Customer Reviews

A Paladin in Hell (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Here is a really nifty adventure scenario that turns on the PCs traveling to the Nine Hells with a literal boatload of demons. The module is written for 15+ level PCs which perhaps makes it overpowered for most campaigns, but the writing and plotting (no pun intended) is quite good and realistically deserves 4 1/2 stars.

TSR/WoTC has thrown off the self-imposed "PG-13" standards of the bad old careful days and embraced the NC-17 world with this product. There is nary a tanaari or moronic Blood War to be found here, this module is rife with devils and demons that want nothing more than to kill you, devour your soul and use your blood to create pentagrams. Seriously, this product is not for children, the weak of stomach or anyone whose religious sensibilites are easily offended.

And, really, that is how it should be. Too often, AD&D devils and demons are presented simply as another monster with a set of stats instead of the living embodiments of pure evil that they are and A Paladin in Hell goes to great lengths to demonstrate just how vile the legions of the Nine Hells can really be; this product has the chance to do for devils and demons what Ravenloft did for the vampire. While the violence and evil deeds written into the scenario are not gratuitous, a slice of Hell is really served up in a realistic and shocking manner.

The product is not only subjectively nasty, it appears extraordinarily difficult even for PCs of the recommended power. The early sections of the scenario did not appear overly dangerous, but the final chapter is likely to lay some serious hurt on even very high level PC parties so players beware.

Not that Paladin in Hell is simply a brutal hack and slash adventure, in fact, for the PCs to succeed, they must do far more than just kill off every hellspawn they can find (and there are plenty to be had in the Nine Hells). There are ample opportunites for role-playing as the PCs seek to solve the mysterious disappearance of a lawful good temple.

While the product was written with some loose Greyhawk tie-ins (Emirikol the Chaotic makes a cameo appearance), the product can be run in any campaign with minimal adjustments. The only real drawback that the product has is the need for ultra-powerful PCs; few home campaigns routinely have 20th level PCs. Paladin in Hell might be best run as a one-shot adventure (though it will still likely require several play sessions to complete), but the product is also quite useful in that it provides complete information on spell, magic item and class ability alterations incurred whenever your PCs travel to the Nine Hells or the Abyss and that alone makes Paladin in Hell a good buy for any DM that employs extraplanar travel and creatures on a regular basis.

Well, I'm going to give this a five star, since previous posters have been grossly cruel in teheir reviews.

Because of the old reviews, I bought this through Amazon. And, there's actually some pretty good plot links by Asmodeus, as he draws various devil lords to do his doings, but the players don't seem to have much control over that outcome.

That said, this is really a big hack and slash festival. And, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. All depends on the style of our players and on you.

The thrust of this adventure is to put the group on a cool devil ship with a devil crew, which the wizard lends to the group, as they go looking for a temple that has been displaced. Mind you, this is a good temple.

Asmodeus has a whole plan here but he never shows up. Another devil lord does though and you get to fight him. As you can imagine, this is quite bloody. Pit fiends are numerous and the lesser devils are all over the place. This is going to be a bloodbath either way and hopefully it's the devils biting it and not the players.

Would recommend this for the right group of gamers who want mostly hack and slash. If you want more RPGing or negotiations or problem solving, you will need to add/subtract various points into/out of the module. That's what I'm doing.

BTW, there's some really interesting info on the hells here as well as what spells and items don't work/work poorly on the planes of hell.

If you want an adventure in hell that has more mystery to it, more opportunities to roleplay and far less combat (yet still some deadly combat), look for THE FIRES OF DIS which I also wrote a review about.

TSR again scores big with me by returning to its roots. The expansion of one of the most recognizable illustrations from the old Player's Handbook and another from the old DM Guide into an adventure is a masterstroke of good old fashioned wahoo RPG adventuring. Emerikol the Chaotic, the Paladin in Hell, Geryon, and an even more famous villain (who shall remain nameless here!) adds up to a wry, almost goofy throwback of an adventure (and that's a GOOD thing!).

I have two things that are wrong with the title and the cover:

a. a paladin in hell would instantly go mad b. a paladin in hell in the armor that he can be seen wearing on the cover would instantly boil in his own juices.

Otherwise: Paladin in Hell is an excellently-covered up hack-and-slash bloodbath that very much probably represents the new step in the revolution of old-fashioned minimum-interaction/maximum-overreaction adventures. Under the masterfully constructed veil of a scenario you will see a dungeon crawl worthy of a god. Although this is no Descent to Undermountain, I admit this adventure to be on equal level with most revered adventures in AD&D history. While I don't feel too much joy over the gratuitous levels of violence this run has, the devils are finally what they are supposed to be. Truly, the earlier visits to hell and other planes have almost given me the impression that it takes no wits to outwit the Duke of Hell himself ( the Monstrous Manual of '89 merely gives him a column of stats and five lines of flavor text, three of them relating to his Ruby Wand). Paladin in Hell is as hard to complete in its true form as it is to hand-paint the roof of the Capitol. Expect plenty of dead, dying, amost dead, and undead characters ( it's Hell, so if you die your soul is still there). Although if you buy Paladin in Hell it only gives you enough fun for playing through once, I advise you buy it ( if, of course, you planned to buy it in the first place) long before your PCs attain the level necessary to survive there. Use it to scare them when they become too unruly - it wil get them back in line for sure.

If you have read the other reviews you have seen the good of Paladin in Hell, Hell is hellacious again. Most of those reviews praise the fact that devils are a threat again, instead of just another beasty, but the main problem with the Monte Cook design is that it is a pain to command. This should not be equated with "hard to manage", for Cook has written some wonderful "hard to manage" adventures (like Labyrinth of Madness) worth the effort to run. Paladin in Hell is poorly authored.

Little player oriented aid is given, information is piled hither and yon, no cross reference lies within the text, and it is not an entertaining read. Compared to Return to the Tomb of Horrors, which is loaded with excellent player descriptive text, and is the best organized "killer" adventure I have even run, Paladin in Hell is a chore to even grasp, much less actually run. DM's will have to fill in the giant gaps, and players better be ready to wait while some missing detail is combed for. If you are a seasoned DM, and have a nack at fudging scenarios anyway, this is a decent guide for an adventure. Everyone else should not expect to be able to read through the module and then run it. It is not playing friendly.

I finished reading this module last night and it isn't bad at all. There were somethings that I found a little on the open-ended side which I felt should have been explained more.

For starters the mage Emirolik part of the story might have been fleshed out a bit more. From the beginning he is basically setting the characters up with the ship they have to sail on, Demonwing. Also later on in the story a letter is found from him to the bad guys to cut a deal for his tiefling pal. I know he is chaotic but this just didn't seem to be the type of friend that a Paladin would hang out with --especially one who was world renowned.

I found it also a little strange on the back story as to why the ruler of the nine hells would want the crystal and go so far directly to obtain it. That part of the story kinda went against all the usual behind the scenes themes I have encountered over the years. This isn't just some bad guy, but THE bad guy, and it didn't fit for me with him being so directly involved. The sub-plot with his female mage servant should have been better developed. The idea that she kept failing and Asmodeous decided to intervene directly was just to weak.

These things aside the module is basically okay and provides a lot of opportunity for side adventures and the like. I think it will take a truly creative DM to make this an adventure to remember. If the DM doesn't get creative then I could foresee this adventure becoming a very dangerous hack-n-slash with the players on the receiving end.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars --if those few things I mentioned were different it would have gotten 5 stars.

We had a bit of fun with this. However it wasn't our style.
This is one of those adventures that is like a story that is already written. The path that the characters take thru it is very narrow and pre-defined. Not terrible, but we really would like to see a high level extra planar "adventure" where the players make the story.
The other problem I had DMing this was that the monsters where just too weak. My players where average 18th level and had played all production adventures to that point, so their level of magic items was reasonable, although they did end up being a very strong party. When played with intelligence, it takes alot to stop them.
It was dissapointing that this adventure was just not a threat, especially when going to hell etc.

This one had it all: A demon possesed boat, a run in with the Lords of the Nine, and more new treasures than you can shake the Sword of Horus at. This one STILL gets talked about in my group, and rightly so. My boys want me to rerun it, and that says something. So if you are ready to let the Netherworld rock with a good party, buy this adventure!

I'd rather light myself on fire than play this module again. No background story, rooms designed solely for the purpose of confusing the PCs, and bizarre fractional rounds await those who enter. Poorly designed and written, this module isn't worth the paper it was printed on.

This adventure is the official closure of a picture any veteran RPG fan will instantly recognize. Most old time DM's have at least thought about making a dungeon inspired by this pice of art. It's TSR's art, and this is TSR's portal to a classic pice of FRPG adventure.