http://www.athas.org/releases/dregothascending/da_chapter3-alpha1.pdf
http://www.athas.org/releases/dregothascending/
Merry Christmas!
PS: Updated versions of DA Part I and Part II will also be released shortly.
I like the Scorcher more I think this time- I will have to look at the earlier version to really see the changes though.
Overall I think it is great- I do really think that Mon Adderath should be at least low in the range of 21-26th level- He is like three thousand years old for petes sake.
I love the picture of the Scorcher BTW- truely awesome. I am looking forward to the picture that Greyorm is doing for Stonecutter even more now after seeing how he rendered this blade.
The Scorcher looks great (both art and mechanics).
I can't say I agree with Dregoth's character classes though. Egoist? Wasn't telepathy his primary discipline in 2e? I agree that he would have arch defiler levels but a full 10? I'd say he'd have at least 3 or 4 in loremaster, or if not loremaster, levels of arch mage could be justified.
It says in the adventure that the stats of the other three SK's are in the Appendix- well they are not. Is this something that will be included in the later versions of the adventure.
Yes, most likely. But please don't derail this thread into a discussion on what their stats should be. There's a separate thread for that.
Nice Job, love the art. Now Im gonna have to spend all of christmas reading all three parts
And just when you're done reading, we'll release updated versions of Part I and II.
At first glance it looks pretty good. I'll print it off and look at it in greater detail later.
The Scorcher looks great (both art and mechanics).
I can't say I agree with Dregoth's character classes though. Egoist? Wasn't telepathy his primary discipline in 2e? I agree that he would have arch defiler levels but a full 10? I'd say he'd have at least 3 or 4 in loremaster, or if not loremaster, levels of arch mage could be justified.
Agreed- he was a telepath in 2e- good catch on that one Sysane, I missed it on my first look.
Agreed- he was a telepath in 2e- good catch on that one Sysane, I missed it on my first look.
We debated this back and forth, but decided to go with egoist due to its better fit with Dregoth's personality in terms of his desire to change/morph his body and those of other creatures (i.e creating the dray).
We debated this back and forth, but decided to go with egoist due to its better fit with Dregoth's personality in terms of his desire to change/morph his body and those of other creatures (i.e creating the dray).
The dray argument I can more or less identify with, but being an egoist due to his desire to morph his own body I don't agree. Going along with that line of thinking ALL the SKs should be egoist then.
I feel telepath fit due to his wanting to dominate all of Athas and bending and manipulating its people to his will in order to be worshiped as a true god. Maybe thats just me. Either way, I’ll end up changing Dregoth to being a telepath with levels of loremaster regardless.
Aside from that, great job
I feel telepath fit due to his wanting to dominate all of Athas and bending and manipulating its people to his will in order to be worshiped as a true god. Maybe thats just me. Either way, I’ll end up changing Dregoth to being a telepath with levels of loremaster regardless.
If it's any comfort, we will probably use your level schemes for Hamanu, Lalali-Puy and Nibenay.
The dray argument I can more or less identify with, but being an egoist due to his desire to morph his own body I don't agree. Going along with that line of thinking ALL the SKs should be egoist then.
Unless you go with the idea that there is the possibility that Dregoth *could* have invented the Dragon metamorphosis process. He *did* invent the process to invent the Dray, and he tends to be real big on redesigning many creatures.
I personally am strong in the idea that he should be an Egoist. Don't forget that the 3.5e Psionics are not the same as the 2e Psionics.
If it's any comfort, we will probably use your level schemes for Hamanu, Lalali-Puy and Nibenay.
Lol
. If thats what people want, thats cool. I just wanted to voice my thoughts on big D.Unless you go with the idea that there is the possibility that Dregoth *could* have invented the Dragon metamorphosis process. He *did* invent the process to invent the Dray, and he tends to be real big on redesigning many creatures.
I personally am strong in the idea that he should be an Egoist. Don't forget that the 3.5e Psionics are not the same as the 2e Psionics.
If you go with that theory, yes, I could see it justified that he may have been an egoist. It would also support that he may have been a loremaster as well.
Another thoery (one I think along the lines of) could be that Dregoth desided to go the telepathy route thinking that it would be far easier to defeat his chosen race of giants in the mind rather than body. I'd imagine that it would be less troublesome to take out a in giant mental realm rather than physically one.
The dray argument I can more or less identify with, but being an egoist due to his desire to morph his own body I don't agree. Going along with that line of thinking ALL the SKs should be egoist then.
I feel telepath fit due to his wanting to dominate all of Athas and bending and manipulating its people to his will in order to be worshiped as a true god. Maybe thats just me. Either way, I’ll end up changing Dregoth to being a telepath with levels of loremaster regardless.
Aside from that, great job
I plan on making some mods to the version 2 Dregoth that I made up and will most likely be using him when I run this adventure IMC. Mostly I will reduce his equipment and plan on having him with a level or two in Archmage too (I may get rid of the LM PrC and only have Nibenay with that class).
I plan on making some mods to the version 2 Dregoth that I made up and will most likely be using him when I run this adventure IMC. Mostly I will reduce his equipment and plan on having him with a level or two in Archmage too (I may get rid of the LM PrC and only have Nibenay with that class).
I still think loremaster fits big D to a tee but if it were to be replaced with anything arch mage would be my choice.
I still think loremaster fits big D to a tee but if it were to be replaced with anything arch mage would be my choice.
I agree that the LM PrC is a good fit, but after doing two builds of Dregoth I really think that the Archmage is a great fit too- and by taking the LM levels out of Dregoth, it keeps the remaining SK's more diverse IMO.
1) A map of Giustenal (for those who don't have CtbSS).
spoiler...
Show
2) A "read-aloud" description of Dregoth's appearance in the Confrontation encounter.
love the art. Overall well done. I would keep Dregoth as an egoist, especially if the theory is that he developed the Dragon Metamorphosis [maybe to defeat the giants?]Cant wait to play threw the 3 parts.Alright, I have some concerns about the Star of Badna and the Pearl of the Sunrise Sea. First off, they’re meant to rob or diminish big D of his spell casting and power manifesting abilities. The Will saves for each of those are only a DC of 23? D's Will save is +38! He'd only sub come to the full effects of the two artifacts on a roll of a natural 1. Yes, I realize that his power points and spells are still reduced to half on a successful save, but thats still enough to waste the entire party.
I'm not saying that it should be a cakewalk for the PC's to take on the Dread King, but there should still be a better chance of those items completely robbing him his spells and/or powers. Has there been any thought of bumping the DC of the saves on both or one of those artifacts? You could even put in a situational modifier (like +20 to the DC) on them due to their close proximity to the Pristine Tower (especially for the pearl due to its history with it). The same could be justified for increasing the SR of the Star as well.
Alright, I have some concerns about the Star of Badna and the Pearl of the Sunrise Sea. First off, they’re meant to rob or diminish big D of his spell casting and power manifesting abilities. The Will saves for each of those are only a DC of 23? D's Will save is +38! He'd only sub come to the full effects of the two artifacts on a roll of a natural 1. Yes, I realize that his power points and spells are still reduced to half on a successful save, but thats still enough to waste the entire party.
The objective is to diminish, not cripple Dregoth's spells and powers completely. However, for other spellcaster and manifester NPCs in the adventure, the artifacts have a greater chance of working at full power.
The objective is to diminish, not cripple Dregoth's spells and powers completely. However, for other spellcaster and manifester NPCs in the adventure, the artifacts have a greater chance of working at full power.
Thats hardly diminishing to a 38th level character (which reminds me, I thought D was going to be 40th?). However, I just read the "Consequences of DA Pt 2 " blurb on pg 31. I must have missed that during my first read thru
. The cumulative -3 penalty to saves, skills checks, attack and damage rolls, as well as effective caster and manifester levels helps the PCs. Granted, thats only IF big D was forced to accelerate the casting of the mid stages of the godspell.My playtesting group got all artifacts in five days or so. What is everyone else's experiences?
I haven't played DS with my group in awhile. The last thing they did was to obtain the Scorcher. Thats the only artifact that they have recovered so far. That took them about 2 days. They had an unfortunate run in with a tribe of belgoi on the way to the Valley of Trevain in which the NPC wizard got wasted. That slowed them down a bit ;)
most likely it was the one random encounter that they would have to face while traveling (everyone knows that no matter how far you travel, there is always one 'random' encounter - from the Order of the Stick ;) )
Correct. Plus I pumped up their leader to be a 10+ level wilder.
the only way i forsee to dissuade him will be to reveal the existence of the living vortex for the sacrifice and lure him troward it (stupid wannabe SK)
Ok my group, wile composed by nearly ony over 30, is a deprecable crew of power mad munchkins: In the second episode they aquired all te artifacts in a single week, plus 3 days of inter group polytics to decide who will keep what, and the defiler is actively tring to find a way to get a supplemental reward warning Dregoth and dublecrossing the SK and the party....
the only way i forsee to dissuade him will be to reveal the existence of the living vortex for the sacrifice and lure him troward it (stupid wannabe SK)
You know what.... when it comes to Munchkin players, I usually try to use their lack of roleplaying to m advantage, and lead them along a path that sets them up for humiliation, defeat, torture, and death. I make the game as "fun" for them as they try to make the game "fun" for me.
I nearly wept when Greyorm sent it to me. It took me a few hours to come down enough to go to sleep at 4+ in the morning. The memory still shines brightly as one of the highlights of coordinating the art for athas.org: if the Scorcher - one of the most iconic item in DS - can be so perfectly rendered...then anything is possible art-wise.
There will be more Pristine Tower pieces, and with more resolution to them, soon. I'd like to see them all availlable on a section of the future new athas.org website for everyone to see how trully amazing they are when you can zoom in to see the details of the Steeple of Crystals chamber.
We only played for 3 1/2 hours and the PCs chose a rather clever method to cross the tar pits when approaching Giustenal from the west. They wandered in a row, tied together with rope, stating that the rest were walking in the footsteps of the character in front with the highest survival check modifier. I even let them get synergy bonuses for assists on the survival check ("watch out, I see fumes over there". "that ground looks a little more brittle" etc). They also managed to evade the 17 pit snatchers that tried to attack them, but who couldn't leave their pits after the earth cleric miraculously pulled off a DC 40 Knowledge (religio)[earth]) check to recall that fact.
The PCs then found a crack in the western wall, which allowed them to climb only 12 feet instead of 40, and they rested inside the walls while the shadow dancer sent his shadow companion to investigate the city's layout. Just as they were heading towards Dregoth's Palace, they were discovered by a dray patrol after a failed attempt to hide. The session ended with this cliffhanger, after the two PCs that were discovered respectively became victims to a slow spell and a hold person spell and the rest of the PCs jumped forth from their hiding places.
So far so good. I found that the "Needed to play" section needs updating though - it refers to some less relevant products and is labeled "To play DA part 2...". So this will be fixed.
Playtest report:
We only played for 3 1/2 hours and the PCs chose a rather clever method to cross the tar pits when approaching Giustenal from the west. They wandered in a row, tied together with rope, stating that the rest were walking in the footsteps of the character in front with the highest survival check modifier. I even let them get synergy bonuses for assists on the survival check ("watch out, I see fumes over there". "that ground looks a little more brittle" etc). They also managed to evade the 17 pit snatchers that tried to attack them, but who couldn't leave their pits after the earth cleric miraculously pulled off a DC 40 Knowledge (religio)[earth]) check to recall that fact.
The PCs then found a crack in the western wall, which allowed them to climb only 12 feet instead of 40, and they rested inside the walls while the shadow dancer sent his shadow companion to investigate the city's layout. Just as they were heading towards Dregoth's Palace, they were discovered by a dray patrol after a failed attempt to hide. The session ended with this cliffhanger, after the two PCs that were discovered respectively became victims to a slow spell and a hold person spell and the rest of the PCs jumped forth from their hiding places.
So far so good. I found that the "Needed to play" section needs updating though - it refers to some less relevant products and is labeled "To play DA part 2...". So this will be fixed.
Just curious. Did these specific players/characters go on the original adventure from CbtSS?
I thought I would get OMG! and Oh Gosh from the community about the Scorcher image by Greyorm....
I nearly wept when Greyorm sent it to me. It took me a few hours to come down enough to go to sleep at 4+ in the morning. The memory still shines brightly as one of the highlights of coordinating the art for athas.org: if the Scorcher - one of the most iconic item in DS - can be so perfectly rendered...then anything is possible art-wise.
There will be more Pristine Tower pieces, and with more resolution to them, soon. I'd like to see them all availlable on a section of the future new athas.org website for everyone to see how trully amazing they are when you can zoom in to see the details of the Steeple of Crystals chamber.
IIRC I believe that I gave Greyorm the props he deserved in my first post- but what the hell I will do it again (he deserves a second round of
) - I love it and would like to see his renderings of the other two swords of Rajaat. Greyorm is also working on a pic of Stonecutter for me (I asked him to do one after seeing the pic he did for the Screaming Maw) and I cannot wait to see how he renders the description I gave him into a work of art.
O ya- this is for you Pennarin :OMG! ;)
My only concern is that the party will steamroller over everything in part three until they are crushed by Dregoth. That encounter seems to require the wizard to see and disintegrate a component in the first round or two otherwise they fail. Who knows, I haven't actually run it yet though.
Just curious. Did these specific players/characters go on the original adventure from CbtSS?
No.
My only concern is that the party will steamroller over everything in part three until they are crushed by Dregoth.
This has been the case my group thus far. They haven't really been challenged on this adventure to date. Thats even been with me pumping up encouters.
1 Templar
1 Druid
1 Cleric
I also think the PCs will get crushed by Dregoth. High risk adventures sure. Can't see level 14-18 PCs surving 10 rounds vs Dregoth.