The 3.5 Red Hand Of Doom Handbook for DMs [Major spoilers!] - WIP, PEACH!

[Eldariel]

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Yeah, mine is designed for a group of experienced players playing mid optimization characters, though with an eye towards being generally useful such as Improvisation, Charm Person, etc. Indeed, all my Wyrmlords are designed so that they'd have massive influence on the battlefield in war - in Ulwai's case, the first and the foremost part of that is Dragonfire Inspiration. For Koth it was Fireball, for Saarvith his summons (my Saarvith was a Mystic Ranger 10 with Rashemi Elemental Summoning for Summon Nature's Ally V), and the contributions of Kharn are of course numerous.

Anyways, back to Ulwai: the action economy abuse is there to make up for the fact that her mooks can easily go down; thus she can do 3 meaningful actions in a turn. Your stats look alright though as you did note, I'd look to up the HP a bit. 62 is actually above the average; standard HP with that Con would be (6 + 3.5 * 9 + 2 * 10 = 57.5). With only 22 AC, +4 Fort and 62 HP, she goes down quite quick if anyone gets to her - part of why I loaded her up with stuff like Sirine's Grace, Alter Self, Lesser Celerity & Greater Mirror Image (though normally she can only cast 1 4th per day and that's gonna be Sirine's Grace), and vastly improved saves + Alter Fortune.

For yours, perhaps adding Web on the 2nd level over Cure Moderate could be reasonable? That would allow splitting the party for when she wants to talk with Kia, and would also make for a formidable combat spell allowing her to target both, Will and Ref with very debilitating effects; yet, Web is an interactive effect in that it can be solved through various means. Perhaps teach her the Healing Hymn song instead (and for downtime healing, I always equip my bad guys with at least a Wand of Cure Light Wounds)? I also don't think she really needs Feather Fall as a spell known; Scroll is enough as is some way to fly for a bit (I used Alter Self for that too). Improvisation is something I really enjoy: significant bonuses to basically any skill checks makes for a lot of fun times. Also plays up her "dilettante"-nature.

Though it should be fine either way. Definitely, the most interesting part should be the discussion.

EDIT: Oops, Web isn't a Bard-spell. Forgot. Nevermind then; consider Grease

[CoffeeIncluded]

That was a fascinating conversation, and it did and didn't go the way I expected it to. When happens when two idealists, true believers with completely opposing philosophies in DnD go at each other?

This is how the session ended:

Ulwai draws a long sip from her tea and sets it aside with a sigh.

"I wish we could have met in different circumstances, Da'Kia Matoark. You and your companions are fascinating. I would have greatly enjoyed discussing politics and the future of our people with you. In another time and place we could have been companions."

She gets to her feet and grabs her staff. Her eyes flash white with arcane energy.

"But here and now, I'm afraid I cannot let you leave this place alive."

Ulwai got her points across, but Kia wasn't convinced. She gives it generation, maybe two, before the tribal fractures tear the Plavaan apart gain. I really want to have a long conversation with her player about this, about how two people can read the same facts of history and come to entirely different conclusions. I think I did I good job with her. At least I hope I did.

I'd say more but I need to go study. I just hope I don't have a TPK next session! The party is pretty low on resources, several of them are at half health, and while the rogue, warder, and dire wolf companion can go all day, the wizard, druid, and paladin/favored soul are running pretty low. The wizard's greatest assets are that he has a scroll of Web and still has Black Tentacles, Hold Person, Scare, and Color Spray prepared, the Paladin/Favored Soul still has a couple Lesser Vigors, Bull's Strengths, and Smite Evils, and the druid has both wild shapes and natural spell. Also the Warsoul's still there, but pretty weak.

Also they don't know this but Ulwai will Dimension Door out if things get bad for her.

Also also I wish I could go into the inspiration for this a bit more, but it would break the real-life politics rules. But the look on the player's faces when the shoe dropped was so amazing.

[CoffeeIncluded]

So that fight against Ulwai and her underlings was one of the best of the campaign. They all survived thanks to good planning and luck, and have a now-captured Ulwai (who I have plans for, don't worry).

A suggestion: If you have a chance to make her fight on the lion's open mouth instead of in that room, do it. Especially if you bumped Ulwai up to level 10 with Control Winds and made the monks Unarmed Swordsages instead. In the battle two of the unarmed swordsages and Ulwai were invisible--Ulwai made an illusion of herself and Ventriloquism as a decoy--and the unarmed swordsages snuck over to the players and attempted to chuck them off the lion mouth balcony with Setting Sun maneuvers. It very nearly worked, and while the players were scattered and on the edge (and in the druid's case, hanging off the edge while wild-shaped as a mountain lion and desperately hanging on like Mufasa) Ulwai was preparing to use a Control Winds to blast most of the PCs off the balcony.

And then she failed a will save against Hold Person. By the time she succeeded and was able to go again, thanks to the Black Tentacles the wizard had put down earlier she was the only one left.

Seriously that was such an amazing fight with excellent strategy on both sides, and I would highly recommend a similar setup for other people who don't want a simple X enemies in a room encounter. Play with the terrain!

[Eldariel]

Heh, kinda ironic that it was her relatively good Will-save that ended up being her undoing, not her atrocious Fort-save. Then again, I guess the Wizard's arsenal was almost purely Will-targeting and the others didn't really have that many save-or-X spells left so it makes sense in the context. Not that she's harmless while captured. How it proceeds should be interesting. Still, it sounds like the PCs performed above expectations: then again, that was a last second success on the Hold Person, so I suppose it's suitably epic. Terrain is definitely a huge contributor in D&D fights and it's something difficult to appreciate without the board in front of you. Here's hoping things will continue to proceed in an interesting manner.

[ComaVision]

My RHoD game wrapped up last Wednesday. I ended up having three players for the finale, since one was absent and one had died the prior session. The players were a Dragonborn Ubercharger, a Tibbit Telepath, and a Half-Dragon DMM:Cleric.

We started the night with the Cathedral, which I had changed to 6 Blackspawn Raiders, 2 Redspawn Berserkers, and 2 Redspawn Arcaniss. All of the Blackspawn were killed before getting to act but I managed to get all three players with fireballs from the 2 Arcaniss, then a Scorching Ray next round on the Dragonborn. It was a quick fight, and the group was running low on healing resources.

Next fight was the hallway (I skipped the caves portion). In addition to the Clerics and Warpriests, I added a Bluespawn Godslayer. Some damage got dealt out but no failed Will saves on the party's part made it much easier than it could have been. They used their second last charge of the Staff of Life.

The Dragonborn has a Mask of Flying and the Half-Dragon has wings so they fly up to Azarr Kul. I added the two Erinyes to this fight as well. I also had a Forbiddance up and an Unhallow tied with a Dispel Magic up. I remade Azarr Kul as a Sorc 2/Favored Soul 1/Mystic Theurge 8. The Erinyes don't get to do anything before they die but the four Abishai are a constant annoyance throughout the fight (the wizard that finished them off in the foyer had since died). During the fight, the last charge on the Staff of Life is used to keep the ubercharger swinging. As the group is discussing a retreat, the ubercharger finally lands a hit on Azarr Kul, sundering him in two. As Azarr Kul's blood runs over the flickering portal, his body rises in the air. From his shoulders sprout two dragon heads, then two more, his body expanding and sending his possessions flying over the room. Behold! The Aspect of Tiamat! Her first turn uses a breath attack on two party members, then kills the Dragonborn with her bite routine. The Tibbit Dimension Doors out of the Fane, and the Half-Dragon begins to flee. On the Aspect's next turn, she gets in range of the Half-Dragon and one failed Reflex save later, the Half-Dragon goes the way of the Dragonborn.

The headstart that the Tibbit has means that he got away. The party was successful, having stopped the portal to Avernus being finished and killing the charismatic leader of the Horde, but the sacrifice is great. In a grand ceremony, Lord Jarmaath announced a Dragonborn special ops group to be formed (a few citizens underwent the ritual of rebirth before the battle of Brindol) and the construction of the Hall of Heroes in the graveyard to remember the dead.

I have mixed feelings about most of the party dying in the end. There's always the risk with a hard fight but I feel it added weight to what they stopped. We had talked about continuing on after RHoD with the same characters, and that won't happen now. It was a fitting end for the Dragonborn though, who had survived all the way from level 1. His player said he enjoyed the campaign and agreed it was a justifiable martyrdom for the character, so that's good. All in all, I quite enjoyed the experience but I'm just a little sick of goblins and dragons now.

[CoffeeIncluded]

That is such an awesome way to end the game. What happened to the Aspecte though?

And Eldariel, thanks! Sorry about my PM box being full; you should be able to send it again though.

Anyway, my players are now doing something weird. They spent much of last session retrieving the phylactery from inside Varanthian's stomach, where they shoved it. And her corpse was festering in the desert sun overnight.

That ended about how you'd expect, except more amusing.

The other half of the session was spent figuring out what to do with Ulwai. Actually, she managed to cause two really bad infra-party arguments and potentially drive a rift into the party, which is awesome. She tried to Dimension Door out, but one of the players had a readied action in case she tried to bail...and crit. So much for that concentration check.

Anyway, they ended up killing her and then forcefully reincarnating her into a human (which they were hoping for to add insult to injury) because according to Kia her mind is too valuable to waste. I'm not sure what they're going to do with her now, but now I need to figure out what she'll do. My thought is that she'll escape at the first opportunity and probably manage to convince the Hand that she is, in fact, Ulwai. If she manages to escape then she'll rejoin the hand at the battle of Brindolton. The PCs took all her stuff, including the staff, but she still has her spells, and the Druid really likes to use Call Lightning, so I bet she'll use control weather from the staff to help with that. Especially since a downpour might help against the dragon burning the city down.

do you guys have any suggestions or advice?

[ComaVision]

That is such an awesome way to end the game. What happened to the Aspecte though?

Thanks. The Aspect wasn't dealt with but, lacking the spellcasting of Azarr Kul and the several Clerics, is unable to reopen the portal. Saarvith was never killed at Rhest, then fled at the Battle of Brindol, so he'll be returning to the Fane soon with whatever force he still has. From my perspective, that's the best ending because now I could run another game in the same setting with some familiar antagonists. The group really hated Saarvith.

The other half of the session was spent figuring out what to do with Ulwai. Actually, she managed to cause two really bad infra-party arguments and potentially drive a rift into the party, which is awesome. She tried to Dimension Door out, but one of the players had a readied action in case she tried to bail...and crit. So much for that concentration check.

Anyway, they ended up killing her and then forcefully reincarnating her into a human (which they were hoping for to add insult to injury) because according to Kia her mind is too valuable to waste. I'm not sure what they're going to do with her now, but now I need to figure out what she'll do. My thought is that she'll escape at the first opportunity and probably manage to convince the Hand that she is, in fact, Ulwai. If she manages to escape then she'll rejoin the hand at the battle of Brindolton. The PCs took all her stuff, including the staff, but she still has her spells, and the Druid really likes to use Call Lightning, so I bet she'll use control weather from the staff to help with that. Especially since a downpour might help against the dragon burning the city down.

do you guys have any suggestions or advice?

I'd definitely count her as killed for the VP calculation. Either way, she'll lose significant influence in the Red Hand.

Here are my thoughts if she escapes:
1) Have her lead a unit of traitors/cultists serving the Red Hand. That would make an amazing wave in the Streets of Blood event. Maybe you have some other NPCs that could defect to add more weight, like a named Lion of Brindol or some elves?

2) Have the crisis of identity make her defect from the Red Hand, taking some like-minded goblinoids with her, and setting up a neutral settlement somewhere. If time permits, the group could find out about a gathering of goblinoids and then have to decide again what to do with Ulwai again when she's just trying to eke out a non-evil living.

3) Have her be in one of the Bone Devil's cages in the Fane, emaciated and tortured. The Red Hand wasn't sure they could trust her so they locked her up (obviously binding her hands and covering her mouth) and the Bone Devil just couldn't help himself. If they save her, she could have an emotional outburst at the party since they've taken everything from her and may not even care to live by then.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Thanks! I don't know if those would fit well in this setting but they're definitely starting me down some paths of what to do. I think the victory points for Ulwai will all depend on if and how quickly she's able to rejoin the Hand. They'll probably make 40 anyway since they just returned the phylactery to the Ghostlord. And then ran for it. They were, in-character, terrified of him, which was my intent. Actually, that ended up with a rather amusing scene because the druid stopped to pull the dire lion out of that pool, which because of her horrible strength ended up with her Wild Shaping into a dire wolf to pull the lion out. Thankfully she made most of her fort saves against the dex damage but it still ended up with the party making a mad panicked dash out of the Lion's Maw with Ulwai bound and gagged and tossed on the back of the dire wolf animal companion while the druid, wildshaped as a direwolf and drooling a bit from the numbing effecto f the fluid, was dragging along a paralyzed dire lion with her. Ulwai ended up being a foil for Kia and the Ghostlord ended up being a foil for Vinca, the druid. They didn't go into combat with him but I gave the Ghostlord an undead dire lion as an animal companion.

A mindless undead "animal companion." Whose bond with the Ghostlord is one that's twisted and forced, not based on love and trust like with Vinca and her dire wolf animal companion, who she's extremely attached to. And I implied that to become a lich he had to kill his animal companion...

I would suggest keeping the blighter as-is if you have a druid or something similar, especially if they're into roleplaying, just to milk the tension and conflict. It definitely upped the stakes for this arc and made for some great moments. They're going to return to destroy him after defeating the hand, or at least that's the plan. What do you guys think of me maxxing out his blighter levels?

Anyway, the party's now headed back to Brindolton with about 2 weeks before the invasion and a now-reincarnated-to-a-human Ulwai in tow. I'm thinking it's time for the Marked for Death encounter. And Ulwai did report the PCs to the horde before dying so I'm thinking they might go for a bit of intimidation too. Anything I should watch out for?

[ComaVision]

What do you guys think of me maxxing out his blighter levels?

Definitely. The Ghostlord is made up to be much stronger than he actually is, so you should boost him up if they're going to go after him later. You could really make an entire campaign arc just for finding his phylactery again (he has learned to be more careful, I presume) and destroying him once and for all. I had been looking at adapting the Skeletons of Scarwall module as a hiding spot for the phylactery but I'm sure there are lots of cool things you could do with that.

Anything I should watch out for?

Nothing springs to mind. I boosted the 'Marked for Death' encounter up a lot and ambushed the party with the baddies invisible but they did fine. If you want to open with an intimidation dialogue, maybe have some extra baddies invisible for the upper hand if combat starts. Of course, this also depends on how good the party is mechanically.

[Eldariel]

Thanks! I don't know if those would fit well in this setting but they're definitely starting me down some paths of what to do. I think the victory points for Ulwai will all depend on if and how quickly she's able to rejoin the Hand. They'll probably make 40 anyway since they just returned the phylactery to the Ghostlord. And then ran for it. They were, in-character, terrified of him, which was my intent. Actually, that ended up with a rather amusing scene because the druid stopped to pull the dire lion out of that pool, which because of her horrible strength ended up with her Wild Shaping into a dire wolf to pull the lion out. Thankfully she made most of her fort saves against the dex damage but it still ended up with the party making a mad panicked dash out of the Lion's Maw with Ulwai bound and gagged and tossed on the back of the dire wolf animal companion while the druid, wildshaped as a direwolf and drooling a bit from the numbing effecto f the fluid, was dragging along a paralyzed dire lion with her. Ulwai ended up being a foil for Kia and the Ghostlord ended up being a foil for Vinca, the druid. They didn't go into combat with him but I gave the Ghostlord an undead dire lion as an animal companion.

A mindless undead "animal companion." Whose bond with the Ghostlord is one that's twisted and forced, not based on love and trust like with Vinca and her dire wolf animal companion, who she's extremely attached to. And I implied that to become a lich he had to kill his animal companion...

I would suggest keeping the blighter as-is if you have a druid or something similar, especially if they're into roleplaying, just to milk the tension and conflict. It definitely upped the stakes for this arc and made for some great moments. They're going to return to destroy him after defeating the hand, or at least that's the plan. What do you guys think of me maxxing out his blighter levels?

Regarding Ghostlord: I personally don't really like him as Blighter. Blighter is anti-nature, not specifically pro-undeath. Plus it's a poorly written prestige class: it lacks the option to convert the dead levels into anything and the stuff it gets just sucks. I think retraining is a better substitute for Ex-X becoming something else. In this case, I think he's better represented by a Dread Necromancer or an evil Cleric (focused on Undeath), both classes offering decent spell lists. Cleric is more natural since originally Druid is just a specialist Cleric so the inversion would be complete with making him a Cleric opposite of Druid in the life-death angle but Dread Necromancer works fine too.

Plus, while the campaign features an ample number of divine casters, none of them are undeath-focused so it's not difficult to make a very distinct Cleric out of him. Indeed, you can even give him an Undead animal companion simply courtesy of Animate Dead (or Animate Dread Warrior if you want a bit more special an animal). Sacrificing the animal companion could be the atonement/sacrifice for his new deity/ideal to complete the retraining (this is in-line with the retraining for fallen Clerics). But yeah, Dread Necro is a bit less effort and perfectly servicable: I'd make him level 12 so he has 6th level spells and can use Advanced Learning for e.g. Animate Dread Warrior or some other good fun. But as Cleric has the same casting stat, is also divine and is indeed capable of producing an inversion of Druid, it's probably the better choice. The biggest problem is that Clerics don't get Charm Animal easily (for luring the Lions to the pool) but they can just substitute Charm Monster, which can be acquired through e.g. Charm-domain [Spell Compendium] or even better, the Divine Magician ACF [Complete Mage] which also gives him access to all sorts of sweet Necromancy spells (Command Undead being the most versatile and important).

Oh yeah, and no matter what, he's a necromancer so I'd make his feats complement that. Corpsecrafter [Libris Mortis] for a bit of extra HP, perhaps Necromantic Might [Libris Mortis] for a commander-effect from Ghostlord's personal presence, and perhaps even Nimble Bones [Libris Mortis] for some annoyingly quick ghosts. And the usual benefits of being around to Rebuke Undead and casting spells to buff them.

Anyway, the party's now headed back to Brindolton with about 2 weeks before the invasion and a now-reincarnated-to-a-human Ulwai in tow. I'm thinking it's time for the Marked for Death encounter. And Ulwai did report the PCs to the horde before dying so I'm thinking they might go for a bit of intimidation too. Anything I should watch out for?

First of all, considering the circumstances, should the party reach Brindol, some Brindol guards could be at least a bit curious about people arriving with an apparent human captive. Of course, thieves certainly thrive in the times of great crises but still, getting anyone to believe that this is a high-ranking Red Hand commander should be more than slightly difficult (as the Red Hand is not known for employing humans, evil or not), and it should certainly be something that doesn't escape shrewd Ulwai who could use it to her advantage.

Depending on her respect for Kia of course, she might save it for when the party is out of hearing range or she might try to concoct a story of her unjust capture and treatment and play it right up against the PCs whenever a susceptible figure shows up (I'm pretty sure Lady Kaal and her agents would be interested in Ulwai and her services; you could play that up). Or she might play it as a more furtive sort of operation if that's like to produce superior results; depends on the people she gets in contact with and how the PCs are guarding her. Of course, she could also try to somehow hurt herself and make it appear like she's being mistreated or that the PCs are abusing her or whatever, striving to foster distrust between the PCs and the Brindolites. Indeed, she might want to get to Brindol as this new guise combined with her abilities as a Bard offers her untold opportunities to undermine the human settlement from within, as long as she can convince the people of her story and that the PCs are lying about her being Ulwai.

As such, in Marked for Death, she might actually try to message the Red Hand Operatives to not save her should they get the opportunity, or even better, try to escape but make for Brindol instead of the Horde and see if she could beat the PCs to the punch allowing her to start working the crowd and the powers of Brindol against the PCs (particularly Kaal). Other than that, given how far away from the Horde the trap is being set, I'd consider making the ambush force a mounted flying force; give them some Wyverns or something to move around. Perhaps add a War Adept or a Warpriest as the unit leader and caster support.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Definitely. The Ghostlord is made up to be much stronger than he actually is, so you should boost him up if they're going to go after him later. You could really make an entire campaign arc just for finding his phylactery again (he has learned to be more careful, I presume) and destroying him once and for all. I had been looking at adapting the Skeletons of Scarwall module as a hiding spot for the phylactery but I'm sure there are lots of cool things you could do with that.

ghostlord stuff

That's kinda why I do like the blighter, especially here. It is a near-perfect foil for the Druid in my game, from a role playing perspective. Unbond alone is a powerful IC threat given Vinca's devotion to her wolf and vice versa. And while I like optimizing I will gladly make a weaker character to fit a concept. So blighter stays. I am going to do a complete level substitution though so that the Druid levels directly become blighter levels and aren't dead and useless. I'll probably add a few levels of dread necromancer on top. Thanks for the idea! How much of a power boost would this be?

First of all, considering the circumstances, should the party reach Brindol, some Brindol guards could be at least a bit curious about people arriving with an apparent human captive. Of course, thieves certainly thrive in the times of great crises but still, getting anyone to believe that this is a high-ranking Red Hand commander should be more than slightly difficult (as the Red Hand is not known for employing humans, evil or not), and it should certainly be something that doesn't escape shrewd Ulwai who could use it to her advantage.

Depending on her respect for Kia of course, she might save it for when the party is out of hearing range or she might try to concoct a story of her unjust capture and treatment and play it right up against the PCs whenever a susceptible figure shows up (I'm pretty sure Lady Kaal and her agents would be interested in Ulwai and her services; you could play that up). Or she might play it as a more furtive sort of operation if that's like to produce superior results; depends on the people she gets in contact with and how the PCs are guarding her. Of course, she could also try to somehow hurt herself and make it appear like she's being mistreated or that the PCs are abusing her or whatever, striving to foster distrust between the PCs and the Brindolites. Indeed, she might want to get to Brindol as this new guise combined with her abilities as a Bard offers her untold opportunities to undermine the human settlement from within, as long as she can convince the people of her story and that the PCs are lying about her being Ulwai.

As such, in Marked for Death, she might actually try to message the Red Hand Operatives to not save her should they get the opportunity, or even better, try to escape but make for Brindol instead of the Horde and see if she could beat the PCs to the punch allowing her to start working the crowd and the powers of Brindol against the PCs (particularly Kaal). Other than that, given how far away from the Horde the trap is being set, I'd consider making the ambush force a mounted flying force; give them some Wyverns or something to move around. Perhaps add a War Adept or a Warpriest as the unit leader and caster support.

Nothing springs to mind. I boosted the 'Marked for Death' encounter up a lot and ambushed the party with the baddies invisible but they did fine. If you want to open with an intimidation dialogue, maybe have some extra baddies invisible for the upper hand if combat starts. Of course, this also depends on how good the party is mechanically.

The players are part of the Brindolton army, but ooh, I like this. Especially the part with her sowing distrust and acting as a spy. Regiarix is already there disguised as a human and biding his time to get sweet, sweet revenge on the PCs for killing his best friend, stealing half his hoard, destroying his mission objective, and badly wounding him and forcing him to flee. If the two manage to get into contact with each other they could definitely wreak some havoc. I'm thinking relating info of troop movement and weaknesses, damaging shipments of supplies, generally interfering with training, if there's a storm Ulwai could definitely burn something down with a lighting strike, what do you all think?

[Eldariel]

That's kinda why I do like the blighter, especially here. It is a near-perfect foil for the Druid in my game, from a role playing perspective. Unbond alone is a powerful IC threat given Vinca's devotion to her wolf and vice versa. And while I like optimizing I will gladly make a weaker character to fit a concept. So blighter stays. I am going to do a complete level substitution though so that the Druid levels directly become blighter levels and aren't dead and useless. I'll probably add a few levels of dread necromancer on top. Thanks for the idea! How much of a power boost would this be?

It would be dangerously strong. We're talking 9th level spells after all. Blighter as a class is just terribly written, which is why I recommend against it. It's a fast progression prestige class making it problematic to get it from level 1. They still get 9th level spells on level 9 of the class and while they're not the best 9th level spells, an ECL 9-10 character has no business casting Implosion, Foresight, Mind Blank, Horrid Wilting, Waves of Exhaustion, Earthquake or Storm of Vengeance. Really, what you want is a 20 level version of the class that advances stuff like Undead Wildshape and has a reasonable pace for spell progression with an actually useful spell list (the biggest strike against Blighter is that the spell list is terribad). This is why I suggested Cleric: you can craft a near-identical Cleric chassis to get all the Blighter-stuff but with a reasonable spell advancement rate and a good spell list. It can then be fluffed and called a Blighter easily enough. Hell, nothing stops you from making his daily prayer for spells include burning forest if that happens to strike your fancy.

However, if you do indeed want to go the extra mile, I recommend crafting a Blighter base class or in general, something that actually functions as an anti-Druid (to save yourself the trouble, you could go with a theme-augmented Cleric-list sans Domains instead of their normal one). Just take the Druid, take the class features and invert them. Thus, Rebuke Undead instead of Wild Empathy & stuff (perhaps Animal Companion too, though you seem to like Undead Animal Companion so feel free to toss one in - but again, nothing stops him from keeping Animated "animal companion" around; they're functionally nigh' identical), Undead Wildshape instead of Wildshape, Blightfire+Sustenance+Animate Dead Animal+Unbond instead of all the minor Druid class features (Unbond could replace A Thousand Faces and you could make him level 13), etc. Then pick spells that fit the theme and just roll with it (Dread Necro and Blighter lists combined would also be a decent option as an easy way out).


No matter what you do, I recommend against using the Blighter-class as printed in Complete Divine. The class just has too many problems: the spell list is frankly stupid, the fast progression spell casting to make up for the 5 lost levels is idiotic and the Undead Wildshape gets hopelessly left behind since it can only ever be advanced for 10 levels. He's going to be a walking TPK or a total pushover depending on if his save-or-dies screw the party over or not. He's essentially a gigantic glass cannon.

[Myou]

Hey guys. I got my RHoD group back together after exams finished, and we've been progressing through act 4 - but I don't think a single scene the module laid out has actually ocurred. The PCs blackmailed part of the council of Brindol and had Kaal arrested - and are effectively running the defence of the city now. They used false information leaked to the horde via a dominated goblin whose escape they then arranged in order to trick Kharn into meeting them in battle at Talar in what he thought was an ambush he would foil but was actually a counter-ambush - with the PCs sending an army of summoned devils (created by using all 50 charges from a wand of SMV) to teleport around and assault the horde's support forces while Kharn led the attack on the town, the devils destroying the horde's magical support while Kharn, infuriated by both the party's use of his own dead followers as zombie footsoldiers and their sniper fire, which killed several of his generals, foolishly chased them down personally - confronting them in the sky over the town church, which they had filled with summons, and hurled him into. The raging monsoon storm that day had left Kharn visially isolated save for a few flyers following him - which the party focused on preventing calling in Abithriax or other support - while the tank duelled Kharn inside the church - and killed him with a triplet of critical hits in a moment that was just fantastic.

With Kharn dead and the horde's support forces damaged, I'm not entirely certain how I want to proceed. The players have levelled several times recently, and have become impressively powerful - to the point that I'm almost certainly going to have to reveal Abithriax to be gargantuan when they finally try to take him on up close if he's going to genuinely be the sort of enemy that they can't just focus fire in a few rounds - but I'm not sure if I want to try to run the battle of Brindol as written given that the battle of Talar went so interestingly, and set back the horde considerably.

[Eldariel]

Huh, I have a lot of questions on what's going on. They actually managed to get Kaal arrested without her being able to pull the strings to run away scot-free? That's quite incredible; I'd take Kaal for the kind of a resourceful person who always has a contingency and is never caught unawares. Either way, it shouldn't change overtly much far as the defense goes. Now, that skirmish though: How do they have a Wand of a level 5 spells with the level 4 Wand cap? Through Sanctum Spell shenanigans, or...? And it's a 16875gp magic item...made by an Artificer? And how long do they last? Normal 9 round duration wouldn't make spending all 50 charges in preparation very useful; one of those PF 1 min/level Summon abilities instead? I mean, just using all the charges takes 50 rounds unless we're talking some Metamagic Trigger shenanigans or something. Metamagic Item: Ocular + Persist on the Wand? And how are the Devils teleporting around? Summon Monster-line explicitly prevents the use of teleportation abilities.

Either way, if the devils truly somehow managed to completely annihilate the whole contingent of 6 Mindbenders, 15 War Adepts and 7 Warpriests complete with most of the Doom Hand Clerics and there are no Wyrmlords left, obviously the leadership of the Horde would befall Abithriax. Given Abithriax's arrogance and taste for destruction, I'm certain that while the blow is severe, he absolutely would not call off the assault on Brindol. This also means that Abithriax will be the main enemy in Brindol. You'll have to heavily modify the battle, but that's a given.You could have Abithriax start with the rampage but have him pull away once things seem dangerous instead of the pre-written suicide bombing and then have him reappear with most of the Horde's flying and mobile troops at his beck and call in the final encounter and overall, have him be a constant menace. Overall, with much of the Horde's power cut away Abithriax will really have to step up and the battle will become a matter of whether the party can shut him down or not.

That said, I don't think Gargantuan Abithriax is really needed; make it Adult (Huge) and give it like Loredrake archetype and Spell-Hoarding & Evil Archdragon templates, have it buffed to high heavens complete with caster level boosters (Practiced Spellcaster, perhaps some items like Ring of Enduring Arcana) to make dispelling tad more difficult, and make it extremely difficult to take out. Perhaps some source of relevant damage reduction and fast healing, and some of the better defensive immediate actions too (Greater Mirror Image, Celerity, etc.) in case something seems to be threatening a lethal charge or something. Then give it some nice breath weapon feats and spells (Lingering + Clinging + Entangling with Dispelling + Blinding Breath or so), some tools to recover, the basic defensive array of Greater Resistance, Scintillating Scales, Greater Mage Armor, Heart of X, perhaps Awaken Resistance or two to make Assay Resistance alone insufficient, then the usual countermagic stuff like Battlemagic Perception, Duelward and so on. I'm pretty sure you should be able to give your party a proper challenge. Add something like Lion's Charge or Travel Devotion for move + full attack sequences and it should be plenty. Since it's also huge, it can run Snatch which can be a nasty surprise for the players.

[Myou]

Huh, I have a lot of questions on what's going on. They actually managed to get Kaal arrested without her being able to pull the strings to run away scot-free? That's quite incredible; I'd take Kaal for the kind of a resourceful person who always has a contingency and is never caught unawares. Either way, it shouldn't change overtly much far as the defense goes. Now, that skirmish though: How do they have a Wand of a level 5 spells with the level 4 Wand cap? Through Sanctum Spell shenanigans, or...? And it's a 16875gp magic item...made by an Artificer? And how long do they last? Normal 9 round duration wouldn't make spending all 50 charges in preparation very useful; one of those PF 1 min/level Summon abilities instead? I mean, just using all the charges takes 50 rounds unless we're talking some Metamagic Trigger shenanigans or something. Metamagic Item: Ocular + Persist on the Wand? And how are the Devils teleporting around? Summon Monster-line explicitly prevents the use of teleportation abilities.

Either way, if the devils truly somehow managed to completely annihilate the whole contingent of 6 Mindbenders, 15 War Adepts and 7 Warpriests complete with most of the Doom Hand Clerics and there are no Wyrmlords left, obviously the leadership of the Horde would befall Abithriax. Given Abithriax's arrogance and taste for destruction, I'm certain that while the blow is severe, he absolutely would not call off the assault on Brindol. This also means that Abithriax will be the main enemy in Brindol. You'll have to heavily modify the battle, but that's a given.You could have Abithriax start with the rampage but have him pull away once things seem dangerous instead of the pre-written suicide bombing and then have him reappear with most of the Horde's flying and mobile troops at his beck and call in the final encounter and overall, have him be a constant menace. Overall, with much of the Horde's power cut away Abithriax will really have to step up and the battle will become a matter of whether the party can shut him down or not.

That said, I don't think Gargantuan Abithriax is really needed; make it Adult (Huge) and give it like Loredrake archetype and Spell-Hoarding & Evil Archdragon templates, have it buffed to high heavens complete with caster level boosters (Practiced Spellcaster, perhaps some items like Ring of Enduring Arcana) to make dispelling tad more difficult, and make it extremely difficult to take out. Perhaps some source of relevant damage reduction and fast healing, and some of the better defensive immediate actions too (Greater Mirror Image, Celerity, etc.) in case something seems to be threatening a lethal charge or something. Then give it some nice breath weapon feats and spells (Lingering + Clinging + Entangling with Dispelling + Blinding Breath or so), some tools to recover, the basic defensive array of Greater Resistance, Scintillating Scales, Greater Mage Armor, Heart of X, perhaps Awaken Resistance or two to make Assay Resistance alone insufficient, then the usual countermagic stuff like Battlemagic Perception, Duelward and so on. I'm pretty sure you should be able to give your party a proper challenge. Add something like Lion's Charge or Travel Devotion for move + full attack sequences and it should be plenty. Since it's also huge, it can run Snatch which can be a nasty surprise for the players.

They were investigating the possibility of spies or traitors within the city after several ambuses by red hand assassins, and the animosity they shared with Kaal made her their primary target - and Miha encouraged that to sew dissent, as Kaal was totally innocent of aiding the hand. They managed to prove Kaal was behind other criminal activity in the city however, and while she used her connections and her majority control of the city guard to get immunity from prosecution, she was forced to step down as councillor and is being held in the castle until after the battle - to ensure her men cooperate in the defence of the city.

Having a level 5 wand is a mistake I kept making - they had a staff not a wand, I just keep forgetting because they were also calling it a wand. We use the PF minute/level rule, and they spent pretty much their entire wealth on making it with extended SMV. I was totally unaware of the rule that summoned monsters can't summon or teleport however - summoning spells rarely see much play in our games. Thanks for mentioning that, I'll have to decide on whether I make that a house rule or just tell them that it was a 'favour' from the devil whose troops they were - I had the devils warn the PCs that their mistress would probably be very interested in why 50 of her elite troops vanished all of a sudden for half an hour.

Thanks for all the material for Abithriax too, it would be great if he manages to kill a few pcs - they've been sitting on revivify and raise dead for too long without using them.

[Lord Ruby34]

I've wanted to run this module for a while, but I never got a chance too before my group decided that they preferred fifth edition. Does anyone have any advice for converting this module to 5E, or just modules in general?

[Myou]

I've wanted to run this module for a while, but I never got a chance too before my group decided that they preferred fifth edition. Does anyone have any advice for converting this module to 5E, or just modules in general?

I've never run 5E, so I'm not very qualified to comment, but I have at least played it a little, and I am running RHoD. My main thought is that many of the combats are designed to pit the players against many weak enemies rather than a few strong ones - something which seems a lot more deadly in 5E than it is in 3.5 - so I imagine you'd need to significantly reduce the quantities of enemies you used.
5E also doesn't have anything close to the prestige classes that a number of the wyrmlords have, so you would definitely need to do quite a bit or reworking for them, but I expect you'll need to do that regardless, since 3.5 doesn't really convert easily to 5E. If anything I'd probably suggest throwing out the stats and premade encounters entirely.

[CoffeeIncluded]

So after a 3 week break we finally got back into the game. My players are about to start the Marked for Death encounter. Ulwai is still in tow, forcibly reincarnated into a human. She managed to secretly relay general info to the Hand so they knew where the party were and were able to set up this ambush.

Currently the party is split up. Everyone is flying on their giant owls. The Druid, her dire wolf, and I think the archer ranger/rogue are on two owls at the site of the encounter. The remaining players are on owls about two rounds away. The Druid opened with a flame strike 100 feet up that obliterated a hobgoblin and an ogre.

How should I run the encounter when the party is all airborne? I'm thinking the hand could shoot down some of the owls?

[Fizban]

I've never run 5E, so I'm not very qualified to comment, but I have at least played it a little, and I am running RHoD. My main thought is that many of the combats are designed to pit the players against many weak enemies rather than a few strong ones - something which seems a lot more deadly in 5E than it is in 3.5 - so I imagine you'd need to significantly reduce the quantities of enemies you used.
5E also doesn't have anything close to the prestige classes that a number of the wyrmlords have, so you would definitely need to do quite a bit or reworking for them, but I expect you'll need to do that regardless, since 3.5 doesn't really convert easily to 5E. If anything I'd probably suggest throwing out the stats and premade encounters entirely.

On the other hand, WotC's own module writers don't know this (or if they've learned by now it certainly took a while), as seen right at the start of Horde of the Dragon Queen with dozens of kobolds and also from what I saw of the Lost Mines starter set (the Elemental whatsits line instead throws casters several levels higher than you in it's first mission, yay).

Regardless, converting anything to 5e should be quite easy. The DMG has an even more detailed system for rating encounters, just compare how hard the fight's supposed to be in 3.5 and fill in the monsters, remembering that swarms of dudes are bad news and reminding your players that WotC still assumes every wizard has a fetish for AoE damage spells. The wyrmlords are NPCs, and NPCs in 5e don't use classes at all: since they're just a pile of fiat abilities, you write whatever you want on there and run it through the monster designer to see what it's worth.

How should I run the encounter when the party is all airborne? I'm thinking the hand could shoot down some of the owls?

They're flying bog standard hp 26/AC 15 giant owls into combat? Annihilate them. Targeting the owls is already the most mind-numbingly obvious thing to do, and 100' isn't even enough for more than one range penalty. If you haven't souped up your baddies it's not likely they'll pull it off anyway but yes, blot out the sun etc.

Though there's a significant question as to why the assassins have sprung their "ambush" against flying opponents. Having them appear in front of the players while flying is just serving them up on a platter.

[Tar Palantir]

I'm planning to run this module in roll20, and I'm looking for good player versions of the various battle maps, but the linked maps mostly no longer exist. Could anyone give me some assistance?

[CoffeeIncluded]

I'm planning to run this module in roll20, and I'm looking for good player versions of the various battle maps, but the linked maps mostly no longer exist. Could anyone give me some assistance?

Sorry, I just used the maps in a PDF copy of the book.

They're flying bog standard hp 26/AC 15 giant owls into combat? Annihilate them. Targeting the owls is already the most mind-numbingly obvious thing to do, and 100' isn't even enough for more than one range penalty. If you haven't souped up your baddies it's not likely they'll pull it off anyway but yes, blot out the sun etc.

Yes, but I'm a bit reluctant to straight-up kill the owls for the following reasons:

1. These are the gift owls from the Tiri Kitor. There are merits to denying them flight and fast transportation but there are some serious drawbacks as well. The party doesn't optimize much and it'll make things much harder.
2. If the druid, dire wolf, and ranger/rogue survive a fall from 100 feet up they're going to be hurting like hell.
3. The rest of the party is at least 2 rounds back. I don't think the druid, dire wolf, and ranger/rogue will survive 2 rounds of mauling from two greater barghests and four blackspawns raiders, especially if they just fell from 100 feet up. This encounter is meant to scare this **** out of the players and maybe drop one or two, not cause a TPK.

I'm thinking the hobgoblins try to shoot the players off the owls in the first round, maybe justifying it with their hoping to capture the owls for themselves and use them as scouts. Then the second round if the PCs are still in the air they try to shoot down the owls? The moment someone's on the ground out come the barghests and raiders.

Though there's a significant question as to why the assassins have sprung their "ambush" against flying opponents. Having them appear in front of the players while flying is just serving them up on a platter.

It's close to dark and the players were flying all day. The druid succeeded on a spot check to notice the bait (the ogre using a halfling as a pinata).

[Fizban]

First round they shoot at the owls and most likely fail to take one down, then the PCs retreat and descend towards their other half or get dropped. If needed you can split attacks between the two owls, but if you want to scare them the owls have to be threatened immediately, before the druid nukes them all from above. If the other half of the party is two rounds away, they're one round away if both groups move towards each other.

[Elder_Basilisk]

First round they shoot at the owls and most likely fail to take one down, then the PCs retreat and descend towards their other half or get dropped. If needed you can split attacks between the two owls, but if you want to scare them the owls have to be threatened immediately, before the druid nukes them all from above. If the other half of the party is two rounds away, they're one round away if both groups move towards each other.

While downing an owl with weapon damage is a great idea and should be relatively easy if you make some archer hobgoblins for the ambush, there are a few other things to consider.

1. Use fear effects on the owls to split the PCs up. Owls are not immune to cause fear and have relatively weak will saves. Even a first level hobgoblin cleric can hit an owl with cause fear, potentially taking the PC out of the fight. And a single scare spell is likely to send about half the owls running (the ideal number since it is a great balance between maximizing the number of PCs the Red Hand can threaten and minimizing the number of PCs in a position to do anything about it.

2. Use magic on the owls to bring squishy PCs into the ambush. Worried about the druid raining death on the ambush from above? He's only above if his owl keeps him there. A greater barghest can use charm monster on his owl and get the owl to fly the wizard down into an 8 way flank between barghests and ogres.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Ooh, I love that charm monster idea! It'll definitely get across the idea that they are going to steal the owls, reveal the trap without giving too much away, and instill a growing sense of dread in the players as the owls slowly drift towards the Hand...I think I might do that! Thanks!

[ComaVision]

Ooh, I love that charm monster idea! It'll definitely get across the idea that they are going to steal the owls, reveal the trap without giving too much away, and instill a growing sense of dread in the players as the owls slowly drift towards the Hand...I think I might do that! Thanks!

About stealing the owls, they are intelligent. They can be charmed and all that sure but it's not like stealing an Int 2 horse.

[Elder_Basilisk]

About stealing the owls, they are intelligent. They can be charmed and all that sure but it's not like stealing an Int 2 horse.

My charm monster idea isn't so much about "stealing" the owls as turning the PCs "you can't get me" mechanism into a "Oh no! This owl is delivering me right into the death box!" mechanism.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Either way it turned out pretty well, and the paladin was easily the star of the show by crit-killing BOTH greater Bhargests. It was a close thing though; the wolf nearly died multiple times and the wizard was in negatives by the end of the fight. I think the best bit was when one of the Greater Barghests DDoored onto the giant owl the wizard and ranger/rogue sniper were riding on while taking potshots from above.

Sorry I haven't replied; it's finals week and I also got appendicitis DURING finals week so the game's been on hold until probably around the New Year. But a lot of things are coming to a head at once and honestly I feel like my revamped Ulwai is one of the best villains I've ever created. I would highly recommend changing her backstory and motivations if need be, and let her talk to the party if possible. She managed to spark an in-game AND out of game philosophical conversation on faith in humanity and what ends justify what means, drive the characters (not the players) to blows, lead Kia the Warder to a mental breakdown, and then escape. While being captured, stripped of her items, and forcibly reincarnated into a human.

All just by talking, and without a single lie.

[jenotus]

Hello,

I was following the handbook for a while, just wanted to add my observations. I have been starting my own Red Hand of Doom Campaign lately - played the module twice and know it in-depth.

As for the idea of my campaign: I went along a little bit different path. Instead of refitting/re-statting the whole enemies, I decided to decrease the power of the PCs. This might not be for everyone, as certain players feel more limited in their choices and might not appriciate this sort of game-style .... BUT .... I wanted to find out two things:

a) How does the non-altered adventure compete with a group of optimized player characters if you weaken them enough?
b) Would it be fun to put the setting of the Red Hand into a slightly more martial oriented background.


Word of advice: I recommend this method only if you have really good balancing knowledge (specifically character optimization knowledge), as many of the alternations that I am suggestion require you to effectively have a good judgement whether something is game-altering enough. Unfortunately in-experienced DMs might find that more difficult as even mundane items (i.e. chaos ink or shapesand) can become game-breaking.


Core Idea of my setting:
================
- More martial / less caster-based setting
- Use the original adventure as written
- Apply rules for the players to balance their strength to ....
- ... make the adventure path really hard
- Play the enemies intelligently / structured
- Create a harsh environment that players will find challenging without changing the adventure path


Applied Changes to the characters:
======================
- Character creation followed 28pt. buy rule (with the exception for MAD character classes, who received 32pt)
- Tier 1/2 classes were banned
- Tier 3: only martial characters were allowed (I even went as far as to take out the psi-warrior/duskblade, but that is debateable)
- Tier 4/5: 9th level casters were banned
- PrC: Only Tier 3 and below PrCs
- Hit-Points: First level full, futher levels fixed half + 1/2 roll (slightly tankier characters to prevent volatility of crits)
- No Templates / bloodlines
- No LA buyback
- No Traits / Flaws
- No Races with more than +1LA
- Slightly reduced WPL progression (no item more than 40% of WPL)
- No cohorts of any sort (leadership, familiars, etc.)
- Strictly keep it to 4 players to stick with the action economy
- Henchmen / hirelings gain portion of the xp and cost gold (to disincentivize their utilization)
- (Specific build pathes were disallowed: i.e. UBER-charger)



Scenario-dependent balancing: (not necessary, just flavorful for the setting)
==================================================
- Significantly reduced magic items over 4k
- Spell availability starts to drop from level 1: 70-100% (depending on spell), level 2: 30-70%, level 3: 10-30%, level 4+ very rare
- Incentivized local setting magic items (30% discount on Forgotten Realms items - which is equivalent of personalized items)
- Reduced costs for Tome of Battle items by 20% to account for the martial setting
- Slightly reduced the price for consumables (scrolls and potions)



Characters: (luckily there had been many applications despite the harsh rulings)
==================================================
(was generally looking for very experienced players with CO backgrounds)

- Manoth (Goliath Barbarian 1/ Totemist 3): Frontliner and user of Magic of Incarnum abilities / items. Really solid tier 3-4 material. I disallowed the route into pounce + ubercharger, so he decided to build the concept around natural attacks and rage abilities.

- Mylo (Halfling Warlock 5): Probably the least experienced character in my crew. Is focussing around utility and use magic device, has build up a good range of utility spells, but is hampered by the availability of higher level spells.

- Phineas (Human Factotum 5): Jack of all traits and skillmonkey with high intelligence and the knack to use magic items for additional options. Also combines Darklight lantern with the Ring of the Darkhidden to produce effects of invisibility together with darkstalker.

- Solomon (Strongheart halfling Thug Rogue 2/ Divine Mind 1/Fighter 2): Crossbow ranged sniper build to dish out lots of damaged combined with Hidden Talent (Fabricate) and Master Poison Feat to create poison bolts for his ranged attacks. Is riding a Dire Badger for additional mobility.


What went down:
============
The players engaged the module with the described characters and had already a difficult time to dispatch the initial ambush. When they entered Dwellin's Ferry, they followed the normal plot-line and decided to help out with the Goblin attacks. Some horrible survival rolls later, they were lost in the woods and wasted some time, plus learned about bad weather and the rules for fatigue, which further slowed down their movement (I suggest not to use bad weather every day, but still use it in order to slow down the progress of the players).

After speaking with Jorn, they agreed to pay him handsomely and get him into the party for the Witchwood. The encounter with the Hydra that followed right after, went surprisingly different than what I would have expected. Using hit-and-run techniques of the hydra (keep in mind the attack is only a standard action), it was capable of hiding beneath the bridge more often than not and regain quiet some health. Additionally the positioning besides the bridge ment that they couldn't hit the body and therefore were forced to nearly abandon the encounter as they were all getting quiet low. However their mules were still on the other side and so they decided to re-engage. Luckily for them a javelin with Drow sleeping poison hit the hydra and it fell uncounscious, therefore horribly drowning in the next turn. Unexpected, but fun.

The Vraath keep was a slaughterfest. They were completely underestimating their opposition (as if I hadn't showed them until this point that the Red hand is strong). Anyways - they basically ended up pulling the whole keep and found out that the resulting firefight with the archers turned out to be quiet resource draining. The Manticore and a contineously charging Minotaur as well as an invisible / buffed-up Wyrmlord were giving them a really hard time. Two of the players dropped into negatives, they used all their potions and healing belt charges and BARELY (again with luck on poison procs - this time a daze) won the combat. The Wyrmlord could escape and they will probably see him sooner than later :). Sidenote: Jorn died in the fight and they party was happy about not paying him off (so much for 'good' characters).

Finally the bridge encounter was rather memorable. Although strategically gifted, my players kind of forgot to ask about the bridge or observe it for too long. They assumed they will have a small wooden bridge and were kinda puzzled when a massive stone-bridge was in their way. Of course they did not spot the crack in the bridge (let alone look for it), but they wanted to prepare for the fight. Much to their displeasure they found themselves in an out-gunned scenario, where alot of the goblins were just shooting them down. They were not really a match for the archers, although cleverly positioning in cover and Ozzy made their life a living hell with additional breath attacks and the occasional drop-down full attack routine. In the end they had to flee, rebuff/heal with the wand of cure light wounds and re-engage. This time a bit more successful in taking out the remaining goblin troops (also attributed to the fact that they did not have any more potions leftover). The dire weasel of Solomon died and three characters went into the negatives, but they managed to stabilize and scare off Ozzy, who was getting low on supplies and had poison stacks on him. In the end a harshly bought success.

Timing-wise, they were leaving Dwellin's ferry at Day 11 (thanks to many delays, survival checks, overload, missing mounts that got killed/eaten, etc.). So the timing issues that others reported are not going to be a thing in this run. Additionally they will not have access to teleport or other means of fast travel, which will make the whole story just so much more interesting.

[to be continued]



Tips for DMs to make it a bit more challenging:
=============================
We have played through the first chapter of the campaign and the fights were definitely not easy. Some of the optimizations in the behavior of the enemy that I can suggest to other DMs (which does mean you dont have to change the material, just play smart):

Initial Encounter:
- The hobgoblin cleric(s) used the scroll of SMIII to gain Fiendish Apes (strong melee combattant, great grappler, good damage resist) as well as their spiritual weapon to constantly deal damage. Stay invisibile for the phase of buffing (bless + Enlarge Person + SMIII) until you can surprise the enemies with a Hold Person spell.
- Clerics and melees combine their actions: A failed will safe on the hold person means that the player is paralyzed. Use this opportunity to deliver coup-de-graces


Witchwood:
- The Hydra used her ability to fast heal extensively. Players are very unlikely to jump into the water and healing up each round effectively means that the hydra poses a real danger after 2-3 rounds. Account for the fact that players have horses and mules that do not move that fast, it effectively means that you get at least another re-engage.
- Drop the Random Encounters: They give way too much experience and ultimatively do not progress the story-line. The key here is to let the party only fight the necessary encounters. This way they will be level 5 when approaching the Bridge


Vraath Keep:
- Increase the level of awareness of the enemies in Vraath Keep: If the sound of battle is to be heard, there is no reason to assume "my minions will deal with this ****, I am going to chill here until all of them died horribly". The keep was a very tough encounter and the Wyrmlord used his blasting spells very well.
- Use and re-use the powerful charge mechanic of the minotaur, players tend to not focus on him if you present more valuable targets. This is a good option to deal some very much lasting damage.
- Combine the manticore with the archers: The manticore has enough HP to widstand some blows. Use hard-cover / full cover for the goblin archers to provide backup fire.
- Also flee earlier if needed: there is no point for a Wyrmlord to get captured or killed. He is intelligent and knows better than to fight until death.


Skull-Bridge:
- Use the towers to your advantage, ozzy can easily maneuver in between them and get cover between his breath attacks. He can also loot & drink potions from fallen Hobgoblins. Try to end your turn either on towers or directly over PCs (i.e. 20ft above them). Falling is a free action and you still have the full attack routine for literally low damage on your side.
- The hobgoblins made up for excellt archers. Don't be fooled and start storming over the bridge, when the PCs will have a hard time to return the fire. This specifically holds true if you have created a more barren land around the towers with less cover to hide for the PCs.
- Use the potions on the Hobgoblins. Injecting a potions to someone else is a full action, but it restabilizes the action economy. I highly recommend using them if possible.



Outcome of the first Chapter in my group:
==========================
- All of the PCs survived, although we had multiple dips into negative HP, including an incident of -9HP
- The Dire Weasel died
- The fights were long, but tactical in nature
- All PCs were able to contribute, none of the classes could overshadow the others
- The lack of casters made careful combat consideration necessary
- The Red Hand forces were very formittable opponents, the players gave the feedback of a very challenging environment



Will keep you updated about the next chapters and I also prepare to put the sessions on Youtube, in case you guys are interested.

Best regards,
Jeno

[Lord Ruby34]

When do you generally level up the PCs in this adventure? One of my personal failings as a DM is not paying any attention to how much experience anything is worth, so I normally just tell the players that they level up when I want them to.

I was thinking

Level to six after Vraath Keep
Level seven at some point in the Blackfens
Level Eight After Rhest
Level Nine after the Ghostlord
Level ten after the Battle for Brindol

Does anyone think that's wrong for one reason or another?

[Lormador]

I'd switch the "sometimes in the Blackfens" level with the dragon and bridge encounter.

It's pretty close, time wise, to Vraath Keep, but that's a really memorable and meaningful encounter. Much moreso than some random time in the Blackfens.