Patrick Kropp's page

Well it seems you have made your decision. :)

I like your discussion style. :)

Another question on the demilich:

Is the Greater Bestow Curse ability really needs a touch?
With 0 reach that makes it an really awfull option for the demilich and near useless!

Just to be sure you get what I am saying, once the soul is consumed it is no longer trapped.

Thats your interpretation. obviously some people (including me) see this otherwise. My player made the same assumption as you.

The soul (and body in case of outsider) is trapped in the gem. The soul is devoured - not just killed because of hitpoints or something.

So i ruled: Only a wish or miracle can restore the soul of the eidolon. Thereafter it can be summoned as normal again.

And I am aware of the design of the Eidolon (perma death would mean loss of the main class feature forever). But I think this is one of the few ways a summoner could lost his pet forever. Lest he gets his hands on wish...

Patrick Kropp wrote:

You know what trapped mean? ;)

I don´t think thats possible in this situation.
When the eidolon would be hold, paralyzed or something yes. No problem. But trapped in a soul gem. No.

Sounds like your already set on your own plan.

Just asking how others see this situation and how the rules apply in this situation.

In the long run I won´t take the eidolon away forever. would be too harsh. i mean it is the main class feature.

It is a death affect. When an Eidolon dies it should not be available until the next day, and the eidolon is not a real creature, and it has no soul. According to the flavor of the class it is a representation of a more powerful creature, similar to how summon monsters spells don't kill the actual monster, but just send them away when they are defeated.

From the rulebook
....When summoned in this way, the eidolon hit points are unchanged from the last time it was summoned. The only exception to this is if the eidolon was slain, in which case it returns with half its normal hit points.

Edit:Basically the eidolon was slain, but the player can not get it back until the next day unless he uses the summon eidolon spell, and it will likely die again. If I was the demilich and attacked by two of these things I am guessing it is smart enough to know someone is sending them, and it should go to "investigate".

Body and soul of an outsider are one and the same. (see outsiders)

Personally I would have had the summoner send the Eidolon home as a standard action the moment it got trapped.

You know what trapped mean? ;)

I already suggestet to use wish or something (the summoner is level 15 after all - so it should not too hard to get his hands on). Last session he played only with the standard summon monster spells around. But I think I will give him a chance to get his hands on a scroll or something in one of the next sessions.

As long a he doen´t try the old trick of summoning a efreet with planar binding and trying to force him with cha-checks to cast wish for him...

So the summoner in the group I am dungeonmastering developed a habbit. The group lets his eidolon do most of the dirty work and the send this beast in to test the defenses of most enemies - and if the eidolon dies he simply summon it again.

Last session they encountered a demilich (in a published adventure path) and now we have a problem. The demilich successfully used his ability Devour Soul on the eidolon. Without the eidolon the group hastily retreated and now the demilich used the stored soul to repair itself.

What happens now exactly to the summoner or the eidolon? Can the summoner now create a new eidolon from the scratch? Or is the eidolon now dead and he can simply conjure it again?

After the ending of book 4, within moments of killing the king, my PCs were informed (by Jeratheon, who was instructed to help kill soldiers in the Adarium's courtyard while his father got to eat a princess) that Chargammon had died.

Greedy for an unguarded dragon horde, my PCs instantly teleported to the lair to retrieve the loot. This was obviously too short a time for the brine dragon Benthysara to hear of Chargammon's death and move against the lair.

This leaves me (DM) with several interesting options:
- encounter Benthysara while cleaning out the loot.
- I could speed-up the timeline and let Barnabus Thrane inform them that the Paladin's group is racing there as well. The PCs could set up an ambush in anticipation of that arrival.

How did Jeratheon know that? Oo

And on drivethru printable! :)

@All who know Book 4 of Way of the Wicked: How does Eiramanthus Isle work? I don´t understand the map!
The caves are surely supposed to be underground. But what with the Garden, the Dome and the Temple? A sideview would have really helped...

So thats Paizos take on Mythic play? More Arms (= more attacks per round)? I had hoped for more... I hate this syndrom. Most of the time it means: whoever got to make his first full attack kills the opposition.

Even a nice DR (not that laughable tiny DR most monsters got in Mythic Adventures) would have made some enemies tougher and battle more than:Full attack - you´re dead.

The artwork of the first two pictures is not beautiful. Picture 3 is great.

Maybe the other players are tired of one pc having all the showtime with his DR 10 / silver?

And by the way: If you are really Neutral good you would help even bad people.

So has some fellow dungeonmaster made up a map for Aldencross? I am running the module for the second time (with my table group we are finishing book 3 this weekend) - and now my second group (an online group) arrived Aldencross. I would like to give them some map for Aldencross and the relation to Balentyne. But I haven´t the time to wait for Book seven.

So did someone of you made himself a map? Or did you use one from the internet and can you point me to it?

Thank you very much!

GIVE ME THE FU**NG OLIPHAUNT OF JANDERLAY!!!! Should have been in the Inner Sea Bestiary already. :(

Who is the cover artist please? :)

Thanks. I would rule so also.

In this special situation the -4 makes the difference between hit and down a pc into -1 negatives or a miss. Its a online game and I am the GM so I want to make sure that I don´t rule unfair.

More opinions are apprecitated.

Water Mastery (Ex)

A water elemental gains a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls if both it and its opponent are touching water. If the opponent or the elemental is touching the ground, the elemental takes a –4 penalty on attack and damage rolls. These modifiers apply to bull rush and overrun maneuvers, whether the elemental is initiating or resisting these kinds of attacks.

What is meant with ground? English is a foreign language for me, so does the developers mean earth?

Does the water elemental take the penalty on a ship?

difference between the 3.5 Version?

I thought he was referring to some of the Vale's "residents" teleporting out to ask for help, then teleporting back.

Yes, that was what I meant.

How did the other DM´s handle the problem with the "teleporting" angels?
What would them stop to teleport to the king to warn him of the Asmodean threat? At least the High Priest would order this I think!

That leads me to another possible outcome:

For example, in my campaign Sir Richard was slain and Eric the Falconer (from the Sons of Balentyne)survived. Sir Richard is alive again (thanks to his mysterius benefactor) and now at the court.
Would it be possible for the two to show up in the Vale after the Battle of Valtaerna? I mean Sir Richard should be the Nemesis of the PC´s... but as written they only meet 2 times (once at the Horn, second at the dragons lair when they kill him in book 5). So not really much interaction between them (other than common folk maybe that praises his deeds).

So my second question is: What do I have to consider when I let Eric teleport with Sir Richard to the Vale (and maybe little Strike Force - as much as Eric can teleport)? Any logical gaps?

Already played that. My pc would melt it to ingots and sell it. Or use the armor for their minions or something like this.

The Blessed Knights Ride Skill is far to high - I think the armor check penalty was forgotten!
Thats important - because of the mounted combat feat!
With +3 in Ride you don´t have much use of that feat. So maybe lighter armor?

So I have to play a NPC with a Griffon Mount in the session this evening (I am the DM). He is specialized in mounted combat.

The feats are: Mounted Combat, Ride-by Attack, Spirited Charge, Death From Above!

I want to make the most use of the flying mount. How can I use Ride-by Attack with a flying mount? I mean in a charge it must move straigth - that means no charge, attack, fly up out of range with the same action. It would be only possible if I fly directly over the battlefield and move horizontally.

Another question is: can the griffon with pounce attack too when I charge?
Could it attack if it had Flyby Attack?

Sounds stupid. hope she died too and not just other peoples PCs.

Okey, today we have a crunchy report :)

** spoiler omitted **...

can you provide me the enhanced stats?.

Hello,

I have some issues with our current campaign. I am the gamemaster for a group of six players playing WotW from Fire Mountain Games. Most of the problems stem from one player. He seems to have very different views of Lawful Evil and how this campaign should be played than at least 2 other players and me.

The players are Lawful Evil but by adventure path default they try to overthrow the current Lawful Good Monarchy and establish a dictatorship. But how can LAWFUL characters do this without conflicting regulary with the laws of the land?

If I had at least an Asmodeus codex I would have a guiding principle.

This problem player constantly breaks laws and does everthing to further his own wealth (killing merchants, cheating in an arena and starts a betting fraud, kills children after they had seen thru his disguise). He justifies this as he has not to oblige to the laws of Talingard - only Asmodeus laws count for him (funny we know none so he has really broad base to interpret them as he want). His actions often discredit the other players because he has a really good hand in getting away. And he constantly says he PLAYS exactly lawful evil. But I see no difference in his playing to neutral evil or chaotic evil (I think he mostly says this because he knows he will lose his improved familiar if the strays to far from the alignment and as a witch that would be sucking).

Because of this he is in constant struggle with another player who views Asmodeus and the alignment Lawful Evil more in my way (Schemer, merciless tyrann but not going out of his way to hurt people unnessary, bears always the great plan in mind, use of violence sure - but only if necessary).

So last session finally they met a contract devil and after the scene they asked him to make a judicial call who is right and who is wrong.
I really was not prepared so I had some contradictions. I stated that its not legal in Asmodeus Laws to Murder. So the problem player asked: How are we then going to topple this kingdom. I stated that war and murder are differnt shoes and so forth

He is now of the opinion this campaign is unplayable. I just want to stop him playing a tough and constantly bring the mission in danger thru his actions.

At the moment not. At the moment they are at castle westkirk and met the fire axe. Now they want to visit the duergar (after recruiting the Ogre mage raiju). Maybe I let them fight some monsters of the horde (the ones who want to kill raiju).

Has anyone a suggestion on a relationship between Breuder (crime boss in ghastenhall) and the Vampire? Do Breuder know of him? Virtually every criminal enterprise can be traced to him. so there must be a connection to Nicolas Breuder.

I also use this opportunity to give them some xp they are lacking at the moment. I tought more about 1 or 2 quick fights. Maybe to liberate a mine section or something. Or to get somehing the duergar want (dwarves)

Has somebody an idea for a cool sidequest to convince the duergar to join the pc´s forces? My players are short of xp and I dislike the solution in the adventure (just a single roll of diplomacy if I remember).

- maybe the duergar are not united - the king died shortly and the ruling council must first find his only son (missing in the underdark)

- maybe the duergar want the PC first to reclaim their ancient mithral mine (the one mentioned in book one and six if I remember correctly)

Or have you adventures from the dungeon magazine (short best played in one session!) you could recommend.

For anyone who's ran the game, or planning on running the game, especially Gary, have you come across a player like this yet? Especially around the contract spot with Thorn, and getting the players to sign it.

This happened while talking to a some players at one of our gaming days, and promoting Fire Mountain Games, Way of the Wicked, and the upcoming Throne of Night.

** spoiler omitted **...

I would have at least listen to his additions to the contract. Maybe Thorn would set up a new contract - as long as he gets what he wants (an obedient knot who must do his biding).

The biggest failure is that the contracts aren´t magical. The PC may be bound by them, but the players are not really. Even if they break it there are no direct penalties. There were magic contracts in 2nd Edition / 3.0 / 3.5. Gary should have made the contract clearer (what exactly are the PC forbidden to to). And it should have DIRECT reprisals if the players don´t adhere to the contract. Say a pc does the ultimate stupid thing and murders another pc. So maybe a rift opens and he gets dragged to hell. If a player steals from the others he gains every day he doesn´t repay the stolen money an amount of damage or a geas - like effect (the spell). Yeah Soul to hell to be tortured in afterlife will not work with every player!

In my group a player plays an Human Wizard with the Archetyp Thassilonian Specialised (or whats called - its from Inner Sea Magic).
He dumped Str and Dex, Int should be as high as possible, Con and Cha second (He startet with: Str 8,Dex 7, Con 16, Int 20, Wis 10, Cha 15 or something like this). Don´t forget to make your wizard at least 35 (for age modifier). Cha is espeacially useful for the Command Undead Feat!

Look for an item that desecrates an area (your undead will thank you alot).
Use the Subschool Specialisation in the APG (Undead) to bolster your undeads.

Use the skeleton and Zombie templates to their fullest. Try to keep your CL as high as possible (more HD to animate). Take a trait that enhances CL for one spell (animate dead) and maybe thassilonian runes (the feat) for necromancy, so you can animate as 2 levels higher.

Use bloody (skeleton) and fast (zombie). It doesn´t count against your control hd. So it would be a waste if you don´t apply that. Sure its costy, but you won´t get a better minion!

@Gary and other GM´s:

My players like to do some reconnaissance about the vale. Things they surely wan´t to know (but didn´t find any answers in the module):

1. Where are the armies protecting the vale stationed? The priests and archons in the temple sure. But where are the knights, archers and dwarves stationed? The map shows no chapter houses or other defensible buildings.

2. how many forces are stationed? I know there are the Knights of Alerion, Archers, Dwarven Forces, the Serene Order, the Blessed Knight order with their Griffons and the priests of Mitra. But nothing about numbers. I don´t think the quantities given in the AP are the defending force - it seems only the part who is battling the PC´s.

3. Siege enginges. What siege engines does the Vale have? And how many? One player wants to use his minions especially to disrupt them and to cut supply lines etc (makes more sense for a thief guild oriented oranisation)

4. One player plays a fallen Paladin. Can I expect that he knows the general layout of the vale? I told him EVERY paladin has to make the pilgrimage to the vale before becomming a paladin. So he was already there. What infos would you give him?

gustavo iglesias wrote:

I decided I'd have to optimize the encounters after they one-shot Argossarian, which was advertissed as a "tough encounter".

Knowing my party, and what they can do/absolutely can't do, I am afraid for them when they do that encounter. The oracle's essentially useless, the wizard is fire-based only, the two rogues have terrible "to hit", the cleric's built solidly as just a healer... only the anti-paladin and Grumblejack will be able to do anything. The ranger would have done well, but she's no longer playing.

Whats wrong about the fire using wizard? It´s the perfect weapon against a silver dragon!?

Try. ;) I will have to translate it in german neverthless.

Has somebody spelled out the contract with Dessiter?

One question:

How do the army recruited by the pc´s reach Valtaerna? Especially the Bugbears? In the adventure there is only ONE sentence about this:

"The bugbears will meet them at the vale at the beginning of the winter three monts from today"

So how do they get there from Castle Westkirk? I know the players shouldn´t have to care about the logistics of 300 bugbears - but my players will ask. And how long they will need? In the timetable at the end of Book Six it seems to me that it will take 3 months (Event: Attack on the watchtower is set in december).

Do they just cross the mountains?

Patrick Kropp wrote:

Any suggestions how to force this rule? With spells I have no problems. The combatants have to use arena weapons!

But the witch already plans to use her hexes (supernatural) and especially the bad luck hex is really annoying. And with evil eye the battles becomes a farce.:(
How can I discourage the use? Brother Lao casting constantly detect magic? Arena deep enough that the figthers are out of the hex range? Antimagic field?

Please pardon my asking, but does it matter all that much? The whole point of the pit fights in-game seems to be for the PCs to pick up some easy cash and XP while amusing themselves by rending hapless monsters limb from limb. It's not a 'major' encounter like, say, the Battle of Valtaerna is.

Though, if I ever get to play this, I can see an alchemist or transmuter scavenging the caracasses for spell components for beast shape spells.

If the players earn XP and gold I, as the DM make damn sure the fights are not a waste of time. And maybe I want simply a exciting fight. Not an auto win. Yes - I want some fun too.

Antimagic field helps btw @ kevin. I looked this already up. But it seems a little exaggerated (and costy). Bad thing is, its really hard to detect the use of a supernatural ability.

I just make the pit 20 ft. deep. If she don´t get a place in the front row and on the right side she can´t use the hexes.
Additionally own armor and weapons are prohibited. They use gladiatoral items. Lao examines every combatant with detect magic.

Supernatural abilities are magical but not spell-like. Supernatural abilities are not subject to spell resistance and do not function in areas where magic is suppressed or negated (such as an antimagic field). A supernatural ability's effect cannot be dispelled and is not subject to counterspells

Any suggestions how to force this rule? With spells I have no problems. The combatants have to use arena weapons!
But the witch already plans to use her hexes (supernatural) and especially the bad luck hex is really annoying. And with evil eye the battles becomes a farce.:(
How can I discourage the use? Brother Lao casting constantly detect magic? Arena deep enough that the figthers are out of the hex range? Antimagic field?

One question:

Would you allow spellcasters in the arena?
Would you allow spellcasters to buff the groups fighter before the fights?

What Level is Brother Lao? I consider to make him high enough to cast dispel magic on the combatants. Or maybe they must wait 10 min. in pit before they are announced (so must buff spells already weared off).

Finally we start with Book 3. Because of really dumb playing while perfoming the ritual (the players just let the eyes of Vetra Kali in the statue and gave him his first eye before he made any agreements with them), I decided that Vetra Kali simply takes his missing 2 eyes and beats them up a little bit. After they recovered from their first shock they found the courage to ask for the Tears. The daemon gave them to them and threw them out of his Horn.

So what shall I do with Sir Richard? His body still lies in the Horn (in the Sanctuary). How will Thorn rescue him? And what will Vetra Kali do with the knowledge that Thorn took the body of this dead Paladin? Will he maybe inform the Ninth? Would be a nice dispute maybe. The players can´t be sure if the daemon is simply lying to them and if he isn´t lying, they will wonder WHY Thorn did take the body of Sir Richard. I don´t think it will spoil to much if they assume that Thorn did rescue Richard (they will find that out not until the end of book 3)

I play with the tought on a encounter of an servant of Vetra Kali who informs the PC with the following (or something this way):

"Greetings mortals. My master sends you his regards. He hopes you spread his gift generous. He sends me to you to inform you of a little detail. Not long after you left the Horn your cardinal appeared before my master and he was hell bent on taking the corpse of this pitiful servant of Mitra with him. I just ask you, what does he want with that corpse? Seems your master has a lot of schemes going on. And I wonder why he don´t let you take this corpse? Maybe he has plans he don´t want to inform you?"

Patrick Kropp wrote:

Have you finished editing?

My work is done, yes.

Doug M.

What does that mean for the release? It´s still not up on drivethru? Gary seems on a vacation (or something).

Have you finished editing?

Yeah. it is overdue...

+1 for Battlemaps in the Poster Map Folio. The only Map Pack with real play value was the kingmaker Map Folio. And even there I missed some Battlemaps. If you don´t want your Map Folio going down the battle map way please add more adventure locals from the APs to the Flip Mat Line.
Or even better make a new line with 4 double sided maps (like wotc doing). So you could cover at least 8 places in an AP. Heck I would even bought one such map pack for each adventure. I hate it to stop gaming to draw a new battle scene on my chessex mat!!!!

You have Book 6? Oo
Or just a typo and you liked to write 5? ^^

His Damage seems also wrong! He is stated doing 1d8+28 with smite, but it should be 1d8+24 (+4 Str, +2 luck, +6 Power Attack, + 3 enhancement bonus, +10 smite)

Ok, FINAL day of the ritual today. Just checked the math on Sir Richard.
He misses one feat (should have 6).

Has somebody figured out his stats? I believe they are 14,10,14,10,14,16 (Pointbuy 20).

Do you think it would be a nice climax to let the nuns attack as well? The Sons of Balentyne are the strike force, the nuns fight the minions.
Maybe even Abigail raised Celeste (Level 11 cleric)? Would that be too much (consider the strenght of my group - see above)

I changed almost everything in the Evil organization rules.

I use 3 main stats: Power, Subterfuge, and loyalty. You can have 0-5 in those stats (PC start with 6 points to spend, every player that gets leadership gives +1)

Every stat has 4 skills:

- Violence, enforcement, labor, survivality*
- Espionage, crime, interrogation, secrecy*
- Competence, Conections, Rituals, conviction*
There is a governor for each area (Warlord, Overlord, taskmaster, etc). NPC add 1/2 of the governing stat (STR for Warlord for example) Rebuilding rooms in the horn also give +1 bonus to those areas (temples give conviction, torture chamber gives interrogation, Ritual Chamber gives Rituals, forge gives labor, etc)

Those marked with * work as saving throws. If you fail a saving throw, you get a -1 to the main stat (power, subterfuge or loyalty), which you can recover with an action.

Every action produce either a 1d6 unrest (unhappiness in the organization), 1d6 alert (Farnholde defenses being more vigilant) or 1d6 damage (minions dying) if succesful, or more if you fail (I let them take 10 to speed things up, so they ussually don't try things that can fail anyways). You substtract power, subterfuge or loyalty from the damage, alert or unrest. You get -1 for every unrest or alert to some (most) rolls. The unspent treasure ignores 1 point of unrest for every 2000 gp. The horn also produce 1d6 alert per week.

Every 10 minions, you have one action. Every 10 prisioners, you have an action of Labor (like rebuilding the horn's rooms, building traps, harvesting acid, or mining -I made the earth pixie room to be Onyx, and you can mine 250gp of onyx per week). Prisioners are also a resource spent in some actions (blood sports remove unrest, sacrifice increase conviction, etc) and can work as corpses for zombies too, and can be used to feed the Will O wisp or chimera.

Sounds a bit better than the original rules. :)

The gorgimera was killed and raised as an undead. So no food needed. And no questionable loyality! ;)
My players play safe... most of the time. But using the prisoners for feeding the monsters should have been made clearer in the adventure. I didn´t even thought of this until yesterday. My player used them solely for murder sacrifices after two of them succumbed to the meditations room and became mad serial killers.

Maybe. At the moment most of the actions a evil organization can take are mostly a waste of time.

Catching animals wasn´t that much fun. The players disliked to use simple animals because they aren´t intelligent enough to be used in the horn.
Abduct peasants... ok for what is that good?
assassination: one of the only actions that enhanced gameplay
most other actions were used for making cash $$$

Oh and mostly the DC´s are not listed and sometimes the adventure refers to organization stats that simply don´t exist!

Patrick Kropp wrote:

I think Half-Fiend lies closer?

That's Book 2.

Yes, but who said the picture in book 2 is after his transformation? ;)

My group has just killed Argossarian and weathered the storm on the final day before the last ritual. Now only the Sons of Balentyne remain to stop the ritual.

I know in book 5 is the written the reason why the battle nuns (order of Cynthia Celeste) don´t do anything about the horn. But my players fear them since they arrived in Farhold - I told them the story about their founding and one player (a female ninja) even infiltrated them shortly to gain some knowledge. Especially the fact that the "conservated" the body of their founder makes them worry. They fear the ressurect her and she is the final encounter. I know this is not the case but maybe this would make a fine climax too? If Cynthia Celeste accompanies the Sons of Balentyne? What level would you expect her? Would that be too much? What about Abigail (the living leader of the order)?

I have 6 players and with the alchemical golem, the 2 daemons und some undead creations of the necromancer pc they are steamrolling most of the encounters. For the last 5 days (after the earthquake) the gathered all their strength in the Sanctum and the room with the staircase to the sanctum. I think the Sons of Balentyne will be swordfodder.

Forces of Evil in the sanctum:

-Mordren the Witchqueen (PC, witch level 8, mighty debuffer,belongs to the knot)

-Devilslaughter (Improved Familiar of the witch player, an Imp)

-Folnor, the summoner (PC, summoner level 8, belongs to the knot)

-Zerabasus, Eidolon (large humanoid kali build with 4 arms and burn attack)

-Skeletal Champion Antipaladin (PC, level 7 with aforementioned template, "created" by cardinal thorn after dying while breaking Balentyne, leader of the ninth knot)

-Luconarr (PC, Zen Archer Monk 8 - nothing is safe from his arrows)

-Varondil, Son of Vandermir (PC, Fighter 8, deals MASSIVE damage with 2 handed sword)

-Abdominon the necromancer (PC, wizard (necromancer) 8, turned to stone during the victors raid 80 years ago, was saved by the knot and helps them summoning Vetra Kali)

- Hextor (the other daemon was banished by the moondog)

- 2 wraith (controlled by the necromancer after the betrayal of Ezra with his feat command undead)

- 1 apocalyptic zombie hound of tindalos (controlled by the necromancer with the spell command undead)

- the alchemical golem (a powerhouse)

- Titus (ok, not of much use - he is a really bad designed NPC from a powergamers point of view)

So I tought about to gain the Sons some reenforcements! At this point I think about gain every member 1 mythic level or add some npc (maybe both).

What do you suggest?

I think Half-Fiend lies closer?