All haunts go on initiative tick 10 unless it says so otherwise.
The piper is not a creature and does not have a location. He is understood to be omnipresent within the stated range of the haunt, and cannot affect creatures outside of that range.
Positive energy certainly works. So do those haunt devices found in the fake grave in the restlands. Many GMs have been houseruling that holy water also works.
Also, against the Piper specifically, if you find his flute (in the secret storeroom in the SE corner of the first floor) playing that damages him.
Thank you,
yet I still do not understand, where do I put the miniature of the Haunt Piper? Do all PCs see him to attack him? According to the description he can only do damage to one PC a day?
Thank you
He's more of a feeling than an entity. If memory serves I don't believe he manifests into a being that anyone can see. Think of it as area of effect, not being-centric.
Grummik is correct. To expand:
He is everywhere within the radius of the haunt at once.
- That means he has full access to every PC within his radius - there is nothing a PC can do to avoid his effects other than leave the radius.
- It also means that the PCs have full access to the Piper if they are in the radius - there is nothing the Piper can do to avoid their effects.
- In any of the interactions between haunt-and-PC there is never a need to use line of sight, line of effect, targeting, location, AC, roll to hit, etc. Only saving throws.
The fact that he is described (and pictured) as a humanoid makes this confusing. Think of him more like a giant trap, or a special version of the unhallow spell. As far as the rules go, he is not a creature in any, way, shape, or form, and should not be treated as such.
These same guidelines apply to the Charlatain and the Maurader as well.
Channel energy does 1d6 at first level, and 2d6 if they've managed to get to 3rd level. And it's unlikely that they'll have more than 1 character that can do this. And that's a precious resource that they've been burning elsewhere in the dungeon to kill other haunts, not to mention heal themselves.
Also, remember where he manifests. Hint: it's the cover image. He synergizes quite well with his surroundings.
At the end of the day, no, he's not the TPK machine that the Splatter Man is. But I'm wondering how crazypowerful you've let your PCs become if you think that's "absolutely easy."
You're the GM, do whatever you want. But as far as posted rulings:
Smite - not by RAW, and no-one has suggested it
holy water - not by RAW, but many people have suggested they will houserule it in
Cure light wounds - not by RAW, but Brandon (the dev) has said he would include it if he could rewrite the rules
Heavenly fire (sorceror bloodline ability) - not by RAW, and no-one has suggested it, but sounds similar to CLW to me
sorching ray? - not by RAW, and no-one has suggested it and I personally can't imagine why this should work
Holy weapons - not by RAW, and no-one has suggested it
Disruption weapons? - not by RAW, and no-one has suggested it, and how do you have those at this level?
Channel can't be the only source to damage these haunts. - it's not. You get haunt siphons earlier in the module. Also, each haunt has a specific "thing" that you can use to damage it and gain advantage over it. This is supposed to be an investigation-centric mod in the line of the Call of Cthulhu games, not a traditional dungeon-crawl.
If I'm understanding things correctly, channel energy (or disrupt undead) cast anywhere in the area of the Piper's haunt will damage the Piper. And some GMs are saying that if you spill holy water anywhere within the area of the haunt, it damages the haunt.
Also, why is the Piper so dangerous, since he can't do all that much harm to the players, and the skeletons are fairly weak opponents.
Hi Voomer!
By RAW, only Channel Energy works. Disrupt Undead does not affect haunts using the printed rules. However, Brandon, the dev who invented haunts, suggested that spells like that would work if he did a rewrite.
The piper is somewhat weak on his own, and so are the skeletons. But together they make for good synergy and can be quite powerful. The piper paralyzes, the skeletons then make mincemeat out of helpless PCs. Also, there's a decent chance the Father Charlatan haunt will be involved, due to proximity.
If the piper is intelligent and targets characters with weak Will saves, he has a greater than 50% chance to take them out of the combat. Almost 75% success rate against min-maxed Fighters.
Given that the Piper has so much health, and the PCs have so few resources to damage him, it's unlikely that they'll be able to take him out at all unless they have his cursed flute or use up several valuable haunt syphons. They simply won't have the ability to output that much Channeled Energy at level 2 or 3.
Now, to keep things in perspective, stuff in the basement is even more dangerous than the Piper (the flaming headless gaurd is surpisingly deadly and isn't even "one of the five"); this whole module is full of tough encounters.
Thanks! This is my first Pathfinder game I'm running, so I don't have a great feel for all thus. It sounds like what may happen, assuming my players are not all paralyzed, is that they may kill all the skeletons, but the Piper may be left standing.
It seems important to enforce the rule about disrupt undead not harming haunts, because otherwise my wizArd player will cast the cantrip all day long and too easily get around the problem. If it were even a first level spell I might feel different. But how to exp,ain why it doesn't work when the spell says that it sends a ray of postive energy?
And, by the way, where does it say that disrupt undead does not work on haunts? This is what I read: "On the surprise round in which a haunt manifests, positive energy applied to the haunt (via channeled energy, cure spells, and the like) can damage the haunt's hit points.". That seems to include disrupt undead. Sorry if I'm repeating something that has been exhaustively covered elsewhere.
If it were even a first level spell I might feel different. But how to exp,ain why it doesn't work when the spell says that it sends a ray of postive energy?
Cant answer the rest but to this one I would ask "What are you aiming the ray at?" That should cover it.
If worse comes to worse, without a specific target, cast in a haunt area, throw in 1hp 'splash' damage for it being cast on the generic area.
Interesting. But the same could be said about cure light wounds -- "what are you touching?" Maybe I should house rule that channeling energy does full damage against haunts and everything else (cure spells, disrupt undead, and holy water) does half damage.
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If it were even a first level spell I might feel different. But how to exp,ain why it doesn't work when the spell says that it sends a ray of postive energy?
Cant answer the rest but to this one I would ask "What are you aiming the ray at?" That should cover it.
If worse comes to worse, without a specific target, cast in a haunt area, throw in 1hp 'splash' damage for it being cast on the generic area.
Further, RAW spells like that need a discernable target. I believe when the Piper targets someone who has failed their will save, only then does he become a visible apparition, but the player is paralyzed. Also, I believe it's just a vision, not just him revealing himself.
Not a bad idea but I'd also not allow Cure spells to work on Haunts either unless it was the key to dismissing the haunt.
Interestingly there is no Exorcism spell in PF and only a class ability for a archetype inquisitor.
But the rules actually state that cure spells DO work against haunts ("positive energy applied to the haunt (via channeled energy, cure spells, and the like) can damage the haunt's hit points"), which doesn't make much sense. Or, at least, if the cure spell works the disrupt undead ray should work equally well.
Good idea about the exorcism spell. It certainly seems like an obvious cleric spell, of maybe 3rd or 4th level.