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Killiak
Here for a while
(1/6/03 3:34:20 pm)
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Big U dies easy
The party I play in killed Big U without a big sweat. (yes, yes I know; im a player and I will also soon be DM'ing. I know how to RP and my DM trusts me, so no word k?)
He came out, we fought and he went down in like 5 rounds, with the only knocked out people being Redithidoor and one party fighter. This all happened whilst the mage was having fun with the giant frog.
Maybe my DM had bad luck or something, but I can't say it was THAt much of a challenge
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Zorlag
Here for a while
(1/6/03 5:59:51 pm)
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---
What level your group was and what characters participated in a fight? Did Utrestimon use that dust cloud, he can use blindsight to "see" in it while characters are partially blinded and can't cast spells well. Also 7d6 lightning bolt can toast lower hp characters like mages and rogues easily. DM should make Utrestimon keep distance if close fighting proves painful and just hide and wait for lightning to "reload" and then attack again and again... 
Z.
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Taelohn
Looking around
(1/6/03 6:27:40 pm)
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Poor Utreshimon.
Mine was slain during his first encounter with the players. I had intended for him to fly off if hurt badly, but that plan was cut short by some amazing rolls on behalf of a 20-strength half-orc barbarian. With a critical hit from his greataxe, the dragon was decapitated in one mighty strike (he had around 50 HP left at the time).
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Killiak
Here for a while
(1/7/03 1:13:21 am)
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well
There were 5 players, all lvl 4. The mage wasn't participating cause he was playing with the giant frog. Redithidoor was useless. Big U used his breathweapon twice and he did use the dustcloud.
The monk went inside and started yelling to us that he had found the valuables; so the dragon went inside after him and it was all over soon after that
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justind dm
Here for a while
(1/7/03 10:34:16 am)
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Re: well
Bad luck on the part of the DM? I should say so...U should have feasted on 3 party members with little trouble at all. There is always going to be the occasional lucky roll that drops him, as stated before, but U should be more than enough to really knock a party of lvl 4's around. Especially if he uses his breath weapon and blindsight to stay out of the range of the heavy-hitters. And 6d8 for his breath, shouldn't take long before you have a couple party members boiling in their armor, so to speak.
On a different note, you do know that frequenting this board is going to really ruin the enjoyment of this module right? Proceed at your own risk.
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The guy from Belgium
Here for a while
(1/7/03 10:38:32 am)
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Re: well
i'm not implying anything here, but the fact that you frequent these boards might have resulted that you knew the dragon was there.
a properly buffed party of lvl 4's can take big U out, but his strength lies in the fact that he surprises them and hovers and breathes lightning
if you knew he was there, you anticipated all this, and maybe the combination of your knowledge and the dm's bad rolls ruined the encounter...
i'd also advise you to stop reading this board... but that's just me
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Kelashein
Here for a while
(1/7/03 6:40:51 pm)
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Re: well
Yeah, me too. If any of my players are reading this I'd be extremely disappointed. They're pretty responsible and don't allow their characters to meta-game (aside from munchkinism which is pretty much required if you want your character to survive more than one encounter of the CRM) I plan to give them all the URL when we're done but until then they shouldn't.
And Killiak, there are DM-Only threads that have nothing to do with this module. If you're looking for DMing tips, go there. Seriously. This is a VERY long adventure, and you can't "unlearn" any of the stuff we're talking about. Don't ruin your fun.
Congrats to your Monk. Conning a Dragon to lose his open air advantage should be the subject of Redithidoor's first epic.
The big U went down (relatively) easily IMC as well, tho. It was partly my fault. The deal is, since I have all the splat-books, I've reworked all the spell-lists for all the spellcasters in the module and Spugnoir (randomly) wound up with Leomund's Tiny Hut. A friend of mine who usually sits in when she's in town from Seattle showed up early and I let her play Spugnoir. Before I gave her the lowdown on her current situation (trapped beneath the dungeon, etc) I gave her some background on the character & let her pick an appropriate selection of spells that she would normally memorize before going to the Moathouse to poke around. She picked Leomund's after reading only part of the spell description. She figured that the spell was basically a temporary shelter of creature comfort for an old man and that since he hadn't run into problems out there in years it would be okay to waste a spell slot on a "useless" spell. Once she was done picking spells I told her about her fight with the Dragon & we went down her spell list and figured out what she'd have left (emphasizing that the spirit of the adventure required her to have blown her wad already). We agreed that she wouldn't have wasted Leomund's or Lightning Bolt (not on a Blue Dragon). But she did fry some orcs w/ her Bolt so she had Leo's and a couple other fairly useless spells, mostly divinations. Well, after the noise started topside, he left his hiding spot and provided cover from dust via Leo's (it being one of the few spells left, she read the full description--Spugnoir probably rarely used it for anything but a great tent until then but had spent the last two days contemplating his possible avenues of escape) which gave the party a little breather and enough time to reorganize and counter attack. Our Druid pretty much hid from U the whole time and stayed out of the fight. She was completely terrified and didn't think she would last a single round. Cowardly but in character. Later, when they were wheeling U's carcass into Hommlet on a wagon (so they could have someone cut him up for spell & item components and give Telna a crack at a Blue Dragon Cookout) Asrai (the Druid) led the pack bragging to the world about how they'd killed a Dragon. Priceless.
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Siobharek 
Still here? Wow.
(1/8/03 1:34:17 am)
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Re: Big U dies easy
This is from Killiak's first post:Quote:
(yes, yes I know; im a player and I will also soon be DM'ing. I know how to RP and my DM trusts me, so no word k?)
As long as Killiak's DM is okay with Killiak being here, it's not for us to comment on it, I think. But hey, what do I know...? 
Personally, I would have played Big U a little differently: Rather than rushing in to defend his loot, he should either have stayed in the dust cloud, killed the rest of the party, and then tracked down the thief, or he should have risen so high above the moathouse that he could breathe down on the monk through the destroyed ceiling.
On the other hand, Utreshimon is described as being young and arrogant, and I think it was good thinking on the monk's part to lure him in. So I'm not sure the kill was through any error on teh DM's part.
Siobharek
...it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. |
Killiak
Here for a while
(1/8/03 3:04:30 am)
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well actually
The DM allowed a party member to have an amulet of detect evil. It works like a buzzer when your around evil ppl. So we caught Chat listening at our door and he showed as evil. Then we met Ol' Del and he was very sinceere, slightly mad, but not evil. So the party trusted him when he told us that there was a blue dragon.
We entered the moathouse readied, but not buffed.
Just to show how bad the DM rolled; 4 claws and nite hit strongest fighter; total damage => 10 from claws and 7 from bite.
We never really lined up, so the dragon flew up to the tower and lightning blasted me (I climbed up to try and take pot shots, being a rogue and all) for an astounding 12 damage. So I replied with a critical hit with my mighty shortbow.
It was so NOT the DM's lucky day. As for me not being "allowed" here, my DM actually embtraces it. When the other people went off to get dinner, we stayed behind and talked about the organisation of the dreamers, some tips and tricks and I actually suggested to him that he should use chatrilon to haunt us in the moathouse when a battle goes bad. So don't think I am meta-gaming, for I am not. Kind of a funny note, my character was approached by Chat. We talked and I asked about the temple and the moathouse (previously told to me by my fellow bard, Redithidoor). So he advised against ging to the moathouse, but going to the temple instead. Now that came from some unknown guy in leather and a rapier, who turned out to be evil. I am the only one in the whole party who actually RP'ed the tavern that night! Luckilly I'm a curious halfling with an Int score of 14. Rufus and Burne told me about trouble with guys in ochre robes recently and we had found such robes before, so I linked them to the story of the old temple. Plus, we found robes and amulets in the moathouse. For my curious halfer, sking questions is becoming more and more interesting (and it will prolly get him killed too)
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setanta14
Looking around
(1/8/03 3:05:44 am)
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Re: Big U dies easy
My group just encountered Big U in our last session. They smoked him as well, although we have 7 players.
I used the hover right after the first lightning blast (almost dropped 2 pc's, but poor damage rolls and a pc rogue who saved for none put the kybosh on that). When in the hover, the pc's still outside the moathouse started launching arrows and magic missiles at him since I ruled that where they were would shield them from most of the dust cloud effects, and he was high enough that they could see him over the wall.
One of the pc's in the courtyard made for U's lair in the hall, so he landed to intercept the intruder (I figured a young dragon like U would act pretty rash if his "hoard" was threatened). He did a good deal of damage to that pc with claw/bite attacks, but was then overrun after the other recovered from the dust. He got off one more lightning bolt before he was dropped.
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Killiak
Here for a while
(1/8/03 3:06:25 am)
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by the way
It took the monk about 3 rounds of yelling and convincing before U actually went inside.
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Siobharek
Still here? Wow.
(1/8/03 3:08:51 am)
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Re: by the way
I think the detect evil amulet is a huge mistake. It'll take away SO many role-playing opportunities. But YMMV, of course.
Siobharek
...it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. |
Killiak
Here for a while
(1/8/03 3:57:28 am)
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yeah
I agree 100%, but unfortunately it is not my call to make.
I will start my own first session next week, so stay tuned
I'm gonna make Big U their worst nightmare
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Zagig
Here for a while
(1/8/03 4:51:24 am)
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Re: yeah
Killiak, I'm glad that I'm not the only DM who does this. I have discussed current and near future events (nothing past the next game sessio) IMC with one of my players, although I told him he shouldn't be reading this board. He is very good at keeping OOC knowledge to himseilf and not using it as a character. If any DM has a guy like this in your party, use him. It really helps get a feel for what the party is thinking.
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 Infiniti2000
Here for a while
(1/8/03 7:05:12 am)
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ezSupporter
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Re: yeah
I agree it would be a great help to the DM, but it still ruins the enjoyment of the module for the player, as a player. The enjoyment in this module that Killiak feels (if any) is as a co-DM, not a player. Your linking of the cult to the Temple is clearly not something you should feel proud about, from a player's perspective, but only from your ability to only utilize IC knowledge. You are basically a very well run NPC. All IMO, of course. Personally, I have no problem with what you are doing or that you visit the boards in such a case as yours. Good luck with your first session, btw!
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Brekki 
Here for a while
(1/8/03 7:15:13 am)
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Re: Poor Utreshimon.
Quote:
I will start my own first session next week, so stay tuned
 Yeeeeeaaaaahoeoeooeoeo
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Kelashein
Here for a while
(1/12/03 3:13:14 am)
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Re: Poor Utreshimon.
Okay, Killiak. You're welcome here as far as I'm concerned too. I was under the mistaken impression that your DM knew you were going to be a DM but not that you were here & thought you were jumping the gun.
It is true that your character may well wind up being a well-played NPC. If that's fine with you, cool. It would be better tho, if your halfling met an untimely end and you rolled up someone with a REALLY low Int so that s/he couldn't help out in the decision-making process. You'll otherwise be itching to solve problems that your character could legitimately square but you'll be constrained by meta-knowledge. The idea here, is handicapping yourself. Might as well put that 14 somewhere that it'll at least get you a decent saving throw. Maybe even keep your current character but rework it w/your DM & switch with Charisma if you've got a low score there (that way you can still ask a bunch of questions but you just might confuse the answers by the time you've communicated them to your buddies).
My other suggestion is to phase yourself out of the current game and focus on DMing. You and your current DM can get together often to compare notes, etc.
Anyway, sorry for any harsh words. I just thought you were jumping the gun. Good luck on your campaign!
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