Don't touch anything.
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If you are unsure about experimenting with something use one of those summons. Someone should focus on being the walking radar(high perception).
I don't think it's a spoiler to say: make backup characters, several.
That is, if it's being run as originally designed.
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If you see a giant demon's mouth, inspect it carefully from the inside.
If you see a giant demon's mouth, inspect it carefully from the inside.
LOL. Do not follow this advice. That is all I will say.
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Hire someone elses character to explore for you, then loot their home for profit as they are not coming back
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If you are running the old school version of tomb of horrors, yeah be ready to die often.
3.5 tomb of horrors is decently dangerous and frankly it would be almost impossible to find and detect every single traps...so yeah bring a lot of healing or at least a replacement character sheet.
I didn't play 4th edition Tomb of Horrors...so can't give any advice or opinion there.
Which version are you playing? Apparently some of the later ones aren't as deadly as the original.
I'm curious about that too. From what I heard (and I could be mistaken as I never played any of them) all the iterations of Tome of Horrors that would be compatible with Pathfinder are for the weak, as in just the weak, not the weak of heart.
So is an actual updated version being used or is the DM just using a copy of the original as a road map for his own take on the idea?
Build up your saves. A lot. Which ones? All of them. Especially vs. existence.
Just keep in mind that the very first playthrough ever of Tomb of Horrors, NOBODY DIED.
That's right. The very first time Gygax ever ran this meatgrinder for his pals on a Friday night, it was a flawless victory on their part.
How is that even possible?
Did they do the sheep strategy?
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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When I ran it, my group had a druid in the party who made very effective use of Reincarnate. The material components are only 1,000 gp so you can afford multiple of them. If you don't have a druid, see if you can buy a couple or three scrolls and have someone with UMD to activate them.
Another very simple trick that was quite effective was to bring chalk and mark out possible traps and/or scenarios along the way. That way if you end up circling back to a room, you immediately know which places to avoid.
At one point, my group wrote "Probably trapped" on a door. Later, they came back and replaced it with:
Definitely
Probably trapped
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Just keep in mind that the very first playthrough ever of Tomb of Horrors, NOBODY DIED.
That's right. The very first time Gygax ever ran this meatgrinder for his pals on a Friday night, it was a flawless victory on their part.
How is that even possible?
Did they do the sheep strategy?
very simple, imagine Gygax is your DM...all the time. They basically knew what to expect.
I recommend playing summoners this time. One synthesis and one Master Summoner. A bard to know stuff about the things you see and someone with a really high perception and disarm traps.
A cleric for healing and status effect removal, and a wizard (not a blaster) to deal with magical traps and spells.
To add to all the spoilers, in the original version there was a corridor where the DM's instructions read to count up to 10 as the party advanced and, if they didn't turn back within the count, to announce their deaths. No save, no information, not allowed to check for traps or shifting walls, etc. Just a TPK.
Followed by an hour or so of whinging about how Gygax ignored any rule whenever he felt like it and a retcon.
The bard and especially the skald choices are ill-advised if you can't convince the casters to play their classes properly. If your primary DPR is going to be through slinging Fireballs Inspire and Raging Song will do little to nothing to help.
Unless you are playing the boxed set, it's not really a combat dungeon. Return to the Tomb of Horrors, the boxed set, is supremely nasty with combats.
Summoned monsters will be VERY useful for you. In short, have a summon do something, don't do it yourself.
Protection vs energy damage and flight for everyone will be VERY useful.
And someone better be real good at beating on a demilich.
==Aelryinth
Bring a goatherd and a trained goatherder. Have him have the goats scout for you.
Everywhere.
Until you run out of goats.
This is how you find traps.
Summoners are an absolute must.
Summoning elementals to be probes saved the party several times when I ran the TOH, and I updates the rules to be extremely lethal to the party (actually even MORESO than the original in some instances).
Meh. I disagree with the above thread. ToH is a pretty boring dungeon. It has little in the way of combat. It has a number of no save deaths, but always hinted at. And it is painted PASTEL. Compared to many other things, it is not even very deadly.
The various no-saves or suck and no-saves and die really made its legend as a reaper of idiots.
if you are smart, it's a trap dungeon. Treat it like one.
Now, if you're also going through Return to Tomb of Horrors, combat will get a very big ratchet up.
==Aelryinth
Oh, that's part of the charm. There isn't, and you can't.
It's old school stuff. Some traps you can find and avoid. Others...nope, just try and see what happens.
Better yet, have your summoned goblin try something.
==Aelryinth
Describe to the DM very specifically what you do, not just "I search for traps", more like "I pour water on the floor and look for seams it runs into", stuff like that. Know lots and lots of languages. Know what summons speak languages, and what spells they can cast.
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Meh. I disagree with the above thread. ToH is a pretty boring dungeon. It has little in the way of combat. It has a number of no save deaths, but always hinted at. And it is painted PASTEL. Compared to many other things, it is not even very deadly.The original? What's more deadly?
It does have very little in the way of combat. Doesn't need it.
And the hints are pretty sketchy sometimes, IIRC. Even reading it, I have trouble figuring out how I'm supposed to make the right choices.
Tomb of Horrors is a module from 1st Ed.
Return to the Tomb of Horrors is a MASSIVE module from 2nd Ed that includes the original Tomb as part of it, and then expands on thereafter (you actually follow Acererak's soul back to Acererak himself).
Tomb of Horrors 3.5 was an update and a massive nerfing. Because Demilich was an Epic monster (because WOTC didn't think at all while making it), and because WOTC adopted a pretty severe "thou shalt not kill" attitude of game design, many of the traps were toned down even more than the system already did (there were no "Save or Die" traps in the original TOH, they were just "Die", because no Saves existed in 1st Edition, more spells exist now that make navigating the dungeon easier, etc.). The Demilich itself was made into simply a Construct, and... yeah.
The less said about the 3.5 version of TOH, the better.
If you look around the internet, there are 3.5/Pathfinder updates available that are much more faithful to the lethality of the dungeon.
Anyway, 1st Ed TOH is very much a meat-grinder of a dungeon if you're an idiot.
TOH is the reason players got used to carrying around a 10ft. pole as part of their gear.
Assume that everything and anything is trapped, trust nothing, and touch as little as possible, and you'll be fine.
This thread is reminding me of the thing I hate the most about trap-themed dungeons: if you do it right, you miss out on all the entertaining bits of the dungeon.
This thread is reminding me of the thing I hate the most about trap-themed dungeons: if you do it right, you miss out on all the entertaining bits of the dungeon.
Yeah, but at least TOH is basically the original Sierra adventure - you got absolutely NO hints whatsoever and had to figure everything out. And "doing it right" might even get you killed, because Gygax was a !@#$ing d%^& like that. I love that dungeon.
If you see a giant demon's mouth, inspect it carefully from the inside.
...you are an evil EVIL man.
But seriously: 10 foot poles. A lot of them. Cut down an entire elven forest worth. And I might also suggest a chest full of short swords. Wont say why, but poke everything and wave the sword around at random in front of you.
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Best version of Tomb of Horrors I ever heard of was a group a friend of mine was in who ran it as Goblins.
They played the high level tribal leaders and the low-level mooks that were sent into the meat grinder. They had a stack of goblin NPCs pre made and a stack of goblin personality cards, and when one would die they'd just grab another off the stack and pull a personality card.
When things were really bad, the chieftains would come in and deal with it, then send more goblins out.
They kept a running tally of how many goblins died. By the end it was well into the hundreds.
Best version of Tomb of Horrors I ever heard of was a group a friend of mine was in who ran it as Goblins.
They played the high level tribal leaders and the low-level mooks that were sent into the meat grinder. They had a stack of goblin NPCs pre made and a stack of goblin personality cards, and when one would die they'd just grab another off the stack and pull a personality card.
When things were really bad, the chieftains would come in and deal with it, then send more goblins out.
They kept a running tally of how many goblins died. By the end it was well into the hundreds.
Now this is the sort of Tomb of Horrors game I would want to play.
That's even funnier if it's 1E goblins. Chiefs were what, 4hd? they didn't have character levels.
==Aelryinth
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Just keep in mind that the very first playthrough ever of Tomb of Horrors, NOBODY DIED.
If I were to tell my players that I was running it, nobody would die either.
Because they would turn around and go elsewhere.
Just keep in mind that the very first playthrough ever of Tomb of Horrors, NOBODY DIED.If I were to tell my players that I was running it, nobody would die either.
Because they would turn around and go elsewhere.
~LAUGHTER~ If only you would use your power for good instead of evil.
This is the ultimate killer dungeon crawl. Have your skills ready so you can survive.
The Tomb of Horrors was a rite of passage for a generation of gamers when such things still mattered.
Enjoy.
Best version of Tomb of Horrors I ever heard of was a group a friend of mine was in who ran it as Goblins.
They played the high level tribal leaders and the low-level mooks that were sent into the meat grinder. They had a stack of goblin NPCs pre made and a stack of goblin personality cards, and when one would die they'd just grab another off the stack and pull a personality card.
When things were really bad, the chieftains would come in and deal with it, then send more goblins out.
They kept a running tally of how many goblins died. By the end it was well into the hundreds.
I soooooooo want to do this. I think I have an idea how, too.....thanks for the inspiration!
Now to find the 1e TOH module.....
Your going to want to have someone really good at traps. REALLY good.
Don't get greedy.
Although due to it's infamy and age I doubt most these days will find the original module that challenging any more as many of the tropes of modern day gaming started in that module.
Oh and do not expect the module to be fair. At all.
Followed by an hour or so of whinging about how Gygax ignored any rule whenever he felt like it and a retcon.
Sorry but I have to call this out. Sir you apparently know nothing about the real Mr. Gygax. In the days ToH was made there were far fewer rules and NONE to cover traps. No CR's as guidelines to encounter creation and the game was infinitely less care bear friendly.
Do not insult one of the progenitors of the genre without having your facts. Tomb of Horrors was lethal for it's day yes but it was also well in line with the design philosophy of dungeons of the time.
Saying "Gygax ignored any rule whenever he felt like it" is just ignorant.
Sorry but I have to call this out. Sir you apparently know nothing about the real Mr. Gygax. In the days ToH was made there were far fewer rules and NONE to cover traps. No CR's as guidelines to encounter creation and the game was infinitely less care bear friendly.
Do not insult one of the progenitors of the genre without having your facts. Tomb of Horrors was lethal for it's day yes but it was also well in line with the design philosophy of dungeons of the time.
Saying "Gygax ignored any rule whenever he felt like it" is just ignorant.
Also remember that several conventions these days exist BECAUSE of TOH.
Most of the traps aren't "Save or Die" - they're just "Die", in large part because the concept of "Saves" didn't really exist yet.
Obviously, players would have preferred something to potentially NOT let them die miserable deaths, thus things like Saving Throws were born.
You also have plenty of rules in the Tomb that mention interacting with things that all-but require a scale map in order to get the full details on.
Cue decades of gamers buying large pieces of architectural graph paper to draw to-scale maps that they use minis on.
