Killer Modules

[Sanackranib]

forge of fury

that module was a cake walk for our party. I don't think anyone even was knocked unconsious! although a few of the orc's we captured died in a fire trap. now granted, we didn't find out about the dragon so we never had to fight it and that probably saved our bacon. the battle with the ogre was intense though.

 

[Henry]

Well, Vecna must know some special time-stop-related secret, because otherwise coup-de-gracing characters while they're time-frozen is not allowed. I thought you might've been referring to another edition of D&D, but if he's casting quickened spells and getting an extra partial action from haste, that sounds like 3 to me.

It was 2nd edition, and the person telling the story has incorporated both Vecna Lives, and Die Vecna Die into the same tale.

In 2nd edition, he didn't have quickened powers, but he could perform multiple actions, as I recall. Cannot recall why however - perhaps it was haste, and the hand's powers were useable more than once per round?


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As for Tomb of Horrors, I think that module gets a bad rap consistently. Tomb of Horrors is one of the few modules where, if you die, you only have yourself to blame. Most of the challenges are not what others do to you, but what you do to YOURSELF. This is why it was made - According to Gary in a story a few years back (and also recounted in his preface in RttToH), he made the Tomb' so that he could see if players with bragging rights on how accomplished their characters were, were actually worth their supposed salt. Tomb of Horror's is a thinking person's dungeon, pure and simple, and if you can't think about the challenges, be prepared to lose - your character, your belongings, your gender, everything.

According to the same tale, Luke Gygax kept his character intact by teleporting out (Word of Recall or teleport, I cannot recall) and the rest of his regulars died horribly!

 

[Frogemoth]

Definetely the Temple of Elemental Evil. I remember that the check for random encounter is made at each 10 minutes! So it's 48 checks for a night of sleep! It is simply impossible to sleep in there.

 

[Storminator]

Re: forge of fury

that module was a cake walk for our party. I don't think anyone even was knocked unconsious! although a few of the orc's we captured died in a fire trap. now granted, we didn't find out about the dragon so we never had to fight it and that probably saved our bacon. the battle with the ogre was intense though.

I just finished the dragon encounter this weekend, and I was shocked at how quickly my PC took the dragon down. I was expecting to seriously hurt them, but they rolled like nobodies business.

SPOILERS I suppose...
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Most of the party crossed the 2nd bridge, with the NPC dwarf cleric falling into the water. That alone was probably going to kill him, with his -17 swim check. Then the dragon lined up three PCs with acid breath, all failed the save, two PCs below 3 hp. Only the monk acts in the surprise round--partial charge, max damage.

Dragon full round attacks the monk, beating on him pretty good. Barbarian runs up, rages, and hits for max damage. Wizard Magic Missiles. Dragon retreats into the water to kill the NPC dwarf. Party gathers on the ledge, readying actions to shoot if the dragon returns.

The monk goes to jump from stepping stone to stepping stone, and slips and falls in the water. Dragon swims up and attacks. PCs with xbows all make spot checks (against the dragon's hide, with penalties for distance, darkness, and partial cover from water), and everyone hits, the dwarven barbarian with a crit and, again, max damage. Dead dragon.

I was quite surprised as the damage totals piled up. I was going to have the dragon pull the monk under and swim away, as she was getting a bit low on hp. Only to have them dish around forty points with readied actions during the attack/grapple.

PS

 

[Victim]

It was 2nd edition, and the person telling the story has incorporated both Vecna Lives, and Die Vecna Die into the same tale.

In 2nd edition, he didn't have quickened powers, but he could perform multiple actions, as I recall. Cannot recall why however - perhaps it was haste, and the hand's powers were useable more than once per round?


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As for Tomb of Horrors, I think that module gets a bad rap consistently. Tomb of Horrors is one of the few modules where, if you die, you only have yourself to blame. Most of the challenges are not what others do to you, but what you do to YOURSELF. This is why it was made - According to Gary in a story a few years back (and also recounted in his preface in RttToH), he made the Tomb' so that he could see if players with bragging rights on how accomplished their characters were, were actually worth their supposed salt. Tomb of Horror's is a thinking person's dungeon, pure and simple, and if you can't think about the challenges, be prepared to lose - your character, your belongings, your gender, everything.

According to the same tale, Luke Gygax kept his character intact by teleporting out (Word of Recall or teleport, I cannot recall) and the rest of his regulars died horribly!

It's a thinking person's dungeon, which is why it changes the rules on stuff like True Seeing. You can't have players using their spells intelligently after all.

 

[jdavis]

The fact that Tomb of Horrors is a thinking man's dungeon is what gives it the reputation it has. Is it beatable, well yes every module is beatable but it is a rough module and it throws plenty of curves at you, it is pretty unique as far as D&D goes.

 

[Sanackranib]

ToH

sometime I want to run one of MY thieves through it and see if I can beat GYgax's creation on it's own terms. considering the level of the module and length of time I get to actually play (usually those games are short lived and I wind up having to run the game again) I doubt that I will ever get the chance.

 

[BiggusGeekus@Work]

1e Keep on the Borderlands ... played STRICTLY according to the rules.

You generate characters rolling 3d6 and allocate the attributes in order. You get one roll for hit points.

The fighter had five hit points to start with. I think a kobold or goblin killed him in one of the first rooms. The cleric had two hit points. She didn't last long. Only one guy had attributes high enough to be a multiclassed character.

It was rough.

 

[Sanackranib]

KotB

1e Keep on the Borderlands ... played STRICTLY according to the rules.

You generate characters rolling 3d6 and allocate the attributes in order. You get one roll for hit points.

The fighter had five hit points to start with. I think a kobold or goblin killed him in one of the first rooms. The cleric had two hit points. She didn't last long. Only one guy had attributes high enough to be a multiclassed character.

It was rough.

*shudders, ugh* Iron man stats by character gereration method I generally suck really bad. I only use that method for minor npc's and then only for CHA

They don't last long either

 

[Grim]

It was 2nd edition, and the person telling the story has incorporated both Vecna Lives, and Die Vecna Die into the same tale.

In 2nd edition, he didn't have quickened powers, but he could perform multiple actions, as I recall. Cannot recall why however - perhaps it was haste, and the hand's powers were useable more than once per round?

You are correct. I dont exactly know the rules that let Vecna snap two necks a round, but I remember reading exactly that. I'm thinking haste, and a broken 2-E version of time stop. And yes, I think I did incorperate them into one story, but, its been a long time. I have them both somewhere, just in a big binder, printed out from the Wizards PDF release...

In any case, still nasty.

For 3e, my money is on The Burning Plague. If you arnt careful, that module just kills a party. The only survivor was the paladin, being immune to disease. Disease at first level is... bad. and (spoilers)












The orc cleric at the end... not fun. Invisiblity whilst holding the charge on an inflict spell is nas-TY.

And the zombies, ugh. When the party isnt prepared, undead just HURT. Especially when each hit is a change at getting plagued... ugghhh.