I'm a first time poster on this forum but I have been around for quite a while. I would like to say to all who contribute to this site that it and this forum are great. It has become one of my main resources for all things Greyhawk.
Anyway, I mostly DM for my group but decided that I want to be a player for a change and specifically in a classic Greyhawk adventure/campaign. I decided that Maure Castle would be a good one. I never played it and only know the background info on it. I use 3.5 D&D rules and I was thinking that the recent Dungeon issue with Maure Castle will work. My sister (a pretty damn good DM) will take me through it, but I'm thinking I will be solo, as a kind of a personal challenge. Now, the adventure is set for 4 12th level PCs but I'm planning to run only one PC with maybe one henchman. My only issue is what level PC should I play. I love to play Sorcerers and Bards so it will probably be one of those. Also what level should the henchman be. I would like to be challenged but still have a chance to get through.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what level my main character should be?
What about NPCs who already exist? Since I'm playing this character for this adventure only I wouldn't mind playing a classic NPC of Greyhawk. Might be fun.
Doing an adventure solo under 3.5 rules is very tricky, unless the adventure is designed for a single PC. In particular, a single arcanist, no matter how puissant, can easily end up in serious trouble. One bad initiative roll and you can find yourself in the threat range of something a couple of fighters should be keeping away from you.
Are you sure that you cannot be persuaded to go in with a little more back-up? If you do go it alone (brave man), I would suggest playing a cleric instead. Experience has taught me that solo modules with no access to proper heaing can be very nasty. All the best.
If you do a bit of online research for the above title, you'll see that Maure Castle's publication history goes back to 1st ed. AD&D. The original version came with stats for four PCs from the original Greyhawk campaign (or at least reasonable fascimilies of their stats). My memory is failing me on all four, but they include Yrag and Mordenkainen. For nostaglia's sake, they would make for excellent NPCs to go along with you.
And if you do go it alone, don't ever sleep anywhere near the dungeon.
Well, I have to say that the Maure Castle series is my favoriteproduct that Dungeon has ever produced (and I like much of what Dungeon has produced!). This is particularly true as a DM. I ran Maure Castle for a long running campaign (4 years, 2-3 times a month), and it was the end.
13 PCs and henchmen, all of appropriate level, and with a gracious plenty of magic... DEAD. Only the Shadow Dancer and a Silver Dragon/Ranger PC escaped. This was a resourceful, well coordinated party with many, many talents at their disposal. Classes were Ranger/Arcane Archer, Cleric(x2), Druid, Paladin (x2), Rogue/Ranger/Shadow Dancer, Silver Dragon/Ranger, Bard, Fighter (x2), Sorceress and an advanced Shadow Henchman.
It was a disaster.... even the powers of the almighty DM could not stop the slide. A few bad rolls at the wrong moment, combined with some crafty opponents and we had ourselves a near TPK.
If you have a DM who will give the denziens an even chance, and won't stop becuase you are loosing... I cannot think of a worse choice, or a shorter game. Of course, you could create seven or eight characters, and play them in sequence... this could result in seveal quality hours of gaming. YMMV. Good luck though, it is a great adventure.
Maure Castle and its predecessor, Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure are my favorite GH mods of all. The central villain, Eli Tomorast is naturally my favorite villain (see pic). As for solo adventuring in MC. Yes, that would take -extreme- care on the part of both player and DM. It is designed to be a good dungeon crawl and it isn't necessarily harder the deeper you go. I have had a TPK in there twice and it was mainly due to the fact the PC's didn't know when to cut and run. Since you are playing in MC, I'd have to lean toward a rogue on this one. You'll have to stealth and skill your way to survival rather than bash. Evasion goes a long way. Good luck.
Its a classic dungeon crawl for the most part. A solo bard is gonna croak in short order, as most of his abilities deal with influencing others who are generally not trying to kill him on sight. A sorcerer will do better, but will probably fail miserably due to a limited spell roster. A wizard would do better still, but they better have some fodder to get in the way.
Pure solo would mean death for most characters unless they were Epic level, and at least level 25+. An epic wizard will probably do the best, as they could summon critters to fight in addition to hurling spells to kill or solve the puzzles and problems in Maure.
Since you're going to try this out solo, I recommend pinging Rob Kuntz for some input: he's not only the author of MC, but also adventured with Robilar solo in Castle Greyhawk a lot under EGG. He may have some interesting advice, and his board is at http://pub175.ezboard.com/bpiedpiperpublishing _________________ Allan Grohe (grodog@gmail.com)
http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html
How are you? Yes my friend did get the red box and we played at least 3 times during my visit to Germany. I meant to tell let you know but I got side tracked. Thanks again for the help.
We had a great time in Germany what a blast. Good food, good beer and some roleplaying thrown in. Can't beat that!
Thanks to all for the input on this thread. Here is what I'm thinking. I made up this awesome 20th Level Sorcerer. His henchman will be a 12th level fighter.
Let's see what happens.
I'll let you all know how it goes. We will probably start in a week or so.
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YMMV. Good luck though, it is a great adventure.
