Now that Dark Lord’s Doom, the latest programmed/solo adventure by David Pulver, is in backers’ hands in PDF form, errata are starting to come in. Not a ton so far (yay!) but there are some. I’m going to list them here as a record of reports and changes, as well as adding some clarity to broad-brush concepts involving spells, creatures, items, and other things.

Not all errata are reported here (such as double-checking damage stats on something and adjusting that), but ones with implications are indeed reported.

This isn’t a page for arguing. It’s just “what was reported, what’s going to be done about it (or not), and why.”

Broader Concepts

Here are some things with implications on how formatting works, or rules are parsed.

“Acts as a Lightning Rod”

The titular Dark Lord has an item that “acts as a Lightning Rod.” There’s an reference in ITL that “scrolls are scrolls, and rods are rods.” But the Lightning Rod mechanics, effects, etc. are conveniently all in one place, and “acts as a lightning rod” is an approved construction to define the power of the item. This isn’t an error, and has line editor approval to say as-is.

Axe/Mace to Ax/Mace

Both David Pulver and I have been asked by SJ to deprecate the use of Ax/Mace and Ax in favor of Axe/Mace and Axe. So this one stays as-is. Look for more use of axe in the future rather than ax.

Fine Maces and other things

An errata was submitted saying “maces cannot be fine.” That didn’t strike me right, and I asked SJ. He replied he’s actually fought with a fine mace, balance is important, and a mace can be fine. Within reason, this line of thought can be extended to any weapon that folks can take the time, money, and craftsmanship to make moar awesome.

Talents and Spells and IQ Requirements (characters and creatures)

Anything that might be considered a character needs to meet the IQ requirements for Talents and Spells. Creatures can be whatever they need to be.

So “The King” needs to have IQ 13 to have Strategist…but an IQ 7 monster might be able to cast Megahex Freeze “just because.”

Weapon Expertise (Shield) and Weapon Expertise in general

SJ prefers [Whatever] Expertise in all cases. Shield Expertise, Sword Expertise, Axe/Mace Expertise, etc. So all usage of Weapon Expertise will be renamed and re-sorted based on this guidance.

Niggling Details

Some bits that aren’t general TFT rules but are specific to DLD.

Field Plate

The description of the King’s armor in the equipment list states his armor is “fine plate,” which is true. It is referred to in the text as “field plate,” which has no game mechanical meaning. It does have real-world meaning, in that “field armor” is armor designed for practical use on the battlefield, as opposed to jousting armor (basically sporting gear) or decorative armor. Somewhere along the line – probably for other RPGs or video games – “field armor” and “plate armor” got munged together to be “field plate.”

In any case, it’s confusing and we’ll replace “field plate” with “fine plate” or “plate armor” where needed.

Horsemanship Spell

Obviously Horsemanship is not a spell, and will be moved down to the stable in Talents, where it belongs.

IQ 14 Assassin

He’s not smart enough to cast Hammertouch (not Hammerhand; the spirit of Helm Hammerhand moved in someone while writing it). I’ll chat with David and either replace the spell with an IQ 14 equivalent or bump up to IQ 15, depending on what he wants the challenge to be. I suspect we’ll downgrade the spell to something else. Spell Shield or 4-Hex Illusion seem OK, as do Blast, Fireball, and a few others.

Morningstar

Our titular Dark Lord needs the Axe/Mace Talent to use his weapon; the latest printing of TFT has Morningstar as 2d+1 base damage, so with fine and enchanted on this, it becomes 2d+3, which is as listed.

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The reference to Map II needs to be hyperlinked.

“The exit is at  ; anyone can exit out it.” That is CERTAINLY an accidental deletion of some reference letter or note; in fact, there’s a clear door/opening at the top of the map around E, so I’ll have to work that in so it’s clear.

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Hyperlink [017] needs to be fixed. Thanks for catching this.

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Need to enable hyperlink [119]. Thanks for catching this.

Plot Word ZOND

You don’t get this “Plot Word” if you beat Zond. You get it if you have to face him in the future. So these particular references are correct.

Staff (1d) vs Staff (as a 2H Club)

The reptile man shaman has Weapons listed as Staff (1d). That is meant to be the result of using the Staff I spell (1d damage for 1 ST), not using the staff as a 2H club or quarterstaff. Will see if I can either add both methods of usage. Using it as a quarterstaff would give 1d+2; a club used in two hands at ST 12 is also 1d+2. Not exactly an error, but not clear, either. Will see best way to fix it that doesn’t break layout.