are optimized and i want to give them hell in part 6 and make xin-shalast as epic as possible as I am confident they can handle it..can you please state your party (for example how many players..) and how did your last fight end up playing out? thanks in advance

I've changed substantial amounts, much to get my players backstories woven into the overall plot. This includes things like Karzoug raising an orc army in Belkzen, as well as the metallic dragons and elves needing to be brought together to fight back. Plus get Magnimar to raise an army to support the Shoanti who are taking the brunt of the attack. The Korvosans refuse to work with the Shoanti currently.

However the biggest change was to book 5, changing the way(s) into Runeforge. I didn't want to put my party through a huge dungeon crawl with out a break, plus with several political sub-plots going on outside i wanted these to keep moving. So I altered Runeforge to make 7 entrances instead of 1. Each entrance being in the original territory of a Runelord - giving entrance to their wing. Entrance to the central area is via these. You can't get into a wing without having been there first. With a couple of exceptions.

I also added some additional smaller villages, a host of NPCs and a heavy dose of politics in Magnimar.

Hey friend! I am running RotR (currently in part 5 before entering runeforge) and I just read your comment. I was amazed by the similarities in our campaigns as I also included an orc army raised by minions of Karzoug in Belkzen and the elves+Magnimar who are currently thinking of assisting the pcs and the overal fight against ancient Thassilon's return.

Hello !
This is a preety old order now (Order 3776328 ) but it hasn't yet arrived here (I live in Greece) :/ .
Should I be worried , or is it normal?
Thanks in advance!

Oh! Thanks a lot for the quick response and for the replacement! That was very polite, as always with Paizo! I will send a picture as soon as I get back home. Probably tommorow morning! Thanks again!

Hello!
I just recieved my items from Order 2456561 and everything seemed fine but then I realised that in the Pathfinder Dice Set: Rise of the Runelords that I recieved instead there are 2xd12 instead of 2xd10 !
Is there anything I can do about it now? I still havent opened the product!

Hello James,

I know this topic is one of old now(ROTR AP), but here comes my question: How much lore should I provide my PCs once they find the library of the therassic monastery at Jorgenfist? I am well informed on thassilon content untill now(even tricky questions from this thread:P) , but how much should I give them? Would they be able to find the full content of "The dead hear of Xin" appendix on runelords for example? Or is that too much? And for the last question, how much time is necessary for them to read all this lore? (I have 5 PCs, really interested in Thassilon lore and waiting for my every clue until now on what's really going on behind the scenes!^^)
Thanks in advance!

Hey! Thanks everyone.. these are some great ideas! But mostly what I was asking was if in your experience, clearing both the rooms (full with CR 11-12 encounters) and Mokmurian is too much or not in your opinion/experience?
For example, is Mokmurian hard enough as written, or I should/could make some changes? (have him cast all the fogs beforehand etc..)
I guess i am a bit scared because of last time to have my dungeon use its full potential..:/

Hello everyone!
My group (5 PCs) is pretty strong but got really unlucky rolls last session. At the beginning, they spent a week near Jongerfist during which they killed longtooth, cleared the 2 other caves and gathered whatever intel they could from observing and scouting. Then, they entered the pit and using buffs,teleportation and invisibility in a clever way they bypassed the first level because they thought (correctly imo) that it would be crazy to start killing stuff without any clue about how many ennemies there are generally under the fort. Anyway..long story short they decided to teleport at the first room of the second level and got unlucky(3 PCs didnt save against fear effect)..they killed the runeslave , stone golem , headless lord and the annoying forgefiend but they spent all their resources and were not in a position to take big M down. So they fled...

Now, I want you to know that I really succeeded in making Mokmurian sound as a real badass and clever opponent, so I dont want to dissapoint them with an easy battle. In the other hand , the last session made me wonder what should I prep and how should I play mokmurians reaction to this intrusion.

For me its only logical that Mokmurian (being clever transmuter) should at least :
1) change the rooms , so that they cannot TP right in front of his lab
2) call most ( or some) of his minions to fill the empty rooms (maybe lokansir and the lamias?)
3) sound an alarm , that jongerfist is under some kind of attack.

Considering that my group is still at level 11 , due to bypassing most encounters and being 5, do you people think this is too much for them?? Does anyone have any experience from his ROTR game?? I know there are threads similar to this one but still...I really cant decide what would be best , and I would like to avoid a TPK..
Thanks in advance!:)

I am trying to buy something from the website and cant place my order for some reason. It redirrects me to the Payment method! I am using the same Visa I used for previous orders but it doesnt seem to work this time. I have also tried with a MasterCard and its the same problem. Thanks in advance!

It actually played really well in my table!^^
I actually believe your ideas are great and I understand why you changed things but I just have to add that in my table the players were totally confused when they saw Aldern in the abandoned house. I roleplayed some guards around the area to be suspicious (just looking for the murderers actually) and my players thought that those guards were involved and they were keeping the house safe from intruders( I never understood why they would believe such a thing actually!). Anyway for half an hour we got a great session, totally confusing for them..I even made aldern's wife ask one of them to dance while she was cooking a meal and Aldern was playing the piano!
In conclusion, I just want to add that for new players who dont know each and every spell out there, this encounter, as it is(almost), may unfold in creepy and strange ways!:D

Hello everyone!
I am currently in chapter 3 (almost at the end of it) and I have added the module The Harrowing (by making some small changes for it to fit better) to our campaign! The PCs entered a strange demiplane (which was part of a prophecy in our campaign) with hopes of gaining great power and knowledge to face the dangers that ,according to them, clearly are threatening Varisia as a whole (especially after the attack of Black Magga). Everything is going great and the plan is simple: the Pcs will finish the module and then continue RotR as normal, by paying a visit maybe to the hook mountain clanhold and end the hook mountain massacre..
I only got one problem..the last encounter of the harrowing plane adventure is

So those are my considerations..Do you guys and girls think that they are important?? Furthermore, if yes, how do you think I should deal with this case and fix it??
I already got some ideas but I would really love to read your opinions on this matter first. Thanks in advance!

I am currently in the end of part 3(HMM) and I have added to it the whole Harrowing module by giving it a runelords flavor. I am hoping to play part 4 and 5 exactly as they are and in my opinion they are pretty amazing..Why? Because Rotr has a whole circle of emotions coming back in those parts (especially 4). My players spend really much time of part 1 getting to know the town of Sandpoint and it's citizens and by part 3 they have already forgot them a little..To find out that their old friends are now ready to die and They are their only hope?? Furthermore, the library!! The moment they get to understand after months of adventuring and strange coincidences what the h*ll is going on in Varisia and what significant events of destruction will be caused by the rise if they do not act fast?

What is there not to like!?^^

Am just saying...even if you guys are thinking of changing part 4 and 5 I believe you should consider blending in those important pieces of storyline :)

James, If I order something from the Great Golem Sale today, and it ships from your warehouse lets say in 9 days from now, when the Great Golem Sale is going to be over. Will this affect the cost i'll pay?

P.S: I live in Athens so I suppose the estimated time for delivering will be long^^

I have a question too! It's very simple: are the PCs supposed to get their hands on the harrowed realm's map?? Is biyo able and willing to draw a little map or something similar to help them?? Thanks in advance for your help!:D

El cuervo, I may have not understood your problem exactly ,but..if that helps: there is treasure written in areas of the AP which you should award, or give your PCs a chance to find it and there is "treasure" written as gear and combat gear in the stat blocks. This is all you should normally award and no more. Later on the AP, if you realise that they have missed lots of it, then you could change things and place more treasure yourself. Furthermore, all descriptions of items and their properties can be found in the Core Rulebook. There are some "special" items found in each campaign and whenever that's the case explanations and desciptions can be found in the AP. You may need to change some properties if you are running the original version instead of the anniversary edition.

By the way..5lvl at the catacombs??How did that occured??^^

I had 4 players in parts 1 and 2. They missed the treasure hoards at

I am about to run Fort Rannick with my group. My players have very strong stats and builds and they are accompanied by Shalelu and the 3 Black Arrows. I would like to hear from you guys ( I know it has been already discussed) advices of how should I run this fort. One of my player's background story is connected with the Black Arrow order so I don't want it to be an easy quest for them, retaking it. What worked out well in your case? Thanks in advance!

I just flipped the cards too. I have made a prediction with the harrowing deck and I established later some new elements to our story to fit in the predictions..Dont worry too much about it, just remember whatever happens: write down your predictions! It was actually a really funny session (for me) because I was lucky and most of the cards my players chose fit great in the AP, the PC's personalities and the part 2 (that's when we made the harrowing). I am actually thinking of including The Harrowing module to my campaign, I just dont know how to handle the extra experience and gold in a way that allows us to continue the AP from where we have left it...

Guys and girls, this thread has some fantastic ideas!! I am hopefully going to use most of them!! I am actually really interested about how you changed some of the encounters and made them more difficult (adding monsters, changing morales etc). I am currently at part 3 , just before the Graul farm and I have a really strong party of 4 (which is going to be even stronger by winter as 2 more are joining in), and all I usually do is adding the advanced template and boost monsters with some hp. So thank you a lot for all this sharing and if you have more just keep helping us, as novice DMs, to run a great game!:)

first off i would like to thank you guys for the advice. i consider myself an experinced GM i have ran a 3.x game in some form near continuously since 3.0 came out. i am of the school of thought that for a GM to be good at all he should know your players. i consider myself quite adept at the pathfinder rules set as far as the rules are concerned.

i guess i should explain my plight a little further. my particular gaming group has been playing the DND combat engine since early 2nd edition for most of them. for the most part we have played home games since 3.5 came out and lately i have noticed that none of our games were getting past about 3-5 levels after we started the game. not sure how to remedy this i have spent the better part of 3 years lurking on these message boards and others, as well as listening to highly rated pod-casts about gaming, for advice on our particular problem. after much analyzing i brought my thoughts to the group and after a lengthy discussion we all came to the conclusion that we had fell victim to the dreaded power creep. we have an unabashed and admitted power gamer in our group, and in giving in to his pushing we slowly upped the power level of the PC's in our group until there was no challenge in the game anymore.

this was made painfully aware to everyone when we were trying to run kingmaker for the first time. they were in the first book exploring the greenbelt after having dealt with** spoiler omitted ** i randomly rolled a wandering encounter 1d4 trolls...sure enough a 4 comes up. i decide to throw it at them anyway, even though the were only 2nd level, thinking i would see just how far they could be pushed before the would be wiped and then bring in the "rescue". little did i know the would beat them without a person even dropping. now i know part of this has to do with my players being masters of combat tactics, but this is too much...man i got to stop rambling

any-who i have trimmed the normal 6-8 person group down to a...

I still cant understand how they killed those trolls...phew, one of the first times I appreciate my group being new rpg players^^

I aggree with Misroi! This kind of speech is a nice solution..it actually deepends on their relationship with the guards of Sandpoint and the mayor. Imho there are times where you should make the guards intelligent and times where you should make them a little dumb. In this case you should make Belor understand the whole story by ''investigating'' and free them from most of the charges..if they feel really guilty they could give an amount of money to the church to pay a proper doctor or something and then you give them back those money later as treasure!;)

M0bious wrote:

This is a Rise of the Runelords question.

James, I know this question may have been asked by people lots of times and surely there are some answers somewhere in the messageboards, but truly I couldn't find one that solved my problems. So as a novice GM, I am confused about what should I do with the last of the Black Arrows in the HMM part. Are they supposed to help the PC's and stick around them for the rest of part 3 (help them retaking the fort etc) or not? Is their help taken into account in the difficulty of the rest of HMM?They already have Shalelu.. I am confused..Thanks in advance!

The assumption is that the three black arrows the PCs rescue at the start of that adventure do indeed accompany the PCs into the next part to help re-take Fort Rannick. Once that's done, the assumption is that any surviving black arrows stay behind and work to re-fortify and re-build the fort, allowing the PCs the luxury of heading back out to do more adventuring.

Whether or not Shalelu sticks with the PCs is up to you. If you think that the PCs are doing well on their own, she'll stay behind for a bit with the Black Arrows at the fort before returning to the Sandpoint region. If you think the PCs really need her help, though, she can stay with them. Up to you.

Thanks a lot for your help!

This is a Rise of the Runelords question.
James, I know this question may have been asked by people lots of times and surely there are some answers somewhere in the messageboards, but truly I couldn't find one that solved my problems. So as a novice GM, I am confused about what should I do with the last of the Black Arrows in the HMM part. Are they supposed to help the PC's and stick around them for the rest of part 3 (help them retaking the fort etc) or not? Is their help taken into account in the difficulty of the rest of HMM?They already have Shalelu.. I am confused..Thanks in advance!

I really love The Harrowing module. It is easy to addapt in almost every campaign and funt to play!! But.. I 've got some questions! How do you guys and girls handle extra modules and mini adventures in your adventure paths? Do you just give more wealth and experience to your PCs than they should have according to the adventure path suggestion for each part? Have you found a solution to this problem? Is it a problem?

Imho the old Xanesha is "too powerfull to be true!", but the new one is "not so frigthening after all..". Thats what happened to us actually..but it is also my fault as a gm because I knew Xanesha could turn out to be a killing machine and I was afraid to play her with the most efficient tactics against the PCs..:/

Definitely, if your players are ok with that, then give them levels at set points and dont count the xp..Its much easier and much more efficient in game..just remember that if they skip something and never go back you could add some wandering monsters, mini adventures and stuff like that, so that they do not feel like they are getting xp without a reason..

P.S: From personal experience, if you feel from the first session that something or someone is ''unbalanced'' you should talk to him/her now. If you dont, it will get harder and harder to convince people that they should change their PC even a little..

Stats aren't everything. You can have a character with her lowest stat a 14, and yet not be ridiculously powered (not a stat over 17). It's once you start getting 20s that things could be problematic.

For instance, I used 4d6, drop the lowest d6. These are the stats my Runelords game has at level 7:

** spoiler omitted **
I actually gave the Halfling a few more points because she rolled poorly (initially her Strength was 7 and her Intelligence was 10) so she's be closer to the rest of the group.

I've been considering switching to a point buy next game around... but I'm not sure. After all, point-buys encourage min/max purchases, while die-rolls can be quite random (assuming you don't have a bad die - I had the girl I mentioned above reroll because I noticed a pattern - of four die-rolls, two dice rolled 2s each time. I snagged the dice, rolled them a half dozen times, and they kept rolling 2s. No obvious weighing and they were transparent dice... but apparently flawed somehow. Those two dice went out and her next set of rolls would be a 52 point build.)

Oh! I see..pretty much the same situation as mine..only that your PCs are all powerfull and thats better I guess..So, Tangent101, how do you keep the AP difficulty? I understand you max out the hp..thats fair but do you give 1 or 2 class levels more to some opponent creatures or something like that too??Do you also give your PCs fewer gold and treasure?

They have died 3 times. How are they overpowered?

The 3 deaths were from the characters of the same 2 players..the ones that cause no problem to the balance of the party because of normal ability scors..The wizard is the 3rd PC of this player and the cleric the 2nd..

I have the same question about the 3 Black Arrows..where are they supposed to follow and help the party and where not? Furthermore I would like to ask (I think someone already asked this but I cant find it) if anyone had prepared an "adventuring" trip to Turtleback Ferry, or do you think I should make it an easy and calm road trip for my PCs? Thanks in advance!

Thank you! You are all very helpfull, as always! I think I will have to change their loot, maybe downgrade it a bit and then change it to help more the wizard/cleric classes. If this goes well then I will just have a powerfull team (as a total) and I will be able to boost a little the encounters so that the difficulty level increases to normal..I got some more questions but I will post them to the hook mountain thread for GMs!

The classes are:
*Ranger (the uber stats) : built for damage, has animal companion
*Barbarian (over 20) : not built for damage, not built for damage, too much hp
*Wizard (not the real problem) : illusionist, thassilonian specialist
*Cleric (not the problem either) : good,luck domains

The players are helpfull, but they do not want to change their characters of course. The problem is that if I augment the CR of the encounters the Ranger/barbarian are going to survive and the other 2 will keep dying (at least with great priority) which will make them sad..I hope that if I give them less gold they will buy more items for the wizard and cleric and less for the ranger for example..they have team play, this is good for me I guess..Wraithstrike, to answer your question, I didnt changed significantly any of the tactics written in the AP stat blocks..maybe I could, but I dnt want to lose the feeling of each monsters "personality"..

Thank you guys! Those are great ideas, keep them coming! Oserath, it wasn't clear but I meant more than 15 or 20 point buy..The bane weapon is a nice solution. The difficult part for me now I guess is to examine how much gold I should "steal" from them!

Hello everyone! The characters in my RotR campaign are clearly overpowered..We are new to tabletop rpgs so at the beggining I suggested to them that they roll for stats. So..one of them has incredible stats and the other 3 above average (I mean 15 - 20 point buy)..this was no problem until now due to their lack of player experience and poor build etc etc..But as they get to know the game better (currently moving to part 3) this power shines more and more..For example they deafeted X (luck was on their side too) with noone bellow zero hp..until now I was thinking that as long as we have fun its no problem (and it wasnt..) but most of them told me they expected something more frightening in the end of part 2 (what X was supposed to be..). Now we are moving to part 3 with even more gear and a sense of "nothing can kill us" (even with already 3 deaths already due to very bad choices)..So, I start this thread to ask you guys if anyone has ideas to offer about what to do and how to handle things(especially the ranger with the incredible stats^^)..for example if anyone augmented the CR of the encounters in part 3 it would be really helpfull to share the ways he done that etc..Thank you in advance!

Great! This is really cool! Thanks a lot Story Archer!

eXaminator this is a nice question there! I also thought that it was Xanesha until now but this is true, something doesn't fit.. Maybe we should ask someone from Paizo for a correct answer to this:/

Well done everybody! This is really helpfull and appreciated! The google doc is also a great work..keep sharing!

Personally, I do not own the map folio, so I just judge according to my opinion which maps need to be printed ( I print them in multiple A4 pages :/ ) and wich should be drawn by hand..Some of the Paizo maps in the AP are so beautifull that I print them anyway^^..Community Created Stuff is also a good solution in some cases and definitely something everyone should check before running the ap!! A lot of interesting stuff in this thread and not only maps!

I agree with blue drake, removing the haunts is not necessary..in my game I just had father Zantus gather 3 or 4 more clerics and go back with my PCs to the haunted house to make some kind of a ritual in front of "Vorel". The PCs had to face some of the haunts again but now without worrying about their life so it was kind of funny session! My players dont really care about the spells and stuff like that, its just the story for them most of the times, so they didnt asked what father Zantus is trying to do (no Spellcraft check was asked, which was nice for me as a Dm because I dont know what a lvl 4 cleric could even do in such a case :P)
Finally I dont think that they can burn the house down..If I remember correctly the manor "attacks" the ones that try to do stuff like that with spells like suggestion or phantasmal killer..

Hello everyone! So..my pcs failed to invade the lumber mill of the Brotherhood..long story short: 2 of them died in the process an the other 2 managed to retreat..so i am thinking of a solution to keep playing but my ideas are not great until now.. The 2 players are working on new characters..somebody on the messageboards advised me to use the sewer system of magnimar as a new base for the Skinsaw Cult and move the last encounter there..I found this to be a great idea! I also got the Scarecrow and I could use it someway..Any ideas how to combine all these and make the Pcs investigate the sewers?? Furthermore, any ideas how I should advise my players on creating new PCs that could be included in the story ?
Thank you in advance!

All this because of my one and only coup de grace which I reffered to without cause^^
Maybe we should move this discussion somewhere else!? It doesnt feel so RotR anymore:P

You are right mcbobbo, in most cases this is the truth..but..

RotR Imho is as difficult as any other published campaign and as it should be..In my world, the concept is ''If no adventurers ever died, everyone would try to be one!''..Still we are just before Xanesha and we had 3 deaths untill now, 2 (or 3?) of which could be blamed in total party stupidity and overconfidence^^

1st death: The party cleric died in the fight with aldern..aldern was obsessed with her and she insisted to attack him as he was making his monologue..so in the end (by bad luck) all 4 of them ended up paralysed (and eating fungus) and he coup de grace her with his last hit points!

2nd and 3rd death: A group of three (the fourth was out of Magnimarvand they didnt wait for him) entered in the middle of the night in the Brother's lumber mill..they never asked for stealth check and they made a ruckus..they ended updead by the yondabakari river..

So no..untill now at least, RotR is not soo extreme (I am waiting for mrs tpk next session). It is just that PCs need to make a plan for all difficult encounters, without plan things get ugly..thats normal:D

Thank all of you for your quick response and help! That's why I love this messageboard!

Yes..this is exactly the case..happy to hear it's probably normal!!
So..I see..I ll take extra care of it! Thank you again chemlak!

Hello everyone!
I just bought a copy of the pathfinder core rulebook from a local store. It is the 5th printing we are talking about and something seems a little strange to me. When I open the book in half (for example) the white binding, that serves to keep the pages together, seems to be totally seperated from the hardcover!! I have got no knowledge at all for all these so I just wanted to ask if this is normal (part of the binding technique or something..) or my book has a flaw!??

Thanks in advance

Thanks a lot!Amazing! Those ideas woke me up and now I think i found what ill do..One last thing..should I have magnimar guards arrest them or search for them?? Actually they are living in an inn that a guard suggested to them so...the magnimar guards could easily learn about them and their location..