Not to be disrespectful to another's campaign, but that doesn't seem very Tolkien-esque at all to me (slicing through balrogs & dragons and...Melkor?!) - definitely not my experience with AiME so far.Elmoth wrote: ↑Thu May 10, 2018 3:32 pmJust in case it might be useful to the discussion, this was posted by John White in the G+ AIME Community. A review of his experience playing AIME compared to regular D&D.
Just finished our campaign. Homebrew adventures. PCs were 9th level for last game. They foiled a plot by Allatar the Blue to release Melkor from his void prison below the Withered Heath.
A few comments:
Cubicle 7 successfully brings Middle Earth to 5e. Classes and cultures are distinct and nicely flavored. Balanced? That depends on your campaign. We have numerous combat encounters. The Scholar class was very weak for us.
The journey mechanic is fun. But at higher skill and proficiency bonus levels, it is not quite as challenging. As the PCs advanced in level, I began using the journey events and arrival mechanics more loosely to fit the campaign narrative.
At high levels, PCs -especially the weapon master warrior - dish out a lot of damage. Almost auto hits due to various advantage conditions and 5e’s lower AC’s.
The PCs took down an adult white dragon in two rounds. Of course one PC did die.
The also fled (and later killed) a balrog (D&D balor) and killed Melkor (a Lich). Three PCs down - last man standing revived two comrades. The third was very dead. Combat with the lich would have been tougher if it had lackeys in support.
AiME does not have enough monsters. I do like the Lore Master’s Guide features for modifying monsters and terrain. Lots of orc encounters, but they all felt different.
We treated heirloom weapons as magic weapons. Other than that, the setting is low magic. Fun for a while, but I think my group began to miss the free wheeling spell casting of D&D.
Shadow points are cool - but severely punishing. A miserable PC is almost unplayable.
Overall, depending on your group’s style of play, I highly recommend Adventures in Middle Earth. At least for a shorter campaign. No magic, no long rest in the wild, Shadow points - all make this is a challenging almost unforgiving setting. On the other hand, PCs become quite formidable themselves.
