Quote Originally Posted by Adam...? View Post
First off: thanks to everyone who's been participating in this thread. I've been DMing a group through RHoD over the last few months, and this has been a gold mine of wisdom and fun ideas.

So I've got two issues I could use a little help with. Issue #1 relates to encounter balance. We're right in the middle of the Battle of Brindol (just finished the Streets of Blood encounters), and I'm worried about that final encounter with Kharn. I've restatted him as a Cleric/Ordained Champion, but even still his defenses seem less than stellar. Even pre-buffed, I'm looking at AC26, and less than 90 HP.

Meanwhile, the party includes an archer ranger with Favored Enemy: Goblinoid, and a bard who likes buffing his Inspire Courage. Between the two of them, it seems entirely possible that Kharn won't live to see his first turn, and almost definitely won't get more than that. Even if he survives a full round arrow barrage, the sorcerer still has a fireball or two left, and I don't see how any number of mooks and/or bodyguards could stop that from happening. Am I missing something obvious, or do you guys have any clever plans (hopefully other than expensive magic items) that could help extend the combat and make it some climatic than a "turn 1: kill, turn 2-3: mop up"?
I had a similar issue. I gave him a couple backup clerics, one that had cast Shield Other on Kharn to reduce the damage he took. Round one the party Artificer//Warblade (we play Gestalt) charged him and dealt 200 points of damage. Enough to kill Kharn and the unnamed minion in a single hit. You know what I did? I went with it. He got off a spectacular attack and slew him in one hit. So the following round when he used Intimidate to scare the stunned Hobgobs, I gave him a +10 circumstance bonus. He's now known across Khorvaire as the guy who is so good with a blade that he can kill two people with a single strike. The point is don't be afraid to let the BBEG just die in the first round. It can lead to great stories in the future. Give Kharn some standard buffs ahead of time and maybe have a backup Cleric cast wind wall to protect them from the stream of deadly arrows and see how things turn out.


Quote Originally Posted by Adam...? View Post
As for issue #2, people have been asking me what the plan is for when we finish the module. I'm thinking of working on my own post-RHoD adventure, and I really like the previously suggested idea of a late-coming white dragon coming in to claim the Vale for himself. So after the long, hot summer of the Red Hand of Doom, Elsir vale has a few months to start to rebuild, but then comes an early and unnatural winter. A perpetual blizzard covers the Wyvernwatch Mountains, and relief supplies from the Great Unnamed Eastern Kingdom never arrive.

It strikes me as a great hook, but I'm drawing a blank as for what could actually make up the meat of the adventure. In my game, the players were so scared of the Ghostlord that they didn't stick around long enough to really learn any of his background, and they let him take Ulwai prisoner, so I'm thinking he could have an interesting role to play, either as a now-level-appropriate enemy, or as a part of a "help the lich atone to beat the greater evil" plot line. Either way, I could bring Ulwai back as a special lightning-banshee thing, which sounds pretty awesome.

Anybody else try to run this idea? Anyone have other interesting ideas? What sort of minions would a white dragon have? What could explain a white dragon, usually pretty stupid and bestial, having powerful weather controlling magic? What would be his overall plan for conquering the Elsir Vale be?
My players are just now getting around to dealing with the Ghostlord, and we finished the RHoD months ago. I made him a Planar Shepherd (linked to Mabar, the Endless Night) and gave him Corrupted Wild Shape feat. He's a major threat to the safety of everyone in the area due to being crazy and having ambitions to unite Mabar with Eberron.

A white dragon would be pretty cool to use. I would plunge the land into an endless winter and use tons of undead. They won't be bothered by the cold and can move about just fine, killing and destroying much needed winter supplies left and right. Starvation can indirectly become a threat to the PC's at a level where it's usually ignored. And white dragons get a really bad rep they don't deserve. They may have the lowest mental ability scores but they are way more intelligent than most other types of creatures. Finding a way to control the weather is easy, just say it got a Fimbulwinter scroll and succeeded on the UMD/CL check.