I've been playing a martial for about 8 months and I do find an element of boredom in combat. I try to deal with this by thinking of different things to do in combat, like charging, feinting, combat maneouvers, defending the spellcasters, or even just coming up with varied descriptions for my attacks. It helps that she's pretty keen to prove herself and has a kind of reckless bravery.
Outside of combat this character is a bit more interesting since she is kind of the party face, being the only one who put any skill ranks into bluff, diplomacy, and whatnot.
We had all sorts of weird and funny moments along the way, but by far the funniest had to be in the very final battle:
Spoiler:
Karzoug had transformed himself into a blue dragon during the fight. One of the PCs managed to get close to him and hit him with irresistible dance. Though he made the save, he was still forced to dance for one round. So I switched the music to Come and Get Your Love (from the intro of Guardians of the Galaxy) and did a few dance moves.
Needless to say, Karzoug was probably glad the PCs killed him soon after that - he would never have lived it down!
I too spent lots of time and effort on making my own pawns. It worked great for chapter 3 where I used them - the ogres and stone giants are great, but after that I didn't really have a use for them again. In the end I decided to buy the bestiary 2 box (bestiary 1 was out of stock) and the RotRL set and made do. The Inner Sea and NPC Codex boxes are great for NPC and PC pawns.
I was a first time GM when I started Rise of the Runelords too :) And now my group is only a few sessions away from the end of the campaign!
Definitely make use of the threads here on the forums; there is plenty of useful stuff, especially for the early chapters. Also do try to at least skim the chapter summaries of all six chapters to have an idea of where things are going.
For general advice, I'd say you don't need the bestiaries - even though I have them I just go to one of the online resources and print out the monsters I need for a session - allows me to make notes and whatnot.
I followed the book quite closely early on, but my group soon became more powerful than the encounters as written, so don't be afraid to deviate from the book - this will become easier as you get more comfortable GMing. I changed a huge section in the middle of the campaign to better line up with the actions of the PCs! As el cuervo said above, there's no right way to run a game. As long as everyone is having fun, you're doing well :)
If you have more specific questions, feel free to ask! :)
This is a bit of a hypothetical question as my players managed to avoid this situation, but it got me thinking.
My players finished Runeforge last night by clearing out the necromancy wing. The fight with Azaven was very close to being a disaster for them: Azaven's opening attack of a finger of death at the party's sorcerer literally left him with 1 hp.
The sorcerer's player asked me afterwards what would have happened to the party if the sorcerer - their only caster - had died in that fight.
So, my question: are there any ways, as written in the adventure path, for the party to escape Runeforge without a spell caster? (I couldn't think of any, but perhaps I missed them.)
I generally choose to give a challenge when the battle is not really significant - just normal mobs/random encounters. I have still killed PCs this way due to their casual approach to tactics. Bosses and significant battles are a lot tougher and have a higher chance of killing PCs - but that is usually when they step up and actually plan their tactics etc!
If you allow non-core stuff like Player Companions, consider banning Chains of Light. It's only a 6th level spell, but is a real pain as a GM as it completely neutralises anything that has a bad Reflex save and is not immune to paralysis!
It certainly sounds like it might be worth chatting to the GM. S/he may simply have forgotten/not thought about the aspects of the rules that you mention.
I know I rarely bother with Handle Animal checks for animal companions as I assume the ranger/druid knows how to deal with his own pet. However, if said ranger/druid hadn't bothered to actually put any skill ranks into Handle Animal, I would probably make the pet do unexpected things.
Not adjusting CR or loot may be an experience thing. I certainly shied away from that when I was just starting out. I now try adjust encounters to suit the group, though I often end up making things a *tad* too difficult (generally resulting in at least one death)... still, I wouldn't have learned anything if I'd never tried ;)
I've been running this AP with three PCs (sorcerer, ranger, monk) from the start (we've just started chapter 5). They've done pretty well, though at several points they have had extra help: a cohort from the Leadership feat, an extra PC here and there where other players have joined the group temporarily, and the ranger's animal companion.
I've found that the party, whether on their own or with the extras mentioned above, have coped perfectly fine with the encounters as written. I've even had to beef up some of the major encounters to make them suitably challenging.
That being said, an NPC or just a tough animal companion can certainly help put the odds back in the players' favour when things get ugly.
My players have died a few times over the last while...
Name of PC: Cecil
Class/Level: Elf Ranger 11
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Galenmir
Story:
Spoiler:
After leaving an enemy for dead, she alerted Jorgenfist to the heroes' presence, and they walked straight into an ambush... One 4x crit later, Cecil bit the dust.
Name of PC: Nu
Class/Level: Human Monk 11
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Galenmir
Story:
Spoiler:
After taking a quick detour to Magnimar to resurrect Cecil, the heroes attempted to infiltrate Jorgenfist again. Needless to say, the enemy was ready and waiting...
Name of PC: Cecil
Class/Level: Elf Ranger 12
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Hill giants
Story:
Spoiler:
Cecil snuck into a hill giant camp and found himself overwhelmed and separated from his allies. Fortunately there was a druid on hand to reincarnate him... as an orc...
Name of PC: Ciaran
Class/Level: Human Sorcerer 13
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Black Monk
Story:
Spoiler:
The party went into the black tower last, where they encountered the Black Monk and two of his harpies. All the heroes failed their Will saves against the harpies' song, leaving them helpless for a couple of rounds while the Black Monk summoned a bunch of swarms. Ciaran was forced to use a fireball in the confined space of the tomb, but as he and the swarms were the only ones lacking evasion, he took a lot of damage (fortunately he also killed the swarms). While the melee characters focused their attacks on the harpies, the Black Monk moved in and took down Ciaran in one round...
I too chose Rise of the Runelords as my first attempt at GMing (we're still at it, just finished chapter 4!). I remember Erylium being pretty overwhelming at the time the party encountered her. Heck, I still find spellcasting NPCs quite hard to prepare!
The most useful thing I cam across in my attempt to make the prep for those kinds of enemies was something I stumbled on: someone had written out a round-by-round list of actions for one of the spellcaster enemies. Something like this:
Round 1: Cast X
Round 2: Cast Y
etc.
I found that incredibly useful for running spellcasters - saved me a bit of panicked thinking on the spot since I already had a plan for that enemy. Some alternatives can be handy in case the PCs do something weird ;)
Also, the players probably will never see the monster stat block, so mostly they will never know/care about what abilities the NPC had that weren't used in combat - I find it's ok to just ignore some abilities if they don't make a significant difference ;)
I'm running Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition with my group. We've been playing for about two years, and have just finished Chapter 4 Fortress of the Stone Giants.
The characters, which have just reached level 13, are:
Human Sorcerer (arcane bloodline)
Human Monk
Orc Spell-less Ranger (he was an elf before reincarnation) and his firepelt cougar animal companion)
We've recently been joined by a Human Ninja, and have had an elf oracle of the heavens and a gnome druid join us in the past.
Story Archer - your combination of RotRL and and Shattered Star sounds awesome :)
I've used a number of prestige classes for NPCs in my current campaign. Specifically, I've statted up a dragon disciple, green faith acolyte, several assassins, and I created a master spy as a cohort for the party's sorcerer. I really enjoy the prestige classes in terms of flavour, and so like making NPCs to fill specific roles. Not sure I would be that keen on playing them as PCs - the master spy, for instance, is pathetic in combat, but has amazing bluff/disguise/etc bonuses. I do like the new prestiges classes from Inner Sea Gods though.
Thank you Mark_Twain - those are exactly the kind of strategy ideas I was looking for :)
Captain Yesterday - yes, it certainly is a lot more complicated than it could have been, but as a GM I was really itching to do something different. Plus, the party was getting complacent (what with them easily slaughtering everything in their path), so I decided it was time to introduce consequences for their actions.
I haven't found anything like this in the messageboards here (but if I've missed it, please feel free to direct me to the appropriate thread :)
My question: Mokmurian's army has mobilised and is heading for Sandpoint. Has anyone done this in their game (or thought about it)?
I'm wondering what tactics Mokmurian would use: e.g. would he take his entire force and head directly to Sandpoint, or would he let his army spread out and pillage the small villages in between? And so on.
If you're interested in how this happened in my game:
Spoiler:
My players have just been to Jorgenfist, where they snuck in through the redcap tunnels. They defeated Enga but left her unconscious, so she raised the alert as soon as she woke up. The lamias and Galenmir ambushed the PCs, and Galenmir killed the ranger. The party escaped before any more of them could be killed, and teleported back to Magnimar for a resurrection.
A day later the PCs returned to Jorgenfist and met much less resistance. All was well until they faced off against Mokmurian in his chambers, and it turned out that it was actually Galenmir disguised as Mokmurian. Needless to say, Galenmir had killed the monk before the rest of the party managed to take him down...
Meanwhile, Mokmurian had decided to mobilise his army after the PCs' first intrusion, leaving Galenmir behind to slow them down. Having resurrected the monk, the PCs are ready to go after Mokmurian and hopefully save the innocent people in his path.
I've been GMing Rise of the Runelords for a while now (the characters are 11th level) and I've just been using the advancement guide at the start of each chapter to decide when the characters need to level up. Sometimes it feels like they haven't done enough to realistically level up, so I will throw in a side quest or simply delay levelling until it feels 'right'. Some of my players also have an uncanny sense of when they should be levelling, so I use that as a guide as well.
In our game, the PCs captured Tsuto and had him locked up in the Sandpoint prison. Sadly, he killed himself (not knowing Nualia had been killed and would therefore be unable to resurrect him..) while the PCs were off dealing with other things, meaning they never got to interrogate him.
I gave my players a boggard tribe to dispatch, though this may be too difficult if your players are still in the first chapter. Mostly there seem to just be goblins around Sandpoint, though I believe there are also apparently gnolls and such. There's always the Sandpoint Devil, though he is pretty tough too.
Maybe some more wandering undead? If your players wonder what they're doing there, you could say they were left to allow Tsuto etc to escape?
My players are just about to start Fortress of the Stone Giants, so naturally I've been reading through the whole chapter, and found something a bit confusing. I was hoping other GMs might be able to clarify:
At the end of the chapter (p 233 in the Anniversary edition) are some Knowledge check results for using the ancient Thassilonian library to learn more about Karzoug and Xin-Shalast. They say things like "Xin-Shalast is a legendary lost city...", "Stories hold that Xin-Shalast had gold streets..." etc.
But the books in the library have been there since the fall of Thassilon, right? They're all written in Thassilonian, and the clockwork librarian has been alone in the library for some 10,000 years.
So my question is, if the books were written before the fall of Thassilon, surely they would be worded differently? Xin-Shalast wouldn't be referred to as a 'lost city' at all, and any stories or legends about it would simply be facts.
I wanted to know if anyone else had thought about this at all? My reason for thinking about this at all is my desire to create some 'pages' from the books in the ancient library as handouts for my players.
I would also like to know when this item is getting restocked? I've ordered it a couple of times from local online shops, but a few weeks later they come back with 'oh, sorry, it's actually out of print'. Same happened with the Rise of the Runelords and NPC pawns!
(The lack of a tracking number for international shipping here makes ordering directly from paizo.com extremely stressful in a country where mail has a good chance of disappearing before it gets to the actual recipient :( )
First: AmazonPrincess, if you have a distributor in South Africa, please let me know who or have them contact me. I would *love* to sell directly to them. I've found that whole continent a tough nut to crack. =)
I'm not sure if they count as distributors, but Outer Limits (www.outerlimits.co.za) is the only physical shop here that actually sells RPG sourcebooks and the like. Our best online stores are www.kalahari.net and www.take2.co.za
I hope that helps! Thanks for the info... hopefully someone will get stock here once the reprint comes out :)
It's not just Amazon... I live in deepest darkest South Africa and everyone is out of stock of the Bestiary. No one can even order it for me because their overseas suppliers have no stock either. This includes all our online shops.
Any ideas how long it will take to be back in print or in stock? No one even seems to know what the problem is :/
