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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor $4.99
Average Rating:4.5 / 5
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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor
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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Lance C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/26/2020 23:06:11

I love this entire trilogy. I cannot say enough good things about it. My players loved it as well.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Merlin E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/28/2019 01:24:04

Ran this and will be running the rest of the series in the coming weeks. I've DMed other Baldman adventures and was once again pleased with the care taken with having a good story, solid NPCs with good motivation and explanation, and several challenging encounters. As others have noted, it's a tad linear, but my players were invested enough (and frightened of that Madness!) to not linger too long. The appendix for Elmwood and it's extensive breakdown was a breath of fresh air for an AL module! I loved being able to answer my players' questions about the town, its people, and its history!

My single complaint is that Moander Temple fight (with the Ropers). There are SO MANY enemies, and since those dandelion puffs are considered "large", the battlefield was going to get extremely cluttered very quickly. I simply had them floating menacingly above the characters (conveniently close to each PC, heheheh...). To that same end, though, my party had no cleric, which meant that disease was going to wipe half the party. I anticipated this, and had the priestess Shayad provide them with two scrolls of Lesser Restoration--after a very good Persuasion check. Ultimately, 4 of the 6 PCs contracted the disease. After booking it back to the Sage, they asked him to make copies of the scrolls--I used the time and gold mechanic for Wizards and their spellbook--which had one of my PCs surviving death by mere seconds. It was great tension, hahah! But for a party without a dedicated healer (or even one that didn't prep LR), that encounter could have wiped them entirely. So just keep an eye on that!

Other than that encounter, everything ran smoothly. I adored the magic item unlock for this, as my PCs really hammed up playing with the goats and were devastated to not hear them outside at the end. While some might gripe that it's a throw-away item, I think the module endeared the PCs to it so well that it's worth more than any +1 whatever. :)

So thanks for a great adventure! I'm very much looking forward to running the next sets! :D



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Aaron N. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/05/2019 13:55:19

The Sage of Cormanthor begins in the Elmwood area. I found this to be a combat heavy encounter, without as much role play as other adventures. One of the encounters overwhelmed my mini supply, so I used candy as impromptu monsters. Eat your kill! Lots of saving throws involved, so if you have a crazy awesome saving throw party (maybe a couple of paladins with auras), then the party will likely find this a cakewalk. Interesting story though, but it can be a bit challenging to run.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Richard P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/30/2018 08:26:48

This module is greatly improved under Season 8 AL rules. Some of the XP rewards are pretty ridiculous, as the party is up 1200XP before even leaving the town by the book.

That said, the combat encounters in this module do a really good job of challenging the party. The final encounter has a combination of monster abilities and environmental effects that will make life difficult for basically any level-appropriate party. Our group burned through multiple consumable magic items to stay alive--and that was at the minimum challenge level.

An excellent module for any old-time second-edition players who were reading the FR novels at the time. If the phrase "Song of the Saurials" means anything to you, you should play or run this adventure (and probably the rest of the series).



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Chase L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/15/2018 17:25:23

Excellent module. I ran this online over Roll 20, and it went very smoothly. The encounter adjustments for party strength worked very well for our group, and depite some pretty challenging fights, they were able to pull through. The module has some decent roleplay opportunities, touches on the exploration pillar, and is very well balanced for combat. We ended right at the 4 hour mark as well, so from a timing perspective, this went incredibly well. The module is written in a clear and easy to follow way, and I can tell a lot effort went into both proofreading and designing the appendices. I look forward to running the others in this series.... 5/5, great module, would play again!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Matthew P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/10/2017 07:24:17

I ran this a few weeks ago as part of my scheduling.

Firstly on the whole I didnt notice many spelling issues or the like compared to some DDAL stuff. Good work here.

The theme setup in this story is great and what makes it even better is that there is an Appendix on Elmwood itself down to alignment status and key people. Thats just above and beyond.

The monsters used are thematically appropriate. The Corpse Flowers encounter though is an ... issue. On average strength there are a LOT of monsters on the board at one time. A lot . It can make combat rounds... difficult. Be prepared for this.

Good use of call outs to Curse of the Azure Bonds. The NPC Sage is certainly one :), but sadly his time is short and I think he could of easily been a good npc to carry through the series.

All in all a good start to a story with the 2nd scenario perhaps a little weaker than the first with the last scenario being the best of the series.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Daniel W. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/09/2017 11:35:43

We played this last night. It took us a bit longer than the 4 hours, but everyone started getting super involved, moreso than they usually do. Totally worth it, great module.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Allen S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/26/2017 13:01:52

This module was a blast! The authers use the reskinning of mm cratures with precision here. My players truly felt the rot coming and had a blast trying to stop it. Most of the combats (except the plant seed one) were pretty easy for my players, but they enjoyed them nonetheless!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Ashley K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/14/2017 18:42:57

I had the distict pleasure of being at DragonCon 2016 when this trilogy was released. I ran 1-3 "The Battle for Elmwood" as part of the con, but I never got a chance to run or experience 1-1 or 1-2 until now when I recently decided to snag the adventures to run at my local gamestore.

The Sage of Cormanthor was a pleasure to prepare and a pleasure to run. Everything is very neatly organized information-wise so it's easy to find the important things and it also offers a lot of good ideas for the DM that help enhance the playing experience. It also has an entire appendix talking about the town of Elmwood that is incredibly helpful for those moments of free-form RP when a player asks if they can visit a shop or place. Those types of resources are invaluable and I wish they were included more often.

Story-wise, I don't reccomend it as a one-shot. I feel that the Elmwood Trilogy works best if you run all three adventures in sequence, so don't skip out on Elmwood 1-2 and 1-3 as the full story is really worth playing! Without the other two, this module can seem as if it's lacking in content or context but if you as the DM know what's coming then you can better prepare and contextulize these adventures for your players.

Play-wise, my table had an absolute blast. The encounters were interesting and provided some surprises even for veteran players. They loved interacting with the NPCs and looking into the mystery presented in the story. The only thing I would say there is that there was a little more expectation on my player's part for them to be a bit more involved in solving the mystery, instead of them having to go find someone else who knew what was happening. But overall they reported having a pleasureable time playing this module.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Ashlee P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/13/2017 20:06:42

Downloaded this ages ago for my party when they were level one or two after a really interesting conversation with one of the creators. During the course of it, my party level went from ~5 to ~3 haha. It is really awesome, can be dropped into a sandbox homebrew pretty easily for a great change of pace. Gotta take a break to beef up my players before I can continue on to part two but this is a really solid game. Definately worth your time!!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by vasilie c. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/05/2017 13:14:37

My players really enjoyed this adventure. The creatures are unique and the battles and locations are interesting. I must say the second part of the trilogy is a bit better, but Baldman never puts out garbage, so they are all good.

spoilers

The only gripe I have is the final battle could have been done differently. Unfortunately, there are so many adventures where the friend of the party or person they seek ends up performing a ritual that either brings back a dead god, demon, gets possessed somehow, etc.

This is not Baldman's fault. After all, they may have written this before those other adventures were released or maybe they just happened to have a similar idea. I think this one is executed a bit better than the others, so I didn't take any points away from them for this.

The magic item at the end is really good and I'm glad they are rewarding players with cool and interesting items.

Overall, this adventure is highly recommended!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Richard M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/25/2017 09:55:03

This was one of my first Con-Created adventures that I have run in AL, and I absolutely loved it! Oddly enough, my party struggled more with the middle encounter (the ropers/needle blights/gas spores) than they did with the abyssal encounter at the end of the scenario (casters were able to shut down the yochlol quick, and the black puddings weren't much of a match for two higher-level barbarians in the party). The encounter was scaled correctly based on party composition, so this was more of a fluke, I think. It could have gone very different with a different party.

This is also a combat-heavy scenario. Though there are plenty of NPCs to do some flavorful RPing as a DM, most characters are pretty forthcoming with information and there isn't much of a need for a party face in that the quality of interactions with the NPCs won't affect the adventure path much. If you have a table with people looking for a lot of social interaction, they might be in the background a bit in this adventure.

Note to DMS: LEAVE PLENTY OF TIME!!! This is a long scenario and will take every bit of 4 hours. I ran this in-store and had a hard-stop of 3.5 hours, so I had to rush through a bit to get through everything. I am re-running this at an upcoming Con on a five-hour slot and can't wait to re-run with more breathing room on the clock. This will definitely be one of my tier 2 go-tos for longer timeslots!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by James B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/17/2017 11:16:42

This module felt very railroaded. The entire plot consisted of going to a location, reading a long string of descriptive text, maybe having a combat encounter, and then moving to the next location and repeating the process. The box text reads like a video game cutscene, giving little opportunity for the players to interact with the plot beyond nodding and going to the place they're told to go. I did like the faction plot hook handouts, though. It was a good way to introduce the characters into the game, and I hope future modules take note of that. My players did enjoy themselves when I ran it, although I did preface the game by telling them it had a very linear plot, so they weren't surprised when the railroad tracks presented themselves. I still wish they'd been able to take a more active role in moving the plot forward, though.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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CCC-BMG-16 ELM 1-1 The Sage of Cormanthor
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/10/2017 22:59:57

Ran it with 3 times and played it once myself. None of my players enjoyed it... felt like there were too many plot holes. Things just didn't really connect together.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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