D&D 5E Unsandboxing Princes of the Apocalypse

[mattcolville]

Would this work?

I've already got a sandboxy setting with adventures littered around and I'd like to add the Temple of Elemental Evil from Princes of the Apocalypse.

But I don't want to add all the sandbox elements to my setting. I'd rather just pick one of the pre-dungeons like the Monastery or the Keep and then get the heroes from there to the Temple.

Is that a straightforward option?

 

[lumenbeing]

It can be. The book tells you the recommended levels for each keep and each temple quadrant. I forget which keep is the most advanced, but iirc it's Scarlet Moon Hall. So you could drop that it there.

 

[Uller]

Fildrigar did a nice document that should be helpful to you:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1248

 

[ninjayeti]

Yeah, I don't see any problems with this approach.

If you are trying to eliminate the "sandboxyness" you might also want to tweak the dungeon so that the levels have a liner progression like a traditional dungeon - i.e. players must go through level 1 (the air temple) to get to level 2 (the water temple), etc.

 

[mattcolville]

Yeah, I don't see any problems with this approach.

If you are trying to eliminate the "sandboxyness" you might also want to tweak the dungeon so that the levels have a liner progression like a traditional dungeon - i.e. players must go through level 1 (the air temple) to get to level 2 (the water temple), etc.

This is where I'm currently stuck. I'm having a hard time figuring out the logic of this adventure.

As far as I can tell, the players can go to any of the four haunted strongholds in the valley, and each of them has a hook leading to one of the four levels of the Temple of Elemental Evil.

But that doesn't make sense to me, as each level is of a higher level than the last. So players could easily end up way over their heads!

Maybe that's the point? Get in over your heads, retreat?

 

[ehenning]

This is where I'm currently stuck. I'm having a hard time figuring out the logic of this adventure.

As far as I can tell, the players can go to any of the four haunted strongholds in the valley, and each of them has a hook leading to one of the four levels of the Temple of Elemental Evil.

But that doesn't make sense to me, as each level is of a higher level than the last. So players could easily end up way over their heads!

Maybe that's the point? Get in over your heads, retreat?

Definitely looks this way. I'm just about to start my campaign, and I have a feeling the party will hit at least one of the strongholds in wrong order. If they do the 5th level stronghold at 4th level, it becomes much harder, but not deadly. If they go straight to the toughest strongholds, they should quickly realize that this is too much and have to retreat, or risk a TPK.

There are notes in the AP that seem to anticipate this, such as what happens in certain areas if they have been cleared once (repopulated with different monster 2d4 days later, etc).

The AP uses the four prophets to allow for the progression. If you limit it to one of the prophets and then go straight to their Temple, then to the final encounter with the BBG, you may need to adjust the end, but not by much in my opinion.

 

[mattcolville]

Fildrigar did a nice document that should be helpful to you:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1248

This *is* useful, thanks. I often start by taking the map from an adventure, printing it out at 75% and marking it up with notes. I prefer running from the map, rather than the text of the adventure. And it let's me mark up where the entrances and exits are.

They could have done a better job illustrating the physical relationship of the different levels to each other!

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I think they did a good job. The four temples connect to each other.

You have to just walk a certain way and you are in a different temple.

 

[mattcolville]

I think they did a good job. The four temples connect to each other.

You have to just walk a certain way and you are in a different temple.

I meant *literally* illustrate it better. When I look at the map, it doesn't say "this way to the. . ." on the map. Nor is there a master map showing the layout of the whole place.

Lots of other adventures have done this, it's not something I'm inventing here in this thread.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I meant *literally* illustrate it better. When I look at the map, it doesn't say "this way to the. . ." on the map. Nor is there a master map showing the layout of the whole place.

Lots of other adventures have done this, it's not something I'm inventing here in this thread.

Once again I think it's illustrated fine. Along with the Adventure saying which leads to to what. They fit together like a puzzle see.



The fire map is the only one that is slightly off.