Looking over this part of the adventure, we find a lot of the problem I mentioned before in which the PCs are set up to fight single opponents in small rooms. My plan is to dissociate the opponents from their locations, and instead break them up into "encounter groups" that may be fought in a number of locations.
First encounter group = Yargin plus 3 dogs (originally he and his 1 dog were separate encounters). I'll make this group a 2nd level encounter so that we start off with a challenging fight, and it will be worth 625 XP. This should take place somewhere on the ground floor, once the PCs enter the building.
The next encounter group consists of Hookshanks and Giggles, plus 4 thugs (minions). This one will be a 1st level encounter worth 500 XP. This can take place in the processing room or on the ground floor if the PCs make alot of noise fighting Yargin and the dogs.
The next encounter takes place if the PCs fall into the water. Originally it was a single jigsaw shark, but I'll make it 2 sharks to keep it interesting, and a level 1 encounter for 500 XP.
The adventure as written has the PCs encounter small groups of Drain Spiders in various rooms. I'll lump these encounters into 1 level 2 fight for 625 XP. I may have to create Drain Spiders. My cursory glance at the spiders in the MM shows that they are all a bit powerful. Maybe I can re-skin a swarm of some kind?
Finally, we have the finale fight with Lamm. I'll give him 2 pet crocodiles rather than 1, and give Lamm himself some forced movement powers so that he can hopefully maneuver some of the PCs into the pit with the crocs. As the finale, this will be a hard (level 3) encounter worth 750 XP.
As a final boost, the PCs can get 100 XP form a minor quest if they get some of the orphans to a reputable orphanage.
Part 1 XP total = 3600. My main conecrn here is that 600 of that XP (from the shark fight and the minor quest) are from sources that may or may not occur without some railroading on the GMs part. I'll have to give that some thought.
Next up, I'll try my hand at making up my first 4E monsters and NPCs...
Runeforged Weapons
14 years ago
I just found your blog. I've been running this AP in 4e for over a year now and we're just about to start the 6th book. I really look forward to seeing what someone else is going to do with converting these adventures.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Bailey,
ReplyDeletePlease feel free to share some of your experiences running CotCT. I'd also love to see how someone else handled the conversion. This is my first attempt at DMing 4E and writing up adventure stuff, so it's definitely a learning experience.
Will do. Unfortunately, I started computerizing the process with Skeletons of Scarwall. I'll see if I can find some of the old notebooks. I'll also try to dig up some of the old memories :)
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that I didn't stat out the shark. I made it into a hazard/trap that could be "disarmed" with a few attack rolls and didn't attack if it was dazed or stunned.
I tried to enlarge the room for the last encounter with Lamm and the Croc (I only had 1) but I didn't make it large enough and it didn't work. The PCs were easily able to pin him and I remember myself noting it as my first mistake with 4e. Throughout the entire AP I found myself making the maps larger. I cannot stress this enough. It is a far worse mistake to make your maps too small than it is to make them too big.
If I recall, I made the entire top floor of Lamm's one encounter. I completely removed the spiders. I'm not sure if I just forgot to use them, or pulled them because of time constraints or if I had a better reason. I think you are correct in having the last encounter be Gaedran and two crocs. I only used one and combined with a two small map it made for a boring encounter.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. Biggger maps is a definite need. I think I will keep the sharks, and just use re-skinned crocs for them. I like the idea of a fight in water, and will have to come up with some terrain rules for that.
ReplyDeleteI started trying to stat out NPCs this weekend and ran into trouble. I have no experience with DMing D&D, and am just not getting what the best way to represent the 3E NPCs is. Should I make them NPCs? Just re-skin monsters? Do they get the same powers as PCs or can I just find an appropriate monster power of roughly the same level? I've read the DMG sections on this, so its not a problem of my not understanding the rules. I am just having a hard time with the concepts.
I'd recommend using "monsters". I made Laori and Shadowcount Sial into fulfledged characters and the PCs were just encourage to have me run them during encounters. It was too much for me to keep track.
ReplyDeleteWith my hindsight knowledge I've gone the "monster" route with Sabina Merran. I reskinned a basic monster and added an encounter power and an at will.
And if you need them to do anything that isn't statted out but still "story appropriate" then some behind the screen hand waving does the trick.