Okay, don't get me wrong,
I love the Renfield-esque nature of Grayst and the general atmosphere here, I really do.
But Grayst is woefully underpowered to face off against my now 5th level (Pathfinder BETA) party. They haven't fought anything since Malfeshnekor, and it's really sort of pathetic to even roll dice for this fight.
Is there some way to spice this up a bit? One idea I had was that maybe things have very recently gotten out of hand at the sanitorium, and Habe had more inmates here than the book described, so there are now a full encounter's worth of ghouls.
Grayst, rather than being in the latter stages of ghoul fever, is a straight up ghast. That way we can get a little action in the game to hold us over till the Hambley farm encounter... and if things go right, Grayst still gets to say his piece.
Advice? Ideas?
Okay, don't get me wrong,
I love the Renfield-esque nature of Grayst and the general atmosphere here, I really do.
But Grayst is woefully underpowered to face off against my now 5th level (Pathfinder BETA) party. They haven't fought anything since Malfeshnekor, and it's really sort of pathetic to even roll dice for this fight.
Is there some way to spice this up a bit? One idea I had was that maybe things have very recently gotten out of hand at the sanitorium, and Habe had more inmates here than the book described, so there are now a full encounter's worth of ghouls.
Grayst, rather than being in the latter stages of ghoul fever, is a straight up ghast. That way we can get a little action in the game to hold us over till the Hambley farm encounter... and if things go right, Grayst still gets to say his piece.
Advice? Ideas?
5th level PF Beta party, check. Headcount is?
How many encounters? You describe what sounds like at least two.
What Chapter of RotRL is this - sounds like chapter 2 early on from fuzzy memory.
Our party played through this encounter not that long ago. I was expecting Habe and his orderlies to make a move on us when Grayst attacked. I had assumed there was something more sinister going on at the asylum. I was somewhat disappointed to find out I was wrong.
Perhaps Habe could be a necromancer using his inmates for experimentation. That Grayst arrived gripped by ghoul fever could simply be a windfall. However, rather than allow what goes on there incriminate him, he may decide to attack the party, in an attempt to keep them quiet, or perhaps capture some of them to add to his collection of guinea pigs, especially any that take wounds from the ghoul.
It is in the beginning of the Skinsaw Murders.
It is meant to be more of an "informational" encounter
(Even so, the encounter could be beefed up a bit by not diminishing Gayst's stats quite so badly.)
This ended up not being a combat encounter at all in my campaign. The PCs had ranks in alchemy, herbalism, and counseling (!?!) as well as heal, and they figured out that Habe was experimenting on the inmates (in a non-necromancer sort of way), and that Grayst was infected with Ghoul Fever, and they got into an argument with Habe over the fact that he was so concerned with experimenting on his patients that he missed the serious diagnosis.
It actually was a satisfying roleplaying encounter, especially when the adventurers hauled ass at full speed to get Grayst back to the Cathedral to keep him from turning fully.
I'd say if they are 5th level, and the adventurers need some action that's more challenging, on top of running the sanitorium encounter, have everyone's favorite mysterious monster show up in its role as the harbinger of doom and have the Sandpoint Devil swoop down and give them a bit of run for their money.
Headcount: 4 PCs. Paladin, Rogue, Wizard, Artificer.
This is from Chapter 2, the Skinsaw murders.
Thanks for the input everyone. I think I will do the following:
Take the two other inmates and make them Ghouls as well, with Habe as a somewhat more sinister figure who actually administered the disease to the others. When the party is attacked by Grayst (ghast), Habe doesn't want to lose all his research, but rather wants to acquire new subjects, so he unlocks the cages of the other ghouls immediately and flees.
Hopefully he escapes outright to my rogues gallery, as the GM map has come to be known in my maptool campaign.
The way I played it was that initially Grayst didnt break free but did give the verbal clues.
Habe offered to let the party use his cart to transport the heavily tied up Grayst back to town (so the Cleric could try & cure him). Needless to say they didnt get to head back to town until it was early evening.... On the way back to town the Sandpoint devil flew down out of a cloud, screaming (spooking the horses) and genrally being a nuisance. Grayst fell out of the cart during the fight with the Devil (DM Fiat) and after the Devil had kicked some butt he broke off fighting the PC's (much to their relief)went over to Graysts twitching body and then fled.(Doesnt like other supernatural stuff). Grayst (now dead) then burst out of his confines and I played him as a dread ghast/fighter4.
The Devil was a handful and the players became a bit freaked when Grayst rose but they dealt with him.
- I know he should have taken 1 day to rise from death but I went for the scenic effect. It worked.
(Side note 1: My players had met Grasyt a couple of times as a town thug and didnt like him anyway.
Side Note 2: My players had been convinced (for no reason I can figure) that the Sandpoint devil was a scooby-doo fake monster controlled by some old mill owner and had decided it wasnt worth their time investigating- so when he turned up it was great)