Hey, I'm brand new to DM'ing and don't have a perfect grasp on the rules (just started playing D&D couple months ago). I'm about to run my second session of the "Crypt of the Everflame" next week and I have a bunch of rules questions. I basically went through the entire module and tried to think of all the things my players might do, and i'm not sure how to address a lot of them. So, here goes:
(1) After a single battle in the Crypt, my group went outside to sleep it off and rest. Should I be rolling from some kind of random encounter table, or should I just let them get off scot-free and rest it up? Where could i find a good wilderness level 1-2 random encounter table?
(2) What happens when a player notices that I screwed up the rules a round earlier? In our first session, the PCs entered a dark area, and I have these bad guys surprise attack them using the dark as cover and I spent a full round doing damage and attacking PCs. At the end of it, one of the PCs is like "why the heck couldn't my guy in front see that coming, I have darkvision. I just don't understand." in reality, i just forgot he has darkvision... I just lied and said i rolled a secret perception check that he failed.
(3) How would an one illusionist's illusions fight another illusionist's illusions? This actually came up in the first session and I had no idea how to deal with it. An NPC created some illusion orcs that attacked the players. A PC illusionist recognized them as illusions, and created his own illusions to have a battle with them. Is it just normal combat? or is it some kind of "who is the more powerful wizard and more intelligent" thing?
(4) They are supposed to fight a CR3 incorporeal shadow, which seems super hard for 4 level 1s (especially since they probably won't have a good way of damaging it). It says it's attack down 1d6 STR damage as negative energy damage. How does this work? Is it permanent? Seems super nuts to just drain 6 str from the party's fighter permanently...
(5) There's lots of water in this campaign and I'm not entirely sure how swimming works, especially with armor. If a character fails a swim check and starts sinking like a stone, how fast can they get their armor off to swim to the top, and how fast do they just die from lack of air?
(6) There are various locked doors that require a key or a "DC 30 disable device check". I have no idea what the doors are made out of, but what if the barbarian just wants to beat them down with his 20 STR? What would I roll to determine success? If it's a crypt and the module doesn't say the doors can be beaten down with STR or opened with STR, can I assume that they cannot be?
(7) one of the rooms has a pressure plate trap. Step on it, and bad things happen. It says it has a Perception check of 20. Should I give characters moving towards it a FREE perception check with a DC20, or do they only get it if they specifically ask for a perception check to view the room for things like traps?
(8) Likewise, in the next room they run into a minor construct that it says they can identify with a knowledge arcana check DC 15. Do i give players a free knowledge arcana check when they see the golem, or do they have to ask for it?
(9) I feel like I must be misreading one of the traps because it seems likely to kill anyone in the room if they aren't able to take cover (which isn't easy to do). It's a pillar of 1,000 arrows that rotates hitting each character in the room with 1d4 arrows (for each player!) for 10 rounds straight. It says it is "Atk +10 ranged" - which means it is plus TEN to hit, right (which is almost a free hit on each attack)? So it's super hard for a character to avoid getting struck by each and every arrow which does 1d8 nonlethal damage. But that will quickly turn into lethal damage. Especially when they fall prone and are then taking 1d4 arrows up the arse with basically no way to dodge them, at 1d8 LETHAL damage each (since the nonlethal will quickly add up to max hp). Uhh.. are they really +10 to hit?? What happens when a guy falls unconscious, will he basically automatically be hit by each one after that? Seems like certain death...
(10) in one of the rooms, it says the PCs can pick up wood from the fire and use the torch as an improvised weapon. So, that would be -4 to hit. But how much damage would it do to the incorporeal shadow?
(11) At one point they fight vs plague zombies. If they get hit, they are infected with the "zombie rot" disease. Should I tell the players they have it as soon as they contract it, or is it not something they learn until the next day when they begin taking Constitution damage? Same question regarding if they get Cursed (they get cursed for stealing loot from certain graves).
(12) At one point they fight a swarm of bats. I think swarms can't be hit by single target spells. So magic missile and such would just do nothing? Also, it says that the bats hanging from the walls of the room only create a swarm and attack if "disturbed in any way". Do I give the players the XP for defeating the encounter if they just walk right through the room and never disturb the bats and fight the swarm?
(13) Some of the enemies in this adventure use disarm. I understand how disarm works, but I don't understand what happens to the weapon after it is disarmed. Does it just drop onto the square of the person that was using it? Then they can use a standard action to pick it up, provoking an AoO?
Thanks!
ETA: Possibly stupid question, but you're aware of the D&D vs Pathfinder distinction, yes? If not, I kinda wish I noticed before typing this out XD
Some of your questions are module specific and I can't really answer them. For the rest:
1) This seems like a module question.
2) When you mess up, fess up. Then if it's something that happened immediately (I'd say within a round, like in this case), give your players the option to do it over right. If they only realized it at the end of combat, just say that now you know and you'll play it right next time.
3) Barring some special cases which I doubt apply, figment illusions don't deal damage or 'fight'. If either illusionist was clumsy enough to try and make an illusion actually strike someone or something without pulling the attack, anyone who noticed would probably get a disbelief roll as it passed right through.
4)Ability damage is covered here. Shadows are generally tough opponents. I wouldn't throw one against a lv 1 party without preparations. Are you sure they were supposed to fight it? Did they get anything to help?
5)If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask, but here are links to the rules for
Swimming: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/skills/swim.html#_swim
Drowning: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/environment.html#_drowning
6)You can certainly smash down a door. Smashing doors (and other objects): http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/additionalRules.html#_breaking-and-enter ing
7)The way the trap rules are written, I believe the PCs get an automatic perception roll as they are about to spring the trap, and if they fail "SPROING!" http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/environment.html#_traps
8)You can ask if they want to try to identify the Golem, but you're not obligated to suggest it.
9)Traps can be nasty. Nothing jumps out at me as an obvious misreading, but I don't have the original text. Are they stuck in the room or can they retreat?
10)You generally rule improvised weapons as damaging similar to a weapon they resemble. I'd say that's a club.
11)If your players fail the fort save against the disease, you don't have to tell them, but a successful Knowledge(Religion) check would make them recognize the zombies as plague zombies and could probably figure it out. Depending on the source of the curse, a knowledge or spellcraft check would be appropriate.
12)Single-target mind-affecting spells still work (assuming bats are animals not vermin), but other than that you're right. Give them the XP once for overcoming the obstacle by sneaking past. You might let them know after you gave it to them so you don't get silliness like sneaking back and forth through the room 100 times and then killing the bats.
13)Without a special feat or circumstance, dropped weapons land in the square of the character that was holding them. Picking it up would be a provoking move action.
Type ... edit ... re-check ... alright. I'm not throwing away my post, but Ximen Bao has already answered some of these equally or better than I did.
1) I like random encounter tables for this purpose, if you don't already have in mind creatures that would be patrolling the area. The combat of the game is built on tactics and careful resource management ... if players notice that they can get away with resting up after every fight, then they will. Once that happens, the difficulty really drops off, and you will often see encounters being a good deal easier than their rating because the players know they can slather on their full daily allotment of abilities.
Of course, this doesn't mean you should punish them every time they rest after one fight. Sometimes that one fight can go really bad, nor would I blame anybody for not really wanting to go confront a Big Bad Evil Guy if people are down to half their hit points and the healer's out of spells. You generally want to be near full-power for those CR +3 fights.
In general, you can find some encounter tables in the back of the Bestiary. However, I doubt they're near EL 1. Instead, you can just pick a low-CR animal (or group of animals) that might realistically attack the PCs if no sentient creatures are available.
2) Well, this varies style by style. If a player catches you on the spot, I find it best to grin dumbly, apologize and re-do it. However, in your case I might continue running with it; reversing people's actions in combat is generally not done at my table. Combat runs forward, not backward.
I'm a fairly truthful GM, so even then I might not have lied -- but a lot of GMs consider deception an important tool to help them adjust encounters as necessary (I've had a GM that occasionally dispensed with Perception checks when he felt like it; mixed feelings about that). I'd really recommend against over-using it, and honestly, I think a little bit of honesty and understanding would probably substitute just fine. You've got a big job and your players should know that.
Still, it can be easy to refund some hit points even if you don't re-do the whole round. Especially if your goof would kill a PC.
3) I'm going to finger this one as a big gray area. The illusion rules themselves are handled very differently by different people, and that's before adding in corner cases like illusions versus illusions. All I can give you here is an opinion.
Illusions aren't creatures -- they don't have minds, so they can't disbelieve other illusions (most of them are sophistocated holograms that you have to concentrate on and direct, after all -- even mindless constructs are more robust). Most Figments don't have tactile components, and do not cause real effects. To cause illusory creatures with more utility, you'd need (shadow) spells, which are partially real.
As far as that goes, objects automatically succeed their saving throws to disbelieve illusions. An illusion isn't an object, but for the purposes of trying to figure out how they'd interact, they're closer to objects than creatures at least.
In my opinion, the moment the illusions swing at each other, they'll pass right through each other and the illusions would be proven unreal, causing witnessing creatures to automatically disbelieve them.
Still, you have an opportunity here to rule, or house-rule something different if you want to. Your player realized they were illusions and already effectively negated the enemy's attack, but instead of ignoring them he cast his own illusions to fight them -- he wanted something cool to happen. That can be a great opportunity to make gaming magic.
4) There are a few enemies that are classically really powerful for their CR (Gricks in 3.0, Ghouls, Will-o-wisps, etc.). Shadows are one of them. You deal no damage to them, or half damage if your weapon is magical; they take half damage from magical effects, and have a 50% chance to ignore other spell effects from corporeal sources. They ignore your armor, they deal ability damage, they are completely silent, have darkvision, they have great stealth, can hide in the walls, and they can move, attack, and fly away. What's worse, if they can reduce somebody to 0 Strength quickly the fight turns really deadly really quickly, as the party is a man down and the enemy just doubled.
That's a lot, especially for such a low level monster!
Still, they don't have a lot of hit points, and they take full damage from channeling rather than half (this might be all positive energy, actually -- I don't recall). Your party really should have some combination of damaging spells, a magic weapon, and/or a character who can use positive energy. If you don't have these in the party, the standard Shadow miiiight be pushing it (after all, first-level parties don't always have even one magic weapon in the group).
Don't be afraid to play them a little dumb if they're turning out too effective against the party -- don't necessarily squeeze the maximum possible stealth benefits out, or maybe target the fighter even though the mage might go down in two hits. Like I said, they have a lot more to bring to bear than a normal creature of their CR -- and if you play them tactically efficient, it can be a TPK.
Ability damage is damage, not drain. You recover ability damage every day -- usually one point, but up to four in optimal conditions. You can find the specifics on the difference between ability damage / drain in the Appendix, and you can find information about healing ability damage in the Combat chapter somewhere in the Recovery~ section.
7) I'd say nope, though I've had arguments on it before. This ability belongs to the rogue -- look for 'Trap Spotter' under Rogue Tricks.
I'm willing to give my PCs the obvious details of a room -- its contents, and a chance to spot creatures trying to hide against them -- but if they want fine details like hidden chests or traps, they need to search for them. We've even made SEARCHING cards the players can flip over to show me they're reducing speed so they can look for traps as they go.
8) I generally give it to characters that can attempt the check, as long as they can act. If it's just standing there, I'll announce people with Knowledge Arcana can make the check; if it's an ambushing creature, I don't let players make the checks until their turn starts, after which they can communicate the information to the party. It's a meta-gaming thing.
Calling out the type of knowledge check to make is kind of telling about what creature type the monster is, but it takes a lot of players a while to catch on to that fact, and the information isn't usually so life-or-death important that you should roll for everybody all the time. That's a hassle.
9) Sounds rough, but the dice don't usually go against you that much -- usually. Remember that a lot of stuff has to happen to make this a really bad scenario; the PCs need to not not learn about the trap from other dungeon residents, fails to search or fail their search roll, the arrows need to roll high on the d4, the arrows need to hit, and they need to deal enough damage. Then it needs to wrap over into lethal damage. Meanwhile, the PCs might not all be in the room!
Pay attention to positioning. Like I said -- this trap might not trigger on the whole party. A PC standing behind another PC may claim Cover (+4 AC). Dropping Prone on your turn (as a free action) gives you +4 AC against ranged atacks. If you go unconscious, you drop Prone automatically! Even if the healer isn't nearby, characters can take the Total Defense action for another +4 (or +6, if their Acrobatics is high) to AC.
A lot of monsters with multiple attacks look really lethal too, but the probability averages out.
ETA: Possibly stupid question, but you're aware of the D&D vs Pathfinder distinction, yes? If not, I kinda wish I noticed before typing this out XD
Yes, we are playing Pathfinder.
4)Ability damage is covered here. Shadows are generally tough opponents. I wouldn't throw one against a lv 1 party without preparations. Are you sure they were supposed to fight it? Did they get anything to help?
They really don't. The module gives them a +1 magic dagger in the middle of a fire in the middle of the room that they can't see without searching the fire and making a good perception check, which they aren't going to do with a shadow beating down on them. They have NO other magic items... i might just make it super easy to flee from the shadow, and/or magic the dagger much more obvious and go so far as to point it out to them.
Traps can be nasty. Nothing jumps out at me as an obvious misreading, but I don't have the original text. Are they stuck in the room or can they retreat?
Sort of stuck. It's not super easy to get out, and I worry that at such a low level, it's possible for them to get knocked unconscious on the first arrow barrage before they even get a move action to do anything, and then they'll just be dead to being prone and 9 more rounds of 1d4 arrows.
10) Something's wrong with the module or with me, because I don't remember ghosts being harmed by regular fire.
11) I'd roll the contraction secretly, but once they start making Fortitude saves they realize they're feeling sick and something is going on.
I generally like to run the game that if a creature succeeds a saving throw, they realize something hostile just targeted them -- though not necessarily from where, or what effect. It usually kicks in more with Will saves to keep them in line with other effects, since Reflex saves and Fortitude saves usually have an obvious component.
Still, diseases are my little exceptions, since obviously you won't know that a creature that just hit you tried to infect you -- though clever players might pay attention if you drop hints about grimy, garbage-caked claws or fur soaked in filthy sewer water.
12) Damage depends on the size of the swarm. Reference the Swarm rules in the Bestiary. Against creatures of a certain size (Tiny and bigger?), I think single-target attacks have a diminished effect. Against creatures of a really small size and smaller (Diminutive?), single-target attacks have no effect. One exception is weapons with enchantments like Flaming -- they've been ruled to work like an Area effect. Hey, swinging flaming weapons to fight swarms of tiny critters is too important to the genre to make it ineffective : )
XP: Sure, award them the XP. The PCs don't have anything against the bats. When they encounter them, their only goal is to survive -- which I assume they'll do admirably. PCs shouldn't be penalized for doing things other than killing everything in their way. It makes the game exciting to reap your awards not only through combat, but through stealth, diplomacy, thinking ahead and unusual solutions.
Great responses so far, so I've gotta add a few sub-par remarks:
1) Yes; look to the modules first several encounters for inspiration and also consult the locale. I had a group pull this stunt and 'rest' in the outer part of the cave's entrance, yuking it up because the rules 'allowed it'. Then the Grizzly Bear returned to HER nice, safe cave...
2) Not really a dodge, but: use cards that prominently note all special things a character has: high Perception, skills, trap sense, etc. Go through the module or written out adventure and flag those places, particularly ones where you botched it before. A local GM uses post-it notes in her module preparations; they are recycled as 'objective reached' notes for the EXP phases of the game. This has to go both ways, always try to create a spotlight moment for each player to shine. I will even tweek the module to snatch a wall flower into his curtain call. Did this last night in a wild west shoot out I ran. He was thrilled despite his protests.
3) Treat as Counterspell. Rough and probably wrong, but it kinda makes sense. It is the way some local groups handle it.
4) Do they have the means to fight it without derailing the whole game? No? Then you might want to change the encounter.
7) Troubleshooter's cards are an excellent Idea! <stolen!>
8) Personal gimmick: if one of the characters would ID the creature on a 1, I pass him a card with some details. I keep 'trap cards' for just this purpose. I encourage the players to play their characters and not rely on a fallible GM such as I.
9) OUCH! Now this one I Dodge...
12) Exp are given for overcoming an obstacle/encounter. I leveled my Fighter by climbing the dang vines in Sunless Citadel! A whole 5 exp!