DDAL Jasper runs Tomb of Annihilation. season 7

[jasper]

Friday I rand Putting the Dead to Rest 07-08. With 7 players even if they are average party I suggest you bump up the encounters. I would change the reach of the cyst to reach across the whole room
I did get into a rules debate. Bad guy cast polymorph on a member making him a frog. Later using the Staff of Woodlands bad guy casted wall of thorns on most of party. I did not get my flavor text out my mouth before be called on having two concentration spells up at the same time. To me it did not matter as the mummy was going next before the frog and I need a 18+ to hit the pc. The challenger wanted me to drop the polymorph right then and there.
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Sunday I ran part of the DDHC-TOA-2 Tortle package. The group decide to shipwrecked on the island. The discover the tortle village and journey to ship wreck cove. The cove and travelling to the cove took a lot of time due to wandering monsters. I suggest you drop the wandering monsters if you have a time limit.

 

[jasper]

Since I last check in I ran my 100th AL session. I also ran 3 mods.
Heart of the Wild DDHC-TOA-6 Ok this is not a 4 hour module. I skipped whole parts of Part 2 and Part 3. I did like how the maze was done. I urge other DMS to run this as an 8 hour session.
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I also reran Whispers in the DARK and refused to kill pcs. I had a 7 person table with 1 to 4th pcs. The boss monster can destroy a first level pc with a melee swing and one of death fangs. At 24 avg pts of damage, I urge dms not to use this against first level.
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I mostly finished the Tortle Package and had the players run thru the palace. One print out the palace map with the numbers for the group this makes it easier for the group to find the rooms. I also move the mimic to one of the statues in the throne room. I do suggest cutting down the treasure in the treasure room. I did have a rule of cool, and cool moment. The players asked if they could use the salt bags against the slug. I said yes but only as d10 melee attack with proficieny. The cool moment was one player cut the bridge forcing the pcs to use the tunnel. The blow holes swept two of group into sea cave. One was able to swim to slug room. The other always failed his Str checks and was swept out to sea for the entire combat. I was being nice and only moving 10 feet away from the slug entrance on each fail. And him taking 5 pts of damage.
The tortle package just needs to totally ran as full Chapter of TOA, let the players take their time. However with wandering monsters every 16+ per hex 3 times a day this can get deadly and BORING. I suggest either pulling some random encounters the dm picks, or dropping the random encounters totally.

 

[jasper]

DDHC-TOA-9 Ruins of Matolo Discover. Level 5. This takes about 4 hours to play especially if the random monsters are combat encounters. My group was able to either avoid combat by talking their way out, or combat was just a speed bump. If I run a speed bump encounter either the monsters go first, or the adventurers. When it is the adventurers turn I just go clockwise around the table.
The only thing which made this adventure stand out is some of the players had already visited Camp Vengeance. I had a wanted poster made up for one pc. You will also need to really bump the boss fight at the end if the pcs are around 8th. I increased the number of greater undead, and extended the range on some spells.

 

[Keravath]

Friday I rand Putting the Dead to Rest 07-08. With 7 players even if they are average party I suggest you bump up the encounters. I would change the reach of the cyst to reach across the whole room
I did get into a rules debate. Bad guy cast polymorph on a member making him a frog. Later using the Staff of Woodlands bad guy casted wall of thorns on most of party. I did not get my flavor text out my mouth before be called on having two concentration spells up at the same time. To me it did not matter as the mummy was going next before the frog and I need a 18+ to hit the pc. The challenger wanted me to drop the polymorph right then and there.
***
Sunday I ran part of the DDHC-TOA-2 Tortle package. The group decide to shipwrecked on the island. The discover the tortle village and journey to ship wreck cove. The cove and travelling to the cove took a lot of time due to wandering monsters. I suggest you drop the wandering monsters if you have a time limit.

Just a quick comment but it seems to me that you didn't get into a rules "debate" since the player was clearly correct. To cast a spell requiring concentration you have to drop any current spell with concentration which ends it immediately. This might actually be relevant since the Frog's saving throw against wall of thorns is likely much lower than the player's (a frog has a +1 dex and no proficiency in dex saves).

"The target's game statistics, including mental ability scores, are replaced by the statistics of the chosen beast."

Not only that, but when the polymorph ends the character gets back any reactions they may have. If they are a caster they might have counterspell (which might be usable against the wall of thorns). A bard might have cutting words. I don't know what the specific characters were in this situation but in general it might make a difference so I can see why a player might object.

 

[jasper]

The frog was outside the wall of thorns. I would had to roll a 19+ to even hit the frog. And the I was planning of the frog changing back into the paladin form before I swung on it. So the main difference was two initiative positions.

 

[Keravath]

The frog was outside the wall of thorns. I would had to roll a 19+ to even hit the frog. And the I was planning of the frog changing back into the paladin form before I swung on it. So the main difference was two initiative positions.

I'm not arguing but I don't understand your comment. A frog has an AC of 11. In order to require a 19+ to hit it you would need to have a -8 on the to hit roll and there isn't a single creature I can think of that is that bad (even factoring in 3/4 cover which is a +5 to hit). However, you mentioned a mummy, which has a +5 to hit and would hit a frog on a 6 (which requires a -13 to hit to reach a 19+). Also, once the frog takes more than 1hp of damage it reverts to its normal form (polymorph ends) with the excess damage carrying over. Would the save vs mummy rot be made by the frog or the reverted pc?

By the way, I enjoyed reading your recaps of ToA. I am playing in a ToA HC adventure at the moment using DDAL rules. The DM also put in the Return of the Lizard King and Ruins of Matolo guild adept modules as side quests which worked out pretty well. I think one of the reasons he added these was the scarcity of magic items in the HC. There is virtually nothing we have come across before Omu but I don't know what might be in Omu and beyond.

As far as ToA goes, it seems pretty good but the biggest issue I have is travel time and interesting things to do that can be completed within the time frame of the mission (something like 70 days). Traveling around, exploring, fulfilling the quests put forward by some of the guides, can require weeks of travel time ... so much so that it seems really challenging to reach a sufficient level for the challenges in Omu and then the Soul Monger within the specified time frame. A lot of the encounters appear to be spaced all around Chult as well as in the middle of the jungle and at 1 hex/day (2 hexes/day on a river) it just takes too long to get around.

This becomes a bit more challenging when the ToA HC imposes fairly strict limits on XP that the DM can award for roleplaying or dealing with challenges not involving combat. I think this is a flaw with AL rules since it means we have had several sessions that have run almost as one random combat encounter after another as we travel through the jungle .. essentially just to pad XP. Having a session that focuses on social interactions or other interactions typical of a roleplaying game can lead to earning only a few hundred XP for a four hour session for tier 2 characters (we are about level 6 now ... we started with 7 players but with turnover we are down to 4 regulars and are adding folks if they are interested ... we've played about 15 sessions).

 

[jasper]

Ok let me clear up. The paladin had an ac 22 or so. I gave the frog the same ac before I had the frog polymorph back to the pc. Visually the mummy was swinging on the frog, Actually I was rolling against the paladin's AC. Then the mummy holding the frog , missed and watch it morph back into the pc.
The mummy rot would be made in the final round by the paladin.

 

[jasper]

Just finish cleaning up from Magic City Comic Con which was in Birmingham Alabama. I ran City on the Edge twice, Walk in the Park, and Whispers in the Dark.
My table reviewed me is okay to great dm. And one person did point out I need to work on running social encounters. Things I did learn being in charge of all the tables are the following.
1. Clear and lots of communication is always need between me and the dms. Me and con contacts. Me and the various tables which are running. The organizer (me) and con people need to know about problem players early.
2. Have extra handouts, certs, copies of adventures, etc.
3. Back up dms are a great thing.
4. Be willing to drop the ban hammer on a problem player early. As I will be tell my people, “we don’t get paid to deal with rude crude goobers”.
5. Someone will always leave something behind. I came back with an extra d4 and book. I left behind a mini.
6. Con people cannot help with hotel problems.
7. I need more costumes.
8. I can stick to the budget. Well ok I just move one budget item from October to this month.
9. Just because the dm has ran the adventure lots and lots of time, they need to remember it someone’s first time through it.
10. there is no ten. But you can tip your dms.

 

[jasper]

Toa Session 10
Friday I got back into the Hardcover. Only had 4 players and if I crunched the numbers right they were weak to very weak.
They finished Chapter 3 with exploring Nangnang's Shrine. They discovered the secret door and used shatter to destroy it. After some fun with the pools they stole the cube and loot from Thayan. Now the bard had just drunk a potion of becoming tiny. So when she stole the cube and was frozen the group just picked her up and walked out of the shrine.
They blew through Chapter 4. They found the back entrance. Beat up the 3 guards. Killed two and asked politely about the temple. The guard gave up the info on rooms 19, 14, and 9. And then they summon the hydra to eat the dead bodies. Ok one I made a mistake about the bell, but the players caught it and used player knowledge on the about it. But they were surprise when Henrientte arrived. The ranger opened the door to the lab (room 14). The mage fireball the room. And combat was mostly over. Remember they were a very weak group so I was downsizing the encounters. The group snuck up on the throne room and threw out a polymorph pc (t-rex). This helped the encounter as spells and attacks were wasted on the t-rex as the party took down the minions. This was a close fight. I did zero out two pcs and called for them to surrender. Great use of healing help turned the tide. The group killed Ra Nsi, and all but his champion. I called the fight at the time due time and they had hit the marks. I still reviewing what information and magic items to give them.
Pc deaths 8
Pc souls 4
Monsters killed 219.
I gave them the flame tongue and thinking about giving them the bracers of defense. I am dropping the sending stone.

 

[CapnZapp]

219 killed monsters? In how many play hours?