jumpet's page

Yep, Chester was also adopted by the party and lived a short and fruitful life as a guard in one of the PCs rooms. Alas he perished when a volcano blew up cauldron.

Favourite phrases were.

"I want treasure!"

"Give me G P!"

Chilli really hurts when you get in your eyes...lol

Too many TPKs! I wasn't even being very cruel, they were just all being stupid. They crammed everyone onto the cage in the Kopru Ruins, it broke right at the top (nat 1 on its fort save) then the Skulvyn ate them. (4 tail lashes!?)

Remember the players are there to have fun too, so if they're too rash or silly then you might want to consider cutting them a break.

eg. Did you describe the lights on the ledge below? Clear signs that someone is home? Maybe you could have had one of the mooks comeout to smoke a pipe, and thus ram the point home to the PCs. Did anyone get a knowledge (engineering) roll or int check to see that the cage wasn't going to hold? You didn't need to have the Skulyn kill everyone, one person would've been enough. What about the Kopru, maybe it could have helped the PCs here, after all it wants someone to reclaim his lair.

Ever wondered why the evil mastermind doesn't squash those adventurer vermin when they are young and weak? Instead of waiting for the PCs to grow in power until they are too strong?

If your group has a good sense of humour, lead them straight to Lords of Oblivion. Throw a few simple fights at them then have the Big V show up and begin a long diatribe of how some people just don't know their place and inevitably end up as statues in the evil masterminds mansion.

Then let the TPKing begin.

OK I take it you don't want them schmoozing about.

If you feel the PC should start taking notice of the temple of WJ, then hit it'em where it hurts. You say they are crafting items, have an another assassination attempt take place, interrupting the crafting process. The PC will loose all the gold and XP for the enchantment. Its nasty, but you have justification, its rather foolish to do this sort of thing when you know people are after you. I bet they start to take an interest in WJ then.

If you do this, be sure to dot the 'i's and cross the 't's. In otherwords make sure you roleplay the scrying and other legwork that the WJ temple would need to do to discover the PCs activity and way to get at them. That way the PCs have a chance of foreseeing the calamity that comes for them.

Ditto. Greater Turning and one dead dracolich, didn't even get to act. Turning is so broken.

I also ruled that blink doesn't work either... nor do bags of holding etc

Or more accurately Shackled City without a trap spotter / trap disabler / lock picker. Can it be done? The party I am a member of is approaching the end of Chapter 2 and we've survived so far, but I begin to have doubts. We are a Warlock, Urban Ranger/Noble, Fighter, Cleric archer and Conjurer. Is death from traps an inevitability in your experience?

Did it. Absolutely no problem. Infact I would argue no one ever needs a trap spotter. There are many ways to deal with traps without ever making a search or disarm check.

Not a problem for Vhal, infact it will play into his hands. His paralysing spit is an extraordinary ability and is thus unaffected by the antimagic. Thus the bard/sorcerer will find himself making a save without his beautiful save boost magic items.

On the matter of the variant beholder. I really like it, the problem is you then need to explain why Thrifane has an inflict wounds grafted on her forehead, why there are so many petrified statues around and why the doors require spells like charm monster and finger of death.

I assumed they made a typo and meant to say the person will be raised from the dead in 1d100 days. (Just like it says for the Lie In State description for Adimarchus)

jumpet wrote:

The first chapter actually has an abundance of excess XP. By all reports character finish this chaptor with an average level of 5th.

the who with the what huh? Not by my report, it doesn't. The characters should make 2nd level and, if they adopt a scorched-earth policy, might make 3rd. I'll go through tonight and run the numbers again to check.

Is there any possibility you added up all the experience for the entire level and then didn't split it evenly among the party members; instead, you gave each PC all the XP? That would probably make them 5th level. Otherwise, the note at the beginning of Flood Season that the party should be about 4th level should sound a little odd to you.

Zero chance. See thread below for 'reports'... remember chapter one includes the malachite fortress.

http://paizo.com/dungeon/messageboards/shackledCity/archives/chapter1LevelA dvancementNpcS

The first chapter actually has an abundance of excess XP. By all reports character finish this chaptor with an average level of 5th. So don't judge the AP by the first chapter alone. I think with 9 PCs, you're group will start to fall behind after a while. I reckon by the time they get to the smoking eye chapter they may start to struggle. The AP assumes 6 characters so have you have three extra characters. Personally I wouldn't change anything until you're sure they need some extra XP. Having three extra characters should make them much more capable; so I'd just keep going as normal but be prepared to throw in a few extra encounters or a side trek to bring them up to speed if required.

I plan on playing a whisper gnome rogue(TWF route) in SC using 25 point buy. Am I going to beable to survive?

Short answer No. You should expect every PC to die at some time and be raised from the dead. A better question is the concept viable or fun? I'd say 'why not?'. It'll take a bit of skill. The 25 point buy is challenging though, you may struggle for a while getting this build up and running.

Don't see why you'd need a cleric, you've got two rangers who can keep everyone helped up via wands.

I disagree. I think a proper cleric is essential. SC is hard! The party will be taking bucket loads of damage, and that just isn't going to covered by wands. I've seen single NPC villains deal over 100hp damage per round.

The High Handcrafter PrC details in the hardcover gains the ability to summon earth elementals (as per summon monster V). This ability description makes no mention of uses per day. Is the intent of this ability meant to be that the High Handcrafter can summon earth elementals at will?

I would base breath weapon on his HD, and if they pass the save they take 5d6 damage.

No. Thats a hang over from 3.0, you no longer need an equivalent or greater plus to sunder a weapon.

So yes ... the giants with improved sunder are absolutely lethal to equipment. Especially when adding power attack. They can pretty much destroy any weapon or shield without too much effort.

What encounter do you believe is the most difficult in the whole Adventure Path?

Delvesdeep

So far we're at the Smoking Eye Test. I'd say Aushanna was the toughest by a long way.

In my campaign, Jared cast confusion, the dragon failed his save and was subsequently easily beaten from there. Ah confusion, probably one of the most over-powered spells in the game. Alas poor Gottrod.

First as an aside, my group was one level lower when starting smoking eye. Not sure why? They killed/searched everything in the ruins. Perhaps I didn't use enough random encounters.

Anyway, the most important question would be, how experienced are the players? If they are quite competent then throw them into Smoking eye straight away. Hopefully they will catch up quickly. They have a 100 mile walk to the cathedral, ample time to throw in a few random encounters to boost their XP. Just use the less threatening random encounters.

Remember, Alek has a +1 holy longsword, so they still have one weapon for beating up demons.

Oh yeah, on that note. babau's are tough! Their acid eats up weapons! If you're not careful, the holy sword will be a smoking pile of sludge. (Same with Alakast). I actually upped the CR of these demons when I gave XP. I felt the MM got it wrong.

You need to "sell" the game to them. Tell them its challenging and fun. Tell them it runs from 1st to 20th level. A lot of game tend to peter out after 12/15th level. This game garauntees they reach 20th level.

Finally, IME most players alway say they like their characters and don't want to change. Ha! As soon as they roll their new characters they will be hooked and want to play them.

I thought about making this a weapon of legacy, but decides against it. The standard rules for weapons of legacy is you start with a +1 weapon, and they grow from there. Since the party is about to be whipped off to a little fishbowl fullof demons called occipitus, the party really needs a weapon that bypasses demon damage reduction. I suppose you could rework the rules for weapons of legacy, but decided it was too much effort.

Ah thanks! Of course it all makes sense now. For the record the words I struggled with were 'cages', 'afford', 'matrix' and 'weavers'. Such a poor choice of font...

Ok, I'm pulling my hair out. This letter is almost unreadible. The font is extremely difficult to read! I've managed to understand most of it, but some key words still escape me. Has anyone translated this letter? I'm afraid my decipher script skill just isn't up to it.

Why not one of the stormblade families? It adds even more rivalry.

I'd recommend humanoid (goblin) for first level for sure. The first two chapters are full of them (hobgoblins and goblins)

Well, they have been having major trouble. They were completely unable to damage Drakthar in any significant way and had to flee the dungeon, leaving it up to the Stormblades to complete

I had a similar problem. Drakthar is tough because the party is unlikely to have a magical and silver weapon. Basically this were you need either average to good turning ability or appropriate spells. eg cure moderate wounds, magic missile etc. he doesn't have many hps, so he can't take much of this. My party didn't have these resources, so Jenya ended up returning with the party to put an end to Drakthar.

Tongueeater is tough, you need big hitting power or some decent spells. The high crit weapon is likely to come up with a critical and will probably take out a party member. I lost one PC here.

Right now the party has one front line combatant (the paladin). Everyone else wants to be second rank or farther away from combat, and the paladin alone cannot hold the line.

You definately need more than one tank I reckon.

Doesn't look that bad to me. You seem to have the four basic archetpes covered (fighter,rogue,wizard, cleric). Though maybe a but light on in the melee wombat area. What sort trouble are you running in to?

My group has no cleric. That hurts ... alot. I think some good turning ability will come in handy as well.

Just keep going I say. Let the party progress, maybe send a few hobgoblins from one of the guardrooms one the way out for a patrol and have them encounter the party. They are low CR and might help the PCs get to 2nd level.

If things start getting tough, use the Striders or Stormblades to even the odds. Or even send a contigent of city watch to their aid. (Led by the Skylar Lewis, a bit of foreshadowing for later on). You also have a number of captives that will fight in the Hold that could help. Maybe the PCs can encounter hobgoblins dragging one of the prisoners to another location.

You could also start Drathar's Way in tandem. Give them a few goblin encounters in Cauldron for extra XP.

All is not lost. You have lots of options. Throw them in cells, when the party awakes have kazmogen gloat over them, informing how instead of letting them die he will sell them into slavery with no hope of ever escaping.

Let the party stew for a few days. If they are inventive, they may be able to escape. (eg makeshift lock pick, bluffing the guards etc).

If you are kind, have the Striders rescue them. If you want to be unkind, have the Stormblades complete the dungeon. Kill Kazmojen, free the orphans, townsfolk and party and let the party watch as the Stormblades receive all the accolades, treasure and reward from the church.

I'm a terrible judge when it comes to deciding if a prestige class is worthwhile or not. I'm looking at the High Handcrafter PrC from the hardback and I can't see anyone taking this. Anybody else?

Maybe not for a wizard, but it does give some handy stuff, eg choice of class skills, three feats (instead of spellcasting). You could probably do something with that. I seem to recall they also get free cash as well.

Hey The Mind

What I was looking for was a document one of the guys/gals had made up showing the reaction time for the fortress's occupants and how long it took them to arrive at combat. Sure it was not perfect for everyone but it might be good for you, or with the suggested modifications other people in the thread made.

I wouldn't be too harsh on the PCs. I believe the HC said all the doors where stone and very difficult to hear through. So I would let the PCs plough through the first few rooms without raising the alarm.

The final fight is quite difficult. Prickles is a big damage dealer.

IMC the pc dealth with the ogre, stone spike, animated chain etc They found a secret door and got to one of the guard rooms and were able to capture and interrogate a hobgoblin. They asked to be brought to the leader, so he complied. The party went straight for the head honcho and belted it out. Afterwards (after the surprise visit from the beholder) they returned the children upside and came back the next day.

I had the hobgoblins (zarkad) make an intelligence check. He was smart enough to figure the do-gooders would be back and if they can beat kazmojen, they can beat him. So he cleared out, leaving only a couple goblins to do whatever they wanted.

I left all the other prisoners still alive, since I didn't want to needlessly penalise the party with their corpses. (Afterall the party did a pretty good job of saving the kids)

Hi,

I was wondering what kind of XP DM's are giving for defeating Orak? My players knocked him out, they had no probs hitting him due to 11AC (no armor). He's definately not worth a CR4, i was think for like CR2.
Zlorf

I gave full XP, while Orak was less of challenge combat-wise, it did present a roleplaying obstacle (not to mention appropriate skill checks) and my party did go through the trouble of knocking him unconscious and bringing him to a Jenya to have a look at.

So far you have reacted well. Do not let your game be destroyed by Power Gamers. The best way to handle the situation is to restrict the options, which you already did wisely and finally to talk to the player in question about...

Power gamers can thrive just as well using the core rules and no supplements. My advice, don't waste too much energy on them and roll with the punches. SCAP has a variety of challenges and should test most archetypical characters (and players). If you single them out and up the ante, you will only challenge the player to try harder at power gaming.

In the HC SCAP there is a store that sells treasure maps. As anyone done anything with this? The book suggests that there is no garauntee on the authenticity of these maps. So has anyone used a map sold from this shop to lead the party to a real treasure horde? Perhaps to tie in with the AP?

In any game I run I have tried to limit the availability of items. This does not sit well with them. They feel, and I believe I concur, that being a magical, fantasic, environment that their needs should be met by someone, somewhere. They have money, people want that money and are willing to provide the services to them for the right price.

While that is the core assumption and what we have done for all the previous campaigns. For this campaign I am limiting magic items. I think something is lost with the free market on magic items. No longer is there a great anticipation for finding a useful magic item or any sense of wonder in magic. Its more a case of; does anyone want it? otherwise how much is it worth to sell?

Lilith wrote:

As option C (and this is something I did in my campaign), you can have the player opt to keep the lycanthropy.

Yes, for some time I played with this idea, but baring in mind that he was bite by a were-rat (Chaotic-Evil) and the PC was a cleric of Tyr (Lawful-Good), I thought a full transformation and capacity control it and thus a transformation of his aligment to CE, would spoil the player idea about the character and ruin his diversion (he has very interesting plans about it).

I have allowed a wererat PC in the past. Be aware, they are very powerful and I would not recommend it. Of all the lycanthropes, the wererat is the most powerful because it has the lowest LA!

Or better yet, upload it here:

http://therpgenius.com/Default.aspx?alias=therpgenius.com/shackledcity

Done! - Titled: "Magic Shop Inventory Generator"

For reasons already mentioned above, I don't penalise XP for being raised from the dead. Raised character get a -2 penalty to str, dex and concentration checks which remain until the character gains another level.

New characters start with NPC wealth and a level lower.

One question I have for the Jzadirune doors is should I give the PC's experiance for opening the doors with the keys?

My feeling is No.

Hi

I was wondering how DM's were going with the suggestion in the HC SCAP to keep track of whats been sold and bought by Skie?

I created a spreadsheet to do all the number crunching. It randomly removes and adds items to the list up to the maximum gp value.

My players are currently not even finished Jzadirune and they're already pushing 4th level, at the beginning of the second chapter the text block states that the PC's should be around level 3. Now I realize this is only a guideline but what have you as other DM's experience with regards to advancement of the PC's in this chapter.

Yes, I added up all the potential XP (and assumed you only get XP once for each door type in Jzadirune) and a party of 6 PCs will get over 7000XP before they get to the second chapter. (which is 4th level). A party of four will get over 10,000xp (5th level).

Personally I think the skulks are over CR'd and should be CR1 instead of CR2. I think this would reduce the xp enough to keep to the guidelines.

I would have ended combat then minute it became clear that the two parties involved cannot engage in combat. As soon as the sphere disappears, I would have everyone roll iniative as if it were the beginning of the fight. This would also solve your question about AoOs. (ie flatfooted people don't get AoOs unless they have combat reflexes).

On behalf of my gaming group up here in Montreal, we invite you to check out our campaign website/blog at http://shackledoutsiders.blogspot.com

Great Site, keep it up. BTW I am amazed you have gone two whole sessions without combat! (session 6-7). I don't think I could pull that off with my group. Do you give big XP awards for these sessions?

The other problem I have with the whole 'secret' gnome enclave business, is that there is a regional trait called 'Child of Jzadirune". This will clue the players in on the existance of Jzadirune anyway. (Since I plan to do as the book suggests and allow local PC to pick one of these traits.)

I think I will amend the history as:

1) The epidemic of Jzadirune is well known and most locals will know of its occurance.
2) There used to be Gnomish/Dwarvish Guild at the site of Ghelves locks (and the surrounding businesses). Dwarves and Gnomes that used to work in Jzadirune and the Malachite Fortress, lived in the Cauldron township and entered the complex through the Guild house. When the disease struck. The guild was closed and the entrance to Jzadirune sealed off.
3) The guild was demolised and new buildings added.
4) The secret door is a recent addition, and PC will find signs of a walled off section that had been broken through when they first go through the secret door.

I think I will also alter the disease so that it requires a Remove Curse and a successful caster level check DC 10 + number of days with the vanishing to cure. This will make it more believable that the disease could kill off so many people.

One thing is bothering me about Jzadirune. The Vanishing is relatively recent in history. How is it then that the vanishing and the fate of the gnomes is not common knowledge (I think it was DC 20/25 history check?). Further more, why is the only entrance a secret door coming up through a shop in Cauldron? Was this a secret society of gnomes? Where infact did these gnomes live? (The map doesn't look like it could house a whole society of gnomes). Did Ghelves locks used to be some sort of guild or gate house for Jzadirune?
Also did the dwarves of Malachite fortress suffer the same fate as the gnomes and 'vanished'?
I'm just trying to workout what pre-campaign background info I should give the players.

Surabar was a human - but you're right, given that he seems to have been a very powerful magic user meens he could have changed form, altered the course of a pregnancy, or even just had a bunch of different lovers, some of whom weren't humans - I believe the background trait suggests that Surabar is a remote relative, so there's no reason why a PC would have to be either human or a half-breed of some kind to take it.

Or any number of his descedants could have had cross racial relationships.

STRIKE ON SHATTERHORN:

No search DC is listed for finding these ingenious secret doors. (The ones that you need to break through and a mending spell repairs).

They just didn't know what to do at that point. Do they hit their friend? Do they not and leave him to be controlled? I have never seen a group of people pass on so many actions. "I hold my action" or "I take a full defensive action" was the most common action I heard from players. It took some pretty heavy "hinting" to get them to use flanking and Aid Another actions.

Actually it sounds to me like they are trying to think too much about the situation, or perhaps they are too worried about dying. Not doing anything is the worst thing they could possible do. Just get in there and ATTACK. Of course the bit about hinting to flank is a bit of a concern. Flanking is a fundamental tactic that every dnd player should do out of habit.

Thanks to the both of you for your help!