Nik's page

Here are some of my ideas, posted to Usenet (rec.games.frp.dnd) back in November, plus some edits based on this thread:

"
Q'barra seems almost ideal for Cauldron, now that you mention it: mostly generic fantasy nation, but new/frontier oriented, in a region with ancient ruins, covered by jungle.

For ease of explanation, and to make my suggestions below easier, I'm going to assume one major conversion first: Adimarchus is either a weak Rajah, or a strong, but imprisoned, Lord of Dust.

Various ideas for things to change, or foci to adjust:

=== RUINS

. Kopru (Flood Season): In the original, these ruins are unrelated to the campaign intrigue. To keep this role, kopru could be daelkyr creations, or these ruins could be daelkyr ruins. If the latter, replace the kopru with a daelkyr half-breed or creation (a mad dolgaunt with an aquatic template could be pretty cool and bizarre).

If you wanted to tie this into the campaign intrigue a bit more, make kopru a byproduct of the Age of Demons, minor enough to be mostly overlooked.

. Spell Weaver (Demonskar Legacy, Secrets of the Soul Pillars): In the original, the spell weavers were weird, but not particularly evil, and not related to the campaign intrigue (as far as I recall). Their oddity and independence almost suggests they might be kalashtar-related. A faction of quori who fled Dal Quor even before the schism that created the kalashtar, finding a completely different way to embody themselves than that found by the kalashtar and Inspired? Alternately, replace their mystic ruins with ancient dragon or Dhakaani ruins, or make the spell weavers agents from the Age of Demons.

. Yuan-ti (the last few adventures; I forget their names): The destructive nature of the yuan-ti seems likely to link them to the Age of Demons and the Lords of Dust, as well as their preference for illusion and deception. The emphasis on these ruins as the home base of the Cagewrights suggests this as well.

=== PLANES

. Occipitus could easily be located as a region of Shavarath, and fits that plane's 'battleground' feel quite nicely, IMO.

. If Adimarchus is a Rajah or Lord of Dust, the Asylum could be a demiplanar prison of some kind for him, created by the dragons.

. Carceri. This might be tough, as I don't believe Eberron has any place already decided for demodands. Perhaps some of the material for converting Age of Worms to Eberron includes this information, but failing that, demodands could merely be subjects of the Rajahs who have remained mostly caged with their masters.

=== RELIGION/INTRIGUE

. Vhalantru: Despite beholders probably being daelkyr creations, Vhalantru is a Cagewright and agent of the Lords of Dust. This gives the Lords an efficient agent that has several layers of deception as to his true motives.

. The Ebon Triad: these cultists could easily be converted into Dark Six cultists. Hextor = the Fury (making the female priestess Triel more likely), Vecna = the Mockery or the Shadow, Erythnul = the Devourer.

. St. Cuthbert: The Church of the Silver Flame, or House Jorasco, or House Ghallanda (providing more reason for them to be involved in the orphanage kidnapping). Any of these would work, so go with whichever one your players will be most sympathetic towards, or for more fun, most suspicious of.

. Fharlanghn: the Traveler. This works quite well, and makes the Striders much more ambiguously-aligned, a great enigma for the players to unravel if you want to do it that way. Another alternative: House Orien.

. Wee Jas: this church could be a faction of worshippers of Aureon who seek his reunion with the Shadow. This would explain their presence as a public church in Cauldron, as well as their actual dark intentions. Other alternatives: House Cannith's darker side (Merrix) or House Thuranni, who is likely to be trying to make inroads into Q'barra anyway.

. Cagewrights: The Cagewrights in the original work to free caged fiends. Leaving Adimarchus' stats as-is suggests that he is a Rajah or a Lord of Dust, so this remains an effective goal for the Cagewrights.

=== ALTERNATIVE

You could also go a completely different route, and make him Adimarchus a daelkyr, though that might require altering some imagery and quite a few stats. Since the Cults of the Dragon Below who revere the daelkyr also seek to free them, this remains a useful possible goal for the Cagewrights. Demodands could then be twisted creations of the daelkyr from their prisons, and Occipitus a blasted battleground from that age that was mostly hidden from the world.
"

Okay, can someone clear this up with me since I seem to be missing something. Filge is a 3rd level wizard and unless the term "necromancer" actually means something, his spell list is wrong.

Necromancer most certainly *does* mean something. Re-read the section in the PH about "school specialization", or see the SRD at:

Also, you guys must have rolled his hp pretty well since a wizard is 1d4.

You must have missed the fact that he has the Toughness feat, adding 3 to his hp total.

Looks like Filge has exactly average hp, like almost everything else tends to.

Why have it (the alignment system) at all? It seems like Monte Cooke agrees with this, as his own gaming world is devoid (in my quick review) of this structured Alignment garbage.

And, in many people's opinions, Arcana Unearthed suffers a bit for it. It's always seemed a bit "unfocused" to me, and I know I'm not alone in that.

I'm looking at all of these Diamond Lake NPCs, and I may be wrong, but its like I could envision Erik saying that everyone's (well, most everyone) alignment is Neutral because they wouldn't necessarily have an alignment; afterall, these people aren't taking up arms to oppose the stronger Alignment to maintain balance.

Which is true of most people, period.

Neutral is the "undecided" alignment. In my games, I've kept it from being conflated with "active neutrality" akin to the True Neutral alignment from older versions of the game by calling the "active neutrality" alignment "Balanced". This solves the problem nicely, and most people are happily ensconced in the "Neutral" bins.

Heh, cool, I was right about Smenk and the observatory.

As for Dragon, obviously, it behooves a DM well to be familiar with player material. That said, the material in Dragon tends to be more often useful to players (though anything a PC can have, an NPC can, too).

If I could afford them, I'd own all of both. Since I can't, I buy the Dungeon issues I can, and pick up only those Dragon issues I actively need.

That being said, unless you're not concerned with suspension of disbelief (this IS a fantasy game), there are some parts of leveling up that I'll restrict in the middle of a dungeoun/wilderness encounter. Namely, the adding of new known spells for a wizard (I understand that this comes from ongoing study) and the adding of skill points to skills that are not already known and/or used in the last encounter for other characters. Generally, I'd like to see players add to what they know, or justify the adding of new skills from what they've experienced. Unless you've had to scramble up a tree to escape a ravenous pack of wolves, I doubt that you'd spontaneously learn to climb better. Feats, on the other hand, are a different matter. If you qualify, you can have it.

<snip>

Most importantly, if this doesn't work for your group, do what works for your group, and have fun.

Obviously, your last sentence applies to everyone, but I think you may be shortchanging your players on this front. D&D 3.x simplifies level-up choices by making the assumption that all level-up choices are justified with background training. We don't (and I assume you don't, either) play every waking moment of each character's life each day, so the empty times can be assumed to be the characters training. The wizard and the new spells can be easily explained by stating that he nearly had the formula for those spells, and was practicing and experimenting with them until he got them just right (i.e. he leveled up).

If you'd like a rules cite for this, see PH3.5 58 (since experience rules aren't in the SRD), the paragraph titled "Training and Practice" under the heading "Experience and Levels". The last sentence refers to docking XP if the PC can't train or practice. If you want to reflect the difficulty of learning skills that are inappropriate, the cross-class skill penalty looks reasonable to me.

I think that restricting a character's level-up choices (especially if you're leaving feats open for business) seems a little arbitrary, and might generate some resentment on the part of the wizard and rogue (or anyone who wants to try a new class).

Anyway... it is a pretty generic hide out and I can't imagine the players staying there for long (why not take the necromancer's place as a base of operations).

One problem with the necromancer's place: if Smenk has been using it for people like the necromancer, he probably owns the deed. Using it might put the PCs immediately on Smenk's bad side, and draw combats with Smenk's gangs, or even assassins, at some point. The same reasons that made it easy for the PCs to take out the necromancer at the observatory make it easy for Smenk's people to take out the PCs there.

I guess for me though it is representative of the difference between Dungeon and Dragon magazines... Dragon is just something to hold me over until the next Dungeon.

More and more, Dungeon is becoming the DM's magazine, with Dragon being the player's magazine, it seems. I believe that was the intent, and it seems to be borne out to me.

I'm really glad to hear that these stat blocks will be permanent. I love the changes, as they group things much more intuitively than the 2e-derived old stat blocks.

--
Nik

Cold Steel wrote:

Sigh. Time to dig out my dog-eared copy of the living Greyhawk gazeteer.

Lol. I hope she's in there! I was going by an appendix in the 1985 printing of T1-4 Temple Of Elemental Evil. There's a whole listing of the various deities and their cultural origins.

Also, I think there's a 2e adventure based around her. Not sure. Let me know what you think of my hunch!

She's in 3e. "Istus, Lady of Our Fate, The Colorless and All-Colored", the Baklunish pantheon's most powerful deity.

--
Nik