How many people have played through this so far?
- Assuming the PCs are forced to climb how many checks are people making them take?
- The point about planning the ascent to reduce the checks made - are most people ruling that those plans must either be devised via some kind of check (climb? engineering? wisdom/intelligence?) OR suggested independently by the players if they put there minds to it in the real world?
(As an aside I assume the centaur NPC cannot realistically get up by climbing)
- And once at the top how have people dealt with the Tree's riddle (not that I am expecting my characters to do anything but blunder in).
There is no way my PCs will remember the name I told them months ago.
Is that tough luck? Or have people been allowing some kind of memory check (Intelligence or Wisdom?). That just strikes me as a potentially easy way round the tree - although I suppose it does involve 2/3 successful checks and puzzling out the riddle
Thanks for any advice
I am quite excited about this book (although find the dungeon confusing and very deadly!)
My Pcs had a wand of spider climbing from a previous mission. They rolled natural 20s to answer the riddle. I was ready to use the tree in combat if needed. I gave them +8 to climb checks with the spider climb if any issues occurred. Once in the dungeon they were quickly Tpked and decided to stop the adventure path. Its such a great dungeon too.
Is the wand in the treasure per the book? Or did you place it in there?
I cannot remember all the treasure in book 2 and do not have it on me atm
Just located the wand from book 2.
Also checked the spell and duration (assume minimum require CL - therefore 30 mins)
Should make climb substantially easier as long as they haven't sold the item!
If they can quickly dispatch the will-o-wisps, the climb is fairly easy. Especially with arcane casters usually having access to Fly and divine casters having Air Walk.
The witch tree can be a tough encounter if they do fight it, but it's not as tough as some of the encounters in the dungeon. So if combat does ensue, it's a good introduction as to what awaits them within Artrosa.
Part of the reason the TPK occurred was because the party was too scared to leave the dungeon after successfully talking to the witch tree. I wanted them to be scared of it because it was so blood thirsty. After a few encounters they didnt want to leave because they thought it would back stab them so they pressed on too deep and over extended themselves.
My players also noted that these adventure paths place useful wands to be used later so they hoard them.
At least you were successful in making your players "fear" the tree. They saw it and just thought of it as "oh a talking tree that wants to stop us. Let's kill it." They quickly learned it wasn't that easy.
I really hope my players don't decide to fight the tree.
It's multiple attacks, grapples and defences mean I could easily see a tpk.
Do I remember correctly that the tree only fights to secure a sacrifice? That will hopefully prevent a tpk (as long as there is a retreat)
I also seem to remember the tree had some quite good treasure that it seems a shame that players do not get if they choose the non combat way of progressing (a route that I feel should always be encouraged not discouraged).
I think I might try and slip them the treasure if they "beat" the tree regardless of how they do it