Pathfinder 1E Pathfinder 3: The Hook Mountain Massacre

[Wik]

ANYway, if you haven't thrown some wimpy foes at your PCs, you should try it out some time. If the PCs come out of the battle feeling heroic and proud and tough, and if the players seem to have had a good time of it, isn't that good for the game?

I can second that. In my current campaign, we started off with a very easy fight, letting the PCs try out some of their "neat moves". Actually, today's session was more of the same - the PCs were able to do fairly well in a fight that could have been very difficult, and they were excited the whole time.

When the group ran into the Stone Golem, Invisible Gargoyles, and house Deneith Guards -while they knew they were in trouble, they at least remembered that, earlier in the day, they had been kicking butt.

 

[Nlogue]

I also wanna second (third?) James here:

The mook fight is awesome. I call it the feel-good encounter. Let the PCs really FEEL their power every now and again. Makes them really love the game, and makes it all that much more dramatic when a BBEG gives em a run for their money later.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I am still waiting for Amazon to get me my issue of Pathfinder #2. Pathfinder #1 was definitely good, and this makes #3 sound right up my alley....

The Auld Grump

 

[sckeener]

Congratulations! I've recently hit 16 years with that condition myself.
As for the multitasking, wait until kids come along........heh, heh..........

The pile of unread "will use in the next session or two" game books in my bathroom laughs at me now. Darn kid!

Congratulations!!!!!!!! I just got married six months ago and I can tell you there is nothing finer than married life!!! Kudos on your upcoming nuptials!!! YEA!

Thanks everyone. 14 days left of single life for me.

My fiancé, a gamer, already has two kids (7 & 4), so I've already been exposed to multitasking with short attention span/fickle kids. I can't wait though to start gaming with them. Admittedly I will probably start them off with something other than Pathfinder

The revelation of where the family kept their ... female member ... still creeps me out. "Home" was easily the scariest X-Files episode. Heck, Fox wouldn't rerun it for years, in fact.

I must be weird. That episode was enjoyable and not in the least scary. Heck I've modeled some of my Vampire Ghouls (WW) after that family. The whole Southern aggression bit was wonderful in the episode. At the time I immediately started picturing a ghoul family mostly isolated since the civil war.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

This has been stated somewhere before, but I couldn't tell you where. The NPCs for Pathfinder were created with a "what makes sense" mentallity rather than mechanical optimization. Meaning, their backgrounds and roles in the adventures are the key to their design, not making them all bruisers optimized for a fight, necessarily. Note: this doesn't extend to ALL NPCs like a blanket statement. Obviously, the big baddies should indeed be optimally designed.

Still though, someone out hunting should be wearing some armor (and using a shield strapped to his gimpy arm). Ogres in the MM wear armor, I'm not sure why these guys have such an aversion to it. Slapping some studded leather on fighters isnt the same as pouring over every splat book trying to build the perfect killing machine. Though I guess it is grosser to fight a mutie in a loincloth.

I haven't combed the stats on the fight encounters enough to weigh in on whether or not they're up to snuff. However, I've heard complaints that the quasit in Burnt Offerings was nigh impossible to defeat

The quasit was a royal pain. My wife's crusader managed to grapple and pin it while the rest of the party dumped holy water on her. That fight took forever.

But the point is, again, most of the NPCs are designed the way they are intentionally with story in mind.

Perhaps consider adjusting their wealth and CR then? For example, Warduke in his critical threat presentation was bumped up a notch or two due to his superior items and grafts.

And as I've said before, the first three adventures have been incredibly flavorful and are IMO about the peak of 3.5 adventure writing. I'm really looking forward to the rest... I dont want you guys to think my group and I are not enjoying your adventures.

 

[+5 Keyboard!]

Perhaps consider adjusting their wealth and CR then? For example, Warduke in his critical threat presentation was bumped up a notch or two due to his superior items and grafts.

I agree with this. In fact in Gallery of Evil, I adjusted two of the baddies down for exactly the reason you suggest. They were extremely underequipped (with a good reason) so I adjusted their CRs down.

For the ogre-kin hunter, I think I would just give him max hit points to ensure that despite his low AC he's tough enough to hang in there for a few rounds in a fight and maintain the CR assigned to him.

Your point is well taken, though, and again, I agree.