NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ourph" data-source="post: 3377989" data-attributes="member: 20239">Other than the Thief no one could Move Silently.  Other than the Thief no one could Hide in Shadows.  Everyone can move quietly, disguise themselves and hide behind a corner or a barrel if necessary.An Orc doesn't have Move Silently, but he can still Surprise a PC and a PC may still need to make a Hear Noise roll (something that all PCs can also do, not just Thieves, per the AD&D RAW) to hear an Orc walking around on the other side of a door.  Why?  Because Orcs, just like PCs, have the ability to be stealthy despite the fact that they don't have a percentage chance listed for Move Silently or Hide in Shadows.  It's actually suggested as a possibility in the module with special rules included to cover what chance the giants have to see through the disguise.  So it doesn't seem to be that much of a stretch now does it?No, as a matter of fact, you don't.  The module makes clear that at some point, the party breaks up.  Some of the giants go off on their own.  Wait around long enough undetected and I suspect any good DM will realize that none of the giants are going to just sit in a single room for the rest of eternity.Not IME.  I find it absolutely stunning that any slightly experienced DM and group of players would treat this module as if all the rooms were static.  The descriptions establish what is going on at the Steading at the time of the PCs arrival, not what every encounter area looks like in perpetuity.  The text is full of non-combat options for moving around the Steading, gaining information, recruiting allies and "winning" without engaging in a full frontal assault.  I've played in (3) and run (2) the Steading a number of times and I've never seen a party simply waltz in and start blasting.  I've seen the "burn it to the ground and mop up afterward" option used a couple of times.  I've seen the "get on the roof and use spells to spy out what's below" tactic used.  I've played in a game where the PCs combined the "dress up as young giants" tactic and the "recruit the orc slaves as allies" tactic successfully (a couple of Enlarge spells and the Halfling Thief sitting on the Elf Fighter/MU's shoulders took care of the size problem).It's really unfortunate that so many people in this thread seem to have missed out on all the nuance and depth of this module (which is possibly the greatest module ever published for D&D IMO) when it can be incredibly thought-provoking and fun if used as it was intended.   :\</blockquote>

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