|
I've been reading the books, and
What bothers me is that that essentially gives one character use of three different artifacts. Even if it's at different times, it still feels kind of unfair. How would someone, as a GM, make things fair for characters who might not get an artifact because of this subtle encouragement?
dude spoilers!! c'mon you've been posting here enough to know that.
drat! flagged it wrong!
It's all good, sorry it came out so strong, I should've said that nicer:-\
|
|
Okay, it looks like a spoiler tag was added to the title. Thank you to whomever did that! Now, back to the question in the OP:
Maybe this is part of my natural instinct that one person having more than one artifact is a BAD thing and UNFAIR (either each player should get one artifact or no one should get one). Maybe it's remnants of my 4e days where the rule was a PC could only have one artifact at a time. But it really feels like the presence of these three artifacts (Aggrimosh, Nargrym's Steel Hand and the Hammer of Thunderbolts) will make players fight over them, especially if there's multiple melee fighters or multiple dwarf PCs.
What's a good way to handle this many artifacts fairly as a GM?
I don't know this AP but why don't you just
Or add other (minor) artifacts to the loot? I do that regularly in the games I GM as the authors of the AP of course cannot anticipate each and every party composition of the various groups playing.
Ruyan.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Well, the enemies are giants, it makes a LOT of sense that their artifacts are hammers and similar weapons.
I would find it really weird if a stone giant dropped an artifact dagger.
But yes, you can replace the item type, you could even say that the artifact forge can imbue a newly forged weapon with one of artifacts properties.
I think the OPs observation or complaint is that all the artifacts would be best for one PC, not one type of PC. As in one PC has 2 artifacts and the rest of the group has none.
To be fair, none of them should have an artifact.
They are part of the epic elements of the campaign.
|
|
I think the OPs observation or complaint is that all the artifacts would be best for one PC, not one type of PC. As in one PC has 2 artifacts and the rest of the group has none.
Yes, that's correct. To wit:
"You gave that jerk THREE artifacts over the course of the campaign! Where's MY artifact?!" is the accusation I'm worried about hearing in response to this setup.
I'm sorry, but if I'm a leader of Giants and have found out through various means about X character with his Giant-killing Artifacts, I'm going to tell my minions "gang-pile the artifact wielder. We kill him/her, the others will fall easily."
In short, the artifact wielder should become the primary target and be subject to death after death after death. And after seeing that character die five or so times? Most other people will go "sure! Give him the big-ass hammer! I don't want to die like he/she has!"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Of course if you have an all Dwarf party then you run into the problem of not enough War Hammers:-)
Senior Developer
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Two things to point out regarding these 3 artifacts:
2. If the wearer of Nargrym's steel hand uses the Hammer of Thunderbolts, they're likely no longer using Agrimmosh, which means that someone else could then use it).
My PCs were nice, only one dwarf and he's a druid. Although finding Agrimmosh did make the melee wizard pick up a level of ranger to use it as my group has no melee classes.
I really don't see the problem, for once the spell casters don't get all the nice things. There is no rules in RPGs that everyone has to be balanced and equal powered. Give the melee fighter a break for once and let them be one of the dominate forces at high level.
Giantslayer probably has more artifacts fall into the PCs' hands than any AP to date...
Compared to Wrath of the Righteous? Not even close.
Also, the powers of
I'm just curious about Agrimmosh and I thought this would be a good place to ask. What is the purpose of the heightened quality of the enlarge person and to what level was it heightened? Are we to assume it's been heightened to 9th level? I've only read the first part of the AP, and I thought the heightened might matter later but I would like to know so I can plan to change it.
|
I'm just curious about Agrimmosh and I thought this would be a good place to ask. What is the purpose of the heightened quality of the enlarge person and to what level was it heightened? Are we to assume it's been heightened to 9th level? I've only read the first part of the AP, and I thought the heightened might matter later but I would like to know so I can plan to change it.
Duration and, more importantly, for dispelling purposes.
Heightened affects neither duration or the possibility of dispel being effective or not. Globe of Invulnerability would almost apply, but it's not an offensive spell. It just seems to be a waste of 8 levels of metamagic, assuming it's even heightened to 9th level which remains unclear.
|
|
Oh yes it does. A dispel magic will first target and interact with the highest level spell then in effect. As a spell with heightened effect, that's a 9th level spell buff of enlarge person at CL20. In all but a mere handful of potential exceptions, that spell effect is overwhelmingly likely in this AP to rule the roost as the highest level spell effect when it is in effect. This may matter when the wielder interacts with a caster or when hit with a special weapon - like, a +2 dispelling morningstar, say.
A targeted dispel magic will therefore potentially affect that buff first. It may preserve your other buffs from cancellation. Whether that is perceived a bonus or not is a matter of context, but it absolutely will matter.
It also affects duration for a spell cast from an equivocal source. In this case, given the stated text of the artifact itself, it does not have an impact. It's a CL20 item and the text says it last 20 minutes. Otherwise, for an ambiguous source, we'd be assuming contextually it was CL17 (the minimum level to cast a 9th level spell).
Oh yes it does. A dispel magic will first target and interact with the highest level spell then in effect. As a spell with heightened effect, that's a 9th level spell buff of enlarge person at CL20.
You're half right. A dispel will first target the highest caster level, not spell level. So if your 20th level Cleric casts a 1st level buff on your 19th level wizard, that buff spell is the first thing at risk, not his CL 19 Shapechange (or whatever).