I was curious if CotCTAP will provide ideas for those GMs who wish to use the same group of characters from RotRAP? Perhaps an article or some such? Or is it simply not very plausible.
Best.
Director of Narrative
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From what I've gathered the APs will be bringing character from 1st to around 15th or 16th level, so you would need to radically tweak the next AP to continue using your RotRL characters.
I say the more characters the better, but if you want to use them I'd suggest liberal amounts of level drain and a bit of amnesia roleplayed well.
Hopefully after RotRL, your players will be reknowned heroes . . .you know the kind . . .the ones that give inspirationa and therefore rise to the next generation of heroes, ie the players in their new personas for Curse of the Crimson Throne.
I'm really not sure if it would be possible to run a 1st level adventure for 16th level characters. You would really have to change so much of the adventure that it would be almost totally different to the original version.
Maybe the characters could be the children of the RotR characters.
Olaf the Stout
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Creative Director
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Curse of the Crimson Throne and Rise of the Runelords are both campaigns for 1st level to about 15th level. It'd be difficult to impossible to run one after the other using the same characters, unfortunately.
There will be themes and other elements in Rise of the Runelords that lead into Curse of the Crimson Throne, though.
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Depending on the group you can still do it. Sure you'll probably sweep through most of the first encounters all right fight wise. But if you are heavy into role-playing (as I am) you'll still get the enjoyment out of the game.
Besides I've seen two 15 level rangers get their buts handed to them by 10 standard goblins. As well seen a level 20 warrior / wizard die from a group of ghouls.
Granted both cases delt with a grtoup of 2 and a solo game. So long as you keep your group small (as mine is) you'll feel a challenge. But I admit, if you got a group of 6 level 15 characters, you probably wont feel much of a challenge.
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If you really like a story, with enough work you can make it happen with a massive creature/n.p.c./trap/etc. rewrite. Take a goblin, make him a 14th level ranger or an ogre mage figher level 10, or a giant, etc...
Make the goblin king's pet dire weasel an awakened lich fiendish dire weasel. Now the goblin king is a 15th level barbarian barghest.
You just have to be careful with higher level spell foils to the plot elements.
Have them mentor the next generation at the end of RotRL
Have the last encounter in RotRL be with a lot of vampires, wights, and wraiths. That should do the trick.
Ha! I did this once! It was great! A 15th level paladin rode headlong into an ARMY of energy draining undead. At the end of it all he was only 5th level, and a broken broken man. I played him again with a 5th level party, it was awesome rpg-wise!!!
~laughter~ You ARE evil, Sebastian!
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Are all of the Pathfinder APs going to follow the "Blah of the Blah Blah" naming convention? It seems like the AP abbreviations are just getting longer and longer. There was the AOW, SCAP, and STAP. Now there's the RotRAP and the CotCTAP... what's next? The RFLNAPTWCToaBNFAP?!?
*looks around the thread, sucking on pixie sticks*
*...sucking on pixie sticks*Did you use teriyaki or bar-b-que sauce?
Apricot-pineapple-teriyaki sauce, thank you very much! :D
Mm...pixies. Tastes great, less filling.
what's next? The RFLNAPTWCToaBNFAP?!?
Requiem for Lost Nature’s Ancient Power Trust with Crystal Treasure of a Banished Nation from Ages Past?
what's next? The RFLNAPTWCToaBNFAP?!?
Requiem for Lost Nature’s Ancient Power Trust with Crystal Treasure of a Banished Nation from Ages Past?
So it's about a song describing a druid from an ancient civilization who wielded a crystalline weapon?
Cool, I'm so there.
I enjoy the idea of starting over. I think that helps keep it fresh. As a DM, my favorite part of running the game is watching the group develop from rookies into living legends. If the group wants to continue past 15th level, I can always construct my own adventures for them.
I was curious if CotCTAP will provide ideas for those GMs who wish to use the same group of characters from RotRAP? Perhaps an article or some such? Or is it simply not very plausible.
Best.
One could take a page from 1st edition (gasp!) and let 'em "dual class".
Keep ability scores and hp's, 'lock' thier former class levels out, lock the feats they had above 1st level, reset skill rank maximums to 4/2 - in effect, they reset to 1st level (with minor exceptions). Obviously, you would want to encourage them to pawn all thier kewl schwag for inherent bonus ability score books. (Or have a disgustingly honorable and super-trustworthy NPC type hold all thier items, or see if they decide to invest in an estate either individually or together as a combined-asset for thier twilight years, or be forced to pawn-for-books fleeing the wrath of umpteen child support collectors...)
Basically, you CAN 'start over' again at 1st level with the same characters, it's a matter of how much the group is able and willing to cooperate to do it.
Best part, they have the advantage of already having higher-level hp's and ability scores, the slight downside of not being able to do much with thier old feats (unless you allow them to retrain them as they level up) and skill ranks (unless they dual-class into classes with more base skill points/level than thier old one) topped off with the challenge of talking a familiar old character bracing to meet the challenge of a new 'role' in the party. Of course, they also have the advantage of in-character familiarity with the world setting, quite a few NPCs (if they didn't kill 'em off) ad nauseam.
The one character I have that survived all the incarnations of D&D up until 3rd was a dual-classed (multiple dual-classed - nothing that group nor anything I can recall ever said you cannot keep doing it as long as you meet the requirements) character. Never did get to seriously play him with a non-munchkin group in 3rd edition, so his binder is still floating around. It will be interesting, on an off-topic note, to see if they do conversion notes from 3.5 to 4.0. I do recall Paizo considering conversion notes from 3.5 to other systems as well ...
A new idea/question sprang to mind while reviewing this thread. So I thought I would ask...
With both Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne running from 1st thru 15th level, there's not really a lot of "crossover" capability for the PCs from those two adventure paths. However, I also remember that James (et. al.) have described Pathfinder's APs as having no set begin and end point...i.e., APs could run from 1st to 15th as well as 5th to 20th and 10th to 25th, if need be.
So, with that in mind, would it be possible (probably using 4th edition) to take a party of heroes who finished one AP at 15th level and start them on a new AP that goes from say, 15th to 25th or higher, maybe? In other words, does Paizo have any plans for specifically crafting a "continuation" AP that picks up where one of the 1st thru 15th APs left off?
Curious,
--Neil
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Curse of the Crimson Throne and Rise of the Runelords are both campaigns for 1st level to about 15th level. It'd be difficult to impossible to run one after the other using the same characters, unfortunately.
There will be themes and other elements in Rise of the Runelords that lead into Curse of the Crimson Throne, though.
Does this mean that the APs will follow one another in continuity? Will furture APs assume that somewhere in the background the previous APs have occurred?
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Does this mean that the APs will follow one another in continuity? Will furture APs assume that somewhere in the background the previous APs have occurred?
I would guess that it would be similar to the current APs - in AOW one of the NPCs mentions the events of shackled city in passing (and is present in both) and in STAP had the Wormfall Festival - these things were not major plat hooks, but more easter eggs, meaning that they were more background noise that could be glossed over in a more general sense. if the party had not taken part in the previous adventure paths (although my players took extreme measures to meet their old PCs at the wormfall festival which was fun.... the troops of 4 stiltwalkers became 20, and I handed the PCs copies of their AOW character sheets to them with some equipment blacked out that was 'used or sold since AOW' to make it a fun encounter)
I hear they have gninjas.
Dont forget the savage fly-n monkies too!
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I enjoy the idea of starting over. I think that helps keep it fresh. As a DM, my favorite part of running the game is watching the group develop from rookies into living legends. If the group wants to continue past 15th level, I can always construct my own adventures for them.
At first I was a little adverse to Pathfinder Aps only going to 15th level. Now Im kinda phsyched up for the idea. See in the STAP I have so many ideas of side quests Id love to do.However, to add to much would mean I would have to cut out other stuff. I dont really want to touch the epic stuff with a 10' pole so thats out. But 4-5 levels is easy enough to modify and add on too to make the campaign more your own.
At first I was a little adverse to Pathfinder Aps only going to 15th level. Now Im kinda phsyched up for the idea....I have so many ideas of side quests I'd love to do. However, to add too much would mean I would have to cut out other stuff. I dont really want to touch the epic stuff with a 10' pole so thats out. But 4-5 levels is easy enough to modify and add on too to make the campaign more your own.
I would second this sentiment. I think keeping APs more "narrow" in the adventuring levels they cover, gives GMs the chance to include more of their own side quests. And they can also expound upon some smaller element from the adventure that suddenly develops into a more prominent item for their overall campaign. Making APs that take characters through every conceivable level of their entire adventuring career...though helpful to some GMs...needlessly stifles others who want to introduce some of their own material alongside the backdrop provided by the campaign.
Just my two-cents,
--Neil
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How about this. At the start of Rise of the Runelords get your players to roll 6th-7th level characters and suspend xp awards. The first two episodes of ROTRL will have to be bulked out a little to be a suitable challenge to a group of 7th level characters. The middle two episodes could be played as is and the party could be buffed up with magical/legendary magic items and/or cohorts/followers for the final two episodes.
Obviously not everyone's cup of tea but it would allow the same party to be used for ROTRL and COTCT. Instead of levelling up I would allow my players to rebuild their characters periodically to change the emphasis of the character to reflect the changing circumstances.