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GM Reference thread for Demon's Heresy.
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skimmed over the PDF. looks great!
Agreed.
It looks awesome. I'm getting a Kingmaker vibe from it, as in: Freeroam, exploration, player driven etc. With some very cool stuff I can't wait to put my players through!
I'm glad that the Campaign traits are fully utilized and not just background stuff, forgotten after the first installment of the AP.
Wrath of the Righteous is shaping up to be a very varied and exellent AP.
I'm jealous. I have to wait until Oct 30.
Loving it so far. Can't wait to see player's faces when they start to conclude some of the campaign traits!
Xanthir Vang has curiously low intelligence for a level 12 character with four mythic tiers and Craft Wondrous Item. Only 26. Unless he put stat points into something else than intelligence, seems like he started with only INT 15 and that's after his racial human bonus. ^^
They might be going a bit easy on that part considering how nasty he is even with 'just' a 26. Reading over his tactics, I'm not really not sure how the party is going to do when facing him. Appears at least so far that it should be quite the fight and challenge for them.
Can't wait to put my hands on it!
Finally I'll be able to see how the traits backstory develops, so I'll be able to craft another trait for my homebrew psychic mythic path.Can anyone please spoiler how much deep is the backstory (in number of pages) for each trait? And the amount of mechanical benefit in XP and Mythic Deeds for each please? Are all the traits backstories intertwined with the main story so that you can't avoid but to do them regardless?
Thanks! :)
Each trait has an encounter/mini dungeon associated with them. The traits themselves are resolved in a small info-box (1/4 page) and requires some GM work to flesh out. The length of the dungeons varies, as well as xp reward, but they're designed for the whole group to complete, so don't worry about xp.
Every trait/dungeon has it's own resolution which constitutes a mythic trial for anyone posessing the trait.I'd say that most of these encounters could theoretically be skipped, except the one tied to the "Chance encounter" trait, which gives the location of the final dungeon and the opportunity to recruit a powerful ally.
(FYI, I call everything with multiple rooms and several monsters "dungeons", even if the place is a house etc).
There are also some places that don't have a trait tied to them, so there's good opportunity to add a custom trait to those places (or redesign one unused trait).
They might be going a bit easy on that part considering how nasty he is even with 'just' a 26. Reading over his tactics, I'm not really not sure how the party is going to do when facing him. Appears at least so far that it should be quite the fight and challenge for them.
Yeah, count me as someone who is a bit tired of Paizo using the kids gloves when putting forward a really scary opponents. A ton of difficult opponents in the AP's I've GM'ed had some caveats in the vein of "If you hold up the picture of his grandma whom opponent X hated, he'll be staggered for three rounds" and that just makes the encounter completely one-sided.
Having an archwizard start with what appears INT 13 (before modifiers) just seems like nerfball game design in that very same manner. Let the guy be scary, the party itself will be at the same level he is.
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Xanthir Vang has curiously low intelligence for a level 12 character with four mythic tiers and Craft Wondrous Item. Only 26. Unless he put stat points into something else than intelligence, seems like he started with only INT 15 and that's after his racial human bonus. ^^
1) Intelligence 26 is actualy quite high.
2) Not every NPC needs to be or should be power-built perfectly optimized builds to exist as number-crunched PCs. In fact, NO NPC should be built in this way, in my opinion. Because that results in only one type of build, and that's boring.
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They might be going a bit easy on that part considering how nasty he is even with 'just' a 26. Reading over his tactics, I'm not really not sure how the party is going to do when facing him. Appears at least so far that it should be quite the fight and challenge for them.Yeah, count me as someone who is a bit tired of Paizo using the kids gloves when putting forward a really scary opponents. A ton of difficult opponents in the AP's I've GM'ed had some caveats in the vein of "If you hold up the picture of his grandma whom opponent X hated, he'll be staggered for three rounds" and that just makes the encounter completely one-sided.
Having an archwizard start with what appears INT 13 (before modifiers) just seems like nerfball game design in that very same manner. Let the guy be scary, the party itself will be at the same level he is.
I get it. Just keep in mind you're not the only person we're creating games for.
And you'll get more productive answers from me if you refrain from being insulting.
Sorry, James. :( I'm just not really confident that the balance on mythic play is going to be right and since player characters will be getting really scary, I think you guys can unleash the mythic bad guys to their full potential, especially when you are not pre-nerfing them by having NPC equipment. Dude is going to face four mythic characters who are at the same level/mythic tier as himself, he should at least be equal to one of them in power level. And have a +6 INT enhancer, especially when he is crafting hiw own wondrous items.
C'mon, players are regularly building characters with their main stat maxed out. It's only the logical thing to do and you won't find many who'd be willing to not get at least a 16 or 18 in their main stat, much less so if it's SAD class like a Wizard. Yeah, a few will nerf themselves because they think it enhances their roleplaying, but if you are building for the "average" group, I'm pretty sure that this means people who are more prone to make their main stat the highest, rather than start out with a 13.
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Sorry, James. :( I'm just not really confident that the balance on mythic play is going to be right and since player characters will be getting really scary, I think you guys can unleash the mythic bad guys to their full potential, especially when you are not pre-nerfing them by having NPC equipment. Dude is going to face four mythic characters who are at the same level/mythic tier as himself, he should at least be equal to one of them in power level. And have a +6 INT enhancer, especially when he is crafting hiw own wondrous items.
C'mon, players are regularly building characters with their main stat maxed out. It's only the logical thing to do and you won't find many who'd be willing to not get at least a 16 or 18 in their main stat, much less so if it's SAD class like a Wizard. Yeah, a few will nerf themselves because they think it enhances their roleplaying, but if you are building for the "average" group, I'm pretty sure that this means people who are more prone to make their main stat the highest, rather than start out with a 13.
Well... as we've already well-established, your group is WELL ABOVE the expectations, with 20 (or was it 25) point buy, 150% the characters we anticipate, and a long history of real experience at playing together in RPGs. Frankly... you might do well to simply apply the advanced template once or twice to every creature you see us publish... but it's your job as the GM to make sure that what we start with finishes right at your table. We can't do all the work for you.
And player characters, again, are NOT NPCS. They should not be built with the same styles and techniques; NPCs must first serve their story role after all. Further... if every single NPC is built to be as perfect as possible... then they all start feeling the same. Variation in NPC build is VERY IMPORTNT... especially when you're, say, working on the 75th book in a line of books that are filled with NPCs.
Well... as we've already well-established, your group is WELL ABOVE the expectations, with 20 (or was it 25) point buy, 150% the characters we anticipate, and a long history of real experience at playing together in RPGs. Frankly... you might do well to simply apply the advanced template once or twice to every creature you see us publish... but it's your job as the GM to make sure that what we start with finishes right at your table. We can't do all the work for you.
James, I'm not even talking about my group here. Of course I need to adjust that encounter for them, especially since it is a single opponent encounter and that already makes it extremely skewed towards a normal group of four, let alone six players.
What I said in my post above perfectly applies to a group of four average players at 15-point buy, too. Almost no player of a Wizard will only put a 13 into Intelligence (before racial adjustments). If they have Craft Wondrous Item, there is no reason for them to not have a Headband of Vast Intelligence +6 at level 12. I get that Xanthir Vang is a Work That Walks, which gives him some inherent advantages, but he still is one dude against four people who are near his equal in levels of power. Yeah, I will of course adjust him and give him minions and probably therefore have to make his room bigger, but he really should be at least as well put together as the arcane caster who is walking into his room with his three buddies in tow.
And player characters, again, are NOT NPCS. They should not be built with the same styles and techniques; NPCs must first serve their story role after all. Further... if every single NPC is built to be as perfect as possible... then they all start feeling the same. Variation in NPC build is VERY IMPORTNT... especially when you're, say, working on the 75th book in a line of books that are filled with NPCs.
I get that. But the thing which really concerns me is that this is the AP which is selling us mythic gameplay. I have some real doubts that the balance will be right (since generally I found mythic monsters from the main book to be a bit lacking in comparison to what player characters/NPC's can do) and thus I am probably more critical than I should be. Given how you guys have to put together even more complex characters for the next three modules, I probably should just make my adjustments and leave it be. However... well, I'm really curious what you guys think is an "average" group which even gets to this level of play (since I do remember that you guys said most groups never make it past level 10) and why you include so many of those "cripple the boss mob by bringing a picture of his aunt Petunia" gadgets in end boss fights (like in Jade Regent, Shattered Star and Kingmaker, to name a few from memory)? A topic for another thread, though, but after years of buying AP's, I'm getting really curious about that.
I did want to point out something important. If it was just four of them at the same level and full resources against him, it would probably be what you are saying...however, it isn't. They have to go through a rather extended area to even get at him and several other NPCs are mentioned that flee to his side if/when things go badly.
By the time they even get close to Xanthir, there is probably a high chance they'll be pretty badly beaten up and down on resources. Not to mention if/when they beat him depending on their actions there could be even more fights after too. A couple of NPCs there only help the party until they defeat him...
Also his tactics are pretty brutal on their own.
I was wondering what sort of benefits to Drezen could be appropriate for some of the redeemable characters from Book 2.
Also remember that what seems like 'eh' on paper can go utterly different when the dice start rolling. In the CoT game I am in, a certain wizard in book 5 pretty much pawned a 5 man band.
1.Flight and improved invisibility kept him out of reach
2.Forceful hand bull rushed characters away
3.Stoneskin and multiple buffs made all attacks except for a smiting paladin harmless.
4.Cone of Cold shafted us hard.
Try running some test fights and see how things go.
I did want to point out something important. If it was just four of them at the same level and full resources against him, it would probably be what you are saying...however, it isn't. They have to go through a rather extended area to even get at him and several other NPCs are mentioned that flee to his side if/when things go badly.
By the time they even get close to Xanthir, there is probably a high chance they'll be pretty badly beaten up and down on resources. Not to mention if/when they beat him depending on their actions there could be even more fights after too. A couple of NPCs there only help the party until they defeat him...
That will be entirely a question of frugality. The party will be fourth tier at that point and at tier three they get the Recuperation ability, so they can regain all their limited use abilities (including spell-casting, but not their mythic "power points") in one hour. So, unless they blow all their mythic potential early, it'll be pretty easy for them to come in at near full force.
Also remember that what seems like 'eh' on paper can go utterly different when the dice start rolling. In the CoT game I am in, a certain wizard in book 5 pretty much pawned a 5 man band.
1.Flight and improved invisibility kept him out of reach
2.Forceful hand bull rushed characters away
3.Stoneskin and multiple buffs made all attacks except for a smiting paladin harmless.
4.Cone of Cold shafted us hard.Try running some test fights and see how things go.
I don't even need to do that, I just came out of GM'ing high level play for that group and they have an even better set-up this time around than there. The start will look more or less like this: "Greater Dispel Magic on the Wizard!" "Me too!", "Me too!", "Extra Action, Smite Evil-Full Attack!", "Extra Action-Rage,Full Attack!" "Extra Action, Archery Full Attack!". I doubt Vang will survive round one.
The best magical defenses are useless if they are dispelled before they can come into effect.
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Xanthir Vang has curiously low intelligence for a level 12 character with four mythic tiers and Craft Wondrous Item. Only 26. Unless he put stat points into something else than intelligence, seems like he started with only INT 15 and that's after his racial human bonus. ^^
Dude, it seems like for your group, this guy could have an intelligence score of 58 and it won't matter even a little bit, since your group is both large and highly optimized (and by very experienced players who work as a team). Sounds like what you need for your games is not better optimized opponents, it's a completely different angle of attack. What you need for your boss fights is maybe a wave of minions, or something else to make the fight look different. A high INT score on a wizard just won't matter.
For many groups, an int score of 26 on the Worm that Walks is plenty, and not maxing it allows for a more interesting stat block, like Mr. Jacobs said. For groups that would consider 26 a "low" stat, it doesn't matter much if the stat is 26 or 32. So I think there's really not much to complain about here
Without even seeing the stat block yet, I WILL preemptively complain about the solo BBEG encounter. I think those never work out well because of action economy, and every BBEG (especially spell casters!) should have some minions with her.
Dude, it seems like for your group, this guy could have an intelligence score of 58 and it won't matter even a little bit, since your group is both large and highly optimized (and by very experienced players who work as a team). Sounds like what you need for your games is not better optimized opponents, it's a completely different angle of attack. What you need for your boss fights is maybe a wave of minions, or something else to make the fight look different. A high INT score on a wizard just won't matter.
For many groups, an int score of 26 on the Worm that Walks is plenty, and not maxing it allows for a more interesting stat block, like Mr. Jacobs said. For groups that would consider 26 a "low" stat, it doesn't matter much if the stat is 26 or 32. So I think there's really not much to complain about here
My group being large and very experienced I'll give you happily, but in comparison to what you see in build guides on this board, I don't think you can call them "highly optimized". They just know by now how some of the game mechanics work. High initiative is good, dispelling NPC opponents is good, buy stat enhancers and resistance cloaks and put your highest attribute in your main stat and keep raising it. Especially if you are a SAD caster. Try to catch opponents by surprise. That's not exactly deep strategy nor optimization.
And a 26 is a "low" stat if you have the same abilities as a player character at your same level would have, which is the case for this BBEG. Don't forget we are talking about mythic play here, not normal play. Vang should probably be rocking a 32 INT and will do so in my game. And have some kick-ass guys standing in front of him.
Without even seeing the stat block yet, I WILL preemptively complain about the solo BBEG encounter. I think those never work out well because of action economy, and every BBEG (especially spell casters!) should have some minions with her.
He is supposed to summon lots of help, but I am not confident that as written he'd even get to the second round to begin those summons. This generally is a problem with statted up NPC's. Writers should, IMO, assume that the party will enter a room pre-buffed, so the opponent should be fully pre-buffed, too and start casting devastating spells immediately.
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Dude, it seems like for your group, this guy could have an intelligence score of 58 and it won't matter even a little bit, since your group is both large and highly optimized (and by very experienced players who work as a team). Sounds like what you need for your games is not better optimized opponents, it's a completely different angle of attack. What you need for your boss fights is maybe a wave of minions, or something else to make the fight look different. A high INT score on a wizard just won't matter.
For many groups, an int score of 26 on the Worm that Walks is plenty, and not maxing it allows for a more interesting stat block, like Mr. Jacobs said. For groups that would consider 26 a "low" stat, it doesn't matter much if the stat is 26 or 32. So I think there's really not much to complain about here
My group being large and very experienced I'll give you happily, but in comparison to what you see in build guides on this board, I don't think you can call them "highly optimized". They just know by now how some of the game mechanics work. High initiative is good, dispelling NPC opponents is good, buy stat enhancers and resistance cloaks and put your highest attribute in your main stat and keep raising it. Especially if you are a SAD caster. That's not exactly deep strategy nor optimization.
And a 26 is a "low" stat if you have the same abilities as a player character at your same level would have, which is the case for this BBEG. Don't forget we are talking about mythic play here, not normal play. Vang should probably be rocking a 32 INT and will do so in my game. And have some kick-ass guys standing in front of him.
Without even seeing the stat block yet, I WILL preemptively complain about the solo BBEG encounter. I think those never work out well because of action economy, and every BBEG (especially spell casters!) should have some minions with her.He is supposed to summon lots of help, but I am not confident that he'd even get...
Well, regardless of the exact reason for it, from what I recall you saying about your group in numerous occasions, they are very capable of handling whatever encounter an AP throws their way. Honestly, the combo you described would work every bit as powerfully against a wizard with 32 INT as against a wizard with 10 INT.
If you want to make the encounter more challenging, I think it should come from other places - for example, making sure that the BBEG has minions before the fight even starts to block access to him from melee types, disrupt spellcasters and just generally waste the party's resources. The Int is high enough to be effective against groups less powerful than yours without being backbreaking against them. It's not your problem.
Anyway, if the boss has good summoning abilities, plus maybe some minions who retreat to his side while the PCs approach, it sounds like there could be a hard encounter there.
Plus, about your comment that PCs only need an hour to recover most of their power - don't give them an hour! if they rest, have the BBEG take the fight to them!
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Well, regardless of the exact reason for it, from what I recall you saying about your group in numerous occasions, they are very capable of handling whatever encounter an AP throws their way. Honestly, the combo you described would work every bit as powerfully against a wizard with 32 INT as against a wizard with 10 INT.
If you want to make the encounter more challenging, I think it should come from other places - for example, making sure that the BBEG has minions before the fight even starts to block access to him from melee types, disrupt spellcasters and just generally waste the party's resources. The Int is high enough to be effective against groups less powerful than yours without being backbreaking against them. It's not your problem.
Anyway, if the boss has good summoning abilities, plus maybe some minions who retreat to his side while the PCs approach, it sounds like there could be a hard encounter there.
Plus, about your comment that PCs only need an hour to recover most of their power - don't give them an hour! if they rest, have the BBEG take the fight to them!
The party will have access to Mage's Magnificent Mansion at that point (level six spell, party will be level eleven when they start the dungeon), another one of those endlessly frustrating spells for GM's. So it's probable that they will not be easily touchable by then in their rest periods.
I know well that I need to put additional challenges before the party. My complaining about this particular NPC is, admittedly, nit-picking at his stat build and I'll adjust him accordingly anyway. The real problem I am having is with general AP design for high levels.
My main concern is a problem I've noticed with AP's when they get to the high levels and that is that the player power curve just takes off so much higher than the opponent power curve. And in a sense, this is only natural, since player characters are supposed to win and continue the story. Also, you can't give all NPC opponents the same amount of equipment players have, because that breaks WBL like a dry twig and suddenly you got the old Monty Haul problem.
However, when the levels this module ends at begin to roll in, I've had to begin to combine four or five encounters into one, sending a fourth or third of an entire dungeon at the party at once to keep them challenged. I don't think having 50% more PC's and 5 building points more at the start of the campaign is enough to explain that disparity. Even with the additional synergy effects of a 50% larger party this shouldn't be happening to the extent it has happened now in three campaigns (mind you, I only had six players for the last leg of Carrion Crown and for Jade Regent, Curse of the Crimson Throne ran into the very same problem with five players).
Since after this module we'll be getting into high level stuff for three entire modules and we got mythic gameplay on top, I hope you'll understand that I am already panicking a bit. When the final leg of the campaign rolls in, we'll be dealing with four (in my case six) Baba Yaga's going up against whatever Deskari will turn out to be. I'm pretty sure that this AP will continue throwing artifacts at the players to wield, too.
So, yeah, Xanthir Vang could have been built a bit better and sorry for being so insistent about that... but the real problem I see is that PC's will probably curbstomp everything in the last three modules, especially if the number of mythic opponents stays this low. Which it probably won't, but I don't foresee the non-mythic "trash" (MMO trash, I mean) opponents being much of a challenge anymore.
Just to play a bit of armchair game designer, but I'd recommend bigger fight areas and interesting environmental challenges to throw players of their game. A lot of encounters happen in small rooms and with nary a environmental problem to spoil lines of sight or movement lanes. This heavily favors player characters, especially when they are going up against one opponent and thus easily can corner him. More open/bigger encounter areas give opponents room to maneuver and to put down additional minions, be it via (pre-combat) summoning or by just having them there.
I just had a very interesting random encounter in Rise of the Runelords as a player character, where the GM used fog, the darkness of night and simple trees as line of sight blockers, so that we had to struggle a lot to even see the opponents. I'd love to see more of that as written in the AP's, even in dungeons (not talking about trees, of course, but rather illusions, ledges, balconies, etc.).
Also, consumables. If we already have an easy explanation from where NPC's could get this from (their high-level caster bosses), doling out massive amounts of greater magic weapon oils, barkskin potions and magic vestment oils at the highest caster levels can keep WBL intact yet increase the viability of NPC's a lot. Protection from Spells is a bit high level for potions/wands, but I'm not sure how saves could otherwise be raised by consumables.
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Well, you are far more experienced than I am in high level play, and I take you at your word that you have a serious reason to worry about the second half of the WotR AP. As I thought, your problem is not with the int of a single foe but with the design in general. I can see that.
I believe the main reason Paizo does not implement many of your suggestions is that the more environmental factors you include in any given combat, the more space you need to devote to the encounter description - resulting in less encounters and content in the AP volume as a whole. I agree that for important combats, maybe they should do more of what you describe.
Do remember, however, that your complaints are not common, and Iv'e seen about an equal number of people complaining about APs being really hard. Many are also saying they are enjoying the level of challenge. So maybe there IS something about either your players or the way you run your games which make APs easier than they usually are.
Well, you are far more experienced than I am in high level play, and I take you at your word that you have a serious reason to worry about the second half of the WotR AP. As I thought, your problem is not with the int of a single foe but with the design in general. I can see that.
I believe the main reason Paizo does not implement many of your suggestions is that the more environmental factors you include in any given combat, the more space you need to devote to the encounter description - resulting in less encounters and content in the AP volume as a whole. I agree that for important combats, maybe they should do more of what you describe.
Do remember, however, that your complaints are not common, and Iv'e seen about an equal number of people complaining about APs being really hard. Many are also saying they are enjoying the level of challenge. So maybe there IS something about either your players or the way you run your games which make APs easier than they usually are.
They are not that uncommon either. It seems that I am the guy who has been fretting the most over them, though, since I just came out of a high-level setting and am going swiftly into the next one, with the cherry of mythic on top. ^^
@Krinn: Thanks for the suggestions. As for your last paragraph, the greater dispels would come from the three casters in my party, the three martials would do the extra action + move + full attacking.
I will note that I implemented in this campaign a variation on the buff restriction James and others (including me) had been discussing about. Casters can buff themselves as much as they like, but group-wide buffs (outside of class abilities like a bard's song) are restricted to three. That does not screw over buff-dependent classes like Clerics, but limits the buff synergy to a sane amount and leaves some new holes in the PC's defense, i.e. lack of energy resistances and so on.
Thanks, that's a good idea. Unhallow is also a spell which works great with debuffing players. :)
You know, magnuskn, you're the GM. You are the ultimate arbiter (if that's the right word) of what is allowed and what isn't allowed in the game. So if you decide that characters can only have a maximum of 3 buffs plus Charisma modifiers, then you can enforce that rule. Likewise, you can decide that certain spells are not allowed as unbalanced... or increase their level for that matter.
Mr. Jacobs, I don't suppose you could whip up a short bit on the Buff Rule you want to institute, including which spells and abilities count toward Buffs and which ones don't? Thank you :)
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One thing I want to make clear, the RP aspect of this AP has so far been bloody fantastic. My worries are about the late-game power balance.
And this AP practically assumes you are starting with a group that is more knowledgable than a starting party. As has been mentioned in other threads, this is not an AP to start with a bunch of newbies because of mythic and downtime rules as well as the regular rules. Adjust the AP to your group as needed. If JJ and Paizo had to create an AP that covered every single group out there, they'd still be on RotRl: Book 3.
I'm a player in RotRL and we fought against her new incarnation (and it's a completely other group, although we all are also RPG veterans). She still almost killed everybody, but in the end we got her down. Starting the next module now, still journeying to Turtleback Ferry. That's a four player group at 15 points and so far things have been quite hard on us... but then again we are only at level seven. Things only really start to break after level 10.
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I'm a player in RotRL and we fought against her new incarnation (and it's a completely other group, although we all are also RPG veterans). She still almost killed everybody, but in the end we got her down. Starting the next module now, still journeying to Turtleback Ferry. That's a four player group at 15 points and so far things have been quite hard on us... but then again we are only at level seven. Things only really start to break after level 10.
I'll be eager to see if they really start to break using a 4 player 15 point group...
I'm a player in RotRL and we fought against her new incarnation (and it's a completely other group, although we all are also RPG veterans). She still almost killed everybody, but in the end we got her down. Starting the next module now, still journeying to Turtleback Ferry. That's a four player group at 15 points and so far things have been quite hard on us... but then again we are only at level seven. Things only really start to break after level 10.I'll be eager to see if they really start to break using a 4 player 15 point group...
Same here. ^^ The party set-up is not exactly standard, though, with a Barbarian, Oracle (Nature), Sorcerer and Wizard (me).
So besides the obvious succubus, are there any other NPCs in this adventure that have the potential to be redeemed? And James, was the original purpose of the redemption supposed to be just limited to the main NPCs like the bard from SoV? The reason I ask is because there a lot of people who could be redeemed and im afraid it will really slow the game if PCs try to redeem EVERYONE.
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There's one obvious possible redemption, due to possession/corruption. If your players are on a redemption kick, perhaps one or two others.
If you don't want them to be redeemed, you can always adjust their HP at the last blow. "Aww, too bad. You hit just a bit too hard and they went under negative Con."
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So besides the obvious succubus, are there any other NPCs in this adventure that have the potential to be redeemed? And James, was the original purpose of the redemption supposed to be just limited to the main NPCs like the bard from SoV? The reason I ask is because there a lot of people who could be redeemed and im afraid it will really slow the game if PCs try to redeem EVERYONE.
There are a few obvious choices for NPCs who can be redeemed, but putting in full information about a redemption path takes up a lot of word count. So we focused mostly on just a few... but you'll see on these boards if you look around that LOTS of folks are having their players redeem various NPCs throughout.
Remember that not every NPC who gets redeemed needs to be redeemed by the players—simply granting an NPC mercy and turning them over to a church or an NPC like Irabeth for guidance is enough. You should absolutely only focus PC led redemption on the more important NPCs.
Just asking, but does Radiance get an upgrade in this module? I've only skimmed the PDF so far (and aside from by little problem with Xanthir Vang the module looks excellent), but it seems that this time Radiance sits out the adventure. It's not that big of a problem, since our Paladin is wielding it now and the class alone will make most problems go away, though.
There's a suit of armor in the Ivory Sanctum that's +3 mithril full plate. If a pally claims the armor or donates it, Radiance becomes a +3 holy cold iron long sword in the hands of a pally.
I was going to have Radiance glow for a minute as a daylight spell to clue in the Paladin that this is HIS/HER suit of armor.