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mr.fizzypop
2009-12-18, 11:31 PM
I am going to DM a 3.5 one-shot tomb of horrors adventure. I have never DM'd this module before, and have little experience with higher level adventures/characters. I'm using the 3.5 conversion of the tomb from the WOTC. Do any of you have any suggestions?

I also have a few questions:

1. The PCs will be using premade characters created by me. Is their any spells I shouldn't give the spellcasters or any spells I must give the spellcasters?

2. The PCs will be 9th level. Is that too high or low? I want the adventure to be challenging but I don't want them to die strait away. The PCs know little of the tomb, and only know that it is famous for killing characters.

3. I was going to have this adventure as a competition, awarding points for solving puzzles or surviving/dieing last. Any suggestions of what I should give points out for?

4. In room 14, the church, when it says the door changes a characters alignment to evil, how should I present that? I've heard others interpret it as the character instantly attacks the good party members.

5. In the room of the fog of insanity, I know the original adventure included a siren, but in the 3.5 conversion it's replaced by some monster from the Libris Mortis. Since I don't have the Libris Mortis, how should I handle this area? Should I just leave the siren out?

6. How much better is the adventure with the Libris Mortis additions? Are they really worth it?

7. Overall is their any areas I should omit or change, for any reason?

OldTrees
2009-12-19, 04:19 PM
1.
Some way to burrow/destroy solid stone walls (They need this for 3 locations in the tomb in order to escape traps. IIRC)
(They should have one of these known)

Summon spells are powerful but require creative thinking. (send summoned monsters to check for traps)
(your choice. I would recommend it as a spell known but be warned)

2.
The tomb of horrors was meant for deaths. The entrance is very deadly but is designed to be so. 9th level should do fine. (I ran a game with 1-2 PCs per session at 7th level and they ended up with 4 deaths total. However they skipped fighting Acererak in the tomb.)


3.
I would give points for the following totals for players not for characters.

Solving and using a fraction of the poem. 1pt each
Deaths -1pt each
Entering the First Hall 1pt
Entering the Second Hall 1pt
Finding the first tomb 1pt
Finding the throne room 1pt
Finding Acererak 1pt
Surviving Acererak 4pts
Wealth gained 1pt for each treasure trove
4pts for the final treasure room

4.
Evil PCs will aid the party until they believe that the tomb is too risky for the profit earned or they are near the end and think they can make it the rest of the way on their own. At this point the evil character will backstab/make off with the loot.

5.
A Siren should do fine. However the room is good enough without the Siren. Flip a coin?

6.
It is better with the additions but not enough to be worth the cost of the book. I would not suggest buy Libris Mortis just to use the additions.

7.
No. Be warned some places are death traps with no way out short of destroying walls.

mr.fizzypop
2009-12-19, 04:30 PM
Thanks for the help. Just so you know I using the 3.5 conversion here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20051031a).

Do you know of any better 3.5 conversions?

OldTrees
2009-12-19, 04:44 PM
I found
http://www.thealexandrian.net/archive/archive2005-11.html
to be easier to map out and DM. But both are great versions. The one you posted is a bit more Gygaxian (you die now with no warning) than the one from the alexandrian.

The only problem with the alexandrian one is that one of the ways from the first hall to the second requires shield or high hp in order to get through due to the magic missiles. (it is also the only way back.)

mr.fizzypop
2009-12-19, 05:29 PM
Thanks for the link! That one you have is great, I'm probably going to use that instead. Its so much easier to read and understand. Its less vague about the traps than in the gygaxian version.

I kind of miss the gender changing mist though...

OldTrees
2009-12-19, 05:41 PM
then insert the mist once more.
remember: You are the DM. You have the final say.

If you use the alexandrian I would add 1pt for each key collected and subtract 2 from the final treasure rooms treasure bonus.

mr.fizzypop
2009-12-19, 05:58 PM
What should I do when a character dies, I don't want them to get bored or left out. I had three ideas:

-Each player gets two characters, one to act as a "life". But each character would be completely different.
-After a character dies, they become a spirit and haunt a character, and follow him around. The spirit cannot affect the physical world but can give advise and help solve puzzles.
-I got an idea from a previous thread to allow characters to gain points by betting which character will die next, or last.

I could just use all of them, but what do you think?

Haven
2009-12-19, 06:08 PM
What should I do when a character dies, I don't want them to get bored or left out. I had three ideas:

-Each player gets two characters, one to act as a "life". But each character would be completely different.
-After a character dies, they become a spirit and haunt a character, and follow him around. The spirit cannot affect the physical world but can give advise and help solve puzzles.
-I got an idea from a previous thread to allow characters to gain points by betting which character will die next, or last.

I could just use all of them, but what do you think?

All three sound good to me. Additionally, maybe you could find some way to allow for extra lives--perhaps like in a video game, where if they get enough points they get another life. Or maybe they can spend some of their points to come back to life.
...wait, is making a video game analogy going to start another edition war? It's not, right? >.>
Alternatively (or in conjunction): you could include one or two rooms that, if the PCs figure out how to use it correctly, might be able to bring back a character. If that sounds too nice--bring back the character but with a debilitation of some sort, or maybe as a zombie.

But yeah, anything to avoid all the dead players wandering off and playing video games in the corner; otherwise the survivors'll probably rush to die just so they can join their friends.

subject42
2009-12-19, 06:11 PM
The way that we have our ToH game set up, it's like golf. We have TON of pre-genned characters, and the person who dies least wins the point count.

As far as spells go, Wings of Cover is awesome, if you allow the book. As it seems that ability damage is very common, you might want to have a cleric on hand.

9th level should be fine. We're doing it at 8th level and it seems to work.

See this thread for more information: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130373

OldTrees
2009-12-19, 06:13 PM
I had them respawn with new character sheets (or old character sheets) at the beginning of the tomb. On top of the hill.

I like the idea of getting points for betting who will die next. (a bet of no more deaths gives a double payback if accurate)

Also have each bet on how many deaths they will accidently have. They get points depending on how close they are.

exact 5pts
1 off 3pts
2 off 1 pt

Rutskarn
2009-12-19, 06:28 PM
When I ran it, I did the following.

Everyone placed a bet on who would die next/first. If they're right, they get a piece of candy.

If someone dies, they get to haunt the brains of the other players and yell at them/give them advice.

mr.fizzypop
2009-12-19, 09:21 PM
I was also wondering:
How do you pronounce Acererak?

Ashram
2009-12-19, 09:29 PM
I was also wondering:
How do you pronounce Acererak?

Uh-SER-er-rack.

The group I was in had a bitch of a time with Tomb. My cleric did pretty well... Until I failed a Fortitude save against the Mummy Lord's Slay Living ability. >.> The poor rogue in our party died at almost every available opportunity.

Also, the mist doesn't JUST turn characters evil, it works as a Helm of Opposite Alignment. Keyword is opposite. Just remember, say a Lawful Good character gets turned Chaotic Evil, it doesn't mean they have to go cackling, insane Chaotic Stupid. It also screws with their gender if they decide to go through it a second time. The male Chaotic Neutral-leaning-evil rogue in our party got turned into a female Lawful Good rogue. It was so hilarious, and the player played it to a tee.