I'm going to have to railroad things to get my game off the ground Saturday. I'm not above doing that in very minor cases but this is the event that starts the adventure. Players in a tavern on a cold and stormy night huddled together around mugs of ale, wine, and cider to fend off the winter chill. Sleep-type magic might work for some, but most of that requires a Will Save and more than half of the party are high Will Savin' types so that could be problematic.
I should have given this more thought rather than waiting until the 11th Hour, but real life has hit hard this week and I've been really distracted by the possibility of being homeless in a couple of months.
Anyway, any thoughts on spells, poisons, items, or anything?
Thanks for your time and consideration.
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Tell them to roll Will saves, no matter what they roll, they all fail and fall asleep. If your story needs for them to be all asleep, do that. There's no need to shackle yourself with following the rules to the letter.
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If you need a method chained down by the rules, you could use candles made from Alchemical Candle Wax infused with Sweetdream poison. If the DC isn't high enough, use the poison DC uppers (Poison Focus feat, Concentrate Poison Alchemist Discovery, etc etc).
If they all huddle around the candles (or just place candles EVERYWHERE) then they will start inhaling the sleep-poison. They might suspect the food/drinks first, but it is actually the air they have been breathing (forcing several saves over a couple of rounds).
It is a two-step poison though, first sleep for a minute, then sleep for 1d4 hours.
If this is to start off the campaign just use a narrative approach. Start off with the description you wrote in this post and add they wake up in <insert setting>. Don’t explain anything.
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I'm going to have to railroad things to get my game off the ground Saturday. I'm not above doing that in very minor cases but this is the event that starts the adventure. Players in a tavern on a cold and stormy night huddled together around mugs of ale, wine, and cider to fend off the winter chill. Sleep-type magic might work for some, but most of that requires a Will Save and more than half of the party are high Will Savin' types so that could be problematic.
I should have given this more thought rather than waiting until the 11th Hour, but real life has hit hard this week and I've been really distracted by the possibility of being homeless in a couple of months.
Anyway, any thoughts on spells, poisons, items, or anything?
Thanks for your time and consideration.
Skulls and Shackles start off with the party waking up After being pressganged at the local bar. So you could always do that, simply handwave the original bar scene and have the game start AFTER they wake up.
Tell them to roll Will saves, no matter what they roll, they all fail and fall asleep. If your story needs for them to be all asleep, do that. There's no need to shackle yourself with following the rules to the letter.
^---- yeah this, have them roll will saves but do it with disadvantage, and then even if they do "pass" it's an auto-fail. The PC's: "amg thats not the rules of pathfinder, this villain must be super mysterious and powerful..."
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+1 to the narrative approach. You're setting the scene. The players will trust you more if you don't [visibly] railroad them.
Thanks, everyone! These are all terrific ideas and I really appreciate everyone's time and input.
It's not the start of the campaign, by the way, but is actually the game I'd planned for our annual Halloween get-together but this year things just kept getting in the way, so they're getting it for Christmas.
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Nagaji Mesmerist 5
Between the Mesmerist's Mental Potency, and the Nagaji FCB, you have boosted every step of Color Spray by 2HD... everyone with 4HD or less "is unconscious, blinded, and stunned for 2d4 rounds, then blinded and stunned for 1d4 rounds, and then stunned for 1 round." 5-6HD are still "blinded and stunned for 1d4 rounds, then stunned for 1 round." And those with 7 or more HD are "stunned for 1 round."
Could be rocking a DC of ~17 pretty easy... that's CR7 territory... with a 1st-level spell. It does have a pretty pathetic range (15' cone), but a level 5 Mesmerist with a 18-20 Charisma can cast it 5 or 6 times. Lol.
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The best suited spell would be a Symbol of Sleep. Triggering it should be easy, and since it doesn't have to be cast right then, you can justify a high DC without requiring a high level NPC present. And whether be it a letter from a mysterious person that the barmaid hands the PCs, or a rune curiously inscribed on a coaster, it shouldn't be hard to make it a proper plot hook.
The problem with any spell that can be (fully) saved agaisnt is no matter how high you put the DC, there's still the chance for PCs to roll a natural 20 on the save. With 8 PCs, there's a 34% chance at least one of them does so. The Persisten Spell metamagic can significantly reduce the probability for that, down to 2% for 8 PCs.
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The narrative approach does not have to be limited to the start of a campaign. It should not be used all the time but can be used anytime. Typically, I only use it at the start of something where the actions of the players are not important. The party relaxing in a tavern when nothing else is going on seems to fit that. If the party had gone to that tavern to investigate something, that could be different.
If a creature’s nonlethal damage is equal to his total maximum hit points (not his current hit points), all further nonlethal damage is treated as lethal damage.
Its perfectly fine, you just have to do the math. Let's go with the character with the LEAST amount of HP at level 1. 6 HP wizard (or insert squishy) with 10 CON.
The average damage a fireball does at 5th level is 17.5, let's round up to 18. The first 6 HP is nonlethal, so we are down to 12 damage that is directly lethal to the character. This brings their actual HP down (from 6) to -6, still alive with a few point to work around.
An average adventurer that takes their survival seriously is not simply going to to have 10 CON, or the bare minimum HP. Then you factor in the potential for them to make their reflex saving throw. If you need to fudge the situation just a bit to keep the squishy wizard alive because "reasons", give them some cover bonus to their saving throw to take half damage.
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This brings their actual HP down (from 6) to -6, still alive with a few point to work around.
Meh, the section of my brain that does math is still playing catch up after a weekend of being sick. Change that to -8, not -6.
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I just remembered a very useful feat for these situations: Golden Legion's Stayed Blade. It allows you to NOT outright kill someone when the damage should have, and instead leave them at -1hp.
You could "Cone of Cold" them and keep them all alive regardless of the damage.
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A level 5 Nagaji Mesmerist with a bag of choking and sneezing dust.