AoW - one session to go.

[MerricB]

Well, last night I DMed the penultimate session of our Age of Worms campaign. There are only two encounters left to go before it's all over. On Easter Friday, we'll have the last session.

We began on the 22nd July 2005; we'll end on the 5th April 2006. 37 sessions (each about 4 hours) over the course of 21 months. The game has had 9 players in all - three replacements for people who have been unable to make it at various times, but of the original six, five will be at the table in a fortnight's time when we close it off.

This is the highest level I've DMed in any edition of D&D - the PCs hit 21st level at the end of the last session. (I'd previously reached 15th in the Necropolis campaign). It's reinforced my belief that many high-level monsters in D&D are overcomplex. Go MMIV-style design. Paizo also are guilty of overcomplicating things. Encounters with four different spellcasters are not fun to run. In the tactics section, note the 4 or 5 spells that a spellcaster will use. A list of 20+ spells is too much.

I simplify greatly at this level when running monsters. A spellcasting dragon? Forget the spells. It uses melee weapons and breath, that's all. If that can't be scary enough, something is wrong.

In the session last night, which lasted a little under 4 hours, we got through 6 combat encounters and did some roleplaying as well. Cool.

Spoiler notes on encounters:

Spoiler

#1: 2 Advanced Overworms, CR 19. (EL 21)

#2: 12 Kyuss Knights, CR 13 (EL 20) - conducted with the fighters absent

#3: 1 Kyuss Knight, CR 13; 3 Liches, CR 13, 4 Advanced Vampires, CR 15 (EL 20)

#4: 2 Horned Devils, 2 Vampire Shadowdancers, 2 Kyuss Knights
(I think there should have been 4 such encounters, but I really couldn't be bothered)

#5: Vampiric Silver Dragon, CR 23

#6: 3 Broodfiends, EL 23

Combats generally ran between 2 and 7 rounds. The main house rule I use is the Turning as Damage variant from Complete Divine. Much, much better than the regular Turn Undead rule.

Following the end of this game, we'll immediately launch into the Savage Tide adventure path.

But for now, one session remains between the heroes and glory... or damnation.

Cheers!

 

[Festivus]

If they fail you might need to change the wormfall festival to the wormcrawl festival in Savage Tide.

I am trying to not have a TPK every session in Age of Worm but it's tough. The players are in A Gathering of Winds, having almost TPKed. I think some of them are starting to get frustrated and think it's too tough (or perhaps I am). One of the players lamented to me about how hard it has been. I mentioned that this was going to be very tough to play, and have included a lot of things to make life easier (e.g. Action Points) but it's still hard.

Spoiler

When you have an Elder Black Pudding wrap up the wizard and kill him almost instantly, and him being the best equipped for the encounter... it is pretty bad stuff for the rest of the group too!

 

[ShinHakkaider]

That's funny because after 5 sessions my players are almost at the end of the Whispering Cairn.

SPOILERThey just narrowly defeated the Wind Warriors and are so beat from that fight that we ended the last session with them resting on one of the two platforms to the wind elevator... END SPOILER


D00d, this adventure was hella fun to run. Our sorcerer who was coming back to playing D&D after having last played in 2nd Ed was a summoner who's 1st summoning attempts were kinda lame.

SPOILER(summoning a fiendish octopus to fight the water elemental in the submerged part of the cairn) END SPOILER

But in the last few fights he was summoning celestial dogs that critted twice against several different foes and did the decent amount of damage. Our resident paladin was a straight up TANK when dealing with foes and use charge to great effect. The rest of the party was pretty capable including the monk who missed alot with his flurry of blows but when he hit he pretty much rolled close to max damage most of the time.

I've already set up the hooks to the next adventure and one or two of hte PC's are going to have a personal stake in investigating one of the mine managers.

FUN!!!

 

[MerricB]

I really, really hate the grappling rules as applied to big creatures. They do it too easily. Improved Grab is too good.

The Spell Compendium is your friend. Revivify and Revenance are almost required.

I'm yet to have a TPK in AoW, and I doubt one will happen in the last session. The closest we got was in the Hall of Harsh Reflections.

Cheers!

 

[Nightfall]

Merric,

I don't think you're trying hard enough. But honestly I can't wait until we get to say TTFE, or HoHR. Certainly tCsB should be tough but honestly SoLS...wow.

 

[MerricB]

If I'd wanted a TPK, I could have easily gotten one. But, it wouldn't have been because of bad play on the part of the players. It would have been because of bad design on the part of Paizo.

Paizo are very fond of putting CR=APL+2 encounters into room after room after room. That's bad design.

My rating of the adventures:

The Whispering Cairn by Erik Mona - 4 stars - a bit too difficult at times. Nice dungeon, though.

Three Faces of Evil by Mike Mearls - 3.5 stars - Mike, the people need a place to rest.

Encounter at Blackwall Keep by Sean Reynolds - 1.5 stars. Lizardfolk are not a threat.

The Hall of Harsh Reflections by Jason Bulmahn - 2.5 stars. Lots of things to like, but a DC 23 Will save or stun against level 7 PCs is stupid. It might be a misprint, but finding Paizo errata is terribly difficult. It's not in the errata section of their page.

The Champion's Belt by Tito Leati - 3.5 stars. A betting system stupid beyond words, and structural problems with the scenario, but otherwise pretty good.

A Gathering of Winds by Wolfgang Baur - 4.5 stars. Nicely done. The Whispering Cairn wins again.

The Spire of Long Shadows by Jesse Decker - 1 star. "We need to give the PCs experience quickly". "OK, let's give them a level just for seeing visions, and another level can be made up of only a few fights." "Yeah, that's a plan!"

The Prince of Redhand by Richard Pett - 5 stars. The highlight of the series, IMO.

The Library of Last Resort by Nicolas Logue - 3.5 stars. Nice to have some wilderness adventuring at last. Structural problems, though, and the beginning of the "PC's need to cast commune to figure out the plot" problem.

Kings of the Rift by Greg A. Vaughn - 3 stars. Did I mention that I really hate spell-casting dragons? Suffers terribly from "PC's need to cast commune to figure out the plot" problem.

Into the Wormcrawl Fissure by James Jacobs - 4 stars. I hate undead spellcasting dragons even more, but there's a lot to like about the penultimate part of the series. Special mention for Zulshyn, who is lots of fun. Suffers from a really clunky introduction of Bucknard.

Dawn of a New Age by Tito Leati - ? stars. Still working on it. Some great encounters, some poor encounters.

Cheers!

 

[hong]

Three Faces of Evil by Mike Mearls - 3.5 stars - Mike, the people need a place to rest.

Not if you use reserve points!

 

[MerricB]

Not if you use reserve points!

Actually, it's not that hard to arrange a place for the PCs to rest, but a lot of these adventures would be greatly improved if the writer would add a few notes to make them easier to DM.

Cheers!

 

[Rystil Arden]

Actually, it's not that hard to arrange a place for the PCs to rest, but a lot of these adventures would be greatly improved if the writer would add a few notes to make them easier to DM.

Cheers!

How many fights are there in that module without a break vis-a-vis Flood Season's second dungeon in Shackled City (assuming the PCs clear out everything in Flood Season, including the two encounters that only turn up if you check the water). Because I felt like our party was nearly bled dry by resources in that one.

 

[mearls]

Three Faces of Evil by Mike Mearls - 3.5 stars - Mike, the people need a place to rest.

Yeah, if I ever had a chance to do that one over again, I would've had the elevator lead to an isolated section of the Underdark and a weird village of Underdark refugees who sell supplies to the three temples. Each temple would've been located in various, nearby areas of the Underdark, allowing the PCs to tackle them one at a time. The village would've had some sort of developing plot, giving the PCs someone to interact with between adventures.

Really, each temple is an adventure on its own.

Oh well, hindsight being 20/20 and all that...