That's what has me concerned about running an AP into high levels. PF tends to get wonky after level 10 or so. I'm a player in a Skull and Shackles game approaching 13th and the GM is not a happy camper, and I'm up next in the GM's chair with Kingmaker. It's nice to see it held together for you until the end.
It held together but needed maintenance from me in the form of toughening up the already toughened up encounters of the 6 player conversion.
Andostre wrote:
I'd love to hear more about the encounters you created in Chapter 5.
I think that, for time challenged GM's like myself, the AP could quite easily
have been written in 12 books & still not done justice to KM!
You know, the main reason I started the AP was becasue i thought: hey, it's got a whole campaign from start to finish and all i need to do is read up and prepare... but then my players started to walk all over the encounters and i started to do more and more work on upgrading the challenge.
I've used the conversion from Chapter 2 till the end, with a party of 5, then 4 with 2 cohorts. Somewhere during chapter 3 (I think) I started adding more enemies to encounters and/or bumping them up with more levels or quick templates.
So we have finally finished our run through Kingmaker. It was a long run, and certainly the longest campaign i’ve run. Frankly i’m exhausted (i did have some breaks from GMing in that time, but still).
The whole AP was a blast and all had a great time, thoroughly enjoying themselves. Apart from people joining/leaving we had no PC deaths (but several close calls). The PCs finished the campaign at level 15 and were:
Human Paladin of Erastil (also Ruler), and alter his wife/cohort an Archer-Bard
Human Fighter, and his cohort Cleric
Elf Wizard (air mage)
Gnome Magus
Between them all, they had Item Creation pinned down and at their mercy.
Somewhere during chapter 2 i started using the 6 Player Conversion. During Chapter 4 I started toughening up and adding more enemies to the 6 Player Conversion.
The AP went pretty much as written, with me adding tiny bits to the frey. I originally envisioned having plenty of NPCs and side stories, but then my twins came along and so the AP was kept to bare minimum :-)
==================
Chapter 1: went pretty much by the book.
Chapter 2: I used the Hargulka’s Monster Kingdom s presented by DM_aka_Dudemeister. And it was a blast. Thanks Dudemeister!
Chapter 3: They stopped with the Hexploration. It bored them. The module was straightforward with plenty of Role Playing with the centaurs. The party had one of the toughest battles here with big V, and this mainly due to the fact that when V retreated to heal himself, the party teleported away to Restov to heal up and rest in turn. When they came back he summoned some more demons to help him. This wore them down and they had a tough showdown with V.
Chapter 4: They stopped with Kingdom Building as well.
Chapter 5: We decided not to use Mass Combat rules. Instead i created a set of encounters for the heroes to run around, and let the outcome of those combats dictate the whole Battle.
Chapter 6: This one is a whole lot of encounters which do not necessarily advance the plot in any way. Only after all the Blooms were defeated did they party think of looking for the source (they were too focused on creating new Items). Once in the First World i started cutting encounters, and making things from combat encounter to social encounters or just plain nothing (for example: i dropped the dragon keeping guard on the moat, defaced nymphs were just there, tending Nyrissa’s room).
The final showdown with Nyrissa was tense, though short. Lasting about 5 rounds i think. Her high saves and high DC made all the part susceptible to her spells, which finally made things dangerous. With the Paladin holding Briar scoring a critical then cursing as Nyrissa’s wish let her survive the beheading, but then on his next attacks he finished her off.
===================
All in all, as i said: good campaign, and great fun was had.
But for me, i’m done with Pathfinder for the time being. I’m tired, and i hate having to spend around ¾ of a combat turn with players calculating their damage output due to so many abilities. I’ll have no problem Playing in PF, but i do not want to GM it again…. OK, maybe short low-level adventures…
Currently, we have started playing 50 Fathoms using Savage Worlds.
Name: Andreas Grayquill
Race: male Elf
Classes/levels: Wizard 13
Adventure: War of the River Kings
Location: The Burgundy Throne, Irovetti's Palace
Catalyst: Irovetti's halberd
The Gory Details:
Irovetti was greater invs. thanks to Dust of Disappearance, and harassing the party (mainly the healer) while the rest of the PCs were busy fighting guards, trolls, and General Avinash (who changed shape to look like Irovetti).
The healer (NPC cohort) moved away from the whatever was attacking her, and the Andreas moved closer to cast some spells... standing just 5 feat from Irovetti (i forgot the reach property of the halberd, so not AoO). One crit later the wizard was down and Irovetti went back to harassing the healer.
... the healers next action was a Breath of Life on the Wizard (the lucky bastard).
It has 16 in Cha and forged from the Love of a Nymph .. Personally I would roleplay an emotional and passionate companion, and if asked about the First World probably will share things ..
About Thousand Breaths i'm afraid that Briar itself never saw the place or its inhabitants so they'll have to get the infos from somewhere else..
Good point about Thousand Breaths. But what would it know about Nyrrisa? About it's own creation? Being "a part" of Nyrissa, i think i'll let it know her history, at least, up to the point of it's creation...
I read somewhere here how someone proposed "healing" Nyrissa by plunging the Briar into her heart (instead of decapitation), and liked it. So I think i'll let Briar hint at this option, maybe followed immediately by a Heal and/or Atonement spells.
My party has started KM6, and have defeated the first bloom and are currently retreating from the first encounter with the second bloom (a Nap Stack to better prepare for dealing with the Mandragora).
So far even though I dropped several hints they do not seem to keen on investigating anything regarding the First World/Thousand Breaths/etc.. That's quite unlike them, but I think that they have gotten so used for Downtime between major events during which they can Create equipment that that is all they can think of: "Bloom defeater, going to lab..."
They have not spoken to Evindra because she's still in the Clock (probably on a shelf in one of the homes, they did not figure it had something interesting in it even though i told them the water was slightly glowing); they have her shawl but do not know what to do with it.
In short, i fear they might just wait for some big clue to land into their lap, and I don't do that kind of stuff (i removed most divination spell from my campaign also).
TL/DR: So that leaves Briar. Once it gains speech, how talkative is the sword? how much will it know? how much will it reveal?
Frankly, I have no problem with the extras gained by HD. My party can deal with it, in fact, they'll steamroll over all but the most difficult encounters.
I don't throw many encounters at my PCs (no random encounters, and leaving irrelevant encounters out of the fray), so if the monster they meet do hit harder and are tougher (saving throws, hp) all the better (skills are irrelevant for encounter monsters). And no, they don't always save, and the PCs don't always fail; all it means is that the fights might take a round or two longer
YMMV... i'm fitting these encounters for my part of course.
I've used (still using) the 6 player conversion for KM2-6 (currently starting 6):
KM2 (5 PCs) - I run as is, but it was mostly very easy for the players.
KM3 (5 PCs, 1 cohort) - Run mostly as is; only increasing HP to max and grouping fights near the end in V's Tomb as i saw they are having to easy a time. The fight with V was the toughest they had up to that moment.
KM4-5 (4 PCs, 2 cohorts) - All enemies got a max HP. Important NPC enemies got a boost of 1-3 levels, or advanced template, etc.. Was a bit more challenging for most fights, but party was never in any real danger.
Final battle in KM5 was the toughest they had so far, lasted long and depleted most of their resources with several of the PCs/NPCs almost dying. The ECL for that last encounter was 19! The party was level 13 (with two 11th level cohorts).
KM6 - first session tomorrow. I've already re-worked all encoutners from the 6 player conversion: Advanced Templates, more HDs, more monsters, more class-levels, etc...
I've also slowed down their level progression. So they are starting KM6 at level 14 and will only advance to 15 near the end (I don't use XP, so they level up when i tell them to..)
Part of what skews this is the amount of Wealth they have (apart from being good tactical thinkers and experience players). Lots of money and time to Create Items/Armor/Weapons/etc...
[EDIT]: by the way, while i used the 5 Player Conversion, since they were only 4 PCs i gave them the treasures according to the KM modules.
So last night the session went more or less as planned: The combined attack on Fort Drelev by the Giants and crack troops occupied the party for about 7 rounds. Again the fighter had Greater Invs. cast on him so he quite easily beat the crap out of the giants.
4 rounds in they get the emergency sending from their Capital about wyverns attacking. They finish off the giants and troop, heal up, and head there. At the capital they fight Minognos-Ushad who manages to almost kill the Magus (plus to failed FORT save from poison reducing his CON by 6), and do some damage to the Fighter (who looses 2 CON as well). This time around the paladin had greater invs. on him thanks to his bard cohort/wife, who ran of to check on their 1 year old baby.
While fighting the great wyvern the Wizard noticed a smaller wyvern trying to enter the nursery window and immediately zaps it with disintegrate, but even when they kill of Minognos-Ushad, they don't go to the nursery, they decide to head out and kill the rest of the wyverns flying about he capital (these were just window dressing and i did not have they party roll dice to kill 'em).
Only the fighter's cohort (a cleric of Desna) went to the nursery via fly to check out if everything is OK. This is the final part of the session summary i wrote in our journal:
Of Giants and a freakishly humongous Wyvern wrote:
Meanwhile Vera went to the check on the nursery as well, flying to the window where the wyvern tried to enter, there, she found a wall of blades blocking the rest of the room. She passed with a dimension hop and on the other side found three babies sleeping on a blanket: one of them was Edric's heir, and the other two were very similar in looks (hair, eyes, complexion, etc..). She decided to stay there with the babies.
As the wyvern were killed the rest of the party went into the castle, and on the way to the nursery found Valariel (Paladin/ruler's wife) unconscious in a hallway. They revived her and she started to blabber hysterically about the witch, the midwife, moving from hysteria, to calm, to hitting attacking others, to hitting herself....
Valerial was running to the room when she encountered Niska (Gyrona's Cleric) with her companions strolling away from the nursery, and got a dose of Insanity (as per the spell) on her, where-upon Niska had the poor woman held down and whispered to Valerial how her husband cheated on her and "has several bastard sons, two of which are now in the nursery". Then she went away.
I actually wanted there to be a showdown between Niska and the party, but they decided to deal with the wyverns attacking the town and i decided that Niska would walk away after doing her part. Her running into the wife was a bonus.
I'm not sure were to place Niska now, i don't want to branch to far out from the AP as i don't have all that much time to develop these threads, maybe have them track down some old Gyrona holy place in Thousand Voices...?
I'm beginning to think the best way to do this is to have multiple events. That is, at the same time players lay siege to Fort Drelev, an army of troll barbarians attacks the Temple of the Elk, a horde of hill giant attorneys lays siege to Varnhold, and an ancient black dragon menaces the capital.
It would take some complicated logistics, but the idea is that the players (as higher-level superheroes) can be incredibly effective, but they also don't want to leave their home cities undefended.
I believe you are correct. I tried to do that on a smaller scale, i.e. just in Fort Drelev; divide the PCs attention among several points of interest...
As it stands, the party is still on edge and expecting some sort of an attack at dusk, and dusk is a great way to "time an attack" across several different groups in diverse locations with no way to communicate.
So my thinking is:
For Drelev:
The attack planed for dusk on fort drelev is sitll in effect. Two forces were in position to carry it out (see next paragraph), the only force missing will be the Tiger Lords barbarians (which were dealt with when the party attack their camp in the army), and the general which will be trying to re-group his routed army.
Giants: Giants on Mastodon, and some giants on foot. They are related to the Tusker's Riders army of giants near Pitax.
Crack Troops: the Pitaxian force the party saw taking orders form the general already left the army when it was attack by the party. These are some crack troops which will infiltrate the town (from the lake perhaps). Some of them will cause havoc by starting to burn building, while others will attack the northern gate from within the town.
Enemies:
Giants: This could be 1 Jotunblood Hill Giant, 9 Hill Giants, and 3-4 Mastodons (for a CR15). I want to keep the Jotunblood giant large-ish instead of huge, but leave all other stats as is, the party will still notice he's bigger and badder.
Crack troops: Crack Troops as posted above somewhere
First the fires would start, then the giants will charge with the Jotunblood using his Eath-shaking bellow to crack the walls while his followes hurl rocks, then the troops will join the attack on the northern gate (If the army would not have been routed, then a large charge would have been led on the western gate).
As this attack gets started one of them will receive a sending from a cleric in the capital (PC turned NPC): "You should realy hurry up there! This thing is enormous..." and the transmission is cut.
Gemstone:
This is the capital city of the kingdom. The main abode of the ruler is there... along with his one year old boy. The wife (rulers cohort) went with the ruler to the Rushlight Tournament and is now in Fort Drelev with the rest.
(This is probably the place to also note that while the party has eradicated almost completely the Cult of Gyrona from their kingdom, they did not kill the head priestess... That's Goody Niska from book 2, my party dealt with this on after VV and i decided to make her by then a level 11 cleric when they uncovered her. They later fought her again in Armag's Tomb from where she escaped again only to leave a warning in the babys' room in the form of Gyrona's symbol. I think now she want's to extract her revenge, and she'll be advanced to level 13 probably.)
Niska has heard through he grape-vine of the attack planed by King Irovetti and decided to take advantage of the mayhem. So while the castle is under attack, she will steal into the royal nursery and add 3 more half-elven babies of about 1 year old and all looking with the same color hair and eyes and skin as the royal baby. After all, she was the midwife in his birthing, the fear she took/replace the baby was there. The plan is to have her caught red-handed and to have a final showdown!
Other forces?: One option i thought of is for Irovetti to have bargained with the great wyvern Minognos-Ushad (KM5, area F). along with her entourage of regular wyverns. I'll be using the 6 player conversion of Eater of Kings which will make her a CR17 Gargantuan monstrosity.
The Attack: Niska waits for the wyverns to start attacking the city and then makes here way into the royal nursery (doesn't matter how she does it. She could have the babies some distance from the castle then wind-walk back and forth to bring them all, she's high level cleric, she'll do fine).
During the fight with Minognos-Ushad and her cohort of smaller wyverns, one of the wyverns will swoop into the castle with it's head in the royal nursery (my PCs have so high perception i'm not worried of them missing it).
============
Stupid players with their stupid 12th level PCs and their stupid Greater Invisibility!
So this was played last night, the party arriving via teleport (leaving an entourage behind, need to think what to do with these) at Fort Drelev just as the catapults start harassing the walls, and a charge of Trolls with battering ram starts running towards the town with wyverns coming in as well... important to note that the town has walls and a moat.
The wizard (invisible) and fighter (with greater invis.) fly over to the catapults: one disintegrate and three rounds later (1 full round to destroy catapult and one to move into new position to destroy the next catapult)...
Meanwhile on the walls: the party starts to shot at wyverns and prepares for the trolls. They hear commotion from the gatehouse and suddenly the drawbridge over the moat falls down and the way to the gate is clear... the cleric cohort does not hesitate and places a Stone Wall sealing the gate completely. The Paladin goes down to investigate the commotion and finds 5 dead, 2 injured and 3 more soldiers (all wearing kingdom uniform); one of the survivors tells that a fight broke out as 3 traitors attacked and poured acid on the drawbridge mechanism to lower it. As he heads back to the wall a boy runs up to him telling of huge monster with many heads attacking people from the lake.
The trolls run on the bridge trying to clamber over the wall but the magus raises a wall of fire the trolls scatter away from it, leaving the battering ram and the drawbridge on fire.
The fighter, having finished the catapults and still invisible, decides to go after the trolls and single-handed slaughters the lot of them (2 troll hordes troops and a troll fighter 7).
The Paladin and the wizard make their way to the 13-headed Hydra. The hydra manages to attack the paladin with 4 heads and do a little damage. The wizard arrives, hold monster and the next two round the hydra looses four heads and fails a Fort to resist coup de grace (Fort save to survive would need a natural 20).
With that a respite from fighting is given... The party heals up a bit, reinforces what needs reinforcing and fly over (invisible again) to scout the rest of the army. At some point they notice a ogre like being surrounded by trolls, some tiger lords, and some Pitaxian soldier given orders to prepare for attack with dusk. They go back to Fort Drelev to decide what to do and wish to take out this ogre commander. But as they make their way back they cannot find him (he changed shape to scout for a bit), so they settle on destroying the Tiger Lord leader and wreaking havoc in the camp: mass slaughter ensues with fireballs flying, circle of deaths being formed, and generaly people dying all over without anybody finding the source of the problem (all are invisible or greater invis). The army scatters and the General teleports away...
After that the party heads over to sleep with a Nap Stack and prepare to what comes next.
I have no idea what should come next: nothing? regrouping the army?
My plan was that during the dusk attack the party would receive an urgent message from their capital that the castle was under attack, maybe it'll still happen, but i'm not sure about it.
==============================
All in all, the guys had a good time and fun all around. So the session was a success, but as always I find it hard to challenge my party without critically overpowering them.
I think that for the Mass Combat section of the game, the party should be lower levels, 5 or 6. Otherwise, as it is, these superheroes have no problem defeating whole armies which general consist of low level peons.
Going deeper into enemy territory (to attack another town) has its own risks, especially going through land and woods you do not know, and give the enemy more time to prepare and muster troops
Some refinements for the Fort Drelev attack. I want them grasping for breath by the end of the night...
1. Destroy the catapults (as i've written above) while being harassed by troops (2-3, haven't decided yet). Need to be completed in 10 rounds top.
1.1 Flight of Wyvern swoops in 1d3 rounds later, and a second wave 2 rounds later. This is mainly a nuisance, as the wyvern do not really have a chance to doing much damage to my insane high AC party (all but the wizard are above AC 30). I was thinking of maybe adding an advanced (+several HDs) of Manticores to lead the charge... but maybe not, let the party feel powerful and just blast through them
2. About midway during the Catapult phase, they will notice the troll charge on the gate (reinforced wood with iron, hardness 8, 120 hp). Each round they delay, 20 points of damage are dealt to the gate. They'll need to fight trough 2 troops and the leader to stop the damage (maybe i'll drop the leader). Destroying one troop will reduce the damage to the gate to 10 per round. The gate being destroyed might be catastrophic... but my players are quite smart in using their abilities and spells so who knows
2.1 1d4+2 rounds after they engage the troll, 2 troops of human soldier charge at the gate as well...
3. Let them take a short breath... a very short one; and then notice a charge starting to be formed by the General of the armies (humans & wyvern flight); the charge will occur all along the wall but the general will lead one of the charges. Soon after another report comes in of a Huge 13 headed Hydra attacking from the lake (no walls there).
3.1 The Hydra: While the Hydra killed its bait, there are several (2-3?) crack troops behind her hoping for a long enough distraction to attack the defenders from behind. If they party kills it within 6 rounds (not impossible i think) the troops will break in fear of these mighty beings.
3.2 The charge will be led by some regular human troops, then maybe some barbarian troops, and later the general with some troll fighters bodyguards. Wyverns will be flying around and picking off red-shirts, etc.. This they have to stop somehow. They have enough abilities to drop on the general's head if they wish, or they can blast through to him.
Charge contains:
1st wave: 3 Human Troops (if the walls and gates are still OK, then the defenders can deal with this)
2nd wave: 2 barbarian rampagers, wyverns start picking off the defenders on the walls
3rd wave: General, 3 troll bodyguards (fighter 7, maybe 5), 1 human troops
Timing: The last part is all about timing. Take too long to kill the Hydra and the charge of the general will be deadly. Take too long to deal with the general and his charge and the Hydra will do lots of damage + they'll need to deal with the crack troops inside their town. I'll have to ad lib it.
Consequences: not sure i need something in written to count points. Fail too much and you loose the town, succeed in all the you route the army (not destroy it), succeed in some is sort of a draw with heavy looses to Fort Drevel (and some to the enemy), if general escapes then the army routes.
New troops:
CRACK TROOP CR 12
LN Medium humanoid (human, troop)
Init+6; Senses Perception +14
DEFENSE
AC 24, touch 13, flat-footed 22 (+5 armor, +3 Dex, +4 natural, +2 shield)
hp 163 (16d8+80)
Fort+14, Ref+9, Will+8 (+1 vs. fear)
Defensive Abilities troop traits
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee troop (4d6+9)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks crossbow volley (DC 23); alchemical fire barrage (DC 22; 3 times)
STATISTICS
Str 26, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 11, Wis 12, Cha 9
Base Atk +12; CMB +15; CMD 33
Feats Ability Focus (crossbow volley), Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Skill Focus (Perception), Toughness
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Crossbow Volley (Ex) The crack troop can fire a volley of crossbow bolts as a standard action. This attack strikes a 20-foot radius within 800 feet of the center of the troop’s space. All creatures in the radius take 5d8 points of piercing damage (Reflex DC 23 for half). The save DC is reduced by 1 for each 80-foot range increment beyond the first.
Alchemical fire barrage (Ex): As a move action, a rifle troop can target a single square up to 20 feet away with a volley of alchemical fire. A volley deals 10d6 points of fire damage in a 10-foot-radius burst (Reflex DC 23 for half). The save DC is reduced by 1 for each 10-foot range increment beyond the first.
BARBARIAN RAMPAGERS CR 12 (while raging)
LN Medium humanoid (human, troop)
Init+6; Senses Perception +14
DEFENSE
AC 22, touch 14, flat-footed 20 (+6 armor, +3 Dex, +4 natural, +1 dodge, -2 rage)
hp 195 (16d8+102)
Fort+16, Ref+9, Will+9
Defensive Abilities troop traits
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee troop (4d8+12)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks hand-axe volley (DC 22)
STATISTICS
Str 30, Dex 16, Con 22, Int 9, Wis 11, Cha 9
Base Atk +12; CMB +22; CMD 25
Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Toughness, power attack, dodge
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Axe Volley (Ex) The barbarian rampagers can throw their hand-axes as a standard action. This attack strikes a 10-foot radius within 20 feet of the center of the troop’s space. All creatures in the radius take 6d6 points of slashing damage (Reflex DC 22 for half). The save DC is reduced by 1 for each 10-foot range increment beyond the first.
As always, suggestions and comments are more than welcome.
Actually i ran Red Hand of Doom several years ago (fondly remembered by all). I'll take it out and give a look, but if memory serves it just tallied points of success...
So my players opted out of Mass Combat and i'm down to creating some missions for them to play out instead.
Note: There are probably mistakes in the stats and i usually give the enemies higher if not full hp, and even then the party wipes the floor with them...
This is what i came up for the Fort Drelev attack (which will occur next week):
Fort Drelev Battle
The attacking armies will be the same as in the module. I've seen recommendation, i think in the GM thread for the below, and added one idea of mine:
Trolls at the gate! - A troop (as in the subtype) of trolls lead by a troll fighter 7 will attack the gate with a battering ram.
Enemies:
TROLL HORD CR 13
NE Medium humanoid (troll, troop)
Init+2; Senses Perception +10
DEFENSE
AC 26, touch 12, flat-footed 22 (+6 armor, +2 Dex, +4 natural, +2 shield)
hp 300(19d8+171=256), regeneration 5 (acid or fire)
Fort+16, Ref+8, Will+7
Defensive Abilities troop traits
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee troop (4d6+11)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
STATISTICS
Str 32, Dex 14, Con 28, Int 6, Wis 9, Cha 6
Base Atk +19; CMB +30; CMD 32
Feats Intimidating Prowess, Iron Will, Skill Focus (Perception)
Troll Fighter
Male troll fighter 7
CE Large Humanoid (Giant)
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +21
DEFENSE
AC 26, touch 13, flat-footed 22 (+8 armor, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +5 natural, -1 size)
hp 171 (6d8+7d10+7 favored class +100); Regeneration 5 (fire or acid)
Fort +18, Ref +7, Will +6; +1 vs. fear
Defensive Abilities Bravery +2, Fire Immunity 60
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +2 ranseur +22/+17/+12 (2d6+17) and bite +16 (1d6+4) or bite +18 (1d6+8) and 2 claws +18 (1d6+8)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (15 ft. with +2 ranseur)
Special Attacks rend (2 claws, 1d6+8), weapon training +1 (pole arms)
STATISTICS
Str 26, Dex 14, Con 23, Int 4, Wis 11, Cha 6
Base Atk +11; CMB +21; CMD 33 (34 vs. disarm and sunder)
Feats Combat Reflex, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Multiattack, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Perception), Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (ranseur), Weapon Specialization (ranseur)
Skills Climb +10, Perception +19
Languages Giant
SQ Armor Training 2
Gear +2 breastplate, +2 ranseur, Potion of protection from energy (1)
Destroy the catapults - as the title says, but while being harassed by several troops of soldiers. After several rounds some Wyverns will sweep down on them
Enemies:
Catapults hardness 5, 50hp, 100 ft. apart
Wyverns I think 4 will swoop down after 1d4+2 rounds, and 4 more some 2 rounds later
INFANTRY TROOP CR 10
LN Medium humanoid (human, troop)
Init+6; Senses Perception +14
DEFENSE
AC 23, touch 12, flat-footed 22 (+6 armor, +2 Dex, +4 natural, +2 shield)
hp 147 (14d8+70)
Fort+13, Ref+8, Will+7
Defensive Abilities troop traits
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee troop (4d6+7)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks crossbow volley (DC 21)
STATISTICS
Str 24, Dex 15, Con 18, Int 11, Wis 12, Cha 9
Base Atk +10; CMB +7; CMD 29
Feats Ability Focus (crossbow volley), Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Skill Focus (Perception), Toughness
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Crossbow Volley (Ex) The infantry troop can fire a volley of crossbow bolts as a standard action. This attack strikes a 20-foot radius within 800 feet of the center of the troop’s space. All creatures in the radius take 5d8 points of piercing damage (Reflex DC 21 for half). The save DC is reduced by 1 for each 80-foot range increment beyond the first. The save DC is Dexterity-based and includes the bonus from the troop’s Ability Focus feat.
Hydra from the lake - Since my players did not deal with the Hydra from KM4 (nor did they deal with almost anything in that area, having lost interest in exploration) they'll face her here. It was drawn to the city by another Pitaxian force which did not survive being the bait.
The hydra will be the 13 headed one from the 6 player conversion thread
They might try to go after the general of the armies, Avinash(?), at some point. They can, but if he start to look like loosing he'll teleport away or something... I want him there at the end.
I also think all these encounters will be timed. Take too long and you might loose the fight.
Tatzlford was walled and had an army in reserve (small i think) with bows and swords. Once they got word of the impending attack they rushed to Tatzlford along with 2 more units of high-level (6ish) Rangers and Paladins.
Needless to say we were using Mass Combat for this.
I decided to give Aemon a slightly larger force from the start due to the fortification and army in Tatzlford; but Aemon did not expect there to be 2 more crack units in twon, so i left him with what he had and the attack went poorly for him.
So I decided to ask my players and they voted for the Mass Combat in the Background option. This means for me that i have to create some challenges for the party to deal with during the different battles.
I'll look over the module again to understand what threats are in each place and find suitable challenges (bestiary, npc codex, etc..). I also want to create some Troops (as in the subtype) to simulate them cutting through lots mooks while still being challenged.
I'll see about posting it up in a thread later.
Anybody done anything similar? I couldn't find any threads talking about it.
Yes, we are using Ultimate Campaign rules (switched to it when it came out); and also yes, time is of an issue as we play about 3 - 3.5 hours a week (if we play that week at all). But the main reason is lack of interest in continuing to build up the kingdom hex by hex, building by building. It the same reason they no longer want to hexplore: it was fun and exciting at the start, but not so now... let's get on with the story.
I have no problem narrating how the kingdom evolves and grows. So far i've fast-forwarded about 1 year
By the way, right after VV they went to visit their patron in Restov and learned of the increased animosity between Restov and Brevoy and got real paranoid that Brevoy might cast their eyes on their fledgling kingdom; so they started building armies and now each town has a least a couple of armies (fighters & archers) as well as some "special" smaller armies (a 25 person Paladin unit, and another 25 person Ranger unit).
So i know what kind of armies they'll have when the attack comes. I guess i'll just go with the flow and ask them when the moment comes: "Do you want to recruit armies and go to war using Mass Combat rules (and i'll decide on the spot what they can recruit), or do you want Mass Combat in the background and respond to immediate threats?"
I'm game wither way. i suspect they'll go "mass combat in the background"
My players decided last night to leave kingdom building behind and move it to the background. We are starting Book 5 and they concluded that building a kingdom is no longer challenging; everything is too easy, and they only fail on a 1 on any of the rolls... not much drama.
So if we leave Kingdom Building behind, how do we handle the armies for Mass Combat? consumption is not that relevant. I will not feel comfortable telling them: "you have such and such BP in you treasury now for armies", because it'll just be number i throw out of my ahhh... mouth.
I think they might also not mind ditching Mass Combat; I haven't asked yet because I don't want to give them hints at what's coming, so i want to be ready with the Mass Combat option should they want it.
I too will be running WotR soon (about 5 month is soon for me), and after reading all the threads about balance, as well as the fact that learning a whole new set of rules does really make me all that giddy, i thought of dropping mythic.
My players have no problem with that... still, i feel that giving them some Mythic abilities would be nice. At first i thought of limiting to 5 Tiers (or less), but that still means learning a lot of new stuff.
Then i thought why not ditch the Mythic Paths and give characters only the "Base Mythic Abilities" (no feats, no paths abilities); perhaps even nerfing those a bit (for example: limited number of mythic power points, and other such things). And even then, limit the number of tiers they get.
Last night I finally got around to run the Gyronna's Cult event from KM2. We are currently between KM3 and KM4, just didn't have the chance to run it before.
The event started two month after the first son was born to the Ruler of the Kingdom. A cult member was identified in their newest town, but being paranoid they told the Spymaster (NPC) to look into things in the larger towns beginning with their Capital. Of course, the Spymaster unearthed the local Cult and they had a showdown, with the leader teleporting away.
I took the stats for the Black Sisters and gave them to Goody raising her to level 11 so that she will have Word of Recall, once things got south she teleported away and they will face her again in Armag's Tomb... or maybe somewhere else?
Now, Goody was the main Midwife for the Capital these past 2 years or so. She delivered many babies, among them the Ruler's fresh heir and the Councilors baby as well. From their investigations into the cult, the party knows that the cult switches babies from time to time, but currently believes they only switch females Changelings... but of course, anything can happen.
So... what about the babies? do i leave it at that? have them discover a baby among the Tigerlords (give to them for safe keeping by the Black Sisters) which is clearly not a Tigerlord?
What mischief and torments can i bring upon my "parent" PCs (even if it's all dark images they conjure-up thinking of what might happen)?
I'll just clarify something, the spells cast on the hounds were direct spells, not area effects, so they could not have cast them before invisibility breaks because the Players could not see the Hounds. So the wording was: "Once i see the Hound, i cast my spell (or attack it)"
@blahpers: But the creature was invisible. So on the PC turn she could not have been subject to the gaze, once the Hound appeared due to attack, the ready action took place. If they had been affected by the Gaze on the turn they Readied the action, then no, they would not need a second save once the readied action was triggered.
@Gauss: this was a sort of "emergency" mission. They had no clear idea what they are facing, so could not prepare before-hand for it.
Hi folks, here's something that came up last night.
Party was fighting Hounds of Tindalos. It was a tricky fight, what with all the fog, invisibility, and quick teleportation of the Hounds. So the party settled to Readying Actions, specifically ready attack and ready spell.
The Hound would attack some party member and then come out of invisibility, at that moment the ready actions would come into play. I ruled that the moment they took their action, they had to save vs. the Gaze... both melee and spellcasters.
One player said he thought that ready action should come before the gaze, but I though it was logical for the gaze to affect during the readied action, so a caster had to perform a Concentration check due to damage dealt during casting.
I've run it several month ago and my players really enjoyed the whole monstrous kingdom theme.
But, my players handled it differently in the end:
How it went down:
The encountered the wondering giant and befriended him and convinced him to lead them to Hargulka's base. The size of his force did not deter the party and they did not even consider raising an army.
The wizard PC went in flying invisible as they noticed a gathering beneath the cave opening. The gist was the some of the trolls were not happy with Hargulka gathering forces and wanted to raid some farms for food. Hargulka shut the dissenters down but the party wasn't convinced it'll hold.
They decided to make a risky move and sneak into the lair using flight to come from above the entrance in the early hours of the morning (risky cause if things went south they would have to fight their way out, with no fly and only one invisibility). As they rested before the attack, a party of trolls went past them and headed north, the party didn't like that but wanted to keep their strength for Hargulka, they'll track the trolls later; and at any rate they sent a message to Tatzalfod to be prepared.
Needles to say the fought their way through the lair and killed Hargulka, but by the time they finished him, it was already morning and the camp beneath the lair was stirring awake.
They decided on a scare tactic: they took hargulka and the rock troll's head and placed it on spears, and went out just outside the door. The party's cleric (with high diplomacy and intimidate) started a speach on how they killed their leader and they should all move away before they kill all of them, etc. etc.. for good measure, the a silent image of a silver dragon was added to the mix. I asked for several Diplomacy and Intimidate rolls and the player even used a Hero Point at some point to increase the score. Good role-playing and good rolls got the trolls to scatter.
They got some responsible NPCs to lead the captures slaves to their capital city (the closest one) and started to track the group trolls they saw splitting off last night. The chase was on and at one point they caught up with them and attacked.. this scattered the bunch of trolls but still some headed towards the farms (they sent a message to their people at the capital to recruit a small militia and get quickly to the farms). Some more chases, and finally less than a mile from the farms, they caught up with the other trolls and killed them all.
Of course, as they were celebrating (and celebrated) this feat, a breathless rider came and recounted the horrors of the attack on their capital by an enormous owlbear...
I agree that maybe the cultists at first are plain dumb: that why they got stuck with these job, that why they need things spelled out to them plain and simple. Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition... or rather, a group of would be heroes surviving and bumbling about in the Kenebreas underground.
The simplest thing to do will be to rewrite the handout, removing specific mention of the safe-houses location and the pass-phrase and leave it at that. Or maybe just these parts are coded, so 1) a linguist could de-code it, 2) a prisoner might be interrogated, or 3) cultists may be followed.
I haven't gotten around to reading this adventure yet, but ...
Another possibility is to have a session or two before the start of the AP during which the PCs get to know the city and people, and then end the session with them gathered for the ceremony... then start the next session as per the adventure, skipping over the ceremony.
You can even say: "then everything went to Hell..." :)
Some more ways to make the PCs return to "finish the job" difficult, especially if they do it very quickly:
Not be in his throne room, but leave a Soul Eater to watch the room and report to him once they arrive
Lure them away, have them wonder arround and waste their buffing time... possibly lure them into the Hell Pool room
Cast invisibility on his Champion and have him attack the Wizard (with his pesky wall of force) the moment the he comes into range. Although the wizard will probably be invisible...
He could have them chasing him around, by making them search for him, he'll be able to teleport form Oculus Focus room to Oculus chamber and wait for them to return...
Thanks pennywit, these are all good ideas, and for the long term (and by long term i mean maybe two nights and up) this will probably be what he does.
But i'm rather sure my PCs will not wait too long with dealing with him. They only managed to steal about a dozen Soulg Jars before teleporting away, and they know they should return for the rest since they saw what he does to the people all over the dungeon (feasthall scence, and the four dead in his chamber).
One of the players even suggested they use Nap Stack since he got it memorized, to rest 2 hours and return to finish the job (of course one of them is blinded but the cleric just learns remove blindness and is done with it). V will still be a few spells short and they will be full of energy.
But even with the spells he still has, he can make this fight play out more on his terms.
After facing all that Vordakai’s tomb had to offer, they finally came to him. They walled of the water elemental outside his door with a Wall of Force (i’m using the 6 player conversion so it was actually a second elemental that appeared right after the first was destroyed), and rushed into Vordakai’s room, where they finally came face to face with big V and his champion.
The champion managed to to take out half the Paladins hp before the wizard sealed him off with his second Wall of Force (leaving the graveknight to pound with his axe at the Wall while power attacking (thus almost automatically passing the 30 hardness).
They closed in on V, starting with a Silence spell on his throne, which he of course recognized and stepped away from. They continued the fight and having incredible good luck with all saves on the spells V was casting at them... then the Wizard failed and went blind, and they were already low on spells, and then V Diminssioned Door away to “heal” and re-group... these guys are a bigger threat than anticipated.
Now some of the fight took place in the dungeon of souls and the party recognized those Jars for what they are, and as soon as V vanished they started gathering Soul Jars into the bag of holding (i ruled one soul jar per person per turn). Two rounds after they started the Graveknight breaks free from the wall of force and heads towards them...and they teleport away!
Now.... i don’t know how long they’ll regroup before returning to try and save the rest of the soul jars and kill Vordakai, it might be the next day it might be more than that, but i’m pretty sure they will not tarry long. I’m trying to think of how Vordakai will react/prepare for them. They are obviously a greater threat than he thought, he will not “hold back”, so to speak.
V’s prep:
He already has two Soul Eater wandering around searching for the PCs in his dungeon, and he’ll summon another this night. He’ll keep them around him for extra protection.
If he’ll have time he’ll send a Nightmare to the Wizard
He’ll assume they’ll come again by teleporting into his sanctum, so he won’t necessarily be there, or he might prepare some surprises?
I’ve given V a scroll of summon monster V to summon a Babau. He didn’t use it before because he thought the party will be push-overs.. i was planning on having him come back with it after healing himself when he dimension doored it away during the fight. He’ll summon it quicker this time.
He noticed having some trouble with mind-effecting spells during the fight (whether due to high saves on PC part or a spell such as protection from evil he couldn’t figure out at the time) so maybe switch around his spells for the next couple of days?
Here is Vordakais spell book in my campaign (took it from somewhere on these boards and changed spells i do not use; mainly a house rule limit on divination spells, not all are allowed)
Vordakai's Spell Book:
Level 0- All CRB except evocation and transmutation.
Level 1- Shield, Charm Person, Chill Touch, Comprehend Languages, Ray of Enfeeblement, Mage Armor, Grease, Alarm, Obscuring Mist, Sleep, Magic Aura, Cause Fear, Ray of Sickening
Level 2- Blindness/Deafness, False Life, Ghoul Touch, Resist Energy, Acid Arrow, Glitterdust, Touch of Idiocy, Invisibility, Spectral Hand, Mirror Image, Steal Voice
Level 3- Dispel Magic, Displacement, Suggestion, Tongues, Vampiric Touch, Protection from Energy, Stinking Cloud, Deep Slumber, Hold Person, Ray of Exhaustion, Halt Undead
Level 4- Bestow Curse, Dimension Door, Phantasmal Killer, Lesser Globe of Invulnerability, Black Tentacles, Scrying, Crushing Despair, Greater Invisibility, Fear
Level 5- Dominate Person, Waves of Fatigue, Teleport, Sending, Nightmare, Blight, Magic Jar, Hold Monster
Level 6- Guards and Wards, Acid Fog, Legend Lore, Mislead, Eyebite, Circle of Death
Level 7- Spell Turning, Greater Teleport, Summon Monster VII, Power Word Blind, Finger of Death, Waves of Exhaustion
Level 8- Protection from Spells, Maze, Moment of Prescience, Demand, Clone, Create Greater Undead
Level 9- Imprisonment, Gate, Foresight, Energy Drain, Soul Bind, Wail of the Banshee
How else would he prepare to a re-confrontation with these pesky do-gooders? Any nasty, delicious ideas will be greatly appreciated.
I don't like much the idea of rolling random encounters, so most of the times my random encounters aren't that random; though I do use the tables (in the bestiray of the AP at this moment) to see what monsters might lurke in the area.
I'll start doling out longer or more outdoor encounters in the coming sessions... Of course, moderation is key here (as in many things).
XP isn't a problem, I ditched it the moment I started GMing (a short time after I started playing) and the players go up levels when I tell them to.
I had my party meet Varn at some reception, along with his daughter (then about 14-15 years old). The half-elf wizard decided to strike up a friendship with the daughter and they have been corresponding ever since. I played Varn as generaly nice fellow, but very human-centric, and more a fighter than a diplomat.
After chapter 2 (and about 2 and so years later), at the inaguration of their castle, Varn came for propused his daughters hand to the Baron (a paladin), but he was already in a relationship so decline. After some diplomacy, and smotthing ruffled feathers, and taking some months to decide what to do Varn agreed to marry his daughter to the General (a low born, but Varn couldn't find any noble to marry her to).
To make a long story short, Varn never got to deliver the happy news to the General, as the vanishing occured. The party learned about it themselves since no one answered the Sending.
As for Drelev, they hear rumors about what goes on to the west, and they met him also at the reception, but no contact since.
I was thinking recently of the difference between Outdoor Encounters and Dungeon Encounters and to a realization I should have reached some time ago: most outdoors encounters (in adventures i've read and run) are a single skirmish during which the players will most likely use their strongest abilities, with no thought of conserving them (i'm running Kingmaker now, and this occurs a lot, at least during the first two books).
Sure I could drop some terrible,big, and ugly adversary at them which will hurt them badly, but the moment they enter a dungeon they'll know (call it metagaming if you wish) that they should conserve their strong abilities/spells as long as possible 'cause "this aint nothin yet, the big bad is deeper in..."
I want to instill this in the players always. Never to be sure that this one is just a short combat and well sleep it over soon. Keep them on their toes, so to speak, only without the ballet shoes.
Then I remembered that one adventure i've run did do this to a certain extent: Red Hand of Doom. This one had many of their encounters having several waves of enemies converging on the party once combat began.
So that's what i realized i should do: i should sometimes have encounters occur in several waves of baddies (logical waves, of course); at other times have encounters all thru the day and night; or maybe just a regular one encounter...
The idea is to make the players feel nervous about walking out in the wilds...
Just wanted to share my thoughts. Be welcome to write and advice on how you handle outdoor encounters.
tho in my houserules we dont play with alignments... so long story short we dont play paladins.
I left alignments as an unknown to the players, meaning that players do not know their own alignment and i keep (sort of) track of that. This lets players act as they see fit, and we don't need to get rid of all those alignment spells, etc., and they can still affect the players (and their enemies of course).
Wolf Munroe wrote:
But if you really want to remove the effect entirely, I say give CHA mod as an additional bonus to Sense Motive. This is a Supernatural effect (Su) that doesn't function in an antimagic field or similar effect that suppresses magic.
In my game i have removed the majority of the divination spells; this means of course no "detect alignment" spells.
One of my players have made a Paladin and i need to decide what to give him in place of detect evil. My first thought was a bonus to Sense Motive, maybe free Skill Focus feat, or a flat bonus...
I'd appreciate any recommendations.
Cheers,
-arnon
