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Hello folks,
Well its taken 19 months and 9 total characters but the players have advanced to Dawn of a New Age.

I had a quick question, what kinda of weapon over comes DR/EPIC as in what are the requires for a weapon to be considered epic?

The most recent issue of dragon, had a new feat name Improved Whirlwind attack, which basically is a whirlwind attack , but the attacker gets to pick one target to attack with any remaining attacks he has left. Do those remaining attacks include offhanded weapon attacks if he is two-weapon fighting?

Is the damage from an Unholy Weapon inflicted upon a good character (the bonus +2d6) negative energy damage? One of my players had death ward up on his character and thought that it was but I could not find a reference saying that it was.

Ok I need some things clarified here about Otilukes Resilient Sphere.

Last combat the party popped one around an opponent cleric. Can the cleric stand in it and cast Mass Cure Serious Wounds spells in it to affect his companions? or does the Sphere block the spell effect.

The Sphere is hard to destory, but can you teleport out of if?

What about spells like charm person and such can they pass through it?

I am assuming that spells like lighting bolt and fireball will not pass through it.

This is not so much of a rant as a warning to fellow DM's who like myself did not run the numbers of this room before the PC's encountered it. This room is set up for a TPK if its done as it "should" be done considering the critters abilities. Of import these are not mindless undead, quite the opposite.

There are three Swords of Kyuss and a Worm Caller in this room.

First three rounds of combat should roll out like this:
Swords of Kyuss unleash their Invocation of the Worm.
Now for my party this would have been the end, the were not spread out and all pretty much right at the doors when the combat started. The Swords would have ran up to the door stopped 5 feet from the closest individual and set off the bang.
This works out as follow, 20-foot radius (8 square diameter sphere likely to get your ENTIRE party in with all three blasts the first round.) 14d6 (average 3.5 points) = 49 points of damage (DC 22 saves for half, most of my group has about a 50% chance of making this). So each member of your party is going to take somewhere between 147 points of damage and 73 points of damage (minus evasion).
Worm Caller empowered slashing darkness, one target takes 5d8 *1.5, ranged touch at +11 to hit, high percentage of hitting. So average works out to 33 points of damage.

So on the open round party eats between 147 (180 if slashing darkness) and 73 (106 if slashing darkness) too all members (except for the slashing darkness.

That first round would have killed nearly every player in my group, for certain the Wizard, and the rogue if he failled 2 saving throws, the cleric would have been to single digits if he made all three saves, and the fighters would have had to have made 2 saves to still be standing.

My group also was unable in 1 round to put down more then one of the Swords of Kyuss, so next round repeat above *2/3 for the total damages.

Game Over.

To correct for this prior to the encounter I removed the Invocation of the Worm from the Swords of Kyuss and just made them straight melee. (normal average damage for them is 34 points per hit, so if the crit (19-20, two attacks per round) 68). And had the Worm Caller using Mass Inflict Moderate Wounds from the rear. This still worked out to be a dangerous fight, killing the ranger/rogue, driving the wizard and one of the Two fighters to unconcious before the party finished them off (I have a party of 6 players.)

I am interested to hear how this room played out for other DM's that have gotten to this point please :)

I have a player that is interested in taking Heavy Armor Optimization feat, however there is the crux....

He is wearing Mithril FullPlate which is treated as medium, sooo will the feat work with it?

Personally I think so, simple because the armor itself and the tactics used in it are the same as Full Plate as far as protection goes, its just treated as medium because of the weight reduction from it being mithril but I wanted some other opinions.

Hello Everyone, I was hoping I could get some help clarifying some costs for some magic items that my part is interested in making.

One example is a: Keen Dwarven War Axe +2 of Undead Bane with 3 charges per day of Mirror Image Per day. I understand that the weapon with the keen and undead bane mods come to a +4 weapon... but how does one factor in the Mirror Image image uses?

Another is a: Belt of Giants Str, with Continual Shield of Faith (1st level caster).

Another is: Celestial Armor with 2 charges per day of Displacement. (5th level caster)

If someone could show me an example of the break down for the cost of the # charges per day thingy would be greater because the section in the DMG dealing with that is a real mess.

I have to run this encounter tonight and I wanted to clarify some things first.

I dont have my copy in front of me however I think I remember the specifics well enough.

The Froghemoth has 4 tentacles attacks, a tongue attack, and a bite attack per round. So six attacks on a full attack action. It has improved grab, but what I am uncertain about is how that functions. Text says that it can start a grapple anytime its tentacles or tongue scores a hit (its a +35 to grapples and +25 to tentacle attacks so its not like its going to miss either.) So if it attacks 4 different characters with one tentacle each, its inflicting 2d6+12 for the tentacle, its grapple which is 2d6+12 constriction, and the individual is then grappled (not like they are going to get out with a +35 grapple). I am assuming that this grapple damage continues each round until the characters break grapple (yeah right), or and this brings me to my second question....

The Swallow Whole says that it can attempt to swallow any creature it has grappled in tongue or tentacles with a successful grapple check (which again its not going ot fail), so say the above scenario happens and 5 characters get grappled with tentacles and tongue, can it swallow them all whole in one round, or canit only swallow one per round....

I personally as a player would much perfer to be in its belly only taking 2d6+12 concussion and 1d8+4 acid damage per round rather then outside but that is entirely beside the point..

Some quick number break downs:
I pitty the party of 5 10th level characters I have going into this fight tonight, AVERAGE damage: 190 points per round if all attacks hit, and they are going to was well buffed with gear from the AOW series the parties has ac's ranging from 18-27. The critters attacks are all at +25 but for the tongue whichis +23. The grapple +35 is unbeatable I am pretty certain by anyone in the party period (unless maybe they get enlarged).

Shudder

Well my group is about halfway through the Champions Belt and last night was one of the funniest sessions we have had in along time. While exploring the arena they found the secret door into the Shrine of Kyuss located in the wine cellar. They disarmed the ward on it, and went down (lucky rogue). Out popped the 3 Spawn of Kyuss in the coffin room and then the fear saves started up...
3 of the 5 failled, 2 of those took off back up the steps running like mad men for 7 rounds, 1 of them took off down the hallway toward the training room but turned right before he got there into the pump room (all turns are randomly determined when under fear effects in my campaign). The cleric and the wizard were all that remained with the Spawn of Kyuss and they quickly realized they were out matched, the wizard took off running down the hallway to the pump room following the panicked ranger/thief (this greatly surprised me as I figured he was a goner) when he got the the cowering ranger/thief the wizard D-doored them out to the wine cellar room above. The cleric took off after the two runners (both straight up warriors in heavy armor can you say clang clang clang for the tank) who were ripping through the first level of the arena at runs with little heed where they were headed. One he stopped right outside of the storage with a hold person spell (another blown save) and the other he followed able to keep up with but not catch as he ran crazy through the arena. I thought this was going to come to an abrupt end when the fleeing fighter (with cleric in tow) charged through the guard chamber (the one that has two elites in it) but the cleric pulled out his Eversmoking Bottle and filled the area with smoke before the guards could make out who had charged into the room. At this point the fear has worn off and everyone hightailled it back to the wizard for a teleport back to the Cenoby except for ranger rogue who snuck his way back down...

I cannt wait to come up with rumors about what took place that night on the first floor of the arena

Would Love suggestions.

Oh as a side note, the Spawn of Kyuss stayed in the coffin room as Bozal would likely not want to tip his hand early if he can avoid it, since there was really no combat or damage he is of the opinion that should the party come back he can deal with them.

I have been trying to just wait for the online suppliments to come out to answer this question however I am at the point of push coming to shove as the PC's advance.

Who should Manzorian likely be in the FR, and suggestions for the placement of Magepoint or another town to takes its place?

I was wondering if anyone was interested in posting how their party did in the last encounter in Blackwall Keep with the three Spawn of Kyuss in the basement? I was going to detail how my party took it (on the chin).

Party:
Nale 5th level Human Warlock (player has been playing with me since ... omg 1986 so 19 years blech I am getting up there)

Nurru 6th Level Elven Cleric of Mielikki (This guy has been playing since 1976 and with me since 1993)

Aura 3rd level Elven Ranger/3rd level Rogue (Played by same guy as plays the cleric.. a house rule is that whoever plays the cleric gets to play a second toon as well.. always has trouble getting people to play the cleric)

Aldovar 6th Human Wizard non-specialist (Player has been playing with me since 1999, but been playing D&D since 1975).

Aradred 7th level Dwarven Fighter (with the best stats I have seen rolled for a character in years... two 18's, two 17's, a 15 and a 14)(Player has been playing with me since 2000 which is when he first started playing the game).

Now of note, I have been running the same on going campaign since the mid 1990's with pretty much the same people playing as listed above all minus a couple that came and went during that time. The players created new characters specifically for the AoW PA when I decided I wanted to run it and among them decided that Aradred would be the party leader, even through the player is relatively in experience compared to the other players... to qoute Nale "Live and learn buddy, Live and learn." Now I did not figure this arrangement would last that long but I have been pleasantly surprised to see that the more experienced players have been allowing Aradred to lead without second guessing his decisions and such.. anyways neither here nor there on to the encounter description:

The party was waken in the middle of night at blackwall keep to the general alarm. They responsed only to find that two guards had been grabbed and pulled into the basement by rotting corpse filled with green worms. Of course the primary question was omg where did that come from? which is not important for this description. The party took time got armored up while the remaining soldiers and Melinda (the paladin from Diamond Lake that lead down the reinforcements to blackwall keep) barricaded that top of th stairs to keep them down there.

Aldovar cast mage armor and shield on himself, the cleric did not do any buffing.....(kept my mouth shut), and the party headed down the stairs into the basement. I had placed one of the spawn behind each of the corners leading into the surrounding corridor around the central cooking area where they were attempting to hide. The party of course brought down continual flame torches as they have two humans which alert the spawn to their approach (while the spawn only have an 6 Int they have an 11 Wis and are suppose to be cunning).

That is when stuff started to go badly. Aradred called for the group to move as a unit into the central cooking area which they did, and the spawn decided that looked like an great place to attack... out come the spawn from around the corners into the central room and off goes the fear saves (three separate ones). Aradred fails, Nurru fails, and Aura fails. Aradred and aura fleee up the stairs smacking into the barricade trying to get out. Nurru flees into one of the side rooms, realizes he is cornered and cowers in the corner. During this flight Nurru is hit by 2 shots of Opportunity (full plate and still got smacked around) and gets two worms transferred to him. Nale and Aldovar cut loose some magic damage. Next round, the spawn gang up on Nale including a critcal hit, drives him to low single digits and he is pinned in a corner. Aldovar cut loose a magic missle not wanting to kill Nale outright with an AOE spell. Nurru cowers and the worms are in him doing damage, both of them only going to be in him for 2 rounds before they reach his brain. Aradred and aura force their way through the barricade, where I bend the rules, and allow them to resave against the fear when they enter Melinda's Aura of Courage effect. Aura makes it, Aradred will be headed for the front door and out of the keep. Nale attempts to get a potion of cure moderate wounds drank (he is really between a rock and a hard place at this point) Shot of Opportunity drives him below -10. One comes at Aldovar who has positioned himself in a doorway and misses its attack. Next round Aldovar hits it with a Scorcher and puts it down....

At this point thinking that I was looking at a TPK, I have Melinda join with the Aura and her and a the Blackwall troops charge down the stairs to aid in the combat. With Melinda's Aura of Courage to back them about 1/2 of the troops make their fear saves and a mass melee starts. In the end, Melinda is down with worms in her, Nurru has succumbed to his worm infestion before his fear wore off, Nale is a outright dead, Aradred made it back from his jog in the countryside just in time to see that last of the spawn fall, Aura is fine without a scratch, and Aldovar is completely outta damaging spells, and has managed to not get hit in 3 or 4 swings at him (lucky dice for him that night let tell you).

Realizing where this was headed, and with the parties cleric about to turn into another spawn I gave ample warning, "You find Nurru's body in a sidechamber cowering a corner, but as you watch you see green worms start to crawl from his mouth and eyes" The party promply removed his head and burned the corpses outside.

Affects of this encounter: While it resulted in the death of a couple of party members, they had a great time with it. I am pretty certain that in their gaming careers none had before encountered Spawn of Kyuss. There was a hole lotta laughing about the brave leader and his jog in the moonlight grasslands. I think that they are likely going to pool resources and get some potions of cure disease/remove fear as well as likely a wand of cure disease or remove curse. Nale was raised by the Tormites in Diamond Lake at request of the Captain of the Garrison for their aid in saving Blackwall keeps soldiers (twice), though he has retired the character and will be playing a fighter cleric split class. Nurru alsa could not be saved, an d is going to be replaced with a Cleric of Tempus.

The party has not finished this one yet but last night they got to the room in sodden hold with planks over the water. Dm's having read this module will know where I am talking about. I realized right at the start that it was going to be a nasty room but I ended up putting the 2 invisable stalkers in the well room instead of in this room. The DC for the Balance checks alone had the party at a huge disadvantage in that only the rogue and wizard has any chance of making them after armor penalities. The stalkers are just nasty (besides a 50% miss chance from concealment), 2 attacks at 10 (+12 because they are invis, +14 when flanking) for 2d6 +4 points of damage each on characters that are trying to balance on the beams, or be knocked into the water for the spike/weapon damage and then get the fight them if you survive from the water....
The highest ac in my groups party is a dwarven warrior with a 25 , sans buffs, but even if I group the stalkers on him they would have hit 50% of the time so 4d6+8 , sans crits, per round oh and did I mention the balancing checks....

All in all its a great encounter design for a unusual room, for a group of 10th maybe 11th level characters, not 7th...

I avoided all this by moving the stalkers to the well room. Here its cramped, movement is restricted for both the pcs and the stalkers, they can smack the snot outta someone with flank still but the party can bring to bear enough force to deal with them without death to members, there will be plenty of that in the two "boss monster" encounters coming up.

Interesting issue came up last gaming session....
Long Story Short:

The 5th level warlock is infected with kyuss worms...2 of them... gets smacked down to negative 6 hit points from direct damage... the worms are suppose to inflict 1 point of damage each, each round while they are crawling to the brain of the victim... that damage would have driven him to -10 (death ) before the worms reached the brain and started trying to transform him to spawn and I dont think that the worms can animate corpses.. that the individual has to be alive when infected to be transformed (whch was good news for the party in this situtation in general)

BUT...

5th level warlocks have DR 1, That should stop all damage that the worms deal as they only deal one point of damage per worm... but that also mean that the worms progress is stopped and they cannt chew their way to the victims brain in the case of creatures with natural armor +5 or better?

not certain which way to jump with this one.