Age of Worms - Deadly

[Nightfall]

James,

Thanks for the clarification.


Erik,

So...any chance Age of Worms will see the light of HC then?

Rugger,

Gnashing perhaps but not so much as if the ONLY main baddie was undead. I mean you got MUCH more than undead, you got mind flayers, Wind Dukes, constructs, swarms, etc. Just means though the cleric will be MUCH more effective at higher levels against undead.

Al,

I was saying you rock, heap. Thus Heap rocks, not rock heaps.

 

[Peter Gibbons]

As for the swarm, seems like a few sleep spells should take care of them.

Sleep is a mind-affecting spell. The swarms are comprised of vermin, which are mindless (and therefore immune).

 

[Nightfall]

You noticed that too huh Pete?

 

[Bagpuss]

Well played our first game of the Age of Worms last night, and our party is just recovering.

I was a bit concerned when I saw the title of this thread the other day, but I avoided it as I didn't want to see any spoilers. For a 1st level adventure it certainly is a killer the first two encounters we came across with both EL 4, either of which could easily had lead to a TPK.

Thankfully we chose caution of bravery and after the first encounter went home to recover 2 days later (took that long for me to heal the party up to full even with Augment Healing, after the encounter with the wolves) we entered the Caern again, only to hit an EL 4 trap that is impossible for a 1st level character to deactivate, and very easy to set off while trying, so again I'm out of cure spells, and its only luckly rolls that nobody fell to their deaths.

Two EL 4 encounters to start a 1st adventure is a little tough.

 

[Morrow]

Here there be spoilers. (And if you've read this far and are still worried about that, what are you doing?)

My group just started AoW over the weekend. Our DM was concerned that the Whispering Cairne was going to chew us up and spit us out, but I think we did quite well. I'm not sure we can take much credit for that, it was sheer dumb luck. Factors that worked in our favor:

• Our Wizard happened to have burning hands memorized, and have an "ace in the hole"- a flask of alchemist fire. Bye bye swarm.
• When we found the room that contained the acid beetle nest we turned around and went the other way.
• We rolled really well. The paladin entered the submerged area and handily defeated both opponents she found by herself. In fact, we were on a roll until we hit to grick, who we couldn't hit at all.
• While we were rolling hot, our DM was not.
• We didn't find the passage with the face trap until after we had deactivated it. Dumb luck strikes again.
• A well timed critical took out mamma owl bear before she could shred the party and some nice role playing and a couple excellent diplomacy checks got us the information we needed from Kullen and Co. without a fight.

Next month, onward to the observatory!

Morrow

 

[VirgilCaine]

I was a bit concerned when I saw the title of this thread the other day, but I avoided it as I didn't want to see any spoilers. For a 1st level adventure it certainly is a killer the first two encounters we came across with both EL 4, either of which could easily had lead to a TPK.

Two EL 4 encounters to start a 1st adventure is a little tough.

What are the authors thinking with this stuff? Tomb of Horrors Lite?

 

[Mercule]

What are the authors thinking with this stuff? Tomb of Horrors Lite?

The guidelines laid out in the DMG say that it's fine to have encounters that are 3-4 ELs above the party. In fact, it says that some portion of the encounters in an adventure could be 5+ ELs above.

 

[Bagpuss]

The guidelines laid out in the DMG say that it's fine to have encounters that are 3-4 ELs above the party. In fact, it says that some portion of the encounters in an adventure could be 5+ ELs above.

True it also says the majority of the encounters should be the same level as the party, our party of 5 players has had two Encounters and we are more than 1/2 way to second level. If there were the standard 4 player party we'ld probably be well past 1/2 way or more likely all dead. As it was if we hadn't rested for 2 days between the encounters we probably would be dead.

Not that it's a bad adventure of what we have played so far we've really enjoyed the balance of RP to Combat to Traps and puzzles. All I'm saying is why was the first encounter 3 x CR 1 monsters when one (or even a pair) would have done fine, and been a more gentle start?

 

[Quickbeam]

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.

That's it JD -- the gloves are off now !!! Count on at least two character deaths next session, just for tempting fate.

Truth be told, our group (of which Josh is a member and I'm DM) has really managed to stave off utter defeat and total despair pretty well. While several encounters have been a bit harrowing, I feel like it's drawn the party together quite nicely. Their tactics have been solid; their support of one another timely and judicious; and their ability to snatch victory from the jaws of owlbears -- I mean defeat -- has been impressive. I may have pulled a few punches, but overall the group has handled adversity better than I'd expected.

...so far

 

[Pierce]

We started the WC a few weeks back. It's been tough, but no character deaths so far.

Highlights:

The swarms were pretty nasty. Fortunately, the party took a break between the two and had a chance to refill their oil supply.

Lucky (is there any other kind?) crits on both the owl bear and the mad slasher.

Not so lucky with the traps. I don't think they've deactivated a single one. Set off the sarcophagus trap twice.

Alastor's horrific gaze hit the same character twice. Got it the first time when the party first encountered Alastor. Found his bones, buried them, but then came back before tracking down the rest of the family. Alastor got pissy and hit 'em again.

This group's notorious for setting off multiple encounters. They encountered the bombadier beetle in the nap room, then at the tail end of that battle ran across the intersection and stirred up the second swarm and beetle. Just after they finished both battles, they set fire to the hive which contained the old corpses. One member ran down the hall where he had seen water during the previous battle. Seeing as how he wa all alone, the water elemental attacked. A crit took care of it, but it could have been much worse.

Again with the multiple encounters: when they first got to Alastor's haunt, the rogue crawled along the beam searching for traps. His search check found the trigger in the beam, so I had Alastor warn him. The party starts talking with Alastor and finds out about his bones, etc. In the process, Alastor gets angry and irrational (he's a teenager, after all) and uses malevolence to take over the rogue. The fighter (who's the rogue's cousin) starts angrily searching for Alastor's bones to calm him down and get him to release the rogue when - you guessed it - the grick makes its listen check. So the ranger's dancing around the beam trying to shoot the grick and not set off the trap, the fighter (who had been hit by the horrific gaze earlier) is taking a beating from the grick, the possessed rogue is running all over the balls making jokes and teasing the cleric who's trying to hit the rogue with a spell to let him make a second save (can't remember the name of the spell) Of course, the rogue is the only member of the party with a magic weapon, so no one can nick the grick...it got a little dicey there for a while.