Temple of Elemental Evil pointers (Pathfinder/3.5)

[onthetown]

Our DM started up a new campaign with my best friend and me, and we're going through the Temple of Elemental Evil. The DM's converted it to Pathfinder/3.5 for us. Since there's just the two of us, the DM provided a nice party of hirelings for us to pick and choose from (basically all of the core classes, plus some of the advanced classes and the Magus from Pathfinder). This is what we've got (we're all level 1) :

My best friend's Tiefling Rogue, preparing to go into Shadowdancer when she's able;

My Aasimar Bard with 20 Charisma, so far acting as the diplomancer, skill monkey and minor spellcaster... however, she's got Weapon Finesse and I plan on adding in some other melee feats, so I'm just basically going for a typical all-'rounder bard... thinking about Duelist as a prestige class, want to try something different than Sublime Chord, but also open to other options;

From the DM's party we chose a Human Cleric, Half-Elf Magus, Human Wizard, and Beastman Fighter (it's a homebrew race that replaces the half-orc in his world). I think we're meeting up with the rest of the party soon, so we'll be able to continue to pick and choose.

Our first session was yesterday and we did pretty well, though most of it was just fluff. We ended it right outside of the moat house, so we're not even in the Temple yet.

From those of you who have done the Temple or have heard of it, what can we expect and what should we take for the other classes? We're open to switching out between the different classes in the hireling party before we get in the Temple. The Tiefling Rogue is very much skill-based, but she held her own in melee really well yesterday. My Bard currently has two starknives that I eventually want her to be able to dual-wield, but for now I'm focusing on spells and skills while I try to make her less squishy for melee. Our stats are good (nothing under 10) and our saves are okay because of it.

Also, the Bard: I've really only ever done Sublime Chord with a Bard, but I want to try something that's a bit more suited to light combat as befitting her nice Dex score. I was thinking Duelist, but then I also got to thinking about Beguiler -- not light combat, but I've heard it's a great class and it would probably make use of that 20 Charisma she's got. I know everybody here knows more about prestige classes and multiclassing than I do (I've only just started getting into something other than taking a single class or gestalt for 20 levels).

My main concern is the Temple, though. If the DM decides to be sadistic and leave my friend and I on our own, we're just a Bard and a Rogue. I want to plan for that sort of thing happening, just in case. So... help!

[Quirp]

In my opinion you should really focus on your casting, since the late game enemies are often outsiders with high defenses (balor anyone).
If you fear that you might need more melee power, when you lose your hirelings, Tome of Battle might help (I have heard that a combination with crusader is functional).

[Starbuck_II]

Our DM started up a new campaign with my best friend and me, and we're going through the Temple of Elemental Evil. The DM's converted it to Pathfinder/3.5 for us. Since there's just the two of us, the DM provided a nice party of hirelings for us to pick and choose from (basically all of the core classes, plus some of the advanced classes and the Magus from Pathfinder).

I've only played the Video game.

From those of you who have done the Temple or have heard of it, what can we expect and what should we take for the other classes? We're open to switching out between the different classes in the hireling party before we get in the Temple. The Tiefling Rogue is very much skill-based, but she held her own in melee really well yesterday. My Bard currently has two starknives that I eventually want her to be able to dual-wield, but for now I'm focusing on spells and skills while I try to make her less squishy for melee. Our stats are good (nothing under 10) and our saves are okay because of it.

My main concern is the Temple, though. If the DM decides to be sadistic and leave my friend and I on our own, we're just a Bard and a Rogue. I want to plan for that sort of thing happening, just in case. So... help!

Well, if anything like the video game: one (or more) of hirelings is planning to betray you, but only when worse conditions.

Expect in temple: orc/ogres as main enemies (a couple kobolds) besides cultist humans.
If you go to elemental planes expect creatures that match that plane (Earth elementals at earth domain).

[Tharck]

I've DMed the Temple for both 2nd Ed and 3.5 (although the 3.5 "conversion" had a ton of errors.)

What should you expect?

In the beginning: A half-orc, humans, zombies, and ghouls.

In the middle: Lame traps (what out for putting your hands on books!) Leucrotta, Harpies, and more humans and goblins and ghouls. Think a troll or two. Ettin and Ogre.

Toward the End: Hill Giants, Humans (high level), Ogres.

The end: Dragons: 2 Red, some blacks, cloud giants, fire giants, and weak demons. Mushroom lady at the end is CR Kill you so dont mess with her.

Spoiler: Warning if you read this and your DM finds out he will be pissed.

Spoiler

Show

A 5th lvl Cleric is the boss of the moathouse, he is immune to paralyze. The Gold, Platnium, and Silver rods are traps - they will free Zuggy the mushroom mom, dont mess with them. Dont break doors with silver seals. A wizard guarded by an Assassin holds the Golden Skull. The Golden Skull is an evil artifact that you need to destroy to banish Zuggy. The riddle is find the skull, put a gem from each of the nodes inside of the skull, take skull to forge inside of the Temple and break it. The mirror with angels is a trick, its really Werewolves. In the Earth Temple with the Earth Elementals they cannot leave that room, kill them and dig under where they initially were standing. In the Fire Temple under the hot coals is loot (an intelligent sword as well.) There is a room with a coffin in it that has nothing, that's an illusion. Disbelieve. There is a vampire in there - also an illusion he is really the Prince of some town in Grayhawk, he's not dead. Remove him from the coffin. You'll know the room because it should feel like a safe haven for everyone to rest in. Level 4 is hard if your DM is a stickler, be as covert as possible. The Temple is best taken down by working within the temple and posing as Priests and acting as mercanaries and killing off priests in the temple as that. In the town of Hommlet there is a General Store with a fat man and a skinny man running the place. They work for the Temple and are evil. They're also CR 10 - each.

:P

[qcbtnsrm]

I don't want to put too much in for spoilers. And there are a number of different versions, so not all of this may be applicable. But here are a few basic hints.

Point one - Make sure you have a "balanced" party. Having someone who can find traps and secret doors is very useful. You will need a good arcane caster and a divine caster. Skipping any of these will make certain points a lot harder.

Point two - Question everything. There are a number of characters who can and will switch sides. Even the vilest creature may be a potential ally. There are also plenty of nominal allies that will backstab you if they are given a chance. And a lot of them can be found in very unlikely places. Even the true bad guys have their own agendas and a lot of them can be worked with / played for suckers. Sure they are all on team evil. But Frank the cleric might be very willing to strike a deal to get Bob the necromancer out of the way. The temple is Chaotic evil and a diplomancer will have plenty of chances to play.

Likewise a lot of the NPCs are not what they seem to be, and most of them have a story. The town drunk Elmo for example, is someone you should definitely get to know. But everyone has a story, the leather worker, the metal smith, the brewer, everyone. Many of these are mundane and unimportant. But a couple are worth tracking down.

Point three - Take the name seriously. You are going to encounter a lot of evil, and a fair number of elementally themed villains. Basic precautions against each will serve you well. So when going after the Fire Temple expect evil fire themed bad guys.

Point four - As Tharck mentioned, expect humanoids. This is a human run operation and as such has lots of humans and humanoid allies, with the occasional monster/outsider/undead for help. Even at later levels your primary opponents will be humanoids with levels. So things like tripping and mind-effecting spells can have utility longer than in some other campaigns.

Point five - If appropriate have someone be chaotic good and proficient with a bastard sword. There are two such weapons (Scather and Fragarach) that depending on version fall somewhere between powerful and ungodly. In the crpg you could easily do hundreds of hp damage a round with an unoptimized fighter with one of them.

[Jack Zander]

I've played the computer game and I love it. Out of curiosity, do you know where your DM got the converted module? I'd love to run my group through it sometime since I'm really familiar with the computer version.

[Matthew]

I've played the computer game and I love it. Out of curiosity, do you know where your DM got the converted module? I'd love to run my group through it sometime since I'm really familiar with the computer version.

It was posted at ENWorld, as I recall; here is the thread: Temple of Elemental Evil D20/3e Conversion.

[Jack Zander]

It was posted at ENWorld, as I recall; here is the thread: Temple of Elemental Evil D20/3e Conversion.

Awesome! Thank you so much.

[onthetown]

He's actually converting it as he goes; he just has the 1st edition book.

Thanks, guys! I didn't read the spoiler, figured I wanted somewhat of a challenge.

So, the party... Bard, Rogue, Fighter, Cleric, Magus, Wizard?

It's been suggested that we could take the Monk and make everything laugh itself to death.

[Thurbane]

ToEE is one of my favorite modules, ever. We played it (but never completed it) a bunch of times in our 1E and 2E days.

I've also played the computer game over and over. Love it.

One of group has hinted he might DM the 3.5 conversion - the same guy who used to DM it back in the day. Man, that would be so awesome.