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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MonsterMash" data-source="post: 2011317" data-attributes="member: 12974">The Wizards AmuletBy Clark Petersen and Bill WebbNecromancer GamesPlaytest Review Warning - this review contains spoilersThe Wizards Amulet is a free downloadable adventure for 1st level characters from Necromancer Games. This was one of the first adventures available for 3e and contains rules advice assuming a lack of familiarity with this edition of the rules. It has been updated for 3.5 and this is the version I have reviewed here. There are also a set of pregenerated characters available for the module.The module covers a journey by a novice Wizard and his companion adventurers towards a keep where a high level wizard, Eralion, used to live, before he met his fate while trying to become a lich. There must be a wizard in the party either as a PC or NPC, with the wizard having a secret...The main wizard, Corian in the pregens, has an amulet and letter from Eralion, which will lead the party to the keep and into it past some magical protection. These are the hook for the adventure as Corian has a rival Vortigern, who wishes to recover the amulet and find the secrets of Eralions keep himself.There are three or four encounters possible in the scenario, with not all involving combat and some opportunities for the players to role play as well as use their characters in combat situations. Rightly it is recommended for the party to have a couple of strong combat types included as well as the Wizard, and a Cleric and Rogue or Bard are also recommended to balance the party. The encounters can be quite lethal depending on how they are handled, but it is rightly noted that the intelligent opponents will break off if they are clearly getting the worst of things or if more than a certain amount of damage is recieved. This does emphasise the need for the characters with good combat abilities. When played through this scenario will generally take a party close to second level if using normal 3.5 experience and there are five or six PCs. I played in a group of five and unless the GM weakens some of the encounters this is probably a minimum size for an all first level party. Positives<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Good support for a novice DM or newcomer to 3e rules</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Clear advice on how to modify the difficulty level</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A good intro for the Necromancer Games Crucible of Freya module</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Several hooks for an ongoing campaign, e.g. using Vortigern as a recurring enemy</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Free</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The encounters have at least some reason to happen, not just purely random occurences</li> </ul>Negatives<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Some tendencies towards railroading, especially in the boxed text</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Limited scope of adventure</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The encounters are tough for 1st level characters and could give a TPK </li> </ul>OverallThis is a good small adventure to kick off a campaign with, it has enough challenges to mean that its not too dull for experienced players, while having enough advice so that a novice DM or players would not get the party wiped out too readily. It really works best in conjunction with the Crucible of Freya module from Necromancer. Overall I'd make it about a 3.5, but given a 3 on the rating as it is a little bit railroaded in some areas.</blockquote>

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