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The Devil Bound template is far too powerful for a Stage 1 transformation. Instead I gave him a Mark of Baalzebul (Which gives him a +2 to Intimidate, +2/-2 to deal with demons as well as the ability to have his pores weep acidic 3 times as a free action adding +4 to an escape artist or grapple check and allowing him to add 1d6 to a natural weapon or a weapon he's smeared with the acid for 1 attack). Its a 3.5 feat but is thematically appropriate. It wasen't a free feat though and he had to give up one of his past feats to get it. As for the Demonic Aspect, he took the Crown of Thorns, which gives devil horns that do 1d4 damage as a secondary attack and count as Lawful and Evil when overcoming damage reduction. Stage 2 is Half-Fiend where he'll end up losing another feat as he'll no longer be human after that, but that won't be possible until book 3 after the vale has been taken and a massive sacrafice of 100 souls. Having a 1/2 fiend take on an Angel sounds like an epic battle I couldn't resist.
Last session we almost had two TPK's!
The first was with the bunyips. First one was quickly cut down but the second caused 2/3 of the party to jump overboard and swim away. I had introduced the Dark Favor points suggested on this thread and they ended up using two to save their asses. Asmodeus guided Odenkirk to save them at the last minute, one was dying, one was drowning and one was still panicking. I see now why people hate those things :)
The second time it was the good captain himself, who almost mopped the floor with them. The crew, who up to this point had been almost useless in the fights was lethal. They swamped the PCs and prevented them from casting spells. The mage player forgot that sleep is one round casting time so she did not have opportunity to get it off. In the end two PC's were left standing against Odenkirk and one sailor. They used Dark Favors points to boost attacks and finally brought him down. The dice were with me this time and against the PCs. I would roll 16s and 18 almost constanty. One player got 1s and 4s on almost all of his rolls.
Odenkirk as written is quite weak, I bumped him up to sixth level and revamped his rage powers. I gave him the sea reaver archetyp, as I felt it was thematic. Fortunately for the party, they managed to get him fatigued before he raged. Otherwise the outcome would have been worse.
I'm not upgrading Lord Havelyn or the captains, other than changing their gear a bit. At least not for now. I'll have to see how it goes, but I was shocked how badly they did against slightly revamped Odenkirk.
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spoiler:Last session we almost had two TPK's! The first was with the bunyips. First one was quickly cut down but the second caused 2/3 of the party to jump overboard and swim away. I had introduced the Dark Favor points suggested on this thread and they ended up using two to save their asses. Asmodeus guided Odenkirk to save them at the last minute, one was dying, one was drowning and one was still panicking. I see now why people hate those things :)The second time it was the good captain himself, who almost mopped the floor with them. The crew, who up to this point had been almost useless in the fights was lethal. They swamped the PCs and prevented them from casting spells. The mage player forgot that sleep is one round casting time so she did not have opportunity to get it off. In the end two PC's were left standing against Odenkirk and one sailor. They used Dark Favors points to boost attacks and finally brought him down. The dice were with me this time and against the PCs. I would roll 16s and 18 almost constanty. One player got 1s and 4s on almost all of his rolls.
Odenkirk as written is quite weak, I bumped him up to sixth level and revamped his rage powers. I gave him the sea reaver archetyp, as I felt it was thematic. Fortunately for the party, they managed to get him fatigued before he raged. Otherwise the outcome would have been worse.
I'm not upgrading Lord Havelyn or the captains, other than changing their gear a bit. At least not for now. I'll have to see how it goes, but I was shocked how badly they did against slightly revamped Odenkirk.
Yeah, sometimes things just don't work out for PCs, even with any bonuses given. Book 2 nearly took out the cleric, and they hadn't even done much of anything. I just happened to roll a crit. Thankfully the Dark Favors can be used to negate death.
Havelyn isn't that powerful if the PCs are built to take down guys like him, but some parties just don't have that. One friend is running the game and everyone is a version of "the face" character. However, when it comes to combat, they just can't hold their own. It's great for RP, but terrible for anything else.
Adjust as you see fit.
Finally after two sessions of planning, pretending to be up and coming tailors (Suits you, Sir!) and thus insinuating themselves into Aldencross's society the PCs accomplished something tangible.
The villains sneaked in Balnentyne via the secrect passage during the play in the tower. They killed two guards and hid their bodies in the dwarven vault. Mad Martin was their next target. One of them took the shape of one the captains and bluffed his way in. Another dressed as a guard entered and blasted the room with negative energy channeling. This killed all the ravens before Martin even knew what was happening. Martin went then down in one round. They torched the arrow store and went to the chapel. Again, pretending to be a captain and a few guards, they bluffed the few guards they saw (I rolled 1s and 4s for their perception and sense motive) and entered the chapel. The archon gestalt was a rude shock, critting the antipaladin and hitting normally for 6d6 damage. They managed to hurt it quite badly before it dissolved into its component archons. A few of them fired their lazors but another negative energy burst took them all down. By now, the fire was noticed and alarm sounded. They sneaked their way back to the vault, stopping to burgle captain Eddarlys room on the way, finding the incriminating letters.
Next day a messenger brought captain Mott a package. An hour later Eddarly was dead and Mott in prison.
Captain Varning was next target. They went to Freeman's Rock and ambushed the patrol there. It was another quite easy battle, even though two PC's ate crits.
Two captains are dead, third in prison. The angels and birds slaughtered along with Mad Martin.
All in all a good evening of gaming. This time the dice were on the PC's side and they were better prepared for the fights. Negative energy channeling is nasty against low level opponents.
Now I'm on the fence, should I upgrade Havelyn or not. I re-equipped Barhold and Tacitus a bit and gave Donnagin some extra gear. I mean, he has only +1 breastplate and no other gear of note.
Called is +1 weapon enchantment and even if I made it available to be put on armor I don't want the PC's to have a +3 armor just yet. I'm thinking on replacing one of Havelyns spells with Swift girding on the off-chance they catch him in his room having a nap. There will be alarm spells so he wakes up if they try to murder him in his sleep.
I will give him some useful stuff but +1 items are just so boring I have to think of something else.
Since the strange goings on in the castle, Havelyn has tightened the security for the time being. The group found out that the acolytes perform detect magic on all visitors and servants who come in. He suspects that someone used magic to impersonate one of the captains during the night that Mad Martin and two guards disappeared, Martin's birds all died, someone stole Mitran religious knick knacks (these were found in the theatre troupe's wagon) and something happened to the archons. He arrested and questioned the actors but is not sure of their guilt just yet. He suspects that some kind of foul play is going on with the Mott and Eddarly duel, but since Mott refuses to elaborate and Eddarly is dead, all he has is a nagging hunch.
The PCs found out that one of the group is under some suspicion, since the archons threw him out of the church earlier and the actors tell that he hitched a ride with them the day after the play and those afromentioned strange happenings. He was also the wittnes to the Eddarly vs. Mott duel and has been to castle twice to ask for work as a guard. His face popped up too often for Havelyn/Gates to ignore. Havelyn was not yet that suspicious, but the Gates's insisted that they detain the PC and question him (they are fanatics after all).
Fortunately for them, the PCs returned to the town (from killing Varning and his rangers) not in their usual disguises, and spotted the Gates cousins and some extra guards giving all visitors to the town a good look. Using some Diplomacy they found out that the guards are on the lookout for one of them. Using this information they lured the inquisitors to the abandoned shack with the golem underground. They managed to slaughter the poor Mitrans and their contigent of halberdiers. They dumped the bodies to the cellar, enraging the golem which burst up a moment after. This time they identified the monster and the archer inquisitor filled it up with admantium arrows loaded with Bane(the class ability). The poor thing managed to hit once before being turned to porcupine. Now, unknown to the PCs the cousins left one of Varnings rangers with instructions to see who emerges from the shack if they do not return. We'll see if the PCs will spot him or will they blow their carefully constructed covers.
In any case, the news of the Mitran inquisitors demise, and later the worry of a missing patrol will keep the alert status higher. If they had let the inquisitors keep searching fruitlessly for a couple of days they would have left the area convinced that the fugitive has moved on, and the acolytes would have stopped their scanner duties. Oh well, this is for the better (for me that is, not necessarily the PCs :D )
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I just picked up the first book and after looking at the maps i am wondering is the scale correct or did a revision get missed or what because the Branderscar map says 10' squares but that would mean each gate at the bridge is 10' wide ok i accept that not to crazy but then when you reach the interior you have a 10' fireplace and beds that are 10'x20' are the room maps just not meant to be exact? that i would understand since the bars on the cells can not be 10' apart those are just a representation of the wall. any help is appreciated
Yeah, not everything is 100% to scale. However, you can assume the captains each have a queen size bed. There is no revision of the map.
Finished the campaign. It really is excellent fun for an evil party and I have to recomend it, no off to write a review
One of my players wants to try their luck in becoming a Hellknight and refounding the order of the Brand. He has asked Thorn about it and he said the ritual fight can be attempted as he knows someone who could witness it. He wants to do it right after Balentyne and before leveling up to 6th. In the event he fails and the devil kills him, would Thorn raise him or should I warn him to prepare another character?
Has anyone expanded the Order from what was described earlier in the thread?
In a few days we hopefully conclude this part of the AP, it has been fun so far! The PCs have killed now 2/3 of the soldiers, all captains, Mad Martin, the angels, almost all acolytes but none of the major NPCs. They are now assaulting the keep and have so far been able to avoid raising an alarm. They have not sent the signal to Sakkarot yet. If they retreat at this point what should Havelyn do when he finds out the someone sneaked in to the castle again to slay more soldiers? He has already sent riders to get help. I was thinking he would retreat to the gatehouse and wait for reinforcements there but that would make it almost impossible for the PCs to win, with all the high level NPCs in one place. Or he might just send Tacitus and Donnaghain to the gatehouse with the soldiers, defiantly staying in the main castle himself. Any suggestions?
PS. The antipaladins tactic of wading in the middle of the low level soldiers yelling "Great is Asmodeus" and then detonating his bom... channeling negative energy (3d6 at the moment) is scary effective.
I think if the party succeeded at Ballentyne, then Thorn would be quite willing to reward that success. It's not in him to break useful tools.
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Agreed. It's an extremely delicate balance regarding these NPCs. Let's be honest. If the GM was running the NPCs as they should be, and not as how the plot says, the PCs wouldn't have even gotten out of jail with their lives, let alone attacked Balentyne. There's a fine line between the narrative and playing NPCs too intelligently.
Tacitus won't leave his tower, regardless of the situation. He has important research to do and believes himself to be omnipotent with his discovery. He'll just be on alert. Donnaghain wouldn't disagree with staying with the soldiers in the gatehouse. Havelyn would likely stick around with the other major NPCs and get ready for the return of the assassins taking everyone out.
As for the Hellknight initiation, give the PC a warning, but don't let on to the player that Thorn would likely give him a one-and-done resurrection should he fail. The character and player have to believe that they only get the one chance. If the player brings up whether he should get another PC ready, just tell him to wait and you'll discuss that should the time arise, and no sooner.
Thank you all for the suggestions. Thea idea that Thorn claims that he helped the PC is intriguing. Yeah, I'll have Tacitus stick to the tower and Donnaghain in the gatehouse.
Balentyne has fallen. Only a handful of defenders were left to fight the bugbears and they were swept away by the shaggy horde. Aldencross fell with barely a warning and most of the townsfolk were slaughtered.
The party managed to get to the inner keep by posing as relief guards after murdering all the sleeping guards in the barracks. Tacitus and his ice golem were a little surprise and they ate two fireballs, an ice storm and the golem explosion. Tacitus also cast stone skin which protected him from arrows quite well. The pcs cast silence and tried to keep him inside the area but to no avail. This prevented the party mage telling the archer to switch to admantium arrows. Finally they dropped the silence and the archer used his final round of bane with the admantium arrows to kill Tacitus just before he would unleash a fireball on the severely weakened PCs. They used a few rounds to move to Tacitus's lab and heal. Then fully buffed Havelyn showed up. The PCs won iniative and the mage used a scroll of create pit. I rolled 4 on Havelyns reflex save and in to the pit he went. He ranted impotently about honor and Mitra while the PCs filled him with arrows and he used his swift actions to lay on hands. Finally the pit dissipated and Havelyn was able to attack. I rolled 2 on his charge to hit and he nearly dropped the archer in one hit. Unfortunately the antipaladin then power attacked and dropped poor Havelyn. Rest of the garrison had retreated to the gatehouse and the top of the tower. Pcs ignored the top and after healing stormed the gatehouse while under heavy missile fire. The barred and locked door was bypassed eventually and father Donnagain and the last of the defenders were soon slain. The antipaladin resisted all of Donnagains spells and so he was eventually brought down.
It was not easy on the villains, Havelyns fall in to the pit probably saved at least two villains from death and Tacitus nearly wiped them all out.
We will switch to our Iron Gods campaign for a while and continue on the Way of the Wicked next year.
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As one of my players is interested in the Hellknights I inserted the bit about Brandescar being an old fort of the Order of the Brand Hellknights.
I took the few tidbits Gary gave and Kevin expanded on and came up with this:
This is all the knowledge that is left from before the Order was destroyed and disbanded.
Order of The Brand
Symbol: Flaming greatsword
Headquarters: Castle Branding
Leader: Lictor Sir Marek Barca
Members: Barcan nobility and their allies
Favored weapon: Greatsword or heavy mace
Disciplines: Brand, Command
Reckoning:Burn yourself over an open flame. Once per day as an immediate action, you can gain fire resistance 10 for 10 minutes. This does not stack with resist energy or any other abilities that provide fire resistance and overlaps with protection from energy.
Tenants:
I will support the rulers of the realm as long as they are worthy.
My fire will burn the unworthy who would oppose the rightful ruler.
There is no place for chaos in the realm. I will do my utmost to stamp it out.
Wilderness is chaos, civilization is order. Thus I will rid the world of threats to civilization and make it fit for the law to flourish.
The Order of the Brand was composed of mainly Barcan nobility and their allied houses. They supported the Barcan kings and fought against the "chaos" of the uncivilized north and Caer Bryr, believing that all of the island should be conquered for the kingdom of Talingarde.
If he succeeds in becoming a Hellknight and renews the Brand, how much is he able to change, should he want to? Tenants surely, but what about Reckoning and Disciplines?
Any suggestions about better fitting reckoning or disciplines? More tenants?
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Looks good.
From tennants, you could probably borrow a few from the other Hellknight orders, especially Pyre. Just as an example, here are two from The Rack that would fit:
-Those who lack direction will find guidance by my hand--whether the palm or the fist.
-Though the flag of no nation has my alliance, every rebel is my foe.
As for the reckoning, it's pretty good as-is, as taken from the Pyre. If you think it should be more, maybe give a constant +1 or +2 bonus to saves against fire based spells, spell-likes, and supernatural abilities. Or perhaps a +4 bonus Intimidate to you show off your burn marks.
After that, I'd look at boons. Again, the Pyre ones fit perfectly considering it's Asmodeus vs. Mitra.
Each order has a set of magic items. A magic branding iron would fit perfectly for this particular order. Have it use hellfire so that it bypasses standard fire resistance, and make it a curse effect so the person can't immediately heal it away.
The Path of the Hellknight Campaign Setting is a great book to go through. I'd definitely recommend it if you don't already have it.
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Just an idea, but for those who are looking to play vampire characters, regardless of the means, if you’re capable of wearing full plate it might be a good idea to consider the coffin plate. I know I’ll be designing a BBEG with this as his protection.
Is there any rhyme or reason to the point buys for the NPC's? I've been looking them over and they seem to run the gamut from 25 point buy to using the NPC array.
I mean Mathias Richter and Sir Balin use a 25 point buy, whereas Sergeant Blackerly uses a 20 point buy. White Tusk and Joseph-Calls-Fire-From-Water use a 15 point buy and Captain Sambryl a 10, and those are just the ones I've gone over.
I rebuilt pretty much every important npc so I did not check. However the pc's are not expected to be built on a standard point buy and I don't think important npc's are either.
For your examples only 2 of those are major opponents (you could argue that the Sergeant is as well but as he is likely to be fully equipped via badly equipped pcs he does not need much of an advantage) . I don't think it matters as long as they pose a reasonable threat to your pc's in a stand up fight. Although if your pc's are like mine treacherous murder s a more likely approach than a fair fight.
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Is there any rhyme or reason to the point buys for the NPC's? I've been looking them over and they seem to run the gamut from 25 point buy to using the NPC array.
I mean Mathias Richter and Sir Balin use a 25 point buy, whereas Sergeant Blackerly uses a 20 point buy. White Tusk and Joseph-Calls-Fire-From-Water use a 15 point buy and Captain Sambryl a 10, and those are just the ones I've gone over.
NPCs with actual class levels get 15 point buy and those with NPC class levels get 5. They also have to have a very specific amount of treasure/gear with them to equal their standard CR -1 or CR -2. If they have less or either, then the CR drops by an additional -1. The increase for each character's stats was supposed to be the offset for them not having a lot of gear for fear it'd mess up the wealth table. One of the GM hack rules from older D&D editions was you could give NPCs better stats in exchange for wealth. Need them to have 18 STR instead of 14? They miraculously drank a potion of bull's strength just before the battle. Reduce wealth by 300 gold. Even Paizo has it set up in their rules that an NPC with higher stats is supposed to have a +1 CR rating.
In the original AD&D modules and adventures, NPCs didn't have array stats. You rolled every encounter's stats. So you could face a boss with the equivalent of 15 point buy, but somehow have minions bordering on 30 and even 50 point buy. Gary's adventures appear to come across with that in mind, even if not fully intentional. But for the most part it's to offset the lack of wealth each NPC has, without lowering their CR rating.
Just an idea, but for those who are looking to play vampire characters, regardless of the means, if you’re capable of wearing full plate it might be a good idea to consider the coffin plate. I know I’ll be designing a BBEG with this as his protection.
The best defense for a Vampire is the 'Blush of Youth' occult ritual from the villains codex it is truly evil but loses all the weakness of the undead while keeping the bonus's. My pc's swore by it , and all for the cheap price of the souls of dozens of children all purchased from Nocticula's realm as it was easier than farming children in Talingarde
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Just an idea, but for those who are looking to play vampire characters, regardless of the means, if you’re capable of wearing full plate it might be a good idea to consider the coffin plate. I know I’ll be designing a BBEG with this as his protection.The best defense for a Vampire is the 'Blush of Youth' occult ritual from the villains codex it is truly evil but loses all the weakness of the undead while keeping the bonus's. My pc's swore by it , and all for the cheap price of the souls of dozens of children all purchased from Nocticula's realm as it was easier than farming children in Talingarde
Interesting. I'll need to check that out.
EDIT: Looking it over, it doesn't seem that great. Only lasts 1 month/caster level of the person doing the ritual, costs 5000 gold per person, and the DCs for the skill checks are 33. That can't exactly happen that easily.
When you are high level that is all chickenfeed. DC33 Skill checks were no great problem. To make things easier they produced a Headband of intelligence +6 which gave those three skills, and items which gave a competence bonus for each of the skills so no problems there . Total expenditure was about 50,000 up front , 20,000 every 16-20 months for the pc's. I think I was also charging 6,666 gp per month for the children and given the income from ruling Talingarde it was nothing before they took over Talingarde it was a one off ritual before they went after Thorne.
In return Not Bothered by Daylight, Positive energy (I did allow this to hurt them as they also retained undead healing from negative and that was pushing it), eternal beauty which in itself was worth it for them and all the benefits of the undead.
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So, the question came up of how would a guildbreaker ranger came up. Figured Gary's original notion of worshippers, soldiers, etc. of the god would work. Kind of like how on the other side of things you could be a ranger with favored organization (Knots of Asmodeus) if you were able to learn about them in some way. Not quite sure exactly how it'd work for the player's side though.
Favored organization:
Knights of Alerion
Church of Mitra
Army of Talingarde
Order Of Macarius
Since most of the members of those organisations are human, I think Favored enemy human is better. Order of Macarius[?] has outsiders but they come up quite late and it is useless for 1st level PC to take on as Favored organization. Retraining should be made possible. Book 1 Army of Talingarde, Book 2 Church of Mitra, Book 3 Order of Macarius.
On the flipside:
[The name of the organization the PCs come up with in book 2]
Knots of Asmodeus, but only if the PCs have been careless and have made it known that something like this exists. Or maybe Elises band has been careless...
Anyway in Book 1 I think there is zero chance that anyone on the Team Mitra knows about the Knots.
Cults of Asmodeus might be okay but perhaps too general considering the flavor text of the class.
Because I want abilities to be useful and also because I tend towards high powered games I would allow
Followers of Mithra
and
Followers of Asmodeus
Just to keep it simple the first would cover all Knights, Paladins, clerics who serve Mithra and the second would cover the pc's and their minions
So I decided to start a online roll20 session with four people. Some changes to start, I'm having them stay at slow progression. (i did let them have three whole sets of stat rolls and keep the best)
I've done this once already, but one thing I noticed was when you get to the Bunyips, it talks about nonsense of CAPSIZING the boat.
I don't know exactly what FMG was on when they wrote this but let me tell you what it takes for a single creature to do this:
1st issue - they can't They don't even have the ability.
Capsize (Ex)
A creature with this special quality can attempt to capsize a boat or a ship by ramming it as a charge attack and making a combat maneuver check. The DC of this check is 25, or the result of the captain’s Profession (sailor) check, whichever is higher. For each size category the ship is larger than the creature attempting to capsize it, the creature attempting to capsize the ship takes a cumulative –10 penalty on its combat maneuver check.
Format: capsize; Location: special attacks.
Even if they did, you are expecting a medium creature to capsize a LONGSHIP. (I checked again, it's a longship)
So with a -40 to their check I'm sure that's a valid tactic. Screw. That.
I remade the Bunyips.
I would explain as slightly evolved. They have gotten so used to ships coming and going and catching whale hunters and such, that they have started to just jump up on board and try to bullrush people off the deck of ships. They of course will try and panic anyone to gain a slight advantage.
Anyway enjoy!
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While it's true that they don't actually have the capsize ability, the only people in the longship are those not participating in the hunt. The way I read it, he only has the one ship. However, he mentions that everyone's in two boats. To me that always meant row boats or small rafts. Longships sink, and the crew needs to escape somehow. Unfortunately, Book 7 shows a picture of the longship, but no attached boats. Either Gary completely forgot and they're not there, or you do use rafts.
Yeah I think I imagined this seriously overweight longship, almost down to nearly 5ft above the water. Because it says you don't have rooms, everyone sleeps on the deck.
I dunno, I suppose rafts could work, but I already built the jumping bunyips and it might be a fun fight regardless. lol
I never thought about this, but has anyone allowed the players to have tiadora sell things they have gathered from the prison/lashtongue at that manor?
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I did, though Tiadora refused to be a pack mule. She would not haul packs full of armor around. She would get their easily carried stuff and buy some other easily carried stuff with that.
I guess that she can teleport 50 lbs. I will bring that up.
I did not tell the players exactly why (50 lb limit) she refused to haul heavy stuff, she was just her haughty, sneering self.
They are only now pretty sure she is some kind of devil in disguise, earlier they were convinced she was a vampire.
Everything is coming together for my group.
I let one of them be the Rakshasa Paragon from the Rite Publishing series In The Company of Rakshasa.
Half-Elf (Drow) Summoner (Synthesis)
Human Fire Tattoo Sorcerer
Human Investigator (Empiricist)
They are rolling with slow progression, but I did allow them three separate rolls of the 1d10+7 and choose the best that fits.
All of them chose to go LE, so we'll see how that plays out. I'm running it completely on roll 20 with discord as a separate back up to talk in secret if I need to.
This will be my second time doing this module. The first time I had 9 people in that prison escape) and I'm hoping as as result of slow progression and 4 people, I don't have to adjust fights like I am now, even though my current players are only 5 people now.
A tip to those using Pathfinder pawns, the Hells Vengeance set has been really useful for this Ap. There are lot of knights, soldiers, priests and good celestials in that set. Also NPC codex box has some good pawns for NPCs in Book 2. The Princess is spot on for Traya DeMarco. Strange Aeons pawn box has a few Hounds of Tindalos since the bestiary box comes only with one. Also two Will-o-wisps. The Ruins of Azlant also has a Will-o-wisp.
Any good recommendations for later books?
Also magic cards are great for tokens too, digital or in person :)
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Speaking of pawns. Has anyone compiled a list of creatures/foes a party would be facing in each book so that we could pull miniatures/pawns/tokens for them?
I don't believe so. It doesn't help that some of the monsters were originally from the Tome of Horrors by Frog God Games, and they didn't release a pawn box.
Speaking of pawns. Has anyone compiled a list of creatures/foes a party would be facing in each book so that we could pull miniatures/pawns/tokens for them?
Ok, I'll bite with Book 1:
Act1:
Guard sergeant, prison guards(13), Guard dogs(3)
Servants( 1 male, 1 female)
Ogre (I would not use the standard ogre pawn for Grumblejack though, possibly something from Monster Codex or a miniature)
Prison warden(old human male wizard) with owl familiar), Giant toad
Act 2:
Vampiric mist, a squire (young male human), Mithral cobra(2)(use iron cobra from Bestiary box), Draugr(4), human male fighter/knight in full plate, longsword and shield
Act 3
Human male ships captain, sailors(12), triton oracle, triton warriors(4), dolphins(2), small water elementals (1-5) , bunyip(2), yutak hunting party consisting of 1 chief, 1 medicine man and 5 hunters,
ice mephit, small ice elemental (4), bugbear(4), human male barbarian, human male viking style sailors (6)
Act 4
dwarf engineer leader, dwarven engineers (10), human male fighter and his warhorse, human male fighters with riding horses (10), human male captain of guards with greatsword, human male captain of halberdiers, human male captain of archers, human male soldiers with longsword and heavy crossbow (30), human male archers/siege engineers (30), human male halberdiers (30), human male (3) and human female (2) acolyte clerics, middle aged human male cleric, lantern archons (9), lantern archon gestalt(I used large air elemental pawn), ice golem, human male wizard(evoker), middle-aged human male commoner, raven swarm, Lord of the castle human male paladin,
if using book 7 with Aldencross add one flesh golem
Book 2
Act 1
no real fights expected, listed are the baron and his two door guards.
Act 2
Treant, possibly an animated tree or two, boggards(16), boggard leader with greatsword, boggard oracle, lillend azata, fey elf rangers(6), pixie, alchemical golem (clockwork golem pawn looks better for Artephius imo.), Verdurous Ooze (2), human male torturer, hell hounds (3), nightmare, wraiths (3, at least at first), giant wraith, greater ceustodaemon (2), huge lightning elemental
Act 3
human male fighter with longsword and shield, human male monk, human female cleric, female half elf bard, male dwarf fighter with hammer, moon dog (2), assasin vines (4), female human sorcerer, male dwarf cleric, male half-orc rogue(knife master), male ifrit barbarian with falchion, dire tiger, male human inquisitor with flaming sword, male human cleric with morning star, male human fighters with halberd (3), male human rogue, hangman tree, ashen nightmare(large incorporeal outsider), male gnome sorcerer, male dwarf barbarian with greataxe, female elf ranger archer, female half -elf druid (remember wild shape pawns), erinyes (2), female human winter witch, male half-elf barbarian with greatsword, male human ranger archer, male human cleric of Asmodeus, male human cavalier and his companion mount, male human knights on horses (7), will-o'-wisp (4), gorgimera (use regular chimera)
Act 4
avoral agathion, giant eagle (8), huge mud elemental, hound of Tindalos (6), huge silver dragon, human male paladin, human male cleric, human male wizard, human male barbarian with greatsword, large leukodaemon
Book 3
Act 1
Amphisbaena, owlbear, ankylosaurus, woolly rhino, slicer beetle, dire lion, megaloceros, emperor cobra, girallon,yeti, tentamort, allosaurus
Act 2
ogre mage, phistophilus (not meant to fight these two), nessian warhound (3), vampire, vampire spawn(11), medusa, duergar thane, duergar(less than one thousand)
Act 3
human male soldiers of the watch (24+10+2d10), human male holy warriors (12), clay golems (2), human male captain of the watch, lammasu (2)
human male knight on horse, charging knights (7) and their horses, human male archer commander, elite archers (10), Dwarven thane; male fighter, female dwarf cleric, male dwarf noble fighter (6), human male acolyte monks (8), human male monk, shield archons (2), celestial griffons (6) and their riders aasimar male paladins (6), male human warriors with longsword and shield (8), male human cleric (4)
Act 4
human male fighter, human male rogue with rapier impersonating a noble, human male cleric, dwarf male fighter, acolyte monk (2), holy warrior (3), elite archer (4), soldier of the watch (6), a peri, gargantuan phoenix, legion archon (6), leonal agathion, blink dog (8), blink dog sorcerer, kirin (4), male human monk, female aasimar oracle, movanic deva(3)
Act 5
Storm giant, hippogriff (50), roc (2), ghost martyrs (9), human clerics (3), human holy warriors (6), chalkydri angel, male human cleic (the Lord-Abbot), iron golem (2), bone devil (2), legion archon (6), ghaele azata, monadic deva
Book 4
Act 1
Bugbears (7), Ogres (4), Ettin
Hill Giant (4)
Male human guard captain with halberd, male human veteran soldiers with heavy crossbows (14)
invisible stalker (6), male half-elf wizard
female human aristocrat, male human soldiers with longswords and heavy crossbows (20)
male human swordmaster with rapier, male human students with rapiers (6)
male human rogue crime boss, male human thieves guild members (24)
male human captain of watch with glaive, male human soldiers of the watch with glaives (48)
bugbears (24), ettins (2)
human male prison warden, elite prison guards (12)
male human aristocrat the Duke of Daveryn
astral deva, trumpet archon
Act 2
Lord of Eagles a gargantuan magical beast, giant eagle warrior-elite (8), huge black dragon
giant river drake (large size) (8), viper vine (2), gargantuan black dragon
Act 3
female cetaceal agathion, summoned elder water elemental
female toshigami
female tataka rakshasa
female and male oread clerics (4), female and male oread sorcerer (2), female and male oread sniper rogues (4), female and male oread fighters with glaives (10), male oread barbarian with two-bladed sword
crystal gargoyles (6)
xorn sorcerer
carnivorous crystal ooze (3)
witchwyrd wizard
huge copper dragon
demi-lich
Act 4
male human knights (4)
male human court wizard
empyreal angel
pyres of judgement (constructs) (4)
female half-elf druid, male human ranger (4), male human barbarian (4)
mithral golem
male dwarf weapon master with great axe (8)
brijidine azata
the King of Talingarde, male human inquisitor, male human cleric, male human knights (4)
Book 5
Act 1
handmaiden devil, erinyes devil (9)
brijidine azata
pit fiend, ice devil (2)
hamatula devil (6)
astradaemon, derghodaemon (2)
leukodaemon (as in book 2)
Act 2
human male cavaliers (12) and their mounts,
human male wizard with hawk familiar
human male cleric with longsword, human male paladin with longsword and shield
Act 3
elder earth elemental (6)
large statue constructs (reliquary guardian from Tome of Horrors) (3)
colossal carnivorous blob (an ooze)
roper (6)
banshee (3)
dread wraith (3)
cairn linnorm
cornugon devil
Act 4
winter wight
frost giants (4), frost giant king (huge size giant)
female frost giant cleric
grave knights (12)
elder negative energy elemental (4)
huge undead blue(?) dragons (2)
half elf aristrocrat/fighter with falchion
old human male necromancer with viper familiar
male human antipaladin with mace and shield
human male lich, summoned ice devil
So i saw earlier in this thread someone changed the timeon room to actually having him hooked up to the rack. I am doing the same but with the pendulum trap.
It will activate when they get with in 5' of the rack.
It will swing for 1 minute (10 rounds) and then strike him for 2 more before getting wedged in the rack.
I will have Timeon struggling to get his point across not to approach the rack!
Has anyone else noted Sir Balin is missing a feat? As a 5th level Human Fighter he should have 7 feats (3 fighter bonus feats and 4 regular ones) but he only has six (Cleave, Iron Will, Power Attack, Step Up, Weapon Focus, and Weapon Specialization).
What would you add for a seventh?
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Has anyone else noted Sir Balin is missing a feat? As a 5th level Human Fighter he should have 7 feats (3 fighter bonus feats and 4 regular ones) but he only has six (Cleave, Iron Will, Power Attack, Step Up, Weapon Focus, and Weapon Specialization).
What would you add for a seventh?
Yeah, Gary was bad for skipping the human bonus feat. I said to give him the Improved Shield Bash feat. More fighting options, especially against those who are good at disarming him. I also gave him a mwk dagger to signify his connection to the knights, just like another NPC that you meet at the end of the book.
Not only that, we did the math before and he's got 25 point buy for stats, not 15. That increases his CR by +1 just from that alone. Even his skill points don't add up. The trait doesn't let you make Knowledge (nobility) checks untrained so the +1 there is essentially useless, and my math says he only used 11 points of his 15 (2+Int[x2] Fighter 5 + 1 per HD [human]). Narrative wise, it makes sense to put one rank into Knowledge (nobility) so he can actually use the darn skill, and put the other three ranks into Handle Animal. A rider that can't control a spooked horse, especially at that level, is pretty sad.
The other option I had considered was he's a variant human (+2 to two stats and no Skilled or bonus feat). However, that makes him 19 point buy and he's now got 1 skill point too many (in which case you'd just drop religion by 1 point). Then you'd want to increase his point buy by 1 (doesn't matter which one went up), but he'd still technically be +1 CR for 20 point buy and being an optimized build (as per Paizo AP standards rules).