T1-4: The Temple of Elemental Nostalgia, er, Evil.

[Jurai]

I'm converting The Temple of Elemental Evil (The Original Modules, not Return.) to Pathfinder, and I figured I'd keep a conversion journal, as well as solicit advice where necessary.

Entry 1: For such a little Hamlet, Hommlet has a lot of wealth available, if you know where and how to look.



• 2nd level
• 15 point buy
• Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Half-Elves only.
• No Summoners.
• No Evil Alignments for first characters.
• Maximum HP at first level, roll for second.
• One Trait, one Drawback


Any advice you would recommend for my character generation? This is for two new players, and a reasonably creative DM (me.)

[EisenKreutzer]

There are some restrictions I'm wondering about here.

First off, why no summoners?

Secondly, why the race restrictions?

Third, why one Trait and one Drawback? The usual rules allow two Traits, and then one Drawback for an additional Trait.

[deuxhero]

Paizo has for a long time recommended 20 PB for APs. This is a rare time Paizo actually has it right for balance: 15 PB vs 20 PB Wizard isn't a big deal, but MAD classes, which are already lower powered, are hurt pretty badly.

PF drawbacks are wonky. You can take a small AC penalty against an attack style that carries heavy penalties and is almost never used as a primary (Naive) or one of the many drawbacks that causes fear if X happens... as a Paladin. Just give the standard two traits.

[Jurai]

I may change it, but right now, I want to try and keep the hardcore 'die-or-fly' difficulty going. Summoners are either 'Leadership in a Base Class' or 'Lag Combat Ridiculously', if not both, and I'll change the traits thing.

[Edenbeast]

You can easily rule that characters can only have one summon active at a time. Also Leadership is up to the GM to approve. Either way, it's up to GM's approval..
For ToEE, as it's originally set in Greyhawk, I'd say go with core classes and races.

[Jurai]

I suppose so, but I stand by my decision.

[deuxhero]

hardcore 'die-or-fly' difficulty going

You're going to need to change a LOT to get that to work in PF. Massed low CR foes do pretty poorly in PF thanks to how armor class scales, and I'm told ToEE has a LOT of rooms filled with bugbears.

[Jurai]

All right, thanks for the advice. Is it fair for me to cut all loot down by 10% so as to balance it out? Just going through the prosperous cottage, you can get enough gold to buy a +1 Armor or Shield without a problem.

[deuxhero]

Cutting loot does little to balance anything, in-fact it hurts the already weak classes most (A fighter that can't hit or take a hit is worthless, a wizard with slightly fewer spells still breaks the game)

[Jurai]

I don't know how T1-4 handled prices for goods and services, and it's only for Hommlet. The temple will have plenty of sparkling goods.

[Jurai]

Day 2:
A Druid Blacksmith? Really?


'Brother Smyth' is the assistant to the druid of the grove. Though he will never work up very high because of his occupation, he will assume the role of religious advisor to the faithful. He has a small chest filled with 82 cp and 28 sp. The rest of his wealth he gives to the good work for the needy. In no event will he leave his fireside to go adventuring.


Any archetypes for Druids that give them Metal Arms and Armor?

[Honest Tiefling]

Perhaps a druid of a god that is both natural and civilized? Perhaps some sort of metal shaper druid who is a smith so they don't need to cut down the woods? He might not even use it himself, just help out the village because they respect nature?

Also, if your players have played a Pathfinder AP before, I'd stick with the standard. It won't make the dungeon seem scary if they're weaker to make it scary.

[deuxhero]

You can keep Brother Smyth as is. Druid stuff only stops working if you wear metal armor because of bad mojo, not some inherit opposition to metal use (why would they? Metals a natural material). You can work metal and use metal weapons with no penalty.

In Golarian Gorum worshiping druids can wear metal armor, though they can't cast while wearing it (the actual rules are weird and suggest the writer didn't know how druids inability to wear metal armor worked (http://www.archivesofnethys.com/DeityDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Gorum)).

[Jurai]

Everybody is new to Pathfinder, but most have D&D experience.

[Thurbane]

Don;t know if it will help with your PF conversion, but I managed to track down the elusive 3.X user made conversion here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=17818963&postcount=4).

[Novawurmson]

As someone who GMed for a summoner from level 1-20, I fully stand by your decision to ban them. A summoner by itself is a pretty good class. An eidolon by itself is a pretty good class. Slap them together, and suddenly you've got one member of the party playing two pretty powerful characters.

[deuxhero]

All right, thanks for the advice. Is it fair for me to cut all loot down by 10% so as to balance it out? Just going through the prosperous cottage, you can get enough gold to buy a +1 Armor or Shield without a problem.

I didn't realize prosperous cottage was a location in Homlet, but I'm pretty sure somebody owns the prosperous cottage and its contents and will the get law on the PCs if they try stealing from it.