If all else fails the party came across an electric trap in the previous room....How would you convince Gargleblaster to trigger it? :D
Just put some fancy raw meat on it, that's sure to leave an electrifying taste :D
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He's incorporeal, immune to flame/laser/plasma weapons, and can drain life. That's pretty nasty for level 2 characters. It was sheer luck that one of our party had happened to buy a shock pistol and that we had a technomancer to cast Magic Missile at him. Everybody else was helpless.
Sounds like your GM combined him with the akata and the drift dead.
Maybe the garaggakal consumed them and gained their powers? He's got a big mouth and all.
The boss is only incorporeal SOMETIMES
Mind you, with 60 feet of flying speed and the ability to tumble past the party on a roll of a -3 it doesn't really matter, he can just zip around you freely.
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Just put some fancy raw meat on it, that's sure to leave an electrifying taste :DIf all else fails the party came across an electric trap in the previous room....How would you convince Gargleblaster to trigger it? :D
Wait till he grabs the android then attach left and right wires to android to complete the circuit...
I'm almost convinced this fight is supposed to be a chase through the Drift Rock.
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I'm almost convinced this fight is supposed to be a chase through the Drift Rock.
Seems like that would mesh with Gargamel's ability to jump through walls. Really emphasize the horror of the situation by having Gargleblaster use hit and run tactics to "taste" each of the PCs, then skedaddle to attack again at the worst possible moment (say, when they're fighting zombies or drift dead). Have it run away the round after it takes damage, until the PCs get to the Maiden, at which point it fights to the death.
That's how I would run that fight. Just having it wait around next to the Sunrise Maiden ignores the abilities and character of Gargantia on the Verderous Rock.
That's a fantastic idea. It's in the walls, in deed.
My group played this yesterday and it ran off after four rounds of combat. It ate two mindthrusts, a solarian explosion, 2 overcharged mechanic shots, a crit solarian hit, and a shot from my Envoy (4 dmg! Wooo!). Only thing he managed to pull off was that 5d6 attack to the Solarian, which my Envoy all but negated next turn with an Inspiring Boost.
I ran it with my group last night. It was a TPK.
Entertain us with more details, please.
What was the party composition?
Did Clara and the goblins join the party?
What tactics were used?
Were they rested before the fight?
And what will happen now, new group going straight for the garaggakal, start at book 2, or wait for the next AP?
I had to seriously fudge things with the Garglnazgul to avoid a tpk. My players were lucky in that I gave them their own ship at the start of the adventure instead of using a loaner that flies off, so they were able to result after the acreon.
Even so, a few things about the adventure design conspired to make the fight incredibly one sided. They had thought that the security robot WAS the big boss fight, so they expended their best abilities on it. In addition (and I am unsure if I missed a reading about a timer on the electrical trap just before the gargledict gakkalbatch room) but after getting shocked by the console... they tried to hack it two more times, getting repeatedly shocked just before the boss room.
They got the big monster down to just over half health - before it used its life drain for the first time, on the last conscious member of the party.
Luckily she survived - I had to fudge it so that the android Clara they had fought earlier (who they had captured alive and left in manacles at the ship) had escaped her bonds and brought the ship around - the surviving player managed to open the hangar doors and Clara drove it off with the ships weapons.
The party surviving was an awkward deus ex machina - the party couldn't realistically run from it because it has a 60 feet fly speed and can fly through walls (and is adapted for travel through vacuum as far as I can remember), while they would have had to go back through all the twists and turns of the rock at reduced speed due to the zero g.
Still, we branched off into my own content after that, and the party later got vengeance on the gargamelkhaaan at level 5, which was satisfying for them.
Without the goblins and Clara around as fodder, the fight is much deadlier.
But the chase through walls, although a great moment when he first does it and scares the players half to death, is a limited resource, due to his resolve points.
And they don't need all to outrun the garaggakal - only to outrun the slowest character...
I'm almost convinced this fight is supposed to be a chase through the Drift Rock.
It has a flight speed of sixty and an acrobatics check of "HAHAHAH puny pcs!*" Not that fighting isn't deadly but runnings going to go even worse.
My favorite part of this thread is all the retypings of the monster's name.
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I just call him Gary.
Gargleblaster
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He's pan-galactic.
"The Gargles, they do nothink!"
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Here are some bonus names;
GaryGygaxal
Garyfromaccountingkal
Gokugotswol
Garramyman!
*murloc noises*
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We got to fight it last night. We had previously run from the driftdead, rested, and came back for it, then did the security robot before finding the dead lady, which pushed us up to level 3 (a bit early according to the GM). But there's 5 of us with good stat rolls, so she was also putting advanced or semi-advanced templates on things.
We got to the thing, and tried to back into the hallway to bottlekneck it. We managed to unload a ton of damage on it while backing out (and taking a ton of damage too). And then we watched as it moved into a wall and ran away.
This pissed off a lot of players and characters, who wanted to kill the thing. But we went onto the ship, and ran the ship scanners all over the place until we found it. Moving around a lot is all we've been told so far. The GM seemed to expect us to fly off before finishing the thing off, but our pilot is unwilling to risk this thing getting to civilization, and my mystic is being strangely spiteful. So we're camping out in the Maiden and setting traps and electric barricades while the GM comes up with stuff for next session.
This pissed off a lot of players and characters, who wanted to kill the thing. But we went onto the ship, and ran the ship scanners all over the place until we found it. Moving around a lot is all we've been told so far. The GM seemed to expect us to fly off before finishing the thing off, but our pilot is unwilling to risk this thing getting to civilization, and my mystic is being strangely spiteful. So we're camping out in the Maiden and setting traps and electric barricades while the GM comes up with stuff for next session.
Seems reasonable, except that sensors don't work on the drift rock.
And there was one better resolution to that fight suggested in the AP, but it seems the GM didn't take it:
I would have made the garaggakal cross that wall and attack your party from behind, destroying your strategy. Your GM is too nice!
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This pissed off a lot of players and characters, who wanted to kill the thing. But we went onto the ship, and ran the ship scanners all over the place until we found it. Moving around a lot is all we've been told so far. The GM seemed to expect us to fly off before finishing the thing off, but our pilot is unwilling to risk this thing getting to civilization, and my mystic is being strangely spiteful. So we're camping out in the Maiden and setting traps and electric barricades while the GM comes up with stuff for next session.Seems reasonable, except that sensors don't work on the drift rock.
And there was one better resolution to that fight suggested in the AP, but it seems the GM didn't take it:
** spoiler omitted **
I would have made the garaggakal cross that wall and attack your party from behind, destroying your strategy. Your GM is too nice!
We had plenty of readied actions for it to come through the wall after us, but it stowed away on the ship instead.
The sensors weren't scanning the rock - they were scanning the interior of the ship. Any we put up the ship's forcefield so now it's trapped in with us.
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Any we put up the ship's forcefield so now it's trapped in with us.
"I'm not trapped in here with you... you're all trapped in here with ME!"
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Any we put up the ship's forcefield so now it's trapped in with us."I'm not trapped in here with you... you're all trapped in here with ME!"
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that.
Hmm well my group finally hit this fight and it was a bit of a disappointment. Despite me advancing the beast, due to me having a larger than average party, my party handled it with little issue really. Granted the Dice were with them and not so much the beast but I was hoping for a bit more of a nail biter ending.
its interesting to see how wildly the experience can vary from party to party.
its interesting to see how wildly the experience can vary from party to party.
I waited until the party was inside the hangar examining the corpses to make the garaggakal come out of the floor amidst them.
It was quite a scare and allowed me to land a nice AoO on the caster, while she moved away.
its interesting to see how wildly the experience can vary from party to party.I waited until the party was inside the hangar examining the corpses to make the garaggakal come out of the floor amidst them.
It was quite a scare and allowed me to land a nice AoO on the caster, while she moved away.
Nice!, my party was smart enough to not bunch up but I was able to drop in on one PC who had strayed a bit from the party. Unfortunately the beast rolled a nat one.. and then the party preceded to unload on it lol. It was still good for shock value.
I just call him Gary.
*sigh*
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I cannot stress this enough. I know it's not for everybody, but *my* game experience has become so much better since I adopted this rule.
If you play AP, drop the XP. Forget about them. Give the players a full level whenever they reach the point the AP supposes they level up (it's said in the first few pages).
That way you don't miss XP for not going a certain zone before, and players do not feel forced to do every single room of every single floor of every single dungeon just so they don't miss XP and end being a few hundred XP short of the proper level in a boss fight.
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Gustavo is right. Our groups tracked XP for the longest time (and still do in home games), but we soon realized that we didn't really need to when running the adventure paths. Things go so much more quickly now, and everyone is more focused on the story rather than the combats.
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I am starting this Campaign as GM this weekend, and people die end of chapter boss seems to a thing, i GMed the Pathfinder adventure, Jade Regent, and before Each chapter boss, i had the party go on a side adventure, just to give them more EXP and loot. so the boss didn't kill them, and even with that, they almost TPK on two of the end of book bosses... Over power end bosses seems to a Paizo thingI'm wondering if groups are getting TPK'ed here.
The Garaggakal never really misses with a +12 bite and at level 2 a KAC of 12-15 would be the normal for players. The first bite he took hit my solider for max damage (just bad luck) for 20, that took out his full stamina and a chunk of his HP, and the next hit took him down to 0.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party is doing 1-10ish damage per hit, slowly lowering his HP from 75, but the Garaggakal is able to do a damage/self heal 4 times in the battle that averages 15 damage (7.5 if people make a fortitude save).
Boss is tough, really tough. I think it seems possible given good dice rolls but for a first module, this is no introduction. I can very well see a complete party wipe here.
The only way we made it though is because one player had bought the electricity based dragon gland and then spent all resolve points to use it over and over again. That player could have easily picked a different variety dragon gland which would have reduced the damage dealt by a lot. (Garaggakal is vulnerable to electric).
alternatively, someone built a 'by the book' garragackal somewhere here on the forums. they used the system in the alien archive.
you could just use that. it's still dangerous, but it's not the tpk-machine that the original beast is.
For my 6-man group of level 2s, this thing was scary, but not overwhelming. I made sure to remind the players a few times earlier that they could retreat to the Acreon to rest, and they made liberal use of that option (such that they were at full resources going into the garaggakal fight). If I were to run it for a normal sized 4-man group, I agree that you'd either want everyone at 3rd level or you'd want to tone Big G down a bit.
Either way, this thing can be far more dangerous depending on tactics or how you have it encounter your party. For my team, I had it ambush them while they were starting to explore the interior of the Sunrise Maiden. The tighter quarters meant that its fly speed wasn't too relevant and the players were able to flank it briefly. While the close quarters did mean that it could have phased through the walls when close to death, it never got a chance to (lots of damage piled in at once to finish it off).
Just keep in mind, it is supposed to flee at 50% hitpoints!
Just keep in mind, it is supposed to flee at 50% hitpoints!
Indeed. To counter-signal a bit, our group (5 level 2s) had a blast with the boss. It's one of only two times in Dead Suns we had multiple characters go down (other was at the end of chapter 1, book 3), felt frantic and thrilling. When it began to flee, we had an incredibly difficult time chasing it down to kill it, were it not for operative speed and a lucky crit it would have escaped. Keeping calm and shooting it, I think most groups do fine; it's when players panic that this will eat parties.
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garaggakal isn't incorporeal?
I need you to clarify something for me.
If it is true that in the Stats of the creature it does not appear, but there is a point that confuses me a lot.
The next time the ship enters the Drift, the garaggakal can emerge fron hiding to attack the PCs - this time in its corporeal form - when they least expect it.
this paragraph always made me think it was incorporeal. I do not remember where I read, that the creatures of the drift, when leaving it, became incorporeal? is it correct or is it some kind of error?
Driftdead, a form of undead, are incorporeal outside the Drift and corporeal inside. (Or vice versa, I forget, and Paizo published an adventure that had it backwards.) That might be what you are thinking of.
The garakagal has an ability to phase through walls but is not permanently incorporeal.
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Driftdead, a form of undead, are incorporeal outside the Drift and corporeal inside. (Or vice versa, I forget, and Paizo published an adventure that had it backwards.) That might be what you are thinking of.
The garakagal has an ability to phase through walls but is not permanently incorporeal.
yeah, i undestand this part, but
"... attack the PCs - this time in its corporeal form - when ..." is the part i don't undestand, is a errata?
Driftdead, a form of undead, are incorporeal outside the Drift and corporeal inside. (Or vice versa, I forget, and Paizo published an adventure that had it backwards.) That might be what you are thinking of.
The garakagal has an ability to phase through walls but is not permanently incorporeal.
yeah, i undestand this part, but
"... attack the PCs - this time in its corporeal form - when ..." is the part i don't undestand, is a errata?
No just a mistake. If I had to guess, in the first pass the garrakgal shared the drift incorporeality ability of the driftdead, but that was edited out in the next pass.
First BBEG of a whole new game, give them a break...
Makes for a remarkable first experience, at least - when they first get melee attacked for 2d6+9 and realize this thing is an actual killer.
Reading through this thread in detail for the first time, I have to ask:
Why would someone *not* expect that a party of three level 2 PCs would get slaughtered? The critter is CR 5, and a three man party effectively treats all opponents as one CR higher than normal. That bumps it to APL+4, which is otherwise known as "Expect a TPK".
The real problem is that it has a high damage + heal combo attack on top of all that.