Planning a Way of the Wicked playthrough in 3.P - What books should I allow/use?

[atemu1234]

I tend to run a pretty open table as far as the game is concerned. Pretty much any and all books are allowed.

Thing is, this is my first time running an actual adventure path, and I know at least a couple of my players plan on metagaming, so I'm thinking about restatting a few things from Way of the Wicked to make it more... surprising. Problem is, I'm not sure what books I should be referencing for this, from 3e, 3.5 or Pathfinder, first or third party. I'm also unsure as to what I should be trying to encourage in my players.

[Jack_Simth]

Well, first off:
Are you planning on playing it as Pathfinder with 3.5 stuff added on, or 3.5 with Pathfinder stuff added on? The two are a bit different (skill lists, polymorph, how crafting works, most base classes, et cetera).

[atemu1234]

Well, first off:
Are you planning on playing it as Pathfinder with 3.5 stuff added on, or 3.5 with Pathfinder stuff added on? The two are a bit different (skill lists, polymorph, how crafting works, most base classes, et cetera).

It's primarily Pathfinder, with open license to update stuff from 3.5 or 3e as needed. Basically, use the newest form of whatever you need.

[HairyGuy4]

So I ran Way of The Wicked all the way from book 1 to book 6. Most online accounts I've found online didn't make it all the way through all six, so there's not anything I can redirect you to that would help.

So here are a few points of advice.
1) Fair warning, Book 2 and book 6 run very long. Book 2 is 80% a dungeon defense game. Book 6 is largely a nation-building game. Playing every week for 3 hours, with occasional interuption, it took my group 3 years to finish the campaign. Granted, my players can be alittle pokey but that's not exactly rare. That said, everyone absolutely loved it and both book 2 & 6 were among my favorites.
2) As a general rule, character wealth by level runs low in this campaign. Additionally, The author isn't very good at building competent characters. So the monsters are challenging, but the anti-character enemies tend to be a joke. So in late book 2 and book 3, some monsters seems very challenging.
An easy fix is to force players to trade in all accumulated items when they level, getting proper WBL when they do so. Of course, that also means you need to up the equipment on basically every non-monster enemy from book 2 and forward.
3) Unless you like random encounters and side quests, do fast xp progression. Or better yet, just tell them when they get to level.
4) Book 1 is pretty well balanced if the group is good at building effective characters. Breaking Grumblejack out of jail with them adds just what the party needs to escape. But once Thorn sends the PC's up north I removed him from the group until book 2 in the name of blending in, as large ogres stick out. They did fine without him.
5)
- Book 2 is a great setting. But the random adventurers suck largely, with exception to the Sons of Balyntine.
-the book assumes the PC's take leadership around this point. I had 2 PC's take leadership in book 2, and modified it slightly. Keep the minions the same, but adjust the cohort. One PC with leadership grantsa Cohort of party level-2. Two PC's net a a Cohort of Party Level-1. Three PC's net a cohort of Party Level -1 & another cohort of Part Level-2. Four Pc's drop the two cohorts to equal level and -1.
-Also worth noting, Book 7 has a side story that can be added here.
6)
-Book 3 works like this; Do all your PC's have a way to consistently overcome enemies with DR/Good. If the answer is yes, the second half of this book is easy. If the answer is NO, the second half of this book is brutal.
-The army assault was also very difficult for my group. They thought they could do all the encounters, so by the time they got to battle 8 & 9, they really struggled.
7)
-Book 4 opens with a month of in-game looting. There's a lot of fun in the premise, but once the major stuff is covered I would handwave the rest, throw some gp at the PC's, and get on with the show. Also, book 7 incorperates the alcohol scavenger hunt into a quest just for minions.
-After freeing the younger black dragon, he fled back to the older one. My PC's were a hairs breath away from fighting both Black dragons together. You should probably make it clear that's a bad idea.
-The final castle infiltration is how I introduced Leothald Barca (From book 6). They struck a deal with him and he became a powerful influence through the rest of the campaign.

8)
-Book 5 runs fast, and you should probably read through it by the end of book 1 so you can foreshadow stuff.
-The actions of the Sons of Balyntine are well thought out, but it's hard for the PC's to realize their foil is working against them. I did my best to work it in so the rematch had some weight and satisfaction. Of course, then the Monk crit Sir Richard 3 times in his first full attack. :smallfurious:
9)
-You should completely rebuild the human enemies from the book 6. They're a pushover.
-My PC's ran the country really well, and as such, managed to get their character wealth above level by 20.
- In the final battle, I added enemies that the PC's had failed to kill in the past 6 books. I also implied that there would be a consequence to their army if they didn't eliminate the other higher level threats. It worked well to wear them out for the final fight.
-Book 7 has a alternative ending if you're interested;.
10) Since hellbrand is so awesome, you should encourage someone to use a Bastard Sword.

But to get to your question, I'd encourage sticking to Pathfinder 1st party material. If you want to restat a enemy, use the summoner, the Kineticist, or anything from advanced class guide. That stuff is pretty solid in strength.

[Manyasone]

I am planning on running it in the near future, but using mostly SoP/SoM, akashic and psionics. One of my players instantly fell in love with the Eclipse base class. I am curious how it pans out. I already figured that certain encounters need to be reworked a bit and I also plan on using automatic bonus progression. Any thoughts?

[HairyGuy4]

The setting as written doesn't have a lot of non-divine magic. Clerics and inquisitors are the most common enemy classes. I believe there's only 5-6 wizards throughout the game. Humans are basically the default race. So SoP/SoM will definitely stand out for sure.

Automatic bonuses seems like a good solution.