Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber. Organized Play Member. 203 posts (205 including aliases). No reviews. 1 list. 1 wishlist. 5 Organized Play characters. 4 aliases.
So the Paladin leader is the target of an assassination attempt. :)
Party composition can vary from session to session, but usually there's decent coverage for the four "basic" areas. There's a *usually* tank, a healer, an arcane caster, and a sneaky type, although there have been sessions with no access to arcane casting.
Group size can vary from 4 to 6, as well.
If the group is 4 or 5 strong, I'll be using a CR6 assassin. If there are six players I'm not so keen on bumping up the CR of a single enemy, but would probably rather use multiples or an assistant.
Since this contains potential spoiler information:
Spoiler:
The party cleared the tomb and got the +3 fey bane (made it an axe for our barbarian) then rolled a random encounter on the way back to their kingdom.
They rolled trolls and then rolled for max number appearing (8) so they're a bit freaked out by trolls at the moment. They've heard all the troll stories from their subjects, and have ZERO interest in helping out with the problem right now. They're not super brave.
So here's the deal. They haven't explored west or south at all, and I'd like to get their mind off trolls for the time being and I think the assassination attempt is a perfect time to hint at future First World troubles, maybe sending some fey assassins.
So I was thinking maybe a redcap. The paladin would have ample opportunity to fight off the attack between smite evil and the redcap's Irreligious quality, but I fear it's even weaker given the party's access to bane. I want it to feel deadly--PC death isn't the goal, but it should feel that way.
Other CR6 fey I have considered is the blodeuwedd, eliminating smite evil as an option, but as there's a potential that the party could be melee heavy I run the risk of a TPK with entangle, spike growth, and deep slumber.
Spoiler:
Plus I think they're encountered later on in the AP, or maybe they're just a part of the bestiary for Varnhold. The redcap just sounds cooler but I can see a powerful First World being NOT sending an evil (smite-worthy) assassin when a neutral one would do just fine.
tl;dr -- I want to use a fey assassin, but it seems like one may be a pushover and the other could potentially destroy the group and take away one of the major advantages the targeted player should have during a critical (but still random) part of their adventure.
Any thoughts on alternative baddies to use here that are more likely to fall in the sweet spot between potential cakewalk and campaign wrecker?
Looks like I just got hit with a pending charge, assuming it's the preauthorization, but it seems several weeks late. I pre-ordered prior to the cutoff date for the Black Dragon mini, so it's been at least four weeks now. I would've expected a charge then and in December, but looked today and saw the pending charge.
Should I expect this charge to disappear in a number of days and get charged sometime in December?
For a class, needing to find a few relevant links to different sub-genres of the Ghost Story.
I mean, I understand there's a difference between Dickens' ghosts of Christmas xxxx and the generic malevolent floaty incorporeal things, but I can't for the life of me find any sort of resource which gets into dividing that niche into even tinier distinctions.
Anybody know of any really good starting points? If I could find a point of entry on these discussions/essays/etc I could take it from there, but I'm simply stuck. Google turns out to be a giant PITA no matter how many negation operators I use on "real life" or "haunting" etc.
I decided to introduce a group of old gaming friends (20+ years for most) to PF, and had a blast running Everflame and MotLG. We'll be concluding the three part series with City of Golden Death.
However, I have good reason to believe one player took it upon themselves to start reading ahead.
What I'm looking for are suggestions for (hopefully) simple substitutions or changes that will make the adventure new for everyone, not just the other three players.
I don't want to completely re-tool it, because as circumstances would have it, every other player more or less picked abilities or classes that will really shine in this one. I want them to be rewarded for the choices they made, but I certainly don't want to reward treating the module like a WoW dungeon and setting up a winning strategy ahead of time for every combat.
Spoiler:
Very first encounter with the new construct, for instance. If the Air Elementalist Sorcerer fails to use ray of lightning immediately, or ever, should I assume the worst? 20 year player sees something like an iron golem and never fires electricity at it would make me....suspicious.
