RangerWickett said:
You make a good point about the combat appendix. I'll own up to just being too lazy at the time to type up all the stats. I'll make sure to include full combat stats in the appendices of future adventures.
Cool. That was my most serious annoyance with the adventure.
RangerWickett said:
The encounter with Shealis at Gabal's school could have used a map, but since we were trying to conserve our budget and because hopefully it shouldn't become a combat encounter, I didn't think it was necessary. Diogenes also should warn the heroes that Shealis is a skilled evoker. Mostly the encounter was intended to promote a resolution other than simply attacking her. Trick her, ambush her, negotiate, whatever - just don't try to go toe to toe. Even then, 5d6 usually won't kill most PCs, even at 1st level. It'll drop them, but it averages to 14 damage if they don't save. And Shealis herself doesn't have a lot of hit points to stand up to an entire party herself.
I pretty much figured it was a cost cutting thing and wasn't all that important, which is why I didn't include it in the grievances at the end of of my review. I was thinking more of a general overview map than a battlemap, though. Maps aren't just useful for combat...they're helpful for giving a feel for the lay out of a place, which may be significant if the party tries to tail Sheilis or set up an ambush or trap.
As for Sheilis, I applaud an encounter where the brain is as important as the sword, but one 5d6 fireball has the potential to outright kill even a barbarian with 18 con and the toughness feat and the encounter implies that her first course of action in a fight is to fireball if the party is in "convenient fireball formation". I feel the encounter assumes too much that the party will ally with Diogenes, which is assuming a lot.
RangerWickett said:
I hope you'll find that the roleplaying encounters and problem solving (i.e., how do we get out?) in act 3 are entertaining enough to make up for the lack of great action.
When I said that nothing jumped out about Act 3, I wasn't complaining about a lack of action. I simply didn't even find the roleplaying encounters all that interesting compared to those in the other acts. They're not bad, but they're not exceptional either in my opinion, while I do feel the adventure has a lot of exceptional role-playing encounters in the other acts.
RangerWickett said:
Y'know, it completely never occurred to me that the PCs might just ride past a farmhouse at the edge of a fire forest and not stop to chat or rest.
Where some people see obvious plot hooks, others see potential traps. Especially since as described (basically just standing there looking vacantly) she comes off as a little creepy and creepy girls standing by the road rarely mean good things for adventurers who are kind of running for their lives at the moment.
As I said in the review, though, all this stuff is minor and fairly easily fixed by an alert DM. It's a really great adventure overall and there's nothing that would discourage me from heartily recommending it.
