Terok the Sly's page

Trolls...all you can eat, but none of the cost. All, please continue, it is a Friday night and I like all you can eat buffets...

Played as a character in ROTRL all the way through, it rocked, great modules, interestign locales, ect.
Looked at DM'ing COT, I thought it was a let down. Didn't really care for much about it to be honest. Ended up selling the AP on Ebay.
Go with Runelords, your players will love it!

At lot if it I have found is Preparation. For some it comes naturally, others have to work at it (like me). I try thinking through the role-playing before the PC's encounter these characters. Often I try to make the more interesting NPC's my own with added flavor from me, it helps me to remember them. Part of the duty of a game-master is doing your homework. When you create you own module or campaign it is easier to remember the characters you have created, that is why making the NPC's your own that much more important. Curse of the Crimson Throne was a great AP to be able to add your own NPC's and flavor I know that Runelords is a little more set piece so you have to use and customize what you are given in many cases.
I have even gone so far as to make a summary list of NPC's and their main role or arc.

I played in Rise of the Runelords and finished. I am having my last session DM'ing COTCT this Tuesday night! Playing in Kingmaker (in first AP), playing in LOF (in 4th AP).
As you can imagine I have a good feel for these AP's. My Advice, stay away from Council of Thieves. Rise, Crimson, and Legacy are great, each in their own rights.
All 3 have standard fare and all 3 have good areas you can customize. If you can think about what your players and you would get excited about I would lean towards that choice, the 3 I mentioned are all very strong.

I typically add more hit points to the creatures and make sure their spells and magic items make sense for their build. There were some easy encounters early on but the roleplaying and setting I built kept their interest. One thing I did was make the Otygh's tougher and scarier by adding a HD and extra HP's, it made for some fun encounters.
At their current levels there are quite a few greater dispels around as well. This usually makes the battles more challenging. Once you get to skeletons of scarwall the creatures are plenty tough, and with extra hit points and better spells they usually give them a run for their money.

It could easily be a PC I think, if they want the job. The cleric from the party I GM, spent a lot of time in 7 days caring for the avergae Joe by setting up a large clinic to help hundreds of them through the disease and helped a bunch of people in Old Korvosa in Escape. He is Lawful Good and with the backing of the new "Black Jack" could probably be seen as a very viable ruler.
He has also suggested that they get the Shoanti involved with helping in re-taking the city. If played right it could set up a much better relationship with them...

The 2801-3600 was my understanding as well, but my party went above that anyways. The cleric set up a ward himself to help the infected along with several other low level clerics from his church. They then went to magnimar and bought a couple of wands of cure disease (to save the ones whom they couldn't help through their heal checks) as well as using the cure (they helped to get more alchemists working on it) when it was found to hundreds that came into his ward.

As a player in Runelords, a GM in Crimson Throne, and now a player in Fire I have liked this one about equal with Runelords. My players liek Crimsons since they were able to get involved with the city and feel invested in it. I haven't read Second Darkness, but so far I haven't really cared for Council so far. It has seemed the weakest to me.

I started with the AP's and have never looked back. I haven't been real impressed with Council of Thieves so far from what I have read but all of the other AP's have been very well written in my opinion. I have adventured in Runelords, currently running Crimson Throne, and adventuring in Legacy of Fire.
I like the in-depth plots and long range campaign arcs.

Chessenta looks like a very good pick as I do a bit more reading. I think that may be my winner. Glad to see I can make this work, since at first I was apprehensive there was a place at all.

Guess I should have believed my player who basically said the point of the Forgotten Realms was that it had everything so you could always just drop things in somewhere :)

I based a long term campaign out of chessenta, so I have some misc. info on Chessenta if you want it, just pm me your e-mail address.

Our group crushed Xulthos. Of course we were buffed to the max before going and and then my hasted barbarian, with the flanking rouge on the other side, chopped him into little bits.
We both made our saves, the spellcasters stayed just outside of the room and hit him with long range stuff.
He hit hard, but my enlarged Barbarian with the greataxe hit alot harder, especially with 2 attacks per round.
It took us 4 rounds to take him down.

So no doubt this has been covered elsewhere but I just need a reminder! Which XP xhart is this AP set to? Slow, Medium, or fast?

I know... I know... I should know this by now LOL

Thanx to those whom reply!

Keep those dice rolling all!

In our LOF campaign we are using the medium advancement in Beta rules and we are advancing every 2-3 sessions as we did in the 3.5 rules. It appears that the level advance goes very quickly in the early stages and then slows down a little as you get beyond 4th level at least that is how it appears it will happen. My Barbarian just made 3rd and we are probably 1/2 to 2/3 the way through the adventure.

Vic Wertz wrote:

The maps in this product, and in the previous Adventure Path Folios, are identical to the ones in the Adventure Path volumes.

Is there any way that Paizo could put up PDFs of the maps that don't have the numbers or secret doors? The maps are so beautiful it's a shame that only the DM gets to see them. It wouldn't take much time for someone there to go into the original map files and just hit the delete key a few times, but it would make a huge difference for those of use who are running the adventures either on-line or with a projector. I didn't cancel my order for this folio as I was hoping for player maps as requested in previous threads. Please, it would really make the adventure path so much more enjoyable for many of us.

I have adobe 8 and it works great, just copy and paste the image into word and the number will drop out!

Since the Gnoll is +1CL, doesn't that mean that a Gnoll PC will only be one level behind?
That would make sense since they are only a CR1 creature. I am thinking about trying to run one who would become a BBn at 2nd and continue down that path. The group will be using the beta rules and the Gnoll is actually slightly less powerful than a 1st level human barbarian, which I found surprising. If he is two levels behind he would be significantly less powerful.

DMFTodd wrote:

>> as long as the AP can continue without too much trouble

Kind of hard to continue when half the party gets wiped out.

I suck at looking at a stat block and telling how a battle would go. When James mentioned on the forums that the PCs aren't really meant to fight Bahor, I should have taken that as a big warning sign I guess.

Yeah, I can see your perspective on the matter. When I ran it, I didn't even look at his stat block - I was running "as intended" when my players went all kinds of sideways. Paladin fired off a detect evil, got stunned for his trouble, the Ranger attempted to drill Bahor full of arrows and the smack down started. My group had the sense to run once it was clear they were in over their heads - but even then they held their own, not really breaking until the rest of the clan came down the hallway getting ready to unlimber a massed volley of lightning bolts. I didn't really realize what a hornet's nest they had kicked until after they kicked it.

Personally, I love it when there are NPCs around that are "not level appropriate". They are often the movers and shakers - but now and again they're also the wild-haired hermit in the wilderness, the quiet dude that's always hanging out in the inn (or the grim silent chap tending bar ... or the serving wench with a smoke hanging out of her lips ... or the mascot ...) or the like. Some times a character will mouth off, and most of those times they'll get away with it, circumstances depending of course. Now and again though, they should get a Boot to the Head.

The good thing about having a party that is not purely good is that they don't automatically attack anything that is evil. My party is about to go through this and I imagine that they will not like dealing with Glorio, but they will have no reason to not take him at his word. With his DR & SR he is a tough fight if you use his abilities properly. I guess I would wonder why a party would start attacking Glorio in the first place. It shouldn't be on the basis that he is evil, there are Temples to Asmodeus in the town for example and all sorts of LE people who live in the town that you can't just attack whenever you feel like it...

Since the Dr. are really just rogues in disguise, having a stranger among them would lead to a quick discovery.
I think that the other clinic idea would work best. That is actually what my parties cleric did with some urging from some events that happened in his church which made him the most powerful priest in his church. He is a priest of Erastil, so it would only be natural for his character to want to help the people in the city.

To make the presence of the Grey Maidens more plausible I actually introduced them in the first adventure. Basically the Queen had already wanted an all female body guard as a prestige symbol before she met you know who. She was recruiting and training them outside the city, at a special school. There was a lot of secrecy around the school and the PC's had only heard some rumors.
When she merged the idea changed of the real function of the maidens as well as how many there should be. She started really recruiting as well as using Sabina to recruit. By the time the riots happened she already had almost 100 Grey Maidens, with more trainees in the wind. They actually helped secure the keep and started working with the guards on quelling the riots. By the time escape and later is happening it will be very plausible that there are hundreds of them in my campaign.

Valeros has: +2 mithral breastplate, +1 frost longsword, +1 short sword, +1 composite longbow (+4 Str) with 20 arrows, silver dagger, amulet of natural armor +1, belt of giant strength +4, gloves of Dexterity +2, ring of protection +1, cloak of resistance +1

He's a TWF which is why his AC is so low: no magic shield. That's three points of AC right there. He seems to be preferring 10 extra feet of speed over survival, which means that he invests money and ability points into his Dex stat, which explains the rest of the disparity.

Yes, the fighter in our group usually has a AC or 35-37 during combat and my Druids animal companion wolf commonly has a 37 AC. They stay up front and take the hits until our offensive spells do the trick. It helps that the fighter has a Giant Bane weapon and with haste and attack buffs does 50-100 points of damage per round.

Thats if they didn't get greedy and sell it.... :)

The party I GM used a rope to climb down to the lower floor, of course one of them had to fall in and get attacked by the jigsaw shark, quite amusing...

So the group just finished the first adventure and are still living at the citidel. They seem to be bonding with many of the guardsmen and are becoming local heroes with them and some of the city folk.
The criminal boss who is making them watch their back should be resolved at the beginning Seven days.

TBUG, another way to look at these situations is to use them as roleplaying situations. Who is to say that each individual in a group will all handle each situation the same way.
Some of the best roleplaying I have ever done is when I was arguing with other member of the party. Is it a way for players to showcase who their characters are so that the group will know how different people will react to situations. In the case of the combat folks, there may be certain circumstances where they need to just sit down and shut up for the good of the party.
There are other times where killing something is the best way to handle the situation, I think COTCT has plenty of both. The key is finding a balance that all can live with.

Heh, my players are the unlikeliest types to be part of the guard. They consist of:
A criminal strongarm (also a half orc)
A former street urchin who is not much better off at the start of the campaign
An information "garnerer"
A part time con man/revenge seeker

They kind of just "fell" in it. By the time they went to the Queen the situation had developed that staying with the guard and getting paid huge sums of gold to work with them seemed like a great idea, even though they weren't really the types to do it.
You see they made enemies of a particularly bad dude, one whom the strongarm was working for, who found out that they had recovered the queens brooch and wanted it for himself to curry the queens favor. When they didn't turn it over them became wnated men and working for the Queens guard and staying at their barracks ended up being a bad idea.
They could have given the brooch to the baddie, but they were too selfish to consider such a thing.
There are always "creative" ways to get them to come to this one their own without making them do it. It was actually kind of fun letting them come to it on their own.
Also when they found out how much they are willing to pay, it was way more than any of them had ever seen in their entire lives, which doesn't hurt in the decision making.

I would be interested to find out where other peoples parties located their base of operations and why?
For my group it was out of necessity. They thought about using Zellara's place (It is empty and I don't think Zellara would mind) but the Half-Orc fighter/wizard in the group was working as an enforcer for a group of criminals called the Velvet Hand (Yes kind of cheesy).
His boss found out that the group had the Queen's brooch (when they went to appraise it, the word got out on the street that they had it) and told him that he had to bring it to him or he would have him killed.
The group decided to take their chances and give it back to the Queen anyways. They are now targets and have already fought off one ambush. So they decided to move into the barracks for the short term as it offers them more protection and use it as their base of operations.

Quite a bit of the ROTRL campaign takes place outdoors, the Druid and the Ranger are more powerful in this campaign than many others.
I play a Druid in this campaign and he is the most powerful PC in the party (summoner specialist, works great with the many large rooms laying around).
I would definitely mention that outdoor characters will do well in this campaign. Also this is more of a conventional campaign, not too many planar type adversaries like in STAP. You don't want clerics devoted to undead or demons in this campaign. Just what I have seen so far going through Hook Hill.

I just picked a spring day so I started the campaign on Oathday, Pharast 24, 1478.
I use DM Genie so it has a timekeeper to track the time, days, years, months, ect. I put in the Golarion Calendar so it tracks everything properly. It also does weather so I wanted to simulate a spring in a temperate coastal town, plenty of rainy days...

So I didn't really like the idea of Gaedren having a pet crocodile under the Fishery. The climate and location didn't really make any sense to me. Why wouldn't the sharks eat it or it just wonder off.
I decided to change out the Croc. for a much more interesting creature, a Reefclaw. I wanted to find a way to use them since they seemed like an interesting little creature. They have a low Int 5, but enough to possibly make a deal with someone who might keep it fed regularly in exchange to help protect Gaedren. I am sure it loves the taste of young human children, just like Veal :) I am sure.

Did anyone else decide to change out the crocodile for another creature?
Of course I have 5 people in the party so I had to add another HD to thr Reefclaw to make it a little more interesting...

I recently got to look at the Guide of Korvosa, and love that book! In particular, I liked the layout of all the Wards, and how it listed a lot of the different rent costs for houses/apartments/etc. What I missed though, and what it took me a while to find on these boards was where the wards were actually separated.

I finally found a thread in the Pathfinder Chronicles section which outlined all I needed to know, thanks to Cintra Bristol and Mike McArtor. I went through in Photoshop and, using the map from the free CotCT Player's Guide (hopefully there's no problem with me putting that up here) outlined all the different wards.

This was initially done for my players, but I thought that you guys might be able to make use of them too, so here they are.

The Heights
Midland
North Point
Old Korvosa

If anyone notices something out of place, please let me know. Otherwise, enjoy!

Karui,

I'd also like advice on how to portray their activity in Korvosa. As I began studying the Korvosa guide and extracted what info I could from it on the subject, I inferred a few ideas. They struck me as something akin to a mercenary SWAT team that also worked some of the more dangerous patrols and ruthless investigations. Their relations with most organizations, especially nobility and royalty, are poor, though they seem to have a good, or at least working, relationship with the Korvosan guard.

Per the guide to Korvosa, "In theory, the Hellknights of Citadel Vraid are allied with Korvosa and frequently act as shock troops when the Korvosan Guard feels outmatched or doesn’t want to risk its own soldiers. Truthfully, the Order of the Nail serves only itself and remains on Korvosa’s “side” as long as the city pays it." This leads me to believe that they probably have a bad relationship with the Korvosan guard. Think about about how you would feel when mercenaries come into your city and do what they want.

Per Pathfinder 7 "In a desperate attempt to regain control, Queen Ileosa
invites the Order of the Nail into the city, paying the Hellknights in royal gold for their mercenary services. Yet the Hellknights are a greatsword brandished in a tavern brawl, and their brutal crackdowns restore order only by drowning chaos in blood, to say nothing of the fact that they bow to their own code and ignore the queen’s commands whenever they interpret the law to be at odds." This leads me to infer that they do what they think within their Lawful Neutral/Lawful Evil leaning code of conduct. If they are riding down the street and see arsenists, they run them down. If some innocents get in the way, that is the way of things. In my campaign, most Korvosan's probably don't like them and after this will probably hate them. Disgruntled dock workers suddenly confronted by armored nights would probably disband and go home, but I see the nights forcing a conflict just to satisfy their own lust for battle and their twisted sense of justice. Remember, in their minds the dock workers are guilty of sedition and treason, which is punishable by death. Plus it would teach others not to start trouble if they are made an example of.

Of course these are just my thoughts, you can play them how you want if you want the "Hellnights" to seem more just and upright.

I went down the path of natures warrior and natures vengence. People are part of Nature so I protect them as long as they respect nature, which often means other people as well.

If you want the total Bad A$$ Druid, going down the summoner path works very well. I went with Rapid Spell and Metamagic School Focus.
Beng able to cast summoning spells as a standard action makes you one of the most powerful characters in the party.
Sometimes our party sits back and lets the giant summoned monsters take care of the enemy. Or I can buff my animal companion into one of the most powerful creatures in the party as well. Nothing like Bite of the Weretiger and then animal growth to let him tear into almost anything.
Lots of Druid fun!

The big issue with this adventure set and this feat is how difficult it will be to really utilize a hippogriff in a city setting. There is really only one adventure path so far where it will really be useful.
Its not like you can take the hippogriff into the Arkonas house...
I would be worried about the PC feeling like he wasted a feat as it will be hard to work in ways to use the Hippogriff.

I wasn't planning on putting anything in the Abadar Vault, I figured since they place so much emphasis on wealth with this diety that there wouldn't be anyway they would let monsters creep around down there.

One thing to think about the ambush is that if they are spotted by some common folk they would probably get turned in to the authorities or they may go to get additional city guards since most of the city believes that they are trying to help with the plague when the party attacks them.
After that it depends upon how far they are into the adventure for the ambush. If they have already got all of the clues about the evil of the physicians it would then depend on their bluff checks and how they played it getting in. They should be able to walk right in through the main level.
Since they don't know the layout, they would probably have to bluff their way past the other "Physicians", since they are fairly few, they would probably recognize each other's general garb.
The party could at least get the jump on the group in the main hospital chamber pretty easily with that plan though, if they pull off the bluff's.

My Druid character has an animal companion, riding dog, as well.
He has the best AC in the party, and when he is buffed up can fight as well as the fighter in the group.
Remember that barding (armor) for animals is usually a trick, not a feat, otherwise you couldn't put barding on a warhorse, they don't have an armor proficiency.
Buffs:
Barkskin
Greater Magic Fang
Natures favor * cast at start of battle
Bite of the Weretiger * cast at start of battle
Animal growth

It gets ugly for the boss in that situation. Add a haste and a couple of summoned monsters, you can shred him without even getting into the battle yourself.
It is almost broken...

I plan to introduce them in the first adventure. There are rummors of a special bodyguard for the Queen that the king had agreed to set up and is being trained at a location outside Korvosa.
They will move to the Castle in the 2nd adventure but the PC's will probably catch a glimpse of some of them in the middle of Edge of Anarchy after the riots start.
I plan to have them have a couple of "run-ins" with them other than the main adventures...

I am playing a Druid dedicated to summoning creatures in RORL. He just turned 9th. I have not ever had more than 2 creatures summoned in one combat. The lower level summons just become too useless in combat to even bother with once you get more than one spell level behind. 3 wolves attacking a devil is pretty much useless and a waste of an action.
Now I will admit that my summons make our party much more dangerous than a standard group of 4 characters. I usually drop a summoned creature in the midst of our enenmies just to cause confusion. I was going to play the summoning wizard but the Druids summoned creatures are much more powerful.
Make sure your player has prepared character sheets as I have done for the creautes I normally summon. Having the already modified stats for the summoned creatues speeds up the combat quite a bit.
Your mage will have other spells he wants to cast so he can't have too many summons memorized.

That is true I was thinking of the 3.5 comparison build, in Alpha 3 the feats still give you +2, as a 3rd lvl or higher monk you get your level as your CMB not your bab which adds about 2 to the attempt so it almost works out the same for the attack bonus. The size is a big change which is better for you against larger creatures but worse against medium sized creatures. It is also harder for monsters to grapple you now.
The main difficulty is the DC 15 starting point, it almost makes this build in Alpha 3 useless.
Monks do seem underpowered in Alpha 3 since they are very average fighters and their best build has been rendered almost useless.
You also no longer get the free attack for improved trip...

Here is my build:

Human Monk (32 point buy system)
Str 15
Int 12
Wis 14
Dex 14
Con 14
Cha 10
Feats 1st-Stunning Fist, Improved grapple, Improved Initiative
Feats 2nd-Combat Reflexes
Feat 3rd-Weapon Focus Fist
Ability buy 4th +1 STR
Feat 6th-Improved trip, Close-quarters Fighting

Having a ring created with enlarge person 5/day should cost 2000gp and should be the 2nd item that you get. There is also an item in Magic Items compendiumm that give you the same thing 3/day I think. Remember your fists will be one size larger weapons as well as the +4 size bonus to trip and grapple.
You will be a grappling, and tripping machine at 6th as powerful as just about any other fighter in the group....

With monk, you always go improved grapple/improved trip route, much more powerful than the straight up attack route. Get enlarge person ASAP on a ring 5/day and you are set. When they are prone they are a lot easier to kill :)

I am getting ready to DM this campaign in about a month, but have read through the first three adventures.
I have found it better not to run the campaigns until you get the first three issues, that way you can make you story arcs meld better to your party and make any changes before they get into the path too far.
I think that the Blackjack scene will be a nice addition to the campaign. To be honest, I am giving the characters in my campaign some pretty specific add ons to their background, one being that they have grown up hearing about this city hero called Blackjack. As children most of them would have wanted to be him, meet him, and help him.
When he shows up it will be a big shock, and I don't doubt if they will be torn on what to do when they see him.
I will be interested to see what they do end up doing as I plan to run this like a pre-planned encounter which they will be able to influence.

For the other scene with the sable company commander, I may run that as a story told by Croft (I think it is) so the PC's won't be there. I don't like the mechanics ont hat one, but I can make it work if it is told by another NPC who was there whose words will hold great weight with the party.

Remember that there are a lot of these NPC's and Clerics actualy have the disease themselves. The Clerics of Ababdar actually keep getting re-infected from the money that they are unaware is inheirently infected.
They spend much of their time healing and curing themselves and their own folk.
Just because you are cured doesn't mean that you can't get re-infected the next day by exposure to another victum.

Our group of only 4 characters has only had a real issue with fighting Mal at too low of a level and Xenesha was tough, but she ended up running from us rather than being defeated.
Party was
Druid 6
Fighter 5/Templar 1
Sorcerer 6
Cleric 6

I play a Druid who summons animals and then buffs his Animal Companion, so for every battle we pretty much have two extra fighters about the fighting power of a cleric of 6th level. We let the summoned creatures be an initial punching bag while we get haste up and then waylay anything that gets in our way. As I mentioned the average AC for our 6th level group is 24 so we don't get hit every time in combat. If any combat starts at any type of distance I just drop an enhanced Dire Wolf on it and wolfie usually tear it a new one while we move up and finish it off.
So far we have cake walked through Hook Mountain...

From a player perspective, we planned as much as possible. Also my party focuses on defense and not as much on offense. We ran from Malfresh when we first encountered him only to come back at 6th level and stomp him into the ground.

When it came to the Lam, we had already found out some info about the golem, so we were well prepared for it and that battle wasn't too hard, but fought her without too much info.
It was a tough battle, but she eventually fled in the face of our might.
She was able to prepare pretty well, but some well designed spells from us and the fact that we have good defenses make it hard to hit us routinely. We wore her down after about 5 rounds and it was flee of be defeated!

I don't believe my players will really question the story too much. I think they will glean the needed information from the situation:
1. The Queen may not be what she seems.
2. She is much more powerful than anyone thought.
3. She is much more evil than anyone thought.
I try to not get too tied up in game mechanics, remember we are playing a "phantasy" game and sometimes a good story is better than rolling the dice to figure out how it is going to work. I am sure if you build up the story enough and add the element of the story teller's desperate thoughts it will be enough to sell it to almost any player.

Yes in fact we came back for a little revenge last night on old Mal. He dropped 2 of the party members the last time we had seen him (4th lvl)and had to flee, barely escaping him.
This time we researched his abilities in Magnimar, had inviso purge and protection from evil potions on. He was still able to make our bruiser withdraw while the rest of us pounded him into mince meat.
We took his head and had it stuffed. This was cause for a feast in Sandpoint with the Dire Boar as the food centerpiece that we had killed on the way to Thissletop!!!!
Man that was a lot of pork...

So I ordered the print version of this product and am just confirming why I wouldn't also get the PDF version of this as well?
This is a little confusing as we get the PDF for free with our Pathfinder subscriptions.
Please confirm.
Thanks!

How did you get these to enlarge so clearly?
Looking for tips on creating my own and these look really good.
Thanks!

Howdy. So anyway what I do for my players and games is I grap maps without tags, and enlarge them to 1-inch square scale and laser print them out for use at the game table and miniatures. I've started collecting a few around here that are taking up room, and I no longer have the original digital files but I do have the printouts.

I contacted Paizo customer service and received specific permission to offer these to anyone who needs them, for no profit whatsoever. The first person to respond to this thread with contact info (an email address will do fine), I will mail them to you in the United States free of charge. You'd have them within a week.

Isn't this earth day or something? Well, that's the main idea of this, I was going to toss them but it seems such a waste. The maps are as follows: The Foxglove Manor House, Fort Ranick, Skull's Crossing Dam, and the little keep from module D0. Already blown up to 1 inch squares and taped together.

Links to images:
LINK
LINK
LINK
LINK

Good luck! Providing this all runs smooth I bet I could do it again in the future.

-DM Jeff

So after over a year playing this campaign, half of my group fell apart. It has taken us about 3 months to get 2 new player to get us back up to 4 and a DM, but the group didn't really want to pick up at 17th level and pre-generate characters at that level for the new guys.
We are going to go ahead and start Curse of the Crimson Throne, but for the other 2 players I felt like I had to at least tell a small and dark tale about the last days of a group of adventurers who ended up saving the world or Greyhawk:

Joseph, Morban, Tavis, Dorn, and Sigil left on the Blue Nixie to travel to the Abyss in search of Lavinia and Vanthus. After following the trail to Demogorgon’s prison, Dividend’s Ire, they fought through 6 different Demonic factions that had taken over the prison and finally the Death Knight Vanthus to rescue Lavinia. They learned that Demogorgon’s plan to release the Savage Tide had not yet come to fruition, but was only a few months off. He was still gathering forces and waiting for the right moment to activate all of the Pearls to make him a supreme power in the Abyss, it was a conjunction of Chaos.
After learning some secrets from an ex ally of Demogorgon, the group found one of their only options was to ally themselves with some of the Demonic forces opposing Demogorgon by exposing his plan to them. These included; Ob-ox, Orcus, and Iggwilv to name the most powerful. The group somehow convinced them to join together and attack Demogorgon before he had a chance to release the Savage Tide and empower himself. As these Demons assaulted Demogorgon’s realm, the herioc group went in and faced down the Demon Lord themselves (by this time they would have been at least 20th lvl).

The exact fate of the heroic group is not fully known, too many rumors and not enough facts ever come from that realm but…Demogorgon was defeated, and the Savage Tide was destroyed. The mantle of Demogorgon’s realm, the crown to control part of Chaos itself was passed to another and the Abyss fell into full war and chaos. The tales are strange, some say that one of the group took on the Mantle of Demogorgon’s realm in an effort to change the Abyss, to save the ones they loved, and the rest of the group stayed by his side to fight the evil forces. Other tales say that after their time in the Abyss, they were changed forever, and lost any link they had to mankind back on Oerth.

The war did sunder the Abyss though for hundreds, maybe even thousands of year. Whoever took over the mantle of the layer of the Abyss eventually succumbed to the Chaos that is the Abyss. Lavinia did return to Farshore shortly before the last battle had begun but she was never quite the same. Only when Amella returned to Farshore and Lavinia found out she was pregnant with Dorn’s soon to be son did she really come back to the people of Farshore.

To this day Lavinia’s son and the twin son and daughter of Amella tell the tales of the father’s they never met but who saved the lives of an entire world so that no one will forget them. The villagers of the Isle of Dread carved stone statues of the Heroes so that they will be remembered as those who conquered the Isle. Lavinia died when Dorn Jr. was only 9, but Amella lives to this day, and the sons and daughters of the heroes of Farshore still protect the people and the Isle of Dread!

The end…

It was hard to let it all go after all of this time, but it had to happen, see you guys on the CotCT messageboards!

If you are a non-human, non-fighter you only get one feat, are you going to waste that on one of the Pathfinder feats? If I was a player I wouldn't, the Pathfinder feats just add some additional flavor to character builds, they are not particularly powerful.
By giving one away for free the players get a more local feel to their character build without possibly ruining their charater progression thoughts.
Just another way of hooking the players to their charaters by making them more interesting.

I think a major issue comes up when you don't have all of the major rolls filled. Since the Paizo modules count on you having a balanced party of 4 characters, if you are missing a couple of major roles you have to re-write certain sections of the modules in order to get past certain obstacles.
I know you mentioned not wanting to modify the adventures too much. Have the GM run a healer NPC cleric (thats all they do is heal) and you can run the other 2 characters and you can probably make it though and then as other people mentioned be ahead of the curve.

32 Point Buy System
3.5 rules and all "complete" books
Max HP for lvl 1 and max gold.
Class HP's
d4 - 3
d6 - 5
d8 - 6
d10 - 8
d12 - 9
8 extra skill points at 1st only, these are background skill points and do not follow cross class or restricted skills rules
Bonus Feat from CotCT as well as an option to pick from a couple from Savage Tide
For all players who bring me a 500 word or more background they get 2 extra ability points at first level & a special item, generally less than 500gp that fits into their characters background. Often a Masterwork Item.
[Trying to get them into their characters early]
Retraining allowed per PHII.