Hi, I am currently running this adventure path as a DM and currently starting chapter 6. The problem I have with your conversion pdf is that I can't seem to figure out the level my party should be at. Can you write in a comment some sort of level table in accordance with the chapter number? Thank you.
D&D 5E Age of Worms Adventure Path
The levels correspond with those in the adventure path chapters. The level is usually mentioned in the second paragraph or the adventure article. Chapter 6 starts at level 11 and the party members should hit level 12 about halfway, possibly when they hit the falling river.
Part 1 Comments + Thanks
Thank you for doing this and posting this. I'm just finishing part one with my players and wanted to share my thoughts:
1) In Area 2 and 3 it mentions disadvantage for the wolves on perception. But the wolves naturally have advantage, so I believe this cancels out to a regular check. I wasn't sure if that was the intent or not. It would be clearer if spelled out (if allowed).
2) I really liked some of your substitute monster choices. Particularly the Gargoyle in 13.
3) The Modron Pentadrone was unexpected. I had trouble translating that as I couldn't justify an actual modron so I assumed those were proxy stats for the Tomb Mote and the 5 attacks were the litter and such hitting the defender. I didn't use the paralysis gas attack.
4) The skeletons with poison crossbows in the tower: You don't indicate whether the poison is still there, and if so, what effect it has. I am planning to use Giant Centipede poison (3d6, DC 11 Con save for 0, if it knocks you to 0 then you're paralyzed/poisoned for an hour even if healed).
5) The operating theatre has 4 zombies (22hp) and a skeleton vs. the original 3 trog zombies (29hp) and a bugbear zombie (42hp). It seems easier with regular zombies and I'm curious about your methodology. I assume you picked the closest approximate monster, but did you try and balance CR or anything similar?
6) Filge has *88* hit points! He only has 15 hp originally. Given the weaker zombies, I suspect this will make it quite the encounter. What was your reasoning behind 88 hit points?
7) Filge's spell choices seem limited. As a necromancer, I was planning to give him False Life over one of the Mage Armor, and also Ray of Sickness over a Mage Armor.
8) By changing Filge's spells/items, the combat strategy outlined for the encounter no longer works (no Spectral Hand, Chill Touch probably isn't the best option). An updated strategy would have been amazing.
I'm really appreciate your work here. My comments are not intended as criticism at all. I'm just providing feedback and kind of curious about how you went about it!
Thank you for doing this and posting this. I'm just finishing part one with my players and wanted to share my thoughts:
1) In Area 2 and 3 it mentions disadvantage for the wolves on perception. But the wolves naturally have advantage, so I believe this cancels out to a regular check. I wasn't sure if that was the intent or not. It would be clearer if spelled out (if allowed).
2) I really liked some of your substitute monster choices. Particularly the Gargoyle in 13.
3) The Modron Pentadrone was unexpected. I had trouble translating that as I couldn't justify an actual modron so I assumed those were proxy stats for the Tomb Mote and the 5 attacks were the litter and such hitting the defender. I didn't use the paralysis gas attack.
4) The skeletons with poison crossbows in the tower: You don't indicate whether the poison is still there, and if so, what effect it has. I am planning to use Giant Centipede poison (3d6, DC 11 Con save for 0, if it knocks you to 0 then you're paralyzed/poisoned for an hour even if healed).
5) The operating theatre has 4 zombies (22hp) and a skeleton vs. the original 3 trog zombies (29hp) and a bugbear zombie (42hp). It seems easier with regular zombies and I'm curious about your methodology. I assume you picked the closest approximate monster, but did you try and balance CR or anything similar?
6) Filge has *88* hit points! He only has 15 hp originally. Given the weaker zombies, I suspect this will make it quite the encounter. What was your reasoning behind 88 hit points?
7) Filge's spell choices seem limited. As a necromancer, I was planning to give him False Life over one of the Mage Armor, and also Ray of Sickness over a Mage Armor.
8) By changing Filge's spells/items, the combat strategy outlined for the encounter no longer works (no Spectral Hand, Chill Touch probably isn't the best option). An updated strategy would have been amazing.
I'm really appreciate your work here. My comments are not intended as criticism at all. I'm just providing feedback and kind of curious about how you went about it!
Thanks for the feedback! These kinds of things really help, as I only went through it with my group one way. Other people will hit the encounters from a totally different angle and expose other issues. So I really appreciate the feedback. I attempted to do a minimal conversion where as much as possible came from the big 3 books (PHB, MM, DMG). The conversion is a bit terse at times, lacking in a more full explanation of what is going on or why I chose a certain way to convert things. The simple answer is that I was going for as straightforward and quick of a conversion as possible. I chose not to get too bogged down in details but rather get things converted because in the end, the encounter ends, the party moves on, and the memorable is usually the story rather than the mechanics of an encounter.
When I first started this campaign nearly two years ago, no official products had yet been released for 5e. We used the play test documents with their woefully under-powered monsters and made do. By chapters 3, 4, and 5 more and more of the official products had finally been released. By chapter 6, I changed how I was doing the conversion to what you see now. Now I have gone back and started rewriting the conversion of chapters 1-5 to match the style of what I am doing now. All that to say, chapters 1-5 have not been play tested by me in their current state, but they should be close enough.
Now on to your specific points. As always, this is just how I did it. I will not feel bad in the slightest if you take stuff in a totally different direction.
1. Yes, the wolves have disadvantage due to distance, and yes, it is cancelled by their natural advantage. The reason I did not include that is that I generally only include what is mentioned in the adventure that needs to be converted (i.e. the minus to their checks). The DM is probably going to be needing to look at the stat block for the wolf anyway to determine the bonus to any ability check and notice this.
2. Thanks! One thing I may need to be more clear on based on some of your thoughts: The monsters are generally meant to still "appear" as described in the adventure. The replacement creatures are meant to be used as reskins.
3. The modron was selected because it was the same CR as the Tomb Mote, also had multiple attacks, and had a gas attack to stand in for the Mote's disease attack. For the most part, when I wrote something like, "Tomb Mote, use Modron Pentadrone (MM226)" it means that the Tomb Mote is still a tomb mote but uses the other monster's stat block as a proxy. The gas attack also helps it be a "solo" monster by tying up some of the PCs and attacking with advantage on its next turn (if it survives that long). You will find that the solos in this adventure get chewed up and spit out in 5e (especially if you have a monk with stunning strike). So any special stuff like this really helps.
4. The skeletons on their own match the challenge rating for the encounter. Encounter Level does not exist in 5e, but my understanding is that it meant a medium encounter in 3.5 for a party of 4 adventurers of that level. So what I did was use that as a determination of how difficult to make encounters in 5e. This allows some encounters to be easy, medium, hard, and deadly. By this point, the party should be level 2. The encounter level for this encounter is EL 1. By making a medium encounter for a level 1 party, it becomes an easy encounter for a level 2 party (just the way the encounter budget works). Giving the skeletons poison arrows would up their CR and make this an EL 2 encounter. So I did not bother with it. Generally, if I mention something in my conversion (such as a monster), it is a replacement for what is in the text. So the skeleton in the MM replaces the skeleton in the adventure and does not have poison arrows.
5. The skeleton is CR 1/4. The zombies are each CR 1/4. Filge is CR 3 (as he is in the adventure). This makes an EL 5 encounter (as it is in the adventure): a medium encounter for a level 5 party. However the party is probably level 2 (by milestone) or maybe level 3 (by xp) by now. This is a deadly encounter for a level 2 party. Making all the zombies the same fits in the 5e ethos of streamlining the combat. There is nothing stopping those zombies from still being troglodytes and bugbear zombies story wise, but the different stat blocks are unnecessary. The DM is the only one who would ever even know they were different. Also, since Filge is CR 3, the CR 1/4 monsters are the only things that fit in the encounter budget.
6. Pretty much everything in 5e has more hit points. With Bounded Accuracy, it is the hit points and damage dealt rather than the d20 rolls (specifically their modifiers) that scale the most. In 5e, 15 hp can be one shotted by a single PC. Filge has 88 hp for a few reasons: He is CR 3 and has to have a certain dpr and hp to account for that; he does not have a significant area damage spell; he only gets 1 action per turn; I wanted him to be alive to spill his guts to the PCs. Otherwise he can be killed too quickly. I had a level 1 War Cleric 1 shot a small water elemental with 28 hp of damage. A couple of those hits will wipe out a monster with even 88 hp in one round, and only melee attacks can be used for knocking out. I do allow my players to switch any monster over to death saving throws if they want to save it for purposes of questioning though.
7. I basically just took his spell choices and converted them over with a few exceptions. False life is pretty useless to a monster. It only gives 6 temp hp and takes an action. Just give the monster the additional hp and let it do something interesting. Ray of sickness could work, but it would require replacing one of his 7 prepared spells (5 for level + 2 for Int). Mage armor raises his AC and is part of his CR calculation. Ray of sickness will not add enough damage to overcome that. I am not sure why you mentioned replacing mage armor twice here. I am assuming it was a typo.
8. Filge's spells / items are not really that different. In the adventure he had
2nd—ghoul touch (DC 14), scare (DC 14), spectral hand
1st—chill touch (DC 13) (2), mage armor, ray of enfeeblement
0—disrupt undead, touch of fatigue (DC 12) (2), ray of frost
Ghoul touch and spectral hand no longer exist. Scare was replaced by fear.
Chill touch, mage armor, and ray of enfeeblement are still there.
Disrupt undead and touch of fatigue no longer exist. Ray of frost is still there.
So that leaves us with needing another 4 spells and 1 cantrip. Mage hand was a bit of a throwaway, but I figured maybe he used it in the lab. Gentle repose fit his character. Melf's acid arrow was the only damaging 2nd level spell that fit him. Stinking cloud sort of makes up for the loss of the paralysis of Ghoul Touch, and vampiric touch gives him a damaging 3rd level spell that fits and also gives him a melee spell attack.
As for items, the only item that is missing is the amulet of natural armor. However, it does not exist in 5e and would not help him anyway. Mage armor sets AC at 13 + Dex bonus and ignores natural armor.
The suggested combat does not really change.
Round 1: Run for cover. This does not change.
Round 2: Cast mage armor. This does not change, but honestly, when I run any wizard, they cast mage armor twice a day (and again before they go to bed if they can) so they are covered. So Filge would skip this round when I run him.
Round 3: Inject false life potion. This does not change, but I would skip the 6 hp and do some damage instead.
Round 4: Ghoul touch and Spectral Hand no longer exist. Stinking cloud is its replacement, and it does not affect undead. So it can be cast freely.
Following Rounds: In 5e Filge can cast chill touch at will. Fear and ray of enfeeblement are still available, and vampiric touch can also be used if fighters close to melee range.
I also threw in the owl and had it use the Help action to give advantage to one of the zombies in the encounter.
So now you know some of the thinking that went into the conversion. Thanks for the feedback, and I look forward to your thoughts on chapter 2!
I'm taking this as an invitation to dig deeper. I feel a bit lonely playing the adventure so many years later when everyone is done talking about it.
I'm back into D&D after a 20-year absence (skipped 3rd and 4th edition) so I'm having trouble adjusting to the new world of massive amounts of damage being dealt yet everything being less deadly in general. Your insight into how you designed the conversion really help.
My intent was to preserve the deadliness of the original adventure (I wanted to challenge my experienced players) but I ended up with a TPK and complaints that things were too deadly, often when I veered from your conversion.
I found the converted DC check logic (60-80% of the 3.5 version) a bit easy. My impression was that most people should not make the DC25 (now 19) check on Wind Duke glyphs but generally parties have at least one person proficient (and they likely have a high intelligence) so it seemed like 25% of the time the mage would know it all, and with multiple people checking, someone else might get lucky. DC11 trap checks and stuff seemed really easy. Nearly every check was made by someone, though possibly they just rolled lucky. The math is reasonable, but I have no experience with how hard these checks were in 3.5 so they read like they should be hard but were easy.
The TPK was at the Green Tunnel (7). I thought the Ankheg was out of flavour (no breath weapon in the original) - it felt like a better fit for the acid beetle cow (Giant Bombardier Beetle) in the hive (16). I used a home-made conversion from elsewhere on ENWorld:
Mad Slasher
Medium aberration, chaotic evil
Armour Class 15 (natural)
Hit Points 32 (5d8+10)
Speed 40 ft.
STR 13 (+1), DEX 17 (+3), CON 15 (+2), INT 6 (-2), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 6 (-2)
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Challenge 1 (200 XP)
ACTIONS
Multiattack. The mad slasher makes two melee attacks with its claws.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d10+3 slashing damage.
...and between it and the swarms, the party was destroyed in melee and it was only the 2nd encounter! Oops.
I didn't use the spectator because it seemed so different. I see now that it was intended as re-skin, not a different creature. In hindsight, I'm embarrassed that I couldn't figure that our or just make the assumption. A spectator is a late encounter in the Phandalin intro module when characters are a high level so I was also worried it was just too deadly, and the option to smooth talk around the service contract isn't available if it just happens to be wandering around vs. being assigned to guard.
The Giant Centipede in 16 and 17 seemed too easy. 4hp and no range attack? This brings up the question of hp - in some places you indicate the hp, generally when it's injured or when it's non-standard, but in others you don't, so I assume I use the MM hp total not the adventure total. This became a bit confusing for the Owlbear at the Farmstead - it's supposed to be injured, but no alternate hp total is given. By that point, 2nd level characters against a single creature means it didn't fewer hp for the injury. Is that what you were thinking too?
The Water Weird in room 19 was incredibly deadly. I never let them attack it from the land, they had to go underwater and out of sight from the corridor. At that point it's invisible (immersed), they're holding their breath, only piercing weapons are effective (and it's resistant), they can't cast spells - it was a nightmare! I wasn't sure they'd be able to get through the encounter.
...meanwhile the underwater Ghoul in 21, which is built up in the adventure, was a simple and forgettable combat. It seemed like the ghoul should have the same underwater disadvantages since it's not native to underwater (Lacedons aren't in 5e yet) so it was even easier as a result.
For the Ghost (23) I luckily managed to possess someone very early on. With a low 11AC and just 45 hp (though I kept switching between hp given in the module vs. MM defaults, now I know!) I was worried they'd fight and kill it!
The Owlbear was easy. I'm glad you mention the 300gp baby owlbear value vs. 3000gp, I had forgotten and was reminded right now (one of the players has adopted the baby).
Plot note - my players learned that the tattoo belonged to former miners from the old boss, but they then assumed that there were dozens of miners with the tattoo so it would be impossible to figure out which one was at the house digging up bodies. The module seems to assume that only Kullen's gang are left from that old mining company, but explicitly says that all the remaining miners work for Smenk so there are lots of suspects. This isn't something to address in the conversion, just something I'm curious about.
They didn't follow up on the Kullen angle but ended up finding their way to the Observatory directly (due to a random rumour roll). That was a bit disappointing as I'd prepared Kullen a bunch. You mention "1 CR 0-4 hoard" as random treasure on the gang. I rolled them ahead of time and got useful potions for the gang to use (plus a philter of love...which let me create a random side plot that is yet to be encountered). Did you consider rolling the treasure and giving them the magic items to use?
Merovinn Bask has a lot of hp too, like Filge. Heck, the Berserker has crazy hp. I'm having a lot of trouble getting used to HD not being relevant to level. The Bersker hits like a 1-3 level fighter (+5 to attack with 16 str) yet has 9HD. This seems internally inconsistent - players can never match the berserker's stats despite being a human fighter. BUT...that appears to be how things are designed. And it does make for better game play in that a 15hp solo wizard will get crushed, Mage Armor or not.
I thought the Tome Mote was intended as a trivial encounter. They are post-2nd edition so I have no experience with them (looked them up though). As you note, the modron re-skin was defeated in the 2nd round of combat. However, the players were lucky it rolled a low initiative as in it's single action it managed to hit 3 out of 5 times (one was critical) and knock one of them to 0. They were startled that something so dangerous was hiding in a closet! I didn't use the paralysis as I couldn't come up with a paralysis gas re-skin from an "accumulation of tomb litter", though I guess it could have been an unholy wind that paralyzes opponents with the voices of the dead or something.
By the way, I really like having the page number for each monster.
We stopped the last session just as the players are opening the door to the Observatory with the skeletons, finishing tonight. I had planned on adding the poison and sticking with crossbows, but I think I'll go with your more balanced design and give up on trying to re-create the exact same experience as the original.
With regard to four copies of Mage Armor...I just realized that I misunderstood the spell preparation rule for wizards. I thought they could prepare X spells of each level (so why just one 1st level spell prepared?), not overall. Wow. That changes things.
You increased him to 5th level which has a powerful effect on his cantrips. Chill Tough and Ray of Frost now do 2d8 damage. Was that intended? When I first posted, I didn't realize this so range attacks for d8 seemed pretty weenie. Now I can see that he doesn't need that many other spells. Heck, Melf's Acid Arrow is barely better.
I wasn't sure if Stinking Cloud would be a good idea since it obscures the battlefield and limits range attacks. On the other hand, it protects him from range attacks!
Ray of Enfeeblement seems really weak. Most people seem to use dex weapons (dex is so good!), so it's only effective against maybe one person and it requires both a to hit and concentration (as does Cloud, Fear and Vampiric Touch). This is just random commentary on the spell - Necromancers get no love at the lower levels!
I had forgotten about the Owl. I'll see what I can do with it.
I'm still deciding what to do with the Wind Warriors. The Internet was abuzz in 2006 about how deadly the combat is so I was going to go with another custom conversion, but you've changed my mind on encounter strength and I think I'll stick with the gargoyles you've suggested + some special abilities. My players thank you in advance!
I'm not sure if I'm going to do Chapter 2. The players aren't into the endless dungeon crawls (reviews weren't kind to Chapter 2 online) so I think I need to try something different. I was very excited by the Age of Worms based on the first adventure and it wasn't until after I started that I read the middle chapters and realized that it seems to be mostly dungeon after dungeon. I was hoping for more adventures based on the rich Diamond Lake background with mine managers doing political maneuvering and stuff, but that didn't come through. I like the overarching plot though and will likely try to use a few of the later chapters.
I'm back into D&D after a 20-year absence (skipped 3rd and 4th edition) so I'm having trouble adjusting to the new world of massive amounts of damage being dealt yet everything being less deadly in general. Your insight into how you designed the conversion really help.
My intent was to preserve the deadliness of the original adventure (I wanted to challenge my experienced players) but I ended up with a TPK and complaints that things were too deadly, often when I veered from your conversion.
I found the converted DC check logic (60-80% of the 3.5 version) a bit easy. My impression was that most people should not make the DC25 (now 19) check on Wind Duke glyphs but generally parties have at least one person proficient (and they likely have a high intelligence) so it seemed like 25% of the time the mage would know it all, and with multiple people checking, someone else might get lucky. DC11 trap checks and stuff seemed really easy. Nearly every check was made by someone, though possibly they just rolled lucky. The math is reasonable, but I have no experience with how hard these checks were in 3.5 so they read like they should be hard but were easy.
The TPK was at the Green Tunnel (7). I thought the Ankheg was out of flavour (no breath weapon in the original) - it felt like a better fit for the acid beetle cow (Giant Bombardier Beetle) in the hive (16). I used a home-made conversion from elsewhere on ENWorld:
Mad Slasher
Medium aberration, chaotic evil
Armour Class 15 (natural)
Hit Points 32 (5d8+10)
Speed 40 ft.
STR 13 (+1), DEX 17 (+3), CON 15 (+2), INT 6 (-2), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 6 (-2)
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Challenge 1 (200 XP)
ACTIONS
Multiattack. The mad slasher makes two melee attacks with its claws.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d10+3 slashing damage.
...and between it and the swarms, the party was destroyed in melee and it was only the 2nd encounter! Oops.
I didn't use the spectator because it seemed so different. I see now that it was intended as re-skin, not a different creature. In hindsight, I'm embarrassed that I couldn't figure that our or just make the assumption. A spectator is a late encounter in the Phandalin intro module when characters are a high level so I was also worried it was just too deadly, and the option to smooth talk around the service contract isn't available if it just happens to be wandering around vs. being assigned to guard.
The Giant Centipede in 16 and 17 seemed too easy. 4hp and no range attack? This brings up the question of hp - in some places you indicate the hp, generally when it's injured or when it's non-standard, but in others you don't, so I assume I use the MM hp total not the adventure total. This became a bit confusing for the Owlbear at the Farmstead - it's supposed to be injured, but no alternate hp total is given. By that point, 2nd level characters against a single creature means it didn't fewer hp for the injury. Is that what you were thinking too?
The Water Weird in room 19 was incredibly deadly. I never let them attack it from the land, they had to go underwater and out of sight from the corridor. At that point it's invisible (immersed), they're holding their breath, only piercing weapons are effective (and it's resistant), they can't cast spells - it was a nightmare! I wasn't sure they'd be able to get through the encounter.
...meanwhile the underwater Ghoul in 21, which is built up in the adventure, was a simple and forgettable combat. It seemed like the ghoul should have the same underwater disadvantages since it's not native to underwater (Lacedons aren't in 5e yet) so it was even easier as a result.
For the Ghost (23) I luckily managed to possess someone very early on. With a low 11AC and just 45 hp (though I kept switching between hp given in the module vs. MM defaults, now I know!) I was worried they'd fight and kill it!
The Owlbear was easy. I'm glad you mention the 300gp baby owlbear value vs. 3000gp, I had forgotten and was reminded right now (one of the players has adopted the baby).
Plot note - my players learned that the tattoo belonged to former miners from the old boss, but they then assumed that there were dozens of miners with the tattoo so it would be impossible to figure out which one was at the house digging up bodies. The module seems to assume that only Kullen's gang are left from that old mining company, but explicitly says that all the remaining miners work for Smenk so there are lots of suspects. This isn't something to address in the conversion, just something I'm curious about.
They didn't follow up on the Kullen angle but ended up finding their way to the Observatory directly (due to a random rumour roll). That was a bit disappointing as I'd prepared Kullen a bunch. You mention "1 CR 0-4 hoard" as random treasure on the gang. I rolled them ahead of time and got useful potions for the gang to use (plus a philter of love...which let me create a random side plot that is yet to be encountered). Did you consider rolling the treasure and giving them the magic items to use?
Merovinn Bask has a lot of hp too, like Filge. Heck, the Berserker has crazy hp. I'm having a lot of trouble getting used to HD not being relevant to level. The Bersker hits like a 1-3 level fighter (+5 to attack with 16 str) yet has 9HD. This seems internally inconsistent - players can never match the berserker's stats despite being a human fighter. BUT...that appears to be how things are designed. And it does make for better game play in that a 15hp solo wizard will get crushed, Mage Armor or not.
I thought the Tome Mote was intended as a trivial encounter. They are post-2nd edition so I have no experience with them (looked them up though). As you note, the modron re-skin was defeated in the 2nd round of combat. However, the players were lucky it rolled a low initiative as in it's single action it managed to hit 3 out of 5 times (one was critical) and knock one of them to 0. They were startled that something so dangerous was hiding in a closet! I didn't use the paralysis as I couldn't come up with a paralysis gas re-skin from an "accumulation of tomb litter", though I guess it could have been an unholy wind that paralyzes opponents with the voices of the dead or something.
By the way, I really like having the page number for each monster.
We stopped the last session just as the players are opening the door to the Observatory with the skeletons, finishing tonight. I had planned on adding the poison and sticking with crossbows, but I think I'll go with your more balanced design and give up on trying to re-create the exact same experience as the original.
With regard to four copies of Mage Armor...I just realized that I misunderstood the spell preparation rule for wizards. I thought they could prepare X spells of each level (so why just one 1st level spell prepared?), not overall. Wow. That changes things.
You increased him to 5th level which has a powerful effect on his cantrips. Chill Tough and Ray of Frost now do 2d8 damage. Was that intended? When I first posted, I didn't realize this so range attacks for d8 seemed pretty weenie. Now I can see that he doesn't need that many other spells. Heck, Melf's Acid Arrow is barely better.
I wasn't sure if Stinking Cloud would be a good idea since it obscures the battlefield and limits range attacks. On the other hand, it protects him from range attacks!
Ray of Enfeeblement seems really weak. Most people seem to use dex weapons (dex is so good!), so it's only effective against maybe one person and it requires both a to hit and concentration (as does Cloud, Fear and Vampiric Touch). This is just random commentary on the spell - Necromancers get no love at the lower levels!
I had forgotten about the Owl. I'll see what I can do with it.
I'm still deciding what to do with the Wind Warriors. The Internet was abuzz in 2006 about how deadly the combat is so I was going to go with another custom conversion, but you've changed my mind on encounter strength and I think I'll stick with the gargoyles you've suggested + some special abilities. My players thank you in advance!
I'm not sure if I'm going to do Chapter 2. The players aren't into the endless dungeon crawls (reviews weren't kind to Chapter 2 online) so I think I need to try something different. I was very excited by the Age of Worms based on the first adventure and it wasn't until after I started that I read the middle chapters and realized that it seems to be mostly dungeon after dungeon. I was hoping for more adventures based on the rich Diamond Lake background with mine managers doing political maneuvering and stuff, but that didn't come through. I like the overarching plot though and will likely try to use a few of the later chapters.
...thinking about Filge some more...
For room 9, you don't provide an updated list of spells in Filge's spellbook.
I understand why Mage Armor is the only 1st level spell Filge has prepared, but doesn't that mean his 4 1st level slots are useless? He probably isn't casting Mage Armor 4 times in a single day. His spell book has Magic Missile, so maybe add that over Melf's Acid Arrow which is barely better than his cantrips?
For room 9, you don't provide an updated list of spells in Filge's spellbook.
I understand why Mage Armor is the only 1st level spell Filge has prepared, but doesn't that mean his 4 1st level slots are useless? He probably isn't casting Mage Armor 4 times in a single day. His spell book has Magic Missile, so maybe add that over Melf's Acid Arrow which is barely better than his cantrips?
Good point. I left the spellbook as is, but I did not think about the empty spell slots.
I am numbering your items for ease of responding. Thanks for more feedback.
Wow, that's a lot. Here goes...
First thing to mention: I gave all party members a potion of healing to start the campaign. Otherwise they just were not going to get far.
1. Running the encounters with the EL method I decided to use seems to make most encounters run a bit easier. That being said, I have had at least half a dozen character deaths in the 20 months we have been playing the campaign. So it is possible. Often the party is their own worst enemy with friendly fire.
2. DCs for ability checks are easier. They are generally 75% of 3.5 DCs with some variance because of rounding down. My philosophy was that I was either going to go with the quick conversion or ponder what the difficulty of each check should really be. That being said, even high DCs can be beaten by a sufficiently trained character. I was worried about setting a DC 30 Dexterity (Thieves' Tools) check on some chests. 30 is the highest recommended DC by the PHB/DMG. However, our rogue had expertise (+10), +5 Dex, a magical glove that adds +5, and a class feature that makes all d20 rolls a minimum of 10. So the rogue's minimum roll was 30! There are other ways for the party to get into the chests if they don't have that particular build, so the high DC would not have been an insurmountable barrier for progress. As for the language, it is an easy check, but only a general amount of information is given. Our wizard had primordial as a language, so he just read the runes.
3. Level 1 is the most dangerous time for PCs in the game. Someone went unconscious during the wolves, and several people went unconscious at various points during the mad slasher fight. I had made a mad slasher with a full whirlwind attack. Then the rogue was 1 shotted (to -full hp, instadeath) by the small water elemental I had made that was supposed to fight the whole party. I engineered a plot device to resurrect the PC since my custom monster had 1 shotted it. The plot device fit in later in the campaign. The ankheg's acid spray was modified to be a 5 foot radius slashing attack so that it fits as the mad slasher. This is a very deadly encounter. Single hits can knock out PCs or kill them outright. But the first fight is also an EL 3. The difference here is that it hits harder, but there is only 1 of them.
4.This is one of the few places where the monster is a replacement instead of a reskin as recreating the strangle mechanic seemed annoting. That being said, I think I could do it now. The spectator is another difficult fight, but at this point, the party should be level 2, and they should be able to handle it. The lurking strangler does understand Common. They could offer to let it out, but they might not understand that it understands language. I will change it to fit the lurking strangler.
5. The Giant Centipede is a distraction in each room. The real dangers are the other creatures in those rooms. In all cases use the MM hp or the modification in my notes. For the owlbear, the encounter is supposed to be EL 3. The 5e owlbear is CR 3 on its own, and that is a medium encounter for 4 level 3 PCs. So no hp modification is necessary.
6. Bludgeonin and slashing work on the water weird as well (it is also resistant to those).
7. It depends on whether only the good swimmers go into the ghoul room. It could be the end for a single swimmer that gets paralyzed underwater. This encounter is more of an "Oh ^#$&^#!"
8. It would be difficult for them to kill the 5e ghost! It can generally run off before being killed, and it should not start hostile. So hopefully the party does not immediately fight it.
9. A party that is well rested can nova a solo monster pretty easily in 5e.
10. While all the miners moved to Smenk, Kullen and his gang are the most famous/infamous.
11. Usually, I use some of the items mentioned on the NPC in the adventure. This encounter can go either way in terms of treasure, but the gear they are using would skew the power of the party early on.
12. Kullen's gang is special. They are deadly for a level 1 or 2 party when encountered all at once. Kullen, the berserker, is a medium encounter for a level 2 party on his own. The gang together Contains almost the entire encounter xp budget for the entire day for a level 2 party. If the party takes them on, they need to separate them and take them one at a time.
13. The tomb mote is a medium encounter. It is supernaturally quick (almost like a haste spell). The 5 attacks fill in for that. The gas is a stand in for the disease on the original tomb mote. It slows down the party so they cannot pile on as easily and wipe it out quickly. Remember though that most 5e encounters finish in about 3 rounds or less.
14. When everything is by reference, page numbers are a requirement.
15. Our monk gained a reputation as the "crossbow bolt catcher" when he walked straight in to the dark room and was peppered by crossbow bolts.
16. Reading your next post, I am going to switch out melf's acid arrow for magic missile.
17. While the cantrips are more powerful for a 5th-levell spellcaster, the damage done does not really exceed that for 3rd-level spells. So it does not affect the CR calculation.
18. Stinking cloud does obscure everything for everybody, but it also incapacitates the party. The undead are not affected.
19. Ray of enfeeblement is very selective, but it can be used to seriously hamper the fighters against the undead.
20. The owl can help the undead hit a PC, but it only gives 1 attack advantage each round.
21. The two wind warriors in the conversion should work, but if it is too easy because the party is fully rested, bring another one in partway into the fight.
22. There are several dungeon crawls, but they are all fairly well themed. Chapter 2 had some iconic moments that wove their way into the fabric of our entire campaign. The Tiefling wizard convinced the guards to lower their guard as he told them of his ability to cook food just like mom used to make at home. The half-gnoll paladin peed on the statue of Hextor to get them to break ranks and forego their usual military order.
The chapters break down like this.
Chapter 2: Infiltrate into a 3 part dungeon, each uniquely themed and organized.
Chapter 3: Rescue soldiers from a lizardfolk lair
Chapter 4: Dungeon where not much is as it seems
Chapter 5: Arena battles and small dungeon
Chapter 6: Dungeon and Dragon fight
Chapter 7: Larger dungeon investigating origins of big bad
Chapter 8: Roleplaying and skill checks at a ball; Also dragons.
Chapter 9-11: I have not read these as much.
Chapter 12: Save the world from the Age of Worms.
The is quite a bit of dungeons and undead monsters, but most areas are fairly well themed to be somewhat different from each. If your group does not like dungeons, what kind of adventure do they prefer?
I'm taking this as an invitation to dig deeper. I feel a bit lonely playing the adventure so many years later when everyone is done talking about it.
I'm back into D&D after a 20-year absence (skipped 3rd and 4th edition) so I'm having trouble adjusting to the new world of massive amounts of damage being dealt yet everything being less deadly in general. Your insight into how you designed the conversion really help.
1. My intent was to preserve the deadliness of the original adventure (I wanted to challenge my experienced players) but I ended up with a TPK and complaints that things were too deadly, often when I veered from your conversion.
2. I found the converted DC check logic (60-80% of the 3.5 version) a bit easy. My impression was that most people should not make the DC25 (now 19) check on Wind Duke glyphs but generally parties have at least one person proficient (and they likely have a high intelligence) so it seemed like 25% of the time the mage would know it all, and with multiple people checking, someone else might get lucky. DC11 trap checks and stuff seemed really easy. Nearly every check was made by someone, though possibly they just rolled lucky. The math is reasonable, but I have no experience with how hard these checks were in 3.5 so they read like they should be hard but were easy.
3. The TPK was at the Green Tunnel (7). I thought the Ankheg was out of flavour (no breath weapon in the original) - it felt like a better fit for the acid beetle cow (Giant Bombardier Beetle) in the hive (16). I used a home-made conversion from elsewhere on ENWorld:
Mad Slasher
Medium aberration, chaotic evil
Armour Class 15 (natural)
Hit Points 32 (5d8+10)
Speed 40 ft.
STR 13 (+1), DEX 17 (+3), CON 15 (+2), INT 6 (-2), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 6 (-2)
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Challenge 1 (200 XP)
ACTIONS
Multiattack. The mad slasher makes two melee attacks with its claws.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d10+3 slashing damage.
...and between it and the swarms, the party was destroyed in melee and it was only the 2nd encounter! Oops.
4. I didn't use the spectator because it seemed so different. I see now that it was intended as re-skin, not a different creature. In hindsight, I'm embarrassed that I couldn't figure that our or just make the assumption. A spectator is a late encounter in the Phandalin intro module when characters are a high level so I was also worried it was just too deadly, and the option to smooth talk around the service contract isn't available if it just happens to be wandering around vs. being assigned to guard.
5. The Giant Centipede in 16 and 17 seemed too easy. 4hp and no range attack? This brings up the question of hp - in some places you indicate the hp, generally when it's injured or when it's non-standard, but in others you don't, so I assume I use the MM hp total not the adventure total. This became a bit confusing for the Owlbear at the Farmstead - it's supposed to be injured, but no alternate hp total is given. By that point, 2nd level characters against a single creature means it didn't fewer hp for the injury. Is that what you were thinking too?
6. The Water Weird in room 19 was incredibly deadly. I never let them attack it from the land, they had to go underwater and out of sight from the corridor. At that point it's invisible (immersed), they're holding their breath, only piercing weapons are effective (and it's resistant), they can't cast spells - it was a nightmare! I wasn't sure they'd be able to get through the encounter.
7. ...meanwhile the underwater Ghoul in 21, which is built up in the adventure, was a simple and forgettable combat. It seemed like the ghoul should have the same underwater disadvantages since it's not native to underwater (Lacedons aren't in 5e yet) so it was even easier as a result.
8. For the Ghost (23) I luckily managed to possess someone very early on. With a low 11AC and just 45 hp (though I kept switching between hp given in the module vs. MM defaults, now I know!) I was worried they'd fight and kill it!
9. The Owlbear was easy. I'm glad you mention the 300gp baby owlbear value vs. 3000gp, I had forgotten and was reminded right now (one of the players has adopted the baby).
10. Plot note - my players learned that the tattoo belonged to former miners from the old boss, but they then assumed that there were dozens of miners with the tattoo so it would be impossible to figure out which one was at the house digging up bodies. The module seems to assume that only Kullen's gang are left from that old mining company, but explicitly says that all the remaining miners work for Smenk so there are lots of suspects. This isn't something to address in the conversion, just something I'm curious about.
11. They didn't follow up on the Kullen angle but ended up finding their way to the Observatory directly (due to a random rumour roll). That was a bit disappointing as I'd prepared Kullen a bunch. You mention "1 CR 0-4 hoard" as random treasure on the gang. I rolled them ahead of time and got useful potions for the gang to use (plus a philter of love...which let me create a random side plot that is yet to be encountered). Did you consider rolling the treasure and giving them the magic items to use?
12. Merovinn Bask has a lot of hp too, like Filge. Heck, the Berserker has crazy hp. I'm having a lot of trouble getting used to HD not being relevant to level. The Bersker hits like a 1-3 level fighter (+5 to attack with 16 str) yet has 9HD. This seems internally inconsistent - players can never match the berserker's stats despite being a human fighter. BUT...that appears to be how things are designed. And it does make for better game play in that a 15hp solo wizard will get crushed, Mage Armor or not.
13. I thought the Tome Mote was intended as a trivial encounter. They are post-2nd edition so I have no experience with them (looked them up though). As you note, the modron re-skin was defeated in the 2nd round of combat. However, the players were lucky it rolled a low initiative as in it's single action it managed to hit 3 out of 5 times (one was critical) and knock one of them to 0. They were startled that something so dangerous was hiding in a closet! I didn't use the paralysis as I couldn't come up with a paralysis gas re-skin from an "accumulation of tomb litter", though I guess it could have been an unholy wind that paralyzes opponents with the voices of the dead or something.
14. By the way, I really like having the page number for each monster.
15. We stopped the last session just as the players are opening the door to the Observatory with the skeletons, finishing tonight. I had planned on adding the poison and sticking with crossbows, but I think I'll go with your more balanced design and give up on trying to re-create the exact same experience as the original.
16. With regard to four copies of Mage Armor...I just realized that I misunderstood the spell preparation rule for wizards. I thought they could prepare X spells of each level (so why just one 1st level spell prepared?), not overall. Wow. That changes things.
17. You increased him to 5th level which has a powerful effect on his cantrips. Chill Tough and Ray of Frost now do 2d8 damage. Was that intended? When I first posted, I didn't realize this so range attacks for d8 seemed pretty weenie. Now I can see that he doesn't need that many other spells. Heck, Melf's Acid Arrow is barely better.
18. I wasn't sure if Stinking Cloud would be a good idea since it obscures the battlefield and limits range attacks. On the other hand, it protects him from range attacks!
19. Ray of Enfeeblement seems really weak. Most people seem to use dex weapons (dex is so good!), so it's only effective against maybe one person and it requires both a to hit and concentration (as does Cloud, Fear and Vampiric Touch). This is just random commentary on the spell - Necromancers get no love at the lower levels!
20. I had forgotten about the Owl. I'll see what I can do with it.
21. I'm still deciding what to do with the Wind Warriors. The Internet was abuzz in 2006 about how deadly the combat is so I was going to go with another custom conversion, but you've changed my mind on encounter strength and I think I'll stick with the gargoyles you've suggested + some special abilities. My players thank you in advance!
22. I'm not sure if I'm going to do Chapter 2. The players aren't into the endless dungeon crawls (reviews weren't kind to Chapter 2 online) so I think I need to try something different. I was very excited by the Age of Worms based on the first adventure and it wasn't until after I started that I read the middle chapters and realized that it seems to be mostly dungeon after dungeon. I was hoping for more adventures based on the rich Diamond Lake background with mine managers doing political maneuvering and stuff, but that didn't come through. I like the overarching plot though and will likely try to use a few of the later chapters.
Wow, that's a lot. Here goes...
First thing to mention: I gave all party members a potion of healing to start the campaign. Otherwise they just were not going to get far.
1. Running the encounters with the EL method I decided to use seems to make most encounters run a bit easier. That being said, I have had at least half a dozen character deaths in the 20 months we have been playing the campaign. So it is possible. Often the party is their own worst enemy with friendly fire.
2. DCs for ability checks are easier. They are generally 75% of 3.5 DCs with some variance because of rounding down. My philosophy was that I was either going to go with the quick conversion or ponder what the difficulty of each check should really be. That being said, even high DCs can be beaten by a sufficiently trained character. I was worried about setting a DC 30 Dexterity (Thieves' Tools) check on some chests. 30 is the highest recommended DC by the PHB/DMG. However, our rogue had expertise (+10), +5 Dex, a magical glove that adds +5, and a class feature that makes all d20 rolls a minimum of 10. So the rogue's minimum roll was 30! There are other ways for the party to get into the chests if they don't have that particular build, so the high DC would not have been an insurmountable barrier for progress. As for the language, it is an easy check, but only a general amount of information is given. Our wizard had primordial as a language, so he just read the runes.
3. Level 1 is the most dangerous time for PCs in the game. Someone went unconscious during the wolves, and several people went unconscious at various points during the mad slasher fight. I had made a mad slasher with a full whirlwind attack. Then the rogue was 1 shotted (to -full hp, instadeath) by the small water elemental I had made that was supposed to fight the whole party. I engineered a plot device to resurrect the PC since my custom monster had 1 shotted it. The plot device fit in later in the campaign. The ankheg's acid spray was modified to be a 5 foot radius slashing attack so that it fits as the mad slasher. This is a very deadly encounter. Single hits can knock out PCs or kill them outright. But the first fight is also an EL 3. The difference here is that it hits harder, but there is only 1 of them.
4.This is one of the few places where the monster is a replacement instead of a reskin as recreating the strangle mechanic seemed annoting. That being said, I think I could do it now. The spectator is another difficult fight, but at this point, the party should be level 2, and they should be able to handle it. The lurking strangler does understand Common. They could offer to let it out, but they might not understand that it understands language. I will change it to fit the lurking strangler.
5. The Giant Centipede is a distraction in each room. The real dangers are the other creatures in those rooms. In all cases use the MM hp or the modification in my notes. For the owlbear, the encounter is supposed to be EL 3. The 5e owlbear is CR 3 on its own, and that is a medium encounter for 4 level 3 PCs. So no hp modification is necessary.
6. Bludgeonin and slashing work on the water weird as well (it is also resistant to those).
7. It depends on whether only the good swimmers go into the ghoul room. It could be the end for a single swimmer that gets paralyzed underwater. This encounter is more of an "Oh ^#$&^#!"
8. It would be difficult for them to kill the 5e ghost! It can generally run off before being killed, and it should not start hostile. So hopefully the party does not immediately fight it.
9. A party that is well rested can nova a solo monster pretty easily in 5e.
10. While all the miners moved to Smenk, Kullen and his gang are the most famous/infamous.
11. Usually, I use some of the items mentioned on the NPC in the adventure. This encounter can go either way in terms of treasure, but the gear they are using would skew the power of the party early on.
12. Kullen's gang is special. They are deadly for a level 1 or 2 party when encountered all at once. Kullen, the berserker, is a medium encounter for a level 2 party on his own. The gang together Contains almost the entire encounter xp budget for the entire day for a level 2 party. If the party takes them on, they need to separate them and take them one at a time.
13. The tomb mote is a medium encounter. It is supernaturally quick (almost like a haste spell). The 5 attacks fill in for that. The gas is a stand in for the disease on the original tomb mote. It slows down the party so they cannot pile on as easily and wipe it out quickly. Remember though that most 5e encounters finish in about 3 rounds or less.
14. When everything is by reference, page numbers are a requirement.
15. Our monk gained a reputation as the "crossbow bolt catcher" when he walked straight in to the dark room and was peppered by crossbow bolts.
16. Reading your next post, I am going to switch out melf's acid arrow for magic missile.
17. While the cantrips are more powerful for a 5th-levell spellcaster, the damage done does not really exceed that for 3rd-level spells. So it does not affect the CR calculation.
18. Stinking cloud does obscure everything for everybody, but it also incapacitates the party. The undead are not affected.
19. Ray of enfeeblement is very selective, but it can be used to seriously hamper the fighters against the undead.
20. The owl can help the undead hit a PC, but it only gives 1 attack advantage each round.
21. The two wind warriors in the conversion should work, but if it is too easy because the party is fully rested, bring another one in partway into the fight.
22. There are several dungeon crawls, but they are all fairly well themed. Chapter 2 had some iconic moments that wove their way into the fabric of our entire campaign. The Tiefling wizard convinced the guards to lower their guard as he told them of his ability to cook food just like mom used to make at home. The half-gnoll paladin peed on the statue of Hextor to get them to break ranks and forego their usual military order.
The chapters break down like this.
Chapter 2: Infiltrate into a 3 part dungeon, each uniquely themed and organized.
Chapter 3: Rescue soldiers from a lizardfolk lair
Chapter 4: Dungeon where not much is as it seems
Chapter 5: Arena battles and small dungeon
Chapter 6: Dungeon and Dragon fight
Chapter 7: Larger dungeon investigating origins of big bad
Chapter 8: Roleplaying and skill checks at a ball; Also dragons.
Chapter 9-11: I have not read these as much.
Chapter 12: Save the world from the Age of Worms.
The is quite a bit of dungeons and undead monsters, but most areas are fairly well themed to be somewhat different from each. If your group does not like dungeons, what kind of adventure do they prefer?
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