Revenge of the Giants Review

Bold or Stupid · Oct 23, 2011

Ryujin said:
Oddly enough my group found the Physadros encounter to be one of the tougher ones they faced. With him starting bloodied, it seriously limited the options for their Pacifist, though the situation seemed ideal for the Charging Barbarian.

The Court of Fallen Leaves encounter was, I think, their favourite in the whole module. I made it completely free form, moving from group to group at whim.

Whirling Barbarian with foot wear that allows him to minor to move, plus hunters quarry from a ranger multiclass. Add that to a Bravura Warlord who will take what ever risks he can and you get a lot of damage output when they Nova. Would have loved to run the court freeform, but it's not quite my groups comfort zone, some would run with while others would get bored and disruptive. I intend to run the Astral Giant subquest as very open, and let them try and talk their way through it (as I suspect they will try), the Starmetal Quest is going to be run old school, my Barabarians player was kicked from uni in 1979(!) for partying to hard and playing to much D&D and seems to react well to the oldschool style, and given it's final boss, it just seems right.

Bold or Stupid · Oct 26, 2011

I think this is now more entries than the Livejournal I've had for 5 years...

Double figures baby!!!

Ryujin · Oct 26, 2011

I gave up on battlemats, quite a while back, and now use 1" ruled graph paper. It's cheap and I can have the maps pre-drawn, to speed things up. Tape two together, and you've got a huge area. There are a couple of places where this is needed, in this module.

Infiniti2000 · Oct 26, 2011

We use the Tact Tiles. They're simply awesomeness.

Bold or Stupid · Nov 6, 2011

With slight delays due to me being rubbish.

Part 11

Netherstorm · Nov 7, 2011

My group had a heck of a time with the four-armed skeletons, as I recall!

You may want to reconsider allowing your pcs to talk their way past the astral giants. The battle on the steps is one of the most fun encounters in the whole book IMO.

I ended up cutting out most of the encounters from flamefall tower because the party was leveling too fast, so you might want to keep an eye out for that.

Ryujin · Nov 7, 2011

I should be running the final encounter either this Friday, or next. I have to agree that the stairway encounter, with the Astral Giants, was one of my favourites. The Pacifist just couldn't seem to stay on the stairs, continually getting batted around like a tennis ball.

Bold or Stupid · Nov 7, 2011

Netherstorm said:
My group had a heck of a time with the four-armed skeletons, as I recall!

You may want to reconsider allowing your pcs to talk their way past the astral giants. The battle on the steps is one of the most fun encounters in the whole book IMO.

I ended up cutting out most of the encounters from flamefall tower because the party was leveling too fast, so you might want to keep an eye out for that.

I don't bother giving out actual xp, just leveling the party up every few session.

Thanks for the tip on the Astral Giants fight, I'll have a look and see what I think.

Dedekind · Nov 11, 2011

Ryujin said:
I should be running the final encounter either this Friday, or next. I have to agree that the stairway encounter, with the Astral Giants, was one of my favourites. The Pacifist just couldn't seem to stay on the stairs, continually getting batted around like a tennis ball.

My players wiped the floor with the stairs encounters. I doubt they even remember it.

Ryujin · Nov 11, 2011

Dedekind said:
My players wiped the floor with the stairs encounters. I doubt they even remember it.

My players' party is comprised of three Strikers (Pursuing Avenger, Charging Barbarian, and a two-blade Ranger) and a Pacifist Cleric, along with the occasional addition of a Staff Wizard. The only encounters that are memorable, at all, are the ones in which the Pacifist has to spend virtually the whole encounter saving his own bacon.