Introduction:
So my friend tells me that he and a group of his friends want to start playing Dungeons & Dragons. Unfortunately, he's too busy to DM, so he asks me if I'll do it. I tell him I would love to DM. In fact, it will give me an opportunity to run the Age of Worms modules. I send off the email, jump over to the Paizo website, and immediately download all of the modules. It's then that I get an email from him which states, "You realize we're playing 4E, right?"
Now I have to say, I wasn't terribly wild about the idea of running a 4E campaign. Like many, I bought the books, and after reading through them once, I basically said to myself, "This isn't for me." Still, seeing as how I just spent a ton of money on the modules, and seeing this as possibly my one and only shot to run an Age of Worms campaign, I decide to put my prejudices aside, and begin work on converting the modules.
This journal is meant to catalog that process. I don't know if anyone will care, but I figure there are enough people out there who are interested in updating the modules to 4E that they might find these notes useful.
Campaign Hook:
"In the Age of Worms Adventure Path, all of the players begin play as residents of Diamond Lake who share one common goal—escaping to a better life once certain financial obligations have been met."
This is the background for players as presented in the Age of Worms Adventure Path. The assumption is that players will want to explore the Whispering Cairn and use the treasure they find there to leave Diamond Lake. This sounds like a pretty good adventure hook, as it provides incentive and gives players some great ideas for character creation. However, after playing through the Age of Worms campaign three times, I have to say, it doesn't always work out as well as you'd think.
In the first two games I played, the DM used this adventure hook exactly as written, and the players all created characters with a burning desire to leave Diamond Lake. In both games, everything proceeded just fine until the PCs traveled to the Land Family Graveyard and discovered that someone had taken all of the Land Family bodies to Diamond Lake.
At this point, both games ground to a halt."You mean we have to go back to the town?" The players whined. "You realize I wrote into my background that my character doesn't ever want to go back there, right?" The players then debated over whether it was worth it to continue exploring the Whispering Cairn, or if they should just take the lanterns they found in the Hall of Honor, and sell them in Free City.
This is, of course, when the DM chimed in. "The adventure assumes that you guys will remain in Diamond Lake for several adventures. If you travel to Free City now, you're basically blowing the whole adventure."
The players grumbled amongst themselves, a few of them even saying that their characters would just stay behind and wait for the rest of the party to come back. However, after some careful coaxing from the DM, who went on to explain that the whole second module also takes place in Diamond Lake, the players reluctantly decide to play along.
In both of these campaigns, the games eventually fell apart somewhere around the second module. The third time I played, however, the DM decided to ignore the adventure hook listed in the module, and instead, created a wizard NPC, named Olaus. In this adventure hook, Olaus is a mutual friend of the PCs who lives just outside of Diamond Lake. Olaus sends a letter to each member of the party to come visit him for a dinner party. The players agree to go and are greeted by Olaus's servant, Jiles, who escorts them into the dining room. There, they are ambushed by a band of rogues. Eventually, the players learn that Olaus has been killed by the rogues, and that Jiles is actually a doppelganger member of their gang in disguise. They also discover papers in Olaus's office that talk about the Whispering Cairn.
Now there were some big plot holes in this introduction. First and foremost, what are the rogues doing there? If they're there to steal Olaus's stuff, why didn't they just kill him, take his stuff, and leave? It also seemed a little contrived that Olaus just happened to get attacked by bandits some time between sending the letters and the PCs' arrival, and that the bandits just happened to have a doppelganger in their party who could disguise himself as Olaus's servant, Jiles. That said, it was interesting enough that I decided to go with the basic premise of this introduction, with a few minor changes.
In my campaign, I decided to make Olaus an expert on the study of the Wind Dukes of Aaqa. Through research, he stumbles across a reference to the Age of Worms prophecy and belaboring to understand the role that the Wind Dukes’ played in it, he traveled to Free City in order to conduct further research. There, while poring over ancient records of the city’s Great Library, Olaus ran afoul of the Ebon Triad. Barely escaping from the city with his life, Olaus returned home, where he immediately penned a letter to the PCs.
Sadly, Sharlin, a doppelganger assassin, accompanied by several Ebon Triad Cultists, got to Olaus first. There, Sharlin killed all of Olaus’s servants, and for several days interrogated the old wizard under torture. During the interrogation, Sharlin learned of the letter Olaus wrote to the PCs. Now, disguised as Olaus, Sharlin waits for the PCs to arrive.
I like this introduction because it ties everything together quite neatly; even going so far as to introduce the doppelgangers from Free City, who don't come in for several adventures. I also like that it gives the PCs an opportunity to meet Allustan, who played a big part in our games, but who, for the life of me, I can't remember how we met.
Running the Game:
I decided to divide this introduction into two encounters. The first encounter occurs, as it did in my friend's game, in Olaus's dining room. Sharlin, disguised as Olaus, decides to raise a toast to their mutual friendship. Only then, when the PCs are poisoned by the wine, does she call for the Ebon Triad cultists, who are hiding in the kitchen, along with the doppelganger disguised as Jiles.
The second encounter occurs in Olaus's study. There a couple of cultists, assisted by an Ebon Triad priest, search for any notes Olaus might have on the Age of Worms prophecy. If Sharlin escapes from the first combat, she is here as well.
If the PCs defeat the cultists, they eventually discover Olaus's notes about the Whispering Cairn. They also learn about Allustan (Diamond Lake, Dungeon #124), with whom Olaus planned to explore the tomb.
This introduction worked pretty well. The PCs each created backgrounds explaining how their characters knew Olaus. It was also nice to open the game immediately with a little combat. Finally, I have to say that I really enjoyed the looks on the players' faces when I had them make saving throws for the poisoned wine. "See?" one player cried. "This is exactly why you can't trust the NPCs!"
Unfortunately, because the players spent the first half of the night working on character creation, they didn't get to the second encounter. Not that it mattered. The party was so injured from the first encounter that it's unlikely they would have made it through another fight (see below for details).
Things I Learned:
Running a game in 4E is really nothing like running a game in 3.5. For starters, in 3.5, the game assumes that the PCs will need to rest after roughly four encounters (a little less if the encounter levels are higher than the party's level). Thinking in those terms, I thought that I would create a really challenging encounter for the first room, and a second encounter that would be pretty easy by itself, but which assumed that Sharlin might make an appearance. I thought that if I designed the encounters this way, it would make for a pretty challenging introduction, but one that wasn't so challenging that it would kill the party. With that in mind, I designed the two encounters thus:
Dining Room
Level 3 Encounter (700 XP)
-Sharlin doppelganger assassin (level 8 lurker) (XP 350)
-Jiles doppelganger sneak (level 3 skirmisher) (XP 150)
-4 Ebon Triad cultists (level 1 minion) (XP 100)
-oil of taggit (level 1 poison) (XP 100)
Olaus's Study
Level 1 Encounter (225 XP)
-Ebon Triad priest (level 4 controller) (XP 175)
-2 Ebon Triad cultists (level 1 minion) (XP 50)
What I didn't take into consideration is that in 4E, if you have different monster groups all interacting with one another, you should really treat the whole thing as one, giant encounter. The reason for this is because the players typically take a short rest after every encounter in order to regain healing surges and encounter powers. Unfortunately, I didn't take these factors into consideration. As a result, what I thought would be a fairly well balanced pair of encounters turned into an uber encounter that nearly killed one party member, and left all the players so spent on powers that they had to barricade themselves into the dining room to keep out Sharlin and the cultists from Olaus's Study while they rested.
If I had this encounter to do again, I would probably lower Sharlin's and Jiles' levels and design it thus:
Olaus's House
Level 4 Encounter (875 XP)
-Sharlin doppelganger assassin (level 6 lurker) (XP 300)
-Jiles doppelganger sneak (level 3 skirmisher) (XP 150)
-Ebon Triad priest (level 4 controller) (XP 175)
-6 Ebon Triad cultists (level 1 minion) (XP 150)
-oil of taggit poison (level 1 poison) (XP 100)
That said, I think it worked out. While the PCs were resting, Sharlin and the other cultists ran off, presumably to regroup. I haven't decided exactly what will happen next, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if Sharlin and her gang make an appearance at some point in the catacombs of the Whispering Cairn. :P
Wolf Den
This was the first monster encounter I tried to convert and the first ever encounter I tried to create in 4E. In order to get a feel for the game, I decided tried to keep it pretty simple. Taking a look at the Monster Manual, I noticed that they have stats for the gray wolf, so I just used those. For the larger wolf, I decided to use a dire wolf instead.
Level 1 Encounter (450 XP)
-2 gray wolves (level 2 skirmisher) (XP 250)
-1 dire wolf (level 5 skirmisher) (XP 200)
False Tomb
Another first for me was creating the sarcophagus trap. I have to say, I really like what they've done with traps in 4E. Not only are they more dynamic than 3.5 traps, I like that the players can use skills other than Thievery and Perception when encountering them. Since the dimensions of the sarcophagus are 5ft. × 10ft., I decided to make the blast area a close blast 2. That way, the trap could encompass the entire sarcophagus in fire, but one side would be a little shorter than the other, allowing the PCs to spring it from a safe distance.
As for the encounter in area 7G, I wasn't yet prepared to start making my own monsters from scratch, so I decided to use a stormclaw scorpion from the Monster Manual instead of a mad slasher. For the acid beetles, I decided to use the rot scarab swarm from the Monster Manual. I changed their damage type from necrotic damage to acid, and lowered their level to 3. To make the combat a little more dynamic, I added a couple of extra swarms.
Level 1 Encounter (550 XP)
-3 acid beetle swarms (level 3 soldier) (XP 450)
-1 stormclaw scorpion (level 1 soldier) (XP 100)
Incidentally, I think this was the point when I realized that you could lower, as well as raise, the challenge rating of a monster. I'll tell you, this has been my favorite change of all time in 4E. I can't tell you how many times in 3.5 I've wanted to pit a 5th level party up against a construct, say, and spent hours poring over Monster Manuals looking for something, other than an animated object, that was an appropriate challenge rating. (Side Note: I am not a fan of the animated objects from 3.5. Because nothing says fun like pitting your players against a monster with hardness who can't hit anything.)
The false elevator trap was pretty easy. I just changed the falling damage from 2d6 to 2d10, and left everything else pretty much alone.
Passage of the Face
I was impressed with how easy it was to convert this trap from 3.5 to 4E. In fact, I think the face actually works better in 4E than it ever did in 3.5. Take, for example, the challenge rating of this trap. In the original module, the designers added this note.
"*Strictly speaking, the CR for this trap should be higher [than CR 4]. Due to the numerous clues nearby (the dagger gouges, the skeleton at the bottom of the shaft) and the long delay before the wind can really harm the PCs, the trap’s CR has been lowered on an ad hoc basis. Be aware that this trap could be extremely deadly."
When I converted the face in darkness, I didn't have to make any such ad hoc adjustments. I just made it an 8th level trap. I decided on level 8, because the face in darkness in the original module was set at the maximum challenge rating for 3.5 characters, and I thought it appropriate to do the same in 4E. To disable the device, I made it a skill challenge with complexity 5 and a moderate DC.
Architect's Foyer
Another trap that was pretty simple to convert. I just made the slab trap a level 2 lurker.
Passage of Honor
This was another encounter that I decided I didn't want to convert faithfully from the module. For one, I didn't think that it made much sense for the Faceless One to send a lurking strangler, who can't even speak, to explore the Whispering Cairn. I also thought that it would be nice to have a group of monsters who could attack the PCs, instead of a single monster.
With that in mind, I decided to look for a monster of the appropriate level that I thought might be capable of exploring the cairn. Looking through the Monster Manual, I came across the dark creeper. I then paired him up with a pair of chokers; whom, while not considered aberrations in 4E anymore, I felt went with the aberrant theme from the original module. I also felt that they complimented the abilities of the dark creeper.
Level 1 Encounter (525 XP)
-2 cavern chokers (level 4 lurker) (XP 350)
-1 dark creeper (level 4 skirmisher) (XP 175)
Note: If I had to design this encounter over, I probably would have used a pair of grimlocks and a member of the Hextor cult from the second module to explore this area. That said, I think it made enough internal sense that the players never questioned it.
Running the Game
In the last game, the PCs were able to defeat the doppelganger disguised as Jiles. Seeing the dead doppelganger on the floor, they were able to deduce that the man claiming to be Olaus was probably another doppelganger. After searching the house, and discovering Olaus's body buried in a shallow grave outside, they felt they had confirmed this deduction.
Discovering the notes in Olaus's Study, the PCs also learned about Allustan, and Olaus's plans to explore the Whispering Cairn with him. Since Allustan lives in Diamond Lake, which is more than a day's journey from Olaus's house, the PCs decided to set up watches and spend the night at Olaus's house. Note: In addition to some potions of healing that Olaus had brewing in his study, I gave the PCs the deed to Olaus's house. I figured it would make a decent base of operations for them, if they decide to use it.
The next day, the PCs traveled to see Allustan. From him, they learned the location of the Whispering Cairn. Allustan told them that he would be unable to join them in exploring the cairn (I told them Allustan's brother, the governor-mayor Lanod, was in a jam and that Allustan needed to stay in town to help him), but that he would be willing to pay the PCs 100 gp each to explore the Whispering Cairn for him. Note: I'm still trying to figure out exactly how much money and treasure I should give to the PCs. The treasure parcels help a little, but like 3.5, I think it will be a while before I get a feel for how much is too little or too much.
The next day, the PCs made a trip out to the Whispering Cairn. The explored the different shafts, spent a lot of time looking at the fresco on the wall, and eventually ran into the wolves living in the collapsed alcove. After defeating the wolves, the PCs found the indigo lamp. They then brought it over to the fresco and experimented with it for a while before finally giving up and heading downstairs. Seeing the other lamps hanging there, they hung the indigo lamp and lit it. When nothing happened, they started exploring the rest of the complex, where they noticed the sarcophagus arrow pointing at the orange lantern. Pushing it around, they eventually raised the false elevator trap under the indigo lamp. Seeing the skeletons inside, they hesitated, debating amongst themselves as to whether or not to enter the elevator until it crashed to the bottom of the shaft two rounds later on its own.
The PCs were pretty clever when they came across the Face in Darkness. One PC, a half-orc named Krunk- clambered up the chain and, seeing the scratch marks in the floor from the trap's previous victims, tied himself off to the chain with a rope, then secured it to pitons which he pounded into the wall every 10 feet as he advanced. When he finally triggered the trap, and the eyes started spinning, he shouted to the other players in the chamber below "Light the lamps!"
The scene that followed was pretty much like watching ants scatter. The PCs ran to every corner of the room, each one lighting the remaining lamps. Of course, not having the red lamp in place, they were unable to light it, and the eyes of the face just glowed an angry red as it buffeted poor Krunk. The PCs then tried rotating the sarcophagus, hoping that maybe if it wasn't pointing at the indigo lamp, it would shut off the trap. When that didn't work, they then tried deactivating the trap on the sarcophagus lid, hoping that it was somehow tied to the face.
At this point, I asked them how they planned to disable the trap. Not used to actually having to provide an explanation, the players met my question with blank stares. Eventually, one player (a new player, no less) asked if her halfling wizard (whose character name escapes me at the moment) would be able to identify a way to disable the trap. I asked her to make an Arcana check (DC 15). It took a few tries, but eventually she succeeded. I told her that she could attempt a Thievery check (DC 20) to try and counter the runes generating the magical effect, or she could attempt to activate the trap from a safe distance on one side with a Thievery check (DC 10), provided she had something long enough to jostle the lid. She elected for the second option and so, borrowing the longspear of another party member, she jostled the lid until the trap exploded harmlessly. This didn't disable the Face in Darkness, of course, but it made the PCs feel pretty good about their ingenuity, and I rewarded them by placing a rod of dark reward inside.
Eventually, Krunk was able to yank the pitons one-by-one from the wall with a Strength check (DC 15), and make his way back to the chain safely. After Krunk relayed his experiences to the rest of the party, the group decided they needed to find the red lamp.
After playing around with the sarcophagus some more, the PCs eventually found the second elevator. Unfortunately, I misread this encounter at the table, and forgot about the stormclaw scorpion and acid beetles. Instead, I had two-thirds of the party descend in the elevator safely, but when it ascended to pick up the other third, I had it crash, dealing 2d10 points of damage to the two players in the elevator.
The players didn't trigger the stone slab trap. Instead, one of the PCs, a gnome sorcerer named Frug, crawled up on top of the stone slab and through the crawl space above. Since he was small, I decided that he, and any small characters, could crawl through no problem, but that the medium characters in the party would need to make Acrobatics checks (DC 15) to squeeze through the space.
One thing I always like to do, whenever there are statues in a room, is set out miniatures in those spaces. I like to do this because it makes the PCs wary of them, like they might be monsters, and they spend a lot of time poking at them, sometimes needlessly, to see if they'll act. In this case, they did just that. I also decided that since they were distracted by the first pair of statues, I gave them a -2 penalty to notice the real threat, which were the chokers and the dark creeper hiding behind the statues further down. Fortunately for the PCS, the two strikers in front noticed the chokers and were able to act on the surprise round. Unfortunately, the chokers grabbed them pretty quickly, and dragged them into their squares.
Things I Learned
It might just be that I'm running a game for a bunch of players who have never played 4E before, and who only played in a few 3.5 games. However, combats in this edition seem a lot more challenging than in 3.5. Nobody in my group has died yet, but in each encounter, at least one PC gets knocked unconscious, and a couple take some serious damage before they finally defeat the monsters. I'm actually quite pleased with this, because I think it makes each encounter feel like a life or death situation, even if ultimately, the PCs triumph every time.
I like too that the monsters have so many hit points. In 3.5, I always felt like you needed to be really smart about the tactics of your monsters, because one false move, and you never got an opportunity to show the players what the monster could really do. In this game, I noticed that the dire wolf gained combat advantage if one of its allies was adjacent to its opponent. In this combat, the dire wolf went first in initiative order, so I had it move up and ready an action to attack one of the PCs as soon as his allies moved up to attack. It was only after the PC withdrew that I realized I should have had the dire wolf delay instead, and because of this mistake I essentially cost the dire wolf a turn.
Meanwhile, the party decided to focus their attacks on the dire wolf. They were doing some pretty serious damage too, and my fear was that the creature wouldn't survive long enough to do anything before they took it down. Fortunately, with 67 hit points keeping it up, the creature survived this pummeling, and in the next round, it showed the party what it could really do.
I think the combat with the chokers and the dark creeper could have worked a little better, but it worked out okay. The dark creeper used the flanks from the chokers and his dark step ability to gain combat advantage against the PCs in order to deal his extra damage. Meanwhile, the chokers continued to keep the strikers in the party pretty well subdued by with their grab ability. In the end, though, the PCs were able to take them down, and on the dark creeper, they found a note from the Faceless One hiring them to explore the Whispering Cairn.
Gallery
In trying to recreate the brown mold for this room, I tried to stick as closely to the version created for 3.5. Creatures who approach within 1 square of the brown mold take damage (+4 vs. Fortitude; 2d6+2; Miss: Half damage). I'm not sure if this was a good idea, which I'll explain in Running the Game.
Living Quarters
There are a few conditions that I miss greatly from 3.5. One of these is fatigued. In the original module, PCs who share a space with the stone slabs have to make a Will save or become fatigued. I didn't really know where to begin with this, so I redesigned this encounter a bit.
In my game, air blows through small tubes from above, creating the sound of soothing music. Creatures who enter the room, start to feel sleepy (+5 vs. Will; Hit: The target is slowed.) Creatures who fail their first saving throw feel an uncontrollable urge to lay down on the stone slab and fall asleep (save ends). I thought it made sense for the room, and I thought it would make an interesting encounter.
Workshop
One of the biggest disappointments to me in 4E is that they got rid of elementals. Elementals were some of my favorite monsters in 3.5. They could literally show up just about anywhere, and they never seemed to be out of place. When I realized they didn't have elementals in Fourth Edition, it really slowed me down.
Fortunately, they have archons, and in the case of Artophanx, it made perfect sense to make him an earth archon. I took the seismic striker from Monster Manual 2, and bumped it down to Level 3. Since I only had one monster, I made Artophanx elite, and gave him an ability called 'Sudden Seismic Stomp' that allowed him to use his Seismic Stomp ability when first bloodied.
Food Room/The Hive
Another condition that I really miss from 3.5 is sickened. Creatures who eat the orange sludge in this room must make a DC 14 Fortitude save or become sickened. Not knowing exactly what to do about this, I decided to use the Filth Fever disease listed in the Monster Manual under rat swarms. (Note: I later discovered that the 'sickened' condition is preserved in some of the monster powers for creatures like the otyugh.)
For the Giant Bombardier Beetle, I used a fire beetle, changing its damage from fire to acid, and bumping its level up to 5. For the acid beetle swarm, I used the rot scarab swarm, modifying its damage from necrotic to acid, bumping it down to level 3, and adding an extra swarm to the encounter.
Sleeping Quarters
I reprised the sleep trap from the Living Quarters above for this one. For the monsters, I decided to use two acid beetles, bumping my modified fire beetle's level down to 3. For the statue, I found a level 2 animated statue in the Monster Builder. (By the way, I haven't mentioned it yet, but I love this tool.)
Running the Game
As I started preparing for this session, I realized that I misread the module from last time. I thought the elevator from the False Tomb stopped at The Lair of the Architect, but apparently it goes down another floor. No matter. Because I knew the last game would end in the Passage of Honor, I put a pair of doors at the end of the hallway to prevent the players from going any further. That made it easy to add in a new elevator room between the hall and Nadroc's Sleeping Quarters.
The sleep trap in Nadroc's Living Quarters was hella fun. Krunk and his halfling partner, Frug, walked into the room, and fell under the spell of the music. Frug made his save against the spell, but Krunk failed and walked sleepily over to the bed where he fell unconscious.
Seeing Krunk asleep in the room, the players devised a plan. Stopping his ears with cloth torn from his clothes, Frug walked into the room, tied a rope around Krunk's waist, and with the help of the other players tried to haul him out of the room. As they were putting this plan into action, Krunk made his save against the sleep effect, and was able to walk groggily out of the room on his own.
I'm a little ambivalent about the success of the brown mold. To be frank, I wasn't really sure how to run it. I decided to deliver the cold damage as an immediate action whenever someone got too close to it. I then had it deal damage each round as long as the character remained within 1 square of it. I also forgot about the half damage, which didn't help things. Oh well.
The earth archon, Artophanx, was a little powerful for the party. Even though I bumped him down to Level 3, I didn't take into consideration that an extra 1d8 of thunder damage was a little much for a 1st level party. I think if I had to do this combat over again, I'd make it 3 extra points of damage, or maybe just take it, and the ground strike ability, out altogether.
The beetle swarms were just evil. One of my players has decided that her character, an elven ranger named Ashamus, likes to throw rocks at everything to see what happens. In this case, she shouted to the party, “I’m throwing a rock!” threw a rock at the beetles, and immediately caused them to swarm.
I had a party of 6 players, so I put in 3 beetle swarms, plus the giant bombardier beetle, which should have been appropriate (XP 650). However, the swarms decimated the party with their swarm attacks, and the PCs had to retreat.
Trynn, the halfling sorceress whose name I couldn’t remember from the previous game, is a hoot. As a new player, she’s constantly experimenting with her powers. In this game, she wanted to use mage hand to try and drop a torch on the beetle swarms, in the hopes that it would do some fire damage to them. The only thing stopping her was that the everburning torch the party is using as a light source produces no heat. She then decided to try and use ghost sound to somehow convince the beetles that there was some greater threat than the party in the tool alcoves. I figured it was a stretch, but I like the 4E philosophy of saying yes to the players, so I decided that if she could make an opposed Bluff check against the beetles, she could distract them for 1 round. She made her Bluff check, and as soon as she did, it came to me what the sound should be.
“From down the hall, you hear what sounds like a female voice shout, ‘I’m throwing a rock!’” The players howled with laughter.
In the end, the distraction of the ghost sound gave the players just enough time to get back to the elevator and escape.
Things I Learned
I’m still trying to determine why the encounters in 4E seem so deadly. Granted, the amount of damage Artophanx could deal was a mistake, but other than a few small tweaks here and there, I practically lifted the beetles straight out of the Monster Manual. Since most players on these message boards seem to complain about combats in 4E being too easy, I’m trying to determine how much of this problem is me, and how much of it is my players.
One thing I am wondering is if maybe the party composition is contributing to the problem. Right now, the party has two leaders (a bard, and a spirit shaman), and five strikers (barbarian, ranger, sorcerer, warlock, wizard). I’m wondering if the lack of a defender and a controller is more of an issue than I could have imagined.
That said, it seems like the monsters hit all too frequently, and when they do, they do an enormous amount of damage. Meanwhile, it seems like the party seems to have an enormously difficult time hitting the monsters at all.
Now granted, I’ve been rolling really well, and the party has been rolling pretty poorly. However, there are times when the party makes some rather decent rolls, and yet they still can’t seem to penetrate the monster’s defenses. I also occasionally make some rather lackluster rolls, yet can penetrate the defenses of the party all too easily.
I think it’s something I’m going to have to monitor, and see how things develop over time, because while I like that the combats are pretty challenging, when three players get knocked unconscious in the space of a couple of rounds, I feel like something is wrong.
You can comment if you want. I've actually been a little surprised that nobody has. In fact, I was starting to wonder if anyone was even reading this thread at all.
You can comment if you want. I've actually been a little surprised that nobody has. In fact, I was starting to wonder if anyone was even reading this thread at all.
Its the organization. Or that was what was inhibiting me. I did not want to 'mess up' your thread since its so well laid out.
Its the organization. Or that was what was inhibiting me. I did not want to 'mess up' your thread since its so well laid out.
Here. Maybe this will make things easier.
Submerged Showers
Remember how I said that one of my biggest disappointments with 4E is that they don't have elementals? Well, I may have overstated it a little bit. They still have elementals, but they don't have your basic earth, air, fire, and water elementals. Instead, the elementals from 4E are more like the paraelementals from 3.5. That said, it's annoying when you want a water elemental to power some showers, and the only elemental that even comes close to meeting that concept is a thunderblast cyclone.
Now in all fairness, I probably could have used a water archon. However, it didn't really make sense that the Wind Dukes would have a militaristic monster running a bunch of showers. Therefore, I decided to create my very first monster, a water elemental.
One of the things I'm still struggling with is trying to figure out how to generate ability scores for monsters. The Dungeon Master's Guide states, "On average, the highest ability score of a pair is equal to 13 + one-half the monster's level... However, set the ability that governs the monster's primary attacks to be 3 higher, or 16 + one-half the monster's level." Setting aside the fact that the book doesn't mention what the lowest ability scores should be, a lot of the monsters in the Monster Manual don't follow this rule of thumb. For example, the giant rat, a level 1 monster, has an ability score pair of Wis 10 and Cha 6. Shouldn't it be Wis 13? Nevertheless, I tried to stick to this formula as best I could when creating my monster.
In creating my water elemental, I decided to take a look at some of the abilities that other creatures with the elemental origin have to make sure that my monster had some internal consistency within the game. For example, water archons have Resist 10 acid, and are slowed when they take cold damage, so I decided to give my water elemental the same resistances and vulnerabilities.
Next, I took a look at the water elemental from 3.5 to try and get a sense of what defined that creature in that system. While the water elemental has a lot of neat abilities, I personally think that its vortex ability is what really makes it interesting. Unfortunately, this ability in 3.5 is pretty complicated, and while I wanted to preserve its feel, I didn't want to preserve its complexity. In the end, I decided to make its vortex ability a grab power, with a secondary power that buffets the target as long as it's grabbed. (Side Note: I find it unfortunate that the word 'buffet' is spelled exactly like something you might encounter at the Sizzler. However, there really aren't any synonyms that capture the essence of the word 'buffet,' so that is the name of my monster's secondary power.)
Insane Water Elemental Whirlpool Level 4 Brute
Medium elemental magical beast XP 175
Initiative +3 Senses Perception +6
HP 62; Bloodied 31
AC 16; Fortitude 18; Reflex 15; Will 15
Immune disease; poison; Resist 10 acid; Vulnerable cold (a water elemental that takes cold damage is slowed until the end of its next turn)
Speed 6 , Swim 10
m Vortex (standard; at-will)
+7 vs AC; 1d10 + 4 damage, and the target is grabbed (until escape).
M Buffet (standard; at-will)
Affects a target the water elemental has caught in its vortex; +7 vs. Fortitude; 1d10+4 damage, and the target is dazed until the end of the water elemental's next turn.
Alignment Unaligned Languages Primordial
Str 18 (+6) Dex 12 (+3) Wis 9 (+1)
Con 12 (+3) Int 1 (–3) Cha 12 (+3)
Preparing for the Game
Up until this point, I've mostly been converting the treasure from the original module to 4E with little concern about treasure parcels. Unfortunately, I got to a point where I had absolutely no idea how much treasure the party had, nor did I have any idea how much I should give them. I therefore decided to create a spreadsheet and put the treasure I've already given them into the appropriate parcel slots. This worked out really well, and I can now easily see exactly what treasure parcels the party still has yet to receive.
Running the Game
After resting up from their last encounter with the acid beetles, the players returned to dispatch them. Since the last encounter didn't go all that well (and since it had been a month since they last encountered the beetles, and the players probably wouldn't remember how many swarms I initially added), I decided to remove one of the swarms from the encounter. Although it was still a difficult fight, it was just what the players needed to dispatch these creatures mightily.
One thing I liked about this encounter is that it was the first time I've seen the party really use their powers as a team, rather than as individual players. For example, Garrack, the dwarven spirit shaman, continuously summoned his spirit companion into places that made it difficult for the monsters to attack anyone in the party. Meanwhile, Faelynn, the tiefling warlock, used misty step several times in order to provide flanks for the other party members.
After the combat was over, the players searched the bodies of the Seekers lying underneath the sludge. Since the party has had a difficult time with staying up, I gave them a set of +1 chainmail of sacrifice and a battleforged shield from the Adventurer's Vault, so that they can use their healing surges more often.
The encounter with the water elemental was interesting. Reluctant to dive into the water without knowing what they were getting into, the PCs decided to tie a rope around Ashamus's waist, and send her into the room as a scout. If she encountered a threat, Ashamus promised to tug on the rope twice as a signal to the rest of the party. Unfortunately, Ashamus wasn't able to react quickly enough when she ultimately came face to face with the water elemental, and the creature sucked her into it vortex before she could signal the party.
On the other end of the line, the players felt a violent tug as the water elemental grabbed Ashamus. Not knowing exactly what happened, but knowing that it probably wasn't good, they decided to try and pull her out of the water.
Now this is where things got complicated. Since Ashamus had been grabbed by the water elemental, I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to have happen. Would the elemental get dragged along with Ashamus when the players tugged on the rope? Would Ashamus be able to simply break free? Whatever the case, I decided that it required an Athletics check from the party. I also decided that one player would have to be designated the primary person to make the skill check, with the other players making checks to assist that player. The question was, who should that primary person be?
At first, I thought about having the character with the highest Strength be the primary person. This created some confusion about initiative order, and whether the primary person should delay, or go first. Eventually, it occurred to me that Ashamus should be the primary person, and the others should assist her in escaping the water elemental's grab. This worked great, and with three players making their assist checks, Ashamus was able to escape the elemental's grab with ease.
On her next turn, Ashamus decided to try and swim away from the water elemental. Fortunately for her, the water elemental missed with its second attack, so it couldn't pull her back into its vortex.
Now it was the other players' turns. This time, they wanted to try and help Ashamus get away from the water elemental by reeling her in with the rope. Again, I had them make Athletics checks to assist her. Only this time, instead of giving Ashamus a +2 bonus to her swim check for each assist, I decided to give her 1 additional square of movement. Again, tSubmerged Showers
Remember how I said that one of my biggest disappointments with 4E is that they don't have elementals? Well, I may have overstated it a little bit. They still have elementals, but they don't have your basic earth, air, fire, and water elementals. Instead, the elementals from 4E are more like the paraelementals from 3.5. Still, it's annoying when you want to need a water elemental to power some showers, and the only elemental that even comes close in 4E is a thunderblast cyclone.
Now in all fairness, I probably could have used a water archon. However, it didn't really make sense that the Wind Dukes would have a militaristic monster running a bunch of showers. Therefore, I decided to create my very first monster, a water elemental.
One of the things I'm still struggling with is trying to figure out how to generate ability scores for monsters. The Dungeon Master's Guide states, "On average, the highest ability score of a pair is equal to 13 + one-half the monster's level... However, set the ability that governs the monster's primary attacks to be 3 higher, or 16 + one-half the monster's level." Setting aside the fact that the book doesn't mention what the lowest ability scores should be, a lot of the monsters in the Monster Manual don't follow this rule of thumb. For example, the giant rat, a level 1 monster, has an ability score pair of Wis 10 and Cha 6. Shouldn't it be Wis 13? Nevertheless, I tried to stick to this formula as best I could when creating my monster.
In creating my water elemental, I decided to take a look at some of the abilities that other creatures with the elemental origin have to make sure that my monster had some internal consistency within the game. For example, water archons have Resist 10 acid, and are slowed when they take cold damage, so I decided to give my water elemental the same resistances and vulnerabilities.
Next, I took a look at the water elemental from 3.5 to try and get a sense of what defined that creature in that system. While the water elemental has a lot of neat abilities, I ultimately decided that its vortex ability is the one that really makes it interesting. Unfortunately, this ability in 3.5 is pretty complicated, and while I wanted to preserve its feel, I didn't want to preserve its complexity. This presented a challenge, but in the end, I decided to make the vortex a grab power, with a secondary power that buffets the target as long as it's grabbed. (Side Note: I find it unfortunate that the word 'Buffet' is spelled exactly like something you'd encounter at the Sizzler. However, there really aren't any synonyms that capture the essence of the word 'buffet,' so that is the name of my monster's secondary power.)
Insane Water Elemental Whirlpool Level 4 Brute
Medium elemental magical beast XP 175
Initiative +3 Senses Perception +6
HP 62; Bloodied 31
AC 16; Fortitude 18; Reflex 15; Will 15
Immune disease; poison; Resist 10 acid; Vulnerable cold (a water elemental that takes cold damage is slowed until the end of its next turn)
Speed 6 , Swim 10
m Vortex (standard; at-will)
+7 vs AC; 1d10 + 4 damage, and the target is grabbed (until escape).
M Buffet (standard; at-will)
Affects a target the water elemental has caught in its vortex; +7 vs. Fortitude; 1d10+4 damage, and the target is dazed until the end of the water elemental's next turn.
Alignment Unaligned Languages Primordial
Str 18 (+6) Dex 12 (+3) Wis 9 (+1)
Con 12 (+3) Int 1 (–3) Cha 12 (+3)
Preparing for the Game
Up until this point, I've mostly been converting the treasure from the original module to 4E with little concern about treasure parcels. Unfortunately, I now had no idea how much treasure the party had, nor did I have any idea how much I should give them. I therefore decided to create a spreadsheet and put the treasure I've already given them into the appropriate parcel slots. This worked out really well, and I can now easily see exactly what treasure parcels the party still has yet to receive.
Running the Game
After resting up from their last encounter with the acid beetles, the players returned to dispatch them. Since the last encounter didn't go all that well (and since it had been a month since they last encountered the beetles, and the players probably wouldn't remember how many swarms I initially added), I decided to remove one of the swarms from the encounter. Although it was still a difficult fight, it was just what the players needed to dispatch these creatures mightily.
One thing I liked about this encounter is that it was the first time I've seen the party really use their powers as a team, rather than as individual players. For example, Garrack, the dwarven spirit shaman, continuously summoned his spirit companion into places that made it difficult for the monsters to attack anyone in the party. Meanwhile, Faelynn, the tiefling warlock, used misty step several times in order to provide flanks for the other party members.
After the combat was over, the players searched the bodies of the Seekers lying underneath the sludge. Since the party has had a difficult time with staying up, I gave them a set of +1 chainmail of sacrifice and a battleforged shield from the Adventurer's Vault, so that they can use their healing surges more often.
The encounter with the water elemental was interesting. Reluctant to dive into the water without knowing what they were getting into, the PCs decided to tie a rope around Ashamus's waist, and send her into the room as a scout. If she encountered a threat, Ashamus promised to tug on the rope twice as a signal to the rest of the party. Unfortunately, Ashamus wasn't able to react quickly enough when she ultimately came face to face with the water elemental, and the creature sucked her into it vortex before she could signal the party.
On the other end of the line, the players felt a violent tug as the water elemental grabbed Ashamus. Not knowing exactly what happened, but knowing that it probably wasn't good, they decided to try and pull her out of the water.
Now this is where things got complicated. Since Ashamus had been grabbed by the water elemental, I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to have happen. Would the elemental get dragged along with Ashamus? Would Ashamus be able to simply break free? Whatever the case, I decided that it required an Athletics check from the party. I also decided that one player would have to be designated the primary person to make the skill check, with the other players making checks to assist that player. The question was, who should that primary person be?
At first, I thought about having the character with the highest Strength be the primary person. This created some confusion about initiative order, and whether the primary person should delay, or go first. Eventually, it occurred to me that Ashamus should be the primary person, and the others should assist her in escaping the water elemental's grab. This worked great, and with three players making their assist checks, Ashamus was able to escape the elemental's grab with ease.
On her next turn, Ashamus decided to try and swim away from the water elemental. Fortunately for her, the water elemental missed with its second attack, preventing it from grabbing her again. Now it was the other players' turns. This time, they wanted to try and help Ashamus move away from the water elemental more quickly by reeling her in with the rope. Again, I had them make Athletics checks to assist her. Only this time, instead of giving Ashamus a +2 bonus to her swim check for each assist, I decided to give her 1 additional square of movement. Again, the players made three successful assist checks, which granted Ashamus the movement she needed to get away from the water elemental.
Additional Thoughts
I don't know how much of this is the system, and how much of it is me adapting the system rules to suit my needs, but I really like how skills work in 4E. Don't get me wrong, I like skills in 3.5 too. However, as a DM, I always feel like I have to think very carefully about how I want the players to use their skills in game, particularly in combat.
In Fourth Edition, I don't feel that way. I feel like the players have a lot of opportunities to use their skills both in and out of combat, and I feel like it's very easy to adjudicate how those skills work in game.
Take, for example, all of the stuff that the players did with the rope. In 3.5, they probably could have made Strength checks to try and haul Ashamus out, and I probably would have ruled that each successful check would grant her a +2 bonus to her Reflex saves against the water elemental's vortex. However, it's a ruling that's not exactly covered by the rules, and because of that, I think the players probably wouldn't have even thought to try such a stunt. After all, when was the last time you used a Strength check to aid someone in making a Reflex saving throw?
In Fourth Edition, the skills are so general that it's easier to think of ways to use them both in and out of combat. I also think that because players normally use things like Acrobatics and Athletics to do things like escape from a monster's grab, that they are more likely to try things like what they did with the rope.
Other Locker Room With Benches
For this encounter, I decided to try something a little different. Since a single ghoul is not supposed to be a challenge by itself, at least according by the RAW, I decided to add the wizard class template to Ulavant, giving him ray of frost, ray of enfeeblement, stinking cloud, and shield for powers.
Running the Game
After regrouping from their last encounter with the water elemental, the players decided that the best tactic was to jump into the water and attack the creature all at once. (My wife, who is in the party, just sat down next to me and laughed. "You make it sound like we have tactics," she said.) Krunk dove in first, and as he rounded the corner, he came face to face with the elemental. Swirling toward Krunk, the water elemental attacked him with its vortex power, grabbing him, and pulling him into its whirlpool. Ashamus, following after Krunk, saw what happened and immediately attacked the elemental with her two swords.
The rest of the party, not having very high Strength scores, struggled with this encounter. Khaleena, the eladrin bard, and decided to hang back, while Frug, with his Strength of 8, jumped in and immediately started to drown. Trynn, succeeding on her Athletics check, swam around the other side, and attacked the creature with her magic missile power.
On his turn, Krunk struggled to break free from the water elemental's vortex, but failed, and for the rest of the combat, the creature pummeled him with its buffet power. Now dazed, Krunk decided to forego escape in order to deal damage to the creature instead.
The combat went on for several more rounds, and eventually the party vanquished the creature. That's also about the point when I realized that I had been reading the creature's XP as its hit points (oops), so I awarded the players double the XP I normally would have given them.
The players swam into the submerged showers room, where they found the red lamp. I also awarded them with a set of +1 summoned armor, and a +1 thieving short sword, which they found on the dead body of the Seeker carrying the lamp.
With the lamp in hand, the players almost decided to head back up to the Hall of Honor to light the lamps. However, curiosity got the best of Krunk and Ashamus, and the two of them decided to check out the other shower.
In this room, they found Ulavant brooding on a bench. As the two of them swam into the room, Ulavant looked up at them and, with fury and hunger in his eyes, attacked.
Ulavant began by casting stinking cloud, enveloping Ashamus and Krunk in its noxious vapors. Unable to withstand the poisonous fumes, the two of them tried to swim away, but with a sweep of his hands, Ulavant directed the fumes after them, followed up with a ray of frost directed at Ashamus.
The rest of the combat was just brutal. Unable to remain for long in the noxious cloud, the players tried to swim away from Ulavant, attacking him from a distance. Unfortunately, Ulavant could move the cloud faster than the players could swim, and in short order, both Ashamus and Krunk were bloodied. With the help of Garrack, and Khaleena, the two were able to remain standing, but the toxins in the water continued to deal damage to them.
Meanwhile, the players struggled mightily to penetrate Ulavant's defenses. I didn't even use his shield power, they were having such a difficult time. This, combined with the fact that they couldn't even get close enough to hit him with their melee weapons without taking damage from the cloud, just turned the combat into a slog.
After a few more rounds of watching the players struggle, and get increasingly frustrated, I decided to drop Ulavant's stinking cloud, and reduce his defenses by 2 each. That was just the advantage the players needed, and although the combat continued to present a challenge, they were eventually able to defeat Ulavant.
Things I Learned
Now it may just have been the circumstances of the combat, and the fact that Ulavant is immune to poison, but after watching him sustain it as a minor action, maneuver it around the room as a move action, while simultaneously casting ray of frost as a standard action, I started to get the feeling that stinking cloud is a little too buff as written. I talked with the players about this power, and they all agreed with me, so we decided to house rule that the sustain portion of this power is a move action instead of a minor action. I'm still not entirely convinced that this is enough, but for the time being, that's what we're going to go with.
I then asked my players about the challenge rating of the encounters. "I think the first combat was just about perfect," one player told me. "The water elemental was able to hit us, but not too easily, and we were able to hit it just about as well."
With this information in mind, I decided to take another look at my module. Comparing the attacks and defenses of my other monsters to the water elemental and Ulavant, I could immediately see which encounters were going to present an appropriate challenge, and which were going to decimate the party. I'm now eager to see whether these adjustments will prove to make the difference needed to make the game more enjoyable for everyone.