D&D 4E The Deadmines in 4e

[UltimaGabe]

Hello, all!

I'm about to begin creating a 4e adventure out of the famous World of Warcraft Instance, the Deadmines. In the process of coming up with some easy hooks for a couple low-level adventures, I threw in some of the lore for the WoW Defias Brotherhood, and after the players seemed interested, I figured I might as well make something of it!

So that's where I need your help. I could probably do it all on my own, but I'd much appreciate it if I could get some help/input! Anyone have any suggestions? Anyone ever tried something similar? I'm aiming for a 5th- or 6th-level adventure, possibly taking up several sessions. Any suggestions would great!

 

[Pssthpok]

Well, given the disparity between encounter structure in 4e vs. WoW, you'd have to populate the instance with many encounters of much lower-level than the PCs.

So, if you're going for a level 5-6 range, you'd probably want to use enemies of level 2-4, tops. This way, you could have well over the usual 10 encounters without the PCs leveling up too many times before you even reach the pirate ship.

Use minions for trash mobs and elites for the sub-bosses. This will let you populate the encounters without wearing the PCs to the point of exhausted every time they round a corner. VanCleef should probably be a level 6-8 elite with a few standard level 6 skirmisher mobs beside him.

Good luck! Post details as you get them, I'd be interested to see what you come up with.

 

[Demosthenes]

You could also give out milestones at the sub-bosses, so that your PCs don't have to worry about going at VanCleef without some options, which is not at all an issue in WoW.

 

[Armadillo]

Don't forget the wandering patrols that will come up behind the party when they take an extended rest.

 

[keterys]

Umm, I'd really advise against doing many many encounters with much lower level guys.

Deadmines has, what...
Outer mines w/ goons and/or undead
Inside the instance:
Miners + Defias + Rahk'zor by a gate
Goblins + Defias + Sneed's "Mech"
Goblins + Robots + (Goblin boss)
Mr. Smite + stealthers
Pirates + (Captain / Cookie)
Van Cleef + Bodyguards

So, that probably works as a six encounter adventure. Feel free to have a chance for some low level guys to add onto any particular encounter as patrollers, or specifically show up at the right time (like have a patrol come in from behind during the Sneed fight). Have Cookie add onto the captain fight, a round or two later.

Miners + Parrots are minions
Defias have a couple different melee types and a caster/controller or artillery type to put down flamestrikes
Goblins - well, some of them spawn robots, so you might want to downgrade those robots to minions. Or just assume them as part of the encounter, which also works. You've got some controller + brutish types.
Pirates - frosty control types plus some skirmishery types

Bosses are
Rahk'zor basic brute, spice him up maybe
Sneed - two stage elite, with probably a real transformation. Like starts as a soldier with buzzcutty close attacks then swaps to a more fragile goblin with knives + bombs.
3rd Goblin Boss - Seriously, I don't remember anything about it. Suggest making it more about fighting a lot of goblins at once over a spiral room, with some ranged guys hurling fire about and some goblins sounding robots up, and you get through the gauntlet to shut things down.
Mr. Smite - Have to have him swapping weapons about - suggest not doing super stun like in the game, but instead having daze shouts or something similar as he gets knocked down each peg of hp and switches type. Could make him an actual solo, with the two lesser adds.
Captain + Cookie - neither is particularly impressive, maybe elites as part of a sprawling ship battle with some pirate + parrot minions
VanCleef - Could do him as a higher level elite or a similar level solo, with a bunch of bodyguard adds and maybe some extra pirates and defias reinforcements just constantly streaming in until he drops at which point they flee

 

[keterys]

Assuming level 6:

Getting into the mine - Skill Challenge(s) to find the secret route into the mine and navigate within the mines, avoid guards, silence some miners and guards, etc. Failures lead to increased reinforcements later on and lost surges. A lot of failures leads to "optional" fights against the defias agents in moonwell (failing to find the entrance and not sneaking), undead (getting lost in the mines), and miners+guards (not avoiding/silencing enough).

You can add additional skill challenge elements later on to allow the party to avoid reinforcements for later fights or find areas to safely rest. Personally, I'd suggest making it all 'one extended rest' but consider offering the ability to get to safety and catch a breath for an hour or so to regain a couple surges or a single daily kinda thing. If the party does leave the complex entirely and come back a day or two later, the brotherhood could call down a huge amount of guys to block the way and would accelerate their plans to get out, which makes it feel a bit more dubious. But, eh, whatever works. If you want it multi-day in the same area, a couple of extra filler fights to get to two days of four to five fights might be the way to go.

Plus "Miner" adds depending on # of failures above:

Outer Defenses (EL 6):
Rahk'zor (Elite 6)
Defias Fire Mage (Artillery 6)
Defias Guards x 3 (Skirmisher 4)

Lumber Processing (EL 8):
Sneed (Elite 8)
Goblin Skullcleavers x 2 (Goblin 3)

2nd round Patrol:
Defias Taskmaster (Leader 6)
Fire Mage (Artillery 6)
Guards x2 (Skirmisher 4)

Goblin Workshop (EL 6):
30 ft drop to the bottom, guys at the bottom are launching up fire patches and sending up "infinite" minions

To the Ship (Mr. Smite) (EL 7)
Mr. Smite (Elite 9 Brute)
Pirate Frostmage (Controller 6)
Stealthers x2 (Lurker 6s)

On the Ship (EL 8)
Captain (Elite 6 Soldier Leader)
Cookie (Elite 6 Artillery)
Pirates x 3 (Skirmisher 6)
Parrots x 3 (Minion 6)

Van Cleef's Sanctum (EL 9)
Van Cleef (Elite 9 Skirmisher)
Stealthers x2 (Lurker 6)
Pirates x2 (Skirmisher 6)
Parrots x2 (Minion 6)

Defias Miner equivalents as random Defias adds, 2 per round (Minion 4)

Then again, that ends up probably too tough for a lot of L6 parties in one day, so maybe lop a level off everything or intentionally build in a rest point right before the ship - for example, if the tunnel collapses behind the party in the area with the cannons where you blast through the door to smite's area and they have to take several hours to get through the collapsed tunnels to the right area, getting an extended rest along the way. Course, some parties are optimized and this'll be a walk in the park.

 

[Rachel]

Alot of great ideas here, and while I can't add anything specific I can say that as a 4yr WoW player now doing 4E D&D, I would be ecstatic about playing this adventure. This looks like so much fun! GL.

 

[Kzach]

If you really want an authentic experience, you need a 30th-level character to kill everything for a group of four other 5th-level characters.

 

[Rachel]

If you really want an authentic experience, you need a 30th-level character to kill everything for a group of four other 5th-level characters.

Ah well my gnome warrior did solo VC at lvl 33.

 

[Thanlis]

If you really want an authentic experience, you need a 30th-level character to kill everything for a group of four other 5th-level characters.

>.> I've been thinking about running my paragon sorcerer through heroic tier LFR adventures, just to see what he can solo.