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ieri
Tolling Bell Cultist
(1/7/04 6:12 pm)
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Names for a Troglodyte
My campaign is starting this Friday (just 2 days... I can't wait). I'm starting with The Sunless Citadel. My party will consist of a Human Paladin of Pelor, a half-elf Ranger, an Elf Rogue and a Elf Wizard. We MIGHT have a fifth player, who will be playing some sort of cleric, but if we don't I'm planning to have the temple to Pelor in Verbobonc supply the Paladin with a wand of cure light wounds. I figure that'll keep 'em alive until they meet up with Erky Timbers, who may have to become a permanent NPC so they have SOME kind of cleric.
Anyway, I was planning on having them run into a cleric from the Earth Temple on the way there, driving a cart (with a very scared looking, and weak looking mule pulling it) that had a few twig blights in it. If they don't stop the cart and the cleric (who is a Troglodyte, but he's disguising that fairly well in an oversized, hooded robe, with his tail tucked back into the cart he's driving), I'll add a nice grove of twig blights to the Earth Temple.
Here's the basic stats of the cleric and twig blights:
Troglodyte Clr1 of Elder Elemental Eye: CR 3 HP 18, AC 15, Melee Attacks: +2 (Longspear) 1d6 x3 and -1 (bite) 1d4. He also has his stench. Earth and Evil domains. Spells of consequence: Cure Minor Wounds, Bane, Cause Fear, Protection from Good (I think most of the party is going to be good aligned, so that'll hurt). He has 1 potion of cure light wounds, and the smallest size bag of holding, black, full of dung to fertilze the twig blights.
Twig Blight: CR 1/3 Small Plant; HD 1d8+1, Init +1, Spd 20 ft, AC 15, Atk +0/+0 Melee (1d2, claws); SA Poison Sap (fort save dc 16 or take 1 extra damage, no secondary damage).
I have 3 questions.
First, what's a good name for a Troglodyte Cleric?
Second, Is my first level party going to be able to handle this? We're doing 4d6 creation method (with the option of using 25 point buy if you didn't like your roll, but no rerolls under any circumstances), and I gave everyone max starting gold (ie, if they get 4d6 x 10, we assume they rolled 6 on all four dice).
Third, How many twig blights should I put in the cart? I would think somewhere in the 2 to 4 range would be realistic, but I'm worried about overpowering the party.
If you really think they can't handle the Troglodyte Cleric, I could send a human cleric, but that would mean sending them from a different temple. What temple would make sense, in that case (I figured earth made most sense for recruiting plant creatures).
Well, I guess I have one more question... should I give the cleric an Earth Obex? Is that the holy symbol for a cleric of EEE aligned with Earth?
I don't have much time to decide, so suggestions are very welcome.
-Ieri
P.S. I plan to do campaign logs... is anyone interested in seeing them before I actually start RttToEE, or should I just start posting the logs when they head to Hommlet?
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ieri
Tolling Bell Cultist
(1/7/04 6:18 pm)
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One note
I should note, the Troglodyte's goal is to avoid conflict. He doesn't want anyone to find out he's a Troglodyte, and would rather just ride past the party. So if they don't start anything, he won't either.
-Ieri
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Mr Kaze
Tolling Bell Cultist
(1/7/04 7:16 pm)
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Re: One note
I'm going to assume, because you've not indicated otherwise, that this is starting in the lovely town of "Oh Cursed" with the level 1 PCs.
1) Name for a Troglodyte depends on how your RP their dialect -- generally there are two options: gutteral, like "Goladoc" or serpentine, like "Syrbezan"
Of course his name won't really matter unless he's interrogated or recruiting and if he's under interrogation then he'd be silly to give up secrets. ("Swampgullet" is a good code name for characters that don't actually know what real Troglodyte names are....)
2) Can the party take him? Depends on two things: a) whether they have to resort to point buy or not and b) whether they can keep him from casting Protection From Good and nauseating them with his stentch.
If he's protected from the good party and they succumb to his stentch, then they'll have a really tough fight on their hands -- otherwise, it should be okay. AC is kind of tough, but still quite reasonable for his CR. It should be a good and gratifying first fight -- better than Rabid Voles, Aggressive Butterflies and Hostile Banana Peels 1st levels usually face off against...
3) The toughest thing I found about the twig blights was that actually hitting them was really too dang hard for most 1st level characters -- even fighters only get a total of +4 to their attack (BAB +1, Str 16) meaning that they've got a less than 50% chance to hit something that they'll kill in a single swing. Note that the twig blights have the same AC as the Trog, and the Trog has 10x the CR that they do (at least by this MM2 3.0 I've got here).
You could bend the rules slightly and say that the Trog picked out the healthiest looking blights (okay, that sounds odd) and advance the blights to medium size without giving them more HD. That reduces their AC to 13, which is much more reasonable for level 1s to be chopping through on one of their first encounters. They'll do more damage when they hit, but with the improved chance of hitting that your PCs have, it shouldn't matter.
Not a bad hook. Good luck with it.
::Kaze
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Knowe Remorse 
Tolling Bell Cultist
(1/7/04 10:10 pm)
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Re: One note
Stinky Pete!
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of All Who Threaten it. |
ieri
Tolling Bell Cultist
(1/8/04 3:49 am)
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Blights...
Actually, rather than having him pick the healthiest blights (if they're medium size, they should probably have another HD, and I certainly don't want that), I think I'll give him young ones... who still have a rather thin layer of bark, and therefore less natural armor.
Of course, I still don't know how many to send.
I also am wondering how to describe the smell of a troglodyte's stench...
-Ieri
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 Infiniti2000
Brother of Venom
(1/8/04 7:15 am)
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ezSupporter
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Re: Blights...
Looks good to me. I'd give the trog an earth temple symbol, but beware it might derail them somewhat. It should provide good foreshadowing, however.
If you are using 3.5, download the MM2 conversion document. They've changed twig blights slightly.
"Of course, I still don't know how many to send."
Two is more than enough.
"I also am wondering how to describe the smell of a troglodyte's stench..."
The reptilian creatures appears angry and suddenly exudes a power stench, not unlike the foulest dwarven stablehand who hasn't bathed in a year.
I, for one, would like to see your log from the getgo, but you should not post it directly here. Although I doubt there are any spoilers left in Sunless Citadel, it would be a good idea not to hide them under the guise of RttToEE. If you post them on a separate website, however, please update us here, and I will read them for sure.
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ieri
Tolling Bell Cultist
(1/9/04 4:25 am)
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Posting from the beginning
What if I posted them here in a thread clearly labelled as Sunless Citadel spoilers, then started a seperate thread when they headed to Hommlet?
I don't really have another place to post them, currently.
-Ieri
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ieri
Tolling Bell Cultist
(1/9/04 4:30 am)
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MM2 Conversion Doc
Where can I get the MM2 Conversion document?
-Ieri
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ieri
Tolling Bell Cultist
(1/9/04 4:40 am)
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MM2 conversion
Okay, I found the MM2 Conversion stuff...
And I don't want to use it. Twig blights are tough enough as is, but now it says to replace the partial immunity to piercing weapons with damage reduction? If I'm reading that right, it means that they now ignore some damage from all mundane weapons, not just piercing weapons? Or am I misunderstanding?
Honestly, I'm planning to play the non-classed monsters (and some of the classed) as printed. The changes are too minor to be worth the effort.
-Ieri
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Infiniti2000
Brother of Venom
(1/9/04 8:58 am)
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ezSupporter
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Re: MM2 conversion
If you label the thread and switch so that others can read the RttToEE only stuff, then that's fine.
You are slightly confused about the 3.5 DR. Unless it has a dash (like dwarven plate), DR is overcome by the listed item. In this case, a twig blight has DR 5/slashing or bludgeoning. This means that they ignore the first five points of damage from any piercing weapon. As you can see, it almost the same thing, just standardized. It actually has nothing to do with magical or not.
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LegacyOfAsh
Ebon Hand Cultist
(1/9/04 3:54 pm)
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Re: Blights...
I can't find the MM2 conversion document, after about
two minutes of Googling. One of you kind souls post a
url please ?
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Infiniti2000
Brother of Venom
(1/9/04 8:36 pm)
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ezSupporter
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Re: Blights...
It's on the D&D v3.5 Accessory Update Booklet. Note that you probably need to download it to your system if you use Windows XP. For some reason, it may balk at trying to open it up directly in the same window.
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LegacyOfAsh
Ebon Hand Cultist
(1/10/04 5:42 pm)
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Re: Blights...
Thanks very much !
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