Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor

Author's Notes
By Sean K Reynolds

When I worked on Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor back in January 2000, the new D&D rules hadn't been
finished yet. People doing design work for supplemental products (like this adventure) had to keep revising their existing
text as the rules changed or spells or magic items got new names. Some of these changes were implemented by me and
some by my hard-working editor, Michele Carter, but there came a point when our scheduled time on it was done and the
book was sent off to the printer.

When the Pool of Radiance computer game was delayed, Michele and I wanted to have a couple of extra weeks at the
end of 2000 to update the adventure to the final rules (as well as some of the things we did with the Forgotten
Realms Campaign Setting book), but unfortunately the plates for the printer had already been made and making changes
at that point would be too expensive. The fallout is that there are a few quirks in the adventure compared to the
final D&D rules that you have now. In the interest of making the adventure as playable as possible under the D&D rules,
I've looked it over and pointed out some things in Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor that should be changed to
bring it in line with specific rules in the new D&D. As a bonus, I'm giving you the details on a magic weapon you can find in
the adventure that was given only cursory information.

Bonus Magic Item

Here's the sword of Commander Lyssic, First Light, a weapon bright in the faith of Lathander the Morninglord.

First Light: This +1 keen holy undead bane longsword was carried by Lyssic, a human commander and devout follower
of Lathander in the forces of Myth Drannor. Lyssic was given the weapon by the church of the Morninglord, and he used it
to further the cause of good for thirty years until he was slain in 712 DR while defending Myth Drannor from fiends. He
was entombed in a crypt outside the city. Rumors quickly began among the human troops that one day Lathander would
resurrect him to defend Myth Drannor once again, although the circumstances of this miracle were often debated.

Caster Level: 10th; Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, holy smite, keen edge, summon monster I, creator must
be good; Market Price: 72,315 gp; Cost to Create: 36,315 gp + 2,880 XP.

General Notes

There are two general notes on the entire document that I'll address as a whole rather than specifically. First is the use of
the term "gate" in the adventure. Every usage of this term should be considered a portal as defined in the Forgotten
Realms Campaign Setting. We didn't decide to call them portals (because they're not the same thing as agate, which
can't go to a place on the same plane as the caster) until July or August, long after Michele and I had finished working on
the adventure.

Second is the use of the term "enchant." As far as the new D&D is concerned, an "enchantment" is a specific kind of spell
-- something from the school of Enchantment. Using that term to mean any magical effect on a person (such as a creature
polymorphed into another creature) or an item (such as the frost ability of magic sword) is a holdover from previous
editions of the game and a bad habit in this one. Forgive me for using the term incorrectly in this adventure -- again, we
didn't clarify its usage until it was too late for Michele and I to do anything about it.

The main concern that I have about this book is the magic items. I want to make sure that you know that they need a few
tweaks to fully synchronize with the Dungeon Master's Guide. The guidelines for pricing items in the Dungeon Master's
Guidechanged during this book's design and so some of these items have inaccurate prices. Fortunately, some of the
items are also going to appear in Magic of Faern, and we've had the prices redone according to the final guidelines and
approved by the D&D rules council, so the prices listed below under Magic Item Changes are correct.

Specific Clarifications

Page 11: Clerics in the Cult that used to worship Xvim now probably worship Bane. At the time this was written, we hadn't
decided to bring back Bane in the new Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting.
Page 22: Ryngoth is a cleric, not a wizard, so he couldn't have been a Red Wizard of Thay. He almost certainly was an
employee of one of the zulkirs, possibly Szass Tam.

Page 36: Commander Lyssic is human, so the text should refer to his "fine human features." This cropped up when in an
earlier draft he was an elf, but I later decided that the concept of returning from the dead in a time of great need is more of
a human concept than an elven one, and chose to make him human (but missed this one reference).

Page 43: If Hwarlg uses summon monster IV to summon a creature, it's going to be angry at him because the mythal's
powers affect him, too (see page 76). Since he has been trapped here a while, it's almost certain that he has tried
summoning things before and knows it's trouble, so probably would avoid this tactic unless he can position the creature so
the heroes are between it and him.

Page 70: Just for your information, this encounter used to have an undead spellcaster as well, but we took her out
because of some rules issues and because the CR system changed so much during playtesting. (She was a Sor3/Wiz3,
but I used the lich template, forgetting it could only be used on spellcasters of level 11+.) It used to be that a single
creature had a CR equal to its character level minus 2, and all of the adventure's encounters (especially the random
encounters) were based on that. When the CR rules got revised to what they are now (CR = character level), that means
that all of the encounters were suddenly too powerful, and Michele had to tone them down. The easiest way for this
encounter was to remove the lichlike sorcerer.

Oh, and this whole room was designed to match a piece of art the computer game designers gave me from the Pool of
Radiance computer game, so if you get to one of the end stages, this ought to look very familiar.

Page 91: Hwarlg should have HD 17d12 (110 hp). (Currently he's listed as 8d12 + 9d4, but because he's undead all of his
HD should be d12s.)

Magic Item Changes

Bracers of Immobility: They give a -2 penalty to Armor Class, not a -2 armor penalty.
Claw Bracer: Cost should be 30 gp, just like in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting.
Dragonskull Talisman: Market price is 4,000 gp.
Hammer of the Weaponsmith: Market price is 2,055 gp. Cost to create is 1,055 gp + 80 XP
Knife of the Bowyer: Market price is 2,055 gp. Cost to create is 1,055 gp + 80 XP
Mirror Mask: Round the market price off to 8,800 gp.
Orbakh's Bone Mantle: Market price is 22,000 gp.
Orbakh's Ivory Scepter: Market price is 54,000 gp, currently worth 44,280 gp with 41 charges.
Ring of Dragons: Market price is 25,000 gp.
Rothilion's Staff of Justice: Market price is 53,125 gp, currently 12,750 gp with 12 charges.
Scimitar of the Fool: Market price 3,000 gp.
Spectral Blade: Chill touch is DC 11. Market price is 20,000 gp.
Tongs of the Armorer: Market price is 2,055 gp. Cost to create is 1,055 gp + 80 XP
Winged Mask: Market price is 13,000 gp.
Winter's Eye: Market price is 18,465 gp. Cost to create is 9,285 gp + 720 XP.
The Testament of Jade: It gives a +2 enhancement bonus to Wisdom and Charisma. (Bonuses to ability scores
should always be even numbers.)
Dove's Harp: Market price is 45,000 gp. Cost to create is 22,600 gp + 2,300 XP.
Fanged Mask: Market price is 8,302 gp. A mask counts as a pair of lenses for determining limitations on wearing
items of the same type.
Skull Mask: Should be named white skull mask to avoid confusion with the mask of the skullin the Dungeon
Master's Guide. Market price is 50,000 gp.
Staff of Night: Darkvision, dispel magic, and darkness each use 1 charge. Market price is 30,000 gp.
Staff of Vision: Market price is 42,800, cost to create is 27,650 gp + 1,212 XP.