Tomb of Annihilation Is Here - What Do You Think?

Today's the day - WotC's latest Dungeons & Dragons adventure, Tomb of Annihilation, is out! Head on down to your friendly (or unfriendly) local (or not so local) gaming (or comic) store and pick up your copy. Alternatively, if you use a virtual table top, it's available for Fantasy Grounds and Roll20.

 

[CapnZapp]

How many days do you actually need to complete the quest?

I'm asking because people describe -1 hp/day as "too fast".

If you complete the adventure in fifty days, that's 50 hp (duh).

But any hero will gain hit points faster than that, since we are now talking about levelling up from 1 to 11 in fifty days.

A Con 12 Wizard will go from 7 to 57 hit points during that time, essentially meaning she will keep an even pace with the curse...

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[Sacrosanct]

Er... the book expressly describes how Szass Tam has sent a party of his own to investigate and shut down or claim the Soulmonger. It's one of the first things that the book talks about, actually! It matters since the players are likely to meet them, I think, but I've not gotten past the first section.

And the players will succeed where others have failed for the same reason that Indiana Jones always manages to make that jump, or Lara Croft always knows the specific language needed to open the door puzzle; because it'd be a pretty boring game otherwise. "Oh, there was this really cool thing that happened last year. Don't worry about it though, Elminster dealt with it." Fun.

It also explicity states right in the beginning that other higher level NPCs were chosen before the 1st level party, but they obviously failed, and the PCs are the last option.

The death curse happens WAAAAYY too fast. l.

I don't think so. You have to understand how the adventure is designed. I.e., The slog of the jungle and the difficulties of exhaustion and the like are meant only for tier 1 PCs. By the time they hit tier 2, they will have available to them things that mitigate much of the mundane awfulness of the jungle, and will have faster travel times. It's designed so the PCs can focus on the adventure of Omu after tier 1, and not spend a lot of game time doing the same things they spent a lot of time doing on tier 1.

So what that means, is if you start at a higher level in Chult, and/or want to keep the feel of the oppressive hostile jungle past tier 1, then you're gonna have to make those manual changes yourself to do that. It means that the time frame of 78 days (when she dies) might be too fast if you change the game to have the travel issues still persistent after tier 1.

But as written, and as designed (don't worry about the jungle all that much after tier 1), then that 78 time frame is adequate for the adventure.

 

[Sacrosanct]

How many days do you actually need to complete the quest?

I'm asking because people describe -1 hp/day as "too fast".

If you complete the adventure in fifty days, that's 50 hp (duh).

But any hero will gain hit points faster than that, since we are now talking about levelling up from 1 to 11 in fifty days.

A Con 12 Wizard will go from 7 to 57 hit points during that time, essentially meaning she will keep an even pace with the curse...

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

The curse only applies to PCs who have died prior to starting the adventure, so it's largely a moot point for 99% of PCs. And if a PC dies during the adventure, they can't be raised anyway, so the curse wouldn't apply there either.

 

[tomBitonti]

Not sure if this entire thread isn't already covered by spoilers. To be extra safe:

[sblock]
I can see characters spending a week alone (if not longer) in the initial port. Gathering information and supplies. Taking part in gladiatorial combat or the races to build up reputation. Heading out once then heading back to deal with one of the several illnesses.

Then there are quite a few locales within the jungle to explore, with possible side quests to help the one fellow mate, or help one of the templar camps.

Not to mention the time spent simply walking or canoeing through the jungle. The players have hundreds of miles to traverse, with an initially unknown destination.

Then any downtime for training and resupply, or to level up, or to make or procure magic items.

Then time in the hidden city, and its dungeon. Lots of fights, or, negotiations with the several opposing factions.

Then the dungeon itself, which is rather large.

The 1/hp day rate seems to work for an already 10'th level party which is dropped at the dungeon entrance. I don't think it works for a 1'st level party that has to explore the jungle.

If starting with a 10'th level party, those which have been resurrected will be at a large disadvantage to other party members.

I'm fine with the idea of the Death Curse. It just seems to need to be modified somewhat to make it work.
[/sblock]

Thx!
TomB

 

[Eltab]

Er... the book expressly describes how Szass Tam has sent a party of his own to investigate and shut down or claim the Soulmonger. It's one of the first things that the book talks about, actually!

I don't expect to see a copy of the book myself until Christmas.

In the meanwhile, I've been spoofing a common complaint about FR adventures ("Why doesn't the uber-NPC deal with it?").
Apparently this medium is not carrying my full message very well.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Not sure if this entire thread isn't already covered by spoilers. To be extra safe:

Spoiler

I can see characters spending a week alone (if not longer) in the initial port. Gathering information and supplies. Taking part in gladiatorial combat or the races to build up reputation. Heading out once then heading back to deal with one of the several illnesses.

Spoiler

If they are level 1 as suggested, I don't think this will happen. My group was level 1, and they left the next morning. At level 1, they aren't nearly strong enough for gladiator fights, and they were all broke and couldn't do betting on the dino races. I would suspect that's true of all level 1 parties. So the first day was gathering information, getting a guide, and setting out the next morning. In our case, they ran into Undril and agreed to escort her to Camp Vengeance. Since they couldn't afford racing, and couldn't do gladiator fighting, that was really their primary option. No point hanging around town.

 

[Charles Rampant]

I don't expect to see a copy of the book myself until Christmas.

In the meanwhile, I've been spoofing a common complaint about FR adventures ("Why doesn't the uber-NPC deal with it?").
Apparently this medium is not carrying my full message very well.

Ah, well, that's fine then. Carry on!

You going to try and swing Christmas copies of this and Xanathar's? That'd be fun

 

[hawkeyefan]

How many days do you actually need to complete the quest?

I'm asking because people describe -1 hp/day as "too fast".

If you complete the adventure in fifty days, that's 50 hp (duh).

But any hero will gain hit points faster than that, since we are now talking about levelling up from 1 to 11 in fifty days.

A Con 12 Wizard will go from 7 to 57 hit points during that time, essentially meaning she will keep an even pace with the curse...

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

It depends how you play it. For PCs of 1st level, you have 79 days to complete the quest. However, since this is not explicitly stated unless the DM decides to share how many HP Syndra has remaining, it can be fudged as needed. I would expect most parties to feel a sense of urgency, but not necessarily feel like immediate resolution is needed. But I don't think they'll know "we have 79 days to take care of this."

For these parties, gaining levels will help offset the HP lost to the curse. I think that based solely on hexes it's about 35 or so hexes between Nyanzaru and Omu, but that doesn't count for getting lost or going on sidequests or lingering in certain locations. So I think 60 days or so is likely a reasonable expectation to have. That's a rough guess based on what I've read so far. Obviously some groups may go quicker and others may take more time. It's hard to say, but that 79 day timeframe seems likely to at least threaten to come into play.

Starting at level 5 shouldn't alter that HP buffer since it will just be a matter of the PCs starting off with a lot of the HP instead of gaining them all as they level. But the module does assume the curse has been in effect for 20 days as the adventure starts, so anyone affected would already be down by 20 max HP.

That's how I'll handle it for my 10th level PCs. The two that have been raised will be down 20 HP to start and lose 1 per day. I personally don't think it's too severe.

 

[Zaukrie]

I like the idea of false leads a lot. I also like the thought that the PCs are already there for some other reason

 

[Sacrosanct]

It depends how you play it. For PCs of 1st level, you have 79 days to complete the quest. However, since this is not explicitly stated unless the DM decides to share how many HP Syndra has remaining, it can be fudged as needed. I would expect most parties to feel a sense of urgency, but not necessarily feel like immediate resolution is needed. But I don't think they'll know "we have 79 days to take care of this."

For these parties, gaining levels will help offset the HP lost to the curse. I think that based solely on hexes it's about 35 or so hexes between Nyanzaru and Omu, but that doesn't count for getting lost or going on sidequests or lingering in certain locations. So I think 60 days or so is likely a reasonable expectation to have. That's a rough guess based on what I've read so far. Obviously some groups may go quicker and others may take more time. It's hard to say, but that 79 day timeframe seems likely to at least threaten to come into play.

Starting at level 5 shouldn't alter that HP buffer since it will just be a matter of the PCs starting off with a lot of the HP instead of gaining them all as they level. But the module does assume the curse has been in effect for 20 days as the adventure starts, so anyone affected would already be down by 20 max HP.

That's how I'll handle it for my 10th level PCs. The two that have been raised will be down 20 HP to start and lose 1 per day. I personally don't think it's too severe.

But again, the curse only applies to those PCs who have died in the past. That pretty much eliminates any 1st level PC (since you're probably starting from scratch). And during the adventure, no PC can be raised, so they wouldn't suffer from that aspect of the curse either; they're dead. IMO, that makes the curse a moot point for starting at level 1 like the game assumes. Even with PCs at a higher level (like level 5), they only need to worry about the curse if they died in a previous adventure. Then they'd start at -20 HP and lose more each day. In that case, I imagine urgency is of the utmost importance. The good news, is that if you're starting at a higher level, you can get right into the main adventure and not spend days/weeks traversing the jungle doing level gains and gathering information.