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My group finished shattered star a couple of weeks ago it's second AP (the first one was jade regent DMed by my brother) and i have also run the entire RotRL for another group, i write this now, and not before, becuase now i managed to find the time (starting WotR as a player certainly didn't help).
The heroes of Magnimar were:
1) Zak Kaddren Villa (Jadogreshika), half orc blackblade magus (STR based with rhoka black blade), adopted to the family.
2) Alissa Cornwall, human XinvalrenbleX rager barbarian, gladiator from Riddleport. Currently inside the body of Shorshen.
3) Tyr Forsedi, dwarf battle cleric from Magnimar's church of Abadar. Character retired from adventuring after Asylum stone (because player had RL commitments)
4) Fitz Padraig and his wolf Rolling Thunder, halfling sword and shield using ranger, escaped chelaxian slave. Character retired after Curse of the Lady's Light (again because player had RL issues).
5) Astaroth, gnome crossblooded (primal fire, draconic gold) blaster sorcerer, from the town of Nybor. Character entered the campaign after Fitz retired.
6) Aven, undine storm (caster) druid from Nirmathas. Character entered the campaign after Tyr retired.
Now the changes i made to the story of the campaign were:
1) The characters weren't pathfinders, Shiela Heidmarch was replaced by Teressa Flameheart (NG human fire blooded sorcerer 10) who is a surving character from my RotRL campaign.
2) I had the fifth crusade (WotR) start in the background, after Asylum Stone, in order to give some sense of urgency in the adventure.
3) The magus' black blade was needed for the reforging of the Sihedron.
4) Karzoug actually won at the end of RotRL and was later vanquished 5 years before the campaign started but that had as a result Cheliax invading the lands of Varissa.
If any of you want to know more about any of these things i will happily post it.
My overall impression of the AP isn't a good one. While the story was good enough (especially after considering that the adventure was simply a "gather the artifacts" game), the dungeons were, usually, very good as locales, but the encounters were very very bad, they were too many and too easy, a lot of times i found myself wanting to end the campaign and start another that would require less work from me, that's why i ended up making so much changes to the encounters.
What i really enjoyed were all those traps/puzzles that the AP had, especially the part that i was given ways within the systems for the characters to solve if the players couldn't.
The thing that annoyed me the most (and gave me the worst trouble) were the myriad CR=APL-2 or CR=APL-1 or CR=APL encounters that weren't even speed bumps for the characters, just a waste of time for the players. If that is the old school vibe that the AP is supposed to have then i really don't like old school adventures.
1st book. Very good story, lot's of RP in the Magnimar, the easy difficulty and annoying part of the book started after the PCs entered the Crow (especially after defeating the tower girls).
2nd book. Great book, great NPCs, great dungeon, MARVELOUS TRAP, i felt that me and my players missed a lot of fun because none of us has (sadly) played/run curse of the crimson throne. The battles with the troglodytes and the boggards were a joke and the same trend was present inside the dungeon as well but not to such degree.
3rd book. This book i really didn't like, don't get me wrong, the part that was in Kaer Maga was truly marvellous and anjoyable, everyone had a lot of fun for everyone, really everything was great but after the PCs enter Karzoug's ancient laboratory the things go south. Somewhere between the boring/joke combats and the weirdest mis-match of monsters i have ever seen, both my players and me nearly lost all interest in this book.
*Special mention* the orrey room was very cool.
4th book. Now this a book we really liked, the story was engaging, the NPCs (both good and evil) were excellent, the (destroyed) abbey and the ancient temple were really fleshed out, the dynamic encounters, my players employing magical means to inflitrate the abbey (they called themselves the prismatic hexagem, from rainbow six) the final battle which i used mostly as-is (i just changed Ardathanatus' spell list and a couple of feats) and finally the horror i saw in my players face when the clippoth lord showed up.
5th book. This a book i didn't like, maybe it's because that neither i nor my players like anything lovecraftian maybe it is because nearly everything in this book was SO EASY... both me and my players were bored out of our minds until we hit the embassy to leng where things, while still easy, finally became interesting. The final boss in particular was a complete joke because apart from the statblock errors (which are somewhat understandable) her whole build was weak, her tactics don't deserve the name (of tactics), her starting position (on the ground) and her inability to be buffed (for story reasons) all lead up to her dying before getting the chance to act, fortunately i managed to make the encounter a fun one for the party, she was a very interesting villan that ended up being less than a footnote in my players' mind because of all the things i mentioned above.
6th book. We ended up enjoying this book but not entirely because of the book itself. First allow me to tell you that the story and everything that happens in this book is very interesting and very good but the encounters are nearly unsalvagalbe. I managed to make the final battle memorable by giving Xin a second life (as suggested by Brandon Hodge in another thread) and having the veiled master appear in the final battle (my changed veiled master, not the weak sause there is in the book).
All in all we enjoyed the AP but not as much as we did JR or RotRL.
All of the PCs were 15 point buy, all of them were average optimized, except the barbarian who was strongly optimized (but not fully) and while i have quite a few house rules (which can be found here) but only the sorcerer benefited from them.
Now the changes i made in each book starting at book 2 after i run the 1st book as-is. I will post the changes in this post and then (since i have most of the changed statblocks) in subsequent posts i will include links with files of the changed statblocks, this might take some time since i have all the changed statblocks in one folder and i would like to group them by book before i post the links.
D1 Nabasu (bestiary 1 p.65)
D3 CEUSTODAEMON (bestiary 2 p.65)
D5 no fight
D6 -troglotytes + advanced megatherium (bestiary 2 p.187)
F1 no fight
F3 advanced bogwid
F5 no fight
F6 + 2 giant dire abyssal frog (tome of horrors p.296)
G1 No fight, 2 large chests with treasure containing 2100gp(including the 2 jars found later)
G2 - giant frogs + lunar naga (bestiary 3 p.197)
H + 1 will o wisp (bestiary 1 277)
J + 1 caryatid column (bestiary 3 p.46)
K4 + 4 mimics (bestiary 1 p.206)
K9 + Water Naga (bestiary 3 p.199)
K10 + 1 marble sentinel
K12 + 1 Incubus (bestiary 3 73)
K13 empty
K19 empty
L2 no fight
L4 advanced giant -2 monitor lizards + 2 giant frilled lizards (bestiary 1 p.195)
L5 advanced skavelings
L6 no fight
L8 no fight
L10 + 2 sea hags - 4 fuath gremlins OR +1 cold rider (bestiary 3 p.59)
L13 + 1 grey maiden
L18 + 1 shadow mastiff
L20 + 1 bone golem (bestiary 3 p.133)
L22 + 1 ice golem (bestiary 1 p.162)
L23 + 3 grey maidens
L24 + 6 vampiric mists
L25 + 3 babau
M1 all elementals are large
M2 10 fighter level instead of 8 and +4000gp in gear
M3 +1 juvenile green dragon named Aeteperax and maybe change sorshen's spells a little and +1 wizard level and
+1800gp gear
B5 +1 Kyton
B6 +1 Hound of Tindalos
B7 no combat, RP only
B8 empty
B9 Luonim has invisibility, fly and fire shield cast before combat
B11 empty
B13 Silasni has +3 sorcerer levels
B14 +1 Hydrodaemon
C3 advanced manananggal
C5 +1 advanced wyvern
C11 +1 Mohrg +2 Mummy
C16 +1 Contract Devil
A2 +1 redcap
A9 +1 redcap or Roy Flaxbeater +2 rogue levels
A13 +1 Nyogoth qlippoth
A15 +1 Ettin AND no sicken
A20 +1 Mummy
A21 +1 Vrock and Sufestra may come and fight here
B2 Golem not damaged
B4 empty
B6 Replace the 4 Advanced ice golems with 4 bone golems
B10 empty
C2 +2 Nyogoth Qlippoth
C4 +1 advanced shoggti qlippoth
C5 empty
D2 empty
D3 empty
D4 +2 animate dreams AND all are advanced
D5 rebuilt at +2 level with +11000gp
D9 advanced baregara
D11 +advanced devourer
D12 empty
E1 no fight
E4 +1 Greater Shadow
E6 the trap reset's is 1 round
E7 empty
E10 empty
E11 +2 mummy cleric 9
E12 +1 stone golem
E13 Ardathanatus has his new armor and the bogeyman is also here
B7 -4 Hill Giants + 2 Fire Giant
B8 -4 Hill Giants - 4 Hill Giant Concubines + 2 Fire Giants + 2 Guiltspur Hill Giants
B10 +2 Guiltspur Giants
C1 empty
C4 DC 24 and not 20
C7 1 adult silver dragon and 1 old black dragon
C8 +1 Elder Water Elemental and all are Advanced
C9 +2 Faceless Angels
D2 Advanced Ognathooga
D4 +2 Guiltspur Nagas
D6 +1 Hunt Mistress and both are changed
D9 changed Xaivanshee + 1 Glabrezu
E2 +1 Flying Polyp
E4 no battle, just RP
E7 2 "astral devas" instead of one appear for a fight but only one nalfeshnee emerges
E9 +2 advanced ice devils AND no green slime
F1 empty
F2 empty
F3 no combat, just RP
F6 3 advanced gugs instead of 4 but all of them are barbarian 3
F7 +2 advanced leng spiders
F9 3 advanced moon-beasts instead of 4 but all are cleric 6
F10 slightly changed Cadrilkasta + one mature adult red dragon sorcerer 3 named Loganth lord of fire
This is a weird one because i didn't test the majority of changes because my players were so bored after the first session inside the crystal palace that they asked me to skip most encounters in order to get to the final battle, also they never went to the underwater floor.
event 4 all 3 leviathans are advanced and have 4 level of warrior
event 5 +1 scylla and both of them are advanced
A1 the 3 ogonthunn's guardians are advanced and have 7 level of fighter
A2 these axiomites of Xin are advanced, rogue 10 (instead of 8), start with mage armor active, and have different feats
A3 no battle
A4 +1 living rune
A5 no battle
A6 +2 uber advanced spectres
Ogonthunn is rebuilt
B1 empty
B4 empty
B5 2 shield guardian iron golems instead of one, both are advanced, both are 2 level fighters
C1 the clockwork dragon is advanced and has 2 more hit die
C2 empty
C4 empty
C5 the axiomites of Xin are the same as in room A2, the inevitable is changed to an advanced marut inevitable fighter (weapon master 3)
C7 empty
C9 empty
C10 +1 marut inevitable and they are both the same as in room C5
D1 the bythos aeon is advanced and has 6 sorcerer levels
D2 no battle
D3 no battle
D4 no battle
D5 the two elder crystallis have 7 fighter (weapon master) levels
D6 the iron golem has 3 fighter (weapon master) levels
D7
E2
E4 the axiomites of Xin are the same as those in A2 and the elder crystallis are the same as those in D5, also Xin is revived (2 rounds after he dies) by draining nearly all the remaining power inside the cetrnal palace crystal, also the veiled master (if not dead) comes into the room the round that Xin first dies
As you can see i made A LOT of changes in order to try to make a more challenging game, also because i don't own herolab (i am trying to gather the money now) i made the changes either by hand or in PCGen (a great free open source programm but worse than herolab) and because of that i apologize in advance for any minor mistakes in the changed statblocks (i had to make a few alteration by hand and i might have done some minor mistakes). And that's my biggest gripe with the Shattered Star AP, the reason i buy (and subscribe to) the APs is because i don't have the time to make my own campaign and while i was helped by having the AP volumes i feel that overpaid for them.
Again, anyone who wants to ask questions or discuss the above or anything please do (if you see that i don't answer for some time please PM me so that i do).
I'm curious, you used 15-point-buy, but you also had 6 players instead of the standard 4. Did you make any changes in book 1 for that (I'm guessing not from what you said)?
How did you handle XP? Standard (divide between 6), adjusted (divide by 4), "Story-point" method? Also, if not story-point, did you adjust XP for the creatures you added? Also you did use Medium advancement right?
If using Standard, I would have expected book 1 to be a bit easier with 6, but after that the party would be a bit lower level than the book, compensating for the larger group. If it was still easy, I can understand. Lots of lower encounter (and some that are quite high) is indeed an old-school sort of vibe, although typically that comes with the risk of encounters combining on the party and turning into dangerous situations.
Thanks for the fantastic write-up! I *almost* started Shattered Star two years ago (went with Slumbering Tsar instead), so fascinating to see your report.
I'm curious, you used 15-point-buy, but you also had 6 players instead of the standard 4. Did you make any changes in book 1 for that (I'm guessing not from what you said)?
How did you handle XP? Standard (divide between 6), adjusted (divide by 4), "Story-point" method? Also, if not story-point, did you adjust XP for the creatures you added? Also you did use Medium advancement right?
From what I can tell two of the six were replacement characters, and he never had more than four active at a time.
Wiggz is right, there were only 4 active at any time. After book 2 the ranger left and the sorcerer came in and then after book 3 the cleric left and the druid came.
@Majuba
About what part would you like to learn more?
Ah - that answers the questions, thanks Wiggz. I skipped over the character specifics and missed that. That explains why you didn't mention it at all!
Although I guess it's still an open question on whether you gave extra XP for the additional creatures fought. Assuming there was a net increase, that would have resulted in the characters being a bit ahead in level. I'm guessing they weren't though.
Did you have many situations where a lack of stealth brought several encounters down on the party simultaneously?
I think our group (despite being pretty optimized) managed to avoid the pitfalls of those low CR encounters by virtue of using Diplomacy or guile on almost everything when it worked, which was often the case for those same easy encounters. For instance, diplomacying, say, the troglodytes, and trying to convince them to adopt the teachings of Shelyn was a pretty memorable session, whereas slaughtering them in their weakened state, I agree, would have been pretty boring.
@Rogue Eidolon
I have read about your group's shattered star AP and while i have never neither played nor DMed for such a group, i imagine that your way might indeed solve the issue of the joke/minor encounters, even make them meaningful. But every character in this campaign was very murderhobo/militaristic/efficient etc. and it's not a group thing, we are capable of making other kind of characters but in this AP everyone went with the above approach, i think that the "treasure hunting" aspect of the adventure played a role here.
@Majuba
I think that you are talking about the infamous "XP problem", i solved that by leveling up the players at the points the AP said to level up.
About the combining encounters thing you mentioned, it's very rarely scripted this way (a lot of times it's scripted the opposite way) and quite a few times it can't be done becuase of the locales (super big dungeons, lots of space between the monsters). The one time i remember it scripted in this AP to happen (at Beyond the Doomsday Door) my players went all splinter cell on me.
Here are the statblocks i still have.
Curse of the Lady's Light
Asylum Stone
Beyond the Doomsday Door
Into the Nightmare Rift
Dead Heart of Xin
There were also a couple that i couldn't find in which book i used them
leftovers
Again anyone who has questions, ask.
I have overhauled "S" and the "Boss" of Chapter 4 as well for my group. (Overhauls for Chapters 5 and 6 remain in the future.) They're pretty well optimized and a group of 4 or 5 (#5 can't always attend) taking full advantage of the group house rules we've cobbled together over the years.
I definitely noticed the flaws mentioned chapter by chapter in the OP with plans to "renovate" various elements accordingly. evil grin
@Turin the Mad
I don't think that there is reason for worrying about spoilers in this thread.
Who is "S" in book 4?
And to me, the final battle in book 4 took the least changes.
Sufestra maybe?
Was that the medussa?
Sufestra, the medusa Cleric, RAW, has a CR 2 *lower* than printed. So I adjusted her stat block to properly place her at the printed CR.
For added fun I've replaced the occupants (bard and company) with a certain Summoner and his two Adept cultists of The Yellow Sign that they encountered in Chapter 1. The last time Our Heroes ran into them, they lost 3 of their 5 characters.
Athadantawhateverhisnameis received a full overhaul in keeping with my table's house rules.
I moved the occupants of the freezer-room on B level to guard him after converting them to what you used. (My group won't see them until the October session, at the earliest, barring uncommon brutalization of what's left 'up top'.)
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So far in Curse of the Lady's Light the changes I've made in encounters
L2. one lacedon per PC + 1 brykolakas for a true CR 7 encounter.
L8 & 10. The Fuaths are utterly useless as written. Add simple advanced template and change congeal water special attack to apply entangled condition on a save and add the drowning/ suffocation effect on a failure.
--Vrock Lobster
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L13. Replace improved bull rush (which doesn't work as written here) with the teamwork feat Scarred Legion. This gives the Gray Maidens an additional +2 to intimidate and a + 2 morale bonus to will saves when adjacent to their sisters. That's +7 total, or roughly 50% chance to demoralize a 7th level PC.
--Between a Vrock & a hard place