"Clash Of Saints" Unarmed Problem
The book specifies that the 1st, 3rd, and 4th battles are all unarmed combats.
That's gonna be a big problem for my PCs because none of them have improved unarmed strike. That means that every time they punch they will provoke an AOO. And they don't actually threaten any squares and thus can't take AOOs themselves.
Maybe that's why the opponents are so much lower level than the PCs...
How did you all handle this disadvantage for the PCs?
Allen
I let them be beaten up.
Shouldn't the wyrwood mages have spellbooks?
Now you mention it, probably yes. It can be handwaved away by noting they're constructs sent by Umbarno. He probably keeps their spellbook(s) at base.
I'm going to have to focus my PCs attention on Umbarno Xipali and his plans. Thus far, I've run two of the Jolizpan city encounters - the wyrwood mages at the docks and the ypotryll at the plaza.
The problem is that both of these seem like random encounters to my players. In fact, when they heard the screams for help from the docks, at first I thought they weren't even going to bother to go to the rescue. It was only when I had a random urchin beg them to save his family from the fire that they charged in.
So the next few encounters, I'm going to make it abundantly clear that they're being targeted personally, perhaps an ambush by wyrwood soldiers as they leave their lodgings. Then I'll have Miraina speculate that the absence of town militia - who all left to fight the dragon - has made the PCs into quasi authority figures who are a direct threat to Xipali and his nefarious plans.
Otherwise they're just as likely to leave town straight away to take on the dragon.
I'm not entirely convinced my party are going to sacrifice themselves and their souls to stop the Whispering Tyrant, which is the entire point of the campaign and a major reason I wanted to run it! They know he's a lich so he'll survive the blast, leaving their sole achievement the destruction of the Radiant Fire, the Tyrant's super weapon.
The problem is they know the Shattered Shield was in 12 pieces and that three have been used already. They may well reason that he's only got another nine shots (they don't know about the one embedded in the Tyrant) and that that's not enough to sacrifice themselves for.
So I'm considering upping the stakes. I'm thinking they may find notes left behind by Umbarno Xipali or Istravek - possibly both - hinting at a way of using the Kumaru Tree to make more shards.
I'm just reading ahead and I have to say that the Incomplete Tzitzimitl at the entrance to the pyramid has the potential to be a TPK.
Constant Arcane Sight and True Seeing make it almost impossible for it not to see the party approach. The DC 27 Wail of the Banshee will probably take out half the party! Then there's the eye beam that does 16d6 damage and bypasses SR. Nasty.
This is going to be fun. I haven't looked forward to a fight this much since the dragon in the icy waterfall in book 4.
Hmm, you're a bit ahead of me anmd I haven't prepared for the Ximtal Sahkil fight yet, but you raise valid points.
I think I'll nerf it in some ways - get rid of its Imprisonment spell as that would effectively kill a PC, as you note.
But I also think I'll enhance it in others: changing it's gaseous form speed from 10' to its usual fly speed of 60'. That way it will manage to "surge" forward.
I think I'll treat the description of miasma as "gaseous form like" because, as you say, true gaseous form would be inconsistent with its isolation ability.
But yeah, the monster as written has inherent inconsistencies and wasn't properly playtested. I'd be tempted to swap it out for something else but I do think it's still a pretty cool encounter that I will enjoy throwing at my party. It's also the sort of tough encounter they will get a big kick out of beating.
^^^^^^^
Yeah, I could see that happening so I put the magically locked door down to the lower levels in the floor of the arcane nexus room and made it unbreakable without the MacGuffin, er locking mechanism. I also put a second moss golem in that room because it's such a cool monster and I didn't want my party not to fight one.
My PCs have along with them a dominated guard who described what he knew of the various rooms in the Blue Gardens and they've already deduced, without a shred of evidence, that the MacGuffin must be in the hazardous materials room. Because they've played enough Paizo adventure paths to know that's where it'll be.
And they're right dammit!
And are you seriously suggesting your party didn't loot their way through the Blue Gardens even after they'd met their plot objectives?
When Maraina told my PCs they would be able to keep anything they found in the Blue Gardens, their greedy little eyes all lit up.
So despite my best efforts to make the door to the underlevel unbreakable, my party found a way around it. Literally. They used the Staff of Earth and Stone they dound in the shed to first cast Move Earth to dig down and then Passwall to go across to the downward shaft to area C1.
I'd have preferred they find the locking mechanism but I also believe in rewarding PC ingenuity.
That meant they then encountered the ximtal sahkil. That was a fun fight! I had it start in its natural form, rather than the miasma the module suggested, as I wanted it to get its high-level spells off at the start of the fight, which it couldn't do if in gaseous form.
The party spellcasters wasted the first few rounds casting things like greater invisibility and mirror image (totally useless against the sahkil's constant true seeing). Also, the cleric hit it with a destruction spell, not realising that it was immune to death effects.
It mazed the fighter straight away, and his intelligence meant he needed to roll a 20 to get out. It then cast two horrid wiltings in succession. I'd swapped out its imprisonment spell for an additional horrid wilting as imprisonment is effectively a save or exit the campaign spell. I have no hesitation in hitting my party with save or die spells, but that's going too far.
It smacked the rogue down to about -60hp, but the cleric was able to bring him back using Inspiring Recovery. He's got the Healer's Touch feat which maximises heal spells.
Eventually they brought it down taking considerable damage to themselves, a very satisfying fight for them.
In accordance with the rules of comedy, as the monster died the fighter rolled his 20 to escape the maze spell.
Great recap! Sounds fun. (I mazed a PC, too.)
When the PCs are heading to Tumbaja Mountain, does Miraina give them a map of the interior?
The book makes clear that she gives them a map of the Blue Gardens of Tlil. So I would think she would do the same for Tumbaja Mountain.
Yes, she probably should. It won't be nearly as useful as the map of the Blue Gardens though.
I just finished the Blue Gardens section and the PCs then went back to town and got the big reveal from Miraina.
They are NOT happy about having to sacrifice their souls in order to only destroy the Whispering Tyrant's superweapon, knowing it won't also destroy the Tyrant himself. I boosted the stakes a bit in that I had them find in Umbarno's notes some correspondence between Umbarno and someone called Istravek - who the party doesn't yet know is the Tyrant's dragon - concerning research into creating more shards which can be used to trigger the Radiant Fire.
The Cleric is also a bit miffed that reversing the polarity of the obols means his healing spells automatically become maximised. He already does that with the Healer's Touch feat that he spent the first two modules gaining the prerequisite for! Oh well, I'm sure he'll cope.