The Lair Assault program provides power gamers with the chance to prove once and for all who’s the best of the best. Wizards designed killer adventures that challenge the most experienced gamer. When the players at my FLGS heard that such a thing existed they demanded that we play these adventures as quickly as possible and as often as possible. Although we’ve suffered a lot of TPKs along the way it’s been a thrilling program that’s met with great success in the Greater Toronto Area gaming community.
Every time we played Lair Assault we recorded the session. Some of the players found it useful to go back and listen to the games to see what they could do differently the next time through to improve their chances of victory. Others just enjoyed listening to the party fumble their way around a killer encounter. Today we’re sharing these podcasts for your listening pleasure.
Also be sure to check out our Lair Assault Map Gallery.
Season 1: Forge of the Dawn Titan
When Lair Assault was first launched everyone at out FLGS wanted to try it. We ended up running it seven times. Summaries of each session and the actual-play recordings are all available in Lair Assault: Forge of the Dawn Titan – Round-Up.
Season 2: Talon of Umberlee
In this Lair Assault the PCs began by infiltrating the secret pirate hideout where they had to retrieve the Talon of Umberlee. If they managed to get it and escape the second part of the adventure had them on a ship attempting to flee. Unfortunately sea creatures intent on recovering the Talon attack the ship.
I ran this once (TPK) and played it once on nightmare mode (success). The key to successfully defeating this Lair Assault was Stealth. A group that could quietly sneak into the pirate’s hideout and recover the Talon without making any noise had a much greater chance of success. It was possible to avoid combat all together in the first part if you were lucky and found the Talon in the first chest. Parties with really good Bluff checks or groups that could disguise themselves as pirates might also be able to talk their way around confrontations.
Lair Assault Season 2 – Session 1 (2 hours 49 minutes)
Ameron DM
The party consisted of:
- Drow Sorcerer
- Dragonborn Blackguard
- Changeling Assassin
- Pixie Bladesinger
- Tiefling Ardent
Lair Assault Season 2 – Session 2 (3 hours 29 minutes)
Nightmare Mode
The party consisted of:
- Drow Rogue [Ameron]
- Human Ranger
- Drow Sorcerer Elementalist (Water)
- Shade Warlock Hexblade
- Kobold Sorcerer
Season 3: Attack of the Tyrantclaw
The party is hired to accompany a Druid to the Isle of Dread (yes, that Isle of Dread) where she will perform an ancient ritual. You have to keep the Druid alive while she is attacked by Orcs riding dinosaurs. This is the most straight forward of all the Lair Assault. It’s set up is simple and of all the adventures this is the one newbies will have the easiest time overcoming.
The Pixie Music Box magic item will break this adventure. I’d recommend DMs not allow it. If you do, search the forums for ways to make it less powerful. If you allow it and don’t make adjustments, none of the dinosaurs attack and the adventure is over before it gets started. If the players complain and you let them have it, just have the Orcs smash the Pixie Music Boxes as fast as possible.
For more tips and an in depth analysis see Lair Assault: Attack of the Tyrantclaw – Round-up.
Lair Assault Season 3 – Session 1 (2 hour 59 minutes)
Ameron DM
The party consisted of:
- Tiefling Warlock
- Dwarf Revenant Warlord
- Hengeyokai Seeker
- Satyr Ardent
- Genasi (Cinder Soul) Swordmage
Lair Assault Season 3 – Session 2 (2 hour 27 minutes)
Ameron DM
The party consisted of:
- Drow Assassin
- Human Ranger
- Satyr Ardent
- Elf Bladesinger
- Genasi (Cinder Soul) Swordmage
Lair Assault Season 3 – Session 3 (2 hour 39 minutes)
The party consisted of:
- Dwarf Warden
- Elf Ranger [Ameron]
- Eladrin Ardent
- Dwarf Fighter
- Drow Revenant Sorcerer (Fire Elementalist)
Lair Assault Season 3 – Session 4 (1 hour 13 minutes)
Ameron DM
The party consisted of:
- Elf Seeker
- Human Wizard
- Warforged Barbarian
- Dwarf Fighter
- Tiefling Ardent (Flame Retardant, the Tiefling Ardent – Best name ever!)
Lair Assault Season 3 – Session 5 (2 hour 50 minutes)
Ameron DM
The party consisted of:
- Elf Seeker
- Human Wizard
- Warforged Barbarian
- Dwarf Fighter
- Tiefling Ardent
Season 4: Spiderkiller
We have not yet had an opportunity to play this Lair Assault. When we do we’ll be sure to share the recording of our sessions.
Season 5: Kill the Wizard
This is my favourite of all the Lair Assaults I’ve run or played so far. It was certainly long, but that didn’t detract from it at all. I liked the simplicity of the premise and the complexity of the execution. Many players didn’t like that they were forced to play Drow but in my opinion that was one of the things I really liked about it. The addition of individual Drow House goals as secondary objectives added a nice bit of extra flavour.
When we ran through this one we found that the more strikers you had the better your chances were of survival. The monsters were tough and you needed to either drop them fast or avoid them all together. Of all the characters I saw I think the Battlerager Fighter was the build that was best suited for this adventure. Any party that hopes to win should have one on their team.
The first two run throughs had the party get to the final room and then die at the hands of the Wizard and his construct. The Dungeon’s Master home group did defeat this one on their first try. The suffered only one causality (at the very end) and had one PC only spend a single healing surge.
Lair Assault Season 5 – Session 1 (part 1) (2 hour 07 minutes)
Lair Assault Season 5 – Session 1 (part 2) (3 hour 45 minutes)
Ameron DM
The party consisted of:
- Drow Sorcerer (Water Elementalist)
- Drow Sorcerer (Wind Elementalist)
- Drow Sorcerer (Earth Elementalist)
- Drow Revenant Sorcerer (Fire Elementalist)
- Drow Vampire
Lair Assault Season 5 – Session 2 (part 1) (2 hour 39 minutes)
Lair Assault Season 5 – Session 2 (part 2) (3 hour 07 minutes)
Ameron & Alton co-DMs
The party consisted of:
- Drow Revenant Warlock
- Drow Revenant Rouge/Ranger
- Drow Warlord
- Drow Paladin
- Drow Seeker
Lair Assault Season 5 – Session 3 (4 hour 56 minutes)
Ameron DM – Dungeon’s Master home group
The party consisted of:
- Drow Revenant Sorcerer [Suddry]
- Drow Sorcerer (Fire Elementalist)
- Drow Wizard [Skallawag]
- Drow Fighter (Slayer) [Wimwick]
- Drow Revenant Fighter (Battlerager)
Season 6: Temple of the Sky God
This was the most difficult Lair Assault to run as the DM. Mounted combat and aerial combat are two aspects of D&D that don’t regularily come up in most D&D games. Even with a four page summary cheat sheet in the back of the adventure, we still wasted a lot of time looking up the rules to ensure we got things right. And we still made mistakes.
Despite the challenges it was a lot of fun. The threat of falling to one’s doom brings an extra level of excitement and tension to the adventure. Unfortunately neither of the two parties I ran through this Lair Assault defeated it. In both cases multiple PCs fell and took around 300 hit pints of falling damage each.
Lair Assault Season 6 – Session 1 (2 hour 38 minutes)
Ameron DM
The party consisted of:
- Human Sorcerer (Elementalist)
- Mul Ranger
- Dwarf Cleric Paladin hybrid
- Genasi (Storm Soul) Wizard
- Tiefling Warlock
Lair Assault Season 6 – Session 2 (2 hour 32 minutes)
Ameron DM
The party consisted of:
- Pixie Bard (Scald)
- Dwarf Cleric (Templar)
- Human Paladin (Cavalier)
- Genasi (Storm Soul) Wizard
- Ranger (Scout)
Season 7: Into the Pit of Madness
This is the latest and final offering of the Lair Assault program. It’s active until the end of May. We haven’t played it yet but have sessions scheduled for April. Once we play through this one a few times I’ll share the recordings and provide my thoughts.
For more tips and an in depth analysis see Lair Assault: Into the Pit of Madness – Round-up.
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