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I may have a new character joining my game soon, depending on what the others say, and had a couple of questions.
First off, the character concept is a halfling cleric of Wee Jas, as the party lacks a cleric currently, using Magic and Domination domains. Has anyone had a cleric of Wee Jas in the game? How have they factored into the storyline? Encounters with Filge, the dead in general, etc.? The party is only level 2 right now, and the original 4 are in the Architect's area of the Whispering Cairn, so it's pretty early on. Any information that people have used with the Green Lady would be quite helpful.
Second, how would having 5 players affect the game? The party list would end up being:
Human Barbarian
Gnome Druid
Elf Wizard
Elan Scout/Ranger (Eventually Scout/Ranger/Psion/Elocator, the others are all pure vanilla classes, far as I know)
and the new one,
Halfling Cleric
Do the encounters need to be adjusted too much? I heard there were a lot of deaths in TFoE as it was, and a lot of the later ones are pretty tough too, so are there many adjustments needed? If so, is there a resource I can use to help me in this? I usually run 4 player games, so I'm not too experienced with adjusting encounters for higher players.
Thanks for all the help!
To your first question: The Cult of the Green Lady as written works to protect to town's graveyard. So the cult can be used to help motivate your characters into following up on those who are desecrating the dead. But the cult doesn't play a huge role in the adventure path as written.
To your second question: One of the editors came on and said the adventures are written for 6 characters, so you won't have to adjust anything to make it tougher (some still complain about the lizardfolk in EaBK, but I enjoyed letting the PC's flex). As written the adventures should prove extremely challenging. I started my party of 6 at 2nd level and it was still hard-going. They're in LoLR right now, and tonight I'm starting another party of 6 2nd-level characters.
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Five players shouldn't change the game too much, just make sure you add more bad guys (to increase the CR and to add more exp to go around) about half the time and give out slightly more treasure (increase by about 25%).
As to the cult of the Green Lady there's a bit of information on it in the free AoW overloaded download . . . and if you do a search of this site you may find a bit more information. James has written a bit about the cult in his campaign journal for example.
As for myself I've simply taken the traditional Green Man myth and re-worked it a little to fit a death cult. Basically the cult focuses on the reincarnation stories in the holy Wee Jas texts . . . only the cult believes that only the devout are given such an honour. The cult believes that one day the Green Lady will once again be reincarnated in time to fulfill some great destiny. Some in the cult believe that her rebirth my signal the end of days. But basically do whatever you want with the cult, there are lots of great ideas out there, maybe some of the others may have better ideas.
In my campaign I have a full priest of Wee Jas and a half priest/ half wizard, shooting for true necromancer so I hope to make great use of the cult.
Well, if the AP is made for 6 characters like the above posted said, I don't think I'll have to worry about increasing the encounter difficulty too much. Considering how large that AoW obituary thread is, I think they'll have enough of their own problems. heheh.
Good ideas with the Green Lady. I'll take a look at my overloaded download when I get home, I forgot about that.
Could I ask who/when it was said that this was for six characters. All the modules in the mags say 4 characters (I think).
My campaign has fallen apart because of the discontinuity caused by characters being killed (and other stuff). If I'd have started with 6 to begin with I might still be getting my moneys worth from my magazine purchases.
Could I ask who/when it was said that this was for six characters. All the modules in the mags say 4 characters (I think).
My campaign has fallen apart because of the discontinuity caused by characters being killed (and other stuff). If I'd have started with 6 to begin with I might still be getting my moneys worth from my magazine purchases.
I could be wrong, but I think it was Erik. The post was maybe two years ago (about when I started the biweekly campaign), in a thread about how difficult the campaign is. Whoever said it, said that even though the magazines say 4-6 characters, they are geared towards having 6. The DM's posting came up with starting the characters at second level, or running them through an introductory adventure to get them there.
One useful thing about the Magic Domain is that identify can be used by clerics without having to fork out 100 gp to use it (as wizards have to).
From the PH p.174 "If the component line includes F/DF or M/DF, the arcane version of the spell has a focus component or a material component and the divine version has a dine focus component."
Identify says M/DF, so no pearl required. But why is this on this thread?
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One useful thing about the Magic Domain is that identify can be used by clerics without having to fork out 100 gp to use it (as wizards have to).From the PH p.174 "If the component line includes F/DF or M/DF, the arcane version of the spell has a focus component or a material component and the divine version has a dine focus component."
Identify says M/DF, so no pearl required. But why is this on this thread?
You're absolutely right, though it may have been easier to just quote the line at the bottom, which says "Arcane Material Component". Still though, very right, I'm sure that would be quite useful early on.
Anyone else try the game with 5 or 6 players? Did you adjust the campaign or leave it as written? What were your results?
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I happen to have a cleric of Wee Jas in my group of 5, soon to be 6 players.
The cleric is a replacement for the last one (different religion) who got killed by Filge's Zombie Bugbear. He's from a more mainstream branch of the church from the big city, so he wasn't mired in any Green Lady issues (not like there were any). So far, there has only been one intelligent undead (allip) and he was all for putting that one down because he was "just wrong in the head". The spawn of Kyuss at the end of EaBK should test his "intelligent undead are okay" dogma quite harshly.
As for having more than 4 players, meh. The first two modules played out fine without any tweaking, but I'm going to need to up the ante a bit in the lizardfolk lair since I'm adding a 6th player. The lizardfolk groups are probably going to be reduced to mook encounters, and I've changed some of the key encounters to accomodate the higher level. Treasure will also be an issue to keep track of too.
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Well, thankfully, there's no chance of me getting a 6th player. Normally I enjoy 4 player groups, 5 at the max, but it's a moot point in this situation. My table will only hold 6 total (5 players + 1 DM). Adding more would be too cramped.
If the campaign is playable with not *too* many deaths at 5 players, I'll be happy to leave it as is.
1. My AoW campaign has 5 PCs (one of them was originally going to be an NPC cleric run by me for healing, but someone stepped up to play him as a PC) and they are doing _okay_. There have been a couple of near-deaths in the Whispering Cairn (if not for the healing) so i would say it has been adequately challenging without changing anything. They are just staring TFoE, so we'll see how it goes. NOTE: I am NOT using XP, instead I am leveling them where appropriate. This solves a LOT of problems (like whether or not they will be appropriate level in time to face certain obstacles/bad guys). We are also using Action Points, _and_ the Critical Hit Deck. >:-)
2. Wee Jas. Dragon Issue #350 (Dec 2006) has the Core Beliefs: Wee Jas article. If you are making her a big part of your campaign, I suggest checking it out. You can still order back issue. OF IMPORTANT NOTE: The article states that the church of Wee Jas do NOT have a problem with animating the dead/necromancy, as long as a SOUL is not involved, and specifically the soul of a person from the Suel region.
Wee Jas is a deity of the Suel of Greyhawk, and the article states that if people are desecrating bodies/animating them, etc, Wee Jas doesn't care as long as a soul is not being forced back against it's will. Even then, if the soul that is used is NOT a Suel soul she _still_ doesn't care.
So as far as Filge is concerned, provided no souls are involved with the undead he has created, a cleric of Wee Jas won't bother with him.
My second group is 6 characters strong and they just finished the Whispering Cairn. So far my impression is that in order to balance for a larger group the best bet is to increase the hitpoints of the generic encounters (essentially with mooks) to about 75% of maximum while leaving the "boss encounters" alone. We're running the TFoE next session so I'm going through the adventure now looking to see what needs to be a little tougher.
I could be wrong, but I think it was Erik. The post was maybe two years ago (about when I started the biweekly campaign), in a thread about how difficult the campaign is. Whoever said it, said that even though the magazines say 4-6 characters, they are geared towards having 6. The DM's posting came up with starting the characters at second level, or running them through an introductory adventure to get them there.Could I ask who/when it was said that this was for six characters. All the modules in the mags say 4 characters (I think).
My campaign has fallen apart because of the discontinuity caused by characters being killed (and other stuff). If I'd have started with 6 to begin with I might still be getting my moneys worth from my magazine purchases.
I know this was expressly stated for the Shackled City AP but have not seen a statement like this for Age of Worms. That said these are designed to be really hard so 5 or 6 players should not really break anything.
Wow, I started a new campaign with 4 players!
o_O
All level 1, better let them level ASAP!
All got some beasties as back-up (1 druid with a baboon animal companion, 1 sorcerer with a familiar and 2 rangers who will shortly receive an animal companion also). Also thinking of adding a Green Lady NPC to act as a healer/Undead turning bomb.
Thanx for sorting this out for me!
M
Hi,
we played with 6 players (first 5 players, one npc as a dummy for the 6th player following) from the 1st evening on. Now we are at the arena (2nd round of possibly five rounds on the "next morning" / game session). Without any really great changings the game was tough enough for 6 experienced players. After all they had fun, but they had some really hard fights. So in my opinion you don´t have to change a lot for 6 players. But take a close look at the XPs!
Greetings
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I have 6 players in my game. I find that as written it is still challenging to them. We are at the final part of HoHR and so far there have been 7 deaths. I think that is pretty balanced. I thought it was designed for 4 players, but after reading it before beginning, I decided it was just fine as written for 6.
As for the experience, to keep the party at the suggested levels (and wealth expectations) I have added some planned "random encounters". Keeps them at the appropriate level. By time they finish HoHR they should be mostly at 7th and 8th level and ready to take on the games.
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A lot of it comes down to stat gen. Our DM was amazingly generous (4d6, keep 3, reroll 1's!), so our party has kind of ridiculously powerful stats. That makes a huuuuge difference in the start of the game. To test this out, I've played around with various types of ability generation, the most hateful of all being Point Buy, which had my "test group" getting tooled by the friggin' WOLVES in the very start of WC! This has definitely changed the feel of the game. In a lot of cases, we are obviously big-time heroes. Our less experienced players have had some troubles competing with the old-timers for the spotlight, but everyone is learning as they go.
We've got a fluctuating party size (as few as three, as many as seven), plus whatever NPC our group spares and recruits on any given week. ;) Our DM has been learning as he goes, too, giving NPCs who are supposed to be fearsome max HP, or even switching up encounters entirely. In EaBK,
So, I guess just get a feel for how the encounters are going, and switch them up as needed. I know our DM is quite satisfied when the players can't tell what was originally in the module from what he ends up throwing at us.
Our bard has an ongoing storyline involving Wee-Jas and her followers, and it seems like a lot of characters are affiliated with her or her cult. I wonder what the overall "religious demographics" are for AoW games?
"I wonder what the overall "religious demographics" are for AoW games?"
When our groups Bard was killed by the Grimlock Chief, I gave him the option of playing a devoted inquisitor of Wee Jas. He's a Paladin/Rogue with emphasis on trap breaking skills. Basically a holy undead tomb raider with a push in the direction of Worm Hunter (from Dragon magazine) down the road.
A friend who is further along the adventure path with his group of players has a cleric of Saint Cuthbert as a main character. Another is a pupil of Allustan.
The role of the Cult of the Green Lady, like the Bronzewood Lodge, or the Twilight Monestary can be expanded if a PC has strong ties.
In our campaign we have two elves and two dwarves. THe dwarves are very connected to Dulok Blitzhame and the traders of the Greysmere Covenant. The elves are strongly tied to Ellival Moonmeadow, the elvish silver mine owner in town. Strong bonds of friendship, and possibly side adventures may come from these alliagences. In one case Dulok has tried to set up a PC dwarf fighter with his daughter. etc.