TyroAmberhelm's page

My players and I have been playing a 5th edition campaign alongside our Shackled City campaign. We are growing to love 5th edition and growing increasingly more annoyed at the crunch of Pathfinder/3.5.

Has anyone started converting SCAP to 5th edition yet?
Any advice?

I always though that Saureya was an odd NPC and also that Alakast was pretty lame for a legendary weapon.

I was toying with the idea of making Alakast an intelligent weapon inhabited by the soul of a celestial. Alakast would be Nidrama's brother and like Nidrama, he was charged with protecting the realm around Cauldron.

Alakast would only be able to speak on Occipitus. So when the party got there he would "awaken" and take on the role of Saureya.

The only problem I'm having is coming up with a backstory as to how and why the celestial came to inhabit the weapon. Also reconciling that story with how he helped Adimarchus engineer the Test of the Smoking Eye.

I though perhaps that, like Nidrama, Alakast was not allowed to directly intervene with the mortal realm. As a way to skirt that law, he volunteered to inhabit the weapon. Since he cannot speak and is being controlled by a PC, he is helping to protect the realm without directly intervening.

I also think Alakast is a little weak. Bane is pretty good. (+2 and extra 2d6dam to evil outsiders) But I'm considered making the weapon +3 vs Nabthatorn and possibly Adimarchus. I am also considering having the weapon morph to the weapon of choice of whoever wields it. (seriously...who uses a quarterstaff?) The weapon would permanently take that form once it's attuned.

I thought this added some much needed flavor to Alakast and also eliminated an odd (imo) NPC.

I do need your guys help coming up with a good backstory though.....Any Thoughts?

I've come up with a custom magic item in my game and am just looking for some feedback particularly if you guys think this is too OP for an unchained rogue 5 / magus 3

+1 Rapier

3 levels of spell storing (3-1st, 1-1st and 1-2nd, OR 1 3rd)
He can use these spells per the Magus spell strike ability

He can also throw the weapon and trigger the spells per the Magus spellstrike ability. The weapon boomerangs back to him.

He can also choose to trigger ALL of the spells at once. (1 or all)

The weapon has a bit of a backstory and he is a pretty unpredictable character so I was considering making the weapon "broken" somehow or adding some kind of Wild Magic feature to it. I was thinking this would offset the power of the weapon.

For flavor ideas, the weapon was created by a gnome earth wizard.

What do you think? Too OP? any other cool ideas?

I'm just starting Demonskar Legacy and I'm just curious as to how everyone's post Siege of Redgorge Campaign fleshed out.

Was the siege successful?
Did Skelllerang survive?
Is your Skellerang a bad guy?
If he survived did he turn good?
Did he still retain control of the Town guard?
If not, who did?

Did The Blue Duke survive?
What happens with all the Half-orcs?

What was the situation in Cauldron like?

etc, etc, etc.

I'm asking these questions because the Siege of Redgorge is kind of like an event horizon to me. I just have no idea what the setting is going to look like after that.

An act of war against a neighboring city is KIND OF a big deal, and the hardcover barely glosses over it.

I am currently planning on running Test of the Smoking Eye after the siege so that will be a good distraction, but how did all of this play out with everyone else?

I need to capture 2 PC's in my game. A Cleric and a Ranger, both 8th level.

I will be using an assortment of Rogues, Assassins, and possibly a wizard if necessary. All 14ish level. It will occur in a city and probably during the day.

My players are very clever, number crunchy, and definitely OP. They will definitely call me out on any DM fudges/shenanigans. I am worried they will escape and/or kill the kidnappers.

This cannot happen. I need to guarantee this capture.

Any suggestions or tactics?

I need to capture 2 PC's in my game. A Cleric and a Ranger, both 8th level.

I will be using an assortment of Rogues, Assassins, and possibly a wizard if necessary. All 14ish level. It will occur in a city and probably during the day.

My players are very clever, number crunchy, and definitely OP. They will definitely call me out on any DM fudges/shenanigans. I am worried they will escape and/or kill the kidnappers.

This cannot happen. I need to guarantee this capture.

Any suggestions or tactics?

I want to do the Capture of the Shackleborn Character foreshadowing idea as described on the rpgenius pages Here.

I need ideas for how to guarantee this capture. My players are all very number crunchy & OP and I'm worried they will escape. They will definitely call me out if I use any DM fudges.

My plan is to get the party Cleric & Ranger alone and attempt to capture them with Jil, Finch, Last laugh thugs, & possibly Thifirane. Whoever it takes to get this done in a way that they don't escape and none of the major villains die.

The characters will be 8th level when I plan this.

Any suggestions?

I'm running a campaign, and I have a player who wants to repec his 6th level rogue to an Unchained rogue.

How much different are these classes?
Would it be game-breaking?
Should I let him do it?

There are so many Aushanna TPK stories on this message board why not add mine?

There hasn't been a TPK yet but realistically it should happen so I'm looking for advice on how to get the party out of this mess.

We are playing Pathfinder and all the monster have been converted via the help of someone on this messageboard.
The party:
Half-Orc Warpriest 6
Human Cleric 6
Human Swashbuckler 6
Elf Hunter 6
Goblin rogue 5 / magus 1

IF YOU ARE ONE OF MY PLAYERS GO AWAY!!!

Through some negotiations/RP gone wrong 7 Kuo-Toa Warriors were left dead and the temple is on alert. Cherrit and White-eye have "escaped.” Garrak the Mummy is also dead.

Fast forward to when the party entered the main shrine room...

They entered through the main doors on the middle level. They didn’t really kick down the door, they were semi-prepared. They knew they were heading towards an encounter because one of the Kuo-Toas escaped through this door to alert the clerics. They cast a few buffs, but they probably could have cast more. The Kuo-Toas imeadiately unleashed a readied lightning bolt.

The cleric, warpriest and swashbuckler managed to get down to the lower level quickly to engage the clerics. While the rogue and hunter attacked the warriors from the middle level with ranged weapons.
I underestimated the lightning bolt, I thought it was going to be weak considering that all four priests use their standard action to cast it. It was pretty effective though. I was able to hit the warpriest and the swashbuckler 3 times as the battle unfolded. The kuo-toa clerics also cast shield of faith and their scrolls of bear’s endurance on themselves.

The party just could not break through the clerics AC’s (31 after buffs), and it took them too long to figure this out, not giving them a chance to try straight spell damage or something similar (wands, etc.) Not to mention their arcane casting abilities are practically non-existent. It started to look grim, and by round 7 they decided to run.

The rogue and the hunter, who were on the middle level, ran through the main doors and toward the exit of the temple. The Kuo-toa Warriors are chasing them. The rogue is fine, but the hunter took quite a bit of damage when the warriors decided to close on him with their spears. (I switched from rapiers to spears, because frogmen with rapiers seemed stupid.) He is down to 10ish HP.

The cleric cast obscuring mist and her, the warpriest, and the swashbuckler all ran through the main doors on the lower level. EWWWW…Bad choice, but there weren’t really any other options. Now they are currently in the part of the dungeon with Hlanamm the spearmaster to the east, Dhorlot to the west and the wraith to the south and NOWHERE else to go. The swashbuckler and the warpriest are down to 10ish hp and the cleric is full. The warpriest opened the door to the wraith chamber and that’s where we left the session.

So the party is split. Rogue and near dead hunter are on the entrance stairway with 5 Koa-toa warriors right behind them. Cleric, near dead warpriest, and near dead swashbuckler are about to walk into the wraith’s chambers.

Being only 7 rounds into combat Aushanna has not even appeared yet. They are only vaguely aware that something is happening because of a glowing point of light they spotted where Aushanna is going to materialize. And of course there is still Mangh-Mictho who is fully armored and full buffed by this time. He was going to make his appearance when Aushanna was completely summoned. If the party had not been spanked by the mooks.

SOOOOOOOO…..

They are kinda screwed. Realistically Aushanna would hunt them down and kill the three in the lower level, probably with the help of Mangh, the priests, and Hlanamm. I’m pretty confident the rogue and the hunter could escape and hide from the warriors. I could also easily argue that since they are out of the temple they are no longer an obligation to Aushanna. So I will softly rule that they are safe. The problem is what to do with the other 3. I am a nice DM. I don’t like to kill characters. I don’t think it’s fun for anyone. But realistically those 3 are goners. So I’m looking for some ideas on how to help them make a dangerous and exciting, but realistic escape.

I have several options available to me:

1. I could write-in an alternate exit, but that's kind of boring

1. I could ditch the wraith and Hlanamm. This would give them a little breathing room to heal up.

2. I could weaken the wraith, perhaps draining a level but making it an easy turn undead for the cleric. (But also the pit trap. Sheesh this dungeon is HELL.)

3. White-eye and Cherrit are still MIA. The rogue freed them from their cells during the first battle with the Kuo-toa warriors. They just ran and escaped. The party did not get a chance to talk to them so they are unaware of any motivations the prisoners might have had. I could even make them good and try to help the rogue and the hunter on a rescue mission.

4. Another idea is that the party could somehow convince Dhorlot to help them. I don’t think Dhorlot is that invested in his alliance with the Kuo-Toa’s other than the breeding program. He might be convinced to help them. It’s a stretch but not impossible.

5. My last idea I got from another Aushanna tale told here. It’s your classic deal with the devil trope. She could negotiate with the 3 trapped characters. If they can destroy the statue of Blibdoolpoolp then she is free from servitude to the Kuo-Toas and she would go away and leave the party alone. The hitch is she STILL IS obligated to kill them per her contract. I can imagine a tense RP exchange between her and the 3 characters discussing the details of this new deal, via telepathy, all the while she is still hunting them down and trying to kill them. HA. BUT…..If they can survive for 10 minutes she will be summoned back to hell and they’ll have a chance to escape and destroy the statue on another foray. She might even reveal this fact to them. The drama is increased by the fact that she is negotiating with 2 good priests and the swashbuckler who, unbeknowest to the rest of the party, is half-celestial. (Aasimar)

PHEW. Any thoughts? My players LOVE dealing with encounters in creative ways other than hack and slash. Especially the swashbuckler and rogue. They love to sneak, crash through windows, jump on the backs of monsters, collapse tunnels, set clever and daring traps. Anything is game with these guys as long as it’s dangerous and exciting. This is actually an ideal situation for them. Lol

I was just wondering if the Gargantuan Red Dragon will come back in print?

http://paizo.com/products/btpy9bep?Pathfinder-Battles-Dungeons-Deep-Gargant uan-Red-Dragon

Cited below are the rules for the Kuo-Toa Whip's lightning bolt ability.

"Lightning Bolt (Su): Two or more kuo-toa clerics (whips) operating together can generate a stroke of lightning every 1d4 rounds. The whips must join hands to launch the bolt but need only remain within 30 feet of one another while it builds. The resulting lightning bolt deals 1d6 points of damage per whip, but a successful Reflex save halves this amount (DC 11 + highest Wisdom modifier among the participating whips + number of whips)."

My question is:
Does this count as a standard action for ALL Kuo-toas involved?
Or can they each release their own lightning bolt?
Or does one Kuo-toa release the bolt, while the others are free to take their own standard actions?

It seems pretty weak if it counts as a standard action for all of them.

Kuo-Toas: http://d20npcs.wikia.com/wiki/Kuo-Toa,_Whip_(Cleric_2),_CR_4

I need a Alchemist/Wizard level 15ish for an NPC in a campaign I'm running.

Is there some place I can go where people will volunteer to build this character for me?

I'm not very good at optimizing and I want her fully optimized for combat.

Details to come if I find someone to do it.

Can a beholder aim it's anti-magic eye forward and still shoot it's rays to the left, right and/or behind?

How about a mini for the Cagewright leader?

The transition from chapter 5:Demonskar Legacy to Chapter 6:Test of the Smoking Eye is a little odd and a little vague.

The end of Chapter 5 says the players are stranded in the middle of a desert 500 miles from Cauldron. It offers many suggestions on how to return and states that they should return in order to stop the Redgorge invasion.

The beginning of Chapter 6 places them in that same desert and getting rescued by Kauraphon. Despite the fact that they were supposed to go back and stop the invasion.

How did you other DM's handle this transition?
I plan on using the Redgorge invasion write-up at the rpgenius site.

When did you plan the redgorge invasion?
Did the players stop it?
Before or after The Test of the Smoking Eye?
If before, how did you introduce Kauraphon?

Like I said, the transition is so odd and vague and stilted and railroady.
It's just weird.

In foreshadowing one of the cagewrights my players are already super suspicious of one of the villians and it's only the end of chapter 3. It's kind of disappointing. In their defense I may have gone a little too far with his actions. But what's done is done.

I've considered making the NPC not a villain to surprise them, but I'm not sure. Maybe finding a way to relieve the suspicion somehow?

What have other DM's done in a case like this.

What did everyone use as a Mini for our beloved BBEG?

Will this talent also spot dangerous sigils, Glyphs, or any other "non-trap" trap?

Does the -5 to additional attacks made with a full attack action apply to monsters?

If so is this penalty reflected in their beastiary stats or do I have to subject 5 from the stats that are listed?

Has anyone come up with a good event for Fighting back the floods after the wands of Control Water are found?

I can't find any good ideas hear on the boards. And I'm not sure how to handle it in a way that isn't lame.

The chapter does say that the Smoking Eye Template is required to defeat Adimarchus, but other then that the chapter does seem a little pointless.

Did anyone else have any cool ideas to make this chapter a little more meaningful?

I've built quite an extensive Shackled City Wiki on Obsidian Portal.
I'm pretty proud of it, but you know players, they could give a s###. LOL.

So this is for other Shackled City DMs

****SPOILER ALERT******
https://the-city-of-cauldron.obsidianportal.com/

Has anyone had any experience with party members making a serious attempt to infiltrate the Last Laugh?

How did you deal with it? Preferably without railroading.

I am running the AP with 4 pathfinder characters.
Cleric
Warpriest
Alchemist
and Rouge

I figured that since PF characters tend to be more powerful than 3.5 characters that I would just run monsters with 3.5 stats and that would balance out the problem with only having a party of 4 and not six.

And also solve the problem with me not wanting to be bothered with doing the conversions.

I also gave them the max point buy and full HP at every level.

Has anyone else done this? Am I wrong in my thinking. How necessary is do the conversion anyways?

Has anyone created any Full scale combat maps for the shackled City dungeons?

perhaps in the Catographer software?

Did anyone have a party who got into a MAJOR brawl with the Stormblades?

My party has convinced themselves the Stormblade are evil it in their heads and they wanna take them out something fierce. I'm predicting some heavy action going down at the Demonskar Ball.

How did other DM's deal with MAJOR antagonism towards the Stormblades? The parties reputation and such? And not have the campaign go seriously wrong.

Last night my session ended with the party throwing there arms up at how to get into the door covered with Brown mold. They think the wands are in there. Either way I need them to get in because I want to play Shensen as the sixth party member. They tried using burning hands and it blasted back at them of course.

Any ideas on how to clue them in? What knowledge check would be required? What kinda hints should I give? They were stumped and the game ended slightly sour.

What's up with the Half Dragon-Minotaur, Zarik Dhor?

Did anyone else think that this was just random and lacking no significance to anything?

And How the hell is Zarik going to know who killed his father? It's not like the town is going to let this bizarre and monstorous creature wander the town investigating his father's killers.

I don't know about this one...

What I was thinking of doing is playing up Dhorlot as kind of an eccentric pervert trying to "knock-up" everything. While the PC's are searching for Jared, they will find corpses of Half Red/Half Black wyrmlings. These will be the spawn of Gotrod's mate who was somehow pregnated by Dhorlot. Gotrod killed his mate, found the spawn, killed them, and now he's out for Dhorlot.

Then I'll expand Dhorlot's lair a little. (Not sure he how he got into that tiny room anyway) and include a chamber of some of his "less succesful" cross-breeds. Mutated, derilect, and basically left for dead.

I don't know, It's a side plot that's insignificant but I thought it might side a little more depth and perhaps some humor.

I have read thoroughly through chapter four. And have not really found any good reason or source of Terseon Skellerang's coruption.

At what point does he go from hiring the adventurer's to go kill goblins and a vampire, to supporting the use of half-orc mercanaries and a corrupt government.

I ask because my party is finishing up Chapter 2 and have charmed Xoden. They have discovered that Drakthar's Way is a mercanary smuggling route for "The Duke" (Blue Duke) And I can only assume that they will report this to Terseon.

How much does Terseon know at this point?
How much does he reveal?
How should he act when the PC's report this?

How did others handle this...I don't want to give away too much

Can someone link or give me the stats for Sasserine?
Particularly the population and Gold Piece Limit.
I need them for Shackled City and they are not in the book.

Thanks in advance

Can someone link or give me the stats for Sasserine?
Particularly the population and Gold Piece Limit.
I need them for Shackled City and they are not in the book.

Thanks in advance

Can someone link or give me the stats for Sasserine?
Particularly the population and Gold Piece Limit.
They are not in the SCAP.

Thanks in advance

I have I couple evil charecters in my campaign who are thinking about acting on their evil tendencies. Things such as: Slitting keygan's throat. Holding members of the Stormblades for randsom (at the very least killing them). ETC. ETC.

Just curious about other DM's experiences with evil patty members and how the dealt with them. The last thing I want is for the party to be thrown in prison and have the campaign come to a screeching halt.

Share your stories and advice if you could.

In the beginning of chapter 4 it says that the Cagewrights have 12 of the 13 shackleborn and Zenith is the last.

Nowhere before that does it say when Terrem is taken for the ritual. Unless I just totally missed something.

My PC's discovered the sign and are keeping VERY close tabs on Terrem.
So I need a way to handle this.

We are just starting 2:Drakthar's Way.

I'm thinking of making Skie one of the Striders of Fharlanghn. A retired adventurer still, but their eyes and ears of Cauldron, up until their visit. She and Meethran will be the party's source of crafting magic.

Is there anything in the campaign past Chapeter 5 that should keep me from doing this?

Forgive me, I have only read up to Chapter 5 and We are just starting 2:Drakthar's Way.