red scare's page

The thing about the MIC is it becomes about the items and not the levels. I thought I left that behind in WOW. Next campaign definitely will be just core.

I had a player new to 3e and I basically made his lizardfolk barbarian now it is the bane of my existence dealing out on average 100-200 damage a round at an EL of 14. Just don't tell him about leap attack combined with power attack. But hey I still dominate him half the time and dish that damage back to the party.

But my biggest pain in the rear is the party's warlock he's got a charisma of something like 34 coupled with his unseelie fey winterchills ability his saves for curses and the like are around 35-40 and coupled with retributive invisibility, flee the scene and voracious dispelling (mind you he can do these things at will) nothing lasts long against him. He also has the eldritch glaive evocation that gives him three touch attacks around dealing 9d6 a hit often vitriolic that continues to do damage. Not to mention he has a damage reduction of 19 coldiron and magic items up the wassu. I plan on having them stolen but he is always invisible and sleeps in tiny spider form making even the most trained assassins hard for them to find him. Not to mention he has invocations that to use his charisma for fort and will bringing those saves up to an ungodly number I don't even try to throw such spells at him. He also has a ring of spell battle (one of the most overpowered item in the IC for its price) that he uses to counter spells he doesn't want used against him. He also has some ring I forget what it is that negates the first attack against you. He also has tons of other rings he switchs in and out like negative energy protection. He's got those darn skins he wears (another over powered set of items). Another favorite of his is to use his hellcat guantlets or gloves of eldritch admixture to strenghten his spell damage even more. And finally he uses bracers of entangling that allow no save to be entangled.

Oh and forgot he has charm monster invocation that pretty much always grants him a new ally each fight.

If I was running that CR 33 one simple solution to slaughter the party, Blasphemy. Even if they had silence a quickened greater dispel then followed by blasphemy at caster level 25 your party wouldn't stand a chance of resisting (unless they were all evil).

Very scary indeed the only thing I'll change is the that unholy grace my party would never be able to hit that AC. The details of the fight will have the Vanthus fight will have to wait til the holiday season when I'm back from school. One question though I didn't understand your Wyther maybe it didn't transfer right? Thanks again Turin.

I too turin would like a copy of your Vanthus and captain Wyther if you'd please. My email is jbraba20@student.scad.edu

Treat the war claw as spiked gauntlets.

My thats fairley deadly I think I'll just use one of those for the head of the surface Kopru. Three or more at a time will most likely end in a lot of dead party members.

Thanks for the ideas. Ran the session and added the savage template to the julajimus (skinwalkers are outsiders so can't be savage.) Also reset the traps and blocked off some of the hall ways with stone wall spells. After seeing the blocked in passages the PCs went around to area one. Xerkamat was a joke for them they dispelled the projected image and the parties barbarian went to town dealing over 100 damage in the first round. The parties warlock then cast dispelling all over the front of the entrance eliminating the symbol of death. But they finally faced a worthy encounter in area 3. The hidden skinwalker acolyte decimated the party with empowered fireballs almost tpking the party. Moving on they encountered the retriever which was brought down again incredibly quick by the barbarian. Hopefully Khala can get his gaze attacks off on the barbarian or else that battle won't last long.

My biggest problem with 4th ed is the wizard my favorite class is how you say.......crap. 2nd and 3rd were great for spell casters because of the huge variability in spells. Now with powers the window is so much narrower and many of the powers are pretty much the same. And rituals my party hasn't bothered with them once. Oh and one more thing the ritual of resurrection is so cheap and no lasting consequences if thats not like a video game I don't know what is? Hmm hey we can press the restart button with this ritual for only 680 gp and be fully healed after 3 milestones. Heck in this new plane of shadow the only people dying should be peasants that can't afford such a low price. But hey I will say those minion rules are gold but can be easily adapted for 3rd.

The PC's having rampaged throughout the first level of the temple killed everything but the chief a few skin walkers and Xerkamat. After all of them experienced near death against the dread wraiths they opted to go back to Sasserine to heal their injuries. While by the time they returned to outside the temple almost two weeks have passed. Khala caved in the hidden entrance in the back to stop them from using that entrance way again and has summoned a retriever to roam the hall ways and mustered up some more skinwalkers. I feel this isn't enough and Khala realizes that the skinwalkers aren't strong enough to defeat the party and the retriever will probably just hinder them. The party also realizes that the water entrance is most likely a trap and plans to avoid it so Xerkamat's ambush is useless and I'll plan to move the symbol of death else where. But spreading too many symbols is useless because a party quickly recognizes to avoid them after encountering one. Any ideas for what Khala can do to bolster the temples defenses on the first floor? We left the party dimension dooring in by the stone doors and all the traps on the first floor have already been set off.

Thanks a ton! (jbraba20@student.scad.edu)

I bought dungeon issue #146 from Borders way back but it never came with the poster map. My players will be off the Isle of Dread soon and I was wondering if anyone could scan a image of the map for me preferably at least 756 x 756. I have been looking everywhere to find the poster but no luck and don't really have the funds to buy the issue again just for the map. This would help me out tremendously.

My players have no access to teleportation spells. Only spell caster is a druid and you can't very well cast transport via plants since theres no trees underground and giant fungi don't count as plants. So I wanna play them through going back up the flooded tunnels and facing some aboleths. But actually getting back out the way they came seems really hard (climbing rock surfaces with tons of water crashing down on you is like a climb check of at least 40. Also they spent awhile to get down the lightless depths I don't want it to be painfully slow getting back out. Any suggestions.

I wonder what demogorgon would would look like if he achieved his plan of setting off the master pearl. I bet he wouldn't look so ridiculous then. Perhaps something to rival Cthulu:)

I gave my players cannons and they didn't even use them. They just fireballed the hell out of the pirates ship's rutters in TOD before they could even enter the harbor. As far as realistic destruction goes to characters its DnD.......its fantasy a character can survive an explosion or being squished by a 10 ton boulder. I'm pretty sure they can walk away from a cannon shot.

This is a little off topic from the main post, but since people are talking about skinwalkers I have a question that has been bugging me. Anybody notice that the skinwalker acolytes have a lower CR then the chieftan even though they have more HD? Is this just a miss print or can I give the chief 3 more levels to make him a CR 15 according to how the acolyte's are made?

What about those 9 stone archways and the two pools one for beauty the other for truth. I was thinking of having the archways be gateways into different episodes in the Olmec empires past. And the players have to defeat some enemy of the Olman be it real or superstitious to awake the Olman princes at the top. I think 3 princes should suffice of at least 16th lvl. I think I'll have it that the citadel only opens if they bring some Olman artifact from Thanaclan that way the players are high enough level to deal with it. I still haven't come up with much ideas for the pools. Maybe the truth pool answers questions put at the cost of some deformity that can only be healed with miracle or wish. (Party will be almost high enough level to have access to those spells by then). For beauty maybe the pool will give the ability to cast suggestion but at the cost of something else. I believe dragon magazine had something about varient curses. Further input greatly appreciated!

There is a easier approach given in Storm Wrack about ships catching on fire (pg 31). It states that alchemist fire would do full damage against a ship section. And a unmodified DC 8 save to not catch fire. If a burning square catches fire it does 2d6 fire damage a round. Each round the fire burns you roll d% 1-10=1 square of the fire burns out, 11-75=no change, and 76-100=the fire spreads to one new square. A barrel of alchemist fire launched from a catapult most likely affects only one hull section or 10 4-6 squares. Hope that helps.

My players seem interested in the citadel after hearing rumors of it being the last bastion of the gods and the building never ages. Anybody else's players went to the citadel or have you got any expanded ideas off of the info they give in TOD?

I could use one too and my party is searching the holds of the pirate ships next session!..........redscare452@yahoo.com

Yeah I was reading over the spells and had to change my plan some. As far as the fabricate goes I will have to ditch that and have them use major creation to create destroyed pieces of the sea wyvern and Amelia's hat I know there is a time limit on that so that can't be viewed personally by the players so it might ruin the effect. I don't want to go any direct assassinations against Lavania because she is needed to progress the story and my players could care less about the Meravanchis. The wizards though have been observing Farshore for weeks with their familiars (no one notices a hawk or toad) so they know the key persons and how they look fairly well. Looking at the spell list available I'll think I'll have one of the brotherhoods many slaves/test subjects killed and use their head as Amelia's via Polymorph and permanency. I'll do secret wisdom rolls DC:20 to see if the players notice a small change like the scar lacking from the face. Also the parties only spell caster is a druid and they don't have the greatest divination spells, and I haven't seem him use dispel magic once. And detect magic can be covered with a nystul's magical aura.

As far as the fake battle I'm not worried about. The fake ships will be pirate launches and I can fit alot of those in two 10 13ft squares. And the SB will be on a ship outside the harbor so they will have a good distance from the PCs. I'll give a description how close the boats seem but that will be the only hint to the illusion.

The attack in the jungle will not have the assassin with them earlier he will attack from invisibility while under the disguise of an Olman friend (like a Totem slayer). A quick death attack along with a Ki smite and then he is invisble again and out of there repeat as necessary.

Thank's for the ideas. Here is what I have come up with using several of you're ideas. This SB outpost is too far away from their homeland to supply any sort of heavy aid but they can give the illusion to it. The base will contain 2 9th level wizards some 15 brother hood scouts and lead by a 10th level ninja/assassin. They will have 1 ship and during the pirate invasion they will use their spell casters to make persistant images and major images to give the appearance that they are engaging pirate reinforcements. They will also use illusions to have the fake pirate ships being destroyed by powerful magic. The next day the SB gives them an offer. Give them one half of Farshore's magical items and Olman artifacts or suffer the consequences. If they don't comply a piece of the Blue Nixie with Amelia's head mounted on top will arrive to Farshore the next day. (The Blue Nixie was sent out a week earlier to bring goods to Sassarine.) These are not real created with the Fabrication spell and from the observation of the wizards familiars. If the PC's still don't comply the ninja/assassin will attempt to kill one of them disguised as a Olman ally the next time they foray into the jungle.
Hope this is sneaky enough to befuddle the players.

Well my players through a curve ball at me a few sessions back. We are on TOD and on a trek through the jungle my party randomly encountered some scarlet brotherhood monks. After being decieved into thinking they were lost missionaries the monks attacked the party. Turns out the party defeats the monks but leaves one alive and tells him to bring back word that pirates are coming and and they will take any help they can get including the scarlet brotherhoods. Upon returning to Farshore Lavania infroms them the graveness of the mistake of attempting to make deals with the brotherhood. An example she uses is how the brotherhood defeated the sea princes in a fortnight without even raising an army. A few days before the pirate attack I have the brother hood deliver their response through a horribly mauled corpse of a former PC. In his mouth was stuffed a scarlet letter simply stating that "Your help will arrive on the need day, our emaisary will arrive the day after." And I left it at that for my players to cringe over.
The thing is I know the scarlet brotherhood are masters of one of the most powerful organizations in all of GreyHawk. The battle is next week and I could use some ideas on how to play on this scenario I have set up. On a side note I read the posts about asking aid from the Green Dragon on the island and I don't want to act it out with the brotherhood just destroying one ship and then asking for tribute. I want it to be more stealthy but equally as terrifying :)

After bugging the party non-stop from Farshore to the IOD, the party's Warlock had had enough of Avner. He had tried reasoning, violence, and everything short of begging. So if you can't change em, enchant em. After charming him. The Warlock encouraged him to express his heroics in mounted combat and lead the charge into the next combat. The next battle happened to be the mummies in HTBM. Both Avner and his prized horse failed their Will saves against the mummies gaze. A few rounds later Avner picked up his nerve but his horse did not and fled from the undead. The horse trampled the party in its hasty retreat while Avner yelled for it to charge foward. The horse was stopped by the Warlock criting its legs off and sending Avner sprawiling into the wall.

How can your players not want to fight DEMOGORGON (thunders a voice from the heavens) perhaps you should let your players borrow a fiendish codex or pop in Iggwilv early just so they as players can see these rich in DND history villians heck through in Iuz if their still noy interested have them explore the screaming jungle if they like jungle adventures.

He's missing two feats and his attack bonus if off by 2 points, but aside from that he's pretty neat.

I thought i stated pretty good where did I mis the feats and attack bonus. He should have 11 feats from HD and 3 from fighter. Perhaps you counted the fast healing only once he has it twice. He has a minus two to his attack because of two weapon fighting so you might hace miscalculated that as well.

Kirth has a good point with making the armor give a continueous adhancement to str and con and the DR. I'm thinking of dropping the +1 dancing vorpal sword. I ran a mock combat of Belchersk gainst Gwynharphf and she was dead in the first round from a natural confirmed 20 to her head. I believe the possibilty of devasting criting on a 17-20 on 5 attacks is more than enough challenge to my PC's who are uber characters in themselve.

Sorry I should have put a lil more detail into the artifact but it doesn't give nearly the amount of abilities of a 20th lvl Barbarian. I just grants the mighty rage feature 1/day and DR 5/- for 10 minutes. It does not grant any of the other features of a barbarian such as fast movement, uncanny dodge, trapsense, indomitable will, or even tireless rage. I did forget to mention that the armor grants a +2 to initiative. But besides that I wanted some uhique armor besides let say the boring +5 heavy fortifaction breastplates that all the Demogorgan aspects seem to have.
The armor is nothing compared to his epic feats if he crits you with the longsword its a DC 44 fort. save or die. Thats where those +5 heavy fortifaction breast plates will come in handy for the PCs;)

There is some mention of him in fiendish codex I and Dragon #357 as a advanced balor fighter 4. It mentions he is Demogorgons most powerful servant and supreme leader of the millions of hordes throughout the planes. I stated him adcanced to 30hd to be able to be summoined be big D and gave him overwhelming melee poweress because thats what frankly Big D appreciates to do the most as well.

Very funny but did you happen to cheap Big D he gets two saving throws against mind affecting magic because of his dual brains.

I haven't seen any stats for the mightiest commander of Demogorgons horde of demons so I decided to stat him. Enjoy!

Supreme Commander Belcheresk CR 27
Male Advanced Balor Fighter 4
CE Large Outsider (Tanar’ri)
Init +9; Senses Dark Vision 60ft, True Seeing
Speed: 30ft (40ft w/o armor), fly 90ft (good)
AC: 45, touch 16, flat-footed 39
HP: 641 (30 HD) Fast-Healing: 6, DR: 15/cold iron and good, DR 5/-
Immune: electricity, fire, and poison
Resist: acid 10, cold 10; SR 38
Fort +32, Ref +23, Will +23
Melee:* +1 Dancing Vorpal Great Sword +31/+26/+21/+16 (3d6/19-20/x2) and
+1 Flaming Speed Long Sword +37/+37/+32/+27/+22 (2d6+24 plus 1d6 fire/ 17-20/x2) and
+1 Wounding Frost Whip +36/+31 (1d4+15 plus 1d6 cold plus 1 Con plus entangle)
*8-point Power Attack
Space 10ft.; Reach 10ft (20ft with whip)
Base Atk +30; Grp +49
Atk Options: Cleave, Devastating Critical, Great Cleave, Overwhelming Critical, Power Attack
Special Actions: Death Throes, entangle, mighty rage 1/day, spell-like abilities, summon Tanar’ri
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 26th)
At Will-blasphemy (DC 27), dominate monster (DC 29), greater dispel magic, greater teleport, insanity (DC 27), power word Stun, telekinesis (DC 25), unholy aura (DC 28)
3/day-quickened greater dispel magic
1/day-fire storm (DC 28), implosion (DC 29)
Abilities: Str 40, Dex 25, Con 40, Int 24, Wis 24, Cha 30
Feats: Cleave, Devastating Critical, Fast Healing (2), Improved Toughness, Improved Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Critical (long sword), Over Whelming Critical, Power Attack, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (greater dispel magic), Two-weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus Long Sword
Skills: Bluff +43, Concentration +48, Diplomacy +48, Disguise +20 (+22 acting), Hide +36, Intimidate +45, Knowledge (history) +30, Knowledge (planes) +40, Listen +48, Move Silently +30, Search +30, Sense Motive +42, Spell craft +40, Spot +48, Survival +17, Use Magic Device +41
Possessions: +1 dancing vorpal great sword, +1 flaming speed long sword, +1 wounding frost whip, amulet of health +4, belt of giant strength +4, Hide of The Beast

Feats: Devastating Critical and Overwhelming Critical and Fast Healing can be found in the Draconomican

New Artifact: Hide of the Beast
Created by Demogorgon from the hide of a powerful monstrous beast in the depths of the screaming jungle. It acts as +7 hide armor with a max Dex +8, and armor penality of -1, It also grants the wearer the ability to mighty rage 1/day as a 20th level Barbarian, and also gain DR 5/-.

My PCs have begun pimping out their ship as well but they left the Sea Wyvern to rot on the reef and decided to get a better ship. The Druid used the Raise Ship Spell from Spell Compendium to ressurect and repair giant ship of the Wreck where Emraag was. They are ironwooding and making siege engines rooms and all that on a ship that is twice the size of the Sea Wyvern. Besides I was getting sick of all the Caravals in the adveture its like everybody who owns a ship has a caraval class.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I plan on using some of the above mentioned strategies. I'll give him an artifact that is tied to the abyss itself giving him several spell like abilities (one being Mordakien's Disjunction forgot all about the handy spell). Also an ability that radiates some kinda of mass teleportation around Gaping Maw taking them to exotic daring settings like Abyssm, Screaming Jungle, The Stgian Eye, and finally on his throne pyramid thingy overlooking the battle of Lemoriax so all the demons can see him when he falls. But also generate a dimensional anchor locking them into a certain radius so they can't get too far away form his reach in these locations. I'm not too worried about Demogorgon's gaze and negative energy tail slap because if my players haven't figured to utilize spells like mind blank and deathward at this level then they desereve to fall victim to his attacks. Finally I'll give the PC's a chance to have an epic sea battle against Belcheresk's fleet and if they can't defeat him there he will be the first thing Demogorgon summons. I think I'll stat Belcheresk up and display him here on the boards. Keep the idea's rolling in I appreciate them very much.

The campaign has been great build up a plenty. But the last act of STAP seems to me more anti-climatic then anything. The initial setting of WAT DAGON starts out really cool with the Mortal Hunter, Vanthus, St. Kargoth, and Nulonga but when it finally comes time to fight Demogorgon the last fight is only little better than any other normal. First of his entrance a simple old Gate spell *yawn boring* any high lvl character can do that. And the place he swings into a tiny lil room that can barely contain him and nothing very flavorable in it besides the pearl. Next Demogorgon himself can be weakened way too much. Losing lots of hp SR, AC, saves, spel, like abilities and specials. He is hardly even epic now. Dungeon you have gone much tooleniant on the players they are high level show no mercy like in Age of Worms. In AOW they were fighting much tougher stuff, a Titan at lvl 17, Dragotha at lvl 19 (who if not surpasses rivals Demogorgon at the least), and a god at 21st. None theless the Demogorgon fight is made even weaker, by throwing in Gwynharwyf to let the PCs control and Malcanthet to cast her spells as free actions as well. Plus all the tons upon tons of magical gear they gain throughout the adventure path gives them even more power while Demogorgon the Item master of the Abyss doesn't have a single set of bracers of armor!? Demogorgon iss the Prince of Demons whilst here he feels like another monster with a title waiting his turn to die in a dungeon room. Give the PC's what they expect from Demogorgon a hard mother freaking fight. Give him magic items up the wazzu let him bring the fight to them it doesn't matter how,as long as its cool he is Prince of Demons after all. If the PC's have allies let him gate in something better than a lil old Balor but the grand daddy of his generals Belcheresk (nobody bothered him he sits out there with his gigantor fleet having to defeat only a few of Charon's baddies)...And when and if the PCs kill good ole Demo let him die grand not roaring while some lil; twin nimbus floats over his head. If Kyuss remains destroy a 700ft tower and make evil infested dungeons then the least the mightiest of Demons could do is...say destroy half of Gaping Maw...Few.done sorry for the long rant but I love Demogorgon been playing along time and to see him go like this is despicable. If anyone agrees comment if you disagree comment even more I would love to read.

One thing you guys all over looked. Olangru has mobility and spring attack. So after the -2 to his AC from charging he gains a +4 from mobility and after charging he can use his spring attack to continue to move if he has movement left after the charge (which is 100ft he has to work with. So basically he can run circles around the players.

Of all the NPC's in STAP, Avner has to be my favorite. My pary has grown to love to hate him. So I have decided to make a thread all about Avner and his antics. I'll start it off.

After bugging the party non-stop from Farshore to the IOD, the party's Warlock had had enough of Avner. He had tried reasoning, violence, and everything short of begging. So if you can't change em, enchant em. After charming him. The Warlock encouraged him to express his heroics in mounted combat and lead the charge into the next combat. The next battle happened to be the mummies in HTBM. Both Avner and his prized horse failed their Will saves against the mummies gaze. A few rounds later Avner picked up his nerve but his horse did not and fled from the undead. The horse trampled the party in its hasty retreat while Avner yelled for it to charge foward. The horse was stopped by the Warlock criting its legs off and sending Avner sprawiling into the wall.

Let's here it for Avner!