Wibs's page

I am using this:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-evVv_06z_BJ_M_ek7EGwGoYSgzW93p8yzn xnNB7vfM/edit#gid=0

Why can't Shalelu find it? PC's don't know her stats ;)

Or let them find a coin that has some ancient writing on it, that would match some kind of writing on the wall/pillar.

I have no advice but I was wondering as a kind of new DM: how did the charming go? Did you roll a save in secret? Did you just tell the player his character got charmed? What did the rest of the party see (players and PCs)? Does the player know his character is charmed and just choose to follow along even though it's bad for the party?

I asked the bard to roll a Will save. Everyone saw how much was rolled. and secretly sent him a message on Facebook that he is charmed. Later I asked the Druid and Fighter roll also. They rolled a successful save, but I still told them to check their facebook message, where it was written "all is OK". So, none of them actually know what happened, but based on bards actions they feel something is fishy.

So, the party got to Lucrecias lair where she charmed the bard. The party agreed to help kill the trolls ("let's try to find a bit more information from her by playing nice") and on the way out they saw the messenger from Turleback ferry with ill news about the flooding.
The party rushed there and then the bard had the most amazing idea: Since Lucrecia was so nice and she is a good friend and ally - he was yelling at the townsfolk, that they should all rush to the Fort, as it is safe there. The rest of the party is still confused: the barbarian said (well, bard is very convincing), the Fighter said he's against as this sound really odd. Druid kept silent.

The party has just saved the children from the flood and are about to meet the Magga.

I am not sure where to go from here.... I can imagine Ogres at the fort seeing caravans of people heading to their gates, but that's where my imagination stops.

TPK at Über Xanesha.

When we started book 2, I asked if party would like to have a Hardcore version of the boss, where everyone says it's a TPK or a more balanced one. Back then they were not sure and they were 5. When they entered the Tower with four level 6 PCs, I asked again and two of them were "Sure, we want a challenge", one was "I guess, it would be interesting" and the fourth one was "I am not sure, but I think there is no need for a tougher encounter. So, being a fairly new GM with no other experience other than this party (and also because everyhting was really easy), I decide to go for the Hardcore Xanesha. Oddly, this was just last night, but I do not remember much...

So, a Corebook

Name of PC and Class:
Half-Orc Barbarian 6 named Trollsky,
Human Fighter 6 named Nikolai Kage,
Half-Elf Bard 6 named Eloen
Human Cleric of Calistria 6 called Sutan

walk on top of the tower. Where I say the sound is still and nothing can be heard. They even took some time at the level below to think out what lies above. I accidentally cheated and made the whole roof covered with silence.

Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders

Catalyst[b]: Self confidence, I guess? And a low skilled GM. Also, no communicatin in fight

[b]Story
Barbarian and Cleric move to the edge of the roof to take a look at the silently laughing Demon and notice that he is shimmering a bit. Fighter and Bard still belived this is the enemy until Xanesha appeared.
Bard stays on the walkway and shoots an arrow into the pillows. But Xanesha (actually more than one due to mirror image) is in the opposite corner - the place, where the Fighter went.
Xanesha matearilises out of the thin air near the Fighter and uses her Medusa mask on him, but he succeeds the save. Cleric moves outside and tries to Command the Demon with no success. On Barbarians turn he asks me of the Angel statue is stable. I, thinking that he would try to climb it, say it is not stable. So the Barbarian pushes it down on Xanesha giving her some damage. It goes south afther that. Xanesha, takes a 5 foot step and unleashes her three attacks into the Figher, that take half of his HP. The party did not land a single hit on her. The Barbarian tries to disarm her, rolls low, so has to drop his weapon. I forgot to use an AoO, but ist's OK.

I forgot what the Bard did, but Xanesha used her attacks and the bard started dieing. At this point I figured it is a good time for the Silence to wear off (was around 6 rounds into the game). Cleric decided to help the Bard, stabilised him and made him invisible Later healed to 1 HP. Cleric actually tried to dispell the mirror image, as they did not think about where the silence was originating. Cleric failed.

There were some tried to attack Xanesha by the barbarian and by the Figher, but no luck.

The party retreated down to the Clockworks, and nothing happened for 1 turn, where they were discussing what to do (even destroy the tower with everything and everyone in it or just jump down with featherfall). But then they saw Xanesha, flying near the other door. With a very nice scorching ray, the Bard was dead (1 point more than his constitution).

Barbarian tried to jump "around the tower" - because I drew that the outside walkway was U-shaped. He got speed, jumped, threw his weapon to the side to add some momentum to the turn and tried to catch the other walkway. Sadly, he failed the acrobatics check. He also failed the reflex check to catch onto something, so he fell down. There was a chance that if he rolls 1 on each of the damage dice, he would survive...

With the Cleric and Figher left, the Fighter was actually quite demoralized as a person and said something like "There is no point in doing anything...." just kept skipping turns. So,
his death was off screen. The last standing Cleric was shouting - go check the chests!, but he did not.

As a last desperate attempt, the cleric took his dagger out and jumped off the tower torwards flying Xanesha to stab her in the heart. Sadly, the AC of the Matriarch was too high so the Cleric and he died, falling down and praying to Calistria.

---
We all were quite sad about the outcome, but everyone had great time. We are now deciding, what to do - roll back or start with new characters. The Cleric player is unsure if she wants to keep playing. It has been really hard for her, because she has no PC-game/RPG background and her English is intermediate to read all the rules. So, her actions were not always optimal. This, apparently, bothers the Bard a bit.

I am curious, what did your party do for twelve days? My party entered the Shadowclock yesterday, and it took me great effort to stall them a litte. As my players try to do each possible sidequest (even if there is none), I had to deode the ledger faster (they found 3 people, who knew one language each and the barbarian has Linguistics). Two words - "Xanesha" and "Shadowclock" - were enough for party to try to rush as soon as possible. The only reason they decided to spend a day was to enchant some weapons, as ruomors about the tower mentioned ghosts and other "immune to normal attack" monsters.

I am fairly new GM, but I guess after 12 days, Xanesha would for sure find out who is responsible, and as she did not try to kill the PC, she might have moved on to gather souls somewhere else or to warn everybody about a possible threat (though at this point this would seem like a very small problem for all high level enemies). It will be very anti-climatic for PC not to find anyone on the top. Perhaps, a faceless stalker as Ironbriar (if he is alive, but dissapeared), who will take all blame? There is still a letter, that will give some insight.
Although, reading other GMs thought, there is not many good places to go. She could hide, wait until the PC are gone and come back to keep killing.

Hi,

I am running Rise of the runelords for a party and we are only at book 2. If a party member will be GM for Shattered start, how much will this ruin the game for both of us?

I know it shoul be about what the character knows, but we are fairly new and might metagame :(

Thanks.

The party only knows that Xanesha exists and that she wrote a letter to Aldern and, according to Ironbriar, Acacia is Xanesha. The party knows it was Aldern killing people in Sandpoint, but apparently, he did not act alone. I highly doubt they see the pattern of Wrath and now Greed.

What the PC told the Hell Knights was "everything from the killings at Sandpoint", so I will just assume this was mentioned:
a) Aldern was killing people - most likly for the cult
b) he was an undead and now dead and they can prove this. His wife is dead too
c) Xanesha is unknown figure
d) Foxglove manor will return to the Brotherhood
e) Aldern tried to kill the party bard (the messeges)
f) Something tried to kill the bard and the party at the Foxglove townhouse
g) They went to the sawmill of the Seven (they are sure there is no coincidence in names) to investigate. Oh! Here's an idea - I will let Hell Knights ask what they were doing in the sawmill :D

I think I will let Hell Knights take Ironbriar and the PC to custody and after a few discern lies checks will know that Ironbriar did not kill those dead cultists, which right now are now on the ground in the sawmill. This way he will get released as soon as possible. I guess the PC will get charged with murder after that, where it will be their word against Ironbriars.

Is there any way to "see the past" that could 100% reconstruct what happened? A spell of some kind?

The question will be once the items of the victims will be recovered - all those rings with "From loving A. to Z" and "Happy birthday" wishes that were written on them. Oh, it hit me now - it is in a barrel under the sawmill. No way to proove it was actually ever in the Sawmill.

I will roll the sence motive checks as soon as the PC hand Ironbriar over and hope for the best. Currently Ironbriar has no intention of exposing Xanesha.

Also, there kind of are 6 more Brothers of the Seven and the party is really intrested in learning their identities. Also, there are 9 more cultists, who were not present during the fight at the sawmill. I wonder, if they should search for a new leader, avenge the killed or just go hiding untill the dust settles.

I really wonder if the PC will actually go to Acacia now. They are a bit paranoid about the possible double agents and corruption in town.

Thanks for quick replies.

Yes, it is the Order of the Nail Hell Knights.

Well, the party acutally fought 3 culstist and Ironbrian in the mill and during that the cultists were dead and Irobriar unconsious (CLW got him back on his feet). Ironbriar was at the sawmill in the evening, talking to the 3 cultists, when the party entered and he initiated combat.

The only proof of Ironbriar being the mastermind is that he confessed to them that he is the leader of the local Norgorber cult and that he is in the Brotherhood of the Seven (and everyone in town knows that that is a kind of secret sosciety of the wealthy owners and founders of the sawmill). He did admit that they killed a few rich people because of the cult and that those "had it comming". And the proof of the items that they found in the sawmill. But they have no idea who the items belong to. When the party asked Ironbriar about why he killed Kathrin Vinder, he said that it is not them - she was too poor. Hope this gives them some insight later. But that's about it.
Oh, they hid the barrels with items from the murder victims underwater and wanted to report to Acacia (since right now she is the only authority they have spoken to). But after Ironbriar said that she is Xanesha, they are not sure it is a good idea.

The party has 2 masks and weapons from cultists and 11 cultist robes (the same robes all sawmill workers wear). But nothing on Ironbriar. They did not even search his pockets while he was unconsious, nor check his office in the sawmill.

I am also worried, that the party currently has no other leads to follow... Really like the point, that they only have his word that Ironbriar was the leader and killed some people as sacrifice. The deed to townhouse and the letter to Aldern gives them some insight to the Seven, but no more.

I think I will make the Hell Knights go check the sawmill. When the morning shift starts, there will be people anyway.

Hi,

**short story**
Party broke into the sawmill in the evening, killed 2 cultists, insceniated a murder scene to frame it all on Ironbriar, catured Ironbriar and on thier way back to Keystone met Hell Knights. As there was no way to lie to them, party decided to tell them everything except faking the murder scene.

Of course, while they were at the sawmill, they did not think about checking the Irobriars office and I really doubt the party will go back or be able to get back in the near future.

I am not sure how to react :D

**longer story**

So, I would really love to get some advice from more skilled GMs, where to go from here.

Thank you all for the answers.

Patrols from the church of Calistria would be interesting. I imagine they exact vengeance for the wronged, rather than attempting to maintain order. They may even explicitly approve of certain misdemeanours if no malice is intended, and would turn a blind eye to reasonably justifiable feuding and revenge.

Oh, I have a cleric of Calistria in the party. This will be interesting :D

Hi,

My party has just arrived in Magnimar and, after breaking in into an empty house in Naos to set up a survailance point, they encountered guards, who were patrolling the street. After some crazy bluff and diplomacy check successes the guards promised not to report this to their superiors until the morning next day.

So, the question is: who would they report to? I understand that the Justices are already the court system, but is there anyone in between? I've also read, that there are more than one guard "organisation" and each would have their own superiors.

So, as I understand correctly, when a person in Magnimar has a problem, they seek up the nearest guard to solve the problem. But what happends if the guards are unable to resolve the situation?

Also, while entering the city they asked for the nearest "sheriff station", although they have a recomendation letter from Hemlock to one of the Justices.

***
This city is a really big difficulty increase from Sandpoint for a new GM like I am :D I am so overwhelmed with the amount of information.

Thank you,
Wibs

Hi,
I am running an adventure path with haunts and I am still not sure how they work after reading both online and in the books.

et's assume I have a haunt with Will save 16, Perception 20 to notice a sparkling watering can, that is triggered by touching a chair. Failed will save results in a wish to water the plants. If he PC is hindered, he attacks the nearest.

I have a party of PC A, B and C. They are all in the room. B touches the chair. They all roll initiative. Suprise round triggers.
A - 21
C - 11
Haunt - 10
B - 9.

When does B roll the Will save? At 9 or at 10? Or as soon as he touches the chair? When does B try to do the "water plants" - at 9 or at 10? What about if B has initiative higher than 10?

Could you please draw both scenarios out for me?
Thanks!

Hi, we have been playing for a year, but I still concider all us quite new to the game, so we do meta-game a lot. But here is the situation I am facing now.

My party of chaotic good half-orc barnarian, neutral human cleric of Calistria, neutral human fighter, chaotic neutral human rogue and a neutral half-elf bard are at the Foxglove manor. Apparently, deciding that all the possible owners are dead and have no use of anything here any more (even after seeing the family portrait haunt) they are looting everything: expencive "contraband" wine from Cheliax, portraits with frames, silverware.... Same thing happened with Hambley's savings. We are talking about a major greed point bonus here.

Thay have not been to Sandpoint since they left for the fields a few days ago, so I am not sure how to react. My first thought was that I will get one of the sisters back to Sandpoint, but after some reseach I see that Sendeli is in Absalom and I doubt she will be travelling for any reason that far back. Zeeva, on the other hand, is in Korvosa, that is much more nearer. But if she arrives to Sandpoint now, I am not sure how the Magnimar townhouse situation will look like. And I also need a reason for a sister to return. Kind of like "I want my family house back now. Oh, you sold of all the possible stuff from it... oh.."

The party went directly to Misgivings after the fields, so they are missing do not know any news from Sandpoint for a few days now. They've sent Horran and Lettie Guffmin to Sandpoint with a carrige without doing any heal checks, so I am thinking of a mini-ghoul-apocalypse.

Ideas a welcome. Thanks.

Here's my CAD drawing of the Foxglove manor in PDF on A3 with squares of 20 mm to 20 mm (so it can fit). Has all the layers, doors are marked as squares but no stairs or windows.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=17hurtuY4UIAQNRxQFCBcYYeGZvE4G52o

Have you thought about laying a good sized monitor or flat screen TV on it's back on the table and using Roll20 or a paint program to display the map? Then you can put the figures on the glass of the screen. You can get the Rise of the Runelords maps without annotations from Paizo as PDFs.

It is a bit more complicated than that..

I was wondering: we all know printing huge colourful battle maps can be expensive. Has anyone made a drawing with lines only (e.g. autocad drawing) for anything? Kind of like a blueprint.
My party is at the Fixglove manor and it is hard to draw such a nice house by hand.
Thanks.

Talking about Oath Day - how important it is that players come there on that day? Should I stall them somewhere?

Also, does the Manor react to Detect Magic? Like, if a bard casts it on a wall/window/door or any other normal object, will she notice something?
I know haunts will not be noticed by Detect Magic, but will with Detect Undead

Hello,

I have read numerous threads on the topic and I am still a bit confused so I would be thankful if someone could take their time and explain it to me (CRB-based, please).

So, to make a magic item I need a feat + Craft skill, correct?
Now let's concider two options: 1) I am making the magic item from components and 2) Say, I have a masterwork weapon in my hands and want to make it magical.

Let us assume an example for the first option: it will require me to spend 1/3 of the normal item cost and a Craft(Armor) roll result × the (shield) DC that equals the price of the item in sp. Then since the item has to be Masterwork, I have to pay additional 150 gold and make a DC20 for Craft(Armor). So, to craft myself a mwk Shield, light steel it would cost me 150+(9/3)gp and two Craft(Armor) skill checks of DC(10+1) and DC(20). Istead of just buying it at the shop for 150+9gp. Correct?

Now I want to make it an enchanted +2 light steel shield. I need my caster level to be (2x3)=6, pay (who? for what?) 4000gp and have the Craft magic armor and weapon feat. Is there any roll involved and at what DC? Does it need some speacial spell?

Let's assume now I want to add Blinding to the +2 shield. I am a level 5 cleric. So the cost for this will be Spell level × caster level × 1,800 gp = 2x5x1,800 gp. This is 18 days of work, right? What skill checks do I roll for it? Spellcraft? Or I can do this with Craft (Armor)?

Does the same system apply for wonderous items?

Also, I understand that if I ask another person to do this, the cost would be doubles. I am trying to figure out how much profit can be made.

Thank you

I made a journal for Lyrie that players can find when they explore the second level of Thistletop. I played up her crush on Tsuto and introduced some jealousy for Nualia, alongside hints about her past and the results of her research.

Lyrie's journal

This is awesome! Is the text in thassilonian something random or does ot have any meaning? I did not read all the books (yes, I know - I should) yet, so might be missing this.

«ABCD, AEF GH IJKLM LED
CLNOM AFJKLDHK EJM PBOM
KLQJG RBD QSEOQM BOQHK»

Or something more real:
HOLY, HAD US CRIME MAY
LM*NE HDRI MY SI ARE GONE
IM *RU BOY **AN*E ON*SI

He did it out of character, but since his barbarian has linguistics I will ask him to roll for this next session.

Hi,
The room D12 Chaphel of Lamashtu has "Stone fonts containing frothy dark water"
What is it? It is not water of Lamashtu, since in B12 the water is said to be "filthy water", nor can it be the liquid from the Runewell, since B13 describes that as "bubbling water that looks almost like translucent lava".
My party Barbarian refreshed his face with it after the battle with hounds. I was quite suprised with that and had him roll Will and Fort saves just in case (he got 4 and 7). I did not trigger anything yet, since I don't know what it was.

Thanks!

Wouldn't it be funny if they thought they were learning Ancient Thassilonian, when in fact they had learnt Abyssal? Imagine their surprise when they try to use it and some slithering shuddersome tentacular horror from beyond the grip of reality shows up.

Bwahaha!

Oh, this is good :D But they already brought it to Quink and he started studying it. Luckily, a rogue from Magnimar (PC) will send it away to his boss (captain of the secret guard service in Magnimar) the first night they get it back from Quink.

--edited--
Bacially, the PCs think Quink is a local sage - at the start of the adventure they asked a random person on the streets if there was someone wise in the town and were directed to Quink. So, now if they run out of ideas, they run to him :/

Woops, just noticed the prayer book of Lamashtu is not in thassilonian.. oh, well, I said it was :)

well, they captured Erylium, so now they have "a native speaker, a teacher and a textbook". Textbook being the Prayer book of Lamashtu.

We agreed that he will spend some evenings with Quink and eventually start to speak.

Hi,

Before you answer, I saw there is a trait that allows to read and speak Thassalonian.

PC captured Erylium and tried to talk to her. So, they talked to BRODERT QUINK who might speak Thassalonian.
I was a bit unprepared, so I said he only managed to say Hi to the quasit.

So, now that the players hit level 3, the Barbarian wants to invest a point into Linguistics (since he already has 2) and asked me if he can choose "that strange language the small witch was using".

Technically, I think this is possible, but thematically I find it unlikly, that within the week or two being in Sandpoint he managed to learn so well.

What do you think? Would saying he will learn the language next level would be a good idea? And as there is noone to teach Thassalonian.

Thanks.

I made a spreadsheet with Sandpoint shops for my players, maybe you can use it.

Old post, but Is this correct?

*I am still fairly new to the campaing*

Name of PC: Ardenov
Class and Level: Druid 2
Adventure: Thistletop
Catalyst: Bunyip and bad planning
Details: Ardenov was a fine dwarf with a very bad Charisma (6) and great plans to become an animal. The party liked him.
After quite a beating from 2 guard goblins, Tangletooth and Gogmurt with a dire rat summon, the players rested, healed their two HP, used a lot of Cure light wounds form Bard the Cleric and then Ardenov said he needs 5 gallons of water because he wants to cast Ice Armor and there is "well" not far from the camp stop where they might get some water. The stories of how good the armour would be filled the party with hope. Little did they know, the well was the lair of a bunyip. Little did the GM (me) know, that Ice Armour was a non-corebook spell.
So, they came to the well, lowered the druid into the water with ropes, I rolled initiative, and luckily the bunyip was far away and low on initiative and the barbarian and fighter quickly pulled Ardenov out. He only got a glimpse at something bigger in size then himself approaching in the water.

Regardless, already above ground on, the party descided that they should lover the druid again down, then lower the barbarian while the cleric and fighter hold the rope and bard is singing motivating songs. On the ground with about 10 hp, while the barbarian was still in the air, the druid stood and waited. A bite from the evil shark-seal, a bleeding effect, a critical attack of opportunity (because the druid decided to use HEAL while in combat to stop the bleeing) left the druid at 2 points from true death. Next round he fails the stabilization save and the next next round he has 1/20 chance to survive.... The bard and Barbarian managed to get there by the last round, but it was too late. The bard was crying over the body, while a not so bright barbarian went swimming to see what is outside.

We left the session there, when we found out that Ice Armour is not a corebook spell.

This is my first ever player kill (we are all new), so I have a week now to descide what to do. The player wrote me the next day "you know that if I knew that I don't have the sell we would not have done this, right?". Kind of right, but kind of - be more careful next time and remind the cleric to use Channel energy next time.
But.. the result of such actions and consequences should be left for another thread.

Wow! Great work!

nvm - found them.

I understand we can add manually the monsters. As a long shot - anyone has added all monsters from the Rise of The Runelords campaing into it and can somehow share?

Thanks

I know that. So do the players.. but they still tried to sell it for 2315. Well, a Greed point there..

Wibs wrote:

I, as a new and very unexpirienced GM just allow them to sell everything somewhere in Sandpoint (at the general store). Exept that when they tried to sell the +1 sword for full price I said that the store owner had only 150gp. Take it or leave it.

They have a dwarf that can drag a lot of stuff with him and a Cleric, who likes looting everything. So here's a combo...

I will think about 15gp per ear pair - sounds good. I don't generally describe how goblins look like (hmm.. I guess I should, so they know which ones are dangerous).

Sandpoint has a purchase limit of 7,500 gp as shown in the AE Appendices, Purchase limit being the maximum a shop in Sandpoint will pay for a single item. Your players should have no problem finding someone who would pay the normal 1,157.5 gp for a +1 Longsword.

So, uh, you can change things around a bit, but just know that you're shorting them on quite a bit on the wealth the AP is assuming they have at this point.

Thanks. I must have missed that in the book. Wow, shop owners must be rich then :D

I, as a new and very unexpirienced GM just allow them to sell everything somewhere in Sandpoint (at the general store). Exept that when they tried to sell the +1 sword for full price I said that the store owner had only 150gp. Take it or leave it.

They have a dwarf that can drag a lot of stuff with him and a Cleric, who likes looting everything. So here's a combo...

I will think about 15gp per ear pair - sounds good. I don't generally describe how goblins look like (hmm.. I guess I should, so they know which ones are dangerous).

There is so much in this thread, so I might have missed it:
My PC are just starting. T

hey are moving to Thistletop, but they would like to have some maps: the region/world, local areas.

I could give them the one in the GM guide, but I am pretty sure that will have too many points of interest they have no need to visit yet. Would be great to have something they can mark stuff themself.
E.g. I got the Sandpoint map without numbers and they are slowly adding info where what is on a need to know basis.
There is a problem, though: our Fighter says he has been living in Sandpoint for the past year or two. So he should know more stuff (he does not as we have not talked this through).

My PCs heard Shalaelu's explanation, and decided to investigate every goblin tribe, starting with the closest tribe to Sandpoint: the Birdcrunchers.

This is exactly what happened yesterday... First they went to Tickwood, where they found 2 lonely goblins on patrol. After entorogating one he told them to keep going North. So, they went to Shankswood and luckily did not find any trails there. They went further down the road to a river crossing and found two trails - one leading north to Nettlewood, the other down to Mosswood.

Next session will start with them asking questions from the chief. Who, I am sure of it, will tell them to go North.

To add, maybe, sending them North was a bad idea, as there is nothing in the north except the sea...

I ended up with Shalelu meeting them somewhere in town after they returned from Catacombs. They went to the long tunnel again and found with her help the secret door to the cliffs. She then told them about goblin heroes and told that goblins are for some reason gathering in Thistletop and asked to investigate.

Had to do this way since I saw they were quite puzzled on where to go next.

Did your group miss the journal? Have they forgotten about it? Did you give them the handout? Handouts can be clumsy or heavy-handed but they do serve a purpose - they tell players 'this is important.'

** spoiler omitted **

They have the handout of the journal. What I skipped for some reason was the briefing of Goblin Heroes (will do today), but they also heard about all the tribes and I remember druid taking notes.

Oh, well, perhaps I was too pushy for them to stay in town for a few days and they might have forgotten info about Thistletop. Hope Shalelu will remind them...

At least Barbarian got some fun encounters with the Vinder family.

Hi. My PC will be done with the catacombs today and they should move to Thisletop. But as far as I know, the only reference to THISTLETOP was in the journal. Apparently, I missed some of the backstory or they don't have the maps, but I am pretty sure they will not go there directly.

Should I make them figure out their next move or let them find a note in the last room in catacombs (Levitation room)?

Or am I missing something.

Thanks.

Was more frustrating than hard for my group of bard, druid, figher, barbarian and cleric for a few reasons.
Being quite new GM with this being the first adventure path for me:
1) I was not sure if the summons reacted imidiatly or neede time to appear, so I did the last part
2) I forgot about the sinful bite
3) I forgot about the DR against anything that was not cold iron (not sure how DR /good works)
4) I've cast invisibility only once. Untill all her summons were gone.

Eventually she was flying invisible in the corner, but bard was detecing magic in another corner and barbarian had quite a lot of sand in his pockets so he threw it in another corner to settle and check if ther was anything invisible.
Elyrium was flying in a high corner and I said the party can't reach her with reach weapons. They were slowly shooting for low damage with crossbow and two shortbows, while she was attacking the druid who kept failing to hit her with acid darts. two or three crits from the clerics shortbow got her down to 4 HP. Druid tried to use grappling hook on Elyrium, but failed. Elyrium transformed into a crow and started flying to the small window in the cealing but did not reach it in time. Eventually, everyone was out of all arrows and bolts say but two. So, the barbarian tried to climp the walls and rolled really high, pushed himself from the wall and while falling down tried to rech the crow with his reach weapon. And he succeeded.. Druid was unconcious at some point, but bard got him back.

Having read some of the parties here I think I should ask my PC to add some more stories to their characters (we are all new).

We have - I know they are not really PF cannon, but still:
1) Eloen the half-elf Bard - I have yet to recieve a backstory from her, she came to Sandpoint Festival to earn some gold-
2) Kolja Kletkin the human Fighter - used to be a theater star, but at some point he was not as popular as he used to be, so he joined the crusades. While burning a powerful withc all of his fellow crusaders died and he killed the witch. This was too much for him, so he deserted and hid himself a few years back at Sandpoint, where he fixes boats.
3) Sutan Cleric of Calistria was a general cleric, but when he experienced a siezure while praying, he got kicked out for being "cursed". Now he is thinking of redeeming himself. (But this has not really been roleplayed much)
4) Ardenon the dwarf druid - no backstory yet, but with a charisma of 7 it better be good.
5) A Half-Orc Barbarian, who is a linguist and knows many languages. Orcs attacked his village, but he talked to them and they agreed that the village pays the orcs. But, being half orc himself, he demamnded the tribute to be paid to him as well. It did not and well for the village.

I thought they will meet each other at the tavern and introduce themselfs, but did not really work out.

Thank you all for great replies.

We have a deserter Figheter who fixes boats, a Druid with Charisma of 7, a Bard, a Linguist Barbarian and a Cleric of Calistria with us.

Our Fighter, was so eager to go to the boar hunt because "it looks like a major quest line - if we do not follow him, we might not learn something". Not much role play - but I am thinking of adding some easy useless side quests - maybe they will understand not to follow everything. Luckily, the Barbarian talks to much and he scared Aldern from the woods saying they are looking for stolen bodies, zombies, ghouls, walking sceletons. Aldern was so scared that he ran to home to Magnimar.

The Druid told that he had been in another group to everyone, but only I know the details. I have not yet confirmed that this is the same advanture, but based on my questions, I think he is pretty sure :D

I will talk to him about metagaming and most likely will think about visions/trance state like the ones Tacticslion mentioned - not sure the reason for this (as this has to be played through the campaing). He is the most emm.. experienced with RPG (watches a lot of sessions online) and I trust him to play out well. As far as I understand, he does not know Aldern is the Skinsaw man, which is a big relief. Changing him to, say, Iesha will not solve the problem that he knows the Haunts in the Manor and what to ask in the Sanatorium.

Oddly enough, he is a sensetive person and always hectic, so I realy don't want him to sit out those sessions. I have some time until we get to Book 2, luckily.

The important thing is this: will the play experience be enhanced for the rest of the party or hindered? And... why do you think that might be?

I do not think it will hinder that much the play of other party. I currently trust the Druid to play out well, I am more worried that the someone might keep asking him in-game questions "about the future". Or that this will make it hard for the Druid to play along. Also, if the druid is out, I am not sure what to do with XP. Right now I am just deviding the normal one between the 5 of them. THis means they will not the the suggested level once they reach, say, Misgivings and they lack a player for action economy.

*Might contain spoilers*

Here's what happened yesterday. This was our third session for 5 players (all have played only the Beginner box) and we got to the Board Hunt (yes, it took us so long). After that, our Druid said out of character that Foxglove name sounded familiar.

What happened - he had joined an on-line group previously to replace a player. First thing he remembers is that they were looking for clues at the sawmill, a lot of ghouls had appeared at the city, then went to the farm and eventually found "a lady who was afraid of mirrors at the Foxglove Manor, we helped her and she ran down. We did not follow". Last thing was they visited the sanatorium and killed GRAYST SEVILLA who gave them some info.

Now I am not sure what to make of this and how to proceed and really, really am looking for an advice. He suggested he does not take part in decision making process with the party, but I am not sure this is a good idea. Not that I underestimate my group, but I think it is really hard not to (think it is the right word) metagame and know what you character does not know.

This is my 2nd experience as GM (first one was the beginners box) and I feel like I have ran into a complication yet to overcome..

Thanks in advance

Hi,

I hope to run the game on Thursday, but my group is already asking for all the classes

There's only a few of the classes covered in the BB, but are there other characters somewhere? in other words - is there e.g. BB Druid or a Paladin or a witch?

Thanks

Hello,

I am about to GM my first game soon with a party of 4 players in the Beginners Box adventure. But, as no one of them has played any RPG before, I was wondering, if there is a short game I could play with three of them before we start with he Box. There are the Beginners Box Bash adventures, but they seem to miss something I would like to see. Probably I want a few maps together with some combat and social quests, where we could use miniatures for moving around. I have never DM'ed either, so I can't make one myself. As this is an introduction game, I don't think it should be over 2-3 hours.
Could someone suggest one please?
I think I could make something myself, but I have small doubts in my skills. Especially the social quest making part :) Ideal would be a turning corridor with a few rats+skeletons+trap and a "convince or fihgt" boss in a throne room.

In addition, (it is probably in the wrong place to ask, though) can it be possible, that a druid badger companion can have base 15hp and 17 AC at level 1? Sounds like really hard to hit and kill.