[3.5] An Eberron-flavored Red Hand of Doom Campaign Journal

[Fenix_of_Doom]

Here are the redone rider stats, constructed with 25 point buy:

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Golin'Dar Outrider CR 3
Goblin Fighter 2/Scout 1
LE Small humanoid (goblinoid)
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Listen +2, Spot +2
Languages Common, Goblin, Draconic
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AC 19, touch 15, flat-footed 15; Expeditious Dodge
(+1 size, +4 Dex, +4 armor)
hp 31 (3 HD)
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will -1
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Speed 30 ft. (6 squares); 50 ft. mounted
Melee mwk scimitar +4 (1d4+1/18-20)
Ranged mwk composite longbow^1 +8 (1d6+1/x3)
Ranged Point Blank Skirmish +9 (2d6+2/x3: 4d6+6)
Base Atk +2; Grp -1
Atk Options skirmish +1d6, Point Blank Shot (+1 to AB and damage w/in 30 ft)
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Abilities Str 12, Dex 18, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 6
Feats Point Blank Shot(B), Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery(B), Expeditious Dodge
Skills Handle Animal +3, Hide +10, Listen +2, Move Silently +10, Ride +16, Spot +3
Possessions combat gear plus +1 studded leather, small mwk composite longbow^1, small mwk scimitar, 20 arrows

How are you getting 31 HP?, you get 10 HP from your first fighter level and another 10 from your fighter and scout level, plus 3 HP from your con bonus gives you 23 HP. This is significantly less than 31, you should really consider upping con by 1 point, and while your doing that, might as well raise wis with 2 points to get rid of the ugly negative save and call it 28 point buy and be done with it.
Additionally I advise usage of fractional BaB and saves from unearthed arcana, it just makes sense and it would make the will save of you goblin better.

[Eldariel]

Hmm, the last feat that you're using for Expeditious Dodge right now...I wonder if it could be used better. More precisely, I'd give them Martial Study: Moment of Perfect Mind. Right now, they're gonna get Will-raped and killed. Seeing that the world has lots of magic and they have Warblade officers, chances are that someone would've bothered to put them through a lot of rigorous training for protecting their own mind.

A second point in Con and they should be pretty well off (I think you can afford to cut that one point from Int if you give them the Scout-level first for the billion extra skills), as Martial Study makes the appropriate key skill in-class for all your classes.

[AslanCross]

Maximum HP on the hit dice. 20+8+3. That's really not going to be a problem considering how much damage the PCs can dish out.

I looked at the fractional bonuses--just how much will they matter? The 2.75 BAB will get rounded back down to 2 anyway. Having better saves would be cute, but as it is, these aren't horrible. They are just monsters, anyway, and the only Will save effect they have to worry about is Kikkeni's déjà vu lock. (Which depends entirely on the monsters not attacking on their turn, but as the case seems to be, mounted archery is going to make the goblins just repeatedly spam her with skirmish arrows.)

EDIT: Martial study looks like it's worth it. I could probably give up Balance for Concentration.

[Coidzor]

Gah! I can't wait to hear about how it goes...

[AslanCross]

And it goes just as planned, Coidzor. I intended for this encounter to show how nasty the Red Hand can be, and it works. These aren't moronic grunts---they have a good grasp of strategy, tactics, and as it turns out---arcane magic.

Day 5

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The party decides to take it easy for now. Unable to do much, Ashie commissions Morlin Coalhewer (I gave him a human apprentice who does sculpture and pottery) to start making the three homunculi she wants to use: a new Iron Defender, a Furtive Filcher, and an Expeditious Messenger. Even with expert craft skills, none of the homunculi are completed in one week, and they won't be done until the Red Hand arrives. Wanting to be nice to the players, I tell them that their choice of one homunculus will be completed by the day before the horde arrives. They decide on the Expeditious Messenger.

The party goes to sleep, only to be awakened at midnight by distressed screams coming from the far bank.

Outriders

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Jorr accompanies the PCs, but he's so badly wounded that they tell him to stay back and leave the fighting to them.

The goblin outriders and the dire wolf (for which I swapped out the hell hound) roll high on their initiative, while all the party ends up at the bottom of the stack.
Immediately the dire wolf charges Holden for a lot of damage and knocks him down, while the outriders break out of hiding (they were wearing wolf pelts and use their surprise advantage to score painful skirmish damage on the PCs.

The party is able to quickly subdue the dire wolf, but the outriders just prove too sneaky. Only Kikkeni's energy cone is able to deal much damage to them, but the tried and true "use your mount as cover" trick works like a charm, and the outriders roll really high on their reflex saves.

Eventually, the PCs are able to bring one worg down, but its rider makes a beeline for Sterrel's Provisioning and sets it on fire. However, by this time, Ashie and Kikkeni have HP in the single digits and are only using the dire wolf's corpse as cover.

(In case you didn't notice----they did not heal themselves between their fight with the dragon and now.)

Ashie is able to use her wand of entangle on the grass around the burning warehouse, trapping the goblin who set fire to the building.

Loven manages to use his bag of boulders+sneak attack to seriously injure one worg rider, so they begin to run away.

Second Wave

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The two remaining mounted goblins begin running off the grid as quickly as they could; both escape, with the second wave arriving just in time to cover them---two Kulkor Zhul duskblades, two greenspawn snipers, a bladebearer, and a Kulkor Zhul War Adept.

One greenspawn sniper reveals itself, taking shots at Kikkeni from the roof of the other nearby warehouse (Jendar's Warehouse), and it fails its attack roll and snipe check badly. When Kikkeni's turn comes around, the greenspawn gets flung to the ground with telekinetic thrust for all his trouble. He survives the huge fall, however, but now that he's out in the open, he has a hard time with hiding.

The first duskblade nails Holden with ray of enfeeblement, dropping his strength back down to 12.

Ashie thinks she could nail the newcomers with entangle, but the War Adept goes right before her turn and blasts her and Kikkeni with a scintillating sphere.

Both women fail their reflex saves badly. Kikkeni is dropped to the negatives by the explosion, while Ashie dies instantly. The spell deals just enough damage to send her to exactly -10.

The party gets screwed really badly from here on. The Kulkor Zhul War Adept uses its Pillar of Magic ability (see Hobgoblin Warcaster, MMV) to grant SR 14 to its lackeys.
Loven runs to try to heal Kikkeni and finds a potion of cure moderate wounds in her pack, bringing her back up to the single digits.

The party is lucky they're able to move around so quickly and t

Holden is quickly surrounded by the duskblades and the warblade; one channeled shocking grasp and a critical hit from the warblade later and he's in the negatives; even his damage pool couldn't absorb enough.

Seeing Holden go down, the duskblades and the warblade go after Kikkeni and Loven.
Kikkeni is able to breach the SR and flings the warblade away with TKT, while Loven drinks a potion of invisibility to help out his dwarven brother.

In the mean time, Kikkeni flings back one of the duskblades with TKT again (now her favorite power), squishing him. Ouch. The other guy survives and also runs after her.

Loven is able to run as fast as he could towards Holden, and he activates Holden's healing belt bringing him back up to the positives. Not wanting to attract the nearby War Adept's attention, Holden continues to play dead.

Kikkeni tries to outmaneuver the warblade, but she decides she's not willing to risk a TWF full attack on her next turn, so she risks an AOO instead so she can get a safe distance away to cast a spell. Not this player's lucky day.

The warblade rolls a 20 on his AOO, but fails the confirmation roll. This is still enough to bring Kikkeni down again, so the warblade rejoins the fray as the War Adept casts mirror image. Holden uses up the belt's charges and gets up, attacking one of the mirror images (giving Kikkeni 2 HP due to Martial Spirit), while Loven pokes at the mirror images as well.

The War Adept is able to nail the now-revived Holden with scorching ray putting him at a dangerously low HP level---once his damage pool hits next turn, he's going to go down to 0 again. He smashes the warblade with Mountain Hammer.

With Kikkeni back up, she's able to nuke the mirror images with energy missile, exposing the caster. He barely takes damage from it, but he retaliates with summon swarm. The spiders take Kikkeni down to 0 HP again, though she thankfully saves against the poison.

The remaining duskblade runs off into the woods.
At this point the War Adept tries to escape as well; its buffed AC keeps it safe for the most part. However, as it moves away, it's unable to maintain the concentration on the swarm spell due to a painful AOO from Holden, and tries to cast haste to bolster his escape.

Holden and Loven stay on his case, but eventually the War Adept is able to cast invisibility from a scroll and escapes with his life.

The party calls Jorr to ask for help with the fires, which thankfully haven't spread so much. Ben Sterrel's store is mostly intact.

Postmortem (Literally)

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This is the first time I've ever killed a character---I've never killed one off in-game (except for that one plotkilled Swashbuckler)---and frankly, they deserved it. I have no idea why they decided not to heal. The War Adept had a grand total of three blasting spells, and the first one almost wiped out half the party.

While the party has the staff of life, Loven's crappy UMD ranks prevent him from emulating the 15 Wis required to cast the spell. They decide to lay Ashie to rest, cutting off a lock of her hair to send back to House Orien, should they decide to have her resurrected.

Now that the party has got a taste of the Red Hand's competently dangerous side, they're convinced more than ever that Drellin's Ferry has to be evacuated. I also tell them that the implications of the outriders, the snipers, the War Adept and the duskblade getting away are very dire: The raid was not a coincidence. The outriders had found Vraath Keep empty and tracked the perpetrators to Drellin's Ferry, and now that they've seen the PCs and gotten away to report to the Horde, there's a good chance that later attacks will be much, much harder.

Ashie's player decides to roll a character, and given the dangerous nature of the adventure, Holden and Loven's player decides to roll an additional character as well.

Ashie's player wants to tank this time, since she realized that having only one tank makes things kind of difficult. I ask her if she's willing to give up her party's utility casting, and she says she prefers survivability. As such, I recommend she roll a cleric instead, to which she agrees.

We recommend that the other player's additional character (he's going to be controlling THREE characters now O_O) be a fast, DPS striker, so we recommend a Shifter Barbarian/Swordsage or Warblade. He also decides to make this character female.

Due to Ashie's death, I'm going to give the PCs a modifier on their Diplomacy checks during the Town Council on day 7---surely the death of a seemingly powerful adventurer would strike fear into the hearts of the people. (I'm using Rich's Diplomacy rules). However, this could also mean they are just as likely to surrender.

We don't know when next session will be yet. It will likely include the council meeting, as well as the Chimera attack. I tweaked the beast a bit, giving it a blue dragon head (partially due to Azarr Kul's and Tyrgarun's vanity) to give it some range on its breath weapon.

RIP Ashiedae Jiourrn d'Orien
16th Lharvion 998 YK

[Eldariel]

Ouch; they just lost their only source of reliable healing and arcane magic... But yeah, they definitely deserved that. First rule of not-getting-killed: always heal everyone after battle. Also, I'm a bit surprised you didn't play the soldiers more aggressively and with focused fire to take out people in negatives (after the first-guy-down was healed, I would've imagined they realize they need to truly finish off their opponents to win as it's definitely in their advantage not to have people rising from the dead all the time), but then again, doing so would've probably resulted in TPK so I do sorta understand your reasonings.

But yeah, seeing that your party's been relatively smart lately, I'd hope they would be a bit more intelligent in the future. 'cause HP is the one resource you can never have too much of. Also, it'll be interesting to see what modifications you'll do as consequence for the escaped soldiers.


One thing I'd like to point out; if using Hobgoblin Regulars, having them walk in a close 4*2 (or 5*2) formation and ready Aid Another to improve AC of whoever is being attacked in the back rank (using Longspears or another reach weapon, this is possible - seeing D&D's way of handling combat, this is pretty rational) and using some Aid Another to help the attacks too makes them much more fearsome. And of course, such a tight formation can easily whirl into a surround if someone rushes to face the formation alone (the rear elements can take a move action and switch to melee weapons).

I'll have to say, the session sounds great though. I may be on the minority here, but PC death really adds a ton to the game when it happens; feeling and illusion of being here. This is especially true if it doesn't happen on a conveyor though; constant death of course devalues it, but a game with hero death is much less memorable than one the players plowed through. The whole funeral sequence adds a ton to the game and the other characters' reactions are often surprisingly genuine there. My experience anyways.

[Coidzor]

Brutal... But then, that's what happens when you're torn up and forget to heal... Really weird that they forgot to do that, actually.

[AslanCross]

I had the Kulkor Zhul squad going for capture instead of the kill; I did warn the players that should they all get KO'd, they're going to find themselves in a prison wagon.

I'm kind of iffy about having hobgoblins march in formation; Kikkeni is just way too fond of blasting formations. I'll probably run the Easy Skirmish this way, though, since it is an Easy skirmish after all.

My plans for the Elsir War encounters in part 2:

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-Miha Serani is going to be swapped for a Zakya Rakshasa if the PCs meet her early. I want to remind the PCs that Tiamat's Rakshasa agents are operating with the Red Hand and have done a lot of infiltration by now.
If the PCs meet her after Blackfens, she's going to be upgraded to the core Rakshasa so she'll retain her spellcasting.

-Barghest Reavers: The barghests have a lot of cool (Sp)s, but they're not going to be doing much damage. I'm swapping out one of them and two of the regulars for two Kulkor Zhul duskblades. The duskblades have proven themselves as effective damage dealers (shocking grasp is a favorite), and the raiding party that escaped from Drellin's Ferry knows they're quite effective against PCs.

-Marked For Death: This extremely dangerous encounter is going to go as written; the greater barghests are quite impressive, but I plan to have them remain in their giant hobgoblin form and wield heavy flails (I want the PCs to keep guessing as to what they are unless they get Ashie's replacement soon.). Mass bull's strength and mass enlarge person are rather poignant ways of giving the PCs a taste of their own buffing medicine. A bunch of giant hobgoblins and dragonmen crashing out of the forest is sure to frighten the daylights out of them. Not likely to happen until after Rhest, though---depends on when the PCs catch on to the need to go off to the Blackfens.

-Marked For Death Mk II: Much later in the adventure (maybe just before Brindol), Holden is going to receive word that his wife, a cleric of the Silver Flame, has been assassinated. (The player asked for this.) Depending on how much the party frustrates the Red Hand, and if their intelligence network remains intact (say, escaping wyrmlords) this might happen earlier---a Naztharune Rakshasa assassin (maybe with one level of swordsage to offset the action advantage) is going to go after them.

I'm really liking how the adventure flows pretty freely despite having an overarching timeline. It really allows the DM to improvise.

Anyway, some developments:
-I might be getting a third player (the girl who was originally supposed to play Kikkeni), since she's likely to say in the same college dorm as the girl who plays Kikkeni and Ashie. She's preparing a Shifter Barbarian/Warblade, and we rolled her stats really well (13, 13, 14, 15, 15, 17).

-Ashie is likely going to be replaced by a Cloistered Cleric; the player isn't so sure yet. She wants the skill point boost and is leaning towards Aureon (the Force and Magic Domains are pretty awesome), but may also choose The Traveler for an interesting twist. Really odd to have a cloistered cleric of the Traveler, though. If all else fails, though, she could just go with a more martially-oriented Sovereign Host deity like Dol Arrah or Dol Dorn.

[Eldariel]

Complete Warrior includes the alternative formation tactic of moving with readied action (to AoE attack, or command - however you want it) to scramble for cover. But mostly, low-level mooks aren't very efficient unless Aiding each other (or even better, aiding a guy with an actual damage output).

And yeah, area effect damage really puts a damper to medieval military tactics and formation combat (one of the big reasons I've been working on different anti-magic applications for standard gear like shields, and some skills - makes traditional tactics actually efficient). With base rules, it almost calls for modern warfare if wanting to account for them logically in military tactics; artillery isn't all that different from fireball spam. Of course, since sword has little place in modern military tactics (or melee weapons outside dense forest/jungle-areas in general), this is something one can't implement straight without losing the "feel".


Third player sounds really nice - one player playing one character is always ideal, after all. Would be a step closer to that.

[Kol Korran]

just wanted to add it was a nice read.
i didn't expect anyone to die here, but then again- no healing...
i'm realy intrigued at the idea of a cloistered cleric of The Traveler. if that does happen, tell us how she managed the personality and religious aspects. could be done, but should be interesting.
um, that is all from me. keep o nthe good work.
Kol.

[AslanCross]

The cleric rolled really good ability scores all around as well. She's looking at a more martial deity instead, so maybe Dol Arrah, Dol Dorn, or Silver Flame.

EDIT: Now that the PCs are closing in on chapter 2, I'd like to ask---are Saarvith and Regiarix good as printed? I know Saph and Kjones bumped Regiarix up to Juvenile for large size, and that KJones gave Saarvith a couple more levels and tweaked his pathetic strength.

[AslanCross]

Sorry for the double post.
Anyway, it's pretty much confirmed that I'm getting two more players.
The first newcomer is a shifter barbarian warblade optimized for speed, while the second will be the wand-wielding cleric I asked about in that other thread. Of course, more members = stronger party = bigger encounters, but that will come later.

Right now, the PCs have the town council ahead of them. Here are my notes about the encounter, using Rich's Diplomacy fix.

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Diplomacy checks to influence the Ferry council:

PC modifiers:
Koth's map and notes: +2
Jorr's testimony: +4.
Town heroes: +2.

Norro Wiston (Aristocrat 5)
Wis 13
Base DC: 21
Relationship: -2 . Acquaintance---Norro Wiston trusts the PCs somewhat, as they've brought obviously positive results in dealing with the immediate threat of the raids.
Risk vs Reward: +0. Norro is undecided. The people can potentially escape with their lives, but where to? If the Dawn Way is blocked and the town is destroyed, what livelihood do the townsfolk have to return to when the war is over?
Final DCs:
-Flight: DC 19
-Fight: DC 19
-Parley: DC 19

Delora Zann (Lv 7)
Wis 10
Base DC 22.
Relationship: -2. Acquaintance. The PCs purchased mounts from her and took good care of them.
Risk vs. Reward: -5 if the PCs advocate running. She knows how bad raids can get, and favors this. +5 if the PCs advocate fighting or parleying.
Final DCs:
Default Stance: Flight.
-Fight: DC 25
-Parley: DC 25

Iormel (Lv 3)
Wis 8
Base DC 17.
Relationship: +0. The PCs have had no dealing with Iormel yet. However, arguing him out of his position nets a +2 DC due to his inherent grumpiness.
Risk vs. Reward: Flight nets a +10. Iormel really, really does not want to leave his business and doesn't give a damn about the townsfolk. Parley is slightly less unfavorable, since it still allows him to keep his business. He just doesn't want to be given the job. +5.
Final DCs:
Default Stance: Fight
Flight: DC 29
Parley: DC 24

Kellin (Lv 5)
Wis 10
Base DC 20
Relationship: -2. The PCs have been staying at Kellin's inn for a while, so he believes they are good customers.
Risk vs. Reward: Flight nets a +0. Being insured by House Ghallanda, Kellin knows that he can drop his business if he has to as long as he has exhausted every possible alternative. Fight gets a +2. Kellin would rather not have to stand and fight if he can help it, which is why he prefers to parley.
Final DCs:
Default stance: Parley
Flight: DC 18
Fight: DC 20

Soranna (Lv 5)
Wis 10
Base DC 20
Relationship: -5. As an ex-adventurer and having seen the PCs work, Soranna currently knows them best.
Risk vs. Reward: Flight nets a -5. She is not confident about dealing with the army, and knows the risks involved.
Fight nets a +2. She is pretty sure she cannot handle it, but will do what she is told.
Parley: +5 . Soranna knows enough that this is futile.
Final DCs:
Fight: DC 22.
Flight: DC 15.
Parley: DC 25.

[kjones]

Two more players? Does that bump your party size up to 6? If so, that's a pretty big difference, and you'll need to plan accordingly.

Good call on bumping up the Worg Riders, though. That's something I really should have thought of - in retrospect, it's quite obvious. The mounted goblins simply aren't much of a threat. (The worgs themselves, however, managed to cause some problems...)

As for Saarvith and Regiarax, well, you know my feelings on this already, so I'll say no more.

EDIT: With regards to the timeline, I had the same problem. You handled it reasonably, I think.

[AslanCross]

Nope, Ashie died in the Goblin raid. We're left with 5. Another person wanted to join, but I've handled 6-PC parties before and didn't want to do so again.
Holden, Loven, Kikkeni, the shifter, and the cleric.

[Eldariel]

EDIT: Now that the PCs are closing in on chapter 2, I'd like to ask---are Saarvith and Regiarix good as printed? I know Saph and Kjones bumped Regiarix up to Juvenile for large size, and that KJones gave Saarvith a couple more levels and tweaked his pathetic strength.

Regiarix is already Juvenile. The Young Adult-bump isn't a bad idea though; just 'cause Dragons should be Large at least. Also that nets him Frightful Presence, Dragon trademark. And he isn't much tougher than Ozyrrandion as Juvenile. I think Young Adult makes for a more memorable, but still doable, encounter especially if the party grows.

And Saarvith is just a tough version of the Goblin Worg Riders. Maybe he should be a Swift Hunter? Also maybe make him Mystic Ranger to drive home the Wyrmlords' ties with Tiamat; he'd be tougher that way. Either way, I think he needs the most work as he's not a caster unlike all the other Wyrmlords.

[AslanCross]

Regiarix is already Juvenile. The Young Adult-bump isn't a bad idea though; just 'cause Dragons should be Large at least. Also that nets him Frightful Presence, Dragon trademark. And he isn't much tougher than Ozyrrandion as Juvenile. I think Young Adult makes for a more memorable, but still doable, encounter especially if the party grows.

And Saarvith is just a tough version of the Goblin Worg Riders. Maybe he should be a Swift Hunter? Also maybe make him Mystic Ranger to drive home the Wyrmlords' ties with Tiamat; he'd be tougher that way. Either way, I think he needs the most work as he's not a caster unlike all the other Wyrmlords.

My bad, I meant young adult. I'm definitely doing that; I don't like the idea of a 6-foot long dragon either (especially since I did make Ozzyrandion large). I also realized that even at Young Adult, Regiarix's breath weapon only deals an average of 25 damage, which should be easy enough for the PCs to resist if they prepare for the fight like they did with Ozzyrandion.

I was working on Saarvith's build last week, but put him on the back burner for now as it'll be a while before we get there. I'm still thinking about it, and was definitely thinking about a Swift Hunter build.

[Eldariel]

My bad, I meant young adult. I'm definitely doing that; I don't like the idea of a 6-foot long dragon either (especially since I did make Ozzyrandion large). I also realized that even at Young Adult, Regiarix's breath weapon only deals an average of 25 damage, which should be easy enough for the PCs to resist if they prepare for the fight like they did with Ozzyrandion.

I was working on Saarvith's build last week, but put him on the back burner for now as it'll be a while before we get there. I'm still thinking about it, and was definitely thinking about a Swift Hunter build.

I think Scout 4/Mystic Ranger 4 could be pretty decent. Second level spells, two bonus feats while still clearly a martial type (BAB 7). Two favored enemies (like before), but 2d6 Skirmish. Feats could be:
Rapid Shot (from Ranger)
Swift Hunter (from Scout)
Mounted Combat (1st)
Far Shot (3rd)
Ranged Skirmisher (6th)

Damn, one feat short. 9th would give you Mounted Archery. Dropping the Ranged Skirmisher-part, you could give him Improved Skirmish and Mounted Archery. Of course, if you want a non-SA build, a straight Mystic Ranger is very decent too. Exacting Shot [Spell Compendium] is very brutal against all Humans and Elves, Hunter's Mercy can do very mean damage too, and Mystic Ranger would already have level 4 spells (at level 8) and thus Foebane. Oh, and Superior Magic Fang for Regiarix (you'd need to give him an extra point of Wis to be able to cast level 4 spells though). Oh, and Arrowstorm.

If you do add Skirmish (especially Improved Skirmish), I'd be sure to include Sniper's Shot (provided you're willing to houserule extend it to other forms of precision damage). Either way, Find the Gap is also awesome.

[kjones]

If you're just one feat short, give him a flaw.

Skirmish damage is clever, but if I were you, I would be more concerned about his overall squishiness, especially in the face of your party's psion. It sounds to me like telekinetic thrust and similar powers could make short work of a mounted character like Saarvith without precautions taken on your part.

[Eldariel]

If you're just one feat short, give him a flaw.

Skirmish damage is clever, but if I were you, I would be more concerned about his overall squishiness, especially in the face of your party's psion. It sounds to me like telekinetic thrust and similar powers could make short work of a mounted character like Saarvith without precautions taken on your part.

Oh yeah, as a corollary, his Will-saves... (even if you raise him to level 9, the base is mere +3; he'll be a butt monkey to any PC who aims anything at him) Maybe giving him higher Wisdom for all his spells and skills wouldn't be a bad idea?

EDIT: But for Real Real, the most important part is giving him useful spells. PHB has none so he has crap prepared, but SC suddenly adds a boatload of things that actually help a Ranger.

[skeeter_dan]

My bad, I meant young adult. I'm definitely doing that; I don't like the idea of a 6-foot long dragon either (especially since I did make Ozzyrandion large). I also realized that even at Young Adult, Regiarix's breath weapon only deals an average of 25 damage, which should be easy enough for the PCs to resist if they prepare for the fight like they did with Ozzyrandion.

I was working on Saarvith's build last week, but put him on the back burner for now as it'll be a while before we get there. I'm still thinking about it, and was definitely thinking about a Swift Hunter build.

I ran RHoD in Eberron as well; I did bump Regiarix to young adult, but ran Saarvith as is. Both escaped after a pretty good battle. I had him underwater for the beginning of the battle and definitely gave the party a surprise.

[Coidzor]

Yeah, Sarrvith could do with some beefing up. When my group was playing through RHOD(campaign postponed pre-Fane of Tiamat for the summer), the party pretty much placed him as a very secondary threat and sort of killed him as an afterthought, though regariax easily recovered the body due to his advantages against us with a huge lake in the area when he got tired of dealing with the party by himself. This was possibly due to the fact that we encountered him riding a large-sized regariax at the time.

Heck, the DM got bored with him, both during his initial appearance where he forgot to have him take some of his actions and the end fight of the battle of brindol and just asked us to take a minute and deal with this goblin ranger so he didn't have to think about him anymore.

So maybe I'm biased against the idea of him as any sort of a threat as-is...

[AslanCross]

Where's the Mystic Ranger from, Eldariel?

[Eldariel]

Where's the Mystic Ranger from, Eldariel?

It's a Dragon Magazine-variant of Ranger - apparently from DR336. It's detailed in the Crystal Keep Base Classes PHB. Basically, it's a Ranger that postpones all his other class features (and loses few like the animal companion, melee weapon proficiency & shield proficiency and Endurance; whoopedoo) and starts the spellcasting progression from level 1, capping out at level 5 spells (the list is given in the PDF) around level 10 or so.

Personally, I'd definitely prefer using Mystic Ranger to standard Ranger in this kind of a "boss fight" simply because of the versatility Mystic Ranger adds to the mix; big fights shouldn't be against one-dimensional opponents (and with the Ranger Spell List expansion in Spell Compendium, those spell slots really do make a difference with tons of crits, extra powers vs. favored enemies and touch attacks).

[AslanCross]

Oh, that looks great. Indeed, the Spell Compendium ranger spell list has a lot of gems.

I'm planning for a 9th level build as the party is larger now and they added a full caster.

The new cleric will be a Cloistered Cleric of Aureon with the Magic and Force domains. She's likely going to go Knowledge Domain.

[Rising Phoenix]

Oh, that looks great. Indeed, the Spell Compendium ranger spell list has a lot of gems.

Hello AslanCross,

First of all thanks for your journal its been great! Thanks for sharing.

Secondly I just finished rebuilding Saarvith as an 8th lv mystic ranger and yup he's now genuinely scary... at least against his favored enemies (3 crits per round via exacting shot through a +1 hunting longbow and bane arrows on humans and elves should shock the PCs) plus now he has a decent chance of hitting everyone (thank you find the gap).

He's a Wyrmlord, he should be somewhat scary.

Oh and for my group I kept Regiarix medium size. The party was small (only 3 people) when they reached Rhest so didn't bother upgrading him...Now for the next session I am expecting 5 people so yeah need to upgrade something...

Cheers and good luck with your group!

R.P.

Edit: Perhaps I should tone him down a little. He could take out the party Paladin in one round...

[AslanCross]

First of all thanks for your journal its been great! Thanks for sharing.

No problem, it's my pleasure. This Saturday we're going to have what should be the closing session for part I; after that we're going to get two more players.

Anyway, I'm currently weighing two 9th level builds: Pathfinder Ranger 6/Scout 3 and Mystic Ranger 6/Scout 3. Since both have the same number of Scout levels (I didn't really like the Scout bonus feat list, so I'll pass on that 4th level), most of my analysis centers on the ranger side of the build.

Pathfinder
Feats:
1 Mounted Combat
1B Track
2B Rapid Shot
3 Mounted Archery
3B Endurance
6 Point Blank Shot
6B Manyshot
9 Swift Hunter

Pros:
-d10 HD
-Favored Terrain
-Gets Manyshot
Cons:
-Lousy (default) spellcasting

Mystic Ranger
Feats:
1 Mounted Combat
1B Track
3 Mounted Archery
3B Rapid Shot
4B Endurance
6 Point Blank Shot
9 Swift Hunter

Pros:
-boosted spellcasting
Cons:
-d8 (default HD)
-No Manyshot

I was tempted to take a flaw but made my Will save. I find flaws really cheesy and banned them from my game; I want to keep it that way. Had I chosen to take a flaw at level 1, I'd have taken Point Blank Shot to qualify for Manyshot at level 6. It would be nice to take the 7th level of Mystic Ranger to get Manyshot, but that would mean losing out on Swift Hunter, as I wouldn't have enough scout levels to qualify.

Manyshot is pretty minor in hindsight; it only adds an average of 5 damage, so I think I can do without it. The spells that the ranger gets from SC are really good; at this rate he still gets Arrow Storm, and if the situation is right, he can actually cast it and still get Skirmish damage (apparently it is possible to make a ranged full attack from a mount even if it does a single or double move).

[AslanCross]

Since Part II is coming up, I decided to write up something about Rhest and its common history with the Ghostlord.

I posted the legend, The Death of the Lion, here.

[Coidzor]

Well, that's a nice write up. Really enjoyed reading it and it seems like a nice touch, and I could conceivably see this going over pretty well with a group that's hearing this IC....

As it stands, your choice of Sarrvith seems to be taking it as a given the party will encounter him mounted, so his type of hit dice don't quite matter as much with the addition of the cover from the mount, right?

[AslanCross]

Due to inclement weather, our session was postponed. I've been filling up the RPG void with Diablo II and rebuilding the stats for later boss monsters.

I came upon Skather. Now from the campaign journals I've read, he's pretty dangerous. Then again, the other parties haven't been using Tome of Battle. Since my party is going to have two powerful front liners (Holden the Dwarf Crusader and uh...Pickles the shifter barbarian/warblade) and a new cleric coming soon. As such, I figured Skather mind find his ninja skills are inferior to a martially-competent party's.

So what do you guys think of swapping out Skather's ninja levels for Swordsage levels? I was thinking of giving him one Ninja level just to keep Sudden Strike (or change that for a Rogue level) and then give him 5 levels of Swordsage so he gets Assassin's stance.

I wanted to keep ninja for sudden strike, poison use and great leap, but eh. I realized those come too late in the level progression.

I'd like to keep the poison use ability, because it would be pretty dumb for an assassin to accidentally poison himself, but the Swordsage is so good at being a ninja that I wouldn't want to pass up the opportunity.

[Eldariel]

Go for it; no frills, just SS 6. There's "Master of Poisons"-feat in Drow of the Underdark for Poison Use if that's what you want anyways. As a bonus, it enables applying Poison as a swift action.

If not going SS 6, I'd go Rogue 1/SS 5. The extra skillpoints are awesome. Hell, you could reasonably apply the Drow of the Underdark Rogue ACF that trades Trapfinding for Poison Use. As a note, SS doesn't have Shortbow proficiency which is another thing in this build's favor.


Heh, you could actually make him an Unarmed SS if you add the Rogue-level as he gains all the relevant proficiencies from the Rogue-level. That would enable him to TWF with a weapon and Unarmed Strikes if he gets cornered. Without that though, Mithril Chain Shirt would make for the perfect armor. No ACF and +4 AC; that'd put him at 27.

Oh yeah, and with Insightful Strike and all the strikes he gets, he'll be much more dangerous in melee than as written.


I think Wilderness Rogue actually makes the most sense. Allows you to maintain a skill list very close to the one he presently has too.