Hello.
My PCs (two are 6th level, one is 7th) and their NPC ally (6th level) just captured Justice Ironbriar in the Seven's Sawmill. So it probably wont take them that long to reach Xanesha from here.
<<Quick side question: Would their detect magice spell cast on IronB detect the charm spell affecting him?>>
My main reason for creating this thread remains this: they arent high enough level to deal with Xanesha and the shadow clock encounter. I believe that they are about 10.5k short of leveling the two 6th level characters to 7. I can (and will) bring the NPc to 7th arbitrarily, but they are going to need more help than that. Any suggestions/ideas for encounters to at least get the 10,500 XP?
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The free RPG Day module, Dawn of the Scarlet Sun is set in Magnimar, and is designed for 6 5th level PCs. It is quite tough though, so it should be about right for your party.
Thanks for the tip. I'll check that out.
We are running fast XP track. The PCs missed the entire farm/scarecrow encounter thats supposed to occur before Foxglove manor and also missed out on a part of Thistletop (long story). So we kinda dug our own hole there. Thanks for asking though.
Well, there are three cases of skipping ahead now that I think about it: the two above, and, when they actually reached Foxglove Manor, one of the players had his character look for footprints. He made a great roll (and there were muddy conditions) so next things you know they are breaking out their grappling hook and rope to climb down the well!
At Thistletop our fourth player (a part timer due to RL time constraints), had his barbarian angrily opening/breaking down doors left and right while the other PCs tried to cover his back. The other players grumbled a little, but did their best at this, realizing that he's just playing in character. When he found the stone stairs leading downward he figured (rightly so) that he was on to something and charged down them angrily. Eventually they had half of Thistletop on their heels and said barbarian almost died fighting that horde. They won that fight but our session ended soon after. This part timer couldnt make the next game night so I tried my best to gloss that over by having his character sort of come to his senses(his rage being over), gruffly apologize and devote himself to running interference behind the other PCs as they delved deeper, searching for the greater threat. After the PCs defeated Malf and Nualia (spelling), what remained of the upper levels seemed anti-climactic, so again i glossed over things, telling the players that the other occupants had either been 'barbarianed' or had hastily abandoned Thistletop altogether.
As far as the scarecrow encounter, they heard about the problems at the farms but reasoned that they'd go straight to the source of the problems as best they could. Which makes sense. At least this one i saw coming a mile away. Haha.
Thanks for reading.
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Well, there are three cases of skipping ahead now that I think about it: the two above, and, when they actually reached Foxglove Manor, one of the players had his character look for footprints. He made a great roll (and there were muddy conditions) so next things you know they are breaking out their grappling hook and rope to climb down the well!
At Thistletop our fourth player (a part timer due to RL time constraints), had his barbarian angrily opening/breaking down doors left and right while the other PCs tried to cover his back. The other players grumbled a little, but did their best at this, realizing that he's just playing in character. When he found the stone stairs leading downward he figured (rightly so) that he was on to something and charged down them angrily. Eventually they had half of Thistletop on their heels and said barbarian almost died fighting that horde. They won that fight but our session ended soon after. This part timer couldnt make the next game night so I tried my best to gloss that over by having his character sort of come to his senses(his rage being over), gruffly apologize and devote himself to running interference behind the other PCs as they delved deeper, searching for the greater threat. After the PCs defeated Malf and Nualia (spelling), what remained of the upper levels seemed anti-climactic, so again i glossed over things, telling the players that the other occupants had either been 'barbarianed' or had hastily abandoned Thistletop altogether.
As far as the scarecrow encounter, they heard about the problems at the farms but reasoned that they'd go straight to the source of the problems as best they could. Which makes sense. At least this one i saw coming a mile away. Haha.
Thanks for reading.
A bit of advice for the future - whilst not running the encounter upstairs in Thistle top was probably a good idea in this case, I'd recommend giving the PCs the XPs for at least the combat encounters - They'd overcome them by process of breaking the leadership & being really scary.
Sounds like the right idea...
I appreciate it Douglas, but we had just finished running the Xanesha encounter an hour before i read this. Thanks though.
Well. How did the Xanesha encounter go?
It went pretty well. The part ended up consisting of 3 PCs and 2 NPCs. 6th and 7th level. They were surprised by how tough the scarecrow was at the bottom of the tower was; he really dealt the fighter some serious blows. The party's cleric had used a good deal of his spells up by the time they had actually reached Xanesha.
I ended up using a custom set of stats for her: somewhere in between the original stats and the generic Lamia Matriarch. I'll admit I was disappointed when the ranger of the group made her save (Nat 20) vs the medusa mask...I really wanted to thin the party out and instill some fear into the group. There was some fierce melee combat followed by Xanesha casting deep slumber on the fighter as he was climbing the outer stairs. Basically i was using the same tactic of trying to thin their numbers... at least temporarily. But the fighter barely hit the save DC (dead on the 18 he needed) and i was foiled once again! Darn meddling kids! A longbow crit by one of the PCs really helped them out also.
Anyway, with the dice favoring them, it ended up being a bit on the easy side if you ask me. I mentioned this to my buddy who plays the fighter and he didnt at all agree though: twice he was down to exactly 0 hit points.
All in all we had fun and thats what was on the agenda.