|
I've got this one under my belt now at both the low and the high tiers. I have some observations I would like to make.
The players seem to be incredulous when they are told the Commerce League doesn't know where the Shadow Lodge operates out of (and the non-native PCs are supposed to be able to find this out). What annoys me is the goblin shaman in Part 1 is carrying a potion with the symbol of the Temple in Part 2 etched on it. If the GM mentions this to the players, there's a chance the players will gather info/knowledge (local) for this symbol. Seeing that the symbol is right on the front of the friggin' building in Part 2, I couldn't deny a good skill check this information. I haven't shared the spoiler info with the players because of this. I just let them dink around town until they trigger the ambush in the Downmarket.
The double (quadruple) agent Krazel is another problem. Some of the factions are instructed to be discrete in their search for Krazel, and others are not. What has happened both times I've run this is all the factions realize Krazel is an agent and is involved with other factions. His effectiveness as a spy/informant is nullified at that point in my opinion. Most of the missions' success doesn't lay with preserving Krazel's cover, so the players don't really care but it is an inconsistancy that bothers me.
As far as finding Krazel, and who he even is, it is left up to the GM to fill in. There's no satisfaction for a player when a GM just says "Make a die roll" and then "You succeed on your mission". I try to jazz it up some more. You can find a lot of inspiration in the City of Strangers sourcebook. I suggest that the PCs locate Krazel's home, where they are informed he is not there. He can be located here:
The White Lady: This brothel specializes in those
risqué desires not even Hospice can fulfill, most notably
involving its cadre of undead courtesans. For an extra
fee, Madame Krou (LN female human expert 4) will even
remove her controlling amulets, allowing her patrons
the dangerous thrill of restraining their enraged and
predatory conquests by force. While even most of Ankar-
Te’s residents blanch at some of the sounds coming from
the brothel’s upper stories, regulars enthusiastically
point out that “there are some things you just can’t do
with a live ’un.”
That should make an impression on the players. Have Krazel come down to the parlor to meet with the PCs, covered in scratch and bite marks but looking infinitely pleased with himself.
Director of Narrative
|
(I only just quickly read through this tonight)
Re: Krazel
I ran part 1 tonight and two of the party members were from Cheliax and Taldor factions, and throughout the scenario, they realized they were looking for the same guy for pretty much the same reason. It ended up they sent both letters through a single agent, which I played as really putting off Krazen and him showing a bit of worry that the gig might be up. I think with part 2, the other factions involved in this spy orgy figuring things out, he’s certainly going to be spooked. I need to flesh out this fledgling super-spy.
I'm also having a ton of fun running scenarios set in my favorite city in Golarion.
Venture-Captain, Arizona—Tucson
|
After playing this one yesterday, I would not recommend parties "play up" to the upper tier of this one.
Our melee-oriented group found every fight a grueling struggle, with multiple characters down and bleeding. In the first combat, the dice went against us and we ended up with two dead PCs and the others falling back to prevent a TPK. (I was forced to destroy one of the offending D20s, to encourage the others to better efforts.)
|
|
I ran this one last night. This module is way too overpowered for new PCs at Tier 1-2. I had to softball both the marketplace encounter (AC 21?!?) and the Sorceress/Rogue encounter (Color Spray is a *beast* at Tier1-2).
It's really a failure of the Pathfinder system. At low levels, humanoids with class levels are just overpowered, due to their -1 to CR. The sorceress with 14 HP (16 if she is given full HP at L1, 17 if she's given her favored class bonus), AC 19 (20 if she's smart and puts up Mage Armor), Color Spray, and a full-attack of +6/+6 - 1d4+4 (her statblock, by the way, assumes she quaffs her Bull's Strength potion) is NOT the same challenge level as a 13 HP, AC 15 Troglodyte with a full-attack of +2/-3/-3 - 1d6+1/1d4/1d4.
But that does not excuse the module. The then-coordinator of the campaign did *not* have to be so brutal on Tier 1-2 tables.
I recommend simply avoiding this module for Tier 1-2 parties.
-Matt
|
AC 21, but Touch 10 and CMD 14 and only 11 hps. Not exactly invincible.
A smart party could use the exact same tactics they are using. Put your front liner against Bega and if necessary fight defensively or go full defense to keep her occupied. Then pick her off with touch AC spells magic missiles etc. Not that groups are necessarily going to think of that, but it just shows sometimes tactics can do what brute force cannot.
Also- the sorceress based on her tactics really shouldn't be using the color spray except as a last ditch effort before going down. Then she'll probably either fail casting defensively or provoke AoOs since she's been in melee up till then and either way she has a 15% chance of failure. If she breaks those tactics a tier 1-2 party doesn't stand a chance against 5 color sprays.
I do agree it could be a bit much for a table of brand new first time characters, but for Tier 1-2 in general it's not so bad.
Venture-Captain, Missouri—Cape Girardeau
|
I might be wrong, but I think character classed npcs like these are not built on 20 point buy, don't get full hps at 1st level, and I think these guys have their favored class bonus in skills rather than hps.
This raises a good point: what are the standards for NPCs when designing a PFS scenario? I am curious about this.
|
|
Looking at the Tier 1-2 entries these guys were built on the heroic npc stat array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 which if it were point buy would be 16 then add racial bonus/penalty.
Like monsters they get the average hps for each level- no full hps at first level.
Favored Class: Muminah +1 skill, Bega +1 hp, Mickey +1 hp, Todor +1 hp. So apparently that is left up to the designer, but keep in mind Bega as a fighter needed Toughness, Con mod of +2 and +1 from favored class bonus just to get 11 hps as a fighter.
No traits of course.
Not sure how they figure the available resources, but I'm guessing that since they are built as heroic npcs they used the corresponding entry for gear (p 454) as an upper limit. That would give these guys a max of 390 gp each, which they have not all used. Bega 295, Muminah 400, Mickey 261, Todor 227. Bega went a little over, but 150 of her gear is tied up in the Elixir of Love which has no combat application and is just there to up the loot a little for the PCs afterward.
|
|
Long time lurker, rare poster here. Doug, I stole your idea for the brothel and figured I would share an amusing story that came of it. Renamed it "The Afterlife" and had Krazel meet the pcs as you mentioned. Now the pcs took a liking to him right away as I have a mostly neutral group and the fact that he was shady and dealing with 4 of the factions intrigued them. So Krazel has been dealing most of the info they needed in order to progress missions. I had Mumina snub Krazel's advances on her in a bar behind the scenes where the shadow lodge members were planning the attack on the pcs. This happened shortly before the Meatgate ambush and he was more than happy to share the info for some gold. The pcs were ready for the ambush in meatgate and after defeating the shadow lodge members took Mumina back to The Afterlife to have them make her one of their undead courtesans. They then told Krazel he had access to her anytime he wanted now before they left. Just figured it was an amusing occurrence I would share and by all means keep sharing your flavor of your sessions because it makes things much more lively.
|
|
Just as a disclaimer, I only visited this portion of the forums after compleating this senerio and only to confirm Sethious' story.
I was in that party of adventurers who took Mumina's corpse back to "The Afterlife" and let me tell you, that little addition made the senerio a bucket of laughs. I also personally took the cleric from the Meatgate battle to the brothel as well, as *ehm* payment for services earlier rendered.
I could see this senerio being a toughy for a four man party of 1-2. We had a maxed out table, and even then almost lost our summoner to a pincer manuver (He ended at 0hp and his mount/eidolon ran him out of there). All in all though, it was a fun time.
As to Krazel, we all realized that he was a double agent. However, everyone knows he's a double agent already, it's just that everyone seems to think that his TRUE loyalties lie with them. I played a Taldor in part 1 for what I was told would be an amusing as all heck faction mission and my main, an Andoran in part 2 (Taldoran was played out by passing the mission to a fellow Taldoran, a player who couldn't make part 1 with us, and the Andoran played in by carrying the instructions for the other Andoran party members, so it worked out nicely). If you look at the faction messages, the faction leaders all seem to think that he's their loyal agent, and only fronting as an agent for the other guys.
Venture-Captain, Texas—Waco
|
Chris, I totally agree with you that the scenario should have to list all the spells in his spellbook, but I believe you are misinterpreting the bonded item rule.
Act 2: The Evoker's spellbook information is completely missing. This would be fine (It's somewhere the PCs will "Never find it") except that he has an Arcane Bond with his wand. He can spontaneously cast a spell that's in his spellbook at each spell level without memorizing it. Quick Fix: He knows every Evocation spell in the Core Rulebook that he's of a high enough level to cast.
A bonded object can be used once per day to cast any one spell that the wizard has in his spellbook and is capable of casting, even if the spell is not prepared.
So, it's only one spell per day, NOT one spell "per level" per day. I just double-checked the Errata, no changes to this wording. My PFS wizard wishes you were right, but I'm afraid you have misread it!
|
|
...I gotta say, that's the worst things you can find wrong with this module? Maybe I'm holding it to a higher standard, but I'm finding some of the opponents are crazily weirdly statted out. (Rest of this post is Spoilered because we're discussing several major NPCs)
** spoiler omitted **
Am I just being a little too obsessive-compulsive? The first two, at least, seem to me to be real problems that do need a fix.
He also prepared two copies of a L0 spell (flare) for some reason at L2.