Recommend an adventure for levels 3-5/6

[cowsay]

Please recommend a published (or unpublished, if you're willing to share) adventure for characters of 3rd level to get to about 5th or 6th level. The party is bard, crusader, druid, ranger, and sorcerer of various races. They are moderately optimized. Most published WotC resources permitted. I have an adventure in mind for level 5/6, so I'd like something fun to get them there. Much obliged.

[Grayson01]

Expididtion to Undermoutain was pretty good. I ran it, modified, as a starter to a FR campaign. Call the Mimic Wall, my RP of him was a favorite of my group.

[cowsay]

I don't have that one handy, but isn't that a mega-adventure of like 10 levels? Or were you recommending more specific part of it?

[Palanan]

The Forge of Fury (http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Fantasy-Roleplaying-Adventure/dp/0786916443/) could be perfect for what you have in mind. It's designed for third-level characters, who are expected to reach fifth by the end.

This was one of the modules my group went through when we first started 3.5, and we had a blast with it. None of us had much clue about optimization, we spent forever discussing battle plans that went to frack in seconds, and there was a regrettable incident in which the evil dwarven PC charged across a rope bridge as it was being cut from the other end.

In short, good times, very good times indeed.

:smalltongue:

[VoxRationis]

Secrets of Smugglers Cove and Legacy of the Savage Kings are both around that level, if I remember correctly. They're from Dungeon Crawl Classics, however, so they might not be good for an optimized party. My group isn't full of optimizers by GitP standards, but we cut through the former like a hot knife through butter.

[Gwendol]

Seconding the Forge of Fury. It's a good dungeon romp with varied enough encounters and a few twists.

[justiceforall]

If you are going to use Forge, just make sure you read it *very* carefully and adjust the encounters for 3.5. There's a lot of things that don't quite work without some tweaking.

And do something about the Roper encounter if you don't want a TPK.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by justiceforall
If you are going to use Forge, just make sure you read it *very* carefully and adjust the encounters for 3.5. There's a lot of things that don't quite work without some tweaking.

Definitely worth reading carefully, although we ran through it using 3.5 with minimal adjustment. We were all new to 3.5, and our characters would've been laughed out of the Playground these days, but we rolled through some areas and had just enough trouble to make it fun in others.


Originally Posted by justiceforall
And do something about the Roper encounter if you don't want a TPK.

Funny you mention this. We cut through that roper like he was tissue paper.

Our DM was pretty astounded. He told us immediately afterward that we weren't actually supposed to fight the roper, just negotiate with it. Apparently the encounter was designed to remind PCs that sometimes talking is better than attacking. Sadly for this concept, there's a mistake in the roper's statblock involving the languages it speaks, so as written the roper can't communicate with ordinary PCs.

Our DM ran it as written. I can't recall exactly what we did, but my druid was sending flaming spheres hither and yon and there was a good deal of enthusiastic stabbery. As I said, very good times indeed.

:smallbiggrin:

[cowsay]

Thanks for all the recommendations so far. I love the Forge of Fury. I've been both a player and DM for it. Unfortunately, this group has gone through it, so I'm looking for an alternative.

[justiceforall]

Funny you mention this. We cut through that roper like he was tissue paper.

Our DM ran it as written. I can't recall exactly what we did, but my druid was sending flaming spheres hither and yon and there was a good deal of enthusiastic stabbery. As I said, very good times indeed.

:smallbiggrin:

Ropers have somewhere in the vicinity of 30 spell resistance last time I checked. The one in Forge probably has different stats, but even if it has 20 spell resistance, you guys should have been hosed. Add to this that its first round should have grappled the entire party with ranged touch attacks, preventing the casting in the first place... etc.

Not raining on your story - trying to point out to the OP that the Roper is BAD NEWS unless you are willing to just let your players win.

I ran through Forge again last month as a player and our GM replaced the Roper with a pair of assassin vines. Seemed like a very good replacement thematically (assuming one would have to fight the roper if spotted), whilst being a very difficult but not ridiculous encounter for a 4th level party.

EDIT: Ninja'd by OP whilst posting.

[Palanan]

Yup, the Monster Manual gives the roper SR 30, while Forge of Fury lists it at 28.

No idea how we managed that, but I think our uncoordinated gung-ho assault may have caught our DM a little off-guard. Also, he was still fairly new to the game (along with the rest of us) and probably wasn't playing the roper anywhere near its full combat potential.

Looking over the stats again, I notice it takes double damage from fire. My druid wasn't capable of penetrating SR 28, so our DM might have overlooked the entire SR issue in the heat of the moment, and just factored in the double damage from the flaming spheres.

Plus all the other stabbery going on simultaneously. I don't recall the play-by-play, just the epic afterglow.

:smalltongue:

[droppedbutnot]

It's not exactly what you're looking for, but The Lost City of Barakus will take your party from 1-6. We enjoyed it. You could also adapt Eye for an Eye from Dungeon 92 (I think).

:cool::cool::cool:

[Lonely Tylenol]

With some slight modifications, the Barrow of the Forgotten King might work. It's what got my Wizard from 2nd-3rd level to 4th, and was probably a high point of the campaign it was in. If you want to completely fill the gap, its sequel, The Sinister Spire, should get you the rest of the way, and Fortress of the Yuan-Ti can be revisited after your adventure is resolved.