Not that Secrets of the Soul Pillars is a bad adventure but here is yet another villian's errors.
First off what kind of naga was Xail. It might of been handy to know which type of naga he was before the bone naga template was added. Even the example creature in Serpent Kingdoms says what type of nage in the heading.
Xail casts spell as a level...level...something or other sorcerer. After looking for the type of naga used to check against and finding it not listed I had to look at all the other nagas. This was a very bad error because I didn't realize no listed caster level until we were in the fight. All other nagas have a caster level 2 less than thier HD so I'll assume Xail is a 13th level caster. Oh wait he has to be at least 14th level to have 7th level spells. That would be 16HD or changing all the spell section.
Wait, a 14th level human sorcerer with crap hp, no special monster abilities, etc is a CR 14 but Xail is a CR11??!!?? How can that be with 14th level casting ability, naga and bone naga traits, etc. Again, lets reference the base creature that we don't know.
Looking at all the other nagas they all have a CR of 1 less than thier HD (which is also 1 higher than thier caster level). The bone naga template further increases the base CR+1. If Xail is a 14th level caster his CR would be 16. If he is 15 HD his caster level woul be 13, loss spells and have a CR of 15.
Add in Orgo and this is probably a EL 16 encounter. No wonder we didn't finish the fight, and the whole party is almost dead although the fully healed before leaving room 11 and coming here.
Also the room description says there is a 10 foot walkway around the room but the map says 5 foot.
Creative Director
|
Bone naga is the base creature. It's a monster from Monster Manual 2; it's not a template. It's spellcasting ability is a function of the monster itself; it has no actual sorcerer levels. According to that book, it casts spells as a 14th-level sorcerer, so its caster level is 14.
I don't have Serpent Kingdoms handy, but if there's a bone naga template in there and it increases the base naga's CR by +1, that acutally sounds to me like a better way to handle the monster: I agree that CR 11 is too low for the bone naga as it appears in the MM2. Unfortunately, when we were editing that issue of Dungeon, Serpent Kingdoms was still many, many months away from even being an edited text file for us to reference, let alone being actually published.
If you want to replace the bone naga in the adventure with a templated bone naga, I'd probably use a dark naga with some sorcerer levels as the base creature and aim for a CR 11 monster.
As for the walkway; go with the map and make it a 5 foot walkway.
Thank you James. I had just gotten Serpent Kindoms and remembered the bone naga being a template in there so didn't bother w/ looking anywhere else. Still the caster level would of been nice to be included in the stat block.
What are the odds of having future adventures list the source of monsters when taken from other books? For those of us with MMII, MMIII, Fiend Folio, Libris Mortis, etc. it'd be nice to easily look the monster up for any further information. I understand space restraints and such but the abreveated tittle and page for only a couple such monsters (if any) per issue wouldn't be any real space concern (like the aura, lighting, etc section became).
|
Creative Director
|
Hmmm... I guess I forgot to hit "Submit Post" on the first try at replying to this...
ANYway... we've been giving sources for non-Monster Manual monsters in Dungeon for some time now. I don't remeber when exactly we started, but now, at the end of the first paragraph of a monster's stat block, just after its ability scores, we list the source and page number for the monster in question.