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Glad to see I wasn't the only one having issues with the map. I'm going with "the keep is alive and can shift as it wants" path of thought. I'm also going with each change of level is 10 ft in height, even though this would mean some serious steep stairs inside. Meh. It's a demi-plane and magic! Works for me.
Gonna kick this up again, but I have an issue in my campaign with the Arcane Builder discovery. Player is arguing (to a point of rage quitting) that the Arcane Builder discovery replaces the associated crafting feat. I've dug and dug, and can't find an official ruling by any Paizo staff (feel free to jump in!), since arcane discoveries replace bonus feats. I kinda see his point since only Wizard's get access to discoveries, but since it doesn't specifically say that in the description of Arcane Builder, I ruled that he still needs the crafting feat. I argued that the discovery augments the feat since, as somebody else to eloquently put it, a 25% reduction to 0 (not having the feat at all) is still 0, because it specifically states in the magical crafting rules that you absolutely must have the crafting feat to craft an item. Everything else can be missing and just makes the item harder to craft. Thoughts? Does anybody know if the description of this discovery has be retconned or fixed?
Is anybody else perplexed by the fact that the first module gives a side quest that can't be finished in the first book? The Seeking Sinspawn quest (Inside Front Cover) wants the party to bring 3 sinspawn heads to complete it, yet the first book, as written, only comes with one. And there aren't any wandering monsters, so that's not an option. I guess the party doesn't get to complete it until Book 2, but by then, the reward is... meh. But, coins are coins, I guess, and it doesn't appear to ever be a closed quest.
You just choose it as a language when you take a rank in Linguistics. 8 fame per book, so 48 total. Nothing saying they can't earn it other ways through roleplaying, all at your discretion.
So quick question.... Exactly HOW does one create a Tough Human Zombie? Shouldn't that just be a standard zombie, since there is no template called "Tough"? Also, do these undead stack with any other undead the necromancer has created for purposes of controlling undead, or are these considered a separate stack? I'm running the Vreeg combat in CotCT, and he handed an advanced party their behinds, and now they're captured.
On the Carowyn Manor map, there are three sets of stairs, one up, and two down. One up is obvious, 2nd floor. But there's only one basement. So... 1. Which set of stairs lead to the basement?
Thoughts? I think its a great chance to add to the Manor, but I don't want to put in tons of work, since I'm prepping on Roll20.
Does anybody have a campaign flow timeline? I thought I read somewhere that there could/could not be time for crafting, but as I read through the chapters, they really seem to be flowing from one right into the next with little or no quiet time. Between chapter 1 & chapter 2, then chapter 2 to chapter 3 seems to be the only time when there might be options to craft. Observations and/or thoughts?
Well, it never mattered anyway. I used the magic jar trick, which confused the heck out the party. The final fight lasted five and a half hours. Karzoug died to an anti-magic field and a hellknight burying his glaive in the Ruinlord's chest, then riding him down into the lava below. Only took four years and 86 sessions, but we finished!
Well, after four years and 86 sessions, my campaign finally came to a close last week. While there were lots of deaths, there was only one perma-death.
There is one issue with Source Severance, that being that the caster, while under the effect of the spell, is required to make a caster level check (DC 20 + twice spell level) to cast ANY spell. While Karzoug is 20th, that's still a DC 38 to make this check, making it a failure most time. I thought Source Severance was awesome, but after reading that, I don't think I'll choose it as an option for the fight tomorrow night.
1. Give the enemy Fog-Cutting Lenses
2. Have the rune giant crouch. That isn't "squeezing", and should negate the blind effect with no arguments. Also, the storm says it affects the ground, which I would argue means that it must be anchored TO the ground. 3. Is the fighter/barbarian being affected by the 20% miss chance for being next to the giant in the fog? 4. When they Wind Walk out of the Occluding Field, are they making their saves? I ask, as you make no mention either way about their inventory items. The Spire is a fluid place, and Karzoug's realms. Use it as such. Make the bad guys coordinate and counter attack if you feel your party is having too easy a time. While yes, they should have fun, so should you. This area and the battles should be EPIC. Use their own tactics against them. Make up magic items like disjunction bombs that create mage's disjunction when thrown. Or use some of the Mythic stuff. There's all sorts of things you can do. DO NOT limit yourself to only what appears in the adventure.
Most of the NPCs in Sandpoint got wiped out when Spoiler: the giant army from Xin-Shalast invaded Varisia. My party took way too much downtime late in the game to craft (lots of Greed sin points), and Karzoug decided to start sending in scouting parties. When the party delayed again after creating the domineering weapons, Karzoug decided it was time to get serious, and used his apprentice to set up a teleport circle at the Stroval Stairs. Now there are two invading armies running around Varisia. One is besieging Kaer Maga, and the other just wiped Sandpoint off the map (after destroying all settlements in-between, and has their eyes set on Magnimar. Good times It's day 302 of the campaign. At day 365, it all ends, and Mhar Masif escapes.
Great idea. My party loved/hated that adventure. At one point, six out of nine players (yup, nine) were in hospice care at the Sandpoint Cathedral with stat damage and/or multiple diseases. Numerous players almost died, and it took 4 four hour sessions to clear Misgivings out. They still talk about it, and we are at the end of the campaign two years later.
My party (hopefully) starts up the mountain next session. They have three rings and one medallion. There are nine players. They had a couple of opportunities to get more rings, but ignored or squandered them. I have a feeling they are going to find the occluding field more annoying than dangerous, but bad saves happen. Dunno what they'll do if it becomes an issue.
While I can't speak for or against the Witch, the Gunslinger (Musket Master) in my campaign was a pain for a long time. With his feats, he was able to use touch AC for anything within 55 feet, and for a long time, he ruled the field. But now, while hitting touch AC still sucks, he's died twice because he has been so focused on that 55 feet, forgetting that the enemy can close with him, and they usually hit harder than he can take. The point I'm trying to make is that every class has its strength's. Every class has its weaknesses. While some might be overpowering in the beginning, it doesn't mean they stay that way. The way this campaign is built, by the time the good guys reach the more powerful bad guys, the bad guys know the party's tactics and strengths/weaknesses. Any player who is a one trick pony is going to fail, because the GM can and should adjust Karzoug's and Mokmorian's and other's tactics to compensate. I was recently given a very valid argument for why Karzoug SHOULD have bullet shield even though guns weren't around during the Thassilonian Empire. So he will have bullet shield. I'm not doing this to neuter my one player, but to allow for others to have glory, and for the final fight to be a challenge (assuming they reach it before he escapes and real..... well, you know). Enemies of high intelligence are SUPER smart, and should be played as such. While I consider myself fairly intelligent, I'm no 20+ Intelligence. So I compensate by adjusting on the fly, yes, sometimes, I fudge dice rolls. I don't do it to kill characters, but I do do it to make the game epic.
Witch is a constant headache. What makes the witch so troublesome from a GM stand point? I don't have any players who look at it, but I always thought the summoner was more irksome, especially if GM allows the Master Summoner archetype. I have a summoner in my game, but he takes the role of buffer/healer more than combatant.
I ended up having the Pit Fiend they saved in book 3(all religious characters were dead or unconscious at that point, Barbarian and witch freed him) swoop in and save the day. Promising to kill them, instead of saving them the next time they met. Nice way to bring back an old face. My party killed their pit fiend. The Arkhyst fight in my campaign took about four sessions between hit and run tactics on both sides. They eventually killed him, but only after he slew two party members. I had to rebuild him since I have 9 players. Vital Strike when it's tiered all the way up combined with Power Attack and Flyby Attack pretty much guaranteed a kill if he hit.
Well, I should have the brains of the group back in play this Wednesday, so we might actually be able to make some headway, especially if they bother to start asking questions and making some Knowledge checks. No one has ever considered that while the rings/medallions are useful in accessing Mhar Massif, they aren't necessary. My group isn't known for thinking outside the very small box that they make for themselves on a regular. They are perilously close to the campaign ending in a bad way, though. As it is, the landscape of Varisia will be forever changed in my campaign world.
Well, in this latest session, Sandpoint was destroyed, and the giant army is now moving on Magnimar. Magnimar is about the only thing that stands a chance at stopping them. Plus, if I were to let Karzoug escape (which there IS a deadline on that), then Mhar would escape, and that just opens up a whole 'nother can of worms. At least one of the party members realized this last session that they're chasing after the wrong thing (ie. laying siege to Shahlaria). The party knows they need to go after the rings, but they don't know how/where, because they aren't bothering to do anything about trying to figure out how. They have a 16th level cleric and arcanist who could be casting legend lore's or other divination's and they're just wandering around instead.
My hellknight charged (flying) with a x4 crit weapon, scored the critical (and power attack, mind you), forcing a mass damage check. I rolled a 1. Plus the critical card pulled was a beheading. Combat ended at round 2. Sigh. I gave him the flaw of "enemy of Lamashtu", and a hero point. He was happy. Still braggs about it.
The other bit of information I wanted to post was that when this campaign started, I told the party that what happens in this campaign effects future campaigns. For instance, with the Lord-Mayor deposed, Magnimar will now forever have new rule in the city. The three towns that have been destroyed so far are forever wiped out, unless the people there and/or the PCs decide to rebuild them. If Sandpoint is destroyed, I will have to find a new way to start the Jade Regent AP. If the giants make it to Magnimar, then the party better hope they can be stopped, otherwise.... If that Elder God is released, I don't know what we will do.
Alright, so here's my campaign, just to give you some ideas. I know I have one player who frequents these boards daily, but I trust him not to use OoC knowledge. During Chapter 5, my party took 116 days of down time to craft. They'd dealt with the sinkhole problem, and decided that a 10k year old magic workshop could wait a few more days. At day 101, Karzoug decided to start sending out scouting parties of giants to probe for weak points in the Storval Plateau, and see if the Storval Stairs was the only way down to lower Varisia. The party was given hints of this throughout downtime, but ignored them. When the party created the dominate weapons, Karzoug took great note, decided it was time to invade. He sent his apprentice, Khalib, out (decided he'd managed to learn how to leave the occlusion field since he was weaker and needed less time to regain all of his strength) with a larger group of giants, and they set up camp at the Storval Stairs, after taking out the Black Tower (missed the players by hours). Once situated at the Stairs, the apprentice created a teleportation circle and started bringing in "the army". Quickly, a scouting party became a couple hundred giants, rune giants, and lamia of various types. Once this was done, the apprentice returned to Xin-Shalast. Currently, Kaer Maga is under siege from the Storval Plateau, but holding since the remanents of the Black Arrows and dwarves from nearby Jagerhoff (?, going on memory here) are keeping the ogres from the nearby forest from attacking the south side. The Storval Stairs is controlled by the giants, and they have swept down into Varisia. So far, Wolf's Ear, Ravenmore (again ?, due to not having a map in front of me), and Galduria have been destroyed, the last with some effort. Sandpoint is next, and probably won't survive. The Lord-Mayor of Magnimar was deposed in my campaign, and Magnimar is finally putting armies in the field. The party is in Xin-Shalast, and slowly making their way towards the peaks, but has been distracted by attacking the Storm/Cloud giant military academy on the mountain side. We shall see if they survive. There is still every chance in my campaign that Mhar Massif will erupt and the Elder God will be released. Good times.
No Gunslingers in case anyone wants to play one. Their too many opponent who have a low touch AC. Unless you want a player character to almost never miss. Don't allow it imo. The dragon Arkhyst did a "one shot, one kill" on my musketman. While the gunslinger is a hard build to play against in this campaign, my players have quickly learned that he's also a liability that requires as much protection as the conjurer. Spoiler: The only thing that sucks is a I can't validate spells like bullet shield since Karzoug has been trapped for 10k years, and guns weren't around during the Thassilonian Empire.
Answer 1: By technicality of the rules, NO. Home brew campaign. Your choice. Answer 2: Temporary bonuses are easier to remove mid-combat. Dispel Magic on a Bull's Strength, for instance. Bye-bye Power Attack and all subsequent stringed feats. Remember, if the player looses the requirements for the feat, the feat turns off. That can suck for the Dex based rogue, or the Str based fighter. This is under Prerequisites for feats.
So my party is wandering completely "off topic" and exploring random buildings in the city. 1. Has anybody stated out any of the vague references of information for the lettered buildings? 2. Anybody have an random generator for describing contents of buildings/what happens in them? I'm using some old source from the Myth Drannor Boxed set (2nd edition), but it's weak at best. 3. Ideas for keeping them on track? I swear, at this point I don't know how they're going to stop Karzoug from reappearing/making the old God go free and on the rampage.
Lol! Hell, no. I've put too much time into this campaign to watch the party drag into through the mud and into oblivion! Besides, I stated at the beginning that what happens here affects all further campaigns. Loosing Varisia to Karzoug, or worse, will make the other campaigns all that much more interesting.
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