BlueBlackRed
Explorer
Not I, and I probably live closer to GenCon & Origins than anyone else on the boards.jim pinto said:
But if you're in the Cincinnati area, give me a yell.
World's Largest Dungeon in actual play [Spoilers!]
- Thread starter haiiro
- Start date
But if you're in the Cincinnati area, give me a yell.
The battle with the TWO Marilith Overlords in Region G was my party who went through most of that zone at level ~15. They nearly wiped even though their armor classes and abilities made it so that the Mariliths didnt hit every time. They fought in a four-way intersection and the Mariliths rolled so perfectly on their Caster Level checks for Blade Barrier that they were immune to the effects while the party's characters with Spell Resistance would take damage.
Ultimately the party won by killing the boss demon (I forget his name at the moment) and recovering the Flame of Aranas while the Mariliths were still alive. Lucky Crit. The Mariliths teleported away to reform the ranks and take control of the remaining demons.
I would rank it as the fifth most difficult battle of the campaign. First was the battle against Tyrus (which the party ran from after two deaths). Second was the Green Death (enhanced, 3 deaths in that battle). Third was the Bone Naga at the end of the Naga Lair that I added to region I (at least two deaths in that battle). Fourth was way back in Region A, room 91 Fiendish Darkmantle ambush (party was rescued by allies). And the fifth was this battle (one person went into the deep negatives twice).
-------------------------------------------------------------
The last couple of sessions going into Region N the party has felt that multiple Death Wards were absolutely neccessary (probably rightly so). So with key members out we have fought a could of major random encounters instead.
- A CR18 Black Dragon in the wide open spaces over the lava river was fun. It also had Quickened Breath Weapon available. It ultimately died when it landed to fight the party in melee.
- An NPC party consisting of three regular character types and a Frost Giant Jarl. They died when the rest of the players showed up late and were plopped into the battle.
Region N still remains a very scary place for the PCs.
OH!!! NEWS! The last remaining original character that has never died (a 17th level Goblin Mystic Theurge) has died! Polymorphed into a War Troll from a recent battle, he decided it would be a good idea to smash the chest in room N39. He was ressurected from bits of him splattered on the walls of that room. After rolling up the 333x5d6 damage himself later he took something like 3500hp of damage from the blast.
We have (all ECL 16):
Goblin Mystic Theurge
Dark Elf Paladin
Orc Fighter
Dark Elf Warlock
Dwarf Fighter
Human Cleric
Gnome Druid
Ultimately the party won by killing the boss demon (I forget his name at the moment) and recovering the Flame of Aranas while the Mariliths were still alive. Lucky Crit. The Mariliths teleported away to reform the ranks and take control of the remaining demons.
I would rank it as the fifth most difficult battle of the campaign. First was the battle against Tyrus (which the party ran from after two deaths). Second was the Green Death (enhanced, 3 deaths in that battle). Third was the Bone Naga at the end of the Naga Lair that I added to region I (at least two deaths in that battle). Fourth was way back in Region A, room 91 Fiendish Darkmantle ambush (party was rescued by allies). And the fifth was this battle (one person went into the deep negatives twice).
-------------------------------------------------------------
The last couple of sessions going into Region N the party has felt that multiple Death Wards were absolutely neccessary (probably rightly so). So with key members out we have fought a could of major random encounters instead.
- A CR18 Black Dragon in the wide open spaces over the lava river was fun. It also had Quickened Breath Weapon available. It ultimately died when it landed to fight the party in melee.
- An NPC party consisting of three regular character types and a Frost Giant Jarl. They died when the rest of the players showed up late and were plopped into the battle.
Region N still remains a very scary place for the PCs.
OH!!! NEWS! The last remaining original character that has never died (a 17th level Goblin Mystic Theurge) has died! Polymorphed into a War Troll from a recent battle, he decided it would be a good idea to smash the chest in room N39. He was ressurected from bits of him splattered on the walls of that room. After rolling up the 333x5d6 damage himself later he took something like 3500hp of damage from the blast.
We have (all ECL 16):
Goblin Mystic Theurge
Dark Elf Paladin
Orc Fighter
Dark Elf Warlock
Dwarf Fighter
Human Cleric
Gnome Druid
erucsbo
Explorer
jim pinto said:
yes it does - to a point (or rather a range)
from the SRD:
Some creatures have blindsight, the extraordinary ability to use a nonvisual sense (or a combination of such senses) to operate effectively without vision. Such sense may include sensitivity to vibrations, acute scent, keen hearing, or echolocation. This ability makes invisibility and concealment (even magical darkness) irrelevant to the creature (though it still can’t see ethereal creatures). This ability operates out to a range specified in the creature description.
- Blindsight never allows a creature to distinguish color or visual contrast. A creature cannot read with blindsight.
- Blindsight does not subject a creature to gaze attacks (even though darkvision does).
- Blinding attacks do not penalize creatures using blindsight.
- Deafening attacks thwart blindsight if it relies on hearing.
- Blindsight works underwater but not in a vacuum.
- Blindsight negates displacement and blur effects.
compare with Blindsense:
Other creatures have blindsense, a lesser ability that lets the creature notice things it cannot see, but without the precision of blindsight. The creature with blindsense usually does not need to make Spot or Listen checks to notice and locate creatures within range of its blindsense ability, provided that it has line of effect to that creature. Any opponent the creature cannot see has total concealment (50% miss chance) against the creature with blindsense, and the blindsensing creature still has the normal miss chance when attacking foes that have concealment. Visibility still affects the movement of a creature with blindsense. A creature with blindsense is still denied its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against attacks from creatures it cannot see.
IMHO - Blindsight totally nerfs some encounters.
To assist Mr Samedi I'd work out *how* the blindsight works for the familiar, then adjust the conditions in the room to work against the blindsight (without unfairly making things difficult for everyone else) - for example:
sensitivity to vibrations? - the portal pulses sending vibrations through the whole room
acute scent? - the stench of hell escapes from the portal
keen hearing? - a cacophony of sounds of the damned escapes from the portal, making conversation difficult (but not impossible - think of a 'nightclub')
echolocation? - either adjust the sounds to match the frequency of the echolocation (like whistling to bats to screw them up) or have bugs flying around the room - not necessarily attacking, but blocks echolocation beyond 5'.
And remember that blindsight has a range limit.
Don't do it too often or it looks like a cadge and unfairly penalises the mage who has spent XP.
Hussar
Legend
Then again, all he's doing is seeing the imp. THis is not a big deal. No one else can see him. Let the fighter chase the imp all over the place. That takes him out of the fight while Longtail lays a smackdown on the rest of the party.
I think that the imp is not the main part of the encounter. Heck, let the imp hide behind pillars and snipe. If the blindsight guy ignores him, make him suffer.
I think that the imp is not the main part of the encounter. Heck, let the imp hide behind pillars and snipe. If the blindsight guy ignores him, make him suffer.
Ideas for Longtail fight.
1) Blindsight should not allow you to see the invisible.
2) The Imp has "Alter Self". Normally this allows to change into forms of other rather small things but what the guys at RPGMP3 did, and I stole, is let it alter to a Pit Fiend. The "Oh @#*&" you get from at least some of the players is just great! This is not cheating or messing to much with CR's as the Imp has had it's summon ability nerfed.
3) Throw in extra creatures. I put a Chain Devil in the room which worked quite well weakening the party just before Longtail struck. Also almost anything can come out of the portal.
4) The Chapel was to gods of good, at least once. Maybe make it so that any area effect spells that do damage do some of that damage right back at the party, particularly if they are good aligned.
5) Following on from the portal idea what about having each column in the room act as a portal randomly, that way monsters can pop out behind the party. Anything, even stirges, coming up from an area previously thought of as safe can upset a party.
Thats all I can think of for the moment.
Mr Samedi said:
1) Blindsight should not allow you to see the invisible.
2) The Imp has "Alter Self". Normally this allows to change into forms of other rather small things but what the guys at RPGMP3 did, and I stole, is let it alter to a Pit Fiend. The "Oh @#*&" you get from at least some of the players is just great! This is not cheating or messing to much with CR's as the Imp has had it's summon ability nerfed.
3) Throw in extra creatures. I put a Chain Devil in the room which worked quite well weakening the party just before Longtail struck. Also almost anything can come out of the portal.
4) The Chapel was to gods of good, at least once. Maybe make it so that any area effect spells that do damage do some of that damage right back at the party, particularly if they are good aligned.
5) Following on from the portal idea what about having each column in the room act as a portal randomly, that way monsters can pop out behind the party. Anything, even stirges, coming up from an area previously thought of as safe can upset a party.
Thats all I can think of for the moment.
Kafkonia
First Post
So I finally ran my first session today. My concerns about monster repetition didn't come into play, as they only ran into one rat swarm and two sets of darkmantles. If we run again (this was a fill-in game because some players couldn't make it) then I may have to start using some of my monster variants.
I started them at 2nd level, and had the players roll up their characters PHB-style. They all had class and race ideas, and tried to arrange their rolls to fit those. We wound up with a full-blooded orc barbarian with a CHA of 3 (because it couldn't go lower), a warforged monk, a human favoured soul of Selune, and a dwarven cleric of *mumblemumble*
god of healing and caverns.
The barbarian player played Gront to the hilt -- since the characters were thrown together and equipped by a mysterious force, he decided to christen his new greatsword in blood. The dwarf's blood.
So they were off to a great start already.
When they encountered the three orcs in the second room, I made it clear that they looked haggard and sick, trying to look menacing but only doing it half-heartedly. The human, dwarf, and warforged considered their options... the barbarian attacked. He dropped two of them before any of them got to go. But when the surviving orc warrior went -- he criticalled Gront. Dropped him to -2 hit points with one blow. And after the favoured soul healed him (the cleric refused on moral grounds), he got dropped to negative 2 *again* before the monk finished off the warrior.
The "meat shield" then spent the rest of the day limping about in single-digit HP. It was quite amusing to see the big bad orc barbarian with a STR of 22 making sure he was always at the back of the party....
I hope I can fit in a bit more rp'ing in the next session, should it occur. Of course, having a full-blooded orc in the party will make it all but impossible to have any meaningful parley with the kobolds...
I started them at 2nd level, and had the players roll up their characters PHB-style. They all had class and race ideas, and tried to arrange their rolls to fit those. We wound up with a full-blooded orc barbarian with a CHA of 3 (because it couldn't go lower), a warforged monk, a human favoured soul of Selune, and a dwarven cleric of *mumblemumble*
god of healing and caverns.The barbarian player played Gront to the hilt -- since the characters were thrown together and equipped by a mysterious force, he decided to christen his new greatsword in blood. The dwarf's blood.
So they were off to a great start already.When they encountered the three orcs in the second room, I made it clear that they looked haggard and sick, trying to look menacing but only doing it half-heartedly. The human, dwarf, and warforged considered their options... the barbarian attacked. He dropped two of them before any of them got to go. But when the surviving orc warrior went -- he criticalled Gront. Dropped him to -2 hit points with one blow. And after the favoured soul healed him (the cleric refused on moral grounds), he got dropped to negative 2 *again* before the monk finished off the warrior.
The "meat shield" then spent the rest of the day limping about in single-digit HP. It was quite amusing to see the big bad orc barbarian with a STR of 22 making sure he was always at the back of the party....
I hope I can fit in a bit more rp'ing in the next session, should it occur. Of course, having a full-blooded orc in the party will make it all but impossible to have any meaningful parley with the kobolds...
Similar Threads
