I have a few PC's who always have to be the most powerful PC's createable, if you know what I mean. Have a late entry into the game with player who roles up a 10th Level Ranger, 1st Level Demon totem Pres. Class from Last Dragon. Of course upon looking character over notice that he also has choosen the Archery as Combat Style. Question is does anyone have any good substitutions for the Nimbus Bow Minor Artifact?, Was thinking about Making the Bow a Warhammer with same Status... Have Mind Block and just looking for other ideas... all will be welcomed..
Sure, that could work. Or a spear or mahacuitul (or whatever the Olman longsword was called). It's always a good idea to change the big rewards in the campaign to suit your PCs, but I can see why you wouldn't want to suit them TOO well. It was meant to help kill dragons, so a longspear or similar large weapon would be suitable.
Creative Director
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Hmmm... depends. ... If the player of the ranger character's having fun and the rest of the group is having fun with him being powerful, I'd keep the bow unchanged.
That said, if he's so powerful that he's outshining the other PCs and he's pretty much being unhurt in every combat and the other PCs are being slaughtered time after time, then yes. I'd suggest changing the nimbus bow into a weapon that one of the other PCs uses (hopefully the PC who needs the biggest power up).
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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I'm planning on dropping the bow's spell-like abilities, but otherwise keeping the rest (including artifact status), so that it has a market value of 52,315. You have to assign a rough value of each item used by each PC, so that things are reasonably balanced, so dropping the SLAs helped here.
I also plan to replace the weapon found in room 40e with a quarterstaff each end being a cold iron +1 speed weapon.
Are either of these ideas any use?
Well, I'd make one end of the quarter staff something else - you only get a maximum of one extra attack per round, so having two speed ends doesn't grant two extra attacks.
You need to consider that right now in the AP, Nimbus SUCKS. Big time. It's A: shocking, and B: funky reptilian/earth bane. As far as I can see through the rest of City of Broken Idols and Scuttlecove, the bow is only going to be of use against the Yuan-ti. Since demons are the main foes of this campaign, the bow is nearly worthless, as demons are immune to electricity (which nerfs both the shocking and the summon arrowhawk abilities), rarely ever carry weapons (nerfs the warp wood), and, unless the bow has very very loose definitions of reptilian, demons aren't reptilian.
That is a good question for the designers. The bow is effective against reptilian creatures, including all dragons. Does the term reptilian mean the reptilian subtype, or anything scaly and cold-blooded looking? Like a maralith?
Ultimately, Nimbus feels to me like a another planted key, like the Tooth of Ahazu. Later on in the path, something will rear its ugly head, and lo and behold a bow that does electricity damage and rips up earth and reptiles will be just the thing against this monstrosity. Not that this is a bad thing, just stating my opinion. Nimbus is a "here's a present, don't whine, you'll thank me later".
Honestly, if Nimbus increases the power of an 11th level ranger/demonhunter in your campaign, what was he using before this, a masterwork shortbow? The ranger in my game has a +2 sacred, evil outsider-bane doublebow made out of the freely given bones of twin couatls who died fighting a demon. In my game, she seems just about right powerwise.
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Creative Director
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That is a good question for the designers. The bow is effective against reptilian creatures, including all dragons. Does the term reptilian mean the reptilian subtype, or anything scaly and cold-blooded looking? Like a maralith?
Actually... making the Nimbus Bow NOT a killer-app for the rest of the campaign was on design. There'll be plenty of reptilian monsters to fight later on (there's certainly lots of yuan-ti in Scuttlecove, and there's a fair amount of linnorms in Enemies of my Enemy), but it's not something intended to dominate the rest of the adventure path.
Hmmm, trying to figure out if that answered my question. Going to go with "reptilian subtype + dragon type" unless James clarifies otherwise.
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Creative Director
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Hmmm, trying to figure out if that answered my question. Going to go with "reptilian subtype + dragon type" unless James clarifies otherwise.
OH! Yeah... sorry about that... kinda glossed over it.
It gains its bonus damage against all creaures with the Earth subtype and all reptilian monsters. A marilith would certainly count, as would any other monster that's got reptile features. I'd probably say a hezrou wouldn't count... they're more like amphibians, but it'd work on things like nagas and dinosaurs and even Demogorgon.
Good Info.....
Yes indeed, good to know. My wife's Olman Ranger was a bit annoyed that Khala the Two Headed was more molusk/amphibian due to being kopru origionally; she really wanted to unload some Olman vengeance on him. Same with the reappearance of Xerkomat the Wastrilith. But Serpents of Scutllecove should leave many options for Nimbus action.