Hi folks,
I've been going through The Crypt of Istaris* in an attempt to update it to 5e, and I'd like some help with a few things.
While the monsters and hazards have pretty much all got 5e/Next stats already, the traps and secret doors and such haven't got difficulties listed, so I'm not entirely sure how to convert them. The adventure just says things like "... unless a saving throw vs. poison is made" or "Anyone locked inside needs to make his bend bars/lift gates roll in order to open the doors ..."
I know this is because the difficulty of saves and things like bend bars/lift gates checks were dependent on the PC's ability scores and level, not an independent DC ... but knowing that doesn't make it any easier for me. Obviously the saving throw vs poison would be a Constitution save, while the "bend bars/lift gates" would convert to a Strength (Athletics) check, but what should the DCs for these things be?
I'll go through the module room by room, listing the parts that I need help converting below:
Area 1: The Crypt. The false coffin in the crypt is trapped. When opened, it releases a poison gas. The module states that it reduces a creature's Strength score by 1d6 for an hour unless the creature makes a save vs poison. I'm not a fan of reducing ability scores, so I'm thinking I'll just change this to a Con save vs being poisoned for one hour. I'm thinking maybe DC 11 but I'm not sure.
Area 2: The Anteroom. There is a secret door in this room. The text just says "The room is otherwise empty, but there is a secret door in the east wall. The door opens with a simple push." OK, so Wisdom (Perception) to find the door and Intelligence (Investigation) to figure out how it opens? What DCs? This is the only real bottleneck in the adventure, so obviously the secret door shouldn't be hard to find. DC 10 maybe?
Area 7: Spell Component Storage. There are three nozzles in this room: one green, one gold, and one blue.
The green one spews out chlorine gas. Each PC in the area "must make a save vs. poison or lose consciousness and take 1-6 hp damage per round that the PC is exposed to the gas." OK so another Con save vs poison, with a failed save resulted in unconsciousness plus 1d6 poison damage per round. What should the DC be?
The blue nozzle gives off a lightning bolt that deals 3-36 hp damage "unless a save vs wands is made for half damage". 3d12 seems like a lot of damage for a 3rd level PC, although it's not as much as the 8d6 of the lightning bolt spell. Again, what should the DC be?
[The gold nozzle opens a secret door.]
Area 8: An Odd Ceiling. This room has a pair of portcullises at either end. "A bend bars/lift gates roll is required to open either of these gates." OK, so Strength (Athletics) with a DC of what?
It also says "If the PCs examine the ceiling more closely, there is a 20% chance to notice that the stonework on the ceiling has a slightly odd tint to it ..." How would you translate "a 20% chance" into a static DC? There's a dead "lurker above" on the ceiling covered in yellow mold. Luckily, the Next version of yellow mold is not quite as lethal (the version in the module has a save-or-die effect).
Area 10: Gates of Death. "Any detection for traps has a chance to reveal a thin wire strung across the archway ..." Gee, that's helpful. What kind of a chance does a PC have?
Area 12: Lumber Room. There's a trapped cabinet in the far corner of this room. When the cabinet is opened, the trap "ejects a barrage of 20 thin steel spikes." It looks like I'm supposed to roll a separate attack roll for each spike, and for each one that misses the first PC, I have to roll again to see if it hits the next PC, and so on and so forth. No thanks. I think I'll just have it be an area effect and the PCs can make Dexterity saves to avoid being hit by a spike or something.
Area 14: Iron Room. The iron doors into this room are hinged so they can swing both ways, but they've become rusty and so it's easier to enter the room than it is to exit it. This is where the "Anyone locked inside needs to make his bend bars/lift gates roll" comes in. Each PC only gets one try per turn, although groups of people can add their bb/lg percentages together, but each person must wait 10 minutes between tries to open the door ... um, OK? This'll just be a simple Strength (Athletics) check with some kind of DC. 15 maybe?
Area 17: Lizard Bridge. There's a possibility that a PC will get knocked off the bridge, fall into the river and get swept away. Before they vanish from the adventure entirely, they have a chance to grab onto a rock in the river. The adventure states that a PC has a "65% chance" of grabbing the rock. How would I translate that into a DC for a check or saving throw?
Area 27: Sanctuary. No real issues here; just wanted to remark that the very church-like setup of this room ("A raised platform on the west side of this hall is faced by two rows of wooden benches. An aisle runs down the center of these benches, making a path toward the platform. In the center of this platform is a wooden podium ..") seems at odds with the rather primitive portrayal of troglodyte society and religion. I may have to do something about this, but I'm not sure what.
Area 30: Study. The PCs each get a "5% chance per turn" to find the book with the command word for the iron cobra guarding this chamber. How should I convert that into a DC? I'm assuming it would be an Intelligence (Investigation) check as well.
Area 37: Laogzed's Island. If the PCs try to swim to the island, they "have an 80% chance of success." Again, how should I convert that into a DC? It would be a Strength (Athletics) check to swim obviously.
Area 39: Istaris' Tomb. The wizard's tomb is "fire trapped": "Anyone within 5' of the coffin when its lid is raised suffers 1d4 + 10 hp damage (unless a save vs. spells is made for half damage) if the trap is not successfully removed first. There is only half the normal chance to detect such a trap." So here I'm going to need a DC for the Dex save to take half damage from the fire trap, and I'm going to need a DC for the Perception/Investigation and Thieves Tools' checks to find and disable the trap.
And that's it. I don't think I'll have any trouble with the monster stats and magic items and such.
Thanks in advance,
Jonathan
*Originally a tournament module that premiered at the Gateway '85 convention, The Crypt of Istaris also got a write-up for 1e in Dungeon #9. It was later updated for 2e in Dragon #155. I recently got a copy of the latter, so that's the version I'm working off here.
area 1: DC 5 for the Str damage, DC 15 for the poison damage alternative
area 2: DC 10 for perc and DC 15 for investigate
areas 7-14" use a DC 10, 12, or 15
area 17: i would use a DC 8
area 27: religion check for info maybe?
area 30: DC 20, 25, or to stick strictly to the adventure text of 5% require a nat 20.
area 37: i would use a DC 5
area 38: DC 20, or maybe 22 for perception, maybe DC 15 for investigate. followed by a DC 15 for the save
OK thanks. That helps.
Regarding the Sanctuary, my comment was more that I can't really picture troglodytes attending church services, sitting peacefully in carefully arranged pews while their priests harangue them from the pulpit. I may have to rewrite the description of that room to make it more "primitive" ~ eg. maybe I'll replace the rows of benches with a sacrifice pit in the middle of the room.
check out the fluff here:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/humanoids/troglodyte
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Laogzed
Yeah, none of that suggests a Christian church-style setup with pews and a pulpit. I'm thinking something more savage is in order for that area.
Here's my inputs if i were to do the conversion;
Area 1: The Crypt. It takes a DC 15 Wiscom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) to detect the false coffin's trap and DC 15 Dexterity check to disarm it. When opened, it releases a poison gas. Creatures within 5 feet of it must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 hour.
Area 2: The Anteroom. DC 12 Wiscom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) to detect the secret door in this room.
Area 7: Spell Component Storage. There are three nozzles in this room: one green, one gold, and one blue.
The green one spews out chlorine gas. Each PC in the area must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or fall unconscious for 1 minute and take 1d6 poison damag per round it is exposed to the gas.
The blue nozzle gives off a lightning bolt. A character must make a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw. It takes deals 6d6 lightning damage on a successful save, or half as much on a failed one.
[The gold nozzle opens a secret door.]
Area 8: An Odd Ceiling. This room has a pair of portcullises at either end. A DC 20 Strenght check to open one of these gates. If a second character help lift it, the check is made with advantage.) DC 15 Wisdom Perception or Intelligence (Investigation) check to notice stonework in the ceiling is off.
Area 10: Gates of Death. DC 15 Wiscom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) to detect a thin wire strung. (effect unspecified)
Area 12: Lumber Room. DC 15 Wiscom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) to detect the trapped cabinet in the far corner of this room. When the cabinet is opened, the trap eject a barrage of 20 thin steel spikes dealing $$ piercing damage unless the PC succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw. (damage unspecified)
Area 14: Iron Room. DC 15 Strenght check to open the iron doors.
Area 17: Lizard Bridge. DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to grab onto a rock in the river.
Area 27: Sanctuary. Not sure too.
Area 30: Study. The PCs each get a "5% chance per turn" to find the book with the command word for the iron cobra guarding this chamber. I'd leave it like that. It seems more based on pure luck than skills or attribute to me.
Area 37: Laogzed's Island. DC 10 Strenght (Athletics) check to swim to the island
Area 39: Istaris' Tomb. It takes a DC 15 Wiscom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) to detect the wizard's tomb's fire trap and DC 15 Dexterity check to disarm it. A character must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. It takes deals 4d4 fire damage on a successful save, or half as much on a failed one.
Plaguescarred wrote:
Area 13: Dissection Laboratory includes two coffer corpses. There are playtest stats for these undead creatures in the Against the Slave Lords bestiary that came with the playtest packets. I've attempted to update them for the final 5e rules.
COFFER CORPSE
Medium undead, chaotic evil
Armor Class 10
Hit Points 15 (2d8 + 6)
Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
16 (+3) 10 (+0) 16 (+3) 6 (–2) 10 (+0) 5 (–3)
Damage Immunities poison; bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons
Condition Immunities poisoned, unconscious
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages —
Challenge $ ($ XP)
Corpselike. Until the corpse moves or takes an action, other creatures must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom (Perception) check to spot that the corpse is a creature.
Frightful Stand. When the corpse stands up after using Feign Death, any creature that thought the corpse was slain must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, with disadvantage if the corpse is within line of sight, ending the effect early on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the corpse's Frightful Stand for the next 24 hours.
Turn Resistance. The corpse has advantage on saving throws against Turn Undead and similar features.
ACTIONS
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) bludgeoning damage, and a Medium or smaller target is grappled. Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained. While it has a creature grappled, the corpse can slam only that creature.
REACTIONS
Feign Death. When the corpse is hit by an attack, it can use its reaction to fall prone and appear slain. The corpse's Corpselike trait then applies to all who think the corpse is destroyed.
The only monster I'm not sure about is the troglodyte idol in Area 19.
It is described as being a 6' tall bronze statue of a troglodyte. It can animate and attack. Its stats are presented as:
AC 4; MV 9; HD 8 +2; hp 39; THAC0 13; #AT 2; Dmg 1-8/1-8; SD immune to all spells; AL N.
I'm going to assume it's a construct. The text doesn't say how it attacks, but it isn't described as holding a weapon, so I'll assume it has a slam (or maybe a bite & claw multiattack, since it's meant to look like a troglodyte). The immunity to all spells is a pretty nasty ability, although I suppose it's only fair, since the coffer corpses in the other room are immune to nonmagical weapon damage.
Here's what I've come up with for the idol:
IDOL
Medium construct, unaligned
Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 37 (5d8 + 15)
Speed 25 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
14 (+2) 11 (+0) 16 (+3) 1 (–5) 3 (–4) 1 (–5)
Damage Immunities poison, psychic, spells
Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, stunned, unconscious
Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 6
Languages —
Challenge $ ($ XP)
ACTIONS
Multiattack. The idol makes two slam attacks.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) bludgeoning damage.
pukunui wrote:
I was actually thinking of ignoring the whole time limit thing, possibly even the "bomb" thing too. Not sure yet. Depends on whether I run it as a public game or for my regular D&D group.
pukunui wrote:
Increasing it from hours to days could work. I'm just wary of time-limited adventures set in dungeons based on past experience. The main advantage of the crypt is its non-linear setup. The only real bottleneck is the secret door at the very beginning. There are three ways to get from the first floor to the second floor, and there's also a secret tunnel connecting one end of the first floor to the other. So if they get stuck in one area, they can always try to find another way around.
My worst experience with a time-sensitive adventure was the Barrow of the Forgotten King. It was a completely linear dungeon filled with overpowered monsters through which the PCs were supposed to chase a bunch of would-be tomb robbers. The PCs would get so badly beaten up after every other encounter that they'd want to stop and rest for 24 hours. The module's only suggestion was to basically handwave the time limit away by saying that the tomb robbers ran into trouble too (although there were no guidelines for adjusting the encounters or the bad guys to take that into account).
I must confess, the non-linear nature of the dungeon was one of the first things that attracted me to the dungeon. 
Never played/read Barrow of the Forgotten King, but can appreciate how the linear nature would cause problems for the PCs.
Drewboy74 wrote: