Tome game... working quite well so far

[Endovior]

After a few sessions getting things going at a regular D&D pace, I 'upgraded' my characters to Tome classes, on account of them getting more powerful. (A couple of minor sidequests and the unfortunate death and replacement of one character accomplished this).

This leaves us with 'Trevor' playing a Samurai (he used to be a Duskblade, but he really does need an easy-mode class), a crazy rogue chick now upgraded to a Jester, the reluctant Cleric-by-popular vote now playing a Monk, and the Necromancer now playing a Summoner. They're also all Elves, on account of the players wanting to have a race war (and having committed a number of senseless acts of random violence that's dropped them solidly down to CN, bordering on evil. Whatever.)

So, the humans are chopping their way in through the forests, and the group's been busy with various tasks and missions, which've put them up to level 5. Given this, they've been cleverly making up lists of good questions for Trevor to ask of 'his ancestors', which've enlightened them to the fact that the leader of the human armies (a Hextorite Priestess) is conspiring with a secret cult of vampires hidden among the elves. They've tried various tactics to assault the human's camp, but the Priestess is seriously a 9th-level Cleric, and she's been out-divining them, predicting their movements and such... one attempt to sneak in and assassinate her led the Jester to be ambushed by five Barbazu devils instead, but a quick Sleet Storm let her escape. She also has a juvenile green dragon as an ally, and the players've been shitting bricks every time he shows up (I always have him showing up from a distance, being called in by sounds of combat and whatnot... 'the dragon will be arriving in X rounds'.)

After careful scouting, they find a good time to attack... and after sneaking past some zombies and fighting their way through a token crowd of guards, they are attacked by a competent necromancer, who's leading a ginourmous skeleton and a flesh golem. The Jester sneaks around and uses her Hat of Disguise to pretend to be that Necromancer, while the flying invisible summoner (good use of magic items) keeps the Dragon distracted and the Samurai and Monk fight the monsters. The Necromancer successfully pulls off Blindness on the Monk, which lowers his effectiveness somewhat, but the two of them manage to focus fire on the Necromancer and take him out... while the Jester, issuing conflicting orders, manages to confuse and berserk the golem. When the Dragon arrives, the Jester's changed forms again, to pretend to be the Priestess. She's good with that Bluff, so the Dragon fights the rampaging golem while the party retreats.

The party concludes that the priestess is pretty clever, and they'll need a convincing ruse to get into the camp. They decide to disguise the Jester as a guard captain, and have her leading two bound prisoners into the camp, while the invisible flying sorcerer does overwatch. The priestess is expecting this sort of trickery, and so the party walks calmly into the middle of the army camp, where they're totally surrounded by absolutely every asset I have planned.

Trevor, the Samurai, demands the opportunity to fight single combat against the priestess. She, not thinking much of him, demands the opportunity to send her champion in her place; naming the dragon as her chosen fighter. In the second round of combat, the dragon scores a critical hit that imposes 6 points of bleeding damage to the samurai for the rest of combat.

The players, including Trevor, all assume that that's it for him, and start making plans to break out and start fighting at an opportune moment... but the Jester takes the opportunity to heckle the Dragon, giving it a -4 penalty to it's everything.

For the rest of the fight, Trevor gets great rolls, saving against the dragon's breath weapon; and using my critical hit deck to great advantage with his Kiai power... knocking the dragon back so it can't full attack him again, cutting off one of it's hands to reduce its number of attacks, inflicting various status-effect penalties to reduce its modifiers still further... and generally being lucky and competent enough that, over the course of a six-round fight, he seemed to have the upper hand for almost the whole time, before the whole army and everyone. Prone and low on HP, the dragon tries to flee to the air and wait for the Samurai to bleed out... but an attack of opportunity is a critical hit in it's own right, and the dragon falls bleeding at his feet.

Victorious, Trevor demands that the human army withdraw... and the priestess, knowing that the players are not the most powerful force among the elves, concedes defeat.

The players are welcomed back to the elven city as heroes, get showered with gifts and accolades, go up a level, and Trevor's Samurai mentor offers to awaken his ancestral weapon to the power of the blood he's taken (his sword now gets to level up with him, like a Legacy Weapon).

Overall... the existence of powerful easy-mode classes really helps get 'Trevor' into the game more... and gives him the power to be as mighty and pivotal figure as the mage-types without having nearly as much logistics to worry about.

[Midnight_v]

Its an interesting usage of things really. W/out commenting on specific things... it seems right up your groups ally. Gratz.

[JonSetanta]

In the second round of combat, the dragon scores a critical hit that imposes 6 points of bleeding damage to the samurai for the rest of combat.

Is this a house rule or part of Tome? I don't recall.

[CatharzGodfoot]

In the second round of combat, the dragon scores a critical hit that imposes 6 points of bleeding damage to the samurai for the rest of combat.

Is this a house rule or part of Tome? I don't recall.

Critical hits deck, I think. It's the best thing Paizo ever produced--not because it's balanced at all--because it's amusing.

[Molochio]

Your ability to work in combat against a dragon without having to award the party it's horde upon killing it is notable.

[Cynic]

Your ability to work in combat against a dragon without having to award the party it's horde upon killing it is notable.

0_o Really?

[Molochio]

Indeed. Were I among their number, I would make it a point to divine the location of that dead dragon's lair and collect the bed of gold and trinkets. To each their own though.

[Endovior]

Technically speaking, the dragon actually was 'defeated', not slain, a dual consequence both of it's falling by the narrowest of margins (two or three HP in the negative) and falling amidst a squad of allied hextorite priests.

This was a minor diplomatic issue that wasn't pressed by the party; they'd come out ahead enough as is without trying to push their luck any further. Besides, they managed to extort some loot out of their own government for being such awesome saviors of everything, so it worked out.

Sadly, the game broke up not too long thereafter due to scheduling issues. There was a session or two of inconclusive struggle with the aforementioned vampire cult... but I won't recount that here because it wasn't nearly as awesome as the dragon fight.

[Molochio]

Ahh, there is that...
A fine adventure in any case and an enjoyable tale.