gothair starkantes's page

(SPOILERS)
I agree with Blackdragon: the party could attack the invading force before it enters the bay. Think of the druid or the wizard PCs, polymorphed into aquatic monsters or summoning some dinosaurs, that try to sink the ships. Think of the great Control Winds spell, used to block or sink the entire fleet! The only hope for the Crimson Fleet would be to counterattack with the teleporting vrocks.
This is the most logical way of facing the attack, because it leaves the village mostly untouched. Why not? Some of the combat encounters, especially the climax fight, could then take place there.

(SPOILERS!) The most difficult in my AoW campaigns:

Whispering Cairn: the Wind Warriors at the end of the adventure.
Three Faces of Evil: the Grimlock part of the temple, especially the U-shaped cavern.
Encounter at Blackwell Keep: none in particular, but if I have to choose, the Spawn of Kyuss.
Hall of Harsh Reflections: THIS ADVENTURE IS TOO DIFFICULT, TOO DIFFICULT, TOO DIFFICULT!!! And Zyrxog was almost unstoppable.
The Champion's Belt: the Alkilith.
A Gathering of Winds: the Elder Black Pudding.
The Spire of Long Shadows: Kelvos the Wormtouched and the Habinger.
The Prince of Redhand: none in particular, but if I have to choose,the Ebon Aspect.
The Library of Last Resort: Krathanos and Darl's party.
Kings of the Rifts: none in particular, but if I have to choose,
Xyzanth.
Into the Wormcrawl Fissure: my group only battled Dragotha (challenging encounter).
Dawn of a New Age: not played yet, but Kyuss seems the only threat to the party.

The absolutely most dangerous: Zyrxog (1st place), the Alkilith (2nd place, because it didn't have to be destroyed and the party retreated).

At last they made it! The party in my first Age of Worms Campaigns (I'm currently running three separate AoW campaigns - I'm in love with this AP!!!) defeated Dragotha this morning. They used the tactic described at the beginning of this thread: they teleported in, fully buffed. They teleported in just after the end of Kings of the Rift (another adventure in which they jumped to the end, thanks to Etherealness and Mordenkainen's Disjunction spells), so they didn't have any one piece of Balakarde's soul to help them.
They were LVL 19. Dragotha's stats were exactly those described in DUNGEON. In the first round, the cleric Dimensional Locked the place, and the wizard Greater Dispelled all Dragotha's buff spells, plus he cast a Quickened Wall of Force to cut off reinforcements for the Undead Dragon. Dragotha used Greater Dispel, but all party members had a Ring of counterspells with that spell, and then used Quicken Breath (party immune to effects due to Death Ward). Then the spiked-chain fighter (Attack +41 only!) and the dual-sword rogue surrounded Dragotha. In the second round, the party did about 300 DMG to him, mostly due to the fighter's Robilar's Gambit and Deft Opportunist Feats. Dragotha full-attacked, causing about 350 DMG to the fighter, but the fighter (as all other party members) had Delay Death on (what an impossibly strong 3rd LVL cleric spell from Miniature Handbook!). Third round: Dragotha's is at about -500 HP from full health, when the wizard uses a Split Ray, Split Ray, Empowered, Sudden Maximized Disintegrate (Arcane Thesis) Spell. One ray misses, another doesn't pass SR. The third hits, and Dragotha botches the Fort save, losing more than 300 hp in the hit. Dragotha is finally dead!
The players were all exceptionally proud of this easy-seeming, but exceptionally well-prepared battle. And then, at this level of play it is exceptional that a fight lasts more than two rounds.
James, Erik, really really thanks for this incredible game experience of the Age of Worms Adventure Path.

My third AoW party just finished the adventure and IT WAS GREAT!

The fight with Ilthane was memorable. The dragon surprised the party and blasted it with her breath weapon. First round: the party's wizard hastes the party, the cleric casts bull's strenght on the fighter, and then - THE FIGHTER JUMPS OVER ILTHANE (with a 48 on the jump roll and a successful tumble roll to avoid AoO), AND WITH A TRIP ATTACK FROM HIS SPIKED CHAIN THE DRAGON IS DROPPED TO THE GROUND! Then the rogue moves in and sneack attacks.
The dragon, confused, stands up and begins to fly again (drawing AoO fron both fighter and rogue),
Second round: the wizard casts wall of force directly in front of the dragon, who crashes into it and drops to the ground - again! The fighter and the rogue manage to flank Ilthane and by the end of the round she is no more.

The abyssal ghoul was vanquished from a successful TU from the cleric (a Radiant Servant of Pelor, by the way).

The traps and false doors of the dungeon were amusing. But the most interesting encounters were the ones with Flycatcher, Antyress Redpike and Moreto, all resolved by clever use of the Diplomacy skill.

The final encounter with the oculus demon wasn't too difficult - he decided to kill the party's wizard and almost succeeded, but in the meantime (two rounds) he was tripped and savaged by the fighter, rogue and cleric.

Besides the interesting encounters, I changed the finale: the spirit of Icosiol elected the party's rogue to be his chosen heir - The Prince of Winds.

It took three sessions of play to complete the adventure. In the beginning I thought it was one of the least successful of AoW, but in the end it revealed to be one of the best.

My third AoW party had Balabar Smenk as patron for the games. He only asked to chose the name of the team: "S Squad" (meaning "Smenk Squad": a revelation to be kept for the final victory).
In all three of mine AoW campaigns, the players really hate Smenk until the end of Three Faces of Evil, when he bribes them to nail Dourstone in front of Sheriff Cubbin. So, Smenk becomes more and more powerful and moves to the Free City, ready to patronize the party.
My first and second AoW parties are back in Hall of Harsh Reflections, so I'm really waiting for this incredible adventure.

I thought the prophecy was fulfilled if the undead worm could swallow a character (PC or NPC) with "at least a level of fighter".

SPOILERS!!!

Name, Class and Level: Korg, Cleric of Pelor VI, Radiant Servant of Pelor I.
Adventure & Encounter: The Hall of Harsh Reflections. Chimera fight at the Fair.
Catalyst: a fellow adventurer attained his first Level of Frenzied Berserker.

This was the first death of my AoW AP. After coming to Greyhawk City, the party of adventurers did a sort of things (1.forge the treaty for the Twisted Branch Lizardfolk, 2.encounter Eligos, 3.gain new magical trinkets prepaired by their new cohort, an artificer, 4.pose for the painter presented in the backdrop article on the Free City, 5.encounter Auric and his warband, 6.being attacked by the doppleganger rogue in the Crooked House).
Then I set for the Chimera encounter at the fair. The doppleganger of the crooked house, that was precedently caught, put in jail by the city guard, and then escaped, was the one that caused the incident. There were also four doppleganger rogues intended to kidnap two characters (whose players were missing for two sessions).
So the Chimera escapes and spreads havoc. Two players (Drake, a barbarian-fighter that has just attained his first level of Frenzied Berserker, and Korg the Radiant Servant of Pelor) go ahead. Other two characters (Methredel the elven maid Bladedancer, and Haelstan the swashbuckler) roll a natural 20 on their Spot check, see the doppleganger rogue that Disabled the Chimera cage, and both go after him. The last two charachters (Madling the halfling ranger, and Serissa the dryad Paladin of Freedom) stand at a distance attacking long-range.
Then the Chimera Full-attacks Drake for 31 DMG. Drake has to roll a 41 Will save (with a +3 bonus) or fall into Frenzy. Failed save. In the first round of Frienzy, the Chimera is wormfood. In the second round, Drake looks around to find victims. And: Methredel and Haeslan have left, fighting the dopppleganger rogue; Madling and Serissa have been kidnapped: only poor Korg stands there. The Radiant Servant tries to Hold the Frenzied Berserker but this time he rolls great and is unaffected. A round and poor Kord is no more.

At the end of the frenzy, Drake took the body to the Temple of Pelor to raise his long-time friend. The resurrection was really funny. First, I described the voyage of the soul of Korg to the Radiant Throne of Pelor. His god in person was there to hail him and accord him the delicies of Paradise. Then, the soul of Korg was contacted by the spell of his master, the High Clerist of Pelor in Greyhawk City, that requested him to return to life. And Korg asked his god to return to Oerth to battle Kyuss with his friends! It was memorable roleplaying. Next, he found himself lying on an altar in the temple, and, first of all, slapped Drake on the face. Drake asked for a Will save for the Frenzy - good joke! We all had a laugh!

I ran the adventure a bit differently. In fact, after the battle at Blackwell Keep, during which some soldiers unleashed the Kyuss Spawn against the lizardmen (and eventually the PCs), I had Hishka meet the party and actively ask for help. He wanted to remove the king and the draconic kobolds, and to sign a traty with the Free City of Grayhawk. This way I could bypass all the fights in the lizardmen lair, because Hishka had the party enter by the egg chamber. I chose this way because the fights in the lizardmen lair didn't seem much interesting to me.
The egg chamber is, in fact, the most important element of this adventure in the economy of the AP. So the party shouldn't miss it. I recommend tou to attract the party in there with some clues. Perhaps Marzena or some other prisoner saw it used, or the players search for treasure and find some silver coins down the water?

PS:

1) I use the Ring of Spell Storing trick at level 17+, when each of the members of the party can affort to invest 50.000 GP on this powerful group treasure. Anyway, it functions perfectly well at epic levels of play.

2) About the 2-h lance trick, I thought that when you are mounted and use a lance + shield, you do use just only the knees to ride. Or not? I can EASILY imagine a knight using a lance two-handed, as I can imagine a mounted archer using a bow. I just find difficult to accept your objections to this trick.

Every time I see a post like this I can only think one thing: Munchkin.

Yea! And I ask again: other Munchkins out there that want to share their combos?

I remember to have read of Evard in a Critical Threat, He was a scary human Conjurer 16, i think. Don't remember his story, sorry...

3) THE BONUS STACKER ITEM CRAFTER.
The DMG gives guidelines to craft magic items with different types of bonus. So you can have on each PC: a cloack of TS +1 (resistance) (market price 1000 GP); a ring of TS +1 (luck) (2500 GP); a ring of TS =1 (morale) (2500 GP); a robe TS +1 (insight) (2500 GP); an amulet of TS +1 (sacred) (2500 GP). Total: TS +5. Cost: 11000 GP. To have TS +25, you have to spend 275000 GP.
You can use this trick also for CA, DMG, or, best of all, TxC (then you can always use your full Power Attack with 2-H weapons).

4) THE MAGEKILLER COMBOS.
To kill a powerfull spellcaster, you can block his power to cast spell. I suggest:
a) SILENCE (cast on the ground or in the air to negate the save) + WEB, then Magic Missiles from outside the Silence area.
b) SILENCE + GRAPPLE, then other PCs overkill the enemy.
c) ANTIMAGIC FIELD + GRAPPLE, then other PC overkill the enemy. (My party managed to kill Vlaakith with this surprise attack)
d) SILENCE + FORCE FIELD. You can use this to block a caster inside for some time, or you can use it to block him inside with some strong fighter-type.

Hi guys! I was wondering if you can share (and discuss) some of your precious power-game combos. I can begin with these:

1) THE RING OF SPELL STORING + PERSISTENT SPELL TRICK
This trick is designed to use "Personal" spell on others. You can use it at high level, when you can afford (or forge) the 200.000 GP Major Ring of Spell Storing (stores 10 spell levels). You must also have the Extend Spell and Persistent Spell Feat, or, best of all, a Greater Metamagic Rod of Persistent Spell (costs the same as GMRoQuicken Spell, since the modifier to level is the same: +4). Then, just after receiving your spells for the day, you cast the personal Persistent spell into the ring and pass it to another charachter, who casts it. Then repeat the process with other charachters, as desired.
My entire party had costantly the effects of Divine Favor, Divine Power, and Righteous Power! DEVASTATING!

2) THE 2-H LANCE + POWER ATTACK TRICK
The rules state that, if you are on horseback, you CAN use the lance with one hand. Just DON'T: use the lance 2-handed for DMG bonus for high STR and Power Attack, then... Spirited Charge! Take your 2nd level fighter on horseback, with 18 STR, the Spirited Charge and Power Attack Feat, and use the feat. You are TxC +7 (+4 STR, +2 charge, +1 higher ground) and DMG 3d8+30 (tripled from: 1d8 base, +6 11/2 STR, +4 Power Attack).

Have Fun!

How about telling your Memorable events in the AoW campaign?

Those are Fire Giants. There are tons of giants. Regular Hill Giants, Hill Giants with character classes, 4 big dragons (one is a CR 23), The Mother Worm (a colossal carrion crawler), Fire Giants with character classes, a Gargantuan Gelatinous Cube, a marilith demon, a Frost Giant, and a new monster called RAAM - basically huge undead giant that steels away Strength (the picture for it looks pretty evil) Probably a few things I missed, but I think I got most of it. Gives you idea of what awaits the characters.

4 DRAGONS, ONE OF WHICH CR 23? I'm sure my players will try to kill each and every one of them. Dragonhunt is one of the most challenging and aesthetically satisfying of D&D combat experiences.

In the PDF of Age of Worms, it is supposed that the party will not be able to defeat them (it is supposed thy won't even try), bu I know they will.

I hope there will be no problems for the XP deluge, then.

The waging system in Champion's Belt is fairly accurate, except for a point: what is the maximum number of GP one can win for a single match, and the maximum overall? The rules state that the wage handlers each accept only a maximum of 250 GP (or 500 GP) wages. But how many of them are present around there?

I will assume the wage proposed by Tirra is outside the normal system (a unique "1GP pays 3GP" for the last match).

Besides that, I assume that my PCs could buy a waging license for 100 GP, and then acceept all the wages against their team. They will win the match, and earn a lot of gold. How many GP they could reasonably win?

Thank tou for the answers, guys!

My perfect party has a backbone made of two charachter-types:

1) Great DMG-dealer (Human Fighter with Greatsword and heavy armor, OR Orc Barbarian with Grataxe and specialized in charges; third choice is Fighter or Paladin mounted and with Spirited Charge or Deadly Charge).

2) Healer (Cleric, that is also the Undead Grinder; OR Druid that is the second-choice). He can also serve as magic item crafter if there is no wizard.

Besides these, I usually recommend:

3) A Rogue, that is at once the diplomat, the archer, the scout, and has access to many different skills.

4) A Wizard, nonspecialized, to have access to (nearly) all Arcane spell. This character is also the magic item crafter.
I cannot begin a campaign anymore without this last function.

I use a houserule for flanking bonuses that you guys might find useful. For every attacker against one target beyond the second, every attacker gets an additional +1 bonus to their attack rolls. This means that a character beseiged by 8 opponents will be attacked by foes with a +8 bonus to their attack rolls. I always hated how someone could just wade through crouds of enemies without an increased threat level. Even the toughest fighter surrounded by a group of goblins should feel fear.

Tam

It depends on the feeling of your campaign. In many martial arts

We are playing in Greyhawk. We just cleared the Hextor part of the dungeon in 3FoE (4th level PC).

Michelle, CG human fighter (plans to become a weapon master with th scythe).

Vlad, CG human cleric of Pelor, our healer and Undead Grinder.

Robert Lorlovheim, LG human wizard, the crafter of magical objects.

Jin, LG orc rogue1-fighter2-monk1 (plans to become monk2-assassin10-wizard1-arcane trickster5). 22 STR, fights with spiked chain.

This is a good point. The adventures in AoW are connected in a way that can leave a lot of time in-between for PC to make their own magical items.

...By the way, can ask you:

1) how about using artificers in Greyhawk? It is a world rich in magic, after all.

2) how about staking the bonuses of the Magical artisan feat from FR and the Legendary artisan (& Co.) feat from Eberron? This would sound -50% exp, gold and time of construction.

Thank you guys!

Wizard level 5...

...it means that he casts Protection from arrows, Fly, Ghost Sound for background music, and blasts the enemies away with his memorized fireball (and the fireball scrolls he just made).

A wizard level 5 just loves mass combat.

We are playing in Greyhawk. We have four charachters, and have just cleaned the Hextor area of 3FoE (we are 4th level now).

1) Michelle, human female fighter, CG. She fights with a scythe (41 DMG on a crit in Whispering Cairn, first level!) and is on the way to become a Weapon Master for the scythe (at high level, crtical with 17+, x5 DMG!!!). Michelle is an animal trainer, too: she has two war dogs (Dharma and Greg) and is training the young owlbear (he will be ready by Encounter at Blackwell Keep).

2) Vlad, human male cleric of Pelor, CG. He's our invaluable healer and Undead Grinder. He plans to become a (NG) Radiant Servant of Pelor.

3)Robert Lorlovheim, human male wizard, LG. He is the maker of our magical objects (scrolls only, for now).

4)Jin, orc male rogue-fighter-monk (planning to multiclass as assassin, wizard, and arcane trickster), LE. He is the scout, but is also the second fightning-type of the group. He has 22 STR and uses a spiked chain, fond of tripping foes (especially when enlarged by Robert).

By the way:

- for ability scores, we use the system of Iron Heroes: 18, 16, 14,12,10 and 8. Most satisfying. To compensate, I often adjust enemies to be slighty more powerful.

- we play orcs, never half orcs. DMG states they have +4 STR, -2 INT, -2 WIS, -2 CAR, and sunlight vulnerability. Devastating as fighter-types.

- we use craft and handle animal skills to purchase items at 1st level at one-third of value (most useful for armor and war dogs!).

- we use Flaws.

Do you like this party?