Out of the Abyss question

[Dmdork]

I have a party of 4 or 5 4th level chars and I wanna run em through Out of the Abyss. Are they too high level and what problems do you forsee in say the first part? Velkynvelve.

[Grod_The_Giant]

You shouldn't have too much of a problem-- or at least, not more than you already do with the first bit of OOtA*. The beginning can be pretty brutal for level 1 or 2 characters and there are really only two bits that happen before level 4 anyway -- the prison break/demon attack and Demogorgon rising from the lake.

My suggestion would be to rework the sequence of events in the prison break. Scrap the sympathetic drow and let your party figure out how to escape on their own -- they're 4th level, they can manage it, and just being given the key is boring anyway. Let your players break open the prison, kill some guards, get all the npcs moving, face off against the main drow force...

And THEN have the demons show up, and start killing EVERYTHING. Hit the players with a level of madness as drow and fellow prisoners alike get torn to shreds, let them go running for the hills with no friends and minimal supplies. Without the buffer of a dozen npcs, surviving the Underdark will be much more dangerous.

To keep from getting too far off the expected level curve... consider skipping the Koa Toa and going straight to Gracklestugh. You're expected to be level 4 by then, so you can run everything normally. At least, until the end-- that's when you hit the city with Demogorgon. Seeing a major settlement wrecked by a demon lord will drive the stakes home that much harder, deprive the party of a potential safe base, and leave them wandering with no way home that much longer.

(As a bonus, it also means skipping the Koa Toa chapter, which kinda forces you to railroad the party or significantly expand things, and is full of delightfully stupid names that really don't fit with the general tone of the module)


*Large numbers of npcs, lots of travel time, etc.

[ScoutTrooper]

Ah-ha! yes, thank you Grod The Giant. I too have recently taken the book off the shelf and read it. I can fit it perfectly in front of my players. I have a similar situation as Dmdork, except mine are 5th to 6th level.

I've got a homebrew setting, with an underdark and the Forgotten Realms pantheon. I to expect some of the things to be trivial, but the jailbreak and surviving aspect should make for a nice change of pace.

I ran them through Sunless Citadel when they were level 3, I max the HP of everything, that seem to help prevent steam rolling. Taking a look at some of the demon stats, I fear that would for sure make them think twice about engaging on the demons in the beginning.

The great thing is, I'm looking to see if I can influence the 'true neutral' EK to finally lean to one side. I also have another player using a homebrew demon race for his Bard. I fully expect to use him for exposition dumping and a sort of Demon Pokedex for the party.