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Regarding the Withered Blossom Warriors: Did I miss something or...
do they lack their Rogue Talent in the stat block? And if they actually wear do-maru they can't use their Acrobatic skill and Evasion, do they?
I gave them Assault Leader as Rogue Talent and leather lamellar as armor.
^Scharlata did notice it and had a suggestion for it: assault leader. It's nice addition to Warriors as is changing do-maru to leather lamellar if it bothers you that Warriors can't use evasion. In my game I ahve almost no reason to change armor (Warriors hardly need Evasion with my group) but that rogue trick is almost must have thing. Bleeding Attack (CRB) and Offensive Defense (APG) are nice options too.
I think that's a real shame. For my part, I played the first half of this adventure very roleplay heavy, expanding greatly on the events surrounding the feasts and the town itself. This is the PCs first real taste of the 'Far east' and I wanted to play on that with lots of interesting signettes. This resulted in two 6 hour sessions with no combat which I was surprised at because my group really like a fast paced game.
The pace slowed considerably in the last adventure and this one feels like a stop-gap to level them up a bit before things kick off in Minkai. I want to take advantage of that, especially in my very Studio Ghibli inspired Forest. I want the PCs to have a sense of wonder and mystery and give them time to reflect on their already amazing achievements.
I agree the dungeon crawl at the end of this doesn't have a big enough pay off in terms of either a climactic boss battle or a real drive to push on and take on the Jade Regent and that's what I'm missing at the moment.
This is where I want to go with the adventure, any advise or material anyone can share to expand this would be appreciated.
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I don't know if this will help anyone, but my party was in the same boat that they LOVED the first part of the adventure. (The hanging out in the city with smiling prince) [who also terrifies my players for unknown reasons.] It was a huge change from the roving combats, murderous undead, yetis, ghosts and other such horrors and relax in a 'civilized' setting.
It seemed rather odd (to both them and myself) that the party would just 'hang out' in a city where the ruler would chastise/punish his people for slights, (some of which they had nothing to do with!!). After all, isn't part of the reason the group is traveling to Minaki is to 'Overthrow the evil power that is oppressing it's people??'
And this is where the tinkering comes in with the party dead set on finding out 'what is really going on', they spent most of their time wandering the town trying to get the citizens to talk to them about their 'benevolent ruler'. (In between the feasts where they saw/learned what happened to those that 'displeased' the prince)
Instead of waiting for the 5th feast to have ninjas attack and then thrown out of the city with nothing to do but follow Miyaro, I tried another angle. As the party learned and more of the prince's punishments when he is displeased, the closer the more plotting and conversation came about of what to do to try and fix it. (from the benign conversation, to pleading with the prince, to plain ol' off with his head!). After the second feast (and learning the fate of the first batch of beaten champions), the party learns (either via skill check) or having a note delivered to their rooms/caravan of a rebel group that is wanting to help the oppressed citizens of the region (in both Hongal and Minkai).
Now this is where the split occurs, it can either be actual rebels (I think they are in book 5) or Minkai assassins that the party meets who give them a chance to prove their cause to the people of Tian Xia. While the rebels plan to use Hongal (and hopefully the forest) as a staging ground (relying on the Kami in the forest to act as a sort of buffer). The assassins want to replace the prince with an oni overlord (much similar to Karlsgard)
Now whether or not the party decides to go along with the group, report it to the prince, or just stay hands off entirely is up to them. The reponse however is up to you!! (My party went aboard both feet in!)
Now this is where the Five Storms lets the party know that they indeed do know that they made it across, and that they aren't going to stand for it. Let me just say that Richard Pett's 'dancing dragon of ninja filled death' (as my players called it) was FANTASTIC!!!
The method I used to get the players chomping at the bit to go the forest was to hit them where it hurts. The ninja attack is a fine opener, but try to specifically tailor something that they enjoy, take pride in, and have the five storms smash it. In this case I had the party meet a visiting envoy from Minkai during the feasts who just loved to taunt them about their journey (especially hinting about Karlsgard). And since the prince doesn't want to risk the Jade Regent's ire, he has to sit and take it.
(In my party's case they are all about helping the common person). Not to go into a lot of detail, but basically as the assassination attempt of the prince went south, people started fleeing the palace. Naturally the party let people take refuge in their caravan (albeit temporarily was the plan). So as they went and saved a noblewoman from a pack of killers, she offered them this 'fine necklace' she had as payment. Turns out, the Minkai envoy had cast suggestion on her, given her a 'disguised' necklace of fireballs, and told her to give the necklace to the party as payment but keep one for herself (to pay her way home). (Activating the necklace and turning her into a sort of sacrificial delayed blast fireball).
After the blast (in which she, along with the vast majority of the civilians perish), from the smoke of the caravan and the corpses rises the shape of the envoy who formally bids them welcome to Tian Xia on behalf of the Five Storms as he 'most anxiously' awaits their journey into Minkai providing that they survived.
After that, Miyaro's introduction had them racing through the country side to get to the forest to deal with those damnable oni!!!
1: Have individuals (either evil Minkai oni/assassins or actual rebels) help push the party to aid in regicide/overthrow the government.
2: During/Amidst the chaos Five Storms 'Kill Team' gives the party a 'welcoming gift' to Tian Xia
3: Evil NPC whether Munskuro (sp) or made up hands the party a large 'Come at me bro' sign.
4: Miyaro & the Kami lead the party to the source of the problem.
Once again, don't know if it will be any help (or if it's just a collection of ramblings). But there is so much that can be done with book five, I just feel that the dungeon takes up a huuuge portion so it really SHOULD matter if they go or not.
Just had a random thought to have the Arankea be the killers and have Miyaro tracking them across the country side!
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Pallius: I like a lot of parts of that idea. I think it's especially important to shed light on how Minkai is interacting with its neighbors. I think I'd avoid the "rebels" angle, because it shows up in Book 5, though. I like the idea of fake rebels, because it would make the players more suspicious of the actual rebels, later.
I've been looking for a way to get a Kuwa oni in, though, and that would be a perfect opportunity. I like the suicide bomber, but it might be good to give the PCs a chance to stop it. Players like to have agency in these things.
I'm running FoS right now and I was finding that my players weren't getting challenged by the encounters in the Mockery pagoda-they are serious min/maxers-so I buffed every monster up with the advanced template-which seems to work well.However, we did get into a big discussion when the players got buried by the rubble. Does rubble block line of sight or line of effect? This part of the AP was not very well written or explained IMO, and turned what could have been an exciting, potentially deadly encounter with the destrachans, into an arguement about what you can and can't do while buried-but this might have more to do with the CRB. The players are also being quite vocal in regards to the idea that having the Withered Blossom Warriors fight with NO arcane or divine support is ridiculous. I actually skipped a couple of the "Hill Giant w/ warriors" fights because they were boring (and this is coming from a DM who loves combat). Over all, I'm liking this AP series, but this one is a little too nonsensical in terms of a self contained dungeon. I'm torn between running the last boss battle as is or tweaking it to really challenge the players without them crying foul.They will absolutely hammer a straight-up fighter. Best fight so far in the series was Katianya's 1st form-challenging and well thought out. Any advice on how to challenge my players without having them complain "How did the monsters get a hold of our character sheets?" I don't like DM metagaming.
I'm running FoS right now and I was finding that my players weren't getting challenged by the encounters in the Mockery pagoda-they are serious min/maxers-so I buffed every monster up with the advanced template-which seems to work well.However, we did get into a big discussion when the players got buried by the rubble. Does rubble block line of sight or line of effect? This part of the AP was not very well written or explained IMO, and turned what could have been an exciting, potentially deadly encounter with the destrachans, into an arguement about what you can and can't do while buried-but this might have more to do with the CRB. The players are also being quite vocal in regards to the idea that having the Withered Blossom Warriors fight with NO arcane or divine support is ridiculous. I actually skipped a couple of the "Hill Giant w/ warriors" fights because they were boring (and this is coming from a DM who loves combat). Over all, I'm liking this AP series, but this one is a little too nonsensical in terms of a self contained dungeon. I'm torn between running the last boss battle as is or tweaking it to really challenge the players without them crying foul.They will absolutely hammer a straight-up fighter. Best fight so far in the series was Katianya's 1st form-challenging and well thought out. Any advice on how to challenge my players without having them complain "How did the monsters get a hold of our character sheets?" I don't like DM metagaming.
The endless supply of Fighter/Rogues and Giants has definitely been proving problematic for me. My second group is in the process of going through the Pagoda right now, and one of the full-casters has recently discovered that the withered blossom warriors pretty much CAN'T make their Will saves against Dominate Person.
I managed to get lucky with three natural 20s on their saving throw + bonus to break some of them out the domination upon being ordered to attack the swine shogun, and I'm throwing deadly deadly encounters at them every time they attempt to rest (earth yai oni, possessed dragon, assassins, etc.), using those encounters mostly to try and ensure their horde of minions doesn't get out of hand. It's hard to keep up my thinning of the herd though, when she prepares 4 or 5 dominate person spells per day and all of them are likely to work.
Can't wait until they get to deeper layers so that I can start hitting them with nagas and ogre mages and things that can throw out big AoE effects; cones of cold, fireballs, etc. Munasukaru's gonna be a cakewalk though. I'll have to at the very least give her some spellcasting support, probably melee minions as well.
Not sure what your group has, Melon, so I'm not sure of exactly what would benefit them specifically, but here's a few tips:
- Minions: You said it yourself, and it's true for most "boss" encounters. Munasukaru will be stomped relentlessly against the curb if she's by herself. Move around some minions, give her a cleric or a wizard (or, another naga daughter perhaps, one who would actually accompany Munasukaru in battle), something that can serve as spellcasting backup, and give her a few more melee minions. Maybe withered blosson warriors, maybe standard Ja Noi oni, maybe even a bunch of 1st level Hobgoblin Fighters.
- Terrain: Katiyna was awesome! Wind effects and neat terrain may require some extra reviewing of rules prior to a session, but they can really be worth it. Check out chapter 13 of the Core Rulebook for interesting stuff, and consider things like green slime, yellow mold, traps, and haunts (creepy dead-spider aranea haunts maybe?) to turn Munasukaru's room into something other than the essentially "X ft. by Y ft. featureless room" that it is now)
- Scry on them: How do the enemies have their character sheets? The answer is they don't, but they've seen some of the tactics that the party have been throwing around on their way here, and it's such a long dungeon that they'll likely have time to detenmine not just what the party's got, but what their favourite strategies are. I've done this before in longer dungeons myself, and it works wonders (spellcaster likes a handful of particular spells, or one particular energy type? Try the Spell Immunity and Resist Energy spells. Ranged attacker likes readied actions for single super-powerful vital stikes? Surely an Asian-inspired setting has some monks who would be entirely fitting with Deflect Arrows, or some well-trained hobgoblin troops with the Missile Shield feat. And don't forget to counterspell, it's an excellent, but often-overlooked strategy, especially when you know what sorts of things your opponent's able to throw at you).
A question about spirits:
"A possessed creature can make a new saving throw each day to throw off the possession." Is this in addition to the other listed Dismissals (such as 'Magic only')? Because that's going to be pretty easy when there's no real time pressure.
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A question about spirits:
"A possessed creature can make a new saving throw each day to throw off the possession." Is this in addition to the other listed Dismissals (such as 'Magic only')? Because that's going to be pretty easy when there's no real time pressure.
Yes, this is in addition to the listed means of dismissal. You can either use magic (or the specific dismissal requirements) to dismiss a spirit, or you can try to save against it, so that even a creature without access to magic means of dismissing a spirit has a chance to throw off the possession.
Of course, with some of the boons the spirits grant, it might not be so black and white about wanting to end a possession.
I'm looking for ideas for making the final dungeon a little more varied.
My PCs are at the golem. They tend to have constant flight / air walk and access to Greater Invisibility. Virtually none of the enemies have access to See Invisibility, Glitterdust, etc. Visible PCs generally have mirror image or very high AC, plus Stoneskin. Battles against the regular warriors are easy and repetitive. I don't think the Sisters will provide any more challenge or interest, and the traps that involve dropping people into pits aren't going to work.
So, any ideas for monsters / hobgoblins with class levels who would fit the location and keep the players interested?
You need to get a bit more specific where the problem lies. I agree that The Hungry Storm felt interminably long, but the transition to Forest of Spirits was pretty easy, especially with the hilarious stuff you can do in Ordu-Aganhei.
You need to get a bit more specific where the problem lies. I agree that The Hungry Storm felt interminably long, but the transition to Forest of Spirits was pretty easy, especially with the hilarious stuff you can do in Ordu-Aganhei.
I can't wait for ordu-aganhei, my party has a halfling, gnome, cat folk, and dwarf, so you can imagine its pretty heavy on charisma (the dwarf only one under 17, at 10). anyway through sheer coincidence the gruff, no-nonsense dwarf is the only one with blonde hair, and its good luck in Hongal to kiss some one with blonde hair, so he is going to get so much action:), i really love Jade Regent so far (even the Hungry Storm works for me:)
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small thing, but the advanced giant spiders in the first part of the house should be 600 XP, not 800 (as a CR 2 creature)
If you're referring to the Giant Sapphire Spiders on page 27, the XP total is correct. These spider have been advanced in terms of Hit Dice and other scores up to CR 3, which is why they are given a full stat block.
The advanced simple template would make them CR 2, but then we wouldn't print the full stat block, just a page reference for the monster and the template, since they can be easily run without a full stat block.
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small thing, but the advanced giant spiders in the first part of the house should be 600 XP, not 800 (as a CR 2 creature)
If you're referring to the Giant Sapphire Spiders on page 27, the XP total is correct. These spider have been advanced in terms of Hit Dice and other scores up to CR 3, which is why they are given a full stat block.
The advanced simple template would make them CR 2, but then we wouldn't print the full stat block, just a page reference for the monster and the template, since they can be easily run without a full stat block.
Yeah, I noticed that today, not just a template. My bad call on that one.
I'm going through the mod upping the encounters for my 7 player group I'm running for. They're going to have a good time in this mod I think!|
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The pagoda sat in the low centre of a bowl of terraces.
Rich
Rich, this is awesome...it really sets the tone for the Pagoda...I can't believe it was cut! I'm going to include it in my groups game...and I'm trying to picture the relationship between the PIT and PAGODA...the pagoda is in the center, the pit is an empty lake, but there are also 3 other lakes that are full...
I got a question about the Five Feasts of Hongal, it's probably just an issue with the english language, or rather my understanding of it.
For the 2nd, 3rd and 4th feast's challange it says "Only one PC can attempt each check, but other characters can use aid another to assist their companions."
Does that mean one PC has to make all three checks, or does it mean each check can be made by a different person?
At first I thought it was the latter, and that seems to make sense with the 2nd and 4th feasts too. Someone sings a song, someone else tells a tale, a third one performs a dance or something like that.
But with the third feast it seems not to fit. "a dazzlingly
dangerous display of fire breathing and swordplay (Intimidate) while
dancing (perform dance) on hot coals (acrobatics)" seems like it needs all three skills from the same PC.
So I'm confused now if I just misunderstand the wording of the challenge or how it's supposed to work.
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MASTERWORK HAGGIS...
The five feasts were quite a surprise for the players. The group was already very fortunate to have a bard with some maxed out Perform skills and that our duelist and shadow dancer also had some ranks in perform.
First feast, our halfling asked to use her riding dog mount and staffsling for the archery test. Since the prince had chosen her for his fixation, he complied and they fetched the dog. She didn't get a bulls-eye but the crowd was nevertheless entertained. The horse race went succeeded, but we failed the wrestling match.
The feast of ancients and feast of fire went well enough, succeeded most of the challenges.
Then came the feast of honored guests and the group pretty much unanimously went "We are so effed". None of the PCs had cooking skills, and with a crowd of 300 to feed they understood that the DC would be as high as the others.
This is when player creativity kicked in. We presumed that our varisian driver brothers were probably the caravan's cooks, so we had a base. Then with some bardic competence boosting, a few divine blessings, aid from the other PCs and NPCs and an assumed well equiped royal kitchen pumped the bonuses to the low twenties, so they knew they could cook whatever they needed to cook.
But what to cook?
Our bagpipe blowing bard from land of linnorm kings proposed that haggis was a perfect signature dish. With everything they ate the previous days, this sounded oddly perfect.
Then things got weird. Our oracle has the spell Masterwork Transformation, and since food is an item that can go from horrible quality to masterwork quality was eligible target for the spell. And by making big enough haggis, we could make as many as the oracles 2nd level spells and over.
In the end, not only did the cooks succeed their check, but we had:
...TWO
...DOZEN
...GIANT
...MASTERWORK
...HAGGIS
courtesy of the goddess of death Pharasma! Complete with speckles of silver.
Needless to say that the ninja attack during the final feast felt refreshingly normal.
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I got a question about the Five Feasts of Hongal, it's probably just an issue with the english language, or rather my understanding of it.
For the 2nd, 3rd and 4th feast's challange it says "Only one PC can attempt each check, but other characters can use aid another to assist their companions."
Does that mean one PC has to make all three checks, or does it mean each check can be made by a different person?
At first I thought it was the latter, and that seems to make sense with the 2nd and 4th feasts too. Someone sings a song, someone else tells a tale, a third one performs a dance or something like that.
But with the third feast it seems not to fit. "a dazzlingly
dangerous display of fire breathing and swordplay (Intimidate) while
dancing (perform dance) on hot coals (acrobatics)" seems like it needs all three skills from the same PC.So I'm confused now if I just misunderstand the wording of the challenge or how it's supposed to work.
I ran it as each test can only be attempted by a single player, and anyone can assist, but each test can only be attempted once. So someone could try them all if they want, but could break up the tests between themselves if they desired.
Every check can be made by a different person, that should be the correct reading. Otherwise, you better hope you have a bard in your party.
The pagoda sat in the low centre of a bowl of terraces.
RichRich, this is awesome...it really sets the tone for the Pagoda...I can't believe it was cut! I'm going to include it in my groups game...and I'm trying to picture the relationship between the PIT and PAGODA...the pagoda is in the center, the pit is an empty lake, but there are also 3 other lakes that are full...
Glad it's useful Chernobyl, alas I suspect it was my choice to cut back on the garden because of space, that's the perilous choice I had to make at the time and why I keep any extras as I'm writing now.
Rich
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I used the Garden of Vivid Decay in the last session -- using a hand-drawn map -- and it added a lot. In addition to the "cancerous abundance" feel of the place, I enhanced the "infested with spiders" bit, constantly describing the presence of spiders from fingertip- to hand-sized. My players were suitably creeped out.
My barbarian player (with a +15 to +19 Fort save, depending on factors) failed seven saves in a row versus giant tarantula poison, and although the other players assured him the poison was paralytic, not deadly, he was freaking out. It was awesome.
They did manage to sneak up on a snoozing Toll-Keeper and his Mistress and coup-de-grace them, which would have been disappointing except that when I described them as snuggled up together, again with the creep-outage.
I wonder if the fight against Akinosa won't be a bit too tough if I play it by the book?
The Araneas from section A8b will retreat to A9b when half of them are dead. There's 8 of them, so lets assume 4 make it back.
In section A9a 8 advanced giant spiders wait for the heroes.
In the meantime in A9b above Akinosa gets annoyed at being disturbed and starts casting spells down there into the group, while they fight the spiders.The survivors from A8b will most likely join in now as well.
He also shouts for his four Gossamers who'll appear a few rounds later with their four shadow companions and 4-12 shadowy giant spiders from their shadow call ability.
If I did the math correctly that's 43,200 XP total, that's between CR 14 and 15, against 10th level characters.
Ok, I got five players and they have 25 point buy, and usually just murder my poor poor NPCs, so I'm actually looking forward to a somewhat tougher fight.
But I'm not sure if this won't turn out too brutal?
Won't they simply be overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies attacking them?
Even if I leave away the guys from A8b (assuming they kill them all, which is quite possible), that's still 38,400, exactly a CR 14 encounter.
All that ignores the fact that the Gossamer have a lot of pets on their side, including incorporeal ones, which makes me think they might be under-CR'd.
Did anyone who played this encounter before, had a similar situation to that and serious problems?
In fact I was considering throwing the Advanced template on the Aranea's in the lower levels to make them a little tougher and more challenging, for the reasons giving above, but I'm not sure I should, considering what that would do to this encounter?
I am always about upping the challenge.
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If the PCs have area damage, large numbers of weak enemies won't last long. Or if the PCs have good ACs these creatures won't be able to cause significant damage. For my group it wasn't much of a challenge, especially after Akinosa failed a saving throw.
I had the (opium-affected) Akinosa talk to the group rather than make him start attacking them while they're fighting the giant spiders. "You... you're real, aren't you?" He can provide some information about the situation with the hobgoblins below, try to use his Gossamers to seduce them, offer them rewards for serving him (and maybe betray them later). There's a lot of battles in that area and not many good role-playing opportunities.
Yes they got AoE, lots of it. Yes the little spiders aren't much of a problem, they'll barely hit anything I doubt. The figher can probably Cleave right through them.
And the Oracle usually throws Holy Smites around as if it's candy, and since these guys here are finally actually evil, they'll most likely get blinded. And then slaughtered.
Heh, now I'm even thinking about giving the Gossamers the Blind-fight feat would fit their shadowdancer nature I think
I have to say the feast stuff was really awesome my characters had a great time especially at the end. The fourth feast was a gem the players were able to craft a great meal with Ameiko helping out with using her Barkeeper skill and Alchemist Using Craft Alchemy to put some great flavoring into it to make it work.
But the Alchemist combined with the Witch and a little Ameiko and our Druid were able to put together an insane show that blew the prince away.
Ok, in the book for Random Caravan encounters it is listed for Minkai... So does anyone have any recommendations for the Hongal portion of the trip or should I just use the Minkai stuff, it just seems that endless steppe doesn't lend itself to the same encounters as the Forest of Spirits or Minkai... Any help would rock... Thanks
Well, you could have a ninja attack, since there have been shown to be ninjas operating in Hongal.
Or bandit horse archers.
Or a thunderstorm on the flat open steppes where the caravan is the highest thing around and therefore the mostly likely thing for lightning to strike - I remember reading that the Mongol hordes were always worried about that.
(Or you could drop the caravan rules like I did.)
Actually the encounters are for the leg to the forest, unless I am mistaken. The Five Storms have agents operating in Hongal.
I have to say I'm actually a little disapponted that the statue of the pregnant, birthing Munasukaru that the goblin pray to in C5 is not actually depicted anywhere in the book.
Even though I'm sure I'd probably wish it wasn't depicted if it actually was ;)
Was anyone ever cruel enough to their group to have prepared or found something revolting enough to show your players?
As I'm preparing the 2nd level of Munasukaru's Penance I'm stumbling upon a somewhat nasty problem.
Ichirou, the firstborn son is said to be a coward and surrender and offer all info he has pretty much as soon as he gets attacked. (well at 60 or lower HPs, but knowing my parties damage, that's more or less the same)
Now...
What can they really do with him? He's an Oni. So he's probably bound by the same laws that bind Munasukaru here, correct?
So they can't offer to let him leave, cause he can't do that.
They can't offer to let him live, cause the Kami can't enter as long as an Oni is alive.
Sure they can lie, I suppose. Promise to let him live, and then kill him anyway. But dunno if they'll really do that.
That's really a problem for your PCs to sort out.
It doesn't matter much to the campaign whether or not the PCs clear out the oni completely and let the kami in.
You could have him look for an opportunity to betray them, giving them the excuse to kill him.
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In our last session (right before GenCon), I had my samurai/rogue player subject to a grease spell (to avoid aranea webbing) and the barbarian with a fly on him.
The aranea sorcerer, right out of the gate, casts baleful polymorph on the barbarian ... First save: fail! Second save: fail! Awesome. Turned him into a Hongalese potbellied pig.
Later, with one slot left, he tries the same spell on the samurai/rogue ... First save: fail! Second save: fail! Double-awesome! A matching potbelly!
So now I have, running (or flying) around, a -- wait for it -- greased pig! And, you might be thinking, "How does a barbarian fail a Fort save? I'll believe that when ... pigs fly!"
It was awesome. AWESOME.
They won that fight, but barely. And this Sunday, down, down, down into Manusukara's Penance!
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He's an Oni. So he's probably bound by the same laws that bind Munasukaru here, correct?
Not necessarily. Munasukara is a Five Storms oni, bound by the law. Ichirou was born after the law was put into place, right? (I don't have FOS handy to check.)
I don't think an oni would have any compunctions about escaping a law on a technicality.
As I'm preparing the 2nd level of Munasukaru's Penance I'm stumbling upon a somewhat nasty problem.
Ichirou, the firstborn son is said to be a coward and surrender and offer all info he has pretty much as soon as he gets attacked. (well at 60 or lower HPs, but knowing my parties damage, that's more or less the same)
Now...
What can they really do with him? He's an Oni. So he's probably bound by the same laws that bind Munasukaru here, correct?
So they can't offer to let him leave, cause he can't do that.
They can't offer to let him live, cause the Kami can't enter as long as an Oni is alive.Sure they can lie, I suppose. Promise to let him live, and then kill him anyway. But dunno if they'll really do that.
FINISH HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
sorry been waiting awhile to bust that one out:)
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In our last session (right before GenCon), I had my samurai/rogue player subject to a grease spell (to avoid aranea webbing) and the barbarian with a fly on him.
The aranea sorcerer, right out of the gate, casts baleful polymorph on the barbarian ... First save: fail! Second save: fail! Awesome. Turned him into a Hongalese potbellied pig.
Later, with one slot left, he tries the same spell on the samurai/rogue ... First save: fail! Second save: fail! Double-awesome! A matching potbelly!
So now I have, running (or flying) around, a -- wait for it -- greased pig! And, you might be thinking, "How does a barbarian fail a Fort save? I'll believe that when ... pigs fly!"
It was awesome. AWESOME.
They won that fight, but barely. And this Sunday, down, down, down into Manusukara's Penance!
Everybody loves BACON!
Mmmmmm.... Araenea Bacon!
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Hey, folks, I am working up the Swine Shogun as a boar-riding samurai. (In contrast to the otherwise delightful boorish fighter he is supposed to be. I have a samurai/rogue PC, and he's only had his challenge answered once in 10 levels, so this seemed like a good opportunity. A boar-riding samurai is nasty, BTW; but I have 6 powerful PCs, so they'll get over it.)
For the Banner ability, does anyone know if there is heraldry for the Five Storms floating around anywhere? (I have all the JR books, of course.)
If not, anybody have any good ideas?
As an aside, I'm using Hero Lab's CR Estimator, which is interesting. Even with Botu's PC-level gear, he is "Low" on everything but attack and damage (where he is "OK"). This is interesting, because it's obvious that this will be compensated for by his mount, which is not factored in, and I'm impressed by that display of thoughtful balance.
Have you looked at the Typhoon Guard (page 10-11 of The Empty Throne)? They're Oni samurai working for the five storms.
you would probably be best to have him attack them outside then, in the large hobgoblin cavern, instead of the crowded tower.
im not sure a secret society of oni seeking to subvert the populace secretly would have their own heraldry. tho if they did i'd go with the one for the oni ninja clan in book 4 (in the article "ninja clans of minkai"
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I did two battlemaps for the first level on Munasukaru's Penance ... the initial gate/fortress room, and the big pig cavern at the end.
I'll never use these again, so I thought I'd offer them to a GM who is about to run the Penance.
All I ask is a stamped, self-addressed manila envelope to mail them in. I would think two stamps would be enough ... if you want to be really safe, use three.
First-come, first-served. Email me at jeff dot wilder at gmail dot com to make sure the maps are still available (and get my mailing address to send the SASE). I'll post a reply here if/when they're claimed, too.