About to enter 'underdark like' dungeon. Any survival tips?

[Odessa333]

Hey all! ;)

So my party and I are about to enter a large under ground dungeon. It's a homebrew world, and the DM has linked this place to be the closest equivalent to the underdark the world has. The session ended with us in the last town on the surface before we descend, a last chance to stock up on supplies.

I've been gaming for years in other systems, and have never challenged the underdark proper. I'm excited to see what this is going to throw at us, and want to be prepared as much as possible. And frankly, I'm still fairly new to pathfinder so I don't all the fine details as well as I'd like. I'm looking into some ideas now, and figured it can't hurt to see if anyone could offer any suggestions.

Thanks for your time ;)

[Tarvus]

Whats the party makeup? And what sort of tricks are you looking for?

One of my favourite tricks I got from GITP here, was casting the daylight spell on a 100 foot long rope. Not only is the rope a useful thing to have in caverns, GMs will often throw darkness at you (not to mention if they're using the standard Underdark creatures who often have darkness as an ability).

Since Daylight doesn't actually specify the size of the object, you end up with a 220x120ft rectangle of Bright Light and a one step increase in lighting for 60ft beyond those bounds. In PF it also penalizes light sensitive creatures and counters or dispels darkness spells to boot. Win win win...win?

Edit: Mixed up PF and SRD spells. Think thats worked out now :s

[CSeiberlin]

Well it sortof depends on your levels and the set up. What are your resources?

As a basic guide-on... if you have the power level the party should all have some sort of Darkvision. The DM will be well within his scope if he sets up ambushes or sends extra critters your way if you are using continual flames or the like (you should have those as well but shielded). Light should be avoided as it usually is a signal to 'come eat me' to underdark denizens if your DM is at all reactive.

Common annoying hazards or critters.... have a plan of action to deal with green slime and brown mold. Have equipment and appropriate items (alchemical or otherwise like a extra scroll of gust of wind or two) to deal with swarms. Have weapons for the party to deal with oozes. The only other expected problematic underdark critter you should have a plan of action to deal with is for rust monsters (the classic way to deal with them is to throw iron spikes with them and to run away while they eat but you can use the time to protect your fighters.... switch to ranged weapons or AoEs)

I like to have some sort of flight available for everyone at a certain level (potions of fly to start with), but levitate can do in a pinch (and has other purposes). Feather fall can also help with deep chasms but the return trip becomes problematic.

Depending on your party's carrying capacity a block and tackle can be very handy depending on your DMs style. An adamantine shovel and pickaxe can also chew through otherwise impassible roadblocks (and a cleric with a silence or bard with a control sound can limit the danger of making that much noise....though expensive at 3k a pop those tools can get you into places the GM did not intend....maximizing swag and xp).

Other basic gear.... have alternative means of breathing.... water breathing at the very least for the random flooded 'wet' cave. My personal preference when playing is to acquire a necklace of adaptation since it deals with 'bad air' and gas traps as well. Helms of Underwater action will almost be required if you are going after something like aboleth (and nice to have with kuo tou)

Standard dungeoneering equipment (Wands of Cure Light Wounds, Lesser Restoration, a scroll or two of Cure Disease and Remove Curse) should be stocked enough for the entire adventure since you may not be able to drop back into a friendly settlement for some time. At 750 gp a pop the CLW wands are probably the most important resource to keep the party going until you find a place to safely rest while sparing the divine casters slots for other things (if your party loses about 50 hp a fight then I'd probably go with about 8 of them or so) If you don't keep a 'party fund' have the PCs sell their most probably useless CLW Potions and other in-combat action sinks for something that will at least patch you up between fights.

Other than that it really depends on the scenario and cash on hand. Hats of disguise can be nice & fairly cheap if you know you are going to be walking into a drow city (disguise as orcs or other moderate power slave races....never kobolds or goblins if your DM has a rat bastard streak). Stone shape is another nice utility to have in an underdark adventure. Having some languages and a tongues spell ready can be nice. Mind screwing critters are also more common in underdark adventures....make sure the beat stick(s) have buffed their will save somehow and have a contingency to counter a domination of a big dumb fighter (from protection from evil the entry level means to help break a dominated fighter).

[avr]

This may be obvious, but you don't want to run out of food, hunting/gathering/finding inns in the underdark is not reliable. One sustaining spoon (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/r-z/sustaining-spoon) per four people is ideal, or load up a handy haversack with ordinary food.

Any archers need to get lots of arrows, same reason.

Air Bubble is cheaper to get items of than Water Breathing though it doesn't last as long.

Anyone attempting stealth needs darkvision, naturally or via spell/item. Even candles are too obvious.

If at all possible get a map.

[Tarvus]

There are some other suggestions from 3.5 I could make but I'm not sure about conflictions with PF/what books are fair game. Spoiled below.

A few other useful magics, which depend on how your DM intends to portray the Underdark equivalent. My DMs all tended to make them exceedingly variable from cavernous...well caverns linked to tight tunnels and invariably dangerous. That might skew this, but it fits with the underdark lore if not quite the challange presented by RAW:


A Wand of Ray of Resurgence (Lost Empires of Faerûn), preferably eternal (only 750gp iirc), means your non-casters never have to sleep. Depends upon how dangerous the Not-Underdark is, it can be useful to have everyone else in your party on watch while the casters sleep. Useful once you come out too.


Passwall (and its instantaneous brother Excavate (wiz8)) can save you if you're running about in tunnels a lot. This goes double if its maze-like or guarded. Imho Passwall is indispensable but Excavate is more niche.
Besides the normal uses and abuses of passwall, an interesting tactic is to passwall into a rock face, the excavate at the end of that. Once the passwall ends, the little room you've built is all but invisible. Hide yourself, imprison a captive (both of these need air after a time though) or cache loot in relative safety to collect later.


On the flip side, Dark Way from SpC provides bridges for chasm and walls to block of tunnels at only level 2. Great when you don't yet have fly, and more forgiving attachment points than "Wall of" spells too.


Similarly Blockade from CScoundrel (Everyone-but-Cleric 1) creates a 5x5x5 block of wood as a swift action. Fantastic for blocking tight tunnels, or if you need something buoyant in underground rivers. Its heavy too if you need to drop it on something.


Lastly a Travel Cloak for each character. It is from MoF, 1,200 GP a pop. Provides food food and water for a character every day, permanent endure elements against cold and also turns into a tent 1/day.
The last 2 aren't that useful in the underdark, but it works out to be cheaper than a sustaining spoon per character fed. Additionally you don't need to round up to the nearest 4 when working out costs, and you get more functionality to boot.


Edit: Readability

[AnonymousPepper]

The spell Find the Path may prove useful, even in its nerfed PF version. Never get lost again!

[Tarlek Flamehai]

Plan for an emergency way out. What will be available will vary by level. You should have a plan for the closest safe place and the closest place you can access some serious healing. These places may or may not be the same.

Ring gates, teleport, or even a native mount that is trained to go back to its stable if left undirected.

[Fouredged Sword]

Nab a 30-40 auran masks. They are GREAT cheap means of breathing in conditions other than good air. wet them with a waterskin and you can breath for 10min each. They are a good solution for before you can get magical breathing equipment.

Light. Bring light, preferably long duration high area light. Note, it will kill your stealth. Alternatively, get the ability to see in the dark. EVERYTHING is blind past their dark vision range. Having 30ft more dark vision than the other guy is a big deal when wandering around in the dark. Warlocks have an invocation for unlimited darkvision, it's really nice if you are wandering around in the dark.

[Strormer]

As has been stated, the most important thing when travelling to the underdark is the ability to see. Light spells/items are useful, but if you have access to superior vision that's even better. Just remember that you'll need to hit at least 120 ft. in range for any darkvision/tremorsense/blindsense/blindsight that you have.

Most of the other major points will be covered simply by having one cleric/oracle in the party. Food and water and whatnot are non-issues when a caster is around. Having knowledge dungeoneering, arcana, and nature will be highly valuable as well, for identifying threats. Stoneshape or something similar will often be needed to navigate and avoid certain difficulties. Reduce person can often help your party pass difficult spaces, what with low or narrow (or both) corridors.

Finally, be prepared to face psionics. Remember there are aboleths, illithids, duregar, and other unsavory creatures just waiting for your delicious brains. Anything to defend your minds from invaders will be effective, but the more you can protect your thoughts, the better. Especially the more susceptible warriors who might to turned on the more resistant squishies.

Good luck! The underdark can be some of the funnest gaming around!

[CSeiberlin]

Plan for an emergency way out. What will be available will vary by level. You should have a plan for the closest safe place and the closest place you can access some serious healing. These places may or may not be the same.

Ring gates, teleport, or even a native mount that is trained to go back to its stable if left undirected.

Depending on DM, underdark when it was first presented in "Descent to the Depths of the Earth" Gygax stuffed in a player F-U (besides the drow magic arms\armor thing) by seriously messing with teleport magic (the underground radiation made it unreliable). I believe this was kept in the Forgotten Realms presentation as well. So Teleports and similar magics may not work.

On 'safe' settlements, your DM may put it one or two deep settlements....maybe pech or svirfneblin, or non-duergar deep dwarves. You can't plan on it though but if you have disguise aids (magic or otherwise) you may be able to utilize hives of scum and villainy during your expedition.

On serious healing I forgot 'accidents' will happen. It can be a big investment to carry around a scroll of resurrection or even raise dead. Reincarnation is not too painful on the gold fund in a pinch (and you may be able to return to your original race latter with a limited wish). Besides price the other benefit of reincarnation is you may be able to talk the DM into an alternative table ("halflings aren't native to the Underdark") possibly swapping out elf for drow, gnome for svirfneblin, dwarf for duergar, etc... Granted goblin and kobold still stay on the list in this case but it does make infiltration easier as another silver lining.

[sakuuya]

If your DM allows 3.5 material and you have the gold for it, a Ring of the Darkhidden (7000 gp, from the Magic Item Compendium) renders you invisible to darkvision, which is invaluable when roughly 100% of enemies you'll be facing have that vision mode. Similarly, your party sneak might want to pick up Darkstalker (also 3.5, from Lords of Madness) next time they level up, which means that creatures with blindsight, blindsense, scent, and tremorsense won't automatically detect them while they're hiding. Basically, everything in the underdark has more senses than a typical PC does, so if you want to avoid getting ambushed all the time, you should try to negate those senses.

[atemu1234]

PAO yourself into a dwarf?

[Fitz10019]

Pack run-of-the-mill surface-world treats that will be scarce in the underworld. Wine, honey, tobacco, etc.


Finally, be prepared to face psionics... Anything to defend your minds ...

Protection from Evil (or Good or Neutral) protects you 'from mental control'. Get it as a Contingency spell, if allowed.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Ring of the Darkhidden for the party scout (if 3.5 material is allowed) is amazing. The party scout will want some way to see without light to make it work though.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Light. Bring light, preferably long duration high area light. Note, it will kill your stealth. Alternatively, get the ability to see in the dark. EVERYTHING is blind past their dark vision range. Having 30ft more dark vision than the other guy is a big deal when wandering around in the dark. Warlocks have an invocation for unlimited darkvision, it's really nice if you are wandering around in the dark.

Do -not- do this. In a realm where -everything- sees in the dark or relies on non-visual senses, carrying a light source is like carrying a hulking, neon sign that says "I don't belong here. Come eat/murder/enslave me." Carry a few candles and a way to shield their light from the surroundings if you absolutely need it to study spells or the like, otherwise find a way to see in the dark or get along without sight. Have somebody that stays back from the fray carry an object subjected to continual flame inside a hooded lantern and only have him open it on a signal that indicates combat is beginning/has begun. Unless you're the absolute ****-of-the-walk in combat of all kinds, you can't afford to be that vulnerable to detection. There're a lot of mean critters down there; deep dragons for example.

[Tarvus]

Do -not- do this. In a realm where -everything- sees in the dark or relies on non-visual senses, carrying a light source is like carrying a hulking, neon sign that says "I don't belong here. Come eat/murder/enslave me." Carry a few candles and a way to shield their light from the surroundings if you absolutely need it to study spells or the like, otherwise find a way to see in the dark or get along without sight. Have somebody that stays back from the fray carry an object subjected to continual flame inside a hooded lantern and only have him open it on a signal that indicates combat is beginning/has begun. Unless you're the absolute ****-of-the-walk in combat of all kinds, you can't afford to be that vulnerable to detection. There're a lot of mean critters down there; deep dragons for example.

IIRC Pathfinder has some nice rules about Light Blindness and not everywhere in the underdark is cavernous - in tunnels, rooms/cities, mines, duergarholds light travel will be negligible. Light can be more accessible to lower levels than constant or cost effective darkvision, so if you're in a situation where you'd be in darkvision range by the time they see your light, might as well keep the advantage/not expend the resource. Additionally there a few light spells with clauses similar to Sunbeam and Sunburst (at least in 3.5) that have additional the effect for most Underdark creatures such as Drow and Duergar as "creature to which sunlight is harmful or unnatural".

But you are right - picking your battles is important. And having darkvision for at least the scouts is a must* if its within their cost limits. I just wouldn't discount the advantages (or lack of disadvantages) it can have.

*For OP: Belt of Dwarvenkind = darkvision 60ft +2 Con + more for only 3k more than Goggles of Night.

[Fouredged Sword]

Yeah, Dark vision > light > being blind. The problem is that having a light means that you will be seen as soon as your light reaches an area your enemy can see, basically granting everything else the ability to see you around corners. This is bad in the underdark. On the other hand, carrying some sun rods for when the drow dispel your magical darkvision and prepare to slaughter you while you are blind is a really good idea.

Always have non-magical backups for everything vital. Vision, food, water, air, weapons, armor, shelter. Carry means to have these things without magic. Otherwise, you will be in trouble. The underdark is a very magical place. Lots of things are capable of removing your magic and eating you while you flail around in the dark.

Oh, and on that note, prepare SR no spells. The underdark is LOUSY with spell resistance. Also, boost willsaves. The underdark creatures have tons of willsave resisted abilities.

[ZamielVanWeber]

I find light can work in the underdark, but only with a source of superior low-light vision running around. That allowed a torch to extend just beyond the standard range of dark vision and, if you are REALLY BALLSY, a bulls eye lantern can illuminate a massive area.