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If I was going to make an optimized party for this AP it would go thusly: gnome grenadier (alchemist) - giants and dragons have bad touch ac's
I have three of those in the party in my game.
I believe with the cold weather gear you make the saves every hour instead of every 10 minutes. Also every time they make a save the DC goes up by 1. When they fail the first save they become fatigued and take non lethal and have to rest (build a fire) to get rid of that and if they keep going they run the chance of becoming exhausted. Ultimately it's probably just best to stick with the way you've been doing it. Of course if they have cold resistance they don't have to make a check at all. (Something I didn't want to accept when I ran it. Things didn't go well.)
I actually called off Reign of Winter and tried Shattered Star when I realized that my group was almost certainly going to TPK at the cabin. It's crazy hard, especially if you adhere to the cold rules. Are they currently about to bring in new characters due to the TPK at the Winter Portal? If so I would have this new group be a team of heroes from the north (other side of the portal) who stumble onto the scene and come through just in time to encounter the Rider / Get the mantle and see the fate of the group that tried to stop things in Taldor beginning at Level 3 to give them a leg up. Then you have the benefit of being able to let them make characters who are prepared for northern adventure. It also, I suppose raises the problem of them knowing more about the area they are traveling to. If I were running at that point I would sit down and say, "Ok, here are some classes and other stuff that's going to make this a lot easier." A fire domain druid. (Anything that can do consistent fire damage. An alchemist for example.) All armed with cold iron weapons + ranged weapons with cold iron ammunition. Actually that might not be as important later on... Potions of Feather Step A wand of Endure Elements A prevalence of characters with cold resistance of some type. Tundra Child regional trait if no cold resistance. Maybe a witch hunter who is working on getting feats especially aimed at making him/her great at killing witches... Disruptive / Spellbreaker etc. All that kinda stuff. I wish you luck. Reign of Winter is tough.
I believe I would likely be a Human Inquisitor of Asmodeus. My goal would be to come across so reasonable that I essentially make even my fellow party members forget that we are evil. Most definitely the face. The nicest most personable LE guy I could be. "Yes, excellent. Killing this town of peasants no doubt also had the side effect of rooting out seditious elements. Just think of all the good law abiding citizens who would have been caught in that conflict. Good work Slobber, Maw of Lamashtu. Good boy." *Pat* Failing that, a valiant Hellknight.
I ran the game through Roll 20 every Friday for about 10 or 11 months. I'm pretty sure that my near obsessive preparation, down to making individual token actions for almost all NPC's had something to do with it getting done a little faster than I thought. Five does take a long time in fact... as you progress in the adventure as a whole the later books take more time. You have to do more preparation to assure that your NPC's are ready to face the player threat and there are in general a lot more abilities and spells to be familiar with / look up etc... than the earlier books. I think in comparison Book 1 took us less than a month and Book 6 took nearly three.
When I ran it the actually had quite a bit to do with the background 'goings-on' in the campaign. A lot of it the group never found out about I just had it running in the background to make things more active. Some notables... 1.) In the first book the group trailed a group of goblins out into the wilds to get retribution for the attacks (an idea I got from these forums). They got out there and found a burned wagon with a dead courier who just happened to be carrying a letter with the Scarnetti seal. I hinted that it was suspicious and gave them the option of taking it to the sheriff or back to Scarnetti and they chose the latter. In the end Scarnetti offered them a bribe to cover up his connection to the cart and the letter and they took it. 2.) Not a lot happened with the Scarnettis until book 4 when Titus Scarnetti opted to sell out the town for a huge payout from the giants, and was subsequently captured himself. The group never discovered his involvement. Around the same time the chelaxian diabolist in my group died and the escaped pit fiend from the dam claimed his soul and through clever word play managed to tear our Scarnetti's daughter's soul and place the diabolist's in it's place. The now NPC'd diabolist, working with the pit fiend, used his knowledge of Scarnetti's betrayal to take over the family and begin building a trading empire on the coast in the Scarnetti name. 3.) I kept waiting for the group to realize something was up since I often mentioned that 'old man Scarnetti' hasn't been seen since he tried to take over as mayor during the giant siege... even hinted at a complete change in the daughter's personality. They all didn't figure it out until near the end of the game when I let it spill to their complete amazement.
They went through several options when trying to decide but ultimately decided on my suggestion after I told them the story of how Odysseus escaped the cyclops Polythemus so The Truewind, which they acquired before even getting to Rickety Squibs, is named Nemo. This is also partially because at Rickety Squib's the workers had a tradition of toasting ships they were working on by saying, "Cheers to the Yet to be Named," which is what they wanted to call it. They plan to name the next ship they actually have crew to pilot Skirtchaser in honor of their captain.
Let's see if I can remember. We just finished book one. Some characters had very little impact on the players but others well... The lessers first. Aretta Bansion - Killed in the fight with the Man's Promise.
Syl:
She is going to contract ghoul fever, infect a pirate crew inspecting the island, raise the Infernus and sail the open sea looking for revenge. Kroop - Still in the kitchens, getting sober. Riggers
Swabs
Seige Engines
Jakes:
The spellslinger wanted to change her character during the fight with the Man's Promise so Jakes murdered her and threw her overboard to the sharks. When Sandara was kidnapped Jakes was the crew member that was taken with her. When they saved her Jakes begged for his life and pledged his eternal service, which they grudgingly accepted. Jakes: He also killed Giffer Tibbs during the first boarding action since she knew what he had done to the Spellslinger.
My group has just reached the Vault of Thorns... Jaimme - Female Dwarven Warpriest of Torag
Lost
(Quit due to poor player / dm compatibility)
Name: Kaleem
Story: The group were making their way from house to house killing the orcs who were between them and the tower where Kagak the orcish Skald was beating out a war chant for the looting of the area.
They entered each house carefully, choosing to draw out enemies or attack from windows to keep them at odds and often had the orcs into staggered territory before fighting in earnest. Unfortunately Kaleem made her into the building first to fire at the orcish archer. She soon found herself at the forefront of the fight and at 3 hp. Realizing she had dropped her rapier to pull her crossbow she dropped it and reached down to pick up the weapon. The staggered orc got an attack of opportunity and critted the rogue for 19 points of damage. Without my card system that allows characters to use three amassed cards to avoid death Kaleem would have been completely dead as a result. Afterward the group moved on and are currently in a pitched battle with Kagak and his protectors to retake the occupied tower.
I have a question as a DM and I was wondering what you guys think... (Seemed like a good thread to ask.) Same scenario except one includes a sorcerer pc and the other psychic. The group enters a small shop to question one of the workers. Noticing the worker the psychic casts telempathic projection to shift the worker's stance from unfriendly to indifferent. The worker passes his/her save and beyond... a headache has no ideas the spell was cast. The shop worker doesn't have spellcraft or kno arcana trained and seeing absolutely no visible cues of the casting of a spell doesn't realize what has happened. Same scenario, the sorcerer walks in and casts charm person. This casting has very clear verbal and somatic components. Superstitious shop worker is immediately terrified and enraged as the spell is being cast. It's down to initiative, and the npc's save. If he passes he calls the guards or the owner of the shop and the entire group gets thrown in the cells for the weekend. So I guess the question ultimately is, "Is one of the benefits of psychic spells that they aren't immediately identified as spellcasting by NPC's without spellcraft or kno arcana trained?" [Edited to Fix Problems with Scenario]
Name(s): Obidiah Blackwood, Doyle Henshaw
Story: So I suppose this can effectively be my 'Hey My Group Finished' post. I guess it's fitting that it's in the obituary thread. I did kill a large number of characters (whether through people having to use their hero points or just outright).
The group was deep in the throes of the fight with big K. I had used an alternate version of the fight hinted at by Mark Seifter in his 'Ask Me' thread and had at this point done considerable damage to the party. I severely nerfed the fighter/cavalier by mazing her griffon mount and thoroughly infuriated the group by having Karzoug bounce from set piece to set piece using magic jar and project image (scroll). In the end they had gained control of one of the Storm Giants, killed the Rune Giant, and were fighting off the last Storm Giant as they surrounded Karzoug, his back up against a wall of force. In one more round they were set to win and I wanted to go out with a bang. The result of the Wail wasn't nearly as fun as I thought it would be. Killing Obidiah (again) and Doyle's twin form duplicate were undoubtedly less than fun for the wizard's player. In the end of course, the fighter/cavalier destroyed the ancient wizard ending the campaign. The group let the sole remaining storm giant live giving me a good excuse to tell them that he had been the main villain of Giantslayer, which I'm running for another group. Now we are moving on to Skull and Shackles and I get to go haunt their obituaries thread. Till we meet again RotRL.
Sounds a lot better than my Fi Fo Fum game actually. It actually went pretty poorly. They enjoyed the eating competition and the scavenger like game but that one was considered to be kind of a failure. It was mostly because it severely hampered the small size characters in the group. I cut out King of Bloodmarch Hill because a combat of that size would have taken forever.
Well, it seems as if the dragon is in a pretty bad situation here... as is any creature that is in the way of Golarion's must terrifying horror, The Adventuring Group. I would say post up watching the stones (don't even try to DM logic why it would be watching constantly). When it sees the players have the dragon immediately start off with resist energy (fire) and invisibility. One thing that I would never allow the group is to get him on the ground. Get in as many fly-by attacks and breath weapons as possible and then fall back to eventually follow them into Runeforge. Given the dragon is well aware of the Earth Elementals you might even be able to have him lure the group into that fight to only throw another breath weapon on them and flee again. The absolute key is to never engage them on the ground. If you are as evil as me give the dragon the invincible mythic template to cut some of their damage and give the dragon more survivability.
Something similar happened with he pit fiend in my game due to the fact that I 'for some reason' allowed a diabolist. I chose to make him a more of 'long-game' evil. With a few exceptions of players who don't know that he exists they all LIKE him. In his persona as 'ultimate merchant' he has even made several very profitable deals with the party. In the end it's been very good for the devil. They GAVE him Chellan as long as he promised to take it far into the depths of the hells (which he did, and gave it to a powerful arch-duke). In return they asked for a new sword for Viorian, which he obtained by teleporting out, killing a former member of the group who was eating his breakfast unawares, and teleporting back in. They even realized that it was their former party member's sword and simply shrugged. Other horrifyingly evil acts he has committed against them includes gathering the dead diabolist's soul after his death. Upon Titus Scarnetti's daughter, who was infatuated with same diabolist, begging the devil to raise him from the dead he killed her and put the soul into her body. Now he has the diabolist in the woman's body working as his familiar. In the end the long and the short of it is that the devil need not be a horrible foil that the party feels constantly inclined to destroy. He can be a great NPC in his own right. (A very dangerous and manipulative NPC).
Some things I've done that have handily killed characters since book 4 (I actually kinda regret some of these): Changes: 1.) The basic class templates from the monster codex: These things are murder in a jar. I went whole hog adding fighter and ranger templates to entire groups of enemies and made things overly difficult for my players.
2.) Spell Lists: A lot of spells (some of them IMHO over powered) have been added to the game since RotRL was redone. There are a LOT of spellcasters in the upcoming books. Change their spell lists to reflect new spell offerings. The big bad and his leadership should be fully aware of the PC's at this point so spells that take advantage of their weakness' should definitely be finding their way into the daily prepares. Easily the best example of this is the alchemist grenadier in my group. All of the big bad casters prepare resist energy fire or elec to further confuse him and keep them alive. In your case I would add a powerful antipaladin of lamashtu somewhere in the hierarchy who can scribe scrolls. Have him/her start handing out high level scrolls of corruption resistance to every big bad with a use magic device skill. If Nualia survived to end game somehow this is a good task for her. 3.) Tactics: When it comes to the aforementioned big spellcaster fights it's important to remember that in a lot of cases they are ancient and have been spending a long time thinking about how they are going to handle an attack. I will do an example: EX, Athroxis: A near total party kill for me I rebuilt a lot of her spell list and changed her tactics as a result. Giant Form to turn herself into a fire giant. As a result of this and pre-casting resist energy electricity on herself she frequently (using the evoker power below) would drop AOE's on herself (including detonate). Project Image to mislead the group. Glabrezu also used veil to appear to be Athroxis to further mislead the group. I also took the evoker archetype (I think) that allows the wizard to change the damage type of their spells a number of times a day. This completely nullified resist energy (especially since she had been scrying them the entire time and new their typical damage types and tactics). Add to that a split group, a cleric failing a teleport roll to run away, and a cowardly alchemist and I had a dead fighter, wizard, and druid on my hands. 4.) Mythic Invincible and Agile: When it comes to really big single target fights like dragons and others I don't hesitate to add Invincible. Agile is more deadly. 5.) Environment: A lot of people probably take it upon themselves to lighten up on the environmental problems in book 6 given how powerful the PC's are. Do not do this! Even if you have to go through and calculate how many castings of endure elements and life bubble they need to make a day, or at the least make them buy ioun stones to protect themselves. My players were severely hampered by how much the wizard, cleric, and alchemist had to prepare of those spells just to stave off fatigue and the cold. 6.) Attention to Bonus Types: You will perhaps note that at some points enemies inexplicably fail to have certain armor bonus' that would make fights more challenging. The question becomes, "Why would this insanely high level NPC not have access to a level 3 potion or scroll of mage armor?" Dragons are a good example of this. Also, casters can cast mage armor on their minions... or even have a wand of it? The important thing to remember is to check that stat line and make sure that the evils are taking full opportunity to protect themselves.
Another note on the Alchemist front, and I speak from experience with RotRL (may your DM forgive me), all of their bombs are made against touch AC. Giants and Dragons (once again implied by the Guide since I haven't read the entire adventure) have TERRIBLE touch AC's. Spell Resistance doesn't work against Alchemist bombs so they have, with the right talents and feats, the chance to do insane damage against creatures with a low touch AC. I wouldn't, for instance, play one in Skull and Shackles but in this path they will probably do well.
I don't know if it's a particularly powerful class optimization wise but going by the last line of your post I would go with Mesmerist from Occult Adventures. They get all the fancy charm, domination, coercion spells you're looking for as well as the ability to use yourself or one of your comrades as a hypnosis dummy who debuffs enemies. Charm is a pretty good choice as well because Giants (and Orcs not spoiling since the campaign is in Belkzen) are notoriously weak on will saves. Giants are also considered humanoid so things like hold spells work on them as well. Charm becomes less viable once you start fighting your Cloud / Storm / Rune Giants but that is very late game. If I were to play Giantslayer I would play one... or a Lawful Neutral Cavalier Hellknight of the Order of the Nail... Because.
I am, as my players frequently tell me, a very evil GM so take my advice with a grain of salt. I would add two more assassins to the group and split them into two groups of three. This provides a little more challenge than a two on two fight in each instance and it dispels the much more important problem of having half your group be bored while the other half is getting attacked. If they were smarter and higher level foes (and this is something I would not hesitate to do in a later book, say 4 onward) I would have the entire group of enemies attack one group teaching the hazard of splitting the party.
In the tradition of a similar popular thread on the Rise of the Runelords forum I thought it would be fun to try and come up with more games for Ruby's Hopeknife Ceremony. These games provide opportunities for the party to meet locals also participating and get to know them before the more serious events that follow. Let me know what you think. Note there are no second prizes. Do you guys have any suggestions for games? HOPEKNIFE CEREMONY GAMES 1.) Tug O’ War - As detailed 2.) THE SEIGE IS LIFTED - The contestents will eat bowls of seigestone porridge for one minute (10 rounds). The character (or NPC) who eats the most bowls of porridge in 1 minute is the victor. To continue eating the bland viscous porridge for the entire period the character must make a fortitude save each round (after the 1st bowl). A bowl of porridge is eaten in halves per standard action. A character can attempt to eat an entire bowl of porridge in one round but even during the 1st bowl this will cause a save at a higher DC.
3.) Fi Fo Fum - Sgt. Frum sits in the middle of a 20 x 20 square in a chair, playing the part of a blinded giant (complete with garrishly colored blindfold). Players are human raiders eager to steal precious treasure from the blinded giant. Everytime a character crosses the square with his bag of loot without being caught by the giant they gain a point. Everytime they are captured they lose one point.
4.) The King of Bloodmarch Hill - Unbeknownst to the township this game is actually one that was long ago adapted from orcish celebrations. It has of course lost some of it’s bloodthirsty nature since it’s adaptation. A group of players wearing only trousers and a flag in their belts charge toward the top of a steep dirt hill. A contest of grappling and wrestling the player who is in the 5 foot square at the peak of the Hill at the end of 1 minute (10 rds) is the victor.
5.) Horizon Watcher - Pick out the hidden signs! An attack may be upon us! The contestants are given clues and are charged with finding five hidden items throughout the village. Unlike the other challenges this game is a team exercise. There are three hints and four locations. The first to go to the final location with the items is the winner. There are multiple copies of each item at each location. Each team has a judge to follow them. Rodrik is the group's representative. a.) "Second of it's line, Ever Watchful Under her Eye"
Upon the search's completion and returning to the girl with the items Ruby will light a small fire built specifically for the game and call out, "The warning has been given!" The Winners are applauded by all gathered and genuinely thanked by members of the crowd, teaching just how much the whole town owes those who are vigilant and sound the alarm during an attack. Prize: A bag of 20 gold, and a bronze medal decorated with a hopeknife symbol surrounded by fire (worth 5g each)
Name of PC: Isaac, Obidiah, Arianne, Tom Tom
Catalyst: Storm Giants... mostly Storm Giants Fight Components
1 17th Level Wizard (Killed)
The players ascended the entrance ramp to the Pinnacle and choosing to eschew stealth (as usual) they quickly found themselves in a brawl with my slightly modified* wardens of wind. Seeing no reason why there shouldn't be an alarm system I had one of the giants ring a nearby gong which alerted all enemies on the level. Running the map through Roll 20 I moved each group with each passing round, casting buffs as I did so and waiting five rounds for the Champion and her Storm Giants (once again modified*) and the Rune Giant (yes again*) in X4 to advance on the combat. Things snow balled quickly even involving Karzoug getting into the brawl with one of his images. The wizard even had a humorous side effort going to keep Karzoug from using the side room to get a better vantage on the party for AOE's using his invisible monkey familiar. Unfortunately, even my card system wasn't enough to save the vast majority of the party. After disarming Viorian and killing most of Khalib's summons Tom Tom was the first to be forced to use his cards. Khalib used his quickened maximized magic missile to force the halfling to use his cards or die. Next, Arianne was hit with an 80-90 point crit from a storm giant forcing her to use her cards as well. Isaac was then hit by ANOTHER storm giant crit plus two other heavy slashes that totaled 175 points of damage. Having no cards the paladin was killed. Seeing the oncoming ruin of the party Obidiah rushed up to sacrifice himself to get the most vengeance that he could muster. The wizard flew up to Isaac and cast PHANTASMAL REVENGE on him. I did not expect the storm giant to fail both saves but unfortunately he first failed the will save and when he passed fortitude Doyle (the party alchemist) used another harrow card to force me to reroll his fort... which he failed killing the 152 hp storm giant in one fell swoop. Obidiah then turned on Viorian (who I had made mythic by association with Chellan*), who the group had sussed was not in her right wits and had been subsequently been doing non lethal until they realized the gravity of the situation, and in a last ditch effort hit her with a disintegrate spell. The fighter passed her save but the resulting damage still dropped her below the threshold of her nonlethal dropping her into unconsciousness. A lamia priestess then took the opportunity to rush in and drive a falchion into Obidiah's back, killing the wizard for perhaps the fourth or fifth time in the course of the adventure. Seeing the writing on the wall Doyle used an extract of etherealness or shadow walk (i forget) and booked away. Tom Tom, being harried by one of the lamia rushed in and dim doored Viorian and Obidiah and Isaac's corpse as far as he could muster. Arianne made bid to flee but a rune giant chopped her animal companion (which would have killed her had I not given her one point of lee-way on a ride check to ignore the attack) so the fighter flew at maximum speed down the ramp after her comrades. The party's summoned Brijidine Azata covered their retreat before banishing herself in the face of a number of violent foes. The Pinnacle having suffered considerable losses gave some chase but returned to bolster defenses when Obidiah was resurrected and quickly scribed a scroll of gate (using his last vial of elerium (I think that's what the stuff is called)) and returned them to his slow time demiplane to recover. When they return they will have the gained benefit of Viorian (non-mythic) as an added companion. *These things are likely the true catalyst in the party's sound beating
My group is nearing Xin Shalast and I wasn't able to find clarification in the books so I thought I would ask here. If you cast create lesser demiplane inside the zone that the group has to fast to enter and then try and exit the demiplane would it be the same dc 30 caster level check to not be shunted back out of the region? I guess given the thin boundaries between xin Shalast and 'other' places it might be easier to make the transition. What would you, my fellow DM's, rule on this. They are postulating using create lesser demiplane rather than multiple castings of life bubble and communal endure elements to try and avoid environmental effects and random encounters. Thanks for any help you can give.
One of the key ideas I intend to take into account is allowing my players the misconception that Karzoug (being the ultimate transmuter) wouldn't deign to use anything from his opposition schools. The shocker is that he is rich, with lots of minions, and a use magic device of +26. One of the paizo staff gave a brief run-down of how he ran the fight which has given me a bunch of ideas for my upcoming Karzoug fight. I intend to steal heavily from it.
Name of PC(s): Arianne, Obidiah, Eydan
After completely destroying the Iron Archer (charges from the back of a griffon mount) the group made their way into the main hall and a large scale brawl with the warriors of wrath and the rage sinspawn. I turned all of the warriors into magi so the fight was a bit more hardcore than scripted. The damage they managed to do contributed eventually to the near TPK. When magi started streaming in from one of the portals (called by one of the sinspawn who escaped) several party members chose to enter that portal and face the remaining magi. When the circle became unusable because of party members on the arrival circle. Arianne rushed to the teleport on the other side of the hall to join them (thinking that the arrival chamber was connected) and triggered the final battle with Athroxis. (I had pre-buffed Athroxis and she was casting from a project image, the glabrezu (who had used mirror image, veil to look like Athroxis, and summoned two Vrocks), and the Vrocks had also precast mirror image and heroism. The fight progresses from there with the rest of the group eventually joining to face her. One of the crucial changes I made to Athroxis was making her an Admixture Evoker. Having giant formed into a fire giant her daily fire shield made her immune to cold. At one point I figured the fight was over when the druid charged as a dire tiger and grappled her. Unfortunately he missed his next grapple maintenance. Athroxis broke free and cast prismatic spray which dropped several characters to near death and transported the cleric to a random wing and room of the dungeon (I ruled that was the effect of the plane shift ray). The druid dropped a sleet storm to cover a retreat thinking that if she could not target them directly their escape would be easy. Athroxis dropped an admixture (cold) fireball at her feet dropping Eydan and Arianne into negatives. Next round, Athroxis (at 45 hp) dropped a cone of cold on the party and flash froze Arianne, Obidiah, and Eydan into death. The alchemist summarily bombed her twice and ended the fight.
Name: Simian Gnarls
spoiler: Are you technically allowed to write your own character's obituary?
Simian and his group of 'heroes' had just cleared out the foundry, killing a man without skin and his bizarre fetal assassin and claimed both the suture (which is important, I believe) and a whole lot of treasure. The storm king (our long absent friend who started this whole business) arrives and challenges us to a duel. Never ones to back down from a chance to absolutely steamroll all the mightiest creatures in existence we rushed down to the fight. The sorcerer immediately cast mythic time stop, to allow us five rounds of buffing before rushing in to fight with the super balor. Although he did a healthy amount of damage to both me and the paladin we defeated him. Part of my character's unfortunate personality is that he believes that both he and his companions are invincible, and he also represents a character who has been redeemed to an almost insane level. While all the rest of the characters ran for their lives from the oncoming balor explosion I failed my save on purpose to prove my devotion to Sarenrae and that the Abyss' fires were nothing compared to hers blah blah. I was dropped to -41 by the resulting explosion and... was raised from the dead automatically 24 hours later inside our Instant Fortress/Rod of Security demiplane. Simian's faith might be a bit shaken.
THE END After nearly two years of struggle the Riders of the Spiral finished the Carrion Crown Adventure Path today. The final encounter went over fairly well. I 'sort of' tailored the encounter to them. I can't help that think that had I remembered certain elements of my build (like the scimitar's wounding ability) things could have been different but below in the spoilers I will provide a run down of how I ran the encounter. Before that some mention of the characters involved. Avram - Aasimar Paladin of Abadar
Nightwing
The Whispering Tyrant Crutches:
I developed two 'savior elements' to throw at my party if there was either an early death or they seemed to be struggling a great deal. Here they are:
The Warden
DEFENSE
OFFENSE
Special Attacks channel positive energy (DC 16, 4d6), smite evil 3/day (+2 attack and AC, +8 damage)
STATISTICS
Skills Diplomacy +10, Heal +8, Knowledge (religion) +11, Perception +8, Sense Motive +13, Survival +4
SQ aura, code of conduct, divine bond (weapon +2, 1/day), lay on hands (4d6, 6/day), mercies (diseased, sickened) Notes: The point of this guy is to obviously either buff or shield the party from damage. He is a representation of the warden from Harrowstone Prison. I intended to have him detach from Adivion and take his reflecting spell shield with him if things got to hairy. Not needed. The Packlord
Nightwings
Nuts and Bolts:
Adivion Buffing Schedule Rd 1 - Stoneskin Rd 2 - Potion of Shield Rd 3 - Mirror Image Rd 4 - Corruption Resistance (scroll) Rd 5 - Fly Rd 6 - Entropic Shield (scroll) Rd 7 - Wind Wall (scroll) Stage 1 - This part of the fight involved the initial slugging it out with the Nightwing down on the lower level. This fight was mainly focused on giving Adivion the 7 rounds of buffing he needed to be viable when the party reached him. When it detected the party it immediately used it's ability to summon two greater shadows. The group easily dispatched them and then slugged it out for five rounds with the Nightwing. Deeper Darkness was crucial to cutting down on the party's number of attacks. Meanwhile I let those with really high perception rolls notice the sounds of spellcasting from above. Stage 2 - While the majority of the party made their way around the stairs to face Adivion the Alchemist (who had been the only one who heard spellcasting) flew up over the course of two rounds to face him alone. The paladin did cast blessing of fervor which sped up the group's ascent. Otherwise I have no doubt Anton would have died. Here is a link to my altered Version 1 Adivion: If you have no experience playing a magus I recommend doing a few practice fights before this encounter. Also, I would note that he goes on to Version 2 if incapacitated in any way or give him the reflecting spell aura as a sign of his ultimate fate... or something. Don't let your group kill this guy with some cheesy spell (flesh to stone) and call it over. I recommend getting as many uses of magus arcana as you can before this stage is over. Use those swift actions while you got'm. I would save Maximize and Quicken Arcana until Stage 4. I also used my Hasted Assault arcana in my first exchange to speed him up. Don't forget to use critical strike arcana to hit him with touch spells when you inevitably crit. Don't forget flaming/shocking burst and wounding. When this stage ended I had Adivion explode with a +26 Bull Rush against all creatures in a 20 ft radius. Adivion, regardless of the damage he took in Stage 2 went into Stage 3 with 220 hp. Stage 3 - This is Adivion as we know and love him (sort of). Essentially he is the above character with the added Foresaken Lich template. Ultimately my fight reached this stage right when the rest of the party crested the stairs and fully joined the fight. I used a maximize arcana chain lightning immediately and distanced myself from the party to cast cloudkill which had little effect. Due to fast healing and a VERY high AC I last a few rounds before a few good hits knocked me down to half health and I entered Stage 4. During this exchange the Alchemist went into Resurgent Transformation and had to use three cards to avoid dying. Damage from Stage 3 didn't overlap into Stage 4. No matter how much damage ended the stage he began the 4th with exactly 110 hp. Stage 4 - The Whispering Tyrant takes over Adivion's body at half health. He gains his mentals which can be found in Mythic Realms. This ups the saves of his spells considerably. He also gained the AGILE mythic template which upped his ac to an overall 41 (with Haste) and gave him two actions in a round. If fast healing would have gotten him back to 300 hp then he would have been able to escape the tower and the game would have been over. Ultimately this part of the fight was brief but deadly. I used greater bladed dash and regular bladed dash while the party tore into me. The fight ended when I full attacked the group, got my second initiative and then bladed dashed through the alchemist KILLED him and then used my quicken spell arcana to cast a cone of cold (which killed the wizard). The paladin then unloaded on my 44 health with a 114 barrage of arrows to end the Carrion Crown campaign. After the fight was over the group woke up in Ravengro (the alchemist and wizard returned to life) and with a similarly recovered Adivion. Epilogue
The heavy hint was that Pharasma was making a brief appearance to claim the soul of a particularly troublesome villain and afforded the party brief very cold stares. Each party member received a few pages of written closing info about the fates of their characters from me. Hale was resurrected five hundred years later to fight the Whispering Tyrant again. Fabia ran off to live in the swamps of Dipplemere with the Beast and her new shade Duristan. Not to mention the polymorphed Hetna Dublesse (a cat). Avram lived into venerable age as a lord of Ustalav. He was investigating a sinkhole at Rakshaka's Undead Cow Farm when he fell in and found himself on another world fighting Shub Niggurath's army of horrors. Anton succumbed to madness and was taken over by the Splatter Man persona. Quinley essentially became 'Batman' hunting him and his followers in Caliphas to try and save his brother's soul. Si went on to a long life as a court wizard for the noble rulers of Caliphas. He was eventually killed defending the keep during a revolution that completely removed the nobility and placed a full democracy in the nation. Some Important Notes
I thank everyone on these boards for their help. I really appreciate all the authors and Paizo for making a great path. Now I'm on to Reign of Winter. Thank you all again.
I'm a player in Wrath of the Righteous. I feel comfortable talking about it since we are near the end. We have essentially creamed every encounter we have come across since mid-book 2? In the span of the campaign we lost one character to a crit somewhere in book four. The important things I'd mention: 1.) Make sure that both you and your players are well versed with mythic rules. It's important to know what kind of abilities use what kinds of actions. Our players and our DM are regularly confused or indifferent to the '1 swift or immediate action per round' rule. 2.) If your creatures have mythic abilities, use them as often as you can and try not to forget that that you have them on tap. 3.) The military section in book 2... Only one person was in charge of the army and it left everyone else bored during those sessions. I believe that if there was some additional stuff like allowing the rest of the group to take part in in the results of the commander's rolls it would have been more fun. 4.) In the end, without retooling of the mythic system or significant boosted creature stat blocks the game is going to devolve into what ours did... a steamroll through encounter after encounter. Being a DM myself it makes me cringe every single time the magus and the sorcerer cast a mythic presient persistent maximized disintegrate on something that was supposed to challenge a whole party. (One time both of them did it in the same round for somewhere in the area of 950+ damage). 5.) As one of my fellow players says, "You have got to be the kind of DM who doesn't mind when your encounters are easily dispatched," and, "The characters are meant to be superheroes!" This is why, I will never run Wrath of the Righteous.
So I was hoping to get some feedback from any of this forum’s regulars, or other DM’s who are running the path about my plans for the final fight with Adivion. I suspect that one of my players plans to ‘One Round’ him. He is an ‘Archerdin’, so it’s possible. They have been getting the party cards during the various books and he has pretty much vetoed every single use. That means that a majority of them will be used in the last fight. So I guess the question is... Is this too much? Current Party
The Final Struggle: A fair amount of this comes from the suggestions of others on the boards (including an idea put forth in one thread by the writer).
Stage 1: Approach
Stage 2: Living Adivion
- Cheesy Dervish Dance build with +4 Ominous Wounding Scimitar? Yes… yes I did do that. Do I feel bad about it? No. - More castings of various spells that have an effect even if the caster makes their save? Yes. Frostbite and Frigid Touch are the prime choices here. I will likely use my frigid touches in this first phase to attempt to Crit/Stagger the paladin for 1 minute. He does likely have the mercy to remove it. - When Adivion dies in this phase there will be an explosion of force in a 20 ft radius. Everyone will be subjected to a bull rush attempt potentially being thrown off the tower. - I did also slip in a few dash spells (bladed dash, greater bladed dash, and burst of speed) to get out of the horrifying grinder of death that is the shadowdancer, vivisectionist, and his cohort. Stage 3: Adivion in Control - Regains hit points up to 220 and resumes the fight with the Foresaken Lich template. All uses of the Soul Lash will be reserved for the paladin in hopes of paralyzing him. - The problem with the soul lash is that it uses a swift action, which is also tied to a lot of the magus arcanas. It seems likely that many rounds that Adivion will be taking damage from himself. - I’m hoping that Fast Healing, Soul Shield (50% Miss Chance) and his spell turning ability will keep this phase going for a few rounds. Stage 4: Uh.. oh - HP loss in stage 3 stops at 120 regardless of how much damage is done. It is at this point that Tar-Baphon takes the reigns. Adivion’s body receives the benefit of a 5d6 negative energy channel. - Adivion gains the Mythic Template: Agile, which gives him dual initiative, a +2 to AC, +20 to Init etc. Regardless of his two initiative status he only fast heals once per round. - He also gains Tar-Baphon’s mental stats. This means that passing saves from his spells has become largely impossible. (Int 36 / Wis 14 / Cha 28) - The Whispering Tyrant is in control of this body now. If he manages to heal back to full HP (which is now considerably higher due to his bump in charisma) then Tar-Baphon is recovered enough to dimension door away in Adivion’s body. Game Over. Additional Notes: - I remember one of the DM’s on these boards mentioned the possibility of having various souls from different parts of the elixir jump in and join the fight if things are going side-ways. I am considering having ghost template versions of the Warden from Harrowstone, and Kvalca Sain on hand. These can either pull the party out of the fire or work as replacement characters for those who fall mid fight to jump in and help.
Man, I have to agree with Taperat. It took us months to get through Renchurch. I don't even want to think about how many sessions. I don't have much input for one of the pc's as a vampire but as far as taking alternate methods to Renchurch if they didn't already know where it was I would just make it a huge Whispering Way 'Whisper'. Luvick knows that Renchurch exists but he has no idea where it is. He just knows that you use the Witchgates to find it. Finding it otherwise would take months of flying around through REALLY bad weather. The Whispering Way has spent hundreds of years finding references to it and burning them. If they air walk it throw near constant storm effects (the special ones) and lightning elementals. Maybe a Nightwing that flies in on them and casts greater dispel magic to remove their flight spells. Fights that look interesting (on paper):
Fights that look like they might be filler:
So after going over all the suggestions I decided on a plan that kind of meshes several ideas. The plan of course has the possibility of causing significant disruption or maybe even throw the game off the rails. If you play in my game I warn you to stop here. The Wish:
I went for the most part with Latrecis' plan of a path rewrite as much trouble as it would be. Lamashtu was keeping an eye on the events in the temple and granted the wish as a no-frills miracle that rewrote events so that Burnt Offerings turned in to Feast of Ravenmoor for the party.
Nualia, under advice from Arianne, ran away from home and joined a caravan of Varisians. She would later swing this into a life as an inquisitor of Desna. The group was always one step behind in the events of the path. Aldern, and one of the former PC's as his ghast queen, terrorized the region. The party returned and struck them down only to discover their old friend Ameiko had been swayed by her troublesome brother into a cult in Magnimar and taken part in a series of murders. Only able to mete out vengeance they kill Tsuto, Ameiko, Ironbriar, and Xanesha. (Ameiko is taking the place of Nualia as the Glabrezu). Nualia meets the group again and becomes Arianne's cohort. The flood happens and thousands die. The group discovers the source, killing Barl but not Lucrecia in the process. The attack on Sandpoint reduces it to ruins. The survivors end up at Thistletop in hiding. The group discovers the location of Jorgenfist from Barl the group travels there to try and stop Mokmurian. Discovering the remnants of a huge army having departed the group clears out the ancient fortress and the Tharassic Library where they learn of Runeforge. A place that might provide clues to Mokmurian's Ancestral Lord, Karzoug. Perhaps a way to stop him. Already well behind Mokmurian the group reasons to rush to Sandpoint and get to the Scribbler before him. Mokmurian's army now includes stone giants, frost giants, ogres (most of hook mountain), human mercenaries, and the 'best' pirate fleet that a stone giant can buy in Riddleport. Magnimar is in full war mode. They've hired the entire Order of the Nail mercenary compliment to try and save the city and drummed up as many soldiers as they can. Most of the villages on the Lampblack have fallen. So the group is in the exact same position it was before but with cohort Nualia. To top matters off they have just seen an image of Arianne appear on the wall above the altar clearly conveying that Arianne should not make the wish. Lamashtu (me) is playing the long game here and flipping a coin. When they reach the Leng Device Arianne will have the option of telling her younger self not to make the wish or to just go on as things currently are. Meanwhile in the upcoming dungeon and in every chance I get I will be playing up Nualia as being WORTH saving. The most caring heartfelt and brave person I can manage. It will become readily apparent that she cares about Arianne as a sister (or more) and will frequently take risks to help her. Thus I will have the heartfelt moment where Nualia asks, "What is this? What are these images? Clearly this is one of Karzoug's tricks?! Please don't make me go back to being that thing?" If Arianne chooses not to stop the wish, she will receive the mark of Lamashtu and be subjected to constant whispers and nightmares her soul effectively belonging to the mother of monsters the hope being that this will ultimately derail the group from stopping Karzoug or at least put a corrupted Arianne in a position to seize the power and wealth of Xin Shalast. Thanks guys for all the help. I hope my game doesn't fall apart because of these decisions. :) EDIT: I actually cleared this turn of events with the group (which I technically didn't need to do) and they were all pretty onboard with it.
Oh, sorry about that. I answered way too quickly on my rush out the door. Let me address them. 1.) I would say that yeah she has room for it. She did some horrible things but after their short banter, and finding out what actually happened to drive Nualia to evil made Arianne genuinely feel for her. Even in her new Glabrezu form. 2.) Arianne is a watch sergeant of sand point and a follower of Sarenrae. She is neutral good but desperately strives toward law. She often makes attempts to try and reach out to creatures, sometimes in jest and sometimes honestly to try and offer them another option. It doesn't usually work. She's also a cavalier that is oath bound to protect Sandpoint at all costs. 3.) Yeah it was a total typo. 4.) Actually the redemption thing might be a sticking point for her character because when Nualia went into negatives in their original fight Arianne didn't make an attempt to take her into custody. She immediately chopped off her head (received a wrath pt) in retribution for the torture she suffered. I actually really like Latrecis' idea but something tells me that my players are the kind of people who would kind of get up in arms about it. Of course so few of them are actually remnants of the original group that being put out by erasing all of their work wouldn't be a huge issue.
If I were to be VERY cruel what she originally said was, "I wish I could have helped you." If I had been strict on that things would be much more cut and dry. Arianne would have immediately switched alignments and started attacking the group. When I realized what she said, "I'll allow you to clarify exactly what you said," to be fair to her.
So, my players have made it to the fifth part of the path and last night they descended toward the first dungeon. I'm going to spoiler the rest but I would welcome any GM advice on this matter. The Wish: Last night the group descended toward the Scribbler's Shrine to find out what had happened to a group of adventurers recommended by Ameiko and hired by Belor to investigate strange sounds. They got some info from them about the individual adventurers and then descended into the sinkhole.
About the time they encountered the Scribbler he managed to perhaps ask two questions before the wizard dispelled the constant fog effect on in the halls. This angered The Scribbler who immediately dim doored away and started casting buffs. Moving forward they notice a naked female figure laying on the floor of the temple of Lamashtu wearing a mask. Very concerned about ambush no matter how many times she yelled for help they were hesitant until the sound of approaching howls from the south drove them to action. The naked woman is non-other than the Glabrezu using her veil ability. Also, in a plot twist, the glabrezu is the long dead Nualia. When Lamashtu had to decide which of her loyal servants to send the chaos inherent in the goddess couldn't resist. The fighter/cavalier and Nualia have bad history since Arianne was tortured by her when she was captured in the first book. Banter ensues. Then I heard the words that every DM prays to hear when running a glabrezu, "I wish.." I asked her to clarify exactly what she said to the Glabrezu/Nualia and this what I got. So here I am asking you folks on the boards for a bit of wish help: "I wish you had not not had to suffer at the hands of your father and that you had found a better way, from my viewpoint, of dealing with your problems that had lead you down a righteous path and away from evil." What twists would you put on this wording? What do you think?
I would actually consider it useful as a wizard or wizard/martial hybrid when at the higher levels. Combine it with mobility and quicken spell and you can take one swing at an enemy, move out of combat, and then fire off a spell all in the same round. Of course that's from a GM perspective. I used the tactic in a certain boss level single target fight in RotRL. A good option for a magus perhaps?
Have the new PC replace Orik and decide to switch sides when the group starts working their way into the lower levels. Of course, when I had to do it I did what JohnHawkins suggested. Sgt. Oreseeker was on her way to Sandpoint for assignment when she was captured by Brathazmus and a goblin raiding party. Tortured by Nualia etc. It worked out very nicely.
I would second the suggestion of using the Monster Codex. If you are running something scripted take that tired group of standard ogres and turn them into a pack of human hunting, baby jam making, elites who are aren't anything like typical ogres. Last week I had my group in a AP fight where I made sure to note that the single target encounter had a piece of very valuable treasure strapped to his back and use of AOE attacks would severely damage it. There is nothing a party of players hates more than losing loot and used sparingly it's an effective tool to make a combat more interesting/difficult. Are they good characters? The village is being attacked! Someone spotted a group of monsters making off with a cart FULL of loot. They can only make one encounter. Which one will it be? Swarms.
166. GM: You arrive at the dark and gloomy seaside abbey. There is the abbey itself, a storage building, a carriage house, an old well... Players: We go in the well! GM: What? Why would anyone in their right mind... Players: Let's go in the well you guys! Can we climb down the rope? GM: Yes...
So far there is one thing that I do regret adding and I'm considering ways to just make it go away.. The Valdemars: When we started the game one of the players was a younger member of the Valdemar family. Her position as Sandpoint 'nobility' was played up quite a bit and when it came time for the Skinsaw Man to fawn over someone it was her.
Shortly after book two the player had to leave the game so Wendy returned to Magnimar to help manage her struggling family. It was around this time that I read Magnimar City of Monuments and had the bright idea to factor in the Valdemar's dark family secret. Now whenever the group deals with Magnimaran nobility they encounter her as a kind of liaison. I made her completely different in appearance and manner to reflect her new condition. It made them all very suspicious and nearly derailed the game as they were so desperately interested in finding out what happened to their friend. And yet, whenever they return to Magnimar for some reason I choose Wendy as they person they encounter for dealing with the upper levels of government. I suppose I could just send her on an ocean trading trip and have them deal with someone else.
Mistakes: Don't wanna see me gripe about my DMing failures. Scroll down to the bold for a recounting of my group's last session.
My group's last session was a lesson, perhaps on the pains of trying to rewrite elements of the campaign to suit myself. First off, things have slowed down considerably since we began the sixth book. It might have started in the latter part of book five but my obsession with being prepared has me working to keep track with every aura, spell, and special ability that might affect the PC's. This slows things down. Deciding that the Villains have pre-knowledge of the group (namely the paladin's smiting bow) and have taken steps to all memorize wind wall has slowed things down. Changing the death effects of Renchurch that required smiting a haunt and then taking the character's soul out of the cathedral for raising to the appearance of a minor reaper when a character goes into negatives. This slows things down. The fact that I'm going kind of hard on a group that is predominately made of fairly new players kind of slows things down. There's probably more. Dreaming After the events of last session where the group saved Kendra and killed the Gray Friar they were all eager to get out of my demiplane and back to Golarion. I gave them a one use item that would plane shift / greater teleport them anywhere they want. They used it and returned to Absalom. The group spent a large chunk of the session doing their final bout of buying and selling. They received some exposition from Kendra who informed them of her story of being carted around and abused since the beginning of the game. A few tid-bits:
2.) She revealed a (my) massive plot twist that Adivion had spent years and years lying to the Whispering Way so that he could get the ingredients he needed and drink the Carrion Crown formula himself. He intends to use his new found power (which he is certain he can control) to return the monarchy to full control in Ustalav and then expand his beloved nation. He had abducted Kendra with no intention of ever actually sacrificing her. 3.) Adivion is waiting for a sizable army to gather at Gallowspire before drinking the Elixir and taking control of it. This gave the group 10 days to prepare. After the ten days (and completing what was likely their last bout of buying and selling Avram, the archer paladin of Abadar, payed a 1000 gold for a huge feast and celebration giving the group a last hurrah before their possible deaths. After the dinner they retired to their inn's rooms. During the night they awoke in different environs. They were in the rooms of Kendra's house back in Ravengro. Going downstairs they exited to the porch to find Tar-Baphon himself waiting for them. Witty banter was exchanged. He made it clear that they should just give up and that there was no way that the 'idiotic child' Adivion would succeed in a battle of wills with him. He was coming back. Just wait and see. Finally he revealed that they were in fact dreaming. He ended it with the line, "If sleeping for nearly five hundred years has allowed me to so casually slip into your dreams... Imagine what it has allowed me to do with my own." They awoke to screams downstairs and ran down to find the tavern under attack by various incorporeal forms of Tar-Baphon at different stages of his life. As the wizard descended the stairs the animate dreams turned their most powerful ability on him and killed him where he stood. This immediately summoned a Minor Reaper that intended to get the wizard's soul before he could be raised back to life. What followed was a very long fight, predominately on the stairwell of an Absalom inn with characters who had no time to armor themselves (another mistake I think). The group was victorious although they suffered HEAVY losses. After three minor reapers had been summoned, one of whom had been killed the remaining two departed with the sunrise. After defending her door through most of the fight, the rogue discovered Kendra still sleeping. When the last of the animate dreams were killed she sat up in shock, and revealed that she had had a dream where she had tried to murder the group. Yeah, if they had woken her up it would have ended the encounter. Of course if they had tried I would have had at least one of the dreams float up there to guard the sleeping Kendra. The group left the inn with all haste to avoid questioning by the local authorities and went to a local druid. They hired him to reincarnate the wizard who emerged a female grippli (much confused). Next session the group intends to teleport to Lastwall (Vigil I suppose) to drop off Kendra in the safe hands of the Knights of Ozem, before going on to Gallowspire.
There's a new-ish game by Burning Wheel called Torchbearer that's very much in the vein of the old school. A few of my friends have noted that it's a little too heavy on the inventory management but otherwise pretty deadly and gritty. I intend to give it a try when one of my three Pathfinder games end.
Name of PC: Si
The Gory Details: The group had recently saved Kendra before the grey friar could complete his ritual to prepare her to become the Whispering Tyrant. Retreating to Absalom for buying and selling and exposition they were prepared to head to Gallowspire after 10 days. Following a feast and party that might be their last they retired to their inn to have a dream where Tar-Baphon visited them at Kendra's house and threatened them etc.. They awoke to find the Animate Dreams attacking the inn. Si got the first initiative and immediately charged down the stairs to find eight animate dreams looking at him. They went next. All eight of them used their phantasmal killer on him. By virtue of a card he got six of them to burn their valuable ability before dropping dead. The party bested the Animate Dreams in a VERY tough battle. They reincarnated him (and I used an alternate reincarnation table) to make him a female grippli. Between this game and my RotRL it's starting to feel like I kill a character every week.
Going with the assumption that he has cast Spectral Hand I would say that I would allow it to work. Assuming the wizard is high enough level to affect that much square footage of material (up to 40 cu feet at 20th). Note: If the net is made out of wire it also could do considerable constriction damage as it shrunk around the people stuck in it... or that's how I would house rule it.
Ah, it is possible that the version of that 'NPC' is different in my game. I used a variant version from the boards and since I haven't looked at Book 4 in months I just assumed that they have the same abilities. The others do have very good points though. There is a huge chapel to Pharasma (the largest in Golarion I think) in the place you are going next. Have your DM suggest that if the cleric is troubled about the decision have him/her seek out higher council among the faith.
Ok... with as little spoilers as I can manage. There is an 'NPC' that is very closely allied with Pharasma in Book 4. (Your GM will know why I put quotation marks around that NPC) Tell him to have that NPC rationalize it to the cleric. Essentially it's, "You can fight these undead now and make things harder for yourself or begrudgingly listen to them and take out something FAR worse down the line. We can always hunt them down later." A commune or other way of contacting Pharasma would convey the same information. Also by 'using' them to accomplish your mission vital tactical information could be gathered for later taking them out. There is another way to accomplish the goal. It is very boring but there is a way.
1.) I did some checking when I ran the encounter. I believe that is her necromancer ability to command undead. 2.) I let a member of the party run her. Once they saved the Black Arrows she stayed out with them to protect them while they cleared the house. 3.) I actually had to beef up the encounters. I gave Mammy another level and had her dim door outside and fly around raising all her dead sons into zombies. By the time the party had got outside she was invisible and hiding in the corn field. 4.) As far as the Grauls go I didn't really have them get involved. When offered healing they told the group that they would need it more than them and then gave them as much info as they could to take down Mammy. 5.) I was really appreciative of ... Gluttony's (I think it was Gluttony who came up with it) idea to make Crowfood and Hucker more rogue-like. I believe it was mentioned in the 'Things you regret/are glad you changed thread'. Basically Crowfood gets improved drag to grab a passing player/shalelu and drag them into the corn to mutilate them and then uses spring attack/sneak attack to chop them up. Hucker Graul with an oil of deeper darkness and blind-fight was amazing for my group. They were terrified of him and revolted by the entire place which they burned to ashes after it was over. EDIT: Special kudos that the poster that suggested having Hucker Graul roam around the house stealthed behind the party resetting all the traps.
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