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I am coming to the end of this AP, and I am starting to feel that ol' DM burnout...might be having to do with DMing for the past 3 years straight with only maybe a dozen sessions of playing. Needless to say, I want to finish this AP, but I am getting exhausted between work, family issues, the girlfriend, and prepping. Not to mention sports once spring comes up!
I owe it to my group to finish this AP, but I would like to cut out some chunks, which sounds bad I know, but the last two modules, specifically number 5, have a huge dungeon crawl aspect which I am not looking forward to.
So I come to the wise Paizo community, to ask, which parts of these two modules should I run and keep? I am thinking most of number 6, but not too sure about number 5.
Any advice would be helpful!
I would cut PF 5. You do not *need* runeforged weapons to defeat Karzoug. If your PCs are lacking in levels, either tone PF 6 down or run a side quest in its stead.
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Cesare,
The PC's are lacking in levels a tiny bit. Any adventures you would suggest in place of PF 5? I have access to pretty much ever 3.x adventure, a ton of Dungeon magazines, and every Paizo product. I am looking to tie it into the rest of the overall plot of Karzoug's return. Any suggestions would be lovely!
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Cesare,
The PC's are lacking in levels a tiny bit. Any adventures you would suggest in place of PF 5? I have access to pretty much ever 3.x adventure, a ton of Dungeon magazines, and every Paizo product. I am looking to tie it into the rest of the overall plot of Karzoug's return. Any suggestions would be lovely!
You're sending mixed messages here, talking about adding content to replace what you are removing. Are you looking to cut out the amount of time you'll be DMing or are you looking to cut out just the DMing of dungeon crawls?
If the problem is DM burnout, the simplest answer is to cut out PF5 alltogether and knock the PF6 encounter difficulties down a couple of notches.
If the problem is the dungeon crawl part of PF5, you could still lift a couple of the memorable encounters from that one:
I think that any of these could be moved out of their current locations without too much effort and if you boosted their relative xp awards, you might be able to get the PCs to where you want them to be for the finale.
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I was looking to cut out most of the dungeon-delving. After being in Jorgenfist, they players and myself don't really want to do another HUGE dungeon. I know they are not the dungeon kind to begin with.
I have been toying with thoughts of using those encounters (Scribbler, Statue, and White Dragon) in PF 6, and giving the PC's a bit of a bump with a small sidequest or something. There was always that damn Quasit that eluded them...
I don't really like the feel of PF 5, as it is just one slog through a dungeon. I will just tie in elements from it and PF 6, and make the encounters in PF 6 a bit easier. Some are brutal enough as it is, so they could be lowered anyways.
I ran this game over a year ago, so I may be rusty. I didn't have as much "other" things going on, but felt the GM blues near the end as I do for any "almost at the end" period of all of these AP's as excitement for the next one looms on the horizon.
Chapter 5 was as useless as it was aggravating for both me and the player. As the above poster mentioned, the runeforged weapon was trivial and provided no significant difference. Having a wizard-bane weapon would have sufficed. It's a nice slog for those who enjoy them (and have the time).
Chapter 6 has a lot of unnecessary encounters. I'd essentially mark out who holds rings to bypass the occlusion field, make them easy to spot and access (but still challenging to defeat, of course), and then have them go straight to the palace pronto. The city has a wealth of material, but not if time is lacking, etc. It can always be returned to later on if anyone feels like it.
*EDIT*
Also, if you do cut a lot of stuff, I'd recommend to go ahead and add levels to the party. Some beasties are lethal, some aren't, but the BBEG will need a beefy party.
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I ran this game over a year ago, so I may be rusty. I didn't have as much "other" things going on, but felt the GM blues near the end as I do for any "almost at the end" period of all of these AP's as excitement for the next one looms on the horizon.
Chapter 5 was as useless as it was aggravating for both me and the player. As the above poster mentioned, the runeforged weapon was trivial and provided no significant difference. Having a wizard-bane weapon would have sufficed. It's a nice slog for those who enjoy them (and have the time).
Chapter 6 has a lot of unnecessary encounters. I'd essentially mark out who holds rings to bypass the occlusion field, make them easy to spot and access (but still challenging to defeat, of course), and then have them go straight to the palace pronto. The city has a wealth of material, but not if time is lacking, etc. It can always be returned to later on if anyone feels like it.
*EDIT*
Also, if you do cut a lot of stuff, I'd recommend to go ahead and add levels to the party. Some beasties are lethal, some aren't, but the BBEG will need a beefy party.
As much as I would like to run the whole AP, PF 5, just is too much of a dungeon crawl for myself and the party. They hated running through "House of the Beast" in the LoF AP, since it was just a dungeon crawl. While they liked the story, they were just like "lets go right or left, since it is a dungeon". I was thinking about giving an intelligent item in a treasure hoard to that was wizard-bane and give hints to the party. Too much?
I like your idea for PF 6, and I think I will use that idea. It always sucks to have the campaign end, but after years of DMing, sometimes you just get burnt out.
Any advice to the big bad guy at the end? I will be updating him to PFRPG, as I have with the rest of the baddies!
Thanks for the advice guys! It has been handy!
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There was an idea in one of the campaign journals that could help to cut PF6 down.
Now that the leaders are all dead and with Conna's help, there could be some kind of revolt among the giants camped around Jorgenfist. Once they realise that the Old Lords have returned, they could mobilize, unite with the scattered clans and once the PCs find Xin Shalast, attack the City.
This would have the PC's assault be against the backdrop of a giant-on-giant battle (which could cut out the city street encounters), with the PCs there to perform strikes against the leaders.
Conna could also lead them to the encounter with the Scribbler, spilling the beans about the reason for the attack on Sandpoint, having the PCs search him out by tunneling below the Catacombs of wrath instead of having a sinkhole do it.
My proposal:
1. Try to drop a warning about the impending arrival of Karzoug. Not just that he's about to rise, but that he's actually on his way. If it's not too late, he could say this himself to the PCs or they could get a spiteful threat from Mokmurian or even the Scribbler depending on how far you are past Jorgenfist.
2. Returning to Sandpoint, the PCs encounter and defeat the Scribbler. From him (if not earlier), they learn who Karzoug is, that he as arisen, and that he's on his way to reconquer the region.
3. The Scribbler knows (because he was a spy) that a couple of the opposing Runelords (which should include Wrath 'cause that's who he was spying on) had a laboratory where they were collaborating on developing a weapon to defeat their mutual enemy Karzoug.
4. Clues lead to this laboratory which, honestly, could be anywhere you want it to be depending on whether or not you want to run the battle with the white dragon.
5. Once inside the Runeforge, only use the two Runelord areas you said had been cooperating. Instead of being a co-op between seven Runelords, it was just the two. At 1/3 the size, this should be a more maneagable dungeoncrawl. The end result is whatever weapon enhancement you want to give them.
6. Rather than going after Karzoug, the PCs just prepare defenses for his arrival. Take your favorite encounters from 'Spires' and make those seperate waves of Big K's attack force.
7. At the end, Karzoug himself descends upon Sandpoint (or Ft. Rannick or wherever your PCs call home) and the final battle commences with the world's most powerful evil wizard.
At this point I wouldn't stress XP. Either give them double XP for all the encounters or just arbitrarily give them enough to level up when you need them to level up.
How's that work for you?