Greetings!
I'm running the Savage Tide AP in Eberron and the group recently finished off the Bullywug Gambit with everyone reaching 6th level (yes, they took out Harliss Javell) and they are all loaded.
Here are my dilemmas which I hope someone can help me...
- A PC died in the Vanderboren Manor (6th level Kalashtar psionicist) and the group, and the player understandbly, want to bring him back. Considering that there are time limits on "Raise Dead" and "Resurrection" is an extremely high-level spell, does anyone have some good ideas on how to address this? There isn't anyone in Sasserine of high enough level to bring him back.
My first thought was to run the party over to "Expedition to Castle Ravenloft" with the gimmick that "...towards the West there is a man rumored to have conquered life and death..." I was also thinking that they could afford to lose a level or two, but maybe that's being too tough.
I have not yet read the third installment, "The Sea Wyvern's Wake" so maybe some of the problems could be solved there. I am afraid that I can't think of a 'realistic' way to get the PC back into the game nor a way to lighten the 'confidence' of the party by removing magic items and/or levels.
Another problem I am having with the group is that one PC in particular insists that Sasserine is a big enough town to go shopping for a flaming longsword +1. Now, I'm not fully abreast of all the rules, but considering that Sasserine is on the far eastern outskirts of Khorvaire and without any Dragonmarked Houses, what "rules" are in place to help a DM with what PCs can or cannot purchase in the town.
Any thoughts would be most appreciated.
Swords Bright!
(although not as bright now since Dragon and Dungeon Magazines have been cancelled...still suffering from depression on that one).
Big D!
Well depending how closely your Eberron version of Sasserine follows the published version you have a couple of options.
1. A raise dead spell allows one day per caster level, and the temple of Kord has a cleric who is high enough level to cast raised dead. A scroll of raise dead or ressurection might also be available and those could be successfully cast by a lower level cleric than could normally cast the spell, as long as they pass their check to use the scroll. At anyrate being able to bring back a dead PC shouldn't be a huge issue in a city as big as Sasserine, as long as the PCs have the money.
2. There may not be a +1 flaming sword kicking around at the local weapon shop for sale, but there could easily be a wizard or priest in town who could make one on commission. You could have the character bring his MW blade to the Witchwardens or the temple of Kord and in exchange for the adequate ammount of coin or some sort of service, someone from the organization could perform the rituals needed to enchant the blade. I usually say that things like that take some time (1-3 weeks depending on how complex the enchanment seems and how long I feel like making the character wait).
I know there are guide lines and GP limits and stuff now, but really, you just have to decide weather or not you want a flaming longsword +1 running around in your players hands. Same goes for resurrections. Go with your gut, and with what you think would be fun for you and the group. The rules are your own. If you make poor decisions for long enough, your players will just oust you from behind the screen! No biggie!
If they are 6th level now i feel it's not unreasonable, (admittedly using wealth per level guidelines here, i like those) for a PC to get that kind of weapon; on the other hand, they will be above the power curve for the AP already so maybe the sword would be too much.....
Then again, the coming flotsam ooze is a killer, so maybe he should have the sword.......
Or you could let him buy the sword, then a traveling priest, capable of resurrecting the fallen PC, decides he likes the flaming sword ( "it looks just like my dads!") and offers any service for a trade........
not helping am I.... :P
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Greetings!
I'm running the Savage Tide AP in Eberron and the group recently finished off the Bullywug Gambit with everyone reaching 6th level (yes, they took out Harliss Javell) and they are all loaded.
Here are my dilemmas which I hope someone can help me...
- A PC died in the Vanderboren Manor (6th level Kalashtar psionicist) and the group, and the player understandbly, want to bring him back. Considering that there are time limits on "Raise Dead" and "Resurrection" is an extremely high-level spell, does anyone have some good ideas on how to address this? There isn't anyone in Sasserine of high enough level to bring him back.
My first thought was to run the party over to "Expedition to Castle Ravenloft" with the gimmick that "...towards the West there is a man rumored to have conquered life and death..." I was also thinking that they could afford to lose a level or two, but maybe that's being too tough.
I have not yet read the third installment, "The Sea Wyvern's Wake" so maybe some of the problems could be solved there. I am afraid that I can't think of a 'realistic' way to get the PC back into the game nor a way to lighten the 'confidence' of the party by removing magic items and/or levels.
Another problem I am having with the group is that one PC in particular insists that Sasserine is a big enough town to go shopping for a flaming longsword +1. Now, I'm not fully abreast of all the rules, but considering that Sasserine is on the far eastern outskirts of Khorvaire and without any Dragonmarked Houses, what "rules" are in place to help a DM with what PCs can or cannot purchase in the town.
Any thoughts would be most appreciated.
Swords Bright!
(although not as bright now since Dragon and Dungeon Magazines have been cancelled...still suffering from depression on that one).Big D!
Sasserine has a 40,000gp limit. The PCs can buy any item worth up to 40,000gp in price. You can decide that they can't get what they are looking for but that would be a decision that YOU made. By the rules the player could get a +2 flaming keen sword if s/he had the 32,000 gp to plop down.
It is a town that has a thriving economy based on trade. A way station between wilder land and more civilized areas.FH
Magic Item Compendium does a good job of adressing what generally can and can't be bought and how long it takes to find it.
As for "no one can do it" in Sasserine, where in the text did you find that? A 9th level cleric can raise dead. Sasserine, being a large city, has at least 3 clerics of at least 10th level. This is per the rules for community creation in the DMG. Techincally, a really lucky Sasserine could have 3 15th level clerics, 6 13th, 12 11th, and 24 9th. That means fourty five people capable of raising the dead, among which nine of them can ressurect the dead!
Sorry if I'm coming off as snippy, but this is my long winded way of saying "you are the DM, it's your game, it's your rules". If they can raise the dead, they can do it, regardless of what the rules have to say. Maybe a bunch of 3rd level clerics can gather on a holy day and do a 12 hour ceremony to bring back a faithful of their own church.
Heck, in one of my games the players needed to raise a character, had the money, had the favors, and I decided to throw them for a loop by having a Marut Inevitable come to town, and begin randomly raising people from the dead with a staff of life. When they asked it what the crap was going on, it replied that "recent deviations in the inevitability of death required sufficient planar compensation before repairs could be enacted in force". The players were a bit edgy about that, but they asked to have their freind raised, and the Marut did it for free. Two months later, they got word that the same marut had just destroyed the sister-city to the capitol, because the citizens had been unknowningly drinking from a "fountain of youth" for the last 50 years. They suddenly had a newfound respect for the lives they were living at that point, because then the cost became apparent.
So yeah, after ramble, heres the two main points:
1. By your call as DM, people can get raised if you want them to. Or not.
2. By the rules, Sasserine has people capable of raising people.
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raise dead? well, if the player is attached enough to his character to want to lose that lvl and spend that gold, i'd say let'em.
after all, he died IN the manor, so they're in the middle of sasserine, eh?
and they did complete the 1st adventure, making them heroes of sasserine, yes? so someone is gonna think "this is someone whos worth saving"
and yes, there are enough people in sasserine that can raise the dead, and a scroll of resurrect would run less than the 40k gp limit of the town.
as far as a +1 flaming sword, i'd say let'em get it. roll percentiles, assign some chance that 1 is available, possibly a base 15%, modified by their affiliation score with the witchwardens or zelk's horns
if it comes up no go, they can drop the gold and wait a little bit to get the sword crafted to their specs...
as far as "will this damage my game?" if the party's already lvl 6, has defeated Javell, and you haven't started the Sea Wyverns Wake, you are already over the recommended power curve, another +1d6 fire damage wont really do much.
personally, i'd try to get your PCs to invest in non-combat, or non-portable wealth. perhaps reinvesting in the Vanderboren manor/farms, getting their own land, repairing/upgrading the sea wyvern, or other such GP-sinks.
Sasserine has a 40,000gp limit. The PCs can buy any item worth up to 40,000gp in price. You can decide that they can't get what they are looking for but that would be a decision that YOU made. By the rules the player could get a +2 flaming keen sword if s/he had the 32,000 gp to plop down.
It is a town that has a thriving economy based on trade. A way station between wilder land and more civilized areas.
As for "no one can do it" in Sasserine, where in the text did you find that? A 9th level cleric can raise dead. Sasserine, being a large city, has at least 3 clerics of at least 10th level. This is per the rules for community creation in the DMG. Techincally, a really lucky Sasserine could have 3 15th level clerics, 6 13th, 12 11th, and 24 9th. That means fourty five people capable of raising the dead, among which nine of them can ressurect the dead!
In case you two missed it, the OP is playing in Eberron. This means there are few or no high-level characters, and high-caster level magic items are hard to come by, no matter what the price of the item in the DMG is. If he wanted the PCs to be able to run to high-level NPCs to fix all their problems, he wouldn't be playing in Eberron. His players certainly can't just ask Nearest Temple of Mercenary Good to exchange a miracle for money, because the religions in Eberron don't do that.
As a general rule of thumb, if you want magic items in Eberron you have to A) find someone with the prerequisites for item creation and B) wait the required amount of time after commissioning them to make it for you. In the case of the +1 flaming longsword, the caster level of the item is L10, meaning you need a L10 caster or a L8 artificer to create the item. I would say this is right on the edge of what you'd find in Sasserine; even in Sharn you can't trivially find just any item.
As for the Raise Dead issue, perhaps Kora was Favored in House (Jorasco) and was arranging tighter links between Jorasco and the Vanderborens before her untimely death. Luckily, there happens to be a contingent of Jorasco heading to Sasserine right now to expand their influence in the Lhazaar Principalities, and since they've had successful dealings with the Vanderborens in the past they'd be willing to help the poor Kalashtar out... as long as Lavinia is willing to commit the entire party to a favor. No sense doing the dirty work with halfling hands, after all.
Ah, my bad, I forget about the Eberron down-power paradigm. My only real Eberron experience to date is the D&D Online Eberron, which is most certainly NOT downpowered in regards to characters or magic items.
Great suggestions all around. My ultimate dilemma is that they are in Eberron, so the power needed for their "wants" is in question. The fight with the bullywugs caused a lot of damage to the manor and since one of the PCs is an estranged cousin to Lavinia, a good idea may indeed be the "gold piece sink" to help fix-up the place.
They certainly need to be lightened in the purse-strings, paying for the raise dead may certainly do the trick! They would have to trade in some magic items or two as well.
Tough call on this one to be sure. I know it's my game and all, but the group as a whole are fun to play with, one guy got a little sassy when I wouldn't agree right off the bat to the flaming sword idea, but he later apologized. I haven't run into this before.
Actually, Judging the following installments of the STAP, I find the attitude of funneling off the PCs resources at just this point rather unfair - especially given the fact, that once they sail for the Isle of Dread, "shopping opportunities" will be far and few between - even less so if the group does not have access to "teleport" magics.
Lets face it - until, the PCs eventually go to "Scuttlecove" (around level 16 ?) , they do not have even reasonable access to any medium size or bigger city ( hence market to purchase or sell equipment ), and therefore will be utterly dependent exclusively on what treasures they can find on the "Isle of Dread" (and which their GM might have to adapt to their specific styles and requirements ) and - of course, which they can make themselves (ok, and just how common is that ?).
And looking at the group I do play with, that adaption would be utterly required.
So, if the PCs do have the resources to buy the equipment at this level, and are willing to invest heavily in single magic items (of perhaps dubious worth.... I mean, how much good is a 'flaming' sword going to do them against much of the outsider population on the island ? ), by all means, let them ! In our group, the players heavily invested in having their initial equipment made as good as money could make it, because they anticipated some long-term use for it (say, the glamered chainshirt from TINH, which they boosted to +2 and eventually to +3, or some of the weapons they captured early on - and it stayed the best armour the group had until the encounter with the Bat-god avatar ! ) , given the fact that they were private to the amount of stores laid in by Lavinia for the voyage to the isle - and therefore aware of just how hard it would become to go back to Sassseriine (or anywhere else) without high power magic. Some heavy hints by the GM were also dropped =)
And although I am not aware upon the specific adaptions for Eberron, the Eberron world setting is swamped with surplus magical equipment from the Great War. Which means - magical swords should be widely available as should be magesmiths and non-house-afilliated artificers to work one up from scratch. Now if we were talking of some luxury, non-military piece of magical equipment... but a +1 flaming sword is hardly "luxury" or "exclusive", right ?
So actually, I would consider such a move rather vindictive on your part, but then it is _your_ campaign and group.
Or you could do this:
On a dark and foggy night as the characters prepare to deliver their friends body to the sea, a ghostly ship appears out of the night. From the side of the deck, a voice calls out the dead characters name and asks him how much he wants to live. He is exchanged life for a future payment of some sort to the mysterious figure on the ship.
Sorry, I've just watched Pirates of the Carribean 3 (so cool!!!)
Just thought it would be quite cool - you could build in an epic story arc later on as well involving his debt to the captain of the dutchman (or equivilant)
Warmage 101
Well, in Scuttlecove you could "realistically" purchase a dead PC.
Sorry...