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9 months ago ::
Sep 15, 2012 - 2:45AM
#11
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Tactics, powers and luck make all the difference between a cakewalk and a near lethal fight and of course in LFR the difference between an AL 2 and an AL 10 party can be huge (even though the encounter has been properly modified). I have seens "guaranteed" TPKs be real easy and easy fights be near death events. It is one reason why designing a perfect fight is so hard, and even more so when designing one for LFR. It is one reason why DMs do have leeway in adjusting an encounter.
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9 months ago ::
Sep 15, 2012 - 5:06AM
#12
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Date Joined:
Aug 17, 2007
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Spoiler:
Show
Well I guess it makes for a good illustration of the limits of choosing to be dependent on encounter nova's for one. And hy would you ever assume there is no second wave coming?
Running into trouble because you make the wrong assumptions and/or because you focus on novas is, to me at least, a part of D&D. I think it speaks heavily in favor of the encounter that that possibility exists.
To DME, or not to DME: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous powergaming, Or to take arms against a sea of Munchkins, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;No more;
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9 months ago ::
Sep 15, 2012 - 1:13PM
#13
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Date Joined:
Mar 13, 2008
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We ran this two days ago, and I just wanted to say that it was by far one of the most enjoyable LFR non-epic adventures I've ever played.
We played this adventure the next day, being the counterparty of lunattic's party. It was a lot of fun to hear about a familiar party doing the same mission. It even helped us decide to take the desert route, since we couldn't trust a load of volatile explosives to a trigger happy pyromaniac tiefling!
We played at AL16 for the challenge. Going by APL, we should've gone AL14 (two lv. 13, two lv. 15 and one lv. 16), but that would probably have been a cakewalk. The extra challenge was very much welcomed!
Spoiler:
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The desert encounter was very challenging, our dice being against us and the enemies being very harsh. However, even though the skill challenge itself was going pretty bad as well and our healing surges were going down the drain ("I accept your blood apologies for your previous offense, puny mortal!"), we still managed to come up on top! So kudo's for the very challenging and incredibly fun encounter! The final encounter was a lot easier, considering we won initiative and controlled the heck out of it. Roleplay-wise the adventure was great as well. It was awesome to see old NPC's come back and to be able to interact with them. Spoiler:
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We even used the dancer to place our explosives in the parade wagon and detonated it right next to the balcony with Memnon higherups! Our angelic avenger only barely escaping the blast, but using her flaming tail to stream 'CALIMPORT' in the sky was icing on the cake 
Heroic Dungeon Master
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9 months ago ::
Sep 17, 2012 - 5:30AM
#14
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Date Joined:
Aug 10, 2007
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When the second wave showed up (a full encounter's worth of monsters going on the same initiative), one of our party got killed (knocked down to negative bloodied) and another got dropped to 0 after being caught in three blasts.
For other DMs running this -- you should definitely avoid putting the monsters on the same initiative and dropping 3 blasts on the same PC. The tactics section in the adventure offers some advice for this:
The lords stay spread out, but delay at first. (In part this is to insure that the fight does not become PCs act then NPCs act.) If a group of camels comes near one of the lords then he attempts to control them and get the camels to move in a direction of his choosing (after all they came here to steal the merchandize). The other lords use various ranged and area attacks to do as much damage as possible and to provide cover to any lord trying to control a group or two of camels.
Dan Anderson
@EpicUthrac
Living Forgotten Realms Calimshan Writing Director
Living Forgotten Realms Epic Writing Director
Meet me at TotalConfusion:
http://www.totalcon.com/RolePlaying.html
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9 months ago ::
Sep 18, 2012 - 10:42AM
#15
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Date Joined:
Nov 16, 2007
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Spoiler:
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There are other tough things in this setup. When the 3 lords showed up, one person was already down, and there was only 4 of us standing. They piled on the damage with Rain of Ruin on 3 of us. Then one of us got a crit, I think it was the warlord, and he got nailed by 4 things with tattoos, and went down. We decided maybe we should focus on the lords, then they became insubstantial, so we stayed on the chargers.
I'm not sure how a group managed to do "early novas" in this encounter, as we were quite action starved trying to keep the camels in check so they didn't stray off the map (move and minor from 3 PC's), and trying to appease the spirit (we could only succeed one or two checks a round).
Maybe the DM needs to gauge how things are going, and possibly put out one less lord. That would be my first inclination with DME.
The other tweak I might make is to tie the camels together, and one check on the lead camel would ensure they don't leave the map.
The raiders striking a deal when half their numbers are dead, seems like a pretty cheezy end too. At the end, we had like 2 people standing (and a stiff wind could knock us over), against 2 healthy raiders, and it would have been quite trivial for them to finish us off and walk away with their loot.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 05, 2013 - 3:18PM
#16
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Date Joined:
Oct 28, 2010
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Clarification of the treasure for this one please: in the conclusion it says: Spoiler:
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Ala’Ammar gives the PCs 500 / 900 / 1800 / 3500 /
5000 gp each and offers to obtain for each PC any
Common or Uncommon magic item of the PC’s level +
2 or less. He also makes available all Treasures listed in
this adventure, even if the PCs did not find them, with
the exception of Treasure A (which is reserved for his
best friends).
Is this item intended to be a bundle and use a bundle slot, or is it in addition to everything else from the mod, i.e. completely free? If so, shouldn't it be in one of the SAs?
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4 months ago ::
Feb 06, 2013 - 11:05AM
#17
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- Head of Insanity Division
Date Joined:
Jul 23, 2004
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It's a better version of Bundle X, but it's still a bundle.
The money pools with what they got in other encounters (if any) and becomes the 'base gold' for the mod.
Looking for work in IT or Logistics? Willing to relocate to western Michigan? Send me a PM.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 06, 2013 - 4:33PM
#18
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Date Joined:
Aug 10, 2007
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The Conclusion explains the source of treasure for the adventure. The PCs are still limited to the rewards listed in the Rewards section.
Dan Anderson
@EpicUthrac
Living Forgotten Realms Calimshan Writing Director
Living Forgotten Realms Epic Writing Director
Meet me at TotalConfusion:
http://www.totalcon.com/RolePlaying.html
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4 months ago ::
Feb 07, 2013 - 2:38AM
#19
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Date Joined:
Oct 28, 2010
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It's that it lists it as 'also' that confused me. I'm one level too low to pick up the item I wanted D: E: fun adventure, by the way,a lthough I found myself slightly disappointed that Spoiler:
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the blowing up of the HQ was completed in a skill challenge without much remark, and we had to be poked quite hard to avoid us, at that point, just saying 'job done' and leaving.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 11, 2013 - 12:35PM
#20
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Date Joined:
Nov 16, 2007
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Played this again, went the arena route at AL12, with a group that just hit level 11. It was a bit of a struggle for survival, but great fun. Spoiler:
Show
We had a party of 6 with varying degrees of optimization, Deva Pacifist Cleric, Halfling Daggermaster Rogue, Human Spiked Chain Scout, Storm Genasi Blaster Wizard, Longtooth Fighter|Blackguard, and Gnome Voice of Thunder Cosmic Sorcerer (me).
We really ran into some surge issues. During the initial talk with Meridius and his companions, a few people lost a surge due to the hazing. In the initial two rounds of the arena fight, we gave some surges to please the crowd, and lost some surges during the skill checks. Didn't really have any big surge people.
The fight against the Horde started out well. Not too surprisingly, everyone except our leader used an action point in the first round. We killed two things in no time, inviting the second wave. The second wave came in did a bunch of damage, slid us into walls, and went insubstantial, and this is where our troubles started. Our DM figured out, despite being weakened, the second wave did enough damage sliding people into walls, that he never had them come out of being insubstantial. We managed to get the crowd to friendly, did some healing, and slowly continued to take them down. After another round, we got the crowd to helpful to recover some encounter powers.
When the third wave came in and found a good drop point for their nukes, the Blackguard went down for good, at zero surges. We didn't bother wasting heal checks to stabilize him, knowing raise dead would be more efficient (which he died after failing 3 death saves in 4 rounds). The cleric went down too, but he had one surge left, which I triggered with a majestic word, but that didn't last long. I would have gone down to the barrage, but became insubstantial with an interrupt and survived with some luck.
When the Sandworm came out, the cleric went down at zero surges. We took out the remaining wave three artillery, while the rogue was tanking the worm (yes, strange concept, but he had the most HP's at the time), but shortly after that, the rogue went down, and the scout's fey displacer beast went down. Three of us were standing against the now bloodied worm on round seven. Our wizard kept missing it. After acid orbing it one more time, (I was down to at-will's), I walked up to engage the worm and hurl insults at it (I was at 9 hit points). Our scout charged into the flank, and ended it with a well timed crit.
Total tally, dead Blackguard, dead Fey Pet, unconscious cleric, unconscious rogue, three bloodied PC's, and fewer surges left in the party than party members. Damage dealt to enemy, over 2100.
Despite the difficulties we had, it was still an extremely entertaining encounter. The auto self-correcting nature of the encounter is brilliant. If we're having trouble taking monsters down, more monsters don't show up, until things are better under control, at which point we get overwhelmed again. The way monsters jump into the initiative order works fairly well spreading their initiatives around, though the tripple barrage from the spewers on an already wounded bunch is pretty lethal (also discovered their burst attack bonus at all AL's except 14 is wrong, oops). Regardless, Dan/Claire, whoever designed this encounter, my hat off to you.
We were out of time (too much fun with the preliminary rounds of fighting), and the DM had to turn the last fight into a skill challenge, which was fine, since I know it's an easy fight anyway that lasted 2 rounds, both previous times I played it.
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