Advice requested. Running 1st ed wrath of righteous campaing


Wrath of the Righteous


So im gearing up to run wrath of the righteous adventure path. The main problem is the story is well documented in the video game. I was thinking of ways to change up the story a bit. At first i thought about swapping a few characters. Nurah and Sosiel for instance. Just to keep the pcs guessing in case they know the story. Then today I had a bit of an inspired ability. The first module i ever ran was savage tide at the completion one of the pcs took the title of princess of demons.

So thats the short story. Now for the questions.

1) What other changes can you suggest to the story to keep pcs on their toes who may have played the video game?

2) would a 20th lvl sorcerer made demon lord be a good replacement for Areelu Vorlesh? The quirk with this is similar to Demogorgon they would have more action economy. During the savage tide former pc had simulacrum made (simulacrum was being pimped out at a brothel). The abyss infused the simulacrum to become the second head of the pc. Two bodies two motivations and one shared hp pool. Are the mythic rules strong enough that i should hand out mythic levels to the pc demon lord to make the encounter more even?


Something to keep in mind is that the video game made a LOT of changes to the source material, so look at the based AP so as to have a better idea of what your PCs may recognize from the VG.

Conacer wrote:
would a 20th lvl sorcerer made demon lord be a good replacement for Areelu Vorlesh? The quirk with this is similar to Demogorgon they would have more action economy. During the savage tide former pc had simulacrum made (simulacrum was being pimped out at a brothel). The abyss infused the simulacrum to become the second head of the pc. Two bodies two motivations and one shared hp pool. Are the mythic rules strong enough that i should hand out mythic levels to the pc demon lord to make the encounter more even?

Areelu Vorlesh in both the AP and VG have a VERY specific backstory explaining her part in the World Wound. Replacing her with someone else from a previses adventure, would require a LOT of leg work. It could be fun if you do, but it will be difficult. A level 20 sorcerer with double HP will be beefy, and extra actions are always a treat, but Mythic rules can be VERY one sided depending on build. Consider this, how does this creature compare to Areelu Vorlesh herself, and the surprise boss fight that comes after her?


Lord of Conflict wrote:


Areelu Vorlesh in both the AP and VG have a VERY specific backstory explaining her part in the World Wound. Replacing her with someone else from a previses adventure, would require a LOT of leg work. It could be fun if you do, but it will be difficult. A level 20 sorcerer with double HP will be beefy, and extra actions are always a treat, but Mythic rules can be VERY one sided depending on build. Consider this, how does this creature compare to Areelu Vorlesh herself, and the surprise boss fight that comes after her?

Your right much better to replace surprise boss fight with Vera (PC who is demon lord)


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I made a number of fairly major story changes (to the point that my book VI has basically no overlap with book VI as published, or the video game. If you look at the narrative prologue/cut scene thread on this site I've posted most there with explanations. We are still in the Battle of Drezen part of Book VI so we haven't finished but it's been VERY successful for my players. Vorlesh is their most hated campaign villain after 20+ years of a core group playing together. I'd leave her and just change her motivations slightly.

More important than story for 1e Wrath is balance. The mythic rules are irrevocably broken. I HIGHLY recommend the following:

1. Just use the base mythic rules for your players - the level 1-10 bonuses, and swap mythic feats for regular feats. Do NOT use mythic abilities or feats

2. Use the Scorpion revised stat blocks found on this forum for your enemies. That will make the campaign hard, and therefore epic, but manageable

I'm happy to post more about some of the larger story changes we made if you'd like


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I'll add too, that one thing the video game did right was make the Herald a major character early on. This is a good idea. Book V doesn't really work without it


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I had the Nocticulan be active earlier, offering fast efficient and pragmatic solutions, at the cost of a degree of corruption.


I have played the video game and now I'm running the AP, almost done with book 3. As previously stated above there are enough difference in the two games There are 2 spoilers from the VG that I see. Nurah and Arueshalae. This only matters if your group has played the VG.

Nurah as a spy, I might possibly keep her as untrustworthy due to her background but shit the actual betrayals to maybe Sosiel. Blame it on the loss of his brother Trever which is found out in book 3, or drop that story line altogether which is easily done.

For Arueshalae, I have tied her into the backstory of 3 of my player, not just the Chance Encounter Trait. Every time i have shown her she is described as a Tiefling, never shows her demonic for. Her Demonic form is always referred to as the traitor or heretic by the forces of the world wound.
The party is about to meet her face to face at the end of book 3 and she will do the reveal of her true form.

Suture has almost no presence in the AP, much bigger role in the VG.

I do not see much need to change Areelu Vorlesh. Her history is well document by the crusades, and an obvious BBG. you can tweak her motivation if you want, but she does not show until late in the AP.

I can not strongly enough recommend delving into Stip's Narrative/Cut scene Thread for story ideas. I have tweaked many of the entries there for my specific party. It also served as a springboard to my own twist for this AP. Nocticula is pulling the PC's strings. She has foreseen where this conflict will go and has seeded the worldwound with children able to touch the devine, ie become mythic. Basically Nocticula was the cause of all the players background campaign traits.

I also concur with stip above in limiting the Mythic power. I have a large group of 6 using the full mythic rule and most fights last no more than 2 rounds. also give every Mythic bad guy Dual Initiative.


thanks for the plug. :). id love to see what you changed. my players love nocticula. i’ve kept her secondary so she can remain mysterious and otherworldly and Im
centering iomedae, but if i did it again i might beef up her role

we are about 6 sessions from finishing but we play 1/month so itll be a while. we finish the book VI battle of drezen, which I expanded to 10 straight encounters over the course of the day. so breaks between fights but no rests amd buffs expire. its been incredible so far


Conacer, feel free to reach out directly if you want more details but here are the major changes I have made.

Head Canon/ Stuff the PC dont know.

Demon Lord Motivations
Deskari - Expand his abyssal realm into the material plane through the Worldwound to gain power by slaughter and eventually become a god. Mortal world thinks he is just taking advantage of Areelu Vorlesh opening the worldwound, but this has been in the works for centuries.

Baphomet - Provide just enough support to convince Deskari they have allied goals. if opening presents itself take it all for himself, or pull back and wash hands of the endeavors if deskari screws up.

Nocticula - The most important player in this game from the PC's perspective.
There is one god in the Abyss, and she has no intention of allowing these two idiots to be a second. The Bugs plans threaten the the world holding Rovagaug and the Starstone. If they win there is the risk of destroying ALL reality. She knows the Gods of good can not interfere directly but she can, she is not a true god. but how to go about it?
the saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" is not quite true. they are still my enemy but why not use them for my one ends. With that in mind, over the last 100 years of conflict Nocticula has pushed certain mortals into position where,if the conditions are correct, they will gain a bit of Divinity, (become Mythic).
In one way or another Nocticula caused the PC's to get their Campaign trait. she caused Arushalae to rise, and be in position to save the Chance Encounter and Exposed to Awefulness pc. She caused the seduction of the mother of the Touched by divinity, etc. maybe even had a hand in Queen Galfrey getting the imortality elixers that keep her young and fighting, or Yaniel.
She has no interest in direct action against the BUG and Bull, she works from the shadows unless she cant. when the party meets her in book 4 she will be referring to them in motherly familial terms, my childern, young ones, Daughter for Arueshalae if she is there.
since my group games online, When she offers her profane blessing to the group openly I will be sending each PC a separate email revealing to each her involvement in their backstory and the individualized offers. but we are not there yet.

the GODs of Good. transparent modivation. stop all demons.

that is enough for one post. more in the next.

that is the enough for one post.


Back to the real question, how to tweak the in AP story.

Again I can not thank STIP enough, and as I recall a few by MightyPion for the Narrative post.

Most of what I have changed is more for me as a GM. I dont think my players have played the VG version. one player is running this AP for his kids but on a much more irregular basis and we have now passed were they were at.

Book one.

I modified Stips Narrative intro to my party. groups of two pcs know each other and one main NPC but not the other PC's. I do a little background for these 3 groups of two then go into the modified Into scene and at various points to break up a long narrative for each group to do a one round combat/skill challenge before falling into the riffs and it all going dark.

from there game goes as written until end of book 1. I do introduce an additional NPC, a tiefling kid who I intended to be MY PC in Strength of Thousands AP by our other GM/player. at end of book after final fight they go unconscious for one month as body adapts to the divine (Mythic) energy they absorbed and They have more STIP Narrative dreams.

Book 2 as written with the addition that the Kid comes along as a page/gopher and is used by Nurah as a patsy to draw attention from her. she made all her rolls, PC's failed all theirs in our play through. They suspected but never caught her. also suspected the kid. If your players have done the VG then I would preface this AP by saying you have changed things because of that then dont just to mess with them. Sprinkled in some STIP Narravtives.

Book3 no changes really. continue the Nurah/kid stuff. They never came across Kiranda in Book 2 so now she is impersonating Nurah to do mischief. I specifically did a scene where Nurah was having conversations with two different groups of PC's at the same time and they missed it. The group is not delving into the RP aspect of trying to redeem NPC's as much as reveling in combat. Nurah, Jestak, Jorha Vane, Jesker possibly others from future books. I hand waved the reconstruction of Drezen and just decided on two and a half months of time for rebuild. next session is The Redoubt. then we have Ivory Sanctum. other than beefing up the combat do to party strength I have done no story changes. I cant wait for the PC to take damage from Desnas ward at the Redoubt. No CG pc's in the party. The last thing I am going to do is use the PFS module Siege of Diamond City(Drezen) for the closing of this book. It is just to give me a frame work for massive combat to completely ware down the PC's to the point of failure where I will have Irabeth Atop the wall of citadel Drezzen raise the Banner and summon Hand of Inheritor to save the day.

Planning stages
Book 4 expand Battle Bliss to include fights against past PC's characters and foes form other AP's already played.

More RP with Nocticula.

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