smell of orange blossoms in the's page

So, I've followed someone's advice to bulk monster hp up to about 80% of max (from 55%) in order to give 'Pathfinderized' Characters a more enjoyable/reasonable level of challenge.

This has worked well with minions and even bosses so far. But I am worried about the skeletal t-rex however: my formula boosts its hit points up to about 160 and this looks...ridiculous.

So, for people out there who have dm'd this bit, how much of a difference to the fate of your party would this 25% extra hit points have made?

Thanks!

Triel and her door nearly killed my party only a lucky 'decapitation' critical from the deck saved them. Idiot play got them into the mess.
The party immediately rested for 8 hours in her room, allowing Skaven (the halfling Diviner) to scry on them, and then set up a fantastic defense back at the lava tube overlooking the lake.

Then the party started happily exploring the complex, not bothering to map!

Am I being too much of a jerk having Skaven bottle up the party like this and then ruthlessly attempting to slaughter them? I'm pretty sure he'll call out a mocking warning so the party knows 'what's up'...(and one member of the party had a 'forshadowing' encounter with Skaven in the hallway outside of Triel's room - Skaven cast a phantasmal killer at him).

My feeling is this presents a cool, perhaps fatal, challenge for the party. If they are successful they might forget about their pasting by Triel. The party did kill the demon in the lake on the way in, and I'm considering having Skaven and his crew kill the other critter (Kopru?)just to make things easier to follow.

I've considered having Skaven open the doors to the 'undead section' too...

Any feedback would be helpful.

Wow, we ended a session with Tongue Eater closing in on the party - after they had been worked over horribly by the Hill Baboons.

The fey sorcerer cast something requiring a will save and TongueEater was on the floor howling in laughter for five rounds while the party fighters chopped him into tiny bits.

Man, every time I think 'these guys are dead'...Can't wait to see what happens with the t-rex!

Sadly, my wife and I can't make it this year. I have two passes to Paizocon, and one to the banquet. If I we can figure out how to transfer ownership of these to you, they are yours - free of charge.

There are an awful lot of products in the store. How about an Amazon-style wish-list feature with our accounts - featuring easy transfer from shopping cart to wish list and back again.

Thanks.

I followed your advice Olaf - made the bat swarms immune to weapon damage.
Fortunately the party worked in concert to take out the bats with a few well-placed vials of Alchemist's Fire.

A few Goblins to beat their way through, a couple patches of caltrops, and one of the Goblin Adepts. This encounter was fun, and the party stayed focussed - at least until all of the Goblins were dead and they thought about hanging around and collecting ears at 5 gp a pop. They escaped into the sunlit bath house just ahead of Drathkar's yellowed fingernails!

Lots of highlights, and my favourite: Gus, the half-orc Barbarian/Cleric succumbed to a sleep spell on his way to the Adept, just before being 'coup de graced' by a Goblin Skirmisher Gus awoke - thanks to the point of bleed damage he took from being chomped by bats!

After extensive preparation, the party re-enters Drathkar's way at the end of the month. They've enlisted the aid of Rufus and the surviving 'Pulverizer Automaton' from Jazidrune (which is a little more self-aware than it used to be - must be all the time it spent surrounded by those arcane forces! - I'm hoping someone takes it as a cohort)

I'm using the unmodified Drathkar, and he's an excellent foe! I choose not to go with the souped-up sorcerer version because I want to play a wily Vampire.

One character death, one in the negatives, one dominated so far, and the party is racing for the exit. I had to tell them Drathkar was a Vampire because I earlier remarked he must be "some kind of undead lycanthrope". I guess the earlier battle with the were-rats and the implausibility of facing a Vampire at their level made this a little too easy to believe!

Unlike other campaigns (i.e. olaf the stout), one of my players (a tank) was dominated by Drathkar.

We're switching over to Pathfinder before our next session, and at least one of the players has promised a Vampire slaying build. So if they make it to safety, I expect the characters will research, prepare, and return to fight a more even battle.

I know DMs are often encouraged to skip this part of the adventure path, but I would recommend playing it. My focus is not on yet another dungeon crawl, but on a wide-ranging fast-paced Vampire battle.

I'm using the rule for bat swarms (in their MM entry) that says they take half-damage from slashing and piercing weapons (double damage from tennis rackets) and ignoring the idea swarms of diminutive critters are immune to weapon damage.

Anyone have any experience with characters who decide to remain lycanthropes?

This player is a warmage, and I imagine he finds the huge increase to dex. too exciting to give up.

I'm willing to stick with it because I've never been part of a campaign where lycanthropy has happened, and I think this could be fun (or at least a learning experience). I'm pretty sure some of the other players will freak out when they discover their team-mate is a rat (especially those who were most severely pounded by the overpowered and well-equipped were-rats I used for our 'Rat Bastards' encounter)

My feeling is this will end poorly for the afflicted character; I don't want the whole party/campaign to go down with him.

If you've had some experience, let me know if I should continue down this path, or tip off the party's cleric so he can quickly solve the problem.

While the prevailing wisdom seems to be to drop this one, I can't wait to do it with my group. The party has 6 relatively overpowered characters, and the players are cautious.

From my perspective, it gives the party the chance to shine in service to Cauldron; to show the Stormblades what they can do. Also, I look forward to working them over with either an exceptionally crafty Drathkar-as-written, or an overconfident souped-up sorcerer found here or at rpgenius.

To start the adventure off properly, I loaded the wererats up with alchemical toys, potions of healing, weak poison, and a level of rogue each. Along with good starting positions and an improvised trap on an external stairway, these changes made for a fun and difficult encounter.

While I know this game is supposed to be designed for 6 characters, even when half of the members of this party are staring at the clouds, distracted by shiny objects, and attacking the walls, they seem to muddle through without difficulty. Does this imbalance disappear in later chapters, or is it reasonable to keep 'tweaking' the difficulty level?

Any input would be appreciated.

ps I plan on posting like this is only going to be read by dm's/gm's. (no spoiler warnings)