Author Topic: CO GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion  (Read 3577 times)

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Brainpiercing

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CO GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« on: January 27, 2010, 12:20:36 PM »
I've just been wanting to put down some experience from my new E6 campaign, which is a bi-weekly table-top, or rather, laptop on table-top with scrap paper for tactical maps campaign.

Here's the meat, the setting being ripped straight from our extensive house-rules.

The SettingThe PC setting:Relevant House-rules
[spoiler]
Everyone starts with a HP bonus equal to his CON SCORE, in addition to HD and bonus, including all NPCs and monsters. Everyone important gets one bonus feat at level 1.

All PCs (and important NPCs) pick their stats off a single page of ability score matrices, which are rolled as 2d6+6. This makes for pretty mad ability scores :)

Partial Gestalt is in effect using the Tier System. A max of 1LA worth races or templates can be taken as a RHD which is integrated into the Tier system, i.e. it is possible to gestalt the RHD with something. Each race or template has been evaluated individually. There are still some notable offenders, which get off a bit too good. PrCs cannot be gestalted!
PrC prerequisites have been partially lowered, most notably all skill-point requirements are lowered to 4. Also, alignment and racial prereqs are waived.

All WoTC sources are allowed, with the limitation that players are at all times responsible for world consistency.

Obviously this game goes to level 6, and then only feats are gained. The progression is slowed by making PC ECL equal to Level +1, and by halfing all XP gains. This means that actually quite a few encounters can be had at level 1.

There is a mechanism that relevant classes can get a single Level 4 effect, e.g. a spell or maneuver, once per day after level 6. Also, all higher level spells are available via ritual casting. So, for instance, it is possible to raise the dead or reincarnate them, given considerable effort.

Death at negative CON gives a further protection against PC-instagibs.

[/spoiler]

The PARTY
[spoiler]
*updated*
Takuya - Aasimar Samurai with aspirations for Chameleon, the groups only potential primary caster; Now Aasimar/Samurai1//Chameleon1 at level 2.

TOM - Synad Ardent/Warrior and his Elemental Steward variant psicrystal thingy; Most significant contributions so far by using a greatsword and big Str. The elemental steward actually has three outsider HD, so had good to hit and lots of HP, but puny ability scores compared to the PCs, so he does little damage in combat. Still, having a guy around who can fly should prove invaluable in the future. I doubt this thing is worth the investment of two feats, though. I think he went Ardent2//Warrior2, or Ardent2//Warrior1/Adept1 for saves.
TOM's replacement - name unknown as of yet: Grig savage progression//Fighter AFAIK.

Dale - Whisper Gnome Swashbuckler/Monk, but will advance as a ranger, TWF, and his pet Magebread Warbeast Riding Dog, which could be group's main tank, IF its AC weren't too fricken high. (Actually everyone COULD have brought a pet, the others were just too lazy.); Levelled to be Swash1/Mystic Ranger1//Monk1/Adept1.

Roscoe - Halfling Rogue/warrior, suffers a bit from poor build choices and player skill. But you just can't help the guy. Levelled to be Rogue1/Scout1//Warrior2. I guess going for Daring Outlaw.

Galriff - probably  Mineral Warrior/Fighter, spiked chain tripper build. Didn't level due to not being around last fight.

Ugluk The Reborn -non-permanent NPC, Dragonborn Water Orc Psywarrior2//Warrior1/Expert1, Recharge+Battle Jump build

The PCs get one expensive item as an heirloom, as well as quite a bit of gold for which they can buy non-magical stuff, or pets, if they wish. It's noteworthy that noone is playing a wizard, nor a cleric, as partial gestalting has successfully scared them away from these Tiers.

[/spoiler]

The setup, and first session.Observations[spoiler]
When you give people their CON score as bonus HP at level 1 things end up with quite a few HP. This means that Level 1 isn't nearly as deadly as it usually is - at least, one round of bad rolls usually won't kill you. The PCs mostly took ability scores which gave them lots of Str and Dex, as well as mental stats, but CON is only a base of twelve for Dale and TOM. Hence their ACs are all very good, but HP actually lower than I would have thought. The mook enemies, who were basically 1HD Barbarians with 11s in phyiscal and 10 in mental stats, 25HPs and assorted simple weapons, were really no match for the huge ability scores and the partial gestalted PCs. While I think they are not nearly optimised, the sheer numerical superiority worked out, here. Most PCs have to hit bonuses in the range of +6 to +8, and AC of over 18, while the mooks had to hit of 3-4 with their Rage-boosted Str, and AC of 8- 12. Even the one level 2 mook, who got better scores, some leather armour, and actual class features besides the purely ability improving Rage which all the frenzied guys have on by default, proved a fairly low threat. Admittededly in these tight quarters he came to bear late. The mooks needed really good rolls to even hit, and then did comparatively little damage. Still, one PC, the Moshbuckler Dale, was mauled pretty badly. The fights didn't take as long as I had feared, as raw damage output from the PCs was quite good. Even the elemental steward, who defaults to his D4 slam/flyby attack, ended up with a notable contribution.

With the adjustments to XP, there was little gained this session. They are less than a quarter way to level 2.

Of further note is that I really shouldn't be GMing when I can hardly keep my eyes open. At the end of the session I was really tired and couldn't nearly create much of the atmosphere I had hoped for during the council scene.[/spoiler]

Session TwoObservations[spoiler]
I had thought the stupid bear would already threaten the PCs, but that was a total waste of time. He went down so quickly. The hyenas were much better, there being 8 of them, and they actually managed to do some damage. I remains surprisingly difficult to hurt the PCs, though.

The dog and the ardent are the offensively strongest "players" on the field at the moment. Still, the ONLY BFC they have is that tripping dog, and the Fear effect from the Elemental Steward. The mineral warrior is clearly house, but seeing as they don't want to invest much into BFC I'm not going to do it for them, so he won't stick around, even though I made a nice progression of Crusader/Adept for him.
The Samurai/potential Chameleon wants to get mainly divine casting, I'm not sure how this will turn out. The Ardent SHOULD turn into a veritable killing machine, soon. He's going for a dipper route with Psywar and Warmind to maximise power points, and is still wanting to get level 3 powers at level6, with the final level of ardent.
The Rogue is... just useless right now. Granted, he did roll miserably all the time, even when he managed to sneak-attack. But normal halfings are just total wimps compared to Whisper Gnomes, or even Strongheart halflings, and this shows. He also didn't know where to take his build, seeing as he didn't even really know where to put his two initial feats. AND he picked a low-int row of stats for himself, which is just... wrong on a rogue.

So I'm quite interested to see how this turns out. That "final"  battle (well, it was actually really the first real battle) did show up a good many of their weaknesses, already. Their lack of reach weapons, unfocused ranged support (noone even has precise shot), and lack of BFC means they will be very threatened once the bad guys actually start hitting them regularly. Right now they remain standing by virtue of their high AC. Of course this is level one, but it's quite obvious that performance wasn't originally one of their goals. This is surprising, because the same group had pretty strong characters during the last campaign. Well, the rogue's player already said he also wanted to get a pet at the next opportunity. I'm hoping with some levels their BFC abilities will improve - I just fear they don't like the concept too much. A single wizard could have knocked out half that encounter at first turn, and quite possible the other half at second. And with those ability scores, he wouldn't even have ended up too flimsy. Well... that's life, I guess. [/spoiler]
« Last Edit: March 08, 2010, 09:21:46 AM by Brainpiercing »

The_Mad_Linguist

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Re: GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2010, 04:55:00 PM »
You know, one of the players really should have put his plane next to the sheep port.
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Brainpiercing

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Re: GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2010, 05:30:36 AM »
You know, one of the players really should have put his plane next to the sheep port.
I... don't... get it.

The_Mad_Linguist

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Re: GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #3 on: January 28, 2010, 05:38:37 AM »
Sorry, the whole "small hexagonal planes with a single resource" setup sounds a whole lot like Settlers of Catan.
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Brainpiercing

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Re: GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #4 on: January 28, 2010, 08:03:14 AM »
Sorry, the whole "small hexagonal planes with a single resource" setup sounds a whole lot like Settlers of Catan.
Damn now I feel stupid. Actually, it's only the small planes that are really strictly thematic...

Brainpiercing

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Re: GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2010, 10:07:10 AM »
We played again last night, here's what happened:

Session 3:Observations
[spoiler]
YES, the party is pretty much outshone by the riding dog, in this fight more than ever. I might just have to convince the player who runs it that lowering it's AC is actually a good idea, because as it is, his PCs gets mauled now most of the time, because the enemies can't hit the dog.
What's also rather funny is that the Ardent player doesn't use his powers. I guess this will change, though, in the future. The Rogue is still acting as waste of space, I'm already expecting that he won't manage to use the tactical possibilities of the Scout. In any case a melee scout isn't nearly optimised, IMHO.
I have high hopes for the Chameleon, though. With the right spell choices he should not make a bigger contribution.

And finally: Their choice of stats really showed in the crappy amounts of HP at least two of them have. This kind of blows, because I want to give them realistically hard encounters.

Note on the enemies: Fleshrakers rule, although they suffer from being only medium sized and their strength scores aren't originally that great. I needed to roll really well to keep them standing. However, in this system giving them a Rage effect was really quite powerful: They gained 12HP, and their attacks were appreciably a lot more deadly.[/spoiler]
« Last Edit: February 19, 2010, 11:13:09 AM by Brainpiercing »

Brainpiercing

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Re: CO GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2010, 08:14:44 AM »
[spoiler]I have no idea whether anyone is reading this. I must admit time constraints destroy my writing skills, and the recount sounds a bit dull, but I guess there's not much I can do about that.[/spoiler]

Session 4

Hijax

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Re: GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2010, 10:28:42 AM »
You know, one of the players really should have put his plane next to the sheep port.

3:1 wildcard FtW!

I have no idea whether anyone is reading this. I must admit time constraints destroy my writing skills, and the recount sounds a bit dull, but I guess there's not much I can do about that.

well, it has over 200 reads. someone has seen it, at least.
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Brainpiercing

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Re: CO GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2010, 12:57:23 PM »
Thanks, yes, read count is alright :).

I thought I would share some of my enemy designs, since they are partly what make up a CO DM.

I've house-ruled that Initiator level defaults to 1, due to the general amount of low-level play involved.

Frenzied Federal Guardsmen
[spoiler]
These were Standard Array (13-8) Human Level 1 effective Barbarians with Power Attack (b), Martial Study(Shadow Blade Technique)(1), Martial Stance(Island of Blades)(h), using Halberds and Wearing Chainmail armour. 17Str, 16CON (with rage), 31HP, Halberd +5(+7 when flanking), 1D10+4.

Going by my build rules they are actually missing a bonus feat at level 1.[/spoiler]

Frenzied Guard Sergeant
[spoiler]
Improved Array Frenzy1/Crusader2; (they got a 13/16/12/12/14/8 Array, randomly); Using +1 Halberds and Wearing +1 Breastplates. 49 HP when raging. Halberd +7(+9 when flanking), 1D10+5. mw Shortsword or mw Spikes +7, 1D6+3.

Power attack (b), Combat Reflexes (1), Martial Study(Shadow Blade Tech)(h), Martial Stance(Island of Blades(Stance))(3);
Martial Spirit(Stance); Leading the Attack, Crusader's strike, Vanguard Strike, +2 unused.

Also missing their additional bonus feat.
[/spoiler]

Lizardfolk Frenzied ex-Rangers
[spoiler]
Poison Dusk Lizardfolk Frenzy1/Fighter1 using Nets (medium sized), 2xJavelins, 1x Bola,mw Longspear or Claw/Claw/Bite, and mw Studded Leather that doubled as a mw tool to Hide. Physical Stats of 17/17/20 with rage, 48HP.

Power Attack(b), Multiattack(1),PBS(b), Precice shot(F); Balance +5, Climb +4, Hide +14, Jump +4,Move Silently +10, Spot +6, Survival +4,;

Longspear +7, 1D6+4 +1d6 poison
Claws +6, 1D3+3, Bite +4, 1D3+1.
Javelin +6
Net +5 vs. Touch (PBS)
Bola +7 vs Touch, Trip -1. (PBS)
[/spoiler]

Lizardfolk Ranger Captain
[spoiler]
Poison Dusk Lizardfolk Frenzy1/Fighter1/Ranger2 using a +1 Longspear, +1 Studded Leather, mw Shortbow (Mighty+3), 2x Javelins, 1x Bolas, medium sized net. Physical Stats of 20/17/20, 68HP;

Track(Ranger), Power attack(b), Multiattack(1),PBS(b), Precice shot(F), Rapid Shot(Ranger) Combat Ref(3);, Favoured Enemy: Humanoid(human)

Longspear +11, 1D6+8,
Claws+10, 1d3+5, Bite +8, 1d3+2
Shortbow +10, 1d4+4 (PBS)
Net +7 vs Touch
Bola +9 vs Touch, Trip +1.
[/spoiler]

There are some others, mostly the frenzied animals, which are just base animals with rage, and some I haven't played yet, which I therefore won't post at this point. (Just in case one of my players DOES in fact read this forum.)

Matching the fighting style of my players, none of the enemies could afford (GMing-wise) to fight overly tactically. They have big HP, can hit with reasonable accuracy and can dish out moderate damage. I think hitting one or two PCs into the negatives almost every fight is a good target, provided that there aren't too many fights per day. The players have taken a less than effective approach of each attacking one enemy, which might be cinematically good, but tactically is  naturally rotten. Their BFC possibilities are (now that the killer pet has been removed by the player) pretty much zilch. I'm hoping the new character by the TOM player will up it a little - at least he's taking some tactical feats.
I think I've successfully played high HP against the higher PC ability arrays, which serve to keep them on top of the action right now (their class-features and feats don't quite, yet).

The players have also shied away from anything that could provide some diversity. No Incarnum, a little Psionics, not much magic, no Binding, no Warlock, no natural weapon users, no Initiators.

In our inititial quarrel last session one of the gripes TOM's player had was that due to partial gestalt every PC looked the same: They all have full BAB and mostly two good saves. Luckily, the other players agreed that this was not so, that in fact BAB and saves don't make up everything. But I had to really work to persuade him that in spite of the obvious, at least numeric, strength of the characters,  they had put MORE effort into the roleplaying aspects of their characters than in any previous campaigns with that group.  This is really weird, especially since this guy usually makes strong characters. He just doesn't seem to like them after he's made them.

The other weird thing was that I repeatedly offered to make up for his flavour choices, i.e. improve the elemental steward, which is piss weak in this group, but he didn't want that, either.

Well, I'm hoping he'll like his new character. It would be sad to have him leave the group. He seemed to enjoy making it, so I have some hope.

I also tried to give them my views of why their characters should be strong: In a world where all the options exist it's hardly imaginable that they could survive without being mechanically powerful. And toning down all the enemies will just ruin the believability of the game world. Why would they meet only weak enemies initially? And why would anyone send a group of weaklings (who are actually important weaklings) on a suicide quest? It just doesn't make sense.

However, on the up-side, I think using these mechanics so far I've managed to achieve several key goals:

Playability from level 1, with an (almost) plausible game world, and mostly interesting characters at level 1
Long, and for the most part interesting fights, WITH some real danger, but not too much danger of a TPK or even just one-rounding a PC
Simple encounter building, due to easy low-level mechanics
A simple yet diverse game world and simple world creation mechanics

I'm still hoping to get them move invested in their individual planes, once I start threatening them.

Hijax

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Re: CO GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #9 on: March 08, 2010, 04:43:07 PM »
my general experience is this: once you move to large-scale battles, players who know the rules fairly well are going to get creative, either using guerilla tactics or self-perpetuating minions(read: shadows)
So remember to pack those effing magic weapons, because otherwise a single shadow CAN destroy a whole army long before it reaches the destination.
Also, remember some medicine. diseases and cancer mages are my personal favorite in dealing with this sort of threat(since shadows are pretty cheesy).

the most effective thing here is a construct or undead, since its immune to all these things
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Brainpiercing

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Re: CO GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #10 on: March 10, 2010, 10:36:32 AM »
my general experience is this: once you move to large-scale battles, players who know the rules fairly well are going to get creative, either using guerilla tactics or self-perpetuating minions(read: shadows)
With this group? Not a chance...
Quote
So remember to pack those effing magic weapons, because otherwise a single shadow CAN destroy a whole army long before it reaches the destination.
NPCs at the point have more magical items than the PCs. So yeah, no great danger in that regard.
Quote
Also, remember some medicine. diseases and cancer mages are my personal favorite in dealing with this sort of threat(since shadows are pretty cheesy).

the most effective thing here is a construct or undead, since its immune to all these things

Well... my most immediate concern is that players will bitch so long that they will be allowed to play Pixies with irresistable dance SLAs. THEN I'm going to need those undead. Or just MOAR bad guys.
« Last Edit: March 10, 2010, 11:00:11 AM by Brainpiercing »

Hijax

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Re: CO GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #11 on: March 10, 2010, 10:42:16 AM »
my general experience is this: once you move to large-scale battles, players who know the rules fairly well are going to get creative, either using guerilla tactics or self-perpetuating minions(read: shadows)[/spoiler]
With this group? Not a chance...
Quote
So remember to pack those effing magic weapons, because otherwise a single shadow CAN destroy a whole army long before it reaches the destination.
NPCs at the point have more magical items than the PCs. So yeah, no great danger in that regard.
Quote
Also, remember some medicine. diseases and cancer mages are my personal favorite in dealing with this sort of threat(since shadows are pretty cheesy).

the most effective thing here is a construct or undead, since its immune to all these things

Well... my most immediate concern is that players will bitch so long that they will be allowed to play Pixies with irresistable dance SLAs. THEN I'm going to need those undead. Or just MOAR bad guys.

seriously. what went wrong with those tags?
« Last Edit: March 10, 2010, 11:01:52 AM by Hijax »
"There's more to apocalypse than running around like a maniac you know"
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Brainpiercing

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Re: CO GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #12 on: March 10, 2010, 11:00:44 AM »
Fixed.

Brainpiercing

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Re: CO GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #13 on: April 01, 2010, 11:40:23 AM »
Session 5

Brainpiercing

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Re: CO GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #14 on: April 14, 2010, 09:27:05 AM »
Session 6:

Ikeren

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Re: CO GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #15 on: April 15, 2010, 10:06:36 PM »
Quote
because it was either the wrong size,

Magic items are generally of the right size.

This campaign sounds really awesome and cool; of the exact sort I wish I was playing. Oh well. Good work, I'll keep reading it, highly enjoyable.

Brainpiercing

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Re: CO GM Diary: E6, house-ruled, custom setting: Planar Invasion
« Reply #16 on: April 16, 2010, 07:31:25 AM »
Quote
because it was either the wrong size,

Magic items are generally of the right size.

This campaign sounds really awesome and cool; of the exact sort I wish I was playing. Oh well. Good work, I'll keep reading it, highly enjoyable.
Thanks :).
As to the magic items: Anything except Weapons and Armour adapts in size. Unfortunately they've mostly found just that, so far.