Alright, so I just got Issue 135 (with my interest being in the AoW Adventure Path), and a quick readthrough left me unsatisfied. I am unhappy with the conclusion; for example, SCAP ended with several pages of continued plot hooks, whereas there is none of this for AoW (barring a couple of paragraphs). Aside from that, a scan of Kyuss himself left me unconfident, even with my brutal, merciless DM ability, that he would hold up. He is fought with no allies (unless they come from lower levels of the spire) and I thought that the artifacts were too great an advantage, despite the risks of using them. While I appreciate the different variables they've given for weakening Kyuss, I think there were too many. With him taking a full round to exit the tower, I don't know how he will survive. I mean, the person with the sphere of annihilation can take out half his hit points in one fell swoop.
I for one would've liked to see a more epic battle (I came close to weeping openly at the awesomeness of the battle against Adimarchus, for example), with less focus on variables towards weakening Kyuss and more focus on chances to use Authority Points, help save Alhaster, and just coolness factor in general.
Thoughts?
nam
Come on....I seriously need help. No input?
Come on....I seriously need help. No input?
once I get the issue, i'll let you know what kind of modifications I think kyuss needs to make it a memorable last battle.
as to the adventure hooks for after kyuss' defeat.. well, Kyuss had a patron god who wouldn't be very happy that his protoge was defeated. for some reason, I can't see Nerull taking these adventurers lightly...
Creative Director
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The obvious solution to make the fight with Kyuss more difficult is to simply remove one or more of the methods of weakening him. And as for fighting him alone; any of his minions in the tower that survive will certainly come to his aid if they aren't dealt with first. That said, Kyuss is a tough critter; certainly one of the toughest (if not THE toughest) villain we've ever published in the magazine. If you're afraid your group will take him down in one round, you can go crazy and give him 20 outsider Hit Dice...
As for the closure of the adventure, yeah, it's a little more truncated than the end of "Asylum" was. Alas, there simply wasn't enough room to do a big, detailed "Continuing the Campaign"; as it is, "Dawn of a New Age" is one of the longest adventures we've published. It's certainly the longest Age of Worms adventrue.
Agreed. I apologize, I didn't expect those of us who haven't yet recieved the issue to be able to respond: moreso i am curious if anyone else has had this dilemma who has already recieved the issue, and what are their thoughts? Nonetheless, I appreciate any input.
I would really prefer not to need to necessarily /remove/ any variables aiding against Kyuss; I simply wish that there were more of them, spanning back through the campaign: some sort of more in depth aid from the Wind Dukes other than what has been presented (i.e. the Rod of Seven Parts), for example. Also, I would have liked more of a magnificent lead-up to the final confrontation. This isn't a criticism per se; more like I want more of this great stuff. Has anyone else with the magazine thought of anything to add?
Let's go people....no one noticed this too?
Namfoodle--don't get so impatient, dude--I'm only half a day's away from the printer and I don't have my 135 yet, so I have to think most subscribers aren't in a position to comment yet!
As for end of campaign followup hooks--if the basic outline for the adventure in the overload hasn't changed, they PCs inherit a small kingdom. In Greyhawk, the place is in Iuz's claimed sphere of influence, which is a monster hook in and of itself. I speculated on the possibilities for running a split-level campaign in an earlier thread (on Prince of Redhand, I think)--the idea being to run the epic level alumni of AoW in a campaign focused on high-level political intrigue, with a second low-level party of understudies who get sent on adventure missions that tie in to what the epic characters are doing to rebuild Alhaster, craft a foreign policy, and deal with a (possibly resurgent) Iuz threat. The end-game of this follow-on campaign might be an epic confrontation with the Old One, but the original AoW PCs are probably too busy to do it themselves--they have the new campaign's PCs to act as champions for them.
Well, a lot of us don't have the issue yet. What kind of spoilers can you post about him? If we had a general idea of what he's capable of there'd be something to discuss! :)
Well, I don't have the issue yet... but in regards to the lack of adventure hooks after defeating Kyuss?
Aside from maybe hunting down Dragotha or any other undead beasty that has a phylactery that wasn't destroyed, I don't really see the need to have many adventure hooks.
To me, you defeat Kyuss, "inherit" the kingdom and then the credits start to roll.
IMHO, some stories have a definitive end, not everything has to be forever open-ended. And if the campaign has spanned 12 adventures (+ sidetreks), levels 1-20+, and around a year of real-time... Well, as attached to my character as I might be, its time to set this campaign aside and start a new one.
As well, what % of DnD players actually use the Epic Rules? Because you've probably hit epic sometime before you actually hit Kyuss if you have been reaping all the extra XP, and even if you haven't, you'll still be Epic after defeating Kyuss. Therefore any plot hooks for after AoW necessarily need to be epic plot hooks.
ok. well. just got it in the mail about an hour and a half ago. spent that hour reading DoNA.
Wow. It's already ugly enough, but If you really want a Climax that has more than just the worm-god fight, then I think some cinematic action and description on the sidelines are more in order.
you could give tenser more of a role - instead of just being dimensional lock boy, he could ralley an army of good outsiders to come in and fend off more of Kyuss' minions. you could make kyuss's emergence from the spire a point where he is invulnerable still, but dozens of his minions come into being with him - and Tenser and his allied Ghale Eladrins can barely hold off the advancing tide of broodfiends long enough for your party to take down Kyuss.
Or kyuss somehow returns dragotha to unlife in the final stage, and the PC's have to face them both down at once, if you really want sheer challenge.
Perhaps I should clarify. I wish that there were more.....abstract things about Kyuss. He is completely created from the rules. This is okay, but part of the awesomeness about, say, Adimarchus, was that he had, even as just a singular entity, many facets. His two different forms was just classic, to use an example. Maybe I shouldn't be comparing the campaigns, but I felt AoW was let down. Still a great adventure, but I for one didn't feel the......how to put this....climacticity of it (oh yeah, I'm makin words on this one).
Sorry again for my impatience....I just like answers.
I can tell you this: to the infinite layers of the abyss with the rule book!
Kyuss is a god. As such, he will be treated as such and have the following modifications:
He rolls with a fat posse (Hordes of swords of kyuss and spawn of kyuss - as far as the eye can see from the spire).
He has more hit points; the actual amount doesn't matter, just enough to keep the PCs from earning an anti-climactic victory.
He has multiple standard actions, not just quickened or immediate actions.
On the other hand, the heroes will have the following tools:
Action Points.
Additional powers not typically granted per the PHB or rule set.
Major Artifacts.
Help - Tenser and Agath will fight side-by-side with the heroes, as will Sir Pinnacle (a herald of Heironeous) whom they met early on in a twist on my story line. These individuals will be carefully run in a manner that will neutralize (or off-set) Kyuss' horde while the PCs fight Kyuss in the main scene. The PCs will be the heroes in this story.