Dessert Nomad
Adventurer
Because I was stuck home today, I decided to run the 1e version of the encounter as a deathmatch. I took the sample characters from Module A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords. That's listed as a level 4-7 module, so is slightly lower than what they would expect for this 5-7 module. Since there are 9 in there, I ditched the illusionist (illusion magic usually needs a lot of interpretation anyway). I let the characters pick up normal equipment (grabbed a few extra missile weapons, only one that got used was a short bow for the rogue) and redo spells (I swapped a bunch of 'light' spells for magic missile and bless, and swapped a cure disease for prayer). None of the characters use weapon specialization, which weakens them, but on the flip side some are 6th level instead of 5th. The slightly higher levels shouldn't be a problem, since this is supposedly such a deadly encounter that the 1e characters would be complete idiots who deserve a TPK for it.
I decided that the scenario is that the purple worm erupts from the ground scaring the party, and eats a camel each round until the party attacks. Once they do, it hits the character that did the most damage each round. Once it attacks a ranged character, that character has to switch to melee unless he wants to run and give the worm a free attack (I don't remember exactly how that worked in 1E). I even house ruled that it gets to use the stinger, even though RAW it doesn't. Both sides will fight until they die, unless the players leave no targets for the worm, in which case he leaves with the bodies. The fact that the party gets to attack first really should be a big deal, since the 1e experts believe this is a completely hopeless fight that they are fools for attempting. However, since I don't think it is, I arbitrarily grant that the worm cannot miss with both attacks in a round, if it rolls 2 misses then it gets a non-swallowing bite hit, and I'm also tracking both the 54 hp worm in the module and the 75 hp average worm.
Because I don't remember all of the segmented stuff, I'm just having the party do their thing in whatever order they want on their initiative. This is a slight advantage, but again this fight is supposed to be so lopsided they're idiots for attempting it, and I don't care to spend hours rediscovering 1e combat intricacies.
Initiative rolls: 4 for party, 5 for worm.
Round 1:
Worm eats a camel
Karraway (C6) casts Bless on party, Eljayess (F3C3) reverses bless on worm, Delgath (MU5) casts levitate on self, Kayen (4F, 4MU) casts shocking grasp
Elwita (F6) Ogre (F5) charge and melee
Freda (R4) fires 2x + 2 arrow, Blodgett (T5) fires 2x short bow
Freda: +2 dex, +2 arrow, +1 Bless, +6AC, THACO18 needs 7, hits twice for d6+2 each 11 total
Blogett: +3 dex +1 bless +6 AC THAC0 19 needs 9, hits x2 D6 each 4 total
Elwita +2 charge +1 STR, +2 War Hammer, +1 Bless, THAC0 16 needs 10 misses
Ogre +2 Charge +2 STR +1 Long Sword, +1 bless THAC0 16 needs 10 misses
Kayen: Forgot touch attack rules, rolled 16 which would hit regular AC, d8+4 dam 9 total
Worm damage: 24
Bless/rev: 1/6 rounds +1/-1 To hit
Round 2:
Round 2:
Worm attacks Freda: -1 Bless THAC0 8 AC -1 (Chain +3 and dex) Needs 10 Misses bite and tail. Arbitrary rule: Bite hits normally for 17/40 Damage
Party: Karraway casts Prayer, Delgath casts slow, Blodgett fires 2x short bow rest melee
Delgay: Worm save is base 7, -1 prayer made save
Blogett: +3 Dex +2 spells +6 AC THAC0 19 needs 8 2x hit for 2d6 6 points
Elwita: +1 STR +2 Spells +2 War hammer, +6 AC THAC0 16 needs 5 hits for d4+1+3 for 7
Ogre: +2 STR +2 spells +1 Long sword +6 AC THAC0 16 needs 5 hits for D8+4 for 9
Freda: +2 spells +6 AC THAC0 18 needs 10 misses
Eljayess: +2 spells Spear +1 +6 AC THAC0 18 needs 9 misses
Kayen: +2 spells +1 Long Sword +6 AC THAc0 18 needs 9 misses
Bless/rev: 2/6 rounds +1/-1 To hit
Prayer : 1/6 rounds +1/-1 to hit and saves
Worm damage: 46
Round 3:
Worm Attacks Ogre -2 Spells AC1 THAC0 8 needs 9 - Swallows for 24/45 damage bite
Tail goes to Elwita -2 Spells AC1 THAC0 8 needs 9, hit 6/54 Save: 11base, +1 Prayer made save
Party:
Delgath: Fireball from wand of fire (2/4 charges)
Blogett 2x short bow, rest melee
Delgath: Fireball 6d6 1s count as 2s 19 damn, save v wand 6 -1 prayer 7 Makes for 10 dam
Blogett: 8 1x hit 1x crit 15 damage
Elwita: needs 5 hit 8 damage
Freda needs 10 misses
Eljayess needs 9 misses
Kayen: needs 9 misses
Ogre Needs 2 (Internal AC is 9) hits for D8+4 -1 (for being inside) = 8
Ogre 1/6 to die
Bless 3/6 +1/-1 to hit
Prayer 2/6 +1/-1 To hit and saves
Worm has now taken 77 damage. Enough to kill it in either in the weakened module encounter or at average HP. Party has taken damage and used some consumables, lost no members (and had a raise dead scroll if one did die). The mage didn't really even need to blow the fireballs and would have been better off magic missiling for 3d4+3 no save, but I was believing the 1e experts who said this was a hopeless fight so used all stops.
So I think my estimate of the difficulty of the 1e encounter was on target. 1e characters may not be as amazing as 5e characters, but dealing out 54/75 damage from a party of 8 is just not that hard to do. Even if the character had failed the poison save, they would have just been out the one scroll. People will obviously nitpick this six ways to Sunday, and will claim that my using characters from a popular 1e Tournament module is boosting them too much, but that's the internet.
I decided that the scenario is that the purple worm erupts from the ground scaring the party, and eats a camel each round until the party attacks. Once they do, it hits the character that did the most damage each round. Once it attacks a ranged character, that character has to switch to melee unless he wants to run and give the worm a free attack (I don't remember exactly how that worked in 1E). I even house ruled that it gets to use the stinger, even though RAW it doesn't. Both sides will fight until they die, unless the players leave no targets for the worm, in which case he leaves with the bodies. The fact that the party gets to attack first really should be a big deal, since the 1e experts believe this is a completely hopeless fight that they are fools for attempting. However, since I don't think it is, I arbitrarily grant that the worm cannot miss with both attacks in a round, if it rolls 2 misses then it gets a non-swallowing bite hit, and I'm also tracking both the 54 hp worm in the module and the 75 hp average worm.
Because I don't remember all of the segmented stuff, I'm just having the party do their thing in whatever order they want on their initiative. This is a slight advantage, but again this fight is supposed to be so lopsided they're idiots for attempting it, and I don't care to spend hours rediscovering 1e combat intricacies.
Initiative rolls: 4 for party, 5 for worm.
Round 1:
Worm eats a camel
Karraway (C6) casts Bless on party, Eljayess (F3C3) reverses bless on worm, Delgath (MU5) casts levitate on self, Kayen (4F, 4MU) casts shocking grasp
Elwita (F6) Ogre (F5) charge and melee
Freda (R4) fires 2x + 2 arrow, Blodgett (T5) fires 2x short bow
Freda: +2 dex, +2 arrow, +1 Bless, +6AC, THACO18 needs 7, hits twice for d6+2 each 11 total
Blogett: +3 dex +1 bless +6 AC THAC0 19 needs 9, hits x2 D6 each 4 total
Elwita +2 charge +1 STR, +2 War Hammer, +1 Bless, THAC0 16 needs 10 misses
Ogre +2 Charge +2 STR +1 Long Sword, +1 bless THAC0 16 needs 10 misses
Kayen: Forgot touch attack rules, rolled 16 which would hit regular AC, d8+4 dam 9 total
Worm damage: 24
Bless/rev: 1/6 rounds +1/-1 To hit
Round 2:
Round 2:
Worm attacks Freda: -1 Bless THAC0 8 AC -1 (Chain +3 and dex) Needs 10 Misses bite and tail. Arbitrary rule: Bite hits normally for 17/40 Damage
Party: Karraway casts Prayer, Delgath casts slow, Blodgett fires 2x short bow rest melee
Delgay: Worm save is base 7, -1 prayer made save
Blogett: +3 Dex +2 spells +6 AC THAC0 19 needs 8 2x hit for 2d6 6 points
Elwita: +1 STR +2 Spells +2 War hammer, +6 AC THAC0 16 needs 5 hits for d4+1+3 for 7
Ogre: +2 STR +2 spells +1 Long sword +6 AC THAC0 16 needs 5 hits for D8+4 for 9
Freda: +2 spells +6 AC THAC0 18 needs 10 misses
Eljayess: +2 spells Spear +1 +6 AC THAC0 18 needs 9 misses
Kayen: +2 spells +1 Long Sword +6 AC THAc0 18 needs 9 misses
Bless/rev: 2/6 rounds +1/-1 To hit
Prayer : 1/6 rounds +1/-1 to hit and saves
Worm damage: 46
Round 3:
Worm Attacks Ogre -2 Spells AC1 THAC0 8 needs 9 - Swallows for 24/45 damage bite
Tail goes to Elwita -2 Spells AC1 THAC0 8 needs 9, hit 6/54 Save: 11base, +1 Prayer made save
Party:
Delgath: Fireball from wand of fire (2/4 charges)
Blogett 2x short bow, rest melee
Delgath: Fireball 6d6 1s count as 2s 19 damn, save v wand 6 -1 prayer 7 Makes for 10 dam
Blogett: 8 1x hit 1x crit 15 damage
Elwita: needs 5 hit 8 damage
Freda needs 10 misses
Eljayess needs 9 misses
Kayen: needs 9 misses
Ogre Needs 2 (Internal AC is 9) hits for D8+4 -1 (for being inside) = 8
Ogre 1/6 to die
Bless 3/6 +1/-1 to hit
Prayer 2/6 +1/-1 To hit and saves
Worm has now taken 77 damage. Enough to kill it in either in the weakened module encounter or at average HP. Party has taken damage and used some consumables, lost no members (and had a raise dead scroll if one did die). The mage didn't really even need to blow the fireballs and would have been better off magic missiling for 3d4+3 no save, but I was believing the 1e experts who said this was a hopeless fight so used all stops.
So I think my estimate of the difficulty of the 1e encounter was on target. 1e characters may not be as amazing as 5e characters, but dealing out 54/75 damage from a party of 8 is just not that hard to do. Even if the character had failed the poison save, they would have just been out the one scroll. People will obviously nitpick this six ways to Sunday, and will claim that my using characters from a popular 1e Tournament module is boosting them too much, but that's the internet.