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I got hand-me-down copies of the original CotCT adventure path from a friend of mine a while back, and while I have read through some of it I have yet to run the campaign. There are a few things I would like to ask about regarding the anniversary edition, especially in regards to some of the odd monsters.
Do the Havero and Akachek still have stats in the new book? It would be great to see them somehow updated for Pathfinder.
Do the new additions add anything interesting to the adventure that I would miss out on by running the original 3.5 adventure path?
Likewise, is there anything that you would advise I keep from the original adventure path that didn't make it into the updated version?
Finally, are there any new player or monster options in the book that I should be aware of? I always like to have new feats, templates, and other abilities on hand, and I was wondering if CotCT has as many as the RotRL anniversary edition (which I am currently running and absolutely love) did.
Thanks for your help
Contributor
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I got hand-me-down copies of the original CotCT adventure path from a friend of mine a while back, and while I have read through some of it I have yet to run the campaign. There are a few things I would like to ask about regarding the anniversary edition, especially in regards to some of the odd monsters.
Do the Havero and Akachek still have stats in the new book? It would be great to see them somehow updated for Pathfinder.
Havero, yes (with separate tentacle stats); Mantis God no.
Do the new additions add anything interesting to the adventure that I would miss out on by running the original 3.5 adventure path?
I think so, definitely... but your mileage may vary.
Likewise, is there anything that you would advise I keep from the original adventure path that didn't make it into the updated version?
Not really. Two of the most notorious magic items didn't make it (specifically, guided weapons and the celestial plate armor). I don't miss them.
Finally, are there any new player or monster options in the book that I should be aware of? I always like to have new feats, templates, and other abilities on hand, and I was wondering if CotCT has as many as the RotRL anniversary edition (which I am currently running and absolutely love) did.
There's a few. Some new necromancy spells for Rolth (in his slightly expanded role), a kyton eidolon for use with the unchained summoner, and I think a few other things...
Thanks for your help
Always happy to help. ^_^
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Akachek no longer has stats (he was changed from a demigod to a full god a while back, so he's now too strong for stats), but the Havero gets full stats, as do a few of the other monsters that had yet to be given PF updates.
There's actually a sizable amount of added stuff, with a whole new dungeon area added to the end of the fourth chapter, and Scarwall has had a bunch more rooms given full descriptions. There's a lot of other little added stuff too, like campaign traits that give experience when you accomplish something in the first part of the adventure.
I don't remember there being anything major that was removed; some stat blocks are changed (Blackjack's a vigilante now), but I think the changes are improvements across the board. There's not a ton of new player options (though the kyton eidolon option for summoners is quite neat), but the aforementioned monsters are neat.
One last thing to note - there's a ton of new art in this book - way more than I remember there being in the RotRL compilation, some for characters who didn't have art in the original.
So I ran CotCT books 1-5 back in 2012 (using PF conversions), started running it again in 2016, and got the AE just in time for them to enter Scarwall.
Positives:
(1) I LOVE the new art
(2) I LOVE that you can get all the monsters pre-prepped for you in Hero Labs (for the usual nominal fee that Hero Labs ALWAYS has)
(3) Most of the changes add depth to NPCs or monsters who needed it, or add to the story, so I liked them
Negatives:
(1) The dungeon at the end of Book 4 seems really tacked on and tacky. I omitted it entirely, and ran the "original" version of Book 4
(2) Scarwall suffers from "too much of a good thing". What it really seems like is that they took a huge number of great ideas from GMs who'd run CotCT over the years, and tried to integrate most of them into Scarwall. Scarwall was creepy and magnificent precisely because it was so huge, and so much of it was empty. The "new" Scarwall has something written up for almost every room. It's too much; it turns what was a massively creepy haunted castle into a massive, "Killed that, what's next" dungeon crawl.
It's gotten too crowded in there!
On the other hand, it's easier to drop content than add your own. In the original Scarwall I added a lot of mysterious visions, creepy noises, bloody footprints, and the like, and my players ate it up. Now there are a whole lot of rooms with suggested "Phantasms", and even a suggestion at the beginning that, "Y'know, we might have added too many Phantasms, so feel free to omit them to get the level that's right for your group."
But Scarwall definitely feels overcrowded in the new version.
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Considering my players just canceled our once-a-month game so they won't be entering Scarwall proper 'til at least January, I have little more to add 'til then.