Hey everyone,
Its been a long time since i played anything resembling DnD since my hatred for where things went in 4.0. Atleast until someone told me about Pathfinder.
Now i am asked to run a campaign and i decided to run this module. Rise of the Runelords: Anniversary Edition. If i could get any feedback on extras or maybe side notes for how to play characters, or just overall feedback would be greatly appreciated. I want to make this be something memorable and fun for both myself and my players.
Its a really fun Module. Its got a few places that have a very High chance of a TPK.
The TPK's mostly have to do with one nasty re-occurring boss (well she was re-occurring in our run cause we couldn't kill her) and some retarded weapons called "Ogre Hooks" that tend to crit and can one shot party members.
I saw the Ogre Hooks in the Downloadable Players guide. So maybe its in my best interest to take them out? Especially since i have two very very new players to Table top?
I saw the Ogre Hooks in the Downloadable Players guide. So maybe its in my best interest to take them out? Especially since i have two very very new players to Table top?
Just play as is for now and you can hand wave it later. Like Corlindale above me, I have only played the original version. They might have changed. If it becomes a problem I would suggest just changing them from 19-20/x3 to 19-20/x2. Any weapon with X3 or x4 crit mod will be deadly if it lands a crit weilded by a high strength monster. Add in that its a 19-20 threat range and it felt like EVERY ogre had one. You will get crits (just due to all Ogres weilding em) and it can nearly one round players.
Good tactics and team work is really needed (IMO) to survive nastiness like that. So yea, just keep it in mind if they are new players.
And yes the Boss at the end of the second book is who i was talking about. She nearly TPK our group on three different occasions.
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Also, Xanesha has been nerfed since the original adventure and is not as strong as she was; and this is the first time I have seen anyone complaining about the ogre hooks: I think they're a cool, distinctive feature of the ogres in Rise of the Runelords.
My main feedback would be to make Sandpoint as fun and interesting as possible: if your players love Sandpoint then you'll have a much better time with the campaign. I added a scene in which young kids ran around Sandoint pretending to be the heroes, later on they followed them and tried to join in, 'twas fun.
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We started the original RotR late last year. I suspended it at the end of the Skinsaw Murders to get the AE and new miniatures.
Oh, btw, I wouldn't change the Ogre Hooks. After all the third part is called the Hook Mountain Massacre.
Cheers,
Mazra
Also, Xanesha has been nerfed since the original adventure and is not as strong as she was; and this is the first time I have seen anyone complaining about the ogre hooks: I think they're a cool, distinctive feature of the ogres in Rise of the Runelords.
My main feedback would be to make Sandpoint as fun and interesting as possible: if your players love Sandpoint then you'll have a much better time with the campaign. I added a scene in which young kids ran around Sandoint pretending to be the heroes, later on they followed them and tried to join in, 'twas fun.
Thank you for linking this, i didnt see anything related to it specifically, and i am still getting used to the flow of the site.
We started the original RotR late last year. I suspended it at the end of the Skinsaw Murders to get the AE and new miniatures.
** spoiler omitted **
Cheers,
Mazra
I dont want to baby them but at the same time i don't want to one hit kill my PCs... They don't have a cleric, and i cant get my 4th PC to come to the games. I am thinking i may have to drop him and invite a new player. My two new players have never played any kind of Table top and chose to be a Barbarian and Druid. My semi-experienced player is playing through a Skype connection and decided to go from a Sorcerer to a Rogue before we even started. I am realizing there is a lot more lore and stuff to run on the side then i originally thought. Especially since tonight i just ran the first part of Chapter one. They easily lived through the Swallowtail Festival, the (female) Barbarian is hitting on Ameiko, and the druid and rogue almost ruined two out of three entrances for the goblins before the festival. Its quite an interesting game so far. XD
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It sounds like things are going great! If you're worried about healing, you can always drop extra healing potions/wands. At least the Druid will have some healing capability as well as resurrection, if that ever comes to pass.
While the fourth player not showing up is a bummer, it is not necessarily a deal breaker. If you're comfortable with it, you could always run a DMPC until you get a regular fourth player.
I wouldn't worry too much about one-shot kill monsters/weapons/etc. You have a lot of time before your players get to those situations. There will be plenty of learning opportunities along the way, and I think you'll find that they'll be quite capable of handling the challenges. Though, if you feel that they are making "new player" mistakes, don't be afraid to offer assistance. At the very least, give them a chance to make a wisdom check that would let thm know their plan is extremely risky and foolhardy. On the other hand, character death can be an invaluable learning opportunity as well.
In the end, don't sweat it, I think you'll be fine!
EDIT: grammar
I dont want to baby them but at the same time i don't want to one hit kill my PCs... They don't have a cleric, and i cant get my 4th PC to come to the games.
That's one reason I always keep track of PC hit points-- if a (un-)lucky blow lands on a PC that would be a one-shot kill, AND the player didn't do anything wrong, I usually adjust the damage to make the character unconscious and dying at -5 hp or (if I'm feeling charitable) staggered at 0 hp.
Of course, if the player is being dumb or is taking a calculated risk, I let the dice fall where they may.
The bottom line is to have fun, not be a slave to the dice. Honestly, I'm pretty shameless with fudging dice rolls to make the game more dramatic.
Just don't let the players know you're doing this!
I dont want to baby them but at the same time i don't want to one hit kill my PCs... They don't have a cleric, and i cant get my 4th PC to come to the games.That's one reason I always keep track of PC hit points-- if a (un-)lucky blow lands on a PC that would be a one-shot kill, AND the player didn't do anything wrong, I usually adjust the damage to make the character unconscious and dying at -5 hp or (if I'm feeling charitable) staggered at 0 hp.
Of course, if the player is being dumb or is taking a calculated risk, I let the dice fall where they may.
The bottom line is to have fun, not be a slave to the dice. Honestly, I'm pretty shameless with fudging dice rolls to make the game more dramatic.
Just don't let the players know you're doing this!
I wholeheartedly second Haladir's suggestion. In my campaign, the stupid goblin dogs were going to TPK the party because of the -4 to hit/-4 AC for the PCs in the thistles. The dogs immediately received a -2 "The GM hates you" penalty and it was enough. (There's a chance the party would have survived without it, because the bard had some seriously heroic die-rolling right after my decision, but I don't regret making sure my party wasn't slaughtered by a stupid goblin dog pack.)
More recently, a faceless stalker crit on both its attacks against the already-seriously-wounded sorcerer. I simply "forgot" to add the stalker's strength damage so the sorcerer survived at -8 hp. I felt bad about going easy on him for all of 12 hours -- until I realized that the stalker had been grappling the sorcerer the whole time, so had gotten off 3-4 nonexistent attacks in the first place. (Funny that none of my players asked at the time, "How is it grappling the sorcerer AND getting two attacks per round?")
As a final note, once my party had enough gold for resurrections, the 'kid gloves' came off and we had our first party member death. (Xanesha, of course).
And my shameless plug to waste many hours of your life is here.
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Unfortunately, my experienced party pretty much expects me to roll dice in the open. But with a less experience party, you can get away with it, as I did for many years.
A Druid is good to have. It may be enough.
I would never suggest babying a party. But this is a lethal module. TPKs are not fun in my book.
Unfortunately, my experienced party pretty much expects me to roll dice in the open. But with a less experience party, you can get away with it, as I did for many years.
A Druid is good to have. It may be enough.
I would never suggest babying a party. But this is a lethal module. TPKs are not fun in my book.
** spoiler omitted **
The key is to roll in the open, but not announce the target numbers beforehand. That way a 13 can be a "hit", and a later 12 can be a "miss". You do have to pay attention to what you call a hit, though. Nothing more embarrassing than, "Oh, was that a hit before? I guess it must be a hit, then. Wonder what I was thinking..."
Allows you to make adjustments on the fly. But then, as I mentioned above, in two full modules I've only had to make 'adjustments' twice, and the first time it *might* not have been necessary, while the second time was a stupid mistake on my part, so it doesn't happen THAT often (if the party is careful).
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NobodysHome it is hard to hide a 20. :-)
But I too am right their with Haladir. I have had to fudge total damage dealt on many an occasion. That really is the best balancing tool for a GM.
Interesting enough I recently miscalculated a critical hit against a PC. I was thinking the blow would take her to -7, but it turned out to be -12. Thankfully, the PC activated a certain magic item unique to this AP as a free action and managed to fall unconscious instead. I actually posted this in the Obits as a very near Obit.
Cheers,
Mazra
As GM, I always roll behind a screen.
My players prefer I roll in the open. Hence I cannot really baby them. I have a pool of 6 players and depending who shows thats what we play with (if we have at least 4 players). So far I've been lucky on not having to retcon anything since missing party player characters are not run by anyone else (it kinda detracts from the whole experience if you have to play someone else's character). That said I think where this AP falls on the lethality scale is totally dependent upon two factors. Party balance and party experience. My players and I have been playing since our mid teens and my players are all awesome optimizers. As for party balance I think this is the most balanced party I've ever seen our group make. We've got a 2 handed sword paladin that can tank, A cleric of Calistra for party buffs, a witch for debuffs, a CHA based rogue, a monk and summoner with an eilodon with a 24 AC(yessh) when mage armor is cast on it. Last session they went into Thistletop. They had the paladin, summoner, rogue and witch. I played everything out of the book. They had no problem with the encounters in the nettle tunnels. they climb the west tower and silently took out the guards. Walked into the entry way and spike all door except to the throne room. So I played as if the alrmed had been raised and I threw in 5 or 6 more goblin mooks. They pretty much took everything on with ease. Yeah they took some nonserious wounds but, really the biggest thing that I did is make them use up spells and abilities..
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I am running this for a party in which all but one player is new to the game. My advice is this, make sure that the party is balanced. This is a very TPK happy campaign for the first four character levels. My party had the character envy issue where one class did really well in thistlewood and everyone wanted to switch to that class (blasted druids and their terrain advantages anyway). The immediate TPK that followed (wait, you have no rogue, priest, or arcane spellcaster?) caused me to force my party to sit down with a list. Tank, traps, heals, arcane, ranged, and dps. The party has been having a great time since. You might want to nerf Nualia though. She is more than a little overpowered as written.
I'm still in the first module, but it really babies players on their own, for now. I only let the dice fall as they do when they do stupid things. I.E: My Alchemist running into a room ahead of everyone else before they were ready, and getting surrounded by two Sinspawn, letting them wreck his face before he ran off like a scared girl being shaken for a minute. I laughed in spite of myself because of what he did.
If you're afraid of killing your PCs, you're more than welcome to fudge your dice. Are their dice cold but yours are burning through 17+ rolls constantly? Roll minimum damage. That Crit is just a normal hit. Oh look, you missed altogether. Why? Because you're the GM and you said so, that's why.
That's something I'm learning(this is my second 'game' GMing). As much as you want to let your PCs win, you need to knock'em around a bit so they learn "Damnit, we're not Godlike!"
My players sort-of learned that when they rushed into the Quasit fight under prepared, and missing spells/most hit points on characters. I had no sympathy for them, and let the fight go as it would have. Almost killed my Rogue because of it, as well as the Alchemist and Monk. They had no one to blame but themselves.