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I just finished running this adventure and it went fairly well. The group had fun which is what really matters. It was a bit hack and slash heavy for my group but they still had good times.
They were a smaller group... 3 players and 1 NPC (see below) and they finished just shy of level 14.
I very rarely had to scale down an encounter. Couple I had to, some on the fly. They are pretty obvious which ones... but a few are tricky. You have to read the encounters carefully to see all the nuances to potential threats.
The group was not very prepared for Trolls... You think the title would have clued them in, but once they retrained the trolls went down easy.
Spoiler:
If the group does not Fire or acid powers they will have a hard time... if they have nothing... I might say they wont be able to kill them without some DM intervention or fudging... because of the Troll Healing. If they have fire and acid at wills... the trolls will go down easy.
My group retrained but were bummed cause there isnt very many trolls near the end of the adventure and they felt like they retrained for nothing.
There are a couple TPK potential encounters depending on when the Players encounter them...
Spoiler:
my group almost died at the Roper as they tried to hide to rest for the day
I found several of the encounters to be very memorable
Spoiler:
Roper was brutal... the fight with the Fomorian was epic. I actually felt this was more like a final Boss round then Vard. The toughest fight was the Hags - they were fully rested and still had a tough time.
I agree that Skalmad could be repetitive... I just didnt use all of his bag of tricks in the first encounter.
Bax issues... the Killer NPC
Spoiler:
by the way is superman - he might be too powerful to "add" to most parties, as he does way more damage then most PCs and is very hard to hit with superior defenses. If it wasnt for him they would have died... Bax ended up getting killed by Vard in the last battle.
My group did not go back to town... and because of that skipped a 3rd of the adventure and some very cool encounters that I will have to re-purpose.
Spoiler:
I was thinking of using those encounters as part of a fomorian cyclops invasion on Cedulion in the feywild... the group has to get back to the normal plane some how! I would have to make sure to scale the encounters properly since one formorian is formidable. Any thoughts on how to convert the troll invasion of moonstair to a formorian invasion of an eladrin city?
Overall, it was a fun adventure... not a lot of investigation ( the swamp journey could have lots depending on the DM, but as written for novice DMs they may just blow through it) my group still doesnt get skill challenges (and I am still trying to find the best method to run them), but I tried to play up the vastness of the swamp, and the great potential to get lost. The warren wasnt too big to become a grind (like KotSF). Unfortunately, the town encounters didnt happen, but the feywild mixed things up. I felt some of the encounters there were pretty weak compared to the others. It felt a bit disjointed. Couple interesting Puzzles that could make certain encounters "grind" if the party doesnt pick up on the clues. Btw I recommend the web enhancement encounters as they added a bit more backstory for me to play with.
Ambushes can be easily overdone as well. Especially since they always fail.
Point.
Though to make it, you had to conveniently ignore the context where I was responding to a poster who argued ambushes - as a storytelling tool - were bad and should be removed...
In response to you, in case you're serious despite the smiley, I would like to say that in 4E you can use ambushes more often precisely because they're more likely to fail!
I want to discuss Trolls and their abilities, but seeing this is a tangent to the topic we discuss here, I'm starting a new thread:
"http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-rules/254446-trolls.html": Trolls!
Last edited by CapnZapp; 15th April 2009 at 11:46 AM..
i think I am missing something here...this isn't in nether Vale...and I am unsure how to put it in the same world as h1-h3...any idea where to drop it?
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Remathilis
Planescape
It should be given special award to Die Vecna, Die: a module that manages to trash no less than THREE different settings (Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Planescape) in the course of one module.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Remathilis
Those of you who fretted that monsters have too many hp and fights take too long: meet the barbarian. The ULTIMATE "Lets speed this combat up, I need to whiz" class!
it mentions where it is located... small blurb, easy to miss.
on page 4
thanks...I must have missed it
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Remathilis
Planescape
It should be given special award to Die Vecna, Die: a module that manages to trash no less than THREE different settings (Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Planescape) in the course of one module.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Remathilis
Those of you who fretted that monsters have too many hp and fights take too long: meet the barbarian. The ULTIMATE "Lets speed this combat up, I need to whiz" class!
If the group does not Fire or acid powers they will have a hard time... if they have nothing... I might say they wont be able to kill them without some DM intervention or fudging... because of the Troll Healing. If they have fire and acid at wills... the trolls will go down easy.
My group retrained but were bummed cause there isnt very many trolls near the end of the adventure and they felt like they retrained for nothing.
I encourage my group to use their skills to determine what their characters know about specific creatures. As soon as they heard the word Troll in the lead-in they asked what their characters knew and were thus prepared to deal with them.
Spoiler:
In regards to having fire and acid powers, I don't think these are specifically necessary. Acid is harder to come by, but fire is readily available. Using the guidelines for non-standard actions a group should still be able to take out a downed troll with a torch. An attack with a torch can even stop them from regenerating for a round. This is why I encourage my players to think about what they are trying to accomplish first and then think if they have a power that fits. If not, it's time to improvise.
Spoiler heavy details about an NPC that's added a bit to my game. My own players SHOULD NOT READ. That means you!
Spoiler:
I'm having particularly good luck with the oni mage. If you think about it, he's basically unkillable for a regular party of PCs. He can fly, he can turn invisible at will, and he can transform himself into any humanoid as a disguise. And he's got over 150 hit points, so as long as he's smart enough to escape as soon as he's bloodied, he's home free.
And he's already recurring, depending on how the first fight goes. So its easy enough to have him recur again. I'm going to have him show up in town, disguised as other NPCs, and fomenting trouble. Hopefully I'll get my players really paranoid.
So played another session. Much improved but that had little to do with the actual adventure I think and more with the DM.
We finished freeing a ghost who had been bound by skullmad and he led us along a river and up a waterfall to the throne room. Using the warlock as an emissary (while I got into position) My fighter challenged skullmad to single combat for leadership of the Trolls. He accepted and we dueled, my flaming sword ensuring he could not heal his grevious wounds. He pummelled me pretty savagely and if I wasn't MC warlord I probably would have lost (I spent 6 surges plus had the level 2 regen utility going most of the fight). In the end he opened a portal and turned to flee after knocking me prone. Somehow from my back I was able to strike him (thanks wisdom bonus/combat superiority) and cut him down as he turned to flee in cowardice. The Jewel in his eye flared, his body crumbled to ash (the jewel folding in on itself) and he screamed something along the lines of "Fools what have you done, the old king will........"
So as new king I dusted myself off and issued an order to have the assault on Moonstair recinded and the warlock and some trolls went off to make it so, along with some orders from an "officer". The drow in the throne room explained someof what was going on and how there are forces being marshalled on the otherside of the portal (presumably by this old king was how I infered it) which is still open. I asked the drow to establish a supply line and to bring it supplies to the trollhaunt; we plan to make it an actually community, and try and integrate the trolls into the surroundings.
Meanwhile the warlock met a worg commander who wasn't interested in what he had to say, but was able to take him and his puppies down with the help of the troll flunkies.
We all agreed it was the best session of the adventure by far. Although we've clearly taken it way off the train tracks. But at least we're all excited to play it again now.
Spoiler heavy details about an NPC that's added a bit to my game. My own players SHOULD NOT READ. That means you!
Spoiler:
I'm having particularly good luck with the oni mage. If you think about it, he's basically unkillable for a regular party of PCs. He can fly, he can turn invisible at will, and he can transform himself into any humanoid as a disguise. And he's got over 150 hit points, so as long as he's smart enough to escape as soon as he's bloodied, he's home free.
And he's already recurring, depending on how the first fight goes. So its easy enough to have him recur again. I'm going to have him show up in town, disguised as other NPCs, and fomenting trouble. Hopefully I'll get my players really paranoid.
LOL!
Spoiler:
My group thinks that the Troll King is the Oni Mage. And one PC in particular has been making the NPCs in Moonstair uncomfortable by scrutinizing them trying to determine if they are an oni in disguise.
(snip) We all agreed it was the best session of the adventure by far. Although we've clearly taken it way off the train tracks. But at least we're all excited to play it again now.
Excellent. That sounds like a great session and a lot of fun.
We're playing through this adventure right now. Although I'm having fun, it doesn't seem particularly memorable. This adventure seems to be a straightforward series of combat encounters and it might just be our DM but there doesn't seem to be much of a hook other than "there's trolls, go kill them."
I'm about to run this adventure, but I may need some help with something. I'm going to allow the group to travel there via linked portal ritual (I'm adding one to Moonstair). This presents some interesting problems from an adventure / story standpoint.
- they would bypass the "travel to" introductory encounter. Any thoughts on how to rewrite this?
- in all likeliness the PCs would use this as a method of fast-travel back, rather than trudge through the swamp. This could lead to them using it for the raid encounter, which may mess up the order of events.
- from a story perspective, how would I explain why the baron of the neighboring kingdom wouldn't send soldiers to help defend the town via a linked portal?
I'm about to run this adventure, but I may need some help with something. I'm going to allow the group to travel there via linked portal ritual (I'm adding one to Moonstair). This presents some interesting problems from an adventure / story standpoint.
- they would bypass the "travel to" introductory encounter. Any thoughts on how to rewrite this?
- in all likeliness the PCs would use this as a method of fast-travel back, rather than trudge through the swamp. This could lead to them using it for the raid encounter, which may mess up the order of events.
- from a story perspective, how would I explain why the baron of the neighboring kingdom wouldn't send soldiers to help defend the town via a linked portal?
Quick answer to #2 and #3 is to say the portal is only active on a full moon (basically once a month).
The 'introductory encounter' could then be an encounter with a bloke in a inn who narrowly escaped the trolls on the road - or, more interestingly, the oni mage polymorphed into the form of the slain messenger, who arrives with the message to spy out the strength of potential opposition in the town in the light of an impending invasion
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Spoiler heavy details about an NPC that's added a bit to my game. My own players SHOULD NOT READ. That means you!
Spoiler:
I'm having particularly good luck with the oni mage. If you think about it, he's basically unkillable for a regular party of PCs. He can fly, he can turn invisible at will, and he can transform himself into any humanoid as a disguise. And he's got over 150 hit points, so as long as he's smart enough to escape as soon as he's bloodied, he's home free.
And he's already recurring, depending on how the first fight goes. So its easy enough to have him recur again. I'm going to have him show up in town, disguised as other NPCs, and fomenting trouble. Hopefully I'll get my players really paranoid.
Spoiler:
The players in my group managed to hit the oni with an immobilize effect which he couldn't for the life of him manage to save against. I managed to hold them off for a few rounds through invisibility and total defense, but they still ended up killing him
I'm going to assume anyone reading this far expects spoilers so I'm not going to hide it.
I used the Oni Mage as the main annoyance for the party. I named him Kimsul and gave him a background where he hated Eladrin for wiping out his people hundreds of years ago. I converted him to higher level Oni a few times including a 14th Oni Spiritmaster in the second to final battle.
I had six players so I added him to the Fomorean battle near the end. They enjoyed killing him.
I see there's an Oni in Demon Queen's Enclave - I might make it him again. I love reoccurring NPCs.
Overall my group enjoyed the module. Their favorite part was the defense of Moonstair.
I just asked my wife which of the four she's like the best and worst. She put Trollhaunt at the bottom. Still, we enjoyed all of them.
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