Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Luz" data-source="post: 7067798" data-attributes="member: 94725">I'm a huge fan of ToH. I ran the 5e playtest version from Dungeon Magazine about a year ago, which is very similar to the TftYP version (although I used the demilich stats from the MM 5e) and it worked very well. Initially, I had concerns about it being too soft because it isn't as lethal as the original and that I would have to make things much harder, but in the end I didn't really. Many of the damage dealing traps in the original were not life threatening, so I  found the 5e version treated them in similar fashion: minor inconveniences to keep the party on their toes and drain them of resources. Same with the monsters in the original (with the exception of Acererak, of course), none of them seriously challenge a high level party. The nerfed mummy lord in TftYP is only keeping true to what's encountered in the original ToH, it's not trying to give the PCs a serious run for their money. In a lot of ways, I think that was the intent of the tomb - to constantly challenge or fool the expectations of the players. Most (but not all) of the insta-kill traps have been left intact, and most of these were (and still are) wholly dependant on the PCs making dumb decisions. Is the 5e version as deadly as the original? No, not by a long shot. But it's still very deadly, and I'd argue probably a lot more playable than the original. For that, I commend the designers for giving us that.I think it's understandable for fans of the original to read the TftYP version and kneejerk a negative reaction that it's not hard enough, but run this version before jumping to that conclusion. I also think a lot of DMs read this from a DM perspective and assume the players will have the same knowledge. Sure, almost any player who has heard of the ToH knows it's a trap-filled dungeon with a demilich. Fair enough. But beyond that, they will still need to navigate the tomb and deal with Acererak on their own. If they figure out for themselves how to defeat him (or just leave him alone and take his treasure), then it's a win for them. I think that's how Gygax intended it.  I took a group of seasoned grognards through this and they still all died in the end. They made it to the final chamber but the tomb had taken a big toll by the time they reached Acererak and were in no shape to fight him. I was surprised at how some of them still fell for some of the insta-kills, or made the wrong choices, or just had some bad luck with the dice. Acererak may not be the dreadful opponent he was back in '78, but played properly ( [MENTION=6788736]Flamestrike[/MENTION] has the right idea) this 5e version still has teeth.</blockquote>

Verification