My players are at level 5. We are playing Tharizdun and they asaulted the front once, are now sneaking in the back way. I've got my own brews but I'm looking for some other modules that are good for the level 5-8 range.
I've got Mortuary Temple of Esma, and I've got my own rewrite of Night of the Walking Wet, but any suggestions from you guys?
My players have snuck in the backway to WG4. They lost half the party (2 players, 3 henchmen) and had a couple others near death from the dungeon denizens. But now they have poisoned the temples food supply and are going to give it a couple days to see if they can soften the place up.
Some of my TSR favorites in this level range include:
UK6
A1-4 (individual, not supermodule, which is up-levelled)
I1, I2
WG4+S4
X2, X4+X5 (although these are at the higher end of that range)
I think that S2 White Plume Mountain oozes cool set-piece encounters, but needs more work to make it shine at the table: I played it for the first time in ages last year, and wasn't overly impressed. The late 2e Greyhawk adventure Return of the Eight also has some great set-pieces, which can easily be extracted from its railroady initial structure.
From Dragon and Dungeon:
"Can Seapoint be Saved?" (I think this runs a bit higher that its listed 4-7 level range, since in features a dragon turtle)
"Forest of Doom"
"Temple of Poseidon" (levels 7-9)
"Hirward's Task" from Dungeon #5
Some of my non-TSR and OSR favorites outside of Anthony's works include:
The Hyqueous Vaults (levels 4-5, so you would need to boost some of the baseline encounters to challenge mid-level parties)
Lost Treasures of Atlantis, Ghost Ship of the Desert Dunes, Beneath the Comet, Forgotten Fane of the Coiled Goddess (all for ASSH, so they're a bit more pulpy than your standard AD&D adventure)
Beastmaker Mountain and the Lost Abbey of Calthonwey both feature demons in interesting locations (I haven't double-checked LAoC's level range, but I think it's good)
Rob Kuntz's Maze of Zayene (in particular #4 The Eight Kings) and Dark Druids modules, among others
Other recommendations (unsorted by level, alas!) on my blog at https://grodog.blogspot.com/2018/05/these-are-few-of-my-favorite-things.html
Allan.
The resiliency surprised me, and I'm very happy about it. at 5th level they are able to go up against a huge mass of humanoids with some preparation, and some heavies.
I have been using your blog article on design principles and its really helpful. Making sure my monsters hit the fighters about 60% of the time and hit with big damage both increases the excitement and the tactical engagement.
WG4 would definitely be a better battle scenario if I were using 1e/OSRIC, because I think the ODD rules kind of paper over some of the cool complexity and tactics, but I will say that playing LOTFP/Labyrinth Lord with some tough monsters has trained them to value surprise, initiative, and artillery. (They lost half their henchmen to a devil with a chainsword and they no longer believe in heroism.)
I am considering having them re-build their characters in 1e or OSRIC because at this level I'm starting to see where OD&D doesn't quite work. The elf is mechanically advantaged, the spells don't have quite enough mechanical detail to get tactical, and my players who were mostly noobs are now much smarter at the game and ask much better questions.
That level range is great because the PCs are more resilient than you think. They can handle a lot. G1 as soon as they are 8 really. I6 is also great but requires an experienced DM because the setup is subjective unlike most modules. Meaning you'll need to familiarize yourself with the whole before attempting to run it, so that you can better pace the game. Also I6 has a number of map idiosyncrasies that require familiarity like blocked stairwells that are not immediately apparent.