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

[Hussar]

Just as a question, what books are people using?

Like JediSoth, I've been pretty openminded about whatever the Players want to play. So long as the ECL is kosher, I've pretty much said yes to everything. The only thing I recall saying no to was the Vow of Poverty Monk. VoP makes pretty much all of the disadvantages of the WLD go away. Not going to happen. My current party looks like this:

Asaathi Fighter/Ranger (the gibbled Asaathi race with no ECL from Scarred Lands)
Human Evoker
Human Favoured Soul (Complete Divine)
Elven Ninja (Complete Adventurer)
Orc warrior/fighter (last of Orghar's crew - has been taken over by a player)
Human Cleric

So, my players are all pretty tame when it comes to making new stuff. One thing I've found is that the variant classes are specialized to a higher degree than the core classes. This places them at a significant disadvantage. It's the generalists, the classes that can do a little bit of everything, that shine in the WLD. Being a demon hunter is great, except for the fact that there are lots of things in the WLD that aren't demons. I'm a little surprised that my players haven't twigged on that yet. They keep trying different variant classes, trying to find the "best" class, when, IMHO, the core classes are the way to go.

For myself, I've found my subscription to Dragon to be invaluable. There's stuff in there that slots into the WLD just nicely. Also, Sandstorm works well since so many regions are waste areas. Plus some of the Sandstorm critters just fit. Nothing like opening a crypt full of undead scarab beetles that swarm over you in true The Mummy fashion. I've borrowed a few critters from here and there, but, not too much else.

How about everyone else?

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Hmm, yeah. Thanks for the tip about the drow fire-resistant armor - I was a bit curious as to how other people's players got around that nasty 1 fire damage per minute thingy.

Try having 2 clerics in your party.
They ruin everything!
The fireblast in the Pyrefaust did nothing to the party because they have double the divine protection from fire sources.
Healing certainly isn't a problem. You don't have just one guy who has to stand behind the party's tank and heal him all the time. You have 2 guys saying, "Hey, how about you heal him this time so I can drop a blade barrier on them?".

Plus they spend an hour at the beginning of every session planning out and coordinating what spells they are going to memorize.

And to make things even worse, region N is not even scratching them. If it weren't for the traps, there would be no real damage at all.
Nothing neutralizes undead faster than 2 clerics, each with all of their 4th level spells filled with Death Wards. And one of them memorizes a quickened Death Ward.

Oh well, at least my players are clever.
I guess I'll have to increase the difficulty of the remainder of the dungeon.

Invistis is going to be bumped up 3 levels. Oh yeah, two quickened spells a round for him.
Kasteoficiss...well I might leave her as is, but her and old Invistis might call a truce. Maybe she'll wake up some of the sleeping ones.
Vinarra...dead. Party killed her in a nice big fight. I'd kept track of all of the wraiths (dread and normal) that fled from the party and put them all in this fight. I even doubled her hp and the party still had no losses.
The Judge...never had a chance. I even reduced his insanity to just the first round.

And they still have the Tyrus the dragon.
Let's do some math here, ancient dragon that was imprisoned in this dungeon 1000+ years ago. Ancient dragons max out at 1000years. Hmmm...

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Question for everybody.. How are you handling Summon Monster/Natures Ally?

Like the option in the book says (at least I think it says...), you summon it and it works for you until the duration is over. After that, if it was a simple summoning and not a gating, it goes berzerk and tries to "get" its summoner.

Gating something in is another can of worms.

 

[just__al]

Just as a question, what books are people using?

How about everyone else?

The books "in play" for both of my campaigns are PHB, DMG, MM1 (little bits of MM3), and the "complete" books.

The first campaign has a Ranger (twf), cleric of Bocob, halfling fighter/rogue, warmage, and did have a spiked chain wielding human fighter who's now dead.

The second campaign has an illusionist, a rogue who's working towards dungeon delver, cleric of pelor, elf figher (archer) and a dwarf fighter that uses a spiked chain.

The first group is in region b, the second group is still in region a. and no, they aren't in the same "universe"

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Just as a question, what books are people using?

Like JediSoth, I've been pretty openminded about whatever the Players want to play. So long as the ECL is kosher, I've pretty much said yes to everything. The only thing I recall saying no to was the Vow of Poverty Monk. VoP makes pretty much all of the disadvantages of the WLD go away. Not going to happen. My current party looks like this:

Asaathi Fighter/Ranger (the gibbled Asaathi race with no ECL from Scarred Lands)
Human Evoker
Human Favoured Soul (Complete Divine)
Elven Ninja (Complete Adventurer)
Orc warrior/fighter (last of Orghar's crew - has been taken over by a player)
Human Cleric

...snip...

How about everyone else?

Shield dwarf fighter/barbarian
Gold dwarf cleric
Gold dwarf cleric
Elf sorcerer
Aasimar paladin

Dead PCs:
Wild elf rogue
Human fighter/ranger/rogue
Human sorcerer
Gold dwarf paladin

(I've said no more dwarves until 2 of the current ones die. And no more gold dwarves until they all die.)

Books allowed:
PHB 3.5
DMG 3.5
FR Races of Faerun
Book of Exalted Deeds
Book of Vile Darkness (DM only)
FR Player's Handbook
DR Campaign Guide
Magic of Faerun
All stuff from non-core books must be approved by DM first.

 

[pokedigimaniac]

Running two parties through this monster as well.

Party 1:
Gnome Paladin
Gnome Sorceror
Halfling Rogue
Xeph Soulknife

Dead:
None yet...

Party 2:
Orc Cleric
Human Monk
Dwarf Fighter
Human Sorceror

Dead:
Dwarf Barbarian
Half-Elf Rogue

Books used:
PHB 3.5
DMG 3.5
Complete Warrior
Complete Divine
Complete Adventurer
Expanded Psionics Handbook
Dungeon Master's Guide II

All subject to approval, of course.

 

[Qwillion]

"and to the person who wrote the chronology... excellent work, but it doesn't take into account regions B, C, I, or M"

I know it only covers the information supplied in region A and the intro of course, I will make sure to include the other regions as I go to them, it's really to help me keep track of stuff for the Akashic (from arcan evolved) in my group. Since there is no bardic lore supplied in the dungeon.


"Summoning"
I follow the path of least resistance rule, the summoning tries to find a path out cannot so it will try and get as close as it can to getting out, so the only way to keep a summoned creatrue close by is to shut all the doors and then cast the spell. So far this has worked well.

 

[Jim Hague]

"and to the person who wrote the chronology... excellent work, but it doesn't take into account regions B, C, I, or M"

I know it only covers the information supplied in region A and the intro of course, I will make sure to include the other regions as I go to them, it's really to help me keep track of stuff for the Akashic (from arcan evolved) in my group. Since there is no bardic lore supplied in the dungeon.

Here's where I diverge from the 'official' take on the WLD - Bardic Lore and the Akashic Memory have much higher DCs to recall information regarding the structure and denizens, and certainly don't cover what's happened since its construction, but there's some information there...all to chivvy players along with Yet More Plot Hooks. Alternately, with the Akashic Memory, you can give the PC access to the memory structure within the dungeon...which, given its residents, could lead to some, ahem, very interesting experiences.

 

[Qwillion]

I have really tried to use the akashic

For those of you not in the know.
Akashics
Filling the role of the skill-user, the akashic is probably the strangest class in the book. The name comes from the "akashic memory," an actual concept from the real world. The idea is that all knowledge and experience of all conscious beings is collectively stored together somewhere. In Arcana Evolved, then, the akashic is able to tap into this collective memory to gain knowledge. While he has many skills of his own, he can use this ability to improve his own skills or use skills he's never had any training in. He can also use it to improve his combat abilities, or gain general knowledge about topics. He can even use it to investigate other people's specific memories so fully that he becomes a master of impersonation. This character is so flexible and customizable that no two akashics will ever be alike -- each can even choose his or her own class skills.

The akashic is in the game for the person who wants to play a character who's a little different. Interestingly, you can design an akashic to be a specialist, taking all related skills and using the special abilities to augment them, or to be a generalist, taking a lot of different skills and using abilities to do even more different things.



to help pass along the story, I don't like to keep players in the dark unless it is necessary to a specific mystery, which the WLD is too huge to make an effective mystery adventure without the GM making sure that the players have a chance to find all the clues. The DC's I have made relative to how long ago it was I mean according to jim a good # of the creatures here arrived only 50 years ago. I have had a great deal of fun with this.

Akashic's in the WLD rule.

 

[Traevanon]

Okay here goes:

Regarding Books allowed
The basics, MM2, MM3, Complete, Divine, Evil, Planar, XPH, pretty much all the WotC stuff except Unearthed Arcana. No Vow of Poverty, no Monkey Grip, no Animate Dead, LA is limited to +2 except in cases where I let the players take over NPCs from the region.

Starting Equipment is based on the NPC wealth chart in the DMG. I figure the average PC wealth chart should be something the players should shoot for, rather than be the baseline. At 11th level (the current entry level) this is 21,000gp, or enough for +1 equipment all around or a +3 item and a few other bits and pieces.

Summoning works as designed in most of the dungeon. I figure the devastation of the earthquake allows summon spells to kind of snake their way through less warded areas so that they work. In region N however, summon will be prohibited as described in the book.

I generally remember to use the encounter conditions, except I do forget some of the minor items from non-combat rooms like echoes and visions.

We try to keep the game as dead-on to the Rules as Written as possible while still maintaining balance and reasonable play.

I have always had to boost encounter numbers and/or levels because of the high numbers in my group so I keep a Monster Boosting Cheat Sheet handy.

Random encounters have come from a mix of the ones provided in the book and from the tables in the DMG.

Rewards - To this point the characters have been provided with one Wish each. Two players used it for magic items, one used it for knowledge (a Lantern Archon was provided to dispense it), two players used it to escape the dungeon, one used it for a minor permanent effect. It may seem that I'm going easy on them but only 2 original characters have survived so far. +3 items are the standard "good" reward at this point with +2 and lesser items generally going to the Drow to trade (at horrible rates) for custom goods.

Last session the players "killed" Baltezzar and a few of his trolls. It was an odd encounter because the two groups were separated by a giant sized pit trap 100 feet deep that had already been sprung. Still they managed, despite the Efreet commanding his minions to Wish one of the characters dead. At the end of the session they returned to the Fire Giant Queen only to find that her Rogue nature has lead her to betray them. So, a third straight week of major combat is coming up. After that the players will need to have at least one session of Roleplaying or puzzle solving before moving on. They can only take so much hack 'n slash before it starts to get tiresome. I'm thinking this time it will be puzzle solving in region V.