muftiman's page

the party is level 13, so I am looking at how realistic the DC 50 contract would be, with a maxed out linguistics or knowledge skill at this level.

These is a professor (investigator) in the party with maxed out knowledge skills and an Int modifier of 6, with advanced inspiration.

So skill 22 + inspiration d8 + circumstance 10 + competence 4 = 36+d8

This seems more realistic with a DC of 50, taking aid another and cumulative options into consideration. (Basically this character would only miss the Heart's harvest contract DC of 40 on a critical fail, and would have a 45-85% chance (average of around 70%) for the Kintargo contract if others are helping.

I am trying to figure out what extra bonuses players could get for researching the infernal contracts in Kintargo Contract.

I looked through all the adventures so far, and I have found these libraries and collections:

Hocums
- mw tools +2 circumstance know. planes
- soul tomes +4 competence know. history, local

Cathedral
- library +4 know. arcana, planes on Hell
- spec. collections 1. text - +8 any know. on Hell, Kintargo, devils
- spec. collections 2. text - +10 know. arcana, planes on Hell, Chelish Crux, Kintargo Contract

Research
- Specialized skill +2 circumstrance
- Aid another +2/+4
- Cumulative 8-hour periods +1/8hrs

My question is whether and how these bonuses would stack.
What type of bonus do the library and special collections give?
And is the +8/+10 discrepancy in the Cathedral special collections a typo? Or just take the higher one cause it's a circumstance bonus?

and if bleeding critical (2d6) appears in the mix, which does stack, and over time as well I guess, the whole thing really falls out of balance (with 4-5 attacks at higher level and a good crit threat, that's about a critical every round...)

and extra hits with bleeding critical in consecutive rounds would stack with themselves? 2d6 to 4d6 to 6d6 and so on?

(of course wounding as well, but it would be way smaller compared to this...)

@Queen Moragan, thanks for the wounding clarification! didn't even think about that.

also, does anyone have a list of effects on hand that cause ability dmg or drain? having a hard time locating them.

thanks, that's how I interpreted the rules as well, but seems pretty weak.

since I guess these wouldn't stack on cumulative rounds either, meaning additional hits won't matter. (other than the wounding weapon)

I have the same exact issue and I can't decide the balance of all these effects...especially for cumulative rounds.
let's take a higher level rogue (6d6 sneak)
also, let's throw in a bite attack as well, with bloody bite ability (d6 bleed, but no mention of stacking)

The general condition rule states that none of these stacks wih each other!
Wounding stacks with itself and sneak doesn't stack with itself. Critical stacks ( I guess with itself, as well as other bleed sources...).

So I guess it would be just the 2d6, if it's higher than the rogue ability or the cumulative wounding ability.

Another thought on the cumulative nature of bleed:
If the 2d6 bleed stacks over time, as well as the rogue bleed on multiple his in multiple rounds, you could be looking at 4d6-6d6-8d6 bleed, which seems way too high.

also, if you add the 2d6 bleeding critical into the mix, it would pretty much cancel out any other form of bleeding, from any other source...

I am stumped by different interpretations of bleed damage from different sources. I have a character with three different forms of bleed damage and wondering what is the core rule for these, or what kind of house rules might apply to make it better.

The character is a rogue/barbarian lizardman with 1. Bleeding attack talent (3d6 sneak), 2. a wounding weapon, and 3. a bloody bite barbarian rage power. (using a kusarigama and improved two-weapon fighting)

According to rules: wounding stacks with itself, bleed from sneak doesn't stack with itself, and there is nothing on this about the d6 from bite. Under bleed condition description, different types of bleed damage don't stack (although it's not clear whether this refers to damage as well, or only to ability damage and drain).

so let's say there are two sneak hits with the wounding weapon and a successful bite as well. Am I to assume that there would be 2 bleed from the weapon, 3 from the sneak, and d6 from the bite? So 5+d6? Or only 3 from sneak if the d6 bite is under 3, otherwise only the bite would count if it's higher? And of course keeping track of wounding which might go above 3 or even 6 with cumulative hits.

Also, let's take the same result for round two, would these add up to the previous round's bleed damanges?

I am stumped by different interpretations of bleed damage from different sources. I have a character with three different forms of bleed damage and wondering what is the core rule for these, or what kind of house rules might apply to make it better.

The character is a rogue/barbarian lizardman with 1. Bleeding attack talent (3d6 sneak), 2. a wounding weapon, and 3. a bloody bite barbarian rage power. (using a kusarigama and improved two-weapon fighting)

According to rules: wounding stacks with itself, bleed from sneak doesn't stack with itself, and there is nothing on this about the d6 from bite. Under bleed condition description, different types of bleed damage don't stack (although it's not clear whether this refers to damage as well, or only to ability damage and drain).

so let's say there are two sneak hits with the wounding weapon and a successful bite as well. Am I to assume that there would be 2 bleed from the weapon, 3 from the sneak, and d6 from the bite? So 5+d6? Or only 3 from sneak if the d6 bite is under 3, otherwise only the bite would count if it's higher?

Also, let's take the same result for round two, would these add up to the previous round's bleed damanges? This could quickly get out of control....

The other issue I have is with Cashe mechanics.
NPC's like Hetamon regularly provide free caches to the rebellion, even major ones.

What's to keep the PC's from simply pocketing the caches, rather than rolling a DC25/30/35/40 Secrecy check with unlikely results to secure them at a location. I would think having the items on hand would be way more useful than anywhere esle.

Ergo, should caches simply be treated as treasure?

Are the DC's way too high for intermediate and major caches?

One idea I had is to connect caches to unmovable things like Milani statue, fountain of soandso, or a spellcaster NPC who doesn't go on missions. I would spread these around the city or connect them to safehouses. This way, the caches can't be pocketed.

I'm having a bit of an issue with the number of Supporters gained during the adventures VS Rank reqirements (and pace of the campaign)

(SPOILERS ABOUND!)

So by the start of Dance of the Damned, it is assumed that the rebellion is around rank 10, with all the supporters gained through successful missions and recruitment actions. Here are the best case baselines: 6 from rally, d6 from salt works, Devil's Nursery murdered child 3d6, Red Jills 2d6, doghousing xd6 (until rank 9), Shellet twins 3d6+20. Let's say this is about 70.
From recruitment actions, the rebellion can gather 2d6+recruitment officer level+charisma supporters (if I understand correctly). It would make the most sense for a PC to be a recruiter, or leave the job to Octavio (lvl8) or Cpt. Sargaeta. Let's say this is about 10+2d6.
So with a couple recruitment actions to offset attrition, rank 9 would take about 8 weeks of rebellion. Actually this is exactly where we are in our game right now.
To reach rank 10 by the end of Turn of the Tide, the rebellion needs 160 supporters. Meaning another 4 weeks or so for gathering supporters. A month passing without "adventuring" seems a bit long, but Dance of the Damned can certainly start at this stage.
However, this is where the problems start. In Dance of the Damned, and actually until the rebellion comes to fruition, the amount of supporters gained through the adventures are: 600 for at least 4 noble familiy alliances and 100x each contact recognized at the Ruby Masquerade (let's say 600-1200, but a maximum of 2400!).
This would mean that once the noble alliances are secured, the rebellion would instantly catapult to rank 14, and then as high as 17 after the ball!!!
Probably best to award 150 supporters per noble alliance to stagger it a bit...
Also, I'M assuming that Dance of the Damned takes at most a couple months to complete.
What I really don't see is jumping through recruitment actions alone to rank 20. Let's take 2000 supporters as a very positive estimate at the end of Dance of the Damned. As there are no more automatic supporter gains in Song of Silver, in order to reach the 5350 needed for rank20, it would entail 80+ weeks of rebellion play and recruitment actions.
One thought I had is to award supporters after Song of Silver missions to offset rank requirements.

One of my players (playing an overweight N bard who makes appearances at the Opera, with an Aulamaxa noble background, who will become a cleric of Shelyn later on) is giving me a lot of problems with motivating him to join the revolution and to go down into the basements (mini-dungeons) to fight monsters. I guess this is mainly due to alignment, also to weight factor, and to the fact that this is not really a combat character.
Motivations I've introduced so far but have received little bite on the hook:
- Opera closed
- Fair Fortune livery is on Aulamaxa property
- Shelyn outlawed
- Wasp Nest is flooded Shelyn shrine
- Along with the contract, Bloodstoriette was ctually taken home to the Aulamaxa manor, where he summoned a swarm in character's sleep, built door trap, and committed arson. Then he reported suspicious activities in the house through one of the servants and dottari arrived. PC fled and became a wanted man, until he cleared his name with bribes and Aulamaxa involvement.
- Song of Silver

Any other ideas? Maybe something with cousin Eldonna? (who is worried about getting the family title transferred from the country to Kintargo...)

Unofortunately, I can't see a true neutral, hedonistic, overweight opera singer going down into dungeons either or doing any kind of commando action.

So far, the party has been using disguise and charm person, after bluff/diplomacy in almost every case.... I realize that is the style of the adventure path and that I will have to downplay combat as much as possible, which is awesome! But it requires looking at every scenario with mindcontrol considerations.

is there any third-party book on Rebellion rules, like there was for Kingmaker (kingdom building and mass combat)?
can't seem to find any...

Hey All,

I posted a formal apology on my blog. I am so sorry for the slow in production, the one man marching band that I am, when I fell ill in December, I had no clue I would be recovering until now. I am just getting to the point where I feel well enough to work. Unfortunately, I am in my final semester of Art school and It must take precedence over my personal interests.....

Sincerely,

Anthony Ian

Hey Anthony!

The pics look absolutely amazing and many thanks from everyone for the fabulous job you did!
Looking forward to the rest, but please take care of yourself and concentrate on your priorities (not saying Pathfinder campaigns aren't on this list :))
But definitely no need to apologize, you are doing all of us a huge favor!

All the best!
Tomi

awesome stuff!!! this is making my life so much easier.

can't wait for the pdfs!

I actually have loads of materials on a forgotten realms conversion for Kingmaker with a Zhent twist - including photoshopped kingdom map, extra regional npcs, and regional armies. Oh yeah and images for everything in the story.

what i meant to say is that I'd love to share this stuff, along with the 230mb file and all info if any one wants it.

James Jacobs wrote:

Ninjaiguana wrote:

I have a bit of a problem with Irovetti's stats in this adventure.

Firstly, Irovetti's attack and damage appears to be wrong. Both appear 1 point too low. I suspect that weapon training hasn't been factored in; in fact, it's utterly missing from his stat block. Did he originally have less levels of fighter?

Secondly - and this is the big one - Irovett's stats appear to be totally off the wall. According to his gear, he has no stat-boosting items at all. Yet he somehow manages stats of 18, 18, 20, 12, 8, 22 on a 20-pt buy with 4 stat points and +2 racial? Even assuming that the 18 Dex includes the effects of a cat's grace spell, he still has to account for stats of 18, 14, 20, 12, 8, 22. He can't have started with a natural stat (pre racial mod) above 18, and has 6 points to allocate between level ups and racial. He must have applied 4 points to his Charisma and 2 to his Con. That gives his base natural stats as 18, 14, 18, 12, 8, 18. That's a...56 point buy. So what am I missing? Was he supposed to have a headband of +4 Cha and a belt of +4 Str and +4 Con? Because then the numbers would work.

Oh, and Irovetti's CMD is 1 point too low. Probably missed off haste bonus.

Ugh... yeah, for whatever reason, his headband of Charisma +6 and his belt of Str +4/Con +4 didn't make it into his stat block. (A quick adding-up of his gear bears this out; he's about 80,000 gp short of actually having 315,000 gp of gear, which is what he SHOULD have considering he's a 16th level character with PC wealth.)

caught something and need some clarification.

as I understood from the background story, Naryssa is Irovetti's muse, which would mean the following:

"As long as the nymph retains her favor for this creature and as long as the creature carries the nymph’s token, the creature gains a +4 insight bonus on all Will saving throws,...

the muse issue anyone?

bit confused on the timelines of the festival and Irovetti.

Irovetti came to power at least six years before the war events, but more like 8 as I gather from the adventure background
the festival is an annual event of some note and has been since Irovetti siezed the throne
the players kingdom is a neighboring one, and by this time probably a sizable one at that.

why wouldn't the players know of, visit, or even participate in the festival in previous years?

I guess this depends on the pace of kingdom building and daring the journey. could be that they simply aren't invited yet to participate as a fledgling kingdom. Also depends on when Irovetti comes to power and establishes the event relative to the party's kingdom.

thanks for the leafy and bottle ideas btw! great stuff, yanking both.

I'm also adding developing weather pattern changes as the game progresses to get a sense that things are a-blooming. rivers change their course - even flow upstream, flash floods, snow in summer, weird storms, mudflows, mountains falling apart, etc. First world elements can also be added to these - snow smells like flowers, purple thunderclouds, flowing mud rivers, and the like. these can develop throughout the AP, gaining strength as the kingdom is developed and we move into war and the last adventure.

this would allow the players to get a sense that something is amiss on a large scale, is feyish, and has been gaining strength.

there is one that was left out from the post and is way cool I think:

awesome stuff!!! this is making my life so much easier.
can't wait for the pdfs!

I actually have loads of materials on a forgotten realms conversion for Kingmaker with a Zhent twist - including photoshopped kingdom map, extra regional npcs, and regional armies. Oh yeah and images for everything in the story.

muftiman wrote:

Ninjaiguana wrote:

Quick skim of errors post:

Armag, p55: Armag's attacks are wrong in a weird way. The numbers give attacks of 14 bab, 6 str, 3 magic weapon, 2 focus, 1 training, 1 aid, for a total +27/+22/+17. The damage computes to 9 str, 3 magic weapon, 2 specialisation, 1 training for a total +15. He then Power Attacks, which *should* be -4 to hit for +12 damage, giving +23/18/13 (2d6+27). However, he seems to Power Attack for -3, gaining only +6 damage...? Whatever happens there, something is obviously off. Armag's attacks with Power Attack should be as I listed above. Someone shout up if they spot something I missed that explains this.

Oh, and Armag suffers from Barbarian CMD failure as well, it should be 2 lower.

All I got right now.

I checked it over and over again...

I'm getting +24 for dmg.
I don't know where you got +12 from power att (with -3 att, it's +6 dmg, plus another 50% for two-handed weapons, which is +9)

houserule: power attack should give same in bonus as in deduction, with no double count of str. 50% for two-handed weapons!

He has 14 BAB, thus -4/+12.

@Ninjaiguana
AFAIK barbarians don't get lower CMD for raging. The bonus to strength makes up for the loss of AC to CMD.

can't believe i didnt spot that in the book. thanks!

Ninjaiguana wrote:

I have a bit of a problem with Irovetti's stats in this adventure.

Firstly, Irovetti's attack and damage appears to be wrong. Both appear 1 point too low. I suspect that weapon training hasn't been factored in; in fact, it's utterly missing from his stat block. Did he originally have less levels of fighter?

Secondly - and this is the big one - Irovett's stats appear to be totally off the wall. According to his gear, he has no stat-boosting items at all. Yet he somehow manages stats of 18, 18, 20, 12, 8, 22 on a 20-pt buy with 4 stat points and +2 racial? Even assuming that the 18 Dex includes the effects of a cat's grace spell, he still has to account for stats of 18, 14, 20, 12, 8, 22. He can't have started with a natural stat (pre racial mod) above 18, and has 6 points to allocate between level ups and racial. He must have applied 4 points to his Charisma and 2 to his Con. That gives his base natural stats as 18, 14, 18, 12, 8, 18. That's a...56 point buy. So what am I missing? Was he supposed to have a headband of +4 Cha and a belt of +4 Str and +4 Con? Because then the numbers would work.

Oh, and Irovetti's CMD is 1 point too low. Probably missed off haste bonus.

Ugh... yeah, for whatever reason, his headband of Charisma +6 and his belt of Str +4/Con +4 didn't make it into his stat block. (A quick adding-up of his gear bears this out; he's about 80,000 gp short of actually having 315,000 gp of gear, which is what he SHOULD have considering he's a 16th level character with PC wealth.)

Reason #25 why it's good to be caught up on the schedule = we get to spend more time editing and developing the words.

caught something and need some clarification.

"As long as the nymph retains her favor for this creature and as long as the creature carries the nymph’s token, the creature gains a +4 insight bonus on all Will saving throws, Craft checks, and Perform checks. A bard who has a nymph for a muse in this way can use his bardic performance for an additional number of rounds per day equal to his nymph muse’s Charisma modifier. The nymph retains a link to her token and its carrier as if she had cast a status spell on the carrier."

I don't think any of these modifiers were calculated into the kings stats.

Status spell effect is cool, the 35 perform skill is niiice, will goes up to 17, and bardic music for 50 rounds is sweet, with Naryssa's Cha of +14!

He is able to craft the jars without access to the spell (by taking +5 to the DC, just like PCs can when crafting magical items). After he had enough of them, he simply teleported to Varnhold (probably just outside of town) using the portable hole to carry the vast collection of jars. He then used the Occulus of Abaddon's haunting beckon ability to bring everyone to him and subsequently trapped them in the jars he had prepared and teleported back.

Now that my PC's have let the occulus fall into the hands of Imeckus Stroon, I can't wait until he can use that ability against them. I'm thinking he'd probably use it to procure one of their armies... <evil grin>

right, but not quite.

he can (could have) certainly crafted the items, but let me quote: "while a soul jar has no ability to capture souls, it can function as the material component for a trap the soul spell". basically negating the 1000 gp cost and without the name trigger requirement.
so what I can gather from this is that trap the soul still needs to be cast on the items to "charge" them. and that's a whole village we're talking about, so 100+ times an 8lvl spell....

the only solution I can see is that the jars were prepared way back, when V was an not yet atrophied and since the items don't need triggers they can be used without the spells when he comes to.

i also want to put Vaegarn Marn (Lord Maurandyr High Ward of Hltuhvar with Forgotten Realms conversion) along with som elading Varnhold npcs into jars but with the 5hd limit, they would not fit into a jar. :)

Quick skim of errors post:

Armag, p55: Armag's attacks are wrong in a weird way. The numbers give attacks of 14 bab, 6 str, 3 magic weapon, 2 focus, 1 training, 1 aid, for a total +27/+22/+17. The damage computes to 9 str, 3 magic weapon, 2 specialisation, 1 training for a total +15. He then Power Attacks, which *should* be -4 to hit for +12 damage, giving +23/18/13 (2d6+27). However, he seems to Power Attack for -3, gaining only +6 damage...? Whatever happens there, something is obviously off. Armag's attacks with Power Attack should be as I listed above. Someone shout up if they spot something I missed that explains this.

Oh, and Armag suffers from Barbarian CMD failure as well, it should be 2 lower.

All I got right now.

I checked it over and over again...

I'm getting +24 for dmg.
I don't know where you got +12 from power att (with -3 att, it's +6 dmg, plus another 50% for two-handed weapons, which is +9)

houserule: power attack should give same in bonus as in deduction, with no double count of str. 50% for two-handed weapons!

Thundershot wrote:

With the exception of a few spells, how is anyone at 6th level supposed to hit an AC 30??

MY GOD are those wisps a pain in the butt!

I accuse you of using out-of-date material. I made the same mistake myself in my game.

Compare:
Pathfinder
vs
3.5

with advanced template +4 on AC for 30 (in Pathfinder, for Stisshak)

muftiman wrote:

Some background:

We will start playing Kingmaker in about a month so I've had ample time to prepare for most scenarios and have added loads of conversions, but perhaps not enough.

1. we usually play with 30 point build, so the characters will be heroic level.
2. also, since two members of the party will have leadership feats (Dreadmaster will have insane amount of followers) and probably bodyguard type cohorts, and since the Skymage will have a young adult green dragon by the end of the adventure, this raises several issues.

2.b. another thought we had is to make the leadership feat accessible at lvl1 or 3, which would grant the player a cohort of lvl1 immediately and a couple lvl1 followers later on as their leadership score increases to above 6 (basically just expanding to table to lower leadership scores).

however, with high cha scores (16-20) and perhaps born leader background traits :), it would mean that the party at lvl1 is exploring with 3-5 extra fighters or rangers. at lvl3 they could have 4-8 lvl1 followers.

some solutions:
definitely have to raise encounter levels - adding templates, funky wilderness encounters (from clans of the fey realms and bestiary2 :), levels on key npc's and basically multiplying monster totals by at least 1.5!
another thought is to limit 1st level followers to commoners and hireling type roles, so the feat basically gives a 1st level bodyguard until level4-7. this would only be important in the beginning, but i would just treat everything as having a 6 member party.

...

we've always played with a 30 build (or choosing out of three sets of 4d6, taking away lowest) and we've never had problems with this.

also, when we drop mass combat into the mix, two characters will have their own private armies, and the dreadmaster will have a leadership score of about 30, oh yeah, and two extra cohorts!... :)

I'll definitely check out the 6 played thread, didn't see that one. thanks for the tip!

I'll probably also adjust as we move along, massacring followers left-and-right if the party takes a delegating approach, sending low-level scouts, spies, and trap-springing soldiers into the wilderness, or dangerous settings and situations. once the second bunch doesn't return, they will be forced to check things themselves in the field.

mostly for GMs or players already done with Kingmaker but no real spoilers:

one of my PC's will be playing a Zhent skymage (FR conversions), transmuter no less, and is dead set on riding a wyvern, then a young, juvenile, and finally young adult green dragon with some classes (scout, ranger, or fighter). still, a wyvern at level 7 might be a bit much, young dragon is around lvl11 i think.

my campaign will span about 25-30 years, so the aging effects for the dragon are ok and I let myself be convinced that the CR-HD levels of the monsters are ok with an advanced cohort/mount/companion class ability or feat.

ours is an evil bunch, but for a good player i would recommend a silver dragon as a special aerial mount. large is young with 11 hd.
(careful with paralyzing breath! :)
this one fits very nicely into the campaign.

problem I'm having is double checking every single encounter above level7 for aerial strategies. I have to adjust the adventure so that infogathering and explorations would still make sense and would still be challenging. a load of encounters might be avoided (or players will have info on these locations), I have to add a lot more stalkers and stealth encounters, or some predatory big birds to scare of the flying player.

I would appreciate all ideas on what specific encounters need the most adjustment for an aerial mount.
cheers

Zen79 wrote:

I was also thinking about house-ruling that for each city district in a kingdom, there must be 1 claimed forest hex.

This represents the need of firewood and wood for construction, and would add another aspect of realism and resource management.
It also leads to possible tensions with the good and neutral fey living in the forest...

That's an interesting idea. I might phrase it this way:

Each forest hex within your kingdom reduces the consumption generated by your city districts by 1. This cannot reduce the consumption caused by city districts below 0, and it does not reduce consumption based on the number of hexes you claim.

That way, it feels less punitive (you MUST have a forest to have a city), but does give a motivation to claim forest hexes as well as farmable ones.

It still doesn't help much with making swamps or mountains appealing to claim, but we got time to think about it.

good idea! could be quarries as well for mountains and hills, brick resource for drained swamps, etc.

i would still make it a requirement for each city block, especially so that kingdom would expand into the forest. (negated in beginning due to 50 BP startup materials)

but wouldn't such a resource reduce the BP requirement of buildings somehow, rather than consumption?

Daniel Waugh wrote:

Just so I understand the initial kingdom building here is my best guess.

Month one I claim Oleg's as my first hex. Month two I claim a hex south and build a building at my first city-Oleg's(grassland so no extra clearance time). I can also build a road at Oleg's but no farm yet as a city is in my only hex right now. Month three I build another building at Oleg's, claim a third hex, build a road in hex two and establish a farm. Rinse and repeat. Do I have that right?

Yup!

I am thinking of doing a very slow build, with the entire adventure spanning over 25 years so the PC's will be at least medium age by the time they can control the entire region and reign as kings/queens.

my idea is a 1week/1BP conversion that would enable a house district to be built within a month, but a castle at half cost would still take half a year.

I also want to add two competing master builder NPC's and construction crews to have a little Pillars of the Earth vibe, so there could be multiple projects at a time.

any thoughts?

Some background:

We will start playing Kingmaker in about a month so I've had ample time to prepare for most scenarios and have added loads of conversions, but perhaps not enough.

The Party:
-Cleric of Bane/Dreadmaster (w. leadership - Bane Anti-Paladin cohort)
-Transmuter Wizard (Zhent Skymage/Telekinesis Master (Master of the Unseen Hand) with special mount- Wyvern and then Green Dragon cohort)
-Ranger/Assassin (probably w. humanoid and fey favored enemy)
-Zhent Noblewoman Bard (ruler role w. leadership; thinking about creating a battlebard prestige class for her)

1. we usually play with 30 point build, so the characters will be heroic level.
2. also, since two members of the party will have leadership feats (Dreadmaster will have insane amount of followers) and probably bodyguard type cohorts, and since the Skymage will have a young adult green dragon by the end of the adventure, this raises several issues.

2.b. another thought we had is to make the leadership feat accessible at lvl1 or 3, which would grant the player a cohort of lvl1 immediately and a couple lvl1 followers later on as their leadership score increases to above 6 (basically just expanding to table to lower leadership scores).

however, with high cha scores (16-20) and perhaps born leader background traits :), it would mean that the party at lvl1 is exploring with 3-5 extra fighters or rangers. at lvl3 they could have 4-8 lvl1 followers.

some solutions:
definitely have to raise encounter levels - adding templates, funky wilderness encounters (from clans of the fey realms and bestiary2 :), levels on key npc's and basically multiplying monster totals by at least 1.5!
another thought is to limit 1st level followers to commoners and hireling type roles, so the feat basically gives a 1st level bodyguard until level4-7. this would only be important in the beginning, but i would just treat everything as having a 6 member party.

to keep it short, I definitely need to change things up.

please let me know if you have any thoughts on specific ideas to limit leadership at low levels.

cheers,
tomi

Arnwyn wrote:

While I can't speak for others, I think that's pretty much understood. I kinda figured that the gp amount had to do with metagame reasons.

It's probably better to reverse the criticism - think instead "250 gp is just fine for a reward... but don't tie it to a quest about radishes, for pete's sake".

So, if the reward isn't wonky, the job tied to that reward really is.

Well, I guess I was hoping by calling them a specific KIND of radish, and thus implying that those radishes are rare, that it would have been a bit more high-adventure. ALSO: This is a low level quest. It's basically of the same caliber as "Go into my basement and kill the giant rats down there." It's not SUPPOSED to be something high and crazy. The PCs, by the time they get to the point where they're slaying dragons and taking on armies, should be able to look back and say, "Wow... we've come a long way. Remember when we had trouble picking radishes?"

I completely agree with Arnwyn in that the radish aspect, if not elaborated on, is by itself kinda iffy. Especially if your party is a bunch of tyrannical Banite Zhents who will totally disregard any mention of silly radishes.

I'm definitely adding some minor effect to the radishes so they are slightly magical - lets say a single portion can feed a medium creature for a day. Another idea is that ability potions made from the radishes have a +1 enchantment bonus (ie:+5). PC's of would definitely be interested in those radishes! Also, these details could involve Bokken and Svetlana-Oleg as well for trade reasons. The hireling idea also sounds great and can add a sleazy element. Thinking of perhaps making this an optional resource hex if the plant is cultivated.

Just some thoughts, please let me know if there are any other ideas.
cheers

The soul jars were added when Vordekai was changed from his prior unique undead form to a lich, so some of those details got overlooked. I would say put some used soul jars in the feasting chamber and assume that he just used the occulus again when they emerged for the feast but Willas made his save and faked it or something like that.

just a small question:

"by drawing upon ancient reserves of magic" doesn't really explain the mechanics of using 100+ trap the soul spells.

according to the magic item description, the item is a component for a trap the soul spell, without a name trigger. does this mean that the jars are already prepared with the spells, as a sort of trap, when V awakes? If not, then I really don't get it! :)

I guess V could use higher level spells to grab the town leaders and use teleport (I didn't check prohibited schools) to bring them and the jars back to the lair. otherwise there would be a lot of tracks and traces from the journey back.

please clarify this for me,
thanks