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Way of the Wicked—Book #5: The Devil My Only Master (PFRPG) PDF

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For years you have been a follower in a sinister conspiracy dedicated to burning the noble nation of Talingarde to the ground. For years you have accepted their missions and done as you were told. For years you have been a MINION.

That changes today. Today you seize your destiny. Today you will destroy those who think themselves above you. Today you will become the dark lord you were always destined to be. And then all of Talingarde will tremble in your wake.

Welcome to the fifth chapter of the critically acclaimed, ENnie-award nominated “Way of the Wicked” adventure path!

Inside you’ll find:

  • “The Devil My Only Master,” an adventure compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game designed for 16th-level villains by Gary McBride
  • Full color illustrations and maps by Michael Clarke
  • New character options for villains by Jason Bulmahn
  • How to play vampire and lich PCs
  • And More!

    • Hunt a linnorm! Corrupt a paladin! Slay your master and become Talingarde’s greatest villains!

    No one but the devil guides you now.

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*sigh*

1/5 —

I wish I could give a product 0 stars.

This book hurts me; It's so bad that it burned me out of GMing the AP. It's so bad it actively hurt my mental health.

Here's a laconic version of the plot: The PCs escape from their blood pact with their sponsor and kill him. They also get revenge on the paladin that's been a thorn in their side. It's an acceptable plot overall, but the logistics of it are inexcusable.

Over the course of the AP, the writers have established a couple things about the PCs' sponsor. Namely...
* He's a cleric lich.
* He can somehow grossly violate Asmodean principles (by resurrecting a Paladin actively acting against them) without Asmodeus revoking his power.
* He can still experience positive emotions like love, as established by his reasoning for resurrecting said paladin (he saw a long-lost love in him: he's the son of his muse)
* He's an incel.

This book goes deeper into b%&~!@%* Hell with him in two ways:
*He was resurrected by a pit fiend into a lich. Who then immediately gave him his phylactery, despite that being a MASSIVE bargaining chip.
* He hid his phylactery in an incredibly amateurish location. If he were a Bard or an Inquisitor, fine. But he's a 9th level caster with Create Greater Demiplane on his class list. He's had *decades* to prepare and augment it. He doesn't use it.

That thorn in the PCs' side, the paladin, is their first goal in the book. He's actually been incredibly successful overall, only failing in his first encounter with the party, and now. Despite this success, there's potential for him to fall here straight into being an Antipaladin. Worse, this is the *expected* outcome, only for them to pull a 'gotcha!' in the next book.

Oh, speaking of: the book forces the LE Antipaladin houserule on you, even if you don't allow him to fall.

The book demonstrates their inability to properly apply most templates:
* They butcher applying the Advanced Bestiary's Jotunblooded template, making what should be one of the toughest characters in the AP into a pushover
* There's a pair of raveners that were originally mature adults. Ravener can only be applied to Ancient or older dragons.
* They removed the Fort save from the humanoid undead (who still need to make Fort saves against, say, Disintegrate)

There's a 'masterpiece' of a trap, which *would* really hurt...if it were at all possible for the PCs to reasonably fail. A DC 20 Reflex negates, and the PCs are level 17. A better and approximately equivalent trap would be a Mage's Disjunction.

Finally, the book ends with an incredibly display of writing which fixes most of the plotholes, minor and major.../s

It's the literal definition of a Deus Ex Machina.
For example: "The Lord of Hell is older than sin and sees into the heart of mortals. He knew from the very first day of his conversion that Samuel Havelyn would never conquer Talingarde..." "He recruited every last villain truly worth of the name who yet survived on this angel-infested isle. He brought them together, trained them and gave them purpose. This scheme that he began must now be given to others to finish."
Why didn't the lich lose his cleric abilities when he revived the paladin? Because he can't lead the PCs to success if he falls at the wrong time!

As an aside, the book has an appendix with material for considering having undead PCs. Stuff like some magical items being not so useful, like belts of CON (true) and amulets of natural armour (false). They then offer up homebrew methods to help remove the drawbacks of being undead, further unbalancing the very idea. They even include a way to resurrect a creature *while still leaving the creature as undead.* This is SO ABUSEABLE and subverts what is deliberately the biggest tradeoff one makes when willingly becoming undead.

How in Hell did people trust these guys enough for a second AP when *this* is the quality of writing they achieve?

Fraud

1/5 —

I would love to give this product a higher rating but it has been written by a fraudster, Gary McBride, who tricked 315 people into giving him $40,000 through Kickstarter and refused to communicate with them for 4 years now. Despite multiple appeals from backers he has backed over 520 other kickstarters since then, logging in every week though seemingly unable to respond to his backers products. Shame on Paizo for selling the products of a con man and allowing him to continue profiting from rpg fans.

For details of the swindle and Gary McBride’s backing record see https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/730004812/throne-of-night-a-pathfinder -rpg-adventure-path/comments

Carpe Diem, Dark Lords!

5/5 —

Seize destiny with both hands and throttle it for what is rightfully yours!

At least you overthrow both the Infernal Pact you signed in Chapter 1 and the mewling sun-worshiping peons of Talingarde. A vast island awaits the tread of your hobnailed boots. Give them nothing, take from them everything.

The material about lichdom and vampirism in Pathfinder - and ways to "pay" for both without throwing things completely out of kilter are well done herein. With retraining rules from Ultimate Campaign your fiends can pay the price and even improve upon them at the cost of precious general feats. I recommend using them to base how one addresses such concerns in other sandbox campaigns. I wish I'd had this information when running my CoT/KM mash-up campaign. Well done!

The Devil My Only Master Review

5/5 —

Warning: Potential spoilers. Written from a GM's perspective. I ran this for 6 PCs.

Just a quick read of the summary for this book makes it clear that this is a pivotal chapter in the adventure path. The last four books have been building up to an inevitable confrontation between Cardinal Thorn and the PCs, regarding who will ultimately rule Talingarde. Much like it's predecessors, The Devil My Only Master does not disappoint.

Strengths:
The fear of any GM running a 16th level campaign is that your PCs are going to either steamroll every encounter you send their way or get brutally murdered themselves. I was pleasantly surprised at the challenge level of the encounters in this book. While the PCs did have a few easy wins, they also faced their fair share of challenges and near death scenarios. Havelyn and his crew turned out to be particularly deadly. Of course, I must mention that there is an encounter with the wraiths and the banshees, which even the writers acknowledge was not a well balanced r. However, my PCs managed to bypass this encounter entirely, so it was not a problem for our game.

The entire campaign has had excellent worldbuilding and character development. The writers definitely played the long game, with early introductions of characters like Tiadora, Dessiter and Richard Havelyn, as well as setting up Cardinal Thorn as a powerful entity. In this book, those choices really start to pay off. Existing knowledge of their adversaries helped to make the encounters much more personal and interesting. This book was also to fill in a lot of gaps for the players, as they are finally able to see Thorn's plan in its entirety.

There are also a few really great RP opportunities in this book. The scene with Dessiter and Nabarus was wonderfully fun to act out. The opportunity to make Richard Havelyn fall made for a very interesting encounter, where the PCs were able to play mind games with him as they were fighting. Of course, finally getting a shot at Cardinal Thorn also made for interesting RP.

Weaknesses:
There was only one real issue I had running this campaign, and it could very well be a unique problem to my table. The writers make the assumption that the players will not start trying to run the Knot of Thorns until Book 6, after Thorn is already dead. My player were a little over ambitious and essentially considered themselves the new leaders of the knot as soon as the party inquisitor was granted the title of high cardinal. This lead to some awkwardness, since there isn't much in the way of guidance as to how Thorn's various followers react to recruitment attempts while Thorn is still alive. Improvising with what I knew about the NPCs, they were able to recruit Cedrick Malthus early, they managed ruin any chance at a positive relationship with Barnabus Thrane and reached a tenuous agreement with Sakkarot, that he would remain faithful to whichever side emerged victorious. However, it might have been helpful to have a short blurb addressing this issue, since weakening Thorn's network was a pretty reasonable approach for them to take.

There is an appendix at the end of the book with special rules for handling undead players. I was not particularly impressed with these special rules. The rules for the vampire seemed overly convoluted and roundabout to obtain. For my game, I instead used a house rule where our vampire PC gained the vampiric abilities over the course of two levels, in place of those two levels. As for the lich rules, outside of the initial time and gold expenditure, it doesn't seem like there was anything that would make the PC balanced with the rest of the party.

However, since the first complaint is a very small oversight that won't be noticed by a lot of tables and the second is related to supplemental material that is easily ignored, I do not deem either complaint enough to knock a star off the rating.

General Advice:
The biggest advice I can give is to not be afraid to get a little wicked with Thorn. His strategy section explains that he knows the PCs abilities intimately and that you should adjust his tactics and his spells to account for this. If you just try to use Thorn's generic stat block, I promise you he will not end up being the formidable force that he was built up to be for the last five books. Windwall, Anti-Life Shell, Spell Immunity and Protection From Energy (Fire) were all highly useful for keeping my party at bay. I would also recommend going beyond the changes recommended in the strategy block. He has many spells that have 10 minute/level duration and even his 1 min/level buff last 18 minutes. Don't waste time casting these buffs during Time Stop. He knows when the players arrive at the Agathium, so cast there is no reason for him not to be prepared. Also, don't be afraid to play around with his equipment. Essentially, he is sold as the biggest threat your villains have faced yet. Don't be afraid to make him live up to it.

4.5 stars + seal for the turning point of the campaign

4/5 —

The fifth installment of Fire Mountain Games' critically acclaimed evil adventure path is 100 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, 2 pages of maps of Talingarde (as in each WotW-book) and 1 page back cover, leaving us with a total of 92 pages of content, so let's check this out!

This is a review of the module, so potential players should jump to the conclusion to avoid the vast array of SPOILERS that follow.

All right, still here?

If the module's name has not been ample clue for you, this is the turning point of the campaign: For 4 modules, the villains have been the pawns of Cardinal Adrastus Thorn in his conspiracy to bring down Taligarde. The lich's paranoia has made him turn against the PCs and he will pay, for Asmodeus does not tolerate weakness like the undead's sparing of a paladin. In order to become second to none but the devil, though, the PCs first have to survive and not be suckered in by Thorn's "invitation" to his stronghold: Forewarned, the PCs first act in this module is the necessity to say "no" to Tiadora and her devilish erinyes - something that will result in a rather deadly combat. The first part of the adventure is rather modular and has the PCs plan their usurpation of Thorn's throne while trying to survive his endeavors in ending them. In order to gain Asmodeus favor, they will have to tie up lose ends: If Brigit of the Brijidine still is alive, they will have to eliminate her for Dessiter the contract devil.

Upon completion of this rather deadly task (Brigit's home is no laughing stock), they may have an audience with Naburus, a pit devil and lord of hell! Said devil may use a clever loop-hole in the contract that binds them to Thorn to extract them from his influence as well as potentially making one of them high-priest of Asmodeus! In the meanwhile, Thorn seeks to eliminate them by sending his hamatulan host for them and there are further loose ends that seek to be tied up: Depending on their actions in book 2, the PCs will have to contend and survive Vetra-Kali-Eats-the-Eyes and his retinue and finally get a grand chance:

Their nemesis Richard Thomasson, the paladin that single-handedly almost made their plans fail, the fool that melted Thorns heart out of sentimentality for a love now lost, walks the island of Chargammon. In order to please the lord of the 9th, the PCs must prove themselves, find the paladin, defeat his massive retinue and once and for all put a stop to his meddling. Better yet, for true masters of the dark - the PCs may actually drag the shining knight down, causing him to fall and swear allegiance to Asmodeus!

Of course, in order to defeat a lich, the PCs will have to get a hold of his phylactery and he has hidden it well - in the cave of dread Nythoggr, a cairn linnorm and foe that surpasses even the power of great Chargammon! Worse, the caves of the cairn linnorm are also the home of mad undead spirits like banshees and Ice Elf Dread Wraiths, making the infiltration/crawl a deadly challenge indeed. better yet, the options to infiltrate/use other means of acquiring the phylactery, including smart usage of the potentially existing draconic cohort are all taken into account: After all, who wants to incur the deadly death curse of the linnorm? If they do walk the path of brute force instead of cleverness and ingenuity, the PCs thankfully can escape the very deadly curse via a nearby artifact, but only if they are smart and know how and where to look...

When the next devilish assassin manages to wiggle out of Thorn's command upon him realizing they have his phylactery and instead proposes serving the PCs instead, it should be clear that Thorn's days are few. Only one thing remains for the future masters of Talingarde to do - teleport to the Agathium and stomp out their former mentor. Barricaded in the vast fortress depicted on the cover (which would imho make for a kick-ass metal cd-cover), the lich's paranoia grows, ever increasing. Guarded by armies of rejuvenating undead, the trek to the place could have been awesome, but honestly, it is here the module has its weakest spot: The unforgiving arctic wilderness sounds so awesome, why not have the PCs experience it and slug through Thorn's defenses? Magical Aurora Borealis, the artifact-engine, whatever - there are many good reasons for not opting for the teleport-option. Oh well.

The exploration of the Agathium is exciting - between Thorn playing tricks and using psychological warfare, his defenders are nothing to be scoffed at: From a Frost-Giant jarl (whose bride may become an ally of the villains) to Thorn's own hermit necromancer/crafter (who, again, may become an ally), the challenges awaiting the PCs are numerous - but so are the rewards: The PCs can e.g. make sacrifices to Asmodeus' most unholy altar (detailed with a drop-dead-gorgeous artwork), take control of the arcane engine that facilitates crafting and undead creation via negative energy and, of course, loot Thorn's treasury, which among other things includes Tiadora's true name, making her another potential servant. Speaking of servants: The traitor-general of Talingarde currently also languishes in the Agathium - a nice and convenient way for the PCs to mop up his particular loose end and put a stop to this pompous fop's meddling.

However, not all have turned against Thorn: His fortress is still secured by his own considerable magical might, units of grave knights and a particular nasty surprise: Apart from his fanatically loyal antipaladin champion Wolfram, he also has secured the aid or not one, but two undead dragons to annihilate the PCs - OUCH!

If the PCs manage to brave his false throne room ( a deadly trap indeed) and all his guardians, they will finally come to blows with their erstwhile master and, if they emerge triumphant, be graced with a rain of blood as well as the favor of Asmodeus himself, their only master!

After extensive troubleshooting, we are introduced to the second supplemental article for players who want to become undead: Vampires manage their transformation and the gradual power-gain (alongside vampiric weaknesses) via a progression of 5 feats, an apt payoff. Liches in contrast need only take one feat, but still have to pass the otherwise rather steep requirements for lichdom.
There also are 13 new feats for undead (including swarm-form, enhanced vampiric powers, a tad bit of resistance to sunlight etc.), 6 new magic items especially suitable for undead, 6 new spells (mostly designed to help them fit in with mortals, trap coffins etc.).

The final section of the book, guest-authored by Jason Bulmahn, introduces us to new archetypes: Monks may, as Hands of Tyranny, issue unholy commands (as per the spell) via their unarmed attacks, are particularly adept liars and may evoke crippling pain via a mere touch. Lords o Darkness are Asmodean paladins that gain enchanting options as cruelties and finally, inquisitors may opt to become Torture Masters, experts of extracting information from the helpless. The final new archetype, unfortunately, is the only one I'd truly consider good: The Unholy Barrister (cleric) has a special channeling: He can spend two channel attempts to heal all evil creatures with his negative energy, but only if they swear loyalty to Asmodeus. Now if that won't lead to some badass moments at the table... Furthermore, with so-called soulbound contracts, he may impart his spells to others, granting the class a second complex and extremely cool signature ability.

The final 2 pages are taken up by 9 new feats, which allow you to channel life-force of coup-de-grace'd foes, enhance your unholy spells, ignore pain, come out trumps in negotiations (e.g. planar ally) and also pacts: Pacts make it very hard for you to return from death, since your soul is sworn to hell, but on the basis of the first feat, we get ones that e.g. enhance your sneaking, your divine or arcane power etc.

The pdf also comes with an extra-pdf of key-and numberless maps and handouts that is 6 pages long and covers all locations visited in this module.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, though, as the last two installments of WotW, not perfect - I noticed a couple of switched letters and similar typos, though less than in Book III and IV. Layout adheres to the stellar 2-column standard used in previous WotW-installments and is up to the highest demands. The artworks by Michael Clarke are, just like the original cartography, up to the highest standard as well. The pdf comes fully bookmarked, though honestly I would have preferred more bookmarks, especially in the first section of the module, which is very much modular. The pdf comes with aforementioned extra pdf of player maps and handouts as well as a more printer-friendly version.

Author Gary McBride does not disappoint in the fifth installment of WotW - the pay-off, should the PCs manage to brave the vast dangers, is rather satisfying and the change of pace regarding enemy-types as well as the amount of support/trouble-shooting for the DM remains commendable. While not as jarring as the climax of book 4 (about which I complained to no end), book 5 also has a minor weak spot: The fact that there is potential for an epic wilderness-section (something so far completely missing from the whole AP, mind you!) in an undead-infested northern clime. This idea is so cool, the defenses and narrative one could have crafted from the PCs slowly but surely clawing their ways towards the antagonist through his lands could have made for an epicness beyond belief. Instead, the teleport-in-angle, while more common, imho also remains the blander way.

That out of the way, the narrative is otherwise solid, the challenges worthy of the villain's level by now and the potential for the DM to play some nasty tricks with evil creatures is there, making this imho better than book 4.

However, where I ceased to be amazed was with the supplemental information: I never liked the first article on undead PCs and the rules for vampire and lich PCs in my opinion, while working, fall a bit flat: Libris Vampyr by Necromancers from The Northwest did it via a PrC that required an extremely cool ritual every level, driving home not only the gravitas of the transformation, but also its symbology, something absent from this particular tackling of the subject. The new archetypes, with one exception, also left me rather cold, as did the pact feats which imho could use a slight power boost - after all, usually feats have no associated drawbacks and these do.

I wouldn't complain about these, were it not for the distinct impression that their page-count would have been served better by an expansion of the module. That out of the way, let it be known that my complaining is still on the highest level and this is, once again, an excellent adventure. Though not a perfect one. My final verdict will hence remain at 4.5 stars, + seal of approval, but rounded down to 4 for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.

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Does the version of Asmodeus in this AP have the same domains and the same favored weapon as the Pathfinder version?
Grand Lodge
Gambit wrote:
Does the version of Asmodeus in this AP have the same domains and the same favored weapon as the Pathfinder version?

It's assumed that way, yes.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

Gary,

Unless I'm mistaken, this is the last chapter in the Way of the Wicked series, yes? If so, can we expect to see a bundled or "compilation" version of the WotW line of modules? Perhaps in time for Christmas? I'm considering asking Santa for such a thing, if a WotW collection is indeed on the way. After my Kingmaker game runs it's course, it might be fun to run a "destroy the kingdom" kind of game thereafter...

Daron Woodson
Abandoned Arts

Daron,

Yes, Book VI is the last chapter of "Way of the Wicked".

Right now, we have no concrete plans to make a compilation. The PDFs and print version are the only way to get "Way of the Wicked". I can also tell you that no compilation will be available for Christmas. I'm sorry.

However, will we never do one? The future is uncertain, but for right now we have no definite plans.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

Understood; thanks for the reply!
Gambit wrote:
Does the version of Asmodeus in this AP have the same domains and the same favored weapon as the Pathfinder version?

Just to confirm what was said above, yes, I have assumed that Asmodeus is the same as the default one presented in the core rulebook.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

Still no print version available at Drivethru. :(

It can´t take 2 weeks to edit the data. Here is my mail I got from the customer service:

Quote:

Hello again,

We apologize for the delay.

Our publisher relations team has been contacted again, but the product will likely not be available in a print form for some time still.

We are sorry for the inconvenience and thank you again for your business.

Thats really annoying. Especially since I wanted to give my Antipaladin player the chance to use the archetyp.

And any further infos on Vetra Kali would be welcome because we are in Book Two and maybe there is some foreshadowing I can make with the info from Book Five.

Patrick,

I do apologize for the delay. The POD files are all sent and setup is complete but they must send me a physical sample copy via the mail. It has been sent, I await its arrival and if everything is okay, I will immediately activate POD for sale.

What I don't want is for some mistake to happen and for you to receive a crummy book, resulting from a corrupted file.

Unfortunately, this process involves a printer and the mail and both of those can be sluggish and are both out of my hands.

Worse, if the galley copy is messed up (which I hopes its not), then it must be corrected and another sample sent.

I know its annoying but take some comfort in the fact that this ensures when you get your book, it will be exactly as I intended it to be.

Thanks for supporting "Way of the Wicked",

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

No need for YOU to apologize. I just have the feeling I am the only person on earth without this book! :D

I blame Drivethru - because they take no preorders on the prints. What makes this so difficult? I mean I could buy the bundle now and they give the printing order when you confirmed that the Print is ok. But no. Would be to customer friendly I suppose. Maybe they want me to pay those 10$ more if my curiosity prevails...
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Miscellaneous questions.

Spoiler:

1) It looks like Thorn was always planning to discard Barca the Traitor (since part VII of The Plan involves putting the Scion on the throne, not the Traitor.) Correct?

2) Barca is LE, but he doesn't have any magic for concealing his alignment. How'd he survive all those years in a position that would regularly bring him into contact with alignment-detecting paladins and whatnot? (I'd assume that he once had a magic item to conceal his aligment, but doesn't bother with it at the Agathium.)

3) At what point should Thorn become aware that the PCs are in the Agathium? If we're going to say that his paranoia is making him adopt a very suboptimal strategy, then we should also make him, well, paranoid -- he should have some sort of alarm system in place against the anticipated invasion.

(Note that giving Thorn just a couple of rounds to buff himself makes him a much more formidable opponent. Without buffs, he doesn't have much of a chance against a group of well-played 18th level PCs; in particular, his relatively low AC and HP are a serious glass jaw. A barbarian or fighter with an appropriate weapon can take him out with one good FRA.)

4) The Hadean Signet: what exactly does an "arcane signet" do?

5) Why isn't Thorn wearing the Hadean Signet? Okay, he already has a +4 Ring of Protection... but +5 is even better, and he could still use its Regeneration ability (and maybe its Greater Darkness power too -- I'd expect it to have at least one charge left.)

6) Not a question, but: while I like the idea of having a wicked cool magic item to get the PCs arguing and the PvP ball rolling, I'm not sure the Signet is it. You've already provided a +4 Ring of Protection on Thorn, so all the Signet is adding is another +1 and Regeneration, which is nice but, at 18th level, probably not worth starting a major intraparty brawl over. (If they beat the linnorm, they already have a Periapt of Wound Closure, which is about 1/3 of a Ring of Regeneration right there.) Also, a Ring of Protection is less likely to be of interest to high-level spellcasters, because it gives a deflection bonus, which won't stack with many of the more popular buff spells. So it's not something the whole party will be equally interested in.

More generally: great adventure. I particularly liked

Spoiler:

-- the paladin falling (definitely something that should be part of an AP like this);

-- the use of Chargammon's treasure as a plot point. This is exactly the sort of thing that players routinely forget about!

-- you have two back-to-back dungeon crawls, but they're so different in mood that I don't think the players will even notice. The cairn is particularly evocative; it's a truly creepy site.

-- piercers (hah) are larval ropers.

cheers,

Doug M.

Oh, and I just spotted my editor credit right there on the frontispiece!

I've been gaming for over 20 years, but that's my first professional credit. Thanks, Gary.

Doug M.

How exactly can ehe players make Richard fall ?

Patrick:

Spoiler:
it's quite straitforward. With Dessiter help, they have the option to do so when he is going to die. Dessiter teleports and offer the Paladin to sign a contract and save his life. If the PC agree, he falls. I think it's too easy, Richard should be a paramount of virtue, that's why he is the major recurring "villain" in the campaign. I think my PC will have an option, but only if they purposselly choose to do so and work for it. I'm not going to give them a 17th level anti-paladin cohort in a silver plate, I feel it too anti-climax. If the PC work hard for it, fine. For free, I don't like it
Grand Lodge

@gustavo

Fall:
It's not that it's easy, it's that he's not the pillar that everyone makes him out to be. It's too much for him to shoulder by himself. And since everyone literally dies around him, he really is by himself. From the very beginning he has blindly accepted his faith and everything that's come with it because no one's ever challenged it. However, over the course of the past couple of years since the PCs have escaped prison, that faith that he's so blindly believed in has been tested time and time again, and he has received NOTHING for it. He's the good guy. He's supposed to win. He knows that. Mitra is all virtuous so it shouldn't be possible for the villains to one-up him every time. But always he gets nothing other than spells from his god when he prays. His questions are unanswered/ignored. Mitra may have a plan, but he's not letting anyone in on it. In the very end, Richard just breaks.

If I ever get to run this (sigh), I'll try to find some way to telegraph Richard's weakness to the PCs. Some groups will just treat him as a monster to be killed anyway -- but some may try to work this angle.

Here's a thought: Richard has few or no antisneak capabilities -- Perception +2 (!), no detection beyond his Detect Evil. So, a clever group of PCs could

Spoiler:

play guerrilla against his party. The terrain is admirably suited for it! Kill off his men, take down the cleric, ambush the wizard... but leave Richard alone, for last. (For bonus points, animate a few of his men as undead.)

Under those circumstances, I would let a PC use an Intimidate or Diplomacy check against him. "You are alone... they're all dead... Mitra has abandoned you."

Doug M.
gustavo iglesias wrote:

Patrick:

** spoiler omitted **

Sounds lame. But I will read it myself before I judge. I expected more when I read the summary in the first AP...

Grand Lodge

So according to the Monster Advancer, the demon prince would be +4 CR only being advanced by 4 HD IF you also make him gargantuan size. Otherwise it still looks like we have to do 8 HD.
Douglas Muir 406 wrote:

Oh, and I just spotted my editor credit right there on the frontispiece!

I've been gaming for over 20 years, but that's my first professional credit. Thanks, Gary.

Doug M.

Yeah Damn cool u bet ^^

kevin_video wrote:
@gustavo ** spoiler omitted **

Yes, it's not simple, in-game. It has a good explanation about why it's so in background. But the fact is, in rules terms,

Spoiler:
the adventure just says: if there's a majority of players that want to turn Sir Robert, he becames anti-paladin. That's all. Not even a diplomacy roll, or a good roleplaying needed. Vote, count the raised hands, if more than half want him to convert, he becomes asmodean. I'd not play it like this, I didn't like that scene.
Way of the wicked 5 wrote:

This should be an intense and dif-ficult battle for your PCs. If they have not brought any

cold iron weaponry it may be an impossible battle. With
his impressive damage reduction and rapid regeneration
it is difficult to see how he can be slain before he anni-hilates his enemies.

How is this expected to be difficult? I mean the pc overcome the DR with a +3 weapon (counts as silver and cold iron) easily.

If they informed on linnorms they will bring a real cold iron weapon along and even his Regeneration is useless (in PF a hit with a weapon who ignores the regeneration makes the creature stop regenerating for 1 round).

But this is really a design flaw by PF itself - not the adventure.
Grand Lodge
Patrick Kropp wrote:

How is this expected to be difficult? I mean the pc overcome the DR with a +3 weapon (counts as silver and cold iron) easily.

If they informed on linnorms they will bring a real cold iron weapon along and even his Regeneration is useless (in PF a hit with a weapon who ignores the regeneration makes the creature stop regenerating for 1 round).

But this is really a design flaw by PF itself - not the adventure.

You're reading this wrong. A +3 weapon COUNTS as silver and cold iron for getting passed DR. It's not actually silver and cold iron. This means that the regen still works. A +5 steel sword doesn't suddenly take on the properties of adamantine and ignore hardness of an adamantine wall. However, it does do damage to a golem as if it were adamantine.

I´m reading nothing wrong. You read my post wrong.
I never said a +3 sword stops the regeneration.
In my second paragraph I especially point out what happens if they have a REAL cold iron weapon.

No regeneration, no DR - without this the linnorm is an easy kill. I am already sorry for him.
Patrick Kropp wrote:
Way of the wicked 5 wrote:

This should be an intense and dif-ficult battle for your PCs. If they have not brought any

cold iron weaponry it may be an impossible battle. With
his impressive damage reduction and rapid regeneration
it is difficult to see how he can be slain before he anni-hilates his enemies.

How is this expected to be difficult? I mean the pc overcome the DR with a +3 weapon (counts as silver and cold iron) easily.

If they informed on linnorms they will bring a real cold iron weapon along and even his Regeneration is useless (in PF a hit with a weapon who ignores the regeneration makes the creature stop regenerating for 1 round).

But this is really a design flaw by PF itself - not the adventure.

The Linnorm is a CR 18. It's not very high compared to the PC at that moment, and thus it's not supposed to be that hard. It really depends on how much "15 minutes work day" the PC can do. If they fight him freshly in the morning, it's easy pie, specially if the group have a numerous amount of cohorts (which can go from a black dragon to a medusa, including half fiend ogres, onis, a 17th level antipaladin, possibly an army of undeads, etc. Maybe the cohorts alone can take him down). If they fight it after half a dozen other encounters, including several Banshees, it's not that easy, and becomes much more balanced.

However, you can give him "advanced" template, or any other template, if you think your PC are too powerful for him. I think his Poison is decent, and it can do a lot of damage if you raise the (con based) DC with "giant" and "advanced" templates.. It has a big flaw, though, which is not being a spellcaster. But that's not something about the balance of the adventure, it's a basic flaw in D&D/pathfinder. You cast, or you suck.
Fire Mountain Games wrote:

Patrick,

I do apologize for the delay. The POD files are all sent and setup is complete but they must send me a physical sample copy via the mail. It has been sent, I await its arrival and if everything is okay, I will immediately activate POD for sale.

What I don't want is for some mistake to happen and for you to receive a crummy book, resulting from a corrupted file.

Unfortunately, this process involves a printer and the mail and both of those can be sluggish and are both out of my hands.

Worse, if the galley copy is messed up (which I hopes its not), then it must be corrected and another sample sent.

I know its annoying but take some comfort in the fact that this ensures when you get your book, it will be exactly as I intended it to be.

Thanks for supporting "Way of the Wicked",

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

Is this the same reason for the delay to Paizo orders of the print version? Was just curious why I hadn't seen my print copy yet.

Thanks! :)
Webstore Gninja Minion

That would account for the delay, yes. :)
Grand Lodge
1 person marked this as a favorite.

So while going over Thorn, I noticed that he doesn't have a Fort save (+21) and he doesn't have the additional 18 hp from favored class. Also got a question. Why does Thorn have resurrection memorized? Who would he use that on? The frost giant king? Have him, Thorn, and the gelugon all fighting the party?

Also, this was something I mentioned in Book 4, but Brigit's Wall of Stone is DC 21 and Fire Storm is DC 24.

I know it's unnecessary to do so, but in my Friday game, we just finished a Gary Gygax module that was all about undead. More specifically, that campaign revolves around the new variation of the spell Undead Clone. I know it's not Pathfinder specific, but I did find something that is, and it just came out in Pathways 22 today. It's the Iron Lich. Thorn's been so paranoid lately, and all through the campaign he's been watching through the eyes of the 9th Knot who've encountered various constructs as the campaign's been progressing over the past few years. He could have contacted the ice troll king, Sigarth Iekenhart, and had such a thing at least partially created. Then using various other contacts and connections, could have had certain creatures and beings craft it without fulling knowing exactly what it was. Just Group A to build Part A, Group B to build Components B, etc, etc, etc. Then he could have completed the rest of it himself. With that, he wouldn't need a phylactery anymore. Everyone thinks Thorn's dead because no one knows that such a thing could possibly exist, and are all surprised when he comes back for his revenge.
Grand Lodge
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Regarding

Sir Richard:
I see that many aren't all that happy with him becoming a fallen without a whole lot of work going into causing him to fall. I say go with it. I mean, make your PCs do at least a little bit of work, but let it happen. However, if you don't want the party to keep him, don't let them. Kill him off, or at least let the PCs work for it through battle with someone sent by Mitra.

Check out the Proscriber. It's from Tome of Horrors, and is also in the PFSRD. It says, when you deviate from your deity's words, has this come after them. It can be mild punishment or it can be extremely harsh. It just depends on how much you've strayed from your alignment and who've you now joined up with. I think selling your soul and becoming a fallen paladin to your arch-nemesis is grounds for getting trounced.

It's only a CR 15, but you could easily advance this, add class levels, or throw on a few templates. Since the PCs have already taken on a CR 20 by this point, a Mighty (+5 CR) version of this might be in order. It doesn't matter if the PCs are unconscious or only grazed. This thing came after Richard, and he's the target so only he needs to be "dead". So if you really don't want the party to have Richard, make the Proscriber CRAZY overpowered. Let them realize they've still got a long way to go. It doesn't have any treasure so even if they happen to defeat it they don't get anything other than more xp.

At the very least, it's an idea that you may or may not want to use. I plan to have them take on a mighty version of this beast now that I know about it.
Grand Lodge
1 person marked this as a favorite.

For those of you who really want to mess with their player's heads:

If anyone wants to really mess with their players, give Thorn the 3pp Paranoid flaw (-3 to Sense Motive against all strangers because you always think the worst of everyone) and the 3pp Split Spirit feat.

I'd do this, but I plan on using the Iron Lich template from Pathways 20.

Technically though, you could do both.

Vampire feats/disguise self question for Gary and DM's here. Once a character takes them and becomes a vampire (and has his/her type change to undead) effectively "disguise self" won't allow them to blend in with the populace any longer (as they could no longer disguise themselves as humanoids).

This seems like an oversight as even a pathfinder vampire monster has the spell disguise self known. How would you react to/handle this?

A) Make an exception and allow one to also disguise self as a humanoid even if ones type was undead?

or

B) Have the player now rely on disguise kits?

or

C) ?
Silver Crusade
kevin_video wrote:

So while going over Thorn, I noticed that he doesn't have a Fort save (+21) and he doesn't have the additional 18 hp from favored class. Also got a question. Why does Thorn have resurrection memorized? Who would he use that on? The frost giant king? Have him, Thorn, and the gelugon all fighting the party?

Also, this was something I mentioned in Book 4, but Brigit's Wall of Stone is DC 21 and Fire Storm is DC 24.

I know it's unnecessary to do so, but in my Friday game, we just finished a Gary Gygax module that was all about undead. More specifically, that campaign revolves around the new variation of the spell Undead Clone. I know it's not Pathfinder specific, but I did find something that is, and it just came out in Pathways 22 today. It's the Iron Lich. Thorn's been so paranoid lately, and all through the campaign he's been watching through the eyes of the 9th Knot who've encountered various constructs as the campaign's been progressing over the past few years. He could have contacted the ice troll king, Sigarth Iekenhart, and had such a thing at least partially created. Then using various other contacts and connections, could have had certain creatures and beings craft it without fulling knowing exactly what it was. Just Group A to build Part A, Group B to build Components B, etc, etc, etc. Then he could have completed the rest of it himself. With that, he wouldn't need a phylactery anymore. Everyone thinks Thorn's dead because no one knows that such a thing could possibly exist, and are all surprised when he comes back for his revenge.

Parallel design at it's finest!

My version of Thorne is a student of Thassilon, so I figured on doing the same thing as well. Especially after seeing the cover for Shattered Star 6 with the clockwork reliquary of First King Xin.
Grand Lodge
Blayde MacRonan wrote:

Parallel design at it's finest!

My version of Thorne is a student of Thassilon, so I figured on doing the same thing as well. Especially after seeing the cover for Shattered Star 6 with the clockwork reliquary of First King Xin.

I was actually thinking of being extra mean. Have the clockwork version be the third time they face off against him. There's a feat I linked in my last post "For those of you who really want to mess with their player's heads" that gives a lich 2 phylacteries. Somehow I don't think I'll do that though. It's not really fair. Leave that for the PCs maybe.

I may need to ask this in the Book One thread, but has anyone implemented the vampire rules and, if so, how are they working? Did you try the "everyone is a vampire" campaign variant?

On the feats, I think the cost is in-line with the benefit (if you have a split vampire/mortal party), but it can also take a ridiculously long time to acquire those feats if you're already well into the adventure. As a work around, and keeping in mind the reality that many players plan their characters out well in advance, I was thinking of a house rule that says you can substitute a feat you already have in exchange for a vampire-feat if the vampire-feat would grant you a benefit identical or similar to the feat you're swapping out. For example, you could trade the Alertness Feat for the first level vampire feat (which, itself, grants you alertness).

Another option would be to have your first session with the players actually just a discussion about the campaign and character generation. Tell them there is an option for everyone to more or less start the campaign as vampires but, if you do that, it means everyone is a vampire. Are they interested in doing that? If so, great! Problem solved. If not but you have a couple players who are interested, give them the feats ahead of time and tell them, this is what you need to plan around. You'll probably be "x level" when you're given the option, so plan your character accordingly.

Ryeookin,

Oops. I missed your question. Please pardon my belated answer.

Myself, I would still allow disguise self to work on a vampire. Vampires were once human.

But if you feel that violates the rules, you could always create a disguise self variant called disguise undead and create a hat of undead disguise based on it.

Personally, I don't feel that level of detail is worth while and would take option A -- make an exception.

Hope that helps,

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Grand Lodge
SnowHeart wrote:

I may need to ask this in the Book One thread, but has anyone implemented the vampire rules and, if so, how are they working? Did you try the "everyone is a vampire" campaign variant?

On the feats, I think the cost is in-line with the benefit (if you have a split vampire/mortal party), but it can also take a ridiculously long time to acquire those feats if you're already well into the adventure. As a work around, and keeping in mind the reality that many players plan their characters out well in advance, I was thinking of a house rule that says you can substitute a feat you already have in exchange for a vampire-feat if the vampire-feat would grant you a benefit identical or similar to the feat you're swapping out. For example, you could trade the Alertness Feat for the first level vampire feat (which, itself, grants you alertness).

Another option would be to have your first session with the players actually just a discussion about the campaign and character generation. Tell them there is an option for everyone to more or less start the campaign as vampires but, if you do that, it means everyone is a vampire. Are they interested in doing that? If so, great! Problem solved. If not but you have a couple players who are interested, give them the feats ahead of time and tell them, this is what you need to plan around. You'll probably be "x level" when you're given the option, so plan your character accordingly.

I've already talked to my group, and they definitely don't want to be undead, with the exception of one person who might want to be a lich. For that, we're going to be using the spellcasting variant PrC from Necromancers of the Northwest. That being said, if someone wanted to later on became a vampire, Little Red Goblin Games came out with a vampire base class that lets you take levels retroactively. If they finally decide that, yes, they do want to go undead, we'll be taking that option instead of the feats.

That being said, you could always allow a PC a level template called Crafty, from Monsternomicon I. It's +1 CR, so they could have it be worth 1 level, and it gives them +2 insight to initiative, 3 bonus feats of any kind, +2 Int and +2 Wis, they use their WIS bonus instead of STR or DEX if it's higher, and they get 2xINT modifier in skill pts.
Scarab Sages

Quick question, any news on when book VI is going to be released?
Grand Lodge
Harper101 wrote:
Quick question, any news on when book VI is going to be released?

According to their Facebook page, sometime this month. His words were "The text is 95% written. The art is mostly done. The release date remains an honest 'soon'."

Grand Lodge

I guess I should ask now. Any chance we can expect Book VI to be out for Christmas? I know I'd be happy with that being my gift.

kevin_video,

I'm keeping the release date at 'soon'. I'll know by the end of this week if we'll make it.

But, regardless, fear not. It's coming.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Grand Lodge

Whoops. Looks like there's a double post there by mistake.

Looking forward to the news.
Scarab Sages

I'm looking forward to it too.
I saw the preview pic that was on the Fire Mountain Games facebook page of Grumblejack, and really loved it.
(In the game I'm running he and the halfling wealth distribution agent are running mates setting up many many sneak attacks, and he is a well loved NPC by the whole party)
gustavo iglesias wrote:

The archetypes are good, and very asmodean. I'm not sure if they are OGL (where should it say?). I guess they are, but in any case, I'll give only a small review.

The hand of tyranny has "command" instead of "stunning fist". It also swap "wholeness of the body" for a "pain strike" that nauseate/sicken.

The antipaladin swap "aura of cowardice" for "aura of obedience", which allow to "command" people with Intimidate. Later, they can Dominate a single thrall.

The Torturer swap Solo Tactic and the extra feats, for torturing stuff (That alone makes it a good archetype for ranged inquisitors, as there are not a lot of teamwork feats for ranged). PEople tortured must roll a save, or be forced to answer questions truthfully. Sort of "speak with the not-yet-dead". Later, they can torture as a standard action (Allowing for in combat use), and torture can also apply conditions, such as sickened, nauseated, fatigued, shaken, etc. It's flavourful and balanced.

The barristan is the best one, imho. It has an ability to heal asmodeans believers with it's channel energy (which makes it the archetype of choice for this AP) and also an ability to do stuff with contracts.

The item is powerful, but not artifact-level. It's two very good Core Book rings, combined into a single item, plus a flavourful ability which is good, but not overpowered, which allow you to cast Deeper Darkness under some conditions.

The archetypes all sound great. So utterly diabolic! The torturer one for Asmodean inquisitors sounds like it'd be perfect for a devil-blooded tiefling character I was thinking about making.

And the Infernal Barrister sounds like it's basically a must-have for this campaign. Can they still use channel energy to blast good-guy enemies?
Grand Lodge
Eric Hinkle wrote:
And the Infernal Barrister sounds like it's basically a must-have for this campaign. Can they still use channel energy to blast good-guy enemies?

Yes. Basically it's still the same Negative Channel Energy as what you're used to for evil clerics. However, where it shines is that if you're evil, you get healed instead of harmed. Now this is a problem for some PCs. Since it's quite possible that not everyone in the party is evil, only neutral, you'll need Selective Channeling to not deal damage to your comrades. As well, it costs you two channels instead of just one.

kevin_video wrote:
Eric Hinkle wrote:
And the Infernal Barrister sounds like it's basically a must-have for this campaign. Can they still use channel energy to blast good-guy enemies?
Yes. Basically it's still the same Negative Channel Energy as what you're used to for evil clerics. However, where it shines is that if you're evil, you get healed instead of harmed. Now this is a problem for some PCs. Since it's quite possible that not everyone in the party is evil, only neutral, you'll need Selective Channeling to not deal damage to your comrades. As well, it costs you two channels instead of just one.

Thanks for clarifying that! Yes, I will definitely have to get this book. ...Okay, I was going to get it anyway, but this is just more fuel for the (infernal) fire.

Grand Lodge

And if Gary's got good news tomorrow, I'll be getting Book 6 soon.

Any news on when these might be off backorder? I was hoping to pick up the whole set next month.
kevin_video wrote:
And if Gary's got good news tomorrow, I'll be getting Book 6 soon.

I certainly hope so! I'm very eager to see how this AP ends and who the final Big Bad, er, Good is.

Grand Lodge
Eric Hinkle wrote:
kevin_video wrote:
And if Gary's got good news tomorrow, I'll be getting Book 6 soon.
I certainly hope so! I'm very eager to see how this AP ends and who the final Big Bad, er, Good is.

Afraid no good news. He just updated Facebook saying that it'll be sometime next month. He's just not happy with how things are looking with regards to the readable text.

Actually he said "the end of january", I think.
Grand Lodge
gustavo iglesias wrote:
Actually he said "the end of january", I think.

He did. I'm hoping for earlier than that, but definitely not later.

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