Aahzlan's page

My obituary actually isn't any of the PC's but what I thought was a good idea ended up getting the crap kicked out of it by the PC's.

We had been playing another low level game before switching over to Jade Regent, knowing that I was dealing with a group who'd just been through several character reboots and wanting to avoid that again as half the table is new, I let them transfer their 2nd level characters over to the new game. I figured that the first few encounters would be a cake walk and then we'd get into riskier territory.

I loved the idea of the Soggy River Monster, a creature of unknown origin in the swamp causing havoc and creeping everyone out seemed like and awesome idea and after catching a couple of glimpses of it the PC's were sufficiently worried. When the time came though, the PC's dropped it in a single round.

In order to keep the "Swamps are Dangerous" feel I decided that the black dragon on the island off the coast had a young dragon that she'd just kicked out of the nest and this young Dragon (CR 7 by the way) had taken up temporary residence in the ship wreck of the Kaijitsu Star.

The very first descision made by the PC's at the start of the next game was to check out the Shipwrecks, starting with my young dragons home. As they approached, subtle clues were missed and they had no idea what was coming. As a DM, nothing is more satisfying than that look of temporary panic on a PC's face when you drop a mini like a black dragon out on the table.

My intent was for them to run, realizing that they were well over matched and it almost happened until one of the PC's looked up and said "Hey, I think we got this". I well underestimated the brass my PC's apparently have. The battle begins and I drop the screen, telling them that they're characters are well aware of how risky this is and that for this battle, all rolls will be in the open. Again I thought, here's where they back peddle back into the tree line, but no... the Cavalier steps out and Challenges Dragon.

Then things went entirely differently. ALL saves vs. the breath weapon were made, I couldn't roll above a 10 with 6 attacks, three or four crits made their way through my precious Young Dragons hide and after an hour and a half, the dragon lay at the feet of the triumphant PC's. I stood stunned. The party was badly wounded, and all Hero Points were used, but 4 2nd level PC's killed my dragon, and were smiling at me.

Putting down the monster manual, I threw up my hands, and clapped. "You've defeated my dragon, the swamp holds no terror for you brave allies."

Funnily enough, they had more trouble with the Licktoads ;)

Now a moment of silence for a DM's attempt to build tension. Hahaha, rest in peace young dragon, we barely knew yee.

~Aahzlan

I've been toying with the idea of messing around with the caravan rules as well. A lot like what has been mentioned before. My current plan begins with the people they hire to fill certain roles. I'm going to have each of the players give me a name and a defining feature like "Osco the Driver" and "Doesn't speak common" (or what ever languages the PC's speak). I've done this with other groups and found that having a bit more creative input on the people with the caravan changes it from it's current form to one they care about a bit more.

I've also considered asking each player how they are helping the caravan each round to provide them a little more input other than just the "Caravan Master" (the title we chose for the guy in charge of that stuff) making the die rolls. Each success would provide a +1 bonus each failure would provide a -1 modifier. Getting them involved in these ways will hopefully foster a sense of community with the other members of the caravan ( Never could talk to Osco, but the way he charged into those monsters was the bravest thing I ever saw ) and a feeling of accomplishment with the caravan itself that will make more than just a mode of transportation.

That's the hope anyway, we kick off in a couple of weeks so I've still got some time to bang out the details.

Aahz

That makes sense Are, and your right Magic dealer, I was neglecting to take into account the dangers of the environment as well, I might be able to make a single frog or two quite a challange.

In regards to the Return to ToEE, we will be running that as well, I've got a copy of that book at home, but on talking to the group we all thought it would be cool if we played the original, then a different AP, and then the Return, after I've had time to figure out the reppercussions and adjust Return ToEE.

Thanks alot guys!

So a friend of mine got a new job and no longer has time to build/run the game anymore and I've been elected new DM. I'm actually looking forward to it though it's been almost 12 years since I was behind the screen.

I realize that I've jumped in the deep end of the pool here as I'm trying to convert the original 1985 Temple of Elemental Evil for the Pathfinder system and I have a question about the CR builds as something seems a bit off to me.

The first encounter at the moathouse calls for 6 giant frogs. If I'm reading the verbage correctly that would be a CR6 encounter granting each player 600xp ( assuming they survived ). Six of them seemed a little excessive so I thought I would take the core of the encounter, here being "the PC's are attacked by Giant Frogs" and build the encounter from scratch based around that idea.

So the APL for my group of four, first level players is 1. A standard encounter level for them would be a CR1 encounter giving me 400xp for which to "buy" monsters/traps for the encounter (again, assuming I'm reading this correctly). So with my 400xp bucks I run down to the monster store and start checking out Giant Frogs. Giant Frogs are CR1 and "cost" 400xp...

Suddenly I feel like I'm going from a slightly overpowering 6 frog encounter to a by the book cake walk. AC 12 and 15 hit point, that one frog is gonna get stomped quick and everyone will walk away with a hundred xp. Is the math in the calculation right? Am I reading this wrong?

While I don't want this to be a character grinder ( I know I know, its classic Gygax, all the peasants are rich and the monster uber deadly ) I don't want it to be this easy either. The math just seems a bit off to me and while I could wing it I was curious if this is going to be how the whole conversion goes. Thanks guys!