Just finished reading this adventure and noticed that the Scaleing sidebar is missing. For the editorial staff...any way to get this?
Creative Director
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Just finished reading this adventure and noticed that the Scaleing sidebar is missing. For the editorial staff...any way to get this?
Not yet; it doesn't exist yet. We'll try to get it into the online supplement eventually, and I'll write one up and post it online before the end of the week.
Just finished reading this adventure and noticed that the Scaleing sidebar is missing. For the editorial staff...any way to get this?Not yet; it doesn't exist yet. We'll try to get it into the online supplement eventually, and I'll write one up and post it online before the end of the week.
Thank's much! Nothing like prompt service!
Just finished reading this adventure and noticed that the Scaleing sidebar is missing. For the editorial staff...any way to get this?Not yet; it doesn't exist yet. We'll try to get it into the online supplement eventually, and I'll write one up and post it online before the end of the week.
Not to be a nag...but...will it be possible to get this write-up this week?
Remember, in paizo time 1 week = 3 months.
Don't be petulant. Paizo just has more to do than they have time for, I'm sure. They say one week, but, in fact, likely say it after pulling an all nighter and briefly labor under the delusion that the day has 36 hours...
... Ahem. They get it out eventually. Eventually, and in a time frame relevant to the related issues.
Of course, this ties back into my sentiment that running AoW from the day it was published was ill-advised, but that is another story for another time...
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Creative Director
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Not to be a nag...but...will it be possible to get this write-up this week?
The chances of this getting up online this week are zero. We've got deadlines for three different issues of Dungeon (shipping one issue, editorial turnover to art for the next, and art order for the third) converging on the same day (Jan. 9th).
Remember, in paizo time 1 week = 3 months.Don't be petulant. Paizo just has more to do than they have time for, I'm sure. They say one week, but, in fact, likely say it after pulling an all nighter and briefly labor under the delusion that the day has 36 hours...
... Ahem. They get it out eventually. Eventually, and in a time frame relevant to the related issues.
Of course, this ties back into my sentiment that running AoW from the day it was published was ill-advised, but that is another story for another time...
Um...this has nothing to do with online supplement material, which I understand lags significantly behind the actual ship date of the magazine. This is something that was actually omitted from the adventure itself. It's the equivalent of having a room entry missing. And this isn't specific for an AoW adventure. What if the Scale sidebar were missing from a stand alone adventure?
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Creative Director
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Um...this has nothing to do with online supplement material, which I understand lags significantly behind the actual ship date of the magazine. This is something that was actually omitted from the adventure itself. It's the equivalent of having a room entry missing. And this isn't specific for an AoW adventure. What if the Scale sidebar were missing from a stand alone adventure?
Ah; misunderstood what you were asking for there. It should be much easier to get a scaling the adventure sidebar written up fairly soon; in fact, I'll do one up tomorrow and post it here.
Although I'd argue that a missing "scaling the adventure" sidebar is a LOT less catastrophic than missing room entries. ;-)
I'm suprised people actually use those sidebars for scaling the adventures. So far I have never used a Dungeon adventure for the correct level group. Even then I don't use them. I rarely find the encounters to be an appropriate challange for my group as written so have become used to winging them. They are either too tough when my guys are beat up, or too easy when they are fully rested.
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Creative Director
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Here's the missing sidebar from "The Spire of Long Shadows."
SCALING THE ADVENTURE
“The Spire of Long Shadows” is designed for a party of four 13th-level characters, but with a little work it can be adapted for use by 11th–12th-level or 14th–15th-level characters. Simply adjust all NPC character levels up or down as appropriate by a number equal to that which the average party level of your group deviates from 13. Don’t forget to modify the amount of treasure found in the adventure appropriately. Specific changes to the adventure include:
11th–12th-level characters: Remove one of the barbed devils and one or two of the bone devils from the Prelude. Remove one or both of the eviscerator beetles from the Ziggurat of Kyuss encounter. The worm nagas in area 3 should only be encountered one at a time. Remove one or both of the corrupted sword archons from area 4. Remove the wormcaller from area 5. Remove 2 wormswarms from area 6. Remove the overworm from area 11. The PCs should only encounter 1 or 2 Kyuss knights in area 12; you can save the ones you don’t use for other adventures later in your campaign.
14th–15th-level characters: Increase the barbed devils’ Hit Dice by 2–4 each. Give all of the Kyuss knights 1–2 levels of fighter, and all worm nagas 1–2 levels of sorcerer. Give Kelvos the Wormtouched 1–2 levels of cleric. Add 1–2 eviscerator beetles to area 5 and area 6. Add an encounter with 3 swords of Kyuss and a wormcaller to area 8 or 9. Advance the overworm in area 11 by 3–6 Hit Dice.
Thank you so much James! You're a life-saver. I use the scaleing sidebar constantly, as I'm running a group of eight power-gamers who seem to come up with novel ideas to make the meanest bad-guys look like chumps (case in point, Madtooth in Champion's Belt...paladin with stunning surge on his sword stabs the froghemoth, requires DEX save DC around 24. Madtooth fails...stunned for 1d4+1 rounds...no more Madtooth. We've since nerfed stunning surge).
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Guys,
I have a guest in form out of town, and he will be sitting in for a month or so, during Spire. That will make my gorup 5 12th lvl characters and a 9th level cohort. Here is the list
A Barbarian/Fighter/Tempest
A Wizard/Force Missle Mage/ Elemental Savant
A Rogue/Hexblade
A Cleric/Paladin/War Priest
The cohort is a 9th level rogue
and the new guy is a Dwarf Fighter/Deepwarden
My question is, they had a tough time with the first 2 encounters of Spire. I added an Evicserator beetle in the Nezzarin encounter, and added a Sword of Kyuss in the Library room. What adjustments do you guys think I should make to account for a 5 person party.
Thanks,
Pat
anyone?
Hard for me to reply to this one. I'm dealing with a party of eight characters, so I use the full-on scale, which usually manages to adequately challenge them without overdoing it. You might look at the scaling suggestions listed above, and do the bare minimum suggested.
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Creative Director
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To start with, I wouldn't make any adjustments at all. Play a session or two, and if it looks like things are going too easy on the PCs, it's probably enough to simply add in a "helper" monster to each encounter. The helper monster should be about 3 or 4 CR less than the EL of the encounter. So if you have an EL 13 encounter, add a CR 9 or 10 monster to the mix. This gives the slightly expanded party more things to take care of but doesn't increase the difficulty of the encounter too much.
And of course, if it turns out that the encounters are still too easy, just start decreasing the difference between the helper monster's CR and the encounter's EL by one until you hit the sweet spot.
Guys,
I have a guest in form out of town, and he will be sitting in for a month or so, during Spire. That will make my gorup 5 12th lvl characters and a 9th level cohort. Here is the list
(...)
My question is, they had a tough time with the first 2 encounters of Spire. I added an Evicserator beetle in the Nezzarin encounter, and added a Sword of Kyuss in the Library room. What adjustments do you guys think I should make to account for a 5 person party.
Oooh. I just ran a smaller but higher level party through the beginning. The encounter was nearly a TPK. The tactics suggest each Sword of Kyuss tosses an invocation of the worm (14d6 negative energy damage) as soon as the party enters. That took out two members of the party and all cohorts right there. Unless you PCs party runs around death warded, adding a 4th seems like a killer.
I seriously wonder if this encounter needs toned down.