dizzyk's page

Does anybody know if there's an official ruling on when the Body of the Sun spell from the Spell Compendium deals its damage? Unlike, say, Ring of Blades - which specifically says "at the beginning of your turn and also when you cast the spell" - Body of the Sun has no such clarity. I recently ruled that BotS would function like RoB, and now I've got a player up in arms. She felt that anyone who is ever 5' away from her at any point during her turn if she moves around the battlefield should be subject to the damage, which to me felt like it went against the spirit of how spells of that sort, like RoB, that are worded more clearly are supposed to function. Any thoughts/advice from anyone?

My party is wrapping up the encounter at the Twisted Branch lair and has agreed to return with a peace treaty. Did anyone's party actually do this side quest? Any interesting stories to share? Any advice on who/which governing body/etc the party would talk to in Greyhawk? (My City of Greyhawk knowledge is woefully limited.) Anyone come up with a neat way to tie this part of the story more firmly into the meta-plot? Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated.

I've done some searches here on the boards and was surprised to not find any threads on this specific topic. If they exist and I missed them, I'd also appreciate some links. Thanks, everyone~

What sorts of ways could I motivate players to try some of these other classes?

I agree that adding campaign flavor to the base classes could be really helpful. Find out what about the swashbuckler/pirate archetype appeals to each player and see if you can't twist that into one of the existing classes...

Sell one player on a Cleric of Olidammara - a down n' dirty street rat who wears light armor and fights with paired daggers. Add the Trickery and Luck domains, a cool background, and you've got a straight-out-of-PHB Cleric who'll "feel" more at home with swashbucklers than the run of the mill platemail-n'-mace type of Cleric.

Maybe instead of a Wizard, you encourage someone to try out a Beguiler or a Duskblade - both of which would feel right at home in a piratey/swashbucklery party. You'd lose the variety of a Wizard, but you'd still have some arcane magic going on.

Why is it 16? My math is that she could only have max 10 altogether (cha 2 + max 5 rank + skill focus 3). What do i miss?

I don't have the magazine with me, but she may have synergy bonuses from Bluff, Knowledge (nobility), and Sense Motive. That would account for the extra +6.

We'll be playing in Eberron, and the group is forming up like this:

-Quicksilver, a Warforged Scout... er, Scout (planning on multiclassing with Beguiler).
-Pharosche of the Kech Volaar, a Hobgoblin Wizard.
-Valienna Frostsong, a Feytouched Elf Druid with the Shapeshifting variant from PHBII.
-Kerrik d'Orien, aka "Scar-eater," a human Warmage (planning on multiclassing with Fighter and then Spellsword) with the Mark of Passage.

I've prepared +0 ECL versions of the races with level adjustments so that everyone is starting out at a legitimate 1st-level.

Lots of arcane magic, eventually, but healing is going to be a serious challenge for this group, with no Cleric and a Warforged Scout to contend with.

I just sent to everyone from "steelhead" on.

I got a failure notice from "seravin." Got another email address?

Have you thought of posting these conversions to the NPC stat block bank that Lilith created? You won't have to keep sending out the notes and it would expand the Eberron line of NPCs significantly.

I have thought about it. I'm quite impressed by how quickly the stat bank is growing. When I find time and my group's unexpected and extended hiatus lifts, I'll start doing so.

Have you ever run a campaign where the players were required to all be of a particular race or class? How did it turn out?

I'm currently running Red Hand of Doom with a party of five Elves. Similar to Stebehil's situation, three of the players coincidentally created Elven PC's, and then the others heard about it and thought it'd be cool to go 100% Elf-style. We have:

-Moon Elf Wizard 5
-Moon Elf Cleric 5 of Selune
-Wild Elf Ranger 5
-Wood Elf Rogue 4/Ranger 1
-Star Elf Bard 5

I play in campaign where there was no race requirement, but your PC had to be Small-sized. We've got a Goblin, two Halflings and a Svirfneblin. We also decided (as players) to have everyone take their 1st level as Rogue. We have big fun outsmarting the BigFolk.

I played for many years in a homebrew campaign where Elves were the master race and Humans were kept as a slave caste. Everyone else was an Elf and I was a Half-Elf (property of one of the other PCs).

I'd love to run an all Lizardfolk campaign someday. All Spirit Shamen-y, Barbarian-y, and Scout-ish.

In the campaigns I've been involved with since 3rd edition, counting only race/class components that were in the PHB, it looks like this:

Races
Elves: 17
Humans: 7
Half-Elves: 3
Half-Orcs: 2
Dwarves: 2
Gnomes: 2
Halflings: 2

Classes
Clerics: 7
Wizards: 7
Fighters: 5
Rogues: 5
Monks: 3
Rangers: 3
Sorcerers: 3
Barbarians: 2
Druids: 2
Paladins: 2

Question for James Jacobs - The various types of "spawn" critters in Red Hand of Doom have no visual descriptions, just a stat block, so I have no idea what these things should look like. The needed info also is not in the Web Enhancement at Wizards' web site. Are they actually published in some other book? Or is this information available/forthcoming anywhere else?

Anyone know the answer to this?

Send me a set too

mjolkurskegg@hotmail.com

Hey Red Skull, I got a non-delivery notice when I sent to you. Mailbox full. Got another address?

limited wish can be used only to duplicate Raise Dead (5th level cleric spell) which doesn't work on outsiders or undead.

Quotin' the SRD: "Unlike most other living creatures, an outsider does not have a dual nature—its soul and body form one unit. When an outsider is slain, no soul is set loose. Spells that restore souls to their bodies, such as raise dead, reincarnate, and resurrection, don’t work on an outsider. It takes a different magical effect, such as limited wish, wish, miracle, or true resurrection to restore it to life."

Dizzyk, I would really appreciate those NPC stats. I am going to start an Eberron AOW this summer. They would really speed things up for me. Thanks ahead of time.

No prob. Just need your email address.

Khay003: Yours have been sent.

Thanks! Glad you’ve enjoyed. My hope is to wrap up the TFoE conversions in the next couple of weeks, and then I’ll move on to Blackwall Keep. I’ll let you know when I’m ready to start bouncing ideas around.

Oh, and double-checking of stats is always appreciated. It’s really easy to miss things/mess up on math when doing so many of these NPCs. Send me an email with any mistakes you note (on the ones that aren’t still “unfinished”).

I’ve just sent to Malkari, modenstein17, and Jarrod (though it sounds like Jarrod may be WAY ahead of where I’m at). Let me know if any of you don’t receive them.

There is a feat in either Complete Warrior or Complete Adventurer that lets you use your Str bonus in place of your Dex for thrown weapons. Your range will still suck, but it's something.

BRUTAL THROW (General)

POWER THROW (General)
Complete Adventurer
You have learned how to hurl weapons to deadly effect.
Prerequisite: Str 13, Brutal Throw, Power Attack.
Benefit: On your turn, before making any attack rolls, you can choose to subtract a number from all thrown weapon attack rolls and add the same number to all thrown weapon damage rolls. This number may not exceed your base attack bonus. The penalty on attack rolls and the bonus on damage rolls applies until your next turn.
Special: A fighter may select Power Throw as one of his fighter bonus feats.

Okay, so I have some questions about the various monsters. First up, the Kyuss Knights - they have some abilities listed and I'm not sure if the bonuses have already been added to their stat blocks or not. Dark Blessing gives Cha mod bonus to all saving throws - is that already added or do I have to do it. It's a 16 HD creature, but has saves of Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +17. Now with a Charisma of 20 (+5), that would give it pretty low scores if the +5 is already added.

The Dark Blessing bonuses are included. As a 16HD Undead creature, a Kyuss Knight's base save bonuses would be +5 Fort, +5 Ref, +10 Will (see pg. 290 of the MM). Adding in no Con modifier (the creatures should have Con -, not Con 10; I suspect that was a misprint), +0 Dex modifier, and +2 Wisdom modifier, this raises their saves to +5 Fort, +5 Ref, +12 Will. Then, adding in a +5 Cha modifier to each save, you get +10 Fort, +10 Ref, +17 Will.

Okay, on to the second ability - Gifts of Kyuss which states "Each Kyuss Knight possesses two unique gifts . . . . " but which two (is it really supposed to be two?!?). It's obvious which one each gets as the gifts are named, but which other one do they each get? Is it DM choice?

If you read carefully, you'll note that each named Kyuss Knight *is* listed as having two unique abilities.

Nezzarin has 1) True Seeing and 2) +20 insight bonus to Search and Spot.

Barnos has the ephemeral shadow that can 1) use one of Barnos's spell-like abilities and/or 2) invoke visions of the worm.

Kardic has 1) the "transform a weapon into shadow" ability 3/day and 2) "slip into shadow form" ability 3/day.

Markath has 1) the targeted Greater Dispel Magic effect on crit hits and 2) the greater Intelligence damage on bite attacks.

Third, is the Martial Calling already added - gain half HD as an attack bonus?

Yes, it is already added. As a 16HD Undead creature, the Kyuss Knight would have a BAB of +8 (again, see pg. 290 of the MM). Its total attack bonus is calculated as follows: +8(BAB) +8(Martial Calling profane bonus) +9(Str) +0 (size) +1(enhancement) +1(Weapon Focus)= +27. Subtract 5 for a 5-point Power Attack, and you've got the listed +22/+17.

How about Unholy Toughness which adds to it's hit points - this one seems to have been added in already as the creature has 184 hit points but a Con of only 10.

Actually, the Con should be -, as noted above ('cuz it's Undead). But, yes, the Unholy Toughness has been added. Without it, a Kyuss Knight would have 104hp (6.5 x 16HD). Add in Unholy Toughness (+5 Cha modifier x 16HD=80) and you've got the listed 184.

If it's not that great a bother, I'd like to add my petition for a copy of your work

Thanks, Malkari

I've been offline for a few days, but I finally sent out my stuff to Oghma, Sharoth and Malkari.

Malkari- I got a nondelivery notice, unfortunately ("mailbox unavailable"). Do you have another address I could send to?

I would like to second all of deClench's comments. I felt almost exactly the same about the issue: "Beasts" was largely dull and underdeveloped, "Legacy" was interesting and exciting, but seemed to have some logical inconsistancies that would need some DM-cleanup, and "the Prince" was a refreshingly unique event-based adventure filled with compelling characters, a truly weird gala, and some concise yet thrilling combat before the festivities.

I'm wondering if anyone else has been using these rules an if they seem to have any impact on survivability in the campaign.

I'm running SC in Eberron right now (we're mostly finished with Life's Bazaar) and I've found that the Action Points have made a HUGE difference. Prevented a TPK in one instance, and overall kept the group kickin' in situations where they were in way over their heads. I like 'em. They add a nice dramatic touch to things.

I found this review to be, ahem, interesting:

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10581.phtml

I ran CotSQ and my group had an absolute BLAST. Took us about a year and a half to get through it. We had, depending on various time frames, between 7 and 9 players, so I had to do a certain degree of tweaking to keep the encounters challenging (though, as that review pointed out, the adventure is pretty darned challenging anyhow) and I did a lot of tweaking as time went on to specify the adventure to the campaign that developed.

As a DM, I found it to be a delightful adventure to run. The enemies were highly intelligent combatants that I could run "smartly." There were loads of interesting NPCs that I could use for roleplaying purposes on weeks when I wanted more of an intrigue thing going on, or could use as straight-up "bad guys to be taken down" when the group seemed to be craving more hack n' slash.

My players have universally praised the experience. They enjoyed the high-level, "some times many PCs will go down in a single session" nature of it, they loved to hate the Big Bads, and they enjoyed the challenges of fighting against enemies who fought with smarts and spent time trying to learn all of their weaknesses.

Now, my group was very much a bunch of good-aligned folks, so I probably can't share much with you in terms of running the adventure for evil drow, but if you want to do some more e-chatting about CotSQ, drop me a line at "dizzyk at gmail dot com" and I'd be happy to discuss further, share my campaign logs with you, share my 3.5 conversions, etc..

I am currently playing in a campaign that's at 25th level (we started at 1st) and I have DM'd "the Quicksilver Hourglass" (30th-level). In my experience, the challenges with running and/or playing an epic campaign are no different than those in any other high-level (say, 17th-20th) campaign. Sure, it can be complicated. Sure, combat takes a long time. However, as long as DM's storytelling is strong and interesting and the players have a good handle on the rules and their characters' options, it's exactly as fun as playing D&D 3.5 at any other level. When we first starting experimenting with epic play, my whole group expected (heck, some of us wanted) to find that the system was broken, blah blah blah. Wasn't the case, in our experience. Works pretty darned well.

Sounds like maybe you don't really *want* to play at epic levels, though. If that's the case, I'm sure you won't have a good time. High-level play is not fun for many people, and should just be avoided if you/your group won't enjoy.

I keep hearing DMs cower in fear that their players will beat/rape/murder/mutilate them if they do something one way or another. Perhaps D&D really DOES cause violence?

I realize that you're being cheeky, but seriously: it's not about 'living in fear' of my PC's (far from it); it's about a desire to create a game that I hope everyone - my players and myself - can enjoy. I've been DM-ing and playing with the same group for years and years and know what sorts of tricks they don't care for. And I respect those wishes.

Personally, I think it comes down to this: I expect *them* to follow the rules of the game when they level their characters and make skill checks and roll to hit, etc. In return, they expect me to follow the rules of them game even if I'm pulling a 'trick' or 'twist' like a Doppleganger replacement. They would expect that the actual creature's stats be used at all times, and would not care for me just saying, "ah, who cares: use the PC's stats, no matter how different they are, until the deception is revealed." They would feel cheated and railroaded... and personally, I wouldn't blame them. And they wouldn't beat or mutilate me, they would just be disappointed and ask me not to cheat them like that. It's not that they wouldn't care for the challenge of a party Doppleganger replacement (I just pulled something similar on them, as a matter of fact, and we all enjoyed the subplot) - they'd just expect me to keep things grounded in the rules of the game. That's all.

Im guessing Im the only one using The QuickSilver Hourglass...

I'm running it right now and my group is having a BLAST. We didn't actually play a party all the way up to 30th, but 4 of my players from other campaigns made up some 30th-level PCs and we're doing it as a stand-alone. Big fun. Lots of epic-level math. Interesting foes. And WOW is that ball-of-corpses room a killer!

Since there are still a few people requesting copies, but no copies forthcoming, if anyone has a copy of the Eberron NPC conversions they could share with the last few requesters in this thread, it would be appreciated.

I sent to you back on the 8th, and just resent it again tonight. Leave a message here if you still don't receive it.

I've also sent copies of my conversions to everyone here who has posted a request. If anyone else has not received their copy (or wants my most recent file), let me know.

I'm pretty close to being done with all of the NPCs included in the Overload (the ones I plan on using, at any rate), and have started moving on to TFoE (I've made the Kenku into Spellthieves instead of Rogues, turned the Dire Weasels and Allip into Living Spells, etc.).

Besides giving the DM an NPC voice in the party, the NPC provides a wonderful guinea pig for nasty traps to work against.

I don't know. Any self-respecting good-aligned party would certainly take issue with hiring other (not to mention weaker) people to risk grave danger on their behalf. And the storyteller in me that wants to have the PCs be at the center of the action balks at the notion of having *NPCs* weather the storms that the PCs are intended to survive.

We're set in Eberron:

Gnome Artificer 1
Warforged Wizard 1
Half-Giant Monk 1 (No ECL, dropped a couple of racial abilities)
Elf "Flametouched" 1 (A Cleric of the Silver Flame, using basically the spontaneous divine caster variant from Unearthed Arcana)

In Jzadirune right now.

To expand the conversation a bit... Is anyone planning on scrapping the Doppleganger stuff entirely? What ideas do you have for replacement material/creatures?

Let the player continue to play normally

The major gameplay problem with this is that the Doppleganger will have different stats (alignment, creature type, ability scores, HD, hp, skill bonuses, "to hit" bonuses, etc) and won't have access to all sorts of class abilities, character knowledge, etc. I know many DMs might not care so much about this, but my players would be very frustrated to find out later on that the "Detect Evil" they cast at such-and-such point should have detected the Doppleganger, that the thing shouldn't have been affected by a such-and-such spell, etc.

(as they don't know they've been kidnapped and replaced)

True; however, the *Doppleganger* knows it's a Doppleganger and would likely have a very different viewpoint/agenda than the actual PC - no matter how closely it tried to approximate the PCs traits.

I'm sure that for some campaigns, this could work. My players would not care for this kind of tactic from me, though. They'd feel (justifiably, IMO) that I'd railroaded them into something without a fair chance to detect it/handle it on their own.

Male, age 31, actor. I'm mostly a DM (2 active campaigns and 2 sporadic ones right now), but also a player in 1 active campaign and 1 VERY intermittent campaign. Started playing in 4th grade or so, took a long break in the mid/late 90's (lost interest in the system/didn't know enough gamers), got back into the game when 3rd edition came out.

I think in stead of putting him on the trip to blackwall keep and awkwardly dissappearing him, I might just have him send his apprentice (Allustan has too much important business to attend to in the free city). Of course, she shouldn't go alone, so...

I like this. How are you planning on handling the hook into HoHR, though, if Allustan spends so much time in the Free City in your campaign? Why would't he just go himself? Or go with the PCs?

I have the same map questions (except for the dotted lines in the maze - for some reason, I can actually make those out.)

I'd like to ask how Zyrxog can use "Plane Shift" to escape the PCs and return Ethereally to his lair, when the spell involves being off-target by 5 to 500 miles. He'd have to use the ability twice (once to shift to the Ethereal Plane, once to return to the Material Plane), and in *each* case, he'd be off-target by 5 to 500 miles. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

I'm also wondering how the PCs are supposed to know that the Apostolic Scrolls (a reference is discovered in Zyrxog's lair) have anything to do with the Age of Worms, since they don't know anything about what the Apostolic Scrolls *are*. Is this supposed to be a "the PCs happen to note the name and there's no payoff 'til later" type of thing, or should they have some reason to actively want to bring that name to Eligos for research?

For future AoW installments, could we see more of the *PCs* doing research and making discoveries, rather than passing that off to NPCs? I know in my party, at least, the players enjoy being the ones to dig up secret truths and mysteries and will not have so much fun giving that over to NPCs.

Just finished reading it. Sad to say, I'm a bit underwhelmed. I'm having some difficulty with the motivations behind many of these AoW adventures. "Go see so-and-so about this little green worm" as a hook is starting to feel a little stale, especially since there's no pay-off in AoW3 and there's no substantive pay-off in AoW4.

I feel like the idea behind the AP was that there would be a big, looming sense of Impending Doom motivating the PCs to scramble for info to try to stop it, but that sense has just not been established, in my opinion. You've got one worm in Diamond Lake. You've got a lone den of Lizardfolk in the marsh with some worm problems. Why would PCs start running all over the place, chasing down "leads" to stop... what? They don't even KNOW what. Where's the THREAT (from the PCs point of view)? Personally, I'm going to have to be working REALLY hard to modify later adventures (we're still in WC) to get my players interested in continuing.

I don't intend this as a rant. Just a kind of wistful statement of disappointment after such a strong beginning to the AP. I really feel like something's missing in the driving-the-action-from-adventure-to-adventure department with this AP.

Anyhow, to address HoHR directly: it's largely a sidequest, one that is intended to drum up the PCs suspicion of the guy who runs the arena (Raknian). Basically, after a snippet or two of city "flavor" encounters, the PCs meet Eligos, who only says, "Leave your findings with me and come see me again in a few days." (I know already that this is gonna be an issue with my players.)

Then, we're in doppleganger-land for a whole bunch of time, with only a loose plot - one that seems fun if one of your players WANTS to play a doppleganger version of themselves, but otherwise it's just a lead-in to the Mind Flayer. (I have no problems with dopplegangers, but since my last campaign featured a single PC in a "betrayal"-type role, I'm hesitant to repeat the same thing so soon.) Then, the players go to the Mind Flayer's lair, where they pound on some minions, pound on the Mind Flayer, and find a vague clue about something called "the Apostolic Scrolls"... which...

...have to be *researched* by Eligos. Yup. {Sigh}

The dungeons are fine, if a little random. (See the water-and-plank room) There is a new doppleganger type and a new aberration (I like the aberration).

One logistical problem is that a whole plot point is based around the Mind Flayer using "Plane Shift" to escape the PCs and return to his lair. The adventure text says that he goes to the Ethereal Plane and makes his way back home. Oops. Since Plane Shift involves geographic displacement of 5 to 500 miles, I don't see how this method could EVER get him reliably home. First, he Plane Shifts once and he's 5 to 500 miles away on the Ethereal Plane. Then, even if he makes his way back to his lair, when he Plane Shifts again to return to the Material Plane, he's still 5 to 500 miles away from his lair. Without any means of Teleporting, I don't see how this plan works.

Did James say that there definately wasn't going to be one, or just that one wasn't currently in the works?

I believe his words were "there are no plans to do so."

I meant Setting Conversion notes à la "Age of Worms" to help you transpose the AP to the Forgotten Realms or to Eberron (i.e. official adaptation suggestions from Eric L. Boyd and Keith Baker).

With only a cursory search, I can't find the archived thread to send you a link, but after I asked the same question a few months back, James posted that there will *not* be official Eberron/Realms conversions for Shackled City.

If you are looking for advice, search these boards. There are several active threads running where people are posting their ideas on conversion to other campaign settings.

If anyone wants 'em, I've completed 14 NPC updates for my Eberron campaign (adapted from the Overload). All of the mine managers and some others so far:

Aeleval Daera (For Ellival Moonmeadow)
Male Elf (Aerenal) Aristocrat 1/Bard 2/Expert 2

Amariss – High Priestess of the Restful Watch
Female Human Artistocrat 1/Cleric 5 of the Keeper & Aureon

Balabar Smenk
Male Human Rogue 3/Expert 5

Chaum Gansworth
Male Human Expert 4

Sheriff Cubbin
Male Human Warrior 5

Gelch Tilgast
Male Human Expert 6

Izenfen the Occluded
Female Human Rogue 1/Monk 5/Assassin 1
(She’s evil in my campaign)

Deputy Jamis
Male Human Warrior 3

Jierian Wierus
Male Human Expert 1/Adept 4 of the Silver Flame

Luzane Parrin
Female Human Expert 3

Lylana Lyrriman d’Sivis
Female Gnome Bard 1/Expert 3

Ragnolin Dourstone
Male Dwarf Expert 6

Taskar d’Jorasco
Male Halfling Adept 4/Dragonmark Heir 3

Tidwoad d’Kundarak
Male Dwarf Expert 5

There will be many more coming, but that's where I'm at right now. Of course, some of the adapatations won't be useful for everyone's campaign, but if anyone wants a copy of my Word file as it stands at the moment, I'd be happy to email it out there. Leave your email address and I'll get it out over the weekend.

has anyone given any thought or consideration to using dolgrims and dolgaunts instead, to add more Eberron flavor? Or does anyone see any potential problems with that (my PCs are still in the Cairn, so I've got some time

I'm planning on doing this and will definitely share my thoughts on these boards when I get down to making the conversions for TFoE (I'm also very early in WC right now). Seems, at first glance, do-able. My party has 5 PC's, so I might not need to tweak the total numbers in the (erstwhile) grimlock caves too, too much.

I'm also toying with the idea of the Faceless One having mastery over a few Living Spells... seems to fit the flavor there.

Eberron.

Just finished reading it. It's pretty cool. The locales are interesting, the style and pace of the events will be very adapatable to each individual DMs preferences, and the politics of the lizardfolk tribe is interesting. I like the new slow worm stuff, the infested hatchling beasties and the "fighting to save the eggs" scenario at the end definitely IS freakin' cool.

My only big quibble at this stage is the *motivation* issue. The entire reason the whole adventure starts is because Allustan HAS TO go visit his friend Marzena at the keep, to confer with her, blah blah blah. Long story short: ultimately Marzena has *no* information to share and contributes nothing to the plot. Big letdown, storytelling-wise. I kinda wish there had been some valuable information she could impart, or some actual *role* she might play in the ongoing story. As written, this is not the case. Basically, Allustan talks to her, and then decides that he needs to go to the Free City to talk to... you got it, yet ANOTHER old friend. Who *might* have some information.

I'm hoping that *that* visit pays off, plotwise. {hint, hint, paizo :-) }

SO... When I run the adventure, I will definitely be coming up with an entirely different set of reasons to get the party down to the keep. It may be just me, but I personally wasn't satisfied with the "hook".

For small quibbles: there are many errors in the stat blocks, but that's kind of been a mainstay of the AoW thusfar, and I'm not one who gets too wound-up about that. I tend to doublecheck everything, anyways.

Not sure why they didn't give any of the lizardfolk secondary bite attacks in their Full Atk section, but ah well. If I was a lizardman fighting with just a club, you'd better believe I'd also be biting every round, too.

There are some more cartography issues this time 'round, too: example #1 - the ground floor of the keep is mapped on a large fold-out... which doesn't include the numbers referenced in the adventure text (at least, my version doesn't have the numbers), but it's easy to figure out what they're refering to, example #2 - there are some challenges yet again with the orientation of the directional indicator.

But, these quibbles aside, I'm satisfied. Not as solid as WC, but it's good.

So, I wonder, is TFoE the end of the party's time in Diamond Lake? Sounds like the next adventure picks up in the Free City. Those of you who are running AoW *right now* will probably want to make sure you tie up all loose Diamond Lake plot threads by the time the party finishes TFoE.

I may also set the kuo-toan/underdark dungeon somewhere in Xen'drik.

I'm thinking of doing maybe Shatterhorn in Xen'drik. I'll probably put the Demonskar in the Demon Wastes. Or maybe the Mournland. I definitely want to involve both Xen'drik and the Mournland, but haven't fully settled on where all of the individual sites are going to be relocated.

Did you read that article of Keith Baker's at the WotC site about the Shulassakar?:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20040920a

I just stumbled across it. One of those could be a very cool replacement for what's-her-face, the celestial woman that "helps out" from time to time, first appearing out by the Demonskar. (Sorry, I don't have any of my books with me.)

I have returned to D&D with Eberron and I'm curious to know if this adventure will fit into my world, and if so...with how much work?

It will definitely fit into your world. As for how much work it will require to make it do so... that is going to depend on how Eberron-specific you want to make it, and on how much work you *want* to do. Do some exploration on these boards, and run a search through the archives (with keywords "Shackled" and "Eberron," for example) and you'll find a LOT of interesting ideas from other people's campaigns. You'll also start to get a sense for yourself about how time-intensive of an adaptation you want to do.

It sounds like many people are just picking up Cauldron as-is, plopping it down in Khorvaire somewhere, and not doing much more work than that. Changing the names of the gods to fit Eberron gods, etc. Could be as easy as that for you.

Others are taking a lot of time to adjust all of the various planar settings to Eberron-specific versions, updating the NPCs to fit Eberron standards and new races/classes, etc.

Basically, the adventure is cool and could be run in Eberron with as much/little effort as you want to put into it.

I am interested to hear other people's ideas as well.

Me, too! All this discussion is good fuel for the imagination.

I'm going the lot-of-work route in my campaign. I decided that I didn't want to, in my world, just squish Occipitus and Carceri, etc. into the existing Eberron cosmology. I have changed the entire Cagewright plot into a Dreaming Dark plot; the goal is not to tear open a portal to Carceri, but to Dal Quor. This, obviously, is going to involve a LOT of adaptation in later adventures (as I have to change out Demodands for Quori, rethink some of the Cagewrights themselves, etc.), but doesn't have too much impact on the early part of the Adventure Path.

I've decided to set the adventure in Sharn, just 'cuz my players and I LOVE the setting and the companion book, and I thought it would be an interesting challenge to run the AP's events against a much larger scale. Don't get me wrong - Cauldron, as presented, is also very cool and well detailed, but my players really wanted to explore Sharn, so that's where I decided to go. Instead of the volcano, I've got the lava pools of the Cogs; instead of the small-scale politics of Cauldron, I've got the scheming of the Sharn Council and the Lord Mayor; Vhalantru is masquerading as an Aerenal Elf and he just (in the last elections) ousted Councilor Maza Thadian from her seat on the Council (representing Upper Northedge); instead of the Last Laugh, I'm using the Boromar Clan; I've replaced the Striders with the Trust (of Zilargo); Jzadirune becomes an old *goblin* enclave from Dur'Shaarat days and the Malachite Hold was a *hobgoblin* outpost, skulks in my world are actually hobgoblins from the old Empire that were cast out of society, rather than humans; etc, etc.

To fit the whole corrupted-churches theme of Eberron, I'm using a temple of Aureon to replace the evil activities of the church of Wee Jas. The Silver Flame has replaced St. Cuthbert in my campaign, too. Jenya's an adpet. Rufus is an expert.

Down the line, as things progress, I will attempt to use as many of the new Eberron monsters as I can to replace "old-standby" D&D creatures. I plan on swapping out the Kuo-Toas (which are very "traditional D&D"-y and have appeared in several recent adventures I've run) in Bhal-Hamatugn (sp?) and use the more Eberron-specific Sauhagin. I may (I haven't decided yet) replace the Spellweavers with Daelkyr. Etc.

So... getting back to Soulkeeper’s question, in my case there is a lot of changing to do, but the adventure is so cool and open to individual ideas/tweaks that I think it'll be a lot of fun.

I plan to make the half-orc merks hired by Vhalantru, all warforged, which should be interesting.

I’m doing the same. One of my PCs is warforged and I’m hoping to get him caught up in some nastiness as public opinion/trust of warforged plummets.

Maybe Vhalantru even has a deal with the Lord of Blades who is supplying the mercenaries?

I’m also hoping to get the Lord of Blades involved. I haven’t squared away how he’s involved in my campaign yet. Maybe he’ll be one of the Big Bads invited to the meeting during LORDS OF OBLIVION?...

The half-troll slaver in Life's Bazaar will be selling the kidnapped victims to the monsters of Droaam.

That’s a great idea; I think I’ll steal it. Maybe my Kazmojen is a member of Daask.

Forgive me in advance for asking a noob question, but the small preview on this web site for the Shackled City doesn't list a level range. What is the expected level range for characters going through this adventure path? Thanks!

1st through 20th, if you run the entire Adventure Path.

I'm just about 31. Been playing since around '84, I believe. Took a hiatus during the 90's, but my interest was reinvigorated with the release of 3rd edition. I've been a Dungeon subscriber for less than a year, but couldn't be more excited about the magazine and the staff and this GREAT online resource.

After perusing through some back-issues of Dungeon this afternoon, my plan is to use "Devil Box" from issue 109 as filler until issue 125 comes out. Devil Box is a perfect fit for the Diamond Lake setting. And it has lots of juicy role-playing goodness!

Excellent idea! I think I'll do the same.

I've also been pondering a way to use a modified version of "Mad God's Key" from 114. It ends up in a neat tomb in the Cairn Hills area, anyhow. With some tweaking on the front end, it may be workable. I'm trying to figure a way to involve the Free City adventurers in that mix somehow.

It is an interesting quandary -- or it could have been, if Mearls had written in some role-playing way to solve it, such as Theldrick paying the PCs to double-cross Smenk. But he didn't.

Well, it sounds like you've already got one idea cooking that will improve the roleplaying aspect of this part of the AP (which I agree is lacking). With that sort of tweaking, and groups of sophisticated role-players making more interesting choices than simply *killin' stuff*, I'm sure you'll be able to keep this particular adventure lively.

Personally, I was disappointed at how TFoE does NOTHING with Ragnolin. I'm planning on making a) getting past him and into the dungeon and b) dealing with him after the fall of the three cults FAR more involved than TFoE as-written would suggest.

The only way for the PCs to get through the Hextor section is to become cold-blooded murderers. That may fit some groups, but not either of mine!

In which case, they may have to find some roleplaying and/or non-combat solutions to the "problem" they pose. Personally, I agree with most of your earlier comments comparing the two adventures thusfar, but in the case of the Temple of Hextor, I thought there was an interesting quandry set-up: what do you do when the "bad guys" haven't killed anyone and aren't breaking any laws? This part of TFoE, in my opinion at least, does offer a little bit of that roleplaying intrigue that some of us feel is missing from this segment.

Yes -- the sheer volume of rules we need in this game (and number of places we need to look for them) is dizzying.

Seriously. :-)

Say, Kid Dork - If, perchance, you haven't been keeping up on the AoW boards lately, there have also been a LOT of helpful posts about what DMs have done with the swarms (and what actions their PLAYERS have tried, so you know what to expect) that will really give you some ideas. As you'll read (or have already read), swarms can be extremely devastating to low-level parties. I've found that *not* skimping on the "horrifyingly scary" factor while describing them has helped to clue my players into digging that "this ain't just a bunch of harmless bugs."

My group should be starting sometime soon (not long after I get the second adventure and the online suplement). We're in Eberron

My group's in the exact same boat. We have:

A Changeling "Speculator" (our name for the Rogue variant in Unearthed Arcana where you lose Sneak Attack and gain Fighter bonus feats). Currently, he works as a WAY low-level goon for Smenk as a Half-Orc, as a local Half-Elven trapper, and as a freak in the Emporium as "the Amazing Whorebags" (a three-breasted Human woman). He's going to be the main "mouthpiece" for the group and an extremely able spy/scout.

A Shifter Monk, from the Twilight Monastery. He may doubleclass with Ranger or Ninja, possibly. Also, a spy/scout/stealthy type, with more of a melee bent.

A Human Psychic Rogue (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b) with the Mark of Sentinel. I'm making the garrison a Deneith enclave, so that's where he's starting out. He'll grab at least 3 or 4 levels of Dragonmark Heir, but will probably stay mostly single-classed. Again, another spy/scout/stealthy type - seeing a pattern?

A Human Warmage with the Mark of Passage. Right now, he's a freak in the Emporium. He's going to multiclass with Fighter and go down the Spellsword road. For now, a stay-in-the-rear/mobile-weapons-platform fellow, but he'll probably eventually take on a more front-line melee role.

And, a Valenar Elf "Keeper of the Past" (a Cleric/Ranger variant we took from either Unearthed Arcana or that old Dragon with the Cleric variants - I can't remember which) with the Mark of Death. Currently working as a miner, trying to hide himself (and his Mark) from his clan and the rest of the world. Front line combatant with some spell support.

I'm not setting Diamond Lake where Baker suggested, actually going much further west into the foothills of the Graywall Mountains (and even further from civilization). I'm hoping that future AoW installments will allow me to mix in some Droaam plotlines.

I'm concurrently running another group through the Shackled City AP. Same world, same time, the two parties will interact and cross paths at various points. I've set that in Sharn and we just had our first session last week. That group has a Warforged Wizard, a Gnome Artificer, an Elven "Flametouched" (a slightly modified variant of the Favored Soul class from Complete Divine), and a Half-Giant Monk.

Where are the swarm rules, BTW? I'm trying to find them, but can't. I've never run a swarm afore.

MM pg. 237 and pg. 315.

>How are people playing Pearls of Power in their games?

I rule that their magic only works once per day, period. Not once per day for each person who picks it up.

I wish I could answer questions about the Temple, but alas I STILL haven't received my #125...

This is spetacular! Thanks for sharing. I, as well, shall be stealing...

We also do the death-at-negative-Con thing, something of which I'm a big fan. It's a boon especially at the low levels, and makes more intuitive sense to me.

We're fans of opposed checks over flat-DC checks whenever possible. Some examples:

Tumble checks are opposed by an opponent's Reflex save (as in Song & Silence, I believe?) Same modifiers apply (-10 to your check if you try to tumble through a foe's square, etc.)

To cast defensively, you must succeed at a Concentration check opposed, again, by your opponent's Reflex save. Failure doesn't mean you lose the spell, but you do suffer an AoO. (Which, if it hits, could obviously force another Concentration check to avoid losing the spell).

We use open-ended rolls for everything. The only time a natural 20 or natural 1 indicates automatic success or failure is in combat. A natural 20 is still a hit & critical threat and a natural 1 is always a miss. I'm gonna steal the upthread idea about having the combatant lose all subsequent attacks in a round following a natural 1. Love it.