Sorcerer-Conj's page

This is an interesting fantasy engineering problem. If you're trying to repair the dam, why not have it after the PCs have attained a high enough level for Wall of Stone (cleric 5, druid 6, sorcerer/wizard 5)? The spell is shape-able, allowing a PC to fix the damage to the dam.

The magical power source is harder, of course. The magic circle for a greater binding is already there, and most devils and demons are immortal. Undead are immortal too - but are harder to keep unless you use the summoning magic circles specifically for that reason. The local farm sounds much easier to maintain, but it's going to be difficult to get all those animals down the stairs, correct?

Someone's going to have to write down all the instructions on how to do this, how to use the circles, and how to interpret the magical controls of the dam. A good stonecutter or a mage using Arcane Mark could write the six to ten sentences on the walls of the interior of the dam in order to instruct future generations on how to use the controls. Liberal use of Continual Flame would help matters as well.

If you tell all of Turtleback Ferry and Fort Rannick about the magical properties of the dam, then you are going to have to protect it. Protect it from the evil spellcasters trying to research/steal/destroy the ancient Varsian magic, from ogres trying to hold the dam hostage against the humans, and then there's the crazy Druids...

As for Storval Deep, I would worry about the silt making the lake "shallower". This would make the lake grow in size even as it became more shallow, changing the ecology of Storval Deep from a haven for deep-water, fresh-water monsters to ones more used to shallow depths (i.e., crocodiles). This might cause the lake to form a second river as a mountainous pass is the new low point for the rising waters. Lake Coal is one possible relief valve for the rising waters.

From a non-magical standpoint, a dedicated engineering group could change the spillwater coming out of the skull's mouths into Golarion's first electrical-generation dam. Add a secondary structure to the front of the dam and you have a Hoover project providing megawatts of power to a local area.

If Skull Crossing does ever "go", it would be interesting to see if Magimar gets a tidal wave from the river or if the Mushfens would absorb the blow.

It took a bit for my players to even begin to warm up to the NPCs but eventually made them all friendly. It helps that two are beautiful women ... I've got several members flirting with Sasha, and another trying to figure out the best way to approach Aerys without getting beat up.

Which in my opinion is NORMAL. D&D has this reputation of either guys acting like jerks towards female players, female PCs, and female NPCs, or else totally ignoring them during the game. It's nice to see a more mature worldview in the game. Some of the stories I've read about NPCs in this thread qualify for "feed the alligator" type B-horror movies.

I'm hoping to read more "success" stories on this thread, rather than the "we left him hanging upside down for the cannibals" stuff I've seen.

Side note- tanglefoot bags are alchemical not magical so they are mundane.

On topic taking a class for extra gear is just the opposite of min/maxing you get 1000gp worth of stuff easy on your way to 2nd level and that comes in just a couple weeks of play.

I would never want to delay all the special abilities of my real class by level dipping for gold.

You haven't played with the literal-minded GMs that I have. To be conservative, I took "mundane" to mean "only those items on Table 6-9 on p.158 of the Core rulebook, not including Special Items and Substances nor Tools and Skill Kits using the word 'masterwork' in it". That keeps the GM from arguing too much. And it's only for the 200 gp you have to track - you've still got 700 to spend on the healing kits, masterwork tools, masterwork armor and weapons, etc.

I can tell you've also never played with low-magic, low-gold GMs, or the Serpent's Skull AP, from what I've read here in this messageboard. Going for weeks without access to a town or city to buy or craft items. Sometimes you only have what you bring to the table.

But I do realize that is the exception, not the rule for most games.

You want to hear something entirely legal yet letting your character be showered with gold?

From Serpent's Skull:
1.) Serpent's Skull Player's Guide: "Boarded in Cheliax" Campaign Trait -
"You begin the campaign with...200 gp worth of mundane equipment to aid in your exploration of the jungle."

2.) Advanced Player's Guide:
p. 330, "Rich Parents" Social Trait - "you enjoy a one-time benefit to your initial finances - your starting cash increases to 900 gp."

So that's a perfectly legal 1,100 gp's worth of equipment, only 200 gp of which must be "mundane" (i.e., no tanglefoot bags?) but enough to fabulously equip any character with a horse, saddlebags, and a cart full of adventuring equipment along with masterwork artisan tools. Plus some decent masterwork armor and weapons.

- Can you explain why you and your player didn't choose the "right" equipment for Path 4, 5 and 6?

The charakters know they are fighting against giants and wizards. But you didn't buy giant bane weapons or a rode of absoprtion, a spell turning ring, armor that provide spell resistiance or even a simple heal potion ... why?

Part of the problem with this Adventure Path is that there is no consistency from module to module. For instance: a typical player in Burnt Offerings, the first module, would do well with a Ranger class who favors Goblinoids as his/her enemy. In the second module, Skinsaw Murders, that option is barely used, and thereafter is useless for the AP. A Sorcerer has already picked out most of their 1st-level spells by level 7, where Hook Mountain Massacre would be played, and thus miss out on Enlarge Person to fight the giants one-on-one, unless they use the ability to change out lower-level spells. Most Sorcerers and Wizards don't take the anti-spellcasting path with Dispel Magic, but counterspelling is the only option to defeat the boss monster in both the second, fourth, and sixth modules.

Giant Bane weapons, if you are allowed by your GM to craft them or buy them, is indeed useful in the last three modules. Because you won't find any weapons dropped by the enemy with that ability, that's for sure. It's as if each module was merely written as a player-killer with the thinnest Thassalionian link between them to lead you to module five and module six, which have the Runeforge and the Spires as actual Thassalionian ruins. Notice that the players are not allowed to visit Riddleport or Korsova, both "monumental architecture" places that could give hints about Thassalionian culture. You're supposed to depend upon the library in Jorgenfist and Bodert Quink in Sandpoint for all knowledge rolls.

This AP is definitely one of the "do it yourself" modules. That's okay, if there's enough time and gold pieces for the crafter(s) in the party to make clothing, armor, swords, and buffering items for the party. But most modules today (since 3.0) concentrate on the fight, because that's what brings players to the gaming table and that's what give them XP. Not detective work and crafting to make the players better prepared. It's a selfish response to a selfish player.

There are many roleplaying opportunities in RotR AP if the players and GM look "outside the box". You could use Thistletop as a base, for instance, instead of burning it to the ground, as 99% of the players on this forum indicate. Use the advice in the third module, the Hook Mountain Massacre, to run Thistletop. Fort Rannick is a wonderful base of operations - if the players ever have a reason to keep it after the third module. Jorgenfist, once cleaned out and placed in the hands of the pacific giants, is an even better base, and has the non-movable library that players need. The Runeforge is a fantastic fallback position to high-level gamers who have Plane Shift and the special item that allows access to the demiplane, if they have cleared out the place and do not stay so long they become "locked in" to the Runeforge's magic.

But Sandpoint? Sandpoint is worthless after the third module. Not enough magic item shops with its' low gold piece limit, not enough NPCs, etc. Magimar is a much better city, but it was not fleshed out enough in the second module. The Spires of Xin-Shalast are place where you can visit once a month for more gold, more gems, and a few monsters for XP for high-level players, but eventually the law of averages will catch up with you and you'll die there.

A good GM will homebrew and bend the rules a bit to better prepare the players for that TPK in the end of each module. Bad GMs will be "by the book", giving out only the treasure found therein, hurrying the players to the next module, and wonder why players are dying so easily when a specific magic item or spell could defeat the Monster of the Day. (Somehow the player is supposed to sacrifice his character's entire reason for living for that one spell or favored enemy to help defeat the boss monster.)

Just my opinion.