Question for SCAP Designers about Drakthar / Tongueeater


Shackled City Adventure Path

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As several people on the boards have brought up, Drakthar and Tongueeater have the same weakness. Because of this, smart parties should be prepared for Tongueeater when they come up against him after fighting Drakthar, making what was once a feared encounter much easier. Was the intent to take some of the sting out of Tongueeater, or is there something you can recommend to keep him the terrifying opponent he once was?


PulpCruciFiction wrote:
As several people on the boards have brought up, Drakthar and Tongueeater have the same weakness. Because of this, smart parties should be prepared for Tongueeater when they come up against him after fighting Drakthar, making what was once a feared encounter much easier. Was the intent to take some of the sting out of Tongueeater, or is there something you can recommend to keep him the terrifying opponent he once was?

Our groups cleric worshipped an elven nature god of some type (I forget which one), and therefore did not have many ranks in Knowledge: Undead. We flubbed our rolls, and out characters did not even know Drakthar was undead. We went in with no silver weapons, and no other preparations. The fight was a total slaughter, and the DM was making hugely obvious fudges to avoid having a TPK and ending the campaign right there.

We had no silver after Drakthar, and when you head out to the Lucky Monkey, you don't know that there will be a Were Baboon present, so no silver weapons. The fight was very similar to Drakthar, especially with all the henchmen we had to deal with while fighting Tongueeater.

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Eric Campion wrote:

Our groups cleric worshipped an elven nature god of some type (I forget which one), and therefore did not have many ranks in Knowledge: Undead. We flubbed our rolls, and out characters did not even know Drakthar was undead. We went in with no silver weapons, and no other preparations. The fight was a total slaughter, and the DM was making hugely obvious fudges to avoid having a TPK and ending the campaign right there.

We had no silver after Drakthar, and when you head out to the Lucky Monkey, you don't know that there will be a Were Baboon present, so no silver weapons. The fight was very similar to Drakthar, especially with all the henchmen we had to deal with while fighting Tongueeater.

That's an interesting way to get around the problem, but one that I wouldn't want to have to rely on. For one thing, with situations like this, I like to allow players to come up with the solutions on their own - meaning that unless the character has really low Intelligence, I'd let them determine Drakthar was undead based on the graffiti if they could figure it out. I'd be more likely to force a roll to have them figure out that silver can be used on undead, since that seems like something players might know from experience where characters wouldn't. Even there, though, I'd let the characters get that information by asking around.

Would it be effective to have a rest period after Drakthar's Way, and then ask the players specifically what they're bringing to the Lucky Monkey? I would think it unlikely that you'd make it a habit of carrying silver weaponry around all the time on the off-chance that a were-baboon attack occurs, and as far as they know, all they're up against at the Monkey is a group of bandits. To avoid telegraphing that this is particularly important, you'd have to ask them about all of their equipment and enforce limitations before this adventure, though.

Lone Shark Games

Eh... most characters I make have a silver weapon by 2nd level, and often at 1st.

Even if it's just a few silver arrows or a single silver dagger.


This thread took place a LONG time ago but I just found it and since I'm going through that same section, I thought I'd share my solution.

Given the proximity to the Demonscar and the resemblance of Tongueater to Demogorgon (baboon-headed biped), I just made Tongueater into a demon-tainted creature instead of a were-creature, changing his DR to cold iron instead of silver.

It's really just a flavor change to maintain an appropriate level of challenge. I added a scaly tail to add to the Demogorgony flavor and kept his stats the same.

Hope that helps others.

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