So, one of them is a word caster. Since word casting has a lot of words subject to spell resistance and the early introduction of an enemy with fairly high SR should I warn a new player coming in about word casting and SR due to the prevalence of outsiders in the campaign?
The argument against it is the whole "let the player make their character and deal with the consequences" line of thought and the fact that the interaction between word casting and SR is clearly visible at character creation but the argument for warning them is simply trying to be nice.
What do you guys think?
If the player is experienced, and they don't have a way to overcome SR, I don't see how you'd need to earn them. SR shows up eventually in all campaigns. But if they're a first time player, it might be worth pointing out what SR is and such.
The thing about spell Resistence is that it can be overcome with a good roll. It's not instantly shutting down a caster, it's an extra obstacle. It's nothing different from a rogue having to deal with ooze and elementals immune to sneak attacks every now and then, or melee fellows dealing with weapon immune swarms or incorporeal enemies. Difficult stuff happens, players don't always need to be coddled when it happens.
As a table-top gamer overall? Very.
4 - however, before level 6 they encounter an 18 SR creature.
Regular casters have a mix though and it seems every effect word has SR.
Just noticed new responses. :)
@Trinite - *could* he? Probably. He's fairly combat oriented though so it wouldn't be in line with his concept of being a hold-the-line kind of guy.
@Shaun - Negative. I've just seen the prevalence of SR in this campaign early on and this makes one of my player character's concepts much more difficult. If this were a campaign with a high use of incorporeal beings similar to creatures with magic resistance in this one then I would consider dissuading full martial type characters.
I've decided I'm going to let them face her in all her glory and let any "oh s!&+" sink in afterwards.
To be honest I'm amazed at the creatures in this AP. They're absolutely brutal and the successive nature and proximity of encounters requires days of down time some times. After the pack of mites, spiders, and the clicky legs level I had a PC with a -12 or so to dex and a couple others with severe ability negs or near death. One player has used hero points to avoid dying against the giant black widow. And my player's have learned to absolutely loathe swarms. The magus has actually been prepping a word combo titled "f$+# swarms" daily just in case. Haha
Are you going to warn any of the warrior types about incorporeal foes, or the sneak attack types about the oozes and elementals?
It'd be preferable to laughing at them when they die.
To be honest I'm amazed at the creatures in this AP. They're absolutely brutal and the successive nature and proximity of encounters requires days of down time some times. After the pack of mites, spiders, and the clicky legs level I had a PC with a -12 or so to dex and a couple others with severe ability negs or near death. One player has used hero points to avoid dying against the giant black widow. And my player's have learned to absolutely loathe swarms. The magus has actually been prepping a word combo titled "f%#~ swarms" daily just in case. Haha
In fairness, not that tough if the group plays smart. After encountering and promptly retreating from the black widow spider (There was a tense moment where some webs were tossed and slowed down their escape), the party in my game promptly invested some cash into a wand of delay poison. Rest of the mite/vermin levels, no problem. From this point on in the game, unless I catch them in the middle of the night, they're probably going to be effectively immune to poison while adventuring.
In my mind, the tough fights are going to be the ambushes. I'm talking Terisha in book one, the encounter is basically a sucker punch. Likewise, when I was reading book three, the betrayal by the Caulborn after fighting the big bad. These are situations where the party has probably already expended major resources on what they thought the big fights were, only to be taken by surprise with their escape routes blocked by enemys. Tough enemies encountered while exploring the dungeons can just be retreated from, preparations made and confronted again on more favorable terms.
They got cocky when dealing with the mites and rushed after them when they retreated to Zuuga. The spider came down. There was an initial trading of blows then they tried to retreat and suffered AoOs over a couple rounds. The magus cast a fog spell prior to making a knowledge check. Once he did he learned it had tremorsense but kept going toe to toe with it eventually winning but very beaten in the end. After this fight they've been more keen on using the withdraw action. :)
I agree on the ambushes. The Caulborn will be interesting. Since the AP imposes a penalty for such retreats they won't be able to use their retreat tactics like they have been. That will be particularly taxing especially after the brokenness that is the pale stranger. Prior to that though on the way to Kaer Maga the ambush where everyone needs to save 3 times against confusion will be interesting considering an almost even mix of full caster versus heavy combat between a magus and a barbarian that's since joined the party. I expect a couple caster character deaths there honestly.
From there it gets worse. That brain monster deal, I think book 4, will be a major pain for any casters at that point as well.
The reliquary fight will be ridiculous with the couple potential betrayals that can happen surrounding that.
I think the really high number of constructs alone in this AP would merit a warning to spellcasters, so that they choose their spells wisely, i.e. focus on conjuration.
The players guide contains warnings aplenty for even moderately experienced players.