What do we know about it?
For which character level is it suited for? 1st or more?
Is it subsequent to Lost Mine? (starter set)
Is it supposed to carry the characters to what level?
It's a level 1-3 adventure.
No, it's stand alone.
And not all the monsters are in there.
I picked mine up this morning, and read the first Episode. The introduction indicates that characters begin at 1st-level. By the end of Hoard of the Dragon Queen, characters should be 7th or 8th-level. From there the characters shall be able to get right into The Ride of Tiamat.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen is not even remotely related to Lost Mine of Phandelver, except that their both in Faerun.
After reading Episode 1 and skimming through the rest of the adventure, I think Hoard of the Dragon Queen is a rip-off of Red Hand of Doom, which I DMed multiple times and convereted to D&D 4E, and is one of the best adventures ever. Hoard is nowhere near the scope of Red Hand of Doom, but it's lower-level. However, the same theme and story elements are there.
Hoard does offer ten new Bonds and two optional Background features relative to the Tyranny of Dragons storyline. There are a plethora of monsters in Appendix B and a few magic items in Appendix C.
Worth $30 bucks retail? Probably not. We'll see. If you can hold out until 19 August, Amazom sells it for eight or nine bucks less.
How open is Hoard of the Dragon Queen? One of the things I liked a lot about the starter set adventure was the openess of it in part 2. There were quite a few side adventures the PCs can do. It's also a shame to hear it's very similar to Red Hand of Doom. I have that module, but never ran it, so I guess I'll get my money's worth when I run Hoard of the Dragon Queen since I'm not retrading old ground.
CVB wrote:
Greyson wrote:
I played through the first chapter last nightt and it was again brutal with kobolds(instead of goblins) always having advantage and their lizard allies having the exact same advantage and loads more hit points. If hit and run tactics aren't used and the heroes being allowed to get a surprise round occasionally there will be TPK galore again at level 1. Every encounter our DM wanted us dead by giving a surprise round to the enemies and having them in the perfect position to attack us during that round.
Greyson wrote:
The Rise of Tiamat is indeed a sequel.
I haven't gotten a chance to read any of the story material for the Tyranny of Dragons arc, but isn't it reminicent of the Dragonlance storyline? Rise of Tiamat <= Takhisis' rise to power? Replace Draconians with Kobolds, the Knights of Neraka with the Cult of the Dragon(is that their name?), and boom, Dragolance-esk sans Weis(though I'm not sure I'm OK with this if its what they did).
Brock_Landers wrote:
teacha wrote:
Near which cities does he adventure begin? Is it located in the Sword Coast North?
ren1999 wrote:
Brock_Landers wrote:
tallric_kruush wrote:
Thanks, Heegz, that's exactly what I wanted to know. It sounds like our existing characters will all fit. If someone wants to switch it up, they can start brainstorming now with this snippet if info.
