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Hello fellow GMs and enthusiasts all!
I'm planning on running a 'by-the-book' Rune lords game except for one itsy-bitsy change.
My players will be level 20 and 10th mystic from the start with a 25pt buy.
Assume I know what I'm doing here. I've run this adventure... a lot in my little local area. Even completed running it twice.
I had a few of my regular players discuss the desires of a power game and thought to myself... "Hey, what if they had all the power they could achieve in this game from the start?"
So here are the caveats my players agreed to.
1) Play through the game.
2) All characters must have a motivation strong enough to allow them to be in Sandpoint for the festival.
In essence, they want to go through the game bit by bit and solve this as gods...especially the first 2 chapters.
So far it seems I have A super Grippli Gunslinger. A Cat who is a Sorcerer. And a Lich.
More or less, Anyone got any advise for the tom-foolery i'm about to get myself into?
yeah, that game could be over in a single session.
1: teleport to the boss
2: interrogate for info / divine next step
3: repeat until karazog fight
while I realize this is most likely supposed to be full of fun and tomfoolery, a lot of the enemies in that adventure path are pretty bent on killing a lot of otherwise innocent people, the party would have to be some pretty irresponsible individuals not to just solve the whole thing in a couple of days
while it would be interesting in a strange way, combat would literally never last more than a round unless the PCs allowed it to, and just about any skill check would be completely trivial.
what I mean to say is, any fun or random stuff occurring would be on the players coming up with it, cause nothing that is written would present any kind of danger
Also, all the villains will look like complete morons trying to tackle an enemy out of their league.
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Also, all the villains will look like complete morons trying to tackle an enemy out of their league.
TBH most of the villains *are* complete morons. Well, ogres, trolls, and goblins are. But even the smarter boss characters tend to fight suboptimally in their tactics section already. Xanesha engaging in melee rather than using her climb speed and cover to stay safe and spam spells is an example, and one I'm contemplating changing when I run it.
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In fact, consider running the enemies competently. Bosses using their spells better alone probably won't make much of a difference. But if every ogre in Fort Ralnick, including the boss, comes at the party at once... OK, it will probably still be a cakewalk. But what is going to make them feel more epic? Moving room by room easily dispatching repetitive CR 7 encounters, or trouncing a literal army all at once?
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Assuming you have an arcane and divine caster in your party mix - with 10 tiers of mythic I'm unsure they would even need to rest once before getting to the end of book 5.
They should be able to skip most of book one with a vision spell on a goblin to track it back to it's source. As they will have book 1 finished in less than a day - I'm unsure how to tie book 2 into the story unless they 'hang out' in Sandpoint while Aldern heads off to get book 2 setup. Once the murder happens they should be able to go almost straight to him - and then onto the end of book 2 with a few well placed spells. A vision or legend lore on X from book 2 will give them the info they need to go straight into book 3 - and from the fort they should have enough to skip to the ogre lair (and they should kill Black Magga in one round if they fight her - although as fast as they are moving the rain most likely won't have had enough time to flood anything - skipping the dam entirely.
There is enough information from the end of book 3 to take them straight after the 'army' before they attack sandpoint in book 4, and then straight onto a full frontal assault of the giant army - which might be the first real fight they get into - but it should still be a cakewalk - end of book 4 and I am thinking that with a nap stack or potion of lesser restoration (or the spell) they are going on day 2 or so of the campaign.
Book 4 ends with the first opportunity to really slow them down - assuming they don't just vision the information they need once they have a few key names.
Book 5 should be a pretty fast stomp - assuming they need to head there - remember book 4 gave them enough information to skip book 5 - just smart characters and players think 'special weapons... good' - only the level 20 mythic 10 guys don't really need that - so they can go straight to the Mountain.
Here is the first real fight possibly - if they don't try to be sneaky I'd have the entire city attack them - all the yeti's giants, dragon, devil, etc - and I'd add more stuff in.... they should still win.
The assault on the final fortress should be on day 3-4 of the campaign and if the city fight is big enough the players *might* need to rest here.
Finally the assault into the fortress and big K - and at the end they look over the stuff they got and realize that it's beneath them and remember why demi-gods don't bother with the small stuff ;)
Assuming you have an arcane and divine caster in your party mix - with 10 tiers of mythic I'm unsure they would even need to rest once before getting to the end of book 5.
They should be able to skip most of book one with a vision spell on a goblin to track it back to it's source. As they will have book 1 finished in less than a day - I'm unsure how to tie book 2 into the story unless they 'hang out' in Sandpoint while Aldern heads off to get book 2 setup. Once the murder happens they should be able to go almost straight to him - and then onto the end of book 2 with a few well placed spells. A vision or legend lore on X from book 2 will give them the info they need to go straight into book 3 - and from the fort they should have enough to skip to the ogre lair (and they should kill Black Magga in one round if they fight her - although as fast as they are moving the rain most likely won't have had enough time to flood anything - skipping the dam entirely.
There is enough information from the end of book 3 to take them straight after the 'army' before they attack sandpoint in book 4, and then straight onto a full frontal assault of the giant army - which might be the first real fight they get into - but it should still be a cakewalk - end of book 4 and I am thinking that with a nap stack or potion of lesser restoration (or the spell) they are going on day 2 or so of the campaign.
Book 4 ends with the first opportunity to really slow them down - assuming they don't just vision the information they need once they have a few key names.
Book 5 should be a pretty fast stomp - assuming they need to head there - remember book 4 gave them enough information to skip book 5 - just smart characters and players think 'special weapons... good' - only the level 20 mythic 10 guys don't really need that - so they can go straight to the Mountain.
Here is the first real fight possibly - if they don't try to be sneaky I'd have the entire city attack them - all the yeti's giants, dragon, devil, etc - and I'd add...
This is a super-awesome breakdown!
I will note that with enough simple pearls of power, you don't even have to worry about ever running out of spells per day.
In any event, I'm going to recommend a few "break points" be added.
By limiting specific information, or adding a couple of spells - most notably mind blank and commune - the bad guys can be well-defended against "scry and fry" tactics. This doesn't require that much change.
By severing the direct link between certain groups - such as L (in book 3) and the baddies of five, for example (having her be an independent operator associated with a <spoiler>*, meaning the campaign doesn't just jump the next adventure. This gives time and space to allow 4/5 to be set up, and lead to 6. This also lets you run the castle thing, if you/they want (allowing mythic leadership or whatever).
Then, make the entrance of the city predicated on the weapon gained in part 5 - not just useable v. K, but an actual requirement to fake citizenship to enter part six.
These are just a few spitball ideas - hope it helps!
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Xanesha was sent to Magnimar by big K himself. A party with this kind of power should be able to get that from her and skip from the end of Book 2 to Book 6 directly.
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This has been a fruitful post.
Thank you all for your input.
Its evolving(or devolving) into an opera game centered around the would demi-gods and their inter party relations during a series of events (IE Rune Lords).
I may file a report after each session (Assuming there is more than one). Just to show how quickly or ridiculously such a game.
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I will note that with enough simple pearls of power, you don't even have to worry about ever running out of spells per day.
At mythic tier 10 - you regain 1 mythic point per hour (resting or not) - each mythic point to a divine or arcane caster (because they *did* take the path ability to cast any spell for a point of mythic... right?) is another spell.
Legendary Hero (Su): At 10th tier, you have reached the height of mortal power. You regain uses of your mythic power at the rate of one use per hour, in addition to completely refreshing your uses each day.
Tier 10 starts the day with 23 mythic points. That's 23 9th level spells that regenerate at 1 per hour, and after 24 hours you get them all back - again no rest needed. With 1 hour downtime they can do this:
Recuperation (Ex): At 3rd tier, you are restored to full hit points after 8 hours of rest so long as you aren't dead. In addition, by expending one use of mythic power and resting for 1 hour, you regain a number of hit points equal to half your full hit points (up to a maximum of your full hit points) and regain the use of any class features that are limited to a certain number of uses per day (such as barbarian rage, bardic performance, spells per day, and so on). This rest is treated as 8 hours of sleep for such abilities. This rest doesn't refresh uses of mythic power or any mythic abilities that are limited to a number of times per day.
So besides the 'mythic point = spell' thing - they can take a 1 hour break and regain all the normal spells per day a level 20 character can cast. What I'm saying is - pearls and tricks to extend casting aren't needed at tier 10 of mythic. Paladins can smite everything and then rest for an hour, repeat for any class trick.
I think a *viable* campaign might be the players doing a vision after the goblin attack... and getting false information that leads them to fighting some *real heavy crap from Lamashtu* - but they want to protect the town so *they* hire a group of scrappy kids that go take care of the goblins... and when they come back from the adventure the kids tell them what they found - leading to the next book etc.
I think a very cool adventure arc could happen where level 20 M10 guys are literally holding the cosmos together culminating in trying to keep Mhar trapped in the mountain when big K starts his fight.... while basically using the 'scrappy heroes' to run the 'by the book' path in the background - which sets up a nice 'What happens to all the level 20 powerhouses anyway?' answer for your players so they know why the demigods aren't solving every little world issue.
I mean the adventure has ties to (but doesn't elaborate or sidetrack into):
- Leng trying to free Mhar
- The Oiliphant of Jandalay
- A dead(?) peacock goddess that may not really be so dead!
- Lamashtu
I would start the game with lamashtu taking a direct hand in matters regarding her pawn in Sandpoint - perhaps following with Ghauander (sp?) trying to play into things from a cosmic standpoint and meddling with *her* plans resulting in the plague created for book 2.
From there I would perhaps keep them busy with that (plane that shifts time?) so they come back at the end of book 3 - get information on the giant army and change that encounter so that they actually take on an *army* of giants - hundreds of them - giving the plucky adventuring group the ability to raid the masters lair...? I dunno this part is where I have a hard time with ideas.
Book 5 is easy - beef it up in all aspects and make it into the crucible - hundreds of casters with 10,000 years to build and study that are totally trapped - frankly designing this for 20M10 guys I could go nuts - I could also see this as the part where Leng takes an active hand and the superheros might have to hold back an entire plane of existence while the scrappy underdogs take on the runeforge.
Book 6 of course would focus on the Oiliphant and Mhar - deal with these things - and at the end of the day - no one noticed all that titanic work they did - because some plucky nobodies killed a Runelord ;)
lol /2cents
I will note that with enough simple pearls of power, you don't even have to worry about ever running out of spells per day.
Tier 10 starts the day with 23 mythic points. That's 23 9th level spells that regenerate at 1 per hour, and after 24 hours you get them all back - again no rest needed. With 1 hour downtime they can do this:
Recuperation (Ex): At 3rd tier, you are restored to full hit points after 8 hours of rest so long as you aren't dead. In addition, by expending one use of mythic power and resting for 1 hour, you regain a number of hit points equal to half your full hit points (up to a maximum of your full hit points) and regain the use of any class features that are limited to a certain number of uses per day (such as barbarian rage, bardic performance, spells per day, and so on). This rest is treated as 8 hours of sleep for such abilities. This rest doesn't refresh uses of mythic power or any mythic abilities that are limited to a number of times per day.So besides the 'mythic point = spell' thing - they can take a 1 hour break and regain all the normal spells per day a level 20 character can cast. What I'm saying is - pearls and tricks to extend casting aren't needed at tier 10 of mythic. Paladins can smite everything and then rest for an hour, repeat for any class trick.
Hah! I'd entirely forgotten the recuperation bit. That, far more than anything, negates the need for normal pearls (and similar) tricks. :D
Maybe send the OP a private message? I don't think you can get notified from replies to posts.