Howland Said:

If anyone has any suggestions for the Pig Farm quest, feel free to discuss them.

So here are several:

The pigs are not too bad, but let's expand the Purst Farm a little.

The farmer can have a few Rothe with Knockdown to make the fights harder.

I like the pigs, how you can thread through and fight some, but surely not all.

Purst's sons though are horrible and barely a challenge. Increase their HP and improve their AI. I'd like to see them run through the pigs, firing their acid bolts. Purst should likely have a few more sons too here and there. Something like Kobold Snipers and Goblin Archer AI, but when they are at fifty percent HP or lower, they pull out their weapons.

One son should carry the keys to the Purst Farm House. Preferably one that is hiding in the barn where the rothe would be.

Purst needs a wife in the bed room with him. She should have some healing powers, again to make the fight a little more lively. She should be a gnome, so Naga will want to play more.

Purst needs watch dogs that herd his pigs. All good farmers have angry attack dogs. These ones should stand guard at the barn, and have a savage sneak attack, so they are dangerous when they come at you while you fight the pigs.

Purst should know you're coming to break into his house, and have readied a few traps on the floors.

His first floor is just a big empty room. Include a chest that has some random, unique "farm" themed loot. Add an attack dog and a son to the room as foes.

Purst may even have a few hired hands, goblins or hobgoblins that hang around towards the back of the farm. Give players an option to fight them or negotiate a surrender/escape for these guys (who probably knew Purst was butchering people, but didn't want to lose their jobs fighting him and just want to flee down to Lower). Some bonus for either letting them go or fighting them--predicated by the kind of behavior and choices you make when dealing with them.

OH!

And Purst should talk to you before he attacks you! Offer you a bribe to back off and say you never found the missing private. Sending you back to lie to the private.

You could also have the private captive in purst's barn or his room, and you have a chance to save him.

A95 You could also have the private captive in purst's barn or his room, and you have a chance to save him.

Yes, an NPC could spawn with the son in the barn, unarmored and being slowly "butchered" as you walk in. (Apply a paralyzation affect to the captive). If you save his butt, he promises some reward later.

At the end of the quest, the scripts check a variable to see if you saved the guy and, if you did, spawns in a copy of him somewhere in the module. When you find him, he hands out some random reward (dependent perhaps on where he spawns even, was he in the Watch? A lower thug captured by Prust trying to rob him? Prust's well off neighbor?) After he gives you the reward, he should disappear so there aren't dozens of copies of him should the quest be repeated often.

Some of these suggestions I like. I do think they should apply as the questing group gets bigger or higher in level. I would hate to see these all implemented if only a pair or trio of people are doing the quest at level 3.

So while the ideas I like are good, I think they should be integrated into the quest-level-spawn scaling.

You could add a giant bear-sized pig to the barn area, as the result of too much fatty noble in their diet, which would make people think twice about trying to clear out everything, which seems to be the theme of this quest, optional battles.

Or, optionally, you could simply make the deep pigs replaced by larger(much larger) pigs, at the higher level/size parties, with different AI from the usual deep pigs.

Purst should not wield a sickle, but a kama. This is more exotic and players will feel like they're in a more vibrant and exciting fantasy setting.

<3 LTS

If purst talks to you, have him talk to you through a door. At the end of the talk they can kick down the door- bribe purst- or any other plethra of potential quest ends.

But this way it keeps people from just charging their way through. I like text to aid immersion, I mean a Dm is better- but it at least gives the players the same visual. So put some pop up text when your walking up to the house to show that there is movement upstairs, and give more descriptive text once you are inside. Or various of other little quirks.

Also, if you can randomize locations of a secret doors- it could be nice to have like 1 of 4 side quests open up randomly. But I'm happy with most of what oro put forth.

While you could spank this quest horribly if you know what you're doing, those pigs are no joke if you don't have serious HP. They are made somewhat worse by the fact you're not entirely sure when or if they'll attack. If Deep Pig AI was changed so they weren't basically blind, pretty much everyone would agree the Purst quest was impossible for a 2-5 level party.

I'm all for interesting things happening on quests, but I'd rather not see evil players getting payouts for choosing not to waste Daddy Hurst. I mean, this would be interesting as a DM event, certainly, but as a static element it would only lend itself to abuse until it was nerfed to the point that no one would pursue it.

I like the idea of having to get the house key from another creature.

I agree that the house key should have to be found. Maybe make one of the sons slightly tougher and have him wander a bit. I went on this quest with one group of individuals who just rushed through to the house and left. It was dissappointing and not a whole lot of fun...

-Kalos

Agreed. A key is needed to be found.

Heck, maybe make one of the pigs have eaten it in the barn!

Kalos I agree that the house key should have to be found. Maybe make one of the sons slightly tougher and have him wander a bit. I went on this quest with one group of individuals who just rushed through to the house and left. It was dissappointing and not a whole lot of fun...

-Kalos

Why is that not a whole lot of fun? I think it's pretty stupid to check the barn first, and so will all my PCs. "Yeah, let's investigate this Purst and ask him some questions!" - "Nooo! We should check out his barn first!" - "...what the Christ?"

Also "hunt the key" is not fun. Ever. "A pig having eaten the key in the barn?" - seriously.

Jasede

Kalos I agree that the house key should have to be found. Maybe make one of the sons slightly tougher and have him wander a bit. I went on this quest with one group of individuals who just rushed through to the house and left. It was dissappointing and not a whole lot of fun...

-Kalos

Why is that not a whole lot of fun? I think it's pretty stupid to check the barn first, and so will all my PCs. "Yeah, let's investigate this Purst and ask him some questions!" - "Nooo! We should check out his barn first!" - "...what the Christ?"

Also "hunt the key" is not fun. Ever. "A pig having eaten the key in the barn?" - seriously.

It only forces you to check the only other building on the map. I guess that might be too much work for some people.

<_<

I agree that the house key should have to be found. Maybe make one of the sons slightly tougher and have him wander a bit. I went on this quest with one group of individuals who just rushed through to the house and left. It was dissappointing and not a whole lot of fun...

-Kalos

Why is that not a whole lot of fun? I think it's pretty stupid to check the barn first, and so will all my PCs. "Yeah, let's investigate this Purst and ask him some questions!" - "Nooo! We should check out his barn first!" - "...what the Christ?"

It's a shame you misused my quote. Did I mention anything about checking the barn? Maybe you missed my point. I think that after having killed a watch person, the Purst's might be smart enough to think that eventually someone will come looking to investigate. The way the quest is now is too simplified. If someone was going to be coming after you, would you respond like Father Purst...alone, in an unlocked house?

My point was that the quest needed to be tweaked to find the key to the house, maybe on one of the sons?

My opinion is that you go to the house, it's locked and when you try the door you hear a voice say..."go the Feck away". Then it's up to you to find the key (maybe to be found on one of the sons who would be charged with guarding their father...).

-Kalos

p.s. In the future, if you disagree with a post, you should try not to get so upset that you need to use the Lord's name in vain...

As it is, if one were so inclined and understood the layout of the quest area they could beat it with only fighting 3 or 4 NPCs. Thankfully, most players don't choose this route, even when there's little to gain from further exploration besides XP in most cases, if you don't have someone who can pick and disarm. Whether this is because they want the XP from killing the pigs, they're playing nice, or are simply trying to avoid a divine spanking, is unknown to me.

There ought to be some illegal element completely unrelated to the farm itself, like a fighting ring, or some kind of smuggling or slaving operation. Anyone who runs a pig farm has got to be up to no good. Why did the missing private go investigating in the first place?

Hm...

Checking the barn first makes a certain amount of sense. The quest giver mentions rumors of the duergar feeding people to his pigs, so if your character's interested in the slim chance of saving the Watch private, he'd go to the place where the pigs are kept.

If you do decide to hint at a slaving ring (he feeds the 'damaged' slaves to his pigs, but sells the useful ones?), it would be interesting to have a note on Purst's body that hints at meeting a contact at Fort Mur for delivery of half a dozen slaves, which would help new players learn a bit more about the setting.