Pathfinder

I'd only go with the minefield, particularly for level 1 adventurers, if the mines were so bleedingly obvious that only a complete fool or lunatic would activate them. That said, if they were pretty obvious, and a goblin accidentally set one off before the battle so that the players saw and knew just what they were, that would possibly make for a really cool battle (particularly if you start seeing players use reposition or bull rush maneuvers to force goblins onto the mines).

Ooo, I like it.

Any suggestions for what might be in the tower itself? It's actually a giant stalagmite and stalactite meeting, and the alchemist's lair is in the middle. The stalactite is where a bunch of functional stuff, like barracks, medical fields, storage rooms, armories, that sort of things, while the stalagmite is full of challenges the PC's must overcome, like battles and traps.

There is also a secret service tunnel goblins use to bypass all this, but none of the P Cs are small-sized. How exactly the dwarf moves about is kind of left up in the air.

Secret stairway of some sort?

Or the antagonist has made a habit of guzzling potions of Reduce Person and perhaps has some lying around?

Nice, nice, I like it.

Okay, want to inhabit the tower with.

Maybe various animals, magical beasts and perhaps some goblins who have been warped by the antagonist into slightly more threatening mutants of various types?

The added difficulty of fighting at least some of them at reduced size might make for quite an encounter.

@2602 I think you just answered how the dwarf moves about - there's a safe entrance up at the top of the stalactite (where all the facilities are), and he really is "up in the air" - he has some method of flight that he uses to get inside.

For what to inhabit the tower with... Slapping on some variant of "advanced" template onto a sub-CR 1 creature (like rats, animal skeletons/zombies, or the like) is always an option. I would, for humor value, make evil acid-spitting housecats... oh, you thought all those "commoner killing machine" jokes were funny?

Maybe highlight the twisted nature of his cruelty to animals by having at least one be decidedly more afraid and defensive despite something strange like a tentacle coming out of its back or something. Maybe even work it into a lost pet bit that you set up earlier in the session.

Another way you could go with that, as well as set up for a possible reward for the players, is have a section of the lab where they can find poor animals that weren't taking to any sort of aggression treatments this guy made. Set it up so that the players could free them and, with sufficient Animal Handling checks, tame them and gain pets/companions (including possibly allowing them to be upgraded to class features for classes that have them). I mean, imagine how awesome it'd be for them to find the poor winged kitty that just wants to be loved for its bat wings... and for them to get a dedicated furry friend for life with just a little kindness.

Also, that kind of thing provides tons of room for good role-play.

Ooo, I like it, I like it! I like nearly all of this. I'd have to make the non-threatening nature of any critter I'd want spared very obvious, because my players lean closely towards murder hobos.

Okay, with your suggestions and some of my own ideas, here's what I thought-up so far:

1. On the way to the tower, the party is attacked by a miniboss of an escape experimented critter. Perhaps roll it as a random encounter, with a 1-in-4 chance of running into nothing and 1-in-4 chance of running into 2.
2. The goblin guard right outside and the obvious minefield. May include goblin archers in dug out trenches. Definitely four gobbo's on the field, up to four archers depending.
3. A labyrinth on the first floor, with more goblins and mook-level experimented critters scattered throughout. Up to eight critter by themselves.
4. Some kind of puzzle on the second floor, implied to be the work of the tower's creator rather than its current inhabitant.
5. Third floor, open arena against a mutant goblin ranger and its mutant animal companion, miniboss. Might contain some sort of indoor biome.
6. On the fourth floor, another thing left behind by the original owner, a low-level LN Outsider who will challenge them to a word game. If they win, not only will it let them pass, but also heal them. If they lose, it attacks. If they defeat it in combat, it will release a healing burst before disappearing.
7. Fifth floor, dwarf alchemists, +/- some goblin body guards and/or mutated critters.

Would giving the PC's a Sudoku puzzle be a bad idea? I've been trying to think of a puzzle to give them. I'm considering making it optional, with treasure chests locked behind the puzzle but they can just walk on past.

~

I think I mentioned this before...

So, one of the things running around in my setting are "Reincarnated Souls", implied but not confirmed to be the souls of dead mortals that came to the interest of powerful outsiders and were reincarnated as a special kind of outsider. Mechanically, no different to just a person with PC levels except they're banished when they die at 0 HP and can return later on.

OOC, they're so I can give the PC'd reoccurring enemies when they kill all of them. This a good idea?

I think what puzzles to give your players really depends on the players. I've seen some groups where a sudoku to get treasure would be welcome, and others where it'd be a dead fish in the punchbowl, so to speak.

I should test the water then. What would be a simpler puzzle?

... what... what if I did Candy Crusher/Bejeweled? I- I got the little pebbles for it.

Edit: Oh my god, I want to do this so bad now.

edited 14th Jun '17 3:59:31 PM by God_of_Awesome

A fairly simple puzzle is the three- or four-tier version of the Towers of Hanoi. The three-tier version is doable in 7 moves, the four-tier version in 15 moves. You may want to have them be mildly magic, so that only one ring can be moved at a time - if one ring is off the base, then the others magically lock in place (this is to avoid the Cutting the Knot solution).

One that might also work is 3 + 5 = 4, but enough people have seen Die Hard with a Vengeance that many people just remember the solution from that. Another that might work (mostly because it's not nearly as common) is a variation of the 12 Coins Puzzle.

BTW, have ye guys kept up with crpg adaption of Kingmaker's kickstarter? I think it has pretty good chance of getting that extra chapter

And also a version my computer could actually run, which would be nice.

I didn't know that was going on. Thanks for the heads up.

I'm about to play an Int 5 Paladin with the Chosen One archetype. How do you stat a familiar and how do I make sure he's the brains of the duo?

You start from the bestiary entry for the relevant familiar, then apply any changes laid out in the familiar rules (HP, saves and INT). So you don't have to do anything: a familiar's INT is 6 at level 1 and increases by 1 every 2 levels beyond that (up to 15 at level 19).

Oh goodness, so he will be the brains of the bunch

Chosen Ones specifically get an Emissary familiar (meaning a familiar modified by the emissary familiar archetype), but this does not alter their intelligence (it just means you can't double down on it and make them a sage familiar).

An Intelligence penalty doesn't reduce skill points, does it? I've never played an Int score this low and I can't find a ruling.

I believe it would, since Skill points is a base number plus modifier (Which in your case is... -3 I think?)

I don't know if there's a cap on how few points you can get per level, though. I'd ask your DM. Rule 0 and all that.

I do believe its at least 1 point per level.

Paladins get few Skill Points per level before the Int mod, too, so that's probably all you're looking at if you dump Intelligence.

You get at least 1 skill point per level, 2 if you're playing a human (the bonus skill point gets added after applying the minimum). And yeah, Paladins only get 2 + INT mod skill points per level, so any INT dumping results in the minimum (3 or 9, it doesn't matter).