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Especially since I gave them a side quest to retrieve the belongings and bodies of the previous revolutionaries, who I based on the old D&D cartoon (Ranger with a magic bow, Thief with a Cloak of Invis, Cavalier with a Shield with ForceCage 1/d (but they haven't made the Spellcraft to figure that one out yet), a Wizard with a Magic Hat (Same problem with Spellcraft), a 12 inch pole that can grow to 6 or 10 feet, and a club that allows the wielder to use Barbarian Rage 1/d).
I love this. Stealing it, either for my RoW campaign or RotRL. Thanks for posting!
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Market Square: I changed area M8 to a fire variant Dawn Piper with a Fire Elemental Font, so that all four elements are represented. The Fire one was inside a circular hut, all the snow around the area was melting and the whole hut was smoldering with smoke and heat. Inside was a pit where the smoke funneled down, echoing the weird gravity effects in the other elemental areas. Smoke trap inside required a DC 20 Fort save or Staggered 1d4 rounds from coughing, save reduced Staggered to 1 round. The Fire Piper had a Hellfire Ignis as a mate, and his tactic was to lure the party into the hut and unleash Fireball and sonic attacks, while the ignis attacked with magma.
Globally, I treated the whole Market as a Wild Magic area per Wild Magic rules, with every spell or SLA having a chance to require a roll on the table. If four Dawn Piper elemental fonts were up, the percentage was 80%, if three elements, 60%, etc. down to 0% for no fonts active. Knowledge [arcana] rolls in area M4 revealed this, although I let casters make rolls after each Wild Magic effect to figure out the connection with the elemental fonts.
I made her the tactician archetype and played up one of the odder bits of her stat block - (-2 Str, +4 Int as part of her elite array). She's both weaker and significantly smarter than a normal winter wolf.
In short, she's a winter wolf nerd =P
I then had her take the In Harm's Way feat line, in part because of how Bodyguard can interact with one of the tactician abilities (which turns aid another into a multiple party member effect).
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My players just threw me for a loop with Logrivich's Clock Tower.
I've added mythic to the game, and have boosted most of the encounters to compensate. I have 3 PCs (UC Barbarian, UC Rogue, Sorcerer) who are all level 5/tier 2. I advanced Logrivich to juvenile and gave him an advanced clockwork servant and 2 clockwork swarms.
My players, using minor image and a wand of spider climb, waited for Logrivich to leave the clock tower, then created an illusion of a false wall on one side of the clock tower and climbed up the tower behind the false wall to Logrivich's lair, completely bypassing the rest of the tower. I.e. completely bypassing all of the XP that would have advanced them to level 6 before meeting Logrivich.
Their plan is to ambush Logrivich. It's a golden plan, except that they're now effectively underpowered for the encounter. I've ambushed them with the clockwork monsters, and our session ended in the middle of that combat; Logrivich will return a couple of rounds after we resume.
The only saving grace here is that by ambushing them with the clockwork monsters early, they regain an action economy advantage; Logrivich will face them without the support I'd initially planned for the encounter. But they've taken damage, and they won't be able to heal or set up their ambush. Should I revert Logrivich back to young? Anything else so that this isn't a massacre?
You could also have someone enter/attack the tower from below, e.g. reinforcement guards or some other creatures (perhaps some creatures from the tower returning from an errand) and letting them make lots of noise. Chances are that your players take the bait and attack them first, so that they will be either level 6 or exhausted enough to go and rest first.
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The minor problem with that is that the trolls are too large to comfortably navigate the stairs, and the dragon's hoard covers the trap door that leads to the top floor. In their current position, the noise of the clock essentially prevents the party from discovery. All this per the written adventure!
I was silently screaming inside when the party proposed their plan, but I'm committed to not railroading the PCs, and the adventure up to this point has mostly been on train tracks anyway, so any chance they have to deviate, I have to support. And it's a good plan; I couldn't poke any holes that would make it unreasonable to do. I gave them a chance to be detected while setting up the illusion, and the dice were in their favor.
This is my current plan: drop Logrivich back down to young so the combat isn't too unreasonable. The Logrivich encounter was supposed to level them up from 6 to 7 anyway, so that will level them up to 6. Then, I'd like to have a way to get them to leave the tower via the interior, so they'd have to fight their way out.
Can anybody think of something I could do that would make using spider climb to exit via the exterior an unreasonable choice?
I forgot to give them the adventure hook from Solvieg to rescue Bella, so I may have them find a note wrapped around one of the fireworks that gives them that hook (Solvieg was somehow uncomfortable asking in person, so left a note instead?). That should motivate them to go down into the tower, I hope.
I see your point. I hope it all works out. It sounds like a fun campaign. Good luck with the Logrivich fight.
I think my favourite NPC was Morten. Played like a creepy germanic type with a high pitched artist/doctor sophisticated unhinged personality.
Greta was NPCd like a crazy chain smoking russian supermodel who is infatuated with our Packmaster hunter (who has two wolf animal companions as she thinks hes an alpha male). Just finished off Logrivich's Clock Tower tonight-ps. he had a bad eye and a lisp.
Nice!
My players tried to cure Mortens agoraphobia by hypnotizing him.
We will be playing tonight. My group has just defended Spurhorn against the Drakelands. They have won a great victory.
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Add Ons and NPCs (MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS and FUN IDEAS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK lol):
One of the fun twists I added is a merchant from Cheliax. He was generated by me in Hero Labs and he is an Aspis Consortium leader in the area of the capital. So, he has favor with the Princess and with local nobility.
His assistants are a Pact Imp and two Wizards (one enchanter and one evoker). They have some significant stats and levels.
Since it is difficult to get magic items here, due to lack of wizards and divine magic, this became a fun plot twist to the players. In fact, the two neutral goods, one chaotic good, and two chaotic neutrals had a fun time building rapport, getting trade status and then getting special documents from Androxius, the Chelaxian. In fact, they even signed a pact document to buy and sell from him first (and didn't realize how binding it is).
My thought in all of these path modules, modify and add your own flare. Some of the most fun comes from unexpected twists, subplots and fun. And, it helps the players to not want to read the material ahead of time.
Even the entrance to the market, I made changes. What guards it is more powerful. And the fun part, instead of attacking the guards, the party instead entered into an Ultimate Intrigue Verbal Sparring Match. I loved it. The use of tactics and counter tactics made it much more fun than the hack and slash.
And, even in the twisty turn inner market, I added in some creatures not expected. The party had so much fun with it, I was excited to come here and post it.
So, I recommend doing your own modifications. I don't suggest running as is, even though Paizo and the writing team did a great job on this one. Turning it into a longer campaign with more twists, modifications, side treks and other fun.
I couldn't agree more.
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My party started out this book with both Ten-Penny Tacey (who was a victim of Ten Knotten's hunger and is currently missing an arm) and Nadya, so the journey would definitely have been on the easy side. Even with just Nadya, the fact that the majority of the encounters are once per day means I can easily see where people who said this book was too easy are coming from.
For my part, I have increased the CR of all the encounters by up to part 2 by 1. (In part 2 they will have Ringgeir as well, so I might increase the CR for that even more)
Event 1: added a Raven swarm
Event 2: added two gremlins
Event 3: added a wolf
Event 4: the rangers are now level 3 with the far-shot feat and favored terrain (snow); each have a potion of gravity bow and a potion of speak with animals (one used). They wear chain shirts and their animal companions wear leather barding. Added two advanced sprite fighters (base-creatures from Snows of Summer encoumter D); they accompany. Norgrimm and try to keep people staggered with their bows / color spray groups from above. They wear leather armor.
A2: added a second mindflayer mold deeper in the cave.
B: converted the worgs into fey creature templated wolverines. One has the long-step ability, one has vanish and one has spell resistance.
C: Added two skeletal champions that get up from the snow in round two. They are resting against the courtyard wall and likely are behind the PCs.
D1: added another winter twigjack.
D2: no changes, the twigjacks from D1 have a good chance to escape and their fast healing means they will likely be at full health for this encounter.
E: added a merrow, in case combat ensued.
F1: added two guards. This is a super easy encounter if your PCs have any spells requiring will saves (like glitterdust), but that's fine.
F2: added two guards from F1 and an ogre. Marcian updated to an unchained rogue (I gave him Gang Up with combat trick instead of Finesse Rogue, since Weapon Finesse is now a bonus feat). I expect this will also be an easy fight due to the lack of any good will saves. Just remember that in order for Marcian to get off his abilities, he really wants people to flank with, so let the PCs come into the building before combat starts if possible (which I have turned into a town hall, converted for living by the ogres).
Part 2 changed upcoming!
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Regarding F2, I decided to switch Marcian's Wisdom and Charisma scores to give him a Will save of +5, while only reducing his Feint bonus to +11 (succeeds on a 3 or 4 for most non-Wisdom based opponents), and still made good use of his Bluff outside of combat. This ended up proving invaluable as he managed to save against two glitterdusts in a row before falling to hideous laughter by rolling two consecutive 1s. In that time he managed to deal massive damage, so the party was right in making sure he stayed disabled.
It was a fun encounter overall. The ogre who answered their knock tried to slam the door in the party's faces but the oracle stuck his arm in the door to try to force it open. One opposed Strength test later, the oracle has a bruised arm, but at least the door isn't fully closed! The wizard then cast oppressive boredom, and the oracle, summoner+eidolon and Nadya rush in while the wizard, sorcerer and Tacey stay outside. Inside the two guards bolt upright from their game of cards and call for Marcian while the other two ogres groggily wake up under protest from the sunlight streaming in from the (crudely enlarged) entrance. A conversation between Marcian who is annoyed that some strangers would question his official business. When they told him that his thugs who were beating up the fishermen are no longer conscious, he became outraged that his (did I mention official?) Fishcamp Guards would be molested in such a way. While this is happening, the ogres have encircled the group inside the house. The oracle sees the breakdown in negotiation and draws his sword, starting combat.
After Marcian's group is put down, he quickly becomes charming friends with the wizard, who tells him all about his protection racket!
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So with Horror Adventures out I decided to change Granny to a Cookie Witch. I think it's very thematic. Then I also put cookies on the first floor, maybe for my PC's to eat. Maybe give the ones that actually eat a cookie the Sweeney Todd moment of pulling out a toe. My group already sees this AP as a kid-hating AP but getting them to eat a child cookie is going to really disturb some in character.
I love this idea. The gnome sorcerer in the party I GM for already ate the spiteful cookie in The Pale Tower, so cookies on the floor will either tempt her or cause her to freak out.
So, what about Orm and Mjoli, Nadya's five year old sons? Their stats are never given in the book.
1) What kind of stats would a five-year old have anyway? Young commoner 1?
2) What do they do during combat encounters? Try to run away? Hide behind Nadya?
3) Would it make sense for Nadya to be carrying one or both of them during the journey and maybe at the start of combat if they're ambushed? They would get tired at some point.
4) Should I even put them in initiative?
5) What would be their size category? Small?
If the PCs run into any snow goblins or small-sized enemies, I'm thinking of having a goblins grapple one of the boys, pick him up, and hoist him over it's shoulder. I figure a goblin is strong enough compared to a young kid that they could do that. It tries to carry him off for an easy snack and the PCs have to kill it before it can carry him off.
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Carrying a 5 year-old for any length of time is exhausting, [b]but/[b] Pathfinder uses encumbrance to cover that, so just find her strength, her kit list, and the average weight of a skinny (under fed Ulfen) child. That said, if your party has dog sleds, they will probably be on those.
Stats, I'd agree with commoner 1 with the young template, which does decrease size by one category if you use the rebuild version rather than the fast version.
Remember that there is an encounter that may kill one of them; adding extra risks, whilst realistic, may become repetitive for your players.
Carrying a 5 year-old for any length of time is exhausting, [b]but/[b] Pathfinder uses encumbrance to cover that, so just find her strength, her kit list, and the average weight of a skinny (under fed Ulfen) child. That said, if your party has dog sleds, they will probably be on those.
Stats, I'd agree with commoner 1 with the young template, which does decrease size by one category if you use the rebuild version rather than the fast version.
Remember that there is an encounter that may kill one of them; adding extra risks, whilst realistic, may become repetitive for your players.
Right! I forgot about the sleds. Duh.
I understand that having perpetually endangered kids will annoy the players. Which is why I was asking for advice on how they should behave during a combat encounter. Maybe I'd make them like Elizabeth in Bioshock; they're "there" and theoretically endangered, but the enemies don't target them. Should I assume they'd just be cowering nearby?
Also, if Nadya would have a hard time hauling them around, could it be assumed that a single goblin would be over-encumbered trying to carry one of them away?
Carrying a 5 year-old for any length of time is exhausting, [b]but/[b] Pathfinder uses encumbrance to cover that, so just find her strength, her kit list, and the average weight of a skinny (under fed Ulfen) child. That said, if your party has dog sleds, they will probably be on those.
Stats, I'd agree with commoner 1 with the young template, which does decrease size by one category if you use the rebuild version rather than the fast version.
Remember that there is an encounter that may kill one of them; adding extra risks, whilst realistic, may become repetitive for your players.
Right! I forgot about the sleds. Duh.
I understand that having perpetually endangered kids will annoy the players. Which is why I was asking for advice on how they should behave during a combat encounter. Maybe I'd make them like Elizabeth in Bioshock; they're "there" and theoretically endangered, but the enemies don't target them. Should I assume they'd just be cowering nearby?
Also, if Nadya would have a hard time hauling them around, could it be assumed that a single goblin would be over-encumbered trying to carry one of them away?
That's basically what I did, even in the direct encounter. Kind of in the background, but mentioned each time the foes acted.
I had the kids run into danger for the first 2 encounters. The players took all kinds of security measures, warning the kids not to wander too far away, or not to leave the sleds, etc. Then I had them recede into the background. The idea was that the measures the PCs took, were effective.
I really really liked her, so decided to expand her a bit. I made her part of the network of rebels helping Nadya's father smuggle goods in, and people out, of the city. The group met her in a tavern outside of the city the night before they went in. She asked them for a favour in exchange for the risk of getting them all into the city at once (when they did she put on a pretence for asking for a bribe because her commanding officer was there, she later returned the portion of the bribe that he'd given to her). I used that favour as a side-quest: one half of it introduced a PC to his mount he earned at the next level, the other set something up later down the line.
She took a shine to the PC wearing the pelt and in the end I used that as a little side-quest while they were in the city to allow her to wear the pelt to permanently make her human. I didn't worry too much about the cost, as no PC was going to benefit, and she ended up staying with them all the way to the end. She and that particular PC stayed together after the game finished and he's actually considering playing as one of their children in a future game.
I remember dating Greta. It was really fun, as she thought my character was a winter wolf (and I had different colored eyes, so she thought I was a special winter wolf with powerful magic and thought I'd make a nice couple for her). She was sort of trying to seduce me and I didn't want to lie to her, but neither I wanted to tell her I was not a winter wolf as I wanted to use her to get some information about Whitethrone. I enjoyed roleplaying it a lot. In the end my character ended liking Greta and wanted to help her to keep her human form (for what she started working on enhancing the magic of the Rimepelt). When she met the rest of the group, she ended dueling our Fighter for fun, it was a very nice encounter.
My advice is to roleplay the date, but not making it last too long, just to keep all players interested, and then giving the other PCs some extra roleplaying in Whitethrone so everybody gets the same amount of time. But this is too much interesting to be skipped, IMHO.
In the end, Greta came with us for a time, until we were at Atrosa. Our fighter was away to deal with some side quests and we took her there. She was killed by Caigreal and then risen as a zombie. We didn't have access to high level resurrection spells, so she remained dead. We have finished the 5th book and she is still under a Gentle Repose spell waiting to be resurrected. She never lived enough to get her Rimepelt finished. I hope we can bring her back some day, as she is such a great character.
As a funny fact, she will be probably brought back from the dead with a Cyclic Reincarnation spell, so she'll have the young template!!!
I roleplayed the date, but I added some minor plotlines for the other PCs as well (having to do with the resistance and such) and alternated between them.
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My party reached the second floor of the Clock Tower yesterday. They somehow managed to bee-line straight for Granny Nan's room. Upon knocking on the door (since they could not unlock it), Granny asked "Evija, is that you?" and they pretended to be Whitethrone officials checking up on the well-being of Bella. It was a good bluff, but several things made her suspicious: the lack of one of her troll children accompanying them, as well as this being the first time in months that anyone had even cared about Bella. Deciding to be safe, she cast her pre-combat buff spells before walking to the door to unlock it for them.
Unfortunately for her, this spooked the PCS who had cast detect magic through the door, and they used the adamantine longsword from the caryatid columns to quickly bash down the door. She immediately fell to Daze Monster into grapple, and was bashed into unconsciousness.
The amusing part of this, for me, is that because hers was the first room they went to, the party knew nothing of her actual role in the tower, only a few suspicious. The party's oracle had severe trepidations about savaging and beating what looked to be a feeble old woman on her way to open the door to them.
By the time Evija arrived on the scene to help Granny, Granny knew she was done in (pinned in a monster's jaws), and told Evija to "Run, child!", who, in a anguished cry, ran to Logrivich.
The party was villified eventually, after reading through the letters, talking to Inga and searching the pantry, but the scene definitely made them squirm for at least a little while (aside from the purportedly chaotic good Snow White summoner who knew the only way to deal with "fairy-tale witches" is to throw them in an oven).
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Nadya leaves Waldsby intending to relocate her family to Ellsprin. How does she initially intend to do it?
Was she planning on taking the boys all the way to Whitethrone and then heading back?
I know she usually ends up lacking them with Maret, but after learning about Thora my PCs are rather attached to the remaining boys, and would want a solid plan before leaving Waldsby.
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Nadya leaves Waldsby intending to relocate her family to Ellsprin. How does she initially intend to do it?
Was she planning on taking the boys all the way to Whitethrone and then heading back?
I know she usually ends up lacking them with Maret, but after learning about Thora my PCs are rather attached to the remaining boys, and would want a solid plan before leaving Waldsby.
For simplicity's sake, you're probably best off having Maret be Nadya's cousin, and hoping that Hatch would help to look after them.
I changed Nadya slightly and had them be the boys' aunt instead of their mother (both parents having been killed by Elvanna's forces and Nadya being the father's sister). Then when they were travelling to Whitethrone I had the party stop off at another aunt's (the mother's sister) and the boys were left there.
I expanded it slightly by almost having Nadya wanting to go out and fight/help but being "trapped" by having to look after the boys. The group showing up was a way for her to join in. It worked pretty well!
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Yesterday, the party fought a juvenile Logrivich. Alerted by Evija, he had time to swallow mage armor and heroism potions, and then settle down to listen to Evija sing, while he waited for the PCs to come up the ladder.
The first PC to show his head, he said "Ah, finally! I assume you've come to replace Bella as my new entertainment? Come then, let us dance!"
As soon as the PC got out of the trap-door opening, Evija shut the door, and then Logrivich used ice shape to move the ice over and through the door, causing it to be stuck.
With a now lone adversary, Logrivich took great pleasure in working to tear the PC front-liner to shreds (although not before the other PCs broke the door down). In his bloodlust, he forgot about his initial strategy to actually take off from the ledge and strafe the party with his breath weapon; however, Evija was loose in the party (who were all otherwise primary casters), and steal voice started causing a lot of pain, so he figured he could spend the time finishing off the front-liner before moving on to the casters.
He, unfortunately was only half-right. With his super high AC and saves, he was almost impervious to attacks, but the few that did get through lowered his defenses, then stripped him of hitpoints. After the front-liners dropped, he finally managed to move onto the casters, but (after having dispatched Evija with the help of an unfortunate placing of frost breath) the casters turned to him with attacks that targeted touch AC; namely stirges and magic missiles. Summoning 4 stirges that immediately removed 4 CON brought him the rest of the way down to unconscious.
He likely should've used fog cloud way earlier in the fight to prevent the casters from targeting him, but he (and I) were too caught up in trying to quickly take down the front-liners.
The noise of the fight (since he neglected to actually start flying around and strafe, there were no visuals to pick up on) caught the attention of a patrol of mirror men, who started investigating the tower, starting with the debris from the caryatid column, and then moving inside and discovering the murdered ice trolls, leading to this shout: “Tresspassers: you have been charged with destruction of property, the murder of city officers and officials, and the disruption to the performance of civil duties. Come downstairs and submit to your arrest.”
This is somewhat solved (or maybe only delayed) the rather long conversation the PCs were having by trying to figure out how to get Bella and the kids back to the Shrine of the Everbloom. By the time the PCs rushed downstairs, the mirror men had almost reached the room that Bella and the kids were hiding in. And so, another combat ensued, and hopefully, this will spur the PCs to get the heck out of dodge, although they haven't yet set off the fireworks.
I need some advice on the endencounter of this book the fight against Nazhema. My party consists of 5 people with an equivalent of a 22 point buy, they have spent most their feats offensivly and I am worried this will be an anti climatic fight so I stole someones suggestion to add a witchguard as Nazhemas bodyguard. He ll be a Duegar ranger (sword nd board) with Humans as favourite enemys. This fits the background story of the fighter who was enslaved by duegars and is a great counter vs the trip focused warpriest who is a pain in the ...
The group consists of a warpriest, a dualwielding dornduegar fighter, a Longbow ranger, an air blasting sorceror and a support witch.
What I am abit worried is that I ve beefed up some encounters before and this has resulted in 2 player deaths. Mainly because of my lack of experience in designing encounters. one was a reanimated Ice troll with the cold template in the pale tower + the priest from the hunting lodge. The other was Faernip and his fey friends(I added 1 and his girlfriend also joined the fight)flanking backstabs+ the Nazhema s cursed ring completely destroyed a pc priest of Gorum.
Can this group handle the Ice Golem, a 6th lvl witch guard+ Nazhema and the summoned Imp? My plan is for the duegar to block the passage, Nazhema to cast Icestorm (no chance of casting summon monster first, with the ranger and sorceror around) the ice golem should burrow his way into the backline which have their sight blocked by the storm. This should give Nazhema enough time to survive the first rounds and get some nasty spells off.
But will the group survive this?
edited: one question I still have, how high can Nazhema fly under the tree roof?
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I don't THINK a summoned monster adds to the CR of a fight, since it's an extention of the thing that made it. So I'm going to leave that out.
Ice golem = 1600xp,
6th level npc with class levels= 1600xp (I assumed NPC level wealth)
Nazhena= 3200xp
Total 6400xp, which is a CR9 encounter for 4 PCs. For 5 pcs of 6th level, this will be a rather hard encounter. It's doable, but hopefully the PCs have been saving some spell slots and are nicely healed beforehand.
Not mentioned that I can see. GM decision.
With absolutely no knowledge of your encounter design, here's a link I've found useful: [link=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nx-o8VAjhUwh3nnfzDQT-JA5eFLnN_BZJiBitGjBMDg/edit]LINK[/link]
I don't THINK a summoned monster adds to the CR of a fight, since it's an extention of the thing that made it. So I'm going to leave that out.
Ice golem = 1600xp,
6th level npc with class levels= 1600xp (I assumed NPC level wealth)
Nazhena= 3200xp
Total 6400xp, which is a CR9 encounter for 4 PCs. For 5 pcs of 6th level, this will be a rather hard encounter. It's doable, but hopefully the PCs have been saving some spell slots and are nicely healed beforehand.Not mentioned that I can see. GM decision.
With absolutely no knowledge of your encounter design, here's a link I've found useful: [link=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nx-o8VAjhUwh3nnfzDQT-JA5eFLnN_BZJiBitGjBMDg/edit]LINK[/link]
I agree and I ve come to the conclusion that I m just gona replace the Ice Golem with the witchguard. The Golem adds very little to this encounter and the npc is highly optimized against the PC group.
He ll not have PC wealth, armor for 150 gold, masterwork hammer, cure serious wound potion and what I m still debating is if I give him a +2 or +1 shield. He s got shieldmaster and none of the pc s uses a shield, it would be well placed on him. What makes the duegar such a deadly foe is that he s got fav. enemy humans and the whole frontline of the pc group are wikings. Enlarged he ll attack with: +13/+8 Hammer 2w6+8, +1Shield +14 w6+7 with a full attack. I still have 2 feats open with him and I m open to any suggestions. So far I gave him: 1. imp shield bash, 2. two weap fighting, 3. empty, 5. empty, 6. Shield Master. I am leaning towards combat expertise and improved trip to show the warpriest how evil it is to constantly knock someone down but I think it s abit much for this encounter. On the other side I worry abit that powerattack will deal to much dmg. saving shield is one I d like but then I can t decide on the last one, I d like something that increases his CMD vs trip, enlarged he s got CMD 23. Any suggestions?|
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I don't think Power Attack is overkill. It makes his damage much more swingy due to the large loss in his attack roll:
Assuming 18 strength when enlarged and a spiked light shield, his standard attack line when attacking humans is
mwk warhammer +14/+9 [+6 BAB +4 Str -1 Size +1 mwk +4 favored enemy] (2d6+8 [+4 Str +4 favored enemy]), +1 spiked light shield +14 (1d6+7 [+2 Str, +4 favored enemy, +1 magic])
A full-attack with Two-weapon Fighting and Power Attack is:
mwk warhammer +9/+4 [as above -2 TWF -3 PA] (2d6+14 [as above +6 PA]), +1 spiked light shield +11 [as above -3 PA](1d6+10 [as above +3 PA])
closer comparison:
Normal: mwk warhammer +14/+9 (2d6+8), +1 spiked light shield +14 (1d6+7)
TWF+PA: mwk warhammer +9/+4 (2d6+14), +1 spiked light shield +11 (1d6+10)
Power Attack while . He's quite dependent on full-attacks, and he doesn't synergize with Nazhena's spell list (obstruct vision and movement). With any luck, he may teach your PCs about the benefits of preventing enemy full attacks.
You could instead switch to having him use a light hammer with a heavy shield, reducing his 2d6 hammer to a d8 while bringing the d6 shield to a d8. The main benefit is that his iterative wouldn't then take the TWF penalty:
TWF+PA: +1 spiked heavy shield +11/+6 (1d8+15), mwk light hammer +9 (1d8+9).
Regarding CMD, You've calculated something wrong; A large 18 Str, 10 Dex duergar ranger 6 has a CMD of 25 vs trip: 10 +6 BAB +4 Str +1 Large +4 Stability. Add more with a positive dexterity score, and Improved Trip adds another 2. AC bonuses that aren't armor, natural or shield also add to CMD.
I don't think Power Attack is overkill. It makes his damage much more swingy due to the large loss in his attack roll:
Assuming 18 strength when enlarged and a spiked light shield, his standard attack line when attacking humans is
mwk warhammer +14/+9 [+6 BAB +4 Str -1 Size +1 mwk +4 favored enemy] (2d6+8 [+4 Str +4 favored enemy]), +1 spiked light shield +14 (1d6+7 [+2 Str, +4 favored enemy, +1 magic])A full-attack with Two-weapon Fighting and Power Attack is:
mwk warhammer +9/+4 [as above -2 TWF -3 PA] (2d6+14 [as above +6 PA]), +1 spiked light shield +11 [as above -3 PA](1d6+10 [as above +3 PA])
closer comparison:
Normal: mwk warhammer +14/+9 (2d6+8), +1 spiked light shield +14 (1d6+7)
TWF+PA: mwk warhammer +9/+4 (2d6+14), +1 spiked light shield +11 (1d6+10)Power Attack while . He's quite dependent on full-attacks, and he doesn't synergize with Nazhena's spell list (obstruct vision and movement). With any luck, he may teach your PCs about the benefits of preventing enemy full attacks.
You could instead switch to having him use a light hammer with a heavy shield, reducing his 2d6 hammer to a d8 while bringing the d6 shield to a d8. The main benefit is that his iterative wouldn't then take the TWF penalty:
TWF+PA: +1 spiked heavy shield +11/+6 (1d8+15), mwk light hammer +9 (1d8+9).Regarding CMD, You've calculated something wrong; A large 18 Str, 10 Dex duergar ranger 6 has a CMD of 25 vs trip: 10 +6 BAB +4 Str +1 Large +4 Stability. Add more with a positive dexterity score, and Improved Trip adds another 2. AC bonuses that aren't armor, natural or shield also add to CMD.
Thank you very much Serum for crunching the numbers and pointing out my misstakes. He ll have the trait Shieldtrained, so the heavy spiked shield counts as light weapon. Final numbers for a enlarged fullattack should look like this: (18str, 12 dex)
TWF+PA: mwk warhammer +10/+5 (2d6+12), +2 spiked heavy shield +13 (1d8+12)TWF: mwk warhammer +12/+7 (2d6+8), +2 spiked heavy shield +15 (1d8+8)
I m actually not sure if the loss of accuracy would make up for the dmg gained, but then i had a idea: Does a witchguard ranger who receives arcane spells from the witch patron qualify for arcane strike?
I can also just give him something that helps his survivability.
Enlarged he s at AC 20 (should he drink Nazhema s barkskin potion?)
CMD is actualy 29, probably forgot the dwarf trait, that should be fine.
Gave him 66 HP, ref:6, will:3, Con:+8
Now that I removed the Golem from the encounter I feel I can be abit more generous to the NSC Villain.
As a player I lived Nazhena's encounter and our GM was able to make her a really tough enemy.
The key was Wall of Ice. The place is somewhat narrow and she blocked us with a Wall of Ice. Only I had access to flight. Our melees were hindered by the Ice Golem. She summoned a mephit too as written on her strategy. So we had to choose between letting her take some turns to buff herself, summon, do whatever she wanted, or split the party as only I had access to flight to go over the wall. That made the fight tougher.
It was a basic strategy but it worked fine for her.
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Thank you very much Serum for crunching the numbers and pointing out my misstakes. He ll have the trait Shieldtrained, so the heavy spiked shield counts as light weapon. Final numbers for a enlarged fullattack should look like this: (18str, 12 dex)
TWF+PA: mwk warhammer +10/+5 (2d6+12), +2 spiked heavy shield +13 (1d8+12)
TWF: mwk warhammer +12/+7 (2d6+8), +2 spiked heavy shield +15 (1d8+8)
I m actually not sure if the loss of accuracy would make up for the dmg gained, but then i had a idea: Does a witchguard ranger who receives arcane spells from the witch patron qualify for arcane strike?
I can also just give him something that helps his survivability.
Enlarged he s at AC 20 (should he drink Nazhema s barkskin potion?)
CMD is actualy 29, probably forgot the dwarf trait, that should be fine.
Gave him 66 HP, ref:6, will:3, Con:+8
Now that I removed the Golem from the encounter I feel I can be abit more generous to the NSC Villain.
Oops, I forgot that at level 6, PA is only -2 attack; sorry about that. Looks like you caught it though.
His patron adds spells to his ranger spell list, so the spells are still cast as divine spells. He does not qualify for Arcane Strike.
Giving him Nazhena's second potion of barkskin would be helpful, and he could also drink her second potion of shield of faith.
As a player I lived Nazhena's encounter and our GM was able to make her a really tough enemy.
The key was Wall of Ice. The place is somewhat narrow and she blocked us with a Wall of Ice. Only I had access to flight. Our melees were hindered by the Ice Golem. She summoned a mephit too as written on her strategy. So we had to choose between letting her take some turns to buff herself, summon, do whatever she wanted, or split the party as only I had access to flight to go over the wall. That made the fight tougher.
It was a basic strategy but it worked fine for her.
You found that a 21hp 0 hardness wall stopped your party significantly from getting to her in more than a round? I guess I can see that with the Ice Golem running interference, and having the party start at a far enough distance away.
I am thinking about changing her summon to a medium ice elemental (technically not on the list, but she has access to all of the spell research completed at the Palace), and throwing the sleet storm on half of them. I guess this would still require line of sight blocking for her to get away uninterrupted.
It was more related to being unable to reach the wall than hardness itself. Blocking LOS/LOE it kinda slowed us and the golem was in the middle.
She also had an sleet storm active that kept our ranger from targeting the wall, so we had to deal with the golem first.
We were a Witch, a Fighter, a Slayer and a ranged Ranger.
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GM story time:
We're currently en route to Whitethrone from Waldsby. While in the pocket full of sunshine, the wizard is finally able to diagnose why the bloodrager is taking extra damage: The cursed ring of lifebleed.
Having previously saved the huldra's husband from the mindslaver mold, the party had access to her scroll of remove curse. The wizard ate a spiteful cookie, but opted not to use the scroll to cure himself.
Now, the bloodrager ALSO decided not to use the scroll to save herself. Instead, clearly removal of the affected digit was the correct choice. So she ended up cutting off her left pinky finger to rid herself of the cursed ring, despite arguments from most of the rest of the party.
Now we have a 9-fingered tiefling and a twice-blinded monk. (the latter got better)
They'd have to wait until they can cast Regenerate, I guess. That was a drastic decision!
I had high Int and maxed Spellcraft so fortunately I realized about the cursed items. Then I picked all the non cursed cookies and kept eating it while inside the Pale Tower. Then I shared them with Nadya's kids and the Domovoi xD
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Considering it's just a pinky finger, I doubt she'll have it regenerated. I think she likes the story of cutting it off to remove a curse.
The wizard could easily have identified the spiteful cookie, if he'd taken the time to do so. They never actually fought the spriggan. It just yelled at them from the stove and when the PCs didn't leave and had the gall to ask for food outside of meal-time, it threw a spiteful cookie at them. The wizard caught it in his mouth.
The DC to identify the ring correctly is 35, and my PC's wizard doesn't prepare identify. Plus, they didn't get Hatch to Helpful, so there was no advanced warning.
I have a long story of using Regenerate for rather trivial stuff xD.