1 - Crownfall (GM Reference)


War for the Crown

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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Souls At War wrote:
seenar wrote:

My group worked forward during Stavin's speech because they were super paranoid. When the moment came, two of them made acrobatics rolls to leap into action. The Brawler tackled Stavian on front of the Senate. The Rouge fell flat in his face to have a guard crit for 33 pts damage. I rules the contingency kicked in and he only took 1d4. All this was clouded by a flare by the Hunter.

Lord Kalbio lived

HOLY [REDACTED]! That's awesome.

Yes. I am saying the Lions Blades got him out. Going to have to work him into the story.

Maybe he will really fall in with the Prince


A question of mechanics I suppose.

Taldor Noble Scion Feat
https://aonprd.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Noble%20Scion%20(Taldor%20Vari ant)

Varima: Whenever you use Diplomacy to influence a crowd or a room (but not individuals), you can roll twice and use the better result.

Why does there appear a feat specifically designed for use in influencing a room instead of a person and yet the Exaltation Gala scene has no rooms where this skill is useful?

I understand and even applaud the way the campaign uses other skills in this scene so that everyone isn't just rolling Diplomacy at every juncture, but it seems a bit of a bait and switch to create a Feat so clearly tied to this setting, and make it one which MUST be taken at First level and then not grant it any opportunities for use in what seems to be a crucial scene tailor made for it.

There is a caveat of "If the GM feels appropriate" for using other skills, but that just falls back into the trap of Diplomacy almost always being "appropriate" for influencing people. Am I missing something in the AP where it discusses this?


It comes up again in book 2 and 3, etc. Basically, as a GM, if a player has this feat I'd let him/her use diplomacy whenever a group needs to be influenced (as opposed to a specific, single NPC).

This AP has several sections that will require GM adjudication, flexibility, and judgement. I would not advise new or inexperienced GMs for this AP, as they may try to abide too much by the letter of the rule; this AP is very much meant to be used with the 'spirit' of the rules, and not a rigid, inflexible exercise in rules enforcement.


What's a good start date for this campaign? I'd like to keep a calaner for it but I'm not sure what to beyond it being 4718 AR.


Captain Morgan wrote:
What's a good start date for this campaign? I'd like to keep a calaner for it but I'm not sure what to beyond it being 4718 AR.

I did late summer 4719 so that book two is in a harvest time in the fall.


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Am I the only one bothered by the fact that Dagio's stats in no way take his immortality into effect? No fast healing, no regeneration, no special abilities with rejuvenate characteristics...nothing. In fact, he is just a dire rat with three character levels. We are left to assume that his immortality is merely a plot device that is completely irrelevant to the battle. My assumption is that the extent of his "immortality" is that he doesn't age, but can still be killed by violent means. Therefore, he is "ageless", not "immortal".

I decided to give him Regeneration 1/Magic. Magic created him and therefore magic must destroy him.


Aristodeimos wrote:

Am I the only one bothered by the fact that Dagio's stats in no way take his immortality into effect? No fast healing, no regeneration, no special abilities with rejuvenate characteristics...nothing. In fact, he is just a dire rat with three character levels. We are left to assume that his immortality is merely a plot device that is completely irrelevant to the battle. My assumption is that the extent of his "immortality" is that he doesn't age, but can still be killed by violent means. Therefore, he is "ageless", not "immortal".

I decided to give him Regeneration 1/Magic. Magic created him and therefore magic must destroy him.

I think that is fine. A bit of an edge to him. My group just killed him without doing a body destruction. Despite there being 8 of them, with two pets, they needed the win.

I did not understand how a alchemist from underdark would set up a shop down there. Selling to whom after the PCs leave?

Silver Crusade

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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps Subscriber

I have no explanation for the poor kobold, but I turned the alchemist into a recurring character who would set up shop with slightly overpriced consumables in dungeons throughout the adventure path. A little bit of a timeworn trope, especially if you've played too many JRPGs, but Mimips has turned out to be really popular anyway!

I made Dagio quite a bit more powerful but didn't really play around with the immortality bit. It seemed way too difficult to really communicate to the players, and the circle bit was probably the more important bit for them to latch onto.


Terminalmancer wrote:

I have no explanation for the poor kobold, but I turned the alchemist into a recurring character who would set up shop with slightly overpriced consumables in dungeons throughout the adventure path. A little bit of a timeworn trope, especially if you've played too many JRPGs, but Mimips has turned out to be really popular anyway!

I made Dagio quite a bit more powerful but didn't really play around with the immortality bit. It seemed way too difficult to really communicate to the players, and the circle bit was probably the more important bit for them to latch onto.

I love him showing up. Wish I had thought of that.


Has anyone tried running this without the social combat mechanics? If so, I'd love to hear your perspective & opinions on that...


I have mixed feelings on the Social Mechanic. So, it would seem to the writers, because it gets dropped. If I had it to do over, I'd drop it and just have role play and Diplomacy or other rolls.


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Trichotome wrote:

I did a bit of tweaking to the gala rules to make it fit in my game that also helped clarify a few of the bits mentioned in the last two comments. Here's what I did in case it helps.

I treat social combat much like regular combat in terms of action economy. That is to say everyone gets a turn with 1 standard action, 1 move action, and 1 swift action. Actions at the gala are as follows:

Discovery Check (Move action): (etc)

I used this, and found it worked very well, and was clearer than the as written version. Thanks for that!

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Now that the younger members of our party are away for college and we’re empty nesters (at least during the academic year), I’m preparing to run WFTC for my wife as a single PC+GMPC campaign, with an emphasis on the lore of Taldor and Golarion. I’m planning to incorporate details from the 2E Travel Guide and to put more effort into keeping track of the calendar than I usually do, to take advantage of the RP opportunities of the holidays.

Which leads to my question: when exactly is the Day of Exaltation? I can’t find any reference to a specific date in any of the AP books, the two Taldor books, the Inner Sea World Guide, the Travel Guide, or Pathfinder Wiki. Is this just one of those things that the developers left open so GMs could fit it into their own campaign timetables? If so, when did you all set it? It feels a little like the Taldan aristocracy’s prom, so it seems to me as though it should be spring, but not too late in the season to avoid the heat. Maybe mid-May/Desnus?


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They leave it open for the GM to decide. For this campaign I didn’t keep much of a calendar, but just because I didn’t have the extra bandwidth.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Thanks, quibblemuch -glad to know I hadn't missed something.


Oh, one thing that does occur to me is that in Book Two there's the potential for harvest season & taxes--depending on how long you anticipate spending in-game in Meratt County, that might help set the date for the Gala.


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Exaltation Day should probably happen in a season when it's easy to travel to Taldor from all quarters of the earth, as described in the fluff.

This puts it in early Sarenith in the year my version is set (4719 AR) but I think some of the resources I've been using are making different calculations, b/c we're nearing the end of Book Two and my timeline requires at least a little bit of fudging to strictly work at this point. Ultimately, as long as the dates remain consistent enough to roughly put you in the season you should be in, I wouldn't worry too much. Only the most A-Type of players will be really tracking the dates to that extent.


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I put it in Aroden as I thought the raising up fit for the theme of that month. It also set the stage for Harvest in book two.

This put the Jubilee on the 30th.

I used calendar template from word and set the year to 4719 and went from there.

Here is a link to that calendar

http://www.seenar.com/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=game_systems:pathfinder:crown :calendar_month_to_month4719.pdf

Here is a link to my game page

http://www.seenar.com/doku.php?id=game_systems:pathfinder:crown

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

I’m getting ready to run this and my wife - playing a rogue - is interested in the Lion Blade prestige class. She would just take 5 levels of rogue and use the Bardic Pretender rogue talent to qualify, but the feat description says that it does not actually provide the bardic performance class feature, just let’s the rogue fake it. The Lion Blade prestige class says “The Lion Blade adds her class level to any other levels in classes that grant the bardic performance ability to determine the effects of her bardic performance but not for the purpose of gaining access to new bardic performances. She also learns the following performances….” Does that mean that a Rogue 5/Lion Blade 1 is treated as a Bard 1 for how many rounds of bardic performance she has, and learns the inspiring poise performance (but not, for example, inspire courage)?

Hero Lab didn’t grant any bardic performance to the character when I tested it, but then I read the stat block for Kathann Zalar and saw that she - Lion Blade 7/Rogue 5 - has 20 rounds of bardic performance/day.


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Huh. Kathann's Hero Lab profile has the bardic performance ability and the inspiring poise ability, but NOT a tracker for the number of rounds.

My guess would be a discrepancy between Hero Lab's interpretation/implementation and the developers' interpretation/implementation of the rules. Like, Hero Lab is saying "Sure, you get the bardic performance because of the Lion Blade prestige class, but since you don't have bardic performance, you don't get any rounds to use it."

If it were me, I'd go with what is in the book (it's not a campaign-unbalancing ability) You may have to just add it manually in Hero Lab or remember to track it.


I'm having a little trouble figuring out which senators and "dramatis personae" survived the massacre in the senate hall.

I scoured through through book 1 and the beginning of book 2 trying to find any mention of it, do ANY of the senators or dramatis personae of chapter 1 play any written role in any of the subsequent books?

I know my players will ask and I don't want to say "oh yeah Baron Okerra died too, pretty much everyone died" only to find out that he plays a pivotal role in book 5 or something..


That is deliberately left vague. You'll want to check the future books for survivors.

Off the top of my head (sorry, don't have the books at hand for easy research, this is just what I recall from running it):

Baron Okerra plays an important role in Book 2 (if memory serves he even gets an NPC write-up). Stavian himself appears later too. Obviously Maxilar Pythareus survives. The PCs go to Kalbio's home town late in the adventure. Gloriana Morilla survives as does Princess Eutropia. The Lion Guard Kathann who greets them at the beginning also lives and later trains them in the ways of spycraft.

The mean drunk woman's father dies (I forget her name--I used the death of her father and the PCs' decision to be kind to her to create a redemption arc where she eventually came round to supporting Eutropia).

That's all I remember off the top of my head.

However, if your players ask, you can also tell them that the situation is still unclear and all the dead aren't yet accounted for. If you wind up saying "Oh, Count Fancyhoff is dead" and later he turns out not to be dead, it's an easy matter to tell them that he was mistakenly listed on the initial reports. That kind of thing happens IRL (sadly) sometimes.


Drunk woman is Dame Trant.

I had two background NPCs go missing, presumed dead. Half the party had met them in a pre-adventure.

They came back as Lion Blades

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