Going through the Tomb of Horrors(3.5) the first time...

[Kunimatyu]

So, I've finally gotten chance to play the Tomb of Horrors for the first time. We're starting at 9th level, and our party contains 2 druids, a monk, a rogue, and a cleric. We're not really bothering with roleplaying since it's the frickin' Tomb of Horrors, but we're having a great time so far (except for the monk, who wishes there was something to hit)

Some highlights so far:

* My character purchased 5 bags of tricks(grey), for a total of 50 small animals. I've also got a wand of speak with animals and, just for giggles, I've prepared every druid spell I have as summon nature's ally, just to see if I can pull off a "Vow of Summoning".

* Our standard tactic so far is to summon a small animal from the bag of tricks, have the Cleric use a light wand on it, have me use speak with animals and tell it which squares to walk into, and basically have it trigger all the traps for us. while we watch from a safe distance.

* Figuring that we could summon 1200 gallons of water a day, we considered spending a month to flood the entire tomb, and then equip the non-druids with Freedom of Movement and Water Breathing while the druids rocked the Giant Octopus form. This was later abandoned when we considered the joy of fighting a lich underwater.

* My 3rd level and higher spells have been converted into thoqquas, which, since I speak Ignan and Terran, have been commanded to excavate any portion of the Tomb we think might contain a secret door. So far, it's worked like a charm, even if the room with the colored circles and the creature murals has been converted into melted thoqqua slag.

* The ten-foot pole is now a nine and a half foot pole after attaching a weasel to it and sticking it into the black mouth of the statue-thingy.

* The giant skeleton dealt 10 damage to a druid in polar bear form. After that, the summoned giant constrictor pinned him and that was basically it. After summoning the snake, my druid just kicked back and enjoyed some goodberries. Amusingly, the celestial monkey summoned to open the skeleton's chest survived the entire experience.

* The Altar o' Evil was converted into a mobile artillery platform by Stone Shaping the floor around it into a wheeled platform and tossing the fuzzballs from the bag of tricks on it. Unfortunately, we used the Altar twice in one day, and it immolated itself, though we gave it enough clearance to avoid any casualties.

* The first time the Altar was triggered, it was triggered from a weasel told to break dance on top of it.

I will go ahead and state that while I enjoy combat and the like, I'm much more of a roleplaying/good story type, so I don't usually do as many silly things as in this. However, after discovering that there are secret doors hidden in pit traps, I've decided that Gygax and his little tomb can eat it -- it's going to be a warren of thoqqua tunnels from now on!

 

[Aaron L]

Tomb. A tome is a book.

 

[Kunimatyu]

Tomb. A tome is a book.

Heh -- I was calling it that all last night too! (It's corrected now) I've owned the "Tome of Horrors" for something like two years now -- I'm not used to this whole "tomb" concept quite yet.

 

[Nikroecyst]

"* The ten-foot pole is now a nine and a half foot pole after attaching a weasel to it and sticking it into the black mouth of the statue-thingy."

"I've decided that Gygax and his little tomb can eat it . . ."

I laughed for literally 5 straight mins before I decided that I needed to use the bathroom.

 

[Mark Hope]

It was this that really put the icing on the cake for me:

Amusingly, the celestial monkey summoned to open the skeleton's chest survived the entire experience.

I can't begin to count the number of celestial monkeys that have been crushed, zapped, fried, blown up, eaten, poisoned or otherwise snuffed out in games I have played or run (although, it is entirely possible that it is just the same monkey coming back over and over again to face fresh brutalities). Whatever else happens, you are clearly doing something right here.

 

[Nikosandros]

I've prepared every druid spell I have as summon nature's ally, just to see if I can pull off a "Vow of Summoning".

But a druid can cast any prepared spell as summon nature ally anyway...

 

[Kunimatyu]

But a druid can cast any prepared spell as summon nature ally anyway...

I know; that's the beauty of it. I'm intentionally crippling the character and we're STILL at no casualties. I haven't even wildshaped yet!

(Also, I very much enjoy having only a small range of options and figuring out how to use them creatively.)

 

[T. Foster]

I'm glad you're having fun with this, which is the point, after all. From the tone of your posts you seem to think you're "breaking" the module and sticking it to Gygax ("Gygax and his little tomb can eat it"), but on the contrary I'm sure he would actually approve of your cleverness and tactical acumen thus far (with the note that your strategy would've been a lot less viable under the systems for which the adventure was written (OD&D) and originally published (1E) -- no buying bags of tricks, no summoning endless thoqquas -- no thoqquas at all, for that matter, since they were introduced in Fiend Folio (1981) and the adventure was written in 1975 and published in 1978 -- so it's not like you've really "outsmarted" the module, you just have the advantage of playing it 30 years after the fact). Also, from the sound of things you've still got quite a bit (over half) of the dungeon left to go, so it might be just a touch premature to be gloating over your success...

 

[Kunimatyu]

I'm glad you're having fun with this, which is the point, after all. From the tone of your posts you seem to think you're "breaking" the module and sticking it to Gygax ("Gygax and his little tomb can eat it"), but on the contrary I'm sure he would actually approve of your cleverness and tactical acumen thus far (with the note that your strategy would've been a lot less viable under the systems for which the adventure was written (OD&D) and originally published (1E) -- no buying bags of tricks, no summoning endless thoqquas -- no thoqquas at all, for that matter, since they were introduced in Fiend Folio (1981) and the adventure was written in 1975 and published in 1978 -- so it's not like you've really "outsmarted" the module, you just have the advantage of playing it 30 years after the fact). Also, from the sound of things you've still got quite a bit (over half) of the dungeon left to go, so it might be just a touch premature to be gloating over your success...

Oh no, I'm quite convinced Gygax would get a kick out of our 'tactical acumen', and I don't think we're really 'breaking' the module -- leastways, not yet. And yeah, we've got a bit left to go -- our DM says around half -- so there's plenty of spots to screw up yet.

There is a tone of slight annoyance in the post, and that's for two reasons: one, the design of the Tomb isn't that fun -unless- you enjoy playing the game the way I'm playing it right now, but most importantly, we've got two new D&D players in the group, and quite frankly, they're pretty frustrated and bored at the moment, especially as they happen to be playing non-casters. It's not the module I would have chosen to introduce people to D&D with, and
it's certainly not the way I(and most of my friends) enjoy playing D&D.

It's fun to be playing a classic from D&D's earliest days, but thank heavens WotC and not Gygax is running the show now.

 

[T. Foster]

Fair enough. In the module/Gygax's defense, though, it does acknowledge up front (at least in the 1E version) that its focus is on thinking and problem-solving over action and fighting, and that people who prefer or are looking for the latter aren't likely to enjoy it much. And even in those days this module was definitely the exception not the rule in terms of style and approach -- all other 1E modules, including those by Gygax, are much more focused on action, combat, NPC interaction, and plot, and Tomb of Horrors stood out just as much for its lack of all those then as it does now.

I do like the "problem-solving" style of play as both player and DM, which is why I like Tomb of Horrors, and why I'm currently gearing up to run Gygax's "Necropolis" (the final section of which is essentially Tomb of Horrors on steroids), but I realize it's not for everyone and agree that it seems like a very odd choice for introducing new people to the game -- if they like the module too bad because they'll never play another one like it (except possibly "Necropolis"); if they don't, the fact that they'll never play another one like it is little consolation if it's made them lose interest in the game altogether.