Anyone got Dungeon 139 yet?

[Voadam]

What is this Rappan Athuk people keep raving about? I have no idea what it is and would like to be saved fromt his ignorance.

Necromancer games big dungeon crawl series of modules.

Part 1 3.0 $5
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=763&affiliate_id=17596

Part 2 3.0 $6
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=795&affiliate_id=17596

Part 3 3.0 $8
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=764&affiliate_id=17596

Rappan Athuk Reloaded 3.5 $50 390 pages
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=12529&affiliate_id=17596

From the reloaded product blurb:

This may not be the world's largest dungeon, but its certainly the deadliest!

The granddaddy of all dungeons returns! From the lair of Zelkor to the lair of Orcus, intrepid adventurers have crawled these halls for decades. Treasures and monsters abound, but can you find your way out again? Lost in the red mists, you wonder. The Bloodways await.

Kill them all, Orcus will recognize his own!

Rappan Athuk Reloaded™ contains the entirety of the original Rappan Athuk™ series, along with many new levels and a massive wilderness expansion, all updated for the revised rules. Not just a rework, this expanded version contains tons of new material, detailing 36 dungeon levels and dozens of wilderness areas.

* Endless adventure in the most challenging dungeon ever devised.
* The most difficult puzzles, traps, riddles and quests to solve.
* Years of adventure for your characters.

Contains three books:

Book 1: The Dungeon of Graves - 232 pages of dungeon crawling
Book 2: Servants, Slaves and Food - 96 pages of monsters and NPCs
Book 3: Pathways to Damnation - 56 pages of maps.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I recieved it yesterday (finally!). Haven't sat down to give it a full read but after a once-over, Savage Tide's debut seems very deadly. It's designed for four 1st level characters and you routinely face EL 5 encounters (I think most of them are like 3 or above), not to mention a creature with DR 10/silver when the only silver weapon around is a dagger. However, from what I gathered some of the encounters are not meant to be fought through (or rather, you can negotiate if you're lucky).

I have not looked at the other two adventures, as all I care about is Savage Tide

I'd like to chim in and offer my thoughts on some of those higher ECL encounters. For the most part, they seem somewhat over CR'd. Check out their feat and gear selection. In particular the "boss" is wearing leather armor, instead of something sensible, like a chain shirt. I just shook my head at some of the choices for feats, like skill focus on a particular enemy (basically he's a character with 1 less feat). Plus the whole character level = CR thing is pretty out of whack to begin with, so that should help out. The adventure is tough, but its not necessarily a slaughterfest. I'd feel confident running it for first timers, and will likely need to tweak it up a tad for my group.

If you give out exp as you go (which I think is the assumption), the characters should also gain a level or two.

 

[wayne62682]

This is the question for me: can newer players survive the Savage Tide, or is it too hard?

It's survivable, but you need to think.. rushing in will get you killed. As I said, a lot of the counters look unbalanced if you only look at CR/EL, but I have yet to read in-depth. The only issues that I see are:

[sblock]
1) In one part, the PCs are trapped in an underground complex that has 9 ravenous zombies (adventure suggests you send groups of three at them when appropriate, Resident Evil style) and a Huecuva (sp?) that has DR 10/silver; the only silver weapon in the place is a dagger that is half-hidden in a pool. This I think may be cutting it close, since I'm fairly certain the party is assumed to still be 1st level at this point.

2) The second half of the adventure (assume PCs are level 2 by then) has a LOT of EL 5 encounters, since they're trying to infiltrate a thieve's guild and there's a good chance the guild is on alert (The EL for most encounters in the guild are variable on if the alarm has been raised or not). One such scenario has the PCs in an area filled with some water and a crocodile.

3) The "boss" fight is a CR5 and a CR3 encounter.. I haven't read a lot of the details but that seems a bit much even for a 2nd level group, although I think there's a good chance they may be 3rd by the time they face it. An unrelated bad note is that the adventure notes says the later modules assume this boss escapes; not a big deal but PCs hate to let anything escape, so if your group likes to make sure things are dead this may be an issue (she has an escape plan, but still)

4) The very first encounter is around EL3, but the PCs should have the element of surprise to "even it out". The enemies aren't that tough (basically 1st level Warriors led by a 2nd level one; just a couple of thugs) but it could turn deadly if the party tries an all-out assault. I believe there's also a CR3 Rhagodessa (sp?) in this encounter as well, but it only shows up towards the end.
[/sblock]

Other than that, it seems very enjoyable, just very difficult (like both SCAP and AoWAP); you can't just wade through and expect to take things down mano-a-mano.

EDIT: Having just now read ehren37's post, I would just like to reiterate that I haven't really sat down and read through the adventure in depth, so my estimations are based purely on the EL/CR of the encounters.

 

[cincinnati reds]

It's not that deadly, I don't think. The first encounter in wayne62682's spoiler tag is the only thing I'm even vaguely worried about - and that's with a group of 3 PCs, one of whom is new.

The first big set-piece encounter doesn't even have to be fought. My group didn't resort to arms, and still achieved their goal.

 

[Razz]

I'm pretty sure the adventure is set up assuming the number in your gaming group is 4-6 players. It shouldn't be any problem tweaking the adventure up or down: take out or add a few monsters, drop or raise a level on NPCs, change a particular monster to something weaker but thematic, etc.

 

[James Jacobs]

I'd like to chim in and offer my thoughts on some of those higher ECL encounters. For the most part, they seem somewhat over CR'd. Check out their feat and gear selection. In particular the "boss" is wearing leather armor, instead of something sensible, like a chain shirt. I just shook my head at some of the choices for feats, like skill focus on a particular enemy (basically he's a character with 1 less feat). Plus the whole character level = CR thing is pretty out of whack to begin with, so that should help out. The adventure is tough, but its not necessarily a slaughterfest. I'd feel confident running it for first timers, and will likely need to tweak it up a tad for my group..

As a matter of fact, you hit the nail on the head here. The CR system is a mess, especially since the difficulty of an encoutner depends as much as upon the nature of your group of PCs as it does on the nature of the monsters they fight. For example; an encounter with a dread wraith is child's play if your group has a cleric who can turn it. If you lack such a resource, the dread wraith becomes significantly tougher. If your party's all enchanters and rogues, suddenly a single dread wraith is a TPK.

Combined with this fact is the fact that, while several of the NPCs in "There Is No Honor" are fairly high level... they've got some flaws. If the NPCs always took the best possible options when it comes to gear and feats... well... you end with bad guys who always look the same. Giving them a sub-optimal feat or a non-completely-number-crunched piece of equipment may make them less powerful than they could be, but if that choice makes them more entertaining and more memorable, it's a choice I'd make every time.

And those PCs are cagey beasts. It's best not to underestimate them.

 

[James Jacobs]

The first encounter in wayne62682's spoiler tag is the only thing I'm even vaguely worried about - and that's with a group of 3 PCs, one of whom is new.

I went back and forth during design about this encounter, on how best to portray it and whether or not it was even fair. But in the end I decided to go for it. I'm not sure how to do that fancy "spoiler" trick wayne62682 did above so I won't go into details, but there's more ways to defeat a monster than simply hitting it with weapons...

And that last encounter does assume that the PCs are close to (or possibly already) 3rd level. Experience points fly pretty quickly at low level, as it turns out. And while the adventure does assume one specific resolution for that encounter, if the PCs manage a different resolution it won't break the campaign. In other words, we've got contingencies in place in upcoming adventures in the campaign that allow things to proceed on track even if the PCs accomplish something unexpected.

Ugh... talking around the subject sucks. How does that spoiler trick work? I assume it's painfully simple to do...

 

[RangerWickett]

Ugh... talking around the subject sucks. How does that spoiler trick work? I assume it's painfully simple to do...

(spoiler) (/spoiler) is the simple way, or you can do the nifty one that is (sblock) and (/sblock). But replace the parentheses with brackets. [ instead of (.

By the way, I just got the magazine, and I'm just starting a low-level campaign, though sadly I won't be using the AP. Still, I'll look for inspiration.

 

[Festivus]

Anyone check out the Savage Tides Players Guide Paizo is offering on their website? I'm waiting for the pdf myself since I can't justify the $5.00 shipping fee.

Also, the last issue of Dungeon (#138) had a good summary of the entire STAP. I saw mention of Orcus once but I thought the focus was on Demogorgon...?

My suggestion is wait for the freebie PDF unless you want to have the high quality paper printed version. There is a very nice small scale map of Sasserine inside the front cover, but they are putting a 4 panel poster of it in one of the issues (possibly 139).

Remember you have to pay $5 shipping on top of the $5 so it's really $10 unless you order some other stuff at the same time.

 

[frankthedm]

A

Spoiler

rogue3 / bard2

hardly makes a CR5. The CR 3

Spoiler

Felldrake rouge

does not even get the Elite array it deserves.

An "Elite" warrior 2? Make the blasted fool a fighter or ranger.

If this is the way things are Piazo better rename this The Savage Tide of Free XP