McBaine's page

Two people from our group got into an argument (in character) and it spiraled out of control so hard, that they wouldn't talk to each other anymore - even outside of the game. One of them left the group over this. The thing was, we had bought the campaign books together (everyone chipped in - we were poor school kids back then) and he took the books so we couldn't finish the campaign. We told him we would give him his share of the money but his astonishing answer was "I don't want money, but I give the books back. But since a quarter of the books belongs to me, I rip out every fourth page and keep them".

In the end we let him keep the books and never spoke to him again. The rest of us saved money and bought all of the campaign books again to finish it without him.

I am a bit confused with what gets multiplied when a critical hit is rolled.

Multiplying Damage: Sometimes you multiply damage by some factor, such as on a critical hit. Roll the damage (with all modifiers) multiple times and total the results.

Note: When you multiply damage more than once, each multiplier works off the original, unmultiplied damage. So if you are asked to double the damage twice, the end result is three times the normal damage.

Exception: Extra damage dice over and above a weapon's normal damage are never multiplied.

So, here are some examples how I read it:

Paladin [+1 holy longsword] with smite evil active crits on evil monster:
Normal Damage = 1d8+1 (+1 longsword) + 3 (ST Mod) + 2d6 (holy) + 12 (smite evil)
Crit (x2): 2d8+2 (2x +1 longsword) + 6 (2x ST Mod) + 2d6 (holy - not doubled) + 24 (2x smite evil)
As far as I understand, the holy is not doubled because of the stated exception and the 2d6 from holy are "Extra damage dice over and above a weapon's normal damage" right?

Ranger [+1 giant bane longbow] with favored enemy (giants)+4 vs giant:
Normal Damage = 1d8+3 (counts as a +3 longbow vs giants) + 2d6 (giant bane) + 4 (favored enemy)
Crit (x3) = 3d8+9 (3x +3 longbow) + 2d6 (giant bane) + 12 (3x favored enemy)
Again all modifiers are multiplied, but the extra damage dice from bane are not, correct?

Rogue [+1 vicious flaming dagger] vs flanked enemy:
Normal Damage = 1d4+1 (+1 dagger) + 1 (ST Mod) + 2d6 (vicious) + 1d6 (fire) + 5d6 (sneak attack)
Crit (x2) = 2d4+2 (2x +1 dagger) + 2 (2x ST Mod) + 2d6 (vicious) + 1d6 (fire) + 5d6 (sneak attack)
In effect, the rogue gets only +1d4+2 extra damage from his crit because he has no flat modifiers but only extra dice from various sources?

Am I reading this correct? Extra dice are not multiplied but every other source of flat damage mod like power attack and so on is? Thanks in advance.

In the group where I am the DM, it happens frequently that the party decides after a level or portion of a dungeon, they need to rest up. The spellcasters especially burn through their spells and after half an hour of in-game time the characters leave the place and rest up for 8 hours.

There are times where this is easily done, but there are also times when this would give the enemy time to prepare or even retaliate.

I wanted to know how common this is in your games and how it is handled - is it no big deal, are you adjusting the enemies left or do some of them even come after the party?

One of the latest ideas might even kill the party:
Spoiler for Carrion Crown: Shadows of Gallowspire

I made a rough overview for the vampires. I wanted the vampires to be distinct creatures, not whole groups. throwing dozens of vampire spawn at my players diminishes the vampire theme in my opinion. They complained about fighting werewolves all the time in broken moon and that it got old after a while because it was to many of the same over a short time and I agree to apoint. So I want to make them the select few who are memorable.

I will keep Merrik Sais and her lair, but replace her vampire spawn with more plant creatures. There is also no entrance to the vampire underground there, but she acts on her own.

These are the Vampires I have come up with:

Shukuris - The Rat King (male half-orc vampire ranger 6/rogue 4)

Theme:
Vampire as beastlike predator with power over lesser animals

Location:
The sewers under [district? North and/or West Cushing?]

Coffin:
In a destroyed sewer tunnel under lots of debris.

Hunting style:
Shukuris hates elves and hunts them exclusivly for their blood. He stalks through the underground tunnels and grabs elves that are in close proximity, drags them into the sewers and feeds on them.

Hunting the hunter:
stories of numerous rat swarms go through the district and in the morning, there was a blood trail leading into the sewers. The characters can explore the tunnels until they find Shukuris and the
rats he feeds with vampiric blood to keep as his pets.
Cave-ins, close quarter fights in the tunnels and lots and lots of distracting, clawing and biting ratswarms are obstacles.

Lady Evgenya Zunaida - The Charming Killer (female human vampire aristocrat 1/sorcerer 10)
- keeping her stats from the book with a few spell changes, may change her name

Theme:
Vampire as enchanting seducer, posing as mortal noblewoman

Location:
The Mansion of the Lady on Laurelight Hill

Coffin:
Behind a secret door in her room

Hunting style:
The Lady keeps many servants, and sometimes, one of them vanishes. No one seems to mind. To many of her household are already under her spell.

Hunting the hunter:
A tip from Luvicks agent or the tale of a former escaped servant who saw to much can bring the PCs on her trail. The PCs may have to get an official invitation for an audience or her party to get close
enough to her (which is possible with OotPE contacts). When investigating by day, the PCs can be brought before her for an audience, but PCs can make checks to deduce that the windows aren't real (a combination of a silent image and a sunlight spell with permanancy). [If the PC go to the high society party, they may encounter Adivion Adrissant. Interesting if they have Raven's Head. Time for a chat with the bad guy and some Whispering Way assasins later. Not Adivion though, he has to leave for Renchurch]
Problems are her high status and her many dominated mortal servants. How to get near enough to slay her without harming the innocent mortals?

Liek - The Silent Shadow (male halfling vampire rogue 8)

Theme:
Vampire as mysterious creature of the night

Location:
The at night always misty harbour district

Coffin:

Hunting style:
People go into the fog at night, but do not always emerge from it alive. As a rogue, Liek is already stealthy. This is turned up to eleven with his ability to turn into mist. When a lone victim passes by
he turns back and silently kills his mark.

Hunting the hunter:
The trouble is not fighting him but finding him. PCs could dress as sailors to play bait or try to snuff him out another way. When discovered, turning into mist in sight is to dangerous (slow and the PCs
have magic weapons), so it will probably be a chase through the foggy harbour streets. (wanted to try out the cards for some time). Liek will only fight when cornered.

Florian Lamorath - The Song of Blood (human vampire bard 8)
- keep his stats from the book, change motivation and background

Theme:
Vampire as trickster

Location:
The taverns of Caliphas and the campfires of the nomads and immigrants out of town

Coffin:
He has a coffin with some of his dominated Varisian Nomads in a wagon

Hunting style:
He uses his hat of disguise to take on different forms (but always a musician with a fiddle). He then charms, seduces or tricks a victim to a place where they can be alone and kills them.

Hunting the hunter:
The PCs can ask around the communities and will sooner or later discover that the victims where last seen with a bard. Although the description varies (sometimes a Varisian, sometimes a Chelaxian or even elven),
the distinct masterwork fiddle is always the same.
Focus is on the role playing and finding out who he is and which of the nomad caravans protects his coffin.

Radvir Giovanni and his lair will stay the same, vampire spawn will be replaced. Also, I don't like the bladed scarf as a weapon... it seems so silly.

Any suggestions? Something I missed (first time I statted some creatures, so my math could be slightly off...)?

@Blazej: You have a very good point about the Necromancer, I didn't think of that. If this was spelled out as a reason for his tactics, I wouldn't have any problem.

@Turin the Mad: Probing is a good reason for this, but not with maximized magic missiles.

@Taku Ooka Nin: It seems you misunderstand me. It is not that Difficult = Fun (although curve stomping every encounter gets old soon). I don't want to kill the PCs. I want to give them a challenging and fun encounter with a belivable enemy. If everytime, they face someone stronger than them, this person has quirks so they do not kill them, it gets unbelivable soon. "So the Warlord was crazy, the wizard underestimated us and gave us the first round... are quirks a byproduct of evil?"

Again, my argument is not: The wizard has the TPK spell - so he should use it.
Instead it is: So, the wizard has the TPK spell and will not use it - why give him that spell in the first place? Make him weaker, drop the TPK spell, so the players feel good about themselves, because they defeated a dangerous and clever foe (who was actually nerfed but used his weaker abilities better).

I think it gives the party a better sense of accomplishment if the enemies are dangerous (or seem that way, I'm not out to kill the PCs), than they used the obvious quirk or the oh-no-my-one-weakness-was hubris-factor. It might be fun once in a while to play a snobby caster or something similar, but if every caster encounter is only survived because the caster was an idiot, I don't it is believable.

This is something that bothers me. I have seen that quite a few times in official publications. There is the Big Bad, a spellcaster with terrible arcane (or divine) power, but when you read his tactics as written, he does stupid things.

Example 1:

The enemy was a wizard who had prepared 2 maximized magic missiles. It was a 3rd Level encounter, so he could have blasted one or two of the characters away with 20 damage (4 maximized 1d4+1 missiles) per spell. But what does his During Combat entry say: "He is cruel and spreads his magic missiles on as many targets as possible to prolong the suffering".

Example 2:

Necromancer with 2 (not particularly strong) undead minions. In his arsenal of prepared spells are things like circle of death. What does his entry say? "He bolsters his undead minions." yeah, right, he has one desecrate spell prepared between all this attack spells.

I am aware that these things are there to prevent a TPK by enemy caster, but it doesn't sit well with me. Why was it designed that way in the first place? If someone doesn't want them to TPK the group, make them weaker, give them different spells and add a second in command who is a fighter or something. But just coming up with some excuse to not use all the deadly spells that are written there stretches my imagination and the believe.

Have you similar observations or is it just me? Did i pick two bad examples? If you know this "problem", what are your solutions (because simply TKPing the group is nothing I want to do. It can happen, but the odds should not have benn stacked against the players)?