Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Bellevue
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I'm prepping this to GM soon and I'm confused by two points.
page 6 - scaling encounter A2
There is only one adjustment, "for every 2 challenge points beyond 8, increase the hit points by 5 each, and the waterspout ability deals 1d4 additional damage." OK, worst case in a tier 1-4 is 42 challenge points (per the guide). That'd be 7 - 4th level PCs. That's 42-8 / 2 = 17 increments. Or 85 extra hit points and a waterspout that does 17d4 damage on the tier 3-4 serpent? Seems high since the Beastiary sea serpent caps out at 2d6+12 damage on the waterspout.
It seems like the scaling should have a separate adjustment for the high subtier.
page 7 - the Sea Serpents
The waterspout has the brutal trait. I'm not finding that in the CRB. Am I missing it somewhere?
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Venture-Captain, Washington—Seattle
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I'm prepping this to GM soon and I'm confused by two points.
page 6 - scaling encounter A2
There is only one adjustment, "for every 2 challenge points beyond 8, increase the hit points by 5 each, and the waterspout ability deals 1d4 additional damage." OK, worst case in a tier 1-4 is 42 challenge points (per the guide). That'd be 7 - 4th level PCs. That's 42-8 / 2 = 17 increments. Or 85 extra hit points and a waterspout that does 17d4 damage on the tier 3-4 serpent? Seems high since the Beastiary sea serpent caps out at 2d6+12 damage on the waterspout.It seems like the scaling should have a separate adjustment for the high subtier.
Seems like this might be intentional. The sidebar specifically mentions both "sea serpent algae" and "young sea serpent algae" - which implies that it's talking about both subtiers. (Although it should be young algae in the low subtier and adolescent algae in the high subtier.)
The waterspout has the brutal trait. I'm not finding that in the CRB. Am I missing it somewhere?
It's in the Bestiary :)
A ranged attack with this trait uses its Strength modifier instead of Dexterity on the attack roll.
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Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Bellevue
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The waterspout has the brutal trait. I'm not finding that in the CRB. Am I missing it somewhere?It's in the Bestiary :)
A ranged attack with this trait uses its Strength modifier instead of Dexterity on the attack roll.
Thanks on this. I completely missed that sidebar.
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Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Bellevue
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Seems like this might be intentional. The sidebar specifically mentions both "sea serpent algae" and "young sea serpent algae" - which implies that it's talking about both subtiers. (Although it should be young algae in the low subtier and adolescent algae in the high subtier.)I'm prepping this to GM soon and I'm confused by two points.
page 6 - scaling encounter A2
There is only one adjustment, "for every 2 challenge points beyond 8, increase the hit points by 5 each, and the waterspout ability deals 1d4 additional damage." OK, worst case in a tier 1-4 is 42 challenge points (per the guide). That'd be 7 - 4th level PCs. That's 42-8 / 2 = 17 increments. Or 85 extra hit points and a waterspout that does 17d4 damage on the tier 3-4 serpent? Seems high since the Beastiary sea serpent caps out at 2d6+12 damage on the waterspout.It seems like the scaling should have a separate adjustment for the high subtier.
I agree, but it does seem like there might be some bad corner cases for high sub-tier (or those marginally qualifying for high sub-tier).
It seems to me like the scaling for the high subtier should instead be based on "for every 2 challenge points beyond 16, ..."
After all, the monsters are already boosted for high subtier. Every group with more than 4 players playing high tier would otherwise face severely boosted monsters.
E.g., a group of 4 3rd-level characters (16 challenge points) would face the higher subtier serpents as written (44hp, 0d4 bludgeoning damage),
while a group of 3 3rd-level and 2 1st-level characters (also 16 CP) would instead face the higher subtier serpents with an extra 4 increments (64hp, 4d4 bludgeoning damage).
That does not seem right to me.
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SCALING THE JOURNEY
To accommodate a larger or higher-level group, make the following adjustments. Challenge Points: For every 4 additional Challenge Points, increase the DC of the required checks by 1. For every 10 additional Challenge Points, increase the number of success required for each reward by 1 (to a maximum number of successes required for each reward equal to the total number of players).
Should this be read as Challenge Points above 8 since that is the minimum number a legal table can have?
How do the serpents attack? Is the boat the PCs travel in quite close to the water level?
So do they move as if through difficult terrain to get on the boat and then count as being on land?
This might be my misunderstanding of the hazard rules but if someone notices the mold can they attempt to scrape it off before initiative is rolled?
And the triggers for the mold activating are either moving into it or attacking it. This implies a successful Nature check is not a trigger and you don't need to move to scrape it away? I assume this is where the "being careful" comes in...
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Contributor
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I have answers!
Yes, they can swim to the side and then climb onto the deck. I generally treat it like difficult terrain.
Lesser elixirs of life, sorry for the typo!
Yup, if anyone makes the Perception check to see the mold, the party has a chance to disable it before setting it off.
I actually meant to put a duration of one hour for the clumsy condition and apparently did not! Until the end of the scenario is effectively what it ends up being.
I have answers!
Yes, they can swim to the side and then climb onto the deck. I generally treat it like difficult terrain.
Lesser elixirs of life, sorry for the typo!
Yup, if anyone makes the Perception check to see the mold, the party has a chance to disable it before setting it off.
I actually meant to put a duration of one hour for the clumsy condition and apparently did not! Until the end of the scenario is effectively what it ends up being.
Hooray - this means I did all those things right !
Thanks Kate