CORE Return to the Tomb of Horrors

[graymachine]

I'm taking a break from GMing and one of the players is going to run Return to the Tomb of Horrors. He wants us to use only the core books, with a little bit out of Unearthed Arcana (class variants are available on a case-by-case.)

I'm planning on building a Paladin(of Tyranny) 7/Dwarven Defender 5. While I have most of the basics for him down, I'm not sure what to pursue (items or otherwise) for the purposes of RttToH. Since it's limited to the items and feats in core, it shouldn't be too hard, but I'm curious if any playgrounders have some clever suggestions.

Also, I have to make 3 back-up characters because of the famous lethality of the module. Any suggestions?

[TheLogman]

The lethality of Tomb of Horrors comes from 3 things:

1. Undead
2. Constructs
3. THE TRAPS OH WHAT ARE THESE SO MANY TRAPS DEATH AND MURDER AND KILL TRAPS

So attacks that only function on living enemies or things with will saves are not good. Avoid those.

Your job is mostly to just max your saves and Hit points, be extremely careful, and don't die.

Also, anything that can summon is really good, because a summoned creature is a creature that dies instead of you.

Also, look into some sort of levitation or flight.

Buffs that increase saves are good, Clerics that can heal or take out undead or buff are good, Rogues that can disable or detect traps are good, Wizards that can win are good.

[krossbow]

If you cannot see down a hall or into a hole, throw a torch in first, just to make sure its not secretly an orb of annihilation.

[gallagher]

get that golembane scarab. kill the many many golems. like an above poster said--- the lethality comes from undead, golems, and enough traps that would make a nun swear.

[Starbuck_II]

Getting donkey runs helps. There are magic itemds that summon donkeys or just buy a couple.
Mules are sterile so no loss if die for the greate good.

[gallagher]

get a bag of tricks (either rust or tan) or the survival pouch from MiC. they will allow you to have animals that can walk in front of you, setting off various traps that would otherwise kill you.

also, ask your DM if everyone can have some sort of home-brewed feline-blooded template for free so everyone can have 9 lives.

and another thing- get a few ten foot poles, and use them as if you were blind. put pressure on random spots and also ones that you wish to walk on, so that way traps get set off in front of you.

make sure you have an awesome cleric too. i believe there is a dungeonscape varient that allows them to also spontaneously cast restoration spells