Is it me or are the darklord stats WAY off?

[Anonymous]

I mean lone wolf was able to handle them 1-1 way before he got past magakani level. I rember him defeating one in book 6 (where he would have been level 10), so I wonder if darklords in the cr range of 10-15 would be more apporite? Part of the reason I ask is that i'm thinking of making a darklord of my own for my campaign

 

[Garyth]

WARNING: For those of you who have not read the Lone Wolf Gamebooks or Novels... the following post contains some spoilers.


Now that warning is out of the way....


I don't know what the Darklord stats etc have been set for Lone Wolf D20 ( because I don't have the rulebook and such) however I am pretty familiar with the gamebooks and novels...

So let me point out a few things on why Lone Wolf was able to defeat two Darklords ( Darklord Zargarna in Book 2: Fire on the Water & Darklord Haakon in Book 5: Shadow on the Sand ) before he even reached Magnakai level...

First of all Lone Wolf had the Sommerswerd. And we know what a nifty weapon that is to have. In book 2 LW killed Zagarna from long range with a sunbeam attack from the Sommerswerd - so thats one way of killing a Darklord while as a pre-magnakai!

However that still leaves the matter of how Lone Wolf killed Haakon in mortal combat during book 5... so I'll raise this point.

As far as I'm aware from the gamebooks and novels - Darklords are greatly weakened whenever they travel outside of the Darklands. Their formidable powers are substantially reduced the longer they spend outside of their homelands... so when Lone Wolf faced off against Darklord Haakon in mortal combat during book 5 in Vassagonia while seeking the Book of the Magnakai.... and as well as the fact that Lone Wolf had the Sommerswerd too...

Well I'm sure you get the point I'm trying to make.

But like I said - I don't know what the stats of the Darklords are in Lone Wolf D20 - however I assume that what has been provided is what their powers normally are while they are in the Darklands. And not what they are reduced to in their weakened state should they ever find themselves outside and in a nation like Vassagonia or Sommerlund for a protracted period etc etc...


Anyhow thats my take on things though. Could be right.. could be wrong... does anyone really care?

 

[Methos]

thats absol. correct

a darklord not in the draklands is not the all powerfull enemy to face

still he is more than a match for most heroes except LW with the sommerswerd

even you try to play the combat again

take haakon, without his naar powers and a 9lv kai lord with the sommerswerd

i say they are evenly matched

 

[papaiggy]

Let's not be comparing the books and the RPG...Obviously there are going to be some differences. For one thing I highly doubt as players your taking on a darklord solo like lonewolf did.

And for the record I can recall more then a few times that fighting darklords in the book I got my arse handed to me hands down.

Iggy

 

[Winter Wolf]

And for the record I can recall more then a few times that fighting darklords in the book I got my arse handed to me hands down.

Agreed lets not forget what happens to LW if he tackles Hakkon with and ordinary weapons. Splat!

 

[Holmes]

I recall having my butt handed to me a few times by Haakon as well in Book 5, and I had decent CS and END stats.

That CS 28 and END 40 (?) can get pretty tough if you go into the final battle badly wounded (say, by the Crypt Spawn)... :shock:

 

[Anonymous]

As far as I'm aware from the gamebooks and novels - Darklords are greatly weakened whenever they travel outside of the Darklands. Their formidable powers are substantially reduced the longer they spend outside of their homelands... so when Lone Wolf faced off against Darklord Haakon in mortal combat during book 5 in Vassagonia while seeking the Book of the Magnakai.... and as well as the fact that Lone Wolf had the Sommerswerd too...

That's a good answer to a problem that is pretty much just a straight conversion issue from free-flowing fiction to D20...although, if I'm remembering things right, there's no guarantee that Lone Wolf even has the Sommerswerd in Book 5...although the die-hard guys like us will have played Book Two for sure!

I also got the impression from playing the books that the Darklords varied in power quite considerably.

 

[Lykaios]

I rember him defeating one in book 6 (where he would have been level 10)

When you defeat Haakon in book 5 actually you have to keep a few things in mind. First of all Lone Wolf has the Sommerswerd which inficts double damage against the undead. Second of all Haakon is outside of the Darklands therefor his strength would be greatly lessened.

 

[WinterHawk]

The sommerswerd is the key element. If you want to be accurate it was the only weapon that could slay a darklord anyway. So the stats are balanced for normal characters not carrying the Sommerswerd.

 

[Lykaios]

The sommerswerd is the key element. If you want to be accurate it was the only weapon that could slay a darklord anyway. So the stats are balanced for normal characters not carrying the Sommerswerd.

Well actually Helshezag and the Dagger of Vashna were also affective against Darklords.

 

[WinterHawk]

The sommerswerd is the key element. If you want to be accurate it was the only weapon that could slay a darklord anyway. So the stats are balanced for normal characters not carrying the Sommerswerd.

Well actually Helshezag and the Dagger of Vashna were also affective against Darklords.

Alright, so apart from these three legendary weapons, the stas would be balanced still IMHO

 

[Nyxator]

[cut] So the stats are balanced for normal characters not carrying the Sommerswerd.

They receive lethal damage only from legendary weapons (and energy attacks) in the RPG, too.

I agree that they are balanced and well designed.

 

[Eryx]

Does the Darklands book not have their stats?

Assuming that the book is out (Have been more into D&D fof late to keep up).

 

[Kojiro]

Uh... haven't you read the thread at all? Yes, the Darklands does have the Darklords' stats.

 

[Eryx]

Uh... haven't you read the thread at all? Yes, the Darklands does have the Darklords' stats.

It was rather late and I skimmed the thread. Apologies if I missed it.

 

[Anonymous]

Remembering the fairly moronic Zagarna from the novels, I think he contrasts greatly compared to the verson presented in Darklands.

 

[columbob]

Remembering the fairly moronic Zagarna from the novels, I think he contrasts greatly compared to the verson presented in Darklands.

Please elaborate. I seem to remember that Zagarna was responsible for the destruction of the Kai monastery and the entire First Order of Kai Monks. That hardly sounds inept.

 

[Smiling Fox]

I guess that he refers to the brief encounter in paragraph 350 of that book. Zagarna knows of the power of the Sommerswerd, but since his so evil and longs for it, he really needs to see Holmgard being destroyed for himself, thus he places himself in harm's way.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes I think that's exactly what he means there,but (and this is just how I see it) that the drive of the Naar essence within the core of every Darklord "forces" them to be present when mass conflict against his most hated enemies upon Magnamund is about to happen. Naar "needs" one of his sons present to see the destruction going on so that through his son Naar can "experience" the feel of death and despair from it. I've always gotten the impression that Mr Dever meant for the deities of his universe to exist on several different levels (something I've done for years with my own),one that is beyond all understanding which forms the core of the deity and could frankly care less about one little world and what goes on there,down through several layers of the deity itself till one reaches the point at a "level" that is closer,and desires to see what goes on upon that little world in greater detail. The greatest level of the deity is for all intents an purposes omnipotent and omniscience,but the lower levels of the deity lose this to gain a smaller perspective on thing and at the lowest levels (IE those at that level that care about the player characters and other people of power upon a world) this perspective is so confined that they require "stand-in's" as it were to watch goes on...the deity can only restrict their vision so far before it gets to the point they can't watch anything going on except what is immediately around them. Sorry for the long winded speech there....I get that way when I hit a subject that I like BTW...off subject here I think I read somewhere here where August mentions that the LWRPG was one of the best selling (or maybe the best selling can't remember) RPG outside of WOTC material on the international scale....glad to hear that...very glad to hear that

 

[columbob]

BTW...off subject here I think I read somewhere here where August mentions that the LWRPG was one of the best selling (or maybe the best selling can't remember) RPG outside of WOTC material on the international scale....glad to hear that...very glad to hear that

Not quite. Matt Sprange did mention that the Conan RPG was the best-selling non-WOTC RPG product until the release of the new Vampire game.