Hand of the Inheritor

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Pathfinder Adventure Subscriber. Organized Play Member. 196 posts. 10 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 6 Organized Play characters.



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5/5


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Pretty good!

4/5

Overall I liked GMing this scenario! It has a decent amount of skill checks and roleplay, one could argue too many but it didn’t tie up my table too much. It could help if the players got some sort of ping if they pass the max threshold of points. The combats were okay but not terribly challenging. We played at high-tier and my biggest criticism probably comes from the boss being too easy. The entire scenario sets up the boss to be a big threat that has taken down several parties before yours. Maybe because my players had some good ways to capitalize on its common weakness but it never really got to show off what made it such a big deal in the first place


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Praying for More

5/5

Prey for Death is, perhaps with a bit of hyperbole, the culmination of what I believe to be everything 2nd edition has grown to be loved for over these past 5 years. While it may not be a direct celebration of its history, mechanics, and lore (see 7 dooms for that!) I see, hidden in the pages, everything I’ve loved about pf2e to date. The adventure is wonderfully written with excellent plot, maps, and art. The villain seems believable and the narrative deliberately nuanced. The adventure is high stakes at appropriate levels and you won’t be seen fighting level 18 thugs. The narrative paints a picture we haven’t seen before of the Red Mantis and Achaekek. We do get to indulge in the expected assassinations we would want in this adventure but also get to hear about history we haven’t before and reckon with hypocrisies throughout the adventure.

On top of being really well written, this may be the first piece of pathfinder fiction I feel can be run cover to cover with absolutely no other supplements or books (besides the Core Rules of course). Many other adventure paths have had me delving into 1e lore books or other Lost Omens books to paint the full picture of the story going on. Prey for Death includes enough preamble and information in the toolbox that I never felt that way while reading.

The adventure makes great use of the pf2e subsystems (something I have always thought to be one of the system’s great strengths). It rewards well thought out and immersive play (thinking and acting like an assassin) while not overly penalizing those who want to get to the action. The adventure also respects the table’s time, never overstaying its welcome in one place or leaving the party wondering where to go next and why. This brisk pace may make some tables feel rushed but overall, I feel like erring on the side of a quicker pace and letting tables slow it down to their comfort is better then the inverse that can leave tables feel like cutting through a slog.

The ending is satisfyingly epic and that’s all I will say. Vanessa did an amazing job bringing this story together and doing the justice it deserves.

I go more into detail about my opinion on each chapter in the first impression thread here. Il try to keep my review updated as my group starts this in a few weeks and runs through the adventure.


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4/5


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4/5


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4/5


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4/5


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4/5


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1/5


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An Ending to Die For

5/5

While I’ve been keeping up with Bloodlords as a whole, I feel compelled to write a review for the 6th book not only because of the absolutely amazing ending to a story in my favorite location in golarion but also to support the creation of high level content.

Bloodlords #6 Ghost Kings Revenge may be some of the best payoff for an adventure I have ever seen alongside some of the best high level fantasy fulfillment.

Starting off with the direct attention and collaboration with one of the most powerful undead in golarion is a great way to kick off the book. There is a very significant shift in power dynamic from even their last encounter 2 books ago with the PCs becoming more accomplished Bloodlords. The first chapter involves facing up against some of the worst enemies of an undead nation, psychopomps. Something about facing such an innate enemy against your existence (as many PCs are probably undead at this point in the AP) feels like such a triumphant win. The story here is interesting for sure and does nothing to detract from the mission but the sheer backdrop of the chapter feels like something only the strongest undead agents could even possibly consider.

Although, since the module cannot assume any PCs are undead, this means that there isn’t too much roleplay difference between a party full of undead, living PCs, or mix of both. I wish that there was some flavor text to distinguish between the different setups. The psychopomp enemies here will flip the script on many undead PCs who have been enjoying the luxuries of immunity to a common damage type for most of the AP.

The second chapter is a series of fetch quests but also may be my favorite part of the adventure path. Finally, the PCs have meaningful ways to represent their Reputation Points. Characters who have cultivated their relationship with a faction will find themselves throwing around their own political power to accomplish tasks with ease. This is exactly what I was expecting from a high-level adventure with political themes. I also find the tasks quite fun having you revisit allies and several locations from the adventure path where clever PCs may have already made connections and have resources that could change the nature of these tasks or make them easier. Each one of these tasks also has an optional component to collect which nets the PCs (and the nation of geb) a huge reward in terms of narrative weight. I am very curious if further books will assume that the adventure was completed with this optional goal or if its non-cannon. I think it would dimmish the PCs efforts if such a monumental event wasn’t reflect in the Lost Omens setting at some point.

My biggest critique is that I wish these changes were implemented earlier. With the downtime activities presented in Book 4 the PCs could have been Bloodlords for months by the time this Book starts and already completed some big favours for their factions of choice. I think it would be sound advice to use the Reputation in Play rules earlier if you feel as if your PCs are engaging sufficiently.
Also a nitpick of mine is, due to the setting, it isn’t unlikely that a PC worships Urgathoa. I really wish that the optional component regarding the Cathedral of Epiphenomena had an alternative component or another way to accomplish the task without possibly incurring the wrath (or curse) of their diety.

The last part of the campaign is a dungeon which I suppose is nothing to complain about. It has some interesting background in Geb’s history and overall has a variety of skill checks to test the party’s diversity. At this point, the main plot has already been wrapped up and this is more of a victory lap as the PCs burn out the rat’s nest. Honestly, I don’t mind. I have always felt that a TPK at the end of an adventure path has always felt rather cheap. To have worked through 5/6 books only to possibly choke at the end and have the world end anyways (hello AOA). Even if the PCs are less then successful (on their first try or otherwise) the main goal that they set out to accomplish when the adventure started has already been completed.

Overall, I absolutely love this book and was giddy reading it all the way through. If paizo continues to print high level adventure paths like this I hope they emulate the same feeling I had reading through Ghost King’s revenge. I only wish that there was some more high-level character options like feats printed with the book. It feels like it would be perfect if the undead AP had some level 20 ghost, vampire, zombie ect… feats.
I also hope that with the success of Bloodlords we see some smaller adventures/PFS/modules in Geb. But that may be my extreme bias for the region showing. Thank you for sending it off with such love.