Revising Expedition to Castle Ravenloft(spoilers, WIP, PEACH)

Togath · 03-19-2012, 12:34 AM

Newly added(within the last 12 hours);
{!}I've added encounter E6 now{!}I've changed the chupacabra to a dire wolf, in order to fit the theme of the adventure better, and also increased the vulture's HP and gave them flyby attack

After finally getting enough time I'm likely to run castle ravenloft for my dnd group in the next week or so, so I've decided to try to revise some of the wonky bits(such as some of the unbalanced encounters, and under or over powered creatures), and bits that seem a off(such as why the shopkeeper may have the sunsword or holy symbol of ravenkind, or why the werewolves are being lead by an insane nymph).

Progress;

Spoiler

I've decided to use pf creatures when I need too, and homebrew abilities that would simplify things, as looking through some of the encounters, the original writers did a similar thing when they needed to in some of the encounters.

{!}: I'm planning to use this to mark recent updates

Togath · 03-19-2012, 12:36 AM

Encounter revisions 1;

Encounter E1; Zombie street ambush

Notes; this encounter seems to be a fairly good introduction to the adventure, though I am planning to replace the carcass eaters and probably change what type of undead the deathlock is, as there aren’t many of them in the adventure, it seems an odd introduction to include one.

Infected Zombies(4)
replace slam with; bite +6(1d6+4 & disease), in order to make their diseased attacks make more sense fluff-wise

Carcass Eaters(2)[adapted from pathfinder vulture]
replace with pf vultures(same cr, but with better survivability)

Spoiler

Infected Deathlock(1)
replace with an awakened skeleton adept
(to help with both fluff and to make it a more interesting enemy)

Spoiler

Revised tactics; the skeleton adept is less worried about entering melee then the deathlock in the original encounter, due to having both dr and a decent melee attack, and the vultures may flee if badly injured

Revised loot; instead of being empty the cart contains 2d6+13(20 average) gp and 1d3+1(average 2) simple weapons with costs of 2gp or lower, these are mostly for decoration and it makes more sense for a cart to contain something then to be empty, but also give a sense of success to PCs, the search DC to find the gold pieces in DC 14, while the weapons are DC 10

bonus Description if PCs examine cart and find anything;
“after sifting through broken barrels and rotten cloth you find a few golden coins and a handful of simple weapons”
bonus Description if PCs examine cart and fail find anything, or if you just want to describe the cart;
“this cart contains shattered barrels and small heaps of rotten cloth”

Encounter E2; Zombie street encounter

Notes; this encounter seems decently balanced as well, except for the vargouilles, which will either do nothing or kill a pc, I would suggest changing them to beheaded from pathfinder(as it retains the same flavor, but is less likely to either die before it can act, or potentially kill a pc[if the pcs don’t have remove disease, if they do, then the varguoille is pretty much useless])

Infected Zombies(4)
same as the previous encounter, replace thier slam with; bite +6(1d6+4 & disease)

vargouilles(2)
replace with two beheadeds
(to make it a more interesting enemy, and to make it so it can contribute to the encounter better)

Spoiler

Dire Maggots(2)
the dire maggots are a fairly balanced enemy, and can probably be kept, though changing them to a predator of some kind(such as wolves, or the vultures used in encounter E1) could be an interesting change for if you end up reusing this encounter as a random encounter while the PCs travel through Barovia)

Revised tactics; the beheaded should probably try to stay at range, in order to maximize the effect of their belches

Revised loot; in addition to the amulet, PCs can also find a small belt pouch containing 2d4 gp on the slain villager with a DC 10 search check.

Encounter E3; Zombies in the town square
Notes; only real problem here is that it’s hard to run 10 enemies and an allied npc at once, and it tends to bog down play, so I’ve halved the number of zombies in this revision and added an extra CR 5 enemy

Infected Zombies(4)
same as the previous encounters, replace their slam with; bite +6(1d6+4 & disease)

Infected Entomber(1 or 2)
Entombers are fairly well balanced enemies and are good as being a resilient striker, only change is either to add an extra entomber, to keep the EL the same despite removing 5 zombies, or to add another CR 5 monster if you want a different feel
For brook no rival, Strahd’s dynasty, or undead legions going with a second entomber could be a good choice to reinforce the goal’s flavor
For untamed allies, a fiendish dire wolf would fit the goal's theme of vicious magical beasts and lycanthropes
For descent into madness a fogwarden could fit well

{!}Advanced Fiendish Dire Wolf

Spoiler

Fogwarden

Spoiler

Revised tactics; the entombers retain their normal tactics, however if using a dire wolf or fogwarden the tactics differ; the dire wolf charge charge into melee and use it's smite good on the nearest PC, after that switching to charging when possible to gain it's powerful charge bonus, while the fogwarden should stay back and use it’s lightning surge when possible.

Revised loot; should one of the PCs end up in the bottom of the well and search through the water, 4d4+6 silver coins can be found

{!}Encounter E6; Ghoul Foray
Notes; this encounter is a pretty well made one, though if you have a lot of elves in your PC’s party you may want to sue the variant ghasts described below.

Infected Zombies(4)
replace slam with; bite +6(1d6+4 & disease), in order to make their diseased attacks make more sense fluff-wise

Carcass Eaters(2)[adapted from pathfinder vulture]
replace with vultures, as with encounter E1

Spoiler

Ghasts(2)
ghasts are pretty decent enemies for CR 3, though if your party is made up mostly of elves or other races immune to paralysis(50% or more of the group being them) you can replace them with the following variant(a homebrewed ghoul that lacks paralysis, but is hopefully about the same power level)

Spoiler

Togath · 03-19-2012, 12:38 AM

2nd reserved post for revisions

Togath · 03-19-2012, 12:39 AM

NPC stat revisions 1;

Revised NPC: Ashlynnotes;
Ashlyn is not particularly well built feat and stat wise, so I’m planning to revise those aspects, and also include stats for different versions, a warblade, and as a binder(for if you want her more neutral, or at least somewhat more sinister then a paladin or good aligned warblade)

Ashlyn(paladin, 25pt. build)

Spoiler

Ashlyn(warblade, 25pt. build)

Spoiler

Nich_Critic · 03-19-2012, 12:54 AM

This is a great idea. I'll try to contribute if I can

. I ran Ravenloft up until until the gypsy camp. A little beyond that, but after that it got off the rails a little, so my feedback won't be as good.

Togath · 03-19-2012, 06:11 PM

I've gotten the intro encounter and the zombie street encounter(the one which can be used as a random encounter while the zombies are still animated) up, does anyone have any feedback on them?
One thing I did realize after posting the revisions was that the pf varguoille can actually put up a fight without having to worry as much about being one shotted as the 3.5, should I change the beheaded to pf varguoilles that have been converted to 3.5?
I should also be able to get encounter E3 and E6 up as well today, along with possibly revisions to some of the npcs stats.

edit; encounter E3 now up, along with the first of three versions of Ashlyn I was planning to do, to make it so you can adapt her to different optimization levels and/or differ her alignment.

Nich_Critic · 03-20-2012, 09:14 AM

I agree with switching the carcass eaters with something. In my campaign they died immediately without having any effect.

Togath · 03-20-2012, 07:45 PM

Aye, I was worried the carcass eaters were to fragile, also, should I buff the vulture's hd?, They have the same hp as the carcass eaters, but can fly, would it be a good idea to instead or in addition to buffing their hp, replace their great fortitude feat with flyby attack so they can attack, then escape out of melee range?Also, what do you think of the revised stats for the paladin?, she seems better built to me, though I did notice an odd thing about her original stats, in that she had the wealth of a PC higher in level then her, rather than the wealth of a 5th lvl NPC or PC, and I wasn't quite sure whether or not to aim for the same amount in her revised stats.
I had also thought of changing the chupacabra option in encounter E3 to something else, as I realized the common image of a chupacabra is not a humanoid horse(which after looking into it I realized it was a tikbalang was thinking of), but either a scaly somewhat reptilian humanoid or a hairless coyote-dog.

edit; I haven't finished encounter E6, but I have put up the warblade version of Ashlyn

{!}edit 2: I've changed the chupacabra to a dire wolf, in order to fit the theme of the adventure better, and also increased the vulture's HP and gave them flyby attack

Togath · 03-22-2012, 05:18 AM

Thought I should post this as an update note; I've added encounter E6 now, and also fixed a few typos, I've also added a dire wolf option to replace the chupacabra one I came up with a few days ago(because dire wolves fit the theme better), and I've also homebrewed a variant of the standard ghast, for use against parties with a large number of characters immune to paralysis.