Harsk

flamethrower49's page

Organized Play Member. 312 posts (1,215 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 1 Organized Play character. 4 aliases.



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Name: Zolia Eriath
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Diviner 17

Name: Dagren Carter
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Divine Hunter 17

Adventure: The Witch Queen's Revenge
Location: The Giant's Crossing
Catalyst: Arrows!
The Gory Details:

The party cavalierly burst into the room that was hosting 4 fire giants, a flock of erinyes, and a handmaiden devil, then teleported back a room in a slight panic. The erinyes and devil teleported in after them. Dagren unleashed a smite volley that outright killed the handmaiden devil, and Zolia threw a Chain lightning, which earned them both the ire of the Erinyes. After a bit of a fight, the resulting volley of arrows slew both characters over the course of one round. Oracle Ben chose Dagren to bestow a Breath of Life. After the fighter and paladin drove the remaining erinyes away, Ben resurrected Zolia on the spot with a scroll she had on hand.


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For the fight against the Crone Queens, I did a thing I thought was pretty fun. Instead of making their 1/day special effect a normal spell-like ability, I made them a permanent curse activated on their destruction like a death throes. Everybody had to make a save against Epidemic, Smug Narcissism, Vengeful Outrage (against Baba Yaga, obviously), and Terrible Remorse as the Queens fell. Sadly, my PCs made all the saves, except the oracle who is the victim of Smug Narcissism. (She's blind, though, so figure that one out.) I expect that to lead to some fun roleplaying going into the last section.


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I have always wanted to run a Dr. Seuss campaign. You'd start at level one with There's a Wocket in my Pocket. (The Vug would probably be the boss.) You would travel through the world of stories and encounter the likes of Bartholomew or Yertle. The Cat in the Hat would be a deranged summoner. If we were playing in Pathfinder, anyway. Thing one and thing two are Slaads at best.

The arc of the campaign could be to topple Yertle, reform the Grinch, or even uncover corruption in the highest ranks of storytelling and authority. (Ideas reserved for if I get the courage to run it.)

Stopping me? I'd have to speak in rhyme the whole time.


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Put like that, 17 does seem... egregious, doesn't it? My players aren't terrible, far from it. They can be a little set in their ways, however, and may not be as adaptable as some circumstances require.

Scroll up a bit through the thread - all deaths back to the 5th are on this page as well, so you can see most of the causes. Four were blunted by Breath of Life. Two deaths were provoked by a fight that I made far too hard, and a practical TPK was caused by both the party and I underestimating the danger to them. A couple of parts of Witchwar Legacy are extremely dangerous. A couple were caused by classic player stupidity, or a lack of teammate support in a critical situation. One was an NPC, and might not even count.

I was a little shocked to see what it added up to. I wouldn't say Reign of Winter is more harsh than any other AP, though I don't have too much AP experience. I suppose I am fond of boosting my monsters and challenging my party, and sometimes they don't rise to the occasion. We still seem to be having fun, though, and that's the important part.


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Name: Zolia Eriath
Race: Human
Class/Level: Diviner 15
Adventure: The Witch Queen's Revenge
Location: Outside the remains of Mametqul's Tent
Catalyst: Drawing the Ire of a Sepid Div

The Gory Details: In the aftermath of the victorious rematch with Queen Bremagyr, the group was ambushed by the group of divs upon returning to the tent (in a somewhat roundabout way). This fight lasted a long time, as neither the divs nor the party could muster a particularly strong attack plan. Zolia kept dispelling Mametqul's deeper darkness, and at the first opportunity, hit him with a prediction of failure, thus earning his ire. He enervated Zolia for 4 levels, but was caught off guard and wrapped up in his tent when Zolia upended the battlefield with tornado force winds from her Staff of Heaven and Earth.

After the party regrouped, Mametqul worked his way out of that debacle and returned for round two. Having cleared the caster blank spellblight (yet another reason to hate Zolia), he disintegrated the weakened wizard into a fine dust. Dagren returned the favor by killing him as he gloated over his personal victory.

She was resurrected later that session.


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David knott 242 wrote:
Matthulu wrote:
Some people said Sam Gamgee, but I would say Frodo was more likely a commoner. Sam at least fought pretty well. Frodo only survived because of some sweet armor someone gave him and he had some powerful friends. He also would have gotten some sweet XP for solving the word puzzle to enter Moria. He did pretty much nothing on his own, but survived tons of epic stuff.

Given their family backgrounds, I think Frodo, Merry, and Pippin would all qualify as aristocrats. They are clearly from the closest thing the hobbits had to noble families.

Along these lines, I would put Sam as at least an Expert. He's damn good at the things he enjoys, like cooking and gardening.


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Even though I know what I'm going to see now, I can't stop myself from clicking on this thread. Maybe I should hide it?


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HELP WANTED

New guardians needed for a large dungeon complex.
Groups or individuals may apply, minimum EL 6 required.
Permanent status effect and ability damage a plus.
Themes of three highly recommended.
Salary is what you earn. Excellent benefits, including tutelage in witchcraft, age, feminine mystique, and the secrets of the universe by the Queen of Witches herself*.
Unlife Insurance through NotLife.
Iobarian citizenship not required.

*Or a reasonable facsimile.
Artrosa is not an equal opportunity employer. Women much preferred.
No maternity leave.


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BigNorseWolf wrote:
Captain K. wrote:

I'm glad nobody has tried to argue Brienne as anything other than LG.

If GoT had PF rules and magic, she would be 100% Paladin.

She'd be kicked out for calling her superiors out on what they were doing wrong!

If somebody brought her actions and scenarios to this forum, that's what some members of this community would recommend.


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Tels wrote:

Caustic Slur is a great feat!!!!

...

For a cohort. Get a cohort Ranger to follow you around and use Caustic Slur on you to make your Power Attack better.

Against the cohort. Well done? (Though really, who could blame you? Did you hear what he called you?)


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Tacticslion wrote:


Also, the "for us all" in the "death and destruction for us all" - hm, fascinating. Who, precisely, was speaking?

On the Origin of PCs:
The High Priest of Odin gave the High Priest of Thor the prophecy.

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You don't recall? That piece of information adds a whole new dimension to this debate. It mentions those reasons in

On the Origins of PCs.:
Durkon was told by the High Priest of Thor to be an ambassador to Human Lands until further notice. The reason is that Durkon is prophesied to bring death and destruction the next time he returns home. The High Priest hoped to avert that by simply never telling him to come home.

A note for him, informing him of the death of the High Priest and inviting him to return home, was being carried by Miko when she encountered Xykon in the guard tower. The Monster in the Darkness ate it.


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I think Melisandre is Neutral.

DWD:
Her POV chapter does a pretty good job of showing that she's merely a well-meaning-if-misguided cleric of a mysterious deity who is all over the map. All of her acts, evil (shadow assassins) and good (defending the wall), are predicated on putting in power the guy she thinks is her deity's hero reborn.


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roguerouge wrote:
flamethrower49 wrote:


Oh, and 20-year-olds start off knowing like 7 languages. You must have been very accomplished in wizard school, sir.

I can only assume languages have a very different quality in this fantasy world.

Actually, the rookie shortstop for the Boston Red Sox, Xander Bogaerts, speaks six languages, and he's about that age. Some people have a gift and a culture that nurtures it.

I grant you that some people can be talented. However, in D&D, *all* wizards start with at least 4 or 5, and they tend to be the strange ones. (Just how often do you use Abyssal in everyday conversation in most places?)

Wizard academies must have really aggressive language programs. Magic words and all that.


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Name: Valgard
Race: Human
Class/Levels: Fighter (Viking) 6
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: In Front of Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut
Catalyst: Icy Destruction

While Valgard duked it out with the ice golem, the party had brought down Nazhena's bodyguard, prompting her to cast a Wall of Ice to get her minion back on her feet. Valgard was trapped on the wrong side, separated from the party. Even so, he was doing well. With a powerful effort, he destroyed the ice golem, but was unprepared for the ensuing explosion. He fell unconscious, fell out of rage, and died.

He is outlived by his party, including his own dear grandmother. This is the party's first death.


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For the last Dawn Piper, Zephimere, I advanced her, and turned Silverthorn in to a Fey Animal Dire Lion. It was a good fight. A random revenant while they were resting was probably the biggest threat to the party. Emma cowered in fear while Jexx and Jamion went down very swiftly. Valgard had been exiled from the camp because Jexx was still under Unadulterated Loathing. He showed up eventually to save the day, after the revenant took it a little easy on his unconscious enemies.

In other news, I need some help with Nazhena. I think the archer in the party will be able to make short work of the boss when she gets a turn and this fight will be anticlimactic. Any anti-archery tricks you guys can think of?

Believe me, I know most of them - I've been confounding her with Wind Wall, cover, blindness, and other single-person neutralization efforts. Cover isn't an option anymore, and single person save-or-sucks are rough to use all the time, and probably won't work anyway. My current working plan is a potion of Stoneskin. Anything better you can think of?


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I like the way you think, Neongelion. I've taken extreme measures to try to keep my players from being spoiled on this point. One probably already is, but I hope to really surprise them with everything here. Obviously, like many of you here, the campaign is an elaborate excuse to run this adventure.


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My group took roughly ten hours over three sessions to take on Logrivich's Clock Tower. It happened over the course of one in-game day, and they leveled (to six) partway through. The group is Jamion (Cleric of Nethys), Valgard (Viking fighter), Bergdis (Savage Skald Bard), Jexx (Silver dragon sorcerer), and Emma (Zen Archer Monk). Thank you much to everybody on here who helped make this as good as it was.

The Session(s) Report(s)! It's long.:
Jamion shattered his prized flail against the caryatid columns. Valgard saw what happened and didn't risk his axe, instead just holding the line while Emma and Jexx opened fire. These arrows and ice spears somehow reduced the statues to rubble.

Rorgurt and Thukk didn't cause much of a problem, other than a stupidly successful bite/claw/claw/rend on Jamion, dropping him into the negatives. After they picked him up, he treated himself to a new flail he found in the room. (It would have been a long shot, but it was in the illustration!) Bonepick was a non-issue, ganked before he could even act. In the act of rescuing the children, the PCs realized that this was something far more sinister than a guard outpost. Amagarra gave a good fight, cleverly blockading the door and utilizing chokepoints and cover, but she ultimately fell.

They stormed into the next room, where Valgard tried to hold off all four trolls while everybody else encouraged this self-destructive behavior. Jamion and Bergdis kept him alive, while burning hands, fireballs, and alchemists fires eventually took care of the trolls.

Everybody trooped upstairs, and found their way to Inga's room first, where they actually suspected her of being a witch. Nevertheless, they took her to the other children. Next they broke down Granny Nan's door, where she and Evija had them in chaos, without actually causing any damage. Jamion fled, Valgard was held, Emma fell asleep, and Jexx and Bergdis lost their voices. I let Bergdis drum a countersong to negate the effect of the aura of sobs, and Jexx summoned a pair of riding dogs from his robe of useful things. Valgard recovered and cut down Granny Nan as she tried to flee through the wall, but Evija escaped upstairs.

Jexx was almost in tears after that encounter, and penned an all-caps memo saying "WE ARE LEAVING". They gathered up the kids and began the trek back to the Herald's hideout. With the two party diplomats unable to speak, I ended the session with them being stopped by a mirror man patrol. They leveled up here, and also came to the realization that if they tried to come back tomorrow, that would probably be pretty difficult.

Some smooth written conversation extracted the party from that mess, and they dropped the children off with the Heralds. Since they had their voices back, they traveled back to the tower, with a brief shopping trip in between. They got into it with Logrivich's reinforcements, one (1) mummy. This encounter came about on the spur of the moment because I was a little annoyed with the shopping trip, and wanted to see how my party would fare against a mummy. Turns out, quite poorly if I were a meaner DM. The mummy politely declined to coup de grace the paralyzed Jamion and Valgard when given the opportunity, instead opting to meekly hit them once each while getting shot full of arrows. Nobody even got mummy rot. I was a little disappointed with myself. :)

Anyway, the Gobbler was a fun little fight. I had considered putting Granny in the room to start with, and I see now that would have been a nasty fight.

Finally, Logrivich himself. I upgraded him to a juvenile, and gave him a potion of resist energy for fire. On top of that, I added some hit points, so with Evija in the room, it was quite a struggle. He had taken Bella, had Evija steal her voice, and laid her out on the ice balcony in the fog to lure them in that direction, which worked great. Valgard was the first to go toe-to-toe with the dragon, and came out the worse of the two parties, but Logrivich couldn't finish the deal before Valgard retreated. The party resisted the renewed attempts to steal their voices, and Jamion distinguished himself by lifting Bella out and carrying her back near the clockwork, to leave the balcony free for fireballs.

The fight featured a lot of natural ones on Logrivich's part (at least 5, including initiative), but his hit and run tactics were effective nonetheless. The party was well-buffed and well prepared, but the fog stymied them until Jexx summoned an air elemental to blow it away. He landed near Jamion to push the attack after a fireball, and the party found an avenue to channel a bunch of damage into him, including Jamion's Javelin of Lightning. (Logrivich couldn't save for anything.) Logrivich took advantage of Jamion's newly unarmed state to push him off the tower, knocking him right out of the fight.

Bergdis drew Logrivich into the room by messing with his hoard, and she took a near-fatal bite for her troubles. Summoning almost the last of his power, Jexx threw a Burning Hands where he thought the dragon was, before his second air elemental brushed away the fog again. An unconscious dragon was lying before them. They finished him off, picked up their companions, and set off the fireworks. Below them, the sounds of revolution filled the streets.


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Thank you for your opinions, everybody. They've been really helpful! Jim, don't worry about it. I really appreciate that you're so willing to answer questions, and so nice about it. Thank you, sincerely. :)

My party is already on edge about going to fight a dragon, and they might take an excuse like loss of their voice really hard.


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One of the players is playing a Viking, and is cursed. Coming to a small town, they asked around to see if anybody was capable of removing it.

Me: There is a cleric in town, but he's not licensed for curse removal.
Player #1: I guess they have to be in my network?
Me: What's your insurance?
Player #2 (the Viking): Ulfenshield.

That stopped us for a bit.


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Our party in a Pathfinder Vikings game follows a white stag to an ancient tree at the urging of our ranger, where we encounter three women. They start monologuing about how humans always cause environmental destruction and religious change and so on. It is clear they are going to be hostile in just a second. The ranger cuts in with "Is there someone else we can talk to?"


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We had a player that stopped showing up for quite a while. It got to the point that, when he would call in sick or with a bizarre emergency every week, we would act all dramatic and surprised, and started naming last-minute absenteeism after him. Invariably, he would then post to Facebook during the course of the session with enthusiasm and game commentary for whatever sport was in season, no trace of sickness in his posts. He eventually officially left the game, ostensibly because he didn't have enough time (but also possibly because he and I had always clashed).

On a somewhat related note, I would think a big DM Peeve would be when you plan a session dealing with one particular player's storyline, then that player can't show up. Not necessarily much you can do about that, but man is it annoying.


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That's pretty good, but I think I enjoy this one the most for Belkar character development.


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I think it would be fun to re-use Ten-Penny. She met an unfortunate end in my campaign.

Also, while the PCs may have stripped Rohkar of his fancy cloak, keep in mind he is a cleric. When he gets a chance to prepare spells (probably at dusk or midnight), he's preparing the heck out of Endure Elements. I agree that he's the only one of the bunch that should come back to haunt the PCs if he survives.


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Re: V's schools, V is an Evoker, with the barred schools of Conjuration and Necromancy. (That's why the soul splices included a Conjurer and a Necromancer.)


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Rohkar fight:
So, the heroes stormed the lodge, and had very few issues with the first floor. After a bit of recon from the zen archer (Emma), they launched a (surprisingly) surprise attack, having bypassed the tripline and successfully evaded the notice of the bandit on watch. Then the fighter (Valgard) waded in, basically immune to their attacks due to his high AC, and power-attacked his way through them with ranged support from Emma. The last one surrendered, and fled at the prompting of the cleric (Jamion), as the sorcerer (Jexx) and Emma would have killed him. They disarmed Ten-Penny Tacey, but let her live as she didn't take part in the battle. Emma killed the rest of the bandits. (Session ended here, and the party leveled up to level 2.)

They walked upstairs and breezed through the skeletons, and took the cage with Vrixx, but found no boss, as they expected. Moments later, they heard a scream for help. Ten-Penny was caught on top of the table, surrounded by five zombies! As Jamion and Valgard arrived on the scene, Rohkar appeared and held Ten-Penny. Valgard killed a zombie, but the rest of them overwhelmed Jamion and Valgard and swarmed into the next room. They took down Jexx, and Emma opened the back door and fled. Rokhar was taking his time, showboating, healing the zombies, and executing the still-held form of Ten-Penny. Bergdis, the heretofore unmentioned bard with a zombie all up in her face, opened the cage that held Vrixx and appealed to him for help.

Here, the game went wonky as I tried to work out what A, Vrixx would do, and B, it would take to let my party live through this. As Bergdis held off a zombie on her own, retreating up the steps, Vrixx flitted into the next room and somehow stunned Rohkar for five rounds with Color Spray. He then kept the (uncontrolled) zombies away from the rest of the party with dancing lights before fleeing for good through the broken window.

Bergdis finished off her zombie and ran to administer to Jamion, who channeled positive energy to get everybody back on their feet, as Emma watched through the window. Just in time, too, as Rohkar snapped out of his stupor and commanded his 3 distracted zombies to get back to business. Valgard and Jamion valiantly held their own for a bit at the two chokepoints around the fireplace, but fell once again. Bergdis finally landed a Sleep spell on Rohkar just before the last zombie overwhelmed her. Emma re-entered and coup de graced Rohkar, while Jexx critted the last zombie with a Disrupt Undead spell for maximum damage. (The cheers were deafening.) Jexx also managed to get Emma to stop shooting Rohkar's corpse long enough for her to give him her healing potion so that he could stop the cleric from bleeding out, finally taking everybody out of danger.

It was a hell of a rough fight, and I definitely took some liberties, but I think everything was in keeping with everybody's character.


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Franko a wrote:

I am very glad that i bought this item.

One thing i am not sure about.

Why would the soul of the guy missing the leg want to come back?
Especially if he does what he does later?

Obviously he wants to come back for plot reasons. I'm going to rationalize it this way. Victor Miloslav did not know magic existed, and was thus unfamiliar with magic like Raise Dead. After all that trauma he goes through, he gets the post-death sending "Would you like to return from the dead? The person raising you is of x alignment." [y/n] He was like wtf? and checked y because, well, that's novel, and he didn't much like being dead.

Then he sees what was done with his work, and begins to see his own private hell, as the book describes. After he commits suicide, he will not be coming back.


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The necromancer was absolutely NE. The sorcerer was CE, and the conjurer LE, bubbles be damned. (Which, I guess they are?)


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Evan Tarlton wrote:

... and why the Linear Guild had to be destroyed except for the member most vital to the plot.

Thog, obviously.


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For my part, I've always figured it was a 1 round casting time. I'd love some clarification.


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Has anybody tried having the Tatzlwyrm try to leap from a low-hanging tree or something similar? The DC for a competent fall is 15, and its Acrobatics is only +2, so there's a fair chance to fail, but it preserves the tactics and terrain listed in the book. Just a thought, I guess.


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The satisfaction of a job well done.

No, seriously. Story rewards like that usually seem to be rewarding the PCs for "doing the right thing". So, if you run players who are playing the good guys, they might not expect anything more. Well, players always expect more treasure. And you might give them a cash reward from their benefactor, or a magical bauble from the old lady they saved, or maybe one of the PCs picks up a significant other or something. But on the whole, it seems to me that those moments are meant to be the reward in and of themselves.

Plus, they usually come with treasure anyway. The loot-hungry can gorge themselves on that.


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Link to 901.

Madness Made Fuzzy wrote:
And I don't think it's going to be about shutting down V for five minutes, like thejeff said, it stop her from stopping Roy from not destroying the gate. Also, the other two have a much longer amount of time they can keep V contained or out of commission. Dum dum dum DUM!!

Not true. One of the fiends is exercising his option for 20 minutes and 35 seconds, which is one of the longer times. Haerta only possessed V for 3 minutes and 6 seconds.


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Racism is an interesting thing in the typical D&D setting. There are so many races, first off, that are fairly biologically distinct from each other. (And the rule options lead many players to claim that humans are the best!) Then there are so many mechanical benefits, as Lincoln put it, based on race - inquisitors and rangers practically have racism as part of their primary class features! Dwarves are usually depicted as racist to a fault - hate elves, hate goblins, hate orcs, distrust pretty much anybody else.

These kinds of racism, and perhaps some others, are codified into the literature and rules of the game. The ranger that vows to see the elimination of the goblin race for what they did to his family is a common trope.

So I guess I'm curious as to what problems racism and company cause in your game. I can see some insularity, misogyny, and racism coming up as character things, especially in particular cultures (Jadwiga witches, Colonial Sargava, etc). The impact of these cultures, hardly unique among fantasy settings or the real world, can be very good to explore with mature groups that want to deal with such themes. If it comes up every game in a derogatory manner, that player has a problem. If this is constantly the case with your group, I'd echo the voices upthread and say find a new group.


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Adamantine Dragon wrote:
I'll submit the wild and unconventional notion that your character doesn't have to be the mechanically best option possible for the role you want to play, just that it needs to be capable of doing the job.

You be crazy, Adamantine Dragon!


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Rob McCreary wrote:
The critical thing is to prevent the tower from reaching the walls. The benefit to disabling the tower rather than fighting the hydras (and the frost drakes) is that if the unstable tower goes over the cliff, it will take the hydras with it. Of course, the PCs can just try to kill the hydras, but it's the job of the frost drakes to protect the hydras while they push the tower ever closer to the walls.

This answer right here makes me so excited to get my hands on this book.


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So... any deaths not from Rokhar or a random Yeti, then?


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Some of the friends of the party have been kidnapped by pirates, so we all sail over to the pirate stronghold to get them back. All of our contacts warned us to be discreet, so the moment we get there, I say:

"Alright guys, just like we rehearsed: WHICH ONE OF YOU BASTARDS TOOK OUR FRIENDS?"

It was, sadly, only in jest, but it did crack everybody up.


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I glanced at this a few days ago, but now every time I see it in my focused threads, I think of Taylor Mali's What Teachers Make. I think it would be hilarious if somebody came up with something like that for fighters.

Of course, the thread would be totally derailed by people coming in and saying Wizards or Barbarians or Summoners or whatever are still way better. It would still be great.


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I decided to skip 10 pages of thread, but I wanted to share my experiences.

I'm the player of two characters with 7 Int (and one with 25). I have wondered in the past who would ever want to play a stupid character, but I gave it a try, and found it really fun.

One of them is a dwarf fighter named Schtalgard who took Bodyguard and In Harm's Way. I figured that if he took it upon himself to actively take hits for his party, he must not be very smart. I have a lot of fun questioning the others about what things mean or poorly interpreting the information I have. I occasionally attempt knowledge checks or the like, provoking laughter with my negative results and the DM's summary of what I know, which I always act on. He also has a low charisma, so my party takes measures to ensure that I am far away from the diplomatic action. He does have a high wisdom, though, so he usually knows when to shut up.

The other is a human Cavalier/Barbarian. With his middling charisma and wisdom, not to mention class features, he acts as the nominal leader of the party. Since he has this responsibility, he doesn't act outright stupid like Schtalgard, but he simply doesn't have any scholastic knowledge, and planning kinda escapes him. When things get rough, he defers to the planning of his brother (a party member with Int 12).


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I've become enchanted with this adventure path, and hope to run it once my current game concludes. I have a question for all the current and future DMs of this one.

How do you plan to deal with the inevitable character who want to play a pyromaniac firespout? Or even just a regular sorcerer who happens to learn Scorching Ray and Fireball? Those staple spells seem to become disproportionately powerful in this adventure path, at least during the first and second adventures.

Spoilers ahoy.

Spoiler:
It's hit and miss throughout the first adventure. Pretty much everything in chapter two is fire-vulnerable, but it's tempered by the fact that your average level one and two options for fire attacks kinda suck. Alchemist's Fire could be an issue. At least Hommelstaub thought to pick up Resist Fire. The later foes are mostly of the normal variety.

The second book, it seems to become more of an issue, when you can start using Scorching Ray and Fireball to fight waves of Winter Wolves and Ice Trolls. I'm especially concerned for Logrivich. I think of myself as a veteran DM of dragons, and as written, I think he will easily be eaten alive by any 6th-level fire-wielding caster.

Any thoughts on how to minimize this hazard, or is it not as bad as it looks? Any word from the designers about whether this will be a big problem in the remainder of the path?


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Male Dwarf Barbarian (Breaker) 8

Origins of the Save Bunky Society:
If you go back in the archives of this epic game, you'll find an entire interlude where two thirds of the party spent a long, improvised time on the elemental plane of water for some strange reason, kept alive by several water breathings cast by the party clerics. Bunky was there at the time, and debate raged in the party (actually, I think mostly with the rabble-rousing DM) about whether it was prudent to keep a random weasel on when he was taking potential air away from the rest of the party. Hence the Save Bunky debate. The fish would be because we were underwater. (Not to mention had a blind date with destiny in the form of a creature known as DecaJaws.) He comes back when it's dramatically appropriate.


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Touch AC is a tricky thing sometimes. Okay, so bullets go through armor and you can't block 'em with a shield. Sure. But you mean to say I am capable of dodging them.?


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Male Dwarf Barbarian (Breaker) 8

Sample return sending.

Bunky has gone missing. Send help. Little weasel, alone in the big desert, probably hungry. Look in nooks, crannies, dead monks? Witch Thalia probably responsible.


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I don't mean to be an idiot, but I thought I'd come for clarification on a topic that has been really bothering me. I am a ten-year veteran of D&D and Pathfinder, starting from the release of third edition. I know the rules of the game cold, I make effective characters, and I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how to use battlefield control. I fully accept that I'm an idiot, sure, but my group doesn't know how to use them either. I don't think I've ever played with anybody who used these spells in a decisive way.

There's this whole class of spells and effects that are supposed to be godly. Indeed, I'm currently playing a conjurer, using the idea of a God wizard, as set down in Treantmonk's wonderful guides. I see this bunch of spells that are light blue, and that means the best. So, if you take them... what do you do with them?

Let's take Black Tentacles. People say this spell ends an encounter. Now, I've never seen it cast, but I can certainly see how that would drag an encounter to a halt. Here's my question. How does Black Tentacles end the encounter in a way that is interesting? You don't want to trap your allies in the spell. Do your fighters just use bows while the tentacles have their way with the enemies that stay trapped? Does everyone wait out the duration and hope the tentacles make the enemy much softer?

Grease. Apparently so good, for a first level spell. Where do you put it so that it's relevant? Once both PC and NPC are next to each other, they don't tend to move, so the Acrobatics check and the flat-footed thing don't really come up.

Web. Where do you put this so that it doesn't just apply the same penalties to everybody?

Walls. Separate the enemies, that I can see. That's useful. What else do these things do that makes them so good?

Sleet Storm. Okay. You've made the area where the enemies are dark, and you make them slower. What do you do when they emerge from the spell effect 5-10 rounds later?

Please help me and my group understand how to use these spells.


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My most evil encounter played off of an NPC that I gave to a visiting player. Unbeknownst to him, his girlfriend was a treacherous annis hag with barbarian class levels. Along with her coven, a green hag assassin and a sea hag druid (with a giant crocodile animal companion), she ambushed the party, devastated them, and killed the NPC and at least one player.

After the party got out of there and had Jeren reincarnated (they loved that spell), they tried to scry-and-die. The kicker was that Jeren carried the hag's eye, disguised as a necklace given to him by his beloved. As a result, the hags could see everything they did, and were prepared when they came teleporting in.

They eventually conquered the hags, but not without severe mental trauma to the players. They still freak out whenever anybody mentions hags.


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As a penalty for awesome summoning abilities, a Master Summoner's eidolon has only half the advancement of that of a regular Summoner. Does that eidolon still have access to evolutions that require a certain level at the normal time?

As an example, the flight evolution takes a 5th level Summoner. At fifth level, your eidolon will be treated as that of a Summoner 2. Can you spend 2 of his 4 evolution points to let your eidolon fly?


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You're fired.

I wish this bed were lofted.