RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
|
We're starting this in a week or so and I'm looking forward to revealing my Maiden of the Seas cardstock ship. On the other hand I'm not looking forward to all the NPCs, it'll be a challenge. Still, there are plenty of stories here to keep me going :)
I have a request though - my PCs are all 6th level (after killing absolutely everything in Bullywug Gambit) and with their Action Points and bizarre builds I want to challenge them without making it into a ridiculous xp-fest. So far I just go for extra hit-points and elite arrays to pump the AC, BAB and saves by a point or two on everything. That and Turin's template go a long way :)
Which encounters would you recommend spending extra time on, and which ones would you leave as written to give the players some successes. Would you add anything en route? They've spent plenty of cash and are seriously well equipped for 6th level. I realize this will balance itself out by the time they make it to the Isle, I just don't want a total cakewalk on the way.
All tips welcome!
I am going from memory here (we just started Enemies of My Enemy) but here are the encounters I'd spend time getting right-
The aquatic hydra- it should have the advantage of staying in the water against most of the party if not all of them. My group had a hard time with this encounter- the tanks had a hard time getting to the enemy to engage it.
The shrine- the flying bat thing (can't recall exactly what it was) gave the party a bit of trouble since they didn't have any effective ranged characters.
The sargasso- this one was cool because the assassin vines were very unusual creatures. They were pretty effective at grappling the party as well which frustrated them greatly.
The pirate crew was a joke really. My group defeated them easily and I wouldn't spend any time trying to pump it up. The shipwreck at the end didn't go over well with my group, they felt they didn't have a fair enough chance to avoid what happened. I told them that sailing through a hurricane usually doesn't end up with a favorable result and they agreed but still didn't like it.
Don't forget about Avner. He can provide some good role playing moments- my group really hated him! He ended up being murdered by the party mage. He offered to teleport with him back to Sasserine so he could return home. Up until then the mage never expressed any displeasure with him though most of the others in the group couldn't stand him.
So the mage teleports with him to the tar pits- in the tar pits! He then gets himself out of the pit, casts solid fog, followed by some spell that did so much damage a round for a round a level- no more Avner. He never even told anyone else what he did either. I was a little surprised by the move, but I played him as a holier than thou noble so I expected something to happen eventually.
Sorry about getting off topic a bit. I hope the suggestions help!
I have some general advice.
First of all, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Give all your named NPCs action points and whatever other house rules you may be using.
I like to review named NPCs and sometimes I don’t like their builds, if I have time I may re-stat them. sounds like you are already doing this. If your players are optimizers you can be too. (I know a player who always plays wizards, he is great with them, so I pick his brain, ask him advice on spell selection and Metamagic feats and other things, over the course of a few months of gaming I got all kinds of great advice from him, I then used this advice to build a wizard villain that almost, but not quite, killed his wizard)
I know its kind of a cheap move, but you can also max out the hit points of the bad guys, they will never know.
A little off topic, but it may help: I find that doing secret rolls increases tension at the table. I keep track of certain things like spot, listen and sense motive (a few others as well), my players know that it is their responsibility to keep me updated on these scores and that failure to do so means they don't get to use their fancy new bonus next time I roll a check for them. Some times, in a dramatic moment, or in a situation where I need to think for a moment, I will roll the dice and stare at them meaningfully, I might nod and say “interesting” or a mischievous “Ooooh! Cool!” Even if the die rolls were meaningless, it gives me a moment to pause while everyone else is on the edge of their seats.
As for advice on the module itself? I just read it the other day myself so I don't have much advice on that front.
I find that encounters where they need to protect the weak can be very difficult. For example if some of the nameless NPCs were being threatened somehow, the PCs could just plow through without a scratch, but they would fail their objective. I don't have any specific ideas how that might work out though, its just an idea.
I find that encounters where they need to protect the weak can be very difficult.
The hydra is a good spot for that-- I had most of the passengers go swimming (lush tropical paradise and all) for a few minutes before one of the PCs took a dive and saw a dark shape the size of a bus rising up towards one of the passengers. The PCs were all over the place when it happened and had to swim to the hydra before it killed any of the red shirts; then they fought a sort of rear guard action while the panicked passengers swam back to the ship. It was one of the most memorable fights of the SWW for us.
I'd also recommend buffing the basilisk. I got the players good and worked up with Urol's descriptions of the monster they were going to meet, then they snuck up on it and splattered it all over the walls in two rounds. A bit of a let down for all of us.
The vine horrors may be good as written, since they just keep coming, but maybe giving the mother of all a few points of regen to make sure she's a memorable fight. For us, she wound up pinned down by fires with only a few hit points left and fled back down into the pit. The PCs freaked, thinking she had run to heal; I wish she actually had.
Good tips, guys! One character is a Vow of Poverty Druid, so protect the weak (or annoying) is a very viable tactic!
Having played through that part of the camapign with a pretty powerful (at that time) group of five, plus two capable cohorts, and still having had our collective behinds (almost) handed to us once or twice I can only add the following as a commentary from a player's perspective
The ooze is vile, and very, very dangerous to a party which does not immediately identify it, or knows about tactics against it. If you are miserly on the information, and perhaps ambiguous about what the characters actually see (our GM nastily only mentioned some drifting flotsam bumping into the ship's side, which made the semi-aquatic character jump straight overboard to investigate.... ), things will be pretty deadly/challenging.
The same goes for the Hydra - which struck when we were busy hauling barrels to the waterfall and shuttling them back and forth from ship to coast. Everybody was split up, the mage of course did not have his scroll collection at hand, and we had a very hard time to even gather the group for concentrated action. If you add badly glimpsed attacks to this (say, have a head attack a small craft from below, knocking it over or dragging it under, without people even seeing what dragged them into the water....), things will get nasty.
In general, do not usually mention what monster people are fcing by its precise name, but have them make knowledge skill rolls (and then hand a slip of paer to the relevant player/s) to even have an accurate idea of what they are facing. The less they know, the more of a tactical advantage you have... say if you play the hydra in a shark-like fashion (striking from underneath the surface ), chances are your players will take quite a while to realize what they are actually battling, and perhaps make less educated decisions.
Encounters we found far too easy were the pirates (we almost were in tears from laughing at their dozen of men challenging our two dozen crew, colonists plus battle-seasoned characters.... ), the sargasso-men and the bunch of aquatic gargoyle's on the way to Renku Island. Beef those up, if you want these scenes to be more than comedic interludes.
No idea how the social scenes on Renkru Island actually "tick", but we had the nasty feeling, that if we made a socially inept step, we would be facing a few dozen angry cannibals/natives (we never found out where that priest had disappeared to, but we had our suspicions ), espcially if they don't keep Avner on a tight leash (we certainly did ).
The masher-eel encounter close to the final scenes was nasty, but more due to the fact that we explained to the GM just how severly such a storm would affect the ship and any movement aboard (imagine fighting on a twisting rollercoaster, in rain, without safety belts...), with wet, slippery and constantly rolling decks, water bursting into the hold occupying some of our characters and the general situation demandig at least one hand to be used for grabbing onto something (making shields and/or two weapon combat impossible, not to mention two-hand weaponry ) . I have to plead quilty on this, being a bit obsessed about ships, storms and generally things nautical, and I got constant kicks from my co-players for pointing out just how hard things would be....
For me there are not enough savage creatures in the Savage Tide. We started SWW last week. The empty fort will have a tribe of savage lizard folks, and if the pirate blockade is as easy as it appears they will get a second ship with savage pirates (maybe one that is adrift and has some parrot cages chewed open).
They found the jar's opener on the first night, so I beefed her up a bit. (fortunately I have players pre-roll d20) and basically this meant she will escape by confusing the fighters.
My players have built a strong party (32pt buy, a bonus 0th level, access to far too many splat books, several Min/Maxers...) so I bump up all the opponents to use 75% HP instead of avg, if they have the Toughness feat (or should be a tough creature) I change it to Improved Toughness. I also add 1-2 extra mooks to flesh out an encounter and I consider adding levels or HD to bosses (Vanthus will get this treatment later).
So yeah, I didn't even bother with the Pirate encounter, my group would have laughed at them after the first round as written. I also didn't want them getting control of another ship.
The Hydra is a good fight, I only adjusted HP as described above. I think the key to the encounter is *when* you spring it on them. If they don't go into the rowboats to collect water, or go swimming or find some other way to separate, you may want to have the Civilians suggest something. My group separated on their own, made the fight a decent challenge.
The sargasso was a decent challenge as well. I just kept adding Vine Horrors for each encounter until it felt right. Make good use of the controlled assassin vines grappling and that will make for a good fight. The Mother of All should be fine with a few more HP. My group tried to draw her out where they had the advantage, but there is no reason for her to come out, she can keep sending wave after wave of Vine Horrors after the group. I even got to use her transport via plants to escape the flaming oil, alchemist fire and fire spells they were casting in the pit. After the fire burns out, the sargasso repairs itself (as per text describing the sargasso), doing absolutely no damage to the mother herself. The babbling young and the carried progeny add to the difficulty.
The masher encounter is really fueled by the storm itself. The advantages the party could gain are negated (no flying, no ranged attack, difficult movement. Stormwrack rules say pcs need to make saves each round just to move).
Cheers!