Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Pathfinder, Wrath of the Righteous - latest session

Last Sunday the group got together and we played Wrath of the Righteous the adventure path from Paizo. We've been at it for about 9 months there (??).

Currently the group is:
Captain Aaron Marcovina - Paladin 7 (Epic)
Kal - Urban Barbarian 7 (Epic)
Brother Overhult - Dwarven Cleric of Cayden Cailean 7 (Epic)
Kali - Sorceress 7 (Epic)

Yours truly plays the paladin... a paladin I purposefully "gimped" in that I did not maximize him except for a decent charisma score (unlike my paladin in the Rise of the Runelords campaign). He's a "flag officer" over being a "field officer". Son of General Marcovina, Aaron was the younest of 3 sons. He was good at riding and being smart but not a good "warrior" per se. All sons were loved equally though.

Aaron was on patrol 6 months before the AP started, this takes place near the World Wound (demons and stuff) and he and his brothers' were ambushed. Aaron survived but almost lost his leg. His brothers perished. Fearing losing the whole legacy General Marcovina pulled Aaron form field duty while Aaron healed. He lost a lot of flexibility in his leg though it was not lost (Dex score of 8). His injuries were severe enough that a lot of his health was lost too (Con 9). He kept some of his strength though (Str 14) and was as wise and smart as ever (Wis 14, Int 12). His family loved him and he kind of became a hero that inspired the paladins of the area (Cha 16). He was given a seat in the Church of Iomedea's war council.

The impetus to the AP is a huge event (no spoilers) and after it's resolution Aaron became a captain as he was one of the few left to be a captain. Reluctantly he took the job.

We are using Epic rules, thus we get Epic Tiers. Some don't like Epic as it just seems to be "more powers" but I think Paizo did a good job to give it flavor and context to edge it away from that. It's like a template that allows you to do more with already existing abilities of your character. They did a great job at quantifying a fantasy "super hero" a la Perseus, Achilles, Conan, and the ilk (all, IMO, Epic). It levels via events or milestones - you defeated your first Epic monster, you build a church, you make an evil wizard repent, you crush a whole city, you destroy an artifact... stuff like that. It's up to the GM.

Right now our group - The First Company of the Fifth Crusade - is moving north to retake an important town closer to the World Wound. Mass Combat rules are also involved, a simple affair really. We have 100 heavy cavalry and supporters, a quarter of which are actual paladins. Our enemies were a horde of ghouls in a graveyard, human demonic cultists and a company of teiflings dug into a suburb of the city, and some tieflings and beefier opponents (literally, demonic bulls!) guarding a key bridge.

We destroyed the ghouls and teiflings, not one casualty. We offered parley and quarter to the human cultist mercenaries, they attacked us in turn and we killed them all. Very few resources were expended. This left us enough to go for that bridge. We made a great plan and stuck to it and took that bridge.

Then the real fight came, The Beast. No spoilers but lets just say this thing almost killed us, our first Epic monster. One of it's powers? Gets to go 2 times in one round. If it weren't for Captain Aaron's Epic powers he'd be dead.

Suffice to say we won the day and secured that bridge.

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