3. Feedback on the changes to gnolls and spiders

Feedback on the changes to gnolls and spiders


  • Heya guys,

    I am looking for feedback regarding the tweaks done to the gnolls and spiders. Concrete information about your encounters and the risk versus the XP reward is what I am looking for.

    So give me your level, class, number of party members, who your encounters were in terms of difficulty and if you thought the XP was worth the risk. Also let me know if you thought anything should have been different in terms of thier abilities.

    Keep in mind, we try to balance ALL encounters so that they give a slow steady climb in XP, so I trust that you'll let me know if you think the rewards are set too HIGH as well as too LOW.

    Thanks - Kerby

  • N

    @4f31935df0=Rynguarder:

    yes, and occasionally she wakes, and asks for a will save, followed by a fort save, and then a quick tell along the lines of "You find yourself greatly admiring her beauty, and luckily (this time) you are not struck blind"

    all while being told in ancient elven "you are… delicious, but i am afraid i would wear you out...."

    Some of us wore 'her' out…..

    ...no really.....

    ...what you lookin at me like that for ?


  • Now now… no plotline spoilers!


  • yes, and occasionally she wakes, and asks for a will save, followed by a fort save, and then a quick tell along the lines of "You find yourself greatly admiring her beauty, and luckily (this time) you are not struck blind"

    all while being told in ancient elven "you are… delicious, but i am afraid i would wear you out...."


  • Well, in the case of the spiders, there's the dryad's tree. Usually, she's sleeping, but that's no reason not to go out and water her.

    And occasionally she wakes up and hands out jewelery! WHEE!

  • N

    The more I think about it the more I like the changes to the spiders and gnolls. They are great places to take a party but no place to go alone. Kind of like the road to Ormpur. If I may make a suggestion though. If there can be something out there to make the trip worthwile IC or give a good justification for going out there IC, that would be neat. Doesn't have to be anything really special. With Ormpur you can always say it's a place I have never been, or it's the only place that sells such and such. A really cool thing (have no idea how it'd be scripted) would be a fortune cookie of sorts, call it an oracle. A chest in the woods that contains a scroll that is always there even if someone grabs it up (like Wald's flour) and is different for everyone who reads it. The scroll would be like a fortune cookie with ten or twenty generic fortunes scripted in. Actually, now that I think of it, I really like the oracle idea. Even if you don't put it out there, put it somewhere.

  • A

    the spiders are fine, not sure about xp, but I don't go there for that, and Vine's been killed there so he knows better than to go alone, at least into the deep woods, thats what Kaona and Nawen are for grins

    as far as the Gnolls go, two ventures pastth e gate have taught him a couple things,
    One: do not go there,
    two: really do not go there

    Cannot hit hem with an arrow to save my hiney and can't take two hits from them and as a Ranger at 5 level ( at least today) he wears light armor so definately stay away

    but there are other places for him to play and some day he'll be a grown up ranger and then be like Cotton and shoot em in the eyes


  • @7866434d19:

    the shamans had a ring of ouch around them that I didn't notice before,

    "Ring of Ouch". Best Spell Ever.

  • N

    I've been out there a couple of times after the change and they are tough but they seem to be just as tough as before. The only thing I noticed was an increase in the Gnoll Shaman damage and that the shamans had a ring of ouch around them that I didn't notice before, although it may have been there before. Of course we were doing the lure one off by itself routine. But that's what we did before the change as well. Maybe I'm missing something.


  • I was with a group of 4. Two level 6s, Erok (at level eight) and Vashere (level 9 with uber gear). I was getting the stuffing kicked out of me with extreme prejudice, and Vashere ended up injured I think.

    Of course it didn't help that we ended up falling into the cold caves and then SOMEONE possessed a gnoll shaman and began making life difficult, but that was well after the butt-kicking part. Erok was lucky that Vashere is so uber. 😄

    Maybe I ran into different gnolls than the ones we we're talking about? :?

  • G

    The gnolls are by far harder than the barking and greater silk spiders I think. When a gnoll hits you you are -hit- and take mucho damage from those battleaxes. The only way to go through the gnoll lands is by luring one or two away at a time and killing them. Even then two gnolls on one person sometimes will just slaughter. I would rather face down some ogre grunts than I would a gnoll. I think what makes the gnolls so bad is those damn battleaxes. A crit from one is x3 and hurts.


  • More info needed Dorky. Were you out alone? Grouped and with who? We tested the gnolls and found that a smart group of about five 5th level characters could work the map pretty effectively. I haven't gotten enough feedback from the gnolls yet to up the CR rating on them and have them give out more XP… yet.


  • Holy gnolls kicking the stuffing out of Erok. They're harder, and for some reason don't give combat xp to my level 8 character anymore. Incentive to go out into the Giantspire region: none. :x


  • Ah, that bandit hound outside Jiyyd, may have been my fault.
    I borrowed a hound from the Eastlanders and told it to 'stay' while I went in to get a couple of rats to feed it with.


  • Someone goes into the Gypsy Shanty and Pendell wonders off to the Spider woods and starts killing as normal. Twice this week he has been out there again.

  • V

    Alright. Only faced the lower spiders so here goes.

    Tree Spider. Very hard to hit it for me. but doesnt do too much damage. all for 20 XP at level 4. not bad blend.

    Silk spiders. Not quiet so hard to hit. less HP, do similar damage it seems, and their web of course which is mostly nasty when you have other spiders there. All for about 15 XP at level 4. again. seems fine.

    Forest Spiders. Seemed to hit me a lot, little damage, but having to save against their poison every hit???. Seem to be harder to hit as well from before, means you are exposed to their poison for longer. All for 4 XP at level 4.

    IMO. i think things are reasonably ballanced except perhaps the forest spiders. these are a little too much risk for rewards.
    A simple lowering of AC would fix this perhaps. Maybe by one, no more than 2 points.


  • @2e70d743a3=BrianJ:

    checks the toolset

    Gah! I forgot to lock the door!

    Just wanted to say thanks for all your hard work Brian, it is appreciated :hug:


  • checks the toolset

    Gah! I forgot to lock the door!


  • Yep, after a server reset I walked along a spider not far from the Pass entrance out in the Nars.

    You can find spiders walking around in the small entrance area of camp, also on the Nars side.

    Also the Greater Silkies and Barkers tend to be in the near woods just North of the normal area for them on the Nars side as well.

    Found Pendell out with the spiders twice yesterday. He runs and opens the gate and goes hog wild fighting them. To bad we always find him dead later. 😛

    The spiders also open the gate and do as they please, walking about and transing into camp to deal with Zere.

    Now, where did the spiders get the key? Hmm maybe they looted poor old dead Pendell 😉

    Checks Pendell's body and shrugs Hmm he don't have one either!


  • I've noticed with the introduction of HotU, that creatures tend to wander more. The other day I saw a bandit hound just outside of Jiyyd. Personally, I think it's a good thing. Animals get curious, and it keeps things a little unexpected.