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<blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 7111569" data-attributes="member: 12731">I agree. One of the campaign's high points is its ability to evoke memorable NPCs.I believe the whole campaign was written with an usually strong fairy-tale approach (for D&amp;D). In blunter terms, they didn't bother with stats and instead simply assumed &quot;plot immunity&quot;. Of course, that works especially bad in a game like D&amp;D, which most groups run very mechanistically, just as your objections indicate.But still, they're neutral NPCs, so it really doesn't matter very much if you simply assume they make every roll and have all the good luck they need. Worse is how the writers somehow managed to get their &quot;fairy-tale vision&quot; into regular combats; that is, NPCs and monsters the PCs are supposed to fight. There are no space for narrative combat in D&amp;D. A trio of regular goblins will never be a worthy match for a party of 10th level heroes, no matter how you cut it. Bringing along Scouts on a mid-level expedition (a Scout is a MM stat block roughly equivalent to a 2nd level player character) provided by factions is just sloppy - the troubles the heroes will have just to keep them alive far far outweigh any utility they might provide.Out of the Abyss is by far the 5e campaign I've seen with the worst high-level support. It's like the authors don't know what they're doing.That doesn't mean OotA can't be recommended. It just means you need to expect to rewrite almost every encounter in its second half if your players are half-decent at building a combat-effective party.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="CapnZapp, post: 7111569, member: 12731"] I agree. One of the campaign's high points is its ability to evoke memorable NPCs. I believe the whole campaign was written with an usually strong fairy-tale approach (for D&D). In blunter terms, they didn't bother with stats and instead simply assumed "plot immunity". Of course, that works especially bad in a game like D&D, which most groups run very mechanistically, just as your objections indicate. But still, they're neutral NPCs, so it really doesn't matter very much if you simply assume they make every roll and have all the good luck they need. Worse is how the writers somehow managed to get their "fairy-tale vision" into regular combats; that is, NPCs and monsters the PCs are supposed to fight. There are no space for narrative combat in D&D. A trio of regular goblins will never be a worthy match for a party of 10th level heroes, no matter how you cut it. Bringing along [B]Scouts[/B] on a mid-level expedition (a Scout is a MM stat block roughly equivalent to a 2nd level player character) provided by factions is just sloppy - the troubles the heroes will have just to keep them alive far far outweigh any utility they might provide. Out of the Abyss is by far the 5e campaign I've seen with the worst high-level support. It's like the authors don't know what they're doing. That doesn't mean OotA can't be recommended. It just means you need to expect to rewrite almost every encounter in its second half if your players are half-decent at building a combat-effective party. [/QUOTE]

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