pennton's page

We're about to incorporate the Alpha 3 Pathfinder rules into my current campaign as most of the players needed to make new characters anyway. The new players will be starting at 10th level.

The new rules for magic item creation present an interesting potential balance issue when it comes to starting equipment for high level characters. Suppose we use 62,000 gp for 10th level characters per the Character Wealth by Level table on page 123. If that money is used as starting funds, is a character with item creation feats allowed to use those feats to effectively create his magic items at half the cost, or should he be forced to pay full market price like the other characters who don't have item creation feats?

The same question pertains to a wizard's Arcane Bond. Should a new 10th level wizard be able to enchant his Arcane Bond at 50% the normal cost before entering the game?

This issue didn't really come into play prior to the Pathfinder rules because of the xp cost component. Players would be reluctant to pay a ton of xp for item creation because it would put them behind the other players in experience. Now that the only limiting factor for magic item creation is gold and time, there's no reason not to take full advantage of one's item creation feats whenever possible.

So, should a brand new high level character get an effective 50% discount on all his magic items if he takes the appropriate magic item creation feats? Or is that a misuse of the concept of character wealth by level?

My players are about to enter the room with the Blibdoolpoolp shrine, meaning 20 rounds later, Aushanna shows up. I've read a few threads warning of the TPK potential of this encounter, and I am slightly concerned about their ability to deal with a flying opponent (if not for a well-timed major image of a gold dragon cast by the beguiler that scared Gottrod away, the party had literally nothing they could do against a flying dragon circling while his breath weapon recharged).

Regardless, I have a question about one of Aushanna's innate abilities that's not really addressed in the Tactics section. Why wouldn't she immediately try to summon a few Bearded Devils (Lemures are pathetic) into the fray to really make things nasty for the PCs? She's bound, not summoned, so I don't think that the "summoned creatures can't summon other creatures" rule affects her.

In your opinion, would this be a sound tactic for her? Is it legal for her to do so? And, is it just cruel of me to pile on the pain of additional devils when she's already such a tough foe on her own?

So my players are about to tackle Bhal Hamatugn in our next session, and I was considering reworking Zenith Splintershield entirely. I (regretfully) allowed my players to use the Complete series of books along with the Book of Nine Swords to create their characters, so because of the inevitable "power creep" resulting from those splat books, they are more powerful than your standard, 7th-level party. Looking at Zenith's stat block, I just know that he'd going to get slaughtered (or at least adequately subdued) in a couple of rounds. When you throw those splat books into the mix, fighters are really pretty weak. And Dwarven Defender just isn't very effective as a "big boss" PrC. What's he gonna do, just stand there in defensive stance while the spell casters nuke him?

Anyway, I thought he'd be much more formidable if I rebuilt him using the Book of Nine Swords. Warblade looked interesting, but he'd have to take a feat to get proficiency in heavy armor, and the flavor of the class doesn't feel quite right for Zenith's background. Crusader fits very nicely I think. He could have originally been a Crusader of Moradin who "lost his faith". His current Crusader abilities would actually be powered by his link with the Smoking Eye.

Any thoughts on this?

My players aren't quite there yet, but they'll probably face Gottrod in the next couple of sessions. I'm just curious how this fight went with the other groups out there.

Gotrrod's tactic of staying in the air and blasting away with his breath weapon every 1d4 rounds could be pretty deadly against a group with no decent ranged capability. Mages could definitely do some damage, but only if they had the foresight to memorize a lot of non-fire spells.

How did other groups deal with him? Ranged weapons? Cold damage? How effective was his tactic of staying in the air and sticking to his breath weapon?

My players just finished up the encounter at the Lucky Monkey and will brave the Kopru Ruins in our next game. If you can manage it, I recommend not letting your players hit 5th level before the Lucky Monkey encounter. My players wiped the floor with Tongueeater in just a few rounds. Granted, my players make pretty efficient characters, but still, I had hoped that this fight would give them a bit of a challenge. Here are a few of the strategies that they used to make the Lucky Monkey a cake walk:

Druid: Cast Evard's Menacing Tentacles (PHB II) on himself, sharing it with his riding dog animal companion = 6 attacks per round, 4 of which had 10-foot reach.

Wizard: With the Fiery Burst reserve feat (Complete Mage), kept a Fireball spell in reserve to cast 5'-radius mini-fireballs at will that do 3d6 fire damage. Also cast Haste on the party, effectively doubling their attacks every round.

Cleric: Divine Metamagic/Persistent Spell build using the Ice Axe spell. 24-hour per day touch attack that does 2d12+2 cold damage... ouch.

Basically, access to 3rd-level spells drastically reduced the difficulty of the fights at the Lucky Monkey. Achieving 5th level is a huge power jump for characters in D&D and I recommend not letting your players do it if you want the Lucky Monkey encounter to be at all challenging. Either that, or beef up the competition to compensate, which I failed to do.

Oh well, I think the Kopru ruins ought to give them a run for their money. Don't get me wrong. Ultimately, I want my players to succeed. I just think that the game needs to be challenging to keep it fun for everybody.

My group is starting Drakthar's Way tomorrow. I'm anxious to see how it goes. They are a smaller group (4 players the last two sessions, 5 players this coming session), so they're already 4th level going in. I expect them to cut through the goblins like a hot knife through butter, but I honestly don't know what's going to happen when Drakthar shows up. It could be anything from a cake walk to a TPK depending on one Will save. My group's favorite tactic is to enlarge the half-orc barbarian and let him do a frontal assault. He's clearly going to be Drakthar's primary domination target and with a Will save of +0, there's a good chance he'll fail. If he does, I think the party is toast.

A quick question about Drathar's Dominate ability. Even if the barbarian makes his Will save, can't he just try it again on his next turn? With a Will save of +0 (Wisdom of 8), it seems like it's only a matter of time before the barbarian becomes Drakthar's flunky.

Oh, did I mention that the party doesn't have a cleric? Ouchy...

I'll be running my group through Drakthar's Way in a couple of weeks, and because they're 4th level instead of the recommended 3rd, I want to make sure I play Drakthar effectively enough to give them a challenge. My players are incredibly efficient/tactical in combat. An example: At 3rd level, four of them took out the Grell in Jzadirune in about 3 rounds. Granted, they made a deal with Yuathyb and knew of the Grell's existence before they entered the room, but still...

If Drakthar successfully dominates one of the PCs and tells them to attack another member of the party, does that trigger the "any subject forced to take actions against its nature receives a new saving throw with a +2 bonus" clause of the Dominate Person spell? If so, does the PC get to make a new save every round he spends attacking another party member, or just once to resist the general command. It's pretty obvious what my players' opinions will be on this, but I'd like to get some feedback from some GMs.

Also, in Drakthar's stat block, it lists his full attack as morningstar (primary) and slam (secondary). His slam attack is so much more devastating (damage + energy drain + temporary hp) than a swing with a morningstar, I don't understand why he even bothers with the morningstar. Wouldn't he be much more effective if he used his slam attack with his full attack bonus? What am I missing here?