ToEE proved too lethal for my players.
Le Daemon
We usually alternate who DM's every other week so I get to run it twice a month
or so. Everyone has been enjoying the game immensely, but character fatalities
have left the party with only 1 original character since day one of gaming.
There are 6 regular players at the sessions and a few started running 2
characters each. They did really well at the moat house, but after making
their way to the temple past 1st level things really started getting rough.
Here they are in order of demise...
Ned: Dwarven fighter bravely ran off by himself to battle an ettin single
handedly while the party was camping elsewhere. Squished...
Krieger: Half orc fighter was impaled on the end of a trident by a big ugly
ogre water temple guard.
Bat: Halfling thief was killed by the intelligent acid pool in the water
temple. He was later ressurrected.
Rochsire of Jascar: Dwarven FTR/CL killed by salamanders in the fire temple.
(He was around only one gaming session and was the replacement character for
they player he ran the half orc!)
Aryette: Elf Mage killed herself with her own wand of lightening trying to use
it against an ogre in a small room. (Got the ogre too at least)
Elmo: Ranger NPC squashed by Scorpp the rock tossing hill giant. (He was
brought back with a raise dead spell)
Corinth: Ranger was turned to stone by the illusionary basilisk. His nice
statue still stands by a fountain on the third level.
Seraphina: FTR/CL was killed by the keening of the banshee. She was brought
back with the very last raise dead spell which the Canoness Y'dea had on a
scroll but her character almost immediately committed suicide when they went
back to Hommlet. Long and disgusting story of roleplaying love and betrayel
between player characters. This royally pissed off all the other players.
Artemis: FTR killed in the greater temple by a flying mage weilding a wand of
fire. Soon the players were getting the upper hand and when the evil Commander
Hedreck was turned into a mule/centaur with The Wand of a Wonder. Hedreck
successfully called for IUZ to come to his aid. That in turn brought St.
Cuthbert himself at almost the same time. IUZ raised his fallen commanders
from the dead and turned all the dead guards into zombies, and Cuthbert healed
all the PCs and raised Artemis from the dead. Then POOF they were gone. The
players all fled at that point.
After all that the players were too scared to go back to the greater temple and
felt there was business left undone in the earth temple on the first level. So
on our very last gaming session a few weeks ago they figured they needed to
tackle the earth elementals. The 4 16HD elemenals turned them into mince meat.
Elmo and Bat were both killed again and the rest of the party was reduced to
single digit hitpoints before they all fled leaving the bodies of fallen
comrades behind. Not one elemental was killed.
I've decided to retire the module since there is now only one character left at
a decent level to continue it. Over the course of more than a year of play the
one original character left standing is an 8th level Druid. Most of the others
are now between 3rd and 5th level since I let them bring in new characters that
are at least 3rd level.
A sad way to end a fun campaign. We game again today and I'm starting a new
module. Hopefully this one can successful come to a conclusion.
Take it EZ,
Le Daemon
Alexander Bernert
>
> I've been DMing The Temple of Elemental Evil for my gaming group since 9/98..
> We usually alternate who DM's every other week so I get to run it
> twice a month
> or so. Everyone has been enjoying the game immensely, but character
> fatalities
> have left the party with only 1 original character since day one of gaming.
> There are 6 regular players at the sessions and a few started running 2
> characters each. They did really well at the moat house, but after making
> their way to the temple past 1st level things really started getting rough.
This is the fate of most groups which visit the temple...
> Ned: Dwarven fighter bravely ran off by himself to battle an ettin single
> handedly while the party was camping elsewhere. Squished...
His mistake (do not leave camp in a hostile environment).
> Krieger: Half orc fighter was impaled on the end of a trident by a big ugly
> ogre water temple guard.
Maybe tactical errors, otherwise bad luck.
> Bat: Halfling thief was killed by the intelligent acid pool in the water
> temple. He was later ressurrected.
This can easily happen - the pool is strong.
> Rochsire of Jascar: Dwarven FTR/CL killed by salamanders in the
> fire temple.
Run away ? Well, as a dwarf... There is a disadvantage to having low
movement.
> Aryette: Elf Mage killed herself with her own wand of lightening
> trying to use
> it against an ogre in a small room. (Got the ogre too at least)
Her mistake.
> Elmo: Ranger NPC squashed by Scorpp the rock tossing hill giant. (He was
> brought back with a raise dead spell)
Bad luck ?
> Corinth: Ranger was turned to stone by the illusionary basilisk. His nice
> statue still stands by a fountain on the third level.
This raises the issue on how to play illusions (another can of worms fully).
> Seraphina: FTR/CL was killed by the keening of the banshee. She was brought
> back with the very last raise dead spell which the Canoness Y'dea had on a
> scroll but her character almost immediately committed suicide when they went
> back to Hommlet. Long and disgusting story of roleplaying love and betrayel
> between player characters. This royally pissed off all the other
> players.
Use speak to dead before raising someone to ask whether he/she *wants*
to be raised.
> Artemis: FTR killed in the greater temple by a flying mage weilding
> a wand of
> fire. Soon the players were getting the upper hand and when the evil
> Commander
> Hedreck was turned into a mule/centaur with The Wand of a Wonder. Hedreck
> successfully called for IUZ to come to his aid. That in turn brought St.
> Cuthbert himself at almost the same time. IUZ raised his fallen commanders
> from the dead and turned all the dead guards into zombies, and
> Cuthbert healed
> all the PCs and raised Artemis from the dead. Then POOF they were gone. The
> players all fled at that point.
Why ?
> After all that the players were too scared to go back to the greater
> temple and
> felt there was business left undone in the earth temple on the first
> level. So
> on our very last gaming session a few weeks ago they figured they needed to
> tackle the earth elementals. The 4 16HD elemenals turned them into
> mince meat.
Which is to be expected. Flee when you see them. Use augury.
Alexander
Staffan Johansson
>
> Ned: Dwarven fighter bravely ran off by himself to battle an ettin single
> handedly while the party was camping elsewhere. Squished...
Darwinism in action, I say...
There's a reason for "Never divide the group" to be included in the
player's tips in RuneQuest.
--
Staffan Johansson (bal...@crosswinds.net)
"There was always something that needed transferring from A to B or, of
course, to the bottom of the C."
-- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather.
Barry Smith
>
> I've been DMing The Temple of Elemental Evil for my gaming group since 9/98..
> We usually alternate who DM's every other week so I get to run it twice a month
> or so. Everyone has been enjoying the game immensely, but character fatalities
> have left the party with only 1 original character since day one of gaming.
> There are 6 regular players at the sessions and a few started running 2
> characters each. They did really well at the moat house, but after making
> their way to the temple past 1st level things really started getting rough.
Heh. Well done. That's a nice, deadbook Hall of Fame you have there, as
it should be actually. Not counting the self-inflicted deaths, which
often prevents most groups from coming close to completion, the Temple
is quite deadly, and you've accurately shown how nasty it can be. I'd
start to spread major rumors and background about this Temple around the
whole area you placed it. Undoubtedly, your player's characters, the
ones who survived anyway, would be spreading all the rumors about what
happened to them, for the next group of intrepid adventurers to hear
about... :)
Le Daemon
>> brought back with a raise dead spell)
>Bad luck ?
boulder and IMC that counts as double damage. Also unfortunate I rolled max
damage.
>
>> Corinth: Ranger was turned to stone by the illusionary basilisk. His nice
>> statue still stands by a fountain on the third level.
>This raises the issue on how to play illusions (another can of worms fully).
>
When they were about to hit that part of the dungeon I was also perplexed as to
how to properly play that illusion. I was looking over this newsgroup at the
time for answers since others were playing this scenario at the same time. In
the module itself it states that anyone failing the saving throw is really
turned to stone. I just went ahead with that ruling.
Some of the losses were due to character blunders so I don't really feel to bad
for them. Several players in my group with the exception of the druid that has
survived the entire adventure, don't seem to think before they leap into a
situation.
Patrick Lyons
Chaotic Neutral characters sacked Hommlet, then ran from the law.
Le Daemon wrote:
> I've been DMing The Temple of Elemental Evil for my gaming group since 9/98..
> We usually alternate who DM's every other week so I get to run it twice a month
> or so. Everyone has been enjoying the game immensely, but character fatalities
> have left the party with only 1 original character since day one of gaming.
> There are 6 regular players at the sessions and a few started running 2
> characters each. They did really well at the moat house, but after making
> their way to the temple past 1st level things really started getting rough.
> Here they are in order of demise...
>
> Ned: Dwarven fighter bravely ran off by himself to battle an ettin single
> handedly while the party was camping elsewhere. Squished...
>
> Krieger: Half orc fighter was impaled on the end of a trident by a big ugly
> ogre water temple guard.
>
> Bat: Halfling thief was killed by the intelligent acid pool in the water
> temple. He was later ressurrected.
>
> Rochsire of Jascar: Dwarven FTR/CL killed by salamanders in the fire temple.
> (He was around only one gaming session and was the replacement character for
> they player he ran the half orc!)
>
> Aryette: Elf Mage killed herself with her own wand of lightening trying to use
> it against an ogre in a small room. (Got the ogre too at least)
>
> Elmo: Ranger NPC squashed by Scorpp the rock tossing hill giant. (He was
> brought back with a raise dead spell)
>
> Corinth: Ranger was turned to stone by the illusionary basilisk. His nice
> statue still stands by a fountain on the third level.
>
> Seraphina: FTR/CL was killed by the keening of the banshee. She was brought
> back with the very last raise dead spell which the Canoness Y'dea had on a
> scroll but her character almost immediately committed suicide when they went
> back to Hommlet. Long and disgusting story of roleplaying love and betrayel
> between player characters. This royally pissed off all the other players.
>
> Artemis: FTR killed in the greater temple by a flying mage weilding a wand of
> fire. Soon the players were getting the upper hand and when the evil Commander
> Hedreck was turned into a mule/centaur with The Wand of a Wonder. Hedreck
> successfully called for IUZ to come to his aid. That in turn brought St.
> Cuthbert himself at almost the same time. IUZ raised his fallen commanders
> from the dead and turned all the dead guards into zombies, and Cuthbert healed
> all the PCs and raised Artemis from the dead. Then POOF they were gone. The
> players all fled at that point.
>
> After all that the players were too scared to go back to the greater temple and
> felt there was business left undone in the earth temple on the first level. So
> on our very last gaming session a few weeks ago they figured they needed to
> tackle the earth elementals. The 4 16HD elemenals turned them into mince meat.
> Elmo and Bat were both killed again and the rest of the party was reduced to
> single digit hitpoints before they all fled leaving the bodies of fallen
> comrades behind. Not one elemental was killed.
>
> I've decided to retire the module since there is now only one character left at
> a decent level to continue it. Over the course of more than a year of play the
> one original character left standing is an 8th level Druid. Most of the others
> are now between 3rd and 5th level since I let them bring in new characters that
> are at least 3rd level.
>
> A sad way to end a fun campaign. We game again today and I'm starting a new
> module. Hopefully this one can successful come to a conclusion.
>
zeta
and the druid was fighting one by himself, the giant hit him with double damage and
max damage at that, it left him bloodied and splattered into the ground
Le Daemon wrote:
> >> Elmo: Ranger NPC squashed by Scorpp the rock tossing hill giant. (He was
> >> brought back with a raise dead spell)
> >Bad luck ?
> Unfortunately for them that hill giant had scored a critical hit with the
> boulder and IMC that counts as double damage. Also unfortunate I rolled max
> damage.
>
> >
> >> Corinth: Ranger was turned to stone by the illusionary basilisk. His nice
> >> statue still stands by a fountain on the third level.
> >This raises the issue on how to play illusions (another can of worms fully).
> >
> When they were about to hit that part of the dungeon I was also perplexed as to
> how to properly play that illusion. I was looking over this newsgroup at the
> time for answers since others were playing this scenario at the same time. In
> the module itself it states that anyone failing the saving throw is really
> turned to stone. I just went ahead with that ruling.
>
> Some of the losses were due to character blunders so I don't really feel to bad
> for them. Several players in my group with the exception of the druid that has
> survived the entire adventure, don't seem to think before they leap into a
> situation.
>
> Take it EZ,
> Le Daemon
nblep
has ultimate control. besides, thats what the dm screen is for : to justify
hiding dice rolls so you can fake the results.
Tim Oliver
[snip]
By a strange co-incidence, I'm running this adventure too. Six
players, mostly two characters each, starting at 2nd and 1st level,
plus my NPC and various henchmen have led to a large group. The
deaths:
Allatar, cleric level 1, died in the entryway of the tower on the
temple grounds as the victorious group charged the bandit leader. 1d12
damage, 2hp left after a stray bolt, and a 12 on the damage. Oops.
Saran, ranger level 2, dragged away and eaten by a ghoul on the second
scouting trip into the dungeons.
Kivbix, halfling fighter level 1, wis 3. Killed by an Earth Temple
ogre during an ambush of the party by the entire Earth Temple. The
bastards won, too, with good use of a flaming sphere and missile fire.
Grundol dwarf fighter 3 thief 3, killed by the Glyph of Warding on the
door of room 141. Forgot to get healed after another trap, oops.
Archibald, human fighter 3, killed by poison gas from Feldrin's chest
after the defeat of the bandits on level 2, despite being heroicly
pulled from the gas by a 1st level paladin and worked on with
healing+herbalism. Failed second save by a 1. Poor guy.
5 deaths, 34 days game time, 8 or so sessions, and they've destroyed
the Earth Temple and chased off the Air Temple leader. Not a bad
effort.
--
Tim Oliver
tol...@ihug.co.nz
James W.
Look at the module and as a DM, craft the appropriate number of 6/7
level characters with the skills, classes, and equipment needed to
succeed. Leave the character name/history/sex open. Now put the
characters in a hat and have everyone draw 1 or 2 as needed. they can
now name and fill out the history of that character. Leave the Druid as
is, or reward him with a decent item. now hire that druid from a local
magistrate or whatever, and the magistrate provides some of his guard,
retainers, or other hired adventurers that have passed examination of
his priests. This worked for me in ToEE as well as Dragon Mountain.
Well, mostly. In both instances the party was decimated, but at the end
in the prime conflicts, not along the way. And they almost beat ToEE..
--
Help.com is simply C/NET using existing newsgroups
to make it look like they invented something. Go
directly to USENET by opening the News portion of
your browser. Its faster, and you have choices.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
HADSIL
this module. If character death is so easy and commonplace, what's the fun?
Gerald Katz
No infravision? Therefore you must be human!
MalodorousRedBrd
character was recruited into the ToEE. He became a priest of the temple by
unfortunate circumstance (join or die). Later, the rest of the temple was
ransacked by the forces of good and the character ended up in command of a
remote sect on the Isle of Dread. By the time we ended this campaign, he was a
9th-level Shadow Thief/ 5th level Priest, minotaur with dreadlocks and a
Jamaican accent and had a serious case of paranoia. It was an interesting
twist on the ToEE, although at some times the campaign got a little dark.
E74
Tim Fitzmaurice
> How does someone turn to stone from an illusion?
Depends upon the power of the illusion. A powerful one could be invested
wit the magical power of petrification to support the strength of the
illusion. A weaker one eg Phantasmal force up to about 4th level or so I
would allow the person to believe theu were 'stoned', to the other players
it would appear as if the target had locked up a la Hold Person, duratino
dependant upon level of illusion.
Timo
When playing rugby, its not the winning that counts, but the taking apart
ICQ: 5178568
Michael Brown
Tim Fitzmaurice <tj...@cus.cam.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:Pine.SOL.3.96.1000202083347.3633E-> > >How does someone turn to stone
from an illusion?
>
> Depends upon the power of the illusion.
Bah. By all existing game rules, this TOEE effect is a total mistake.
-Michael
LARE
<mik...@newton.berkeley.edu> wrote:
Agreed.
Some possible effects to use instead of petrifcation from the illusion:
- as a hold person (only character believes they are petrified and is
rendered unconscious)
- as above but add a system shock roll for the mental stress of believing
that they're being turned to stone.
- PC falls to ground unconscious and ahd to pass a system shock roll to survive.
You could always replace a system shock death result with a comatose state.
Actually turning someone to stone by an illusion is just as silly as
actually burning them with an illusory fire.
+2 cp,
LARE
--
Kingdom of Hurva
Campaign Journals, House Rules, PO:S&P conversions for NWPs, Characters, Fig Pics, Recipes, Places, Myths...
In short, lots of stuff. (over 600 html pages & growing)
Well organized, easy to navigate & now searchable!
http://www.hurva.org
LARE
hey_...@hotmail.com (LARE) wrote:
> In article <uLxj7Lbb$GA.318@cpmsnbbsa03>, "Michael Brown"
> <mik...@newton.berkeley.edu> wrote:
>
> > Tim Fitzmaurice <tj...@cus.cam.ac.uk> wrote in message
> > news:Pine.SOL.3.96.1000202083347.3633E-> > >How does someone turn to stone
> > from an illusion?
> > >
> > > Depends upon the power of the illusion.
> >
> > Bah. By all existing game rules, this TOEE effect is a total mistake.
> >
>
>
> Agreed.
>
> Some possible effects to use instead of petrifcation from the illusion:
>
> - as a hold person (only character believes they are petrified and is
> rendered unconscious)
>
> - as above but add a system shock roll for the mental stress of believing
> that they're being turned to stone.
>
>
> - PC falls to ground unconscious and ahd to pass a system shock roll to
survive.
>
>
> You could always replace a system shock death result with a comatose state.
>
>
> Actually turning someone to stone by an illusion is just as silly as
> actually burning them with an illusory fire.
I forgot to include a couple of things....
Has the mage creating the illusion seen/experienced the thing which causes
the petrification?
Has the victim??
If not, there will be bonuses to saving throws.
Tim Fitzmaurice
>
> Tim Fitzmaurice <tj...@cus.cam.ac.uk> wrote in message
> news:Pine.SOL.3.96.1000202083347.3633E-> > >How does someone turn to stone
> from an illusion?
> >
> > Depends upon the power of the illusion.
>
> Bah. By all existing game rules, this TOEE effect is a total mistake.
Rubbish. The quoted illusion is a) obviously a high level non-standard and
b) could be done with standard magic, and c) you conveniiently ignored the
rest of the post, which mainly went on to suggest that at more moderate
levels the ideal thing should be a mental block acting similarly to a
hold person.
To look at a) If its non standard effect then you are looking at blending
normal spells to get a reasonable level of power for it. A sensible
illusion weighs in at 4th level say for something with a bit of substance,
a spectral hand like effect to trigger spells thorugh is only 1st and
flesh to stone isn't the highest level of effect....you are dealing with a
potent but not unavoidably heavy magic effect here....add to that the
ultimate aim in said published adventure and you definitely have suitable
power.
Examining b) Firstly a wish would do it flat out no arguments, yes its
high power, hence my statement 'depends upon the power of the illusion',
don't give me "illusion don't produce anything real" cos Shadow magic
directly counters that with illusions with physical substance. Add to that
Alter reality is well within the bounds of possiblity, a limited wish
lowers the power level but could certainly imbue the thing with a flesh to
stone. All in all your statement by all rules the idea is wrong is utterly
incorrect, yes it requires very potent stuff to do it, but that is
PRECISELY what I was on about.
c) needs no more saying....you chopped out the discussion I added taking
my statement out of context to try and score a cheap point.
Tim