[PnP] Tower of the Dead Party Makeup

[Alex Koponen]

Floyd Resler wrote:
> I am hopefully going to be running a couple of friends through the 
> Tower of the Dead.  There will be at least four characters. It's been 
> nearly 15 years since I played Powers & Perils last (way too long!).  
> So, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what would be a 
> good mix of characters for the adventure.  I will be making up the 
> characters in advance.
>
> Thanks!
> Floyd
Having run The Tower of the Dead and seeing a well played mid-level 
party die (ending a campaign) I suggest that the party have several things:
A mid-level Natural Magician or really powerful wizard; either everyone 
competent at fighting or one to two combat monster characters and all 
front line troops equipped with high AV armor and an enchanted weapon 
(likely created by the wizard). Certain other items such as NMIs are 
likely to be useful as well.

The types of characters suggested by Scott are good.

[Background of what happened when I ran the scenario...A royal member of 
the party had died in Donara due to having a second magical healing in 
one day...oops. {They forgot to tell the priestess they brought him to 
about the earlier healing.} Rumor of an item that could resurrect him 
was followed up and the item tracked down and acquired. However that 
item had an agenda...the permanent destruction of a certain lich...to 
which the party agreed. The party DID include a Natural Magician, but he 
was a new character and not experienced enough (either player or 
character). The party had several good fighters but not enough AV or 
healing for them (but through clever playing this did not become a 
problem) and only one enchanted weapon amongst the fighters. The party 
was not equipped with enough (well any) competent users of magic. While 
the adventure CAN be completed just by fighters it does take good 
players and powerful characters, preferably with some magic. The party 
that I ran had some good players but bad luck had them encounter and get 
surprised by the lich in the wrong location nearly nullifying the 
party's magic and enhancing the magic the lich could cast...nor did the 
party have a powerful enough fighter to keep the lich from casting 
spells. Half the party died, the other half was captured and used in the 
lich's experiments.]

       Alex