I am preparing the 3.5 adventure Red Hand of Doom right now. The party will start at 5th level, and the adventure's location is somewhere remote, so no access to large cities with lots of magic items (like flying carpets). If all options from the PRD are available, is there any other way to give the whole party long-term fly, besides casting Animate Dead on any suitable monster corpse?
I know that Overland Flight comes online at level 9, which I am totally ok with, but if there is a way to fly earlier I am not aware of, I'd like to prepare accordingly (or huge parts of the RHoD's first half would be rendered irrelevant, especially the timeline of events).
Potions of fly is a short-term answer.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/r-z/wings -of-flying
Those are able to just give people a fly speed, but their value is very high.
Lesser Planar Binding gives some options,
Flying mounts are a thing, although if you want to give them is up to you.
You might not need a way for multiple people to gain flight. Many classes have one way or another to gain it eventually anyway. Druids can wildshape by level 4 and can gain fly speeds, possibly able to carry other PCs with something like Ant Haul. Summoners Eidolons can start flying at level 5. Alchemists can grow wings at level 6. Fly (the spell) ends up on Arcane caster lists at level 5, and it's not hard to house-rule it onto divine lists.
|
Check page 42, you won't like it.
There's also a big chance they can get a head start early in the game by doing the right things.
And finally, you might want to check this out.
@Lyee: thanks for mentioning those options!
@the David: what should be on p.42 I am supposed to not like? I don't see anything to worry about ("imbue with spell-like ability" only works up to level-2 spells, if that's what you meant). I know the RHoD Handbook on GiantitP, but thanks anyway :)
Can you be more specific? I can't read your mind, and I'm kinda lost as to what you're referring to, other that this is the chapter which got me thinking about how to deal with flying parties...
|
|
This is what the handbook says:
Particularly in the first parts of the adventure, the party can earn itself literally weeks of downtime ahead of the Battle of Brindol, especially if they secure giant owls from the Tiri Kitor in the Blackfens.
RHOD suggests giant owls can make 56 miles per day, which assumes 8 hours of travel per day at 7 miles per hour. What they miss is that RHOD takes place in the summer, which increases the hours of daylight out to 10 or so (or so savvy players will note) thereby granting more travel time. 70 miles per day is a potent speed advantage to a party that only needs to cross about 150 miles to get to its next major encounter location. Also bear in mind that if the party’s scooting around the countryside on owlback it makes suspension of disbelief slightly harder when assassination squads start jumping out of nowhere to ambush the party. (On the upside, though, hey, no wandering monsters!) It's even more significant once the party wizard hits level 9 and picks "Teleport" as one of his spells: even if he's not boosting his caster level, that's 900 miles of travel per spell.
Based on the campaign journals and experiences in the various threads we've seen, you’re more likely than not to have your party back at Brindol well ahead of the Horde, and the authors' contemplated race against the clock to beat the Horde there is less likely to come about.
Your options to deal with a party who gets back to Brindol ‘early’ are basically: sidequests from Brindol; have the Red Hand move faster right from the get-go; allow the party to just rest up and prep for battle; or have the Horde move at the speed of plot. Of these, options 1, 2, and 3 are going to suspend disbelief a lot easier than option 4. In particular there isn't a lot of time to craft items across the rest of the campaign, so depending on how much time they've got this may be a convenient moment for them to get ready. There are also some good options for parties to help prepare for the battle by boosting defenders’ capabilities, which we’ll discuss later on. I don’t recommend suddenly having the Horde pick up speed because at the end of the day it is an army on foot, and armies on foot do move a lot slower than small adventuring parties – logistics still plays a part.
Parties who are ‘late’ on the timeline are comprehensively dealt with in the RHOD book, so nothing more need be said on that topic.
Well, I know that text, and it certainly raises awareness of problems with early parties or access to flying/teleport, but I still fail to see your point. Sorry if I sound abrasive, but I just don't get what exactly you're trying to tell me. Like I said in my OP, I am ok with all the ways to beat wilderness traveling at level 8-10 (Overland Flight, Teleport), I just wanted to know if there are ways to do that at level 5-6.
|
|
Before that, not much beyond what Lyee said. There was that sorcerer that casted Phantom Steed for the entire party, but you shouldn't worry about that as the spell was nerfed for Pathfinder.
They could buy horses, but in the woods they are probably faster on foot. They could all buy Boots of Striding and Springing.
This only makes them faster though. It doesn't let them evade encounters.
