Are Gatewalkers immune to Blackfrost

[TheDenseAnalyst]

I've noticed several things reference the gstewalkers being immune to black frost in creature abilities and rewards but can't find where it is actually located in any of the books.

[Curaigh]

Weird :) You are right that many references imply the PCs have immunity. Several points say they immune. The first seems to best answer your question.

Spoiler:

...Fortunately for them, the fact that they’re gatewalkers protects them from becoming infected by the ice, but other creatures who come
in contact with the ice are exposed to blackfrost. pg 32

'...while the PCs are in no danger...' pg 41

'...just as they are immune to blackfrost affliction, pg 47

'...particularly potent and can affect the PCs even though they’re
normally immune to it....' pg 55

'...are exposed to blackfrost (even the PCs, who up until now have been immune) pg 62

[James Jacobs]

Huh. Spoilering my answer since it does mention some in-game stuff.

Spoiler:

This is probably an unfortunate side effect of having some pretty significant staff and author changes take place behind the scenes while the Gatewalkers Adventure Path was in production. I came on at the tail end of things, and in writing "Dreamers of the Nameless Spires" I felt it was unfortunate that the PCs wouldn't be able to be threatened by one of the campaign's central afflictions. At the same time, blackfrost is a dangerous curse that is irresponsible to afflict on PCs before they reach 8th to 10th level, so them being "immune" to its effects for most of the campaign (and more importantly, during the time BEFORE the campaign, when the PCs are exposing themselves to it even before they have statistics), is a load-bearing narrative construction that needs to be in place up until the point in the campaign where they're 10th level and a 10th level curse is more fair play.

The PCs encounter blackfrost and its effects several times before then, in the form of encounters with blackfrost dead or other creatures capable of exhaling the stuff. For example, Ilakni (page 35 of the third adventure) has a blackfrost breath that deals cold damage and exposes those who take damage to the affliction. A PC at this stage would still take the damage normally, but would be immune to the affliction—NPCs traveling with them won't be so lucky.

Until they reach their goal, where they're exposed to more potent versions of the affliction, as detailed in the text.

Sorry about the confusion, all!

[Celtz_]

James Jacobs wrote:

Huh. Spoilering my answer since it does mention some in-game stuff.

** spoiler omitted **

Sorry about the confusion, all!

I actually ended up using Blackfrost as a budding plague in Egede to spice it up a bit and imprint the threat of Osoyo breaking loose. I gave the players some good items to help deal with it once they established some rapport in the city. Alas, a player did end up succumbing to the blackfrost which made for an interesting encounter. Irresponsible use of it maybe, but the player was very interested in the scenario for RP reasons so it ended up ok.

I don't recommend it for groups with big attachments to their characters, but if it sounds interesting might be worth scaling back the curse so they can deal with it. This AP is pretty deadly as is.

Kinda wish Blackfrost was in every part of the AP.