Having neutralized the enemy’s new weapons, the PCs and their allies assault the Wildwood Lodge directly to oust its murderous despot. Yet after recruiting local allies and besieging living fortresses, they discover their foe has fled to an unfamiliar realm: the Plane of Wood. The PCs pursue, arriving in an elemental town that is all too familiar with the Wildwood Lodge’s trickery. The PCs must earn the inhabitants’ trust and investigate their foe’s final gambit before giving chase into a blighted wilderness and averting an invasion that could devastate the Verduran Forest.
Shepherd of Decay is a wilderness-themed Pathfinder adventure for four 11th-level characters. The adventure concludes the Wardens of Wildwood Adventure Path, a three-part monthly campaign in which a group of adventurers navigate a tricky balance between idyllic wilderness, a hungry nation, and primal forces beyond the natural world. This volume also includes a look at how to continue the campaign, a gazetteer of a settlement on the Plane of Wood, several new magical items, and new monstrous threats!
Each monthly full-color softcover Pathfinder Adventure Path volume contains an in-depth adventure scenario, stats for several new monsters, and support articles meant to give Game Masters additional material to expand their campaign.
Written by: Mike Kimmel with John Compton
ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-592-2
The Wardens of Wildwood Adventure Path is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle Sheets are available as a free download (656 KB PDF).
I really wanted to like this series but running this has felt like a chore. The siege of Arenway is the highlight and it is an annoying slog to get through. With boring downtime activities once more, confusing subsystems, and little agency on the players' part. What was so good about book 1 was the player agency in the gala, and how it felt like they were the ones protecting the forest in this pivotal time. Yet book 2 and book 3 just fail to follow up on that energy.
For example, much of the things you do during the siege is just random encounters; that you might as well have been rolling on a roll table for. The Caustic Cave dungeon crawl was fun but aside from that it was just a lackluster string of events.
After you have successfully put Ruzadoya on her backfoot (which unless you did what I did and made Ruzadoya's presence more felt in book 2, it won't feel earned.) you then head into the Plane of Wood. Which should have been the highlight of this book. I will give this book credit where it is due, the plane of wood felt alien and confusing in an interesting way. Though it being confusing is part of the problem, it was extremely difficult for my players to make it through. It was a pain after the initial contact though, having to do random chores in a town ridden with blight while trying to stop the possible end of the world (which the players did not know was at stake at all).
At the end the fight against the final boss is terrible, Ruzadoya does not pose a great threat and her goons are easily incapacitated. She does not hit hard at all and her ONE AoE attack is easy to dodge and does barely anything. The Gritblights you fight just before her are way harder than the FINAL FIGHT OF THIS AP. It's just dumb.
All in all this book just can't set the stakes right, does not follow on the threads in the first two books, and has a series of confusing subsystems that the players have to interact with or the world ends.
Epic Siege to Scattered Mess, Falls Apart After Chapter 1
Without a doubt, the siege of the Isle of Arenway is the game's high point, as it masterfully builds momentum. The siege highlights the possibilities of this adventure by fusing compelling storytelling with a high level of tactical tension. The stakes are high and players get a well-earned victory.
Unfortunately, not too long afterward, the impetus is lost. The pace slows down to an annoying crawl, particularly when the adventure shifts to the plane of wood. The adventure falters between disjointed story beats and awkward subsystems, making it difficult to stay engaged. What had the potential to build into something greater turns into a slog of social encounters and slow progression.
The adventure’s end is even more disappointing. It's a scattered mess, where despite defeating the BBEG, players can still lose due to a confusing influence encounter. The outcome feels cheap, especially after such a grueling and poorly paced second half.
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
logic_poet wrote:
What level does this AP end at?
The AP goes from lvl 5 to 15, if I recall correctly. So the PCs should either end at 15 or 16 (usually Paizo exclude the level up you get with the "last boss" of their adventures when talking about the "levels" they span, like Ap starting at lvl 1 often ends with a level up to 11, but they say lvl 1 to 10 because you don't "get" to play that 11th level).
The AP goes from lvl 5 to 15, if I recall correctly. So the PCs should either end at 15 or 16 (usually Paizo exclude the level up you get with the "last boss" of their adventures when talking about the "levels" they span, like Ap starting at lvl 1 often ends with a level up to 11, but they say lvl 1 to 10 because you don't "get" to play that 11th level).
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Invictus Fatum wrote:
Elfteiroh wrote:
logic_poet wrote:
What level does this AP end at?
The AP goes from lvl 5 to 15, if I recall correctly. So the PCs should either end at 15 or 16 (usually Paizo exclude the level up you get with the "last boss" of their adventures when talking about the "levels" they span, like Ap starting at lvl 1 often ends with a level up to 11, but they say lvl 1 to 10 because you don't "get" to play that 11th level).
I belive it would be 13.
Book 1 = 5-7
Book 2 = 8-10
Book 3 = 11-13
Yeah, they mentionned it in March. My initial post was made before we had that information, oops. xD
Will be the second "AP" that end around that level, with Seven Dooms For Sandpoint ending at lvl 12. :O
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Just wondering if the recently announced "Spore War" high level AP (also a 3 part adventure path I believe) would be a good continuation (like would the starting level of Spore War line up with the ending lvl of Wardens of the Wildwood).
Just wondering if the recently announced "Spore War" high level AP (also a 3 part adventure path I believe) would be a good continuation (like would the starting level of Spore War line up with the ending lvl of Wardens of the Wildwood).
Characters end book 2 of Wardens of Wildwood at level 11 which is the same level as Spore War.
So running both adventure paths would likely end up removing one of the books (either book 3 of wardens or book 1 of spore war) or making some kind of abridged version for the story.
Just wondering if the recently announced "Spore War" high level AP (also a 3 part adventure path I believe) would be a good continuation (like would the starting level of Spore War line up with the ending lvl of Wardens of the Wildwood).
Characters end book 2 of Wardens of Wildwood at level 11 which is the same level as Spore War.
So running both adventure paths would likely end up removing one of the books (either book 3 of wardens or book 1 of spore war) or making some kind of abridged version for the story.
Mind sharing what's in the toolbox (including beasties)? And what's one of the highlights of this particular adventure?
At work, so can't nessacerily going into detail, but...
Spoiler:
Blight Bonded - elementals and beasts mutated by Ayrzul's Blight - three of them, two Lvl 10, one Lvl 13. The Creeping Cone is some of my new favourite monster art.
Leshies - A Lvl 11 troop and a new Lvl 10 leshy.
Gritblight - Lvl 13 earth elemental. Not going to say where they come from, but if you read between the lines you can probably partially figure it out.
Speaker in Spores - Sentinet fungal offgrowth. Saying anything more would be double spoilers. Lvl 13
Wood Elementals - Two new ones. A Lvl 12 hydra and a Lvl 14 spider. Love them.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Many of the maps in the interactive maps file seem to be strangely undersized, i.e. Sent Below, Encroaching Blight, Thornbaker's Yard, Flourishing Wood, Withered Morass and Blighted Borderlands are very small sized single page maps.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
ornathopter wrote:
Are there any interesting new player options?
Not particularly.
Spoiler:
There a couple of wood themed spells and the standard array of new items. The main backmatter article is a gazetteer for the Plane of Wood settlement, not a big player options article like last volume.
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
ornathopter wrote:
Could someone please share
** spoiler omitted **
There's only one.
Spoiler:
Boughshatter, +2 greater striking standard-grade adamantine morningstar that glows green. It give +4 status to saves vs radiation, and two activations:
Splintering Strike [two-actions]: Strike w/ +1 dice of dmg, ignore 10 B and P resistance if the target is fungus, plant, or wood, and cause that creature "flesh" to explode, creating a cone of 8d6 piercing dmg (DC 30 reflex) that ignore both you and the target.
Absorb Corruption [reaction]: trigger: you take poison or void dmg Effect: Boughshatter gains the effect of decaying rune, grievous rune, or wounding rune for 1 minute, and spread dim green light in 20ft radius.