I'm running Rappan Athuk right now (halfway through RA2). My group started the dungeon at level 5, and they are now about level 10. I'm very inexperienced when it comes to higher-level play, and wonder how to handle all of the various abilities and spells possessed by characters of such levels.
The problem is that at this level, they have access to teleportation, polymorphs, flight and other useful magics. This pretty much nullifies a lot of what makes Rappan Athuk (or any other dungeon) so deadly - it occurs to me that dungeon-crawls aren't appropriate for a higher level party.
Some examples - RA has maze sections. It attempts to make this harder be making it a shifting maze. Unfortunately, the PCs are able to turn into elementals or umber hulks, thereby pretty much circumventing the mazes. The same goes for cliffs and/or chasms - the climb skill is redundant with teleportation, characters which can dig slanted tunnels through a cliff in minutes, that sort of thing.
Those of you familiar with RA may rememeber the "White Corridor". Pretty nasty to walk through. Not so bad when you turn into an earth elemental or an umber hulk and just go around it.
These types of abilities pretty much nullify the "dungeon-structure" (i.e. walls, rooms, tunnels). Of course, you can come up with convenient things which prevent them from doing this all the time, but it becomes obvious you're doing it, and players feel like your just not allowing them to use their abilities. How would a cleric feel if you said "uh, no you can't heal", or a fighter if you told him "no, hitting things isn't possible"?
So how does one deal with such things? At this level, PCs can create impregnable hideaways within the dungeon, carved out of the very rock. They can rest as long as they want. If you're really mean and keep hitting them with umber hulks, purple worms, and other critters who aren't stopped by such physical barriers, they use extended rope-tricks and the like to hide for as long as they need.
The result is that the dungeon doesn't work like a dungeon. Sure, individual encounters are challenging, but the general exploration/attrition factor of the dungeon isn't there. With decent divinations (an extended arcane eye, for example), PCs are able to map out entire levels before venturing into them. They teleport back to the city after each encounter, then teleport back to where they left.
Essentially, the dungeon feels much more like a computer game with a quick-save feature than a dangerous, mysterious dungeon. That's not the fault of the module, of course - I'm just inexperienced at higher level play.
Any suggestions on how to keep the dungeon feeling dangerous, claustrophobic and exciting? How to keep that sense of "what's around the next corner?" without just arbitrarily nullifying various abilities with convenient plot-devices?
The problem is that at this level, they have access to teleportation, polymorphs, flight and other useful magics. This pretty much nullifies a lot of what makes Rappan Athuk (or any other dungeon) so deadly - it occurs to me that dungeon-crawls aren't appropriate for a higher level party.
Some examples - RA has maze sections. It attempts to make this harder be making it a shifting maze. Unfortunately, the PCs are able to turn into elementals or umber hulks, thereby pretty much circumventing the mazes. The same goes for cliffs and/or chasms - the climb skill is redundant with teleportation, characters which can dig slanted tunnels through a cliff in minutes, that sort of thing.
Those of you familiar with RA may rememeber the "White Corridor". Pretty nasty to walk through. Not so bad when you turn into an earth elemental or an umber hulk and just go around it.
These types of abilities pretty much nullify the "dungeon-structure" (i.e. walls, rooms, tunnels). Of course, you can come up with convenient things which prevent them from doing this all the time, but it becomes obvious you're doing it, and players feel like your just not allowing them to use their abilities. How would a cleric feel if you said "uh, no you can't heal", or a fighter if you told him "no, hitting things isn't possible"?
So how does one deal with such things? At this level, PCs can create impregnable hideaways within the dungeon, carved out of the very rock. They can rest as long as they want. If you're really mean and keep hitting them with umber hulks, purple worms, and other critters who aren't stopped by such physical barriers, they use extended rope-tricks and the like to hide for as long as they need.
The result is that the dungeon doesn't work like a dungeon. Sure, individual encounters are challenging, but the general exploration/attrition factor of the dungeon isn't there. With decent divinations (an extended arcane eye, for example), PCs are able to map out entire levels before venturing into them. They teleport back to the city after each encounter, then teleport back to where they left.
Essentially, the dungeon feels much more like a computer game with a quick-save feature than a dangerous, mysterious dungeon. That's not the fault of the module, of course - I'm just inexperienced at higher level play.
Any suggestions on how to keep the dungeon feeling dangerous, claustrophobic and exciting? How to keep that sense of "what's around the next corner?" without just arbitrarily nullifying various abilities with convenient plot-devices?