I have used two dragons, (black and blue) and a mindflayer in our previous games and dont wish to use them in the AoWs.
Ive noticed the black dragon and was wondering what would be a good alternative to using these creatures?
I dont want to seem like I am putting my players up against the same type of beasties from old games.
I would appreciate it if someone could list the types of enemies used in the AoW adventures so far so I could come up with suitable 'swaps' for them.
|
There's a great rundown of the Age of Worms Adventure Path in the Age of Worms Overload free download. You'll see that many of the archetypical critters of D&D are in the scenarios, but there are plenty of "rarer" critters as well. I'm hesistant to give a roster of critters faced on these boards as there seems to be an inordinate number of players of the Adventure Path frequenting it. Giving a list is like talking about a movie's details before a friend goes to see it.
Having the players experience the "same ol' black dragon" again isn't a bad thing. Sure, they'll have some metagaming knowledge about the critter already, but this is where you can use this knowledge against them. Rather than trading out creatures wholesale, tweak their abilities so they aren't run-of-the-mill. Thus far, very little has been "run-of-the-mill" about the Adventure Path and I'm sure the archetypical creatures will be uniquely challanging to the players.
I'm kind of 'all dragoned out' i dont like to use dragons very often, saving them for special occasions, lest they become too common in my gameworld.
I play in the realms and while I understand the realms have quite a lot of dragons running around I dont want to give the impression theyre as common as orcs.
So no black dragons for me I'm afraid, or minflayers either for the same reason.
I think if something is used less, when it IS encountered it is much more memorable and helps keep the monsters iconic feel. Part of the reasons why these two enemies are so cool to use as badguys is because of the mystique surrounding them.
Look what happened with the drow, thats why I have never used a drow in my game yet, so far they have only ever been refered to by npc's in stories and you can bet when the drow do make an appearance in my realms the players wont know what hit them, drow are a favorite of mine and I intend to do right by them.
|
|
Hmm, okay. 'Tis a sad day when dragons have become hackneyed. I hear you on the drow front but a fictional character helped to push that along.
Black dragon is replaced with an awakened roc with seven levels of sorcerer whose eggs actually hatch kenku that have replaced the lizard folk.
Replace the mind flayer with a neogi and the drow thralls with umberhulks.
Replace the mind flayer with a neogi and the drow thralls with umberhulks.
Thats a great idea!
I will crack open LOM and see how it will work.
Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
|
The game is not called "Dungeons & Drow."
To a certain degree, the Age of Worms is meant to be the proto-typical D&D campaign. Accordingly, it includes both dungeons and dragons.
You're of course free to change anything in your home campaign, but if you think there are too many dragons in the campaign by "Encounter at Blackwall Keep," I think your head will start spinning about the time you read "Kings of the Rift."
Just sayin'.
--Erik
Sounds like my paladin might as well go ahead and rename himself "LEEEEEEEEEERooooooy MuhJENkins".
While I understand and agree with the reasons for making adventure paths more standardized, I personally am unable to use the Age of Worms as written because of events in my last campaign. It's fun getting it all to work and putting my own spin on it though.
I like to have my campaigns (using Fogtten Realms) linked, using a form of continuity that allows a players actions to, (in-time) have an impact around the realms (or at least ripples).
Our last campaign featured two very prominant villians, one was a mindflayer the other a black dragon, the pc's used Waterdeep and Daggerford as jumping-off points and tied their back-story into them.
For these reasons, and not wanting to seem like I'm repeating old ideas.
I've decided to use the Dragons Coast area for the AoW's adventure path.
Westgate is the "Free City" while Diamond Lake has become "Krakens Tooth" and is now situated on the coast of the Sea of Fallen Stars just south of Westgate.
I'm gonna do away with 99% of Dragons in this adventure path and use abberations of some sort (but not mindflayers), I am linking the Kyuss stuff to the Far Realms instead and the campaign is taking on an even darker tone.
I have quite a lot of work to do now, but its been fun so far.
99% of dragons? So far, there haven't been that many... actually, Ilthane will be the first I think.
I hear you about over using creature types. The more there are, the less spectacular they seem. But, you can still use them often enough, if you always make the encounter truely challenging and memorable. You could have a mindflayer in every campaign and still have your players fear them and not think they're "old." Personally, I'm looking forward to using Zyrxog- I've been rather remiss in my aberration distribution in other campaigns. That's just me, though.
The same goes for dragons. In most campaigns, it seems they aren't common, but they aren't that rare, either. Considering all the fights a party will go through, if there are three or so parts with dragons per campaign, they're still memorable, not at all over-used (compared to everything else in the campaign- look at undead in AoW!) and it impresses the point that these things ARE out there, making a difference in the world.
However, I do think that, as far as Kyuss' themes go, the averrations are more iconic of his powers, especially all the tenticled ones (which seems to be most of them). Do you have Lords of Madness? That has a lot of really bizzare creatures you could throw in to give the campaign a truely alien, writhing feel.
Just some thoughts.
I dont want to seem like I am putting my players up against the same type of beasties from old games.
I feel your pain R-type. My last campaign was all about lizardfolk, black dragons, doppelgangers, mindflayers and even a froghemoth. If kyuss turns out to be a symbiotic human wizard/legendary half-black dragon hydra I'm gonna lose it!
I'm running FR AoW also and throwing in a lot of githyanki since Kyuss is the one and only Gith in my campaign. I'm mixing in the Incursion campaign from a few years ago so I'm planning on a lot of dragons.
My very last campaign, the one I put on hold to run AoW, had the players:
Coming to Daggerford/Diamond Lake
Meeting the local wizard
Taking on a bunch of lizardmen in the swamp
Whipping up on a black dragon after it attacks Daggerford.
If there's an orb of dragon control out there I'm whacking the whole project!
As we see here, there's an argument for and against iconism. I, personally, perfer to use a mix, using recognised icons but trying to put twists on them. And then I do things that are just plain weird.
But I'm good at using icons in a creative and unique fasion, and I can understand how it'd be less work to use something esoteric instead.
Dragons, however, seem to figure strongly into the climax, it's looking very much like any effort to replace them ALL would exaust you. But, that's up to you. It's your campaign.
And that's the beauty of this game.