RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
|
Thanks, that's pretty much my first reaction too but I was struggling to put it into words :-)
Context - the bugbears trashed a pile of ships in the harbour of Daveryn. The party have decided they can dredge them up, commandeer the cargo, sell it and then sell the ships. Who's going to stop them? They're murder machines.
Basically that attitude.
|
Thanks, that's pretty much my first reaction too but I was struggling to put it into words :-)
Context - the bugbears trashed a pile of ships in the harbour of Daveryn. The party have decided they can dredge them up, commandeer the cargo, sell it and then sell the ships. Who's going to stop them? They're murder machines.
Basically that attitude.
Okay. Yeah, time’s not on their side in this regard. If they think it is and the undead can be down there eternally gathering stuff, mention how rocky those waves are. Undead don’t have ranks in Swim. Sure would be a shame if they swept out to sea or slammed against the debris.
Who’s going to stop them? Apparently Mother Nature.
Depending on what the cargo was, large parts of it would be ruined by the sea. Grindylows probably stole some of it.
Some things I would ask myself (and the players) before just handing out gold: Why did the bugbears not steal most of the useful cargo, like wine and food before sinking the ships? Why would all the ships in the harbor be full of cargo anyway? Usually the cargo would be offloaded pretty quickly to be sold.
To whom would they be selling the ships? And how? Are they going to sail all the ships themselves to Ghastenhall (or where ever)? Even if they manage to find buyers and deliver the ships they can get like 5000 gp per ship. Not that much for all the time and effort.
Repairing A Vehicle: The fastest and easiest way to repair a vehicle is with the mending and make whole spells, but more mundane methods can also be used. Craft (carpentry) can be used to repair most vehicles made of wood; because of their specialized construction, water vehicles require Craft (ships) to repair. Depending on the nature of the damage, such skills like Craft (cloth), Craft (alchemy), Knowledge (engineering), and even various professions can be used to repair vehicles, if the GM approves. In general, a day’s worth of work by a single person using the appropriate skill to repair a vehicle requires 10 gp of raw material and a DC 10 skill check, and repairs 10 points of damage on a success, or 5 hit points on a failure.
A galley has 1560 hp. If it is so badly damaged that it has been sunk it has been reduced to 0 hp and destroyed at -104 hp. Destroyed vehicles can not be repaired. So it takes one man 156 days and costs 1560 gp in materials to fix a sunken galley. There probably is some spare lumber in the ship yard. Or rather there was because it was partly used by the defenders or burnt for giggles by the goblins. Time to organize a bugbear lumberjack expedition.
In conclusion they should not bother because it is not very cost effective and they probably have better things to do. Like killing the king.
|
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
|
Thanks folks, that calmed them down a bit. The necromancer can teleport via undead and between graveling familiars, his own high skill ranks in sailing and carpentry, and the undead lieutenant spell decided this would be a good way to use the downtime. Also, the module just said the bugbears hate the water and sank everything, without mentioning first offloading cargo or whatever. I'd not described anything in more detali as I hadn't expected them to hit on this idea at all!
We've since moved on to my next situation...
|
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
|
They've not got an actual teleporting wizard, just a (3.5) dread necromancer, so travel is always an issue. Via their organisation they've arranged for an unscrupulous Cap'n and his crew to ship them and a pile of undead to the dragon isle. Lured with money then terrorized not to change their mind, basically. A bit handwavy but I wanted to get to the island - we only play for a few hours every two weeks.
So, they encountered Setia and her elemental chum at sea, killed it and scared her off (literally, with a fear aura). The vampire then flew over the island and spotted the pier and buildings/ clearing. The group still have a few hours to go to get the ship close to shore. They've sent four zombie drakes, with a graveling piloting one of them, to secure the pier, and messaged the fiendish hippogriffs to come to the island.
Now, I reckon Setia will have arrived back on the island and spread the word of a hostile boatload heading this way. What do you suppose Eriamanthus and the consorts and other defenders will do? Stay together for a few days and increase patrols?
|
|
Now, I reckon Setia will have arrived back on the island and spread the word of a hostile boatload heading this way. What do you suppose Eriamanthus and the consorts and other defenders will do? Stay together for a few days and increase patrols?
Don't forget that this isn't so much a discussion place as much as it is a venue to sell the product, although it's possible we're safe, but spoiler tags should be used for NPCs and whatnot.
Also, PM me your email.
@carborundum
So how did your players do against Eiramanthus?
|
|
kevin_video,
I would love to see any errata you find. Thanks for the effort!
Gary McBride
I wonder if he'd still say that. Maybe.
Did a revision add-on post to this one after a few years of getting wiser on how builds are supposed to be, and that referencing the specific bestiary is key to giving PCs a better challenge.
And here's Changes I made to WotW--Book 4, part 3.
Changes I'd make to WotW Book 4, part 3.5
Got one more after this, but it's going to take some time to fix that one. No joke.
--------------------------------------
Stay healthy and safe.
I have used your notes and revisions a lot.
Even if Gary probably does not care anymore, I'm sure I'm not the only WotW GM that is grateful for your work. Thank you.
The Eiramanthus fight is the one that I am most concerned might turn in to TPK, or near one anyway. Or, it will be the most anticlimactic fight ever, if the archer inquisitor fills him with arrows before he can do anything :(
|
|
I have used your notes and revisions a lot.
Even if Gary probably does not care anymore, I'm sure I'm not the only WotW GM that is grateful for your work. Thank you.The Eiramanthus fight is the one that I am most concerned might turn in to TPK, or near one anyway. Or, it will be the most anticlimactic fight ever, if the archer inquisitor fills him with arrows before he can do anything :(
That's greatly appreciated. The next release will be tomorrow. That build took a stupid long time. It was actually faster for me to rebuild it from the ground up as if it had never existed. I hope to never have to do that again. However, if I do, at least I know how.
Yeah, dragons with antimagic field are ridiculous, but they can't use their breath weapon either, so it definitely works both ways. I'll admit that a decent archer with Clustered Shot is bonkers against a dragon. However, an inquisitor is just as nerfed against antimagic as a standard fighter. Bane and Judgment are both supernatural, meaning the extra damage does nothing once it penetrates the dome. Although, as long as the inquisitor is outside the dome, the first part of the Justice Judgment still works.
Either way, this is meant to be a difficult fight. If the party goes all out and refuses to tactically retreat, that's on them.
|
|
This was quite the undertaking. I'll clean it up soon enough. Tumblr was acting funny, and I had to retype things a few times, so I just posted it quickly so I wouldn't have to deal with the issues yet again. As it was I was constantly saving the draft, just in case. Glad I did.
Changes I'd make to WotW Book 4, part 3.75
And that'll do it for Book 4. I don't think I have any more revisions. At least nothing planned. You never know what the future holds though.
Everyone take it easy. It's a crazy world out there.
--------------------------------------
Stay healthy and safe.
|
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
|
@carborundum
So how did your players do against Eiramanthus?
Many months later - time for a quick summary!
Let's see, they got rid of Setia then banished Shakti with a dispel good! Blew through the SR and she fluffed the save. Caused some strife as that spell is now called "dispel loot" :-)
A few people thought Chargammon's price was also killing all the consorts and were now worried they'd failed. The rest figured he'd be more than happy with the death of the chirpy do-gooder Eiramanthus. Off to the garden, which was beautiful... and held a treant chatting to a some sort of dryad.
The casters dropped a cloudkill on them, and some sort of icy mist that killed lots of flowers, cute little fairies and grass, while the rogue/ bomber firebombed the biggest tree. Some undead went to chop at the other trees near the entrance - basically "let's see how riled we can make the treefolk."
Imagine their surprise when the treant turned out to be a very pissed off dragon. He caught a few in a reverse gravity and closed to administer punishment, while Sakura shot the monk with a finger of death before disappearing. No sense wasting time. Unfortunately she immediately got tagged with a glitterdust from a lucky guess, so that was annoying.
She spent some time chasing the cleric but with sheltered vitality and stone body her aging trick did nothing. Eiramanthus tagged some udead withhis breath, but the party members all saved, and the ones he targeted all had evasion... bummer. The cleric dropped a wave of green slime on Sakura's tree, and then the vampire and monk professionally dismantled her, twig by twig.
Eiramanthus pulled out his last resort - antimagic field - and got a few good hits in before being critted from behind by Helbrand, followed by a critical sneak attack in the front. That was that.
A few rounds later the gargoyles arrived but they didn't last long either. The party solved the riddle, entered the tower, opened the chess board and had fun with the hoard. After that it was be polite to the browsing stranger, get healed by the harm trap and chat with Dessiter before heading off to murder the King. And Brigit. And lots of knights.
They've just landed on Chargammon's island and met some knights. They weren't happy to see them, and spent an infernal crevasse and a blasphemy to clear them up. I need a few ideas, so I'll post in Book 5 :-)
Cool. Your players seem like powerhouses. Wave of greenslime? Is that the 3.5 spell that was considered way broken because it dealt con damage based on how many squares the opponents space was?
|
|
Last night I did a blog update and posted it on the Book 1 thread, and now this morning I'm doing another one here, as this is where I feel it would best fit.
My Changes to Way of the Wicked, Extras Part 3.
Hope everyone is still able to game despite the pandemic.
Setia put up a good fight. The aquatic environment really messed up the PC tactics, for once the inquisitor did not just fill everyone with arrows. The elemental even got to use its vortex ability, fun. Antipaladin was nearly dropped, Grumble had 1 hp left and everyone was wounded. But four consecutive smite good hits with Hellbrand was too much for wounded Setia and that was that. They feel confident though and will probably push on, we'll see if this will be a mistake.
The end of Book 4 looms ahead for my group. I have a question about the really cool narrative of what happens in the Battle of Fallingsbridge. Did you read it out to the players or had them read it themselves at some point? Or did you use the revised ending that apparently Gary posted somewhere and kevin_video graciously shared in his blog?
Also is there a good published piece that could be used for the abandoned Asmodean temple where Gethran Hate resides?
|
|
Also is there a good published piece that could be used for the abandoned Asmodean temple where Gethran Hate resides?
Interestingly enough, the original suggestion was just to use the GameMastery Temples map pack usually used for Pathfinder Society. It's an underground temple and it can be as basic as they come.
That seems great, thanks Kevin!
I ended up using the map for Cult of Lies from Hell Unleashed since I could not get the Temples map pack.
Yes, I agree about the lava. I described the lava pits as grey and cooled down, as the magic that kept them hot had waned. This made the player of the Asmodean cleric feel sad :). The pentagram and the ring of fire were lit, as that was where Gethran Hate was bound.
|
|
Yes, I agree about the lava. I described the lava pits as grey and cooled down, as the magic that kept them hot had waned. This made the player of the Asmodean cleric feel sad :). The pentagram and the ring of fire were lit, as that was where Gethran Hate was bound.
Gethran being what kept the pentagram area lit makes perfect sense.
|
|
Hey Kevin, i havn´t got any of the six books, but i enjoy reading your posts and the replies to them.
Thank you for that entertainment, stay healthy and may you play for a long time. :-)
That's very much appreciated. Honestly, wish I could do more. I've kind of ran out of topics to discuss after doing my blog series on the "Throne of Night" and how I'd stat all the discovered art, so everything is kind of reactive. I did a few revision builds for WotW encounters (as they weren't accurate), but I think I've covered everything now.
I hope you're doing well and staying safe during these troubling times.