randomjack's page

Orcus, James, Dave: replacements are all on their way.

Silenttimo, since you're in France we need to give your issue more time to reach you. Keep me posted (via email), and let me know when it arrives.

Thanks!
cos

Cos - I just received 138, but 137 never arrived. I was waiting since I heard there were issues, but now that 138 is here I need some help.

Thanks

Cosmo - I just received Dungeon issue 133 and looking at the Prison Mail section I realized I never received issue 130. I looked in the FAQ for an email address to send my query to but I didnt see one. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Edit for spelling]

I am going back from 2 complete campaigns of running players from 1st to 20th level in my homebrew to Greyhawk. My imagination for the campaign world has been refired as of late.

By posting in this forum you can tell I am a Dungeon subscriber.

I noticed in issue 120 a number of links from Dungeon back to Dragon and I hope this continues. I think this is a great idea of linking adventures to flavor/crunchy articles in Dragon and vice versa. Sending people to check out Dragon 329 for more information on Pazuzu and to Dragon 290 and 291 for Death Knights is great. I went to my local gaming store to check out issue 329 but it wasn't on the shelves yet. Did Dragon 329 have a mention of the latest dungeon magazine for an adventure pertaining to the Pazuzu article? It would be great to have Dragon readers whose interest is piqued by an article to check out dungeon to see how the material has been utilized in an adventure.

I think this a great strategy to cross-promote both magazines.

For the Adventure Path 2 if every month there was an adventure in Dungeon and a flavor/crunchy article in Dragon that related to it, I would have to seriously consider picking up a lot more issues of Dragon.

I guess that's the balance that I would love to find - the classic feel with 3E mechanics, but a big part of that "feel" is because, despite the massive and ridiculously complicated amount of details in the original rulebooks, it was still a much less mechanical game.

I only use the core 3.5 rulebooks and ignore the rest. If there is a game mechanic that is needed, like the effects of drunkeness I make it up.

The conversion has been great so far. My players don't know they are running through WGR1. I have changed the superficial details since I know some of them have adventured in the original. The best comment I got was that the adventure was very "Gygaxian".

To me 1st edition feel is

Great traps - Lots of curses, changing hands into claws, etc...

Also weird details - odd treasures, gravity switching rooms, fountain teleporters, puzzles

Lack of well thought-out dungeon ecology - Random monsters placed in dungeons.

All of the classic modules I think had elements of each of these in them. Some more than others, but they each had these elements in them.

I guess this would be a problem with converting old Dungeon adventures as well ... to do it right, you need to take some liberties with the source material. I just read a conversion of G1: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. Hill Giants are a little tougher in 3E rules, but the number of creatures in each room is the same - just the monster stats were updated. Also, the ridiculous amounts of treasure were left the same. A shrewd party could loot about 4 unoccupied rooms and find enough treasure to call it a day.

I have been slowly converting WGR1 for my campaign so I am well aware of a number of the issues with converting old modules/adventures. The issue I have is being true to the original module (with all the zanyness) and being balanced in 3.5. It isn't easy. Some people want the module to be exactly as possible true to the original. Others would like it reimagined to be more "modern". So depending on what the DM deems "right" you can either get straight 100% faithful conversions with all their problems or new modules "based" on the original.

My goal has been to give my players a 1st edition module with 3.5 mechanics. This means that some encounters are way overpowered, other rooms are filled with treasure and in the end the game play is significantly different that normal 3.5 modules. Normal 3.5 play, the players would inheritly meta-game a module knowing that no encounter would be presented that they couldn't tackle, now they careen from a EL 3 encounter (orcs) to a EL 18 encounter (beholders) within the space of 3 rooms. Caution rules the day. The ten foot pole is standard issue for everyone.

Thanks for the pointers, I haven't gotten into the WoTC boards yet. Thought it might be more 'non-denominational' here. Just bought my first copy of Dungeon; a shame since I've read Dragon off and on since the 40's but never bought into the spinoff.

The best part of using Dungeon are.

1) Web Enhancements - Paizo provides a pdf file online for every issue with the maps, npc images, etc... in a nice format for printing extra copies.

2) The Community here on the boards - If you are interested in a specific adventure or have questions the boards here provide other DMs who have run or are going to run the same adventure. Sharing hints, tips and experiences is the best part.

I feel the boards do a great job of capturing the feel of running 1st edition modules. Since there were so few 1st edition modules everyone ran Keep on the Borderlands therefore everyone can relate to your experiences in the same module. The board provides the same feeling, if you decide to run the Istivin campaign arc (Dungeon 117-119) it is easy to find people who ran it as well. Even the author is on the boards to answer any questions.

Some of the older modules have been fan converted at

Enworld Adventure Conversions

Some are better than others but you get what you pay for.

I would recommend converting the module yourself especially if you are dming after a long break. There is no better way to learn the rules than trying to capture with feel of 1st edition with 3.5 rules.

Wizards created a booklet to help convert characters. You will find this useful if you want to do the conversion yourself.

Character Conversion Document

If you are just looking for good adventures, I highly recommend picking up a few Dungeon magazines. They just completed an adventure path campaign that took characters from 1st to 20th level.

I know AP2 isn't going to be published for a while yet, but I have gift certificates from the holidays burning a hole in my pocket. I am finishing up a 3.0 campaign and I am planning on upgrading everything to 3.5 for the AP2.

I plan to run AP2 but I was wondering if there are any books outside of the core rules that Dungeon would recommend purchasing for AP2 since the first one used Fiend Folio alot I was just hoping for a head start if I need to acquire DMG II, Draconomicon, Maelstorms, Book of Abberations or Complete Adventurer, etc...

Any info/hints would be appreciated.

Thansk for the replies. I re-read that bit in the back of the 3.5 MM. I must admit I find the "non associated" to be unbalanced to say the least. It's not balanced in anyway or form. I think i'll stick to my house rule, 1 character class level = +1 to CR regardless.

Using the Velikar example. He's a CR13 creature. If you used an associated class he could have 6 levels of Fighter for example with the follwoing benefits, +6 to his BAB, +6d10 HP, +5/+2/+2 to his F/R/W saves + 4 fighter feats and +2 general feats. Or he can be a 12th level Cleric (+9 to his BAB, +12d8 HP, +8/+4/+8 to his F/R/W saves, 4 addiotnal feats, + all attendant ans spell casting capabilities of this class).

I'm Sorry, but no way earth do they represent the same sort of challenge to PC's. Guess thats another house rule to be added. Its just too much of an exploit. I wasn't aware of this change i thought it was always on a +1 for 1 basis regardless of character class.

Using this example, I would have to agree. Maybe the house rule would be having associated classes be +1 CR, non-associated classes +3/4 CR. Cleric being non-associated in this case making this a CR 16.

One Word - Polymorph.

If you think Alter Self allows for alot of permutations wait until you try and map out all the various creatues, the attacks, stat increases and (Ex) abilities to determine what creature would work best in any situation.

If you look on the Wotc boards, especially for the Shifter PrC you can find detailed lists of monsters and their advantages for use.

Just flicking through the adventure and I couldn't but help notice that Velikar one of the BBEG at the end of the adventure seems a little rough on a party of level 12 adventurer's.

Valiker is listed as CR 13, but as he is a Hill Giant with 12 levels of Cleric shouldn't his CR be 19 (Hill GIant CR7 + 12 level sof cleric) rather than 13?

Isn't that a little rough on a party of level 12? Is this a typo or is it correct? Or am i calculating his CR wrong?

TIA

In 3.5 the CR is adjusted based on whether the additional PC class levels play into the strength of the monster.

ADDING CLASS LEVELS

If you are advancing a monster by adding player character class levels, decide if the class levels directly improve the monster’s existing capabilities.

Nonassociated Class Levels
If you add a class level that doesn’t directly play to a creature’s strength the class level is considered nonassociated, and things get a little more complicated. Adding a nonassociated class level to a monster increases its CR by 1/2 per level until one of its nonassociated class levels equals its original Hit Dice. At that point, each additional level of the same class or a similar one is considered associated and increases the monster’s CR by 1.
Levels in NPC classes are always treated as nonassociated.

The CR is calculated based on the base CR of the Hill Giant = 7 plus 1/2 of the clerics (12/2 = 6) for a total of 13. Any more cleric levels would directly add 1 to the CR for each level of cleric because the hit dice of cleric would now exceed the original hit dice of the giant.

For Giants I would assume Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin and Ranger levels (any class with a +1 BAB progression) would be considered associated classes for Giants while the rest of the PC classes are considered nonassociated.

I am curious, becuase I would like to see a full map myself. How much would you pay for a one-piece, rolled up version?

I guess it would depend on the size, but I see 54 x 39 inch Maps of Mordor going for $17. That seems reasonable, but it might be too small a version of the complete Greyhawk map to be useful.

Yamo did you recieve your copy via mail. I thought the game shops recieved copies of the mag before most of the subscribers (thats why I let my subscription falter so I could pick it up earlier at the FLGS). Have paizo changed anything about the shipping? Has anyone else picked up Dungeon 118 at there FLGS?

I received mine in the mail today. (Dec 8, New Jersey)

Ahah! See, that's what I get for being a FR guy. They mentioned a few location names in the books, but none of them rang a bell with me. Thanks Jack!

The next 4 issues of Dungeon, starting with 118, are going to have poster maps of the World of Greyhawk. You might want to check them out. I haven't read the novels so I can't say which locations featured in the novels will be on which map.

I imagine the adventure was originally written in 3.0. where Blasphemy was alot weaker. Everything was based on 12 HD as the judge for effects instead of the caster level. One of the rare cases of 3.5 reverse nerfing a spell.

My guess is when it was converted to 3.5 no one caught on to the TPK possibility of blasphemy. Everyone has made some good suggestions on how to handle it.

Good luck.

Does anyone have any information about the world where the events in the Iconic D&D books (The Bloody Eye, Treachery's Wake, etc.) take place? I was hoping maybe Dungeon might have published some articles and maybe even a map about it.

The world is GreyHawk, the default Dnd world. There are a lot of fans on these boards if you have more specific questions. If you are looking for information specific to the novels such as NPCs and the like, I think Dragon might have more information

I read somewhere online an idea about limiting raise dead (and similiar spells) to only those clerics with the Death domain. This would give a reason why good religions would tolerate some potentially evil religions to exist within the same city.

If you want to have someone raised you are going to have to deal with the clerics of Wee Jas. What are they going to want? coin, a quest?

I thought this article was great. I have tried to give my fences personality in the past, but I liked the variety presented in this article. This is going to find its way into my game immediately.

Also as the DM remember you control the sources that the PCs are allowed to use to create characters. I find that most min/maxer use lots of prestige classes. In my campaign the character needs a good role playing reason for having access to a prestige class. I don't let my players comb the hundreds of books to cherry pick the PrC they want and just use it. Everything not in the core rulebooks requires DM approval for my campaigns.

Excellent Job. He will be useful in many a campaign.

I was thinking you might want to add the total value of the trade goods he has. It is probably not much, but I know my rogue pcs would look forward to stealing his shirt at some point. Considering most items are of in copper I would think he has only 50 gp in total trade goods.