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This is a spoiler-filled resource thread for GMs running the Return of the Runelords Adventure Path, specifically for the sixth adventure, "Rise of New Thassilon."
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Ridiculously excited about this adventure. There's so much I'm curious to see (I would say tomorrow can't come soon enough, but I have deadlines to deal with).
A personal hope that I have about this adventure is that we'll get to meet Xin before he went off his rocker and became the secluded and unstable maniac he is in Shattered Star.
Also, I've heard from a lot of devs that a tremendous amount of content has had to be cut from this adventure for space reasons. Are we gonna see a "Runelord Apocrypha" or "Even MORE magic of Thassilon" blog post at some point that covers what couldn't make it in?
Creative Director
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Ridiculously excited about this adventure. There's so much I'm curious to see (I would say tomorrow can't come soon enough, but I have deadlines to deal with).
A personal hope that I have about this adventure is that we'll get to meet Xin before he went off his rocker and became the secluded and unstable maniac he is in Shattered Star.
Also, I've heard from a lot of devs that a tremendous amount of content has had to be cut from this adventure for space reasons. Are we gonna see a "Runelord Apocrypha" or "Even MORE magic of Thassilon" blog post at some point that covers what couldn't make it in?
Nothing significant was cut from this Adventure Path. I knew going in that doing an Adventure Path that reached 20th level would require longer adventures than normal, and so I cut the forewords and at least one (and in some cases two) support articles to make room for the oversized adventures. No content was created and then cut, in other words. I knew going in I needed the room, and built the outline to support that decision.
Could there be expansions to the adventures that presents more material? Of course, but that's the same with ANY adventure or campaign. There's not any "cut content" that didn't make it into print, with the sole exception being the stat block of Runelord Xanderghul I built at full power in order to backwards-engineer the less powerful version of him that actually does appear in print.
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Nothing significant was cut from this Adventure Path. I knew going in that doing an Adventure Path that reached 20th level would require longer adventures than normal, and so I cut the forewords and at least one (and in some cases two) support articles to make room for the oversized adventures. No content was created and then cut, in other words. I knew going in I needed the room, and built the outline to support that decision.Could there be expansions to the adventures that presents more material? Of course, but that's the same with ANY adventure or campaign. There's not any "cut content" that didn't make it into print, with the sole exception being the stat block of Runelord Xanderghul I built at full power in order to backwards-engineer the less powerful version of him that actually does appear in print.
My mistake. My reason for thinking this was conversations with a few authors a while back about a Stethelos article that didn't come to be (there may have been other things mentioned but Stethelos was the big one I remember).
If there are any future adventures that deal with the Dimension of Time, I would love to see a full Stethelos gazetteer similar to the one Kaer Maga got in Shattered Star.
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Creative Director
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Nothing significant was cut from this Adventure Path. I knew going in that doing an Adventure Path that reached 20th level would require longer adventures than normal, and so I cut the forewords and at least one (and in some cases two) support articles to make room for the oversized adventures. No content was created and then cut, in other words. I knew going in I needed the room, and built the outline to support that decision.Could there be expansions to the adventures that presents more material? Of course, but that's the same with ANY adventure or campaign. There's not any "cut content" that didn't make it into print, with the sole exception being the stat block of Runelord Xanderghul I built at full power in order to backwards-engineer the less powerful version of him that actually does appear in print.
My mistake. My reason for thinking this was conversations with a few authors a while back about a Stethelos article that didn't come to be (there may have been other things mentioned but Stethelos was the big one I remember).
If there are any future adventures that deal with the Dimension of Time, I would love to see a full Stethelos gazetteer similar to the one Kaer Maga got in Shattered Star.
Stethelos is a HUGE part of the adventure—so integral to its structure that all of the information about it ended up being contained within the adventure itself. I could have moved all that information out of the adventure and into its own gazetteer, but that would have made the flow of the adventure itself awkward to read. I abandoned the idea of separating that information out into its own article and instead expanded the adventure by several pages so that it would be able to contain all the info needed, in other words, which allowed Greg to build the adventure much more efficiently and excellently than if I'd had a different author create the content (which would have created a sort of chicken and the egg thing with both articles requiring the other in order to be written).
I doubt we'll do much more with Stethelos and the Dimension of Time in the future, though—this is pretty much it, as far as I think, for time travel in Pathfinder. There's plenty of room in there for GMs to take this as a starting point and then expand as they see fit, but too much time travel means making different versions of the same campaign setting, and we've got our hands full with one timeline already.
EDIT: And as an aside, this is one of the reasons I tend to be pretty close-mouthed about adventure paths when they're early in the outline process. Until the outline is done and I have a full grasp of the needs of each part, I don't want to set false expectations on the contents of the campaign or get potential authors excited about writing something that might end up being unneeded or better penned by the writer of the adventure itself. Sometimes though, I just get too excited and can't help letting some leaks happen here and there when I start asking authors about their availability.
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Stethelos is a HUGE part of the adventure—so integral to its structure that all of the information about it ended up being contained within the adventure itself. I could have moved all that information out of the adventure and into its own gazetteer, but that would have made the flow of the adventure itself awkward to read. I abandoned the idea of separating that information out into its own article and instead expanded the adventure by several pages so that it would be able to contain all the info needed, in other words, which allowed Greg to build the adventure much more efficiently and excellently than if I'd had a different author create the content (which would have created a sort of chicken and the egg thing with both articles...
Aaaaand my hype level just escalated even further.
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Creative Director
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Could there be expansions to the adventures that presents more material? Of course, but that's the same with ANY adventure or campaign. There's not any "cut content" that didn't make it into print, with the sole exception being the stat block of Runelord Xanderghul I built at full power in order to backwards-engineer the less powerful version of him that actually does appear in print.
I don't expect we'll get the full power stat block, but I have two questions about it:
1) How many Mythic Tiers does Xanderghul have, and are they Archmage?
2) Does Xanderghul have the Sanctum Archmage Path Ability, and was that his hiding place outside of time and space he went into hibernation in?
If you can answer the questions, great. If not, that's okay, too, but I'm really curious.
1) 10 tiers of archmage.
2) Yes.
Huh? Xanderghul's hiding place outside of time and space was created with the Sanctum Archmage Path Ability? But I thought no one can enter an archmage's sanctum without his permission, just like Mage's Magnificent Mansion. How can Alaznist enter Xanderghul's sanctum so easily?
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Creative Director
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Huh? Xanderghul's hiding place outside of time and space was created with the Sanctum Archmage Path Ability? But I thought no one can enter an archmage's sanctum without his permission, just like Mage's Magnificent Mansion. How can Alaznist enter Xanderghul's sanctum so easily?
She couldn't easily, but she could because she's an NPC and gets to do things against the rules to progress the off-screen story. The recovery of the Scepter helped for sure, but so did her own mythic stunts and special accomplishments.
AKA: What the dryad said more or less too.
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Creative Director
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What are the odds of seeing full-power Xanderghul? I homebrewed my own version in case my campaign does go down that route but I'm curious to know if there ever will be a release of the official version.
There are no plans to publish the full power Xanderghul ever.
Those stats exist, and I'm debating on whether or not to put them online as a blog post or not, but kinda trepidatious about doing so this soon, because I want the Adventure Path to stand on its own as presented, with Xanderghul as NOT the most powerful foe. Maybe later in the late spring or early summer I'll put his stats up for folks to see, but for now I'm not comfortable making them public.
If you want Xanderghul at full power to play a significant role in your game, this is a GREAT homebrew opportunity for a GM, but it's not the intent of the Adventure Path and so I don't want to confuse folks by having someone post "official" stats for him until the Return of the Runelords Adventure Path has had at least a few months to exist whole in the world.
If you're just curious to see how I built his stats, I'll ask you to be patient and understanding, and hopefully you'll still be curious later in the year.
Great news that you are (very probably) are going to publish his full stat block later in the year, James. I am very much looking forward to it.
BTW, did you also create a full tier ten stat block for Alaznist or was the version presented in the last module the only one made?
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Creative Director
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Great news that you are (very probably) are going to publish his full stat block later in the year, James. I am very much looking forward to it.
BTW, did you also create a full tier ten stat block for Alaznist or was the version presented in the last module the only one made?
By "publish" I basically mean "Maybe post on a blog if I can work up the courage to withstand the stat block math scrutiny of a million eyes." It won't be published in print.
I did not create a full tier ten stat block for Alaznist. There was no need. All of the stuff she does at tier ten happens oof-screen, and it's only the non-augmented but still dangerous one that I built.
I'm glad to hear that you have Xanderghul's full stat block and may reveal it someday. Do you have Zutha's full stat block too? I really wish to see how powerful he is. Can you at least tell me how many levels and mythic tiers does he have? I'm not sure whether he was mythic or not, though.
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Creative Director
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I'm glad to hear that you have Xanderghul's full stat block and may reveal it someday. Do you have Zutha's full stat block too? I really wish to see how powerful he is. Can you at least tell me how many levels and mythic tiers does he have? I'm not sure whether he was mythic or not, though.
Nope; there was no need to build Zutha's stats so I didn't. He's not mythic at all though. If I remember correctly, he's intended to be an 18th or 19th level lich.
Unless Sorshan has a Base strength of 3, I believe her stats are calculated Wrong?
14 - 6 (+6 belt of Physical perfection) - 5 (+5 Inherent Bonuses) = total of 3?
Assuming thats all, are we going to get a correction to this? or have her just be super frail
But you made the full stat block of Xanderghul because it was needed to create the weaker version of him. Thus I thought you would have made the full stat block of Zutha too because it was needed to create the weaker version of Zutha. Yet you didn't make his full stat block? I'm confused.
By "publish" I basically mean "Maybe post on a blog if I can work up the courage to withstand the stat block math scrutiny of a million eyes." It won't be published in print.Great news that you are (very probably) are going to publish his full stat block later in the year, James. I am very much looking forward to it.
BTW, did you also create a full tier ten stat block for Alaznist or was the version presented in the last module the only one made?
Don't worry, I got that from your posts about it from the last weeks. :) And I don't think anybody will make a big fuss if there is an error or two in that complicated stat block, we'll just be happy to have it.
I did not create a full tier ten stat block for Alaznist. There was no need. All of the stuff she does at tier ten happens oof-screen, and it's only the non-augmented but still dangerous one that I built.
Alright, I just wanted to ask. :) Thank you for the answers!
The most probable thing is that there is a minor mistake in the write-up and it should say that she did not enhance her strength.
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Quite possible, though I couldn't say since I'm don't have access to a pdf of the adventure and thus can't see her statblock
It says that she enhanced all her ability scores. I'd say that this sentence should end with "except her strength score". Because, may I dare suggest this, she probably would not like to look like female Conan the Barbarian as the runelord of lust. ^^
I know Hollywood has trained us to expect that you can be super strong as a female and still have the slim look of a super model, but if we expect a male barbarian with a strength of 18 to look like, y'know, Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime, then even a female runelord with a strength of 19 would look a lot more musclebound than how Sorshen is depicted in this book and past publications.
BTW, some exquisite images of Sorshen in this volume, I really must commend the artist who did those drawings on pages 75 and 82.
Nope, she has a Belt of Physical Perfection +6. Sorry, I didn't think to mention it.
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It's really pretty tremendous. I especially loved that Sorshen and Nocticula would tie in a beauty contest (i.e. comparing their charisma scores). :p
Yeah, it's 20d10 in a 40 foot radius, resistances and immunities don't apply. That will put any group on its backfoot. Luckily for the PC's, as Dryad pointed out, Alaznist cannot cast the spell like that.
It says in her write up that she doesnt suffer age penalties
Yeah, not quite. Her stat block, as presented, is as follows:
She also gets her charisma modifier instead of her constitution modifier on hitpoints, I'd presume that is from her studies with the Everdawn Pool.
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I fear she hasn't taken Enhanced Ability even once.
Honestly, it really doesn't matter very much if her stat block is perfect. I fear all this number crunching for nothing may scare James off from publishing Xanderghul's full stat block later in the year on the blog, so I'd really appreciate it if we didn't pick this one apart so much.
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Creative Director
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But you made the full stat block of Xanderghul because it was needed to create the weaker version of him. Thus I thought you would have made the full stat block of Zutha too because it was needed to create the weaker version of Zutha. Yet you didn't make his full stat block? I'm confused.
The weaker version of Zutha wasn't based on simulacrum, which kinda requires you to know the source before you make the simulacrum version; the weakened Zutha was hand-built for what it was and thus there was no need to reverse engineer him from a more powerful incarnation.
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Creative Director
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Unless Sorshan has a Base strength of 3, I believe her stats are calculated Wrong?
14 - 6 (+6 belt of Physical perfection) - 5 (+5 Inherent Bonuses) = total of 3?
Assuming thats all, are we going to get a correction to this? or have her just be super frail
Oops; I suspect that the bonuses got dropped off. Her starting strength is 14, so her actual should be 25. Fortunately, the fact that she doesn't directly get into a fight really in the AP plus the fact that she probably won't be doing much that depends on her Strength even if she did means I'm less annoyed about that typo.
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And I do get it that there's some folks who enjoy reverse engineering stat blocks to either check our math or to learn how we built an NPC or both, but in most cases, the difference in values (be they errors or simply different choices you make as opposed to the ones we make), when combined with the organic errors that pop up in play, should all sort of gloss over. Especially if you have a GM running the game who's keeping track of things, maybe fudging rolls, and adjusting things as they go to maintain that always delicate balance between "Running by the rules" and "Making sure we all have fun."
If I DO post Xanderghul's full stats... I'll probably just do so either in a blog somewhere or on the forums here, and again that won't happen for several months, and if I do, I suspect I'll back away and not take further part in the thread because, yes, while I do like knowing when we make errors in print so we can potentially correct them in future incarnations... the fact that we're switching editions AND that I'm 99.994% sure we'll not be doing anything more with Xanderghul again means that I'd rather not subject myself to that extra stress of defending his stat block choices or enduring the public shame of forgetting his favored class bonus hp or whatever. I'll be getting enough of that soon enough once the new edition comes out, just like back in Council of Thieves, when I developed an adventure path that I didn't have the advantage of years of system mastery to make sure things went smooth...
...and to regrow a thicker skin, of course!
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We love your work, James. I hope things work out for you all with PF2E, even if I myself won't be participating much with them. Thanks for your hard work!
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I have to say that I'm really looking forward to Xanderghul stats because knowing my players, they might actually end up with forcing Xanderghul to alliance :D They tend to allow every enemy surrendering so knowing what Xanderghul's stats are like when Alaznist is defeated would be useful to determine whether being humbled sticks for him or not
(either way, I guess he pulls off similar stuff to what Belimarius does in epilogue if he survives somehow)
Cheers for the clarification James Jacobs! We all appreciate all the hard work you put in!