|
Congratulations, James Sutter(and Wes Schneider)!
I just read your latest adventure and loved it!
I am a fan of adventures which don't concentrate too heavily on combat encounters.
It is remarkable that this 12 page adventure is low level, just contains two "mandatory" combat encounters, and yet manages to captivate just by reading it.
You managed to include in this low level adventure:
- a real moral dilemma for the PCs (as described in Wolfgang's article in the same issue)
- a situtation putting the alignment system and the player's view on alignment to its limits
- quite a challenge without the overused "big evil guy" at the end of the adventure
- lots of room for investigation without providing too much detail while still providing no brainer tips on bringing your fellow players back on track.
- The one new monster fits nicely into its "home area" and offers very nice challenges for any PCs.
The "cream" on top of it was the treasure to be found at the end of the adventure. It just gives enough hints to make everyone wonder what's coming next...
Please keep on providing this kind of adventures. It is true that GameMastery modules have a strict size limit (32 pages), but maybe a future issue of GMM could contain a combination of side tracks and short adventures like this one?
And I am very keen on getting to know what secret the treasure of this adventure contains. I am sure that the Eastwood is also known by other names in Varisia, isn't it? ;-) And after solving such a challenge, interaction with people in Dramsburg would be most interesting, wouldn't it?
You outdid yourself!
Greetings from Germany,
Günther
p.s.
If you want to include my gushings in "Prison Mail": Just do it, but please ensure first that the text resembles something like english. ;-)
|
|
Yep, I think there have already been not one, but TWO threads dedicated to the awesomeness of The Automatic Hound.
(If I were a link master, I would place a link here.)
Probably the best adventure I've read in the last 10 to 15 issues.
Hhhmm... sorry. I didn't see any other thread about this adventure.
Most people seem to gush for other adventures in that issue.
|
Ok so just to add to this duplicate thread -
If it hasn't been said before, one of the great things about this adventure is that it can be very easily scaled to any party level. All the DM needs to do is replace the hound and final creature with some other ECL-appropriate creatures and the charm of the adventure remains while the difficulty increases. I will *certainly* be running this module before my group retires (they are 9th now).
Definitely agreed. This is one of the adventures that sealed the deal for me as far as running a horror campaign for my players beginning in mid-July.
|
Just be certain that your party has a few cold iron weapons going in to the final battle. When compared to other CR6 creatures, the Spirit of the Wild is a bit overpowered. It completely slaughtered a group of five seasoned adventurers when I ran the adventure.
I am in total agreement, however, on the genuis of the writing. This adventure was quite good.
Hey, thanks folks! This adventure was definitely an experiment, but I'm glad that it's working out well in actual play.
Out of curiosity, kikai13, what part of the Spirit of the Wild do you think led most directly to the slaughter? Was there a specific factor that made it a TPK?
-James
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
|
Hey, thanks folks! This adventure was definitely an experiment, but I'm glad that it's working out well in actual play.
Out of curiosity, kikai13, what part of the Spirit of the Wild do you think led most directly to the slaughter? Was there a specific factor that made it a TPK?
-James
Can't speak for Kikai13, but I think the combo. of the following makes it pretty tough for the player level involved:
*SPOILERS*
Decent hitpoint total (80 hp), DR of 10 is tough for characters of that level, coupled with an immunity to critical hits, gets 3 attacks per round (at a pretty good amount of damage), and the roar ability can(potentially) really knock PCs flat and leave them vulnerable to be torn to shreds.
I think it's a great monster, just depending on party composition, tactics, and how hurt they are when they face it, it has the potential to be a TPK - especially if a 4 person party takes it head on.
|
|
Hey, thanks folks! This adventure was definitely an experiment, but I'm glad that it's working out well in actual play.
Out of curiosity, kikai13, what part of the Spirit of the Wild do you think led most directly to the slaughter? Was there a specific factor that made it a TPK?
-James
Actually this kind of adventure rather felt like "coming home" for me. I used to DM german adventures compatible to different rpg systems (AD&D, The Dark Eye, Midgard) which featured a very similar style.
The adventures are rich in detail, contain less combat encounters (with stats for all supported systems, the latest one even featuring d20 stats), and are less linear (i.e. the plot is quite linear, but it is considerably less obvious which character choice is "good" or "bad"). Encounter descriptions with intelligent npcs are heavily on the narrative part, black and white illustrations, and role playing advice.
One adventure, I vividly remember is about a quest which encompassed travelling across a large see and to an island... The adventure size required two books and about 430 pages. Yes, some kind of ancestor of today's adventure paths... ;-)
Enough rambling for now...
I really hope that GameMastery Modules/ Pathfinder will follow this lead. Monsters stats grow stale, but unique NPCs, complex roleplaying situations for your fellow players, and descriptions which make them hold their breath, stay memorable. :-)
Greetings,
Günther
P.S.
The company name is "Drachenland" (in english: Dragon land) and it is still in business.
I love to see you take a similar approach.
I too thought this was a terrific adventure. I'm highly considering using it as part of my next campaign.
|
|
Eyebite nailed it on the head, above. The party I was running was very good at chipping away at enemies very quickly. They would rarely miss, and would do about 4-8 h.p. worth of damage per attack.
However, with a DR of 10 and only one cold iron dagger in the entire party, 4-8 hp of damage per attack equalled absolutely nothing. Even the grappler had a hard time holding on to the creature, because of the tentacles granting the bonus to grapple. The rogue couldn't get sneak attack, because the creature is immune to crits. The sorcerer in the party is all about blasting away every round with magic missiles, that wonderful spell that never misses and can help to whittle down most opponents: also nullified by the DR. The only person who was able to do 1-2 points of damage per round (she usually does between 8 and 13 points per round) was stunned for four rounds at the beginning of the combat. By the time she got the cold iron dagger from the rogue, two characters were already down. Uh-oh spaghetti-o's.
It was kinda fun, however, because what was once an all-human party is now composed of (thanks to reincarnation) two humans, an elf, a dwarf, and a troglodyte (the grappler.) Nothing like a slaughter to cause a little shake-up.
And I still maintain the brilliance of the adventure.
|
I've been known to be wrong about such things .... but I didn't think DR would apply to damage from a magic missile? Or indeed most other spell damage? Like I said, could be wrong...
I think one of the "problems" in this case, is that often (in lower level adventures at least) the PCs have a chance to find out they will be going up against a monster with DR, and if they are careful and smart, plan for that and procure the appropriate weapons. In this case (IIRC) the Spirit of the Wild comes completely out of left field, there is no possibility that the PCs will be expecting it.
Having said all that, I do think this is a really good adventure, I plan to run it some time in the future... I'll just need to be careful if I have a low damage potential party such as Kikai13's
|
|
I've been known to be wrong about such things .... but I didn't think DR would apply to damage from a magic missile? Or indeed most other spell damage? Like I said, could be wrong...
Just checked the SRD:
A creature with this special quality ignores damage from most weapons and natural attacks. Wounds heal immediately, or the weapon bounces off harmlessly (in either case, the opponent knows the attack was ineffective). The creature takes normal damage from energy attacks (even nonmagical ones), spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities. A certain kind of weapon can sometimes damage the creature normally, as noted below.
|
|
I've been known to be wrong about such things .... but I didn't think DR would apply to damage from a magic missile? Or indeed most other spell damage? Like I said, could be wrong...
Just checked the SRD:
A creature with this special quality ignores damage from most weapons and natural attacks. Wounds heal immediately, or the weapon bounces off harmlessly (in either case, the opponent knows the attack was ineffective). The creature takes normal damage from energy attacks (even nonmagical ones), spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities. A certain kind of weapon can sometimes damage the creature normally, as noted below.
Hmmmm. Yep. There it is, in the DMG, pg. 292. I even skimmed this very passage before running the game, in an (obviously failed) attempt to get it right.
I totally missed that little two-line paragraph near the top of the page. Might have changed things a bit. Running games using five different sets of rules over the years has made things a bit jumbled in my mind.I even have two other DMs in my group, and both of them also believed the Magic Missiles to be useless.
Live and learn: now I know for future encounters.
|
|
No problem--it wouldn't have changed TOO much in the encounter. Even with a couple of Magic Missiles chipping away at it every round, it would have taken about 15 rounds to kill the thing with just Magic Missiles.
I guess it was just wearing a Brooch of Shielding.
They just might like to play their new PCs... ;-)
... and the adventure is worth being played anyway.The final encounter is just the icing. :-)
Greetings,
Günther
The readers agree... Automatic Hound is a home run!
More Love for the Automatic Hound Here:
http://paizo.com/dungeon/messageboards/generalDiscussion/loveForTheAutomati cHoundSpoilers
...and this thread opens with some AH lovin', too...
http://paizo.com/dungeon/messageboards/generalDiscussion/dungeon148Cookie
Bravo, this adventure is brilliant!
SPOILERS AHEAD - IF YOU ARE A PLAYER STOP READING NOW
I'm planning to run this adventure for a party of three or four 1st level PCs as a one-shot scenario. I will be replacing the runehound with a hellhound variant which spews acid instead of fire and tune down the glass golem (a lot). Probably have to leave out the spirit of the nature at the end too, and maybe add some low-level critters in the forest to make the trip to the worship site challenging. Any ideas how to change the climax encounter so that it would be appropriate for 1st level PCs? What do you think, would it be too anti-climatic to end without a combat encounter?
I hope to see this kind of quality writing and adventure design in Pathfinder!
I had an idea for a post Automatic Hound one-shot that could be pretty creepy and fun.
|
oh this is just priceless. you guys are telling me that the spirit of the wild killed us all because of a single rule that all six of us didn't even think about looking up, this just makes my day. i did a ton of damage to the spirit with my seeking rays, at least 15 each time and you took ten out without even looking at the rules and now we have a stinky troglodyte with us that farts on me all the time because of one mix up of one single rule! this is just perfect.