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I was looking ahead at the Blackwall Keep encounter, with the many groups of lizardmen. Despite the high approximate "EL", and promises that "any party attempting to take on all of these will fail", I have my doubts. As most of the lizardmen are standard, with only a few that have class levels, this just doesn't seem that challenging.
My party:
Human Crusader 5
Human Barbarian 5 w/ Wolf Wild Cohort
Halfling Cleric 5
Elf Wizard 5
I imagine the Crusader and the barbarian can easily take down one lizardmen each per round, assuming they hit (not hard, considering the relatively low AC). For the lizardmen to hit them, they only have a +2 (or +1 with javelins), and need a decent roll. Even the mage has 17 armor with Mage Armor up. Both the cleric and crusader are in high ACs (20 each), and the barbarian is at 16 or 17 as well. There are a lot of them, and I understand the percentage they all have to hit, but it doesn't seem like that high to me.
I may be underestimating them though. I did the same with the grimlock archers in Erythnul's temple, which nearly caused a TPK.
For anyone who's run this encounter, how has it gone? Did the PCs blow through the lizardmen, or is there some key factors I'm missing? I've only skimmed it over a couple times, so there may be some detail I've overlooked.
This encounter and Blackwell Keep in general are widely considered to be pretty easy on these boards. If that concerns you you can beef them up. Personally I'd leave well enough alone and watch as your party beats the stuffing out of this adventure. Its pretty much the only 'easy' one in the AP and many of them are just brutally tough. Call it a change of pace.
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I agree with Jeremy. The PC's should be happy to use their new abilities and enjoy having the upper hand for once in the path. You might want to beef up the Bosses a little though. I think there are a few good suggestions for making Shukak a more formidable opponent in some of the old threads if you do a search.
Indeed. Depending on how you describe it, your players might not try a stand-up fight, anyway. I know in my campaign, the battle sounded pretty big to my players, so they came up with a plan to storm the entrance, forcing their way in to the keep, thereby only having to fight about one or two groups, and even then not to the death. I did beef it up a little, but not by much overall (added another standard group or two, plus a blackscale lizardfolk or two).
There are a lot of interesting threads on these boards about this adventure. To name a few:
A few weird things with the Encounter at Blackwall Keep (spoilers?)
How I changed the Blackwall Keep adventure (SPOILERS)
Ilthane appearance in "Encounter at Blackwall Keep"? (Spoilers)
Beef up Encounter at Blackwall Keep
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I just finished EaBK last week, and I too did not like the way this adventure played out as written. I changed the initial raid on blackwall in a couple of ways:
1) I changed the druid's spell selection to include obscuring mist, and changed one of his feats to sudden enlarge. Enlarge is a useful feat for druids (entangle, flame strike, etc...) so it made sense for him to have that and cast a big cloud of mist around the keep. This kept the PC's fighting blind (no ranged attackes in the area of the spell) and allowed the raiders to advance untouched.
2) One of the groups of lizardfolk were replaced by 2 blackscale lizardfolk. These were the living battering rams and bruisers. More of a shock and awe factor than a serious threat. 10' tall crazies with greatclubs are always scary, not matter your level. :)
These two simple changes made the encounter a little tougher without changing the EL, but not so much that the PC's were facing a TPK. Lizardfolk are not a credible threat to 5th level PC's, no matter what the EL math says. The lizards still broke and ran when their champion died, but the PC's were at least a little bloodied from the fight.
I knew the Blackwall Keep side of the module would be cake, so I even included Allustan to make it interesting. He cast fly on himself and stoneskin on the brawler, and swept up into the air, launching fireballs and scorching rays at the lizardfolk.
Marzena and other guards were still carried off, but the retaking of Blackwall Keep overall was a piece of cake.
Things got more interesting in the Lizardmarsh.
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There are a lot of interesting threads on these boards about this adventure. To name a few:
A few weird things with the Encounter at Blackwall Keep (spoilers?)
How I changed the Blackwall Keep adventure (SPOILERS)
Ilthane appearance in "Encounter at Blackwall Keep"? (Spoilers)
Beef up Encounter at Blackwall Keep
These are some great threads! I'm getting a ton of ideas from reading them, thanks for the links. Are there similar resources for all the different modules after Blackwall Keep? I'd love something like these to read before I ran each module, it'd help out immensely.
I have to agree that the siege encounter at the beginning of EaBK was a little too easy. My party consists of the following:
Sir Damien - human paladin 5
Lieutenant Gabriel Moragan - human wizard 5
Eliaon - half-elf cleric 5
Leamshi Greybreeze - elf druid 5
Our warforged rogue dropped out of the campaign just prior to this adventure. I re-statted Allustan as a diviner/item creation specialist, taking away all of his evocation spells, and allowed the PCs to control him for this fight. I also placed a dozen archers on the battlements of Blackwall Keep, and let each of the PCs control three of them during his initiative.
That said, I also adjusted the number of attackers as follows:
27 common lizardfolk
11 poison dusk lizardfolk (MM3)
4 blackscale lizardfolk (MM3)
3 dracotaurs (MM3)
Shesht and his companion (as written)
Kushak (switched to a Dark Talon champion from MM4)
I have taken a very stern "let the dice fall where they may" view for Age of Worms, and didn't hold back at all. The lizardfolk were significantly hindered at one side of the keep, thanks to the druid's entangle spell, but the others attacked in wave after wave of scaly death. Other than the cleric falling to a dracotaur's attacks three rounds into the five-hour combat (he was healed and got to participate after only a few rounds of incapacitation, luckily), and the druid's wolf companion being dropped by the same, there weren't even any near-fatalities.
Allustan was a factor only in that he cast stoneskin on the druid and summoned a few bombardier beetles before dimension dooring to the top of the keep's safety.
Below are a few photos I took during the battle. It was a great time.
My party blew through the siege in like 15 minutes. Group of 5 PC's all level 5 at the time.
One well placed Fireball after the bard threw up an Illusion of human cavalry coming and it was pretty much over. The rest was pretty much a cleanup, especially with the soldiers (8 on the balcony, the other 6 I had bracing the door) in the keep raining arrows on what was in range.
Thanks for the photos, Neck! Looks like you had a nice, large scale battle.
Thanks for checking them out! I wanted the siege to be a little more memorable than it would otherwise be, as EaBK is (in my opinion) one of the weakest adventures in Age of Worms. I felt the huge battlefield would add alot to the session, so I kept the whole thing secret, hid the board in my kitchen until they arrived at the keep, then made the players wait in another room while I set up the siege. They came back out into the living room to what I thought was an awesome surprise.
Is that a purple worm repainted as an overworm in the background?
It is indeed! The players don't know about Overworms just yet, but the Wayne Reynolds cover image from the first AOW installment is on our campaign journal. The mini sits next to my DM screen as our Age of Worms mascot - my girlfriend had named him Chewey.
My party breezed through the lizardfolk lair, taking advantage of the bottlenecks and going so far as to taunt them to come out and fight.
My players are on their way there. I've made some significant changes, such as doubling the map scale for starters.
Plus I've given the harpies a pair of pet carrion crawlers, and upgraded the advanced otyugh into a lifeleech otyugh.
Shukak is going to get a power bump, too. I just haven't decided quite how yet. I thought about making him a warblade, but I'm saving *that* little surprise for The Champion's Belt when they face Mal Zolark/Loris Raknian.
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I too was unimpressed with the challenge presented by the Twisted Branch lair. I also subbed in a Lifeleach and tweaked Shukak a tad. He ended up as a fighter/scout/scaled horror with a belt of one mighty blow, the action surge feat, and poisoned weapons (thanks to his Yuan-ti patrons). Made for a much tougher fight with no increase to CR.
My biggest change was renovating the harpies' lair into a larger, semi-flooded area (complete with concealed tunnel to the swamp outside) that was home to Shukak's 6 headed pyrohydra! It gave my players a nasty shock to be face to face with a front door guard that actaully meant business! They survived...barely. >;)
I can't wait until they really get into HOHR and meet the albino sewer gators I replaced the octopus with! Mwah. Hah. Hah.
One of my players is a crusader I thought it would be interesting to throw a class from Tome of Battle in. I changed Shukak to a warblade. It made him a bit harder and I almost brought the artificer down to zero. It was a good challenging encounter. I also switched up some of Shukak's gear to tailor it more towards my players. Not that while his AC is 23, both of his stances apply a -2 penalty to AC so this makes it even with the Shukak already presented in EaBK.
Shukak CR 8
Male lizardfolk warblade 7
CE Medium humanoid
Init +6; Senses Spot +2, Listen +1
Languages Common, Draconic, Goblin, Orc
AC 23, touch 12, flat-footed 21; improved uncanny dodg
hp 96 (9 HD)
Resist acid 15
Fort +9, Ref +9, Will +3
Spd 30 ft.
Melee +1 shock trident +14/+9 (1d8+9 plus 1d6 electricity
/19–20)
Melee +1 shock trident +14/+9 (1d8+7 plus 1d6 electricity
/19–20) and claw +10 (1d4+2) and bite +10 (1d4+2)
Ranged +1 shock trident +12 (1d8+5 plus 1d6 electricity
/19-20)
Base Atk +8; Grp +12
Atk Options battle ardor (+2 confirm critical hit),
battle cunning (+2 damage flat-footed or flanked
opponents)
Combat Gear potion of cure moderate wounds
Maneuvers Known (IL 7th)
Stances – punishing stance (IH1)†, stance of clarity
(DM1)
Strikes – claw of the moon (TC2), death from above
(TC4)†, exorcism of steel (IH3), emerald razor
(DM2), insightful strike (DM3)†, battle leader
charge (WR2)†, steel wind (IH1)
Counter – moment of perfect mind (DM1)†
Disciplines Known – Diamond Mind, Iron Heart, Tiger
Claw, White Raven; † maneuver readied
Abilities Str 18, Dex 15, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 10
SQ hold breath, weapon aptitude
Feats Multiattack, Improved Initiative, Improved
Critical (trident), Weapon Focus (trident), Weapon
Specialization (trident)
Skills Balance +16, Concentration +14, Intimidate +10,
Jump +18, Listen+1, Spot +2, Swim +16, Tumble +10
Possessions +1 shock trident, mithril breastplate, bracers of natural armour +1, novice crown of white ravens
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The players don't know about Overworms just yet, but the Wayne Reynolds cover image from the first AOW installment is on our campaign journal. The mini sits next to my DM screen as our Age of Worms mascot - my girlfriend had named him Chewey.
Speaking of mascots - my I played as a PC during parts of AOW (we rotated through 3 DMs switching each adventure) we went through this adventure so quickly that my Kender handler took one of the eggs and hatched it... then got bored of it and gave the baby to the druid. So later in the campaign the group was trying to protect a low level lizard man in addition to themselves.