Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
A question about Paizo/PF adventure design
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="The-Magic-Sword" data-source="post: 8140620" data-attributes="member: 6801252"><p>Apology accepted and thank you for it.</p><p></p><p>[SPOILER="More Cult of Cinders"] I can see that, and don't misunderstand, I definitely think the game's encounters can be on the hard side. In this instance you technically modified it out of how it was intended to run via encounter combination. Which is what killed your players, while I understand it was an honest mistake, I'm pushing back because it still was one. In addition to misreading the 'touches' language of the trap, it was noted that the wards on the door are designed to keep people out in the preceding text (which I'm reading for the first time, since I don't run APs, I'm not used to how they're structured.) So I'm really just saying the warning there was fair, its also cool that you missed it. Usually when I make a mistake like this, in a way that screws my players, I tend to go to the other side and make adjustments in other ways, I run on an automated VTT as well, so I know it complicates things.</p><p>[/SPOILER]</p><p></p><p>To compare, Not long ago, my party was level 17 and assaulting a massive citadel, they were 7 people (because I'm crazy, but also never doing that again) and I placed their encounter weight in Skulltakers in the room. The healer won initiative, and stepped out despite knowing most of the skulltakers had their turn right after his. He got whammied by multiple horrid wiltings, and then got finger of death'd by the following round, as did another player. I realized something was off, narrated their retreat once they declared it (faking a couple of die rolls behind my screen to ensure it worked, since I suspected they didn't deserve this TPK) and we left the encounter behind and roleplayed the resurrection sequence for the rest of the session.</p><p></p><p>I did some checking and realized the problem was that the encounter math has no way of accounting for the fact that AOE damage scales up linearly in total as you increase the number of players, and seven players brings enough +1 creatures, that can pack that AOE, they can get whammied pretty fast. Even two such creatures is a lot of damage to take in one turn, since the players can't use their numbers to soak it, the way they normally can with big boi attacks.</p><p></p><p>I kind of want to recommend to you that you step away from official modules, not because I think they're bad, but because I can see how much the idea of altering them for the party is stressing you, that your party doesn't really wanna get better to compensate, and that playing them as written is straining your sense of realism (regarding reasons some encounters wouldn't combine.)</p><p></p><p>I can report the system is a pleasure on the homebrewer side, and it would be super easy to scatter very easy encounters around that could chain, the exploration rules actually make that kind of game play better than it was when I tried it in 5e, since this game manages the passage of time better. Even barricading a door so the monsters can't get through ala Moria from the LOTR movies, can be useful for the sake of buying the party the 10 minutes they need to refocus and such. If you want advice on automating this game, I can provide that as well-- I run way low prep because my depression and anxiety often get in the way, so speed is my middle name.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The-Magic-Sword, post: 8140620, member: 6801252"] Apology accepted and thank you for it. [SPOILER="More Cult of Cinders"] I can see that, and don't misunderstand, I definitely think the game's encounters can be on the hard side. In this instance you technically modified it out of how it was intended to run via encounter combination. Which is what killed your players, while I understand it was an honest mistake, I'm pushing back because it still was one. In addition to misreading the 'touches' language of the trap, it was noted that the wards on the door are designed to keep people out in the preceding text (which I'm reading for the first time, since I don't run APs, I'm not used to how they're structured.) So I'm really just saying the warning there was fair, its also cool that you missed it. Usually when I make a mistake like this, in a way that screws my players, I tend to go to the other side and make adjustments in other ways, I run on an automated VTT as well, so I know it complicates things. [/SPOILER] To compare, Not long ago, my party was level 17 and assaulting a massive citadel, they were 7 people (because I'm crazy, but also never doing that again) and I placed their encounter weight in Skulltakers in the room. The healer won initiative, and stepped out despite knowing most of the skulltakers had their turn right after his. He got whammied by multiple horrid wiltings, and then got finger of death'd by the following round, as did another player. I realized something was off, narrated their retreat once they declared it (faking a couple of die rolls behind my screen to ensure it worked, since I suspected they didn't deserve this TPK) and we left the encounter behind and roleplayed the resurrection sequence for the rest of the session. I did some checking and realized the problem was that the encounter math has no way of accounting for the fact that AOE damage scales up linearly in total as you increase the number of players, and seven players brings enough +1 creatures, that can pack that AOE, they can get whammied pretty fast. Even two such creatures is a lot of damage to take in one turn, since the players can't use their numbers to soak it, the way they normally can with big boi attacks. I kind of want to recommend to you that you step away from official modules, not because I think they're bad, but because I can see how much the idea of altering them for the party is stressing you, that your party doesn't really wanna get better to compensate, and that playing them as written is straining your sense of realism (regarding reasons some encounters wouldn't combine.) I can report the system is a pleasure on the homebrewer side, and it would be super easy to scatter very easy encounters around that could chain, the exploration rules actually make that kind of game play better than it was when I tried it in 5e, since this game manages the passage of time better. Even barricading a door so the monsters can't get through ala Moria from the LOTR movies, can be useful for the sake of buying the party the 10 minutes they need to refocus and such. If you want advice on automating this game, I can provide that as well-- I run way low prep because my depression and anxiety often get in the way, so speed is my middle name. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
A question about Paizo/PF adventure design
Top