Yep.Isn't that actually 4d3-4 since you multiply the Str modifer?
Wouldn't that mean the dead PC had a Con of 8 at the most?
ETA: A small heavy pick does 1d4 damage, so maybe we're talking 4d4-4...
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A pickaxe, not a pick. The pickaxe is a two handed weapon. 1d6 for small; 1d8 if you're a medium creature, x4 crit multiplier. I actually had a half-orc fighter wind up being flattened by a little kobold using a pickaxe in spite of its poor strength, once upon a time. It was such an absurd death that I could not help laughing at my own misfortune. The little fella had to roll a 20 just to hit, and it did so twice to confirm the critical. Didn't die from the initial hit, mind you, but was far enough down that the roll to stabilize was an uphill battle. One that was ultimately lost.
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That said, there's plenty of 1st level effects that are save or die and can even come down to a single die roll. Fail a save vs. sleep or color spray? One bull rush off a cliff. Often one crit from a x3 weapon will kill a 1st level character. There's tons of stuff.*rolls sense motive to see if the Baird is doing proactive public relations before The Confirmation hits*
Ha, that's funny. You thinking Baird has the diplomacy skill at all. I've only seen him use the intimidate skill:)
I really really like this adventure, that being said, the encounters throughout can be... problematic for new to the game players. If the entire party was made up of all new out of the box players/characters I wouldn't run this in PFS. In a home game a party of first level characters have adventure options outside of the dungeon... things like the recuing a towns person from spiders (the map in one of the early pathfinder comics is great for this), the ghoul problem, while maybe a difficult could be broken up over a number of encounters (pathfinder comics also have a good map for a ghoul encounter). The sanctioned portions of this over all adventure don't to the story or the role play options that exist any justice. If this were sanctioned in the same way as Dragons demand then maybe people would have a better time of it. Also I wish PF comics still had maps.
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In (H)all honesty, I played that adventure too here on PbP forums.
My character (Paladin lvl 1) was killed by the Wight, as was a 2 level priest too.
As a Paladin of Iomedae, I waited for the wight (put myself in full defense, use of Smite for fighting bonuses) to come to fight, giving my comrades some vials of Holy water..which weren't thrown, as they fought the zombies.
One Crit by the Wight on it's first attack(unconfirmed), and I was dead. Two hits later, the Cleric was dead too.
The adventure is not finished yet, but the rest of the character (4) are all level 1, and some of them nearly died too against other monsters. The shadow was nasty (one lost 7 Str, another 9 Str), the crikets were as bad as they could be.
They had to rest for a few days, and used most of a CLW wand to stay alive.
This adventure could really end into a TPK, and it's really accursed.
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RE crit damage:
I believe you roll up all the damage together, and then decide based on final outcome.
So it's not four separate 1d4-1 rolls. It's 4d4-4.
In your above case, that would be 3+0+1+3=7 damage. Lethal.
In my case, if I--for some unlucky reason!--melee an opponent with my bite attack, I would deal 2d4-6 damage, and would have a high chance of dealing 1 point of nonlethal damage, a small chance of dealing 1 point of lethal damage, and a minimal chance of dealing 2 points of lethal damage.
Regarding the Accursed Halls: Running this thing tonight, should be an interesting time. Thankfully, the group I'm running it for is a PFS Core group who've just made it through Crypt of the Everflame in our previous session, and thus they're all level 2 with enough prestige points they should have a few wands of CLW between the lot of them.
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Having a wight and shadow at level one is brutal, no doubt. Unless everyone is XP0 though, the fights are manageable with holy water or channels. I played this with a Kyra pregen when a table I was to GM fell through. I was the tank all the way through with her and we ended up resting after the pool room, so I was able to re-up on my spells and channels.
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I loved playing and GM-ing Accursed Halls. My first time through Playing my necro wizard on his first game managed to control a specific needed npc and got us through the wight encounter without using the item that is made for combating the wight somewhere else in the scenario. This was during the lvl1 build having 1 game under my belt at the time. since having played and running this I get to see players freak out like this often IF they haven't found the other necessary things to conquer it either in scenario or by build. In a later level a Mi-go eviscerated a friend of mine with famous last words, "use acrobatics to to move past and flank"... "Wait a CR 8 creature in this level" was yelled when someone discovered the stats. The larger creatures or specific creatures can get you if your are not prepared, your party isn't melding together, or haven't found the necessary items (mostly from not looking or poor perception. These challenges though are good if you work together getting through them gives you player experience as well as character game experience. Yes all my characters go through lvl 1 build and at least 1 test run in game play.
As a GM I love stories like this.
As a player, not so much.
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Oh man, this thread again! Good times!
We totally pasted the wight, then got boned by the shadow. Hasty retreat got us back to town to pick up some gear to face it down.
To be honest, I am not sure the retreat is possible to do, successfully.
And, if it isn't locked down, it can, generally, move faster than most parties.
Incorporeal, 40' flight.
That means it moves faster than most PCs, and can take shortcuts through the walls.
So the results will vary, depending on whether the GM decides it is stuck in that room or not.
And, now that I think on it, I think I was your GM for that game...
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Indeed you were! I personally would rule the shadow is tied to that location, else it would have no reason not to join the wight fight.
Incidentally, alchemist bombs are supernatural, so I think I SHOULD have been able to bomb the shadow for half damage. Live and learn!
I dunno. Are all supernatural effects magical?
Per the CRB glossary, yes.
Huh. Isn't there a Barbarian archetype or some such that makes it difficult for the Barbarian to be affected by magic? Wouldn't that mean that he can only reliably use Rage Powers that are Ex, and not Su?
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Indeed you were! I personally would rule the shadow is tied to that location, else it would have no reason not to join the wight fight.
Incidentally, alchemist bombs are supernatural, so I think I SHOULD have been able to bomb the shadow for half damage. Live and learn!
I dunno. Are all supernatural effects magical?
Per the CRB glossary, yes.
Huh. Isn't there a Barbarian archetype or some such that makes it difficult for the Barbarian to be affected by magic? Wouldn't that mean that he can only reliably use Rage Powers that are Ex, and not Su?
Superstition gives a barbarian bonuses on saves versus Spell, Spell-Like and Supernatural. He _must_ attempt saving throws against Spells and Spell-Like, but doesn't have to do so against Supernatural.
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And before anyone thinks to respond, "well you are not the only one," well yes I am. I am the only one who put the time and effort into creating and playing my character. The GM puts in time and effort, sure, in preparing the adventure, and I do respect that.
Good news, your character was only level 1. Just make a new level 1 character with almost the same name (add a number to the end) and game on. No time was lost, you have a fun story now (you can even make up a story about how your character got 'better" if you like), game on.
I agree with you btw, I don't think scenarios like this are good for a lot of gamers. You either love it or hate it. I think Bonekeep is the same, it can turn people away from the game.
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Thax, I just checked and the shadow has no listed tactics/morale. However, the description for the room suggests to me that the shadow is tied to that location, and I wouldn't have it leave that chamber if the party fled, unless the party was metagaming ("We know there's a shadow in there, so we'll just sprint through the room so it can't hurt us.") and then I would probably have it chase them down.
Jason, you do realize the post you responded to is almost a year and a half old, right?
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I agree with you btw, I don't think scenarios like this are good for a lot of gamers. You either love it or hate it. I think Bonekeep is the same, it can turn people away from the game.
A big difference is that for bonekeep you're at a level where you have build options. if you die you could have made a better character, spent more on consumables, done something trickier, etc.
With the wight the only real defense is... being level 2. That's by definition not something a level 1 character can do.
You have to be hit and then fail a dc 14 fort save.False. The save is to make the negative level permanent 24 hours later. Its take a hit and then die if you are level one. Then rise again in a few rounds as another undead horror.
Yea, this was one of the first PFS games that I did. My party would have lost (at least) 2 characters to the negative levels if the GM hadn't misinterpreted the rules and allowed them to make their fort saves on the spot. I knew he was wrong, but I certainly wasn't going to argue with him about it!
If he had one shot the characters, it would have been a party wipe right there and I wouldn't have been surprised if several people decided to never play PFS again. There was a lot of BS in that module that should not have been taken on by a party of level 1 characters.
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Jason, you do realize the post you responded to is almost a year and a half old, right?
Argh.
A big difference is that for bonekeep you're at a level where you have build options. if you die you could have made a better character, spent more on consumables, done something trickier, etc.
With the wight the only real defense is... being level 2. That's by definition not something a level 1 character can do.
I agree. But this isn't about success/failure, it's about turning people away from the game.
I know people who were introduced to PFS through Bonekeep and while they had a laugh and died (which was expected with pregens), did they pursue PFS further? No. It was just a one shot experience.
Also, even if you survive Bonekeep, it can still leave a bad taste in your mouth. Definitely the case with me, I've done hardly any PFS in 2 years because of it.
Anyway, enough replying to necro threads for today.