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So, I finally kicked off my Pathfinder Alpha playtest campaign tonight. I had long ago decided to locate it in FR, because my players are more comfortable with it than playing in a completely new setting at least for the moment! They might get to know Golarion very well with time... ;)
The campaign premise was that the PCs are "adventurous local boys" who are all also connected to each other in different ways. I also decided not to mess with any "major" plots or campaign themes, because all the players are really busy and some (or even half) of the players might miss several sessions in row (which is why I scrapped my almost-finished campaign idea of a prophecy -- it would have required that all of them attend most of the sessions). Therefore, I'm going to run a series of adventures that are only loosely connected to each other and the overall campaign arc, and do not require everyone to attend. I also wanted to always give the characters time to catch their breath and do spell research or craft items and magic items (i.e. no "time triggers" or "deadlines" in any adventures).
I wanted to use a relatively remote and "dangerous" (i.e. "monster country") area, so that orc/goblin attacks are common and adventuring is a natural profession. Yet I wanted this location to be civilized enough so that the PCs have a safe "base of operations" which has resources that every adventurer might need and they can spend their earned wealth on (i.e. mid-to-high level NPC craftsmen and spellcasters).
Eventually I chose the small Cormyrean "border town" of Thunderstone, which is located between the orc-infested mountains of the Thunder Peaks, the highly-dangeous Vast Swamp, and the mysterious depths of the Hullack Forest (which also has a lot of dangerous monsters).
There are also ancient dwarven and elven ruins nearby, which is always good from a DM's perspective.
I actually used the map of Fallcrest from the WoTC site, because it mirrored a lot of my (and the published) ideas for this particular town. Of course, I used Photoshop and pencils to modify the map a bit, but in the end I didn't have to do a lot of changes. After I was satisfied with the locations/shops and the NPCs I created, it felt like it really fit like a glove. I am actually quite happy with the end result, at least so far. :)
The party consists of six PCs:
- LG Human Paladin of Torm (LG Deity of Duty and Paladins)
- LN Dwarven Fighter
- Half-Elf Sorcerer (Arcane Bloodline)
- Elven Rogue
- Half-Orc Cleric of Tempus (CN Deity of War and Battles)
- Dwarven/Human/Half-Orc Barbarian
NOTE: We played the first session with only two of the players in attendance, so the last four PCs have not been created yet -- I just know what my players intend to create (unless they are going to suprise me and change their minds). Basically, I wanted to playtest all the "melee" classes (barbarian, fighter, paladin and a more "martially-oriented" cleric) so that I would see how they play in relation to each other in overall "effectiveness", combat abilities and balance.
We used the "Epic Fantasy" point-buy option (25 points) so that luck would play no part in the ability scores. I also gave everyone a free Racial Feat (all of them posted on the Alpha 3 thread '[THINK TANK] Racial Feats') to see if and how it would affect the way the players "plan ahead" their feat choices and also to see how much it affects the "effectiveness" and balance between the PCs. And also whether it affects the way they role-play their characters.
EDIT: I also decided to use the optional 'Racial Hit Points' to give the PCs more durability -- they really loved having 20-25 HPs at 1st level! :)
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Tonight was the first actual playtest session, and it didn't start well. First of all, I slept very little during the previous night, and the first thing I noticed as I woke up was a text message from the cleric's player announcing that he couldn't make it. Um, the whole plot and hook of the session's adventure was built around the cleric, and although I briefly considered just "winging it", I realized that the intended hook wouldn't work on the paladin and the fighter. As they weren't worshippers of Tempus, it would have felt a very forced and weak to try to appeal to their "altruism". Besides, there were some foes and scenes specifically intended for the cleric, so leaving them out or modifying them would have made the whole adventure feel less exciting. The whole adventure would have been, in fact, pretty bland and weird without the cleric.
What to do? I woke up so late, that I practically had only a couple of hours to come up with something. I knew it didn't have to be anything particularly innovative or new, since the point of the first session was to convey the "feel" and "spirit" of their home town, introduce some NPCs, and to see if the players enjoyed the new system at all (i.e. enough to come back for the next session).
I wracked my brains and leafed through my modest adventure collection, but couldn't find anything suitable -- or, likely, was too panicked at the moment to see any ways how I logically could implement them into the campaign. Also, one of the players has played in all my campaigns, so I couldn't even use any of my previously-written material as a source of inspiration.
I'm okay with improvising stuff, but since the whole point of the first session was to concentrate on making the game seem appealing and things running smoothly, I couldn't fathom how to achieve that if I constantly had to concentrate on the next room/monster/description.
I decided to call one of the players, who happens to be a veteran DM himself (and a really good one, at that), and confessed the nature of my problem. He said: "Um, whatever you do, keep it simple -- you can't work miracles in a couple of hours!". Yeah, a good advice, and yet I only seemed to be getting really corny and all-too-often used ideas (such as the "Case of the Kidnapped Wizard's Familiar" or "Nobleman's Hunting Trip"). Not having enough sleep didn't really help, either.
Then I decided to make it *really* simple. Why not make it a "religion-based" adventure after all? The paladin might be expected to undertake a "holy quest" to achieve his hallowed status "officially" within the church. Furthermore, thinking about this quest's nature, the paladin would surely want to battle any clergy of an evil faith -- especially a paladin of Torm. I opened the good old 'Faiths & Avatars' to take a look at any enemies of Torm, and there it was: Torm's faithful are expected to seek out and slay any followers and cults of Bane, and cleanse any hide-outs or crypts of Bane's clergy. So, a previously undiscovered crypt/cult base of Banites from before the Time of Troubles, which had been abandoned since and rediscovered by someone only recently. The forest seemed a good place, and I decided to use wounded adventurers (feeling monsters and too weak to search the crypt themselves) as the "hook". Of course, the High Priest of Torm had been summoned (because of these adventurers was a Torm's follower) to an inn to heal, which is when he heard of the crypt.
The dwarven fighter was also easy to "hook", as his father has been working on a soon-to-be-enchanted full plate armor for the high priest, and as it was nicely finished on the day the adventure began (and the fighter delivered it), he was "recruited" by to help the paladin. In addition to this, I had fore-shadowed this by introducing the high priest as his "weapon trainer" and a close business-associate (i.e. a major buyer) to his father.
So, I quickly drew a map and included *very* brief descriptions (most of it religious "flavor") of each chamber, jotted down some notes on potential monsters and traps to use, some treasure, and I was pretty much ready to improvise the rest...
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THE FIRST SESSION:
I started with giving the players a sketch of the town's layout, and some information on the important places/NPCs. Since neither of the PCs had any relevant Knowledges, I only gave some brief information on local/regional history. After that, I got both of them involved in the adventure via the High Priest of Torm exactly the way I had "brainstormed" before play. We role-played a bit and the characters got to know each other before heading to the Stag's Skull Inn (named after the famous local bridge) to meet the wounded adventurers. The NPCs, naturally, gave them instructions on how to find their way to a mysterious obelisk engraved with a symbol of a black helm (which, I decided, was a symbol used by a certain cult of Banites -- think of the helm used by the Witch King of Angmar in the LoTR movies ;).
Across the Stag's Skull Bridge they headed, and started to trudge along an old road made by dwarves years and years ago (not even the local dwarves can recall when and why exactly the road was built, and whether it leads to lost mines or clanholds in the Thunder Peaks or not). I made both of them roll Survival to see how well they managed to stay "on the right path" after the road had turned into a path and eventually disappeared. NOTE: both PCs had low Wisdom and no ranks in Perception or Survival, so this just a formality. And what is the better way to test a new system than begin with an encounter of... *orcs*! :)
ENCOUNTER 1: 1st level Orc Barbarian + 3 Orcs
As noted above, the PCs were not exactly very perceptive or attentive, and thus they had, without even consciously noticing it, wandered deeper into the forest than they had intended (Survival Skill Checks 2 and 3, IIRC). They both also failed their Perception checks to notice a small orc patrol nearby, but so did the orcs -- and both parties nearly bumped to each other among the heavy foliage and trees. No surprise round, and the fighter won the Initiative, charging. One orc less. Two of the orcs drew javelins and maneuvered to get a better line-of-sight at the PCs, but didn't hit them. The orc barbarian raged and engaged them. The fight was over pretty fast, as the "regular" orcs felt like "minions" against PCs with better AC and 20+ HPs. The orc barbarian managed to hit once, taking out half of the paladin's HPs, and the dwarf suffered 4 points of damage, but that was it. An easy victory for the PCs, even though the orc barbarian had 22 HPs. I had imagined that three "regular" orcs would be able to "tie up" one of the PCs and seriously threaten him, but no such luck. On the other hand, I liked that I didn't have to "pull any punches" in their first encounter.
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ENCOUNTER 2: A lone Bugbear
The PCs had barely had time to breathe after their first encounter, when I decided to drop a CR 2 "solo" monster on them (I was a bit surprised at how easily they handled the orcs). Surprisingly, the fighter succeeded in Perception (rolling a 19, IIRC) as a bugbear -- alerted by their fight against the orcs -- tried to ambush them. Dwarven fighter won the initiative and charged the bugbear, almost killing it with one hit. The bugbear dropped the javelin it had intended to use, and drew its morningstar. Next round the fighter missed, and the bugbear managed to hit the fighter for 8 points. When the paladin joined the melee, it was soon over. The dwarven fighter had to use a healing potion (the High Priest of Torm had given them both a Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds -- which was my way to compensate for their total lack of healing). I let the player roll, and he was actually healed to Maximum HPs
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(I have been really busy in RL, so I haven't had any time to finish this session report... my apologies!)
The PCs were in good health, and pressed on towards the crypt. As night started falling, they managed to finally find a black obelisk (more like a "waymarker", in fact) inscribed with a black, winged helmet -- they didn't have ranks in Knowledge (Religion), so they weren't sure if it was actually related to Bane's faith in any way. They found a path of over-grown stones that snaked up the flank of a forest-cloaked low hill. Following the path, they stumbled quite quickly into a clearing, which contained an ominous-looking building of black stone.
THE CRYPT
The PCs decided to circle around the building too see how big it was, and take note of all the entrances. They found out that the building was made of burned stone, and it was about 30 ft. X 50 ft. in size. Black pillars supported the roof of the building and encircled the "front" (entrance) side of the building. There were two thick stone doors leading into the entrance chamber, both plain and marked with a hand-sized old symbol of Bane, which the paladin recognised even without any ranks in Religion (a human hand, fingers pressed together, on a shield). They half-heartedly tried forcing their way in, as the doors were magically locked (and there was no pull-rings or handles or even a visible lock on them). Having failed a couple of times, they decided to spend the night outside the crypt's doors, as it was swiftly becoming dark and both had a "bad feeling" about entering the crypt at night.
The next morning they tried building a battering ram out of trees, but failed to smash the doors. Eventually the paladin figured out that the lock must be magical in nature, and tried pressing his hand against the unholy symbol on one of the doors. It gave him a burst of Negative Energy as the doors contained a 'Chill Touch' spell trap (he succeedes in Fort save and didn't receive STR damage, though), yet the door opened , as this was the correct "sacrifice" needed to enter the crypt.
NOTE: I had determined that this particular cult/cabal of Banites had been a bunch of heretics (as per the FR feat 'Heretic of the Faith') who worshipped Bane as the Lord of Fear, Nightmares and the Undead (viewing Myrkul, the Lord of the Dead, as Bane's clever "alias"). And beyond the fact that they had held some local signifigance, the hightest level priests had barely attained the "status" of the High Priest. For these reasons the crypt's existence had been long-forgotten, even among Bane's own servants.
The entrance chamber contained only a human-sized, crudely-carved statue of a Banite priest, who pointed at the double doors at the top of a stairs at the other end of the room. The paladin, in his religious zeal, smashed the statue, before they ascended the steps and cautiusly approached the doors that opened into a much larger chamber. Alert to danger, the PCs opened the doors and entered it.
This was the actual "ritual chamber" of this crypt/cult hideout, and was dominated by a large, crudely-carved figure of a "Witch-King of Angmar"-type of armored figure holding a scepter and sitting on his throne at the other end of the room. The room also contained three stone sargofaci, all adorned with the Hand of Bane. Not wasting much time, the PCs dashed to inspect the room, but then the lid of one of the coffins started to ominously move...
ENCOUNTER 3: Two Baneguards
The PCs didn't need to roll Perception here, since the dusty lid creaking open was an audible and visible effect to both of them (and they had said they kept an eye on the coffins). A skeleton with burning eyes (a Baneguard) and holding a rusty sword sword rose from from coffin. It won the initiative, and its eyes flashed crimson as two Magic Missiles struck from them at the paladin. The PCs engaged it, and even though it ignored half of their slashing damage, it was soon down to a quarter of its HPs. The baneguard got to use its Magic Missiles a second time, blasting the dwarf, but rolled poorly and the fighter soon finished it.
I didn't give the PCs any time to breathe. They examined the sarcophagus, but beyond the rusty sword the Baneguard used and an unholy symbol of Bane, they didn't find anything. Then the lid on the "outermost" (on the right side) sarcophagus started to come off, and the PCs moved to engage the second Baneguard emerging from it. This time it took them only two rounds (IIRC) to slay the second Baneguard, as they rolled really well. I was actually very surprised, as both were CR 2 creatures, and this encounter should have challenged a whole 1st-level party of several PCs. The paladin made good use of 'Overhand Chop' in this encounter, and he seemed very happy about taking the feat.
As the second Baneguard yielded as little treasure as the first one, the PCs examined the third sarcophagus, which only contained a skeleton (a corpse, not a monster ;) of a Banite in ceremonial vestments and robes. Yet this skeleton was clutching a heavy iron key. They took it, and as they examined the large statue on its throne, they found that its outstreched hand contained a keyhole, which the iron key fit. With a laudible click, a secret door opened on the middle of the east wall, revealing a staircase that descended underground.
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THE CATACOMBS
The stairs descended for a while, and eventually led to short corridor that ended in a wooden door. Opening it, the PCs perceived a small chamber which was guarded by six skeletons holding swords.
NOTE: The paladin had used his 'Detect Evil' many times, and I always described the whole place giving him "an uneasy feeling and a slight headache", which he (correctly) interpreted as being the result of a "Lingering Evil" present in this place due to all those evil rites and sacrifices practised there.
ENCOUNTER 4: Six skeletons
This was actually a much tougher challenge than I had thought. The skeletons hit the paladin on a 14, and I rolled pretty well for attacks and damage, so although the PCs triumphed after a ten rounds or so (they rolled badly), the paladin was in a pretty bad shape. They examined the room, which had been a former armoury, and found some rusty sets of light and medium armor (they didn't bother with them), and a masterwork dagger in its sheath.
Despite the paladin running low on HPs, they pressed on, through a wooden door into a long corridor which had several "Hand symbols" of Bane as reliefs on its walls (trap triggers -- by pressing one, you could activate and deactivate the corridor's trap). Striding blodly onwards, the dwarf was surprised by the Scything Blade -trap in the corridor, but wasn't seriously hit. They entered the next chamber, which was a burial chamber with a dozen or so "tomb niches" on its wall, and a huge Hand of Bane carved on the south end of the chamber. On the north wall, there was a small altar with a black, gem-inlaid gauntlet resting on it, and a tapestry depicting fiendish-looking rats gnawing on corpses and bones hung above it. A "path" of wickedly-looking runes crossed the chamber between the Hand and the altar. As the PCs ruined the tapestry, they began to hear distant chittering and a running of tiny feet, and as they turned around, they saw that all the runes in the chamber were aglow with crimson light, and a magical mist was rising from them, too. They ran towards the armoury, as they saw the hellish eyes of the first Fiendish Dire Rat emerging from the mist. They won the initiative, took a double-move, closing the doors behind them, and decided to retreat from the crypt to town.
NOTE: My overly-descriptive style led the players to believe that this was a SWARM of Fiendish rats, which is why they "panicked". Actually, there were only six rats, but since the paladin was low on HPs, this was probably a wise decision anyway.
To put things shortly: they met with a friendly ranger, and after some role-playing, he agreed to take them back to town. Back in Thunderstone, they knew that they wouldn't receive any healing in shrines of Torm (the "Holy Quest" was still unfinished) or Tempus (the Terrible Sword of Tempus would have laughed at them: "Ye ran from a sorry pack of RATS?!? HA! Get yer sorry asses out of my sight!"), so they decided to ask for healing at Tymora's shrine. Both of them were not actually Tymora's followers, but the paladin managed to role-play it well ("Lady, we are *ADVENTURERS*!") and managed to roll 25 on his Diplomacy Check, to boot. This also fit my own plans nicely, since the ORIGINAL adventure I had intended to run was about helping the clergy of Tymora! :) Here's what I did: they healed them to full HPs, and gave them a small silver coin bearing Tymora's symbol, saying that it would be a token of debt, and once they needed help, they would come asking for the coin (i.e. at the beginning of the next session :).
ENCOUNTER 5: Six Fiendish Dire Rats
At full health, they bought some supplies and Alchemist's Fire, and headed back to the crypt to deal with the rats. No random encounters, as it was pretty late, and I wanted to finish the adventure during the session. So, they splashed Alchemist's Fire all over the trapped corridor, and then went and "released" the Summoning spell (NOTE: it was a permanent magical Summon Monster trap, which was supposed to be triggered each time you crossed the runes -- I forgot about it, though, because I was getting so tired towards the end of the session). So there came the rats, and two of them actually died in the blaze, despite their Fire Resistance 5. The rest of them died pretty easily as well, and NONE of them managed to succesfully smite the paladin -- I was SO disappointed. Anyway, after slaying the rats, the PCs crossed the room and took the gauntlet from the altar (it was a black masterwork gauntlet, with small Bloodstones encircling an inscribed symbol of Bane on the back of the hand -- valued at 75 GP to an average buyer, but it would function as a Divine Focus for followers of Bane).
The next chamber was simply a small antechamber, that functioned as a storage and wardrobe for the cultists (all sorts of ritual trappings such as robes, black candles, some spell components, etc.). Nothing really useful for these two "martial" PCs, so they entered the next room, which was a small semi-circular chamber that contained only a black, "shield-shaped" vessel of stone that had been "raised" from the floor via 'Stone Shape' -spell. The thick stone double doors at the end of the room contained the following incribed warning: "Disturb not the rest of Gardum Blackshield of Bane, unless ye be of the Faith, and the Black Lord still reigns supreme." Of course, they scoffed at the warning, and examined the stone vessel to note that it was black from old, dried blood inside. Quite correctly, they guessed that one needs to sacrifice some of his blood (worth 1 HP) to Bane to open the doors.
The paladin cut himself and let the blood drop into the vessel, and the doors opened with an audible hiss.
ENCOUNTER 6: Two Large Zombies
The chamber beyond the door was as large as the "shrine" room in the crypt above. It contained two statues in small niches in the center of the west and east walls, and between them was a large stone coffin on a pedestal. Two large, rotten ogre zombies flanked the coffin and charged at the PCs. This was a tough fight, but the PCs managed eventually to slay both of the zombies, first concentrating on one of them. They also rolled poorly, the fighter missing half the time against AC 11! In hindsight, I probably should have used two medium-sized zombies, as they *were* 1st level PCs, and the sarcophagus contained the "Boss Monster" of the crypt. I think both of them were in pretty bad shape as they started to examine a blood-encrusted, black skull mounted on a pedestal on the north side of the room (a Darkskull, to be exact ;). Then the large coffin started to open on its own... (surprise, surprise! ;)
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Now, here's the thing: I hadn't ever used a Banedead in 3E, and I hadn't read through its Special Qualities in Monsters of Faerun. My original idea had been to use a Mummy as the "Boss Monster" in this adventure, but as I had been leafing through MM and Monsters of Faerun in a hurry, I had thought: "Hey, a Banedead would be a cool and appropriate monster for this adventure... and it doesn't inflict too much damage and it's CR 3! Perfect!". Yeah, but I hadn't noted the Damage Reduction 15/+1 it had! Also, my original idea had been that the sarcophagus was sealed, and once a PC approached it, those two statues would both unleash a ray of Negative Energy. I was merciful, and chose to make them just "ordinary" statues and, in addition to this, the Banedead sarcophagus was not sealed, which enabled the Banedead to climb out of it.
ENCOUNTER 7: A Banedead
And this is where it all started to go wrong, and I was once again reminded of the fact that pre-play preparation is a key issue in DMing (despite what the 4E designers try to claim!). As the dwarf fighter charged and hit the Banedead for 9 Damage, I blurted out: "Yeah, you hit its chest, and... uh... er... what the hell?!? Oh... Damage Reduction... yeah, it doesn't seem to affect it in any way, and the creature just flashes you an evil smile!". Bad, bad, bad, baaad mistake! I could have just ruled that this particular Banedead was "flawed", and given it DR 5/+1 instead, or no DR at all! In fact, if I had had a good night's sleep and had actually prepared better, that's what I had probably done. One round later I realized, though, that I *could* make it DR 10, but I silently cursed myself for doing two very elementary mistakes. As the Banedead got a few good hits at the PCs (including one crit), who only managed to "scratch" it back in return (9 HPs of total damage -- 4 points inflicted with their last vial of Holy Water), this fight was soon over.
As the dwarf was down to -5 HPs, he luckily managed to stabilize himself. The paladin was down to 2 HPs, and each hit from the Banedead had also inflicted DEX damage, so with a Full-Attack the Banedead could easily bring him down to negatives. Again, I cursed myself for my stupidity, since this hadn't eaxctly been a fair fight for the PCs. Then the paladin's player had an idea. He said: "I'll dig out my Holy Symbol and flash it at him... I don't have any Channeling ability yet, but maybe it'll affect him somehow... that's the only option I have left". Why not let him do it, indeed? So I said: "It's a DC 15 Diplomacy or Intimidate Check... you do have enough XP to hit the 2nd level, so it's entirely possible that Torm hears your plea!". He managed to roll 21, or so, and I ruled that the Banedead was surprised at the sight of the Holy Symbol (NOTE: *despite* the presence of the Darkskull), since this was a novel idea in my opinion -- not to mention that this whole situation was completely due to my grave error of judgement. So I let it fly -- why not? Why couldn't Torm let him channel some "proto-Divine" energy to drive the creature back to its coffin.
Grabbing the dwarf as the Banedead fled to the shadows, the paladin departed the crypt swiftly, and they headed once again back to town. They both needed magical healing, so the only option left was to head to the Shrine of Tempus. They met the High Priest, who was intrigued at their tale, and promised to heal them in exchange for a few things: the masterwork dagger as a gift to the shrine, all the items the Banedead has on him, and finally, the head of the Banedead as a "trophy" for Tempus (in addition to this, they would have to call on Tempus in battle against it). He healed to maximum HPs, and blessed their weapons with a 'Greater Magic Weapon' spell on each (+2 to be exact). We had a great time role-playing this conversation, but I'll spare you the details! :)Then the PCs headed back to the crypt.
THE RETURN TO THE CRYPT (THE FINAL BATTLE)
They found the doors to the crypt once again sealed, and had to suffer the effects of a 'Chill Touch' spell again in order to enter. Once inside, they entered the "shrine" room to find the Banedead and the Darkskull there. He gave them a chance to convert to Bane's faith, exclaiming: "Will you bow down before the almighty Black Lord? Kneel before the might of Bane, and I may spare your lives!". Naturally, the PCs just charged him and the bloody fight only took a couple of rounds. This time the Banedead wasn't even a serious threat, as each blow from the PCs caused him damage. After a surprisingly easy victory, the paladin charged at the Darkskull, and used 'Smite Evil' on it, cracking it. They completely destroyed it, and made their way to the catacombs to loot the Banedead's sarcophagus, which contained a small coffer and a black wand with its "head" shaped like a human hand (Wand of Inflict Light Wounds). The coffer contained a magical trap (Inflict Moderate Wounds), which zapped the paladin once again into negative HPs. On top of that, the fighter didn't have the Heal skill, and his untrained checks *finally* succeeded when the paladin was down to -8 HPs. Boy, was I relieved, as it would have been something of an anti-climax to have a PC die at the end of the session due to a spell trap I had decided to include in the spur of the moment!
The fighter collected the remains of the Banedead (including its severed head! ;) and headed back to the Shrine of Tempus in Thunderstone, while carrying the paladin on his back. Naturally, the Terrible Sword was not happy about their agreement as the wand was not part of the agreed price, and the Banedead didn't have anything else beyond rotted ceremonial robes and a Silver Unholy Symbol of Bane.
I ended the session there, as it was already 3AM, and awarded them with XP. I decided that we would use the Medium progression, and they both made level 2, as I gave them both a hefty XP bonus for good role-playing plus, naturally, the Story Award for successfully completing the adventure.
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Some mechanical observations:
- The players liked the optional Racial HPs, as it really made a difference in "durability" to play a dwarven fighter (when compared to, say, an elven fighter).
- This feeling was further "enhanced" by the Racial Feats we used. It was decided to give every PC one free feat per 5 levels (at 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th level). I already noticed that under the "optimal" circumstances (e.g. when you make a Full Attack you get +2 to AC) this made the PCs somewhat more powerful than your "typical" PF Alpha characters. Time (and playtesting) will tell which Feats are broken and whether the balance between monsters/NPCs and PCs is completely off.
- The players liked the new feats (e.g. 'Overhand Chop') and the new versions of the "old" feats (e.g. 'Dodge' and 'Toughness'). They said they now feel worth taking, instead of being heavily "overshadowed" by Feats in the 3E supplements (such as CW or CD). This is my impression, too -- they feel like they're now more balanced, and the "tweaks" didn't still make them "too good" when compared to rest of the 3E Feats.
- I did not need to "fudge" rolls as much as I needed in 3E, but since there were only two PCs and I threw *seven* challenging encounters at them, I had to do it a couple of times.
- We used the Epic Point-Buy system for ability scores, and I noticed two things:
1) if you go for a more "even" spread among your ability scores (e.g. a dextrous and/or intelligent fighter who wants to pick Dodge and Expertise), you may end up with a "sub-optimal" character, or one with ridiculously low scores in your "primary" stats.
2) At least the paladin's player maxed-out his CHA to 20, and dumped INT and WIS ("Hey, cool -- paladins don't need Wisdom anymore to anything!") both to 7 to get more points to invest in his physical ability scores, too. Maybe the requirements for all the feats should be dropped to 12 instead of 13? Or maybe the players should be advised to focus on putting 15 or 16 (and then adding +2 from the racial adjustments) as their highest scores? This was the first time we used Point-Buy, and the players complained that there are too few points to spend, unless you want to create "one-trick ponies" or "suboptimal" characters.
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- Also, I noticed that XP is handled very elegantly in PF, and I found it to be almost ridiculously easy to calculate XP for each PC. It's also nice that the number of PCs affects how much each character gets XP, so when you're running adventures to one or two characters, they can't level up "too fast". :)
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THE SECOND SESSION
This session was preceded with the cleric's player (again) notifying me that he couldn't make it -- although this time I had a whole day to write a new adventure! ;)
Also, the barbarian's player created his character, and ended up with a human barbarian who wielded a Heavy Pick (which I thought was an odd weapon -- at least for a low-level melee character. I Presume that he wanted to take advantage of its X4 critical hits?). In any case, I *had* prepared a short "dungeon delve"-style romp for him to level up his character (read: few rooms packed with traps and monsters ;).
As for the session's "main" adventure itself, I started by opening the Monster Manual to look for inspiration (which, I guess, is the "oldest DM trick" when he doesn't know what to run). I noted that there were two monsters that intrigued me, but still I had *never* used them -- namely, Aranea and Vargouille. Hmmm... could I write an adventure that featured both? The aranea was pretty easy, as they can pass in human guise... and as I had already decided to include demonologists in the local area, their presence was also "justified" in my mind. Maybe the aranea would be allied to some half-fiend/tiefling demonologists, who, in turn, would reward her by granting access to magic they had discovered in certain ancient ruins? (I know that I'm a bit vague here, but I don't want to reveal too much in case my players happen to read this!). Maybe a demonologist and the aranea lived together as a master and mistress of a house? And they could have some dull servants who didn't know (or care) who or what their employers were?
I drew the maps for a small mansion (formerly owned by a local noble noble family) which had been given to the Aranea (a mutual deal that I also choose not to write about here). Later on, the demonologist had approached her and brought his Vargouille servants with him. Then I just wrote down the stats, and I was pretty much good to go.
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We started with the 1st-level barbarian's modest solo adventure. Cormyr has no native barbarians, and I thought it would be a bit dull to just say "Uh, you've wandered for a thousand miles without any adventures, but then , for some mysterious reason, you find your way to a small border town in Cormyr...". Alright, I *could* have used a more elaborate or interesting hook without running a solo adventure, but as this is supposed to be a playtest campaign, I wanted to see a PF barbarian could handle monsters on his own. Anyway, we began with outlining the PC's history as a member of a small (non-Uthgardt) tribe from the Savage Frontier, and the player suggested that his tribe has a coming-of-age ritual for all its male members -- you go out and wander the world, fighting and exploring and discovering things, until you find something valuable to your tribe. It suited my plans quite nicely.
1ST ENCOUNTER: 4 Bandits (2nd level warriors)
Actual play started with me describing how the PC had ended up at the foothills of the Nether Mountains, and had how his well-earned nightly rest was interrupted by a thump (he was sleeping against a tree) and cruel laughter. Jumping up with his pick in his hand, the barbarian was hailed by a cruel voice demanding all his money and equipment. He made a succesfull Perception check to note that four hiding men armed with light crossbows had surrounded him (all were aiming at him from behind trees, and therefore had cover). To my utter surprise, he complied with their wishes, dropping his weapon and moneypouch, and even taking off his armor and boots! I was momentarily at a loss... "WHAT THE HELL IS HE THINKING? This is clearly supposed to be a first combat encounter, and the guy is willingly dropping his weapon and stripping his armor?!?". When I lated asked him, he said that he was acting in character... well, I would have thought a savage northern barbarian would have laith the smack down then and there, and *not* given in to the demands of some loud-mouthed forest bandit.
Anyway, enough was enough, and as he had stripped down to his underwear, the bandits asked him (not so nicely) to "take a hike", the barbarian finally started to argue. Naturally this led to a fight, but now he was at a clear disadvantage (AC 12) even though he managed to grab his weapon and charge the "spokesman" of the bandits. They peppered him with arrows, and I had to "fudge" rolls heavily because even with his formidable 20+ HPs, he would have been killed on the second round (I rolled well, and he rolled poorly). During combat, the barbarian made heavy use of the new Cleave-feat, and the player commented that he likes it more than in 3E. Of course, the barbarian ended up winning the fight, but I would have wanted to test him in "fair" combat. Needless to say, an unarmored 1st-level barbarian would not have been a match for four 2nd level warriors.
After he had discovered a Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds (I would have given him this anyway) he refused to drink it, claiming that he would not know about such things. Alright, fair enough, but I said that his tribe has adepts and healers who make all sorts of "healing draughts", and this potion greatly resembles them (not to mention that some tribesmen have bought potions from dwarven merchants). So he drank the potion and was ready for the actual dungeon.
He had wandered for another day, and again his rest was disturbed by a glowing, flying sword, that hung silently in the air in a small forest glade. As he approached it, in awe, the sword started to slowly drift away. The barbarian decided to follow it (Note: this was my more-or-less clumsy "hook" -- a sign from Tempus, the God of War) and it led him on a chase for a few hours. Eventually they came to a small, wooded hill with some ruins, and the sword stopped above an old spiral staircase leading underground in the center of the ruins. Then it seemed to vanish in a burst of scarlet flames (another common sign from Tempus, but the barbarian had no ranks in Religion, so I didn't tell him that).
2ND & 3RD ENCOUNTER: Grimlocks and a Grimlock Adept
My dungeon was intended to be a small, old Netherese underground "base" or former laboratory (built under a hilltop keep) where the wizards had researched all sorts of human and snake and dragon crossbreeds (and bred them). Most of the chambers were now "sealed off" as the corridors had collapsed as a result of an earthquake some years ago. Since the PC did not have any relevant Knowledge skills, I could leave the exact details pretty vague, but there were some elements found in the dungeon (such as pillars and Art Objects) which hinted at the complex's dark and mysterious past. The REAL reason why Tempus wanted him to explore it, though, was that a faithful warrior-priest of the Wargod has entered it through a portal over 400 years ago, and perished there (after a massive battle in which he had slain the Yuan-Ti/Lizard King and his "court" occupying it -- again, I left the details pretty vague there).
As the barbarian entered the dungeon, he encountered (i.e. was ambushed by) a few Grimlocks, and quite easily dealt with them. He also killed a Grimlock Adept (NOTE: Adepts, especially more "monstrous" ones, are pretty "sucky" at low levels due to a very limited list of spells -- he probably inflicted 2 HPs of damage to the barbarian). In the end he had to flee as the Grimlocks started to appear in greater numbers for a tunnel (leading to the Underdark) made a resident Thoqqua. He then heard the dry, otherworldly voice of the Tempuran ghost, who called him to seek shelter in the Throne Room (where the Grimlocks didn't dare to enter). There he found the bones of the ancient battle -- the "Lizard-ish King" on his silver throne and the bones of the priest. The Ghost appeared and introduced himself as "Battleguard Andurian, Shield of Tempus", and promised to take him to safety, if he only let the Ghost possess him! The barbarian, in religious awe and fear (as a devout follower of Tempus), agreed to do so, and the Ghost possessed him, and used his body to activate a portal in the room, entering through it.
After they had went through a couple of portals, they ended up in a small, dark room underground. They passed a couple of secret doors and up a dusty staircase, until finally they saw starlight above them. They were in the ruins of something that had once been a fortress (actually a monastery of Tempus in Monksblade, Cormyr) but now there was a large inn standing in the ruins. The Ghost was taken aback, claiming that they had entered through a wrong portal, but later on the barbarian found out (in the inn) that it had been centuries since the priests had been slain and the monastery of Tempus has stood there. The closest shrine to Tempus was to be found in Thunderstone, near the Hullack Forest (surprise, surprise! ;).
After a week-long journey with some merchant wagons as a hired guard, the barbarian finally arrived in Thunderstone, where he took the body of Andurian to the 'Hall of the Old Sword' (Shrine of Tempus). There, with the aid of the resident Terrible Sword ("High" Priest) they performed a Battle-Blessing on the bones, and the Ghost appeared to thank the barbarian for finally laying his soul to rest. Then the barbarian's weapon (Pick) erupted in heatless flames, and was transformed into a Masterwork Weapon by the power of Tempus himself.
We role-played a bit, and I have him enough XP to level up to 2nd level. Then we were ready to start the *actual* adventure I had (hastily) prepared for the session.
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THE ACTUAL ADVENTURE
You know, I like to name all my adventures, but I just didn't feel inspired when I tried to come up with a name for this one -- if anyone does, feel free to post it! ;)
As I wrote above, we role-played the whole "initiation" ceremony (took about one hour, IIRC) of the Tormite paladin, and he "officially" became a Paladin of Torm. After the ceremony -- which was also attended by the Terrible Sword of Tempus and his new "protegé" (the barbarian PC) -- a Fighter/Paladin of Torm that was in attendance approached the Faithblade ("High" Priest) of Torm and the "newly-minted" Paladin PC. He congratulated the Paladin and told that one of the Tormites invited to the ceremony had been killed -- he had himself found the body after seeing a familiar horse wandering by the roadside without its rider (his friend). He had brought the body to the shrine and left it in a meditation chamber, on a bench. Of course, the Tormites and the Tempurans (who, naturally, were the last of the guests present ;)) rushed to see the body, only to find that there were no wounds, but the head had been cleanly ripped off the body.
This set the characters to investigate the murder, and the barbarian also wanted (naturally) to join ("A strong and mighty foe to slay in the name of Tempus...") them. The Tormite Fighter/Paladin NPC joined them, leading them to the spot where they found the body (almost a day's journey on foot from Thunderstone). They searched the whole day, following blood spatters and the victim's long sword. They also learned from the NPC that this was not the first such incidence, as other travelers had met such a fate, too, during the last week. They concluded that it must have been an ogre or a hill giant, striking from ambush (and connecting with a Critical Grapple).
1ST ENCOUNTER: 4 Vargouille
During the night, as they had camped to rest and wait for daylight, the PC on watch heard a child's cries for help, and roused the others (this was the Wizard using his spells, and trying to lure the PCs into an ambush). Quite near they found a glade with several bodies lying around it, and as they started to investigate them ("Oh, we're too late!"), the "heads" (Vargouille) surprised them by suddenly "ripping off" (levitating) the "bodies" (actually, old petrified victims of a rampant basilisk -- slain decades ago).
In retrospect, I could have planned this whole encounter in a more realistic and logical fashion, such as the wizard using illusionary bodies (or puppets, even) and the Vargouille lurking in the trees. Or maybe they should have tried to lure the PC on watch duty to an ambush on his own? As I said, I had to "rush" this adventure, although I *had* a full day to prepare it (actually, more than 10 hours or so), but I usually spend the whole week planning sessions, so for me this was a short prep-time.
Anyway, they all used their magical ability to freeze opponents with their scream (Fort save vs. DC 12) and I had thought that at least *one* PC would fail at four consecutive saves -- no such luck, as all of them had +7 or something on Fort Saves. :( The NPC, however, "froze" (I "fudged" it, cue *evil laughter*), and was kissed by one of the Vargouille, starting the transformation (which would take almost a day). The PCs really tore the monsters to pieces in three rounds, without being wounded at all! Uh, these were supposed to be CR 2 monsters, so I probably should have given them some extra HPs. The wizard had fled, and they spotted one Vargouille "spying" on them among the trees, and fleeing when they saw it. They decided to head to the direction it had disappeared in.
HAWKTALON HOUSE
At dawn, having wandered through the rest of the night, they came to the road and found a snoring half-elf sleeping on a small bridge leading over a ditch to a "fenced" farmstead. They woke him up, warning him of demons, and the badly hung-over half-elf invited them to join him for some breakfast. They found out that beyond the plant-covered walls stood a sizable country mansion and a large garden planted with trees (and some outbuildings, such as stables) with a family crest above its doors (the Paladin recognised it as belonging to House Hawklin).
NOTE: I did not have any time to consult Ed Greenwood himself or Brian Cortijo (on Candlekeep), so I designed the crest myself ; a rampant silver hawk on a green field holding a scroll and a black arrow in its "talons" (IIRC, I don't have my notes with me at the moment).
The PCs also encountered the two dull-witted half-orc servants. The half-elven Bard (which he was) told the PCs that this mansion worked as a sort of an inn, and the PCs could also eat and rest for a price (he told them he was living here to "seek inspiration for his art"). The PCs decided to retire to rooms upstairs, and rest. Then, just before, nightfall, they woke up... and noticed that the NPC Paladin was still in his room. The PC Paladin knocked on his door, and heard painful gasps and sort of a "ripping/tearing" sound behind it... (*evil laughter* :D). Well, as he opened it, he saw the NPC, and his head had already turned to a fiendish Vargouille, and was about to rip off... and then, as if "on cue", it did, spattering blood everywhere! ;)
2ND ENCOUNTER: 1 Vargouille
The paladin won the initiative, and one-shotted the newly-born Vargouille with his greatsword. :(
After this, they wanted to bury the Paladin's body in the garden, but half-orcs denied them ("Aw, the Mistress won't allow it.. this ain't no graveyard, ya know?"). Finally, after we role-played an hour or so (the Bard told them stories and offered them wine), the mysterious "Mistress of the House" finally returned her business, and asked the PCs to stay the night to protect them from demons that had killed their friend. He also told them of a mysterious scythe-wielding guest (completely made up, but she really pulled off her Bluff check on this one!) that smells strangely and chants in his room at night.
During the night, the PCs were woken up by the Mistress, who said that he had heard the "stranger" downstairs (she had opened some doors to mislead the PCs that someone had come in). They followed the stranger's "trail" to the cellar, where the Aranea's two pet giant spiders were waiting for a new meal...
3RD ENCOUNTER: 2 Medium-Sized Giant Spiders
All PCs failed their Perception Check to spot the webs in torchlight, and things looked a bit grim to them as they realized that two large spiders were descending on them. Fortunately, the barbarian managed to free himself and engaged one of the spiders. One of the failed to bite the paladin before he, too, was free. And eventually they proceeded to slay the spiders, but not before they had sustained some minor damage and the barbarian had suffered one point of STR loss due to poison. Still, it was an all-too easy fight in my opinion. Again, I have to consider adding some HPs to monsters, too, or increasing their numbers. The paladin really liked the new 'Lay on Hands', although he commented that "if you want to do some 'quick' damage on Undead or heal yourself to maximum HPs, it works too slowly". Time will tell if this is true, but as a DM I feel the new 'Lay on Hands' is much more in balance (especially as I remember high-level paladins "ruining" encounters by suddenly slapping 150+ damage to a "boss" Undead with 3E's 'Lay on Hands'). In my opinion Paladin's Healing *should* be slow and gradual.
They searched the cellar and found the bodies of all the victims of the Vargouille (sans heads, of course), neatly wrapped in cocoons by the spiders. They started up the stairs, as it started to dawn on them... this house actually *was* a nest of demons (NOTE: I had convinced them that I was just improvising the whole house and its residents by seeming very uncertain and vague with some of my descriptions!). As they ascended towards the ground floor, they heard the door slamming shut, and the mistress hissing (in a very "inhuman" voice): "You have slain my dear pets, and I will devour you for that!". Then she cast some spells and fled, as the PCs burst through the door. She had prepared herself (in her "natural" form) to battle in the Grand Stairs of the Main Hall, which was probably tactically a best spot in the house.
4TH ENCOUNTER: An Aranea
I actually boosted her with a Mage Armor and even gave her some 2nd level spells (Aranea usually cast spells as 3rd level sorcerers). Still, this was an easy battle for the PCs, as I missed (barely) with an Acid Arrow, she failed to concentrate with one spell, and the barbarian actually SUCCEEDED in a WILL save (unbelievable!) against Charm Person! It took them four rounds to bring her down, as she was changing shape to her hybrid form, she was slain by the dwarf fighter! She hadn't managed to hit them *at all*. Alright, I *did* have bad luck with my dice rolls, and perhaps I should have selected her spells better, but I *did* try Charm Person and Color Spray!
As they stepped over her body, the Bard and the half-orcs rushed to see what was happening... only to find out that their beautiful mistress had been a "were-spider" or something. We ended the session with one of the shicked half-orcs saying: "Uh, I don't think the Master will like this at all!" ;)