I'm in the process of converting WotC's 3.5 update of Tomb of Horrors to Pathfinder, and wanted to brainstorm my thoughts with others. Players of mine, read no further, for spoilers lie below!
Here are the changes and thoughts that I have in mind, starting more or less from the beginning of the module:
* Make the central (correct) entry corridor also concealed by a double door (locked, naturally, at DC30 or so) at around the same depth as the other two false entrances. This should induce a touch of paranoia in the players who actually have some concept of what they should be looking for -- and even moreso if anyone's already tripped one of the traps in the false entry corridors.
* Also lock the "collapsing ceiling" false entry, so that PCs can't merely tie a rope to the end and yank it from a presumably safe distance. They still can, mind you, they'll just have to have the rogue unlock said door first. At which point the rogue will most likely say, hey, it's unlocked, why don't we go <KERSPLAT>.
* Swapping the damages on the two false entry corridors. The seal-off-corridor-and-crush-with-descending-ceiling entry becomes 16d6 after 4 rounds of "OMG the ceiling's coming down!", and the collapsing-roof entry becomes 12d6 instant. However, I'm treating it like an avalanche (PF 429) -- the primary "bury zone (the 20' nearest the door) take 12d6 damage (save for half), and are automatically buried; those in the "slide zone" (10' further out) take 5d6 (Reflex save for half, and only buried if they fail the save). If buried, a PC is effectively pinned and can take only verbal or mental actions -- and getting out on his own requires a DC 30 Escape Artist check per 5 feet. Digging buried characters out takes 10 player-minutes per 5' square, and buried characters take 1d6 nonlethal damage per minute. Per PF 429, if a buried character falls unconscious, he must make a DC 15 CON check or take 1d6 lethal damage each minute thereafter until freed or dead.
* Also, I'm extending the pressure plate to within 5' of the "false" doors in rooms 2, for reasons which will be elaborated on below (see my change to the door-corridors off of room 8).
* In the spiked-pit traps: replacing the generic Fort DC23 CON poison with wyvern venom. However, the twist is that the poison DC (and duration) goes up depending on the number of spikes that actually do damage to the PC that falls into the pit as though having been affected by multiple doses (PF 558). The base for wyvern poison is Fort DC17, 1d4 CON 1/round for 6 rounds, 2 saves required -- but as the PC who falls in risks being hit by 2d4 spikes, that goes up. 2 spikes means Fort DC19 for 9 rounds, 5 spikes (average for 2d4) means Fort DC25 for 18 rounds, and 8 spikes means Fort DC31 for 31 rounds. (Probably enough to kill even the doughtiest of clumsy thieves,.)
Aside from that, rooms 1 through 7 are unchanged (though, as I have Libris Mortis, I am including all the little "additional" bits the 3.5 version recommends.
* In room 8, the only change I'm making to the mutant four-armed gargoyle is removing Great Cleave and giving it Greater Bull Rush. As the pit in front of the entryway pretty much has to be triggered to get at the fresco-door, if the gargoyle can bull rush or awesome-blow any party members back into the pit (and thus, the poisoned spikes), Gygax's lethality shall be preserved. *wicked grin*
* In the secret-door corridor off room 8, the mundane arrows are to be replaced with acid arrows (which have only a 1 round duration, but also strike at only ranged touch +8 rather than ranged +15). Screw monks and their automatic-avoid-normal-ranged-attack Deflect Arrows feat -- no deflecting acid and taking no damage to go through the corridor in my version. This place is designed to suck resources dry.
* In the normal-door corridor, the doors are locked with consecutively harder locks (DC20, DC25, DC30, DC35). The final door conceals an archway of mist. If a PC passes through the mist, they are teleported (with all their gear) to a 10' x 10' room which exits, via a one-way door, into the door end of room #2 -- right next to where the pressure plate triggering the descending ceiling starts (I extend the pressure plate to within 5' of the doors, as noted above). Same Reflex save when the plate is hit and the ceiling starts to descend as normal, but I plan to ask "what are you doing?" if the Reflex save is successful. How many players will dash forward to try and beat the closing corridor, and how many will just try to turn back and go through the now-solid stone wall behind them? Additionally, if the party hasn't dug out that entry way, the fortunate PC who actually made the Reflex DC and jumped for the closing corridor still needs to dig himself out -- a process that takes around 30 minutes of digging for one person alone to create a crawlspace.
End part 1... more below.
Continuing on...
* Rooms 10, 11, and room-trap 12 are essentially unchanged. However, I'm replacing the brain-in-a-jar in room 10b with an intellect devourer. It's smart enough to hide invisibly if the party comes into its chamber en masse, but will definitely be eyeing the party lustfully and waiting for a chance to ambush/take over one of the party members -- ideally, when they're already wounded or when they're trying to rest. Let the party beware resting in this apparently safe corridor, and if one of the party members suddenly goes berserk and starts attacking the rest of the group at a critical moment... well, paranoia will no doubt be heightened. *evil grin*
* Room 13 is essentially unchanged. In room 14, I have replaced the wo bloodmote clouds the 3.5 version suggests with one hellwasp swarm.
* Rooms 15 and 15a are unchanged, save that the bottoms of the pits have illusory spikes. If any PCs died horribly from the wyvern poison back in the entry hallways, this should make them somewhat nervous. (And actually provide a use for the <i>detect poison</i> spell.)
Prior to room 16's nasty lava trap, though, I'm interjecting a "buffer" room. A locked door (DC30) leads to a 30' wide, 30' long, 20' high chamber with three 10' parallel corridors leaving to the north (and closed doors 20' up each corridor. The corridors are visually identical. Above the corridors is an inscription that reads "Dexter is sinister, sinister is dexter, center is death."
It's a riddle room, of sorts, drawing on heraldric knowledge -- dexter meaning "right-facing" or "good", sinister meaning "left-facing" or "evil". Thus, passing through the left-hand corridor is completely safe. Passing through the center corridor triggers an empowered <i>disintegrate</i> trap (PF 422 -- hey, they were warned, "center is death"). Passing through the right-hand corridor triggers the creation of a duplicate of the passing character, per a <i>mirror of opposition</i>. ("Dexter is sinister" -- evil twin, get it?)
* Room 16 is basically unchanged.
I extensively rebuilt the False Acererak. Although I've stuck to core spells only, I used both the Master Specialist (conjurer) and Malconvoker prestige classes (from Complete Mage and Complete Scoundrel, respectively) for my build, rather than using the generic "necromancer-lich" build from the Bestiary.
False Acererak (CR 13-14)
Wizard 5 (conjurer, teleportation school focus)/Master Conjurer 4/Malconvoker 5. (Opposition schools: enchantment, necromancy.)
St11, De18, Co--, In30, Wi16, Ch20
[u]Initiative:[/u] +4
[u]Senses:[/u] perception +27, darkvision 60', low-light
[u]Speed:[/u] 30’
[u]Space/Reach:[/u] 5’ / 5’
[u]AC:[/u] 29, [u]Touch:[/u] 16, [u]Flat:[/u] 23
[u]Base Attack:[/u] +6 [u]CMB:[/u] +6 [u]CMD:[/u] 20
[u]Attack:[/u] touch +6 (1d8+6 plus Fort DC24 or perm paralyzed) OR ranged touch +10
[u]Special:[/u] paralyzing touch (Fort DC24), fear aura (Will DC24 or shaken for 13 rounds), spells, channel resistance +4, life sight, undead traits, swift-action teleport up to 30 ft (up to 13 times/day) minor school esoterica (conj: +lvl to summoned creatures' hp), deceptive summons (fury: +2 dmg, +2 hp/HD for evil summons), fiendish legion (+1 summoned evil creature on summoning spells).
[u]Feats:[/u] Spell Focus (conjuration) (1), Aug Summon (1), Scribe Scroll, Craft Wondrous Item (3), Skill Focus (spellcraft) (MS), Extend Spell, Combat Casting, Greater Spell Focus (conjuration) (MS), (9th), (11th), Skill Focus (bluff) (Mal), (13th)
[u]Saves:[/u] Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +12
[u]Skills:[/u] bluff +24, craft (alchemy) +27, intimidate +21, spellcraft +27, know (arcana) +27, know (planes) +27, linguistics +27, sense motive +27, stealth +24.
Hp 149 (13 HD)
Spells:
0th (unlim): bleed, mage hand, mending, detect magic.
1st: magic missile (x3), grease, prot from good, color spray (x2), shield.
2nd: invisibility, resist energy, scorching ray (x2), glitterdust, darkness, web, fog cloud.
3rd: lightning bolt (10d6, Ref DC23 ½, x2), dispel magic, fly, acid arrow (extended), stinking cloud (Fort DC25), slow (Will DC23).
4th: resilient sphere (Ref DC24), fire shield, phantasmal killer (Will/Fort DC24) (x2), black tentacles, dimension door, lesser globe of invulnerability.
5th: cloudkill (Fort DC27), baleful polymorph (Fort DC25), wall of force, summon monster V (x2), quickened magic missile.
6th: disintegrate (Fort DC26 or 26d6), flesh to stone (Fort DC26), repulsion (Will DC26), summon monster VI.
False Acererak's summons, what with Augment Summoning, Master Specialist (conjurer) levels, and Malconvoker levels combined are particularly nasty. His summon monster VI pops out two fiendish dire tigers (thanks to the Malconvoker's fiendish legion), which are buffed to an average of 174 hp (with DR 10/good and resist 15 to fire/cold), and have +20 attack on their 2 claws (2d4+12) and bite (2d6+12). That doesn't even mention the pounce and rake.
His summon monster V I statted out to bring in either two fiendish anklyosaurs, two babau demons, or two xill (which, looking at them in the Bestiary, got a lot nastier, even moreso when you add in the various Augment Summoning/Master Specialist/Malconvoker bonuses).
Presumably, F.A. will fly up out of the swordsmens' reach, pop out a summon or two, and then start pelting the party indiscriminately with damage spells, all the while dropping a nice stinking cloud or cloudkill on the rear (and presumably spellcasting) ranks to close off the stairs leading out of his chamber.
If the party manages to kill him off, the illusory collapse still happens -- and after that fight, the party may well believe they've managed it. The jade coffer in the chamber will contain some minor (but nice) treasures, like scrolls thoroughly trapped with sepia snake sigil, fire trap, and explosive runes.
* Room 19 is mostly unchanged, save that the vat-shaped gelatinous cube has its STR upped to 18 and a tendency to grapple rather than slam.
* Room 20 is effectively unchanged, but the corridor beyond the secret door I've altered. Where in the original 3.5 module the corridor is empty and dead-ends without any obsacles about 50' down, in my version the ceiling is hung for 40' with dozens of slender chains (hanging to ankle height), each festooned with bells. It is possible to move down the corridor, but it requires a DC 20 Reflex save to avoid brushing against the belled chains for each 10' of corridor.
Each 10' of corridor, if the belled chains are triggered, looses and then retracts spikes from both sides of the corridor to strike at anyone standing in that 10' space. Any PC that triggers the spikes is hit by 1d6 spikes at +15 attack, each doing 1d8 damage.
At the far end of the corridor is a pair of double doors. The 10' square in front of the double doors is a pressure plate which unlocks and opens the doors, and releases the torrent of water behind them. (There's a vast vertical reservoir of water back there, which refills with a decanter of endless water each day.) Any character in the corridor, unless they are firmly anchored to something, is swept 45' back down the corridor each round for 3 rounds. This will automatically trigger all four 10' squares of belled chains as the character is swept back along the corridor by the rush of water on the 1st round. On the 2nd round, the character who triggered the door opening (and any characters who were standing in the corridor beyond the chains) will be swept into the Pit of Two Hundred Spikes (room 20) and automatically trigger the projected spike trap there.
* Rooms 21, 22, 23, and 23a are unchanged. (Small note? Having statted out the bleakborn from Libris Mortis (which is down at the bottom of that 100' deep pit), those things are NASTY. A single character having to face one after that damaging of a fall is shudder-inducing.)
* I kept the stone juggernaut in 23a pretty much as written, but added that it can grapple (and then inflict damage per the standard grapple rules) with its trunk.
* Rooms 24 and 25 are effectively unchanged, with all their associated bits of nastiness (can't wait to see the party's reaction to the gem).
* Room 26 I updated, converting the mummy lord from the 3.5 Monster Manual into a 11th level cleric of Gorum. Moreover, he's loaded down with cursed items, the better to screw over the party in the end.
Mummy Lord
St26, De12, Co--, In8, Wi22, Ch17
Initiative: +5
Senses: perception +18, darkvision 60'.
Speed: 15’
Space/Reach: 5’ / 5’
AC: 33 (18 vs ranged weapons), Touch: 11, Flat: 32
Base Attack: +12 CMB: +20 CMD: 31
Attack: slam +21 (1d6+12/19-20 plus mummy rot)
Special: despair (on first sight, Will DC17 or paralyzed for 1d4 rounds), mummy rot (Fort DC17, onset 1 minute, freq 1/day, 1d6 CON and 1d6 CHA, can only be cured by successfully casting both remove curse and remove disease within 1 minute of each other), undead traits, vulnerability to fire, domain abilities (Touch of Chaos: melee touch attack +19, for next round target must roll twice for every d20 and take worse roll; Destructive Smite: make single melee attack with +5 dmg), channel negative energy 6d6.
Feats: Alertness, Combat Casting, Improved Initiative, WF (slam), SF (necro), GSF (necro), Heavy Armor Prof.
Saves: Fort +11, Ref +8, Will +20.
Skills: know (religion) +13, stealth +5.
Hp 137 (8d12 + 11d8 HD). DR 5/-. Resist fire 20.
Spells (domains: Chaos, Destruction)
0th (unlim): bleed, resistance, detect magic, mending.
1st: true strike (D), bane (Will DC17), doom (Will DC19) (x2), obscuring mist, shield of faith (+3AC), sanctuary (Will DC17).
2nd: shatter (D), hold person (x2), silence, spiritual weapon, darkness, death knell.
3rd: [inflict serious wounds/sacr] (D) (Will DC21 for ½), bestow curse (Will DC21), contagion (Fort DC21), dispel magic, meld into stone, blindness/deafness (Will DC21).
4th: chaos hammer (D), unholy smite, poison (Fort DC22 or 1d3 CON per round for 6 rounds), spell immunity, divine power (+3).
5th: shout (D) (5d6 sonic dmg, Fort DC21 for ½), slay living (12d6+11 neg energy dmg, Fort DC23 for 3d6+11), mass inflict light wounds (Fort DC23 for ½), insect plague.
6th: harm (D) (110 neg energy dmg, Will DC24 for ½), blade barrier (11d6 force dmg, Ref DC22 for ½), summon monster VI.
Gear: cloak of resistance +2, ring of fire resistance (major) (thus resist fire 20, but with drawback Fort DC17 1/day or take 1 pt CON dmg, cannot heal until ring is removed), +3 full plate armor of arrow attraction (detects as full plate armor +3, DC41 to ID correctly), scarab of death (detect as amulet of natural armor +5 (DC44 to ID correctly)), loadstone (in eye socket other than amethyst, ID's as ioun stone unless DC30 ID before picked up), helm of opposite alignment (detect as helm of comprehend languages/read magic, DC37 to ID correctly), mummy-animating amethyst (disintegrates as soon as mummy animates).
* Rooms 28 and 29 are the same as presented in the module.
* Room 30 is somewhat changed to be tougher. First, the creature contained in the bronze urn is a greater efreet (per the Bestiary).
* Additionally, the sarcophagus is somewhat more sizeable than it needs to be to contain the body of a man -- 12' long from end to end, and proportionally wide, with a surprisingly deep lid (perhaps 3' deep). The sarcophagus lid looks like a oversized, stylized muscular man holding a staff and a scroll to his chest. The scroll reads "Do not open upon pain of death." (Fair warning, eh?)
This is because the oversized carving of the "man" is actually an ossuary golem (esimated CR11) containing an advanced devourer (CR12).
Although I only had the description of the ossuary golem to go on, I built it based on a mesh of the clay and stone golems, with a different spell-like ability.
Ossuary Golem (CR 11) (Lg construct, N)
St24, De9, Co--, In--, Wi11, Ch1
Initiative: -1
Senses: perception +0, darkvision 60', low-light
Speed: 20’
Space/Reach: 10’ / 10’
AC: 24, Touch: 8, Flat: 24
Base Attack: +13 CMB: +21 CMD: 30
Attack: 2 slams +19 (2d10+7 plus cursed wound) OR ranged touch +12
Special: cursed wound (wound doesn't heal naturally, resists magical healing – must succeed on DC26 caster lvl check or healing fails), spell-like abilities (swift action: every 2 rounds, enervation (or ray of exhaustion, haven't decided yet), channel negative energy in 10' radius, (3d6, Will DC17 for ½) every 1d4+1 rounds), necromantic death throes (6d6 negative energy dmg in 20' radius, Will DC17 for ½), immunity to magic (per stone golem), construct traits.
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +4
Hp 101 (13d10+30 HD ea). DR 10 / adamantine.
The ossuary golem's and devourer's spell-like abilities, of course, should function normally in the anti-magic room. The golem activates if the lid of the sarcophagus is disturbed in any way.
I'm still figuring out just how to use Acererak. I'm unsatisifed with the CR 12 "Acererak construct" -- it's way too easy to avoid it, on the whole, by blocking off one end of the final lair with a wall spell and scarpering off with whatever loot can be grabbed. I don't quite want to make him as deadly as the original, though.
Anyone have any ideas for a happy (but still challengingly painful to the party) medium?
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I've been meaning to do this for quite a while, but I never do seem to get around to it. My best advice for capturing the true spirit of the Tomb of Horrors is this: The 3.5 version is a decent starting point, but I'd also frequently refer to the original version, and tend to err on the side of 1e. This will likely result in a module with some of it's own quirky rules that aren't quite PFRPG standard, but it would be a better representation of the original.
For example, the demilich construct at the end of the original module was pretty much immune to all damage other than a few different (sometimes rather odd) ways of attacking him. I'd probably keep that aspect. Yeah, it's runs in the face of 3.5/PFRPG "we must always be fair" logic, but then again the Tomb itself flies in the face of that logic to begin with, so it might as well be an accurate representation thereof. The 3.5 version was very neutered...these days saying "I survived the Tomb of Horrors" doesn't impress nearly as much.
If you're interested in working the Tomb into a larger campaign (or even series of campaigns) I would heartily recommend "Return to the Tomb of Horrors" and even the new 4E Tomb of Horrors hardcover. "Return" shows how the Tomb fits into Acererak's plan to basically become Undeath itself, and the 4E adventure shows a further scheme that builds off of both of the previous modules. I fully plan to convert all three to PFRPG (with a 1E/Gygaxian feel) at some point in the distant future. I may even make some effort to set the Tomb in Golarion. If I ever do make any progress, I'll almost certainly make my efforts available here.
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Regarding the demilich:
Page 51 of Pathfinder 11, Skeletons of Scarwall, has stats for a demilich. Yeah, they're 3.5 stats, and I believe they're pulled from Tome of Horrors III, but they're the closest we have to an "official" Pathfinder demilich at the moment. Well, demilich construct, since they're more based upon the the 1E demilich than his epic-level 3E makeover. But that would be a good starting point for Acererak...and then add in his rather goofy immunities/vulnerabilities like I said before.
True, some of the save DCs in the 3.5 version are kind of ridiculously makeable for any decent 9th level character. That's one of the reasons I embraced the "each poisoned spike counts as another dose of poison" outlook -- sure, DC23's not too hard to make, but having to make two DC31 Fort saves against poison? Much harder.
I'm still tempted to go after my nasty alternate take on the lava corridor trap. Allow a save, yes, but make it so that a pressure plate in the floor triggers a time-delayed sprayer of incendiary slime back at the doorway. When the floor tilts, all the slime starts running downhill, hits the lava in at most two turns, and ignites -- and meanwhile, makes the Reflex save to get out of the corridor that much more difficult.
Sadly, I can't seem to find my old copy of the original Tomb of Horrors. I remember a lot of it being "Oh, you stepped there? OK, you're dead. No save." *evil grin*
If only I had seen this before I ran the 3.5 version.
But I'll still grab this delightfully deadly update for another time. Thank you for posting your notes!
Did you finish the conversion?