Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Tell me your tale about the Tomb of Horrors
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="paradox42" data-source="post: 4103499" data-attributes="member: 29746"><p>I have to agree with the posters who are saying it's only a PC-killer if you have players who don't take the time to think ahead. When I ran it, it was in a 3.5 game, and I used a sort of hybrid of the WotC conversion and the original (for example, I allowed skill checks to detect the pits but raised the DCs, and made other similar alterations designed to make it nastier). Of the six PCs who went in, only two survived, but three were killed in the final room itself (and only one of those was permanent- the other two got raised). So yes, five out of six made it to the final room, and the one who didn't was being deliberately reckless as a result of losing all of his equipment to one of the naked-teleport traps early on. That PC ended up crawling into the green devil's mouth after an <em>Astral Construct</em> created by the Psion PC failed to return at its expected time (according to the instructions he gave it when he created it).</p><p></p><p>The kicker for this was, the PCs went in expecting extreme nastiness. I worked it into an ongoing campaign by having the Tomb be a construct within the Dream plane, and specifically the Dreamscape linked to an NPC the party had tracked down because he had an artifact they needed to get for their patron. When they got him, they found out that he'd hidden the real item in this dreamscape via the <em>Dream Travel</em> spell, and that the specific place he'd hidden it was chosen for the fact that it had all of his fears manifested within it. So it was quite literally a Tomb of <strong>Horrors</strong> in this case. Since the party knew they were going into a place full of devilishly clever traps and ironic ways to cause one's own destruction, they entered with extreme caution.</p><p></p><p>Psions with <em>Astral Construct</em> at 9th level just <strong>suck</strong> for trap-filled dungeons. The party was popping off 1-PP critters left and right, testing every last little thing for traps. Of course, that happens to be the correct way to play the ToH; it's just a variant of the "send the hirelings/donkeys/monkeys/other" in to check for traps ahead of the party, it just so happens that in this case the critters didn't exist until they were needed. Even so, I had a great time running it and managed to give them several good "Ewww, I'm glad that wasn't me!" or "Good thing we didn't fall for that!" moments. And I'll gladly run it again if a proper opportunity presents itself. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>EDIT: Oh, I caught them with the fake earthquake too. They used up a <em>Plane Shift</em> powerstone getting out of the Dreamscape, and boy were they ever sore when they found out they hadn't got the artifact and had to go back. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /> Finding out that the earthquake hadn't collapsed anything in the dungeon was also a winner for dirty looks thrown in my direction, though it did teach them to go around with constant <em>True Seeing</em> after that (as soon as one of them learned it with a level-up).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="paradox42, post: 4103499, member: 29746"] I have to agree with the posters who are saying it's only a PC-killer if you have players who don't take the time to think ahead. When I ran it, it was in a 3.5 game, and I used a sort of hybrid of the WotC conversion and the original (for example, I allowed skill checks to detect the pits but raised the DCs, and made other similar alterations designed to make it nastier). Of the six PCs who went in, only two survived, but three were killed in the final room itself (and only one of those was permanent- the other two got raised). So yes, five out of six made it to the final room, and the one who didn't was being deliberately reckless as a result of losing all of his equipment to one of the naked-teleport traps early on. That PC ended up crawling into the green devil's mouth after an [i]Astral Construct[/i] created by the Psion PC failed to return at its expected time (according to the instructions he gave it when he created it). The kicker for this was, the PCs went in expecting extreme nastiness. I worked it into an ongoing campaign by having the Tomb be a construct within the Dream plane, and specifically the Dreamscape linked to an NPC the party had tracked down because he had an artifact they needed to get for their patron. When they got him, they found out that he'd hidden the real item in this dreamscape via the [i]Dream Travel[/i] spell, and that the specific place he'd hidden it was chosen for the fact that it had all of his fears manifested within it. So it was quite literally a Tomb of [b]Horrors[/b] in this case. Since the party knew they were going into a place full of devilishly clever traps and ironic ways to cause one's own destruction, they entered with extreme caution. Psions with [i]Astral Construct[/i] at 9th level just [b]suck[/b] for trap-filled dungeons. The party was popping off 1-PP critters left and right, testing every last little thing for traps. Of course, that happens to be the correct way to play the ToH; it's just a variant of the "send the hirelings/donkeys/monkeys/other" in to check for traps ahead of the party, it just so happens that in this case the critters didn't exist until they were needed. Even so, I had a great time running it and managed to give them several good "Ewww, I'm glad that wasn't me!" or "Good thing we didn't fall for that!" moments. And I'll gladly run it again if a proper opportunity presents itself. :) EDIT: Oh, I caught them with the fake earthquake too. They used up a [i]Plane Shift[/i] powerstone getting out of the Dreamscape, and boy were they ever sore when they found out they hadn't got the artifact and had to go back. :lol: Finding out that the earthquake hadn't collapsed anything in the dungeon was also a winner for dirty looks thrown in my direction, though it did teach them to go around with constant [i]True Seeing[/i] after that (as soon as one of them learned it with a level-up). [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Tell me your tale about the Tomb of Horrors
Top