Occam's page

Is the Paizo store supporting the deals WotC is offering in their Holiday Game Sale?

...the Pince of Demons?

Small typo in Dungeon 150's ToC.

Could've been worse, though. At least we're not urged to challenge the Price of Demons. That could make for a harrowing episode of The Price is Right!

Anyway, just started going over the issue, and it looks great!

These creatures from "Wells of Darkness" are of animal-level Intelligence. Does it make sense that they'd be dealing for the carnal offerings of succubi, and making crude advances on intruders, even if they are corrupted?

I also don't much like that the corrupted template permits creatures of animal Intelligence to have a non-neutral alignment. (The fiendish template, for instance, raises Intelligence to at least 3.) Another example of quirkiness in the BoVD.

Whoa. Now that's a cover!

Woooo hoooo!!! Thank you so much for publishing this article. I was actually a little let down after reading the article in the magazine; it seemed way too cursory for a topic of such breadth. But the Web supplement has fixed that!

Thanks again, and keep more like this one coming!

Should you modify the EL of an encounter for extenuating environmental/situational factors? What does Dungeon do?

I'm referring to the kinds of things mentioned in the DMG on p. 50, under "Modifying Difficulty": cover, water hazards, rough terrain, natural heat/cold effects, etc. On p. 39 the DMG discusses modifying EL.

For example: The PCs must cross a pool of deep water to get to an exit. Wading through the pool, they're attacked by a giant snake, which has cover due to the water, and is difficult to attack with ranged weapons. Would the EL in a Dungeon adventure be raised relative to the monster's CR?

Now what if the PCs are attacked by stirges while dealing with the underwater snake? Do you modify the EL directly, or do you raise the snake's CR and use that to calculate the EL?

Does it matter if the snake would leave the water during combat and lose its defensive benefits?

Another example: The PCs enter a large dungeon magically kept at a temperature of 20 degrees F to induce hypothermia (i.e. fatigue). In the dungeon, they encounter a remorhaz. Is the EL raised for this encounter, since some PCs will likely be fatigued?

What if they happen to encounter the remorhaz on the open tundra? Do all encounters in severe environments have their ELs raised?

Just finished reading this adventure... what a blast! Just a straightforward stomp on a bunch of really tough undead (which I love), with the obvious exception of the Trials of the Winding Way. What a wonderful design for a series of tests! I have a 14th-level monk that would be perfect for it, although traversing the pit in the Hall of 10,000 Blades would be dicey, given he hasn't got many ranks in Balance or Climb, and the pit is too wide to jump across and too deep to jump out of. The hail of poison shuriken is no big deal: damage is tolerable, and monks are immune to poison after 11th level.

Which brings up a question: In the Hall of Choice, one of the choices a prospective monk could make is to embrace death by poison. However... a monk who could survive the other challenges is probably immune. How's that supposed to work?

Bhuts, abyssal ghouls, dread wraiths, and a pennaggolan, oh my! I plan on placing this into a Kara-Tur campaign (some day...), probably in Tabot. In addition to name changes for NPCs, the Covenant of the Knife will become the Tsui Tong, a large and powerful criminal organization that happens to be based in Shou Lung near the border of Tabot. I'll replace what I consider to be some of the less Oriental undead: the vampire will be a chiang-shi, a variant vampire from Ravenloft; the nightwing... maybe an effigy (MM2), which is a bit higher CR; the mummy lord, perhaps a lich, or even an animus (Dragon #339); and I'm not sure what to do about the hullathoin. An ulgurstata (FF) has the right vibe to me, despite the flavor-text association with Kyuss, but it's only CR 11, and advancing it would make it too big to fit in the tomb as mapped. Hmm... perhaps a CR 19 bone nagahydra (Serpent Kingdoms)? Yes, that may do nicely.

Since I'm increasing some CRs, I guess Marik will get a level bump. Watch out for that quivering entrail attack! (Ewww!!)

At the risk of further inflating what must already be a swelled ego given Richard Pett's recent praise: great adventure, Nick. I don't have any plans to use it, but this issue also included a nice start to the Istivin arc by Greg Vaughan. No Pett scenario in this one, but I should be getting my copy of Dungeon #138 soon, and then we'll see if this Styes followup is all it's cracked up to be....

I just got this issue and read through "Telar in Norbia" by Willie Walsh. Now, I own a lot of other Dungeon issues with Willie Walsh adventures, and while I know he's a favorite of many people, I've just never had much use for them. It has nothing to do with their quality, but they generally come with a very distinct Gaelic or otherwise European background to them, which doesn't fit my campaign plans.

However, I was delightfully surprised by "Telar in Norbia", which is a departure. A few name tweaks, and I'll have no problem fitting this into an Al-Qadim campaign. I would've liked some more NPC characterization, but the ruins of Telar were very well put together and fun to read. I look forward to using it. In fact, the ancient cult of Set brings ideas of a pseudo-sequel to mind....

Anyone else read/play/run this adventure? What were your experiences or impressions?

Is anyone familiar with this David Howery adventure? I can't find much mention of it, and I was wondering how suitable it might be to an Al-Qadim campaign with some adaptation. I've enjoyed reading some of David's other adventures, and plan on using them in African- or Indian-themed campaigns, and thought "Ghazal" might be worth a go, too. Comments, synopses, advice appreciated.