Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber. Organized Play Member. 1,885 posts (1,929 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 2 Organized Play characters. 1 alias.
One experienced player/GM seeking group in or near Tucson, Arizona. I am in Sahuarita. I can host, but 4WD is recommended to reach me.
I'm a Grognard who's been playing RPGs for ~33 years. I'd prefer to get a Pathfinder game going, but I'm open to D&D 5E or Starfinder. I have a lot of experience as a GM and can run a game if needed. I ran a World's Largest Dungeon campaign for several years that I'd like to continue in some form if anyone is interested.
You should look into starting a group on Fantasy Grounds and using discord for the game. Not quite as much fun as gathering around a table but still enjoyable.
I may have to go to an online game. It seems like COVID and D&D5E tag teamed Pathfinder and ran all of the PF players out of town here.
I'm retired. That's how I am. At least, temporarily. I retired from active duty, moved out to the desert and started attending college after taking about 27 consecutive gap years. I haven't played Pathfinder in a few years now, so I'm hoping to get a group together soon.
My last post here was back in 2017. I don't think 2E was quite out yet. I was in the Arctic several times and once passed by Santa's Village outside of Fairbanks. I never encountered this would-be sock-simian conqueror. That must be something new.
Some of you may be remember me from campaigns such as The World's Largest Dungeon or that time I asked who would win in a fight between Milkman Dan and Reid Fleming. It's been a minute since I last posted here, but I've finished my exile in the forsaken tundra of Alaska and completed a 20-year career serving in the U.S. Coast Guard. I've traded snow and grizzly bears for dust and coyotes, and I'd like to get back to gaming now that I'm not living on the lifeless frontier of Cania.
I'm currently looking for a group in or around Tucson, Arizona, if you know anybody. Either way, I just wanted to say "hey," and "what did I miss?"
One experienced player/GM seeking group in or near Tucson, Arizona. I am in Sahuarita. I can host, but 4WD is recommended to reach me.
I'm a Grognard who's been playing RPGs for ~33 years. I'd prefer to get a Pathfinder game going, but I'm open to D&D 5E or Starfinder. I have a lot of experience as a GM and can run a game if needed. I ran a World's Largest Dungeon campaign for several years that I'd like to continue in some form if anyone is interested.
It's also a campaign that I've been running for approximately 8 years and one that is roughly 3/4 completed. I can understand some apprehension or being a little intimidated by jumping into the middle of a campaign with a Level 14 character when you don't know the GM or if you don't usually get to play in high-level games. And, I can totally relate to having real life obligations interfere with gaming. It's just a little off-putting to hear there are 10 players competing to get into a 6-player campaign on another night but then hear crickets when you mention you have a campaign with plenty of seats available.
Hey everyone. I hate to say it, but I don't think I'm going to get this campaign running again before I leave Juneau.
I've been here a year now and I'm finding that, like most of the people who live in this town, Juneau's small gaming community seems very insular and isn't very trusting of outsiders. The "group" I managed to scrape together consisted of two people from work who are unable commit to a regular game and a third guy who's flaked out every time and doesn't return emails. I'm only going to be stationed here for, maybe, another year so, at this point, I'm not sure continuing the campaign in Juneau is even worth it.
Maybe I'll look into Roll20 or another online method of running the campaign but, until then, the World's Largest Dungeon is, unfortunately, locked down and guarded by terrible monsters covered in templates.
If you can find a copy, Dragon Magazine #307 contained a big section on Westeros as a campaign world. The article included basic information about the geography, religions and history and contained stats for a few of the major characters.
Simmer down there, Hot Rod. I'm not saying post-CRB material was at fault for anything. All I mean is I probably would have had more fun had we gone into this campaign with abilities the GM was better prepared to challenge. Trying to keep up with every new class, feat and spell can be pretty difficult for someone with a busy life outside of gaming, and it's going to be harder for someone just getting into the game.
I love a lot of the stuff that came out after the Core Rules. I'm not knocking it in any way. All I'm saying is NASA doesn't hand the keys to the space shuttle* to a 10-year-old on her second day at Space Camp.
Anyway, Horrid Wilting actually, technically, is on Svevnka's spell list. It's the level 8 Ice Domain spell. I looked up her stats and saw that she has the Ice domain and access to 8th level spells so, while it isn't listed as prepared, it seems she could have it if the GM gives it to her. With 316 pts from the magus + ~40 pts from Horrid Wilting, that's almost enough to drop Karzoug. I'm thinking the Planetar must have done something that actually hurt Karzoug for another 30+ damage and I just don't remember what it used.
* I'm fully aware the space shuttle doesn't have keys. Obviously, psychic whales trained at the Naval War College launch it with pixie dust, happy thoughts and the miraculous power of prayer.
A while back I wandered through Riften and found my way into a neighborhood for homeless people located in a section of the sewer below town. The neighborhood would have been quaint except that some cretin had been in there littering the floor with things like bottles of wine, tomatoes and cabbage, iron cookwear, ratty cloth garments and shoes. As a thane of Riften I feel I have a duty to its people, so I tidied up their home by removing all of these meager possessions scattered around their sleeping area. I would have taken them to a local Goodwill, but there isn't one in Riften - a local jest of sorts that there is no "good will" to be found in there, ha ha! - so instead I did the next best thing: sold them to a merchant for some pocket change and bought some sweet rolls to reward myself for a good deed done. #keepskyrimclean
I once kind of did the exact opposite thing in Whiterun. I broke into every house and stole everything that wasn't nailed down. Then I stood at the top of the stairs leading up to Dragonsreach and systematically dropped every item, one at a time, until I had an asteroid belt of wooden plates, apples, brooms and other detritus floating around me. By the time I closed out my inventory and resumed the game, the rubbish clusterfork had so heavily taxed the graphics engine the game just gave up and crashed on me.
I tried again, but closed out my inventory after dropping every 12th item. Victory! I laughed mightily as every wave of garbage rolled down the stairs and into the city below. Any trash that landed behind me was scattered across the Dragonsreach bridge by my thu'um. After that, I just kind of avoided Whiterun. That city was a Divines damned mess.
The Planetar was indeed the bound angel from the tower. It apparently took a liking to the Paladin for reasons that were never revealed. I wasn't at the session where we acquired Svevenka, but I kept asking why she was with us and the GM didn't really have an answer beyond, "The party asked her if she wanted to join them."
The nymph did, maybe, 40 points of damage to Karzoug with her Horrid Wilting spell but, yeah, the magus basically vaporized the runelord in two rounds.
I'm not putting all the blame on post-CRB stuff. I know the GM wasn't knowledgeable enough or invested enough to tweak the encounters to match our abilities. I also know he either didn't read through all of the encounter conditions or abilities of the monsters. As an example, he decided it would be a great idea for one of the images of Karzoug to cast Mind Blank on the Magus because he assumed it was an offensive spell. When I told him what the spell did, he shrugged it off and let the call stand.
I also get that the GM didn't know the abilities of our party well enough to counter them...even after we pretty much telegraphed every move over dozens of fights. Clearly, his lack of preparation and skill had a huge impact on the campaign.
I know the writers couldn't have known what classes, abilities, etc. were going to be around several years later, and I'm not disappointed in the adventure as written. I also don't have a problem with new options for characters. It's just that it's kind of like playing Skyrim with mods. Sure, there are ways to make an immortal, invincible Dragonborn in vanilla Skyrim, but mods give you the option to make your character even more powerful while your enemies remain locked into the limitations of their programming. Maybe somebody out there has engineered a CRB-only wizard who can solo a competently played final encounter with Karzoug and his buddies, but it's so much easier to make an even more powerful wizard when you can Frankenstein a character together from a dozen new splatbooks that were published after the adventure was released.
I'm not really saying anything that isn't already obvious. I'm just saying that a fundamental flaw of these older adventures is that current character options allow players to so easily circumvent and outclass so many of the challenges that the adventures often need fairly extensive editing to present any sense of danger. A novice GM or even an experienced GM with a busy life may not have time to alter so many stat blocks.
It took awhile, but I finally managed to get into a RotRl campaign and we killed Karzoug last night. It was super disappointing.
It basically went like this: Party of Magus, Witch, Arcanist, Rogue, Paladin with Svevenka and a Planetar angel tagging along vs. Karzoug, Rune Giant, 2 Storm Giants, Adult Blue Dragon + 2 huge Magma Oozes the GM thought would increase the challenge.
Round 1:
Spell Dancer Magus casts Empowered/Maximized/Intensified Shocking Grasp and waits for his next turn
Karzoug casts meteor swarm, doing about 80~0 damage to us
Rogue moves closer to enemies
Svevenka casts Horrid Wilting and does about 80~40 points of damage to enemies
Hedge Witch/Herb Witch flies across chamber and uses Greater Share Skin to possess the blue dragon
Paladin moves closer to enemies
Planetar casts something useless, I don't remember it doing anything
Arcanist casts Form of the Dragon III, turns into a Red Dragon and flies across the room.
magma oozes flail uselessly at Arcanist, giants fail their attacks against Arcanist, Rogue and Paladin
Round 2:
Magus uses Dimensional Dervish to full attack Karzoug, scores four hits (two critical hits, one with the EMI Shocking Grasp,) deals 316 damage (I don't know how the damage was so high) and kills the Runelord.
Giants & oozes surrender, the end.
I felt really let down, but the entire campaign was like that. Every fight was over in 1-4 rounds. The witch or the magus probably could have soloed the entire campaign after they hit level 12. We got to the point where we were so sure of winning fights, the GM just skipped a bunch of encounters and said we killed everything. I'm sure a ton of it has to do with our GM's lack of experience (this was his first campaign,) but I can't help but think this campaign would have been a lot more fun if we had been restricted to CRB. Nothing we encountered seemed prepared to deal with the obscene levels of power creep unleashed after this adventure was written.
I know this is an old-ish thread, but it seemed like a good place to vent.
Look on ebay for Mage Knight Living Elementals, Oak Mages, Oak Warriors or Wood Golems. Their bases are wide enough for a large mini and you can usually get them for $3-$6.
If you are later brought back from the dead, the link between you and your surviving animal companion is reestablished automatically."
Since PF is an offshoot of 3.5, I generally default to 3.5 rules when I can't find a precedent in PF RAW. I've used the delayed loss of ability part of the rule above for familiars and animal companions in my campaigns and it's never been an issue.
Using this rule, I see no reason you couldn't teach your animal Serve and then have a fellow PC babysit your companion while the party is trying to get you raised. If you're never raised and the GM allows it, the party could adopt your animal companion as a pet but it would eventually lose all of its AniComp mojo.
I remember the first time the Companions tried to sucker me into becoming a werewolf with promises of a new shout. Too bad for them horses are the ultimate all-terrain vehicle. I put Frost into four-hoof drive and rode him up the side of that dumb mountain behind Ysgramor's tomb. We tackled the Throat of the World next. Those Greybeards were probably super pi55ed when they saw me riding up the mountain around their stupid windy arch.
The main quest for Dawnstar involving the plague of nightmares is such a slog. I always run straight to the end and skip as much of the dialogue as I can because it's so tedious. The invisible Khajit merchant inventory chest hidden next to Iron-Breaker Mine is kind of useful though and I do rather like the purple flame pajamas you can loot from the priests of Vaermina in Nightcaller Temple.
Sounds like you're dealing with a lot of abnormal factors. You've got an Animal type creature with an uncharacteristic INT score of 6 (Animals normally max out at INT 2 so I'm thinking it's an Animal Companion, Awakened or just hyper intelligent for an animal?) and it's too late for Wild Empathy because that's used for adjusting initial attitude, not attitude after several rounds of combat.
There's this bit from the SRD about Animals with greater than 2 INT:
"Even if an animal’s Intelligence increases to 3 or higher, you must still use the Handle Animal skill to direct the animal, as it is a smart animal rather than a low-intelligence person (using awaken is an exception—an awakened animal takes orders like a person). The GM should take the animal’s Intelligence into account when determining its response to commands or its behavior when it doesn’t have specific instructions. For example, an intelligent wolf companion can pick the weakest-looking target if directed to do so, and that same wolf trapped in a burning building might push open a door or window without being told."
Just a suggestion because it isn't RAW but, if the megaraptor is a super smart, non-awakened wild animal, I'd recommend combining the rules for Pushing a wounded animal and Rearing a Wild Animal. Set the DC at 25+2(for wounded condition)+HD because the dino is smart, wild and not generally likely to take orders from prey or a stranger. If the dino is Awakened, I'd just have it act according to its INT and nature and forgo the Handle Animal roll altogether. If it's another creature's Animal Companion, I'd toss in a +4 to the DC for Devotion unless the dino has learned the Exclusive trick (in which case, it's just going to do what it's been trained to do by its actual master.)
@lathira - I'm not sure if it's available for your platform, but the PS4 has a More Dragons mod. I had to shut it off after I noticed Elder Dragons attacking every town and city I visited every single time I exited a door or got anywhere near the grid section for the town. Also, every "random" encounter suddenly included a free elder dragon. However, it was pretty funny when I ran into the poor, homeless couple wandering the roads after their house was destroyed by a dragon just to have a dragon appear and kill them with fire. It was the like the dragon came back to finish the job.
If you ever tire of scrounging resources for homebuilding, you can always hire a steward and give them money for furniture shopping. You've got to have a completed structure before you can get a steward but, once you have a place to put all your stuff, the steward can go out and purchase all the furnishings for each of your rooms.
I recommend spellcasting stewards like Illia and Belrand because your steward will default to their starting armor when they aren't adventuring with you. That means they'll be at a defensive disadvantage if a dragon or bandits attack your home at higher levels. Illia makes up for her lack of proper armor with Ironflesh, Frost Cloak and blasting everything with Ice Storm. Belrand defaults to Iron Armor, but he has Stoneflesh, Ice Spike and Fast Healing. Eola, the cannibal Namira-worshipper from Markarth, and Brelyna from the Mage College aren't bad stewards either since they can summon Fire and Frost Atronachs. Problem is Brelyna's really squishy and getting Eola as a follower requires you to murder and eat a priest of Arkay. That might be a problem if you're playing a heroic Dragonborn.
Not sure how many people know this, but you can give your home better lighting by dropping torches all over the place. The torches won't usually be lit when you drop them but, if you leave the load area once or twice, you'll return to find everburning torches laying wherever you dropped them. Then you can just move them around with your grab command and set them up to provide more light. I like to drop them into kettles to create little firepots or drop of a bunch in my forge to create a bonfire effect.
One of my characters dropped some onto all the beds in the house and came home to find his wife and kids sleeping peacefully in the flames.
The everburning torches work everywhere so you can leave a trail of them or use them to mark locations. Sometimes, I'll just dump a bunch of them off a mountain and watch them roll and bounce downhill. Then I'll come back later to see where all the little flames are burning.
I'm still waiting for a Thundercats/Silverhawks/TigerSharks crossover. Any RPG setting about the Silverhawks should definitely include 3rd Earth and Water-O as locations with all the accompanying races and lore.
In one playthrough, I actually caught a bandit named Rochelle the Red and her gang in my house when they showed up to kidnap my wife. None of them lived to regret entering my home.
I've only actually had one spouse kidnapped so far. Vampires took my wife, Sylgja, to Cragwallow Slope, a cave of conjurers near Windhelm. Agmaer, a fellow Dawnguard member, accompanied me and Meeko into the cave where we exterminated the nest with extreme prejudice spilling grey matter and vampire fart dust with my Danwguard Warhammer and his pa's iron axe which I'd enchanted with fire magic.
The leader of the mages, a Master Conjurer, summoned a frost atronach to murder my helpless wife while she was tied up on the floor after he saw me shout his ally, a Master Vampire, into ash. Agmaer and Meeko were somewhere behind me slaying mooks, I needed more time to recharge my shout and equipping my crossbow would take too long so I had a choice to make: charge the atronach and pray I made it to my wife in time to save her or chase the fleeing conjurer and kill him to dispel his summoning magic.
As I began to sprint forward, I heard Meeko's excited barking over my shoulder. The dog was beat to hell, but he leapt from the tunnel behind me and somehow managed to corner the conjurer as I calved the atronach like a glacier.
I turned back to see Meeko cowering in front of the wizard, too wounded to continue to fight, and I drew my silver sword as I chased the conjurer up a flight of stairs. The wizard tried to drop another atronach between us as I closed the gap, but he was too slow and the creature appeared behind me. He blasted me with lightning as I slashed at him and, before he could heal himself, I grabbed his shoulder and forced his throat down onto my blade until he turned into a unicorn.
I cut Sylgja loose and the brave girl confidently told me she'd be okay to walk home alone, but I sent Meeko with her. I don't know if she's just a really good person or if she got a little Stockholm Syndrome but, while I was looting the cave, I found Sylgja kneeling next to a dead mage and commenting on how sad it was that he died.
If you're going to adopt, it's kind of hard to say no to Sofie, the orphan in Windhelm. She sleeps on a sheet of ice covering a stone tile at night and hustles flowers on the street all day to raise money for food. At least the orphan girl in Whiterun has some soft dirt to curl up on when she isn't begging for coins like some crusty street rat bumming cigarettes from tourists outside Pacific Place.
Your other options are the kids from the Riften Orphanage or a couple of boys working at the Solitude Stables and the Dawnstar Everywhere respectively. Seriously, the kid in Dawnstar has, like, 20 jobs he doesn't get paid for and sometimes (sometimes!) they let him sleep on the floor at the inn. You can usually find him running through town shouting for you to get out of his way.
As mentioned, you can give your kids daggers and wooden swords to play with. I like to enchant the weapons and coat them in poison before giving them to my kids. If your cellar is infested with skeevers, your heavily armed children might appear to help you kill them.
Sometimes, your kids will also bring home stray animals they want to keep or they'll ask to adopt your dog (if you have one.) So far, I've seen them adopt a bunny, a fox and a skeever. The pets won't leave your home, but the fox did help me and one of the kids kill the skeevers in the cellar.
A fun part of owning any of the steadings is the random encounters that can take place when you arrive home or leave your house. A giant might show up to kill your cow and chickens, bandits might try to rob your house or a dragon may attack you. If you leave your spouse alone at the house without a housecarl or steward to protect them, they might even get kidnapped and held for ransom.
Whirlwind Attack requires Combat Expertise, which you won't qualify for under normal circumstances. Probably better to just stick with Double Slice, Two-Weapon Rend, Imp. TWF, etc. since you're sticking with core feats.
For stats, you could also do something like this:
-7pt = Str 15
-7pt = Dex 17
-10pt = Con 16
0pt = Int 10
+2pt = Wis 8
+2pt = Cha 10
It's a little min/max, but we've established Belkar has a Wisdom deficiency and I think his high Handle Animal is more a result of generous dumping of skill points into it than a CHA bonus. If you spread your points between Acrobatics, Handle Animal, Perception, Stealth and Survival, you'll still have a few points left over for Craft (cooking.)
Werebears are a danger of Solstheim and good suppliers of Human Flesh and Ragged Trousers. Human Flesh is a great poison component that combines Paralysis and Damage Health. Ragged Trousers are a great way to show off a male Dragonborn's abs.
Does your shaman have a personality trait or characteristic that stands out? This might just be me but, for a familiar, I like to start with a few animals that symbolize aspects of the character. If I need to focus on its survival or mechanical usefulness, I'll narrow things down to the one animal that balances my character's personality with game utility.
As an example, if your shaman is sociable, proud and strong, you might look at a rat (sociable,) hawk (proud) and dwarf caiman (strength.) Each of those animals has its own strengths that could make it a good companion aside from the bonus it gives your shaman. Rats are highly mobile and unobtrusive, hawks make good scouts and messengers and caiman are good at hiding and strong enough to deal respectable damage for a familiar.
You'll probably enjoy playing your shaman more if your spirit animal feels like a part of him and a friend than if you treat it like a piece of equipment or a tool.
In one of the introductions to an AD&D Spelljammer book, the writer tells a story about how he managed to make the brand new "D&D in Spaaaace!" setting feel appropriately weird and different after his players had already been fighting poison-breathing stilt-chickens (achaierai) and stump-bunnies (wolf-in-sheep's-clothing) for years.
The players landed on a new planet and encountered a race of savage, cannibalistic, land-dwelling squids that were immune to blindness and seemed to possess blindsight. None of the players knew what they were and tried a mix of tactics to defeat them. What they didn't know is the DM had just re-skinned some grimlocks, evil, cave-dwelling humanoids they'd encountered a dozen times before.
It just shows that evil squid monsters might not be weird to people actually living in a world of space-traveling elves and lizardfolk, but it can really mess with your players' perceptions when those evil squids aren't behaving in expected ways.
My favorite Mod companions right now are Clucky the Chicken and Juliet the Rabbit. The bunny is a great for stealthy characters because enemies never see her. The chicken doesn't do much damage with his beak, but he likes to fight, draws aggro, seemingly has infinite hit points and can carry, like, a thousand pounds of loot.
I broke a Ravenloft campaign before it really ever started once. This was AD&D 2nd Edition and the GM was homebrewing an adventure where some evil warlord intended to ritually sacrifice a specific woman in order to open a vortex to Ravenloft, the Demiplane of Dread. Our party tracked the warlord to his keep and arrived just in time to see him dragging the struggling lass across a narrow bridge to the sacrificial altar. The GM's plan was for our party to be trapped in the vortex after failing to save the damsel. From there, the campaign would officially begin in Ravenloft.
My very pragmatic, LN gnome fighter ruined his plans by shooting the woman with his crossbow, killing her and causing her body to plummet off of the bridge before the warlord could sacrifice her. I justified the gnome's actions by saying we all knew what the warlord was planning and my PC decided killing the woman was the best way to prevent more death and chaos from being unleashed on the kingdom.
There were a dozen ways the GM could have saved his campaign, but he just let the dice roll determine our fate and then got mad at me and ended the entire adventure.
Did you kill Ralis after the fight with Ahzidal? If you spare him, he makes an excellent follower. He's basically a very versatile dual-wielding warrior/mage.
For anyone considering that Legendary Creatures of Skyrim mod, I finally lured The Boiler over to the Falmer Shaman's hut during a jaunt into Blackreach. The murderous morlock trounced the titanium titan in about seven seconds and still had over half his health remaining. To put their battle into context, both of these monsters were capable of single attacks dealing roughly 500 damage to my heavily armored, level 30 Dragonborn. Granted I wasn't as prepared as I could have been(fire resistance would have saved me all my food and healing potions) but I did eventually manage to finish the bat-faced albino off after burying over a dozen crossbow bolts and a war axe into his face.
That quest is fun. Not only do you find a cool dungeon with lots of bandits to slaughter, you unlock a really weak follower when you complete it. By the time you finish Rise in the East, Adelaisa's only real value will probably be as a sacrifice to Boethiah (anyone looking for the Ebony Mail will know what I'm talking about.) The backstory of Japhet's Folly is really tragic and cool too if you spend some time exploring the tower to find Japhet's Journal.
Hast thou considered The Lion Blade? Many of their abilities are supernatural, but so are many fey abilities (maybe they're banned from the kingdom because the tyrant's anti-magic macguffin doesn't work on those abilities?) Anyway, Lion Blades have skills and abilities that sound exactly like what you're looking for.
Even the fluff for their prestige class fits:
"Lion blades come from the most secretive schools of the fighting arts... With the flick of a blade, they can slow their enemy to a crawl and then step into a crowd and disappear from sight. They are quick, agile, knowledgeable, and masters of disguise."
For her role in the story, well, why blame her for Bethesda's writing.
It isn't so much that I hate Serana, the annoying, Mary Sue, albatross vampire, though that would be enough. It's more that I hate Serana, the collection of data shaped like an annoying, Mary Sue, albatross vampire.
Your answer for taking her along seems perfectly reasonable and justified if all I want is an essential follower with no level cap who has a few more lines of dialogue she repeats every three minutes and constantly paces between me and anyone I'm talking to like an attention-starved child. From a purely mechanical stance, having an unkillable follower with no level cap is nice. It's just nicer to have a follower I can see my character hanging out with and not the personified scabies my character picked up while exploring a giant plot hole.
It's like she's programmed to suck the fun out of the game, like some kind of thing that somehow drains another thing's vitality.
I've got a question for anyone who likes to keep Serana around as a follower.
Why?
Her presence grates on me. Aside from my general dislike of vampires, I don't like her dialogue, her personality, her daddy issues, her sense of entitlement, her fashion sense, her face or the fact you're railroaded into keeping her alive and defending her blighted existence in every conversation with Isran. Considering you don't even
spoiler:
need Auriel's Bow to kill Harkon
, I never saw any legitimate reason why you can't just gank Serana, her dad and the entire Volkihar clan from the get go. It isn't like a high-level Dragonborn should have any real trouble doing it.
Granted that would make Dawnguard a really short DLC, but I think that's a problem with the questline writing. It immediately breaks immersion for a sworn vampire hunter to not put a bucket of crossbow bolts into Serana's rib cage as soon as she stumbles out of her stone phone booth dressed like a Hot Topic catalog model. Making Serana an ordinary human in suspended animation, finding out she's Harkon's daughter and then giving her the option to become a vampire if you pick Harkon's side would have fixed things easily without having to rework most of the quest.
Based on those numbers, I'd say Minotaur Samurai have the best odds of survival. Nobody ever plays them so they're never in any danger.
But seriously, off the top of my head, I think Fighters and Clerics have had the greatest luck surviving the dungeon. Sure, more of them have died, but I think the fact that those are the two most played classes shows players seem to feel they have staying power and keep going back to them. Shi (a cleric) and Roch (a cleric/wizard/mystic theurge) were around a long time. Granted both died at least once, but their players stuck with them and they made it all the way to the end of my campaign in Oregon. Hantash (a fighter) constantly got his teeth knocked in but killed mountains of enemies before he finally went down, and Riswan (a halfling fighter of all things) bears the distinction of never once dying and famously survived three consecutive coup de' grace attempts.
The built-in handicaps of the dungeon do present challenges for some builds and entire classes, but it also weakens many of the monsters. No teleportation and no summoning means demons and devils can't spam encounters with buddies, ambush or escape the party as easily. That's going to mean a lot going into the new regions coming up for the party.
I've considered it and I might look into it if I don't get anywhere with tabletop gamers. Juneau is a small place and it seems like the few players I'm finding are already involved in other games. I just got a line on a few people who are looking for a game though so things might work out.
Either way, I'm going to finish this thing no matter how long it takes or how many times I transfer. If I don't have a party together by the time I leave Juneau, I can at least use the time to plan out the campaign.
I'm pretty sure Miraak can't steal souls from the dragons in Skyrim. If you're running low and need some for new shouts, you can always fast travel there, hunt a few dragons and go back to Solstheim. The last time I went through the Dragonborn questline, I noticed he only showed up once on Solstheim and never bothered me again. It may have been a glitch, but I killed four or five dragons after that first encounter and he only ever stole the one.
If/when Ralis (your Dunmer friend from the dig site) does betray you, have mercy. He knows not what he does.
I know the rules say the material components just cease to be when you cast a spell. When I GM, I just like to come up with all the fluff to explain how the magic works and I imagined the spell breaking the silver down and bonding it with the water. I'd rule out argyria by just saying there isn't enough pure silver left to harm anyone. None of that is RAW, obviously, but it's more fun for me than just saying, "It's Maaaaaagic!"
Finding Pathfinder players in Juneau is turning out to be harder than I thought. Until I can put together a new group, I figured I could share a little more about the campaign. First off, I've made a few adjustments to character creation rules for the adventure:
World’s Largest Dungeon character creation:
Basic setup:
20pt buy
2 traits (no campaign traits)
Some feat restrictions
2 campaign perks (below)
Hit Points - Player characters will receive maximum HP for level 1 + (1/2HD + 1 HP) for every level after up to level 5. Beginning at level 6, PCs receive 1/2HD + 2 HP up to level 10. From level 11, PCs receive 1/2HD + 3 HP to level 15. At level 16, PCs gain 1/2HD + 4hp up to level 20 (i.e. a fighter has 10+(6x4)=34 HP at level 5, 10+(6x4)+(7x5)=69 HP at level 10, 10+(6x4)+(7x5)+(8x5)=109HP at level 15 and 10+(6x4)+(7x5)+(8x5)+(9x5)=154hp at level 20.) Add Constitution modifiers and other bonuses as normal.
Beginning level - 14
Wealth & Equipment - The prisoners and other denizens of the dungeon have to salvage, scavenge, repair or craft many of their items from scratch since they don't have access to the outside world. Limited resources, manpower and skill translates into a spending cap on individual items and a limit to what the NPCs can create. This is both a power limiter and an incentive for players to actually win the magical items in the dungeon through exploration and combat instead of taking enchanted gear for granted.
Starting Gold – Players receive the standard starting funds based on their Wealth by Level. This amount is assumed to derive from the value of services rendered, trade goods and loot from around the dungeon since coins are still relatively scarce. At level 14, the beginning value of the PCs' wealth is 185,000gp. What isn't spent can be converted into various trade goods, small assortments of coins and gems and/or credit.
Spending limit – As mentioned, the artisans of the dungeon only have enough resources to produce certain items. Players can spend up 15% of their WBL on individual items. At level 14, this amount is 27,750gp.
Wondrous Items, Enchanted Weapons, Etc. - The craftsmen of the dungeon are limited to creating items for which they have the necessary feats and spells. I keep track of what spells, feats and skills the NPCs have so I update the list of available gear as the party gains experience. I'm not going to post the full list here because it would be too lengthy and difficult but, while limited, it is still full of useful gear like ability score-enhancing items, rods, rings and scrolls.
Barred Classes – Summoner, Gunslinger, Antipaladin, Vigilante, All Hybrid, Occult and Unchained classes.
Summoning and Teleportation magic don't function in the Dungeon so summoners would be at a huge disadvantage in the adventure.
The ability to craft and maintain firearms just doesn't exist in the dungeon as I'm running it, and I don't want to shoe-horn them into the treasure so I'm barring gunslingers.
Evil characters are highly discouraged. The Line (the border between Regions I and E) is guarded by wards that prevent evil creatures from passing into the south. An evil cleric or oracle coming into Four Waters from the main entrance, might simply be exiled into the north with a warning, but an antipaladin wouldn't be suffered to live if discovered by the Celestial Garrison.
As much as I like some of the Occult, Hybrid and Unchained classes, it would require too much time and effort to shoehorn them into the adventure at this point in the campaign and I don't want the new classes to overshadow the classic ones.
Allowed Races - This adventure is, at its heart, the tale of the prisoners of Lord Antagonis. A few natives of the dungeon may have been added to the list of available player races but their presence should never overshadow the core races. Therefore, the following rules apply to playable races in the adventure.
Races available - All core races, aasimar*, ratfolk**, azer***
The party may include 1 non-core race PC for every 2 core race PCs. Only one member of each non-core race may be represented in the party (i.e. The One Wookiee Rule.)
* base aasimar only. No variants.
** a ratfolk PC loses the Swarming racial trait and instead gains the Cornered Fury alternate racial trait. This is because only one ratfolk is allowed per party.
Cornered Fury: Ratfolk can fight viciously when cut off from friends and allies. Whenever a ratfolk with this racial trait is reduced to half or fewer of his hit points, and has no conscious ally within 30 feet, he gains a +2 racial bonus on melee attack rolls and to Armor Class. This racial trait replaces swarming.
*** azer PCs suffer a -2 experience level penalty in comparison to other races due to their advanced hit dice and special abilities (i.e. an azer begins play at level 12 instead of 14 and so on as PC levels increase.)
Azer player race - Azer NPCs within The Dungeon are strictly Lawful Neutral, an outlook that has served their race well over the millennia. Azer PCs are not restricted in their alignment choices, but Lawful and Neutral alignments should be favored in keeping with the race’s adherence to patience and dedication. Most Azer NPCs are experts, warriors or fighters. Non-spellcasting warrior classes such as samurai, cavalier and fighter would be the most common adventurer classes encountered. There are no spellcasters or alchemists among the NPC Azer and no training is available within their own society for most spellcasting classes. PC Azer should consider sorcerers or oracles with fire-related mysteries or bloodlines for spellcasting classes.
The Azer of The Dungeon have been here so long they are almost entirely unaware of the common deities of the pantheon. However, they have grown to favor dealing with followers of Abadar when conducting business. Most azer are non-religious, but many of those who served the oni Ter’Kaal still make small offerings to Zamaan Rul, Archomental Prince of Good Fire Creatures, and some very old azer still invoke Amaimon, an ancient azer sultan, as a volksgeist.
Azer PCs have the following racial traits and abilities:
• Outsider (fire, extraplanar) - Spells that restore souls to their bodies, such as raise dead, reincarnate, and resurrection, don’t work on an outsider. It takes a different magical effect, such as limited wish, wish, miracle, or true resurrection to restore it to life. Outsiders breathe, but do not need to eat or sleep (although they can do so if they wish).
• Str +2 Con +2 Cha –2
• Darkvision 60ft.
• Natural Armor +2
• Medium size – Azer base speed is 30ft.
• Energy Immunity - Fire
• Spell Resistance = 11+HD
• Energy Vulnerability - Cold
• Heat - Azer are able to channel heat through metal weapons and tools. This enables them to deal +1d6 fire damage with melee weapons or unarmed attacks.
• Proficient with all simple and martial weapons
• Proficient with Scale Mail, Light Armor and Shields (not proficient with Tower Shields.) It is rare for azer to wear non-metal armors due to the heat of their bodies, societal customs and the general lack of other materials native to The Pyrefaust.
• Bonus Hit Dice – Azer begin with 2d10 hit dice which give them 16hp, Fort +3, Ref +0, Will +3, BAB +2, 12 skill points and 1 feat before ability score and class level adjustments. Their racial class skills are Appraise, Bluff, Craft, Knowledge (engineering), Knowledge (nobility), Knowledge (planes), Perception, Sense Motive.
• Starting Gold – Azer PCs begin with WBL according to their class levels + 780gp (i.e. an azer beginning as a level 12 fighter receives 108,780gp)
• Beginning Languages – Ignan, Common. Azer with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Giant, Draconic, Infernal, Dwarf
Campaign Perks - Campaign perks are special abilities granted to PCs as they progress through the dungeon. Each character receives two campaign perks chosen from the list below. Additional perks may be gained as the campaign progresses based on GM whimsy. Certain restrictions may apply.
Rough Welcomer (core races, aasimar only) – You cut your teeth by battling Lord Antagonis’ bizarre beasts with Col. Rose’s Welcoming Party at the mouth of the dungeon. Choose two of the following Knowledge skills: Arcana, Dungeoneering, Local, Nature, Religion. You gain a +2 competence bonus to identify the abilities of monsters associated with the selected skills and one of these is treated as a class skill for you. Furthermore, you gain a +2 competence bonus to CMD whenever you are in combat with a creature that has a template added to its base statistics.
Dungeon Prospector (any) – Before joining the adventuring party, you spent time on a scavenger team or salvage crew. You gain a +2 competence bonus to Appraise checks and Survival checks to find edible food and water. Spending a week in a new region of the dungeon also grants you a +2 competence bonus to Knowledge (geography,) Survival and Perception checks made to identify and recall notable areas, avoid becoming lost and discover hidden doors.
Redeemed (non-evil, non-Chaotic Neutral, non-azer only) – Though not a Charter-recognized member of the Celestial Garrison, you’re certainly on your way. Your reputation with the Celestial Garrison has earned you the privilege to barter for goods from the Garrison’s armory of rare and unique treasures. Furthermore, this perk qualifies as a success in one of the three tests needed to gain membership with the Celestial Garrison. This perk is subject to loss if the character ever loses the trust of the Celestial Garrison.
Chasm Rover (any) – Your time exploring the Chasm has inured you to some of Region M’s environmental hazards. You gain a +2 competence bonus on Fortitude saves vs. heat effects and poisonous gases including earthblood vapors and heat and gases created by magic such as Cloudkill and Stinking Cloud. Bonus: Characters with this perk and the Improved Familiar feat may adopt one of the Chasm’s shocker lizards or mephits as a familiar if they are eligible to have a familiar, characters with this perk and access to an animal companion may select a small or medium-sized shocker lizard as their animal companion and, finally, small-sized characters with this perk and access to a special mount may select a medium-sized shocker lizard as a mount.
Flesh Crawler (any non-azer, non-aasimar) – By choice or circumstance, you’ve spent much of your imprisonment within the Halls of Flesh. Prolonged exposure to the region’s omnipresent neoplasm has mutated your body resulting in amazing regenerative abilities at the cost of your physical faculties. You heal +1hp for every hour of rest in addition to the standard hit points restored from resting. You also heal from nonlethal damage at a rate of 2 points per hour per level, and ability damage is healed at a rate of 1.5 points for 8 hours of daily rest or 3 points for a full day of rest. Unfortunately, the aberrant source of your accelerated healing is also the cause of deformities that hinder your coordination. Choose one group of skills from the following: Acrobatics, Climb & Fly; Escape Artist, Stealth & Swim; Disable Device, Sleight of Hand & Ride. You suffer a -3 penalty to those skills due to your deformities. The specific description of any deformities possessed by your character are up to you.
Barrow Knacker (any non-azer, non-ratfolk) – The Barrow Wardens have a mixed reputation in The Dungeon, but few know that better than you since you used to be one of them. Often overmatched and sometimes through controversial or dishonorable means, you defended wealthy Barrowmen and caravan merchants from salamanders, gricks, wyverns and vampires among other horrors. Whether you left the Barrow Wardens out of ambition, avarice or guilt, the survival skills you learned among them stayed with you and kick in when all seems lost. Whenever you are reduced to below one-fourth of your total hit points, you receive a +3 morale bonus to the following skills and combat maneuvers: Acrobatics, Bluff, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Stealth; Dirty Trick, Disarm, Steal, Reposition.
Pack Ratfolk (ratfolk only) – While many of your kind chose to stay near The Barrows after their displacement, you became a wandering peddler with one of the ratfolk caravans. Your understanding of the various communities within the dungeon grants you a +2 circumstance bonus to Knowledge (local) and Diplomacy checks to gather information within any community in which you have spent at least one week. You also receive one of the following languages as a bonus language: elf, gnome, dwarf, halfling, goblin, giant. Lastly, the need to maximize your profits has taught you how to better cram more gear into your pack. For the purpose of encumbrance and carrying capacity, you are treated as if you are a medium-sized creature instead of a small-sized creature.
Riddle of Fire-Forged Steel (azer only) – Through dedication and perseverance you have unlocked the secrets of fire-forged steel. As a swift action, you can channel your Heat through your armor if it is crafted from fire-forged steel. Creatures grappling you, striking you with natural weapons or otherwise coming into physical contact with you are dealt 1d6 fire damage. This effect lasts 1d4 rounds. You may immediately deal fire damage with melee weapons made from fire-forged steel using your Heat ability. Furthermore, this damage increases to +1d8 or +1d10 if you are also wearing fire-forged steel armor. This damage does not stack with flaming weapon effects or the damage caused by your Heat ability.
Additional Details - Character race and alignment affect your starting point in the dungeon. Evil-minded but relatively harmless characters entering the dungeon are immediately escorted to The Line and exiled to the north where they are told that they may return to the south if the wards ever choose them worthy. Evil, unrepentant criminals and deviants deemed too dangerous to roam free are given the option of a quick, painless death or imprisonment in the labyrinth of Region F where they get to take their chances with the minotaurs and the warp gates. Extremely volatile and hateful evildoers don't even make it past the Redeemer inquisitors and paladins stationed at the gate.
Neutral and Lawful Neutral creatures are welcome to live within Regions A, B and E and many do because of the calm and security provided by the Garrison. Chaotic Neutral types are tolerated as long as they don't cause any trouble, but most end up immigrating north because the sterility and calm of the south bores them.
Good creatures mainly stick to the south regions though a few noble and charitable souls make their way north to provide aid to the less fortunate or to try to quell the rampant debauchery and crime they keep hearing about from ratfolk traders. Lawful Neutral creatures sometimes head north for the same reasons.
Now that you know a little more about how the characters will be created, here's a little background on their neighbors in the Dungeon:
Dungeon Communities:
Four Waters – The original prisoner colony comprises all of Region A, the northwest corner of Region B and much of Region E. Four Waters is, by far, the safest community thanks to its many defensive wards, heavily armed Redeemer patrols and the Celestial Garrison outpost on its northern edge. The community is represented by a small council of elected officials who work with the Celestial Garrison to organize security patrols, mediate disputes and negotiate with outside communities. Four Water controls most of the potable water, vegetables and fruit available to the prisoners. Most trade is conducted through barter or labor vouchers (a scrip representing the gold coin value of labor conducted in service to the community.)
The Celestial Garrison – Technically part of Four Waters, the angelic and inevitable warriors of the Celestial Garrison took benevolent military control of the prisoner community after demons gained a foothold in the eastern section of Region C. In exchange for healing, food and shelter within Four Waters’ borders, the prisoners live under the strict laws and scrutiny of the garrison. Able-bodied prisoners are also highly encouraged to join the Redeemers, a militia that receives training and access to better equipment from the garrison’s armory.
The Stoneshaper Empire – A tribe of neutral-aligned goblins dwelling in Regions B and C, the Stoneshaper Empire is ruled by Goblinbane, a hobgoblin military commander-turned theologian. After dozens of goblins went missing or died serving causes outside the Empire, Goblinbane called his people home and closed his borders to outside settlers. The goblins still trade meat and furs with Four Waters and allow Redeemer patrols to pass through their territory to access the Path of the Righteous, but Goblinbane no longer allows his people to work for anyone outside the Empire. Players may not originate from Stoneshaper territory, but they do have access to the Empire’s signature weapon, the howler javelin:
A howler javelin is an exotic weapon recently developed by the hobgoblins of the Goblin Empire. These bristly javelins are made from quills harvested from captured howlers and require special training to use due to the miniscule flesh-grabbing hooks lining their surface.
An opponent hit by a howler javelin must make a Reflex save (DC 16) or have the javelin break off after lodging in his or her flesh. A lodged javelin imposes a –1 circumstance penalty on attacks, saves, and checks. Removing the javelin deals 1d6 additional points of damage. Howler javelins that hit a target cannot be recovered. Howler javelins that miss their target have a 50% chance of breaking on impact, rendering them useless. Since a howler javelin isn't crafted for melee, all characters are treated as not proficient with it and thus take a –4 penalty on their melee attack rolls.
Price 2gp Range 30ft. DMG 1d6 Crit x2 Weight 2lb. Type Piercing
The Barrows – This former drider stronghold is a chaotic frontier town compared to Four Waters. Leadership is divided among several guild leaders who control production of goods and access to commodities through the exploitation of labor and hoarding of resources. Owing to its beginnings as a satellite of Four Waters, labor vouchers are still used as currency here but coins are becoming more common since The Barrows has better access to precious metals and lost treasures outside the southern regions. The community is split between l’Resk’afar and the Silkstone Warrens of Region M and Drowtown and Jor Belgareth within the Halls of Flesh in Region I.
l’Resk’afar - The massive crater mine l’Resk’afar is the source of nearly all of the prisoners’ ore and gems. A large shanty market forms a crescent along the western, southern and eastern edge of the crater and doubles as living quarters for the skilled artisans who provide equipment, food and services to the community. The residents here effectively form the middle class of The Barrows, save for the wealthy Bolg Ged’Kampat mining company which controls metal and gem extraction. The Wolag adventurers’ guildhall is located nearby on the eastern edge of The Barrows.
The Silkstone Warrens – The former home of the Spider Kings (the destroyed drider cabal) is now the home of the wealthiest Barrowfolk. The warrens provide shelter to the Gwilbrin Bar alchemist’s guild, the Boel Gwithysi armorers and the Barrow Wardens. Led by Spishak Kilbane, the Gwilbrin Bar built its fortune cultivating Fleshroot Fungus for medicine, spell components, poisons and narcotics and taking control of the silkstone factory after Fargallan vacated The Barrows. The Boel Gwithysi control the largest forge in The Barrows and produce high quality weapons and armor for nearly every community in the explored Dungeon. Jakob Shweikart’s Barrow Wardens occupy the driders’ former prison and interrogation chambers. Since paladin Melody stepped down as Peacekeeper, Schweikart and his mercenaries now serve as the Barrows police force.
Drowtown – The poorest Barrowfolk live in Drowtown, a former barracks and command post for the driders’ slave army. Many here are unable or unwilling to work for the guilds and turn to crime or scavenging the Halls of Flesh to survive. The regenerating tissue infesting the halls provides free sustenance, but mutation and disease are rampant among anyone brave or desperate enough to eat it.
Jor Belgareth – “The Rat Maze” makes up the northwest corner of Region I and is populated almost entirely by the marginalized ratfolk. The verminkin moved into the abandoned ettercap workshops after Fargallan took control of the aberrations’ hive mind and led them into The Chasm. The ratfolk have since formed their own company of tinkers who use the tools and materials they found in the workshops to repair equipment, craft traps and design simple gadgets for trade. Being a social race, the rats offer their few unused cells to other races or visitors to their community, but the smell of the nearby garbage well and the gargantuan otyugh within deter most takers.
The Chasm – North of The Barrows lies The Chasm, a volcanic valley of ash, dust and pitted stone. Very few prisoners choose to live in The Chasm due to the deadly heat, roaming monsters and lack of water, but a few hardy pioneers, prospectors and hermits have tried to stake a claim in Region M’s hell-blasted wasteland. Ragnar’s Cave on Black Mountain, the cloud giant Norkor’s home atop The Dark Crown and Fargallan’s tower mark the only permanent dwellings in The Chasm. King Aphnitern, a fiendish elder air elemental, rules the unexplored wastes to the far north and it is believed the drow slaves freed from the Spider Kings were wiped out when they traveled there.
Ke Puhi Lima Emirate – Ke Puhi Lima Emirate is an azer community that comprises the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Seventh Rings of the Pyrefaust. Free of their fire giant and oni masters, the azer assumed control of the Pyrefaust and reestablished their old customs. Their society follows a strict hierarchy that places its people on the level of property and all property under the control of Emir Girra, their leader. The Pyrefaust provides the azer most of what they need to craft highly prized jewelry, weapons, armor and other metal or mineral goods, but they trade with The Barrows for acids, dyes and other alchemical goods they use to augment and embellish their work. Though technically part of the Emirate, Girra declared the Second and Sixth Rings of the Pyrefaust to be unorganized territories and claims no ownership of the cult of crazed magmin or rasts occupying those areas.
Finally, I cobbled together a little map to show the adventurers' progress throughout the entire campaign and the borders of the various factions in The Dungeon:
As you can see, the adventurers have "tamed" a vast swath of The Dungeon, but there still a large area left to explore. Hopefully, I'll find some players to delve into those areas soon.
The s~#+ty burned out island with a serious bug and reaver infestation.
I think you'll like Shilmista (or, as the locals refer to it, Solstheim.) There are some really keen benefits to gain from exploring the island including some good shouts, automaton and smurf "pets" and an awesome house that looks like a horseshoe crab.
Goblin Snakes are definitely a good pull. I think an akaname would make a cool familiar too. A few of the improved familiars already have basically humanoid shape so the akaname isn't getting any advantage over them.
Knowledge: Religion could be used to identify the basin as an appropriate vessel for storing holy water according to the tenets of Torag's faith and an educated guess would do the rest.
Detect Magic (or Detect Good) should be capable of picking up a Transmutation (or Good aura) and identifying Bless Water as the source of the aura.
Barring that, a trained alchemist might figure it out by mixing a sample with a bit of sulfur and waiting to see if any little black particles (silver sulfide) form in the vial. That's probably stretching the chemistry a bit since I think it takes a lot of time to form silver sulfide, but it should work for Pathfinder Science!.
I downloaded the Legendary Creatures of Skyrim mod for my PS4 version of Skyrim and it drops a couple of pretty nasty "boss monsters" into Blackreach. One's a Falmer Shaman with crazy powerful fire spells and a deadly sword attack. The other is The Boiler, a massive Dwemer Centurion with enchanted weapons for arms. I'm going to try to lead one to the other and see if they'll duke it out over who gets to kill me. Five Septims on the shaman!
The mod scatters 8 extra tough monsters onto the map and rewards you with unique weapons and spells for defeating them. Killing the Falmer Shaman just gives you a ton of rare ingredients and access to some more soul crystal geodes, but destroying The Boiler gives you its arms in the form of a powerful dwarven warhammer and battleaxe. The Right Arm of Blackreach (warhammer) absorbs Magicka and inflicts Magicka and Shock damage and the Left Arm of Blackreach (battleaxe) inflicts an extra 30 pts of damage to falmer.
