I'm heading towards the end of the third book and I'm concerned that the boss of this book is pretty much identical to Mokmurian. Having two stone giant wizard bosses is a row seems odd.
Has anyone switched him out with anything different? What do you think would work?
I guess I could go with Barbarian or something, but then he's going to be too much like Jagraath. Ranger doesn't work so well as he'd end up too much like the giant leading the Sandpoint attack...
Maybe Cleric/Battle Oracle is the way to go.....
Simple, change Him into Atamahuta Oni or an Earth Oni.
He's a servant of Karzoug, send to back up Mokmurian (or, if you give morku enough levels, one of his summons).
Also, when he's defeated, he may try to posses the body of the rune giant after his demise, giving Pcs a foreshadowing of such powerful enemies (give him penalities too, like - 4 to every roll and the breath that deals only half damage).
It makes sense for him to be a wizard, seeing he's emulating his hero and mentor, Mokmurian. Wizards are rare among stone giants - they consider sorcerers to be a sign of greatness but discriminate against wizards (which is what sent the Big M off the deep end).
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I began to slowly reveal the secrets of Thassilon to my players and they got wind of the Runelords being practitioners of the various schools of magic and the possible resurgence of this ancient kingdom.
After fighting Barl (a Necromancer) and finding out about his boss Mokmurian, who specialized in transmutation, they became convinced they were going to have to fight 7 specialist wizards of increasing power, possibly all Giants of one form or another.
Of course, once they defeated Mokmurian, they learned the truth of who their ultimate foe was, but it was fun to watch them try to figure it out and make a bunch of erroneous assumptions.
-Skeld
I began to slowly reveal the secrets of Thassilon to my players and they got wind of the Runelords being practitioners of the various schools of magic and the possible resurgence of this ancient kingdom.
After fighting Barl (a Necromancer) and finding out about his boss Mokmurian, who specialized in transmutation, they became convinced they were going to have to fight 7 specialist wizards of increasing power, possibly all Giants of one form or another.
This was my thought as well.
I may actually capitalize on it. I'm using the "level when story appropriate" system, so I'm not worried about added encounters or side-treks. And a series of nasty wizard foes sounds like fun.
It might also help to make both Barl and Mokmurian more of their element. Give Barl a few more undead servitors such that he feels more like a necromancer. Mokmurian in being a Servant of Greed (transmutation) should have access to lots of experimental tranformative magic. While the Hounds of Tindalos are interesting (from a Lovecraftian point of view), they seem more like what a summoner would have than a transmuter. I'm pondering moving them elsewhere in the complex (plenty of corridors that could be unblocked) and planting something else as his guardians.
I also think that the One Final BBEG trope might be a bit over-used in this AP. I'm pondering how to make that different as well.
I was thinking that maybe Barl wasn't alone when he was sent down to Hook Mountains, but rather he was part of a small band of evil giant adventurers. So I would reduce Barl somewhat (or keep him as written for my 6 PCs) and add a fire giant fighter (and smith to address the question of "where do the magic ogre hooks come from?"), a frost giant oracle, and maybe an evil wood giant inquisitor. I don't think they need a rogue.
CJ
I dont think Morkurian would like to have another giant wizard around. Nor I thing he would waste time to teach another.
Also, about the ideas of your pcs ... give them a way to believe them!
Why the hell Karzoug must present himself to boost and say "I'm here, you pitiful beings?" ... there is no need.
It's way more fun if you up Morkumian at level 15 and do a modified seven sword of sin (adventure path) before the fortress. Introduce there the sword of Greed and give pcs a chance to get one of those. Let's make Mokmurian allied to a bunch of wizards of many schools from Kaer Maga, and make them call the "rised runelords".
Pcs faces them, and discover how those strange rituals with the runewells work. Then they face big M, which is the strongest one and actually putting togheter an army of hundreds of giants. Now, when they defeat him nothing happens. IF (and I recomand it), IF they discorver Karzoug, good for them. Otherwise, Karzoug plays at his best (like resurrecting ol enemies, posing himself as the RUNELORD OF GENEROSITY goind around (through advanced clones) to elevate the cultural level of Varisia, and such. They may learn of Karzoug, Shalast and Runeforge from some other NPCs, from the rune-swords they captured ...
My party just defeated Mokmurian. Personally, I saw Barl as a good introduction to what the party could expect out of Mokmurian. I even had the letter Mokmurian wrote to Barl start with "My Young Apprentice," this seemed to really concern the PCs. They were already discussing how powerful a wizard is when he's also a giant, so they were intimidated with the prospect of an even MORE powerful giant wizard out there.
As a result, they knew exactly what to look for. When they finally stumbled through Mokmurian's clouds and saw him floating there casting a spell, they knew EXACTLY who he was without him having to do some terrible villain monologue.
Also, my PCs saw the "boss" of Hook Mountain Massacre as Lucrecia, not Barl. To them it seemed like he was just there as Mokmurian's representative to oversee operations. Lucrecia had done some pretty despicable stuff to them in the past and kept escaping so there was quite a rivalry built up there. When the fighter crit-killed Lucrecia and chopped off her head, it was far more climactic than finally reaching the back of the mountain hold and killing the giant wizard apprentice who is there just to introduce the next chapter in the story.
I'd say it was better for me to keep Barl as a wizard. Their level difference and spell choices make the fights different enough, and it served to keep a consistent theme through this portion of the AP.
I've stated him up as a Monk, though thinking about it more I think I might ditch the entire Stone Giant aspect and make him an Ogre Mage to fit with the whole Ogre theme of this book.
I love the idea of him being an apprentice of Mokmurian though so I may switch him back to being a caster of some sort. Possibly a Magus.
I like them being thematically connected in this way, personally. The AP is very much about wizards doing wizardy bad things, in the end, and I think changing Barl pushes that theme out of the first 3 adventures a little too much.
I actually just made Barl a Hill Giant instead of a Stone Giant. It took a bit of doing with their penalty to Intelligence, but one of my characters was a former slave of a tribe of Hill Giants in her backstory. I'm going to make that the same tribe Barl belonged to in order to up the drama. I actually enjoy the idea of a Hill Giant idealizing Mokmurian and attempting to dress/act/think like a Stone Giant in order to model himself after his idol. Taking it a step further, I made him an Envy (Abjuration) specialist. We'll see how it plays out.
I do agree that Mokmurian may not enjoy sharing the secrets of his power with another stone giant but the campaign is centered around wizards coming from the past and thus it is very thematic.
I personally found that Barl was a sorta sad wizard, so after he cast fly and fireball he flew over the melee character's heads to smash the annoying wizard. When looking at his stats, I realized that he is definitely a better melee boss than spellcaster.
I am toying with the idea of making him a Magus with Spell Focus (Necromancy)
But I do know he needs to be able to use that wand of enervation. :D
Very Respectfully,
--Bacon
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Three years later, and I've decided to fiddle with Barl myself - because the main villain of a side adventure I worked in was a gluttony necromancer, I've decided to make him an earth wizard instead.
Since nobody currently has any means of flight, I figure they'll have difficulty dealing with one Acid Pit in the right place. Stone Call can delay their approach, and maybe if he has time to prepare, he can put Elemental Body on himself.
That way, he can boast that his master has given him all of Hook Mountain, and he has taken it in all possible ways. To differentiate the two, I'll characterize Barl as an insecure blowhard: his ego's been engorged by suddenly getting given more power than he knows what to do with it (just the way Mokmurian wants). He literally gave himself the title of "Breakbones" in Taldane so as to better intimidate the little folk.
Mokmurian will be trying to emulate his role model: marshalling all the giants he can into an army, telling them they deserve to enslave the little folk, who are harming their wealth with their uppity refusal to accept their necessary gift. Hopefully this way, Barl will surrender while Mokmurian will not, and the PCs will go along with both.