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Rip_Van_Winkle posted:e: to expand on that, I highly recommend the Uncertain Faith supplement. It adds so much to the Priest path both in terms of expanding the flavor and adding new priest types to allow for more diversity mechanically. I'm really interested in trying out a Priest of Father Death, they get the quite powerful Death tradition but avoid all the corruption from it, alongside Shadow and Protection, and their healing is draining life from people. They'd make a great death knight or necromancer. UF is very cool and good. I'm a fan of Horned King's whole deal, and with access to Primal and Spiritualism you can go heavy on buffing/battlefield control while still getting enough self-buffs to tear some poo poo up.
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Aug 26, 2017 01:50
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Oh yay I'll finally be able to run this because of scheduling alignment and will be pushing through my players through Tales of the Demon Lord! Since we have limited playtime and want to go through it all and so for any of the longer adventures I let them know that they'll practically be run 'choose your own adventure style' - "Go here to investigate X, go here to investigate Y, you have no other options". The system and adventures being what they are (like those two hired killers in the level 0 adventure) I think I'll ask them to rate their preferred lethality level on this chart below: 0 - Literally never kill me, always give me a second chance somehow 1 - Only kill me if I make it really clear I expect this to happen and/or want to do a heroic sacrifice 2 - Warn us before we get into something deadly 3 - One or two character deaths through the whole campaign, max 4 - A death here and there, no big deal 5 - Any random roll could end up in death I'll fudge things as appropriate from there.
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Aug 28, 2017 00:01
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Reviewing the difficulties for monsters, and they seem completely insane. Like, the only opposition that seems fitting for a starting character is a small animal!? I think I might have the character start at a higher level, unless the disrepancy is not as bad as it looks.
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Aug 29, 2017 15:18
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Tias posted:Reviewing the difficulties for monsters, and they seem completely insane. Like, the only opposition that seems fitting for a starting character is a small animal!? The game does say that Starting tier characters should avoid conflict as best they can and try to do everything possible to avoid a straight up fight. But definitely think about adjusting down things like Health and enemy bonuses to hit. Starting characters can get work done if they need to, but they are always at a high risk of death. Difficulty 1 creatures/characters are best, and maybe a 10 for the final fight, though I've run an adventure with a 25 as the last boss, and they managed to win, but lost two of their own in the process.
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Aug 29, 2017 15:23
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I've been kinda disappointed by Tales of the Demon Lord in general. The fights in it are overpowering, and they reveal how dumb it is that the game doesn't take into account whether your party has 3, 4, or 5 members in it for the purposes of fight difficulty. Then you've got the problem that most of the adventures in the book don't have anything to do with the main plot. They're just standalone adventures. Like, only two of the adventures in the book have much to do with the "main plot", which kinda defeats the purpose of an adventure path. The fight difficulty bugs me more, though, I hate it when adventure writers don't follow their own guidelines.
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Aug 29, 2017 15:41
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Gort posted:I've been kinda disappointed by Tales of the Demon Lord in general. The fights in it are overpowering, and they reveal how dumb it is that the game doesn't take into account whether your party has 3, 4, or 5 members in it for the purposes of fight difficulty. Then you've got the problem that most of the adventures in the book don't have anything to do with the main plot. They're just standalone adventures. Like, only two of the adventures in the book have much to do with the "main plot", which kinda defeats the purpose of an adventure path. This is totally fair, and after reading them both extensively I think the Freeport adventures are much better as a guideline for both a campaign and encounter design. Whether that's because Rob has better handle on the system now or because the Freeport adventures are ports of existing material I can't say. I think Tales is often aiming for extreme difficulty in most places, but the lack of modulation on that front is disappointing. Freeport has much more sane encounters and traps for the players to deal with, and a coherent storyline for them to follow. Overall I still like the idea of Starting adventures, but having run several of them now I think they require very delicate balancing. As a way to learn the game, they're great as you're just directly interacting with the basic mechanics without talents and spells thrown on top to worry about. But while the stakes may be low in terms of the plot, they are some of the most dangerous adventures you can run. And since they're supposed to serve as the players' introduction to the game and the inciting moment that turns them into a group, it shouldn't be so risky. You want the characters that go in to be the ones who come out because otherwise the impact of the session is lost. Judicious use of Fortune can mitigate some of the danger, but in the end I just think you have to carefully balance them with less fighting than is in the published adventures. Give the players a taste of the game, and then move on to actual play with Paths because you don't want to literally kill their momentum as they're going in.
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Aug 29, 2017 16:09
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I think I'll use Freeport as the base when I get around to running this. I don't think any of my players have gone through it before in any system.
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Aug 29, 2017 16:12
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Tias posted:Reviewing the difficulties for monsters, and they seem completely insane. Like, the only opposition that seems fitting for a starting character is a small animal!? There's a reason the level 0 I wrote was about a dark spirit possessing animals after some formor disturbed it's magical container. I had five or six characters depending on the session and the three fights were: A medium animal (deer) and three squirrels, first fight of the game, worked fine. Three formor the party surprised, and the party had an attack dog with 15 in all stats and a boon on attacks that a guest player controlled. Very easy fight but that's fine. And then a large animal, a black bear the spirit directly occupied and that turned the dog against them once bloodied and magically provided a bane in melee. The party shouldn't have fought this but of course they did. It killed one of them, dropped all of them. I had some concerned but cowardly npcs that had been watching intervene, drive it off, and stabilise the characters. So one carefully balanced fight, one too easy fight, one too hard fight.
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Aug 29, 2017 17:15
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Jack B Nimble posted:There's a reason the level 0 I wrote was about a dark spirit possessing animals after some formor disturbed it's magical container. I think the fight with the bear was definitely on the hard side, but there were some truly atrocious runs of attack rolls that could've swung it to a victory. Shadow of the Demon Bort
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Aug 29, 2017 17:25
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SotDL's levelling methodology seems really off in the Freeport modules; they all occur very shortly after each other; the characters go from Novices to top level in the space of a couple of game months. I don't have anything against high level characters, it just feels off.
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Aug 31, 2017 09:55
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Angrymog posted:SotDL's levelling methodology seems really off in the Freeport modules; they all occur very shortly after each other; the characters go from Novices to top level in the space of a couple of game months. I don't have anything against high level characters, it just feels off. This is kind of the inverse of how I feel about the game's normal leveling. It isn't super well-defined, but it seems to imply that there will be months of downtime between adventures to account for the players' new abilities/training, but I've never run a game that had months of downtime in the fiction. The games I'm used to running have a leveling timeline far closer to the Freeport adventures.
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Aug 31, 2017 11:35
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I don't think that's a "problem" (only a problem if it bothers you I guess) unique to Shadow of the Demon Lord. Regular old D&D or whatever is perfectly capable of having a narrative timeline that is essentially like one of the cranked movies, where the PCs go through their normal life until suddenly they get D&D woke and spend the next month of their life killing, stealing, and buying, stopping only 8 hours at a time after they collapse from exhaustion. The PCs in my SotDL game are level 2 and a year has gone by, but my level 10 Mage in a Dark Sun game was level 1 maybe 3 in-game months ago.
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Aug 31, 2017 13:13
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Jack B Nimble posted:I don't think that's a "problem" (only a problem if it bothers you I guess) unique to Shadow of the Demon Lord. Regular old D&D or whatever is perfectly capable of having a narrative timeline that is essentially like one of the cranked movies, where the PCs go through their normal life until suddenly they get D&D woke and spend the next month of their life killing, stealing, and buying, stopping only 8 hours at a time after they collapse from exhaustion. Just quote the Oblivion level-up text at them every time they level and tell them that's the explanation. One line per level, this goes to 20. quote:
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Sep 1, 2017 00:19
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bewilderment posted:Just quote the Oblivion level-up text at them every time they level and tell them that's the explanation. but that's an awesome idea
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Sep 1, 2017 14:25
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How many provinces are/were there? And the northern reach is the last/newest?
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Sep 6, 2017 15:55
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Jack B Nimble posted:How many provinces are/were there? And the northern reach is the last/newest? If you mean in terms of the setting's history, Tear is the most recent province.
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Sep 6, 2017 21:55
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I'm trying to whip up stats for a tribe of were-wolverines as primary antagonists for the iron age thing I was talking about. I'll share what I have written when I get home, but do you have any suggestions? The projected party is 3-4 lvl 3 adventurers. E: make that were-sable or something, wolverines should be more badass. Tias fucked around with this message at 13:28 on Sep 8, 2017 |
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Sep 8, 2017 12:59
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Do you happen to have the Skin Changer supplement? That's all about werewolves and their like and may help with inspiration.
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Sep 8, 2017 13:54
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Wereverines, of course.
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Sep 8, 2017 14:00
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FunkMonkey posted:Do you happen to have the Skin Changer supplement? That's all about werewolves and their like and may help with inspiration. No.. I already bought A Glorious Death, which I wasn't that satisfied with, so I'm sort of cautious about using my limited budget for more splat.
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Sep 8, 2017 15:01
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Tias posted:No.. I already bought A Glorious Death, which I wasn't that satisfied with, so I'm sort of cautious about using my limited budget for more splat. Fair enough. You could probably start with a beastman like a warg for your baseline and just modify it with some homebrew abilities and stat package boosts.
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Sep 8, 2017 15:12
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You're spot on, 'cause that's what I did  Weresable Tribesman Size 1 shifter. Perc 11, Shadowsight. Defense: Hard Leathers, def 14. Strength 12(+2) Agility 13(+3) Intellect 8(-2) Will 11 Trait: Bite till I hear a crunch! If the weresable hits with a bite attack, roll against target defense to inflict another 1d6 of damage. Spear - +2, 1 boon, 1d6 or Teeth +2. 1 boon, 1d6+2
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Sep 8, 2017 16:45
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What's your goal difficulty for the monster, ten? I'm lazy and would probably start with an ancestry and say "when they shift, apply X path template" (from the back of the bestiary). But making it yourself is cool and good. Is what you have tough enough for your party? How many might they fight?
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Sep 8, 2017 17:51
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Lotz I mean, without fully understanding the diff system, fighting their party size minus one or two is probably fine for first contact.
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Sep 8, 2017 18:16
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Just be careful. With those stats two of them ganging up could potentially take down even a rank 3 character in a single round depending on the rolls. A damage potential of 13 in a single attack is pretty serious at that level. For what it's worth, the game tends to treat natural attacks like bites as finesse weapons, so that could arguably be at a +3 if you're feeling challenging. Buck Wildman fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Sep 8, 2017 |
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Sep 8, 2017 18:44
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Tias posted:No.. I already bought A Glorious Death, which I wasn't that satisfied with, so I'm sort of cautious about using my limited budget for more splat. I'll go ahead and say that if you're building these as monsters, then Tooth And Claw isn't gonna help you. It is a Poisoned Pages supplement, but really all the stuff inside is for building Skinchangers as characters. To sum up what they do, when Skinchangers are in moonlight at the end of a round, they transform into an animal. So you just swap their stats with that of the animal. The entry doesn't say what happens if they max out on Damage in animal form, but as a strict reading and in keeping with SotDL that would probably mean death.
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Sep 8, 2017 19:17
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Oh, and spears are finesse as well yes? So already a +3 on that. Is their health just derived from Str?
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Sep 8, 2017 19:51
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FunkMonkey posted:Just be careful. With those stats two of them ganging up could potentially take down even a rank 3 character in a single round depending on the rolls. A damage potential of 13 in a single attack is pretty serious at that level. cool, I'll probably go with that then. Thanks!
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Sep 8, 2017 20:48
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On monster chat, I just wiped my party and want to talk about the Mob template. The damage a mob can absorb was a big surprise to me, I created a 44 health enemy that took half damage from basically everything my players had. I had two Magicians in the party, but neither had a single area of of effect damage spell. No one in the whole party had a single AOE. Was my Mob really difficulty 10? (add 2 steps to a difficulty 1 creature) or did I calculate wrong? It sure felt more dangerous than other difficulty 10 monsters. Or is the trick to mob fighting very much to hit it with a double-damage AOE and get it into the injured state ASAP to remove it's +2d6 extra damage and overrun rule?
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Sep 9, 2017 13:29
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Make sure they take some damaging spells, I guess? I intend to guide my players character creation somewhat, in part because the game requires particular classes like Shaman and Gydje-type cleric, but also because I want them to be able to fight, it's going to be a grim fantasy campaign after all. In other news, I think I will let my sable-weres keep the Warg "vicious bite" ability and save the extra damage bite for their chieftain.
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Sep 13, 2017 07:54
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Yeah, you're right, and they're updating their build next level. Hey, the ranger health is wrong right? It stayed at 8 in paths of might or battle or whatever, but that muuust be wrong. It's four yeah?
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Sep 13, 2017 14:32
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More health is a path feature.
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Sep 13, 2017 14:38
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I wonder if it's a weird nod to the original AD&D ranger starting with two hit dice at first level.
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Sep 13, 2017 14:48
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But it says ranger gets more than brute? 8 health at level 3 must be wrong. Edit: so this is correct? Some sort of reference to old d&d and Tolkien where they're grim striders, hardy and lean? I'm re-reading LOTR now and I guess I see it, but it was a real surprise mechanically. Jack B Nimble fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Sep 13, 2017 |
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Sep 13, 2017 15:03
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Looks like the core book just got updated on DTRPG - "fixes errata and makes numerous updates" according to the update message, but no specifics. Anyone know what got changed exactly?
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Sep 15, 2017 13:50
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Lemon-Lime posted:Looks like the core book just got updated on DTRPG - "fixes errata and makes numerous updates" according to the update message, but no specifics. Anyone know what got changed exactly? Looks like a bunch of spell fixes and folding in the Paths of series. Rob details the highlights in the comments of this G+ post
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Sep 15, 2017 14:10
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Serf posted:and folding in the Paths of series. Awesome, that's exactly what I was hoping for.
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Sep 15, 2017 14:48
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Well I'm feeling like an rear end dropping money on Paths of Power for my boys just last month. Ah, well.
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Sep 16, 2017 05:01
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FunkMonkey posted:Well I'm feeling like an rear end dropping money on Paths of Power for my boys just last month. Ah, well. Also that comes to like $3.
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Sep 16, 2017 05:18
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Any idea if there'll be an errata document for this stuff? I bought the physical book and I don't really want to purchase the pdf on top of that just to get the updates.
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Sep 16, 2017 11:48
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