I’ve already read the Eberron conversion notes for AoW and am grateful to have them. Reading the adventure and the backdrop I noticed that there are a lot of NPCs with several PC levels. Even some of the ladies of the evening are 5th level rogues. This seems to run against the general makeup of Eberron adventures where PC levels are scarce.
Has anyone attempted to reduce the amount of PC levels or does that much tinkering affect the story too much?
Thoughts?
Rooster
if the supplement for this adventure path does not appear on the web before the end of the week, I'm going to go through everything stat by stat and convert them myself. Greyhawk is tired, old and worn out. I will be running this in
Eberron.
if the supplement for this adventure path does not appear on the web before the end of the week, I'm going to go through everything stat by stat and convert them myself. Greyhawk is tired, old and worn out. I will be running this in
Eberron.
Hey I am going to run it in Eberron too. There are a lot of little details that I am trying to work out for Diamond Lake etc. But, I don't think its very nice to say Greyhawk is tired, old and worn out.
I think the fact that it still inspires players after 20 years is a testament to its orginality and endurance. I mean DnD is greyhawk and vice versa. Eberron is just a different flavor with some add ons.
But I will be sure to share what I come up with for Eberron for this great adventure.
I’ve already read the Eberron conversion notes for AoW and am grateful to have them. Reading the adventure and the backdrop I noticed that there are a lot of NPCs with several PC levels. Even some of the ladies of the evening are 5th level rogues. This seems to run against the general makeup of Eberron adventures where PC levels are scarce.
Has anyone attempted to reduce the amount of PC levels or does that much tinkering affect the story too much?
Thoughts?
Rooster
in most cases I change PC classes to NPC classes
fighter to warrior, rogue to expert etc
The main problem is all the fighters and rogues running around (and a couple of “high level” clerics). Using Keith Baker’s dragonshard article on Eberron demographics (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20040712a) as a guideline, I came up with the following for my campaign (still somewhat preliminary):
Golot, Brb 3 –> War 4
Ellival Moonmeadow, Brd 4 –> Brd 1/Exp 4
Valkus Dun, Ftr 3/Clr 7 –> Adp 5/War 1
Velias Childramun, Clr 4 –> Adp 4
Jierian Wierus, Clr 7 –> Adp 5
Harmeneezer, Clr3 –> Exp 3
Lanod Neff, Ftr 6 –> Exp 7
Sheriff Cubbin, Ftr 5 –> War 5
Deputy Jamis, Ftr 3 –> War 3
Tyrol Ebberly, Ftr 4 –> War 4
Kurlag, Ftr 4 –> War 4
Trask’s lieutenants, (Ftr 6, Ftr 5, Ftr 5) –> (War 7, War 6, War 6)
Venelle, Rgr 3 –> Exp 3
Lanch Faraday, Rgr 2 –> Exp 2
Balabar Smenk, Rog 7 –> Exp 8
Zalamandra, Rog 7 –> Ari 6
Tom Shingle, Rog 4 –> Changeling Exp 3
Lazarre, Rog 4 –> Exp 3
Mur, Rog 4 –> Exp 3
Chaum Gansworth, Rog 4 –> Exp 4
Luzane Parrin, Rog 3 –> Exp 3
Purple Prose, Rog 3 –> Exp 3
Gaspar, Rog 2 –> Exp 1
Ariello Klint, Sor3 –> Illusionist 3
Shag Soloman, Ari 6 –> Shifter Ari 4
Benazel the Alchemist, Exp 6/Wiz 3 –> Magewright 7
The rest of the NPCs are okay as is, i.e., Pal 3, Sor 3, War 10, etc. are fine, since there is only one of each and this fits with the guidelines. Allustan (Wiz 8) is an exception to the demographics; since he hails from Sharn and figures importantly in the third adventure (I think), I’m going to leave him untouched. Likewise, there are a few more Experts than there should be, but this is due to Diamond Lake’s industrial nature drawing skilled mine managers. If the PCs end up fighting Smenk (or another NPC that I nerfed) in a future adventure, I’ll probably alter the encounter so that the main opponents are Smenk’s goons. I can’t abide the image in my head of an obese mine manager whipping out a short sword and sneak-attacking for 30 points of damage.
I'm also running AOW, at least the first adventure in Eberron. I didn't really dig Diamond Lake and as my current campaign spent a lot of time in Sharn (around eight levels) I used an old Dungeon village, Dagger Rock (anyone remember the Half-Ogre Inn), and set up shop in the Eldeen Reaches.
The proximity of the Demon Wastes and the ancient, orc, druidic, and daelkyr landscape features will tie quite nicely to the current adventure. I figure I can use a city in Aundair as the "free city" if I need to.
While my players are still settling on their concepts I've got a human thief-from-the-city, a Talenta halfing ranger and a Shifter druid.
Currently I'm debating if I should make a missing child the reason to investigate the cairn or not...
I am also DMing this campaign in Eberron. In fact, I decided to finally break down and get a subscription to Dungeon and Dragon in good faith that I'll see more articles from Keith Baker.
Last night my group started building their characters. In the past I've ran Mark of Heroes games, the 3 WotC modules and one shot Eberron adventures from Dungeon (Queen with Burning Eyes & Fallen Angel). These were done in a card shop with a mix of young and old players. My new group consists of vets from first and second edition, and I was tempted to use Greyhawk as the baseline. To my surprise they wanted to give Eberron a shot.
One player who especially likes his games to be "classic old school" shocked me when he brought his sheet ready and it was a warforged! Interestingly, he wanted to be a warforged cleric of the Silver Flame. I strongly suggested Dol Arrah, but he insisted on the Silver Flame. Some issues that came up:
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Q.) Did the warforged cleric serve in the Last War?
A.) No, he was one of the last assembled prior to the Treaty of Thronehold and never saw battle.
Q.) How did a warforged cleric end up in Diamond Lake?
A.) During the Last War, Breland (home of Diamond Lake) and Thrane (the central power of the Church of the Silver Flame) were enemies. Many of the churches in Breland went "rogue", including the one in Diamond Lake. The warforged is on a mission from an authority figure in Thrane to bring this diociese back into the fold now that the war has ended.
Q.) Why would the Church send a warforged?
A.) For several theological reasons, the Church does not believe warforged have souls. This warforged was the traveling companion of a human cleric, who died of disease on the way to Diamond Lake. The warforged is journeying to Diamond Lake to keep a promise to his dying friend.
Q.) How does the warforged know the party?
A.) When the warforged arrived at Diamond Lake he was treated poorly by the Church. Many of the miners feel that warforged threaten their job security and the Diamond Lake church preys on this fear. Several sermons in the past have denounced warforged as vile abominations of the soul.
The Chapel of the Sovereign Host, on the other hand, heard of the newcomer and invited him to mass where his arrival was celebrated. It was at this mass where he met another member of the party, another cleric (yes the party has two clerics, and it's a party of four). They soon became good friends.
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One of the other party members decided to be a dwarf ranger. I suggested he take aberrations as his favored enemy. He comes from a long line of mine "exterminators", hunting down monsters that come up through underground fissures. His father recently retired due to a choker accident while on a job, so the dwarf is now looking for a team to work with. He wanted to know if any of the mine managers are dwarven. Would Dourstone hire someone to hunt down monsters in his mines?
And just a general question about Eberron and Diamond Lake. What impact did the last war have on the town? I'm assuming the King would have needed resources, do you think a lot of the town's money came from war contracts?