Hello,
Early next month I intend to buy this adventure path including the two extra books. What I was wondering was, what types of enemies are featured in this series? I figure there's going to be undead, since it's about mummies after all. Would you guys give me a list of the enemy types (human, dragon etc) that are in it?
Also, what classes do well in this adventure path? I figure a cleric would rock, since there's undead.
What kind of outsiders? Undead? I know there's humans in it, any other humanoids?
So, you are saying Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue, right?
Most of the time, my group tends to ignore ranged weaponry in favor of the Wizard/Sorcerer just zapping them with a ranged spell. Are you saying they should have a dedicated archer?
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Outsiders range from genies to div. Undead covers pretty much the entire spectrum from mindless zombies to bloody skeletons to banshees to shadows to vampires to the eponymous Mummy Lord Hakotep I. Other humanoids are giants and various monstrous humanoids (thraie, girtablilu, etc). If you're the GM, I strongly suggest you forgo the whole "Pick a race" theme for humanoids in Favored Enemy and Bane and just let "Humanoids" be a category like "Monstrous Humanoids".
The final party that completed my game consisted of a 2H Fighter, a TWF Ranger / Sentinel, an offensive caster Oracle, and a ranged Investigator. Both melee had very capable thrown weapon ability. Investigator was the trap archetype. During the course of the campaign, not having even any arcane became a problem a few times, resorting to having to use spellcasting services and eventually having a mid level wizard cohort for books 5-6 (when the sentinel hit his 9th level in the PrC). You need divine like a fat kid needs cake. We had 4 actual character deaths, and another 3-4 uses of breath of life. And that was a very optimized power gamer party. Traps are a very prominent feature of the campaign, with every book being littered with them, and they just get nastier and nastier as the books get further along. And by book 5 and 6 they're all magical traps which can only be disabled with Trapfinding.
There are flying enemies. Many flying enemies. Oftentimes flying and incorporeal. If you're melee and magic, you're gonna have times when you need that missing ranged.
So ideally, an archer or Sorcerer (Fighter, Ranger, preferably Human so as to get that extra feat), Wizard, Rogue, and Cleric, correct? Seems like a pretty standard requirement, although most Pathfinder APs don't have much for traps or a need for archery.
There's a feat chain in Undead Slayer's Handbook that allows a Cleric to put a temporary Bane on a weapon, so we might not have to worry about the Humanoids variety.
The only trouble would be to find a way for the Rogue to sneak attack when the party warrior is an archer... or give up sneak attack entirely somehow.
Don't forget that one of the Campaign Traits grants a trapfinding ability - the rogue class might not be as necessary if one of the PCs takes that trait.
Thanks! But the trap PC is still going to need Perception as class. Unless they are willing to give up both traits to become a trapfinder, we are still going to need a Rogue or something close.
Do you guys think a party could get away with not having a warrior/archer if it had a Sorcerer, Wizard, Cleric, and trap man?
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Sure. You just need the capability to readily handle enemies who attack you from 20+ feet flying. Thrown weapons can handle most all of your ranged needs if your cleric and trap man want to invest in a dagger of doubling or a returning weapon. You're gonna still want some melee though, but if your cleric is built as a tank model you'll do rather ok.
The balance of enemies really makes it so that as long as all your bases are somewhat covered, then you shouldn't get curb stomped.
I understand your players probably have classes they already tend to favor, but as the GM, you might want to encourage them to spread their themes out a bit. The Sor and Wiz overlap significantly in mechanical function (both strong arcane, weak bab, bad HD), so unless they're dead set on replicating base function, try to persuade them to branch out a bit for party roundness sake. I'm not saying that they wouldn't each create a build that would bring the needed diversity to the party, but it is in your best interest as the GM for them to have the most reasonable chance at success (in this case, having as many bases covered as you can). And since book 1 is a notorious meat grinder (see the 15 book 1 deaths in the obituaries thread), helping them get into a position for success helps you see book 2+.
In summary, about any party will work, but my personal recommendation is have arcane, divine, traps and capability to poke something with both a sword and an arrow. A good bard can cover arcane and traps, a good oracle can cover divine and melee, a good investigator can cover traps and ranged. Don't forget about those mechanically diverse medium BAB classes :P
I don't have access to the Investigator class.
I've got the core book, advanced player's guide, ultimate magic, ultimate combat, advanced race guide, all the racial booklets in existence, bestiary 1-4, gamemastery guide, inner sea magic, inner sea gods, inner sea world guide, ultimate equipment. Plus a bunch of the various player companions.
Haven't been too interested in buying the other new books, as most of them seem concentrated on having odd gestalts/blends of the core book classes. I want something different, dammit.
Now, I also have the Rise of the Runelords book, but I plan on allowing a friend of mine to run it since he wants to learn how to DM. I'm running Carrion Crown now, for what, the 2nd or 3rd time. We quit last time when I discovered that the 6th book was nothing more than a dungeon crawl/fight fest. This time however we have a more steady bunch of players, so I'm looking forward to a full campaign. I've been running rpgs for what, 20 years now, so I've got experience.
I will encourage my players to try something new, but you have to understand, 2 of the players are newbies to Pathfinder, one is a rookie, and another is an old hand at gaming. We know the core classes the best, so I try to introduce them to new archetypes and feats through recommendations.
Since a Sorcerer is nothing more than a glass cannon/blaster, why not use it to substitute for a professional archer? They effectively do the same thing, you know.
Wizards tend to handle lots of variety in their spell selections, item crafting and identification of found items, and Knowledges. They CAN be a blaster, but they certainly don't have to be.
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If you've never been there, the Pathfinder Reference Document has all of the RPG line books (except Unchained and Occult Adventures) on it for free if you're not in the mood to get the other books. If you're wanting to stick mostly to those books you have, the player's guide for mummy's mask is very thorough on what classes would work well. If you've not downloaded it and read it yet, here's the link: Player's Guide.
As an aside, book 6 in Mummy's Mask is a 5 part dungeon crawl with only really 1 NPC up for any real interaction, and book 5 is basically 5-7 dungeon crawls.
As an aside, book 6 in Mummy's Mask is a 5 part dungeon crawl with only really 1 NPC up for any real interaction, and book 5 is basically 5-7 dungeon crawls.
Sigh. What is it about high level gameplay that makes designers just want to do dungeon crawls with no NPC interaction? Oh well.
Do you have any suggested feats? In Carrion Crown for example, I told my players to up their Fortitude (because of the werewolves) and especially Will saves because of what was in book 1 and Wake of the Watcher.
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Fort and Will saves are big. Insanity and Fear effects tore a few of my party up once we got to book 4. Literally at one point in book 6, we were a single save away from the entire party being insane at once.
There is a surprising amount of DR10/- and 15/-, so power attack / deadly aim come in handy for the martial types.
Get at least one person who can read/write/speak Ancient Osirion.
Spell Penetration comes in handy less than you'd expect, mostly because its generally only the outsiders with SR.
What can be used to get past the DR you mentioned? What does it take, adamantine?
Are there lots of outsiders with SR in Mummy's Mask? My party Wizard will want to know.
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DR/- isn't bypassed. Brute force past the auto-write off.
There are a few. Unless spell penetration is a prereq for something in his build, he's probably gonna be fine to sub something more useful to his build in and put penetration off til book 5 or 6 where the dc's start to arbitrarily jump. I don't recall offhand if there were more than half a dozen monsters throughout books 1 and 2 even with SR.
Would you explain why Fortitude saves are so important? You've already written that Will saves become important by book 4 at the earliest.
When does SR become a problem?
As a side question, do you know of a place (or a person who would be interested) where I could sell my Pathfinder Companions?
I know about that. I was hoping that there was a way for martial characters to bypass untyped damage reduction.
Would Vital Strike be worthwhile in such a situation?
Why would smite evil get past DR? It only amps up damage by a little.
Vital Strike does sound useful for helping to get past untyped DR. But only in that situation does it seem of use.
Only the energy bit of the damage would get through DR, the rest would be subject to it. That's what, only 1d6?
Does anyone know if there's any adventures set in Osirion that I could throw in to extend the adventure path? I know of "Risen From the Sands" for 3rd level characters. Are there any others?
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Sigh. What is it about high level gameplay that makes designers just want to do dungeon crawls with no NPC interaction? Oh well.
As an aside, book 6 in Mummy's Mask is a 5 part dungeon crawl with only really 1 NPC up for any real interaction, and book 5 is basically 5-7 dungeon crawls.
it's a massive Egyptian - style tomb complex in the middle of the desert. Not a lot of people out there to interact with...
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Well, by then the PCs probably have the resources and clout to organize an expedition to support them, with a base camp and everything, so they can have social interactions if they want them :) .
I suggest an inquisitor with a bow and either glory, sun or holy domain, a cleric same way, or an oracle at least. Most definitely a spell caster for all the undead, monsters humans and aberrations. Paladin or some sort of fighter-type like a brawler for this campaign any class can take trap finding. As for races I suggest aasimar, tiefling, any race with dark vision and so sort or resistance or immunities maybe a dhampir for all the ghost and stuff. Diplomacy comes in handy touch of glory is great. Other then that have fun
Lots of poison mostly.
Dr doesn't really become a problem, but as I'm sure you're aware it is tacked on often at higher crs.
There is a lot of poison but any decent party should soon realise this and make sure delay poison is a standard spell available (most don't leave home without it on) , then it really doesn't become an issue at all.