Adventure 2: Fire Forest of Innenodtar - Ability Checks: Warning: Spoilers!

[Galladorn]

Hi everybody: I'm running The Fire Forest of Innenodtar D&D 3.5 version, using Pathfinder rules and personal conversions. The DC for the Strenght Check to free the Living Blade from the Body of Indomability, in the Seela Lake, is 26: if an ability check is d20 + ability modifier (and not score), isn't that too high? A hero with Strenght 18 (+4) should roll an impossibile 22 on the d20 in order to succed. Is it a typo? Did the designers think of more heroes helping each other in order to succed? They should roll a very very high score, anyway. Are the heroes supposed to use spells in order to enhance their possibility to gain the sword?
And then, if the Shahalesti elves set the forest on fire after that Aniaryel imprisoned the "stag" on the bottom of the lake, why is the body of the stag flickering with fire? Am I missing something in the chronology of the events?
Many thanks,
Galannor

 

[OnlineDM]

I don't know about the 3.5 versus 4.0 differences, but I do know that in 4.0 a character gets to add half his or her level to ability checks. So, a 4th-level character with a Strength of 18 would have +6 to Strength checks.

However, I will say that when I ran this adventure, I quickly decided that some things needed to be changed on the fly. The adventure doesn't say anything about why the PCs can't just beat on Indomitability while he's pinned with the sword or why he suddenly becomes killable once the sword is removed, so I had to hand-wave that. I also decided to just make the check to pull out the sword succeed on the second attempt because it was clear that it was going to be hard to remove the sword, and if the PCs can't remove it the story can't move on.

Finally, I believe the reason Indomitability is fiery is that he's linked to the forest itself, perhaps because of the Living Blade. He wasn't fiery when he was pinned to the lake bed, but once the forest started burning, he started burning too.

 

[RangerWickett]

If you climb onto Indomitability, it only takes a DC 21 check to pull the sword free.

 

[Ragnar_Deerslayer]

And remember that if they're not braced, a DC 21 will free Indomitability without removing the sword - putting the party into a pretty predicament, either having to defeat Indomitability without the use of the sword, or coming up with a creative plan to get the sword out of the freely-mobile and angry trillith.

My players habitually buff up before a fight, though, and didn't have any problems removing it on the first go.

Ragnar