Well . . .
At the request of my long-suffering DM, who is currently taking a group of us through Ptolus, I decided to give DMing a shot.
Fortunately I stumbled on the threads of Allen Stewart and Turin the Mad.
I've DM'd in the past, so I have some sins to atone for: handing out magic items like Halloween candy . . . manipulating saves to allow party members to survive their stupidity . . . fearing the death of a PC as if it were my own.
The wheel of karma turns some more; Shiva rises, 8-armed, to cut her path of destruction.
But be warned: I've got nowhere near the experience of 3.5 that I see in other people on these boards. Hence the research, especially to figure out how to run advanced encounters. Allen and Turin have been most helpful in this respect; props to them. And I am going to need plenty more help and advice; I hope a few of you out there will be willing to provide it.
Our group, alas, has but three people in it: Splatboy, master of all known realms of knowledge; Kirby, whose characters generally talk their way up greased poles; and ValorPal, lover of paladins, crusaders, clerics, and their ilk.
Thus, each person is responsible for two PCs. A little research enabled me to nix the frenzied berserker ahead of time; I now know what to say as soon as Splatboy begins cackling ("No, you can't"). Unfortunately, having no advance knowledge of other potentially broken character classes, I allowed a crusader in without demur. While ValorPal slowly worked the point-buy system (40 pts; let it not be said that I am ungenerous) to produce his cleric, Splatboy reavealed 2 of the 7 mad schemes that had kept him up late in the previous week:
A venerable dragonwrought kobold bard with a str 6, dex 18, int 18, cha 21; immune to sleep and paralysis. "What's cool about kobolds is that that they don't take penalties for aging," says Splatboy.
A Tortle druid with Cha 6, Wis 20, Con 16. "It's the one template that increases your wisdom score without requiring a level adjustment," says Splatboy. The druid has a dinosaur animal companion: a little dinosaur with a breath weapon.
Meanwhile, Kirby cooks up a half elf half fey warmage (6 Str, 21 Cha; immune to enchantment, can fly, can charm at will.) He has a level adjustment of +3; I am waiting to see how his 6 HP fare in CR3 encounters.
As ValorPal finishes his cleric, Splatboy must take quite a few minutes to convince him to take the travel domain, which allows freedom of movement as a granted power. ValorPal is a bit new to the system, and has yet to encounter packs of ghouls.
And with that, they are ready to enter the streets of Cauldron. They should make excellent spawn . . .
* * *
We've just had our first session, and already a bit of disappointment is in the air. Can long imprisonment count as character death? Join us next time as the PCs decide that, having been in the town all of two days, they are ready to shake down city hall.
Well . . .
At the request of my long-suffering DM, who is currently taking a group of us through Ptolus, I decided to give DMing a shot.
Fortunately I stumbled on the threads of Allen Stewart and Turin the Mad.
I've DM'd in the past, so I have some sins to atone for: handing out magic items like Halloween candy . . . manipulating saves to allow party members to survive their stupidity . . . fearing the death of a PC as if it were my own.
The wheel of karma turns some more; Shiva rises, 8-armed, to cut her path of destruction.
But be warned: I've got nowhere near the experience of 3.5 that I see in other people on these boards. Hence the research, especially to figure out how to run advanced encounters. Allen and Turin have been most helpful in this respect; props to them. And I am going to need plenty more help and advice; I hope a few of you out there will be willing to provide it.
Spitfire calls for aid against powergamers ... and powergamers shall heed that clarion call. :)
In order of your posting...
Be sure to note that Splatboy be denied Ur-Priest access along with Frenzied Berserker. A note on FB: They are not immune to the simple spell "Calm Emotions" - if it can snap a Barbarian out of a Rage, it can certainly snap a Berserker out of Frenzy. Other options abound as well. Ur-Priest is a big No-No.
The Crusader MUST die - focus fire on him pronto, and deny any further access to the ToB for the remainder of the Shackled City. Unless you have it, and a really nasty BBEG home-brewed to decapitate said Crusader with...
Splatboy is incorrect about being Venerable, however (although I do not have Races of Dragon). Generally, no race skates on aging penalties, so (again, unless you have seen the aging chart for kobold PCs with your own two eyes explicitly stating they dodge the aging penalties to STR, DEX and CON) feel free to slap his STR score to 1, DEX to 12 and CON to whatever score it hits after the -6 penalty. Oh, and enjoy his 2 or 3 pound Heavy Encumbrance limit too. Dragonwrought - please, tell me that is not the "cheap" ritualized thingie for followers of Bahamut from that gawdsawful tome? If so, again, frag him without mercy. (The only way to dodge the aging penalties from being venerable is to be reincarnated - an expensive proposition - to get a shiny new young adult body of a randomly determined race. If his percentiles are EXTREMELY kind, he'll throw 07 and get the bugbear : hefty plusses to STR, DEX and CON, no aging penalties to same, for the low, low price of a death, a level and the cost of the reincarnate itself. Needless to say, that is impossible at very low level play barring some real cagey squirrelling of gp's.)
Where on earth is this "tortle" thing (let alone something as ridiculous-sounding as a fire-breathing dinosaur animal companion - say what?!) to be found? What is the tradeoff for that lovely +2 WIS bonus? A low base speed perhaps? Oops ... ^_^
Level adjustment of +3 eh? I doubt his 6 hp carcass will live long enough to see 2nd level when his XPs start slowing off (since at 2nd level he counts as 5th for XP earned ... oops ...) compared to the other characters.
ValorPal's cleric domain ability only works for (cleric level) rounds per day - so should a ghoul or ghast (or pack of) succeed in paralyzing him (but not outright fragging him), the domain ability only buys him a few rounds' respite before the paralysis that was failed to save against takes hold and renders him most unfortunately helpless...
Splatboy is incorrect about being Venerable
Yeah, whatever "Dragonwrought' actually means makes it so they don't take aging penalties. I think it requires you take a feat for this oddball ability. WTF! The damned feat changes his type from 'Humanoid' to 'Dragon'?! Including all benefits of the Dragon type as well. BS!
Yet another reason I don't like that book. Some spells maybe, some feats maybe...only on a previewed basis first, imo.
Turin said: "Level adjustment of +3 eh? I doubt his 6 hp carcass will live long enough to see 2nd level when his XPs start slowing off (since at 2nd level he counts as 5th for XP earned ... oops ...) compared to the other characters."
Some people just don't think. There is a limit to how useful a template can be. Especially at low level.
Turin and Yasha, thanks for your input and welcome to the thread! I should say that the group is a pretty good bunch of roleplayers, even if they do love their munchkins.
I will be sure to check the Splatbooks in question. While I trust Splatboy to have his facts correct (I would call him a "benign" power gamer), I have a lot to learn here.
Checking Splatboy's stat sheet for his kobold, I see that I mistyped in my previous post: it's the dragonwrought feature that gives him his age bonuses, along with, I am shocked to see, darkvision, +2 to Disguise, and immunity to sleep and paralysis. Hmmm.
The Tortle is a half-turtle, in case you were wondering; I don't know where the race came from, but I'll check up on it. In any event, I believe the hit he takes is to charisma, as that's currently a 6 on his stat sheet. The breath weapon of the dinosaur companion--a Swindlespitter--is a Fort DC 14, blindness 2d4 min/ 1d4 Con (range 15').
I just want to see how these folks pan out. I don't mind too much if they cruise through the encounters in part one; I wasn't planning on dropping a few of them until Chapter 2.
But alas for the party, their prowess in combat could not make up for their lack of R E S P E C T, a trait that means a lot to me (or at least to the higher ups in Cauldron). However, I'd like some feedback on how I handled this encounter; I want to make sure I wasn't too tough on them.
The first evening found them wandering the rainy streets, responding to a cry for help, completely wasting the thugs who were roughing up a local Cleric, and then obediently following the story thread that had them pick up the investigation about the missing children. They went to the orphanage, where the children amused themselves by playing with the Swindlespitter and the druid helped the gardener plant rutabagas ("very nutritious," says the dwarf). Following up the hint about the locks, they proceed to the establishment of the locksmith. On the way there, they spot the two half elf investigators from the Striders of Farlagn (or whatever that deity's name is); the half-fey thingie flew up, charmed them both, and brought them down to the party where they had a nice chat about the Cagewrights and a missing mage friend. Then the party enters Ghelve's locks and promptly forgets its place in the order of things.
The book says that Ghelve will give up the goods after some good roleplaying and a DC 15 diplomacy check. After asking some straightforward questions, the PCs decide to try throwing their weight around, upon which Ghelve reminds them that he is *a trusted member of the community* and that they have been in town about 24 hours. ValorPal mentions the missing children; though he does so belligerently rather than diplomatically, I am almost ready to have Ghelve give up the goods when Splatboy decides to follow up by intimidating the gnome, whose heart naturally hardens once he is accused of being a badguy. Ghelve resists the half-fey's charm spell, upon which the half fey decides to try to hypnotize Ghelve; I decide that the "droning and chanting" that this spell entails will put the gnome completely on his guard and lead him to call for the watch.
Things rapidly spiral downhill. The watch arrives; Splatboy is intellient enough to have his characters leave. ValorPal and Kirby (who runs the half-fey and a barbarian) refuse to leave. The head of the watch points out that nobody knows who they are and that Ghelve is *a trusted member of the community*. Kirby sends his barbarian past the curtain (saving against Ghelve's color spray, damn him) and is attacked in the next room by the skulk. A big brouhaha ensues in which the barbarian rages, cuts down the skulk, and runs upstairs and whacks a chest of drawers to pieces. He is put to sleep by some pursuing guards, and he, the crusader (who ran after him) and the helf-fey thing (who refused to leave) are taken to the watch house. The remaining members of the party question Ghelve and get the info they were supposed to get.
Here's where I wonder if I was too harsh on them: the party has been acting as if it can do anything it wants under the guise of carrying out an investigation for the Church of St. Cuthbert. I want to remind them that they are one step up from being kobold-poo in this town. So I have the three offenders brought to trial for disturbing the peace and destroying property. ValorPal makes a good case for his crusader, and acknowledges that upon being asked to leave, he had alternatives to violence. Kirby has his barbarian simply say "Me fight evil, me do good." Fair enough, and in character. The council debates, and then I decide it's a good time to introduce Lord V: I have Lord V stand up and propose allowing the party to continue its investigation under a suspended sentence, after paying a fine. Everybody wins, right? The party receives a warning about acting like apes, gets what amounts to a slap on the wrist, and is introduced to the shadier side of city politics.
Then Kirby decides that his half-fey creature is just too good for city politics and refuses the deal. He would prefer to sit in jail than get tangled up with what is clearly a corrupt city government. He adds that he's the sort of person who will hunt down family members of people who irritate him (incidentally, he said something similar in another campaign when playing another character). I give the half-fey thing a 2 week jail sentence for mildly resisting arrest, and Kirby decides that his barbarian isn't going anywhere without the half-fey thing. (Beats me why that decision makes sense.) The party is left deciding whether Kirby should roll up new characters or whether to use NPCs for two weeks of game time. Splatboy seems unhappy, though whether with me or with Kirby, I can't tell. Kirby continues to insist that they had no alternative to the actions they chose.
Well, if you've persisted to the end here and have some thoughts, let me know if you would have handled aspects of the encounter differently. Was I drunk with power? Should I have allowed intimidate to function like diplomacy? Was I right to have Ghelve call the watch?
Cheers,
S
Crud...my huge post was eaten...
I'm puzzled as to why you let them go ahead and make these wierd characters without first of all saying "Hold on, let me see where you're getting it from...". You're running the game - don't let them splatbook-ize you! :D
Instead of reposting, here is a brief summary....it was huge too.
You did good, nothing I wouldn't have done.
I might have handled the court appearance diffenently, but only to get them into Lord V.'s debt. I am really not familiar with SCAP so bear with me.
Leave the Fey in jail, threaten him with bodily harm and possibly worse, Fey are quite well know for their attractiveness. Make sure these threats have teeth. If the player (which seems like might be a problem) doesn't take you seriously, it won't work. Send a messeneger/valet from Lord V. and offer to get him and the Barbarian out, if they agree to do some services for Lord V. If they balk, have some prisoners rough them up before having the Valet return for another offer.
Bear in mind with me here, I am restating things in much abrigded fashion since my post was eaten, this is much less detailed.
The point here is not to railroad your players but to present them with an option that they should take. I am not suggestion working for Lord V. would be straight storyline stuff, but whatever you would like them to do. Again, I am not familiar with Lord V. I am kinda guessing a Vanderboren. There are Vanderboren's in SCAP aren't there?
Anyway...this time its two cents.
Dragonwrought can be a problem, however it is also very limiting to his character. Make sure that he understands that he must now serve Bahamut a Lawful Good Deity, and if I remember right that his alignment must also be Lawful Good. Furthermore, it requires a ritual that I think costs like 1500 gold pieces, this would make it off limits for first level characters I think, but I'm not sure I'm remembering all of this correctly. Basically, its an expensive way to turn a character into a paladin. Furthermore, if it is true that he must become lawful good, then it makes it impossible to play a bard. You should definitely read up on this because it is incredibly restrictive. On top of this, he's going to lose a bunch of his abilities from the Kobold race through the ritual, which I think may include his dark vision and skill bonuses, again not sure.
Second, read up on the tortle as well. It was printed in Dragon issue 315 without a level adjustment. Although it does add a +2 to wisdom, it also has a 20 ft. base speed, as soon as that cleric decides its time to wear heavy armor, watch it fall to 15 ft. and he becomes the slowest healer in history, and gets to watch all of his friends die tragically when he can't reach them in time. Why people insist on slow clerics I will never understand.
Again, as a dm you really just need to read and make sure everything is copacetic. Very few people intentionally cheat, however with the multitude of rules it is easy to misread and misinterpret. I myself have done this, as have most people who play d&d. If you don't check what your players are using, then it only opens the door for mistakes.
As both a player AND a gm (for the record I am currently running two D&D games on alternating weeks) I say they got what they had coming to the at the least.
Personally if one of my players had told the city council passing judgement on them that he might come after their families I'd have thrown him in jail for a year or more. Then if Lord V is somewhat corrupt he would send them a note in jail offering to let them escape if they did a few services for Lord V. This would leave them in the position of being fugitives who have to stay around to complete the task. If Lord V has the money and connections I'd have him put a geas/quest spell on the escapies that if they try a will save to resist it will nix the whole deal. Throw in some sort of spell or effect that would prevent them from saying who it was that helped them escape and they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.
If they complain about this, just let them know that it's their fault for being COMPLETE FLIPPING MORONS!
Thank goodness none of my players is so stupid as to do something like this. They know better then to mouth off to the wrong people, especially at low level. It helps that they know about a number of epic level NPCs sitting around in various places who could easily spank the lot of them. Most of these NPCs are former player characters from a campaign I ran for over 2 and 1/2 years.
For the problem of them hosing you with splat books to powergame....jsut go with a simple rule that I use. If it is something form a book I don't own, you have to show it to me and get my approval before you can use it. After instituting the rule I'd give them a few warnings that they need to follow the rule. After that anything they bring in that I don' have and didn't approve, they simply lose it, and get nothing back for it.
Spitfire, any results ? Body bags and toe tags do not fill themselves - carnage and mayhem, players QMF'ing on the floor ...
Oh wait ... this is D&D, not CoC ... eff it, players QMF'ing on the floor!
The second session of the SCAP was undertaken this evening. Alas, all the characters made it through the relatively brief gaming session without any fatalities, though they had to exhaust most of the spell casting abilities to revive characters who fell into the negatives.
First, though, to address some questions that came up this week on the thread.
Handofthewraith suggests that dragonwrought comes with some restrictions (alignment, cost); in checking the feat in Races of Dragon, I find no restrictions on alignment or cost, simply all of the advantages I've already recorded. As far as I can see, he gets to keep his kobold abilities as well. (But d*it, I need to check on those aging penalties again.)
Our doughty Cap'n points out that the Tortle will be moving along very slowly and will have difficulty healing PCs. Fortunately for those PCs, the Tortle is a Druid; they have another primary healer in a cleric (plus the crusader's occasional acts of healing, which they used to their advantage tonight.) Still, what Splatboy was clever enough to do was to take a feat that allows the Tortle to sac a spell to grant fast healing X for three rounds to all allies within 30', where X is his druid level, another ability that came in handy in tonight's session. Even I can admire the beauty of this idea; we'll see how far it gets him. (You should see Splatboy's Magic Decks--also works of art.)
As for banning ToB, I'm going to let the crusader stick around until chapter 2 ... I enjoy dashing hopes as much as outrighting waxing characters, and hope must grow a bit if it is to make that lovely smashing noise when thrust to the cold, hard floor ... Plus, I respect Turin's approach to ToB'd PCs: beat them with their own game. I'll see if the modified monster template he posted on his ST journal helps the BBEG at the end of chapter 1. That, to answer some other questions, is why I allowed them to use just about any splatbook they wanted: I'm curious, and I wanted to see how their PCs would work out in practice. And I like a challenge . . .
And now, to the session.
Kirby decided to let his lovelies rot in jail, so he created new characters. The first question he and Splatboy asked was if they could create the same characters, ha ha ha ha. I didn't say anything, but I would like to know how other DMs handle this matter. If a PC dies, can the player just create a carbon copy of the dead one? What restrictions do you put on creating the new ones; do they come in at the same xp as the others (I assume that's how Allen handles it in AoW). (We're using point buy, not dice.)
In any event, my silence was interpreted as a no, and soon the Reptile Crew, fresh from the halls of justice, was introduced to a drunken fighter and mage who were just itchin for adventure.
After an inordinate amount of time pondering what to do about the first room of a Level 1 dungeon (c'mon guys, it's not Tomb of Horrors, those smiling masks aren't going to eat you ...) they proceeded to their first fight. Kirby was unpleasantly surprised to discover that you just don't see skulks until they materialize out of the shadows and flank you with their rapiers. For my part, I was unpleasantly disappointed by my inability to score significant damage before the lizardflesh juggernaut rolled over its opponents. Daze and the animal companion's blindness breath weapon served the party well.
Until they hit the construct in the invisibility sphere. Kirby's fighter waltzed into the room, and was surprised to see a big rusty arm materialize and chunk off a few of his HP. The party slowly moved to surround bronzechops, complaining that I was having him fight too intelligently by having him adjust to hit as many of them as possible with his sonic attack (which did a measly 3 hp of damage, curses), and then slowly wore him down. Kirby's fighter was saved from the negatives by the Tortle's fast healing feat. Then he stood up from prone, took max damage from the construct's AoO, and promptly dropped into the negatives again. (Fighters: even dumber than constructs . . . )
I noticed that my players were a mite peeved at my chuckling. I'll have to save it for the really good moments in future sessions.
In any event, I sc'd the pooch on this one, because I made several damage rolls at d6 rather than d6+4. That's inexcusable, even for someone new to the job. I will serve the lords of mayhem better next time, if so permitted.
The party defeated the constuct, using up most of its spells and abilities in the process. They then wandered through the dungeon (kobold singing his bard song the whole time; fortunately the skulks are cowards) beating down doors, absorbing trap damage, and taking something like 8 rounds to take out a CR1 spider and its two CR1/2 minionlings. I was denied even the satisfaction of seeing someone fail a poison save. They returned to camp to rest, leveling up in the process.
I think of it as a boxing max. They took a good punch from me last week that staggered them; now we're moving around the ring trying to gauge each other. I thought they were going to walz through the upper part of the dungeon, but it proved to be more challenging than I thought. We'll see how the second level works out. I already see a few things in chests that would work so much better in the hands of the hobgoblins . . .
And then there's the effects of The Vanishing ... because the party isn't getting quite enough gp to buy cure disease in packs like poptarts ...
Thanks for all the comments. Looking forward to the AoW report.
It sounds to me like your players have learned anew and wary respect for you as a DM. Now their being a bit paranoid like they are worried what you might do next should they provoke unrestrainted sadism from you. That is a very good place to be as a DM, just a difficult position to juggle and maintain.
No more Half-Fey? Aww...too bad. No creating carbon copies in my games thats for sure. People know better than that. I might just accidentally kill said carbon-copy again. Universal Karma tells me that character is dead...apparently it corrects for error on its own...
Keep it up! Things are looking pretty good by my thinking at this point. Again, I don't really know SCAP, so now that this journal is here to give me some perspective on how it runs, I might just have to look into it. I think I have most of those mags.
I'll keep on checking back and chiming in.
Spitfire, it's real simple. Just start wasting PC's. Before long, it'll come quite naturally to you.
And think of the tremendous acts of service you'll be doing for your fellow players. Those 'TEARS of Joy' will tell you how grateful your players are for your excellent and heavy-handed GM'ing approach.
Outstanding job. Keep up the good work.
re: getting hired by the Temple of Cuthbert. Remember that the temple has a motto, "Sometimes you have to crack some heads open to let the light in." The temple, and the people of it, wouldn't have any problem with it. However, everybody else in town would be well aware of the mindset, so your adjudication seemed reasonable.
re: thuggery. The PCs in my campaign have been behaving very badly in much the same way: they broke the door down on a little old lady's house in the first encounter because they thought Jil was hiding in her house. They broke into the Temple of Wee Jas and killed everybody in the building, then did the same for House Rhiavadi and House Vhalantru. To which all the formerly-powerful and influential people in town said "... uh-oh..." When it was time for the nobles to get together to select a new mayor, they sent Jenya around to ask, "Hey, a bunch of anonymous, influential, wealthy, powerful people want to meet behind closed doors to make long-term decisions about the governance of Cauldron, mostly for their own benefit and profit; if they do, would you guys feel compelled to break the door down and kill everybody in the building?" To which two players, in unison, said "No! well...." End result: No meeting. We've moved on to the next chapter with no mayor in town.
re: the law. Laws in Cauldron are goofy. In Chapter 2, we see that being a graffitist carries the death penalty. In chapter 3, we see that killing city guards carries the penalty of a short prison sentence, followed by banishment from the city. So, it's okay to break in and kill everybody in the building; just don't write anything on the walls.
Spitfire22,
I just checked the MM3 and the Swindlespitter's save DC for its Poison Spray attack is actually DC 12, not DC 14. I don't know whether you mistyped it in your post or if your player has it listed incorrectly on his character sheet. You may want to check as it makes it a bit more powerful than it should be.
Olaf the Stout
^bumpittybumpbump^
What's wrong Spitfire? Did your players sprout yellow scales on thier bellies? The holidays interfere with the game? Pods unexpectedly appear beneath beds? We're craving your whompage of PCs in the SCAP!
It was a pleasant surprise to return to this thread and see that an update was in demand! Indeed, the holidays did interrupt our nascent gaming session. In the meantime, I developed an interest in the Roman empire, and neglected to check this thread.
We managed to get a session together last night, though, so I have an adventure update to post. But first, some issues.
Last night, Kirby couldn't make it at the last minute, so he decided to let Splatboy and ValorPal run both of his characters. Since I didn't want to lose the gaming session altogether, and since I don't want to have a party defeat chalked up to lack of players, I decided to allow it. This decision became a problem when I reduced Kirby's barbarian to -10 HP and Splatboy said, "Kirby's gonna be kind of bummed if his character dies when he's not around." Softie that I am, I decided not to frag the Barbarian after all.
I sent the party an email in which I explained that I won't be so generous in the future. I'll chalk that up as a character death to me, though. So that's 3 TCDs (Technical Characater Deaths) in three sessions. I could live with this average. Especially when the players are rolling as hot as they were last night.
In reply to a question about the Swindlespitter's save DC: generally, you can customize animal companion feats. Splatboy chose Ability Focus: Poison, rather than one of the feats that he wouldn't normally use. But it makes me think that I should probably redo a few monster feats when I get the chance--does anyone here think doing so would be inappropriate?
And yes, the last session gave us plenty of action and raised a few questions for me, but I'll break it up to go easy on the eyes . . .
I redo monster feats all the time. Go for it.
Tweaking a monsters' feats is a common trick of us screenmonkeys Spitfire, no reason to fret about fairness, since the feat you're swapping out means something else is lost.
Now, on to the TCD!
The party
Gargamel (Human Crusader 2)
Azrael (Human Cleric 2)
Matuin (Tortle Druid 2)
Yoshi (Swindlespitter animal companion)
Deekin (Kobold Bard 2)
Drizzle (Human Warmage 2)
Andrak (Human Fighter 2)
Having gone upstairs to sell and buy, the party returned to Jazidrune to bust down more doors and wipe out more monsters. Finally provided with a rough map of the area, they intelligently made their way toward the place on the map that looked like a dead end (i.e., location of a bad guy or a way to him.) On their way to this elevator, they negotiated with a mimic, who demanded a week's worth of cooked beef for the peaceful surrender of the familiar he was guarding. Getting the week's worth of cooked beef required a trip upstairs and finding a willing cook, who, knowing when he had someone over a barrel, demanded more gold than the party had for the service. Tomorrow morning, the party will report to his place of work bright and early to clean the stables. (Perhaps they will name themselves "The Muckrakers"--'twould be apt for this campaign, actually ...)
The party returned, took the familiar, slaughtered the hobgobs in the elevator, and descended into the Malachite Hold in search of the lost orphans. In the first room past the elevator, they encountered a stone spike and, 1 round later, a filthy ogre. The party's tactics at this point consist of having the fighters go toe to toe with the creatures and applying healing to the fighters as needed. Alas, this technique was not enough to save the fighter from being critted with a falchion and dropping to -10. Fortunately, his deity looked with favor upon him that day, and the damage was redirected to the crusader. The party all understand now that future divine intervention must come at the cost of honestly acquired spells.
The party proceeded to slash its way through 10 more hobgoblins and 2 lemures before confronting Kaz, a (wussy) half-dwarf, half-troll guarding his dishonestly acquired orphans. Possession being 9/10 of the law, he demanded money for giving them up. "You realize," said Splatboy, "That we've just wiped out your entire hobgoblin army." A few more terse exchanges later had them rolling for initiative. Kaz and his howler chum Prickles rolled horribly, and Kaz continued to roll horribly for the rest of the combat: he got dazed twice, and thus was not even able to summon his animated chains until the third round (then he got hit with sunstroke). Fortunately his fast healing kept him in business. After Prickles had downed the crusader, a few more hobs had appeared through another door, and the sound of rattling chains was heard at the end of the hallway, things were looking up for the monsters; Splatboy, ashen-faced, whispered, "I think we should run." Alas, the hobs went sleepity sleep, Prickles was blinded by the Swindlespitter, and the fighter stepped up and critted Kaz with a greataxe for 40 pts of damage, dropping him to -13 and killing him instantly. Thus the polyhedra turn.
I could have made this fight a bit more interested with a chest of marbles from elsewhere in the hold that I forgot to use; also, I rather stupidly had all the newbie hobgoblins stand together upon their entrance, whereupon they became targets of the bard's sleep spell. Not to worry; I am spending my time improving the BBEG from the end of Chapter 2.
Things that are becoming annoying:
The swindlespitter is blinding just about everything that it can. Creatures have yet to actually hit it. I've decided I'm going to wipe it out (or capture it) next chapter. Then I'll enforce a few rules about animal companions: 24 hours of prayer somewhere in the woods, 1 week minimum to train it to attack. I'm also tempted to disallow customizing feats, since I can't think of why an animal randomly selected from the woods would be able to change its feat.
The crusader's ability to improve everyone's AC by 2 for 10 rounds. He needs to go, and he will, and there's something that might be able to do that in the next chapter ...
Cheers,
SF
Improvements to the BBEG for Chapter 2 of SCAP
Rationale for some of the improvements: I mistakenly allowed the party to use 40 pt. buy. I've asked them if they would be willing to drop their PCs to the module-recommended 32-point buy; Splatboy's response was (I quote) "No, I don't think I would be willing to give up 8 points at this point. Its agonizing even to consider. Trust me, it shouldn't have much effect long term."
OK. Then there's no reason why the BBEGs shouldn't have 40 pt. buy as well.
Drathkar, male bugbear underpowered vampire, CR 4
Original vampire stats: Str 21, Dex 16, Con --, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 13.
Original bugbear stats: Str 15, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 10 Cha 9
New bugbear stats: Str 18, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 9
New Vamp stats: Str 24, Dex 18, Con --, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 13
Saves: F +1, R +9, W +3
I like some of his feats: Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, lightning Reflexes, and Weap Foc (Morningstar). I want to swap out Alertness and the feat that bugbears share with Vampires. I was thinking of adding Toughness twice just to make him a bit harder. I don't have access to Libris Mortis, though; does anyone know if there exists a feat to augment his children of the night ability? I plan to use bat swarms to take out the Swindlespitter that I can't seem to hit. I suppose I could also choose Ability Focus: Dominate Person.
Full Att: +10 (d8+7, morning star) and +4 (d6+4, drain; slam). He's still going to have difficulty hitting the heavily armored party members (at least with his slam), and one of the first one's he'll be going after is the cleric).
Last, I gave him studded leather instead of leather; seems reasonable. If he takes toughness once, he has HP 22 and AC 27.
Any suggestions, let me know.
SF
The Ability Focus: Dominate person feat wouldn't be a bad idea. Instead of Toughness, look at Improved Toughness just to get a few extra hit points. Upgrade his armor to something a little tougher, like a masterwork chain shirt, maybe add a shield.
Oh, and let the PCs have it. They've got a 40 point buy that's as good as the best characters I've ever seen rolled-they'll handle it.
Maybe a few more vampire spawn?
Ideas, ideas.
If your group charges a lot (most do), then the Hold the Line feat is wonderful. Second something that most GMs and players forget is that any round you don't plan to attach (ie if you are casting spells, summoning, etc) you can fight defensively. It's not much, but the 2 or 3 points can be handy sometimes. It's an especially nasty trick if they think they've pegged the badguy's ac. Also if you have a bunch of power attackers you can consider the elusive combatant feat (complete warrior), for a few special enemies. Be careful not to over use the two feats though, that can get annoying and take some of the fun out of hte game.
I think the Swindlespitter's Blindness save will be difficult for a lot of low-level baddies, but you'll find that it will become almost totally ineffective as the baddies get higher in level.
Olaf the Stout
In my last session against Splatboy and his horde of twigged-out death-to-monster doom, the BBEG went down without landing a blow; I was disappointed, but not surprised. Yesterday's short session, however, concluded with not one but two PC deaths. As these were the result of bad luck and utter stupidity, I would normally be only partly satisfied--were it not for the fact that the crusader is now no more . . .
The party began by liberating a grumpy cook (who took a crap in the mouth of his now-dead captor) and leaving the other prisoners behind so it could explore the rest of the fortress. 30' past a set of illusory walls, the crusader failed his listen check and was thus flatfooted when the hammerer automaton served him up a hefty 18 points of damage. Fortunately he started combat at the top of the round . . . unfortunately, he decided to drink a healing potion in an automaton's threat range . . the automaton made its 50% move chance, rolled a nat 19, served up 25 points of damage--and reduced the crusader to a bloody pulp. I will so miss waiting for him to draw his cards each combat.
The party retreated from the constructs, freed one more prisoner, found the treasure chamber, slaughtered the poor mimic in charge of it, and then proceeded to leave. Except for Kirby, who had added two levels of paladin to his level 1 fighter. Kirby wasn't scared of the mimic at all ("I'm not nervous--I'm a paladin") and decided that the only way to figure out what was past the hammerer automatons was to run the gauntlet--on his own.
He ran in, and the constructs pinned him back against the block of stone that they used to seal off the end of the tunnel. I decided I'd play the hammerers by the book's stupid strategy of grabbing with claws and then attacking with hammers. After 10 rounds of lousy rolls and broken grapples (and but one successful AoE), the end came with two consecutive hammer blows to a rather hard head.
Splatboy has yet to lose a character. This should change in the next chapter, when the Swindlespitter animal companion (who now has an AC of 24 and poison with a ridiculous DC of 18) is targeted by an opponent who refuses to take the chance of being blinded . . . and who is not particularly worried about high ACs.
And thanks to those who suggested combat strategies. I like the looks of Hold the Line, and will probably take advantage of it in the future. I am curious, though, about fighting defensively while casting--the SRD says "You can choose to fight defensively when taking a full attack action"--this wording does not seem to allow fighting defensively when casting spells or summoning.
Cheers,
SF
You can only fight defensively with spells that have an attack. This can be ranged touch, ray, or touch spells I believe.
What you could do is use total defense if you have spells that are a move, swift, or immediate action (meta-magic comes to mind).
Thanks, Traken, for the clarification on full defense.
I'm getting ready for another session this evening. I think that I'm shifting from a bloodthirsty style to a "keep them entertained" style. I actually muffed the last deadly encounter that I ran (where the Crusader died) by playing the monsters deadlier than they were supposed to be played. If I'd done it the right way (more grapple attempts from the mindless constructs), the party would have had some more laughs and would probably have come out on top. Valorpal and Kirby do invest a lot in their characters because they enjoy the role-playing part, and they hate to see them go down. So I'm going to try to play more to the spirit of the players that we've got in our crew. I'll let the dice lay the smack down.
Cheers,
SF
Thanks, Traken, for the clarification on full defense.
I'm getting ready for another session this evening. I think that I'm shifting from a bloodthirsty style to a "keep them entertained" style. I actually muffed the last deadly encounter that I ran (where the Crusader died) by playing the monsters deadlier than they were supposed to be played. If I'd done it the right way (more grapple attempts from the mindless constructs), the party would have had some more laughs and would probably have come out on top. Valorpal and Kirby do invest a lot in their characters because they enjoy the role-playing part, and they hate to see them go down. So I'm going to try to play more to the spirit of the players that we've got in our crew. I'll let the dice lay the smack down.
Cheers,
SF
Spitfire, I suggest the "keep them entertained while getting thier characters killed by the dice" style. But that's just me. ^_^
Colin, here's a belated "thanks" to your encouragement; hope you don't think that I was taking your remarks for granted.
Yeah, Cauldron is weird. For instance, the guards in encounter 1 that have been bribed by the thieves guild only have a few silver pieces on them; they'll risk their jobs for a few sp?. My players laughed about that. Also, the AP seems really underpowered when it comes to handing out treasure and magical items. The PCs are halfway through Drathkar's Way, are 4th level, and have yet to find magical weapons or armor. It's gotten to the point where I have to cut the suggested starting gold for replacement characters, just so players don't start trying to kill their characters in order to get more money. (I'm letting characters come in at the same level as the rest of the party for now, mainly so that I give myself some wiggle room if I accidentally make an encounter deadlier than it should be.) On another thread, someone suggested that part of the difficulty of the AP should come from the tightfisted approach to treasure.
Here's a question that came up today about character mechanics: Splatboy noted that Paladins can take a feat that allows them to cast their spells as swift actions; because Paladins normally need to dish out damage in combat, the feat allows them to make use of their spells. Splatboy decided in a campaign that he is running that he would allows other classes to use the same feat--Rangers, Spellthieves, Hexblades, and any other class with casting progression similar to that of a Paladin. He asked if I would allow the same in my campaign, and I said I'd check in with others and see. So if you have an opinion about this rules modification one way or the other, please let me know. I don't have any experience playing the classes that it would apply to.
In this weekend's event, 1 death and 1 successful hostile PC takeover (as in, the DM now has possession of that char sheet). Details at 11. (Yes Turin, the dice laid the smack down this time, but my BBEG needed every bit of his 40 pt buy.)
New characters:
Godsmack, Goliath Barbarian 2 + template
Batimor, Human ftr 3 (crusader cheese has been replaced with spiked chain cheese)
The day begins with investigating goblin graffiti; a tip from a group of libidinous farmers leads the party to a suspicious bathhouse. Perhaps fazed by the encounter with the gnome (in which the city guard brought a premature end to the investigation), the party proceeds cautiously. Too cautiously. They know from the divination spell to "ask the dwarf with the red eye, and he'll lie," but they don't even bother asking questions at all once in the bathhouse. "I take a private bath!" "The lizards take the public bath!" "I smell the soap!" "Do we see anything interesting?" And so on. Eventually I inform them that watching them play is like watching the home shopping network sans channel changer. Feeling generous, I decide not to have the wererats come in and attack their soft little armorless bodies. (And if that's how the encounter was supposed to work out, I don't see how the party could survive.)
Eventually the party asks the right question, discerns that the dwarf is under a spell-like influence, and decides to hire a spellcaster to dispel magic rather than shake him down. I have no idea if dispel magic will work against a vampire's domination, but for the sake of moving the game along, I decide to let them try. Once out the door and equipped, they turn 4 wererats into a splatterfest (Godsmack did 85 points of damage with one crit, overcoming the creatures DR rather easily). They return with a cleric who casts dispel magic "successfully" on the dwarf. After a brief conversation, they figure out that they are supposed to take the steps leading from the bathhouse to the underdark.
They rest for the night, descend, and put the spiked chain on "liquify." I screw up by forgetting about its 10' reach, with the result that a pair of goblin adepts ends up wasting a perfectly lovely pair of spells. Anyway, 40-odd goblins and a few darkmantles later, they encounter the massive ambush. Three sneaks hit the mage with their crossbow bolts, dropping him to -2. The kobold bard promptly sends the sneaks to sleep. A goblin adept misses the swindlespitter horribly with his scorching ray, then bolts and lets the other goblins face the music. Face it bravely they do, especially when a couple of bat swarms show up. "Are these swarms behaving intelligently?" says Splatboy, a doubtful frown on his face. I smile to myself; "Just play."
"A bugbear shows up."
Laughter.
"It looks menacingly at you."
"How's this" says Valorpal (put's thumb to nose and waves.)
"Make a will save."
"Oh poo!"
7 + 1 is 8.
Even though Drathkar's Ability Focus and improved Charisma make the DC 15, I decide against giving Batimon another save at +2; instead, Drathkar sends him on a little trip: "Get powerful sword in south cavern!" What fighter wouldn't want to follow that order? Away he runs; I describe the sound of the spiked chain clinking behind him as he singlemindedly pursues his mission.
They waste a couple of spells before realizing Drathkar is a vampire; then it turns into one of those "hit or die" encounters. Godsmack rages, enlarges, and charges. Rolling an 8 gives him a 25 to hit with all his bonuses--alas, just one shy of connecting. (I knew upgrading to studded leather would pay off.) Drathkar responds by hitting him with a morningstar and then his slam, doing enough damage, even after close wounds, to drop him to -14.
The party runs, scornful laughter echoing up the passageway behind them. Now I have a spiked chain of my own to play with, and we aren't even at the Kopru ruins.
We sat around afterward and dissected the encounter. They seemed OK with the way it went. I explained about the 40 pt buy for BBEGs, and they nodded. They also recognized that they just happened to roll lousy when they needed to roll well. Splatboy and Valorpal sat around afterward and discussed possible tactics for the second try. I hope the AC 26 doesn't end up being too much for them, but I think victory is possible. Overall it seems a reasonable "get beat down by the BBEG and take a second crack at him later with more knowledge" type of outing.
If I'm feeling mean, in the next encounter I surround Drathkar with goblin minions whom he strikes to gain temporary HP. Surely no-one out there has ever stooped to that option though, right?
Here's a question that came up today about character mechanics: Splatboy noted that Paladins can take a feat that allows them to cast their spells as swift actions; because Paladins normally need to dish out damage in combat, the feat allows them to make use of their spells. Splatboy decided in a campaign that he is running that he would allows other classes to use the same feat--Rangers, Spellthieves, Hexblades, and any other class with casting progression similar to that of a Paladin. He asked if I would allow the same in my campaign, and I said I'd check in with others and see. So if you have an opinion about this rules modification one way or the other, please let me know. I don't have any experience playing the classes that it would apply to.
Frankly, I think that "swift action to cast ALL my spells" feat is broken. If you wish to 'test drive' it, you could permit him to take the feat with the explicit understanding that it is subject to GM recall on the spot should you come to the same conclusion after seeing it in play. There are an ever-growing number of alternative class features and feats that were introduced at the tail-end of 3.5 that should be subject to such scrutiny.
Naturally, one could and should reciprocate such feats and alternative class features back upon the party ASAFP, to see how they like the taste of thier own medicine. So, if there are similar antagonists ahead of them in the AP, by all means let them have it with both barrels.
Oh, and I HIGHLY encourage the lone BBEG having disposable mini-onions to play with for quick and tasty restoration of hit points. If you want to really drive the point home to them, have the "self propelled field rations" in question be say ... children from that orphanage they saved earlier on. (This way, if they are careless, they get the guilt trip of incinerating innocents with careless splash damage weapons.) Human children are probably roughly equivelent to goblins... for that purpose at least...
Dragonwrought can be a problem, however it is also very limiting to his character. Make sure that he understands that he must now serve Bahamut a Lawful Good Deity, and if I remember right that his alignment must also be Lawful Good. Furthermore, it requires a ritual that I think costs like 1500 gold pieces, this would make it off limits for first level characters I think, but I'm not sure I'm remembering all of this correctly. Basically, its an expensive way to turn a character into a paladin. Furthermore, if it is true that he must become lawful good, then it makes it impossible to play a bard. You should definitely read up on this because it is incredibly restrictive. On top of this, he's going to lose a bunch of his abilities from the Kobold race through the ritual, which I think may include his dark vision and skill bonuses, again not sure
(rare poster but longtime player/lurker)
I believe you are confusing the Dragonwrought feat from Races of the Dragon: which ties a kobold more directly to his dragonblood heritage, with the Dragonborn race: which requires a ritual, GP costs, and allegiance to Bahumet.
Spitfire, the last post was in December 2007. What happened...??? Did the powergamers run fleeing into the night like a bunch of @#$%%^&*