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3.5 high level woes and Paizo's hand in it.
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<blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 4703673" data-attributes="member: 63"><p>For the later adventures in the War of the Burning Sky campaign saga, I tried my best to keep things easy to run. Stat blocks for spellcasting villains included "buff suites" so that it was easy to see what their adjusted stats would be if they had a chance to buff themselves vs. if the PCs caught them by surprise. I polished off the hard edges of a few high-level outsiders, both to make them unique individuals, and to make them easier to run. </p><p></p><p>Eventually, I clued into making a new creature sub-type, "Unit," which was like a swarm, but for large (25-person) military units. Dealing with four units in a combat is a heck of a lot easier than having 100 individual warriors on a battlefield.</p><p></p><p>I won't deny, the main villains of the final 6 adventures are all pretty complex foes. I also think they're pretty cool, with interesting set-piece encounters to make them stand out from your typical "fight a dude in a room" combats that left me disappointed with the Savage Tide, no offense to Paizo. When the final fight of a whole campaign, against [spoiler]the demon lord Demogorgon[/spoiler] takes place in such a dramatic location as [spoiler]a house on a lake[/spoiler], I think you're kinda missing out on the potential of high-level gameplay.</p><p></p><p>For Burning Sky, we had:</p><p></p><p>Adventure 7 - Ari Marmell wrote this amazing Predator-esque forest battle with a shadowdancer who uses hit and run tactics, ambushes, and huge traps (like using his pet shadow to trick you into going into a field of poisonous flowers, where ghouls hide in the pollen mist). The fight takes you across a half dozen locations as the party tries to outwit an enemy on his home turf.</p><p></p><p>Adventure 8 - In a magical research facility, your goal is more to wreck the enemy's experiment than to just kill the main villain. The sorcerer running the experiment is safe behind a wall of force, and you've got to survive his minions and break key components of an eldritch machine to get to him. Author Jeremy Anderson was inspired by some of the best elements of WoW raid bosses.</p><p></p><p>Adventure 9 - You have to stab the heart of a 90-ft. tall animated colossus. Yes, God of War II did it first, but if you're going to steal, steal from the best.</p><p></p><p>Adventure 10 - The villain has the metaphysical keys necessary to unlock an imprisoned ally, but you fight her in a Labyrinth-esque mansion that follows irrational logic.</p><p></p><p>Adventure 11 - You take an army onto a mile-long living airship. </p><p></p><p>Adventure 12 - I'm not sure if anyone noticed this, but the vast cavern where you encounter the final villain is a small scale replica of the map of the entire region where the campaign takes place. The combat has a minor objective in each of the nations you've traveled to so far.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RangerWickett, post: 4703673, member: 63"] For the later adventures in the War of the Burning Sky campaign saga, I tried my best to keep things easy to run. Stat blocks for spellcasting villains included "buff suites" so that it was easy to see what their adjusted stats would be if they had a chance to buff themselves vs. if the PCs caught them by surprise. I polished off the hard edges of a few high-level outsiders, both to make them unique individuals, and to make them easier to run. Eventually, I clued into making a new creature sub-type, "Unit," which was like a swarm, but for large (25-person) military units. Dealing with four units in a combat is a heck of a lot easier than having 100 individual warriors on a battlefield. I won't deny, the main villains of the final 6 adventures are all pretty complex foes. I also think they're pretty cool, with interesting set-piece encounters to make them stand out from your typical "fight a dude in a room" combats that left me disappointed with the Savage Tide, no offense to Paizo. When the final fight of a whole campaign, against [spoiler]the demon lord Demogorgon[/spoiler] takes place in such a dramatic location as [spoiler]a house on a lake[/spoiler], I think you're kinda missing out on the potential of high-level gameplay. For Burning Sky, we had: Adventure 7 - Ari Marmell wrote this amazing Predator-esque forest battle with a shadowdancer who uses hit and run tactics, ambushes, and huge traps (like using his pet shadow to trick you into going into a field of poisonous flowers, where ghouls hide in the pollen mist). The fight takes you across a half dozen locations as the party tries to outwit an enemy on his home turf. Adventure 8 - In a magical research facility, your goal is more to wreck the enemy's experiment than to just kill the main villain. The sorcerer running the experiment is safe behind a wall of force, and you've got to survive his minions and break key components of an eldritch machine to get to him. Author Jeremy Anderson was inspired by some of the best elements of WoW raid bosses. Adventure 9 - You have to stab the heart of a 90-ft. tall animated colossus. Yes, God of War II did it first, but if you're going to steal, steal from the best. Adventure 10 - The villain has the metaphysical keys necessary to unlock an imprisoned ally, but you fight her in a Labyrinth-esque mansion that follows irrational logic. Adventure 11 - You take an army onto a mile-long living airship. Adventure 12 - I'm not sure if anyone noticed this, but the vast cavern where you encounter the final villain is a small scale replica of the map of the entire region where the campaign takes place. The combat has a minor objective in each of the nations you've traveled to so far. [/QUOTE]
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