Tome RotR

[Avoraciopoctules]

As I mentioned in the Pathfinder thread, I'm thinking about trying a modified version of the Rise of the Runelords campaign. I'm converting a lot of stuff to Tome rules and making the PCs agents of an imperialistic hobgoblin city-state ruled by a dragon. Their job is to do heroic stuff in their nation's name to hopefully make it look better and maybe increase the chances of a peaceful annexation of the territories they are in later on. If nothing else, they will get some intelligence on the terrain and cities they pass through.

I will run the first module in around 2 hours. So far, I have made the town slightly less infuriatingly incompetent, removed the encounter where a women attempts to seduce one of the PCs by asking for help with the rats in her cellars, and turned the goblin invaders into Tome Warriors and Adepts.

PCs are two Fire Mage / Monks with 14 in every stat (giving them the option of retraining to a 16 and a 12 at level 3) who will stay a level ahead of what the module expects of the 4 person iconic party. Plus whatever NPC allies they recruit. I will make it possible for them to whip up a militia of 20 or so human Warrior 1s with longspears if they play their cards right.


I converted the 3 basic goblin types in the sblock below
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Grunt (Goblin Warrior 1)

Ability Scores:

STR: 12
DEX: 12
CON: 12
INT: 8
WIS: 8
CHA: 8

Attacks:

Small Chopper (Longsword, no criticals)
Attack: +3 (1 BAB + 1 Str + 1 Replaceable) [+5 if Elite near]
Damage: 1d6+1

Torch/Tongs with heated glass
Attack: +3 Touch (1 BAB + 1 Dex + 1 Replaceable) [+5 if Elite near]
Damage: 1d4 Fire + 1 per round for a minute (stackable) or until extinguished

HP: 5 (1d8+1)

AC: 12 (10 Base + 1 Dex + 1 Armor)

Saves:
Fortitude: +1 (0 base + 1 Con)
Reflex: +1 (0 base + 1 Dex)
Will: +1 (2 base - 1 Wis)

Skills:
Stealth: +9
Perception: +0

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Goblin Elite (Warrior 4) riding Worg

Ability Scores:

STR: 12
DEX: 14
CON: 12
INT: 10
WIS: 12
CHA: 12

Attacks:

Small Masterwork Barbed Lance
Attack: +8 (4 BAB + 1 Str + 2 Replaceable + 1 Masterwork)
Damage: 1d6 + poison

Javelin
Attack: +8 (4 BAB + 2 Dex + 2 Replaceable)
Damage: 1d4 + poison


HP: 30 (4d8 + 4 + Loyal to Death)

AC: 19 (10 Base + 2 Dex + 5 Armor + 2 Shield)

Saves:
Fortitude: +2 (1 base + 1 Con)
Reflex: +3 (1 base + 2 Dex)
Will: +5 (4 base + 1 Wis)

Special Abilities:

Rank: All grunts nearby get +2 Morale to hit

Skills:
Stealth: +12
Perception: +8

=============================================================================

Goblin Shaman (Adept 4)

Ability Scores:

STR: 10
DEX: 12
CON: 12
INT: 10
WIS: 12
CHA: 12

Attacks:

Fire Blast
1d8+2 and set on fire, make a save of your choice (DC 13) for half damage and no rider effect

Life Blast
Heals 1d8+2 to a target. Gives them 2 temporary hit points that last until next use of Life Blast


HP: 20 (4d8+4)

AC: 14 (10 Base + 1 Dex + 1 Armor)

Saves:
Fortitude: +4 (1 base + 1 Con + 2 Defensive Magic)
Reflex: +4 (1 base + 1 Dex + 2 Defensive Magic)
Will: +7 (4 base + 1 Wis + 2 Defensive Magic)

Special Abilities:

Defensive Magic: All allies within 10 feet get +2 to saves and AC


Skills:
Stealth: +10
Perception: +8

[Avoraciopoctules]

Note for self:
The Empire is actually a city-state
A hobgoblin Khanate, taken over by the Dragon Emperor (who is a dragon exactly as powerful as a typical archmage that woke up when his Sleep of Ten Thousand Years was interrupted by the disruption of the prophecies) several hobgoblin generations ago.
Take the Tau, Rokugan, and RoW hobgoblin nation and mash them together. Dragon Emperor claimed the Khanate were the descendants of his servants and took over, attempted to restructure the government.
Entrance to a "caste" is by examination. Everyone starts Casteless. Slaves have significant legal rights, and you can be promoted to free or demoted to slave based on achievement.
"Honor" system is going to be used for lots of jokes. If someone is insulted by someone else acting wrong, duels may be justified.
Lots of volcanic glass and wood, little metal.
Everyone part of a Caste has at least one level in Monk.

Secondary note:
Lots of full retraining if a PC goes from one rank to another
Samurai are minimum character level 5 to become, partially because they use mercurial (x4 crit) swords, partially because even the lowest are higher ranking than beginning PC Fire Warriors

EDIT:

Casteless:
Warriors

Fire Caste:
Fire Mages
Fighters
Samurai

Water Caste:
Beguilers
Summoners
Assassins

Earth Caste:
Artificers
Constructs

Air Caste:



Ethereal Caste:
Incarnum classes
Necromancers

[Avoraciopoctules]

This module hurts. I assumed the town militia were competent. This turned the module's challenges into a joke. Half the encounters were solved offscreen by level 2 Warriors with clubs and padded armor.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Module ended with the party burning down the dungeon the antagonists were based in, as well as much of the surrounding forest. The enemies were killed in a hail of crossbow bolts from the guards.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Given that I made a big mistake by assuming that the starting city has a large and competent militia, things are changing significantly. I've found a way to recycle the dungeon from the first module, and also am producing a longer-term quest I have yet to connect with the rest of the setting.

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Question: is there anything mechanical keeping assassins from using Death Attack as their initial strike in an iajutsu duel? Since I'm seriously considering just using that instead of rewriting the Iajutsu Master class.

[Judging__Eagle]

I think that a setting has different powers for its creatures, depending on what sort of setting you assume that the game takes place in.

For people at the 'bottom', that really helps determine what sort of society you're running.



Really, for a Japanese shogunate type culture, where people can eat enough, but can sometimes starve, and don't usually rebel, then making Casteless, racial HD only is probably the most reasonable thing to do. Yeah, Humanoid levels, for a 'commoner'/'slave', and they're the bulk of the population. The BaB, and NPC 'class'.

Commoners in a medieval setting are the norm, really, 10's across the board doesn't really make a person, they're sort of boring across the board, but that's seriously what your peasants are like.

If it's Disney Psuedo-Europe, they're all Celestial Anthropomorphic Dogs, like Shaggy, or Goofy. There's a bunch of good outsiders that protect mortals from evil NPCs, or Fiends, or just downright shitty situations. They're usually called Fairy Godmothers, Fairies, or Good Witches, sometimes Wizards, or something. Regular humans are seriously celestials of some kind in a Disney setting, and can cast spells that can do beneficial things.

If it's European fiction pseudo-europe, then they're all humans, with neutral alignments, and they're willing to take opportunities to rebel/fight if they can see it as a way to get better. Civil wars happened all over the place in Europe and Asia. Really, it's a matter of stuff like food supply, and ability to survive.

If it's say... war-footing Europe, then people will seriously be afraid of armed people, thinking that they're enemy soldiers, or bandits, or deserters, etc.

The setting really will determine what the people act like, and are like.

But really, the people at the bottom are spending all of their time farming, and making the checks aren't easy year round, what with winter. Their stats never go higher than 10's.

To be warrior, you need to be fed a bit more, and even then, not necessarily. Slave armies can be large, but their individual members can get slaughtered by 5th level Spartan Warriors, who are only CR 2 1/2.

Seriously, the 'elite' armies of the day are guys in NPC classes. Only adventurers, heroes, are actually people with PC classes.

At least, that's assuming a 'real world' sort of setting. If monsters come into towns on a regular basis, then towns that survive are fortified, and have adventurers that live inside of them, to deal with the biggest threats around.

So, you see lvl 2-4 PCs in places with Ogres, 6-8 in places with Trolls, and so and and so forth.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Casteless are actually a tiny minority at the moment. This empire is currently in the very beginning phases, and there's quite a bit of opportunity for social climbing right now. Agriculture is generally taken care of by Earth Caste mages. The closest thing to noble families are ones where most of the members succeeded in becoming reasonably hardcore PC types and they feel inclined to manipulate things to keep them that way. But these families have been around for at most a few generations. The old nobility is mostly dead from old age now.

As for average level, there is seriously a giant plothax dragon pressuring it's city-state to produce as many hardcore adventurers as possible so it can get on with conquering the world. Until the Empire expands to the point that it starts needing to have slave farmers working under the earth mages, anything less than a level 3-4 Adept/Warrior is unlikely.

EDIT:
This is like when the Level 17 PC Wizard decides he wants to make his own nation, and make own based on his own ideals potentially at odds with all the nations around him.

EDIT 2: copying a feat I wrote in another thread.
Blessing of Echidna
This feat scales with character level.

The totally PG-13 rated power of the Mother of Monsters infuses you.
1: You gain the benefits of the Raised by Monsters character background and may pick [Fiend] and/or [Monstrous] character options.
2: You gain a Claw attack that deals Slashing/Piercing damage but is otherwise identical to a Monk's Slam attack. You also gain the benefits of wearing a Ring of Regeneration,
6: By infusing your spilled blood with spare bits of your power, you may grow monsters favorably disposed toward you almost instantly. This takes a full round and deals 1 damage to you for each creature you make. Monsters are Helpful to you, and are at least for the first hour willing to accept requests that are obviously very dangerous. If they are not made into Followers or Cohorts, they will probably wander away after an hour.

The monster's Challenge Rating must be 3 less than your character level or lower. You can also choose to double the number of creatures created by reducing the max CR of the creatures by 2 per doubling (at 9th level you could summon one CR 6 monster, two CR 4 monsters, 4 CR 2 monsters, or 8 CR 1 monsters). Monsters may not have levels in classes when created.

This may be done three times per day, and a max of once per hour.

11: You have learned to spawn monstrous servitors without the focus and preparation normally required. As an Immediate action when you take damage, you may create monsters, counting against your limit of uses per day and hour as normal.When spawning monsters this way, the Challenge Rating cap starts at 6 less than your character level.

The number of times you can spawn monsters increases to once per day per character level, with a max of twice per hour.

16: The number of times you can spawn monsters increases to three times per hour, no daily cap. When this ability is used to replace Followers with a CR of 8 or less, it does not count against your limit.