World's Largest Dungeon in actual play [Spoilers!]

[JediSoth]

I took away my DM screen many moons ago when I realized that I couldn't see the maps they were drawing on the Tact-Tiles. Maybe they've just gotten lucky so far; I have gotten several of them in the negatives more than once.

It's not like I'm TRYING to kill them off, I'm just getting a little annoyed at some of the min-maxing and power gaming that a couple of my players keep doing. I can see that sort of thing wrecking future campaigns. Plus, I don't want them to get the idea that I'm pulling punches for them and they'll be able to skate through scath-free.

JediSoth

 

[Qwillion]

I understand the problem with min-maxing from powergaing players who have a excellent grasp fo the system. one thing I have enforced is a weakness to their character.

example i have a powergamed healing cleric. I noticed that his lowest stat was Dex sohe ended up getting cursed item that helped his healling (he could not resist it) but it also gave him a negative to his dex and negated all magic that enhanced dexterity.

Yeah he can heal every member of the party twice over but he is deathly afraid of area affect spells.

This way he still gets to be what he wants and there is an actual price for power.

 

[Qwillion]

I was wondering if anyone had run into a problem with fast leveling, my party of seven.

warlock
cleric
cleric/sorcerer (true necromancer)
fighter
rogue/wizard (arcane trickster)
rogue/swashbuckler
monk (ur-priest)

Is now an average level of 6. They are just into the shadow section of region E.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I was wondering if anyone had run into a problem with fast leveling, my party of seven.

Is now an average level of 6. They are just into the shadow section of region E.

My guys started levelling a little too quick for my tastes at some points. (But not to your extent.)
My quickest and easiest solution was to shave a little XP. Round their XP down to increments of 25, then later on 50, and then 100. It made the math easier too.

But I'm guessing that since you are allowing them to use alot of the d20 books, they can overpower their opponents pretty quickly.
So it's time to up the monsters but not the XP until you're ready for normal XP progression to resume.

 

[jim pinto]

high DCs, min-maxing, and a visit from uncle slappy

hey gang,

wow... the spoiler list now has more hits than the original list....

holy monkey!!!

first, whoever wrote the nice review. thank you.

second, the DCs in this book are high because the majority of people playing 3rd edition (or so i've encountered), play powerful campaigns with characters maxing out their primary attribute. my groups rarely rolls dice, so trust me when i say... this was not made for me.

third, i want to say thanks to everyone who keeps posting and playing and breathing life into this book that is now over a year old.

anyway.

talk with soon. drop a line if you have a query.

 

[Qwillion]

"So it's time to up the monsters but not the XP until you're ready for normal XP progression to resume."

yeah I hate that, it was one of the reasons I think shackled city is better than WLD. the Xp is right. The reason I got the WLD was so I don't have to do the additional work. I mean there are regions that are just spot on wonderful but this whole XP problem just gets on my nerves.

So I end up having to shave xp for the region so that they don't make level 8 before they enter a 7-9 region.

It really annoys me when we cannot just design a super-adventure that actually follows the rules.

 

[Hussar]

I can see your point, but, then again, is it really that big of a deal? Eyeball the xp, don't give too much (or too little), and you're good to go. Conveniently forget to add in this or that and it's not a huge problem. My guys are just finishing Region A (FINALLY) and are going to be 3rd level with a short jump to 4th (with a couple a ways behind due to deaths). Exactly where they should be. Sure, it's not RAW, but, meh, it's close enough. I made it very clear at the outset that my WLD game would not follow RAW for xp, and the players have accepted that.

The next question on my mind is whether they are going to head into region E or B.

Actually, I do have a question. One of the PC's is a goblin rogue. How do you think the gobbies in Region B would react to a party which includes a goblin? The other characters are three humans, a half orc, an Assaathi (the gibbled one without the ECL) snake man, an orc and an elf.

With such a mixed bag, I'm not sure how they might react.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

yeah I hate that, it was one of the reasons I think shackled city is better than WLD. the Xp is right. The reason I got the WLD was so I don't have to do the additional work. I mean there are regions that are just spot on wonderful but this whole XP problem just gets on my nerves.

So I end up having to shave xp for the region so that they don't make level 8 before they enter a 7-9 region.

It really annoys me when we cannot just design a super-adventure that actually follows the rules.

The dungeon was designed with the limitations of using the SRD only. You can argue that some of the encounter conditions can give the monsters some bonuses, but nothing ultra powerful.

You have allowed your party to have access to abilities that are non in the SRD. This allows your PCs to have some pretty focused powers because they have more options that their opponents do not.

This makes the combats that much easier for the party, possibly to the point where their levels could be considered higher than what they actually are.

Therefore you power-up the monsters, power-down the XP, or give your monsters some options that they wouldn't have within the SRD.

I know it's not the kind of answer you were hoping for, but pre-made modules rarely can stand up to the cleverness and variety of players.

Earlier this year Barrent Nobeard and his party were having an easy time of region I, to the point where their DM upped the hit points of Anguish to 600hp (around 4x normal). I believe that one of the main reasons for this was that they had more character options.

They dropped the campaign shortly after that, because nothing challenged them.

But this is just my opinion. If it doesn't work for you, maybe someone else can think of something that more suits your needs.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Actually, I do have a question. One of the PC's is a goblin rogue. How do you think the gobbies in Region B would react to a party which includes a goblin? The other characters are three humans, a half orc, an Assaathi (the gibbled one without the ECL) snake man, an orc and an elf.

With such a mixed bag, I'm not sure how they might react.

Goblins will just as much kill each other when there's not a better target.
Go with what's appropriate for the encounter.
Some won't care about who they attack.
Some will aim for the traitor first.
And some might even be unwilling to strike one of their own kind...but I'm betting those guys don't make it out of goblin middle school alive.

 

[JediSoth]

I haven't really encountered the XP problem. Maybe I've been calculating it wrong all these years. I just use an encounter calculator I found here at EN World. Of course, the fact that I have more than the requisite 4 PCs might make a difference. I am beginning to see my problem though: letting "anything goes" as far as characters has obviously made it easier for the players. It didn't occur to me that it might be balanced to just use characters from the SRD, but in retrospect, that makes perfect sense.

Oh well, hindsight is 20-20, and I've learned not to allow Goliath Barbarian/Clerics (it's not like he goes out of the way to heal the rest of the party anyway).

And Jim, I posted my same positive review of WLD on Amazon.com, so I'm trying to get the word out!

JediSoth