Ashrem Bayle
Explorer
Anyone seen it yet?
-
The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
E3: Prince of Undeath?
- Thread starter Ashrem Bayle
- Start date
Mustrum_Ridcully
Hero
Yes. I have received it yesterday with a bunch of other stuff, so I only flipped through it.
I don't know, I am kinda excited about it, maybe simply because it's the conclusion to a campaign and any player characters "adventuring career".
I am not sure if they are necessary to be hidden, but I do it anyway.
[sblock]
In the adventure, you get to fly through the Elemental Chaos with the Abyssal equivalent of an Airship. You first have to fight against its original crew, and during the adventure you return to it occasionally, repelling attacks.
You travel to some fantastic locations and have the chance to fight or form an alliance with some Devils and work with some Angels over the course of the adventure (but I don't remember the details, I only glanced over that).
You get to fight some Spawn or remains of the Primordial Timeseus, the Black Star and later fight him directly, while he is hammering out shards from the Shard of Evil that created the Abyss. Fantastic Location, and Timeseus looks also... unusual in the illustration. Primordial.
In the end, you enter the Temple of Raven Queen, just in time to see the Raven Queen lying, near death, in front of Orcus, who is just in the process of becoming the God of Death.
The final battle has several stages - Orcus is protected and doesn't interfere at first. You then have to enter a skill challenge to destroy the traps shielding Orcus and a second challenge to save the Raven Queen. If you fail, she is dead and Orcus becomes a god, gaining some bonuses for the rest of the fight (if he wins, he'll eventually become a fully-fledged god). If you succeed, he instead suffers some penalties. Once you start messing with the Raven Queen and the Abyssal Shard that is killing her, Orcus launches to attack the party.
Orcus will not retreat easily, and the most likely outcome - if the PCs succeed at all - is his death.
Unfortunately, the adventure doesn't go into too much detail on what his death means. It clarifies that should it happen, the "official" stories will still contain him, but your campaign can and should change a lot. Likewise if he wins, because his plans are to keep all souls and create an army of undead to take over the world. Puts the Raven Queen in a little more positive light...
But it's definitely cool that the Grand Finale is a Grand Finale and you really get to kill a Demon Prince - or fail and a Goddess is destroyed. I half-way worried that the Grand Finale was "just" fighting the Primordial. That just doesn't have the same impact and feels too much like "back to status quo". But killing Orcus - That's something.
Mechanically speaking, my guess is that the final part of the adventure will be challenging even if the individual encounters are not that much above the PCs level, simply because once you enter the Raven Queens temple, you cannot really hope to get an extended rest, you you have to manage healing surges and dailies.
[/sblock]
I don't know, I am kinda excited about it, maybe simply because it's the conclusion to a campaign and any player characters "adventuring career".
I am not sure if they are necessary to be hidden, but I do it anyway.
[sblock]
In the adventure, you get to fly through the Elemental Chaos with the Abyssal equivalent of an Airship. You first have to fight against its original crew, and during the adventure you return to it occasionally, repelling attacks.
You travel to some fantastic locations and have the chance to fight or form an alliance with some Devils and work with some Angels over the course of the adventure (but I don't remember the details, I only glanced over that).
You get to fight some Spawn or remains of the Primordial Timeseus, the Black Star and later fight him directly, while he is hammering out shards from the Shard of Evil that created the Abyss. Fantastic Location, and Timeseus looks also... unusual in the illustration. Primordial.
In the end, you enter the Temple of Raven Queen, just in time to see the Raven Queen lying, near death, in front of Orcus, who is just in the process of becoming the God of Death.
The final battle has several stages - Orcus is protected and doesn't interfere at first. You then have to enter a skill challenge to destroy the traps shielding Orcus and a second challenge to save the Raven Queen. If you fail, she is dead and Orcus becomes a god, gaining some bonuses for the rest of the fight (if he wins, he'll eventually become a fully-fledged god). If you succeed, he instead suffers some penalties. Once you start messing with the Raven Queen and the Abyssal Shard that is killing her, Orcus launches to attack the party.
Orcus will not retreat easily, and the most likely outcome - if the PCs succeed at all - is his death.
Unfortunately, the adventure doesn't go into too much detail on what his death means. It clarifies that should it happen, the "official" stories will still contain him, but your campaign can and should change a lot. Likewise if he wins, because his plans are to keep all souls and create an army of undead to take over the world. Puts the Raven Queen in a little more positive light...
But it's definitely cool that the Grand Finale is a Grand Finale and you really get to kill a Demon Prince - or fail and a Goddess is destroyed. I half-way worried that the Grand Finale was "just" fighting the Primordial. That just doesn't have the same impact and feels too much like "back to status quo". But killing Orcus - That's something.
Mechanically speaking, my guess is that the final part of the adventure will be challenging even if the individual encounters are not that much above the PCs level, simply because once you enter the Raven Queens temple, you cannot really hope to get an extended rest, you you have to manage healing surges and dailies.
[/sblock]
GMforPowergamers
Legend
I shall take this chance to pounce on you, as my E3 is still 2+ weeks from getting to me
I'll second that, in the game I am running for these I have a 21st level ranger throwing 110-200 hp of damage around...he has action pointed and droped solos before, I also have an orb wizard rocking the sleep spell and a salve of power to end encounters fast...does orcus really stand a chance?
Mustrum_Ridcully
Hero
I'll try to check later what the differences, if any, are. The adventure itself gives a boost or debuff depending on how the previous skill challenge worked out, and I think the stat block mentioned something like "Augmented Orcus" or something like that.I shall take this chance to pounce on you, as my E3 is still 2+ weeks from getting to me
I think the most important difference is that you probably don't get to play the "perfect Orcus-One-Round-Kill" character in the final encounter. The previous 2 encounters will probably have exhausted some of the parties reserve and the ultimate super-duper-power-combo-attack will most likely no longer be available.
Mustrum_Ridcully said:
Epic tier characters have more than enough tricks to sustain longer combats to get back their major things they need. For example, the Salve of power can be used to get back a daily power that you've used. If he's supposed to be a genuine solo character, he needs a *really* big boost to be effective and this is what I'm hoping for as I would like to use an improved Orcus in my own game.
However, if Orcus isn't that improved I would like to know so that instead of being disappointed and in trouble for when I need him, I can instead have already made a competitive epic tier Orcus that will be appropriately challenging.
filthgrinder
First Post
The party is already going to have their resources taxed by the time they get to the final battle. The idea that they'll just pop out their combos and end the campaign in one round is pretty silly. They'll be low on dailies and healing surges by the time they get to the Orcus fight.
Thats always been the thing, everyone pits fully rested characters against Orcus instead of characters at the end of a series of tough fights.
Thats always been the thing, everyone pits fully rested characters against Orcus instead of characters at the end of a series of tough fights.
TerraDave
5ever, or until 2024
Actually, those are some pretty major spoilers.
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