#4–05 Sanos Abduction Questions / Complaints [Spoilers]


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Sovereign Court 5/5 RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

Samuli wrote:
Still no clarification to whether the Zombagus, and others, should be fast variants, or not? If they're not, should I invent a new tactic for them? Which I'm totally going to do, if they're staggered, and the author doesn't provide a new tactic to use.

I just had them fly over and land, if they survived the inevitable run up, then they attacked.

To be honest, with the final encounter being so potentially lethal, I felt ok with easy victories.

1/5

Matthew Morris wrote:
To be honest, with the final encounter being so potentially lethal, I felt ok with easy victories.

That's what I thought, as well. The party consists of a solid fighter, rogue, cleric, and wizard - with an APL of 4.75 playing subtier 3-4. A single staggered zombagus won't get to attack. The same goes for the rest of the encounters, as well. I fear that the last encounter is going to be just a tad more difficult. The encounters for four party members at subtier 3-4 are just too easy.

Granted, the last one might result in a kill, or two, if the saving throws for Scare are failed.

2/5

It's all about the poison, isn't it?
I think taking it easy on the PCs will make the final encounter harder because they won't be paying as much attention.
Assuming they have CLW wands, they should be able to recover from the earlier encounters. The opponents are non-intelligent so won't be hitting downed PCs and PCs can switch up to cover for each other pretty easily.
If they go into the end encounter sloppily, poison will spread, and PCs will die. The potions are 50/50 to start, and get worse with multiple poisonings (+2 DC each time). In some ways they are a trap, if used before M is killed.
But it'll be dramatic, watching them fade away...
Gulp.

But I'm really writing to bump the thread so somebody official can throw their two cents into the mix about the internal conflicts in the scenario.
Until then, I'm running Fast Zombies vs. veterans and normal vs. newbies.

Cheers, JMK


You can still charge when staggered, might as well do that instead

2/5

Yes, they can get to battle with a charge.
Then die before doing more than mediocre damage, if any.

GMs should say the FD's intro out loud before playing.
There's a lot of thought put into wordplay there.
You may even want to use a highlighter to show which words are being played off each other to punch them.
The answers to PC questions, on the other hand, are straightforward talking, so if you have time you might want to spice those up with rhymes and alliteration.
This is a rare opportunity to play a silly, poetic character. Savor it.
Cheers, JMK

Liberty's Edge 4/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, California—Los Angeles (South Bay)

I am running the mod today. What I am going to do is assume that the monster are meant to run as written. I am concerned about the main villain being possibly more effective with a certain template. Fortunately, most of the players know Season 4's reputation for tough encounters.

5/5

I ran this scenario twice months ago, one at high-tier, one at low-tier. It still grates on me how over-powered the young template is on the BBEG. A net of +1 AC, +3 to hit, for a minor hit to the poison DC.

I did indeed kill one PC (8 rounds after hitting him with two quills), and another avoided it only through extreme fortune.

The CR-drop on the template itself is flawed, but applying it to a creature like this was pure butchery. An easily CR 7 creature, with minions, vs. 3rd and 4th level PCs.

5/5

Majuba wrote:

I ran this scenario twice months ago, one at high-tier, one at low-tier. It still grates on me how over-powered the young template is on the BBEG. A net of +1 AC, +3 to hit, for a minor hit to the poison DC.

I did indeed kill one PC (8 rounds after hitting him with two quills), and another avoided it only through extreme fortune.

The CR-drop on the template itself is flawed, but applying it to a creature like this was pure butchery. An easily CR 7 creature, with minions, vs. 3rd and 4th level PCs.

I've found, that for things like this it is generally better to use the quick rebuild rules, as it doesn't do as much to improve the creature.

It gets +2 to hit this way, but loses 2 HP/HD and lowers the DC's.

I remember when I was running Council of Theives' right after PFRPG came out, and they had a group of "young" shadows. Rebuilding them made them MUCH more powerful than they were intended, and James was actually the one who made my mind up about this.

Silver Crusade 1/5 *

I played this last night at tier 3-4 with only 4 players. It was nearly a TPK twice and we almost lost our ranger on the last fight. The very first fight, my fairly well built paladin was 1 HP away from dying. The only thing that saved me was a nat 20 on the fort save to stabilize. On the next fight, our pre-gen Kyra went down to 1 HP from dying and failed to stabilize. Thankfully, my paladin was next to her with a CLW wand in a spring-loaded wrist sheath.

On the last fight, the BBEG poisoned me and the ranger. I shrugged off the poison with no problem, but the ranger couldn't make a save if his life depended on it (which it did). I ended up having to use 2 scrolls of lesser restoration on him to keep him alive for the poison t run its course.

Our GM ran the zombagi (is that plural for zombagus?) as fast zombies and we had to fight both of them. Also, the special friend you meet did not participate in any of the fights.

2/5

One question for the final encounter, if a zombie hits, and quills get dislodged, do they also do 1d3+3 damage each? Just had it happen and end to clarify the damage, that would be 6d3+18. That's ridiculous. Or is it just -6 to all checks and 1d4 damage when you remove them?

3/5

Running this tonight...

4 player high tier adjustment, since APL will be right in the middle. Encounter B2, it says "remove the Blackwinged Pegasus." Remove one Blackwinged Pegasus makes more sense. Though, using the singular when there are 3 in the encounter is very confusing... Am I right? Or should I remove all 3?

The Exchange 5/5

I figured out what you did. You read the adjustment for Encounter B3 while looking at Encounter B2. Go back and look again. It makes sense.

SCALING ENCOUNTER B2
Make the following changes to the encounter to
accommodate parties of only four PCs.
Subtier 3–4: Apply the sickened condition to the kelpie,
the result of an undead taint in the waters of the stream.
Subtier 6–7: Remove one kelpie.

SCALING ENCOUNTER B3
Make the following changes to the encounter to
accommodate parties of only four PCs.
Subtier 3–4: Remove the zombie pegasus and add one
pugwampi gremlin.
Subtier 6–7: Remove the blackwinged pegasus.

3/5

thanks for catching that!

Sovereign Court 5/5

The final encounter tells you where to place the enemies, but none of the other encounters do, is there a good "rule of thumb" that I'm missing?

In the "Fallen Log" encounter, the trap is described, but the scenario doesn't say where to put the trap. Again, should I just pick where to put it or is there a good basic rule that I'm missing?

Thank you!

Dark Archive 4/5 5/55/5 ****

First encounter: All the enemies within reach of the cottage banging on the doors/windows.

Trap: Wherever is convenient based on where you want to have the PCs come in, so that they will almost certainly have to trigger it if they don't notice.

Lake: Place the Kelpie(s) wherever they can affect someone with Captivating Lure (w/i 60 ft.), use the Pegasus as a distraction flying around at the far end until someone attacks or gets close.

Crossing: If Twigjacks, hide them in the bushes on the far side - Bramble Jumping onebehind the party is fun. Pegasus on the opposite bank of the stream. If Gremlins, spread them out to have the auras affect the greatest area possible.

The Exchange 5/5

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First encounter: "In the higher subtier, a pair of skeletal hodags also emerges from the woods as the zombie owlbears turn to attack the PCs." A suggestion: since the hodags have a burrow speed I start them underground and out of sight. After the melee types have engaged, I have the hodags approach the back ranks of the party like the gopher in "Caddyshack", leaving a channel of disturbed earth in their wake. It makes for a suspenseful encounter when the PCs don't know what's coming until it bursts from the ground.

3/5

GMing this tonight.
I noticed the reference on the dire porcupine zombie is incorrect.
Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3 222 is for a giant porcupine.
The dire porcupine was introduced in Tome of Horrors Complete from what I can tell.
It could also use some clarification on the damage of a tail quill strike.
I am going to play it with a one time damage of 1d3+3 and 1d6 quills will attach. Actually, I will take the "zombie slam" at 1d4+3 instead of the tail strike.
It would not make much sense for a small CR1 creature to inflict up to 6*(1d3+3) in one tail strike.

Scarab Sages 4/5

Sorry for the thread necro. I'm thinking about running this in the next month or two, and I have a Riddywhipple question. If a player has Improved Familiar already, do they get to change to Riddywhipple for free, or do they need to dismiss their familiar and pay the costs for a new one?

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

I think they just need to pay as normal.

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