Hopefully others can use this thread to clarify questions arising in this adventure. If you happen to see another thread, please link post a link in this one to try and keep things tied together.
Chapter 1: Edge of Anarchy
Chapter 2: Seven Days to the Grave
Chapter 3: Escape from Old Korvosa
Chapter 4: A History of Ashes
Chapter 5: Skeletons of Scarwall
Chapter 6: Crown of Fangs
Seems as if the pages have moved. Here's the revised listing.
Chapter 1: Edge of Anarchy
Chapter 2: Seven Days to the Grave
Chapter 3: Escape from Old Korvosa
Chapter 4: A History of Ashes
Chapter 5: Skeletons of Scarwall
Chapter 6: Crown of Fangs
Sometime this week!
Creative Director
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I'm slighty unclear on access to Castle Korvosa from Queen Domina's terraced gardens* and from the public courtyard (accessed by the ramp).
Does a terrace run round the outside of the castle from the gardens to the courtyard?
And is access between the courtyard and castle via the gates/doors in the chapel?
The gardens are exterior locations along the side of the Grand Mastaba. A flight of stairs connects those down low with the ones up on top, but those on top are still external. The central keep doesn't occupy the entire top of the Grand Mastaba... just its center. If you want to get into the castle from the gardens, you have to walk around the castle walls until you get to one of the entrances (areas A12 and A13, basically).
The gardens themselves are on the side of the castle facing the royal bedchambers (area A59) and the Great Balcony (area A76), in any case.
How does one get to the balcony overlooking Area 45? Is there supposed to be a door to Area 54?
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Creative Director
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How does one get to the balcony overlooking Area 45? Is there supposed to be a door to Area 54?
If you mean the 10 by 20 foot rectangular area between the stairs and area A54... that's just a flat open area you can step up to from the top of the stairs by the door into area A46. The thick wall around the area makes it look like it's enclosed, but it's not.
Quick question on intelligent items, like the Crown of Fangs itself--how are the spell DCs computed? Is it the usual 10 + spell level + minimum ability score (so 17 for a 7th level spell)? Or are they determined by the wearer's ability scores, as if it were a staff? Or is it determined by the ability score of the actual Crown of Fangs (in which the poor Cha 12 crown couldn't cast half of its spells!)
A few questions about Crown of Fangs. . .
1)The Gray Maidens' hp of 89 seems to be calculated as a 10th level fighter (10d10 + 30) rather than their actual level of 8. Any ideas of a fair hp total for an 8th level fighter with Con 16? I never did figure out what formula is used to calculate hp totals in books and modules. It always seems to be slightly above average so I was thinking maybe the Grays should have about 72?
2)This is nitpicking but I think stoneskin should be included in the list of spells definitely in Togomor's spellbook, as he has a contingency for it in effect. Togomor is also likely the source of the stoneskin spell in Ileosa's ring of spell storing. Sure some scrolls could have been used for these spells but hey, using Togomor provides a convenient caster level. Speaking of caster levels, any ideas on the CL of the heal spell in Ileosa's ring of spell storing?
3)I hate to give Ileosa even MORE AC but it seems the +2 insight bonus from her constant foresight spell (due to the Crown of Fangs) is not included. I'm not sure if the +2 insight bonus to her Reflex save is included either. Also, it specifically states in both the Crown's description and the entry for foresight that the subject is unable to be caught surprised. So the bit of text in B20's description about PCs surprising Ileosa is kind of moot.
4)What about the Crown's spell-like abilities? They don't appear in Ileosa's stat block so I assume the Crown takes its own turn to use its spells like Karzoug's intelligent glaive? I would think that it would at least be mirror imaging its wearer and throwing some dominate persons around.
5)A common tactic for both the simulacrums and Ileosa herself is to combine bardic music suggestions with attack spells via Harmonic Spell. But the PHB description of this bard ability says that the target of the suggestion must already be fascinated from the fascinate bardic music ability. Furthermore, the description of fascinate states that the ability is impossible to use in combat or near a combat. How does this tactic of Ileosa's work? Maybe I'm reading things wrong cause bards really aren't my field of expertise ;)
6)This isn't a question about the Crown of Fangs adventure but is related to Pathfinder #12. In the article on the Harrow deck of Many Things, one of the cards (The Trumpet I think) gives a PC the ability to summon an outsider of their alignment and up to their HD in CR once per day. How long does this summoned creature stick around? One encounter? An hour? The whole day?
7)One last minor question. How do the Gray Maidens have +13 to hit with their longswords? They have BAB +8, Str 14 (+2), Weapon Focus (+1), and the swords are +1 weapons. So I only count a +12 bonus. Am I missing something?
A few questions about Crown of Fangs. . .
Let's see how I can do on answering these for you :)
1)The Gray Maidens' hp of 89 seems to be calculated as a 10th level fighter (10d10 + 30) rather than their actual level of 8. Any ideas of a fair hp total for an 8th level fighter with Con 16? I never did figure out what formula is used to calculate hp totals in books and modules. It always seems to be slightly above average so I was thinking maybe the Grays should have about 72?
Looking at the ladies, the CON bonus is misfigured, so I'm going to guess that the rest are off as well. And it appears that they were giving 5.9 hit points per level rather than the "standard" 5.5 average for a d10 ... gonna presume they wanted a bit tougher on the ladies. Here's a refiguring for them using the higher number: 6.5 hps per level (8*5.9) equals 47.2, round down to 47. CON 16 gives a +3, so (8*3) that gives another 24 hit points, for a total of 71 hp per level 8 Grey Maiden.
2)This is nitpicking but I think stoneskin should be included in the list of spells definitely in Togomor's spellbook, as he has a contingency for it in effect. Togomor is also likely the source of the stoneskin spell in Ileosa's ring of spell storing. Sure some scrolls could have been used for these spells but hey, using Togomor provides a convenient caster level. Speaking of caster levels, any ideas on the CL of the heal spell in Ileosa's ring of spell storing?
The Spells Prepared is not the same as his Spell Book. His spell book in all likelihood contains many more spells than those listed as the ones he has prepared to cast for the day, and you can put as many as you wish into the books the PCs find for the Bloatmage. So not only the Stoneskin but all the ones he's made permanent on himself would likely be in his books :)
3)I hate to give Ileosa even MORE AC but it seems the +2 insight bonus from her constant foresight spell (due to the Crown of Fangs) is not included. I'm not sure if the +2 insight bonus to her Reflex save is included either. Also, it specifically states in both the Crown's description and the entry for foresight that the subject is unable to be caught surprised. So the bit of text in B20's description about PCs surprising Ileosa is kind of moot.
I think the +2 profane bonus may be the insight bonus, though I'd have to do more checking to be totally sure. And because she's in a semi-trance, totally concentrating on what she's doing, I would rule that that is overriding the Crown's abilities if the PCs are trying their best to be extra stealthy, as the text implies.
4)What about the Crown's spell-like abilities? They don't appear in Ileosa's stat block so I assume the Crown takes its own turn to use its spells like Karzoug's intelligent glaive? I would think that it would at least be mirror imaging its wearer and throwing some dominate persons around.
I agree, the spell-like abilities of the Crown belong to the Crown, and are used by it.
5)A common tactic for both the simulacrums and Ileosa herself is to combine bardic music suggestions with attack spells via Harmonic Spell. But the PHB description of this bard ability says that the target of the suggestion must already be fascinated from the fascinate bardic music ability. Furthermore, the description of fascinate states that the ability is impossible to use in combat or near a combat. How does this tactic of Ileosa's work? Maybe I'm reading things wrong cause bards really aren't my field of expertise ;)
I'll have to leave this one to someone that knows bards better than I :) For me, I'd just run it as suggested in the adventure, trusting they got it right ::chuckle::
6)This isn't a question about the Crown of Fangs adventure but is related to Pathfinder #12. In the article on the Harrow deck of Many Things, one of the cards (The Trumpet I think) gives a PC the ability to summon an outsider of their alignment and up to their HD in CR once per day. How long does this summoned creature stick around? One encounter? An hour? The whole day?
Two choices for this, as I see it. Either go along with the Summon spells line, and the creature will remain for 1 round per level of the summoner. But since this is from a pretty powerful item, I'd go with the Summon as used in the Monster Manual, and the summoned critter lasts for one hour.
7)One last minor question. How do the Gray Maidens have +13 to hit with their longswords? They have BAB +8, Str 14 (+2), Weapon Focus (+1), and the swords are +1 weapons. So I only count a +12 bonus. Am I missing something?
I'm going to guess that this was origninally figured as if they were level 10 as the earlier hit points were, and when they corrected down to the level 8 they oopsed on the math :) Your +12 is correct as far as I can see.
Hope that helps :)
Thanks for the help GG!
It was neat to see the hit point calculation formula and I was surprised how close my random guess of 72 was. As for the whole Togomor's stoneskin thing, I think you mistook what I was saying. I wasn't referring to the list of spells prepared but rather the list of spells that are in his spellbook provided in the treasure section of his room. It states that the spellbooks contain 2d6 spells of every level of your choice plus a short list of spells that he is guaranteed to have in his books to make the adventure make sense. This list includes contingency, permanency, all the spells he made permanent (arcane sight, darkvision, see invisibility and tongues) and all the spells necessary to make an akaruzug. It was THIS list that I was suggesting stoneskin be added to. And about the +2 profane bonus to AC. Originally I thought the same as you about the +2 insight bonus from the crown simply being wrongly catagorized but now I wonder if maybe the profane bonus is from her devil-bound template? I'll have to check the Advanced Bestiary on that one!
Thanks Ninja! So yeah, I guess the queen of AC gets even more! O_o
Something else I noticed today: In the description for the Staff of the Slain, it mentions that Kazavon and Kolwydden's personalities are dominant at different times of day but not when. I presume that Kazavon is dominant at night and Kolwydden is dominant during the day?
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Creative Director
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Thanks Ninja! So yeah, I guess the queen of AC gets even more! O_o
Something else I noticed today: In the description for the Staff of the Slain, it mentions that Kazavon and Kolwydden's personalities are dominant at different times of day but not when. I presume that Kazavon is dominant at night and Kolwydden is dominant during the day?
Yup; Kazavon is a nighttime guy, and Kolwydden's a morning person.
Thanks James! Just noticed two more things today: Kayltanya should have an extra offhand attack at +12 due to her Greater Two-Weapon
Fighting feat and the DCs for the False Ileosa's enchantment spells should be increased by one (Spell Focus has been taken into account but not Greater Spell Focus).
The adventure mentions the Erinyes teleporting about the pyramid but that requires a DC32 caster level check that they can only make on a 20. I assume they know that by now and wouldn't risk except in the most dire circumstance?
* bump * the Teleportation question above, and..
The Trumpet Harrow card allows the summoning of a elemental. How long does that elemental stay around once summoned?
A dataset for Crown of Fangs for DM's Familiar is available.
http://www.paladinpgm.com/dmf/downloads.htm
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I hope this thread isn't dead... I'll try anyway! I just wanted to re-ask a question that was asked previously by IScreamForIceCream:
A few questions about Crown of Fangs. . .
5)A common tactic for both the simulacrums and Ileosa herself is to combine bardic music suggestions with attack spells via Harmonic Spell. But the PHB description of this bard ability says that the target of the suggestion must already be fascinated from the fascinate bardic music ability. Furthermore, the description of fascinate states that the ability is impossible to use in combat or near a combat. How does this tactic of Ileosa's work? Maybe I'm reading things wrong cause bards really aren't my field of expertise ;)
Also, because I'm running Crimson Throne using the new PRPG rules, how would one re-tool the Harmonic Spell feat in light of the new bardic performance rules?
Excuse me but what do the letters "c" (area A63 for example) and "f" (area A73 for example) ?
Excuse me but what do the letters "c" (area A63 for example) and "f" (area A73 for example) mean?
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Creative Director
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I hope this thread isn't dead... I'll try anyway! I just wanted to re-ask a question that was asked previously by IScreamForIceCream:
Also, because I'm running Crimson Throne using the new PRPG rules, how would one re-tool the Harmonic Spell feat in light of the new bardic performance rules?A few questions about Crown of Fangs. . .
5)A common tactic for both the simulacrums and Ileosa herself is to combine bardic music suggestions with attack spells via Harmonic Spell. But the PHB description of this bard ability says that the target of the suggestion must already be fascinated from the fascinate bardic music ability. Furthermore, the description of fascinate states that the ability is impossible to use in combat or near a combat. How does this tactic of Ileosa's work? Maybe I'm reading things wrong cause bards really aren't my field of expertise ;)
Since bardic performances at higher levels are a swift action to activate, Harmonic Spell is less useful at higher levels than it was before. But not useless! Remember, you can only make one swift action per turn, and with Harmonic Spell, a 13th level or higher level bard can cast a spell, activate a bardic performance as part of that spellcasting, and still have a swift action left over to do something like cast a quickened spell or do something else.
They are trap doors, the F is in the floor and the C is in the Ceiling. They are, in this case, the same trap door.
Thanks a lot !
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Thanks James! Just noticed two more things today: Kayltanya should have an extra offhand attack at +12 due to her Greater Two-Weapon Fighting feat
I don't see the Greater Two-Weapon Fighting feat on her feat list. Speaking of which, though, where does the extra +22 from her shocking burst sabre come from?
EDIT: Nevermind, I forgot that she has boots of speed, so she gets another attack at full attack bonus.
They are trap doors, the F is in the floor and the C is in the Ceiling. They are, in this case, the same trap door.
Just a last thing, concerning thes trap doors, is there a way, I want to mean a scale, a rope or something to go up or downstairs or not ?
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Ive been running this for some time now, and my PCs are as far as the Cinderlands now. They'll be hitting Scarwall soon, then on to the Crown. I've been looking at Illeosa's stat block and I'm frankly stunned. I have SERIOUS doubts the canned party included in the module could have a hope of beating her, and while my PCs are more powerful than that, how on earth are they expected to hit an armor class of 42+? That aside, DCs of over 30???? Seriously, even with a bardic boost (which they incidentally do not have), how do they take her on when they'll be charmed completely (with only a nat 20 to give them a chance of resisting or hitting) in 3-4 rounds? I know she should be tough, but this seems impossible to me. Help me understand.
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Ive been running this for some time now, and my PCs are as far as the Cinderlands now. They'll be hitting Scarwall soon, then on to the Crown. I've been looking at Illeosa's stat block and I'm frankly stunned. I have SERIOUS doubts the canned party included in the module could have a hope of beating her, and while my PCs are more powerful than that, how on earth are they expected to hit an armor class of 42+? That aside, DCs of over 30???? Seriously, even with a bardic boost (which they incidentally do not have), how do they take her on when they'll be charmed completely (with only a nat 20 to give them a chance of resisting or hitting) in 3-4 rounds? I know she should be tough, but this seems impossible to me. Help me understand.
When the adventures are created, they have to cater to gaming groups who play super-optimized characters using splatbooks, as well as not-so-optimized parties. I think the various encounters are given a level of power that falls somewhere in the middle, but of course they end up being too easy or too tough for groups that are at either end of the power spectrum.
I think if you can tell right away that she will be too tough for your group, you should diminish her power: lower her AC, lower the DC of her spells, etc. It's extra work, and it might feel a little cheap to do that (I know it does for me), but in the end, what counts is that everyone has fun, right? And it wouldn't feel fun if the PC's feel like they had no chance to win, especially just before being able to complete the campaign.
One thing though, maybe wait a few more levels. There is a big difference of power between characters who are level 10 and those who are level 15. They will gain a lot of good treasure in the coming adventures (especially Serithtial). So maybe the fight won't seem THAT hard once they get there.
Ive been running this for some time now, and my PCs are as far as the Cinderlands now. They'll be hitting Scarwall soon, then on to the Crown. I've been looking at Illeosa's stat block and I'm frankly stunned. I have SERIOUS doubts the canned party included in the module could have a hope of beating her, and while my PCs are more powerful than that, how on earth are they expected to hit an armor class of 42+? That aside, DCs of over 30???? Seriously, even with a bardic boost (which they incidentally do not have), how do they take her on when they'll be charmed completely (with only a nat 20 to give them a chance of resisting or hitting) in 3-4 rounds? I know she should be tough, but this seems impossible to me. Help me understand.
Buffs.
Prayer. Magic Vestment. Haste. Magic Circle Against Evil. Shield of Faith. Mass Bull's Strength. Enlarge Person. Spell Immunity. Globe of Invulnerability, Lesser. Heroism and Greater Heroism.
Debuffs.
Blindness/Deafness. Silence. Dispel Magic, Greater. Slow. Confusion. Crushing Despair. Mind Fog. Feeblemind.
(Though I'm not sure how you're supposed to get any of these debuffs off. Her saves are ridiculously pumped for some reason. Does she really need all three saving throws above 22?)
Here's Illeosa for comparison. Note that she can't use inspire heroics as the game intends-- but even if she could, it doesn't change much.
ILLEOSA
AC 43, touch 30, flat-footed 34
(+8 armor, +5 deflection, +9 Dex, +4 dodge +5 natural, +2
profane)
ATK +26/+21/+16
Without Buffs:
SEELAH
AC 30, touch 12, flat-footed 30
ATK +22/+17/+12
With Buffs:
Got divine favor (+3), bless weapon (auto-confirm crits), haste (+1), bull's strength(+2), greater heroism(+4) and enlarge person(+0). She's also smiting Illeosa (+3), using Serithial instead of her +2 sword.(+4) She also uses Divine Bond to give Serithial brilliant energy, ignoring all 8 points of Illeosa's armor. Seelah's also two-handing the longsword because, well, Illeosa's rapier isn't that dangerous.
SEELAH
AC 31, touch 13, flat-footed 31
ATK +43/+43/+38/+33 (2d6+28+4d6/17–20; auto-confirm criticals, ignores damage reduction, stops illeosa's regeneration, gives Illeosa one negative level for each hit if she rolls a 1 or a 2 on her fort)
Seelah can only miss on a 1 in this situation. Ever. If Illeosa just sits there humming Inspire Heroics, Seelah can miss if she rolls under 5 now. But, then Lem or a summon flanks for her and it goes down to a 3...
Seelah could power attack if she wanted to. -4 for +12 damage. If she still hit she could two-round-kill Illeosa. (one for the aura of justice and her smite and the move up, two for the full-round attack that ends Illeosa's life) Otherwise... it might take three. Each one of these hits, on average, is going to do ~50-ish damage. Remember, Massive Damage-- DC15 Fort, but Illeosa can roll a 1. It doesn't quite matter, anyways-- Illeosa only has 230 hit points, and four of these hits will bring her all the way down to 30 hp. Cure Critical Wounds goes off and she's, on average, back to 66. That's just Seelah's attacks. If Harsk goes full-auto on her the second he sees her, and he has similar buffs to Seelah, there's even less of a chance Illeosa will see round two.
Keep in mind that Seelah's immune to charm effects and gives her allies a +4 bonus to charm effects if they're within 10 feet. So Illeosa's charm monsters... well, they're not going to do much.
I think if Seelah dropped Bless for Protection from Evil there's a pretty decent chance she could murder Illeosa single-handedly.
Too bad Illeosa comes with friends-- so does Seelah, but she has friends that she can expend two smites to give Aura of Justice to, so I don't think Seelah gives a care. Now Harsk, Lem and Ezren are smiting the Dread Wraiths and False Illeosas with their abilities. Smiting shock sling! Smiting crossbow of mayhem! Smiting magic missile? Yes please. Aura of Justice and Ezren hits Illeosa with magic missiles to smite her.
For an appropriately leveled, well-built non-canned iconics party, this'd be even more a cakewalk. Believe me.
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Lots of cogent analysis...
+1
Well said, IT. :)
I don't think my party's paladin will be quite so tactical about the situation (he tends to be more of the see-evil-so-rush-in-and-destroy-it kind of guy) yet there are certain aspects of the Ileosa encounter that I think every party should be able to recognize.
Two of my group have gone multiclass big time and now (just leveled up to 11) they're realizing that that strategy isn't working so well for them, ie. reduced caster level, reduced BAB, less spell slots and the unavailability of higher slots, etc.
I just want to know a thing. My party just arrived in Korvosa, 2 lvl 13 (a rogue and a sorcerer) and 2 lvl 12 (a monk and a fighter). Are they enough strong or have they to be lvl 14 ?
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The saves are more of a concern for me over the ability for them to hit. In the group we have a Paladin, a Barbarian/Fighter build that does brutal damage, a rogue, a cleric and a Sorceress (more than 4 in this group, and I've been upping the difficulty of encounters to adjust. My biggest concern is the saves against her charm. With DCs over 30, I just don't like the odds. The paladin and cleric would have decent chances, but she's intelligent enough to target someone with obvious weaknesses to her abilities. Keep in mind, the party doesn't KNOW her stat block and can't prepare for it in advance.
If the barbarian fails his save, I have doubts the party has a prayer. He's regularly having 100+ damage rounds, and boosted by the buffs Illeosa can dish out, it seems daunting at best. I'll wait till they face the encounter and report back how they fared. I've been wrong about them before, as they are a resourceful and intelligent bunch.
Here's Illeosa for comparison. Note that she can't use inspire heroics as the game intends-- but even if she could, it doesn't change much.Why do you say that she can't use inspire heroics as the game intends?
Basically, she stacks up bardic performances.
The effect lasts for as long as the ally hears the bard sing and for up to 5 rounds thereafter.
So, in 3.5e, she uses Inspire Heroics, which has an indefinite time limit, until the heroes arrive. Probably doing some Disney song and dance routine with her clones providing chorus. Once the heroes bust in, she immediately begins Inspire Courage, and then Inspire Greatness. So...
Round 0: Inspire Heroics (ongoing)Round 1: Inspire Courage (ongoing), Inspire Heroics (4 rounds)
Round 2: Inspire Greatness (ongoing), Inspire Courage (4 rounds), Inspire Heroics (3 rounds)
Then, after she gets past the first five rounds, she starts blasting the heroes with suggestion, which she can't do anymore either since she has to fascinate the heroes first and any threatening action causes fascinate to break immediately.
But, Bardic Performances in PFRPG don't linger for x rounds after they're complete-- you use your action to start it (for Illeosa, swift, negating her need for harmonic spell but more importantly already auto-balancing the encounter for us converters) and it's free to maintain it, and when it ends, it ends and doesn't linger.
So, running Illeosa the way she's written in Pathfinder final is really strange and book-keepy-- she Inspires Heroics, wasting rounds per day until the heroes show up, and then during the first round until her initiative her friends have +4 AC and +4 to saves. Then, she gives them +3 to attack and damage, removing their +4 AC and +4 to saves, casts a spell like a normal bard would without a feat, and then the next round starts quickening charm monsters. When she does this, she inspires greatness, losing their 3 attack and damage and gaining the bevy of bonuses from inspire greatness. To be honest, she should swap between Heroics and Greatness as the GM adjucates, only using Courage after she's run out of spells or if her allies get into a good position to fight.
She's a little out-dated.
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Ah, I see what you mean; I was unaware we were talking about the PRPG version of Ileosa. Fortunately, my group is using the PRPG beta rules still (I know, we're switching when we finish this adventure path!), so Ileosa still gets her extended bardic performances. (On a side note, was it changed to performances per round because it was overly powerful as performances per day?)
Then, after she gets past the first five rounds, she starts blasting the heroes with suggestion, which she can't do anymore either since she has to fascinate the heroes first and any threatening action causes fascinate to break immediately.
I never really was a fan of the bardic fascinate/suggestion because (even in 3.5) you could never really effectively use this in combat since there is always threatening actions nearby that ruin the opportunity to use this tactic, which is why Ileosa's tactics as written in terms of using bardic suggestion is a bit flawed.
Given PFRPG rules, how would her tactics change? Also, has anyone run this final battle with her? How did it play out? Is there anything you would like to change?
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I, too, will be running this soon - this coming Thursday, in fact. We're using full PFRPG rules (which means I need to spend some serious time sitting down and reading the Bard class and converting what needs to be converted before then). The party (Cleric, Paladin, Wizard, and Fighter) are kind of ridiculous in combat - well, just the Paladin and Fighter (even after nerfing Smite to a half-way reasonable level) - so I have no problem giving her a 40+ AC. It still means an insta-hit from each of them, but the rest will actually require a roll, at least. With the high saves, the Wizard's spell choice will be cut down a lot. Fortunately, I do have one character in the party without a silly high will save (the fighter) who, if he gets dominated, could cause some serious issues for the others in the party. There is always the high-level balancing act, of course... this could be a slaughter on either side in a matter of a couple of rounds.
Having never played a Bard, I am thankful for the tactical advice someone provided earlier.
(As an interesting aside, I had Laori abscond with Serithtial and only meet the party again to return it - properly "enhanced" by Zon-Kuthon, of course :) - as they approached The Sunken Queen. In the hands of the Paladin it would have made any encounter I could provide nearly useless as entertainment for anyone.)
I am entertaining the notion of having them battle Kazavon (great wyrm blue dragon) himself after defeating the queen. The paladin PC has Serithiel and is currently an unstoppable juggernaut of destruction.
I am entertaining the notion of having them battle Kazavon (great wyrm blue dragon) himself after defeating the queen. The paladin PC has Serithiel and is currently an unstoppable juggernaut of destruction.
I'm in the process of writing up a 16 to 20 "module" for this, wherein Kazavon is reborn and seeks out the rest of his artifacts in order to attain supreme power. PCs need to stop him and destroy the artifacts... which, based on the write-ups from CoF, should be a lot of material in and of itself. The only real bump in my plans is trying to figure out what would be a balanced final encounter (5 level 20 PCs) against Kazavon. A great wyrm blue dragon is only CR21 in Pathfinder, and I've never run a lv20 game so I'm trying to find out what would work and not be anti-climactic.
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I'm setting up something like that for a future time (the next DM is all primed and ready to go, and we need a break from these characters for a while, plus some time has to pass in Korvosa for roleplaying purposes). At least one of the players will quite enjoy this because he's always very interested in making sure his characters are fully levelled up at the end of any campaign and ready to be played again at a moment's notice. :)
To that end, I had Laori take Serithtial back to her masters, and while it still has all of its listed abilities, it also causes any Relic of Kazavon it comes into contact with to be whisked away to a pocket dimension the Zon-Kuthonites have set up for collection of said Relics. The goal of the adventure is completed, and the Zon-Kuthonites continue their march toward returning Kazavon to (un)life. I've never run anything Epic, either, so I will have to check up on my high-level rules before I take that on.
EDIT: Which is why that article about the Relics is absolutely fantastic - thanks to whoever wrote it. :)
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Interesting stuff...
I, too, am finding that my PCs are pretty ridiculous (fighter, wizard, rogue, cleric/sorcerer). They also used the scroll of greater planar ally they found in Castle Korvosa (which, in retrospect, I should have not included in the module, since it's totally overpowered for their level, in my opinion), so now they have a angel planetar following them around, which they could easily afford. Another heads up for other GMs, is that my party has started contemplating getting scrolls of mind blank for the party, which completely ruins all of Ileosa's tactics. The only reason they're on the fence about it is because it also prevents their own mind-effecting buffs like bless and prayer. In any case, if they do go through with using mind blank, I'm not quite sure how to handle this fight, in that they'll easily mop up the Queen with no trouble at all.
I'm in the process of writing up a 16 to 20 "module" for this, wherein Kazavon is reborn and seeks out the rest of his artifacts in order to attain supreme power. PCs need to stop him and destroy the artifacts... which, based on the write-ups from CoF, should be a lot of material in and of itself.
Ice Titan, I'd love to see the final module that you write up for this; sounds epic! What's CoF?
Although having the BBEG of the entire AP being a bard is unique and interesting, I might actually just convert her into a lvl 20 sorceress like Turin did in his playthrough.
That way, she won't be nullified by a bunch of mind blank scrolls... :(
PS I am assuming CoF stands for Crown of Fangs?
I'm in the process of writing up a 16 to 20 "module" for this, wherein Kazavon is reborn and seeks out the rest of his artifacts in order to attain supreme power. PCs need to stop him and destroy the artifacts... which, based on the write-ups from CoF, should be a lot of material in and of itself.Ice Titan, I'd love to see the final module that you write up for this; sounds epic! What's CoF?
Crown of Fangs. :P
Currently I'm tackling how to make a frost giant keep a dangerous place for the PCs. A giant advanced-HD remorhaz being ridden by a frost giant cavalier wearing a ring of elemental resistance... sounds about right.
Also interested in the final module, when it is ready. :p
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How exactly does Mind Blank make the PC's immune to Ileosas effects? It protects against scrying, but the immunity to mind-affecting effects has been converted into a +8 resistance bonus against mind-affecting effects. Which is only a net +3 if the PC's have +5 cloaks of resistance. Annoying, yet not game-breaking.
Also, the Ileosa simulacrums in the final battle are also bards of level 8 and should be bumped up to level 9 bards, to account for the new rule that a CR 8 should be one level higher than his CR ( I'm disregarding the pretty useless aristocrat level she has ).
Being a bard of ninth level means that the simulacrums can at least inspire greatness in themselves, while Ileosa inspires courage, heroics or sings a frightening tune. Maybe one of the simulacrums sings a dirge of doom, too. ^^
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Yeah, a quick look at Ileosa's stats from PF 12 confirms that she's got plenty of greater dispel magics to take out mind blanks and the like. Plus lots of other options. And certainly if you're playing Crown of Fangs using the Pathfinder RPG, mind blank doesn't work as well as it used to... which is good, since any spell that more or less invalidates the majority of an entire class's powers is poor design.