| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hello! I will list the changes I have made so far here.
- Replace Lopper with Sans (Because Lopper just seemed kinda bland I can post Sans' stat block if you like)
- Genderswap Adrissant and make her appear and give a short speech at the funeral as Professor Lorimmor's former student and teacher assistant.
- TBD: Add a new event that's probably going to be Sans related.
I haven't read past the first book yet and my session starts next Saturday.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
When you have AA show up at the funeral, have Vrood, Eugenie, and Vinceith from book 3 there attending her. It brings a better motivation to the party when they realize that their enemy has truely been ahead of them the whole time.
Rework the boss fight of book 2. Either have the Promethean wait to attack until the shudders are opened, or have BoL hammering on the shudders cueing the party to immediately let him in. Otherwise, you'll probably have the majority of the fight as Party v. Promethean.
Don't play the Splatterman stupid like the book wants you to. The ghost inappropriately touching a caster for that 6d6 groping brings more gravitas to the fight than spamming 3d4+3 of magic missiles per round.
The livery in Thrushmoor (bk 4) is a great place to bring in replacement PC's. Have someone bound in the shop of the owner, a future meal for the ghouls.
Start heaping HP bonuses onto monsters starting in book 4. Poorly optimized groups can 1-round pretty much any enemy given at that point.
Replace monster stats like crazy. Too many enemies get improved initiative, not enough get Vital Strike.
Thanks you two! I will add Vrood, Eugenie and Vinceith. Also here are Sans' stats, do they look balanced?
Sans (CR 5)
XP 1600
NE Small undead
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., lifesense; Perception +11 Aura unnatural aura (30 ft.)
DEFENSE
AC 99, touch 99, flat-footed 99 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +2 natural + 99 Dodge)
hp 1 (1)
Fort +99, Ref +99, Will +99
Dodge
Immune cold, undead traits, INcorporeal
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Bones 15 foot cone + 8 touch 1d6 negative energy + 1d6 bleed + 1
Gaster Blaster - 20 foot line + 8 touch 1d6 negative energy + 1d6 bleed + 1
STATISTICS
Str 15, Dex 14, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +0; CMB +7; CMD 22
Feats Desperate Battler, Improved Initiative
Gear -
Dies instantly to magic missile
Dodge - Sans can dodge the first 10 offensive actions thrown at him, no matter what. Any attack roll that's less than 10 does not count against his dodge. He starts sweating after the 5th attack, and his legs start to tremble after the 9th. After the 10th he pants and is unable to take any actions for 1d4 turns, then dodge will reset. On his turn he always takes a talk action.
Oh also when his dodge is down his AC is 10 and his saves are only +5
Despite running this I have absolutely no actual sense of what's strong in PF, but I will say I really like Sans. However, use Gaster Blaster very sparingly - that bleed WILL f~&* the team up if it rolls high.
Decide early if you want Adivion to be an ally early or make it clear that she'll be the villain (or at least, let them come to the conclusion early). Having Vrood and pals show up at the funeral like Archmagi suggested is a *really* good idea, but obviously not if you want to play AA like the cool benefactor type.
Honestly making Ravengro the "spooky untrusting town" just kind of stinks - it's much nicer for the party to actually care about what happens to the town than just kind of being "okay, people are dying, so what?" Plus it'll motivate them to not rush immediately up to the prison, which is always handy.
Besides, the "spooky untrusting town" plot is done again in book 4 so why go through that twice?
|
One thing I did which made the research stuff more interesting was I somewhat utilized the research rules from Ultimate Intrigue and then wrote up a bunch of what the characters would actually be reading- a newspaper story, some letters, some journal entries- in order to fully convey the story. My group seemed to really enjoy it more than just some skill checks and "here's what you found out". You may not have enough time left to do that though.
Would you consider sharing this Thadyne? Sounds awesome.
I'm only 4 days (in game time) into my game, but I think the trust system has merrit in a way to judge the attitude of most NPCs. Just don't fall into the trap of using it across the board.
Zokar seems like he would have been interested in the professor's past adventures, and Father Grimburrow would have reapected his intelligence and experience. And then one or two other NPCs to this group and you have a few friendly individuals the PCs can bond with and use them to get the PCs invested in the town.
And on the flip side Gibs should have a few friends and they should be outright hostile for the most part
People have said that there aren't enough trust points written in the book. So look for ways to add points for good deeds and successful diplomacy. Otherwise Legendary Games has a gothic supplement with two great adventures.
If you want a villain for the players to focus on but don't want to tip AA's hand, use Vrood. Book 3 has a brief backstory for him but he was basicly baptised in death and is obsessed by it.
I made him a key figure behind the Fiddler at Dawn events from the gothic supplement which they will learn in book 2.
If the ask around about strangers prior to the professor's death, have someone matching his description visit the town with an entourage on legitimate business/cover story. Invent a stone quarry to the south of the prison he wants to reopen, or maybe he's interested in a trade deal with one of the towns many farms or orchards.
Better yet he's a representative for hsi employer, hinting at a villain beyond him.
My last piece of advice is a gift from you to the players. The professor keeps a detailed journal, and they all had a memorable encountet with him. While researching of helping put his affairs in order, let them discover his account of the adventures they shared.
Following up: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2s1rl?Rakshakas-Campaign-material Rakshaka's campaign notes have been absolutely indispensable to me in expanding some of this stuff, especially the rather-sparse Book 3 (especially if your players solve Ascanor Lodge without firing off the murder mystery like mine did!)
Also, if you plan to still have Vrood be able to use Circle of Death in his boss fight, make it so the professor was killed by that spell rather than Phantasmal Killer so you can describe a spooky ring of dead vegetation and whatnot to foreshadow the spell.
For Book 2 (Trial of the Beast), I would recommend altering the Aberrant Promethean's role in the mansion. Instead of having it just be a surprise final encounter that jumps the PCs after they've already fought their way through everything else, have it chase the PCs through the place.
Maybe it drops down behind them at the front door, scaring them into retreating inside. It can't follow them inside, but it can crawl around outside the mansion and take blind swipes at them if they wander too close to a window or door leading outside.
Perhaps they find opportunities to lose it or to harm it along the way, like spilling a vat of acid onto it as it reaches into a lab.
Pure gold. Very Resident Evil, I like this a lot.