Ruby Phoenix Tournament


Adventures


There has been a lot of talk recently about the capabilities of different classes and the extent to which different classes are able to contribute. I thought I would look at testing somee of those ideas in a module with perhaps more classed NPC opponents than most, the Ruby Phoenix Tournament. It is designed for four PC's of level 11 but our test will use a single PC. As our hero is on his own I have set him to level 12. I have chosen the Sage Sorcerer to meet the challenge. To avoid complaints about cheese this time he is even human so Paragon Surge wont be in play. I have also skipped Confusion despite it being amazing in solo play. He uses the PFS rules (so no crafting), 20pb with standard wbl (108,000).

Sorcerer12:
At the start of each day out hero casts Mage Armour, Darkvision and Overland Flight. They are renewed if required. His spels per day have been reduced accordingly. I do not allow him any buff rounds in the contests unless the module specifically provides for them.

Camulus
Male Human (Varisian) Sorcerer (Wildblooded) 12
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +9; Senses darkvision 60'; Perception +27

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Defense
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AC 21, touch 13, flat-footed 19 (+4 armor, +3 shield, +2 Dex, +1 natural, +1 deflection)
hp 98 (12d6+48)
Fort +12, Ref +10, Will +14

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Offense
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Speed 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (average)

Sorcerer (Wildblooded) Spells Known (CL 12th; concentration +21):

6th (4/day)—repulsion (DC 25), summon monster vi
5th (6/day)—fickle winds, baleful polymorph (DC 24), hungry pit (DC 28), overland flight
4th (8/day)—arcane eye, charm monster (DC 23), dimension door, elemental body i, emergency force sphere, greater invisibility, wall of fire
3rd (8/day)—aqueous orb (DC 26), dispel magic, fireball (DC 22), heroism, ice spears (DC 26), stinking cloud (DC 26), suggestion (DC 22)
2nd (7/day)—acid arrow, darkvision, glitterdust (DC 25), invisibility, mirror image, pilfering hand, resist energy, see invisibility
1st (8/day)—charm person (DC 20), disguise self, ear-piercing scream (DC 20), grease (DC 24), identify, liberating command, mage armor, magic missile, memory lapse (DC 20), protection from evil, shield, silent image (DC 20), snapdragon fireworks (DC 20), snowball (DC 24), true strike
0 (at will)—acid splash, arcane mark, daze (DC 19), detect magic, detect poison, light, mage hand, message, prestidigitation (DC 19)

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Statistics
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Str 7, Dex 14, Con 18, Int 28, Wis 14, Cha 7
Base Atk +6; CMB +4; CMD 17

Feats Additional Traits, Dazing Spell, Eschew Materials, Greater Spell Focus (conjuration), Improved Initiative, Persistent Spell, Quicken Spell, Skill Focus (Diplomacy), Skill Focus (Perception), Spell Focus (conjuration)

Traits ease of faith, magical lineage (glitterdust), reactionary, student of philosophy

Skills Bluff +15 (26 to deceive), Diplomacy +22 (33 to convince), Disable Device +16, Escape Artist +16, Fly +17 (23), Knowledge (arcana) +26, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +10, Knowledge (engineering) +10, Knowledge (geography) +10, Knowledge (history) +10, Knowledge (local) +10, Knowledge (nature) +10, Knowledge (nobility) +10, Knowledge (planes) +24, Knowledge (religion) +21, Linguistics +10, Perception +27, Sense Motive +14, Spellcraft +19, Stealth +16, Use Magic Device +2

Languages Abyssal, Aquan, Auran, Azlanti, Celestial, Common, Draconic, Giant, Ignan, Infernal, Terran, Varisian

Special Qualities arcane bolt, metamagic adept, mutated bloodlines (sage)

Gear potion of air bubble (2), potion of cure serious wounds, potion of delay poison, potion of gaseous form, potion of hide from undead, potion of restoration, lesser (2), scroll of alarm (2), touch of the sea (2), unseen servant (2), scroll of ant haul (2), comprehend languages (2), obscuring mist (2), scroll of aram zey’s focus, command undead (3), gust of wind, locate object, rope trick, scroll of protection from chaos (2), protection from good (2), protection from law (2), scroll of teleport, scroll of water breathing, wind wall, wand of infernal healing (50 charges), +2 mithral buckler, amulet of natural armor +1, belt of mighty constitution +4, cloak of resistance +3, eyes of the eagle, handy haversack, headband of vast intelligence +6, ioun stone (dusty rose prism, cracked), ioun stone (pale green prism (cracked, saves), page of spell knowledge (disguise self), (liberating command), (mage armor), (magic missile), (protection from evil), (shield), (true strike), ring of protection +1, robe of arcane heritage, masterwork tool (escape artist), masterwork tool (stealth), masterwork tool (diplomacy), masterwork tool (bluff), masterwork tool (perception), sorcerer's kit, thieves' tools, masterwork

Day 1:
Our hero arrives at the isand by boat and quickly settles himself in at the noodle house. He declines the tetoris offer to wrestle and spends a little time sizing up the competition. The first match is announced and he floats on to the fighting stage hovering at a constant 50' alltitude.

Quote:

Match 1: Monks of the Enduring Spirit

Four monks armed with a variety of unusual weaponry confront him across the wide open expanse of the stage. The signal is given and battle is joined.

Initiative: 18 12 5 4

Camulus 27
Spade Monks 19
Meteor Monk 12
Sword Monk 11

Round 1:

Camulus: Our monks start relatviely close together having entered the stage together. Monks tend to have good saves across the board and some of his control may not work terribly well. He opens with dazing Aqueous Orb giving him an effect he can continue to sweep across the battlefield round after round. He applies metamagic adept to reduce the casting time and then uses his move action to move it hitting all four monks. The DC is 26 and they must make two saves, the first to avoid damage and the daze, the second to avoid entanglement in the orb. With a reflex of +9 they need a 17 to save. The meteor monk is the only one to avoid the daze, the rest are dazed for 3 rounds. The sword monk avoids entanglement but is still dazed. The spade and sword monks take 1 damage due to improved evasion.

Spade Monks: Dazed and entangled. Unable to take actions they cannot attempt to escape or, arguably, hold their breath. They may well begin to drown. The orb does another 1d6 damage forcing them to make another reflex save or be dazed again. They both fail. As they are entangled they also now need a 19 to avoid the daze.
Meteor Monk: Not dazed or entangled but cannot reach his target. His maximum acrobatics high jump is significantly less than 50' and they have no ranged attacks available. The crowd may well boo at the lack of sportsmanship shown by Camulus although plenty of the competitors are capable of doing exactly the same thing.

Sword Monk: Dazed

Round 2:

Camulus: Swirls the orb through the sword monk and meteor monk with a move action. They fail both saves entangling and dazing them and dealing 1d6 damage. He uses his standard action to cast hungry pit and rolls the orb into it dealing 6d6 falling damage. They get no save to avoid it as they are trapped in the orb and go where it goes. The pit then deals 4d6 damage per round to each monk. They can only escape if they manage 3 consecutive reflex saves needing a 19 and then make another such save to escape the orb. At this point they are doomed as they are exceptionally unlikely to make the necessary saves to escape daze lock. Neither the orb nor pit are dismissablle so he will actually dispel the pit before it murders them. He has no great desire to be remembered as a cold blooded killer.

Spell Slots Available:
8 7 7 8 5 3

Quote:

Test 1: Breaking Competition

Camulus has no realistic means of completing this task and cedes it as a failure.

Quote:

Exhibition 1: The Headless One

Camulus walks into the fighting ring wondering just what he is about to face. He frowns as the enormous headless undead monstrosity barges forward and throws itself at him.

Initiative: 4 15

Camulus 13
Undead Giant 18

Round 1

Giant: Tears forward hoping to shred its enemy. It could grapple but armed with a pair of axes, an int of 6 and two weapon fighting feats it really wants to cut its enemies up. Charging it swings with power attack at +14 hitting for 27 damage. Camulus makes the save against the fear aura.

Camulus: Being in reach of giant dual wielding undead is a terrible idea. With a 7 he ID's it (he needs a 1 for the basics) easily learning its spell like abilities and senses. He switches to hovering and defensivly casts dimension door, passing the concentration check. He teleports 50' into the air well out of reach.

Round 2:

Giant: Throws a shrunken head at him. It hits and Camulus makes the save.

Camulus: Hovers and casts dazing Acid Arrow at it. He hits and it makes its save with a 20 taking 8 damage.

Round 3:

Giant: Throws a festering head which hits but is saved against.

Camulus: The acid arrow deals 4 damage and forces another save versus daze which the giant fails. He then casts wall of fire beating its sr and causing 41 damage

Round 4

Giant: Dazed round 1/2

Camulus: The giant fails the save and is dazed for another two rounds. It takes 37 damage from the acid arrow and wall of fire.

At this point he doesnt really have to do anything. The giant will take at a minimum two more rounds of wall of fire and acid arrow damage, more if it fails either of the following daze saves. 4d6+24+2d4 per round certainly kills it outright given it has 37hp left. As he leaves the ring he burns up three wand charges.

He gets a good nights sleep at the noodle house making two consecuutive poison saves.

Spell Slots Available:
8 7 7 6 4 3

Day 2:
Quote:

Test 2: Archery

With his spell slots renewed he decides to put on a show for the archery demonstration. He shoots all 10 arrows at the farthest target boosting each shot with true strike meaning he can only miss on a 1. It also allows him to ignore the displacement. He hits with 9! and the organisers run out of slaying arrows to give him as a reward. The crowd goes wild!

Spell Slots Available:
0 5 8 8 6 4

Quote:

Exhibition 2: The Spider Fight

Camulus eschews the slippers and simply flies 50' out over the sea and faces his opponents on the cliff. They bow to one another and combat is joined.

Initiative: 4 8 17

Camulus 13
Orometsu 15
Monks 24

Round 1

Monks: Their lack of ranged weapons or flight options leave them frustrated and reduced to using harsh language. They could try to intimidate him but it wouldnt do much and he is out of range.

Orometsu: Readies to shoot if Camulus casts a spell

Camulus: Begins to cast persistent grease and gets shot at. She hits for 3 damage but he cannot fail the concentration check. He affects the cliff face where Orometsu stands with grease and she fails to save. She fails the save to catch hold and plunges to the water below ending the match. He pokes himself with his wand.

Spell Slots Available:
0 5 7 8 6 4

Quote:

Match 2: The Oracle

Summoned to the grand pavillion this encounter specifically allows you a minute to cast prebuffs. He drops a number of spells, shield, mirror image, see invisibility and heroism are all in effect as he floats onto one of the platforms. Finally a real challenger.

Initiative: 10 2

Camulus: 19
Ganyavesha: 11

Round 1:

Camulus: Casts greater invisibility and floats off to one side putting some distance between them.

Ganyavesha: Casts invisibility purge revealing him floating off to one side about 40' away.

Round 2:

Camulus: He easily recognises the invisibility purge and he could simply move out of range and resume invisibility. It would be effective as she does not seem able to fly but he is feeling in bullish mood. He casts persistent glitterdust to try and disable her but she saves. He follows up with a quickened glitterdust which she fails against.

Ganyavesha: While she cannot use targeted spells she can throw aoe's. She casts flame strike at the area he was in. He hasnt had a chance to move and so is caught in the blast. DC19 reflex with a +12 save means he saves and takes 16 damage. She fails to save against the glitterdust (she needs a 13)

Round 3:

Camulus: Casts dazing acid arrow hitting for 5 damage and dazing for two rounds.

Ganyavesha: Dazed 1/2 rounds

Round 4:

Camulus: Acid arrow deals 3 damage but she saves against the daze. She is still dazed for another round from the initial application. Camulus casts wall of fire which engulfs her but encounters her protection from fire spell. It loses 17 points of protection.

Ganyavesha: Dazed round 2/2

Round 5:

Camulus: Acid arrow deals 6 damage and dazes for 2 rounds. He drops another wall of fire on her. She is now taking 4d6+24 fire damage per round which chews through another 40 points of her protection. It is down to 63.

Ganyavesha: Dazed 1/2 rounds

Round 6:

Camulus: Acid arrow continues doing its job causing 5 damage and resetting daze to two rounds again. Double wall of fire burns through another 40 points and he casts a third for another 17

Ganyavesha: Dazed 1/2 rounds

Round 7:

Camulus: This is the last round of acid arrow doing damage so if it fails to daze she will be free after this turn. It does 3 damage and she saves!. Three walls of fire combine for 67 damage which burns through her protection and deals 61 damage. On top of the 22 acid arrow damage she is down to 70hp. Seeing that her protection from fire has failed he throws another dazing acid arrow hoping to incapacitate her further. He hits dealing 5 damage but she saves.

Ganyavesha: Dazed 2/2 rounds

Round 8:

Camulus: Acid arrow deals 4 damage but fails to daze. The walls deal another 54. He launches a barrage of magic missiles which bring her down. The walls pretty much guarantee she is toast and he mourns her loss. She had a lot of potential.

Spell Slots Available:
0 4 6 4 3 4

I made a bit of a meal of this one to be honest mostly due to the likelihood of various divine protective spells.

Returning to the noodle house Camulus finds the beaten local. Asking around and spreading a few coppers on drinks suggests that not all is well and that someone may be trying to nobble the competition!

Day 3:
Rested and refreshed Camulus prepares himself to face the trials of the day.

Quote:

Exhibition 3: Boar and Tiger

Camulus chooses the Tiger, who wants to be tethered to a stinky angry pig! The animals are released and the fight is on.

Initiative: 10 10 14 19

Camulus 19
Nearidi 11

Both of them begin the fight flying making the animals not really relevant.

Round 1:

Camulus: Casts Hungry Pit at the boar, it fails its save with a 19 and takes 31 damage from the fall and the chomping. Nearidi cannot hold it up with a strength of 10. She is also dragged into the pit.

The fight is over at this point, Nearidi cannot escape the pit tethered as she is to a 2000 pound boar. She could wildshape into something huge with a climb speed but she is ulikely to be able to pull it out with her single move action. Even if she could it dies on the next turn to pretty much anything. Everyone gets bacon for tea.

One note this must be the only Druid on Golarion above level 4 who does not have Natural Spell. There is taking it easy and just damn stupidity and this falls on the idiotic line.

Spell Slots Available:
8 7 8 8 5 4

Quote:

Round 3: Battle of the Embers:

The crowd dont like people using resist energy to evade the coals, I imagine they like fliers even less. In deferrence to tradition he will at least remain floating near the bed of coals. Camulus and the Bards confront one another.

Initiative: 4 2 9 14 9

Camulus 13
Bard 1 4
Bard 2 11
Bard 3 16
Bard 4 11

Round 1:

Bard 3: Begins to inspire courage as a move action and casts haste on the others

Camulus: Casts hungry pit, he catches 1 and 2 in the area, needing a 18 they both fail. With no climb skill or means of flight they are basically trapped there for the entire fight and will be slowly chomped to death.

Bard 4: Shocked at the loss of two of his allies he moves well away from Bard 3 and launches a set of weird words. Eight attacks at +10 dealing 1d8+3 damage each with a fortitude save DC 17 for half is a lot of dice rolling. He needs a 3 to hit and Camulus saves on a 5. Camulus negates them all with emergency force sphere.

Round 2:

Bard 3: Maintains inspie courage (he will do this every round), he cannot currently target Camulus as he is protected by the sphere. He moves up and readies to attack should he becomes targettable.

Camulus: Casts greater invisibility

Bard 1: Moves up to the sphere and readies to attack if he can target Camulus.

Round 3:

Bard 3: Easily recognises the invisibility so casts invisibility sphere himself.

Camulus: Casts see invisibility, smiles to himself

Bard 1: Joins his friend inside the invisibility sphere

Round 4:

Bard 3: Readies weird words if he hears the sound of spellcasting.

Camulus: Dismisses the sphere and floats off to one side using stealth. Their perception of 0 is not up to beating his 36 stealth

Bard 1: Readies weird words if he hears the sound of spellcasting.

Round 5:

At this point the crowd may be becoming fractious, the bards have also taken a fairly trivial amount of fire damage. Any encounter that has you rolling multiple saves every round for half of 1d6 damage is not well designed.

Bard 3: Readies

Camulus: Moves to the far end of the stage and casts hungry pit hitting the remaining two bards huddled in their sphere. Weird words only has a 30' range and he is well outside of it. Both fail their saves and plunge to their doom. The world could do with fewer bards and he leaves them to their fate.

Spell Slots Available:
8 6 8 6 3 4

Quote:

Test 3: A Needle in the Bamboo Forest

With very little survival skill he pretty much wanders around hiding in the canopy until she begins to berate him. Hearing her he casts invisibility and approaches unseen. Her blindsese range is only 30' and with +2 perception she doesnt see him coming. Spotting the necklace around her neck he casts true strike alerting her to the presence of someone. Initiative is rolled!

Initiative: 15 3

Camulus: 24
Tsavati: 6

Round 1:

Camulus: Casts pilfering hand, with a base modiifier of 21, adding 20 for true strike he automatically beats her CMD and steals the necklace. He waves at her and flies off.

Tsavati: Casts fly and heads off in pursuit

Round 2:

Camulus: Using metamagic adept he hits her with persistent glitterdust and continues to move away. She fails the save. Needing a 15 she has a 9% chance of recovering each round giving him plenty of time to disappear into the canopy and simply stealth away.

Spell Slots Available:
7 4 7 6 3 4

Quote:

The Ambush!

The lurking thugs leap to the attack, and while I am eating dinner too. This is unacceptably uncivilised. Unfortunately their +16 stealth isnt beating our +27 perception any time soon now is their +0 bluff getting past +16 sense motive. No-one gets a surprise round.

Initiative: 8 7 11 13

Camulus 17
Thug 1 9
Thug 2 13
Thug 3 15

Round 1:

Camulus: He doesnt really want to cause lots of damage to the noodle house. He casts greater invisibility and takes to the air.

Thugs: With no way of locating their target they grab three patrons at random and threaten to kill thhem if he doesnt surrender.

Round 2:

Camulus: They are adding kidnap and extortion to their list of crimes. We think not! He casts suggestion on one of the thigs to "tell me who you are and what you are doing here". He fails his save and begins to blab. He moves to one side to mask his current location.

Thugs: Try to shut up their blabbing coleague.

Round 3:

Camulus: Casts Baleful Polymorph on one thug. He fails his save and becomes a snail. "I suggest you leave unless you want the same treatment"

Thugs: At this point they basically have no real choice, they flee. They may stab a hostage or take someone with them to protect them. If they do he will show them no mercy and they will end up as snails.

Spell Slots Available:
7 4 6 5 2 4

Day 4:

Quote:

Round 4: Blood and Mud

Round four finds two flying arcane casters facing off against each other. This almost certainly comes down to initiative.

Initiative: 7 11

Camulus 16
Hok 13

Round 1:

Camulus: Each recognises the other for what they are fairly easily. Neither is entirely certain which buffs the other has up with the obvious exception of overland flight. Baleful Polymorph is his best single target fortitude save but this time he goes for persistent stinking cloud to force the extra save. It is times like these that I wish I could afford a staff of the master necromancer. At DC26 Hok needs a 19 to save, he fails and becomes nauseated.

Hok: Moves out of the cloud. He will be nauseated for a further two rounds

Round 2:

Camulus: He knows he has at least two rounds to take out his enemy. He launches the first baleful polymorph seeking to turn him into a tortoise. Hok fails both the fortitude and will saves and a happy tortoise has a brief existence before it is devoured by leech swarms.

Spell Slots Available:
8 7 8 8 4 4

Quote:

Exhibition 4: Slay Huyanwo!

A dragon hunt is just what this sort of competition needs. Camulus sighs and pushes himself forward to volunteer casting reproachful looks at the other contestants. Getting directions to the Ridge of Graves he flies off. Recognising the dragons description as a brine dragon he takes a few precautions as he flies towards the ridge. He casts heroism, see invisibility and resist energy (acid). All three last 2 hours. As he draws closer he adds shield and elemental body I taking air elemental form. Assuming the area is lightly forested initial encounter distance is 3d6x10', they spot each other at 120'. The module seems to assume the dragon is not in its lair given the reference to him strafing the ridgeline. I assume he is basking on the cliffs as Camulus approaches. Neither has surprise.

Initiative: 13 2

Camulus 24
Huyanwo 6

Round 1:

Camulus: Dragons can be exceptionally dangerous and he doesn't want to give this one a chance to act. He uses a metamagic adept boost and launches a persistent aqueous orb at it hoping it will have the poor reflex save dragons are known for. It fails the save against both the 2d6 non lethal damage and the entanglement. Against DC26 with its +11 reflex its chances were not good but it isnt over yet. It takes 5 damage.

Huyanwo: Trapped in the orb it takes 4 damage. With -4 dex from being entangled it now needs to roll two 17+ to escape. It fails. Still it is not helpless. It can cast spells and use SLA's while trapped with a concentration check. It returns the favour and launches an aqeous orb right back at Camulus. It automatically passes the concentration check but the DC is only 16. He fails the damage save taking 9 damage but passes the entangle save by virtue of the +2 dex from being an air elemental.

Round 2:

Camulus: Casts hungry pit and rolls the dragon into it dealing 23 damage

Huwanyo: He is now taking 6d6-5 damage per round unless he can escape from the orb. He has 115hp left and will take an average of 16 per round ignoring anything else Camulus might do. He has around 7 rounds to survive. His chance of making the save to escape is 4%. None of his SLA's are helping. A quick sample suggests he fails. Camulus could add some Snowballs for an extra 5d6 per round which would cut his survival time in half. That would expose him to its breath weapon but 12d6 is an average of 42 and he has acid resistance 30. He makes the save on an 8 and is likely to take no damage.

Camulus claims the dragons teeth as his trophy and leaves its mashed pulped corpse on full view as a warning to others. He looks around for its lair but he doesnt have the survival skills needed to find it. He might coome back after the torunament to scout out the area underater either as a water elemental or with arcane eye. Earth gliding as an earth elemental might do the same.

Spell Slots Available:
7 5 7 7 2 4

Quote:

Test 4: Iron Body

Being a weakling arcane type Camulus declines the Iron Body test. If he had taken them then he could pass the Fire and Winter idols with resist energy, he saves against the Poison idol on a 1 assuming heroism is still up, he can hold his breath for 36 rounds and make the 4 remaining checks on a 6/7/8/9. He could also just turn into a water elemental. The Pain idol cannot kill him although he would burn through a fair few charges of his wand.

Quote:

Kidnapped!

Finding our Paladin missing Camulus heads to his quarters and locates the dead body with its suspiciously helpful note pointing to the docks. Suspecting a fairly obvious trap he recasts heroism, see invisibility, resist energy: cold and fire. Nearing the docks he also adds in shield and mirror image.
Unfortunately for our would be ambushers only one of them can actually see in the dark and that is the cleric. Both he and Camulus have darkvision 60' and will spot each other at the same time. The cleric has a stealth skill of about -4 and Camulus is flying in the open hoping to set off the ambush. I effectively allow them both a surprise round. Given his elevated position is likely to negate much of their cover and his darkvision he pretty much auto spots the rest of the lurking group. Only one of them has any stealth skill and that is +16 versus +27 perception. On the plus side for them they begin the fight well spread out.

Initiative: 18 7 19 5 6

Camulus 27
Rogue 15
Fighter 20
Cleric 5
Sorcerer 12

Surprise Round:

Camulus: Casts greater invisibility

Cleric: Alerts his companions and casts invisibility purge. However at 60' Camulus is currently outside of its area of effect.

Round 1

Camulus: Casts dazing aqeous orb using metamagic adept at the Cleric and then rolls it towards the Fighter who is nearest him. With a reflex save of 3 the Cleric fails both saves and takes 12 damage.

Fighter: Wary of the big ball of water and with a Perception of +1 he has no chance of pinpointing Camulus. He moves away from the ball and readies to throw an axe if a target presents itself.

Rogue: In much the same position as the Fighter she draws her bow and readies.

Sorcerer: Lacking dispel magic, glitterdust or see invisibility she is struggling. She moves to the fighter and casts fly on him.

Cleric: Takes 8 damage and fails to escape becoming dazed for a further three rounds. I really do suspect that he should now be drowning but that just makes a very effective tactic even more horrible.

Round 2:

Camulus: The sorcerer and fighter are close enough together to hit. He drops persistent glitterdust on them both using metamagic adept and sweeps the orb towards them. With saves of 4 and 7 both fail horribly.

Fighter: Able to fly but blind, he stays where he is as his fly and acrobatics skills are currently -5. He fails to save against the glitterdust.

Rogue: Perception of +12 combined with the distance penalties and +20 dc to pinpoint the square leave her unable to do very much at all.

Sorcerer: She is blind but retains some options. She casts invisibility on herself hoping to save against the glitterdust but she fails as she needs 2 18's.

Cleric: Takes 3 damage and is again dazed

Round 3:

Camulus: Sweeps the orb over the fighter and sorcerer (who he can see quite easily due to see invisibility). Both fail both saves, even the fighter with a 19 and 18 (he needed 20's). He then casts hungry pit which swallows the lot of them. Doom comes to all three.

Rogue: Having seen three of her allies casually taken down she tries to flee. Camulus will pursue and baleful polymorph her into a newt. DC24 versus a fortitude save of +4 adds a new pet to his collection.

Recovering our paladin champion he returns to his rooms for some rest.

Spell Slots Available:
6 1 5 6 1 3

Day 5:
The final day of the torunament dawns and Camulus is feeling confident. He can just imagine himself walking into the Vault and salivating over the many and varied treasures he will be able to choose from. He steps forward to face the scarred ninja!

Quote:

Match 5: Seishuku

Initiative: 17 8

Camulus 26
Seishuku 18

Round 1:

Camulus: He looks and smells like some sort of dodgy rogue so we wont be throwing any reflex saves his way. This is the final day so he doesnt want to use too many high level spell slots. He takes to the air and drops a stinking cloud on him. He fails to save and is nauseated.

Seishuku: Nauseated he stumbled out of the cloud but will be vomiting for another five rounds

Round 2:

Camulus: Stinking Cloud seemed to work fairly easily so he follows up with baleful polymorph looking to add a turtle to his collection. He fails both saves and his horizons become significantly more limited.

Spell Slots Available:
8 7 7 8 5 4

Quote:

Exhibition 5: They of Two Heads

With an effective disuise of +30 versus his Perception of +27 he is likely to be fooled into thinking he faces a simple ettin, especially with distance penalties added in. With a roar the "giant" rushes forward.

Initiative: ]20 17

Camulus 29
Oni 22

Round 1:

Camulus: Well it is a big giant and everyone knows they can be dangerous and that they are susceptible to will saves. He casts glitterdust at it. It fails its save and is blinded. He then flies 40' straight up.

Oni: Blinded his options are limited. He casts haste on himself and passes the glitterdust save which does rather suggest that something is up.

Round 2:

Camulus: Hmm, this is no ordinary giant, it can cast spells. Well it seemed to have a decent will save, lets see how it doesn against reflex. He throws a dazing aqueous orb at it. With a reflex defence of +5 it needs a 20 to save which it doesnt get taking 10 damage and dazing it for three rounds.

Oni: Dazed and unable to act it takes 9 damage and is dazed for another 3 rounds. It begins to regenerate.

Round 3:

Camulus: Hmm, regenerating spell casting giants, something is most definately up. Regeneration tends to be stopped by either fire or acid and it is in a giant bubble of water. He casts acid arrow at it to stop its regeneration for a while. He hits causing 5 damage. It is now taking 2d6+2d4 damage per round and next round he drops it into a hungry pit for another 4d6. This contest is over.

Spell Slots Available:
8 5 7 8 4 3

Quote:

Test 5: Mind Trap

He easily detects the magical traps before setting them off. He could launch a bunch of dispel magics to get rid of them but instead he employs his scroll of Aram Zey's Focus and casts heroism. These increase his disable device to +24 and lets him disable magical traps. He takes 10 disabling all of them and makes a note to replace the scroll. The riddle is about as simple as they come.

Quote:

The Final!

Here at last the chance for ultimatte victory and he gets a bunch of buff rounds too. He casts shield, mirror image, resist energy fire, cold and electricity and elemental body (air) I before floating into the arena.

Initiative: 17 7 19

Camulus 26
Gowami 14
Xun 21

Round 1:

Camulus: Casts greater invisibility and moves off to one side.

Xun: There is not very much they can do. They drink their potions of invisibility.

Gowami: Drinks his potion of fly and moves forwards. With a fly skill of +3 and a perception of +2 he isnt likely to find anything.

Round 2:

Camulus: Casts dispel magic against Gowamis fly making the caster level check and sending him floating to the ground.

At this point there is not really anything they can do to him. None of them can see him or realitically target him. Gowami has no ranged attack and no other means of flying. A persistent aqeous orb will catch him (+14 save versus DC26 rolling twice) and he will end up in a hungry pit. The xun are entirely irrelevant.

As soon as it becomes apparent that their agents cannot win the two lurking magicians strike. They will gain a surprise round. As they get to choose the moment of their attack I give them all of their buffs. Jufeng adds a casting of see invisibility which Dizhen lacks. They begin at 100' distance and strike just as greater invisibility runs out by which time I assume Gowami is effectively neutralised or dead.

Initiative: 12 13 4

Camulus 21
Jufeng 19
Gizhen 6

Surprise Round:

Jufeng: Her spell selection is really very bad and mostly various blasts. She saw his preparations so knows that he has resistance 30 to all of her elemental damage. She is out of range of suffocate and forcecage isnt realy going to do anything. Sirocco will pretty much just fatigue him which is pointess. She casts dispel magic seeking to remove his overland flight which succeeds and he floats to the ground.

Gizhen: Charges seeking to grapple and put an end to things right now. Unfortunately he does have 5 mirror images giving her only a 1 in 6 chance of targetting the right opponent. I set him as no1 on a d6 and she chooses wisely. The check passes easily against his CMD of 14.

Round 1:

Camulus: Eeew, I have a monk all over me. Best try and get away. Mother did always say casting in a grapple was a bad idea but this monk has a spell component pouch! He tries to cast dimension door against a DC of 26 (Monk/Sorcerers have terrible BaB). With +21 he passes and relocates himself 300' away.

Jufeng: Launches chain lightning against him arcing it about to kill various bystanders. He fails the save and takes 18 damage due to his 30 resistance.

Gizhen: Even with Haste giving her a 70' speed she cannot reach him and attack this round. She can however get into melee combat with him again.

Round 2:

Camulus: Arrgh, stupid monks in my face. He casts quickened invisibility followed by overland flight and rises up and away from the annoying monk.

Jufeng: She really needs him to stay still. She activates fly and moves towards him hoping to bring him into range of suffocation. Her remaining elemental damage spells wont do much at all against his resistances. She alerts her sister to his location.

Gizhen: Launches a fireball directly overhead. He saves easily taking no damage.

Round 3:

Camulus: He has an angry monk below and a flying wizard ahead but the Monk doesnt seem to be able to fly or see the invisible so he focuses on the larger threat. He moves towards her and, using metamagic adept, casts persistent glitterdust at her. She fails to save and is blinded. He becomes visible.

Jufeng: Blind she flies forward towards where she last saw him but cant use targeted spells and her remaining aoe's are mostly cones. She fails to recover.

Gizhen: Curses her lack of a missile weapon and throws an acid arrow at him. She misses with a 5 as his touch ac is 15 as a small air elemental.

Round 4:

Camulus: Closes on Jufeng and casts baleful polymorph at her hoping to remove her from the fight. She fails both saves and becomes a nice plump chicken.

Jufeng: Clucks and flaps to the ground

Gizhen: Tries to dispel magic the polymorph but with a caster level of 8 she needs a 15. She fails and out of options seeks to flee.

Round 5:

Camulus: Not prepared to let her get away quite so easily he pursues and drops a persistent stinking cloud on her. She fails the save and is nauseated.

Gizhen: She is nauseated for 5 rounds after leaving the cloud and limited to a single move action. She attempts to flee. At this point Camulus has 5 rounds pretty much to disable her with something and while she has strong saves across the board she is likely to fail to one of them and end up incapacitated in a pit. She may well escape but even if she does so he still succeeds and has her sister to hold as a hostage should she come back looking for trouble.

Spell Slots Available:
7 1 4 5 0 2

And so with that he completes the Ruby Phoenix Tournmanet and enters the Vaults to choose his prize and without Paragon Surge abuse either. The next challenge is to complete things without using persistent or dazing spell.

Shadow Lodge

RE: The Spider Fight on Day Two

I don't think any GM would let you circumvent the intent of the event. In fact, you are given and instructed to wear the Slippers of Spider Climbing by the NPC running the event. I believe you would win the fight handily regardless, but not wearing the slippers or standing on the cliff face is assuming too much leeway for the exhibition.

Otherwise, as always, an interesting read.


Why has this been moved into the modules forum? Can it please be moved back to where I posted it as it isn't about the module as such but about what a character is capable of achieving.

Paizo Employee Design Manager

Sammy T wrote:

RE: The Spider Fight on Day Two

I don't think any GM would let you circumvent the intent of the event. In fact, you are given and instructed to wear the Slippers of Spider Climbing by the NPC running the event. I believe you would win the fight handily regardless, but not wearing the slippers or standing on the cliff face is assuming too much leeway for the exhibition.

Otherwise, as always, an interesting read.

I might have to reread my copy of the module, but I thought flight was actually specifically disallowed for this event and resulted in disqualification.

I actually normally reserve this module for parties that don't have full arcane casters in them specifically because it's geared towards a martial bias and can be ridiculously easy for optimized full casters (especially arcane full casters).


Checking it I cannot see a reference outlawing flight. It does say you are disqualified if you fall off and don't catch yourself.

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