Thanks so much for all your work on the wiki. This is a great resource, and my players are loving the Adventure Path. I have a question for some of you who have gone more deeply into the Path. We are now beginning the second module, the Siege of Bordrin's Watch. I have a player whose character is looking for his sister who was abducted by giants--or at least he thinks she was. I'd like to weave this little nugget into the story line, for at least the heroic tier. I'm thinking of making the sister a bad guy, perhaps Sharshan (change his gender to her). Another possibility would be to make her a notable NPC victim that occurs later in the heroic tier. Do you have any other suggestions?

Hey guys would value your opinion as ever. Played the last part of Rescue at Rivenroar, but blow me if on two occasions I forgot two critical things. 1) that one player had already used his daily which he used a second time (neither of us realised until I remembered afterwards) to finish Rivenroar, and that I had a beastie attack the party with a blast, only to throw a 1 for the first target and forgot to roll for the others Argh. As a result both fights (the Rivenroar one was meant to be an exciting climax the second a sting in the tale for when they thought it was all over.

My thought was that the battles were ok, but both came to a predictable end too quickly. With hindsight there are a load of things I could do, but what do you do when you feel you've blown it after a session? How do you pick up from where you left off, or do you go back and say, "Now lets do that properly"?

Ab

I am a first time DM, wanting to run the SoW adventure path. The question I have is how much does it mess with the story if the adventures start at part 4 "The Lost Mines of Karak"? I started DMing last minute when my groups scheduled DM backed out at the last minute, so I ran the party throw H1 Keep on the Shadowfell and a custom module of my own design, but I would like to move the campaign to a more connected story that leads to a final battle with a god. Scale of War fits the bill well but I am worried about not starting at the beginning.
Thanks for your input,
~Spencer

Let's try that again.
I would also recommend starting with the siege.
You will return to Rivenroar when the Platinum sword calls the group. I would just throw in the backstory of Rescue at Rivenroar, the black market weapons and the attack on the city then.
And instead of your group saving the town of Brindol, make it Megan and the Freeriders. This will add an immediate competition between the two groups which sets up well for later. And maybe the Freeriders can even be in Brindol and find out the Platinum sword THEY rescued has asked for this other group (yours) by name. That's good stuff.
Finally, there are a few encounters you could skip along the way, in SoBW, SRoU, and DotD, so don't worry too much. Just up the difficulty of the ones they do fight, and at some point along the way you should come out to the correct level.
Definitely read ahead and behind to see what things need to be brought up that will come up later.
Good luck.

Just thought to note that it says in NPC list section that Aerun (Captain) is replaced by a doppleganger, but isn't he really posessed by a githyanki?

Can anyone come up with a reason that the God of Time, Law, Order, Sun (any of those, they are all portfolios that a character in my game follows) would be involved in the Scales of War?
I am not going to replace Bahamut nor Tiamat. And the God doesn't even need to actually appear. I just need a reason to tie him in.
Thanks in advance for all the suggestions.

Well, Bahamut is a god of Law. A god of Time may have an affinity for a dragon's longevity, and therefore, might frequently cross paths with BOTH Bahamut AND Tiamat. Finally, As the Platinum Dragon, Bahamut would tend to have things in common with a Sun deity.

HI all

we're continuing to make progress in this epic campaign having just got to the cellers and dungeon beneath the Happy Begger in Shadowrift of Umbraforge. As I am still relatively new to DMing I've tried to use this path to help me, but as time goes on I begin to think some bits really need to be reworked this gives me the opportunity to try and tie in my players backgrounds and motivations to the overall plot. I don't want to abandon it, and will want to use as much of it as I can. But just trying to tailor it better to my group.

Anyway the reason for mentioning all this is that I wondered if the Overview could be updated by those in the know. Its awfully sparse, I don't need the details each module goes into but just a little bit more than a line, to get a feel for it is really all. I'd do it myself but I'm reading through the PDF's one at a time, and so far have only got to Den of the Destroyer, which I think I might try and change a bit more.

Anyway, as ever thanks everyone for the superb help.

Ab

Hi All

I mentioned above my grand plan and its beginning to take shape. What I've begun to think about is a 5x5 aspect to the campaign. But I wanted to find out if anyone else tried doing this. The thing is I'm slowly reading through the modules, but want to try and tie in some side plots which involve the characters backgrounds. To try and develop some recurring villains, besides the main ones like Sharshan, or to keep some around for longer - like Modra.

But I'm trying to get an idea as to how far I deviate from the AP, or how far I can weave in my ideas into the AP. So has anyone tried to open up the AP, and rework it to make it more 5x5 with concurrent plots lines running through or even more sandboxy. I get the impression that later adventures are pretty awesome but I think I'm trying to get away from the idea that my party has to do x-y-z and offer them some conflicting plotlines and villains, to get away from what can seem very rigid otherwise.

Has anyone else had any success?

Thanks

Ab

Just wanted to say thanks for a fantastic wiki page. I'll definitely be incorporating alot of the ideas here into my campaign!

I agree with the other posts that say how helpful this site is. I have been prepping for this campaign for about 6 weeks now and found this site 2 weeks ago. It was been invalualble! Thanks for all your hard work and comments.

One of my players has made a backstory where his mother is a bar wench in Brindol and his father is an unknown elf. I am considering using (Gilga)Thorn from Den of the Destroyer as his father. Any thoughts?

My thoughts exactly regarding SoBW... He would be in the crowd with the other adventures when introductions are made and assignments are passed out. A fleeting glimpse but then not able to see him again...

My group just finished up Karak. I recently got the Tomb of Horrors super adventure. I always loved the original and got such a good deal on the book I couldn't pass it up. I started reading through it and now I really want to run it. I was thinking of weaving it into my SOW campaign as the main part of the paragon tier. Then bringing things back around so that Tiamet is still the end Big Bag. I will pretty much have to totally redesign the paragon tier to do so. I'm wondering from those further along, if totally changing the paragon tier would still allow the epic tier to play out correctly.

One important thing to note for any DMs starting this AP is that it was written in the early days of 4e. Go over the monsters with a fine-tooth comb and adjust attack bonuses and damage expressions to match the MM3 math. Static bonuses on monsters are usually 3-4 points too low. This is especially important for the elites and solos as my party was ripping through the likes of Sinruth and Tusk with very little problem - until I started adjusting the math. Also, look at the skill challenges and adjust them to match the design philosophy found in Mearls' articles in Dungeon and the Skill Challenge section in the DMG2. As written, most of the AP SCs are horrible.

All,
Is there a place on this Wiki where the adventure plot if online in the form of what the players should know in each module and/or what they will learn in each module w/r to the plot? It could be just me, but I have found that major plot discoveries are not well laid out in each adventure and it is often not until I start reading the next module that it references something from the previous module that was missed.
For example - In SoBW, they completely gloss over the discovery of the brass key and it is not until SRoU that they mention it.
I kind of feel the same way with regard to the Githyanki invasion plans. At the end of TTB, the players only know that they stopped a Githyanki invasion. Once HotBG begins, there is already talk of War Councils and such. At what point is it learned that General Zithiruun was an outcast and looking to make an name for himself with this 'smaller' mission to overtake Overlook and provide the resource of planar portals to the Githyanki army? No where in BtMT or FoM do they mention the war or how everyone has come to the conclusion that there is a much larger war starting and that the Githyanki are launching a massive offensive. How have you handled this?
For e

Birdman is really confusing the party. But that doesn't matter. Whatever they will do..he is an avatar of a god ;)
Part of the confusion was my fault I think, because in the description it says, the birdman only smiles and nods if someone speaks to him. I made him nod EVERY time, someone spoke at him.
Sadly the first questions of my players were "are you a criminal?", "Did you do any harm against the villagers?" and such things. Thoughts of me being DM "Yes, of course he is a criminal, why else should a gang of bandits hold him prisoner..tzzz.."
I let my cleric make an insight check later, so it seemed to her, that he nods every time, regardless what questions.
Was a funny situation then, they started asking "Are you a criminal?" - nods - "Are you not a criminal?" - nods... :D

I've hit a massive roadblock and was hoping someone could help. Basically, the group faced down Modra, who escaped through the portal, but now they don't have any motivation to go after him as I've foreshadowed a potentially large threat on the other side. They're also confused as to the part with the key (i.e. we capture the key, they steal the key back, now we've got to go chase the key again? wtf?). Now they're considering marshaling the forces of Overlook to send an army through as backup. Ideas?

Tricky. Here's one way I could see it playing out:

1. Group walks away from portal.
2. Group reports to the powers-that-be (dwarven city council) what happened, asking/expecting an army to be raised or some backup, in the least.
3. Dwarven council says "meh", doesn't raise forces, instead puts up posters around town announcing a bounty for the head of Modra.

Provides a different "carrot" (and kind of lame, but my group are all about the cash) but I can't see a way to get them in there with a "stick" either.

The Council could "ask" them to check out what on the other side of the portal?

Greetings All, - Am just starting the SoW for my new group - wanted to say this site has made it a lot easier when it comes to preparation :-).

Is there a Points of Light / Nerath Calendar available?

I have a quick question for anyone out there who is running this game - has anyone put together a larger world map showing the game locations outside of the Elsir Vale? Places such as Sayre?

Also, what have folks done with regard to the War Efforts in the Paragon Tier to give the players a sense of magnitude with regard to the Githyanki invasion? I am just starting up the Paragon Tier and really want to hammer home the gravity of the coming invasion such as reports of Githyanki scouts in areas well outside the Vale.

Is there a way to download the pages off of here in case something happens to the site and for easier browsing?