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KEJR: Looks like you're off to a good start. I recently finished AoW with my tabletop group, and based it in Daggerford. I have a bunch of creations you might be interested in. If so, contact me on my gmail account (keith.wampuscat43), and I'll see what I can do.
This account reminds me of how relieved all of us were when Dragotha wiped out the party. There was no desire among any of us to continue the campaign, and the general consensus was that high-level combat is for the birds. Glad it worked for you, though.
I was a little surprised to find this email this morning:
My subscription credit ran out with #1, if I'm not mistaken. Why would you assume I wanted issue 2? It says the order was placed yesterday. I certainly didn't place it. While I admire the production quality of PF, I have no interest in another AP, having just finished AoW. I'll continue my support of your fine company through GameMastery. Please cancel this sub. Thanks!
This was the adventure that started me skipping certain encounters entirely, and led to eventually doing away with xp and having the players level up at key points in the modules. As a stand-alone module this one was good. As a lead-in to the other high-level, much-the-same modules, it began a process of numbing my players to the whole story arc.
I still have it if you could give me your address I will get it out to you this weekend. either post a reply here or email me at z28camaro90@hotmail.com Color me bitter but I could have used this two weeks ago, as requested in the original thread, especially considering this battle proved to be the finale of the campaign.
Nope, never heard a thing, which was disappointing because that battle wiped out the party and ended the campaign (see Obituaries). C'est la vie.
Name: Solze, 20th-level favored soul
We decided as a group to go straight for the kill shot in the last two adventures, as we were tired of high-level play. Aftering crunching the ulgurstasta sorcerer and meeting Balakarde last week, I had the ghost simply give the party the three fragments, and had Draggie immediately start taunting them, luring them to his lair. As the party approached down the hall, they started casting their “short-term” buffs. The warmage summoned an elemental monolith, and the throw-down began. The nightcrawler mook I put in the way lasted about 3.5 seconds, managing to launch an ineffectual Cone of Cold before the minotaur chopped him to chum. Dragotha led off with a Horrid Wilting (waiting to get more targets before unleashing his Breath o’ Death). Wilting didn’t work, either. The death wind went off next turn. Zero effect, other than launching the soul back out into the corridor. (Rogue: “What are you doing here?”) It wasn’t looking good for the BBEG until he took to the air. That changed the complexion of the battle completely. The minotaur, sadly, had no flight capabilities, which turned out to be a fatal flaw, as he was reduced to taunting the dragon and making one ill-fated attempt to have one of the monoliths (three were eventually summoned) lift him up to the ceiling. Monolith: *Makes strength check to lift minotaur*
The action devolved into a four-hour dance of death between (primarily) the flying, flyby-attacking, Heal-wielding favored soul and the Harm-casting dragon. The rogue was hopelessly ineffective (so he got to play the monoliths, who weren’t much better) and reduced to sifting through Dragotha’s hoard while the battle raged. The warmage couldn’t penetrate the SR to save his life and, if I’d been nasty, wouldn’t have survived the battle either. The warlock managed to dispel the acid resistance, which was good, but spent the rest of the time trying to dispel the other buffs that weren’t really helping, anyway (“Congratulations, Dragotha can no longer Detect Thoughts”). At one point he flew up directly next to Draggie to deliver a touch attack(!). If I’d been nasty there, a full retaliation would have added another name to the list above. Eventually, I discovered the wonders of the Forcecage spell, causing the soul to have to plane shift out and back twice and giving the BBEG time to Destruction and pound the monoliths. By that time the 20-round buff spells wore off and the party was no longer immune to paralysis. One hit on the soul, a failed save, and the rout was on. The minotaur (who had been healed a little by the rogue) tried to run for it, but Dragotha dimension-doored in front of him. He had a Blink ring on and made a desperate charge. I gave him the 50% miss chance (should have been 20%) on the retaliation, and Dragotha missed his confirmation on his first five attacks. Alas, the tail slap got him. The dragon then returned to his lair and gave the halfling rogue (who was doing backflips in the pile of coins) a lesson on how a +48 Spot works. “Hi there!” *chomp*. The warlock shadow-somethinged out and the warmage did his move-through-walls number, so they survived. All in all, we got our taste of epic-level combat, and we’re starting a new, low-level campaign next week. Maybe someday we’ll resurrect everybody and take on Kyuss, but it won’t be anytime soon. Dragotha cast 18 spells altogether, including all nine of his Harms, and never got below 184 hp, ending at 309.
1) Your characters are going to die - a lot - if you play as written and don't fudge rolls. I reached a point where I gave them max HP every level, and set death at -CON. Unfortunately, it was too late. None of the original party is alive (in fact, all but one is on at least his third character). This leads to a serious lack of motivation. 2) Use the Search function here liberally. Odds are, any problem you're facing has been hit before. Search the net a lot, too - there's several sites out there devoted to this campaign, and you can find things like typed up stat blocks for the NPCs that you can yoink to save you lots of time. 3) Don't be afraid to skip encounters entirely. We're in the next-to-last episode right now - going after Dragotha next week - and I've skipped one episode entirely and condensed two others down to two or three encounters only. Simply award the PCs extra XP for finishing the episode. Your group may enjoy fighting every little battle and scraping up every copper piece - mine don't. Good luck.
I ran it in Hluthvar, a small, but walled town in the Western Highlands just south of Darkhold. Having something that ominous nearby added to the adventure.
Has anybody seen this lately? I sent and email to z28camaro90 and haven't had a response. We're going after Draggie this week or next, so I'd really like to have it. Appreciate any help. Outstanding, Bubba - anything you can do would be much appreciated.
Has anybody seen this lately? I sent and email to z28camaro90 and haven't had a response. We're going after Draggie this week or next, so I'd really like to have it. Appreciate any help.
Name: Nivek, Warlock 18
As the party tank prepared to deliver the killing blow to Dragotha's phylactery, the wall suddenly melted away and the party was confronted with an ancient red dragon. "Back away from the phylactery," it commanded, and half the group complied. The others tried to flee up the stairs. The dragon stuck his head around the corner of the stairs and dropped a Wall of Force ahead of the fleeing party, causing a train wreck that trapped all but one of our 'heroes'. Desperately, Nivek whipped out his Crushing Despair and Brazz upchucked a 1 on his saving throw, then proceeded to blow nearly every one of his "50% chance to take action" rolls, leading to his eventual demise. One of the actions he was able to take, however, was a Quickened Breath attack on the still-stacked-up group. One failed reflex save later, and Nivek fell to earth, a crispy critter. He could take 116 points of damage before dying, and caught 118. He was promptly True Resurrected by the party cleric, of course. This was the 15th death in the campaign.
Has anybody used Paint.Net? My resident expert says this is less flakey on Windows but still gets the job done. I'm dl'ing now.
Remember that Tirra approaches them before the last fight with an offer from Tony Soprano. That was a lot of cash right there. I had my players make a Gather Information check - I think it was 15 - to find a bookie. For every point they exceeded this roll, they found another willing bettor. Still didn't amount to much, but it was a little more believable. My players eventually gave the trophies they won to Prince Zeech as a party favor.
My "totally undetectable" rogue PC broke into Lashonna's manor. I simply told him "You don't find anything incriminating" and let him steal a few things. Treat it as if it's just a place she visits occasionally. They've nosed around the zig, the arena, and the palace, without much success. I've tried to keep them on track by reminding them it's Lashonna and Balakarde they're after, and threatening them with Angels a lot. They've had two nasty, intimidating run-ins with them so far, but haven't drawn blades yet. The feast went as written in the book. No real problems there.
The only problem I see with Pathfinder is the price... I got a year of Dungeon and Dragon for $75 - that's $6.25 a month for 2 magazines!! Pathfinder is $20 a month, and even at their 30% off subscription price, that's still $14 a month - double what I paid for the other two. And what with being an poorly paid student, I need every help I can get with cash. I applaud your nerve for going in this direction. My concern is not the cost as much as the sheer amount of content. I could see my group (which plays religiously once a week) getting way behind on the AP, then the next one starts coming in, and I end up with a lot of very pretty books sitting on a shelf. What made you decide to make the monthly so large? One other question - as a DM that uses initiative cards, the idea of being able to cut and paste a stat block from a PDF to a Word doc gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. I'm debating just getting the PDF version only - is there going to be any difference in the content?
I changed Ilthane to a female hex dragon. The villagers described it as "black, yeah it was black - kinda silvery. Didn't get a close look, I was too busy running". Led to a long running battle featuring the party warmage being changed into a monkey and the dragon chasing the cleric into cairn, where he healed and turned on her. Before she could get out (past the others, who had gathered at the entrance) it was too late. But it was memorable.
Name: Jek Peppin, warmage 13 Adventure: The Spire of Long ShadowsLocation: Chamber of Ascension (the big room) Catalyst: Vocation, vocation, vocation It had been a rough week for Jek. Death by devil is bad enough, on top of that embarrassing "polymorphed into a monkey by Ilthane" incident, but then having to put up with that paranoid wizard before being sent on another "fetch" mission to some godsforsaken jungle was just asking too much. If it hadn't been for the lovely parting gifts, he never would have taken this assignment. But here he was, staring into the hideous faces of two Swords of Kyuss and a wormcaller (DMs Note: 3 SoK = TPK). "'Just one more door', they said," he thought to himself. "'We whacked the angels - how bad can it be?' they said. Fortunately, my Black Tentacles did a magnificent job of catching them. Unfortunately, said tentacles prevented our minotaur/big stick from reaching them as well." "Then the bombs started dropping. And my low-rent companions started running. And once again, I'm left facing down the horde, all alone.
"So that's why I'm back here again, Lord Savras. And just when I think I'm out, they whip out their Resurrection scroll and pull me back in agaaaaaaain..."
Somebody posted pix of his Ulgurstasta earlier. Made it with some kind of frame covered with an old sock, or some such. You'd be amazed at what you can find lying around the house that, with a little imagination, can be converted to whatever you need. Haunt (sic) the toy stores around Halloween and get a bunch of rubber bats and some spray paint. Instant flight of dragons. The cutout counters are a good idea as well, if you can find the ones you need. If you print them out on heavy cardstock, then glue pennies or cheap poker chips to the bottom, they're easier to move around.
He any good with ziggurats? I'm still having a problem envisioning the one in SoLS, based on the map and the illustration. I can't imagine being able to build something like that. Very impressive work!
Eliminate XP - simply have your PCs level up at a certain point within each adventure and at the end. Then skip any encounters that are not interesting/critical to the plot. Skip whole adventures in this manner, if need be and you're getting desperate. The folks on this board can help pull that together (we're just at the SoLS ourselves). Your players are going to have to be on board the high-speed railroad, however, so make sure - as you say - that you have their buy-in on it.
Add me to the list of admirers and potential buyers. This is amazing stuff.
One of the added benefits to no-XP systems is that you can simply skip any encounters you'd rather not play. This has enabled us to move much more quickly through the AP. None of us have ever played at such high levels, and I'd like to see what it's like without spending the rest of my life at it.
I just started doing the same thing in my AoW campaign, and it's working fine. It's not hard to find a good level-up point within the adventure (rescuing Allustan in AGoW, for example - his first words upon recovery were "welcome to 12th level!"). I thought the players would complain about 'not getting their xp' when they finish an encounter, but it hasn't come up yet. Interesting idea on raising the dead - I was treating it as a negative level until they hit the next level-up point, but I may switch to your idea, maybe with a permanent loss of a CON point.
Please add me to the mailing list :) That's phenomenal stuff. We're just hitting the SoLS though, so it will be a while. Very, very well done!
Name: Jek Peppin, warmage 13
As the party slowly trudged across the countryside, the warlock, using his See Invisible ability, spotted the first group of two bone and one barbed devils. This gave the party an opportunity to take defensive measures, which included our hero casting a circular wall of fire around the party. This proved to be disastrous. A bone devil promptly dropped a wall of ice right down the middle of it, separating the two melee characters from the other three in a storm of steam. This ring of fire had little effect on the devils, of course, other than it being opaque. So the barbs simply stood back and started throwing Order's Wrath and Unholy Blight while the boners started melee. Jek, flanked by the party warlock (who could - and did - fly) and the rogue (who promptly fled) was soon trapped against the ice wall, double-dazed by the Wraths and badly hurt by the spells. Then the second wave of devils arrived. Imaxian the barbed devil couldn't believe his luck when he stepped through the curtain of fire. A soul, ready for the taking.
Two rounds later, including the only other spell that Jek was able to cast during the battle (which washed up on the shore of spell resistance), and the warmage was fatally skewered. The battle raged on for another couple hours. At no time did the party respond to the calls to "Give me the rod" with anything more than giggles. The 14th fatality involving 13 characters, and we haven't hit the Spire yet.
Don't own it. My next campaign is going to center on Waterdeep, so I'll be getting it then.
We're probably averaging 4 sessions per episode, and are currently preparing to start SoLS. These are the highest level characters I've ever run, and the only way I've been able to stand it is just to trust them as far as advancing their characters go. I also skip a lot of encounters and don't use XP at all - just level them up simultaneously at the appropriate points of the adventure. It is difficult, but I want to see this thing through to level 20, and I think they do, too. If anyone has some 'stuff' that would add to my players' enjoyment of the SoLS, please contact me on gmail at keith.wampuscat43. I'll be glad to send same to anyone who's behind me in the path.
My players were tired of trying to save Allustan by the time they found him in AGoW. That changed shortly afterward - the party fighter got trapped in the room with the inevitable. Allustan DD'ed into the room and got right in the line of fire, giving the others time to dispatch the villain before the fighter bit the dust. In the battle with the oculus demon, the party mage dropped a fire wall in an inopportune place, sealing all the party members in what amounted to a 5' corridor. The demon simply flew over the wall and started blasting away. Allustan was trapped between the fighter and the demon (and mostly out of spells). The fighter complained, so Allustan simply turned and ran through the wall of flames, taking a ton of damage, then stood on the other side and faced the party, smoldering:
Things have been relatively smooth since, particularly after he pulled out a wand of Fly to help the party go down the 'toilet', as they called it.
It says right on the first page that the adventurers should hit level 12 during the adventure. When they rescued Allustan, I had his first words be "Welcome to level 12". At the end, when he told them to go visit his old mentor Harpell, he said "...and you'd better be level 13 when you go". Just consider it adventuring bonuses.
Allustan's pushing them IMC, telling them of the great power awaiting them if they can find the true tomb (as written). They trust him, and greed does the rest. One thing I've stopped doing is granting XP. It eliminates the "wow, that was a big fight - how much XP did we get?" fun factor, but enables us to bypass any encounters they (or I) don't want to do. They skipped going after Zyrxog (sp) completely (only to hear multiple rumors about the town watch striking gold after cleaning him out, plus he returned looking for revenge later, heh heh). If they decide not to finish AGoW, they miss out on some very potent magic, but I have them level up to 13 anyway, so they'll be ready for the next scenario.
I use a projector, and cut the pdfs up into pieces with Paint as described earlier. It's a pain, but none of the software discussed (NWN editor, etc.) is easy enough to use to (re-)create them from scratch. All said and done, though, it looks damn purty!
I don't play music much during our games, but when they went into the arena for the first round of the Champions Games I cranked up "Beasts of the Wizard" from Midnight Syndicate's D&D album. It's basically a march that leads off with a lot of stomping feet and follows with big horns and whooshing crescendos. I described it as the noise the crowd was making as the gladiators entered. The whooshing sound was the Waterdeep griffon cavalry doing a flyby. Awesome stuff.
Check out this map. Just found this site.
This is correct, except the save # is 44. The fact that it's listed under special attacks (along with his breath weapons and tail slap) would make me rule that the save wouldn't be required unless it targeted a PC with it.
Jeebus, this could be interesting. They just picked up the Electricity Resistance banded mail, but the rogue is a halfling. Talk about pressure disarming a trap!
I blew this when I ran it, saying there were no windows at all. There's one in Filge's bedroom, and I believe it overlooked the front door. I had the shutters swing outward and a zombie guarding it. Made for a nasty surprise when the rogue broke in (the 2nd time around).
Send me an email to my hotmail account (khays3) and I'll send you several options.
"Any creature entering the room is struck by a bolt of lightning" The spike can generate one bolt per person... Per round? Per "entrance in the room"? I anticipate the party rogue attempting to disable this trap, and the text says "remember the globe continues to launch...at anyone in the room". So, would everyone in the room get a personalized blast EVERY round?
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/art/k/e/kenneth/myrkul.gif.html http://www.answers.com/topic/bhaal
I've just read the pages of Chapter 3 in the Age of Worms, the Encounter at Blackwall Keep, for the third time. I am detecting an ALARMING lack of potentially Lethal encounters contained herein. Chalk it up to the author no doubt. I significantly ramped up the initial encounter for this module, filling it with blackscale lizardfolk, poison dusks, and dragonkin. If you're interested in the stats and notes on this encounter, email me at khays3 at hotmail and I'll send them to you. I believe I was one of the very few DMs to score a kill on this first battle. :)
Get rid of one of the stalkers in this case. This is a nasty encounter. Either have them hit the group one at a time, or simply have one of them be dead (it was invisible, so how would they know?). Regardless, if you want them to be more durable, you need to do things like give them max hp per level, have them die at -(CON) instead of -10, etc. You have to give the monsters max hp too, but it gives you a lot more wiggle room to control the duration of the encounter and keep them all exciting.
Certainly beats my tyrannosaur wrapped in an old sock! What kind of paint is it, and can it be washed off?
Level drain ought to be enough to scare anybody, particularly the lightly-armored spellcasters. They may only be +3 to hit (on average) but flanking and sneak attacks (they have great Hide and Move Silently numbers) can make up for that.
I used the above tower for my battle. Basically took a screen shot of it, stretched it to the size I wanted, printed it out on card stock and taped it all together. I then printed out the floorplan maps the same way, then sat them on top of each story. It was sturdy enough that I was able to put miniatures on the balcony (which, although two-dimensional, still looked good) and the roof. Got some horse miniatures to represent the dead ones (they were used for cover at one point). I really jacked up the battle by adding different type of lizardfolk (blackscale and poison dusk) as well as a couple dragonkin. We actually had a death in this battle (look for Randalf in the Obituaries). The best advice I have, if you want to do this kind of battle, is to have the baddies move and act in squads. They should all have the same stats, so you just roll 6 d20s or whatever and count the hits. If anyone is interested in the statblocks for this mob, send me a hotmail at khays3 and I'll see what I can do.
As you can tell, I'm a little twitchy about Wind Walk As far as Dragon minis go, there's a bunch of counters in Dragon 308 for dragons of various size/colors. Certainly cheaper than buying all those minis.
Have it break out during the last combat. Worked for us - the thing's not that hard to kill as long as you don't use that necromantic blast it has. I had it swallow Auric, but the PCs killed it before he died. You can see pictures of it in one of my threads on this board.
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