anyone's experience of Lost City of Gaxmoor?

[johncolossus]

Just bought LCoG.....seems very good on flick through. However, it says for levels 1-10! If it follows RTTOEE, which has obvious progression of encounter hardness to account for rise from 4-14 levels, I cannot see this obvious progression. If PCs are 1st level when they enter LCoG....they will be dead very soon.

Has anyone played or prepared it? What would you say the initial entry level should?

Cheers

 

[NeghVar]

Depends on your style of DMing as well as the competence of your players (read as - know when to fight and when to run).

You should be able to start players at levels 1-3, and let them progress. As you move into the outer, then inner cities, the players will do better at higher levels. When I partipated in the playtest sessions, I started at 3rd level and the group was already in the inner city. I had to think before acting a bit more...but was not outright overwhelmed.

Hope this helps...

 

[JohnRTroy]

The thing to remember is Gaxmoor is a huge ancient city, akin to ancient Rome. The mini-campaign is similar to the original Temple of Elemental Evil--there are various factions, and the bad races tend towards the chaotic, so it's not a massive assault.

The party should progress from the outer city to the inner city. They are, of course, free to go anywhere but they shouldn't even try to go after the main baddies until they've done some investigation and learned about various factions, then probably picked off the lesser factions first. (They probably won't know any of this until they snoop around). There are also opportunities to rest and recoup within the city.

 

[Walter_J]

I gave Gaxmoor a pretty good read and I am thinking on running it this weekend. One thing I noticed, keep an eye on the mechanics, particularly Stat Blocks. For example, every "orcish" critter with an axe has the stats set as if they are wielding a Great Axe, even if the description states they are equiped with a magical double orc axe. Sorry, I don't remember the official name of the "orc axe" , but I think you know what I mean.

I don't know how the adventure will play out, but I really don't see a 1st level party managing to reach the city by the book as written. The first encounter prior to the city is EL4 I believe. (I'm at work and going from memory here). My player's characters are currently 3rd and I'm thinking this might work for them.

Walter

 

[Rhialto]

Actually an EL 4 is about what you want for a lvl 1 party, as an EL 1 encounter is one that they can overcome easily, with almost no chance of major injury...

 

[Walter_J]

Actually an EL 4 is about what you want for a lvl 1 party, as an EL 1 encounter is one that they can overcome easily, with almost no chance of major injury...

I use the EL guidelines in the DMG as a gauge and the guidelines have worked for me so far. Going from memory, that is a party of four facing an EL of equal level will burn about 20% resources (average to challenging), 4 such encoutners time to take a rest, 12 such encoutners = a level and so on.

So, I really wouldn't put a party of 4-6 1st up against an EL 4 unless you are looking to seriously reduce the party size. In which case, hey, kill'em all they can always roll up new ones!

Heck, last time we played I hit a crew of 6 2nd's with an average ogre and his average pet wolf and nearly wiped out the party. Maybe a little bad die rolling, and the party had already spent some spells, but it was a tough fight. Sorry, getting off topic.