goatmeal's page

I am designing a 1st level adventure in which I would like to use a CR 4 creature (bloody bones) which is essentially permanently bolted to the ground (for which all of the drawbacks for being pinned will apply). The tendrils could be bad if they get too close to it, but I'm going to start with those restricted as well. It can use a move action to free one tendril per round, so there will only be one tendril attack the first round it would be able to do so. There will also be a finite number of zombies slowly entering the room (around one per turn or so). The PCs should be able to stay clear of the tendrils, fight the zombies, and then deal with the bloody bones at range.
It seems like a first level party should be able to do 42 points of damage (I might even lower this a bit) to an AC 12 target from 35 feet away eventually. I could even dump the fire resistance if necessary.
My best guess is permanently pinning a creature results in a CR adjustment of -2. Any thoughts?

I’m going to start this AP in about a month, and I’ve been reading some of the other threads here to get an idea of what to expect. I’m pretty sold on the idea of running this game as a rebellion the way the first part starts out, and I’ve seen lots of commentary that it doesn’t play out that way.
What I want to know is how to make it play out that way. I’ve seen recommendations to skip some modules or possibly do them in a bit of a different order. If I want to focus on the rebellion, are there modules I should leave out altogether? I’m thinking the PCs might even try to convince the Bastards and possibly even the twins to take a different approach to their own attempts to change things. I’m definitely planning on including the Delvehaven bit. Any good advice on what else should stay or go for this approach?