Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Andrus_Shade 05-10-05, 06:52 AM	the group I DM is about to start GofEC and I just wanted to know if there were any encounters or situations that were troublesome (monster too hard or too easy, etc). I'm especially interested in how the encounter with the drowned went.
D'Mar 06-02-05, 02:23 PM	The Dire shark killed three. The Bodak didn't kill anyone. Drowned dropped but didn't kill one player and the final battle with the titan warforged, FORGET IT. If you don't rule that the players can stun the titan with the Tooth artifact they find and then quickly dismantle the Creation Pattern then the party is TOAST! This should be a level 8 to start not a six. the group I DM is about to start GofEC and I just wanted to know if there were any encounters or situations that were troublesome (monster too hard or too easy, etc). I'm especially interested in how the encounter with the drowned went.
Arcane Guyver 06-02-05, 05:53 PM	The shark is plain nasty. The scorpion cause my group a TPK. All in all, a neat little module with some very lethal points here and there.
Wasteland Knight 06-02-05, 07:13 PM	I haven't run GotEC yet, but I'll be putting my players through it very soon. I've given it a thorough read, and to run it as written I'm waiting until my players are 7th level. IMHO unless your party consists of either 1) more than 4 characters or 2) significantly min/maxed characters with excellent gear this module will be a VERY tough module as written for 6th level characters. Arcan Guyver & D'mar - I'd be curious to know what was the number/level/composition of your groups in GotEC. It'd be useful to gauge my players against those who've completed this adventure...
Von Ether 06-02-05, 08:37 PM	Perhaps I played it wrong, but with Garrow's back up all the way down the hall, a party doing teamwork will off him before his help arrives.
Kid SixXx 06-02-05, 09:17 PM	The author of GotEC, Bruce Cordell has noted the lethality of the shark scenario and offers this alternate encounter scenario with the shark (http://homepage.mac.com/macbrucecordell/B1283663648/C608165187/E1610916623/index.html). I will most likely run this situation when I finally get to this point with the folks I DM. A capable cleric will probably make the situation with the Drowned a bit eaiser to manage, but I'll probably playtest it first.
Arcane Guyver 06-03-05, 07:01 PM	My group was way too low a level - they just seemed capable of taking things beyond them (I didn't run the shark encounter right either, underwater combat is still a bit fuzzy to me). I think they were level 5? Yeah, we're sorta playing a homebrew for right now, while waiting for all the Eberron material due out this summer.
ConfusedUs 06-03-05, 11:12 PM	The shark was nasty, we played it last week. I allow my players to use multiple action points to perform last-ditch efforts when their lives are in direct, dire peril, and that's the only thing that kept the artificer from being sharkfood.
BloodyRoots 06-04-05, 01:30 AM	The dire shark was toasted by the dwarf barabarin/fighter. He was swallowed whole twice but managed to escape each time. Pretty impressive (and very lucky). The only thing that really gave us trouble was the Bodak. nobody closed thier eyes to fight the creature so 3 of the 4 failed thier saves against its gaze attack. I ruled that closeing your eyes was an immediate action so the characters could avoid an unfortunate death (even though they deserved it). (I dont like fudging the rolls to much (or even the rules) but we had just made new characters for GoTEC and I didnt want to waste more time railroading another group of characters into the adventure.) The WF thing at the end was cake for the Dwarf (who now had a level of Frenzied berzerker). The other characters litleraly couldn't harm the thing. I shold mention that the players didnt explore some of the "dungeon". they left shortly after the main battle. They missed the "drowned" level and the dire apes all together.
D'Mar 06-04-05, 08:45 AM	I haven't run GotEC yet, but I'll be putting my players through it very soon. I've given it a thorough read, and to run it as written I'm waiting until my players are 7th level. IMHO unless your party consists of either 1) more than 4 characters or 2) significantly min/maxed characters with excellent gear this module will be a VERY tough module as written for 6th level characters. Arcan Guyver & D'mar - I'd be curious to know what was the number/level/composition of your groups in GotEC. It'd be useful to gauge my players against those who've completed this adventure... Happy to oblidge a fellow DM. At the start we had a Warforged fighter 6, A human figther 6, A human artificer 5, A human paladin 5, and an inquisitor cleric 5. Very Very wise idea to wait till 7 on this paticularily lethal adventure. By the way did anyone notice cordell stole the razor lined chute trap idea from fortress / return of gulthas adventure? Quite an inventive iff altogether lethal contraptions they are. All I had to say was "the floor falls out from underneath you" and the players knew what was coming next. It was quite a blast from the recent past.
D'Mar 06-04-05, 08:51 AM	Perhaps I played it wrong, but with Garrow's back up all the way down the hall, a party doing teamwork will off him before his help arrives. You are quite right. I equipped him with a "The villian escapes" potion to get him to the top of the throne. This is a combined blink and invisibility potion. my players caught on and whined about me letting him get away but when we played out the drama in the next scene they forgave me cause it was a super cool "this reminds me of the time we lynched the davenport" scene. Besides his backup aint worth diddly. Excusing scimitar there just a bunch of guys with +3 on a crossbow. The 6th level adventuring group could all but ignore them if they wanted too.
D'Mar 06-04-05, 08:56 AM	The author of GotEC, Bruce Cordell has noted the lethality of the shark scenario and offers this alternate encounter scenario with the shark (http://homepage.mac.com/macbrucecordell/B1283663648/C608165187/E1610916623/index.html). I will most likely run this situation when I finally get to this point with the folks I DM. A capable cleric will probably make the situation with the Drowned a bit eaiser to manage, but I'll probably playtest it first. Be warned if you go to this site Bruce seems to be more than (how shall I say this...) a little left from center and not shy about expressing his views? Beware! Don't buy into his liberal malarky. (No offense intended just a warning. Bruce if you ever read this I love your adventures. Sorry we disagree politically)
D'Mar 06-04-05, 09:00 AM	The dire shark was toasted by the dwarf barabarin/fighter. He was swallowed whole twice but managed to escape each time. Pretty impressive (and very lucky). ... The WF thing at the end was cake for the Dwarf (who now had a level of Frenzied berzerker). The other characters litleraly couldn't harm the thing. I shold mention that the players didnt explore some of the "dungeon". they left shortly after the main battle. They missed the "drowned" level and the dire apes all together. CAKE??? What kind of cheating were you allowing here? That thing had over 150 HP and a plus umteen to strike. What level was this guy? Are you allowing godlike abilities or something?
grimfaery 06-04-05, 10:19 AM	Be warned if you go to this site Bruce seems to be more than (how shall I say this...) a little left from center and not shy about expressing his views? Beware! Don't buy into his liberal malarky. (No offense intended just a warning. Bruce if you ever read this I love your adventures. Sorry we disagree politically) Thanks for the heads up! I hate having to listen to writers and artists go on and on about politics - even the few righter than normal ones. :P
Kid SixXx 06-04-05, 12:03 PM	Be warned if you go to this site Bruce seems to be more than (how shall I say this...) a little left from center and not shy about expressing his views? Beware! Don't buy into his liberal malarky. (No offense intended just a warning. Bruce if you ever read this I love your adventures. Sorry we disagree politically) His politics don't bother me. I'm also fairly liberal, not that it matters in discussions about RPG's. :cool:
Dravot 06-04-05, 01:01 PM	Be warned if you go to this site Bruce seems to be more than (how shall I say this...) a little left from center and not shy about expressing his views? Beware! Don't buy into his liberal malarky. (No offense intended just a warning. Bruce if you ever read this I love your adventures. Sorry we disagree politically)Be warned? How about 'who cares?'. Ignore the dopey politics and read the stuff you're interested in. We haven't run thru GotEC yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
Wasteland Knight 06-05-05, 01:46 PM	I equipped him with a "The villian escapes" potion to get him to the top of the throne. This is a combined blink and invisibility potion. my players caught on and whined about me letting him get away... Actually, IMO giving Garrow some type of escape options is a much needed addition. Since Garrow aspires vampiredom, and thereby immortality, it seems he would be pretty concerned with preserving his own hide until he can achieve his goal. I've actually reworked Garrow for my campaign, drawing on some of the stuff in Liber Mortis, and when I chose his equipment I did so with an eye towards survival rather than combat.
BloodyRoots 06-05-05, 07:07 PM	CAKE??? What kind of cheating were you allowing here? That thing had over 150 HP and a plus umteen to strike. What level was this guy? Are you allowing godlike abilities or something? Actully none. The characters were 8th level at the end of the adventure. Im pretty strict about point buy stats, 32 point method, and enforcing limits on purchasing equipment, until that giant tooth artifact was found (that thing is over powering...but fun!). When a frenzied berzerker rages and frenzies he gets +10 str (as I recall), add that to his 18 str you get +9 damage x1.5 for 2 handed weapon, +2 for weapon specilization, +1 magic axe thats 1d12+16 per hit. While frenzied he gets one extra attack a round at his full bonus. That was 3 attacks a round doing an average of 22 pts per hit, 66 pts a round if all hit. The thing was dead in three rounds. I cant remember how he was able to survive the beating im sure he took from the creature. I know the entire party has intelligent elven chain that casts cure moderate wounds 3 times a day. (note that the pcs equipment was equal to a party of 8th level adventures). It seems like he had a displacement effect or some such thing as well. Before the encounter I had decided that the creation pattern wouldnt use its spell like abilities becuse I figured they would have a hard enough time with just the construct. So if I did cheat it was only in not letting Xulo, the creation pattern, use its spell like abilities for the first 2 riound of the fight. Im such a nerd, I feel offended that someone would accuse me of blatent power gaming. I will say, fudging dice rolls to move a good story along or keep a favored character alive isnt cheating, its just good manners!