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I'm very excited to run this one. It looks fun! Also: goblins. And goblin songs.
Some interesting observations:
This month we see "Organized Play #" instead of "Pathfinder Society #". Tied to a certain effort lurking in the background unannounced, I suppose!
Hmmmmm, mutations. Looks like I need to put together a list.
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I jumped at the chance to write it and I'm eager to hear what you all think!
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Prepping this for Monday. My first question is about the Runewarden's Teachings boon, the Runeguard prestige class, and the Scribe Scroll feat prerequisite for it. No crafting feats in PFS, so how does a pc qualify for Runeguard. The chronicle states "Refer to the Campaign Clarifications page for this prestige class", but I cannot find any reference to it on the CC page. Otherwise I am stoked to run this. FLYING, FIRE BREATHING, MUTANT GOBLINS!!! Hell yeah!
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Meant to reference Linda's ruling in my next post, but I haven't made a next post yet!
In Pathfinder Society, Runeguards get Spell Focus instead of Scribe Scroll. We also have the following clarifications and changes that will be added to the next update of the Campaign Clarifications document.
*The rune of charity does not allow for the transfer of spells centered on the caster, such as antimagic field. It does allow the transfer of personal spells, so long as the spells level does not exceed the runeguard's level –2.
*The bonuses from the runes of generosity and humility last until the end of the target's next turn.
*For the rune of zeal, any effects that would reduce the effective level of the metamagic, such as the magical lineage trait, do not apply when determining which metamagic feats "only use up a spell slot 1 level higher".
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Meant to reference Linda's ruling in my next post, but I haven't made a next post yet!
In Pathfinder Society, Runeguards get Spell Focus instead of Scribe Scroll. We also have the following clarifications and changes that will be added to the next update of the Campaign Clarifications document.
*The rune of charity does not allow for the transfer of spells centered on the caster, such as antimagic field. It does allow the transfer of personal spells, so long as the spells level does not exceed the runeguard's level –2.
*The bonuses from the runes of generosity and humility last until the end of the target's next turn.
*For the rune of zeal, any effects that would reduce the effective level of the metamagic, such as the magical lineage trait, do not apply when determining which metamagic feats "only use up a spell slot 1 level higher".
Although now that I'm sitting down and parsing it, it doesn't deal with what I thought was the big problem: the capstone ability:
Sihedron Rune Mastery (Su): At 10th level, a runeguard can cast permanency as a spell-like ability once per day by drawing upon the power of the Sihedron rune. He must still provide the spell to be made permanent by other means, of course. Although a runeguard can use this ability once per day, he can only ever maintain a single spell effect, and upon using this ability, the previous permanent spell effect immediately ends.
It's only one spell, so perhaps it's not that broken? But permanency isn't legal otherwise, even though it could have easily been limited by only ever allowing one permanent effect. That leads me to believe that there might be more to do here, with Runeguard, than what Linda mentioned in the other thread.
(grumble grumble forum eating posts. You'd think I'd have learned to never trust the Paizo site with text I wasn't willing to lose.)
Anyway, even in the event that making permanency legal through this prestige class was intended, we still need some (hopefully common-sense) guidelines for how to handle it. In this case, it sounds as though there's no reasonable way for another character to get a permanency that persists past the end of the adventure. That suggests that there's a decision to be made with respect to whether or not you can make any spells permanent on another creature, at all. My money's on "yes, this could work" because of that limit of one permanency effect.
A related question is whether or not a permanency spell you have cast on yourself can persist across adventures, for example if an oracle completing this prestige class were to UMD a scroll of Arcane Sight and make it permanent.
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Thank you Terminalmancer! However, just for clarity shouldn't it say "Runeguard's prerequisites require Spell Focus instead of Scribe Scroll" as opposed to "Runeguards get Spell Focus instead of Scribe Scroll"?
One more question. In area A8 at tier 4-5 Glibeldring's tactics state that "She uses her breath weapon before closing to melee." However, nowhere in her stat block does it list stats for a breath weapon. Since she is not a mutant goblin, I will assume this was mistakenly included until I hear otherwise. Still looks awesome! I like the map as well. Compact while fitting in a lot of rooms, with simple 90 and 45 degree angles. Should be easy to draw. I have high hopes for this one.
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Thank you Terminalmancer! However, just for clarity shouldn't it say "Runeguard's prerequisites require Spell Focus instead of Scribe Scroll" as opposed to "Runeguards get Spell Focus instead of Scribe Scroll"?
It sure should. Thanks for catching that. I'll be sure to fix that when I put it into Campaign Clarifications.
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One more question. In area A8 at tier 4-5 Glibeldring's tactics state that "She uses her breath weapon before closing to melee." However, nowhere in her stat block does it list stats for a breath weapon. Since she is not a mutant goblin, I will assume this was mistakenly included until I hear otherwise.
I'll take the blame for that. In my original turnover she was not a mutant in the lower subtier and was in the higher, which added unneeded complexity. I think the developers made the wise choice to make her more consistent between subtiers and removed the mutant template while beefing up her level in Subtier 4-5.
My (totally unofficial) suggestion is to have the tactics remain as written except she casts cacophonous call on the toughest-looking PC in place of the breath weapon.
Still looks awesome! I like the map as well. Compact while fitting in a lot of rooms, with simple 90 and 45 degree angles. Should be easy to draw. I have high hopes for this one.
Thanks for the kind words. I was definitely thinking about GMs drawing it out when I designed it. I hope you like how it plays.
Goblins...
Singing Songs...
Mutant Singing Goblins...
Flying Mutant Singing Goblins...
Fire-Breathing Flying Mutant Singing Goblins...
Win!Comments:
1) +1 to what Bongo said. Thank you for a map that's "normal" and without insanely complex architecture. Not only is it reasonable to draw, but it's pretty easy to build using DF tiles as well.
You're welcome! I hadn't even thought about the possibility of using DF, but I'm glad to hear the design works well for them.
2) I liked this one enough to make some quick conversions to represent all the custom stuff in this scenario. Check them out. Several minis were harmed in the making of this production...
Wow! I’m just blown away. Those miniature mods are spectacular. You even did the trap! I’m honored to be part of something that led to those!
Questions:
1) The text explicitly states "you can use cure disease...", but I just want to ensure I'm interpreting this correct. Players can choose to keep a mutation for flavor (or to be frugal and not pay for a cure disease) rather then clear the condition?
Totally unofficial clarification: Yep. The idea was to make it so PCs can have mutations but that they’d be cosmetic only. If they want to walk around with an extra ear or something, then by all means!
2) Clarification on the Development section of A10. It states if the PCs kill Zoagusk the surviving the goblins scatter. There aren't any other goblins in the encounter, so I assume this means all the goblins in the dungeon? Is that the intent? So PC's that choose the magic path could make it out without any Goblin Songs? Sacrilege!
There definitely is some confusion, and I was a bit inconsistent in my text. The intention I had is stated in the first part of the conclusion:
“With the Fleshwarped Queen and her lieutenants Grib and Glibeldring defeated, the wrath energies within the facility grow unfocused. Any remaining goblins attempt to flee, ignoring Julian as they go.”
So, the totally unofficial answer: unless all three are defeated (not necessarily dead, especially in Grib’s case), the goblins don’t flee. I realize this means it’s very unlikely for any goblins to be left alive to flee, but I can imagine some scenarios when it might happen.
This might be my favorite scenario this season, looking forward to running it tomorrow night!
That's high praise! Please let me know how it turns out.
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And another question.
The hungry fleshes on both tiers list their reactive regeneration triggering on Acid and Fire damage in the stat block, but retain the verbage of a standard hungry flesh of slashing or piercing in their ability description.
Which one should they be reacting to?
Hungry Fleshes have the Regeneration Universal Monster Ability:
Regeneration (Ex) A creature with this ability is difficult to kill. Creatures with regeneration heal damage at a fixed rate, as with fast healing, but they cannot die as long as their regeneration is still functioning (although creatures with regeneration still fall unconscious when their hit points are below 0). Certain attack forms, typically fire and acid, cause a creature's regeneration to stop functioning on the round following the attack. During this round, the creature does not heal any damage and can die normally. The creature's descriptive text describes the types of damage that cause the regeneration to cease functioning.
Attack forms that don't deal hit point damage are not healed by regeneration. Regeneration also does not restore hit points lost from starvation, thirst, or suffocation. Regenerating creatures can regrow lost portions of their bodies and can reattach severed limbs or body parts if they are brought together within 1 hour of severing. Severed parts that are not reattached wither and die normally.
A creature must have a Constitution score to have the regeneration ability.
Format: regeneration 5 (fire, acid); Location: hp.
Acid and Fire turn this base regeneration off. Piercing or slashing damage heal it as a seperate form of "regeneration". In most cases, they essentially have DR3/Bludgeoning. However on the off-chance you get someone who does less than 3 damage with P/S weapons, they will heal the difference instead. In the low tier, they've also lost the Monstrous Growth ability. In the high tier, they have it.
Prepping for tomorrow night. In A7 ** spoiler omitted **
Is this adjacent squares or the whole room or ???
I understand it looks a ledge rather than a gas cloud on the final map, but the curved line in that room is meant to represent the border of that area of effect.
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Brian,
This scenario is a ton of fun to run. I had a player new to PFS but not new to D&D style games say that this game was the most fun he's had at a TTRPG in years. His paladin came out with a tiny set of dragonfly wings, as well as a thrush (that was brought in by another player) with spider legs replacing it's own that I decided was just following the paladin around for a little more creepy fun. He's now looking for a way to gain the critter as a familiar, and is actually crafting a model out of clay for the monstrosity. I was highly surprised when my whole party voluntarily let Grib experiment on them, albeit with quite a bit of reluctance and inter-party discussion on what they might be getting themselves into.
Brian,
This scenario is a ton of fun to run. I had a player new to PFS but not new to D&D style games say that this game was the most fun he's had at a TTRPG in years. His paladin came out with a tiny set of dragonfly wings, as well as a thrush (that was brought in by another player) with spider legs replacing it's own that I decided was just following the paladin around for a little more creepy fun. He's now looking for a way to gain the critter as a familiar, and is actually crafting a model out of clay for the monstrosity. I was highly surprised when my whole party voluntarily let Grib experiment on them, albeit with quite a bit of reluctance and inter-party discussion on what they might be getting themselves into.
*Cue maniacal goblin laughter*
Let Grib experiment on them, eh? Oh that's wonderful! I'm glad you all had so much fun; I love hearing these stories.
I ran it yesterday for a group but only got to mutate one PC. They captured Grib as well. I wonder how many times all told he'll make it through?
Thanks Brian. Really looking forward to running this in a couple hours.
I hope it goes well!
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I found this a fun adventure to run and play but ...
Its probably not true that this brings the Quality Control at Paizo to a new low but it feels that way right now
Some things to look out for:
1) The map/description at the beginning of the scenario makes absolutely NO sense. It is unclear if the trap is before or after the encounter with the cleric and where the cleric and the ward are in respect to room A1
2) Glibeldring tatics have her use her breath weapon. Something she doesn't have. Since the artwork shows a flying goblin with a breath weapon I'm guessing that she has the same breath weapon as ZoaGusk
Not quality control pre se, but several WTF moments when I realized that
1) A goblin allied with no other humanoids has enlarge person prepared
2) Flying goblins have NO range options but instead fly in to grapple opponents
3) Several rooms are complete time wasters with absolutely nothing of interest in them
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1) The trap is after the cleric. The text describes a double door that he's blocking with his ritual. This is basically the antechamber of the ruin. From there, you enter the ruin itself where the block text says the passageway narrows and encounter the trap.
2) The artwork you're talking about is for Zoagusk. I believe the author stated, in the other GM thread for this scenario HERE, that Glibledring was originally supposed to be a mutant as well and that it was accidentally left in.
With your WTF moments:
1) Grib doesn't use his Enlarge Person Extract since it hurts his to hit and doesn't affect his damage. He has 3 assistants, but doesn't have the Infusion Discovery.
2) They're basically goblin babies, with only 6 HP. What are tactics to insane childen under the effects of Rage Song?
3) Goblins in a 10,000+ year old ruin. What did you expect to survive both time and goblins?
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I had a great time running this scenario.
Some of the beginning is a bit odd -- the whole bit about Riddleport could have been omitted, and I moved the knowledge checks up to occur as soon as the PCs had the letter, rather than after they had already arrived at the camp -- but overall a well-written and edited scenario. I also liked the "traditional path-findery" nature of the scenario, if that makes any sense. No outer plans, occult stuff, or tech. More please!
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Played this last week, playing up with the four player adjustment. the two Living Flesh's were an interesting fight, as one of them grew to gargantuan size.
Rest of the encounter went easily enough.
My [vishkanya] magus now has spines on his left arm that glow when he's angry.
in all honesty, these mutations should have had a minor negative effect that in the worst cases would have, if the player accumulated several of them.
Thus warranting a removal of said mutations. If they are all purely cosmetic, then why not jump in to the vat and willing fail your fort save?
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Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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Take this with a big grain of salt and consider this damning with faint praise... but this was the first scenario in quite a long time (too much old stuff) where I didn't have a burning question or any real misgivings about anything in the scenario.
After I ran it, I just told the players some of the really cool bits they have little to no options to learn (like the reasoning behind the trap, or what happened when the goblins met the fire hazard).
My players really enjoyed the graffiti, especially the one on the rune lord statue, in retrospect, some of the "empty" rooms could have benefitted from more goblin art.
I'll wait to have actually played it but it looks like its going to be a very positive review.
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After I ran it, I just told the players some of the really cool bits they have little to no options to learn (like the reasoning behind the trap, or what happened when the goblins met the fire hazard).
Oh man...I totally should have had one of the goblins express their incredibility at seeing that the characters survived the "deadly" flames. :P
Played this last week, playing up with the four player adjustment. the two Living Flesh's were an interesting fight, as one of them grew to gargantuan size.
Rest of the encounter went easily enough.
My [vishkanya] magus now has spines on his left arm that glow when he's angry.in all honesty, these mutations should have had a minor negative effect that in the worst cases would have, if the player accumulated several of them.
Thus warranting a removal of said mutations. If they are all purely cosmetic, then why not jump in to the vat and willing fail your fort save?
Ooh, I like the spines.
I kicked around the idea of mutations and possible negative effects--I even started building a table--but it fell victim to that dreaded enemy Word Count as well as room on the chronicle sheet, mostly since I really wanted to have that special bit of treasure that needed a full reprint.
I imagine most PCs won't just jump in, but if someone wants to have a character covered in mutations, I'm inclined to say "knock yourself out!"
Take this with a big grain of salt and consider this damning with faint praise... but this was the first scenario in quite a long time (too much old stuff) where I didn't have a burning question or any real misgivings about anything in the scenario.
I'll take that as a compliment!
After I ran it, I just told the players some of the really cool bits they have little to no options to learn (like the reasoning behind the trap, or what happened when the goblins met the fire hazard).
That trap idea was the first thing I came up with for the adventure; in hindsight it would have been smart for me to find a way to transmit the goblins' rationale to the players. I guess I assumed most groups would have a PC with enough Knowledge (local) to know how goblins feel about reading. Oh well.
My players really enjoyed the graffiti, especially the one on the rune lord statue, in retrospect, some of the "empty" rooms could have benefitted from more goblin art.
I'm pretty sure the graffiti on the statue was the last thing I added. The mostly empty rooms are my biggest regret, but again the issue was word count, honestly.
I'll wait to have actually played it but it looks like its going to be a very positive review.
Yay!
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That trap idea was the first thing I came up with for the adventure; in hindsight it would have been smart for me to find a way to transmit the goblins' rationale to the players. I guess I assumed most groups would have a PC with enough Knowledge (local) to know how goblins feel about reading. Oh well.
That reminds me...one thing I found odd about that trap is that the description of the corridor doesn't mention anything about either a table or enough detritus to conceal one. When I ran it, I added a bunch of damaged books and furniture parts to make the perception DC seem plausible.
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the scenario. I just thought I'd point that out for anyone planning to GM it.
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After I ran it, I just told the players some of the really cool bits they have little to no options to learn (like the reasoning behind the trap, or what happened when the goblins met the fire hazard).That trap idea was the first thing I came up with for the adventure; in hindsight it would have been smart for me to find a way to transmit the goblins' rationale to the players. I guess I assumed most groups would have a PC with enough Knowledge (local) to know how goblins feel about reading. Oh well.
My GM embellished the "goblins surviving the fire path" as reasons of the BBEG being "chosen." Her [raging] punch opened the door, she lead the other goblins as they survived the fire path and others.
We got this information from a surviving goblin in Grib's lab, and the party alchemist made out like a madman this encounter- a Boro Bead and another Alchemist recipe book [first one from Champion's Chalice that i ran weak prior]
I ran this last night for a high-tier group, and we had a good time, but I thought this got off to a bit of a rocky start.
I had...
Arcanist 2
Inquisitor of Cayden Cailean 5
Paladin of Iomedae 4
Magus 2
Bard 5
Cleric 4 (a Kyra pregen from a new player who showed up)
The start of the scenario was a bit rocky - there are too many steps. You get a letter from the VC telling you to meet at a tavern, but you're just meeting the other PCs there, and from there you go find the Shoanti village, where Tide Watcher escorts you to the actual cave system. Too many steps. Just have the letter direct them to meet Tide Watcher at the Shoanti village, with a map to where they're going. Way easier, and you can put in a Shoanti trader or something if they decide they need to buy something.
The cave system wasn't the clearest thing in the world either. If the path that Tide Watcher and Julian both took to get to the Thassilonian ruins goes past the goblin battle site, why didn't they see it and put two and two together on what went inside? If it didn't, how are the PCs supposed to stumble across it? Are we just supposed to assume that Tide Watcher (who presumably is decent at Survival as a Shoanti chieftain) missed the goblin battle site? I had the PCs find goblin tracks, and gave them the option to follow where they came from (which would have led to the battle site) or where they were going (which led them to the cavern with Julian and the door). I had no issue believing that Julian didn't notice the goblin tracks; presumably as a low-level cleric he doesn't have any Survival skills.
Once the PCs were inside everything went well. They murdered the hungry fleshes, then headed to the kitchens. Most of their interaction with the goblins were with the two goblin cooks, one of which basically sold out the rest of the goblins due to a really high Intimidation roll from the inquisitor. He told them the short version of the story of how the tribe found the place, and then encouraged them to go murder the rest of the tribe so he could be in charge.
Next they fought Grib, which was a brutal fight. Several of the PCs got nailed hard by the stink bombs and they were out for a good chunk of the fight, and the inquisitor was nearly killed by the bombs. Quick thinking from the cleric got one of the goblin sneaks into the vat, which I ruled was not great to be immersed in completely. Didn't have to decide what was going to crawl out (another hungry flesh?) because they kept throwing alchemist's fire into the cauldron. A timely hold person from Kyra and a CdG from another party member took out Grib. Nobody picked up any entertaining mutations as they stayed well away from the fleshwarping pots, and made all their saves against the thrown goop.
The big fight with the skald in the central cavern was fine, though I forgot about the noise hazard (dumb on my part). The skald goblin went down fairly quickly as the party jumped on her. The flying goblins didn't get to do much with the fact that they can fly; seemed a bit weird that they didn't focus on ranged combat, reach weapons, or keeping mobile; as written they basically just jump down and start attacking with their claws, doing nothing with the fact that they can fly. Maybe scorpion tails with reach or javelins instead of a few of the mutations they have?
There was one goblin left when the skald went down, and PCs were standing in two of the doorways of the room - all of them except the one that went to the Queen herself. I had the last goblin run to the Queen, which prompted her and the sinspawn to move into the big room, which didn't give the PCs any time to heal up after the skald fight. That made the last fight really dangerous. They took out the sinspawn but the Queen was beating on them when we ran out of time - our play space had a hard stop time and I hadn't been keeping an eye on it as well as I should have. The bard was down when we had to stop, and there was a good chance he was about to get caught in a line of five PCs as her breath weapon was about to recharge.
All in all I liked the scenario quite a bit, just thought that the start could be cleaner and involve less steps and that the cave system could be clarified.
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I'm very excited to run this one. It looks fun! Also: goblins. And goblin songs.
Some interesting observations:
This month we see "Organized Play #" instead of "Pathfinder Society #". Tied to a certain effort lurking in the background unannounced, I suppose!
Hmmmmm, mutations. Looks like I need to put together a list.
Hey, I finally finished it! Grib the Goblin Genius's Guide to Goblin Mutations (v1.0) is up.
(Watch out. It's a little long. Also, a few folks tell me it's creepy. I think that's a win?)
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I'm very excited to run this one. It looks fun! Also: goblins. And goblin songs.
Some interesting observations:
This month we see "Organized Play #" instead of "Pathfinder Society #". Tied to a certain effort lurking in the background unannounced, I suppose!
Hmmmmm, mutations. Looks like I need to put together a list.
Hey, I finally finished it! Grib the Goblin Genius's Guide to Goblin Mutations (v1.0) is up.
(Watch out. It's a little long. Also, a few folks tell me it's creepy. I think that's a win?)
Thanks for the document. Just in time for my running this tonight.
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Ran this last night at tier 1-2 with my home group.
Party consisted of a fighter 1st (archer path), Wizard 1st (Fire Elementalist), Rogue 1st, and Kyra 1st.
The players enjoyed it and thought it was well balanced. In fact, by the end of the session they had used up every resource they had. One character had gone down into the negatives 4 times. Kyra got her uses out of rebuke death, every channel, and all her spells but one channeled into cures.
The rogue ended up with little fairy wings and a curly piggy tail from the protoflesh. He spent a PP to get them removed.
The players and myself loved the map with its simplicity and organization that made perfect sense. The only thing was the amount of pre-dungeon crawl stuff that slowed the game and made it last a longer than the 4 hours it should have taken. Mind you, the 18 round fight versus Glibeldring and company did not help. There was a lot of swing and a miss happening as is the lot for 1st level characters.
Our hats are off to Brian Duckwitz for a great adventure.