I have a question pertaining to Ruthazek's 3 challenges. Is a standard non-monty haul characters supposed to even have a shot at this at their level? Our party had just turned lvl 11 when the king showed up, invited us to dinner, and challenged us to his 3 tests for control of the City of Seven Spears. Seeing how we couldn't have repelled his small army of giant monkeys we accepted.
The first test required a DC 25 str roll, which our fighter just couldn't make despite his appropriate for his level str, (20 including magic items) a couple of buffs from our cleric, (Bull's str and some spell I'd never heard before so I forget), and a fortune hex from my witch. In the end I believe he needed a natural 17!
Second test was storytelling which our cleric was able to make with a high diplomacy check.
Third test pissed me off most of all between one of our players and the inherrent unfairness of the task. One of us had to fight King Ruthazek in single combat. The cleric and I figured it would be foolish to try and match muscle for msucle against the big guy. Our Ranger didn't like HIS odds in a duel but the guy w/ the fighter (notorious for being a stubborn ass and then jumping to the defense that he's "just playing his character") demanded to be the one to fight him. We tried to have a discussion over who was most fit to match big Ruth bit Phil (fighter) jumped the gun and tried to commence the fight while we were amid discussion. I used Slumber on him but appearently (per DM) our continued conversation outlasted the 11 rounds so it ended up Phil vs Ruth after all.
The "duel" lasted a total 2 rounds as Ruthazek was able to hit him w/ all 3 attacks W/ Power Attack! Turns out Baby Ruth was a lvl 14 Fighter... with the stats of a Dire Ape! I figured he was going to be tough, but I didn't realize that one of us (I repeat ONE OF US) was expected single handedly defeat a wlaking woodchipper!!
The part that sucked most of all is that I found out later that, had we somehow defeated evil King Ruth, he would have held up his end of the deal to depart without incident. But, by virtue of being thrust into an almost unwinnable situation, our mostly good aligned party was forced to break OUR promise, steal into the city, murder some apes along the way, and sneak into the Vault so we could save some dude's life.
Once again we are a party of level 11 characters. We have a decent arry a magic items collected throughout the AP and were built using the 15 point standard fantasy stat buy. How in the hell were we supposed to accomplish our task without resorting to outright backstabbing?
Sry I got a little long winded. You can pretty much skip paragraph 4 and still get the gist of it.
Well jumping in half cocked didn't help that's for sure. Still if I had time to hit him with Fortune (and cakle like a lunatic throughout the whole fight and hope one of the monkeys didn't catch wise)and our cleric was able to sneak his entire payload of buffs on him without being noticed we were still fighting a 900 pound gorilla (or however much he weighed)
For one, Phil WAS hitting him w/ most attacks (the few he had a chance to make). Problem was his considerable AC was a joke to this guy. I think his main attack was +24 or higher because Ruth was hitting w/ a natural 4!
Had we talked sense into him and sent one of the casters against him, Mark (cleric) could have tried using SoSes on Ruth but wouldn't have survived more than 2 or 3 good hits if he saved. I could have flown out of melee range and used SoS but I imagine even a couple of good ranged hits would have took me out even w/ ghostbane dirge active (squishy witch).
The Strength check is a bit of a gimme. The Gorilla King just does it, as though he could take ten and pull it off, but he'd actually need to roll a natural 18 to do it.
The Strength check is a bit of a gimme. The Gorilla King just does it, as though he could take ten and pull it off, but he'd actually need to roll a natural 18 to do it.
That assumes that the bundle he breaks is as tough as the one he gives the PCs. I get the impression that he's smarter than that.
If he's using a weaker bundle than the one he hands the PCs as his proof that it's possible for them to do it, then that's still a gimme. :)