guslandt's page

OK, so this past weekend my group descended into Maure Castle (I am the DM). I used the hook where Bigby hires them to check to make sure everything is still dead in there.

I immediately found 2 major and 2 minor problems as soon as I read about level 1.

Problem 1: The dust. It says there is a fine layer of dust all over. This means the secret door in area 11 would be super easy to find. Just follow all the footprints. Area 12 (where Seekers would be walking through multiple times per day) says the room is 'dusty & unused'. There would be a serious footpath worn through all that dust.

Problem 2: The spear trap in Area 12. This room seems to be the only connection between level 1 & 2. The Seekers from Area 25 come up here to check things out 'a few times per day', plus you have gnolls coming & going occasionally. This room would have to be hip-deep in spears, since 6 of them fire off every time the door is opened. This is the most perplexing of the problems, as there doesn't seem to be any reason the spears wouldn't fire at the seekers every time they come up...

Problem 3: Stone Shape. I don't know about your party, but in my party, the cleric always loads up on Stone Shape spells, and uses them liberally. Apparently no one who has ever explored Maure Castle has ever used one...
I've no idea why not, as it is a wonderful way to 'walk through walls'. Thief detects a trap on the door? No worries, just create your own doorway in the wall next to the door.

Problem 4: The terrible Iron Golem. OK, unless you are running this for a group of people who have never played D&D before, I don't know of a single player who would get within 50 feet of the throne. It is obviously an Iron Golem, (and most likely 3 iron golems from the PCs point of view). This whole encounter will simply never happen. I;ve been DMing weekly since 1983, and it's been 20 years since I've had a player would touch an iron statue. It just ain't gonna happen.

I've come up with my own solutions for most of this stuff. I've been DMing for 25 years, so it's not a problem that way. I just can't believe this would get published with so many unaccounted for issues.

How have you guys dealt with them?

First off, big Kudos to Paizo for offering so many options for the transition. I haven't decided which option I'll go with, but that 20% bonus for store credit is a fantastic way to take the sting out of this process. :-)

That said, I do have a question/concern about the new monthly adventure path books. From looking at the product pages, book 1 is for levels 1-3, book 2 is levels 4-6, etc.
If this is coming out every month, there is no way to level characters 3 levels in a month, which means every month they fall farther and farther behind the path. By the time Path 2 comes out, I can't see anyone being more than halfway through Path 1. Getting from level 1 to level 15 would take a solid year with weekly games, but these new adventure paths will be coming out at twice that pace.

I'm sure you fine folks at Paizo have thought about this, so I'm just wondering what you recommend. :-)

2nd issue in a row to not show up. I was afraid when I bought my subscription that this would happen again.

When I subscribed 5 years ago, the first couple of issues showed up great, then everything fell apart. I was so disappointed I didn't resubscribe. A few months ago I figured maybe things would be better now, so I gave it another go. Sure enough, the first few issues arrived right on time. Now it seems I'll need to request replacements every month...

It arrived yesterday. :-)

My copy of Dungeon #144 never showed up. I waited 2 weeks from the ship date and requested a replacement, which arrived within a week (YAY!).
Now I see Dragon #353 says it shipped just about 2 weeks ago, and I've seen no sign of it yet. This is a very depressing trend...

Mine has not arrived yet either. I just emailed customer service.