I disagree with this one from a couple different directions.
The fact that it is similar to D&D Beyond likely is a win for recruiting people who are used to 5e, D&D Beyond is so baked in that not having something comparable is just another hurdle in bringing them over.
The second part is that I believe something like Demiplane can coexist with the others. Claxon mentioned how it didn't seem to take away from the free options and that matters. Paizo has a great track record of supporting the free options, but its okay to have a more premium version. I'm not a huge fan of Demiplane's character builder yet, though its been steadily getting better. However, their rules search works better for me than Nethys or PF2e Easy and when I want to read through the books on my tablet it is amazing. The reader on its own is so much better than scrolling PDFs especially when you are wanting to reference spells and abilities at the same time.
You can access pathfinder for free and not be missing out. But if a premium version is worth it for you? Then demiplane is great. That there is a cheap and easy way within to share your books with your tables can help a lot with splitting the costs.
I'm from the olden days. We play a lot of different systems, but my group always leaned more towards D20 systems. So came from AD&D into 3.5, and started following Dungeon and Dragon magazines.
The group absolutely loved Shackled City and Age of Worms so when Paizo started to release Pathfinder adventures we merged over. Some of my players still are traumatized by Carnival of Horrors and Mamma Graul.
I think part of this question depends on whether this is a fight the BBEG has planned or not. Like if this fight is meant to happen when the players surprise the bad guy its going to be hard for him to have a good escape route. But if they are meeting him in a planned way or especially in his lair then he can plan stuff.
Kobolds like their weird little tricks, a secret door that he can duck through and locks behind him is something that can allow an escape since the players will have to spend a few actions to bust out their tools and pick the lock(even harder if still have minions around). This is low level so the players aren't going to have a lot of tools for catching up to someone who is out of sight. If the bulk of the party are medium creatures, having him dart down a small tunnel that reduces them to squeezing speed could have a similar impact and a single small PC is unlikely to want to chase after a much tougher boss by himself.
Wouldn't an Aiuvarin Elf essentially be the equivalent of an Elf and Aiuvarin's offspring? Mechanically its not very great since you already had the elf trait, but its effectively an elf that has something else in its ancestry but a bit further upstream.
I think treating it as an earn income task that you can do with Nature or crafting is a pretty fair way about it. The bones being infused with Adamantine doesn't mean they are significantly adamantine- A beaver's teeth are coated with Iron rather than calcium but you would have a hard time converting that into something usable for a weapon. Breaking it down isn't going to give you much, but rewarding the players by giving them the ability to earn income at a level above what the local towns provide is a small reward that isn't going to break balance.
A long time back Monty Cook made an online megadungeon called 'Dungeon a Day' that had a section on the tenants they used to create the dungeon. They don't apply to all of them, but one that applies to most and I like to remind my players during the start of these type of campaigns is that the dungeon increases in difficulty on its own(rather than based on your level) and can have a risk reward. Sneaking into lower levels to risk picking up some above level treasure can be a fun challenge, but also realize that you can walk into things you aren't yet ready for and planning for that and having an escape plan can be a benefit too.
When we ran AV, my players similarly identified what was nesting down there and decided they weren't yet prepared for that fight. They snuck into there at level 2 with some better gear including consumables that could help with the breath weapon. Even then it was a decently tough fight.
It was good for your DM to have telegraphed what the encounter was for you so you could come at it purposefully, and whether or not he should have pulled some punches for a level 1 group is up to the groups style. But don't be afraid to note that some things might be over your head and need to be resolved when you are better prepared.
As someone who has just run Crown of the Kobold King for a 2e party, I would be hesitant to recommend it. The story is fun, but there have been a lot of changes in encounter design from 1e to 2e and the adventure is more of a direct port. It means that things like what is expected in rest time between fights, having lots of single powerful creature fights instead of multiple equal or lower CR creatures in encounters, or just the flow feels very different. Its a fun artifact to take me back to the early days, but doesn't stand up real well to the more current stuff.
I just wanted to chime in and voice some praise for this Adventure. I have a really long running group though we don't play as often as we used to. We did Age of Ashes and then Extinction Curse before a pretty sizable break. I ran us through Crown of the Kobold as a refresher to get back into the swing of things with PF2e but was having trouble getting into it, you can really feel the different intention in encounter design from 1st edition show through and I think that had carried into AoA and EC as well as the writers were getting a sense of the new system.
As we were wrapping that up I decided our next step should be into one of the more modern adventures to see how that landed. I couldn't be more pleasantly surprised. The storyline and writing and fantastic, but the way they are backed by the rules and help encourage you to dive into the different subsystems that have been developed is fantastic. I hadn't thoroughly re-read the GM Core after the remaster and the intro to things like Infiltration and Influence in such effective ways has been great.
Coming as someone who often leans towards narrative systems but has a group of d20 at heart players and loves Paizo's fluff this adventure has ignited a lot of fire in me for the system and given great inspiration for ways to have the rules encourage flavoring a lot of the non-combat stuff.
I saw someone joke before about using the necro ability that lets a thrall be the source of your spell to effectively double the distance. Throw a thrall out 30ft away, then use him to put another thrall 60ft away.
There can be a lot of opinions on things without someone being a troll. I'm really not a d20 fan and never have been. My tastes tend to fall towards either an annoying amount of crunch or being extremely rules light. For me either of those give options- Either there is a rule for damn near everything or its flexible enough to easily handwave. D20 has always fallen into the middle for me.
With that said, my group has always been more d20 system based. I run most of our games so I used to always run a 3x adventure and then get them to do a short burst of WoD or Shadowrun. I love the settings that Paizo makes which adds a lot to the fun with me, but I'd still rather have used the setting with the Genesys system or something.
PF2e has been the best d20 system to me though and between that and how much the world building has continued to grow I enjoy running it, but there are definitely folks out there who appreciate the system for what it is without it being made for them. The idea that a class based system is inherently constraining and that PF2e has done a lot to add to the ability to customize your classes aren't exclusive.
Small note on that- Firing through a creature's square(ally or enemy) gives anything behind it lesser cover(so a +1 circumstance to AC). But that can be avoided by lining up your shots without something in between.
I'm going to be running this adventure as our next campaign(thinking of bringing it into curtain call, for the back half). About 80% of our group have been together for basically ever and we ran through through the early Varisia Aps when they came out.
That means its been long enough that my group has vague memories of things(I'm sure they will immediately remember the hagfish when its brought up, but I don't know that they will remember many details about NPCs).
So the question is; what should I remind them? What bits of setting and history around the town have people gotten the most use out of?
I tend to try and use creature tactics from their perspective. Something less intelligent is likely to focus on whatever hurt it last or hurt it the most. Something more intelligent might be more predictive and try and make sure that when it drops something it stays down. That can be very influenced by how the battle is going though.
We had a creature recently that was a high threat for the party and due to a number of factors(bad rolls, setting that worked in its favor, catching a couple characters while they were scouting a rounds movement ahead of the party) the combat tilted very against them quickly. As a result there were a few rounds where most of the party were trying to heal, get buffs up, etc, and the couple who attacked it missed.
The creature had an ability that would bind their souls to it if they died, so since it didn't see them as a threat he spent his time making sure everyone was tagged with that power and just doing some other attacks here or there to keep them from getting to full strength. It didn't feel like pulling punches, it felt like a monster in a horror movie toying with its victims.
Lots of creatures have unique powers, whether its a shadow wanting to create another shadow, or wolves wanting to team up. Those powers might not be the most tactically strong option, but having a creature lean into what is special about it rather than what is going to be the most deadly can both help control the difficulty and make the creatures feel more thematic.
I started to answer this question confidently, that I would probably allow it for rule of cool but by the book I think it would trigger if they threatened the square you stepped into. However, looking things up while I was saying that I discovered I was wrong.
Essentially, the step into the open air square doesn't trigger, and then you start to fall. Falling is covered by 'forced movement', it is specifically called out in the article even, which doesn't provoke.
So you would step without triggering reactions, then immediately begin to fall which also doesn't trigger. Even outside of rule of cool the character should be safe.
I don't have anything useful to add here, but the title did make me laugh from shared experience.
Way back in the days when Pathfinder wasn't pathfinder yet(one of the 3.5 edition APs) my party ran into a wendigo they were completely unprepared for. They ended up casting Force Cage on it, which in 3.5 lasted 2 hours a level, so they literally slept while it was in the cage and came back prepped specifically for it.
Hit points, AC and Saves in particular are really nice on my end, I don't normally need to look at your attacks or skills(though an occasional perception/knowledge/sense motive might be rolled behind the scenes to determine awareness of something) so I don't worry about those as much. It can be hard to keep track of everyone's buffs sometimes, so having those base stats available at my fingertips is great. Anything else is easy enough to skim the character for. I have you all in herolab now anyway and will most likely be keeping somewhat accurate track of changes to individuals that way.
Initiative is one of the oddities, now that I mentioned me rolling things for people. That is one of the things I rarely do when I can help it, I know its always nice to hope luck is on your side and not in the hands of the DM. However, assuming there aren't any voices against it when we have encounters I will likely roll all your initiatives when I describe the scene that way we can all jump straight in without taking the extra time to go around of rolls just for a pretty static number.
I wanted to take a moment to put up some standards for posting, so we are all on the same page with how we post to make things as easily readable as possible, and also to give you some campaign specific information to help us as we move forward.
First, for RP posts it tends to be easy to follow certain standards. Descriptions and actions can be described through normal text. Dialogue should be bolded, thoughts italicized and any out of character commentary using the ooc tags. Information for just specifc people, or the results of skill checks will be hidden in spoilers. We operate on the honor system with those.
An example of the information given above. I can't imbed spoilers in a spoiler, so I just put those in brackets The vampire crept slowly into the room, considering his victim. Or more accurately his victim's throat. His mind seemed to echo every pulse within calling to his hunger. Finally my thirst will be slaked... Yes, you will do nicely. Leaning over the prone victim, his voice comes out in a low almost soothing whisper Sleep now, embrace being mine...
<spoiler>Perception DC 20 You wake feeling a presence looming over you.You may act in the surprise round.</spoiler>
<spoiler>Will Save DC 16 There is a sensation of control washing over you but you manage to shake it off.</spoiler>
Hopefully that gives a fair idea of how posting should be formatted so that everyone can communicate effectively.
I try and be a very responsive and flavorful DM for combat situations, taking your rolls and giving a little fluff to them to add to the dynamics of the situation. When we are on initiative count, I find it easiest to post in any order with any applicable rolls(attack and damage, even if you don't know if you hit for instance) as well as a backup plan if there is any chance of your main one getting disrupted. Ex: I strike the goblin next to me, if it is already dead then I charge the bugbear.
Once the next person in initiative has posted, I will create a combat post of fluff and results for him and anyone else who has already put up their actions who goes after him. Basically, combat in play by posts already take time, so I am looking to avoid any extra holdups because the person who goes second happened to be on an hour before the guy who goes first, and now we are waiting another full day for his post. Obviously when a surprise event happens in combat I will pause to let anyone who has already posted modify their actions, but it should make normal round by round combat go faster.
For the campaign itself, I feel there are two things that are important in advance. First, I wanted to make sure that everyone was able to access the google docs. I'll likely use a spreadsheet on there to act as a battlemat for us and will put up handouts and maps there for everyone, so if someone can't get to it let me know so I can come up with a better workaround. I use roll20 for other things and it could be interesting to try and make use of for a PbP since it would give me a lot more control over things and has some nifty features, but since it requires registering(though its free) I didn't want to assume that. Just a possibility.
Secondly, and more story-wise, there is a behind the scenes mechanic that will be taking place during this campaign and I wanted you to all be aware of it even if you never see the actual numbers. I will be keeping a running tally of things called 'victory points' that essentially are how well you are doing on your current large scale goals. Because this overall campaign is such a sandbox adventure, and it never really requires you to complete any specific tasks this gives me a method of keeping track of things you have accomplished and will let you feel some benefit come from tasks that in other stories might turn into questing for loot or experience.
As an example: Should your over arching current goal be to defend a village against a gnoll incursion, then you may gain 1 victory point for spending time training villagers, 1 victory point for somehow securing them better equipment, 2 victory points for bringing in military reinforcements, ect. When the time for the massive battle comes, the number of victory points the group has will play a role as modifiers or alter the landscape of the battle completely. Basically, anything you guys are doing can have an effect, positive or negative, on over arching events. There will be large scale battles and story changing events, not all of which may go your way, but win or lose the war continues.
I want to give you all a setting, and feel free to post in ICly. As you feel you get your character's stats completed, please let me know and I'll look them over and give any comments. While we do that, it should be a good chance to describe your characters to one another and have a little 'get to know one another' time.
At first, it feels as if you must be dreaming. The sense of dislocation, the giddiness, the feeling of flying rapidly through space, all add to the unreality. Where are you? What were you doing a moment ago? These thoughts arise in your mind, as if you were half-awake, on the borderlands of consciousness.
Perhaps you have been knocked senseless, or poisoned with some hallucinogenic drug. One thing is certain; you are in a strange place and you do not remember how you came here.
What you can see before you is as clouded and vague as the contents of your mind. There seems to be nothing but mist, swirling in eddies around you, with a suggestion of huge shapes briefly glimpsed through it. The mist is cold on your face and with a start you realise that this is no dream. You are here, physically here in your body, fully dressed and carrying your equipment. There is wet grass beneath your feet. You feel no pain, so it stands to reason that you were not knocked out and dragged here. How, then, did you come to be here?
Alone in the mist, you wonder why you do not feel more afraid. There is a presence here, something old and comforting, like a childhood memory. The mist begins to clear. In the faint light of a new day, you see the huge forms that you glimpsed before. They are megaliths – standing stones that tower over you, set into the form of a circle. This place is achingly familiar to you, yet you have never been here before.
Through the thinning mists, you see that you are not alone. There are others here, and by the look of them, they are as surprised to find themselves here as you are.
The stone circle seems to be about 30ft across, each of you are standing before one of the large 12 megaliths.
Perception DC 10:
Off beyond the circle of stones you can hear the lapping of waves against rocks.
Perception DC 15:
On the face of each of the stone megaliths, mostly obscured by moss you notice a faint carving. Closer inspection reveals it to be marking out the stars in a constellation.
Knowledge(Religon or Arcana) only if you made the perception above:
The megaliths are carefully aligned so that the constellation inscribed on each would match up with the stone on midsummers day. It is likely that this place has some sort of ritual importance.
Seeking the scions of the stars to save the world of Ashfar!(Or a books worth of text on why you should play with me.)
The Drow War is a broad scope adventure path originally designed for 3.x which I will be updating to Pathfinder. It takes place in the world of Ashfar, a somewhat classic fantasy world with a slightly higher than standard power level. Events begin during a time known as the Equinox of Heroes, a time when the stars align once a millennium to decide the future of the world. This is not a battle of good versus evil, but one of control. The heroes embody the worlds ability to choose its own destiny for the next millennium while the force arrayed against them is one of tyranny and xenophobia.
I am looking for five players to bring into this world, each an embodiment of a star, looking to stand against this darkness. Due to the nature of the adventure, the players don't need to be the classic paladin types to be ready to fill their role and save the world, if they fail then everyone, good or evil, would be ground beneath the heel of the enemy for generations to come. With that said and the leeway it allows, I believe that the story will be more enjoyable for a party that leans towards seeking to do the right thing, be it for altruism, justice, or more mercenary goals. All characters will be considered, but party dynamic will be considered.
Something that could be important for those considering tossing their hat in the ring is that I am hoping to make this a long term adventure. The campaign technically has the ability to run from levels 1-30(it used epic rules in 3.x, though I'm aware that is effectively a lifetime via play by post speeds. If somehow we manage to get up to 20, I'm sure we can use mythic rules or pathfinder will have its own epic rules by then, or we can adapt and improvise). Clearly real life comes first and there are always things that can crop up, but because there are always so many people applying for games on here, if you have reason to believe that you wouldn't be able to continue to take part for the foreseeable future please leave the spot open for someone who can.
Phew! Now if that hasn't scared you off, I plan on leaving applications open for about a week so we have time to get plenty of options. A full background is unneeded(being manifestations of the stars, the characters awaken with no memory), so instead I would appreciate a description of your character, appearance and personality. Feel free to propose a few different possible scenarios they may find themselves in and how they would react. The better a feel for your character and your style I have, the easier a time I will have in selecting those who I think will make an effective party. Please include what you intend to play(class/race/alignment). A fully created character isn't necessary to be selected, but will definitely give a jump on things if you are chosen.
Character selection is going to be based primarily on style followed closely by ensuring we have a balanced party. This adventure makes use of a pretty broad selection of play styles. There is a fair share of combat, investigation and diplomacy. You will see traps and sections where stealth can save you a lot of trouble or you can run a more kick in the door style, but having a full group will be extremely useful.
Character Generation:
Characters will be created using the standard pathfinder rules starting at level 1 with some specifics below-
The characters are heroes: 25 point buy for attributes
Each begins with 300gp worth of equipment
Each character has no memory of their life prior to awakening at the beginning of the adventure, however certain memories of the world and an innate understanding of things can surface. Feel free to put points in knowledges, they will be useful.
Each character is allowed one trait. Instead of second campaign trait, they select the star they were born beneath which confers certain bonuses and can improve in time. A birthmark showing the constellation that holds that star is present somewhere on their body, between an inch to a foot in size. The player may choose where and how visible the mark is.
As a part of the destiny within them, each character is granted the 'starborn' template. The majority of the benefits conferred by this will be discovered in character. However, the most important is that in the world of Ashfar there is no coming back from the dead. Raise Dead and Resurrection are spells that do not exist for the common man. The starborn are an exception to this and have the ability to be brought back through several means and also are allowed to learn these spells.
Classes can be selected freely(per approval of course, but I cannot think of any class or archetype which is outright vetoed. Please stick to Paizo books though).
Races are generally what you would expect in this world and can be broadly selected from. Elves were once a world spanning race now in decline, dwarves mine and forge, gnomes tinker, ect. If you have an interest in playing an unusual race I am pretty open, but please check with me to make sure it has a place in the world.
Finally, I have set up a google drive folder that has some world info. This will give you the options available for your patron stars including the benefits to go with them, information on the gods of the world, and a little gazetteer of each of the countries in the world of Ashfar. I don't expect this info to be combed through, but I want it available for our players.
Now that I've gone on forever, I'm going to get to bed now and I look forward to starting to see some responses. Hopefully I've managed to interest some of you!
We always joked in my group that someone should make a monk who took dodge > mobility > spring attack, deflect arrows, and spend every other feat on fleet.
Just so he could go running out of nowhere, punch someone in the face and then get far enough back that the enemy couldn't get to him and if they did take a pot shot he could deflect it.
Something else to take in consideration is that because the group has been press ganged, the pirates are going to be quite cautious about people with any special powers, and its a great way to have the group just be that much more antagonistic with Plugg.
In my game, they didn't disallow magic, however one of the characters was playing a semi-aquatic character who had a swim speed. As soon as his ability in the water came clear, Plugg approached with a ball and chain with the intent of keeping him from leaving the ship.
A rather intense argument sparked up over it that led right to the edge of them coming to blows when Scourge 'helpfully' suggested that if they didn't want to risk him running off his sister would serve as a cabin girl for the officers and remain in the officers quarters.
A quick glance between them, the sister shrugged, and it was agreed. Gave me a good chance to express the severity of the traps on some of the doors to the party before the stumbled into them since she got to see them from behind, let her have a chance to explore a few otherwise off limits parts of the ship, and really gave a good reason for them to hate Plugg and Scourge more than they already do.
My groups have only had to deal with a tarrasque once before, it was back in 3.5 during a campaign that was meant to run from 1 all the way up into the epics.
Earlier in the adventure the players had their first experience plane hopping going to a demi-plane of shadows to retrieve an artifact. The item was part of what gave the plane stability, so when they snatched it they had to make a quick get away as the negative energy from the shadowplane itself spilled in and flooded the realm.
Cut to a number of levels later, the material plane is having some rifts opened in it due to the destabilizing effects of a number of planes collapsing(which the characters unwittingly had a part in, see above). One of the rifts awoke the tarrasque and the players hurried to try and stop it amid all the other issues going on. Thinking quickly, the main caster in the group heightened a plane shift to give it a decent save and got lucky in zapping the tarrasque away to the aforementioned plane where it would be taking constant negative levels to keep it down so they could deal with it later.
As a side note, this caster is the same one who touched the artifact that caused the plane to collapse then later hit a demon that was being enveloped by entropy with a wild magic spell that sent it to a random plane and we rolled Nirvana. After that campaign we would use that char's name as a synonym for something getting excessively screwed over. As in 'That demon got Calor-ed.'
I'm coming into this conversation late, but there was a documentary a couple years ago called 'Jiro Dreams of Sushi' which is about a really famous Sushi chef in japan who has dreamed of making the perfect sushi for his whole life. At 85 he's spent years working as a rice cooker before he decided he was ready to move on to the next step of it. He talks about everything in life being about honing your craft to an amazing level.
Jiro Ono: Once you decide on your occupation... you must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with your work. Never complain about your job. You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That's the secret of success... and is the key to being regarded honorably.
You have a farmer with that sort of ideal and you have the high level commoner.
In a sort of round about way. In the campaign odd rifts had started opening on the material plane, releasing unusual and powerful beasts(pseudo-natural creatures, lovecraft style horrors, ancient extra-planers, ect) which was how the tarrasque arrived. They discovered that someone was actually destroying planes somehow to unbalance and eventually destroy the multi-verse. So the party spent a while trying to track down the few artifacts that might have the power to actually destroy a plane.
Once they had one of these objects in their protection, they did enough research to make sure that destroying a demi-plane wouldn't actually do more damage to the multi-verse and effectively nuked the plane the tarrasque was trapped on.
It was my groups only foray into epic play, and while the rules didn't really suit us, we had a lot of fun with the high level story.
We played a long running campaign(went from 1st all the way up into epic) back into 3.5. When they were in their upper teens, the group had to travel to plane travel a bit and went to a demi-plane that bordered on the plane of shadows. Before they left they took an artifact that was keeping the stability of the realm intact, so they had to pop back quickly to the material realm quickly amid negative energy flooding the landscape.
Fast forward a few levels and the group had to face a tarrasque and after managing to knock it unconscious briefly, they came up with the idea to plane shift it to that realm, counting on the constant negative energy/levels to keep it immobile until they could come up with a way to more thoroughly deal with its threat.
All this talk about limbless characters has me remembering a 3.5 game. We were playing a meatgrinder mega-dungeon and managed to stumble in on a rather powerful dragon when we were way too low-level to deal with it.
My rogue got pounced on by it and pinned down, would have been killed with a coup de grace but the DM gave some gruesome flavor text of it toying/torturing me by eating my legs first. It gave the other chars time to come up with a ridiculous plan that got me dimension doored away and taken safely back to town.
We didn't have a way to actually regenerate his limbs at any point in the foreseeable future and rather than retiring the character the party decided stubbornly that he could still go with. Our fighter was a goliath who was going hulking hurler and I strapped myself to his back(with the joke that I'd be his last piece of ammunition) and I shifted over to throwing daggers instead of stabbing with them. We all got murdered in the dungeon before too much longer, but I actually used my next level to go wizard saying that I was going to become an effigy master(they make construct animal companions) so I could make myself a centaur body.
We would have been more effective with a whole rogue, sure, but it added a lot to the party dynamic and is one of the groups we still talk about years later. There is a lot more to what makes a character and a party than tactical strength, RP opportunities(particularly ones that don't just spotlight one person but can be shared) can mean a lot.
Ok, I have to throw this out there. There is a picture of Kyra in the door of a ship and reaching out towards a flumph. I know it is a flumph, but with her being a cleric and all, it just makes me think she is changing deities and has been touched by his noodley appendage.
Just a note, I was looking at the same thing, my in person group has a person who when we get playing is intending to make a hellknight so I was trying to consider that. He should hit his hellknight level right at the end of the trial, so what I am intending was to swap out the LE judge's fighter levels for a few hellknight levels and have him play a bit of a bigger part, keeping an eye on the character(I'll start him off as an arminger who helped the professor at some point).
When the trial concludes he will approach that character and tell him that his focus on following what fit the law and tracking down justice over mob rule in protecting the beast was notable and will reward him with his armor as part of the monetary reward the group gets at the end.
While our group has been working on their investigations and keeps hitting dead ends, one of the characters has decided that in any downtime he has he is going to start trying to do some of the little jobs and errands posted on the notice boards around town. The group doesn't have the trust to have the villagers be friendly, nor the talking skills to fake it to help get them that way, so this seemed like a great plan to make the villagers think of him as someone a bit more friendly, even if its not exactly using 'heroic' skills.
Hm, I can think of a few of these. One of my friends has a tendency to throw out pretty amusing lines.
In a long running adventure the players met up with an NPC who they didn't fully trust but worked with them over an extended period of time until they finally let their guard down around him. Waiting until they had overcome the big bad who was the mutual enemy and the party was at their most vulnerable(on a hostile plane), he turned and pointed at my buddies character(the parties arcane caster) and cast a spell. Identifying it as disintegration the character got as far as "You little s..." before he was turned into dust.
Another campaign had the higher level characters in a setting where they were born out of a prophesy and thus were the only people who could be raised in this world. An evil race tried to escape their own destruction by sealing their spirits away in a stone that acted similarly to magic jar and allowing golems to try and cause anyone who came there to become possessed by them. Long story short, the party had the floor wiped with them and only two were left standing by the time the golem was brought down, one of whom was possessed(unknown to the other).
Taking a moment to try and decide if the room was safe enough to rest in so he could bring back the downed party members he examined a magic circle around a pillar filled with those stones, trying to figure out just what it was containing. Before he could decide the possessed character came up behind him and gave him a shove into the circle, causing him to get possessed as well.
Fast forward some, the characters all were reincarnated(slight adjustment to how their revival normally worked to maintain the campaign). A year ICly passed with the characters separate after accomplishing their goals before something brings them back together, I had each of the players in a one on one to describe what they did over that year and when they all got back together the others had done things like set up a school or tend to land they had been bequeathed. Our hero however, returned in his original body(as opposed to the reincarnated form of all the others), holding the severed head of the other character's old body. He walked up to him, hands him the head and simply goes "Don't push me again."
How are PCs supposed to be informed (and be intrested enough to investigate) the spelling of Vesorianna's name?
My PCs took to that on their own, the professors will points out that he went to the church because he felt that knowing the name of -every- person who was at the prison at the time of the fire was important since the whispering way followers could have been looking for any of them. My players immediately went to look the graveyard and then set off trying to find all the names as their next priority.
On a side note, one of my characters name starts with 'Ves' and had given a V for Vendetta type play off the V in her name at one point. When the V appeared on the memorial she gave a joking 'It wasn't me, guys'. When the second letter appeared she actually started to freak out a bit. I suspect the third letter is going to have them really panicking followed by a sense of confusion and relief when the next letter comes up and they realize it isn't her name.
Now you guys have me curious. In the article in Trial of the Beast about the Palatine Eye the history is described as the founder having disappeared in the Orsirion desert after being cursed by during the robbing of a tomb there. When he returned he claimed to have been taught ancient rights by some sort of angelic being.
Perhaps there is some sort of tie to the black Pharaoh in this? After all, when his home was destroyed they found it was built around an oddly shaped standing stone. Maybe some sort of menhir like those of the Kellids?
The other expansion was Trials of the Luremaster. Good Old Games has the complete Icewind Dale set, both 1 and 2, as well as Baldur's Gate and lots of other great games along those lines if you are into the more retrogaming.
I realize that the rules are meet or beat on attacks, but just to add a slightly different perspective I have always used the houserule in my home game that a tie goes to the defender. It is one of those things that doesn't affect things too much, but in the small ways it does it makes both sides of the battle just slightly more survivable.
I do treat skill checks as meet or beat though since that more often favors the players and encourages them to try skills with a little encouragement.
In my campaign I added a slight twist in on things for Nualia, changing just enough of her backstory that her monstrous child survived its birth, though not long after when Nualia fled the town with flames at her back.
With this in mind I added a room off of Nualia's chamber in the catacombs of wrath and had it decorated with a crib covered in black cloth and holding the bones of an infant. The room was haunted by an attic whisperer who had gone dormant when Nualia created this shrine to remember her child forgotten about during the late unpleasantness, but which has risen again now that Nualia has once again abandoned it to move on to her current plans.
My players are an all good group and I can really start to see them trying to take more captives alive in the future, after finding Nualia's journal(which I basically gave them a printout of the section about her history, altered to fit with my slight change to the story) and seeing some of the tragedy behind some of the other villians they have struck down they seem genuinely trying to reconsider trying to bring them back towards the light.
Spoiler:
I would love an opinion on one aspect of Nualia however. In my campaign Tsuto has escaped and has holed up with Ironbriar(who is his true father in a very soap opera-esque kind of way). The PCs gave Nualia a proper burial after they defeated her and learned some of her sadness, which I anticipated, and I was considering having Tsuto come and reclaim the body to have her raised after. I figured this would both boost some of the weaker fights in skinsaw and give the group the possibility of adding some RP and wanting to talk Nualia down in a way rather then just jumping into battle.
The problem comes from the part where they surprised me, and severed her demonic arm before burial. The wizard wanted to study it(to try and figure out how she caused the transformation and if it could be reversed) and the paladin wanted to destroy it. They did both. This means that if Nualia is coming back, she's coming back with just one arm as I can't see tsuto coming up with the funds for a regeneration.
Does that still seem worth doing? I would have to imagine that the loss of her demonic part would only drive her into a rage, even further then the loss of her plans would as it would only seem like a sign that she had fallen out of Lamashtu's favor.
I'm a huge quarterstaff fan myself, one of my current daydreams(If I could get anyone else in my group to run a game) is to play a dual wielding ranger who makes full use of his quarterstaff. Give him that unassuming traveler look until he lays the hurt down.
I do have to put in a vote for a heavy crossbow though. Had a buddy who played a fight/knight type(was dragonlance and he went through the different solomnia prestiges). At first level he got a masterwork heavy crossbow out of some treasure and it became his baby even though he had no dex to speak of.
That crossbow was his baby, whenever we were RPing some downtime he would take just as good of care of it as he would his swords, polishing it and checking the bolts and the like to make sure all of them were perfect. It never got a touch of magic on it though as we all knew it was never going to actually get used.
Then low and behold, we are in the upper teens(probably 17th at the time) and we bust into an arch-enemy caster's lair. We make fairly quick work of his minions and he starts to run down a hallway to try and draw us into more enemies and a trap. The casters in the party fail to stop him from getting away and we prepare to give chase when low and behold the knight pulls out his crossbow, gives the bolt a kiss, and snaps off a shot.
Our DM at the time had a house rule that if you roll a twenty, back it with a 20, and then can confirm the hit it functions almost as a coup de grace. Of course that never happens but in this one moment of glory we got to see why the knight had been destined to carry that masterwork xbow for 17 levels as the caster was pierced cleanly and collapsed to the floor as the night casually reloaded his crossbow and returned it to its place of honor upon his back.
So yeah, long story to say I vote for heavy crossbows and staffs.
Racials
Ability Modifiers +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha
Hit Points 6
Size and Type
Strix are Medium humanoids with the strix subtype.
Darkvision
Strix can see up to 60 feet in the dark.
Nightborn
Strix gain a +2 racial bonus to Perception and Stealth checks in dim light or darkness.
Strix Mobility
Strix have a land speed of 20 feet and an extraordinary fly speed of 30 feet with average maneuverability.
Suspicious
Strix receive a +2 racial bonus to saving throws against illusion spells and effects.
Tinkerer
Strix have a natural eye for technology and can craft such items at incredible speed. It takes a strix a base time of 2 hours to craft a technological item.
Class and Theme
1. Rune of the Eldritch Knight: You can imbue a weapon with a magic sigil, the rune of the eldritch knight, allowing the weapon to act as a magic weapon for the purposes of bypassing DR and affecting incorporeal creatures. This takes 10 minutes, and you can imbue only a single weapon at a time. If you imbue a new weapon with the rune of the eldritch knight, any previously imbued weapon loses this benefit. When calculating the Hit Points and hardness of a weapon imbued with the rune of the eldritch knight, treat its item level as 5 higher.
2. You are knowledgeable about the military, from rival mercenary groups to standard military procedures to planetary armed forces, and you can draw upon this fount of information to aid your adventurous pursuits. Reduce the DC of Culture checks and Profession (mercenary) checks to recall knowledge about hierarchies, practices, personnel, and so on in the military by 5. Athletics is a class skill for you, though if it is a class skill from the class you take at 1st level, you instead gain a +1 bonus to Athletics checks. In addition, you gain an ability adjustment of +1 to Strength at character creation.
