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We have had 5 (6 with inventor companions) character deaths so far. Two on the floor with the ghouls where we got surrounded during a rest and got lured toward the damned necromantic ward trap. They were a fire druid and a psychic. Afterward several party members abandoned the group so that people could bring in characters more suited to the dungeon. Our champion/inventor got immolated by the Witchfire on floor 7. My barbarian and the group's thaumaturge got destroyed by the boss of the same floor when he cast a wall of force, cut us off and clobbered us to death.
I realized just today that the conversion I have been working on on-and-off for the last two years in the Tyrant's Grasp forum might have been better off being posted here. Anyway, It's very nearly done barring edits after my players make it through book 6. I thought I would post the link to the conversion here so the maximum amount of people would potentially see use from it. Have fun!
After nearly two years I am declaring my conversion of this path almost completely done. I am going to edit creatures up until my players finish the game (which should be by October) but I won't be doing any regular work on the conversion. Here is a final link to the conversion folders. Have fun everyone. Suggestions of edits are of course welcome.
Just a quick update (yeah I haven't thrown in the towel yet). With the arrival of my bestiary 3 pdf I am going to be starting the final round of edits before I come through and make final changes after my players get through. Ultimately what this means is going through and linking the creatures in the documents to their counterparts in the Archives of Nethys (when they are put up). Ultimately that means I'm hoping that the conversion will be completely out of my hands and as good as I can get it by mid-summer.
Update: Its becoming abundantly clear that I vastly overpowered the encounters on the first two levels og gallowspire. Ultimately there are a number of 14 and 15 CR creatures meant to face a group of 12s. I have scaled most of them back. I will do what I can to alsonscale down the dybbuk on the first level.
It's been a while since my last update for the project. Recent sessions of playtesting have adjusted the stats and build of Yhala the Serene (down, slightly as she was very strong and her ability to toss characters into the nearby pit was very dangerous). The Bone Golem Guardian's were poorly built as an encounter with multiple targets (shield block is not a good option) so I tuned them more to the text giving them a sleeping gas breath weapon and a flensing ability to remove flesh. The Morrigna was WAY too strong so I dropped her a CR and adjusted everything appropriately.
Figured I would come in to the thread here and provide weekly updates for things I changed for the week: I edited the Necromantic Pulse Trap in GoG to be an enervation (cast at 6th level) that affected all targets in area I5. Tempest Guards previously could use intimidating strike as a single action. Changed to two. Tempest Guards previously could use shatter defenses with any strike. Changed to melee. Gravesludge hp reduced by 10. Gravesludge AC reduced by 2.
Current status of conversion is slow going. The playtest continues with the group now arriving at the first level of Gallowspire. I downgraded the dezullon's I had given the elite adjustment and need to add some notes to every one of the Council Libertine to give them a unique alteration which allows them to die and return to Geb on death (rather than to their armor as normal). I also intend to give the cavalier's mount a lower AC and the incorporeal trait. The group used diplomacy with the moldwretches (yes I know) and bodied the Nightwing. The Furcifer needed significant alterations to it's stat block but I think it's in a better place now. Once again, waiting for bestiary 3 before doing major updates / alterations to books 5 and 6 (mainly the latter).
The conversion is on hiatus for a while. I was reminded today that Bestiary 3 comes out in mid March. So, books 1-5 are in the best states I can manage before playtest edits. I will return to the conversion once the new creatures are released (except for aforementioned playtest edits) once the book is released.
After nearly a month off for holiday type reasons I have returned to the task in the three days. I have just 'finished' the loot comparison table for the entire campaign. It will be edited as I go through book 6 and edit it thoroughly. Note: I have not added any equipment from the final encounter because, as the campaign is written, that equipment is not lootable. I am moving on to editing the book 6 creatures starting with erasing my boring Barometz and doing the easy thing and throwing in an Elite Zomok. Happy Holidays, forums!
Final edits for book 5 are in until playtesting. Going to start on the first real edits of book 6 soon. The real final work on the path won't be done until the group has finally playtested book 6 sometime this summer. I may ask the forums and others for help in coming up with a viable but not impossible stat block / mechanic to make the final battle in book 6 work.
With the holidays approaching I'm doing another read over my creatures as my playtest of book 4 continues. I've made a number of either big or minor grammatical edits to the creature abilities. I discovered that there was a dybbuk in one of the AP books so that creature has been powered down and used to replace the one I had built. Not terribly different except my version has much fewer spells. The ghoul fleshhunters have been simplified for ease of play. Now I'm considering whether to use the playtest version of the magus to update the Magus Graveknight at the culmination of the book.
Just a quick update as to one of the few things I have managed to knock out this month. Playtesting continues and Ive updated all creatures up to the Ceto Malderra encounter. I want to edit Yosiduin again because the Bestial Shadow Squire is a little ineffective and pointless. I may also tone down my edits to the barrier breaker troop and the trench mist. Here is my fully compiled version of the TG loot comparison table.
Today, we finally celebrate the last rough draft of the AP. I have officially finished the rough draft for Midwives to Death. When I say its rough I do mean it. So what I'm going to do is post links to all the conversion documents here for convenience of readers. I hope that these help people in running their own games. There will be very few updates for me in November as I will be working on my NaNo project. Enjoy!
I haven't really gone into detail here about the difficulties with converting book 6. Needless to say that there are a host of CR 12 creatures meant to challenge what is now an 18th level group in the conversion. Even a -4 creature is a laughably easy encounter for a group of level 18's. So, advancing everything to at least level 15 has been a challenge and as the group approaches level 20, and we approach creatures with Mythic Abilities I'm sure things will slow down even more. Conversions of Midwives to Death So Far
Going to continue work on the game tonight with some edits to creatures in book 3. I need to reduce the power level of the fire elemental summon again given how little time creatures have to hold their breaths and how nearly the party got killed before someone countered the magma scorpion with a dispel magic. I also plan on turning Kilibrandt into a Toxicologist Alchemist or to at least give her powers similar. Anyway, I thought I would offer how I handled what I thought was a massive story flow killer in my estimation. Last Watch Introductions and Contacts: So, not to hate too much on the opening diplomacy section of Explosive Tidings but 'flow-wise' it didn't work for me. Here is how I handled it.
When the party passed through Castle Everstand I put an NPC that one member of the party was old friends with (A Knight of Ozem, Knight Sergeant Llewlyn Teagarden) was there and eager to hear and believe their story. He informed them that the Whiteblade Festival was happening in Vigil at that time and that in his opinion there were five people they should warn. He stressed the fact that it may be more difficult than they think to convince them as politics was a serious issue in the city. I added in an event in three days when the major powers of the city. The Watchknights of Lastwall, The Knights of Ozem, and the Church of Iomedae were planning to decide the war strategy for the next year. I added in that Ceto was at the forefront of a shift of forces from the west to eastern fronts. So political tensions are high. Aylunna - for the Church of Iomedae
So he gave them signed and sealed letter to get a meeting with them quickly. When the party arrived to the city they were able to speed the process of moving through the gates. The party went first to Rhanton Gandry who upon reading the letter called all five of the principle people together for a mass meeting. 1.) This takes away the need to chase down and convince five different people. 2.) I made sure that the party knew that the five (except Ceto and Vena) believed them but they needed evidence to convince their organizations. 3.) When the party cleared the waystation I had the NPC they saved (if the party doesn't save the one Knight I would suggest placing a trustworthy prisoner at the waystation. 4.) Once done the Knight offered to take their evidence back to Aylunna Varvatos while they rushed to investigate the forge (avoiding a break in the investigation). 5.) After the party saved Rolf at the forge Aylunna showed up with a platoon of knights and gave the party rewards (supplies from Vigil) for finding two pieces of evidence (the journal from both buildings). It was at this point she informed the group that Gandry had been arrested. 6.) I plan to do something similar with Doeswen at the Dyeworks. She will offer to rush to find one of the principals with a letter from the group (diplomacy check from a member of the party) and tell them to wait a short time for her to return with orders from the principals. 7.) I made sure play up an increase of forces on the streets and people being questioned while the party moved from place to place.
So, book 6 is underway. I have made my way up to the conversion of the Forest Blight. Link to the ongoing document below. My actual campaign/playtest is at the end of book 2. The Advanced Festering Spirit nearly wiped the floor with them. The encounter with the pukwudgie cleric didn't go so hot. I would consider having one of the other encounters run to get her and have her join in as support. I modified the Festering Spirit to have lower AC, damage, and added damage to trample. Work continues. Figuring out this Forest Blight is going to be... fun.
My favorite part of book 2 so far is when the group walked into the library at the Bastion and saw two massive cats (not medium sized but a larger cat breed) sitting there watching them. The champion of Torag's first reaction was to make a *pst* noise and say, "Get outta here ya cats!" He then proceeded to try shooing them for the next five minutes until the nekomata attacked.
Playthrough Notes: Need to make sure Guecubu's earth manipulation power has a 1d4 round cooldown. Edit Venedaemon's to be sorcerers... Make grim tendrils their free heighten spell and maybe give them destructive sorcery. Living Walls need their hardness lowered to 5 and change their crushing wall ability to say grab rather than restrain. Rot grubs are good except in the language for infestation I need to change it so area damage gives the character a new save instead of curing them immediately. Next week, Bastion of Light.
I took your advice and added in Final Sacrifice heightened to 5th level. That should be fun. :) Playthrough Notes: Encounters included The Coffer Crew, The Xenopterid Spore Zombie, and the Vampiric Mists. For the coffer crew I may update and tune the animus shade sorcerer's spells, remove assisting shot and add longbow precision for the skeletal champion archer. The zombie lord monk did ok so I doubt I will change him much. The Xenopterid Spore Zombie was incredibly dangerous and some of the language in its stat blocks need to be tuned up and I'm handling that tonight. The vampiric mists were standard from the bestiary 2. I added in a fourth... which may have been a mistake. Almost the entirety of the party has a level of drained after the fight with these and the Xenopterid. Next week, the Guecubu and onward.
Playthrough Update: The party encountered the Whispering Way Patrol along with Chatar Eturi in the latest session. The fight went... well except I have quickly been reminded over the last few sessions that I need to adjust these encounters for a party of 6 players. I should have added maybe one more cultist to keep them off of her. I would also highly recommend not forgetting that she has swift leap to keep her mobile and lower the party's action economy. I think its key to get in and use Divine Wrath and her fourth level three action harm as she starts to get surrounded. The Bone Golem went pretty well but I had to basically elite its hp (+15 to 20) to keep the fight from ending too early. I think it might not be a terrible idea to lower the damage that bone prison does every turn by one tier and lower its 'to hit' as well. I'm going to try and do more of these updates as the playthrough continues.
Last night my group finally finished War for the Crown after starting in September of 2018. Everyone was thoroughly happy with the conclusion. This is by and far the best AP I have ever run (which is no shame to the others I've run) and I will miss running it. Time to change my avatar for my next AP (already in progress). Farewell PF1E and War for the Crown!
After a really long day I have gotten the Gardens of Gallowspire conversion doc into a good spot. A lot of encounters that were WAY too low level have been bumped up. Some minor edits. Necrosages are now oracles. Gebbite Fleshhunters are now Investigators. Next I take a break before wading into a very long battle with book 5. Gardens of Gallowspire Conversion Enjoy.
Story Idea - Borne of the Sun's Grace Big Damn Heroes: This definitely ties into my idea to have the characters be reconstituted from the essence of the Band of the First Couatl. I want to make the beginning section have a very comic booky / Big Hero 6 / Die Hard with a Vengeance feel.
The city will have been under pretty constant attack by these wooden figures every night. Each wooden figure wears the god mask of one of the members of the Band of the First Couatl. The populace has become convinced that these silent vandals are in fact the spirits of the Band who have returned to exact vengeance on the city. After the attack at the wrestling event (where no luchadores wear the mask of the Band in fear of raising their ire) a local guard or legal official will ask the party to help investigate what has angered these spirits which will hopefully lead them to go out at night and stumble upon an attack or two. I intend each of the attacking groups to have a message, left by the real villain, in the form of a riddle to lead the group to the next attack site the following night. These riddles are in fact misdirection while the villain tries to complete his wicked plan.
I completely forgot. Thank you for that conversion. I've been going through book 4 and realizing that my conversions stuck too hard to the original levels from the actual adventure and now I'm having to bump the levels up a bit so its been slow going. I definitely appreciate those two getting worked up.
My plans to change the story of the path to gut punch my players: TG Story Changes: -5293 AR
The Starstone falls to earth in what would become the Inner Sea. Fragments of the stone fall into the lands of Arcadia. Over the centuries intrepid explorers, heroes, and villains throughout Arcadia find these fragments and ascend to become what the people of those lands call demons or hero gods. -1508 to 1505 AR
-1491 AR
-112 AR
-75 AR
-22 AR
Kinich Ahau, the young and rising star of the ball court in Xopotl prevents a massive war by defeating an entire team of players single handedly. The lord of Xopotl graces the ballplayer with a chance to visit the great tree Kunaha. The tree chooses to provide the young man with its essence and he ascends. -21 AR
-18 AR
Together, the Immortal and the scientists develop a type of necromantic magic to create a new type of undead with full mental faculties surpassing the magic used to create liches and able to suppress the natural evil compulsions involved. Perhaps even more dangerous is the fact that the magic can be used to turn entire populations at a time. Pharasma is not pleased. -17 AR
This figure is an early form of Barzahk the Passage who has been sent by Pharasma to punish the people of Xopotl for their dalliances with forbidden magic. The Band of the First Couatl, named in reference to Kukulkan’s grandfather, spent years fighting the creature as it rampaged through Arcadia. -12 AR
The Band faces off with the Beast and although they defeat the creature it exhales a great breath that seems to turn them to stone. Actually, the breath throws the divinity from the bodies of the heroes which come to rest back in the great tree. During the battle a faceless divine herald approaches Aroden and beseeches that he cease and destroy his research into undeath for a gift. The herald offers him a piece of the tree’s bark. With his prize The Last Azlanti abandoned Xopotl without its greatest heroes to go into seclusion where he would create the Shield of Aroden. This shard is where the spirits of the Band of the First Couatl would come to rest for the next four millenia. Aroden would go on to use the knowledge from this research and samples of the tree’s sap to create such artifacts as the Soul Crucible (see book 6 of War for the Crown). 1 AR
3827 AR
4717 AR
The spirits of the Band of the First Couatl, now just blank spirits of great power with fleeting memories, will themselves to escape the destruction of the village and tear a path through the material plane and into the boneyard where they come to rest and use the bodies of the citizens they had killed as templates to rebuild bodies to hide in and recover from their imprisonment. -- Dead Roads Notes
-- Eulogy for Roslar’s Coffer
-- Gardens of Gallowspire
-- Borne by the Sun’s Grace
They will then be drawn by an unknown force to visit the grove where the worn standing stones that were once the statues of the Band of the First Couatl. It is there where they encounter Barzahk the Passage once again where he reveals the terrible truth by relaying the story of the deaths of the Band and then offers to reveal a truth to the party. He will then return them to the Dead Roads to a camp where the former residents of Roslar’s Coffer have camped as a town while they wait for their chance to stand before Pharasma. The group will be shocked to discover that versions of themselves (the actual original villagers they killed in undead form at the end of EfRC) are happily now dead among their families and friends. Barzahk then reveals their true natures and their own hand in killing the original Band of the First Couatl. They then tell the party that the researchers revelation that they must die to face the Whispering Tyrant is untrue. The truth is that reversing the polarity of their Obols will fully free the power of their former selves allowing them to face the Whispering Tyrant directly. -- Midwives to Death
I intend to give clues during this final battle that they are burning from the inside out, giving them the idea that the obols are melting them with their power. Actually, after the triumphant final battle, I intend to give some overviews of the remnants after their battle and a written description of the NPCs and their lives after the sacrifice of the party. Then, just when they think that is all over (post-credits, and some credit to posters on the conversion discord) I will have a scene in the grove around the stones in Arcadia where the Band of the First Couatl step from their stones fully formed and returned to life before turning their eyes to the regrowing great tree where they advance on their path to become new gods.
Having gotten my APG download I'm working my way through earlier books and finalizing them. Their won't be any further edits on books 1-3 except as my party does a playtest. Book 1: Mictena is now a witch. The wyrwood alchemists are now wyrwood investigators. Book 2: Quietus is now a witch. Book 3: The Seal Breaker Knights are now Desecrator champions. I kept Yosiduin with my build to make him more unique. This weekend I'm moving on to making tokens and maps in book 4 and building the Council Libertine as I go into archetypes and classes from the APG.
Been a while without an update so here is the current status of my work on the conversion. My group officially made it to book 2 last night and I'm going to be doing some edits on the creatures they encountered and after that I won't really be returning to book 1 (except to make Mictena more in line with the APG witch). I'm also upping the Weedwhip and Zombie Elk encounters to Creature 3's as the weedwhips got 'mowed down' by a party of 5th levels. I'm slogging my way through the Loot table comparison of book 4. The Panoply of Arazni was particularly difficult to create and I may post what I came up with here to ask advice from the community at large. Going to try and post that loot comparison table later this week.
I have finished adding all of book 3 to Roll20 except putting in stats for Evni Zongnoss (which might not be required). My biggest concern after all the edits and work on book 3 is actually the very last encounter on the Dawnrose with the Sodden Draugr Troop, the draugr captain, and the fleshwarped turtle. I'm not 100% on the viability of studied target as an ability. I'm reluctant to move on to book 4 at this juncture so I can get more options with the APG to flesh out the Council Libertine.
I have plans to really twist the knife on that moment in the last two books like how everyone in the Arcadian city still recognizing her as a hero god and singing her exploits. That on top of tying her in and referencing her a lot earlier should hopefully even make the anti undead paladin in the party mourn her.
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