1. Friendly fire? Do you mean shooting arrows into a crowd? Because I'm a big fan of having a risk of hitting one of your own team, but my players are skeptical because it's not RaW.
We've had one TPK and one "probably should have been actually dead" situation where a Flame Bolt into the brown mold did double his hp in damage. I don't count "knocked to 0hp", that's just a regular day.
2. Expertise doubles the proficiency bonus, so a 1st level rogue should have +4, not +10?
I do find that the d20 check has too much variance. I suspect a d12 would make proficiency more relevant (and given the d12 more to do). Or possibly a system where a different die is used for different types of checks, but that would be too complex for 5e.
3. I like the modified Ankheg as a slasher idea.
4. Because my group re-started after 2 encounters, they were still 1st level when they were supposed to be 2nd level as they also went into the dungeons in an unexpected order.
5. When the group faced the 2nd swarms they used magic instead of head-to-head melee and had a lot more success. I was expected a tough battle and it was a blow-out for them, but I also had the swarms form at a rate of 1/turn because I was worried I'd kill them again.
6. Blunt and Slashing weapons are at disadvantage underwater. Piercing is your best chance of actually hitting it, and then you still only do half damage.
7. Yeah, the 5e rules on swimming are pretty lax - you get quite a few turns of breath holding - so it wasn't as tough as I expected. Plus, the party was weary after figuring out the weird so I was cutting them some slack.
8. ~
9. Yeah. I'm not a fan of that - I like having high AC/high HP creatures that take on all comers. But I understand the game logic behind it.
10. ~
11. I'm not saying the items in the written adventure should be on them - definitely unbalancing. In your conversion you say to roll for treasure, and I got a Philter of Love, Potion of Fire Breath, and two Potions of Water Breathing (plus 6 gems worth 50gp). If one of the gang is carrying a Potion of Fire Breath, it feels like he should use it. It's an interesting decision in writing a conversion - do you make every roll to maximize the time savings for DMs, or do you leave some things for the DM to do so it never plays out the exact same way?
12. The gang is definitely special. My point is that 67 hp is a lot for a 2nd level party (it is), but that the Berserker is a standard MM monster that has crazy hp given its attack roll is the same as a 4th level fighter. It's a shift in thinking.
13. ~
14. Agreed. I note page numbers for spells in my own documentation, but I suspect that might look too cluttered in your conversion.
15. ~
16. Make sure to note that two 1st spell slots are already used for Mage Armor (16 hours coverage) so that the DM doesn't accidentally cast 4 Magic Missiles at the poor party.
17. I went with the 2d8 damage and it was certainly a threat!
18. I forgot about the heavily obscured side effect of Stinking Cloud. In theory, everyone in the cloud had the blinded condition, including the zombies (because they have darkvision, which I believe is ineffective in a cloud). Another rule I had trouble with was whether characters could move when they failed their Cloud save. At first I didn't think they could (2e thinking), but after re-reading the spell, we decided they could because "retching and reeling" replaces the action, not the movement.
19. ~
20. I totally forgot the owl. The adventure only mentions it in room 9 "if Filge is sleeping", but Filge is most likely encountered in room 11, which seems like a flaw. The owl should be mentioned in both. Not sure if you want to add that to the conversion.
21. Good idea.
22. I like the 3 dungeons in part 2 individually (well, the maze looks like a pain to run, but maybe not) but all in a row after the Cairn will be too much. I also don't like the twisting required to keep it internally consistent - they're not going to take out all 3 at once, but are we to assume that the other two temples don't respond to one temple being wiped out?
I do like the Lizardman raid, but then it ends up in a dungeon in the swamp. The doppleganger dungeon seems odd - why is there such an elaborate dungeon there? I like the arena, but again there's a dungeon (the training complex itself). The ball later on is neat.
I'd like a few more big one-time encounters, maybe in the wilderness. Perhaps a chapter where they have to raid a thieves' guild or mine manager house (they really enjoyed raiding the observatory) or kidnap someone (or prevent someone from being kidnapped), or rob a corrupt mine manager (or stop a robbery). I'm still trying to figure out what they like the most.
***
So on Sunday we played out the Observatory. They easily handled the 3 skeletons at the front that no longer had poison crossbows. The Feasting Hall full of zombies really threw them, especially when they cast Detect Magic and saw that there were illusions on all the zombies. They kept trying to figure out what they couldn't see, not realizing it was the sound illusion of Magic Mouth.
Heading upstairs they thought they would be clever and steal the platinum piece off the tongue of the severed head with Mage Hand, but we decided that it still counted as touching and the Magic Mouth went off screaming "INTRUDER", alerting Filge. But Filge can't do much other than wait for them to come up, which is a bit of a design flaw.
They found the spellbook and I had to tell them that I'd get back to them about what spells are there. Going to decide that tonight.
The final encounter was fantastic. I'm really, really glad I decided to go with your conversion and not tweak anything. A Stinking Cloud to start things off got everyone in a panic. Facing what appeared to be overwhelming odds (the party has become slightly fatalistic after the TPK), they concentrated fire on Filge hoping that if he went down, the zombies and skeletons might follow. Because he's a mage, they all expected him to have just a few HP and were increasingly astounded as damage after damage plowed into him without taking him down.
Throughout most of the battle, I was pretty sure they were going to lose, but slowly they fought back and turned the tide, which is exactly perfect. One member went down to 0hp, everyone else was injured, all their spells were used up, and in the end I was torn each round between Filge surrendering or trying to fight one more round and see if he could take it. It was that close!
Once all the undead were gone and Filge was out of spells, it became inevitable. Filge could probably have had 15-20 fewer HP and things wouldn't have changed much.
Note that I did let them level up in HP as they went up the stairs as the skeletons pushed them over 900xp. They definitely needed those extra HP!
So a big thank you for helping make the final encounter so memorable!
We've had one TPK and one "probably should have been actually dead" situation where a Flame Bolt into the brown mold did double his hp in damage. I don't count "knocked to 0hp", that's just a regular day.
2. Expertise doubles the proficiency bonus, so a 1st level rogue should have +4, not +10?
I do find that the d20 check has too much variance. I suspect a d12 would make proficiency more relevant (and given the d12 more to do). Or possibly a system where a different die is used for different types of checks, but that would be too complex for 5e.
3. I like the modified Ankheg as a slasher idea.
4. Because my group re-started after 2 encounters, they were still 1st level when they were supposed to be 2nd level as they also went into the dungeons in an unexpected order.
5. When the group faced the 2nd swarms they used magic instead of head-to-head melee and had a lot more success. I was expected a tough battle and it was a blow-out for them, but I also had the swarms form at a rate of 1/turn because I was worried I'd kill them again.
6. Blunt and Slashing weapons are at disadvantage underwater. Piercing is your best chance of actually hitting it, and then you still only do half damage.
7. Yeah, the 5e rules on swimming are pretty lax - you get quite a few turns of breath holding - so it wasn't as tough as I expected. Plus, the party was weary after figuring out the weird so I was cutting them some slack.
8. ~
9. Yeah. I'm not a fan of that - I like having high AC/high HP creatures that take on all comers. But I understand the game logic behind it.
10. ~
11. I'm not saying the items in the written adventure should be on them - definitely unbalancing. In your conversion you say to roll for treasure, and I got a Philter of Love, Potion of Fire Breath, and two Potions of Water Breathing (plus 6 gems worth 50gp). If one of the gang is carrying a Potion of Fire Breath, it feels like he should use it. It's an interesting decision in writing a conversion - do you make every roll to maximize the time savings for DMs, or do you leave some things for the DM to do so it never plays out the exact same way?
12. The gang is definitely special. My point is that 67 hp is a lot for a 2nd level party (it is), but that the Berserker is a standard MM monster that has crazy hp given its attack roll is the same as a 4th level fighter. It's a shift in thinking.
13. ~
14. Agreed. I note page numbers for spells in my own documentation, but I suspect that might look too cluttered in your conversion.
15. ~
16. Make sure to note that two 1st spell slots are already used for Mage Armor (16 hours coverage) so that the DM doesn't accidentally cast 4 Magic Missiles at the poor party.
17. I went with the 2d8 damage and it was certainly a threat!
18. I forgot about the heavily obscured side effect of Stinking Cloud. In theory, everyone in the cloud had the blinded condition, including the zombies (because they have darkvision, which I believe is ineffective in a cloud). Another rule I had trouble with was whether characters could move when they failed their Cloud save. At first I didn't think they could (2e thinking), but after re-reading the spell, we decided they could because "retching and reeling" replaces the action, not the movement.
19. ~
20. I totally forgot the owl. The adventure only mentions it in room 9 "if Filge is sleeping", but Filge is most likely encountered in room 11, which seems like a flaw. The owl should be mentioned in both. Not sure if you want to add that to the conversion.
21. Good idea.
22. I like the 3 dungeons in part 2 individually (well, the maze looks like a pain to run, but maybe not) but all in a row after the Cairn will be too much. I also don't like the twisting required to keep it internally consistent - they're not going to take out all 3 at once, but are we to assume that the other two temples don't respond to one temple being wiped out?
I do like the Lizardman raid, but then it ends up in a dungeon in the swamp. The doppleganger dungeon seems odd - why is there such an elaborate dungeon there? I like the arena, but again there's a dungeon (the training complex itself). The ball later on is neat.
I'd like a few more big one-time encounters, maybe in the wilderness. Perhaps a chapter where they have to raid a thieves' guild or mine manager house (they really enjoyed raiding the observatory) or kidnap someone (or prevent someone from being kidnapped), or rob a corrupt mine manager (or stop a robbery). I'm still trying to figure out what they like the most.
***
So on Sunday we played out the Observatory. They easily handled the 3 skeletons at the front that no longer had poison crossbows. The Feasting Hall full of zombies really threw them, especially when they cast Detect Magic and saw that there were illusions on all the zombies. They kept trying to figure out what they couldn't see, not realizing it was the sound illusion of Magic Mouth.
Heading upstairs they thought they would be clever and steal the platinum piece off the tongue of the severed head with Mage Hand, but we decided that it still counted as touching and the Magic Mouth went off screaming "INTRUDER", alerting Filge. But Filge can't do much other than wait for them to come up, which is a bit of a design flaw.
They found the spellbook and I had to tell them that I'd get back to them about what spells are there. Going to decide that tonight.
The final encounter was fantastic. I'm really, really glad I decided to go with your conversion and not tweak anything. A Stinking Cloud to start things off got everyone in a panic. Facing what appeared to be overwhelming odds (the party has become slightly fatalistic after the TPK), they concentrated fire on Filge hoping that if he went down, the zombies and skeletons might follow. Because he's a mage, they all expected him to have just a few HP and were increasingly astounded as damage after damage plowed into him without taking him down.
Throughout most of the battle, I was pretty sure they were going to lose, but slowly they fought back and turned the tide, which is exactly perfect. One member went down to 0hp, everyone else was injured, all their spells were used up, and in the end I was torn each round between Filge surrendering or trying to fight one more round and see if he could take it. It was that close!
Once all the undead were gone and Filge was out of spells, it became inevitable. Filge could probably have had 15-20 fewer HP and things wouldn't have changed much.
Note that I did let them level up in HP as they went up the stairs as the skeletons pushed them over 900xp. They definitely needed those extra HP!
So a big thank you for helping make the final encounter so memorable!
