Dragons of Hosgarth

[corwyn]

So my PCs are approaching the finale and looking to get in the castle. Lacking most of the abilities to beat the suggested barriers of entry, I'm wondering what were some of the outside the box solutions players had or GMs can think of.
They have no arcane casters so no Invisibility. Not great at social skills. Possibly Fast Talk through the gate might be an option. They do have a Martial Artist with Spider Climb so actual scaling isn't an issue but Stealth is only 16 and lower for the rest. Cleric with Contingency Casting.

[Balor Patch]

This is a teachable moment: The party should be able to do more than fight. Maybe let them fail and fall back on being part of stopping the army when it marches.

However, assuming you want this lot to succeed here and now, let them find (or pay cash for) a MacGuffin that somebody in the castle (the alchemists?) wants to talk to them about or a sack of invisibility potions.

Let them hire a competent henchman (the local bard?) to do the job.

[corwyn]

Well, we did have a bard but the player dropped out. There is the option of breaking up some of the factions. One potion of invis could probably be purchased from one of the merchants.

[restlessgriffin]

Originally Posted by corwyn

Well, we did have a bard but the player dropped out. There is the option of breaking up some of the factions. One potion of invis could probably be purchased from one of the merchants.

Bard is the worst of the caster options. I'm not sure why people want to play Bards. Song of Terror is good but it impacts PCs too. Delvers to Grow at least gives an option to have another spell college, so I guess if you're using that than Bards are a lot better. Personally, I think Bards should be allowed to have the Illusion college of spells as part of their base allowed spell colleges.

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by restlessgriffin

Bard is the worst of the caster options. I'm not sure why people want to play Bards. Song of Terror is good but it impacts PCs too. Delvers to Grow at least gives an option to have another spell college, so I guess if you're using that than Bards are a lot better. Personally, I think Bards should be allowed to have the Illusion college of spells as part of their base allowed spell colleges.

I allow bards illusion as well as some low end healing spells, cause dnd. Also, I do use that advantage from DtG. Songs of Humiliation and Command and, circumstantially, Echoes are all useful. I only mentioned the bard because they are better at social/lying which would have been useful here.

[corwyn]

A new thing cropped up.

The torcs you get for joining the army. Afaict, the only property involves the ritual going off (as well as identification as well).

Can they be removed? Is anything required required?

[Balor Patch]

The torcs indicate army membership, create a link for the ritual, allow Maendrath to spy on the wearer (with difficulty), and (for officers' torcs) communicate. They can be removed by anyone who doesn't mind sentries raising the alarm, officers shouting at them, and that sort of mess. Get your pay docked ya will.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Balor Patch

The torcs indicate army membership, create a link for the ritual, allow Maendrath to spy on the wearer (with difficulty), and (for officers' torcs) communicate. They can be removed by anyone who doesn't mind sentries raising the alarm, officers shouting at them, and that sort of mess. Get your pay docked ya will.

One of the bits in the book mentions the penalty for going certain places without a torc is death.

So it looks like Kyle's intent was to have them removable but awfully convenient to keep on...

[corwyn]

There is a loot item - strongarm Elven bow. What does strongarm do?

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by corwyn

There is a loot item - strongarm Elven bow. What does strongarm do?

You can find "Strongarm" on Adventurers, p. 118 as a "prefix" for a bow with +1 damage due to a Puissance enchantment.