d20 PDFs almost extinct...Lost City of Barakus?

[Mercurius]

So time is running out on purchasing (discounted) d20 PDFs. I'm contemplating buying the Lost City of Barakus (along with a handful of DCCs) for $13.98--any comments? How easily would it be to translate it to 4ed? Or is Necromancer going to update this one?

 

[Treebore]

I can't comment on converting to 4E, I imagine its easy since most of the monsters are OGL monsters, so likely rewritten in the 4E MM's. As for the module itself its one of my top 5 adventure/modules of the 3E era, and I have bought the vast majority of them by everyone.

It gives you a nice sized trade city at the mouth of a river, and tons of adventure scenarios that easily grow into more adventures of their own volition. Plus an classic underground dungeon complex. You can run dozens of adventures off of this thing. Get it.

 

[S'mon]

It's unusually easy to convert because all the monster stat blocks are separate at the back, not breaking up the adventure. We had around 40 sessions of good fun playing it, it's both a mega-dungeon and campaign setting.

I would say that the wilderness is often more interesting than the dungeon, and the finale was a bit of an anticlimax. But it's very useable, I'd recommend it.

 

[timbannock]

It's unusually easy to convert because all the monster stat blocks are separate at the back, not breaking up the adventure. We had around 40 sessions of good fun playing it, it's both a mega-dungeon and campaign setting.

I would say that the wilderness is often more interesting than the dungeon, and the finale was a bit of an anticlimax. But it's very useable, I'd recommend it.

Agreed.

I play a heavily modified 3.5, and it was a breeze running LCoB. I could easily port it to 4e with a couple hours of work, tops.

It's a great setting. Don't feel limited to running the dungeon itself exactly as written...I got rid of levels, changed around some rooms and items, added a totally different backstory, and it's worked flawlessly.

Great adventure/setting, and it really can support levels 1-9 pretty easily right out of the box.

 

[catsclaw227]

I'll repeat that it makes for a great "starting area" for a campaign. I ran this once out-of-the-box and once with medium mods for a different group.

Good wilderness areas, nice port city, lots of hooks, local dungeon.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

It's a great product -- very customizable for play, with a great base town plus a wilderness and dunegon full of adventures. In my opionion it is an almost ideal product to start a campaign with.

I wouldn't say it's any easier or harder to convert to 4E than other 3E adventures -- you'll tweak some skill DCs, substitute some monster stat blocks, and then monkey with numbers of monsters to keep the challenges appropriate.

Enjoy!

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

The finale was a bit of an anticlimax. But it's very useable, I'd recommend it.

Heh. My players fumbled the ball on the climax: the BBEG escaped and went on to plague them all the way through Vault of Larin Karr.

Yes, he was very interested laying his hands on Larin Karr's spellbook, etc.

 

[S'mon]

Heh. My players fumbled the ball on the climax: the BBEG escaped and went on to plague them all the way through Vault of Larin Karr.

IMC the Wizard PC cast some kind of empowered scorching ray, critical hit (I think) and did over 60 damage, killing the BBEG right off. I was a bit miffed on behalf of the PC with the maguffin that was supposed to kill him!

 

[timbannock]

IMC the Wizard PC cast some kind of empowered scorching ray, critical hit (I think) and did over 60 damage, killing the BBEG right off. I was a bit miffed on behalf of the PC with the maguffin that was supposed to kill him!

Yet another case for why I give my BBEGs max hp + Con score...sometimes more for the "solos".

Of course, I give my PCs max hp. And Action Points that allow them to heal 1/4 hp as a swift action. They never seem to have a dedicated cleric in the party, so they need it!

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Yet another case for why I give my BBEGs max hp + Con score...sometimes more for the "solos".

For a Solo monster (meaning, he's actually alone and facing a serious Economy of Actions handicap) I multiply the normal RAW hit points by the number of PCs in the party, and give him 1 action point per PC in the party.

I let Solos use those Action Points for most of the stuff PCs use them for: to negate critical threats, confirm criticals without a confirmation roll, re-roll a failed saving throw, etc.

My six players were very surprised at 1st level when they went up against a monstrous black widow with 132 hit points, but man, they loved that fight. Oh, the screams of "Die, you bitch, die already!"