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Post by kaitoujuliet on May 11, 2014 7:21:11 GMT -8
I should explain that this is going to be a one-day-only deal. My friend lives about three hours away, and I'm going to visit her over Memorial Day weekend. So we're planning to have one marathon gaming session; I'm hoping to get through the whole adventure in that time, but who knows.
Re searching, I like the idea of having them roll to see what they get. Thanks, Arcona!
Re entanglement, I think I can adapt the conditions described to fit the situation. How would they get out of the entanglement, though? All the information I can find about the ensnared condition relates to things like entangling vines or web spells--much more severe tangles than simply getting a hand stuck in very thick spiderwebs (woven by medium-sized monstrous spiders). I could just make the player spend a standard action to get the hand free of the webs, but is that too light a penalty?
D.T. Pints, I'm really looking forward to running this adventure! I hope we have time to do the Death Ship, as I think this group would get into it. Did your group go on to the sequel adventures as well (Forging Darkness and Coin's End)?
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Post by Arcona on May 12, 2014 0:08:49 GMT -8
I have to say that depending what you mean by marathon, running the whole adventure in 1 session might be hard. Especially since you yourself are not (yet) well versed in 3.5. It always depends on the group off course... some groups like to play the game AND socialise, while others focus 100% of the time in the game (and others 100% goofing around, catching up and a bit of actual play). You could hand wave some of the more tedious and pointless encounters to speed things up as combat in DnD is quite time consuming though. You're welcome. Dice rolls are the main premise of DnD, that doesnt mean you shouldnt give bonuses (and minuses) for good/bad description... so rummaging vs meticulous searching for example. As for entanglement. Well, monstrous spiders are not your garden variety daddy long legs... meaning they catch and eat BIG prey... so just a standard round might be too soft of a penalty while indeed equating them with the spell web might be too harsh. Go for the balanced option... maybe a full round action to get un-entangled and a residual penalty (-1 perhaps?) for the next round to illustrate how there is still some sticky substance around. As a general advise when running DnD try to focus fire the NPCs on one PC... thats when things get scary... if every PC gets scratched then its not big deal... if the baddies (for example the spiders attaching the first person to disturb the web) all attack with a vengeance against one (not to kill him necessarily but to drive the point home) the strategies employed need to change... Otherwise you end up with each PC with 1-5 hit points damage that they shrug off... but once someone is hoving at 1-2 hp from dead he no longer feels super heroic, lets charge them all kind of attitude. Granted I do not know the specific module and how it works but its a good rule to live by as a DM. The cowards mother never cried as we say
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Post by kaitoujuliet on May 21, 2014 6:24:20 GMT -8
Update: my visit has been postponed because my friend's father is in the hospital , so I'm not sure now when I'll actually be running the game. I suppose one positive side to the situation is that I'll have more time to get ready. I may have more questions later. I know that getting through a whole adventure in one session is ambitious, and I don't have my heart set on the idea. But a lot depends on how many encounters wind up in combat (many of the potential combats can be bypassed), how many detours the PCs take (will they search the red herring mausoleum full of skeletons and fight them before finding the correct grave?), and how much padding I do (sea encounters or no sea encounters?). But I figure when the time comes, I'll just play it by ear and see how it goes. The idea about focusing fire is tricky! I like it!
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D.T. Pints
Instigator
JACKERCON 2018: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY June 22-July 1st
Posts: 2,857
Currently Playing: D&D 5e, Pathfinder, DUNGEONWORLD, Star Wars Edge of the Empire
Currently Running: DUNGEONWORLD, PATHFINDER
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Post by D.T. Pints on May 21, 2014 7:28:03 GMT -8
If the goal is to get through the scenario (and my old Indiana crew got in this mode before we started playing together online) I'd shorten any potential encounters by giving the bad guys fewer hit points and letting them do more damage. Sort of a modified version of Brazilian 4E's take on combat. Sure it probably fucks up the mechanics a bit but the goal is to complete a story arc in a short period of time.
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Post by kaitoujuliet on Jul 26, 2014 7:18:40 GMT -8
I just realized I never reported on how this went. I ran the session about two weeks ago, and I'd say it was a success.
As it turned out, I needn't have worried about character creation. They actually voluntarily did random rolling of stats. Now that is hardcore. It meant the group ended up with a lot of stat penalties, so we were actually grateful for the mild OP-ness of the one Book of 9 Swords character (warblade--the others were a cleric, wizard, and rogue). Even so, they were fully expecting to die on some of the fights. But for the first time I actually see the attraction of random stat rolling: not only does it make the Bo9S character less obnoxious, but the group came up with characters they probably wouldn't have created on their own, and they had a lot of fun playing them. For example, the rogue was a female half-orc with an intelligence of 7 and a charisma of 10, so we figured she was the ditzy supermodel of the half-orc world. Everybody had a blast with her.
We did get through the whole adventure in the weekend by cutting most of the optional stuff. The players skipped the mausoleum and the goblin lair, and I made the decision to skip the sea encounters as well. That did make it harder for them to find transportation to the jungle area where the end of the game takes place, but they managed. They hired themselves out on a ship as protection against pirates, with the added promise that they'd offer their muscle to help out with various tasks. This worked for everyone but the wizard, who wasn't very muscly. He finally agreed to swab the deck any day there wasn't a pirate attack--and since I was cutting the sea encounters, that meant he had to swab the deck every day of the voyage!
Anyway, we all had a great time, and they want me to run the rest of the adventure trilogy for them on future visits. So it went very well, and I'd like to thank everyone for your help!
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Post by ilina on Feb 19, 2016 0:00:04 GMT -8
3.5 Problems mostly still exist in Pathfinder, such as the Candle of Invocation trick to chain gate an infinite number of Ifriti for an infinite number of Wishes. all they really did, was inflate health pools for casters and remove a mountain of key martial tools that were mandantory for speeding up fights in d20. like Pounce or Shock Trooper. and most of the issues they removed, they eventually brought back. you still have slow and grindy fights, because every martial character absolutely required pounce and shock trooper, and you can get neither without houseruling in 3.5 content.
but most of the overpowered buffs are still overpowered. Save or Dies are now useless. Casters are tougher than they used to be, and well, all the things needed to speed up a fight to a reasonable pace are effectively gone from players. leading to longer and more grueling fights than the ones in 3.5. but even with 4e Sized Health Pools, healing spells still aren't good enough to save you from most things. because healing spells still use their 2nd edition numbers. which are inferior to the numbers that are actually needed for healing to be viable.
so Pathfinder fights take forever, and you spend long amounts of time being poked by a wand to heal between fights. because wizard health pools are literally doubled thanks to a combination of favored class bonus, the increase in minimum hit dice, the addition of flexible bonuses to several races, and the buffing of the toughness feat. meaning, by playing a human, you can start with your 20 INT and 16 Con. and literally receive 9 hit points per level, or pretty close to 15 hit points at level 1.
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