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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: Stolen Land
Chapter 2: Rivers Run Red
Chapter 3: The Varnhold Vanishing
Chapter 4: Blood for Blood
Chapter 5: War of the River Kings
Chapter 6: Sound of a Thousand Screams
Got my soon to ship notice today !!! Hoo Rah!!
-- david
Papa.DRB
Got my soon to ship notice today !!! Hoo Rah!!
-- david
Papa.DRB
Wow, when they said Early-July, they meant it!
Can't Wait SOOOOO Excited.... AHHHHH!
3 Pathfinders in July...
35 early
36 & 37 late
-- david
papa.DRB
Yay!! 2 Pathfinders in July. Awesome should be able to download soon.
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Got my soon to ship notice today !!! Hoo Rah!!
-- david
Papa.DRB
Bah, damn charter subscribers. I'm still waiting for my shipment notice.
I'm really looking forward to the mass combat rules, and I'm glad the module is shipping sooner rather than later - in my current game (using the kingdom rules but not the Kingmaker plot) the guy playing the general is chomping at the bit to fight someone.
Now I'm going to have to come up with an enemy for him to fight :)
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I'm too busy looking at the map of the Glenebon Uplands... and figuring out just how to paste it in to my complete Stolen Lands map.
(Sorry, don't even ask me to forward it on - the cartography is Paizo's IP and I won't violate that - but I can provide advice on how to create your own using Paint.NET, Acrobat, and your PDFs.)
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Ok, took a look at the mass combat rules. They seem to be a pretty simple set to use, but look like they'll be robust enough to be fun.
Here are my 1st impression/criticism.
My one concern is the low population of Pitax. I know, I know population doesn't matter. I get that this is the Paizo staff position. Yet the city, that is essentially a citystate (since it lacks supporting settlements) has under 6000 people. Following the guidelines in the rules, your PCs could easily have cities larger. Note I said cities. This has the potential to make things feel a little anti-climatic. Also, the Guide to the River Kingdoms listed almost 9000 people. I guess I don't see why you would weaken the final military opponent. It almost makes it hard to believe that they could even support the forces they have with such a small population.
All cities and villages seem to be smaller than the "city rules" warrant. However, as indicated before by James, the 250 citizens per square guideline is just an indicator.
I will likely go with a 50 people per "city square" population, as I feel that the number of people otherwise gets large pretty fast...... (a castle with 2250 people is not a small one... even a huge castle like Krak des Chevaliers housed only around 2000 people.
I may keep the 250 people per hex population though, as a hex is 140-150 square miles, and a 1.6 people per square mile number already seems pretty low. As I found:
Now this is a starting kingdom, but still.....
Just wanted to say the writeup on Pitax (the fluff chapter; haven't read the mod yet) is great. Really atmospheric. I'm sad you don't get to adventure around in here earlier in the game (I might just have to change that!) because this is a really nice locale.
Oh, and can we have a stickied thread for mass combat (like we did for Kingdom Building)? I have some questions to ask that aren't really related to the module proper.
Do we find out in this AP what has become of the adventuring party that the Lord Mayor/Swordlords sent to claim this section of the Stolen Land?
Got my pdf copy! :D
Only skimmed through it so far, but I was happy to see what kind of enhancements and their costs that can be applied to your armies. I was hoping to see that in particular.
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OK, quick mass combat question.
Is the BP cost of resources applied to your army (like ranged weapons or mounts) paid just once at unit creation or does it become part of your consumption cost? I ask because the math on some of the sample units seems to bear out a recurring cost.
If my pcs made a cavalry unit with ranged weapons would it add the CR cost of the mounts and the ranged weapons to the unit's consumption? Thus the regular army has a consumption of 3, +2 for ranged and maybe +2 for mounts for a total of 7?
Thanks
EDITED for clarity
Maybe I'm blind, but could someone help me figure out what is required to create a new army? Not the maths, those seem pretty clear, but how much time it takes? Do we treat it like other BP expenditures (ie it takes a month)? The upkeep is paid weekly, so I imagine maybe it would take a week to marshal an army?
What happens when the enemy takes a town? Actually, that doesn't matter so much. What happens when you RETAKE a town the enemy has taken? What state is it left in? Just randomly ruin some buildings?
However, given the nature of the kingdom building mechanics, I imagine that as soon as you lose a town (and all the associated bonuses that it was providing) the downward spiral hits REALLY FAST.
Creative Director
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Ok, took a look at the mass combat rules. They seem to be a pretty simple set to use, but look like they'll be robust enough to be fun.
Here are my 1st impression/criticism. ** spoiler omitted **
As for populations...
And all of that is one of many reasons why decoupling population totals entirely from the raw rules of things is a good thing.
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Creative Director
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Just wanted to say the writeup on Pitax (the fluff chapter; haven't read the mod yet) is great. Really atmospheric. I'm sad you don't get to adventure around in here earlier in the game (I might just have to change that!) because this is a really nice locale.
Oh, and can we have a stickied thread for mass combat (like we did for Kingdom Building)? I have some questions to ask that aren't really related to the module proper.
Good Idea. I'll do that in a sec.
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Creative Director
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OK, quick mass combat question.
Is the BP cost of resources applied to your army (like ranged weapons or mounts) paid just once at unit creation or does it become part of your consumption cost? I ask because the math on some of the sample units seems to bear out a recurring cost.
If my pcs made a cavalry unit with ranged weapons would it add the CR cost of the mounts and the ranged weapons to the unit's consumption? Thus the regular army has a consumption of 3, +2 for ranged and maybe +2 for mounts for a total of 7?
Thanks
EDITED for clarity
The BP cost for keeping an army is paid once per week. Since your nation's Consumption is paid once per month, you can probably multiply BP times 4 and just add that into your total Consumption, but since there's specific rules for what happens if an army runs out of funding, it's best to track this by the week. (see the rules for Consumption on page 55)
Your cavalry unit with ranged weapons would indeed have a total cost of 7 (assuming you had CR 2 mounts).
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Creative Director
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Maybe I'm blind, but could someone help me figure out what is required to create a new army? Not the maths, those seem pretty clear, but how much time it takes? Do we treat it like other BP expenditures (ie it takes a month)? The upkeep is paid weekly, so I imagine maybe it would take a week to marshal an army?
What happens when the enemy takes a town? Actually, that doesn't matter so much. What happens when you RETAKE a town the enemy has taken? What state is it left in? Just randomly ruin some buildings?
However, given the nature of the kingdom building mechanics, I imagine that as soon as you lose a town (and all the associated bonuses that it was providing) the downward spiral hits REALLY FAST.
The time it takes to organize an army is only a week, but that assumes that the PCs' nation already has something akin to an army or militia or troops that simply weren't "active."
Building an army up from scratch isn't something that's likely to happen in the context of the Kingmaker Adventure Path, and so we didn't cover that element really—no room. A month is probably a good round figure to use, though, if you want.
What happens when an army takes a town is covered in Pathfinder #32, under the rules for "annexing towns."
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Creative Director
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When totaling the points at the end of the tournament, the text mentions a mysterious 5th event that was probably cut for space reasons. Any chance of finding out what the 5th event would have been?
Dang.
There were, at one point, several additional events at the tournament, but they were cut not for space but because they simply didn't fit the theme of Golarion, and of Pitax. One was a sort of "virtual reality amphitheater" where you fought monsters, for example. There were a few others that were just way too high-magic to fit well with the gritty themes of Kingmaker and the River Kingdoms as well. They were interesting, but not for Kingmaker.
There WAS one that almost made it into print, but it got cut for space so we could have more room to present more Glenebon Uplands encounters (originally, the adventure had NO exploration of the Uplands, which had to be fixed). This is the one that the tournament point totals are unfortunately still referring to.
This close-call contest was about a "thief's challenge" where the contestants had to do a mock robbery of some gems atop one tower and then navigate a short obstacle course to reach a second tower to fence the gems. Lots of skill checks in that one. I'd originally intended to keep that contest in another file and put it online as a web enhancement, but as my computer periodically does, Microsoft Word crashed at EXACTLY the moment when I was saving the file and presto... I lost all the words for that contest. Gone forever.
So, unfortunately, that's about all I can say on that.
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OK, quick mass combat question.
Is the BP cost of resources applied to your army (like ranged weapons or mounts) paid just once at unit creation or does it become part of your consumption cost? I ask because the math on some of the sample units seems to bear out a recurring cost.
If my pcs made a cavalry unit with ranged weapons would it add the CR cost of the mounts and the ranged weapons to the unit's consumption? Thus the regular army has a consumption of 3, +2 for ranged and maybe +2 for mounts for a total of 7?
Thanks
EDITED for clarity
The BP cost for keeping an army is paid once per week. Since your nation's Consumption is paid once per month, you can probably multiply BP times 4 and just add that into your total Consumption, but since there's specific rules for what happens if an army runs out of funding, it's best to track this by the week. (see the rules for Consumption on page 55)
Your cavalry unit with ranged weapons would indeed have a total cost of 7 (assuming you had CR 2 mounts).
Hey, thanks for the speedy response. I think I understand how this works - time to run some simulations.
As for Pitax's pop, I was only confused as it dropped from the River Kingdom guide to the printed AP. I guess you could claim people were leaving en masse for the PC's realm, but it just seemed odd to me. You're right that it doesn't matter. I'll adjust as needed for my home campaign
Do we find out in this AP what has become of the adventuring party that the Lord Mayor/Swordlords sent to claim this section of the Stolen Land?
Hmmm, I've read the adventure background and skimmed the rest of the book, but I see no mention of the adventurers that were sent to the Glenebon Uplands. Do they get a mention that I've missed, or are they mentioned in the next chapter?
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Creative Director
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Do we find out in this AP what has become of the adventuring party that the Lord Mayor/Swordlords sent to claim this section of the Stolen Land?Hmmm, I've read the adventure background and skimmed the rest of the book, but I see no mention of the adventurers that were sent to the Glenebon Uplands. Do they get a mention that I've missed, or are they mentioned in the next chapter?
They were basically just killed by monsters or barbarians and their bodies dumped in a lake somewhere. This is a minor plot element that, basically, we lost track of in the mad scramble to get the AP back on schedule after the previous year's launch of the new rules wreaked havoc on us.
Originally, I was thinking that the dead bodies could turn up in Irovetti's basement somewhere as a way for the PCs to find irrefutable proof that Irovetti was up to no good, but that didn't fit well with Irovetti's personality, really, so it never made it in.
Another reason we didn't do much with them is that there's a good chance many many years pass between the AP's start and the PCs reaching the Uplands. In that time, there wouldn't be much left of the missing adventurer bodies.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Do we find out in this AP what has become of the adventuring party that the Lord Mayor/Swordlords sent to claim this section of the Stolen Land?Hmmm, I've read the adventure background and skimmed the rest of the book, but I see no mention of the adventurers that were sent to the Glenebon Uplands. Do they get a mention that I've missed, or are they mentioned in the next chapter?They were basically just killed by monsters or barbarians and their bodies dumped in a lake somewhere. This is a minor plot element that, basically, we lost track of in the mad scramble to get the AP back on schedule after the previous year's launch of the new rules wreaked havoc on us.
Originally, I was thinking that the dead bodies could turn up in Irovetti's basement somewhere as a way for the PCs to find irrefutable proof that Irovetti was up to no good, but that didn't fit well with Irovetti's personality, really, so it never made it in.
Another reason we didn't do much with them is that there's a good chance many many years pass between the AP's start and the PCs reaching the Uplands. In that time, there wouldn't be much left of the missing adventurer bodies.
Probably the best place to slip it in, if you feel it's important, would be to have a piece of distinctive gear or two found in one of the monster lairs in the Uplands.
"Wait, is that the shield of Jenrry the Brave? I think this ring is like that one that Kardynal the sorcerer had. Well, I guess now we know what happened to those guys."
moment of silence, pondering the cruel vicissitudes of life and death in the River Kingdoms
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..
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DIBS ON THE RING!!!!
NO WAY, MINE, I SAW IT FIRST! YOU ALREADY HAVE A RING! SO DO YOU! YEAH, BUT I CAN USE IT BETTER! HARDLY! WELL, YOU JUST TAKE THE SHIELD. I DON'T WANT THE SHIELD! NEITHER DO I! WELL I'M TAKING THE RING!!! OVER MY DEAD BODY! OH, so it's like THAT is it? You asked for it! *BOOM*
ahhh, adventurers...
Do we find out in this AP what has become of the adventuring party that the Lord Mayor/Swordlords sent to claim this section of the Stolen Land?Hmmm, I've read the adventure background and skimmed the rest of the book, but I see no mention of the adventurers that were sent to the Glenebon Uplands. Do they get a mention that I've missed, or are they mentioned in the next chapter?They were basically just killed by monsters or barbarians and their bodies dumped in a lake somewhere. This is a minor plot element that, basically, we lost track of in the mad scramble to get the AP back on schedule after the previous year's launch of the new rules wreaked havoc on us.
...
Another reason we didn't do much with them is that there's a good chance many many years pass between the AP's start and the PCs reaching the Uplands. In that time, there wouldn't be much left of the missing adventurer bodies.
I figured it'd be something like that. No, really!
I might have their bones turn up in the (abandoned) dragon's lair.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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ENHANCING THE RUSHLIGHT TOURNAMENT
For people who decide they really like the Rushlight Tournament and want to add more events, we have a few interesting alternatives that ended up on the cutting room floor. Some were a little too wacky or high-magic for Golarion, esp. for the River Kingdoms, but if your campaign takes a little more high-magic road, give em a look and you may find something amusing.
One reason I wrote up a variety of very different events was to give different characters a chance to shine at the event. Sure, there'd be a joust and an archery tournament - they're tradition because they're iconic and awesome - but I wanted to throw in some other things that might be good if you were a barbarian or rogue or bard or wizard or cleric and jousting and archery aren't your strong suits.
Part 1: The Tower of Jewels
Setup: Competitors have only a simple outfit of clothes and are forbidden from using magical abilities. Event marshals use detect magic to enforce this (but see playtest notes). A contestant who wants to bring in a weapon or tool must smuggle it in using Sleight of Hand or Stealth opposed by the event marshals' Perception of +10.
Rules: Contestants must climb to the top of a 60-foot wooden column, painted to resemble a tower, and retrieve a single gemstone of their choice from a turret-shaped box at the top, and climb back down without falling. The pole itself has been sanded smooth (Climb DC 25), and the top 10 feet of the pole have been greased as well (DC 30). A competitor may use Acrobatics to begin their climb with a high jump, requiring a DC 20 Reflex save to grab onto the pole after their jump, but they may not jump down. If they fall while climbing down, intentionally or not, they must climb back to the point where they were when they slipped and climb down again. A competitor who wishes to climb naked can take of their garment and improvise a climbing aid out of it (+2 bonus to Climb checks) with a full round action and a DC 20 Craft (cloth) or Survival check. This can be used as a 10-foot-long makeshift rope if tied to the box at the top of the pole (a standard action), reducing the Climb DC to 10 for that portion of the pole. A character who fails a Climb check by more than 5 slides 1d6 x 5 feet down. If they fail by 10 or more they fall to the ground.
The box has a simple lock (Disable Device DC 20 if the competitor has smuggled in thieves’ tools, DC 30 without tools). A competitor can also try to smash open the box (hardness 5, hit points 15, break DC 23); nonlethal damage does not affect objects, so a competitor must be able to inflict lethal damage with unarmed attacks or have smuggled in or improvised a weapon.
The box contains 6 gems, one of each worth 5000, 1000, 500, 100, 50, and 10 gp. A DC 20 Appraise check (full-round action) can determine which is of greatest worth. If the box is smashed open, the gems will be knocked off the tower top – the PC can catch one of them with a DC 15 Reflex save, and can make a DC 30 Appraise check as an immediate action to catch the most valuable one. Any jewels which fall must make a DC 16 Reflex save (+0 save bonus) or shatter when they hit the ground below. A competitor may palm an additional jewel with a Sleight of Hand check, or even more than one, though each jewel after the first applies a -2 penalty to the check. If the event marshals notice (+10 Perception), the competitor is disqualified; if not, they keep the extra loot.
Winning: There are two champions: The sharpest eye is given for bringing back the most valuable jewel. If more than one person retrieves a 5000 gp gem, the one who brought it back first is the winner. The sharpest eye keeps their jewel. The swiftest hand is given for coming back with any jewel first, whatever its value. The swiftest hand keeps their jewel and the jewels brought back by of the other competitors (except for the sharpest eye).
PLAYTEST NOTES:
1. How many towers? I ran this as part of an event at PaizoCon, using the Coliseum flip-mat and drawing in five towers, one tower for each contestant. They rolled initiative and went in order, and they could go to whichever tower they wanted. To finish they had to get back down the pole with at least one jewel, then cross the arena to the royal box and climb up into it, dropping their jewel on the table there.
In theory, they could all go to the same tower and literally fight for it, but they each took their own. I notice, though, on reading the text it suggests that there is only ONE tower and that all of the contestants are going for the same one. I think you could run the contest either way.
2. What about cheating? Well, this IS the River Kingdoms, so of course some people will try to cheat. In running the game at the Con, one player was caught trying to cheat, but he succeeded at a Bluff and then Diplomacy and then offered a bribe to the judge to look the other way from him and to keep an eye on the other contestants. As it happened, one of the other players tried a bit of magic late in the contest and the bribed judge was looking his way. He got the full rodeo clown treatment from the marshals, much to the hooting amusement of the crowd.
3. What if I *CAN'T* make the Climb checks? Well, then first off this contest probably isn't for you, but different players have different abilities. One guy had a bard who couldn't make the climbs, but he stayed on the ground and assisted some of the other PCs in climbing, intending to rob one of them when they came down. Ironically, one player took the "smash the chest" option right above where the bard was, and when the jewels went flying he managed to catch one while the others fell and smashed. If he had just made a run for the end (without trying a bit of magic to help), he probably could have won a prize!
4. What's the best strategy? The game is set up to be able to be won by speed (be there first) or precision (be there best); either route can get you to win the contest. You can go as fast as possible and drop ANYTHING in the paybox, or you can make DARN SURE you have the best jewel. That said, the Climb check is high enough that it's not guaranteed, and a lot of times one competitor looks like they are way ahead and muffs a skill check (climb or appraise or whatever) and others catch up.
One other feature of the event was the inclusion of sample competitors. These guys were originally set up as a grudge match between Pitax and Mivon, but they could represent anyone. The real use of these guys, though, is so that if your PLAYERS want to play in the event but their characters aren't really cut out for it, they can use one of these guys as their surrogate, either hiring them to compete for the Stolen Lands, or just running them as NPCs for the other countries. It was just a way to make sure that the players could get in on the fun.
Competitors: Irovetti’s favored champion is given clues about the cut of the most valuable gemstone, granting a +2 circumstance bonus to Appraise checks to pick it out from the others.
Aliasghar Zirians (Mivon - half-orc male monk 10) Speed 60 feet, Attacks unarmed strike +11/+11/+6/+6 (1d10+2), Reflex +10, hp 65, Skills Acrobatics +22 (+44 to jump, +64 to jump when spending a ki point), Appraise +5, Climb +15, Strategy Aliasghar will spend his first round doing a Dazzling Display (Intimidate +22; the other 3 NPC competitors have Intimidate DCs of 21) to penalize other competitors’ skill and ability checks by 2. He will then make a running leap up the pole and climb as best he can, using slow fall to avoid damage if he falls. He will try to smash the box and grab any jewel and get back to the finish as fast as possible.
Jas Heydari (Pitax - halfling male barbarian 10), Speed 40 feet, Attacks Strength check to burst box +4 (+14 with strength surge), Reflex +7, hp 95, Skills Acrobatics +17 (+21 to jump), Appraise +1, Climb +17 (+29 when raging), Strategy Jas will use accelerated climbing every round. He will use strength surge to try to break the box in one blow and grab any jewel he can.
Valeda Karmakar (Mivon - human female barbarian 10) Speed 40 feet, Attacks bite +14/+9 (1d4+13 with Power Attack), Reflex +5, hp 105, Skills Acrobatics +10 (+14 to jump), Appraise +0, Climb +18, Strategy Valeda will rage and double-move up the lower part of the pole. At the greased area, she will make a bite attack tower to create a hand-hold (reducing Climb DC by 5) and single move until she reaches the top.
Zuwa Odighi (Pitax - human female rogue 10), Speed 30 feet, Attacks improvised weapon (thieves’ tools) +8 (1d3+1), Reflex +12, hp 55, Skills Appraise +12, Acrobatics +18, Climb +15, Disable Device +21, Sleight of Hand +19, Strategy Zuwa smuggles masterwork thieves’ tools (the event marshals will not see them but PCs with good perception might) and will try to climb carefully and select the best quality gem she can.
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ENHANCING THE RUSHLIGHT TOURNAMENT
For people who decide they really like the Rushlight Tournament and want to add more events, we have a few interesting alternatives that ended up on the cutting room floor. Some were a little too wacky or high-magic for Golarion, esp. for the River Kingdoms, but if your campaign takes a little more high-magic road, give em a look and you may find something amusing.
One reason I wrote up a variety of very different events was to give different characters a chance to shine at the event. Sure, there'd be a joust and an archery tournament - they're tradition because they're iconic and awesome - but I wanted to throw in some other things that might be good if you were a barbarian or rogue or bard or wizard or cleric and jousting and archery aren't your strong suits.
Part 1: The Tower of Jewels
Setup: Competitors have only a simple outfit of clothes and are forbidden from using magical abilities. Event marshals use detect magic to enforce this (but see playtest notes). A contestant who wants to bring in a weapon or tool must smuggle it in using Sleight of Hand or Stealth opposed by the event marshals' Perception of +10.
Rules: Contestants must climb to the top of a 60-foot wooden column, painted to resemble a tower, and retrieve a single gemstone of their choice from a turret-shaped box at the top, and climb back down without falling. The pole itself has been sanded smooth (Climb DC 25), and the top 10 feet of the pole have been greased as well (DC 30). A competitor may use Acrobatics to begin their climb with a high jump, requiring a DC 20 Reflex save to grab onto the pole after their jump, but they may not jump down. If they fall while climbing down, intentionally or not, they must climb back to the point where they were when they slipped and climb down again. A competitor who wishes to climb naked can take of their garment and improvise a climbing aid out of it (+2 bonus to Climb checks) with a full round action and a DC 20...
thnx Jason will use this or something very similar will definitely use the npcs.
Very nice! I'll definitely be using this additional event as well.
I do have a question, however, regarding how the war starts. I know it's been left rather open regarding how the armies clash, but at the outset, with the PCs distracted, Irovetti might be able to have one of his armies march on a city before the PCs have time to react to the threat. How exactly does one run a combat between an army and a city? At this point, the PCs may not really know they're at war so they have no armies.
Which hexes are officially claimed by Pitax?
Which ones are developed as farms? (I remember Pitax being famous for its orchards and vineyards)
Very nice! I'll definitely be using this additional event as well.
I do have a question, however, regarding how the war starts. I know it's been left rather open regarding how the armies clash, but at the outset, with the PCs distracted, Irovetti might be able to have one of his armies march on a city before the PCs have time to react to the threat. How exactly does one run a combat between an army and a city? At this point, the PCs may not really know they're at war so they have no armies.
Well, although they can't attack with it, cities can have a defensive value. (Through Defense modifiers from e.g. Castle, watchtowers, city watch, barrack etc).
Also, if you would like you could probably enable the (immediate) raising of a Militia of which the size could be based on the city size. E.g:
City Size:
Inhabitants
2500 or less = No militia
2500-4999 = Medium army of humans (warrior 3)
5000-12.499 = Large army of humans (warrior 3)
12.500-24.999 = Huge army of humans (warrior 3)
25.000-49.999 = Gargantuan army of humans (warrior 3)
50.000 = Colossal army of humans (warrior 3)
This assumes that one in 25 inhabitants is a level 3 warrior.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Which hexes are officially claimed by Pitax?
Which ones are developed as farms? (I remember Pitax being famous for its orchards and vineyards)
That is a fabulous question... and one which I unfortunately didn't address AT ALL in my turnover. In fact, the adventure I turned over was entirely event-based, as I hadn't realized I'd need to include an hex-crawling/exploration element to it.
Um... OOPS.
Which is another reason to give it up for James, bless his heart, for when he fills in the gaps left by addle-pated freelancers!
So, o Creative Director, where DOES the border of Pitax lie? Inquiring minds want to know! :)
Two of the archery contestants are described to use "careful aim".
What's that?
It seems to give +5 to the attack roll when using a full-round action to fire a single shot. Is this an official rule, or was it just made up for the archery contest?
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Two of the archery contestants are described to use "careful aim".
What's that?
It seems to give +5 to the attack roll when using a full-round action to fire a single shot. Is this an official rule, or was it just made up for the archery contest?
This.
BTW, with regard to the hardness of the targets, make sure to remember (since I forgot when I was running it at PaizoCon) that ranged attacks inflict half damage vs. objects. Hence, a feat like Deadly Aim could come in really handy to avoid having your arrows bounce off the target even when you "hit."
There actually was a whole jousting meta-system in there too, rather than using normal CMB/D rules, just because I like making things unnecessarily complicated... :)
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Creative Director
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Very nice! I'll definitely be using this additional event as well.
I do have a question, however, regarding how the war starts. I know it's been left rather open regarding how the armies clash, but at the outset, with the PCs distracted, Irovetti might be able to have one of his armies march on a city before the PCs have time to react to the threat. How exactly does one run a combat between an army and a city? At this point, the PCs may not really know they're at war so they have no armies.
If an army attacks a city that has no army stationed in it, you can either say that the army just sweeps in and takes the city with no resistance, or you can say that the city's guard and militia rise up to defend the city. With the latter, just use the most appropriate-feeling militia stats from page 59 of the book to defend the city.
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Creative Director
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Which hexes are officially claimed by Pitax?
Which ones are developed as farms? (I remember Pitax being famous for its orchards and vineyards)
Pitax's claims on its nation are pretty spurious—they actually claim to control all of the Stolen Lands west of Hooktongue Slough, but they don't really have an organized patrol route and the city certainly doesn't give out much support to anyone who wants to do stuff like live or work in that region.
The region that Pitax can legitimately claim as its own, though pretty much ammounts to the bottom two rows of hexes on page 22, with the exception of any hexes with forest in them and the addition of the hexes containing areas K and L.
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Creative Director
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Two of the archery contestants are described to use "careful aim".
What's that?
It seems to give +5 to the attack roll when using a full-round action to fire a single shot. Is this an official rule, or was it just made up for the archery contest?
Actually... it's standard rules to grant a +5 bonus on attack rolls when using a full-round action to fire a single shot. It's squirreled away, though, and easy to miss.
The rule itself is on page 173 of the PFRPG; last sentence of the paragraph that talks about an object's Armor Class:
"Furthermore, if you take a full-round action to line up a shot, you get an automatic hit with a melee weapon and a +5 bonus on attack rolls with a ranged weapon."
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Two of the archery contestants are described to use "careful aim".
What's that?
It seems to give +5 to the attack roll when using a full-round action to fire a single shot. Is this an official rule, or was it just made up for the archery contest?Actually... it's standard rules to grant a +5 bonus on attack rolls when using a full-round action to fire a single shot. It's squirreled away, though, and easy to miss.
The rule itself is on page 173 of the PFRPG; last sentence of the paragraph that talks about an object's Armor Class:
"Furthermore, if you take a full-round action to line up a shot, you get an automatic hit with a melee weapon and a +5 bonus on attack rolls with a ranged weapon."
Well dress me up and call me Sally, you learn something new every day. :)
Hi Sally !!!
-- david
Papa.DRB
Well dress me up and call me Sally, you learn something new every day. :)
Well dress me up and call me Sally, you learn something new every day. :)
Well then from now on you are Sally.
Well dress me up and call me Sally, you learn something new every day. :)
I guess this means from now on I'll have to call you my RPG Superstar "sis" instead of "bro"...
::fist-bump?::
I have another quick question regarding the archery contest. The Daggermark contestant is said to cast true strike just before combat and again on the second round. Why does he do this? It would seem that thanks to far shot, he can only miss the furthest target on a 1 anyway.
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Two of the archery contestants are described to use "careful aim".
What's that?
It seems to give +5 to the attack roll when using a full-round action to fire a single shot. Is this an official rule, or was it just made up for the archery contest?Actually... it's standard rules to grant a +5 bonus on attack rolls when using a full-round action to fire a single shot. It's squirreled away, though, and easy to miss.
The rule itself is on page 173 of the PFRPG; last sentence of the paragraph that talks about an object's Armor Class:
"Furthermore, if you take a full-round action to line up a shot, you get an automatic hit with a melee weapon and a +5 bonus on attack rolls with a ranged weapon."
So just to be clear, you take a full-round action to use careful aim, and then make your melee attack roll in your next round, so effectively guaranteeing a hit every other round.
This would seem to be another great tactic, like aid another, when a group encounters creatures with impossibly high AC they can't hope to hit. Even if your chance to hit a creature with a melee weapon is less than 50%, you're better off taking careful aim and guaranteeing a hit every other round! Your primary melee guy may not need this, but it enables all his buddies to provide him flanks and get a shot in, instead of hanging back and feeling useless. This one tactic could easily turn the tide and make the difference between a TPK or walking out alive.
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Which hexes are officially claimed by Pitax?
Which ones are developed as farms? (I remember Pitax being famous for its orchards and vineyards)
That is a fabulous question... and one which I unfortunately didn't address AT ALL in my turnover. In fact, the adventure I turned over was entirely event-based, as I hadn't realized I'd need to include an hex-crawling/exploration element to it.
Um... OOPS.
Which is another reason to give it up for James, bless his heart, for when he fills in the gaps left by addle-pated freelancers!
So, o Creative Director, where DOES the border of Pitax lie? Inquiring minds want to know! :)
First of all Kudos Jason very well done.Second I like your dedication --'high five' to both of you.
Now I have a question is the ruins of Little Town what's left of Mormouth? I was just wandering also about Sarain? No mention at all about this town. I understand that Pitax is the capital of Pitax the nation but don't they also have to contest these towns to take over the whole kingdom?|
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Which hexes are officially claimed by Pitax?
Which ones are developed as farms? (I remember Pitax being famous for its orchards and vineyards)
That is a fabulous question... and one which I unfortunately didn't address AT ALL in my turnover. In fact, the adventure I turned over was entirely event-based, as I hadn't realized I'd need to include an hex-crawling/exploration element to it.
Um... OOPS.
Which is another reason to give it up for James, bless his heart, for when he fills in the gaps left by addle-pated freelancers!
So, o Creative Director, where DOES the border of Pitax lie? Inquiring minds want to know! :)
First of all Kudos Jason very well done.Second I like your dedication --'high five' to both of you.
Now I have a question is the ruins of Little Town what's left of Mormouth? I was just wandering also about Sarain? No mention at all about this town. I understand that Pitax is the capital of Pitax the nation but don't they also have to contest these towns to take over the whole kingdom?
Another question -- and if someone already has asked and I missed it sorry, how many farms can I tell my pcs they have and where would their quarries lay? thnx in advance.