Zenori's page

Why isn't the Ricochet cantrip on the Primal spell list?

Ricochet has the metal trait (one of the elemental traits correponding to an elemental plane). The metal trait is an option for Mystic Elemental focus spells like Elemental Weapon and Elemental Barrier. It just seems like it should be a Primal option for casters focusing on the plane of Metal.

I know in my home games, I'll add this to the Primal list, but it would be great for it to be added officially via errata or something.

I've made a few minor changes regarding access to the full Oliphaunt technical specs.

The schematics that are available in Eline's office are just the specs on installing the Null Space technology into the base Sledgehammer starship. It doesn't contain any details for how to build null space chambers for starship. So, releasing those plans into the wild only tells the galaxy that EJ is working on Null Space tech.

The REAL plans for the Null space chambers are on the servers that have the really mean Hacking DC with the deadly shock grid and are in a module that requires root access. There is NO way a level 2 or 3 party can hack the actual plans for the null space chamber.

So, if the crew wants to release the tech to the whole galaxy, he only way to do that is hand the ship over to Sinjin who will reverse engineer the technology, just as he describes.

I use FGU. I like it a lot. I tried Roll20 first, but it took a lot more effort to do even basic things. If you look at the long term cost of Roll20 vs. FG, FG ends up being cheaper in the long run and you won't ever hit a storage cap.

Doesn't specific override general in this version of Pathfinder?

Isn't the spell description for Magic Missile more specific than the general rule for concealment?

Magic Missile says it hits automatically. That sounds like a specific override of needing to consider a spell attack roll or concealment.

I don't think it would be a stretch for Wizards to have more Lore skills at character creation. I may house rule something about Lore skills for all classes anyway. It seems like few characters would bother with Lore when there are more generally useful skills. Maybe something like Background skills from 1e.

I also recommend considering some changes to loot in this adventure beyond the necklaces of air adaption. At one point, there is a wand of freedom of movement with quite a lot of charges in the treasure. This spell can trivialize many aquatic encounters, especially with so many free charges. Part of the challenge of some of the underwater encounters is the environment. Eliminating the challenge with 'free' freedom of movement might require rebalancing some encounters to make them tougher. The party can't even cast that spell yet at the level they should be when they acquire the wand.

Another change I made was the languages spoken by many of the monsters and races throughout the adventure. It made no sense that these cultures that have had little to no contact with Avistan would all speak Common. Most creatures encountered that speak Common in the Bestiary were changed to speak Aquan, Merfolk or an Azlanti dialect instead.

My party did have a challenge communicating with the Scrags in this adventure. They only speak Giant, and no one in the party spoke it. Fortunately Hags speak Giant, so at least that part made sense. The party had to rest with the cleric swapping spells to be able to understand the troll. I think the spell was Share Language or something like that. I didn't know that Comprehend Languages is a Personal only spell.

My group is making steady progress through this part of the adventure, so I thought I'd share some insight into what I've done to make he story work out more smoothly for my group.

1 - The Sunken Laboratory - The pit that descends into the lab is 80 feet I think. Without LOTS of rope, pitons, and/or trees (that can survive fireballs), the party can't get down without levitation or feather fall or something. Add fireballs blasting every round (unless they 'kill' the haunt for the day), and this is just too hard. My party crafted makeshift ropes ladders with sturdy vines from the forest nearby and I had some scraggly trees that could support the weight. Getting back up was impossible with a group with all low Climb skills and no magic to get out. They had to rely on Monkey Fish spell to get 1 party member out who then hoisted the others out. How did Durvin Gest get down here centuries ago? Maybe I would add some more permanent chain ladder that he left behind to get down next time.

2 - I added some details to the map that the Sahuagin had in the Reef area. The map included a scrag meetup camp near the Bleeding Forest where they transferred their prisoners to the Scrags, who then took them the rest of the way up to Nal Shakar via a hidden mountain path. I added the waterfall to this map, so the party would be motivated to check out that site as the possible site Durvin recorded.

3 - I added story detail to motivate the party to visit Bonetown. The water naga and locathah shared stories about the small Gillmen settlement that mysteriously disappeared about 2 years ago after rumors of conflict with Skum. Maybe their disappearance is related to the colonists that went missing and clues could be found at Bonetown. Ramona suggested to follow up on investigating Bonetown for clues. It's kind of a red herring, but it helps to keep the party out of the colony so the faceless stalkers can continue their takeover.

4 - I added some background of continued conflict between Onthooths Skum allies and Helekheterie's Sahuagin allies. Onthooth was winning the conflict, but with serious attrition among his Skum allies. The Hag's sahaugin forces have been rebuilding slowly and the Skum can't procreate without human hosts to breed with. Onthooth really needs breeding stock for more Skum to keep control of the region. This leads into other stuff I added....

5 - The Skum have kept nearly all the female colonists in a slave camp on the small island in the center of the map. They are keeping them in very good condition to use as breeding stock. However, Skum can only breed once a year at the summer solstice...so the women haven't been corrupted yet. This Skum slave camp is run by a Skum Druid and Alchemist. The druid uses his magic to control giant sea turtles with rafts that can be attached/pulled. This is how the colonists are easily transported from Ancorato to the other islands. I just couldn't fathom how rowing back and forth in a 4 person boat would work, so adding this druid and his giant turtles helped this part of the story make more sense. The alchemist can help brew potions for the Skum and Faceless stalkers to assist in their takeover of the new colonists.

6 - I added Monkey Goblin allies with classes levels (Rangers and Sorcerers) to the Hag's tower. This made the fight with the Hag much more interesting and challenging, since she really didn't have much offensive capability. I also modified the orrery description to include details of metal whirling rings with the planets attached that were 20 feet up. The hag used her Fly potion to fly up to the planet rings to use her spells from above on the party while the Vampiric Mist and Monkey goblin fought. This made the encounter more fun and challenging. The hag really seemed to have too few allies in the story to seem threatening to Onthooth or even able to keep control of the island. More could be added to this to make the story seem more real. I also added some river drake allies to the crater area to make it seem like the hag had more 'control' over the area.

Other things I would consider changing next time include:

Reducing the power of those necklaces of air adaption. They are too valuable for the party to have so many by the end of the story, plus I can't see the hag spending so much time constructing them when she is so obsessed with her Oracle stuff in the tower. Maybe they could be nerfed to provide air breathing in a 10 foot radius (also to bypass the tower sound burst trap in 10 foot radius) and no move speed bonus. Then the sahuagin and scrags would only need like 1 each, or at most 2.

After reading the entire adventure path, I think the middle and end could use a lot of expanding. Part 4, 5 and 6 seem very fast pace, and the PCs seem like they will level very fast over a short period of in game time, especially part 5 and 6.

I'd love to expand those parts of the story to slow down the pace and explore other areas only touched on by the path. I'm sure I can find lots of reasons why the enemies in the path require more time to finalize their plans before the last book.

Does anyone have advice on Pathfinder modules, scenarios, etc. that might easily fit the theme and story that could be adapted for addition to the path?

I'm open to non-Pathfinder material, even old D&D stuff that might fit in well.

I recently started running this adventure path and wanted to share some observations after my first 2 game sessions.

1 - My players have not overly min-maxed their characters. They are a fairly well balanced group (Druid, Ranger, Wizard, Investigator), with diverse abilities without being munchkiny in their optimization. The encounters in Talmandor's bounty have been pretty tough, especially considering the minimal resources the party has as fresh off the boat (literally) adventurers.

While the Grindylows were not too bad the Ankheg nymph, monkey goblins, and poltergeist have been challenging. The party feels a sense of urgency to figure out what is going on with the missing colonists and to rendezvous again with the Peregrine, so they press on beyond what their resources can deal with. I had to compensate by giving them a wand of cure light wounds (hidden in a tiny compartment carved into the Talmandor statue in the chapel).

2 - The party hasn't finished exploring the deserted colony yet. There are still the adult ankheg, more nymphs, choker and blood maize to encounter. The choker is likely the easiest of them, but the ankhegs have very high damage outputs and likely ambush the party every time with burrow speed and tremorsense. The blood maize has a very nasty bleed effect and also likely will ambush the party since it has the ability to hide/illusion among normal plants. I'm hoping the party rests before dealing with them, at least after encountering the choker.

3 - There are a lot of monsters that grab,trip, etc.

4 - The timeline of what happened to the original colonists is a bit fuzzy. It would be nice to add a very simple timeline of events. I am going to try to work on this, so my story seems consistent as the party uncovers clues.

I'll share more as I figure stuff out. Fortunately, my group isn't blazing through the story too fast, so I have time to adapt between sessions.

Thanks again for the advice everyone! I really appreciate the helpfulness.

I am fairly new to these Messageboards, and I just found the Adventure Path sections. I'll look at some of those areas for more details that will help me decide.

I could spend hours just reading and researching. =)