Drow War veterans?

[MadDrMark]

Well, Book III has been out for a year now, and I'm curious:

Has any GM run all three books with the same bunch of player-characters? How long did it take in terms of game-hours? Any big surprises? Did the characters feel an appropriate sense of resolution as each installment ended?

 

[TopCat]

My group are only just starting the Warriors of Winter chapter in book 2 so they've got a long way to go yet before we get to book 3.

We've played about 100 hours so far. I'm estimating another 70-80 hours to finish book 2.

The biggest surprise was actually last session. The party rogue successfully sneaked on board the Sea Harrier mother-ship and managed to avoid combat until he found the drow. The drow Dimension-doored away and then they read his journal and used the evidence of his wrong-doing to negotiate the release of Azbeth without fighting a single Sea Harrier. Considering that their initial plan was to storm the ship, that was quite a change!

They certainly had a big buzz when they drove the drow army back at Underdell (one of the PCs is from Underdell so it was personal). I'm still working on getting them more enthused about Jehannum as some of the characters are still smarting from how the Iron Dukes treated them. Currently they're more keen to do something about Scallandriax than anything.

 

[Graphil]

Up to about the same place. No idea of amount of time played though.

BTW Did any one realize that Azbeth had a beard? See the picture on page 117 of book 2.

 

[TopCat]

Yes, I spotted that last session. I was going to show the picture to the party until I realised that Azbeth wasn't in it.

I didn't think elves even grew beards!

 

[Graphil]

The thing is I think that is meant to be the picture of the conclave however no one told the artist that one of them was a female!

So did your party do the politics stuff and arrange the alliances?

 

[TopCat]

Only one (of six) players is interested in doing the politics stuff, and fortunately his character is the one with all the ranks in Diplomacy. We're doing the politics by email between sessions so that the other players don't get bored.

So far he's got the alliance together and signed up the gnomes. More difficult diplomatic challenges lie ahead...

 

[Graphil]

Well the politics have started in mine now. Chillame, Caldraza and the Topaz dominion are all in. They are having trouble convincing the dominion to tone their religious zeal down so that Svarth will join in. They are about to visit the gnomes as well.

So what did they have to do to get the gnomes on board in yours?

 

[TopCat]

I decided that getting the gnomes would be pretty easy. All they've had to do is promise to come to the gnomes aid if the gnomes call. They did originally offer to station a couple of thousand troops in Vella but the gnomes weren't too keen on the idea of lots of soldiers trampling all over their nice cities.

 

[Jinta]

Well, we're just about to reach the one year mark, and both my groups have just left Crom Calmar, and they're heading out to Xoth Sarandi. We play very consistently - 4 - 5 hours a session for 6 weeks out of every eight - so I'm guessing 176 hours per group... and double that for me.

I'm about to find out how much diplomacy they're willing to do. I'm guessing one group will go all out, and the other group will leave it to NA.

js

 

[gym_wizard]

My players and I are finishing up the final battle in book 2, (a combat senerio that will have lasted 3 game sessions- btw).

My advice to any DM is to vastly limit or be very clear on what DnD supplements you allow in the game. With all the indie pdfs out there on RPGnow.com and all- a DM will get questioned about a new feat or whatever every game session.

Also, handle all problems, questions and game reviews via email. It lessens the hassle at the table and makes for more game time!!!!!!!

Finally, the first two books have taken us 16 months to play out. We play once a week and rarely miss a game session. I don't see book 3 taking longer than 8 months- If we can get this played out in 2 years... I'd be glad with that.

feel free to email me with any quesions.

gym_wizard at yahoo dot com

 

[gym_wizard]

Caution to DMs Players...

This may be a problem my group had or not but bear in mind that as far as Epic levels go...

Example
You are NOT an Epic Fighter unless you have 20 levels of fighter. A Fighter 15/Wizard10 is an Epic Character. But has no Epic class levels. So what we do is level up our characters after 21st level normlly- unless you are taking your 21st level in a class.

Hope this helps- or maybe I'm sloooowwww......

 

[TopCat]

Yeah, my players didn't realise that at the start and got quite a surprise when I explained it to them. As a result, only 1 character out of 6 has taken levels in a class other than their initial one as they all want a taste of epic classes. The one that has diversified (the cleric) took all 5 levels of Thaumaturgist before returning to cleric levels. Technically, he won't qualify for epic cleric until he's taken 20 levels of cleric but in a moment of weakness I decided to cut him some slack and agreed that his Thaumaturgist levels could count as cleric levels, seeing as he got to the maximum level of Thaum and it's a prestige class that stacks well with cleric.

As far as supplement books go, I made a ruling at the start that we were playing core books only. Anything setting-specific (Eberron, Forgotten Realms, etc.) was banned. Anything from other supplements had to be approved by me in advance. Apart from a couple of spells from Complete Arcane and a few more from Races of the Dragon and Dragon Magic (the party sorcerer is a Spellscale from Kandang so it seemed reasonable to allow him some draconic magic, given the history of that nation) I don't think I've had any requests for any other spells, feats, skills or classes. It's worked well as, in my opinion, the players have enough else that's new to them with the Starborn powers that they don't need any more complications.

TC

 

[Graphil]

After a big summer break we have a big session to complete a big chunk of book 2 (logs are updated). I'm now finding that the balance is going. Up to about 14th the encounters were well balanced for the party. Now however this balance is starting to break and the party is starting to over power their opponents.

 

[TopCat]

Yes, I'm finding that. They seem especially powerful against drow. Even the hardest drow in Traitor's Gambit went down in only a couple of rounds. And that was after I'd beefed them up (+2 CON, +2 Strength, max HP). One of the problems was the drow ACs. A lot of the soldiers in the mine were AC 12 so the party just couldn't miss them. I had straqtegies worked out for most of the spellcasters but they were usually forced into the thick of combat within a round or two so those plans were out of the window.

My group is currently halfway through "Following Darkness..." and that's been OK so far. They had a very long combat with the golems at the bottom of the Colossus so I'm hopeful that the rest of this chapter will be suitably difficult. I may have to do something to Noctulos himself though, as I fear he won't last long enough to do most of his cool stuff.

I fear that "Genesis..." will be too easy, although there's always the threat of sheer numbers of drow/duergar in that one to provide the danger. "Fight Fire..." should be OK. I can always boost the dragons up an age category or two if they kill the first one too easily. "If the Stars Should Fall" could be quite one sided - I may have to issue some heavier armour and more hit points to the garrison to balance that one out. "Heart of Darkness" looks like it should be OK.

As for book 3, well I've never run an epic campaign before so I have no idea how balanced those encounters will be. I guess I'll just have to be prepared to wing it.

TC

 

[Graphil]

Yes armour class of the drow in the mines was definately an issue. Power attack plus the fact the sig weapons have elf bane and evil bane on them and they don't last long at all. The lack of magic items and decent equipment on a 10th level opponent is probably the main factor.

I think I'm going to have an issue in FD since the party will probably wind walk through most of the encounters and won't have a challenge. Same possibly with FF. Wind walk is a bit of an adventure killer so far.
Same as you on the SSF, I think the officers will need beefing up to make a challenge.

 

[TopCat]

Hmm, Wind Walk doesn't make you invisible or invulnerable. Dragons and Undead would certainly be able to see them and would almost certainly attack. With 5 rounds of being attacked and unable to attack back while they revert back to solid form it's not a tactic I would be trying in either of those chapters.

They also need to change back at some point in both chapters (to pick up the tenebrium and to free Aristeele) and will again be vulnerable for 5 rounds while doing so. Noctulos and the dragons will not let those opportunites pass without taking action.

If they try it, then go hard at them is my advice. It might make them think hard about abusing that tactic in the future.

TC

 

[Graphil]

With wind walk you can travel at 60mph. Even assuming they are spotted it is easy to outrun anything at that speed. So with find the path plus wind walk it is easy to get to your destination without having any encounters on the way.

 

[Foxworthy]

With wind walk you can travel at 60mph. Even assuming they are spotted it is easy to outrun anything at that speed. So with find the path plus wind walk it is easy to get to your destination without having any encounters on the way.

Of course with the poor maneuverability of the fast speed it make it hard to get exactly where you want to be. It makes it hard to turn, have to move at least 300 feet forward a round other wise they have to use the speed of 10 and perfect maneuverability option.

Plus they are easier to hit as a gas to especially with magic.

 

[BigSteveUK]

Hi Gents,

As a lot of you are much further through the campaign than me, what sort of influence do players develop in book two.

I mean I know they are starborn, but do they become lords, kings or get a country to run etc?

Cheers,

BigSteve

 

[Graphil]

They become great heroes with great standing with the alliance bought together to fight the drow but nothing more than that really.