Well after some time I am finally ready to start the AoW, But I have some questions. The biggest are besides the core book which did you find the most helpful, I was thinking of The Hero of Horrors, but besides that I am not sure which books will help and which will bring me trouble.
Next I have a group that enjoys play wired races; Right now two of the group is wishing to play centaurs. Now the race of wild was they are broken down to a class rather then a LA, but will the centaurs have a hard time. Also how would some of the other monster race be played out in this adventure?
Last but not least, I was think of doing a twist in the game where that players start out with less gold then the stating package, and not all the weapons and armor, but triad it for things that people in a small mining town would help pix, shovel and then have them have to do jobs and find ways to make money for there items….Or I was think of giving them there items but making have debts they own in the town they have to pay before they can leave and if they leave before there debts are paid they will have bounty hunters after them, but how do I do this but still be fair and not to mean to the players.
Tomovasky,
I've run one of my groups through the frist three adventures so far and I think Centaurs would have a very hard time. With all the things that happen underground I just think they would have a hard time.
I'm getting ready to run a second group and I'm only allowing the core races. I've tried to let the player's use the odd monster PC's and found that it just doesn't seem to work well.
I hope this helps. I didn't want to say to much in the post in case there are player's lurking about.
Beldar
Thanx beldar...Do not worry about my players they do not come to this site at all... I do not even think then no it is here.
Well, I started with core books only, but have slowly but surely allowed pretty much any book into the mix. This is primarily because, as the campaign progresses, more and more monsters appear that are from Fiend Folio, and Monster Manuals 2 & 3. So the players should have access to a few extra options too (e.g. the "Complete" series). As a DM though, I've not really used any other books, the campaign has pretty much everything you need (maybe just pick a couple of bits from a Complete book, or Book of Vile Darkness, for extra flavour, if you have them).
As for monstrous PC's, I agree, a Centaur might not be the easiest thing to make work, but I guess it depends on how Centaurs are placed in your campaign world. In the World of Greyhawk, there's a type of Centaur in the Bright Desert, south of Diamond Lake, so maybe it's not as barmy an idea as it first seems...? In my game, we actually have an Ogre in the party, which has been fine - plenty of interesting rections from NPCs from time to time, but an Ogre isn't so out of place in Diamond Lake. And he started as a Medium creature, in fact, he was convinced he was actually a Dwarf with a strange growth problem, as he was brought up in a dwarven family (must have been switched at birth somehow). It was only when he developed too quickly that his family freaked out and sent him packing, off into the wide world at the very young (for a dwarf) age of 13... So yeah, a "monster" PC class can work, if you try hard enough.
I allowed all WoC books in Shackled City, and the result was an unstoppable party of horribly broken PCs.
For Age of Worms, I allowed the three core books only, and they do tend to struggle from time to time.
As a nice happy medium, may I suggest allowing the core books and the complete books (Complete Warrior, etc). The species/race books (Draconomicon, Races of Stone, Libris Mortis) are kind of overpowerer, and the alignment books (Vile Darkness, Exalted Deeds) are game-breakingly broken.
Well after some time I am finally ready to start the AoW, But I have some questions. The biggest are besides the core book which did you find the most helpful, I was thinking of The Hero of Horrors, but besides that I am not sure which books will help and which will bring me trouble.
Generally I agree with the above commentary on what books to make available for PC use. Generally, I go with the rule that all prestige classes must be approved by the DM, regardless of source--most of the ones in the DMG and complete books are OK (though I am still making up my mind about certain new character classes in the latter, such as the warmage). You should be careful, though--there are a couple of PrCs that can be problematic for a party, like Frenzied Berserker. As for supplements to help the DM flesh out the campaign and get a better feel for the non-core monsters used, I'd recommend Libris Mortis and Draconomicon, but you can certainly do without them if your budget is tight. And I'd be careful about allowing PCs to use stuff out of them. (I don't agree that players have to be allowed access to all the tricks the DM has at his disposal. The DM's only obligation is to make it reasonably possible for the PCs to earn the tools and resources they need to complete the quest.)
Next I have a group that enjoys play wired races; Right now two of the group is wishing to play centaurs. Now the race of wild was they are broken down to a class rather then a LA, but will the centaurs have a hard time. Also how would some of the other monster race be played out in this adventure?
Centaurs would definitely be problematic, given the number of dungeon crawls in this campaign--unless they can somehow be equipped to solve their mobility issues. Magic items that reduce size and enable flight might help, as might clever solutions by the party (a portable winch and slings for those hard to scale walls, perhaps?) Otherwise, I'd say a lot is up to how the DM wants to run the campaign world. There are quite a few roleplaying sections, and if folk are suspicious of monstrous PCs, that could be troublesome . . . or interesting, depending on you and the players. I wouldn't worry about high powered races overpowering the campaign, as long as you stick to rules for ECL and monster class advancement (see Savage Species for guidelines on this--I'm pretty certain they have a breakdown for centaurs so that they can start at 1st level and be on a par with the other PCs.
Last but not least, I was think of doing a twist in the game where that players start out with less gold then the stating package, and not all the weapons and armor, but triad it for things that people in a small mining town would help pix, shovel and then have them have to do jobs and find ways to make money for there items?Or I was think of giving them there items but making have debts they own in the town they have to pay before they can leave and if they leave before there debts are paid they will have bounty hunters after them, but how do I do this but still be fair and not to mean to the players.
Whispering Cairn is a very tough dungeon for first level, and the PCs will need some good stuff to survive it, so I would recommend giving them full starting gold. If you do want to do this (and it does make sense in terms of the story and the setting), I'd either run a prequel that brings them up to where they should be in terms of equipment, or place some extra treasure geared to help them survive the specific encounters. Read the obituaries thread, and you'll quickly find out which encounters are the most deadly. A stash of alchemist's fire in the basement of the abandoned mine office would be my first suggestion, but you can read and judge what will be the toughest encounters for the party and what items might help them.
Thanks for your post(s) Peruhain, they're all helpful. I'm a very new DM and I'm still figuring out how the whole thing works. AoW is my first foray into DMing. I chose to start with a campaign package because a)it looked like great fun and b)I figured I'd have my hands full learning how to be a decent DM without trying to create everything out of whole cloth from the start. I do have questions that pop up from time to time and this seemed like a decent thread to ask one or two.
How do ya'll work treasure? The campaign obviously lists plenty of goodies for the PCs to find along the way, but is this enough? Should I be looking to supplement their finds at all or is that generally taken into account already? I'm obviously interested in tailoring the experience to the PC's specific traits so I might change some things here and there, so I guess my question is directed at the general level of finding loot to use or sell.
Also, though even more off topic perhaps, I have question about how to help a PC out. The party has a Barbarian PC who for some reason decided to take Animal Affinity and spend skill points in Handle Animal. He can't jump, climb, or keep his balance real well, but he sure has a cute little puppy. Oy. Anyway he's obviously committed resources to this path and I figure I shouldn't stifle him just because I think it's a little ...unusual. Does anyone have any suggestions for me as DM to keep the rough and tough half-orc barbarian with a soft spot for fuzzy things entertained? I just know he's gonna go nuts over that damned baby owlbear. What more appropriate creature could he purchase that might be trained and able to survive longer than his innefectual guard dog?
Thanks for the help!
-Eltanin
How do ya'll work treasure? The campaign obviously lists plenty of goodies for the PCs to find along the way, but is this enough? Should I be looking to supplement their finds at all or is that generally taken into account already? I'm obviously interested in tailoring the experience to the PC's specific traits so I might change some things here and there, so I guess my question is directed at the general level of finding loot to use or sell.Also, though even more off topic perhaps, I have question about how to help a PC out. The party has a Barbarian PC who for some reason decided to take Animal Affinity and spend skill points in Handle Animal. He can't jump, climb, or keep his balance real well, but he sure has a cute little puppy. Oy. Anyway he's obviously committed resources to this path and I figure I shouldn't stifle him just because I think it's a little ...unusual. Does anyone have any suggestions for me as DM to keep the rough and tough half-orc barbarian with a soft spot for fuzzy things entertained? I just know he's gonna go nuts over that damned baby owlbear. What more appropriate creature could he purchase that might be trained and able to survive longer than his innefectual guard dog?
Thanks for the help!
-Eltanin
On treasure--I think there's plenty available in the AP, in terms of its value, and there are several items that the writers have stashed early in a particular adventure to make it easier to overcome a challenge later in that adventure. These items, plus those that are part of an NPC's combat strategy ought to be retained, but it should be easy to pick out other things that can be swapped out for items of equivalent value that might be of more use to your particular party.
On the barbarian with animal affinity--you might consider encouraging him to multi-class into druid or ranger (wild shape plus rage might be an interesting and cool combo), or alternatively set things up so that he can get a cool mount or cohort of some sort. (He could take leadership, maybe, and pick up some kind of awakened animal as a cohort). Or pick a special ability from the barbarian class that is equally useful to the druid's wild empathy or animal companion, and make him a variant barbarian that gains one of the latter abilities in exchange for dropping the former. On the whole wilderness abilities aren't that important for this AP, but they do come in handy in EBK and Library of Last Resort, and if you're willing to do some modification so that the PCs can't teleport to Spire of Long Shadows or Kuluth-Mar or the Wormcrawl, a wilderness-oriented character could prove handy indeed. I'm doing surface travel for all of these, and would be happy to share my rough notes with you by e-mail if you're interested. Not refined, yet, but might help you with ideas.
Yes, he seems to be conflicted at heart - a barbarian who yearns for an animal companion. Perhaps multi-classing is the thing for him. The funny thing is that he started this character because he wanted something simple and all those spell lists were too much of a pain...
Anyway, thanks for the thoughts. I'd love to read your notes about travel. gamer.tccollyer@olympus.net