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The haunt is discribed as images in the ice. It should only effect those in the marked area at initiative 10 of the surprise round.
More information here
How I run Haunts is to have everyone roll initiative while describing the Haunt activation sequence and see what they do. If someone with Positive Energy is able to attack the Haunt (ie, Channel Energy) then it could be dissipated without harm. Otherwise it'll go off. If someone asks, I allow a Knowledge (Religion) check to realize it's a haunt, and if they make a DC 18 roll, how to fight it.
You kill the haunt by destroying the gemstone with Thora's soul fragment.
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Has anybody tried having the Tatzlwyrm try to leap from a low-hanging tree or something similar? The DC for a competent fall is 15, and its Acrobatics is only +2, so there's a fair chance to fail, but it preserves the tactics and terrain listed in the book. Just a thought, I guess.
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It's a drop-bear! Flee!
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Haunt sequence, as I handled them through the entirety of Carrion Crown:
1) Party provokes the haunt's trigger condition.
2) PCs get a perception check to realize something is wrong.
3) PCs who pass the check get to roll initiative during surprise round. The haunt itself goes at initiative 10.
4) PCs can channel positive energy, use holy water, dump out cure potions, etc. to damage the haunt.
5) The haunt fades out at the bottom of the surprise round unless it's a persistent haunt, at which point it goes off at initiative 10 every round until the victims flee or they subdue it.
A haunt that's cut to 0 HP goes dormant and has to pass a caster level check (like DC 15 or something?) to turn itself back on at the end of its reset period.
Every PC in my CC game eventually maxed perception, primarily so that they could notice and respond to haunts.
I'd allow knowledge (religion) checks to ID haunts. They're uncommon, but they're basically a combination undead/ambush predator/magic trap and folks with knowledge (religion) should know how to combat them.
It's enough snow that at the first encounter within the woods itself, the entire region is Difficult Terrain. Personally I think they didn't think things through. ... Likewise, there shouldn't be a trail if it's snowed for 24 hours straight since it was last used. (This is why I've used Rokhar as a method of bringing the party to the Winter Portal - he knows the way and used this knowledge to negotiate from being killed.)
I used the map in the lodge to let the PCs figure out their own trail. Sure, it ended up being a bit coincidental that they ran into some of the obstacles, I suppose, but it worked well enough for my purposes.
Here's an odd question that I hope one of the Paizo employees lurking here could answer: When you first come across Rohkar, he's been using Scrolls of Animate Dead to have his undead minions (though it seems odd that he hasn't used the 2nd level Lesser Animate Dead spell for most of his purposes). Part of the equipment found in the Lodge actually includes three Scrolls of Lesser Animate Dead.
But aren't those Cleric scrolls? I mean, Wizards can't use a Cleric scroll without a couple ranks of Use Magic Device, and vice versa.
(I also must admit some curiosity as to how Rokhar's build was decided, seeing that we've recently gotten the dirt on Nadya; it almost seems like he was intended to be a different class or have different levels initially.)
Divine casters can't use arcane scrolls, and vice versa. A holdover from 3.X.
Well, for one thing it would be nice for Paizo to actually label ambiguous (or really, ALL) scrolls as Divine or Arcane. (Though that actually raises an interesting question as Bards have access to Cure Light Wounds but are arcane spellcasters... so would a wizard be able to cast a Cure Light Wounds scroll or use a CLW Wand created by a Bard?)
Second, and more importantly, it creates an area where PCs can actually possibly identify Rohkar as a priest because he is using priest scrolls. If they manage to take him out prior to his use of the Animate Dead scroll on his person, then you've evidence on his person (assuming you took him alive).
So confirming if they're Cleric Scrolls is handy. Though it also is a touch confusing as you don't see many Clerics in Irrisen (at least, among the antagonists) - so where did Ted get cleric scrolls from that Rokhar would be able to use?
(My personal suspicion is that Rokhar was originally intended to be a necromancer but that somewhere along the line it was decided to turn him into a cleric instead. This might explain his higher level, the fact he needed scrolls to create the undead, and on down the line.)
One of Elvanna's daughters is a L14ish cleric of Zon-Kuthon. So there are evil clerics running around in Irrisen, but they're rarer than the witches.
A wizard would have the "not on his spell list" problem with using the scroll or the wand, but a witch would have no problem with either.
I assume that if Rohkar got captured, the PCs would figure out what he is once they find his unholy symbol (unless he successfully hit it somewhere).
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Well, for one thing it would be nice for Paizo to actually label ambiguous (or really, ALL) scrolls as Divine or Arcane. (Though that actually raises an interesting question as Bards have access to Cure Light Wounds but are arcane spellcasters... so would a wizard be able to cast a Cure Light Wounds scroll or use a CLW Wand created by a Bard?)
Mr Jacobs deliberately avoids doing this, to make the scrolls more universally accessible to PC's. Also, the whole Arcane/Divine divide is pretty arbitrary, and becoming more so with every added caster class, IMO.
If he doesn't like the rule concerning scrolls, then he should see if his coworkers agree and then change it. Because otherwise you end up with ambiguous situations like this with spells that both Wizards and Clerics can cast. And sometimes you don't know if some of the items carried are just treasure that the person stumbled across... or something they'll use.
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Let someone in Waldsby cure the other PCs of their blindness? An act which maybe Nadya secures for them in repayment for rescuing her caravan from the giant mantis attack? I think a good candidate for performing this service could be:
The village priest Rolf Halzberg. He's currently listed as only a human cleric of Pharasma 1...but you could choose to bump him to 5th level so he can cast remove blindness/deafness and you should be good.
Or, assuming their blindness was caused by the eye rakes of the raven swarm, a simple DC 20 Heal check can cure it, as well. So, just keep Rolf Halzberg at 1st level, but give him some hefty circumstance bonuses on his Heal check. With an assumed Wis 16, 1 rank in Heal, the class skill bonus, Skill Focus (Heal), and a healer's kit, he should have a +15 on the roll to beat a DC 20.
Even Nadya with her +5 Heal skill and a healer's kit could make those rolls with a +7 bonus.
You could also have a second blizzard hit... and this one is for several days. The end result is that the PCs have the time needed to heal... but the snow is deep throughout the town as well which will impact combat. Naturally the guards will all have snowshoes. ;)
I had Nadya secure a couple scrolls of cure blindness from Katrina at a 20% markup since she hordes them for "Doom and Gloom" let the party witch use them and heal the party blindness. So they were already a little upset with Katrina over the 20% markup which set it up perfect for the encounter with her and Emil at the Inn.
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Let someone in Waldsby cure the other PCs of their blindness? An act which maybe Nadya secures for them in repayment for rescuing her caravan from the giant mantis attack? I think a good candidate for performing this service could be:
** spoiler omitted **
My party got Nadya exiled from Waldsby. They essentially got a few people killed, killed a few more, and decided to rob the Lumber Mill owner. So I had Rolf go to collect Wergeld, and they skipped town.
Now my party has elected to travel to Hoarwood in order to secure a remove curse and remove blindness/deafness. That's going to be fun, going to create another post for ideas for running Hoarwood, Lod, River towns, and the ruins.
I've a question for the Paizo crew: The description of the Winter Portal states that icy winds are blowing snow blasts from the Portal. How heavy are those winds, and how far do they extend?
The reason I ask is I want to know if I should have the Sprites and Atomie rolling for Fly Checks (though to be honest, I think heavy snow should require a Fly check anyway; you don't see many birds flying in heavy snow).
Also, how does Ted use Scent to track the PCs? The wind is to his back. Scents don't travel upwind... so technically Ted shouldn't be able to find the PCs via Scent unless he somehow ends up downwind of them.
Tangent101, are you still on book 1?
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Yes. My group meets maybe once a month. Heck, this last game was the most productive one we've had in a while, with the group blasting through much of Part 2 and ending on the ambush.
Developer
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I've a question for the Paizo crew: The description of the Winter Portal states that icy winds are blowing snow blasts from the Portal. How heavy are those winds, and how far do they extend?
The reason I ask is I want to know if I should have the Sprites and Atomie rolling for Fly Checks (though to be honest, I think heavy snow should require a Fly check anyway; you don't see many birds flying in heavy snow).
Also, how does Ted use Scent to track the PCs? The wind is to his back. Scents don't travel upwind... so technically Ted shouldn't be able to find the PCs via Scent unless he somehow ends up downwind of them.
The winds are more for flavor, which is why there are no rules or penalties for wind detailed in the encounter. The snow itself makes the encounters around the portal difficult enough without adding additional penalties from high winds.
Even with strong winds, both the atomie and sprites can easily make the DC 20 Fly checks to avoid being checked; it's not even difficult for them to make the DC 25 Fly checks to avoid being blown away in strong winds, though a failure has the potential to do quite a bit of damage to them. That being said, if you want to make things more difficult for the atomie and sprites, feel free to add winds that they have to roll to stay aloft in.
How long did it take people to get through the first bit (An Early Frost) of Snows of Summer? My first game is coming up and I'll only have 4-5 hours. I'd like to be sure to get to the Black Rider before the first game is up.
I did my first session last week. We played for about 3 hours, and we got to the sprites. You might be able to get to the Black Rider if you cut out all of the auxiliary encounters and have really focused players. Also, you'll definitely want them to level before taking on the portal defenders, so the Black Rider probably isn't session one material unless you do some rewriting.
Okay. If you do bare-bones roleplaying and optimize your combat (having everything on hand, having memorized the rules so you don't have to look it up, and so forth) then you would maybe reach the Lodge in four hours. You won't reach the Black Rider unless you skip a lot. So don't bother. Just try for the Lodge first and let the second game take that next step.
Okay, I won't hold out any hope of getting to the Black Rider the first night. We DO have six players though, so that might make fights easier, if the rounds can still go at a click.
Pity, I was hoping to really hook them in first night out.
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How long did it take people to get through the first bit (An Early Frost) of Snows of Summer? My first game is coming up and I'll only have 4-5 hours. I'd like to be sure to get to the Black Rider before the first game is up.
We just finished session 3 last week. At the end they got to the black rider. Each session was about 3 hours.
Okay, I won't hold out any hope of getting to the Black Rider the first night. We DO have six players though, so that might make fights easier, if the rounds can still go at a click.
Pity, I was hoping to really hook them in first night out.
It took my gamers about 7 weeks to get to the Black Rider - each session ranging from 3-6 hours. Rohkar was a TPK, and we had seven players at first. We also did quite a bit of roleplaying. Half of the first session was nothing but, and a lot of the combats were filled with dialogue (fey taunting the players etc and vice versa).
Here's a question to toss out there. Would you say Hommelstaub (before the Winter Portal) is intelligent and wise enough to realize that none of his allies will be able to easily navigate the snow? I ask this partly because everyone except him can only see 5 feet in front of them due to the heavy blowing snow (though it's not blowing enough apparently to require fly checks) - in essence it's whiteout conditions for everyone except for him.
Part of this lies with the fact he will cast Summon Monster to summon Fiendish Eagles. Which... cannot see five feet in front of them and thus cannot use their flight to advantage in the snow. This honestly makes Hommelstaub seem much more of an idiot than his Intelligence and Wisdom modifiers would suggest... unless he honestly does not comprehend that those who don't follow his path CANNOT effectively see through the snow.
I mean... in essence you have perception checks which will be muffled because of the heavy snow, faeries who are flying BLIND through the snow, and a troll who may never even hear the fight going on to begin with. Yet you also have one individual with the capability AND intelligence enough to actually fly out, snag his allies, and send them into combat if he only thinks of it... and yet his tactics show him to be far more idiotic than his statistics would offer.
Thoughts?
For that matter... what is the Perception check to detect a Thunderstone? I figure the heavy snow would give a +5 penalty to difficulty. Also, would the Thunderstone activate if the to-hit roll misses and it hits snow instead of heavily-armored PCs? (Mind you, we've already determined Hommelstaub is an idiot among fey considering his tactics so he may very well go against a PC instead of a nice convenient hut. Though the other reason to attack a PC is that the stone is a 10 foot area of effect so he could end up deafening his own people if he hit their hut with it!)
I know that heavy snow will muffle noise. How quickly do you figure that muffling goes? What penalties should I give Ted to hearing the Thunderstone? Or regular combat? (There are advantages to having a group meeting only once a month...)
Another question: Would Hommelstaub get to sneak attack with every single sling attack, seeing that he is fighting in a situation where it's likely the party members only have five feet of vision? He's able to see clearly in the snow, thus he can be fifteen or twenty feet away and effectively invisible to the players. Thus are they not effectively flatfooted for EVERY SINGLE ONE of his ranged attacks, and thus gain Sneak Attack damage for every ranged attack?
In short... shouldn't Hommelstaub be able to, on his own, kill off any 2nd or 3rd level party using sneak attack sling attacks?
Okay. After I ran a combat that went entirely too long because of an Obscuring Mist spell, I've decided what I'm going to do with this. First, I'm going to have the NPCs (once they start getting attacked) urge retreat. If they go into an area that they CAN see... that negates half the problems.
Second, if they don't retreat I'm going to do snow squall lines. In essence, every three rounds I'll have the snow stop blowing heavily for one round. This will allow for ranged combat and also let enemies see one another. That should deal with the vision problems.
It'll keep the effects of the weather... while also lessening the sheer annoyance factor of the combat. (Seriously, how many people kept the "no visibility" aspect through the entire fight?)
Not that this will happen anytime soon; game's been delayed due to two of the players getting married soon, and other scheduling problems.
I moved this campaign blog to it's own thread.
That sounds really cool. :)
Small suggestion: Swap out one level of Cleric for one level of Rogue for Rokhar. First, this eliminates his access to 2nd level spells (give him a potion of Invisible to compensate), thus making his use of scrolls to create Undead more viable. Second, it reduces his Channel Energy to 1d6. Also, Rogue makes sense for him considering his background.
Suggestion #2: Have the additional two players camping off the side of the trail with a fire to keep warm - this is how the party can run into them. (I'd say have them be captured by Rokhar, but you're not that far into the game yet and they might not enjoy starting off as prisoners.)
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That sounds really cool. :)
Agreed.
Suggestion #2: Have the additional two players camping off the side of the trail with a fire to keep warm - this is how the party can run into them. (I'd say have them be captured by Rokhar, but you're not that far into the game yet and they might not enjoy starting off as prisoners.)
Arkady could have them be escaped prisoners of Rohkar, struggling to survive exposure without most of their gear, and with the twin motives of revenge and restitution spurring them back to the Lodge.
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Fantastic. Escaped prisoners of Rokhar, camping off the side of the trail with a fire to keep warm.
I plan on the lodge being an Ulfen hunting hall, Rokhar having killed the hunters, but with this idea, I'll adjust it so that Rokhar killed most of them, but was holding onto these two for some reason related to their backstory (one will probably be a wizard, so maybe Rokhar was acting like he was keeping him alive to interrogate him, when really he was just trying to come up with a suitably grisly murder.) These two could have escaped a couple days ago while they were unguarded when the raiders were out kidnapping Lady Argentea.
With this route, the two new characters will have an idea of the layout of the lodge, which will give the players the chance to play the raid. With 6 characters and advanced knowledge of the layout, I will have the freedom to really lay into the party with some of the tactics I've seen in this post.
Great ideas. Thanks!
I was reading Radosek's stat block and I need some help.
Spoiler:
He is a 5th level winter witch.
Witches get a hex at levels 1, 4, and 5.
Radosek has Flight and Frozen Caress. What is his level 5 hex?
I cannot find it in his description. It's probably right in front of me. :)Thanks!
Check your copy of Inner Sea Magic and read up on the winter witch archetype. Or, if you don't have that handy, you can also look it up on the D20PFSRD website.
Basically, all winter witches replace their 4th level hex with cold flesh. So, his three hexes are frozen caress at 1st level, cold flesh (which he also gets at 1st level, but it replaces his 4th level hex), and then flight at 5th level.
In his stat-block, cold flesh is listed under his Special Qualities.
My two cents,
--Neil
So, due to Hommelstaub's listed tactics, did anybody have some players who were deaf during the encounter with the Black Rider? I still had the imperative "Find Baba Yaga" whisper echoes through her head.
Due to purely bad luck, my PCs all died in the encounter with Jairess. Nadya was with them at the time, also died.
Keen to see if the regulars to this forum have any ideas as to how I play this out.... I had half a mind to restock the tower, go on the defensive and let them run the gauntlet again. Doesn't sound very exciting though...
So I've got a similar conundrum as Scotty C.
My party hasn't TPK'd, but Nadya is dead. Pretty early on too. Through a series of complicated and unfortunate events, the creeptastic innkeeper and his cheating wife ended up killing her with a crossbow bolt to the back of the head while the party battled the Pale Tower guards and their sergeant.
So I'm kind of stuck on what to do here. No one in the party is a native to this land, so a native guide as a DM-NPC will be pretty helpful throughout the rest of books 1 and 2. I've considered two options:
1.) Statting up Rolf (the village priest) and using him as the party's guide to the area/source of local and regional information. But I have a hard time justifying why he would just up and leave his parish. (Unless I had the Red Rider send him a Geas type vision through a dream or something.)
2.) Bring Ringerr in much earlier. I'd need a reason for him to travel to the village though. Maybe something to do with the Heralds? I dunno. I like the idea of Ringerr coming in because I could still keep the aforementioned encounter with the lost kid in the next book. (Since he'd obviously have impetus to rescue/keep safe his great nephews now that their mother is gone.)
Any thoughts from GMs here?
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You could have her spirit come back and urge them on, offering advice and the like. She has no direct ability to influence things but urges the group to bring her children to Ringerr so they'll be safe with family. This could even be as a result of the Black Rider's mantle - it has infused her spirit to force her to lead the group to the Hut, and won't let her rest until she does so.
I'm about to start running RoW, and I have a couple of advice questions based on what I've read here on the boards. I should probably mention that I don't have the Snows of Summer book yet. I'll have my hands on it in a couple of hours, though.
The main question mostly revolves around XP and leveling. I have 5 PCs in the party. I'd like them to be 2nd level right before they hit the lodge, since this is a new group of players for me, and I don't know how they'll play it, or if they'll survive. With the party splitting XP five ways, I figure there's a few ways to go about it.
1. Bump up the encounters a bit. I'd like to avoid this. As I mentioned, I've never played with most of the players in this group, so I'd rather not get too crazy changing encounters from how they are written. Perhaps a few here or there, but adding other creatures, or class levels to the NPCs just throws even more uncertainty into the mix.
2. Put them on the fast track, XP-wise, for at least the first level. Get them to 2nd quickly, then ease off and have them level to 3rd like normal. Or extend it to third, possibly. I figure once they're past 3rd or 4th, they'll be more comfortable with their characters, and I'll know a bit more about how they play. At that point they should have a better chance to survive. If they die after that, it's their fault.
3. Add some earlier side quests/intro quests. I figure I'll probably do this anyway. I'd like to tie them to Heldren and the story a bit before sending them off. I've read some good suggestions here about how to do that. Since I haven't actually read the adventure yet, I'm unsure what's available for early XP, or how to tie them in, but I have a couple weeks to read and plan. This shouldn't be a problem.
Anyway, maybe I'm missing another way, or haven't fully considered the options. For those of you who have run this, what are your thoughts? Should I fast track the XP? Add some oomph to the existing fights? Throw a bunch of minor side quests at them at the beginning? Thanks in advance for any help.