Tomb of Horrors help

[Trev9421]

My DM is running a Tomb of Horrors game (obviously), and, I have never played something quite like this. Other 3.5 games I have played have always been spur of the moment quests and random half broken fights. I haven't been playing long, albeit, I know the mechanics and whatnot fairly well.

My question is how to best avoid save or die obstacles. He's very fond of good ole rock falls. As far as that goes, I've looked for spells and items that could save me/us, but can't find any. I would really like a good ole barrier, but anything even resembling that I can't use. Specifically repel Metal and Stone type stuff. I could do a teleport, but that only helps me so much and the party not at all.

For reference, I am a Factotum 8/Warblade 1

[Juntao112]

Abuse Unseen Servant and a bag of gravel.

[Trev9421]

I see the usefulness of the unseen servant, I'm going to use that now lol, but the bag of gravel? Sorry if I'm just being dense.

[NotScaryBats]

Write down the riddle / warning from Acererak if you find it, and refer to it each new challenge you find. Does it apply here?

[Story]

Better yet, just grab a Collar of Perpetual Attendance. And an eleven foot pole.

[ArcturusV]

Take Leadership, get a bunch of dwarves with mining tools as followers, dig a path around all the corridors/rooms to the final chamber?

But honestly the way Tomb of Horrors is played (in my relatively limited experience) is that it's directly cribbed from exactly how the module is written. Read the module beforehand, memorize what is Suck and Die traps and such. Or it's altered a lot to avoid people metagaming like that. In which case just run through the place like a pants-less monkey because you're going to get Trap Trolled anyway, so you might as well get a laugh along the way. DMs get seriously sadistic with it to the point where you know their goal is TPK (by all reason) and they will kinda cheat to make sure that they get that TPK. You can't really fight it. If you find some cheesy tactic that lets you win past a room/trap, expect it to be countered after you use it once or twice.

[Trev9421]

Well, I am not allowed the leadership feat unfortunantly, and I'll definantly search for the riddle. I feel like my, "I have all skills and copious amounts of abilities" factotum will cause the parties death by DM irritation.

[NotScaryBats]

I strongly suggest against reading the module -- that takes all the fun out of it.

[Story]

But if you didn't read the module, you wouldn't know that you're supposed to do this.

1st level Warforged Artificer with scroll of Command - jump through the initial mist portal, use scroll to beat the skull thing.

Use the time saved to play a more interesting campaign.

[Trev9421]

I haven't read it for that reason, I just know from hearing people talk that we reaally need to find some hint or poem or something.

[Story]

From what I've seen, the poem is easy to miss and not particularly helpful anyway. You're better off just finding a way to avoid interacting with the dungeon as much as possible. Summon Elemental (Reserve) is ideal.

[Randomguy]

I see the usefulness of the unseen servant, I'm going to use that now lol, but the bag of gravel? Sorry if I'm just being dense.

The unseen servant drags the gravel to set off traps.

Factotums can get int to saves by spending some inspiration points, so that's a plus.

A one level dip in monk would boost your saves significantly, and adding the carmendine monk feat would put your int score to use. It might not be worth changing your build, though.

The greater resistance spell will get you a +3 enchancement bonus to all saves. If you want it to help the party, you'd need to get the party caster to a metamagic rod of chain spell and a lens of chaining, to have it affect everyone.

Take the summon elemental reserve feat and you can summon an elemental at will to set off traps and stuff.

You could always hide behind a tower shield outside of combat to get cover, too.

[Trev9421]

As far as rock falls go, could I use a stone to mud spell as it was falling? Idk, roll a reflex to see if I'm fast enough?

[ArcturusV]

Thus the dwarven mining team suggestion. Still might be able to just hire some for a SP/day each.

Sadly don't expect to turn a profit on that investment. Tomb of Horrors is notorious for not having any treasure in it.

[Story]

I don't think you can do that by RAW, but a DM might allow it due to Rule of Cool.

Anyway, "Rocks Fall" is just an expression. A lot of the traps in the dungeon are not related to falling rocks.



Another thing to note is that ToH was ported from 1st ed, and some of the stuff interacts poorly with 3.5ed rules. For example, there's one place where you're supposed to use Command with a word that isn't listed as one of the possibilities. There's also one trap that does IIRC 200 damage, Reflex for 70. Since it isn't Reflex half, evasion doesn't work.

[Trev9421]

I really like the unseen servant and gravel thing now, the only problem is my DM hinted at not everything being a "trap". Probably because I have trap sensitivity....Anywho, an example was boulders that fall for no reason outside of it's an old tomb....so no trap warning...."trap" lol

[Trev9421]

And yes, "rock fall" is very stereotypical for any save or die affect. I was just trying to cheese my way through stuff with imagination and a do anything factotum.

[ArcturusV]

Just... you know how you should practice any survival tactics that you'd use in a CoC game. Don't read anything, don't trust anyone, never look over your shoulder, never poke at an "interesting" looking object, etc. Those all apply to Tomb of Horrors.

[Trev9421]

Awesome. Thanks for the help everybody.

[Alleran]

I really like the unseen servant and gravel thing now, the only problem is my DM hinted at not everything being a "trap".
It's a trap! Don't believe him!

(No, seriously. Don't.)