Jacob's Tower: The Classic 1-20 Dungeon


Homebrew and House Rules

Shadow Lodge

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I've been working on a dungeon known as Jacob's Tower. The idea is to make 20 levels, one for each character level, which can either be place piecemeal in a campaign or played together for the ultimate dungeon crawl. These levels are designed to test every aspect of a group's abilities: Over every three levels the dungeon tests every skill and faces the heroes against every monster type. More than that, each level provides its own unique twist. I'm quite proud of them, and I would love to hear what you guys think.

Level 1: Classic: A warm up romp featuring traps, haunts, undead, animals, and a gambit of lesser used abilities such as knowledge and profession skills.

Level 2: Marble and Glass: The PCs both ambush and get ambushed in semi-traditional fights against the backdrop of riddles and a caged beast far above their pay grade.

Level 3: Corridors and Chasms: A sprawling maze of tight hallways and pits with four ghosts to test each of the social skills.

Level 4: Bernard's Prison: Our heroes find themselves locked in a strange prison, and must make their way throughout the level with only minimal gear.

Level 5: Runewall: An obsidian maze set in a starry abyss, characters will face a number of magical maladies, such as having their minds switched with fellow adventurers and being teleported to random squares.

Thoughts?

Shadow Lodge

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Level 6: Gauntlet: A relentless wall of spikes pushes the party through a gauntlet of traps, encounters, enemies, and challenges. This level is brutal, deadly, and unyielding: Either our heroes will make it - or they won't.


We've been playing this, and level five is.... pretty hated by the players. It's not really fun with all the body swapping.

Shadow Lodge

Huh. Level 5 was one of the most fun for us. My platers loved the chaotic nature of passing the character sheets around.

The most important rule of GMing is, as always, know your players. If you don't think the players will like it, don't include it. As stated in the posting, the level works perfectly well without the Mindswitch mechanic.


Well, it was a mix of the mind switching and the glass golem that turned all the players against the level. All in all, it just wasn't fun. The level with all the wraiths was fun.

Part of it, admittedly, was the GM saying that the create pit that wasn't targetting the golem could be reflected, but before then, everyone was on edge from having to play a character they didn't know, so it slowed combats down quite a bit.

I also recommend coming up with some way to handle non-PC but PC controlled things for the mind swap. We had no idea how to handle changing over the druid's animal companion and my eidolon. We ended up just swapping them back and forth, since it'd be no fun to have a PC in a companion's body.

Shadow Lodge

Cheapy wrote:
I also recommend coming up with some way to handle non-PC but PC controlled things for the mind swap. We had no idea how to handle changing over the druid's animal companion and my eidolon. We ended up just swapping them back and forth, since it'd be no fun to have a PC in a companion's body.

I think it would be a blast to suddenly be in the body of an eidolon or bear for half an hour, but to each his own I suppose. In any case, the mechanic specifies "characters," not creatures. I'll make that more clear.

I'll make a note that the GM should consider whether the Mindswitch mechanic would make sense for his party.

And yes, create pit should completely work on the ground beneath the golem. Saying that it would reflect is just bonkers.

I'm glad you enjoyed level three! What did you think of the other levels?


The next level was pretty interesting. The race against the clock definitely sped things up a bit, but it was a bit jarring to notice that after 3 sessions, we spent a total of 3 minutes in the level.

My gnome summoner summoned a shark, hopped in the mouth, and had it swim him across the water barrier.

Overall, pretty fun.


For more insanity, have a party of dead characters tackling the tower. They will notice the living characters when their haunts are triggered and when they have to interact with the living characters to get through the level.
This tower has happened before! I will try to find it and bump it.
One cool level was based on the four elements. One of the key dispensers to unlock the next level might be floating 30 feet outside the tower. :)

Shadow Lodge

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Level 7: Gothic A horror themed level set in the massive Hellbrooke cathedral, our heroes must gather gory ingredients for the resurrection of a vampire lord.

Shadow Lodge

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Level 8: Planar: An exploration of the different planes and their effects on adventuring, our heroes must hop between planes to brave flame, sea, wild magic, righteous angels, negative energy, and other dangers before fighting four huge elementals.

Shadow Lodge

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Level 9: Campfire: A significant departure from the stereotypical dungeon crawl, our heroes must keep a fire burning over a 24 hour period in a large outdoor environment while battling the elements and monsters alike.

Shadow Lodge

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Level 10: Resurrection: Stuck inside the corpse of a massive god, our heroes must follow the orders of a desperate spirit to bring his master back to life.


Awesome! Glad you've been updating this again.


Interesting. Dotted for "may steal".


Definitely keeping this on the back burner in case my next campaign doesn't go over well. My group should have some fun with it, at any rate.


This looks cool. I may see if i can get my team to play.

Shadow Lodge

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Level 11: Mansion: A Victorian style Mansion filled with ghosts, ghouls, traps and horrifying haunts, this level is sure to unnerve your heroes as they proceed from room to room.

Shadow Lodge

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Level 12: Arena: The charismatic but amorphous Ringleader leads our heroes through deadly combats and challenges as they try to win the favor of a deafening crowd.


Never know when I might need some free prebuilt dungeon levels. Dotted.


Huh, I was thinking of posting here.

Based on our results last night, the final encounter for level 9 should probably be tweaked. It's nearly impossible to hit without a gunslinger, the saves are ridiculous, and the minimum damage is enough to kill the average PC in 2 attacks. With the threatened range of it, you're pretty likely to have someone die in 2 rounds.

The only way we survived was by half of us fleeing up into the air, and the other half kicking out the fire to let the friendly ooze to deal with the creature. And then that half dying pretty soon after.

It's an Epic difficulty level after an entire day worth of encounters meant to drain your resources. Not exactly a fun and balanced encounter.

Level 8 was a lot of fun though, and the puzzles were fun.

Shadow Lodge

Yup, the T-Rex fight might need some tweaking. Though I love the lateral thinking that came out of it.

What was your party composition?

Also, you mention that it is after an entire day's worth of encounters. Really, this fight is after a full night's rest. You should have all of your resources back. Did that not happen for your party?


Dotting for interest.


Me, gnome summoner with a flying eidolon (my strategy for the fight was to fly UP and shoot down with crossbows...and eventully just started dropping things on it, ineffectually).

Druid 8 / Fighter 1 with ankylosaurus AC. The AC died in the surprise round due to a crit, but with only 58 HP, probably would've died anyways regardless of crit. Druid was fire elemental (our way of keeping fire alive), and jumped down T-Rex's throat, punching it from the inside.

Some Psionic Warlock thing from Ultimate Psionics. His blast had a range of 30 feet. The T-Rex had a reach of 30 feet. Spent the entire combat hiding, until he slowly got closer to get a shot off....and was eaten instantly, no way to survive.

Gunslinger that was there for half the battle. Probably would've done ~30-~50 damage overall before they were eaten if they were there for the second half. This is the guy who kicked out the fire.

DMPC Oracle of the dark tapestry. Mostly a buff bot / debuff bot. He cast blessing of fervor, derped around ineffectually, and then turned into a climbing animal and climbed as high as he could on the wall.

We took shifts to make sure the fire was alive. And we were interrupted in the middle of the night by an attack anyways. I think maybe one person was fully refreshed, but it wasn't the druid and I don't think it was me. Even we everyone was refreshed though, I don't think any offensive spells would've landed on it, as it could only fail a DC 18 saving throw it kept on having to make on a natural 1.

Shadow Lodge

Interesting crew! I'll do another test run of that fight and see how it goes.


They needed some straight on fighters to keep the watch. Also, what was the chance of wandering monsters, at night? I couldn't have rolled that if I was GMing if I tried.

Shadow Lodge

Just ran the test fight. It was nice and close and I can see how it could go the other way.

We had a ranger arcane archer, a bow-based inquisitor, a bow-based bard, an enchanting sorcerer, and a oracle of life. Not a balanced party by any means, and way too focused on attacking AC. Which is a problem, and valuable lesson against the T-Rex.

Party figured that something would be coming just before sunrise, so they buffed. Each volley of arrows was fairly unsuccessful, so they changed tactics to buff their attack rolls.The T-Rex attacked the arcane archer, got him grappled. The Bard, recognizing the arcane archer's greater damage dealing capabilities, intentionally provoked an opportunity attack. The T-Rex dropped the archer to eat the bard. Four 5s and two sixes on six d6s and the bard goes down in one hit.

The sorcerer was the star of the show. The T-Rex failed a DC 25 Will save against confusion and thus was taken out of combat for about half of his turns. The sorcerer was also able to use scorching ray to attack the T-Rex's touch.

The oracle of life was also excellent, preventing everybody except for the bard from dying.

Five rounds later, and the T-Rex crumpled. A lovely close fight that got everybody's heart racing. The party learned some valuable lessons about getting attacks that don't target normal AC.

However, the fight could have easily gone another way. I can see parties without really any way of dealing with the AC. I'm going to (reluctantly) lower the boss from a T-Rex with x2 advancement and x2 giant to a T-Rex with x1 advancement and x1 giant. His damage stays similar, but his defenses are lowered by quite a bit. He's updated here.


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Squirrel_Dude wrote:
Never know when I might need some free prebuilt dungeon levels. Dotted.

For real. Dotted.

Broken zenith, thanks for sharing

Shadow Lodge

For those keeping track: I've decided to stop Jacob's Tower at Level 13: Sorcerer. The final level of Jacob's Tower, Sorcerer, features a three part battle with Jacob himself. It also describes the rewards upon completion of the dungeon, explains the secret purpose of the tower, and reveals the true identity of Nine.

I recently ran a 1-20 campaign, and past level 12 dungeon crawling isn't really feasible. I would have to implement some silly measures to prevent characters from breaking the levels, and the disparity between optimized and non-optimized characters would make balanced dungeon design impossible.

Not to fear though. More content (mostly 3pp) is always on its way! But, for the time being at least, Jacob's Tower is completed.

In any case, I hope people enjoy the levels, and I would to hear more feedback on any and all of them.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16

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I've only run Gothic via Maptools (and I've given you my feedback there), but I look forward to running one of the other levels the next time it's my turn to entertain the PCs.

This is coinciding with the map round of RPGSS, and I have to wonder why you don't participate in the contest, I think you'd do very well. Are you ineligible from professional work?

Shadow Lodge

I think you can only get into the map round if you make it past the previous round. But thanks for the vote of confidence!

Have fun with the other levels!


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So far I have ran levels 1 and 2. My players loved every moment of it.
We ran on roll20( thanks for the roll20 maps btw!) and utilizing the fog of war mechanic makes the maps that much more fun.

Level 1 had a good introduction to lighting mechanics in room 9 and forced my players to back track as they had not brought any type of light source so when they found the torch in room 3 they felt very accomplished as it was almost like finding a key. Room 5 had me rolling in laughter as none of them had put ranks into the right skills and they got shocked a few times before they had successes. The last fight was fun at well as the barbarian in the group got charmed. (though i didn't make him greataxe anybody near him as he could have tpk'd the party, just grapple others)

My players really enjoyed being able to see almost the entire map on level 2, and were quit frightened at the beast in the middle of the room. The riddles were quite a nice touch although after the third riddle they guessed the fourth right after i read the languages it was written in (ignan riddle). Unfortunately for them the last riddle room was the demon for them and so they fought a back to back battle with the beast.

Over all this has been so far one of the most enjoyable adventures i have ever run.


.

Shadow Lodge

Captian Von Spicy Wiener wrote:


Over all this has been so far one of the most enjoyable adventures i have ever run.

D'awww, thanks!

Dark Archive

I finished running the tower a few weeks ago with my players. We played most of the levels, though I made up my own levels for 7 and 11. Reason being I didn't care for feel of those two levels. Not really sure why, to be honest.
Generally quite positive feedback from the players.
The party was a sword and board fighter, life shaman, swashbuckler, and a ranger.
Around level 6 they got a conjuration wizard.
They loved the hydra fight, even though it was tough for them. They got it to one head before the fight, but that fast healing is still a real menace at level 2.
At the time of level 3, only the fighter had a magic weapon, so only he and the shaman were able to injure the ghosts. Made those fights a bit boring for the remainder of the party.
The group really enjoyed the prison level. They liked the creativity and change of pace to "Smash all the things" in that level. The fighter even ended up taming the dog. I know it wasn't 100% per the rules of the level, but it made him happy. Also there was no great trapfinder. The swashbuckler tried, but she set off as many as she found. It was amusing for the party (luckily. They could easily have been annoyed instead. They never found the other way around, since they were using corpses to distract the centipede)
I was worried about the mind swapping, so I asked the party about it in advance. They were cool with it, and liked the mechanic. The sonic tunnel was tough, since the most dexterous member of the party was a Halfling, so they 20ft movement speed hurt there.
In replacement for this level I created a level with as masquerade ball setting. All the PCs were decked out in regalia related to specific Pathfinder deities, interacting with NPCs adorned in a similar fashion. There were some fights (primarily with the envoys of the evil deities) that culminated with an attack by the monstrous envoy of Rovagug. I tried to make it a good bit more non-combat interactive, though, as a change of pace for a level.
Planar was a very good time. The fighter ran into the dead magic room and solo-fought the golem while the rest of the party considered their options. In the end I threw a 3rd party gravity elemental in the last encounter to ramp up the difficulty to coincide with the addition of another PC.
Campfire was super cool from a design standpoint. The ranger was able to make the survival checks on a 1, so that part wasn't particularly tough, but the T-rex had the party scared. The ranger got most of his HP taken off in a bite and was almost unconscious when he got swallowed. I think it was the most scared the party had gotten thus far.
Resurrection was super cool as well. Also, the shaman has had extra fireballs on standby since those high level swarms that nobody else could deal with. I'm considering bringing Haradim back later in the still-running campaign.
Have you read order of the stick? I created a "defend the besieged city" as an homage to the defense of Azure City. The was the first character death, when the fighter tried to solo the final boss early on and got disintegrated. They used one of the divine salves, and still have 2 remaining.
Arena was kind of a mixed bag for the players. They liked the water fight quite a lot, and the obstacle course was fun for them, but they despised the rodeo clown bit. The wizard didn't much like the forced, contrived setting of it. I accidentally ended up getting the killing blow on the ankou with his own prismatic spray splashing a shadow clone.
I ended up pulling punches somewhat with the first phase. With the sorcerer as far away as he was, and access to up to 3 quickened fireballs, I could have killed the party almost certainly. The confusion got half the party and they were rolling badly to take actions. Once the fighter was finally able to close the distance things ended quickly, but it was pretty touchy before that. Phase two was also a bit scary, but in a more controlled manner. The fighter took on the ghosts, while the ranger and swashbuckler took out the main guy. They really disliked that he couldn't be excluded from channeling, and I can see why. People don't like it when the rules they've been using for a long time are changed without warning. The third fight was also cool (And many a Tiamat reference was made), though probably actually the easiest. It was somewhat difficult to line up hitting anyone into the elemental pits, but he still hits hard so it was still epic enough.

Finally, I did end up changing a number of the rewards.
I predetermined all the artifacts, should a PC have chosen one, but none of them did. They wanted something I, as GM, couldn't take away from them so easily.
The swashbuckler took the option for the harrow deck. I had her pick 6 total, 3 and 3, instead of 14. She is now the world's only medium Halfling wearbear. Also there's an evil outsider after her that is yet to be determined. Might be Haradim, but I am unsure.
The fighter is immortal and loving it.
For knowledge, I changed +20 on all knowledge skills to character level ranks in 2 knowledge skills plus the 3 feats. The shaman chose this option so she can add some oomph to the blasting she came to appreciate in the tower.
Luck was going to be mostly unchanged. Always active +1 on d20 rolls and once per day declare a dice a 1 and once per day declare a dice 20, instead of either 3 times per day.
I would have nerfed physical and mental perfection some, but nobody picked it, so I no longer have the specifics on it.
I didn't give redemption as an option, since none of the PCs really had a preexisting debt.
I would have cut down on riches to probably 100k initially and 50k installments.
I also made up a few more reward options.
Demesne- The PC is given a customized domain, per create greater demi plane, with up to five castings. At least one must be used to create the plane with the other four either being used to add size or add features. A sufficient number of permanencies are included to make the entire plane permanent. The wizard chose this option.
Deific Favor- The Pc chooses any cleric domain, subject to the alignment and deity restrictions of a true cleric, and gains the powers as a cleric of their character level (Not including bonus spells). Additionally, the PC may use Angelic Aspect once per day as a spell-like ability. The shaman initially chose this, but I allowed her to change her mind before the next session.
Elemental Prowess- The character gains certain powers as a kineticist half her character level. I had chosen appropriate powers for each possible element. The ranger chose telekinesis, which I granted him the Kinetic cover, Telekenetic Invisibility, Telekenetic Finesse, Telekenetic Maneuvers powers, in addition to basic blast and basic telekinesis.

Shadow Lodge

Glad you had a good time! Very martial group.
Looks like you skipped the more horror themed levels - Gothic and Mansion.
Half the party confused is a tough way to start the final level! Glad they made it through. No harm in pulling punches if the players have a good time.
The rewards are geared more towards awesome end of campaign feel goods. If you are continuing with these characters, then good call on weakening them a bit.
Create Demi-plane is a great reward, and one I will possibly add!
Thanks for all the feedback!


So why Jacob? Any special meaning or reason behind Jacob's name? Is it your name?

Shadow Lodge

No special meaning! I just like the name.


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How about a war level?
Armies of lower-level humanoids, complete with siege weapons and proper military units. See how sheer numbers can be overcome.

Underwater level?

Do a level with permanent anti-magic fields and many Dispel Magic traps.

Level with ever-changing gravity. Normal, reverse, high-G, low-G...

Clockwork level where the battlefields turn, or are giant cogs of a turning gear (so don't stay to long or you'll be crushed by another gear). Precarious moving cliffs over many hundred foot drops. Various constructs showing up at random in the fights.

Clone level, with multiple stages, each with a theme of "defeat your clones". For example, the party gets separated, and some members get replaced with Dopplegangers with class levels who try to lead the members into ambushes or traps. Later, a hall filled with Mirrors of Opposition.


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So, I’m finally going to start this campaign with my group after buying roughly 8 months ago I believe (Dang college, ruining my gaming life). When I GM, I enjoy playing music to suit the environment my players are in. I especially think this is important in this campaign, as each area is strikingly different to the previous one. While for some of these levels I have a good idea of what to play, and for others not so much, I would love get some input on what sort of music, if any, helped inspire all these levels. Anything that you would do music-wise for this campaign is greatly appreciated.

Potential jacob’s tower spoilers:
The Tavern: I wanted to use a lot of the quieter soundtracks from Undertale like “Waterfall” to convey sense of peacefulness, but also isolation as the player as trapped in this place until they defeat the tower’s challenges.

Classic: I was going to use the Official D&D Soundtrack by Syndicate for this floor, just to keep it classic.

Marble and Glass: I’m having trouble with this one. Reading it, it felt kind of Portal-ish, so perhaps some of the Portal ost. I’m not 100% sure what the atmosphere here should be.

Corridors and Chasms: I think a little less music and more haunting noise/wet earthy hallway noise would help set the mood here.

Bernard’s Prison: I almost want to put the slower brig music from Disney’s Pirates in here, but it feels it bit too dark for that. I could definitely use some ideas for music here.

Runewall: Reading this makes me think I should have some of the Enterprise ambient noise playing, but I’m blanking on something for combat that wouldn’t be too contrasting.

Gauntlet: This will be fairly easy to provide some chase music for, but I’d still be interested in what kind of songs you had in mind specifically when building this dungeon.

Gothic: Classic church organ horror, toccata and fugue, etc. Easy peasy.

Planer: Completely stumped on this honestly. Maybe I’m just not looking at it the right way, but I’ve got nothing. Maybe some Tron Legacy soundtrack, but I don’t know…

Campfire: Some nice forest ambience with some bonfire and waterfall noise, punctuated by some combat music that feels a bit more tribal. Probably some instrumentals from Tarzan.

Resurrection: I’m going to have to get something that sounds “bodily” enough for the atmosphere, but I’m not sure what to get for combat.

Mansion: Less church organ horror and more chello/violin creepiness. Danse macabre, and some Shining and Poltergeist ost perhaps.

Area: I’m tempted to find a nice balance between TV gameshow music and some high-paced gladiator combat music, ala Gladiator or 300, and just own that contrast in tone.

Sorcerer: Although I know exactly what I want to put here, I would still love to know what you would put to this if you had the chance. Name them in order if you’d like to avoid spoilers for those who haven’t bought the pdf yet.

Besides that I’ll just say this is one of the most creative dungeons I’ve seen in quite a while, being quite unique while still maintaining an air of familiarity. 101/10, great campaign just from reading it over, can’t wait to play it.

Shadow Lodge

Glad that you like it so much! Wanna go take that 101/10 review and stick it on Paizo?

I actually don't use music in my sessions because I do audio recordings of every session I run! But here are some suggestions:

Marble and Glass: Some Classic/Operatic music might fit the bill.

Runewall: The Dune Soundtrack would work.

Prison: Midnight Syndicate would fit the bill here as well - not sure if you want to use it twice.

Gauntlet: If you wanted to be a bit on-the-nose, you could do Indiana Jones.

Resurrection: Haredim was built as a kind of Babylonian god - some vaguely middle eastern music might not be too far off the mark, but not sure beyond that.

Mansion: You could also go a little bit past the era and get some old creepy static-y 20's music. Might be interesting, if your players don't mind the anachronisms.

Planar: For planar, I'd try not to get distracted by the plane-jumping element and focus more on the magical/mystical nature. You could play around with the witches soundtrack.

Sorcerer: Some two steps from hell for some epic battle music would do it for me, varying depending on the stages. PM me what you would choose!

Good luck!


For planar, you might get a sound effect album with fire, waterfalls, wind, and avalanches. Maybe mining sounds.

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