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So if a creature has the trait of 'Immune to Crits (except Bludgeoning and Sonic)', and one of the players has a weapon that deals slashing damage with a Thundering Rune attached, which deals sonic damage, can they crit the creature? Or upon what would normally be a critical hit, would only the sonic damage double, and not the slashing?

Warning, I'll be mentioning some minor spoilers, plot points, and npc's from the Ages of Ashes campaign below.

So I'm running the Age of Ashes campaign, and we're just about a quarter of the way through Book 3. I'm a fairly new GM, and so far, I've only run pre-written scenarios and campaigns, with the odd tweak here and there to fit the story around the PC's.

Now, in our group, we have two players who have always had this bad habit of creating spare characters just in case their main character gets killed. Or so they say. And then, almost every time, without fail, they really, really get the itch to play this awesome new character that they just built, and can talk of little else. I've told them time and time again that it's a bad habit and they should stop because they lose all interest in their old character, and even if we write out the old character and bring in the new one, then they always start missing their old character. But they keep saying 'I know, I know, but, y'know, just one extra character. Just in case...' *sighs*

So this time around, I'm being proactive, and it seems to be working. We have our 'Main Group'. The A Team. They go out and do all the adventuring things that are written in the books. Meanwhile, we've built up a second group of characters. The 'B Team', if you will. They're mostly family and friends of the A Team, and are staying behind in the Citadel, managing affairs and generally looking after the hodgepodge of NPC's that we seem to be gathering in this game. And, about once a book, I'm homebrewing an adventure for this second group to take part in. This way, the players get to have their little break and play other classes and characters for a bit, and at the same time, we get to learn more about Breachill and get to really know the residents within. It's a win win situation. To make things a little more complicated, 'B Team' is currently much stronger then 'A Team'. They're sitting at level 14 right now, a decision I made because I want to merge them into the main story in the last book, and they won't be adventuring nearly as much as their counterparts, and thus won't level up as fast. Plus, it's fun for the players to get a taste of higher level play. Once we get to the merging point, I'm planning on having them be about the same level.

Now, I have very little experience in homebrewing adventures from complete scratch. And I still don't have a lot of experience in 2e, having only run Plaguestone and what we've done in AoA so far, so I don't yet have a handle on just what my PC's can handle like I did in 1E. I wanted to play to the PC's strengths, and since the B Team consists of a Paladin, a Cleric, an Angelic Sorc, and a wizard who's backstory involves investigating, I decided that hey, we're going to do a mystery in town that involves undead. And, since, level 14, strong undead. So I settled on vampires.

So here's my plot so far. Basically, the town is going to throw their yearly festival in honor of their hero, Lamond Breachton. The PC's are being recruited in to help prepare. As things wear on, however, it's apparent that people seem to be going missing at an alarming rate. I'm fairly certain that my players are going to immediately suspect the Posandi Bros, because they've already uncovered vague evidence of devil worship, but no real proof. I plan to red herring the crap out of that. I also want to heavily involve the location of Cayden's Keg since it's going to matter in Book 6. Eventually, it'll become clear that the librarian, the half orc Jarell Blacktusk, is unusually enthusiastic about the festival this year, convinced that it's going to be the best one ever for some mysterious reason. The PC's will find out that he's meeting with a mysterious lady who, dun dun dun, turns out to be a vampire. Jarell has been tricked, both through magical and mundane means, and honestly believes that his hero, Lamond Breachton, has come back to Breachill after all these centuries, and will join the town for the festival. Of course, it's a trick, but the imposter, the head vampire, has been having Jarell kidnap and deliver townspeople to him. Whether Jarell survives is up to the PC's actions. The PC's are going to have to track this problem down, and find a nest of vampires/lizardfolk cultists guarding an old abandoned manor in the country. There they will face a big bad vampire who has made a deal with the leader of another Cult of Dahak (a different cult then from Book 2). They're going to try to power a magic mirror that's basically going to have a Darkside Mirror hazard quality to try and free Dahak from Alseta's Ring, using the townspeople's lifeforces as power. PC's are going to have swoop in and try to save the day, beat the bosses, then confront and destroy the mirror, yadayada.

So that's the theory, anyways. As for execution... that's what I need help with. I don't know how exactly to balance this adventure, or what monsters/loot to add. I'm thinking about having a pair of Gimmerlings in the manor disguised as children claiming to be from the village, and trying to direct the PC's into traps. Would Gimmerlings make sense here? This is a fairly large map I'm using, as I asked and the players voted for a 2-3 session side quest. What other monsters might make sense in an extra-dimensional maze of a manor?

Unfortunately, most of the premade vampires are too low of level to be much of a threat against level 14 PC's, especially those basically loaded with anti-undead beams. I've so far just created level 12-13 human rogues and wizards for the minions and a level 15 Wizard for the leader and slapped Vampire Powers on them. Is that acceptable, or will that not work?

Also, regarding this new Cult of Dahak, is there any other branches besides the Cult of Cinders? From what I read, most of them are lizardfolk. Should I just made lizardfolk fighters and clerics as minions? Will adding an evil dragon to the final fight be too much? It would be cool, though, and make sense. There won't be much room to fly, so that'll nerf him a little, and maybe I could make him a little weaker somehow. I've never actually had a dragon fight before, so I'm a little worried about adding one.

And finally, are there any good items/loot I should be using here? Especially things that effective against vampires?

Any advice about tweaking to story/monsters/loot would be very much appreciated.

Unfortunately, in the group I'm GM'ing for, my Barghest ended up being the Wet Bandit of Barghests.

All level 4, consisting of a Paladin, a Druid, a Sorcerer, and a Rogue, and Alak tagging along, as they Super Friended him. As the GM, I knew that this was going to be a possibly very tough encounter, even with Alak's help.

Negotiations went south VERY quickly because Paladin was Paladin'ing, and initiative was rolled. Aaaand Ralldar rolled a one. He was going last. Eh, he'll still be tough.

The Rogue rolled a natural 20 on his first attack. In our group, in addition to the normal crit, we roll to confirm, and, if you confirm, you can draw one of the official Paizo crit cards as well. He confirmed. He drew a really good card, and Stunned 2 Ralldar.

Crap.

Ralldar, on his turn, was fortunately within range of the Rogue, and managed to get one good hit in. Yay! Which triggered the Paladin, who did his retributive strike thing. Natural 20, confirmed, card drawn. He knocked Ralldar prone.

Next round, PC's beat him up more, and Alak rolled a natural 20 on a power attack. Did not confirm, but still did massive damage (3d12+8, rolled 12, 11, and 8).

Ralldar, bleeding out of all his orifices now, clambors to his feet, which triggers an AoO from Alak, who, again, even though it was not a critical, still hits like a truck. Ralldar, who is now surrounded and only has single digit health, desperately bites and swings. Misses both attacks.

Sorcerer kills him with a Ray of Frost.

Hindsight being 20/20, looking back on the battle, I probably should've had him Dimension Door out on his last turn. Other then that, it really wouldn't have changed the outcome much.

But seriously... Three freaking natural 20's in two rounds?!

It's a roleplay issue, not one with set mechanical penalties. That said, as a GM I would take issue with not playing a champion along the lines of your chosen deity, and that includes using their chosen weapon whenever feasible. No, you don't have to take a longbow into melee, but if ranged combat arises, you had better not grab a crossbow. And I'd expect a champion of Erastil to regularly go for ranged combat. Similarly, if you pick a deity with a melee weapon, I'd expect you not to regularly use another one just because its damage die is better.

If you don't want to play like a champion of a particular deity, then don't play one in the first place.

Alignment is a similar issue, no fixed rules for when to change it for what actions, but still, as a GM I have certain ideas of what I expect of a Paladin or Redeemer. An yes, if they acted inappropriately, they would have to face their deity's displeasure.

But again, different groups will have different opinions, there are certainly those who consider only things with fixed penalties worthwhile and disregard everything else as mere flavor text.

Oh, I did get him a longbow, and I plan on having him be rather respectful of it and take very particular care of it. He's going to be a very quiet, earthy, common-sense type who very much prefers a simple existence spent protecting simple folk out in the middle of nowhere, and feels claustrophobic and out of place in crowded and noisy cities. I wouldn't mind him maining the longbow, but the other three players are going to be more ranged based, and I know that he's protective enough that he's going to prefer to be in front of them, and he can't do that with a longbow.

I just wanted to know if he would be breaking his tenants if he ended up using a sword and shield way more then his longbow. I'm glad to see that it's still doable.

I'm creating a Champion for an upcoming Age of Ashes campaign we're starting and, flavorwise, I'd like to make him a champion of Erastil. But the Champions have something called Deific Weapon, which states 'You zealously bear your deity’s favored weapon.'

Erastil's favored weapon is the longbow.

I was kind of hoping to make him more of a protector type, up close and personal with the enemies and protecting his squishier spellcasting allies. Plus, my champion's cause reactions only extend 15 feet. With a longbow, he'd have to be hanging back at least 30 feet to be a max efficiency.

So my question is, does Deific Weapon mean that the Champion has to mostly use their deities weapon? Or can he sword and board it without being the worst Erastil Champion ever?

Because the devs have never ruled on most masterpieces and whether they count as performances most people have agreed they aren't worth it, unfortunately.

I do use Triple Time, and the other players in my group have definitely appreciated that extra 10 feet of movement. I dunno, that might change as we level up more, but for a 1st level spell slot, it's a small sacrifice. As my bard is a dancer that follows Ashava, I'm considering The Waning Bolero at level 10

(You enact a series of graceful, measured steps that your enemies cannot help but mimic. When you complete the performance, any foe within 60 feet that can see you is slowed (as per the slow spell) for as long as you continue the performance. A Will saving throw negates this effect.

Each round you continue the performance, each slowed creature within 60 feet (whether slowed by this masterpiece or by another effect) must succeed at another Will saving throw or its penalty on attack rolls, AC, and Reflex saves increases by 1 as the slow dance movements overtake it. This increased penalty lasts as long as you continue the performance. A creature that succeeds at this Will saving throw merely avoids increasing the penalty for that round; success does not remove the effect that slowed it.)

Seems like a good debuffer.

Last I recall Masterpieces were in a weird place with whether or not they counted as performances and caused all sorts of issues back and forth. I don't think it was ever officially resolved and I think the devs avoided answering this question because it's really complicated.

But yes, it shares the limitation that it can't exceed 10 HD of Deep Slumber. And yes the creature gets a save.

Maybe it would be affected by Lingering Performance, see my opening statement.

So unfortunately no, you have misunderstood basically everything.

Lullaby of Ember the Ancient works like a single target version of Deep Slumber, which works like Slumber (with exceptions), which has a hit dice limit and a save. The Lullaby specifies that you target a single creature, which is the main difference.

It's basically Deep Slumber, with the difference being that you target a single creature (up to 10 HD) instead of affecting up to 10 HD worth of creatures starting with the closest/lowest HS creatures first.

*sighs* I was afraid of that. I had consulted the Google first before posting here, and one poster had mentioned that devs had ruled that it was more like the witch's hex with no HD limit, but they didn't post any links to said rulings, so I wasn't sure if that was correct or not.

And I know that there's some masterpieces that specifically state something about Lingering Performance, like Quickening Pulse, but the Lullaby didn't. I wasn't sure if that Feat applied to all masterpieces, or just the ones that specifically said so.

I just might pass on that song, then.

So I have a newly level 7 Bard who has the feat 'Lingering Performance'. I have some rules questions as I'm considering taking the masterpiece Lullaby of Ember the Ancient, and my GM and I are trying to work out the details.

For clarity:

Lullaby of E the A:

Effect: When you activate this soothing performance, one target within close range falls asleep as if affected by deep slumber as long as you maintain the performance. Unlike the spell (which affects weaker creatures first), this masterpiece targets a specific creature of your choice. Although this lullaby does have words, it is not a language-dependent effect.

Use: 1 bardic performance round per round.

Action: 1 round.

Lingering Performance:

The bonuses and penalties from your bardic performance continue for 2 rounds after you cease performing. Any other requirement, such as range or specific conditions, must still be met for the effect to continue. If you begin a new bardic performance during this time, the effects of the previous performance immediately cease.

So my questions are as follows:

Is the performance limited by Deep Slumber's 10HD limit? Or is it more like the witch's sleep hex? Does the creature get a save?

Would it be affected by my lingering performance feat?

And if my theory is correct, there's no HD limit to level up out of and no save, so, theoretically, could I expend one round of BP and get three rounds of a sleeping boss character, provided it doesn't have sleep immunity, I don't start another performance, and we don't wake it up?