NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="evilbob" data-source="post: 4009119" data-attributes="member: 9789">thread necromancyIt's been some time since this thread has been alive, but I wanted to post my own experiences with this excellent material.  I came across this thread ages ago and immediately liked it; I've been dying to try it out since.I started a new game this past weekend with level 6 characters - all played by new or relatively inexperienced D&D players - and ran the faerieland encounters as their first foray into the game.  It was great!  Everyone had a blast, and even though they generally didn't do the "right" thing it all came out right in the end and a good time was had by all.First, I made a few modifications to the material.  My characters were higher level, so I tried to make some of the encounters a bit tougher, and since I more closely follow the DMG treasure guidelines, the loot was toned down a bit.  The main changes I made were:- The ogres in the first encounter were taken straight from the MM1.  "Papa" ogre was the 4th level barbarian (CR 7) and "baby" ogre was the standard ogre (CR 3).  This was still pretty big for a 6th level party, so I nerfed the ogre slightly by having him be out of rages for the day (since he'd already battled the crone) and removing his +1 greatclub and +1 hide armor (replaced with mundane of the same - this also helps with treasure).  If it is still a bit much, you can always make him "wounded" as well, although that wasn't a problem with my group.  This should give you a nice EL 6 to EL 7, depending on how the players encounter the ogres.- Since loot wasn't specified, made the treasure in the bottom of the tower near the ogres be 15 MW sling stones and an ancient helm worth 200 gp.  (Idea stolen from the story hour.)- Completely left out anything about a paladin joining the party (obviously - different campaign).- Changed the +1 keen longsword (~8000g) reward from the second head to a MW longsword with a scabbard of keen edges (normally 16000g) with the limit that it only works for 5 minutes a day with each use (this is ad hoc, but according to the DMG this would make the price something more like 3000g; it normally should last for 50 minutes).  This made it easier for the group to use and reduced the treasure total.- Changed the third head's main clue entirely.  Since I figured my players weren't going to eat the turnips (they never did), and since I didn't want to worry about keeping up with the Green Knight later in the adventure, I devised an entirely new challenge for the players.  The third head said, "When challenged by the green guardian, challenge him instead to his favorite game.  But be mindful of thy own self-worth."  In other words, when the green knight challenges you, challenge him to a different game.The idea for the "game" was stolen directly from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.  The knight offers a game of "chance," in which the characters can choose a coin that is either copper, silver, or gold.  (I was going to get a penny, quarter, and gold dollar coin for props, but ran out of time.  The copper coin could be bronze as well.)    The face on the coin becomes the face of the character once it is chosen.  The idea is that you flip the coins, and whoever gets heads wins.  You play until someone has won 2 out of 3 (ties are replays).The trick is, the coin flips have nothing to do with the game:  the coin you choose determines how well you do.  The copper coin will always come up heads and the gold coin will always come up tails; the silver one is random but largely irrelavent, since the Green Knight will only pick a coin that has better odds than the one you choose, if possible.  The trick is to "mind your own self-worth" and choose the copper coin.However, the reward/penalty isn't so bad:  I decided the reward was that you just got to go on your way, while the penalty was that you had to face the "three blows" challenge as before.- The "crossroads" mentioned by the third head became a place in faerieland since my campaign had no boneyard or anything like it; plus, it was nice and neat that everything applied to areas inside faerieland (although it tends to tip your hand about them leaving faerieland when all the clues are done).  The item dropped was an Eyes of the Eagle, straight from the DMG (2500g).- The old man winter's stick was a custom runestaff based on the runestaff items in the Magic Item Compendium; its value is probably around 8000g.- Since I don't have Savage Species, the old man's cat became a standard tiger from the MM1 that had its size changed to small (without a strength or dex change) and type changed to undead (~CR 4 or 5).  The additional monsters with it were imps (MM1 devils, CR 2) who were altered to be ice foxes.  This was about an EL 5, but hopefully it would come at the end of a long road with fewer resources.The rest was pretty much the same or as close as I could get.  So how did they do?</blockquote>

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