Dungeon Delves question

[S'mon]

I love the book; but I agree that the Delves assume fairly optimised play for a 5-PC group at the listed level. Running Delve #4, the first two fights were pretty easy, but then a reckless PC (hi Francis!) > took the group into the final battle without a short rest, and the 7th level Elite BBEG nearly TPK'd the ca 4th level party.

I think many of the Delves can be used with a typical 6-PC group at the listed level and stay very challenging, while a 4 PC (or certainly 3 PC!) group could easily be defeated.

 

[S'mon]

Instead the Wights took down a few surges in the first room, and in the 2nd the Monk was rocked by the combination of 2 Chillborn Zombies with 3 Blazing Skeletons. The zombies were doing 10 aura damage (5 each cumulative), and immobilizing him while hitting him hard and inflicting 5 ongoing cold damage. Starting your turn taking 15 damage and being immobilized is the kind of brutal awesome I like as a DM.

I don't think the ongoing cold damage is supposed to be cumulative? I thought same source ongoing damage doesn't stack? If that's a house rule it would certainly make things tougher.

 

[Beginning of the End]

The idea behind that book was to provide the DM with ready-made Dungeon Delves, in the same format and purpose that premiered at GenCon, and was seen at conventions for many years.

That's what it says on the tin, but it's definitely not what the book delivers.

 

[Jhaelen]

I thought same source ongoing damage doesn't stack? If that's a house rule it would certainly make things tougher.

What was changed by errata is that damage auras now stack. Other aura effects (penalties, etc.) still don't stack and ongoing damage of the same type also doesn't stack.

 

[S'mon]

What was changed by errata is that damage auras now stack. Other aura effects (penalties, etc.) still don't stack and ongoing damage of the same type also doesn't stack.

So auras are treated differently from ongoing damage? OK. DD would have been written pre the errata, making it particularly hard then.

 

[D'karr]

That's what it says on the tin, but it's definitely not what the book delivers.

Say what? The book delivers exactly what it says. Short Dungeon Delves in exactly the same format as seen at big conventions.

The article you point to is simply somebody's opinion (rant) of why that is not what works. The format might not work for them, but that is not what the book advertised.

If I buy a book that is advertised as 1001 ways to cook a hot dog, I don't go in expecting ways to cook a steak dinner, and I certainly don't go ranting about it when it's not about steak dinners.