Pathfinder 1E Advice for way of the wicked?

[Fooly_Cooly]

I dont really feel the cardinal will care too much about the squire. The mist would stay where it was anyway being of no real use to you unless your DM somehow allows it to follow you. Witch even then I doubt it would ever be very useful and probably wouldnt die for you. Learn some disguise spells yourself? Thats about it. There are certain parts of the games where disguises are either necessary or extremely useful.

 

[gdmcbride]

Jables1987,

Greetings. Its very difficult to say how your particular GM is interpreting the adventure (and all game mastering is an interpretive art), so that makes its difficult to conjecture too much since I don't know this person at all.

However, in general, I would say that talking to monsters and gaining allies can't be a bad thing. Who knows what interesting facts you may learn?

It also seems unlikely to me that the "good" cardinal will care too much about the fate of young Timeon one way or another.

As far as not wearing the circlet... Are you saying that dear Adrastus may not have your best interest in mind with his every action? Such slanderous rumors will get you nowhere sir. Nowhere at all.

Anyways, remember to always relax and enjoy your villainous moments of triumph. You have only just begun to walk the Way of the Wicked.

Gary McBride
The Throne of Night kickstarter has begun! Will you be a noble dwarven explorer or villainous drow overlord?

 

[Jables1987]

Heh, the Cardinal not having my best interests at heart? Perish the thought.

That being said, I think the vampiric mist could make a useful ally, especially since in a party of six, we're behind the curve on experience (a fact that, upon realizing it, I admittedly felt a good deal of irritation at my DM, who insisted we needed six people because it's a difficult campaign)... at least for a little while. I think the thing that bothers me the most about it is how dogmatic the antipaladin has gotten down here in the trials. Playing a wizard, and an illusionist at that, it's... trying, to say the least.

 

[amethal]

Heh, the Cardinal not having my best interests at heart? Perish the thought.

That being said, I think the vampiric mist could make a useful ally, especially since in a party of six, we're behind the curve on experience (a fact that, upon realizing it, I admittedly felt a good deal of irritation at my DM, who insisted we needed six people because it's a difficult campaign)... at least for a little while. I think the thing that bothers me the most about it is how dogmatic the antipaladin has gotten down here in the trials. Playing a wizard, and an illusionist at that, it's... trying, to say the least.

I'm envious that you are getting a chance to play in this campaign. Hopefully I'll be able to run it for my group at some point, but I think it would be even more fun as a player.

It is kind of challenging making sure your boss doesn't get you killed, making sure the less-than-brilliant intelligence of some of your party members doesn't get you killed, and making sure the fanatical opposition of an island full of knights and clerics of the sun god doesn't get you killed. But hey, nobody said being evil was going to be easy!

I suggest you talk to your GM about maybe being behind the XP curve. There are some options given in the adventure path for side quests to bump up experience, so he could easily run some of those from time to time. There will also be plenty more opportunities to recruit minions; this campaign takes minions very seriously.

 

[Jables1987]

Once we get to where we have a little more freedom to move around (i.e. not stuck in these damnable trials; we spent two hours fighting the mithral cobras last week. Two. Hours.), I'll do just that, sir. I don't know how well it's going to be received, sadly. The DM's been practically adamant that this was not an easy campaign. Think he's said it every session, actually. I'm not sure if he's forcing the issue of difficulty (he's also said that he's not the kind of DM to leave adventures exactly as they are, and says he tends to make minor changes to make things more exciting, etc.) by adhering to us being a level behind, or... what... but I'll definitely ask him about some side quests.

 

[Mr.E_Danger]

My group of PCs is now in the middle of book 2...

Spoiler

PC's found the Horn of Abbadon and proceeded to fight everything. The frogmen in the caverns were squished, the twin demons were defeated (but came back a month later, to be defeated again), and they did battle with Ezra Thrice-Damned but let him live in exchange for information about the Pale Horsemen and Vetra Kali.

The PCs hired some workers and craftsmen from Farholde and took them back to the Horn, started the ritual, and we are now on Week Five. The first group of adventurers to attack the horn were met with three or more fireballs, so there was little in the way of fighting at first, until Jurak and some animated trees showed up. At the end all that was left was crispy bodies, one NPC still alive for torturing, and a whole lot of firewood.

They seem to be having a good time, and have taken to moving walls and what not within the horn. One thing they did end up doing, that i was hoping they would not do is seal some of the entrances. The AP has some good suggestions with dealing with "bunkering" but in the end i think i'd just do what the PCs would do when met with a sealed up door... blow it up.

AP is going well thus far and I think they'll like book 3 even more than book 2.

 

[Twak]

I am starting this campaign for my players in a couple of weeks and was hoping for some advice on Undead PCs and how to apply the Liche/Vampire templates to characters who achieve them.

On meeting the requirements the template just gets throw onto their existing characters?

I’m fine withall the special powers/abilities etc, but are the stat-boosts to be added aswell? The Liche stat-boosts are not too bad, but the vampire ones arecrazy-good (Str+6, Dex+4, Int+2, Wis+2, Cha+4.).
Has anyonehad any experience with this, does it not overpower the character and leave thenon-Vampires/Liches feeling like lackeys to the main “big-bad”?

On a relatednote I have a couple of “planners” in my group who want to play their character’sprogression from lvl 1 to lvl 20 with all the feats/multi-classes along theway. Since the Liche and especially Vampire have feat requirements they want toinclude these in their planned progression, however in-game the trigger-eventsto start the characters on their path to transformation to Vamp/Liche areunlikely to occur at the levels where the players are planning to purchase thefeats. Does anyone know if it’s ok to save feat-slots and not spend them untila later level (ie after you’ve been bitten by a Vampire), does anyone foreseeany problems if the wanna-be Vamp gets bitten and then spends 3 feat-slotsstraight away to progress their change?
Thanks forthe advice people, give me your wisdom!

Twak

 

[Drathir]

Well Twak the vampire stat boost isn't that bad firstly. Just take a look at all those "weaknesses, can't enter a "private dwelling without permission" and there are quite a few places that they have to enter these private dwellings, can't go out in sunlight (although a magic item allows it) garlic and holy symbol aversion and so much more. Also are you talking about the feats in book 5? Because there are five of them for vampire and reserving feats would be just like gaining the template (or a large portion of it) as soon as you would normally get it, I didn't even bother... finding a vampire who's willing to turn you is easy but you need to complete a trial for him and well my party had to spend hero points to figure it out cuz nobody took notes... and I'm a dick. Also there are a fair amount of Paladins in the campaign that can wreck vampires and liches, and i do mean wreck. I'm in book 4 with my group, currently on stand still cuz one guy took the evil contract feat from a book... and then died... so yeah he's making a guy but we had a few other campigns we were playing so thats all good. Anyway one of my players is a Dragon Blood Sorcerer Vampire and while he is definately dangerous whenever a Pally pops up he begins doing everything in his power to avoid and kill it... and since I'm a dick and know paladin's killing it is hard. And our wizard (the guy that just died) was fine with it, hell he only died because he was a crafter and decided to skip a day of pillaging... and as i said I'm a dick (he forgot he had "Hero" points and didn't alter the scene to have the vampire near by when he got ambushed, they were close but not close enough with the -20 perception check for sleep). So it comes down to you really, and ask the party if they're ok with a vamp and or lich.

Just be warned the lich's paralyzing touch is extremely dangerous if they have the right stats i mean come on touch attack to PERMANENTLY paralyze an enemy, also technically the fear aura never turns off... but you could probably supress it like you can SR or an illusion, i think they cover these in the books. Ummm i think i covered everything truly important... sorry about the text block. So to sumarize book 4 haven't noticed any problems and truthfully they need the boost for the very last encounter to really have a chance of being completed... mind you either way its one of the most epic fights i have ever looked at and a great place to fail but still 20 levels of plotting scheming etc only to end in failure sucks, its a good suck but TPKs are always unpleasant.

So if you have anymore questions or want me to clarify go ahead and I'll take a whack at them, also if you have the planners you can always be nice and say they've already been bitten at level one... and can therefore take the feats from the get go (and with level 9 final feat requirement that's not too much of an issue). Also if you're worried cuz we're only in book four i've done some tests at these levels they don't change much, also if you have a fighter and he dies violently after complaining point out that Grave Knights are the same strength and are generally created from such events our Paladin of tyranny is actually getting a little suicidal since he pointed it out and i told him it was a possibility. ugh i hate it when my brain starts remembering things after i decided i was done... thats what happens when you take the time to proof read and what not i guess.

 

[Mr.E_Danger]

I have never added a template before and the one page dealing with Monster PCs on d20 didn't seem all that helpful. Book three and Book four of Way of the Wicked does discuss PC's gaining those templates. Book four has the mechanics of it, and they have a lot of feat suggestions and what not. In fact, they suggest the PC take five feats in total to gain the full Vampire Template. The book does not however cover how to make things balanced within the party, nor does it give any suggestions on how to balance out the improved stats and abilities of the Lich.

If it were me, and i may very well be dealing with this in the future, I would take it in stages. So a PC says they want to be a vampire or lich, and they have encountered someone to either bite them or give them the information to start the process, great. Obviously neither of these changes occur over night, especially the Lich which requires a lot more prep and magic. I'd say the next time the group levels up, they can choose to gain a level in their current class, or take a "level" in that template. Looking at the Vampire template, perhaps give them half of their abilities and half the stat boost. So they immediately gain the weaknesses, but not all the strengths. For the stats, half, +3 to Str, +2 dex, +1 int/wis, and +2 cha. They get a bunch of bonus feats too, wow. Yeah, maybe not give them all of them right off the bat.

Point is, especially with the vampire, don't give them everything they want immediately. If they want to plan it out, there are feats listed in book four.

edit spelling

 

[Ashbright]

word on Wotw

Hi All

This Adventure path is hands down the most interesting
and engaging I've played.

Playing a 5 man party and our Gm is really giving us a
good mix of role-play and combat.

Can't wait to start Book 5

Only advice I'd give to any wishing to create characters is
play to your strengths don"t play stupid or you'll die "luck
benefits the prepared!"[ mind creating characters is fun]

Gary McBride thank you! been along time since a game has totally
made me grin and smile like a little boy at the evil genius you"ve
supplied us with!

Cheers Ash!!