Nordemkainen's page

Well, here I go again getting way in over my head on these things.

I started conceptualizing a basic list of dragon crossbreeds. Now, I don't need to make one for every possible combination (Or want to, for that matter!) but here's the ones I have so far:

Dragon Crossbreeds:

Gray = Black + White
Rust = Brass + other Metallic
Blade/Sword = Steel Dragon + Metallic
Steel = Silver + Chromatic
Purple = Red + Blue
Electrum = Gold + Silver
Yellow = Bronze + Green
Orange = Yellow + Red or Gold
Shadow = Black + Wyvern with silver dragon ancestry
Mithril = Silver + Steel
Adamantine = Steel + Rust

I am thinking about making a lot of them neutral by default, specifically the chromatic/metallic crossbreeds, although dragons in my campaign setting have no predetermined alignment.

I might also make some of them mules, but I'm not sure what to base such an idea on.

Anyone got any more types to add to the list or ideas on how to make me not kill myself with all of this?

Rite of the Draconic Ancestors
Clr 4, sor/wiz 4, Drd 4
Target: 2 cups of blood per caster level
Effect: This spell transmutes the blood the caster touches into the blood of the draconic ancestor of the owner’s blood. This blood can be used for draconic infusions or for spells requiring the blood as a component. If the blood donor has no draconic ancestor the spell automatically fails.

Draconic Infusion:
By giving a target 2 cups of blood from a dragon, he changes their makeup to resemble that of a dragon’s. The target gains a number of draconic traits at random, but always gains the following:
+2 to one ability score.
Darkvision 60 ft (or +30 if already possessed)
Low light vision
Resistance 5 to the element of the dragon’s breath weapon

And a number of traits rolled randomly form the following list, 1 per age category of the dragon, with the same trait aside form natural armor or skill bonus being rerolled.

1. Two claw attacks of a size one size lager than the target
2. A bite attack of one size larger than the target
3. Resistance 10 instead of 5
4. Natural armor +1, grows scales like that of draconic parent.
5. +4 bonus on perception, intimidate, or spell craft checks, imbiber chooses, cannot have two bonuses to the same skill
6. Breath weapon dealing 3d6 damage of the dragon’s breath weapon as a ranged touch attack. If a spit/breath weapon is already possessed, change the element if necessary and increase its damage by 2 dice.
7. Natural Armor bonus +1
8. +2 bonus on saving throws vs. spells
9. +2 to one additional ability score (counts as two)
10. Gains a tail slap (like bite but grows a tail), tail gives +4 to acrobatics and swim checks
11. Gain Blindsense 5 ft
12. Grows the crest of the dragon, giving a +4 to intimidate and grants a free intimidate check against the target being charged once per combat when the recipient charges.

The infused must make a DC 15 fortitude save or reject the blood, and will die unless the blood is taken out of them in 1d6+1 days.

I also included the brown dragon (Desert dragon) in my list of colored dragons. I will be adding more.

Bump.

So I've ranted and raved about this, and here I have some darn proof.

A lot of times I read about GMs complaining of their characters seeming to have the right items to make some combination that, while within the rules, is fairly powerful. Other times, I see folks talking about hiring out high-level NPCs to cast high-level spells they have no business accessing. Call it what you will, me being a no-fun Nancy or my Dad being an Economics professor, but something about wizards hiring themselves out when they can basically print money past a certain level with Wall of Iron and similar spells never sat quite right with me. Therefore I have pulled forth a few unpleasant truths from the Core Rulebook that I feel should come to your attention if you are having these problems with your players. Who knows, by restricting these options more you may just make the game more risky, challenging and fun for all parties involved. I will also include a brief tirade on why magic users shouldn't be paid as LITTLE for their spells as they are.

#1: MAGIC ITEMS, EXCEPT POTIONS, ARE ALMOST NEVER GOING TO BE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT THE BUYER'S CHOICE. (I would encourage restricting the number of potions for sale as well)

Magic items are valuable, and most major cities have at least one or two purveyors of magic items, from a simple potion merchant to a weapon smith that specializes in magic swords. Of course, not every item in this book is available in every town.

The following guidelines are presented to help GMs determine what items are available in a given community. These guidelines assume a setting with an average level of magic. Some cities might deviate wildly from these baselines, subject to GM discretion. The GM should keep a list of what items are available from each merchant and should replenish the stocks on occasion to represent new acquisitions.

The number and types of magic items available in a community depend upon its size. Each community has a base value associated with it (see Table: Available Magic Items). There is a 75% chance that any item of that value or lower can be found for sale with little effort in that community. In addition, the community has a number of other items for sale. These items are randomly determined and are broken down by category (minor, medium, or major). After determining the number of items available in each category, refer to Table: Random Magic Item Generation to determine the type of each item (potion, scroll, ring, weapon, etc.) before moving on to the individual charts to determine the exact item. Reroll any items that fall below the community's base value.

Table: Available Magic Items
Community Size Base Value Minor Medium Major
Thorp 50 gp 1d4 items — —
Hamlet 200 gp 1d6 items — —
Village 500 gp 2d4 items 1d4 items —
Small town 1,000 gp 3d4 items 1d6 items —
Large town 2,000 gp 3d4 items 2d4 items 1d4 items
Small city 4,000 gp 4d4 items 3d4 items 1d6 items
Large city 8,000 gp 4d4 items 3d4 items 2d4 items
Metropolis 16,000 gp * 4d4 items 3d4 items

You see that? This means even if you WANTED to sell all those potions of cure light wounds to the PCs, they only have a 75% chance of finding each one, probably rolling each time to avoid not finding another one. I would just have a decent stock on hand (1d4+1, increasing the die size and adding 1 for each larger community) of select potions, maybe cure light wounds and magic weapon. Regardless, this isn't going to replace a cleric. Letting your whole high-level party pour their GP into those potions can and will replace a healer. At high levels this eliminates fun entirely. No one is ever afraid to die because they just spend an ever decreasing fraction of the money you give them to not die. The 75% chance is kind of silly, but I don't believe the meaning of the rule should be discounted: You DON'T get to have whatever you want, whenever you want it.

Also, shopping for a specific item? That +2 item even? You HAVE to go to a small city to have a great chance of buying it. Otherwise the minor magic item they have in stock is likely a potion or scroll, since the d4s of magic items are generated using the magic item generator tables. Unless your world is filled with small cities (And assuming the country with all those cities has the economy to support them) you don't stand a chance of buying it, the DM has got to hand it to you when he thinks you need it.

#2: FORGET YOUR PERMANENCY SPELL, I CAST WALL OF IRON! (Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the trade goods chart)

Other Wealth

Merchants commonly exchange trade goods without using currency. As a means of comparison, some trade goods are detailed on Table: Trade Goods.

Table: Trade Goods
Cost Items
1 cp One pound of wheat
2 cp One pound of flour, or one chicken
1 sp One pound of iron
5 sp One pound of tobacco or copper
1 gp One pound of cinnamon, or one goat
2 gp One pound of ginger or pepper, or one sheep
3 gp One pig
4 gp One square yard of linen
5 gp One pound of salt or silver
10 gp One square yard of silk, or one cow
15 gp One pound of saffron or cloves, or one ox
50 gp One pound of gold
500 gp One pound of platinum

A pound of iron is one silver piece. This may not seem like much until you read the entry for wall of iron:

Components V, S, M (a small iron sheet plus gold dust worth 50 gp)

Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)

Effect iron wall whose area is up to one 5-ft. square/level; see text

Duration instantaneous

Saving Throw see text; Spell Resistance no

You cause a flat, vertical iron wall to spring into being. The wall inserts itself into any surrounding nonliving material if its area is sufficient to do so. The wall cannot be conjured so that it occupies the same space as a creature or another object. It must always be a flat plane, though you can shape its edges to fit the available space.

A wall of iron is 1 inch thick per four caster levels.

This spell means that any wizard who bans conjuration hates money.

I know this has been done before, but I don't think ANYONE understands just how much metal this produces.

Rules for Obtaining Approximate Weight of Iron.

For Round Bars. Rule : Multiply the square of the diameter in inches by the length in feet, and that product by 2.6. The product will be the weight in pounds, nearly.

For Square and Flat Bars. Rule : Multiply the area of the end of the bar in inches by the length in feet, and that by 3.32. The product will be the weight in pounds, nearly.

Wrought Iron, usually assumed:

A cubic foot=480 lbs.

A square foot, 1 inch thick= 40 lbs

It costs you 50 gp to cast this spell. At minimum level, you make a 2 inch thick wall of iron with a 55ft square area. At 8 gp per foot, that's still 440 gp. The next level, the thickness in inches increases, making the price per square foot 12 gp instead. That's free money assuming you find a buyer. But wait, you provide another service: FREE TRANSPORTATION. That's a cut down on labor costs for a LOT of iron transport, even from a mage who's just learned the spell. You could probably get around 20-40% of those costs as well, netting you a bit more pocket change with each transaction. The wizard could also likely negotiate a contract with the king of the land, obtaining a monopoly on Iron and increasing its price to vary the amount of profits received, depending on how the market reacts to the influx of iron. He could even, with that monopoly, make it Illegal to sell other forms of iron, thus netting himself a nice profit. Assuming other wizards can keep the market competitive, it's still a very profitable business provided the wizards can keep finding buyers. At that level, they could be getting paid 660 GP for a 6th level spell, assuming someone WANTS their services. If we weren't talking about such a great deal of money, any other economy would have a wizard in ruins. Screw that, they're a mage with things to do. Tell those PCs you're busy and keep pocketing thousands of gold a day with each casting, and at higher levels double the area with an Enlarge Spell. The time to process that amount means the Wizard is eating up maybe a spell per day at most. Wizards with such steady employment should be commonplace with those kinds of results, bringing me to my next point:

#3: GETTING CASTERS TO CAST MAGIC SHOULD NOT BE CHEAP.

Spellcasting and Services

Service Cost
Coach cab 3 cp per mile
Hireling, trained 3 sp per day
Hireling, untrained 1 sp per day
Messenger 2 cp per mile
Road or gate toll 1 cp
Ship's passage 1 sp per mile
Spellcasting Caster level × spell level × 10 gp3

That last figure is a mystery to me. According to that figure, a cure light wounds spell costs 10 gp to get. Nevermind the fact that a Messenger has to run 5 miles a day to pay for his food that day (1 sp), who sets these prices? Spellcasting should a be a highly competitive market, like any other major business. Assuming there aren't insurance companies in this medieval game to pay the casters what they want, let's think about the other options available if you want to cast a spell- For the common fellow, at least.

1: Potions. While these MAY start out as affordable, we quickly see the truth of the matter:

Table: Potion Costs

Spell Level Cleric, Druid, Wizard Sorcerer Bard Paladin, Ranger
0 25 gp 25 gp 25 gp —
1st 50 gp 50 gp 50 gp 50 gp
2nd 300 gp 400 gp 400 gp 400 gp
3rd 750 gp 900 gp 1,050 gp 1,050 gp

Wait, what? 300 gp for a second level spell? Oh well, I guess I can just get a scroll and have a Rogue UMD it...

Table: Scroll Costs

Spell Level Cleric, Druid, Wizard Sorcerer Bard Paladin, Ranger
0 12.5 gp 12.5 gp 12.5 gp —
1st 25 gp 25 gp 25 gp 25 gp
2nd 150 gp 200 gp 200 gp 200 gp
3rd 375 gp 450 gp 525 gp 525 gp
4th 700 gp 800 gp 1,000 gp 1,000 gp
5th 1,125 gp 1,250 gp 1,625 gp —
6th 1,650 gp 1,800 gp 2,400 gp —
7th 2,275 gp 2,450 gp — —
8th 3,000 gp 3,200 gp — —
9th 3,825 gp 4,050 gp — —

Looks like the Economics wizards beat me to the punch. A scroll costs half as much as a potion to make. Since only two classes are likely to know how to activate those, we can assume that these prices are correct. Clearly a lower competition market like scrolls will have a lower price to encourage buying in groups. Think of it like buying computer parts to make your own computer instead of buying a manufactured one. By doing this, Wizards especially benefit from being able to sell to one another (likely the main buyers) and from being able to use potions to appeal to a larger group of buyers. So where's the profit margin in selling the spells directly?

A second level spell costs 60 gp. If it was a scroll, it would net the caster 75 gp in profits. We can assume this as a baseline, since obviously the buyer does not want a scroll, or he would have asked for one to be made. At most, we could charge 149 gp, since 150 gp is the profit made form making a potion. In all likelihood, we would charge around 120-150 gp depending on the available competition, making it cheaper than producing the more labor-intensive potion but not so expensive as to prohibit the purchase of this ability and to instead cause the buyer to head for the scroll rack and a hard on his luck bard or rogue. To simplify things, the equation becomes: 2-2.5 x spell level x caster level (minimum required, unless caster level increase has added benefits) x 10 gp. That's assuming a fairly competitive economy. In an area with maybe only ONE really powerful wizard or cleric, he could charge anywhere 3-4.5 times the standard rate and no one would know the difference, since he'd still be ahead of the (nonexistant) potion market and the (select few capable, especially at high level) scroll market. This cuts far more heavily into the party's gold. Regenerate (7x13x10=910) becomes a 1820 gp MINIMUM spell. My 8th level group would balk at shilling that out. Things that only a certain class could cast would enjoy an even larger price boost as well.

I shouldn't need to say this, but people who sell their skills for money don't usually get to set the prices. Unfortunately for Adventurers, they always have enough money that they will be buyers. They should expect to pay through the nose for what are basically hirelings, making up for any skill they lack. Career wizards would become a major feature of any major city, and many noblemen would likely employ one for a large fee to cast spells at his leisure. As it stands, the PCs can whine all they want about the prices, but really, the casters have an unshakable corner on the market. You have magic or you don't. There's no way to enter into this market if you're not already in it, and no reason to make less profit aside from generosity, which doesn't build churches, feed the homeless, or discover a cure for Mummy Rot. Peasants who aren't bottom of the rung messengers can earn a potion of cure light wounds, or one of stabilize, after working for about a month. Since even they can pay it, there's no reason not to charge them around 20 gp instead if they just need to be recuperated with a cure light wounds.

So here's a startup to a controversial topic. I'd like to ask why folks see the need to min-max. Is it a power trip? Is your DM a dick? Come here with your stories of daring-do. Feel free to note a few things:

1. Conversation should be kept civil, and any insults should be as tongue in cheek as possible. If this doesn't happen I will be all too happy to ask a mod to delete the thread and then make a thread in off-topic entitled "This is why we can't have nice things."

2. If you're going to post your build beyond a short few word summary, don't. I really don't feel like learning whatever variant game you were playing at the time or digging out Complete Arcane to figure out what you're talking about. I am only interested in your MOTIVATION. Any post that just pointlessly talks about the build I will just ask a mod to delete because sifting through your in-depth explanation of how Bill the Fighter used three bastard swords in each hand should be something no sane person has to do.

In less words:
1. No Flaming.
2. No Build Discussion.

This is for my personal review and benefit to better understand how the construction of a game can affect a player's mindset. Do feel free to include rambling of a psychological nature, unless it is of how you have a compulsive need to explain the build of every character you have ever made in minute detail. If you do have such a nature, just get back to work on the statistics for Friday, Joe, before I fire you myself.

I've made a few homebrew races for my setting. In it, goblins are more like LOtR goblins since the orc kingdom they're a part of has some heavy Tolkien influence. The difference being I have my own subraces of both goblins and hobgoblins to add some fae flavor to their histories. The fae are changed by what they live around, and these goblins have been changed as well.

Spoilered to avoid reader san loss, for now.

Anyone willing to critique my wall of text?

After it was brought to my attention by a certain member of these forums that crossbows are just a bad option, here is my attempt at fixing them.

Note: This is not final, and as such should NOT be put up on the PFSRD as it is. I plan on rewriting this a few times.

Simple Weapons:

Light Crossbow (Common Man’s Crossbow)
1d8 19-20 X2
Range: 80 feet
Cost: 40 gp
Ammo: 1 sp per 10 bolts
Special rules: Reload: A light crossbow may be reloaded as a move action, or with the Rapid Reload feat, a swift action.
Mighty: A masterwork crossbow can be augmented with the same Mighty rule as a composite bow. Such a crossbow would be cut longer, giving more power to the limbs of the weapon.

Heavy Crossbow (Guardsman’s Crossbow)
1d10 19-20 X2
Range: 100 feet
Cost: 60 gp
Ammo: 1 sp per 10 bolts
Special rules: Reload: A heavy crossbow may be reloaded as a standard action, or with the Rapid Reload feat, a move action.
Mighty: A masterwork crossbow can be augmented with the same Mighty rule as a composite bow. Such a crossbow would be cut longer, giving more power to the limbs of the weapon.

Light Repeating Crossbow (Chinese repeating crossbow, Zhuge Nu)
1d8 19-20 X2
Range: 60 feet
Cost: 100 gp
Ammo: 1 sp per 10 bolts
Special Rules: Clip (10): Repeating crossbows can fire ten rounds before needing to be reloaded.
Reload: Reloading a light repeating crossbow is a move action, or with the rapid reload feat, a swift action.
Mighty: A masterwork crossbow can be augmented with the same Mighty rule as a composite bow. Such a crossbow would be cut longer, giving more power to the limbs of the weapon. In the case of a repeating crossbow, however, the time needed to reload is increased by one step (From move to standard)

Heavy Repeating Crossbow (Bigger Zhuge Nu?)
1d10 19-20 X2
Range: 80 feet
Cost: 140 gp
Ammo: 1 sp per 10 bolts
Special Rules: Clip (10): Repeating crossbows can fire ten rounds before needing to be reloaded.
Reload: Reloading a heavy repeating crossbow is a standard action, or with the rapid reload feat, a move action.
Mighty: A masterwork crossbow can be augmented with the same Mighty rule as a composite bow. Such a crossbow would be cut longer, giving more power to the limbs of the weapon. In the case of a repeating crossbow, however, the time needed to reload is increased by one step (From standard to full-round)

Weapon enhancement:
Self Loading (+1) (Crossbows only)

Benefit: This enhancement allows a crossbow to reload itself magically. 3 times a day, as a free action, the wielder of the crossbow can command it to load, and it will magically do so in the same action. The wielder may choose what kind of bolt to load the crossbow with simply by thinking about it as he says the command. If he does not choose, the crossbow will load itself with a non-magical bolt from the last quiver used to contain its ammunition, if possible. Otherwise it will select the lowest cost ammunition from a random quiver on its wielder.

For a repeating crossbow, the action is instead a swift action for the magic to reload a clip

Unlike other enhancements, this ability can be selected more than once at a +1 enhancement cost. Each extra enhancement give the crossbow an extra 3 free reloads.

Quick-Loading (3,000 gp) (Crossbows only)

Benefit: The wielder of this crossbow gains the benefit of the Rapid Reload feat when reloading the enchanted weapon. He gains no additional benefit if he already possesses that feat.

I think the Self-Loading enhancement could use some work, anyone got some ideas for it?

Let me open with saying that I like the idea of a witch class. A background noise caster with some neat tricks up his or her sleeve. I can tell the witch class has had a lot of work put into it. For the most part, I think it's not quite as powerful as the other casters. Maybe this thread can serve as a way to take our observations and turn them into ideas. We should NOT post modifications to existing Witch content but ideas communicating to designers what we would like to see in the class.

I would like to see some new spells in the book, if any are planned, on the Witch's spell list. The Witch has a lot of save-or-suck effects, but a few with no save would be nice. The Evil Eye Hex does help to drop saves, but having to use an action before each attempt against a tough foe doesn't seem like a great idea. Even with another debuffer (In the unlikely shape of a camel) some effects just still wouldn't stick. A few abilities with a small no save penalty or effect would fit the crunch of the class in my opinion. More spells with good effects and with a repeated save barring certain conditions (Like Stinking Cloud, which is on the Witch's spell list) would also be a great addition.

Something like a curse spell that provides penalties to a specific action (Like the opposite of command) would be an example of my idea. (The game does need more curses in my opinion, and more blessings)

Hello folks. Thanks for joining me for this double playtest. First off, I am seeing how well a small party stacks up against various creatures, and also mostly analyzing the witch's performance. The summoner also joins us in the second "week" of encounters.

My notation is as such. When there is a new day, I assume everyone starts fully healed, and I press through the several encounters I have set up. Each encounter is over leveled, save the air elemental. Since an equivalent CR encounter in Pathfinder is mostly mop-up in my experience, I decided to test the power of each class. The days are in-game, to show that the PCs have rested.

The new "week" is an entirely new day in real life. I felt this was important to note since the new playtester joined us on that day, and this way I myself can keep track of my notes, especially as to when they were taken.

Feel free to post questions! I was there, I can elaborate on confusing circumstances.

Playtest Report: Day 1

Participating Characters: Con Agra the Man-Witch. A half-orc who has a goat named Cabra, Healing and Evil Eye
Grogma the half-orc Cavalier with a camel mount named Dwight and Order of the Lion pledge.

Day 1 and 2: level 2 characters
Day 3 and 4: level 3 characters

Battle tests:
Day 1
1 small air elemental (CR 1)
Both party members untouched, Evil Eye helped avoid getting hit

1 giant crab (CR 3 for two person group)
The Cavalier destroyed it, but got a bit injured. The witch lowered its AC and wasted a sleep spell

1 ogre (roughly CR 4, overwhelming)
The first fight, the ogre got crit by the cavalier and dropped first round. Second fight, it ran for the cavalier and knocked him out in one round. The camel spit, the witch Eyed it, and the ogre went from a +7 to hit to a +3. The witch brought the cavalier back up, who then dodged the ogre’s now ineffective attack and brought it down low. The cavalier then got hit by the ogre’s club once more and died the camel flying into a frenzy and knocking the ogre out with a bite.

Day 2 (full recovery)
2 Sahuagin ( 2 CR 2s, tough fight)
Sahuagin went first and closed with the cavalier while one shot at a distance. The cavalier took damage, but nothing major. The Cavalier did around 13 damage to the sahuagin, sending it into a frenzy next turn. The witch commanded the ranged sahuagin to drop prone, and it did. The frenzied sahuagin got no hits and died next turn. The other sahuagin closed with the witch, who moved and cured the cavalier’s wounds with a touch. The sahuagin got a good hit in on the witch, and the cavalier took it out as the witch gave it a crossbow bolt to chew on.

1 yeth hound (CR 3)
The yeth approached from the air. It immediately bayed, panicking the man-witch and sending him running in a most un-manly fashion. The cavalier followed, trying to make sure his friend snapped out of it. Thanks to its fly speed, the yeth caught up to the cowardly witch and chomped him hard. The cavalier charged it, miraculously not dropping it thanks to its DR. The witch got up on his turn, and then got staggered by the yeth’s bite. The witch tried to run later, as the cavalier flanked with the witch’s goat,
Killing the yeth by round five. The witch got a bad roll and was punished for it.

Day 3
Yeti (CR 4)
This match looked like it was going to be easy. The witch mage armored himself in the first turn, and then the cavalier went to town on the yeti, doing 28 damage with a regular charge. The yeti, being mighty steamed, gave the cavalier a good one claw. The camel spit at the yeti and was punished with a claw, while the witch gave the Yeti an evil eye, reducing the saves even further than from the sickening spit of the camel. The cavalier gave the yeti another good shot, bringing it within an inch of its life. The yeti got lucky, rolled high on both claws, and rended the cavalier asunder, killing him in a flurry of claws. The Witch completed his spell, blinding the yeti, and the camel, angry that its master had died AGAIN bit the yeti into unconsciousness. The witch stabilized it, sure that the rare creature would sell for a fine price, and hopefully raise enough money to bring his friend back to life.

Day 4
Centaur (CR 3)
Cave Fisher (CR 2)

Utterly decimated does not even begin to describe what happened.

The hallway is 15 feet wide. The cave fisher in front of the centaur. Ideally, the cave fisher pulls something in, and this strange subterranean centaur goes to town on it along with the cave fisher.

It was not to be.

The cavalier goes first and charges (How many times have you heard that one?). He almost, along with the camel’s bite, drops the fisher. The centaur? Gets slept.

The following rounds involve a complicated charge maneuver by the cavalier, the centaur waking up to being damaged, and then killed by a goat with cause moderate wounds critting on his derriere.

Overall the cavalier can do tons of damage, dropping something even one level above him in one round. The witch is very support and has a bunch of save or dies that Evil eye can help out with. OR the witch gets to try to avoid death when faced with something (like a crab) that is immune to these. Evil Eye got used at least once a fight, and saved the party against the ogre where another attack would have failed. The witch needs melee support, but when it gets it, the witch can tear some things up at low level, with spells like sleep.

Second Playtest:

Con Agra and Grogma are joined by another fellow adventurer, Faulcon the human summoner, and his Eidolon, Badazz. All of them are third level.

Week 2, Day 1
Encounter 1: Deionychus and Drow Noble. (CR 5-6)

The Eidolon charged the drow noble and kept her down, ensuring that she was useless for the fight. The cavalier charged the Dionychus and took in down in two. The witch just stared at the combat menacingly and healed the eidolon after the fight.

Encounter 2: Barghest and a Lion (CR 6-7)

So the lion got decimated by a timely spider. The witch was horribly ineffectual, blowing every spell save grease on the Barghest with no effect, even after an evil eye. The Barghest used blink in round one, culminating in an eight round battle at chipping away the damn thing’s health. The lion’s decimation resulted in the summoner summoning a spider with SM II SLA. The thing entangles on a ranged touch, and can do this eight times. Combined with the long summon time… It de-buffed both monsters multiple times to great effect with the Evil eye.

And then the barghest got finished off by a long overdue charge. The cavalier still seems to be doing quite well.

The summoner re-summons his eidolon, the Witch’s familiar is out for a while, and the cavalier is untouched.

Encounter 3: Giant Frilled Lizard (CR 6)

Destroyed would be an understatement. It charged, then got de-buffed to death. First the camel’s spit? -2 on attack rolls and saves. Then, the witch cursed it for a -2 to attacks and then again for -2 AC the next round. That evil eye may not come in handy all the time, but when it does… well, I think the party’s no-hit record this fight speaks for itself.

God, that poor CR 5 never knew what hit it.

Week 2 Day 2

Everyone levels to 4th level. The Eidolon becomes large, The cavalier’s challenge becomes a bit better, and the Witch gets slumber and a pearl of power.

Encounter 1: Anklosaurus (CR 6-7)

Well, the Anklosaurus won initiative. He rushed forward, his tail swinging right at the camel-mounted cavalier. Boom! The cavalier has six hp left.

The witch tries to stifle its attacks, but no. Only one round of attack penalties for this behemoth. The summoner’s eidolon tumbles in and misses the dino, while the cavalier valiantly tries to make one last hit, failing miserably. The beast takes another swing, killing the cavalier instantly. The camel flies into a rage, going into close combat with the creature who had killed its master. The summoner pops a small earth elemental into existence. The elemental helps the eidolon out, and together they contribute a few points of damage from the eidolon’s strikes. The witch tries a grease spell as the summoner summons a spider to net the monstrosity and the anklosaurus pounds away at the camel, nearly taking its head off. In the next round, a lucky miss occurs with the dino flailing about. The witch seals its fate with an enfeebling ray as the summoner makes another earth elemental appear for the coup de grace.

The last fight is a good example of the witch and summoner standing side by side. The summoner does stuff while the witch goes “oh, if people on my team die I am dead, I am so dead.” The witch seems to be balanced fine, I just have horrible luck with the saves (Stupid anklosaurus kept rolling high!). Our cavalier got taken out. We should have died. But no, the summoner summons three things (Half his daily uses) and with some minor debuffs from the witch the situation gets turned around. The summoner can do stuff by himself. The witch? Maybe a few more defensive spells would be nice, because one made save and the witch is just taking up space. That‘s why I used so much Evil Eye. A 10% extra chance to fail all saves, when coupled with the camel’s spit, a 20%? Yes, please. I’m planning on picking up spell focus at level five, because level 3 was devoted to Brew Potion. The summoner, so far, seems to need charisma for very little besides qualifying for his spells. A scant few of his spells even involve saves, and the few times he can a non-summoning spell it was grease. I want to like the witch, but getting in to touch things as a caster is a bad idea, and sending in your familiar a worse one.

So as you may have noticed I put overwhelmingly powerful encounters up against the PCs. This is because I wanted to see where they would break, and I’m not just being sadistic. The Cavalier is a tough nut to crack until you introduce a bruiser like an Ogre or Anklosaurus into the mix, and then he stays about level. The Witch is so support he makes bards look like frontline fighters. Evil Eye is by far the best option because even if they make their save, the creature still gets the penalty, and on top of that 30 ft range. It seems like you’re getting in too close, but backpacking the cavalier seemed to work, since the witch is just using non-damaging spells, save a few.

The summoner… Where do I start? For one, I actually TRIED to kill the part with the anklosaurus. The cavalier went down as expected. Even if the witch had healed, save a lucky roll, the cavalier would have eaten dirt. The summoner stopped it in its tracks, and beat it down with low level summons. I’m talking small size earth elementals and a monstrous spider! Maybe those three and the camel could start their own adventuring party.

The eidolon? Mostly ineffective. Sure, it got three attacks and it could trip, but it was at most an extra fighter with bad damage. The main problem is all the summons. They clogged up the anklosaurus, who, had he even tried to over run and get at the summoner, not that his int of 1 would recognize what a summoning spell is or who was doing it, it would have eaten three attacks of opportunity, dropping it in all likelihood.

How about this: The summoned creatures from the summoner’s spells need to have less appearing at once. Maybe a range on them would help?

Oh, and it turns out that the summoner was cheating, there is no spider of any kind on the summon monster lists. Excuse me while I throttle him in his sleep. But the thing is, an aid another action could have done this as well, so the problem still remains.