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I won't be able to make it tonight - I think/hope I mentioned this last week, but it's been a long week! I'll be back next time, and I can also make Kingmaker on Friday.

Adam

dont worry adam, things went all ok. macus got hit once but that was all. it could of been worse you could of done what ginga did. he looked at the pic from the book and went after the BBG going its only a wizard! a huge couple of hits by a wizard stone giant weilding a MW earth splitter hammer and he was not so cocky after i walked in wailed on him for a couple of turns and he droped dead. not sure what ginga was worried about it was only a wizard!

Dear Players,

End of adventure.

We have now finished "The Hook Mountain Massacre" by Nicholas Logue and shall begin "Fortress of the Stone Giants" by Wolfgang Baur next week. This shall be the fourth instalment of our long running campaign.

Levelling-up.

As mentioned before, I was wrong to switch to the fast progression for "Rise of the Runelords" even if it was the advice given by Paizo to balance 3.5 adventures in the Pathfinder RPG system. Your character should be at LV10 by now and in fact you are all slightly above that.
Because the party is six characters strong, and not the standard four, my method has been to either add gribblies or pimp-up the "big ones" with a 50% increase in hit-points. As far as experience points are concerned, the former approach works fine (tougher encounters via more XP bags) but the latter effectively starves your PCs of XP. I will carry on with the lean XP allocation for a little bit more, then apply the 50% additional XP rewards from monsters/traps/story too. On a wealth per level issue, I got confused with the "fast XP" kick the party has had for the past two levels. Now that we have adjusted the XP and wealth per level at the end of the third adventure, I will also strive to add more treasure. So far I have been only adding 50% extra for the piles of gps, gems and artworks. The other loot (monster's weapons) was not increased in value.
Adam:
Your wealth should be 59,000 gp (62K-3K) we took 3K off everybody to acknowledge the various Raise Dead and Restoration spells that have been cast. Dying and getting level drained cost money and should be counted against wealth per level when we do the "adjustments" at the end of the adventures.

In any case, we have now reached the mid-level stage. You will progress to LV14 for the beginning of the last adventure. Considering only three adventure left, you can expect at most a gain of two level for "Fortress of the Stone Giants". in passing you should end the campaign at LV15-LV16 and not LV12 as previously stated.

You are now free to enter any Prestige Class you qualify for. I can allow some PC rebuilding exercises if some of you desperately want to enter a Prestige Class but made mistakes in feats or skill selection.

Last night's game.

Having only two opponents for the endgame should have been an indication that these two were going to be tough ones. Therefore, I will brook no complaint from people walking toward Barl Breakbones then finding out about the earthbreaker (huge and heavy hammer) the hard way. I mean a one-on-one with a CR11 monster by a LV10 PC on his own should have sounded suicidal... "He is a Wizard" or no "He is a Wizard".
Barl Breakbones was a Stone Giant Necromancer 7, thus he was a Stone Giant, thus he knew how to use a F-for-you-know-what big hammer before he even started learning about animating Skeletons and Zombies in his youth! His HD total gave him a good BAB and seven levels of Wizard added another few points too, offering him three attacks. Note that I hit only on the third one! Sharak should have been turned to paste had my rolls been half-decent.
I enjoyed the Vampiric Touch spells, even if Nagri's dispelling of Barl's Fly spell prove to be deadly.

I admit I made a mistake with the Wight. As you may have noticed I had not really had time to prepare for the session, and was pretty tired too. For Adam's understanding, the previous Fort Rannick commander had been turned into a Wight and given to the three Annis Hags. Because the resolution of the encounter had been peaceful, I had forgotten about him. On his own, the Wight was useless (a mere CR3) but it could have been interesting to play him with the three Annis Hags as opponents.

New adventure.

I wonder what will happen next

• Problems with Stone Giants.
• Hordes of CE Drows with double-wielding scimitars falling on the party.
• Avaxial's return.

Of course we all know that Drows are usually benevolent CG Rangers, but I like originality, so I may have to devise them as CE.

I will update the game page soon.

Laurent,

Awesome. Good work, all.

I think even those of us who are level 10 haven't made much inroads into getting to level 11 at standard progression - it's a massive jump!

Character wealth checks make my head hurt - I've got a load of cheap (but useful) magic kit, and every time we do this I forget to write it all down.....

My guess is that the future contains two of: Stone Giants, a Fortress, a Wolfgang.

Bloody Wizards!!!

Yes it was stupid (incredibly so...) but again I always think "It's only a bloody wizard!!!"

Was an awesome end fight with various tatics and awesome spells. I'm starting to believe that we can make this work but as a group we have again think about more stoic ideas and plans. rather than the amazing Sharak Suicide!!!

Andrew,

The Sharak suicide approach therefore replaces the Eigan suicide tactic.
David's Ranger lived a relatively long life though.

I love Stone Giants: Adequate to-hit modifiers and they pack a punch when it comes to damage, lovely D8 and 12+ in fixed damage.

Laurent,

Dear Players,

The game is on tonight and I have had time to read the beginning of the adventure again. This is always a better option to take when I can find the time than relying on the memory of my reading it a couple of years ago.

Moving on with the new adventure.

Assuming you have all worked out your equipment and sorted out your level for those who have recently reached LV10, the party is going to be recalled to Sandpoint. I am thinking of bringing the promised reinforcements from Magnimar a bit earlier, in any case tensions on the Northern reaches of Magnimar's influence, the town of Sandpoint itself, will reach the ears of Sir Marcus who will be assigned the task of gathering-up an "A-Team" to look into the rumoured hostile Stone Giant activities in the area.

Leaving the Hook Mountains.

Turtleback Ferry is technically safe for a while and in a logical way too: The Hook Mountain Ogres and the local Graul Ogrekins were the local predators at the top of the food chain, hence lesser monsters need first to be made aware of the void, then only make their move to fill it. Black Maga, the big tentacled thing that the party gently eased away from the flooded town at the time is an Aboleth type monster, if she decides to take on some world domination exercises, it will take her decades to think of them.

Thus, Sir Marcus should be able to appoint a castellan to administer Fort Rannick. Sharak could advise him to leave Fort Rannick under the protection of his three Hannis Hag friends but this would be a bad idea. Another option would be to make an undead version of Elswyn the Mad and leave him in charge, but that would also not really be a good idea either.

Back to Sandpoint.

You all have enough XP, so there will not be any encounter on the way back. Yeah, I know this kill all the randomness of random encounters happening by chance.

Marcus was recruited in Sandpoint just before the move on Thistletop if my memory does not fail me. So there is a tenuous link here. Marcus may have been from Magnimar originally. In any case Sir Marcus is aware of Sandpoint's layout and of its major NPCs. I will try to remember to bring the copy of the first adventure with me tonight.

Yet another non-standard encounter.

Be prepared to play the coming encounter over the next two sessions. This is going to sound like G.U.R.P.S. but with 25+ rounds of carefully choreographed action on the plate you will need to choose your battles carefully.
As usual, having six of you means 50% HP bonus for the opposition (I do not increase magical effects like False life). For tactical reasons I will also do that for the grunts instead of adding more of them.
Basically the town will be under assault.

The assault may include any of the following:

• Bands of evil Gnomes riding Dire Rats.
• Stone Giants.
• Several clowders of cats.

And yes, collective nouns are great. Remember that for a typical D&D town full of low-level commoners and experts, cats, as monsters, represent the best threat value for money (or for CR, thus XP) for the discerning GM.

There is one thing missing for D&D: fanciful collective nouns for every monster or monster type encountered in the various MMs and Bestiaries.

See you at the game tonight, I should be showing up around quarter to seven.

Laurent,

Dear Players,

I like Stone Giants but I think I enjoy Juvenile Red Dragons even more. These are cool critters, high attack bonuses, pretty high damage on a full attack, and the odd True strike spell to spice up the game. They are also easy to play as their statistics do not make them powerful spellcasters, thus the main option is melee, which is pretty good thanks LV11to the amount of attacks they get: Martial PCs get their third attack at LV11 but a CR11 Dragon already has six!

Ongoing encounter.

Things are playing as planned so far. There was, and still is, a component of players' choice in the encounter. The party cannot possibly participate in all the fights, and it was to be expected that given the choice of fighting decently tough, but still generic, Stone Giants and having a go at the first Dragon of the adventure, the party would indeed aim at inconveniencing Longtooth (the name of the critter).
The use of the Fear spell was indeed a good option, but I must be fair to my monsters and rule it the same way as Longtooth's Aura of fear. As you know, I allow PCs who have failed their saving throws to stop, reassert themselves, then come back to the fray - for another chance at a saving throw - instead of having them stupidly lose a dozen rounds running away, thus missing the entire encounter. The rule of thumb is indeed that as soon as the object of the fear effect is no longer in line of sight, the PCs need not run anymore.
This rule should also be applied to my Stone Giant leader and a couple of his soldiers who fled on a failed saving throw. The counter is now at round 12 I think, and I have scripted events all the way to round 25 to throw at the party. This means that Teraktinus will be back in a few rounds, probably with the two Stone Giants who had pet Dire Bears. They ran earlier on, so they would be available to regroup with Teraktinus. At the first attempt to come back to the fight these three Stone Giants will require a saving throw if they see the Gnome. At round 17 (regular Stone Giants) and 19 (Teraktinus), the effect of the Fear spell would have worn off anyway.
Ironically the only way to have a rout before the end of the scripted events is for Teraktinus to blow his horn and sound the retreat if he is around to notice all the dead or fleeing Stone Giants or of course the demise of Longtooth who is also likely to fly away unless he believes he can finish off the party on a low HP total. Longtooth is presently hurt a bit but otherwise unwilling to give up the fight.

A few pointers on what you may have overlooked:

• The North Gate attack was a diversion at first but could indeed have turned into a raid to capture people.
• Saving the Scarnetti Manor would allow the party to befriend a powerful family. Even if the Scarnettis are not the friendliest of people around, they have power.
• The Tanner's Bridge and Two Knights Brewery attacks are aimed at gathering prisoners.
• The Mill Pond attack had the leader with a strike force of only two additional Stone Giants. Maybe it was more than what it seemed to be.
• Leaving Longtooth alone would lead to Sandpoint burning and a +2 morale bonus to attacks for the remaining Stone Giants beyond round 15.

Flurry of blows while grappling.

And it is now time for your GM (M.Sc.)(M.Phil.)(Ph.D.) to write another short Thesis, this time on the grapple rules and Flurry of blows.

Jason Bulmahn, the lead designer on Pathfinder RPG has stated that it is indeed possible for grappled Monks to use Flurry of blows on their opponents. Find his entry near the three quarter mark on this thread. Do a search for "Bulmahn" when on that page.

This also extends to anyone who is grappled but keeping with one hand free holding a light weapon. They can technically go for a full attack sequence even while grappled, however there is a -2 penalty on all attack rolls and combat manoeuvre check (except those made to grapple or escape a grapple).

Keeping that in mind, when grappled by a Dire Bear, the monster can roll to maintain the grapple at +5 bonus, then give only a single attack (one claw).
The grappler must spend a standard action to maintain the grapple, thus the grappler is limited to a single attack and not a potential full attack (for the grappled creature) with one light weapon, a flurry or blow, an unarmed attack, or a series of natural attacks if any are available.
Being the grappler remains a great advantage when the grappler has a Constrict or Swallow whole ability of course. If not, a grapple is therefore only devastating against spellcasters.

This adds to my utter, and newly found, dislike of the Pathfinder RPG system.
First they changed the Protection from ... spell so that they are no longer generic against mental compulsion, now the grappling effects have been toned down!

The game page has been updated.

Laurent,

The change of the Protection from... spells in my mind makes perfect sense. Why would a spell protecting you from (say) Evil also protect you from an action made by a Good (n)PC as well? This thematically does not make any sense to my muddled little mind.
Also the change in the Protection from .. spell is likely the only way that Gingla's (n)PC get some "fun" in the Kingmaker game??

Yes I know I'm "barging in" on the RotRL thread about a rule .. but the noticing of the change of thr Protection from... spell was noticed in the Kingmaker game! (:twisted:)

Nick,

First, you have tried to use the [] brackets again. SHAME on you!

Second, I forbid you to look more Pathfindery than I can. This is unfair. You were not even born when I was GMing using Pathfinder RPG at Vague Connections back in the 70s. So don't you dare defend the system!

More seriously, while the game tastes the same as, and is compatible with, Third Edition those little adjustments are indeed game changing. On another thread somewhere on the Paizo boards Jason Bulhman mentions that grappling no longer means render completely useless the grappled creature. In fact my hold habit of moving a PC inside the square of a large monster is no longer valid as per the rules. Grapple only allows to make the grappled creature adjacent to the grappler. It is more like pulling a shirt, thus annoying a spellcaster, than the wrestling move we imagined it to be in Third Edition/3.5.
Pinned is still pretty severe though in Pathfinder RPG.

Laurent,

also in Pathfinder you can disable pit traps. I like the idea that every thieves kit comes with a magical bag of soil that can fill any hole should you encounter... Awesome.

Dear Players,

I have a Wednesday afternoon filled with at least one long meeting, perhaps two.
This means that I may be late to run the game. I should be able to make it for seven o'clock though.

If I am caught until five or more I shall text Andrew about it.

Laurent,

no worries laurent. i dont finish this week till 7 myself so i will be running a little late too

i killed a dragon , i killed a dragon . i killed a dragon ,i killed a dragon ,i killed a dragon ,i killed a dragon ,i killed a dragon ,i killed a dragon ,i killed a dragon ,i killed a dragon ,i killed a dragon ,i killed a dragon ,i killed a dragon ,i killed a dragon .

yup thats right i killed a dragon

Ian,

Jeee! Do you see me running around the game table when I kill a couple of PCs?
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Well... yes, I know... but I am the GM, I can do it if I want to!
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Plus, it was only a juvenile Red Dragon.

I shall update the game page later when I have the time.

Laurent,

but i killed a dragon!!!!!! you just dont get to do that that often. you get weekly chances to kill PCs and ginga does it often, 4 in 3 months was the last count i beleive. dragons tend to slap everyone down. i dont care if it was only juvenile i killed it fair and square

Dear Players,

I have updated the game page.

This week is going to be busy at work. I should be able to find the time tonight and tomorrow night to prepare the session, but would rather apologise in advance for any GM shortcomings on Wednesday night.
The fact that the party will not be on the adventure rails until Jorgenfist does not really matter, I can have a look at bumping into some genuinely random encounters in the Mushfens for instance, where you fought that big mofo of a crocodile on the way to Turtleback Ferry. Since Giants have been traipsing all across Varisia, I should be able to design an encounter with an appropriate CR.

Unless I am mistaken, this will be the thirty sixth session. I have not counted the board-game evenings when we were short on players. I still need to check at home the Meetup.com archives for the exact start date, but we should be close to the anniversary indeed.

As usual, add yourselves to the players' list if you have not done so yet.

Laurent,

I'm with Ian on this dragon-killing business. In years of playing various games, I have never killed a dragon or even been part of a party that killed a dragon. And I didn't this time either, as Marcus' contribution was limited to failing a saving throw, running away, running back, failing again, running away again, and then running back again.

One day.....

Adam,

You cannot roll fives and sixes on your sneak attack damage and during the same game session expect Lady Luck to grace you with successful saving throws!

Your "voluntary" tactical widthrawal has ensured that the party still has a leader and Fort Rannick a living aristocrat. Sure, Marcus also had difficulties using his wand. However, I should invite you to look again at the exact wordind og Use Magic Device when using a wand. You do get a +2 to your UMD roll if you have activated a wand before. When not in combat/threatened I should let you take 10 to be fair, thus hit an automatic 20 assuming you have at least five ranks in it (5 ranks, 3 for trained skill, 2 circumstance, plus your CHA modifier if any). Using the wand in combat would require a roll though, with the +2 of course.

'(...)That is, you must speak, wave the item around, or otherwise attempt to get it to activate. You get a +2 bonus on your Use Magic Device check if you've activated the item in question at least once before. If you fail by 9 or less, you can't activate the device. If you fail by 10 or more, you suffer a mishap. A mishap means that magical energy gets released but doesn't do what you wanted it to do. The default mishaps are that the item affects the wrong target or that uncontrolled magical energy is released, dealing 2d6 points of damage to you. This mishap is in addition to the chance for a mishap that you normally risk when you cast a spell from a scroll that you could not otherwise cast yourself.

The bold is my emphasis.
For a healing wand, I would house rule that the wrong target gets healed.
Offensive and other wands would hurt the person doing the UMD or do the 2D6 points of damage, whatever is worse.

By the way, as the party leader, you are entitled to claim the head of the dragon. Guideon was not much more than a farmhand not so long ago, months ago if one were to check the calendar!

Laurent,

This came up last week. The text (and the +2 bonus) relates to the "Activate Blindly" use of the skill (DC 25), not the "Use Wand" (DC 20) use of the skill. DC 20 with no bonus is better than DC 25 with a +2!

I've been presuming that Marcus can "use wand" with the lower DC of 20 because he's not activating it "blindly" - he bought it rather than found it, and presumably it came with instructions of some kind. Even if he can't always follow them. However, Marcus has a skill of 15, so a roll of 5 or better will do the trick. It would make sense for a bonus for wands that are used regularly (and I certainly wouldn't say no), but that's not what the core rulebook says.

Also according to the official rules, a natural 1 is always a failure which prevents any attempt to use the magic item for another 24 hours, and it's not possible to take 10. If we've got house rules that say different, that's fine with me.

• edit* - Marcus could claim the head of the dragon, but he'd probably just run away from it again, and it would prevent him ever entering his own fort.