Killer Modules

[scadgrad]

limiting the discussion to 3E

I'd have to say that of all the 3E modules we've played through, Heart of Nightfang Spire is the most deadly. The central villain has an incredible mix of allies to send at PCs and is extremely intelligent. His ability to restock his tower everytime the PCs retreat w/ whatever baddies he thinks will work best makes for a huge challenge.

Going back to the old days, ToH is the Gold Standard. I'm a bit surprised that no one mentioned Egg of the Pheonix since it has such a nasty rep among Grognards. I believe Monte set out to make LoM as difficult as possible & in fact w/out the errata you can't finish it.

A particular favorite of mine from about 10 years ago was a little jewel in Dungeon magazine. The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb gacked countless PCs in the 3 times that I ran it.

 

[Agamon]

Ah, I didn't realize we were talking older than 3E mods, too. I have less experience with the new modules, but the older ones...

Tomb of Horrors is easily the worst. Played that numerous times, only once was it ever completed. Actually, since it's an expansion to the original, I'll assume Return to the Tomb of Horrors is worse. I have that but have never actually even looked at it. I can't stop twiching just thinking about it.

Labyrinth of Madness if frickin' rediculous. I also have that, and did look though it, said "What the %&$@??" and it's now buried deep in my mod collection.

A Paladin in Hell looks pretty scary, too, but never played that either.

G-D-Q can be deadly in quite a few areas. Heck, I bet if it was converted to 3E, it'd be almost unplayable.

 

[shadow]

Oh yes! Labyrynth of Madness. That module (written by Monte) just was not fair!

Spoiler Alert































There was an insant kill death trap in the FIRST ROOM! Moreover th "boss" of labyrynth was a possessed titan and his horde of troll minions. The titan had a wand of resurection with infinite charges that he used to ressurrect the trolls with!

 

[fl8m]

wow these sound horrible, where can i find the tomb of horrors? i've got a cocky thief and fighter i'd like to teach some fear too hehe

 

[Mithriltooth]

Re: limiting the discussion to 3E

A particular favorite of mine from about 10 years ago was a little jewel in Dungeon magazine. The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb gacked countless PCs in the 3 times that I ran it.

that was an excellent adventure.
I wish I still had the dungeon mag it came in.

 

[blackshirt5]

I haven't really run too many modules all the way through, but when I'm done with my own module, if I can find some place to host it, then I hope it makes it onto this list of Killer Modules.

 

[hong]

Re: limiting the discussion to 3E

The central villain has an incredible mix of allies to send at PCs and is extremely intelligent. His ability to restock his tower everytime the PCs retreat w/ whatever baddies he thinks will work best makes for a huge challenge.

"COOL! WE FOUND THE RESPAWN POINT!"


Hong "XP in a bottle" Ooi

 

[Felon]

Tomb of Horrors is easily the worst. Played that numerous times, only once was it ever completed.

All these years I've heard ToH referred to as the all-time king of all killer dungeons. I've never read the module, just played through it once. Just my fighter/thief and another playing a straight thief (this was about a decade ago using 2e rules). Seemed that it was basically a thief's dungeon, with only 2 monster encounters that I can recall: a gargoyle and a giant scimitar-wielding skeleton. That was certainly fortunate, since we had no cleric, just a bunch of cure potions. Considering ToH's rep, I've always wondered if our GM was pulling punches by extracting monster encounters. Most every potentially deadly situation basically killed the PC's if they were too aggressive or if they let emotions such as curiosity or greed get the better of them. We were meticulous about looking before we leapt (we had to be, since we had no muscle whatsoever). I recall a hallway full of pit traps, a room full of annihlation, a couple of decoy corridors that the GM later told me would have surely killed us hadn't we stopped to find the secret doors. Looking for secret doors and and pitfalls seems to have been key.

Anyway, set me straight here guys. Does it sound like my DM padded the tomb? He's not the type, but maybe he felt pity on a couple of outmatched tomb raiders?

 

[jdavis]

No for the most part monsters are pretty rare (demi-lich not withstanding). I think the big thing to remember with TOH is to pack a lunch, because you are going to be there for awhile. We lost our first character getting in the first hallway. I don't know how you went about going through it but I do remember that every encounter of any sort was deadly and the slightest slip up and it was all over.

 

[grodog]

Re: death modules

I heard that when they play tested this module the rogue died in room 2 and the only player to survive was the priest

I haven't heard any playtest reports about ToH: just some stories Gary and or Rob Kuntz have related about running or playing it. Can you elaborate foruther Sanackranib?