Kings of the Rift (Issue 133) Errors - Spoilers!

[Greg A. Vaughan]

Stebehil wrote:

Just as an aside: The Raam don´t happen to be inspired by the Rom from the Al-Qadim setting, or do they ? ;-)

Stefan

I was wondering when someone would mention it. James also cut the new pestige class I introduced in the adventure--Space Knight.

The rom was one of my favorite and one of the least-used monsters in Al-Qadim. Other than a single throw-away encounter in ALQ1 Golden Voyages, I don't recall ever seeing them again in an adventure. I always thought that had a neat melancholy feel to them that ended up fitting right in with the forlorn history of the original builders of Kongen-Thulnir.

As to the comments above about the adventure being tough. I have to agree. The problem I had in writing it was that there is such a range of possibilities in an 18th-level party. What might slaughter one might be child's play to another. It's difficult to pin down what would be a median encounter for a party at that level. Plus as mentioned, the AoW had a certain reputation for toughness to live up to, and I wasn;t about to let it lie down in an adventure full of giants and dragons.

So I decided to err on the side of toughness figuring it would be easier for a DM to rduce monster numbers or have them withdraw before total TPK than try to significantly increase encounter challenges. To be honest, James toned the original manuscript down quite a bit.

[Stebehil]

Greg V wrote:

I was wondering when someone would mention it. James also cut the new pestige class I introduced in the adventure--Space Knight.

huh ??? Dread Giant Ninja Space Pirate, or what ?? :-)

Greg V wrote:

The rom was one of my favorite and one of the least-used monsters in Al-Qadim. Other than a single throw-away encounter in ALQ1 Golden Voyages, I don't recall ever seeing them again in an adventure. I always thought that had a neat melancholy feel to them that ended up fitting right in with the forlorn history of the original builders of Kongen-Thulnir.

Yes, that makes sense. Thanks for the insight.

Greg V wrote:

As to the comments above about the adventure being tough. I have to agree. The problem I had in writing it was that there is such a range of possibilities in an 18th-level party. What might slaughter one might be child's play to another. It's difficult to pin down what would be a median encounter for a party at that level. Plus as mentioned, the AoW had a certain reputation for toughness to live up to, and I wasn;t about to let it lie down in an adventure full of giants and dragons.

So I decided to err on the side of toughness figuring it would be easier for a DM to rduce monster numbers or have them withdraw before total TPK than try to significantly increase encounter challenges. To be honest, James toned the original manuscript down quite a bit.

Ok, now I´m curious: how much tougher was it ?

But I see your problem: It is very difficult to make an adventure challening enough for a high level group, as the posibilities for such a group are near endless. The selections made by arcane spellcasters alone can make a huge difference. The feats a fighter chose can be crucial, and so on. To say nothing of Prestige Classes...

I appreciate your comments and insights, Greg. Perhaps there could be a thread for authors sharing their ideas for adventures published, if they are so inclined ? Similar to Richards´ and James´ authors notes in Red Hand of Doom. Just an idea.

Stefan

[Greg A. Vaughan]

Stebehil wrote:

huh ??? Dread Giant Ninja Space Pirate, or what ?? :-)

Sorry, that was, I guess, a somewhat vague reference to Rom the Space Knight of comic book fame that James had mentioned.

A small joke, but a joke nonetheless. :-)

Stebehil wrote:

Ok, now I´m curious: how much tougher was it ?

Off the top of my head, I recall that the magical ward/geas over the city prohibited almost all magical flight. Only natural flight or magical flight that emulates natural flight (i.e. wings of flying, etc.) was possible. Couple that with an encounter on the bridge to the citadel where the dragon in its death throes tries to smash through the bridge with the PCs still on it makes for a tough enounter. ;-)

Also in the Mother Worm's cavern (or Mater Worm in the original manuscript) there were about a thousand carrion crawlers including advanced varieties and mutated advanced varieties that had wings and could fly. Now the party didn't have to fight all of these, and the Mother Worm was as apt to crunch a few of them each round as the PCs, but they were definitely a distraction that the party would have to deal with each round while they also contended with Big Mama.

I'd have to find the CD with my original on it for other differences.

Stebehil wrote:

I appreciate your comments and insights, Greg. Perhaps there could be a thread for authors sharing their ideas for adventures published, if they are so inclined ? Similar to Richards´ and James´ authors notes in Red...

That's a neat idea. And I'd certainly post on one if such a thing were started. I like those comemnt boxes in Red Hand. My only caveat would be that sometimes if what I consider to be particularly good bits get cut or changed in an adventure, I like to save them and use them later in another adventure. So I couldn't commit to full disclosure 100% of the time just so that if it comes up again in a new adventure the idea wouldn't seem old and hackneyed. But that would only represent a small fraction of the discussion on any given topic, and I don't know that other authors do that at all.

[ASEO]

Greg V wrote:
Funny that you mention that. One of the early ideas was actually basically a big tanglefoot bag launched from the catapults. It just seemed too unlikely to hit, so I don't believe we pursued it. With the spread effect of a load of crawler heads, even with attack penalties, we figured that enough would be able to hit the dragons' low touch AC to be effective.

Tallknight wrote:
What can I say Greg V but that great minds must think alike ;-) although I would have to try play testing it to see how it works in play. Seeing as how Dragons are not renown for being aerobatically inclined. Powerful flyers yes but not quick turners in most cases.

Well thank you. I suggested it, and the "There was a fourth defense (a sort of wing-ripping load like chain shot) that got cut for space reasons." ideas to Greg as a way to reduce the dragons' movement and thus make them drop out of the air.

He liked the Wing-rippers, but apparently I didn't use enough big words in my description of the tangle foot bags to make it through his editing process. The very verbose description on the mechanical workings of a Wing-ripper Catapult or Balista loads passed him, but then along came the DUNGEON staff...danmed if I do and damned if I dont. ;-)

Then Greg killed my character in his home game game just because I was in China and missed a session...the guy is just roothless. Now he is making me play a bleating, dragon-slaying baby unicorn named Uni Pett. And for some reason I he says that when I have to speak in character I have to use a British accent.

Well any way, keeping a thread with "Kings of the Rift" and "ERRORS" in the title at the top of the boards I think is just revenge.

;-)

ASEO out

[Pierce]

Stebehil wrote:

Greg V wrote:

I was wondering when someone would mention it. James also cut the new pestige class I introduced in the adventure--Space Knight.

huh ??? Dread Giant Ninja Space Pirate, or what ?? :-)

All about ROM here. One of my favorite comics growing up. I sold off all my books in college when I was desperate for cash. One of the first things I did when I started my collection back up (older and with more disposable income) was to acquire the entire run. ROM's main opponents - the Dire Wraiths - share a bit with Illithids, Dopplegangers and other classic D&D nasties.

/end tangent

[Arcesilaus]

sorry to resurrect the thread, but i thought i'd add a few comments.

Kagro Thundersmiter has the feats Dodge, Mobility, and Spring Attack, all of which have Dex 13 as a prerequisite, but Kagro's Dex is only 10. Is there possibly a bonus from the dragonstalker class that I'm missing?

Also, according to the MM errata, Mariliths no longer have the ability to polymorph, so Alakora's tactics need to be modified somewhat. (Making this a much easier encounter, I think.)

Hope this helps some of y'all out there.

[James Jacobs]

Kargo should probably have a Dex of 13; that one's a legitamate error.

The marilith having polymorph is not an error. That particular bit of errata is not only something that came about after this magazine was in print, but is also, arguably, a poor thing to errata in the first place. Sure, the spell is complex, but the solution should be to fix the spell, not restrict the points in the game that it appears.

My suggestion: let the marilith keep the polymorph spell-like ability. Worry more about why WotC hasn't issued errata that changes the roper from a magical beast into an aberration, or the derro from monstrous humanoid into regular humanoid (at the very least so that we can have derro liches).

[Arcesilaus]

also, Kargo can't wear a mantle of faith and a cape of the mountebank at the same time, as they take up the same body slot.

(i know i'm nit-picking, and it didn't really make a big difference in play, but if you have the time to change it to something else, why not keep things within the rules?)