Fair enough. On the other hand, don't you get attacked by demons if you go astral inside the tomb? 1E magic users generally feared melee creatures like that and so you'd really need to know the combo in advance to even try for it.
WIR S1 Tomb of Horrors [SPOILERS!! SPOILERS EVERYWHERE!!]
Fair enough. On the other hand, don't you get attacked by demons if you go astral inside the tomb? 1E magic users generally feared melee creatures like that and so you'd really need to know the combo in advance to even try for it.
jonesy
A Wicked Kendragon
We already talked about the demons earlier in the thread. They aren't much of a threat compared to the stuff in the Tomb. Just extra exp.
Although, if they did appear at this late stage it would make the final confrontation that much trickier. Imagine killing Acererak and then getting pasted by his pets.
Squire James
First Post
The Protection from Evil spell is not a panacea, but it can definitely hold the demons at bay long enough for Mordenkainen to finish the job. That was clearly who Gary was thinking of when he crafted the Power Word Kill vulnerability. As nice a guy he was in other respects, I can easily imagine him giving a post-Tomb group of players a smug grin followed by the statement that his character could have solved the whole Tomb in about 15 minutes!
IIRC, didn't a holy avenger or +5 weapons do full damage? It's been many, many years, but, we did this adventure after doing G/D/Q and my paladin had a holy avenger and a hammer of thunderbolts (hey, sue me, we were like 12 years old). As I recall, we smooshed the skull in one round. Hammer dumps out like 50 points of damage in a hit and at +5 (plus another 3 for gauntlets plus another 4 or 5 for girdle of giant strength which the hammer lets you stack) the odds of me missing were very, very small.
As far as weapons go, Big A worries about the following:
Fighter: Vorpal Blade
Ranger: Sword of Sharpness, Vorpal Blade, +5 weapon
Paladin: Sword of Sharpness, Vorpal Blade, +5 weapon, +4 weapon.
He's AC -6 and has 50 hit points.
Hussar
Legend
Ahh, then I did remember it rightly. Paladin with Hammer of Thunderbolts=squished Acererak.
jonesy
A Wicked Kendragon
I can't recall the same type of experience alteration, but Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth does have a fairly complex section about giving out experience for the treasure found. It talks about stockpiling treasure, only rewarding for treasure taken to civilization, only giving out 90% value in Gnome Vale, giving less for 'poor play', letting 'good players' train their characters on a level up without needing to go back to civilization, and even disallowing 'poor players' to level up at all.
Bullgrit
Adventurer
I wrote up the treasure and xp available in the Tomb of Horrors on my Treasure and Experience in Classic D&D Adventures page on my web site. Here is the info from that research and page:
* * *
Tomb of Horrors
Tomb of Horrors
by Gary Gygax
An adventure for character levels 10-14, for AD&D1.
Total gp value:* 305,790 gp
Total magic treasure:**
gem of seeing (12 uses, which will probably all be used up in the Tomb)
+1 ring of protection (which will probably be destroyed in the Tomb)
6 healing potions
scroll of 7 spells (1st & 2nd level spells only)
ring of fire resistance
potion of dimunition
flail +1
sword of defending +4
“cursed sword” x2 (no explanation for which kind of cursed sword)
cursed spear of back biting
12 potions (rolled for randomly)
6 scrolls (rolled for randomly)
1 ring (rolled for randomly)
1 rod (rolled for randomly)
1 staff (rolled for randomly)
3 miscellaneous magic items (rolled for randomly)
* Not included in the gp value above: Acererak’s skull contains 130,000 gp worth of gems. [Also see commentary below.]
** There are a few ways Tomb raiders can have [all] their items stripped from them and collected in the last chamber. If those characters died or gave up the adventure, their items can be found and recovered by successful parties. (Finders keepers, losers weepers!) [Also see commentary below.]
————————————
Commentary
I didn’t include the value of Acererak’s skull gems for three reasons:
1. I’ve seen some posit that Acererak’s skull is actually the last trap/test in the Tomb. PCs should leave it alone and just take the other treasure.
2. Whenever the skull is touched, it rises and drains the soul, (no save), of a character, (not necessarily the character who touched it). The method of killing the skull is so convoluted that it is doubtful the PCs will manage the feat on the spot.
3. If the adventurers do manage to kill the skull, they must crush the gems in the skull to release drained souls.
So the likelihood of gaining even some of the skull’s gems is very low.
There is a relatively very small amount of more treasure or magic items that can be gained, (and lost), in one chamber of the Tomb, but the actual item is determined randomly.
As for xp value in this adventure:
Treasure xp is half the normal, (1xp per 2gp value), so without defeating Acererak’s skull, the total xp value of this tomb raid is 152,895 xp. Defeating the skull adds 100,000 xp to the total, for 252,895 xp. So 150K or 250K xp to be split among the surviving characters. (Six surviving characters = 25,483 or 42,149 xp each. For reference: a 12th level fighter needs 250,ooo xp for 13th level; a magic-user needs 375,000 xp.)
Compare all of this to the total gp and xp that can be earned in Hall of the Fire Giant King (the adventure of equivalent level): 1 million gp, 1.6 million xp — 3.5 times more gp, and 10.6 or 6.4 times more xp.
Bullgrit
* * *
Tomb of Horrors
Tomb of Horrors
by Gary Gygax
An adventure for character levels 10-14, for AD&D1.
Total gp value:* 305,790 gp
Total magic treasure:**
gem of seeing (12 uses, which will probably all be used up in the Tomb)
+1 ring of protection (which will probably be destroyed in the Tomb)
6 healing potions
scroll of 7 spells (1st & 2nd level spells only)
ring of fire resistance
potion of dimunition
flail +1
sword of defending +4
“cursed sword” x2 (no explanation for which kind of cursed sword)
cursed spear of back biting
12 potions (rolled for randomly)
6 scrolls (rolled for randomly)
1 ring (rolled for randomly)
1 rod (rolled for randomly)
1 staff (rolled for randomly)
3 miscellaneous magic items (rolled for randomly)
* Not included in the gp value above: Acererak’s skull contains 130,000 gp worth of gems. [Also see commentary below.]
** There are a few ways Tomb raiders can have [all] their items stripped from them and collected in the last chamber. If those characters died or gave up the adventure, their items can be found and recovered by successful parties. (Finders keepers, losers weepers!) [Also see commentary below.]
————————————
Commentary
I didn’t include the value of Acererak’s skull gems for three reasons:
1. I’ve seen some posit that Acererak’s skull is actually the last trap/test in the Tomb. PCs should leave it alone and just take the other treasure.
2. Whenever the skull is touched, it rises and drains the soul, (no save), of a character, (not necessarily the character who touched it). The method of killing the skull is so convoluted that it is doubtful the PCs will manage the feat on the spot.
3. If the adventurers do manage to kill the skull, they must crush the gems in the skull to release drained souls.
So the likelihood of gaining even some of the skull’s gems is very low.
There is a relatively very small amount of more treasure or magic items that can be gained, (and lost), in one chamber of the Tomb, but the actual item is determined randomly.
As for xp value in this adventure:
Treasure xp is half the normal, (1xp per 2gp value), so without defeating Acererak’s skull, the total xp value of this tomb raid is 152,895 xp. Defeating the skull adds 100,000 xp to the total, for 252,895 xp. So 150K or 250K xp to be split among the surviving characters. (Six surviving characters = 25,483 or 42,149 xp each. For reference: a 12th level fighter needs 250,ooo xp for 13th level; a magic-user needs 375,000 xp.)
Compare all of this to the total gp and xp that can be earned in Hall of the Fire Giant King (the adventure of equivalent level): 1 million gp, 1.6 million xp — 3.5 times more gp, and 10.6 or 6.4 times more xp.
Bullgrit
Bullgrit
Adventurer
Jonesy, that is a very good question. As you can see in my above post, I took this to mean that destroying the skull gave 100,000 xp, but you could still get xp (halved) from all the other gp looted from the Tomb. But that "all actions within the Tomb of Horrors to gain the crypt" line does complicate the idea. No other boss monster in other adventures has this kind of note about their xp awards.jonesy said:
Bullgrit
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