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I just noticed some mail and lo and behold Paizo has sent me a Christmas Card. I think I might have got a little teary-eyed. That is, until I noticed the ten percent off month of January, and my natural dwarf-like lust reigned supreme. Well done, folks, and I offer a Yuletide toast to thee as well.
I post a weekly update fromt he game I DM, we are having an incredible blast with the game. my table is a mix of new players and old, and everyone seems to be having a real good time, at least thats what the 8 players returning every week tells me. Here's a link to week 5:
Heh my wife is the main fighter in the 3rd edition game I play, and I would say that other than the occasional "mundane world issues" that cause problems, the biggest problem I have found is that after 14 years of marraige she can somehow solve riddles, puzzles, and traps, that for anyone else would be impossible, because she knows me that well! In fact, sometmes I try to use riddles and traps from other sources, just to throw her off! One time we did have to cancel the game because we wre in the middle of some giogantic argument, but in 2 yrs only one cancelled game aint too bad. And yes, I try to kill her character, but I have to make DAMN sure I am not being vicious about it :) And to bring this around to the topic, I realized my game was dead the other day when I found myself using ANY excuse to substitute our usual 11th level 3rd edition game session with a "4th edition playtest." 3rd edition is no longer fun for me, and the fact that we crossed 10th level at the same time I started buying the 4th edition books pretty much put a death curse on our game. Now, rather than defeating Strahd, I am going to have to gently let my significant other know that the "Immortal Queen of Shalazar" just happens to be ANOTHER human warrior named Cady who came along and slew Strahd on their wedding noght to take the crown for herself.
Thanks for all the awesome replies! I don't know why I ever go anywhere else when the group over here at Paizo is so great. You know, I never really connected clockwork to steampunk until this post. I am going to go back to my China Meville novels and yoink some ideas from there :) In the meantime, if interested, here is my tower (long) Spoiler: Well becuz Im bored I will describe this clockwork tower and what I have done with it. To preface, the party is 7th level and playing a modified "Expedition to Castle Ravenloft" - The castle is transplanted over a great mercantile capital of the world (Think Venice during the enlightenment) called Shalazar. They are trying to regain the ciy, and these 13 vampire spawn are turned into "Day-walkers" by a radiating crystal above one of the city's landmarks, the Clockwork Tower.
The tower's main level rotates so that the entrance only opens once every 4 hours. The crystal is a great shard protected by a hemispherical wall of force on the top. The bard considered using blink to bypass the WoF (by going under) but the fear of the hemisphere being a complet globe and her materializing within the stone scared her away. (The tower is actually constructed of two rows of thick stone blocks with lead anti-magic sheeting betwixt) In the end they went in the main doors for the 10 minutes it was available and were confronted by a 100 ft long corridor, lighted by dimly glowing golden crystals every 20 ft. The archer dashed in and was surprised by an "arbalester" that lowered from a hidden panel in the ceiling and fired 4 steel darts every round. Immediately the rest of the party dashed forward to get under it and outside the line of fire. Heh heh. Right before the last on the initiative, the half orc barbarian, he was attacked alone at the open end of the corridor by 4 of these daywalkers. Two of them both hit and grappled, one was cut down by the powerful half orc, but his CON was down to 5, and his level to 5!! The party was in a quandery, but they didnt have long to wait, because a next round began and the arbalester dropped from the ceiiling to land on 3 metal legs, its top was a steel shield that allowed it to blend with the ceiling, it fired into the bard (she is so rarely hurt! very exciting stuff) while every one else turned to help Thokk. They beat the daywalkers off, and destroyed the clockwork arbalester, and decided to go in, straight to the crypts rather than destroying the crystal. they then came to a room that contained a model of the city in miniature under glass. Looking closer they realized it was a current model, even down to figures moving through the strets that they recognized. The neext chamber, going clockwise around the tower, contained a maintenance drone who I tried to roleplay with some humour, it being rather daft and trying to be logica. Next room was described as a great octopus-like machinee filling the room, with metal arms rotating and on the endd of each of its 12 arms wa a large different colored globe. This represented the solar system and its 12 planets. The players didnt care of course. Next room was a miniature of the tower which could be openened in half, and stood about 8 feet tall. They could see themselves in the tower! They also caught a glimpse of the how the structures was put together... My idea for the tower is that it is a power-house, convertiing energy from steam into magic energy, which is then put into gems and crystals that power the various inventions. The steam is generated deep under the tower, where a sea-cave has formed. In it, 4 elementals have been chained. The fire elemental and the water elemental are forced into an eternal struggle which created this billowing steam that is forced up a giant central shaft of the tower by a huge fan. (not fully flushed out but Im thinking the air elemental has something to do with the fan. As for rearth... not sure.) Anyhow, the central shaft is about 20 ft in diameter and it goes all the way to the top of the tower, too hot to touch and steam is pumping through it. The entire middle area of the tower is open, around 50 ft in diameter, and other then the main level, there are 13 more. The shaft decends through the layer of bedrock to get to the sea-cave. In this central area are all manner of cogs, wheels, chains, and other stuff and the only way to get around is by climbing through the stuff, per some rules in the Iron Giant. In fact they had a nifty battlematt that you turn sideways, in other words, that is vertical, and I made 9 copies of it and taped them together to symbolize the circular nature of this tower they were in. Needless to say, as soon as they went into this shaft, they were attacked by a pair of Barsoomian white apes, or the Girallon "pets" as they are called. Fun battle. So there are 13 levels going up this central open shaft, and each one has pipes, wires, cables and other junk, and they are all rotating hap-hazardly. They will find out thrrough talking to a "maintenance drone" who incentally looks sort of like a gnome tin-man, and even has a little metal beard(!) they will find out that that they cant get through the steam shaft without protecttion from heat and flame, so they must instead "turn off the steam" by going into each of the 12 levels and shutting them down. Each level is acutally nothing more than a small room with a large mural on the wall. By staring at the mural they will be teleported to various places (some poignant foreshadowing will happen here) and will use a crystal key to 'turn off' the clockwork item ffound within each area. It should be all sorts of fun, and each of the 12 is based on one of the signs of the zodiac. It is the connection to these 12 zoidacal planes, planets, dimensions, locales, whatever, that creates the magical energy. The 13th, i think will probably be the Over-seers HQ. Im toying with the idea of the gnome engineer who designed the tower being turned into a 'brain in a jar', and it was Strahd's corruption of him that allowed the whole tower to be turned towards his evil plans. Anyway, I have no ideas what to do for the 6 levels of the tower that comprise the air and water signs, and was hoping to steal ideas from oher published modules. I know that was a long ramble, but mebbe someone else is as bored as I
I am looking for some inspiration for a clockwork tower I am developing, and was hoping to steal some ideas from published adventures if anyone can name a few for me. The main thing I am looking for is ambience, room descriptions and decor, cruelly ingenious traps and puzzles, NOT so much monsters which the monster books I have are full of. The two modules I am currently lifting ideas from are Wicked Fantasy's Against the Iron Giant, and DCC Vault of the Overlord (both awesome in their own right.) I really want to give the whole thing a steam-punk, grinding gears sort of barton fink feel. And a cool trap or two would be nice. Thanks in advance, and in full disclosure I have to add I originally posted this question over at the RPGnet forums, but got dismal results.
Ya. SO that is ironed out, how about restoration potions? The rules for the restoration spell say it can be used any time 1 day per caster level, but the negative levels become permanent after 24 hours, so will restoration still work after 24 hours? If that is the case, pcs should always risk the save and not waste a restoration spell unless the save is failed? I need a guide to running these vampire and vampire spawn i am unleashing on the players. And finally (I am such a loser!) when a vampire or spawn gets reduced to zero hp, they tun gaseous and float towards their crypt. Well the gaseousness has an armour class, so you can obvioulsy try to hit the gas, but no HP since they are at zero, so can you damage them while in gaseous form, and if so, what happens? Ugh, too lon since I dealt with vampires, I feel embarrassed to have so many question...
I have read p.239, repeatedly, and I find that 'not saying one gets a saving throw upon contact' is decidedly not the same thing as saying 'one doesn't'. Or in other words, while it suggests there is only one save, it doesnt rule out the possibility of an initial save, or leaves it somewhat of a mystery. Most things have saves on initial contact, and even most things with a further save, poison for example, still have the initial save. However, that said, I bow to the general consensus, since no where in all the rules have we discovered where it explicitly states that one gets an initial save. No save. In other news, how does Pathfinder handle energy drain/level loss? JD
OK, I am having some serious trouble wrapping my head around energy drain, particularly the saves. Perhaps I have been doing it wrong all these years, but I always thought when struck (with a successful touch attack) the character got 2 fortitude saves, the first being at the time of attack to avoid the drain altogether, and the second being 24 hrs later to see if it ‘sticks’ but I have gone through every book I have (3.0 AND 3.5 PH, DMG, MM) and have found absolutely zero references to the first save to avoid the level loss. Am I crazy? As an aside, I read in a book about alternate energy drain affects, such as simplified level loss rules, but cannot find them either, I thought it was Libris Mortis, but apparently Im wrong about that too, so bonus points if you can point me to the rules variants for energy drain. Thanx
Thanks for all the good suggestions. Wow, it seems like a lot of the Rakshasa are from player-written modules (i.e. Dungeon mag.) with a distinct absense of them in published modules. That makes me think that there is a need for these under-rated monsters in published adventures. Strange considering how awesome they are and with near limit-less possibilities. I think I might check out the Pathfinder module, but the overview makes it sounds like it would be difficult to plop down just anywhere, needing a city to evacuate and what-not. Thanks for the resonses, and here's to bringing the Rakshasa into his own at last. P.S. Are they in 4E i wonder, and how did they change, if at all?
Well, I am not purposefully excluding anything, I want to hear about ALL modules containing Rakshasa (particularly those with class levels added, and other rekshasa-like creatures. Thanks for Escape for Old Korvosa idea, will check it out. Also thanks Smilodan, but whence did this info spring, your forehead?
Are there any good modules out there featuring Rakshasa? (Esp[ecially Paizo) I love their subtle evil and mind-games. Sorry for the short post, but hey, really that's all I got. Thanks JD
Quick Q: Is there a reference document somewhere that lists the attributes of the various 'dogslicers'and such? I would love to add them to my current goblinoid campaign!
Hi my name is JD Barnes and that is what the Welcome says at the top of the paizo page but the message board has my main listed as Otto Ringus which was a PC I made. How do I get my main message board name (not aliases, which I understand) but my MAIN one to be JD Barnes. I cant see a place to edit the profile name. I know there must be a way because before I made otto ringus I was JD Barnes on the forums.
Well I should like to update this message in hopes that I can get a confirmation of my remaining four character folios being shipped. I am not trying to score a handful of these $1.00 items on the sly, the box was four folios short. As far as my earlier fears, I managed to find a 'slightly' used folio at a local used book shop, and another player cancelled, so I had enough to go around. Whew. (By slightly used, I mean light erase marks and nearly a rolls worth of tape attaching an elven sorceress on the portrtait page:/...) The night went well, the players appreciated the folios (which are great! I will review them) and the addition of a set of Gamemastery item cards was a huge hit. Made for a great night. I will review the 'Elements of Power' cards elsewhere. I have nothing to add about shipping costs except that they seem high-ish, especially when trying to take advantage of clearance sales, and other cheap stuff where multiple item orders seem to spiral out of all proportion to the actual size and weight of what you are getting. JD Barnes
I ordered nine of the Clearanced d20 3.0 Character record folios.(GRR1008) Five of them arrived today. Ok, so it is pretty clear to me what happened. Five folios and the order info sheet were in an unmarked shipping envelope inside the box. I am guessing that there is a SECOND unmarked envelope floating around the warehouse with my other four folios inside it. Well, my campaign starts up tomorrow night after an extended holiday, and now I do not have the required number of folios to bestow upon my players as gifts. Or maybe I should just give it to the five best players? Any way you look at it the plans that I had in mind for tomorrow are dashed. Either I give no gifts, or only give out the five I have, but either way it is a less than momentous occasion, instead one of half-arsed lameness. I sincerely hope that you will make good and find the other four folios and ship them to me. I have no doubt of it, and thank you in advance. (Not to mention the fact you should be loving to get rid of these things! Who plays 3.0 nowadays?? Besides us i mean...) Sheesh! Incidentally this seems like a good time to bring up another of my gripes, especially since this seems to be a shipping error. What is with the stacking shipping fees? I ordered $9 in stuff and the total was $18. That is outrageous and seems to be a simplified way of calculating shipping on a per-item basis instead of a fairer system. Well, I do not think your shipping department has proven itself to be worth its inflated coasts, at least with this order. Ticked in Kansas City
Seemed like a pretty natural assumption to me, after all lycanthrope is always associated with an animal, so shouldnt a race based off lycanthrope have animal ancestry or something? Am I looking at it the right way? (I do not have the appropriate books to know about them)
Ya we really need to level. I am very excited about the prospect of being able to take TWO hits from a kobold, before dropping like a sack of potatoes. (A skill I perfected in the first 50 posts of this game:)
Well, that's all dandy, but some of us have been here since 1E, y'know. Now we got fancy pants races comin' in with their special powers and whatnot. Ya I feel ya, Crazy-rap-dancer. Eladrin was pretty 'out there' to me when I first read about them, but the split between Eladrin and elves is really starting to grow on me. I almost rolled some type of Fingolfin Elf Lord Fighter/mage eladrin till I saw the spell-sword and decided to go a different direction. I like how the game maintains a bit of the Tolkienesque high fantasy (I wish it still contained more. If those pesky halflings get any LESS like hobbits, we might as well just start calling them kender.)
That is an excellent description, thanks muchly! I always liked the tiefling/Aasimar dichotomy, too bad they didnt make Aasimar core in 4E. Those two are new to me though, heh. I am a Greyhawk man, myself heh. A bit of lycanthrope? So different abilities based on the type of were-creature?
Could I get some info on what a Genasi and a Shifter, Razorclw is? Is this a Forgotten Realms thing? Just curious.
Will update the char sheet in the next few hours (at work) and spend that 225. Ya healing 4 and I will take the witch blade.
Oh! I heard the DM mention a couple days ago that he expected this to take about a month before we were all together. Sorry my bad for dawdling, I will try and cut this short. Just tryin' to score some poison is all. Some for Yelex, and some for his enemies ...
I might rather be a wizard, I am having a really hard time deciding, but I guess I better so the last person can make their final choice. Let me read over them one more time, then I'll post a final here, but in the meantime assume warlock for purposes of building the rest of the party. I don't want to hold things up.
I have been waiting and watching for quite awhile for a new 4E game to start - but I have a drawback. I have never played 4E, so this will be my first with it. I am currently playing in 3.0 tabletop and a few great Pathfinder games here. I know I want to be Eladrin, and am sorely tempted by one of the mage classes, warlock perhaps? Am leafing thru the pages now!!!! (I havent looked at the online stuff at all - should i?) Is there a good character sheet or layout example, maybe from your other game?
Wow I tell you what, they managed to pull off another amazing tale of survival this time... Unfortunately, as is so often the case, it began with paperwork: looting corpses, Preparing spells, scrolls, and other errata. Magic item lore checks... you name it. Finally I just practicaklly told them what most items were, then i was abrupt: forty-eight hours later, you see your chance to exit the town and make your way to the king's barrow. You arrive at the black iron gates of the cemetary at ten pm. Shuffling sounds can be heard from within - then a woman's shriek and more shambling moans. ZOmbie attack! They must hack their way through a zombie-infested graveyard at night and save a woman chained to a cross on a tall tomb, then make their way to the Grecian-style temple that is the mausoleum of the ancient king, at the far end, approx. 250 feet. Oh and there were 8 zombies surrounding her, and spotted by Earl the Eagle familiar the next round, 8 more in one milling group, another 8 further on, and finally to either side of the cometary were 12 apiece, for a total of 48 zombies!!! They are third level characters!!!! (In cidentally, when their initial plan (discarded) involved climbing on top of a ten foot tall monument and killing them all. This was when I decided to change the number of zombies to: infinite) <--Evil! So, 48 zombies, their plan is to have mage and bard on 10 foot monument, while elf thief in cloak of elvenkind rescues girl. ZOmbies see them climb onto monument, begins a shambling horde of zombies. I made a house rule on the spot: zombies movement is 20', I want them to be shambling, not 28 days later, but mmm I love that 16 hp! The players were surprised at how strong they were! First couple of rounds is buffing (cleric especially) as the zombies approach and the elf reconnoiters. Then the action starts, zombies go down, fighter has incredible streak of 4 kills in 2 turns with cleave. Then the cleric hit with all his improved abilities and destroyed 5, 5, 9, for a total of 19 in 3 turns, still had 3 more turns memorized. Mage cast no spells but merely shot arrows, bard sang and used magic hand x-bow, (double firing drow bow, able to fire 2/round+1) the barbarian fought his way forwards, not deigning to remain back, and eventually, by about the 9th round (35 zombies killed) the players make a dash for the stairs leading up to the mausoleum, with the stairs descending into darkness... It was really fun to see the players go hog-wild, and each of them was on either a killing spree, or a saving spreee, or whatever. Then the realization that the fight was unwinnable came... the change came upon them in the 6th or 7th round, every other round, 5-7 would apear on the right of left side, then 12 appeared. So immediately it became getting the slow gnome who was stuck on a perch all the way across the cometary and up the steps, and so began phase 2, the fighting withdrawal, which I must say, they handled with real aplomb. 35 KIA, 10 left, they could stay and slaughter the 10 easily, but they have to ask themselves: would more come, qand if so we need to conserve our strength. Oh, it was a hard choice for some of them, especially the ones who could deal out damage indefinitely, like the fighter. 'Twas the cleric who persuaded them, though the rogue had been calling for it all along, and the game ended 22 minutes late (sorry tim) but with the characters up the steps to the temple. 35 killed! So that means, 10 left standing, and they are 10 turns out (I am arbitrating here) so next week will see 10 rounds of trap checking, door unlocking, searching, etc, then a pause of 1 hour, upon which 25 zombies will descend! If they refuse to go down (which I dont foresee as being a problem, but one must have backup plans) then each hour a zombie horde will attack. Anyhow, next week will be my coup de grace, as soon as they barr the door (no locks they must improvise against the zombies pushing at the doors, 10 in 10 turns, then 25 more in an hour, they will be confronted with a room with large round stone seal in the floor. They must remove this and descend 50 to the beginning of the dungeon (I am too evil maybe) but that is for later, for now they have 2 rounds to figure out why the large bronze statues are half melted to dust, then 2 rust monsters attadk, surprise! Oh yes, this will be a deadly dungeon....
Nice story you've got there. The thing I am looking forward to is that nothing is yet resolved, the characters have the ability, in fact the need, to alter the course of events, and it might even be p9ossible to bring one of the tribes of drow (Chanali's drow) over to the side of good, due to Pazuzu being made a demon against her will. I am really excited about this, and hope my players will be too. They have just met their first drow, led by a yuanti, and tonite will discover on them a letter to the long lost 'moon elves' which should spark an attempt to reach them before the other drow do, and so to win their loyalty with promises of freedom, and or the union of Hanali and Dagon Ironcrown, or perhaps something else, but it will lead to some drow underdark goodness, some yuanti espionage, and this is the best part - There is a secret entrance to the moon elve's domains in the palace of a city recently taken over by Strahd himself! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!
Ok, here is a trap I'd like some help with: a minotaur maze using only core rules. I was thinking a stock minotaur who is able to do the following: be heard ominously stampeding one round before a surprise charge attack that blasts into and over one pc, and then continues on in the same round at least 20 or more feet beyond, hopefully using feats, in which case I could take a standard minotaur and give him as many levels of a class as needed to make this work. the maze will be set up in looping intersecting hallways, where he can virtually circle around and come at them every third or so round, heh heh. Let's see mobility, improved overtake, improved bull's rush, what else would be required? Edit: actually to get as devious as possible, using the base minotaur as a start, just how evil could we make this 'maze'? Edit 2: Heh, I am thinking of giving the minotaur a ring of invisiblity (too powerful for 3-4th level characters?) Hmm, some kind of innate invisibilty that would not unbalance my low magic game?
It is my belief that the drow are an aberration that was never meant to happen, and so when I include them, I try to have very specific reasons why they exist. I wouldn’t bother coming up with a complicated reason for bugbears or most other monsters, but I take a Tolkienesque view of elves, and like the Kinslaying of the Silmarillion, it is important to remember that actual people and events is what lead to the drow downfall. In other words they were once normal elves corrupted by malevolence. I think this is important to keeping the drow believable instead of some generic “underground elf.” SO I try to use the elven strengths: pride, courage, unwavering will, as the causes that lead to the inevitable sundering of the elves. In the beginning the world was made for the elves, seen as perfect mortals fashioned by loving deities in their image, but what the deities didn’t realize was that rigid elven virtue is itself a vice. They become too proud, too powerful, too envious and so the wars happen. It is this tragedy of elvenkind that I find stirring and want to include in my campaigns. And though it’s just a first draft, I am really digging the Romeo/Juliet side of this campaign. I might build on that somehow. (Incidentally, it is humanity with all its degradation and vice that is seen as the improvement on elves, as it is these very vices that give men an ability to adapt that elves sorely lack.)
Ok, here is my initial tentative plan for the drow. Ten thousand years ago the young world was rocked by the Kinship Wars, in which the jealousy of one elf tribe was inflamed by the pride of another, and so began the centuries-long war known as the Kinship or Kinslayer wars. It was at this time that the elven nations split into 5 distinct groups: The high, grey and wood elves united against the star and moon elves. In one of the worst atrocities, the moon elves were nearly annihilated, with all of the females but the matriarch and her three daughters being slain as they attempted to flee from the Elf lord and his Grey elf host. The moon elf matriarch, Chanali, had control over a great world-forging artifact, and used this weapon to escape with her surviving tribe into the bowels of the world. A final battle was fought on the sight where they escaped underground, and a divinely sealed portal was placed to seal them in forever. The fallen angel Pazuzu, who until then had been a demi-god of the night sky and of night-hunting creatures was forced into exile with Chanali and the moon elves who worshiped her. Pazuzu lost her divinity when she fled underground, and was forced to accept her new station as a demon lord against her will. So began the descent into the madness of the underworld and the evolution of the Cursed Drow. The matriarch Chanali had only 3 daughters, and each of them were soon betrothed to surviving heroes of the war. These three daughters went on to form the three houses of the Cursed Drow: Amensu, Crisosi, and Ellenduende. However, the children of these three matriarchs would be the last young born to the Cursed Drow, and their numbers stayed small. For millennia the matriarch has fought and experimented in ways to overturn the curse that befell her family. She has rigorously tried to return to the surface world and her tribe has fought and explored every inch of their subterranean world. Pazuzu has used her powers to seek demonic aid for her drow, but it has not allowed her or the drow the means of escape from their prison. Working together with the aid of Succubus Pazuzu was able to summon, Chanali and Pazuzu have experimented with cross-bred fiendish drow to help grow the tribe, but the results are always less than hoped for. Then 100 years ago, Pazuzu found a way to impregnate Chanali one last time with a fertile daughter. It cost Chanali her life, but she gave birth to Hanali Pazuul, the first female born of the Cursed drow in two thousand years. The troubles were not over however, for Hanali was unable to find a mate within her tribe. She tried, even to the point of risking her own spirit in an effort to mate with a male, but the curse still held. It was at this time that exploring her palace, she found a long lost magic mirror. With this mirror she met Dagon Iron-crown and discovered a means to ending the curse. They fell in love, and kept secret the fact, since his tribe, the Star Elves had gained much success as the strong arm of the serpentine Yuanti whom they served. In the Kinship wars, the world was in turmoil, gods rose and fell. While the moon elves were being destroyed, the star elves, under the rulership of the arch-devil Geryon the Serpent, made a great pilgrimage across the land to come at last to the ancient evil city of the Yuanti, where they were welcomed, and given a home in the vast underground labyrinth beneath the city. These drow gave up their independence and pledged eternal service to Geryon, lieutenant of Demogorgon, in return for wealth and power. They were then given their desires and made slaves to the wealth and power of the yuanti overlords. Now, behind the scenes and with the aid of the fallen angel Pazuzu, Hanali Pazuul attempts to end the curse and bring her family to power and to the surface by sparking a war that will shake the foundations of the world and the heavens. Using Dagon, she has instigated the yuanti to seek out her lost tribe and rescue the Cursed Drow, claiming the artifact of old she possesses will give victory to Demogorgon in his war with Orcus. The group not mentioned in this tale is the side of light, who is aware of the plan of Hanali Pazuul, and also of the artifact. It will be the character’s job to get to Hanali first, and to convince her that victory lies with them. They must then rescue Dagon Iron-crown from the clutches of the yuanti and bring an end to the curse, while defeating Demogorgon in his bid to use the yuanti as one arm in his goal to take oer the world. Game-wise the two tribes of drow will be very different. The Cursed Drow, or Moon Elves will have a fiendish influence of succubus and be very arcane and archaic, cut off for many thousands of years. They live in a microcosm environment, but have found no way to reach the surface. The star elves, or Serpentine Drow, will have a serpent connection, due both to Geryon and the yuanti connection. Powerful wizards of yuanti/drow mix are one feature. They will have psionic or mental powers to charm and hypnotize.
Wow a lot to read here, will hopefully report back with my own campaign variation as it solidifies...
Don't tell anyone but next week is going to be 24 zombies in a graveyard, ha! I cant wait to see how it goes. I am prepared to add another 15 into the mix if needed. Thay have had time to rest, and the mage finally had time to catch up on his spell research!
Ok so in my world the underdark is separate 'nodes' with little or no connections, and the lasrt battle was many thousands of years ago, and there are at least wo separate enclaves of drow. The known one is under city of yuanti and the snakes are their masters, both under demogorgon. I guess I could just mkae lolth under demo, but I want to mix it up anyhow, and have a culture clash of 2 drow. So anyhow, the satge was set last week with an expedition sent to unlock the gate to the second drow vault, locked all these years. Little do the player's know! The party now has in their possession a powerful talisman of Demogorgon, meant to awe the drow into submission. I havent thought it out further than that but I need another drow culture and quick! Preferably with some demon lord intermediary with Demogorgon for added devilish politics!
You make a good point, sir!
Back in the old days, when Unearthed Arcana first came out, I believe it had rules for paladins and cavaliers at -2, -1, 0, level, with some trickling of abilities coming in. So I ran as a solo introduction some stuff from the Temple of Elemental Evil. Moathouse maybe, I remember the paladin had to run from an ogre and it was really shaming for him, lol... So, I found it to be a vwery cool way to begin and ran each of the pcs thru a solo adventure until it culminated in them meeting epically (in a bar-room brawl or some s*%#e) Hmm, Blizzard Pass, from 1e, I think that was a solo adventure. hell, I might have even used some of the Choose Your Own Adventure as basis for some of these zero level adventure. There was a great water-weird encounter in one of them... Over the years, I've decided dms like that a lot mroe than players, who hate being weak mewling little pups, and prefer to start off at 1st, so I treat 1 level characters as mewling and weak, and trhow extreme encounters at them for little reward, heh heh heh
As a member of 'group 1' I can attest to the fun and quality of this campaign! We have fought, bled, won some, lost some, met strange monsters and stranger people, and had a rip-roarin' good time doin' it. This is the campaign you want to be in for some good old first edition feel Pathfinder goodness. (Can I get some exp for the plug? :)
I tried to find a link on the web, but no luck. It was a foreign (russian?) film called "The Beast" about a lone T-72 tank getting lost in Afghanistan and fighting/fleeing a group of muja'hadin or sumfink.
I think modesty is a big part of it... Well generally speaking I find the opposite is true of those who are accounted (by history) as "the Greatest" at what the did, i.e. Napoleon, Da Vinci, Mozart, Alexander, Caesar, etc ad inf. So by that measure, modesty would be a hindrance no, or worse a sign of lack of greatness? Argument No.2: Is it modesty to analyze a situation correctly? If after comparing campaigns, play-styles, player-fun, low turnover, high turnout, one might correctly judge oneself to be 'awesome'? Granted it is opinion and judgment but so are the Olympics. Finallyl being awesome doesnt mean being perfect, or even being the best. Being awesome is simply attributing the qua,lities 'awesomenss' possess onto one's own-self, such as inspiring awe, admiration or wonder. Check. Remarkable, outstanding. Check. Yep still awesome. Hope the streak keeps up. (There was this one time two weeks ago when I almost wasnt awesome. Everyone was late, and had to advance character levels to third. And the silly girls, they hardly know what they're doing... a bunch of haggling with a small wood-elf enclave for rights to fresh black-dragon scale... a slightly awkward introduction to a new villian - I was torn on how I wanted the first impression to go so I left it to fate to decide, not so well - it devolved into a running battle up tower-stirs, very complicated with newly minted 3rd level char's...)
You wold think I would learn my lesson and always type in notepad first, buit once again the message board has swallowed whole a multi-paragraph post without even an "im sorry." Frustrating
Hi, so I am introducing drow into my campaign as one of the main forces of evil threatening the world - ya I know, totally lame and cliche. Well when you are DMing a group where 75% are new or novice players, what's old becomes new again! However, there is that 25% of old school grognards who knows whats up with drow, and it is to those, and other factors, that make me want to take the spider out of the drow. I am thinking of replacing it with snakes. I foresee the yuan-ti as being their "above ground" masters or lords, or whatever, and the yuan-ti worship Demogorgon (who in my campaign is a shiny-black skinned humanoid with a draconic head) So I want to combine these two elements: yuan ti overlords, Demogorgon worship into a new Drow look. The problem is that the spider influence goes pretty deep with the drow and I don't want to break anything. I believe the drow's innate powers and stat blocks shouldnt need to change, it is mostly the flair and fluff but I was curious if anyone else ever gave the drow a facelift and how it went...* *I have the utmost respect for Gygax and his drow vision, and think they are a fine species as is, but only want to change things up for variety, not for some fault that isnt there.
The characters are as follows: 3rd lvl human fighter, 3rd level human cleric, 3rd level elf wizard, 3rd level elf rogue, 3rd level gnome bard, and the newest addition: 1st level human barbarian. The barbarian survived the encounter, though he took massive risks, going head to head with first the yuan-ti, then leaping out a window to land on the drow cleric. I can't believe how powerful they are, and I am pretty stingy with the treasure! I literally have started giving all baddies max HP, and usually choose monsters +2 cr or more. I can't elieve my battle tactics are so poor to cause this, but I just don't get it, they sweep the floor with all the necounter, here are a few: Ist encounter ever(1st level): 6 skeletons and 2 ghouls, handily won. Next was 7 orcs with masterwork short swords. That one got tough, but they eeked past. Now, it is a party of 6, sometimes 7, so I know they are stronger than average, but I could not believe they killed thse bad gus so easily. I'm glad it was fun but they are gaining XP so fast now! Not to mention the treasure!
ANother night, another wildly victorious pcs over long odds. I had created an evil party that was meant to harry and batter them and lead them to the quest's goal, and the past two game sessions were the intoduction of these enemies. Well they ent them, and commenced to slay them all! OK so the PC's are a party of 5 3rd levels and a 1st level, for 16 total levels. The baddies were 4 CR 5s: Were Rat bard/rogue, Yuan ti Wiz 4, Drow cleric 5, Drow Fighter 4. Or somehting I might heve the levels a little meixed, but you get the point. It was in a tavern with an attached 3 story tower. The 3 were in the tower's top floor, while their 'face' the were rat went downstairs to see who entered (town is beseiged by undead). He sees tyhem and changes to hybrid, screams "enemies!" The party reacts and chase him to the second floor where the w/r is tackled and slain. The yuan ti meanwhile casts grease on the stairs up to level 3 and much hilarity ensues. Then they make it to the top o the stairs and simultaneuosly the yuan ti casts 3 magic missiles, and the rower goes dark (DARKNESS) So ends the first session... Session 2 finds them planning to regroup on the second floor. The barbarian rushes up the stairs, the elf thief climbs out to the thatch roof of the attached inn, and the battles rages on... Yuan ti first summons a gibbering mouther, then whn the barbarian resists his charm attempt (via clerics prot. evil) the yuan ti makes a mistake and turns into a giant viper and strikes. I allow the barb a check to avoid the leap, he gets a 20, snake a 1, so i have the snake land behind the barb on the stairs. He was soon killed... Meanwhile the drow know something's gone bad, so they are making their escape out onto the roof. The thief, who is doing quite well, hides, climbs, moves silently, the whole bit as she stalks up the roof for a backstab onto the male drow bodyguard. The drow try for a fighting retreat and make it down to the ground, all set to run, when the flippin' barbarian leaps out of the tower window onto the priestess. Another round of excellent rolls and he winds up landing on her, grappling her, and then unbelievably tries (next round) to swing the drow as a weapon to attack the male drow! It was too much, but more great rolls and he winds up bashing the drowess into the tower wall. All this brutality from my 11 yr old son, his first encounter with the group! Now the cleric gets into it (buffed with bulls str, etc) and leaps off the roof onto the male, they both take massive damage and are prone, but it allows the party the round it takes to annhiliate the enemy. Well, I guess it is back to the drawing board! (I'm lovin' it actually, I just wish I could get a baddie bad-a$$ enough to stick around awhile!) Anyhow, it makes for some really exciting sessions, and I think everyone is really getting into it. There were other nice little touches too, like that 3rd floor of the tower was a wizrd's study, our resident wizard was grinning the whole rest of the night. And to think they considered burning them out!
My hat's doffed to you sir, it sounds like an unbelievably cool way to run a campaign, and the possibilities are limitless! I have often wondered what it would be like to DM multiple parties in the same 'verse. Having multiple generations is pretty neat, what with the wide variance of lifespans among the races, so I have seen some of that type of crossover, but even then it is either a cameo, or an NPC type thing. But two parties at once, wow, you could have a dungeon where we each are trying to get to the final room lol! It would be Survivor: Dungeon omygod I must immediately go get another group together haha! Godd luck, sounds awesome, u r awesome DM.
Have you considered also adding a player to this game? I love a fast paced game, and the way I see it, the more players one has, the less a single absence will hurt the rest of the game. Or even, with the congruous nature of the dual campaigns, characters could in theory pass between parties or at least interact.
I'm awesome. Could I be awesomer? Most assuredly.
Game Night No. 6
Game Night No. 5 Back to the orc lair
Can I throw out a crazy idea? How about this: play it up, set the stage, make it really difficult for them, but actually let them pull it off, andf kill the vampire! Or so they think. The vampire wizard has prepared for this ultimate eventuality and returns as an undead vampire-liche! You could do a season-ending thing like heroes, and have their ultimate sunny victory marred by a black ooze sinking into the earth. Or any number of ways. It is a taste of victory for them, and a job well done, but soon they have bigger worries...
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