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Hi,
I'm running "A Dark and Stormy Knight" AP with some friends on roll20.net. It's my first AP and I've made minor adjustments playing with my kids and now I need to make other adjustments with this new group of adventurers.
- What enemies are best to use against a level 1 Bard, Sorcerer, and Barbarian?
- Does a digital version of the map exist?
I'm new to GMing and I'm trying to tailor this first AP to give these new players a great intro into D&D. It's their first time playing. I'm assuming the best enemies for a bard to fight would be spell casters since most of his skills are countering. Not sure about a sorcerer and barbarian though.
The normal monsters found in this AP are:
- 8 rats
- 2 hobgoblin raiders
- 1 medium spider
- 1 lesser vargouille
- 1 bugbear zombie (as the dark knight)
There's a spot on the map with a long hallway, so I want to turn that into a skills challenge. The only problem is I'm not sure how to do it. I need to read up on the pass/fail attempts and whatnot's.
As for the map, I've tried to import the map into GIMP (from a PDF), but it doesn't scale well for roll20 so I'm trying to either recreate it or see if there's already an asset available. Thanks for any help and advice.
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Are you trying to alter it to PF from 3rd? Because if so, you're not really looking at much in terms of conversion.
With rats, you've got some straight forward options: rats, rat swarm (don't recommend it for your people, though it makes easier initiative), dire rat (though you need to reduce the number).
With hobgoblins, your basic hobgoblin fighter for your raider. It's a straight up CR 1 challenge rating. Technically harder than the warriors, but the relative CR is about the same in PF.
With vargouilles, here's this one.
zombie template in PF compared to the
zombie template in 3rd, on a bugbear means:
Bugbear CR 2
XP 600
NE Medium undead (goblinoid)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Perception +0Defense
AC 16, touch 10, flat-footed 16 (+2 armor, +0 Dex, +3 natural, +1 shield)
hp 23 (5d8+3)
Fort +1, Ref +1, Will +4Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee morningstar +7 (1d8+4)
Ranged javelin +3 (1d6+4)Statistics
Str 18, Dex 11, Con -, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 17
Feats Toughness
Skills Intimidate +4, Stealth +4; Racial Modifiers +4 Intimidate, +4 Stealth
Languages -
SQ staggered, stalker
Treasure NPC Gear (broken leather armor, broken light wooden shield, broken morningstar, broken 3 javelins, secondary weapon [based on your PC], 250 gold [scattered in loose coinage on the floor])Special Abilities
Staggered (Ex) Zombies have poor reflexes and can only perform a single move action or standard action each round. A zombie can move up to its speed and attack in the same round as a charge action.
Stalker (Ex) Perception and Stealth are always class skills for bugbears.
As far as maps, I don't know of any.
I don't know or use roll20.net, so I'm sorry I can't be of help there.
The two sites I really recommend are archives of Nethys, and d20pfsrd (and the latter's sister site), both of which should allow you to find most anything of what you need for most purposes. They're both really sweet sites. :)
By the way, the above stat block might be a bit off. He has intimidate and stealth because he gets racial bonuses to those skills, so, although he has no ranks or ability score modifiers, I left those in. Simiarly, the Stalker special quality, though zombies tend to lose those (I left it just in case you were looking at a PF Bugbear or something, I don't know).
I think I updated everything, but I'm not sure that I didn't miss something. The broken condition means that the zombie should be taking a -2 penalty to attack and damage and half the AC benefits (so only +1 for the armor and +0 for the shield), but that seemed way to punitive for the zombie, and I think would reduce its CR to 1.
My hand-wave explanation is that it's rotten and corroded, and the putrefying flesh of the zombie, it's age, and the like, have more or less fused chunks of it to the dark knight and slightly infused it with that undead's evil energies, making it effective in his hands.
However, when the zombie is destroyed, and the items are peeled out or off of it, they fully shatter and crack, becoming the worthless pieces of dreck they actually are and gaining the full weight of the broken condition.
Does what I said help at all?
Are you converting to PF, 4E, or some other system?
I'm sorry I'm unfamiliar with roll20.
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Hi Tac,
Thanks again for all the information you gave me. I took it all in and applied it to the game. I had to make some adjustments because I ended up only having two players go through the map. They aren't finished, but man have they been getting a pounding. Especially the sorcerer. I had to nerf my monsters a bit. The first hit the hobgoblin gave her would have put her under by -2. For player morale I changed that.
They're catching on though so this is pretty awesome. They surprised me though. I thought they'd explore a bit, but they kept going straight and ended up in the Dark Knight's tomb. If they survive I'm guessing they'll move around a bit. I can't wait to spring the spider, vargouelle, and the trap on 'em.
The first long hallway, I converted it into a skills challenge. I'm pretty new to DMing so it was a hot mess, but they had fun feeling their way around in the dark.
I'm converting for PF. Originally I converted for 4e, but I really like the simplicity of PF.
Hi Tac,
Thanks again for all the information you gave me. I took it all in and applied it to the game. I had to make some adjustments because I ended up only having two players go through the map. They aren't finished, but man have they been getting a pounding. Especially the sorcerer. I had to nerf my monsters a bit. The first hit the hobgoblin gave her would have put her under by -2. For player morale I changed that.
They're catching on though so this is pretty awesome. They surprised me though. I thought they'd explore a bit, but they kept going straight and ended up in the Dark Knight's tomb. If they survive I'm guessing they'll move around a bit. I can't wait to spring the spider, vargouelle, and the trap on 'em.
The first long hallway, I converted it into a skills challenge. I'm pretty new to DMing so it was a hot mess, but they had fun feeling their way around in the dark.
I'm converting for PF. Originally I converted for 4e, but I really like the simplicity of PF.
Cool! I'm glad you enjoyed it, so far, and here's hoping you and your friends continue to!
Might I recommend adding the young simple template on the remaining monsters? Not the "rebuild" version (where you change all the stats), but the "quick rules" version: +2 to all Dex-based rolls, –2 on all other rolls (and any DCs not based on DEX), and –2 hp/HD. This reduces the CR by 1.
The reason for this is because with only two characters, they're really likely to die otherwise... that vargouille (sorry I forgot the link last time) is especially nasty at that level, and, if they don't have daylight, they have no way of stemming the effect.
One final idea I've had for sometime for dealing with a character that doesn't seem like they're going to make it, is a character who was stuck with a varguille transformation who didn't have access to remove disease (which is required for negating the effect) for some reason, and thus required something like a bracelet, ring, earring (or other piercing of some sort, though I've always perferred the earring idea), or implant (like a gemstone or something). The item in question has a constant light spell of 3rd level or higher that affects the bearer, thus negating, however temporarily, the transformation process.
A list of decent candidates:
* Daylight (simple, effective, straightforward)
* Continual Flame (simple, effective, and straightforward)
* Judgment Light (This requires some decisions. Justice, Piercing, Protection, Purity, Resiliency, Resistance, and Smiting all make good choices, though I'd recommend only one. Also if there's a question of alignment, just choose one. I'd recommend limiting the effect to a single light choice, and probably something easy like Protection or Purity. This makes for a very powerful item.)
* Chains of Light (This item is a definite "mixed blessing" sort of thing. The character would cease to transform into a vargouille, which is the good news; but they'd be paralyzed, which is the bad news. So use this only if you think your players would be okay with the "drag them back to civilization" option.)
* Silverlight (This is an interesting and moderately potent option, though not as powerful, I think, as Judgement Light. Still, unless the infected character is vulnerable to silver, this should work fine.)
* Wrathful Mantle (this is an interesting choice, because the subject can choose to destroy their own protection against their transformation in order to harm their enemies. Rife with role-playing potential, though most players would never use such an option (because they don't want their characters to die.)
* Shield of the Dawnflower (this is a very useful spell to have, and thus a very potent effect.)
Whatever item would have the effect "continually active" in most cases, and so would be pretty valuable. The cheapest would be the Continual Flame spell.
Let it be clear: I'm not saying you need to provide such an item, it's just that if you only have a bard and a sorcerer, they're going to be extremely vulnerable to that vargouille (and the spider's poison), and the above idea has always been a fun concept for me to think about. :)
Also, transferring between systems as different as 4E and PF is a pretty dicey thing - while PF's system is my preferred style, it's a difficult thing to graft 4E stuff into, from my experience. So, good on you, if you managed. :)
The most important thing when you're new (or experienced!) to GMing is to remember: you're human, you'll make mistakes, but do the best you can, and ultimately the point is for everyone to have fun! :)
I must say, I'm actually quite surprised that you consider PF "simpler". It's my preferred system of the two, but I'd consider it more complicated. It does do one thing really well, however, and that's to model and internally-consistent world. The rules work the same way for the monsters or the players, and all creatures adhere to the same basic principles, which doesn't actually happen in 4E.
Anyway, it sounds like you guys are having a blast. One thing to keep in mind, as most of the rulebooks note: the rules are there to facilitate your fun, not the other way around. Try to keep it simple as much as possible, and feel free to make temporary rulings and go back and change things a little later - especially at first, if you're just getting into the systems.
God bless you guys and good gaming! I'm also interested in hearing any more stories you come up with!