My group is one step closer to finishing the HPE series of adventures: we finished Kingdom of the Ghouls on Sunday. Ultimately, it was a tremendously disappointing adventure, which suffered greatly by being the middle act of the Epic plotline of Orcus vs the Raven Queen.
So, in essence it ends up being one giant chase which ends with you pretty much in the same place you were in: searching for Timesus with Orcus in possession of him... and it didn't have enough cool stuff to make the journey worthwhile.
There were a few nice touches, though. There's a really, really great theatre in the final stages which was tremendously fun to run. And it completely overshadowed the final fight against Doresain. Oops.
Speaking of Big Bads without personality, Doresain certainly qualifies. You never hear of him before this adventure, and you never will again. (Not after my party finished with him...) If there was ever an adventure that needed Doresain to be more visible, this one did. But then, its flaws were manifold.
What was interesting is that my group is down to 3 PCs and one NPC/PC (Splug) - my other player has left for a life in the theatre, and with so little remaining, it's not worth replacing him, especially as his replacement would likely be unfamiliar with Epic level D&D. Anyway, the four characters - a Fighter, Cleric, Rogue and Wizard - took on everything the adventure could throw at them, and I wasn't scaling things down to match the party. Indeed, I was scaling things up (damagewise) and it all went pretty well.
The last couple of sessions have each seen 4-5 combats in 3-4 hours. (This one was 3 hours long with 4 combats). So, each combat went about 40 minutes. That was a massive relief. It was greatly aided by having only three players - Splug only takes a moment or two to resolve. Mostly just by rolling a d20, seeing if he rolled a 1 and missed, and dealing 60 damage if he didn't. In case you weren't aware, Epic level Essential Thieves are really competent; we've just used an average of his damage dice to make it even quicker.
Even if I had five players, the length of combat at this level would still be quite reasonable. I remember my 16th level 3.5e game taking 2-3 hours for one combat - or all the players were rolling their dice during other people's turn (or doing it virtually) to speed things up. That wasn't as much fun as taking your turn actually during your turn.
Of course, once we finish Prince of Undeath, this campaign will change into an AD&D campaign, and I can work out how my memory has failed me when remembering playing AD&D.
But, for now, we're into the highest reaches of D&D 4E. It's not without its problem, but we're having fun with it and that's what counts - and Prince of Undeath looks like a really enjoyable adventure.
Cheers!
So, in essence it ends up being one giant chase which ends with you pretty much in the same place you were in: searching for Timesus with Orcus in possession of him... and it didn't have enough cool stuff to make the journey worthwhile.
There were a few nice touches, though. There's a really, really great theatre in the final stages which was tremendously fun to run. And it completely overshadowed the final fight against Doresain. Oops.
Speaking of Big Bads without personality, Doresain certainly qualifies. You never hear of him before this adventure, and you never will again. (Not after my party finished with him...) If there was ever an adventure that needed Doresain to be more visible, this one did. But then, its flaws were manifold.
What was interesting is that my group is down to 3 PCs and one NPC/PC (Splug) - my other player has left for a life in the theatre, and with so little remaining, it's not worth replacing him, especially as his replacement would likely be unfamiliar with Epic level D&D. Anyway, the four characters - a Fighter, Cleric, Rogue and Wizard - took on everything the adventure could throw at them, and I wasn't scaling things down to match the party. Indeed, I was scaling things up (damagewise) and it all went pretty well.
The last couple of sessions have each seen 4-5 combats in 3-4 hours. (This one was 3 hours long with 4 combats). So, each combat went about 40 minutes. That was a massive relief. It was greatly aided by having only three players - Splug only takes a moment or two to resolve. Mostly just by rolling a d20, seeing if he rolled a 1 and missed, and dealing 60 damage if he didn't. In case you weren't aware, Epic level Essential Thieves are really competent; we've just used an average of his damage dice to make it even quicker.
Even if I had five players, the length of combat at this level would still be quite reasonable. I remember my 16th level 3.5e game taking 2-3 hours for one combat - or all the players were rolling their dice during other people's turn (or doing it virtually) to speed things up. That wasn't as much fun as taking your turn actually during your turn.
Of course, once we finish Prince of Undeath, this campaign will change into an AD&D campaign, and I can work out how my memory has failed me when remembering playing AD&D.
But, for now, we're into the highest reaches of D&D 4E. It's not without its problem, but we're having fun with it and that's what counts - and Prince of Undeath looks like a really enjoyable adventure.
Cheers!
