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

[erucsbo]

Party has gotten in to region N and I am trying to find the errata for it. The Hall of Ages (N50-52) is missing (update: found jim pinto's suggestions in post #1103), as is a portion of N26 (incl stat block). I can't find the errata thread on the AEG forums any more. Can anyone help?

 

[erucsbo]

oh - another question to ask regarding the flames being lit to gain entrance to the tomb. The party closed all the doors behind them (so the flames are burning in the inner and outer shrines with all doors to the shrines closed). Should the rooms be air-tight? ie - when the air is exhausted the flames go out, thus relocking the doors and trapping them inside the tomb? So far they made a small foray in and then out again before the flames would have been extinguished, but they have set the closing of the doors as SOP for gaining entry to the tomb.

 

[Bathnor]

New Party Enters the WLD....

Greetings everyone. First I wanted to say what a great read the Worlds Largest Dungeon has been. I got myself a great deal on it from amazon.com. This thread has also been a great read, lots of interesting ideas in it. Yes I did read the entire thing . I wish that some of the posts in this thread weren't lost during the crash.

So I am the DM for a small group of players up here in Maine. The campaign I was previously running was a Forgotten Realms/Spelljammer game using the 3.5 edition rules. The campaign was nearing the end so I started thinking about what to do for the next one. I knew my players were getting bored with Spelljamming and after a campaign spanning 4 years I couldn't blame em. I wanted a massive dungeon crawl, but didn't want to run Undermountain as Halaster was one of my BBEGs in the previous campaign. After doing some homework and reading some reviews I ordered the Worlds Largest Dungeon. So far I am very glad that I did.

I am running the WLD as a Gesalt adventure because I only have three players. I have been a DM for 18 years now, this is my first gesalt campaign. I decided to limit what books my players could select feats and spells from. They can choose from the PHB, Players Guide to Faerun, Races of Faerun, Magic of Faerun, and Sword and Fist. Yes the WLD is going to be set in the Realms, up in the Spine of the World Mountains.

My players were very interested in playing Gesalt characters. None of them had ever used them before. I told them they were going on a long journey so they should make sure that their characters are ready. I also told them no web or entangle spells, and that wizards and druids get screwed, but they could play them if they wished. They could pick any race native to the Realms as long as it has a EL of 0 or +1. The party consists of a human Monk/Fighter, a Dwarven Fighter/Ranger, and Human Sorcerer/Cleric of Mystra. I'm sure they will regret not taking Rogue as a class, but if they survive the first few really nasty traps I bet someone will take it when they level.

This is my first Gesalt campaign. I know people have said earlier in the thread that they were running the WLD gesalt style but I don't remember them ever speaking about how they changed the encounters so they are gesalt as well. Does anyone have any advice?

 

[Bathnor]

My house rules....

Thought I'd put up my house rules. Wizards get a d6 for hit dice. Rogues get a d8 for hit dice. We use both the Critical hit and Critical Fumble decks. I believe they are made by Pazio. There is also no need to confirm a Critical hit or a Fumble. If you choose one of your races favored classes when you level you get either 1hp or 1Skill Point. NO psionics. You start the game with 2 Action Points, you may use an action point to re roll ony d20 roll you just made before the DM tells you if the previous one was successful. You must accept the result of the second roll even if it is worse than the first. You gain 1 AP every time you level.

 

[erucsbo]

Turn-nerfing in N

Party is trying to find the soul of one of the PCs in N (he drew the Void from a DoMT and I ruled that it got stuck in the tomb - bwahaha).
They are therefore perhaps doing a little more exploring than otherwise would be the case, but that is a side-issue.
They have cast Invisibility to Undead - which essentially bypasses the Skeleton Hordes etc, and landed them up against Vinnara's Dread Wraiths as the first test of turning. Poor turning rolls meant that it was a while before they got a success, during which time the fighter (with a ghost touch bastard sword) and paladin (sun blade - when it affected them) duly did the majority of dispatching.
When a high enough roll was made and I responded with - they don't flee, they just take some damage (as per the Fearless Encounter condition), there was a near riot.
The Unhallowed and Desecration aspects we can live with as they are modifiers to the effective DC of the turns, but Fearless *breaks* turning, denying the clerics their major power to deal with undead in an undead infested environment, and messing with a core game mechanic.
I'm considering just having the turn hedge the undead away outside a particular radius and if it would have destroyed the undead, perhaps incapacitate them instead, but want to hear what others have done.
I can't be alone in noting how badly clerics get screwed over in the Tomb wrt to turning - especially considering that Desecration 4, Unhallowed 6 and Fearless are the *default* condition of the entire tomb.

Suggestions readily welcomed.

 

[erucsbo]

DM Map for N available

In the style of Hussar's DM maps I have created one for Region N showing regions, monsters and traps, the lever rooms and the "kill switch" room.
And the more I read through Region N the less impressed I am with the traps and encounter conditions etc. A DC38 Fort save for half of 20d8 negative energy damage (Room 87 and others) and for merely standing within 10' of a wall! - I would be lynched and none of the players would return if I used that one.
I will probably ditch the vast majority of this section and try and recreate the feel of the movie Pitch Black , trap the party in the tomb, have a running war going on between the 3 Lords, throw in increasing tremors and waves of negative energy and find someway to make the lever room locations known so we don't devolve into an "open every door" routine.
Full list of maps on my site and link to James Lorimor's site here.

And if anyone has some answers to my questions above, I'd love to hear them.

 

[jim pinto]

The Unhallowed and Desecration aspects we can live with as they are modifiers to the effective DC of the turns, but Fearless *breaks* turning, denying the clerics their major power to deal with undead in an undead infested environment, and messing with a core game mechanic.
I'm considering just having the turn hedge the undead away outside a particular radius and if it would have destroyed the undead, perhaps incapacitate them instead, but want to hear what others have done.
I can't be alone in noting how badly clerics get screwed over in the Tomb wrt to turning - especially considering that Desecration 4, Unhallowed 6 and Fearless are the *default* condition of the entire tomb.

Suggestions readily welcomed.

In d20 Secrets, I devised a system of Turning that deals damage instead of casting "hold person" on undead, which turning effectively is. I hate the notion of turning and I purposely NERFED it the TOMB, hoping to elevate the playing field so that major encounters weren't PCs beating up already battered undead.

Turning in the PHB seems tired and uncreative. As the GM, modify it however you like, but the intention was there to stop the undead from being "held."

 

[erucsbo]

In d20 Secrets, I devised a system of Turning that deals damage instead of casting "hold person" on undead, which turning effectively is. I hate the notion of turning and I purposely NERFED it the TOMB, hoping to elevate the playing field so that major encounters weren't PCs beating up already battered undead.

Turning in the PHB seems tired and uncreative. As the GM, modify it however you like, but the intention was there to stop the undead from being "held."

Glad to see you're still around jim.

turning in the d20 actually makes the undead flee (or cower if they can't), making it an all (destroy) or nothing (flee) success for the cleric in actually "dealing" with the undead. (imho)

What I *would* like to do is nerf the fighters instead of the clerics. I want the clerics to be the ones that the party is relying on to "keep the dark away". I want to be able to build pressure with the odd safe room providing them just enough breathing space before they have to keep going.

I agree with you about turning though - would rather see a mechanism that sends a blast of positive energy out that requires a save from the undead, damaging them if they fail, or forcing them back.

 

[jim pinto]

Glad to see you're still around jim.

turning in the d20 actually makes the undead flee (or cower if they can't), making it an all (destroy) or nothing (flee) success for the cleric in actually "dealing" with the undead. (imho)

What I *would* like to do is nerf the fighters instead of the clerics. I want the clerics to be the ones that the party is relying on to "keep the dark away". I want to be able to build pressure with the odd safe room providing them just enough breathing space before they have to keep going.

I agree with you about turning though - would rather see a mechanism that sends a blast of positive energy out that requires a save from the undead, damaging them if they fail, or forcing them back.

true

again, check out d20 secrets. there's some good turning rules in there.

 

[Hussar]

Hey, it's great to see that I inspired a bit of work. Yay!

BTW, jim, I have Secrets and it really is a great book. Never could get my players to test drive it too much, but, it was a pretty solid book.