city of the spider queen, questions [Archive] - Wizards Community

city of the spider queen, questions [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
samoosa691
03-11-05, 03:38 PM Hello all, I'm considering running city of the spider queen for a party of 4. I'm just curious to know what are your favorite parts, and if there were any serious issues while running city of the spider queen. So far from what I've read (just chapter one) because that's what i'm starting with depending on if it goes smoothly or not I may continue or just branch off into my own little campaign. Your input would be highly appreciated.
Mumm-Ra
03-11-05, 03:47 PM I think City of the Spider Queen is a great module, and I like all parts of it. I like the initial part a lot, not quite sure why.

The whole of it is good. I recommend plaing it from start to finish, with homebrew modifications of course...its these little touches that makes the game fun! :)

For example, all the clerical enemies, including Quth Marens, have ghouls under their command (with command undead, its an easy task). Among other things, it means these lesser undead are wasted instead of the undead bosses such as the Quth Marens. I also add planar allies and lesser planar allies for the clerics, and bound creatures for the wizards (such as those in the inverted tower).

It's all good!!!
samoosa691
03-11-05, 03:52 PM hey, the spider kissers area, with no spells from lolth, don't you think this area is a bit easy for the pc's to take on? even though it's el 12?
BobROE
03-11-05, 10:31 PM hey, the spider kissers area, with no spells from lolth, don't you think this area is a bit easy for the pc's to take on? even though it's el 12?

No, I killed the entire party (or at least most of them, 5 character party) with that encounter. I'm sure it wouldn't be too bad if the party had slept after dealing with the bebilths (sp), but if they haven't it's a pain.
samoosa691
03-13-05, 04:51 PM wow, really? that's so bad, yeah from what i've been reading on the boards the bebliths are brutal...!!!, thanks for the input so far
Mumm-Ra
03-14-05, 01:53 PM Bear in mind that a pair of 3.5 bebiliths are quite a bit more fearsome than 3.0...they have much more hps than before...

If you think the spider kissers are too easy, I suggest you custom-make the evoker and think of lethal spell combinations. I like solid fog, which stops the players from engaging them in melee. This lets the evoker blast them with 3-4 fireballs/l. bolts/aganazzar's scorchers/snilloc snowball swarms/shatterfloors etc without risking fom entering hand-to hand. Of course,one dispel and the solid fog is gone...but its fun if they happened to run out if dispels previously :)
The spider kissers will probably lose anyway, but you can annoy the players by playing the NPc's cleverly :)
SiruisBlack
03-15-05, 07:44 PM I was looking at ending a campaign that I had started and play City of the Spider Queen but decided against it. This module looks like one big meat grinder and at least on player thinks I "bring it" a little too much for them.
samoosa691
03-15-05, 07:46 PM yeah, it's a major hack and slash, but there is also room for role play, depending on your players.
Waylander
03-15-05, 07:55 PM The bebilith in 3.5 might be tougher hp wise... but they are not nearly as nasty as the 3.0 bebilith because their TEARING ARMOR ability is toned down compared to 3.0
Waylander
03-15-05, 08:03 PM Word of advise to people running the module...

There are many errors in the npcs.... i mean number/stat errors.

Occasionally something is not counted or not calculated in those drow fighters.

I redid all the npcs... ALL OF THEM.

Even the Quth Maren.... they fight amongst the crowd but the module never mentions how the drow avoids the Gaze of the Quth Maren.

To make things complicated... the Gaze of the Quth Maren is a fear effect that doesn't follow 3.5 format of fear... fear now has 3 levels and is cumulative. So you will have to follow the exact words of the fear gaze in the module or elect to go with the 3.5 fear effect in the DMG.
samoosa691
03-16-05, 10:33 PM for this particular module, what would you say would be the ultamite min/maxed [surviving] party of 4 be?, (probably on the wrong boards, but just curious)
Heron_Marked_Blade
03-16-05, 11:55 PM for this particular module, what would you say would be the ultamite min/maxed [surviving] party of 4 be?, (probably on the wrong boards, but just curious)
Drow Cleric (of Vhaeraun, is my fav deity: Drow and Travel domains)
Drow Wizard
Drow Rogue/Fighter
Drow Rogue/Fighter

This is my personal vote; they each have decent SR (and face lots of spellcasting/spell-like ability-using opponents), darkvision, and have the basic avenues covered (healing, blasting/utility, sneaking, and tanking). In addition to which, they'd be unaffected by the unholy attacks of some of the major NPCs they'll face.

Again, we're talking survivability here.
Waylander
03-17-05, 07:27 AM Forget the rogues... useless in this specific meat grinder.

Human Cleric (Take an appropriate prestige class)

Human Sorcerer (Note I said Sorcerer not Wizard, stick with a decent prestige class like Divine Oracle.)

Elf Ranger/Fighter (Archer style pc, backup shooter is important in this game.)

Dwarven Fighter (Make sure this one can tank and make sure he can fly or spiderclimb)
ClobberinTime
03-17-05, 01:11 PM I think waylander hit the nail on the head- I would add that a cleric of Lathander (morning lord) or The new Ra PRC is great for taking out undead. Also ranger is nice cause if you choose favored enemy humanoit(elf), Outsider(Evil) and Undead you got about 90% of the monsters covered, and Giant.

Have that Dwarven Fighter join the Hammers of Moradin and multiclass as a paladin.

I think Paladin would also be good here.
Spitfire665
03-17-05, 02:46 PM I haven't read it, but our DM incorporated the Mod into his campaign and we didn't run the whole thing anyway.
What I like the most about the Mod, though was the flow. My monk increased in levels at seemingly just the right times. He got mauled by poison and then hit the level where he became immune, for example. So, from a storyline standpoint, he developed his immunity by fighting off the poison rather than mysitcally and arbitrarily gaining that feature just because he leveled. Our DM also expanded the bazaar. We had 2 gaming sessions where he winged the bizarre and THAT was a blast. We had a gladitorial match in the arena in the middle and won a TON of money from the Beholders there.
But we skipped a good portion of the mod for time's sake by freeing a slave who happened to be a gate jumper. She "jumped" us near the end and we infiltrated the tower. I'd say THAT part, besides the bazaar was my favorite.
Irae's tower held a LOT of cool aspects to it. The look and feel alone were enough to bring us to life.
Aluroon
03-17-05, 03:40 PM Word of advise to people running the module...

There are many errors in the npcs.... i mean number/stat errors.

Occasionally something is not counted or not calculated in those drow fighters.

I redid all the npcs... ALL OF THEM.

Even the Quth Maren.... they fight amongst the crowd but the module never mentions how the drow avoids the Gaze of the Quth Maren.

To make things complicated... the Gaze of the Quth Maren is a fear effect that doesn't follow 3.5 format of fear... fear now has 3 levels and is cumulative. So you will have to follow the exact words of the fear gaze in the module or elect to go with the 3.5 fear effect in the DMG.

Mind posting them all in one place? My pc's are getting to just the right level for this modual, and I'm getting alittle board with them snooping around Myth Drannor.

Aluroon
Mumakil
04-07-05, 06:17 PM Word of advise to people running the module...

There are many errors in the npcs.... i mean number/stat errors.

Occasionally something is not counted or not calculated in those drow fighters.

I redid all the npcs... ALL OF THEM.

Even the Quth Maren.... they fight amongst the crowd but the module never mentions how the drow avoids the Gaze of the Quth Maren.

To make things complicated... the Gaze of the Quth Maren is a fear effect that doesn't follow 3.5 format of fear... fear now has 3 levels and is cumulative. So you will have to follow the exact words of the fear gaze in the module or elect to go with the 3.5 fear effect in the DMG.

I'd like to see them to Waylander - It would save me a LOT of time.
arrianna
04-11-05, 10:40 AM I ran this module when it first came out, but I had 6 PC's and they were a little higher level than the module asked for.

They still got their behinds handed to them though, and I had to drop an NPC in there that was a friendly (a drow matron priestess of Lolth wanting to oust Kiranslee with levels in sorcerer) to try and help them survive. Unfortunately, the PC's thought of it as an opportunity to take out a high level priestess of Lolth and killed her when she was down. It resulted in a TPK just before they met the BBEG on the ethereal?!? plane (it's been a while, can't remember which plane she was on.)
MadApplejack
04-19-05, 09:14 AM Forget the rogues... useless in this specific meat grinder.

Human Cleric (Take an appropriate prestige class)

Human Sorcerer (Note I said Sorcerer not Wizard, stick with a decent prestige class like Divine Oracle.)

Elf Ranger/Fighter (Archer style pc, backup shooter is important in this game.)

Dwarven Fighter (Make sure this one can tank and make sure he can fly or spiderclimb)

Wow...that's almost exactly the group that I DM, who'll be going up against COTSQ soon. Maybe now I'll have more faith in them...I was just the other day looking through the module, thinking to myself, "that's a TPK, that's a TPK, too...Oh, that's definitely a TPK..."
samoosa691
04-19-05, 10:38 AM haha, well i just finished seeing what the party is gonna be comprised of, and here are their characters

thri-queen fighter/ranger {the tank}
elven wizard
human cleric {definately gonna need this}
and possibly a human rogue, I think that's pretty optimized, so they may actually have a chance, a lot of the encounter levels are tpk's possibily, but I want my guys to succeed so hopefully it won't come to that.
ClobberinTime
04-20-05, 10:34 AM I would 'convince' the rogue to multiclass as a cleric or a wizard, more arcane firepower is better than stealth.
Gauze Fireforge
04-21-05, 02:28 AM Having finished the running the module for my group of six, playing it both in 3.0 and 3.5, there were many trials and tribulations.

Firstly, change the two bebiliths to one in the Dordrien Crypts..thats just absolutely crazy.

If there is no full time cleric in the pary dont run the module, honestly.

Windwalk TPK'd my party once, and nearly did so a second time. They went from the stone giants outside of Szith Morcane through the kua Toans, took on the Kraaken and the whips, wind walked over the lake of shadows, took out the infernal raiders random encounter, got to the shadow chasm, took out the Kirlaneans where upon they unleashed the fury of Glourouth, the shadow dragon. Before he came out, they were about one 1/4 resources and the dragon just mopped them up.

A paladin in the party is damn useful, particularily with so many fear effects going around.

In Irae's contingency plans, it says that once she knowns the party are after her, she planar summons some demons who teleport to the group to attack. However they fail to consider the fazress, which few demons could make the spellcraft for to teleport to the correct spot.

FORBIDDANCE IS NERFED IN 3.5!!! In 3.0, forbiddance both hedged out and did damage to those who didn't know the password. In 3.5, it no longer hedges out creature, they just take the damage which makes the whole seige of castle maerimydra kinda moot (it would kill the low level plebs but the bigger players of kurgoth's army could get through and survive). I had to rule that the forbiddance on the castle was a combination of forbiddance and anti-life shell, a special researched 8th lvl clerical spell.

Also there was a huge turning point for my characters when Libris Mortis came out. They struggled alot before that as far as hurting the defenders of castle maerimydra but with spell like mass death ward and ghost trap, many creatures where little more than fodder to my pc's

Thats all I can think of for now...overall it was a great module with plenty of diversity. However, after about 6 months of real time being the the underdark, the players were practically begging me to get them the hell outta there. Of course, for plot reasons, their characters where dedicated to the cause of ruining Irae's day.
ClobberinTime
04-24-05, 12:20 PM Yeah it seems to me that this module could be split up into parts pretty easily. You could run it up until Szith Morcane, then skip the encouters in the deep waste, i.e. send the PC's to get some artifact to get into the undying temple latter or something like that, and then portal them to Maedrimyra, for the end. The ruined city is just too much fun to skip though.
Klyden
04-24-05, 01:41 PM for this particular module, what would you say would be the ultamite min/maxed [surviving] party of 4 be?, (probably on the wrong boards, but just curious)

Personally, my party survivied without a single death in the party. I believe they succeeded in this because they rested plenty of times and their were six of them (not four) and finally I started each of them out at 13th Level. Of course when they got to the Gates of the that city Kurgoth had occupied, they got real close to death.

They barely survived the Fire Giants, Fomorians, Maurs, Ogres, and Golbins I threw at them (seriously; they where all down to the single digits hit point wise). I did have to increase a good deal of enemy stats to boost their CR but it was worth it in the long run in my own opinion as it added to the adventure and excitment of the campaign.

Here is how my six PC's started out:

Ianten Silverblade: Male Aasimar Paladin 12 of Ilmater; CR 13
Rena Firehair: Female Human (Damarian) Fighter 13; CR 13
Thorik Skullcrusher: Male Shield Dwarf Barbarian 7/Fighter 3/Battlerager 3; CR 13
Shaylia Goldenstar: Female Human (Choldathian) Cleric 13 of Selune; CR 13
Bryan Blackarrow: Male Human (???????) Rogue 10/Guild Thief 3; CR 13
Saria Greenleaf: Female Moon Elf Wizard 13; CR 13
samoosa691
06-19-05, 10:53 AM Thanks for the advice everyone, I ran the first session of this module yesterday. The only thing is I have another game coming up today and am hoping to get a response by the time I have to go. The players were given xp up to the point of the bebliths. Now based on the rules they didn't level up, and since 2 bebliths are cr 11, for a party of el 10, it is very dangerous. They are just about to level (only a few xp 7,200 xp to be exact) I am using the alternate xp system in unearthed arcana. Any thoughts? right now the party wizard has one beblith charmed, so it's not AS bad as it could be, I just hope they don't die.
numitor
06-19-05, 12:41 PM I started running this campaign and ended up stoppign before finished. Mainly cause we did not have a cleric and got our asses handed to us more times than i can count.

But yeah i intend to have my pcs do the last half of it once they get higher lvl.
QuenthelsChampion
06-19-05, 02:17 PM Well i played it with:

Female Drow Priestess of Lolth lvl12
Male Drow Paladin of Selvetarm lvl12
Male Draegloth barbarian lvl11
Male Drow Necromancer lvl12
Male Human sorcerer lvl12

I didnt have to worry about the spider-kissers the second they saw my holy symbol they joined us. My Paladin who was my brother Vorn had a bit of a rivalry with Zedar in the campaign. Zedar and my brother Vorn faught in personal combat it was quite fun to watch. My only problem was what to do with some of the guards. Some were still loyal to the old regime but didn't show it because they wanted to survive. So i wasn't sure if i should kill them or welcome them into the arms of Lolth once again. So i only took some of them and killed most of the others. My DM also made Lolths return come when we were fighting Irae in the Undying temple. By that time my character was level 12/7. 12th cleric and 7th arachne. my character and Irae fought one on one and it made for an epic battle. Which obviously i won and now i am the Matron mother of Maerimydra and now of a queendom called Ilythmore since i took over the whole deep wastes.

Sincerely QC
samoosa691
06-19-05, 10:42 PM that really doesn't help me much, but they didn't die any way so it was fun, almost lost 3 of the player characters, but that's ok it's going pretty well so far :D, thanks for the advice everyone. Although there is that one encounter with the archmage that still has me very confused. How am I supposed to run it with all the changes to the rooms, so confusing.... how did it go for some of you who have run this module before?

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
samoosa691 03-11-05, 03:38 PM	Hello all, I'm considering running city of the spider queen for a party of 4. I'm just curious to know what are your favorite parts, and if there were any serious issues while running city of the spider queen. So far from what I've read (just chapter one) because that's what i'm starting with depending on if it goes smoothly or not I may continue or just branch off into my own little campaign. Your input would be highly appreciated.
Mumm-Ra 03-11-05, 03:47 PM	I think City of the Spider Queen is a great module, and I like all parts of it. I like the initial part a lot, not quite sure why. The whole of it is good. I recommend plaing it from start to finish, with homebrew modifications of course...its these little touches that makes the game fun! :) For example, all the clerical enemies, including Quth Marens, have ghouls under their command (with command undead, its an easy task). Among other things, it means these lesser undead are wasted instead of the undead bosses such as the Quth Marens. I also add planar allies and lesser planar allies for the clerics, and bound creatures for the wizards (such as those in the inverted tower). It's all good!!!
samoosa691 03-11-05, 03:52 PM	hey, the spider kissers area, with no spells from lolth, don't you think this area is a bit easy for the pc's to take on? even though it's el 12?
BobROE 03-11-05, 10:31 PM	hey, the spider kissers area, with no spells from lolth, don't you think this area is a bit easy for the pc's to take on? even though it's el 12? No, I killed the entire party (or at least most of them, 5 character party) with that encounter. I'm sure it wouldn't be too bad if the party had slept after dealing with the bebilths (sp), but if they haven't it's a pain.
samoosa691 03-13-05, 04:51 PM	wow, really? that's so bad, yeah from what i've been reading on the boards the bebliths are brutal...!!!, thanks for the input so far
Mumm-Ra 03-14-05, 01:53 PM	Bear in mind that a pair of 3.5 bebiliths are quite a bit more fearsome than 3.0...they have much more hps than before... If you think the spider kissers are too easy, I suggest you custom-make the evoker and think of lethal spell combinations. I like solid fog, which stops the players from engaging them in melee. This lets the evoker blast them with 3-4 fireballs/l. bolts/aganazzar's scorchers/snilloc snowball swarms/shatterfloors etc without risking fom entering hand-to hand. Of course,one dispel and the solid fog is gone...but its fun if they happened to run out if dispels previously :) The spider kissers will probably lose anyway, but you can annoy the players by playing the NPc's cleverly :)
SiruisBlack 03-15-05, 07:44 PM	I was looking at ending a campaign that I had started and play City of the Spider Queen but decided against it. This module looks like one big meat grinder and at least on player thinks I "bring it" a little too much for them.
samoosa691 03-15-05, 07:46 PM	yeah, it's a major hack and slash, but there is also room for role play, depending on your players.
Waylander 03-15-05, 07:55 PM	The bebilith in 3.5 might be tougher hp wise... but they are not nearly as nasty as the 3.0 bebilith because their TEARING ARMOR ability is toned down compared to 3.0
Waylander 03-15-05, 08:03 PM	Word of advise to people running the module... There are many errors in the npcs.... i mean number/stat errors. Occasionally something is not counted or not calculated in those drow fighters. I redid all the npcs... ALL OF THEM. Even the Quth Maren.... they fight amongst the crowd but the module never mentions how the drow avoids the Gaze of the Quth Maren. To make things complicated... the Gaze of the Quth Maren is a fear effect that doesn't follow 3.5 format of fear... fear now has 3 levels and is cumulative. So you will have to follow the exact words of the fear gaze in the module or elect to go with the 3.5 fear effect in the DMG.
samoosa691 03-16-05, 10:33 PM	for this particular module, what would you say would be the ultamite min/maxed [surviving] party of 4 be?, (probably on the wrong boards, but just curious)
Heron_Marked_Blade 03-16-05, 11:55 PM	for this particular module, what would you say would be the ultamite min/maxed [surviving] party of 4 be?, (probably on the wrong boards, but just curious) Drow Cleric (of Vhaeraun, is my fav deity: Drow and Travel domains) Drow Wizard Drow Rogue/Fighter Drow Rogue/Fighter This is my personal vote; they each have decent SR (and face lots of spellcasting/spell-like ability-using opponents), darkvision, and have the basic avenues covered (healing, blasting/utility, sneaking, and tanking). In addition to which, they'd be unaffected by the unholy attacks of some of the major NPCs they'll face. Again, we're talking survivability here.
Waylander 03-17-05, 07:27 AM	Forget the rogues... useless in this specific meat grinder. Human Cleric (Take an appropriate prestige class) Human Sorcerer (Note I said Sorcerer not Wizard, stick with a decent prestige class like Divine Oracle.) Elf Ranger/Fighter (Archer style pc, backup shooter is important in this game.) Dwarven Fighter (Make sure this one can tank and make sure he can fly or spiderclimb)
ClobberinTime 03-17-05, 01:11 PM	I think waylander hit the nail on the head- I would add that a cleric of Lathander (morning lord) or The new Ra PRC is great for taking out undead. Also ranger is nice cause if you choose favored enemy humanoit(elf), Outsider(Evil) and Undead you got about 90% of the monsters covered, and Giant. Have that Dwarven Fighter join the Hammers of Moradin and multiclass as a paladin. I think Paladin would also be good here.
Spitfire665 03-17-05, 02:46 PM	I haven't read it, but our DM incorporated the Mod into his campaign and we didn't run the whole thing anyway. What I like the most about the Mod, though was the flow. My monk increased in levels at seemingly just the right times. He got mauled by poison and then hit the level where he became immune, for example. So, from a storyline standpoint, he developed his immunity by fighting off the poison rather than mysitcally and arbitrarily gaining that feature just because he leveled. Our DM also expanded the bazaar. We had 2 gaming sessions where he winged the bizarre and THAT was a blast. We had a gladitorial match in the arena in the middle and won a TON of money from the Beholders there. But we skipped a good portion of the mod for time's sake by freeing a slave who happened to be a gate jumper. She "jumped" us near the end and we infiltrated the tower. I'd say THAT part, besides the bazaar was my favorite. Irae's tower held a LOT of cool aspects to it. The look and feel alone were enough to bring us to life.
Aluroon 03-17-05, 03:40 PM	Word of advise to people running the module... There are many errors in the npcs.... i mean number/stat errors. Occasionally something is not counted or not calculated in those drow fighters. I redid all the npcs... ALL OF THEM. Even the Quth Maren.... they fight amongst the crowd but the module never mentions how the drow avoids the Gaze of the Quth Maren. To make things complicated... the Gaze of the Quth Maren is a fear effect that doesn't follow 3.5 format of fear... fear now has 3 levels and is cumulative. So you will have to follow the exact words of the fear gaze in the module or elect to go with the 3.5 fear effect in the DMG. Mind posting them all in one place? My pc's are getting to just the right level for this modual, and I'm getting alittle board with them snooping around Myth Drannor. Aluroon
Mumakil 04-07-05, 06:17 PM	Word of advise to people running the module... There are many errors in the npcs.... i mean number/stat errors. Occasionally something is not counted or not calculated in those drow fighters. I redid all the npcs... ALL OF THEM. Even the Quth Maren.... they fight amongst the crowd but the module never mentions how the drow avoids the Gaze of the Quth Maren. To make things complicated... the Gaze of the Quth Maren is a fear effect that doesn't follow 3.5 format of fear... fear now has 3 levels and is cumulative. So you will have to follow the exact words of the fear gaze in the module or elect to go with the 3.5 fear effect in the DMG. I'd like to see them to Waylander - It would save me a LOT of time.
arrianna 04-11-05, 10:40 AM	I ran this module when it first came out, but I had 6 PC's and they were a little higher level than the module asked for. They still got their behinds handed to them though, and I had to drop an NPC in there that was a friendly (a drow matron priestess of Lolth wanting to oust Kiranslee with levels in sorcerer) to try and help them survive. Unfortunately, the PC's thought of it as an opportunity to take out a high level priestess of Lolth and killed her when she was down. It resulted in a TPK just before they met the BBEG on the ethereal?!? plane (it's been a while, can't remember which plane she was on.)
MadApplejack 04-19-05, 09:14 AM	Forget the rogues... useless in this specific meat grinder. Human Cleric (Take an appropriate prestige class) Human Sorcerer (Note I said Sorcerer not Wizard, stick with a decent prestige class like Divine Oracle.) Elf Ranger/Fighter (Archer style pc, backup shooter is important in this game.) Dwarven Fighter (Make sure this one can tank and make sure he can fly or spiderclimb) Wow...that's almost exactly the group that I DM, who'll be going up against COTSQ soon. Maybe now I'll have more faith in them...I was just the other day looking through the module, thinking to myself, "that's a TPK, that's a TPK, too...Oh, that's definitely a TPK..."
samoosa691 04-19-05, 10:38 AM	haha, well i just finished seeing what the party is gonna be comprised of, and here are their characters thri-queen fighter/ranger {the tank} elven wizard human cleric {definately gonna need this} and possibly a human rogue, I think that's pretty optimized, so they may actually have a chance, a lot of the encounter levels are tpk's possibily, but I want my guys to succeed so hopefully it won't come to that.
ClobberinTime 04-20-05, 10:34 AM	I would 'convince' the rogue to multiclass as a cleric or a wizard, more arcane firepower is better than stealth.
Gauze Fireforge 04-21-05, 02:28 AM	Having finished the running the module for my group of six, playing it both in 3.0 and 3.5, there were many trials and tribulations. Firstly, change the two bebiliths to one in the Dordrien Crypts..thats just absolutely crazy. If there is no full time cleric in the pary dont run the module, honestly. Windwalk TPK'd my party once, and nearly did so a second time. They went from the stone giants outside of Szith Morcane through the kua Toans, took on the Kraaken and the whips, wind walked over the lake of shadows, took out the infernal raiders random encounter, got to the shadow chasm, took out the Kirlaneans where upon they unleashed the fury of Glourouth, the shadow dragon. Before he came out, they were about one 1/4 resources and the dragon just mopped them up. A paladin in the party is damn useful, particularily with so many fear effects going around. In Irae's contingency plans, it says that once she knowns the party are after her, she planar summons some demons who teleport to the group to attack. However they fail to consider the fazress, which few demons could make the spellcraft for to teleport to the correct spot. FORBIDDANCE IS NERFED IN 3.5!!! In 3.0, forbiddance both hedged out and did damage to those who didn't know the password. In 3.5, it no longer hedges out creature, they just take the damage which makes the whole seige of castle maerimydra kinda moot (it would kill the low level plebs but the bigger players of kurgoth's army could get through and survive). I had to rule that the forbiddance on the castle was a combination of forbiddance and anti-life shell, a special researched 8th lvl clerical spell. Also there was a huge turning point for my characters when Libris Mortis came out. They struggled alot before that as far as hurting the defenders of castle maerimydra but with spell like mass death ward and ghost trap, many creatures where little more than fodder to my pc's Thats all I can think of for now...overall it was a great module with plenty of diversity. However, after about 6 months of real time being the the underdark, the players were practically begging me to get them the hell outta there. Of course, for plot reasons, their characters where dedicated to the cause of ruining Irae's day.
ClobberinTime 04-24-05, 12:20 PM	Yeah it seems to me that this module could be split up into parts pretty easily. You could run it up until Szith Morcane, then skip the encouters in the deep waste, i.e. send the PC's to get some artifact to get into the undying temple latter or something like that, and then portal them to Maedrimyra, for the end. The ruined city is just too much fun to skip though.
Klyden 04-24-05, 01:41 PM	for this particular module, what would you say would be the ultamite min/maxed [surviving] party of 4 be?, (probably on the wrong boards, but just curious) Personally, my party survivied without a single death in the party. I believe they succeeded in this because they rested plenty of times and their were six of them (not four) and finally I started each of them out at 13th Level. Of course when they got to the Gates of the that city Kurgoth had occupied, they got real close to death. They barely survived the Fire Giants, Fomorians, Maurs, Ogres, and Golbins I threw at them (seriously; they where all down to the single digits hit point wise). I did have to increase a good deal of enemy stats to boost their CR but it was worth it in the long run in my own opinion as it added to the adventure and excitment of the campaign. Here is how my six PC's started out: Ianten Silverblade: Male Aasimar Paladin 12 of Ilmater; CR 13 Rena Firehair: Female Human (Damarian) Fighter 13; CR 13 Thorik Skullcrusher: Male Shield Dwarf Barbarian 7/Fighter 3/Battlerager 3; CR 13 Shaylia Goldenstar: Female Human (Choldathian) Cleric 13 of Selune; CR 13 Bryan Blackarrow: Male Human (???????) Rogue 10/Guild Thief 3; CR 13 Saria Greenleaf: Female Moon Elf Wizard 13; CR 13
samoosa691 06-19-05, 10:53 AM	Thanks for the advice everyone, I ran the first session of this module yesterday. The only thing is I have another game coming up today and am hoping to get a response by the time I have to go. The players were given xp up to the point of the bebliths. Now based on the rules they didn't level up, and since 2 bebliths are cr 11, for a party of el 10, it is very dangerous. They are just about to level (only a few xp 7,200 xp to be exact) I am using the alternate xp system in unearthed arcana. Any thoughts? right now the party wizard has one beblith charmed, so it's not AS bad as it could be, I just hope they don't die.
numitor 06-19-05, 12:41 PM	I started running this campaign and ended up stoppign before finished. Mainly cause we did not have a cleric and got our asses handed to us more times than i can count. But yeah i intend to have my pcs do the last half of it once they get higher lvl.
QuenthelsChampion 06-19-05, 02:17 PM	Well i played it with: Female Drow Priestess of Lolth lvl12 Male Drow Paladin of Selvetarm lvl12 Male Draegloth barbarian lvl11 Male Drow Necromancer lvl12 Male Human sorcerer lvl12 I didnt have to worry about the spider-kissers the second they saw my holy symbol they joined us. My Paladin who was my brother Vorn had a bit of a rivalry with Zedar in the campaign. Zedar and my brother Vorn faught in personal combat it was quite fun to watch. My only problem was what to do with some of the guards. Some were still loyal to the old regime but didn't show it because they wanted to survive. So i wasn't sure if i should kill them or welcome them into the arms of Lolth once again. So i only took some of them and killed most of the others. My DM also made Lolths return come when we were fighting Irae in the Undying temple. By that time my character was level 12/7. 12th cleric and 7th arachne. my character and Irae fought one on one and it made for an epic battle. Which obviously i won and now i am the Matron mother of Maerimydra and now of a queendom called Ilythmore since i took over the whole deep wastes. Sincerely QC
samoosa691 06-19-05, 10:42 PM	that really doesn't help me much, but they didn't die any way so it was fun, almost lost 3 of the player characters, but that's ok it's going pretty well so far :D, thanks for the advice everyone. Although there is that one encounter with the archmage that still has me very confused. How am I supposed to run it with all the changes to the rooms, so confusing.... how did it go for some of you who have run this module before?