D&D 5E (2024) Thoughts on Infinite Staircase?

[plecostomus]

Finished The Lost City yesterday. My players really enjoyed the Zargon social encounter. Instead of having to give any treasure to him, they outwitted him and evaded a couple attacks to make their escape.

I also had a pinch-hitter for the final floor because of some scheduling uncertainties, and that player has decided to join us for the rest of the adventure.

I said above there's no boss fight on Zargon's floor, but I may have spoken too soon. There is a cultist named Zekrikitch in the chamber above Zargon's who uses the mind flayer statblock. Zekrikitch is CR7, everything else in the dungeon has been CR4 or lower. The players are Level 4 when they find Zekrikitch.

I accidentally killed Zekrikitch with a NPC who critted and then rolled max damage. Had the NPC not been there and had the players not freed her (she was chained to an altar in Zekrikitch's room), I'm not sure I would classify this as a winnable fight, especially if Zekrikitch gets lucky on his Mind Blast recharges.

Worth noting Zekrikitch could not hit anyone with his Tentacles, which means he could never set up for Extract Brain. On the flip side, his Dominate Monster spell, used on the Bard (it's not actually restricted to monsters), was not removed for the entire fight. I'm pretty sure the Bard did more damage to the party than Zekrikitch did, outside of Mind Blast.

So that was a pretty exciting fight until I smoked my own guy. Note that the 5.5 mind flayer has 15 ft of fly speed and the room height here is 20 ft.

Total time on this module was 44 hours for my group of 3 players. We play for 2 hours each week. For the next module we will have a proper 4-player party.

 

[Zardnaar]

Finished The Lost City yesterday. My players really enjoyed the Zargon social encounter. Instead of having to give any treasure to him, they outwitted him and evaded a couple attacks to make their escape.

I also had a pinch-hitter for the final floor because of some scheduling uncertainties, and that player has decided to join us for the rest of the adventure.

I said above there's no boss fight on Zargon's floor, but I may have spoken too soon. There is a cultist named Zekrikitch in the chamber above Zargon's who uses the mind flayer statblock. Zekrikitch is CR7, everything else in the dungeon has been CR4 or lower. The players are Level 4 when they find Zekrikitch.

I accidentally killed Zekrikitch with a NPC who critted and then rolled max damage. Had the NPC not been there and had the players not freed her (she was chained to an altar in Zekrikitch's room), I'm not sure I would classify this as a winnable fight, especially if Zekrikitch gets lucky on his Mind Blast recharges.

Worth noting Zekrikitch could not hit anyone with his Tentacles, which means he could never set up for Extract Brain. On the flip side, his Dominate Monster spell, used on the Bard (it's not actually restricted to monsters), was not removed for the entire fight. I'm pretty sure the Bard did more damage to the party than Zekrikitch did, outside of Mind Blast.

So that was a pretty exciting fight until I smoked my own guy. Note that the 5.5 mind flayer has 15 ft of fly speed and the room height here is 20 ft.

Total time on this module was 44 hours for my group of 3 players. We play for 2 hours each week. For the next module we will have a proper 4-player party.

CR7 is probably RAW with new encounter guidelines.

 

[Scott Christian]

Finished The Lost City yesterday. My players really enjoyed the Zargon social encounter. Instead of having to give any treasure to him, they outwitted him and evaded a couple attacks to make their escape.

I also had a pinch-hitter for the final floor because of some scheduling uncertainties, and that player has decided to join us for the rest of the adventure.

I said above there's no boss fight on Zargon's floor, but I may have spoken too soon. There is a cultist named Zekrikitch in the chamber above Zargon's who uses the mind flayer statblock. Zekrikitch is CR7, everything else in the dungeon has been CR4 or lower. The players are Level 4 when they find Zekrikitch.

I accidentally killed Zekrikitch with a NPC who critted and then rolled max damage. Had the NPC not been there and had the players not freed her (she was chained to an altar in Zekrikitch's room), I'm not sure I would classify this as a winnable fight, especially if Zekrikitch gets lucky on his Mind Blast recharges.

Worth noting Zekrikitch could not hit anyone with his Tentacles, which means he could never set up for Extract Brain. On the flip side, his Dominate Monster spell, used on the Bard (it's not actually restricted to monsters), was not removed for the entire fight. I'm pretty sure the Bard did more damage to the party than Zekrikitch did, outside of Mind Blast.

So that was a pretty exciting fight until I smoked my own guy. Note that the 5.5 mind flayer has 15 ft of fly speed and the room height here is 20 ft.

Total time on this module was 44 hours for my group of 3 players. We play for 2 hours each week. For the next module we will have a proper 4-player party.

Three players, the sweetest spot for combat in my opinion. Glad you guys had fun. So it took about 22 weeks (or more). Can I ask: Does that 2 hours include downtime, or is that your actual playtime? Also, what's next?

 

[plecostomus]

Three players, the sweetest spot for combat in my opinion. Glad you guys had fun. So it took about 22 weeks (or more). Can I ask: Does that 2 hours include downtime, or is that your actual playtime? Also, what's next?

That is the actual playtime. I record the sessions so I just added up the recording times. I do include the players' recap of the previous session in the recording, but I would say that's 1-5 minutes.

I also checked how much time they spent on each floor. Pardon my rounding.

• 7% - Floor 1
• 9% - Guardians of Gorm / Floor 2
• 7% - Mages of Usamigaras and Warriors of Madarua / Floor 3
• 27%, 12 hours - Crypt / Floor 4
• 34%, 15 hours - Exit Hall / Floor 5
• 14% - Zargon's Lair / Floor 6
• 2% - Exit / Return to Town

The next module for Infinite Staircase is When A Star Falls. My players were already excited when they got back to town and saw a map with plants and water again, so maybe this one will feel relaxing. Much of WASF takes place outdoors, and it seems like there's much more opportunity to Long Rest since going between its locations can take multiple days.

Before that, I am going to be running a solo quest for my arcane caster (Bard) called The Test of High Sorcery, which is a 3P Dragonlance module.

My new player might be making an Artificer, which is very exciting since he's never played one and I've never seen one played. We're going to be so helpful to each other. He asked me if Artificers were possible in Dragonlance, and I certainly think so. This is the art I showed him for inspiration: