pinkie pie's page

Reading through the Return of the Runelords had me chomping at the bit to insert as much of it as possible into my existing game of Rise of the Runelords. Though I know there is a lot in the book to indicate that there is supposed to rather large time gap between the campaigns I have heard of successful combinations between Rise of the Runelords and Shattered Star so maybe it wouldn't be too ambitious. If it can be done I would love to have my players get to know more about Thassalon and get them acquainted with at least a few more Runelords.

How would you go about it at your table? is the idea just too impractical?

For reference my players are nearing the end up book 2 and I think the revelations about Justice Ironbriar should segway well into meeting with Audrahni.

a couple suggestions based on my particular experience both playing it and running it.

First of all in book 2 the Faceless stalkers are really cool but not utilized as well as I think they could be in the story. After everything they went through with Aldern and Iesha the disguises the AP aren't going to be believable to the extreme majority of people. I suggest making them act as more intelligent and capable minions of Xanesha and employing them all over the city to sow the seeds of a great conspiracy.

Here are some examples of all the fun things you could do:Frame PCs or NPC friends and family for crimes, make assassination attempts should the PCs start getting too close, kidnap and replace NPCs, sow general chaos)

If you can give them some time to establish relationships within Magnimar and foreshadow. For my table the PCs felt turning Nualia over to the authorities was the best decisions (good thing she's got a judge on her side eh?) and 2/4 PCs had family in the city. I moved Zeeva Foxglove to Magnimar from Korvosa and had her thank and gift the PCs healing items for saving her brother in Sandpoint earlier (from: https://paizo.com/products/btpy8u8s ). Making her the prime target for the Faceless stalkers in part 5 of chapter 2 made much more sense to me. If you prefer there is also his other sister Sendeli Foxglove.

For Book 3 I think there's amazing potential in bringing the PCs in before the sinking of the Paradise, whether or not they are suspicious of it.

When I played through as a player we investigated the vessel and found there to be quite a few suspicious signs, including Shihedron marks required for admission that became permanent upon entry and a casino where losing seems unlikely. I found that it made for a climactic start to the 3rd book and will give your PCs the chance to make a daring escape, though you'll want to think ahead to keep the PCs from circumventing the event altogether.

I will say I do dislike how the things are organized for spells as well since it requires hopping around the book way more than I think is necessary when looking around for spells, spell descriptions, and powers.

the primary problems I'm finding with the organization and how i think they could be addressed:

1. sifting through pages and pages of spells to look at the various options there are for powers. I think powers definitely warrant their own section of the book to make them easier to find and to eliminate confusion from players

2. In a spell's description it does not say what list it is on. a simple entry of P, O, D, or A to notate what lists a spell is would make it much easier to figure out who can cast some of these spells when we find interesting ones

implementing these 2 changes would make a world of difference in streamlining the process

ARCANIST-
something more like the "hacker of magic" described. as it stands you can only extend, suppress, shorten, or dispel stuff. I would like a class that can add some sort of "debuff metamagic" and tack it on to an opponent's spells. something like attaching a save or forcing a touch attack for the spell cast (by making the magic essence easily visible and thus avoidable), forcing the magic to target a different character, allowing, reducing area on AoE spells, changing the type of energy damage

BLOODRAGER-
access to sorcerer bloodlines archetype

some sort of spell-eater archetype that can lose spells for power boosts (could possibly just be a revised arcane?)

BRAWLER-
improvised weapon specialist: making selection for weapons and feats on the fly based entirely on the situation, throw random stuff as part of a flurry (rocks, beer mugs, goblins etc), and surprising dirty fighting tricks and tactics

maneuver master brawler of sort could be neat, maybe trade martial maneuvers for a way to combine 2 combat maneuvers X times per day

different style master that is limited to style feats and only up to x level but can switch as a swift action. or something else that works well with style feats

HUNTER-
animal focus that buffs animal companion instead and share spells abilities

hunter without spells, maybe combat tricks focused on working with Animal Companion

hunter that can choose a domain in place of animal focus

perhaps one with the ability to forgo feats and give his animal feats

oh and one focused on flying creatures (maybe even riding a really young dragon? one can hope...)

INVESTIGATOR-
one with access to bombs instead of sneak attack

or one that specializes in laying traps (possibly with some offensive spells attached) or keeping disarmed traps for later use

one that can study opponents to find weaknesses/formulate a plan to give itself and or allies benefits on subsequent attacks (I'm thinking like the recent Sherlock Holmes movies)

SHAMAN-
ability to gain witch hexes/oracle revelations (with curses probably)

one with a ghost familiar that can possess it for benefits

SKALD-
I would enjoy something along the lines of an archivist. where you inspire different or better rage benefits to your allies but only after using knowledge to identify or something like diplomacy, bluff, etc to explain to your party members why they should feel such wrath for the poor creature.

something that trades out rage powers for other benefits such as giving characters X feat (or teamwork feat) though the raging song should probably be altered in this case to allow for more of a strategist flavor

SLAYER-
possibly trade sneak attack for a animal companion? cant think of much

SWASHBUCKLER-
an archetype with deeds based on dirty fighting or improvisation possibly with int instead of cha

an archetype that makes for a more small size friendly swashbuckler possibly gnome and halfling variants

jump on the sophisticated duelist train with a more int or wis based swasher of buckles

WARPRIEST-
perhaps something that gains a divine version of spell combat, maybe at a level higher and only allowing 1 attack (perhaps in place of sacred armor/weapon)

a defending specialist that gets sacred armor earlier or something like sacred weapon for shields, tower shield proficiency.

something that trades channel energy for something more thematic, perhaps something more along the lines of lay on hands but for damage, or smite, or cleric domains?

archetype that trades a lot away for either 2 blessing or 1 blessing and a domain (maybe 2 domains?)

trade feats or something for a full channel energy progression