Hey everyone. I stumbled on to Planewalker a while back, while on a nostalgia kick. Planescape was my DM's setting of choice, back in the day, and the memories of that were fond indeed. Armed with this site and all the work put into the 3.5 conversion, I thought, surely self, you've never done this before, but you've played forever, you can handle it.
So... I'm sorry that the first thing you hear from me is a cry for help.
So, I grabbed Armoury99's Desire and the Dead module, which is what sold me on doing this in the first place -- reading through that was like being thrown back to the glory days, and I plotted and I schemed.
And my players have destroyed it. I haven't finished calculating the aftermath from the final battle in Act V, but, they won. In total. Without loss. Without a drop of Prime blood spilled. Without *assistance*. Five ECL 4 PCs, admittedly strong, all but one a caster class (Beguiler, Dread Necromancer, Archivist, Conjurer, and a Swordsage). They even took the lead demons' head, after overwhelming him so much in a turn that he couldn't teleport away.
The adventure was a success, in my mind. I wanted to throw them, knee deep, into the mystery of the planes, and Sigil in particular, and in this, I succeeded. They even know that there are things far stronger than they are -- they're long time players, and know what kind of horrors exist. So describing the denizens that swirl through the city, leaves them with a sense of wonder.
But, I feel strangely unfulfilled. My goal wasn't to kill them, but I DID want them to feel concern, fear even, at a army of demons, and in that... my failure is absolute. Does anyone have any advice, either general, or specific, on how to challenge a party of glass cannons, who seem to be built to either kill without being touched or die?
Does anyone have any advice, either general, or specific, on how to challenge a party of glass cannons, who seem to be built to either kill without being touched or die?
My suggestion would be to take away the gunpowder. There are all sorts of ways NPCs can limit, neutralize or otherwise inhibit the powers of spellcasters in Planescape. It is just a question of how to properly scale these counter magics. There are, of course, limiting effects that occur on different planes as well. Give a proper twist to a situation and it forces the PCs to think their way out rather than blasting their way through. PCs casting too many fireballs? How about giving the NPC a magical item that creates sphere of magic dampening that prevents all but the lowest levels from being cast. One guy has a fondness for lighting bolts? Ring of resistance to electricity. Need them to seriously consider what spells to use? Ring of spell deflection. Want them to have to ration their magic use? They catch a strange disease or unsuspectingly drink an uwelcome potion that prevents them from sleeping and properly memorizing their spells. There are tons of ways to limit spellcasters that forces them to start thinking instead of just blasting. It's largely just a question of scaling your enemy to the newly nerfed PCs.