So I am running the Emerald Spire superdungeon for my gaming group and as we approach xmas I was thinking of running a little special for them during their next foray to the surface. I haven't been running to many random encounters for them so I am not really worried about this encounter pushing them ahead of the levelling curve.
Encounter:
KRISTOFF (CR7, 8 WITH STAGS) XP 3200
CE Medium Undead Humanoid (Dwarven Graveknight)
Init +1; Senses Darkvision 60ft, Perception +14; Aura Sacrilegious Aura (su, 30ft, DC 16)
DEFENSE AC 26, touch 12, flat-footed 24 (+10 Armour+2 Dex +4 Natural Armour)
hp 57 (5d8+25)
Fort +9, Ref +2, Will +3
DR 10/Magic, SR 18, Channel Resistance +7
Rejuvenation
OFFENSE Speed 20 ft.
Melee Masterwork Warhammer +12 (1d8+6 +1d6 Cold), Slam (1d6+5)
Full Attack with weapons +8/+8 (1d8+6 +1d6 Cold)
Channel Destruction (1d6 Cold), Devestating Blast (3/day, 30ft cone, 2d6 Cold, DC 15 Reflex)
STATISTICS Str 20, Dex 15, Con -, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 18
Base Atk +5; CMB +12; CMD 21
Feats Two Weapon Fighting, Double Slice, Weapon Focus (Warhammer), Step Up, Blind-Fight, Improved Initiative, Mounted Combat, Ride-By Attack, Toughness
Skills Handle Animal +9, Intimidation +21, Perception +14, Ride +17
Abilities Weapon Training 1, Armour Training 1 (Hammers)
Equipment +1 Full Plate Armour, 2x Masterwork Warhammers, 2x Potions of Cure Moderate Wouds, 1 Potion of Lesser Restoration, Bag of Holding I
SPECIAL ABILITIES Sacrilegious Aura (Su): A graveknight constantly exudes an aura of intense evil and negative energy in a 30-foot radius. This aura functions as the spell desecrate and uses the graveknight's armor as an altar of sorts to double the effects granted. The graveknight constantly gains the benefits of this effect (including the bonus hit points, as this aura is part of the graveknight's creation). In addition, this miasma of fell energies hinders the channeling of positive energy. Any creature that attempts to summon positive energy in this area—such as through a cleric's channel energy ability, a paladin's lay on hands, or any spell with the healing subtype—must make a concentration check with a DC equal to 16. If the character fails, the effect is expended but does not function.
Rejuvenation (Su): One day after a graveknight is destroyed, its armor begins to rebuild the undead horror's body. This process takes 1d10 days—if the body is destroyed before that time passes, the armor merely starts the process anew. After this time has elapsed, the graveknight wakens fully healed.
Channel Destruction (Su): Any weapon a graveknight wields seethes with energy, and deals an additional 1d6 points of damage for every 4 Hit Dice the graveknight has. This additional damage is of the energy type determined by the ruinous revivification special quality.
Devastating Blast (Su): Three times per day, the graveknight may unleash a 30-foot cone of energy as a standard action. This blast deals 2d6 points of damage for every 3 Hit Dice a graveknight has (Reflex for half). This damage is of the energy type determined by the graveknight's ruinous revivification special quality.
Undead Mastery (Su): As a standard action, a graveknight can attempt to bend any undead creature within 50 feet to its will. The targeted undead must succeed at a Will save or fall under the graveknight's control. This control is permanent for unintelligent undead; an undead with an Intelligence score is allowed an additional save every day to break free from the graveknight's control. A creature that successfully saves cannot be affected again by the same graveknight's undead mastery for 24 hours.
UNDEAD STAGS (SMASHER, CRUSHER, GOREHORN AND SVEN) XP 400 each
NE Medium Undead Animal (fast zombie)
Init +3; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +6
DEFENSE AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 10 (+4 Dex +2 Natural Armour)
hp 27 (3d8+12)
Fort +1, Ref +6, Will +5
OFFENSE Speed 60 ft.
Melee gore +3 (1d6+2), 2 hooves –1 (1d4)
STATISTICS Str 15, Dex 19, Con -, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 15 (19 vs. trip)
Feats RunB, Toughness
SPECIAL ABILITIES Quick Strikes (Ex): Whenever a fast zombie takes a full-attack action, it can make one additional slam attack at its highest base attack bonus.
“Four powerful stags with rotting skin and decaying flesh hanging from their antlers pull an old and ill-repaired sleigh across the fresh snow with an unnatural speed. The aged leather of their harnesses is broken only by worn copper nameplates that can’t be read at this distance.
Sitting atop the sleigh and whipping the reigns with a cruel urgency sits a skeletal dwarven figure, clad in heavy but aged armour. Behind this figure sits a bulging bag of faded red, lined with dirty fleece.”
In life, Kristoff was a charismatic and skilled bandit who gathered a sizeable following and plagued the northern Echo woods, amassing much wealth and infamy along the way. The wealth he gathered never satisfied him however and he eventually went mad, believing that the only currency worth hording was the skulls of intelligent creatures. He slaughtered his own bandit gang and then raided nearby villages, dying to a local hero in one such raid. Death could not hold him however as his madness drove him to rise from his shallow, roadside grave and hunt for more skulls. It’s said that he only hunts during the winter months to keep his favourite mounts from rotting away.
Upon encountering the PC’s, Kristoff will halt his sleigh and command his mounts to break free of their yolks while he will pick up his two warhammers and jump to the ground. In subsequent rounds, he will order his stags to flank his prey and keep them from fleeing while he will charge in with mad ferocity and try to bludgeon his prey to death, always avoiding striking their heads.
The party APL will be 5 by the time they encounter this and there is a unarmed monk of the sacred mountain, a flail wielding STR barbarian, a switch-hitting ranger and a healing focused battle cleric.
I have been told that the mini I have to represent Kristoff looks like an undead santa (the inspiration for this little thing) and my group is great at subtlety and puns so I'm not worried about them missing the xmas significance. My concerns are that I am not very experienced at modifying monsters and I have either overpowered or underpowered this encounter.
Greatsword: A slab of metal, stone or similar substance usually the size of a park bench, sometimes with a shapened edge. Somehow is the hands of murderhobos (see: Adventurers), these weapons can be weilded with the same ease as a kitchen knife.
I'm reading through Part 4 now as I prep to run it in a fortnight and I need some clarification on this point:
Faction Missions:
I may have read it wrong however I think I'm seeing that a few of the faction missions will require a player to recover artifacts from Skyreach which would void them of a campaign point. I don't actually disagree with this as it not only makes a player work for their boons but also because the "Venture Captain" boon would actually separate a character somewhat from their faction.
Also:
GM Credit:
I am not sure on whether or not the character I apply the GM credit from these scenarios to would get either of the boons. Again, I have no problem with this not being the case because something like that should be worked towards but I would still like to get clarification.
@Pirate Rob: Very similar ideas but I was thinking more along the lines that it would be a definitive "end of your character" adventure. Players going into it would be told that it's impossible and almost certain death (but in an interesting/fun way).
Maybe characters could get some kind of campaign points and if they get enough they get nominated for divinity but the final say still rests with the campaign coordinators. And even if your character does become a minor god, you only get to contribute the backstory and personality and no longer have control over the character (the only way I could see it becoming canon).
I'd like to start with saying that I know this would never become a real thing... unfortunately.
My gaming table came up with the idea of a level 20 adventure where pc's could do the Starstone Challenge. The challenge should be a near impossible task that kills 99.9 percent of characters (but make it a fun challenge still) so that only like one in a thousand PFS characters would actually have the chance to become a minor god of Golarion.
Obviously you wouldn't be able to play the character ever again, but it would make an interesting award for really dedicated players who put in the effort to get their characters through enough scenarios to play Eyes of the Ten and then even further through the high-level sanctioned modules (From my understanding, you can get a PFS character up to around level 16 or so through playing approved modules).
It's just a fun little idea that we played with a bit but I wonder what some of you other players think?
My Halfling Ninja participated in a very social heavy mod where we had to dress up and any weapons were peace bonded. Rather than peace bond her weapons she bought a pair of small, thin daggers and used them to pin her hair up. When things went bad (as they inevitably do) and her companions were all wasting a round unbinding their weapons, she pounced (figuratively) on one of the goons and insta-killed him with her hair pins.
I missed out on getting the BBEG only because he teleported away.
The Citadel of Flame
spoiler:
Our party contained a very flirtatious Aasimar Bard who was fairly useless in battle... until he cast 'Unnatural Lust' on the BBEG who failed her will save and proceded to step into a stream of lava, trying to make out with the bard.
The Frostfur Captives
spoiler:
Our Oracle convinced the goblin captives that we meant no harm after they had escaped. She proceeded to befriend them and even bought them all a round of drinks once we reached the tavern.
So far I'm liking the Brawler archtype with the following feats:
1 - Power Attack, Improved Unarmed Strike
2 - Weapon Focus (Unarmed Strike)
3 - Dragon Style
4 - Improved Grapple
5 - Weapon Specialisation (Unarmed Strike)
6 - Greater Grapple
7 - Body Sheild
8 - Stunning Fist
9 - DragonnFerocity
10 - Elemental Fist
I know that the build is not completely optimised but it allows for the kind of flavour that I want from the character. That said I will definately be looking at the armoured hulk build that blackbloodtroll suggested
Hi all
I'm thinking of making an armoured, unarmed fighter. Think full plate that fights with brute strengh fists and combat manouvers.
I'm thinking of dual classing a fighter and a monk though I am unsure of exactly how to do so.
Cheers in advance for the advice.
My gaming group have been struggling to organise games that no-on has played so I borrowed from Josephs spreadsheed to create a scenario tracking sheet that the players in my group can mark if they've played or GM'd.
Hopefully this will make things a bit easier for us.
I have a habit of when a player asks for a name of an NPC that I haven't given one yet, I will assign the first Russian sounding name not in use, always starting with Boris (short for Boriskinski). I ended up with an entire region that was essentially Russia.
First off, thanks for the advice so far, especially tonyz.
I am still working out the environment that the party will face off against the marcenary king and his cronies. The party's mission is to assasinate the General of a military force which has veered from it's original purpose and is now freelancing as a mercenaries. The general is not actually the king and the barracks and HQ of the mercenaries is located in the capital city of the region.
The party will have to deal with meddling from the real king and the local politics before they can get to the military compound as there are a couple of external forces which want to use the party to further their own agenda.
I'm thinking that the party will have to fight their way through the military compound to get to the General but the mercenaries (which they have fought a few times before) will hardly pose a challenge and are unlikely to drain the party's resources much.
I am liking the idea of the General as a trip expert with a couple of fighters as anti-charge experts, a bard and a cleric as well as a whole mess of low level goons.
I need some help building a decent boss encounter for my APL 6 party. The combat encounters I've been throwing at them have either been over in a couple of rounds or near TPK's. I don't mind giving the party difficult encounters but I'm new at GMing and I'm still struggling to get the balance right.
The party includes:
-Human Mounted Fighter on a wooly rhino
-Human Luring Cavalier archer on horse
-Elven summoner
-Teifling Bard
-Elan Psionic
-Dhampir (variant) Time theif
All players are level 6 but the fighters charge (with lance and rhino) deals an ammount of damage that no other member of the party can hope to match. Anythings he can't deal with, the rest of the party also struggles with. I know there are ways of balancing this but I'm struggling to do it myself.
The boss encounter I want to build will have the party fighting against a mercenary king and his bodyguard. I would like the mercenary king to be a fighter type but I want the fight to last more than a few rounds. I am thinking of giving the mercenary guards a cleric for healing perhaps? I need a bit of help with this, any suggestions?
I've used it before with a level four party who decided to fight a succubus and ended up getting owned when the cavalier got dominated. The succubus grew bored and teleported out and left the party to subdue their companion.
I try to build encounters that are balanced and will only use 'Deus ex machina' if the party are getting destroyed because of a mistake I've made either with throwing them against an overpowered enemy or lack of foresight. If they make poor choices that lead to a TPK then that's their fault and it's all part of the game.
The bonus from the above example though is that I get to use that succubus as a reoccuring antagonist now.
I'm going to give the party plenty of cover and I know that they still have a tanglefoot bag as well as other consumables. I'm hoping that they use the environment strategically to break charge lines and reduce the effectiveness of the mounted knights.
I've also modified the mounts stats:
Mount:
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Mount - Horse (wartrained)
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N Large Animal
HP 19 (3d8+4)
AC 17, touch 10, flat-footed 16 (+3 armor, +4 natural armor, +1 Dex, -1 size)
Move speed 50 ft
Attack bite (1d4), 2 hooves (1d6);
BAB +2; Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +1
Str 16, Dex 13, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Special Qualities: low-light vision, scent.
Feats: light armor proficiency
Gear: studded leather (barding)
Am I still missing anything for the mount or is it overpowered?
I'm building an encounter for a home campaign where the party is going to be fighting against some enemy knights along a city street.
The APL is 3 and I want to make it a 'Hard' encounter (so CR5) and to that end I've run up the following enemy NPC's:
Knights:
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Knight Errant CR 1 (four knight errants make a CR5 XP1600 encounter)
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XP 400
Male Human Cavalier (Order of the Lion) 2
LE Medium humaniod
Init +1; Senses Perception +0
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DEFENSE
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AC 20, touch 11, flat-footed 19 (+9 armor, +1 Dex,)
hp 20 (2d10+4)
Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +0
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OFFENSE
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Speed 20 ft (50 while mounted)
Melee mwk lance +5 (1d8+2/x3) or mwk longsword +5 (1d8+2 19-20/x2)
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TACTICS
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Kinghts will initiate combat with a charge to maximise the damage of their lances. If combat allows they will discard their lances, draw swords and engage in ride-by attacks.
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STATISTICS
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Str 14, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 8
Base Atk +2; CMB +4; CMD 15
Feats: mounted combat, ride-by attack, lookout
Skills: Knowledge (nobility) +4, Handle Animal +6, Ride +6
Languages: Common
Abilities: Challenge 1/day, mount, order, tactician
Other Gear: mwk lance, mwk longsword, Full-plate armor, 15gp
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Mount - Horse (wartrained)
=======================================================================
N Large Animal
HP 14 (2d10+4)
AC 18, touch 10, flat-footed 17 (+4 armor, +4 natural armor, +1 Dex, -1 size)
Move speed 50 ft
Attack bite (1d4), 2 hooves* (1d6); *This is a secondary natural attack.
Str 16, Dex 13, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Special Qualities: low-light vision, scent.
Feats: light armor proficiency
Gear: chain shirt (barding)
So far I've been using monsters straight out of the bestiary (1&2) or NPC's from the gallery in Game Mastery Guide and I've not had to worry too much about botching the CR balance. With this encounter though, I know I've gotten the CR/XP balance wrong because of the mounts but how do I rectify it?
I backed this a month ago at Hero level but with all the excitement I upped to Lorekeeper just to make sure I get the Hardcover book. I am really looking forward to seeing this project come to fruition.
Pathfinder Dwarven Fighter (Chaotic Neutral Anarchist) named Heimdall
My party and I had just finished a short quest and were going to spend the night in a town before venturing forth. During the day our Lawful Stupid paladin went off to pray at her temple and the rest of us went for a brief shopping trip and retired early to a loval tavern.
While at the tavern there were some suspicious people in the corner and our rogue thought it would be a good idea to go through their bags to sus them out.
Between bad diplomacy rolls on my part (to distract) and a bad stealth roll on her part (to sneak, funnily enough) she got caught and was dragged away by the taverns bouncer and locked in a room.
I thought the best way to rescue her would be to distract the bouncer with a tavern brawl but the GM was adamant that if I started it I would get caught by the city watch.
My solution: "Hey you" my dwarf wispers to a particularly inebriated tavern patron "I just overheard the barkeep say something about your mother. It wasn't very nice..."
In the ensuing barfight the rogue escaped and the rest of the party left quickly to avoid notice. The paladin arrived later having finished her prayer to find the tavern on fire with people brawling in the street in front of it, molotov cocktails still being thrown in the front windows.
Her immediate response was to yell "Heimdall!" at the heavens and was rewarded when a single bolt of lightning pierced the otherwise clear sky and struck a location on the other side of town: an inn where the party had ended up for the night.
To top it off the Inn keeper at the new tavern refused to indentify any occupants and since the party was already asleep the paladin had to book a room not knowing if the party was actually there (the lightning was a pretty big hint though). Once upstairs she knew she had the right inn when she recognized Heimdalls snoring.
Oh huh, I need Weapon Focus before I can get Dazzling Display. So regardless of whether I want to go for ranged or close combat or combat support (like Dazzling Display I'd need two feats before I can be effective. That's level 6.
How I handled this with my bard is to get a wayfinder (250 gp) and a cracked opalescent white pyramid ioun stone (1500 gp), which when placed into the wayfinder gives you Weapon Focus. Then you can take Dazzling Display a couple levels earlier.
Where is the information regarding the cracked opalescent white pyramid ioun stone? I'm trying to look it up so that I can better understand how it works.
I would very so much consider re-doing, especially since you are level 1 it seems.
Unfortunately no, I'm lvl 2 and will be levelling to 3 after my next session. There are definately things that I would change if I rebuilt the character or started a new bard build but I want to see if I can make the best of the situation I'm in and maybe learn some outside-the-box tactics.
There have been allot of good suggestions so far. The over all best suggestion if your not happy with how the character turned out. Remake the character if your still low level it will not take that long to get back up in level. If you don't like how the character work's and just play it any how. You will end up with a much larger problem in leveling a better made character to replace this one.
Long and Short.
If your low level and you can't fix the problem with the character. It's simpler to make a new character then be stuck with one you don't care much for.
I am actually quite happy with how my character performs in his primary role as support but I wanted to know how to contribute more meaningfully once my bardic performance is going and I have time to spend.
There has definately been some great advice however which I will be following to hopefully make a difference.
Mike Linder's Suggestion with the wayfinder and cracked opalescent white pyramid ioun stone combination seems to bee a great way to go and I think I'll get that before the Ring of Protection +1.
Oh huh, I need Weapon Focus before I can get Dazzling Display. So regardless of whether I want to go for ranged or close combat or combat support (like Dazzling Display I'd need two feats before I can be effective. That's level 6.
I like the idea of using Weapon Finesse to get in and use a rapier. I was unaware of the Weapon Enhancement:Agile so I will look into that. Fist thing I bought after the wand of CLW was a Mithril Chain Shirt (this time with gold) but my AC is still not great for front line combat. How would I raise my AC at the level I'm on?
Bards are also proficient with shields, so a Buckler (+1 AC) would also be a great idea and is pretty cheap/lightweight. Ring of Protection +1 (2,000) is a solid choice. This should bring you to AC 18.
The buckler looks like a good option, will it interfere with bardic performance? I will also jump at getting the ring when I can afford it.
I considered using a bow and was even used a shortbow for a while on lvl 1 but taking penalties to hit because your target is in combat gets old when I'm taking negatives to damage because of my low str. I suppose I could take Point Blank Shot in order to get Precise Shot but that's starting down a feat tree which won't pay off properly until lvl 6.
I haven't much experience with pathfinder and I'm hesitant to start with multiclassing when I'm yet to understantd the primary class.
Wand of Shield looks good but I was told that Shield doesn't stack with existing Armour (like my Mithril Chain Shirt). I just looked up the spell and it doesn't mention that limitation so is it possible I've misunderstood?
The bard is a human so I took both Extra Performance and Improved Initiative as first level feats. I hadn't given much thought yet as to which feat to take next level but was leaning towards Weapon finesse.
The spells I've taken include
Spoiler:
LVL0:
Dancing Lights
Daze
Detect Magic
Prestigitation
LVL1:
Cure Light Wounds
Grease
Cause Fear
And I spent 2PP after the first adventure to buy the wand of CLW to save on spells per day. I haven't been able to really use Grease but I suspect that's more because I just don't recognise the best moment to cast. Cause Fear I've used to better effect though.
While I like the style of support-caster and using the bardic performance to buff the party, I don't have enough spells per day to be wasting them every round while a performance is running.
I like the idea of using Weapon Finesse to get in and use a rapier. I was unaware of the Weapon Enhancement:Agile so I will look into that. Fist thing I bought after the wand of CLW was a Mithril Chain Shirt (this time with gold) but my AC is still not great for front line combat. How would I raise my AC at the level I'm on?
I'm stilll pretty new to pathfinder in general let alone PFS and the only other character I've played was a dwarf fighter in a home campaign. I thought I'd try something a little different when I created my first character for PFS and so I chose the Bard class.
When creating the character I has a support role in mind and had one of the local players help me create the character. While the support aspect of the character is great I find that I can't contribute meaningfully to combat after the second/third round.
I can continue a bardic performance as a free action and then... That's where I get lost.
The characters base stats are:
Spoiler:
STR 8(-1)
DEX 14(2)
CON 12(1)
INT 14(2)
WIS 10(0)
CHA 18(4)
I find that with the negative in strength I can't really contibute to either ranged or melee combat and being a bard I don't have access to any decent damage dealing spells.
Following the advice of another player I bought a wand of magic missile however I need to roll a UMD check to use it and I'm not sure it weighs up against the damage (though the range and instant hit are nice).
While I can't change the stat's at this stage, I would like some advice on how I can contribute to combat once I've cast and started my bardic performance.
