AoW: Hall of Harsh Reflections and CRs

[howandwhy99]

Party:

Human Ftr 7 (died)
Human Psych Warrior 7
Elven Mystic Theurg 6
Gnome Wizard 6
Halfling Rogue 4/Ftr 2 (died)

The experience from the fights in HoHR based on the CRs given seems too low to me, given the lethality of the encounters, tbh.

All Complete Books in use, ExPH and Spell Compendium.

Age of Worms HoHR is adventure #4. It's designed for PCs levels 7-8. I think your players will perform better at those levels. Not to mention they are 1/2 way through the adventure already. With the high lethality of the foes involved, try to reach around 8th level before the next 1/2.

Running these AoW adventures a level or 2 early is just asking for a TPK.

 

[Jarrod]

The current party I am running has been doing well in The Champion's Games. The only thing they feared was the Froghemoth, but it didn't even knock anyone unconscious.

I got to run that one last night. That was brutal. The creature was Gargantuan (I normally have 6 players... though one couldn't make it). No HD advancement.

Round 1: Dwarf fighter wins initiative, charges and ends right in front of the creature. Froghemoth - Full attack, bringing him to -2, and swallows the body.

That kinda set the tone for the entire fight...

 

[Drowbane]

Round 1: Dwarf fighter wins initiative, charges and ends right in front of the creature. Froghemoth - Full attack, bringing him to -2, and swallows the body...

Sort of reminds me of the time my Monk 6 charged a "juvenile" purple worm... (Flying Kick < AoO + Swallow Whole)

 

[frankthedm]

Sort of reminds me of the time my Monk 6 charged a "juvenile" purple worm... (Flying Kick < AoO + Swallow Whole)

Improved grab is not legal on AoOs and readied attacks. Using it takes a free action, which, cannot be performed when not your your turn and on a Ready you only get one attack, move or free action.

That said charging a purple worm, even a young one is just a bad idea for a monk. Buffed with Enlarge Person and wearing Full plate with armor spikes are the minimum one should have before approaching those things.

 

[Wish]

AoW is nasty tough. We started out with a pretty normal party. Sorceress with utilty spells. Paladin half-dragon. Support cleric. Scout. Spellthief.

By the middle of the second adventure we were all scrambling for our sourcebooks looking for cheese. Thankfully, we found it. The scout diverted to dervish (sickeningly overpowered pclass if you ignore the scimitars). Cleric abused divine metamagic. Paladin got an ancestral relic and exotic weapon master level. Sorceress just got nasty, nasty spells and heritage feats. And we added a healing cleric and conjuring specialist as cohorts.

We still get stomped through the campaign, at least as far as we've gotten, but it's a little better now. The thug encounters aren't virtual TPKs any more.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Age of Worms HoHR is adventure #4. It's designed for PCs levels 7-8. I think your players will perform better at those levels. Not to mention they are 1/2 way through the adventure already. With the high lethality of the foes involved, try to reach around 8th level before the next 1/2.

Running these AoW adventures a level or 2 early is just asking for a TPK.

The party has played through from the opening of Whispering Cairn onwards. The problem has been some player deaths/raise effects, which has reduced the XP level of some of the characters. The players who were 6th are the results of the prior near TPK in Sodden Hold vs the Invisible Stalkers (just a nasty encounter combined with terrible rolls) and some unpleasantness elsewhere in the AP.