I'm curious: did you change the final boss (aka The Reptile God)? I always felt that it was insane to have such a powerful creature for an adventure intended for 1-3 level PC's and that the PC's HAD to have outside help in order to survive that encounter.
There's a 5E conversion I use that makes her a Spirit Naga.
37. THRONE ROOM OF EXPLICTICA DEFILUS
Spirit Naga MM. p. 234
- replace lighting bolt with fireball
- replace blight with polymorph
- 5th level slots have been used for the day
(700 CP, 9000 SP, 1600 GP, 100 PP goggles of night, mithral chain mail, wand of magic detection, potion of resistance, potion of mind reading, potion of invulnerability, sending stones)
Converter's note: My explanation of Explictica's permanent charm ability is that she's developed a way to use her dominate spell (when cast daily on the same subject for a week straight) to reprogram her victims. Explictica will rejuvenate in d6 days after being killed, since the party is unlikely to have access to a wish spell to end her once and for all, but her power over Orlane and her citizens will be broken.
I ditch the 2 elves hanging out in town and the high level druid whose supposed to Deux Ex the PCs out of trouble.
I do agree with the premise that new players (as opposed to just low-level characters) like meeting higher level NPCs who can help them out and generally show them how cool higher levels can be, give them something to aspire to. But the way they did it in AtCotRG is not the way to do it, I think.
