Season 3 and Madness

[Warmaster Horus]

I played a couple of Expeditions this week and found that Madness, while flavorful, was a major distraction to the game. In one module, which involved significant travel through the Underdark, there was a high DC Wisdom save for every rest. In a large party that was a total of several dozen checks followed by which madness occurred, what level was it, how did it manifest, how do the other players notice it, how is it resolved (GREATER RESTORATION!), etc, which probably sucked 10% of the total time for the game and for little effect.

I'm not offering a solution to this issue because the presence of the demon madness is an essential flavor of the season. But it was a major distraction to my games due to dealing with it, and its' associated mechanics, to the degree we were forced to.

 

[skerritthegreen]

It shouldn't occur for every rest, only if you long rest in a faerzress-suffused area (not just anyway). Sounds like your DM was being particularly hard on you.

 

[Inconnunom]

Also you can remove curse. It's only a level 3 spell.

 

[tilamythweave]

It shouldn't occur for every rest, only if you long rest in a faerzress-suffused area (not just anyway). Sounds like your DM was being particularly hard on you.

It is written the mod that way. I questioned my DM about the same thing. I told him the intent was just long rests. He stuck with that.

 

[Inconnunom]

It is written the mod that way. I questioned my DM about the same thing. I told him the intent was just long rests. He stuck with that.

Which modules are you talking about specifically. I don't see short rest saving throws in any expeditions.

 

[kalani]

I think he was saying it was written in the module that madness saves were to be made during long rests, but that his DM chose to apply it to all rests. The module with the most madness saves though, is the one where the party treks through Cormanthyr Forest on their way to an abbey in a tree. Well, at least until such times as 3-13 is released, as that mod could potentially require a half-dozen madness saves/character depending on how well they complete a specific puzzle.

 

[Steve_MND]

It shouldn't occur for every rest, only if you long rest in a faerzress-suffused area (not just anyway). Sounds like your DM was being particularly hard on you.

No, there are some mods that are just plain brutal on those. One we played this weekend had a madness check each long rest (since the entirety of the mod took place in a 'place that was madness-inducing') as well as suggested after any stressful situation, such as combat, etc. We had I think seven checks we had to make total. it was brutal, and very nearly caused the module to fail twice due to some of the stricken long-term effects (which, unfortunately, are not something the module writers can anticipate).

I like the madness concept as a concept, but not as the way it's been implemented (especially given the high DCs on many of these). And yes, you can buy it off with coin at the end of the mod, but that's a cheap and easy way out, and doesn't help any during the mod itself. And yes, some factions have options to remove or mitigate the issue, but there's no guarantee a table is going to have the correct assortment of factions, or enough time units to spend all on that.

As written, I feel madness hits way too hard, way to fast in most the mods I've seen so far where they occur. When I first saw that they were going to introduce 'madness levels,' and that you could be effected by (comparatively mundane for an adventurer) events such as disfigured bodies or eerie dark churches, I figured it would be like up to level 10 before you go caught anything permanent - much less every third missed check.

 

[kalani]

Every long rest is fine. It forces players to choose whether to risk a madness save or not (as once players learn that taking long rests in areas of Faerzress induces madness, they will think twice about resting in such areas). It's when DMs extrapolate that to include short rests that things start becoming problematic

 

[Inconnunom]

Ahh yea thanks. Well yea I could see Horus' frustration. Anytime a DM doesn't run a mod right, it's going to be a rough ride.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Ahh yea thanks. Well yea I could see Horus' frustration. Anytime a DM doesn't run a mod right, it's going to be a rough ride.

Now that I've played the mod I read it over and yes, the DM made a mistake that meant we took 8 times the number of madness checks we should of!