a few Q's about the G series conversions

[ARCIMIDAIS]

Against The Giants

That's Pretty Much What I Have Been Doing, But The Module Does Need Major Fleshing Out. I Was Mainly Just Looking For A Few Ideas To To Add To What I Had Planned. The Characters Have Only Done A Small Portion Of The Hill Giant Steading So Far. They Have Not Entered Room 11 Yet....poor Bas***ds. They Have No Idea What Is Coming.

I Decided To Leave That Room As Is, But They Will Be Getting Help For The Battle In The Form Of Another Group From Another Town That Has Been Plauged The Giants. Gonna Be A Big Long Battle, But They Should Survive.

 

[JLou]

I was just re-reading the posts and caught something I had not noticed. Kenobi said his group was level FIFTEEN and the fights are tough? Holy crap. That seems awfully high for me, but I have not used any giants in combat in this system. Is that the level I should be getting them to before entering the giants?

What does everyone think?

 

[qstor]

As I mentioned before I ran G1 with level 10 pregens at the EnWorld Detroit game day. I didnt give them the recommended gold from the DMG and I thought the party might be a bit underpowered. At 15th level with a party of 6 and the recommended gold from the DMG I think is a bit overpowered in 3.5. With 12th level PCs and the gold allowance from the DMG the party should be good.

I played the giants as relatively intelligent too. They weren't ALL partying in the main hall. When my PCs ran into problems with the 14 dire wolves one of the wandering giants went back to the main hall and got his buddies
Plus my party ambushed a random patrol leaving the Steading and I had Norsa *think* something was up in the area so had a guard or two on duty.

Mike

 

[Andre]

I was just re-reading the posts and caught something I had not noticed. Kenobi said his group was level FIFTEEN and the fights are tough? Holy crap. That seems awfully high for me, but I have not used any giants in combat in this system. Is that the level I should be getting them to before entering the giants?

What does everyone think?

The main difference is that giants have pretty much doubled in power between 1E and 3E.

2E increased their hit dice by 50%, 3E kept the extra HD and gave them huge Con bonuses to hit points. The changes to Strength and BAB mean giants can deal out even more damage than before. Add all this up and the result:

a 1E hill giant had an average of 38 hit points (8d8 + 1-2)
a 3.5 hill giant has an average of 102 hit points (12d8 + 48)

a 1E hill giant had one attack as a 8 HD monster for 2-16 points of damage
a 3.5 hill giant has an attack of +16 for 2d8+10 damage, and a full attack of +16/+11 for 2d8+10 damage

Now, giants still have certain weaknesses (low Will saves is a biggie) and some spells work better in 3.5 (ray of enfeeblement has no save now). But any way you look at it, a party has to either play perfectly or be very lucky to survive the converted modules at the same character levels as the originals. Even parties which rely primarily on stealth, rather than stand up fights, will have a hard time.

BTW - A solution one person who converted the modules suggested was lowering the giants' HD back to their 1E levels (so hill giants would be 8d8+32 instead of 12d8+48). This would also affect their BAB, which reduces their offensive power. I've modified the basic giants this way and can post the stats if anyone's interested.

 

[Wrathamon]

can any one email these to me? I would love to check them out and run them for my group in the next month.

wrathamon_bsr@yahoo.com

thanks

 

[Andre]

can any one email these to me? I would love to check them out and run them for my group in the next month.

wrathamon_bsr@yahoo.com

thanks

On the way. Enjoy!

 

[crazy dwarf]

Hey Andre,
Could you email the conversion as well.
holcombe_rocks@yahoo.com
Thanks

 

[Firebeard]

I was hoping that there were any sort of conversions available for D1-3 and Q1? I've got the G1-3 conversions snagged from here before they were taken off the Library and I was wanting to get the rest so I can play them as intended. Now with Gygax gone my gaming buddies and me are more interested than ever in playing through everything.

 

[lordxaviar]

I have found that with all of the older modules the character levels need to be increased. its a balancing thing... a little harder now, 2e could be done by the numbers (article in dragon) 3 and 3.5 were not worked out that well, a growing lack of work by tsr. look at the index pages or lack there of. the lack of spell lists in useful set ups... remember, several lists by level, then alpha, quick ways to find them etc.... ok im ranting now...lol

 

[Teacher Man]

So if I have a party of 6 15th level characters for G1, how much trouble are they in?

Edit: Tomorrow they start the tournament with G1, I will let you know how it goes. I plan on making sure the Giant's are not just Big Dumb and Ugly so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Plus I added an Ogre guard station outside on the trail with a smoke alarm to see how smart my players are...

Can someone pre-dig 6 graves for me? :-D