Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Nomadicc 09-11-07, 06:40 AM	Just finished running Shadows of the Last War - overall, an excellent adventure and my players had a great time running through it. Highlights were the Rose Quarry investigation and the Whitehearth facility. One thing stood out in my DMs mind, though... it seemed the encounters (as printed) were very un-challenging. Party was: shifter monk, human psion, gnome artificer, warforged warblade. Now, I don't *think* the party was overpowered or unbalanced. The players are not munchkin-ers or PG-ers. Could be wrong... :) The warforged was definately the big threat, but he was neutralized in a few of the big fights. Either way, they would have walked through most of the printed encounters without breaking much of a sweat. I tweaked a few encounters just to make them challenging. I was curious if any other DMs found the same, and/or what they did? Looking through WotVB now with the same thing in mind...
Nomadicc 09-11-07, 06:41 AM	Doh! This should probably be in "Eberron General"
Salla 09-11-07, 06:40 PM	Question one, of course is 'how close to the D&D standard baseline are the characters'? Do they have higher stats, or more gear than they should at their level? Also, the standard D&D layout is for four encounters before the PCs require rest, of an equal CR to the PC's level (or close to it), with no individual encounter truly threatening the PCs; it's merely the cumulative effect that creates the risk.
Nomadicc 09-11-07, 11:47 PM	They're really pretty close to an average power level - had them roll 4d6, drop the lowest for abilities. And I've run them through FF - SotLW, so they don't have any more loot than those two give. I understand the effect of cumulative, less threatening encounters... but it seemed to me that two hobgoblins with 8hp or so, versus 2nd level PCs, would last about half a round... and many of the encounters in the module are like that. Going into the final ambush by Garrow, which plainly should be a "surrender or die" situation, they tried to fight their way out. Part of that, I think, was because they had Rorsa and a couple wolves with them (Rorsa I powered down, for logical reasons), and they were fully rested, but still...
lonewolf 09-12-07, 06:08 AM	Thats nothing. My Players choose to do a frontal assault at the emerald claw forces in Rose quarry and succeeded. They had to retreat and rest once but only after they killed half of the enemy forces. The next day when they came back the remaining emerald claw soldiers including Garrow had fortified the cannith building, but it still wasnt enough. They even managed to keep Garrow from escaping. It was mainly the work of that Psion(Kineticist) with energy missiles, but I really hadnt suspected that outcome.
Nomadicc 09-12-07, 09:29 PM	Thats pretty funny - my player's psion is a kineticist as well, and energy missile did a good amount of damage (before Mallora dropped him with a magic missile).