The Worms Crawl In, The Worms Crawl Out... (AoW 3.5)

[Adam500]

So this past Monday I completed the campaign I have been running for the past year and a half (Or has it been two? I digress). Picking up a new player we sat down and rolled up characters to start up this great campaign.

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The Players

Zex, Human Archivist 1
- A simple wandering scholar who found his way to Diamond lake part by chance and part by interest in the nearby hills.

Tanessa of the Running Brook, Catfolk Ranger 1
- A nature activist who has come to Diamond Lake to usher change in its economic-political structure with the hope of revitalizing it's ecosystem which once revolved around the now-dead lake. She has met nothing but resistance from the Mine Managers since her arrival. She is not particularly a threat to their regimes but she is a nuisance nonetheless.

Arcturus, Human Fighter 1
- Part adventurer, part unlucky fellow, Arcturus came to Diamond lake like many others in search of work. All in the name of his lord Bahamut.

Skink, Aasimar Druid 1
- Hes just a passing through Kamen.... sorry, Hes just a passing through Druid, really. Remember that. Oh and he has a pet poison-spitting dinosaur that lives in his backpack.

Vrack the Glory Bringer, Human Cleric 1
- A priest of Pelor who came to Diamond lake to proselytize. Whether his efforts will bear fruit for his church in the future in such a dreary town remains to be seen.

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Our story begins simply as the mercenary Arcturus searches Diamond Lake for work. Coming upon a flier detailing a missing girl he immediately began asking questions around town and gathering information. Along the way he picked up a trio of allies from the Feral Dog and a catfolk tracker who had been staying in the Able Carter Coaching Inn.

Following tips from the locals they figured that the girl must have gone to one of the local burial cairns, one where the walls 'spoke'. After consulting the local wizard Allustan they obtained a map to this "Whispering Cairn" on the stipulation that they would recount their explorations of it to him later, and bring back rubbing samples of writing they find there.

Upon arriving at the Cairn the group began exploring the main hall, noticing a collapsed tunnel, a broken transportation device, and the source of the mysterious 'whispers'. Assaulted by a trio of wolves the group swiftly dealt with them through druidic magic before pressing on...

To Be Continued

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So that's where we are after session one. Not at all bad, although its sort of obvious who put the most effort into why their character's are there and what their motivations are.

A something of note, the cleric of Pelor expressed interest in the Radiant Servant prestige class. I told him to pick something else because Ive heard that this prestige class (and Entropomancer) break the campaign open toward the end. Was this a good call? I'm not sure.

Coming up next time, Acid Beetles. Gorram Acid Beetles, oh and traps too. The fight that could make or break the party, what will happen? We'll see.

[Turin the Mad]

Given the foes the Radiant Servant faces, I suspect the weaknesses of the PrC are balanced against its strengths. Only if he constantly attains initiative and finds a way to keep his Listen/Spot at maximum will he (theoretically) be unstoppable.

[Adam500]

Turin the Mad wrote:

Given the foes the Radiant Servant faces, I suspect the weaknesses of the PrC are balanced against its strengths. Only if he constantly attains initiative and finds a way to keep his Listen/Spot at maximum will he (theoretically) be unstoppable.

I can see the point and I'm almost convinced to let him go through with taking the prestige class. I reread it (which I had not done in quite a while) and it doesn't seem quite as bad as it had been made out to be.

I apologize for how brief the first post is. My writing has been very lax over the past year or so, but I'm hoping as I post more of this I can improve it gradually.

[Turin the Mad]

Adam500 wrote:

Turin the Mad wrote:

Given the foes the Radiant Servant faces, I suspect the weaknesses of the PrC are balanced against its strengths. Only if he constantly attains initiative and finds a way to keep his Listen/Spot at maximum will he (theoretically) be unstoppable.

I can see the point and I'm almost convinced to let him go through with taking the prestige class. I reread it (which I had not done in quite a while) and it doesn't seem quite as bad as it had been made out to be.

I apologize for how brief the first post is. My writing has been very lax over the past year or so, but I'm hoping as I post more of this I can improve it gradually.

The parts of the AP where a Radiant Servant can "one shot" the baddies are often set up with several groups of 'mook' undead critters that can soak up turn undead attempts - if nothing else than from the wandering critter tables and patrols presented throughout the AP. Use them as the fireball fodder that they are. The Radiant Servant is powerful at healing and turning, no question. They are decidedly not unstoppable however, and given the lethality of later encounters in the AP - and especially the prevalence of ability drain in large amounts dealt out by multiple attacks per round - the character is likely to suffer from vulnerability to those attacks. Characters who enter the AoW-specific PrC provided in the pertinent issue of Dragon magazine are the most likely to survive the travails of the adventure path. It is theoretically possible for a 21st level Servant with enough optimization and magic item availability to disrupt Dragotha and/or Kyuss himself who is undead, even if a Gawd, but that would require a highly specialized combination of ability score modifiers, feats, magic items and so forth as to render that character highly susceptible to death from 80% of the other foes they encounter.