The Choking Tower (GM Reference)


Iron Gods

201 to 247 of 247 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | next > last >>
Sovereign Court

He could've been a Chelaxian diabolist - Lawful Cheliax still feels an obligation to save this world for the sole use of Asmodeus oppose the foul scourge of demonkind.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Well, ability wise he is destined bloodline sorcerer without any particular focus besides self buffs <_< He doesn't exactly scream devil conjurer for me. Or I dunno, maybe you can make out a theme from his spells?

Spoiler:
4th (5/day)—fire shield, freedom of movement, phantasmal
killer (DC 18)
3rd (7/day)—fly, protection from energy, slow (DC 17),
vampiric touch
2nd (7/day)—blur, fog cloud, glitterdust (DC 16), mirror
image, web (DC 16)
1st (7/day)—alarm, comprehend languages, identify, mage
armor, magic missile, ray of enfeeblement (DC 15)
0 (at will)—acid splash, dancing lights, detect magic, detect
poison, flare (DC 14), mage hand, prestidigitation (DC 14),
ray of frost

and just to add, his skill modifiers

Skills Knowledge (arcana) +10, Knowledge (engineering) +7,
Perception +13, Sense Motive +9, Spellcraft +12, Stealth +12;

Like, at most I can figure out hes maybe an evil adventurer? His skills seem to be suited mainly for noticing stuff, stealthing and identifying stuff.

Sovereign Court

Yeah, you have a point there. He's not any more eviler stat-wise than a typical PC.


I'm about to start this book and I have a question about Yaoguais. I'm choosing for the Yaoguai to have the "quills" mutation. This is the description:

Quills: A creature attacking the yaoguai with a melee weapon, an unarmed strike, or a natural weapon takes 1d8+7 points of piercing damage from the yaoguai’s quills. Melee weapons with reach do not endanger their users in this way.

Does the attacker have to actually hit the yaoguai to take the quill damage? The description says "a creature attacking", not "a creature striking" or "a creature hitting", which leads me to believe that just trying to hit the thing will hurt you. Am I right?

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32

I'd have to agree with you. Just attacking will inflict the damage.

I don't see any FAQ for Bestiary-4 that would make it any different


I have a question also for that same quills mutation.

If the player have multiples attack, does he take 1d8+7 for each of his attack?


I have a question about Furkas Xoud since none of his magic items are ghost touch he doesn't get to use them correct?


Joey Virtue wrote:
I have a question about Furkas Xoud since none of his magic items are ghost touch he doesn't get to use them correct?
Incorporeal: Creatures with the incorporeal condition do not have a physical body. Incorporeal creatures are immune to all nonmagical attack forms. Incorporeal creatures take half damage (50%) from magic weapons, spells, spell-like effects, and supernatural effects. Incorporeal creatures take full damage from other incorporeal creatures and effects, as well as all force effects.

Incorporeal (Ex) An incorporeal creature has no physical body. It can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, magic weapons or creatures that strike as magic weapons, and spells, spell-like abilities, or supernatural abilities. It is immune to all nonmagical attack forms. Even when hit by spells or magic weapons, it takes only half damage from a corporeal source (except for channel energy). Although it is not a magical attack, holy water can affect incorporeal undead. Corporeal spells and effects that do not cause damage only have a 50% chance of affecting an incorporeal creature. Force spells and effects, such as from a magic missile, affect an incorporeal creature normally.

An incorporeal creature has no natural armor bonus but has a deflection bonus equal to its Charisma bonus (always at least +1, even if the creature's Charisma score does not normally provide a bonus).

An incorporeal creature can enter or pass through solid objects, but must remain adjacent to the object's exterior, and so cannot pass entirely through an object whose space is larger than its own. It can sense the presence of creatures or objects within a square adjacent to its current location, but enemies have total concealment (50% miss chance) from an incorporeal creature that is inside an object. In order to see beyond the object it is in and attack normally, the incorporeal creature must emerge. An incorporeal creature inside an object has total cover, but when it attacks a creature outside the object it only has cover, so a creature outside with a readied action could strike at it as it attacks. An incorporeal creature cannot pass through a force effect.

An incorporeal creature's attacks pass through (ignore) natural armor, armor, and shields, although deflection bonuses and force effects (such as mage armor) work normally against it. Incorporeal creatures pass through and operate in water as easily as they do in air. Incorporeal creatures cannot fall or take falling damage. Incorporeal creatures cannot make trip or grapple attacks, nor can they be tripped or grappled. In fact, they cannot take any physical action that would move or manipulate an opponent or its equipment, nor are they subject to such actions. Incorporeal creatures have no weight and do not set off traps that are triggered by weight.

An incorporeal creature moves silently and cannot be heard with Perception checks if it doesn't wish to be. It has no Strength score, so its Dexterity modifier applies to its melee attacks, ranged attacks, and CMB. Nonvisual senses, such as scent and blindsight, are either ineffective or only partly effective with regard to incorporeal creatures. Incorporeal creatures have an innate sense of direction and can move at full speed even when they cannot see.

Ghost Touch: A ghost touch weapon deals damage normally against incorporeal creatures, regardless of its bonus. An incorporeal creature's 50% reduction in damage from corporeal sources does not apply to attacks made against it with ghost touch weapons. The weapon can be picked up and moved by an incorporeal creature at any time. A manifesting ghost can wield the weapon against corporeal foes. Essentially, a ghost touch weapon counts as both corporeal or incorporeal.

There is no rule that incorporeal weapons cannot hit corporeal creatures. Ghost touch is not necessary.

Ghost touch allows an incorporeal creature to pick up a corporeal weapon and use it, but presumably, if the incorporeal creature is already carrying a weapon, it can use it.


Joey Virtue wrote:
I have a question about Furkas Xoud since none of his magic items are ghost touch he doesn't get to use them correct?

Xoud's items lie in a heap on his remains. The "gear" Xoud's ghost carries are ghostly replicas that function exactly as the originals, and as such he has no problems using them.

Since his rod of gripping smoke isn't ghost touch it will only do 50% damage against corporeal targets, as is normal when such things interact, but all of his other gear function as normal.

Sovereign Court

It's not spelled out at clearly as you'd like, but I think the developers' idea is that incorporeal weapons cannot automatically affect corporeal enemies. That's why creatures such as the Pharaonic Guardian have ghost touch weapons, and the Fallen (recently featured in high-tier Solstice Scar) have force weapons.

It's one of those things that didn't make it clearly into the rule because almost all incorporeal undead have some sort of touch attack they use. With ghosts, any weapons they appear to be carrying tend to be just cosmetic, and the thing hurting people is the Corrupting Touch.


I’m more wondering about his ring of force fangs that willl slow down magic missile barrage that he likely to face


Joey Virtue wrote:
I’m more wondering about his ring of force fangs that willl slow down magic missile barrage that he likely to face

I am sorry for accidentally misdirecting this conversation. I saw "ghost touch" and thought magic weapons rather than magic items. Today, I checked Furkas Xoud's entry, pages 54-55, in The Choking Tower. He does not carry any weapons, though his rod of gripping smoke (page 61) does count as a +1 ghost touch light mace.

Ghost touch is a weapon property. The magic item rules do not allow ghost touch on rings. Instead, if the magic items cast spells, then the spells deal half damage. And if the magic items affect affect their incorporeal wearer, then they act as normal.


Ok, so I have 2 astronomy buff PCs who have basically decided Gervic Ayggler is the coolest old guy ever, and I suspect they are going to want to dig more into the shifting lights he spotted. Is there anything in one of the bestiaries that matches up with what happened to the first town on this site? Or anything others came up with to fill in that their players enjoyed?

Spoiler:
Starwatchers in the new village warned their neighbors
about an array of shifting lights in the night sky, but their
warnings went unheeded for months. Soon, the village
children began talking about enormous worm-like creatures
wending through the air at night, invisible to adults. At first,
the tales were dismissed as childish fancies. Then entire
families began to disappear, and before the community
could investigate or react to the disappearances, every
living soul in the community had vanished.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

xobmaps wrote:

Ok, so I have 2 astronomy buff PCs who have basically decided Gervic Ayggler is the coolest old guy ever, and I suspect they are going to want to dig more into the shifting lights he spotted. Is there anything in one of the bestiaries that matches up with what happened to the first town on this site? Or anything others came up with to fill in that their players enjoyed?

** spoiler omitted **

Dominion of the Black?


Lord Fyre wrote:
xobmaps wrote:

Ok, so I have 2 astronomy buff PCs who have basically decided Gervic Ayggler is the coolest old guy ever, and I suspect they are going to want to dig more into the shifting lights he spotted. Is there anything in one of the bestiaries that matches up with what happened to the first town on this site? Or anything others came up with to fill in that their players enjoyed?

** spoiler omitted **
Dominion of the Black?

Probably accurate. I still wish I had stats for selectively invisible sky snakes.


Hi, I realize it's been quiet for a bit here, but I'm just about to start Choking Tower. One of my players is an LN android witch who has personally stated that she wants to rescue all androids from eventual extinction by 1) not killing any android they encounter, and 2) finding a way to create new androids.

Now I'm sure there can be great player discussion about whether the androids in the Aurora should even continue to live, if perhaps their existence is too painful and all that, but that's kind of a conversation I want to leave within the party. This could also be a good way of confronting her ideal goal of never killing any android.

What I'm interested in as a GM is if it's possible to restore the android foundry. I would assume this process would take a very long time and a lot of magic, tech, and gold. Has anyone run this as a possibility with satisfactory results?

Obviously I'd be willing to do this over the course of several books, so it would kind of just start here.


The Malfunctioning Android Foundry (A3) was functioning well enough to create deformed androids, so it is probably reparable given sufficiently high engineering skill. I would require a character with Craft Technological Item and require a DC 25 check on Knowledge(engineering) to diagnose what is wrong and a DC 20 Craft(mechanical) check to install the replacement parts. Creating the replacement parts would require a nanotech lab.

I decided that Casandalee had restored the Aurora's Nanotech Laboratory (A14) to full functionality, so a nanotech lab can be available. I had a backstory in which Casandalee had been badly injured by the two annihilator robots in the Valley of the Brain Collectors and had gone to the Aurora in order to repair herself with nanotech. Then she decided to correct the leakage into the local groundwater and repaired the recycling system but was shot by the gearsmen and poisoned with fresh nanite leakage before she could activate it.

However, the deformed androids don't need an android foundry. They are already made. Instead, they need major medical care in a surgical lab along with heavy doses of repair nanites. The Medical Lab (C11) in the spaceship beneath Torch has the proper surgical equipment and the Nanotech Laboratory in the Aurora should be enough. That will involve a lot of travel with the deformed androids. I had Casandalee leave notes on how to make repair nanites, and the surgery would be as difficult as installing cybernetics, so usually a DC 24 Heal check.

The city of Starfall has cybertech surgeries, so the medical care could be done there instead, but the Technic League would probably notice. Paajgat the Flayer's Grand Lab (M9) in Valley of the Brain Collectors would also be sufficient, but that is Dominion technology rather than Androffan technology, so the party would need a Dominion advisor, such as Paajgat or Maukui, to understand it.


If I remember correctly it was stated, that the android leader (forgot her name) still thinks, the ship is in orbit and the party is a band of space pirate invaders. So the party has to convince her first, that this is not true


Has anyone actually made the rift boots? I know they were taken out before the final version, but I feel like they could make for a cool item. For now I'm sort of operating under similar rules to boots of escape but with some modifications. My version is currently only capable of being used once per day and then charged through "kinetic energy" as determined by doing things for the rest of the day or a few hours the next day. Also they currently can only do 50 feet, but a character with an item crafting feat could upgrade them at a lab.

If anyone else has statted these up I'd like to see what they came up with.


Anyone else a bit confused about the animated crane encounter? It doesn't show where it's supposed to be on the map and the 30ft boom doesn't seem to fit the room either. Also how does it swivel with the middle part of the room blocked off by the chimney? This whole encounter is cool but doesn't make any sense. Can anyone who has run this encounter tell me how they made it work?


When I ran this I put the crane in that kind of square-ish area of the balcony just next to the chimney.

I had it use its boom to attack them from above while they were in the room below the balcony. That worked really well!


Leedwashere wrote:

When I ran this I put the crane in that kind of square-ish area of the balcony just next to the chimney.

I had it use its boom to attack them from above while they were in the room below the balcony. That worked really well!

Thanks, that seems like a good option. I think I'll either go with that or a crane with some kind of retractable arm.


rane0 wrote:

Has anyone actually made the rift boots? I know they were taken out before the final version, but I feel like they could make for a cool item. For now I'm sort of operating under similar rules to boots of escape but with some modifications. My version is currently only capable of being used once per day and then charged through "kinetic energy" as determined by doing things for the rest of the day or a few hours the next day. Also they currently can only do 50 feet, but a character with an item crafting feat could upgrade them at a lab.

If anyone else has statted these up I'd like to see what they came up with.

I made them work similar the Arcanist Dimensional Slide exploit, with every 10 feet of movement using one charge.


Has this been covered?

G4 the wind Tunnel.

Furkas summoned 6 belkers. 2 of them died during experiments in the wind tunnel. 3 fly around and lay claim to the room after Furkas' death.

We're missing a belker. Unless it's the advanced Belker from earlier in the tower.

Liberty's Edge

I took that as meaning the advanced belker from the eighth floor.


We one shot Furkas Xoud

An occultist (necroccultist)/soul drinker with soul powered magic amped up a control undead spell with overclocking and faux esoteric components consisting of chicken souls.

Effective DC 25 to save. Could got 17.

Then we sent him outside to talk with the psychopomp we hired from Absalom.


Been dead here awhile, but here this goes~

Furkas Xoud has metamagic mastery (1/day) under his SQ's.

Isn't this a feat that requires 3 other metamagic feats? How does he have this learned, and if he does. Which metamagic feat is selected? he doesn't have any under his feats.

Thanks!

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32

Chillergy wrote:

Been dead here awhile, but here this goes~

Furkas Xoud has metamagic mastery (1/day) under his SQ's.

Isn't this a feat that requires 3 other metamagic feats? How does he have this learned, and if he does. Which metamagic feat is selected? he doesn't have any under his feats.

Thanks!

I believe that the metamagic mastery ability is NOT the feat, but the 8th level wizard ability for being a universalist, so he wouldn't need any pre-reqs. However, he does not have a metamagic feat, so that ability is worthless for him.


@Grumpus

Thank you so much. Searching for this was difficult because of the synonymous naming.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path Subscriber
MerlinCross wrote:

Has this been covered?

G4 the wind Tunnel.

Furkas summoned 6 belkers. 2 of them died during experiments in the wind tunnel. 3 fly around and lay claim to the room after Furkas' death.

We're missing a belker. Unless it's the advanced Belker from earlier in the tower.

The sixth belker is Harrison Ford.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Jaegermonster General wrote:
MerlinCross wrote:

Has this been covered?

G4 the wind Tunnel.

Furkas summoned 6 belkers. 2 of them died during experiments in the wind tunnel. 3 fly around and lay claim to the room after Furkas' death.

We're missing a belker. Unless it's the advanced Belker from earlier in the tower.

The sixth belker is Harrison Ford.

So, ... stabbed through the chest with a lightsaber?


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Lord Fyre wrote:
Jaegermonster General wrote:
MerlinCross wrote:

Has this been covered?

G4 the wind Tunnel.

Furkas summoned 6 belkers. 2 of them died during experiments in the wind tunnel. 3 fly around and lay claim to the room after Furkas' death.

We're missing a belker. Unless it's the advanced Belker from earlier in the tower.

The sixth belker is Harrison Ford.
So, ... stabbed through the chest with a lightsaber?

Or running around in the tower, constantly having a bad feeling, and yelling at everyone to never tell him the odds?


Has anyone kept track of their party's timeline through this campaign? I went back through my group's campaign journal yesterday, writing down every day we played. Within each entry I wrote down each day that passed in-game starting with Erastus 9, 4715 (we started playing July 9, 2015). The party completed The Choking Tower on Arodus 21, 4715. They are ninth level, and have only been adventuring for 43 days in-game. We have had some time off from this campaign to complete my previous homebrew campaign, and so I can play for a while. We'll hopefully resume sometime in March.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path Subscriber
RedRobe wrote:
Has anyone kept track of their party's timeline through this campaign? I went back through my group's campaign journal yesterday, writing down every day we played. Within each entry I wrote down each day that passed in-game starting with Erastus 9, 4715 (we started playing July 9, 2015). The party completed The Choking Tower on Arodus 21, 4715. They are ninth level, and have only been adventuring for 43 days in-game. We have had some time off from this campaign to complete my previous homebrew campaign, and so I can play for a while. We'll hopefully resume sometime in March.

I always keep track of time in my games - just a series of check marks in my notebook every time they sleep. I'm running IG as a sandbox, so it's particularly important there. My groups in the middle of Lords of Rust, and it's been about a month and a half in-game.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I keep mental notes of the time in my games, because I also expect bystander NPCs to do things given enough time. But mental notes get fuzzy after a few years.

Fires of Creation took about a week of time in the middle of spring, including time waiting around Khonnir Baine's sick bed. I tend to start my timelines in spring; otherwise, by the end of the campaign they will be adventuring in snow.

My players decided to pretend to be fugitives and settled into Scrapwall in Lords of Rust. So that module took two months. Then they took six weeks in Scrapwall digging out and repairing the haunted wrecked spaceship in the valley of mists. The Technic League showed up three days after it was dug out, so they flew away to escape.

That saved them time traveling to Iadenveigh and the Smoking Tower in The Choking Tower. Iadenveigh took three days adventuring and another week digging a secret tunnel out of the Aurora while they told the town council they were destroying the source of the contaminated water and filled in the known entrance afterwards. They went through the Smoking Tower in a day.

They took a month and a half of downtime after that, including a visit to The Tarnished Halls to sell their technological loot.

Scar of the Spider in Valley of the Brain Collectors took two days. But I had the final villain escape alive, so they spent another week hunting him down at the Plain of Ten Thousand Swords, a place from Numeria, Land of Fallen Stars. Followed by another month of downtime.

The players pulled the same incognito stunt in Starfall in Palace of Fallen Stars as they had in Scrapwall, so they spent four weeks living in Starfall gradually gathering information. They ran missions for Mockey, helped the poor, and one joined the Technic League to infiltrate. They departed suddenly in the middle of the module and ended up at Silver Mount.

At the Divinity in The Divinity Drive they derailed the campaign so that my timeline no longer has any relation to the module. They got themselves hired by Unity as repair crew. They spent three months repairing the Divinity, mostly having encounters with undead. The final battle took them to orbit around Androffa, via a portal opened by the Divinity Drive, and they spent weeks at the a space station there working to rescue the last Desna worshippers of Androffa. They returned to Golarion with a 300-foot space cruiser and took over the Technic League to finish up Palace of Fallen Stars.

That sums to 7 + 60 + 42 + 3 + 7 + 1 + 45 + 2 + 7 + 30 + 28 + 90 + 28 = 350 days, almost one year. They were mostly indoors in the Divinity during the winter. The weather that year must have been warm and dry, because I forgot the ice and snow when they ventured outside. Or maybe the Divinity keeps the top of Silver Mount warm.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Mathmuse wrote:
I keep mental notes of the time in my games, because I also expect bystander NPCs to do things given enough time. But mental notes get fuzzy after a few years.

Aging does that to all of us. ;)

Mathmuse wrote:
That sums to 7 + 60 + 42 + 3 + 7 + 1 + 45 + 2 + 7 + 30 + 28 + 90 + 28 = 350 days, almost one year. They were mostly indoors in the Divinity during the winter. The weather that year must have been warm and dry, because I forgot the ice and snow when they ventured outside. Or maybe the Divinity keeps the top of Silver Mount warm.

Given that Unity keeps several systems powered, that is not actually implausible.


I would like to have my characters to the Dusklight side quest. But, have no idea what to do about stats for the ships. Or possible upgrades?
Did anyone else do this encounter? Anything you could throw my way?


Aviel wrote:

I would like to have my characters to the Dusklight side quest. But, have no idea what to do about stats for the ships. Or possible upgrades?

Did anyone else do this encounter? Anything you could throw my way?

Since I've reskinned the tech as being from the Star Wars universe, I'm going to use d20 Star Wars land speeder stats for the escape craft since the adventure says the schematics can be reverse engineered to build a hovercraft vehicle. Specifically its the Rebel Troop Cart from The Force Unleashed set of minis since I have the mini and plan to use it at the table.


My PCs have entered the tower through the basement. When they encounter Furkas and eventually reduce him to 0hp in G9, what happens to him? He cannot be put to rest unless the PCs do two of the three requirements. Does he regain all of his hp each time he is slain until they put him to rest permanently?


Nvm, I found the answer.


The crew I DM for converted to 5e. Since our wizard recovered Furkas' spellbook, I want to give him permanent teleportation circle locations that the Smoke Wizard would have in it. Where in Starfall (and possibly other locations) should there be a teleportation circle inscribed? I have accounted for the Choking Tower so far.


Trying to figure this one out: How did Sahasho (invisible stalker) stay for so many years when the planar ally spell has a duration for up to one day per caster level if I read it correctly?

Is it either one or the other, and not whichever comes first regarding this? Thinking it should be the latter.

Quote:
At the end of its task, or when the duration bargained for expires, the creature returns to its home plane (after reporting back to you, if appropriate and possible).

Asking because one of my players wonders how he could do the same thing (and rules should be equal for both sides).


This is a common quesiton also in d&d but the common idea is that either the called must be able to complete the task on its own (MR. Meeseeks!) or it should have a limited duration.

The caster has to negotiate the agreement with the called and any tasks lasting longer then normal 1-20 days should be prohibitively expensive if at all possible. You could have the caster tricking the called - but Planar ALLY is actually the caster begging for help from their Diety who could be upset if it was abused. The called putting its life on the line would turn down any offer not worth it or made by faithfuls who shared their dogma.

It didn't come up for us as we skipped this dungeon entirely since I had swapped the plot devices of AP 3 and 4. Casandalees AI core was trapped in the choking tower calling out for help to nearby timeworn equipment and establishing a dialogue with the players. The next AP was about returning her to her body.


Thanks! I don't think Xoud intended for Sahasho to stay that long, and the spell should probably have timed out. A recording in that room could allow the players to get the the same information as relayed by Sahasho.


So funny story, Illaris did escape as I gave her the rift boots (albeit timeworn and yes I used the statblock for em provided by the creator in his block)

so after the session I did go through the dungeon playing her to see what would happen

Failed to notice the glyph of warding, failed her climb check and fell, attacked by the swarm, tried to escape, triggered the lightning trap and...she died on there

the swarm took some damage and she "disabled" the shock trap as I ruled since she fell on the spot, the trap would keep triggering until it ran out of juice

Yeah...my luck as a player is pretty good, my luck as a GM, isn't as good, I've had moments where I build up opponents (like Hellskarg) and then they steamroll em because my opening rolls are like 1's and 2's LOL


The 2 giants the party face before facing the choking tower, they befriended them. In there camp they noticed their "plan" to fight the technic league and agreed to help them fight the machine (the diplomancer nat 20ed that) in exchange for him being thier new chief

They all worked together to smash the warden bot in one round LOL

Now they got Bigg Club and Wedge Maker as two somewhat friendly giants they plan to take back to torch to have them help around and act as guards...


My party took out Xoud the first time he appears. They used the free cure serious wounds to great effect they got from book 2, and not to mention...GRAPPLED THE GHOST. The monk was the one who did it and I even rolled 50/50 to see if she could hold her...she did

and they wailed on him and kept hammering away...and well...took him out

I am not angry, we laughed so hard it was like that Jojo Meme

yeah good times

201 to 247 of 247 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder Adventure Path / Iron Gods / The Choking Tower (GM Reference) All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.