|
This is a spoiler-filled resource thread for GMs running the Dawn of Flame Adventure Path, specifically for the fifth adventure, "Solar Strike."
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
All GM Threads in this series:
1 - Fire Starters
2 - Soldiers of Brass
3 - Sun Divers
4 - The Blind City
5 - Solar Strike
6 - Assault on the Crucible
Uh...
Flak Thrower The flak thrower’s physical ammunition burns up in stellar plasma after the second range increment (10 hexes). Therefore, in combat inside a star, the flak thrower can hit nothing beyond that range.
Uh...
Flak Thrower The flak thrower’s physical ammunition burns up in stellar plasma after the second range increment (10 hexes). Therefore, in combat inside a star, the flak thrower can hit nothing beyond that range.
...uh, what? Can't starship weapons hit several times past their range increment at a penalty normally?
Or is it that the 'flak' can apparently survive 60+ miles inside the sun?
Uh...
Flak Thrower The flak thrower’s physical ammunition burns up in stellar plasma after the second range increment (10 hexes). Therefore, in combat inside a star, the flak thrower can hit nothing beyond that range....uh, what? Can't starship weapons hit several times past their range increment at a penalty normally?
Or is it that the 'flak' can apparently survive 60+ miles inside the sun?
Point weapons can only shoot one increment. This is a point weapon.
Point weapons can only shoot one increment. This is a point weapon.Uh...
Flak Thrower The flak thrower’s physical ammunition burns up in stellar plasma after the second range increment (10 hexes). Therefore, in combat inside a star, the flak thrower can hit nothing beyond that range....uh, what? Can't starship weapons hit several times past their range increment at a penalty normally?
Or is it that the 'flak' can apparently survive 60+ miles inside the sun?
ah, love those rules bad advice in APs...
Another rules error: there's treasure in the form of spell amps of Tongues, which as a divination spell isn't legal to be put in spell amp form.
|
Can someone remind me why the PCs can't just fly to the top of the Spire in their ship? Sure the Chariots get chased off by the dragon, but there doesn't seem to be any reason why they can't just land the Sun Diver up there and yell at Nysteryx to come fight them.
The book says it's supposed to be a "covert" mission, but why? Once they start shooting people someone's gonna get on a comm and tell the dragon. It feels like they started with the second half of Rogue One and took out all the interesting parts. I might have Nysteryx show up early and start intermittently breathing fire into the building. Her troops are largely immune, right?
|
|
Can someone remind me why the PCs can't just fly to the top of the Spire in their ship? Sure the Chariots get chased off by the dragon, but there doesn't seem to be any reason why they can't just land the Sun Diver up there and yell at Nysteryx to come fight them.
The book says it's supposed to be a "covert" mission, but why? Once they start shooting people someone's gonna get on a comm and tell the dragon. It feels like they started with the second half of Rogue One and took out all the interesting parts. I might have Nysteryx show up early and start intermittently breathing fire into the building. Her troops are largely immune, right?
Their ship is far too large to land in the spire. The entire structure would collapse.
|
|
At one point, the adventure suggests that if the PCs skip one of the side missions in Part II, to add those skipped encounters into the Spire in Part III. I think you can apply that same idea to the Spire: if PCs use clever magic or spells or whatever to bypass the slog up the Spire, then just move those encounters to the top, and have the PCs fight them in G5 & G6. Commisar Yushiev or Gorchak (or, hell, both at once!) are great mini-bosses that roadblock to the way to Nysteryx.
Alternatively, if the PCs decide to just fly their ship up to The Spire, make 'em take some shots from ground embankments (similar to the stuff on pg 8 when landing on Kahlannal) and then have to fight Nysteryx as a Starship-scale encounter. It does require whipping up your own stats for a Starship scale solar dragon, but there's some ideas on how to do that in SOM, at least? They then have to land and deal with the mini-bosses in G5 & G6 to reclaim the psychic resonator and command hub of the city!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
For my group, the defensive ground embankments were a perfectly good reason to not try to fly about in their starship too much inside Kahlannal. Though it isn't stated explicitly, Khaim's legion probably brought a bunch of ground to air weapons along to deal with the Anassanoi Chariots, as the most significant source of resistance.
One part that puzzled me was the data center mission. Zar is a solo foe good at ranged combat, spellcasting, and utility in a small room. Unless he has warning that the PCs are entering (and the Computers/Engineering DCs are easy enough that that's unlikely), he will be turned to paste in short order. Later on, Ferys the Hacker Devil also doesn't seem like a coherent challenge. Breaking Ferys down:
The proposed encounter turns Ferys into a total punching bag that will barely scratch the party, as far as I can tell. As a result, when I ran this, I let him use his spell-like abilities from inside the mainframe (and therefore having total cover), requiring the PCs to hack the system while under fire to eject him and get him into a fair fight.