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IF YOU AREN'T GMing THIS DO NOT READ!
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Questions.
1. Slime in room 7. Are we hitting all equipment (backpacks, clothing, holy symbols, spell pouches and ect.) with this or just armor when it gets put on the PCs?
2. room 8. what do we do mechanically to turn a critter into an undead thrall? I suppose the Big Bad uses his command word and lets the critters cook till they have no more levels, but what then?
3. Is it safe to assume that his command word to summon move a marked critter to the circle is a standard action?
4. Does an undead thrall still have to make the strength check to leave the circle?
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3. Is it safe to assume that his command word to summon move a marked critter to the circle is a standard action?
Activating a command word is a standard action unless noted otherwise.
5. The zombie lord rogues have Wands of Vanish but 0 ranks in UMD. UMD is still listed in their stat block even though it's a trained only skill.
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5. It looks like they have a rank. UMD 4 =+2 racial,+1 int,1 rank. If that is the case they are still missing the +3 class bonus. unless I am simply missing something it looks like several of the skills of the zombie lords are off by 2 or 3.
UMD is a CHA based skill, so 2 racial and 2 CHA, so no ranks.
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5. It looks like they have a rank. UMD 4 =+2 racial,+1 int,1 rank. If that is the case they are still missing the +3 class bonus. unless I am simply missing something it looks like several of the skills of the zombie lords are off by 2 or 3.UMD is a CHA based skill, so 2 racial and 2 CHA, so no ranks.
UMD is "Trained Only" so at least one rank is needed.
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Questions.
1:Slime in room 7. Are we hitting all equipment (backpacks, clothing, holy symbols, spell pouches and ect.) with this or just armor when it gets put on the PCs?
Answer 1:I'm not going to do damage to any of the PCs equipment unless campaign leadership or the lead designer for Paizo says otherwise. It might be more realistic to do damage but it's "don't be a jerk" territory. Normal clothing? Nope, you're naked now! Your scabbards aren't magical? All your weapons fall to the ground! Not to mention that even with the prestige for a body recovery, any PC that does to the slime would have no equipment to speak of.Not to mention that if you apply damage from the slime, then you would also have to apply damage when hit with an alchemist's fire (or worse - an Alchemist's bomb!)
Questions 2 and 4:2. room 8. what do we do mechanically to turn a critter into an undead thrall? I suppose the Big Bad uses his command word and lets the critters cook till they have no more levels, but what then?4. Does an undead thrall still have to make the strength check to leave the circle?
Answer 2 & 4:it does appear that the rules for an undead thrall were left out of that section.
Venture-Agent, Indiana—Valparaiso
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Ok, sat down and gave this a good first read through and here are some notes/questions:
Map:
The compass on the MAP has North pointing in the wrong direction. Nrth is towards room 6.
Room 1:
For the poison doses listed for the Rat men, is the number listed before or after we count the dose they've applied? I assume it counts the one applied just want to be sure.
Room 2:
I noticed the DC for the fascination doesn't scale with Tier. Seems odd.
Room 3:
What do the rest of you think is a good starting position for the Nabasu(s)?
Room 5:
The scenario says treats the creatures as 1 Int but would a low Int prevent Mind control? Seems to me like that'd be 1 Wis not Int.
Room 6:
The lower sub-tier has the haunt affecting any square within 5 feet of the circle. The higher includes the circle. Considering the haunt simply tries to get them to go into the circle, what's the point of including the circle in the haunt?
Also note that anyone who stays 10 ft from the circle won't be targeted by the haunt.
The circle specifies that if they stay within in they are not affected by the ability damage again. What if they exit the circle and re-enter? I think it's simply 1/character.
Room 7:
Yay Green Slime!
Room 8:
If the PCs break the Black Crystal with damage should the negative energy heal Traxxas or is it more like channeled negative energy to hurt?
And the biggest one:
What type of undead/rules should we use if PCs die in the circle?
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Ok, sat down and gave this a good first read through and here are some notes/questions:
Room 1:
For the poison doses listed for the Rat men, is the number listed before or after we count the dose they've applied? I assume it counts the one applied just want to be sure.
Room 2:
I noticed the DC for the fascination doesn't scale with Tier. Seems odd.
Room 3:
What do the rest of you think is a good starting position for the Nabasu(s)?
Room 5:
The scenario says treats the creatures as 1 Int but would a low Int prevent Mind control? Seems to me like that'd be 1 Wis not Int.
Room 6:
The lower sub-tier has the haunt affecting any square within 5 feet of the circle. The higher includes the circle. Considering the haunt simply tries to get them to go into the circle, what's the point of including the circle in the haunt?Also note that anyone who stays 10 ft from the circle won't be targeted by the haunt.
The circle specifies that if they stay within in they are not affected by the ability damage again. What if they exit the circle and re-enter? I think it's simply 1/character.
Multiple damages: If you exit and re-enter you will be affected more than once. That's an actual physical effect of the circle causing the damage, not a haunt. It's how the victims are "prepared" before being taken to area 8. However someone would have to deliberately walk into it the second time, the haunt can only affect each PC once.
Room 8:
If the PCs break the Black Crystal with damage should the negative energy heal Traxxas or is it more like channeled negative energy to hurt?
Destroying the crystal via damage causes a tide of negative energy to sweep through the entire room. All creatures in the room take 6d6 points of negative energy damage (or 9d6 points of negative energy damage in Subtier 8–9). A successful DC 20 Will saving throw halves this damage. This negative energy heals Taxxak and any other undead creatures in the room.
And the biggest one:
What type of undead/rules should we use if PCs die in the circle?
That's sadly not answered in the scenario. I really would like to see an answer.
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Venture-Agent, Indiana—Valparaiso
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Ok so what can we piece together about the undead transformation?
There's a lot of undead in this adventure but only the Zombie Lords in Area 4 are confirmed as having been transformed by Taxxak.
It's likely Taxxak used it to become a vamprie though.
The Mummies are left over from Volzeras and the Ghouls were created by the Nabasu Demon.
So with lack of any other evidence I'd say Zombie Lord is the the best result to use.
Nothing in the Zombie Lord template adds anything about being a Plague carrier though. Maybe something like the Plague Zombie's ability?
The scenario says that Taxxak can call the creatures from area 5 into area 8. If they're reduced to Int 1 though I don't see how making them Zombie Lords will be much help.
I'm inclined to think the circle can make different types of undead but not sure what rules we should use.
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Tactics in Area 8 - is anyone else thinking that for
** spoiler omitted **
Round 3, door continues to open, PC's can enter, cast 1st During Combat spell
Round 4, door continues to open, use Belafon's tactic, PCs begin to die.
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Venture-Agent, Indiana—Valparaiso
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Here's what I see for starting tactics:
Round 1, door begins to open, PC's can't get in yet, cast Mirror Image
Round 2, door continues to open, PC's don't try to get in yet, cast Resist Energy and uses Arcane Barrier (swift action)
Round 3, door continues to open, PC's can enter:
SubTier 5-6: Casts Black Tentacles
SubTier 8-9: Uses Spell Resistance Exploit (This one's a standard, not a swift)
Round 4, door fully open:
SubTier 5-6: No instructions, do as you like
SubTier 7-8: Taxxak casts Greater Invisibility, possibly moves, possibly uses Quicken on something.
Round 5:
SubTier 5-6: No instructions
SubTier 8-9: Taxxak casts Black Tentacles.
If you want to speed him up by a round in SubTier 8-9 you can quicken either Mirror Image or Resist Energy but that takes up one of his few 6th level slots.
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Venture-Agent, Indiana—Valparaiso
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Taxxak is also missing the following that are part of the Vampire Template:
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Dodge
Resistances: Cold 10, Electricity 10
I could go two ways here, either they're just missing from his stat block or due to the way he became a Vampire he
s a special case and lacking those things.
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Finally finished my prep.
Anyone else think there's a good chance of Taxxak getting away with all his gear?
It's going to completely depend on the group. Any group that manages to make it that far intact is likely to have at least one "AND the kitchen sink" character, and they will have a pretty good chance of possessing something that keeps him from getting away.
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This is going to be my first time running a timed event, so when exactly does the 5 hours start? After I read the line "we need to venture to the deepest halls of Bonekeep and put an end to this threat once and for all!" or after allowing for initial Knowledge checks?
Also, I'm assuming the obligatory "we spring for Hero's Feast" is included in the 5 hours.
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This is going to be my first time running a timed event, so when exactly does the 5 hours start? After I read the line "we need to venture to the deepest halls of Bonekeep and put an end to this threat once and for all!" or after allowing for initial Knowledge checks?
Also, I'm assuming the obligatory "we spring for Hero's Feast" is included in the 5 hours.
My understanding is thus:
Start clock.
Read disclaimer.
Run stuff til they retreat or maybe win...
Stop clock.
Something like this...
In my running at GenCon, I had an inquisitor literally saved by time being called.
I had rolled the attack roll, inquisitor had failed his save, and the first set of damage dice had hit the table on the disintegrate, but before I could start counting time was called...
I had to roll a few more dice after the first roll, as I didn't have 24d6 to start with, so as the character was still standing when time was gone he survived...tallied it anyways just to know...he would have ended up at like -3 and required a resurrection if time would have been just a minute later...
Contributor
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Moot point, since I don't think that's allowed in the first place.
If you (proverbially) have a PC who's in-tier for a scenario but play a pregen, you can't put the pregen credit on that character, since you could (and should) have played the character.
All three Bonekeeps are 3-7, so if they've played 1 and/or 2, they're in-tier for 3.
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Moot point, since I don't think that's allowed in the first place.
If you (proverbially) have a PC who's in-tier for a scenario but play a pregen, you can't put the pregen credit on that character, since you could (and should) have played the character.
All three Bonekeeps are 3-7, so if they've played 1 and/or 2, they're in-tier for 3.
Part 3 is a 5-9, and thus you could have a level 3 or 4 character that has played part 1 and 2 and is out of tier to play part 3
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Moot point, since I don't think that's allowed in the first place.
If you (proverbially) have a PC who's in-tier for a scenario but play a pregen, you can't put the pregen credit on that character, since you could (and should) have played the character.
All three Bonekeeps are 3-7, so if they've played 1 and/or 2, they're in-tier for 3.
That is not what the rule says.
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Contributor
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That is not what the rule says.Moot point, since I don't think that's allowed in the first place.
If you (proverbially) have a PC who's in-tier for a scenario but play a pregen, you can't put the pregen credit on that character, since you could (and should) have played the character.
All three Bonekeeps are 3-7, so if they've played 1 and/or 2, they're in-tier for 3.
I was wrong about Bonekeep's tier (I wrote it down wrong in my excel tracker apparently - thanks for catching me on that, Kigvan), but:
You may not apply
a Chronicle sheet earned with a pregenerated character
to a character that was already at the
level of the pregenerated character or
higher, as you should have used this
character for the scenario instead.
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Contributor
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I suppose, if that's the way you want to split hairs in the interpretation.
I just hope if someone plays a pregen at a table where they could have played one of their own PCs that it didn't end up getting anyone else's character(s) killed or anything else (mission failure, loss of gold, rewards, etc) because of a pregen that may not have been put together as proficiently as someone's PC. Or that the person playing a pregen when they had one of their own characters in-tier had a good reason (dog ate my character sheet/chronicle sheets would work).
I guess this just leaves me confused as to why someone would want to play a scenario with a pregen instead of their own character.
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At GenCon I played a scenario with a pregen instead of my own character because I'd accidentally left that character's folder back in my hotel room and none of the characters I had with me would have been legal. (We had no problems and actually it played out almost the same as if I'd played my own guy, though it did mean I missed out on a minor faction boon.)
That wasn't a Bonekeep table, though. No way I'd play Bonekeep with a pregen.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Or, everybody else is playing a notoriously difficult 3 - 7 scenario at the high sub-tier, and all you have is your 3th-level monk. (Or, just the same, everybody else has a 3rd-level PC, and your in-tier character is well beyond that, and would overshadow another PC to boot.)
Or your in-tier PC is a fighter, and the rest of the party are all martial characters without any healing capabilities. Are you going to play your fighter, or grab Kyra?
Or you're playing a paladin, and the GM has already announced that, due to the nature of the scenario, any paladin playing would fall. (Alternately, the GM has announced that he hates summoners, or gunslingers, and tries to cleanse the Society of them whenever he can.)*
Or your 7th-level character is one game away from leveling up, and you've already played Destiny of the Sands Parts I and II with her. You'd like to finish that trilogy with the same PC.
Similarly, you have an in-tier PC, but you reserve that character for when you're playing with your buddy, who plays your PC's spouse. And your buddy isn't at this convention.
Your character has just risen in level earlier this day. You'd like to give him a new feat from the Advanced Players Guide, but you don't have that resource at this con. You *could* give him a core rulebook feat and play him today, so you do have an in-tier character, but playing him now would mean compromising his progression.
I've even seen "I don't want to risk my real character" as a legitimate reason. Last spring, I saw two young players screwing around at a table, which got another character killed. They balked at chipping in to pay for his raise dead, but did so grudgingly. The other fellow then headed off to play Elven Entanglement. If the two idjits had also been intending to play that, I would have understood a decision to keep a high-level PC safe.
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There are all sorts of good reasons that a player might decide to play a pre-gen instead of a legal PC in a scenario.** All of them boil down to: that person decided it would be better to play a pre-gen.
And Mike, players make decisions about which of their own in-tier PCs to play, all the time. We don't gainsay their choices based on whether it might result in mission failure or loss of gold. ("You're going to play your 2nd level samurai in this scenario? Don't you have a 5th-level barbarian, who could really whomp on things? Don't you want the party to succeed?") As long as people are having fun, I don't particularly care what character they're playing.
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* And yeah, I've seen all three.
** There are also bad reasons for choosing to play a pre-gen.
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In case anyone is interested, here are some pictures of the terrain I made for Bonekeep 3. In retrospect, I should have made it for a different scenario, because very few people will be able to see all of it.
