Mary K. Kuhner wrote:
> tussock wrote:
>
>> Just out of interest, how many encounters does your group do
>> between exits? There's a good string of EL 3 and EL 4 ones there, and
>> the 4th EL = APL in a day is supposed to wipe out your resources.
>
> They did all of the described encounters in one pass, taking careful
> account of their own resources.
It looks set out for three runs at a minimum, and they'd each be
insanely hard days for a standard party. I can agree that any partially
defeated section would likely team up with one of the others, but
presumably there's an unstated reason the Evil cults don't like to live
in each others pockets for extended periods.
> The module assumes that the PCs don't care what happens to the NPCs
> most deeply in the grip of the cultists, but in our case, those NPCs
> are the parents of two of the PCs, and the PCs do care.
Then it's not the module that's too hard, it's the conditions
you've added. It's basically linear in each section, there's no chance
to zip in and do the mission without hitting most of the fights, so
insisting the missions must be completed in the one run is harsh.
Your 10th level characters in a 5th level module post earlier is a
similar thing, doing what would normally be a level or two worth of
adventure in one run is about five or six times as hard as expected in
DnD.
> I don't think Hextor would have been easier in multiple p*****.
Your house rule gimped the whole Hextor bunch, and will do the same
for most every opponent until you change it. /Improved Invisibility/ is
supposed to be harder to cast, of much shorter duration, and be avilable
when enemies have more stuff available to cope with it.
> The grimlocks would have been, because Silence is a perfect
> defense against them but only lasts long enough for 1-2 encounters.
What works so well for one party can cripple another; it's not so
good when it takes out your own spellcasters in the cramped conditions
the Grimlocks live in, and you can't communicate at all.
> But it is hard to imagine that the third faction wouldn't do
> anything in the meantime.
If they come after you, avoid them. If they stay home, so what?
Their defences are already layed out as best they know how.
> And the grimlock casters might also get smart and cast Darkness
> themselves (it was foolish of them not to be carrying it in the
> first place).
Considering your house rules, that's true. It's a 3.5 module, and
expects 3.5 /Darkness/, which isn't all that great a spell.
> As the PCs have a wand of CLW, healing/hit points were not an issue;
> they were at full hp for every encounter.
That, combined with a Warlock (even without the cheesy Darkness
mod), changes the one day gameplay somewhat. I suppose you don't have a
lot of resources that don't just come back next fight.
There's a fair bit of character class stuff coming out from WotC
that's balanced per fight rather than per day lately. They're trying to
cut back on the impact of a spellcaster or Psion that dumps everything
in one fight, but making it easier and easier to just keep on going.
> My experience is that at these levels, encounters do not wipe out
> your resources all that quickly: the PC deaths come from either
> single too-hard encounters or from dice, not from resource exhaustion.
IME death comes when PCs are too cautious with their resources, and
far too slow to spend anything on really hurting the enemy. That's what
makes the single tough encounters seem too hard.
You know, I get the impression your games are a self-fulfilling
prophecy. Can't rest or the bad guys will do something horrible, so you
have to crush the baddies in one go, so they have to make an OTT
response because they only get one chance. Using higher level PCs would
be a great idea if that's what you like, they're likely already adjusted
for long runs about as well as can be.
--
tussock
Aspie at work, sorry in advance.
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