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Has WotC stated whether they will be releasing the core ruleset for 4th edition for the OGL? And will the D20 trademark still be freely available for 3rd party vendors to use? In my opinion, opening up the market for 3rd party vendors was the best thing that ever happened to the game. I'd hate to go back to the days when there were no 3rd party supplemental materials. Because let's face it, WotC's published adventures uniformly suck.
I'm very disappointed that you chose to include a spoiler for Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk in the article "Unsolved Mysteries of D&D" in issue 359. It was prefaced with a warning, but I tend to skim articles before reading them, and I accidentally read the spoiler before I saw the warning. Obviously I can't cancel my subscription, but I have canceled a magazine subscription over this sort of thing in the past (viz. TV Guide for spoiling an X-Files season finale).
What source are the Varrangoin from?
I found two minor errors in Issue 140's STAP installment. On page 38, the first column says that Huntress Lorb-Lorb Tub will rage and fight to the death if one of her hunters falls, or if she herself is attacked. The second column says that she is not stupid enough to fight to the death and will attempt to flee if reduced to fewer than 10 hp. And then on page 44, Bua Gorg's alignment is listed as CN. I'm pretty sure that should be CE.
The library-temple in Magepoint is described as being "dedicated to several neutral-minded deities." For those of you playing in Greyhawk, what deities did you use? It seems pretty obvious that Agath is a cleric of Celestian. I was thinking of making the temple dedicated to the trio of Celestian, Cyndor, and Boccob.
One of the most interesting chapters in the Player's Handbook II was the chapter on affiliations. Could we perhaps see some affiliations included in STAP, either in the magazine or in supplemental on-line material?
On page 37 of Dungeon 127, the description of area 12 reads in part "A wide hallway leads west over a low dirt embankment with three wooden chests on it and beyond to another watery area." The chests appear on the map as well, between area 12 and area 13. However, there does not appear to be any mention of the chests in the description of area 12. Am I missing something?
On page 47 of issue 128, a group of guards stage a conversation pretending Madtooth is a frost salamander, in order to trick the PCs into preparing inappropriate spells. Madtooth is then described as "remarkably fire resistant." But nowhere in the stat blocks for Madtooth is it stated that it is fire resistant. Is there a mistake in the stat block? Or is Madtooth supposed to have a fire resistance spell of some sort cast on it before combat?
It appears that the compasses on the big insert map and the map on page 23 are not aligned with each other correctly. The stairs on the first floor (big map) line up with the stairs on the 2nd floor and basement if you rotate one of the maps 180 degrees, exchanging north and south.
In the AoW Overload, Erik suggests that in Greyhawk, the archmage Manzorian should become Tenser. But Tenser (along with Otiluke) was killed in 584 by Rary the Traitor. (Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, p. 156.) Maybe Bigby instead?
In area 17 of the Whispering Cairn, the statue animates only if a PC "falls asleep on one of the stone slabs." Has anyone had a party actually activate it? It seems to me like this is one trap very unlikely to be sprung.
Small mistake in room 2 of the observatory: The text says the crossbow bolts are coated with medium centipede venom, but says the poison does 1d4 str, DC 15 save. Medium centipede venom is 1d3 dex, DC 13 save. The closest poison for the listed damage would be medium spider venom, 1d4 str, DC 13 save.
If anyone is looking for low-level filler material for Age of Worms, I suggest using "Devil Box" from issue 109. It's a perfect fit for Diamond Lake: just replace "Quigley's Festal Freakshow" with "Zalamandra's Emporium." You'll probably need to scale it up a bit, since it was written for 2nd-level characters. It's a short adventure, but it has lots of potential for good role-playing, which is missing from Three Faces of Evil.
Second comparison between Whispering Cairn and Three Faces: interaction with NPCs. One of the problems with the Shackled City Adventure Path, which Erik Mona acknowledged in a thread on these boards, was that the NPCs exists for no reason other than to get slaughtered by the PCs. The PCs never get to know any of the Cagewrights as villians. Whispering Cairn doesn't have this problem. The PCs get to know Filge and who he is before they face him, through what Kullen and his thugs can tell them, and from the grisly dinner party room. He'll surrender when things get bad for him, and the PCs will have a chance to interrogate him, and turn him over to the garrison. Of the three NPC leaders of the Ebon Triad, the only one who the PCs might get to know is Theldrick. Grallak Kur and the Faceless One fight to the death. The PCs won't even get a chance to learn Grallak Kur's name.
My second group started the Whispering Cairn this evening. (I'm running two simultaneous AoW campaigns.) This is also a group of six: a fighter, a cleric of Tritherion, a rogue, a bard, and a monk (all human); and a goblin rogue. Like my first group, they had no problem with the wolves, even though I added an additional 9hp wolf. They moved the sarcophagus to yellow, but did not go down the elevator yet, as my first group did. They moved the sarcophagus to green, and out came the swarm and the mad slasher. Whereas my first group had alchemical weapons, and had no problems with this encounter, this group did not. They killed the mad slasher pretty quickly, but the swarm knocked a total of four characters into the negatives. One of them was healed by the cleric during the fight, but when they finally killed the swarm, there were three unconscious PCs. One more round and there probably would have been one or more character deaths. That's a really nasty encounter.
I've only skimmed through Three Faces of Evil, but I can't figure out where Smenk got the worm which the PCs will find in Filge's lab. Unless I'm missing something, there are no worms in Dourstone mine. Did Smenk steal the only one the cultists had? And after Reading handout #1 in Three Faces of Evil, it appears that the cultists are still trying to locate the worms, and the undead hosts in which they reside.
Spoilers ahead, although why you'd be reading this message board if you're concerned about spoilers, I don't know.
The Adventure Background for Three Faces of Evil says that the "Nethertome of Trask," quoting "Way of the Ebon Triad," claims that a great Overgod of evil will arise from the fusion of three gods: Hextor, Erythnul, and Vecna. It's not clear from the text how old the Nethertome is supposed to be, but the Way of the Ebon Triad is described as "older," presumably hundreds of years old, at least. But according to my understanding of the history of Oerth, Vecna did not actually ascend to godhood until 591 CY (in Die Vecna Die!). So why does this ancient tome consider Vecna to be a full-fledged deity?
I picked up Dragon #333 today, the first issue of Dragon I've bought in a long time, although I have a subscription that starts with issue #334. I have one comment about the presentation: I find it very difficult to read text printed on non-solid backgrounds, such as in the "Fraz-Urb'luu," "Noble Born," "Relics of Faerun," and "Visions of Fear."
According to the box text, the Land family graveyard is shaded by a "copse of immense deklo trees." What's a "deklo tree"?
So far I've DMed one session of the Whispering Cairn. It's a party of six, who have made it through most of the Architect's and Laborer's sections. (They haven't been past the brown mold, they haven't encountered the ghoul, and they haven't been up to the Face yet.) So far, each PC has 850 xp. If they do what I'm expecting them to do, i.e. take on the ghoul and then go up to the Face level and encounter the grick, they'll make 2nd level right before they head off to the Land farmstead. But looking at p. 135 of the DMG, the party is well over the recommended wealth guidelines. So far, they've found 1175 gp in "cash equivalent" treasure, 160 in "equipment" (i.e. the masterwork leather armor), and 9170 in magic items. If they keep it all, which they probably will, that's a total of 10505 gp of wealth, or 1750 per character. That's almost twice the recommended amount for second level characters on p. 135 of the DMG. And they're not second level yet! If they cash out the armor and the magic items for 1/2 value, they have a total of 5840, i.e. 987 gp each, which is much more in line with p. 135 of the DMG. Question for the editors: Is the amount of treasure put into an adventure based on the assumption that all the magic is being sold for 1/2 book value? What I'll be doing: Fortunately, none of my party has cast Detect Magic, so they don't yet know what they have. I'll be changing the +1 short sword to a mere masterwork short sword, and changing the Ring of Feather Fall to a ordinary ring worth 50 gp. That brings the total wealth down to a more reasonable 6355 gp, or 1059 gp each. And I'll be keeping a closer eye on treasure in the future!
We played our first session Friday night with a party of six PCs. Party composition: Xandril, a wood elf fighter
I'll be posting a more detailed entry on the campaign journals board soon, in the thread "Age of Worms in Olive Branch, MS." This is just a quick summary for DMs that will be running this in the future, particularly if you'll be running it with six characters. (I'll be running a second Age of Worms campaign concurrently, also with six characters, so I'll be trying out my suggested changes.) First, let me say thanks to Erik Mona for writing what has so far been a very fun first level adventure. The detail you went into when describing Diamond Lake was fantastic, and really gave the characters a sense of place. The PCs haven't visited Diamond Lake in game yet, but I posted a bunch of blurbs to our email list, and they came into the first session with good backgrounds and a sense of how they fit into the local area. The encounters: They had no problem dispatching the wolves. I'll be adding a fourth wolf in my second AoW campaign. Nor did they have any problems with the lurking strangler. I'll be adding a second lurking strangler for my other group. One character did get knocked unconscious by the brown mold. He knew it was in the room somewhere. I gave him a spot check when he was coming around the corner to see it before coming within five feet of it, but he failed it. They don't have any cold magic, so they haven't been able to get past it yet. After this encounter, they returned to the mining office to rest. The PCs also didn't have much problem with the mad slasher and the acid beetle swarm. They were equipped with some alchemical weapons (acid and alchemist's fire), so the swarm was dispatched quickly. I'll be adding a second swarm for my other group. The bombadier beetles were tough. I'll be keeping those as written. And the water elemental just about killed two PCs. I changed the submerged section so there was two feet of breathable air above the water. If I hadn't, one PC would have drowned after being knocked unconscious in the first round of combat by the elemental. (Another PC pulled him to the surface.) This is a very difficult encounter. The party hasn't encountered the ghoul yet, nor have they ventured up to "the face." They earned a total of 5100 xp in the first session (850 each).
Character background: Sotek Kaz-vascu, Poison Dusk Lizardman sorceror (written by the player) 150 years ago the Black Wyrm Kazadrikal chose a
I'm sure this will be revealed in issue #125, but maybe someone can answer this now. Is there a woods or forest close to Diamond Lake? Since the local druidic community is the "Bronzewood Lodge," is there a Bronzewood Forest?
SPOILERS BELOW (although you shouldn't even be reading this messageboard if you're planning to play the adventure)
(2) Filge certainly managed to assemble quite the necromantic laboratory in less than two weeks. And he doesn't appear to be taking much trouble to stay hidden, since "Flickering light filters through the observatory's only windows." (3) What exactly does a Talisman of the Sphere look like? The DMG describes it as a "small adamantine loop and handle." Is the handle wooden? How long is the handle? Is the loop open or closed? (4) Are the PCs supposed to encounter Tirra in the Feral Dog in this adventure, or is that supposed to wait for a later adventure? (5) Gricks can burrow? Overall, though, this looks like a really good adventure. I'll be running two concurrent Age of Worms campaigns, and I'm really looking forward to getting started. Great job, Erik, and everyone else who was involved!
For those of us eagerly awaiting the delivery of #124, and who have players who are coming up with character ideas: What are the dominant local religions in Diamond Lake and vicinity? There was mention of shrine to Heironeous in Abelard's character background. Any other temples or shrines in Diamond Lake? There has also been a mention of the Twilight Monastery. Could monk PCs be part of this organization, or will this organization be antagonistic to the PCs goals? (Not that those two possibilities are exclusive, mind you....)
I would find it very helpful if the stat blocks in Dungeon magazine included a breakdown of AC bonuses in stat blocks, e.g. "+4 natural, +2 dex, +2 deflection." Many times I've had an NPC spellcaster cast a spell, e.g. unholy aura, that provides an AC bonus, and then had to look through the equipment list or open the Monster Manual to see if the AC bonus from the spell would stack with the bonuses the target already has.
My "Shackled City" campaign will be wrapping up in the next two months, just in time to start an "Age of Worms" campaign. I'm in the process of trying to decide on house rules for the upcoming campaign. One of the two things I'm most dissatisfied with in 3.5 D&D is the rule set for concentration while spellcasting. (The other is turning undead.) Playing by the standard rules, it becomes way too easy at higher levels to disrupt a spellcaster if you ready an action and attack while the spellcaster is casting. For example, suppose you have a 17th level caster, who has maxed out his ranks in concentration and has a +2 constitution bonus. This gives him a concentration check of +22. If the caster is struck in combat while casting a spell, the DC for the concentration check is 10 + damage dealt + spell level.
The problem is that a concentration check based on damage dealt doesn't scale properly. The skill check goes up by one point per level, but the typical damage dealt goes up by more than one point per level. (Esp. with spellcasters, where typical damage dealt goes up 1d6 or 1d8 points/level for wizards and sorcerers, or 1d6 points/2 levels for clerics and druids. I see two ways of remedying this problem. One is to make the DC for the concentration check dependent on something other than damage, something that advances about 1 point/level, or to drop the concentration check mechanic altogether, in favor of something that does scale with damage dealt. Option 1: The DC for a concentration check when a character is hit by damage is determined not by damage dealt, but by the BAB of the attacker, plus the attackers combat ability modifier (strength or dex, or sometimes some other ability, e.g. if the attacker has Zen Archery). If the caster is damaged by a magical attack, the DC is based on the caster level of the attacker (or the magic item), modified by the attackers (or item's) relevant ability bonus. The DC for a concentration check is 10 + attacker's BAB or caster level + attacker's relevant ability score + spell level. Using this rule, a fighter of level L with str of N would have a 50% chance of disrupting a 1st level spell cast by a caster of level L with a con of N. Seems about right to me. Advantages: maintains the d20 mechanic. Disadvantages: it seems like the chance to disrupt should be based on damage dealt; what to do about damage that is not from an attacker, e.g. falling rocks. Option 2: Ditch the d20 mechanic altogether. If a caster with M hit points is struck in combat for N points of damage, there is a N/M chance of disrupting the spell. The casters hit points are his total hit points, not counting any damage or temporary hit points, but counting any adjustments due to constitution buffs or damage. So if a caster with 40 hit points (not counting any damage or temporary hit points) is hit for 20 points of damage, there is a 50% chance of disrupting the spell he is casting. Since a caster's hit points (1d4 or 1d6 + con per level) will scale at about the same rate as damage dealt by attackers, this works out. What to do about casting on the defensive? Make it a straight caster level check DC 10 + 2 time spell level. So at whatever character level a wizard gets a new spell level, he has a 50% chance (a roll of 11 or better) of successfully casting spells of that level on the defensive. (Slightly less for sorcerors.) Combat Casting feat gives you a +4 on this check. Something similar for casting in storms and such. Advantages: chance of disruption still tied to damage dealt; frees up one skill point/level for spellcasters, allowing them to become more diversified. Disadvantages: not a d20 mechanic; requires getting out a calculator; chance of having spell disrupted not dependent on spell level (that could be factored in, but it's not obvious how to do that, and the mechanic is complex enough already). Comments?
My group is approaching the climax of "Thirteen Cages", and upon examining the stat block for Dyr'ryd, I have to wonder whether he was intended to be size Huge, instead of Large as listed. That would account for Mindbite (Guisarme) doing 3d6 instead of 2d6 as does that of a standard Shator, as well as the bite doing 3d6 instead of 2d6. |
