Age of Worms - Deadly

[Rugger]

Whoa! I'm getting ready to run AoW with a small party. Sounds pretty scary.
Did you happen to tone down any of the encounters?

So I'm gonna spoil away here, since this SHOULD be a DM-only discussion

Other than the swarms, I'm not too worried about my party. (Warforged Rogue, Shifter Barbarian, Human Artificer, Aerenal Elf Cleric)

The swarms are harsh, though. d6 automatic damage (plus another 1-4 acid!) and party could only do d3 damage/round with torches (and against a 17 touch AC to boot!). The Artificer had the bright idea of using the burning-hands trap from the sarcophagus against them (and himself in the process), but after 1 try, the swarm overran his position and he had to move or get eaten.

Then they ran into the OTHER swarm and it was nearly TPK time. Needless to say, the fact that they hit 2nd level after that battle means they should do fine from here on (though the wind-warrior guys look mean on paper)...

-Rugger

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I've created some PreGen characters (because I'm bored and nobody's volunteered for the game yet) and I'm sort of sneaking in some "useful" gear that might help them pass that first hard encounter.

1) I'm using some Character Traits from the back of the Shackled City book, at least the ones that seemed appropriate to AoW, and a handful more I made myself to round it out to 10 again. One of them is Mark of the Beast, and the pre-gen with that is a big damage dealer. Animals have troubles attacking MotB characters, so that should aid them.

2) Several characters have torches, several of the characters have lanterns, and many have "spare" flasks of oil. Hopefully smart players/characters will find uses for all this extra flammable material.

3) The wizard I created has Flaming Hands as a known spell. Lvls 1-3 or so, I'm actually quite fond of this under-used spell. Don't know if anybody else will think to choose it, though.

Hopefully those hidden gems will give them a fighting chance against the first handful of encounters. 1st level is a scary place ... I honestly usually start my games around 2nd level, and I liked that RttToEE started at 4th.

--fje

 

[Nightfall]

I haven't run it, but I do think if I was to do it, maybe grant a spellcaster the ability to once per day cast produce fire or something like that to deal with the swarms. Nothing powerful but decently useful nonetheless.

 

[johnnype]

If you think the Cairn is difficult (and it is) wait 'till you get to part 2 or 4. Part 3, I thought, was reasonable. Part 4 however is damn hard. If you don't have a rogue and a cleric it will only be that much more difficult. The rogue is needed for all the traps. A scout might serve just as well but I would go with the Rogue. The cleric is an obvious choice because Kyuss is an undead after all. Not only that, his minions thrive on infecting people so cure disease and other such spells and potions are a must.

 

[Desdichado]

Anyone else have deadly problems in the Age of Worms bit? The second adventure seems quite hard as well.

We didn't have any character deaths during the first module (which we still haven't quite finished, actually, after three sessions) but not for lack of trying. I've been a bit surprised at how tough some of the encounters are as well. The owlbear at the Land farm nearly did us all in. We were much more cautious in the dungeon itself.

 

[Nightfall]

Owlbears, even ones with low HP, still DAMN tough mofos. I was a little suprised to see them in there. I was expecting more along the lines of a hydra.

Part 2, yeah that's pretty damn tough. Part 3 is bad in some ways but compared to 2 and 4, you aren't nearly as bad off. What is bad about 4 is you can effortless undermine the PCs trust in each other, even though there are ways around it. Still hurts like hell in places AND the fights, especially the one at the end, man...

 

[Mercule]

The swarms are harsh, though. d6 automatic damage (plus another 1-4 acid!) and party could only do d3 damage/round with torches

So, you're saying that the fact that my PCs only took sunrods in with them is going to bite them in the rear?

 

[Nightfall]

Well not sure about that Merc...I mean sunrods CAN blind them I suppose...or at least have said swarm follow a "I'll die for the PARTY" kind of thing...

 

[Qualidar]

So, you're saying that the fact that my PCs only took sunrods in with them is going to bite them in the rear?

Nope, it's going to bite them all over.

~Qualidar~

 

[takasi]

My party has action points, 32 point buy and 7 members. No true deaths yet but several close calls.

The most difficult encounter so far has been the Ebon Aspect in 3FoE. The only reason it was so difficult is because they encountered it before resting after the Vecna/Shadow area.

IIRC, Erik Mona's playtest group consisted of EIGHT party members...