A Paladin in Hell (Adventure) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

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.

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.

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.