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Paizo – Thank you for another great AP. We finished this one a few weeks ago.
This AP was pretty exciting and offered a lot of interesting twists for my players. Of course the game was improved by all the advice found on these forums as well. With that in mind, I jotted down a few thoughts, and hopefully someone will find them helpful. I’m going through almost two years of notes which aren’t always in order, so please forgive me if these aren’t in a good order.
Problems. Keep in mind these would be considered small problems.
1. Jackal’s Price – This book was a cakewalk for my PCs. They weren’t challenged in the slightest. Luckily Zayifid survived the first book and caused trouble throughout most of this installment. Yes, my group was a bit high on the power scale, but it was really noticeable here.
2. Jackal’s Price – The end was way too convoluted. I couldn’t pull off the Denizen of Leng and why he was there. It just didn’t make sense when we played his scene and then releasing that spawn-thing to kill Father Jackal didn’t make sense either.
3. Leaving Kakishon – This had quite a few problems. The easiest solution is to kill all non-native beings. This was a big problem for my good-aligned group. Negotiating between groups was not very easy or set up well in the book.
IF I were to do this AP again.
1. I’d add at least one opponent riding a flying carpet. I know there was a flying carpet in there somewhere as treasure, and I’m a big fan of opponents actually using the treasure they have. I’m surprised at myself for not taking the time to move that treasure to an opponent who would make good use of it. Flying carpets seem pretty thematic for an “Arabian Adventures” theme. So yes, I’m kicking myself for not adding a BBEG riding a carpet.
2. I’d add some class levels to a few Salamanders. There are quite a few salamanders in this AP that will be easily trod under foot. One of my favorite encounters in Temple of Elemental Evil was a blackguard salamander. This guy toyed with the PCs for a long time, creating a really memorable encounter. This doesn’t happen in LoF except for Lesaar, but of course, he’s not an enemy.
3. Insert Assassins Guild – I’d go back and change parts of the Jackal’s Price to make his organization an assassins guild, along with a grandfather of assassins.
4. Add a chained red dragon in the Impossible Eye. It was a big let down to force the PCs to negotiate with the red dragon at the end. That was the only dragon in this AP. (I might have added one into Kakishon). I’d rather get rid of one of the factions in the palace and replace it with a dragon/guard dog that roams a large portion of the palace, something too strong to be confronted at first, but that can eventually be taken out as the PCs explore.
5. Add class levels to some of the efreet. The PCs enter Kelmarane to confront Jhavhul’s armies and find janni? The number of efreeti in this book is a little low.
Things I did wrong? (I can’t count them all)
My PCs hated the pugwampi’s, but I thought they were really fun and rather harmless. Then I read about one particular gnoll who was an outcast and had a following of pugwampi followers. After the PCs freed Kelmarane in the first book, I set up a scenario where the Carrion King sent this gnoll ranger with his pugwampi followers to kill the PCs. The PCs encounter him as they are exploring the Kelmarane environs. He appears at the end of a box canyon and as the PCs charge, they are surrounded by pugwampi archers (but within range of their bad luck aura). The gremlins do little damage of course, but the PCs couldn’t get off a successful attack. In the meantime, the gnoll archer is filling them with arrows. I had a TPK that was only mediated by the sudden arrival /notice of Pazhvann.
Other Cool Stuff
I mentioned this earlier, but it didn’t take long to realize the PCs were too powerful for many parts of this AP. However, this was actually a bit liberating in some ways. Yes, I mentioned earlier that the PCs walked over most of the encounters. However, knowing that a few encounters wouldn’t be a challenge, allowed me to be more devious in my tactics. Several times the PCs weren’t very careful, so an entire complex would come after them once the alarm was raised.
The downside of this? A few of the tough encounters took them by surprise. Obherak and Jhavhul come to mind. But I’ll try to mention things in order.
We enjoyed the role of the Moldspeaker’s role throughout the campaign. That was an awesome addition.
Zayifid was extremely hard to kill. I used him to rally opposition to everything the PCs did on their way to Katapesh. In some ways this was needed to maximize the deadliness of the enemies in Jackal’s Price.
Blogog the goblin – Another thorn in the PCs side. They knew he was no good, but he had information they wanted. They reluctantly sided with him knowing he’d stab them in the back. And he still got away with it. Once he betrayed the group, he’d scout them out and constantly bring guards and opponents their way. It was beautiful.
Lesaar – He was kind of cool, but the group had the hardest time trying to get him back to his home plane. If there was an easy way for the group to do this, then I missed it. They ended up casting invisibility on him a lot and eventually got him to Rayhan. His connections sent the salamander home.
The Siege of Kelmarane – I added this event. Zayafid survived the House of the Beast. Before the PCs could leave Kelmarane to see Rayhan, they found Zayafid blockading the village with a very large djinni and a tribe of gnolls.
Shopping in Katapesh – The PCs had very few opportunities to buy anything up to this point. I also dropped hints that they may not have many opportunities to shop or make magic items in the future. Allowing the Moldspeaker to add the Holy enchantment to Tempest may have been a mistake, but it didn’t disrupt things too badly.
Rayhan - He was fun too for some reason. I got into the role of the old know-it-all scribe. He got sucked into Kakishon with the PCs, and met a tragic end when they encounter the dragon turtle.
Hunt for the Golden Ram – This was great. I used everything that magical goat had. The players looked disappointed when they saw it running across the water to another island, but I think they enjoyed it too.
Delix – She was another wonderful NPC. Unfortunately, she fell to the magma trap in Jhavhul’s palace.
Shazathared – The foreshadowing for this NPC was great. I think the PCs really wanted to adventure with her, or for her after the AP.
The Final Wish – The party had done a pretty good job up to this point, so I was fairly generous with the wishes. They were behind on XPs a bit and should have been 15th before they met Jhavhul, but they were also overpowered by that point.
Check out the Obituaries for the final ending.
Go to Legacy of Fire Obituaries.
Thanks again, Paizo.