So, after 10 years, I worked up the nerve and got a group together to play Kingmaker (although it's in 5e with Spheres of Power). They just cleared out the Stag Lord's Fort, so I thought it was time to come back here.
Name: Chyrssa
Race: Eldarin Elf
Class/Level: Rogue 3 (Alchemy & Beastmastery spheres)
Adventure: Stolen Land
Location: In riding distance of Oleg's Trading Post
Catalyst: Shambling Mound
The Gory Details:
Spoiler:
At the time, there were only two PCs (Chyrssa and a Monk of Pharasma), so I had statted up one of Kesten's group to be a non-magical healer DMPC who was willing to go with what the PCs attempt, peaceful or violent.
After returning to Oleg's, they decided to leave the DMPC and a horse Chyrssa had begun training behind before heading for the forest with plans to find the Temple for Jhod.
Drawn by a passing storm (coincidental weather + random encounter), a Shambling Mound made its way in the general direction of Oleg's. Observing that it seemed to not be responding to them at a distance (as it relies on blindsight) and having the knowledge that a plant creature that seems to be unable to make ranged attacks is probably very dangerous to engage in melee (and seeing it moving slower than they could), Chyrssa remained within the Mound's normal movement.
It moved up, raised its arms and killed the Elf as it pulled her in to eat a later point. Having filled itself, the Mound began to return to the forest when Kesten finally arrived with reinforcements (and was relatively useless himself). They did manage to do enough damage that it tried to play dead - which worked - and get Chyrssa's body free. She was buried and I was very glad that the ground was sufficient to block the Mound's vision for when the party returned to the grave.
Name: Kressle (with bonus Happs)
Race: Human
Class/Level: Conscript (Paragon) 3
Adventure: Stolen Land
Location: The River Crossing
Catalyst: Party exploration, Milestone levels, and Mites + Bugs
The Gory Details: CW: for the bugs. If you're sensitive to it, it's probably BAD
Spoiler:
I converted Kressle to a Spheres-specific build with the idea to play up the deadly double hand-axe wielding fighter who gets way too close and is difficult to get a solid hit on.
I didn't count on my players having an almost supernatural ability to avoid hexes with the more significant encounters - they circled the Mite/Kobold war as well as the Bandit Camp, on a separate trip, they got up to Davik's hex before turning around. As such, I decided that enough time had passed to see what was going on with the bandits while they were exploring.
Happs survived the encounter with the PCs, meeting up with bandits that had fled before him and decided to go back to the River Camp. Their first night back in the forest, the group is ambushed by wolves and torn apart - the party finds this at a later time.
A couple days later, Kressle works out that something must have happened and prepares for an assault from whoever caused trouble for Happs.
At some time during this, Chryssa and the Monk have found the Old Sycamore and alerted the Mites but ran for it rather than fighting or exploring further - this means that the Mites were active and expecting an attack from the Big Folk.
A week later, Kressle decides to take a pair of bandits and report to the Stag Lord. While camping at the River Crossing, Kressle's party is discovered by a pair of mites. 5e mites can summon a swarm as their Vermin Empathy, so each calls for insects while remaining hidden from the bandits on watch.
The swarms cover the Bandit on guard, who screams for the last 10 seconds of his life. This alerts Kressle, who is immediately alert, and the other bandit, who is much more groggy.
Once the first is downed, the mites direct the insects at the second Bandit, who dies attempting to flee from the swarm, allowing them to swarm Kressle.
She manages to drive off most of the insects over the next 36 seconds, but that is plenty of time for the bites to rack up and take her down without the mites having to get directly involved.
The party has not returned to the River Crossing to discover this yet, but this a reason that the Stag Lord is unaware of the trouble happening outside his lair.
Name: Protagonist Zombie
Race: Zombie
Class/Level: CR 1 Zombie
Adventure: Stolen Land
Location: Stag Lord's Fort
Catalyst: Stag Lord + DMPC
The Gory Details:
Spoiler:
The biggest feature not present in Pathfinder Zombies for this is Undead Fortitude, which allows a Zombie to make a Constitution save to remain standing when they should die.
By this point, a third PC has joined but each session at the fort has only had two at a time and the medic has not left since Chryssa's death.
The assault on the fort almost immediately goes weird - the Stag Lord is extra cranky due to the delay on alcohol, but not enough to have sobered up, so the bandit on watch waits to see how the zombie do dealing with the intruders before alerting anyone.
The first wave goes down easily and the party barbarian breaks a hole in the fort wall. The Monk mostly avoids running into anyone; the Barbarian convinces Akiros that the bandit on duty was supposed to be showing him the ropes and Akiros intimidates the bandit enough to not recognize the Barbarian up close; the medic is stuck hiding in Akiros' room while the second wave of zombies walk through. The bandits try fighting the zombies - a decent fight but the zombies have a minor advantage and one makes one or two very easy saves to survive; then the Stag Lord comes out, yelling at whoever is disturbing him.
He lines up a shot and gets a devastating hit on the last zombie - who makes the Undead Fortitude save to survive, becoming the protagonist of its own story. The third wave starts to approach the fort as the Stag Lord and the medic join the fight that has started between Akiros, the Barbarian, and the bandits. Protagonist Zombie follows the Stag Lord and no matter how much he tries, the Stag Lord is unable to take down this single zombie. Frustrated, he shoves the zombie at the medic, trying to get his enemies fighting one another - the medic hits the zombie once with his staff and it fails the save immediately.
The third wave? Half is picked off by the new party member, the other half is quickly beaten while the Stag Lord is unconscious and tied up.
This was the most notable death at the Fort. The other lieutenants were out before hand, while the other two named characters were captured alive - which should be interesting in the future.
3. The stalker does not have a "sneak attack", but instead has the less powerful "hidden strike". So, if I have a Vigilante(Stalker) 1 / Rogue (Poisoner) 1 character, would they be getting damage + 1d6 (SA) and + 1d6 (HS) at second level? It seems to me that you wouldn't want these to stack this way, but instead have the bonus based on a sum of the class levels (as I often see for other abilities). Why is it hidden strike instead of sneak attack anyway? Was it just to make it more limited?
Right now, I think you would - as long as you attack unaware. If you're just flanking, it's +1d6+1d4.
Unless they have any concealment. Then it's just the 1d4 Hidden Strike (except for Unchained Rogue). But even the Unchained Rogue can't get Sneak Attack against total concealment - the Stalker can (Strike the Unseen). And at only a 25% chance of auto-missing, plus at 11th level (10 Slayer, 1 Poisoner) you get your sneak attack back.
As for how you find them? Shadow Sight at fourth level, or if you want to pull out Deeper Darkness (or other method of giving everybody total concealment that's not darkness), go Half-Orc with Keen Scent.
I think Called would be better than Returning - you can take your 5' step while getting two attacks off with the same Boomerang.
When you have the money, having both could be strong. Three attacks with a 5' step during. Then you can make a move action, throw your Returning Boomerang, and get your Called back in the next - if you don't need to move, you can get in two attacks a round after starting with three.
Monk of the Empty Hand can Flurry with it in melee as an improvised weapon. Three levels and your melee boomerang can cut.
Far Strike's good if you can make your flurry.
I would be remiss in forgetting to suggest a Warpriest of Marishi or Ng (if you have Improved Unarmed Strike). They give you a spiked gauntlet/standard gauntlet as your Sacred Weapon. Marishi has the Healing domain, while Ng has the Travel.
As a flipside to this, I think that a vigilante npc in the kingmaker adventure path would be awesome: someone who is standing up to tyranny (or perceived tyranny, if the players are not into being corrupted by power). They could be compelling, hard to find (thanks to their social identity), and effective at establishing paranoia from amongst the party, especially if one of the reoccurring npcs happened to be the villain.
Alternately, have one identity (social, probably) be established as a worker at Olaf's, and becomes a vigilante after/during the adventurers turn up. (I missed the 'n')
Emerald Spire's Godhome (the 4th level) could work as the opposite to Among the Living.
The Quest for Perfection - part 3 even gives time to establish yourself in a new community.
Oh, I'm seeing the issue Thamori. It appears there is no line to explain the baseline for Subtier 2. Not sure if this was just omitted by mistake, or I'm missing some buried change...
Actually, it looks like that got put in the sidebar as how to scale for a party of four on Subtier 2. I'm guessing that should be "Use the Subtier 1 encounter without further modifications"?
1) Is the intention that every 3rd party does not have a healing PC, or should that be a D2 rather than a D3?
Follow-up: Is a party of 5-6 in Subtier 2 really not supposed to be ambushed at all? The scaling entry for Subtier 2 is even more confusing.
The ambush is only meant to occur if all the players at the table have played the scenario at least once and are in Subtier 2. Consider it a 'surprise' to replace the ambush that they'd all be expecting.
That's the ambush mentioned in the sidebar on page 21, right? That's in area E3.
I'm talking about the one in E1 that it replaces (the rest of page 21) - you randomly choose what group sent them, but the actual group appears to be decided by Subtier, with no entry for Subtier 2 (except in the sidebar to adjust it for a party of four, where you add NPCs)
Although I don't think it will change the character at all, I had some questions on the Nature mystery's revelations.
Friend to the Animals says that "Animals within 30 feet of you receive a bonus on all saving throws equal to your Charisma modifier." Would that affect opposing animals as the RAW indicates? Or can we limit that to allied (or at least non-hostile) animals?
Also, for Speak with Animals, would horses and ponies be considered similar enough to count as a single kind of animal?
I'd definitely be interested in playing if possible. I have attempted to run this almost two years ago - it went poorly and didn't get out of the first book (and barely explored that one).
I'm looking at a Halfling Oracle of Nature, although I'm wondering if I could get Nature's Whispers and/or Speak with Animals (the Revelations) to be exceptions to the Deaf Curse. If not (or if you think that the Deaf Curse would be too troublesome), I'm looking at the Lame Curse right now.
In either case, would Fleet of Foot be an acceptable alternate race trait?
We just had our first session of Kingmaker tonight and I've got three already. I haven't done any DMing since 3.5 was (very) new.
As our first session, I don't remember the names clearly, however the rest I have.
#1-
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Sorcerer 1
Adventure: Stolen Lands
Location: Oleg's Trading Post
Catalyst: New DM, horrible (player) skill rolls, and/or great open (DM) combat rolls - you pick
The Gory Details:
So, the Alchemist, the Sorcerer and the Barbarian get the background information and prepare an ambush for the bandits arriving at sunrise. The plan is for the Alchemist to rain fire from above, the Barbarian and Sorcerer to take on anyone that gets far enough to not be splashed and possibly someone to close the gates.
The Alchemist tried to hide, but a 1 on the Stealth roll is low enough that the bandits spot him. Initiative is rolled (Happs rolled seperately) and the bandits manage to beat out everyone else. An arrow manages to hit the Alchemist in the head (6-8 damage) - a sign of how the battle would go. Oleg runs into the stables to warn the other two - to allow the others to join the battle earlier.
The Barbarian uses a potion of Enlarge Person, but the bandits knock him out before he can do anything (he does stabilize on his first try, though). The alchemist manages to get a bomb off, damaging all the enemies, while the sorcerer tries to Shocking Grasp one of the bandits. Happs got the low initiative, so he's damaged but there are still two bandits there - he shoots the sorcerer. I roll a 20, which then confirms for 20-some damage, instantly killing the sorcerer.
It gets weird after that - haven taken 5 damage, the bandit's morale is shot and they flee. The alchemist (the only one able to do anything) gets to the barbarian and pours Cure Light Wounds down the Barbarian's throat, getting him standing. Happs, damaged with no bandits to see him, surrenders (I wasn't quite sure if he should flee or surrender, it's a little unclear to me). I later have to explain how the morale conditions were set to try to convince the party that it wasn't me fudging it in their favor - it was me following the book as written in their favor.
He was buried outside Oleg's.
#2 & #3
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Barbarian 1 and Cleric 1
Adventure: Stolen Lands
Location: The Stag Lord's Keep
Catalyst: Bad Timing and the Owlbear; Also no random encounters and failed Perception checks
The Gory Details:
About a week after the Sorcerer died, a Cleric came into Oleg's and agreed to help out the party. The began to explore the forest near Oleg's, finding the Radish patch (and bombing the Kobolds by splashing off the basket they ate from) and finding the bear traps. I allowed a successful Perception check to spot it before the others stepped in it, only for a bad Disable Device check to trigger it - the damage knocked out the Alchemist. But that was all they encountered in the six hexes they explored, so they decided to find something more exciting (Happs got them the general area of the Keep) and headed for the area. Crossed the rickety bridge, swam back across (one got a horrible swim roll, but it was right by the crossing, so he hit that instead).
They headed south and got to the fort. Not quite prepared for this, I was reading quickly and missed the approach, so they got to the outer wall and attempted to light it. Watchtowers spotted that and began to get guys on water detail while a couple other bandits were going to head out to deal with them. They went ahead and fought, with really poor rolls on my side meaning that the bandits were going down quickly. I let them head inside, using that as a point of preparation - of course, the barbarian climbed a tower instead and killed that bandit.
After the break, the cleric charged Dorvak (who had gotten by the owlbear's gate, but hadn't opened it yet) - he managed to get 10 damage in. A bandit flanked him and was in turn flanked by the alchemist who killed the bandit. The Barbarian came down into the armory. Dorvak tried to open the gate (I figured that it would give an attack of opportunity - giving the party a chance to avoid the owlbear fight) - the Cleric hit for 9 damage, knocking him down to 0. So he completed his action (opening the gate) and passed out.
The owlbear managed to beat everyone's initiative, and charged the cleric - his bite missed. The bandits headed for the front exit and spotted the Barbarian - they took some cheap shots, and managed to knock him out (he stabilized). The cleric got a good hit in on the owlbear but kept in melee range, allowing the owlbear to get in both claw attacks (which got him 2 away from instant death)
The alchemist managed to get to the back exit, where the Stag Lord was getting up. He tried to bluff that he was a bandit, but even the Stag Lord saw through it. He asked if it was just him (getting an affirmitive answer) - so I had the Stag Lord play a little, getting his Longsword and attacking.
Amazingly, the Stag Lord only got in one hit, for near minimum damage, allowing the Alchemist to make a withdraw out and he managed to get back to Oleg's with his single HP.
We're planning to try it over - they were realizing that the exploring was to get them experience before taking on the base about the time the Owlbear was released.
