Monster substitutions


Shackled City Adventure Path


My group has been making their way through the Test of the Smoking Eye. In a couple instances, I have changed the monster encounters, and thought I would share. I know some people may view that changing the encounters is making things too easy for the group. I'm not in this to kill characters, I'm in this to have a good time and challenge them. I have maintained the 3.5 challenge rating, and placed monsters I felt were more relevant.

During the walk through the Plain of Cysts, I realized that the Abyssal Basilisk would be really bad (with its DC 21 Gaze and little to no way for my group to turn party members back from being petrified). It is especially bad for teh player if the group continues on and gets teleported to the next test area miles away. If the Bard in the group had Song of Freedom, I would have considered it, but right now it would be a bad encounter. So I substituted in a fiendish 11-headed hydra. It was a very dramatic fight and was well received by the group.

Now I am planning for inside the Skull, and I know that having a Clay Golem would be another bad one, given that few to none have blunt weapons. Healing is also extremely necessary for my group due to their low ACs. So going back to the MM, I found that putting 2 bodaks in the room would be quite fitting, given they come from being touched by absolute evil (see fountain in next room). We'll see how things go when next we play.

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