Ixis Island spawns

[Anrilor]

everyone please remember the idea behind hard spawns is to force parties! you know the ones in taverns, who parties when they go out to slaughter an entire isle for some rare loot that hardly ever drops.

I mean come on, then they might have to share that rare drop!

I've never been out there personally, but a few people do make their way out there on occasion, and the ones that patrol it regularly, out of the 40+ times of doing it, the drop only happened for them 3 times, 1 suit of armor, 1 shield, and one kurkri

[Zoberraz]

I've had Maia go with Peridan and Dain to the isle. We had DMs oversee the trip and give us a notice to not take the difficulty at face value... so, I'm not sure any estimation of how that place is presently would be accurate even though present testimonies seem to match.

My biggest disappointment was in how little Maia the archer ranger contributed to the party's successful survival. I'm not sure what combination of AC, HP or something else that contributed to it on the part of the monsters to make flinging arrows at them look so unrewarding in comparison to most of the other non-DR/non-undead content of the PW... but Dain and Peridan could've been alone and what they would've had would have been a solid duo less one glass-cannon liability to worry about.

This could be just a favored enemy issue; as 5 more damage points per arrows might have shown up more.. though I'm skeptical simply because the wolves in the mossdale can still be taken down by a full attack and some luck - and it didn't feel the same on the isle (one full volley of arrows, and the raptor is only down 1/5 its health and clawing at my throat? ugh). Maia has Monstrous Humanoids in for roleplay reasons so to portray her greater experience fighting the yuan-ti scalyfolk (the toolset identified them as monstrous humanoids) but it isn't doing squat to help out with kobolds and lizardmen (as equally scaly, just reptilian rather than monstrous).

In any case, the whole venture really discouraged me from returning there. It kind of sucks to be the woodsperson in a group only to find out you can provide next to no asset to a group which is in the wilds. By contrast, Maia is far more useful in the mossdale... which will probably remain her preferred 'dangerous woodland' place.

The isle is pretty - there are some pretty nice vistas. I thought the swimming mechanic - even though it felt screwy with both cloaks and combat done while swimming - was also pretty neat.

[MadSeer]

I guess what annoys me most is that ... they're freaking kobolds and lizardmen. There are lizardmen in the sewers of Sundren, there are lizardmen in Sestra and now there's lizardmen on the island. Where's the deadly tribe of giants ? Where are the ogres, the trolls ? The shark-octopus-bears ?
And well...kobolds are kobolds. That's as frustrating as getting beaten by a CR 1 creature. It's much better if it happens under the giant axe of a fire giant *nod nod*

[Cornuto]

I guess what annoys me most is that ...

Not the best way to start out constructive criticism. :|

[Sir Kharn]

Where's the deadly tribe of giants ? Where are the ogres, the trolls ? The shark-octopus-bears ?

There are giants around, ogres are in the stonegarb cave, no idea about trolls and shark-octopus-bears .....ask Xaayne, he'll tell ya

[Cornuto]

New spawns for the temple went in last night. Thanks to those who tested it for me. Still needs a bit more balancing, but watch your step.

[MadSeer]

There are giants around, ogres are in the stonegarb cave, no idea about trolls and shark-octopus-bears .....ask Xaayne, he'll tell ya

True about the ogres. But where are the giants ? And I'm not talking about the only ones that'll pop because of that quest in Aquor. It just looks like it's the same creatures coming over and over, just with a greater CR than the previous ones.

[Thief Of Navarre]

I want trolls and I want them now! with a sweet chilli dipping sauce!

[Intrepid42]

But where are the giants?

The dwarves killed them all!

[Saulus]

I guess what annoys me most is that ... they're freaking kobolds and lizardmen. There are lizardmen in the sewers of Sundren, there are lizardmen in Sestra and now there's lizardmen on the island. Where's the deadly tribe of giants ? Where are the ogres, the trolls ? The shark-octopus-bears ?
And well...kobolds are kobolds. That's as frustrating as getting beaten by a CR 1 creature. It's much better if it happens under the giant axe of a fire giant *nod nod*

Well... there's multiple lizardmen tribes, not to mention the fact that Giants wouldn't really find any place to live in Sundren. The giants are all up in the north which hasn't been fully mapped out yet.

I also don't know what you mean by lack of variation in encounters.. I'm hard pressed to think of more than 1 spot that has the same creature with a higher CR level. Almost every zone has something different.

Also, we're not going to make up spawns in a random area just because we dont have them somewhere else. They have to make sense.

[Cornuto]

Yeah the new island has pygmies, dinosaurs, kobolds, and lizardfolk ... everything but the lizardfolk are new enemy types.

[Subal]

I love the new island and the look, gives something to rp for researching tribes and other goodies, Also love the swimming now that is possible. Is this a indication we will possibly be able to see sharks and other aquatic animals now ?

btw new spawns in temple hurt 8) bravo.

[MadSeer]

Also, we're not going to make up spawns in a random area just because we dont have them somewhere else. They have to make sense.

Of course. I'm not saying to shove a Fire Giant tribe on the Spine of the World. But there's already a lot of monster templates in the toolset that could have been used that we don't see. But you fight lizardfolk at low level in the sewer, you fight lizardfolk at midlevel in Sestra and fight lizardfolk at high level on Ixis isles.

Anyway, not sure why I brought that up myself in the previous post as I made this thread to fix the kobolds. And, going back on point, to a level 16 they give the same XP as the lizardfolk of Sestra would. Which is around 3. Very little for how strong they were made.

Scaling them down, but keeping the CR as it is would allow for the characters they're supposed to give XP to to kill them. No one in their right mind would kill those kobolds right now. They're too hard to be profitable to mid level, but hardly give XP to the high levels. So they should either give more XP or be easier to kill.

I'll say good job on the new spawns in the temple, though. On my own I can kill two or three and get decent XP. Seems like it's a very balanced area for a 16ish party.

Edit: I checked back the island for the swimming mechanics (which is great by the way) and ran into more kobolds, which were beaten pretty easily. Were changes made ?

[MadSeer]

Are the Dispel traps disarmable ? I've been told they aren't, but I hope that's not the case. Considering they dispel pretty much everything off of you, there's a bunch of them and they're barely avoidable, if spotted at all, it would seem over the top if they couldn't be disarmed.

So I'm just looking for confirmation if they can or can't be disarmed (that's in regards to all the dispel traps in Mossdale, Veritas and Ixis Temple).

[Cornuto]

They can be disarmed, the DC should be very doable for a dedicated rogue.

There's 5 instances of dispel traps spread throughout 3 levels of the dungeon. If they're detected with a very doable search roll, they can be walked around if care is used.