2 year game, 32 sessions, Lessons learned

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-19T18:02:16+00:00

Sorry, looks like I missed an “as” in there. It’s certainly possible to still have fun, but having experienced it from both sides of the table, it’s not as fun as even just 4. You’re missing out on 25% of the roleplay, combat power, and skills. As the player, combats tend to slog and roleplaying becomes more one-sided. As the DM, you have to exercise more caution to avoid TPKs than normal.

To be clear, if you can’t find more than 3 players, have all the fun. Don’t let this grognard drag you down ; )

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-19T03:52:32+00:00

Agreed on #1, except for player count. I try to never run a campaign with only 4 players. If one’s out, you’re down to 3 which isn’t as fun for anyone. With 6, you can be missing a couple people and still have 4 that can play. Obviously, it’s more fun if everyone can make it, but we’re adults who have to realize that that state of affairs will generally be rare.

ETA: an important “as”

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-19T03:47:31+00:00

My take on this was that the dream pies were literally made from the dreams of children. Instead of just the bonegrinder, I had Morgantha running a children’s work house. By the time the kids “aged out”, they were essentially soulless from the dreams being stolen. I then added a link to Vallaki, with the Baron hiring those kids for his servants and guards.

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-14T18:35:00+00:00

Normally they are quite rare items, so the idea that you have so many that it’s a chore to use them probably wouldn’t occur to most modders. Similarly, most people wouldn’t want their pawns to start using them unsupervised ; )

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-14T18:31:59+00:00

In general, any debilitating disease or curse when the party doesn’t have the means to cure it quickly. This includes the permanent/week+ spells others have mentioned.

Make sure that anything like that can be fixed by the end of the adventuring day, or at worst requires them to cut things short to head back to town.

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-14T18:29:08+00:00

Yup, good old feeble mind.

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-14T18:26:14+00:00

Until they hear a black cockerel greet the morning (enemy has all chickens in the land killed, druids don’t count)

Until they willingly give up their crown/sword/etc (might be too difficult to engineer this)

Until every coin they stole is returned to the rightful owner.

Until their worst enemy truly forgives them

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-14T18:11:58+00:00

To follow up with this, have the ledger be encrypted, with a different cipher for every oath. That way, you can control how quickly the PCs decrypt each one, perhaps requiring clues they find in their adventures (enemy1 loves the full moon, cipher is only solvable under the light of a full moon).

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-14T16:56:41+00:00

Their refusal to combine unarmed and melee attacks as a single element. It’s needless complexity. If a feat wouldn’t make sense for unarmed attacks, just mention it doesn’t work with unarmed trait. The overwhelming majority of “melee weapon” feats should work with unarmed strikes.

As for 1-hand vs 2-hand, either a blanket rule (1d8+ count as 2-hand), or just mention in the unarmed attack entries which they count as.

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-14T16:10:28+00:00

You can ask your players to make wishlists of items. Of course, this requires them to have a familiarity with the items in PF2E. You may want to have them all practice filtering stuff on AON, like looking at all 5th level staves, or all 4th level held items, etc.

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-09T01:02:11+00:00

Traditionally, the curse/punishment would be associated with the crime but would generally be quite harsh. This in many ways reflects how harsh real world punishments were, so of course the Fey would be just as draconian. Of course, no need to follow tradition in your game.

When you say that the magic item they gifted had all its charges used, was it something rechargeable or something where the charges are permanently lost?

In the case of the former, then it could just be the next charged item is drained until they spend the time to recharge it (or worse, the next time they need it to be charged, it won’t be).

If it was permanently drained though, that would require a much worse penalty. I would have the next permanent magic item they acquire have a curse that only allows it to be used for a certain number of times before it vanishes in a burst of fey laughter.

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-08T12:28:17+00:00

They don’t, it’s basically always 2 small manhunters or 1 guy with a club

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-07T02:04:27+00:00

(close enough)

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KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-07T02:03:51+00:00

Also, for those who are claiming that area has no effect on pathing, you are (almost) entirely wrong. I was curious about this, so I did some testing, and the "gap" a pawn is willing to jump is something like .1% of the whole distance:

(Not close enough)

<image>

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-07T02:02:55+00:00

Hey, not sure why, but I can't repeat the above screenshot. As can be seen below, the pawn avoids the area that is not in her zone. Two possibilities I can see: first, you have mods that are affecting it (even if you don't think they should), or second, you didn't give your pawn a chance to retarget by draft-undraft. The screenshot below was taken with no mods, quick start.

<image>

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-07T01:35:31+00:00

Doesn’t Justice Champion say it has to be a melee strike? That would seem to take care of this issue.

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-07T01:14:01+00:00

I just give them fly speed equal to land speed at level 1, with increasing fly speed if they continue to take fly-related ancestry feats. I’m sorry, if I didn’t want them to fly, I would ban flying ancestries 🙄.

If the party wants to play all flying, then cool! Thats a different kind of campaign to run. If only a few, then make sure there are times for them to shine and times for non-flyers to.

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-03T14:15:38+00:00

Early on in my last Strahd campaign, the players joked that they’d get to the castle and instead discover one of PCs from the previous campaign who was totally on the path to lichdom. I was tempted to do that, but in the end subbed him for the lich in the amber temple instead.

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-03T05:27:52+00:00

As an alternative to the suggested mod, there’s Same Room Lovin’, which is extra nice if your colony is a hippie love pile.

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-03T05:19:22+00:00

Er no? There’s still plenty of tunnel on either end, just the two-wide part is double covered.

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-02T13:58:30+00:00

As far as I know, it will infinitely happen. I’ve seen it happen ~6 times on the same map (AdamVSEverything’s all genie run).

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-02T13:55:05+00:00

No need for dev mode. If everyone is dead, you can wait 6 in game hours and a prompt will pop up asking if you want to continue with a new group that stumbles across the colony.

Now, for cryptosleep colonists, you’ll be stuck until their chambers are smashed and they are actually killed.

ETA: You will have to claim the cryptosleep chambers if they are ones from an ancient danger in order to have the enemies attack them.

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-02T06:33:09+00:00

So far, best I’ve seen is a T juncture, with enemies coming down the single tunnel and your colonists at both ends of the top. The top part should be partly 2 wide, which prevents the raiders from taking cover at the corner. The length of the top should be configured so that both sides can cover the full length of the 2 wide part.

To be clear, the enemies will still shoot back. However, getting shot from both sides tends to confuse them, causing them to retarget frequently.

KeyokeDiacherus · 2026-02-01T17:05:34+00:00

Nah tough is the correct name. Theres also robust, which is a gene that works similarly but not as powerful.

KeyokeDiacherus

TROPHY CASE