Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7084229" data-attributes="member: 4937">I definitely should have included all the deadly puddings on my list.&nbsp; While the Black is in many ways the worst, they each have their subtle challenges in terms of movement rate, how hard they hit, and HD.&nbsp; That said, your DM's 'White Pudding' is an excellent example of a variant monster, as the official 'White Pudding' of D&amp;D is a snow drift that eats you, but has basically the same weaknesses as the Black Pudding.&nbsp; Your story is an excellent example of two things.&nbsp; First, just how small of a change in a monster is necessary to create challenge.&nbsp; And second, just how many resources a high level party has to leverage.You are quite right of course that in 1e, the trick to putting pressure on the party is putting them in a battle of attrition.&nbsp;&nbsp; Almost no single (non-surprise) encounter can threaten a well prepared party, but as spells and hit points are abraded things get more and more dicey.&nbsp; A certain number of proactive foes are therefore essential, because otherwise you'll be dealing with parties that do commando raids with no fear of retribution.&nbsp;&nbsp; Again, this is why the 1e Ravenloft is a much more difficult module than Tomb of Horrors - Strahd doesn't wait for the PC's to act and on the contrary will chase the PC's down if they try to limit their daily exposure.&nbsp; 10th level characters are much better equipped to face ToH, than 6th level characters are to face Ravenloft.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7084229, member: 4937"] I definitely should have included all the deadly puddings on my list. While the Black is in many ways the worst, they each have their subtle challenges in terms of movement rate, how hard they hit, and HD. That said, your DM's 'White Pudding' is an excellent example of a variant monster, as the official 'White Pudding' of D&D is a snow drift that eats you, but has basically the same weaknesses as the Black Pudding. Your story is an excellent example of two things. First, just how small of a change in a monster is necessary to create challenge. And second, just how many resources a high level party has to leverage. You are quite right of course that in 1e, the trick to putting pressure on the party is putting them in a battle of attrition. Almost no single (non-surprise) encounter can threaten a well prepared party, but as spells and hit points are abraded things get more and more dicey. A certain number of proactive foes are therefore essential, because otherwise you'll be dealing with parties that do commando raids with no fear of retribution. Again, this is why the 1e Ravenloft is a much more difficult module than Tomb of Horrors - Strahd doesn't wait for the PC's to act and on the contrary will chase the PC's down if they try to limit their daily exposure. 10th level characters are much better equipped to face ToH, than 6th level characters are to face Ravenloft. [/QUOTE]

Verification