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I know the pandemic caused disruptions. Has there been an announcement on how these will be obtained? I'm a completionist and don't like to have holes in my collection. Thanks!
Hi all,
Thanks!
My party has finally reached farshore and my gaming books are in a bit of disarray. Was there a fold out map included with the magazine of farshore? I know that there is one of scuttlecove and Sasserine. Just wondering if I lost one along the way.
Rather than add more enemies I suggest adding more preperation quests. More allies muddy the waters a bit and adds more record keeping. Plus it doesn't sit well that you can get a bunch of demons to fight together or demons+ angels etc. Adding more preperation along the lines of need item X to defeat Demo's super weapon Y or penetrate his invulnerable fortress Z can add more epic feel to the task with out rallying the entire universe against this one threat.
That looks pretty good, but I'm not up on all the details on the higher level adventures so will need to read on them and see how they blend in together. I read the hardcover book, but mainly just skip around so all the adventures after the first 3 kind of blend together. Let me plot it out and get back to you. Of course if someone wants to come up with a counterplan I'm still open to hearing it as well! :)
Lots of conflicting answers so I will narrow down what I need. Thanks to everyone who answered so far. The group I'm running it for has 3 females and 3 male players so interesting dynamics. They are fairly creative and experienced. Their previous DM was a "Killer DM". One player remarked that in all her years of playing she has never actually leveled up a character. They die to soon! In my few tries playing in his group, he would adjust encounters on the fly any time I used good tactics to gain an edge. Ogres mysteriously sprouted extra HP in the hundreds on one occasion, Magic items he gave that I was abusing began to fail to work, and monsters autosaved against just about anything that would slow them down/hinder them. I plan on running it over 1 summer/fall playing every 3 weeks or so. Each session is about 6-7 hours, so most adventures I will try to make last 2 sessions. So 5 adventures should be about 10-12 sessions. I can't really run bits from each adventure as it would require the players to constantly level up. I feel like that would blur things a bit. Running 5 adventures means they only need to level up their characters 4 times. With 3 weeks down time between sessions I plan on writing a 1-2 page story of what the party is skipping past. I can sum up the important parts and make them feel like they are in a movie trilogy (pentology?). Stuff happens between, but they just get filled in on what they miss in the beginning of each movie and continue on. I've already started them on adventure 1, so that's a must. I'm greatly reducing the Gnome City and will cut out most of the fighting in the dwarven keep. They started slow in session 1, so I want to finish chapter 1 in session 2. Getting enough XP won't matter as they will be jumping ahead to chapter X in the next session and will get to level their character up to a certain level. I just want them to experience facing some more skulks and creepers and weird gnome stuff, then go into a very intimidating slavers camp, then meeting the beholder in the end. Events I want them to experience:
Battling hookface - I can fit this in anywhere by advancing/reducing him so don't really need the whole adventure. Learning about and battling the cagewrights Traveling to a different plane and battling demons/outsiders - this happens in a few different spots so leaves options open. Experiencing high level play At least 1 session somewhere around the 14's and one 19's-20's Events I want to avoid:
spend a lot of time dungeon crawling- with only 10 -12 sessions and the first 2 taking up a lot of that, I want to keep it to the minimum later on. It's a tall order, so can you guys come up with the ultimate condensed version? :D
I'm currently running Savage Tide for my DnD group, but have been itching to try the Shackled City as well. I had an offer to run a second group once a month so I decided on it, but there's one problem: It's too long! There is no way I will be able to run it and get anywhere near to completing it so I want to run a condensed version. I'm going to run 5 adventures from it and just fill in the group with back story on what happens between each episode. So starting with Adventure 1, what 4 other adventures would you pick to run?
It's large so that throws things off a bit, but I found the Ankheg looks the closet to what you need. It even has some what longer front legs that stick out a bit.
As the starter of this thread, I figure I should of posted an update of how it worked out for my group: My group of players function as a blunt instument, most of the time smashing their way through encounters and ignoring any subtle clues. I ended up having to make the treasure in parrot island "obvious" or they would of skipped it, and when in the lotus guild, they smashed their way straight to Rowyn in like 4 rooms, took her captive then fought their way out. They didn't go after most of the loot in the place but left it full of thieves who cleaned out the place. They did the same in Bullywug Gambit, and were actually behind on wealth by the end that I actually gave up some free gifts from lavinia before taking a sea journey. If my group was a bit more observant they would of ended up with a boatload as they would of kept it rather than turning it in. In the end they missed most of it.
We just battled the flotsom ooze and will be heading on to Tomochan. I was a bit worried that the sea journey would be too dull, but so far the group is actually enjoying it a lot. I'm worried about running out of "interesting" side events to happen during the trip. So far they almost got into a battle with 6 wyverns, and had to restrain the Gnome expert from steering the ship towards the miles of spiderweb covered jungle so he could "catch a specimen". The group was a bit behind on XP so they battled redcaps at the first port as well.
I normally run my campaign very tight on available races. PHB is just about it. The PC's in my campaigns over the past 5 years have gotten used to it and don't even ask to play anything "unusual". The Savage tide campaign has gotten me interested in doing something unusual. I was a bit concerned about PC deaths when the party was out in the jungles unsupported and came up with this twist: The only races allowed are: Olman (native)- Human with a -2 int +2 wis, preferred class cleric (they are very spiritual), with only access to wooden, bone, or stone equipment. Arenea (preferred class Sorc) Lizardman (preferred class Barbarian) Phanaton (preferred class rogue) Rakasta (preferred class ranger) I expect that it will be an interesting change of pace for them for a while.
It's going "ok". It didn't start out as exciting as AoW, but my party hated that near the end of our campaign. The lotus Dragon's lair was the silliest dungeon for a group of rogues. When they prefer flanking and sneaking, why is there nothing but doors and 5' hallways? I boosted a lot of rogues to 2nd and even 3rd level and my group still marched right up to Rowyn's lair, knocked her out and marched back out. I added an exciting warehouse "shoot out" at the end to break up the dullness. Gambit is going better, despite 3 PC deaths slowing down the pace and making the story line a lot more fragile. I'm considering a bit of a boost in treasure just to lower the death toll a bit compared to AoW. My group is still level 3 going in to rescue Lavinia and there's multiple CR 5 and 6 encounters!.
Alek Sunstar (LG) Human Cleric 3
PC Cleric was wounded and moved up to flank the dinosaur. provoked an AoO and took some damage. He neglected to use his swift healing burst despite being at 1 hp. Since he had drawn its attention, he took 2 claws and a bite dropping him to -15. The Dino was put down in the next set of actions but it was far too late.
Ankiseth Jyvar CG Human Rogue 2
How: In shoot out with merc mage hired by the Lotus Dragons
The group had captured the Lotus Dragon guildmistress but lost one of their companions when they fled. They arranged for a swap, and the lotus Dragon's only 4 remaining members hired a merc mage for some firepower. They had plenty of money as the party left most of the loot in the guild untouched. 5 lvl 3 PC's vrs 2 lvl 2 rogues, 2 lvl 1 rogues, the worg and a mage 4. when things were going badly the merc mage decided to sit back and stop fighting. The rogue chased after him so he unleashed his last spell. the PC took a shocking grasp to the face for 4d6 and went down smoking.
It sounds like he just wanted to converse about the situation. Cut the poster some slack. It's easy enough to get the answers to things if he wants. Just stop by a shop and pick up the magazine. My group haven't begun their sea journey, but I'm curious to see how they will respond to the situation.
I was a bit worried about the difficulty in the first adventure so included 2 side quests before hand go earn the party 500 xp going into the blue nixie. They leveled after the crypts, and are closing on 3rd near the end of the adventure. So far everything has been a breeze with only a couple PC's hitting the negatives. The main reason for this has been two things: PC's having a little experience with their characters before the tough fight on the nixie and parrot cove, and due to a really powerful cleric feat in the PHB 2 that lets him do a mass cure light wounds(everyone) 4 or so times a day as a swift action. I have even tweaked some monsters up in power (bonus D8 of HP mainly) just to keep them around a bit longer and it hasn't slowed the party down much. I suggest pointing out this feat to your party if your worried about TPK's. It's been a nice change for the group to cakewalk after our experiences with later Age of Worms adventures.
Go on Ebay. There's a series of 2nd edition modules that are actually really nice for 1 player and a DM. You would have to convert them a bit, but thats very easy. I don't even use notes for converting old 1st and 2nd edition stuff. They were called: Wizards challenge
I just finished rereading Honor for the third time prepping for my group and was amazed by how much gold there was. A group with questionable ethics and good diplomacy could easily end up with 25,000 or so gold worth of treasure by the end. Thats not even including the magic items. That seems high for an adventure for 1st and 2nd level. I know I can cut it back a bit easy enough, I was just suprised. Anyone else amazed by that?
I pronounce it Ky ice. Like ice with a K in front of it.
my party is about 1 session away from facing Ilathane and I'm DEFINATLY using the Icons Black. for as powerful as black dragons are the sizes seem off for me anyways. The Col. Red will be Dragotha as well. I don't care about the size difference. I'm just hoping they make more huge and bigger dragons before the group hits kings of the rift sometime next year. The two Aspects in War of the Dragon Queen (bahamut and tiamat) were a depressing replacement for actual dragons.
Once a week for a little over a year for 3.5 hours a week. Probably 50 sessions total. they are in A Gathering of Winds so about 9-10 sessions per module or 30 hours of actual playing per adventure.
Personally I would make it 4 commoners and have them jump on the PC's blades shouting curses and prayers. There's plenty of tough fights in that area, no reason to sap more resources with a dozen cultists. It would definatly make for an eye opening experience when they take their readied actions to impale themselves on the PC's blades. :)
The fighting is very heavy through out the whole campaign. If you don't have at least 5 good combat characters you will run into trouble. Probalby the harshest part to watch for is how deadly some of the encounters are. For example, CR 13's against a group of 9th level characters, right after a handful of 10's and 11's means there probalby low on resources going into the fights. Try to break things up a bit to give the group more rest. Split up locations into seperate areas to let the PC's be able to take a believable breather between some fights. That way they don't have to sleep in the hornet's nest actually.
Haven't updated in a bit: Cohnor Paladin 2, Cleric 6 of Lathander.
-Died to the aspostate of Kyuss in Champions game and lost his holy relic under a horde of Wights. Karkus Ranger 8, becoming a "justice of Weild and Woe" from Champions of Darkness, next level. Has a 5 headed dragon flail (from a previous campaign start) and is wicked with a bow. - Still living, now 8/2 ranger/justice. The only living remaining member from the start! Lucinia - Cleric of Mystra 6, Runecaster 1 - not tuned for combat at all. Mainly heals, runs Diplomat duties, and charges up Cohnor's spell storing blade with inflict spells. Takes ranged attacks with a wand of produce flame and a wand of magic missles. (Replaced Brix) - Still kicking Now Cleric 7/ runecaster 2. Every session its player mentions how unsuitable she is and how she's probably going to die. Alton - Rogue 7 - The standard well tuned rogue, rapier and tumble for sneak attacks, and silvered arrows for ranged threats. Rolled VERY well on stats. (replaced Taalivir) - Died, but was reincarnated as a kobold. Currently Kobold Rogue 8 Krin - Wizard 7, CN red wizard of Thay (invoker)- Replaces Rontith and much more suitable for its player than a LG paladin. Uses energy replacement to cast Acid bolts and Acid Balls rather than fire or Lighting. Inherited a ton of Magic goodies from the Sorc that died. I recommend playing the mage through AoW, as a lot of goodies are tuned for you. - Still living, Wizard 9 Added:
Unnamed, Druid 8 TN. Hasn't actually joined but been rolled up to replace Cohnor the fallen Paladin. So overall: Ranger 8/Justice of Weild & Woe 2
Haven't updated the AoD Obituaties in a while. Its growing too long to read. The party is level 8-9 and we are starting A gathering of Winds (lvl 11 and a real meat grinder with a lot of CR 13's) The group never cleared out the whispering Cairne the first time so I'm advancing that and running them through it with a bunch of CR 8's to let them cake walk through and regain their confendence. Also they will discover Filge has escaped from when they put him in Jail the previous time and is on a murderous rampage in Hap (my diamond lake). They will have to hunt him down fighting through his undead minions to take him out for good. He will be advanced to lvl 11 or 12 now so should be a bit more of a challange. That should be enough to put a few of them at 11th with the stragglers at 10. With 6 PC's that should be enough as they are "slightly" above the curve in magic treasure as well. They took some time while fleeing the free city to loot an armory and attempted to loot a magic shop. Also the original plotline weaves in a few more artifacts that go along with the Age of Worms. They have currently one in their possession, lost one in the arena when the undead attacked, and one locked away in a temple in Waterdeep for safe keeping as it has a nasty drawback: Dragon Flail (in Ranger's possession)
Was part of the original plotline when I converted the group to AoW at level 4. Taken from the Baldur's gate video game. They had to find the 5 heads to awaken its power. Helm of Dragons (in a temple vault in Waterdeep) +2 to int, wis, cha, dex, con, str
curse: Dragons with in 100 yards are aware of and either annoyed, afraid or enraged by the presence of the helm. Good dragons will seek to get it from the wearer in some way, evil dragons will attack seeing to destroy/capture it. Sword of Lathander (lost in Hillsfar arena with 25,000 wights)
The blade was templated from the old video game Curse of the Azure bonds, as I was going to use Moander as my Kyuss. In the game the sword was one of three items needed (Helm of Dragons, Sword of Lathander, Gauntlets of Moander) to stop something bad from happening. It supposedly could be used to destroy or shut down magical portals. I will also be using the Rod of seven parts as detailed, as well as the Gauntlets of Kyuss, and the hand of Vecna as other artifacts that will pop up in the game. Since the PC's missed out and lost a shot at the Diadem of Zoziel and the Talisman of the sphere, the Gauntlets and Helm sort of take their place in my campaign. The Gauntlets will allow the wearer a shot at controlling a sphere of annialation.
They are all good. Not even a nuetral in the party. :D They think releasing the Ebon Aspect started the first part of the prophecy. Who am I to correct them? The lizardmen they basically snuck in, killed the king and left a lot of lizardmen alive. They then went in broke the egg, lost 2 characters against the kobolds and ran leaving the entire lair to be overrun. I didn't come out and say that the lizardmen all became spawns, but they are thinking that they all are. You can basically say they have blundered through one adventure to the next replacing characters and leaving devistation in their wake. The group is made up of 5 teenagers and one of the teens father who hasn't played in 25 years. Not very experienced overall. They don't spend nearly enough time getting information or planning, but instead rush from one area to the next. More of a brute force method. We have lost about a dozen PC's so far, and expect things to get far more lethal. They missed out on a lot of XP in the Champions belt so am putting in a side quest to make up for that.
I had the exact same problems. The way the adventure is laid out, there's no real reason for the PC's to explore because of the risk of getting expelled from the competition. Plus finding the path through the Ceonoby is rediculously silly to find. For anyone who hasn't made it that far I suggest a few changes: Make a comment that gladiators are traditionally known for sneaking out to drink and womanize. Make the penalty something like only bread and water for the next day. Make the secret way in through the sewers much more clear. Hiding it under dark water in a cave is stupid. Have Ekim offer a REAL reward for exploring. Getting to keep all your winnings when you think your going to get expelled for exploring is no real offer at all. Make sure you point the PC's into the dungeon. As written it makes them want to explore Raknian's palace and the arena levels, not where they actually need to go. Since the palace has 0 details thats a bad thing. Mention a rumor that Raknian has a secret "pleasure palace" or something below the arena and rumors of what goes on in there are dark indeed.
On our groups private message board was this response from the party cleric as they just returned to Hap (my Forgotten realms mining town) to discover Ilithane's attack on the city. They had just returned from Hillsfar (my free city) where they didn't do so hot. The entire post: Perhaps the alternative is to kill Illithane and Oxnard and destroy Hap? At least that would be playing to our strengths. In Lucy's short time with this band, we have:
Go team!
I started my 6 player group at 4th and 5th level going into 3 faces of Evil. I had to bump up a lot of stuff or else it would be a cakewalk. Same with Blackwall. Things started shifting in HoHR and into Champions. I have to pull a lot of punches now and nueter some fights or else the deaths add up really quickly. A big part of it is due to the larger split in XP with 6 players and deaths draining them a decent amount of XP. The group is at the end of Champions and are pretty much all a level behind the curve. They were unable to penetrate very far into the temple meaning they are in the final fight vrs the champions and the giant wormy. Things look grim.
I was worried I would have the same problem. 2 of my PC's are decidedly not combative. A counter mage with 0 offense spells, and a healing/info oriented cleric. The talk of glory and wealth of being the arena champions made the other 4 talk them into it. A lot of times when players don't want to take a choice, its because the DM has done too good a job making it look scary/dangerous. Good thing Dungeon Magazine has other things you can put in there to earn them some XP My problem is the opposite. Its the night before the final fight and they haven't done ANY exploring. I'm gonna have a city of the dead very soon.
My group was named "Hawkwind Knights" in honor of their dead mentor. The campaign started as a murder "who done it?" when they recieved letters from their dead mentor. Each has a mysterious amulet called a "hawkwind brooch" they have been wearing the whole time. They also learned early on that their mentor was a "free city Champion" over 100 years before as part of a group called the "Hawkwind Knights". They also have learned since then that someone named Dragotha killed their mentor. :D His spirit will replace someone elses later in the Wyrmcrawl Fissure.
I noticed that a lot of the encounters were going to be difficult for my group. My solution was to have the PC's start 2 levels higher going into the first adventure (3 faces for us) This made most routine encounters easier, but the bosses still a challange. Plus if they die and come back a level lower they are still above the curve "slightly". So far 5 of the players have had characters die of the 6 so they are all pretty close to on level with 1 player a level ahead. They are finishing Hall of harsh reflections and things have been challanging yet fun still. Less grind, more action!
My party was 6 players, pretty solidly built and mostly full strength, and the invisible stalkers were very difficult. I reduced them to a single attack per round and there was almost multiple deaths. Bull rushes off the planking breaks the groups ability to counter attack, and if they focus on the spell casters, bad things happen for the group. The trapped section just adds insult to the encounter. I would probably drop it to 1 stalker for a group of 4, or at least put some labeled healing potions in the room before.
I think Snape wasn't really a bad guy. Dumbledore knew he was going to die. At what point he knew is up for speculation, but he knew he wouldn't survive. What better way to get an ally firmly into the enemies camp then to have him murder the strongest ally as a ruse. To me the book was better than the order of the pheonix, but not by much. I have enjoyed all of them for what they are. Light reading with some interesting characters.
'Fantastic Locations' are outrageously good - use them all!:) I'm sure with a little nudging they could be made into cross platform maps. They could give the design to Paizo to work into adventures or vice versa.
Hm - that gives me pause to think... Is there a place online where we can actively trade D&D Minis? www.maxminis.com for everything DDM's related. They have an excellent referral system for trading, and tons of info on the current sets, old sets, new sets, how to play the skirmish game, etc. The traders and posters seem to be top notch as well.
I just got the third set of Fantastic locations and they look incredibly sexy. I've been itching to work them into my AoW games but as of yet haven't done so. Any one else find a good place to use one? I figure I can turn some of the "boss" fight areas into the maps for a special occasion battle. So far we are in Sodden Hold and theres been no wide open areas beyond blackwall keep. Which we of course had already completed before the nice ruined keep maps came out. :(
I use the moonsea/dalelands for my AoW as its a better fit. Free City = Hillsfar
Worm Crawl Fissue is going to be tough. I'm thinking the mountains north of the moonsea, or maybe linking it planar somehow. I don't really picture such a nasty place being anywhere in the realms really
Unless you already have a wizard, I would go 100% that way. Later in the Age of Worms you will end up hitting a wall if your Sorc didn't pick the right spells. As you play theres a growing list of spells you need to have a chance. Things like Pass wall, D-door, knock, dispel Magic, Toungues, Arcane Eye, Wall spells, fly, etc, etc A higher level sorc having only 2-3 choices of some of the slots will be a huge burden. Especially since you feel you want at least 1 offense spell in each level slot or else be wasting it. Just make sure to ask your DM for decent acess to scrolls for scribing and you should do fine. I see the main poster chose specialist-evoker for his choice. That makes me cringe. What schools did you choose to give up? To be an evoker you really have to give up some goodies. I would 99% of the time choose specialist-diviner. You get bonus spells that can be incredibly helpful and only need to give up one school. Pick Necromancy and theres not much to worry about beyond losing false life.
Rontith fell when he broke the egg in Blackwall, and was covered in green worms. Karkus killed him with 2 well placed shots from his longbow. Karkus was almost infested earlier on and assumed the Paladin was going to become a spawn. It was a mercy killing. I didn't have the heart to tell him Paladins are immune due to their abilities. :) Xzan died in Blackwall keep facing the Draconic Kobold rogues. The party was near death but they kept pressing on despite warnings from the Lizardman druid that Ilithane put "guards" in the chamber beyond Taliviir died facing the draconic kobolds when he snuck in alone to investigate invisibly and they were able to track him by his footsteps. He was the longest lived PC in the group (beating Karcus by 1 session) Brix left the party after an argument with the Paladins in 3 Faces. The current Roster 1/3rd through Hall of Harsh Reflections: Cohnor Paladin 2, Cleric 6 of Lathander.
Karkus Ranger 8, becoming a "justice of Weild and Woe" from Champions of Darkness, next level. Has a 5 headed dragon flail (from a previous campaign start) and is wicked with a bow. Lucinia - Cleric of Mystra 6, Runecaster 1 - not tuned for combat at all. Mainly heals, runs Diplomat duties, and charges up Cohnor's spell storing blade with inflict spells. Takes ranged attacks with a wand of produce flame and a wand of magic missles. (Replaced Brix) Alton - Rogue 7 - The standard well tuned rogue, rapier and tumble for sneak attacks, and silvered arrows for ranged threats. Rolled VERY well on stats. (replaced Taalivir) Krin - Wizard 7, CN red wizard of Thay (invoker)- Replaces Rontith and much more suitable for its player than a LG paladin. Uses energy replacement to cast Acid bolts and Acid Balls rather than fire or Lighting. Inherited a ton of Magic goodies from the Sorc that died. I recommend playing the mage through AoW, as a lot of goodies are tuned for you.
Time to put my money where my mouth is. I'm running Hall of Harsh Reflections and finding it does a great job strengthening The Age of Worms with a little work. My party is in Sodden Hold having just bested the Mimics pretty easily. I was fearing a near TPK as the wizard player was absent. Here's the tweaks I ended up using (and will use): The party is not here in Hillsfar (= my Free City) to investigate anything as they haven't learned a lot of information yet about the Age of Worms. Its more creepy stuff in the background. The triad talked about it in 3 faces, and they encountered some spawn in Blackwall, but thats about it. Even the worm from Whispering Cairne is in the back of their minds. Lots of notes and rumors, no substance. So far the two spawn they have met (one in blackwall, one in the swamps from sick lizardmen) has really lived up to being "unkillable" Basically I tripled their HP, gave them regeneration 10, and had them keep squirming even as the entire party kept piling damage on them for many rounds until the wizard could burn them. HoHR is going to hammer things home. They met the rain barrel man and heard some creepy things from him. They also learned that a sector of the city (5 houses) were quarintined after some outbreak. They didn't investigate yet, but have a week between finish HoHR and Champion's belt, so I'm sure that they will. Getting drawn into a house to rescue a sick individual only to be surrounded by 4-5 of these unkillable worm zombies should show them that the evil is spreading. Jars of worms and some research notes will be found in the dungeon beneath Sodden Hold. As will another one of these unkillable zombies chained in a side room where the party can crisp it at ease. After reading the DMG 2, I plan on including a big of "player" specific challanges to make sure each player feels they are doing their part. In my case, solving some runes on a box, for the runecaster (silly prestige choice) and an encounter with Eldrith Velthrua (human hating elves) for the Justice of Wield and Woe in my group. I'm removing the "search the sewers at random" for Zyrzog's lair. That seems way to random and dull for my tastes. I can't believe the author though that would be interesting for a group. Random sewer encounters minus maps or directives = not fun for most people. A direct path 2 set encounters seems decent enough. Probably 1 life leach otyugh and maybe a pack of cultists bent on revenge. I like to use 2 random encounters with 1 being a big nasty and the other a pack of something to suck up a few spells of each type from the casters before they reach the "meat" of the adventure. The cultists will have worms crawl from their robes as described above. Zyrzog of course will have clues in his lair about Raknian as well as notes that cultists have been sharing their secrets with a black dragon in the swamps to the south (Ilithane) Finally after besting Zyrzog, the party will be able to finish the reason that brought them to Hillsfar: Meeting a cleric of Bane and recieve the information reward from him for defeating the cultists in 3 faces. This specific Banite tasked them with destroying the renegade banites that were involved in 3 Faces. He had been recieving troubling visions from Bane about the return of Kyuss and is working to prevent it. Once armed with the information they need, they will be able to enter the arena's to go after Raknian and figure out how he is tied into the Age of Worms. Its deliciously painful to watch the Paladin (used to be 2 of them) squirm everytime he has to work with a Cleric of Bane to avert a greater evil. I find him a much better font of information than a "friendly bunch of wizards" that you keep having to search out for information. The party does not want to trust him, but keep finding they have to. Eventually they will get a chance at him but not before having to rescue him (in Gathering of Winds) and then "go undercover" with him (in Prince of Redhand/Zhentil Keep). He will eventually go mad and they will have to fight him and I know that will be a happy day for my group.
I don't think my players would be happy with this solution after a single session or two. If the DM runs all the monsters AND the guy that does all the saving, whats the point of the players? They basically are just spectators in the DM's world. There are better options that keep the players at the wheel of the game. reducing numbers works ok, but reducing levels and stats are a pain. I just prefer using lower CR monsters. A troll is replaced with a bugbear, a bugbear with a hobgoblin, etc. The CR system is designed to assist with that. In the Age of Worms most humanoid monsters have levels in something. Just remove those levels and use the base versions from the appropriate manual and you should do fine. As for not having an Arcane caster or rogue, thats partly the players fault. Having neither greatly increases the difficulties of things no matter how big the party is.
You could always dump a bag of holding full of holy water vials on him. Figure 500 vials x 2d4 damage. 2,500 damage (on average) should do the trick. I smashed a clay crock full of holy water (20 vials worth) on a 2nd edition Dracolich's melon and the DM just said it did about 20 damage. I was pretty bummed. Figured it would melt his head off. :(
Well I didn't post this to turn it into a trade thread. :) But since its going that way.... I have 3 Aspects of Hextor sitting in my trade box actually. (I buy lots of minis :D) Unfortunatly the only stuff I really need is from the first 3 sets. I guess I could do some group trades on newer rares for one. ( bshugg at hotm@il you know the rest)
When the new set of minis came out for DDM's I was pretty excited. Then I saw the Aspect of Hextor.... Man was I bummed I had already ran 3 faces of evil. Its a large 6 armed giant that works great as the avatar. Sure its got weapons but if you wanted you could clip off 3 of his hands and leave them as stumps (as the description says). I wouldn't be mutilating mine but if you wanted to be accurate I suppose. Instead I had to use an Aspect of Bane and just say "pretend he has 6 arms" :( So check him out if your still running 3 faces. Its a heck of a cool mini.
In the beginning of the plastic D&D minis made by Wizards of the cost. I would just use what ever. Now Im beginning to be a snob about what I use. Theres enough different varieties to have just about everything you need. In the first encounter I plan on having a pack of hill giants, 6 fire giants (regular, King Snurre, and repainted Aspects of Kord and Moradin to represent them). I just hope they create a Huge green dragon before then. For the gargantuan reds I may find something that will work. Either a repainted Gargantuan Black, or just use the huge red. There making a Collassal red but Im saving that for Dragotha. The second encounter, theres no real way to have all the dragons on the board at once. I plan on roleplaying most of it. Still Im about a year away from Kings at the earliest. Who knows what all the neat figs we will have available by then. :D
The DMG guideline on CR's and class levels work good for smaller stuff, but really fall apart at the higher HD critters. Theres no way a human Sorc 16 with 50 HP is CR 16, while a frost giant 16 sorc with 300+ HP, plus dozens of other benifits is only an 18. All he needs is a bunch of quickened spells to fight and cast and stomp and buff.
I just reread "kings" and love it! Reading it a second time you notice how tough things are really going to be for my group. As soon as you start battling dragons in the city its gonna be a beacon for the rest of them. One turns into two then ten! My group is on blackwall and are pushing 7th level so far. I've been bumping things up a bit to challange them, but I'm betting once they get this far they won't need any more challange. I can see a group of 21st or 22nd level characters getting taken out under the horde of dragons.
I always felt you could skip on the rogue if you had enough healing to keep everyone at max. That is unless you have actual "kill you dead in one shot" traps lying around. Theres some pretty crazy stuff you can do with the optional books, but just using the PHB and DMG: 1. Human barb 1/Ranger X (extra HP, rage and speed is solid)
If your going long term I would have one of the clerics go for Theurge,
should be over 60K with overtime this year. I about fell out of my chair when they offered me OT on top of my salary. I'm very happy as its the first "real" job in my field and only 4 months into my career. Nowhere to go but up. Wife is a teacher and brings in about 34k but has great insurance. We use hers. I drive a Mustang and her a Kia. I hate the Mustang as its bad in Michigan winters. We're looking into a pair of small SUV's just to deal with snow.
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