7) Sunken Cave (EL 22)
Asberdies the Lich: CR 22; HD 20d12; hp 130; Init +8; Spd 30ft.; Face/Reach: 5’/5’; AC 22, T: 17, FF: 18; Full Atk Touch attack +10/+5 (1d8+5, Will DC 20 for half, + DC 20 Fort save or *permanent paralysis)/Gpl: +10; Str 10, Dex 18, Con ---, Int 22, Wis 14, Cha 10; (the base stats were taken from the DMG for Wizard (except Dex. To keep closer to the module Lich’s AC) and then modified by both level and the Lich template in the monster manual) AL NE;
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +10, Will +14;
SA/SQ: Damage Reduction 15/bludgeoning and magic, Darkvision 60’, **Fear Aura, Immune to cold, electricity, polymorph and mind-affecting effects, Paralyzing Touch, Turn Resistance +4, Undead traits
Feats: Combat Casting, Craft Staff, Craft Wondrous Item, Empower Spell, Extend Spell, Greater Spell Focus (Evocation), Improved Counterspell, Improved Initiative, Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell, Silent Spell, Spell Focus (Evocation)
Skills: Concentration +23, Craft (Alchemy) +27, Decipher Script +19, Diplomacy +2, Gather Information +2, Hide +12, Knowledge (Arcana) +29, Knowledge (Geography) +13, Knowledge (History) +14, Knowledge (Local) +13, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) +13, Knowledge (The Planes) +16, Listen +10, Move Silently +12, Search +14, Sense Motive +10, Spellcraft +31, Spot +10
Possessions: +3 Ring of Protection, See Text.
* Permanently paralyzed foes appear dead (DC 20 Spot or DC 15 Heal to notice life). The affect cannot be dispelled, but Remove Paralysis or magic the can remove a curse will cancel the effect.
**Fear Aura (60’ rad.): Creatures under 5 HD must Will DC 20 save or be affected as if by Fear spell. Save = 24hr. immunity.
Spells Prepared: (4/6/6/5/5/5/5/4/4/4); save DC = 16 (18 for Evocation) + spell level):
0 – Detect Magic, Read Magic, Mage Hand, Open/Close
1st – Burning Hands, Charm Person, Magic Missile (x2), Ray of Enfeeblement, Ventriloquism
2nd – Invisibility, Mirror Image, Resist Energy, See Invisibility, Web (x2)
3rd – Dispel Magic, Fireball, Fly, Lightning Bolt, Major Image
4th – Bestow Curse, Confusion, Charm Monster, Dimension Door, Polymorph
5th – Cloud Kill, Cone of Cold, Hold Monster, Teleport, Wall of Force
6th – Flesh to Stone, Globe of Invulnerability, Repulsion, Shadow Walk, Summon Monster VI
7th – Hold Person-Mass, Limited Wish, Mordenkainen’s Sword, Reverse Gravity
8th – Bigby’s Clenched Fist, Charm Monster-Mass, Otto’s Irresistible Dance, Monster Summoning VII
9th – Meteor Swarm, Power Word: Kill, Prismatic Sphere, Time Stop
Use the lich's immunities against the players! Max out the number of Cold/Electricity spells. If needs be, give him the Energy Substitution feat to convert his [Fire] spells to Cold or Electricity.
My favorite tactic with a spellcasting undead is the Cold-subsituted Fireball dropped at the very feet of the undead when enough players surround him
Originally posted by LunarCaustic
A level 20 Wizard(Lich) IMO is a EL of 16+ on its own it is basicly who wins the initiative and how long the wizard has had to buff and prepare spells ( longer then 1 action casting time) and how long the party has had to do the same decides what the outcome will be, anyone else have a thought?
Alarm placed some distance away from his lair would give him time to precast some spells before the adventurers reach him. IMHO, any Sorc/Wiz above level 12 and not using that spell is a moron.
First spell: Summon Monster. Shadow Mastiffs are very good for an underground environment. Plus, they'll delay the players some more.
Next, it's time to cast all the major defensive spells followed by some kind of improved Invisibility.
When the players reach the lair, the lich should be ready to kick them back to Stone Age for daring to disturb him.
Originally posted by SterlingHeart PaganPummel
I'm doing a complete 3.5 conversion for descent and vault.
Would you made it , once finsihed, available for download?
I would like my players to "replay" GDQ1-7 but don't have the time for converting it. And i am sure other Dms would be interested.
Thanks anyway!
I seriously doubt that 15 gargoyles are even EL12. Given their attack bonus of +6 and rather moderate damage output i don't think they would pose a serious threat the PCs at all. It would be very hard for them to score any hits at all and those wo do will deal only small amounts of damage, with only minimla chances for any crits.
They aren't strong on the defense either. Due to their low hp and not particularly stellar saves just one or two well placed area effect spells may take out quite a lot of them and the fighter types, who should have three attacks per round by level 12, won't have a problem to hit AC 16 even with their lowest iterative attack. Their DR probably will not matter either.
Fancy and creative tactics are probably out, too, since gargoyles have only Int 6 and should be played accordingly by the DM.
On average i think that every 12th level character kills at least one or two of these buggers per round and therefore the whole thing would be over in less than 4 rounds with very little damage done to the PCs. Although i have not made any playtest with such an encounter i do not think the EL would be any higher than 10.
Originally posted by makoma
Would you made it , once finsihed, available for download?
I would like my players to "replay" GDQ1-7 but don't have the time for converting it. And i am sure other Dms would be interested.
Thanks anyway!
Yeah it'd be my pleasure...I'll release it in PDF,in 3 part blocks (the massive cave, then the Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, then finally the Vault. I'm almost done with the big cave. As for giving the lich defensive mods, I'm just converting the module 'as-is' to keep it close to the original as possible. That being said, I did some adjustment for drow that made them much closer to what 1st edition drow really were as opposed to the weak creatures shown in the 3.5 MM. here's some of the adjustments right from the conversion. Comments and criticism are appreciated:
“3.5 Descent into the Depths and Vault of the Drow
A few notes: This is a Greyhawk module, and with sticking to the stats presented in the original adventures, the characteristics scores for Drow encountered are calculated using G. Gygax’s ability score ranges listed under the drow entry at the back of each adventure. In addition, for those who wish to keep the Greyhawk drow much closer to the original, the additional level-based spells from the first addition stats are also included. 3.5 DM’s who want to keep the stats lower powered to the 3.5 monster Manual should simply disregard the bonus class/gender based spells original Greyhawk drow possess (with the exception of the ‘All Drow’ spells, which have remained unchanged). These include the following:
All drow, 1/day: Dancing Lights, Darkness, Faerie Fire
Any drow above 4th level in ANY class, 1/day: Detect Magic, Detect good (Know Alignment was dropped in 3.0), Levitate
Female Drow only, 1/day: Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Discern Lies, Dispel magic, Suggestion
These spells are cast as a sorcerer of the drow’s total class level, or at the minimum level required to use the spell in question.
Ability Scores: The average ability score for Greyhawk drow females and males are listed below (rounded down). These are before any adjustment for character levels.
Female: Str 11, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 15, Wis 13, Cha 14
Male: Str 8, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 12
Racial Abilities: +2 to Will saves vs spells & spell-like abilities, +2 to Enchantment magic saves, immune to magical Sleep, Darkvision 120’, Spell Resistance: 11+ class levels. +2 racial bonuses to listen, search and spot checks. Coming within 5’ of a secret door entitles the drow to a free spot check. Greyhawk drow are very stealthy (according to their original write up), gaining a +4 racial bonus to hide and move silently checks. Drow struck with bright light (such as sunlight, or a Daylight spell) are blinded for 1 round, and remained dazzled as long as they stay within the area of the illumination. Although there is no official rule for it, female drow might gain a +5 racial bonus to their intimidate checks vs. male drow, at your discretion (this would go a ways to countering the high intimidation score male fighters have, without neutering them against other males).
Greyhawk drow weapons, Cloak and boots: Greyhawk drow weapons receive their magic-like pluses from the weird radiations of the drow homeland, as well as their mixture of adamantine alloy and they rot as noted in the module when exposed to sunlight (Faerzress weapons from the Realms have borrowed upon this). Though fine weapons, Greyhawk drow arms are not necessarily masterwork quality, nor do their magic-like abilities require them to be. Drow cloaks grant a +5 competence bonus to hide checks. Drow boots grant a +5 competence bonus to move silently checks. The bonuses for cloak and boots, as well as armor check penalty, have already been added to drow skill totals. Greyhawk drow wear a fine mesh of black elven chain mail armor, similar to that found in the 3.5 DMG (does not impeded the drow’s normal 30’ movement speed, has an arcane spell failure of 20%, Max Dex bonus +4, armor check pent: -2, light armor, weighs 20 lbs). The armor check penalty for this chain mail has been added to the skill rank totals. All Greyhawk drow receive proficiency in the shortsword, hand crossbow (exotic weapon) and either dart or javelin as bonus weapon proficiencies. Greyhawk Drow knockout poison requires a primary and secondary DC 15 Fort save or unconscious for 2d4 hours. Drow carry 1d4-1 doses each, and each dose is sufficient to cover 1 shortsword or 1 dagger, or 5 hand crossbow bolts. All drow, unless otherwise noted, are assumed to be wearing the boots and cloak their race is noted for (for some hefty Hide/move silent mods for these elves). Drow hand crossbows are of the Small variety.
No special prestige classes have been added to any of the higher level drow the pc’s may encounter (feel free to add them), though a few have modified ability scores above the norm. Multi-class drow have been given their flat levels in the appropriate classes, with no xp calculation from the conversion book. (I.e. a 5th ftr/7th level 1st edition drow is exactly that in this module, not a recalculated 9th level character). Where bonus spells appear (or 1st edition spells had their levels altered) I substituted or added spells that would be useful for the drow’s assigned duties. Encounter levels have been estimated, using the guide on page 49 of the 3.5 DMG. However, when the table was obviously wrong, an estimate of true EL has been provided. Fore example, Encounter Area 4 (Gargoyle Lair) features 15 of the flying beasts. According to the EL table, that’s a level 19 encounter (a bit over-rated, IMHO). I felt it wanted an EL 11 encounter.
Full melee attacks are listed, accounting for Str, magic, two weapon fighting, weapon finesse, weapon focus, and modifiers to Finesse while using shield in off hand. Weapon Specialization and off hand damage mods are already factored in as well. Masterwork bucklers (in the absence of rules clarification) still provide the -1 to hit weight penalty listed in the buckler description, but their quality prevents the additional -1 penalty (since they are masterwork) that a normal bucker’s armor check penalty forces on a person using weapon finesse. “
For additional conversion ideas for the Vault in particular, you may want to check out "The Vault of the Drow" in Dragon 298 and the follow-up "Playing Pieces: Denizens of Darkness" in Dragon 300, both written by the redoutable Frederick Weining.
In addition, "Erelhei-Cinlu, Drow City of Pleasure" by the equally-formidable Russell Bird, appears in Oerth Journal 14, and is available for free on CF! at http://www.canonfire.com/htmlnew/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=27
Both are excellent, and each differs from the other a lot! I can't wait to chck out your versions SterlingHeart PaganPummel (which you should definitely consider submitting to CF! when they are complete)
PS: with regard to off-hand modifiers, in 1e all drow were fully-ambidextrous, so you may want to give them some additional racial bonus feats....
Keep us posted!
Mike
And, SterlingHeart PaganPummel, do you plan to convert Q1 also?
In addition, for those who wish to keep the Greyhawk drow much closer to the original, the additional level-based spells from the first addition stats are also included. 3.5 DM’s who want to keep the stats lower powered to the 3.5 monster Manual should simply disregard the bonus class/gender based spells original Greyhawk drow possess (with the exception of the ‘All Drow’ spells, which have remained unchanged). These include the following:
All drow, 1/day: Dancing Lights, Darkness, Faerie Fire
Any drow above 4th level in ANY class, 1/day: Detect Magic, Detect good (Know Alignment was dropped in 3.0), Levitate
Female Drow only, 1/day: Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Discern Lies, Dispel magic, Suggestion
These spells are cast as a sorcerer of the drow’s total class level, or at the minimum level required to use the spell in question. [/b]
You could probably introduce new drow feats to allow the additional spell access (although I realise that you get a feat at levels 3 and 6 rather than level 4). This would help to balance out the additional spells with one less feat so the EL isn't unduly affected.
of course i plan to add the wander encoutner tables and stats for the pre-made tournament characters
My players have just entered the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl after going through UK5, T1-4, A1-4 and G1 over the course of the last 15 Years (not game-years, ie since the late 1980ies). We use 3e from A3 on and I would hate to be stuck after G3.
I'm looking forward to exposing these long time adventurers to Your Descent to the Depths of the Earth.
Thank You very much!
edit: I couldn't get your link to work.
http://www.geocities.com/ffangh_kyr/Descent3.5_change_extension_to_pdf.jpg
Have Fun!
Mike
Originally posted by qstor
Can someone e-mail it to me offlist at qstor_67 at yahoo dot com. I couldn't seem to find it...doh..I'm SO computer literate!
Mike
Done!
I plan on running the original modules as opposed to the Q1-7 compilation. I found the setup in Q1-7 a bit over the top, and it gives away the involvement of the drow early.
thanks again!
s