Help me Craft a party for Tomb of Horrors.

[Grifthin]

Hello Guys and Gals. I'm going to be running my party through the Tomb of horrors in a coupla sessions. I'm going to create 6 Characters then let the players dice to see which sheet they get. Here's the questions:

Only PHB stuff allowed.

What classes would you include: Rogue, Cleric, Wizard, Fighter is obvious - what else.

Characters maximum level will be 9.

Wealth available is 36 000 GP.

DMG classes are allowed.

What Equipment - The characters can have magic items up to their recommended wealth total. Only PHB and DMG stuff allowed.

I want them to have the best chance of survival possible. What do you guys think ? It will mostly be for kicks, not a pesistent campaign so don't worry about anything to cheesy.

[BooNL]

Will you use only PHB stuff or also PrC's, which are stuffed in with the DMG (why, I have no idea...).

In the latter case, an Arcane Trickster wouldn't be a bad idea. More spellcasting and trapfinding is always good.

Also, Druids rule everything, especially as they can just summon stuff to trigger the traps.

[Mahtobedis]

I'm tempted to say monk. They can generate a great deal of bludgeoning damage which is very useful against undead.

A paladin might also be useful to have in the party.

I'm honestly not sure they will be able to it with just core though. The rogue isn't going to be able to hurt half the stuff in the tomb since undead are immune to precision damage. But then again you know your players much better then I do. If you think they can do it then go for it.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Sorcerer with Fly, SM1, Animate Dead, Mage Hand, Detect Magic, Dispel Magic, and 2 blasting spells. Dispel Magic, then Detect Magic. If anything is still magical, repeat. After that, have a Celestial Monkey walk across the floor several times until you know where a good chunk of the traps are. Then blow up those traps. Repeat with a Commoner 1 Corpse. After this, have the Rogue go to work.

Rogue with Masterwork Thieves tools, skill-boosting items, feats, and synergies devoted to search, open lock, and disable device. Still probably going to die, but that's where Cleric comes in.

Cleric prepares every restoration spell he can think of, using Reach and Chain to get the most out of his slots. All WBL spent on diamonds. One scroll of Raise Dead, in the possession of the Bard.

Bard uses UMD, his spell list, and his songs to duplicate the sorcerer's and the Cleric's abilities, and to buff the Rogue's skills and the combat of the Barbarian.

Barbarian with maxed Con and Str, taking the save-boost feats. Melee Combat. His job is manipulating those things that the various spells and summons can't, and walking in front of the party in case there is a non-magical trap that doesn't activate on the corpse in front of him. Kills things for the rest of the party.

Wizard. Pure utility spells in his book, leaves most slots open. Maxed knowledge skills and anything not covered by the rest of the party. He's how they justify using these tactics.

This party would still die, of course. Non-core, I can do better(Warlock, Factotum, Archivist, Bard, Warblade, Wizard), but they too would still die. They'd just do it further into the hellhole.

[Mahtobedis]

Non core you can two man the ToH with a Dread Necromancer and a Warlock.

I agree with BooNL that a druid would be a good idea. I still Monk is the best choice for a 6th.

[Grifthin]

Excellent, I added some more stuff to the starting info so people can narrow it down.

[BooNL]

I wouldn't say a Fighter is obvious. For a 6 man party, I'd say Druid, Arcane Trickster, Wizard, Bard, Barbarian.

Wealth would be spent on survival bags and tree tokens...

If I were you, I'd make more than 6 sheets, as the player's are likely to die in the first 5 minutes. I think anywhere from a minimum of 30 sheets still wouldn't be enough

[Grifthin]

Arcane trickster really worth it ? By level 9 you would only have 1 Arcane trickster level. Or am i missing something.

[Eldariel]

Well, if you know what you're doing, you can squeeze in two (use Assassin, go ex-Assassin for a non-evil entry). But no, it's not really amazing for ToH. Still, it's an arcane caster that can deal with traps, two things that are exceedingly useful in ToH.

It's Int-based so it'll really be able to make the checks; Search and Disable Device are both Int-based and they're pretty handy in ToH. Lens of Detection + Goggles of Minute Seeing = sufficient bonuses to Search with maxed Int + ranks + Elf to make most of the checks while taking 20.

Though a smart guy can finish the dungeon with a party of 4 Commoners (well, the final encounter could be hard). Basically all of the traps are perfectly solvable puzzles. The problem is, they aren't easy, the tips are subtle and you don't have time to think nor to screw up. Which is why people always die.

[dsmiles]

Original Tomb of Horrors or updated version?

[Grifthin]

3.5 version. Sorry for not clarifying. not so old school yet to do the original.

[babson99]

I assume you're using the 3.5 conversion posted at wizards.com?

Gear:
* A wand of secret door detection is a must.
* At least one scarab of golembane and an adamantine weapon. Maybe two of each. Both fairly cheap and will prevent some serious headaches.
* Anything to improve the chances of finding and disarming traps.

People:
* A tank who can help the party get by the four-armed mutant gargoyle.
* Monks have some value because they're less dependent on gear, so when they get stripped going through a portal, they won't be completely SOL.

[dsmiles]

Meh. 3.5e wussified ToH. I'm just sayin'.

[Eldariel]

* Monks have some value because they're less dependent on gear, so when they get stripped going through a portal, they won't be completely SOL.

Lol.
Monks are always lol.

[Darrin]

* Monks have some value because they're less dependent on gear, so when they get stripped going through a portal, they won't be completely SOL.

Yep. When I ran ToH, "The Nekkid Monk" pregen made it all the way to the end. Basically a Monk/Tattooed Monk with no magic items or possessions except for a few magical tattoos. Monks have great saves all around, high mobility, enough skill points to put some decent ranks in Climb/Jump/Spot/Tumble, and they don't have to rely much on magic items. Given the rather infrequent number of creatures, their low damage output doesn't hurt them much.

[Inhuman Bot]

* Monks have some value because they're less dependent on gear, so when they get stripped going through a portal, they won't be completely SOL.

Agreed.

I find it hillarious to say this, but Monks are amazing at the ToH. Time for the monk to shine.

When we played through it, the Monk was the last man alive, aside from the Wizard. The Wizard's player said "Kalu casts haste, then invisability, and runs away."

Tomb of Horrors: The only winning move is not to play.

[Thurbane]

I would say:

• Cleric
• Paladin
• Rogue
• Wizard
• Sorcerer
• Monk

...if you have a Wizard and Sorcerer, they can cooridnate their spells - the Sorc can spam utility spells (Fly, Summon Trap Springer aka Summon Monster etc.), and the Wiz can memorize some of the more situational spells. The Paladin may be able to grab an alternate mount more suited to dungeoneering, like a monstrous spider. The Rogue could be an Elf with maxxed Search, for a chance to auto spot secret doors. Good domains for the Cleric would be Luck and Knowledge...