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<blockquote data-quote="Tormyr" data-source="post: 6802159" data-attributes="member: 6776887"><p>I am numbering your items for ease of responding. Thanks for more feedback.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Wow, that's a lot. Here goes...</p><p></p><p>First thing to mention: I gave all party members a potion of healing to start the campaign. Otherwise they just were not going to get far.</p><p></p><p>1. Running the encounters with the EL method I decided to use seems to make most encounters run a bit easier. That being said, I have had at least half a dozen character deaths in the 20 months we have been playing the campaign. So it is possible. Often the party is their own worst enemy with friendly fire. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>2. DCs for ability checks are easier. They are generally 75% of 3.5 DCs with some variance because of rounding down. My philosophy was that I was either going to go with the quick conversion or ponder what the difficulty of each check should really be. That being said, even high DCs can be beaten by a sufficiently trained character. I was worried about setting a DC 30 Dexterity (Thieves' Tools) check on some chests. 30 is the highest recommended DC by the PHB/DMG. However, our rogue had expertise (+10), +5 Dex, a magical glove that adds +5, and a class feature that makes all d20 rolls a minimum of 10. So the rogue's <strong>minimum</strong> roll was 30! There are other ways for the party to get into the chests if they don't have that particular build, so the high DC would not have been an insurmountable barrier for progress. As for the language, it is an easy check, but only a general amount of information is given. Our wizard had primordial as a language, so he just read the runes.</p><p></p><p>3. Level 1 is the most dangerous time for PCs in the game. Someone went unconscious during the wolves, and several people went unconscious at various points during the mad slasher fight. I had made a mad slasher with a full whirlwind attack. Then the rogue was 1 shotted (to -full hp, instadeath) by the small water elemental I had made that was supposed to fight the whole party. I engineered a plot device to resurrect the PC since my custom monster had 1 shotted it. The plot device fit in later in the campaign. The ankheg's acid spray was modified to be a 5 foot radius slashing attack so that it fits as the mad slasher. This is a very deadly encounter. Single hits can knock out PCs or kill them outright. But the first fight is also an EL 3. The difference here is that it hits harder, but there is only 1 of them.</p><p></p><p>4.This is one of the few places where the monster is a replacement instead of a reskin as recreating the strangle mechanic seemed annoting. That being said, I think I could do it now. The spectator is another difficult fight, but at this point, the party should be level 2, and they should be able to handle it. The lurking strangler does understand Common. They could offer to let it out, but they might not understand that it understands language. I will change it to fit the lurking strangler.</p><p></p><p>5. The Giant Centipede is a distraction in each room. The real dangers are the other creatures in those rooms. In all cases use the MM hp or the modification in my notes. For the owlbear, the encounter is supposed to be EL 3. The 5e owlbear is CR 3 on its own, and that is a medium encounter for 4 level 3 PCs. So no hp modification is necessary.</p><p></p><p>6. Bludgeonin and slashing work on the water weird as well (it is also resistant to those).</p><p></p><p>7. It depends on whether only the good swimmers go into the ghoul room. It could be the end for a single swimmer that gets paralyzed underwater. This encounter is more of an "Oh ^#$&^#!"</p><p></p><p>8. It would be difficult for them to kill the 5e ghost! It can generally run off before being killed, and it should not start hostile. So hopefully the party does not immediately fight it.</p><p></p><p>9. A party that is well rested can nova a solo monster pretty easily in 5e.</p><p></p><p>10. While all the miners moved to Smenk, Kullen and his gang are the most famous/infamous.</p><p></p><p>11. Usually, I use some of the items mentioned on the NPC in the adventure. This encounter can go either way in terms of treasure, but the gear they are using would skew the power of the party early on. </p><p></p><p>12. Kullen's gang is special. They are deadly for a level 1 or 2 party when encountered all at once. Kullen, the berserker, is a medium encounter for a level 2 party on his own. The gang together Contains almost the entire encounter xp budget for the entire day for a level 2 party. If the party takes them on, they need to separate them and take them one at a time.</p><p></p><p>13. The tomb mote is a medium encounter. It is supernaturally quick (almost like a <em>haste</em> spell). The 5 attacks fill in for that. The gas is a stand in for the disease on the original tomb mote. It slows down the party so they cannot pile on as easily and wipe it out quickly. Remember though that most 5e encounters finish in about 3 rounds or less.</p><p></p><p>14. When everything is by reference, page numbers are a requirement.</p><p></p><p>15. Our monk gained a reputation as the "crossbow bolt catcher" when he walked straight in to the dark room and was peppered by crossbow bolts.</p><p></p><p>16. Reading your next post, I am going to switch out <em>melf's acid arrow</em> for <em>magic missile</em>.</p><p></p><p>17. While the cantrips are more powerful for a 5th-levell spellcaster, the damage done does not really exceed that for 3rd-level spells. So it does not affect the CR calculation.</p><p></p><p>18. <em>Stinking cloud</em> does obscure everything for everybody, but it also incapacitates the party. The undead are not affected.</p><p></p><p>19. <em>Ray of enfeeblement</em> is very selective, but it can be used to seriously hamper the fighters against the undead.</p><p></p><p>20. The owl can help the undead hit a PC, but it only gives 1 attack advantage each round.</p><p></p><p>21. The two wind warriors in the conversion should work, but if it is too easy because the party is fully rested, bring another one in partway into the fight.</p><p></p><p>22. There are several dungeon crawls, but they are all fairly well themed. Chapter 2 had some iconic moments that wove their way into the fabric of our entire campaign. The Tiefling wizard convinced the guards to lower their guard as he told them of his ability to cook food just like mom used to make at home. The half-gnoll paladin peed on the statue of Hextor to get them to break ranks and forego their usual military order.</p><p></p><p>The chapters break down like this.</p><p>Chapter 2: Infiltrate into a 3 part dungeon, each uniquely themed and organized.</p><p>Chapter 3: Rescue soldiers from a lizardfolk lair</p><p>Chapter 4: Dungeon where not much is as it seems</p><p>Chapter 5: Arena battles and small dungeon</p><p>Chapter 6: Dungeon and Dragon fight</p><p>Chapter 7: Larger dungeon investigating origins of big bad</p><p>Chapter 8: Roleplaying and skill checks at a ball; Also dragons.</p><p>Chapter 9-11: I have not read these as much.</p><p>Chapter 12: Save the world from the Age of Worms.</p><p></p><p>The is quite a bit of dungeons and undead monsters, but most areas are fairly well themed to be somewhat different from each. If your group does not like dungeons, what kind of adventure do they prefer?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tormyr, post: 6802159, member: 6776887"] I am numbering your items for ease of responding. Thanks for more feedback. Wow, that's a lot. Here goes... First thing to mention: I gave all party members a potion of healing to start the campaign. Otherwise they just were not going to get far. 1. Running the encounters with the EL method I decided to use seems to make most encounters run a bit easier. That being said, I have had at least half a dozen character deaths in the 20 months we have been playing the campaign. So it is possible. Often the party is their own worst enemy with friendly fire. :) 2. DCs for ability checks are easier. They are generally 75% of 3.5 DCs with some variance because of rounding down. My philosophy was that I was either going to go with the quick conversion or ponder what the difficulty of each check should really be. That being said, even high DCs can be beaten by a sufficiently trained character. I was worried about setting a DC 30 Dexterity (Thieves' Tools) check on some chests. 30 is the highest recommended DC by the PHB/DMG. However, our rogue had expertise (+10), +5 Dex, a magical glove that adds +5, and a class feature that makes all d20 rolls a minimum of 10. So the rogue's [B]minimum[/B] roll was 30! There are other ways for the party to get into the chests if they don't have that particular build, so the high DC would not have been an insurmountable barrier for progress. As for the language, it is an easy check, but only a general amount of information is given. Our wizard had primordial as a language, so he just read the runes. 3. Level 1 is the most dangerous time for PCs in the game. Someone went unconscious during the wolves, and several people went unconscious at various points during the mad slasher fight. I had made a mad slasher with a full whirlwind attack. Then the rogue was 1 shotted (to -full hp, instadeath) by the small water elemental I had made that was supposed to fight the whole party. I engineered a plot device to resurrect the PC since my custom monster had 1 shotted it. The plot device fit in later in the campaign. The ankheg's acid spray was modified to be a 5 foot radius slashing attack so that it fits as the mad slasher. This is a very deadly encounter. Single hits can knock out PCs or kill them outright. But the first fight is also an EL 3. The difference here is that it hits harder, but there is only 1 of them. 4.This is one of the few places where the monster is a replacement instead of a reskin as recreating the strangle mechanic seemed annoting. That being said, I think I could do it now. The spectator is another difficult fight, but at this point, the party should be level 2, and they should be able to handle it. The lurking strangler does understand Common. They could offer to let it out, but they might not understand that it understands language. I will change it to fit the lurking strangler. 5. The Giant Centipede is a distraction in each room. The real dangers are the other creatures in those rooms. In all cases use the MM hp or the modification in my notes. For the owlbear, the encounter is supposed to be EL 3. The 5e owlbear is CR 3 on its own, and that is a medium encounter for 4 level 3 PCs. So no hp modification is necessary. 6. Bludgeonin and slashing work on the water weird as well (it is also resistant to those). 7. It depends on whether only the good swimmers go into the ghoul room. It could be the end for a single swimmer that gets paralyzed underwater. This encounter is more of an "Oh ^#$&^#!" 8. It would be difficult for them to kill the 5e ghost! It can generally run off before being killed, and it should not start hostile. So hopefully the party does not immediately fight it. 9. A party that is well rested can nova a solo monster pretty easily in 5e. 10. While all the miners moved to Smenk, Kullen and his gang are the most famous/infamous. 11. Usually, I use some of the items mentioned on the NPC in the adventure. This encounter can go either way in terms of treasure, but the gear they are using would skew the power of the party early on. 12. Kullen's gang is special. They are deadly for a level 1 or 2 party when encountered all at once. Kullen, the berserker, is a medium encounter for a level 2 party on his own. The gang together Contains almost the entire encounter xp budget for the entire day for a level 2 party. If the party takes them on, they need to separate them and take them one at a time. 13. The tomb mote is a medium encounter. It is supernaturally quick (almost like a [I]haste[/I] spell). The 5 attacks fill in for that. The gas is a stand in for the disease on the original tomb mote. It slows down the party so they cannot pile on as easily and wipe it out quickly. Remember though that most 5e encounters finish in about 3 rounds or less. 14. When everything is by reference, page numbers are a requirement. 15. Our monk gained a reputation as the "crossbow bolt catcher" when he walked straight in to the dark room and was peppered by crossbow bolts. 16. Reading your next post, I am going to switch out [I]melf's acid arrow[/I] for [I]magic missile[/I]. 17. While the cantrips are more powerful for a 5th-levell spellcaster, the damage done does not really exceed that for 3rd-level spells. So it does not affect the CR calculation. 18. [I]Stinking cloud[/I] does obscure everything for everybody, but it also incapacitates the party. The undead are not affected. 19. [I]Ray of enfeeblement[/I] is very selective, but it can be used to seriously hamper the fighters against the undead. 20. The owl can help the undead hit a PC, but it only gives 1 attack advantage each round. 21. The two wind warriors in the conversion should work, but if it is too easy because the party is fully rested, bring another one in partway into the fight. 22. There are several dungeon crawls, but they are all fairly well themed. Chapter 2 had some iconic moments that wove their way into the fabric of our entire campaign. The Tiefling wizard convinced the guards to lower their guard as he told them of his ability to cook food just like mom used to make at home. The half-gnoll paladin peed on the statue of Hextor to get them to break ranks and forego their usual military order. The chapters break down like this. Chapter 2: Infiltrate into a 3 part dungeon, each uniquely themed and organized. Chapter 3: Rescue soldiers from a lizardfolk lair Chapter 4: Dungeon where not much is as it seems Chapter 5: Arena battles and small dungeon Chapter 6: Dungeon and Dragon fight Chapter 7: Larger dungeon investigating origins of big bad Chapter 8: Roleplaying and skill checks at a ball; Also dragons. Chapter 9-11: I have not read these as much. Chapter 12: Save the world from the Age of Worms. The is quite a bit of dungeons and undead monsters, but most areas are fairly well themed to be somewhat different from each. If your group does not like dungeons, what kind of adventure do they prefer? [/QUOTE]
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