D&D General (SPOILERS for Vecna: Eve of Ruin) Are My Standards Too High for Adventures?

[KYRON45]

Bit of a difference between discussion and complaining, though.

Maybe. This being a public forum though; complaining is part of the discussion.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So why complain about it? If you don't like what they're doing, just don't buy it. Vote with your dollars, as they say. Complaining doesn't help and makes it worse for those who have to hear/read it.

That's an argument for never expressing displeasure. Good for vibes, perhaps, but impractical for a discussion forum where people don't agree.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So I'm not sure if this has been discussed yet but the final part is pretty rough. Some issues:

The map for the cave, E1 and E2 sapphire cant be reached.
Vecna as written cant use vile teleport
Vecna can't see though the walls
If you kill vecna the party loses
If you use the chime on vecna, and he has a legendary resistance to use against it the party loses.

I think massive parts of this book were cut.

Can anyone confirm this? These seem like major issues.

 

[htap]

Can anyone confirm this? These seem like major issues.

Im happy to show you were any of those things are.

As written the only way to beat Vecna is to burn his legendary resistances, and use the chime on him without dropping him to zero hp. There is a single win condition, the chime at under 50 hp. A legendary resistance can null the chime(and he has 5).

The book also states the only teleportation magic that works in the cave is fell rebuke, meaning vile teleport does not work.

E1 and E2 sapphire are both inside a closed room with zero other way to enter so those rooms are just permalocked

Vecna is not stated to be able to see through the walls in the cave, so he cant not target or teleport through them(the players can see through them if they have enough secrets)

It's a wild fight with a broken map. If the DM simply saves one LR, which would be reasonable for vecna. The fight can't be beaten basically.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Try selling me swampland while your at it, you expect me to believe 60% goes to retailers? And 30% goes to distrubutors, while WotC accepts a mere 15% per book? That's a huge profit margin for Retailers. No way am buying that.

Welll I expect that an actually retailer who sells the books to know more than you and Fitz agreed with these numbers, though it wasn’t 15% it was closer to 25% for WotC if you do the math. He said there was a typo in there IIRC

 

[Parmandur]

Welll I expect that an actually retailer who sells the books to know more than you and Fitz agreed with these numbers, though it wasn’t 15% it was closer to 25% for WotC if you do the math. He said there was a typo in there IIRC

Right, he clarified that latter.

 

[billd91]

If the DM simply saves one LR, which would be reasonable for vecna. The fight can't be beaten basically.

Let’s be real. Any DM who does this to the players deserves the beating they’re going to give him.

 

[Parmandur]

Try selling me swampland while your at it, you expect me to believe 60% goes to retailers? And 30% goes to distrubutors, while WotC accepts a mere 15% per book? That's a huge profit margin for Retailers. No way am buying that.

You may have missed @FitzTheRuke clarification, it's more like 35-25-40 for WotC-Distributor-Retailer. Retailer gets the biggest cut, that's how Amazon makes a profit with such deep discounts. And that 35% cut has to cover development and printing costs.

So WotC is going from getting about $16 per book to about $20 per book.

 

[MerricB]

So I'm not sure if this has been discussed yet but the final part is pretty rough. Some issues:

I think massive parts of this book were cut.

It's a bit hard to say whether they were cut or underdeveloped. There do seem to be numerous problems with the modern Wizards approach to adventures (and I mean mainly the last few). I've called out how their monster encounters don't work on battlemats or VTTs before.

And the errors in The Shattered Obelisk and numerous and horrendous. As a couple of my industry friends have said: there's something broken at Wizards of the Coast.

Which is unusual, because Wizards do actually work to a high standard most of the time. I might not like all their products, but I don't normally come out saying "this is undeveloped" or "this is badly edited".

The saving throw against the chime feels like a rules lawyerly interpretation, though. The chime states that the target automatically fails its saving throw if below 50 hp. "Oh, Legendary Resistance means they can make the save!" But that's a DM being a dick. It's clear what the intent is.

Text from book: "As long as Vecna is conducting his ritual, diamond doors are the only form of teleportation magic besides Vecna’s Fell Rebuke reaction that functions in this place." Huh, doesn't mention Vile Teleport! Oops. (Here's a really silly interpretation which is actually something Crawford has used before - Vile Teleport does not mention it is magical in the text, thus is teleportation which isn't magical! Sigh. This looks like an oversight).

 

[DarkCrisis]

Let’s be real. Any DM who does this to the players deserves the beating they’re going to give him.

Don't hate the player, hate the game.