The 3.5 Red Hand Of Doom Handbook for DMs [Major spoilers!] - WIP, PEACH!

[Dusk Eclipse]

IIRC you get the legacy feats as bonus feats when you unlock the rituals, I don't have my books on hand so I can't check.

[Saintheart]

"A legacy item’s wielder who completes a given ritual immediately gains a bonus legacy feat: Least Legacy, Lesser Legacy, or Greater Legacy."

Least Legacy benefit: "Choose one item of legacy (or candidate item, if founding a legacy). If you meet the other prerequisites for wielding that item, you can use any of the item’s least legacy abilities that are available to a character of your level."

I think you're right, Dusk, but the issue with Kamate is that Stance Agility only gives a +2 insight bonus to Reflex saves while you're explicitly in an Iron Heart stance, and the weapon doesn't otherwise grant you Iron Heart stances. Consequently, in a build for Azarr Kul that doesn't include martial adept levels, you have to burn three feats to access that +2: EWP to be able to wield Kamate at all, Martial Study for an Iron Heart maneuver, and then Martial Stance for an Iron Heart stance. On a non-human, non-strongheart halfling cleric (if you go that way) every feat is precious, and blowing even one feat slot on EWP (bastard sword) would be questionable on a fighter, let alone a cleric.

I suppose you could argue Kamate's Steel Wind (Ex) ability would count as a prerequisite so you could then just pick up Martial Stance, thus bringing your opportunity cost down to 2 feats for a +2 to a situational saving throw, but it's a hell of an investment to access the weapon's full power at Azarr Kul's "book" level of 11 or so.

This is not to say it's a useless legacy weapon (blasphemy! ) in that it has a couple of other nice toys to add to a boss -- Steel Wind is handy, a single channelled Shocking Grasp is at least not bad, Accurate Strike is useful against PCs who use invisibility, and a +3 bastard sword is nice to have. On the other hand, most of these abilities take swift actions to access, which (absent a RKV 7) means you're only going to be able to use one of these tricks once per round.

Possibly it's worth taking only if you feel you must have the maneuver Steel Wind 5/day, since that's probably the standout feature of the weapon; strictly speaking you're getting five applications of Martial Study (Steel Wind) for the price of one feat.

[Menteith]

After many delays, our group finally got off the ground! After requesting a nonevil alignment from evil, I ended up with a CN Necropolitan Cleric with the Corpsecrafter line, a CN Factotum focusing on poisoning, a CN Druid, a CN Draconic Bard, and a CG Spirit Shaman. It actually worked out, as they're all comfortable starting the game as retainers of Verresa Kaal. I honestly have no idea where this will end up going, but I'm really interested to see which side they'll be on at the Battle of Brindol. Ah, player characters....

[Kuulvheysoon]

I think you're right, Dusk, but the issue with Kamate is that Stance Agility only gives a +2 insight bonus to Reflex saves while you're explicitly in an Iron Heart stance, and the weapon doesn't otherwise grant you Iron Heart stances. Consequently, in a build for Azarr Kul that doesn't include martial adept levels, you have to burn three feats to access that +2: EWP to be able to wield Kamate at all, Martial Study for an Iron Heart maneuver, and then Martial Stance for an Iron Heart stance. On a non-human, non-strongheart halfling cleric (if you go that way) every feat is precious, and blowing even one feat slot on EWP (bastard sword) would be questionable on a fighter, let alone a cleric.

Any character with Martial Weapon proficiency can wield a bastard sword (two handed) as a martial weapon.

[Saintheart]

Any character with Martial Weapon proficiency can wield a bastard sword (two handed) as a martial weapon.

It's not the problem of being able to wield it as such. It's a problem of prerequisites. Being able to use this particular Legacy Weapon has prerequisites of BAB +4, Balance 4 ranks, and specifically EWP: Bastard Sword.

EDIT:

After many delays, our group finally got off the ground! After requesting a nonevil alignment from evil, I ended up with a CN Necropolitan Cleric with the Corpsecrafter line, a CN Factotum focusing on poisoning, a CN Druid, a CN Draconic Bard, and a CG Spirit Shaman. It actually worked out, as they're all comfortable starting the game as retainers of Verresa Kaal. I honestly have no idea where this will end up going, but I'm really interested to see which side they'll be on at the Battle of Brindol. Ah, player characters....

"We'll fight for Brindol! Not because it's the right thing to do, but because they have cuter girls than the Red Hand do!"

[ThiagoMartell]

My players met Jorr today. I RPed him like Clint Eastwood's character in Gran Torino.
"Get off my lawn"
They loved it.

[Saintheart]

My players met Jorr today. I RPed him like Clint Eastwood's character in Gran Torino.
"Get off my lawn"
They loved it.

That one's goin' in the handbook because It Is Awesome.

[The Glyphstone]

Probably better-done than my 'Billybob Joe Redneck' accent...though I suspect said accent is the reason my group actually remembered his name (the sole NPC in the entire campaign to earn such an honor).

[Uncle Festy]

I'm a bit inexperienced as a DM, and I'm going to be starting a PBP Red Hand of Doom campaign in the near future, so if people wouldn't mind giving me some advice/feedback, I'd appreciate it.
Spoiled for rather absurd length.

Spoiler

Show

So.

Red Hand of Doom in Eberron.

The key problem that I've identified is Tiamat. She's kind of a core piece of the campaign, but she just doesn't work the same way in Eberron as she does in most other settings. Tiamat, as I understand it (from this guide), is a demon... god... thing, trapped in the Pit of Five Sorrows. She wouldn't be like evil gods in other settings, willing to grant power to mortals in order to increase her influence upon the world. As far as I can tell, the only thing she would be interested in would be her own escape. And for that matter, since she's been sealed away, she wouldn't be able to help anyone in the first place! Her influence would have to come from her Demonic, Draconic, and Raksha servants.

So unless I'm missing something, Azarr Kul's endgame makes the most sense as trying to free Tiamat, or at least weaken her prison, and he will be assisted by - and may even be one of - Taimat's Raksha followers. But if that's Kul's ultimate goal, why is he even bothering with the whole "invade Elsir Vale" thing? I think I've got something resembling an idea, but it's a bit stream-of-consciousness and probably makes no sense to anyone who isn't me. Which is why I came to ask for help - I'm hoping for a few extra opinions on whether this will work and, if not, how to streamline it a bit.

-What Azarr Kul is looking for is not a war that will get him something physical, but a war that will bring death and chaos, because Azarr Kul has an Eldritch Machine - meant to break the seals on Tiamat's prison - that is fueled by death and war. Or more specifically, it is fueled by souls (haven't quite decided if it collects the energy that binds a soul to its body, or literally collects souls, but either way, it draws energy from death).

-Now, this artifact (which I'm calling the Soulcatcher for now) can't just steal soul energy from anywhere - the weapon that kills the soul's former owner must be marked by the Soulcatcher to link it to the weapon. Again, haven't yet decided if the mark has to be an arcane mark or can be an arbitrary symbol (hint, if it's the latter it will be the mark of the Red Hand), but either way, all the weapons of the horde have been so marked. Meaning that the more foes the horde crushes, the more people it kills, the more soul energy can be collected to open Tiamat's prison.

-There are two different pieces of Azarr Kul's arcane device to free Tiamat. The first piece, the Soulcatcher, was stolen from the Lord of Blades. The Soulcatcher was secretly an essential piece of the Warforged creation process, as it used the massive source of arcane energy to offset the price of literally fabricating a new soul. ((Trivia 1! New soul energy was then gathered by using the Soulcatcher to mark all the warforged and all the arcane weapons produced by the Cyre branch of House Cannith. Trivia 2! An attempt by Cannith artificers to capture all the soul energy from every death in Cyre backfired, instead immediately drawing out the souls of every sentient being currently in Cyre. Hint - that was the Day of Mourning. Trivia 3! The Soulcatcher was retrieved from Xen'drik along with the original designs for the Warforged, as the Soulcatcher was, even then, used to create the Warforged, as well as... other stuff, which I'll get to in a minute.))

-The second half, the actual arcane device for altering the relationships between planes, was taken from the Ghostlord. I'm refluffing the Ghostlord as a defector from the Gatekeepers - and one of the ones who helped seal off the planar invasion from Xoriat in the first place. He still held onto one of the only remaining copies of the plans for the eldritch machine they used, though they powered it with the combined magical might of a few hundred of the strongest druids in the world. This is why Azarr Kul was even interested in the Ghostlord in the first place - the phylactery was a nice bonus, but his real goal was the plans for the eldritch machine. ((Trivial 4! These plans were retrieved from Xen'drik by Vvaraak and entrusted to the Gatekeepers, but they were originally made by the Giants to repel the Quori invasion, and was powered by - you guessed it - the Soulcatcher. They sacrificed a lot of elves, let me tell you.))

So, uh. That's about it. They'll learn about a lost artifact from a group of followers of the Lord of Blades who were sent to retrieve it (and who will... probably replace the Giants? I'm not sure yet). The Ghostlord will, at some point, let them know about the stolen plans, assuming they don't completely alienate him. And they probably won't ever find out about the stuff under the "trivia" tags, unless they do some serious research and digging, partly because it's obscure but mostly because it's irrelevant. But the whole thing won't come together until they finally run into Azarr Kul as he's finishing the process of breaking open Tiamat's prison.

... Wow, this got really complicated, really fast. Any thoughts from people more experienced with RHoD, Eberron, and/or DMing?

[Menteith]

"We'll fight for Brindol! Not because it's the right thing to do, but because they have cuter girls than the Red Hand do!"

So far, everyone immediately distrusts Lord Jarmaath with the basis "He's too helpful/competent", and they're debating how much of the Dawn Way they'd have to cede to an invading force in order to satiate them. Also, our Factotum has poisoned Norro Wiston and intends to provide an antidote to indebt him to her. Good lord, I love my group, but sometimes... .

[Saintheart]

I'm a bit inexperienced as a DM, and I'm going to be starting a PBP Red Hand of Doom campaign in the near future, so if people wouldn't mind giving me some advice/feedback, I'd appreciate it.
Spoiled for rather absurd length.

Spoiler

Show

So.

Red Hand of Doom in Eberron.

The key problem that I've identified is Tiamat. She's kind of a core piece of the campaign, but she just doesn't work the same way in Eberron as she does in most other settings. Tiamat, as I understand it (from this guide), is a demon... god... thing, trapped in the Pit of Five Sorrows. She wouldn't be like evil gods in other settings, willing to grant power to mortals in order to increase her influence upon the world. As far as I can tell, the only thing she would be interested in would be her own escape. And for that matter, since she's been sealed away, she wouldn't be able to help anyone in the first place! Her influence would have to come from her Demonic, Draconic, and Raksha servants.

So unless I'm missing something, Azarr Kul's endgame makes the most sense as trying to free Tiamat, or at least weaken her prison, and he will be assisted by - and may even be one of - Taimat's Raksha followers. But if that's Kul's ultimate goal, why is he even bothering with the whole "invade Elsir Vale" thing? I think I've got something resembling an idea, but it's a bit stream-of-consciousness and probably makes no sense to anyone who isn't me. Which is why I came to ask for help - I'm hoping for a few extra opinions on whether this will work and, if not, how to streamline it a bit.

-What Azarr Kul is looking for is not a war that will get him something physical, but a war that will bring death and chaos, because Azarr Kul has an Eldritch Machine - meant to break the seals on Tiamat's prison - that is fueled by death and war. Or more specifically, it is fueled by souls (haven't quite decided if it collects the energy that binds a soul to its body, or literally collects souls, but either way, it draws energy from death).

-Now, this artifact (which I'm calling the Soulcatcher for now) can't just steal soul energy from anywhere - the weapon that kills the soul's former owner must be marked by the Soulcatcher to link it to the weapon. Again, haven't yet decided if the mark has to be an arcane mark or can be an arbitrary symbol (hint, if it's the latter it will be the mark of the Red Hand), but either way, all the weapons of the horde have been so marked. Meaning that the more foes the horde crushes, the more people it kills, the more soul energy can be collected to open Tiamat's prison.

-There are two different pieces of Azarr Kul's arcane device to free Tiamat. The first piece, the Soulcatcher, was stolen from the Lord of Blades. The Soulcatcher was secretly an essential piece of the Warforged creation process, as it used the massive source of arcane energy to offset the price of literally fabricating a new soul. ((Trivia 1! New soul energy was then gathered by using the Soulcatcher to mark all the warforged and all the arcane weapons produced by the Cyre branch of House Cannith. Trivia 2! An attempt by Cannith artificers to capture all the soul energy from every death in Cyre backfired, instead immediately drawing out the souls of every sentient being currently in Cyre. Hint - that was the Day of Mourning. Trivia 3! The Soulcatcher was retrieved from Xen'drik along with the original designs for the Warforged, as the Soulcatcher was, even then, used to create the Warforged, as well as... other stuff, which I'll get to in a minute.))

-The second half, the actual arcane device for altering the relationships between planes, was taken from the Ghostlord. I'm refluffing the Ghostlord as a defector from the Gatekeepers - and one of the ones who helped seal off the planar invasion from Xoriat in the first place. He still held onto one of the only remaining copies of the plans for the eldritch machine they used, though they powered it with the combined magical might of a few hundred of the strongest druids in the world. This is why Azarr Kul was even interested in the Ghostlord in the first place - the phylactery was a nice bonus, but his real goal was the plans for the eldritch machine. ((Trivial 4! These plans were retrieved from Xen'drik by Vvaraak and entrusted to the Gatekeepers, but they were originally made by the Giants to repel the Quori invasion, and was powered by - you guessed it - the Soulcatcher. They sacrificed a lot of elves, let me tell you.))

So, uh. That's about it. They'll learn about a lost artifact from a group of followers of the Lord of Blades who were sent to retrieve it (and who will... probably replace the Giants? I'm not sure yet). The Ghostlord will, at some point, let them know about the stolen plans, assuming they don't completely alienate him. And they probably won't ever find out about the stuff under the "trivia" tags, unless they do some serious research and digging, partly because it's obscure but mostly because it's irrelevant. But the whole thing won't come together until they finally run into Azarr Kul as he's finishing the process of breaking open Tiamat's prison.

... Wow, this got really complicated, really fast. Any thoughts from people more experienced with RHoD, Eberron, and/or DMing?

I'm not much up on Eberron, but going off what AslanCross wrote about running an Eberron RHOD that sounds like a decent rationale for the war. The RHOD "countdown til doom" is a good selling point for the module, but at the same time it doesn't make a lot of sense: if Azarr Kul wants to smash the Vale, you'd have to wonder why he doesn't wait to launch the offensive until he's got his army of demons and devils from the Fane first.

A "sufficiently large spillage of blood" sort of plot does at least cover that possibility - that the door cannot be opened without enough death, as it were.

Put it this way, what you've done is come up with a deep and thoughtful papering over of a hole in the RHOD backstory, at least so far as it relates to Eberron. Works for me.

[BerronBrightaxe]

I'm not much up on Eberron, but going off what AslanCross wrote about running an Eberron RHOD that sounds like a decent rationale for the war. The RHOD "countdown til doom" is a good selling point for the module, but at the same time it doesn't make a lot of sense: if Azarr Kul wants to smash the Vale, you'd have to wonder why he doesn't wait to launch the offensive until he's got his army of demons and devils from the Fane first.

A "sufficiently large spillage of blood" sort of plot does at least cover that possibility - that the door cannot be opened without enough death, as it were.

Put it this way, what you've done is come up with a deep and thoughtful papering over of a hole in the RHOD backstory, at least so far as it relates to Eberron. Works for me.

this is something which has always bothered me too...

I'm just putting this in spoilertags. I don't think my group reads this forum, but if my group does (you know who you are!!), STAY OUT OF THE KITCHEN!!

Spoiler

Show

I'm keeping this vague, in case they could handle the heat

There is 'something' in or under Brindol which Tiamat really wants. It was the reason she 'reactivated' the old Fane and made Azurr Kal her favorite. Azurr Kal spend the better of two years gathering several tribes from the surrounding areas (up to 500 miles, he send out messagers). In this way Azurr Kal was able to get thousands of (hob)goblins, dragons and other dragonkind. (this makes more sense to me then such a big army coming from a relative small mountainsite, and it also gives you ample opportunity for adventures on earlier lvls)

Now due to a recent development Tiamat has learned that someone else has learned of the 'something' and decided not to wait for the portal to be activated, but send off the army to get it asap.

This 'something' could be anything... a treasure, an item, a portal to somewhere, a grave, etc.. It could be anything storywise.

In the end the adventurers have beat Tiamat's army, but now they have to deal with a third person/party/organization

[Axle]

Hi everybody. I liked this guide so much i decided to register!

Also, I have a question or two.

Spoiler

Show

I've been a player in a group running through this module for the last couple of months or so; we're down to the aspect of tiamat, and there's talk of running it into the city of the spider queen module after.

Pc's:

Spoiler

Show

Halfling Wizard 11

Human Druid 11

Human Knight 10 (originally a monk, killed by Abby @lvl 10)

and me: Half Elf Rogue 4, Fighter 2, Dread Commando 5 (originally human, killed by ozzy @lvl 5 or 6, also Dm let me take a perm -2 to con instead of negative level or rolling a new rogue)

Anyways, being the enterprising player i am, i decided to swipe all 5 of the trapped chests in the fane of tiamet with my bag of holding II.

Cost to construct an auto reset magic trap is caster lvl x spell lvl x 500gp; using dragon's breath for the base spell (lvl5, 9th caster min -Kharn?), that works out to >22k per chest without factoring the cost of the dragon scales and bones they're constructed from.

So my question is, what would be a good market price to set them at?

I've already mentioned the formula to the dm, as well as the problem of trying to sell them when no city in the vale has a cap higher than 15k. I have a feeling he's going to nerf the value horribly which really rustles my jimmies because i have craft - trapmaking, and that stuff is expensive.

Great guide and commentary on the material. The spoiler tags were nice, i was able to read up on what could have happened without ruining the ending.

P.S Can anyone recommend a similar guide or journal for CotSQ?

[ThiagoMartell]

Man, you really shouldn't be reading the handbook if you're going through the module as a player.

[Saintheart]

Yeah ... particularly considering the thread title has [major spoilers] attached to it for that very reason ...

[Axle]

We had just finished battle of brindol when i found this guide, also, as i stated in my first post, the gratuitous use of spoiler tags allowed me to read up on the different ways things could have gone without ruining anything or unknowingly metagaming.

Anyways, i'd still like to know what you guys think.

[Saintheart]

Well, on the last question, I don't know of any equivalent guide as such on City of the Spider Queen, though I've contemplated doing one in the same mode as this.

As to pricing the traps on those chests ... well, I'm not really sure how to advise you. As you've pointed out, Brindol ain't exactly Greyhawk/Sharn/Waterdeep, so pretty much anywhere you go in the Vale is going to either say they don't want it, can't buy it, or will only offer you a smaller price for them. Only thing that springs to mind is that I don't think you have to create a magic item at max caster level; you can build underpowered versions by RAW, which might reduce the price somewhat.

Dragonscale and dragonbone I personally don't think should raise the price of a good substantially if at all, mostly because dragon anatomy doesn't provide decent gear. Ye Olde Sword Ground From A Dragon's Tooth only does +1 acid damage, and the archetypical dragonhide leather gives I think 5 energy resistance ... to the armour, not the wearer.

EDIT: Also, where are my manners - thank you for the praise on the guide; I'm glad you liked it!

[The Glyphstone]

Also, keep in mind that you need a logical buyer for what you're selling. Magic traps to put on chests probably isn't a high-demand good, so while it might have a high listed creation cost, you'll either have to wait a good length of time to find a buyer who will pay that 1/2 list cost (probably longer than you have left in the campaign), or take an offer for less than you wanted in order to unload them quickly.

[Axle]

I was having a few beers with my DM last night, and discussed some possibilities.

Spoiler

Show

RE: Caster lvl. That is using the minimum level for a cleric to cast dragon's breath, it is also a 4th lvl arcane spell though i can't recall seeing to many arcance casters in the module who can use lvl 4 spells.

Lady Kaal is the leader of the merchant council, there's a possibility there, as what merchant wouldn't want a trapped chest for their wealth (a couple of us are considering keeping one for ourselves). Even if that doesn't pan out, it's an excuse to get me in the door to case the place ala this post.

Lastly i guess, i can wait until we start CotSQ. Hillsfar has a 100k cap, and there's waterdeep after that i suppose.


I guess it would obviously come down to each DM, but do you have any suggestions on handling the treasure that's not treasure? The aforementioned chests, various poison glands (crafted wyvern poison is 3k per dose), the expired bank notes from vraath keep could be a boon to someone with forgery, and some of the statues in the various settings given their detail.

Most of our players prefer rules lawyering to hand waving, and if i ever decide to run this module for another group i'd like some input.

[The Glyphstone]

Have it all conveniently total up whatever will bring the party exactly to expected WBL when you start CotSQ. Problem solved.

[Saintheart]

Or they turn in absurdly overpowered items for a piece of the rock; do they still have the Deed from Vraath Keep? That's probably the most valuable thing in the place, because RHOD implies that if you've got it, possession is nine tenths of the law and you're well on your way to actually becoming a lord of Elsir Vale if you want that.

The expired bank notes probably won't be that much use since they were drawn presumably on a bank, merchant, or government that hasn't been around for a couple of centuries -- the Vault of Vraath Keep hasn't been disturbed since before the keep fell about three centuries ago, which is part of the reason why the notes of credit are expired. Even with an absurd Forgery and/or Bluff check I don't think I'd have much luck trying to talk Ye Olde Swiss Bank out of a few thousand gold pieces swearing black and blue that Nathan Rothschild himself gave me a loan two hundred years back and that I've just dropped in to cash the check.

[GreyMantle]

Okay, time for a rather out-there query.

Let's say that you're adapting RHoD to a rather notably different setting than the standard D&D fare. To elaborate, a steampunk 18th or 19th century "Earth but with magic" type setting. Think the old crpg Arcanum.

Primarily to help the player's intuitively grasp the setting, we'd want the geopolitical borders and relations to be fairly similar to what they were in the real world. If this description isn't too vague, does anyone have suggestions as to where in the world RHoD might be suitably inserted?

[The Glyphstone]

Okay, time for a rather out-there query.

Let's say that you're adapting RHoD to a rather notably different setting than the standard D&D fare. To elaborate, a steampunk 18th or 19th century "Earth but with magic" type setting. Think the old crpg Arcanum.

Primarily to help the player's intuitively grasp the setting, we'd want the geopolitical borders and relations to be fairly similar to what they were in the real world. If this description isn't too vague, does anyone have suggestions as to where in the world RHoD might be suitably inserted?

Hm. If you're not terribly concerned with accidentally offending someone, you might be able to squash it into the Weird Wild West. The Red Hand becomes a collection of American Indian tribes, the towns become...towns. A bridge over a gorge can go unchanged, you need to deliver a message to the nearest cavalry fort instead of hiring dwarven mercenaries...

[GreyMantle]

Hm. If you're not terribly concerned with accidentally offending someone, you might be able to squash it into the Weird Wild West. The Red Hand becomes a collection of American Indian tribes, the towns become...towns. A bridge over a gorge can go unchanged, you need to deliver a message to the nearest cavalry fort instead of hiring dwarven mercenaries...

That's mildly racist, but it could potentially work. The advantage of America is that it has a lot of wide open space. Which is useful for this sort of adventure. And the Elsir Vale is totally a frontier setting. I'm not a huge fan of Western tropes, but the parallels between RHoD and the West are fairly noticeable.

I was kind of hoping to set it in Europe (because I'm an ethnocentric tool), but I suspect that Europe might be too densely populated for this sort of story. Europe's best locations would probably be Southern/Eastern Europe. The Balkans or the countries just north of them. We'd have a distant authority (the Ottomans) and a lot of small, diverse cultures, but the geography is too mountainous to allow thorough communication.

[Dusk Eclipse]

"A legacy item’s wielder who completes a given ritual immediately gains a bonus legacy feat: Least Legacy, Lesser Legacy, or Greater Legacy."

Least Legacy benefit: "Choose one item of legacy (or candidate item, if founding a legacy). If you meet the other prerequisites for wielding that item, you can use any of the item’s least legacy abilities that are available to a character of your level."

I think you're right, Dusk, but the issue with Kamate is that Stance Agility only gives a +2 insight bonus to Reflex saves while you're explicitly in an Iron Heart stance, and the weapon doesn't otherwise grant you Iron Heart stances. Consequently, in a build for Azarr Kul that doesn't include martial adept levels, you have to burn three feats to access that +2: EWP to be able to wield Kamate at all, Martial Study for an Iron Heart maneuver, and then Martial Stance for an Iron Heart stance. On a non-human, non-strongheart halfling cleric (if you go that way) every feat is precious, and blowing even one feat slot on EWP (bastard sword) would be questionable on a fighter, let alone a cleric.

I suppose you could argue Kamate's Steel Wind (Ex) ability would count as a prerequisite so you could then just pick up Martial Stance, thus bringing your opportunity cost down to 2 feats for a +2 to a situational saving throw, but it's a hell of an investment to access the weapon's full power at Azarr Kul's "book" level of 11 or so.

This is not to say it's a useless legacy weapon (blasphemy! ) in that it has a couple of other nice toys to add to a boss -- Steel Wind is handy, a single channelled Shocking Grasp is at least not bad, Accurate Strike is useful against PCs who use invisibility, and a +3 bastard sword is nice to have. On the other hand, most of these abilities take swift actions to access, which (absent a RKV 7) means you're only going to be able to use one of these tricks once per round.

Possibly it's worth taking only if you feel you must have the maneuver Steel Wind 5/day, since that's probably the standout feature of the weapon; strictly speaking you're getting five applications of Martial Study (Steel Wind) for the price of one feat.

I was thinking that you could addapt the RKV to need and advance Iron Heart maneuvers, rename Iron Knight Vindicator* and tie to an appropiate god(des) and bam Azzar Kul can now use Kamate without jumping through (a lot) of hoops.




*Knight of the Five Sorrows works too

[The Glyphstone]

That's mildly racist, but it could potentially work. The advantage of America is that it has a lot of wide open space. Which is useful for this sort of adventure. And the Elsir Vale is totally a frontier setting. I'm not a huge fan of Western tropes, but the parallels between RHoD and the West are fairly noticeable.

I was kind of hoping to set it in Europe (because I'm an ethnocentric tool), but I suspect that Europe might be too densely populated for this sort of story. Europe's best locations would probably be Southern/Eastern Europe. The Balkans or the countries just north of them. We'd have a distant authority (the Ottomans) and a lot of small, diverse cultures, but the geography is too mountainous to allow thorough communication.

Yeah, replacing a hobgoblin army with Indians does have some powerful unfortunate implications, but that's why I started with the disclaimer about offending people. The problem is that in a real-world setting, we only have humans to pick from, so putting anybody into the role of 'marauding monster horde' is going to end up at least mildly racist.

Sadly, I know nothing about European geography, and every other marauding army scenario I can think of wouldn't fit into the timeframe you wanted.

[GreyMantle]

Yeah, replacing a hobgoblin army with Indians does have some powerful unfortunate implications, but that's why I started with the disclaimer about offending people. The problem is that in a real-world setting, we only have humans to pick from, so putting anybody into the role of 'marauding monster horde' is going to end up at least mildly racist.

Sadly, I know nothing about European geography, and every other marauding army scenario I can think of wouldn't fit into the timeframe you wanted.

Just for clarity's sake, the idea would be to integrate fantasy races into the world pretty thoroughly. I'd probably do it Eberron or Shadowrun style. So there'd be french elves, french dwarves, french humans, german dwarves, german elves, german humans, native american elves, native american dwarves, native american humans, etc...

Setting it in the West, though, is going to probably carry some icky moral connotations no matter what. One option would be to make the Red Hand a relative newcomer to the scene. Have them come up from underground, or have recently planeshifted over or something. They would be equally hostile to natives and europeans. It's sort of getting into Cowboys vs. Aliens territory, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This decision would keep them as an alien force, but it would allow me to not feel really bad about myself.

[The Glyphstone]

Oh, okay. Might I suggest looking into Native American legends, then? You might be able to find a 'evil monster/trickster spirit/demon people' race featured in the lore of one tribe or another, and then have the Red Hand be the resurgence of this mythical monster species after they were driven into hiding many moons ago. Now the native tribes could be potential allies, instead of the bad guys.

[Saintheart]

Another possibility, just to set the controversy tinderbox flaming even higher: what about the Middle or Near East? As in, an army marching down out of the Turkish mountains on Jerusalem itself? It sort-of fits the area since it's about 100 miles from the western end of the Vale to Brindol...?

[Saintheart]

Oh, okay. Might I suggest looking into Native American legends, then? You might be able to find a 'evil monster/trickster spirit/demon people' race featured in the lore of one tribe or another, and then have the Red Hand be the resurgence of this mythical monster species after they were driven into hiding many moons ago. Now the native tribes could be potential allies, instead of the bad guys.

Double post, but: you could avoid the racial issue entirely by turning the Tiri Kitor into the "Indian elves" they look like in the book. They even live in teepees. That way it's the Cowboys and the Indians against ... the bad guys.