@humble minion
You are right that there are some big dungeons - the wormcrawl fissure being the main one - though that is the penultimate location.
The Spire is Long Shadows is the earliest really scary undead dungeon and is probably the point I would need to have provided them with most of the tools to survive. At that point without robust defenses against the worms they’re mulch.
They would never make it back as the worms dinner takes 10 rounds max really. So it’s find way around - surgically remove, use a scrolls, potion etc or die.
They would never make it back as the worms dinner takes 10 rounds max really. So it’s find way around - surgically remove, use a scrolls, potion etc or die.
Yeek, that's LOT more brutal than i remember, for some reason i was misremembering it, and thinking it progressed like a more conventional disease. It's really just a slightly delayed save-or-die effect.
Yeah, so scratch everything i said about trekking back to the NPC cleric, that isn't going to fly obviously.
Yeah, the transformation caused by those worms is nasty (1d4+1 rounds in 3.5). Without a cleric or someone able to protect the PCs from disease, that campaign is going to be harsh.
I’m surprised by the reluctance to tinker with 5e. I would have thought 6 years in people would have been more willing to set some limits for a thematic campaign.
You're suggesting running a campaign which was built for an entirely different set of rules in 5e. You've run into some issues with that campaign because 5e classes work a little differently. People are often suggesting you change the challenges to address that, and you're kinda crapping on that idea.
Except...YOU'RE RUNNING A CAMPAIGN WRITTEN FOR AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SET OF RULES. You're already going to have to tweak the heck out of that campaign to make it work well-enough for 5e, so what exactly is this extra burden on you to tweak the challenges to address this? You know, given you're already tweaking the challenges to address other aspects of 5e?
You're in the better position, as the DM choosing to run a non-5e game under a 5e rules set, to deal with this behind the DM screen. I am surprised at your reluctance to tinker with the challenges, given you're already going to be tinkering with those challenges.
I know from experience (having run another Paizo adventure for 5e) that you're going to be tinkering with hit points, attack rolls, damage rolls, and some special abilities of challenges. It's incredibly easy for you to add something like "resistant to turning" or "resistant to radiant damage" or "acts as a 4th level spell for purposes of dispel magic" or whatever while you're converting. Why are you trying to stick this on the players when this is a job you're already undertaking?
You're suggesting running a campaign which was built for an entirely different set of rules in 5e. You've run into some issues with that campaign because 5e classes work a little differently. People are often suggesting you change the challenges to address that, and you're kinda crapping on that idea.
Except...YOU'RE RUNNING A CAMPAIGN WRITTEN FOR AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SET OF RULES. You're already going to have to tweak the heck out of that campaign to make it work well-enough for 5e, so what exactly is this extra burden on you to tweak the challenges to address this? You know, given you're already tweaking the challenges to address other aspects of 5e?
You're in the better position, as the DM choosing to run a non-5e game under a 5e rules set, to deal with this behind the DM screen. I am surprised at your reluctance to tinker with the challenges, given you're already going to be tinkering with those challenges.
I know from experience (having run another Paizo adventure for 5e) that you're going to be tinkering with hit points, attack rolls, damage rolls, and some special abilities of challenges. It's incredibly easy for you to add something like "resistant to turning" or "resistant to radiant damage" or "acts as a 4th level spell for purposes of dispel magic" or whatever while you're converting. Why are you trying to stick this on the players when this is a job you're already undertaking?
Yeah, the transformation caused by those worms is nasty (1d4+1 rounds in 3.5). Without a cleric or someone able to protect the PCs from disease, that campaign is going to be harsh.
There is that moment of panic when the worm is on their skin and they have a round to kill it before it burrows in. That’s the panic I want The players to ‘enjoy’ for a few levels before they find longer term ways of coping. The Kyuss worms are fairly scarce for the first six adventures But when they do arrive they need to make an impact. Without derailing the second half of the campaign by making them too onerous to get rid of.
I mean you're putting the burden of a problem created by your own choice of adventures that needs to be converted to 5e on the players choices for character creation and development. You're saying "Even if you were dreaming of making a cleric for this campaign because you've been looking forward to playing a cleric, I want you to put aside those desires to accommodate my choice of adventures." Worse, if one of your PCs encounters something in the adventure which naturally would lead the PC to want to take multi-classing in Cleric, you're telling your player they cannot follow that path either.
Which makes perfect sense if there isn't another good way to deal with this problem. But there is, and you'll already be doing the work involved with adjusting the challenges as the DM. So why not take that way to solve the problem?
The toys of players are there for them to enjoy. Do not mess with them.
Talk to your players. If you intend it to be more challenging. Talk to them first.
Use the rest variant rules. If need be. Short rest is 8 hours. Long rest is a week.
I suspect you need to know a bit more about the campaign.
One of the tings that makes the campaign so scary in the earlier stages is the discovery of worms that burrow into a person and Turn them into undead. These are cured by casting remove disease - in 3e a fairly niche 3rd level spell that had to be memorized. In 5e It’s an all encompassing 2nd level spell that is a given for most divine spell casting characters to take.
At the later stages it is a given that the players gain defenses against this - usually immunity to disease through some method or another - otherwise they would become worm food. Though at early stages it is a big part of the feel and difficulty of the campaign.
believe me a paladin, and a cleric (or even a druid) would trivialize this game for the first half of the campaign. In my opinion. It isn’t about them being more powerful than the rest of the party... it’s them having resources that trivialize core components of the game
I’m hoping for specific discussion relating to the Age of Worms not so much general principles of limiting campaigns. I’m also absolutely in favor of house rules where they improve the style and theme of the game.
I see your point, that is tough to balance. Are your players more "grognard" or more modern, like e.g. "every skill has to work all time otherwise I feel nerfed to the point of no fun"?
Depending on that there might be a different solution:
As I understand the big bad oomph effect of the setting is very similar to "The Strain" series, an apocalyptic scenario with vampire like beings infecting others by the means of worms which they cough up into their victims face. Btw this one is a very good analogy to what is going on with Corona IRL atm. if it had turned out much worse.
If you can, watch it on some streamer.
But back to topic, so like with "The strain" the "Zombies" might not count as undead at all but rather morphed and controlled by the worms, and eager to spread and multiply the affliction.
So let the lesser restoration work, even at low level, but there are only so many spell slots to cast it.
(Even for me as a grognard, as much as I like an extra challenge by some condition e.g. exhausted or diseased, I also want to have access to a "let it go away" solution after some time.)
But make it that the "worm-zombies" are not of the type undead at all, but rather hosts for the worms, so trivializing anything by turn undead will not help because it will not work.
