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(Spoilers) My experience with Reavers of Harkenwold - Updated
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<blockquote data-quote="Nemesis Destiny" data-source="post: 5737414" data-attributes="member: 98255"><p><strong>Encounter B4 - Nazin who?</strong></p><p></p><p>I saw the signs pretty early - the characters were not going to give a crap about this Redthorn fellow, and he was going to be a pushover like most of the others. The module tries to script him getting away. With my players more convinced than ever that "nobody gets away!" that was going to be a tall order to fill, even if he saved his action point for it.</p><p></p><p>Good thing the module is insightful enough to realize that Nazin getting killed in this fight is a very real possibility, or in my case, probability. So it offers some good advice on the matter. In a way, it was fortunate that I hadn't really built him up much for the players, because his being disposable was not much of an issue, and it allowed me room to introduce another, more memorable NPC in the K-series of encounters (a repurposed Tyranda Falkon).</p><p></p><p>Still, I wanted to make this fight as good as I could, and as satisfying a victory as possible under the circumstances. I made Nazin a bit tougher, and better able (theoretically) to deal with the annoying ability of the hunter in the group to strike at range with impunity and then skulk for cover to hide. To do this, I replaced his Tripping Flail with the warlord-like ability to grant attacks to his allies, specifically as an immediate reaction to getting hit by a ranged attack, so it would kick in before the cheeky hunter could shift for cover. I gave him a separate power similar in intent to Tripping Flail that was a free action to deal with melee opponents, though it did no damage. I made a few other tweaks as well that were designed to enhance his minions.</p><p></p><p> Sorry about the colossal stat block; I included some background information from the module booklet. I was using <a href="http://power2ool.com" target="_blank">power2ool</a> to run the game, so this allowed me to mostly ignore the booklet and just use my netbook as a DM screen.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/327/3/a/redhorn_by_nemesisdestiny-d4h3zsy.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="http://sta.sh/0kidqjrg1ug" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="http://worldofmyrth.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/redhorn1.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>I also toughened the minions, making them into what I call Elite minions, which typically take two hits to drop and are worth double XP. Redthorn's Infernal Flames also benefited these minions quite a bit. As noted in the original post, I renamed the Iron Circle, which is why these are called Red Legion Varangians. I also really liked the word 'varangian' and all it represented. </p><p></p><p><img src="http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/327/3/f/varangians_by_nemesisdestiny-d4h40dc.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="http://worldofmyrth.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/varangians1.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>My concept for these guys is that they were some of the huscarls for the former jarl (Baron Stockmer to you), who had decided to side with the enemy and swear allegiance to him/them. Varangian loosely translates as 'oath-taker,' and does not necessarily mean that they must be the personal household guard of the Holy Roman Emperor, though that is its historical context.</p><p></p><p>I also decided to give Redthorn the baron's ancestral weapon, just to piss off the characters who cared about him. In the original post I mentioned that I was inspired in part by an article from Dragon 375 about the town and ruler of Graefmotte, a cursed citadel in the Shadowfell. I ganked, then modified this item from there. I use inherent bonuses with a twist, and this item reflects that. With my modification, it doesn't matter that it's a +3 weapon dropping during a level 5 or 6 encounter.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/327/5/0/graefling_by_nemesisdestiny-d4h41fe.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>It didn't help him one bit.</p><p></p><p>The encounter started off with the PCs a little scared, but this quickly changed. They gained the advantage on round 2, once the sorcerer went nova. After the drubbing he got in the last fight, he figured out the whole 'nova' concept (with everyone else helping him), and used it to good effect in this fight.</p><p></p><p>To represent the fact that they were coming at him from both sides, I had them get him in a pincer attack, which actually served to make the first round scarier, since the PCs were relatively isolated, but once the Tar Devlis dropped, things stopped being scary in the slightest. My Varangians were pretty effective, but most of them were too far from Redthorn and so could not benefit from Infernal Flames. They also died too quickly, for the most part, to be of much help.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nemesis Destiny, post: 5737414, member: 98255"] [b]Encounter B4 - Nazin who?[/b] I saw the signs pretty early - the characters were not going to give a crap about this Redthorn fellow, and he was going to be a pushover like most of the others. The module tries to script him getting away. With my players more convinced than ever that "nobody gets away!" that was going to be a tall order to fill, even if he saved his action point for it. Good thing the module is insightful enough to realize that Nazin getting killed in this fight is a very real possibility, or in my case, probability. So it offers some good advice on the matter. In a way, it was fortunate that I hadn't really built him up much for the players, because his being disposable was not much of an issue, and it allowed me room to introduce another, more memorable NPC in the K-series of encounters (a repurposed Tyranda Falkon). Still, I wanted to make this fight as good as I could, and as satisfying a victory as possible under the circumstances. I made Nazin a bit tougher, and better able (theoretically) to deal with the annoying ability of the hunter in the group to strike at range with impunity and then skulk for cover to hide. To do this, I replaced his Tripping Flail with the warlord-like ability to grant attacks to his allies, specifically as an immediate reaction to getting hit by a ranged attack, so it would kick in before the cheeky hunter could shift for cover. I gave him a separate power similar in intent to Tripping Flail that was a free action to deal with melee opponents, though it did no damage. I made a few other tweaks as well that were designed to enhance his minions. Sorry about the colossal stat block; I included some background information from the module booklet. I was using [URL="http://power2ool.com"]power2ool[/URL] to run the game, so this allowed me to mostly ignore the booklet and just use my netbook as a DM screen. [IMG]http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/327/3/a/redhorn_by_nemesisdestiny-d4h3zsy.png[/IMG][IMG]http://sta.sh/0kidqjrg1ug[/IMG][IMG]http://worldofmyrth.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/redhorn1.png[/IMG] I also toughened the minions, making them into what I call Elite minions, which typically take two hits to drop and are worth double XP. Redthorn's Infernal Flames also benefited these minions quite a bit. As noted in the original post, I renamed the Iron Circle, which is why these are called Red Legion Varangians. I also really liked the word 'varangian' and all it represented. [IMG]http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/327/3/f/varangians_by_nemesisdestiny-d4h40dc.png[/IMG][IMG]http://worldofmyrth.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/varangians1.png[/IMG] My concept for these guys is that they were some of the huscarls for the former jarl (Baron Stockmer to you), who had decided to side with the enemy and swear allegiance to him/them. Varangian loosely translates as 'oath-taker,' and does not necessarily mean that they must be the personal household guard of the Holy Roman Emperor, though that is its historical context. I also decided to give Redthorn the baron's ancestral weapon, just to piss off the characters who cared about him. In the original post I mentioned that I was inspired in part by an article from Dragon 375 about the town and ruler of Graefmotte, a cursed citadel in the Shadowfell. I ganked, then modified this item from there. I use inherent bonuses with a twist, and this item reflects that. With my modification, it doesn't matter that it's a +3 weapon dropping during a level 5 or 6 encounter. [IMG]http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/327/5/0/graefling_by_nemesisdestiny-d4h41fe.png[/IMG] It didn't help him one bit. The encounter started off with the PCs a little scared, but this quickly changed. They gained the advantage on round 2, once the sorcerer went nova. After the drubbing he got in the last fight, he figured out the whole 'nova' concept (with everyone else helping him), and used it to good effect in this fight. To represent the fact that they were coming at him from both sides, I had them get him in a pincer attack, which actually served to make the first round scarier, since the PCs were relatively isolated, but once the Tar Devlis dropped, things stopped being scary in the slightest. My Varangians were pretty effective, but most of them were too far from Redthorn and so could not benefit from Infernal Flames. They also died too quickly, for the most part, to be of much help. [/QUOTE]
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