Thought I would seek some feedback for an encounter I plan on running during a one shot session next week.
Quick Background, running a pretty standard village in the middle of nowhere has the baker's daughter go missing. Final confrontation is planned with a harpy but before that the party takes off down a rocky road with a another wagon in hot pursuit.
Click on spoiler for details, pardon the mess of grammar and any spellings.
Spoiler:
5. The Chase
Silas urges the horses down the old dirt road and the last thins the party sees is Boris and the other deserter head to the 2nd wagon.
The wagon is bouncing down the road, only the light of the moon helping them see. Each round a character must make DC 8 Acrobatics to not be jostled allowing a full turn. A fail by 3 or less allows for either a standard action or a move action. 4 or less loses a turn as a sudden lurch leaves them stumbling.
Silas yells back that there might be some oil flask in one of the crates, but ask that they don't use it all. A DC 15 perception check will also spot a Quick striker, allowing the oil wicks to be lit as a free action. Otherwise the wicks must be lit by a torch as a move action with a 5% chance of spilling oil on the wagon, causing 1d4 fire damage and damage point of the wagon.
Each wagon has 8 damage points.
The party soon sees the other wagon come barreling down the road quickly covering the distance. The lighter wagon has a single driver with Boris standing at the seat, using his whip to urge the horses to a breakneck speed. Either Boris or the wagon driver can be targeted but the unsteady terrain gives each a partial cover ac of 22. The wagon has a touch ac of 12, and each lit oil flask will due two points of damage.
On the 2nd round after Boris appears along with another deserter, riding the other wagon, they slam into the side of the party's wagon. The impact inflicting 1 point of damage and needing a DC 12 Reflex save to prevent the party from falling prone, and allowing Boris to jump over. He proceeds to fight using his whip.
Rd3, A shadow crosses the party, and Mildrana screams. The dc to retain a full action increases to DC 10 as Silas panics and takes the wagon off the road and down the rocky hills. The enemy wagon again slams into them with again each preceding rounds till caused to be destroyed, each slam requires a DC 12 Reflex.
Rd4, Instead of attacking the party, if Boris remains alive he attacks Silas , wrapping his whip around his throat. in a panic Silas drops the reigns. mildrana alerts the party. A PC may attempt to grab the reigns and take control with a DC 14 ride or handle animal.
Rd5, The harpy returns and begins her song DC 14. If Silas was still driving he immediatly is captivated, dropping his reigns as listed above. If Boris is still alive he stops fighting.
Rd6, A DC 13 Perception finds the current path suddenly drops off, if able the one holding the reigns can attempt a ride check of DC 15 to pull the wagon short. If the check fails, or no one holding the reigns the wagon goes over the drop. The wagon breaks its axle and the PCs each take 1d4 non-lethal damage as they are scattered. If Boris was still alive he is thrown from the Wagon, hitting a rock and breaking his neck.
I suppose what I am looking for most is the answer to the golden rule; Is this fun?
Two goals in mind, allows the harpy to use her song without putting the party in any real danger if they fail the save.
Thought I would try an Archery focused build.I guess the group I'm playing with just finished chapter 1. Pretty high rolls for abilities so I really don't need to be over optimized.
Human, Slayer,
Str 14
Dex 20
Con 14
Wis 16
Int 14
Cha 12
Traits- Giant Hunter, Child of the Streets (Sleight of Hand as class skill)
We play with the house rule that if you take a flaw you can have a bonus feat.
1st level Feat - Point Blank Shot
Human Bonus- Deadly Aim
Flaw Bonus- Weapon Focus (longbow)
Combat Style Feat- Precise Shot
3rd level Feat- ?
I'm not sure what I want to build towards at this point. Should I go along the Snap Shot route? In which case I would think Combat Reflexes would be the next choice, either that or Rapid Shot.
My other question would be is it worth it to put any feats, talents into sneak attack. My first thought is that for such a ranged focus character it might not be worth the investment into something that isn't a guarantee.
There is a good chance that things might go Mythic as well.
I am currently running my brothers through a home-brew world. Both are pathfinder novices and as I am still new to GMing I've been keeping things pretty simple. Core only options for them, while I run things more like syndicated tv show then a standard save-the-world quest. Our third session is coming up later on tonight and I was looking to bounce some ideas around the internet.
Character 1 is human a sword and shield fighter who just looted a masterwork longsword from a bandit leader. Character 2 is a switch-hitter ranger. The pair is traveling with a dwarven cleric of Cayden Cailean and their current employer a halfling merchant.
The small party is approaching a small mining camp where the next adventure awaits. Trope and cliche heavy as it is, think I am going to with a cave in type problem. Mining operations have stopped, monthly quota needs to be met or lose charter, etc. On top of it all there has been desertions every night, even stalwart and committed miners have left one by one every night since the cave in. This is of course not desertions at all but the deliberate murder by the only "survivor"
Cave in revealed an ancient structure (don't you hate it when that happens) that is filled with negative energy. Centuries of menace and hopeless all that.. The "survivor" died with his co-workers but is currently possessed by the malicious negative energy spirit.
The question I have, is there a Possessed template? I was thinking of the dread zombie one, but I want the players to solve the mystery rather then the cleric spotting it right away. The previous sessions have been me introducing combat and wilderness skills to them, this one might gear around gather information and sense motive. With the zombie underneath will be introducing undead and damage reduction mechanics.
Thought I might see if I can bounce some ideas off the boards. This is for a back up character for a RotRL games. Playing a witch right now, and his lawful good cackling behind has seen 3 party members fall in the past 48 hours of in game time. Both he and I are thinking about his mortality.
Want to give monk a shot, board-hate aside. Stats rolled are 16,16,16,14,14,8. Plus 4 points to add to that as I will. Array wise I'm thinking of taking the Dual talent racial trait for human for final stats of
STR- 20
Dex- 16
Con-14
Wis-20
Int- 14
Cha- 8
Now for crazy monkiness- Hungry Ghost Qinggong Master of Many Styles. Other then the problem of fitting it onto the character sheet he's shaping up pretty good. We play with a system that allows an extra feat at level 1 when you take a flaw so I'll be taking advantage of that. If witch bites it I'll be jumping in at least 2nd level.
Feats-
1st- Two-Weapon Fighting
Flaw- Double Slice (DM ruled that in order to have full strength bonus apply to 2nd attack need to take this feat)
Monk Bonus1- Dragon Style
Monk Bonus2- Boar Style
I think there is a trait or two that help unarmed fighters so will taking that to go with a Runelord trait that fits concept.
All in all he's a packs a punch. To hit isn't terrible either. +4/+4 for 1d6+5 a hit.Tactic wise I'm thinking a charge in the 1st round (ignoring any possible difficult terrain and ally positioning) and if he looks like trouble or pesky mage hit him with a Punishing kick. At +8 to hit and a fort dc16 save for him to stay standing. Round two hit him while he's down for a +8/+8. If they both connect his flesh is torn for 2d6 bleed damage.
Thats the plan at least.
Any suggestions other then the standard "Don't play a monk!"?
Party consist of a ninja, magus, dual-wielding fighter, a witch(myself), and an NPC cleric. Ahead of us is rope bridge about 10 feet wide. We walk up to and test the rope, inspect to make sure its sturdy enough, looks legit. Ninja crosses without incident, followed by the magus. Everything seems great at this point and so I start to cross. As I am about halfway through fighter and cleric both start their trek.
Rope bridge comes apart as an unseen trap is triggered. Only one rope now crosses the chasm and luckily the witch and fighter grab hold of it. Not so luckily the cleric does not, down she goes. Red mist the only sign of her when someone glances down. Fighter quickly pulls herself up the ledge where we started, and witch hooks his legs up to start the treacherous swaying rope towards the ninja and magus. The two of which are so busy looking at what happened to the bridge that they don't notice a band of goblins who also have to investigate.
Things only get worse as two goblin commandos appear. Soon the ninja and magus are fighting them off while witch is moving very slowly the rest of the rope. When the witch finally crosses he sees that the only goblins left standing are the two commandos. He calls out for the fighter to cross as fast as she can things being desperate. Being forced to make the choice between using a potion to bring back the bleeding out ninja or fighting off the goblins with the magus he decides on the former before moving towards the magus. The magus not telling anyone he was staggered, kills one of the goblins, falling unconscious himself. The last goblin goes for the killing blow and with only a fool's chance to stop it the witch fails his attempt to disarm the horse chopper. He watches in horror as the goblin strikes the magus' head from his body.
Dead magus is bad enough, but due to his strange heritage the moment he dies a fiery explosion takes place. This fire kills that homicidal goblin, but also catches the remaining rope on fire. Witch grabs ninja, pulling her away as there is nothing they can do about the rope. More goblins and their goblin-dogs approaching, the two run off to find someplace to hide. Fighter is making her way no back to the original ledge avoiding arrow fire as the goblins make a game of it. Fire finally burns through the rope, cutting her off from her allies, but allowing her to climb up. Alone, wounded, the fighter does the only she can think of, heading back to town for healing and to muster reinforcements.
Sum up time- and what Im asking for.
Witch and ninja are stranded, an entire goblin outpost knowing they are there. Fighter is heading to town to try to mount a rescue. Magus and cleric are super dead. Ninja is at about 1/2 health and witch isn't too much of an offensive power as he much prefers hexing and assisting then direct firepower. Forced into a much direct role he's prepared quite a few of his spells as burning hands, CLW.
There any clever ideas or tactics I can go into the next session with?
So I will be giving the exact details of the build later,including some links for the specific feats, but thought I would throw out my concept right away.
I'm thinking of a multi-class build focusing on a reach weapon. My thought is using the synergy in charisma with the bard and ninja. Namely the feats Gang up, and Spear Dancer, & Dazzling display.
A two level dip into Lore Warden would help with some hp, fort saves, and as well as all those lovely feats.
Half elf alternate racial ability into a single exotic weapon proficiency is nice, but a Suli could be fun as well for an exotic touch.
My concept is a melee controller who can debuff (Dazzlings with spear dancing, Intimidate which would be a pretty high number to save against) inspire confidence and the ability to use a wand of CLW, as well as scoring some sneak attack damage & ninja tricks.
This character is also going to be an ultimate skill monkey for out of combat, and a good chance of being the face.
Full build up will be posted later, but would love some feedback on the idea.
Typically Charisma would be the 10, but my other three teammates are a human Ranger, human monk, and a homebrew fighter. Average Cha is a 7. If they want to let the wizard do the talking, we might be in for some interesting social encounters.
My concept for the character is to be Knowledge expert, Swiss army knife, Crafter, and Counter-speller. Far as combat damage I figure I'll just let the melee people do what they do and always be ready with an ace in the hole.
Wizard school I am going for the Arcanamirium Crafter Universalist, one for the free feat, two I just had a hard time picking opposing schools. I know the lack of extra spell slot might hurt, but i hope to augment some of that with making scrolls.
DM is letting me forgo two traits in lieu of extra 1st level feat. I went as far breadth of Experience and the Cypher Magic from the Inner Sea Guide. The experience lets me play the knowledge dump i enjoy playing, where as the Cypher Magic goes hand in hand with my plan of being a walking library of scrolls...
Still none of this is set in stone and would like to hear some suggestions critiques. Here is my current out look for feats
1- 1st level
1- DM kindness
3- 3rd level,
3- School power
5- 5th level
5- bonus feat.
6 feats before lvl 6 isn't too bad, but I still don't want to waste one.
First off thanks in advance for any advice. Starting Kingmaker here in a week of so and I am having trouble deciding what character class I want to go with. I am leaning towards either a Wizard or a Sorcerer with the Sage bloodline.
My concept is a very intelligent, plotting, Machiavellian, "power behind the throne" concept. This will be my first arcane casting character. The group is so far, a back-stabby rogue, 2 handed fighter, monk, barbarian, and a cleric. because of the prevalence of front line fighters I was planning on being more of a controller. Which again fits in with my concept idea of a mastermind who prefers not getting his hands dirty.
Far as Race I am leaning heavily towards Human primarily for the favored class alternate bonus of getting a new spell known which would work best with the sorcerer to close the gap between versatility.
I much prefer the spontaneous casting aspect of the Sorcerer, plus he opens himself up to plenty of rping potential due a being the "black sheep" of a arcane family.
The wizard's advantages are larger knowledge skills, better suited for magic item crafting, ever expanding spell book. The arcane discoveries in UM have some interesting possibilities.
I am interested in seeing the community's thoughts. Feat ideas are welcome too, as well as some 1st level spell suggestions.
Let me start by saying I found this message board infinitely helpful. I’m brand new, wet behind the rping ears sorta speak, and have been playing pathfinder only for about 2 months. Thanks to the forum my first few character builds have been quite enjoyable to play. My Urban Ranger’s arrows were scary. Unfortunately he was put in a Save or die type will save vs a succubus..So there might be tieflings for our party to fight soon enough. My current Paladin is shaping up nicely, especially with his Keen elven curved blade..
My group’s DM is really looking forward to the Ultimate Combat and especially looking forward to playing a gunslinger. So I went ahead an volunteered to start dming. Its my first time, and although I already have a very solid idea about the start of the adventure. I was just looking for some advice for building the encounters, the pacing of how many challenges a party can face in one day or so.
Here’s a summary of what my plans are. The party is going to be either 4-5 people all starting at lvl1.
The Setting:
With at least one character playing a gunslinger I think a little adjustment to the tech in the world needs to be tweaked. Its either that or he’s going to have to make his own ammo, otherwise his bullets will become very scarce. I have a few different thoughts on this, but would love to hear some ideas.
The starting region is little backwater kingdom that had been conquered two generations ago. The adventure will start in the ruins of the old capital that has become the grounds of a grand fair for the local communities. during the festivities a diplomat from a neighboring kingdom is killed. And lo and behold the party is blamed. Either they escape capture right there, or break out of the makeshift jail. They learn that the only way to clear their names is to travel to the current capital, a two week journey or so away.
This is where the adventure really kicks off. I want to give the players a tough choice of how they get there. Prior to the diplomat’s death, I want them to meet a traveling circus/menagerie as well as merchant train. Giving them the option to join either, travel with them to the capital, or forgo that route and hoof it on their own. I have different game-play mechanics. The Circus I was thinking of giving them a chance to “perform” using their skills and make some extra money. Where as the merchant route might give them access to a mine or trading post they can invest in.
The on foot approach is more “typical” DNd adventuring, though its also the only path i currently have that has a more loot driven reward quest.
There will be four main roads/paths to the Capital, and on each path are different “quests” they can encounter. So even if they decide to go with the Merchant there will be two different ways they can get there.
I like the idea of adding “achievement” like mini-feats that are rewarded as the players progress. “Gilded tongue” might be a +2 bonus to Diplomacy checks if a character has in the past succeed against 10 Dip checks with a DC 15 or higher. For example. Of course all of these involve me tracking them in secret.
I would really appreciate any advice, or insights that you all may have.
