Last night, after two long months of real game time, we were going to play the last game session of SWW, hoping we could getting into HTBM...I like the Isle of Dread, its dinosaurs and its old-pulp-adventures flavour! I prepared carefully the Second Storm encounter so it seemed the shipwreck were an event as spontaneous as possible (I like -and my players too- they feel the least railroaded possible). The session began with the expedition leaving Renkrue; the Pearl Current and the First Storm were not a problem and although the Sargasso involved the death of several members of the tripulation, they came straight to the problem and finished Mother of All quickly. At the end of this encounter, the wizard of the party (a little b****rd gnome called "Oper") went up 8th level, and he gained two more spells to his spellbook. The player who runs the character never before had play with an arcane spellcasting class, he always used to play with more melee combat focused classes (as barbarian), and all in my group were gratefully surprised with his decision. The player was so exited about the new possibilities of play (what he always had denostate previously in other campaings) that even bought the Spell Compendium to make extense use of it...I use to allow official contents with no problems, but I told him he ask me every time he choose a new spell from this source for my approval. With the firts spells he chose I read them carefully, but lately I admit I became a bit careless. When he chose the spell "Raise from the Deep" (SC pg. 165-166) in the 5 day travel interval from Journey´s End to the Second Storm, he told me...but I, thinking about other issues like how many PC´s will swallow whole the T-Rex in the Hungry Welcome, just said: Ok, ok, new spell, good, get the spell you like!! Next chapter: Ship trapped in the Masher Reef and battle with the Masher: While the fighter, the wizard and the cleric killed the Masher, the rogue (as brave as usual) with members of the crew went down to the hold to check the amount of damage the ship sustained...they figured the ship is badly damaged and, once the masher is finished, they told to the captain and the PCs...Guess what spell casts the wizard on the Sea Wyvern...8 hours of magical buoyancy and the storm weakening! 3 4th level spells/day ((th level wizard with Int 18)...They can go to Farshore freely!!...No T-Rex welcome! No LOST-like adventure!!...Help to this poor DM in trouble please!!!
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Oh... wow. I think this is one of those scenarios where you just applaud him on his ingenuity.
Really, though, you should've known better; you KNEW it was coming up.
What you could do is have Lavinia have the adventurers check out some rumor which would have them do at least the later half of the next adventure. Maybe some people have been going missing...?
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This isn't really a problem specific to the Spell Compendium; anyone with the foresight/luck to somehow buy/get ahold of a horn of the tritons can wreak havoc on big plot points in "Sea Wyvern's Wake" also. My advice in these situations is to just take the bullet, really, and let the group sail on to Farshore. Forcing the ship to land reeks of railroading, even if the PCs are missing out on an adventure.
Of course, that also means they reach Farshore 2 levels too low to start "Tides of Dread," in all actuality. If your PCs are already pretty tough (and allowing spells from the Compendium DOES toughen them up), you might want to consider still running the initial Rat's End pirate attack when they arrive anyway, and then starting up Tides of Dread as scheduled right away. Then, you can take elements from "Here there be Monsters" that they skipped and go back and do them. Lavinia might mention that she's discovered in her mother's notes rumors of Dark Mountain Pass or Fogmire, and that there might be some sort of magic item or something hidden at either location that can help deal with the coming pirate attack. Perhaps something as simple as a cache of anti-ship spell scrolls that the PCs can hand out to Farshore's spellcasters to use while they themselves do the big stuff?
That wizard's gonna have to sleep at some point. I'm guessing that this idea might work to circumvent the ship from being totaled in the storm, and otherwise land them specifically where they ordinarily would land. However, at some point, they're going to need to try to repair their ship.
Perhaps, Amella Venkalie (or whatever captain you may be using) repairs the hull. Fine. But, another terrible hurricane comes up, and brings more damage to bear upon the party, eventually when the wizard is deprived his resources.
Honestly, this strategy is really heavy-handed, and does hose the wizard's player. Given the PCs sound like they're a level or two ahead, you may want to opt for the compromise of allowing the effectiveness of the spell to bring the ship further down the coast, perhaps to the close vicinity of Fogmire in HTBM. This would give them a chance to explore Fogmire, and all it has to offer, also curbing their level to an appropriate one at the start of ToD.
Altogether, good luck! I've gotten myself into this mess many a time myself.
The spell lasts eight hours (from what you're saying - I haven't got the book in front of me).
A wizard requires eight hours of sleep and one hour of study to prepare their spells. Total, nine hours.
Even if the wizard casts it as his very last action before going to sleep, there's still an hour each day when the ship won't be protected by the spell. And if the ship is damaged enough, then that hour would be quite enough to allow it to sink. When you look at it this way, Raise from the Deep seems like a better temporary option to allow the PCs to safely beach the ship somewhere or other for repairs (where you can work t-rexes, Olangru etc into the PCs quest for suitable timber), rather than to keep it going indefinitely.
Of course, the wizard can solve this problem quite quickly by scribing a couple of scrolls, so you'll just have to hope the idea doesn't occur to him!
...The Dragon turtle from a later adventure appears under the ship and decides he's hungry for a little wooden snack... CRUNCH! No more ship, PC's floating in the water....
I flipped through "Tides of Dread" adventure and really I think my party can withstand it. Two of them are already in 8th level, and the format of the adventure allows very flexibility, so I could insert some of the encounters of HTBM while they explore the island looking for Victory Points.
Thank you for your advices!
I don't think there is any issue with them getting to Farshore and then incorporating the elements of HTBM into the tasks they need to do before the Crimson Fleet shows up. Maybe to win the Phanaton(sp?) cheif over they need to recover one of their members from Fogmire. Or maybe one of the Olman tribes want them to cover the bones of one of their warriors who went to the dark mountain pass and never returned before they help defend Farshore. You could even have a T-rex as one of the first random encounters before they even get to the tar pits. It can all be worked in there if needed.
Personally I'd figure out a way to make it another adventure altogether and twig the map. The missing persons adventure is good too.
I'm REALLY glad you posted this because I was just wondering "Hey, what if they do something clever and the ship doesn't sink?" I love this adventure path very much but there are times when the events in it smack a little of railroading. I guess the trick is to read it and then step back and say "what might my pcs REALLY do?"
Obviously there is a certain lack of seamanship around here....*wicked grin*
Sorry if I may sound a bit patronizing ( I have been sailing, coastal and high seas, for 30+ years, with all necessary navigational and capitaining patents, so I feel competent enough to talk on this ) , but let me unravel the "situation" quickly
First, looking over the spell in the SC, I see nothing, no provision or even interpretation, that keeps the ship intact or unharmed- it simply raises a wreck from the bottom of the sea and keeps it afloat, magically. That is something very very different from keeping it intact and functional !
Basically, the "Sea Wyvern" could be smashed to pieces all around them but magically stay afloat - that does not mean that the crew, passengers or cargo of the vessel share the same fate. Washed overboard anyone by monstrous waves the helplesssly wallowing vessel gets rolled over by ? We are talking metric tons of water washing over the decks at several miles an hour....
Masts struck by lightning and splinterd to pieces, or being rend apart from sheer wind forces and strain - making sailing hard to nigh impossible, because there are no sails or masts left to provide propulsion ? The rudder (mounted on three pintels bolted to the stern, about 3" of hard wood....) shearing or being ripped off, making steering unavailable from being dragged over a reef or struck by a freak wave ? Cargo floating up inside or shifting under repeated pummeling , sloshing back and forth in the water-filled hold and smashing everything (and anyone stupid enough to enter the whirling debris ) to pieces ? The ship listing because all the cargo has slid to one side, angling the (wet and slippery) decks awkwardly, making work and movement on deck an almost certain way to slide into the churning sea ?
The vessel will certainly stay on the surface (battered and wrecked) while the magic lasts but sailing it will simply be impossible.
In a realistic/historic setting or context, a caravel of the given size would be lucky indeed to even reach a coast without broaching - slipping sideways to the waves, then being roll over by them, basically going into a process akin to be being tumbled in a laundry machine....and being smashed wholesale.
It is just too small and fragile, inadequately structured and build in a fashion too primitive to survive such a storm, in the open sea, on a lee-shore and having - of all things - just been rammed onto a reef in heavy swell ! Even less operate in it in any controlled fashion - the crew aboard it would be praying to whatever powers they hold dear and cling on for sheer survival as the physical forces that they would have to employ to shift sails or work the steering in such conditions are quite beyond them, magically enhanced or not.
It's a miracle and grace (well a GM's fiat ) that it is even deemed to be structurally intact after that - wooden ships have been smashed to flotsam within minutes under such conditions.
In essence, while the ship floats, it does not mean it can be sailed safely or in any controlled fashion, or be kept in a seaworthy condition. After the storm, the Sea Wyvern should be little more than a drifting patch of wreckage or perhaps an odd, smashed-in raft, unable of doing much but floating.
Now, if the wind blows from the north-east (and given were the foundering ship ends up normally, it appearantly does) , the "Sea Wyvern" will be drifting towards the shore of the Isle of Dread from Masher Reef, inevitably foundering (not sinking) in the shallows, with breakers running all over it, tossing it back and forth.
It would be a small miracle if the characters can even stay aboard through these torrents of water, let alone keep the ship in any workable condition.
As an aside, I would recommend putting up a "turpentine test" for said player. He is either very very lucky, or he has precognitive powers..... or, he has taken a glance at those STAP-issues with SWW and HtbM in them. Especially if he has one, if not several of his precious 4th level spell slots set filled with one of these, on a sheer "hunch"....
I smell a rat.... YMMV
Sorry, the spell does not help much at all - the STAP assumes the Sea Wyvern will float long enough to make it to the shoals off the Isle of Dread in any case. This spell provides the same certainty (while it lasts), but nothing more.
It´s true that the spell only assures the buoyancy of an object (a vessel) or a person, not the ability of movement of it. But, in my case, the spell was casted on the ship when it still was trapped in the reef and it only had damaged the hull. The rest of the ship (and its crew) was, more o less, in good condition in spite of the storm, because the captain was successful in all the previous four Profession (sailor) checks necessary to avoid washing or rolling. Besides, the storm beyond the masher reef encounter abates somewhat, and doesn´t seems me suitable nor honest prolong the storm only to try to smash the ship to pieces only capable to floating...
It´s true that the spell only assures the buoyancy of an object (a vessel) or a person, not the ability of movement of it. But, in my case, the spell was casted on the ship when it still was trapped in the reef and it only had damaged the hull. The rest of the ship (and its crew) was, more o less, in good condition in spite of the storm, because the captain was successful in all the previous four Profession (sailor) checks necessary to avoid washing or rolling. Besides, the storm beyond the masher reef encounter abates somewhat, and doesn´t seems me suitable nor honest prolong the storm only to try to smash the ship to pieces only capable to floating...
OK, first of, If James Jacobs at this points calls a "whiff of railroading" that is to be respected, although I subscribe to the point of view, that a little railroading is conductive, and necessary, for a good yarn to be adventured through.
But my comments are only aimed at the realism in this situation - and the alleged effects of the spell you mentioned your players ingenously employing.
Its of course your choice, but you are ignoring reality (eg. relying on massive "suspension of disbelief") and, if I interpret you OP correctly feeling slighted that they are not going to play through HtbM. Which sounds.... odd, like applauding their cleverness and "foresight", yet regretting it.
That the "Sea Wvyern" survived an alomst hurricane force ( Beaufort 11, that is 60 to 70 mph wind speed, which will relocate most wooden houses fairly efficiently to downwind....) tropical storm intact, including getting smacked onto a reef with each and every wave ( at least a drop of at least 20' in storm or stronger wind swell - every half a minute or more frequently..... I shudder at the damage to the caravel's keel and planks, suffering from being dropped like that, repeatedly ), sharp edged rocks to boot and survive unscathed.... ? Not even a rudder mounting broken, a seam sprung, a mast or spar toppled because of an inadequate angle or inertia.... ?
Your call
Btw, the captain would have to make superlative skill rolls (for difficulties appropriate to "impossible/extremly improbable" ... app DCs around 30-40, not the ludicrous DC 15 checks....; to get this ship through a storm like that without _any_ damage - and that would be with optimum performance and conditions (like enough searoom to run before the storm - unlikely because that would run them smack into the Isle of Dread's shoreline, an almost unladden ship - full of colonists, foodstuff, equipment and likely some water from the storm above, highly competent and numerous crew - inexhaustible to boots, its a tiring business.... ) which doesn't really sound like a probable set of abilities for the STAP at level 6-8.
BTW, if the "Sea Wyvern" would actually sail into a situation of a so called "wash", she would stop so abruptly that her masts had a very very good chance of toppling forward, breaking, causing chaos and calamity for anyone on deck and with a few seconds, the following wave would rear up from behind, either smashing to splinters the aft structure and cabins, flooding the ship in the process, or ramming the ship forward underwater, or rolling her over sideways.
Ah, the storm abates inasmuch as that the "Sea Wyvern" is in no danger of immediate sinking. That is still anything up to say winds Beaufort eight (40+ mph winds) , perhaps nine (50+ mph) in gusts. She is on a reef-riddled leeward shore (that would be a downwind one, right in the way of natural drift).
To add some more reasons....caravels (like any ship of their period) are rather miserable at tacking to windward, away from the Isle of Dread's looming shores, so they have enough room to round the cape at the end of the headland south of Masher Reef,
This means the caravel will make good at the best of time perhaps one or two miles of windward distance per hour, and that does not even take into account simultaneous drift downwind, even less so in the heavy waves of a storm and in the days after it - waves don't disappear when the wind slacks off. So she will still be relentless driven downwind into a bay, full of reefs.....
again, your call to ignore this for the sake.
Just let me add : "you are the GM, if the storm abates, it abates because you called it of".
And if someone hadn't noticed "Stormwrack"s rules are about as realistic, feasible and "harsh" as..... an episode of "Meet the Feebles " ?
Oh, btw, basically the wizard cast the spell after the normal fight on Masher's Reef which happened according to STAP-script ?
Well.......... then now the "Sea Wyvern" is as broken and smashed as originally presumed in the adventure. Bottom holed, planks stove in, drawing water like a sieve.
While it cannot immediately sink, it will be destabilized by tons (dozens of them, every cubic metere is a full ton, and the hold of the caravel is quite big, say like fourty to fifty added tons aboard ?) of sloshing waters, drifting cargo etc. These are now part of the ship's mass and weigh her down, reducing her speed and sialing abilities, making her sluggish and slow to turn.
If the centre of gravity shifts in any way (which it invariably will with several tons added to the ship), sailing ability will suffer further. The wind and tidal drift (accroding to the adventure script) move towards the Isle's shore. No mitigating factors.
Shipwreck will ensue, magic floating or not.
Oh, and the situation was supposed to be a little railroading in nature from the outset.
o.o
I'm gonna try to remember all that for when we get to this point in the game.
P.S. I too like a bit o' rail - Panzer Dragoon was one of my fav games of all time!
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It seems to me from a number of other threads that the way that SWW ends with the ship crashing on the Isle is a reoccuring problem. It almost seems like most DM's are excited to finally get the players to the Isle only to have crafty players ruin the next adventure.What I think I might do in this particular case is have the Bar-lgura's or gargoyles abduct some npc's or pc's, so that at least the players could gain a little xp on the way to Farshore.
I've posted on this topic before in an earlier thread, and in a vein somewhat similar to Uzagi's. (Hello, fellow salt! A trusty shellback, no doubt?)
The bottom line is that Procan's wrath is beyond the capabilities of mortal magic to oppose. A hurricane is about as close as you can get to the proverbial deus ex machina in real life. Even the huge, modern, steam-powered steel ships we build today can go to the bottom if they get caught in a really strong storm. (Think of the Edmund Fitzgerald). The trick is to make the players think that their great spell (whatever it was) saved the day--allowing the ship to run up on the beach instead of sinking with all hands. The key is in how you spin it.
However, it sounds like the OP already committed to a certain interpretation, so he's stuck bypassing most of the Tides of Dread. This I understand, too--sometimes we just get in our heads that a certain thing is going to happen and are so shocked when the players foil our evil DM designs with cleverness (or persistence) that we just don't know how to avoid letting the players have their way without making the railroad tracks obvious. That's OK too--it just happened to me in another adventure last week and it was easy to post-mortem what went wrong but too late to fix it once I realized my error.
For the OP--you might want to try dredging up the earlier thread--I and several other posters put up suggestions for incorporating sections of ToD into the next module.
Just let me add, the players are not actually loosing anything (like their ship) through being run/railroaded to the coast - the "Sea Wyvern" will get repaired in ToD, the players by avoiding HtbM avoid seeing the Isle of Dread by immediate immersion instead of by careful exploration from a safe base camp, they will miss out on their first hint of Demogorgon being involved and lack a bunch of XP, they will be missing in ToD, making life that much harder there....
.... but this is just the metagamer speaking.
Personally, we had a great time with the "Predator meets Blair Witch"-style HtbM, and I think noone felt railroaded when the ship ran aground. The Riverspriritfolk and the Aquatic Elf in particularreally enjoyed playing rescue swimmer, strutting their and bringing ashore as many NPCs as they could.
Noone expected the "Sea Wyvern" to last (and certainly not to play a major part in the rest of the camapaign ) - but we immediately had a feeling of "Lost" and "Robinson Crusoe", as well as a strong dosage of "King Kong". And nothing IMHO beats full-immersion-mode
I think as part of ToD you could work in much of HTBM. It will take the advenuture in a little bit different direction but workable.
Just don't let them fight some of the tougher monsters until they get to ninth or it could be ugly.
BTW suggestion on the final battle for Farshore, beef up Vanthus or give him some help. Even with 2 Vrocks fighting by his side my players were able to carve him up pretty easily. Of course it helps when you have the Uber Cleric and Stalwart Pact, man that is a powerful spell in combat. That DR/5 Magic is powerful against monsters and Vanthus is really pretty much a puss.
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I would suggest you consider dropping HTBM entirely. There are only four things PCs need to learn of or take away from Here There Be Monsters. In my estimate of increasing importance, they are:
1)Temute is much safer than the mainland, because the isle proper has a variety of dangerous beasts.
2)Demogorgon has a major presence on the island
3)level-appropriate treasure
4)XP
With that in mind, I'd suggest expand the troglodyte mission from Tides of Dread. If you have time and inclination, you could power down and possibly shorten the module "Lost Temple of Demogorgon," from issue #120, and use it for the trogs, as they are the villains of the module. My memory of "The Forsaken Arch," from the same issue, is hazier, but I think the plot for it could also be used by substituting gargoyles for kenku, and any Olman village for Shoalbury. Of the two, I'd favor the lost temple approach, since it should accomplish goals 2-4 above.
Tonight we played again (thanks to vacation time!) and, decided not to put the things so easy to my players, the Captain Amella, in spite of the spell, demanded the PCs to reach land to make some repairs. To convince the PCs, I took advantage of the circumstance that the wizard was a gnome and Amella didn´t trust in his magic. Of course they arrive to the little beach they would be shipwrecked. To make repairs using the rules presented in the adventure, I decided that 1d6 sections of the hull had been destroyed by the crash with the reef, and 6 was the result, so, if the captain wanted the hull fully repaired it was going to take some days to finish the job, since Amella and other survivor colonist were the only ones that have any ranks in Profession (carpentry) skill, and to repair a section in one day they needed a DC 20 check. Now, with the PCs on land, I could introduce some encounters and make use of the wonderful wandering monsters charts for the Isle (I love them!) presented in ToD. Of course I welcomed the PCs with the hungry T-Rex, and this night they suffered the attack of the terror birds. For the rest of the days, I made 4 checks every day they try to repair the ship: It took 7 days to repair the sections, and in this time "visited" their beach camp a pack of megaraptors, one giant tarantura, an stampede of parasaurolophuses and a group of Olman hunters that provided the PCs with some interesting information about the isle.
When they leaved the beach they earned some XPs and realized more or less how dangerous and feral could be the Island and its inhabitants. The trip to Farshore from the crash site was about 260 miles or 7 days. I use the Aquatic Encounter Chart, but they was lucky and no aleatory encounter happened, but, when they coasted the peninsula where the Gargoyle Aerie was, I introduced the Gargoyles to the PCs making an flying attack with Quotoctoa and 3 pals. At least they arrived to Farshore 14 days after the storm...more or less the time it would took if they would make the trip on foot, and with some extra XPs, not enough of course, but I hope I could balance it expanding some encounters in their quest for Victory Points at Tides of Dread. In that issue I thank your advices about how can I insert the "lost contain" in HTBM in ToD.
Thanks!
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*Resurrect thread*
Just got an email from one of my players with the list of spells he wants for the next level, and Raise from the Deep is on it :)
I immediately headed here to search for that particular spell and I have to say, "Thanks for all the great suggestions in this thread!"
If anyone has more tips or experiences to share, bring it on! This board really does rule!
*Resurrect thread*
Just got an email from one of my players with the list of spells he wants for the next level, and Raise from the Deep is on it :)
I immediately headed here to search for that particular spell and I have to say, "Thanks for all the great suggestions in this thread!"
If anyone has more tips or experiences to share, bring it on! This board really does rule!
My last comment there gives links to three others that you really should read, long though they might be. Consider strongly the idea of having the Nixie run aground rather than the Wyvern.
Most of the maritime/naval considerations have already been pointed out.... but some few additions remain.
A) the ship floats above the water's surface.... so what exactly is keeping it from drifting downwind like a heavily loaded balloon ? after all, what is there to resist said drift - for a normal ship it is the keel and underwater hull providing resistance versus downwind drift, but these are useless outside the water (they would be equally useless if there was a strong current )
As long as you point out that the coast is downwind ( to leeward ) from the outset, especially before ever hitting the reef, you are pretty safe in your ruling of them eventually ending up on the beaches...
B) The ship's hull will be pierced and open to the sea , probably over a larger area - have seas wash and dash against the floating hull, sloshing through the cargo hold and dragging valuable cargo, equipment and even crew outside and into the swirling sea.
In fact, since the ship is no longer floating, hence rising and moving with the swell, have steep seas crash squarely into the stern or side, causing havoc and chaos..... envision a jetty or breakwater in a heavy storm.... shuddering under the impact of hammering waves. and consider that such structures are build massively and from stone or concrete... the Sea Wyvern is made of sodden timber, possibly aged and weakened over the course of years.
C) As for the floating ship.... how will they actually sail it ? In a storm of almost typhoon strength, hauling up almost any amount of canvas (needed for a controlled propulsion impulse from the diverted wind ) will be shredded within a few seconds. As long as the gale prevails, the "Sea Wyvern" will only be able to drift downwind - which with her being out of the sea after the use of the problematic spell will be much faster and toward the looming shore.
Overall, there are situations ingame, where even heroic characters, with all the magic at their beck and call, will be entirely helpless and be forced to bow to the greater forces of the universe. This is one of them.
And, yet, if the Nixie is beached, there is never a need to consider the implications of this spell as it never needs to be used. The idea being, the Wyverne continues on to Farshore (with any survivers and cargo found from the Nixie) while the heroes set off on foot in search of Lavinia (see links in my post above).
Rise from the Deep is a good recovery spell, but its pretty useless as a means of transport: It floats, that's about it. Which two ships (one working the other not), the damaged one can be salvaged; otherwise, its really a no go.
That being said, if the players bypass it, they bypass it. Plenty of good suggestions on how to draw back the important points into the next module have already been mentioned.
Or maybe flip-flop it. Have the PCs reach Farshore no problem, but then they get a messenger pigeon from the Nixie explaining that it shipwrecked, and the crew started inland (as Khartan alluded to above). By the time they get the note, Lavinia and the Ravens can be halfway to farshore. Have the PCs do the second half in reverse, and meet them to escort them back.
There are other spells from Spell Compendium that pretty much invalidates certain encounters on IoD. After reading Larissa's journal the sorcerer in my party looked through SC and then decided to take Ray of Stupidity. I didn't think much about it until the T-Rex encounter when he wipped out the spell and the T-Rex went down immediately (1d4+1 Intelligence damage on an Int 2 creature). After that I concluded that all animal encounters where totally pointless.
There are other spells from Spell Compendium that pretty much invalidates certain encounters on IoD. After reading Larissa's journal the sorcerer in my party looked through SC and then decided to take Ray of Stupidity. I didn't think much about it until the T-Rex encounter when he wipped out the spell and the T-Rex went down immediately (1d4+1 Intelligence damage on an Int 2 creature). After that I concluded that all animal encounters where totally pointless.
Ray of Stupidity, like Raise from the Deep, is another spell that's been talked about on the STAP boards for a while. I think the general consensus was that it should not be able to reduce a creature's Intelligence to below 1 -- making it nigh-useless against animals, and more effective against humanoids and spellcasters. YMMV.
Ray of Stupidity, like Raise from the Deep, is another spell that's been talked about on the STAP boards for a while. I think the general consensus was that it should not be able to reduce a creature's Intelligence to below 1 -- making it nigh-useless against animals, and more effective against humanoids and spellcasters. YMMV.
I can see why some would interpret it like that, since it is deceptively similar to ray of enfeeblement which specifically says that it can't reduce the ability below 1. There is, however, two crucial differences between the two. First ray of enfeeblement gives a penalty to it's ability score while ray of stupidity causes ability damage. Since ability damage goes under the rules for ability score loss you have to take into consideration that they state that an ability score can be reduced to 0. Second, unlike the spell description for ray of enfeeblement, the spell description for ray of stupidity doesn't state that the ability score can't be reduced below 1. Due to this I would conclude that any other interpretation of ray of stupidity than that it can reduce the target's Intelligence to 0, and thereby cause unconsciousness, is a house rule. It may be correct to house rule this for balance reasons, but it is a house rule none the less.
I agree with this assessment of the spell. However, as the scenario demonstrates, this spell can completely unbalance a combat. Personally, I would never permit it in my campaign setting for that very reason. Well, I say that after having learned from your experience, Fenalik, so don’t take it as arrogance. I might have made the same mistake in your saturation.
Or maybe I would allow it, but come up with some kind of house rule to prevent this sort of thing. Maybe it doesn’t work on something of animal intelligence or lower.
Due to this I would conclude that any other interpretation of ray of stupidity than that it can reduce the target's Intelligence to 0, and thereby cause unconsciousness, is a house rule. It may be correct to house rule this for balance reasons, but it is a house rule none the less.
Oh, absolutely it was a house rule, and isn't at all the way the spell is worded in the SC. But it did (does?) seem to be one of those spells that needed a house rule for balance, as you say, and its extreme effectiveness in the Isle of Dread portions of STAP led to discussion of the spell's power level, which in turn led to the suggested house rule. S'all I was saying -- you're absolutely right as far as the RAW interpretation of the spell goes.