Kingmaker 4th Edition game now on YouTube

[ghaladen]

So, as you probably already know, I run a Kingmaker campaign and am recording it on my HoustonPathfinder channel. Well, I have a group of friends who I've been wanting to play some 4e with, and after singing to them the praises of Kingmaker, I decided to try out a bi-weekly KM campaign, with 4th edition mechanics. I recorded the first session, and plan on doing so for the entire campaign. And they're starting at level 5, btw (not my choice). Currently uploading said session to this playlist:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2EB047A67590A68D&feature=plcp

Anyway, this is my D&D channel, so please subscribe and comment on how I am doing. Maybe for once we can actually see two simultaneous campaigns side by side with Pathfinder and 4e, and see how they fare. Might put a stop to edition wars once and for all.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Thanks - replying now so I can find the video later.

Believe it or not, I'm planning on doing similar - my group is finishing up an adventure now, and will likely be level 7/8 when they start Kingmaker. Thanks to some good suggestions on here, I may sub spriggans for the mites, and also up the power level of some of the kobold warriors and leaders.

Did you up any of the power levels for the encounters, as Kingmaker 1 is designed for levels 1-3?

 

[ghaladen]

Yeah, it's completely scaled up. The monsters are all level 5-7 in this first session.

I told my players to discard all previous notions of what level monsters should be and what they can do in 4e, as I've modified them to be more in line with the feel of Pathfinder and Kingmaker. Some of the random monsters like the Will o' Wisp that is a random encounter in the module, which are deadly in Pathfinder, are almost a joke to a group of level 5's in 4e. Thus I'm modifying them tremendously to give them more teeth.

And I will be using mites. A: because I bought the actual pewter minis and painted them, and B: I found some 4e stat blocks on Paizo's forums.

Who knows? Maybe this could help steer Paizo into doing official 4e versions of their modules alongside their PF versions. Unlike WOTC mods, which are garbage imo, Paizo really has a knack for stories. And even if hypothetically the 4e versions outsell the PF versions, Paizo still profits.

 

[NewJeffCT]

And I will be using mites. A: because I bought the actual pewter minis and painted them, and B: I found some 4e stat blocks on Paizo's forums.

Cool - I know what you mean about using the miniatures. I'll have to look up the 4E stat blocks on the paizo forums. Would that be in the kingmaker forum?

 

[ghaladen]

Yep, I believe it was in the same forum you posted in.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/34626377

I'm in the process of entering them into the Adventure Tools so I can scale and modify them. Here's the ones I've done so far. I know they import into the offline Adventure Tools, haven't checked out the new Web one.

http://www.fallendawn.com/Kingmaker4e/StolenLandsMonsterFiles.zip

I've gotten Part 1 and 2's monsters up. Still working on getting the mites imported. Everything else besides the monster files included I use are the official 4e stuff. Hope that helps.

 

[Dannager]

I've modified them to be more in line with the feel of Pathfinder and Kingmaker. Some of the random monsters like the Will o' Wisp that is a random encounter in the module, which are deadly in Pathfinder, are almost a joke to a group of level 5's in 4e.

...really?

Will-o'-Wisps are level 10 lurkers in 4e; far from being a joke to a group of level 5 characters, an encounter featuring Will-o'-Wisps in 4e is almost certainly going to be a serious challenge. If anything, you should be modifying them to make them easier.

I have a lot of experience converting Paizo adventures to 4e, and I typically find that, more often than not, monsters from 3.5/Pathfinder line up very nicely with their 4e analogue. For instance, the Will-o'-Wisp is a CR 6 monster in Pathfinder (it is built to challenge a level 6 party). Applying the time-and-a-half rule (which accounts for the fact that 4e spreads the game out over 30 levels instead of 20), A 4e Will-o'-Wisp should be built to help challenge a 9th-level party. A level 10 monster (which the Will-o'-Wisp is in 4e) is exactly what we would expect it to be.

 

[jimmifett]

finishing the first video now, loving it.

The guy talking about Tattoo of the shared heart is wrong. Spending a second wind does cost a surge, it's also 21k in gold per owner at lvl 14.
If the party wants to spend second winds to take advantage of the tattoo after combat but before resting, fine, but it's not 'free'.

 

[NewJeffCT]

...really?

Will-o'-Wisps are level 10 lurkers in 4e; far from being a joke to a group of level 5 characters, an encounter featuring Will-o'-Wisps in 4e is almost certainly going to be a serious challenge. If anything, you should be modifying them to make them easier.

I have a lot of experience converting Paizo adventures to 4e, and I typically find that, more often than not, monsters from 3.5/Pathfinder line up very nicely with their 4e analogue. For instance, the Will-o'-Wisp is a CR 6 monster in Pathfinder (it is built to challenge a level 6 party). Applying the time-and-a-half rule (which accounts for the fact that 4e spreads the game out over 30 levels instead of 20), A 4e Will-o'-Wisp should be built to help challenge a 9th-level party. A level 10 monster (which the Will-o'-Wisp is in 4e) is exactly what we would expect it to be.

good info. By itself, though, I don't think a will-o'-wisp would challenge a level 5 4E party, even though it is level 10.

 

[Dannager]

good info. By itself, though, I don't think a will-o'-wisp would challenge a level 5 4E party, even though it is level 10.

It wouldn't, but a well-built encounter featuring a will-o'-wisp would pose a real problem to 5th-level adventurers. If you're going into this with the mindset of "Okay, the random encounter chart says 1 will-o'-wisp, so the encounter in my 4e conversion will have 1 will-o'-wisp and that's it," you're not going to have a particularly compelling adventure on your hands. You need to take those Pathfinder encounter details (1 will-o'-wisp) and port them into 4e's encounter-building paradigm.

For instance, if I were to design an encounter for 5th-level PCs featuring a will-o'-wisp, it would look like:

1 will-o'-wisp
1 wraith
1 mad wraith
1 sorrowstone
4 wraith figments

Between the will-o'-wisp's luring glow and the mad wraith's touch of chaos, there should be plenty of forced movement going around to move PCs into the triggering squares of the sorrowstone (if you want to make the sorrowstone more substantial, make its attack create wraith figments rather than wisp wraiths, and raise its level to 6 to account for this increase in power). This encounter would be thematic, dynamic, and would have a number of interesting tactical elements (to spice it up further, set it near a cliff with a 30-foot or so drop for the will-o'-wisp to lure PCs over).

 

[NewJeffCT]

It wouldn't, but a well-built encounter featuring a will-o'-wisp would pose a real problem to 5th-level adventurers. If you're going into this with the mindset of "Okay, the random encounter chart says 1 will-o'-wisp, so the encounter in my 4e conversion will have 1 will-o'-wisp and that's it," you're not going to have a particularly compelling adventure on your hands. You need to take those Pathfinder encounter details (1 will-o'-wisp) and port them into 4e's encounter-building paradigm.

For instance, if I were to design an encounter for 5th-level PCs featuring a will-o'-wisp, it would look like:

1 will-o'-wisp
1 wraith
1 mad wraith
1 sorrowstone
4 wraith figments

Between the will-o'-wisp's luring glow and the mad wraith's touch of chaos, there should be plenty of forced movement going around to move PCs into the triggering squares of the sorrowstone (if you want to make the sorrowstone more substantial, make its attack create wraith figments rather than wisp wraiths, and raise its level to 6 to account for this increase in power). This encounter would be thematic, dynamic, and would have a number of interesting tactical elements (to spice it up further, set it near a cliff with a 30-foot or so drop for the will-o'-wisp to lure PCs over).

Good encounter - I may have to use something like that. Where is the sorrowstone from, by the way?