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Your grim pleasure, indeed, John. I love it and am terrified by it.
There appear to be some minor calculation issues in the 12-13 subtier version of Suliji - 32 AC when the mods listed show 31 (though that could include the deflection bonus from Shield Other), +16 Will Save instead of what I'm seeing should be +17 (10 base + 4 resistance + 2 Heroism + 1 WIS mod).
Re: +5 Mithral Breastplate of Speed - I'm not seeing a mod for "of Speed" for armor in any of my sources. Are we intended to use the weapon quality on the armor?
For GMs using Hero Lab, I've uploaded the portfolios for both tiers of Suliji to the PFS Prep site. This NPC is remarkably complex, so I thought this would be a good priority, but it will still require a lot of prep to understand the whole encounter. I won't be able to run this soon due to poor timing, but I intend to get notes up to PFS Prep to help out the Gen Con GMs.
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Okay I ran this bad boy on Saturday.
Pretty straightforward stuff overall that I won't get into yet. If you're planning on running, these are the areas that required some "work" to play out correctly.
Working through the obstacles is a bit tough. I missed the "you have to make one of each check" on the 3-4 option when I read it, so you may wish to read it again and make sure you have it right.
Make sure you're on top of tracking your awareness and obstacles. I messed up one once and it screwed everything up. I have a tracker for this I'll put on PFS Prep once I get the chance to update it to correct my errors and make it clear how it works.
The "final" encounter can be a complete slog. Her sheer power makes it tough to prep for and tough to run. We wound up calling it upon lack of time (the group had the upper hand). It took me nearly 2 hours of rules review to become familiar enough with the rules I felt comfortable running her. Even then, on the table, there are a lot of options available, which makes this fight potentially very long (that's what happened to my group).
Overall the encounters were fairly fun - though you could tell that the certain builds of two opponents made the gunslinger with the +1 (+5 equivalent) weapon cry.
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Overall the encounters were fairly fun - though you could tell that the certain builds of two opponents made the gunslinger with the +1 (+5 equivalent) weapon cry.
An interesting sentiment. I ran this at Gen Con with a gunslinger at the table, and though Mr. Khayn was certainly frustrating for the gunslinger, I'm not sure what in the last encounter (other than fickle winds, which is bypassed by the Cyclonic weapon enchantment) was going to slow down said gunslinger? What did I miss?
I plan to submit a full review of all three this weekend, but I did want to chime in and ask this because I noticed the gunslinger was barely impeded by the encounters in Part III, a distinct difference from Parts I (pre-Cyclonic enchant, and the impetus for him purchasing it in the first place) and II (lost LoS and the immunity to bludgeoning).
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The cyclonic effect gets around wind based impediments, such as the penalty to attack rolls or inability to make ranged attacks in very high strength wind. Fickle Winds is a spell effect and I don't believe cyclonic does anything to get round it.
I've heard experienced players make the claim that Seeking (a +1 enchant) should bypass Fickle Winds because it's a miss chance. Cyclonic (a +2 enchant) had better do exactly what it says on the tin and go through without incident. In my mind, Cyclonic clarifies that Seeking is insufficient to bypass Fickle Winds and Wind Wall.
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The cyclonic effect gets around wind based impediments, such as the penalty to attack rolls or inability to make ranged attacks in very high strength wind. Fickle Winds is a spell effect and I don't believe cyclonic does anything to get round it.I've heard experienced players make the claim that Seeking (a +1 enchant) should bypass Fickle Winds because it's a miss chance. Cyclonic (a +2 enchant) had better do exactly what it says on the tin and go through without incident. In my mind, Cyclonic clarifies that Seeking is insufficient to bypass Fickle Winds and Wind Wall.
Interesting - based on my understanding of the rules, Cyclonic flat bypasses fickle winds while Seeking does not (unless applied to a gun, in which case fickle winds is just a 30% miss chance and Seeking does bypass it).
Also, spoke to MisterSlanky and I get what he was saying. Lots and lots of sunder (which I did not miss, I just couldn't execute due to good party tactics).
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Ahh, poor Mr. Khayn. Ate an archery full-attack and died (outright) within 1 round of combat starting both times I've run it. (First a ranger, then an Erastilian warpriest.)
That more-or-less happened at my table too. Except the group was like "oh crap!" and then they used three BoL/gloves of healing shots to bring him up. Then he sundered something. They regretted that choice.
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The cyclonic effect gets around wind based impediments, such as the penalty to attack rolls or inability to make ranged attacks in very high strength wind. Fickle Winds is a spell effect and I don't believe cyclonic does anything to get round it.I've heard experienced players make the claim that Seeking (a +1 enchant) should bypass Fickle Winds because it's a miss chance. Cyclonic (a +2 enchant) had better do exactly what it says on the tin and go through without incident. In my mind, Cyclonic clarifies that Seeking is insufficient to bypass Fickle Winds and Wind Wall.Interesting - based on my understanding of the rules, Cyclonic flat bypasses fickle winds while Seeking does not (unless applied to a gun, in which case fickle winds is just a 30% miss chance and Seeking does bypass it).
Re-reading it all, RAW tends in that direction. There's a degree to which wind wall was insufficiently future-proofed and doesn't account for the role that we see the several-hardcovers-later firearms taking in high-level content.
#SeekingSlingsVSwindwall
#bullets
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Interestingly enough, my copy of the CRB says
Arrows and bolts are deflected upward and miss, while any other normal ranged weapon passing through the wall has a 30% miss chance.
(Emphasis mine.)
Which seems to be pretty clear cut, at least in terms of RAW. Bullets are not arrows or bolts, therefore they fall under the category of "any other" and are therefore only subject to a 30% miss chance.
As the Gunslinger in-question at Ryan's table, it sucks to know I could have saved myself about 10k, but oh well.
Given how utterly combat warping high-level guns are, I would be strongly in favor of a clarification that says Wind Wall effects bullets as if they were arrows or bolts.
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Given how utterly combat warping high-level guns are, I would be strongly in favor of a clarification that says Wind Wall effects bullets as if they were arrows or bolts.
I would get behind that. Part I started my spiral into utterly hating having a gunslinger at the table, Part III solidified that into a "I will not play with a gunslinger at high level again".
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Disk - the error was mine, and it was pointed out to me by Jack Brown after the fact. For the record, it made exactly zero difference in how quickly your party ROFLstomped every encounter without resistance or remorse.
EDIT: That is not meant to be a jab - the party in question was extremely well-prepared and efficient, they came in with their A-game, and the reward was a (nearly) complete success.
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My impression is either that the pashas wouldn't use their wishes as a reaction to Mr. Khayn's situation or that they wouldn't use them at all without the Hard Mode adjustment.
Speaking of Mr. Khayn, for the purposes of his Martial Flexibility, is he restricted to legal feats as indicated in the Additional Resources?
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Speaking of Mr. Khayn, for the purposes of his Martial Flexibility, is he restricted to legal feats as indicated in the Additional Resources?I don't believe NPCs have ever been bound by the additional resources.
That is only of they are specifically written with otherwise banned things. GMso should not go out of thier way to choose banned feats.
Developer
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That is only of they are specifically written with otherwise banned things. GMso should not go out of thier way to choose banned feats.Speaking of Mr. Khayn, for the purposes of his Martial Flexibility, is he restricted to legal feats as indicated in the Additional Resources?I don't believe NPCs have ever been bound by the additional resources.
Stick to what's legal in Additional Resources. When scenarios stray outside of AR, it is a deliberate choice, one that we and the authors make sparingly.
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tl;dr: Don't run hard mode at a store. You will likely run out of time.
So I finally got to run the scenario tonight. Subtier 14-15, hard mode.
Official start: 6:30pm
Actual start: ~7pm
OH GOD THEY DECIDED TO FIGHT ALEXAYN
Leave the Mausoleum: 9:30pm
Traversing: 10pm-ish
Mr. Khayn killed: 12am
Start the Suliji fight (much deliberation) 12:35am
Store closed and Suliji escapes: 1am
Party make-up:
Paladin/Holy Vindicator
Inquisitor
Evoker Wizard
Mystic Theurge
Cavalier/Battle Herald
Rogue of 1 million non-lethal damage sneak attacks
At each stage of the scenario, there was a surprising amount of deliberation. This was particularly true with Alexayn - some memebers of the party were totally ok with leaving him alone and then things suddenly turned around after ~30 minutes and they decided to attack. Mr. Khayn was very reasonable with them, but firm, so they decided to attack after about 10 minutes. Suliji chatted with them for ~20 minutes, as well.
Time soaks:
- Condition removal
- Deliberation (which was really good, but took a LOT of time)
- Some table talk
- The only person with Ghost Bane was the rogue.
Mr. Khayn did lose out on a charge due to the Leonal getting a grapple off mid-charge. It was a sad day for him in that regard. He was then nearly killed, wished back up, and he sundered a TON of the inquisitor's stuff while prone. He was eventually taken out by Icy Prison, which I didn't feel that bad about given how much trouble he had already caused. Limited Wish was blown to repair the inquisitor's sword. One of the Pashas was killed by the paladin's vorpal sword. We continued to mock the purchase of said sword after the fact as he had sold off a bunch of gear to get it.
We get midway into round 2 and have to pack up. Given positioning and the situation, Suliji simply escapes (she could have killed the wizard, too, but it was time to go).
I misplayed some things in the players' favor throughout the scenario. Still, combats were challenging and the players had some tough decisions to make tactically. I enjoyed running it, but I really wish I had the time to do the Suliji fight properly.
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Hey - thank you to everyone involved in this trilogy. I just finished the first run in Australia (as far as I know) yesterday, and it was a really good time. We had 2 paladins, and so there were a lot of tough decisions one how to proceed - in the end they cut of the Serpent's Head, however. Was very awesome - they were a little upset by the tease at the end with the Decemvirate member only alluding to having one of them promoted, not actually happening :P
Question on the boon, however. I've applied the GM credit for this to my level 3 Fighter (Mutation Warrior)(Eldritch Guardian). He clearly doesn't get the rewards from this until level 12, but there was mention at the table that the boons that don't apply to the specific character (say the destroying the Aspis boon, or the Protege boon) can be benefited from now. Anyone got advice on that one? :)
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I played this and ran it both sessions took about 4.5 hours. (Playing high tier, with 6 players). Both groups skipped the optional encounter and did not fight the mummy. But both groups wanted to go back and destroy the mummy at the end of the scenario. Being in game stores there was not enough time to go back and do this.
I liked the scenario but found the end to be a bit of a railroad. At least as it was presented to me. The railroad was having to Choose between Peshar or the Aspis leadership to ally with. Both groups of players I gamed with wanted to destroy both sides.
When I played it the GM told us we needed to choose a side. That influenced the way I GMed it and I did the same thing. Which in hindsight I think was a mistake. I should have let them kill everyone in the Hall of Blades and tell the players the other Aspis Leaders could not be found. And crossed both boons off the chronicle sheets. Maybe a paragraph from the author within the scenario addressing this option that the players could take and the results of such action would have helped avoid the railroad feeling presented by some GM's.
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Venture-Agent, Michigan—Detroit
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Question about assigning teams to tasks
I'm going with the idea that they find out about Alexayn's previous moniker, but don't link it to Suliji Peshar. I'm assuming that the only time she used Three Rings was with the Pathfinder Society, so people in Ostenso wouldn't know about her, but that's just an assumption.
By the time they report back, it'll be a moot point anyway, but I'm curious.
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I'd like to call out the brawler using Snake Style in this mod while I was playing. He came up and triggered an AoO from my brawler using Snake Style. He used his snake style, swung at me and triggered my snake style, and I punched him anyway.
All in all it was a hilarious encounter for me, and I loved running into my own mechanic. Immediately followed by oh-my-god fight with that ghost thing, but myself and the Eldritch Dimensional Dervish Knight managed to take it out (barely) while the rest of the party dealt with the monk things. It was a terrifying fight. I'm curious on this part for when I eventually run it...
The final fight was strange. We were starting to run over and didn't want to deal with her sass. So the EK and I won initiative, DimDoor'ed in mid-monologue, and I full round wriggity-wrecked her, followed by a barbarian charge attack that finished her off before she got to activate all her shenanigans.
A+ for the trilogy, it was a blast.
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The final fight was strange. We were starting to run over and didn't want to deal with her sass. So the EK and I won initiative, DimDoor'ed in mid-monologue, and I full round wriggity-wrecked her, followed by a barbarian charge attack that finished her off before she got to activate all her shenanigans.That should totally trigger at least one of her shenanigans. Also finishing her off should just trigger another buff.
Pathfinder Society Lead Developer
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I'd like to call out the brawler using Snake Style in this mod while I was playing. He came up and triggered an AoO from my brawler using Snake Style. He used his snake style, swung at me and triggered my snake style, and I punched him anyway.
All in all it was a hilarious encounter for me, and I loved running into my own mechanic. Immediately followed by oh-my-god fight with that ghost thing, but myself and the Eldritch Dimensional Dervish Knight managed to take it out (barely) while the rest of the party dealt with the monk things. It was a terrifying fight. I'm curious on this part for when I eventually run it...
** spoiler omitted **
The final fight was strange. We were starting to run over and didn't want to deal with her sass. So the EK and I won initiative, DimDoor'ed in mid-monologue, and I full round wriggity-wrecked her, followed by a barbarian charge attack that finished her off before she got to activate all her shenanigans.
A+ for the trilogy, it was a blast.
Because seeker-level content is still under-explored ground for us as a campaign and as developers, writing reviews for the scenarios is appreciated.
