Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 7821141" data-attributes="member: 1210">So I haven't finished it yet- I'm approximately halfway in- but I appear to be an outlier in that I am finding a decent chunk of it disappointing. I didn't read every post in the thread, so maybe someone else got here before me with these things, but here's my take.Now, first off, I am a Forgotten Realms hater, but let me say that the Baldur's Gate section, the basic plot, etc. are awesome. I really like the dungeon of the Dead Three and the new stat blocks for their agents in here. Very cool. And the basic idea of the adventure is a very good one; I really like it. My FR hate is not a factor here at all.What I have been finding disappointing is how... lackluster... some of the fiends' courses of action are. I don't want to give away too many spoilers here, but there is a section where you need to get a night hag on your side. But the ways you can do so are simply things that, were I to run that night hag how I think she ought to behave... mostly wouldn't influence her. Fiends are literally evil incarnate. You shouldn't be able to gain leverage over them without doing something that directly aids or threatens them, or advances their interest, or something. Some of the things you can do are just.... not that.Basically, the sections I've read in Avernus so far are simply too nice. There's not much of a sense, to me at least, of overwhelming evil there. The whole "you might turn evil har har" thing doesn't do it for me. That's almost flavorless. (Compare to Out of the Abyss, where you can get specific types of madness from being tainted by the influence of demon lords.) Also, whatever happened to the Avernian fireballs falling from the sky that were so cool in earlier editions.Oh yeah- also, soul coins? No thanks. I'll stick to larva as my Lower Planar currency. I think they're much cooler. But that's a quibble. If there weren't larvae in D&D's history, I'd dig the coins.Now, I'm not done reacing this, and I do like a lot of the stuff in it. The art is aces, there are a great number of cool stat blocks, there are some cool encounters or sites, etc. I'm sure there is plenty to mine from it. The infernal war machines are great. The infernal bargain stuff is cool. But there's a fair amount that I can't see using without serious revision. (Not that I could use it as is in my campaign anyhow; the hierarchy of the Hells is different in my campaign as a result of pc actions some years ago, and Tiamat is very firmly in control of Avernus in my game.)Anyway, that's my take so far: good, but in pieces, not as a whole, even if there was no issue with integrating it seemlessly into my Nine Hells setup and campaign setting. Lots of awesome, but also some significant disappointments.</blockquote>

Verification