jguy
2013-11-21, 11:40 PM
This is my first attempt at a campaign journal so I hope you all enjoy it. It will be updating weekly as my game runs. It is a 3.Pathfinder hybrid game that starts at level 5. A quick summary of players and the campaign world:
The game is run in my homebrew world with no name. It’s getting made as I go along but it has a slight eberron feel to it as magic is more wide spread and common to people. Adventuring is a recognized career in this world as it is a very high-risk, high-reward kind of thing. A farmer can go adventuring for a month, come back with 10 levels and more than enough wealth to keep his great-grandkids fed for their entire lives, or he could die by a random goblin the very first day. Adventurers are like a giant fraternity. Everyone tends to know everyone else by reputation alone and when two parties clash it is usually with very little hard feelings even those with entirely different ideologies.
With this campaign I am testing out a few things as follows:
Minion rule. I saw this homebrew rule that converted 4e minion rules to 3.5. Minions have exact same stats, ac, and saves as a normal monster but with 1 hp, evasion, and mettle. They are worth 1/4th CR of a normal monster. This lets me have bigger, more epic fights without using piddling level CR monsters.
At character creation choose Dex or Strength. This is your primary to-hit and damage dealer. Bows , crossbows , and guns do automatic dex to damage, while slings and javelins do strength to attack and damage. Light and finessable weapons do dex to attack and damage without needing feats like Weapon Finesse and Shadow Blade but they cannot do 1.5x damage with two hands nor can they use Power Attack or Piranha Strike. This is basically to free up feats for my players because someone always wants to do Dex to damage so they become very same-same.
We are using Tome of Tactics maneuvers for this game as well to give more options for my players. It was created on these very boards. Look them up! It’s a good read.
My players are thus:
Roto: A goliath Barbarian/Warblade who is very much styling himself after the Dragoons from final fantasy. He uses a reach weapon and the Battle Jump feat for massive damage. The character tends to have strings of bad luck but he recovers nicely.
Amanu: A Vanara Swordsage that is focusing on Shadow Hand and Life’s Blood maneuvers. He is the healer out of combat and the tankiest guy right now. His life’s blood maneuvers allow him to tank with HP much more efficiently than most people can. Very mobile and does good skirmish damage.
Flynn: A whispergnome Alchemist with a shotgun pistol. He loads his gun with his bombs for very good damage and has a good amount of utility. Very good stealth checks as well.
Weiss: an Elf Wizard. He is characterized as a smartass and abrasive, but not pompous or better than anyone. Also incredibly paranoid. He focuses mainly on battlefield control and party buffing but is rather handy with a longbow with the new house rules.
A knock on the door:
The party starts in their manor in Lochbell, a prosperous city near the mountains. The party has a good reputation such that they rarely have to go looking for work anymore, it comes to them, and it does. The knock on the front door is answered by the party’s butler Chives, a middle-aged swordsage that Amanu has been personally training and comes from a long line of servants. At the door is a dwarf named Jathar that requests an audience with the party as he has a job offer for them from his boss. Chives escorts Jathar to the waiting room and calls to the party from a sending stone.
The party arrives in a fashion to speak to the dwarf.
Jathar: Good to meet you all. I come on behave of my boss Warren Salazar. He owns Delver Mining Inc and he needs your help. In the recent weeks we have had a slew of disappearances and deaths in our mines. It has gotten so bad that if doesn’t end soon, the company will either go out of business or be bought out by our rival Hincar Mining CO. I can’t discuss payment but you will all be well compensated.
Weiss: Your boss owns a gold mine. I would sure hope he can pay us.
Jathar reddens a little but before he can speak Lidda bursts into the room carrying a tray of food filled with the favorites of the party. Lidda is a young half-elf sorceress whose blood mixed oddly giving her the Abberant bloodline. The party found her on the streets awhile back and took her in. She is fiercely loyal to the party and an incredibly good cook. Her racial Skill Focus feat is Profession: Cook.
Lidda: I am sorry Mr. Jathar I didn’t know your favorite food so I made some that I thought a dwarf might like. I do hope you enjoy
Jathar takes the offered food with a thank you and Lidda passes the rest of the food around to the party.
Amanu: Well it seems like we will be able to help you plight as long as the money is good. What say they rest of you?
Flynn: A job sounds good; I need more supplies for my lab. A good chunk of it exploded on me.
Roto: Haven’t been able to hit anything lately and sparring with Amanu is no fun. Never stays in one spot.
Weiss: You will have plenty of things to hit it would seem as long as you stay in front of me.
The party was in agreement and Chives escorted Jathar out, wishing him the best. Lidda scurried off to the kitchen again to get food ready for the road and Chives gathered the party’s supplies sans Flynn who made sure to get his own explosives. It was a funny image seeing Chives carry Roto’s massive polearm with both hands then have Roto pick it up one handed like it was nothing. It showed Weiss’ trust in Chives that he allowed him into his den to gather his scrolls and spellbook up for him.
Chives: Well Master’s I hope you all well and look forward to your return. Me and Lidda will keep the manor safe until we see you again.
Lidda: Yeah! Weiss, try to bring something magical back! I am still working on a portal from the kitchen into your food bags!
Weiss: For that, I will do my best.
The rest of the party nods, greatly looking forward to that prospect. They strike out on foot, the road not too long to the mine and Weiss does not like horses all the much. The road is oddly lacking in traffic this day as it is a main trade route but the party doesn’t think much of it. Soon, they see a man atop a horse ahead when suddenly a massive tree falls in front of the man, stalling him and causing the horse to rear up in fright. The man turns and hails the party.
Man: Hail friends! It seems the road is blocked. I would recommend you find another route; this one does not seem safe.
The party looks around confused and Roto responds
Roto: It’s not that big of a tree. We can just go around or over.
Man: I must insist you turn around, it would not be safe….oh, it is you.
In that instant the man recognized the party and the party recognized him. He was Hassan Dali, leader of the Fanged Ambush group who specialized in ambushes and traps.
Hassan: I don’t think you would all consider turning around and not returning for a week. I have been hired to keep people off this road heading this way.
Amanu: Sorry, no can do. We must go through here to our employer and time is of the essence.
Hassan: I guess we are at odds. Shame. No hard feelings but it can’t be helped.
He snaps his fingers and three figures rise from a platform behind the tree, the remnants of a destroyed watch tower. Two men in banded-mail wielding Glaive-Gisarmes flanking an Elf Air Elemental Sorcerer named Valendron Oparal. Two more men with Gisarmes seem to flow out of the downed tree to stand next to Hassan who is now holding onto his lance and shield.
Amanu goes first and dashes forward, shooting off a shot from his longbow at Hassan's horse using the Frozen Leg maneuver from Life’s Blood. Hassan failed at his Mounted Combat roll to avoid the damage, something he will be doing every time they attack his horse by the way. The maneuver, if it hits, causes the target to make a reflex vs damage dealt of have its movement reduced to 0. Unfortunately for the players but fortunate for me, Amanu forgot to switch to his skirmish stance so only dealt 5 with his attack, something the horse could make even on a 1.
Flynn went next and scurried over to a nearby bush for cover and shot at Valendron with his pistol and a bomb infused bullet. Even though he was using an advanced firearm, the distance penalty combined with cover from the two mooks meant he missed his shot by a bit and all 3 of them evaded the splash damage from the bomb.
Roto came next and he charged at Hassan, hoping to end it with one blow with a Furious Focus, Power Attack Battle jump! He then proceeded to roll a 17 all together and miss. Valendron cast Spectral hand and then Hassan used his Spirit Charge to skewer Roto, or would have if Roto didn’t save himself with Wall of Blades to deflect it. Hassan ended up way away from everyone but in perfect charging distance, even worse, two archers up in the trees showed themselves and shot at Weiss and Amanu, hitting Weiss much to his annoyance.
Weiss did not like Hassan or his charging and cast Create Pit directly under him and his horse. The horse failed its reflex save but I gave Hassan his own at a very large penalty but he managed to save, jumping off the horse and rolling to the ground.
Weiss: Oh what the hell is that crap. He is in full plate with a lance and shield!
The thug mooks are up next and use Roto’s own tactics against him. A Furious Focus Power Attack swing from both of them at Roto hits for about 23 damage when only 1 hits, causing everyone alarm. Amanu scampers up the tree the archer was in and stabs him in the throat, killing him instantly. As everyone guessed, it was a minion. Flynn again takes a shot at Valendron with a bomb infused bullet but again missed him and everyone evades. Flynn is not happy.
Roto is not happy either, having been made almost bloodied with one hit from a minion. He swings and kills it in one blow but is now regretting not having Cleave or the Steel Wind maneuver. Valendron casts Shocking Grasp through the spectral hand at Flynn but Flynn’s small size and high dex coupled with a bad roll causes him to miss.
Hassan reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small horse figuring and throws it to the ground. It is a one use item of the Mount spell and he saddles back up. The last remaining ranged minion shoots at Weiss again and hits. I mention I keep forgetting Rapid Shot and Deadly aim
Weiss’s player: Good! Damn Minions need to stop hurting so much!
Weiss ducks behind a bush and casts Web on Valendron and the thug minions surrounding him. Valendron fails his save and so does one minion, but the other saves. The remaining thug minion by Roto swings at him, and hits, but thankfully he recovered his Wall of Blades so avoids another massive hit.
Roto: Little help guys! I should be fighting Hassan, not this minion who hits like a truck!
Amanu scurries down the tree and shoots again at Hassan’s horse, though remembering to get into his skirmish stance. Hassan makes his mounted combat roll for once and it misses. Flynn pops out from behind the bush and shoots the thug minion by Roto in the head. Roto turn and runs at Hassan. He can’t quite reach him so chucks a javelin at his horse, hoping to end the spell. He hits hard but the horse has 2 hp left.
Hassan turns and charges the only target he has, Amanu, and hits for a whopping 47 damage with his spirited charge! Amanu uses his Healing Palm maneuver as an immediate action to give himself 30 temp hit points but everyone was now terrified of Hassan. The Ranged minion rapid shots at Roto, his only target, and hits once for okay damage. Weiss is now annoyed at the last minion so chucks an alchemist fire at him and sends him to the ground in flames. The game session ends with the last two thug minions by Valendron chopping away at the webbing to free him.
The game is run in my homebrew world with no name. It’s getting made as I go along but it has a slight eberron feel to it as magic is more wide spread and common to people. Adventuring is a recognized career in this world as it is a very high-risk, high-reward kind of thing. A farmer can go adventuring for a month, come back with 10 levels and more than enough wealth to keep his great-grandkids fed for their entire lives, or he could die by a random goblin the very first day. Adventurers are like a giant fraternity. Everyone tends to know everyone else by reputation alone and when two parties clash it is usually with very little hard feelings even those with entirely different ideologies.
With this campaign I am testing out a few things as follows:
Minion rule. I saw this homebrew rule that converted 4e minion rules to 3.5. Minions have exact same stats, ac, and saves as a normal monster but with 1 hp, evasion, and mettle. They are worth 1/4th CR of a normal monster. This lets me have bigger, more epic fights without using piddling level CR monsters.
At character creation choose Dex or Strength. This is your primary to-hit and damage dealer. Bows , crossbows , and guns do automatic dex to damage, while slings and javelins do strength to attack and damage. Light and finessable weapons do dex to attack and damage without needing feats like Weapon Finesse and Shadow Blade but they cannot do 1.5x damage with two hands nor can they use Power Attack or Piranha Strike. This is basically to free up feats for my players because someone always wants to do Dex to damage so they become very same-same.
We are using Tome of Tactics maneuvers for this game as well to give more options for my players. It was created on these very boards. Look them up! It’s a good read.
My players are thus:
Roto: A goliath Barbarian/Warblade who is very much styling himself after the Dragoons from final fantasy. He uses a reach weapon and the Battle Jump feat for massive damage. The character tends to have strings of bad luck but he recovers nicely.
Amanu: A Vanara Swordsage that is focusing on Shadow Hand and Life’s Blood maneuvers. He is the healer out of combat and the tankiest guy right now. His life’s blood maneuvers allow him to tank with HP much more efficiently than most people can. Very mobile and does good skirmish damage.
Flynn: A whispergnome Alchemist with a shotgun pistol. He loads his gun with his bombs for very good damage and has a good amount of utility. Very good stealth checks as well.
Weiss: an Elf Wizard. He is characterized as a smartass and abrasive, but not pompous or better than anyone. Also incredibly paranoid. He focuses mainly on battlefield control and party buffing but is rather handy with a longbow with the new house rules.
A knock on the door:
The party starts in their manor in Lochbell, a prosperous city near the mountains. The party has a good reputation such that they rarely have to go looking for work anymore, it comes to them, and it does. The knock on the front door is answered by the party’s butler Chives, a middle-aged swordsage that Amanu has been personally training and comes from a long line of servants. At the door is a dwarf named Jathar that requests an audience with the party as he has a job offer for them from his boss. Chives escorts Jathar to the waiting room and calls to the party from a sending stone.
The party arrives in a fashion to speak to the dwarf.
Jathar: Good to meet you all. I come on behave of my boss Warren Salazar. He owns Delver Mining Inc and he needs your help. In the recent weeks we have had a slew of disappearances and deaths in our mines. It has gotten so bad that if doesn’t end soon, the company will either go out of business or be bought out by our rival Hincar Mining CO. I can’t discuss payment but you will all be well compensated.
Weiss: Your boss owns a gold mine. I would sure hope he can pay us.
Jathar reddens a little but before he can speak Lidda bursts into the room carrying a tray of food filled with the favorites of the party. Lidda is a young half-elf sorceress whose blood mixed oddly giving her the Abberant bloodline. The party found her on the streets awhile back and took her in. She is fiercely loyal to the party and an incredibly good cook. Her racial Skill Focus feat is Profession: Cook.
Lidda: I am sorry Mr. Jathar I didn’t know your favorite food so I made some that I thought a dwarf might like. I do hope you enjoy
Jathar takes the offered food with a thank you and Lidda passes the rest of the food around to the party.
Amanu: Well it seems like we will be able to help you plight as long as the money is good. What say they rest of you?
Flynn: A job sounds good; I need more supplies for my lab. A good chunk of it exploded on me.
Roto: Haven’t been able to hit anything lately and sparring with Amanu is no fun. Never stays in one spot.
Weiss: You will have plenty of things to hit it would seem as long as you stay in front of me.
The party was in agreement and Chives escorted Jathar out, wishing him the best. Lidda scurried off to the kitchen again to get food ready for the road and Chives gathered the party’s supplies sans Flynn who made sure to get his own explosives. It was a funny image seeing Chives carry Roto’s massive polearm with both hands then have Roto pick it up one handed like it was nothing. It showed Weiss’ trust in Chives that he allowed him into his den to gather his scrolls and spellbook up for him.
Chives: Well Master’s I hope you all well and look forward to your return. Me and Lidda will keep the manor safe until we see you again.
Lidda: Yeah! Weiss, try to bring something magical back! I am still working on a portal from the kitchen into your food bags!
Weiss: For that, I will do my best.
The rest of the party nods, greatly looking forward to that prospect. They strike out on foot, the road not too long to the mine and Weiss does not like horses all the much. The road is oddly lacking in traffic this day as it is a main trade route but the party doesn’t think much of it. Soon, they see a man atop a horse ahead when suddenly a massive tree falls in front of the man, stalling him and causing the horse to rear up in fright. The man turns and hails the party.
Man: Hail friends! It seems the road is blocked. I would recommend you find another route; this one does not seem safe.
The party looks around confused and Roto responds
Roto: It’s not that big of a tree. We can just go around or over.
Man: I must insist you turn around, it would not be safe….oh, it is you.
In that instant the man recognized the party and the party recognized him. He was Hassan Dali, leader of the Fanged Ambush group who specialized in ambushes and traps.
Hassan: I don’t think you would all consider turning around and not returning for a week. I have been hired to keep people off this road heading this way.
Amanu: Sorry, no can do. We must go through here to our employer and time is of the essence.
Hassan: I guess we are at odds. Shame. No hard feelings but it can’t be helped.
He snaps his fingers and three figures rise from a platform behind the tree, the remnants of a destroyed watch tower. Two men in banded-mail wielding Glaive-Gisarmes flanking an Elf Air Elemental Sorcerer named Valendron Oparal. Two more men with Gisarmes seem to flow out of the downed tree to stand next to Hassan who is now holding onto his lance and shield.
Amanu goes first and dashes forward, shooting off a shot from his longbow at Hassan's horse using the Frozen Leg maneuver from Life’s Blood. Hassan failed at his Mounted Combat roll to avoid the damage, something he will be doing every time they attack his horse by the way. The maneuver, if it hits, causes the target to make a reflex vs damage dealt of have its movement reduced to 0. Unfortunately for the players but fortunate for me, Amanu forgot to switch to his skirmish stance so only dealt 5 with his attack, something the horse could make even on a 1.
Flynn went next and scurried over to a nearby bush for cover and shot at Valendron with his pistol and a bomb infused bullet. Even though he was using an advanced firearm, the distance penalty combined with cover from the two mooks meant he missed his shot by a bit and all 3 of them evaded the splash damage from the bomb.
Roto came next and he charged at Hassan, hoping to end it with one blow with a Furious Focus, Power Attack Battle jump! He then proceeded to roll a 17 all together and miss. Valendron cast Spectral hand and then Hassan used his Spirit Charge to skewer Roto, or would have if Roto didn’t save himself with Wall of Blades to deflect it. Hassan ended up way away from everyone but in perfect charging distance, even worse, two archers up in the trees showed themselves and shot at Weiss and Amanu, hitting Weiss much to his annoyance.
Weiss did not like Hassan or his charging and cast Create Pit directly under him and his horse. The horse failed its reflex save but I gave Hassan his own at a very large penalty but he managed to save, jumping off the horse and rolling to the ground.
Weiss: Oh what the hell is that crap. He is in full plate with a lance and shield!
The thug mooks are up next and use Roto’s own tactics against him. A Furious Focus Power Attack swing from both of them at Roto hits for about 23 damage when only 1 hits, causing everyone alarm. Amanu scampers up the tree the archer was in and stabs him in the throat, killing him instantly. As everyone guessed, it was a minion. Flynn again takes a shot at Valendron with a bomb infused bullet but again missed him and everyone evades. Flynn is not happy.
Roto is not happy either, having been made almost bloodied with one hit from a minion. He swings and kills it in one blow but is now regretting not having Cleave or the Steel Wind maneuver. Valendron casts Shocking Grasp through the spectral hand at Flynn but Flynn’s small size and high dex coupled with a bad roll causes him to miss.
Hassan reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small horse figuring and throws it to the ground. It is a one use item of the Mount spell and he saddles back up. The last remaining ranged minion shoots at Weiss again and hits. I mention I keep forgetting Rapid Shot and Deadly aim
Weiss’s player: Good! Damn Minions need to stop hurting so much!
Weiss ducks behind a bush and casts Web on Valendron and the thug minions surrounding him. Valendron fails his save and so does one minion, but the other saves. The remaining thug minion by Roto swings at him, and hits, but thankfully he recovered his Wall of Blades so avoids another massive hit.
Roto: Little help guys! I should be fighting Hassan, not this minion who hits like a truck!
Amanu scurries down the tree and shoots again at Hassan’s horse, though remembering to get into his skirmish stance. Hassan makes his mounted combat roll for once and it misses. Flynn pops out from behind the bush and shoots the thug minion by Roto in the head. Roto turn and runs at Hassan. He can’t quite reach him so chucks a javelin at his horse, hoping to end the spell. He hits hard but the horse has 2 hp left.
Hassan turns and charges the only target he has, Amanu, and hits for a whopping 47 damage with his spirited charge! Amanu uses his Healing Palm maneuver as an immediate action to give himself 30 temp hit points but everyone was now terrified of Hassan. The Ranged minion rapid shots at Roto, his only target, and hits once for okay damage. Weiss is now annoyed at the last minion so chucks an alchemist fire at him and sends him to the ground in flames. The game session ends with the last two thug minions by Valendron chopping away at the webbing to free him.