Many of the NPCs play obviously important roles... Jenya Urikas (and the other clerics at the Church of St. Cuthbert), Maavu Arlintal (and the Chisel), and the Striders of Fharlanghn. Because of their direct involvement of getting information to the party, they may be relatively easy to flesh out and use often. I'm going to start this thread with my favorite NPC: Skylar Krewis
Skylar Krewis is introduced and detailed in The Demonskar Legacy as Sergeant Skylar Krewis as part of the Cauldron Tax Riot encounter. The adventure suggests that Skylar could help the party members meet the captain of the town guard, and there is information in the subsequent adventures on how to contact Skylar, and the type of information they can get from him.
I introducted Skylar in the first adventure, as Private Krewis, as part of the town guard that was investigating the disappearance of the children from the Lantern Street Orphanage. The party members took to him fairly well, and, being unsure of their own party strength, hired him on to join the under-ground search (for a full share of treasure).
For the purposes of this first encounter, I used the stats of a 2nd Level NPC Fighter (DMG 117) for Skylar, but I kept his tactics fairly self-preserving... I didn't want him to die and miss the rest of the campaign!
The party was successful in rescuing the children, which brought immediate fame to the party members, but it also resulted in the promotion of Skylar to Sergeant Krewis. The next time the party members ran into him, I made a point of verbally expressing it. Something like:
"As you come out of the Tipped Tankard, you run into SERGEANT Krewis leading his own town patrol..."
My players picked up on this and congratulated him and bought him and his patrol drinks (after hours, of course).
One of my players (a gamer girl) became romantically involved with Skylar, but that relationship came to a tragic end as her character was killed by Skaven in the next adventure. During the wake (the character was an outsider... no resurrection), Skylar came to the Tipped Tankard. There was a collective "Oh-uh" from the players when I announced him.
I told the players that he looked like hell... probably no sleep, probably drinking a lot, looks like he injured himself somehow... and he looked around and walked up to the paladin, who stood up to meet him, and Skylar punched him in the jaw declaring:
"You let her die! You were responsible for her safety, and YOU FAILED HER!"
The inn came to a dead quite, but the paladin (the best I've ever seen role-played) nodded and quitely said "Yes... I did." At that, Skylar broke down and started crying, and stayed with the party members for the rest fo the night.
Later, when the party was going to raid the Cathedral of Wee Jas, they contacted Skylar and had his help to keep the town guard away from that area for an hour. They subdued Ike Iverson, and the other cleric, instead of killing them, and handed them over to Skylar. The arrest of Iverson was enough to earn him another promotion... Lieutenant Krewis.
Skylar will play a large part in the evacuation of the city during Foundation of Flame, and will end up being the next captain of the town guard after all has settled.
But next, they party is about to discover that Skylar was turned to stone by Vhalantru, in an attempt to stop his popularity with the commoners and his continuing rise in the town guard. Vhaluntru knows that if the town guardsmen were to follow this young "champion of the masses" that he could lose control of the forces he put into place.
Skylar's direct involvement with the party, hence against the Cagewrights, has been a thorn for Vhalantru. However, because of his popularity with the commoners, and the town guardsmen, his death or disappearance would be noticed and investigated. Instead, with promotions here and there, the bad guys have been able to watch him more closely. Now, at the edge of the Ritual of Planar Junction, they are getting rid of potential leaders that could threaten control of the city.
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All in all, I think that I've used Skylar well. His growth as an NPC has been on par with the party members, and shows my players how a character can progress in a city campaign.
He is currently a Fighter 8/Marshal 6 (from the Miniature's Handbook) to emphasize his beginning as a town guardsman, then receiving training as a sergeant and lieutenant. He'll end up as a Ftr 12/Msh 8.
I'm running Life's bazaar right now. I ran the first encounter (almost) exactly the same way. Ruphus called for the guards when the PC's incapacitated all three thugs. The guard patrol was led by sgt. Krewis. Of course, when it turned out the thugs where in fact city guards, he got pretty nervous. Depending how he (and the PC's) deal with this rather delicate situation, there might be a promotion or a demotion in the works for the good sergeant.
I started my players (5th level) in Cauldron two sundays ago, and we are finishing up (maybe) Life's Bazaar tomorrow. So far, I had to ask the Half-Orc Cleric to change his diety from Wee Jas to Kord, as I read ahead and saw that he could come into a conflict of interest against his own church for which Wee Jas may have to punish him for doing. Also he's more of a smash and kill guy anyway.
They arrived in Cauldron, had a few drinks, heard the rumors of the kidnappings, and then rescued the priest from the thugs, capturing one of them (Nilas). They brought him to the Church of St Cuthbert and the Paladine took the man into custody and presented him to the town guard, after getting the names of the other two men involved.
They really enjoyed doing the detective work, although they tried to force the Lord Mayor's aid to give them an audience, and were escorted out of town hall. The cleric then tried to have a stray dog who hung around the orphanage lead them to one of the kidnapped children, but I had the dog loose the scent outside the orphanage. The cleric ofcourse complained that a real blood hound wouldn't loose a scent, and I had to point out this was a stray mutt, not a trained hunting dog!
Because they were hired by the Last Laugh, the players were assuming the kidnappers were the theives guild, so the went and found Kerlen (who had escaped), but since he had little information it didn't pan out. Ghelve confounded the players for a bit until one of them realized that he was being watched They kept trying to be too sly, just asking him to come look at a lock he installed, and he told them he was too busy. Later they came back and told him about the missing children, and he indicated to them his perdictiment. They sent him to fetch Alek and the town guard, for reinforcements and then headed down into Jzadirune.
They managed to go through a quarter of Jzadirune, and forced a Skulk to take them to Yuathyb. They are now resting after killing the Grell, and plan on having Yuathyb show them to the slave bazaar.
One problem I had is that since the Skulk doesn't speak or understand Common, I had to allow the Comprehend Languages spell to work both ways, and I allowed the Mimic to speak Orc.
Joe
Well, my characters just finished Life's Bazaar. They were very successfull, although they are higher level and they did have trouble with some of the encounters, despite having 5 PC's. I think they didn't rest and heal enough, they tried to do it all at once. In any case, they killed Kazmojen, most of the Hobgoblins, the Ogre/Otyugh, And Vahlantru rescued Terrem without being attacked by the PC's.
After returning to the surface (with all of Kazmojen's hostages alive), they sold their booty, healed and then started asking all sorts of questions I wasn't ready for. They figured out Terrem was part of some prophecy (probably to destroy the world) and that they should probably kill him. So they started asking what day he was born, was it during a holy or unholy day, what happened to his parents, who knew them, did the Last Laugh kill them, where are they burried (Temple of Wee Jas who wouldn't let them into the catacombs), who employed them? Man, I just wasn't ready for that!
Next time we get together we will either go back to Jzardiune, and the Malachite fortress to finish it up,or go onto Flood Season. Ofcourse, they may just jump into trying to find out more about the Last Laugh and go in another direction totaly. We'll see.
Joe
I did a little write up of some of the major NPC, sometimes using some text straight from the books, some times using some characteristics from the DMG or just making it up my self. I hope this stuff helps. oh, The Queens justice is the name of my PC group.
Ruphus laro
Human cleric (St. cuthbert) lvl: 3
HP: 16, AC: 14, Init: -1
Ruphus is jenya urikas’s personal assistant. He runs around doing odd jobs for jenya such as delivering messages and running errands. Besides a slight stutter, there is nothing remarkable about him. He secretly has a crush on jenya and thinks by doing what she says; he’ll gain her respect and maybe even love. He is also grateful to the Queens justice for rescuing him from a band of last-laugh thugs and will willingly assist them in any way he can.
Jenya Urikas
Human cleric (St. Cuthbert) lvl: 7
HP 42, AC: 17, Init: -1
Jenya is 30 years old, has brown eyes and likes to wear her gray streaked hair in various elaborate styles. Although she stands only 5’4” tall, she walks tall and confronts evil with merciless resolve. Her good nature belies her fierce convictions, and she freely supports capital punishment for despicable crimes.
Alek Tercival
Human aristocrat lvl: 5 / paladin lvl: 4
HP: 58, AC: 20, Init: +1
Alek Tercival, heir to one of the city’s greatest families became a paladin after his father’s death left him destitute. With the assistance of his childhood friend Jenya Urikas, Alek joined the church of St. Cuthbert with a strong (if rather flamboyant) passion. Alek’s advancement in the church has been painfully slow, but throughout it all his devotion has remained strong.
Sergeant Skylar Krewis
Human fighter lvl: 4
HP: 30, AC: 17, Init: +1
Krewis is 5’10” with brown hair and a long, thin scar down the left side of his face. He is a loyal and brave young man and although he serves under Terseon Skellerang, he is a fair-minded and understanding soldier. After a brief but fruitful adventuring experience, he started his new career to settle down and marry in Cauldron. Like all soldiers, Krewis must follow orders, but is also even minded.
Jax Belious (proprietor of the slippery eel tavern)
Human commoner lvl: 4
HP: 8, AC: 10, Init: 0
Jax is5’4”, has light brown hair and a very crooked nose. A long time native of Caldron, few people know he was born in the capital city. He has run the Slippery Eel tavern for many years now and rents out rooms on the second and third floor to those willing to pay and put up with his overly critical observations. Rooms for rent run for 80-gp room and bored.
Halpeen Welvihk (proprietor of the drunken morkoth inn)
Human male expert lvl: 6
HP: 18, AC: 12, Init: +2
Halpeen came to Cauldron 25 years ago to fulfill her dream of opening up a great restaurant he takes great pride in the drunken morkoth inn and it’s reputation as the best eatery on the west side (his main computation in town is the Coy Nixie on the east side). Halpeen is very well mannered, believing in winning people over politeness. He is also going blind and is very nearsighted.
Pilok Minuta (proprietor of minuta’s board)
Human Male commoner lvl: 3
HP: 6, AC: 10, Init: 0
Pilok is a very sweaty, 5’5” man who was born poor. Through hard work, he skimped and saved enough to buy a rundown boarding house, which he named after himself. Pilok takes on all boarders so he can make enough money as fast as possible to get him out of the slums.
Rivek Mol (proprietor of the Tipped Tankard)
Human male Rogue1/expert4
HP: 14, AC: 11, Init: +1
Rivek is not only the owner of the Tipped Tankard but also an informant for the last laugh guild. He has a very easy going personality that he uses to make people as comfortable as possible and try to squeeze them for information that would be useful for his guild. He is a tall (6’1”), black man with a shinny baldhead.
Killiken Deldor (Works for Maavu as his money changer)
Gnome male Rogue4/expert4
HP: 27 AC: 18, Init +2
Killiken has worked for Maavu for a number of years and enjoys his job very much to the point that he has had magical reconstruction done on his eyes to help him perform his duties better. In all aspects he appears as a normal gnome except for his eyes, which are huge. His large eyes give him the abilities of a pair of Goggles of Minute Seeing, but with a +10 bonus instead of the standard +5. Killiken is a very efficient and precise in all aspects of life and finds people who think otherwise very annoying.
Phalian Gurnezarn (blacksmith and proprietor of Gurnezarn’s Smithy)
Human male Expert6
HP: 18, AC: 10, Init 0
Phalian is a large, burly man with a close cut beard and a broad smile. He loves to work his forge just as much as he loves to drink and tell stories at the local tavern. Unfortunately he has a very short attention span and needs to be reminded daily (if not more) about the projects he’s working on. Written notes and lists are useless because he cannot read or write.
Vortimax Weer (Alchemist and proprietor of Weer’s Elixirs)
Human male wizard10
HP: 22, AC: 12, Init: 0
Vortimax studded at the renowned magic college of Bigby’s Hall. He is a very civic minded individual and truly believes in the betterment of society through the distribution of magic and alchemy to the common man. Vortimax is always fidgeting with something and talks very fast, sometimes about nothing at all.
Bjellkir Zanathor (proprietor of Zanathor’s Provisions)
Human male commoner3
HP: 6, AC: 9, Init: -1
Bjellkir is getting old in life and spends most of his time in a park near his shop feeding the birds. He hangs a sign in the door telling people that he is there and when people come over to get him, he gives them the impression that there bothering him. Bjellkir has no family and few friends and is slowly becoming bitter with the fact that all he has is his shop. Bjellkir has white, wispy hair and stoops a little from his old age.
Kristof Jurgensen (Cleric at the Shrine of Pelor)
Human male cleric4
HP: 16, AC: 10, Init 0
Kristof, usually an upbeat and optimistic person, he is feeling the pressure of being thrust into the position of head cleric of the shrine of pelor. Kristof only has 2 other clerics to help now and if focused on the survival of the temple above all other things. Kristof is a young man that looks older from the constant stress of his new position. He has also started to drink quite a bit in order to try to get by.
Asfelkir Hranleurt (high priest of the Temple of Lordly Might, Kord)
Half-orc claric9
HP: 45, AC: 20, Init: +4
Asfelkir sees everything in life as a test or computation. This trait brought him to the priesthood of kord and has helped him advance quite rapidly through the ranks. The glory of Kord is his main priority in his life right now and he will let nothing stop him in achieving his goals. Asfrlkir is overbearing and a little bit of a bully. He tries to use his position as high priest and his physical appearance (he’s 6’10”, 380lbs) to intimidate others to do what he wants.
Artus Shemwich (fence, information broker, and cook at Tipped Tankard)
Human male rogue7
HP: 23, AC: 14, Init: +2 (see “Flood Season, p43)
Artus is a fairly nondescript man in his early twenties, but this is mostly an act. He can turn on the charm with ease, and cleans up real nice when he wants to make an impression on an important client. Artus is loosely affiliated with the last laugh and he keeps track of his best customers.
Dear Aceospades, I hope you don't mind, I used some of your NPC descriptions on an online NPC list at aarg.net
I did a little write up of some of the major NPC, sometimes using some text straight from the books, some times using some characteristics from the DMG or just making it up my self. I hope this stuff helps. oh, The Queens justice is the name of my PC group.
[npc descriptions...]
Thanks! this is great stuff. Saves me the trouble of writing it all up myself, since I have a cleric of st-cuthbert in my group who is from cauldron itself, I figured I should give him some extra info on various npcs from the town. Now all I have to do is write up a few things about the town he should know - like the flood festival for instance...
ahhhh, thanks guys. i'm just glad some people got some use out of what i did.
How are other DM's with parties greater than 4 doing maintaining treasure balance?
Treasure balance has actually been working rather well for my group. Because I have had 8 PC's for the majority of the campaign, I have offset the numbers by simply adding a few extra things here and there. But, to prevent the encounters from becoming too easy, I have held back some of the loot. I only add one or two things other than what is written in the given treasure for any encounter...
One other question. I am looking for some suggestions on trap xp. My party rogue is good, and thorough (I quit giving xp for all the darn Jzardirune door traps after about the first four and eliminated them all together after awhile...
I just add the encounter to the total party XP and divide evenly. The entire party gets a share of overcoming the traps, not just the rogue. And if the rouge gets too far ahead, find a way to hold him back, or possibly encounter a creature with an energy drain attak. Nothing like brining a character that is cocky down with a loss of level...
Great list! I wish I had found this before this past Tues because I just started the AP.
My group (still unnamed) finally entered the Malachite Fortress. We have been playing every tuesday with very few exceptions since the first week of Sep. Yep, they are slow.
You think your group is slow? I just finished Life's bazar last wednesday. Now scroll up the page for my earlier post. Yep... we've been playing since august. I'm definitely not going to use the Kopru Ruins in Flood season.
XP and tresure are pretty well balanced if you follow the DMG. 13.3 CR1 encounters will give a party enough XP and treasure to reach 2nd level and be at the recomended wealth level. Actually, there's a bit more treasure to compensate for single use items expended during the encounters.
Now the adventure is pretty well balanced in terms of XP and tresure. Actually, there's a lot more encounters than nescesary to reach 3rd level, as the party doesn't need to explore the entire enclave to reach the malachite hold. Most of the loot is in the malachite hold(particularly Kazmojen's secret tresure room) Rather than in Jzadirune. So you may want to reconsider handing out extra goodies early on in the adventure.
First of all, Big Jake that's some awesome role-playing, if I could ring half the emotion out of my hack and slashers that would be incredible. Way to go for the emotional juggular, I wish I was only so creative.
Second, that's a whole lot of work and effort Asceospades that I will have to steal (if you don't mind) the next time I run Shackled City.
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What can I say? We started at the beginning of August and the party just reached 2nd level and did not even enter the malachite fortress. It took nearly the complete last session to get up back to Cauldron and heal up, enter Jzadirune again and disarm another tilt-trap. That's all...
Well they met several other people and had to report to Jenya Urekas (if you want healing, tell us what happened so far). They managed to keep the triggerhappy Cuthbertians from arresting Keygan Ghelve through some tricky maneuvering, so they do not know his involvement in the abductions - yet. The other thing that hampers our speed is our frequence of play. We play every fortnight. I have no idea (with Christmas break coming up) how it will take to complete Life's Bazaar...
My group started at 5th level, and still had trouble in Life's Bazaar. And they never finished clearing the two dungeons from Life's Bazaar. I am trying to get them to finish that before moving on, but they want to find out why the Beholder wanted Terrem so much, so they want to go find the Last Laugh's hide outs,and explore what the temple of Wee Jas is doing (I decided Terrem's parents were burried in the temple's catacombs)
Joe
My group at start consisted of four 2nd level & one 3rd level (ECL) characters (elf bard; modified drow monk, follower of Eilistraee [ECL 0 - no SR]; bugbear chain fighter [fgr + monsterous levels - great story and background for non-evil bugbear]; dwarf fgr; dwarf cleric [st. cuthbert]). I allowed this after reading the first two adventures (#97 & 98). I feel you will 90%+ of the time get a TPK if the DM follows the "start at first level" proceedure. Kazmojen & Prickles are a KILLER. Now toss in about 6 or so hobs - reasonable because they will hear the howler - and the PCs have got some real issues.
The party made it through Jzadirune with having to go to the surface for rest twice (bard and cleric) but was not too difficult because of their average level, plus one PC/NPC (cleric).
When they discovered the lift and the two hobs, the bard was able to charm one of hobs (other parished) - this was after some great role-playing ("admitting" they were wrong in attacking the hobs, actually healing the living hob, admitting the hob's boss was grossly powerful, offering to pay gold for the other hob's death and THEN secretly hitting him with the charm spell). He told what he knew of the MF (not too much as he has the cush job of "lift duty.") and gave a crude and barely decipherable map to the "bazaar" and prison.
They used magic to disguise themselves as hobs and "escorted" some new prisoners into the Malachite Fortress (MF).
They escorted around the "prisoners" and visited the bazaar where they met/saw Kazmojen, Prickles and the buyer. There the beholder encounter occurred. They saw, they wet themselves, they left to toss the "prisoners" into the prison.
Most of the fights were simple except for when Kaz & Prick showed up (The "prisoners" were armed and armored when they went into the torture room and the jailer made his Spot and Sense Motive roll. The PCs didn't take down the jailer quick enough and he bellowed out "intruders" when he was standing near the windows. This happened twice. After second time Kaz, Prick and some hobs came to investigate - word was sent to Major-Domo to come ASAP.)
That battle was rough. If I had not read and understood the (too) high EL for several of the potential encounters (depending upon how the PCs entered the MF and then acted/reacted), and with that knowledge gave out extra $$$ for them to use at a (forced) spontaneous trip to Skie's Magic Shop for a half-priced, half-charged wand of CMW, the party would be dead. No "ifs" or "buts" about it. Maybe the drow monk could have made it out (40' speed and darkvision) but I seriously doubt anyone else.
BUT Kaz retreated (ogre, Prickles and most hobs dead) to his room and then treasure chamber. He was just going to grab some pocket change and take a short trip to his grandmother's cave for some toadberry pie ;-) but the PCs showed up tracking him and then Kaz and the modified mimic (minus stickyness) got to put the whoop down on the party. That almost TPK them again. Kaz' and the mimic's reach make most of those rooms VERY DANGEROUS places to have to move around in (same with Kaz & ogre). The wand of CMW was really the saving factor (that and they have the bard and cleric who can utilize healing magic, in whatever form). Now just think of what WOULD have happened if I had kept the mimics adhesive quality. (Yes, the PCs could have retreated but Kaz was fully healed by that time, and had lost Prickles, so I think he would have seen weakness and brought down all his and the mimics might upon any PC reachable.)
The PCs finished off Kaz and the rest of the resistance, rescued all but the children (buyer left with the kids to the Underdark when Kazmojen went to investigate).
They missed a few secrets and a few creatures (who fled) but finished most encounters/areas. Returned the kidnapped victims, got paid (1000gp as only 1 child made it back), paid off some debts, made some charitable donations (cleric to church, orphanage & families of those not recovered), went to the capital city for some magic purchases, and then back to Cauldron for some rest.
We have just started "Flood Season" and the have just approached the Lucky Monkey and are just now reconing the building and environs. They have spotted the dinos out back but have not figured out what the "lizards" are feeding upon.
Question: Have any of the rest of you DMs felt or experience that certain ELs in some of the modules' different encounters are just too high for the stated desired party level? Point - look at encounter of Tarkilar, the gnoll huecuva. The adventure states it is an EL 9. WOW! The adventure states the PCs should at the beginning be 4th level and by the END have achieved 6th level or a little above (in EXP not Level). See what I mean?
Yes, I can adjust the ELs, the CRs, treasure to help strengthen the party, the combat situations, but as they are written some of them DO seem a bit harsh.
Now, understand I just LOVE Chris P's Adventure Path series. Excellent work, in many ways and in many areas. Five Gold Stars. Two Thumbs Up. Astounding work! (hehe) So let's not go there. But am I the only one feeling this EL "thangy"?
Thanks.
V
I definatley thought the EL's are over-estimating the character's abilities. I agree that it also depends on what and how the characters do. My group is very light in magic, with only a cleric who acts more like a fighter. They purchased no extra magic. They also had too much of a sense of urgency in Life's Bazaar that is carrying into Flood Season. They are rushing past exploring the dungeons,and finding loot, in order to complete the quests. They just rescued Shensen, only because I intoduced Farion and Fellion (sp?) who asked if they had seen her, and then used their conact with Meerthan to comfirm she was alive and in the Inn somewhere. My pc's aren't stopping to rest and heal enough either. But, the fight in the Lucky Monkey, even against Tongue Eater (which the Cleric made very easy by casting Hold Person on him) was easy for them, although the fight with Kazmojen,Prickles and the Hobgobs was difficult. Go figure. I was trying to decide if I should up the El of the Ebon Triad's dungeon, and am still undecided. Guess I'll have to see how that goes. I'm going to have Shensen do an 'Area Knowledge' kind of thing. It doesn't make sense to me (or the players) that they would go back to Cauldron and to Jenya and report failure, and have to rely on Shemwick for the location of the caves. But a Druid who knows the area almost as well as a ranger, now that makes more sense.
Oh, and yeah my elf player is all over Shensen.
Joe
Just want to say that I'm LOVING the Adventure Path series... I've been running it for my group for about 8 months now, and we're halfway through "Flood Season." That might seem a bit slow, but we only play every other weekend, and that for only about 6 hours at a time, sometimes running over if we're in the middle of a combat. I'd love to share the full adventures of my party (as yet unnamed, though they have some neat ideas) but that would take too long just now. I want to reply to the EL question on this thread first...
I am of the opinion that just about ALL adventures printed in D&D modules and in Dungeon magazine are just too bloody hard for a four-character group. A four-character party does not have the power and diversity to handle a series of EL-matched threats. With only four characters, something is bound to be missing from the party's repertoire... you can have a Fighter-type, a Mage-type, a Cleric/Healer, and a Rogue/Skill-monger, but if you multiclass it, you're more versatile than one category allows, but are weaker in power than your EL dictates. Plus, in a battle, if the Fighter type goes down, the group is really hurting with no backup fighter-type to help out. I've always favored a party of 6 or so, which gives a few more options... an extra Healer to take the slack, more arcane spells maybe, certainly more than one Fighter/Barbarian/Ranger/Paladin type. It also allows for the fun "filler" classes to be played: Druids, Monks, Bards. This is not to say that those classes can't be used as front-line characters, but if your 4-man party has a Monk as its sole melee-fighter-type, you're gonna take a beating (especially at low levels). Similarly, a Druid cannot generally handle the workload of healing that a Cleric can, and a party relying on a Bard for its sole arcane magicks its going to be lacking arcane firepower. Obviously, parties can and do exist that do without one or more of these broad categories (fighting, magic firepower, healing/defensive magic, and skills), but they do suffer some setbacks in certain encounters. Also, here's my strongest argument for a larger party... whenever I've run a pre-fab adventure as written, yet with a larger party, if the party investigates every area and leaves no stone unturned, they still come at the predicted level advancement by journey's end. Every time, without fail. I don't know why that's so, but so far, it is. And a slightly larger party just has more options available to them. We don't get quite as much done in a session, perhaps, but we don't get creamed by the opposition so much either, nor do we have to stop n' rest so much.
Anyway, I'm having a ball with the Shackled City, and I'd love to talk about the details at some other time. Those who might be interested in seeing some information on our group, check out http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/KOTCT/
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I am not sure about the ELs. They probably are tougher than they seem. I know that when I converted Life's Bazaar and Flood Season to 3.5 that quite a few creatures had +1 CR on 3.0 which made a big difference.
My problem is I have only have three players, let alone four. They are all human males, all lawful neutral (except the paladin), and are all religious. I am starting in Sasserine and having the players sent to the temples in Cauldron for a variety of reasons. On the way I am going to run Evil Unearthed from Dungeon 82 and rename Brokhollow as Hollowsky and have the battles link back to the Demonskar and Shatterhorn. The protagonists will be Ebon Triad (Hextor and Vecna).
So by the time players reach Cauldron they will be level two, so we will have a Pal2 [Pelor], Ftr1/Clr1[Saint Cuthbert], and a Clr1[Wee Jas]/Wiz(Nec)1. My issue is will level 2 be enough, or should I run Playing With Fire from Dungeon 82 as well to get them to level 3. With no rogue, and their religious affiliations (which will make the campaign even more interesting), the campaign is going to be a lot harder than usual.
Anyway, I'm having a ball with the Shackled City, and I'd love to talk about the details at some other time. Those who might be interested in seeing some information on our group, check out http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/KOTCT/
ummm. that site is members only.
kind regards,
Chef's Slaad
Last sunday I was missing two players (my group usualy has 5 in it), but we were able to NPC the missing characters. They rested and healed overnight at the Lucky Monkey, and then Shensen helped them find the entrance to the Ebon Triad's domain (I moved it to be on the Western slope of Cauldron). I didn't let them find it right away, and I added a encounter with a Manticore and it's cubs in there. At the end of the fight, one of the players decided to keep all three cubs and try and rear them. Aught to prove interesting. They tried to sneak into the caves, but the guards got the alarm off. Instead of charging in, they waited for a group to come investigate what happened. They set it to look like the first set of guards killed each other in a drunken fight. So, they ambushed the second set of guards, and moved down to the beach (not using the winch, but sliding down the rope). They found Triel first, and managed to kill her and 6 thugs, and are now in K37 resting over night. I figure Skaven will have all the rest of the thugs set up outside all the exits, and try and blast them before they come out, depending on how mean I'm feeling. I'm changing the undead to a Bone Claw from MM3, and a Bone Sucker, and making the T-Rex a Zombie.
Yes, and the PC's scouted the area by looking out through the windows, and decided not to attack the baboons, lest they turn out to be more were-baboons. I figured the baboons, however were not interested in what's going on inside. Shensen will couch them out behind the scenes, and let the two dinos have them.
I'm am DM'ing a Shackled City campaign, and my party is very near to dealing with Adimarchus. I was just reviewing his stats tonight, and my question is this: has anyone else noticed that he can cast Blasphemy once per day as a 30th level caster? This means that if most characters entered this adventure at 19th level (as written), and even if they advanced one level to 20th over the course of the adventure, they are still ten levels below Adimarchus, and thus are subject to being instantly killed by this spell...no save! Therefore, Adimarchus can destroy the entire party, in theory, in a single round.
I'm am DM'ing a Shackled City campaign, and my party is very near to dealing with Adimarchus. I was just reviewing his stats tonight, and my question is this: has anyone else noticed that he can cast Blasphemy once per day as a 30th level caster? This means that if most characters entered this adventure at 19th level (as written), and even if they advanced one level to 20th over the course of the adventure, they are still ten levels below Adimarchus, and thus are subject to being instantly killed by this spell...no save! Therefore, Adimarchus can destroy the entire party, in theory, in a single round.
Yeah, isn't it great.
10 levels over is over powered i think you should adject that before running that combat or at least give them a save... hover there is always the idea of looking at is like they are 20th level PC's if they made it this fare some bad ass FM's are gonig to be after them
Creative Director
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There's a similar thread going on about blasphemy in another thread here. In short, it's a pretty rough spell and in the future, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on when it pops up in adventures in the magazine.
A glance through the Book of Vile Darkness reveals that the demon lords therein have their spell-like abilities capped at Caster Level 20. If I had the power to reverse time, I'd change Adimarchus's Caster Level down to 20 for his spell-like abilities. And if/when we release the Adventure Path as a stand-alone product in the future, I'll do just that.
That said, blasphemy (and its related spells like word of chaos) isn't unstoppable. First off, anyone that's outside the spell's 40-foot radius escapes its effects entirely; the area in which Adimarchus is released is fairly wide open, so it's possible that PCs aren't going to be caught in the spell's area when it goes off.
And even if it does, there are a few spells that can provide protection against the effects of these spells. Silence blocks the effect, as does antimagic shell. Although these spells don't have the death descriptor, I think it's okay to allow death ward and similar effects to protect against being killed by a high-level blasphemy.
Finally, remember that any character who has the Smoking Eye template has the Imbued with Evil special quality, which tricks blasphemy into thinking the character is evil, and therefore won't affect anyone with this template. So even if the entire party is caught by the spell, any members with the Smoking Eye template will survive. Adimarchus knows this, so he might not use blasphemy immediately if he sees smoking eyes in favor of another attack.
Long Post Short: Reduce Adimarchus' caster level to 20.
There's a similar thread going on about blasphemy in another thread here. In short, it's a pretty rough spell and in the future, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on when it pops up in adventures in the magazine.
A glance through the Book of Vile Darkness reveals that the demon lords therein have their spell-like abilities capped at Caster Level 20. If I had the power to reverse time, I'd change Adimarchus's Caster Level down to 20 for his spell-like abilities. And if/when we release the Adventure Path as a stand-alone product in the future, I'll do just that.
That said, blasphemy (and its related spells like word of chaos) isn't unstoppable. First off, anyone that's outside the spell's 40-foot radius escapes its effects entirely; the area in which Adimarchus is released is fairly wide open, so it's possible that PCs aren't going to be caught in the spell's area when it goes off.
And even if it does, there are a few spells that can provide protection against the effects of...
I appreciate your input and advice. That may be what I'll have to do. One other option brought to my attention was to substitute Wretched Blight from the BoVD. Allows a Fort save. If failed, does 1d8 per level (max 15d8) to all non-evil, plus stuns for 1d4 rounds...twenty foot radius.
I decided Shensen would take over the Tavern. None of the PC's stepped foward on that one. Ofcourse, they're usualy pretty good about not fighting friendly NPC's.
Currently in Flood Season -
They party defeated Tongueeater but after a very hard fight (though Kazmojen was harder). Action Points won the day for them (Power Attack to get past the DR). Rescued Shensen and ran off the other thugs. Now off to gather info and some role-playing ...
Finished the rp and are now at the Kopru ruins. The party, through their own actions, are now caught between the lovely red head and the studicious halfling, literally. Yes, ouch. They are in a 30' room with one possible exit, though there are still 4 thugs blocking that one (the other two exits are "blocked" by the priestess of Hextor and the mage).
I am in a bit of a dilemma as to what to do. The APL is 4.5. The cleric of Hextor and two or three bodyguards would be more than enough of a challenge for them, BUT now add in the mage and well ... You see the issue.
Shensen and the two Striders are on the way to assist (the party actually set this one half-purposely and half-accidently); they asked Shensen to help them find the opening to below (divination "speaks" of below, etc.) and she said she would get some help. The party also observered that if the "apeman" (were-baboon) was THAT difficult, his boss should be even harder. Shensen agreed and went to get help.
This NPC assistance *might* get them through the encounter, alive - mostly alive - but we will have to see. Even though they accidently caused the situation to be so bleak, I want us to have fun - not slaughter them - but some times good tactics just don't turn out to be good plans ...
Update you all later. V