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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2009233" data-attributes="member: 18387">This review is a playtest review from a player's perspective.  After playing the adventure, I read it and made notes on certain areas.  This review contains detailed information about the adventure.  I usually DM, but as a player I like to create LN or LG characters.  My personal preference is an adventure that has a developing plot and a good mix of roleplaying and melee.  Our party started with a 10th level LN fighter, LG cleric, CG rogue, and NG sorcerer.  While I am an avid fan of D&D, I did not care for this product.The character hooks leading the PCs to Nightfang Spire are brief and not very compelling.  Unless the PCs are willing to travel to the Spire solely for a monster hunt, the DM will need to spice up the hooks to connect them in a stronger manner to the previous adventures.  Furthermore, while the location of the Spire is certainly unique, I found a 300 foot tower in a 1,600 foot canyon a bit bizarre rather than awe inspiring.Similar to the tower's location, I found the Ossuary very much out of place.  Other than briefly fooling the PCs into believing that it was the entrance to the tower, it served no purpose.  I believe the room deserves a CR higher than 5, as the Will Save DC 20 from the vine proved too much for 3 of our 4 PCs.  The fighter ended up purposefully deafening himself with a Thunderstone in order to save the party.  Perhaps this was just the result of bad luck on saving throws, but it nearly ended us right off the bat and we searched for several rounds believing that a door had to be somewhere inside.After some debate and several lightning strikes from the Mooncalf, we realized that the only way in was probably from the top.  Having retreated a short distance, our sorcerer summoned a Giant Eagle to carry us up.  If it were not for that spell, we would have had to of climbed.  With a 300 foot tower, the fighter was the only one with the skill to have made it without falling at least once.  Any adventuring party that for one reason or another does not have access to some sort of flight could have serious problems getting past this hurdle.  Flying in from a distance and a high elevation proved problematic because it got us past the Mooncalf.  Thus, once we were on the top level of the Spire we had to fight the Mooncalf and the Wights at the same time.  This was nearly too much for the party and only the fighter was left standing at the end.  Both the cleric and rogue were below 0 HP.  The sorcerer was killed when the Mooncalf grappled him, flew back over the ledge, and then let him drop 300 feet.  The 300 foot drop was one of the Mooncalf's most effective and obvious combat tactics even though it is not mentioned in the module.Having had everyone nearly die, and losing one party member in the first two encounters, the party was pretty brow beat. We chose to Raise the dead sorcerer back to life rather than travel back to Dry Lake to recruit another.  However, he was now 9th level which did weaken the party somewhat.  Nonetheless, things progressed fairly smoothly once inside as most of the adventure is a combat-oriented, linear dungeon crawl.    If your party enjoys such an adventure, the tower will probably be fairly entertaining as the melee can be challenging if you do not use bottlenecks such as doorways to your tactical advantage.  Jumping into the middle of a room can easily get you killed with the number of opponents in certain areas.  There were several areas inside the Tower, however, that could have been improved.  I will comment on them briefly below:1. Yesha Faulkin, the near dead sage was a drag of a roleplaying encounter.  The information she had is pretty much all you need to know to put together what is happening inside the Spire.  This leaves little storyline mystery to uncover later.  Furthermore, the party felt compelled to escort her safely back to Dry Lake, which slowed down the adventure.2. The Necromantic Seepage is unique, but a turn check to cleanse a victim was not a logical deduction.  A Remove Disease spell seemed much more appropriate for the ooze.3. Area 17 gives the PCs no clue that a trap awaits.  The end result of this was that the fighter, who was leading the marching order, was shot out of the tower.  Thus, the whole party had to retreat to retrieve him, and the rogue constantly searched for traps from there on.  This really slowed down play, and the trap would have been better placed in an area that had some reason for a trap to exist.4. Oggunon Sathaar's Crypt seemed unnecessary.  Only a fool would send one member of the party down the tube to take on whatever lurks down there.  We closed the valve and left.  The tube itself also seemed out of place; why not just place the vampire behind the door to the chamber rather than in a tube?5. Rhunad's Vault presented an uninteresting roleplaying opportunity.  Why would anyone bargain with a CE demon?  After taking care of Stitches, who presented a good fight, we killed Rhunad in one round before he had a chance to attack or flee.  The information Rhunad had fleshed out some of the adventure's plot, but was not necessary for completing the finale.  6. While not a comment about any specific room, our sorcerer did get quite bored in the Spire.  Many areas provided too tight of quarters for popular spells such as fireball and lightning bolt.  Thus, he primarily kept busy trying to magic missile people to death while the fighter stood in the doorway, the cleric healed and lobbed spells, and the rogue fired arrows.  Once inside the Spire, I think the party probably would have done better with two fighters (or paladins), a cleric, and a rogue.  An arcane spellcaster would have been most useful with protective or enhancement spells throughout most of the tower, but did not seem necessary.  The Catacombs seemed a welcome relief from the spiraling trip down the Spire.  The Tombstone Golem was a great new monster, but I have no idea why it was listed as an EL 8?!  It was based off of a Stone Golem, which is a CR 11, but its Slow ability was replaced with Slay Living.  I believe this justifies a revised CR of 12 or 13, though I could be biased since my fighter died from the Slay Living ability on the first punch thrown, leading to a hasty retreat by the rest of the party.Redbone and his gang were also a challenging surprise that seemed to always catch us off guard.  We only managed to defeat him on the third run in.  He did kill our rogue in a surprise attack from the back of the party, but he was a worthy adversary to be slain by.The Girallon Watchers in Area 52 are the largest critique I have of the entire adventure.  All throughout the Spire our PCs fought the rending Girallons.  Then in Area 52 we were supposed to somehow know that we should parley with them?  Given that Girallons are CE, have an average intelligence of 3, and are in general ravaging wild lunatics this was most illogical.  Furthermore, this area led to a very tough, dynamic combat with Girallons seemingly pouring into the room to kill us.  The fight went on and on until the fighter was dead and the other three were not far behind, at which point the DM was forced into the awkward position of destroying the party or bringing in Thiff to calm the beasts and parley.  Luckily he chose the later.  Thiff seemed quite out of place as well.  She was the leader because of her intelligence score of 8.  But Girallons are an alpha-male society based on chaotic brute force, not brains.  I really felt that this was a poorly placed roleplaying opportunity that didn't fit with previous experience or the description of Girallons in the Monster Manual.The finale probably could have used more than just Gulthias in the room.  Also, the ceiling hatch in Area 75 to reach the final chamber was more of an unnecessary obstacle than an interesting challenge.  Because the party was so used to tough combat, we were well prepared going in.  Gulthias was quickly put on the defensive and defeated in almost an anti-climatic encounter.  The Heart was readily dispatched with a Blade Barrier spell.  In conclusion, Nightfang Spire presents a hack-n-slash dungeon delve with little plot or opportunity for roleplaying.  The combat is tough and I would recommend taking two fighter types, a cleric, and a rogue that can fight reasonably well with ranged weapons.  If you enjoy a melee based adventure that requires tactical discipline, then this adventure is for you.  However, it certainly was not my favorite.  Due to the well drawn maps, good cover art, and difficult melee, I'm giving this adventure a 2.</blockquote>

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