pence's page

Just writing this out since I haven't seen it here, and the players and I spent the evening tracking it down while we were talking about our game...

According to the adventure:

"Characters without the Technologist feat take the normal -5 penalty on technology related checks

As noted on the sidebar (referring to the above), unless a character has an e-pick or the Technologist feat, technological locks impose a -5 penalty on Disable Device checks

According to the player's guide/Technology Guide/PRD:

Technologist

Benefit: You are considered to be trained in any skill used against a technology-based subject. If the skill in question requires training to use even against non-technological subjects, you must still have ranks in that skill in order to gain the benefit of Technologist.

Normal: You treat all skill checks made against technology as if they were untrained skill checks. This may mean that you cannot attempt certain skill checks, even if you possess ranks in the skill in question.

Disable Device is Trained Only (Along with Knowledge (engineering); no guessing about the nature of lost technology, I suppose)! It's easy enough to house rule if you want to allow for some lucky rolls, but RAW it doesn't seem like anyone would be able to disable technological traps or pick technological locks at all without the Technologist feat. The player's guide mentions a -5 penalty, but only in the context of attempting Disable Device without an e-pick.

Assuming I understand the feat correctly, you would not necessarily receive a "-5 penalty to technology related checks" without it, you would lose your ranks and possibly your class skill bonus. Notably there is an exception allowing the very last skill check in the adventure to be attempted untrained. You can even take 20, assuming you can spend 200 minutes on it. :P

I'm nearing the end of Broken Moon, and converting to 4e as I go. A few quick things come to mind: Be careful with insubstantial in the prison, we were all pretty tired of chipping away at half damage by the end of it. You'll have to put some thought into how to handle haunts - Open Grave has a chapter about haunts, and I put a few of them into the framework of a skill challenge that dealt damage like a monster. I made all of the five notorious prisoners into solo monsters, which felt pretty fun every time they knocked one down. I used a heavily re-fluffed Astral Dreadnought (turned down about... 20 levels) for Father Charlatan... he sadly never managed to successfully trap anyone in his pocket dimension.

Don't be afraid to change things - I was making the conversion very literally in the second book, and ended up using an elite or solo nearly every combat as a result. I'm much more satisfied with the approach I've been using for the end of Broken Moon, asking 'how do I make this feel like 4e in Golarion'. Sometimes it means opening up the maps and adding extra terrain features. Sometimes it means adding or subtracting monsters, or giving the Demon Wolves demonic cohorts, or using the stats for Divine Boons to represent the Harrow Card rewards. I'm looking forward to statting up Raven's Head as a 4e artifact!

Read some of the more recent 4e adventures and try to figure out what makes them tick, mechanically - then translate the essence of the Pathfinder adventure into that framework.

WARNING: Spoilers for Madness At Gardmore Abbey follow. Avoid this review/post if you think your GM wants to run this.

...

The wraiths that were spawned by the artifact make an appearance - I'm not sure if the Vortex Wraith was made especially for Gardmore Abbey or is from one of the previous monster collections, but it's a nasty little build either way.

Be warned, I ran the encounter with the Vortex Wraiths last night and it was a terrifying 3-hour race to a near-TPK with a fully rested party of 6, even ignoring their regeneration. Part of the danger is their huge damage aura, but take a careful look at the statblock: they have 100% of the HP for their level, and no way to turn off their Insubstantial trait. At the very least, consider having the trait negated by radiant damage like the other wraiths in the room, or nerf their hit points to 70% like a MM1 wraith, or call them Elites and only put one in the room. Their aura's large enough to put out damage like an Elite in such a confined space.

They're also soldiers, so they're going to be shrugging off attacks if you have a lot of martial PCs. If you really want to get your hands dirty, they felt more like controllers to me - feel free to nerf their AC accordingly.