H4 The Throne of Bloodstone.pdf - Free

in your campaign when creating an
adventure, and tailor the monsters,
traps and tricks to make them truly
challenging. In the adventure in H4,
for example, we take the PCs to the
Abyss, and strictly apply the rules in
Manual of the Planes, which will help
us keep the characters’ powers under
control, as you will see.
3. Never Give a 100th-Level
Character an Even Break
At low levels, it is often incumbent
on the DM to make adjustments on
behalf of the PCs—fudging the odd
die roll when an unfair “instant
death” result would hurt the game.
But as characters get more powerful,
it is appropriate for you to get stricter
in applying the rules.
Let’s say that you manage to trap a
party in a vat of boiling acid, and they
take a mere 100 hp of damage apiece.
They shrug it off, perhaps using a few
heal spells. But then you insist that
they make a saving throw for each
item in their possession. The magicuser’s
spell books save at a 10, the
cleric’s pearl of wisdom saves at an 11,
all scrolls in the party save at a 14, etc.
Challenging a party of high-level
characters is often a matter of attrition.
Each individual monster, trap,
or trick may do only minor damage,
but it all adds up after a while. Work
at designing adventures that force
characters to move forward, rather
than retreating to safety to recharge
spells and heal damage. If they stop,
attack them to disrupt the rest and
recuperation they need. Bleed off
their spells by giving them juicy targets.
Run their opponents intelligently;
don’t give them lots of dumb cannon
fodder (unless your goal is simply to
drain their magic), Almost any monster
in the system, from the wimpy
kobold up to Orcus himself, can be
made into a powerful opponent if
intelligently handled.
With one player per PC, the PCs
are normally much more effectively
run than are the monsters, which are
all handled by a harried, overworked
DM. Consider recruiting one or two
assistant DMs to run the monsters.
That way, the odds are evened up,
since the assistant DMs will run their
monsters as effectively as possible.
Select the right monsters for your
adventure. It doesn’t take a lot of skill
as a scenario designer to throw 50 tarrasques
at a party. It shows much
more talent to use a less-powerful
creature cleverly. A ring of spell turning
on a monster of middling power
turns the party’s magical strength
against them. Or just working out
details of creature tactics in advance
can vastly increase the strength of
even a minor monster.
Challenge high-level PCs by taking
them to an environment that restricts
their power. We’ve chosen the Abyss;
virtually any extra-planar location has
its plusses. On the way to the Abyss,
we first enter the Astral Plane, where
all sorts of fun things can occur. A
broken silver cord, for example. The
silver cord of a 100th-level character is
no more resistant to being broken
than that of a 1st-level character.
Magical items and spells that tap into
extradimensional space or the Ethereal
or inner planes do not function in
the Astral. These spells include
Leomund’s secret chest, deeppockets,
bag of holding, etc. This has the
delightful effect of drastically limiting
what party members can carry.
In the Abyss, we have other interesting
problems. For example, the
wish, limited wish, and alter reality
spells are granted by the nearest
Power capable of granting such a
desire—in this case, Orcus. All weapons,
armor, and protection devices are
reduced by one plus for each plane
8
through which they are taken, which
means that all +5 swords are now
only +3. Clerics turn undead at two
levels lower than normal (that ability
tops out at 14th, anyway), but can
only recover 1st- and 2d-level spells.
Remember that evil clerics can turn
paladins.
When designing an adventure, it is
easy to believe that the fiendish trap
you have just designed spells automatic,
instant death for your unwary
PCs. This reminds us of the story
about a scientist who put a chimpanzee
in a room with only four ways to
escape, to see which of the four the
chimp would first discover. The
chimp found a fifth way. So will your
players.
The very best encounters don’t rely
on brute strength, but the intelligence
and creativity of the player (not
his character). All the power in the
game is not enough when there is a
puzzle to solve instead of a monster to
fight. Or just changing the motivation
of your monster from “kill the
PCs” to something more subtle can
make a great difference. Encounters
that concentrate on role-playing skill
rather than unlimbering the heavy
artillery are just as challenging for a
100th-level character as for a 10th.
Fortunately, your objective is not
necessarily to kill the PCs, but only to
challenge them and make them
believe that they could die. The looks
of horror on your players’ faces when
a magic-user’s spell book catches fire
in a pool of boiling lava, or a paladin’s
holy sword disintegrates on a roll of
10, will make running the adventure
truly worthwhile for the suitably
fiendish DM.