I'm about to start running the "Racing the Snake" adventure from Dungeon #105 and I have found a possible problem in the adventure. I know that John Simcoe (the author of the adventure) posts on the boards occasionally so he may be able to answer my question. Someone else from Dungeon or the boards may also be able to help me out.
My problem is with the Yuan-Ti assassin Maliss and his use of a Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds. In states in the adventure that Maliss uses the Wand of CMW to heal himself or any of the Kobolds in his party after each fight. However Maliss doesn't have any levels in Cleric (he is a Rogue) or any skill points in the Use Magic Device skill. So how exactly does he use the Wand then?
I checked the Yuan-Ti entry in the MM and it doesn't say anything about them being able to use Wands without having the required class or without a UMD skill check. Am I missing something or is this a mistake in the adventure? I know that I can just rearrange his skill points if necessary but it will mean that a lot of skills aren't up to the level originally intended.
I need an answer quickly as I'm about to start the adventure this Wednesday.
Thanks,
Olaf the Stout
I'm not John Simcoe, but the easiest fix I can come up with is to just bump the yaun-ti's base Intelligence score by a point or two giving him some extra skill points to use on Use Magic Device. It's not like the PCs are going to be able to tell the diffence, regardless as a GM you are perfectly within your rights to alter the adventure to suit the group's style of play and to enhance everyone's communal enjoyment of the game.
Another possible fix would be to eliminate the offending wand and rely instead on potions.
GGG
I'm about to start running the "Racing the Snake" adventure from Dungeon #105 and I have found a possible problem in the adventure. I know that John Simcoe (the author of the adventure) posts on the boards occasionally so he may be able to answer my question. Someone else from Dungeon or the boards may also be able to help me out.
My problem is with the Yuan-Ti assassin Maliss and his use of a Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds. In states in the adventure that Maliss uses the Wand of CMW to heal himself or any of the Kobolds in his party after each fight. However Maliss doesn't have any levels in Cleric (he is a Rogue) or any skill points in the Use Magic Device skill. So how exactly does he use the Wand then?
I checked the Yuan-Ti entry in the MM and it doesn't say anything about them being able to use Wands without having the required class or without a UMD skill check. Am I missing something or is this a mistake in the adventure? I know that I can just rearrange his skill points if necessary but it will mean that a lot of skills aren't up to the level originally intended.
I need an answer quickly as I'm about to start the adventure this Wednesday.
Thanks,
Olaf the Stout
If a yuan-ti uses a class ability he doesn't have in the woods and no one is around to see it, does it make a sound?
At first blush, it seems like an oversight- the important thing is that all remaining members of his party are cured between fights in order to preserve the adventure's balance. How you choose to have this accomplished is irrelevant, since the players aren't there to witness it.
ahh Racing the snake,
One of my favourite adventures, but I have not had the chance to run it yet for my group.
I agree with the two guys above comments.Its such a cool premise for an adventure why let tiny details get in the way.
When you run it let me know how it played, was it succeessful?did the players like it?
I am dying to know
Thanks for all the replies guys. My mistake, he's a ranger, not a rogue as I incorrectly stated in my first post. I know that I could have just glossed over the details if I wanted but I thought it was too big a mistake for the Dungeon staff to have missed.
James, thanks for pointing out that Rangers have CMW on their spell list so he can use the wand. Had I realised Maliss was a ranger and not a rogue I still think I would have posted the question since I didn't realise that Rangers can cast CMW.
Olaf the Stout
Creative Director
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No worries! Wand-using rangers are one of the hidden secrets of D&D these days. A friend of mine played a ranger for about a dozen levels before he suddenly realized he can use wands, and immediately went out and spent thousands of gold pieces on wands. It was actually pretty funny.
Geez, I go on vacation and everything blows up!
But yeah, it's the "ranger" solution as described above.
Let me know how your game turns out. My guess ... Kobolds get killed really quickly!
My players PC's are 6th and 7th level and have Action Points and Weapons of Legacy (but with none of the drawbacks). As such they are probably a level stronger than your regular D&D PC of their level.
To compensate I'm increasing Maliss and all the Kobolds by 1-2 levels. This should make them live a little bit longer. I'm also going to try and make use of range and keep the guys with swords as far away from them as possible. Unfortunately, the group has a Sorcerer with Fireball as a known spell. This will probably result in toasted Kobold. Anyone have any advice as to how I can stop this from happening?
I already plan on spreading them apart so that not all of them get caught in the blast. I also will have Trend stress the importance of not killing off Maliss until after 3 days otherwise his daughter will be in trouble. I can see the rain of fireball death causing a lot of pain though.
Olaf the Stout
We had the first session of this advnenture on Wednesday. I advanced all the kobolds and Maliss by 2 levels to compensate for the fact that there were 5 PC's of higher level than recommended for the adventure (3 7th level and 2 6th level).
The players' weren't too convinced with Trend's plan and managed to convince him to give them an enclosed carriage to "hide" his daughter in.
They got to the elevator without any trouble. 3 PC's were down fixing up the elevator when the polymorphed Kobold/Brass Dragon attacked. He fought one of the Sorcerers who was sitting on top of "Felicia's" carriage. They fought for a few rounds with another PC who was "guarding" Felicia providing some assistance. Eventually the dragon/kobold was wounded enough for him to flee.
The party spent a while trying to decide what to do with the elevator, allowing Maliss and the rest of the kobolds to catch up. They launched a barrage of arrows/bolts on the Sorcerer (who was still on top of the carriage and was the only visible target). Most of the shots missed but a few made it through. Luckily the damage was absorbed by his Robe of Healing (robe casts CLW every time the wearer is hit). As it was in the middle of the night, the PC's couldn't see exactly where the attacks were coming from. It took them several rounds, but eventually they were able to spot them thanks to some light spells cast on arrows fired into the darkness.
The 2 Sorcerer PC's dropped a couple of Fireballs on Maliss and the Kobolds, dropping 2 of the Kobolds into unconsciousness. Maliss decided that he'd seen enough at this point and decided to retreat into the safety of the darkness. 2 of the other Kobolds revived the downed Kobolds with healing potions. Eventually all the Kobolds managed to escape into the night.
Overall it has gone ok so far. A couple of the Kobolds would have died from the Fireballs if it wasn't for successful saving throws. Maliss has seen enough now to know what some of the PC's tactics are so that he can better plan his attacks.
The carriage has thrown a twist into the adventure since "Felicia" (in reality no-one) has been kept out of sight so far. Next session I plan for one of the Kobolds to sneak up to the carriage under invisibility to attack Felicia. I'm not quite sure what to do if he makes it and find that she isn't in the carriage. Personally I think that might be enough for them to realise that they have been duped. What does anyone else think?
I also had a little bit of trouble with understanding the elevator. For something that is supposedly used by merchants on a regular basis, the fact that the elevator can only take 1000 pounds of weight seems a little strange. That is probably not enough for even 2 horses, let alone a fully loaded wagon.
The players also thought that the scar just seemed like one giant ambush opportunity after another. From their perspective I really can't blame them. The players went along with it just for my benefit I think.
How the rest of the adventure goes we will see.
Olaf the Stout