[BADD] Bastion of Broken Souls. ***SPOILERS***

[Numion]

As you may or may not know the last installment in the WotC's adventure path series, The Bastion of Broken Souls, features a Great Wyrm Red Dragon as the main villain. His name is Ashardalon. He's also got the Half-Fiend template, and he's a 27 CRs of tough scales, sharp claws and mean spirit. The baddest dragon featured in almost any adventure. So us BADDies should be quite content?

Of course not.

Bruce Cordell, the author of the adventure has made some errors in the dragons stats. Namely, he's forgotten that Reds can cast spells also from clerics spell list, although as sorcerers. So why in the hell Ashardalon got plane shift as 7th level spell (as it is for wizards) instead of 5th (as it is for clerics). Also Ashardalon doesn't have a single clerics spell in his repertoire. Even I'm not that BADD that I'd put a Heal on his list... ...but a single Divine Favor (+6 to hit and damage, with high number of attacks = much damage) could do good to him.

But whats wrong with the designers? They butchered Klauth in the FRCS with the same error. The greates dragon on faerun, and without clerical spells? How did Klauth ever get that position, I wonder. Don't they just know they can also choose spells from the clerics list, too, since I've never seen a dragon statted with clerical spells, even if it was of the type that could do so?

I'm not too keen on altering his spell list, because I don't want to make the battle too difficult. Just my thougths on the matter.

Has anyone else played / DMed the adventure? What's your opinion on the big bad dragon? Any advise or tips on playing Ashardalon will be appreciated!

 

[novyet]

I did alter the spell list for Ashardalon, and man what a difference it made. It forced our party to retreat with two dead, 1 at -7, and three badly wounded. One made it without a scratch, and the party was lucky to teleport and then plane shift home. The tactics I learned from all the BADD threads, really made the difference, and my players were really happy to have some truely fierce opposition.

 

[Numion]

I did alter the spell list for Ashardalon, and man what a difference it made. It forced our party to retreat with two dead, 1 at -7, and three badly wounded. One made it without a scratch, and the party was lucky to teleport and then plane shift home. The tactics I learned from all the BADD threads, really made the difference, and my players were really happy to have some truely fierce opposition.

I was thinking the same.. my group is pretty munched out. The Order of the Bow initiate has his best attack at +45, and I don't even allow bow + arrow plus'ses to stack! Psychic warrior polymorphed to stonegiant and a dwarven cleric likewise polymorphed, we're talking about some serious smackdown.

Maybe the dragon could use Mage Armor, Divine Favor and Protection From Elements. Or what modifications did you make? I have a nagging feeling though that my group isn't even going to bother with their own elemental protections.. which will be a dire mistake, even though they have saves in the 20+ range. Hey'll surely fail the Ref save with DC 40 for the breath. That's an average of 24*5.5 = 132 points of damage.

The first round of combat will be decisive, I think. Big A can open with a barrage of Breath Weapon, Horrid Wilting and a Meteor Swarm, if Hasted. The Horrid Wilting is a quickened action per the Quicken Spell-like ability feat.

There was another error on the dragons stats, also. Horrid Wiltings caster level is listed as 19th, though it's an ability granted by the half-fiend template, which uses HD as caster level. So it really should be caster level 40 for the horrid wilting. 6 more dice of damage!

 

[Ashardalon]

I did alter the spell list for Ashardalon, and man what a difference it made.

Just curious, what exact changes did you make? Just curious, really .

It is really a shame that they forgot about that option. That writeup in BoBS is far too weak for my taste.

A Heal spell would certainly be nice, though. (But I agree that it might be too much if you want to give your heroes a slim chance)

 

[Numion]

BUMP. Someone must've played through the module. Input, please!

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Bruce Cordell, the author of the adventure has made some errors in the dragons stats. Namely, he's forgotten that Reds can cast spells also from clerics spell list, although as sorcerers. So why in the hell Ashardalon got plane shift as 7th level spell (as it is for wizards) instead of 5th (as it is for clerics). Also Ashardalon doesn't have a single clerics spell in his repertoire. Even I'm not that BADD that I'd put a Heal on his list... ...but a single Divine Favor (+6 to hit and damage, with high number of attacks = much damage) could do good to him.

I am going to play devil's advocate for the moment and suggest that it is possible Ashardalon is pure sorceror on purpose. It is legitimate for even a card carrying member of BADD to build a dragon with non-optimal features. Going puire arcane gives the dragon a slightly different feel.

What is most important is that dragons use what abilities they have in an effective and intelligent manner. Even a dragon without cleric spells has a lot of options.

OTOH, it is possible that Mr. Cordell simply forgot... Maybe someone could send him a BADD membership package?

 

[Synicism]

Has anyone else played / DMed the adventure? What's your opinion on the big bad dragon? Any advise or tips on playing Ashardalon will be appreciated!

We played through the adventure. Actually, I found the dragon to be less of a challenge than some of those con-draining monsters that kept jumping out of nowhere, with their high attack bonuses AND their ability to make touch attacks.

Then again, our big-damage characters had brilliant-energy weapons and other ways to make touch attacks, so Ashardalon's AC was meaningless. Between 20-point Power Attacks and critical hits and the effect of having the descendant of the druid speak the phrase to get the free round of beating on him, he didn't really stand much of a chance. I think we inflicted like 1000 points of damage on him before he got to do anything.

 

[Victim]

Brilliant energy weapons don't help against natural armor, so they aren't very good against dragons.

Personally, I found the descendant of Did or whoever magical dragon mess up phrase to be complete BS. Some of my characters wouldn't have used it. If some wimpy druid can take our Asharadalon, surely the might of my compansions and the holy power of [insert diety here, Lathandar in my most likely character to go through the Bastion case] can.

If you want to toughen up the encounter, just remove the deus ex machina phrase and go from there.

 

[Numion]

Brilliant energy weapons don't help against natural armor, so they aren't very good against dragons.

Hmm.. good point. I haven't allowed brilliant weapons as of yet. The PsyWarrior can use deep impact though.

If you want to toughen up the encounter, just remove the deus ex machina phrase and go from there.

No problemo here; the players have most likely forgotten all about it by now

 

[Sir Draconion]

I've read through it and wondered the same thing
the cleric spell, spell immunity can help emensely
he has the time to study the parties main power spells
and sees them coming. don't forget BoVD, coruption spells
curses, violate harm spells,added spell componets for enhanced or no save spells, a nice low wall of force that he can cast, breath or ide for a round or two or even go to dragon mag 296 for extra nasty feats like clinging breath, or rend plus i give all monsters mx hps or more for story.just because they made the module with
only the core books. doesnt meen we have to play it that way