Here is the situation:
A Gold dragon has overthrown an evil ruler of a kingdom, making herself the queen. The remaining family of the king, thrown into exile, have been plotting their revenge against the Dragon-queen for quite some time, can assume at least a hundred years.
The would be assassins have secretly regained a lot of influence behind the scenes, and have infiltrated a lot of high ranking positions in the kingdom. There will be an attempt made upon the queen as soon as all preparations are complete to place the bloodline of the former ruler back on the throne.
How does a group assassinate a dragon that they have no chance of slaying in direct combat?
The PCs in the game are going to have the chance to join either side of this attempt. They may gather clues and try to stop the assassins, gaining favor with the Golden Queen, or they may join the ranks of the bloodline's forces and attempt to assassinate the queen themselves.
The Players have not yet decided on their characters, so it's still early, but I'd like to be fully prepared to drop whatever hints I need. I'm leaning towards an Old or Ancient Gold Dragon and the PCs will be way too low level to challenge the dragon directly during the attempt.
I'm going to be open to player suggestions for the attempt, but I need a solid plan for the NPCs to take.
Thanks in advance for any ideas on how to deal with this.
Near the end of a story arc in a campaign I will be giving the party the option to assault a heavily defended Kingdom with by riding atop an enormous Construct. It will be a clockwork-style machine that the party will be given the option to customize a little.
The Customization options will most likely be things like Ballista, Catapults, Cannons, or even a defensive cabin. Mechanically, I'm thinking of assigning zones for them to customize. If you think of the machine as a quadruped, there will be four large zones, one above each leg, as well as one huge zone in the middle. Each Zone can hold one piece of equipment, the Huge one would obviously give the highest damage, but would be the only place for the cabin.
During the assault, the party will be targeted by long range spells (Lightning Bolt, Fireball, etc), potential lucky shots from archers, as well as some defensive fire from wall mounted Ballista. When they reach a certain distance from the main Keep/Necropolis, most likely after breaching the main walls, the most dangerous problem for them will appear in the form of a Dragon. It will most likely be Skeletal or a Ravager since the Kingdom is run by a Lich and his cult of followers.
My questions are such:
While this is designed to be a bit of a power fantasy style way of getting the party into the Lich's lair, how should I balance it so it's not super easy on the player's part?
Are there any other kinds of options I should give the party to Equip it?
Do you guys have any advice or ideas to improve upon this idea?
And lastly, would you as a player enjoy this sort of thing?
Inspired by the Goblins Webcomic, I would like to add the Shield of Wonder into a campaign sometime. It would be a fun little addition that could make any battle complete chaos. I will start off with a few suggestions and will welcome anyone to throw out ideas. Most effects will occur during battles, since effects trigger upon the shield being struck, but I can't help but assume parties would strike the shield randomly for fun.
1. The Wielder permanently changes into the opposite gender.
2. The Striker permanently changes into the opposite gender.
3. Upon being struck, the shield changes into a Mimic and attacks the Striker. It is no ally of the Wielder and will attack them should the Striker flee or die. When it is in Mimic form, its magic is suspended and should the mimic be defeated it will transform back into the Shield.
4. Upon being struck, all dead bodies within 30ft are raised as Skeletons.
5. Upon being struck, a Fire Elemental of equal CR to the Striker appears and attacks any creature nearby.
I'm currently making a campaign for my table and will be using a Stargate style artifact to get the party from one objective/reality to another. Turns out that I'm terrible at descriptive writing and cannot do justice to the effects of going through a wormhole. Would anyone be willing to help me out with a brief description to read to my players the first time they head through the gate?
Oh, I feel that I should state the party will be making a Fort save due to the disorientation.
This is an idea that I've been toying around with, and would like a little feedback on whether or not other people would enjoy the concept. My turn to run our game is coming up decently quick and I would personally like to run a "Maze of Many" style dungeon similar to that from the Goblins webcomic. Here is where that story arc begins. They obviously do a better job explaining it than I will.
For those who want a quick description click the spoiler tag below, there is story arc spoilers within.
Here be Dungeon Spoilers:
This story arc takes place in a special dungeon that exists in it's own frame of time and space, in a point that touches multiple realities. The entire point of the dungeon is that it is a race to reach the treasure room first, all the while fighting off alternate versions of your own party. When someone dies, they are merely brought back to life when the dungeon resets, as soon as one party reaches the treasure. All previous knowledge is lost, as though it's your first run through. The only exit is to complete the maze. The dungeon resets your party as many times as needed to complete it's trials, with the a counter in the spawn room telling you how many attempts you've taken. When you get the treasure, you exit out of the dungeon shortly after you entered, almost as if you never spent potential eons fighting for a McGuffin. Although, I might do something similar to the comic, and have one of the realities messing with the dungeon itself in an attempt to erase it from existence, making this the last possible attempt (the PC's will have to figure that out).
Some of the alternate realities are simple, like everyone is larger or are zombies or something, while others require knowledge of the backstory of your characters, like a what happens if a dead party member didn't die or something. Party Members might all have a level of paladin, because in that reality paladins are not restricted to LG. They might all be wearing odd colors, because in that reality certain colors give buffs. They might all be wearing armor made of cats, because cats are crazy plentiful in their reality and are the only real source of meat or leather.
I understand it's could be a crazy amount of work to deal with, but I'm willing to attempt it if others think it could be fun. What I'm looking for here is feedback on whether you would personally like to try such a dungeon, other forms of character alterations, and any potential traps you might throw in, as some of the ones in the comic might be a little difficult to pull off without killing the entire party.
I should mention, I'm thinking of putting such a dungeon semi-early in the campaign, around 5th or 6th level. Thanks in advance for any input.
Ok, so I have an idea that I'd like to throw in a campaign, early levels before any major magic comes online.
The party is sent on a quest to clear a bandit camp or goblin tribe, pretty much standard adventuring fare. Anyways, when they get to the main area or cause enough of a ruckus, they happen across the enemy leader carrying some sort of orb/crystal. He boasts loudly and hits the PC's with a "disintegration blast". Bright lights and a nauseating feeling flush over the characters.
The Players find themselves exactly where they were, but are now as small as an ant. They must now find a way to use the device (or smash it) to return to their proper size, while fighting 'giant' insects or spiders, avoiding feet, and dealing with something as simple as stairs becoming a hazardous climb.
Now, I'd prefer to avoid giving the PC's a super powerful "we win every combat" item should they capture it, so I'm open to ideas on that.
Would you, as a player, enjoy such an encounter?
To make things simpler, would it work better to stat the insects and such out as if they were medium sized? I mean, avoid changing the players stats, and play it more like a standard dungeon?
Aside from standard 'giant' insects and the like, what other hazards should I throw in?
I suppose I should state that the bandits/goblins truly believe the item destroys the PC's and they have no idea the mini-players are clambering about their camp.
Any input on how to make this truly enjoyable would be great, thanks in advance.
Here's the thing, I'm looking to build a cohort for my Gunslinger in Serpent's Skull. I decided to build a Musket Master, head into the wilderness as a big game hunter, and act very much like Sir Hammerlock of Borderlands fame.
Part of my backstory, and reasoning for why I equipped my character the way I did (or more appropriately, didn't), was that as a wealthy noble I must have hired somebody to go ahead and procure all the gear we would need for our hunting expedition. As a well respected guide, they would also be in charge of mapping out our route through the wilderness. The only person I could think of basing such a guide around was the Crocodile Hunter himself, Steve Irwin.
I'm kinda leaning towards a Ranger type class, as he'd need Survival, Perception, Handle Animal, and Knowledge Nature at the least. I'm really hoping anyone can come up with something more suiting that a standard Ranger. Though, I have no idea what combat style he'd need to take, unless he's just gonna grapple everything.
In our current campaign, our sorcerer got hit with Blindness and is wondering if he can now cast Dispel Magic to counterspell anything with verbal components. He is in combat with two other magic users, a Male Wizard and a Female Sorceress. He could possibly choose his target based off of their voices, but I can't find anything about this sort of deal in the rules. Opinions?
My group is gearing up for a Way of the Wicked campaign, and once the group heard that they could be evil and possibly get minions, one of my players jumped up and down like kid at recess declaring that he calls dibs on being The Shredder.
After talking for a bit, it seems he plans on building a pretty much generic TWF Ninja, and plans on creating the Foot Clan. He already stated that he is going to take the Leadership feat for that purpose. He would also like to take Bebop and Rocksteady, although the feat allows for a single cohort.
I'm thinking that Bebop or Rocksteady would be pretty simple. My thoughts are along the lines of levels of Fighter due mainly to the fact that they are basic physical brutes, giving them Power Attack and Intimidating Prowess, as the only real skill they seem to posses in the series is being generally scary. Other feats I'm thinking they should take are Improved Unarmed, Throw Anything, and possibly Improvised Weapon Mastery. The only reason why these are suggested are that all the two do in the series is break stuff and either use it as a weapon or throw it around.
For their mutation, I'm personally thinking about making them start as Human (for the bonus feat) and then adding something like the Lycanthrope template, with them being stuck in the Hybrid form permanently.
Does that look decent, or should I think about different classes/feats?
Should I try to talk him into a different minion? (Slash, Leatherhead, or Baxter Stockman as a fly for example)
I'm going to be starting a Way of the Wicked campaign and will be assigning each of my players a little homework before we start. Each player is going to write up a Criminal Record/Police Report/Dossier for their character, so that I can place them in the prison for the group to find (should they explore a little).
The idea is simple, if each of the players write a dossier about their character from the viewpoint of the law, the other players can get to know more about their backstory and what everyone has done to warrant their place on death row. It won't have to be everything about the character, mainly just what diabolical deeds have landed them there, their general stats (age, gender, race, physical characteristics, etc), as well as the general where and how they were captured.
I will be making one for the other inmates, unless someone writes a better one and feels generous enough to post them. I would love to see what others think of the idea, as well as what you might write for your characters (might show a few to the group to get some ideas flowing).
The big reason why I'm doing this is that I started playing in a WotW game a long time ago, and of the six party members, there were only two of us willing to talk and share. The other four went for the dark, mysterious, brooding type character. At least this way, the characters can learn the basics about each other.
Sorry if this has been posted before, but I was unable to find a similar post.
Recently I have began re-reading One Piece and a thought hit me. What if you had Devil Fruit Powers in Pathfinder?
I'm not saying you could select them, but if you stumble upon a magical piece of fruit that could give you the powers to transform into a crocodile or change your body into rock at a whim, you would eat it, wouldn't you? Granted, you lose your ability to swim and effectively become paralysed under water, but probably worth it.
On that note, how would you put them into practice? It's a rare one of a kind item that gives X power, right, but I mean mechanically? Would the Zoan type fruits give powers similar to Lycanthropy, being able to use it at will but unable to pass it on to another?
What other types of fruits would you even consider putting in your game, knowing the players might find them?
Here is the question: Can a Golem itself act as a Phylactery for a Lich? The only reason I bring it up is due to the fact that most Golems seem to be immune to Magic (or at least any that allows for spell resistance.)
I am currently writing a campaign and had an interesting idea for an encounter.
Basically, the party stumbles across a Lich who has turned an inactive/incomplete/ancient Golem into his phylactery, but has yet to transport it to a safe location out of his current lair. After defeating said Lich in combat, they revel in their glory and start looting the lair. Several minutes later, the Golem (now controlled by the spirit of the Lich) breaks into the room in a fury attempting to slay his weakened attackers with his new metal body or force the party to retreat so he may leave and reconstitute while plotting revenge.
My GM is going to be running the Reign Of Winter adventure path and brought up the fact that it appears to be based heavily around fairy tales. As such, he thought it would be interesting to have us run through it as fairy tale inspired characters, or thematically appropriate ones (Winter Witch, Oracle of Winter, and so on).
The only idea that popped into my head was the idea of a Huntsman style character, from stories like Red Riding Hood. Pretty much a Human Ranger with a Greataxe.
Does anyone else have any other good ideas?
Thanks in advance.
