WARNING!!!----SPOILERS TO PLAYERS!!--DM INFO ONLY
I didnt DM the adventure, but I have the advantage of having been through it, and also looking through a copy of the module afterward. Our group started this monster in the early summer of 2001, and we didnt finish until about 3 months ago, and we still have loose ends to tie up (I began DMing my campaign as a break at that time, and the entire group agreed we would wait to get back to RTTTOEE).
A couple of things to consider from my experience (albeit from the players side of the screen):
1). As others said before be sure to check out Monte Cooks website (dont have the link handy), and also Dragon Magazine issue #285(the Halflings issue). it contains the Elemental Grues, a Demonic Template, and several spells ideal for the followers of Elemental Evil.
2). From my own experience, we found it extremely deadly for the first few forays into the Moathouse, Nulb, and the Crater Mines. Our party mix was, how shall I say, a little weak. Our party consisted of:
Dwarven Fighter/ Cleric
Human Cleric/Radiant Servant of Pelor (me)
Elven Wizard
Human Ranger/Rogue/Fighter/Assassin
Human Monk
Human ex-Bard/Paladin
Human Fighter/Lasher
Our teamwork was really horrible for the majority of our forays into the Crater Ridge Mines, and we did alot of running and dying. After 2 climactic encounters with DeGran, we finally defeated him and started to mesh a little bit. Getting rid of the Monk and the Assassin helped a lot also. Those players ended up bringing in a Bard and a CG Rogue, respectively. Not a great improvement, but at least our party alignment shifted to predominately good. And we got rid of some cancers.
If you want to minimize the # of bodybags, maybe it wouldnt hurt to stress to the players that teamwork will be important. Even with powerful characters we still got our A$$es handed to us regularly. I am not endorsing railroading players into playing certain types of characters or affecting their role-playing at all, but a few words of advice wouldnt hurt to keep them on the right track. Our DM exulted in our infighting and disharmony while we were wandering through the Crater Mines without a clue. It turned into a hackfest for sure, with most of the party only concerned with staying alive and amassing their own personal treasures. Which leads to my next point:
3). The entire module doesnt have to be a hackfest. It only turns out that way if A) the DM plays every NPC or monster as a religious zealot that never parleys and always fights to the death, and B) the PCs act the same way. Granted there are many encounters that fall under situation A, but not all of them. Monte presents many opportunities in the heirarchy of the Temple that characters can exploit to create friction, faction against faction. With some diplomacy and some silver tongues, a charismatic party can avoid fighting some of the denizens and even turn them against each other, if YOU give them the open door. Again, dont railroad them, but leave that door open a crack.
4) One of the things I loved that my DM did do (and i have to note that he really didnt give us the opportunity I noted in #3 above, or maybe none of us saw it as such), our DM kept some recurring villians along the entire storyline and fleshed them out as WE got more powerful. For example: Xaod the Slayer began the adventure as an NPC helping our party, but our DM at some point had him turn to the Dark Side, and join forces with the Temple. He became a major nemesis for us throughout. And the Duergar Omarathis (sp?), who we encountered in the Crater Mines when we were around 7th or 8th level, he later became kind of a champion of Elemental Evil (not the Champion, but powerful nevertheless), and when we finally reached the Old Temple, where we tried to stop Imix, we encountered Omarathis again and he was "transformed" into a supervillian at that point that could challenge a 13th level party(which we were at that time).....wow that was horrible run-on sentence!!
5) Try to let the players use the knowledge that is at their disposal, if they are but aware of it: i am speaking of Canoness Idey(sp?) and others from the old Temple party, that might have useful info for the party....this has already been mentioned by others, but i second it.
I guess the single most important piece of advice I could give is do not be deceived by anyone that says this module is just a simple hackfest: Monte Cook provides plenty of opportunities for diplomacy and intrigue within the Temple of All-Consumption that the party can take advantage of, if they are but given the chance. Again, that depends on your presentation of it, and their reaction to the NPCs.
I didnt DM the adventure, but I have the advantage of having been through it, and also looking through a copy of the module afterward. Our group started this monster in the early summer of 2001, and we didnt finish until about 3 months ago, and we still have loose ends to tie up (I began DMing my campaign as a break at that time, and the entire group agreed we would wait to get back to RTTTOEE).
A couple of things to consider from my experience (albeit from the players side of the screen):
1). As others said before be sure to check out Monte Cooks website (dont have the link handy), and also Dragon Magazine issue #285(the Halflings issue). it contains the Elemental Grues, a Demonic Template, and several spells ideal for the followers of Elemental Evil.
2). From my own experience, we found it extremely deadly for the first few forays into the Moathouse, Nulb, and the Crater Mines. Our party mix was, how shall I say, a little weak. Our party consisted of:
Dwarven Fighter/ Cleric
Human Cleric/Radiant Servant of Pelor (me)
Elven Wizard
Human Ranger/Rogue/Fighter/Assassin
Human Monk
Human ex-Bard/Paladin
Human Fighter/Lasher
Our teamwork was really horrible for the majority of our forays into the Crater Ridge Mines, and we did alot of running and dying. After 2 climactic encounters with DeGran, we finally defeated him and started to mesh a little bit. Getting rid of the Monk and the Assassin helped a lot also. Those players ended up bringing in a Bard and a CG Rogue, respectively. Not a great improvement, but at least our party alignment shifted to predominately good. And we got rid of some cancers.
If you want to minimize the # of bodybags, maybe it wouldnt hurt to stress to the players that teamwork will be important. Even with powerful characters we still got our A$$es handed to us regularly. I am not endorsing railroading players into playing certain types of characters or affecting their role-playing at all, but a few words of advice wouldnt hurt to keep them on the right track. Our DM exulted in our infighting and disharmony while we were wandering through the Crater Mines without a clue. It turned into a hackfest for sure, with most of the party only concerned with staying alive and amassing their own personal treasures. Which leads to my next point:
3). The entire module doesnt have to be a hackfest. It only turns out that way if A) the DM plays every NPC or monster as a religious zealot that never parleys and always fights to the death, and B) the PCs act the same way. Granted there are many encounters that fall under situation A, but not all of them. Monte presents many opportunities in the heirarchy of the Temple that characters can exploit to create friction, faction against faction. With some diplomacy and some silver tongues, a charismatic party can avoid fighting some of the denizens and even turn them against each other, if YOU give them the open door. Again, dont railroad them, but leave that door open a crack.
4) One of the things I loved that my DM did do (and i have to note that he really didnt give us the opportunity I noted in #3 above, or maybe none of us saw it as such), our DM kept some recurring villians along the entire storyline and fleshed them out as WE got more powerful. For example: Xaod the Slayer began the adventure as an NPC helping our party, but our DM at some point had him turn to the Dark Side, and join forces with the Temple. He became a major nemesis for us throughout. And the Duergar Omarathis (sp?), who we encountered in the Crater Mines when we were around 7th or 8th level, he later became kind of a champion of Elemental Evil (not the Champion, but powerful nevertheless), and when we finally reached the Old Temple, where we tried to stop Imix, we encountered Omarathis again and he was "transformed" into a supervillian at that point that could challenge a 13th level party(which we were at that time).....wow that was horrible run-on sentence!!
5) Try to let the players use the knowledge that is at their disposal, if they are but aware of it: i am speaking of Canoness Idey(sp?) and others from the old Temple party, that might have useful info for the party....this has already been mentioned by others, but i second it.
I guess the single most important piece of advice I could give is do not be deceived by anyone that says this module is just a simple hackfest: Monte Cook provides plenty of opportunities for diplomacy and intrigue within the Temple of All-Consumption that the party can take advantage of, if they are but given the chance. Again, that depends on your presentation of it, and their reaction to the NPCs.
!!
