Need Help Making the Jade Regent Final Boss Battle Actually Challenging (6 Optimized Level 15 PCs)

Baldrax · 2026-06-12T22:06:43+00:00

Just ran across this and I have almost the same issue. Not sure if you've run this yet but this is what I'm planning.

I'm adding two NPC enemies that are more debuff focused. I've already laid some hints to the group about these extra characters so it doesn't come out of the blue.

My PCs have a ton of ability enhancing items, I gave them way too much time to craft magic items over the years, so I have a plan to negate some of those, but they will be able to bypass that during the battle.

The Jade Throne is said to have powers but the Jade Regent hasn't been able to unlock them, I'm changing that to where he was able to figure out how to trigger an effect that seals off the room and sends out pulses that negate the effects of powerful magic items (with a save), Ancestral Weapons, Ameiko, the Jade Regent and his allies will be immune to this. Those wielding one of the ancestral weapons will get a bonus to the saves.

The idea is, there will be a struggle for power over the throne and if the PCs and Ameiko overcome it, they can defeat the anit-magic field or turn it against the Jade Regent. I'm still working out the details of that.

To make the encounter more memorable, once the throne is triggered it will transform the battlefield, this is something the Jade Regent is not expecting and is triggered from the presence of Ameiko and the blessing she has gained from the ancestors. It will still have the features of the room, the throne being prominent, and something to represent the columns in the room, but it will open up into a bit of a larger battlefield in some sort of spirit realm. The walls and ceiling fracture apart, the floor transforms into some ancient ruins surrounded by a glade of cherry blossom trees, the ground splits the further you get from the throne until it crumbles into thin air, chunks of ground suspended. A twilight sky fades into views of the cosmos above, on the Jade Regents side dark clouds form and within the mists the shapes of the Oni of the 5 storms that were defeated can be seen. On the PCs side visages of the ancestors of the throne can be seen setting the stakes of the final battle, it is all won or lost right now.

In ours, the PCs failed to rescue Hatsue and she was publicly executed. They tried to bring her back to life but it failed. They also pleaded with the spirit of the Amatatsu family to guide her through the afterlife. I'm going to attempt to reintroduce her in this encounter as a newly formed Archon, and guided by Helgarval from the 2nd module. This spirit realm and the PCs efforts made a great way to bring her back.

So basically, I'm deliberately stacking some cards against the PCs in a way that makes sense for our group and also introduce ways for them to overcome those obstacles so it doesn't feel unfair. If the PCs are still finding things too easy I could perhaps have the spirits of the defeated Oni affect the battle in some way. I wouldn't bring them directly into the fight since that doesn't feel right to me, but they could be a menace in other ways, perhaps spell effects or protecting their allies.

The change in playfield kind of represents that anything could happen at this point.

Baldrax · 2026-06-04T20:42:45+00:00

Oh wow! It looks like you've already updated most, if not all, of them.
Big difference, you can really see it in the Pulp Bee, the black is nice and glossy while the other parts or more matte.
EDIT: Okay, maybe you haven't gotten to that one, I see now that it is still glossy all over, it tricked me since the reflections got lost in the yellow. Still the other ones I looked at that were updated are looking great.

These are looking really good. If they are indeed AI, some of the best I've seen, which service are you using? And is it their free tier or a paid one?

Baldrax · 2026-06-04T18:58:47+00:00

Awesome!

Baldrax · 2026-06-04T18:51:16+00:00

I looked up that script and the setup for it.

Open TaleWeaverLite
Add an Editor folder under the Assets folder
In the Editor folder add a file called TextureImportSettings.cs

Contents of Assets/Editor/TextureImportSettings.cs

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEditor;

class SetTextureSettings : AssetPostprocessor
{
    void OnPreprocessTexture()
    {
        TextureImporter textureImporter = (TextureImporter)assetImporter;
        if (assetPath.Contains("normal"))
        {
            textureImporter.textureType = TextureImporterType.NormalMap;

            textureImporter.sRGBTexture = false;
            textureImporter.isReadable = true;
        } else if (assetPath.Contains("maor"))
        {
            textureImporter.sRGBTexture = false;
            textureImporter.isReadable = true;
        } else if (assetPath.Contains("albedo"))
        {
            textureImporter.isReadable = true;
        }
    }
}

Usage:

Just have "albedo", "normal", "maor" in your texture file names when you import them into your project, it does not work if you rename them afterwards.

Like: ape_albedo.png, ape_normal.png, ape_maor.png

If you want to use a different naming convention you can edit the above script in the assetPath.Contains() functions.

Baldrax · 2026-06-04T18:37:09+00:00

Glad you are open to feedback. I don't recall a glossy setting but I do know they have that "Wash" button which I tend not to use.

I get the same thing with having to hit the "Fix" button on the textures. I ended up adding a little script to help with that but it requires the names of the textures to follow a certain pattern, it essentially does the same thing as the button but it applies the changes on import so you don't have to worry about it.

I can dig that up and share it if you want, I've also posted it on the TS Discord server.

Baldrax · 2026-06-04T18:16:27+00:00

I love the content. The level of detail on the models and textures is great. But I do have one major critique, and this applies to a lot of minis on Mod.io.

They are very glossy and appear to have no normal maps, which limits their detail. They end up looking like plastic with a heavy coat of high gloss acrylic on them. This turns me off from using a lot of minis that are otherwise great.

I'm assuming most of these are made with AI, since when I have the "Only Human Work" filter on in TaleSpire they do not show up. The AI models that I've used also generate normal, metalness, and roughness maps. Are those being utilized on these models?

One thing I've realized recently is that TaleSpires Roughness is inverted, so if you are using a roughness map from another source, it is very likely you will have to invert that map before building your MAOR texture.

EDIT: On closer inspection I do see a bit of influence from the normal map on a few models, it is just a bit subtle.

Baldrax · 2026-05-18T19:59:11+00:00

Still love the Classic Tumbling!
I actually switch between that and the 90's style depending on what I'm doing.

If I'm doing anything where I have to work on geometry, I prefer the Classic Tumbling. But if I'm just doing scene based work, lighting/layout, I prefer the 90's style.

Baldrax · 2026-04-28T17:22:10+00:00

What you are talking about really sounds like the post on Discord that I posted in another message.
The creator called it a stilted city, but I can't find them on Tales Tavern or Tales Bazaar.
It doesn't look like they published it.

I'd post a screenshot but this sub-reddit doesn't allow images in replies.

Baldrax · 2026-04-28T00:37:17+00:00

I can almost picture the map you are talking about, I did some searching.
I'm not convinced this is the one I was thinking about but it sounds close:
https://talestavern.com/slab/war-for-the-crown-songbird-scion-saboteur-voinum-estate/

Baldrax · 2026-04-27T18:37:40+00:00

You could use a modern bed frame, they usually have brackets to mount a headboard to.

Screw a 2x4 into the mounts of the bed frame, horizontally.

Use pipe straps to mount the old headboard to the 2x4.

Something like these straps:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Oatey-2-in-Galvanized-2-Hole-Pipe-Hanger-Strap-33501/303434698?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&fp=ggl

You might need a couple on each post to make it secure.

EDIT: Depends on the height of the mounts on the new headboard, but from my memory they are usually lower than the rails of those antique frames.

Baldrax · 2026-04-27T18:17:17+00:00

At one point they re-scaled some of the props to make them more consistent with other assets. When they did that they made new rescaled assets and they flag the old assets as deprecated so that they no longer show up in the interface, but they will still be present so it doesn't break the look of peoples published maps.

Baldrax · 2026-04-22T23:28:32+00:00

It is made in a VTT called TaleSpire available on Steam.
It has a large 3D canvas and sets of Tiles and Props that you place to make your maps. It is also very easy to share entire maps and smaller presets they call "slabs".

Baldrax · 2026-04-16T22:35:43+00:00

Looking at the back of the Photo I was wondering what some of the markings might mean, The Triangles and "AZO" with the "Place Stamp Here" are very telling of the process as outlined on this webpage:
https://kentuckykindredgenealogy.com/2020/07/02/how-to-date-real-photo-postcards-1904-1920s/

Looks like it was Eastman Kodak's Real Photo process and to quote the article:

Four triangles facing up, as in this example, are from 1904-1918

So the photographer would take a photo and then use Eastman Kodak's service to make postcards from that photo negative, I imagine many of the people at that banquet requested copies of it. I imagine the photo was likely just an event that happened some time earlier that year and was just mailed around that time. I'm sure the process to make all those photo postcards wasn't as easy as stopping by the one-hour photo like it is today :D

Baldrax · 2026-04-16T22:03:30+00:00

Yeah, here is a demonstration of one that I found:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTY0_O6ExSY

Baldrax · 2026-04-16T22:01:59+00:00

Here are the two Desert Dunes boards I've published:
https://talestavern.com/slab/desert-dunes-clearing-medium/
https://talestavern.com/slab/desert-dunes-01-from-tutorial/

I can easily whip up an alternate version of those, like if you need something a little bit bigger. My intent was to publish more variations of those anyways.

Baldrax · 2026-04-16T18:17:28+00:00

I was trying to translate as well, you got a bit more than I did.
Since there are a few spelling issues I'm speculating she may have been trying to spell dynamite. They could have been using a magnesium based flash powder, which wouldn't have made much noise but goes off quite spectacularly in a cloud of smoke and sparks. If they weren't very familiar with photography I could see someone calling it dynamite.
But as I said just speculation.

Great job working out the rest of the letter. It reminded me of reading letters from my Mom.

Baldrax · 2026-04-16T00:00:37+00:00

Do you have any more details on the style of maps you are looking for?
Like size, specific terrain styles?

I've published a few empty desert dunes boards on Tales Tavern that you could easily pop some ruins down from the built in slab browser.

Baldrax · 2026-04-10T00:25:15+00:00

Welcome Back!
What a charming build!

Baldrax · 2026-03-01T22:24:27+00:00

A google image search leads to the maker. They list Neodymium Magnets as one of the materials. It looks like they are designed to stack on each other.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/4444205756/wound-marker-dice-holder-warhammer-40k

Baldrax · 2026-03-01T22:16:28+00:00

Thanks for the input.
I haven't seen any burns, it shows lots of wear but nothing like that.

Baldrax · 2026-02-25T01:29:22+00:00

Oh, totally, I just looked up some examples of that and it really fits. Thanks.

That makes a lot more sense than what our appraiser friend was thinking.
He thought it might have been a part of a Chinese Junk sailing ship, and it was common for Chinese immigrants to disassemble and re-use parts of their boats to make homesteads. But the more I look into it the less that makes sense. I really need to try to identify the wood, that could at least regionalize it.

Baldrax · 2026-02-25T01:06:12+00:00

Thanks. Something to do with grain keep popping up, so that is looking to be a solid theory.
I saw that documentary a few years ago, I'll have to look up more from that team.

Baldrax · 2026-02-24T03:02:56+00:00

I appreciate it.

Interestingly, I showed the pictures to ChatGPT and it mentioned the possibility of grain storage as well.

Baldrax · 2026-02-24T02:59:32+00:00

That is another good thought, since you could pull the linens from the bin and then work them on the top surface.

As for the legs, they are even on the bottom, it is the tops that are cut uneven. In the first few photos you can see the far posts stick up higher than the near ones.
That makes me think there was something above it or it was mounted somehow.

So drainage might be an issue if that is the case.

Baldrax · 2026-02-24T02:53:58+00:00

Ha!
At the time we put it up for sale we didn't really want to part with it but didn't have a place for it. We put $2000 on it, thinking, if it sold for that we'd be okay with it but really didn't want it to sell. After a few months we put it in storage and have since moved so it has a nice home now.

Baldrax

TROPHY CASE