Mal Malenkirk
First Post
I have bought and run Monte Cook's adventure Beyond the Veil.
It's not all that bad. A deluded ghost dragon with weird sexual habits, mad monks, a cool lair in the etheral plane... this module has a few good thing going for it.
But for a module designed by the guy who wrote the DMG, the amount of error in the use of the rules is unforgivable. And the treasure is not proportionate to the task.
Consider this;
Gaulmeth, the half-dragon stone giant has an AC of 29: (-1 size, +2 Dex, +15 natural). See what I mean? Math tells me AC should be 26. The error is probably due to the fact that a stone giant has an AC of 25. Increase the natural armor of a stone giant by +4 because of the half-dragon template and you'd reach 29, right? But the typical stone giant wears a +3 Hide armor which Gaulmeth lack.
That's not all; Gaulmeth's damage while using a Huge sundering flail +1 is 2D6+17. He has a strenght of 35. The damage should be 2D6+19.
A few others I have noticed without really looking hard:
Derrit the cleric's initiative is +2. Derrit happens to be a vampire. You see the problem? Improved initiative ain't factored in. Also, Derrit must be the only evil cleric who prepares inflict wounds spell. He prepared inflict serious wound once and inflict light wounds twice! These are not domain spell.
Derim and Tellimar, the Drow half-dragons who are both 8th level fighters, gain 8 HP due to their CON of... 14. It should be +16. Also, they have 9 feats. They should have 8 (5 bonus feats and 3 standard).
Gaulmeth's chest is trapped. A trap that offers no search DC to be detected and no disable device DC to be disarmed.
The list is long, these are simply those I could remember. If I looked closely I'm sure I'd find dozen more.
And most annoyingly to the PC, the treasure you get for your trouble is ridiculously low. When you finally face the Dragon which is the center of the story you are in for a hell of a fight. It's bad enough that he hits at +28/+23, but he also drains 1 point of STR and CON on each successful melee attack! And he his fighting on his home turf, swimming through pool of acid as if he was on solid ground.
Should you win, you'll be rewarded with a great sword of wounding +1 and some gold. Oh, and a candle of truth and a ring of chameleon power. Yipee!
It's not all that bad. A deluded ghost dragon with weird sexual habits, mad monks, a cool lair in the etheral plane... this module has a few good thing going for it.
But for a module designed by the guy who wrote the DMG, the amount of error in the use of the rules is unforgivable. And the treasure is not proportionate to the task.
Consider this;
Gaulmeth, the half-dragon stone giant has an AC of 29: (-1 size, +2 Dex, +15 natural). See what I mean? Math tells me AC should be 26. The error is probably due to the fact that a stone giant has an AC of 25. Increase the natural armor of a stone giant by +4 because of the half-dragon template and you'd reach 29, right? But the typical stone giant wears a +3 Hide armor which Gaulmeth lack.
That's not all; Gaulmeth's damage while using a Huge sundering flail +1 is 2D6+17. He has a strenght of 35. The damage should be 2D6+19.
A few others I have noticed without really looking hard:
Derrit the cleric's initiative is +2. Derrit happens to be a vampire. You see the problem? Improved initiative ain't factored in. Also, Derrit must be the only evil cleric who prepares inflict wounds spell. He prepared inflict serious wound once and inflict light wounds twice! These are not domain spell.
Derim and Tellimar, the Drow half-dragons who are both 8th level fighters, gain 8 HP due to their CON of... 14. It should be +16. Also, they have 9 feats. They should have 8 (5 bonus feats and 3 standard).
Gaulmeth's chest is trapped. A trap that offers no search DC to be detected and no disable device DC to be disarmed.
The list is long, these are simply those I could remember. If I looked closely I'm sure I'd find dozen more.
And most annoyingly to the PC, the treasure you get for your trouble is ridiculously low. When you finally face the Dragon which is the center of the story you are in for a hell of a fight. It's bad enough that he hits at +28/+23, but he also drains 1 point of STR and CON on each successful melee attack! And he his fighting on his home turf, swimming through pool of acid as if he was on solid ground.
Should you win, you'll be rewarded with a great sword of wounding +1 and some gold. Oh, and a candle of truth and a ring of chameleon power. Yipee!
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So far, anyways.
