Minsk's page

Good evening, all! My regular players are trudging through W2: River into Darkness and we're almost past the boat ride and are getting to the second part of the adventure, where the players help guard Nightfall Station during the siege. I was curious on other peoples' experiences in running this part of the adventure, as it's noticeably non-linear compared to the boat ride upriver (and, as a novice at dungeon mastering, it'll be the most non-linear game that I've run once we get to it). How have those who've DMed W2 handled the players' work at the station, the various events going on and the time frame?

My own plan is to make a nice weekly schedule for the PCs' guard and patrol duties, and figure out how to sprinkle the events at the station during the weeks that they're there. My players are new at tabletop roleplaying and they haven't grasped yet how much freedom they have to do their own things in the game world, so I fear they might not pursue or even realize the secrets at the Station. So I'm thinking of additional events that would clue in on things being afoot there - most likely a friendly NPC noticing something and passing it on to the players, since those have been the best hooks for us so far ("Hey, have you noticed anything funny about the barracks?", and so forth). While there's nothing wrong with simply weathering the siege as an adventure conclusion, I'd like my players to at least be aware that the plot's not as black-and-white as they think.

I'm most worried about the actual time frame of the siege. If all that the players do is guard against the siege then I fear they'd get bored if it would last for more than two or three weeks. But if they manage to get hooked with all the intrigue at the station I imagine I could stretch it out further. I suppose I should run the siege for a couple of weeks, see how my players are faring and then decide if I should move on to the climactic battle.

But yes, how's this part of the game been handled by other people who've played or are playing River into Darkness? I realize it's ultimately up to me to figure out what works for my crew, but I would really like to know how this game's gone for others!

Cheers,
Minsk

Evening all. I'm working on making my first NPC of own design, and I've chosen a difficult subject for a novice DM: a thri-kreen armed with two short swords. Working on him has brought up a couple of shady rules to me involving two-weapon fighting and the combination of two-weapon fighting and natural attacks. I seem to be missing answers to these in the core rulebooks.

First of all, when base attack bonus gets up to six, the character hits twice with his weapon in one round. Basic stuff. Now, what if the critter is fighting with two weapons? Does the off hand weapon also gain a second attack with the smaller base attack bonus? Or does only the primary weapon retain the second attack? Or perhaps the off hand weapon counts as the second attack? Does the character have two, three or even four attacks a round (with various negatives for fighting two-handed)?

But another problem arises with my NPC having several manufactured and natural weapons. The Monster Manual unfortunately appears to only have rules for one manufactured weapon and natural weapon(s). A primary weapon that's manufactured doesn't normally take penalties with natural secondary attacks, but does the second weapon still result in two-weapon fighting penalties? Does the off hand weapon affect the creature's natural weapons, changing their penalties to two-weapon fighting penalties too?

I hope my queries sound coherent. There's a lot of small details involving weapon combinations, and unfortunately I made the mistake of picking the most difficult combination. If the good folk of Paizo could help me get these rules clarified, I'd be extremely grateful! I'm otherwise proud of the character I'm making, and I'd hate to scrap him for something less intriguing!

Cheers,
Minsk

Evening all. I'm new to Dungeon Mastering, and I've come upon a problem that seems like it should be easily resolved but which I, in my infinite ignorance, can't find a solution for in the rulebooks. I was hoping that the good folk of Paizo could point me to the right page!

Basically, there's plenty of well-defined rules about how many spells the various spellcasters can prepare for each day, but except for the bard and sorcerer's "Spells Known" charts, I can't find how many spells the other casters know at the start of a game. If one of my players says to me "Hey Minsk, I'd like to play a wizard in this game," I can tell him how many spells he can prepare daily, but I can't find how big his selection of spells is.

With the divine casters I've just ruled that every spell allowed for their level and class is available for them to prepare, being granted by their respective deity. I've read of others doing the same thing and I think that's the official method. It hasn't been a game-breaker thus far, at least!

My main problem is with the wizard, whose edge is, of course, his ability to learn new spells. So how many starting spells does an nth-level wizard have? I know that they get two extra spells upon gaining a level, so does that mean that a first-level wizard has two? And nth-level wizards have 2*n spells? Of course I can have NPC wizards with however many spells I need if I justify their acquirement in their background, but players with this luxury of choice could easily make their PCs overpowered.

If you guys could point out a page in the Player's Handbook or Dungeon Master's Guide that explains this, I'd be extremely grateful! Thus far no one in the group has wanted to play a wizard, but once we're done playing various one-shot modules to introduce the game and pull out a full campaign, someone might decide that a wizard would be excellent.

Cheers,
Minsk