Official Tomb of Horrors 3.5 conversion (merged)

[diaglo]

Mark Jindra (Wizards' webguy) has confirmed that there's another conversion of a classic module coming along at the end of the month.

rolls % dice

C'mon Barrier Peaks... Daddy needs a new pair of shoes..

 

[Henry]

rolls % dice

C'mon Barrier Peaks... Daddy needs a new pair of shoes..

Ah, a fellow worshipper at the Altar of Reese's...

 

[Anabstercorian]

Anyone interested in how to get through the Tomb, without going through the Tomb?
If yes, I'll post a Spoiler Warning, and make some commentary on this (Acererak will have my soul if he hears about it, though.)

Dollars to donuts it involves a whole heap of Distintigrates.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Does this version of Acererak give out cupcakes too? They neutered his prime ability quite a bit by giving it a easily attained Save.

Also I think they should have used the differences in level philosophy and made the suggested character levels and resulting challanges higher. A 9th level 1e PC was a powerful hero of reknown in a lot of cases. Maybe they should have made the 3e version for 15th level heroes or higher?

The change in what the Demi will do when the party enters it's room is kind of lame IMO, it was a decent "twist" in the old module. If you weren't too greedy you could get out of there without even encountering him and with a lot of loot, but who among adventurers isn't that greedy?

 

[Psion]

A 9th level 1e PC was a powerful hero of reknown in a lot of cases. Maybe they should have made the 3e version for 15th level heroes or higher?

That would be nice, in that it would make it easier to use as part of a RttToH. Moil is clearly a high level escapade, and 15th level would put them a bit closer to where they need to be to take on winter wights and (gasp) Ackerack as statted under 3e.

 

[dcollins]

They should have written the conversion for 21st level characters. I'm disappointed that they didn't at least use the juggernaut in the MM2 for the juggernaut in ToH; instead they used a stone golem with mods.

I must admit WOTC is pretty schizophrenic when it comes to converting classic monsters. There's apparently a desire to "bulk up" everything to legendary proportions, but then they're impossible to use in the signature adventures that made them famous in the first place. Here, we have the Juggernaut & Demilich. (Same can be said for Giants, Lolth, Zuggtmoy, etc.)

It's interesting how much the culture of D&D has changed since Tomb of Horrors first appeared. Back then, Gary Gygax could write a module specifically designed to screw over the players by kililng their PCs, and people thought it was a grand idea -- it fit in with the adverserial DM vs. player culture of the time... These days, my perception is that the culture has shifted towards a collaborative one in which the DM and the players work together to create a fun game.

On the topic of culture, I have to say this. (Having gamed for 25 years, this observation only became clear to me when I went to Gen Con for the first time in 2004). There are very different play styles between (1) home games and (2) convention tournament games. In the latter you have the case that (a) players are handed PCs on site for a one-time-only game, (b) the event is explicitly competitive (with other playgroups), and (c) the adventure is set up intentionally for most parties to fail, so as to be able to rank who did best.

Personally I found that I like tournament play style to be my favorite. Almost all the old classic modules came out of tournament use (S1-4, G1-3, D1-3, A1-4, etc.... notable exception B2). If you considered a tournament adventure at Gen Con today, you'd find the overall texture to be very similar to those early modules. I think that's really the primary distinction in feel that people get from the early modules.

 

[Kesh]

Note that the new Map-A-Week is for Heroes of Valor, and includes a map for the Tomb of Horrors. You can get it with or without the "tags" that identify everything.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

Mark Jindra (Wizards' webguy) has confirmed that there's another conversion of a classic module coming along at the end of the month.

Cheers!

Woohoo! Hoping for B2 or B4 (Lost City) myself.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

Does this version of Acererak give out cupcakes too? They neutered his prime ability quite a bit by giving it a easily attained Save.

Fort 23 for 9th level characters is 'easily attained'?! I'll have to tell my players (none of whose PCs has a Fort above 12) they can get through this no problem.

 

[Crothian]

Fort 23 for 9th level characters is 'easily attained'?! I'll have to tell my players (none of whose PCs has a Fort above 12) they can get through this no problem.

I know what you mean. Even our dwarven Cleric doesn't have a fort save of 12 and he's got the great fortitude feat.