The party (now 20th level non-epic) just grabbed the Suture. I am going to have Korrimazah attack them at their camp. He is a bad ass - but it is still 5 vs 1 - which never goes well for the BBEG.
What/Who else should teleport in with him as part of his crew? Does not have to be a demon.
(Preferably some already created stat blocks I can steal)
Thanks
Can't go wrong with Balor mooks.
Terendelev Returned.
That Broodlord unique Balor Lord.
Chosen of Deskari.
Leveled up versions of any named NPCs from previous sessions that got away. The anti-heretic hag-witch; Millorn would be a hit; that shadow-fey-demon hitman, etc. etc.
I figure you can find awful exaggerated novels anywhere. Certainly in colonial times in Europe you could find all sorts of BS about heroic square-jawed heroes conquering Darkest Africa. Maybe Chelliax has a thriving propaganda business.
It seemed realistic to me, but if it doesn't seem right to you, suggestions are welcome!
I should probably make up an author to constantly refer to. 'Well, Sir xxx learned in his greenskins wars that due to their superstitious and incurious nature, any magic items these hobgobbies have are certainly stolen and belongs to us civilized folk by right.' 'Well, Sir xxx tells us that dragons have hordes just to taunt us because they don't think we're strong enough to take them. Lets teach this one a lesson!'
My gaming group is very much NOT murderhobos - we have out power gamers, but are mostly into the role playing.
We mostly play veriations on the good or neutral adventurer, but I have found something different when playing my stubborn but naive Rage Prophet as someone who has read too many bad D&D adventure novels.
Stirring up trouble so he can kill someone and loot their corpse...stealing from random houses he's broken into in the course of a quest...looting from dead allies...
Tvtropes.com wrote:
[Lawful Evil] Type 2 is a baddie with a code of honor (personal order) that prevents them from doing truly heinous things, or at least keeps them focused and disciplined, and if nothing else, you can count on them to always keep their promises.
Types 2's do have a sense of order, just not the one that society at large possesses. If this is the case, expect the Type 2 to be a Byronic Hero or Übermensch.
Let us not get off into alignment debates. Point is I'm writing a MurderHobo code for my character to follow. Requirements: It's gotta be evil, and it can't be too dickish to my fellow PCs.
Here is what I have so far:
MurderHobo Code wrote:
Being an adventurer means
Loyalty. Though only to your party.
Glory: I.e. taking quests that are offered.
first come first serve on quests. The only requirement is that they do not conflict with an already existing open quest!
Conquering. Bad guys only! And by bad guys I mean anyone standing in the way of any of the above three things.
Everything in the world belongs to adventurers, if they are strong enough to take it. In fact, they are obligated to take it - looting is a vital part of adventuring!
Not everything need be party-oriented. Epic heroes often have a personal quest. One personal quest at a time - it must be suitably epic, long-term, and cliche'd (find the thing/rescue the girl/discover the secret)
Remember - collateral damage is just another quest, waiting to happen!
Once they've unified the Runelords, then the real fun begins: founding an empire. Play it like Rome, with various factions one needs to subjugate or suborn.
Chelexians, Varisians, Stone Giants, Black Arrows, maybe the Runeforge is reopened.
Despite much lampshading of their Chelexian Asmodian fundamentalism, and their political scheming, my level 3 party's lust for gold has lead them to sign on as Scarnetti enforcers whenever they are in town.
For 150 gold lump sum at 10 gold per day, the party must ensure the safety of all members of the Scarnetti family whenever they are in Sandpoint proper.
----------------
So, how to abuse this? I'm thinking pressuring the mayor to kick out that Paladin for 'action unbecoming' to start, followed by a talk with the sheriff about his actions during the goblin attack.
Then gradually setting up a Sczarni-full shadow town government with the PC's help (dangling additional funding as inducement), which will strike during the unrest caused by the Skinsaw business.
--------------------------
The party is a Sorcerer, Alchemist, Oracle and Cavalier (order of the staff).
So it looks like my party might end up throwing in with KZ.
He just spoke to them through Mockmurian, and made the case that the current world is about to fall apart, and needs to be united to stand before the coming of the other Runelords.
The party seems to be seriously considering his proposal. Some of this might be because I had them visit Riddleport, and had a subplot involving infernal influence in Magnamar.
I'm not sure they'll take him up on it yet, but three of my four members seem to be leaning that way. The party is all various flavors of neutral, BTW.
I'm wondering what I should do. The party's caster heavy, and could run as KZ's special commandos for a while
I suppose I could run some quests that require increasing moral flexibility, and lean on the chaotic folks as they help form a tyranny.
Or just switch gears and let them try to take over Varisia. And later deal with the whole Leng issue...
None of the players in my group can ever pick an idea and stick with it. We all get together and talk about different ideas for characters and how they'll work together as a group, but then next week we sit down to play and everybody shows up with something completely different.
Our GM tried a theme campaign once. He talked it over with us and we decided our theme would be "gnomes". Come game day, I was the only one that actually built a gnome.
I think a dedicated theme game might be fun, but at my table it'll never happen.
If you're going weapon finesse and dex, grab an Agile AoMF, and ditch Power attack for Piranha Strike. You also lose the wis to AC, so you don't actually need either, unless you just want it. Same as Power Attack, but no 2h extra damage, which you won't ever get with unarmed strikes anyways.
You mention Stand Still, but don't have combat reflexes... So I included it in my rebuild.
If you plan to take skill focus anyways, take the optional human racial that gives you skill focus at 1, 8, and 16 so you get 3 for 1.
He's being built at 15 right? so you can delay MoMS until 3 and 6, then pick up all the IUS feats after that without hurting anything.
Str 12, Dex 21(2 race 3 level) Con 16, Int 12 Wis 14 Cha 8
B1: Human(sk focus perc), Dodge, Weapon Finesse
B2: TWF
M1: Snake Style, Snake Fang, Punishing Kick, IUS
B3:
B4: WF: IUS, WS: IUS
B5:
M2: Crane Style, Crane Wing, Toughness
B6: Human(sk focus sense motive), Imp TWF
B7: Combat Style Master
B8: Piranha Strike
B9: GWF: IUS
B10: Imp Crit: IUS
B11: Gr TWF
B12: Gr Wpn Spec: IUS
B13: Combat Reflexes, Brawler (stand still)
Damage is d6+17 at +19/19/14/14/9/9 without factoring in magic items on a defensive power attack, with an agile amulet/bodywraps it is d6+22.
Should have about 240000 gp at level 15.
+1 Tome of Dex 27,500. Then make sure you have a belt +4 as well to max out the AC from the Celestial Armor.
Celestial Fullplate limits you to 20ft move for only 1 pt more AC than Celestial chain (assuming you boost dex like you should) which is also your hit/damage stat. Not worth it. IMO.
Also, see if your GM will let you add enhancements to specific armors, not all will. If so, drop Brawling on your armor for another +2 hit/damage for another 7k over the price(the difference from +3 to +4)
Longarm Bracers: 7200g give you +5ft reach with unarmed for 3rounds a day, weapons take a penalty but unarmed do not.
Bodywraps of Mighty strikes +1 Agile, 12k gp, stacks with AoMF for abilities but not enhance,...
Great point, lemeres! Any thought what I should switch IUS to? I'm thinking improved critical.
And yeah, I'll note the toughness change. And switch STR and WIS.
Yeah, Petty Alchemy, tis true, though fighter progression does make that suck, and that toughness scales with whatever class I take, I do so love evasion...maybe I should get a ring?
Raised STR to 16 and lowered WIS to 14.
Also retrained out of IUS (with DM's permission) so I now have an extra feat.
Great point, lemeres! Any thought what I should switch IUS to? I'm thinking improved critical.
And yeah, I'll note the toughness change. And switch STR and WIS.
Yeah, Petty Alchemy, tis true, though fighter progression does make that suck, and that toughness scales with whatever class I take, I do so love evasion...maybe I should get a ring?
Great point, lemeres! Any thought what I should switch IUS to? I'm thinking improved critical.
And yeah, I'll note the toughness change. And switch STR and WIS.
Yeah, Petty Alchemy, tis true, though fighter progression does make that suck, and that toughness scales with whatever class I take, I do so love evasion...maybe I should get a ring?
Yah, take Monk 1 first, so you get the improved unarmed strike for free.
Stat-wise, since you're going to be wearing armor, you can afford to drop wisdom down a bit, and to focus on strength. That'll save you from having to take weapon finesse, plus doing more damage, plus boosting your CMB an CMD.
Maybe str 18 (+2 racial), dex 18 (+3 level), con 14, int 12, wis 14, cha 8
If you really want dex 19 for greater weapon focus, you can drop wis to 12.
Maybe take monk to 4, it doesn't cost you any BAB, and you up your unarmed to 1d8 (which means getting enlarged takes you to 2d6).
The reason I waited for monk was that I wanted to take advantage of MoMS's ability to get later style feats without prerequisites, so I wanted to hold off on monk until I had all the entry feats for Crane and Snake.
I added WIS so I could take advantage of Snake Style's "Use your Sense Motive for AC" thing, but maybe I should pump STR instead.
You can't take crane style at lvl 2. You need dodge, or first lvl unarmed fighter or moms to ignore the pre reqs. Other than that, it looks good. I am putting something similar together myself.
Got dodge and IUS at level 1.
Unfortunate to spend a feat that the monk will give me later though - I may move the monk to level 3 so I can get crane and then snake all at once and have an extra feat to play with.
Full Defensive Power Attack: +19/+19/+14/+14/+9/+9. Damage 1d6+19
Try to hit him in melee, you're at -2, and he deflects the first attack,
You miss him? He hits you.
You 5-foot away? He hits you.
Try to charge past? He has stand-still at +22.
Add in some items (Gloves of dueling, brawling armor, amulet of mighty fists) and his per-hit damage becomes pretty impressive.
Thoughts?
Items? I'm aiming for celestial full plate.
Different feats?
I'm not a fan. Well, I'm also a contrarian, and it's hard to tell where one begins and the other ends...
From what I can see, there is basically one build that is head-and-shoulders ahead of all the others - shocking grasp. True, you can go STR or DEX, but in the end that's just so much better than any other possibilities.
Then the tactics of that build suffer from the same lack of diverse effective options. Nine out of ten rounds of battle, you have one awesome choice as to what to do (cast and hit with dat grasp), and then some other seriously not as good ones.
Of course, what isn't to my taste is clearly to other people's, as mounted paladins and archers have the same paucity of choice issues, and they don't suffer from a lack of fans. I will note, however, that unlike those builds the entire magus class suffers from this problem (which I acknowledge may only be a problem to me).
To be fair, I've never played a magus or even built one; I've only watched them played.
So Rage Prophet is an awful, but fun prestige class. Ima try to make one.
One of the problems I have with gish types in general is action economy. Oracular spells take a standard action, but many inquisitor spells do not. And since Rage Prophet advances all divine spell casting, a bit of triple classing is all it takes to make...something.
So I've tried to make something to check out this concept. I tried for more of a melee monster with tricks, than caster who can fight.
From there, just build Rage Prophet all the way, advancing inquisitor spells.
I stuck inquisitor in there at some random place, but I stuck oracle right before rage prophet entry so that you only have one level of lameness before it gives rage cycling.
Issues remaining - is human the best race? Should I get extra rage instead of Furious Focus? Is travel domain the best? I was also looking at growth domain and anger inquisition.
So, what say you folks? Any improvements? Is this an awful idea to begin with? Should I just go make a dragon disciple and cry?
Only the inquisitor escaped with his life as the others were engulfed in the flame before they could act, and perished. The Other GM thinks that for his superb use of his skills and clever plan, he should be allowed a small bit of favor with the deity he is trying to court. I'm split both ways, and kinda just want to see if he can pull off another trick like this.
What do you think?
Ya gotta give him something to acknowledge the awesome, though it need not be materially useful. A sign or portent of favor could be enough.
The player seems pretty bought into his fall, which is cool. I also like the bleeding fingernails.
Maybe there's a bidding war that occurs. Representatives from unsavory faiths are trying to recruit him with gifts and argumentation, much to the party's confusion.
As to Pharasma, well, I'd say at least no spells. Between the untimely death of one of her servants and the turning away from her tenets, this guy ain't a cleric of her no more. Sure, he can repent, and greater sins have been forgiven, but till that occurs, it's hard seeing any divine powers being wasted on a heretic.
That being said, smiting or a herald seems a bit much for one dude, even if a local high priest. Unless she sees he has a great fate in store for him. Then she can join the recruitment bidding war. What would the party think when a friar of Pharasma comes up and says he's seen the cleric in his dreams, and that the cleric must repent and return to Pharasma.
As for the church itself, well, I think they may take a less sanguine view of their more powerful members being killed. No powerful institution can stand by as it's leaders are killed. And in D&D, where churches have militant arm, we're not talking about just going to the police and then mourning about it.
In this case, there is no reason party would be not targeted, at least till they sort the whole thing out. We'd be talking not only about inquisitors and the like, but also powerful planar beings.
In the end, the important thing is to hook this chapter into the others. After such a sudden change of character, a period of free fall is certainly in order, but some kind of new long-term plot hook is needed, since he's lost both his family and his faith.
I'd say give him some time to make a decision re: new allegiance, and then have whomever he throws in with provide something new to focus on.
Perhaps the possibility of returning his family to him, or of wiping out his memory of them, or simulating them for him somehow.
I really like where you're going with this, especially for a reunion game a year or two after finishing the campaign with a handful of puzzles/encounters per location.
One thing that would add to the Lengishness would be to tweak the dungeons to include some hyperbolic geometry (straight lines that curve without curving), so you can have some of the floors of buildings connect laterally rather than vertically or you can connect the edges of complexes to each other (like the Pac-Man maze). Give them a chance to figure out that the maps are related to what they knew and then screw with their perceptions.
That's a good point. Probably should have that effect in Rannik, and some parts of Jorgenfist.
Xin-Shalast - A blasted mountain range where nothing lives except for Denizens and Flying Polyps. It is cold here, very cold. And there is no air.
Quest - Raise up Karzoug as the new Runelord of Wealth, Only his ancient and intimate knowledge of Leng can find a way to reverse what has been done.
Magnamar - The mageocracy has built a maze of tunnels beneath the glaciers that now dominate the are. The strange effects of Leng has caused the massive construction to come alive, and it is slowly digesting the inhabitants, leeching them of first their magic, then their imagination, then their free will.
Quest - force feed the entity enough chaos that it's liver-equivalent becomes full of the stuff, then remove the crystalline organ. This solid manifestation of chaotic power is useful.
Sandpoint - Cannibal State. Status dictates who you can eat.
Quest - restore order.-LEVEL 17-
The Rimeskull - The Great White Wyrm that guards this place was taken unawares by the sudden infiltration of Leng as he slept. Now he has become enslaved by a death-cult of shapeshifting leng natives, the Rimeskull itself alternatively forcing him into rages and catatonia as the leng natives seek death at his claws play-acting as put-upon villagers.
Quest - Enter the Runeforge.
Runeforge - Now taken over by Gluttony, the Runeforge has become an organized undead military base as Kazaven scries what has happened in the real world, and prepares for the coming assault as the demiplane begins to collapse back into the Prime Material.
The Runeforge is also one of the few places with a working economy where the PCs can buy level-appropriate items. The economy is goldfish based, though.
Quest - restore the Runeforge's dimensional barrier, such that it may serve as a safe haven for future assaults.
Catacombs of Wrath - Miraculously, the Scribbler has managed not only to survive, but to protect the catacombs from the rampaging hordes of Sandpoint and beyond. Furthermore, his preexisting madness seems to have insulated him from the madness above. And his constant battle has only made hims stronger and better equipped.
Now that things in Sandpoint have calmed down some, he again makes his presence known.
Quest - Restore the Scribbler's sanity, and elevate him to the Runelord of Eager Striving.
Jorgenfist - This is one of the few true refuges from the Lengpocolypse. The reformed Black Arrows have moved here and set up powerful wards (powered by enslaved kobold souls, but who cares about that?). When they are not defending themselves, they are working on determining exactly what happened and trying to reverse it.
Quest - Gather his body, and raise Mockmurian as the Runelord of well-deserved rest.
-LEVEL 18-
Skull's Crossing - This area is now under water, and controlled by Aboleths. They hold the Runelord of Wrath, having betrayed her long ago.
Quest - Defeat the Runelord of Wrath, and her Aboleth jailers.
Fort Rannik - abandoned by the reformed Black Arrows, the fort has been merged with an some ancient edifice of Leng and is now the site of a doomsday cult led by an inhuman high priest. The cult has set up a signal that calls ever more hordes from Leng into this world.
Quest - cleanse the fort.
Turtleback Ferry - Flooded before the Lengpocolypse, a strange resonance between the planetouched Mother of Oblivion and the queer emenations of Leng caused a large island to form out of twisted and corrupt coral. Inside, a wizard has fleshcrafted creatures, and uses them to defend against the hordes of Leng called by the Rannik Signal.
But the price he has paid to learn so fast and so well was his sanity. The wizard thoughts, once of defending against the encroaching chaos, now think only of domination and control. Little does he know that a Mother of Oblivion egg survived the careful culling, and that his carefully controlled weapons may be his Achilles heel.
Quest - Free the juvenile Mother of Oblivion, who will later become the Runelord of fertility.
Magnimar revisited - Despite being destroyed like four times now, Magnamar has a great harbor, and the few battle-hardened people that remain are rebuilding. However, Leng will not stand for such a thing, and has decreed that the city will be hollowed out into a worthless husk a year from now.
Quest - Kingmaker-like, build and fortify the city for sieges from within and without.
- LEVEL 20 -
The Shadow Clock -
Misgivings -
Thistletop -
Catacombs of Wrath -
Sandpoint revisited -
Not sure if the dreaming idea works too well as a larger arc with high level characters.
Love the idea of having to return to old areas, and of bad guys gone good, since this whole thing happened when the party refused to even briefly cooperate with a villain, why not hammer that idea home?
I'm not sure if this group is strong enough role-players to properly deal with an externally caused loss of ambition or attachment, but I very much like the idea of making death more menacing at this level. Not by making it permanent or anything, but by making it costly, somehow. Like you're automatically resurrected upon death, but lose some memories, having to realize what you have allowed to happen each time you return.
I always liked the puzzles and existential questions that idea opened in "Planescape: Torment."
So then, to mash up the original places with Leng-ness.
Here is what I have so far. Will edit this as I can.
spoiler:
In reverse order of visitation:
Xin-Shalast - A blasted mountain range where nothing lives except for Denizens and Flying Polyps. It is cold here, very cold. And there is no air.
Quest - Raise up Karzoug, Only his ancient and intimate knowledge of Leng can find a way to reverse what has been done.
Magnamar - The mageocracy has built a maze of tunnels beneath the glaciers that now dominate the are. The strange effects of Leng has caused the massive construction to come alive, and it is slowly digesting the inhabitants, leeching them of first their magic, then their imagination, then their free will.
Quest - force feed the entity enough chaos that it's liver-equivalent becomes full of the stuff, then remove the crystalline organ. This will be useful later.
Sandpoint - Cannibal State. Status dictates who you can eat.
Quest - restore order.
-LEVEL 17-
Runeforge -
The Rimeskull -
Catacombs of Wrath
Jorgenfist -
Yeah, the Leng flavor will be very important to properly show how much this place is different. I'm even thinking of getting rid of the air. At this level, mass planar adaptation shouldn't be too hard to cast, though it does make 'dispel magic' a save or die all of the sudden.
The stat switching is a cool idea (I love the cleric to rogue thing), and will probably feature at some point.
Still not sure what kind of deed would close a planar intrusion. The usual 'collect these 5 items' or seek and destroy quests seems a bit cliche, though if properly executed, would suffice.
I may check into some high level published adventures for inspiration.
So I just finished off my two year long RotRL game. And while they did defeat Mr. Karzoug, well, Xin Shalast has become something of a large infiltration of the plane Leng...
Now we are off to play Kingmaker for a year or so, but my players are interested in some kind of sequel or even continuation, so I thought it might be entertaining to brainstorm a bit.
More details of how this ending occurred:
spoiler:
I thought it would be brilliant if, right before the final battle, the party was forced to briefly work with Karzoug to fight against a superior force.
The obvious candidate was Leng. So I filled the final module with weird, sinister signs like Denizens of Leng performing weird rituals and experimenting on skulks, with a feeling of unease, and periodic infiltrations of Hounds of Tindalos. The Cleric was already researching Leng, it was not hard for the party to put 2 and 2 together.
After fighting various Leng-ish guardians, the party made it to Karzoug, who was struggling to control his spell to bring his armies forward in time. The Cleric made his Knowledge:Planes check to realize that the spell had been subverted to bring a city of Leng to Xin Shalast instead.
Karzoug said 'There will be a reckoning Heroes, but if you wish to wrest the world from my grasp, you will need to save it first!'
....And the party proceeded to beat on Karzoug, even as I provided increasingly dire signs about this rapidly expanding spherical affront to reality. Finally, the mage-slayer paladin tried to close the portal, only to roll like 3 1's in a row on his spellcraft check. I really did not have much choice but to have the threatened dire eventuality come to pass.
I consider this somewhat my fault. Never underestimate PC's tunnel vision.
But there was still fun to be had. On the barren mountains of Leng, the players had a nice and epic fight with KZ (Wish -> Blasphemy is fun. As is Timestop and 5 prismatic spheres around each character.)
Once the party overwhelmed Karzoug with a critical disintegrate spell, that is where we left things.
And the current, kinda screwed up party:
spoiler:
All Level 16
LG Human Fighter 12/Paladin 4 - crit fisherman, and quite a high AC when smiting. Built with all the mage-slayer feats. Also has boots that let him Dimension Door 3/day. Also has a level warforged 14 Cleric cohort.
CN Human Sorcerer 16, dragon bloodline. An amnesiac former Lieutenant of Wrath, he's now got 2 parts of the Tome of Gluttony, and is well on his way to attaining the lich template. Has 2 flesh golems disguised as 'porters.'
NG Dwarf Lion Shaman 16, possessed by the transmutation portion of the Runelord of Wrath, which he can call on to help, but which has a cost. He's currently all veiny, healing magic still works but is is painful and animals hate him.
CN Elf Rogue 6, Arcane Trixter 10. After being trapped in the Pride section of the Runeforge for 10,000 years thinking he was a peacock, I suppose he has a lot less catching up to do than he thought. Quite pragmatic, except for being an arcane trixter
LG Human Cleric 16 of Serenrae. Focused on the redemption aspect of the faith, this former traveling friar has attracted the attentions of the Queen of Thorn and Shadow, a high-level Winter Court Fey charged with punishing Winter Fey who break the rules. He was planning on trapping himself and Karzoug in Leng, and had a spell for it, but that proved inapplicable. Rather broken up about the whole thing, he's now on a quest to destroy the Sword of Greed. The Queen has gifted him with a former Glabrezu trapped in the form of a magic lamp and ensorcled to do his bidding.
And finally, other interesting ways the plot has deviated from the norm:
spoiler:
Magnamar has been destroyed twice. Once by a deal with Karzoug to "get rid of Chellexian influence," (heh), and once by a filed Chellexian pacifying action. The remaining population has formed a subterrranian mageocracy.
The Sandpoint Devil was killed by the Chellexian invasion force.
A bunch of Chellexians are still at large, having melted away after their initial assault on Magnamar failed.
Sandpoint has been turned into a fortress to fight the Chellexians, giants, and what-have-you.
A Former PC warlock now runs Fort Rannik.
A former PC bard has recently been driven from his position as the local Sczarni Godfather.
I gave Leng a decidedly Far-Realm backstory or being part of the Prime Materal that was pinched off to prevent a Far-Realm incursion long ago, and which now is a demiplane adjacent to the Far Realm, but which wants to return.
So. Much fodder, I'd say. But now you have 5 PCs rich with newly won artifacts, in varying states of sanity, in the middle of a desolate hostile dimension which is currently in the Prime Material and expanding...
