Hey everyone, been a while since I did any real DM-esque stuff. I've got a new group (all of them members of the Creative Writing course I'm taking), and most of them are relatively inexperienced (1 new player outright, 2 4E players who are trying out 3E for the first time, a guy who's only played Core-only 3.5). I've gone through the module several times with other groups, but none of them have made it past room L3 (due to real-life issues, not due to difficulty). So I wanted to run this by everyone. First, the important shit:
Major House Rules: My Armor, Weapons, and Skill fixes are in effect (armor provides minor DR but still has full AC bonuses, weapons I've touted around here before, and Skills are just largely consolidated). HP is max 1st level HD+Con score (so everyone has HP in the 20s), and negative HP works like 4E (so dying is harder).
Fire Genasi Warlock: Modified the Fire Genasi from 4E to be 3.5-compatible. I've house ruled the Warlock's invocation progression to be better (3 invocations at level 1), and he's taken some OK choices (Eldritch Glaive, Baleful Utterance [nerfed to be less dungeon-breaking], Miasmic Cloud). AC 19, 22HP, DR 4/Slashing, Resist Cold & Fire 5, and a +5 Attack bonus with Eldritch Blast (+1 with Glaive, so melee is a bad thing for him). He can release a pulse of fire that knocks enemies back 5ft and deal 1d8+1d8/4 levels once per encounter.
Elf Dhampir Crusader: The party's tank. Dhampir is heavily modified to be useable at ECL, but it's still really good stat-wise. The only real house rules are to his Dhampir stats, and the Unofficial Errata (whenever it comes up). He uses a Khopesh and wears Scale armor. AC20, 24HP, DR 5/Piercing or 2/Silver, Resist Cold 5, +2 Will saves on Mind-Affecting abilities. He has the ability to generate Temp HP 1/round every time he hits someone (3+1/2 Character Level, stacks with Stone Power), heals off of Negative or Positive (based on a Will save each time, has shitty Will saves), and has Command as an SLA (4/day). Strangely, the only damage he's taken has been from the party's new Warblade (who dueled him in her first session, and won spectacularly due to insane luck on both sides).
Elf Rogue: Dragonmarked of House Thurani (Darkness as the SLA), resident skill monkey. Rapier and Longbow as weapons of choice, nothing special about her. She's never played 3.5, but has 4E experience. Barely. Her method of creating a character is to look at an online generator (like WotC's Insider one), find things that "look cool", and have no idea how the fuck they work. I had to modify Weapon Finesse so she could use it, because she would be useless outright without that mercy (and she will be once the Dread Necromancer gets Undead minions). AC 16, 20HP, and that's it.
Warforged Dread Necromancer: I modified his spell list, but the class is largely the same. I've asked him to keep the Minionmancy to a minimum until later in the campaign (I've assured him the opportunity for an undead army later on). Took proficiency in a Meteor Hammer, has Mithral Body, Tomb-Tainted Soul, and Corpse Crafter (planning on Destructive Retribution).AC 17, 24HP, DR 5/Piercing (Mithral Body acts like a Breastplate).
Kalashtar Warblade: The brand-spanking new player. She's never played D&D before, and we spent 7 hours hammering out a Warblade for her to play. She's got some phenomenal luck (6 critical hits over the course of 3 rounds, took no damage at all during that encounter), and if it wasn't for the fact that she's using my dice I'd have said she was cheating. Her maneuver selection is a mixed bag (Steel Wind, Sapphire Nightmare Blade, Charging Minotaur, Stance of Clarity), and her Will save is worse than the Crusader's (-1, no Moment of Perfect Mind). The final boss of the dungeon has seen her in action (the duel with the Dhampir Crusader, wherein she got that insane string of 6 crits). Works off of a rapier and a set of 10 throwing knives. She's a fast learner too (learned about Psionic Tattoos from the Kalastar fluff, asked me about them, then bought a tat of Force Screen in anticipation of a level 1 Boss fight). AC 19, 28HP, DR 5/Piercing, and Vital Recovery as a feat (so she can heal herself outside of encounters without relying on the Crusader).
As for the dungeon,
here's a link. The rooms themselves are unchanged, but the encounters within got an overhaul. I went a tad overboard on treasure, but it's not nearly enough to unbalance things (and most of it will be sold for half price anyway).
