Adventure Path Pack Customization Options

[Sgt_Fiddler]

I am running Rise of the Runelords right now and am thinking about purchasing the AP pack in Hero Lab. My one hang-up right now is that I enjoy customizing encounters/tweaking the AP and it's hard to tell how much flexibility the pack provides. Could anyone provide some insight to the following (assuming I only have the base Rulebook license and the RotRL pack):

1.) Templates - the quick and dirty way of tweaking encounters. I love the things. Are they included in the base license or as customization options in the AP pack? Are just simple templates included, or also more advanced ones/class templates?

2.) Enemies - does the AP pack include stat blocks for all of the monsters listed in the appendix for random encounters?

3.) Spell lists - I'm not a huge fan of some of the spell choices in the default stat blocks in the AP, will the pack include access to the full spell lists for their classes so I can tweak this?

4.) Saving - Finally, after applying all my various tweaks and modifications, will I be able to save the modified encounters to be able to just load them up on initiative at the table?

Thanks for any and all help!

 

[Mathias]

1) You'll have some of the basic templates, like Advanced and Giant, but you'll need to purchase bestiaries and other books to get additional templates. Before purchasing the pack you can see what you have available - on the Classes tab, in the Classes and Templates list, click Level Up!, and scroll down in the list until you come to the templates - the ones you already have access to will be what you can use to customize the encounters from the encounter library.

2) yes

3) If you've only got the core rulebook in your license so far, you would be able to edit the spell list to remove anything that's there, and add any spells from the core rulebook. Adding other books like the APG to your license will expand the list of new spells to choose from.

4) You'll save the modified versions as normal saved portfolios, rather than overwriting what's in the encounter library, but yes, you can do this.

 

[Sgt_Fiddler]

1.) Bummer, but it makes sense

2.) Awesome!

3.) Also makes sense, but worth a shot

4.) Perfect! I was cringing internally thinking saying "Roll Initiative!" then having everyone wait while I tinkered with stat blocks behind the screen lol

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

[Ualaa]

Lone Wolf is basically pre-creating all the encounters, as a portfolio each.
And each is organized, as they appear within each chapter of the adventure path.

You can open the encounter (portfolio) and make any changes, subject to your having access to the material.
Shadow Chemosh has a ton of "adjustments" beyond what you can do with the base Hero Lab, and that's part of the Community Pack which is free.

You could decide that your group is stronger than average, so "adjust" the monsters by increasing their dodge bonus to AC by +2 (or whatever).
Or maybe give them maximum health...
Or adjust some of the magical items they use, to better fit what your party uses -- if you have a Fighter type who uses an atypical sword, having an enemy drop what he uses rather than a generic Longsword may be nice for him.

Any adjustments you make, save as your own version of that encounter.
Then load your version, when you're ready for that encounter.

 

[Sgt_Fiddler]

I've seen a bit about the community pack, but am still a bit confused about what's included in it. Could you expand on that a bit? Is it additional community defined feats/spells/items? Or is it more of a aid in facilitating quick customizations?

One more quick question: is it possible to save the customized monsters independently? I'm about to run my PCs through their infiltration of a goblin stronghold (Thistletop from RotRL), and depending on how loud they are enemy reinforcements could appear mid-combat, so if I could save the modified monsters and add them to the encounter on the fly that'd be awesome

Thanks again for all the responses!

 

[ShadowChemosh]

I've seen a bit about the community pack, but am still a bit confused about what's included in it. Could you expand on that a bit? Is it additional community defined feats/spells/items? Or is it more of a aid in facilitating quick customizations?!

Yes all of that. The community originally supported the APs and modules. Many of the older ones are still available for free.

My stuff has lots of pre built options like adjustments, feats, items, archetypes that let groups easily implement house rules.

It also supports a large number of 3PP books and PDFs.

Oh and it’s free.

Community Pack

 

[Sgt_Fiddler]

Awesome! That's a lot of work for you (and the community) to put up for free, and cool that herolab allows it to be imported for free!

 

[Ualaa]

As far as customizing monsters...

I'm pretty sure you can change the extension and place the file in an appropriate directory to be able to find it with the encounter builder.
I don't use that method.

I would open an portfolio, whether from an adventure path or just New Portfolio.
Then get the monster I want, whether it is in the premade portfolio already, or I go to the Background tab and type in the monster name (or a category such as Demon, Giant, or part of it's name), or use the Gamemaster Menu to pull up the encounter builder.

Once I have the monster, I make any of the changes.
In my last campaign, which used the Gestalt rules (included in the Community Pack), I would give most of the monsters two levels of either Fighter|Rogue, Fighter|Barbarian, Barbarian|Rogue or just advance it two hit dice.
Then I gave them two mythic ranks.
I did the three mythic adjustments for hiding the mythic surge, removing mythic power points and removing the option to choose one of the three mythic attack types.
(The players were also low mythic, with these exact same options saved into their character creation template).

Then I'd save the portfolio.
But you could save it into a monster folder.

Once I have the player portfolio open, which is the entire party...
I use the Portfolio menu to import from an existing portfolio.
That is often an entire saved encounter, but it could be your modified monster.

If you're using Realm Works, you can view your portfolios within that program.
You can also have it add the portfolio to the open hero lab, with a click.
Realm Works promised a bunch of features, which are very slow in arriving (some from the Kickstarter aren't here yet), but if you look at what it provides now and only that, it is still a very useful campaign organizational tool.
Plus any additional features which are added, are bonuses to the existing stuff.
Anyway, Realm Works is another way to add your modified monsters/characters to an open portfolio.

 

[Sgt_Fiddler]

So I bought the main license and the RotRL adventure path add-on, and had a few quick questions:

Is there a list of the things included in the community pack anywhere?

Is it possible to add the monsters included in the adventure path add-on pack to the encounter builder list? Also, I'm not seeing the monsters from the random encounter lists in the encounter builder, am I looking in the wrong place or do I have to do something to get them to show up?

Are there stat blocks for the various NPC allies that appear throughout the AP (ex. Shelelu, Ameiko, the Black Arrows)?

Is there any way to add the tactics/morale comments from the AP to the stat blocks included in the encounter library? (also, is there a way to have my custom encounters included in the encounter library?)

 

[charlieluce]

I'm running the Iron Gods AP and not RotRL, but hopefully the Encounter Libraries work the same way.

The best guide to the Pathfinder Community Pack is this topic. I don't really use it for Monsters, but there are some included.

I typically keep the Encounter Builder and the Encounter Libraries separate in the way I use them. The Encounter Builder has the creatures from the Pathfinder Core and included free material (and the Community Pack if you have it installed) plus those from any Data Packages (including Bestiaries) you've purchased. The Encounter Libraries are their own thing separate from those (though you may have creatures that appear in both).

It is possible to add portfolios to the Encounter Builder by copying them to your Pathfinder Data Directory (you used to have to change the extension from .por to .stock, but I believe that is no longer required).

At least in the Iron Gods AP package, the monsters in the random encounter table for each Chapter are included in the Encounter Library (it even has the %ile roll from the table). It also included the major NPCs that are given stats (though when I gave one to a player to play, I had to rebuild the character as a regular character because he didn't have the AP to authorize using a direct export ).

Again, in the Iron Gods Encounter Library the flavor text, Tactics and such are on the Personal and NPC tabs for the character.

What I've been doing for encounters that I've modified (which is pretty much all of them, because I have a large and robust party) is to pull each encounter from the Library into a new portfolio (then deleting "Unnamed Hero" ), making any modifications I need, then saving it in a folder structure on my laptop that makes it easy to find when I need to import it into Hero Lab.

 

[Sgt_Fiddler]

A lot going on in the community pack, thanks for the link!

Hmm, I'm not seeing the random encounters in the library, which is a bummer cuz it sounds like they're set up really well in your AP. Maybe it isn't updated yet? I'm not seeing the NPCs either (although now that I look closer, it doesn't look like Paizo statted out many of the NPCs in the AP).

Not seeing the flavor text in there either. Maybe RotRL is a work in progress? The tactics and morale notes would be especially helpful.

That's a good idea, then I would know where to find modified vs vanilla encounters too.

 

[charlieluce]

I've been really happy with the Iron Gods AP package (though I played Pathfinder using Hero Lab for a few years before DMing it, so I've had time to accumulate a lot of data packages I can use for customization).

Since Iron Gods is a newer AP, it's entirely possible that Paizo included a lot more descriptive material in the AP itself, which would have made producing the data package a lot easier (I bought the actual AP from Paizo in PDF form, and that makes it so easy to work with for things like preparing player handouts and maps for MapTool. Ironically, it would have made it far easier to cut-and-paste NPC information if I had needed to).