Opinions on a campaign idea. - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Zame Dec 17, 2014 2:10:11	Long story short party started using the starter set adventure with phandalin, 3 person party of fairly experience 3.5e players finished the adventure with few to no close calls, including killing Venomfang CR 8 Dragon with the cultists present, only got hit once. So I decided I need a much more difficult enemy, even though the party only hit level 5 after all side quests. Current Party is, 1 Rogue, 1 Druid, and 1 Warlock. I plan to send them to Grimmantle, currently overrun by an orc tribe, to 'accidentally' free the Death Knight Gaucelm Gonfrey. Yes i know they stand no chane against him, between the magic trap at the door and him walking out the party should be rendered unconcious almost instantly. When the characters awake the bodies of all the orcs are missing, and all the plants within a mile of Grimmantle are dead and twisted. A swarm of tiny undead woodland animals will attack them on their way out hinting at things to come. After returning to Port Llast they find things going pretty badly in town, thick fogs have enveloped the place and a massacre has occured at the temple, traders go missing on the roads, so on and so forth. Dealing with the towns problems they find more and more information about the undead army being created that threatens Port Llast and the surrounding cities. Now I should be able to get the players up to level 10-12 before the a large scale battle at Port Llast against Gonfrey and his army, Gonfrey is CR 17 and there are dozens of enemies of CR 3 and lower with a handful of commanders at CR 3 and a CR 5 Wraith. Is this way too much for the party to face? I'm not expecting them to kill gonfrey on their own the remaining garrison of Port Llast will fight with them. As a fan of Forgotten Realms, I tried to make this as close to cannon as possible, the town and Gonfrey are actually taken from some of the history pages on a Realms wiki I found. Needless to say it is very much a work in progress but would like some feedback from other DMs, especially ones who have had parties in 5e reach level 12-15. Weapon idea for Gonfrey, could also use feedback on this, should it do more/less, be intelligent, or have a higher magic weapon bonus? The Bone Blade of Myrkul - This +1 Greatsword appears to be made of hammered bone, in the center of the hilt is a dull grey mass black veinlike designs extend from it up the blade. When fresh blood touches one of the veins the grey mass turns red and begins to pulse like a human heart, the steady beat can be felt through the grip. Once bloodied the blade begins to drip a black ichor until the end of combat, any living creature delt damage by the blade begins to bleed at an excellerated rate taking an additional 1d4 damage at the start of its turn until it makes a DC 15 Con save. This blade has a thirst for death and may never deal nonleathal damage, it's hunger is so strong that the wielder must make a DC 18 Cha save to let a creature live after the blade has delt damage to them, on a failed save the wielder must attack agin on it's turn.
#2 Caliburn Dec 17, 2014 5:42:26	Interesting - I've been running the same adventure for 6 players with appropriately up-rated threats due to party numbers and there have been 3 close calls now, and they haven't even got to the Dragon yet... Nearly everyone around the table has been a very regular D&D player since 2nd Edition, with two of having been so from 1st. I do wonder what is happening at at tables where people end up saying that Phandalin isn't challenging... it certainly isn't the system...
#3 Faediira Dec 17, 2014 6:58:20	Just had a thought...was wondering what happens to a gods power when say someone such as my main character who was "GIFTED" with a little bit of it ends up in a different world?
#4 Noon Dec 17, 2014 15:46:12	Caliburn, when you uprate the threats, are you taking into account more monsters equals a higher difficulty than the straight XP shows? The DMG indicates that more monsters equals a higher multiplier for the effective difficulty of the encounter.
#5 Zame Dec 17, 2014 16:50:57	Well the main part I think is that all the characters have good stealth checks, Druid transforms into spider the drow rogue sneaks and the warlock waits ot use elderitch. Every encounter the main enemy dies before it gets to go, glasstaff never stood up from his table they found the back way to him killed him before he could move. When they fought the orcs and the ogre from the sidequest the two guards out front died on turn one and they rolled high on stealth to keep from making noise. Then using mage hand, rogue has one level sorc, and his slight of hand skill the rogue made one of the orcs lose his mug and roll to the cave enterance, another orc dead. It worked twice before drawing any attention and roll a 20 on a deception check to wave the arm of an orcs corpse to dissuade investigation. Then the warlock remembers that fireball scroll we found earlier, everything but the ogre is instant killed and he died as he ran out of the cave before it could attack. By the time we got to Wave Echo cave they had gotten into a smoth rythem of taking out any casters or threats in turn 1 or 2 and then mopping up the rest. I thought fighting the Spider would be a serious challenge but instead of fighting him they made friends at first agreed to help get to the forge, his two bugbears went with and after a bribe they helped explore the forge area while the party delt with the ghost mage thing. Bugbears lose to the spectator almost instantly, one feard the other paralyzed. The group gets to see the spectator in the forge because it was already alerted and dealing with the bugbears when they get there. So again one turn win on a dangerous enemy. When they go back to the Spider his giant spiders web all of them, only the rogue is held, the druid shifts into a brown bear - he took the archtype that advanced his shaping abilty - and tanks 2 of the spiders and focuses the boss. Warlock blasts the other two spiders with burning hands and rogue frees itself, between the rogue and the warlock the two spiders die fairly easily. As the bear kills the boss and has injured a spider when it runs out of hp turning back into the druid at full health minus a bit. 3 vs the 2 remaining spiders, and then the doppleganer and 3 bugbears from the adjacent chamber run in, burning hands, sneak attack, and forget what spell the druild used to do aoe. Bugbears dead doppleganer at 1/4th hp. Druid is almost completely full hp, warlock kept gaining temp hit points from kills every time he gets hit it did next to nothing, rogue at 1/2 hp. For Venomfang, the group met the cultist first, agreed to help appease the dragon, cultists give over the diamonds they brought and ask the party to step forward, the rogue has already snuck off to behind the tower and uses the spiderclimb spell to wait just below the edge and hide. Warlock steps forward and says hi while the druid watches from just out of range of the dragons breath attack, they didn't plan it they just know better than to get too close to a dragon. Cultists tell the dragon they brought a snack for him. Roll initiative, warlock goes first followed by the druid the cultists then rogue and the dragon.warlock fireballs 3 cultists, druid calls lighting on two others, instant kill all of them, rogue sneak attack, crits off one of his two shortswords, 5d6+3 dmg turn one to dragon he jumps from the tower using spider climb. Dragon follows him over the tower attacks three times with melee still can't hit more than one with breath so thought melee be more effective, rogue uses reaction to cast shield, remember he has 1 lvl sorceror. Dragon misses 3 times, druid call lightning goes off again, warlock uses elderitch, and rogue again hits it with a pair of shortswords, dragon now at 1/4th hp attacks hitting the rogue once and tries to fly away, call lightning and two arrows drop it from the sky before it can get away. This is what i dealing with. One of the even harder parts to deal with is that i can't drain their resources with multiple encounters the way you can with most parties, the rogue doesn't need his shield spells unless its a brutal fight, the druid regains his wildshapes even on a short rest so he can tank in almost every encounter without taking damage, the warlock keeps getting temp points and regens spells on a short rest. Combined these 3 can drop monsters with twice their CR and lackeys without breaking a sweat.
#6 Caliburn Dec 18, 2014 1:26:17	Noon wrote:
#7 Caliburn Dec 18, 2014 1:23:07	Caliburn wrote:

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

Zame

Dec 17, 2014 2:10:11

Long story short party started using the starter set adventure with phandalin, 3 person party of fairly experience 3.5e players finished the adventure with few to no close calls, including killing Venomfang CR 8 Dragon with the cultists present, only got hit once. So I decided I need a much more difficult enemy, even though the party only hit level 5 after all side quests.

Current Party is, 1 Rogue, 1 Druid, and 1 Warlock.

I plan to send them to Grimmantle, currently overrun by an orc tribe, to 'accidentally' free the Death Knight Gaucelm Gonfrey. Yes i know they stand no chane against him, between the magic trap at the door and him walking out the party should be rendered unconcious almost instantly. When the characters awake the bodies of all the orcs are missing, and all the plants within a mile of Grimmantle are dead and twisted. A swarm of tiny undead woodland animals will attack them on their way out hinting at things to come.

After returning to Port Llast they find things going pretty badly in town, thick fogs have enveloped the place and a massacre has occured at the temple, traders go missing on the roads, so on and so forth. Dealing with the towns problems they find more and more information about the undead army being created that threatens Port Llast and the surrounding cities.

Now I should be able to get the players up to level 10-12 before the a large scale battle at Port Llast against Gonfrey and his army, Gonfrey is CR 17 and there are dozens of enemies of CR 3 and lower with a handful of commanders at CR 3 and a CR 5 Wraith. Is this way too much for the party to face? I'm not expecting them to kill gonfrey on their own the remaining garrison of Port Llast will fight with them.

As a fan of Forgotten Realms, I tried to make this as close to cannon as possible, the town and Gonfrey are actually taken from some of the history pages on a Realms wiki I found. Needless to say it is very much a work in progress but would like some feedback from other DMs, especially ones who have had parties in 5e reach level 12-15.

Weapon idea for Gonfrey, could also use feedback on this, should it do more/less, be intelligent, or have a higher magic weapon bonus?

The Bone Blade of Myrkul - This +1 Greatsword appears to be made
of hammered bone, in the center of the hilt is a dull grey mass
black veinlike designs extend from it up the blade. When fresh
blood touches one of the veins the grey mass turns red and begins
to pulse like a human heart, the steady beat can be felt through
the grip. Once bloodied the blade begins to drip a black ichor
until the end of combat, any living creature delt damage by the
blade begins to bleed at an excellerated rate taking an additional
1d4 damage at the start of its turn until it makes a DC 15 Con
save. This blade has a thirst for death and may never deal
nonleathal damage, it's hunger is so strong that the wielder must
make a DC 18 Cha save to let a creature live after the blade has
delt damage to them, on a failed save the wielder must attack agin
on it's turn.

Caliburn

Dec 17, 2014 5:42:26

Interesting - I've been running the same adventure for 6 players with appropriately up-rated threats due to party numbers and there have been 3 close calls now, and they haven't even got to the Dragon yet...

Nearly everyone around the table has been a very regular D&D player since 2nd Edition, with two of having been so from 1st.

I do wonder what is happening at at tables where people end up saying that Phandalin isn't challenging... it certainly isn't the system...

Faediira

Dec 17, 2014 6:58:20

Just had a thought...was wondering what happens to a gods power when say someone such as my main character who was "GIFTED" with a little bit of it ends up in a different world?

Noon

Dec 17, 2014 15:46:12

Caliburn, when you uprate the threats, are you taking into account more monsters equals a higher difficulty than the straight XP shows? The DMG indicates that more monsters equals a higher multiplier for the effective difficulty of the encounter.

Zame

Dec 17, 2014 16:50:57

Well the main part I think is that all the characters have good stealth checks, Druid transforms into spider the drow rogue sneaks and the warlock waits ot use elderitch. Every encounter the main enemy dies before it gets to go, glasstaff never stood up from his table they found the back way to him killed him before he could move. When they fought the orcs and the ogre from the sidequest the two guards out front died on turn one and they rolled high on stealth to keep from making noise. Then using mage hand, rogue has one level sorc, and his slight of hand skill the rogue made one of the orcs lose his mug and roll to the cave enterance, another orc dead. It worked twice before drawing any attention and roll a 20 on a deception check to wave the arm of an orcs corpse to dissuade investigation. Then the warlock remembers that fireball scroll we found earlier, everything but the ogre is instant killed and he died as he ran out of the cave before it could attack.

By the time we got to Wave Echo cave they had gotten into a smoth rythem of taking out any casters or threats in turn 1 or 2 and then mopping up the rest. I thought fighting the Spider would be a serious challenge but instead of fighting him they made friends at first agreed to help get to the forge, his two bugbears went with and after a bribe they helped explore the forge area while the party delt with the ghost mage thing. Bugbears lose to the spectator almost instantly, one feard the other paralyzed. The group gets to see the spectator in the forge because it was already alerted and dealing with the bugbears when they get there. So again one turn win on a dangerous enemy. When they go back to the Spider his giant spiders web all of them, only the rogue is held, the druid shifts into a brown bear - he took the archtype that advanced his shaping abilty - and tanks 2 of the spiders and focuses the boss. Warlock blasts the other two spiders with burning hands and rogue frees itself, between the rogue and the warlock the two spiders die fairly easily. As the bear kills the boss and has injured a spider when it runs out of hp turning back into the druid at full health minus a bit. 3 vs the 2 remaining spiders, and then the doppleganer and 3 bugbears from the adjacent chamber run in, burning hands, sneak attack, and forget what spell the druild used to do aoe. Bugbears dead doppleganer at 1/4th hp. Druid is almost completely full hp, warlock kept gaining temp hit points from kills every time he gets hit it did next to nothing, rogue at 1/2 hp.

For Venomfang, the group met the cultist first, agreed to help appease the dragon, cultists give over the diamonds they brought and ask the party to step forward, the rogue has already snuck off to behind the tower and uses the spiderclimb spell to wait just below the edge and hide. Warlock steps forward and says hi while the druid watches from just out of range of the dragons breath attack, they didn't plan it they just know better than to get too close to a dragon. Cultists tell the dragon they brought a snack for him. Roll initiative, warlock goes first followed by the druid the cultists then rogue and the dragon.warlock fireballs 3 cultists, druid calls lighting on two others, instant kill all of them, rogue sneak attack, crits off one of his two shortswords, 5d6+3 dmg turn one to dragon he jumps from the tower using spider climb. Dragon follows him over the tower attacks three times with melee still can't hit more than one with breath so thought melee be more effective, rogue uses reaction to cast shield, remember he has 1 lvl sorceror. Dragon misses 3 times, druid call lightning goes off again, warlock uses elderitch, and rogue again hits it with a pair of shortswords, dragon now at 1/4th hp attacks hitting the rogue once and tries to fly away, call lightning and two arrows drop it from the sky before it can get away.

This is what i dealing with. One of the even harder parts to deal with is that i can't drain their resources with multiple encounters the way you can with most parties, the rogue doesn't need his shield spells unless its a brutal fight, the druid regains his wildshapes even on a short rest so he can tank in almost every encounter without taking damage, the warlock keeps getting temp points and regens spells on a short rest. Combined these 3 can drop monsters with twice their CR and lackeys without breaking a sweat.

Caliburn

Dec 18, 2014 1:26:17

Noon wrote:

Caliburn

Dec 18, 2014 1:23:07

Caliburn wrote: