I happened to notice someone in the 'Carrion Crown: Who are You Playing?' thread mention the PbP game I will be running and the character he plans on playing. It got me thinking about ninjas and rogues and sneak attacks. Usually these thoughts give me a sense of warm satisfaction. Because after all, who doesn't love a little stabbity-death? This time, though, the thought was followed by slightly concerned thoughts regarding the immunities of undead creatures. Undead creatures who will undoubtedly be prevalent in this Adventure Path.
I realize that different campaigns and settings are more conducive to certain classes than others. This is to be expected and enjoyed, since it is what gives the adventures flavor and flair. Usually it tends to reward those who tailor their characters to the demands of the Adventure Path, which is what I have seen reflected in the games run on the Paizo boards. For this upcoming Adventure Path, though, I'm worried about my friend and his ability to use sneak attack.
So here's a question for any Paizo Grand Poobah out there (or any knowledgeable member of the peanut gallery); since undead are rather impervious to a major combat strength of rogues and ninjas, how much of the campaign will leave our sneaky friends feeling less than effective?
I'm okay with a ballpark estimate at your leisure.
Yes and no, but thank you. I should have been more clear. Incorporeal undead are immune to sneak attacks. Corporeal undead are not immune to sneak attacks, but still have immunities to a host of secondary effects that can be gained by rogues and ninjas such as bleed, poison, and ability damage. So it seems that either kind may be problematic.
As a DM I would give the party a heads up that characters going for those type of abilities won't be as useful as they might otherwise be.
Also, the impression I'm getting is there will be a good mix of horror themed baddies, not just undead and golems...so those abilities will still see plenty of opportunity to be used, just not on every badguy in every adventure.
That's basically my question. Just to what extent are those types of abilities not going to be as useful? Not useful enough that they should be ready for a difficult fight or two? Three or four fights? Or not useful enough that they should consider taking a different class?
I'm hoping that the Player's Guide will answer some of these questions. I know I won't be making any plans for characters until I see that.
Creative Director
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The amount of incorporeal foes in Carrion Crown isn't really all that high. The fact that our most ghost-themed installment is the FIRST one, and thus not a place where we can fairly use a lot of incorporeal foes due to the fact that it's a low-level adventure, was a deliberate choice by us to create a sort of mechanical reminder to keep from bloating the AP with non-sneak-attackable foes, sort of.
Perhaps the GREATEST complaint we've heard over and over about our second AP, Age of Worms, is that rogues had increasingly nothing to do in the AP due to the large amount of undead in the adventure (nevermind the fact that rogues have more options in the game than just sneak attack).
In any event. Rogues will have PLENTY to sneak attack during this campaign.
*tips hat*
Thank you, sirs. Keep up the excellent work!
FYI, creatures are susceptible to bleed unless specifically noted, even if not `living`.
bleed can be visualized as degenerate crumbling on skeletons, contructs, etc. so that helps for Rogues.
(this does create the wierd situation of using the Heal skill to stop bleed on a construct or skeleton)
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Creative Director
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FYI, creatures are susceptible to bleed unless specifically noted, even if not `living`.
bleed can be visualized as degenerate crumbling on skeletons, contructs, etc. so that helps for Rogues.
(this does create the wierd situation of using the Heal skill to stop bleed on a construct or skeleton)
Actually, a few monster types are immune to bleed damage. This includes all undead and elementals and constructs. You pretty much need blood or ichor or something like that to suffer bleed damage.
The "bleed" ability was a more or less brand new addition to the game with Pathfinder, and as such, when we were building monsters, it slipped through the cracks. The 2nd printing of the Bestiary fixes that omission.
But since bleed is hardly a tent-pole ability of any class, having more monsters than normal that are immune to bleed (such as in an undead-heavy adventure) isn' a problem. And even then, there's plenty of blood to spill anyway in Carrion Crown.
It always worked in Scooby Doo.