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How many players are in your group? The more people, the longer fights will take.
Also, if you were using the environmental rules, that makes things go longer.
And the experience of your players can also impact play speed... as can if any of your players are tacticians who try to find the most effective method of attacking and the like... and if they distract themselves when it isn't their turn and then spend all their time when their own turn comes up trying to catch up and then base their actions on what's now happening.
For instance, I've a young lady in my Runelords game who regularly takes a good 10 minutes or so to decide what to do with her Sorceress. (The fact her character is 14th level also impacts this.) Even at lower levels she'd peruse her spells, try to figure out what is the best course of action... and then when she acted she'd inevitably screw up my entire course of action (I have a love-hate relationship with Strangling Hair ^^).
Encouraging your PCs to plan their actions out ahead of time while other players are doing their turns may speed things along... but good luck with that! :D
17 sesseions to complete 4th chapter? Oh man. This is like if we will play each weak once and every weak it will take to complete 1st book 4+ months.
I think I will lose environmental rules to speed up the game.
We have 4 players in our party. 5th will join later.
>Encouraging your PCs to plan their actions out ahead of time while other players are doing their turns may speed things along... but good luck with that! :D
Actually, simple and good advice. We have 2 players who do not think ahead and I didn't notice that before.
Thank you guys for good info!
We completed a book in 4 to 6 weeks, which was every Sunday for 6-8 hours each.
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I had to cut out a lot out of book 1 to complete it in a respectable time frame. It took 8 sessions and 1 of those sessions was devoted to a trip to the old margreve (when the PC's got the power of the black rider, they passed out and were transported there ina dream like state to go through the tests to show their worth).
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I have to say, I am running this portion of the RoW now, modified of course to give the party some lee way for side quests and their own personal goals. I has been fun and surprising. I had to modify the encounters due to our Aasimaar Warpriest Character (his nick name is Kal El if that gives you any ideas of how he runs his character).
SPOILERS BELOW - PLEASE DON'T READ ON IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE :)
It has been great so far. The party has made it to Nadya. They took out Teb in an interesting fashion (which got them extra XP. The Half-Elf Rogue snuck up on him with a Natural 20 plus a modifier of 8 for stealth). He lit him up with 5 alchemist fires set in a container he launched at Teb). That and one arrow to the back made short work of him.
I give props to Rob McCreary, Adam Daigle and the crew for making a great path which can be modified and turned into a whirl wind campaign.
I do have some questions for the Rob (and anyone else who wants to chime in):
1. Would you allow for up to CR 5-7 for a party of 6 2nd level characters with two NPCs? Or would you suggest higher?
2. If the party attracts too much attention in Waldsby, would you set an ambush before the part arrives (ie after the night with one said Bard who joins the party for warmth)?
3. Would you bring in other Winter Baronesse's to help with the defense of the Pale Tower (especially if Radosek Pavril knows the party is coming)?
4. Even with the Geas and the possible chance of stat damage, would you as GMs let the party explore the surrounding areas some? It is party nature, even when driven, to do so. I lean yes and to not penalize them too much with the geas.
Thanks for your insight:)
Hello
I ve been running this campaign and I would like some advice. The party has just defeated Teb but the rider has not appeared from the portal. We rolled attributes and the party of 3 with an npc have already good scores and dish out some massiv dmg, specialy a priest of Gorum. I am reluctant to give them the +2 on an atribute, but what can I give them instead. I had some ideas but I m not convinced.
-First I planned on giving them just +1 to an attribute but really don t want to do that. maybe I could just let them choose from +1 to Int, Wis or Cha?
-An other optio would be to give them a campaign trait, which I ve held from them because I tought they weren t that great and don t wanted to give them Northern ancestry, altought 2 of em are vikings who come from the land of linnorn kings.
-give them a free trait
-give them a feat???! maybe of a limited list, so they can t boost dmg? any ideas?
- give them +1 to 1 safe ref, con or wis
What do you think is the best solution?
The party consists of a Viking ranger with feys as fav enemys, a viking skald, a priest of Gorum and a npc support witch, who doesn t do any dmg just supports the group with heals, buffs and hexes like fortune
Thanks for any input.
You could always give them an ability based on each of the riders (especially as there are 3 players). Maybe a once a day equivalent to a 3rd level spell like ability. You could even go further and have them only able to use it during their time of day (Morning, afternoon and night respectively).
very nice idea, I love it. But what abilities, the riders are very powerfull? When a character crits the daze or stunn effect? any other suggestions?
but what do i do if a character dies? story wise?
You remember when Aslan in Narnia gave presents to kids? (I think it was Aslan, do not remember). And every gift was special and matching every personality. I think a lot of Narnia when I prepare AP for my games.
3 riders can summon large mounts. So maybe to give players mounts, each with different ability? This is like not really original idea, but if players will attach to their unique mounts, give them names and treat them as pets, this is best for DM.
You also could give them a kind of group ability/co-operation ability.
You also could give them a kind of group ability/co-operation ability.
Can you give us an example what you had in mind?
I ve tought about giving them mounts, it changes quite abit of the campaign. The riders would probably also have some fantastic wartrained horses which i won t hand out at this stage. If it was something like ghosmount in 2 nd ed dnd i would really like that.
I was speaking not about just mounts but 3 riders have mounts as 13 cl Phantom steed.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/p/phantom-steed
Duration 1 hour/level (D)
A phantom steed has a speed of 20 feet per two caster levels, to a maximum of 100 feet at 10th level.
They do not attack.
I was bringing this to the discussion but I'm not sure how to scale them properly. PCs might get that at 4th level. So 40 ft movement. It's kinda ok.
Maybe at further levels those mounts could become even more anime. Like summoning a digimon or summoning them for 1 attack like in final fantasy 8 (: Or like "Amidamaru into the sword!" ((: I'm kidding.
I took mounts directly from 3 riders.
Go to link.
Edit: This is 666th post in this topic. I'm sorry I won this thread ((:
Thx alot, phantom stead is the word i was looking for, great flavour t it. This is happening :-)
There are (or were) co-operation feats. Basically you get a feat which works for the whole group if you co-operate. If they do no longer exist, you could use the idea as inspiration.
You could use the horses in this way, however. I.e. they can summon them as a group. You could give them a +2 on ride checks when they are riding together. Something like that.
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I do have some questions for the Rob (and anyone else who wants to chime in):
1. Would you allow for up to CR 5-7 for a party of 6 2nd level characters with two NPCs? Or would you suggest higher?
2. If the party attracts too much attention in Waldsby, would you set an ambush before the part arrives (ie after the night with one said Bard who joins the party for warmth)?
3. Would you bring in other Winter Baronesse's to help with the defense of the Pale Tower (especially if Radosek Pavril knows the party is coming)?
4. Even with the Geas and the possible chance of stat damage, would you as GMs let the party explore the surrounding areas some? It is party nature, even when driven, to do so. I lean yes and to not penalize them too much with the geas.
Thanks for your insight:)
1. Assuming the two NPCs are 2nd level with PC wealth or 3rd with NPC wealth, then you've got a party of effective APL 4 (8 characters add 2 to the APL). Your average encounter should be CR 4, and can go up to CR 7 as an epic encounter. However, this doesn't mean that you should be finding monsters that are CR 7 for use in your encounters. Really, you should be just increasing the numbers of enemy combatants.
2. If you mean set the ambush in Waldsby, well:
a) There's no way Mierul is going to get to the Pale Tower and manage to have guards sent to Waldsby before the PCs reach there first.
b) Event 6 is essentially an ambush already. You can skew how much of one it is with decisions on what the layout of Nadya's house is, the positions of the guards around this house, and when they come calling (ie. doing it in the middle of the night means the PCs haven't refreshed spells, nor are wearing heavy armor). In my game, I included a back door that would go out to Nadya's kennels, and while half of the group of guards were in front calling for Nadya to come out, the other half were lined up to break into the house from the back door. Event 7 turned into a hostage situation like Arkady's, wherein the blacksmith and general store owner were about to be made an example of unless the PCs could stop them.
c) Because of the nature of events 6 & 7, it's unlikely Radosek would also set an ambush up the road between Waldsby and the Pale Tower, since he expects the group he sent out to succeed. Even if the sergeant manages to get his attentive mirror open when he discovers that his group is no match for the PCs, I think it's more likely that he holes up in his tower and puts more men on the walls, given how strong a position he's in.
3. Tying in with the answer to #2, I think it's unlikely he'll call in for help unless his position is untenable. Radosek is tasked with keeping his mistress' domain under control, and having to call in for help will make Nazhena look weak in front of the other Baronesses. On the other hand, losing the portal will make her look even weaker and incompetent, so better the lesser of two evils. I don't think he'll be pushed to this point until they mop up the second floor and/or rest for the night inside the tower. Even then, reinforcmenets from other Baronesses are going to take days, even assuming there are other logging villages along the forest's edge. It's more likely timely help will come from other patrols returning from searching for the Black Rider (who he can contact when they check in with attentive mirrors). Armed forces from other baronies would come after the Tower has already fallen into PC hands, and you can use them as a way to push the PCs on towards Whitethrone.
4. As long as your adventure's not going completely off the rails, I say you'll be fine letting the geas not kick in.
Rohkar Cindren have scroll of animate dead (10HD). Does Rohkar uses scroll to animate as much as possible zombies from dead allies? Can Rohkar use variant zombies?
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I took Reign of Winter because our party is whole russian and I thought it could be witty to introduce to players Baba Yaga, winter witch, dancing hut. But after two sessions I started to feel that if introduce those things players will just laugh and smile and definitely lose fairy tale feeling. Mostly because every russian kid knows about Baba Yaga and how she lives in the hut with chicken legs and players will suspect that grandmother Yaga is evil from a start.
So I found solution recently. I will force fairy tale even more by shadow puppet session.
This idea I definitely saw on reddit somewhere. I plan to make shadow puppet session with Black Rider and portal and crow swarm and how mighty champions meet with Irrisen, but I have to drop somehow some combat rules and to simple them.
I was adviced to ask this question here.
So Reight of Winter AP have a creature named "Frost Skeleton".
This creature refers to a creature "Burning Skeleton".
I looked up that one in the wiki, but something felt not appropriate for the level at wich creature is encountered.
I do not possess Horrors Revisited book, but from information i gathered the creature on the referred page (54) is Acid Skeleton and have different stats.
Should i be using Acid Skeleton? It seems to have less chance of murdering the whole group.
No, they meant that one.
The Lodge is a TPK Central.
Personally, I recommend leveling up everyone just prior to the Lodge to help them survive. You don't need to give them the XPs to level up, mind you, just have them at level 2 and then earn those XPs in assaulting the lodge.
No, they meant that one.
The Lodge is a TPK Central.
Personally, I recommend leveling up everyone just prior to the Lodge to help them survive. You don't need to give them the XPs to level up, mind you, just have them at level 2 and then earn those XPs in assaulting the lodge.
Then why it refers to the Revisited book? Oh well.
Senior Developer
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Classic Horrors Revisited presents an acid skeleton as a variant skeleton, but also provides guidelines on creating skeletons with other energy types, such as electric or frost skeletons. All of these are built using the basic template of the burning skeleton in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. However, since the entry for burning skeleton does not list any variants, the citation points to Classic Horrors Revisited, where the idea of these variants was first presented (and that's the reason the frost skeleton in "Snows of Summer" is listed as a variant burning skeleton).
In any case, you don't need Classic Horrors Revisited to run the encounter. In general, if a creature's stats or a rule is not available in a Core Rulebook, Bestiary, or on the prd, we reprint all of the necessary rules in the adventure itself. In this instance, use the normal Bestiary stats for the burning skeleton, modified as described in the encounter.
Classic Horrors Revisited presents an acid skeleton as a variant skeleton, but also provides guidelines on creating skeletons with other energy types, such as electric or frost skeletons. All of these are built using the basic template of the burning skeleton in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. However, since the entry for burning skeleton does not list any variants, the citation points to Classic Horrors Revisited, where the idea of these variants was first presented (and that's the reason the frost skeleton in "Snows of Summer" is listed as a variant burning skeleton).
In any case, you don't need Classic Horrors Revisited to run the encounter. In general, if a creature's stats or a rule is not available in a Core Rulebook, Bestiary, or on the prd, we reprint all of the necessary rules in the adventure itself. In this instance, use the normal Bestiary stats for the burning skeleton, modified as described in the encounter.
From what i see there are 2 different templates for elemental skeletons - Burning Skeleton and Acid Skeleton.
The name of the creature refers to the Burning Skeleton(aura one). And the amount of XP it gives also leads me to think it Burning One (200xp).Yet page number leads to Acid Skeleton(elemental attack). The second encounter with the creature mentiones them "using their freezing claws rather than scimitar". Acid one actually have elemental damage on the natural attacks (freezing claws), and not on the scimitar, so it makes sense to clarify what weapon they are using as it changes the outcome.
Classic Horrors Revisited presents an acid skeleton as a variant skeleton, but also provides guidelines on creating skeletons with other energy types, such as electric or frost skeletons. All of these are built using the basic template of the burning skeleton in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. However, since the entry for burning skeleton does not list any variants, the citation points to Classic Horrors Revisited, where the idea of these variants was first presented (and that's the reason the frost skeleton in "Snows of Summer" is listed as a variant burning skeleton).
In any case, you don't need Classic Horrors Revisited to run the encounter. In general, if a creature's stats or a rule is not available in a Core Rulebook, Bestiary, or on the prd, we reprint all of the necessary rules in the adventure itself. In this instance, use the normal Bestiary stats for the burning skeleton, modified as described in the encounter.
From what i see there are 2 different templates for elemental skeletons - Burning Skeleton and Acid Skeleton.
The name of the creature refers to the Burning Skeleton(aura one). And the amount of XP it gives also leads me to think it Burning One (200xp).
Yet page number leads to Acid Skeleton(elemental attack). The second encounter with the creature mentiones them "using their freezing claws rather than scimitar". Acid one actually have elemental damage on the natural attacks (freezing claws), and not on the scimitar, so it makes sense to clarify what weapon they are using as it changes the outcome.
The burning skeleton from the bestiary has elemental damage on its claws too.
Burning Skeleton
A burning skeleton is surrounded by an aura of flames that deals fire damage to those it strikes. In addition to the changes for the skeleton template, make the following adjustments to the base creature.
Challenge Rating: As a normal skeleton + 1.
Aura: Burning skeletons possess a fiery aura.
Fiery Aura (Ex): Creatures adjacent to a burning skeleton take 1d6 points of fire damage at the start of their turn. Anyone striking a burning skeleton with an unarmed strike or natural attack takes 1d6 points of fire damage.
Defensive Abilities: Burning skeletons lose their immunity to cold but gain immunity to fire. A burning skeleton gains vulnerability to cold damage.
Melee Attacks:A burning skeleton's melee attacks (including both those made with a natural weapon and those made with a manufactured weapon) deal an additional 1d6 points of fire damage.
Abilities: A burning skeleton's Charisma is 12.
Special Qualities: A burning skeleton gains fiery death.
The only difference between the two is that the acid skeleton doesn't have the aura. I think the reason for that is because it doesn't make sense for dripping acid to harm adjacent foes like fire or frost do.
As I said in the other thread, and what Rob confirms, is that the burning skeleton is the official source for variant skeletons. The text in both the classic horrors and the snows of summer are simply explanations how to alter that variant.
Hmm, i see, the unofficial SRD one is wierdly comprised.
I guess elemental aura and explosion is optional then... I wold imagine you will take more damage from vapours standing near something covered in acid, rather than standing near bowl of liquid nitrogen.
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whelp.
running Snows for a fun group online. However I may have GMed myself into a corner. The Pale Tower guards came for them at Nadya's cabin, and they went peacefully to the Weasel, where they confessed that the Black Rider had died in front of them back in Heldren.
Great, they know stuff. Interrogation successful. Voltan won't care about details but he's gotta get info and get it back to Radosek, so he takes the PCs capitve, they manage to sneak some daggers, but their hands are bound to prevent spellcasting.
( as a perk they got nice sleigh rides and an escort of ten guards and a sergeant into the pale tower, though Lydil did manage to steal one of the Keys en route, the Sergeant doesn't know its importance, just that pesky witchcrows steal magic stuff. )
so...
::looks through the pale tower for a place where they would keep prisoners::
::sad face::
there's no holding area / cells or anything. =/
Should I use one of the guest rooms? or the Kennels and have the troll keep an eye on them?
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there's no holding area / cells or anything. =/
Should I use one of the guest rooms? or the Kennels and have the troll keep an eye on them?
Kennels. Keep them cold and exposed. Not like anyone in the Pale Tower cares for them.
Maybe have Nadya and hatch sneak to the tower and spring them, if they cannot manage it themselves
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tying them to the squat kennels for now.
they've still got the boar spear from Teb, so I think someone , at least Radosek, will recognize it when he sees it.
I'm keeping Hatch as their escape plan should all else fail, Nadya was taken with them.
One of the players co-opted Ten-Penny Tacey as their character, rebuilt as an unchained rogue. so i've hopes that they can get themselves out of it, although one of the tanks is still blind from the raven swarm.
Hi, guys!
My party took 2nd level after saving lady Argentea and I scale encounters afterwards. I'm thinking to add template to guardian doll. Do you have any ideas what template to add?
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...I took Reign of Winter because our party is whole russian...
I wish I could see Reign being run for actual Russians. It was Santa Claus who gave the kids presents in Narnia.
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I'm two weeks into running Reign of Winter for a group of 5 and the lodge destroyed them.
The party:
LN Half-Orc Inquisitor of Abadar (Sin Eater/Heretic/Sacred Huntsmaster)
LN Human Monk (Monk of the Empty Hand)
NG Suli Pyrokineticist
N Garuda-Blooded Aasimar [small, because she was born to gnome parents] Druid (Storm Druid)
CN Daemon-Spawn Tiefling Unchained Rogue (Chameleon)
Stats were rolled, and I encouraged them to be creative and take archetypes. They avoided the Snowman trap by going around it (walking backwards because they thought that's what "turn back" meant), they made all their reflex saves to not fall through the ice, and they saw the crossbow trap tripwire easily. However, during the earlier encounter with 3 raiders one of them got away, running back to the lodge to warn everyone, so the raiders in the lodge were prepared.
The party circled the lodge, peeking in windows and scoping it out. They saw all the healthy raiders gathering in the main hall, so they started planning their attack strategy. The rogue and the kineticist worked together to shoot a blast of fire into the room with the sick raiders, not killing any of them, but sending them running into the main hall. By this point, the inquisitor was getting impatient, so he declares "I am going to break down the door."
His strength check doesn't even come close. However, this is what finally starts combat - the 5 of them vs. 10 raiders inside (6 healthy, 4 sick). I have the raiders fight on defense, taking up positions near the doors and readying attacks for when the party rushes in. One raider goes for it and goes outside to fight them. He fights the inquisitor and the rogue (poor rolls on both sides means he's still standing after 2 rounds). The druid and the kineticist take up blasting positions near the stable (despite the druid not having any offensive spells aside from her domain power), and the monk circles around to try to drag Ten-Penny though the kitchen window.
After a 5 round stand off, the raiders make their move. 3 of them leave through the door near the well, sneak around the building and get the drop on the kineticist, knocking her down to half health with ranged attacks. The druid gets in front of her, intending to take the hits. She goes down to 0 and runs for shelter in the stable. The monk comes to help them, standing in front of them and taking a volley of arrows. The monk goes down.
The rogue, having finally gone into the lodge with the inquisitor to fight, sees them through the nearby window. "I want to dive through the window and stab the guy in the back," the rogue's player declares. "Okay, I need an acrobatics check for the jump, a strength check to break the window (you'll take damage), and an attack roll to hit," I reply.
15 for acrobatics, 18 for strength . . . 1 for the attack.
The rogue is now outside by himself, surrounded by 3 raiders. And one of them confirms a crit. So the rogue, the kineticist and the monk are all dead or dying in the snow. The inquisitor is doing pretty well by himself inside (he's the only one rolling well tonight), and finishes off the raiders. I decide to be merciful at this point and not have Rohkar join the fight - he'll still be there when they come back. One of the raiders outside goes looking for the druid in the barn, and gets stabbed by her readied action - which also puts her below 0 for taking an action while disabled. The inquisitor kills the rest of raiders, then finds his allies dead outside and finds the unconscious druid in the stable. Everyone else starts rolling up new characters while he goes and interrogates Ten-Penny, who is fully willing to cooperate after what she just saw. She picks the lock on the cellar door, they rescue Lady Argentea, and ride off back to Heldren, leaving the corpses of their allies behind.
Now, I'm considering what to do next. Part of me wants to be evil and have their former allies be raised as zombies along with the rest of the raiders, but I'm trying to stick to the campaign as written as much as possible and Rohkar just doesn't have the juice for that many zombies (his scroll of animate dead gets him 5, plus the 3 scrolls of lesser animate dead can get 3 more, and if I really wanted to, he could prepare lesser animate dead himself instead of all his 2nd level spells, but that's kinda pushing it). The replacement characters being considered are an azata-blooded aasimar gunslinger, a samsaran witch (white witch), and a human barbarian. I offered to let someone play as Ten-Penny, but nobody took me up on it.
I thought I'd have to boost some of the encounters to deal with 5 players, but after what happened, I'm glad I didn't.
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After receiving word from the council to go and take out Teb Knotten and his forces, the players set out to do just that. The encounter with the soulbound doll creeped them out (my use of "Carol of the Bells" as a song sung by the doll probably didn't help), but, unfortunately, they destroyed the soul focus (which will be interesting when they encounter the older sister later, especially when she starts to hum a familiar tune around them). I replaced the giant weasel with a velociraptor (they are in the Savage Lands after all), but Tygra used her animal empathy to make it her friend (and possible animal companion). Their encounter with Izoze and the air elemental was very satisfying for them as they finally took out the elusive mephit.
Before they got to the winter portal, the group had one more obstacle to overcome: the fumarole field (steam vents) that I added. It was touch and go for them, but none of them got stuck within it.
After crossing the field, they got to the campsite and, through sheer luck, managed to take down Teb Knotten even though he got the jump on them in the surprise round. Hommelstaub and the winter-touched sprites were fairly easy for them to eliminate without Knotten around. After examining the portal, the PCs went through and encountered the Black Rider on the other side, receiving his mantle in the process.
Which bring us to tonight's session: I have a surprise in store for my players - A still very much alive Teb Knotten is going to pursue them through the winter portal and catch up to them right before meeting with the party from Baikal (what I'm calling Waldsby in mine) led by the soulbound doll's sister in place of the giant mantis encounter. I'm sure the pyrokineticist will complain, but as he wasn't turned to ash, he can still regenerate the damage taken after they left him alone to examine the portal (fire only keeps him from regenerating on the round after being hit, and though he poured on the fire damage during the short battle, it wasn't enough to take Teb out completely). Should be a fun encounter for them to revisit.
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Now, I'm considering what to do next. Part of me wants to be evil and have their former allies be raised as zombies along with the rest of the raiders, but I'm trying to stick to the campaign as written as much as possible and Rohkar just doesn't have the juice for that many zombies (his scroll of animate dead gets him 5, plus the 3 scrolls of lesser animate dead can get 3 more, and if I really wanted to, he could prepare lesser animate dead himself instead of all his 2nd level spells, but that's kinda pushing it).
You could have Rohkar raise the bodies and leave them at the Lodge. He could then make his way to Teb with his three frost skeletons. The party could encounter him after to lodge.
Also, I tend to let the party level as the AP suggest rather than try tracking exp for all the encounters. It makes my life easier and theirs.
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Here is an outside sketch of the tower Here
Also a map is here
oh wow, thanks. wish i'd found that sooner.
i ended up showing the player's my own take on it, and making the inner grounds more a ring around the figure 8 parts.final thumbnail wasn't too far off in the end i guess. i took the crescent shape a bit too literally.
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oh wow, thanks. wish i'd found that sooner.
i ended up showing the player's my own take on it, and making the inner grounds more a ring around the figure 8 parts.final thumbnail wasn't too far off in the end i guess. i took the crescent shape a bit too literally.
That looks fine. Same idea, just different perspective.
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...I took Reign of Winter because our party is whole russian...I wish I could see Reign being run for actual Russians. It was Santa Claus who gave the kids presents in Narnia.
We have Grandfather Moroz instead of Santa!
The next fight will be with Teb Knotten and journey before was a little bit stressful because of damage reduction. We lack of magic skills in our party. Only cleric is spellcaster. Do you guys gave some weapons that bypass DR or how you delt with this?
DR is really frustrating at this point and my party of gunslinger, unchained barbarian, unchained rogue and cleric is 500 exp away from 3rd level! Medium exp progression.
Our last session was the worst only because of DR.
It's like ice mephit does little damage but survives for next 30 minutes of irl gaming because fast healing and DR/magic.
PS. Giant Weasel set cleric to -15 hp with full round attack. Gave to GWeasel ability to rage from Dire Weasel. Coudn't use it because was afraid to kill one more PC.
Sun Rod completly changes ambush encounter with Izoze and elemental to complete player's advantage.
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I don't dare at this point... I'm running for six people (eight when the entire group can make it). What they lack in weapons that can bypass DR, they make up for with the sheer amount of damage they can put out in a given round. This means I have to toughen the monsters up a bit, and the combo of DR and fast healing/regeneration helps me out a lot.
My party got through DR with the injured viking's cold iron longsword and the Steel Hound Investigator and Gunslinger using cold iron bullets.
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Just finished the Winter Portal and the encounter with the Black Rider. Took forever for the PCs to kill Hommelstaub and the two winter-touched sprites - who would have guessed that tiny blue creatures flying in a sleet and snow storm would be difficult to hit from the ground? But the party killed Teb Knotten in less than one round.
The scene with the Black Rider played out perfectly. Without any prompting, the ranger (played by my 12yo son) asked him all of the right questions, in almost exactly the order they appear in the book. I had a moment of thinking I was going to have to bust out the geas on them right away, as they debated whether to bring the frozen food they found in the troll's cave back to Heldren before going through the portal, but the prospect of trudging 3 days back through the worsening storm and then doing the whole trip again to get back to the portal dissuaded them. We ended the night with a description of their first moments in Irrisen - luckily, the rogue had suggested that the cleric cast communal endure elements before they stepped through. We all had a great time, and the players are excited about deciding where to put their bonuses from the Black Rider (I sad they couldn't use them for their class's main stat, but also offered them a bonus feat from a list of about a dozen basic feats (power attack, deadly aim, improved initiative, etc.) that they hadn't taken yet, so it evened out.
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Last night's session ended with the PCs scrambling to get under cover before being spotted by the raven swarm ("Event 4: Eyes in the Sky") approaching overhead. The book says that if every member of the party makes a DC 20 stealth check, the adversary will not notice them and will fly on. The particular cover available provides a +5 bonus.
One of the PCs has a -3 for stealth due to his armor check penalty. I can understand why that's the case for attempts at stealth while moving, but does it also apply when the character is standing perfectly still, hiding with total concealment? That would seem odd to me, but I can't find anything to suggest that there are any circumstances where the ACP would not apply.
Armor Check Penalty: Any armor heavier than leather, as well as any shield, hurts a character's ability to use Dexterity- and Strength-based skills. An armor check penalty applies to all Dexterity- and Strength-based skill checks. A character's encumbrance may also incur an armor check penalty.
This seems too harsh to apply to someone standing still under a camouflage tarp -- what does the penalty represent in that case? Am I missing an exception for Dex-based skill checks when you're standing still? Is this just how the rules work?
I cross-posted this on the Rules Questions forum as well; my apologizes to anyone seeing it twice.
