Has anyone run the entire Dragonlance saga?

[Henry]

I'm just another Dragonlance Fan, chiming in here. Unfortunately, I've never had the chance to run even ONE of these for a group.

Xak Tasroth, however, ranks up there as one of the most creative dungeons of its day. Even the Mines of Moria were not as trashed as that place. I loved the sewer pipe "chutes", the Gully Dwarves, the myriad threats in the ruins, the end challenge - it's a very well put-together module.

The biggest problem of all old school D&D adventures is that the improvements of monsters in 3E is such that the PC's must be scaled up if the DM wants to play it with the monsters written in it.

Maybe I can convince some of my group to pick up Castles & Crusades...

 

[Cam Banks]

The biggest problem of all old school D&D adventures is that the improvements of monsters in 3E is such that the PC's must be scaled up if the DM wants to play it with the monsters written in it.

Yes and no - the bulk of the challenges in the modules are still suitable for the characters in their 3rd edition versions, chiefly because not only have the monsters become stronger, but so have 3e characters. A 5th level D&D3E fighter could wipe the floor with a 5th level 1st edition AD&D fighter.

The biggest problem is with the dragons, since they're far more powerful in 3e than they ever were before. You've got two options here - drop their age category, or realize that the whole point of a dragon in these modules is to be part of the plot. There's always a widget that helps you defeat the dragon. In Onyx's case in DL1, it's the Blue Crystal Staff. All you need is a melee touch attack against her and she's destroyed. Given she's only got a Dex of 10, all you do is have one character waste her attack of opportunity (and likely get killed, but hey...) and then Goldmoon rushes in the same round, smacking at that AC 7 with her staff. Instant fireworks.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Henry]

Yes and no - the bulk of the challenges in the modules are still suitable for the characters in their 3rd edition versions, chiefly because not only have the monsters become stronger, but so have 3e characters. A 5th level D&D3E fighter could wipe the floor with a 5th level 1st edition AD&D fighter.

I'm thinking more of beyond DL1, and more into modules that feature all sorts of aberrant beasties. Go towards the Against the Giants series, and it takes a 10th-14th level party to have a hope of doing what a 6th level party had a chance of accomplishing. Same reason - giants got a boost too.

But enough hijacking; DL1 could definitely be run fairly well, because the majority of monsters were either normal animals (wilderness), low-rent draconians like baaz and bozak, or hobgoblins. As long as you're dealing with humanoid types, the power levels stay respectable.

 

[wazza]

When I ran the first two DL modules I added class levels to the various Draconians: Fighter to the Baaz and Rogue to the Kapak to provide the PC's with a decent challenge. One thing I did notice is that the spell resistance of the Draconians can become a cause for concern for Raistlin especially when he's at a low level.

For Onyx I made her an adult age category so that she wasn't an insurmountable challenge, indeed Caramon did pretty well against her until she managed to get in all her attacks. Goldmoon then stepped in and destroyed her with the Blue Crystal staff.

I think the hardest part of the series will be keeping the villain NPCs such as Verminaard and Toede alive, as my group will go all out to kill them.

Wazza.

PS. The notes you do have for DL3 would be much appreciated.

 

[MerricB]

I rather think that the better stats of dragons in 3E would be an advantage - it really makes the return of dragons a lot more significant.

Cheers!

 

[wazza]

I always give my players a fair chance. With Onyx there was a slim chance they could have defeated her in a straight fight, likewise with Ember in DL2.

Wazza.